by Anita Waller
Hannah rubbed her forehead. She knew she would have to check out the parcel delivery, Marsden didn’t take kindly to things being presumed, she wanted clear-cut facts.
She continued her walk along the route, and it was only when she hit the last house that things changed. This was a much younger woman, listed on the map as Rosie, maybe in her fifties, and not at all confused by days. She went back inside and brought out her diary. ‘I make a note of everything,’ she explained. ‘I like the physical action of writing, but I’m not clever enough to write a book. I keep a journal instead. It can be lonely living on your own, and this keeps me from constantly watching the television. I do little drawings and things in it, it keeps me amused.’
She opened the book to the right date and read aloud. ‘Alice was late today, almost ten by the time she got here. She said she’d had to wait for a parcel delivery. I was starting to worry because she is usually here by nine at the latest, but she was okay. Her new trainers looked very smart.’
Hannah took out her mobile phone and photographed the page Rosie held out to show her. Had the new trainers been in the parcel she had said she waited in for? Further investigation was certainly needed, Hannah decided.
‘Thank you, Rosie, you’ve been very helpful. We’re only tying up loose ends so there’s nothing to worry about.’
‘I worry about very little, PC Granger,’ Rosie said. ‘If you want to arrest me, please go ahead. It will put a bit of a spark into my life.’
Hannah shook her hand, thinking what a nice visit that had turned out to be, and walked back towards Alice’s house where she had left her car.
Mouse spent her morning hours looking into Grace Earle. Prior to her marriage, she had been Grace Dewhurst, and had lived her childhood years in Leeds before moving with her parents and siblings to Buxton. She had married, but the marriage had only lasted a year; there had been no children that Mouse could trace.
Checking out the parents first, Mouse could find nothing to raise any red flags; both of them were dead, nothing suspicious to cause any feelings of concern, so she moved on to the siblings. There were two younger sisters, Roberta and Judith.
28
Hannah called home and had a shower and change of clothing before heading back to the station. It had been something of a marathon, the route that Alice ran every day, and the heat had taken its toll.
She popped her head around Tessa’s door, saw it was empty so headed for her own desk. She made a start on typing everything up, and loaded the picture from her phone that she had taken of Rosie’s journal entry.
By the time Marsden returned from her visit to Keeley Roy, which had been emotional beyond belief, she felt bedraggled and exhausted. She could see Hannah at her desk, looking really refreshed, tidy, obviously typing her report from her morning’s activities, and hoped something had come from it. She couldn’t actually see Alice Small as a suspect, not at eighty years old, but this was a straw Marsden could clutch at, she reckoned, even if it was a bit of a paper straw.
She grabbed a can of Coke from her small fridge, along with a Mars bar, and sighed as she partook of both. She needed quarter of an hour to pull herself around from the tears that had erupted as Keeley began to realise what the father of her little boy had done to ensure their futures were worry free. And also what the murderer of her neighbour had done…
The phone rang and for a moment, Marsden didn’t want to answer it. She needed peace. She picked up the receiver.
‘DI Marsden.’
‘Hi, it’s Beth Walters. If I tell you something, I don’t want you querying how I know it or anything. I’ve not done anything illegal, just taken shortcuts.’
Tessa sighed. ‘Beth Walters, you’ll be the death of me. Between you and Keeley Roy I am emotionally drained.’
‘Was it bad?’ Mouse asked sympathetically.
‘Horrific. She loved that man so much, and now he’s left her financially secure for the rest of her life. She had no idea he owned all those properties and had such vast amounts of money. Do you know what she said when we told her the contents of the will? She said, “Does this mean I can get Henry some Clark’s shoes?” And she wasn’t being clever, it was a genuine question. When I said yes, because I hadn’t a clue how to handle her, she broke down, and it was a downwards spiral after that. Every time we said a new fact from the will, the tears came again. But enough about that. What have you found out that you shouldn’t have?’
‘I did a bit of checking on Grace Earle. It was triggered by something Nan said, about thinking that she knew her, and I felt the same. I tracked her parents, and found where they all lived. Her maiden name is Dewhurst. But the most important thing is she has two younger sisters. Roberta and Judith.’
There was silence for a moment and then the lights went on in Tessa’s head. ‘Bloody hell. Can you email me the stuff you’ve found, and I’ll pretend it’s all above board. I’m sending two officers out to bring her in. I knew there was something wrong, damn it. It was the overuse of medication, it didn’t sit right with me. I’ll stake my life on it being about money.’
‘It’s why we thought we knew her. She has the same characteristics as Judy, and you get occasional glimpses of it when she moves. I’m betting she looks like Bobby Outram as well, although I’ve not seen her so I can’t confirm that. I’m emailing our report now, good luck with it.’
Tessa stood and moved out of her own office and into the main room. ‘Hannah, Dave, can you get out to Mrs Bird’s place at Buxton, and bring Grace Earle in, please.’
‘Right boss,’ both officers said, a little absently as they were wrapped up in typing reports of interviews.
Grace Earle? What was that all about? Hannah Granger felt puzzled; she would have bet her life that it would be Alice Small they would be bringing in next for a chat, or even Keeley Roy. For heaven’s sake, didn’t she have the most motive, if the will was anything to go by. And direct access via the loft to get into the murder house. She shrugged, picked up her bag and followed Dave Irwin out of the room and down to the car park.
‘You want to drive?’ Dave asked.
She shook her head. ‘No, I’m good thanks. Wake me up when we get there. I’ve had a long bloody walk this morning.’
Dave banged loudly on the front door of the spectacular house in Buxton he was visiting for the first time. He knew a loud bang on the door intimidated whoever was inside, putting them straight into scared mode before they opened the door.
His first sight of Grace Earle told him he was wrong on all counts. She wasn’t scared, in fact she was quite angry.
‘Did you have to be so damned loud,’ she hissed. ‘Mrs Bird hasn’t been well for a few days and is currently asleep. Or was. What do you want?’
‘You, please, Ms Earle. You can tell Mrs Bird you’ll be out for a while, but we need you to come now.’
‘No. I can’t leave her, and I’m expecting an important phone call.’
‘Then you leave us with no choice but to arrest you. Grace Earle…’
‘Whoa!’ she said. ‘Give me two minutes to see to Mrs Bird’s needs, and I’ll go with you. You’re not bloody arresting me for anything, whatever you might think.’
They followed her into the house, and through to where Pam Bird was on the sofa. She was awake, but it was clear they had woken her. Hannah apologised immediately, then explained they were taking Grace Earle in for questioning.
‘Do you need assistance, Mrs Bird? Is there someone we can call for you?’
Pam shook her head. ‘I’ll be fine. How long will Grace be gone?’
‘We don’t know.’
Grace intervened. ‘I’ll be back later this afternoon, Pam, so don’t worry about your medication. I’ll sort it when I get back.’
Pam stood and walked to the front window, watching as they held the top of Grace’s head to put her in the back of the squad car.
She felt strangely liberated, unusually wide awake. The car drove away and she headed back to the sofa
. She put her hand in between the seat cushions and removed the two small white tablets she had dropped down there earlier.
Imipramine. To be taken at night. So why was Grace giving them to her during the day as well? She walked into the kitchen and flushed them away, before filling a glass with water and taking a long drink.
It felt good to be able to walk around her house knowing she was there on her own, nobody to answer to, nobody asking if she was okay, nobody leading her back to that damn lounge that was starting to resemble a prison cell, and nobody to help her to bed at night.
She smiled as she briefly gave thought to ringing DI Marsden and asking her if she could keep Grace overnight.
She walked along the hallway to the office, determined to look up the side effects, the warnings, the instructions around stopping taking the drug Imipramine; she wanted to take control of her life. This had to be done while she was having a good day, and today she could feel very little pain. Bad pain days flattened her, but she had been given this opportunity by Grace being taken for interview…
It suddenly hit her. Grace being taken for interview by the police? What on earth could she possibly have done that would cause her to be taken to the station?
Pam sat down at the desk and looked around. She had always enjoyed her time in this office, sharing William’s work, listening to him explaining things. Her awful illness had taken most of that away from her, but those times had been exciting as they had built his business. He had once tried to explain that it was spending to accumulate; he bought rundown businesses that were simply being mismanaged, turned them around while keeping as many of the same staff as practical, and phoenix-like, supervised their rising from the ashes. None of the businesses failed once William waved his magic wand.
She lifted the laptop lid; it was open at the last of the businesses he had bought. She could hear his words now, ‘Pam, this could be a cracker of a business. This is the big one, and this is the last one. Our next adventure is to retire, and enjoy what we have.’
The business had been a driver agency called BD Recruitment, the B and the D being the initials of the surnames of the two men who had started the business. William had slashed the massive salaries paid to the two original owners, increased the salaries of the administration workers who had been working for minimum wage, and increased the rates of pay for the drivers on the books. He then set about bringing other ventures to the business, specialising in wide loads, EU deliveries, and a variety of other sub-divisions.
He changed the name to BirD Recruiting, and turned it into a premier-level driver recruitment agency. Their reputation grew; she knew how proud he had been of the fact that they had never let any customer down, not once.
Eight months later came the first stroke. She took up the reins, coped with the increasing pain, and they decided they needed somebody else to help out with everything.
Grace Earle.
Pam stared at the name on the screen, BirD Recruitment. She felt tears prickle her eyelids; of all the businesses, he had been most proud of this one. She clicked on the Departments tab, and saw the list had grown from the last time she had been on the website. She clicked through all the other tabs, and saw that everything seemed to be thriving. William would have been thrilled that his prediction about the business had so spectacularly been proved correct. The second stroke that took him from her had robbed him of knowing the details she could see on-screen.
She came out of the website, and logged into the business accounts at the bank.
Grace felt uncomfortable. She had been sitting in the godawful interview room for nearly an hour, gazing at the darkly depressive walls, waiting to see why they wanted to speak to her.
When the door opened admitting Tessa Marsden and Dave Irwin, Grace almost felt relieved. Marsden placed a file on the table, recorded the names for the tape, and initially sat and stared at her.
‘It’s true,’ she said slowly. ‘If you had your hair done in the same style as your sister, the sibling relationship would be obvious.’
Grace shifted uneasily on her chair. She didn’t speak.
‘When I came out to break the news of your sister’s death to Mrs Bird, you didn’t flinch. Why was that, Grace?’
‘It’s Mrs Earle. And why should it bother me? You came to tell Pam, didn’t you?’
‘But you must have known I was speaking about your sister, and you never said a word.’
Grace’s mind was whirling. For the first time in many years, she didn’t know how to handle something. She hadn’t imagined for one minute that this was why she had been brought here, she had somewhat naively thought it was connected to Marsden’s last sarcastic comment about the medication given to Pam.
‘I did realise who Judith Carpenter was, yes. But it’s a long time since I’ve had anything to do with her, and her connection to Mrs Bird had never been raised between Pam and myself. I’m sorry she’s dead. As you say, she was my sister, but for all that, she wasn’t a close acquaintance.’
‘And you didn’t think to mention this at the time?’
‘No, it had nothing to do with the rather strange circumstances surrounding Judy’s connection to Pam. You hadn’t come to see me, you had come to see Pam.’
Marsden stared at Grace. A cold fish indeed, her brain said.
Tessa pulled the file towards her and opened it. She read through the transcript of the recording made with Bobby Outram’s permission, and then looked up at Grace. ‘So, Mrs Earle, you presumably don’t want to talk about Roberta, your other sister, either?’
‘No.’
‘Well, I’m going to talk to you about her. She has given us quite a lot of information about Judy. She’s told us about Judy deciding to track down Mrs Bird, knowing that she was Tom Carpenter’s birth mother. Judy also knew Pam Bird had a lot of money, and that was her primary reason for getting involved with Pam. Roberta didn’t like what was happening, knew it wasn’t fair on Tom’s birth mother, and decided to tell somebody about it before it escalated into a criminal act.’
Grace shrugged. ‘It’s nothing to do with me.’
‘You’ve never met up with Judy, or spoken to her, or had any contact by email or letter, giving her information about the wealth of this rather poorly woman?’
‘No. I haven’t seen Judy for…’ Grace paused to think. ‘…Around fifteen years, I guess. I left home to live with my then boyfriend, nobody approved of him, so I cut the whole family out of my life.’
Her reaction to Tessa’s request for an alibi for the time Judy was killed was met with derision. ‘I was, of course, at my employer’s home in Buxton, keeping her alive and doing my work. You think I killed her?’ She laughed. ‘I didn’t even know her, certainly didn’t know where she lived. You seem to think I should be grieving, but I’m not. She was always a devious little cow when she was a child, so I’ve no reason to think she would have changed over the years. Now can I go home, please?’
‘Not yet.’ The door opened and Hannah Granger walked in. She handed a note to Marsden, who stood, notified the recording that she was leaving the room and switched it off.
‘I have to take a phone call, Mrs Earle. I’ll arrange to have a drink sent to you. PC Irwin will remain with you while I’m gone.’
29
Hannah filled her in on the conversation she had just finished with Pam Bird, and as soon as Marsden reached her office, she immediately rang Pam.
‘Hi, Pam. You’ve spoken with Hannah, I understand. Can you start at the beginning and explain everything to me, please?’
It was a long conversation. Marsden listened carefully to everything Pam Bird said, taking notes, asking the occasional question so that it clarified everything in her mind before she went in to the interview room again.
‘Approximately how much are we talking about?’
‘I don’t know,’ Pam responded. ‘I’m going into the bank tomorrow, along with our accountant. I think we’re looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds. DI Marsden, I nee
d to stop her coming here tonight. I’m alone…’
‘Don’t worry, she can be our guest for tonight. I’m going back to the interview room now, and we’ll see what she has to say. On my team I have available to me a DS who has specialised in financial crime. I’d like to send him to you tomorrow morning to accompany you to the bank. Will you agree to that?’
‘Oh, I definitely will.’
Marsden could hear the relief in Pam’s voice. ‘Good. I’ll fill him in on everything you’ve told me, then he will be ringing you to arrange a time to come over. His name is DS Carl Heaton. He’ll look after you.’
Marsden waited another hour before heading downstairs to the interview room. She guessed Earle would be getting close to chewing her nails, and she wanted to prolong the waiting.
She logged herself and Hannah into the room, and sat down once more, facing Grace Earle.
‘Do I need a solicitor?’
‘Do you want me to get you one, Mrs Earle?’ Tessa checked her watch. ‘It’s getting pretty late but we can call one of your own choosing, or bring in a duty solicitor.’
‘I want my own.’
‘Fair enough.’ She closed up the file she had opened seconds earlier, and stood. ‘DI Marsden and PC Granger leaving the room, 18:05 hours. Somebody will be here shortly to facilitate your call to your solicitor. I’ll see you later if you can get one to come to you now. If not, you’ll be taken to a cell and detained until your solicitor arrives tomorrow morning.’
She gave Grace no chance to respond, and she and Hannah walked out once again, leaving a very young PC in the room with her.
DS Heaton was waiting for Marsden in her office. He eyed their cups of coffee. ‘You get that from the machine?’