by Anita Waller
It proved to be a long and restless night, but thankfully free of unwelcome visitors.
Chapter 2
Despite Kat agreeing to stop working until after the birth, all three of them arrived at the shop together.
Kat explained that she didn’t feel competent enough to be left on her own with the Internet and without Doris, so it would be better for her if she could accompany her two ladies at all times. In reality she was scared of being left at home alone. Her pregnancy made her vulnerable. She promised she would take her hospital bag and her notes everywhere she went, so she would always be prepared for any situation arising from the huge bump that preceded her every move.
‘We need a meeting in my office,’ Mouse said. ‘All three of us. I haven’t had chance to discuss a new case we’ve picked up because of yesterday, so we need to talk about it now. Kat, I just want you as an observer, because you’re way beyond tackling anything physical. Other than giving birth,’ she added with a grin.
‘This bump doesn’t stop me typing.’
‘Yeah, right. You can’t get near your desk. But unless your brain’s turned to mush, you’re our best thinker. We need you for your logic, Kat, not your running abilities.’
Kat held up a thumb in agreement. ‘So tell us what’s needed. I presume it’s Mrs Carpenter, the lady who came in yesterday.’
‘It is. She’s called Judith but prefers Judy. She lives in Hope, her husband died about a year ago and she wants to trace his birth mother. It seems he was adopted as a tiny baby, and towards the end of his life she says he regretted not having tried to find her. He died from cancer, nothing genetic, but she has decided she’d like to go where he couldn’t, and find this lady. We have nothing to go on, no starting points, and she’s already given us a hefty deposit. I’ve copied her contract for the three of us, as well as the notes I took as I was speaking to her.’
Doris and Kat groaned. ‘Do these notes come translated?’ Doris asked.
‘Nope. If you can’t fathom anything, just ask, and I’ll have a go at working out what it says. I never said I could write legibly, did I.’
She handed out the scribbled sheets and they picked them up.
‘Good Lord,’ came from Kat.
‘Bloody hell, Mouse,’ came from Doris.
‘You’re so picky, both of you. Which bit can’t you decipher?’
‘All of it. But don’t worry, we’ll send it to Bletchley.’ Doris grinned at her granddaughter.
‘Look, basically what it’s saying is that her husband, Thomas Edward Carpenter, died when he was forty, twelve months ago. She called him Tom. He had always understood that his adoptive parents kept the Christian names given to him by his birth mother, along with a tiny silver cross and chain. She no longer has that, but she thinks Tom may have given it to his aunt as a keepsake. Both Tom’s parents have died, although his mother had a younger sister, Alice Small, who is still alive. This is the lady who possibly has the cross and chain. Alice doesn’t know Judy is trying to trace Tom’s birth mother. Tom’s adoptive dad was James Carpenter, his adoptive mother was Margot Carpenter, nee Foster. I’m assuming this means Alice was a Foster, too. The Carpenters, until their deaths, lived in Baslow.’
‘And that’s it? That’s all we have to go on?’ Kat’s eyes were still scanning Mouse’s handwritten sheet, hoping that somewhere in the scrawl there were other snippets of information.
‘That’s it,’ Mouse confirmed. ‘We have his adoption certificate, of course, but because he died before trying to trace her, Judy said he hadn’t applied for his birth certificate or his adoption pack. I actually think our starting point might be with Tom’s aunt, Alice Small. Kat, do you want to take on that part? Ring Judy and get as much information as possible. She’s expecting our call. She didn’t have addresses or anything with her yesterday.’
‘Will do,’ Kat responded, feeling happy she wasn’t being shelved just yet.
Doris and Kat were each dealing with their individual jobs, with Mouse out doing fieldwork following a client’s daughter, when DI Marsden walked into the shop.
‘Mrs Lester,’ she said. ‘You alone?’
‘No,’ Doris laughed. ‘We can’t leave Kat now. Mouse is out on a job, and Kat is in her own office, working on a new piece of business. Do you want her?’
Kat opened her office door. ‘I’m here. You have news?’ She had just finished speaking with Judy Carpenter, and making legible notes of addresses and dates.
‘Only what you’re expecting, I fear. It was your husband who was in the house. You’ve heard nothing from him?’
Kat shook her head. ‘No, but I suspect I might. It seems he saw the nursery, so he’ll know I’m pregnant. He’ll make it his business to find out if I’m nearly due and then he’ll know the baby belongs to him. That will cause problems.’
‘I don’t doubt,’ Marsden said. ‘What will you do?’
‘Tell him to fuck off,’ Kat said angrily. ‘What do you think I’ll do? He can’t resurface, you’ll arrest him.’
‘Don’t swear, Kat,’ Doris said mildly. ‘It doesn’t become you.’
Tessa Marsden tried to hide her smile. Doris Lester was a force to be reckoned with, and she kept a close eye on her two girls. ‘I’m more than a little concerned for your safety, Kat. He’s not going to forgive any of you. He no longer has a wife, no longer has an income, a home… His life is the complete opposite of what it was a year ago. And now there’s the baby. I think that’s going to be a massive problem inside Rowe’s head. That’s the biggie, isn’t it? A child he’s unable to acknowledge, and he knows that once we track him down and arrest him, you’ll be able to serve divorce papers, putting the baby even further away from him.’
‘Don’t worry, DI Marsden. We’ve got Kat’s back.’ Doris spoke with emphasis.
‘I don’t doubt it, Mrs Lester, but I want to have someone out at your home, Kat, installing a panic button. Until we arrest Rowe, I want you to feel a little more secure. You will only be two minutes away from help arriving. They’ll be there at three this afternoon, so make sure you’re there to let them in, will you. They’ll put one in the bedroom and one in the kitchen. Do you need one in the lounge as well?’
‘Yes, she does,’ Doris answered.
Kat looked at the fiery pensioner and smiled. ‘Whatever Nan says is fine with me,’ she said to Marsden. ‘She’s always right. Maybe I should have one in the loo, I spend most of my time in there. I think this baby sleeps on my bladder. You don’t think Leon will come here, to the shop?’
‘No, this is too public. He’ll want you on familiar territory, the home he shared with you.’
‘Then as soon as Mouse gets back we’ll finish here, and work from home for the rest of the day. Thank you for doing this for Kat, DI Marsden. He’s an evil bastard, is Leon Rowe,’ Doris spat.
‘Hey,’ Kat said. ‘Don’t swear, Mrs Lester, it doesn’t suit you.’
Marsden turned to leave, then paused in the doorway. ‘It goes without saying, I hope, that if you do see Rowe you’ll not try to handle it yourselves. We need to know. He’s an evil murderer, Kat, he wants putting away, whether he’s a new daddy or not.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Kat laughed. ‘I want him out of our lives. You’ll be the first person we call.’
Leon Rowe watched as Mouse entered the shop, then stared more closely as Kat and Doris followed Mouse out some two minutes later, and into the Range Rover. His view from the attic of his old pharmacy, directly opposite The Connection Detective Agency, gave him a perfect picture of Kat and the massive stomach concealing a child that was almost ready to be born. The nursery had created the question, the size of Kat’s stomach had shown him the answer.
The baby was his.
The installation engineer for the panic buttons was quite delicious, Mouse decided. And then she realised he was the first man she had looked at in that way since seeing Anthony Jackson killed a year earlier. Watching a head being blown apart tended to put away thoughts of re
lationships and sex.
She signed the engineer’s paperwork, and escorted him to the front door. ‘Thank you,’ she said, wondering if he would appreciate a quick kiss on the cheek, but deciding against being a brazen hussy. ‘Let’s hope they never get used.’
‘Very few do,’ he responded. ‘But don’t hesitate about using them. The lads would rather come out to a false call, than you not recognise there’s danger and end up dead.’
She thanked him again, closed the door and leaned against it. End up dead? Would Leon Rowe really go that far with the woman who was supposedly the love of his life?
She knew the answer. He would.
Mouse returned to the kitchen to see Kat leaning forward over the sink, rubbing her back.
‘Do I need towels and boiling water?’ she grinned.
‘It’s backache. He or she is a proper lump, you know. And heavy with it. It’s going to seem a long two weeks.’
Mouse gave her a hug and Kat winced. ‘Sorry, did I hurt you?’
‘No, I just had a twinge. A bit stronger than the last twinge.’
‘Oh my God, you’re having contractions?’
‘No, it’s backache.’
Doris eventually intervened. ‘Kat, stand up straight, stop leaning over the sink.’
Kat slowly pushed away from the sink and as she became more upright she stared in horror at the pool of water appearing on the floor beneath her feet.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she gasped. ‘It’s only five minutes since I last peed.’
Doris shook her head. ‘These ante-natal classes you attended, what can you remember about labour starting?’
‘Contractions?’
‘Before you get to that.’
‘Waters breaking…’
‘And backache?’ Doris smiled.
‘Shit.’ Kat visibly paled.
‘Not yet, that comes later.’ Doris laughed. ‘And stop swearing, young lady, it’s not becoming of a woman of the cloth.’
Mouse was rigid. ‘You mean…?’
‘Kat’s in early labour. Go get a couple of towels, Mouse, and put them on a chair. That will soak up any more fluid, and then we’ll get Kat’s bag and ring the hospital. There’s no rush, I hope.’
Mouse ran upstairs, and returned with the towels, then lowered Kat onto the seat. She was biting her lip.
‘Another one?’
Kat nodded. ‘I’ve been having them on and off all day, but put it down to the stress of yesterday, finding out Leon had been here.’
‘And you said nothing?’ Doris looked concerned.
‘I thought it was these Braxton Hicks things they talk about. It didn’t occur to me it could be the real thing, it’s too early.’
‘Ring the hospital, Mouse. Tell them we’re bringing her in now. Her waters have broken, and the contractions seem to be about two minutes apart.’
Mouse picked up the phone, and Doris stroked Kat’s hand.
‘Don’t worry, lovely, you’ll be fine, and we’ll have our new baby very soon. Is your bag ready?’
Kat nodded again. ‘In the hall, ready to go.’
Leon missed seeing the car as it hurtled through the village centre, Doris driving, Kat and Mouse on the back seat, with Kat on a mound of towels and emitting the occasional moan as another contraction washed over her.
Seeing Kat so heavily pregnant had changed all his plans; his intention had been to enter the house when he saw all three women at work in Connection, get the substantial amount of money, the gun and ammunition he had stashed away under the floorboards in the summer house, pick up the last of his clothes and disappear.
And then he saw the nursery.
His temporary camp in the pharmacy attic wasn’t practical in any sort of long term; he was living off the out of date items still left as stock in the shop, but he had envisioned that situation as being for a couple of days at the most, then he would disappear for ever.
He knew the baby was his. Disappearing was no longer a choice, not until he had met his child and made decisions about the child’s future.
Several things happened during a two-hour time frame that afternoon; an aeroplane landed at Manchester airport returning two unknowing brand new grandparents, Enid and Victor Silvers, back to home soil, Leon and Kat Rowe became first time parents, Doris Lester and Mouse Walters held Kat as she delivered her baby, and Martha May Rowe, tiny at six and a half pounds, entered all their lives and was immediately loved.
Chapter 3
Enid and Victor stared down at the tiny sleeping baby.
‘Well,’ Enid whispered, ‘I thought this day would never come. She’s perfect.’
Her husband put his arm around her shoulders. ‘I hope you’ll still think that when you start your child-minding duties in a few weeks.’
‘Of course I will. I’ve waited so long for this. I’m happy to help out, as you know. You are on board with that, aren’t you?’
Victor smiled down at his Martha. ‘Oh aye,’ he said, ‘aye, I am.’
Kat was unsure what to do about telling Alan and Sue in Canada. They had every right to know they had a granddaughter, but if they were in any sort of contact with Leon…
‘What shall I do, Nan?’
‘I don’t know, sweetie. It’s a hard one. But if Leon is keeping an eye on you, and we know he is, eventually he’s going to see you pushing a pram instead of looking like a whale, and he’ll know he’s a daddy. I think you have to tell them.’
‘I think I knew that anyway.’ Kat’s tone was rueful. ‘I’ll ring them and get it over with, but ask them if they are in touch with Leon, not to say anything. It’s all I can do. It will be up to them whether they respect my wishes or not.’
She looked at the phone as though it was something from another planet that would kill her if she touched it. She sighed deeply and picked up the receiver.
‘Sue, it’s Kat.’
Mouse had left everyone cooing over the baby. She put in the satnav co-ordinates for the house in Bradwell she needed to visit, and drove out of Eyam, enjoying the sunshine that still didn’t have much heat to it but always managed to lift Derbyshire to a whole new level.
She didn’t miss living in the industrial city of Sheffield at all, couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but her beautiful new flat. She owed a lot of her peace of mind to her nan, but felt a sense of dread that Leon Rowe was clearly back on the scene. Her biggest concern was that he had seen the nursery, and knowing he was no idiot, she guessed he had put two and two together.
The baby’s arrival added to all their worries, and she knew that Kat would be filling her parents in at the moment, explaining what had happened while they were soaking up the sunshine on the recent holiday.
She drove over the bridge marking the entrance to Bradwell village, and listened to her satnav’s disembodied voice.
The house she was seeking proved to be very near to the sixteenth century inn, Ye Old Bowling Green, and she smiled. Every place a winner in Derbyshire.
She sat for a moment and looked at the house. A pretty stone-built cottage with a tiny front garden bursting with springtime flowers, it looked loved and lived in. She took a deep breath before getting out of the car; back to work, forget newborn babies and problems arising from that.
Alice Small opened the door; her smile looked slightly forced.
‘Mrs Small?’ Mouse held her ID card in front of her. ‘I’m Beth Walters. Thank you for agreeing to see me.’
‘Come in, Miss Walters.’ Alice held the door open.
The house was so like how Mouse imagined a cottage to be, it brought an instant smile to her face. ‘Oh, this is lovely. And please call me Beth.’
‘Thank you. It’s taken me a couple of years to get it how it always was in my imagination, but I think I’m there now. Please, come through to the lounge.’
Alice indicated that Mouse should sit in the armchair, and Alice sat on the small sofa.
‘Now, how can I help with this crazy idea?’
; ‘You don’t agree with it?’
‘Tom’s dead, so it’s not him wanting to find his birth mother, it’s her. Judith.’
Mouse took out her iPad. ‘Do you mind if I make notes?’
‘Of course not, but I’m not sure if I know anything worth making notes about.’
‘I’m sure you will, probably without realising you do know something. Let’s start with Tom’s parents. I understand his mum, Margot, was your sister.’
This time the smile that lit up Alice’s face was genuine. ‘She was. She was ten years younger than me, would have been seventy this year. Same age as James. They both died nine years ago, in the same year. It very nearly broke Tom. He adored them, and I think it’s why he didn’t try to find his birth mother, not at that time anyway. He and Judy had discussed tracing her, and he had said one day he would do it.’
‘What do you mean? Did he try? And you’re eighty?’ Mouse’s face reflected her shock. She hoped she looked as good when she reached four-score.
There was a long hesitation. Slowly, Alice spoke. ‘He applied for his birth certificate and his adoption pack. He did it as soon as he found out he had cancer, way before he knew it was terminal. He came here one day with a folder and asked if I would save it for him, he didn’t want Judy to see it before he had something concrete to tell her.’ Alice smiled. ‘And yes, I am eighty. I keep myself fit.’
‘Why didn’t he want Judy to know?’
‘The marriage was going sour. I know they would have split up, but that terminal diagnosis changed everything. He more or less decided to put up and shut up. It saved having to divide everything, saved having to sell their beautiful house in Hope, she just had everything when he died. After they told him there was no long term future, he only lived four months or so.’