Kennedy 03 - Where Petals Fall (14 page)

Chapter Twenty

Terry Yates’s ex-wife lived in a pleasant detached house at the end of a small cul-de-sac. The front garden was colourful and neat and, from the little Jill could see, the back garden was large, mainly set to lawn, and dotted with children’s toys.

Jill had Grace with her and, although she was a marvel at interviewing suspects, Jill would have preferred Max’s or Fletch’s company. The main objective was to coax Beverley Yates to talk freely about her husband and Grace could be a little intimidating.

Jill rang the bell and they heard ferocious barking coming from the other side of the door.

‘A good job we’re not breaking and entering,’ Grace muttered beneath her breath.

They heard a woman telling the animal to be quiet, which had no effect whatsoever, and then, as the door opened, a huge yellow dog hurled itself at Jill.

‘I am so sorry. Lily, get down. She’s only young and she thinks everyone wants to be her best friend. Are you all right? Lily, get down!’

‘Yes, I’m fine, thanks. Really.’ As Jill regained her composure, the dog bounded around the three of them all as if it were on springs.

‘Mrs Yates? I’m Jill Kennedy. We spoke on the phone earlier.’

‘Yes, come in. And I’m so sorry about Lily. I’ll put her out in the garden.’

‘Don’t worry, she’s fine.’

But Jill was relieved to see Lily banished to the garden and the patio door firmly closed behind her.

‘She’s a lovely dog,’ Grace said, and Mrs Yates smiled.

‘I’ve called her a lot of things since we got her, but lovely hasn’t been one of them. She’s chewed the dining table, four pairs of shoes and the phone cable so far.’ She gazed through the patio door to where Lily was demolishing a football. ‘People promise me she’ll grow out of it but there’s no sign of it yet. Still, the kids love her.’

That, Jill guessed from the smile on her face, was all that mattered.

The house, or the lounge at any rate, was stylish yet homely. The furniture wasn’t expensive, but it was well cared for. Children’s toys sat neatly in one corner of the room.

‘The twins, Adam and Cherie, are having a couple of days with their grandparents,’ Mrs Yates explained, nodding at those toys, ‘and I’m having a well-earned rest.’

‘I bet you miss them,’ Grace said.

‘I do,’ she admitted softly. ‘Sit down,’ she went on. ‘I’ll sit here with my back to the window. That way I won’t see what Lily’s doing. The garden’s secure so she’s perfectly safe.’

She was a very attractive young woman, fresh-faced, and casually dressed in white jeans and a red T-shirt. Her smile seemed relaxed and friendly.

‘So,’ she said, ‘I gather you want to talk to me about Carol Blakely. I assume that’s because of my ex-husband’s affair with her?’

‘Yes,’ Jill replied, grateful for the opening. ‘You knew about the affair then?’

‘Not at first,’ she replied. ‘He’d been seeing her for six months before he told me he was leaving me.’

‘We had a chat with him yesterday,’ Jill explained, ‘and he told us he’d intended to live with Mrs Blakely? Did you know that?’

‘Oh, yes. He had it all planned. Five years of marriage down the drain just like that.’ She clicked her fingers.

‘I’m sorry to ask such personal questions, but –’

‘I understand,’ Mrs Yates said.

‘Had he been unfaithful before?’ Jill asked.

‘Not to my knowledge,’ she answered, ‘but I wouldn’t guarantee it. When we first married, he was besotted with me. I thought it was love but, looking back, it was more of an obsession.’

‘How do you mean?’ Grace asked.

‘He showered me with gifts and hated every second we were apart. He hated me going anywhere without him. I was quite touched.’ She smiled ruefully. ‘Six months later, when I was pregnant with the twins, he was constantly picking fault. Everything I did was wrong. If we went out, he’d criticize my appearance, my clothes, my conversation, everything. You don’t see it happening, but he really dented my self-confidence.’ That smile again. ‘For all that, I was distraught when he told me he was leaving me.’

The dog ran up to the patio door and barked hopefully. Realizing she wasn’t about to be let in, she raced off and did several circuits of the garden.

‘I’m sorry. You didn’t come to hear me complaining about him,’ Mrs Yates said. ‘Exactly what is it that you need to know?’

Jill liked her openness.

‘As you know,’ she began, ‘we’re investigating the murder of Carol Blakely. We know your husband had an affair with her, and we’ve also heard that he followed her regularly and smashed a window at her shop. What we’re trying to do is build as big a picture as possible. We need to know as much as possible about Carol’s life and anyone she came into contact with.’ She paused. ‘Did you ever meet Mrs Blakely?’

‘Only once,’ Beverley Yates replied. ‘I was in town with the twins and we bumped into her and Terry. Terry introduced us all. God, it was embarrassing. For her, too, I think. Humiliating as well. She was everything Terry had told me she was.’

‘And that was what?’ Grace asked.

‘Attractive. Intelligent. Friendly. Smart. Sophisticated.’ She rattled off the adjectives as if she’d been forced to learn them parrot fashion. ‘I felt like the village idiot by comparison.’

‘When was this?’ Jill asked.

‘About a fortnight after he left me,’ she explained. ‘Shortly after that, I heard she’d walked out on him, too. I can’t say I was sorry. She must have seen the light. He was obsessed with her just as he’d been obsessed with me, but it wouldn’t have lasted.’

‘How’s your relationship with him now?’ Jill asked, and she blushed.

‘Poor,’ she admitted. ‘He sees the twins for a few hours each weekend and, for their sakes, we’re civilized towards one another. Other than that, we rarely speak. Occasionally, usually when he’s had a drink, he begs me to take him back.’

That surprised Jill. She had believed he was still in love with Carol. She hadn’t thought that it was, as Mrs Yates believed, an obsession that would have passed.

‘No way,’ Mrs Yates went on vehemently. ‘He hurt me badly and he abandoned us. It took me a long time to get over that. Now, I’m happier without him. We’re all better off without him.’

Jill thought how sad it was that so much bitterness existed between them. Civilized or not, it couldn’t be good for the children.

‘How’s his relationship with the twins now?’ she asked.

‘Adam’s OK with his father. He takes everything in his stride, but Cherie’s very hurt. She sulks and says she doesn’t want to see him. He accuses me of turning them against him. I don’t. I never utter a bad word about him in front of them. He abandoned them. How does he expect them to feel?’

Jill smiled and nodded sympathetically as an answer. Really there was no answer.

She was having to revise her opinion slightly. Mrs Yates
was
likeable, but there was a hard edge to her. She mightnot utter a bad word about her ex-husband in front of the children, but Jill presumed they knew all too well how she felt about him.

‘But we’re OK, me and the twins,’ Mrs Yates added. ‘We’re fine.’

‘I’m glad,’ Jill said. ‘Your husband smashed a window at Mrs Blakely’s shop. Does that surprise you?’

‘Not really,’ she replied at last. ‘He put a brick through my kitchen window one night. He’d been phoning me at all hours of the day and night and I said that, if he did it again, I’d call the police. The next thing I knew, he threw a brick through the window and told me to call 999.’

Was that a man making a cry for help? Jill wondered. Had he believed he was out of control?

‘And did you?’ Grace asked.

‘No. I thought they had better things to do with their time and I knew he’d soon sober up. Besides, for the sake of the children, I didn’t want him getting into trouble.’

A scratching at the window had them looking to see Lily with a piece of football in her mouth and a pathetic expression on her face.

‘I usually take her for a walk about now,’ Mrs Yates said. ‘Or rather, she takes me for a walk.’

‘Then we won’t take up any more of your time,’ Grace said, getting to her feet.

Jill supposed she’d finished. All the same, she’d like another chat with Terry Yates. Obsession, and his ex-wife had used the word several times, could be a dangerous thing.

Chapter Twenty-One

Later that afternoon, Jill caught up with Max just as he was nipping outside for a smoke.

‘Have you got a minute?’ she asked him.

‘Yes, of course. What’s up?’

‘Nothing really, but I’d like another chat with Terry Yates.’

‘Oh?’

She told him of the chat she and Grace had had with his ex-wife that morning.

‘We’re talking of damaged lives,’ she said thoughtfully.

‘Mrs Yates was distraught when he told her he was leaving her. She claims she’s over it now and better off without him, but feelings are still running high there. He’s as bitter as hell because he’s been left with nothing. Their children must be aware of the feelings that exist between the two of them. Life can’t be easy for any of them.’

‘OK,’ he said. ‘We can call on Yates when we finish here if you like. His alibi checks out,’ he added.

‘I know, but as you say –’

‘It means nothing,’ he agreed.

‘He’s never been in trouble before?’ she asked.

‘No. Apart from a telling off when he smashed the window at Carol’s shop, he’s as clean as a whistle. No unpaid parking fines, no points on his licence, nothing.’

‘Did someone talk to Ruth and Cass at the shop?’ she asked, and he nodded.

‘I did. I was out that way anyway so I thought I’d call in. Cass had never heard of Yates, but that’s not surprisingas she hasn’t been there long. Ruth only started working for Carol a month before the accident that killed her sisters.’

‘Mm. And the two wouldn’t have been close enough to share confidences then.’

‘Exactly. Ruth said she’d had an inkling there had been someone, but Carol hadn’t spoken of it, and she hadn’t asked. She couldn’t remember a window being smashed.’

‘Carol felt guilty about her relationship with Yates,’ Jill pointed out, ‘so she wouldn’t have mentioned it. She certainly wouldn’t have mentioned it to Ruth when they were relative strangers. Later, when the two became good friends, Carol would have wanted to forget the affair ever happened.’

‘We’ll have a chat with him,’ Max promised. ‘I’ve got a couple of things to sort out and then we’ll go.

Unannounced?’

‘Definitely. We’ll just have to hope he’s home . . .’

Jill went to her office and found a huge pile of paperwork waiting for her. She had staff assessments to sort out and a dozen other things to deal with. They’d all have to wait.

She returned several phone calls, sent a dozen emails and then headed off to find Max.

As she walked along the corridor, it surprised her to realize that Terry Yates’s relationship with his ex-wife interested her just as much as, if not more than, his relationship with Carol.

Max was ready to go and they walked down to the car park.

‘I’ll follow you,’ she told him, ‘and then I can go straight home. I’m due at a concert this evening.’

‘Oh?’

‘One of these fundraising things that the primary school is so fond of doing,’ she enlightened him. ‘You’re welcome to come along and be bored to death.’

‘Thanks, but some other time,’ he replied, unlocking his car.

Jill got in her own car and followed him out of the car park. As she did so, she switched on the radio and tried to find a station that would give her the racing results. Damn it, she’d missed them. She’d have to wait until she got home.

They struck lucky. Terry Yates’s car was parked on his drive. Jill didn’t expect he had much of a social life, but his work involved a lot of driving.

When he answered their knock, however, Jill was dismayed to see that he had been drinking. A lot. He was swaying on his feet and his speech was slightly slurred.

‘Oh. You’re back,’ he said.

He hadn’t shaved today, she noticed.

‘Yes. May we come in?’ Max asked, already taking a step forward.

‘Of course. You’ll have to excuse the mess,’ he added, ‘but I’ve been working from home today.’

The small brown dog was pushed into the kitchen and Yates staggered around his lounge gathering up papers that had been scattered on every available seat.

An empty wine bottle stood on the hearth and a half-full one was on the coffee table. Cheap red wine, Jill noticed.

‘What a nice way to work,’ she said lightly. ‘With a glass in one hand,’ she added with a smile.

He shrugged. ‘It’s OK.’

Jill wandered over to the window and looked out at the back garden. It was small, but tidy.

‘I had a chat with your ex-wife this morning,’ she told him.

‘Oh?’ He was still putting papers in a pile, but he looked worried.

‘I hadn’t realized you were hoping the two of you could get back together.’

He sat down while he considered his answer. Although he waved a hand in the direction of the now free seats, Max and Jill remained standing.

‘I thought it would be better for the twins,’ he said at last. ‘She’s turning them against me. I know I treatedher badly,’ he allowed. ‘I had an affair and left her. But I couldn’t help falling in love with someone else, could I?’

He looked to them both for an answer, didn’t get one, and carried on. ‘I thought we could make a go of things, and I thought it would be better for the twins. She didn’t want to know. She’s happy causing problems between me and the kids. Vindictive bitch.’

Vindictive bitch? Hardly the best foundation for making a marriage work.

‘She says you put a brick through her kitchen window,’ Jill pointed out.

‘I did,’ he admitted.

‘Drunk again, were you?’ Max asked.

‘A bit,’ he replied. ‘But God, she’s been driving me mad. She’s on the phone constantly telling me that Cherie doesn’t want to see me again or that Adam’s doing great at school now I’m out of his life. When news of Carol’s death hit the headlines, she was on the phone immediately.

“Your girlfriend’s dead then,” she said. “You’ll have to find someone else’s knickers to jump into.” I mean, for God’s sake.’ He grimaced. ‘Evil bitch!’

Jill walked round the room and stopped to gaze at the photos of the twins.

‘Why,’ she asked, turning to look at him, ‘would you want to live with someone you consider evil and vindictive?’

‘Who knows? Probably because she’s driven me to insanity.’ He thought for a moment. ‘In my more crazy moments, I think that, if we lived together again, she’d have what she wanted and stop making my life hell. Stop turning my children against me.’

‘But Carol was alive and you were still hoping she’d come to her senses,’ Jill pointed out.

‘Yes, I know. Carol was never going to come back to me though, was she? I knew that. Deep down, I knew it.’

‘So you’d rather have your ex-wife than no one?’

‘I’d rather my kids didn’t grow up hating me,’ he corrected her.

‘Now that Carol is dead,’ Jill said, watching closely for any reaction from him, ‘I suppose there’s more chance that your ex-wife will agree to get back together?’

‘Who knows how her mind works?’ he answered flatly.

His phone rang out, but he made no move towards it.

‘The machine will get it,’ he told them.

After six rings, the machine clicked into action. Yates’s voice, dull and flat, assured whoever was calling that he wasn’t available right now but, if they would leave their name and number, he would return their call as soon as possible.

‘Call me back,’ a voice Jill recognized said. ‘If I can persuade Cherie to see you, and God knows that’ll take some doing, you can take them out for an hour on Sunday. You can pick them up at four but they’ll need to be home by five at the latest.’

The machine beeped and all was silent.

‘A whole hour,’ Yates said bitterly. ‘Things must be looking up. I wonder what this weekend’s excuses are.

Perhaps Cherie’s washing her hair again. Oh no, that was last weekend.’ He expelled his breath on a sigh. ‘Believe me,’ he went on quietly, ‘if I ever murder anyone, it will be her.’

‘Is that a threat?’ Max asked.

‘No,’ he answered sheepishly.

‘According to your ex-wife,’ Jill said, ‘your marriage was in difficulty very soon after you married, when she was pregnant with the twins, in fact.’

‘Yes, that’s true.’

‘Why was that, do you think?’

‘Probably because I was shut out,’ he said flatly. ‘All she cared about was the welfare of her unborn child – or children as it turned out. Her children. Not mine. As she took great pains to point out, she was the one carrying them. She was the one feeling sick every morning, the one walking around like a bloated whale, the one being poked and prodded at the clinic. When they were born, I had no say in anything – names, feeding, putting them tosleep, dressing them. If I offered to do anything, she’d look at me and demand to know who’d carried them into the world.’

Why, Jill wondered, would he want to try and make a go of a marriage with someone he disliked so intensely? And why did he think there was the remotest chance of his ex-wife agreeing to spend any time at all let alone the rest of her life with him? Neither had a good word to say for the other.

‘This alibi of yours,’ Max put in, ‘doesn’t really check out.’

Jill looked at him in amazement. He’d told her it did.

‘What?’ Yates was as shocked as Jill and a lot more nervous. ‘It must.’

‘Not really,’ Max said casually. ‘You weren’t at breakfast on the Saturday morning.’

‘Well, no. I don’t eat breakfast. Never have. I have a couple of strong coffees and that’s my lot.’

‘Your colleagues were all at a table having breakfast,’ Max reminded him. ‘So why didn’t you have your coffee with them?’

‘I never do.’ Yates was breaking out into a sweat. ‘I have it in my room. The last thing I want to do is watch them stuffing their faces with bacon and eggs. You ask them. I
always
have coffee in my room.’

‘You went to your room early on the Friday night too,’ Max said.

‘What? Oh, for God’s sake. I mean, I can’t remember but it must have been well past eleven.’

‘It was about eleven, as far as I can tell,’ Max informed him. ‘Your colleagues were in the bar until gone one in the morning.’

‘They often are.’

Max sat in a chair so that he was directly opposite Yates.

‘So you had plenty of time to get from your hotel to –’

‘No!’ Yates leapt from his chair so quickly that he staggered and had to grab the back of Max’s chair to keep himself upright. ‘I swear to you, I didn’t leave the hotel.’

‘You like a drink,’ Max said, ‘and, when you’re away, it’s all on the company, right? I’m sure you’d hang around for the free drinks.’

‘No. Believe me, I’d rather buy my own.’ Frightened eyes darted from Max to Jill and back to Max. ‘You have to believe me. I was in my room the whole time. I swear it.’

‘How do you get on with your colleagues?’ Jill asked.

‘They’re OK. A bit full of themselves, but OK.’

‘A bit full of themselves? In what way?’

‘Oh, you know.’ He was managing to stand unaided now. ‘They like to brag about their grand houses, their beautiful wives, their even more beautiful mistresses, their super-intelligent kids, that sort of thing. They’re all very competitive. But yes, I get on OK with them. I’ve known them for years.’ He thought for a moment and the panic blazed once more in his eyes. ‘Why? What have they been saying about me?’

‘That you’re a bit quiet,’ Max told him. ‘Not much of a mixer.’

‘Yeah, I suppose that’s right. I am quiet. Quieter than them at any rate.’ His gaze locked on the half-full bottle of red wine. ‘But that means nothing,’ he said, turning back to look at Max. ‘And I swear to you, I was in my room all night. I left them at about eleven o’clock and I was at the exhibition by nine the next morning. By then, I’d had a shower, drunk a couple of coffees and made some phone calls.’

He seemed to calm himself a little.

‘Besides,’ he said, ‘why the hell would I want Carol dead? Eh? I was the one doing everything in my power to get her to talk to me. She won’t talk to me now, will she?’

‘She won’t,’ Max agreed.

Yates’s phone rang again and he rolled his eyes for their benefit. Again, they heard his voice asking the caller to leave a message, and again, they heard Beverley Yates’s voice, slightly higher pitched this time.

‘I know you’re there. Where the hell is Terry No Mates Yates going to be, hm? If you don’t call me within thenext hour, you won’t see the kids at all this weekend.

Got that?’

The call ended abruptly.

‘I’d better give her a ring,’ Yates said reluctantly.

‘Wise move,’ Max agreed. ‘You’ll need to call at the station to make a statement, too.’

‘But –’

‘Any time tomorrow will do. Thanks for talking to us.’