by Anita Waller
‘I’m Alyson, Alyson Read.’
‘And I’m Ed Danvers.’
‘Thank you.’ Kat smiled again, at both of them. They seemed ill at ease, scared even. She passed the forms across to them. ‘Fill those in and then we’ll see how we can help.’
‘We’ve got money to pay,’ Alyson said, the words tumbling out of her, as she handed over her form. Apart from his name, Ed hadn’t spoken.
‘We generally don’t charge for simple advice,’ Kat responded. ‘We charge if it requires further action. So tell me what your problem is. Do you mind if I record it? It saves me having to remember everything when I’m explaining to my two colleagues later.’ She placed the small recorder on the desk.
Alyson reached into her bag and took out a letter. ‘Please – do whatever you need to do. This is the problem. Ed has been researching his family history for a couple of years, and we’ve managed to get back to the seventeenth century with it, but we’re a bit stuck. To give us a bit of a break, we decided to start on mine.’
Ed’s eyes never left Alyson as she was speaking. He reached across and took hold of her hand.
‘I only have one parent, my mum, and no grandparents, so we started mine knowing very little. I’m sorry if this is sounding a bit long-winded, but there’s no other way of you seeing the picture.’
‘Don’t worry, take your time. I’d rather have all the facts. We deal with quite a lot of cases that require delving back into family history, and the more of the overall view we can start with, the better.’
Ed gave a slight nod, obviously in full agreement with Kat.
‘We started with Mum. She gave me a box of photographs, black and white ones as well as coloured, and we photocopied her birth and marriage certificates, and the death certificates for all four of my grandparents. My dad’s parents had died before he met Mum, but he brought the certificates with him when they married. He died in a motorcycle accident two years after the wedding, when I’d just been born, so she can’t really remember anything about his family. And that’s all we have for our starting point.’
Alyson paused for a moment, as if collecting her thoughts. ‘We’ve made a fair start on it, gone back as far as my maternal great-great-grandfather…’ She turned to look at Ed and he nodded. ‘Yes, my great-great-grandfather, but then ground to a halt. We’re in a couple of groups on Facebook for genealogy, so we used their request for information and put in Arthur Bennett of Chesterfield. Within a couple of days we had a response, but it came in the post and not online.’
‘You gave out your address?’
‘No, that’s the scary part. We didn’t, and it’s certainly not available on Facebook, any more than our telephone numbers are. We… erm… won some money six months ago, and immediately made our privacy settings at the highest level. Only close friends, and obviously our families, know where we live.’
Kat felt as though a torch clicked on in her brain. ‘Ed Danvers. You picked up a nice little lottery win.’
‘We did,’ he said. ‘It was a joint win, but we asked them to keep Alyson’s name out of the publicity, she wasn’t comfortable with everyone knowing. We used Alyson’s Facebook account to join the genealogy group so that nobody would connect her name with the lottery win, which is why we’re feeling a little uncomfortable with this letter arriving. We’ve only lived at this address for a month, we’re not even on the electoral roll or anything yet.’
‘Where did you live before?’
He laughed. ‘In a tiny little bedsit in Chesterfield town centre. We’ve now got a four-bedroomed house at Ashford in the Water, and we no longer catch a bus to get to the Peak District, we live in it. We’ve told nobody where we live, other than people who need to know. We’ve bought Alyson’s mum a small cottage about five minutes from where we are, but she’s not moving yet, it’ll be a couple more weeks before that is completed. My mum and dad didn’t want to move, so we gave them a dollop of cash, and they’re currently on a cruise for the first time in their lives. We’ve been so careful, so private…’ His frustration showed in his voice.
‘Okay,’ Kat said quietly. ‘Let me tell you that tracking people down is one of the easiest things to do, provided you have some degree of IT skill. A high degree of it, I must admit.’ Her mind drifted to Mouse and Nan, currently working on laptops in the back office. ‘You did nothing wrong, you covered your backs as much as possible, but if somebody wants to find you, believe me, they will. May I see the letter, please?’
Alyson pushed it across the desk to Kat.
Dear Miss Read,
I saw your request for information re Arthur Bennett of Chesterfield, and I believe I may be able to help you. Arthur is a relative of mine, the great-uncle of my father, and I have photographs of him in army uniform, alongside information of his predecessors.
Perhaps we can meet for a coffee to discuss the items I have – or maybe I should come to your house?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Jeremy Peterson
Kat read the letter three times, then laid it on the desk. ‘I take it you’ve never heard of him before? Ed? He’s never cropped up in your own search?’
Ed frowned. ‘No, and I use this particular website a lot. There’s usually some information comes out of throwing a name into the ring. I’ve used it for about five years. Bit of a geek,’ he said with a grin.
‘So tell me what’s making you uneasy about this?’
‘It’s not normal. For a start, people don’t write letters, not when it’s so simple to respond within the website. And it must have been a problem finding our address. For what? There’s no chance we’d ever have him in our home, we don’t know him. And I’m pretty sure neither of us want to meet him for a coffee.’
‘You think he’s clicked on to the money?’
‘I do, but even if he has, how will that help him? There’s no way he’d get any of it. We don’t know him!’
‘Okay, can you leave this letter with me? I’ll give you a photocopy of it and a receipt, but I’d like someone else to take a look at the original. There’s no charge for the advice, and I’ll contact you tomorrow. Is that okay?’
For the first time, Alyson’s smile was genuine. ‘It feels as though a weight has been lifted. And you don’t have to give us a copy or a receipt, we know you’ll do your best with it.’
Alyson stood, and Ed shook Kat’s hand. ‘Thank you. We’ll look forward to hearing from you.’
She watched as they walked hand in hand across the road to where a smart Range Rover was parked, and pursed her lips. They had clearly been unnerved by the letter, and she wondered how Jeremy Peterson had managed to find their address when they hadn’t registered it anywhere.
The door at the back of reception opened and Mouse’s face appeared. ‘All done?’
‘Yep, they’ve gone. I recorded everything, so you two can have a listen to it. They’ve filled in client forms, but I’m not sure where we go from here.’
‘Sounds intriguing. And it also seems you’ve had a more productive afternoon than we have. We haven’t found one picture of Michael Fairfax, not one. Let’s lock the door, and have a listen to your recording. Take my mind off this bloody man.’
After a brief explanation, Kat switched on the machine and they sat and listened to the conversation. At the end, Mouse turned to Doris, and simultaneously they both said, ‘Estate agent.’
24
Andy Harrison opened the door to Tessa and Hannah, and invited them in. ‘You have news?’
Tessa shook her head. ‘Not really. I wanted to check in with you, make sure you’re holding it together. We will find out who did this to Orla, I promise you. Andy, you’re not working?’
‘No, I’ve been suspended until this is all cleared up. I’d rather be here with Marnie anyway. She’s going through hell, as you can imagine.’
Marnie, dressed in jogging bottoms and a T-shirt with stains down the front, glanced towards him but didn’t
speak. It was as if all emotion had been knocked out of her, and she wanted nothing to do with the rest of the world.
‘Marnie, has Nadine kept you informed of everything?’
Her face didn’t change. ‘I have no idea. I don’t seem to have any new information, if that’s what you mean. I’ve lost my daughter but it seems I’m the last one to know anything.’
‘We do know that Orla was going to see someone to talk to them, on the night she was killed. Do either of you have any idea who that could be?’
Andy spoke first. ‘Emily?’
Almost at the same time, Marnie said, ‘Paul?’
‘No, she had no contact with either of them. Orla left work, and the next time she is seen is when our search team found her. The weather made it impossible to work out a more accurate time of death than between four and six that evening, so we don’t know if she did in fact speak to whoever she was going to see, or if she died before that could happen. She definitely said nothing to either of you?’
‘No.’ Marnie’s voice was cold. ‘And if you don’t mind, I’m going to have a rest. Nobody seems to be taking into account Orla could be a bit of a bitch, are they. Bear that in mind, DI Marsden.’ She walked out of the room, and they heard her go upstairs.
Andy sighed. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s like living on the edge of a volcano at the moment. I keep expecting it to erupt, but so far there’s been coldness. I’m back home, but we’re in separate bedrooms, speak when we have to, and she isn’t eating. She didn’t mean what she said. I think she needs counselling… she needs help of some sort. Our lives have changed so much since that evening when Orla died. We had a lovely meal together, even had a glass or two of wine which I nipped out to get while she was finishing the meal, and it was an amazing evening. A rare one, because we’re not often on our own.’
Tessa sighed. ‘I don’t know what to say. We are getting closer, I’m certain of it, but we’re doing it by eliminating people. Marnie said Orla could be a bit of a bitch. Was she?’
Andy shook his head. ‘No, not in my presence, ever. The only time I’ve known her argue with us was when we were on honeymoon. I suggested we go on the open top bus, and she said she wanted to stay by the pool. Got really stroppy about it, so we left her at the hotel and went on our own on the bus. She was her normal self when we got back, and she smiled at us and said she thought we needed time on our own, and she was sorry she’d had to get awkward to make us go together. That was what she was really like, not a bitch.’
‘Then Marnie was referring to what you two did behind her back.’
‘Probably. It’s killing me, DI Marsden. Orla had a Harry Potter time-turner… if only it worked.’
Tessa gave a brief smile. ‘She liked the books?’
‘She loved the books. Didn’t care for the films, but she was a reader, didn’t watch much television. She could always answer quiz questions on Harry Potter, and if she didn’t know an answer she would head back to the books until she found the relevant part.’ He sank down onto the settee and held his head in his hands. ‘My God, I miss her so much.’
Kat placed a small piece of paper in front of Mouse. ‘I rang Alyson and she said this was the agency they asked to find them a home.’ Derbyshire Homes Estate Agency.
Mouse keyed in the name and watched as the website appeared on the laptop. Jeremy Peterson, large as life and twice as ugly. She smiled at the memory of the phrase her dad used to use when he didn’t like someone. Kat moved to stand behind her, and they stared at the thumbnail-sized photograph of Peterson.
‘He looks… insipid,’ Kat volunteered.
‘The problem is,’ Mouse responded, ‘he hasn’t actually done anything illegal. You can’t keep addresses private, not in the way you can a telephone number. Okay, he knows their address because he works for the business that found the property for our lottery winners, but that in itself isn’t a crime.’
Kat sat at the desk. This was obviously discussion time. ‘Suppose it’s a lie,’ she said. ‘Him knowing Alyson’s relative, I mean. Would that make it a crime? What sort of crime? He’s not offered to sell the information, or anything like that. Why does he want to meet them? Surely it’s not an ego thing… I’ve met Ed Danvers, the lottery winner.’
‘Could be. And while it may not be a criminal activity, I’m pretty sure his employers will be less that happy. Would you trust an estate agent that allowed this sort of activity to happen?’
Kat frowned. ‘It might be expedient to ask our resident fraud expert for his take on this. He’s seen and heard lots of stuff we couldn’t even dream of, so it would make sense to ask him for his thoughts.’
‘I agree. Can you talk to him tonight? We’ll hang fire until tomorrow, but we need to discuss it then. It’s creepy, and if anything happened to those two kids because we didn’t act quickly enough, I’d never forgive myself.’
‘Those two kids are older than you,’ Kat said.
‘Really? Dear gods, I feel so old these days. Ask Carl if we should tell Peterson’s employers before he tries anything further. Carl might advise us to let it play out, but I don’t feel easy doing that without somebody saying do it. Know what I mean?’
Kat laughed. ‘I do. We’ll ask a policeman. So, tomorrow. You’re heading back to Scarborough early?’
‘We are. I want to see who walks out of his house, then follow him to work. I’m convinced we were conned, but it won’t happen again. What I really want to know is why it happened. Why the secrecy? Hopefully we’ll find out tomorrow.’
‘I know you changed your mind about visiting Carla Newton, but are you going to ring her before you go?’
‘I rang earlier, but there was no answer.’ Mouse glanced at the clock. Nearly half past five. She picked up the receiver. ‘I’ll try again, she may be back from work now.’
Kat nodded. ‘I’ll leave you to it,’ she whispered, and walked through into her own office.
Mouse popped her head around Kat’s door. ‘It’s time to go home. Is Martha with Nan and Granddad tonight?’
‘She is. You’re smiling. Did you get a result?’
‘I did. She was really helpful, said the baby was definitely a blonde-haired white little boy and she’s going to look for the photo, and message it to me. And that’s where the smiling stops.’
‘Discussion time? Do we need Nan? We did tell her to go home early, but we could pop up to the cottage.’
‘No, we don’t need Nan. This, for the moment, has to stay between us. It seems Helen Fairfax left because of Ewan Barker. He was violent towards her, extremely jealous, and before she left Sheffield, he punched her in the stomach. She spent a few days in hospital because she started to bleed. She came out and immediately went to Scarborough and never saw Ewan again. Carla said he pestered her for news of Helen and Carla gave as little as she could get away with, but eventually told him not to contact her again, because she’d lost touch with Helen.’
‘But…’
‘I know.’ Mouse’s tone was grim. ‘How do we deal with this then?
25
Kat barely noticed the drive home, climbing up the hill out of the village and heading to the less inhabited area of Eyam. The outside lights on the driveway had come on automatically at dusk and she could see their glow through the hedge that surrounded the house. It was nevertheless dark and gloomy, perfectly matching her thoughts. What if Ewan hadn’t changed over the years? What if he’d used the excuse of tracking down his son to find a way of getting through to Helen? Why? What could he possibly gain from it, especially as Helen was so ill?
Kat slowed down to turn into the drive, and then sat in the car for a few minutes, her mind still churning over so many what-ifs. The biggest one of them all was what if he hadn’t changed. How much danger was Doris heading towards, and how the hell did they tell her? But suppose Ewan was no longer the violent man he had been in his teens. There was always the possibility that he was no longer the person Helen had left, in her bid to escape from the anger with
in him. They could be turning Nan away from a happiness she hadn’t sought, but looked as though it could have landed in her lap.
Kat’s thoughts drifted back to the only time Leon had hit her, the one punch sending her crashing to the floor, almost unconscious and blood all over the place from a gash in her head. For months she had been afraid, for months she had prayed that Tessa would catch up with him and lock him away for good. His death had allowed Kat to start to live again, but it hadn’t taken away that awful memory.
Kat needed Carl to come home. She had the issues surrounding Alyson and Ed to deal with, but more than anything she desperately wanted to talk through the Ewan Barker problem. She glanced at her watch and sighed. At least another hour. Scrabbling through all the junk in her bag, she found her phone.
I love you.
She pressed send and smiled.
The reply was swift.
I love you too. Just leaving work, be home soon.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Climbing out of the car and crossing the driveway to reach the front door, she was aware of tears in her eyes; she angrily brushed them away.
No tears, things required action.
Carl walked out of the station and heard Tessa Marsden call his name. He stopped.
‘Slow down,’ she grumbled. ‘I’ve been trying to catch up with you all the way through the place.’
‘Tessa,’ he said with a smile, ‘I’m six foot three and you’re five foot two, so guess who’s going to walk the fastest. Did you want me for something?’
‘No, I’ve not seen the superthree for a few days, wondered if everything was okay, particularly Beth. She looked shocking.’
‘She’s okay. Don’t think she’s quite up to dancing the night away yet, but she’s back at work. Nan and Kat are good, not managed to catch it from Beth anyway. How’s Castleton going?’