Skeletons

by Robert Innes

  “When I got home, I heard someone in the study. I assumed it was David, but then when I opened the door, there he was. My husband. I’m honestly amazed I didn’t die from shock there and then, on top of everything else.”

  “I can’t say I blame you for that,” Blake said. “Fair to say you’d had quite a trying day up to that point.”

  “Patrick was looking for his passport,” Angela continued. “Trying to get away from Harmschapel forever, seeing as he had just apparently been buried, but then I walked in and we were suddenly faced with each other. I can’t quite remember what happened before you burst in, but he just flipped at me. Trying to keep me quiet after I screamed, I suppose, but by then it was rather too late because you had already heard. After he had escaped through the window, I had to think fast. I knew that him standing there, somehow, would mean that you would have to open his grave to see who had just been buried.”

  “Which we did that night,” Blake said. “So, after we’d spoken to you here, what happened?”

  Angela took a deep breath, her hands shaking. “I just wanted it all to be over by that point,” she said quietly. “You have to remember that I had no idea about Patrick lying to me for all those years. As far as I was concerned, my husband died next to me in that car crash. I wanted answers, but I also needed to get out of the village as soon as possible before you discovered who was in that coffin. I rang him and for some reason he answered. I told him that I wanted him to tell me the truth and we met up. We went to some greasy spoon café in Clackton. Patrick had worked fast, I’ll give him that. He had even managed to hire a cheap car to make up for the one that had blown up and apparently killed him. Then he told me everything.”

  Blake opened the case file again and pulled out the picture he had found in the desk drawer in the study. “Did he explain to you who this woman was?”

  Angela picked up the photograph and studied it, looking surprised. “Where did you find this?”

  “In the locked drawer of the study,” Blake replied.

  Angela’s expression suggested that Blake had just given her a final piece of a puzzle. “Oh, so this is what he kept in there.”

  “That and a red book where the two brothers exchanged day to day information the other one needed to know about. Do you know which brother that is or who the woman is?”

  “So, this is her,” Angela murmured, staring at the beautiful woman in the picture. “Evelyn. Patrick told me all about her in the café. Years ago, before I came along, he had met this woman, and the pair of them had fallen instantly in love. She was everything he could ever dream of and more. They were married a week after they turned eighteen. It was love’s young dream. Until the accident.”

  “What accident?”

  “Patrick and Evelyn had gone to a party one evening and Colin had agreed that he would drive them there and back. Colin was young and reckless in those days, he was a show off. He had just bought a new car and was speeding it along, breaking all the speed limits with Patrick in the back seat and Evelyn in the front. He missed a set of traffic lights and they drove straight into the back of a lorry. Evelyn was instantly killed. I think, from what Patrick was saying, it was that moment that turned him into such a bitter and twisted individual. When the police were interviewing them, Patrick told them that Colin had been trying to avoid a deer in the road, and because the forensics weren’t as in-depth and clever as they are nowadays, the police could not prove otherwise. He stopped Colin from going to prison and being the person responsible for Evelyn’s death in the eyes of her family. It was a just a tragic accident that nobody could have avoided. But Patrick now had Colin’s life in his hands. As far as he was concerned, Colin had taken away the only thing that gave Patrick’s life any meaning. A few months later, Colin and I met, and Patrick forced him into sharing me. He wasn’t even attracted to me in any way, he just wanted to cause Colin as much pain as he had caused him.”

  Blake‘s eyes widened. “So, they led a double life keeping you completely in the dark, all so Patrick could punish his brother for causing Evelyn’s death?”

  Angela nodded. “Patrick does mental cruelty better than anyone I know. I just didn’t realise that it wasn’t just me he was making miserable for all those years. Colin was the man I fell in love with, the man I stayed for. And Patrick did all he could to try and make me hate him. If Colin ever tried to go back on the plan, and he apparently did, so many times over the years, then it was enough to threaten him with going to the police and exposing him to get him to comply. The day he died though, Patrick thinks he was going to tell me everything. He did start to tell me something, but then he was going too fast and lost control of the car.”

  For a few moments, Blake was in awe of what he was hearing. He could not believe that anybody would or could be so cruel as Patrick to put his brother and his wife through such torture for so many years. He reasoned that after so many years, the double life would be easier to carry out and a routine would be established, but the thought of not understanding why you were being forced into hating the man you had fallen in love with because he was punishing his brother for an accident from years ago just baffled Blake beyond all measure.

  “What was your plan when you found all of this out?” Blake asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “By that time, you had found Annie’s body in the grave,” Angela replied. “Effectively, me and Patrick were both supposed to be dead, so we had to get away. He promised that he would help set me up with some money and somewhere to live, and then promised that he would be out of my life forever and I could finally move on. All he needed to do was get our passports and we could leave the country. So, he went back to the undertakers once he thought it was safe.”

  “But ran into David Penn.”

  “Oh, David,” Angela said sadly. “He was an outlet for me, somewhere to go when Patrick was at his cruellest. It was fairly one sided, I hate to admit. Just a bit of a shoulder to cry on and the occasional trip up to the bedroom, but David wanted more. Colin hired him, but he didn’t get along with Patrick. Anyway, when Patrick went to get the passports, David apparently came poking around looking for evidence that Patrick wasn’t really dead. Then you arrived. I’m sorry to put your policing skills to shame, but Patrick was apparently there, in the room for the entire conversation. He was hidden behind the curtains in the corner of the room. He was fully expecting you to catch him there and then, but you never looked there. When you’d gone though, David found him, and Patrick says he had no choice but to silence him. He says it was the only course of action available to him, though if you ask me I don’t think he needed any excuse. They’d hated each other for years.”

  Blake glanced up at the clock on the wall. “I’m going to have a word with my colleagues,” he said. “I think we could do with a break. Interview suspended at 12:58.” He clicked the button on the recorder and stood up.

  “Thank you,” Angela said as Blake was leaving the room. “Before all this madness, when you were just a policeman trying to help a member of the public. You were one of the kindest men I’d ever met. You actually made me think I had a future away from Patrick. That young man you’re with, Harrison. He’s a very lucky man. Just make sure he’s careful to never treat you badly. You don’t deserve that.”

  Blake turned to her and shook his head. “I was just doing my job. And, I’m the lucky one. Trust me.”

  And with a final tight smile, he left Angela Coopland alone in the interview room.

  That Night

  Harrison and Sally were open mouthed as they listened to everything Blake was telling them. When he had finally finished talking, Harrison refilled their wine glasses.

  “That is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most bonkers and unbelievable story I have ever heard in my life,” Sally said in amazement. “That poor cow.”

  “I can’t get over the fact that they were both twins,” Blake replied, sucking on his ecig. “This whole case would have been so much less complicated if Angela�
�s sister was a short, dumpy blonde, but they looked absolutely identical. If it had been obvious who she was, we could have put the whole thing to bed so much sooner.”

  “Leading a double life like that though,” Harrison said. “Where did the other twin go when he wasn’t playing the husband?

  “To a rented apartment in Clackton, apparently,” Blake replied. “They just made sure that the other knew if he and Angela were in the area so that they wouldn’t accidently come across each other in the street. After so many years, it became second nature. Absolutely crazy, but there we are.”

  “And all because of a car crash from years ago,” Sally mused. “Just goes to show that you don’t know what skeletons people are hiding in their past. Isn’t our job fun?”

  “Oh, so much fun,” Blake replied sarcastically.

  Behind Harrison’s head, Blake’s phone began ringing on the table. He picked it up and looked at the screen, before passing it to Blake. “It’s Nathan.”

  “Oh, God,” Blake gasped, placing his wine down. “He’s got his results. I better speak to him.” He hurried out of the room and answered the phone.

  Harrison watched Blake disappear and shook his head. “I don’t think I could handle being a police officer. You have to deal with so many mental people.”

  “Oh, you get used to it,” Sally replied, yawning. “It can just drain you. Personally, I think caffeine should be available to coppers in IV form.”

  Blake appeared from the kitchen, shaking his head in utter disbelief. “Right,” he said into his phone. “Well, Nathan, please don’t be offended when I say I would be quite happy to never hear from you again after all the trouble you’ve caused me recently. You’re welcome. I will say though, good luck with your treatment and let it be a lesson to you in the future. Bye!”

  He threw the phone down and burst out laughing. “Oh, I’m going to hell,” he chuckled.

  “We know that,” Sally replied, sipping her wine. “What did he have to say for himself?”

  “Nathan has gonorrhoea,” Blake said. “He reckons he got it from a lad he met on a night out last month. Nothing to do with who he slept with when we were still together. The guy is such a slut, honestly.”

  “A stupid one who doesn’t cover himself up,” Sally added.

  Blake groaned and stretched. “Right, well now that has all finally been put to bed, I’m going to have a long hot bath. Keep yourselves entertained. Leave me at least one glass to come back to?”

  “Spoilsport,” Harrison called as he watched Blake climb the stairs.

  When he heard the bathroom door close, Harrison glanced out of the living room window and across to Jacqueline’s house where he knew Tom would be sitting at home.

  “Have you spoken to him since he tried to kiss you?” Sally asked, watching him.

  “No,” Harrison murmured. “And I don’t know what I’d say to him anyway.”

  “And you think he’s staying around here?” Sally asked. “I hope he doesn’t cause you any trouble, or he’ll have me to deal with. I told him that.”

  Harrison watched as the front door to Jacqueline’s house opened and Tom stepped out carrying a bin liner full of rubbish which he deposited in the nearest wheelie bin. As he walked back towards the house, he saw Harrison watching him. “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Harrison said as Tom stood in the doorway to the cottage, continuing to watch Harrison until the door closed, looking moody and most unlike the friendly guy that he had been when Harrison had first met him. “He’s only my landlady’s son. What’s the worst that could happen?”

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  Also by Robert Innes

  The Blake Harte Mystery Series

  Untouchable

  Confessional

  Ripples

  Reach

  Spotlight

  Flatline

  Skeletons

  The Gold & Silver Mystery Series

  The Hung Jury

  The Poison Pen