Murder in the Fens: An utterly gripping English cozy mystery novel (A Tara Thorpe Mystery Book 4)

by Clare Chase

  ‘What about the flowers Bella says she saw in Julie’s bike basket before she was killed? And the heart that was sent in advance of her death?’

  ‘I don’t know about those. Could Bella have invented them?’

  Blake didn’t answer that one. He thought of the text Bella had sent to Veronica Lockwood when she was sitting alongside Tara. ‘If your story is true, perhaps you’d like to tell me what Bella meant by her text: “I don’t know how to do it.”’

  The woman sat up stiffly. There was no emotion in her eyes. ‘Bella was consumed with guilt about what she’d done – and I felt the same. I’d begun to think the whole thing was unsustainable. The idea of admitting to the part I’d played was horrific – but living with the guilt was worse. I managed to have a quick word with Bella at this evening’s party. She mentioned she’d met a detective that she liked – someone she felt she could talk to. I said—’ She paused a moment and closed her eyes. ‘I said maybe she should find a way to tell her the truth. I’d got to the point where I felt we’d have to, but I wanted Bella to be the one to admit her own guilt. I’m afraid her text was a cry for help. She couldn’t work out how to confess. I couldn’t think how to respond to her, so I did nothing. And instead of managing to be honest, Bella clearly attacked your officer. I don’t know why she would have done that.’

  ‘If you were ready for the whole thing to come out, why not just tell me all this the moment we brought you in?’

  ‘I was worried you’d think I was involved in the attack on Tara Thorpe. Everything was suddenly out of control. I should have just trusted in the law and explained. In fact, I should have done that from the start.’

  Fine words. Blake might even have believed them if he hadn’t had access to Julie Cooper’s phone and laptop – and heard about the trip the Lockwoods had made just before their younger son went off the rails. The woman opposite him was intelligent and rational. And cold. Not the sort to put her own future and the name of her family on the line to protect a troubled young student.

  He thought of the call she’d made to her son John, just before he’d taken the pills and drunk himself into a permanent oblivion.

  ‘That’s all very interesting.’ He sat back in his chair. ‘And now, perhaps you’d like to tell me about Scotland.’

  Sixty-One

  Tara was lying in her hospital bed. It turned out the injuries weren’t as bad as they could have been. Breaks that would heal in time. The painkillers she’d been given weren’t perfect, but she felt a hell of a lot better than she had. There was still a dull ache in her head though, and the staff were watching her like hawks, despite the reassuring scans.

  It was late, but Kemp and Bea had been allowed in to see her as immediate family, even though visiting hours were long since over. Bea had already passed on the news that her mother had been on the point of heading over too, driving across from the Fens. Cue a spike in blood pressure. Only she’d been told by the hospital staff that tomorrow really would be better. Tara wouldn’t have to deal with Lydia until the morning.

  ‘Is there anything you need from home?’ Bea asked.

  ‘A change of underwear and a random selection of books would be wonderful, if it’s not too much trouble.’

  Her mother’s cousin nodded. ‘Will do.’

  Kemp scratched his chin. ‘Shame I never covered “action to take when some maniac tries to run you down with a car” in my self-defence drilling.’

  Tara managed a half-smile. ‘You gave me back my fighting spirit – and I sure as hell needed that this evening.’ She still felt shaky. Each time she closed her eyes she saw Bella towering above her, holding the stake. She needed to focus on something else. ‘I can’t believe I’m stuck in here whilst they’re trying to wrap up the case.’

  Bea leant forward. ‘They’ll do it. You need to rest. You’re no good to them in future if you ruin your health now.’

  Tara reached to give her hand a squeeze. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Kemp leant forward. ‘You’ll be good.’ He turned to Bea. ‘And you can see Tara’s point. If you’re going to take a beating over a case, you don’t want to be shut out when things come to a head.’

  Bea gave him an exasperated look. ‘You are no help at all.’

  Kemp grinned. ‘Always happy to hinder. So, what would you be investigating, if you weren’t stuck in here?’

  ‘The Scotland connection. John went off the rails when he was a boy, after a family holiday there, and Julie seems to have minded about him – as well as having it in for his father’s firm. I don’t know what happened, all those years ago, but I think she was onto it. She’d been googling for information, and she’d noted “Scotland” as something to look into on her phone.’

  Tara thought back to her ex, Josh’s, words. Unless Julie had evidence of Sir Alistair killing someone with his bare hands, I just can’t see him being your man.

  ‘I wonder if the Lockwoods somehow got wind that a very old secret was in danger of coming out. Perhaps that’s what made Julie a deadly threat.’ Her headache was getting worse and she frowned. ‘But then I don’t understand Bella’s involvement. Jez was investigating the Scotland angle – just to find out whether it was Veronica or Alistair’s mother who lived there, for a start. But I don’t think he’ll have got far. He and Max were busy giving me backup instead.’

  Bea was looking furious, her ire directed towards Kemp. ‘This is making her worse.’ She nodded at Tara.

  ‘I’d feel worse still if I didn’t get it off my chest – honestly.’ But a nurse was on her way over too now, a stern look on her face.

  ‘Don’t worry, mate,’ Kemp said. ‘I’ll look into it for you.’

  Tara had been wondering how much information she could get on her phone, but as she sank back against the pillows, she suddenly realised that, for once, she was going to have to stop being a control freak. ‘Thanks, Kemp. I don’t know what year it was. The summer when John was twelve, maybe? Something like that. Let me know, but above all, keep Blake up to date. If it was something that happened in the family home, we might never find out. But if it caused any kind of public ripple, there’s just a chance.’

  Bea was bending down to give her the gentlest of hugs. She didn’t have far to lean, she was so tiny. Kemp followed suit, rather more clumsily. She made every effort not to wince.

  As they walked out of the door she felt tears well up. They were both there for her – each in such different ways, but both gave her comfort. As for the Scotland connection, she hoped Blake wouldn’t mind her confiding in Kemp. She was using him as an extension of herself.

  But would he find anything, after so many years? It seemed like the slimmest of chances.

  Sixty-Two

  Now they had two witnesses who weren’t talking. Blake was in Fleming’s office with Megan.

  ‘What’s your opinion?’ the DCI said.

  Blake flexed his shoulders, trying to reduce the tension in them and think straight. ‘Veronica Lockwood’s story doesn’t ring true. We need to get Bella Chadwick to give her version of events. Then we can start to pick the evidence apart.’

  ‘You think Lady Lockwood’s indulging in personal and family damage limitation?’

  Blake nodded.

  ‘Why would Chadwick clam up? And if you think Lady Lockwood is lying, what’s your theory about the real course of events?’

  That was the problem. Blake wasn’t sure. ‘Bella might be staying silent because she’s protecting the Lockwoods for some reason. Or because they have a hold over her, that’s worse than everything that’s coming out.’ Hard to imagine. ‘Or’ – he frowned, marshalling his thoughts – ‘they could have promised her something for taking the rap. Sir Alistair’s worth a fortune. Maybe they’ve convinced her she can get off lightly for saying she killed Julie on the spur of the moment, and claiming diminished responsibility.’

  ‘It’s not impossible.’ Fleming frowned. ‘Equally, it’s not impossible that Lady Lockwood i
s telling the truth. A lot of her statement ties in with what we know about Bella and her relationship with Julie and Stuart.’ She held up a hand. ‘I know what you’re going to say, there is this point about Scotland, but that’s thin, Blake. And we have no proper evidence.’

  But Blake had seen Veronica Lockwood’s reaction to that word. There was something there.

  ‘Go back in and have another go at Chadwick,’ Fleming said. ‘Make her realise that no one can protect her, and her best defence is to tell the truth. Use what we know. If Tara’s right and Bella didn’t really want to kill her, playing on her emotions might work.’

  They were back in the interview room. The recorder was running again, and Chadwick’s solicitor was standing by. Her client certainly looked a lot more emotional than Veronica Lockwood had.

  ‘We’ve just had word from the hospital, Bella.’ It was Megan who spoke, as they’d arranged. Blake had got the impression Bella had warmed to her, the day they’d all first met. His DS was doing better than he’d given her credit for. ‘Tara’s in a bad way. They’ve been running lots of tests to see what damage you did when you attacked her.’

  There was silence.

  ‘She’s been in and out of consciousness,’ Blake said. Well, she’d probably dropped off once or twice since she’d been admitted. ‘She was so shocked as well. To be honest, I think she felt you’d almost become friends. I know she was worried about everything you were going through.’

  More silence, but he could see a tear run down Chadwick’s cheek.

  ‘And she was convinced you were genuinely upset about Julie’s death.’

  ‘I was!’

  The words came out in a rush, and Chadwick looked shocked at the sound of her own cracked voice. Of course, if Lockwood’s story was true, that wouldn’t stop Chadwick being sorry for what she’d done. They needed to choose their next words very carefully.

  He nodded. ‘Tara will be glad to know she was right. If we’re able to tell her.’

  The student’s eyes met his, full of tears now. ‘You think she’ll die?’

  ‘She’s been badly injured. We’re reliant on the hospital doctors to update us on her prognosis. She was conscious when I arrived at the scene.’ And afterwards too, in fact. ‘She told me she didn’t think you’d wanted to kill her.’

  Chadwick sat up straighter. ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘Bella,’ Megan’s voice was gentle, ‘whatever anyone’s told you, your best option here is to explain why you did what you did. You’re sad that Julie is dead, and you didn’t want to hurt our colleague Tara – we can see that. That makes me feel that you’ve been forced into this situation. Whatever you think about the future, whatever options you imagine might give you the best chance, you’ve got to believe me that telling the truth now is actually what will help your case the most.’ She paused a moment. ‘Not only that, but it’s the right thing to do. You look to me as though you want to do the right thing.’

  Megan’s tone was spot on. He couldn’t fault her words, or the way she said them. He applauded inwardly. He must make sure he told her how good she’d been, afterwards.

  ‘You do want to do the right thing, don’t you, Bella?’

  At last, the student nodded.

  ‘Why don’t you start at the beginning? Tell us what happened on Saturday.’

  But Bella shook her head. ‘The beginning is way before that.’ For a second, she buried her head in her hands. ‘It all started when Lucien Balfour made a pass at me after one of the student socials he ran.’

  Sixty-Three

  Bea had gone to bed, though Kemp was willing to bet she wasn’t asleep. She was going through the wringer. It was different for him: he was protective of Tara too, but he saw her as an equal. Bea might only be five years older than him, but she treated Tara as a mother would treat their child.

  Kemp owed it to Tara to investigate what had happened in Scotland. Besides, he was just as consumed with curiosity, and the thrill of the chase, as she was. For a moment, he thought of her, bruised and weak in her hospital bed. The fact that she’d been willing to hand this job over to him made him emotional – both because it showed how ill she was, and because of her trust in him.

  In reality, Kemp didn’t rate his chances of success. Whatever had happened up there, it was years ago now. And it might have been something that took place in private. It was probably only Julie Cooper’s connection with John that meant she’d got wind of it.

  But if it provoked so much fear in the family, it must have been something serious, which meant there might be evidence left behind, if the incident hadn’t happened behind closed doors. He’d found the name of the village where Veronica Lockwood’s mother had lived: a remote place in the Highlands. It was lucky that it was mentioned on Veronica’s Wikipedia page – she’d spent some of her childhood there.

  Now he started to search for online records, but it was hard to guess the right terms to use. In the end he settled for ‘unsolved’, ‘crime’ and ‘scandal’ together with the name of the village. It was a start. Shame he didn’t know exactly which year to home in on. And the internet had been much less well used back then, too.

  He went to get a beer from the fridge and sat back down, frowning at the page of results, which included a local story about a missing sheepdog.

  No one had said it was going to be easy.

  Sixty-Four

  ‘It wasn’t just me,’ Bella Chadwick said. ‘Lucien Balfour tries it on with all his female students.’

  ‘We’ve heard similar reports, whilst we’ve been investigating this case,’ Megan replied.

  ‘Most of my friends got upset, but they weren’t confident enough to complain. If we’d all banded together it might have worked, but everyone was worried about the effect Lucien could have on their lives at the college.’

  Blake felt his blood pressure rise once again.

  ‘When Lucien started work on me, he made subtle hints about how he could make sure my grades improved, if we “spent some time together” so he could give me some more “intensive help”.’ She looked down at the table for a moment. ‘He used the fact that I hadn’t been doing well in my classes. He said he could talk to my supervisors, explain I was having emotional problems and that they should make some allowances when marking my work.’ She hung her head. ‘I’d been so worried about my parents’ reaction when they found out how badly I was doing, academically. I knew he just wanted sex. As for his promises of help – the approach might work for the odd essay, but not when my annual exam papers went off to some unbiased marker.’

  ‘But you still agreed to sleep with him,’ Blake said.

  She nodded, and a tear rolled down her cheek. ‘It meant I could put off the confrontation with my parents, even if it was only for a few months. I hoped that I could somehow turn my grades around before things came to a head.’

  Trapped by three authority figures, each of whom had had such an unhealthy effect on the decisions she’d made. Blake felt like crying himself. ‘What happened then?’

  ‘Lucien kept his side of the bargain. I could tell, because some of my supervisors took me aside to ask about my problems, and occasionally I’d get a note on my work, saying my grades had been “adjusted” because of my circumstances. It wasn’t done subtly. I was in Lucien’s room one day, feeling utterly disgusted with myself. He was asleep next to me, and it suddenly occurred to me that I could take a photo of us together. I was scared, but the feeling of revulsion took over, and made me braver than I might have been. It wasn’t right that he was getting away with it.’

  She shuddered. ‘After that, I started to plan ahead. I didn’t think the photo would be enough – I could have been a willing participant in the affair. So, the next time we met, I nerved myself up and recorded our conversation on my phone. I just left it going in a zipped jacket pocket, but the results were clear enough. The file gave away how he coerced me. I was planning to turn everything over to the police. I wasn’t sure I could trust the college a
uthorities to act.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Lucien had another go at getting me to sleep with him before I’d got as far as bringing my evidence here. I told him to leave me alone and, when he pushed me, I let on about the evidence I’d got.’

  ‘You must have been frightened,’ Megan said.

  She nodded. ‘The moment I said it, I wondered what he might do. I thought he’d hit the roof, but I think he was actually scared himself. He asked me to give him twenty-four hours before reporting him; he’d make it worth my while.’

  ‘What happened then?’

  She pressed clenched fists against her forehead. ‘I waited, like he said. My parents are expecting big things from me, but I only got into Cambridge by the skin of my teeth. I’ve been struggling ever since. I think I’ll fail. My family will be furious, and who gets a job when they’ve failed their degree? Lucien’s foul but he’s not stupid. He knew what mattered to me. Before the day was up, he told me he’d got a solution that would solve my worries, and if I surrendered the evidence I had on him, he’d take me to Alistair Lockwood, who would tell me all about it.’

  ‘What did you think was coming?’

  She swallowed and shook her head. ‘I didn’t know. But I’d already realised that Lucien and Sir Alistair were close – they went to the same school, and our tutor left us in no doubt about who the master would believe, if we went running to him with our complaints.’ Her tone was bitter. ‘I should never have bargained with him. It was wrong.’

  ‘What happened next?’

  Chadwick licked her lips and Megan pushed the glass of water they’d poured for her further towards her side of the desk.

  After taking a sip, the student went on. ‘It turned out there was room for a sort of three-way deal. We each had something the other two wanted. I wanted security – a way of ensuring I wouldn’t fail in life. Lucien wanted my silence, and the master – he wanted my help.’