by Anita Waller
Luke laughed. ‘Tell me about it. I see the certificates every day. And Mrs Lester and Mouse are both black belts in karate!’
‘Have you seen the video of Doris taking down a man in this office? Awesome. Ask them to show it to you,’ Hannah said with a laugh, then waved as she walked away.
Hannah felt so much better for her time out. She switched on her car’s engine, and sat for a moment, deciding what to do next. In the end she chose to head back to Chatsworth, do a roundup of any new information that had come in, and read once more all the statements they had completed.
She pulled down the visor; the low sun was shining directly into her eyes, and it felt comfortably warm in the car. The green fields had lost all their white covering, and she knew lambs would be appearing any time. She loved her county in the spring, not so much in the summer when it was overrun with tourists.
She realised she hadn’t revisited the poor lover who had an angry wife to contend with, and mentally put him on her list of things to do. Neil Ireland, Paula Ireland, second interviews, Simon Vicars first interview, Debbie Carter temporarily on a back burner; must do items for the next day. It felt strange to be thinking and planning ahead. This was normally Tessa’s remit, and Hannah wasn’t convinced she was making the right moves, the right decisions. Come back soon, boss, she thought. I’m struggling!
17
Two nights of almost undisturbed sleep had given Tessa a new lease of life. Although her voice was still croaky, her head had lost its fuzziness, and she dressed in warm clothes. She didn’t want to feel the alternate freezing and overheating she had experienced over the past couple of days, and knowing she would be out and about, she dressed accordingly.
Hannah had said she would be at Tessa’s house by eight, and so Tessa went outside to wait for her arrival. A few seconds later Hannah’s car pulled up in front of her.
‘Good to have you back, boss. You’re okay?’
‘Better than I was. You solved this case yet?’
‘Not quite, but I did have ginger biscuits at Connection yesterday. I only saw Kat and Luke, it seemed Doris and Mouse were beavering away on their computers. It’s all about Danny and Adam Armstrong with them. They’re trying to find them.’
‘And they will. Think it will impact on our investigation?’
Hannah nodded, indicated and negotiated a tight right turn before speaking. ‘I do, but it may be eventually rather than immediately. They’ve only just started, saw Debbie Carter yesterday morning. She’s given them a whole load of paperwork to see if it will be of any help to them, but Kat stressed they would turn anything over to us if it concerned Nicola Armstrong. Their main area of interest is the father/son partnership.’
They reached the Chatsworth parking area designated for the police vehicles and both officers exited the car and stretched. It felt good to have some sun on their faces, even though it was likely to be fleeting; rain had been promised for later.
The room was busy, but not loud. Everybody was doing something, and it gladdened Tessa’s heart that she never needed to push for action. They got on with it.
She walked to the front of the room and banged a marker pen on a desk. There was instant silence and some sporadic clapping.
‘Thank you. As you can hear I still can’t shout at you, so listen carefully. I need bringing up to speed with everything. Hannah’s told me about the bike. Have we found it?’
Ray walked to the front and pointed to a map of Chatsworth. ‘We’re working systematically, boss. We have to do a sector at a time, it’s such a huge bloody place. Definitely a haystack/needle situation. The sectors with Post-it notes covering them have been searched, and these remaining three,’ he pointed with a biro, ‘are being searched right now. We may have to dredge the river…’
‘And information on both victims? Has anything come up that’s made anybody think outside the box?’
She looked around to blank faces. ‘Okay, keep going on that one. CCTV? Anything at all?’
‘Olivia rode through the gates on her bike at 5.55. Then there’s nothing anywhere. She didn’t make it to the house. If she had she would have definitely been on camera. It’s like a film set in there.’
‘Thank you.’ Tessa nodded to the owner of the voice that had just imparted the information. She didn’t know him. It occurred to her they had a large workforce on this one… the Devonshires had influence, she guessed.
Tessa thanked everyone, said she was fighting fit and back on duty, then returned to her desk. Hannah followed her. ‘You okay?’ she whispered.
Tessa checked her watch. ‘Medication time. I will be shortly. They work pretty quick. So, we need to speak with Neil Ireland again, get a formal statement of his philandering activities and, more importantly, the various injuries he received at the hands of Nicola Armstrong. I have an inkling…’
Hannah grinned. ‘An inkling? An inkling led us to arresting Marnie Harrison. Let’s trust your inklings.’
‘I just think this woman’s violence is at the root of it all. I think she was killed because she’s attacked somebody, and unfortunately it may be somebody we know nothing about. Domestic violence against men is on the increase, but not talked about much because the men don’t come forward. But it seems to me it’s at the top middle and bottom of this. Where Olivia Fletcher fits in, I don’t quite know…’
There was a shout from the other side of the room. ‘Bike’s been found, boss.’
Tessa stood. ‘They retrieved it?’
‘Getting it out now. It’s in the river. Hang on…’ He listened to what was being said on the other end of the phone and then punched the air. ‘Good news, boss. Only the front end was submerged. They spotted the ribbon stuck out of the water. The contents of the bag are dry and were secured, before they attempted to move the bike. It’s in an awkward place and they didn’t want it going under completely with the stuff in the bag.’
‘At last,’ she breathed. ‘Maybe a breakthrough. If it’s any help to us, it’ll be the first thing that has been.’
The largest evidence bag contained a pale blue button-up full-length nylon coat, used as a coverall when cleaning. The second contained a mobile phone, the third a small purse, and the fourth two sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil. The fifth one contained four pieces of a bar of Cadbury’s milk chocolate.
‘The last bit of her life,’ Tessa said quietly. ‘How sad is that. And such a lovely girl, so young.’ She put on gloves, and removed the mobile phone. Going into calls, she saw the last one was to Olivia’s mum the night before the day of her death. The one prior to that, some thirty minutes earlier, was to a number with the name Joker allocated to it, and it had lasted ten seconds only. Tessa stared at the strange number, then wrote it down on her notepad. She couldn’t remember the number of the phones used by Nicola Armstrong and Neil Ireland; she needed to check that this number on Olivia’s phone wasn’t the same as either of those.
She moved into texts and croaked ‘Bingo!’
Hannah moved around to stand behind her, and then punched the air.
‘Hannah,’ Tessa said. ‘Shout and get them all to shut up.’
Hannah banged on the desk and shouted, ‘Quiet, everybody. Listen to this!’
There was an instant hush and they swung their chairs to face Hannah and Tessa.
Tessa handed the phone to Hannah. ‘You read it to them. They’ll not hear me.’
‘Okay,’ she called, raising her voice a couple of notches. ‘The night before she died, Olivia Fletcher made a phone call to a number with a name allocated to it, but that doesn’t tell us who it is. The name is Joker. The call lasted ten seconds. She then texted the same number. This is that text. Don’t put the phone down on me, moron. Not joking now are u? You know I saw u, and now she’s dead. She got a reply. What time you starting tomorrow? Meet me in glasshouse B. I’ll explain. I didn’t touch her.’
The air was electric as they all listened carefully to the words. ‘Then she sent a further text. Starting early.
6. This had better be good or I go to police.’ Hannah looked up. ‘There’s one more text from Joker. I’ll be there.’
‘It seems,’ Tessa croaked, ‘that once we tie this number to its owner, we have our man or woman. I’m passing it to the tech guys to see if they can trace it before I have to do my impression of somebody they might know.’
She sat down and there was muted chatter. They all knew the chances of finding out who it belonged to were negligible, but at least they now had a reason behind Olivia’s death. She had seen the perpetrator following the victim.
Her purse revealed very little. It contained a debit card, a credit card, a library card, and a couple of loyalty cards. It also contained a receipt for a small bottle of whisky, the receipt timed at 21.47 from a convenience store in Baslow. She would have been passing the gates of Chatsworth around the time Nicola was entering the estate. Had he or she been waiting inside the gates, aware of the camera trained on them?
Olivia had obviously seen him or her following Nicola, but hadn’t made the connection till much later. It had cost her everything, that small bottle of whisky.
She took out the nylon workwear but it held nothing that could help them; it was clean, pressed and had nothing in any of the pockets. The sandwiches and chocolate were opened up and rewrapped before everything was replaced in their evidence bags. Tessa handed the phone over to the tech guy waiting for it, but it wasn’t long before he brought it back to her, saying the number belonged to a throwaway not registered to anyone.
Once more Hannah silenced the room and Tessa used Olivia’s phone to ring the number. Welcome to the O2 messaging service. The number you are calling is unable to take your call.
Tessa replaced the phone in its evidence bag and put all the items into one large bag to ensure they were kept together until somebody could give them an extra search.
Tessa was in bed by nine, warm, medicated and with soothing music playing courtesy of her Echo Dot. She opened her kindle, and tried to concentrate on Cujo, but sensed maybe Stephen King wasn’t going to cut it for her that night.
She felt the edge of the bed sink slightly and turned over with a smile. ‘You’ve locked everything up?’
‘All secure. Now go to sleep. And tell Alexa she can sleep too. Wake me if you want anything at all during the night.’ Martin reached across and kissed her. ‘Alexa, goodnight.’
‘Goodnight. Sweet dreams,’ was the response and the music died away, returning when Alexa had finished speaking. ‘Alexa, stop.’
‘Do I have to wait until I wake for this “wanting something during the night”?’
He looked at Tessa, his face creasing into a smile. ‘You’re a brazen hussy, DI Marsden. The medication’s working then?’
He switched off the light, and helped her to get better.
18
Doris began. She put the file containing her notes on her laptop screen and started with Mark Brogan, reading the details out to Kat, Mouse and Luke.
‘Mark Brogan was the youngest on that photograph, apart from Debbie. He wasn’t sixteen when the picture was taken, the others were. There’s no evidence he was particularly close to Adam, just in the same class, but he clearly spent this particular day in Adam’s company.
‘He is now married to Lisa, has two girls and is in charge of a recycling plant. He stayed in touch with Adam for a few years, because there’s a picture of them at a football match together. They did a fundraiser at half time and they had a photo taken for the newspapers. The fundraiser was for Cancer Research, but I can’t track down why. Usually it’s because someone close has cancer, but nothing is standing out. That’s the last time I can connect them.’
Doris reached across for her water, and took a sip. ‘Any questions on Mark?’
‘Not questions really, more an observation. Is he as nice as he sounds?’ Kat asked.
‘I think so. No financial problems as far as I can see, been married for nine years. They live in a semi-detached, with a massive back garden.’ She clicked on a picture and swung her laptop around. ‘This is their home. Nothing too ostentatious but very nice. However, I have flagged Mark onto the list that says further checking required on the strength that he’s moved some distance from here. I think Adam would have had the common sense to get well away, and Mark Brogan was working for the recycling company in 2008 when Adam and Danny disappeared.’
Doris swung the laptop to face her and sighed. ‘Our next young man, Barry Earnshaw, was very close to Adam right through school. They lived next-door-but-one to each other, grew up through all school levels together. Then in 2012 he died, came off his motorbike. However, this doesn’t mean he didn’t help Adam. Adam disappeared four years before Barry’s death. Research shows me that Barry didn’t have any sort of official partner, and although he lived in Monyash at the time of his death, in 2008 he was living in Cornwall, working as a surfing instructor during the summer. He lived in a campervan, but that in itself presented problems tracking his life. It was definitely a hippy lifestyle. Would Adam consider that to be the right environment for his son? I don’t know, but I suspect not. For all these reasons, I’ve removed him from the possible list, because no matter that he was Adam’s closest friend, he certainly isn’t helping him now, and likewise can’t help us either.’
‘Nan, did you work on this at home?’
‘Might have.’
‘Did you?’ Kat looked concerned. ‘Didn’t we say it was a big job, and to not take it home because it would be a sleep wrecker?’
‘Did we?’ Doris looked singularly untroubled by the questions.
‘And have you got a headache this morning?’ Mouse’s tone was accusatory.
‘I only had one gin and tonic, and half a box of Ferrero Rocher.’
Kat’s mouth curved as if fending off a laugh. Luke guffawed. His laughter set everybody else off.
‘Nan,’ Mouse said, wiping tears from her eyes. ‘How old are you next month?’
‘Sixty.’
‘No, you’re seventy. Now will you start to accept your limitations, please? The ruling about not working on this at home was meant for all of us, not just you. It’s intense, it can be upsetting digging into people’s pasts, and you took it home! Which part of don’t take it home didn’t you understand?’
‘Don’t.’
‘Don’t what?’
‘Don’t. That’s the part I didn’t understand. You said which part didn’t I understand. The part was don’t. Stop being obtuse and difficult, Mouse.’
Mouse looked at Kat and Luke. ‘Has this just swung around to me being in the wrong?’
Luke stood. ‘Another coffee?’
They all pushed their mugs towards him, Kat still mopping up the tears of laughter. She really wished Mouse would learn she was never going to better her nan. When the blank innocent look was on Nan’s face, it meant she had already won.
Biscuits accompanied the coffee, and Doris wisely sat without speaking for a few minutes. To calm everybody down, they chatted about Luke’s predicament with regard to his two younger sisters both having birthdays in the same week, both enjoying different things and both wanting presents and not money. The birthdays were a week away and he still hadn’t come up with ideas for them.
Kat’s suggestion of a package of cinema tickets, popcorn and sweets for each of the girls, with their big brother taking them, ended up being the suggestion he thought was brilliant. Kat suspected it was because he could do the main part online, and nip across the road for two gift bags and some sweets.
With that important issue resolved, they turned back to Doris who was ready with her next name.
‘Kenny Wilkinson. Now called Kenny Wilkinson-Starr. Lives in Bakewell with a chap called Alan Wilkinson-Starr, married two years ago. I worked extensively on Kenny, because they took the same GCSEs, and it occurred to me they would have been close because of that. Same classes, possibly study after school, but I can find nothing to link them at all after they left school. It’s possible they
moved in completely different circles, if Kenny was discovering his homosexuality. Anyway, I’ve taken him off the list temporarily. I’ve other things I can check with Kenny if necessary.’
Doris picked up her coffee and took a long drink. ‘Thirsty work, this talking. Have you any questions so far?’
‘Would we dare?’ Mouse smiled. ‘No, seriously, Nan, you’ve left the third on your list till the last. That’s significant. You think Ethan King could have helped Adam?’
‘Clever clogs. When I started to look into Ethan, I began with the photo. He’s the one immediately behind Susie Long, but she is quite tiny and his focus is on Adam. And he’s smiling, but not for the picture. He’s smiling at the back of Adam. Is he pleased Adam is sitting with Debbie? I suspect he is. Maybe he doesn’t like Nicola. Anyway, that’s all supposition of course, but you can tell a lot from faces.
‘So, I began with a young Ethan. I had a feeling… Anyway, he was born to parents who were seemingly quite well off. His father had a business… wait for it… a printing business. KingPress. Heard of it?’
Everyone around the table nodded. ‘And are you all starting to get a feeling now?’
‘I definitely am,’ Kat said. ‘How handy would that be if you needed documents to start a new life. Did Ethan go into the business?’
Doris nodded. ‘Straight from school. By the time Adam disappeared, Ethan’s father had retired, and Ethan was in full control of the business. Still is, of course. It’s a huge set-up. They’ve expanded, have a massive warehouse for stationery goods, and they employ a hefty-sized workforce. It’s an online business, although they do have a small on-site shop that caters to people like me who can’t resist stationery. I imagine his father is very proud of him.’