‘From who?’
‘Pete,’ says Annie, as if this is obvious. ‘Pete killed Margaret and now Ava’s in danger from him. Star was even talking about letting Mum and Pete look after Ava when she goes back to work. If you can call it work, pretending to cure people with massage and a bit of oil.’
‘Why do you think Pete killed Margaret?’ Nelson edges closer. He should have called for back-up as soon as he saw Annie. Judy is probably still in the hospital somewhere. He could arrest Annie now, seize the baby and drive off to Star with all the sirens blazing. But, right now, it seems better to stick to the softly-softly approach.
‘We never liked him, me and Luke,’ says Annie. ‘Everyone else said that he was so nice, so dependable, such a good stepfather, nothing like our dad, the no-good alcoholic. But I loved my dad, even if he did drink and shout a bit. I thought Pete was a creep. He was always hanging round Mum, even when Dad was still alive. I didn’t see him at the street party but he must have been there, lurking somewhere. Then, that day, a week ago, DS Johnson was asking about Scarning Fen. She said that Margaret had been buried near there. Luke and I remembered that Pete was living in Swaffham when Margaret went missing. He had an allotment near Scarning Fen. We realised that he must have killed Margaret and buried her there. So I knew we had to protect Ava.’
‘Why didn’t you go to the police?’
‘The police!’ Annie snorts with contempt. ‘They wouldn’t believe us. I saw DS Clough with Pete. All chummy, thinking he’s such a nice man, such a good husband and father. No, Luke and I knew that we were on our own.’
‘Did Luke help you?’
‘Yes, he took Ava when Star was asleep. I drove her straight to the hospital. I knew she’d be safe here.’
And you let your own daughter almost die from worry, thinks Nelson. It doesn’t seem the moment to say this now.
‘Annie,’ he says, ‘if Pete is guilty we’ll arrest him but, right now, we need to get this baby back to her mother.’
‘Mum doesn’t want to see,’ says Annie, sounding for all the world like an aggrieved teenager, the age she was when her sister vanished for ever. ‘She thinks that Pete is such a good guy. She’ll never believe the truth.’
‘What about Star?’ says Nelson. ‘Your daughter. She wants her baby back.’
‘Star never listens to me,’ says Annie, as if she’s talking about undone homework rather than child abduction. ‘She thinks she knows it all.’ But she seems to relax her hold on the bundle in the pink blanket.
Nelson seizes his moment. He texts Judy. ‘Got Ava. Meet me at hospital entrance.’ Then, gently, he takes the baby from her grandmother.
*
Judy doesn’t ask any stupid questions. She is waiting by the main door and has called for back-up. When the squad cars arrive, Nelson, still holding Ava, gets in the back of one of them. Judy gets into the other car with Annie, who has been charged with child abduction. They drive fast through the empty streets. The rain has stopped but there is still a lot of water on the ground. Several times they almost aquaplane, spray flying up as if they’re on a theme park ride. Holding the tiny baby, who is now making little mewing sounds, Nelson is reminded of his own daughters. They both used to love theme parks and there’s a big picture in the sitting room of the four of them – Nelson, Michelle, Laura and Rebecca – on something called The Deadly Rapids. The girls are about eight and ten, gap-toothed grins above their life jackets. Please God, let Laura forgive him.
Judy has radioed ahead and Tanya and Clough are both at the house. As soon as the car comes to a halt, Star comes flying out of the house. Nelson gets out and Star snatches Ava from his arms.
‘Oh my baby, my baby.’
‘Come on, love,’ says Nelson. ‘Let’s get inside. It’s too cold out here for Ava.’
He can see Dave, Star’s father, in the doorway, Tanya at his side. Clough comes out to meet them, a thousand questions on his face.
‘How did you find her, boss?’
‘Let’s just get inside first.’
Nelson watches as Dave hugs Star, who is still clutching Ava to her chest. Together, father and daughter move into the house. Tanya and Clough follow. Nelson waits in the porch. He wants Star to have a few minutes with Ava before he tells her that her mother was the person who abducted her baby.
*
When Ruth wakes up she thinks that she only dreamed that Nelson was there. Sitting beside her bed, her hair a fiery splash of colour against the blue curtains, is Shona.
‘Hi,’ says Shona. ‘How’s the head?’
Ruth touches her forehead gingerly. ‘OK, I think. A bit sore.’
‘Judy rang me,’ says Shona. ‘They say that you can be discharged if there’s someone with you tonight so I’m taking you home with me.’
Shona’s home is also Phil’s home so Ruth says, ‘I’ll be all right on my own. We don’t need to tell the hospital.’
‘No. I’d never forgive myself if you slipped into a coma or something,’ says Shona. ‘I’m all set to be Florence Nightingale and you can’t dissuade me. I knew something would happen if you went off with Leif. That man’s trouble. Just like his father.’
‘How is Leif?’ asks Ruth. ‘Is he OK?’
‘Judy says they think he’s broken his leg,’ said Shona. ‘He’s waiting for an X-ray.’
‘I met Magda,’ says Ruth. ‘She had a baby. It was Erik’s. Artificial insemination using his frozen sperm.’
‘Too much information,’ says Shona lightly but, too late, Ruth remembers that Shona was once pregnant with Erik’s child and, at his insistence, had an abortion. She’s not thinking clearly. It must be the bang on the head.
‘We’re just waiting for a doctor to discharge you,’ says Shona. ‘Phil’s making up the spare room bed.’
‘It’s very kind of you,’ says Ruth. ‘Of you both.’ On reflection she thinks that it might be rather nice to spend the night in Shona’s spare room, rather than on her own in her cottage. Her head feels as if it’s full of cement.
‘Was Nelson here?’ she asks.
‘Nelson?’ says Shona. ‘I don’t know. Judy just rang and asked if I could pick you up. Apparently they’ve found the baby. The one that was missing.’
‘Ava?’ says Ruth. ‘Oh, that’s great news.’ Perhaps she did imagine Nelson. She remembers a dream about the devil and Nelson saying that Flint was too fat. Flint!
‘I’ve got to go back,’ she says, struggling to sit up. ‘No one’s fed Flint.’
‘Relax,’ says Shona. ‘I sent a message to your neighbour, Sam. She and Ed are down for a few days. She’ll feed Flint.’
‘How do you know Sam?’
‘Turns out we’re friends on Facebook. You see, Ruth, social media does have its advantages.’
Ruth doesn’t answer this, her brain is still too muzzy. Shona sits by her bed talking about Louis and Phil and a lot of people whom Ruth doesn’t know. Eventually a doctor and nurse arrive to discharge her. After the doctor has looked into Ruth’s eyes with her torch and pronounced herself satisfied, the nurse says, ‘Has your husband left?’
‘My . . . I don’t have a husband.’ Has she woken up in some parallel universe where she’s married with two point four children?
‘Oh, sorry. I should have said your partner. The tall, dark-haired man who was with you earlier. He said he was your next of kin.’
So Nelson must have been here after all. Ruth supposes he left because Ava was found. ‘He’s just a friend,’ she says.
‘Well, he looked a very close friend,’ says the nurse. ‘Sitting beside you and stroking your hair.’
‘Stroking my . . .’
‘And he yelled at the A&E consultant earlier. Demanding to know if you were all right.’
That sounds more like Nelson.
‘He can be rather domineering.’
‘Tell me about it,’ says the nurse. Though he doesn’t say whether he’s speaking from the position of a yeller or a yellee.
‘Com
e on, Ruth,’ says Shona. ‘You’re free. Time to go.’
There seem to be lots of police cars outside the hospital but Ruth assumes that this is just part of the routine emergency of hospital life. By the time they reach Shona’s car, on the top floor of the multi-storey, she is feeling tired and rather sick. Shona must realise this because she doesn’t try to talk. Instead she switches on Radio 4 and lets Midnight News accompany them home.
*
Nelson also arrives home at midnight. He presses the button to open the garage, so tired that he’s almost in a dream, a weightless feeling that’s not unpleasant. He feels as if he has run through a lifetime’s emotions in a day but the predominant feeling now is one of satisfaction. Ava has been found, alive and well. The complications around her abduction will have to wait until another day. Tonight Star can sleep with her baby beside her.
The house is quiet when he lets himself in. No sound from George upstairs and, more worryingly, no sound from Bruno downstairs. When he doesn’t hear Bruno running to meet him, nails clattering on the wooden floor, tail hitting the wall, Nelson feels a sudden lurch of fear. What has happened to his guard dog? Has he been lured away by a piece of poisoned meat? Such things have happened before. But when Nelson lets himself into the sitting room, Bruno is lying on the sofa next to Laura, both of them fast asleep.
Bruno sees him first. He opens his eyes and wags his tail but doesn’t move. After a few seconds Laura sits up, rubbing her eyes.
‘You’re back,’ says Nelson. He knows that he’s grinning like a goon.
‘Just for a bit,’ says Laura. ‘I’m going to look for my own place soon. I can’t keep looking after you two for ever.’
‘No, you can’t,’ says Nelson. ‘But this is always your home. I’m so pleased to see you, love.’
He pushes Bruno aside to sit on the sofa and Laura puts her head on his shoulder. She doesn’t say so but he knows that he’s forgiven.
It’s so much more than he deserves.
Chapter 35
‘The trouble is,’ says Nelson, ‘we’ve got no evidence.’
The team are back in the briefing room and, despite each of them only having had a few hours’ sleep, the atmosphere has changed completely. When Nelson got into the office at nine, all the admin staff stood up and applauded him. It’s rare, in policing, to have so complete a success. One baby lost, one baby found. Super Jo herself even received a tepid ovation when she wafted in to congratulate Nelson. ‘It’s a complete good news story,’ she said.
‘Well, hardly,’ said Nelson. ‘The baby’s grandmother’s been charged with abduction.’ Annie Simmonds has been released on bail. Nelson doesn’t know whether she has gone back to the house that she shares with her daughter. Luke Lacey has also been charged with abduction though his solicitor is fighting hard for the lesser charge of wasting police time.
‘The child is safe,’ said Jo. ‘That’s all that matters for now. Do you want to do the press conference or shall I?’
‘Be my guest,’ said Nelson.
And now, they are tackling the next big question. Was Annie right and did Pete Benson kill Margaret, all those years ago?
‘We’ve got a team at his old allotment near Scarning Fen,’ says Nelson. ‘It’s owned by someone else now. SOC think there’s evidence of recent digging but, then again, it is an allotment. We really need Ruth there to do her stuff.’
‘How is Ruth?’ asks Judy. She feels a bit guilty about leaving Ruth at the hospital last night. She hopes that Shona is looking after her.
‘I rang her earlier,’ says Nelson, not meeting Judy’s eyes. ‘She’s OK. Just got a bit of a sore head. She wanted to go to Scarning Fen today but I told her to wait until she was feeling stronger.’
Would Ruth listen? Judy wonders.
‘So, if John Mostyn’s DNA was on the bones,’ says Clough, who is meditatively eating a breakfast Mars bar, ‘does that mean that he knew Margaret was there and that he dug up her remains and buried them on the Saltmarsh? Why?’
Unconsciously they all look towards the cage where Sonny and Fredo are curled up in the straw. As if he recognises his former owner’s name, Fredo stirs and chirrups in his sleep.
‘He wanted us to find them, I suppose,’ says Nelson. ‘That’s why Mostyn wrote those letters, basing them on the ones I received about Scarlet. He must have known about the originals because he worked for the Chronicle. Mostyn wanted us to find Margaret. Maybe he waited all these years until the archaeological dig gave him the opportunity.’
‘And then someone killed Mostyn,’ says Clough. ‘Was that Pete Benson too?’
‘He has an alibi.’ Judy is leafing through her notebook. ‘Pete and Karen were both in all evening when John Mostyn was killed, watching television.’
‘Married alibis don’t stand up in court,’ says Nelson. ‘But the way that murder was committed, so cold and clinical, I can’t quite see Pete Benson pulling off a crime like that.’
Clough is frowning at the hamsters. ‘Why would Karen cover up for Pete if she thought that he’d murdered Margaret? Come to that, why would she stay married to him all these years? They’ve got grown-up children, for God’s sake.’
‘Annie said that Karen didn’t know,’ says Nelson. ‘That’s what she said to me. “Mum refused to see.” She said that she and Luke had never liked Pete. Maybe they had their suspicions for years. It was us asking about Scarning Fen that finally decided them.’
‘It’s a bit extreme though, isn’t it?’ says Tanya. ‘I mean, I always thought Luke Lacey was a bit odd but to kidnap your own niece – great-niece – like that just because of something you suspected.’
‘I think it must have festered for years,’ says Nelson. ‘Annie and Luke might both have felt guilty about Margaret and neither of them liked their stepfather. Last weekend, seeing each other again, Margaret’s funeral, it must have brought it all back. They probably worked each other up so that kidnapping Ava seemed the only thing to do.’
‘Folie à deux,’ says Judy. ‘Alone, they might never have acted, but together they convinced themselves that they were doing the right thing.’
‘“It was just Annie and me again”,’ says Tanya. ‘That’s what Luke said to me when he was talking about Margaret going missing. And he said that Annie used to “make him do things”. I think she was always the dominant one.’
‘Annie had a serious breakdown in her late teens,’ says Nelson. ‘Michelle says that Star hinted as much to her, and Dave confirmed it last night. Finding Margaret, the birth of Ava, her suspicions about Pete, it must all have pushed her over the edge.’
‘And Annie knew that she could keep Ava safely in the neonatal unit,’ says Judy. ‘She even took Star’s expressed milk for her. Although I still can’t believe that Annie managed to smuggle a baby into the hospital without any of the medical team knowing about it.’
‘There’s a safeguarding inquiry going on as we speak,’ says Nelson. ‘But Annie was in charge of the neonatal unit. I don’t think anyone else would have challenged her. When I saw Annie last night, it was obvious that she wasn’t in her right mind. The thought of putting her own daughter through something like that.’
‘I never thought that Star seemed close to her mother,’ says Judy. ‘She obviously had a better relationship with her father.’
‘Even so,’ says Nelson. ‘Annie put Star through hell. “Star never listens to me,” she said, “she thinks she knows it all.” As if it was Star’s fault.’
‘Star seemed remarkably calm when I saw her this morning,’ said Judy. ‘She’s so pleased to have Ava back that I don’t think the rest has sunk in.’
Nelson is looking at the incident board. The word ‘Found’ is scrawled across Ava’s picture but Margaret is still there, golden-haired and innocent in her bridesmaid’s dress.
‘We haven’t got enough to arrest Pete Benson,’ he says. ‘But we should interview him under caution. Scare him a bit. Can you bring him in, Cloughie?’
‘Sure
thing,’ says Clough, standing up. ‘Coming, Judy?’
‘I want to call in on Star again,’ says Judy. ‘Tanya will go with you.’
Tanya already has her coat on.
*
Judy finds Star sitting on the sofa with Ava in her arms.
‘I can’t seem to let her out of my sight,’ she says. ‘I think that’s quite normal, considering.’
‘I think so too,’ says Judy. Dave, who had met her at the door, told her that Annie was staying with Sienna in Loughborough. ‘I can’t see how Star can ever forgive her mum,’ he said, his ruddy face pale with distress, ‘but Star says she can. Of course, she knows what her mum went through as a girl but, even so, she’s a wonder, my daughter.’
And Star does look rather wonderful this morning, sitting in the sunlight with the glass constellation glittering above her. Ava sleeps peacefully on her lap. ‘Star’s a strong spirit,’ Cathbad had said that morning. ‘She’s got a powerful sense of self-preservation. I think she’ll be just fine.’ As usual, it seems that Cathbad is right. Judy asks after the baby.
‘The doctor checked her over last night,’ says Star. ‘She said she was fine. And she’ll take a bottle now, which I suppose is a good thing.’
‘And how are you?’ asks Judy.
‘I’m just so happy to have Ava back,’ says Star. ‘I can’t really think of anything else. But when I do think about it . . . Dad says that Mum took Ava because she thought that Granddad had killed Margaret. That’s horrible. I love Granddad. He’d never do anything like that. You don’t think it’s true, do you? It was just Mum . . . Mum getting ill again, wasn’t it?’
‘We have to investigate,’ says Judy. ‘But the best thing you can do is put it out of your mind for now. I know it’s difficult.’
‘I’ve been meditating,’ says Star. ‘That helps.’ She looks rather coyly up at Judy. ‘The other policewoman, Tanya, she told me that Cathbad’s your partner. Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I don’t like to talk about my private life,’ says Judy. ‘I’m not the important one here.’
‘But you told me about your baby being abducted.’
The Stone Circle: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 11 Page 25
