by Menon, David
‘Are you Mrs. Branning?’
‘Yes, I’m Lynn Branning. And may I ask who you are?’
‘I’m sorry to call unannounced like this Mrs. Branning but I’m Adrian Bradshaw and I’ve been seeing your daughter Kate’.
‘Ah, that explains it’.
‘Explains what?’
‘Explains why you looked like you’d seen a ghost’ said Lynn. ‘Yes, she’s told us about you. Did she tell you I was dead? Well as you can see I’m alive and kicking. Did she tell you her father was dead too? Well he’s alive and kicking too and at work at the moment. What has she done to upset you? She’s normally done something’.
‘She attacked my daughter’.
‘I see’ said Lynn. ‘You’d better come in’.
Lynn led Adrian inside and put the kettle on. It was beginning to dawn on Adrian that he’d been led a right merry dance by Kate but he was also ashamed of what a stupid fool he’d been. He’d been so intent on getting her into his life that he’d been blind to the woman she really was. It made him think about himself. He was bisexual. He’d always resisted seeing himself as that and had rather dressed it up by seeing himself as a straight man who liked the occasional adventure with another man. But that was all bollocks. He was bisexual and the sooner he came to terms with that the better.
‘You look very smart’ said Lynn. ‘What do you do for a living?’
‘I’m a police officer’.
‘So is this a semi official visit?’
‘Why do you ask that, Lynn?’
‘Well I … let me explain some more before we get to that. I’ve had a few of Kate’s boyfriends come round and do some digging after she’s let them down in some way and they start questioning everything she’s told them’.
Adrian was disturbed about what Lynn had said. It was almost as if she’d been expecting him to visit. She seemed like a really nice woman but it was clear she’d ended up with something of a psycho for a daughter.
‘Is Kate an only child?’
‘No’ said Lynn. ‘That was probably another lie she told you. She has a sister called Liz who is happily married with two boys. Whenever there’s a family get together it always starts off okay but then Kate has a drink or two and she turns. She’ll start shouting and screaming. My grandsons are actually scared of her. Can you imagine that? Two little boys afraid of their Aunt? It really gets to my husband Ted. He doesn’t know what to do anymore. Do you just have the one daughter?’
‘No I have a son and another daughter too’.
‘And their mother? If you don’t mind me asking?’
‘My wife died a couple of years ago’.
‘Oh. I’m sorry to hear that, love’.
Adrian was sorry about it too. He’d give anything to have Penny back right now. ‘Kate was my first serious relationship since I became a widower’.
‘Well I’m sorry but you made a big mistake even though she’s my daughter’.
Lynn made the tea and they sat down with it in the living room.
‘So Kate lives here with you, Mrs. Branning?’
‘Yes but please call me Lynn’.
‘Okay Lynn’.
‘I feel bad talking about my daughter in this way but her father and me have had to rescue so many situations she’s got herself into’ Lynn explained. ‘You see Kate was always a very highly strung girl. Nothing was ever right for her. When the girls were young I used to have to leave for work earlier than my husband Ted and so he got them ready for school. Liz was always very laid back and didn’t bother much about anything but Kate gave her father such a hard time every single morning. He’d warm the girls clothes for them on the radiator in winter but she’d complain that they were too dry. If he put the milk on her cereal too soon she’d complain about the corn flakes being too soggy. You get the picture?’
‘I think I do, yes’.
‘She’d scream and punch and kick and fight’ Lynn recalled. ‘She’s my daughter but she was a horrible child. And it’s this jealousy in her, Adrian. It almost drives her mad. When she was told she couldn’t have children because of an infection in her ovaries that did something to make her infertile it was a hammer blow that she’s used so many times against her sister. But then she became obsessed with wanting to marry a man who already had children so she could just walk into a ready made family and live happily ever after. They diagnosed her as being bipolar a few years back but I know she hasn’t been taking her medication recently. She’s been sharp and almost vicious. We’re used to her moods going way up and then way down again but lately it’s been different’.
‘How so?’
‘Well it’s as if she’s been on a mission. Like I said she did tell us all about you and how excited she was about the potential she saw in you. She told us you were the one’.
‘I suppose I should be flattered’ said Adrian. ‘But, no disrespect, I’m not. She’s caused considerable problems for my daughter Jessica who she always teaches at school’.
‘Well at least you’re not married’ said Lynn. ‘Not like the last one. She said that all she had to do was click her fingers and he’d have left his wife for her. She never explained why she didn’t just click her fingers and get what she wanted but when he dumped her she went absolutely beserk. She slapped her father across the face one night when he was trying to get her to calm down. God there’s been some awful scenes with her in this house’.
‘Why would she tell me that you and her husband were dead?’
‘A grab for sympathy? I don’t know why she’s so needy. We gave her and her sister exactly the same. It wasn’t like she wasn’t treated equally. I’m at a loss, Adrian to be honest. I’m at a real loss and heaven only knows what’s going to happen to her when her father and me are not around to take all the blows. She’s done well to get to be a teacher but she’s even managed to screw that up’.
‘How do you mean?’
‘She can’t hold down a job’ said Lynn. ‘She won’t be at the school where your daughter is for long. She’ll say it was time to move on when really she’ll jump before she’s pushed’.
‘You say she was seeing a married man before me? What happened there?’
‘He was already seeing some other woman apparently and Kate was even less than the bit on the side if you get my meaning. She couldn’t take that. Especially when that other woman had supposedly had a child by him and that drove her insane. She’d given him the very thing Kate couldn’t and she blamed the child for her not being with his father’.
‘His father?’
Lynn looked down. This was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever had to do with regard to Kate.
‘I know why you’re here, Adrian’ she said. ‘I just wanted to at least try and defend my daughter even though I suspect she’s done the indefensible’.
‘Lynn, who was the married man Kate was involved with before me?’
‘It was Gary Mitchell’ said Lynn. ‘The man who thought that poor little lad Bradley was his son? I thought you were here because you’d put the kind of two and two together that only a parent can do’.
Adrian ran out and jumped in his car. He rang the school to explain his fears and then he rang Joe Alexander and asked him to meet him there.
Jess was feeling better today. Everything had come good between her and her father and he’d booked for them all to go on a two week holiday to Turkey. She was so looking forward to it. She’d missed the way they’d all been as a family and although she missed her Mum so much that it hurt at least she was back on great terms with her Dad.
She went into the toilet and when she was done she washed her hands at one of the basins. She splashed some water over her face and when she refocused she saw that Kate Branning was standing behind her.
‘You’re not supposed to come anywhere near me’
‘And you think I take any notice of that?’
Kate grabbed Jess’s head and smacked it against the mirror before placing her hands round her throat.
<
br /> ‘I’ve had enough of people thinking they can get the better of me’ said Kate as she tightened her grip round Jess’s throat and ignored the urgent pleading in Jess’s eyes. ‘You were trying your best to get between your father and me and you won. I’ll give you that. But actions have consequences, dear Jess. And you’ve got to learn that. Just like Gary had to learn. He had to learn that he couldn’t choose that slut Lucy over me. He had to learn that just because Lucy could give him a child it didn’t make her any better than me. And now your father has to learn that choosing you over me was a big mistake. Because you see, I can’t have children. So that makes all of them my enemy because women these days use their womb to get their man. But I can’t do that. That’s why it makes me so angry when children get in the way of me being happy with the man I love’.
Jess was struggling to breathe. She was trying to kick out so that Kate would somehow be thrown off balance but it was no good. Kate was strong and she was determined. And Jess had never been more terrified in her life.
‘Bradley tried to struggle too but it didn’t do him any good’ said Kate. She tightened her grip round Jess’ neck. ‘It was all over in a few minutes for him and it will be for you if you stop struggling you treacherous little bitch’.
Jess could feel herself passing out when a commotion outside and the sound of people running down corridors shouting ‘Jess!’ alerted Kate to the fact that she may not have much more time. So she tightened her grip even more and saw that the colour and the life was beginning to go out of Jess’s face. Then the door burst open.
Joe pulled Kate off Jess and then punched her which knocked her out. She fell to the floor just as Adrian came in.
‘Jess! Oh my God Jess my baby!’ He knelt down and lifted her up in his arms. ‘It’s alright, Jess, it’s alright. Your Dad is here now and nobody is going to hurt you’.
‘She’s alright, mate’ said Joe. ‘She’s still breathing’.
‘Get an ambulance here now!’
Joe called for an ambulance and then he put the cuffs on Kate.
‘Thanks, Joe’ said Adrian.
‘Anytime, mate’.
Chief Superintendent Geraldine Chambers was meeting with Jeff to go over results.
‘So when you got to the house in Blackburn you found Stuart Braithwaite already dead?’
‘Yes, ma’am’ Jeff confirmed. ‘Although it was the local boys who actually found him. He’d been shot through the head. It had all the hallmarks of some form of contract killing’.
‘And Bernie Connelly is on the run somewhere but we have no idea where or why?’
‘I’m afraid that’s about the size of it yes, ma’am’ said Jeff. He hated having to admit that to her. He felt like he’d failed in some way. ‘Stuart Braithwaite hinted that it had to do with very powerful people and Adrian Bradshaw believes that there’s some kind of link with the paedophile ring that reaches into the highest levels of the establishment in this country and that we all know about but can never get to identify’.
‘Adrian must be relieved that he got to his daughter in time?’
‘You could say that, yes’ said Jeff. ‘Of course we’ve now dropped all charges against Gary Mitchell and the murder charge against Debbie Mitchell. A charge of perverting the course of justice against Debbie Mitchell because of what she did with Bradley’s rucksack will remain though of course.
‘I see you’ve booked a couple of weeks leave, Jeff. Going anywhere special?’
‘Actually yes, ma’am’ said Jeff who was rather excited about his upcoming holiday. ‘My in-laws are taking my son Toby off to Hong Kong to meet with his Chinese relatives. They do it every year and this time they asked me if I’d like to go with them and I said yes. They said that I needed a holiday and they’re right so we’re all booked on the new Cathay Pacific Airways direct flight from Manchester’.
‘May I ask though Jeff, won’t it be difficult without your wife being there too?’
‘Oh in some ways, yes, absolutely’ said Jeff. ‘But I’m going for Toby. I can’t hide behind my grief forever’.
Geraldine smiled. ‘I hope you have a lovely time, Jeff. I really mean that’.
‘Thank you, ma’am. I intend to’.
‘As for this investigation you’ve done a great job but every facet of it is closed now’ said Geraldine. ‘Let someone else find Bernie Connelly’.
‘Understood, ma’am’ said Jeff who knew she was really alluding to the paedophile ring. Had she been got at by higher up? He would leave it alone. He had nothing to go on anyway. But if anything did ever emerge that would lead him to expose those bastards he’d use it, with or without her approval. But she probably knows that anyway.
Adrian walked into the gents toilet and Ollie was in there washing his hands.
‘Well this is like déjà vu’ said Ollie. ‘We have to stop meeting like this’.
Adrian smiled. ‘We do’.
‘How are you?’
‘I’m okay’.
‘How’s Jess?’
‘She’s being well looked after in hospital and she’ll be fine, thank God’ said Adrian. He rubbed his eyes. ‘If we hadn’t got there in time … well I don’t want to even think about it’.
Ollie then leaned forward and taking Adrian’s face in his hands he kissed him tenderly on the lips.
‘You looked like you needed that’ said Ollie.
‘I did’ said Adrian who’d thoroughly enjoyed the kiss. ‘Thanks’.
‘Anytime’ said Ollie as he gently squeezed Adrian’s shoulder and walked past him.
Jeff drove home and as he pulled up on his driveway Gary Mitchell was coming out of his house with a couple of large suitcases.
‘Going somewhere?’ Jeff asked.
‘I’m moving out’ said Gary. ‘You can’t say you’re surprised’.
‘No, I’m not’ said Jeff. ‘What continues to surprise me though is how many women go mental over you. I mean, have you got the dick of mankind between your legs or what?’
Gary laughed. ‘I think the ladies like what I do with it’.
‘Oh puh-lease! Spare me’.
‘Just to be serious for a moment though’ said Gary. ‘I never imagined that Kate would murder Bradley, Jeff, I honestly didn’t’.
‘But why did you leave her off the list you gave me of all your other women?’
‘Because I knew she was unstable and difficult’ said Gary. ‘I knew she’d cause trouble if everything was exposed but I never thought she’d do what she did, I really didn’t’.
‘Okay’ said Jeff. ‘What’s happening with Debbie and Fiona?’
‘Fiona has dumped Debbie which hasn’t gone down well as you can imagine’ said Gary. ‘Fiona has gone off to stay with her parents in Southport to try and get over everything that’s happened’.
‘And where are you moving to?’
‘Oh only across the road’.
‘Not?’
‘Yes’ said Gary. ‘I’m moving in with Lucy’.
‘Well believe it or not, Gary, I hope you’ll both be very happy’ said Jeff who thought he should really call Rebecca before he jetted off on holiday but didn’t know what to say. ‘But look mate, don’t mess Lucy about like you’ve messed every other woman about in your life. She needs and she deserves someone who’ll be strong by her side’.
‘I know mate’ said Gary. ‘And I intend to turn over a new leaf believe me’.
‘Good’.
‘Fancy a pint later?’
‘Knock for me about half eight’.
Martha Langton couldn’t believe her eyes. A document had been slipped under the door of her Westminster office and the more she read the more she could feel her heart rate increasing. It really would be something if she could finally expose the paedophile ring inside the British establishment that had long been suspected of including the names of very powerful people. There had been so many paedophile related stories in the press lately that the number of signatures on her e-petition demanding th
at Britain stop vetoing the European anti-paedophile bill had shot up getting the numbers tantalizingly close to when they force the government to hold a debate in the House of Commons. My God, she thought. That would be when the shit really would hit the fan. No wonder they’d been trying to repress her intentions and trying to intimidate her with threats and then poor Ashley getting beaten up. The things she was reading in this document should make her fear for her safety but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring an end to a hideous crime committed against children. Who cares if some posh people at the top of the tree would be spooked about it. They deserved to be for turning a blind eye to all this.
So who had sent this to her?
She picked up her phone and dialed the main number for Greater Manchester police. When her call was answered she said ‘Good morning, could I speak to Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton, please?’
‘Just a moment’ came the reply.
She was on hold for a minute or so before another voice came through ‘DS Wright, can I help you?’
‘Yes I’d like to speak with DSI Barton, please?’
‘I’m afraid DSI Barton is on leave for a couple of weeks and won’t be back in the office until 17th. I’m on his team. Can I help you with anything?’
Martha thought for a moment and then said ‘No, thanks for the offer but it can wait. I’ll call him after 17th’.
THE END
But Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton will return in ‘Straight Back’ in spring 2015.
Not all of the story has been told.