by Anita Waller
‘Thank you, Andy. That’s much appreciated. We’ve taken over that prefab building in the schoolyard as a control room, and leafleted Castleton and all surrounding villages, asking males to voluntarily take DNA tests. We’ve had a steady stream all day. Anybody who doesn’t volunteer will be visited.’
Marnie took hold of Andy’s hand as if to reassure him, comfort him, but said nothing. It was as if she had lost her voice, her sense, along with her daughter.
‘You don’t hang around, do you?’ Andy’s voice reflected sorrow and pain.
‘We can’t, Andy. We still have another missing girl, and you need closure.’ Her phone stopped any further conversation, and she moved into the lounge to take the call. She listened, made the simple response of thank you very much and closed down the call.
‘Hannah, we have to go. Marnie, Andy, if anything, and I mean anything, comes to mind, please call me or tell Nadine. She’s here to be the contact between us.’
They left half-drunk mugs of tea and walked out the door.
They sat in the car before speaking further, Hannah going first. ‘Boss?’
Tessa sighed. ‘I hate to be proved right when it’s not a good right. Know what I mean?’
Hannah turned to her. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘SOCOs removed a glass from Mandy’s bedside table for DNA and fingerprint samples. They got both. The fingerprints have also been found inside that car that crashed with Jacob Thorne driving. Mandy Williamson was out with him that night, I’ll bet my pension on it.’
Hannah stared out of the windscreen, her hands resting on the steering wheel. The cogs in her brain felt as if they were revolving at speed.
‘She may not be dead.’
Tessa’s face was grim as she nodded. ‘We have to assume she’s alive anyway, until a body turns up. You’re thinking he could have tied her up somewhere? Kept her for later? Where the bloody hell do we start looking?’
‘Is my beautiful woman in, Nan?’ Carl’s voice accompanied the ping of the doorbell.
‘She certainly is. You’re lucky you’ve caught us, we were about to close up. Kat wants to take some flowers across to the cemetery and I need to check on Mouse before I go home.’
‘She’s no better?’
‘No, we sent her to bed. I’ll go and make sure she’s well medicated.’
‘You get off,’ he said. ‘We’ll lock up. Who’s she taking flowers for?’
‘The young lad who was Leon’s first murder victim. She looks after his grave, takes him flowers every so often. His mum lives in Bakewell, so Kat said she would look after things for her.’
‘Special lady, isn’t she, our Kat,’ he mused.
‘Very special. And don’t ever underestimate her. She has the mental strength of ten men.’
He held up his hands with a laugh. ‘Trust me, I wouldn’t ever underestimate any of the three of you, let alone Kat! You all scare me.’
‘Good. That’s as it should be.’ Doris tried to keep her face straight but failed miserably. ‘Kat’s in her office. Go and get her. I’ll grab my stuff and head upstairs to Mouse. Tell her I’ll see her tomorrow.’
Carl dropped a kiss onto the top of her head as he went by her chair, and opened the door to Kat’s office. She was putting on her coat.
‘Nan’s off to medicate Mouse. She says she’ll see you tomorrow. So we’re going to visit a grave?’
‘Craig Adams. He was Leon’s first murder victim, or at least the first one we knew about. I look after his grave because his mum doesn’t live in the village, and because… because I want to.’ She sounded defiant.
‘Hey.’ Carl pulled her into his arms. ‘I wouldn’t expect anything less of my Kat. And I’m happy to go where you lead. I’ll even carry the flowers.’
She switched off the desk lamp, and Carl waited outside the building while she set the alarm, locked up and brought down the shutters.
Eyam looked gloomy in the greyness of the late November afternoon skies. It was starting to rain, and they hurried through the church gate. Kat pulled her hood up to give some protection to her hair, and Carl followed in her tracks as she wove in and out of gravestones. She pointed out a couple of them as she passed, explaining who they were and why she brought flowers to them. When she showed him Danny McLoughlin’s grave smothered in flowers as always, he smiled. ‘He was certainly loved,’ Carl said.
‘By the whole village. It’s his friends as well as his family that bring the flowers, because he was a gardener for the entire village. He worked in many of the gardens, not only mine. He was so lovely, Carl. I miss him.’
They skirted the edge of the grave, and headed down a slight incline to Craig Adams’ small headstone. Carl stood to one side, waiting until Kat had knelt and placed the flowers then said a small prayer for Craig. She remained with her head bowed for a short while, and then he offered his hand as she moved to stand up.
She frowned. ‘What on earth’s happened over there? Look at the piles of mud.’
Carl looked across. ‘You maybe need to have a word with whoever opened the grave. They’ve left a bit of a mess after filling it in. Whoever the relatives are of the new incumbent, they won’t be best pleased, I’m sure.’
Kat hesitated. ‘I’m pretty sure there’s no new incumbent.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘Come with me. Let’s check this out. I do all the funeral visits, take most of the funerals as you know, and I’ve not done either a burial or an ashes blessing there. Let’s check the register to make sure nobody else has taken one.’
The rain was coming down heavily and they ran hand in hand across to the church. They paused in the porch to catch their breath, then headed inside to go to where the records were kept.
Kat ran her finger down the list of five people who had been buried or cremated in the past two months and all of them were on the west side of the churchyard, not the north. She looked at Carl.
‘I have to go back. I have to look at this grave.’
‘We have to go back,’ he said. ‘You clearly think something is wrong, and I might have to pull rank here. I’m a DS in my other life, Kat Rowe.’
‘Oops. Sometimes, when you’re walking around my house naked, I forget that.’ Her grin lit up her face as her thoughts wandered.
He pulled her hood back onto her head, and took her hand once more. ‘You’re incorrigible.’
‘Spell it.’
‘I can’t.’
They stepped outside into the deluge pouring from the dark grey clouds and once more ran across the churchyard. With closer inspection, it was clear that the grave had been disturbed with a significant amount of soil left by the side and around the back of the headstone.
‘This soil hasn’t been left like this since the 1800s,’ Carl remarked drily. ‘I have a choice to make. Do I ring Tessa? Or do I get my soft hands calloused and get digging down myself.’
Despite the discomfort of rain dripping down her face, Kat smiled. ‘Don’t touch anything. I’m here, and Tessa will only nag me if I disturb the scene. Are you thinking it could be somebody’s pet dog or something?’
‘Not really. I mean, that’s a possibility of course, but there’s still a missing girl… and unless it’s an Irish Wolfhound this grave is a bit big for a pet dog.’
‘I know. Shall I ring her, or shall you?’
‘You. Tell her I’ve gone back to the car to get some crime scene tape. We can always take it down if it is a pet dog, but I’ve a feeling, a bad feeling, about this. See if she wants us to do anything else while we’re waiting. If she’s in Chesterfield, it’ll be the best part of half an hour by the time she gets here, and I’ll have it cordoned off by then.’ He kissed Kat, and trekked his way back to the main church path, before setting off to run down to where he had left his car outside the Connection office.
Kat took out her phone and within seconds was explaining to Tessa the odd appearance of the burial site, the copious amounts of soil surrounding the ancient grave and the fact that it was virtually hidden
from view unless you had reason to pay a visit to this small northerly section of the churchyard.
‘Is Carl there?’
‘He’s gone to his car to get some crime scene tape. He’s taking no chances. It may be somebody’s pet dog they wanted burying in consecrated ground, or it could be a body. The tape will be up by the time you get here.’
‘I’ll be there in ten minutes. I’m in Castleton. I’m contacting forensics, they need to do the excavation, not me. If Carl has an evidence bag on him, ask him to take a sample of the soil on the surface before it gets disturbed. Remember the RTA victim? The one covered in mud?’
‘I’d already connected the two,’ Kat said. ‘And this mud stands out a mile. I think whoever has done this was in the dark and not able to see the mess they’ve left behind.’
‘Okay, thanks, Kat. Didn’t I specifically say don’t find me any dead bodies?’
‘I knew you’d bring that up.’
Kat heard a chuckle. ‘Don’t touch anything. Within the next half hour you’ll be overrun with people.’
‘Okay, Tessa. Oh… you’ll need one of Samuel Fox’s umbrellas. It’s pouring down.’
Again she heard the chuckle. ‘I’ll commandeer Hannah’s brollie. See you in ten minutes or so.’
Kat disconnected and watched as Carl’s car appeared at the end of the church drive. He parked it out of the way, and then ran up towards her.
‘Before you do anything,’ she said, ‘have you got an evidence bag to take a sample off the top of the mud? Tessa wants it for comparison purposes with that young man who died in the RTA a couple of nights ago.’
‘Of course,’ he said, and took one out of his pocket. He used a twig to scrape some soil into the bag, and then affixed the crime scene tape. He was still rolling it out when Marsden’s car pulled up, parking behind his. Kat set off down the path to meet Tessa and Hannah, and led them back up to where the blue and white tape was fluttering in the wind.
Chapter Nine
Doris stood at Mouse’s lounge window, staring out into the grey dampness of the evening. The rain was heavier than earlier and she was feeling pleased that she had decided to stay the night at Mouse’s flat rather than venture out into the type of rain that soaked through to the skin within seconds.
She reached up to close the curtains and noticed the police car coming down the hill at speed, no sirens but blue lights flashing. She watched it head up the hill and pull in across the road from the church. Church. Kat. Doris felt a shiver run through her and the curtains remained open. The second car followed within a minute, again with its blue lights brightening the riverlike streets with a Christmas effect. It stopped behind the first one and a steel dread began to fill Doris.
She left the window with the curtains still open and went to get her phone. She had to make sure Kat was safe.
When Kat answered, Doris’s legs felt very weak, and she sat down on a kitchen chair.
‘Thank God you’re safe,’ she said. ‘I knew you’d taken flowers to the churchyard, and now it seems to be filled with police.’
‘I’m still here,’ Kat said. ‘I’m leaving Carl to do his job, but I’m going to walk down to the office, my car’s there. I’ll come up to the flat and fill you in on as much as I know. I need to tell Tessa where I am. I’ll be about ten minutes.’
‘Tessa? Tessa’s there?’
‘She is. And a couple of the press have already arrived so I’m not saying anything they could misinterpret. If Mouse is awake, tell her to stay that way. See you in a few minutes.’
Kat stood in the hallway of the flat, took off her coat and draped it over the radiator. She shivered as Doris came through.
‘Good grief, you’re soaked. Go and jump in the shower. I’ll get you some spare pyjamas and a dressing gown, we need to get you warm. We can talk when you’re drinking some hot chocolate.’
Kat dropped all her clothes except her underwear in a heap on the floor in the hall. Moving slowly into the bathroom, she stood under the shower, letting the hot water wash away the mud, the rain and the pain of finding yet another body. Another link to another death. She knew Tessa believed it to be the missing girl from Castleton, and Kat’s heart ached. Her tears mingled with the shower cascading over her, and she eventually switched it off. Time to report to Doris and Mouse.
Mouse was curled up on the sofa, her head resting on a cushion, looking nothing like her normal self. ‘Hey, that’s my dressing gown.’
‘And your PJs,’ Kat smiled. ‘You’re alive then?’
‘Barely. Go to bed, you both said, go to bed and stay there till you’re better. You didn’t say go to bed until we find another dead body.’
‘We don’t know it is one yet,’ Kat said. ‘The forensic team hadn’t confirmed anything when I left. Tessa said she would ring when they knew more. I know what she thinks, but thinking isn’t confirmation.’
‘It is now,’ Doris said quietly. ‘Tessa rang while you were in the shower – it appears to be a young girl, her description matching that of Mandy Williamson. That’s as much as Tessa would say over the phone, but she’s calling here later before she goes home, to fill us in on it. She was heading off to Castleton to tell the girl’s mother first, to warn her that it appeared to be her daughter. I don’t envy her having to do that. I’m staying here tonight, so I’ll make sure Mouse has a good sleep. Can you stay until Tessa gets here, Kat?’
‘I can. I’ll let Carl know, and I’ll ask Mum to keep Martha overnight.’
Tessa arrived half an hour after Carl, and Doris fed them with cheese and toast, the only food available from the sparse contents of Mouse’s fridge. Mouse made no apologies beyond saying I am what I am, and even that was said with a croaky voice.
‘It’s definitely our misper, Mandy Williamson. And I don’t think we need to be looking any further than Jacob Thorne for her killer. The boot we found with him was a match for the boot on our corpse, and I’m certain we’ll be able to match the mud from the grave with the mud that was all over the interior and exterior of his car, and thick on the soles of his wellingtons. We can also tie Mandy to his car with fingerprints recovered from the passenger side. They’ve taken her away, and I’ve been promised a post-mortem tomorrow morning. Zoe Williamson is devastated, obviously. It’s such a shitty job at times, this one.’ Marsden ran her fingers through her wet hair then sipped at her hot chocolate. ‘I’m frozen, weary to the point where it’s painful, and sick of never being able to give people good news. And tomorrow I’ll be expected to face the press and not show how upset I am at the discovery of the body of a young girl who had her whole life in front of her.’
Mouse, Doris, Kat and Carl stared at her. Tessa didn’t normally show her feelings quite so much.
Kat leaned across and put her arm around Tessa’s shoulder. ‘Stay at ours tonight. Don’t go home to that empty house, you’ll only feel worse. You can get up early tomorrow morning and then head home to get changed for work. If you want to talk anything through we’ll be there for you. Please?’
Tessa looked at her, then brushed away a tear. ‘Thank you. I will. It’s been such a hard bloody day.’
Kat smiled. ‘Good. We’ll finish our banquet, drink the nectar that’s hot chocolate, and go home. Tibby will think I’ve left anyway, so be careful he doesn’t attempt to kill you when we walk in. He tries to trip up any visitors by twining around their ankles – you have been warned.’
In the labs at Chesterfield, DNA tests were starting to produce results; the first forty showed no matches with the foetal DNA, and that included the one provided by Paul Carr.
Chapter Ten
Sleep didn’t come easy to anybody except Mouse. She had so much slumber-inducing medication in her she was unconscious by midnight and woke up around ten. As a result she felt much better.
Doris had waited in the flat to make sure her granddaughter wasn’t in need of more professional help, and was pleasantly surprised to see the tousled hair appear around the door jamb.
/> ‘Could there be a cup of coffee on the go?’ Mouse’s voice was still husky, but she gave every appearance of being alive.
‘You want some toast to go with it?’
‘No thanks. Not fussed about food yet, but I’m thirsty. Feel much better though. Any news?’
‘Not really. Tessa stayed at Kat’s house last night, but Kat said she’d gone by seven, wanted an early start at work.’
‘Is Kat in today?’
‘She is, and making vague threats about going on the Internet to start searching for Ewan’s missing son.’
The two women smiled at each other, knowing that within half an hour of Kat using her computer, she would be saying she had broken the Internet – again.
‘I’ve got my laptop with me,’ Mouse said. ‘I’m not going downstairs today, because I suspect I’ll keep nodding off and I’ve no intention of fighting that, so I’ll start doing searches, see what I can come up with. Tell Kat to stop panicking, I can work but I’ll do it from up here. Are you staying tonight, Nan?’
Doris blushed. ‘Erm… No. I’ve something already booked.’
Mouse’s head shot up. ‘Something already booked? What does that mean?’
‘I’m going out.’
‘You have a date?’ Mouse’s face showed shock.
‘Not really. Kind of. No, I don’t think so.’
‘Is it with a man around your own age?’
‘It is.’
‘Then it’s a date and I need to know more. Do I need to vet him?’
‘Go to sleep, Mouse. You’re looking tired again.’
‘I’ll ring Kat. She’ll tell me what you’re doing.’
‘She doesn’t know.’
‘Will you be safe?’
Doris deliberately kept her face deadpan. ‘Don’t worry, I have enough condoms.’
‘What?’ The word came out like a cracked shriek, and the shock at her nan’s tongue-in-cheek statement was evident in Mouse’s voice, her expression and the way she jumped up from the settee she had recently occupied.