by Anita Waller
Grace moved closer to her employer, slid an arm around her shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze. ‘Whatever this is, Pam, we’ll deal with it.’
Pam nodded, but couldn’t raise a smile.
20
Mouse switched on the recorder and almost immediately Bobby Outram spoke.
Doris’s eyes were fixed firmly on Grace, who seemed to be struggling more than Pam with what was unfolding. She suspected that Grace was concerned about the effect the recording would have on Pam; her illness meant that it took very little stress to increase her pain levels and her movements.
They all listened carefully. Doris, Kat and Mouse knew it word for word, but the other two listened with increasing dismay.
It finished and Mouse switched off the small machine. ‘Thoughts?’
There was an initial silence and then Pam clasped her hands together as if seeking comfort. ‘Is this true? Did you believe her?’
Kat spoke gently. ‘I met Bobby, and she came across as a very genuine person who was seeking help from Connection because she didn’t know what else to do. She definitely didn’t want to go to the police because when all’s said and done, Judy was her sister, but she recognised that Judy needed stopping. I must stress that we know nothing of Pam’s financial affairs, and don’t want to, but we had reason to believe that Judy had seen your house, Pam, and our reticence in telling you more of Judy was due to feeling uncomfortable about her motives for tracking you down.’
Pam was listening with her eyes huge in her pale face, as if wondering what could possibly come next.
‘When Doris and Mouse returned home from visiting you, we all sat together and listened to that recording. Any decisions made in our company are joint decisions. We all agreed that we had to give you this information, but couldn’t while Judy Carpenter was our client. That was why we were at Judy’s this morning, to return her advance minus what we had used already, and to tell her we could no longer act for her. We would not have passed on anything concerning you, but she did have considerable information anyway. We believe she came to us to make it look more official and she could pretend to be surprised at your wealth and lovely home when we facilitated the meeting between you both. I’m sorry, Pam, we took it so far in accordance with Judy’s instructions, but it would have gone no further.’
‘There is something else we can tell you,’ Mouse said. ‘Your lovely son,’ she glanced at the picture on the fireplace that had already been placed in a frame, ‘would have divorced her. His diagnosis and prognosis made him realise he had very little time left, and so he stayed with her.’
Kat froze, willing Mouse not to take that conversation any further. She breathed a sigh of relief when Pam picked up the picture, and said, ‘What a lovely man. How I would have loved to have known him. Does my son have a grave?’
‘I don’t know,’ Mouse said, ‘but we will find out.’
Grace stood. ‘I’m going to make fresh drinks, I think we need them. Pam, do you need anything? You’re okay?’
Pam nodded. ‘I’m fine, Grace. I’ll sleep for a couple of hours later.’
Grace gathered up the used cups and carried the tray from the room.
‘This will bring on a relapse?’ Doris was concerned.
‘Hopefully not. If my mind will shut down as well as my body this afternoon, I can probably avoid it, but this damn disease is so unpredictable. But Grace is so good to me, she watches everything I do in an attempt at minimising everything so it doesn’t trigger a reaction. It’s why she put her arm around me, it was the only thing she could do as she didn’t know what was coming.’
Kat nodded. ‘Would you rather we had no further contact, now that you know of Judy’s deceit in all of this? If there is a grave for Tom, I can let you know by email, but I can’t guarantee the police won’t want to speak to you. We’ll be giving them that recording.’
‘You’ve all been admirable, Kat, and if you need to contact me then please do so. I’ll cope with the fallout from it. I can’t actually tell the police very much, can I. I didn’t know her, I didn’t know the lady on the recording; in fact most of the time I don’t even know what day it is. My medication keeps me pretty free of pain, but one of the symptoms of this illness is something called brain fog, and that seems to be a permanent symptom these days.’
They chatted quietly for a couple of minutes then Grace returned with fresh drinks, pouring for everyone before she sat down. She handed a small dish to Pam with two tablets in it, and a glass of water.
‘I’ve had them today, haven’t I?’ Pam said frowning.
‘No, not these. If you have these now, you’ll sleep better later.’
Pam smiled at her visitors. ‘This is what I mean about brain fog. Without Grace I’d be lost. She keeps me on the right track by dispensing my medication at the right time.’
They finished their drinks and then stood to leave. Grace escorted them outside once again, and thanked them for their trouble.
‘I’ll either email or ring Pam when I find out about a gravesite for Tom,’ Kat said. ‘Take care of her, this has to have been a shock, but we had no choice but to tell her. It would have been a bigger shock if the police had turned up and she hadn’t known anything.’
Grace smiled. ‘She’ll be asleep shortly. The pain can hit with no warning, and I try my hardest to prevent it. Those tablets were her Gabapentin, which normally keeps her reasonably pain free. Fingers crossed they will today.’
They drove down the short drive to the main road, and headed for home, each lost in their own thoughts until Doris said, ‘I don’t like her.’
‘Pam?’ There was surprise in Kat’s voice.
‘No, Grace. She’s very protective of Pam, but it smacks of control. Still, it’s nothing to do with us, and Pam seems happy to have her there.’
‘Is it control,’ Mouse asked, ‘or is it that she’s seen Pam in dreadful pain and just wants to try to prevent it? I must admit to not knowing about ME, but I certainly hope I never get it. I’ve seen Pam twice now, and she’s seemed half asleep both times.’
‘I had a friend with it, she died a couple of years ago,’ Doris said. ‘To look at her you wouldn’t have known anything was wrong, but it’s one of these invisible illnesses, like fibromyalgia. Even GPs don’t understand it, yet there are consultants in all hospitals for it. It took years for them to diagnose Sandra, then one day she went for a hospital appointment to discuss the massive amount of pain she was in, and she took along a long list of symptoms she had experienced over the previous six months. The consultant took one look at the list and said you have ME.’
‘How awful,’ Kat said. ‘Never knowing if you’re going to wake up in pain, or if it’s going to be an okay day. Poor Pam.’
Mouse put on the Range Rover’s indicator, and headed through the Derbyshire hills and vales to collect Martha. The three of them spoke very little for the rest of the journey. It had been a bad day, and they were individually digesting what they had seen and heard. Meeting with DI Marsden wasn’t going to be easy, but on one thing all three were united; Henry Roy would not be brought into any conversation.
The message on their answering machine, left by DI Marsden, was brief and to the point. ‘Nine tomorrow morning, all three of you, please. Don’t be late.’
The phone call to Enid and Victor was also brief and to the point. ‘Is it okay if we drop Martha off with you tomorrow morning at half past eight, please?’
21
‘No biscuits?’ Marsden pulled her coffee towards her, and Doris smiled.
‘We didn’t want to be accused of bribery and corruption.’
She stood and took down the biscuit tin. She put a few on a plate and pushed it to the middle of Kat’s desk. ‘Help yourself,’ Doris said.
‘Thank you, I didn’t have time for breakfast, and I’m staying in Eyam for Mr McLoughlin’s funeral later. Will you be going?’
Kat answered for them all. ‘No. Danny was a really good friend, but my husband ki
lled him. It would be tantamount to rubbing salt into the wound for his family if we went, so we’re going to close the office for the day and go home. We wouldn’t even have opened up if you hadn’t yelled at us on the answerphone.’
Tessa smiled. ‘I was stressed. Just how many more murders are we going to have in this area? Deaths around here are usually road traffic accidents with crazy tourists not understanding the width and the twistiness of Derbyshire roads, to say nothing of dry-stone walling that doesn’t move when you hit it at eighty miles an hour. The ferocity of the method of murder yesterday threw me. And I think you hold answers to things I need clarifying.’
‘Judy Carpenter was our client, it’s why we were there to see her.’
‘You didn’t have an appointment?’
‘No, we went early to catch her before her day began, really. We didn’t want to prewarn her. We had gone to give this to her.’
Kat pushed the envelope with the final account and the cheque towards Marsden. She picked it up, opened it and inspected the contents.
‘What had she done to upset you?’ she asked.
Mouse sighed. This was the part she had been dreading. ‘We have a recording we would like you to hear.’ Mouse took the little machine from her bag and placed it on the desk.
Once again the Connection team listened to it; Marsden’s face showed nothing. The words stopped.
‘I went to see Roberta yesterday, and she said nothing about this,’ Marsden said.
‘Would you?’ Doris countered.
Tessa shook her head. ‘I don’t know. She did appear to be shocked, but I didn’t feel she was holding back. I’ll go and talk to her again, in light of this. You believed her?’
Kat gave a rueful smile. ‘Unfortunately, yes. She came in here while Mouse and Doris were visiting Mrs Bird for the first time. Mrs Bird is Judy’s late husband’s birth mother, just to fix that in your mind. Judy wanted to track her down to fulfil Tom’s last wish. Supposedly.’
‘You didn’t believe Judy?’
‘Initially yes, but then we found out she had lied to us on a couple of matters, and we decided, after Bobby Outram had talked to me, that Judy had some knowledge of the birth mother’s wealth, and that was the reason for her wanting to find her. We’re sure she had found her and seen her home on Google Earth, and believe me, it’s impressive, but it would have looked as though Judy knew nothing if we facilitated their first meeting. She was using us, we realised that, hence our visit of yesterday morning in high heels.’
‘Power dressing, intimidating,’ Marsden smiled. ‘It was wasted. You did look smart though.’
‘Certainly did. We’re back to jeans today. Have you found anything out from the bedroom?’ Kat slipped the question in seamlessly.
Marsden laughed. ‘Nothing I’m going to tell you two Sherlocks.’
‘But we found her!’ Mouse looked a picture of innocence.
‘I know. I’ll have you in officially if I feel there’s any more to be gleaned from that little statement.’
‘That’s not what I meant…’
‘It’s what I meant. It was no ordinary crime scene, believe me, and I’ll pull in whoever I want to get to the bottom of it. One thing I will tell you. Because of the over the top way our victim was murdered, we expedited the post-mortem. The first few stab wounds were meant to incapacitate and create the splatter, leaving Judy weakened and unable to fight back, but only one hit the mark. It went straight to the heart, and it went deep, then the knife was twisted. She wasn’t going to survive that. In all there were nineteen wounds, but only one killed her.’
All three women stared at Marsden. ‘A crime of passion? In Hope?’ Kat’s eyes were huge, disbelief reflected in them. Then she realised how stupid she sounded, and let her head rest on her hands.
Marsden smiled. ‘I know what you mean, Kat. It was kinda my reaction. Going for the heart does indicate passion, but it also indicates it’s the quickest way of killing someone. Maybe Judy was trying to fight back.’
‘You think it’s a man or a woman?’ Mouse knew she was pushing her luck; she didn’t expect Marsden to come up with an answer.
‘Gut feeling says a woman because I think a man would have subdued her. But there’s no proof either way. We’ll keep digging. After Mr McLoughlin’s funeral I’m going out to see Mrs Bird. Tell me about her.’
‘We don’t really know anything,’ Kat said.
Tessa stood. ‘Okay, get in the car. I’m taking you to the station. Maybe you’ll realise you do know something once we’re there. And Kat, make sure you’re covered for childcare overnight.’
Doris grinned. ‘Sit down, DI Marsden. Kat was being an idiot. Pam Bird isn’t even our client, so we can’t claim client privilege on that one. We’ll tell you what you want to know.’
Tessa took her seat at the desk. ‘Okay, start talking. Mouse?’
Mouse, desperately trying to remember if everything had been legal that she had done, began by telling Tessa about the documents Tom Carpenter had ordered prior to his death, and how they had copies of them. She stood and walked to the filing cabinet, taking out one of the files. She handed it to Tessa.
‘Everything’s in that. Tom had always had his adoption certificate, which is in there, by the way, but when he applied for his adoption pack he then acquired his birth certificate, along with a letter from his birth mother. He then applied for her birth certificate. She was then Pam Farrar, and lived at ten Haddon Row in Grindleford. At sixteen she gave birth to Thomas Edward but her parents forced her to give him up for adoption. She asked that his new parents keep his given names, but had little hope of that happening. She was over the moon when we told her they had done as she asked.’
She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. ‘In 1998 Tom married Judy. They couldn’t have children, and Tom didn’t want to go down the adoption route. Reading between the lines, it was that fact that caused the rift in the marriage.’
‘How do you know there was a rift?’
This time the pause was because she needed to come up with an answer that didn’t involve Keeley Roy.
‘I went to see Tom’s aunt in Bradwell. She told me that Tom had taken all the documents to her, plus giving her the precious cross and chain given to him by his birth mother before he was taken from her, and when I asked why he didn’t just leave them with his wife, she said because they were on the verge of separating when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He simply let her inherit the house and whatever monies he had. He hadn’t the strength to fight. He died eighteen weeks later.’
‘Thank you for that. Now, the birth mother. She lives in Buxton?’
‘Indeed she does. A massive house that she shared with her husband until a year or so ago, when he was taken ill. I understand he died soon after, but don’t quote me on that. She has help managing her affairs, and I understand she is a very rich woman, and the lady who helps her is called Grace. Grace also monitors Pam’s medication because Pam herself isn’t well, she has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, ME to the laymen amongst us.’
‘Is she bad with it?’ Tessa asked.
‘I think so. After we told her of Judy’s death, she looked quite ill. I think her trigger must be stress.’
‘So you told her.’
‘We did.’ Mouse sounded defiant. ‘I didn’t want you lot going in with your size tens and putting her in bed for a month. We told her gently, and without going into massive details about blood on the ceiling, dripping from the lampshade, pooling on the floor.’
Tessa laughed. ‘Stop jumping, Beth. I just wanted to know how much she knew, and how careful I needed to be. Is there anything else I need to know?’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I’m going over to the church, but I’ll call back here before I go to Buxton, and pick up this file. Thank you for being so helpful finally, and make a note if you think of anything else while I’m away.’
22
‘I’m a bit scared.’ Keeley Roy’s voice was tremulous. ‘They’re taking all s
orts of stuff out of Judy’s house, and I’ve been questioned twice by officers.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Mouse said into the receiver. ‘They’ll be gone soon if they’re at the stage of taking stuff out, and everything will go back to normal.’ Mouse had no idea if she was spouting rubbish or not, but she sensed she needed to calm Keeley down by whatever means possible. ‘DI Marsden is calling in at the office in about half an hour. If I get any more information from her, I’ll give you a ring this afternoon. It might be a good idea to take you and Henry out for the afternoon, and then you won’t be constantly reminded by all the activity. Padley Gorge might be good, it’s a lovely warm day.’
‘You’re right,’ Keeley said with a sigh. ‘I’m being paranoid. I’ll make us a picnic, and we’ll get away for a few hours. Thank you for listening to me. Maybe we’ll talk later.’
‘Problems?’ Doris asked.
Mouse shook her head. ‘Not really, it’s Keeley having a bit of a meltdown. All this activity in what was Tom’s house hasn’t been good for her. I think she’s panicking that it’s going to come out about her and Tom, and that’s going to affect Henry. They’re taking lots of stuff from inside the house, and she’s definitely not happy with the situation.’
The shop bell jingled and Marsden returned. ‘That was an interesting hour.’
‘Interesting,’ she reconfirmed thoughtfully. ‘First of all it was a cracking good funeral, as funerals go. It really was a celebration of Danny’s life, lots of lovely loud music, bright clothes, brilliant. And then came a phone call as we got outside. It seems we’ve been authorised to send Leon’s body to Canada. Did you know about this, Kat?’
Kat nodded. ‘I did, but not when. I had to sign an authorisation form. He’s going to his parents. They asked me and I said yes. It’ll be a clean break for Martha and me. I’ll tell her the full story when she’s old enough to understand, and she can make up her own mind whether to visit his grave or not.’