by Carol Wyer
‘How did he seem?’
‘Downhearted. That’s why I stopped. He’s normally cheerful and says hello. I didn’t have much time to talk. I had to get home.’
‘I understand Harriet was sent home from school.’
‘That’s right. This whole business with Audrey Briggs really upset her. I’ll probably keep her off again tomorrow.’
‘Your mother fetched her?’
‘That’s correct. There were only two of us at the store yesterday, Kylie and myself. Kylie is only just eighteen. I couldn’t leave her alone. I rang my mum, who collected Harriet and stayed at home with her until I could get back.’
‘Can I ask one more thing? When you spotted Bruce, was he headed out of Monks Walk?’
There was a slight hesitation in her voice. ‘No. I don’t think so. He was walking along on the same pavement as me. That’s why I noticed him. There wasn’t anyone else about at the time and he had his head down, looking sorry for himself.’
It appeared Bruce had been telling the truth.
‘And you didn’t spot anybody coming out of Monks Walk at that time?’
‘Has something happened there?’
‘We’re investigating a crime that took place there. I’d appreciate your help. Did you see anyone other than Bruce in the area?’
‘Can’t say I did. I was parked up the road from Monks Walk. Apart from Bruce, I didn’t run into anyone else.’
‘What time did you get home?’
‘Quarter to five, I think.’
‘And you were at the health food store all day?’
‘Yes, I took my lunch break there. I didn’t leave the place until just after four.’
‘You shut at four?’
‘No, it’s late-night opening on Thursdays. The store manager came in to take over from us at four. I left then.’
‘Do you work there every day?’
‘Apart from Saturdays. I do nine to five with the exception of Thursdays, when I finish at four, and Saturdays, which I don’t work.’
There was little more to be said on the subject and Natalie ended the call. Effie Downing certainly couldn’t be put in the frame. She’d been at work when both Audrey and Rainey had been killed. Natalie turned to face Ian, who was still staring at the CCTV footage captured by the library camera.
‘Effie Downing confirmed seeing Bruce. I don’t think she has anything to do with the killings but I wonder if her own daughter might not be in danger.’
‘You mean because it was her birthday?’
‘Exactly. If the killer is after children who attended that party, he’d almost certainly go after the birthday girl, wouldn’t he?’
‘There’s a strong possibility of that happening. Oh my God!’ Ian squinted hard at the computer screen. ‘Look who I’ve just found on this footage.’
He held down a button, talking all the while. ‘I came across Bruce Kennedy as we suspected, standing outside the library at bang on four thirty. I rewound the tape to double-check he didn’t appear on it earlier, and I spotted this person heading towards Monks Walk at four fifteen.’
He paused the recording and Natalie peered closely at the figure caught mid-arm swing as he marched briskly. It was Carl Sawyer, Ava’s father.
Twenty-Two
FRIDAY, 28 APRIL – AFTERNOON
Loud voices echoed down the corridor as Lucy and Murray waited outside the head teacher’s office at Uptown Primary School. The last of the pupils burst through the exit, leaving the door to crash shut behind them.
The office door opened and Patrick Horn, the head teacher, showed them in. A dark-haired woman was already there. She introduced herself as Jennifer Collinswood, Rainey’s form teacher.
‘I’ll fetch another chair,’ Patrick offered.
‘It’s fine. I’ll stand,’ Murray replied.
Patrick looked young to be a head teacher, a sporty-looking individual with lanky limbs and a fresh face. ‘Absolutely dreadful news. We were just discussing how we should best approach this. The children were already upset about Audrey Briggs and now Rainey. We’re at a loss as to how to handle it. I expect the parents will be thinking about keeping their children at home until you’ve captured whoever is behind this. Do you think the school is being targeted?’
‘I expect we’ll be issuing a statement later, sir, and somebody will be in touch with you regarding how best to deal with the news.’
‘Good. Good,’ he said, half to himself. ‘We don’t want everyone in a blind panic, do we?’
Lucy shook her head. ‘We’re trying to establish some facts to help us with our investigation. When did you last see Rainey?’
Jennifer cleared her throat. ‘I had to leave immediately after lessons ended for a dentist appointment. I spotted Rainey as I drove out of the staff car park. She was waiting near the staff gate. I stopped to ask if she was getting a lift home. She said she was waiting for her brother to walk home with him and his friends. Main school was coming to an end – they finish ten minutes after us – and I had to get off, so I left her there. I wish now I’d stayed long enough to make sure she met up with her brother, Tyler.’
‘Did she usually go home with her brother?’
‘She and Harriet Downing usually walked home together. They were best friends, but Harriet kept bursting into tears all day because of what happened to Audrey. I took her over to the school secretary during first break and her grandmother came to collect her.’ She swallowed hard and looked Lucy in the eye.
‘I feel really bad about this. Miss Goffrey and I spoke at length to all the classes about the dangers of wandering off on their own, or talking to strangers. I don’t know what happened, if somebody pulled up and offered to give her a lift after I spoke to her, or if she took it into her head to go home alone, but I am convinced of one thing: she wouldn’t have gone with a stranger. Not after the talk.’
Patrick spoke up. ‘It was really most unfortunate. Tyler, who’s in year ten, got up to some mischief yesterday afternoon during a science lesson and was kept behind after school to help tidy up the lab as punishment. He didn’t leave until ten past four. I suspect Rainey got tired of waiting for him and went home alone.’
Lucy wasn’t going to draw any conclusions. Natalie had taught her it was best to be in possession of all the facts before making any assumptions. Rainey might have got into a car or walked home with someone else.
‘Were Rainey and Audrey good friends?’ Murray asked.
Jennifer shook her head. ‘Rainey was Harriet’s best friend. Thick as thieves. Audrey got on with just about everyone but didn’t have a close friend. Not that I knew about. I don’t know how they’ll cope with this latest news. Poor little souls. It’s going to traumatise them.’
Lucy had no answers. It was true.
‘I’m sure the authorities will send in appropriately qualified teams to help you deal with this,’ she offered.
‘But you never really get over something like this, do you?’ said Jennifer. ‘I think I might blame myself forever.’
‘It wasn’t your fault. It was a series of unfortunate incidents. And we don’t know what actually happened. We have yet to piece everything together.’
Jennifer bit back tears. Patrick took over. ‘I spoke to some members of the staff as soon as you rang me earlier, including the caretaker and secretary. None of them saw Rainey after school. Most of them were either working in their classrooms, or in the staffroom, and didn’t leave until well after four.’
Murray had already spoken to all the teachers while waiting for Lucy and had established the same.
‘Where do the parents pick up? Are they allowed to wait outside the front gate?’ Murray asked.
Patrick shook his head. ‘We don’t encourage pick-ups or drop-offs from the front of the school. All parents collect from the sports centre car park next to the school. We have a gate that leads to it that’s only unlocked before and after school – from eight thirty to ten past nine in the morning, and again from thre
e twenty until four twenty.’
‘It’s unlikely anyone would have picked up from the front gate, then?’
‘Only staff members are allowed to use that particular entrance. As you know, it is coded or entry is admissible by intercom. We don’t want anyone getting onto school property who shouldn’t be here.’
‘Rainey would have had to have used the back entrance to get out of the school.’
‘Unless she slipped out after a member of staff opened the front gate, yes.’
‘Have you noticed any people hanging about or acting suspiciously?’
‘We’ve had no reports of anyone.’
‘Would it be possible for you to open the gate to the sports centre now for us?’
‘I can arrange that. The pupils should be having lunch in the dining hall for the next half hour but please ensure you shut it behind you.’
Murray stood at the edge of the car park in front of the walled sports complex.
‘It’d be impossible for anyone to see out of that,’ he stated, staring up at the windowless building.
‘If she came this way, there must have been one or two parents still lingering in the car park who’d have seen her. We could appeal for witnesses.’
‘Then why didn’t somebody come forward yesterday when the missing person’s team was trying to find her? You know what I think? I reckon she took a slightly different route. I think she either went out the front way, after Jennifer left, or she got a lift,’ said Murray.
‘Or she took a shortcut,’ said Lucy, staring at trampled grass to the side of the sports complex. ‘Where does that lead to?’
Murray pulled out his phone and drew up the map. ‘You might be on to something. It appears to skirt past some fields, and from this point,’ he said, pointing at the map, ‘it feeds into St Chad’s Street.’
‘Isn’t Monks Walk off St Chad’s?’ Lucy asked.
‘It is. Want to check it out? I’ll fetch the car and meet you there.’
‘Okay. Give me a head start.’
Lucy walked at a steady pace, shadowing the hedgerow to her right. The route skirted around one field and over a wooden stile leading to another larger field and the edge of a series of allotments, bordered by lower hedges. She stuck to the allotments, which could be accessed by the main road to the far side of the plots. Halfway down, the hedging stopped, to be replaced by a post and rail fence for several metres. She peered over the allotments, a scattering of various-sized vegetable patches, pots, painted sheds and plastic sheeting. There was nobody about to speak to so she continued on her way. From here, she made out the church tower and knew she was nearing the town centre and then spotted another stile ahead. She hastened to it and clambered over it, her pulse quickening. Now she was almost on Monks Walk itself. She scoured the tall hedges until she found what she hoped for: an access point where the shrubbery had died back enough to allow a person to squeeze through. This was the area known as Monks Walk, and ahead of her were forensic officers bent over examining the terrain. She called out to them.
‘Hey! Is it okay to come through this way?’
Mike Sullivan looked across, spotted her and waved her in. ‘Yeah. Come through. We’ve checked there.’
‘Did you find anything snagged on the shrubbery?’ she asked.
‘Picked up some fibres, which we’ve sent to the lab for analysis.’
‘It’s possible Rainey came this way from school,’ said Lucy, lifting her arms high, turning sideways and sliding through the opening. ‘If her killer was following her, he’d have to be slim to get through that gap.’
‘He might have already been here. He could have been lying in wait,’ Mike suggested, his lips stretched into an apologetic grimace.
‘True. Still worth running the theory past Natalie,’ Lucy replied, tucking her blouse back into her trouser waistband. ‘We’re meeting soon.’
‘Tell her I’ve requested top priority on all the evidence we’ve lifted from here. We’ll get everything back to you post-haste.’
‘Thanks, Mike. Catch you later.’
Lucy kept on the path until it passed through an archway and joined St Chad’s Road, where Murray was waiting.
‘Didn’t take you long,’ he said.
‘Twenty minutes from school to Monks Walk, which would have got her there at about four fifteen or so unless she ran all the way. I think she took this route. There’s a load of allotments back there. We ought to find out who rents them and see if anyone was on-site yesterday afternoon.’
He glanced at his phone. ‘Good idea. We’re cutting it fine now. Best get back for the briefing.’
As Murray navigated the traffic, Lucy chewed over what she’d discovered in the car.
‘Murray, do you think the murderer could have been waiting at Monks Walk and poor Rainey was an unlucky victim, in the wrong spot at the wrong time?’
‘I think it was a deliberate act. Somebody followed her from school. First Ava, then Audrey and now Rainey. I reckon it’s to do with the birthday party.’
‘But Ava disappeared in 2015. Why wait until now to attack the children who attended the party? It just doesn’t make sense.’
‘It makes sense to me. Ava’s body was unearthed on Tuesday. It’s opened a wound for somebody.’
‘Then the most logical conclusion is that someone who was close to Ava is attacking the children who attended the party.’
‘They’re certainly targeting the girls. They’ve yet to attack a boy.’
‘The people closest to Ava were her folks. Reckon one of Ava’s parents is behind this?’
Murray wasn’t going to be drawn. ‘Beatrice Sawyer is in Sheffield under the watchful eye of her mother. She isn’t in the area.’
‘Could be Carl.’
‘Without proof, we shouldn’t make accusations. These are wild guesses.’
‘I’m talking to you like a friend not a copper. Just shooting the breeze,’ she said in a bad American accent.
‘Facts first,’ he replied with a grin. ‘We have to remain open-minded.’
‘Which was what I was being when I suggested she was an unfortunate victim in the wrong place at the wrong time. This might not be anything to do with the birthday party in 2015.’
‘You really are buying into the Natalie Ward school of checking every possibility, aren’t you?’ he joked.
‘I think we should consider all likelihoods, yes.’
‘But you can’t ignore the yellow dresses, the lipstick or the fact they were all at the birthday party together.’
Lucy shook her head. ‘I get what you’re saying. What about if Rainey walked home with somebody she knew, who turned on her?’
He threw her a look. ‘Another child?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. I’m trying to consider every event.’
‘Fair enough. We’ll run these theories past Natalie. See what she thinks.’
Lucy wondered if Carl or Beatrice Sawyer could possibly be behind the murders then suddenly her thoughts turned to Rainey’s mother, Paula Kilburn. She couldn’t conjure up the pain the woman would be feeling. To lose a child must be one of the most heartbreaking situations in the world. Lucy wanted to understand, but try as she might, she couldn’t quite summon such depth of feeling. She had no real comprehension or experience of motherly love. Her own mother had abandoned her as a baby, and until she’d met Bethany, she’d never really known true compassion or care. Bethany wanted a child so badly. She’d make a wonderful mother. Lucy desperately hoped she’d be able to step up to the mark when it happened.
Twenty-Three
THEN
The boy sits towards the back of the bus where he can overhear Sherry and Gail talking excitedly about Sherry’s birthday party which is later that same day. It sounds wonderful. There are going to be outdoor games, dancing, a barbecue and a proper magician. He sits back in his seat, invisible to the girls whose excited voices float over him.
The bus pulls up at Sherry’s stop and he observes her and Gail
as they stand on the pavement then scurry off in separate directions, Sherry’s school bag bouncing on her shoulder and hair shimmering in the afternoon sunlight as she flies up the road towards her house.
Sherry is eleven today and has invited almost all of the class to her party but he hasn’t been asked. He can’t understand why not. He hasn’t frightened her recently and she hasn’t seen him hiding behind the wall watching her play tag with the other girls. The bus slows again and wheezes to a halt. He waits until it has completely stopped before squeezing out of the narrow seat and waddling down the aisle. The doors open with a long ‘phew’ as if it’s all too much of an effort to keep opening and closing, and he clambers down the steps.
‘Thank you. Bye,’ he says to the bus driver. He always thanks the driver, who drops him right outside his front door.
In his bedroom, he rests on his bed and stares at the ceiling. He would love to go to the party. He’s never seen a magician and he’d like to play some of the games they’ve got lined up: Postman’s Knock, Twister and outdoor skittles. Then, he has a brilliant idea. He can go. If he turns up with a gift for Sherry, she’ll have to let him in and maybe she’ll finally get to like him. He has just the present for her. He bounds off the bed and shuffles under it to pull out the box he keeps his doll in. He brushes down her dress and tidies her hair. What could be a better present than a doll that looks like her? He’ll visit her house on his bike. He won’t tell his mum in case she insists on accompanying him. She’ll be pleased he wants to use his bike. She keeps telling him he should go outside more.
Two hours later and he’s ready. His mum doesn’t suspect a thing even though he’s wearing his favourite T-shirt and best corduroy trousers with the elastic waist he got for Christmas. She’s so busy in the garden with Dad, she only has time to register he’s on his bike as he’s halfway down the path.
