Shadows to Ashes

by Tori de Clare

  She felt sick, suddenly and violently. It took no time at all to work out the reason for that and to fly to the toilet with her stomach retching. Nothing came up. She gulped for air until her breathing slowed and the feeling passed. Then she sipped water from the tap and splashed her face and found Joel standing in the bedroom, rubbing his eyes, trying to pat down his hair. He opened his arms and she stumbled into them.

  ‘OK, babe?’

  ‘Not really. Everything’s a mess.’

  Joel rubbed her back up and down and kissed the top of her head. ‘It’ll work out.’

  ‘I don’t know how.’

  ‘Hmm,’ was Joel’s response. A couple of minutes went by. Rain beat against the window. Annabel had no energy.

  ‘I really should pack.’

  Joel let go of her and held her at arm’s length. ‘Babe, I don’t think it’s a good idea, you moving in with me.’

  Her forehead creased. ‘I thought you’d be happy. What d’you mean, not a good idea?’

  ‘Listen, Annie, I love you, you know that. If I was thinking about me, I’d want you to come home with me right now.’ Joel said, pushing his hair back.

  ‘Why can I feel a but coming?’

  ‘What about Naomi? How do you think she’s going to manage on her own here with Dan being questioned for murder?’

  ‘Murder? How do you know that?’

  Joel let go of her and started to play with his hair. ‘I heard your mum telling Naomi. You were asleep.’

  ‘I don’t understand. Where’s Dan now?’

  ‘Still in the Maldives, apparently. They’re trying to get him home, but he’ll be in police hands. Naomi’s bound to get dragged in. She's going to need you. You've seen the state of her. Probably not the best time to pack up and leave.’

  ‘Murder?’ Annabel said again. ‘I don’t get it. Who’s been murdered?’

  ‘From what I can gather, Nathan. I don’t know any more than that.’

  ‘Nathan?’ The shock made Annabel quiet. ‘That’s insane.’

  ‘Aye, I know.’

  Annabel took a few paces backwards and dropped onto the bed. ‘No, you’re right. I can’t leave Naomi with Mum, especially as things are.’

  Joel nodded and crashed down beside her.

  Annabel said, ‘I bet that psycho, Solomon, has something to do with this. Naomi’s been paranoid that something would happen. I admit I thought she was going over the top. Secret engagements and all that. But now . . .’

  ‘Aye, I know,’ Joel said again.

  ‘Naomi says his eyes are really creepy.’

  ‘Yep,’ Joel said in a low tone.

  Annabel swung round. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I imagine they are.’ Joel stood up. ‘Anyway, shall we get something to eat? I’m starved.’

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ Annabel said, standing up so quickly that she went dizzy.

  ***

  Jet lagged, head fuzzy from lack of sleep, Naomi marched into a police station in Manchester the following day. She wouldn’t wait until the police sniffed her out. She was as keen to question them as they were to interview her. So she’d taken the initiative and they’d kept her waiting for almost two hours. The station was chaotic, but she wasn’t going to leave. Not without answers.

  A guy who introduced himself as DCI Nick Dobson eventually came and led her to an interview room. There was a woman in there, sitting at a table, tapping away at an iPad.

  Naomi sat down, in no mood to be pleasant.

  Nick Dobson sat opposite her, threaded his fingers together and smiled. ‘Tea? Coffee?’ he asked.

  Naomi shook her head.

  She said, ‘So you want to question me. I have nothing to add to the statement I gave after the train accident. I told you everything I know. Now I want to know what’s happening with Dan Stone. I have a right to know what’s going on. Where is he now?’

  ‘Someone has been sent to the Maldives to escort him back to the UK. It took days to arrange that, but police over there have held him in custody at our request. The assault charges have crumbled anyway. His accuser vanished and never pressed charges officially.’

  ‘Because the charges were false.’

  Nick ran a hand through his hair. ‘We wouldn’t know.’

  Naomi leant forward across the table. ‘Dan was treated dreadfully by the police out in the Maldives. Arrested without proper explanation. Just taken away. I wasn’t even allowed to go with him.’

  ‘Look, the police in the Maldives aren’t under our law, Naomi. If you want to issue a complaint about Dan’s handling, you’ll have to take it up with them.’ As if! Naomi rolled her eyes, looked away. ‘Their questioning of Dan was completely unrelated to our enquiries here. Three days ago, we got a call from the scrapyard where Nathan’s car was taken following the accident several months ago. They’d only just got around to disposing of the car and stripping it of parts. Why it’s taken months to reach this stage I do not know. I don’t suppose it’s relevant. What is relevant is what they found.’

  He paused.

  ‘What did they find?’

  ‘What looked like blood on the brake fluid tank.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Well, I’m no mechanic, but brakes need brake fluids in order to function. It works on pressure and compression or something. The reports filed at the time stated that the fluid tank was empty upon inspection. The conclusion was that the impact ruptured the pipes beneath the car and that the fluid leaked out. But we’re now thinking that the fluid had possibly been partially drained before impact, compromising the brakes severely. We’re now thinking that the braking system resulted in the collision rather than it being wholly accidental.’

  ‘Nathan caused the accident because he wouldn’t stop the car, I’ve already told you this.’

  He shook his head. ‘It’s highly probable that he couldn’t stop. I’ve re-studied the reports. Skid marks on the road were almost non-existent before he hit the barrier.’

  ‘Because he was determined to crash through it.’

  ‘Or maybe he just couldn’t stop. Your statement, quoting Nathan’s words to you at the time of impact says, “I can’t stop”, meaning the car. He said it twice. Maybe that was the literal truth, that he couldn’t stop, not that he wouldn’t stop. We’ve brought the car back, had it re-examined, which changes things significantly. Maybe the brakes hadn’t failed completely, but the pedal would have been loose, difficult to use, slow to react. When the barrier came down, it’s very possible that he couldn’t stop in time, like he said. The car crashed through the barrier, spun out of control, ran into the wall. The train came. You know the rest.’

  ‘He could have got out. There was time.’

  ‘You know, Nathan had to be cut out of the car after the train hit? He didn’t look so good as you can imagine. His right leg was broken in three places. Did you know about that?’

  Silence. Naomi scanned her memory. ‘No.’

  ‘It’s on the post-mortem report which was read out at the coroner’s inquest. Dan was present.’

  ‘Dan never mentioned a broken leg.’

  Nick sat back in his chair and touched his chin. ‘Interesting.’

  ‘Dan’s innocent. He didn’t do anything.’

  ‘Look, Nathan wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. That was in your statement. We have no way of knowing if Nathan broke his leg during the initial crash through the barrier and into the wall or during the final collision, but it’s possible that he felt unable to use his leg and get out of the car.’

  ‘He tried to kill me,’ she said, outraged. ‘He punched me, nearly knocked me out.’

  ‘Yes, so your statement said and Kerry found you unconscious seconds before impact. Nothing in your statement is in question here.’

  Naomi calmed her breathing.

  He straightened his tie, added, ‘It’s what isn’t in your statement that we’re interested in now.’

  6

  Nick Dobson re-entered the room wi
th coffee for himself, which he placed on the table between them. ‘Please tell me about your relationship with Dan Stone.’

  Naomi pursed her lips together, twisted her neck until she was looking away from Nick Dobson. ‘It’s personal.’

  Tap, tap, tap.

  When she turned to face him again, he was waiting patiently. ‘Of course it’s personal. But I should remind you that Dan’s in a lot of trouble right now and withholding information isn’t going to help him one little bit.’

  It took her all her time to say, ‘We were seeing each other.’

  ‘At the time of the accident?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Plotting to get married were you?’

  She scowled at him. ‘Plotting?’

  ‘You were still married to Nathan at the time.’

  ‘It wasn’t a marriage. It was a sham. I’d met him at the solicitor’s that day and he’d signed the necessary documents to confirm that we’d never even slept together, which should tell you that he was guilty of attempted murder when he was released the first time.’

  ‘He was cleared of all charges.’

  ‘He was lying.’ She waited for a response that didn’t come. ‘The marriage would have been annulled whether Nathan had died that day or not. So I was free to marry anyone I chose.’

  ‘There’s no record of that annulment.’

  A moment of silence.

  ‘What? We met. He signed, that’s why we were together that day. The solicitor was called Andrew Cavendish. You can ask him –’

  ‘We’ve spoken to the solicitor. He says he personally delivered the papers to the judge’s office that same day, but strangely, there’s no trace of those papers at all.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘We can only deal with the facts. There is no record of Nathan having signed for a marriage annulment.’

  ‘You’re saying it’s vanished?’

  ‘I’m saying there’s no record. It’s in your statement that you met with Nathan at the solicitor’s the day of the accident, but you don’t state the reason for the meeting and it never seemed relevant to Nathan’s death or the subsequent investigation which pointed to dangerous driving leading to the cause of death.’

  ‘That was the cause of death.’

  ‘In light of new information, I interviewed Andrew Cavendish yesterday. He talked about the annulment and how angry Nathan had been at the meeting. How Nathan had yelled about money that day. That’s when I followed up and discovered that the annulment papers no longer existed and that not a single other person knew anything about it.’

  ‘That’s impossible,’ she muttered.

  ‘Could you tell me about the money please?’

  An uncomfortable question. She shifted in her seat. ‘I agreed to give Nathan a settlement – several thousand pounds in cash, which you know because there was money all over the car at the time of the accident. It’s all in my statement. I have nothing to hide or to add to that.’

  He nodded. ‘I reread your statement only this morning. What I’m wondering about is this: if everything was up front and you had nothing to hide, why was your relationship with Dan a secret and why did you run off to the Maldives to get married?’

  ‘We didn’t run off.’

  ‘Well Mrs Stone had no idea that you were with her son when he went away and then I was utterly perplexed to discover that your parents had no idea that you were away with Dan Stone either. So if that wasn’t running away together, how would you describe it? Were you playing out some romantic fantasy or something?’

  ‘That’s ridiculous.’

  He sat, waiting. The question in his eyes was . . . so? . . . Naomi drew a long breath.

  ‘It’s complex.’ She paused to sort her thoughts. ‘Dan and I had good reason to hide our relationship.’

  ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘One name. Vincent Solomon.’ The room held still. Even the incessant tapping ceased. ‘You know who I’m talking about?’

  Nick Dobson sat back, folded his arms. ‘I know who he is. I’ve visited the house. Has he threatened you at all?’

  ‘He’s threatened Dan.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘He offered him money to stay away from me.’

  ‘Did you hear that first hand?’

  ‘Dan told me.’

  Tap, tap, tap.

  ‘Did Mr Solomon threaten violence?’

  ‘No, but –’

  ‘Has he hurt you or Dan?’

  ‘Not yet, but if he found out –’

  ‘Naomi, look, if there’s been no crime committed, we have no pressing reason to question Mr Solomon. If he offered Dan money and Dan refused, then that’s between them. It isn’t for the law to get involved in a petty squabble between two men, one of whom just happens to be wealthy.’

  ‘The offer was two million pounds.’

  He shrugged. ‘Two million. Two pounds. The sum makes no difference. There’s no crime for us to investigate. Look, I know this is frustrating for you. I can see you’re anxious, but we can only act within the boundaries of the law. If no one’s been stalked, assaulted, directly threatened or harassed, it’s impossible for us to do anything.’ He paused and Naomi felt as though she’d been emptied. She found she had nothing to say. She wanted to go home now. She was so tired. ‘If we can just come back to the current issues . . . Tell me, did Dan ever talk about Nathan?’

  ‘Of course he did. The whole business was devastating for Dan.’

  ‘Must have been,’ he said. He threw his weight forward and eyed her carefully across the table. ‘Was there any rivalry between the brothers at all? Did he mention any parental favouritism, anything of that nature?’

  ‘Dan isn’t competitive. Not in that way. No, he never mentioned rivalry or favouritism. He isn’t that small-minded. They lived together for a while. Dan loved his brother until . . .’

  ‘Until?’ he encouraged.

  Naomi felt an unnerving wave of déjà vu. Just like the questioning she’d endured once before. Her heart was thumping in her chest to the point where it was banging inside her ears. ‘Until my marriage to Nathan when Dan discovered that Nathan had plans to harm me and steal my money. I told you all this in my interviews following the wedding. Nathan was not a good, decent person. He was rotten right through.’

  Tap, tap, tap.

  ‘So after the wedding and then the media attention etc, what was Dan’s relationship like with Nathan at that point?’

  ‘Not surprisingly, it broke down. Nathan moved in with his parents and Dan stayed alone in the flat.’

  Dobson nodded. Lowered his voice. ‘Must have been difficult for Dan having to carry the financial burden of the flat alone, knowing that Nathan was back with their parents.’

  ‘It was.’

  ‘So it’s fair to say that there was a rift in the Stone family?’

  ‘I suppose so, yes. Nathan’s fault entirely.’

  Nick Dobson nodded. ‘I can understand why Dan chose not to tell his parents that he’s seeing the very girl who could have landed Nathan in prison. Add to that the fact that he was dismissed from work and it’s all very uphill for Dan, isn’t it?’ Naomi glared at him. Nick Dobson looked her right in the eye and didn’t flinch. ‘Tell me, Naomi, did Dan ever talk about hurting Nathan?’

  Naomi resisted the compulsion to fidget in her seat. For the first time, she felt stumped and found herself selecting words very carefully. ‘Dan’s gentle. He’s training to be a doctor. He’s in the business of helping and healing people, not the opposite.’

  ‘Could you answer the question please?’

  ‘I just did.’

  ‘No.’ Nick offered a snatched half smile. The patronising git! ‘The question was, did Dan –’

  ‘I heard your question.’ Silence. Her palms were clammy. ‘No. The answer’s no.’

  He reached forward now, opened a file, leafed through some papers, withdrew one sheet of A4. ‘I have a statement here taken yesterday morning. N
eighbours of Dan’s at the flat in Salford Quays. A couple named Sam and Jenny Lynch. Jenny Lynch was going to bed Christmas Eve of last year. Easy for her to remember given the time of year. She reckons it was gone midnight that night when she and her husband went to bed. Their bedroom is next to the lounge in Dan’s flat. It was late. Quiet. She remembers hearing a raised voice saying, and I quote, “What did he do to you?” and, “I’ll kill him”.’

  Naomi sat rigid in her seat. ‘He didn’t mean it like that.’

  ‘So he was talking to you at the time?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘About Nathan?’

  Naomi didn’t answer, but she glared.

  ‘Yet a moment ago, you said that Dan had never talked about hurting Nathan.’

  ‘Not seriously.’

  ‘Mrs Lynch reported that Dan’s tone of voice sounded very serious indeed.’

  ‘Come on! It’s a figure of speech. Everyone knows that.’

  Tap, tap, tap.

  ‘These throwaway comments become crucially important in the case of a murder enquiry, Naomi. All we’re doing is trying to build a picture of what preceded the kind of incident where a car ends up in a scrap yard and a body ends up in the mortuary.’

  ‘I’ve told you, Nathan had a death wish.’

  ‘Or a broken leg due to brake failure and the subsequent collision of his car.’ He paused, drew a noisy breath. ‘If Nathan wanted, demanded and extracted money from you that day, it doesn’t point to a person who was planning to die, does it? The facts speak for themselves. We have blood on the cap of Nathan’s fluid tank. Dan knew where Nathan lived and knew his car. He knew that Nathan would be at the solicitor’s that day and he was anxious about you. Is that correct?’

  She closed her eyes to shut him out. This was all going horribly wrong. ‘Yes, he knew.’

  ‘The blood on the cap has been identified as Dan Stone’s. A whole team of police officers happened to be at Salford Quays the day of the incident because the canal was being searched. Des Watt remembers seeing Dan leaving in his car. His body language communicated a lot of agitation and Des made a note of it. CCTV cameras picked up Dan’s car circling the car park where Nathan snatched you and dragged you to his car. Dan was coming looking for you was he?’