Strategy

by Anita Waller

  She shook her head. ‘No, I was in Dad’s car – don’t think he knows Dad drives a Lexus. You know, he must know what Jenny has done—the deliberate attempt to kill Dad and the snatching of Grace. And Grace’s death. It’s been all over the news, they’re looking everywhere for her. Nothing has been released yet about her being wanted for the murders, though. Wonder if that will make a difference to how he feels about her, when that little snippet becomes public knowledge.’

  Tim grinned. ‘In his place, I’d be bloody scared. I’d have to sleep with one eye open, just in case. But, I don’t think they will release that. Gainsborough has no idea where she is, but he must realise if he puts that out, she’ll disappear for good. There’s only you and Seb know where she is.’

  They looked at each other for a moment.

  ‘Give me …’

  ‘This is …’

  They both laughed, and Tim handed his phone over. ‘Type that address into my notes, then, at least two of us have it. We’ll make sure Mark knows it as well.’

  The back door opened, as Erin handed Tim’s phone back to him, and Mark, Tommy and Sally heaved the assorted bags full of shopping onto the table.

  ‘Does everybody shop on a Sunday morning?’ Mark grumbled. ‘That bloody place was heaving.’

  ‘You want a drink before we put it all away?’ Tim spoke to all three very wet individuals.

  ‘Tea, please, for Tommy and I,’ Sally said, and sank down on to a chair. ‘That was a nightmare. We filled two trolleys, got wet through, had to queue forever at the checkout, and it’s raining heavier than ever now.’

  ‘Same for me,’ Mark said. ‘I’m just going up to put fresh jeans on.’ He looked down at his jean-clad legs, and they were a darker shade of blue for the bottom six inches or so. ‘There was a huge puddle at the driver’s side,’ he said, by way of explanation. ‘I can’t tell you how uncomfortable wet denim is.’

  He disappeared out of the door, and Tim stood to switch on the kettle. He busied himself taking out mugs, and filling the teapot.

  Erin slipped out of the kitchen door, and stopped Mark as he reached the bottom of the stairs. ‘When we’ve put everything away, and you’ve had your drink, we need to meet in the office.’

  He searched her face for clues, but she said nothing else.

  ‘Okay. We going to see Dad this afternoon?’

  She nodded. ‘I’ve already been. I’ll explain in a bit. I said we’d be there for two o’clock.’

  They both returned to the kitchen, and half an hour later, with Tommy and Sally taking time out in the lounge, the three of them met in the office.

  ‘Right,’ Erin began. ‘We’re not going to talk until I’ve forwarded these pictures to both your phones.’

  She began to send, and the sounds of pings echoed around the room as the photos arrived.

  Mark opened them, and sat down on the edge of his desk. ‘Jenny,’ he said quietly. ‘But, how …?’

  Erin began to talk, explaining how she had come by them, and what she and Tim had already discussed. She also told him about her crazy trip to the hospital, and Michael’s confirmation it was indeed Jenny, without any shadow of a doubt.

  ‘Put this address in your phone, or somewhere else that’s safe, because that’s where she is. Both Tim and I were somewhat concerned only I knew the address, so now all three of us do.’ She pushed a small piece of paper across to Mark.

  Mark looked up, after typing in the address. ‘Tommy and Sally mustn’t know about this. They’ll hotfoot it out there and blow everything.’

  ‘Which brings us nicely to the next point,’ Tim said.

  ‘What do we do next …?’ Mark responded. ‘The answer is, I need to think. Whatever we decide, for the time being, it stays with the three of us – sorry, four of us, but Dad is a bit inconvenienced right now.’

  ‘Is there something I’m missing here?’ Erin stared at her two half-brothers, so identical in looks, and both warm, caring individuals. The looks going between them were telling her something was out of kilter.

  ‘No, of course not,’ Mark responded a shade too quickly.

  ‘Then, there’s nothing to stop us passing these to Gainsborough …’

  ‘No!’ Both men spoke at once.

  ‘So, there is something I don’t know,’ she said softly. ‘And I assume Dad is in on it as well?’

  ‘There’s nothing.’ Again, Mark was a little too quick to answer.

  ‘Okay.’ She picked up her phone. She logged on to the internet, and retrieved a piece of paper. Picking up Mark’s pen, she wrote down a telephone number.

  They watched her every movement.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Tim asked.

  ‘She pressed on the call button, and put the phone to her ear. ‘Ringing Gainsborough.’

  ‘Mark! For God’s sake!’ Tim held out a hand to his brother.

  ‘Switch off the call, Erin,’ he said, his voice tired. ‘Disconnect it.’

  Erin did as he said. ‘Tell me, or I call it again.’

  ‘That’s blackmail,’ he said. ‘But, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t suppose it really matters. What’s a bit of blackmail between brothers and sisters?’

  ‘So?’ Erin stood her ground. If she was to help in getting this scheming bitch her just desserts, she had to know all the facts, not just the facts she had been fed so far. It was obvious there was something she was missing, because if everything was straightforward, they would have rung Gainsborough by now, never mind her having to threaten to ring him.

  ‘We need to talk. I’m just conscious of Tommy and Sally being in the house. I’ll go and tell them we’re going to the pub for some lunch, before going to see Dad. Hopefully, they’ll not want to come.’

  He walked across the hallway to the lounge. Both Tommy and Sally were asleep. He smiled, went back to the office, wrote a note explaining where they were, and left it on the kitchen table.

  Five minutes later, they were in the Lexus, and Erin was driving them to the Yellow Lion. They passed Caro just outside the gates, and she assured them she would look after Adam, and to give her love to Michael.

  They ordered sandwiches and drinks, and chose to sit in a booth, granting them a little more privacy. They waited until they had been served, and Erin spoke. ‘Talk.’

  ‘Okay. I have known since the day Mum died Jenny had killed Joan Jackson, James Oswoski and Ray,’ Mark began.

  There was a gasp from Erin. She hadn’t expected that.

  ‘Tim has known since yesterday. And he only knows because I had to ask him to get stuff out of the house when Gainsborough took me off to Sheffield for the search of the apartment.’

  ‘Stuff? What stuff? And why did you know as early as that and not tell Gainsborough?’

  ‘Okay, when Mum was killed, she had already changed her name and address on her driving licence to Anna Groves, with the Sheffield address. This, of course, sent the police off to Sheffield to break the news, where they found Michael waiting for her. Some time prior to this, Michael had found an envelope which said, “To be opened after my death” on the front. He decided to bring the contents over when he came to break the news to Jenny and myself. He checked in the large envelope, but the small envelopes actually had murder no. 1, murder no. 2 and murder no.3 written on the front, instead of what he had believed to be our names.’

  ‘Oh, my God.’

  ‘Exactly. He knew Tim was out of the country, as was Caro, and so he assumed I had written the notes and asked Mum to keep them, in case they were ever needed. At this point, we had never met, and while he knew he was my father, I didn’t. He thought he was bringing the letters confessing murder back to me.’

  Mark hesitated for a moment, remembering that awful afternoon, and Erin reached across and touched his hand. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I had no idea …’

  ‘It was all one big mess. He came in, and all I knew about him was he had just admitted to being Mum’s new husband, and then, saying she was dead. It wa
s only when Jenny had left the room to make a pot of tea for all of us, that he produced the letters. He hadn’t read them, and it soon became clear neither had I. I’ll never forget him saying he was my dad, and he would support me whatever happened.’

  ‘So, did you read the letters? Oh, my God, these are the possessions Jenny wanted, when she sent you that text, aren’t they?’

  ‘Yes, they are, and I was just about to open one, when Jenny came back in with the tray. She saw the letters, recognised them, screamed and fainted. I remember locking eyes with Dad, because we knew. At the same time, we knew. We sorted Jenny out, put some cold cloths on her arm where the tea had scalded her, and Michael went. He left me his card, saying to call him when I needed him.’

  Mark had to pause. He was feeling overwhelmed, living back in the moment when his world came crashing down. He could see Jenny sitting on the sofa, her eyes as big as saucers, waiting for what she must have imagined was going to happen, a phone call to the police. He explained how he had read through the letters, carefully folded them and put them back into their original envelopes.

  ‘I told her to go. I told her to get out, to take nothing with her, and to say nothing to the children. She would never see them again, she was out of our lives. She went with just the cash she had in her purse, and her car. I stopped her cards immediately. The letters go into explicit detail of how she committed each murder.’

  ‘Can I see them?’ Erin felt horrified. Even knowing the police had evidence proving blood from the victims was in Jenny’s car, these letters really drove home the fact Jenny was a murderer, was still at large, and her dad, Mark and Tim knew about it.

  ‘And does she say why she killed them?’ Erin had no intention of letting anything go unanswered. She had found Jenny, and this was her payment.

  ‘The motive is why I didn’t go to the police. This whole thing has been about protecting Adam.’

  ‘Adam?’

  ‘Yes. A few days before we got married, Ray raped her. Quite brutally, with no thought to consequences. She didn’t tell me, because she thought she would lose me and Mum. A further consequence of the rape was Adam. I have brought him up believing him to be my son, but what is more important than that, is Adam believes he is my son. I couldn’t jeopardise that by taking those damn letters to the police. I suspected none of this. It was only through reading the letters a lot of things became clear. She stopped the lovely friendship she had with Mum, and I never saw her speak to Ray, ever. We moved to Leicester so she didn’t need to see him, and the kids didn’t get to know Mum at all.’

  ‘And that all changed after Anna walked out on Ray,’ Erin said thoughtfully. ‘This all makes sense now. I almost feel sorry for Jenny – might have felt sorrier, if she hadn’t tried to kill Dad.’

  ‘Don’t feel sorry for her.’ Mark’s tone was grim. ‘Because of her, we’ve lost Grace.’

  Erin turned to Tim. ‘And where do you stand in all of this?’

  ‘By my brother’s side,’ he said simply. ‘Firmly by his side. I haven’t read the letters yet, but Steve read them out to me. They are detailed, and they’ll definitely send Jenny away for life, but there, we have an issue.’

  ‘Steve read them to you?’ Erin not only looked perplexed, she sounded it.

  Tim told her about the letters currently being in Florida, and how they were going to get them back home.

  There was silence, while they all took sips of their drinks.

  And then, Erin spoke. ‘So, am I hearing this right? You can’t let the police have sight of these letters, because they highlight Adam’s parentage? What about when they find her, and this lot goes to court? She’ll certainly talk, because it will give her brownie points in the jurors’ eyes.’

  ‘Exactly.’ Mark sighed. ‘So, now, you see our problem.’

  There was another silence.

  Tim peered around the table. ‘She has to die. This can’t go to court.’

  31

  Jenny knew exactly why Seb was suggesting going on a break. It was to make sure she was out of the country, allowing the funeral to go ahead without her anywhere near. She just wasn’t sure she could do that.

  Seb didn’t have children, how could he possibly know how she was feeling, knowing Grace was dead because of her actions?

  ‘And where would you want to go?’ she asked.

  ‘Maybe one of the Greek islands? Crete? Rhodes? You choose, and we’ll go down and book it.’

  She gave him no response.

  ‘We can book it online.’

  Sebastian paused, before speaking again. He was choosing his words with care. He could see how fragile she was. ‘I thought it would be a good trial run with your new look. And your new name. You haven’t been out of the house since we got back from Hartsholme.’

  ‘Seb, I understand what you’re doing, but I promise you I won’t try to get to that funeral. I won’t risk anything, because I know Gainsborough will be there. But, I don’t want to be all those miles away. I need to be here on the day. I actually thought maybe you could go in my place. Nobody knows you, and you could tell me how it was. It would kind of seem like I was there, and you can supply me with memories to hold when you come home.’

  Sebastian went into panic mode. How could he get around this one? She had no idea he was extremely familiar with one member of her extended family, and had met most of the others.

  ‘Oh, God, Jenny … don’t ask me to do that,’ he groaned. ‘What if I’m asked who I am! What the hell do I say?’

  ‘Say you’re a detective with the police. They can’t know whether that’s the truth or not. The only male we really got to know was Gainsborough. Please, Seb, do it for me. And my daughter.’

  His brain was now in overdrive. There was only one way of working around this, and that was to accompany Erin – to contact her and renew the relationship he had written off.

  This was going to take some work on his part. Erin must have realised there was a problem between them by now; he simply hadn’t been in touch with her. Maybe that was good; he could just say he’d been on a trip for his business, and it hadn’t been appropriate to contact her.

  He should maybe start by sending her flowers. Follow it up with a text message, warning her to expect something. There was half a chance she was at Lindum Lodge, as her dad was so badly injured; she would need notification of the flowers arriving at her own address.

  And it all had to be done without Jenny’s knowledge.

  Mark, Tim and Erin arrived at the hospital, just after two o’clock, to find Michael asleep. They chatted amongst themselves until he began to stir.

  ‘Noisy bloody kids,’ he grumbled. ‘Can’t a man get some sleep when he’s tired?’

  ‘No,’ Erin said. ‘You can’t. Why are you tired in visiting hours?’

  ‘Because I’ve been having physiotherapy, young lady. They’re cruel to me. A man of my advancing years shouldn’t be poked and prodded and made to move the non-existent leg like that. And it hurt.’

  ‘Okay, grumpy. You want to go back to sleep?’ Erin grinned at him.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, you can’t. We’re here to talk to you.’

  ‘Jenny?’

  All three of them nodded.

  ‘Okay,’ Michael conceded. ‘But, first things first. I get to keep my right leg. It’s healing well. So, at least, I’ll be able to drive without problems. At some point, can you take the Lexus out for a little run, just keep it ticking over, please?’

  ‘Well, of course, if you think it’s necessary, Dad,’ Erin responded.

  Michael looked at her, and a grin spread across his face. ‘How many miles have you added?’

  ‘Not many,’ she retorted. ‘And if I hadn’t been in your car, we wouldn’t have found Jenny, because Seb would have recognised mine. And I put it through its MOT, and paid for it, so I reckon I’ve earned the right to borrow it. Occasionally.’

  He looked at Mark and Tim, who were trying not to laugh. ‘She’s your si
ster, control her.’

  It was so good to see Michael joking again. ‘We’ll monitor her, Dad,’ Mark said, with a grin.

  ‘Good. Now, tell me what’s going on. All of it, and let’s see what we can do.’

  It took a long time to fill him in on everything, but the part which seemed to worry him the most was the letters being in transit from the United States to England.

  ‘Anything could happen,’ he said. ‘What if they’re lost? Or customs open the package?’

  ‘It’s better than Steve being searched at the airport and them being discovered. It was a spur of the minute thing to send them off with him, which, in retrospect, was a smart move. They would have found them, if I’d hidden them on the premises. Trust me. They searched everywhere,’ Tim said.

  Mark’s phone rang out, and he checked the screen. ‘Gainsborough,’ he said.

  He pressed the receive button, and the others sat and waited for him to finish. He said, ‘thank you,’ and disconnected.

  Walking to the window, he leaned his head against the pane.

  ‘Mark …?’ Erin said.

  He turned to face them.

  ‘That was Gainsborough telling me I can have Grace’s body now. The coroner has finished with her, and we can have her taken to the funeral home of our choice. I can’t do this, anymore. I can’t.’

  He walked out of the room, leaving the other three to stare as the door softly closed.

  ‘How much more do we have to take?’ Erin whispered.

  Michael took hold of her hand. ‘Go find him,’ he said. ‘Take him home, where he can cry.’

  They both nodded, and followed Mark out of the door. When they caught up with him, he was leaning against the Lexus.

  ‘I need a cigarette.’

  ‘You don’t smoke.’ Erin clicked the doors open. ‘Now, get in the car, and let’s go home. We’re here for you, Mark, all of us.’

  32

  By Monday morning, the rain had stopped, but it was an overcast day exactly matching Mark’s mood. He had slept very little, conscious he would have to organise his little girl’s funeral in a few hours.