by Anita Waller
‘I don’t know how to feel,’ Kat said quietly.
Tessa held Kat’s hand briefly. She fished in her briefcase and took out an evidence bag.
Kat took it from her, and looked at the piece of paper inside it.
Tell Kat I will always love her
Kat lifted her head and stared at Tessa. ‘Oh my God…’
‘I wanted you to see it. We’re obviously signing it into the evidence we’ve collected from the garage, but I think he knew he wasn’t going to survive. He would have never left prison, and I guess he chose suicide by cop rather than face that. He exited that building shooting, and we had no choice but to fire back. I guess he wrote that note as soon as he heard me on that megaphone. He would have known his time had run out.’
‘Oh, Leon…’ Kat whispered, and wiped away the tear that escaped.
They sat for a couple of minutes, sipping at their drinks, Tessa waiting for Kat to regain control, and Kat allowing her emotions to flood her.
Eventually Kat found words. ‘I’m grateful for you showing me this. I know it seems odd, but it has given me some comfort.’
Tessa picked up both of the mugs and carried them to the sink. ‘Thank you for the drink, Kat. There’s just one more puzzling thing. We found some unlabelled antibiotics, so we’re assuming he got them from his pharmacy. He had a badly infected stump where his left hand used to be.’
Kat remained calm. ‘I’m pretty sure he had a left hand when he hit me with it that last night in the bedroom.’
Tessa fixed her eyes on her, then nodded. ‘So you don’t know what happened to blow that hand off his arm? No stray bullets from anywhere?’
‘Oh, come on, you think I know how to fire a gun? Remember Leon had one or two people he had upset who definitely knew how to fire a gun.’
Tessa waited for a moment. ‘That’s what I put in my report. I am sorry for your loss, Kat. I did actually want to take Leon Rowe alive, but he was never going to let that happen. You need to put him out of your life, and start a new one.’
She walked towards the front door. ‘Bye, Kat. Let’s hope we don’t have any more bodies linked to you, Nan and Mouse,’ she said with a slight laugh.
‘There definitely won’t be,’ Kat said fervently. ‘Bye, Tessa, and thank you for showing me that. It’s helped.’ She closed the door and leaned her head against it; her sorrow washed over her. So many deaths that could be attributed to Leon, and yet she couldn’t help but ache for the man she had known and loved.
15
Martha obligingly slept while Kat spent almost half an hour deep in prayer. Her colleagues at the church allowed her the time, recognising the depth of angst she must be feeling; news had very quickly spread of the manner of Leon’s death.
She finally stood and walked to the front, lighting a candle for Leon. Then she turned and pushed Martha in the direction of the small church coffee shop. She lost count of the number of hugs she received, and after finishing her glass of water, she left to go into the churchyard. She went to all the graves that were there as a result of Leon’s activities, and saw the newly opened one ready to receive Danny McLoughlin.
She stayed longest at Craig Adams’s graveside. As far as she knew, he was Leon’s first victim, and her prayers were for eternal rest for the young man. At twenty-two he had had everything to live for, and for the sake of a missing two hundred pounds his life had been snuffed out by Leon, accompanied by Brian King. Kat removed the small bunch of roses from underneath the pram and laid them gently on Craig’s grave before walking away.
It was only a short journey back to Connection, and Doris was its only occupant. Mouse had left to visit Judy and Alice, and came bustling through the door five minutes after Kat’s arrival.
She went straight to the phone, and winked at Doris and Kat.
‘Hi, Judy,’ she said. ‘It’s Beth Walters. I’m so sorry, but I’ve accidentally picked up your phone. It looks exactly the same as mine, so I gathered it up when I left. I’ve just tried to use it, and guess what! My contacts aren’t in your phone,’ she said with a laugh.
There was silence for a minute and then she said, ‘No, I’ll bring it back straight away. It’s my stupid mistake, I hadn’t even had my phone out in your lounge. We both have black covers on iPhones, I assumed it was mine. On the plus side, you haven’t missed any calls, although if you had I could possibly have turned around while I was out and returned it to you. Don’t worry, I’ll be there in half an hour.’
She put down the receiver and grinned. ‘Couldn’t miss the opportunity,’ she said to Kat and Doris. Mouse took the phone out of her bag, and opened up the photos app. She scrolled back through around twelve pictures then hit pay dirt.
‘I knew it,’ she breathed. ‘Every document we got from Alice Small is captured on here. She saw them before Tom gave them to Alice for safe-keeping away from his wife.’
Mouse quickly sent them via Messenger to her own phone, then deleted evidence of the action on Judy’s phone. ‘She has no security, no passcode, no fingerprint technology on this phone,’ she remarked thoughtfully. ‘What about you, Kat?’
Kat looked guilty. ‘I promise I’ll do it right now,’ she said.
Five minutes later she was on her way back to Hope, picking up a bunch of flowers on the way to say sorry for being so stupid.
Kat was feeding Martha when Mouse reappeared. ‘She didn’t suspect a thing, thanked me for returning it so quickly, and for the bunch of the flowers I took as a sweetener. I promised her we’d be in touch as soon as we heard back from the birth mother, and she nodded.’
‘You’ve posted the letter to Mrs Bird?’ Kat asked, sitting Martha upright. The baby obliged with a very loud burp.
‘I have, sent it first class so hopefully she’ll contact us tomorrow. I think two of us should go to see her, so I suggest Nan goes with me, and if you don’t mind, Kat, you and Martha can be in the office while we’re out. Now Leon’s not here as a threat, we need to be manning this place all the time. I wouldn’t mind betting we’ve lost business during the last few weeks because we haven’t been here.’
‘He left me a note,’ Kat said quietly, still holding Martha upright.
‘A note?’ Surprise was written on Mouse’s face.
‘It said Tell Kat I will always love her.’
‘Oh my God, Kat.’ Mouse moved towards Kat and put her arms around her. ‘How do you know?’
‘Marsden arrived as I was heading out to go to church. She brought it to show me, but it’s now logged into evidence.’ She dragged in air. ‘Something else she mentioned was the lack of a left hand. I told her he definitely had a left hand when he hit me with it the night he walked out. She seemed to accept that. Sometimes it’s good to act the dumb blonde. And it wasn’t a lie.’
The gentle tones of Doris cut into the conversation. ‘And how do you feel, Kat?’
‘Anger, more than anything, Nan. After Marsden left, I walked down to the church, had half an hour of prayer and me time, then went to the coffee shop in the back of the church. Martha collected lots of money because everybody wanted to press pound coins into her hand. Some sort of custom to do with newborns that you see for the first time. I kept putting them in the baby bag, no idea how much she has to open her bank account, but she could be a millionaire by the time she’s two. We came out of there and walked around to Craig Adams’s grave, and that’s where the anger really bubbled out of me. I talked to him, prayed for him, placed some roses on his headstone and promised there would never ever be any flowers for Leon.’
Nan gave a slight nod. ‘You have to sort out his funeral?’
‘No idea. That’s not cropped up yet. If it is down to me, and let’s face it, his parents aren’t here to do it, are they, it will be cremation and I’ll scatter his ashes in the Wye in Craig’s memory.’
‘Oh, Kat,’ Doris said, ‘don’t let him win by making you less than you are. You have beliefs, Christian beliefs. You owe yourself so much more than this, and Leon Row
e mustn’t hold you back from everything you can still give to this world. If you’re in chains, how can you fly?’
Kat placed a sleeping Martha back in her pram and walked across to Doris. She put her arms around her and hugged her. ‘You’re a wise old bird, Doris Lester. Want a cup of tea?’
Their evening was spent quietly, Kat reading and Doris and Mouse playing Scrabble. Nobody wanted the television to give them any more news on the Leon Rowe shootout.
At just after eight, the telephone interrupted them and Kat stood to answer it. It was Leon’s parents ringing from Canada.
She spoke to both of them, all three maintaining a measured tone of voice. They had received minimal information, and it was left to Kat to tell them as much as she knew.
She had last spoken to them the day after Martha’s birth, and they had been ecstatic to hear the news. Now the mood was much more sombre. Sue had difficulty holding back the tears, and asked Kat what would happen about Leon’s body. She had to admit she knew nothing about procedures, and Sue said they wanted him to go to them. They would be happy to pay all costs involved, and Kat said she would follow up on their request to see if it was feasible. Or allowed.
She said goodbye to them, and thoughtfully replaced the receiver. She sat down, and the two women paused for a moment to look at her.
‘Okay?’ Mouse asked.
‘It seems Leon will have his last resting place in Canada. If the authorities agree, of course. I don’t see why they should say no. And he should be where he is loved the most, and that’s with his mum and dad. There is no love in me for him now; there is regret, there are memories, there is anger, but he killed the love.’
She picked up her book. The other two looked at each other and returned to their game, and Martha snuffled in her sleep.
And peace came to the house in Eyam for the first time in a long time.
And Kat remembered Doris’s words of wisdom from the afternoon. If you’re in chains, how can you fly?
She was ready to fly.
16
Keeley unloaded the luggage from the boot of the car and followed Henry down the path to the front door. ‘Glad to be home?’ she asked.
‘Kind of,’ the little boy answered. ‘I missed my friends. Can I go and see Mark?’
‘Tomorrow,’ she responded. ‘It’s too late tonight.’
‘But it’s still daylight,’ he protested.
She laughed. ‘It might still be daylight, but it’s seven o’clock. Now come on, let’s get you in the bath, then bed, and it will soon be morning.’
She could hear him grumbling with every stair he climbed; it was so funny that she stopped unpacking for a moment to listen to him. Tom would have enjoyed this child so much.
Keeley followed Henry upstairs, ran his bath and left him to play for a few minutes with his variety of bath toys. She moved into his bedroom and turned down his bedclothes before crossing to the window to close his curtains. Judy Carpenter was out in her back garden, dead-heading some flowers, pulling up the occasional weed, doing different things in different areas. Keeley felt the loss of Tom more deeply every time she saw Judy.
The woman had kept Tom from her. Keeley had pleaded with Tom to leave Judy when he had spoken of his diagnosis, but he had said he wouldn’t burden her, his only love, with his death. She had enough to cope with, as Henry was still very small.
And so Judy was the one who had shared his last moments, and as she stared down at the woman digging up a dandelion, Keeley felt murderous; she wished Judy Carpenter was dead.
Pamela Bird admitted that the postman had arrived and delivered the letter, and it took her all of thirty seconds to reach the decision to ring Connection. There was a tremble in her voice; Doris couldn’t tell if it was excitement, fear or nerves.
‘We’d like to come out to Buxton to see you, Mrs Bird, tell you something of the circumstances, and then leave you to decide what the next move should be. Are you available this afternoon?’
Martha was asleep in her pram, so Kat pushed her daughter through into Mouse’s office and set up the baby monitor. She figured if she needed anything from her own office, she would disturb the baby, so Mouse’s room was the logical choice.
Passing the investigator’s exam would give her further qualifications, and it had proved to be interesting and thought-provoking. She pulled the worksheet towards her and settled down to study. She became immersed in it, one ear tuned in to the monitor, one ear on the telephone, and her brain focussed on the highlighted problems she had to solve in less than five hundred words.
It came as something of a shock when the door opened and the shop bell pinged. No ears had been available for recognising that sound. She looked up, quickly closing the worksheet.
A middle-aged woman walked across to the reception desk, her hair slightly frizzy, and framing a face that bore definite signs of worry. She wore a long skirt, shades of blue giving it an almost ethereal appearance, and a strappy T-shirt under a short-sleeved cardigan completed the ensemble.
‘Can I help?’ Kat said.
‘Is this yours?’ the woman said, waving her arm around and encompassing the office space.
‘The business? Yes it is. I’m Katerina Rowe, co-owner of Connection.’
The woman held out her hand and Kat reached over the counter and took it.
‘Hi, I’m Roberta Outram. Please call me Bobby, I don’t think I’ve ever been Roberta except on my wedding day.’
‘So you’re Mrs Roberta Outram? What can I do for you?’
‘I’m not sure. I’ve come here on a bit of a whim, and now I’m not sure I should have. My husband Keith says he’s sick of hearing me go on about it, and I should either tell you or the police. I’m not convinced it’s a police matter, not yet anyway, so here I am.’
Kat was beginning to get the feeling this woman was going to walk out the door, talk herself out of whatever it was she had come to tell them. ‘Bobby, would you like a cup of tea? Coffee?’
Her defences visibly crumbled. ‘I’d love a coffee.’
‘Then come around here.’ Kat lifted the end section and led Bobby through to her own office. ‘I’ll just go and lock the front door. My two colleagues are going to be out for a couple of hours, so I’ll put the closed sign up and we won’t be disturbed.’
She set up the coffee machine, then walked into reception, found the Back in an hour sign, and locked the front door, hanging the smaller sign beneath the Closed one.
Bobby hadn’t moved. Her hands were clasped in her lap as she sat waiting patiently for Kat, who placed the baby monitor in the middle of her desk. ‘Baby in the next room but she shouldn’t disturb us. The coffee will only be a minute, and then we’ll talk.’
‘Your baby?’ Bobby asked.
‘She is. Martha May, born seven days ago. Fortunately she’s still at the sleeping most of the time stage.’
Kat stood and took down two cups from the cupboard. She placed a dish on the desk with small pots of milk and cream in it between the two of them. It killed another two minutes preparing the coffee ready for them to drink, and finally there was no escape for Bobby.
‘I don’t know if I’m doing right by coming here,’ she began hesitantly.
‘Then let me start by telling you that nothing leaves this office. Whatever you tell any one of the three of us is held in strictest confidence. We speak of it to no one without your permission to do so. Does that help? I’ll listen to everything you have to say, and then before we talk terms, I’ll tell you if we can help you. We aren’t in the business of giving anyone false hopes.’
Bobby Outram gave a brief nod. ‘Okay. I understand. But I don’t think I’m here to hire you, I’m here to give you some information on a case you already have. First of all I need to tell you who I am, and then you’ll understand why I’m being so dithery. I’m not normally like this…’ Her voice faded.
Kat waited patiently.
‘I am Judy Carpenter’s sister.’
Kat tried
to keep her face inscrutable. She wasn’t wholly successful.
‘You are obviously aware that Judy is our client. If there is a clash of interests…’
‘No, there will be no clash of interests. I’m here to clear my conscience and, as I said, to give you some information. I don’t agree with what Judy is doing; over the years she’s become a nasty scheming bitch of a woman, but now I believe she could be bordering on something that could be criminally wrong.’
‘And this is connected to the work we’re doing for her?’
‘It is. I don’t want to see Connection dragged down with her, because no good can come of what she’s planning.’
Kat felt that as Bobby had started talking, the rest would come easily. She opened her drawer and took out a notepad and a recorder. ‘Bobby, do you mind if I record our conversation. It will be easier than writing everything down, or trying to remember everything you tell me. I promise I will delete the conversation after I’ve transcribed it for my colleagues.’
‘No, of course I don’t mind if you record it. I came here to give you facts, so however you listen to me, I don’t care, as long as somebody listens.’
Kat switched on the recorder and left it on the desk. ‘Okay, whenever you’re ready.’
Bobby Outram took a long shuddering breath, stared at the recorder for a moment and spoke. ‘As I said, Judy is my sister. I wish she wasn’t. We used to be very close, but then she met Tom Carpenter and she became…’ Bobby hesitated for a moment, ‘…all about money. I think that’s the only way to describe her. Tom was quite well off, they had a very lavish wedding and he funded IVF when they found out they needed help to have children. But all the money in the world wouldn’t have been any good. Judy developed cancer of the uterus and had to have a full hysterectomy. That’s when she really changed.’
Kat saw that Bobby was sipping constantly at her coffee, almost as if was giving her strength, so she stood and picked up the coffee pot, refilling Bobby’s cup.