by Anita Waller
26
Marsden stayed for another half hour, batting thoughts backwards and forwards with the three women. She agreed to call in to the shop after she had spoken to Pam Bird, and fill them in on any developments, or even simply ideas her team had cast around the office.
Finally it felt as though they hadn’t held anything back, although she did realise it was entirely down to the death of their client; their mouths would have been as if sewn tightly shut if Judy Carpenter had still been alive.
Pam Bird was lying on the sofa, a fleece cover placed over her. She had a book by her side, and a carafe of water with a glass over the neck of it on a small coffee table within easy reach. She looked comfortable, if a little drowsy.
‘DI Marsden,’ she said. ‘Good to meet you. Kat and Beth have spoken of you and I know they think highly of you. I’m not sure how I can help, but if I can, I will.’
The door opened and Grace appeared with the obligatory tray of tea and coffee. Marsden smiled her thanks, and knew she would have to use the bathroom before driving away. Her bladder was already feeling slightly overwhelmed.
‘Do you need me, Pam? Grace asked.
Marsden jumped in. ‘No, Mrs Bird will be fine. I’m only here for a chat. I may need to speak to you separately, but I’ll come and find you.’
Grace gave a reluctant smile, nodded and left the room saying she would be in the office.
‘Do you mind if we record this conversation, Mrs Bird? It saves me making notes.’
‘Not at all.’ Pam said.
‘Well I rather think Grace might raise objections, but it’s not her I’m speaking with. She didn’t appreciate me asking her to leave.’
‘She’s very good to me,’ Pam said. ‘But she can be a bit possessive. I honestly don’t know where I would be without her. She gave me my pain medication just before you arrived instead of after lunch, in case I became stressed. I wouldn’t have thought of doing that.’
No and neither would anybody else, Marsden’s suspicious mind screamed out. ‘What pain medication do you take, Mrs Bird?’
‘I take Gabapentin three times a day, and Imipramine at night. I can top up if it’s particularly severe with co-codamol and ibuprofen.’
‘Powerful stuff,’ Marsden said. ‘So you’ve had your afternoon dose of Gabapentin a couple of hours early?’
‘I have, but the pain is pretty bad today. Not as bad as yesterday but when I get a flare-up as awful as that one was, it takes me a few days to recover. I’m sorry if I sound a bit dozy, this drug has that effect on me. I think it’s when I mix it with Imipramine… Makes me sleepy.’
‘You’ve had that as well? Your bedtime medication?’
Pam nodded, and shuffled her body a little higher. ‘Would you mind pouring me a coffee, please, DI Marsden, and help yourself to either tea or coffee. And we have scones! Grace makes beautiful scones and cakes. Please, help yourself.’
Marsden did as instructed but said no to the scone. She didn’t want to take the risk of a sleeping tablet having been ground up and used in the scone mixture…
You’re a cow, Marsden, she told herself. She’s probably a really nice caring person. Who dispenses evening sleeping tablets in the middle of the day.
‘Okay,’ Marsden finally said, ‘let’s talk about your son. You had him, I understand, when you were only sixteen?’
‘That’s right, and forced into giving him away. It wasn’t because I didn’t love him, it was because I did love him. He would have had no life with me, a sixteen-year-old who knew nothing. I was still dependent on my parents, and there was no way they would let me keep him.’
Marsden nodded sympathetically.
‘And now I’ll never know him.’ Pam glanced briefly at the picture standing proudly in the middle of the mantelpiece. ‘He was a handsome man, wasn’t he?’
‘He certainly was. A man you can be proud of producing, and from what I’ve been told, he had a happy childhood.’
‘But he didn’t have a happy marriage, did he?’ A frown briefly crossed Pam’s face. ‘I could have been taken in completely by this woman who was supposed to be coming to see me. I could so easily have believed that she wanted to fulfil Tom’s last wishes that he find me, because that’s what I wanted to believe. And she would have made it her business to become part of my life, wouldn’t she?’
‘Everything is pointing to that, I’m afraid,’ Tessa said gently. She sipped at her coffee, enjoying the taste, the expensive taste. No instant in this house, she guessed.
‘I would like to go to his grave, if he has one. Beth Walters said she would find out for me.’
‘If Beth Walters said that, then she will. Judy Carpenter was her client, and under normal circumstances she would have simply asked her, but now Judy isn’t there to ask. I’m seeing them later, so I’ll remind her.’
It was clear that Pam was tiring, so Marsden put their cups back on the tray and stood. ‘Have a nap, Mrs Bird. I don’t think I’ll need to trouble you again, but I would like to speak with Grace, just to tidy everything up here. And I’ll remind Beth about the grave of your son. I do hope seeing it, if there is one, gives you some sort of closure.’
Pam smiled. ‘Thank you. Grace is at the end of the hall, last door on the left. She’s dealing with accounts and stuff in there, all the work my husband used to do. She keeps his assorted businesses ticking over nicely, attends all the meetings for me. I’d be lost without her.’
Pam’s eyes were already closed by the time Tessa left the room, and she headed down the corridor, initially looking for the downstairs toilet. It was a relief when she found it.
Grace was sitting behind an imposing desk, the laptop open in front of her. She was on the telephone, and waved to the chair at the other side of the desk. Tessa sat and waited. It seemed Grace was on with one of the businesses she was looking after, and Tessa felt uneasy. Grace’s tone was quite imperious; the words were meant to convey that what she said was gospel, and whoever was on the other end would obey.
Replacing the receiver, Grace turned her head and looked at Tessa. ‘Can I help?’
‘I’m not sure. It’s just a general chat really, to get my thoughts in order. What do you do?’
‘What do I do? I suppose I do most things. I was employed here when William Bird became ill, but that was coincidence really. He hired me to be a help to Pam. It was clear she couldn’t do much, chronic pain illnesses can be horrific. However, almost from the start it was clear he wasn’t on this earth for long, and I took on the role of looking after both of them. I began to handle almost all of William’s affairs under his guidance, and continued to do so after his death. Pam isn’t capable of dealing with anything really, and what’s more she doesn’t want to.’
Marsden nodded. ‘How many businesses are we talking about here? I realise Mrs Bird is extremely wealthy, and I merely wondered why.’
‘I look after ten, although really for most of them it’s more a monitoring brief. He had excellent people in place, did William, and they’ve simply carried on. The businesses are varied. He used to buy into ailing developments, and make them whole again. He had a knack for recognising what was good and what was irrecoverable.’
‘Thank you, Grace.’ Tessa stood. ‘I’ll leave it all for now, but we may need to come back. It’s officially a murder case, and that usually means a couple of visits to anyone who has the slightest connection with the victim. There is one thing I’m going to do though. I’m going to pop in and see Mrs Bird’s doctor. I’m concerned that she is overdosing on her medication, and we don’t want anything bad happening to her as a result of that, do we? And I have her words recorded where she told me she doesn’t self-medicate, you see to every one of her tablets. I’ll see you soon, Grace.’
27
Marsden filled Kat and Mouse in on her activities in Buxton, then left for the drive back to Chesterfield.
Doris, returning to the shop in Mouse’s Range Rover, gave her a wave as they passed.
; ‘Anything new to report,’ she asked as she re-joined her girls, still in Mouse’s office.
‘Not much, although Marsden is unhappy about Grace,’ Mouse said. ‘She’s kind of put the gypsy’s warning on her, letting her know that she is aware that Pam Bird is being overdosed and that Grace is doing it.’
‘I told you I didn’t like her,’ Doris said. ‘There’s just something… and I have this niggling feeling that I know her. I don’t know how, or where from, but there’s something about her…’
‘Let’s run a check on her.’
Kat put her hands over her ears. ‘I don’t want to hear this.’
Mouse grinned at Doris. ‘We’d better be quick then; our Kat is having palpitations.’
Doris smiled at Kat. ‘Kat, what we’re about to do, anybody could do. It’s perfectly legal to track somebody. If it’s available on the Internet, then you can legally find it. Sort of. The problem might come if we find anything we need to dig a bit deeper for, but we won’t mention that to you, okay?’
Mouse chuckled. ‘Nan, I think you’ve just made it worse. Kat, Martha is stirring, I can hear her. And can you ring Keeley for me and ask where Tom’s grave is, please? If she knows, and I’m sure she will, will you ring Pam and tell her.’
Kat frowned at the two women and went into her own office. Martha had slept for ages, and wanted feeding again. She took the bottle out of the fridge, warmed it and fed it to Martha. It was quickly emptied, and Kat thought she had better prepare slightly bigger feeds from now onwards. Already she could see a plumper Martha, and she felt blessed that her child was proving to be fairly easy to bring up.
She rang Keeley, and felt instantly saddened when Keeley spoke with a sob in her voice. ‘I’m sorry, Kat,’ she said. ‘It’s brought everything back to me, because with Judy dying the house next door will have new tenants, and I’ll have lost Tom for ever then. New tenants will change everything. It suddenly washed over me.’
‘Oh, Keeley,’ Kat responded, ‘I’m so sorry. And now I’m likely to upset you even more because I have a query about Tom. His birth mother would like to visit his grave, but we don’t know where it is, or even if he has one.’
There was silence for a moment, and Kat was starting to wonder if Keeley had gone, when she spoke. ‘It’s in Hope churchyard. He was cremated, but Judy had his ashes buried. I go a lot, but I can never take flowers. I mean… I could never take flowers. I suppose there’s nothing stopping me now.’
‘Thank you. If I pop down to see you tomorrow, will you be in or are you working?’
‘I’ve taken this week off. I’ll be in unless the police come for me again. We can walk across and I’ll show you where he is.’
‘That would be really helpful. Now go and give Henry a cuddle, I’m sure it will help. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.’
The rising of the sun heralded a day that would prove to be a busy and productive one in several ways. Following a request from Enid to have a practise run at having her granddaughter for the full day, Kat dropped her off just before eight. She returned home to discuss with Mouse and Doris their actions for the next few hours, then left to go to Keeley’s home.
Keeley opened the door with a smile. ‘I’ve bought some flowers,’ were her words as she greeted Kat. ‘For the first time I’ve bought Tom some flowers.’
‘Then let’s go and give them to him,’ Kat said.
Keeley went back inside, picked up the bouquet of roses and returned to Kat, who was waiting in the tiny front garden.
‘I’m glad you’re nice and early,’ Keeley said. ‘There’s apparently a legal chap coming to see me at twelve, along with DI Marsden. I’m a tad concerned, but not too much. I haven’t done anything wrong, and despite what they might think, I didn’t kill Judy, and while I might have wanted her dead when Tom was alive, I certainly don’t now, I would gain nothing from that.’ The long speech showed her unease at the forthcoming interview. Inwardly, Kat smiled.
They walked down to the main road running through the village, and stood patiently as they waited for a gap in the traffic. It was part of life for Derbyshire villagers, learning to be tolerant while visitors drove into their world.
They reached the other side without breaking any bones, and strolled up towards the church of St Peter. Kat had made a point of learning about the beautiful churches in her area when she was studying to be a deacon, and she knew that St Peter’s was said to be the oldest recorded Christian place of worship in the northern Peak District.
She would have loved to go inside for five minutes, just to offer up prayers for Keeley and the late Tom, but she knew it was closed during the week. She followed Keeley through the spacious churchyard until Keeley finally stopped and touched a new headstone.
‘He’s here,’ she said softly. ‘This is my Tom.’ She bent and placed the bouquet of flowers at the base of the headstone, touched her fingers to her lips and transferred the kiss to the headstone.
CARPENTER
Thomas Edward
23-04-1976 to 05-05-2016
Aged 40
Dearly loved husband of Judith
Rest in Peace
Kat stared at the inscription – no mention of Tom’s parents. It said more about Judy than Kat could ever have imagined. A mean woman, with a bitter and twisted mind.
She knelt down by the side of the grave and dipped her head in prayer. She felt Keeley’s hand slide into hers as she too knelt, and Kat spoke aloud the words of the Lord’s Prayer.
They remained in place for a minute, then stood. There were tears in Keeley’s eyes as she turned to look at Kat. ‘Thank you so much,’ she whispered. ‘That was so right, wasn’t it?’
Kat nodded. ‘It was. But in my world, Keeley, it’s always right. And in my job I use those words, because sometimes my job isn’t a nice job. If it’s helped you to come to terms with anything, then that makes me happy.’
‘I feel at peace finally,’ Keeley responded. ‘For so long it’s felt as though there was a spring inside me, tightly wound and ready to bounce up and split me apart. Do you understand, Kat?’
‘More than you could ever know,’ Kat spoke softly. ‘My husband was Leon Rowe, don’t forget. That coiled spring was, and to some extent still is, inside me.’
They strolled back towards Keeley’s house and stopped by Kat’s car.
‘Thank you, Kat, I feel so much better. I can face whatever’s coming this afternoon, and I hope when Tom’s birth mother visits the grave, she feels a sense of closure. Please make sure she understands what a lovely man he was, and how much I miss him.’
Kat nodded. ‘I will, and if you need to talk after your visit this lunchtime, give me a ring.’
Keeley stared at her. ‘You know, don’t you? You know why they’re coming to see me.’
‘I do, but I can’t tell you. All I will say is don’t be worried, but you might want to talk things through.’
She drove away, leaving Keeley still standing on the pavement watching her.
At the same time as Kat and Keeley had been battling to cross the road, Hannah Granger had been picking up a hand-drawn map from Alice, showing the route she took every day on her run, with houses of her friends marked on it.
‘If you had come a couple of hours ago, PC Granger, you could have done the run with me,’ Alice said. It was clearly said as a joke but Hannah didn’t feel as though Alice was laughing.
‘No, you’re fine running it on your own,’ Hannah said, ‘I’ll be walking the route. It’s just something we have to do, Mrs Small, we have to check everybody’s alibi. I’m counting on losing a stone in weight checking yours,’ she added.
Alice followed Hannah as she walked to her garden gate. ‘You know, my friends are all as old as me. I run this route every day without fail, and I wave at them if they’re in their windows. I don’t actually knock on doors unless I know they’re ill. There’s seven of them, and they’re not going to remember if I did the run on any given day. Strikes me as it’s a bit of a po
intless exercise.’
Hannah smiled. ‘You may well be right, Mrs Small.’ She began her walk and dropped the smile. You may well be right, but I’m going to make sure every damn one of these friends is interviewed, and until I’m convinced they’re remembering accurately, you stay on the suspect list.
It was already hot, and Hannah began the initial steep climb towards the top of Bradwell. It seemed that it was quite a lengthy run, but Hannah had no intentions of missing any of it, albeit at walking pace.
The first house she stopped at was simply labelled “June” on the map. A fragile elderly lady answered the door and seemed surprised to be confronted by a young woman with a warrant card held out in front of her.
‘Oh dear,’ she said in a voice so quiet that Hannah struggled to hear it, ‘am I in trouble?’
‘Not at all.’ Hannah smiled. ‘I just have to check something with you.’ She took her clipboard out of her bag and went through the questions she had put together the night before. By the time she had reached the end, it seemed June had seen Alice on that morning, although she did admit to feeling a little confused about days.
The second of Alice’s friends, even higher into the village, said pretty much what June had said, and she too seemed surprised to be confronted by a policewoman. It appeared that Alice hadn’t pre-warned them that they would be having a visit that morning.
Hannah stopped halfway around, sat on a bench and took her bottle of water out of her bag. The water was warm but it quenched her thirst. She had interviewed four of the seven on her list, all of them elderly and all of them admitting to not going out much, which was why Alice checked on them, just in case they needed anything. Praise for Alice had been high on their list when talking about their friend, and Hannah was starting to think it was all a waste of time.
She sat for ten minutes and checked through the notes on her clipboard. All of the four had stated that she was normally passing their house around half past eight; only one had said on that day it had been later. Alice had explained she had to wait for a parcel delivery.