by Sherri Bryan
“Well, Adam doesn’t object to them at all. He quite likes, them, in fact.”
Ava’s face took on the expression that Charlotte had seen many times. It was the expression that told you she didn’t believe a word you were saying.
“Anyway, let’s change the subject. Tell us, dear, how did you and Adam meet?”
Ava and Harriett could hardly contain themselves to be attending a party at which their heartthrob’s wife was one of the guests. “Cindy and Brenda are going to be green with envy when we tell them. We must get some selfies,” Ava had whispered to Harriett earlier, “or they’ll never believe us.”
“Well, it’s not a very exciting story,” said Ruby. “I’m sure you don’t want to hear it.”
“On the contrary, my dear, we absolutely do. Hold on for just a second, though.”
Ava plonked herself down on the couch next to a startled Ruby, her face fixed with a manic grin, and stuck her thumb in the air. Nudging Ruby in the ribs she said, “Say cheese, dear—Harriett, take it now! Now, Harriett! Right, carry on, dear.” As if nothing had happened, she moved back to her chair and assumed an attentive pose.
“Erm, right…well, I was Adam’s programme researcher when he worked for the TV station. We knew each other for a couple of years before we even went on a date. I suppose I never considered him in a romantic way because he was my boss and he was quite a bit older than me.
“Anyway, we were working late one night and when we left the office, he invited me to join him for a bite to eat. He said that buying me dinner was the least he could do for keeping me so late. And that’s where it all started. Ruby laughed. “See, I told you it wasn’t very exciting.”
“Not being rude but wasn’t he married when you got together?” Betty spooned a mouthful of blackberry and apple crumble and ice cream into her mouth.
“Betty!” Charlotte chided
“No, please don’t worry, it’s okay.” Ruby smiled and nodded. “Yes, he was, but he’d been living apart from his wife for a long time. She wouldn’t file for divorce on religious grounds and he just never got around to it so they stayed married, but estranged, for years. Of course, when we decided to get married, he had to get around to it! We had a small ceremony in my hometown—very low-key—and that’s about all there is to tell, really.”
“Oh, how romantic!” Ava clasped her hands over her heart. “And tell me, dear, what’s he really like? I mean, behind closed doors? Is he as delightful as we all imagine him to be? Harriett and I are very good friends with the founding members of ‘The Pittettes’, you know, and those who are lucky enough to have met him all say he’s an absolute charmer.”
Ruby smiled. “Well, he has his off days but, generally, yes, he’s quite the ladies’ man. To be honest, I didn’t quite know what to make of ‘The Pittettes’ when I first heard about them. It still strikes me as a bit weird that Adam has his own little fan club but I’ve met a few members myself and they’ve all been very nice. I’ve been jostled a few times while they’ve been trying to get to Adam for an autograph but, otherwise, they’ve been very kind to me. And it’s amazing how knowledgeable they are about Adam’s life—some of them remember more about it than he does!”
“Fascinating” said Ava. “I can only hope that we have the honour of meeting the great man ourselves one day.”
“Well, I’ll tell him you’re a fan.” Ruby patted Ava’s hand. “I know he’ll be delighted.”
“Owwwwwww!” A cry of pain from Charlotte brought the conversation to an abrupt halt, prompting Jess, Laura, and Aunt Lola to rush to her side immediately.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Laura pushed Charlotte’s hair back off her face.
“Owwwwwww! Oooh, I don’t know. I’ve had a twinge in my back for a while and it suddenly got worse.”
“A while! How long’s a while?” Lola caught her niece’s hand in a vice-like grip.
“A week or so, maybe a bit longer. I thought it was wind.”
“Should I call an ambulance?” Jess’s wide eyes were anxious.
“Is she having contractions?” said Harriett.
“Do you think that’s what it is, love?” asked Laura
“I don’t know; I’ve never had one before, but the pain’s moving around to my stomach.” Charlotte’s face was pinched with pain.
“Yes, Jess, get the ambulance,” Laura took her phone from her back pocket, “and I’ll call Nathan.”
“Look, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about…owwwww! Please don’t feel like you have to go home, everyone, the party only just got going and there’s so much food and drink.” Charlotte forced a smile. “Stay and enjoy yourself, I’m sure I’ll be back soon and I don’t want to come back to an empty house. Owwwww! I just need someone to come in the ambulance with me and someone to stay here and look after everyone till I get back.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jess, Laura, Aunt Lola, and Ava all spoke at the same time.
“Oh, please don’t make me pick one of you. Just choose someone…owwwww!”
“Right, there’s only one fair way to do this. Scissors, paper, stone.” Jess started the selection process and it took less than a minute to decide that Laura would go in the ambulance with Charlotte.
“It’s here!” Ruby ran to open the door and Charlotte was soon being tended to by the medical personnel.
“Okay, Charlotte, we’re going to take you to hospital for a check-up.” A kindly paramedic with a soothing voice removed the blood pressure sleeve from Charlotte’s arm.
“Is the baby okay?” Her voice wobbled and she bit her lip.
“Everything looks fine. We just want to be sure.” The paramedic reassured her.
“Nathan’s going to meet us there.” Laura grabbed her bag and gave a tearful Jess a quick hug. “Don’t worry, they’ll look after her—I’m sure it’s nothing serious. I’ll call you when there’s any news, okay?”
The door slammed and they were gone, leaving a room full of silence behind them.
“Well, I don’t know about anyone else,” said Jess, “but the last thing I feel like doing is having a party.” She flopped onto the couch and began picking at her cuticles.
“I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, love.” Lola sat next to Jess and squeezed her hand although the expression on her face contradicted her words.
“I knew I should have told Nathan about the pains she’s been having,” said Jess, “but she told me not to worry.”
“Look, you’re not to blame—when I spoke to her a few days ago she told me she was getting twinges—I should have mentioned it to Nathan but I didn’t,” said Lola.
“Well, I hope to God she’ll be okay. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself,” said Jess.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake! Will you two harbingers of doom please stop!” Ava clamped her hands over her ears. “You heard what the paramedic said, didn’t you? Everything looked fine and they just wanted to check Charlotte over at the hospital to be sure.” She put her hands on her hips.
“Now, where’s your fighting spirit? We won’t do Charlotte any good at all if we mope around. We need to raise our energy levels and send her some positive thoughts and we can’t do that if we’re miserable—it’s a physical impossibility.”
“She’s right, you know.” Harriett flicked through the CD collection. “20 Sing-Along, Feel Good Tracks. Right, that should do it.” She slipped a disc into the CD player and the opening bars to Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ flooded the room.
“Right, come on everyone…hands in the air, that’s it.” Ava swayed from side to side. “Come on, sway along to the music—side to side, that’s the way…you too, Jess.”
“I think Ava and Harriett have finally gone bonkers,” Jess whispered to Lola as she reluctantly raised her arms.
“Oh, and if you’re so inclined, you might like to say a little prayer, too,” said Ava.
Within minutes, the heavy atmosphere in the room had lifted.
“You know what?” Jess turned to Lola. “I take it all back. Those women are bloomin’ marvels. I don’t know how they do it.”
Forty minutes later, the shrill ring of the phone broke through the music. “I’ll get it—you keep swaying.” Ava took off her earring and held the receiver to her ear. “Oh, just a minute. Shush, everyone, it’s Laura. Yes, yes, oh, thank God! Yes, yes, of course we will. Bye. Fabulous news, everyone…Charlotte’s fine.” She punched the air. “Nothing to worry about. She’ll be home in about half an hour.”
As everyone cheered and, as Elvis Presley began to sing about his blue suede shoes, the party started in earnest.
Chapter 8
Adam Pitt sat on the edge of his desk in his home study, phone between his chin and shoulder, fingers moving swiftly over a calculator keyboard as he brought a conversation with his investment broker to a close.
“Listen, as long as they continue to show growth, don’t touch them—if necessary, we’ll talk about moving them at a later date. Okay, Maurice, I’ll leave them in your capable hands. Keep me in the loop.”
He put the phone back in its cradle and opened the door of the study that led into the garden. The sun beat down and he was struck by an uncharacteristic urge to take a break in the middle of the day. I need to get out. Get away from all this for an hour or so.
Stress and fear were unfamiliar emotions to Adam Pitt.
“Stress and fear are for weaklings”, he’d been fond of taunting the office minions who had worked for him over the years but now, it unnerved him that the blackmail attempt was causing him a great deal of both.
What he wanted, more than anything, was to track down the blackmailer himself. He smirked as he dreamed about how he would mete out his own, personal brand of justice when he found the person responsible.
However, with time running out and no conceivable way to locate the extortionist, his resolve was beginning to waver.
It went against every one of his principles to relent to the blackmailer’s demands but he simply couldn’t afford for his secret to become public. It would be the finish of him. He knew he wasn’t a reasonable man—he never had been—but, in the light of Nathan’s refusal to provide him with protection, he’d begun to wonder if perhaps he should heed the blackmailer’s warning and take steps to make amends.
But where to start?
He squinted up at the sky and stretched out his arms, allowing the sunlight to filter through the gaps between his fingers. I’ll think about it when I get back. With Ruby at that cackling women’s get-together and Eddie working from home, I’ll have plenty of time alone to think about the situation in peace. Yes, I’ll figure out what to do later.
With a considerably lighter step than he’d had for a while, he took the stairs two at a time to change into his workout gear.
Five minutes later, as he sat at his desk writing a note before he left for his run, it occurred to him that something was conspicuous by its absence.
As his eyes searched the room for the missing object he heard the sound of a footstep on the wooden floor behind him.
The first blow to the back of the head rendered him unconscious before he’d even had a chance to turn in his chair.
As he slumped forward, the last thing he saw was the email reminder of the secret he’d carried with him for years.
I know what you did.
ººººººº
“I’ll call in and get someone to cover for me. I’ll take the rest of the day off.” Back at the cottage, Nathan helped Charlotte from the car. “Here, let me carry you inside.”
“No! Nathan, I’m fine—really I am. I’ve got Laura and Jess and Lola and everyone else here. I’ll be okay, I promise.” Charlotte reached up and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Go on, go back to work and keep us safe from the bad guys.”
A fretful Nathan raked a hand through his hair. “Are you absolutely sure? I can easily make arrangements to stay with you.”
“Nathan,” Laura put her hand on his arm, “stop worrying. She’s got wind and she’s a little constipated, that’s all. If you really want an update on either, we’ll call you later but, otherwise, relax. Okay?”
“Okay.” He gave Charlotte a hug and raised an eyebrow as the sound of raucous laughter and “The Birdy Song” reached his eardrums. “Right, I’ve been convinced! I’m definitely going.” He grinned and settled himself in the car. He was just about to drive away when his phone rang.
“Sorry to disturb you, Chief, but you’re needed at Adam Pitt’s house as soon as possible.” He could just about make out PC Fiona Farrell’s voice over the crackly connection.
“What’s the problem now?” Exasperation was an emotion Nathan did his best to keep contained, but Adam Pitt had tried his patience to the nth degree.
Following their recent meeting, he’d bombarded Nathan with calls, all in an attempt to persuade him to reconsider his decision not to station a number of permanent officers around his home. And all the calls had gone the same way—they’d started with Nathan politely explaining why, without any proof, he wouldn’t authorise the manpower, and they’d ended with Adam Pitt yelling a stream of profanities before slamming the phone down.
The fact that he seemed to think he was the most important resident in St. Eves and the police force existed simply to be at his personal beck and call, along with the fact that Nathan had a pile of urgent paperwork on his desk that needed attending to, really didn’t inspire him to drop everything and rush round to Adam Pitt’s house.
“Whatever it is, Fiona, can it wait for an hour or so?”
“Not really, Chief.” The line suddenly cleared.
“He’s been murdered.”
ººººººº
“Okay, what do we know so far?”
The gravel drive at the Pitt residence crunched under Nathan’s feet as he approached the house.
“We literally came straight here twenty minutes ago after we got the call from the cleaner who found the body, and then called you. I’ve taken a statement from him but he can’t tell us much.”
“Is there any sign of a break-in? Any forced entry anywhere in the house?”
Fiona shook her head. “No forced entry, but the back door in the kitchen was wide open when the cleaner arrived, as was the door from Mr Pitt’s study into the garden.”
“And where’s Mr Pitt?”
“He’s in the study. Forensics have just arrived and SOCO got here ten minutes ago.”
“Good. Right, let’s have a look at him.”
Adam was slouched over his desk, his cheek pushed into the keyboard of his laptop, a pen in his hand and a bloody wound on the back of his head.
“Any weapon been recovered?”
“Not yet, but we’re on the case.”
Nathan looked around the study. Everything seemed to be in its place with no sign of a struggle. Fiona spoke his thoughts.
“It’s all pretty tidy in here, Chief. Wonder if the killer was a stranger who crept up on him, or someone he knew?”
“Hmm, I wonder.” Nathan couldn’t help but speculate how much of Adam Pitt’s concern for his safety had been based on more than just intuition.
His musings were interrupted by one of the SOCO team.
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a private house with so much security—this place would give Fort Knox a run for its money. It’s ironic that the deceased had all this stuff to keep him safe and yet, on the day he really needed it, it didn’t help him because none of the cameras were switched on. According to the cleaner, there’d been some connectivity problems that required the system to be rebooted several times each day. A technician was coming out to look at it tomorrow, apparently. Anyway, we found this—he was evidently writing this note when he was killed. Might be a good starting point in the investigation.” He handed Nathan an evidence bag containing a piece of paper with a name written on it.
Jill Travis.
“Mean anything, Chief?” asked Fiona.
“No. Not a
thing. So, we’ll need to get on it and make it mean something.”
“And something else you might be interested in.” The SOCO team member pressed a key on Adam’s laptop to take it out of sleep mode. “Take a look at this email.”
“Where did this come from?” Nathan’s expression was grim.
“No idea yet—it’s obviously a fake email account—but we’ll be checking it out ASAP.”
“Make it a priority, will you? I want to know, as a matter of urgency, who sent this message. Okay?”
“It sounds serious.” Fiona read the message again. “I mean, if whoever sent the email is prepared to go to the press, whatever the secret is, it must be pretty incriminating, wouldn’t you say? He didn’t mention anything about being blackmailed to you, did he Chief? When he asked for police protection, I mean?”
“No, not a thing, but I bloody well wish he had.” Nathan looked down at Adam’s body. “Right now, though, we need to tell Ruby Pitt. And we need to find the guy who worked for Adam Pitt. Eric…no, Eddie something or other.”
“We don’t know where Ruby Pitt is yet, Chief; we’ll start looking.”
“Don’t bother.” Nathan sighed heavily. “I know where she is.”
ººººººº
“Hello, Eddie? It’s CI Costello. Listen, can you get to ‘Fisherman’s Cottage’ on the seafront in St. Eves? It’s the white cottage with the hanging baskets, not far from the ‘The President’ hotel. There aren’t any other fisherman’s cottages on that stretch of the seafront so you’ll know it when you see it. Can you come now? No, I’d rather wait for you to get here before I tell you anything. Okay.”
Nathan and Fiona sat outside the cottage, waiting for Eddie to arrive. The plan was to tell him about Adam and then get Ruby out of the party and have him be with her for support when they broke the news. It would also give Nathan an opportunity to gauge Eddie’s body language—a guilty person’s body language gave a lot away.
Without doubt, this was the worst part of the job. Telling someone that a loved one had passed away would never get any easier. And knowing that news of another death, and this time so close to home, would add to Charlotte’s stress, only made it harder.