Beautiful Child (20 page)

‘I’ll bet he was surprised to see you?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Andy, laughing. ‘He really did think he’d seen a ghost which to him he had because he thought I was dead. But we struck it up pretty close. I visited him in gaol and when he came out I gave him the spare room at the unit I shared with my girlfriend Jolene. He’d been living there a good while before I found out he was having an affair with her.’

‘Well I’ve already heard it from his angle,’ said Angela who could’ve laughed at the absurdity of what she’d just said. ‘But what was your reaction?’

‘I chucked a proper mental’ said Andy. ‘I could’ve lost my life because of O’Brien and yet I’d forgiven him and taken him into my home when he had nowhere to go. I saw us both as victims of this pile of shit we call life. And yet he repays me by carrying on with the girl I loved.’

Angela was having to focus hard on what Andy was telling her. ‘Sorry, Andy, it’s just that when you were being Paddy I heard all this from a different perspective and I’m getting a bit vague in places. Where did you get Paddy’s story from and when and why did you take on his identity?’

‘Paddy’s story I got from the manuscript I gave you’ said Andy. ‘When he stayed with me he really opened up and told me everything. I wrote it all down.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘I don’t know. I just had the feeling it might come in useful one day.’

‘So where is Paddy now, Andy?’

‘Well see, he and Jolene moved into their own place and had a kid. I heard from various sources that they were really happy and I couldn’t stand it. I was miserable. I was mightily pissed off! I went over there one night and Paddy and I got into a fight. He chased me down the street but I managed to get behind a corner. I reached out for him as he came past and threw him against the wall. I heard his neck break.’

‘You’d killed him.’

‘Yes’ said Andy. ‘I’d killed him. But I was buggered if I was going to do time for the bastard. It was dark and the area wasn’t so good so there wasn’t much in the way of street lighting. I managed to get the body onto the beach which was only a few metres away. The tide was in and I threw him into the water. He might’ve ended up in New Zealand or even South America for all I cared. But it was the next day that I got my really big break.’

‘Why, what happened?’

‘Well an English guy came to my flat, the one I’d shared with Jolene and then also with Paddy the traitor, and said he was looking for Paddy. I asked him what he wanted him for and he said that he was married to Paddy’s mother, the one who’d dumped him in the orphanage when he was a little bloke, and that a few months previously Paddy had written to the church where the orphanage had been and because he was about to become a father, he wanted to try and trace his mother to make amends with her.’

‘The orphanage was knocked down a few years ago’ said Angela. ‘There are flats there now.’

‘Yeah, I know’ said Andy. ‘But the church received the letter and they passed it on to Paddy’s mother who worked there apparently. She’d shown it to her husband who was now standing in front of me. He was on a business trip to Australia and had decided to look Paddy up to tell him that there was never going to be any reconciliation, that his mother had two other children now, a boy and a girl, and when he started talking cash that’s when I saw my opportunity. I said that I was Paddy and the bloke offered me twenty grand to never contact his wife again. I agreed. He brought the cash round the next day and I never saw him again. I went straight round to Jolene’s and said to her that we could use the money to start again by heading to England and set up home there. I planned to extort more cash out of the family, Doc. That was the only reason I wanted to leave Australia. I said that she owed it to her son, Paddy’s son, to get as much out of the family as we could, given the way they’d treated him. I mean, what kind of bastard pays off the first son of his wife to stay away? And what kind of mother could’ve gone along with that? I fancied I had a bit of the moral high ground on that part of the sordid little tale, Doc. Anyway, I knew some people who could get me a false passport as Sean Patrick O’Brien.’

‘But what about the fight you’d had with Paddy? You’d killed him’

‘What about it? It was never reported so if anybody had asked we were going to say that Andy Cook had just walked out and we didn’t know where the fuck he was.’

‘So Jolene agreed to your plan?’

‘Yeah, she did, eventually’ said Andy, his voice drifting a bit. ‘It was a beautiful summer’s afternoon on February 21, 1982 when we took a Qantas jet out of Kingsford Smith airport in Sydney headed for London and stopping at Singapore and Bahrain on the way. We thought we’d hit the jet set and the little bloke loved being on the big plane. I didn’t know that would be the last time I’d ever see my homeland.’

‘My God’ said Angela, ‘but what did Jolene say about what you’d done to Paddy?’

‘I never told her what had really happened’ said Andy. ‘I told her that he’d said to me that he was feeling trapped and was pissing off for good. She just assumed he’d run away and she wouldn’t see him again.’

‘So what went wrong?’

‘We managed to get another ten grand out of the family’ said Andy. ‘But we found it hard to settle to tell you the truth. I got bad tempered and spent a lot of the cash on beer. Then Jolene kicked me in the balls again. She had an affair with one of our neighbours. I saw red. I mean, this time I really saw red. I’d moved halfway round the world for her and her son. I hadn’t had to share the money with her, especially after what she’d done against me with Paddy. I could’ve just kept it all to myself but I didn’t. I was too bloody soft where that woman was concerned. We had a flaming argument and I hit her. Then I kept on hitting her harder and harder until she was dead.’

Angela winced at the description of such violence. ‘What happened to the child?’

‘He got taken into care’ said Andy. ‘I don’t know what happened to him after that. But I think that he’s the one who’s carrying out these murders, Doc.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘He’s started off on the periphery, going for Rita Makin and then Angus Carleton. I think his next strike will be against one of the family members themselves. He wants revenge for his father, Doc. I’m perhaps the only one who can try and stop him.’

‘Why have you risked everything to do that, Andy? You could’ve gone back to Australia after you’d been paroled and started again. It wouldn’t have been too late.’

‘Would you believe an attack of conscience?’

‘Try me?’

‘I want to do right by Paddy’s son,’ said Andy. ‘I left him without a mother or father. I killed them both.’

Angela let her head fall back on the headrest of her seat. She was reeling with everything she’d been told.

‘It’s quite a story, hey, Doc?’

Angela sat up straight and rubbed her forehead with her fingers.

‘What happens now, Andy?’

‘Doc, I want you to get out of the car. Then I’m going to drive off. I want you to give me just fifteen minutes and then you can call someone and get them to come and get you.’

‘But what about the prison guard?’

‘I’ll take care of him, don’t worry.’

‘Don’t hurt him, Andy’ she implored, ‘just don’t hurt him.’

‘I won’t, Doc’ said Andy. ‘You have my word on that’

‘So the manuscript was written by you from all of what Paddy had told you.’

‘That’s it, Doc, yeah.’

‘But you’ve left one thing out?’

‘What’s that?’

‘The name of the family who paid you off?’ said Angela. ‘Or at least thought they were paying Sean Patrick O’Brien off.’

‘It’s Schofield, Doc’ said Andy. ‘Bill Schofield is the bastard who came to see me, well came to see Paddy, and his wife Ann is Paddy’s mother.’

*

Brendan O’ Farrell came back to the presbytery from giving his statement to the police and wasn’t feeling well disposed towards Father Phillip.

‘Have you been in touch with Angela Barker since her ordeal?’ Brendan asked.

‘Yes, briefly, Brendan’ said Phillip, ‘she’s as well as can be expected.’

‘I warned you not to meddle in this business, Phillip’ said Brendan, ‘I warned you not to get involved but oh no, you have to go riding in like the proverbial Knight in shining armour. And look what you’ve done! You could’ve got us all killed and now there’s two potential killers out there on the loose.’

‘Brendan! I don’t deserve to be attacked in this way! I was helping Angela because I felt the church had an obligation to do so and because you wouldn’t.’

‘Despite whatever I said?’

‘Well you tell me, Brendan? I asked you before why you didn’t want to help Angela Barker and you wouldn’t tell me. Therefore, all I can think is that you’ve got something to hide.’

‘How dare you speak to me like that! Just remember who it is you’re talking to!’

‘Oh I see,’ said Phillip, smirking, ‘your respect for me only survives as long as I don’t seriously challenge your views? Is that it?’

‘Who knows what Sean Patrick O’Brien is planning to do next.’

‘Yes, Brendan, and people could die because you didn’t co-operate with Angela Barker and her counselling of Sean Patrick O’Brien right from the start. One of us is going to end up on the side of the angels, Brendan. And one of us isn’t. What I’ve done is easily squared with my conscience. Can you say the same?’   

Sara and Joe arrived at the offices of Schofield Caravan Parks and asked to be taken through to see Bill Schofield.

‘Mr. Schofield’ said Sara after they’d been shown into his office.

‘Have you found the mad men who’re targeting my family?’

‘No’ said Sara. ‘But of course, that’s why we’re here.’

‘Well what do you think I can tell you?’

‘Information which can tell us how we got to this point, Mr. Schofield.’

Bill sat down heavily in the chair behind his desk. He then gestured for Sara and Joe to sit in the chairs in front that faced him. He’d always feared that this day would come. That’s why he’d hardly slept these past few nights.

‘You look like you know why we’re here, Mr. Schofield’ said Joe.

‘Where did you get the idea that I can help you?’

‘We told you that Sean Patrick O’Brien had absconded from Rita Makin’s funeral?’

‘Yes and it’s been all over the news.’

‘Well it seems that the man known as Sean Patrick O’Brien was in fact another man,’ said Sara. ‘His name is Andrew James Cook, or Andy Cook. He was an associate of O’Brien’s down in Australia.’

Bill was shocked at this latest revelation. ‘But I recognised him’ he said, ‘from the photo in the papers I recognised him as the man I met all those years ago. A lot older of course but there was no mistaking him because of that scar on his face.’

‘Andy Cook made quite a confession to the psychologist, Angela Barker,’ said Sara. ‘That’s why we’re here.’

‘I’d better not tell you what I’d do to him if I got hold of him.’

Sara forced a smile. Objectivity was all very well if you wanted to be everybody’s Girl Guide and help old ladies across the street. But subjectivity was much more fun and she just didn’t like this supercilious little twat. He wouldn’t last a second with Andy Cook but even men like Bill Schofield had to let you know that they thought themselves as hard. 

‘So what happened to O’Brien?’

‘Andy Cook has confessed to the murder of Sean Patrick over thirty years ago,’ said Sara. ‘Just before you met him.’

‘Mr. Schofield?’ said Joe. ‘Can you confirm that you visited Australia in early 1982?’

‘You know that I did,’ said Bill, sighing heavily. This was like the bottom falling out of his world. He’d been duped out of thirty grand. ‘Do I need to consult my solicitor?’

‘We’re not charging you with anything, Mr. Schofield,’ said Sara, feigning surprise at his question. ‘We’d just like you to help us with our enquiries.’

‘Look, I’m a man who will do anything to protect his family and that’s what I did.’

‘And part of that was in Australia thirty years ago?’

‘It wasn’t the primary reason I went there.’

‘And what was the primary reason, sir?’

‘Well as you know, detective, I built up a business from scratch that’s now worth a considerable amount of money but back then we were only just enjoying the first fruits of success. We weren’t into organising our customers. They organised themselves around what we could provide for them. It was the start of the public wanting more choice and more control over their holidays. We seemed to tap into all that. It was the freedom and the fact that we were providing, and still do provide, excellent value for money for families who prefer a more independent minded holiday. My daughter has some big plans for taking the business forward in the future.’

‘But back to Australia in 1982, Mr. Schofield?’ interrupted Joe who was growing impatient. They weren’t fucking business journalists.

‘I was there to look at the way the Australians had developed their caravan parks and to see about buying some static mobile homes which at the time were going for a steal out there, even with the transportation and import costs.’

‘But you decided to look up Sean Patrick O’Brien whilst you were there?’ said Joe.

Bill remembered well the day almost thirty years ago when he’d ventured into a part of Sydney that, after asking around as casually as he could, he had been told wasn’t the most salubrious part of town. But he’d needed to go there because he’d had to protect what he and Ann were building together.

‘He’d sent Ann, my wife, a letter’ Bill snarled, ‘with a picture of her grandson, would you believe. Talk about emotional blackmail.’

‘Wasn’t he entitled to try and trace his mother?’ Joe wanted to know.

‘When she left him at the orphanage she’d left specific instructions that she didn’t want to be contacted at any time,’ said Bill, in measured tones.

‘Was that her idea or yours, Mr. Schofield?’ Joe asked.

‘We both agreed.’ said Bill, firmly, ‘Both of us. Anyway, it had been a lifetime since she’d last seen him and to try and contact her after all those years was a complete imposition.’

‘He hadn’t exactly had an easy time of it’ said Sara. ‘From the account given to us by Angela Barker. Cook gave her a highly detailed manuscript of O’Brien’s life, all of which was told to Cook by O’Brien. Both sexual and physical abuse, living on the run at fourteen, being lured into working for one of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles and underneath it all the memory of having been dumped by his mother at an orphanage. I’m not one for making excuses for people, Mr. Schofield, but I’d say that was enough to send anyone off balance. Wouldn’t you?’

‘We couldn’t help that’ said Bill. He thumped the table with his fist. ‘Damn it, why should we feel responsible?’

‘Because your wife left him at the children’s home when you could’ve taken him in as part of your family’ said Sara. ‘He could’ve had a much different life to the one he endured and if you had have taken him in then we may not be sitting here now and three people might not be dead.’

‘I don’t raise other men’s children,’ Bill emphasised, his emotions rising. She was right and he knew that. He’d been living with the rights and wrongs of his decision for the last thirty years. ‘I made that clear to Ann right from the start.’

‘You made her choose’ said Joe.

‘Yes, and she chose me’ said Bill. ‘Then life moved on. Look, my conscience is clear.’

‘I don’t see how it could be,’ said Sara. ‘You may not have committed any crime in the legal sense but you and Mrs. Schofield are both morally guilty as far as I can see.’

‘He was a bastard child, not a beautiful one like our two’ said Bill. ‘Look, he wasn’t trying to make contact with his mother for any kind of emotional reason. He sent her that picture of his kid so that he could get money out of us.’

‘How can you be so sure of that?’

‘Because I know that sort’ Bill emphasised.

‘That sort?’

‘The sort who try to extort money from those of us who’ve worked hard for what we’ve got.’

‘He was your wife’s son’ said Sara. ‘Didn’t that make a difference?’

‘Not to me it didn’t, no.’

‘Mr. Schofield, how do you feel now that you know the man you met in Australia and gave that money to wasn’t O’Brien but Andrew John Cook?’

‘Cheated.’

‘And his confession to the murder of O’Brien, your wife’s son?’

‘That leaves me cold to be frank.’

‘Money was extorted from you’ said Sara, unable to believe the continuing show of callousness by the man. ‘Not by O’Brien but by Cook who was pretending to be O’Brien.’

‘I’m sure O’Brien would’ve taken the money had he been able to.’

‘Did you have any contact with Andy Cook once he’d arrived in this country?’

‘Yes’ said Bill. ‘When Cook, who I thought was O’Brien, contacted me and asked for more money I had a private investigator check him out. He was stupid enough to give me his home address after I’d falsely agreed to give him more cash in return for him letting me know where he lived so I could hand it over to him personally. I also wanted to know whether or not there was in fact a child.’

‘And when you found out there was did it make any difference?’ asked Sara.

‘No’ said Bill.

‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’

‘The private investigator came up with quite a file on O’Brien, Cook, whoever the devil he is. All sorts to do with where he drank, where they shopped with the money I’d given them, who their friends were. That’s when I got the idea.’

‘The idea?’

‘It was me who told him that his tart was having it off with some other bloke.’

Sara and Joe looked at each other in astonishment. ‘And why did you do that, Mr. Schofield?’

‘To cause trouble! To cause him the kind of trouble that would get him out of our lives. And it succeeded.’

Sara raised her voice with agitation. ‘Only by Jolene MacKenzie losing her life and her child being orphaned in a strange country!’

‘I wasn’t to know that would happen!’

‘Do you know what happened to the child?’

‘He grew up I expect.’

‘And that’s all you’ve got to say?’

‘Detectives, I’m watching every member of my family go through a living hell right now,’ said Bill, ‘and I’ve got to live with the fact that it could all be my fault. So forgive me for not getting concerned over a child that means nothing to me.’

*

It had raised Superintendent Hargreaves’ eyebrows when Sara told him she was going to the morgue with Adrian Bradshaw when he had to take the clothes he wanted them to bury his wife Penny in. But she was going and if the superintendent had any real issues with it then he’d have to take them up with her when she got back.

‘Are you sure you’re up to this, Adrian?’

‘She’s my wife, Sara’ said Adrian, heavily. ‘I have to be up to it.’

Sara’s heart broke for him. He looked so utterly dejected and the shadows round his eyes seemed to be blocking out the light from his entire face. He managed to hand over the clothes and glance again at her porcelain face and the jagged red line underneath her chin before he broke down and Sara took him out into the corridor and sat him down. She sat beside him and gave him the time to let it all out and then try and regain his composure. He was leaning forward with his head down between his legs. He was breathing heavily as if there was a machine inside him that was starting to go wrong.

‘We’ll get him, Adrian’ said Sara. ‘We will get him.’

‘What have you got so far, Sara?’ he asked.

‘Do you really want to hear all about that just now?’

‘I need to know, Sara,’ he said, defiantly. ‘I really need to know what’s going on.’

Sara breathed in deeply. ‘Alright’ she said. ‘I don’t think Penny was the target. I think it was Matt Schofield. He heard what he thought was someone downstairs when he was having a shower a few minutes before Penny called round. He also said that when he was in his bedroom making a call he definitely heard something going on downstairs. Then he went down and found his back door open.’

‘And my wife’ said Adrian. ‘My God, why?’

‘Adrian, were Penny and Matt Schofield friends?’

‘No’ said Adrian. ‘I was friends with Matt. You know, this is all Penny’s sister Natasha’s fault. Penny always felt that her parents didn’t love her. She always thought that Natasha was the favourite. And Natasha can be a nasty piece of work. She told Penny that I was more than just friends with Matt and Penny must’ve gone round to confront him about it.’

‘And are you more than just friends with Matt Schofield, Adrian?’ asked Sara, believing that Adrian wasn’t telling her the whole truth.

Adrian swung round, ‘ No! Sara, I’m straight. One hundred percent straight!’  

‘Okay’ said Sara who didn’t believe a word of Adrian’s fervent denial. A simple no would’ve sufficed. Some people were absolutely gay, some were absolutely straight. But Sara now viewed Adrian as one of those men who was mostly straight. She wasn’t so small minded that she didn’t believe it was possible for a straight man and a gay man to be just friends. Of course it was possible and of course it did happen. But she didn’t believe that Adrian’s wife would’ve gone round to see Matt Schofield if she hadn’t been suspicious that her sister’s allegations were true. ‘It was perhaps the wrong time to ask you that question and I’m sorry.’

‘Whenever you ask me, the answer will still be the same’

‘Why did Penny believe that her parents didn’t love her?’

‘Because they could be pretty nasty to her just like Natasha could be,’ said Adrian. ‘They even told her that she wasn’t good enough for me. Can you believe that? She was a saint compared to me. And yet she kept on hoping that things would get better. She was always optimistic despite some of the awful things they said. But she would always have had me. I would never have left her.’ He leaned forward with his hands clasped back together. ‘I just can’t believe she’s gone, Sara. I just don’t know what I’m going to do.’

‘How are the kids doing?’

‘They’re broken hearted,’ said Adrian, bringing his hand to his mouth, ‘she was such a good mother. My Mum is with them at the moment.’

‘Well you’d better get back to them’ said Sara. It was obvious the poor bastard was in a right state. He needed his family just as much as they needed him. ‘They’re really going to need their Dad now.’

‘I know’ said Adrian, his voice faltering. ‘But I’ll never be as good as Penny.’