by Anita Waller
She slid the plate under her pillow; she didn’t want anyone to have sight of them.
The next few minutes she gave to her God.
The lights went out, but darkness didn’t descend. There was still a glow coming from the corridor that never had its lights switched off.
She topped up her glass with the rest of the water, and took the tablets. When all fourteen had gone, she laid her head back on the pillow, and waited. The pain went quickly. She knew no more.
Stuart did his rounds at just before four, thankful they didn’t have any drunks in; it had proved to be a remarkably quiet night. His shift finished at five and he was ready for his own bed. He reached Alice’s cell, and opened the small window in the door. She was still lying with her back to him, as she had been every time he had checked the cells.
In fact, he thought, she hasn’t moved at all.
He felt a surge of panic wash over him. He unlocked the door and entered the room. The smell of faeces hit him, and he groaned. He crossed to her and shook her. Stuart felt for a pulse and then shouted for help. He had known as soon as the smell had hit him; bowels and bladder usually voided after death.
Help came quickly but it was several hours too late.
Tessa took the call around quarter past four. She slowly disconnected and sat on the edge of her bed, her head hanging down.
She pictured Alice as she had seen her coming home before they arrested her, jogging up the lane leading to her cottage. Alive, eyes bright, and in control. Too much in control? Or was the cancer more advanced than even Alice had known?
The answers would be there after the forensic examination, and as this was a death in custody, the post-mortem would be prioritised.
Marsden showered quickly, then headed downstairs to make a slice of toast. The carrots hadn’t been very filling, and she needed something to get her through the day. She filled a travel cup with coffee, and headed for the station.
There was a strange air about the place, obvious from the second she walked through the double doors.
‘Is Stuart Vincent still here?’ she asked, and was told he was in the canteen, having a coffee. Having a fucking coffee? She fumed inwardly, but then saw him as she opened the canteen doors. He looked broken. His back was to her, and she watched him for a moment. His head was down and the coffee cup was pushed to the other side of the table, balanced precariously. Obviously, someone had told him to go get a coffee, it would make him feel better, and just as obviously it wasn’t happening.
‘Stuart,’ she said quietly.
He turned himself around to look at her. ‘Ma’am. I’m sorry…’
She held up a hand. ‘Stop. Did you do your job? Did you check on her every two hours?’
‘Yes, ma’am, I did. She said the tablets would make her sleep and that’s what she needed. It was only when I did my last round for the night that I realised she hadn’t moved at all, and then when I opened the cell door, the smell…’
‘Has she been moved?’
‘No, ma’am. They’re taking photographs of everything, as you can imagine. Deaths in custody and all that.’
‘So go through what happened from when she went into the cell.’ Marsden opened her notebook.
‘She was issued with a pillow, an extra mattress and three extra blankets. She asked for a glass of water and was provided with a litre of bottled water and a beaker. We also did her a couple of slices of toast, which she ate. I checked on her later and she was fine, but she said she needed two of her morphine tablets. I took her a couple of biscuits as well, because I didn’t like her having such powerful drugs on an empty stomach. I told her lights out in fifteen minutes, and that was it until I did my checks. One at midnight, one at two-ish, and then my round at four when…’
‘You found her. She was terminally ill, you know. Don’t beat yourself up about it. She hadn’t much longer left. I know there’ll be an enquiry, but you’ve done nothing wrong. Is your shift over now?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Then get off home. People will want to talk to you when you come back on tonight, but try to sleep in the meantime.’
She headed for her own office, knowing Stuart Vincent would never forget this shift. She also knew she would never forget either. And now she had to ring Hannah.
Chapter 37
Friday dawned sunny. After working through half her wardrobe, Kat decided to wear a dress. She had no intentions of revealing the truth about where she was going at lunchtime, and she knew that wearing a dress would be more in keeping when she told Doris and Mouse she had a meeting at church.
‘You look stunning,’ Mouse remarked. ‘You seeing some dishy bishop or something?’
‘Bishops don’t usually come with the tag line dishy,’ Kat laughed. ‘No, the sun was out so I thought I’d put a dress on.’
Mouse obviously wasn’t convinced but refrained from further comment.
Kat was fastening Martha into the car when they heard the phone ring. Doris was already in the passenger seat of the Range Rover, with Mouse walking towards the driving seat. Mouse waved her hand in a “shall I, shan’t I” sort of movement, and then made a dash for the front door, to reach it before it stopped.
By the time she had unlocked the door and cancelled the alarm, it had gone to answerphone, and she heard Tessa’s voice.
Snatching up the receiver, Mouse said, ‘Hi, it’s me. We were just heading out to the office.’
‘I need to talk to you. We got Alice’s full confession last night, but by the time I left the station it was getting late, so didn’t bother you. We also found both weapons she used in her garden shed, and a full written confession in her sideboard.’
‘Oh…’ Mouse didn’t want to speak, but felt something in acknowledgement was called for.
‘That’s not the end. We had to bring her medication with us – she is eighty, and I assumed it was stuff like statins that the doctors seem to feel everybody over the age of fifty should take, but as we were bringing her in, she asked about a hospital appointment, scheduled for this morning. I asked her if it could be postponed and she said no, so I said we would make sure she attended. When I asked which hospital it was, she said Weston Park.’
Mouse felt her breath catch in her throat. ‘Shit…’
‘I think that was our reaction too. I asked her where the cancer was, and she said lungs and liver, I think, then said it was at the stage when brain tumours form and that was the endstage. I tell you, the way we treated her then wasn’t by the rule book.’
Doris appeared in the doorway and mouthed, ‘Everything okay?’ to her granddaughter, who shook her head and mouthed back, ‘Tessa.’
‘So are you taking her to hospital?’
‘No, that’s what I’m ringing to tell you. She died during the night. The whole station seems to be in meltdown, I feel like the big bad guy because I brought an eighty-year-old woman in to die, but honestly, Beth, I had no reason at all to suspect she was ill. When we went to pick her up, she wasn’t there. She arrived a couple of minutes after us, and she jogged up that lane like a twenty-year-old.’
Mouse leaned against the wall and slid down. She felt tears prick her eyes, and Doris took the phone from her.
‘Tessa? It’s Doris. Beth’s on the floor. What’s happened?’ She listened while Marsden explained it all again. Doris wanted to join Beth on the floor.
She sighed. ‘If only she had died at home. One day, one goddamn day. And we had no idea she was even ill! What happens now?’
‘There will be a post-mortem because it’s a death in custody, even if it is natural causes, and then her relatives will be able to organise her funeral.’
‘I’m not sure she has any apart from little Henry,’ Doris said. ‘I’ll pass this news on to Kat, and I’m so sorry to hear it. I liked Alice, despite what she’s done. Thank you for letting us know.’
She put down the receiver, and helped Mouse get up from the floor. She looked stunned. ‘How can that have happened,’
she said. ‘When you die from cancer, you’re in a hospice, or at home surrounded by nursing staff and your family, you’re helped at the end. What happened with Alice? She dies in a cell, even though she was still able to continue her running. Something’s wrong, I know it is.’
‘Come on, sweetheart, let’s go to work. I’m sure Tessa will tell us when there’s something we might want to know.’
Kat was devastated. They dropped Martha off with Enid and Victor, then drove into the centre of the village and parked the car. Kat hardly spoke, her mind running riot with what ifs, and she disappeared into her own room. She needed to be on her own.
Slowly she allowed the quietness of her office to heal her, and deep down she recognised that if Alice was that close to dying, the cancer must have been sending radiating waves of pain out constantly.
Finally, Kat stood and went to look out of her window. The view wasn’t spectacular but it was green: bushes, trees, grass. She asked for the peace of the Lord to be with Alice, and stood for a few moments longer.
In reception, Doris and Mouse were speaking in quiet voices. All three came together and hugged each other. It was enough.
Five minutes before the witching hour of one o’clock, Kat left the office for her “meeting” at the church. She walked towards the Village Green café and saw Carl, already there waiting for her.
‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I heard the news about Mrs Small, and wondered if you would still come. Marsden told me she was a friend of yours through church as well as this case. Are you okay?’
‘Half and half,’ Kat said. ‘She had terminal cancer, and half of me says it’s maybe better that she went peacefully even if it was in a prison cell, but the other half of me says I liked her a lot and I’ll miss her. She made a beautiful baby jacket and hat for my little one, and I’ll always treasure it.’
Carl reached out and grasped her hand. ‘Do you want to go inside or stay out here?’
‘Inside, please. My colleagues don’t know I’m seeing you, they think I’m at a church meeting. I’d rather they didn’t see me. I couldn’t stand the jokes, not today.’
He nodded. ‘Good. I’ve asked them to keep the table for two in the far corner. If necessary we can get underneath it and hide.’ His eyes crinkled as he smiled down at her.
She couldn’t remember having such an enjoyable time for many months. Carl was a fascinating, informative man, who made her laugh. She needed to laugh.
He told her about his job, the intricacies of proving fraud, and he spoke of Pam, saying what a lovely lady she was. She was slowly recovering from the overdose situation and Grace Earle had been charged with fraud. That in itself had caused Pam to feel much happier; with Grace locked up until her trial following her refusal to say where she had stashed the money, Pam no longer felt threatened. Charges for attempted murder were bound to follow.
They had a simple quiche and salad for lunch, and afterwards both felt reluctant to say goodbye.
‘Can I see you again, Kat?’
‘I’d like that.’
‘Sunday? Maybe we can go for a drive to Monsaldale or somewhere equally nice, and have some lunch. Does Martha drink pints?’
Kat laughed. ‘Not yet. Give her six months before she moves on to that. You want me to bring Martha?’
‘Kat,’ he said, and took both of her hands in his, ‘we both come with baggage. You’ve not met my mother yet. Of course I want to meet Martha. Do I need to buy a car seat?’
She smiled. ‘No, she comes complete with one. It’s part of the pushchair, so the seat holds her securely in the car, and the wheels go in the boot. Are you sure about this?’
‘Kat Rowe, I’ve never been more sure.’ He reached forward and kissed her cheek. ‘Thank you for today. I can’t tell you how much I’ve looked forward to it.’
‘I kind of got the message,’ she laughed. ‘Three more sleeps, two more sleeps… It told me you’d definitely turn up. And I’d like you to meet Martha, because we’re an item, Martha and I.’
‘You have church Sunday morning?’
‘Always,’ she said. ‘I’m finished by around twelve, so I can meet you by the church gate if you like. Martha goes to church with me, but Mum and Dad have her when I’m taking the service. You’ll have to meet them because they’ll be with me.’
‘Then I’ll have a shower and a shave,’ he said with a laugh. ‘Kat, I won’t let you down. I’m fairly quiet when I’m not giddy with taking a remarkable woman out. I know what you’ve been through for the last eighteen months or so, and I have to admire you, you’re a strong person.’
She smiled, suddenly shy. ‘I have to go now, I’ve an appointment at two thirty, but I’ll see you Sunday.’
He watched her walk away, and she turned and waved from the bottom of the hill before disappearing towards her office. He punched the air. ‘Bloody fantastic,’ he said, ‘bloody fantastic.
She walked into Connection unable to stop the smile that was suddenly a permanent part of her face.
Doris glanced up as the shop bell pinged. ‘Hi, Kat. Good meeting?’ Then she looked again. ‘Why are you smiling?’
‘It was a good meeting.’
‘Usually you stomp around like an angry rhino when you’ve been to a church meeting because there’s always somebody who puts forward some stupid idea. I’m not daft, Katerina Rowe. Did he turn out to be a dishy bishop then?’
Kat could feel laughter bubbling up inside her, and she mentally cursed Carl for making her feel like this. ‘I know several bishops, Nan, and none of them are remotely dishy.’
‘Something’s cheered you up. You went from here really miserable, and now you’ve got rosy cheeks and a smile. I’m going to see Mouse about this. She might know what’s going on.’
Kat shook her head, walked towards her own office and said, ‘Has anybody made the coffee?’
Tessa Marsden arrived just before they were ready to lock up and go home, so Kat rang her mum and said they would be late.
‘Is everything okay?’ Mouse asked.
‘No, far from it,’ Tessa answered. ‘We’ve now cleaned out the cell where Alice spent her last night, and we’ve found things that have led us to believe that it was suicide, and not an escalation of her cancer problems.’
‘What?’
‘She removed her bra. On the inside she’d sewed a little pocket, hardly noticeable really. We also found a small piece of clingfilm that had tablet powder on it. We think this was planned for when we eventually worked out who had killed Judy. We’ve tested the size of the tablets we took to the station to see how many would fit in this little pocket, and we reckon there must have been about ten. She also had the two that our officer took to her before she went to sleep, and we’ve now looked at CCTV of the interview room and it looks as though she didn’t take the tablets in the afternoon, but pocketed them. She knew exactly what she was doing. She must have been in considerable pain by the time she took that lot.’
‘Oh no!’ Kat held her hand to her mouth. Why had Alice’s time on earth descended to the darkest of levels, when she should have been living out her final years in comfort? Kat couldn’t bear it. ‘Are you able to prove it?’
‘As soon as we have toxicology results from the post-mortem. The results from that are showing that she would have had maybe another six weeks before her organs gave up on her, so we’re pretty sure that the toxicology will show she overdosed on her morphine.’
‘Has anyone told Keeley?’
Marsden nodded. ‘She doesn’t know we suspect suicide, but she is aware that Alice is dead. She was very upset, but Emma Jones from number five came and sat with her. She was in good hands. I think her tears were more for Henry because he now has no relatives at all on his father’s side.’
‘I can’t take much more today,’ Mouse said. ‘Can we go and collect Martha and go home, and pretend to be normal, please?’
Marsden gave her a hug. ‘That’s a good idea, Beth. And have an early night. If you’re asleep, you�
��re not thinking.’
Chapter 38
The coldness and the brightness of the morning meant that Alan and Sue Rowe had to dress warmly. Sue helped Alan into the wheelchair, pulled his scarf a little tighter around his neck and covered him with a tartan fleece to keep his legs warm.
They had told no one of their plans for today other than the funeral home who had collected Leon from the airport and Jeff, their vicar, who was taking the somewhat shortened service; the church where Leon was to be laid to rest was only five hundred yards away and they had decided to walk. Or, in Alan’s case, be pushed.
Sue locked the door behind her, and they set off down the bungalow’s ramp. It was on a slight incline, but nothing that Sue couldn’t handle. It was far harder for Alan to handle the fact that he needed to be pushed down it. He waved a hand towards her, telling her he needed her to come close to hear his words. She bent her head.
‘Love you,’ he whispered.
‘Love you too, my darling,’ she said back, and wiped the sudden tear from her eye.
Their neighbour, Colin, came out of his front door as they reached the bottom of the ramp, and called across to see if Sue needed any help getting Alan into the car.
‘I’m fine, thanks,’ she responded. ‘We’re going out for a little walk, it’s such a lovely day.’
A lovely day to be burying your only son.
They turned right at the bottom of the ramp and headed towards the distant church. She walked this route two or three times a week, sometimes with Alan, sometimes on her own; she often felt God was the only person listening to her.
Alan said nothing further for the entire journey. It grieved her deeply that he understood everything still and yet found it so hard to communicate. It was almost a silent life for both of them.