Dead Jealous

by Helen H. Durrant

  “We just did. We meet all the time. We hang out on the High Street, near the burger bar. But Friday, Dean wanted to go for a ride.”

  “So there was you, Dean, Jack and Kyle?” Ruth counted them on her fingers.

  “We met Kyle later, near the pub where he works. We waited till he’d finished his shift.”

  Calladine looked at her. “The car was parked up near there too.”

  “Look, we didn’t do any harm. The boys wanted to take the car, go for a ride. They said Marshal wouldn’t mind.”

  Isla kept looking round. She lowered her voice almost to a whisper. “Look, you won’t tell my mum about the drugs, will you? I never took anything, not even when Flora offered. But mum would go off on one if she thought I was with anyone who was into drugs.”

  Ignoring this, Ruth said, “Tell us about the car. Why didn’t you take it in the end? Did something put you off?”

  Isla grimaced. “The thing stank. There was no way I was even going to sit in it. Besides, Kyle wasn’t up for it. He told the lads Marshal had said to get rid. I think he would have too, if we hadn’t found Flora.”

  “What do you mean, get rid?” Calladine asked her.

  “Kyle was going to take it up onto the moors and set it alight. He had a can of petrol with him.”

  Calladine frowned. “How was Kyle? Was he bothered when the lads wanted to take it?”

  “He shouted at Dean. Told him to get lost. Said we’d be better off leaving the thing alone. He said he’d get us some beer instead.”

  “So Kyle wanted you all to leave? To let him get on with destroying the car?” Calladine sat forward.

  Isla nodded.

  “Why did you leave before the police arrived, Isla?” Ruth asked.

  “I got frightened. When we found Flora, Kyle went ballistic. Said we should have left things alone, said we’d interfered, made things worse. He blamed me. He said it was down to me that Dean and Jack had wanted the car. They wanted to show off, impress me. When I saw Flora, I panicked. Kyle got angry. He was shouting and swearing.” Isla looked straight at them now, tears running down her young face. “I think it was him that killed her. Nothing else makes sense. I think it was Kyle who put her in that boot.”

  * * *

  “The big question is why Kyle wanted to torch that car. Just gets better and better, doesn’t it?” Ruth shook her head.

  “We’ll be sure to ask him when we get back, Ruth.” Calladine rang the station and spoke to Joyce, telling her to make sure that Kyle Logan was held until he returned.

  “Of course, he could have been paid to do it,” Ruth suggested.

  “Then again, Kyle could have known what was in the boot because he put her there, like Isla said.”

  “You think it was him?” asked Ruth.

  “I’m not sure. I’m struggling to find a motive. I can’t think of anyone who would hate Flora Appleton enough to want her dead. Kyle was supposed to be her friend. They all went around together.”

  “Drugs? A mistake?” Ruth looked at him.

  “It was a frenzied attack. Whoever killed her was in a right rage. He meant it. That knife was no mistake, Ruth.”

  They were sitting in the car outside the Prentice house. Calladine was thinking over what Isla had just told them. “Let’s see if Ken Marshal is back yet. You never know, he might have something useful to throw into the pot.”

  They drove the few hundred metres to the block Marshal lived in. His flat was on the second floor, and from the deck he had a clear view of the Pheasant. It was a sunny day. People were standing outside the pub, smoking. Leaning against the wall.

  Ruth grinned. “If they put tables and chairs out, someone would nick ’em.”

  “That’s him.” Calladine nodded. “The bloke third along, with the donkey jacket on, that’s Marshal.”

  They locked the car and went over. Marshal eyed them warily. As they drew nearer, he put the remainder of his pint on the window sill and started to run.

  Calladine shouted after him, “I wouldn’t, Marshal! You’d be under lock and key by teatime.”

  Marshal stopped in his tracks, turned and scowled at them. “None of it has owt do wi’ me. I’d no idea what them kids were doing wi’ car. I hadn’t been near it in weeks.”

  “All we want is a quick chat, clear up a few things,” Calladine told him.

  They walked him back to their vehicle. Ruth sat in the driver’s seat, while Calladine got in the back with Marshal.

  “Rumour has it you wanted rid. Why was that?”

  “Because the thing was a heap. Scrapyard wanted money off me to take it away. I couldn’t sell it. Thing was an eyesore. Council had been on at me to do something.”

  “So Kyle comes to your rescue?”

  “So what? He’s not a bad lad. He knew the score.”

  “What do you mean, knew the score?” asked Ruth.

  “He asked me if I wanted rid. Said if I slipped him a tenner, he’d see to it.”

  Ruth smiled. “Just like that. Who came up with the idea first? You or Kyle?”

  “Like I say, he did. Reckoned he’d take it somewhere and set it alight. No skin off my nose. You lot come knocking, I’d just say it’d been stolen.”

  Calladine turned to him. “You haven’t forgotten that a girl’s body was found in the boot?”

  “Don’t know anything about that, copper. I’m telling you everything. I’m not holding back. I had nowt to do wi’ that girl’s death. I’d no idea she were even in there.”

  “When did you last use the car?” asked Calladine.

  “I haven’t been near in ages. Bloody thing hasn’t gone for weeks. It’s got no tax nor nothing. The minute I put it on th’ road, I’d get done. That’s why I stuck it over there.”

  “Okay, that’ll do for now. But don’t do another disappearing act. We might need to speak to you again.”

  Marshal got out and slammed the car door behind him.

  “Do you believe him?” Calladine asked Ruth.

  “He was perfectly honest about getting rid of the thing. He admitted he was happy for Kyle to torch it.”

  “The question is, why would Kyle want to do that?”

  Chapter 25

  “I want to speak to those three lads one at a time,” Calladine told the duty sergeant. “I’ll start with Kyle Logan. Stick him in an interview room and I’ll be along in a minute. And arrange for DNA samples and fingerprints to be taken from all of them.”

  Calladine went to the incident room to ring the Duggan. It was mid-afternoon, but Julian had already left for the day. He spoke to Roxy Atkins. “Have you found any further forensic evidence in the Flora Appleton case?”

  “There are one or two things,” Roxy confirmed. “There was a smudged print on the earring. Finally we got a partial. Not Flora’s, and no match on the database I’m afraid. However, Mrs Appleton recognised the earring, and she reckons the hair is Flora’s. We went back and had another look at the spot where the killing took place. It has rained very heavily so I wasn’t hopeful. But — we found minute traces of blood on some blades of grass. Of course, it could belong to Flora, but if we’re very lucky it’ll be the killer’s. We know that Flora put up a fight. It’s being processed as we speak. I’ll let you know if it throws up anything.”

  “Speed would be appreciated. We’re struggling to sort this one,” Calladine told her. “There’s plenty who’d do for Hopwood, but Flora is another matter. No one that we’ve looked at so far has a motive. I’m about to interview the three lads who found her. Their stories don’t match up. I’ll send you their DNA samples and fingerprints, for elimination if nothing else.”

  “It has priority, Tom,” Roxy promised him.

  “What with all the excitement, I forgot to show you this.” Ruth pulled the photo out of her pocket. “Who do you reckon that is?”

  Calladine looked at the old snap carefully. “That could be Hopwood,” he decided.

  “Yes, it is, and the little lad whose hand he’s holdi
ng is Ricky. The woman sat in the chair? What do you think?”

  Calladine saw the likeness straight away. He’d seen a lot of Josie Wilkins at one time. “You think this is Josie? You could be right. It’s the longer hair. She had it like that back then, I remember. Sometimes she used to scrape it back into a ponytail.” He paused. “That would mean that the child in Hopwood’s arms is Jessica.”

  “Ricky can’t remember the occasion, but it has to be Christmas. Look at the tree.”

  “I’d no idea they were that friendly. I wonder if it was Tracy who took this. I’ll make a copy, but can we keep hold of the original?”

  “Ricky has hundreds of photos, all left to him by Sean. He doesn’t know who the people are in most of them. So, yes, he’ll be fine with it.”

  “We’ll speak to Kyle first. Then I think I might go and have a word with Tracy Wilkins.”

  * * *

  “Tell me about Marshal’s car, Kyle,” Calladine began. “Start with whose idea it was to get rid of it.”

  “It were his. Marshal wanted rid. When he told me, I offered to help.” Kyle shrugged as if this was obvious.

  “He reckons it was your idea. He reckons you were keen to see the car gone.”

  “It was just a random conversation in the bar one night. He said the thing was causing problems, I said get rid, and he asked me to help.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Kyle nodded. “Yeah, that’s how it happened. Why the interest anyway?”

  Ruth rolled her eyes. “I’m surprised you even ask. Because Flora was found dead in the boot. Why do you think? You wanting to lose the car does suggest that you knew that, Kyle.”

  “Now you’re twisting things! I was as shocked as the others when we found Flora.”

  “When did you last see her alive?” Calladine asked.

  “That Friday, the day she went missing. She came in the Pheasant, looking for Ricky.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Calladine. Wallace had maintained he hadn’t seen her.

  “Yeah, she was in just before eight. Some bloke bought her a drink. She stood at the bar chatting to him.”

  “What bloke?”

  Kyle shrugged. “No idea. Never seen him before.”

  “Was Wallace in that night?” Calladine asked.

  “I can’t run the place on my own. Course he was there.”

  “Would he know who this man was?”

  Kyle shrugged again.

  “You gave your dad an alibi. You said he was in the flat when Hopwood was killed. He wasn’t though, was he, Kyle?”

  Calladine watched Kyle wrestle with this. “He didn’t do it,” he said at last. “He can be a sod at times, but he wouldn’t kill anyone, not even Hopwood.”

  “Do you know where he was that morning?”

  Kyle shook his head. “Can I go now? I’ve got work.”

  Calladine leaned forward and looked into his face. “You lie about your dad. You’re cagey about Marshal’s car. You can see how this looks, can’t you, Kyle? Until I get credible answers, something I can believe, you’ll be staying here with us. Okay, that’ll do for now.”

  Chapter 26

  “Do you reckon Kyle’s our man?” Ruth said.

  “I don’t know, Ruth. I’m struggling to come up with a motive. No one we’ve spoken to so far had a beef with Flora. Granted, she wasn’t universally liked. According to her mother, she could be a feisty madam at times. But did she upset someone enough for them to kill her?” Calladine replied.

  “She upset someone. A frenzied attack, remember.”

  Rocco and Nigel had interviewed Dean and Jack. They too had made no progress. Neither of those two had a reason to kill Flora either.

  “Where to now?” asked Nigel.

  “Beardsell Terrace,” Calladine reminded him. “If you plan to go home tonight, I’d find that information.”

  The office phone rang. “There is a woman downstairs asking for you, sir,” said Joyce.

  “Name?”

  Joyce shook her head. “She is expected apparently.”

  Ruth smiled. “The new DC? Come for a nosey round, no doubt.”

  Calladine hadn’t given the new detective much thought. He hadn’t even got round to speaking to Nigel Hallam about him leaving yet. Hopefully he would stay with them a bit longer. He wasn’t in the mood for all that. There was too much going on to waste time showing a new DC the ropes.

  “Inspector Calladine!” The young woman stuck out her hand. “It’s been a while.”

  Calladine blinked. “Alice? It is Alice Bolshaw, isn’t it?”

  A grin spread across her face and she nodded. “Fresh from two years spent on the beat in Sheffield. I couldn’t wait for my transfer to CID to come through, and I was lucky enough to get the job with you.”

  Calladine and the team had met Alice Bolshaw on a previous case. Alice was still at university then. She’d joined them briefly on work experience, and had been a great help in solving the case. Calladine couldn’t get over how she’d changed. The Alice of old had been a prim, old-fashioned-looking girl in pleated skirts, buttoned up blouses and sensible shoes. There had never been a scrap of make-up on her face, and her long hair was always tied up in a bun. The Alice that greeted him now was another person entirely. Loose, fair hair hung down her back. Her legs were encased in skinny jeans, ripped at the knees, and topped with a low cut T-shirt. She looked utterly different.

  She laughed. “A hefty dose of real life changes people. God knows what I was thinking back then. You must have thought I was a right nerd.”

  “We all thought you were a great help, as it happens. You had things worked out way before we did.”

  She gave him another grin. “I still make lists. But I think I’ll fit in a bit better now. Are the others still here?”

  “Ruth and Rocco are, yes. Do you know about what happened to Imogen?”

  “Yes, I’m so sorry. I liked her. She was a role model for me. I wanted to be like her.”

  “Come upstairs and we’ll surprise the others. I’m sure they’ll be pleased to see you.”

  And they were, particularly Rocco. He turned to the others. “I’ve a confession to make. We’ve been seeing each other.”

  Ruth smiled. “So Alice is your little secret! You could have said.”

  “No, I couldn’t. You’d have told everyone. Alice didn’t want that, not before she got here anyway.”

  Calladine wasn’t sure what he thought. He was still getting over the shock of how Alice looked. Now it turned out that she and Rocco were an item. That would take some getting used to. They’d never had a romance within the team before. It could be tricky.

  “Now you’re here, familiarise yourself with the cases we’re working on. We’ve two murders and a cold case. It will be interesting to have a fresh pair of eyes look at them. I’m calling it a day. I will call in and speak to Tracy Wilkins on my way home. See you all tomorrow.”

  * * *

  Tracy lived on the floor above her sister. Calladine had brought the photo with him. He was curious to see what she made of it. He didn’t want Josie involved at this point. If something untoward had happened all those years ago, he didn’t want Josie unnecessarily upset.

  It was way past seven when Calladine knocked on Tracy’s door. She didn’t look too pleased to see him.

  “What now?”

  Calladine smiled at her. “I’d like you to help me with something. Can I come in?”

  She stood aside and followed him into the sitting room. “Josie’s coming for tea, so make it snappy,” she said.

  He handed her the photo.

  Tracy Wilkins studied it for a good few seconds, and then handed it back. “So? What’s this supposed to mean?”

  “It means that Josie knew Sean Hopwood well enough back then to have him and Ricky around at Christmas. I’d like to know about that relationship, and why no one ever mentioned it.”

  “It wasn’t important, that’s why. One photo. It means nothing.”

&n
bsp; “Did you take it?”

  Her shoulders drooped. “Yes.”

  “So tell me, what was going on?”

  “Nothing. We were neighbours, that’s all. Hopwood had a young brother to look after, Josie had Jess. It was Christmas, and we thought it would be nice for the kids to play together.”

  Calladine shook his head. “Josie hated Hopwood. He was constantly at her for money.”

  “Not then, he wasn’t. He hadn’t started up the loan business in those days. That came later. He wasn’t up to much, but he was okay. He’d brought Ricky up from an early age, and he was a neighbour. We didn’t have much, and he’d bought presents for Jess. Josie invited him and Ricky to spend the day with us.”

  “Why didn’t you or Josie ever say you’d been pally with Hopwood at one time?”

  “Because it wasn’t important. As time passed, we wanted people forgetting that we’d had anything to do with Hopwood. We didn’t want folk round here thinking bad of us. And they would have,” she said bitterly. “Josie wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

  “You should have said something when Jessica disappeared. You had no right holding back information like that.”

  “Stuff you! What difference did it make? None! Hopwood lived on the same deck. You must have spoken to him along with all the others.”

  “What really happened, Tracy?”

  She turned away from him. “You know what happened. Josie was at the park and someone took Jess from the pushchair.”

  Calladine stared at her back, willing her to turn round. “I’ve looked at the case files again. I don’t think it was as simple as you make out.”

  Chapter 27

  Thursday

  The following morning, Ruth and Calladine were sitting in the incident room. “Alice said something interesting last night,” began Ruth. “It was about the Jessica Wilkins case. She pointed out that someone had taken great care with Jessica’s ashes. The jar is valuable, it’s no trinket. And the way the jar was placed in the fireplace. Whoever put it there didn’t want it falling over or being dislodged accidently. Alice suggested a close relative, someone who loved the child.”

  Calladine nodded. “Alice is going to be good. Although we had already noticed that. Anything else, anything on the Flora case?”