Beautiful Child

by Menon, David

  ‘Detective Hoyland,’ said Matt. ‘I’m sorry to bother you so early but I’m on my way to morning surgery.’

  ‘Oh no that’s alright,’ said Sara.

  ‘It’s just that I noticed you looking at your watch,’ said Matt. ‘I didn’t even think you’d be here this early.’

  ‘Well we’ve got a lot of work on at the moment.’

  ‘Yes, I can imagine,’ said Matt, ‘and I don’t want to take up too much of your time.’

  ‘It’s okay, really. What can I do for you?’

  ‘I wanted to talk to you about what Andy Cook told you about the man I now know was my brother, Sean Patrick O’Brien, the man Cook has been impersonating these past years. I know you’re in the middle of an investigation but I just wondered if you could give me any information on him and his life. You see, detective, my sister and I need to try and get a hold on our brother and what happened to him.’

  ‘It was pretty tragic’ said Sara.

  ‘Well I guessed that.’

  ‘Look, the psychotherapist Angela Barker was given a detailed manuscript by Andy Cook about your brother’s life. He wrote it from what your brother told him back in Australia and was going to turn it into a book. I can’t give you the original but I can make a copy and give that to you.’

  ‘That would be very generous, thank you’ said Matt.

  ‘I warn you though that it’s not a feel good read, your brother was forcibly migrated to Australia as a child.’

  ‘After my mother dumped him there and forgot about him.’

  ‘Those are the facts, yes,’ said Sara.

  ‘But they don’t end there, do they’ said Matt. ‘You’re looking for Father Phillip Evans because you suspect him to be the killer. And he’s my nephew.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Sara, ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘It’s not me who needs the sympathy, detective’ said Matt, ‘and it’s certainly not my parents.’

  ‘Okay’ said Sara. ‘But look Matt, seeing as I’m going to be doing you a favour, can you do me one in return?’

  ‘I’ll try’ said Matt.

  ‘Matt, are you or were you, in a relationship with Adrian Bradshaw?’

  Matt paused and in doing so realised he’d given her the truthful answer. He hadn’t wanted to lie but he didn’t know for sure what Adrian might’ve said. He’d tried contacting him countless times since Penny was murdered but Adrian hadn’t returned any of his calls. And he was worried about him.

  ‘I expect he’s denying it?’ Matt enquired.

  ‘Well normally I wouldn’t talk about the private lives of my officers but these aren’t normal circumstances’ said Sara. ‘ So yes, he does deny it.’

  ‘I thought he would’ said Matt. ‘Not that I blame him under the circumstances.’

  ‘A bit disrespectful to you though.’

  ‘I went into it with my eyes wide open,’ said Matt. ‘Have you ever had an affair with a married man?’

  ‘Yes’ said Sara. ‘It was a long time ago and my heart was broken. It taught me a valuable lesson.’

  ‘Yeah, well’ said Matt, ‘learning that particular lesson is still on my ‘to do’ list.’

  ‘He blames his wife finding out on all on the mischief making of his sister-in-law Natasha’ said Sara, ‘he says she told his wife there was something going on just to spite her.’

  ‘Well Natasha is a downright bitch so that would fit.’

  ‘You have experience of that?’

  Matt felt he had no choice then but to tell her about when Natasha had been over to his house and smashed his car up. ‘That’s when she found out about Adrian and me because Adrian was there at the time.’

  ‘I see,’ said Sara. She was furious that Adrian hadn’t told her about the incident outside Matt Schofield’s house. She’d have to tackle him about it later. ‘You didn’t report it?’

  ‘Natasha promised to pay for the damage and she has done,’ said Matt. ‘I decided to leave it there for the sake of Adrian’s wife.’

  ‘But Natasha told her anyway and that’s why Penny came round to see you.’

  ‘Yes’ said Matt, ‘but when I think about it, it’s a wonder Penny didn’t find out before she did considering that we were sort of friends by proxy. Her sister was going out with my best friend Charlie and …I was seeing her husband.’

  ‘Oh what a tangled web, eh?’

  ‘You might say that,’ said Matt. ‘It might even be funny if people hadn’t been murdered.’

  ‘How long have you been seeing Adrian?’

  ‘About six months.’

  ‘How did you and Penny Bradshaw get on by the way?’

  ‘Quite well to tell you the truth,’ said Matt, ‘she seemed like she was a bright, intelligent woman. I liked her to be honest. If circumstances had been different we might even have been friends. It was odd really.’

  ‘Considering you’d been seeing her husband?’

  ‘No’ said Matt, thinking back. ‘It was like I felt a strange kind of closeness to her. I don’t know why. And I was absolutely honest with her about Adrian. She deserved that much.’

  ‘Has Adrian been in touch with you since?’

  ‘No’ said Matt. ‘No, he hasn’t. I’ve tried calling him but he’s not returning any of my calls. He probably blames me. I seduced him in the first place, you see, and if I hadn’t, if I’d just left well alone… but there was a strong attraction right from the start. I became a bit smitten.’

  ‘Did Adrian tell you about Penny’s difficult relationship with her parents?’

  ‘Yeah he did’ said Matt. ‘He said that they were always putting her down even though she’d never given them any trouble compared to Natasha who was clearly the favoured one. But then judging by what I’ve found out about my own parents lately, I’ve no right to judge anyone. The weight of what’s been happening is pretty heavy for my sister and I at the moment, detective.’

  ‘I don’t doubt that. But Matt, I’m concerned about you going back to work.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you’re exposed there’ said Sara. ‘Until we catch Andy Cook and Phillip Evans everybody in your family is at risk.’

  ‘I have to get back to work, detective,’ said Matt. ‘For the sake of my sanity and besides, Phillip Evans is family. I’m not going to make myself scared of him.’

  ‘Matt, we can be pretty certain that he was going to kill you when he came to your house.’

  ‘Yes, I know’ said Matt. ‘But I’ve got patients to see and my partner in the surgery has got his own problems too.’

  ‘And are you still staying at your parents house?’

  ‘No’ said Matt. ‘My sister Susie and I have checked into a hotel. We had a huge row with our parents and we couldn’t face going back to our houses knowing what had happened in them.’

  ‘Which hotel are you staying at?’

  ‘The Malmaison near Piccadilly Station.’

  ‘Under your own names?’

  ‘Yes’ said Matt. ‘Although Schofield isn’t a name I’m particularly proud of at the moment.’

  ‘Well look, I’ll go and make that copy for you but I warn you, it doesn’t make for very pleasant reading.’

  ‘I thought as much.’

  ‘And keep in touch. For your own sake.’

  Matt drove down to the surgery and after he’d parked his car he started reading the copy of the manuscript detective Hoyland had given him. He got so deeply into it that when the practice nurse knocked on his car window as she was passing, he nearly jumped out of his skin. He then walked with her into the building and just after he got to his consulting room he received a visitor. It was Charlie. Matt looked up at him and burst into tears.

  ‘Hey’ said Charlie. He pulled up a chair and put his arm round Matt. ‘This is not like you. You’re the strong one who carries the rest of us on his shoulders.’

  ‘Everything is such a bloody mess.’ Matt pleaded. ‘The police have given me a copy of a manuscript that details everyth
ing my brother Sean Patrick went through. And my own nephew, a nephew I never knew I had, just like I never knew I had a brother, is wanted for murder. How did we get here, Charlie? How did my mother, egged on by my father, leave her little boy to his fate?’

  ‘I don’t know, mate’ said Charlie. ‘I wish I did.’

  ‘My brother had a hell of a life after my mother dumped him,’ said Matt who’d read several pages of the copy of Andy Cook’s manuscript. ‘How could she do that? How could she leave him and forget about him?’

  ‘I really don’t know, Matt,’ said Charlie. ‘Knowing your mother it doesn’t make any sense at all.’

  ‘How’s Wendy doing?’

  ‘She’s poorly.’

  ‘Very poorly?’

  ‘Yeah’ said Charlie, softly.

  ‘And the boys?’

  ‘They don’t like to let me out of their sight.’

  ‘I can imagine.’

  ‘They’ve been asking for their uncle Matt.’

  ‘I’m sorry I’ve not been to see them,’ said Matt.

  ‘Hey look, I understand‘ said Charlie, rubbing Matt’s back. ‘You’ve had a lot on your plate.’

  ‘You always did understand me, Charlie.’

  ‘Yes and I always will,’ said Charlie.

  Charlie placed his fingertip under Matt’s chin and lifted up his face. He looked into his eyes and touched Matt’s lips with the end of his thumb. Then he kissed him. Then Matt kissed Charlie and before they knew it they’d spent several minutes engaged in the kissing of a love that had never been alive before.

  ‘What was all that about?’ asked Matt, tentatively.

  ‘What you’ve always known to be true.’

  *

  Ann and Bill Schofield received a call from Brendan asking them to meet him down at the church. When they got there Bill pulled up right outside the main gate. They were both in a state of emotional distress and it showed on both their faces. Their children hated them and were refusing to speak to them. They were both praying to God but neither of them knew how they were ever going to put this right. They got out of the car and walked slowly down the path to the main door of the church. They looked around. The police had said they were watching both their house and the church so they must be around somewhere.

  ‘Did Brendan say we had to go inside the church to meet him?’ asked Bill.

  ‘Yes’ said Ann. She felt herself shaking as she had been for days.

  They went inside the church and it was strangely quiet. It often was when there were no services taking place but this was different somehow. Then Ann looked up to the front and saw a massive black cloth draped between the two main pillars and blocking the view of the altar. It made the church seem dark because it was also blocking the light coming through the stained glass windows behind. What was that all about? Her natural instinct was to go up and take it down but she was stopped in her tracks by the sound of the door locking behind them. They both turned round and saw Phillip Evans standing there with a gun in his hand pointing at them. Ann gasped and Bill lifted up his hands.

  ‘Now then son there’s no need for this,’ said Bill. ‘Put the gun down.’

  ‘I decide what happens here!’ said Phillip. ‘Now go to the front of the church.’

  Neither Ann nor Bill could move. They were frozen with terror.

  ‘Do it!’ Phillip bellowed. ‘Now!’

  They held each other’s hand as they stepped forward. Ann stumbled and Bill picked her up. Evans came up behind and pushed the gun in Ann’s back.

  ‘Move it!’

  ‘You keep your hands off her!’ Bill demanded.

  His defence of his wife earned Bill a sharp blow across the face with the butt of Phillip’s gun. Bill stumbled backwards and Ann went to help him but Phillip lifted her up and dragged her up the aisle and threw her down onto the front pew. Bill’s face was bleeding as Phillip commanded him to come and sit by his wife. Ann and Bill huddled together like frightened children.

  ‘And if either of you make a move or do anything stupid then it’ll be the last thing you do.’

  ‘Why have you brought us here?’ Bill demanded. ‘If it’s just to kill us then get it over with!’

  ‘Oh but we’re going to have some fun first’ said Evans, swaggering about, enjoying his captives expressions of fear and trepidation.

  ‘I can’t believe who you’ve turned out to be’ said Ann. ‘And I know that a lot of things have been done that are wrong. But we can put things right. We can pay for you to get out of here and we won’t say a word about this.’

  ‘Oh you think that a wad of cash will put things right, Grandma? I watched my mother being murdered by Andy Cook. I didn’t know then what had happened to my father, a man who was there one day and gone the next. I didn’t know that Cook had killed him.’

  ‘But you’ve made something of your life, son’ said Bill.

  Phillip threw his head back and laughed. ‘I’ve made something out of my life? I was adopted by a family for whom religion meant torture. My father took his belt to me every single night to beat what he called the devil out of me. Every single night! I can’t cry anymore about anything because I cried so much when I was little. So don’t tell me I’ve made something of my life.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Ann pleaded, ‘but we’re flesh and blood.’

  ‘Yes, I am Grandma. I’m Sean Patrick’s son. I’m your grandson. And the line of suffering began when you dumped my father at that orphanage. You’ve got to pay, Grandma. You’ve got to pay for what you did.’

  Bill lunged forward at Evans who pushed the gun in his face.

  ‘Another move like that from you old man and I’ll re-arrange this dog ugly face of yours. I mean, how could you Grandma? How did you do it? Or did you just lie back, open your legs and think about all the nice money Billy boy was going to make with his business? Did the nice house and the comfortable lifestyle help you forget about what you’d done to my father?’

  Ann cried out and wept.

  ‘I’m warning you!’ said Bill. ‘You can see what a state she’s in.’

  ‘And she deserves to be in pain! She never gave a second thought to the pain that my father and then I had to endure.’

  ‘If I’d known who you were then I would’ve tried to put things right,’ Ann pleaded.

  ‘And what would you have done? Thrown some more potatoes on for dinner? You’re a complete inadequate, Grandma! You can dish it out but you can’t take it. That’s not a sign of how strong you are. It’s a sign of how pathetically weak you are!’

  ‘I said I’m warning you!’ Bill roared.

  ‘You’re in no position to warn me, old man, and I’m getting a little tired and tetchy at your constant interruptions. Now button it. Unless of course, you want to die now? No, I didn’t think so. So shut it!’

  ‘What are you going to do to us?’ asked Ann, tearfully.

  ‘Well it’s quite simple, Grandma. I had to watch Andy Cook murder my mother in front of my eyes. And now you’re going to watch someone you love die in front of your eyes.’

  Evans pulled back the black cloth to reveal Brendan. A noose of thick rope was suspended from the ceiling and tied round his neck. He had some tape over his mouth and his hands were tied together behind his back. His feet were also bound and he was standing on a stool that Ann recognised as being from the presbytery.

  ‘As soon as I kick this stool away, old Brendan here will finally find out what really does happen after a person dies. I know how close you’ve always been. How do you feel about that, Bill?’

  ‘Don’t be disgusting.’

  ‘Please!’ Ann begged. She could hardly speak through a mixture of horror and tears. ‘Please stop this! I know I should never have left your father at the orphanage but I didn’t have any choice. And don’t blame Bill. I wanted to make a fresh start as much as he did.’

  ‘By dumping your child?’

  ‘I know I shouldn’t have done it but I didn’t know what was going to
happen,’ Ann pleaded, ‘surely you can see that?’

  ‘He suffered years of agony because of what you did.’ said Evans. ‘Years of crying out for his Mummy whilst sick priests and monks ripped his childhood away from him with their cocks. Years of having to get fucked every night just so they’d leave him alone during the day.’

  Ann fell to her knees, her face contorted with anguish and pain. ‘I know I did wrong but let me put things right with you,’ Ann pleaded, ‘please let me do that.’

  ‘How the fuck are you going to do that?’ Evans shouted. ‘How are you going to make up for me never getting a bedtime story? How are you going to make up for me getting my father’s belt every night? The Evans family were so upright, decent, honest, religious people. They were considered pillars of their local church and community. But behind closed doors they were twisted, sick bastards.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Sorry? Sorry just isn’t fucking good enough, Grandma! You’re a completely selfish bitch both then and now! But finally I’m in control on behalf of me and my father. Rita Makin had to die because she was the second mother figure in his life to let him down. She said she’d always take care of him but when the going got tough she was nowhere for him. Then I went for Angus so that your spoilt brat of a daughter would feel something of the pain and the misery that my father and I went through. Then if that stupid bitch Penny Bradshaw hadn’t got in the way it would be my Uncle Matt’s funeral you were organising. But instead, Matt and Susie will have to organise yours.’ He turned to Brendan. ‘Any last requests before I make you dangle, Granddad?’ He reached up and pulled the tape from Brendan’s mouth so he could speak.

  Brendan called out. ‘Ann! Don’t worry, my love, this will all be over soon, it’ll all be fine, you’ll see, Ann, you’ll see, my love. Pray for them, Ann. Pray for the souls of our son and our grandson.’

  ‘Oh boring!’ Evans declared before putting the tape back across Brendan’s mouth and holding the leg of the stool whilst Ann looked on in absolute horror. ‘I’ve listened to you, Brendan, talk about justice and I’ve admired you for it. I’ve learned from you and I’ve respected you. But you’re grandma’s best mate. So you have to die.’