by Anita Waller
‘He did. And let’s not forget he had credit cards.’
‘And presumably off-shore accounts,’ Doris said drily. ‘Surely the police will have checked everything we’re looking at?’
‘They will,’ Mouse said. ‘But we have something they don’t have. We have Kat, who has intimate knowledge of their lifestyle. And what’s more, it would have been about nine months ago when Leon scarpered and they checked these accounts. I know he won’t have used them since then, but nine months ago they couldn’t have realised he would have a bolthole, so what they were looking for then isn’t what we’re looking for now. Sometimes immediacy isn’t so good.’
‘You’re right, of course,’ Doris said. ‘And his joint account would be about household bills and other such simple things; direct debits, standing orders, all would have been checked out, but as I keep saying, Leon was damn clever. Hiding something in plain sight? In a joint account used for household expenditure? That’s clever.’
Kat was listening to the backwards and forwards ideas coming from Doris and Mouse. Finally she spoke. ‘And the police could access his accounts legally? Because I didn’t give them his ID and passwords. Nobody asked for them.’
Doris and Mouse moved as one and swung around in their seats to face her.
‘You have them?’ Doris asked.
‘Yes. He wrote every one down, even his Amazon login.’
‘And the police didn’t find it?’ Mouse knew they had taken the house apart after Leon’s vanishing act.
‘I wouldn’t think so. They never asked me for the combination of my safe, so I’m assuming they didn’t go into it. That’s where he told me to keep the list.’
‘Where is your safe? I’m presuming it’s not the one built into the lounge wall?’ Doris spoke quietly, scared of raising her hopes that Mouse wouldn’t have to take risks hacking bank accounts.
‘The big one in the lounge was Leon’s, to keep papers and stuff secure. Sometimes money, which I now presume was drugs money, although I didn’t know that at the time.’ She hesitated. ‘I was the ideal partner for him, wasn’t I? Silly little church deacon Katerina, his thirty-year-old virgin who knew very little of life outside Eyam.’ Her tone was bitter.
Shaking her head, she forced a smile. ‘My much smaller safe was for keeping my jewellery secure. When we had our bedroom altered and fitted with built-in furniture, he had the safe concealed in my dressing table. You wouldn’t know it was there, and you have to know how to release the central panel. The safe is under that.’
‘And Leon didn’t go into it when he broke in?’
‘No. He set the code when I began to use it, but I struggled to remember the right sequence of the numbers. I reset it, but never thought to tell him.’
‘So we have all the information we need to access the accounts legally?’ Mouse asked.
‘We do,’ Kat conceded. ‘He wrote everything down just in case he ever had an accident – he did a lot of motorway driving. When Martha wakes, I’ll take you up and show you exactly how to access it and what the combination is. The contents are for Martha, should anything happen to me.’
‘Understood,’ Mouse said. ‘But please put that in writing. Until the murdering bastard is either dead or divorced, he’s your next of kin. Write it down, sign it, we’ll witness it, and leave it with your solicitor.’
‘Don’t swear, please, Mouse,’ Doris said, looking up from her screen. ‘It doesn’t become you.’ She was aware that the girls ignored her protestations, but she figured she might as well keep on telling them, maybe one day they would listen.
11
Three hours later, Martha had enjoyed another nappy change and feed, and had been deposited in Mouse’s bedroom for the night.
The three women sat on Kat’s bed and looked at her dressing table.
‘There’s no clue that it isn’t just a solid piece of furniture,’ Mouse said.
The dressing table top was segmented into three separate areas; the two sides were almost oval in shape, linked by a straight central piece. The mirror was a triptych with a large central mirror surrounded by lights, and two half-size side mirrors. Underneath the attractive marbled surface were three small drawers, shaped to fit the contours of the top.
‘Can you see anything that would reveal a hidden compartment?’ Kat asked.
Doris and Mouse scrutinised the piece of furniture and eventually conceded defeat.
‘I can understand why the police didn’t find it. I can’t see anything, and it would certainly bamboozle any burglar,’ Doris said with a smile. ‘It’s genius.’
Kat stood, moving towards the dressing table. ‘Watch,’ she said, and angled the right-hand mirror slightly inwards. There was an almost inaudible click. ‘Did you see anything move?’
‘Only you moving the mirror.’
Kat put her fingers under the overlap of the dressing table top and lifted. Inside was the safe.
‘Good lord,’ Doris said, and moved towards the piece of furniture. ‘That’s brilliant. The front part is a regular drawer, the back half the safe. Is the release catch on the mirror?’
‘It’s actually concealed in the hinge, but all it does is make that tiny click. The top doesn’t move, so a burglar wouldn’t know anything had happened at all.’
Mouse joined them. ‘And Leon’s passcodes are all in there?’
‘Yes. My combination is 0873. It’s not written down anywhere so we’re the only three who know it.’ Kat keyed in the digits and the safe door opened. She shuffled the boxes until she saw the one with Cartier on the lid.
Nestled inside were shards of light and brilliance in the form of diamond earrings. She pulled forward the padded velvet cushion that secured the jewels in place and lifted out the piece of paper underneath.
Mouse held out her hand and Kat passed her the paper.
‘Not that, numpty, the earrings,’ she said with a grin. Kat handed over the box and then lifted out other boxes.
‘While we’ve got it open you may as well look at them all.’
For a brief moment, the three women put aside all other issues and enjoyed the immense pleasure afforded by the sparkle of the stones, the gleam and weight of the gold and platinum.
‘Leon certainly loved you,’ Doris murmured, stroking the ruby pendant.
‘Not enough to give up his lifestyle,’ Kat said drily.
They carefully replaced every item in the safe, and then Kat took them through opening it.
‘Kat, say no if this isn’t appropriate, but the gun Leon forced us to have is fully operational even after being in the freezer. It’s cleaned and ready for use. Again,’ Doris added the final word with a twinkle in her eye. ‘However, it’s only hidden in the garage. I would feel happier with it in a safe, either the downstairs one or this one. The downstairs one has its drawbacks in that the police know about it. This smaller one is upstairs and the gun isn’t to hand if Leon should happen to come calling, but the police don’t know this safe is here.’
‘Let’s put it in this one, Nan,’ Kat said. ‘I know Leon knows about this safe, but he can’t access anything in it. It’s not even a moveable piece of furniture, so he’s completely stymied by it. The funny thing is, this was all built at his insistence. I thought it was a bit over the top, but…’
‘The joke’s on him.’ Mouse finished off the sentence.
Doris went down to the garage and retrieved the gun. She checked it was fully loaded and carried it back upstairs.
Five minutes later, the safe was locked, the dressing table put back to its original state.
Mouse hugged Kat. ‘Thank you for trusting us with this. I can’t even begin to imagine the value of all that stuff in the safe.’
Kat laughed. ‘And most of it only worn once. I think it pleased Leon to buy it more than it pleased me to wear it. He also, of course, would have seen it as an investment.’
They headed out of Kat’s bedroom and downstairs, where, after an hour of watching television, they decided en
ough was enough and headed back upstairs.
Kat slept soundly.
Doris read for half an hour then fell asleep, her book resting for the night on the quilt.
Martha slept, lips occasionally twitching as if trying to smile, apart from the two times she woke wanting sustenance.
Mouse hardly closed her eyes. As temporary custodian of the tiny human, it was important she stayed awake. That night convinced her she never wanted children.
Leon slept intermittently. His mind wouldn’t close down; he needed a plan that would give him access to his wife, and so far he didn’t have one.
12
‘Come in, ladies.’ Judy Carpenter’s smile was in place, without reaching her eyes.
The officer designated to accompany Kat and Mouse remained outside, after asking Judy to ensure the door was left unlocked. He even tried it, to satisfy himself.
Kat and Mouse both accepted the offer of a drink, hoping that it would nullify any tension, make their discussions easier.
They waited until Judy had handed them their mugs of tea before speaking.
‘Thank you, Judy,’ Mouse said. ‘We’ve managed to uncover some details, but felt we should come and chat to you about what happens next. Clearly we can’t simply hand the information over, it wouldn’t be ethical. There may be reasons why this lady doesn’t want any contact with the baby she gave away, so we will make the initial approach by letter. What happens after that will depend on her reply.’
‘So you have found her?’ There was no smile, just the beginnings of a frown.
‘We have her name. We are in the process of uncovering details of where she lives.’
Kat’s eyes were glued to Judy’s face, watching for any expressive changes. She saw them. The flicker of triumph. Things were going Judy Carpenter’s way.
‘Tom never disclosed anything about his mother to you?’ Kat queried gently.
‘He never knew anything.’ Judy’s response was a shade too quick, too sharp. ‘He intended to find her, but once the cancer was diagnosed it became very debilitating, very quickly. It was the last thing on his mind to do. It’s why I’m doing it now, in honour of his memory.’
‘And you and Tom never had children? It could be a swaying factor in this lady’s decision about whether to meet with you or not.’ Kat still kept her voice solicitous, gentle.
‘No. We had no children. We didn’t want any.’ Judy’s tone was bordering on harsh.
Kat made a note on her pad. It was for show only.
They both sipped at their drink, and waited.
‘How quickly will you write to her?’
‘As soon as we have an address. We have to go through legal channels…’ Mouse said, and Kat swallowed her mouthful of tea quickly in case she choked. She rather thought that Mouse believed a legal channel to be a large body of water between Dover and Calais filled with lawyers swimming across to France.
‘I see,’ Judy said. ‘So… within a week or so we should know something?’
‘Hopefully,’ Mouse said. ‘We will contact you as soon as we hear from the birth mother, whatever she says. You have to be prepared for her not wanting to meet with you. It is her right to say no, although in these enlightened times it would be unusual for her to do that.’
They finished their drinks and, as one, stood to leave. ‘Thank you for the tea, Judy,’ Mouse said. ‘We’ll be in touch soon.’
‘It has to be about the money,’ Kat said thoughtfully, peering through the rain battering the windscreen. ‘What other possible reason could she have for tracking down Tom’s birth mother? It’s not a normal thing to do, is it? Pamela Bird, at first sight, seems to be a very wealthy woman. Maybe Judy is playing the long game, making friends with her, becoming a part of her life, inheriting eventually. It’s strange, isn’t it, but I believe it would simply take the appearance of little Henry Roy in Pamela’s life to put a stop to Judy’s hopes and dreams.’
‘You’re spot on, but Keeley doesn’t want Judy to know about her and Tom’s affair. We can’t say anything. It’s such a shame because that young man could be a very wealthy young man one day.’
Mouse steered the car onto the drive, and she and Kat jumped out and ran for the shelter of the porch. Their escorting officer waited until they were safely inside the front door before heading back to join his companion for the interminably boring surveillance of the area. Mouse clicked the car locks on, and they crept in. They could hear the strains of Ten Green Bottles as they closed the door, and headed for the lounge.
Doris was on the sofa, cradling a somewhat bemused-looking Martha; not yet able to rustle up a smile, but intent on watching the wonderful lady singing to her.
‘That’s never been a nursery rhyme,’ Mouse laughed.
‘If it was good enough for you, it’s good enough for Martha,’ Doris said. ‘This baby will be able to add and subtract by the time she is four.’
Kat watched the two of them. ‘She’ll certainly be better on a computer than her mother is.’
Kat took Mouse’s coat and went to put them up to dry in the utility room, before returning to her daughter. Doris seemed keen to hang on to her.
‘I don’t get to hold her nearly enough,’ she said. ‘And I certainly feel as though she’s part of our family.’
‘She is,’ Kat said simply. ‘She is.’
By the time they had given Doris the details of their conversation with Judy Carpenter, Martha had closed her eyes for her nap. Kat removed her from Doris’s arms and placed her in the crib.
Kat smiled down at her daughter. ‘It’s almost as though she’s been here for ever, now, isn’t it?’
They switched on the monitor and took the receiver into the kitchen with them. Kat pulled her laptop towards her. ‘I’m going to type up this report while I can still remember everything that was said. My baby brain can get a little fuzzy.’
‘And I think we need to start going through these accounts of the errant Mr Rowe, Nan,’ Mouse said. ‘Let’s see if we can’t find out where he is. Our own lives are on hold until the b–’
‘Mouse,’ Doris said, her finger raised in the air. ‘No swearing, please. Martha might hear.’
There was a humph from Mouse as she opened up her laptop. Inside her head she said, ‘Bastard, bastard, bastard.’
DI Marsden made an appearance later in the day. She didn’t stay long, having said that she was just touching base to reassure them that they were following leads of sightings.
‘And you believe these sightings?’ Kat asked.
‘Not at all,’ Tessa responded, a frown creasing her forehead. ‘He’s far too clever to be seen. But he’ll slip up. And we’ll be waiting. The fact that he’s in this country and every police force in the UK is on the alert for him leaves him with nowhere to go once he moves away from wherever it is he’s holed up.’
‘But don’t you realise what Leon is like, even after all this time?’ Kat said. ‘He will have been prepared for this happening. Trust me, I know him. He’ll have enough food, water, warmth. Creature comforts to keep him going for a long time.’
‘And he’ll go stir crazy,’ Marsden said drily. ‘We’ve made him so well known that he can’t move out of whatever property he’s found for himself. He’s on every news item, that handsome face is so out there that someone is going to recognise him before too long.’
‘Let’s hope so. We’re just as much prisoners as he is, we can’t go anywhere.’
‘I know.’ There was sympathy in Marsden’s voice. ‘But it will come to an end, and hopefully sooner rather than later. Bibi McLoughlin won’t feel any sort of closure until this evil man is caught, either.’
‘It should be my job to go and see Bibi, offer her comfort.’ Kat’s voice was very low. ‘I can’t even do that for her. I can’t even go to my church to pray for her and everybody else touched by Leon’s actions. He will expect me to do that, and he could be waiting for me. And now there’s Martha to consider…’
‘Have patienc
e, Kat,’ Marsden said, standing and heading towards the door. ‘And trust us. Something will break soon, and it will be Leon Rowe, not us.’
13
Ben Charlton was a little late getting home from school. Knowing nobody would be in the house worrying about where he was, he opted for walking home instead of taking the bus. Living in such a remote location meant the bus dropped him off leaving him with a fifteen-minute stroll anyway, so he took advantage of the afternoon sunshine and walked the whole way. The roads and fields surrounding him as he walked were defined by the beautiful dry-stone walling so embedded in Derbyshire and its history.
His mind was partly on the English homework that he still hadn’t finished, and partly on his plans to go down to the river and have an hour’s fishing. He did this most days, filling in the time between his arrival home from school and his parents’ staggered homecomings from their jobs.
His dad, Ray, was a detective constable working on the Eyam murders, and prone to arriving home at odd hours. His mother, however, he could calculate to the minute; she closed her library at six every day except Friday, when it was seven.
Ben unlocked the front door and walked through to the kitchen. Quickly making a cheese and tomato sauce sandwich, he wrapped it in foil and carried it through to the utility room where he kept his fishing tackle. His basket was tidy and he stored his sandwich, two cans of Coke and the maggots removed from the tiny fridge kept specially for the wriggly creatures, before hoisting it onto his back.
It took him about ten minutes to walk down to his preferred spot on the river bank. Over two years of sitting there had seen him hollow out bits of the bank until he had a secluded place where, if necessary, he could put up his small khaki bivouac.