by Agatha Frost
“Just keep your mouth shut, and so will I, Detective Sergeant Christie,” Barker said, his hand still firmly on the bottom of Julia’s back. “You know she’s good.”
“I know she is.”
“’She’ is still here,” Julia said, looking between the two men. “What is going on here?”
“You’ve got a minute,” DS Christie instructed, stepping back from the door. “The forensics team is on its way. You can’t touch a thing.”
“She knows how this works.”
“How what works?” Julia asked, feeling like a fish out of water. “You’re not seriously suggesting I –”
Before Julia could finish her sentence, Barker pushed her through the open door and into the darkened room, the only light coming from the slither of moonlight peeking through the closed curtains. She followed the silvery streak of light to Luke’s wide, blank eyes.
“Jesus!” Julia cried, wanting to look away, but feeling compelled to stare. “I wasn’t expecting him to still be here.”
“Just look around, Julia,” Barker instructed, as though she was suddenly working for him. “This is my nephew. I can’t be objective here. You’re the best detective I’ve ever met, and I’ve worked with a lot. I’m including myself on that list.”
Julia believed every word that had just left Barker’s mouth, so much so, she almost forgot she was just a baker who owned a little village café.
“I stumble upon these things,” she said, almost under her breath. “I talk to people, I don’t inspect crime scenes.”
Barker stepped back into the doorway, unable to look at his dead nephew twisted up in the sheets on the bed. It was not easy for Julia either, but Barker’s encouraging words spurred her on. She knew she could do it because Barker needed her to. She had lost count of the number of bodies she had seen so far this year, but it did not make each new one any easier.
She looked at the poor boy, his bloodshot eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling. Red marks, like those of two thick hands, covered his pale neck, and his slightly parted lips were purple. He was naked, but the sheets covered his modesty. Just like when she had first met him, his phone was in his hand, and Julia was surprised his thumb was still on the button and the screen was unlocked, if not a little dim.
“Must be one of those fingerprint things,” she thought aloud, leaning into the phone, knowing she could not touch a thing.
The camera application was open, the white sheets underneath reflecting through the screen. In the corner, Julia could see a tiny preview of the last picture that had been taken. She squinted, her eyesight not the best. Why was she putting off her eye test? She wanted so badly to press the picture to enlarge it, but they trusted her not to contaminate the scene. Instead, she put herself into the minds of the youngsters downstairs who always had their phones in their hands. She pulled her own out of her pocket, quickly opening the camera. She zoomed in as far as it would go, the grainy camera nowhere near as good as the one in the dead boy’s hand. Regardless, she snapped a couple of pictures of the tiny preview in the corner, hoping and praying it would show something.
She pushed her phone back into her pocket, knowing she did not have time to analyse the picture yet; her minute was quickly running out. She stepped back and looked at the curtains, and then at the LED clock on the bedside table. It was not even seven in the evening yet.
“Why was he in bed?” Julia thought aloud. “And right before his uncle’s surprise birthday party?”
Julia stepped back, stumbling over a bottle of lotion. Barker shot her a stern ‘be careful’ look, his eyes trained on his wristwatch. She looked down at the bottle, which had spilled into a puddle on the carpet. For a moment, she thought she had been the one to knock it over, until she noticed a single boot print in the white cream. She snapped another picture, this time with her flash turned on, the white light illuminating faint footprints leading through the lotion up to the side of the bed.
“Time’s up,” DS Christie called into the room. “Forensics just pulled up. Get her out of there, boss.”
Not needing to be told twice, Julia hurried across the room and slipped back into the bright hallway. She looked down at the picture she had just taken, pinching on the screen to zoom in on the white footprints on the dark carpet.
“Well?” DS Christie demanded. “Make it worth my time. I didn’t find a thing in there.”
“It’s not that simple,” Julia said. “I’m not a clairvoyant, Detective Sergeant.”
“You said she’d figure this out,” DS Christie snapped, pinching between his brows, his eyes clenched. “I could lose my job over this.”
“Julia?” Barker asked hopefully. “Did you find anything?”
“He took a picture on his phone,” Julia offered. “It might have been before, or during the murder.”
“Unless it’s a close up of the killer, how’s that going to help?” DS Christie snapped, clearly already exhausted with his colleague’s girlfriend. “Jesus, Barker. I trusted you on this one. She can’t breathe a word of this to anyone! We’ll both be sacked, and Mandy has just had a baby. I can’t afford to lose my job because your girlfriend is some wonder sleuth.”
“You’re not going to be sacked,” Barker said quietly, glancing at the forensics team as they walked through the front doors. “This is on me, okay?”
“Better be.”
The forensics team hurried up the stairs in their white suits, each carrying two boxes. Barker dragged Julia away from the door while DS Christie talked to them.
“He’s stressed,” Barker explained. “Someone broke into the post office just before this. It rattled Shilpa right up according to the officers down there. They caught them all at the scene, so the station is rammed with processing everything. He’s usually nice, I promise you.”
“I’m sure he is,” Julia muttered through pursed lips as she watched DS Christie drag his tie away from his neck. “Murder brings out the worst in people.”
Julia pulled her phone out of her pocket and skimmed past the pictures of the carpet to the grainy and blurry photograph of the preview from Luke’s phone. She turned it around, unsure of what she was looking at.
“What does that look like to you?” she asked, showing the flesh coloured blur to Barker.
“A bottom,” he said, tilting his head and grabbing the phone from Julia. “A very round bottom. I think so, at least. There’s a curve there that looks like one.”
“You think?” Julia asked, taking the phone back, not as convinced. “You need to pass on the message that they need to check it out. And there are footprints in there. They might belong to the killer.”
Barker nodded, his eyes distant as he stared down at the lavish glittering chandelier hanging over the entrance. Julia slid her hands softly around his waist and pulled him into a tight hug.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the guilt rising up again. “I’m so sorry this has happened.”
“It’s not your fault,” Barker said. “We need to figure this out.”
“We will.”
“Tonight.”
“Tonight?” Julia echoed, her voice catching in her throat as she pulled away from his chest. “How?”
“DS Christie, is the station still packed?” Barker called across the landing to the DS who was talking on the phone.
“They’ve just brought in a bunch of kids who stole a car over on the Fern Moore Estate,” he cried, rolling his eyes as his jaw gritted tightly. “What’s happening in this village tonight? Is there a full moon?”
Barker tapped his finger against his chin as he looked down at the carpet running down the hallway, nodding as though a plan was forming in his mind.
“Okay, John,” Barker called to the DS. “Cordon this place off. No one comes in or out. I want all of the officers we can get circling the perimeter, and I want a road block put in place for the lane. Julia, can you gather everyone in the living-room? It’s time I faced my family.”
“Are you sure that’s wis
e, boss?” DS Christie asked, his voice softening. “The victim is your nephew, and you’re not on duty. You’ll be going rogue.”
“Are you going to snitch on me, DS Christie?”
“Of course not, boss.”
“Then as of now, I am on duty. You said it yourself, the station is rammed and we just don’t have the resources available right now. Once forensics are out of here, they’ll take my nephew away, and it’ll be sunrise before anything else official happens, and it might be too late by then. We’re cracking this tonight.” Barker paused, clasping his hands over Julia’s shoulders. “A member of my family killed Luke, and I’m not leaving until I’m dragging them out of here in handcuffs. You don’t have to help, but I think we’ll get there a lot sooner if you do.”
“I wasn’t going to give you a choice, Barker Brown,” Julia said, ignoring the excited gurgle in her stomach at the prospect of working alongside Barker on a case. “We’ll figure this out.”
5
Barker paced up and down in front of the fireplace underneath his giant ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARKER!’ banner. Balloons branded with the message scattered the room, the thickest concentration surrounding the buffet table in front of the large windows on the far side of the room. Untouched silver foil covered the twenty or so different plates.
Casper and Heather were sitting on one couch, with Bella and Conrad standing behind them. Theo lingered by the drinks cabinet, his arms folded across his chest. His identical twin, Ethan, was on the opposite side of the room in front of the buffet table, staring blankly at the floor, his face pale and eyes red. Dawn sobbed into his chest, only highlighting the deafening silence that had fallen on the room when Barker had strode in.
“How has this happened?” Heather asked, a tissue pressed against her nose, her free hand clasped around her husband’s. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Barker continued to pace, every muscle in his face tight as he concentrated on his thoughts. Julia had not seen him so tense before.
“One of you did this,” Barker said suddenly without stopping. “One of you killed Luke.”
“Barker –” Casper started.
“You all come here, and he’s killed within twenty-four hours,” Barker snapped, turning to face his family, making sure to look each of them in the eyes, except for Ethan and Dawn who seemed to be somewhere else entirely. “It’s not a coincidence, Casper.”
“Why would any of us want to kill him?” Bella said through her sniffles. “You sound crazy, Uncle Barker.”
Julia smiled her support across the room at Barker, but he was too deep in thought to notice.
“I’m going to interview each of you,” he said, looking around the room again. “I don’t expect you all to tell the truth, in fact, I expect the opposite.”
“Is that really necessary?” Theo asked, forcing a laugh and stepping forward to join his daughter. “None of us did it. We weren’t the only ones in this house, Barker.”
“So, you’re suggesting a heavily pregnant woman strangled him?” Barker replied, his eyes narrowing on his older brother. “Or what about Julia’s father, who only met the kid yesterday afternoon?”
Theo opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. He wrapped his hand around Bella’s shoulder, pulling her away from her boyfriend, who looked just as dumbfounded as he had in the kitchen.
“Julia, can you tell your father to prepare his study?” Barker asked, finally looking at her. “I’m going to start right away.”
Julia turned on her heels and headed for the foot of the stairs, leaving Barker in the frosty silence with his family.
When she reached the top of the stairs, she crept along the hallway to the master bedroom. She had no idea if this was where her father would be, but she had a good idea it was where Katie would be.
“What?” Katie’s shrill voice cried out after Julia knocked. “What do you want?”
Julia twisted the firm doorknob and crept into the dimly lit room. Katie was in the centre of the mammoth bed, her large bump jutting up towards the canopy draped over the four-poster frame surrounding her. Brian was perched on the edge of the bed, one hand wrapped around Katie’s and the other rubbing the deep creases across his forehead.
“Julia,” Katie said, a little more softly, able to muster a smile. “How did you get in here? They’re keeping us as prisoners!”
“I snuck in,” she confessed as she approached Katie’s side of the bed, the crystal beaded lamp on her bedside table barely enough to light the entire room. “How are you feeling?”
“Confused,” Katie responded, her makeup-covered face looking a little worse for wear after the events of the last hour. “I found him. I thought it was so rude that he was choosing to sleep, and well – I guess he wasn’t sleeping, after all.”
Julia grabbed Katie’s free hand, and the two women shared a rare moment of genuine connection. The last thing Julia wanted was for Katie’s stress levels to rise, especially so close to her due date.
“It’s bringing back awful memories,” Katie said, her acrylic nails digging into Julia’s palm. “It’s reminding me of when that boy pushed my brother, Charles, out of the window, and you and Barker thought I’d done it!”
“That was a long time ago,” Brian reminded her. “We’ve moved past that.”
“I know, I know,” Katie said, shaking her head and disrupting her blonde curls. “It’s not fair for us. Why our house? Daddy is shaken up!”
Katie let go of Julia’s hand and pointed into the corner of the room. Julia followed her finger, her heart jumping when she noticed Vincent Wellington sitting silently in the corner of the room in his wheelchair. He stared blankly at the carpet as he always did. If he was aware of what was happening in his house, he had no way of expressing it. Julia glanced at her father, who could only offer a slight shrug as a way of explanation.
“Did anything happen today?” Julia asked, edging closer to Katie. “Anything that might have prompted this?”
“Today has been pretty quiet,” Brian said. “But last night was a different story.”
“What happened?”
“Hilary spent all night cooking a lovely dinner for everyone. I invited the whole family to the dining room for the meal, but only Casper and Heather showed up. Ethan and Dawn ordered Chinese and ate it in their room. I didn’t even see Luke until earlier today. He was digging around in the kitchen looking for some beer. I gave him a couple of cans to take up to his room because I knew he wouldn’t be coming out. He was constantly tapping away on that phone of his the whole time I was trying to talk to him.”
“And that’s when I heard Heather arguing with Luke,” Katie jumped in, looking at her husband to let him know she was going to take over. “I was in the bathroom on the landing because our en suite toilet isn’t flushing properly. I was drying my hands when I heard raised voices. It’s my house, so I had every right to listen in. I emptied out the toothbrush holder and placed it against the door. I saw it in a movie, and it actually worked!” Katie paused, giggling proudly at her method of eavesdropping. “I could tell it was Luke because of that London accent. He said something about an app, and then Heather snapped back something about money.”
“That’s when I came upstairs,” Brian said. “They scattered and went into their own bedrooms, and we didn’t see them again until this morning.”
“They were arguing about an app?” Julia asked, scratching the side of her head. “Like a phone app?”
“It could have been an apple,” Katie said with a shrug. “But why would they be arguing about an apple?”
“Why would they be arguing about an app?” Julia thought aloud. “How strange. There was definitely tension coming from Casper and Heather when they saw Luke yesterday.”
“They’re a strange family,” Katie said. “Barker seems like the only normal one.”
“And Casper,” Brian said firmly. “Casper is a good man.”
Suddenly remembering what Barker had asked her to do, Julia rela
yed the information to her father. He did not seem too happy about letting them use his study, but he left the room all the same.
“Did anything happen in the run up to the murder?”
“I didn’t see anyone who arrived yesterday until it was almost time for the party,” Katie said. “There was a lot of slamming doors, and raised voices, but nothing I could make out. Theo and his daughter arrived with that handsome boy this afternoon. Bella, I think she’s called. She’s lovely. She said she’d promote my fake tan brand when I get it off the ground.”
“For a small fee?”
“She said she’d give me a family discount,” Katie said excitedly. “She has eleven thousand followers!”
“Conrad has one hundred thousand,” Julia repeated the fact like she understood what it meant. “What did they do all day?”
“They took pictures, mostly,” Katie said, scrunching up her nose as she thought back. “Bella said it was the perfect place for a photo shoot. They took their pictures on their phones. It was nothing like my modelling days.”
Katie nodded to the canvasses lining the walls, more of her body on show than Julia was comfortable with seeing.
“It seems to be their thing,” Julia said. “It’s Conrad’s job, apparently.”
“Taking pictures of himself?” Katie asked arching a brow, making Julia glad she was not the only one who did not really understand. “He is very handsome.”
“He is,” Julia found herself saying before she even thought about it. “A little self-involved, if you ask me.”
“The good looking ones usually are,” Katie said with a shrug as she tossed her peroxide hair over her shoulder. “Can you pass me my handbag? I need a touch-up. My T-zone is an oily mess. I want to look my best if they’re going to take another mug shot.”
“You’re going to be fine,” Julia said, reaching down to pass Katie her black designer handbag. “Unless you did it?”
“I don’t think I could if I wanted to,” she said, pointing at the large bump with a giggle. “I haven’t seen my toes in months, and I can barely carry anything over five pounds.”