The Silent Children

by Carol Wyer

  ‘Stress,’ she said, by way of an explanation, looking at the unfinished cigarette end. ‘I managed to kick the habit. Didn’t touch one for a whole eighteen months, then Mum became more of a handful and I took it back up again this year. So, as I was saying, Henry hasn’t been in our lives much. He and I had an almighty row about it. I told him I was sick of him coming around only when it suited him. I was tired of him waltzing up here to play the doting son, bring her chocolates, flowers, get her all excited, and disappear again, leaving her more confused. I had to put up with her talking endlessly about how wonderful he was, and yet it’s me who’s been here for her every day. It’s me who’s had no life to call my own because she needs me. It’s like looking after a child and sometimes an angry child at that.

  ‘Henry didn’t care. He just did his own thing. Like he always did. He dossed about, going from one place to another, and then he met Lauren. Didn’t hear from him for ages, then suddenly I got a call to say he was getting married. We got an invite to the wedding but we couldn’t go. Mum took a bad turn at the time and was too ill. I could have left her in day care and gone alone and buried the hatchet, but what difference would it have made? He’d have still been Henry – selfish, irresponsible Henry.’

  Robyn mulled over what Lauren Gregson had told her. Lauren’s version differed greatly to what she was seeing here. Lauren believed Kath to be in a care home. It appeared that Henry had lied to his wife.

  Libby continued her monologue. ‘He didn’t bring Lauren to visit us – not once. I offered to drive across with Mum a couple of times, but he made excuses about them being busy and so on. I gave up. It was transparently obvious he didn’t want either of us over. I’ve never understood why Lauren didn’t want to make any contact with us though – try to persuade him – or even visit on her own. We’re related, after all. I asked Henry about that and his response was they’d both decided it was better for Mum if they didn’t visit and confuse her. Bloody liars!

  ‘I spoke to him two weeks ago. I phoned him because Mum’s been getting really needy recently, as you may have noticed. She’s been talking about him more than usual, and the Alzheimer’s is really taking hold. She’ll have to be admitted into full-time care very soon. I can’t look after her alone any longer. I thought I ought to let him know. I needn’t have bothered. He told me to do whatever I wanted to do. Just like that. How selfish is that?’

  She turned sad eyes on Robyn. ‘I was so angry with him I slammed the phone down. Now… Well, now I wish it had turned out differently.’

  Anna, who’d been standing quietly, gave her an understanding smile. Robyn rested her gaze on Kath in the chair in the next room. Her eyelids were drooping shut and her head was falling backwards as she began to doze.

  ‘So you never met or spoke about Lauren – Mrs Gregson – with Henry?’

  Libby looked away briefly. ‘I spoke to her on the phone – a few words. He mentioned her a couple of times, but to be honest, I wasn’t interested in her. Had her down as a self-centred bitch.’

  ‘What did he say about her?’

  ‘Just they were having a few problems. He rang me for some sympathy.’ She tutted. ‘That was Henry – always the needy one. He was feeling low and needed me to make sympathetic noises. Funny that, because he never made any time for me, not when I was feeling upset or sick of looking after Mum. Just left me to get on with it. Honestly, some days, I could’ve—’ She pressed her lips together to halt the words.

  ‘I gave up everything to look after our mother. I put my career on hold to become her full-time carer. I often ask myself why I did that. Henry certainly wouldn’t have. But I did. And you know why? Because she’s my mother and I didn’t want some stranger tending to her personal needs, somebody who had no idea of the love she’d shown us over the years, or who really cared about her. I gave up a social life – boyfriends and opportunities – to be here with her, washing her, feeding her and watching her fade away, a little more every day. And I’d do it all again if I had to. You only get one mother. She’s mine. I wish Henry had felt more that way.

  ‘When I first became her carer, I thought it would only be for a short while, but it’s been much longer than I expected, and all the while, Henry was elsewhere, not even thinking about us. He found a new love – Lauren. He was going to have a new family and then that didn’t happen. They didn’t have the children they hoped for. He rang me one afternoon and cried because Lauren blamed him for her not falling pregnant. He asked me if I thought it was likely to be his fault.’

  ‘That seems a strange thing to ask your sister.’

  Libby shook her head. ‘No. You misunderstand. He wanted to ask my professional opinion, as a nurse. I told him it was possible his fertility had been threatened by the damage he sustained years ago, but unlikely, and recommended he see a specialist in these matters. He was involved in a fight years ago, and got kicked in the groin. I don’t know how bad it was – we never discussed it. We were both a lot younger then and it wasn’t the sort of stuff we shared. However, it was bad enough for him to be taken to hospital. He hadn’t told Lauren about the incident. He was too scared to. Can you believe that? Too scared to tell his own wife.’

  ‘So, you think he and Lauren had fallen out over this?’

  ‘Definitely. She made him sleep on the settee. Was even talking of splitting up with him. That’s why he was upset when he called me. I tried to be sympathetic, but I have enough to handle here without listening to my brother’s reproductive problems.’

  Robyn digested this information before continuing. ‘Bearing in mind what you’ve just told us, Miss Gregson, can you think of any incident or anybody from his past that you think might be significant? Had he ever had any trouble with an individual or individuals?’

  ‘He rubbed one or two people up when he was a teenager, but nothing serious. He was one of a gang of kids from around here who got up to mischief. There wasn’t much else to do in those days. I think that’s one of the reasons he left – boredom. You think somebody deliberately killed him?’

  ‘We’re investigating all possibilities. It might have been an accident. We can’t say for sure yet.’

  Libby looked at the cigarette end again and shook her head. ‘You must think I’m such a cow. I’ve done nothing but slag him off. I don’t mean to sound like I don’t care about what’s happened. Of course I care. He always looked out for me when I was younger. He was my big brother.’ Her voice finally cracked.

  * * *

  Anna drove from Longdon Road, leaving Robyn in the passenger seat to dwell on what she’d heard and observed. Henry had lied to his wife about his mother being in a home, but had he also lied to her about Libby being on drugs and about saving her after she overdosed? Something else didn’t add up. Surely, Libby wouldn’t have given up everything in her life to care for her mother. While Libby had been dealing with Kath, who’d suddenly called out, her mobile, on the table in front of them, had lit up with a message. Although it had only been visible for a moment or two, Robyn had noticed the name of the sender – Tarik Akar – and had read the message before it disappeared:

  Remember – just keep quiet about it and it’ll be okay

  * * *

  Luv U

  She pondered its significance. What was Libby to keep quiet about? Was it linked in any way to their visit, or was she reading too much into it?

  ‘Anna, what did you make of her claim she had no life?’

  Anna considered the question, and without taking her eyes from the road, she said, ‘It was nonsense. She was wearing a trendy jumper and designer jeans, and make-up. She wouldn’t sit around the house all day with her mum dressed like that. She must have friends, and there’s support for carers in similar situations so they can have free time. She doesn’t sit in that house day after day, does she? She must have some life.’

  ‘My thoughts exactly. When we get back, will you do a little digging on her, please? And find out if she has any friends called Tarik. Try the clini
c where she used to work, and social media.’

  ‘Sure. You think she might have gone after her own brother?’

  ‘She definitely bore a grudge against him for leaving her to support and look after Kath alone.’

  Anna’s face screwed in concentration, and with eyes still trained on the road, she voiced her thoughts. ‘Do you think it’s possible that last phone conversation they had pushed her over the edge? Lauren said she heard Henry shouting at Libby. And he told Lauren that Libby takes drugs. If she was high, or not thinking straight through drug usage, she might have decided to kill him – or it could even have been an accident and she hadn’t meant to actually kill him, just scare him.’

  ‘It’s conceivable. Libby has no concrete alibi for her whereabouts yesterday, only her word she was at home all day with her mother.’

  ‘Her mother insisted they saw Henry yesterday. What if they did? What if Libby drove her mother to visit him?’

  ‘We’ll check to see if her Toyota passed through any of the ANPR points in the Stafford area. That’ll answer that question. Her mother has Alzheimer’s. It’s likely she doesn’t have any idea if she did or didn’t see Henry. I don’t think we can take what she says too seriously. However, we’ll check. I never take anything for granted.’

  Anna grunted a response. Robyn was glad Anna felt the same way as her. Her instincts rarely let her down, and for now, she wasn’t 100 per cent convinced Libby Gregson was who or what she made herself out to be.

  Nine

  DAY TWO – WEDNESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY, AFTERNOON

  * * *

  They stopped at the station to drop off Anna. Tech-savvy Anna had worked in computing before joining the force and Robyn wanted her to check out the Gregsons’ computer, as well as find out everything she could about Libby and the mysterious Tarik.

  ‘Get into any social media accounts the Gregsons might have, search Henry and Lauren’s browsing history and see if either was signed up to any dating websites, or if there’s any suspicious online activity. They can’t be perfect. None of us is perfect. There has to be some reason he’s been murdered and there may be some online trail that will enlighten us.’

  Anna’s face brightened slightly. She always appeared to be most content when hunting online for information.

  * * *

  The twenty-five-minute journey passed quickly. Robyn checked her rear-view mirror and turned into Beacon Street. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of the three spires of Lichfield Cathedral. The last time she’d driven down this street was when she was following one of her famous hunches and chasing after a perp the media had named the Lichfield Leopard. It brought back memories of the night when she was unsure of herself but guided by her instinct she’d found her killer. Davies had always said she had phenomenal instinct yet it had let her down the day he supposedly left for his rendezvous in Morocco. Stop it! She had to put Davies out of her mind for a while. She couldn’t let him dominate her thoughts.

  She drew up outside the convenience store Henry had worked at and, having found a suitable parking space, headed towards the store. The door opened and a woman with a buggy emerged, a full plastic bag dangling from one hand. Robyn held open the door. She waited as the buggy was manoeuvred through, her gaze resting on a small, serious face in a woollen hat staring up from under a fluffy blanket. The woman departed and Robyn entered. The inside of the store was brightly lit and smelt of warm bread. Several aisles were in front of her, to the right were two checkout tills, and to the left, a kiosk and counter where cigarettes and lottery tickets were sold.

  Liam Carrington, the store manager and Henry Gregson’s best friend, was at the back of the store, talking to a woman in her late fifties who was wearing a white shop uniform bearing the MiniMarkt logo and a blue hair protector. The smell of baked bread was strongest here, causing Robyn’s stomach to gurgle. The memory of eating warm croissants on a balcony in Paris with Davies threatened to overtake her, but she drove it back into the recesses of her mind and strode towards Liam. He looked up, acknowledged her with a nod, said something to the woman and joined Robyn.

  ‘You must be DI Carter,’ he said, holding out his hand. ‘PC Marker phoned me and told me to expect you.’

  ‘Thank you for taking time to speak to me. Can I say how sorry I am about Henry Gregson? I understand you were close.’

  Liam’s mouth turned downwards and his shoulders slumped. ‘He was like a brother. He was such a good chap. Wouldn’t harm a fly. He’s godfather to my daughter Astra, you know? Took his role really seriously. He and Lauren saw Astra almost every week. Sometimes they’d take her to the park or zoo. Lauren even bought one of those little stickers for his car – ‘Baby on Board’. They loved her to bits. Astra will miss him badly.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘One in a million. How’s Lauren? Ella is going around to see her later. How’s she bearing up?’

  ‘It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. She’s got an officer with her at the moment. Ella’s your girlfriend?’

  ‘We live together,’ he said distantly, staring at a couple in their late seventies now approaching them. The husband, wizened, with hair so thin his liver-spotted scalp was visible, was guiding his wife by the elbow, holding her gently as if she were porcelain. Her face was peculiar to look at – one side a darker shade than the other – and slightly distorted, as if she’d had an accident that had shattered the cheekbone. She shuffled forward, barely able to cover the distance across the floor.

  ‘Look, shall we go out back? It’s more private.’

  Robyn agreed and was shown into a tiny kitchen come staffroom. There was a long bench against one wall behind a table, and opposite, a kettle and an array of white cups and mugs. Liam pulled a mug forwards.

  ‘Tea?’

  She shook her head. ‘I just had one.’

  Liam boiled the kettle and rested against the kitchen top, facing her. He was rangy and lean-faced, tiny pockmarked scars visible on his cheeks in the fluorescent lighting of the restroom. His hair was thinning and his hairline had receded to reveal a long forehead. He removed his round glasses and looked myopically at her. His hands trembled as he polished the lenses with the sleeve of his shirt.

  Robyn spoke. ‘I understand Henry swapped shifts with another staff member – Daisy – and was working yesterday. Can you tell me what time he clocked off?

  Liam shook his head. ‘No. No, he didn’t come in yesterday. He didn’t swap shifts with anybody. Daisy was here all day. I’d have known about it if he had.’ As the kettle reached its boiling point, Liam’s shoulders slumped again and Robyn watched his face crumple. He turned away from her and tears dripped onto the kitchen top. Robyn was once again helpless. She’d seen so much grief, and every time it ate into her soul. A person’s life affected so many others. Their death, even more so. Robyn waited for him to regain control. When he finally faced her, his eyes were red-rimmed. He sniffed back tears and passed her a mug of tea.

  ‘Did you want sugar?’ he asked.

  She shook her head and thanked him even though she’d already refused the drink. ‘When did you last see Henry?’

  Liam sniffed a couple of times. ‘Erm, Monday. Monday morning. We were both in then. I left at eleven to go to the distribution warehouse in Stoke, to discuss a problem with a delivery. Henry was here when I left. I didn’t get back until six, and by then, he’d gone off shift.’

  ‘Did he seem okay to you that day?’

  Liam nodded. ‘Fine.’

  ‘Lauren told me you’re his best friend. Has he spoken to you about any troubles he was having – any problems or anxieties?’

  Liam pondered the question. ‘He wasn’t worried about anything major – nobody threatening him or anything like that, if that’s what you mean?’

  ‘I was thinking along the lines of more personal problems. Was everything okay with his marriage? Did he ever talk to you about his relationship with Lauren?’

  Liam shrugged. ‘Well, yes. But I don’t think that’s relevant. He and Lauren were soun
d. They had a few differences but what couple doesn’t?’

  ‘I understand they had a minor fallout that upset Henry – it was about children.’ Robyn hoped she wasn’t being too pushy. Liam’s face suggested she was treading on thin ice.

  ‘They wanted children. As I said, they regularly took Astra out to the park, or out for the day. Lauren is desperate – no, make that obsessed – with getting pregnant, but they’ve had a few problems. One night, Lauren got overemotional and they rowed big time about it. Stupid things were said in the heat of the argument – she said he wasn’t committed to her or to their relationship, and even accused him of seeing other women. She was wrong – very wrong. He loved Lauren and he’d have loved a baby. Maybe not immediately, but he wanted one in time. He didn’t think they could afford a child, especially if Lauren became a stay-at-home mother like Ella. He asked me how I manage on my salary and I told him the truth – I barely do, but we get by. That was why they had a fallout. All couples row about stuff. Nobody has a perfect, lovey-dovey relationship. Do you, Detective?’

  For a second, Robyn thought back to Davies – an angry Davies, red-faced through shouting – turning his back on her and marching towards the door, and an equally angry Robyn hurling a plate of uneaten food at the wall behind his retreating form. She shut her mind to it.

  ‘I’m sorry to have to ask you such personal questions. It’s important I get a complete picture of Henry. He didn’t confide anything else? Anything else you can tell me that would throw light on why he was on Cannock Chase yesterday afternoon?’

  He wiped his glasses absent-mindedly with some kitchen roll and checked for smudges before putting them back on.

  ‘I can’t think of any reason.’

  ‘You say you went to Stoke on Monday. Did you ever meet Libby?’