‘I still don’t know what the hell you were thinking, letting them move in next door.’
‘I wanted them where I could see them. I told you.’
‘Why, though?’
‘Because Natalie Gray has caused me more pain than you could ever know. So I want her to suffer, and I want to be close by so that from time to time I can enjoy the show.’
His visitor walked towards the door, turning at the last minute. ‘I want to see the pictures you took of Scarlett. Send them to me. You know where. But they’re just between us – don’t post them anywhere else.’
‘Why do you need to see them if we’re not going to use them?’
‘I want to see how bad the damage might be, that’s all. But I’m telling you: don’t hurt Scarlett.’
‘I didn’t know you cared so much.’
‘I don’t. But there are others who do, and they’re bloody dangerous. So listen to me for once. Don’t hurt her.’
Lewis kicked the door shut. Since when had he become the underling? Nobody was telling him what to do. He was at the sharp end in all this, and he would do as he fucking wanted. And if that meant a nosy kid had to be dealt with, so be it.
61
‘Tom, have you got a moment?’ Becky asked as Tom walked past on the way to his office, whistling. He was smiling too, and much as she wanted to ask him why, Becky suspected she knew. She had received a large box of chocolates the day before, with a message saying, ‘It would be inappropriate to share any secrets, but I hope this thank you says it all. Lx,’ so she had deduced that things were going well with Tom and Louisa.
Tom stopped. ‘Of course. Here, or in my office?’
‘Here’s fine. I wanted to give you a quick update on Bernie Gray. We got a call yesterday after you left to go to your meeting. It was from a police constable from north Manchester – one of the people Keith had on his board – to say she sent the text message to Bernie just before he died. Her name’s Megan Jenkins.’
‘Ah, so she’s the one he was having an affair with then.’
‘She says not – says it’s a bit more complicated than that – but she’s coming in this morning. I’m going to have a chat with her.’
‘Of course. Do what you have to.’
Tom stepped around Becky to take a brief look at an array of pictures on the board near Keith’s desk.
‘And Jennifer Bale? I guess these are the stills from the pool CCTV.’
‘We’ve identified four of the six men in them,’ Becky told him. ‘Two are staff. One works behind the juice bar and the other is a part-time lifeguard, the one who chucked Jennifer and the boys out of the pool and told them to get dressed and go home. These two’ – Becky tapped two pictures – ‘are regulars. They come in nearly every day according to the barman. They have a swim, straight up and down, fifty lengths each, and then up to the café. They don’t sit close to the viewing window. They have a chat and a cup of coffee and then leave together. He didn’t see them with Jennifer.’
‘And the other two?’
‘We’ve not managed to track them down yet. The barman said he didn’t notice them talking to her, but they were over by the viewing window and they weren’t together. The reception staff at the pool are on the lookout for them. We’ve also shown the pictures to Lauren, Jennifer’s swimming buddy, but she doesn’t think she’s seen either of them before.’
‘We’re not getting very far with young Jennifer, are we?’ Tom said with a gentle sigh.
Becky knew he wanted to do his best for the kid, but they had so little to go on.
‘Excuse me, Tom,’ she said as her phone rang. It appeared Megan Jenkins had arrived. ‘I’ve got to go. I’ll pop in and see you later.’
Tom wandered off towards his office, whistling again. This might just get irritating, Becky thought, as she made her way downstairs to reception.
*
Tom stared at the stack of papers on his desk, which seemed to have grown exponentially in the few hours that he had been away from the office. He sat down with a low groan and started to sort through them.
About halfway down the pile he came across the final report on Jennifer Bale’s death from the crime scene team. He already knew that there were no defence wounds on her body, but the report confirmed that the rooftop showed no signs of a struggle either. There were no drag marks or scuffing, and the conclusion was clear. Jennifer killed herself, just as they had suspected.
There would be an inquest, but the body could now be released for burial or cremation, and Tom had the unhappy task of telling the Bales this latest news. At least it would put an end to their uncertainty, but he wasn’t sure whether that was a blessing or not.
62
‘PC Jenkins?’ Becky asked, walking towards a small woman whose tailored trousers showed off her slim waist, just as her short-sleeved shirt exposed muscular biceps. Becky imagined that without the well-defined and probably hard-earned muscles, this woman would have the body of a china doll.
Megan Jenkins gave Becky a wide if slightly jittery smile.
‘That’s me. And I can tell you this is the last place I want to be right now.’
Becky could understand that. They were investigating the death of a fellow officer, and any connection with such an event was always uncomfortable. She held out her hand. ‘DI Becky Robinson,’ she said, feeling a firm grip from the other woman and a slightly damp palm. ‘Let’s go and find somewhere comfortable to talk.’
When the two women were seated Becky suggested that they cut the formalities as this was just a chat. ‘Call me Becky,’ she said. ‘And I hope it’s okay if I call you Megan.’
Megan shuffled around in her seat a bit, then took a deep breath as if to relax her shoulders.
‘Look,’ she said. ‘Let’s cut to the chase. I know that Scarlett Gray told you she found a text on her dad’s phone with the words I love you, and she assumed the message was from his mistress. It wasn’t – it was from me.’
‘And you said on the phone that you weren’t having an affair with Bernard Gray. Is that right?’
Megan leaned forward, eager to make her point. ‘Absolutely. That’s not something that would ever have happened. I don’t make a point of telling people this, and probably Bernie’s the only one who knew, but I’m not keen on men. As friends and colleagues they’re great, but I certainly have no desire to have a sexual relationship with one.’
Becky nearly smiled as Megan’s face showed how clearly she thought that wasn’t an appetising idea.
‘I spent so much of my life hiding it – my dad would have totally flipped – so I don’t get involved in relationships. Things are much easier in the job now, as you know, but keeping it to myself is a hard habit to break.’
‘So why tell Bernie Gray that you loved him, then?’
‘Because I did love Bernie. He was my mate, my best mate. He was kind, funny and a bit inclined to be impetuous, and at the time I sent the text he was in need of support. That’s what I was offering.’
‘But you withheld your number. Why would you do that?’ Becky asked, liking this woman for her honesty.
‘I have my phone set like that all the time. I don’t know why. To do with my secrecy habit, I suppose.’
‘Scarlett seemed to remember there was rather more to the text. Something about telling the truth? What was going on in Bernie’s life, Megan? You obviously thought he had to come clean about something. What was it?’
Megan sat back in her chair and was silent for a moment, clearly trying to find the right words.
‘This must never get back to Natalie or Scarlett. Can you promise that?’
‘You know I can’t do that. If it opens a new line of enquiry it may be necessary to talk to Mrs Gray. But you do need to tell me. You get that, don’t you?’
Megan blew out a long breath. ‘I guess I do. Shit, this is such a bloody mess.’
Becky didn’t interrupt the moment of silence.
‘Okay,’ Megan said, leaning f
orward again to rest her forearms on her knees. ‘Bernie did something very stupid about a year before he died. There was a party. Natalie was supposed to be coming with him, but Scarlett wasn’t well so she told Bernie to go without her.’
There was another pause, and Megan swallowed hard. Becky poured some water into a glass and passed it to her.
‘Thanks, Becky. I needed that,’ Megan said, having emptied the glass in one go. ‘Bernie got pissed. We all did, except Ed. That’s Edward Cooper, another copper. The party was at his house, and he’s Captain Sensible most of the time.’
‘Yes, we know about him. Go on.’
‘The party went on into the small hours, and Ed wanted to take Bernie home, but Bernie said he was going to walk to sober up. The trouble was, he didn’t go straight home.’
Becky was sure she knew what was coming. ‘Ah. So he was having an affair after all. Scarlett was right, even though it wasn’t with you.’
‘If only it were that straightforward.’
‘What do you mean?’ Becky asked.
Megan lifted one arm and ruffled her mop of curly dark hair, clearly trying to think of how best to word her explanation.
‘One of the women from the party asked if he’d walk her back to her house. It was about three in the morning by that time, so he agreed. She suggested he went in for a cup of coffee on the basis that he couldn’t go home to Natalie in the state he was in.’
Becky had heard enough. She didn’t need the dots joining.
‘Okay, I get the picture. He gave in to temptation and took what was on offer.’
‘I don’t think it was that simple. Bernie was a really good-looking guy – he’d been propositioned many times and managed to resist. He says he fell asleep on her sofa – or more likely passed out – and had no recollection of having sex with anyone, but when he came round he was on the floor with his trousers undone. He was horrified, got himself up off the floor and staggered home. He told Natalie he’d stayed at mine, and she accepted that. I covered for him. The problem was that the woman wasn’t about to let it go. She said she needed to see him. They needed to talk about it. He didn’t think there was anything to be said, but she sounded a bit hysterical and he didn’t want her turning up on his doorstep, so he went.’
Okay,’ Becky said. ‘I can see where this is going. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just tell his wife?’
‘Have you met Natalie?’
Becky nodded. ‘She seems a sensible woman.’
Megan pulled a rueful face. ‘Natalie is a lovely woman and Bernie adored her, but she is an incurable romantic. She has no ability to deal with harsh truths, and she had a zero-tolerance policy, as she called it, on infidelity. Bernie was absolutely terrified that he would lose her and Scarlett if he ever admitted it. And let’s face it, how many women are sensible if their husband owns up to screwing someone else?’
Becky had to admit that she had a point. ‘So what happened?’
‘When he went to see this woman it was all tears and regrets – what had they done, etcetera. She said she thought they should come clean about it, and Bernie nearly flipped. Then he realised she was pulling the old bunny-boiler stunt – you know, keep seeing me or I’ll spill the beans – and he told her it was her word against his, so she could do her worst. That’s when she played her trump card.’
‘Which was?’
‘She said they would just have to hope she wasn’t pregnant. They hadn’t taken any precautions, it seems. Bernie knew that if someone other than Natalie had his child it would break her heart. She couldn’t have any more after Scarlett, and she’d really struggled with that.’
‘Oh Lord,’ Becky said, wondering why she ever had a drink when she saw the mess it got people into.
‘Bernie begged her to say nothing until they were sure. She said all she wanted from him was his support until they knew one way or the other.’
‘And?’
‘Ten days later she confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. She provided him with the evidence, although if I’d been Bernie I’d have made her pee on a stick in front of my own eyes, rather than just show him the finished product. She could have bought it online or got a pregnant friend to pee on it for her, for God’s sake. Or if there really was a baby on the way, who was to say at this point who the father was?’
‘Do you think she was pregnant? Or was it a ruse?’
‘What do you think? Bernie believed the evidence, though, and she demanded a lot of his time while they tried to work out what they were going to do. All the while he was putting off the dreadful moment when he would have to tell Natalie.’
‘I presume he never did,’ Becky said.
‘She conveniently lost the baby, although not until she’d had him at her beck and call for about fourteen weeks. Then inevitably he had to console her for their loss. She said she had nobody else to talk to as he’d asked her to keep it a secret, and to be fair Bernie would have felt the pain of losing a child too.’
Megan reached for the glass that Becky had thoughtfully refilled while she had been talking.
‘So in the end she had evidence that he’d been seeing her regularly for months, and she had proof of the pregnancy – the test and a scan – which of course she was going to share with Natalie if he stopped seeing her.’
‘So we’ll never know whether she really was pregnant, bought the scan online or pinched one from somebody else.’ Becky wished Bernie Gray was here in the room right now so that she could shake him. ‘So was it an affair?’
‘He says not, but it was always going to be his word against hers. I told him to tell Natalie the whole tale. I said I’d back him up, and that I loved him. Which I did, even though he was a stupid wanker.’
There was still one thing that Becky didn’t understand.
‘Why didn’t you tell us this before – when he was killed? I can understand Scarlett keeping it to herself, but not you.’
‘Because it wasn’t relevant.’
‘But if this woman was married or in a relationship…’
‘She wasn’t. I think she only ever wanted Bernie.’
Becky was beginning to see a motive here, right in front of her.
‘If she knew he was going to dump her, didn’t it occur to you that she might have been the one who killed him?’
Megan gave a snort of derisive laughter.
‘Oh, I know it wasn’t her. I was sitting right outside her front door in my car when I got the news about Bernie. He’d only told me the whole sorry tale a couple of weeks earlier. I knew about the first time, of course, because I covered for him. But he’d kept the rest to himself since then, silly bugger. If he’d told me from the start I’d have got the truth out of her. Anyway, while he dithered about what to do, I decided to sort it for him. I had every intention of going into that house and beating the shit out of her, if that’s what it took to keep her quiet. Or I’d make up some story to get her fired from her job.’
‘So who was this woman?’
Megan shook her head. ‘I told you, it’s not relevant. She was still in bed when Bernie died.’
‘Not good enough, Megan. She might have information about Bernie Gray that you aren’t aware of. She might be able to point us to his killer.’
Megan dropped her eyes and looked at the space between her knees. ‘She was a nurse, okay? A nurse from the village. She moved after Bernie died, and I never knew her surname. Please, leave her out of it.’
Becky looked at the other woman and knew she was hiding something. But what – and why?
Unless she turned this into a formal interview, she was sure this was all they were going to get out of Megan Jenkins, so she needed to speak to Tom. There had to be a reason why Megan wasn’t prepared to tell them everything, and Becky was determined to find out what it was.
63
After Megan had left the apartment the evening before, Scarlett spent the hours until she could escape to bed watching TV. Her mum had tried to talk to her, to ask her what
was troubling her, but Scarlett was terrified of what might happen if she told her about Lewis.
‘The only thing troubling me is being stuck here, in this place, where I don’t know anybody,’ Scarlett had shouted, instantly regretting her outburst when she saw the look of anguish on her mum’s face.
The sooner she got on to the programme at the arena that Megan had suggested, the better, but for the next few days all she wanted to do was keep out of everybody’s way – especially Lewis’s.
It was a sunny day again, but Scarlett couldn’t bring herself to leave the apartment. She didn’t think Lewis would have done anything with the photos yet, but she was scared that people would look at her and somehow know what she had done.
Scarlett wished her dad was still with them. She might have been able to tell him what had happened, and at the very least he gave the best hugs in the world. She had even thought about telling Ed, but as far as she knew there was no prospect of her mum making up with him so that would be a bad idea.
She hid in the bedroom all morning, not wanting to know if there were any noises coming from the other side of the wall, but she had to go through to the sitting room to reach the bathroom, and as all seemed quiet she decided to put the kettle on. While it was boiling she rooted around in the cupboard for some biscuits to take back into her hideaway.
She had just finished making her drink and was on her way back into the bedroom when she heard a shout from the adjoining apartment. It was a girl’s voice. Scarlett could hear the low murmur of a male voice, and she was sure it was Lewis.
‘No, I won’t.’ The girl’s words were clear, the voice loud and shrill.
Scarlett didn’t know what to do. The girl sounded upset, but she was scared of Lewis. He had been okay when he was taking the photos, but the way he looked at her as he had shown her out of the apartment had made goosebumps run down her spine. She hurried into the bedroom and pushed the door firmly closed behind her so she wouldn’t have to listen, knowing she was being a coward.
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