The Liar's House: An absolutely gripping thriller with a fantastic twist (Detective Gina Harte Book 4)

by Carla Kovach

  Gina felt her feet begin to deaden but she wasn’t about to stand. She needed to keep Vicky talking to her. ‘Can you remember anything else about him?’

  She shook her head, teeth chattering as she tried to think. Jacob removed his overcoat and placed it over her shoulders. ‘Here you go. This should warm you up.’

  A couple came out onto the street in their dressing gowns and began staring. ‘Could one of you please bring a hot drink out?’ Gina shouted over to them.

  They nodded and the woman went back into the house leaving the man to find out more. If people were going to stand there, she couldn’t stop them, but she could at least get them to help.

  ‘Going back to the attacker, can you give us a description?’

  Vicky shook her head. ‘It really was too dark. He was taller than me. I’m five foot tall.’

  Gina looked at the pavement, her own legs beginning to wobble after holding the same position for so long. It was likely that most people were going to be taller. So far, their perpetrator was likely to be male and over five feet tall.

  ‘I can’t tell you any more. I don’t know anything else. Is the woman okay? Will she live?’

  Gina stood, her legs no longer able to hold her position. ‘I’m really sorry, but the woman you found was dead when officers arrived at the scene.’

  Vicky wiped her eyes. ‘I thought so. I just hoped—’

  The neighbour came back out with a mug of something hot. Gina thanked her and passed the drink to Vicky. ‘Here you go. Try to have a few sips, it will warm you up.’ Gina nodded at the paramedics who came back over to assist. Vicky removed Jacob’s coat from her shoulders and passed it back.

  ‘We’ll need you to give us a formal statement. An officer will help you home in a minute. Can you do that for me?’ Gina asked.

  ‘I’ll do anything to help catch the bastard who killed the poor woman.’

  ‘Here’s my card in the meantime. If you remember anything at a later date, however insignificant it seems, call me.’

  As Gina turned back towards the scene, Bernard came running around the corner. ‘We’ve found a handbag!’

  Four

  Jacob pulled into the cul-de-sac, where several detached houses filled the end of the road in a curve. All houses were in darkness, including the one that they needed to visit.

  ‘Have you noticed something?’ Gina asked as he pulled the handbrake and switched off the engine.

  Jacob ran his hand over his short brown hair as he stared at the house. ‘No one is waiting up for her. The house is in darkness.’

  ‘Correct. Either they’re not in or they’ve gone to bed, but no one is at all worried that Jade hasn’t come home. She had a phone in her handbag, fully charged and ready to use. Not one person had called to check that she was safe. Maybe I’m overthinking all this and her husband wasn’t expecting her for whatever reason but it’s nearly four in the morning.’ Gina fanned her face and took a deep breath. ‘No one is going to do this for us. I suppose we’d best take a deep breath and go deliver the bad news.’

  They walked down the block-paved drive and knocked at the door. A bedroom light flickered. They listened as the occupant’s footsteps led the way down the stairs. ‘Did you forget your keys?’ a man’s voice boomed out as he opened the door wearing nothing but a pair of tight boxer shorts. He was obviously comfortable with his body. Jacob looked away from the man’s rippled torso and glanced at the wall.

  ‘DI Harte and DS Driscoll. Are you Mr Ashmore?’ Gina held her identification up.

  ‘Yes. What’s happened?’ He ran his hands through his full head of blond hair before stroking his designer stubble.

  ‘I’ll explain if you could just let us come in a moment.’ Gina didn’t want to break the news on the doorstep that his wife’s body had been found.

  He stepped aside and gestured for them to enter the kitchen.

  Gina felt her heart begin to race as he followed them through the hallway into the large open plan kitchen. His pink cheeks began to drain of colour. ‘Would you like to sit down, Mr Ashmore?’

  ‘No, I don’t think I would. Just tell me what’s going on.’

  ‘I’m afraid we have bad news. We have found a body at the back of Gilmore Close and we believe it may be your wife, Jade Ashmore. I’m so sorry.’

  The man wobbled slightly. Jacob pulled out one of the bar stools and the man fell into it. ‘It can’t be her. You’ve got it wrong.’

  ‘I know this is hard for you, Mr Ashmore. Is there someone you’d like us to call? Someone who can be with you.’ The house was in silence. She wondered if anyone else was upstairs. She knew they had a child.

  ‘Who the hell would do something like this? Are you sure it’s her?’

  ‘Did Jade have a tattoo?’

  He gasped for air, held his head in his hands and began pacing across the kitchen tiles. ‘A small butterfly on her ankle. She hated it and was having it removed.’

  ‘It’s her, Mr Ashmore.’ Gina had seen Jade’s driving licence that she’d kept in her purse. The one side of her face matched the photo perfectly. A confirmation of her identity was merely a formality. ‘I’m so sorry to deliver such bad news—’

  ‘How did it happen? Did she have an accident?’

  As Gina shook her head, her stomach began to turn. Her mind flashed back to the moment she saw Jade’s body and the damage to her head and face. ‘I really am sorry. She was attacked and didn’t pull through.’ She didn’t want to say that Jade had been brutally murdered. ‘We will need to know where she went last night. We will also need to know where you were.’

  He stopped in front of the bi-fold doors, his reflection staring back at him. He kicked one of the kitchen chairs that were neatly placed around a six-seater table and let out a roar before wiping his teary eyes. ‘What am I going to tell our daughter?’ he said as he sat on the edge of the table, shaking his head. ‘How can someone have hurt her? She wouldn’t hurt a fly.’

  Gina hated having to continue pushing him for answers but she needed to know where he’d been that night and she needed to get the investigation gathering momentum. They didn’t have time to wait. Her throat began to dry up. ‘Can we make you a drink?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘May I have a glass of water?’ she asked as she headed over to the sink.

  He nodded. ‘I can’t believe she’s gone.’ He clenched his fists and began to tremble as the news sank in.

  Jacob stood at the other end of the kitchen table, unable to offer anything further. As Gina took a gulp of water, she caught her own reflection in the kitchen window and tried to focus on what lay beyond. Deep within the darkness of what would be the garden, all she could see was Jade’s face, blood oozing onto the pavement and no sign of the eye that had once been on the right side of her face. She saw the mother that would never again come home to her child. A tremor began to build in her hands. She placed the glass on the draining board before she spilt it. It was a chilly early morning and she was tense. Questioning the husband wasn’t going to be easy. ‘Mr Ashmore, can you tell me where your wife went last night?’

  ‘We went to a party at a friend’s house. Her name is Dawn.’ The man grabbed a tartan throw. He slumped into a chair at the kitchen table as he pulled the blanket around his shoulders.

  ‘Do you have a surname and address for Dawn?’

  He nodded, grabbed his phone and scrolled. ‘Her surname is Brown and her address is 27 Houston Close. It’s one of the large houses on the new-build estate, just a few roads away from here.’ The man wiped his nose on the back of his hand.

  ‘I know this is difficult, but we need to catch whoever did this to your wife. Getting as much information now—’

  ‘You don’t have to explain. I know. I want whoever did this caught.’ He wiped the corner of his eye.

  Gina sat opposite him at the kitchen table. ‘What time did you arrive at the party?’

  ‘We arrived about half seven. It only takes a few minutes
to get there if you know the area. We walked.’

  Gina watched as Jacob began taking notes, the sound of his pencil scraping across paper almost made her teeth itch. ‘Tell me what happened after that.’

  ‘We were the first there, apart from our host, Dawn. A few minutes later, her partner Steven arrived with a box of beer and wine. Then there were two more couples. I’ve never met them before so I can’t tell you much about them. I did recognise one woman, a young woman called Aimee. I’ve seen her around with her boyfriend. They live close by too. I think everyone lived close by as they all walked. I can’t remember when the rest arrived. We were ushered into the lounge where Jade and I sat together and talked. We were quite nervous.’

  ‘Nervous?’

  ‘Yes, we didn’t know anyone except Dawn. It’s always a bit nerve-wracking meeting new people. Jade was a bit tense. She’s not exactly a social butterfly, preferring to stay at home and watch a film. I encouraged her to go to the party, said it would be good for us to get out. As it happened, we all had a good time. Couples split up and were talking to others. People migrated out to the garden where some smoked.’

  ‘You came home without her?’

  The man began messing with his phone. She could tell he was holding something back. ‘We haven’t been in the best place lately, as a couple. You know, things go a bit stale. Jade kept moaning about going home. I topped her glass up a couple of times and asked her not to ruin the evening for me. She basically snubbed me, which is her thing. I get short, she gets all passive-aggressive.’ A tear slid down his cheek. ‘It was obvious she was pissed off. Anyway, I had a few to drink and at around eleven thirty I told her I was going and I left her there.’

  Jade was the one who wanted to go home yet Noah Ashmore left first. It seemed a little odd to her. She pictured Jade, a little merry from the wine she didn’t often drink, chatting away to strangers. Had she been trying to show him she could have a good time without him?

  ‘Did you come straight home after that?’

  ‘No, I ended up outside, talking to Aimee for a while. We walked as far as the woods and I left her there. I suppose I just used her to sound off a bit. She could tell there was some tension going on between Jade and me.’

  ‘So, let me get this straight. You left at about eleven thirty and walked towards the woods. Is that the woods that back onto Houston Close?’

  He nodded as he linked his fingers.

  ‘How long did you spend walking?’

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘About half an hour, I guess.’

  That was a lengthy time to sound off to someone he hadn’t met before that night. Jacob scrawled away, making lots of notes. He glanced at her, she glanced back.

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘I walked home, relieved the babysitter from her duties and went to bed. I just assumed that Jade would turn up when she’d made her point.’

  ‘Her point?’

  He held his arms up, the tartan blanket held open making him look as though he had wings. ‘That she was capable of having a good time.’ His hands dropped back into his lap.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Ashmore. I know this is hard but it’s really helping us. Can you tell us when you arrived home and when the babysitter left? We will also need to know who babysat.’

  ‘Tiffany left at about twelve twenty, twelve thirty, maybe. I arrived home, paid her and she left. She lives a few doors down. She studies childcare and she loves Lilly, our four-year-old.’

  ‘What number does she live at?’

  He looked up at her with glassy eyes. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Ashmore. We need to know where she lives.’

  He stood, stomped out to the living room and looked out of the window. ‘I don’t know the number but she’s one, two, three doors down, on our right. She lives with her dad. You don’t need to disturb her tonight, do you?’

  Gina glanced at Jacob and nodded as Noah Ashmore walked back into the room. ‘I’m afraid we do.’

  ‘But she wouldn’t know anything. She just babysat then went home.’

  He flinched as Gina broke the silence. ‘What happened is serious, as you can appreciate.’

  ‘No shit. You’re telling me. I’ve lost my wife, and not only that, we’d fallen out. I have to live with that forever. The last memory of my wife was her being mad at me. She died being mad at me! We have a daughter. What am I going to do?’ The enormity of the situation dawned on the man as his shoulders crumpled. He fell into the chair, trying to hide his sobs.

  ‘Daddy,’ a little girl called. The tiny patter of feet came downstairs and a bleary-eyed four-year-old clutched a comfort blanket as she looked up. Noah gasped for breath and looked away, doing all he could to control his emotions. ‘Who are these people, Daddy?’

  Noah wiped his face and turned to his daughter, scooping her up and holding her tight.

  ‘Are you sure we can’t call anyone to be with you?’

  He shook his head. ‘I just need to be with my daughter for a while. I’ll call the family then. Please catch whoever did this?’

  Gina nodded. ‘I’ll leave my card here, just in case you can remember anything else. We’ll call you later today about making a formal statement. Do you have a photo of Mrs Ashmore that I can take with me? We will be putting out an appeal soon but we’ll be in contact with you if and when that goes ahead.’

  He leaned over to the cabinet, holding his daughter with one arm, and slid the draw open. He pulled out a small album and dropped it onto the table, then opened it to the third page. ‘Please take that one. She liked that photo of herself.’ He placed his daughter down as Gina fought to extract the photo from the static-ridden plastic cover. ‘Just find who did this to her, for me and this little girl here,’ he said as he held his hands over the little girl’s ears. ‘Right, Daddy will take you back to bed now.’

  Gina’s stomach turned as they let themselves out. ‘I hate this part of the job. Hate it!’

  ‘Do you think he’s holding something back? He looked a little cagey when you mentioned the babysitter.’ Jacob turned the page on his notebook.

  ‘I know what you mean.’

  Five

  Tiffany Gall came down the stairs wearing a fluffy onesie, her dyed black hair stuck to one side of her face. She squinted as she came into the light, passing her father who stood anxiously, waiting for the kettle to boil. ‘Come through, officers,’ the man called, as he laid out four cups.

  Gina and Jacob followed Tiffany into the kitchen.

  ‘What’s going on, Dad?’ Her voice reminding Gina of that belonging to a young child.

  The man placed the coffees on a mat in the middle of the kitchen table. ‘I think you should take a seat, sweetheart.’

  ‘What’s happened?’ Tiffany pulled several strands of hair from her face and glanced at Gina.

  Gina felt a trail of sweat begin to itch on the nape of her neck. Tiffany had obviously been close to the family. ‘We’re sorry to tell you that Mrs Ashmore has been attacked only a few hours ago. Unfortunately she didn’t make it.’ The girl glanced at the detectives and then at the table.

  ‘But… I saw her only a few hours ago.’

  ‘I know, and I know it’s a lot to take in. You were close to the family and their daughter Lilly?’

  ‘Is Lilly okay, and Noah?’

  ‘They’re both fine.’

  Tiffany nervously began pulling at a few strands of her hair. ‘I babysat for them occasionally. I suppose we were friends. They’ve lived on this road since I was in my early teens.’ The girl went silent and began to sob.

  Her dad ran over and embraced her.

  Gina swigged the hot coffee, needing caffeine more than ever. ‘I know this is hard and that you were close to the family but we need to catch the person who did this to Jade. Can you just tell me as you remember, what happened from when you arrived at the Ashmores’ house to when you came back home?’

  From what Noah Ashmore had said, Mrs Ashmore hadn’t come home
with him but Gina wanted to make sure. Jacob flicked the pages in his notebook, ready to jot down what was said.

  The girl nodded as her dad passed her a tissue. She rubbed it over her reddening eyes as she began to relay the events of the evening between sobs. ‘They told me to get there about seven, which I did. When I arrived, Mrs Ashmore was just finishing getting ready in the bedroom and Noah was in the living room, watching something on the TV. Lilly was curled up in one of the armchairs, holding her favourite storybooks. I joined her and continued reading until way after they’d gone out. They shouted bye as they left and told me they’d be back late, maybe after midnight. I put Lilly to bed at about eight thirty and read to her some more.’

  ‘After that?’ She was coming to the bit Gina wanted to know more about.

  Tiffany shrugged. ‘I plugged my earphones in and listened to a bit of music while I played on Facebook.’ The girl stopped talking and stared into space.

  ‘Tiffany?’

  She flinched as she brought her attention back to what Gina was asking. ‘That was it. Noah came home and said that Mrs Ashmore was still out. He gave me twenty pounds and I left. That was it.’

  Gina made a note of her own. Whenever Tiffany spoke of the family, she referred to Noah by his first name but his wife as Mrs Ashmore, never Jade. That was it – there was more to this evening than Tiffany was telling them. ‘How did he seem?’

  ‘Do you think he killed Mrs Ashmore?’

  ‘We’re not saying that, Tiffany. We’re just trying to establish what happened.’ A warm smile spread across Gina’s face as she hoped to put Tiffany at ease.

  ‘Right. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.’ The girl paused.

  ‘The lovely police lady just needs you to tell her anything you can think of, sweetheart,’ her dad said as he placed a loving hand on his daughter’s shoulder.

  Lovely police lady. It wasn’t the most accurate description of her role or title but she’d let it slip as she’d just delivered such bad news.

  ‘When he came home, Noah, he seemed fine. He looked like he’d had a couple of drinks and stank of wine. He wasn’t drunk, just slightly merry, I’d say. He waffled on for a few minutes as he took off his coat and sat in the living room. Mostly, he talked about how they’d had a little fallout, but then he said that all would be good, that she’d be home in a bit and things would be back to normal. He asked if I could come and help out with Lilly the next day if Mrs Ashmore wasn’t up to it. He thought she might have a mega hangover. I said yes, took the money from him and then I left. That really is all I know, officer.’ The girl pulled the hood of her onesie over her head and began biting her nails.