by Anita Waller
‘Do you have any idea why she would be in Chatsworth?’
‘She died on the estate? I know she liked to walk around the grounds, but not in the middle of the night in a horrendous snowstorm.’
Paula Ireland stood. Her face was pale, and her eyes remained fixed on Neil. ‘You’ve had an affair with her? Nicola Armstrong?’
‘You knew her, Mrs Ireland?’ Tessa asked. She hated to see marriages fall apart so easily… and this one was. She suspected there hadn’t been much love left anyway, and the ghost of the late Nicola Armstrong was hammering the final nail in.
‘Of course I knew her. We spent bloody weeks tramping the moors looking for the kid when he went missing. Everybody knew that husband of hers had legged it, and taken the kid with him. But we had to look as though we were helping.’
Hannah was scribbling furiously; she needed to get everything down so they could pick over everything later. She made a note that Paula had gone very white, and that note caused her to look up and check her out.
She lifted her head just in time to see Paula storm out of the room.
‘Let her go,’ Tessa murmured.
‘Mr Ireland, can we return to your relationship with Nicola Armstrong, please. How long had the affair been going on?’ Tessa waited for him to gather his thoughts.
‘About thirteen months. We met a few days before Christmas last year. I shared a table in the pub with her, because it was packed with people having a Christmas party. It was very noisy and we started to talk but could hardly hear each other. We left that pub, drove to the next one and went in there. It was Christmas party free, and we had a really enjoyable evening. We exchanged phone numbers, and I rang her the next day.’
‘You bought simple phones to keep contact away from your main phones, I assume. When you spoke to me earlier, you insinuated it was Nicola’s fault your wrist was broken. Is that true?’
It was clear he didn’t want to speak, and eventually Tessa had to prompt him. ‘Can you answer please, Mr Ireland?’
‘Yes, damn it, it was Nicola’s fault, She smashed a baseball bat down on to my arm, but I’d started to move it and my wrist took the full force of it. It’s the third time she’s attacked me, and I decided enough was enough. That’s why I didn’t respond to her call on Monday night.’
‘What other damage has she caused to you?’
‘The first time she scratched me. I know that sounds like nothing, but they were deep channels down my back. Her nails ripped through my shirt and then through my skin. I had to go see my doctor because they became infected, and I pretended to him that I had fallen against a fence and it was barbed wire that had caused the injuries. I kept it away from Paula, but that’s not difficult. We have separate rooms now.’
‘And the other time?’
‘She didn’t actually cause any damage; she held a knife to my throat because I had to attend a function at work and Paula was going with me. Nicola was livid, said it was time I stopped being spineless and divorced Paula, then she could be Mrs Ireland. She scared me, and I managed to get away from her and headed home. She rang me the next day, full of apologies, in floods of tears, promising she would never hurt me again. I met up with her Monday morning and again she started going on about me leaving Paula. I said no, I wasn’t ready for that level of commitment and she grabbed the baseball bat she keeps behind the front door and brought it down with an almighty thump on to my arm. She was screaming after me as I headed down the path to drive home. The pain in my wrist was unbearable; fortunately my car is an automatic and I managed to get home without much bother, but I had to lie to Paula and tell her I’d fallen in the snow. My wrist was an odd shape, so she drove me to the hospital. She’s quite right, it was about nine when we got home. How did Nicola die?’
His question came across too abruptly, and he looked at Tessa. ‘I’m sorry, DI Marsden, I don’t seem able to grieve. Do I sound as heartless as I feel?’
‘At this stage, Mr Ireland, I can’t give out details of how she died, but I can tell you it was murder.’
‘And she was found in Chatsworth?’
‘She was, and we believe she was killed shortly after she made that phone call to you. She died sometime between 22:03 and midnight. Was it a habit of hers to go out walking late at night?’
Ireland shook his head. ‘Not as far as I’m aware. However, I never stayed overnight with her, so maybe she did go out. I can’t really help with that.’
Tessa stood, and Hannah took her cue from her boss, slipping her notebook back inside her bag. ‘Thank you, Mr Ireland. That’s all we need for now, but we may need to speak to you again, possibly at the station for a more formal interview. Whichever way it’s done, we will be needing a statement.’
Neil Ireland gave a lop-sided grin, which didn’t reach his eyes. ‘That’s fine, but believe me, your interrogation, even if it’s under torture, will be nothing like as horrific as what’s heading my way in the next few minutes. Can’t I go with you and seek asylum?’
‘Sorry, sir,’ Tessa smiled. ‘If you change address, please keep us informed,’ and she handed him her card.
His sigh came all the way up from his feet. ‘Thank you for not judging me.’
‘I think you’ll have enough judgement coming down on your head as soon as we leave. Good luck with it,’ Tessa said, and she and Hannah left the warmth of the house and trudged back to their car.
9
Debbie Carter shivered as she pressed the bell and waited for the door to open. She felt nervous, as if she was doing something wrong. But how could it be wrong to want to find her nephew and his father? Hopefully they would be alive and Danny a handsome fifteen-year-old, but if they were dead at least she could reconcile herself to that. Living in this cruel limbo had been hard for too long, too many memories.
Luke glanced up from the pile of post he was sorting, and clicked on the release button. He stepped around the reception desk and welcomed her with a smile. ‘Kat is waiting for you, Ms Carter.’
He knocked on Kat’s door, murmured ‘Ms Carter’ and showed her through, helping her to manoeuvre the pushchair through the narrow doorway.
‘Thank you, Luke,’ Kat said. He closed the door and returned to his post sorting – almost equal amounts for his three ladies. He knocked on Doris’s door and handed her the envelopes, and she handed him a sheaf of papers.
‘Look through these, Luke. See what you think. There’s no rush, but we need eventually to think about you being licensed. This will be the start of it.’
He stared at the papers, hardly daring to breathe. See what he thought? He already knew what he thought without looking through them. His three ladies were on a pedestal, and he wanted to be up there with them.
‘Will I be 007?’ he asked, flashing Doris his devil smile.
‘Not an earthly, that’s my number. You could be 002 and a half, I’m sure 008 and 009 will agree to that.’
He blew her a kiss and returned to his desk. Doris had printed the papers for him, and he meticulously put them into sections, found an empty file folder and proudly wrote LUKE’S STUFF along the top of it.
He checked his small bank of three lights under the top shelf of his desk, saw that none of the women needed him for anything, and settled down to what he felt was the most serious work he would ever do. 002 and a half meant business.
Debbie finished filling in the client form and passed it across to Kat, who skimmed through it, and put it in her top drawer. Kat pointed to the recorder, received permission to use it and switched it on.
‘Okay, Debbie,’ she said gently, ‘talk to me. I’m so sorry for the loss of Nicola, it must have hit you very hard.’
‘Not as hard as losing her son. Nicola was a nasty piece of work at times, and I struggled to keep any sort of relationship going with her. But I loved Danny. And that’s why I’m here.’
Kat settled back in her chair, and looked at her neighbour with interest. ‘The police will find who did it.’
�
�I’m not really bothered whether they do or not; she’s gone, we’ll bury her and that will be the end of it as far as Nicola is concerned. Since Daniel and Adam disappeared, I’ve seen her maybe half a dozen times, that’s all. I always buy her a gift for Christmas, and that’s when I see her, but occasionally she hasn’t been in when I’ve called with that so even half a dozen times might be stretching it. She certainly wasn’t there when I called this Christmas. I left the gift and the card in the shed and pushed a note through her door.’ Debbie took out her phone. ‘This is the text I got back.’
Thank you. Will drop bag of gifts off for all of you tomorrow.
‘No kisses, no anything. She left a bag in my blue bin, and it contained gifts for me and the kids, and a joint gift for Simon and his partner Greg. And that was it, really. I messaged her to say I’d got the bag.’
‘Why?’
‘Why what?’
‘You must have been close at one point. So why the distance now? You’re sisters, and I imagine quite close in age.’
‘There’s two years between us,’ Debbie confirmed. ‘But according to my mum, we never got on from the minute Nicola first saw me. Simon was three years older than her, and it seems that he spent his childhood stopping her killing me. We laugh about it now, but she was pretty violent, and not only towards me.’
‘So how can we help you? We can’t get involved in anything that would compromise the police investigation, you do know that?’
‘Okay. I’m here representing Simon as well as me. We will go halves on your bill, but we need some answers. Neither of us has ever believed Daniel and Adam are dead. Our hope is that once Adam sees his wife is gone and no longer a threat to either of them, he will return, with Danny. But hope isn’t going to make that happen. He could just as easily say thank God for that, and never contact either me or Simon again. The thing is, Kat, we need either closure or a happy ending.’
The sleeping baby in the pushchair snuffled. Debbie reached out to the handle, to gently push the pram backwards and forwards.
Kat was silent for a moment. Despite having been neighbours for around six years, she hadn’t known of Debbie’s connection to the little boy who had disappeared ten years earlier.
Kat eventually spoke. ‘Okay, I’ll speak with Beth and Doris before I firmly commit. We have to make absolutely sure we’re not stepping on police toes; I’ll get back to you by tomorrow at the latest.’
Debbie reached down and removed a large carrier bag from the tray underneath the pushchair. ‘This is everything I’ve collected since he went missing. Copies of both birth certificates, newspaper reports, photos… everything I could possibly get my hands on at the beginning. I always thought Danny was taken by his dad, but I also thought Adam took him to keep him safe.’
‘Safe?’
‘My sister had psychopathic tendencies, Kat. How Adam put up with her I don’t know. He was always injured in some way, and then one day Danny turned up with a cast on his arm. Two days later, Danny and Adam disappeared. That’s why I know they’re out there somewhere. I can’t, hand on heart, say Nicola would have killed them, because that wasn’t what she was about. She just enjoyed inflicting pain. Adam could have walked away, but he was an amazing dad and he wouldn’t have left Danny with her to become the punchbag.’
‘Have you said all of this to DI Marsden?’
‘No,’ Debbie said, with an emphatic shake of her head to stress the word. ‘The police gave up too quickly, and I always thought it was because everybody assumed he was with his daddy, and therefore that was okay. He was safe. But the real truth is that they’re investigating Nicola’s murder, and that is their priority. They won’t be looking into a ten-year-old disappearance, will they?’
‘They might if they suspect Adam. Or even Daniel. He’ll be fifteen now, won’t he.’
Debbie Carter looked horrified. ‘What? No…’
‘Debbie, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but don’t assume the police won’t dredge it up, because they just might. You need to be aware of that, so you can handle the inevitable questions that will follow. Is Rob okay with what you’re doing?’
‘Rob? Why would it bother him what I do? He left three days after Charlie was born. He’s living with somebody in New Mills now. You hadn’t noticed?’
‘I’m so sorry, Debbie, no I hadn’t noticed he wasn’t about. Winter months send everybody scurrying indoors and we don’t know anything that’s happened. I hope you know that if ever you have a problem, we’ll help.’
Debbie gave a slight laugh. ‘My problem would be if he ever tried to come back. I’ve been so much happier since he went, so his new love is welcome to him. He sends money each month for the kids, takes them out for a couple of hours every two weeks, and that’s enough. Simon constantly checks on me; it seems to bother him that I’m on my own, but it definitely doesn’t bother me. And I’m in no rush to replace Rob either. I like being me, not me and him.’
Kat began to put all the papers back in the bag, and as if on cue there was a small cry from inside the pram.
‘I’ll get Charlie home,’ Debbie said. ‘He’s probably hungry. You’ll let me know if you can take the case?’
‘I will. I’m going to call a meeting with the others, show them this pile of paperwork, and we’ll take it from there. I’ll have to notify DI Marsden, tell her what we’re doing, because treading on her toes isn’t a good idea.’
‘I understand. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.’
Debbie manoeuvred backwards out of the doorway, and swung the pram around in the reception area. Luke held the door open for her, and she stopped to thank him. ‘It’s Luke, isn’t it? Luke Taylor?’
‘It is. Have we met before?’
‘No, I know your mum. She’s very proud of you, and pointed you out one day. We always have a chat when I go through her checkout in the Co-op. Lovely lady, very helpful and friendly. So you’re working here… that’ll be good for you. Connection has an excellent reputation. See you again, I hope,’ Debbie said, and he closed the door gently as she left.
When he reached his desk, a red light indicating Kat needed him was glowing. He knocked on her door and opened it slightly.
‘You need me?’
‘Yes, come in, Luke.’
He sat across from her and waited. A large carrier bag was in the middle of her desk and he eyed it with some concern. It looked like a lot of filing.
‘I need some advice,’ Kat said.
Luke waited. Advice from him?
Kat patted the bag. ‘Can this lot be scanned or whatever it’s called, and sent to our computers? It just seems like such a lot of photocopying if it can’t.’
He nodded. ‘It can. I’ll scan each piece, put everything into a file and send all three of you the file.’
Kat stood up. ‘You see, I knew we’d employed you for a reason! Don’t do it yet, I have to talk to Nan and Mouse first, to confirm we’re taking the case, but one thing’s for sure; I want you fully involved with it, and keeping this file up to date, so you might want to open a document or something on your own computer for this file to land there. Am I making sense?’
‘Nearly,’ he said with a laugh.
10
CCTV showed nothing helpful. No cars had gone through Chatsworth on that wintry night, although the camera on the entrance gates showed Nicola Armstrong entering the grounds, alone and staggering slightly, at around ten minutes to ten. On such a bitterly cold night she was well-wrapped up, a scarf around her neck, her hood up to cover her head, gloves and long boots. If they hadn’t had the actual clothing in their evidence bags, they would not have been able to tell it was her.
The briefing was lively, but nothing new had come to light other than the interview with Neil Ireland. Tessa took them through everything, including the violent relationship Neil and Nicola had shared, which led to the phone call she made to her lover being ignored.
‘Could that phone call have been a cry for help? Was she sca
red? Did she think someone was following her? Let’s see if we can pinpoint exactly where that call was made from, let’s try for some sort of location on it. And we need to know where she was going. Why did she take her bag? If she was going out for a last walk of the evening, why would she drag her bag along? Her phone was in her back pocket. Or was she going to meet somebody? She was smartly dressed underneath all the outer winter clothing. And I want details ASAP of calls into and out from her home, on the landline. Do we think this murder could be connected to the disappearance of her son and husband? According to her sister, they’re still married. Is he still alive? Are we going to have to open a ten-year-old cold case to solve one from a couple of days ago?’
Tessa sank down into her seat with a thud, and everyone began to return to their own designated desks. Hannah moved across to her and pulled up a chair.
‘Well done, boss,’ she said quietly. ‘You think there could be anything back at the Armstrong house that we’ve missed? Should we go and have another look?’
‘I think we should. Just the two of us. We’ll take our time and go through everything. But not today. It’s getting dark, so we’ll go tomorrow morning. I’ll see you here for about half past eight, then we’ll leave the troops to pound the computers. We’ll head off to the house. There’s something we’re missing, somewhere. Let’s go find what the hell it is.’
Doris, Mouse, Kat and Luke sat around Kat’s desk, the carrier bag still in the middle of it.
‘This,’ Kat said, lightly touching the bag, ‘is ten years of gathering paperwork. There are photographs, letters and all sorts of stuff in it, and Debbie wants us to take the case. She wants Danny, her nephew, in her life, so she wants us to find him. I think she’s quite prepared for either outcome, either closure if we discover he’s dead, or a meeting if we find him alive. I’ve talked to Luke and he can document…’ she hesitated. ‘Well, he can do something with them that will end up in a file we can all look at on our computers.’