Beautiful Child

by Menon, David

  ‘Yes, they’re coming here this morning,’ added Brendan.

  ‘Oh that’s right,’ Phillip remembered, ‘you told me. About eleven you said? I’ll be here.’

  ‘Good’ said Brendan. ‘Thank you, Phillip.

  ‘But if they were targeted then do they think that others are at risk?’ Phillip wondered.

  ‘It could be,’ Ann was just as confused as the priests, ‘but why would anybody target them? Rita would never hurt anybody and neither would Angus. He’d have made such a good husband for our Susie. I don’t think she’ll ever get over it, Father Phillip.’

  At that moment Brendan felt a chill go through his soul.

  *

  ‘Are you religious, Joe?’ Sara Hoyland asked as they pulled up several metres from the church where Rita Makin’s funeral was about to take place.

  ‘No, Sara, not particularly. I’m the usual weddings, funerals, christenings type of bloke. And you?’

  ‘No, the same as you really. I don’t need the church to give me a moral code. I’ve got my own conscience to tell me the difference between right and wrong.’

  ‘You won’t be kneeling and making the sign of the cross before taking your seat inside then?’

  ‘I don’t think so, no Joe. Will you be?’

  ‘It wouldn’t be the getting down on my knees that would be the problem, Sara,’ Joe laughed, ‘it would be the getting back up again.’

  ‘You’re not that overweight,’ Sara laughed, ‘there are many down at the station who are much heavier than you.’

  ‘I know. I want to lose weight though.’

  ‘So why don’t you?’

  ‘Now’s not the time, Sara, I’m under enough pressure as it is.’

  ‘Joe, I’d noticed you’d been a bit preoccupied lately, you know you can always talk to me as a friend?’

  ‘I do and I appreciate that, but not today. At least not until we’re in the pub.’

  ‘We’ll be lucky to get there before it’s pretty late tonight,’ said Sara. ‘Not now we’ve got the Angus Carleton case as well as this one. Perhaps it’s a good thing that neither of us have got anybody to go home too.’

  ‘I thought you were seeing Kieran Quinn?’

  ‘I’m seeing him, yes’ said Sara, ‘but we’re not living together. What about you and whoever is giving you the long face?’

  ‘She lives with somebody else.’

  ‘Ah, the love triangle.’

  ‘Yeah, something like that.’

  ‘Don’t let yourself get hurt, Joe, you’re a good man and I wouldn’t like to see that.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Joe smiled, ‘but I think it’s too late for that, Sara. Can I ask you something?’

  ‘Sure, go ahead.’

  ‘Would you stay with a man who hit you?’

  ‘The short answer to that is no but I’ve met enough victims of domestic violence to know it’s not always as simple as that, Joe. Is that what the problem is? Your lover is being physically abused by her husband?’

  ‘Yes’

  ‘And you can’t understand why she won’t give up all that to come and live with you?’

  ‘That’s about the size of it, yeah.’

  ‘Well then you’ve maybe just got to give her time, how long has she been married to this guy?’

  ‘Fifteen years,’ Joe answered, ‘they’ve got two kids.’

  ‘Does she have a job?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well there you go, it’s the security, Joe. She needs to feel as financially secure for her and the kids with you as she does with him.’

  Joe shook his head. ‘ So is that what it comes down to? She knows I’m okay financially and that I’m not likely to take to gambling in Las Vegas or something.’

  ‘Yes but she needs to be sure and when she is that’s when she’ll fall irretrievably for your ample charms, Joe.’

  Joe turned over what Sara had said as they fell into step with the rest of the mourners on their way into church. He’d never understand women. If all Carol was waiting for was to feel that he could provide for her and the children then she should know that she’s got nothing to worry about on that score. He didn’t know what else he could do.

  ‘I wonder if the murderer is here,’ Joe whispered.

  ‘I think he probably is, he’s somewhere around,’ Sara answered under her breath.

  ‘Remind me who the prisoner is, Sara?’ said Joe looking up ahead at a man handcuffed to a prison officer on one side and with a woman in her mid-thirties on the other.

  ‘Sean Patrick O’Brien,’ said Sara, ‘been in Strangeways over twenty years but he’s up for parole shortly and it’s felt that he’ll get it.’

  ‘Why is he here?’

  ‘He was in a children’s home when he was a child and Rita Makin was his carer. She took over the motherly role just after his own mother had dumped him there.’

  ‘It was very generous of the family to let him be here’ said Joe, ‘everybody is looking twice at him especially when they see how close his arm is to that thinly disguised prison officer.’

  Sara smiled. ‘I know. Pretty obvious, isn’t it. As for the family, I think they must’ve thought that they didn’t have much of a moral leg to stand on after what they’ve been up to with and against each other.’

  ‘Well Rita Makin must’ve made quite an impression on the young Sean Patrick for him to remember her all these years on.’

  ‘Yes but then they were parted when he was forcibly migrated to Australia.’

  ‘Oh yeah I saw a documentary on the television about that once. Didn’t make me feel very proud to be British, I must say.’

  ‘No, I know what you mean. He was horribly abused down there by almost every adult male he came into contact with. Then he escaped one day but that didn’t end his misery. He had the bad luck to be taken in by one of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles.’

  ‘And it all started with his mother abandoning him.’

  ‘Yes but we don’t know the circumstances she was in and the Catholic church have got a lot to answer for too. They worked in collusion with the government of the day and they both made money out of these unfortunate kids.’

  ‘But he must’ve come back from Australia?’

  ‘Oh he did’ said Sara. ‘When he was an adult but he didn’t stay out of trouble for long.’

  ‘What was he sent down for?’

  ‘He murdered his girlfriend’ said Sara, ‘in front of her toddler son.’

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Sara and Joe introduced themselves to the prison officer who was accompanying Paddy O’Brien. Then Angela held out her hand to them.

  ‘I’m Angela Barker,’ said Angela, ‘I’ve been working with Paddy.’

  ‘She’s been sorting my head out and she’s worked bloody miracles,’ said Paddy, looking at Angela. ‘So much about my stupid life has come into perspective since I started talking with her.’

  Sara could’ve sworn she saw Angela blush. Maybe she had a little crush on her patient? They seemed close but then counsellor and patient often become so if they strike up the right connection, which these two obviously had and that made Sara make a mental note to go and see Angela. She wanted to find out what Sean Patrick O’Brien had been telling her. If he’d said a lot about Rita Makin, enough for the prison governor to let him out for her funeral, then he may have something to say that would help the case. It was a long shot considering he’d known her so long ago but it may be worth a try.

  ‘Keep communication to a minimum, O’Brien,’ warned the prison officer, ‘it won’t do you any good if you disobey so soon before the parole hearing.’

  ‘Yes, I hear you, sir.’ said Paddy, ‘Now I’m here to mourn if you don’t mind.’

  Sara wondered if the prison officers’ intervention had been completely necessary but she said nothing. There is a code amongst people in their respective positions that no criticism is made in front of prisoners. It would be very easy for some corrupt officer to use that kin
d of behaviour to undermine a colleague. Sara was sure that some of them do but she wasn’t going to add herself to that particular list.

  Once the funeral Mass was finished inside, the congregation followed the coffin out into the church yard. Sara noted that Nick Jackson, Michelle Clarke’s lover, wasn’t there and she thought he’d done the right thing. His presence wouldn’t have been appropriate. But Michelle wasn’t crying. Oh she looked bewildered and there were even traces of grief in her eyes but she spent her time holding the hand of her eldest son who looked about fifteen. In fact, Sara thought that Michelle’s three boys looked more upset about their Grandmother’s demise than Michelle did. Warren Clarke naturally, under the circumstances, was trying to remain stoic but Sara could tell the pain he was going through. So he’d fallen in love with his mother-in-law? It didn’t make him villain of the year.

  O’Brien had been told that he could stand by the graveside once everyone else had dispersed, so as to spare the feelings of his fellow mourners. Angela, and of course, his prison guard, stood there with him as he looked down into the grave. Sara and Joe mingled with people as they walked to their cars. Sara wasn’t convinced that they would get anything out of it. The killer of Rita Makin wasn’t going to be amongst this crowd of lower middle-class South Manchester folk who’d just finished building their extensions and were now voting Conservative. But this was what you had to do in a murder enquiry. Waste your time by doing things that were against your instincts but which tick all the right investigation theory boxes.

  Once the last of the mourners had gone, Joe told Sara that he’d gained absolutely nothing in the way of potentially useful knowledge about the identity of Rita Makin’s killer.

  ‘Me neither, Joe’ replied Sara who turned and looked towards where O’Brien was standing with his entourage by the graveside.

  ‘At least we know it wasn’t him,’ said Joe.

  ‘No’ said Sara as they started to walk towards them, ‘but you never know where he might fit into it all.’

  ‘You like to go really out there with your theories, Sara, don’t you.’

  ‘It’s what’s underneath the obvious that ends up solving the case in my experience, Joe. Look how intricate the Lady Eleanor Harding case was last year? We had to dig pretty deep on that one and I think this is the same.’

  ‘You could be right’ Joe admitted.

  ‘Well look, don’t you think it’s strange that a man who hasn’t seen Rita Makin since he was five years old wants to be at her funeral? Okay, I can accept that she must’ve made a pretty big impression on him at a time when he needed it but even so. Stick with me, Joe. We’ll get there.’

  ‘Yeah, but look at this guy, Sara. Two people have been murdered whilst he’s been in gaol. So are you thinking he’s working with someone on the outside?’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Sara, ‘or maybe not.’

  When they got close up to O’Brien, Sara noticed something that made her stop and touch Joe’s arm.

  ‘Joe’ she whispered, gesturing in the direction she wanted his eyes to follow. She took her mobile out of her pocket. ‘I’ll call for back up.’

  ‘I wouldn’t do that if I was you, copper’ said Paddy as Sara started to turn her back to the others to make the call. ‘ Unless you want to witness an execution. Now hand over your mobile phones. Both of you.’

  Sara and Joe had no choice but to comply with Paddy’s request. They had to watch whilst he threw their mobiles to the ground and crushed them both to pieces under his foot. The graveyard was massive, stretching half a mile across a hill with trees at the top and they were in the middle of it close to the church. This was lucky, thought Paddy. He didn’t have far to go to get away.

  ‘O’Brien,’ Joe began ‘you know this is crazy.’

  ‘What I know, copper, is that you have to shut up and I’ll deal with you both later.’

  *

  Penny got round to the station where her husband Adrian was based and asked the sergeant on reception if he was in. Five minutes later they were sitting in Adrian’s car in the space he’d driven into that morning.

  ‘I just want to know if it’s true’ said Penny. Her elbow was resting on the window frame and her thumb nail was scratching her chin.

  Adrian sat back and rested his head against the back of his seat. He sighed heavily. ‘ What is it you want me to tell you, Penny?’

  ‘The truth, Adrian!’

  ‘Like you told me the truth about being pregnant?’

  ‘That is not the same thing, Adrian, and you know it,’ Penny shouted, her voice heavy with emotion. ‘Do you know what it felt like, Adrian? Do you know what it felt like for my own sister to tell me that my husband has been sleeping with another man?’

  ‘Don’t make it sound so…’

  ‘… what, dirty? Oh sorry, did I devalue your little love nest?’

  ‘Penny, please don’t do this.’

  ‘Do what?’

  ‘What happened with Matt is nothing to do with what I have with you.’ He placed his hand on his wife’s shoulder but she brushed it off. ‘If you don’t believe anything else then please believe that. I know you’re angry, Penny, and I understand that.’

  ‘That’s big of you.’

  ‘But I have told you the truth, Penny’ said Adrian. ‘I’ve never lied to you.’

  ‘How do you make that out?’

  ‘I’ve never been unfaithful to you, Penny.’

  ‘Well you’ll forgive me for not being able to accept that’ said Penny, astonished at her husband’s attempted duplicity. ‘So what did you think you were doing?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Not good enough, Adrian.’

  ‘Well I don’t know, Penny! I’d never had feelings for a man before and I’ve never had them since.’

  ‘So it was about feelings then?’ said Penny. ‘It wasn’t just about sex?’

  ‘No, it wasn’t just about sex but I’ve had a hard time admitting that.’

  ‘And how did it start?’

  ‘It was just one night when it just felt like the right thing to do.’

  ‘The right thing to do? For God’s sake, Adrian, you’re talking about a homosexual affair! ‘

  ‘No, he’s a mate who I have sex with, Penny’

  ‘Oh listen to yourself. Adrian. Do you have sex with all your mates?’

  ‘I’ve told you, Penny, no! I don’t know why I wanted it to happen with Matt. I just don’t know.’

  ‘Have you been careful?’

  ‘I’ve never used more condoms in my entire life.’

  ‘Oh spare me all the gory details!’ Penny cried, ‘You’ve always needed a lot of sex and I’ve always been happy to give it to you. You can’t say we haven’t had a healthy sex life.’

  ‘No, I can’t say that and I wouldn’t say that, Penny’ Adrian admitted, ‘I told you it’s nothing to do with our relationship. It’s to do with another side of me that I didn’t know existed. Matt brought it out.’

  ‘Do you want to leave me?’

  ‘No, Penny …. ‘

  ‘…at least just for a while to see if you can work out who it is you want?’

  ‘Penny, I know who I want. I want you and I always will.’

  ‘But I don’t give you enough to prevent you from looking elsewhere?’

  ‘With a woman, yes! I’d never sleep with another woman, Penny.’

  ‘Then I should thank heavens for small mercies,’ said Penny, as tears fell down her cheeks. ‘That day in the restaurant when I had my miscarriage? You sat there knowing that he was a few metres away. Both of you knew what a fool you were making of me. That’s really getting to me, Adrian.’

  ‘I asked him to leave.’

  ‘You did what?’

  ‘I asked him to leave the restaurant precisely because I didn’t want you to be made a fool of, even though Matt is not the kind of man who would think like that.’

  ‘Oh I’m sure he’s a saint once you get to know him.’

  �
��It was pure chance that he was there that day but I’m glad he was because it meant that he took care of you. And whatever you may think of him, Penny, he is a good doctor. When he was our assigned GP at the station I saw evidence of that many times.’

  ‘Is that… when it all started?’

  ‘Yes’ said Adrian. ‘Yes, it was.’

  ‘You know I’ve always feared that you’d leave me’ said Penny. ‘I knew that a big, handsome bloke like you would have his offers and that one time in a moment of weakness you’d maybe succumb to some dolly bird’s charm. I never thought, I mean it never even crossed my mind that it would be another man.’

  ‘Penny, I…’

  ‘… no, let me finish, please, Adrian’ Penny interrupted, holding up her hand to silence him. ‘You’ve always known what it’s been like for me with my parents and Natasha. They’ve stabbed away at my confidence all these years, telling me you’d go off with someone else because I wasn’t worth staying with for a lifetime. And yet when I was by your side I felt ten feet tall. I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world when I met you and found that someone as handsome and strong as you really wanted to be with me…’

  ‘…please, Penny…’

  ‘… and through all these years I’ve loved you more and more as time went on. I should’ve told you about the pregnancy and I’m sorry.’

  ‘ It doesn’t matter about that now.’

  ‘But now you hit me with this and I don’t know what to do. If it was a woman I could fight her getting her claws into you. But another man is like trying to fight the unknown. Adrian, I really don’t know what to do or what to think.’

  ‘I’m begging you, Penny,’ Adrian pleaded, ‘I’m begging you to believe that something happened between Matt and I that I can’t explain but which has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with us and our family. Now look, can we talk later?’

  ‘When you get home?’

  ‘Where else would I go?’

  ‘Alright’ said Penny, who didn’t want to close the door on her marriage despite how distressed she was feeling. She’d always said to her friends that if she’d discovered that Adrian had slept with another woman once, as long as it was only once, she wouldn’t necessarily consider it as grounds for a major crisis. But to find out that your husband has been sleeping with another man, and on more than one occasion, really was something very different. No matter what Adrian said, he was sufficiently attracted to the difference a man can give him to go with Matt Schofield and to keep on going back.