Gallows Drop

by Mari Hannah

  ‘What do you want?’ Hank said. ‘You’re not supposed to be in here.’

  Atkins stood his ground. ‘Your boss is expecting me.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Hank glanced at Kate.

  She shook her head.

  ‘Something came up,’ Hank said. ‘She’s busy. You’ll have to come back.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ Atkins threw Kate a hard stare. ‘I just paid for a taxi. You see me now or I walk.’

  ‘It’s fine, Hank.’ Kate walked across the room towards them. Atkins didn’t acknowledge her. His eyes had strayed to a place they didn’t belong: the murder wall.

  He swung round to face her. ‘You bailed Collins?’

  ‘Not that it’s any business of yours.’

  ‘Can I ask why?’

  ‘Are you deaf?’ Hank said. ‘The boss just said—’

  ‘Hank, I’ll deal with this.’ Kate appreciated his attempt to protect her but ordered him to butt out. She turned to face Atkins. ‘There was no evidence to hold Collins. I can’t keep him in because you don’t like the look of him. I charged Gardner and his mates with Section 18. I’d have told you last night if you’d been reasonable. Slept it off, have you?’

  He made no comment.

  ‘If what Beth told me is true, Gardner may be charged with a damned sight more than that.’

  Not a flicker.

  Kate studied him.

  He looked dreadful.

  She noticed that he was dressed in the same clothes he’d had on when she last saw him. He hadn’t shaved and was sweating profusely. Whether from the heat of the room or the mess he was in was anyone’s guess. He hadn’t spoken or reacted since she’d alluded to the attempted rape. It made her wonder if he was devious enough to have manipulated a terrible situation to meet his own ends. His money had been on Collins from the outset.

  Was that in order to throw her?

  Kate’s mind was working overtime. Atkins had tried unsuccessfully to drive a wedge between Beth and Elliott because they were too close for his liking. Elliott had given him a valid reason for their deep attachment – coming to her aid after the assault by Gardner – something she later denied to her father. The rest came to Kate in Beth’s voice: He warned Elliott off, told him not to come near me again.

  The sentence stuck in Kate’s mind.

  ‘Follow me,’ she said.

  ‘Here’s fine,’ he said. ‘Spit it out and I’ll be on my way.’

  ‘My office or there’s the door.’ Kate never took her eyes off him. She didn’t like the way her latest theory was shaping up. ‘The things I want to say to you can’t be said publicly.’

  ‘Want me along?’ Hank said.

  Kate shook her head. ‘Not this time.’

  He stood aside.

  Atkins moved gingerly towards her office.

  As she followed him out, the DCI speculated further on his role in her case. She couldn’t make up her mind who he was trying to shaft: Collins or Gardner. At his own admission, he hated Beth associating with Collins and wanted Elliott out of the way. Had he seen the fight and taken advantage, finished off what Gardner started and killed the boy? Or had he seen Gardner do it, then thrown Collins into the mix to get rid of all three? Many an affray had ended in tragedy for all concerned.

  Although when challenged Beth had denied the assault to her father, he was aware of the allegation. If he knew that, what else did he know? Or maybe who else was the better question.

  He knew the snitch: Pearce.

  Logically, it followed that he might also know of Gardner’s alleged colourful family history and willingness – whether or not it was true – to believe that he was the descendant of an executioner. If Atkins knew Gardner wasn’t guilty, where better to dispose of Elliott’s body than on Winter’s Gibbet to frame him for the death?

  Was that what this case was about – vigilante retribution?

  Atkins had always been in the hang ’em and flog ’em brigade.

  Kate hoped she was wrong, for Beth’s sake.

  Shutting the door so they wouldn’t be interrupted, she invited him to sit and walked round her desk to do likewise.

  ‘I’m fine standing,’ he said. ‘Get it over with. I haven’t got all day.’

  ‘I have some questions for you.’

  She pointed to the chair and waited.

  Taking her cue, Atkins sat down, his arm hanging over the backrest, his right foot resting on his left knee. He oozed arrogance.

  ‘Last night, Beth told me that Liam Gardner assaulted her and that you knew.’

  ‘She denied it. She tell you that too?’

  ‘She told me a lot of things. I’d like to hear them from you.’

  He appeared to give it some consideration. In the end, he said nothing. How could he? He’d dug himself a hole and didn’t know how he was going to climb out of it. His behaviour during the investigation was indefensible.

  They both knew it.

  Kate gave him a helping hand. ‘You went to see Elliott to warn him off Beth. Why was that?’

  ‘I didn’t want him near her.’

  ‘Why not? By all accounts he was a lovely lad—’

  ‘Was he? I had my reasons.’

  ‘Did something happen between Diane and his old man?’

  ‘What? No!’

  ‘Beth seemed to think there was weird stuff going on between you and Elliott’s father.’ The sentence had hardly left her lips when she made the jump. A missing piece of the story fell neatly into place. If stuff doesn’t make sense, try the flipside. That was Bright’s mantra. ‘Ah, now I get it. It wasn’t Diane that was the root of the problem, was it? It was you. Of course it was. You had an affair with Elliott’s mother, didn’t you?’

  Kate didn’t expect him to admit it, although, from where she was standing, there was too much information on the table to deny it, the majority of it coming from his estranged daughter.

  He decided to come clean. ‘Yes, Gayle and I had a fling.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Diane was pregnant at the time. What’s a man to do?’ His grin brought with it echoes of the past. It made her cringe. ‘Oh please,’ he said, ‘save the disapproving looks for someone who actually gives a shit. I was reckless. I’ve been paying for it ever since. I don’t expect you to believe that I loved my wife. I messed up. What more can I say?’

  ‘You weren’t the only ones to suffer.’

  ‘Hell no, the perfect couple suffered too. Why should they be any different? Graeme and I were good friends before that. We got into a fight over it and his kid, Adam, ended up with his grandma.’

  Jane Gibson looked after two boys.

  Atkins actually had a tear in his eye. Kate was joining dots. Reading him. And he could see she was making connections to a secret of his own. ‘This was before Elliott was born?’

  He swallowed hard. ‘There was talk that he was mine.’

  Kate tried not to react. ‘Did Gayle arrange a paternity test?’

  ‘She did.’

  ‘And?’

  Atkins ignored the mobile ringing in his pocket. ‘I refused the results.’

  ‘To read them or accept them?’

  ‘The former. She threw a fit and tore them up.’

  ‘She didn’t tell you later?’

  ‘Have you met her?’

  Kate nodded.

  ‘Then what do you think?’

  The bravado had gone. He dropped his head a moment, then looked up, meeting her eyes across the desk. He was a torn soul, tormented by his past. Fleetingly, she felt sorry for him. If Elliott was his son, it made sense of the close bond between the lad and Beth. It also explained why Atkins gave Grant the job of informing the family. He didn’t want to face Gayle.

  ‘You should’ve told me,’ Kate said.

  ‘What, cry on your shoulder? I don’t think so.’

  ‘Would that have been so bad?’

  He didn’t answer.

  ‘The kids had no idea?’

&n
bsp; He shook his head. ‘I didn’t tell Beth and I know for a fact that Gayle wouldn’t have confided in Elliott. Like everyone else, she hates my guts. After all this time, she’d die rather than reveal the truth to me. The stubborn bitch will take it to her grave.’

  ‘You could have apologized.’

  ‘I did. I begged and pleaded with her for years afterwards. She said I’d had my chance and blew it. I’m not proud of the affair. When I saw how close Beth was to Elliott, I had to put a stop to it.’

  ‘You were under the impression he was after her.’ It wasn’t a question.

  Atkins nodded. His mobile rang again. He took it from his pocket and switched it off.

  ‘Elliott told you he was in a relationship with someone else.’

  ‘Yes, and I didn’t believe him.’

  ‘You should have. He was gay.’

  ‘Yeah, pull the other one.’

  ‘What? You think no son of yours could be gay?’

  He didn’t try to hide his disgust, nor she the irony.

  ‘Elliott was no threat to Beth,’ Kate said. ‘In fact you owed him for saving her from a serious sexual assault. The way she tells it, he’d gone to her rescue in the nick of time. Do you expect me to believe you couldn’t see her distress afterwards?’

  ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘No wonder she lied to cover it up rather than discuss it with you.’ Kate paused. ‘When did you finally realize that Elliott was telling the truth? Was it before or after she’d confided in Collins?’ Kate could see the sad and downtrodden Atkins give way to the Angry Man. She didn’t want to accuse him of killing Elliott outright, given what he’d just told her. Still, she wondered if he might have, for no other reason than to get even with Gayle. And then there was the assault by Gardner on Beth.

  Two birds. One stone.

  ‘Tell me,’ she said. ‘When did you twig the gibbet connection?’

  ‘The what?’

  ‘What better way to get retribution than to set up the thug who tried to rape your daughter – and for a murder you knew he didn’t commit.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ He knew where she was heading and didn’t repeat his denial. ‘That scum has escaped the law too many times, I agree – but I didn’t set him up. What do you take me for?’

  ‘It’s not looking good.’

  ‘You don’t seriously think I’m stupid enough?’

  ‘I don’t know what to believe any more. I think you should consider legal representation though.’

  ‘Go to hell!’

  ‘So tell me what you know.’

  He hesitated.

  ‘For fuck’s sake! Talk to me. Where were you on the evening of the Alwinton Show?’

  His hesitation was damning.

  ‘You were in Elsdon, weren’t you?’

  He chewed the inside of his cheek before coming clean. ‘I took Beth’s key and went to Diane’s place to have a poke around. I wanted to make sure she hadn’t moved anyone in. I didn’t see the fight, I swear, but I knew Beth was in the village. I saw her car parked a short distance from the church.’

  Kate’s phone rang. She glanced at the clock on the wall: 12:45.

  It was far too early for the hospital . . . unless . . .

  ‘I have to take this,’ she said. ‘Can you wait outside?’

  He didn’t move.

  ‘Fine, stay where you are then.’ She took a deep breath and pressed to receive, adrenalin flooding through her body. ‘Hello.’

  ‘Control here, Inspector. We’ve had a report of a possible abduction in Elsdon village. The eyewitness claims a girl was manhandled from her house, bundled into a motor and driven away at speed in the direction of Otterburn. Her name is Beth Casey. She’s the daughter of DCI Atkins, ma’am. I can’t raise him.’

  Kate looked across her desk at Atkins and kept her voice calm. ‘Do you have any more details, Control?’ His reply was lost in the noise inside her head. She asked him to repeat it.

  69

  The operator’s words faded away as Kate put down the phone. She was looking at Atkins, hearing his daughter’s voice: He’ll kill me! When Beth blurted out those three words, the expression on her face had been uneasy. Kate remembered her mumbling to herself when she’d come to the station for help. She recalled her own confusion over whether or not the girl had been referencing her dad.

  Was she talking about Collins?

  His was the next voice to enter Kate’s head, vociferous and full of malice, reminding her that Atkins wasn’t the only one of the opinion that Beth and Elliott were too close for comfort. Kate had specifically asked him what Elliott’s reaction had been to Gardner’s windup that the two were intimate. He denied it. He’s not daft, came the reply. Maybe in Collins’ head, it lacked sincerity.

  The announcement chime was followed by a cultured female voice coming over the public address system in Heathrow’s Terminal 5: ‘This is an urgent call for passenger Josephine Soulsby travelling on transatlantic flight BA0113 to New York. Please contact the nearest information desk.’

  Jo had only just cleared security. She’d arrived early in order to shop and eat. She listened intently as the message was repeated, until she was sure it was her name she’d heard. She tuned the rest of it out, her stomach in knots. Outside of her two sons, Tom and James, only one person knew she was there: Fiona Fielding. It stood to reason that she’d since passed the information to someone they both knew. Knowing she was about to leave the country, Jo could think of only one scenario that would prompt Kate Daniels to try and get in touch.

  Her father.

  Glancing up at the departures board, Jo saw that her flight was on schedule, due to leave in a little under three hours. She couldn’t deny she needed some downtime but she couldn’t leave now. Kate would be putting up a good front. That was her way. Underneath that hard exterior she’d be destroyed. Inconsolable. Riddled with guilt for not having made her peace with Ed.

  What a shame.

  Reaching down, Jo lifted her phone from her bag and switched it on. Kate had called several times and not been able to get through. Earlier texts had gone ignored. Feeling guilty, Jo called her mobile. The ringing tone had hardly begun when she came on the line.

  Her tone of voice was flat and depressed. ‘Thanks for returning my call. I’m sorry to disturb you.’

  ‘Kate, I’m so sorry. I’ll take the next flight home.’

  ‘I don’t expect you to do that. I’d rather you didn’t.’

  ‘What does that mean? I don’t understand.’

  In that split second, Kate realized that Jo had jumped the gun. ‘It’s not my dad,’ she said. ‘He’s fine – at least, I think he is, he’s still in surgery. Please don’t worry about him or me. This is work-related.’

  ‘Well that’s a relief.’

  ‘Not really. Beth Casey is missing.’ Kate sounded hassled and shocked. ‘Abducted from her mother’s home. Collins, we think.’

  ‘I thought he was in custody.’

  ‘I bailed him this morning. You put a query on HOLMES, requesting more information on him. Lisa said you thought you knew him, at least knew of him.’

  ‘It may not be the same guy.’

  ‘And if it is, he’s got a screw loose, right?’

  ‘Let me make some calls,’ Jo said. ‘I’ll get back to you.’

  Jo dialled another number, had a brief discussion with her office and hung up as her name was once again transmitted over the airport’s public address system. Checking in at the nearest information desk, she confirmed who she was and cancelled any further summons.

  Thanking the desk clerk for her assistance, Jo found an empty table in a cafe. She took out her MacBook, fired it up and opened up the mail program. The confidential email she was waiting for dropped into her inbox seconds later.

  Kate felt the weight of an impending disaster as soon as she answered the phone. Over the years she’d worked in major incident teams, she’d developed a sixth sense. She knew what Jo was going to say even befo
re she started talking.

  Kate spoke first. ‘You’re going to tell me he’s mentally ill, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’ Jo gave it straight. No messing. No attempt to soften the blow. ‘He was a client at the clinic. Not one of mine. I’ve read his file and spoken to his caseworker. He was referred following a stint in prison. I’m sending you the file. This is highly irregular, so keep it to yourself.’

  ‘Understood – and thank you.’

  Kate’s eyes seized on her computer screen as the email arrived.

  There were literally dozens of documents: social services, probation and parole reports as well as half a dozen psychiatric assessments from various medical facilities.

  ‘Jesus,’ she said. ‘It’s a big file. It’s going to take forever to digest this lot. Can you précis it for me?’

  ‘I’ll try,’ Jo said. A tall, well-dressed businessman approached from nowhere, asking if he could join her. She glared at him as he drew up a chair without waiting for an answer. Then told him, in no uncertain terms to get lost.

  ‘What?’ Kate was confused.

  ‘Not you, hold on.’ Jo didn’t bother to cover the speaker as she glowered at the drip sitting opposite. ‘Do you mind?’ she said. ‘I know it probably comes as a surprise to you but I prefer my own company.’ Embarrassed by her offhand attitude, the man picked up his briefcase and scurried off. ‘Sorry,’ Jo was back on the phone. ‘It’s pick-up central in this place. If you’re sitting alone, you must be desperate. I had to be blunt.’

  ‘Forget him. This is more important.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Don’t apologize. Just get on with it.’

  ‘Collins is delusional, obsessively jealous, morbidly so. There’s a report in the file from his social worker, Andrea someone, Oxford Social Services. Can you see it?’

  ‘Andrea Corrigan?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s her.’

  ‘Got it.’

  ‘It’s very detailed and will tell you all you need to know without going round the houses,’ Jo said. ‘Andrea cooperated fully in the investigation into his behaviour post-sentence. She made it her business to. I have to tell you she had big concerns. It’ll be no surprise to her when she learns what’s going on in Northumberland.’