SHADOW OVER THE FENS a gripping crime thriller full of suspense (18 page)

‘For goodness sake! Haven’t you lot got something better to do?’ she exclaimed. The expected chorus of ‘No!’ followed her as she left.

‘Bryony?’ She stretched out a hand. ‘Nikki Galena. You wanted to see me?’

The handshake was surprisingly firm. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll only take a few moments of your time.’

Nikki glanced across to the sergeant. ‘Is there a free interview room, Jack?’

‘Number three, ma’am. All yours.’

‘This way.’ Nikki made herself walk confidently, but still felt like one of the ugly sisters escorting Cinderella.

She held back the door and indicated towards a chair. ‘Sorry it’s not more comfortable, but most of our guests aren’t here for the fine facilities.’ She managed to install a smile for the occasion. ‘What can I do for you, Bryony?’

The woman looked up at her, her expression concerned and intense. ‘Joseph rang me last night, Inspector. He told me that he’d been suspended. Is that true?’

‘Joseph’s not in the habit of lying.’ She kept her own gaze impassive. ‘It’s true.’

‘Oh no.’ The woman seemed to visibly crumple. ‘This is my fault, isn’t it?’

Nikki felt confused, but didn’t show it.

‘You suspended him because of what I told you, didn’t you? But the thing is, I don’t think I put it very well, Inspector.’

Nikki sat down opposite her. ‘First
, I
did not suspend him, and second, your failing to identify the mystery man had no bearing on why Joseph was asked to rest up for a while.’ She was not known for her tact, but she thought that sounded fairly acceptable.

‘But I still let him down.’

‘You finally told the truth, and believe me, that’s a far better bet than lying.’ She stared at the fine-boned face and porcelain skin, and said. ‘Have you told Joseph that you didn’t actually see anyone?’

Bryony shifted around in the uncomfortable chair, and stared at the table in front of her. ‘Not yet. I’ve been going over and over it. Now I honestly don’t know if someone was there or not. It was dark, and I admit, my attention was rather more on Joseph than what was happening on the other side of the road.’ She hung her head. ‘All I know is, Joseph truly thought someone was watching us. His face changed from a smiling, relaxed man, to some kind of awful mask. He was terrified, Inspector. And when I made to run over to the river path, he
screamed
at me to let the man go.’

Nikki watched the other woman carefully. Bryony was not finding this easy, and it was obvious to Nikki that she really did care about Joseph, which was not exactly what she wanted to know right now.

‘I know that you won’t be able to tell me where he is, Inspector, but is he all right? I feel dreadful that I can’t see him, but he says it’s too dangerous.’

‘He’s only thinking of you, Bryony. And I know you wouldn’t want to add to his present worries, he has a lot to deal with right now,’ she paused, ‘but yes, he’s taken everything very well, all things considered.’

‘Well, that’s something. I’ll just have to be satisfied with his calls until this is all over.’ She straightened her skirt, even though it didn’t need it, and looked almost coyly at Nikki. ‘I’ve never met a man like Joseph before. He’s so . . .’

Special? Different? Caring? Honest? Nikki automatically filled in the gap.

‘. . . so selfless, and gentlemanly. And that’s rare in a good-looking man.’

Nikki nodded. Yes, that was two pretty good adjectives, but at this point in time Joseph’s love life was not what she wanted to be talking about. ‘I’m sorry, I have to get on. I hope I’ve put your mind at rest?’ She stood up.

‘You have, and thank you for your time.’ Bryony said, picking up her handbag. ‘And, Inspector, if you see him or speak to him, please don’t tell him I was here, or what I said to you. I think it’s down to me to explain to him, don’t you?’

‘I think you
should
explain things.’

‘I will. I promise. And maybe I should come clean about a few other things as well.’

Nikki tensed. ‘Like what?’

Bryony gave a small conspiratorial laugh. ‘It’s okay. It’s nothing serious, and nothing to do with what is going on, but I’ve liked him for ages. I saw him months ago at Greenborough Hospital, and I tried to find out about him.’ She halted as she approached the door. ‘I thought a gorgeous man like that would be bound to have either a wife or a significant other, so I kind of engineered an ‘accidental’ meeting.’

‘The fitness club?’ asked Nikki, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice.

‘Mm. I do swim and I do exercise, but I’m a strong swimmer, so I’ve always used the big pool out at Carness. I was dropping off a friend at the Greenborough club one day, and couldn’t believe that he was there, in the pool! I immediately bought a membership, and the rest is history.’

‘And the meeting in the Hammer?’

‘Oh God! You make me sound like a stalker. No, that was for real. My boss truly was organising a charity scavenger hunt.’

‘You really like him, don’t you?’ said Nikki almost sadly.

Bryony looked at her for a minute, apparently weighing something up, then said, ‘I’ve had some seriously shitty experiences in the past, Inspector. My opinion regarding men is not high, but Joseph is different. Very different.’

‘Then I strongly urge you to tell him everything. Policemen don’t like being lied to, Bryony, no matter how well-meaning your intentions. We get lies every day from the bad guys, so we don’t expect it from the good ones.’

‘I’ve been a complete fool, haven’t I?’ Bryony drew in a breath. ‘But I do hear what you say, and thanks.’

Nikki escorted her back to the foyer, and as she turned to leave, Bryony said. ‘Take care of him for me, Inspector. I think he’s very lucky to have you for a friend.’

Nikki moved closer to her and spoke in a soft but urgent voice. ‘I’ll do my best. Just don’t be tempted to see him, Bryony. Considering how you feel, it could be very dangerous, for both of you, understand?’

Bryony nodded slowly, then moved towards the automatic doors. ‘I understand.’

Nikki listened to the whoosh of the doors, and made her way thoughtfully back to her office.

* * *

As Bryony Barton crossed the street, and walked down the narrow side road to where her car was parked, a man watched her with great interest.

He did not attract attention to himself. He realised a long while ago that Good Ordinary People preferred to avert their eyes from his kind. And he had a lot of things about him that those Good Ordinary People would rather not associate with. He was dirty for one thing. His clothes told of neglect and abuse, ergo, he would smell. GOP’s didn’t like bad smells at all. He had strange eyes, which probably meant drugs, and oh my! How GOP’s hated drugs! And he was pretty big, which meant don’t pick on him. A fight would definitely see a GOP coming second. Oh yes, and he was begging. Which was the only risky thing in his beautifully practised repertoire for blending in perfectly with the pavements, the trodden-in chewing gum and the dog shit. The paper cup with Please Give scribbled on it could be the weak link, because some of the GOPs were actually Do-Gooders, and DGs looked upon beggars as a large part of their insurance to travel on the road to heaven. Beggars were to be fed, nurtured and cosseted, at arm’s length of course, but that could be dangerous.

Today however he was having an invisible day, which suited him perfectly.

That meant that no one saw him stand up, slip catlike across the road, and as Bryony opened her car-door, he was behind her. Breathing in her perfume.

Escada. Magnetism.

My God, the woman had good taste.

But sadly there wasn’t time right now to extol her virtues, because there was work to be done and an exacting schedule to keep to.

In less than a minute, the car had pulled away, and the side road was once again empty, with no trace of either Bryony Barton, or her invisible follower.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Joseph looked up from the computer screen and rubbed his eyes. He could hardly believe that it was after one o’clock and somehow he had finally calmed down enough to concentrate on Martin Durham.

Nikki had called earlier and told him that Sweet had attempted to kill again. The news had almost sent him to the wire, but somehow he’d managed to drag himself back. Deep down he knew that the only way he was going to come through this with his sanity intact was to throw his whole self into working. Which sounded great, but without his warrant card he was stuffed! Even with the Durham case, he had taken his search about as far as it could go without using official channels. He needed Nikki to get him some more information, but with the world going crazy at Greenborough nick, he didn’t have the heart to bother her. Then on the other hand, perhaps he should, because there were things about those two odd deaths, Amelia Reed and Paul Cousins, that were starting to bug him.

He pushed his chair back and stretched his cramped legs. On the desk in front of him was a rough list of known villains who might carry a grudge against him. Nikki had wanted him to think about old cases, but although there were a lot of them, and some where vague threats had been made, no one stood out as being flaky enough to want to destroy him. He pushed the list to one side. It was a total waste of time. No crook he had ever banged up would organise a vendetta like this. And right now he needed a break. He wanted to think objectively about Reed and Cousins and everything else was getting in the way. Maybe he should go out for a while. Go get some food in. Some proper food, not makeshift junk. Something he could use as therapy to help him think.

He stretched again, stood up and tried to remember what was the most labour intensive dish he had ever cooked. And what would Nikki like? Frankly, she seemed to enjoy anything that was put in front of her. He smiled. It was nice to cook for someone else. And that made him think about Bryony, and he couldn’t wait to prepare a meal for her. He was sure she’d appreciate it. Not that Nikki didn’t, but it would be different cooking for a . . .

He stopped himself. A what? What would Bry become? A lover? A partner? He wasn’t sure, and dreaded to let himself get too far ahead. And where exactly did he intend to do this fancy cooking? His digs had very limited facilities and certainly didn’t include a
Master Chef
kitchen.

Again his mind wandered. He had said he’d sit on the money from his Fenchester home after he’d sold it, but maybe he should be looking for somewhere in or around Greenborough.

And maybe he should damn well keep his mind firmly on his work. He had no right to make plans for anything or anybody until Billy Sweet had been caught. Even thinking of that name made him angry. Sweet had no right to walk back into his life and bring his whole world crashing down around his feet.

With a muttered curse, Joseph picked up the phone, dialled Nikki’s landline and asked her if there was any new developments.

‘Nothing yet, Joseph.’

The boss sounded preoccupied, and why shouldn’t she? ‘I was wondering if you’d heard from Elizabeth Durham?’ he asked.

‘She rang earlier, but with all of this going on, I can’t get out to see her.’

‘Could I go, ma’am? I’m well and truly stuck here. There are things I need to know about Martin and I’m sure she could help.’

There had been a long wait, then in a low voice, she said, ‘I’d rather you didn’t, Joseph. I don’t want the chief on my back. But then again, it has nothing to do with the main murder enquiry and I’m not your jailer, so if you did take upon yourself to go out for an afternoon ride, I would know nothing about it, would I? Just don’t breathe a word about your suspension to anyone. We could both finish up down the Job Centre.’

‘I have to go out anyway, unless you want us to starve. I thought I’d try the big supermarket on the Old Bolingbroke Road?’

‘How convenient. But Joseph?’

‘Yes, ma’am?’

‘Take care, won’t you? We haven’t caught this killer yet, and I’m really not sure that it’s wise for you to be trailing round the countryside alone.’

* * *

He had rung Elizabeth before he set out, and she had seemed pleased that he was able to see her. When he arrived, the door was opened by Janna.

‘I’m surprised that you could spare the time, with these awful murders to investigate.’ Her comment was not sarcastic, just a genuine observation, then she led him through to the garden room and flopped into one of the deep comfortable chairs. ‘Have a seat, Sergeant.’

‘Thanks. It’s true we’re busy, but the boss doesn’t want you to feel that we are doing nothing about Martin’s death.’

‘Elizabeth will be grateful for that. She’s starting to get very jumpy about everything, especially the break-in.’

‘Wouldn’t anyone feel jumpy?’ Elizabeth had just done one of her famous silent entrances.

‘I think you have every right,’ said Joseph seriously and took out his notebook and a pen. ‘Now I wonder if you would help me out with the answers to some questions?’

Elizabeth sat down. ‘Anything I can tell you, I will.’

‘Janna mentioned that something happened to your brother, a very long time ago. What was it?’

‘Sadly, he never told me much, but it concerned his health and some treatment that he received. He was very poorly, he nearly died, but when he recovered, he had changed.’

‘How so?’

‘It’s hard to say, but he was different.’ A perplexed expression clouded her features. ‘Maybe these will help you to understand.’ She leant down and picked up a box that sat on the floor beside her chair. ‘You are welcome to take them as long as I get them back.’

Joseph took the box and opened it. Inside were two large envelopes, one marked BEFORE, and the other, AFTER. Inside were press cuttings and dozens of photographs. Some coloured, others black-and-white. Most had names, dates and locations carefully written on the back.

‘I couldn’t remember all the names or places. But you’ll see when you look through, he has gone from being outgoing and gregarious, to becoming a loner.’

‘Oh, he was not that bad,’ chipped in Janna. ‘He just liked the marshes and his work. Everyone on Cloud Fen loved him, he was hardly some Fenland Howard Hughes, now was he?’

‘You never knew him before, sweetheart.’

‘A brush with death does alter people,’ said Joseph gravely.

‘I’m sure. But there were other things. We’d always been so close, but he just stopped confiding in me, Sergeant. He had been practically penniless, then he came home and he had money in his pocket, and he would never say where it came from.’

Joseph thought quickly. It sounded like a bungled operation, or some medical blunder that had ended up in an out-of-court payout. ‘Where was he treated?’

‘The Gordon Peace Memorial Hospital. It closed when they built Greenborough General.’

‘I recall hearing the name somewhere.’ Joseph racked his brain for a connection, but nothing materialised. ‘I’ll try to look into that, but the length of time that had passed won’t make it easy, neither will the fact that all their notes will have been transferred, maybe even destroyed, years ago.’

‘Martin was adamant that there had been no blunders, if that’s what you’re thinking. He said they had done all they could, and he was indebted to them.’

Maybe he was, but maybe he had accepted a hefty bung, and was happy with his lot. Joseph scribbled a few notes, then asked. ‘About his medication? Am I right in thinking that you were upset when we asked about them before?’

Elizabeth Durham sighed. ‘I’m sorry. It was all rather too much to handle at the time.’ She sat back. ‘His ongoing medication had been something of a
bête noire
for me. They gave him some quite awful side effects, and no matter what I told him about medical advances, he refused to have them reviewed. He said that the clinic who looked after him knew exactly what they were doing and that I wasn’t to interfere.’

‘It was the only thing they ever argued about,’ added Janna.

‘Would that be the oncology clinic?’

‘I think so.’ Elizabeth frowned. ‘It must have been. He didn’t go anywhere else.’

‘Did you ever go with him?’

She gave a cheerless shake of her head. ‘Never. He never allowed me to.’

Now, there’s a surprise, thought Joseph. ‘So, when you two decided to turn sleuth, you were checking Knot Cottage for anything that could relate to his time in hospital?’

They both nodded glumly. ‘Sorry about that, Sergeant. We weren’t trying to hamper your investigation, we just thought we might recognise something that would mean little or nothing to you.’

‘But there was nothing at all.’

‘Nothing. Either the intruder took them, or they were never there.’

‘One last question, Ms Durham. Did Martin ever mention, or do you know of Paul Cousins, or Amelia Reed?’

‘Amelia! We all knew her, Sergeant. St Francis was a positive philistine compared to Amelia! She was an animal angel, poor soul, until that terrible accident.’

‘Or was it suicide?’ added Janna quietly. ‘They never gave a verdict, remember?’ She stared at Joseph. ‘You surely don’t think there’s a connection, do you?’

‘No, I’m just trying to make comparisons, and as they were both local, I wondered if you or your brother may have known them.’

‘The name Cousins means nothing, but Amelia was an institution around here. We went to the same school, were quite friendly at one point, although that seems a very long time ago.’ Elizabeth Durham pointed to the box of photographs. ‘I think there’s a snap of all of us in there.’

‘Sergeant?’ Janna leaned forward. ‘When I saw you last you indicated a possibility of foul play? Do you still feel that way?’

‘I can’t comment officially,’ said Joseph cautiously. ‘But I am very disturbed by the whole scenario, it just doesn’t ring true, and there are too many unanswered questions regarding his medication.’

‘Like what?’ asked Janna.

‘He received tablets from his GP, a controlled regime that she was hoping to revise in the near future, but he also had other medication, in plain white boxes.’

‘They would be the ones that he received direct from the clinic,’ responded Elizabeth. ‘They were sent either by courier, or Martin would collect them from the post office in the next village.’

A prickle of discomfort jabbed away in Joseph’s head. Clever, considering the clinic said they had never heard of Martin Durham. Still, now was not the time to share this knowledge. ‘And that was a long-term thing, was it?’

‘Oh yes, for years.’

‘I think I’d better go see this clinic,’ said Joseph, almost to himself.

‘Then perhaps you would you be kind enough to notify them of my brother’s death, and tell them to stop sending the medication?’

‘Of course. Happy to.’ Best that way, mused Joseph. We don’t want too many people getting involved in that place. Not until we’ve found out why they are denying all knowledge of Martin. ‘Now I should be getting back. But thank you for your assistance.’

‘Any time, Sergeant Easter. And if I find anything else that may be helpful to you, I’ll ring the station, shall I?’

‘Ring DI Galena direct. I’m out and about rather a lot at present. She’ll pass anything on, I can assure you.’

* * *

It took Joseph two hours to shop and find his way back to Nikki’s place. And when he finally arrived on the fen, ominous dark clouds were moving in from the east, and the marsh was beginning to lose its magic. In fact, to the town-boy even the air seemed charged and threatening.

‘Too much sky,’ he muttered as he pulled bulging bags of shopping from the boot.

Once inside he felt better, especially when he entered the kitchen. He had thought it before, but there was such a good feel to that particular room that if he had lived there permanently, it would have been the hub of his universe.

He unpacked the provisions and put them away, then pulled out a sealed package from the last of the bags and unwrapped a new pay-as-you-go mobile phone. He had felt naked without any form of contact while driving, and this would suffice until he got his own all-singing, all-dancing version back from the lab.

He inserted the SIM card, set it up and activated it. As he waited for it to charge, he rang Bryony on the landline. After a while he hung up. She would probably be busy. Maybe he shouldn’t phone her at work anyway, a lot of companies didn’t appreciate their staff taking personal calls. Still, it was strange that her voicemail didn’t pick up.

Not to worry, he told himself, they’d have a long talk later that night, right now it was time for his therapeutic hobby.

Joseph chopped, sliced and diced for half an hour, then with a contented sigh, covered all his preparations with cling-film and stored them in the fridge. He then cleaned the table down, and went to get the Durham family picture archive and all his previous notes, photos and files on Reed and Cousins.

He looked at the photos first, laying them out over the table, and quietly scanning them. It didn’t take long to understand what Elizabeth had meant. His early pictures showed a true live wire, a Jack the Lad, surrounded by friends, grinning, pulling faces and acting the fool. The later ones were far more subdued, and generally they featured only Martin, although one or two were taken with Elizabeth. A close brush with death? Joseph shivered, then replaced the recent ones in their sleeve, and concentrated on the early years. If he were to find something, he was sure it came from a long time ago.