by Issy Brooke
“What went wrong?” Penny asked.
“Look. Lee, Natasha … er, you, too, whoever you are. Come inside.” Natasha’s mother nodded at Penny. “Lee, you’ve got some explaining to do, but the street is not the place. Come on. Follow me.”
Reluctantly, they all obeyed. Penny felt as if events were out of her control, and she meekly followed the others into a warm, well-stocked kitchen at the back of the red brick house. The mother stuck out her hand. “Hi. I’m Emma.”
“Hi. Er, I’m Penny. This is awkward.”
“It is.” She turned her gaze to Lee. “So, do you care to explain what on earth is going on, Lee?”
“She’s my daughter,” he said. He refused to sit down. Instead, he stood with his arms folded, a grim expression on his face.
“Of course she is. And have I ever denied access?” Emma said.
Penny looked at Natasha. In the yellow lights of the kitchen, she looked younger. Penny guessed her to be about twelve or thirteen. She rolled her eyes as the adults talked about her, over her head.
“No, you haven’t,” Lee said. “But lately she hasn’t been coming to stay at mine as much.”
“That’s not down to me any longer,” Emma said. “Natasha?”
Natasha looked at the floor then, her long hair making a curtain over her face. “It’s boring down there, dad. All my mates are up here. Last weekend, Maryam had a party and I didn’t want to miss out. It’s not personal or anything.”
“But I’m your dad,” he protested.
“Yeah, but.”
“But what?”
Natasha shrugged, her powers of persuasion exhausted.
“Tell me the truth, Lee,” Emma pressed. “Have you been watching the house before tonight?”
Now it was Lee’s turn to be sulky. “Yeah. Sometimes.”
Natasha let slip a curse, and both parents shot her furious looks. She reddened and muttered a general apology, adding, “But come on. Dad! Seriously? You’ve been the guy I’ve seen hiding in the bushes? The police were like, they didn’t even believe me, or something. They said it was my imagination because I was just a kid. They made me feel stupid. I mean. Ugh. Come on.”
“I had to,” Lee said. “I had to come here.”
“Really? Whatever.”
“I had to, because of what happened before. With Kelly. And I didn’t want you going the same way. And when you stopped coming to see me as much, I got worried, and I thought, I’m no kind of dad if I can’t keep an eye on you and check you are okay. So…”
“Don’t you trust me to keep her on the straight and narrow?” Emma said. She paced around the kitchen. “I don’t believe this. I know Kelly went through her tough times, but she’s doing okay now, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, she is. But when she got to Natasha’s age, she started getting into all sorts of trouble, and I wasn’t there for her. Or, I was, but it was too late. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
“Oh dad, she just did a bit of drinking, that was all. Wasn’t it?”
Lee shook his head. “I wish that was all.”
“Really?” With the curiosity of youth, suddenly Natasha was back in the conversation. “What else? Drugs? Sleeping around? Oh my–”
“All of that and more.”
“Wow!” Natasha’s eyes were wide. “Like what?”
Emma snapped her fingers. “Stop looking so impressed, Natasha. It was a tough time for her and for your dad, and for her mum. And for your information, Lee, Natasha is a different type of girl. There is no way I’d let her get away with any of that. And it’s not in her nature and you obviously don’t know her well enough if you think otherwise.”
Natasha was nodding furiously. “Eww, dad, come on. I want to be a doctor. I’m not going to ruin everything doing that sort of thing. There was this girl in the year above me at school, right, and she–”
“Not now, Natasha,” Emma said. “Right. So this is sorted. Mostly.” She turned her gaze to Penny at last. “Where do you fit in?” She glanced at Lee. “Oh, hang on … are you two…?”
“No!” Lee and Penny both blurted out in panic. “No.”
“Whoa, sorry,” Emma said, smiling as if she didn’t believe them.
“No, really,” Lee said with venom. He unfolded his arms and straightened up. “This woman is a pest and a nuisance. Were you ever really interested in urbexing, Penny? Or were you just playing at being an investigator?”
“I am interested,” she protested. “I took photos, didn’t I?”
“I don’t believe a word you say. Good luck with it all. You’ll get nothing from me. And if you come near me again, or breathe anything to the police, I will come after you. Do you understand?”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Yes, I am. I will allow nothing to come between me and family. Nothing.” He stamped out of the kitchen into the garden and slammed the door behind him.
There was a shocked silence. Penny felt even more awkward now she was left alone with Natasha and Emma. She didn’t know where to look.
“So, er, yeah, I had better be going. I am so sorry about all of this,” she said, with a forced laugh. “I guess it gives the neighbours something to talk about, hey?”
“What investigation?” Emma said. Penny realised she wasn’t getting out that easily.
“Um. Did you see in the news about that man being killed in Upper Glenfield?”
“Yeah. Warren Martin. It’s the only thing that has been on the news. Nothing happens in Lincolnshire so it’s the hot topic. That, and potato prices. And aeroplanes.”
“Right. I’m taking an interest in the case,” she said. “Like everyone else, I suppose. And I happened to meet Lee in his photography group that Warren was also in…”
“Is my dad a murder suspect?” Natasha butted in. “Cool.”
“It is not cool!” her mother snapped. “Listen to yourself.”
“Sorry. But anyway, it’s a ridiculous idea. Dad can’t pull up a carrot without crying.”
“I agree,” Emma said. “Don’t be fooled. He’s a massive softie. Lee can’t possibly be a suspect. Is he?” She fixed Penny with the sort of stare she probably used on her daughter. It was effective.
“He is,” Penny said, unable to hold out against the motherly glare. “He and Warren did not get on.”
“I’m not surprised about that,” Emma said. “It’s because of the Kelly incident.”
Penny’s confusion returned. “Kelly, his other daughter? What happened? Oh no. Did Warren…”
“Sit down. Let me make us all a cup of tea. I’ll tell you everything.”
* * * *
An hour later, Penny drove slowly back to her cottage, her mind in a whirl. The evening she had spent with Emma and Natasha had been both excruciating and enlightening.
Penny had learned that when Kelly had started to go off the rails, she’d gone to live with Lee in Upper Glenfield. She’d been sixteen, not fifteen as Drew had thought. It was felt that she would be better to be away from the bad influences in Lincoln. And at first, it had seemed to work.
And then it had all gone wrong, Emma had explained. She wasn’t close to Kelly’s mum – after all, they were rivals, in a way – but she knew her and they stayed in contact for the sake of the two daughters, half-sisters as they were. Something had happened in Upper Glenfield.
“She was caught shoplifting,” Emma had said.
“Where?”
“In the mini-market.”
Penny drove almost in a daze. Kelly had been shoplifting in Warren’s shop, and she had ended up in custody. Nothing had come of it, Emma said.
Nothing – except that Kelly returned to her mum in Lincoln, Lee was deemed unfit to have care of her, and he didn’t see her again for two years until she was eighteen – and she promptly left for university in London, having managed to turn her life around before it went too wrong.
Penny was still lost in thought as she pulled up outside her cottage and blundered her way i
n, fending off Kali’s excited greeting.
There, then, was the link she was looking for between Lee and Warren. Warren must have caught his daughter, and so Lee must blame him.
There was more to it, she was sure of it. Something else nagged at her. What had she missed?
Both mother and daughter didn’t think he was a killer. Neither seemed bothered, in the end, that he was the so-called stalker. Natasha had said it was “sad” and Emma confessed it was “a bit sweet, but mostly silly.”
She fought the urge to go back out and try to find out more about Lee. The pubs were closing up now, and she felt she ought to let the dust settle.
At least for a day or two.
Chapter Seventeen
Penny actually had a good night’s sleep on Wednesday night. By the time she got to bed, it was gone midnight, and she simply passed out. She was feeling surprisingly refreshed on Thursday morning, and had been seized by an unexpected urge to vacuum around the cottage when there was a knocking at her door.
“Now then!” said Cath, grinning as Penny let her in. “I’ve got biscuits.”
“Brilliant, you can come in, then. How are things?” Penny kicked the vacuum cleaner to one side. It could wait. In fact, housework could always wait.
“Not so bad.” They wandered into the kitchen and Cath made a big fuss of Kali, who lapped up the attention like the big daft dog that she was. “How is the dogs’ home calendar coming along?”
“Oh my goodness. That is the least of my worries right now,” Penny said ruefully. She grabbed for the biscuits. “I’ve got the layout to do and it shouldn’t take me long but there aren’t enough decent photos up on the shared album yet. And I already know there are going to be so many arguments about which shots get chosen. I know some of the camera club guys will want their fancy, arty shots to go in, but we’ve got to think of saleability. The general public wants to buy cute pictures, not sophisticated.”
“What,” Cath said, “I can’t be both sophisticated and cute?”
“Nope. Sorry. Mm, would you like one of your own biscuits?”
“So kind. Anyway. I didn’t just come here to ruin your diet.”
“I’m not on a diet,” Penny said. “Why? Do you think I should be? I don’t believe in them. Eat less and move more, that’s it. Everything else is a marketing scam.”
Cath laughed and patted her belly. She was short, which accented her roundness, but she was fit and strong with it, and didn’t care. “Oh, shut up. No, have another biscuit. I’ve got news about Warren.”
“Tell me!” Penny urged.
They took seats at the table, and Cath launched into her explanation. “Right. So we’ve been through all of Warren’s stuff now, at his home and on his computer. It takes ages because it’s all got to be carefully logged and catalogued. We thought he only had two phones – a works one, from the head office of the company that owns the mini-market, and a personal one. But then we found another.”
“Oh my gosh.”
“Exactly. It was just a cheap, throwaway, pay-as-you-go type with a SIM he’d bought from any old shop, unregistered, and unlocked.”
“What did he use that phone for?” Penny asked.
“We’re not sure. There is very little data on it. There are no stored numbers or names, and it’s not been used very much at all. As far as we can tell, it’s never even made or received a call.”
“How long had he had it?”
“A while. But he has sent text messages from it,” Cath said. “And they sound awfully like threats.”
“Warren? Threats? Were they to a woman? To Clarissa, maybe? Did Taz tell you what she found out about her?”
“Yes, and it was fascinating. It certainly puts Clarissa in the picture a bit more. All we’ve got, though, are the text messages, which say things like ‘I know what you are doing’. But we don’t know who they are to.”
“Can’t you trace it?”
“Yes, but they are to another unregistered, unknown, unlocked pay-as-you-go phone.” Cath tapped her nails on the table in frustration.
“Can you be totally sure that the phone was Warren’s?” Penny asked.
“As sure as we can be. So, no, there is still some doubt. It’s being fingerprinted right now. And it was hidden in his bedside cabinet. If it isn’t his, that then raises the question of who it actually belongs to, and why it’s there.”
Penny said, “It could be the murderer’s.”
“Yes, but they would have had to have planted it there, before or after the killing. Doing it afterwards is unlikely. And why do it before? It doesn’t make sense. We’re trying to trace the purchase of the phone and whose account was used to do the top-up of credit. That should remove a lot of the doubt.”
Penny rubbed her eyes. “Well, I’ve got some stuff to share with you, too.”
“About Clarissa?”
“Nope. Actually it’s about Lee, and one of your other investigations …”
As they finished the packet of biscuits, much to the disgust of Kali who received nothing but stray crumbs, Penny told Cath all about her night time escapades in Lincoln. Cath made some notes on her notepad.
“He’s an idiot,” she said. “He means well, but what a doofus. I’ll check out the details about Kelly’s arrest. I don’t recall anything about it, but it must have been four or five years ago.”
“It’s worth pursuing, isn’t it?”
“Oh, definitely.”
That made Penny feel better about her jaunt. If it had revealed some information then it had been justified. “So,” she said. “Let’s look at our list of suspects.” She pulled out a blank sheet of paper from a drawing pad. “I still think Eric is on there,” she said, writing his name at the top.
“Why? He’s a funny old stick but it looks like it was family pressure that was making him act so irrationally.”
“Did you talk to his wife?”
“Ah yes.” Cath looked pensive. “She confessed that she was having an affair, and that Eric’s controlling nature was driving her away. And she was fully aware that their daughter was being used as a tool to try and keep the wife at home.”
Penny doodled some circles. “Horrible, manipulative man. I still don’t like him.”
“We can’t lock up everyone we don’t like.”
“Drew said much the same. What a shame.” Penny drew a faint line through Eric’s name. “Okay. He’s on the edge, now, then. Clarissa? She’s a definite.”
“Absolutely,” Cath said. “She was making those awful videos and posting them up. If he found out, he could have threatened to expose her.”
“By using that phone,” Penny said thoughtfully. She wrote Clarissa’s name in block capital letters.
“Who else? Lee, do you think?” Cath said.
“Given the history between them, yes. If you can find out more about the incident with his daughter, that will help. Also, Blue,” Penny added.
“What’s his motive?”
“I don’t know. But he disliked Warren even more than Lee did, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. I don’t like Blue, either.”
“Is this just a list of people you don’t like?”
“No,” Penny protested. “In spite of it all, I don’t mind Lee really. But yeah, the rest of them, I can’t stand any of them.”
Cath sat back and folded her arms as she looked at the list. “You’ll have to take Blue off the list.”
“No. There’s something there that’s bugging me. Intuition, or whatever. Maybe it’s Lee and Blue in it together. Remember that Warren was found in a remote place, and strangled with something like a camera strap. That points to Lee, Blue or Eric more than Clarissa, doesn’t it?”
Cath sucked her teeth. “It does. We’ll check out his photos and his background a bit, then.”
“Good. Great! I’m sure he’s hiding something,” Penny said. “Everyone else has had a reason to hate or dislike Warren and they’ve all admitted it, in the end. But not Blue… so what is his history
with Warren?”
Chapter Eighteen
“Come up to the police station,” said Cath on the phone, the following day. “We need your eyes on some photos.”
When Penny arrived at the public entrance, the usual desk sergeant was shaking his head already, as he talked with Cath who was waiting for her in the lobby.
“I surely qualify for my own pass card now,” Penny joked as Cath swiped her card through the reader and punched in a code. The desk sergeant shouted, “No!” through the clear plastic security screen as Cath led her down the shabby corridor.
“Ignore him,” Cath said. “But, he’s right. No. You can’t have your own pass.”
“I’m just asking.”
Cath laughed and led her into a dingy interview room, similar to the one she’d met the Inspector in. There was a small table in the middle, a few plastic chairs around the table, and some multi-lingual posters on the walls advising people they could grass up their mates anonymously for a cash reward. Taz was sitting primly on one of the chairs, and she had spread out some photos on the table. She grinned widely when she saw Penny.
“How’s it going? Online, I mean. Not, you know, real life stuff.”
“Fine, and thank you again for all that advice,” Penny said. “I might even make a video blog … uh, vlog? … myself and monetise it.”
“That’s exciting! How?”
“I’m firmly in the planning stage,” she said airily. She had no idea. “Oh – I know that house.” She peered over the photographs. They were badly printed on cheap office paper, and somewhat smeary. “It’s an old one, though, because Drew hasn’t put the pole up.”
“What?” Taz said. “Who, where?”
Cath laughed and tapped the photo that Penny was referring to. “I recognised it too. It’s Reg Bailey’s house.”
“Who is Reg Bailey?” Taz asked.
“Blue Bailey’s dad.”
“Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it?” Taz said. “It’s reasonable that the son would have photos of his dad’s house stored in his files. I’ve got random photos of things more tenuously connected than that. Like, my lunch. In fact I’ve got lots of photos of my lunch.”