by Anita Waller
‘Anywhere nice?’ Tessa asked.
‘For her, yes. I’m taking her to Tom’s grave. She has an appointment at the bank at twelve thirty, so I’m going to pick her up at ten, and bring her down into Hope. I’ll take her for a coffee afterwards, I think she might need it, then return her to Buxton in time for your man to collect her. She liked him, by the way.’
‘Who wouldn’t? Everybody likes Carl except his ex-wife. She preferred the local butcher. Carl’s a smart man though. A DS who will go higher. He’s not on my team as such, but he’s in my bank of experts I can call on when needed. Until we have all the proof we require for this Grace Earle case, he’s seconded to me.’
‘She still locked up?’
‘Oh, yes. We need to know where the money is, and she has charges of attempted murder hanging over her for Pam’s over-medication. She’s not going anywhere in a hurry.’
Rustling noises came from the baby monitor and Kat stood. ‘Peace over, the fourth Connection is awake and hungry.’
‘Can I feed her, please?’ Tessa asked.
Doris eased herself out of the chair. ‘I’ll get the bottle, you get the baby, Kat, and Tessa gets the honour. Let’s hope she’s not sick down that snazzy silk blouse, Tessa.’ Doris laughed.
Tessa stared down at the baby cradled in her arms, and sighed. One miscarriage had been her only attempt at motherhood, and she knew her rising career would preclude any babies. But it took more than a career to squash maternal feelings;
this was the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon.
An hour later, she reluctantly handed a sleeping Martha back to be placed in her crib, and headed for the door. Kat walked with her.
‘You’re very welcome anytime you want a change from police stuff, Tessa. We’ve all really enjoyed today.’
Tessa pulled her into a hug. ‘Thank you so much. It’s eased me away from all the strain and the stress, and your daughter is so beautiful. I can’t remember the last time I spent such a relaxed Sunday, even though we have talked death and crime.’
They walked out to the car, and Tessa wound down the window, reaching for Kat’s hand. ‘Leon went to Canada yesterday,’ she said. ‘Now start to live again.’
Chapter 32
Kat laid the huge bouquet of flowers on the back seat, and helped Pam into the front. ‘Have you already been out buying flowers?’ Kat smiled at her passenger.
‘No, I won’t be doing any driving until I’m sure these drugs are out of my system and back to normal levels. I had Waitrose deliver them at seven this morning. I’d almost forgotten I could do things like that. That awful woman has taken over my life to such an extent, I did nothing for myself.’
‘Today is just for you. We’ll go visit Tom, then head for a coffee shop and have coffee and a big fat cream bun. I’ve booked us a table for two for eleven thirty, and we’ll be back here in time for your date with Carl. How does that sound?’
‘It sounds perfect. I’ve done nothing like this for years, not since William’s first stroke.’
Kat drove carefully; despite Pam’s brave and upbeat words, she could tell how frail she was. She parked the car as close as she could get to church, and then helped Pam out. ‘Shall I carry the flowers for you?’
‘Would you mind? In my head I’m getting stronger, but my legs don’t always agree.’ Pam smiled at her companion.
‘Not at all.’ They walked through the gate of the churchyard, and slowly headed towards Tom’s final resting place. Pam reached out a hand, and tucked it into Kat’s arm.
‘You’re okay to carry on?’ Kat asked. ‘It’s about another twenty-five yards, that’s all.’
‘I’m fine. I can just feel… oh, I don’t know what I can feel, Kat. This is my son, the baby boy I loved so much. And he died before me.’
They moved slowly onwards, and then Pam gave a huge sigh as she saw the name Carpenter.
‘Oh, Tom,’ and tears leaked from her eyes. ‘Oh, my Tom.’ She touched the headstone, and Kat stepped back, allowing her the moment to herself.
Keeley looked around the tidy kitchen, the one she had cleaned after Henry’s temper tantrum surrounding cornflakes versus Coco Pops, and picked up the roses she had gathered in the garden. She wanted to take them to Tom, to say thank you for everything, and to simply have time with him.
It didn’t take long to walk to the church, and as she walked up the central driveway leading to Tom’s grave, she could see two people in close proximity to where she was heading. She hesitated; she didn’t want to disturb their time with their loved ones. Her steps slowed but as she drew nearer she realised that one of the two people was familiar: Kat Rowe. Logical conclusion led her to realise the other person had to be Tom’s birth mother, and she turned around to walk away.
At the same time Kat moved, and saw Keeley heading off in the opposite direction. She touched Pam on the arm, and said, ‘I’ll leave you for a minute. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.’
She ran down towards Keeley, who spun around when she heard Kat’s footsteps.
‘Is that…?’ Keeley said, glancing towards the lady standing by Tom’s graveside.
‘It is. Are you brave enough to meet her? I’ll be with you. I can simply introduce you as Tom’s friend and neighbour, you don’t have to say anything beyond that. She knows nothing of Henry at the moment, but one day you will want her to meet him, I’m sure. What do you say?’
Keeley’s brain spun. This almost seemed like fate and she nodded. ‘Yes, if you think it’s right to meet her, then let’s do it.’
They walked back towards Tom’s grave, where his mother was kneeling and placing the flowers she had brought, taking care not to squash the blooms that had been there before her and Kat had arrived.
Pam stood and watched as the two women walked towards her.
Kat put her arm around a hesitant Keeley. ‘Pam Bird, this is a good friend and next door neighbour of Tom, Keeley Roy.’
‘Keeley, I’m delighted to meet you.’ Pam held out her hand and Keeley shook it. ‘You knew Tom was adopted?’
‘I did,’ Keeley replied, ‘and I knew how much he wanted to trace you. In the end he just didn’t have the time. Pam, I have to say it’s obvious he was your son. He had your eyes, your chin…’ but she couldn’t add ‘and so does your grandson’. Not yet, it was too early.
‘You don’t know how much it pleases me to hear that, Keeley. I have a picture of him as an adult, but not as a child; I missed so much.’
Keeley smiled. ‘I’m happy to tell you as much as I know. I only live across the road from here, so if you would like to come and have a cup of tea when you’ve finished here, you’d be very welcome.’
‘Great minds think alike.’ Kat smiled. ‘We’ve booked a table for coffee and cake – please join us Keeley, we’d love it if you could.’
It didn’t take long for Mouse to track down the delivery Alice had used for her excuse for being late doing her run; it was exactly at the time Alice had said, just a day earlier.
‘Shit,’ she said, under her breath.
Doris was engrossed in a document she was checking, red pen poised to make suggested amendments. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Everything, I think.’
‘Alice? She lied?’
Mouse nodded. ‘The delivery was timed at 9.32, except it was a day earlier, the day before Judy was murdered. In other words, she had no alibi for the day in question, and she certainly did her run later than normal. I have to tell Tessa.’
‘Do you? Is it our job to keep her informed?’
‘It is if we want to keep the channels open that are already open. It would be a shame to lose Tessa’s trust, and to be honest, if Alice is connected to this murder, she’ll have to pay for that. It doesn’t matter how much we like her, I have to give this information to the police.’
‘How are you going to explain having got the information? You can’t tell Tessa you hacked into Yodel’s or DPD’s computer system, or, heaven forbid, the
Royal Mail one, you just can’t.’
‘I know. I’m going to wait until this time tomorrow, and then ring Tessa and see if they’ve managed to trace the delivery. I’m hoping they find it on their own, then I don’t need to say anything. But in the meantime, we’ve got the facts… how do we use them?’
‘Pre-warn Alice?’ Doris said.
‘Should we?’ Mouse frowned and looked at her nan.
‘No we shouldn’t! I was only joking. If Alice is connected to this murder, then… I’m struggling to see how she could be, she would have nothing to gain from Judy’s death. I know she didn’t like her, but I don’t think she hated her enough to kill her. And the one thing we’re ignoring here is that, like our Kat, she is a practising Christian. She’s a person who doesn’t just pay lip service to her God, she actually walks the walk. She cares enough for her friends that she checks in with them every day, gets shopping in for them, and that’s just the bits we know she does. Something’s out of kilter here, but I’m buggered if I know what it is.’
‘Buggered?’ Mouse covered her lips to hide the bubble of laughter that threatened to escape. ‘I’m too young to listen to that sort of language.’
Doris threw her red pen at her granddaughter. ‘Go and make us a coffee, and break out the biscuits, sassy one. And stop being cheeky to your elders.’
The coffee and cakes went down a treat, and Keeley told Pam of Tom’s childhood, all the little bits he had mentioned to her as they lay satiated and drowsy after their lovemaking. She thought it expedient not to mention the circumstances leading up to her gaining the knowledge about him, but it was clear Pam was enthralled, listening to the stories.
‘This is so much more than I expected from today. Thank you, you two, you’ve made an elderly lady very happy. I only ever had Tom. I didn’t meet William until I was forty, so we decided not to have children, we reckoned we were both too old – he was a few years older than me. I know you have a tiny baby, Kat. Do you have children, Keeley?’
Keeley’s eyes flashed to Kat, and Kat shrugged. The inference was it’s your call, you decide whether to tell her about Henry now or in the future.
‘I have a little boy, Henry, six years old. We’re in the middle of a spat at the moment.’ She hesitated. ‘I asked what he wanted for breakfast and he said cornflakes. I placed the bowl in front of him and he’d changed his mind, he wanted Coco Pops. I argued about it, he slammed his hand down, catching the edge of the cornflakes dish and it catapulted into the air. Milk and cornflakes everywhere. We were running a bit late, so I threw some Coco Pops into a bowl, he ate them at top speed, knowing I wasn’t happy, and we had to run to get to school on time. I came back to a kitchen that looked like a war zone.’
‘Oops. He’ll have recovered by the time he comes home from school?’ Pam smiled.
‘I’m sure he will, he’s not the sort of kid who bears grudges. And he’s normally very protective of me, doesn’t like me to be upset. Recently he’s seen me upset a couple of times, and when that happens he doesn’t leave my side.’
‘He sounds lovely. Do you have a picture?’
There was a deathly silence. Both Kat and Keeley knew if she saw a picture of Henry it would be so obvious to her who his father was. That fact had been the reason Kat had pushed Keeley into joining them for a drink, rather than going to Keeley’s house – photographs were everywhere.
‘Not with me, no,’ Keeley said.
‘Oh, that’s a shame. Maybe I’ll see him in the flesh one day. I’d like that.’
‘Of course,’ Keeley said. ‘It would be a pleasure to introduce you to him.’
Kat and Pam left Keeley to walk around the corner to her home, and then drove back to Buxton where Pam had made arrangements to meet with Carl Heaton for her visit to the bank.
Kat went inside with Pam. The older woman was clearly buzzing from her morning’s activities, and had relived every moment on the journey home. Keeley had handed over her phone number, pleased that the word phone hadn’t triggered a request to look at a picture of Henry in her phone pictures.
Pam had every intention of ringing Keeley that evening and thanking her for her company, and for her knowledge of her son’s life that she had chosen to share with her.
Deciding that a suit of some sort would be more in keeping for a trip to the bank, Pam disappeared upstairs to change, asking Kat if she wouldn’t mind waiting to let in the DS, as he was due to arrive.
Kat opened the door just a minute later, to be faced with a tall craggy man with light brown hair and eyes that lit up in surprise.
‘Well, Mrs Bird, you’ve changed,’ he said with a laugh.
‘Kat Rowe,’ she said, ‘I’ve been out with Pam all morning. We’ve been to Hope. To the churchyard. To a coffee shop.’ She was aware she was babbling inanely.
‘Kat Rowe of Connection?’
‘Yes. Or Kat Rowe of Leon Rowe fame.’
Heaton smiled, laughter lines etched into the sides of his eyes. ‘I prefer Kat Rowe of Connection. My current boss speaks very highly of you. She didn’t say you’re beautiful though. I call that not passing on enough information.’
She blushed, and felt a silly giggle begin to erupt; she changed it to a cough. ‘Thank you, kind sir. A proper Prince Charming. Would you like to come in?’
‘Indeed I would. Is Mrs Bird okay?’
‘She’s fine. We’ve had a lovely morning, and I don’t doubt I’ll be doing a return trip to the same place with her. She’s very sensibly said that she doesn’t want to drive until the drugs she has to take have stabilised.’
Kat led him into the lounge and a minute later heard the bedroom door close.
Pam joined them, and noticed the tinge of red in Kat’s cheeks. Either she’d been out in the sun too long, or her handsome escort had clearly seen Kat’s charms and flirted with her. Pam decided that was a result.
The journey to the bank didn’t take long, but Pam noticed Carl managed to mention Kat three times on the journey. Maybe a little bit of matchmaking might be in order, she decided. A friend had done that for her and William and they’d had a lovely life as a result.
She didn’t have to matchmake. It seemed Carl Heaton was perfectly capable of doing it himself.
‘You have Kat’s mobile number?’ he asked, as he left her.
Pam handed him her mobile phone. ‘It’s under R for Rowe,’ she said with a smile.
All three of them were sitting reading. No laptops were in sight, although Mouse was feeling a bit edgy that Tessa hadn’t rung to say they’d tracked the parcel delivery. She might just have to confess to having located it herself.
There was a slight ping, and Kat put down her book. She leaned across to the coffee table and picked up her phone, expecting it to be from her mother, saying her usual goodnight and sending a kiss to Martha. It wasn’t.
She didn’t recognise the number but once again her cheeks turned red.
It was lovely to meet you earlier and I meant every word I said. You’re a beautiful lady. Will you do me a massive favour and go for a coffee with me one day? Please don’t say no! Carl x
There wasn’t even a momentary hesitation.
Yes! Kat x
‘Your mum?’ Doris asked, lifting her head out of her book.
‘Isn’t it always,’ Kat answered. ‘She has to send her kiss for Martha every night.’
There was a second ping.
This Friday, 1pm, Village Green café in Eyam? x
The red that was fading in her cheeks came back in force.
Yes, don’t be late! x
A third ping.
As if… x
‘Nanny has sent three kisses tonight, then.’ Doris spoke without even lifting her head from her book, and Kat’s cheeks burnt like a forest fire.
Chapter 33
‘Hi, Beth. DI Marsden here.’
Beth recognised that Tessa was being professional and formal. She responded in kind, assuming someone was with her.
‘DI Marsden. How
can I help you?’
‘Are you in the office?’
‘We will be in ten minutes.’
‘Good, I’m coming over. See you soon.’
Kat was strapping Martha into the baby seat, and looked up in query.
‘Tessa’s coming to the office. Let’s wait and see if she’s got the info she needs on the parcel delivery before we are forced into telling her we’ve got it,’ Mouse said.
Kat shook her head, hiding her smile. One day Mouse would be in serious trouble for her hacking skills, she felt sure. ‘Okay, I’m ready to roll. See you down there.’
Kat had decided to take her own car; a cancellation at the registry office had given her the chance to register Martha’s birth at half past three. Having her own transport meant not troubling the two women who, she felt, constantly supported her.
The journey down into the centre of the village took very little time, and Kat placed Martha’s car seat on the floor while she raised the shutters and unlocked the door. She grabbed her tiny daughter and moved swiftly inside to get to the alarm before it woke up the whole of Derbyshire. Martha watched her mummy for a minute or so, then closed her eyes.
‘Sleepyhead,’ Kat said, and bent down to kiss her. She carried her through to her own office, set up the baby monitor, then gently closed the door.
Seconds later her co-workers appeared, and she pointed to her room before they asked the question.
Coffee was switched on in Mouse’s room, and Mouse placed her briefcase under her desk, with the printout showing the date and time of delivery of Alice’s parcel safely secured inside it.
Kat was placing a plate of biscuits on the desk when Marsden arrived.
‘Smells heavenly,’ Tessa commented. ‘Coffee at work always tastes burnt. It’s why most of our prisoners confess to anything, rather than have to endure more coffee.’
They sat around the desk, and eventually the talk turned to Alice Small. ‘We’re bringing her in this afternoon for a little chat.’