The Kat and Mouse Murder Mysteries Box Set

by Anita Waller

  ‘You haven’t been pressured into this?’ Marsden was concerned.

  ‘Not at all. It’s a relief, if I’m honest. I just want him out of my life for good. When I go to register Martha’s birth, it won’t be in the name of Rowe, I’ll be Kat Silvers by then. I’m reverting to my maiden name. I’m getting rid of all of that life.’

  Doris and Mouse looked at Kat, surprise on both their faces. This was the first time her original surname had been mentioned.

  ‘He’ll probably be gone within about four days, so I understand. You can change your mind until that plane takes off. Then you can’t. But that’s not all that phone call was about. My team have found a will in the Carpenter house, hidden under the mattress in the spare bedroom. It’s countersigned by two people, neighbours from the little road where the Carpenter house is. It’s Tom Carpenter’s will, not Judy’s, and it definitely hasn’t been acted upon. I don’t want to say anything further about it until I’ve had chance to study it, but this could open up a whole can of worms that would possibly be better eaten by the birds. And I am requesting that the three of you don’t say a word about this to anyone until it is more public knowledge. I don’t know yet what is in it. But I’m asking all three of you if you knew anything about this will prior to my having told you?’

  Kat spoke for all of them. ‘Not a thing, I promise you.’

  Marsden walked to the door. ‘I’ll need to talk more with you, I’m sure, find out if there’s anything you haven’t told me, but until then, take care.’

  ‘Shit…’ Mouse said the word slowly, drawn out.

  ‘Bad language, dear,’ Doris said, her mind on anything but Mouse’s expletive. ‘A will. Let’s have a guess what it will say.’

  ‘He will have left something to either Keeley or Henry, or possibly both.’ Kat’s face screwed up in concentration. ‘Never mind telling Keeley to take him to Padley Gorge, it might be easier for her if she takes him out of the country!’

  ‘Should I ring her and warn her?’ Mouse was worried.

  ‘I think not. They don’t know of our relationship to her, it will probably be better if it stays like that. If Marsden thinks we know her well, Keeley will clam up and we’ll find nothing out. She won’t be able to fake it if she knows before Marsden tells her about the will.’ Doris had obviously thought it through.

  ‘Why has life suddenly become complicated?’ Kat grumbled. ‘Everybody in our circle is becoming intertwined, aren’t they. I need to go and have a few minutes in church, and I can’t even do that because it’s the funeral of the man my husband killed, and it would be insensitive to be there at this time.’ She turned to face the other two. ‘And I saw your faces when I spoke of changing my name. I’ve already taken the decision, it’s going to happen, and that’s an end to it.’

  ‘Hey, don’t snap at us. You know we’ll back you, no matter what,’ Doris said. She waved her hands around at the certificates on the walls. ‘I’ll just get the name changed on all of these, shall I?’

  Kat stared around her. She sat down on her office chair, dropped her head onto her arms and burst into tears.

  ‘How many times did you have to get up during the night, Kat?’ Doris put her arm around Kat’s heaving shoulders.

  ‘Three.’

  ‘Come on,’ Doris said. ‘Let’s have you home. You go to bed and you sleep. We’ll collect Martha and see to her needs, and you stay there as long as you want. You’re still on maternity leave, you know, and this is exactly what it’s for.’

  The tears rolled down Kat’s cheeks as she looked at Doris and Mouse. ‘Bloody maternity leave.’

  ‘Don’t swear, please, Kat, it’s unbecoming,’ Doris said, trying to hide her smile. ‘Go and get in the car with Mouse, I’ll make sure everything’s secure.’

  Mouse and Doris were relaxing in the lounge; the television had been turned off for some time, neither of them feeling inclined to follow anything on screen. They were reading, both occasionally looking up from their books and staring into space as their thoughts drifted into their work life.

  They heard Kat’s bedroom door open, then the flush of the toilet. She came downstairs rubbing her hands through her hair.

  ‘You’re going for the scarecrow look then,’ Mouse smiled.

  ‘I am. It’s not far off midnight. Have I slept all this time?’

  ‘You have. Martha’s in my room, and is staying there all night. I suggest you have something light to eat, and a milky drink, then get off back to bed.’

  Kat sank onto the sofa and laid her head back. ‘I didn’t expect to feel like this. I thought I would simply give birth, and then get on with life with a sweet little baby in tow. The reality has been nothing like that.’

  Doris grinned at her inherited granddaughter and stood. ‘Hot chocolate and some toast?’

  ‘Oh, Nan, that would be wonderful,’ Kat said without opening her eyes.

  ‘It would…’ Mouse leaned back, mimicking Kat, and closed her eyes.

  ‘Toast and hot chocolate for three it is then.’ Doris headed for the kitchen.

  ‘Who do you think’s killed Judy?’ Kat said, her eyes still closed.

  ‘No idea yet,’ Mouse said, as unmoving as her friend. ‘But we will make it our place to find out, if we can. Surely…’

  ‘…it can’t be Keeley,’ Kat finished off the sentence.

  Mouse opened her eyes. ‘We’re thinking along the same lines.’

  ‘We are. I just don’t see her doing it. She’s not come across as being particularly bolshie or brave; in fact, she’s quite the opposite. And I don’t think she’d do anything to jeopardise being with Henry. He’s her reason for living, and she would lose him if she ended up in prison for life.’

  ‘Quite apart from that, would she have thought to leave that back door ajar? She doesn’t need to use conventional methods for getting into any of those six terraced houses, she can go up into the loft, and down into any of the homes there.’

  Kat sat forward, her eyes now fully open. ‘I’m assuming the police have been up into the loft at Judy’s house. Surely it will have occurred to them there’s a major security flaw in those houses.’

  ‘I would hope so. I happen to think a major fire risk as well. Should we mention our concerns to Marsden?’

  ‘No, she was quite stroppy with us, just because we found her a body.’ Kat yawned. ‘Let her realise it for herself. We didn’t go out of our way to find her a body, did we? It was accidental. Neither of us think Keeley did it, and we’d only be piling trouble onto her head. Quite apart from that, we’ve no idea what this will says. Maybe Keeley’s troubles are already sitting right on top of her head.’

  23

  The team gathered around Marsden, waiting expectantly. They seemed to have been working in the Eyam area for ever, one crime melding seamlessly into another. Leon Rowe was out of the picture, but it appeared he wouldn’t just stay in his coffin and die. His wife had taken up the cudgel for the good guys, and subsequently they had another body.

  Marsden walked over to the whiteboard and pointed to the picture of Judy Carpenter. ‘Judith Carpenter,’ she said. ‘Died from a stab wound directly into the heart, but had eighteen other wounds as well. Some pre-mortem, some post mortem. Thoughts?’

  ‘Were the pre-mortem ones enough to subdue her?’ A voice from the back of the room carried above the hubbub of so many bodies.

  ‘Not on their own,’ Marsden responded. ‘Good question, whoever that was. There was blunt force trauma to her head. We think that subdued her enough for the butchery to take place. But let’s be clear on this, the pre-death stuff would not have killed her. The stab wound to the heart, pre-planned we believe, was the kill wound. She would have died within seconds. The killer then continued, just for the hell of it. Further thoughts?’

  ‘It was a woman.’

  ‘Who said that?’

  ‘Me, boss.’ Dave Irwin held up his hand.

  ‘I’m inclined to agree, Dave, but let’s not rule out the p
ossibility it could be a man. I simply think that a man would have used more force when she was hit on the head, and I think there wouldn’t have been quite so many repeated stabbings before and after death if it had been a man. This person actually took their time, almost as if it didn’t matter whether they were caught or not. It was all about the act, not getting away with it.’

  Marsden looked around the room. ‘We need to clear this up fast. I want the neighbours interviewing, and I want every second of their time accounting for. That row of six cottages is interlinked by one huge attic space. It seems they work on a trust system, and they don’t venture into each other’s loft area, but is it possible somebody did? Did Judy upset somebody on that little road? Her next door neighbour thought she heard Judy shouting at what she presumed was a cat or a dog, telling it to go away, and that was at approximately seven o’clock. She was found around three hours later, so what happened in that period? Did anybody see anything? Any stranger? Anybody who wasn’t a stranger? I’m going to interview the next door neighbour, but I’m bringing her in here. Dave is in charge, he’ll allocate your jobs. Go – bring me back a murderer, team.’

  They all smiled and headed back towards their desks. Tessa returned to the tiny office she sometimes felt she lived in, and pulled the copy of the will towards her. She’d glanced through it very quickly before the briefing, recognising its importance; was it important to the investigation or important to Keeley Roy?

  Marsden studied it carefully, letting every word register. The writer, Thomas Edward Carpenter, had known he hadn’t long to live. He stated in the will that he did not wish his wife, Judith Carpenter, to have sight of the will prior to his death. He left the house he shared with his wife, and wholly owned by him, for her use until her death. After that it would revert to his only child, his son, Henry Roy. In addition, the house in which Keeley and Henry Roy lived, and which was wholly owned by him, was to be transferred to Keeley Roy. All rents paid by her since the start date of her tenancy were to be refunded in total.

  He left a sum of £10,000 to his aunt, Alice Small, along with ownership of one of the remaining two houses which he owned outright, and £50,000 to Keeley Roy. A substantial trust fund had been put on one side for when Henry reached twenty-one, plus shared ownership with Keeley Roy of house number four, and all rental income for the foreseeable future.

  Tessa read through the details twice. Tom Carpenter had been a very wealthy man, and yet Judy had tried to work a con to get more. Wasn’t she aware of his wealth? Did she know he owned four houses? The will was dated five days before Tom’s death. Had the neighbours called in to see him at his request, and then been asked to sign the will?

  There were clearly many more answers to be found, and Marsden made a list of the questions, so that nothing was missed.

  Marsden took Hannah Granger with her to talk to the neighbours. Keeley Roy didn’t appear to be in, but this didn’t concern Tessa. She wanted to bring her into the station.

  Philip Jones, the first of the signatories of the will, was at home at number five. He led them through to the back garden, where his wife was hanging out washing. She obligingly went in and made glasses of lemonade for everyone. Philip explained that he had received a text from Tom Carpenter, asking if he could call into see him. He obliged, knowing that Tom didn’t have much longer left.

  Tom had asked him to sign the will, but Philip said he had no idea what was in it. He said they chatted for a short while, but then Tom began to fall asleep, so Philip came home. He never saw Tom alive again.

  Marsden and Hannah finished their drinks, thanked husband and wife for their hospitality, then went to number three to speak to Eric Davies, the man who had been second to sign his name on the document.

  His story was marginally different. He too had responded to a text from Tom, and he too had signed the will form, noticing that Philip had already signed it.

  But then Tom had explained he didn’t want his wife having anything to do with it, and he had asked Eric to hide it under the mattress on the small double bed in the second bedroom.

  ‘He said he was leaving instructions for it to be found after his funeral, and neither Philip nor I were to worry about it, the form needed our dated signatures on it. I thought no more about it until you turned up,’ Eric finished.

  ‘Was he of sound mind?’ Marsden asked.

  ‘Definitely,’ Eric said. ‘He was in some pain, and Judy brought him some pain relief in while I was there. He was a good man, one everybody got on with, always supported anything that was happening in the area. He owned four of these six houses, you know. Not mine, and not Philip’s; we bought them from him some years ago, but he owns the rest. I suppose that will is going to clarify who owns them now. I never spoke to him again. He was asleep almost before I was out of his room. I did wonder how strong the tablets were that Judith had given to him, they worked very quickly.’

  ‘Thank you for your help,’ Marsden said, and she and Hannah left to head back to the station. Tessa had a lot of thinking to do, all of it centring around the will. It seemed he had fathered a child with his neighbour, and no one had known. He had hidden the will, but obviously had expected it to surface pretty quickly. He would not have left his lover and son without funds, but why had the will never been found?

  It was a valid will, and it could be brought into force. Keeley Roy would be a very wealthy woman… unless she had been the one to kill Judy Carpenter.

  Marsden’s headache, initially just a niggle, was escalating into migraine proportions, and she swallowed a couple of painkillers. She knew something had gone seriously wrong with Tom’s plans; he had meant that will to be found. She needed to know when Tom had slipped into a coma-state, making it impossible for him to tell anyone about its location. She thought about Philip and Eric’s words; both of them had said that Tom was drifting into sleep. Had he never woken up fully again? Maybe Keeley Roy would be able to shed some light on that little query.

  Roy needed to be brought into the station, and very soon.

  24

  Keeley had only been home two minutes after dropping Henry off at school, when the police car arrived. She was in the middle of loading the washing machine. The bang on the door startled her into dropping the little plastic top full of laundry detergent. She grabbed a tea towel, threw it on top of the spreading puddle, and headed down the hall.

  Five minutes later, she was in the back of the patrol car wondering what was going on, and if she would be back for three to reclaim her son. Shell-shocked, scared, she sat trembling, not knowing what was happening to her.

  ‘Is it okay if I call you Keeley?’ Marsden spoke softly. She could introduce harshness as and when it was necessary.

  Keeley nodded miserably. She couldn’t believe loving someone could get her in this mess, and if this woman wanted to call her Genghis Khan she could, as long as she could go home to Henry afterwards.

  ‘Right, Keeley. I need to ask you some questions, so please speak clearly for the tape, won’t you.’

  ‘Yes,’ muttered Keeley, then more clearly, ‘yes!’

  ‘Let’s begin with you getting to know Mr Carpenter.’

  ‘I met him almost as soon as I moved in next door. He helped me carry some boxes in that I had taken down in my car from my old flat, a couple of days before the removal men came to move my furniture. He was really nice. I didn’t meet his wife Judy until about a month later. She never introduced herself to me, not like he had. Tom.’

  There was a bleakness about Keeley’s expression and Marsden tried to dismiss it from her thoughts.

  ‘About six months after I moved in. Nobody knew, nobody ever saw us as a couple. We could pass between the two houses via the loft, and we just waited for Judy to go out so we could be together. Tom worked from home, so was always there, and I worked nights in a care home. At least I did until I found out I was pregnant.’

  Keeley paused. This was so much more difficult than she could ever have imagined. She had kept
this love bottled inside her for so long, and now she was being forced to talk about it as though it was nothing.

  ‘Please go on, Keeley.’

  ‘I told Tom I was pregnant and he was over the moon. I had made up my mind to have an abortion; we had so much to lose by keeping the baby. Tom wouldn’t hear of it. He said it would be the child he had always wanted, but thought he would never have. We agree not to rock the boat by moving in together because he feared for Judy’s state of mind; her control over Tom, the household, everything, was well-known on our little road. He said he could live with being next door to his child, if I could handle the situation as well.’

  Again she paused, but Marsden said nothing.

  ‘I don’t think for one minute that Judy suspected anything, not the affair, not the unplanned pregnancy, nothing. She was away for two weeks staying with her sister… Roberta?… when I went into labour, and Tom was able to take me into hospital and be there for the birth. It cemented everything between us, and he promised we would be together properly one day.’

  ‘Did you believe him?’

  Keeley smiled, deep into her thoughts. ‘No. I knew he would never leave her, but it was lovely to talk about the time when he would, even if it would never happen. He began to be ill with niggling little things when Henry was about two, and at first the doctor said it was stress. Then he said Tom needed more exercise, so he got out and walked more, but nothing improved his general health. He took co-codamols because they helped the pain better than paracetamols, then finally the doctor sent him for tests.’

  Keeley looked up at Marsden. ‘Could I have some water, please? This is very hard.’

  ‘Would you like a break?’

  She shook her head. ‘No thanks. I want to go home.’

  Hannah went to get a drink, bringing both a coffee and a water back for Keeley.