by Anita Waller
‘You kept quiet about that!’ Mouse joked. ‘How serious is it?’
‘I like him,’ Tessa admitted.
‘That serious? Wow.’
‘I had to fight Hannah off though.’
Hannah smiled. ‘No you didn’t, you really didn’t. I let you have him.’ Her thoughts, hidden deep inside for so long, weren’t the same as her words.
‘Mrs Lester, you have a minute?’
‘I do, Luke. I’m just checking online how to litter train a kitten. Is yours more important than that?’
‘Maybe, maybe not.’ He smiled.
‘Sit down. You have a problem?’
‘I need your thoughts. I’ve got Vincent’s address, confirmed he is the owner of the car, confirmed little bits of his life then found out he’s joint owner of his house. His co-owner is Felicia Anne Sanders. If that’s his wife, we need to tell Keeley. But I don’t just want to put down the bare facts, because it might not be a wife, it could be a sister, a daughter… you know what I mean.’
‘I do, and well done on finding that out. You have to dig for that?’
He shrugged. ‘A little.’
‘Right. No more digging, leave this bit with me. Prepare the rest of your report for Keeley, we’ll add the outcome of my search later.’
Luke thanked her and went back to his desk. He stared across the road, watching with a smile as two drivers jostled for the same parking place. Eyam was starting to get busy, each day seemed to have an increase in traffic.
He pulled all the various pieces of paper together, sorted them into an order that made sense, and opened up a file to collate everything.
His mind started to drift; he had liked Keeley, and guessed if Felicia proved to be a wife, Keeley would be pretty upset about it. It had begun as an investigation to protect her money, but it had changed. Vince appeared to be quite well off; nice car, nice house, everything in order. And a woman to account for.
Kat’s light on his desk glowed, and he popped his head around her door. ‘You want something?’
‘Yes, I’ve just spoken to Debbie and she’s coming in at ten tomorrow morning. I need you to put it in the appointments please, Luke. How’s it going with Keeley’s problem?’
‘It’s fine, but I’m a bit concerned I might have found a wife. He’s co-owner of his house with a Felicia Anne Sanders. Mrs Lester is currently investigating her.’
‘Oh no, let’s hope not. I think Keeley must be pretty keen on him to go to the trouble of having him checked out. Have you enjoyed the research into this?’
‘Are you kidding?’ he asked. ‘I’ve loved it. I wasn’t sure about researching the woman, so I think Mrs Lester was a bit concerned it would have to go deep to find the information. She’s a very clever woman, isn’t she?’
‘I think she’s the smartest woman I know. You’ll learn such a lot from her, and to be honest we struggle to remember she is getting on in years. She’s so active, mentally and physically. And you seem to hit it off remarkably well considering there’s more than fifty years between you.’
‘That’s because she’s like my nan. She’s a smart old bird as well. Although she’s not a black belt in anything unless it’s knitting.’
He closed the door, smiling at the thought of his nan. She was starting to become a little bent, but her sharp wit hadn’t lessened by one iota. It seemed to him that the older you got, the more you could get away with, particularly with what was said.
He entered Debbie’s ten o’clock visit into the appointments file, then wrote it into the diary. Continuing with Keeley’s report took up the next fifteen minutes of his time, and then Doris’s light lit up.
‘Mrs Lester. You want me?’
‘They are married. I can find no evidence of a divorce, although they could have just split up and never bothered. Whatever has happened, Keeley needs to know. We’ll take an extra day to try to get something one way or the other, so can you ring Keeley and book us in for Thursday afternoon about one, please?’
‘I will. Can I make a suggestion?’
‘Of course.’ She couldn’t help but smile at him.
‘I’d like to go and park near his house in the morning, before the day properly begins, and see if there’s any sign of a woman. I’ll take the camera, and if there’s any photos to be had, I’ll get them. I’ll wait until about one, if that’s okay, then give up and come back here.’
‘I think that’s really sensible. Kat and Mouse can handle things here for a morning, I’ll be getting Belle.’
‘You’re calling your kitten Belle? That’s really pretty. I’d forgotten you wouldn’t be here. Are you sure it will be okay?’
‘Luke, it’s an excellent idea. There’ll be no work done here tomorrow, the girls will sit and chat and laugh all morning. And while I’m thinking about it, go and see if Mouse wants to start building furniture. You two might as well be getting on with that. Have you finished Keeley’s report?’
‘Apart from the random woman, yes. You want to see it?’
‘Is it accurate?’
‘Certainly is.’
‘Then no, I’ll give it a quick read through when we have as many facts as we can get. Leave it for now, I’m sure it’s fine.’
He saluted. ‘I’ll let you know if Beth and I are going. She may be busy.’
Mouse was playing solitaire.
Cardboard was everywhere, white panels likewise. Luke studied the instructions, and set to work. It didn’t take long to finish the basic frame, and once that was done, Mouse supplied him with a glass of shandy and the offer of cheese on toast.
‘Your nan said if I got the offer of cheese on toast to take it, because you never have anything else in.’
‘True story,’ Mouse said, not the slightest bit concerned by this slur on her character. ‘You want some?’
‘Yes, please. I’ll just text Mum and let her know I’m dining out, then they’ll not wait for me.’
The cheese and toast went down very well, and they talked about Doris.
‘It was like talking to a friend,’ he said. ‘We sat in that car all day Monday and chatted, and laughed. She’s not old-fashioned, knows exactly what I’m talking about when I spout my rubbish, and she’s funny, very dry sense of humour.’
‘In her younger days she was a civil servant. Very hush hush, she won’t talk about it but I know she left home to work wherever she worked. She was hog-tied by the Official Secrets Act, and to my knowledge has never said a word about what she did. She married another civil servant, agent I suppose, and they had my mum. She was their only child, but then she ended up with me because I lost my parents. Nan isn’t a secretive person, except about what she and my granddad worked on. I adore her, and can’t bear to think of a future without her. I suppose everybody starts to think about their mortality when they reach their allotted three score years and ten, but I hate it when she talks about not being here one day.’
Luke carried his plate and glass to the sink, and returned to remaining piles of whiteboards. ‘Where is this going to go?’
Mouse looked around. ‘I think next to the other one. If I leave my full wardrobe where it is, shuffle my chest of drawers up a couple of feet and then put this one next to it, I’m pretty sure the other wardrobe, the empty one, will fit in at the side of it. It’ll look quite smart if I have a complete wall of furniture.’
‘You want to get me a tape measure before we start second guessing measurements?’
‘Haven’t got one. Let’s move the chests of drawers into position, and then we’ll have a better idea.’
Apart from the new chest having no assembled drawers, everything fitted perfectly. There was a whole two inches to spare.
Luke dropped back to the floor and began to stick and screw drawers together, and half an hour later it was complete.
‘It looks absolutely lovely,’ Mouse said. ‘Thank you so much, Luke. It took hours to build the damn wardrobe, I felt suicidal by the end.’
‘Glad to help. It
wouldn’t have been a fun weekend if you’d had to be building furniture before Joel could unpack, would it. I’ll head off home now. Thank you for my food. I’ll call at Mrs Lester’s to get the camera, I’ve an early start tomorrow, and I don’t think she’ll appreciate being woken at six just for that.’
Mouse laughed. ‘She’ll be awake at six tomorrow anyway, preparing for the kitten. She’s really giddy about it. She went home with Kat tonight to make sure she’d got the carrier to fetch it from the vets.’
He sighed. ‘And it’s yet another female…’
31
Tessa and Hannah, along with their handpicked team of four, left before dawn and reached Cromer by half past eight. Tessa, in the lead car, drove to the spot Doris had advised, and parked, indicating to the following car that the driver should pass her, and park up fifty yards further on.
There was a dull leaden feeling in the air, as if a storm was brewing and was about to unleash energy on the place, energy that Tessa could have done with bottling.
Her phone rang.
‘Parked up, boss.’
‘Okay, you know where your positions are. Don’t go yet. Wait until you see the two of us almost at his door, then get in place. I don’t want him spotting you. I want him to think we’re Jehovah’s Witnesses or something, I don’t want him imagining he’s about to be discovered. Okay?’
‘Okay, boss.’
Tessa and Hannah got out of the car, picked up their handbags and walked across to the house, hoping they looked like innocent middle-aged ladies going about their business.
Tessa rang the bell. There was no response so she rang it again. This time she heard movement and she gave a slight nod towards Hannah.
The door opened, then stopped as the chain prevented it opening any further. Tessa took out her ID.
‘Mr Owen? DI Tessa Marsden and DS Hannah Granger. Can you remove the chain, please? We’d like to talk to you. As you can see, there are two officers positioned at the front, and a further two officers are in your back garden.’
He didn’t speak. The door closed, the chain was removed, and it reopened. He stood there, still without speaking.
‘Mr Owen? Or should we be saying Mr Armstrong?’
He tried to make a move, to push them aside, but the sudden and imposing presence of Ray Charlton and PC Dave Irwin stopped him. He looked at them all then simply turned his back and walked away from them, down his hallway. Tessa and Hannah followed, with Tessa indicating to Ray that they should remain outside the door.
They entered the kitchen and Adam sat down at the table. He indicated that the two women should join him, then finally he spoke.
‘How did you find me? Why did you find me? She’s dead, isn’t she?’
‘Your wife? Yes, I’m afraid she is.’
‘Thank God,’ he said. ‘My son and I have lived under this massive dark cloud for over ten years. No rainbows in our lives, I can assure you.’
‘You have never once been in touch with her since you and Daniel left?’
‘No!’ It was almost a shout. ‘Two days before we left she threw Danny, my five-year-old son, down the stairs. He had a broken arm and a huge lump on his head. I was still in considerable pain from the beating she had inflicted on me with a baseball bat, and I was peeing blood.’
‘You could have gone to the police.’
He gave a short bark of a laugh. ‘She would have probably been locked up, but maybe for only a couple of years. Then she would have found us again. DI Marshall…’
‘Marsden,’ Tessa corrected him.
‘Sorry. The day after she threw our son down the stairs like a rag doll, she held a knife to my throat and said she would never kill me, she wanted me alive to remember seeing my son cut up into little bits while he was still alive. I had been taking money out of our account because I knew one day we would have to go. We left with around five thousand pounds, one suitcase between us, and a friend who I knew would help.’
Luke was out of the house by seven, and twenty minutes later, parked within twenty-five metres of the house where Vincent Sanders lived. He checked the camera was good to go, and laid it on the passenger seat.
The church was to his right, and although he had been a couple of times when he was a child, primarily to see Little John’s grave, he knew nothing of the history of the building. He took out his phone, typed in the name of the church and settled back to add further knowledge about Derbyshire into his brain. If he was going to work in the county, he had to be as familiar with it as he was with the plague history of Eyam.
The door of the house opened, and he shut down his phone and picked up the camera. Vincent Sanders came out, then leaned back in to speak to someone before closing the door and walking down the front garden path. Luke crouched as low as he could and grabbed as many pictures as possible.
Seconds later the front door opened again and a woman ran down the path calling some instructions to the man. He acknowledged he understood with a thumbs up sign, she returned inside and he continued to wherever he was going.
Luke photographed them until eventually there was no-one to be his subject. He put the camera on to the seat again, and pursed his lips. Was the woman Felicia Sanders? If she was, it explained the lack of divorce papers; they were still together.
Luke continued to watch, sinking lower into his seat, as Sanders returned, holding a plastic carrier bag with a newspaper sticking out of the top. Luke raised the camera and took photographs until Sanders disappeared back inside his home.
The next two hours passed slowly and then the woman came out of the front door and walked down the hill towards the main Hathersage road. Luke locked the car and with the camera slung around his neck, followed her, keeping some distance away.
She turned right and headed down into the village. Luke increased his pace, not wanting to lose sight of her. She stopped abruptly and disappeared into a hairdressers.
Luke continued to walk past the shop, and he saw her removing her coat, a stylist standing by to take it from her.
‘Time to think, Luke,’ he muttered, and crossed the road to sit on some steps. He needed confirmation of who she was.
She was in the shop for almost two hours, but when she eventually came out she looked completely different. Her hair was much shorter, and much lighter in colour. Having taken advantage of a coffee shop, Luke drained his drink and waited until she was out of sight before leaving the warmth of his bolthole and crossing the road towards the hairdressers.
He went into further warmth, and paused as if surprised. One of the hairdressers walked over to him and smiled. ‘Can I help you, sir?’
‘Yes, I thought Mrs Sanders was here. Her husband rang to ask if I could pick her up as it’s looking like rain and she’s having her hair done. This is the right hairdressers, isn’t it?’
The girl laughed. ‘Yes, it is. She left about five minutes ago. But don’t worry, she has her umbrella with her. Are you taking them to the airport?’
‘Yes, that’s the plan.’ Luke needed to get out. ‘Thank you for your help,’ he said, and went to open the door.
‘I hope they enjoy their break. Barcelona for a twentieth wedding anniversary is pretty special, isn’t it?’
Luke nodded and smiled before leaving the shop. He needed to get her picture now, with the new hairstyle. He jogged up the hill, passing Felicia Sanders walking on the opposite side.
He set the camera to video, and filmed the church and surrounding area, capturing Felicia as she reached her home. Luke knew he wouldn’t look out of place; anyone in Hathersage without a camera was viewed as strange.
He got in the car, and pulled away, knowing Felicia had seen him. She wouldn’t think anything of the filming, but she would if she saw him sitting in his car for any protracted length of time.
The vet smiled as he handed the tiny kitten to Doris. ‘She’s a little cracker,’ he said. ‘All of them are, they’ll make lovely adult cats. How somebody could dump them…’ He shook his head
in disgust.
‘She’ll be well looked after, I can promise you that.’ Doris lifted the kitten up and spoke to her. ‘Welcome to my world, Belle.’
Doris headed for the reception and paid all outstanding fees, adding a further fifty pounds to go towards the care of any future dumped cats or dogs, then strapped the carrier onto the back seat.
‘Can’t take any chances,’ she said to the small bundle of fur, who squeaked at her.
She drove to the office, noticing Luke’s car was there. She hoped it meant he already had a result.
Carefully transporting the carrier into the office, she introduced everyone to Belle. After much oohing and aahing, she put her away again and turned to Luke.
‘You have something to tell us?’
‘I do. What’s the date on the marriage certificate you found?’
‘It’s tomorrow. Twenty years ago, but tomorrow is the day. Why?’
‘They’re spending it in Barcelona, Mr and Mrs Sanders. She’s had her hair done today, ready for the trip later this afternoon.’
‘Oh no. Poor Keeley. You’re absolutely sure?’
‘The hairdresser told me.’
Doris thought for a moment. ‘Okay, Luke. Ring Keeley and ask her when she is next seeing Vincent. If she’s seeing him in the next couple of days, we know we’ve gone awry somewhere, but if she’s not seeing him for a few days…’
‘I’ll do it now,’ he said.
‘I’m not seeing him until next Tuesday,’ Keeley said. ‘He’s got to go somewhere with work. But he’s booked for us to go for a really nice meal next Tuesday evening. I’ve organised a babysitter for Henry and I’m really looking forward to it. You two still coming over this afternoon?’
‘We are,’ Luke said. ‘See you later.’ He disconnected before she could ask any more questions.
‘I’ll add this morning’s work to the report,’ he said. ‘Perhaps you’ll check it, Mrs Lester, when I’ve finished it.’
‘Of course. Keeley’s going to be upset, Luke, but better now than in a year’s time.’