Circle of Lies

by Paul J. Teague

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  ‘Will… Will! Come on, focus on me.’

  ‘I think he might have a concussion,’ Nigel said. ‘Have you got a first aid box?’

  ‘Over there, at the side of the tall freezer,’ Charlotte told him.

  Will seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. He’d given her a real panic on the phone, sounding so vague. She lifted the tea towel from the back of his head. The cold water she’d doused it with had washed away most of the blood now. She could see that his wound didn’t appear to be too serious, even though the impact had given him such a shock.

  ‘Who did this to you, Will? Did you see them?’

  ‘When are the guests coming?’ Will said. ‘Hello, Nigel from the paper. What are you doing here?’

  ‘It’s like he’s drunk,’ Charlotte said to Nigel. She checked Will’s breath.

  ‘Here, let’s patch him up with a bandage,’ Nigel said, kneeling down beside him.

  Charlotte’s phone rang again from the kitchen worktop. She leapt up and snatched at it, eager to see if it was Olli. It wasn’t; it was the same unidentified number that she’d ignored earlier. This time she answered.

  ‘Charlotte Grayson?’

  It was a woman’s voice, an unfamiliar one.

  ‘Yes?’

  She braced herself. Was this news of Olli? Had he been in some kind of accident?

  ‘My name is Rita Cribbins. I’m the governor of Fletcher Prison in Cheshire. Can you talk?’

  Charlotte steadied herself with her free hand.

  ‘Yes. Go on.’

  ‘Can I just check some security information with you first, please? Your full name, and your date of birth.’

  Charlotte gave the answers.

  Nigel appeared to be making good progress with Will. He was properly bandaged now, and Nigel had him sitting upright on a chair.

  Charlotte turned her attention back to the prison governor. ‘It’s in connection with your friend, Jenna Phillips. She has your name down as her only contact, and we know you’re the only person who’s visited her. So we thought we’d better get in touch with you.’

  ‘Okay, what is it?’

  Why couldn’t the woman just spit it out? She didn’t have time to wait.

  ‘Can I just check that you’re not driving or doing anything which might cause an accident?’

  Charlotte had heard this before; this was not good news.

  ‘I’m fine, just tell me, please.’

  ‘Jenna tried to hang herself this afternoon…’

  ‘Oh my God. Is she alive?’

  ‘The staff got to her in time, so yes, she’s alive, but it was a close call.’

  ‘Don’t you monitor your prisoners, for Christ’s sake?’ Charlotte shouted, furious that nothing had been done to protect her friend. She felt guilty about Piper, and angry at herself for letting Jenna down.

  Daisy Bowker had just walked in through the front door of the guest house.

  ‘Is everything all right here?’ she asked.

  Charlotte motioned towards her phone to indicate that she was busy. Nigel introduced himself and began to explain what had happened in a hushed voice.

  ‘However much we monitor the cells, if an inmate wants to harm herself, there’s not much we can do to prevent it. Jenna had complained of anxiety to one of the prison nurses, and she was being treated for that. She managed to get her hands on a length of electrical cable from somewhere. She fastened it to the end of the bunk bed in her room while her cellmate was out.’

  ‘Where is she now?’ Charlotte asked.

  ‘She’s been transferred to a specialist hospital in Manchester where they can check her for brain and spinal damage. You’ll be able to visit her soon, I’m sure, but the hospital can arrange that.’

  ‘Okay, thank you. Send her my love please; I’ll visit as soon as I can.’

  Charlotte overheard Daisy saying that she needed to speak to her before she went upstairs to her room. Charlotte attempted to end the call, but the prison governor had more to say.

  ‘I need to broach a delicate issue with you, Mrs Grayson. Jenna left a suicide note, and your name was written on the envelope. I understand that this is a personal matter and that you may wish to read the letter in private. However, bearing in mind we’ll have to launch an investigation and file a report on this, I wanted your permission to open it now. If Jenna was being bullied or intimidated, it might help us identify the culprit.

  Charlotte could see that Daisy was getting impatient to speak to her, so she hurried the conversation with Rita Cribbins. The contents of the note would only make her feel worse about herself. She almost welcomed whatever blame it placed on her shoulders. She’d got Jenna wrong; she’d turned her back on an old friend.

  ‘Open it,’ Charlotte instructed.

  She heard Rita Cribbins moving her phone under her chin to enable her to tear open the envelope. There was a moment of silence.

  ‘It doesn’t say much at all. I’ll read it to you.

  Charlotte. They know what we did. Be careful. I can’t face it any longer. Tell my daughter I love her and that I’m sorry. Her name is Piper. She lives somewhere in Morecambe. Jenna x

  ‘Does that mean anything to you?’ Rita asked.

  Charlotte felt her body turn stone cold, as if a ghost had walked straight through her.

  ‘No, it’s a complete mystery to me,’ she lied. ‘Thank you for calling. I’ll be sure to check in on Jenna.’

  Charlotte ended the call and looked over towards Daisy, Nigel and Will. Seeing she was now free, Daisy strode up to her.

  ‘I’ve got a bone to pick with you,’ Daisy said. ‘I’ve just spent the afternoon at Morecambe Library, speaking to a very nice local historian by the name of Jon Rogers. It seems you know him well?’

  Charlotte didn’t like Daisy’s tone. She looked like she was getting ready to lay into her.

  ‘Yes, he’s a helpful chap. Why?’

  She wanted to call the police about Olli. She had to see if Will needed running to the hospital. And then there was Lucia. Damn, and Rex Emery. Had Rex Emery done this to Will? Had she let a violent man hide in their home after all?

  ‘When I asked Jon about tracing Bruce Craven, he told me you’d already been in several months earlier doing exactly the same thing. So why did you and your husband lie to me? Both of you told me you hardly knew my half-brother, yet now it seems you’ve been looking for him too.’

  Charlotte couldn’t think of an answer. Her mind raced, trying to work out who knew what. The lies upon lies were becoming too much. She’d lost track.

  ‘He’s recommended I talk to a local singer. A lady called Abi something… Abi Smith or Smithson I think he said. I wrote it down in my notebook. Apparently, she used to work there too, and she knows most people.’

  ‘I have to check something,’ Charlotte said. ‘I’ll explain it all later.’

  ‘Where are you going?’ Nigel asked.

  ‘One moment,’ Charlotte replied.

  She ran down the stairs, taking three steps at a time, fumbling for the master key to open up the guest room in which she’d concealed Rex Emery. The door was damaged; it looked like it had been forced from the outside.

  ‘Rex? Are you in here?’

  Charlotte pushed the door open, frantically searching for any sign of his whereabouts. She checked the en suite and even went as far as glancing under the bed, in case he’d taken refuge there. A plain, white mug was resting on the carpet where it had been dropped, its content long since soaked into the pile. Other than that and the door, there was no sign of any struggle. The window was open too, but that seemed normal to her.

  Charlotte ran back down the stairs to the kitchen, meeting Daisy on her way.

  ‘I’d really like to speak with you about this,’ Daisy insisted. ‘I can see that it’s not the best time. But you’ve been lying to me, and I want to know why. My half-brother disappeared off the face of the earth. And you, your husband, and this
Abi woman, you’ve got a connection to him. What’s going on, Charlotte? What aren’t you telling me about Bruce Craven?’

  ‘Jesus, Daisy, I know you’re a guest, but please stop!’

  Charlotte knew she was out of control, even as she spat out the words at Daisy, but she was overloaded. She had to ignore the smaller fires that were bursting into flames all around her and focus on the most pressing issues.

  Daisy was shocked by the outburst. She backed down.

  ‘I can see you’re under a lot of stress, Charlotte, so I’ll leave it for now. But I’m not going to let this drop; I want to know what happened.’

  ‘I know you do, and I will explain,’ Charlotte said, a little calmer. ‘But my son has gone missing, my husband has been attacked in our home, and my daughter has run off with God knows who.’

  Daisy nodded and let Charlotte pass on the stairs. She walked up to the family accommodation, taking deep breaths, trying to figure out what to do next. It had to be the police, surely, no matter how exposed that made them.

  Nigel was waiting for her when she entered the kitchen.

  ‘I heard what Daisy said to you, and I agree with her,’ he began.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Charlotte responded, not sure where he was heading with this.

  ‘I’ve felt it for some time, Charlotte. I agree with your guest. Even DCI Summers suggested it. I think you’re hiding something, that you’re caught up in what’s going on. And I think you’re scared of someone.’

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Nigel Davies didn’t know how close to the truth he was. But there was no way Charlotte could let him know that. She liked Nigel and was even beginning to trust him. But could she tell him what they’d done? She decided to tell him a partial truth. She needed his help; they needed his help, bearing in mind what had just happened to Will.

  ‘Can I trust you?’ she said.

  ‘Charlotte, if you don’t know that by now, you don’t know me very well.’

  ‘I believe we’ve become accidentally linked to these murders in some way. You already know that Will and I worked at the holiday camp. Jenna did too. Now Daisy is trying to find her half-brother who worked there as well.’

  ‘She seems convinced that you’re hiding something from her,’ Nigel said.

  Charlotte paused. Here came another lie. How many more would they have to tell to hide their secret?

  ‘I am, but only to protect her. Her half-brother worked at the holiday camp. We didn’t know him well, but we did know him. I think there must be a connection between all this and the holiday camp. Did Fred Walker get the contract to redevelop the site?’

  ‘That’s an excellent question,’ said Nigel, picking up his mobile phone to run a search. It didn’t take him long to come up with a result.

  ‘Bingo!’ he said, after a few minutes of frantic finger movements across the screen of his phone. ‘It was their consortium which bought the land, and they’re the guys re-developing the site.’

  For once, Charlotte felt like she’d caught a break. This would help her deflect things away from Bruce. It also gave Nigel, Daisy and DCI Summers a reason for her having some loose connection with what was going on. She’d conceal the real connection—Bruce Craven—for as long as possible.

  ‘They seem to have their fingers in every other pie,’ Charlotte continued. ‘Why not this one?’

  Nigel shrugged. ‘I don’t know why we didn’t think of that. Look, what do you want to do about Will? And the kids? It’s all right us standing around talking like this, but you need to make some decisions.’

  He was right. Will still seemed dazed as he sat quietly on the chair. Charlotte was less concerned about Lucia; she was with an unsuitable person, but in no immediate danger. The panic over Will, the news about Jenna and the conflict with Daisy had caused her to push Olli’s situation to the back of her mind. She had to deal with Olli and Will first. Everything else could wait.

  ‘Do you have DCI Summers’ direct phone number?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes. Do you want me to call her?’

  ‘Do you trust her, Nigel? She strikes me as a straightforward kind of woman. Is she?’

  ‘I’d say so,’ Nigel replied. ‘I like her. I see her now and again, depending on the severity of the case that the police are dealing with. I think a lot of her work must be desk-bound, because she seems to enjoy getting her hands dirty.’

  ‘Good, that’s what I thought. I want you to call her and tell her my son is missing.

  As Nigel started to call DCI Summers, Charlotte walked over to Will and gave him a gentle kiss on the top of his head. She wanted her husband more than ever now.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked.

  ‘It was some blow,’ Will replied, still not speaking as he normally would. His speech was slower, not quite engaged. ‘I have a headache, but I think I’m okay. I heard what you said about Olli.’

  ‘We need to be careful,’ Charlotte whispered, as Nigel began speaking on the phone. ‘This is getting too close. I don’t know how long we can keep lying about what happened. Olli has disappeared; who knows where he is? I’m scared, Will, really scared.’

  ‘I know, I think we’re going to have to come clean soon. We didn’t do anything except defend ourselves, Charlotte. We’re not killers. We know it was Jenna who finished him off; George was a witness to that.’

  ‘But we all played our part in killing him, Will. That’s what I can’t shake off. Sure, Jenna ended his life, but she wouldn’t have been able to do that if you and I hadn’t already hurt him. Didn’t all four of us kill Bruce Craven? I think the police would struggle to see it any other way…’

  Nigel re-joined them. ‘DCI Summers is dispatching some officers to look for Olli. She was pissed to get a call. She was just getting ready to attend Edward Callow’s fundraiser at the Midland Hotel.

  Charlotte looked at Nigel, having just seen something that they’d all missed.

  ‘We can get to Edward at that fundraiser,’ she said. ‘He slammed the door on us earlier, but we can ask him what’s going on there. As the only man of the five still alive, he must have something to say. At the very least, he’s a target; that man is involved in this.’

  ‘You’re not suggesting we gate crash the fundraiser?’ Nigel replied.

  ‘I am. What else can we do? DCI Summers has officers looking for Olli, yes?’

  Nigel nodded.

  ‘She asked me to send over a picture.’

  ‘I’ll do that now. I have a lovely picture of him at the kitchen table the other day.’

  Charlotte picked up her phone and scrolled through the menus, locating the image. She had his number already, so she texted it over to him. She almost burst into tears when she looked at the image. She prayed that her boy was safe; she had to believe that no harm had come to him.

  ‘What time does this thing start? Can you talk us in using your press pass?’

  Nigel looked surprised. Charlotte knew he hadn’t seen this side of her before: a mother prepared to do what it took to protect her children.

  ‘It starts at seven o’clock with drinks and canapés. In fact, look at the time: it’ll be starting in ten minutes. If Will can lend me a tie and you can get a dress on, I’m sure I can get us in there. Are you sure you want to do this? It might cause a scene.’

  ‘What else can we do?’ Charlotte asked. ‘I’m out of my mind with worry for Olli, but we have to trust the police to find him. I want to speak to Edward Callow. I’m convinced that man has something to do with all of this. Jon Rogers warned me about him, and we’ve seen it for ourselves. There’s a reason that man is still alive; I think he’s killing them all off. He might also be the one who’s been threatening my friend Jenna. Either way, I want to speak to him. And this is the best way to do it.’

  ‘What about Will?’ Nigel reminded her, looking across at him.

  Charlotte picked up her phone again, searching on the web for concussion, checking the various graphics and articles for the sym
ptoms.

  ‘There’s a whole list of things here to test whether you’ve got concussion,’ she said. She worked through the list, asking Will if he was suffering from any one of them.

  ‘My head’s sore, but you’d expect that,’ Will said. ‘Look, you know what will happen if I go to A&E. It’s a Saturday, so it’ll be full of pissheads, and kids with pieces of Lego stuck up their nose. You’ll be saddled with me all night before I get seen. The kids are our priority. I’ll keep myself dosed up with paracetamol; if I can shake this headache, I’ll be fine. I promise I don’t feel like anything bad is going to happen.’

  ‘What do you think?’ Charlotte asked, turning to Nigel.

  ‘Are you up to a bit of light cutting and gluing?’ he asked Will. ‘If Will’s up to it, he can finish piecing this picture together. There’s something else going on in there that I can’t make out yet. Are you up to that, Will?’

  ‘I’m not an invalid, you know,’ he said, smiling at Nigel.

  Charlotte saw a glimpse of the Will she knew and loved. That cheeky sparkle in his eyes was back, if only for a few seconds.

  ‘DCI Summers has the photo of Olli, and she’s made it available to officers who are patrolling the town. If he’s out there, they’ll find him. She did ask if there’s anywhere else he might have gone for safety?’

  ‘He has friends in town,’ Charlotte replied. ‘It’s possible, but the fact that I found his phone on the ground is what’s worrying me.’

  ‘Okay, we’ve done as much as we can. I’m going to get the pieces of the photograph from the car so that Will can finish putting together the picture. There may be another clue in there. We might even be able to help DCI Summers solve this case, if we catch a break.’

  Charlotte was barely listening. She was already half way out of the family kitchen.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Will asked, his voice sounding a little stronger.

  ‘I’m going to put on my best dress. I have a charity fundraiser to attend.’

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  The last thing Charlotte wanted to be dressed in was a red, formal dress and high heels. Jeans and flats were more her thing, but Edward Callow’s charity event was smart attire only, and they were already taking a big chance by turning up without a ticket, and with Nigel dressed in a cobbled-together suit. Charlotte had found him one of Will’s jackets, which seemed to fit well enough, and a tie. Will hadn’t worn a tie to work for years, but he kept a couple by for emergencies, such as job interviews and funerals.