In Denial (31 page)

He let his gaze return to Leila. She was watching him somewhat apprehensively. ‘You’re right. I was married, but I no longer am, and I’m here. So, tell me why you’ve always run away from your relationships with men?’

*  *  *

Winterbourne Kingston was a small village and East Street was relatively easy to find. Gabrielle stopped just before the gates to the house. Annabelle had warned her that the driveway was gated.

‘
We had a nose around once when we were in the area,’ Annabelle told her. ‘We didn’t call in because, you know, we didn’t really know them well enough, but we had a nose around anyway. You can’t miss it. It’s the first big house on the right down East Street and it’s called Forestgreen Lodge.’

The gates were closed so Gabrielle reversed her car and pulled off the road as best she could. She got out of the car and walked back to the gates. The house was visible at the end of the driveway which was bordered by rhododendron bushes on the right. To the left was a thatched-roofed house, in front of which was a well-trimmed privet hedge. The driveway was gravelled so any approach in a car would be heard. She could not see a bell-push or anything else in the gate pillars to alert the house that someone wanted to gain access. Did the closed gates mean that nobody was in or were they closed for security reasons, she wondered.

As she pondered the various options, the sound of an emergency vehicle siren penetrated the otherwise quiet countryside. She hurried back towards her car and caught sight of the flashing blue lights coming down the narrow lane towards her. The two-vehicle convoy speeding down East Street was headed by a police Vauxhall Vectra and behind it was an ambulance. Gabrielle checked that her car was sufficiently off the road to let the emergency vehicles pass, then stood as far back as she could.

To her surprise the leading police car slowed. A uniformed officer was driving, a man in civilian clothes by his side. In the back was another man in uniform. They all looked at her as they passed. The car stopped at the gates to the lodge. The gates squeaked as they opened and then there was a spray of gravel as the car sped towards the house.

The ambulance slowed down and drew up next to her.

The paramedic in the passenger seat, a man in his mid-forties with a bushy moustache, looked at her. ‘You here for the same reason we are?’ he asked.

‘
Er, I’m here to see the Yongs in Forestgreen Lodge, yes,’ Gabrielle told him.

A female paramedic was driving. ‘You’d better follow us in,’ she shouted.

‘
Yes, right, I’ll follow.’

Gabrielle watched the ambulance squeeze through the open gates and for the first time noticed the CCTV camera mounted on a pole a few yards down the driveway. She went to her car and did as the paramedic had suggested. When she reached the house the police were just being admitted and the paramedics were at the back of the ambulance unloading some equipment.

Gabrielle got out of her car, still wondering what on earth could have happened to warrant the emergency services. Something serious, she was sure. She had been in a bit of a daze after watching the police car slow down before turning into the driveway.

‘
You coming in with us, love?’ the male paramedic asked. His use of the word love did not have the approval of his partner but Gabrielle could not have cared less.

‘
Er, yes, I’ll follow you,’ she said.

She went through the entrance into a majestic hall. There was a chandelier and oil paintings and even a suit of armour. In front of her the wide staircase swept upwards before it split into two and went up either side to the next floor. One of the policemen was standing at the bottom of the staircase, his hands behind him. His eyes darted from the paramedics to Gabrielle and back again. It seemed he didn’t really know what to do.

‘
Are they up there?’ the female paramedic asked.

‘
Yes, but -’

The two paramedics leapt up the stairs two at a time.

Gabrielle hung back.

‘
Can you tell me what has happened?’ she asked.

The policeman eyed her, unsure of what to do or say. He was young, very young and fresh-faced. ‘Er, there’s been a shooting and then a possible suicide,’ he said warily.

‘
Mr and Mrs Yong?’

‘
As I understand it, yes ma’am. Are you -?’

‘
I’m here to see them, yes.’ Gabrielle was trying to take on board what she had just been told.

‘
You’d better go up,’ the young policeman suggested. ‘I think you’re too late but …’ His voice trailed off as a woman coming into the hall from the back of the house distracted him.

Gabrielle hesitated.

She was looking at a small, slim oriental woman possibly somewhere in her thirties. It was obvious from the redness around her eyes and the tissues she was clutching in her hands that she’d been crying.

She looked at the policeman and then at Gabrielle. ‘Mrs Yong, she-?’

Gabrielle walked in front of the policeman and took the woman’s hands in hers. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘I haven’t been up there yet. May I ask who you are?’

‘
Me? My name Lolita, Lolita Lonzanes, I amah.’

‘
You work for the Yongs?’

‘
Yes.’

‘
And you reported what has happened?’

‘
Yes. I heard loud bang, go upstairs and Mr Yong, he dead but Mrs Yong, maybe, I don’ know.’

‘
All right, Lolita,’ Gabrielle told her, gripping her hands tightly. ‘I’ll go and find out.’

At the top of the stairs Gabrielle wasn’t sure which way to turn until she saw the male paramedic come out of a room at the end of the corridor. He stopped when he saw Gabrielle.

‘
You’d better go in there, Miss. She’s not dead but it’ll be a miracle if she survives. I’ve alerted the medical staff at the hospital.’ He walked past Gabrielle and then down the stairs.

Gabrielle tentatively approached the doorway. The female paramedic was bending over a woman lying on the bed and the other policemen was standing by the window.

‘
Who are you?’ the man asked abruptly, then did a double-take when he noticed Gabrielle’s clerical collar. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Ma’am, didn’t see -’

‘
That’s all right,’ Gabrielle told him, moving further into the room.

The paramedic looked over her shoulder and Gabrielle caught sight of the stricken woman’s face. Her eyes were closed and she looked at complete peace. This had to be Christina Yong, Gabrielle concluded. Her skin colour, her features and the silk sari she was wearing, left little doubt. The paramedic was holding a pad over a chest wound and there was a lot of blood.

‘
She’s not dead,’ the paramedic told her, ‘but she’s lost lots of blood. The bullet must have missed her heart but not by much. Jack’s gone to get the stretcher.’

Gabrielle knelt down and picked up Christina’s hand. ‘What happened?’ she asked, glancing up at the policeman.

‘
Looks like she was shot and then her husband shot himself. Pretty clear-cut I would say.’

‘
And is Mr Yong dead?’

‘
As a dodo,’ the policeman said without feeling. ‘I wouldn’t go over there if I was you.’ He moved a couple of paces nearer. ‘May I ask who called you? It’s unusual a priest turns up at all but to get here before us is unheard of.’

‘
Nobody called me,’ Gabrielle told him, still holding Christina’s hand. ‘I was on my way to see them. I’m a friend of their son’s.’

‘
Oh, right, I’ll tell the sergeant. He’ll want a few details. Do you know how many sons and daughters there are?’

The paramedic arrived back and Gabrielle moved out of the way. She went over to the policeman. ‘Yes, there are two sons. And there was a daughter. And two grandchildren,’ she added.

‘
You said
was?
’ The policeman reached for his notebook.

Gabrielle looked round and saw the male paramedic carefully lifting Christina onto the stretcher while his partner held a drip in place. ‘Yes,’ she said turning back to the policeman. ‘Do you think I could have a word with your sergeant now. I’d like to go to the hospital with Mrs Yong.’

‘
You’ll have to hurry, Miss,’ the male paramedic told her.

‘
I will.’

Gabrielle went out of the room and waited on the landing. She wasn’t sure what she should do but going to the hospital seemed the best option. She desperately needed to talk to Christina, if it was possible.

While waiting, she noticed that the landing was carpeted in an almost white deep pile and the walls had a flecked light blue paper. The oil paintings looked expensive as did the silver standing on numerous small tables.

‘
Yes?’ said the detective sergeant who had peered at her from the car. ‘I’m very busy.’

‘
I assumed you were that’s why I suggested we speak now.’

‘
You’re going to the hospital, Banks tells me.’

The sergeant was about forty and looked as though he was suffering from a hangover. His dark blue tie was hanging loose, his white shirt marked with what looked like food stains, and his suit was also marked and creased.

‘
Yes, I am. Are you aware of Mr and Mrs Yong’s background?’ Gabrielle asked.

‘
I didn’t know they existed until an hour go.’

‘
All right, but very quickly.’ Gabrielle looked over her shoulder at the paramedics’ progress with the stretcher. ‘Two sons, Adam Harrison and Patrick Yong. Both are in Hong Kong at the moment as far as I know and -’

‘
Why Harrison?’ the sergeant asked, screwing up his face.

‘
Adopted,’ Gabrielle said quickly. ‘Kept his biological parents’ name.’

‘
Oh,’ said the sergeant vaguely.

‘
There was a daughter, Lucinda, but she and her two children were murdered six months ago. You -’

‘
Murdered?’

‘
Yes, murdered, Sergeant. You should speak to the Derbyshire police. Lucinda Harrison and the children lived in Ashbourne.’ Gabrielle reached into her shoulder bag and extracted a business card case. She gave a card to the sergeant. ‘We’ll no doubt meet at the hospital later but if you need to contact me afterwards, those are my details. But I must tell you it’s likely I’ll be out of the country within a couple of days.’

The sergeant, who had not introduced himself, took the card. ‘Did you say one of the son’s name was Harrison?’

‘
Yes. Adam Harrison was adopted by the Yongs and he married his sister, Lucinda.’

‘
Married his sister? Isn’t that -’

‘
No, it isn’t, or should I say wasn’t. As I said, he was adopted.’

‘
Is this Adam Harrison white then?’

‘
Yes.’

‘
And he married -’

‘
Be careful, Sergeant. Because he was adopted their relationship was legal, their marriage was legal and their children were legal. The one thing that was not legal was their murder.’

‘
Murder,’ the sergeant repeated.

‘
Yes, murder. She and the children had their throats cut.’

The sergeant screwed up his face. ‘What, the kids? They had their throats cut?’

‘
Yes, the Harrison children were murdered, Sergeant, and their throats were cut. Look, I have to go. You have my card but as I said we’ll no doubt meet in the hospital.’

‘
You said you were going abroad.’

‘
I did,’ she confirmed, hoping her exasperation was evident.

‘
Going on holiday, Miss?’

‘
Something like that. Now, I really must go.’

Gabrielle reached the back of the ambulance just as the male paramedic was closing the doors. ‘I’m here,’ she shouted.

The male medic nodded and reopened the doors. ‘I’ll go in the front. There’s not room for you and me in there. Will you be all right?’

‘
I’ll be fine, thanks.’

She climbed into the ambulance, squatted down and once again took hold of Christina’s hand. ‘Fight,’ she said forcefully, ‘fight with all your strength.’

*  *  *

‘
Well,’ Adam said, ‘nobody can say you are anything but honest. Would you have been so open if we actually knew each other?’

Leila smiled. ‘I think you’re making fun of me.’ She had used the same story over and over again and never ceased to be amazed just how gullible men were.
Nobody understood her, she wanted a deep meaningful relationship not one that was simply superficial. She was more than a pretty face and an equally appealing body; she had a mind and it was her mind that none of the relationships she’d had and lost had tried to reach.
They had all fallen for it and it appeared as though this Adam Harrison was not going to be any different.