by Anita Waller
Marsden waited until Keeley had helped herself to the water, and then said, ‘The diagnosis was cancer?’
Keeley swallowed. ‘It was. By the time they had completed the tests and all the consultations it was too late. It had spread into his bones, his liver – everywhere it could go, it had gone. They initially tried to say he would have about six months, but it was obvious it was too advanced for that. Our last three or four weeks we communicated by text. I saw Judy go out one day and was going to risk going through the loft to see him, but the Macmillan nurse arrived, so I couldn’t.’
‘Have you saved his texts?’
‘Of course. I’ve screenshot them as well, just in case I lose the phone, or it breaks. My photos are all stored separately.’
‘May I see?’
Keeley hesitated, then dipped into her bag and took out her Samsung. ‘The screen has a crack on it, but the phone still works. Funds don’t run to new phones now.’
Marsden looked at her, wondering if she was being genuine, or… no, she was genuine, she felt.
She scrolled to messages, and clicked on Tom. It actually said Tom xxx. She read through the texts, aware that Keeley felt uncomfortable having them scrutinised. The last two or three were very short on Tom’s part. It was obvious from the half words that he was struggling to concentrate. The final one simply said will.
Marsden stared at it with her mouth open. ‘There’s no response to the last one, Keeley?’ It suddenly became clear why the will had never been found. He’d not managed to tell anyone about it.
‘No, it didn’t make sense. I thought he must have been going to ask me something, and then either couldn’t remember what it was, or he physically wasn’t capable of writing the rest of the message. He was very ill, and very near the end. Judy, when she came around to tell me he was gone, said he’d been in a coma for the last three days.’
‘And Judy hadn’t seen any of these texts?’
‘He was careful to delete everything, but maybe just that last one would have still been on the phone. It wasn’t much of a message, and she couldn’t have read anything into it, but she was really quite nasty when she came to tell me he’d gone. I would give anything to know what he wanted me to do for him, but that’s not going to happen is it? In my moments when I’m really down, I like to think he was going to say, “Will you come around and sit with me?”, but of course it wouldn’t have been that.’
Keeley’s head dropped and she sat quietly for a moment, before picking up the coffee cup.
‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘I don’t seem to be able to get over it, and talking to you about it certainly hasn’t helped. But, you know, Judy means nothing to me. I neither like her nor dislike her. If I had ever been tempted to bump her off, it would have been long before this. She’s obviously managed to upset somebody, and that doesn’t surprise me, but I have very little interaction with her now. I loved her husband, not her.’
Marsden stood, feeling subdued and chastened. In all her years of interviewing suspects, she had never felt emotionally involved. It was a job. Today that job felt shitty.
‘Thank you for being honest, Keeley. If you can bear our coffee, please finish your drink and PC Granger will take you home. I’ll be coming out to see you in a couple of days, but I’ll ring first to check you will be in.’
Marsden guessed that news of a will would filter through via Eric Davies and Philip Jones, but they needed to process the information at the station before she could officially inform the beneficiaries. And it wasn’t only Keeley who was benefitting from this extraordinary man, a man who Marsden believed had tried to tell Keeley where his will had been hidden. Will.
Hannah Granger sat opposite her boss and waited for instructions.
‘Keeley didn’t speak on the journey?’
‘No, she didn’t say anything, other than thank you when she got out of the car. No protestation of innocence, nothing. It was almost as if she didn’t care. I think we’ve well and truly drained her today.’
Marsden nodded. ‘Know what you mean. It’s how I felt when I came out of that room. I didn’t have to ask her anything really. She was so open, just told her story in a take it or leave it fashion, and I believed her. Still do, after thinking about it for an hour. It must be awful to find your soulmate and then lose them. And he was only forty.’
‘So what happens next?’
‘We go to see his birth mother and his Aunt Alice. Those interviews are probably going to be a bit emotional as well. Still, it all beats gunning down Leon Rowe, I suppose.’
Hannah stood. ‘Maybe.’ She grinned as she left the tiny office.
25
Kat fastened Martha into the car and walked over to Mouse’s Range Rover. ‘Right, I’ll see you in a bit. Thank you for giving me time out. I’m looking forward to seeing Alice, I wanted her to see Martha in the little jacket before she grows out of it.’
‘Enjoy your day off,’ Mouse said. She was relieved that Kat was looking so much better, and definitely not so tired. ‘We’ll be in the office all day if you need anything.’
Driving along Derbyshire’s winding roads, Kat eventually arrived at the pretty cottage belonging to Alice Small. Bradwell wasn’t a large village, but managed to be well known for the famous Bradwell’s ice cream. She vowed to pick some up before she headed back home.
She felt a little disappointed and disgruntled when she realised there was no response to her knock on the door. She placed Martha on the floor in her car seat, and sat on the doorstep, wondering what to do next. Should she wait in the hope that Alice turned up, or head back to the office and see what the real workers in the company were doing?
She heard pounding footsteps and Alice appeared around the corner, dressed in jogging bottoms and a strappy top.
‘Alice!’ Kat jumped up and stared in amazement at the wiry pensioner. ‘Should you be doing that?’
Alice laughed. ‘Of course. I have to keep myself fit, I’m not ready to go to meet my maker just yet, you know.’
Kat’s surprise was written all over her face. ‘Do you do this a lot?’
‘Every day. It’s also a way of checking that friends dotted around the village are okay. They all give me a shout out as I pass. One or two occasionally join me, but not today, I was on my own. Have you come to show me this beautiful baby?’
‘I have indeed.’
Alice bent and picked up the car seat, to have a closer look. ‘You really are a little corker,’ she said, and Martha obliged with a wave of her hand.
A key hanging around Alice’s neck was used to enter the cottage, and Alice carried the car seat and baby through to her lounge. Kat was amazed by the fitness of the woman; she normally only saw her at church, and wearing either a skirt or a dress. It took twenty years off her to see her in fitness clothes.
Alice did a couple of stretches to unwind her muscles, then headed for the kitchen to make them a drink.
‘Cold drinks okay?’ she called. ‘Or do you want tea?’
‘Water will be fine,’ Kat said, looking around the room at all the pretty antiques Alice had collected. She turned as the older woman entered carrying a tray.
‘You have some beautiful things in here,’ Kat said. ‘My home just seems too… modern to fill it with antiques. And yet it isn’t, it’s a couple of centuries old. I think when we sorted out the interior it lost its old appeal. I love it in this room.’
‘So do I, and so did Tom. I think he came here to escape from that woman. Now, can I see this baby properly, please?’
Kat grinned and unsnapped the restraints holding her daughter into the car seat. She lifted her out and passed her to the seated Alice. ‘And she has my little jacket on,’ she said. ‘She really looks so beautiful, Katerina. You must be so proud.’
‘Oh, I am,’ Kat laughed. ‘And I have three expert babysitters, she’s spoilt rotten. I wanted to bring her to show you, so the other two have headed for the office, and I’m taking a day off. We’ve had a bad couple of days…
’ She paused.
‘You have heard the news about Judy, haven’t you?’
‘News? She’s found Tom’s birth mother?’
‘No, no… she’s dead.’
‘Really?’ It almost seemed to Kat as if Alice didn’t believe her, but then she said, ‘How? Car accident?’
It all seemed too cold, clinical, and Kat didn’t know how to respond. She thought the police would have notified Alice, but it was obvious that hadn’t happened.
‘I’m sorry, Alice, I really shouldn’t be saying anything. It was partly my reason for coming here, because I thought the police would have told you. We did give them your name…’
‘What? She’s nothing to do with me. If, as you say, she’s dead, then so be it. I can’t grieve for her, she never cared for Tom, she just wanted his money. Maybe now it will go to the right people.’
‘Tom had money?’
‘Oh yes, but it’s pretty much tied up. Judy gets an allowance, and I know he supported several charities. He said he was leaving a new will when I saw him about two weeks before he died, so I assume she’s copped for the lot. I really hope… oh, never mind.’
Kat felt as if she was floundering in deep water. She couldn’t say anything about a will only just having surfaced; Marsden had asked them not to speak of it. And now she’d opened the conversation, she had to tell Alice how Judy had died.
‘Alice,’ she said slowly, ‘Judy was murdered. Stabbed in her bedroom. Mouse and I went to see her, and we found her.’
‘Really?’ There was still a coldness in Alice that was stopping Kat from saying anything further. For a Christian, Alice was being particularly uncaring.
Kat picked up her glass of water, and watched as Martha and Alice played with each other’s fingers. ‘Can I take a picture?’ Kat asked.
She took out her phone and snapped several of the two of them, then went and stood by Alice’s chair in order to get all three of them in the picture. ‘Thank you,’ Kat said. ‘I’m making a memory book for Martha, so that she remembers everything from birth to her eighteenth birthday. It will be part of her celebrations, having this given to her.’
‘What a lovely idea! Oh, it seems I have more visitors…’
Marsden’s car pulled up outside.
‘Then I’ll leave you,’ Kat said. She took Martha from Alice’s arms and placed her back in the car seat. Alice went to the door to let the DI in, and Kat nodded at Marsden as she went by.
‘Thank you, Alice,’ Kat said. ‘I’ll bring her again soon.’
‘Kat, I’m calling around to see you after I’ve spoken to Mrs Small. Office or home?’
‘We’re all at the office, even Martha,’ she said with a laugh.
Marsden headed out of Bradwell in a troubled frame of mind. Alice Small had showed no emotion concerning Judy Carpenter’s death, had wanted no details. When asked her whereabouts between 6am and mid-morning of the day of Judy’s death, she said she had been running, as she did every day, and gave names of several friends who routinely looked out for her as she ran around the village.
‘I’ll put Hannah on to checking that out,’ she mused aloud, but admitted to herself that it was just a tad unlikely that an eighty-year-old Christian lady would be able to overcome a much younger Judy Carpenter, killing her with a knife.
Marsden pulled up outside the shop in Eyam, locked her car and headed towards the door. The bell clanged as she entered; it was so old-fashioned, and yet everybody loved it.
Doris was in her usual place on reception, her laptop open, her fingers flying across the keys. ‘DI Marsden, can I help you?’
‘Kat didn’t tell you I was calling in?’
‘Kat flew in with a screaming baby. She went straight through to her office and all is once again peaceful, so I assume Martha needed feeding. Do you need all of us?’
‘I do. I’ve come to realise over the time that I’ve known you, that we know different things. I want to pick brains.’
‘Intriguing,’ Doris said. ‘Let me see what Kat and Mouse are up to, and we’ll decide where to sit.’
She carefully opened the door to Kat’s office, where Martha was being placed in her car seat, obviously fast asleep. Kat put a finger to her lips, and came out to reception.
‘We all need to talk. Mouse’s office?’ Doris said.
Mouse was playing card games on her laptop, so they decided as she clearly had nothing better to do they would all squeeze into there.
‘You have something for us?’ Mouse began.
‘A little bit. Information about the will that the SOCOs uncovered. A lot of what I’m saying is guesswork, but I feel it’s accurate. We pulled in Keeley Roy yesterday and had an interesting chat with her. In a couple of days we’re going to talk to her again, but it’s going to be about the will.’
‘Is it valid?’ Mouse looked puzzled. ‘Does Keeley benefit?’
‘Why would Keeley benefit, Mouse?’ Marsden said with a grin. ‘You know, if you’re going to withhold information from me, don’t drop yourself in it when we have a general conversation.’
‘Keeley is a client,’ Mouse said, crossing her fingers as she told the minor white lie. ‘I am assuming she has now told you certain facts about her relationship with Tom Carpenter.’
‘She has, she was very open and forthcoming. It was almost as though it was a relief to have it out in the open. Would that have been a good enough motive to murder Judy Carpenter? I’m inclined to think not. But somebody did, and it was a particularly brutal assault. So, to go back to the will.’
She took a notepad out of her bag, and glanced quickly down the page. ‘Tom Carpenter was very stable, financially. He inherited vast amounts of money when his adoptive parents died, but they had invested in him anyway. Over the years, nearly twenty I understand, he bought all of the houses on that little side road where he lived with Judy. When he married Judy he was already living in that corner house, and we don’t think he ever told her about his finances. He rented all of them out, but about ten years ago two of the tenants approached the estate agent who acted as rent-collector to ask if they could buy their homes. He agreed, on condition they didn’t reveal who the current owner was, and those two ex-tenants were the men he approached when he needed this will witnessing.’
She paused to once again check her facts. ‘About seven years ago the house adjoining his own house became empty, and Keeley Roy became his tenant. It was all done through the estate agent; they look after the houses, see to maintenance, collect rents, re-let when necessary, and Tom Carpenter had nothing to do with any of it. Reading between the lines, I think it was to stop Judy finding out just how much money he had because his intention was to divorce her.’
‘Sneaky,’ Mouse responded.
‘Don’t forget most of this is supposition, but I sent one of the team to the estate agent’s office yesterday, and they confirmed the secrecy Tom Carpenter insisted on being in place. Even Keeley didn’t know he owned her house; she paid her rent every month for seven years or so, and didn’t know she was paying it to her Tom. He has put things right, I might add. The will says that Judy is to have use of the house they have always lived in until her death, and then it goes to little Henry. That’s the first major point.’
‘Good grief, he’s a bit little to be a landlord,’ Doris said.
‘That’s not all Henry gets. He has a considerable trust fund set aside for him when he reaches… I think it’s twenty-one. I hope it’s thirty,’ Tessa added. ‘His mother, who still doesn’t know Tom was her landlord, receives her house, fifty-thousand pounds, and all the rent she has ever paid is to be returned to her. Plus, she shares ownership of the fourth house and all rental income with Henry until one of them dies. Then it all reverts to the remaining one. Tom’s left the final house to Alice Small, along with £10,000. As I said, he was a very wealthy man.’
There was silence for a moment as Kat, Mouse and Doris digested the information. Finally Mouse spoke. ‘I’m not buying that this murder
is about money though. It doesn’t feel like it. The will was found after Judy’s death. So nobody knew about his huge wealth until SOCOs found the document.’
Marsden sat back and waited.
‘You’re right,’ Kat joined in. ‘I don’t see this as being about any financial gain. Yes there’s going to be a lot, especially for Keeley, but there’s an itch I can’t scratch at the moment; I’m working on it. He didn’t leave any actual cash to Judy? That seems a bit… strange. No wonder she saw potential in linking up with Pam Bird.’
Doris looked at her girls. Deep thinkers, both of them, and she knew they needed time to work this one through. Her own IT skills wouldn’t help push this conundrum to any sort of conclusion. This was about life as much as about death.
‘So… motive.’ Kat frowned as she said the word. ‘Why would anybody want to kill Judy? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Yes she had a plan, but at that particular moment of her death, she had done nothing illegal or immoral. She hadn’t even met Pam Bird, she was hanging fire so that it all looked innocent when we introduced the two of them.’
‘You think the Pam Bird connection is somewhere hidden in this?’ Marsden asked. ‘I was going to see her today, but that nurse woman told me not to bother, she was out of it because she had woken up in so much pain. She sounded almost accusatory, as though it was all my fault she’d had to have extra painkillers.’
‘Grace isn’t a nurse as such,’ Mouse explained. ‘She was employed to help out with the business when Pam’s husband was taken ill. When he died, Pam continued to employ Grace because Pam’s own illness is so debilitating. She never knows from one day to the next if she’s going to have manageable pain levels, so if it’s any consolation, Tessa, I don’t think she was bullshitting you, it would have been a genuine reason for you not being able to see Pam today.’
‘Let’s hope by tomorrow she’s feeling much better because I’m going to see her,’ Marsden said.