by Anita Waller
‘Guess it’s feeding time. I’ll make her a bottle and then she can sleep in her pram.’
Half an hour later they were all rereading everything in the files. Pamela Farrar’s birth certificate showed that she had been born on the fifth of January 1960 in Grindleford, and as Doris filled them in more and more about life in the sixties and seventies, it became clear that although the bigger towns and cities embraced the new freedoms afforded by the end of the war, the small villages retained their insular complexities. People began to move out to the cities where factories needed workers to rebuild the destruction caused by the war, leaving a hard core of villagers to manage their lives, reluctant to let the old ideas go.
And it seemed that Pamela Farrar had paid the price for the old-fashioned values of her parents.
Thomas Edward Farrar was born on the twenty-third of April 1976 in Chesterfield, and subsequently adopted on the seventh of June 1976 at Renishaw Magistrates Court. Margot and James Carpenter of Baslow, Derbyshire, were the adoptive parents, and until a couple of days prior, that was the end of the trail as far as the Connection Detective Agency was concerned.
They finished reading everything, then sat back and looked at each other.
‘So,’ Kat began, ‘the adoption pack told us very little. No father, but we know why anyway, and the last known place of residence for Pamela was Grindleford. We have an address there, but I’m presuming you’ve already checked this out online, Mouse?’
‘Yes, a Mr and Mrs Palmer live there now. However, next door at twelve Haddon Row is an elderly lady by the name of Joyce Graham who has lived there all her life. She’s eighty, so I don’t want to just turn up on her doorstep. I think we need to ring her and make an appointment. I’m sure she’ll know the family. She may have some snippets she can pass on to us.’
Doris made a note. ‘I’ll ring her if that becomes necessary. At eighty, I don’t really want to trouble her. Anything else we’ve gleaned from this first foray into it?’
‘I think Alice Small loved Tom very much, but didn’t rate Judy at all.’ Mouse held her hand to her lips. ‘Oops, bear with me a minute.’ She stood and headed outside. They heard the slam of the car door, and she returned carrying a white carrier bag. She handed it to Kat.
‘This is from Alice. She apparently knows you, you take the service at her church occasionally, and she thinks you’re lovely. It’s something for Martha.’
Kat took the bag, and pulled out a pink-wrapped parcel. She carefully opened it to reveal an exquisite crocheted white coat and hat. ‘Oh my word. I must ring her. This is stunning, and I’m going to dress Martha in it when I take her to Mum’s tomorrow.’
Mouse put the paperwork back into the individual folders, and called a halt to work for the day.
‘I may go on the computer later,’ she said, ‘but officially we’re closed. Kat, get your feet up, get some rest. And let’s make sure all these doors are multi-locked and alarms primed.’
‘I’ll find us something to eat,’ Doris said. ‘Us working girls need to keep our strength up. But, Kat, please try to remember you’re on maternity leave.’
Chapter 5
‘Okay, I’m off now,’ Kat said. ‘It was good the midwife visit being early today, so I’m heading to Mum’s for lunch. You two can stop babysitting me for a couple of hours, and go to work.’
She strapped Martha into her baby seat. ‘I think I’ve got everything, but it’s like packing to go on holiday. I’ll be back around five, so you don’t need to be on tenterhooks thinking I’m on my own.’
Mouse looked up. ‘Text me when you get to your mum’s house. No pissing about, Kat. If you don’t text we’ll come over and find you. Leon can track you on the road just as easily as he can invade your space here.’
‘I know. If I’ve not texted in fifteen minutes, you text me. I’m still a bit woolly headed, I might forget.’
She didn’t forget, and ten minutes after the reassurance that she was alive and well and drinking tea, Mouse and Doris drove down through the village to the office. On their journey they had passed Danny McLoughlin heading in the opposite direction towards Kat’s house, his hand waving at them through his open car window.
‘It’ll be good to get out and sit in the garden again,’ Doris said. ‘I’m always so relieved when winter’s over and we get flowers once more.’
‘He did a cracking job of tidying the garden to get it through the cold months,’ Mouse said. ‘I’m glad Kat’s asked him to come back. I don’t mind pottering, but I’m not into cutting lawns and stuff.’
She parked outside the shop, and pulled on the handbrake. ‘You go in, Nan. I just need to go to the cash machine. There’s no money in my purse, I feel as though I’ve been mugged.’
Mouse waited until Doris opened the shutter and door, then crossed the road towards the small village supermarket, and its ATM.
The sun was in her eyes and at first she didn’t notice the woman slumped on the floor by the side of the machine, the little boy next to her trying to soothe her, unsuccessfully. She was crying harshly, and trying to control it, equally unsuccessfully.
Mouse dropped her purse back into her bag and ran to the woman. ‘Hey, come on. Are you hurt?’
She shook her head, clearly unable to speak for the moment.
‘Then let me help you up.’ Mouse’s arms went around her, and the woman struggled to her feet.
Tissues appeared from Mouse’s bag as if by magic, and she handed them to the woman, who was trying desperately to stifle the sobs. Her little boy was staring up at his mum, a scared look fixed on his face.
‘Has someone attacked you?’ Mouse probed gently.
‘No, they took my money.’
‘Look, Mrs…?’
‘Roy. Keeley Roy. And this is my son, Henry.’
‘Okay, Keeley, my name’s Beth Walters, and I co-own Connection over there.’ She pointed to the shop. ‘Will you and Henry come across with me, let me get you a drink, and tell me what happened?’
She hesitated for a moment and then nodded. ‘Henry hold my hand. We’re going to cross the road.’
‘Let me just get some money,’ Mouse said, ‘and we’ll get over there.’
She quickly made her withdrawal and they walked over to where Doris had already switched on the kettle and coffeemaker. She had been watching the scene play out, conscious that Leon Rowe could be anywhere, and for as long as that was the case, her granddaughter needed to be in her sights. The scar from the last bullet Mouse had taken was still very clearly visible, and Doris was frightened to death there might be a second one on its way. Leon Rowe was a cold-blooded killer.
As the three approached the shop, she opened the door.
‘Nan, this is Keeley and Henry. We’ve come for a drink. Keeley’s had a bit of a shock.’
‘Kettle and coffeemaker already underway,’ Doris said. ‘Milk or cordial, Henry?’
‘Milk, please,’ the little boy said with a shy smile, clearly overawed by being in a building he’d never been in before.
‘Nice manners. A credit to you, Keeley. Would you like tea or coffee?’
‘Tea, please, milk no sugar.’ She took a great heaving sigh, finally losing the emotion that had followed the realisation of the robbery.
‘Okay. You go in Beth’s office, and Henry and I will get to know each other in here. We can draw some pictures. I’ll take care of him,’ she said to the haggard-looking young woman. ‘Go and talk to Beth.’
It wasn’t only Doris who had scrutinised the developing scene from beginning to end. Leon had seen Beth’s large car pull up, and watched both her and Doris climb out. No Kat.
It seemed that Kat could have been left at home to rest; maybe she had even stopped work now until the birth, which couldn’t be far away.
He stared intensely as he saw Beth help up the woman, and briefly wondered why she was on the floor in the first place. His eyes must have been so firmly fixed on Connection that he hadn’t seen what had happened prio
r to Doris and Beth’s arrival.
The two women and the little boy crossed the road and went into the shop that had been the object of Leon’s surveillance, and his decision was made. He was going to head up the back hidden path, following the brook, and enter his old home by the garden. If he stayed behind the summer house… He didn’t want Kat to see him, he just wanted to see her, to confirm that his eyes hadn’t deceived him when he saw her rounded shape.
On such a beautiful afternoon she was bound to be pottering around the garden; he would look and come away. He was prepared to play the long game until he could decide what to do about the child.
He pulled his hood up and forward so that most of his face was hidden. Letting himself out of the side door, supposedly sealed and padlocked by the police but with a padlock that was so easy to break, Leon closed the door and slipped the huge lock back on, making it look as though it was still secured.
The early May sunshine was warm, but hadn’t yet begun to warm the soil, and digging around the roses in the rose bed was proving to be hard work. Danny stood upright, and wiped the sweat from his brow. He stabbed the fork into the previously dug earth, and headed up to sit on the patio for two minutes.
He sat down and pulled his flask towards him. It was silent, not even a bird seemed to be singing. He poured out his coffee and tentatively sipped at it. He enjoyed working in this garden; it wasn’t hard work as it had always been well maintained, but since Kat had announced her pregnancy, he had been doing the work for her.
This was his first visit of the new gardening season, and already it was looking lovely with spring flowers in evidence. He took out a cigarette, and sat quietly, almost dozing in the unexpected warmth of the sun.
And then there was a noise. He looked down towards the summer house, and Tibby sauntered out, then wandered up onto the lawned area before lying smoothly down in the warmth of the sun.
He smiled; he liked cats, and this one was extra friendly, always twining himself around his feet, eager to be with him.
He stood and moved back towards the rose bed. Another half hour and he would be done. He saw the figure, hood obscuring its face, almost at the same time as the figure saw him. Whoever that bugger was, he’d no place being behind Kat’s summer house, and he was going to make sure he knew it.
‘Oy! Dickhead! What do you think you’re doing? Go on, get out of it, on your way.’
The figure turned at his shout, paused for a moment as if in thought, and then scrambled back down towards the brook path, intent on getting away. A tall climbing rose snagged on his hood, and it fell from his face, such an instantly recognisable face in Eyam. Posters were all over the place still, stuck on every available hoarding, keeping the man in the forefront of everybody’s mind.
‘Rowe!’
Leon heard the growled name, and moved fast; the dozy old gardener wouldn’t have the speed to catch him, but being spotted by him could only lead to trouble. Police trouble.
The crash of wellingtons hitting various rocks and bushes as Danny slipped and slithered down the difficult terrain told Leon that this particular dozy old gardener was intent on reaching him.
Leon stopped.
He turned, slipped his right hand into his pocket and took out the silenced gun.
Danny gave a huge roar. ‘Oh no you don’t, you evil bastard!’ He threw himself at the black-clad figure of Leon Rowe.
Leon fired twice. The first shot dropped Danny to his knees. The second splattered his brains around the path and in the water.
All was silent again.
Leon ran.
Chapter 6
Doris settled Henry at her counter with some paper and a pencil, and carried a tray of drinks through to Mouse’s office. Mouse smiled and thanked her, and Doris headed back out to the little boy who seemed much too quiet.
‘I’m sure Mummy won’t be long. What shall we draw?’
‘Ducks.’
‘O… kay. We can draw ducks, I’m sure.’
She picked up a second pencil and bent her head.
‘So, now we’ve got a drink and you’re a little calmer, tell me what happened.’
There was a huge sigh. ‘Henry and I are going on holiday. I’ve been paying for a year for it, paying monthly because we don’t have a lot of money. His father died and so we have no financial help, but finally it’s here. We’re going on Saturday… or we were. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I’ve paid for a caravan at the coast, nothing special, but he’ll love the beach. I had saved £300 for spending money, and we’d made a big thing about coming down to the cash machine to get it out.’ She paused for a moment, and Mouse remained silent.
‘I put my card in the machine, put in my pin number and pressed for £300, then felt Henry move. He’s quite lively, a bit of a handful, and I turned to grab him but he was heading for the road. I ran after him and he fell off the edge of the pavement and landed face down on the road. I picked him up, sorted him out, and went back to get my money. It had gone.’
‘But the machine would have reclaimed it, wouldn’t it? I’m pretty sure if you don’t get it within a certain amount of time, it whips it back.’
‘I thought that, so I waited a few minutes. I tried again and it said insufficient funds. I suspect somebody went to the supermarket, walked past the machine and helped themselves. I felt overwhelmed with worry, burst out crying and sat on the floor. That’s when you turned up.’
Mouse nodded. ‘Okay, first things first.’ She pushed the telephone across the desk towards Keeley. ‘Ring your bank and ask them if the machine took back the money. It may be something simple like it takes time to re-credit your account.’
‘Erm… I can’t really do this. I have no money to pay you for your time.’
‘Just ring the bank, Keeley.’
‘I will, but I’ll do it on my own phone, the number’s in that.’
‘You always this stubborn?’ Mouse asked.
‘Probably,’ Keeley said. ‘I’ve had to be.’
She pressed the call button, and it took some minutes of other keys being pressed before she reached a person.
The answer was short and sweet, although not to Keeley’s ears. She looked up at Mouse after disconnecting.
‘The money has come out of my account.’
‘Okay. Let’s not panic. There must be CCTV at that cash machine, either a camera installed by the bank over the machine, or one installed by the supermarket. We’ll go over and talk to the manager, see if he can help.’
Mouse pushed her chair back and picked up her bag. ‘Come on, let’s go and see what we can find out.’
Henry was quite happy to be left with Doris for a few minutes, and Mouse and Keeley left the shop, hurrying across the road towards the supermarket.
The manager was unhelpful, stating several times that the cash machine wasn’t their problem, that it was a bank problem.
‘I know that,’ Mouse said. ‘But think on this, Mr Newton. If you won’t help us, we’ll have no option but to call the police. A crime has been committed. The shop will have to close while they investigate and dust for fingerprints, and it won’t be just for an hour. You might as well send your staff home and tell them to come back the day after tomorrow, because I’ll raise so many issues it will stretch out that long. Now, what’s your decision?’
He stared at the pretty girl he’d been seeing for months going in and out of Connection, and knew he’d met his match.
He straightened up, tugged on his suit jacket and said, ‘Follow me.’
He took them through a double swing door made of rubber, and led them to his office.
He sat in his chair, and Mouse pointed to the other chair, indicating that Keeley should sit down. Mouse then perched her bum on the desk, leaned across to the man and said, ‘Anytime you’re ready, Norman. Show us what you have.’
Despite her worries and concerns, Keeley looked as if she was trying desperately hard not to laugh. The poor man looked terrified.
He swung the monitor around so they could see it, and then proceeded to rewind the picture it was showing to an earlier time. He looked up in query, almost afraid to speak.
‘Half an hour should do it,’ Mouse said.
The rewind stopped, and the two women watched the screen.
It eventually showed Keeley and Henry walking up to the cash machine, and Keeley placing Henry in front of her, facing the keypad. She keyed in her pin number and Henry reached up and added an extra digit. The machine clearly said it was an incorrect number because the card was returned. She moved Henry to one side, and reinserted the card. This time her pin number was accepted and she completed the request for £300. The machine ejected her card and she took it at the same time as Henry ran away from her side and towards the road. Clutching the returned card, she ran after him and caught up to him as he fell into the road.
They saw her comfort him, and then saw a figure in light coloured jogging bottoms and a sleeveless running vest with the number nine printed on it, jog into view. He bent and took the money still in the cash machine dispenser, and increased his running speed as he ran off with the money.
‘Do you know him?’ Mouse asked Norman Newton.
He didn’t answer immediately, his eyes were glued to the screen, a look of horror on his face.
‘Mr Newton? Do you know him?’ she repeated.
He turned to face Keeley. ‘How much did you have taken, Mrs…?’
‘Roy, my name is Keeley Roy. And I had withdrawn £300. We’ve already told you this.’
He stood and moved into a smaller office attached to the room they were in. They saw him open the safe, and he returned holding a bundle of money.
‘Please take this,’ he said, and handed over money bound by an elastic band. ‘I do know him, and I’ll deal with him.’
Mouse stood. ‘Whoa. If you know him, then this is definitely a police matter. Who is he?’