Cry From The Grave A Thrilling Psychological Crime Mystery (Harry Briscombe Book 1)

by Carolyn Mahony

  ‘Stop it, Natasha.’

  ‘I notice you don’t deny it. And how long can you go without sex Adam? Even you must crack at some point.’

  It was so near the truth of where his thought had been only a few minutes ago that he felt the colour rise in his cheeks.

  ‘Oh, just leave me alone,’ Natasha said irritably, turning away from him.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere until we’ve talked.’

  She turned back. ‘What about?’

  ‘How can you even ask that? Your father living in this house for one thing. The skeleton for another. What the hell’s going on? Is it all connected? Is it something to do with your past. Or your family?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, of course it’s not. You’re beginning to sound like the bloody police.’

  ‘Well, maybe I am. But I’m trying to understand why it is that your father lived here before us, and is still alive, and you never happened to mention those facts to me.’

  Her face contorted. ‘I told you why that was. And if all this is anything to do with him and my stepmother then I certainly didn’t know about it, and no doubt the police will uncover that soon enough. What was the point in telling you about him when we knew he was emigrating? He was never a proper father to me and certainly wasn’t a decent partner to my mother. He left us for that tart when I was fifteen and after that it was nothing but arguments. We saw as little of him as we could.’

  ‘But I was your husband. Why wouldn’t you have told me your father was still alive? If you had issues with him I was someone you could have offloaded to. I felt a complete idiot not knowing anything about him.’

  She looked over at him, her eyes mocking. ‘Oh dear, we can’t have that can we? Poor Adam, feeling like an idiot.’

  Suddenly he was angry. ‘Natasha, that’s not what I mean and you know it. Why was it such a big secret?’

  ‘Don’t keep putting pressure on me,’ Natasha shouted, covering her ears with her hands. ‘I can’t take much more. What do you want to hear? That he abused me? That my mother knew about it and still didn’t want to split up with him? Because that’s how it was, Adam. I tried to tell her but she didn’t want to know. What sort of a mother doesn’t listen to her child when she tells her something like that? She screamed at me for telling such dreadful lies. I was twelve years old.’

  Adam stared at her stunned. He took a step forward but the venomous look in her eye stopped him dead.

  ‘Don’t touch me! I’m sick to death of people touching me, prying – thinking they know what’s best for me when they don’t. Only I know what’s gone on in my life and if I choose not to share it then that’s my business. Remember how shocked you were that I never cried when my mother died? Well now you know why. She never stopped loving my father, despite what he’d done to me. She’d have gone back to him at the drop of a hat if he’d asked her. How do you think that made me feel? And how do you think you’d have reacted if I’d told you all that when we were going out? I’ll tell you how; you’d have dumped me at the first opportunity. I wouldn’t have seen you for dust.’

  She laughed hysterically. ‘How silly is that? I’m going to lose you now anyway, aren’t I? I’ve seen it in your eyes. You’re fed up with me – fed up with having a lunatic for a wife.’

  ‘Stop it. Stop talking like that. You’re not a lunatic and you should know me better than to think I’d have dumped you. I’d have supported you, if you’d let me. But you never did. You shut me out. I’ve tried over and over to be there for you, but how can I help you if you won’t let me?’

  ‘Oh – just get out,’ she screamed. ‘I don’t want your pity.’

  ‘Tash ...’

  ‘Get out! Do you hear me? Leave me alone. I don’t need you...’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Harry sat facing Murray across his desk and waited for the explosion. It didn’t come. Instead Murray looked at him with resignation in his eyes.

  ‘What a thing to greet me with first thing on a Monday morning. You’re a fucking idiot – but you don’t need me to tell you that.’

  ‘No, sir. I’ve been thinking the same thing myself the whole weekend.’

  ‘What the hell were you thinking of, man?’

  ‘Not much at the time to tell the truth. You can’t make me feel any worse than I already do.’

  ‘Do you think she’ll report you?’

  ‘I don’t know. I can’t fathom her out at all.’

  ‘I can’t believe you could be so stupid. I should report you myself, or at the very least take you off the case.’ Murray was silent for a moment giving it some thought then he sighed.

  ‘Be grateful we’re so short-staffed Harry, and that it was a kiss and nothing more. I think for the time being, as far as I’m concerned, we haven’t had this conversation. We’ll bide our time and see what happens. But Christ Almighty, you don’t go near Mrs Campbell on your own again. And if you’re lucky enough to get away with it this time, let it be a lesson to you for the future. You might get away with one mistake, but two ...’

  ‘I’ve been an idiot, I know.’

  ‘Well, I won’t argue with that. Let me know as soon as her DNA result comes through. I’m curious to know what Mrs Campbell has to hide from her deep past.’

  Harry let out a breath, even if it was only a temporary reprieve, and passed Murray a wad of papers.

  ‘I’ve got the signed statement from her father here. The Melbourne police said he seems a pretty straightforward sort of guy but quite a cool customer. His wife is Australian, which is apparently why they emigrated. She wanted to go back to where her family were. There’s no telling of course if that was the real reason, but they hereby deny all knowledge of any baby being buried on their land.’

  Murray sighed and took the statement. ‘It may be that someone has to go and interview them out there. But we won’t waste the taxpayers’ money quite yet.’

  Natasha’s mobile rang at mid-day exactly. She looked at the caller ID and rejected it. Zach wouldn’t be happy that she hadn’t turned up with Katie for the DNA test. She hadn’t figured out what to say to him yet. But she couldn’t think about that at the moment. It was the least of her problems. She lit a cigarette with hands that weren’t steady and drew deeply from it.

  ***

  ‘It’s through! Natasha Campbells’ DNA. Wait ‘til you read this.’

  Murray snatched the report from Harry’s hands and read it. ‘Get your coat,’ he said, grabbing his own. ‘I’ll meet you by the car.’

  There was a dark car parked in their drive as Adam pulled in and he frowned, recognising it as DCI Murray’s. The phone call from Natasha had been terse and to the point. The police were there and he needed to come home. He hurried into the house and found her sitting on the sofa in the lounge. She looked haunted and recognising that look, he sat down next to her and took her hand in his.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he asked, pinning his gaze on the two men. ‘And where’s Katie?’

  ‘She’s in the kitchen with one of my officers,’ Murray told him. ‘We were just asking your wife a few questions, Mr Campbell. I’m afraid we’re going to need to take her down to the station to ask her a few more.’

  His tone was serious and Adam felt a knot of apprehension.

  ‘We’ve had the DNA results back now. They show that the remains we found have a genetic link to your wife. In fact, it would appear that the infant was her daughter.’

  Adam’s expression was one of stunned disbelief as he looked at his wife. ‘Tash?’

  Her eyes were deceptively calm. She was trying so hard not to think about that other baby. She’d prepared herself for this moment but she still felt sick with apprehension. Her voice was flat as she spoke.

  ‘It was before you and I met, Adam. I had her when I was fifteen. My mother took me to Ireland when we realised I was pregnant – to my aunt’s house. The plan had been to have her over there and put her up for adoption but when it came to it, I couldn’t do it. I brought her
back here and had terrible rows with my mother over it. She wanted me to go back and finish my education. She’d told my school I had depression those last couple of months when the pregnancy was showing. And then … the day after we got back ... my baby died. I went into her room one morning and she was lying so still and so cold.’

  She broke off with a little shudder; then carried on in the same flat tones.

  ‘We hadn’t seen anyone since we got back. Hadn’t had time to register her even. Mum said that if we involved the emergency services there’d be lots of questions - they’d want to do a post-mortem – cut her up. I couldn’t bear the thought of that. We knew my father was away in France, so that night, we took her around to his house and buried her. A week later my mother sent me back to school and told me I needed to put it all behind me and move on with my life. There was plenty more time for me to have babies.’

  Her voice was completely devoid of emotion and she was holding herself rigidly, in a way Adam recognised only too well. It wouldn’t take much to tip her over the edge.

  ‘Someone must surely have known about your baby, Mrs Campbell?’ Murray questioned carefully.

  Natasha shook her head. ‘Only my mother and my aunt. I didn’t realise myself until I was nearly seven months and my mother took me straight over to my aunt in Ireland as soon as we realised. She didn’t want anyone knowing. As far as she was concerned, I’d let the side down.’

  ‘What about the father? Can you give us his name?’

  If possible, her body went even more rigid. ‘No.’ Her eyes dipped away from that shrewd stare. ‘I was a bit of a rebel in those days. It could have been one of a couple of people. As I hadn’t intended keeping the baby it didn’t seem relevant.’

  There was a desperation about her that had Adam’s eyes narrowing. There was something she wasn’t saying. But he wasn’t about to start questioning her in front of the police. She was walking too tight a line as it was. A horrific thought struck him – almost too awful to contemplate as he remembered their earlier conversation about her father. He couldn’t go there. Not yet.

  He sat reeling from the enormity of it all. How could he have lived with this woman for the last seven years, yet know so little about her?

  Murray was reopening his notebook. ‘Could we have your aunt’s address? We’ll need to check the facts with her.’

  ‘It’s in my address book. Adam, can you ...?’

  Her hands were trembling he noticed and he jumped up swiftly and moved over to the dresser, pulling open the drawer that housed the address book. She took it from him and painstakingly wrote the details onto a piece of paper, handing it over to the Inspector. ‘I’m not in contact with her now, but this is her address.’

  ‘Thank you. I have one more question. Had your baby been dropped or suffered any accident that you were aware of?’

  ‘No. At least … she’d had a bit of a cold but that was all. I shook her when I found her – trying to wake her. But she was already dead. I know she was.’

  She whirled around to face Adam, clutching at his sleeve. Her expression was fierce and she was trembling from head to toe.

  ‘I didn’t kill her, Adam. I swear I didn’t – she was already gone.’

  Her face crumpled and she started to weep, silently at first, and then small heart wrenching sobs that gathered in strength and tore at Adam’s heartstrings. He held onto her tightly.

  ‘It’s okay,’ he said automatically, stroking her hair.

  But it wasn’t okay, he knew that. He looked at the down-bent head leaning heavily against his chest, felt the sobs shaking against him, and wondered how someone so fragile could harbour such awful secrets.

  He looked at the Inspector.

  ‘You said she needs to go down to the police station. Does it have to be tonight? I can bring her down myself tomorrow after we’ve dropped Katie at school. I’ll take responsibility for getting her to you.’

  Murray hesitated, looking at his watch and then at Natasha Campbell. It was five o’clock and she certainly didn’t look good. He doubted it would do any harm to wait.

  ‘Okay, Mr. Campbell. We’ll leave the formal interview until tomorrow. If you could bring your wife down to the station sometime in the afternoon ... say four o’clock? That’ll give us time to check out a few things first. Then I’ll need to take a formal statement from you, Mrs Campbell.’ He hesitated. ‘You have a right to a solicitor if you want to bring one.’

  Natasha looked at him fearfully, clutching at Adam’s wrist. ‘What will happen to me?’

  Murray’s tone was neutral. ‘I can’t say yet. We’ll need to check out the facts of what you’ve told us - have a word with this aunt of yours. But I have to warn you, there’s a possibility that formal charges may be made. One of the baby’s arms was fractured and we need to get to the bottom of that.’

  Natasha’s grip on Adam tightened.

  ‘I didn’t kill her, Adam. They won’t put me in prison, will they?’

  He didn’t know what to say.

  ‘We’ll be there Inspector,’ he said grimly. ‘We’ll just need to drop Katie off at my mother’s first, after school.’

  He got up from the sofa and escorted them to the door. Outside, he was shocked to see that the predicted snow was falling with a vengeance, and already settling in a thick carpet on the ground.

  ‘We’ll see you tomorrow then,’ Murray said, pulling his collar up as they took their leave, ‘assuming we’re not all snowed in by then.’

  ‘You mentioned about the solicitor. Do you think we need one?’

  He felt disloyal to Natasha even asking the question.

  ‘It’s up to you, Mr Campbell. I’d maybe take some advice.’

  Back in the house, Adam looked at Natasha. It was another thing she hadn’t told him. And it was huge. He was beginning to feel he was walking a tightrope himself.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me, Tash?’

  ‘What would you have done about it?’ Her voice was toneless. ‘Dug her up? Look at the mess we’ve got into now that her remains have been found. I knew I could never tell anyone.’

  She was looking drained, her usual air of defiance gone.

  ‘Is there something you’re not telling the police?’

  ‘No. I’ve told them all they need to know. Why should there be anything else? Isn’t that enough for you?’

  He returned her look helplessly. He desperately wanted to believe her - believe in her. But it was getting harder by the minute. What sort of a mother would bury her baby in a back garden for Christ’s sake. Even if she was only fifteen? What else had she done that he knew nothing about? He felt as if his whole world had shifted this last couple of weeks. And though he desperately wanted to, he simply couldn’t ask the really big question about the baby’s father. Not yet.

  ‘Telling them all they need to know isn’t the same as telling them everything, and I think I know you well enough to recognise when you’re being economical with the truth. Can’t you at least tell me the rest of it?’

  ‘I don’t know, Adam. Can I?’ She turned to look at him, her eyes calculating. ‘Tell me, would you support me come what may? Whatever I might be hiding?’

  He didn’t answer straight away and her mouth twisted.

  ‘You see. You’re having to think about it. That’s why I don’t feel I can trust you.’

  ‘For Christ’s sake, Tash. I want to be able to support you, I really do. But you’re not making it easy. I feel I don’t know you anymore. I’m beginning to wonder if I ever did.’

  Natasha reached jerkily for a cigarette just as the phone rang. She picked it up without thinking. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Where the hell were you today? Why didn’t you turn up?’

  Oh God!

  She took a deep breath and turned to Adam, her face set.

  ‘Do you mind? It’s private’

  He held her look for a long moment. Then with an angry shrug, he stalked out.

  Natasha turned back to the phone. ‘
I’m sorry Zach. The police have been here today about the investigation. It’s just impossible for me to get up to London at the moment.’

  ‘Natasha.’ his voice was determined. ‘I’m warning you now. If you don’t meet me at that address tomorrow, I’ll call your husband and tell him everything. It doesn’t need to be like that, it’s up to you.’

  ‘Look – surely there’s some other way of doing this, where I don’t need to actually bring Katie with me?’

  ‘Bringing her with you is the only way I can know for sure that the sample’s hers. Don’t mess with me Natasha. This is important to me.’

  ‘Okay, okay.’ She hesitated. What the hell, what was one more lie? She just needed to get him off her back. ‘We’ll be there,’ she said. ‘Eleven o’clock.’

  Out in the kitchen, Adam pulled out his mobile and in desperation, dialled his mother. The thoughts exploding in his head were threatening to spiral out of control. He needed to talk to someone sane – find out where he was going wrong, so he could start to put things right.

  There was no answer.

  He sat down on a chair and slumped over the table. He felt completely powerless. He was failing his wife, unable to give her the unquestioning support she had a right to expect, yet he didn’t know how to change that. How did he start believing in her again, so that everything was back to the fragile but familiar routine they’d established over the years? He was losing his grip, and he couldn’t afford to.

  He felt a shudder run through him, and he buried his head in his arms on the table.

  It was some minutes later that a gentle hand on his shoulder made him raise it again. It was Natasha.

  ‘It’ll be all right Adam,’ she said stroking his hair. ‘I promise it’ll be all right.’

  Jesus, one of them was going mad, that was for sure. And he was beginning to think it was him.

  ‘But it’s not all right Natasha – can’t you see that? Tomorrow, I’ve got to take you down to the police station for formal questioning. They may even charge you. And something tells me there’s still more to come out.’