by Anita Waller
The whole team went out for a drink, and Tessa and Hannah clinked glasses. ‘We done good, boss,’ Hannah said, and smiled.
‘We certainly have, my nurse extraordinaire. Without you bullying me into taking time out to get better, we’d still be searching for answers. Thank you, Hannah.’
‘No problem, boss. Any time.’ Any time, she thought, meaning something entirely different.
37
Doris and Luke arrived at Keeley’s house before eight, and she looked beautiful in the wedding dress she had bought from a charity shop in Bakewell. The bouquet of flowers was created from some plastic ones that looked a bit past their sell by date, but the excitement of what she was about to do shone out of Keeley’s face.
She climbed into Doris’s car and they were at Manchester airport in plenty of time to meet the flight arriving from Barcelona. Luke, dressed impeccably in a dark blue suit, held a board that said Vincent and Felicia Sanders.
They waited patiently outside the arrivals hall, and when the board announced the plane had landed, Doris and Keeley moved to one side, out of sight of people heading their way.
As travellers started to drift through, Luke held up his board.
He spotted Vincent and Felicia at the same moment they spotted him. Felicia still looked good with her new hairstyle, but she also looked puzzled by her name being on a board. He saw her speak to Vincent and point to him, so they headed towards him.
Keeley swung out from her hiding place as Luke held the board higher, the signal to her that the Sanders were heading towards him.
She ran up to Vincent, and planted a huge kiss on his lips. ‘Darling,’ she said loudly, ‘the answer is yes! Of course I’ll marry you. I love you!’
The entire crowd in the arrivals hall cheered and clapped and Vincent looked around, clearly panicked. His wife, however, wasn’t panicked, just pissed off.
‘I thought you said she would never find out you were married until it was too late. Can you ever get anything right, Vincent? And now we’ve spent all this on this bloody holiday, we’ll be broke.’
Keeley’s acting was something to behold. ‘What does this woman mean, my darling? Why is she saying such nasty things? I thought we would be married very quickly, now that the baby is on its way. Vincent, my love, who is she?’
Despite the large crowd, the silence was deafening in its magnitude.
‘Baby?’ Vincent’s eyes were huge.
Keeley approached Felicia. She poked her in her chest. ‘Who. Are. You? What are you doing with my fiancé?’
‘He’s not your fiancé.’ Felicia’s face was bright red, and it was nothing to do with any sunshine they had experienced in Barcelona. It was pure anger. ‘He’s my husband.’
‘Your husband?’ Keeley turned around and allowed the tears to fall down her cheeks.
Doris walked up to Sanders, sporting the camera around her neck, and shook his hand. ‘Sheffield Star, sir. May I congratulate you on your engagement to this beautiful young woman. We’re doing a feature on unusual proposals, and Miss Roy invited us along to take photographs.’ She held up the camera and began to shoot pictures, until Vincent came to his senses and held up his hand in front of his face.
‘Get the fuck away from me,’ he snapped. ‘And if I see one picture in that newspaper, I’ll sue.’
‘It’s already all over Facebook, sir,’ Doris said, the sweetest smile showing on her face.
He grabbed Felicia’s hand, pushed Keeley to one side, and then ran for the exit, both dragging suitcases behind them that couldn’t cope with the speed of their owners.
Keeley collapsed laughing into Luke’s arms. ‘Fun over, everybody,’ he said to the people who had gathered around to comfort the weeping bride. ‘If anybody took photos of the idiot who’s just run out of the airport, please post them on Facebook. Make it go big. He tried to cheat this young lady out of money, but he’ll try it again with some other woman. Make him visible, will you? His name is Vincent Sanders. Thank you everybody!’ and he led Keeley and Doris back to the car.
There was much laughter at Connection when Doris and Luke told the story of their morning’s excursion.
‘Keeley actually threw the bouquet of flowers over her shoulder for someone to catch? I so wish I’d been there,’ Mouse said. ‘Since I’ve been concentrating solely on the Manchester work, I miss out on all the fun stuff we used to do.’
‘You mean like finding bodies? I know we haven’t found one this year, but it is only March, you know.’ Kat smiled at her friend.
‘We felt it wound that little case up remarkably well. Felicia was obviously in on it just as much as Vincent was, and Keeley gave an outstanding performance. It was actually nothing to do with us, it was all her idea, but we couldn’t say no, could we, Luke? I think he’s handled the whole case brilliantly, so well done.’ Doris smiled with some affection at their young receptionist.
Luke didn’t know how to react. He was starting to feel as though he belonged in this business, but didn’t know how to let them know. His ladies, coupled with his ladies at home, formed a huge part of his waking and sleeping, and he made a silent vow that he would always do his best by them, no matter what he was working on. His pride when Doris had offered the simple little case to him had been huge, and when it had taken a more sinister turn with the discovery of a wife in Vincent’s life he knew he had to step up to the mark and think for himself.
The surveillance had been so damn good. The camera was superb, and it made him smile when he thought of Doris’s face that morning. ‘Take care of it, Mrs Lester, we don’t want it damaging, do we?’
The scuff around the back of his neck told him what she thought of his comment.
And now it was over. He would write up the report, insert it into the folder and put it behind him, taking it out to savour every once in a while, his first real case.
They were still in a laughing and joking mood when Tessa and Hannah arrived. The mood became more sombre the instant they walked through the door.
‘Coffee?’ Luke asked, and was surprised when they refused, saying they only had a few minutes.
‘We just want to fill you in on everything that happened yesterday. Adam was driven to Chesterfield by his next-door neighbour, and finally told us the whole story, not the bits and pieces he came out with when we took him to Cromer police station. It turned out that it was Debbie who threw little Danny down the stairs, although for several different reasons Adam thought it better if Danny accepted it was his mother who did it. Danny has not only lived with this incorrect knowledge for ten years, he has also lived with considerable pain that will be there for the rest of his life. When he left his father some six months ago, he reverted to using the name he is registered everywhere with, Davy Owen.’
Tessa paused and looked around. Nobody spoke.
‘We’ve now arrested Debbie Carter, and I imagine we will be charging her. We’re not at that stage yet though. She’s watched too many crime shows on tv, her answer to everything is no comment. It doesn’t really matter, we have Adam’s statement, and I’m going to drag the elusive Ethan King into the station to give his version of events. I’m sure I can’t get him on providing fraudulent papers, because Adam has already stated he got them from a man in a pub. This man in a pub is definitely a friend to anyone who needs to disappear, or live outside the law. He’s in every pub there is.’
She coughed, and Hannah went to get her a glass of water.
‘Thank you, Hannah. But to get to the main point, Davy was holding off extremely well with his own no comments, but then I showed him the photo of Olivia’s body. He caved almost immediately. We’ve now got his full statement, and he’ll be transferred from Chesterfield very shortly.’
She sipped from the water and looked around at the faces, expectantly waiting for anything else she might want to share.
‘And that’s it, really. We’ll be charging Debbie, as I said, and her children are currently with social services, but I suspect Adam may
try for custody of one of them, possibly both to prevent them being split up.’
‘Why would Adam do that? Oh…’ Kat experienced a light bulb moment.
Tessa grinned at her. ‘Got it in one, Kat. Bridie is Adam’s child. She was part of the hold Debbie had over Adam, which drove Adam away in the first place. I’m pretty sure he’ll get custody. I’m not convinced he’ll stay in Baslow though; I think it holds too many sad memories for him. And then, of course, we have the issue of Simon Vicars. He’s currently residing at the station, about to be charged with withholding information pertaining to a case. Danny has been staying with him since he left the fair.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ Mouse said. ‘I’ve booked him for some electrical work, to start next week.’
Tessa laughed. ‘Only you, Mouse, only you. The poor man is looking at a prison sentence for harbouring his nephew and not telling us, and you’re concerned about your electrics.’
Hannah looked at her watch. ‘Boss, it’s time we weren’t here.’
Tessa nodded. ‘We’ll call for a coffee later in the week when everything isn’t so frantic. We’ve a meeting with the DCI, so have to get off. You gave us the biggest lead of all with this case, so thank you, ladies, and Luke. We’re seeing the DCI to give our report, and it will be mentioned.’
Nobody said anything else about the case until the police officers had driven away, but then Kat spoke first. ‘I’m finding it hard to believe. He’s not even sixteen yet, and he’s killed twice. And Debbie and Simon… it beggars belief, doesn’t it? It’s like Debbie has two personalities. The Debbie I saw every time I was in her presence wasn’t the Debbie who would throw a five-year-old down the stairs. Sorry ladies, I need to have five minutes in church. I’ll see you in a bit.’
She didn’t even stop long enough to put on a coat, simply ran across the road and up the hill towards the place in which she felt most comfortable.
‘It must be wonderful to have a faith like that,’ Luke mused. ‘My mum pops in all the time, she gets so much comfort from it.’
‘Not you?’ Doris asked.
‘Nah, and I do think it’s because it never crops up at school these days. My mum used to have assemblies where they sang hymns, and said prayers. She also went to Sunday school. I’ve never done anything like that, but I see Kat with her total faith and it makes me wonder what I’m missing. Maybe one day I’ll find out. Not today though,’ he finished, and moved across to his computer. ‘I’m writing up the report for this morning’s activities – you know, the activities where I impersonated a taxi driver, Mrs Lester impersonated a journalist, and Keeley impersonated a bride. I wonder what Kat’s god would have thought to all of that,’ he said with a smile.
‘He’d probably say it’s okay, as long as you didn’t hurt anybody. But if you ever want to know what He would say or think, you ask Kat. She’ll definitely tell you. The Reverend Kat Lowe is one person God will have a lot of respect for.’
Acknowledgements
As always my thanks begin with my publishers, Bloodhound Books. They gave me my start back in 2015, and the book you have just read is my twelfth publication with this amazing company.
Bloodhound is the sum of its parts, and those parts are Sumaira Wilson, Tara Lyons, Heather Fitt and Alexina Golding, all prepared to go the extra mile for their authors – thank you, we appreciate the work you do for us.
Morgen (with an E) Bailey is my editor, my long-suffering editor. She guides me through every tiny part of my manuscript, and without her, my writing life would be so much more difficult. Thank you, Morgen, you’re such a star.
Just as long-suffering is my beta reader (yes, I only have one!), my lovely friend Sarah Hodgson. She reads the first twenty thousand or so words for me, and, just like me, has no idea what will follow those words, yet she still manages to make sense of them, and points out any potential plotlines that may be starting to appear. Thank you, Sarah.
During a conversation on Facebook one day, a phrase was used – negative nellies. This really tickled me, and so I have Suzanne Lambert to thank for the comment that led to it being included in this book.
Debbie Carter, you have played a major part in this book, and I hope you enjoyed the role I allotted to you. Thank you for lending me your name in this final Kat and Mouse story.
And now I must thank my group of ARC readers, who read early versions of my books and leave reviews on publication day. Massive thanks, you do me proud.
I will miss Kat, Mouse and Doris. Doris, everybody’s favourite nan, arrived accidentally, and definitely wasn’t in my head when I started this series. I’m so glad she came to see me.
And a final thank you to Derbyshire, the stunning county full of picturesque villages, outstandingly beautiful scenery, lambs in the fields, Blue John in the caves, Winnats Pass – and the odd murder or two. You have served me well.
Anita Waller
Sheffield, 2019
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