Ignoring Elliot’s question, she wrapped her arms around herself and dropped her chin on her chest. ‘I wasn’t completely honest with you. Or with Nathan. Perhaps if I had been…’ She sighed and looked up then. ‘I didn’t tell Nathan about the wreath when it came, because I thought it came from someone I knew.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I’d had an affair. It didn’t last long, a little more than a month, but it didn’t end amicably. He was annoyed that I wouldn’t meet him one night and it made me reconsider what I was doing, so I finished it. He said I’d regret ending our relationship so when the wreath came a couple of days later, and then the rat, I believed they were from him.’
‘Okay,’ Elliot said slowly. ‘So, it wasn’t until your husband told you about the wreath that had been sent to Sylvester that you realised your mistake?’
‘Yes. I told Nathan about it then, explained that I hadn’t bothered telling him because it had been delivered in error. He believed me, of course, he’d never have considered that I had a reason to lie.’
‘He didn’t know about your affair?’
‘No, he didn’t. I’ve never cheated on him before.’ She saw a shade of doubt in the detective’s eyes. ‘I swear to you. I loved Nathan. It was… I dunno, I think I was feeling old, you know, wanted to know I was still attractive.’ She ran a hand over her mouth. ‘I think, too, I was envious of my daughter, the exciting life she leads, lots of boyfriends, romances, so much in front of her.’ Keri sniffed. ‘You must think me so pathetic.’
‘I think you’ve been beating yourself up over this unnecessarily. You’ve been married how long?’
‘Twenty-five years.’
‘And you made one mistake. Sounds like you’d a pretty solid marriage to me.’
‘But if…’ She swallowed. Did she really want to know the answer to the question.
‘If?’ Elliot leaned forward. ‘You may as well ask whatever it is otherwise it’ll keep preying on your mind.’
‘You should have been a priest.’ A minute passed before Keri sighed. ‘Okay. Tell me, if I had rung the police that day to say a wreath had been delivered with a card that said RIP, would it have been connected with the one that was delivered to Dexter Sylvester?’
Understanding lightened Elliot’s expression. ‘You’re thinking that if you had reported it, that you might have prevented the attack on Nathan?’
Keri felt her lower lip quiver, knew that tears were once again close. ‘Yes.’
‘Did you contact the florist that sent the flowers?’
‘Yes, they said it must have been a mistake and took it away.’
‘If you’d never had an affair, wouldn’t you have assumed that was the truth and simply forgotten about it rather than ringing the police?’
Of course, she would have done! The detective was right. She’d have accepted the florist’s word and put it out of her head. A smile wavered. ‘Yes, you’re right.’
‘My wife says I often am, but I think she’s usually being sarcastic.’
It made Keri laugh. She’d have to tell Nathan that one. The thought made her shut her eyes, the pain instant. ‘I keep forgetting he’s gone,’ she said, opening her eyes to see Elliot looking concerned. ‘He’s been part of my life for what feels like forever.’
‘We’ll get who did this, Mrs Metcalfe.’
‘Keri, please.’
He ran a hand down his garish tie. ‘Okay, Keri, tell me about this man you had the affair with.’
46
DI Elliot must have seen the look of surprise on Keri’s face because he shook his head. ‘No, it’s not spurious curiosity, believe me, everyone in your life is of interest to us. Especially people you have met only recently.’
Keri gave an awkward laugh. ‘But he wouldn’t have been involved with what happened to Nathan. That’s all to do with someone wanting revenge for that boy.’ Elliot’s face told her nothing and a trickle of fear made her sit forward. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘I find it best to keep an open mind at this stage in an investigation.’ He shrugged slightly. ‘It concerns me that you appear to be reluctant to talk about this ex-lover though, that makes me more than curious.’
‘I’m not reluctant. Not as such.’ She heaved a sigh. ‘I didn’t tell you everything.’
‘People often leave things out they think aren’t important. Problem is, they don’t know what is or isn’t crucial and sometimes we miss something.’
‘Fine.’ Her voice bristled with annoyance. Or maybe it was embarrassment at having to talk more about her sordid little affair. ‘I met him outside the office block next door. He told me he was a solicitor there.’
‘But he wasn’t?’
‘No. They’d never heard of him.’
Elliot frowned and reached into an inside pocket for a notebook and pen. ‘What was his name?’
‘He told me it was Barry Morgan.’
Elliot wrote it down. ‘You doubt everything about him now which is understandable. Do you know where he lived?’
‘He said he had an apartment in Hatch Lane but I never saw it.’
‘Where did you–’
‘Have our seedy assignations?’
His eyebrows rose. ‘I was going to say ‘meet’.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Keri sighed. ‘It had seemed so romantic, so dangerous. How stupid I was.’ She realised the detective was still waiting for an answer to his question. ‘We met in a hotel near the train station. The Walthamstow Central.’ How very seedy it all sounded now.
Elliot jotted the name down. ‘Did he pay or did you?’
‘He did. And, I remember, he used a card.’ She could have gone back to the hotel, found out who Barry really was. She wondered if they’d have told her.
‘Okay. What dates were you there?’ Elliot made a note of the days and times she gave him. ‘Right, I’ll have a word with them, see who this guy is.’ He put his notebook away. ‘It concerns me a little that two people have come into your life recently and neither were who they were supposed to be.’
Keri’s eyes widened, horrified she hadn’t seen it. Of course, Tracy Wirick and Barry Morgan. Both had lied to her. ‘Surely there isn’t a connection between them.’
‘Probably not,’ Elliot said. ‘But in a murder investigation, every stone gets turned over.’ He pushed his chair back and stood. ‘If you think of anything else, you have my card.’
‘Yes, thank you but there’s nothing else. I’ve told you everything.’
He smiled at that and left.
Keri stayed sitting behind her desk feeling more confused. There couldn’t be any connection between Barry Morgan and Tracy Wirick, could there?
47
Keri rested her linked hands on the top of her head. Tracy Wirick and Barry Morgan. She couldn’t in her wildest imagination think how they’d be connected.
Maybe Roy knew. She wondered if it would have altered the course of events if she’d stayed to listen to what he’d had to tell her that day.
She’d never know but she’d always wonder. There was always the possibility, of course, that during the investigation into his or Nathan’s death the truth might come out. Maybe, but did she really want to know that if she’d stayed to listen, her husband’s life might have been spared.
Could she bear to live with that truth?
There was another worry, one she’d not thought to discuss with Elliot. If all three deaths were linked – Sylvester, Roy, and Nathan – and all were in revenge for the death of that young boy so many years before, who was to say it was over?
Maybe their anger had grown over the years. The two companies, Metcalfe Conservation and DS Construction, were now industry leaders. Successful and powerful.
Jim Cody never had the chance to grow up and make something of himself.
Was that what this revenge was all about? Not simply for his death but for the future he was denied?
Keri reached for her keyboard. A few seconds later, she was staring at the worksheet for the job Nathan had done on that
Gothic window all those years before. The forms had been simpler in those days. A description of the job, estimation of time required, estimate of costs involved. The name of the company they were doing the work for, DS Construction, the name of the stonemason doing the work, Nathan Metcalfe, and the name of the person accepting the job on behalf of Metcalfe Conservation. Her name.
She stared at the screen trying to think calmly. It would have been relatively easy to find out who did the work on the Gothic window of that manor house in Stevenage, but only people who had access to the Metcalfe Conservation computer files could have seen this report. Only a few people would know that Keri, too, had played a part in Jim Cody’s death.
There wasn’t a great turnover of staff within the company. Most were with them for years and the apprentice stonemasons who came and went with regularity had limited access to the company files.
Keri sat back with a frown creasing her brow, her eyes drifting through the glass to where Luke was speaking to someone. The reception desk had full access to the files in question. It made it easier when customers rang looking for details of a job done in the past.
Tracy Wirick. She’d been annoying Roy with all her questions. Had he given her access to the files simply to shut her up?
Tracy Wirick who had lied about her address and her references. Was she more than a liar?
Had she arrived early on Friday morning, smiled at Roy, slipped behind the unsuspecting man, and slit his throat?
Keri, who considered herself a good judge of people, thought back to the day Tracy had come into her office. Maybe the younger woman’s air of defeat was designed to do exactly what it had done. Elicit sympathy. Persuade Keri to give her a chance. There was no indication Tracy was anything other than what she’d said, but in hindsight, hadn’t she been a little too keen to please, a little too desperate? Maybe.
‘Aaargh.’ Keri swung around in her chair and got to her feet. She was driving herself crazy jumping from one conspiracy theory to the other. It achieved nothing except to fill her brain with white noise so she wouldn’t think about Nathan.
She’d liked to have paced the floor but her goldfish bowl didn’t give privacy for that. Her head was aching, possibly from all the thoughts rattling inside her skull, probably from lack of caffeine. Since she was on her feet, she went to the staffroom for coffee, relieved to find nobody there to force her into yet another stilted conversation.
She took the mug of instant back to her office and sat sipping it to wash down the lump of sadness that seemed to have taken possession of her throat.
That detective and the surgeon were probably right. Nothing she did or didn’t do would have changed events. Life didn’t work like that. Every action and inaction had consequences but not necessarily the ones that were wanted.
The mug was empty. She sat back and waited for the caffeine to kick in and provide clarity. But how could there be any in a world where Nathan wasn’t around.
Coming to the office had been a mistake. She couldn’t fix anything by being there and apart from answering unimportant emails, she’d done nothing of any significance. All she’d managed to achieve was to add another worry to the rest. There were three names on that worksheet and two of them were dead. Maybe she was next.
Did she care? If Tracy Wirick or whoever had been responsible suddenly appeared behind her with a sharp knife in her hand, it would be better if Keri stretched her neck to make it easier. One clean cut to end it. What, after all, did she have to live for without Nathan?
A twinge of guilt shot through her that she would so easily abandon the twins, but they’d get by without her, she wasn’t so sure she could survive without Nathan.
But what if that didn’t end it?
What if her death, along with those already claimed, wasn’t enough to satisfy the person’s quest for revenge? What if their aim was to destroy the two companies?
The caffeine suddenly hit home and with a surge of clarity Keri pulled her keyboard forward and brought up the emails she’d not answered. There was one from the president of the Stone Federation. Simon Nicholl was a man she didn’t like so she hadn’t rushed to read what she assumed would be his commiserations.
She opened it now with a sense of impending dread. If she was right…
48
Keri read the email from the president of the Stone Federation through twice before nodding. She was right. Whoever was seeking revenge, they weren’t satisfied with destroying people. They wanted everything.
Some of her customers and suppliers might brush off Jim Cody’s death as something that had happened before safety regulations had been tightened, but the president of the Stone Federation couldn’t afford to be so dismissive. And it seemed that someone had acquainted Simon Nicoll with Metcalfe Conservation’s part in the death of the young apprentice and he was taking the matter very seriously indeed.
Their membership of the Federation had been suspended with immediate effect until the situation was fully investigated.
Nicholl ended the email with one sentence of regret for the timing and commiserations on Nathan’s death.
The suspension would have huge implications. These days there was no way to side-step health and safety regulations. The companies Metcalfe Conservation did work for would express regret and quickly move to one of their competitors. Their reputation would be cross-shredded. They’d lose contracts. Their suppliers would take fright and demand payment. The gossip would build, whispers, innuendos and outright lies.
The company might recover… or go under.
Keri checked her contacts for DS Construction and rang. ‘It’s Keri Metcalfe, I’d like to speak to whoever’s in charge, please.’
‘Certainly, Ms Metcalfe, hold and I’ll see if Mr Radstock is free.’
Radstock? Possibly Tom Radstock. If so she was in luck, she’d met him the previous year at a conference and got on well with him.
‘Ms Metcalfe, how can I help you?’
If he’d heard about Nathan’s death he wasn’t rushing to offer commiserations for a man he’d never met. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or annoyed at his lack of social etiquette but it made her job a little easier, she could do the same. ‘It’s Tom Radstock, isn’t it? We met last year.’
‘It is. It’s good to talk to you again. I was sorry to hear about your husband.’
There it was, but thankfully brief. ‘Thank you. Cutting to the point, I’ve had an email from Simon Nicholl. They’ve suspended us pending an investigation into the death of a young boy over twenty years ago, I need to know if you’ve had similar.’ She heard a sharp indrawn breath. ‘I take that as a ‘yes’.’
‘We did, it came through this morning. I’ve spent the last few hours searching for any reference to the boy’s death but have come up empty-handed. What can you tell me?’
‘You’ve found nothing?’
‘Documentation pertaining to the renovation of the manor house but nothing else, no reference to an apprentice by that name working for the company.’
That bastard Dexter Sylvester had obviously tried to cover his tracks. Not well enough though. ‘I think it’s best if we meet,’ Keri said. Face to face communication over sensitive matters was always better – so much could be missed during a phone call. If they met, she would be able to see if Tom were lying or hiding something.
‘Okay,’ he said slowly. ‘I have to be in the city later, how about we meet near Victoria Station.’
‘Perfect. Do you know Lester’s?’
‘I do, that would be ideal. I’ve a few things to do here so say I’ll meet you there in two hours?’
‘Yes, that suits.’ She cut the connection and sat back tapping the phone against her chin. She’d been right. Whoever had killed the three men wasn’t finished. They were also planning on destroying both companies.
Another more terrifying thought struck her. Maybe not only the companies. Keri had considered without much care that she might be a target for revenge… but what if they
intended to go further, to destroy not only the Metcalfe company, but the Metcalfe family. Were Abbie and Daniel also targets?
She might not care whether she lived or died, but nobody was going to touch them.
49
Keri dropped her face into her cupped hands feeling suddenly overwhelmed. Was there a big conspiracy to destroy everything she’d ever loved, or was she simply trying to bury her grief. Perhaps it was easier to believe there was a big bad wolf out there waiting to gobble up her and her offspring rather than face the reality of life without Nathan.
Life without Nathan. The gaping emptiness seemed to be surrounding her. Soon it would have sucked her in and she’d be no more. She didn’t seem to have the energy to care.
Her mobile buzzed. When it buzzed again, she peeled her hands from her tear-sodden face and glared at it. It was only when it buzzed for the third time that she picked it up. It was a message from Abbie.
Thinking about u, hope u get thru the day ok, wish u’d let me come with you. Love u.
Abbie had attached a big beating heart to the message. Keri ran her thumb over it. Her sad heart was still beating. It was time to stop wallowing. She couldn’t fix Nathan’s death but maybe she could try to fix whatever else was going on.
Metcalfe Conservation had been Nathan’s pride and joy, she wasn’t going to let it go down without a fight. The suspension from the Stone Federation was something tangible, something she could fix.
She could fix herself too. That nice detective had been right. One mistake in twenty-five years didn’t make her a monster. The guilt mightn’t have faded completely but she’d stop using it to whip herself.
Nathan was dead but she was alive. So were Abbie and Daniel. It was time to put them first. Time too to look at things with her business eye.
What were the facts? Nathan and Dexter Sylvester were killed by someone wanting revenge for what happened to Jim Cody. That woman, Tracy Wirick, had to be involved somehow. Perhaps she was a relative of some sort. Maybe Roy had discovered something about her and was killed as a result.
The Couple in the Photograph Page 17
