Shades of Evil (19 page)

All the time, Adam Smith paced the room. Max guessed he was mentally packing a bag. Without doubt, he would be on his way to Blackpool first thing in the morning.

Max knew better than to argue with him.

Jill was striving for normality, but having breakfast with Max and his sons was a disturbing experience. It was a painful reminder of how good
and
how bad things had once been between them. She was trying hard not to remember any of it.

She had a slice of toast, something she never bothered with at home. Usually coffee was her first meal of the day. Perhaps she was trying to set an example to Harry and Ben by showing them she knew all about the most important meal of the day. Or, more likely, she was too greedy to refuse.

‘Bus,’ Max mumbled through a mouthful of food, nodding up at the clock.

‘It’s always late,’ Harry said, but he picked up his schoolbag.

‘Yay! Last day of school,’ Ben said happily.

‘Trousers, Ben,’ Max pointed out.

Ben looked down at his legs and seemed surprised to see the old jeans he’d worn in the garden while playing with the dogs.

‘Oh, yeah,’ he said, and he ran upstairs to change, leaving Max to roll his eyes in despair.

Five minutes later, in full school uniform and with bags slung over their shoulders, the boys headed off for the school bus.

‘It’s lucky Ben doesn’t want to be a rocket scientist,’ Max said, shaking his head. ‘Do you want another coffee?’

‘Please.’

The caffeine would help to keep her awake. She’d been too conscious of Max in the adjoining room to sleep well. The offer had been there, so she could have shared his bed. They’d had some wonderful times when they’d lived here together, but it had ended in disaster, and she didn’t want his sons thinking she was a permanent feature.

‘I’m a bit stuck without a car,’ she said, pushing the memories aside. ‘I wanted to go over to Kelton this morning and have a chat with Steve.’

‘About what?’

‘I won’t know until I get there.’

‘You can come in with me and then take a pool car.’

He was ready to leave but first Jill needed to sort out her cats. Apart from Fly, who always looked as if he was contemplating a tasty snack of cat, Max’s dogs were polite around the felines. There was a reasonable harmony between them all, and Jill marvelled that animals, unlike humans, could exist fairly happily side by side. All the same, she locked her cats in the conservatory, well away from the dogs.

‘Are you ready to go?’ Max asked.

‘Yes, and thanks for letting me stay last night. I’m sure I was perfectly safe back at my cottage, but, well, until we have some idea who’s out there—’

‘Quite. Good to see you showing a bit of sense for a change.’

‘Although, my stalker isn’t planning to harm me,’ she added confidently. ‘He’s a complete coward.’

‘We’re safer not testing that theory.’

Most of the snow had thawed, but Max had the radio tuned to the local station as he drove and more heavy falls for the north-west were expected overnight.

Once they reached headquarters, Jill went to her office to check emails. Finding nothing urgent, she dashed off a couple of replies and then went to sort out a car. It wasn’t quite as simple as Max had suggested but half an hour later she was driving an ancient Vauxhall Astra in the direction of Kelton Bridge.

She wasn’t surprised the car had been available and was merely glad she wasn’t in a hurry. The interior smelt of stale fish and chips and something that she couldn’t identify. She didn’t try too hard.

When she reached the village, she drove straight to Steve Carlisle’s house.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted to talk to him about. She believed though that, whether he knew it or not, he held some of the answers to this.

She knocked on his door, but no one answered. It was after nine o’clock, so he would have listened to the news headlines and taken Cally for her morning walk. Jill decided to wait. Her copy of the
Racing Post
was in her bag, so she passed the time by looking at the runners and riders.

She couldn’t concentrate, though. Her mind went round in circles as she thought of Lauren Cole and her father. Father and daughter murdered. Why?

She was trying to mentally gather all she knew about Lauren and Vincent Cole when Steve walked up his drive, the dog ambling by his side.

She jumped out of her car.

‘Morning, Steve. I was passing so I thought I’d call in and see how you are.’

‘Hello, Jill. Come on in. You haven’t been waiting, have you?’

‘No, I’ve only just pulled up.’ She’d been sitting there for half an hour.

Steve shrugged off his coat, scarf and hat, and kicked off his walking boots, then they went into the sitting room where Cally immediately jumped on to her chair and settled down to sleep.

The stove hadn’t been lit, but the room was a lot warmer than the pool car had been.

‘So how are you doing, Steve?’

‘Fine, thanks,’ he replied. ‘The reporters seem to have given up on me for the time being. Fingers crossed they stay away.’

Jill knew what he meant. Journalists would try any ploy to get a story and having them camped out on your doorstep was a daunting experience.

‘How’s Alison?’ she asked.

‘She’s good, thanks. Working, of course. There’s an exhibition in Liverpool so she’s there at the moment. She’ll be back tomorrow morning.’

It was difficult to tell what he thought of that, but she guessed he was glad that life was carrying on as normal. He wasn’t the type to want a wife at home fussing around.

‘Steve, I know you’ve been asked more than enough questions,’ she began, ‘but can you tell me exactly what Lauren Cole knew about you?’

He frowned at that. ‘How do you mean?’

‘Did she know the route you walked? The time you’d be out walking? That you sometimes carried an axe or a saw with you?’

‘Well, yes,’ he said after a moment. ‘She knew all that. One day when we met up, she asked what was in the sack. I had an axe and half a dozen logs in it. She laughed, I remember. Said she would have thought twice about speaking to me if she’d known I had an axe.’ He sighed loudly. ‘Given what’s happened, it’s not very funny, is it?’

‘And she knew that you walked the same route at the same time every day?’

‘She knew where I liked to walk with Cally, yes. But sometimes that route took me an hour and sometimes two. Why do you ask, Jill?’

‘I’m just trying to piece things together,’ she answered, deliberately vague. ‘What about Charlie? Was he the sort of dog to go off with strangers?’

‘No, he was utterly devoted to Lauren. Although if someone had food …’ He smiled, a sad sort of smile. ‘She told me that when she found him, or rather he found her, he was starving. A stray, he was. She didn’t think he’d ever got over that and was always hungry. He had a good nose on him, too. Once, he ran off quite a distance. When we caught up with him, he’d found a sandwich that someone had dropped. He must have been able to smell that from a hundred yards away.’

If Steve, who only saw the girl now and again, knew all this about Charlie, it stood to reason that any acquaintance of Lauren’s would, too.

‘What are you getting at, Jill?’

‘I’m not sure,’ she admitted. ‘I’m trying to understand what happened that morning. Is it possible that someone could have enticed Charlie away from Lauren, knowing that you would split up? Is it possible that someone set you up?’

The question clearly shocked him.

‘But why would anyone – I mean, why me?’

‘Why not?’ Jill responded.

To escape blame, the killer wouldn’t care who he put in the frame.

‘Do you think it’s possible?’ she asked again.

‘Not really, no. It was my suggestion we split up to look for Charlie. No one could have known I’d say that. I dropped my sack and no one could have known I’d do that. In fact, no one could have known that I’d even have it with me.’

He was right, of course. The killer couldn’t have known those things.

But if Jill’s theory was correct, this had been a spur of the moment attack. Their man was an opportunist. He was an amateur, albeit one who, so far, was clever enough to get away with murder. Perhaps he’d followed Lauren that morning. Perhaps he’d seen her meet up with Steve, enticed the dog away with a Mars bar or anything else he happened to have in his pocket.

It sounded far-fetched, and she certainly couldn’t see Max falling for it.

‘I think someone wanted Lauren out of the way, Steve, and I think you were an easy target for the blame.’

‘I can’t see why. Or how.’ He looked so weary of it all. ‘Thanks, though. For believing I’m innocent, I mean.’

‘I never doubted it,’ she replied.

‘Chief Inspector Trentham did. Still does, I shouldn’t wonder.’

‘He’s keeping an open mind,’ she said lightly.

To give credit to Max, he always kept an open mind. He would never send an innocent man to a cell.

‘If you remember anything else about that morning,’ she said, ‘let me know, will you?’

‘I will, yes. Of course.’

He showed her to the door and she took the unfamiliar car keys from her pocket.

‘You seem to be coping well,’ she couldn’t help saying. He looked desperately tired, but he appeared more confident than she’d ever seen him. He looked as if he could take on the world and win.

‘I’ve had a lot of time to think about things,’ he said. ‘I’ve realized that the small stuff doesn’t matter.’

‘You’re right there. Be seeing you, Steve.’

Instead of driving straight to headquarters, she drove to Todmorden Moor and parked there. The wind strength was increasing and it buffeted the car.

Deciding the planet would have to take care of itself, she kept the engine running for warmth. She leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes and tried to picture what had happened the morning Lauren Cole met her end.

‘Right,’ she murmured to herself, ‘tell me what you did. You followed Lauren to her dad’s house, didn’t you? You saw her leave and you knew she was in a temper. Her dad said she drove off in such a state that she knocked the wheelie bin flying. So you wondered where she was going, didn’t you? You followed her. So you must have a car.’

Jill smiled to herself as she thanked God her mother couldn’t see her talking to imaginary nutters. Except this particular nutter wasn’t imaginary. He was out there somewhere. All they had to do was find him.

‘So, for some reason, you wanted Lauren out of the way,’ she continued. ‘Why? What did she know? Ah, perhaps you’d both been stealing from her father and Lauren wanted to end it. You wouldn’t want to stop, would you? Was she threatening to tell someone? The police perhaps?’

She needed to give him a name. It was easier to get on the same mental wavelength if it was personal.

‘You’re Josh, aren’t you?’ she decided. ‘So, Josh, you followed her up the hill. There were plenty of walls so you could keep out of sight. You were angry with her. You were going to teach her a lesson. And then Steve Carlisle appeared and the show was over. Until he left her…’

The dog wasn’t enticed away from Lauren. Charlie’s nose told him that someone he knew was in the area.

‘Charlie sought you out. You couldn’t hide from the dog, could you? You tried to send him away, but he was too pleased to meet a friend. Perhaps you even had food on you. Chocolate or chewing gum. Lauren saw he was missing and panicked. She called him, but the thought of food made him deaf. Then, like a gift from above, Lauren and Steve split up to look for him. You saw Lauren alone.’

Jill drummed her cold fingers on the steering wheel as she wondered how he could have known the perfect murder weapon was in Steve’s sack.

‘Of course. You would have looked in the sack because you’re a common thief. You’d already stolen from Lauren’s dad, hadn’t you? If someone leaves something lying around, you instinctively see if there’s anything worth pinching. This time, you got really lucky and found an axe. You killed her and legged it. Charlie wouldn’t have followed you, he would have stayed with Lauren. By the time Steve got back, you would have been long gone.’

She wasn’t even convincing herself, but she forced the car into gear, turned around and drove into Harrington.

*    *    *

Jill had plenty of work to keep her occupied for the remainder of the day. By the time she closed her office and went in search of Max, ready for a lift to her temporary home, the briefing was coming to an end and only a few officers remained.

She decided to join them, belatedly realizing that one of those was Phil Meredith. That he was in a foul mood and taking it out on a young constable was nothing out of the ordinary.

He turned to the room in general to bark out, ‘You have all the resources you need, the overtime bill would keep the whole bloody country in luxury and yet still you’re getting nowhere. It’s not good enough!’

With that, he barged out, almost knocking Jill over.

‘Don’t mention it,’ she muttered as his back vanished along the corridor.

‘Phew,’ someone said with evident relief that he’d gone.

‘Penis envy,’ Jill decided.

‘You what?’ Fletch said. ‘I thought women had that.’

‘It’s most likely that Meredith has a very small penis. Minuscule, in fact. Invisible with the naked eye I shouldn’t wonder.’

A few snorts of laughter had everyone relaxing.

‘I don’t suppose you’ve got anything useful, have you?’ Max asked. ‘Other than the size of Meredith’s dick, that is?’

‘Possibly,’ she replied, but she wasn’t confident.

‘We’re all ears.’

‘OK, I think you’re looking for a young male, about twenty years old—’

‘Blimey, that’s narrowed it down a lot,’ Fletch scoffed.

‘Who may have a record. Not murder, possibly not even anything violent. He could well be on file for burglary though.’

Her interpretation of the events surrounding Lauren’s death was wrong, she knew that. Unfortunately, as she couldn’t find the missing piece of the jigsaw yet, she could only give them her possibly half-baked theory.

‘He’d known Lauren for a few years and thought he was on to a good thing,’ she said. ‘He knew she went to her father’s for money that morning and he was annoyed that she didn’t get any. I think she was going to tell someone – her dad, the police, her priest perhaps – what she and our man had been up to, stealing from her father, getting money from him. So he followed her. At the time, he wasn’t thinking of murder, just exerting power over her, bringing her round to his way of thinking. The dog wasn’t enticed away. Charlie knew him. When Lauren and Steve Carlisle split up, he was made. He’s a thief, so it would have been second nature to look in Steve’s sack. He found the axe. So, not only could he get rid of Lauren permanently, he could lay the blame at someone else’s feet.’