The Murder Club (A Miller Hatcher Novel Book 2)

by Nikki Crutchley

  ‘Yes, to both,’ Cassie said. ‘But I also feel ripped off.’

  Miller nodded.

  ‘He’s never going to get his day in court. People aren’t going to hear about what he did. They won’t get the chance to hate him as much as I did for all those years.’

  ‘People hate him already,’ Miller said.

  ‘They hate him but they also want to know him,’ Cassie said. ‘And, hell, I kinda want to know him as well. Why did he do it? What made him do it?’

  ‘I can tell the story,’ Miller said. ‘I can tell the whole world what he did to your mum, the women in Lentford. I can tell you and the rest of the world who he was and why he did it, but I won’t write anything that excuses his actions.’ She thought of what Jay had told her about his mother, his childhood, his so-called reasoning for taking the lives of others, intent that their names be forever intertwined with his. She had a feeling, whether she wrote this story or not, Jason Martin would be remembered for many years to come, just as he wished, no matter how she reported his story. She crossed to the rubbish bin and deposited her empty cup.

  ‘So trial by media then?’ Cassie said.

  ‘It’s often a lot harsher than that of a courtroom.’

  Cassie looked out to the river. ‘I have a feeling that even if he had gone to trial, went to jail for the rest of his life, it would never have been enough for me. He took my mum from me all those years ago, and nothing will ever make that feeling of hopelessness and loss disappear. Nothing. So I should be glad he’s not in this world anymore.’

  ‘Have you seen Tiff since yesterday? Made up with her?’ Miller asked, dancing around the subject, knowing she was on fragile ground.

  Cassie visibly tensed, her coffee cup buckling in her hands. ‘I haven’t seen her since yesterday morning.’ She touched the pale bruise on her cheekbone.

  She doesn’t know. Kahu hasn’t told her. What if she’s in danger, though?

  ‘I love her. But I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’ll cook her dinner tonight, and we can talk. We might be able to work something out.’ Cassie turned towards Miller. ‘Her dad told me a lot of stuff. I’m just not sure if I want to be a part of her life. She can be really destructive.’

  Miller wanted to yell and shout, grab Cassie by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. But Kahu had warned her not to speak about Tiffany.

  Chapter 46

  Cassie got back from the supermarket just before six. The front door was wide open and music was blaring from the lounge. Her stomach somersaulted knowing she was about to see Tiff. She called out as she put the groceries in the kitchen. Devilskin screamed out of the speakers, and she turned it off while taking in the state of the lounge. A suitcase was lying on the floor, clothes were strewn over the couch. Tiff’s pipe was lying on the coffee table next to a small bag of white powder. Cassie rolled her eyes, wondering where the night would take them.

  Tiff walked in from their bedroom with a pile of clothes and dumped them in the middle of the floor.

  ‘Tiff?’ Cassie said, walking up to her. She looked at her dilated pupils. ‘Are you high?’

  ‘Of course I’m bloody high.’ She picked out clothes from the pile and threw them into the open suitcase. ‘Where have you been?’ she asked, not looking at Cassie.

  ‘I stayed in Hamilton last night. With an old friend.’

  ‘A woman?’ Tiff asked.

  ‘Yes, but it’s not like that. I just needed some space to think, after what happened yesterday morning.’

  ‘I went looking for you. I went to Miller’s. I thought for sure you’d be there.’ Tiff sat down on the couch and then stood back up again. ‘I think we should leave,’ she said. ‘Me and you. Head down south or maybe go up to Auckland.’ She went into the kitchen and rifled through the bags Cassie had left on the bench.

  ‘Okay,’ Cassie said uncertainly. ‘You don’t want to stay in Lentford anymore?’

  ‘You know I don’t. It’s a hole. We really only ever stayed for you, for the whole Karl Taylor thing.’

  ‘You know they’ve caught someone, right?’

  Tiff was silent, then joined Cassie back in the lounge.

  ‘You know Jay Martin? Came into the pub a bit. Worked at the printers. Jay’s the Scarf Killer, Tiff. And he killed my mother.’

  ‘What? He killed your mother!’

  Cassie was surprised at her shock.

  ‘I didn’t know that.’ Tiff got up again and headed to the kitchen.

  Cassie sighed and followed her. It was almost impossible to talk to her when she was like this. Tiff got a bottle of wine from the fridge and busied herself opening it. Her hands were shaking.

  ‘Why would you?’ Cassie said.

  ‘I... No reason.’ Tiff grabbed a coffee mug from the dish rack and poured the wine, slopping some onto the floor.

  ‘Tiff, you’re shaking. We’re all a bit shocked. I mean, we knew Jay, sort of; knew who he was. I still can’t believe he killed those women. Killed Mum. I’m glad he’s been caught, but it’s all a lot to take in. I heard from Len—’

  ‘Lentford’s resident gossip,’ Tiff said, half the wine was gone in one gulp.

  ‘Apparently Jay had someone helping him.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Tiff refilled her glass.

  ‘The papers always reported that there was no evidence of a break-in, that the women had let the killer in. They thought maybe they knew him. He probably did know them, but not well enough that if he came knocking on the door late at night they’d let him in. So they think he had help.’

  Tiff walked towards Cassie, her mouth a thin line, stained red from the wine. She reached out and caressed Cassie’s bare arm. ‘Do they know?’ She knocked back the rest of the wine. ‘Cassie, do you know something? Is there something you’re not telling me?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Cassie gulped, the sound loud in the silence.

  ‘You were always such a bad liar. Too innocent and good, that’s your problem. Have the cops got to you? They told me they wouldn’t say anything. I haven’t been charged with anything.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘God! I’m so sick of this. Of you.’ Tiff refilled her mug with wine and took another gulp.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Cassie said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Tiff mimicked, her voice high. ‘This privileged life you lead. You’re so spoilt, you don’t want for anything.’

  ‘Tiff, you know that’s not true.’

  ‘Fine, you lost your mother, but you still had a family who loved you, money, a dad who gave you whatever you wanted.’

  ‘And you had the same, Tiff. A loving family who would do anything for you – even now.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I visited your dad yesterday,’ Cassie said, unsure it was the best idea to tell Tiff.

  Tiff was silent. ‘Whatever. I don’t care. He probably sucked you in. Told you lies about me. You’re really just like them.’

  ‘Like who?’ Cassie asked, making sure there was enough distance between her and Tiff in the small kitchen.

  ‘The only reason he chose them was because they lived by themselves, but I knew them. I’d talked to all of them before.’

  ‘Tiff—’

  ‘Don’t fuckin’ pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. Those women. They had it all. Parents who loved them – you should’ve seen the photos in their houses, fuckin’ everywhere. Happy families – they had good jobs, money. I spoke to Tamara a lot out at The Oaks. Got to know her. She was always whingeing about her boyfriend. Didn’t realise how good she had it.’

  Tiff stopped and stared at her. Cassie tried to arrange her face into an expression that didn’t show how horrified she was.

  ‘Stop fuckin’ acting like you don’t know what’s going on!’ Tiff shouted. ‘Yo
u act so bloody innocent. Speak up! Go on, Cass, tell me what’s on your mind. Who’s been whispering in your ear? That fuckin’ black bastard Parata? It was him, wasn’t it? Whispering shit in your ear about me helping Jay.’

  ‘Tiff—’ Cass could feel herself flush with fear.

  ‘Look,’ Tiff said, leaning against the bench, her right side pressed up against Cassie. ‘The police questioned me today. I admitted to an affair with Fenella. And the assault. I admitted that too. But she wanted to call things off and I got upset. She was still in the bloody closet, started getting all precious about what people would think. I shouldn’t have done what I did. It was wrong. I didn’t mean to hurt you. She means nothing to me.’

  ‘Jesus, Tiff,’ Cassie said. ‘I don’t care about Fenella. But you assaulted her.’

  Tiff sighed. ‘What do you want to hear, Cass?’ She leant down to Cassie and nibbled her ear lobe and whispered. ‘Do you want me to say I helped Jay? Do you need a confession?’

  Cassie felt the tears run down her cheeks. ‘Enough,’ she said.

  ‘Enough?’ Tiff threw her head back and laughed. ‘No, Cassie. Not enough. You want the truth from me? We love each other, right? So we need to be honest with each other. I did it. I helped Jay. I helped the man who murdered your mother! How’s that for a surprise?’ Tiff was giggling now. ‘It’s not funny, I know.’ She took a deep breath, trying to control herself. ‘But Jesus, Cass. I had no idea.’

  Cassie found it hard to stand, her legs failing to support her. She grabbed hold of the bench. ‘If you had known he’d killed my mother, would you still have helped him?’

  Tiff was silent for a while. ‘Yeah, probably.’ She looked at Cassie, a smile tugging at her lips.

  Cassie stepped around Tiff, heading for the lounge. She needed to get out of here.

  Tiff reached out and grabbed her hair. Cassie screamed and Tiff brought the half-empty wine bottle down on her head. ‘You’re not going anywhere, Cass.’

  Cassie lay on the floor in the kitchen, staring at Tiff’s bare feet. She reached for the side of her head and brought away a bloodied hand. She felt it, hot and thick, running into her ear. ‘You won’t tell anyone about this, right?’ Tiff said, bending down to speak to her. Her voice had changed from hard and angry to soft and sing-song, belying the words coming from her mouth. ‘For starters, no one will believe you. You don’t have the best track record. Losing your mother all those years ago, your obsession with Karl Taylor and then being committed to The Oaks. Plus, you’ve just found out who’s murdered your mother and you’re all over the show.’

  ‘Tiff...’ Cassie said.

  ‘We’re done, Cassie. You’re too weak. I’m outta here.’ She got up and left the kitchen and Cassie heard her putting clothes into the suitcase.

  Cassie pulled herself up, wondering if she’d done a good job, wondering where they were, and then there was loud knocking and Detective Parata barged in with a mass of people behind him.

  ‘About bloody time,’ Cassie said as he knelt down next to her, yelling for an ambulance.

  There was a flurry of activity as a paramedic checked Cassie out. She sat up, leaning against the cupboard as the paramedic checked her wound, shone a torch in her eyes and asked her questions which she only half heard. Tiff was in the lounge, shouting obscenities. A detective walked towards her, backing her into the far wall by their bedroom. Tiff kicked her legs out and growled at him like a wild animal. Another detective helped restrain her, and even when the handcuffs were on she kept struggling.

  Tiff caught Cassie’s eye as she was dragged out of the house. ‘This was all a lie!’ she shouted, her eyes bright. ‘What we had? Remember that! I never loved you. All of this – what I did – it was so much bigger, more important than you!’

  Twenty minutes later the house was quiet. Detective Parata had told her she’d done a perfect job, that they’d heard everything that was said. Cassie sat on the couch, a mug of tea in her trembling hands. The victim support officer sat on the couch beside her, a hand lightly on her back, as she cried.

  Half an hour later Cassie was ready to go forward. Without Tiff. Without her mum.

  Chapter 47

  Miller walked into the Royal on Christmas Eve with Ash. There was a Lentford Leader get-together and Miller assured Ash she would be welcome. Every table and leaner were taken, smokers congregated out back, there was a line for the pool tables and people were three deep at the bar. The air smelt of cigarette smoke wafting in from outside and the roast of the day, which seemed to have been ordered by half the pub. Miller had just come from Cassie’s house where she was packed and waiting for her father to pick her up. Cassie was still in shock, sporting stitches on the side of her head where Tiff had hit her with a wine bottle.

  ‘Detective Parata tracked me down yesterday morning when I got back from Hamilton,’ Cassie had said. ‘He told me what had happened, that Tiff was at the police station. He said they didn’t have enough to arrest her. They bugged our place, had it under surveillance all of yesterday. All I had to do was try and get a confession out of her. She was out of her mind. But that’s no excuse. That was Tiff, I’m beginning to realise.’

  ‘You obviously had no idea what she’d been up to,’ Miller said, amazed at what Tiff had almost got away with.

  Cassie shook her head. ‘I often worked nights at the pub. If she’d gone out, like she said, knocked on those women’s doors and got inside I’d never have known anything about it. And if I did get home and she wasn’t in she just told me she was out scoring drugs.’

  ‘What will you do now?’ Miller asked.

  ‘They offer the same childcare course in Tauranga. I’m going to move in with Dad. It’s funny. I so desperately wanted to get away from him for such a long time and now it’s the only place I want to be. I feel like all of this... I had to go through it. Karl Taylors, Tiff, The Oaks... I had to do all that before I came right.’

  ‘That was a lot to go through.’

  ‘I know, but without it, I wouldn’t have had the same outcome. If I hadn’t started obsessing about Karl Taylor I wouldn’t have ended up in The Oaks, if I hadn’t gone to The Oaks I wouldn’t have met Tiff, if I hadn’t meet Tiff I’d never have stayed in Lentford, and if I hadn’t stayed in Lentford I wouldn’t have met you. The article wouldn’t have been written, Jay’s grandad would never have seen it, you’d never have met Amanda. See? Full circle.’ Cassie nodded, happy with her conclusion.

  ‘A pretty traumatic full circle,’ Miller said. ‘Are you going to be okay, Cassie?’ Miller asked, a hand on her arm. She always seemed so innocent. There was always a need in Miller to protect her.

  ‘Yes,’ Cassie nodded. ‘For the first time in many years, probably since before Mum died, I can say with all certainty I’m going to be fine.’

  ‘Miller!’ Cody shouted, arms flailing in a drunken semaphore. ‘Over here!’

  Miller waved back and weaved her way to the table where Cody and Hine sat. ‘No Eric?’ she said, feigning disappointment. They’d arranged the get-together before the paper had split up for the holidays. An issue would be put out in a couple of days; all the content was ready to go. Ngaire had told Miller to hold off on her article about Jay. ‘Leave it till the new year. I want as many people as possible to read it.’

  ‘You just missed him,’ Cody said. ‘Scrounged our drinks and then left.’

  ‘And Ngaire?’

  ‘I got a text from her last night. I think she hates Christmas as much as you. She’s taken a last-minute trip to Sydney. She wishes us all a Merry Christmas and will see us in the new year. I’m in charge of getting the files off to the printers. Apparently old man Lexford is coming out of semi-retirement to print it for us because...’ Cody tailed off, unable to put it into words.

  ‘Because his last employee was a serial killer,’ Hine said, appearing at the table, handing Miller a Coke and pouring Ash a beer
into an empty glass from the pitcher on the table without asking what her preference was.

  ‘He was a spree killer, not a serial killer,’ Miller said before she could stop herself, remembering what Logan had said on the tour.

  Miller saw Lou and Maggie at a table close by with two other couples. Aubrey was at a table with four other women, all talking over each other. Johnno and Tane were manic behind the bar. Every now and then Johnno’s sullen face lit up as he served a woman.

  ‘There’s a lot of chat round here,’ Hine said. ‘About Jay. God, to think I fancied him.’

  ‘You fancy everyone,’ said Cody.

  Hine playfully pushed him, and he almost fell off his seat. They erupted into laughter.

  A man next to them was telling anyone who would listen that for the last couple of years Jay had printed all his firm’s business cards and calendars. ‘Fuckin’ freaks me out that I sat in an office with that sicko. Shooting the breeze, talking business.’

  ‘Yeah, bro, I don’t think you were really his type. You were safe.’ There was a roar of laughter.

  ‘Bit early for jokes like that, isn’t it?’ Hine said, sipping her beer.

  Bull walked in a few minutes later and a crowd gathered around him. He had become known as the one who would offer up information when all the other cops kept tight-lipped. Miller was sure it had got him into some trouble, but by the looks of it, he loved the attention too much to keep quiet.

  The group of men jostled Bull into the middle of the room, and someone handed him a beer. The place quietened enough to hear what Bull was saying.

  When he realised he had the attention of everyone in the bar his voice grew louder. ‘Jay Martin died yesterday morning. Had a brain tumour.’

  Miller noticed Ash stiffen in her chair. ‘He can’t help himself can he,’ she said to Miller. ‘I’ve given him a verbal warning, about talking about open cases. I’ve told him the next one will be in writing.’

  There was an immediate uproar:

  ‘What the fuck?’

  ‘Are you fuckin’ serious!’