by Anita Waller
‘We need to go visit Ethan?’ Kat asked. ‘Are we open about why, or do we need some story just to get us in there? I’m always in favour of being as near to the truth as possible, because he’ll have heard that Nicola Armstrong is dead. I think we go in telling him we’ve been employed to search for Adam and Danny, and we’re looking to interview everybody on that photograph who remained friends with Adam after leaving school. He’ll not think he’s being singled out then, and maybe we’ll pick up something.’
‘I agree,’ Mouse said. ‘We were open with Michael Fairfax when we went to tell him his father was our client, and look what repercussions came from that.’ She glanced at Doris, hoping she hadn’t upset her by bringing Ewan Barker into the conversation, but her nan didn’t even flinch.
Luke said nothing. He didn’t know details of the case, but guessed there had been a personal element to it. It occurred to him that maybe he should know… just in case. He’d ask Kat, make sure he had the facts. Nobody was allowed to upset his ladies, ever.
‘To go back to Ethan. He has an impressive portfolio of properties in Norfolk. It’s a separate website that deals with this. I reckon Norfolk’s far enough away from Derbyshire to be a bolthole. I will need more time to pursue this line, because we’re talking around twenty-five properties, and I need to check out which are holiday lets and which have tenants. I’ll let you know when this is complete, because I’m making Ethan King my priority now. You can start the application process for one of these properties online, but it states very clearly a formal interview will be required.’
Doris looked around the table. ‘So that’s the end of my report. Or it is up to a point, anyway. I’m really going in deep, find out everything I can about these properties Ethan King owns. Once we have all the facts at our fingertips, we’ll go see him. Unless we find Adam first, of course. Mouse, you have anything interesting?’
‘Not really, but I didn’t take my work home with me,’ she said, fixing her eyes on her nan. Doris smiled. ‘I didn’t spend much time on Zak Garside because he lives here, in Eyam, and is a carer for his mother. You know him, Kat?’
‘I know Emily Garside. She was in an accident while riding her horse, caused all sorts of problems for her. She doesn’t walk very well, but manages to get to church occasionally. I knew her son was her carer, but I didn’t know his Christian name. Nice man, very polite. I’ve never seen him with a girlfriend, or even a boyfriend, so presumably his life is his mum.’
‘I made a start with Susie Long, and it seems she lives in Canada. I’ve put her to one side because it’s harder to track when they’re in another country, but it’s also ideal for hiding someone, so I’ll do as comprehensive a check as I can. Wendy Thompson lives in Kent, and as such, merits a much closer inspection. I’ll concentrate on her initially, and leave Canada alone for the moment.’
‘I’m going to ring Debbie. There’s a little niggle in the back of my mind, set off by that picture. I think there was something between Adam and Debbie, but he ended up with Nicola. Was it just the supposed pregnancy that drove them together? And now Rob, her husband, is out of the way, is that why she wants to find Adam so desperately? Everything seems to be falling into place for Debbie, and it’s making me feel uneasy. I hope she’s got a good alibi for Nicola’s time of death.’
19
The convenience store in Baslow was tinier than Tessa expected. She bought some paracetamol, then showed her ID. ‘Are you the owner?’
‘I am. Can I help?’
‘I hope so. I have a receipt from a couple of nights ago, when a young girl came in to buy a small bottle of whisky.’
‘Yes, I remember her. I tried to persuade her to buy a bigger bottle because it was only a couple of pounds dearer, but she explained she was buying it for her dad, and his hands couldn’t hold the bigger bottle. She said he’d just dropped one of the smaller ones which was why she was there to buy one at that time of night. It helped him sleep, she said. Lovely girl.’
‘Was there anyone else around?’
‘Not with her. She came in alone. I remember saying to her she was only just in time. I close at ten. There’d been somebody hanging around and I was really ready for closing. I felt uncomfortable.’
‘This other person. Man or woman?’
There was hesitation. ‘I’m not sure. My first impression was it was a man, but very slim so it could just as easily have been a woman. They had on a black baseball cap, pulled low, so I couldn’t really tell. I’m sorry, I’m not being very helpful, am I?’
‘Did you see this person go through the Chatsworth gates?’
‘No. After the young girl spoke to the person, she drove off and I didn’t see the person in the dark clothes again. I did see a woman go in through the gates, but she was a bit worse for wear, definitely wobbly. That young lass tried to steady her while she was talking to the other person, the one dressed in black. Is this about the body they found?’
‘It is. Thank you for your help. And can I suggest you close a little earlier until this investigation is finished. Stay safe.’
Hannah had waited outside while Tessa went in. Hannah stepped forward and opened the car door for Tessa. ‘You okay? She understood your croak?’
‘She did. It seems Olivia saw the suspect here. She actually spoke to him or her, and she also saw Nicola Armstrong, definitely unsteady on her feet. Olivia tried to help her, but she went through the gates and Olivia drove off.’
‘And now she’s dead, and all because she was doing something really nice for her dad. It’s a shitty world at times.’ Hannah felt anger overwhelm her for a second. ‘Let’s go get this prick, shall we?’
‘Hi, Debbie, it’s Kat. I’ve a couple of questions that have cropped up since we were with you. You got five minutes?’
‘Oh, hi. I have. I’ve just put Charlie in his bedroom, and now I can sit down with a big mug of hot chocolate and read. What do you need to know?’
‘The first thing is on the day that Adam and Danny went, where was Nicola? I’m assuming the police asked the question when they first started looking for them, but we don’t have access to police files.’
‘She was at the hairdressers. She had an appointment, she said, for half past nine but it was a little delayed. Then she went to do some shopping, and got home around noon. By that time Danny and Adam had vanished. Nobody saw them go, there was only one suitcase missing so they didn’t take much, and they went in Adam’s car. He left everything else.’
‘Thank you. Did he leave a note?’
‘Nothing. Took Danny, a few clothes, and we haven’t seen or heard from them since.’
‘Thank you. And one more thing. It was clear from the picture you showed me that Adam had a thing for you. Why did he end up marrying Nicola?’
There was a moment of silence. ‘She told him she was pregnant. She set out to trap him, to get him from me, and she succeeded. He was devastated. They married quickly, no big wedding, just a simple registry office one, and then two weeks later she told him she was miscarrying. Neither of us believed for a minute that she had been pregnant, we think she had a period, and said she’d lost the baby. He stayed with her and then she did become pregnant for real with Danny, and things improved between them. I’d met Rob of course and we’d become an item. It was one big mess. I wanted Adam, Adam wanted me, and we ended up with different people.’
‘Thank you, Debbie. I need to speak to Simon. Get his memories of that time. I’ll give him a ring and organise it.’
‘You have his number?’
‘I do. In my phone, and clearly marked “electrician”. You don’t lose important numbers,’ Kat said with a laugh.
Simon was surprised to hear from Kat. He had assumed that Debbie would be her point of contact, but clearly that wasn’t the case. He agreed to see her at four, and put down the phone with a frown. He almost felt out of the whole situation; he hadn’t spoken to anybody on the police side since the snowy morning they had notified them of Nicola’s d
eath, and Debbie had been the one to hire Connection to try to find Danny. He was on the periphery of it all, and yet Kat wanted to speak to him.
His phone pealed out again, a strange number, a possible new job. He cleared his throat and answered it with his posh voice in play.
‘Mr Vicars? DI Marsden. We’d like to come around and have a chat with you, possibly tomorrow morning? Say half past eight?’
‘Erm, yes, that will be fine. I need to be leaving home by ten, I have a job in Chesterfield. Will that be enough time for you?’
‘Thank you, Mr Vicars, I’ll make sure we’re finished by then.’
He disconnected and sat down heavily. Suddenly he didn’t feel quite so much on the periphery.
‘Hi, Simon. Good to see you again.’ Kat smiled at the tall good-looking man in front of her. It had been over five years since she had last seen him, and he hadn’t changed at all.
‘Kat. Please come in.’ He stepped back and waited for her to pass by him before shutting the door. ‘Straight on, it’s warmer in the kitchen.’
The kitchen was toasty warm, and the air was redolent with something delicious cooking in the oven.
‘That smells good,’ she said.
‘A simple stew. I’m not one for fancy food, never have been.’
He pulled out a chair from under the table, and Kat sat down. ‘First of all, Simon, I’m so sorry for your loss. Death can be extra hard on people when it’s a sibling.’
‘Thank you. I’m not sure I’ve accepted it yet. Debbie has taken it so much better than me, but Debbie had written Nicola out of her life anyway, I fear.’
‘And you hadn’t?’
He hesitated. ‘This conversation is between us?’
‘It’s between you and Connection. It won’t go back to Debbie.’
He nodded. ‘Thank you. I saw Nicola fairly frequently. I’m not saying we were best friends or anything like that, but she was an unhappy woman. I tried to be there for her. I could see both sides, Kat, with her and Adam. Oh, I saw his bruises and cuts – we were friends, and he made this house his port in a storm, but I knew it was something inside Nicola that she couldn’t control. As a child I suffered at her hands, as did Debbie, but nobody seemed able to do anything about it.’
‘So Debbie doesn’t know you were in regular contact.’
‘No. It’s better it stays that way. It’s irrelevant anyway now, isn’t it.’
Kat could see the sadness in his face. ‘Can we talk about Adam leaving?’
‘Or otherwise?’
The room went silent. ‘You think it’s possible there’s an otherwise?’ Kat said.
‘Kat, I’ve tried to explain how violent Nicola was. I honestly don’t know what she was capable of. I can’t believe she would kill Danny, not her child, but she came pretty close with Adam more than once. If Adam left through his own volition, I would have expected to hear from him at some point over the last ten years. I haven’t. We were very close, more like brothers than brothers-in-law.’
‘Debbie thinks he’s still alive.’
‘Debbie loved him. She’ll never accept he’s dead unless we find a body. She lives for the day when he’ll walk through her door.’
‘What did you think when he disappeared?’
There was no hesitation. ‘I thought my sister had committed murder. She’d pushed Danny down the stairs two days earlier, and only another couple before that when she’d beaten Adam with the baseball bat. He didn’t just let her do that, by the way, she knocked him out first. When he came to, he was in dreadful pain, but refused to send for the police. He and Danny turned up here, and I tried to help, but I knew he would take time. She arrived to take them home, and off they went. It was weird. It was almost as if he was embarrassed to admit he was being knocked about by a woman.’
‘Have you thought about what she could have done with the bodies if she had murdered them? They’ve never turned up, so what on earth could she have done with them?’
He laughed. ‘You’ve seen her house? No? Then I must take you. The dining room is a library; a beautiful room. It’s filled with crime books. Real crime and fiction. It’s all she ever read. She’d certainly know what to do with dead bodies. My guess would be they would be chucked in the sea. She’d make it look as though Adam had killed Danny, then committed suicide. It would be fifty–fifty whether they would resurface before the fish ate them, but either way she would be safe from prosecution. Some clever barrister would sort it out for her.’
Kat stared at him. ‘You really believe it, don’t you?’
‘I’m sorry, Kat, I’ve lived with this nightmare, these awful thoughts for so long. I’ve never spoken to Debbie about them because she’d think I was mad, but I’m not. Nicola was.’
‘I’m going to do my best to find this man for you, Simon. You need closure if he’s dead, and if he isn’t you need to be reunited. We’re following leads that the police didn’t know about when he first disappeared, so we’re hopeful of a result. Have you given your statement to DI Marsden yet?’
‘No, she’s coming in the morning. But what do I know? She won’t be here about Adam and Danny; she’ll be here about Nicola’s death. I’m not surprised Nicola died violently, it’s how she lived her life, but I wouldn’t have wished it for her, no matter what she’s done.’
Kat stood. ‘I have to go; my mum is bringing my daughter back in half an hour. I’ll keep in touch, Simon, let you know how we’re progressing. Did you know any of your sister’s classmates in her last year of school?’
‘Not really. She only had eyes for Adam, and by the time she was in her last year, I was out earning a living in the real world. I remember she had a girlfriend called Wendy, but one day Wendy let on she fancied Adam, and that friendship disappeared. I can’t recall any other friends she may have had.’
‘Okay, no problem,’ Kat said, and left him sitting at the table while she walked back to her car. In her eyes, he seemed a broken man. A man who missed his sister, despite her being a psychopath with a penchant for hurting men… badly.
20
Kat’s visit had woken latent brain cells in Simon, and he realised that at any future trial it would come out in court that he had seen Nicola a lot more frequently than Debbie knew about. He had no doubt in his mind that his current relationship with Debbie would disintegrate once she heard that little snippet of information.
As a result, when Tessa and Hannah called, the statement he signed was very brief. The family was dysfunctional, he had very little contact with his sister, and he really knew nothing of her life.
Hannah turned the ignition. ‘That was pretty straightforward. A man of few words.’
‘You believed him?’ Tessa’s voice was still croaky, but had flashes of normality.
‘Think so. What did you pick up on that I didn’t?’
Tessa didn’t answer immediately. ‘Something was off. Simon Vicars seemed to be a really nice bloke. A bit of a peacekeeper. Even a peacemaker. Know what I mean? I found it hard to equate that side of him with the side that didn’t see anything, or very little, of Nicola.’
Hannah laughed. ‘He doesn’t want Debbie knowing he’s been seeing Nicola, does he. As you say, he’s a peacekeeper. You think we need to keep an eye on him?’
‘No, I don’t. If I had a brother I’d want one just like Simon. He’s protecting Debbie, and he clearly kept an eye on Nicola. Wonder if he knew about Nicola’s affair with Neil Ireland…’
‘Should we ask him?’
Tessa shook her head. ‘Not yet. Maybe not ever. He’ll find out when it goes to trial anyway.’
‘Wish I had a brother like him. In fact, I wish I had any sort of brother.’
‘Yeah, me too. I think being an only child is overrated,’ Tessa responded. ‘Mum couldn’t have any more after she had me, and I think she always regretted that. You want kids, Hannah?’
Hannah’s tone was guarded. ‘I like other people’s kids, adore my nieces, but at the end of each day I can sit d
own with a glass of wine, tuck my feet underneath me and not think about another soul that I need to look after. That suits me.’
‘Mmm…’
‘You?’
‘I don’t know.’ Tessa stared out of the passenger window. ‘No, I simply don’t know.’
Doris looked up from her cogitations as the door opened slightly. She closed the lid on her laptop, and watched as Luke’s head appeared around the door.
‘You need anything, Mrs Lester? I wanted to let you know I’ll be missing for ten minutes. We need biscuits and milk supplies, so I’m popping over the road.’
‘Thank you, Luke. And thank you for the minutes of the meeting from yesterday. We never did that. We just had meetings and everybody extracted what they needed out of it. This is much more efficient.’
‘I like doing it. It helps me think. I’ve printed one for Kat, made her a cardboard file for them. I know she likes to read things properly.’
‘You spoil that girl,’ Doris said sternly.
Luke laughed. ‘Some people don’t like technology. Kat – and my younger sister – are part of that group. Imogen still plays with an Etch-A-Sketch, for heaven’s sake. It’s no trouble for me to accommodate Kat with that. So, you want anything from the shop while I’m going?’
‘Let’s have some cupcakes. Is there enough in petty cash?’
‘I think so. You making any progress?’ He nodded towards the closed laptop.
‘Maybe.’
‘007, don’t go getting into any trouble,’ he said with a grin. ‘Stick to the grey side, not the dark side. And you didn’t work from home?’
‘Don’t start again, young man. I only did half an hour… now go shopping, and we’ll all have a break when you get back. Discuss what we’ve found out, if anything.’
‘I’ll take the minutes,’ he said, and closed the door.