by A L Fraine
“I understand,” Jon replied, starting to get an idea of where this was going.
“I don’t trust most of them, not really. And I needed to know. I needed to be sure that I was doing the right thing. So I hired Lizzy.”
“You hired her?”
“How do you mean?” Kate asked.
“I secretly paid her to look into the family. I asked her to investigate them and find out as much as she could about them. She’s done this kind of thing for a few years now as a job, so she knew what she was doing. Besides, she’s never really got along with most of them, so she didn’t take much persuading. She was happy to do it.”
“How long has she been doing this for?” Jon asked.
“A couple of months, I think. But she’d not told me what she’d found. That’s why I was keen to make sure she came to the party. She often avoids them, you see. But I needed an update. Sadly, however, she never gave it to me.”
“What happened?”
“She came down to the house the day of the party, so we didn’t talk during the day. I was never alone for long enough, you see. But when it got to the evening, I asked her to help me up to bed.”
“For some privacy, to get the update,” Jon replied, understanding what had happened.
“That’s right. I thought if I could just get some time alone with her, she could tell me what she’d found, but she refused. She said she didn’t want to ruin my day and that she’d tell me the following day. But that’s never going to happen.”
“I’m sorry,” Jon replied.
“Are you okay?” Kate asked.
“I’m… as good as can be expected, I suppose, my dear, all things considered.” He sighed. “I shouldn’t have got upset with Spencer.”
“Spencer?” Jon asked, wondering what he meant.
“He came to see me this morning. He’s a good lad, really. He’s had his troubles, I know, but beneath it all, he’s not a bad guy.”
“And what did Spencer want?”
“He wanted to talk. Said he’d been told that Lizzy had something to tell me, and he wanted to know what that was. I don’t know what he was worried about, but Lizzy hadn’t told me anything, so I told him to leave me alone. But he wouldn’t listen and got upset, and a bit aggressive. I’m sorry to say that I got upset too. I think I said some things that I shouldn’t have, and that's when I got the pains in my chest.”
“I understand,” Jon replied. Spencer had lied about what had happened between him and Harold. So, if he was lying about that, what else might he be lying about? “Do you have any idea what Spencer was worried about?”
“Not really. Something to do with his business, I think. I’m not sure.”
“Of course, don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t blame him, though. This isn’t his fault, not really. I shouldn’t have got upset. He didn’t want to hurt me. He was very apologetic when I started to have my episode.”
Jon nodded, but inside he felt a low rage towards Spencer and what he’d caused. He didn’t trust him one bit, and this was just the last straw. What was he involved with?
“Have I been helpful?” Harold asked.
“Of course, yes, very, Mr Lockwood,” Kate replied.
“Remember, no one in the family knows about Lizzy’s investigation. Apart from maybe Spencer.”
“I understand,” Jon replied. “Your secret’s safe with us.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“And don’t worry,” Kate replied, “we’ll take it from here. We’ll find out what happened to Lizzy, okay?”
“Thank you, my dear. Oh, you are lovely. Good luck. Thank you.”
They said their goodbyes and walked out, as Jon’s mind raced with thoughts about what Harold had told them.
“I think that’s our motive then, if Lizzy was investigating the family. That’s why she was killed. It has to be.”
“Makes a lot of sense,” Kate replied with a nod. “So, the question becomes, who has so much to lose, that they’re willing to kill for it?”
“With this family, I dread to think,” Jon replied. “It also makes me wonder about what Spencer said in that room after Harold left. Because if he knew he was being investigated, did he then tell them all what Lizzy had been up to? Everyone’s being very sketchy about what Spencer actually said.”
“Yeah, good point. But I’m guessing he didn’t know that Harold told her to do that.”
“I’m not so sure. He suspected something, I think. Otherwise, why would he confront Harold like that?”
“But when did he find that out, and from whom?” Kate asked.
“Good question.”
“Hey,” Kate said, “fancy coming with me to see a dead body?”
“Huh?”
Kate held her phone out. “Dion’s in the mortuary. He’s asked us to swing by.”
10
“Sir,” Dion said as they walked into the mortuary complex. “Thanks for coming.”
“No problem,” Jon replied. “Have you been here all day?”
“A few hours,” Dion confirmed. “How’s things going at the house?”
“They’re moving along,” Jon confirmed. “What have you got for us with the body?”
“Well, if you’d like to follow me,” Dion replied, and led them through into the main room. Nearby, a woman stood beside a table with Lizzy’s naked, pale corpse laid out on it. It was swiftly approaching evening, and it looked like the pathologist had finished up most of the work, judging from the precise stitched-up post-mortem cuts on the body.
As they approached, the woman turned and smiled.
“Hi,” she said, tucking her clipboard under her arm and offering her hand to Jon. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Aileen McKinley,” she said in greeting with a Scottish accent.
“Pleasure,” Jon replied. “I’m DCI Jon Pilgrim.
“Likewise. Kate, good to see you again,” Aileen said. “No Nathan?”
“Nope. He’s still on the team, though.”
“Aye, sounds good,” she replied with a smile. “So, Elizabeth Lockwood. I’m guessing that’s why you’re here, right?”
“What gave it away?” Jon replied.
“Oh, I see. It’s like that, is it? Alright, wee man,” she replied with a smile. “Let’s get on, shall we? First things first, Elizabeth died in the water. She was drowning, but it was the stab wound to the heart that actually killed her. We found water in her lungs and stomach, indicating she was in distress and taking in water, but her heart gave up before the water could finish her off.”
“It was a single stab wound to the heart then?”
“From the back, yes,” Aileen replied. “A well-aimed, killing blow. They either wanted to kill her, or this was a really unlucky stab.”
“I’ll go with the former, for now,” Jon remarked.
“Aye,” Aileen replied.
“Any exhibits, Dion?”
“We have a number of them recovered from the scene,” Dion confirmed, rifling through his files. “Including this, the knife which we think killed her.”
Jon looked down at the photo of the knife that Dion showed him. “Looks like a kitchen knife.”
“That would be my guess too,” Dion replied.
“Its profile fits the stab wound,” Aileen added.
“Excellent,” Jon said.
“We can check back at the house,” Kate added. “See if it matches up with anything there.”
Jon nodded, feeling sure that it would, meaning it was another piece of evidence that pointed to the killer being in that house. “Do you have anything else for me?”
“Actually, yes,” Dion replied and showed them several more photos.
“What’s this?”
“That is a diary,” Dion replied.
Jon regarded the photo of the small pocket-sized book with a leather cover. It had been soaked through after having spent hours in the water at Silent Pool. On the cover, inlaid with gold, were the words ‘Kath’s Diary.’
“Who’s Kath?”
“I don’t know,” Dion replied. “It’s with the SOCOs and they’re trying to dry it out as best they can. They’ve managed to open a few of the pages. Much of it is ruined, but I have some pictures of what they did find. Here’s some notes and transcribed passages,” Dion said, handing Jon the slips of paper.
“Go on,” Jon urged.
“Well, there are several names in the diary which we think are notable to this case. Firstly, there’s Harold, who seems to also be referred to as Harry. There’s also Howard, Veronica, Cecelia, Piers, Vivian, and Spencer.”
Jon nodded. “Harold’s son, partner, and their children.”
“Correct,” Dion replied. “It seems that Howard is Harold and Kath’s son.”
“Makes sense. I’m guessed that Kath is no longer with us.”
Dion shrugged. “I’ve passed the info on to Nathan. I don’t know if he’s found anything. The SOCOs are doing their best to recover as much of the diary as possible in the meantime, but it’s painstaking work. They did manage to recover the final entry in the diary, though,” Dion said and pointed out one of the photos.
Jon peered at the image and read the entry aloud. “Pan speaks the truth, even today,” he said. “Hmm, that’s written in two different styles of handwriting,” Jon remarked as he looked at the photo. The ‘even today’ part of it was much fresher and written differently from the rest of the diary.
“Oh yeah, curious,” Kate said, voicing his own thoughts.
“Who’s Pan?” Jon asked.
“Don’t know,” Dion replied.
“Peter Pan?” Kate suggested.
“Hmm, that would be a bit of a strange thing to write,” Jon said, but he had the feeling it was some kind of cryptic clue, purposefully written, but for what purpose?
11
Driving back to the station through the fading evening light, it finally felt like they were making some progress on the case after speaking to Harold and discussing the details of the death with Dion and Aileen.
“If I had to guess,” Jon said, looking over at Kate, “I’d say that Lizzy’s digging into the family and their past turned up more than she bargained for.”
“I was just thinking the same thing. I think she discovered some dark secret that someone in her family didn’t want to get out. A secret they were willing to kill for.”
“So the question becomes, what did Lizzy know, and who would want to kill her for knowing it?” Jon remarked.
“We need to keep digging.”
Jon nodded, wondering what other deep, dark secrets they would encounter as they dived ever deeper into the family at the heart of this case.
Pulling into the station, they made their way upstairs towards the SIU office.
“We’d best go and talk to Stingray first,” Jon said. “Wouldn’t want him blowing his top at us again.”
“Good thinking, Batman,” Kate replied as they walked over to the DSupt’s office. He could see Ray inside at his desk through the windows, and knocked.
“Come in,” the superintendent called out, and Jon walked in with Kate on his heels.
“Aaah, Jon. Welcome back. Anything new to tell me?”
“I just wanted to update you on our progress, sir,” Jon replied.
“Very good, but before we start, I have to say, I wasn’t very happy with the way today began. You didn’t keep us in the loop and didn’t inform us where you were. Now, I don’t know what kind of operation you’ve been running here, with this NCA oversight and these powers you seem to have, but I’ve been tasked with keeping this unit squeaky clean and operating strictly within the bounds of the law.”
Jon nodded, almost expecting him to quote Spider-Man and say something along the lines of, ‘with great power, comes great responsibility.’
“We cannot be seen to be abusing our power here, understand?”
“Yes sir,” Jon replied in unison with Kate.
“I hope so because I would have no problem splitting this team up and reassigning you.”
Jon nodded.
“Good, now, what’s new?”
They continued to chat with Ray for the next few minutes, summarising what they’d learned before heading back into the main office and gathering the team in the incident room.
“Alright, good work today, guys, so let’s get us all up to date,” Jon said. “This looks like it’s going to be a complicated one, but we’ll do our best to navigate it.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Rachel replied with a wink.
“So, Elizabeth Lockwood, known as Lizzy to her family, was found at Silent Pool. She was stabbed from behind and died in the water. We discovered a diary on her person with a cryptic entry at the back, saying ‘Pan speaks the truth, even today,’ with ‘even today’ written in different handwriting. So, we need to know who or what Pan could be and what this truth is that he or she knows.”
“I’ll look into that,” Dion replied. “Could be an alias or something.”
“Okay, good. We also found a kitchen knife in the water, that looks like the murder weapon. I’m going to look into this at the house tomorrow and see if it matches with the utensils at the Lockwood’s.”
“That would firmly point to the killer being at that house,” Nathan replied.
“It would. Now, what else do we have from the scene?”
“Her phone was found there too,” Dion replied. “We’re looking into that now and seeing what we can pull from it.”
“Excellent, let me know how that goes.”
Dion nodded.
“Alright, motive. We’ve just come back from speaking with Harold at the hospital. Harold is the owner of the Lockwood estate. He’s got late-stage cancer and only has a few weeks to live. He was taken into hospital this morning after what seems to be an argument between him and Spencer.”
“Can you go over the structure of the family for me, please?” Rachel asked.
“Of course. The oldest is Harold, the owner of the Lockwood estate. His only son, Howard, is married to Veronica. They have four kids, who from oldest to youngest, are Cecelia, Piers, Vivian, and Spencer. Cecelia is married to Maxwell, who I’ve not met yet, and they have a son, Chester. Piers is married to Ingrid, and Lizzy was their daughter. Vivian has a daughter, Portia, but I believe she’s separated from her partner. And finally, there’s Spencer, who’s single and we know has a criminal record for dealing drugs.”
“Vivian? That’s Vivian Lockwood-Burton, right?” Nathan asked.
“That’s right,” Jon replied. “Do you know her?”
“Only by reputation. Did you not hear of the court case with her?”
Jon shook his head. “No, sorry. Should I have?”
“She’s a former B-Movie star and was married to Carter Burton.”
“Oh,” Rachel replied. “You mean the Hollywood star?”
“That’s right. She accused him of rape and dragged him through the courts over it. He denied it but eventually settled out of court.”
“I’ve not heard of this,” Jon remarked.
“It was big news at the time,” Nathan replied. “Not least because his settling out of court made him look guilty. He’s not done much film work since. It basically tanked his career.”
“And Vivian?”
“She dated a fashion magazine editor for a while and started up her own perfume brand. She’s split from him too though, I think. I don’t know how the perfume business is going.”
“You know a lot about her,” Jon remarked.
Nathan shrugged. “She was in two of my favourite films, so it was awesome to meet her in person today.”
“I see. Don’t get too attached. She’s a potential suspect in this case.”
“What films are these?” Kate asked.
“Oh, um, when I say films, I mean like, guilty pleasure films. They’re crap, really, but they’ve built up a cult following, mainly around Vivian. The first one was called ‘Squid Aliens from Sector 13.’ It was a typical
shlock horror sci-fi film, lots of nakedness, that kind of thing.”
“I need to see these films,” Dion replied keenly.
“I’ll get you the names of them all,” Nathan replied.
“This is all very fascinating,” Jon remarked, “but we’re moving away from the subject of this meeting, folks.”
“Sorry, sir,” Rachel replied.
“Okay, back to the motive. So Harold is dying, and he secretly paid Lizzy to look into his family, as he was worried about who would get the inheritance. Lizzy did as he wanted, and then attended a big family gathering at the house yesterday. Harold wanted an update on what she’d found, but she refused to give it until the following day, by which time, she was dead.”
“The implication being,” Kate added in, “that Lizzy discovered something that someone didn’t want getting out, and they killed her for it.”
“That’s right,” Jon continued. “So, now we need to know who and why.”
“Do we have any obvious suspects?” Rachel asked.
“The most obvious one is Spencer, he’s got a criminal record, and it turns out he’s been lying to us about a chat he had with Harold. But I'll get to that. For now, I’ll go over the events of the night, as we know them so far. After a day of festivities, Lizzy took Harold up to his room at about ten pm. He requested this as he wanted to talk to Lizzy and find out what she knew. But he said she refused and that she’d tell him tomorrow.
“Meanwhile, downstairs, Spencer said something to the rest of the family. Apparently, according to the family, he was saying some horrible things about Lizzy, as they don’t get along, but I’m beginning to wonder if that’s true. Based on what Harold said, we think Spencer knew about Lizzy’s investigation, and it might be that he was telling them all about it.
“Anyway, they all then went to bed, all apart from Spencer. He joined Portia, who’d been on the porch outside with Chester while all this was happening. Chester went to bed, while Portia and Spencer stayed up until the early hours. Veronica, Lizzy’s grandmother, went to speak to Lizzy upstairs. They talked until Howard came up after getting a nightcap to help him sleep.