‘You think he’d do anything for a whiff of a title?’
‘Maybe he found out something about Sophie he didn’t like, and decided he didn’t want his son involved with her.’ Carys bit into her bacon butty, a glob of ketchup splashing over her fingers. ‘The only time he’s mentioned Sophie he’s sounded like she was some sort of prized brood mare, anyway.’
Kay placed her coffee cup on the table between them and ripped off the side of her croissant before stuffing it in her mouth. She swallowed, her hand hovering over the pastry. ‘It does seem extreme, but then these things sometimes are, aren’t they?’ She shrugged. ‘I suppose we shouldn’t rule it out.’
‘Whatever. He’s still a creep.’
Kay grinned, and put another piece of croissant in her mouth. ‘You got that right.’
Fifteen
Kay dumped her notes on her desk and swivelled her chair round as Sharp entered the room to lead the afternoon debrief.
He frowned as he passed her. ‘Where’s Barnes and Piper?’
‘They’re not back yet from interviewing Eva Shepparton,’ said Debbie. ‘Should be back soon.’
Sharp checked his watch. ‘All right, well let’s make a start and they can catch up when they get here.’ He wandered over to the whiteboard and called over his shoulder. ‘West – you first. What have we got so far about the companies run by Blake Hamilton and Matthew Whittaker?’
‘A tale of two contrasts,’ said Debbie. ‘On one hand, you’ve got Blake Hamilton running a very successful business, with his financial statements showing a year-on-year profit well into seven figures. On the other, Matthew Whitaker’s business is failing, to be honest. I’m surprised he hasn’t given up.’
‘Does Matthew Whitaker owe a lot of money?’
‘Yes, and it looks like those debts will be called in within the next few weeks. I don’t think he’s going to have any other option than to declare himself bankrupt.’
‘Keep an eye on them.’
‘Will do, guv.’
‘Kay? What did the pastor have to say for himself?’
‘He confirmed that the Hamiltons and the Whittakers are part of an exclusive group of worshippers out of his congregation,’ she said. ‘There are six other couples, all of whom were present at the ceremony and the party afterwards, so after this I’ll catch up with Gavin regarding the statements that uniform took down. I’ll get Carys and Gavin to re-interview those over the next day or so.’ She sighed. ‘It appears that the group saw themselves as being elite from the rest of the churchgoers, and Duncan Saddleworth was happy to oblige them. He admitted he told Sophie Whittaker about the purity pledge ceremony after she’d asked him about the work he did in the States six years ago before he returned here. I had a quick look online, and it seems to have emerged out of the conservative Christian movement in Connecticut, where Duncan Saddleworth was based.’
‘Was she forced into it?’ said Debbie.
‘He says it was her idea. He pointed her in the direction of the information, and she came to him a few weeks afterwards and said she wanted to take the pledge.’ She frowned. ‘However, what is noticeable is that none of the template pledges online or provided by Duncan to Sophie included anything about being betrothed to one particular person. She added in the wording that she would remain chaste until she married Josh Hamilton.’
‘Interesting,’ said Sharp. ‘We’ll need to speak to the families again, to see what gave her that idea.’
Kay jotted down a reminder in her notebook. ‘Will do.’
‘I think it’s wrong they can marry off their daughter like that,’ said Carys, shaking her head. ‘That sort of thing usually happens in other cultures, for goodness’ sake. That’s why the council spends so much money trying to stop arranged marriages and educate communities around here.’
‘Well, it’s a bit different from those scenarios,’ said Debbie. ‘For a start, at sixteen Sophie was already old enough to marry whoever she wanted, as long as she had her parents’ consent.’
‘Besides,’ said Kay, ‘it’s worked well for the English aristocracy for years. All those upper-class families, marrying off their kids to protect their wealth and standing in society. Keeps the lineage going, doesn’t it?’
Sharp wrinkled his nose. ‘You’ll be telling me you’re a Jane Austen fan next. All that “Ooh, Mr Darcy” rubbish.’
Kay burst out laughing. ‘Not me.’
‘It is a bit creepy though, isn’t it?’ said Debbie.
Kay turned in her seat as Barnes and Gavin hurried into the incident room and apologised to Sharp for their lateness. She noticed the air of excitement between them.
‘What happened?’ said Sharp.
‘Sophie Whittaker was pregnant,’ said Gavin.
A stunned hush filled the room.
‘Pregnant?’ said Kay eventually. ‘Is Eva sure?’
‘Apparently, Sophie confided in her the day of the ceremony.’
‘Is Peter the father?’ said Sharp.
‘Eva said Sophie didn’t tell her who the father was,’ said Barnes. ‘They were outside, next to the conservatory when Sophie told her and she clammed up when the gardener appeared. Eva didn’t get the chance to ask her about it again because everyone was so busy getting ready for the ceremony.’
‘Do you think she’s telling the truth about not knowing who the father is? Perhaps to protect that person?’
‘We wondered that,’ said Gavin. ‘She did seem to be holding something back from us.’
‘I’ll get on to Lucas and ask him if he can hurry up with the full post mortem report so we can confirm it,’ said Kay. ‘We’ll obviously ask for a paternity test as well, in the circumstances.’
‘Christ,’ said Sharp, and rubbed his chin. ‘What a mess. Did Eva give any indication as to Sophie’s state of mind when she told her?’
‘Frightened,’ said Gavin. He flipped open his notebook. ‘Her exact words to Eva were, “they’ll kill me if they find out. What am I going to do?” – Eva said she managed to calm Sophie down, and they’d agreed to talk again the day after the ceremony once they could get some time to themselves.’
‘Did Sophie tell anyone else?’ asked Carys.
‘She told Eva that she hadn’t,’ said Gavin, ‘and Eva says she hadn’t told anyone else either – she was still in shock.’
‘How did Sophie find out?’ said Kay. ‘Missed period, or did she do a pregnancy test?’
‘Both. Missed her period four weeks ago,’ said Barnes. ‘Eva said Sophie told her she’d eventually bought a pregnancy test in a chemist in the Fremlin Walk shopping centre, and used the public toilets there to do the test. She found out the day before she told Eva.’
Sharp perched on top of the desk nearest the whiteboard. ‘Well, we’re not going to have the post mortem results for a while yet, even if you do chase up Lucas this afternoon,’ he said. ‘Not after that bus crash on the M20 over the weekend. In the meantime, we’ll follow this up with Peter Evans. Find out if he knew his girlfriend was pregnant.’
‘You think he panicked, guv?’ said Barnes.
‘Maybe,’ said Sharp.
‘I’ll phone the duty solicitor and ask him to get here as soon as possible,’ said Kay.
‘Thanks,’ said Sharp. ‘I’ll clear my diary for the rest of tomorrow as well. Let’s see what transpires out of this interview, and go from there.’
‘I’ll continue to research this purity pledge business, too,’ said Kay. ‘And I want to find out more about Duncan Saddleworth’s background. I got the impression he wasn’t telling me something, so I’ll look into where he was based before he came to Maidstone, and whether anything cropped up while he was at university in Oxford.’
‘Right.’ Sharp recapped the pen and tossed it onto the shelf under the whiteboard. ‘We’ll have another briefing at eight o’clock tomorrow morning. Barnes, let’s go have a chat with Peter Evans and see what he’s got to say for himself.’
Sixteen
Ka
y sipped her wine as Adam stood at the stove, stirring a Thai green curry that had been simmering away for twenty minutes.
He seemed tired, reticent. Usually, by now he’d have asked her about her day even though he knew she wouldn’t be able to tell him too much about the current investigation. Instead, he appeared to be preoccupied, lost in thought.
‘Everything okay?’
His shoulders sagged and he put the spoon to one side before turning down the heat on the stove and moving to where she sat.
‘I went up to the cemetery this afternoon. I took some fresh flowers – the heat over the past few days had withered the ones we left last time.’
She reached out for his hand and gave his fingers a squeeze. ‘If you’d waited until the weekend, I might’ve been able come with you. You didn’t have to go alone.’
‘I know. I happened to pass it on the way out to a farm this morning, so I thought I’d drop in on my way home. It was a spur of the moment thing. It did me good to sit there for a while.’
Kay squeezed his hand once more, and then let go.
He didn’t often show his emotions about her miscarriage the previous year, and guilt washed over her that she hadn’t thought of asking how he was doing more often.
As if picking up on her thoughts, he walked around the worktop to where she sat and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her hair.
‘We can go up there at the weekend again if you like.’
She twisted round on her bar stool to face him, and placed her hand against his cheek. ‘That’s okay. I imagine Sharp will have us working overtime this week. I think it’s nice you went there.’
‘You don’t mind?’
‘Of course not.’
‘I tidied up a bit while I was there,’ he said, moving back to the stove and picking up the wooden spoon. ‘There were weeds growing all around. Can’t have that.’
Kay eased herself off the stool and grabbed the bottle of wine off the worktop before topping up his glass. ‘I thought perhaps we could donate those boxes of clothes upstairs to one of the local charities sometime.’
He clinked his glass against hers. ‘I think that’s a great idea.’
‘I’m going to keep the blue bear, though.’
He smiled. ‘Thought you might. I saw he’s taken up prime position next to your new computer.’
‘He’s guarding it.’
‘That so?’
‘True story. He’ll take your hand off if you go anywhere near him.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind.’
Kay groaned, and moved away to grab the plates from the cupboard.
As Adam spoke to Kay about his day while they ate, she was struck as always by how much she loved him.
He had a habit of telling stories with his hands, so as he described the farm he had visited that morning and the animals he had attended to, she found herself putting down her utensils and covering her mouth as she dissolved into laughter at his impressions of the hapless farmer he had to deal with.
It never ceased to amaze her how much information he had to recall about all the animals he looked after on a day-to-day basis. She knew he often spent the evenings she was working with his head bowed above an open textbook on the kitchen worktop, or flicking through the latest edition of a veterinary journal, always making sure his knowledge was up to date.
Since their house had been burgled, Kay hadn’t brought up the subject of her own investigation into who had tried to end her career by implicating her in a case where vital evidence had gone missing, and a subsequent Professional Standards investigation had been lodged against her.
She’d survived the ordeal, but not unscathed. Not only had the ensuing suspension from duty resulted in a devastating miscarriage, but her ambition to become a detective inspector had been quashed by her superior officer, DCI Larch. Only DI Devon Sharp had fought her corner for her and remained one of the few from the top floor she felt she could trust.
Embittered and vowing justice on those who had wronged her, Adam had suggested she conduct her own investigation into who it was and why she had been set up.
Neither of them could have foreseen the consequences of her actions. The burglary had been shocking enough; the attack on her colleague, DC Gavin Piper – a police constable at the time – had frightened them both, and Adam had pleaded with her to stop.
She’d agreed, and had ceased to spend her evenings at her computer in the spare bedroom above, but her natural curiosity continued to keep her mind busy as she tried to work out why she had been targeted. She’d been too busy at work the past few months to have time to carry out any research, yet the temptation proved too much.
‘I was thinking,’ she said, swirling her wine. ‘Things have gone quiet recently. I might take a look at that case again.’
Adam froze, his wineglass halfway to his mouth. He blinked, and lowered it to the worktop before speaking.
‘Are you sure?’
She nodded. ‘I need to know, Adam. I can’t let them get away with it.’ She leaned forward and reached out for his hand. ‘Since they hauled me over the coals about the missing evidence, it’s like no-one is going after Jozef Demiri anymore. It’s almost as if they’re too scared to. Nothing’s happening. I checked the database earlier today, and there’s no-one investigating him.’
‘For good reason, Kay.’ He frowned. ‘Who do you think burgled our house? His lot, or one of yours?’
She sat back on her stool. ‘I’m not sure. But,’ she added, holding up her hand to stop him interrupting, ‘if it is someone I work with, then I want to know who – and why.’
He sighed, squeezed her hand. ‘I wondered how long you’d be able to stay away from it.’
She bit her lip. ‘Sorry. I’ll be careful, I promise.’
Her mobile phone buzzed next to her elbow, and she glanced down at the number before frowning.
‘Guv?’
Adam began to clear their plates away while she listened to DI Sharp’s voice, her heart sinking as the impact of what he was saying hit her.
‘I’ll be right there.’
Adam automatically grabbed her takeaway coffee cup from the worktop and flipped the kettle on as she put her phone away.
‘You on your way out?’
‘Yes. Sharp’s at the hospital. I’ve got to go. Peter Evans attempted suicide.’
Seventeen
Kay pulled the handbrake on the car and leapt from the vehicle, swinging her bag over her shoulder as she aimed her key fob over her shoulder and heard the deep thunk of the locking mechanism.
Hurrying across the car park, she pushed her hair away from her face as a light breeze tickled her skin, and a bright moon appeared from behind a cloud, its glow muted by the orange of the sodium lights above her head.
Kay swept into the hospital through the main visitor entrance and then turned right and along a familiar corridor.
She realised her hand was clenched into a fist, and forced herself to relax her grip on her handbag strap, before pressing the button for the elevator.
As it rose through the building, she stared at her feet and rubbed at her right eye, refusing to glance at her reflection in the mirrored walls to her left and right.
Exiting the elevator, she pushed through the double doors of the reception area to the ward and flashed her badge at the nurse standing at the desk with a phone to her ear.
‘Peter Evans?’
The woman nodded and placed her hand over the receiver. ‘Through there,’ she said, and pointed to a corridor off to her left.
Kay held up her hand in thanks and took off down the corridor, fighting down a familiar sense of panic that had nothing to do with Peter Evans. Her head jerked up at the sound of murmured voices.
Sharp emerged through a door off to the right, then looked over his shoulder and stopped to speak to someone who was still in the room.
From her position outside, Kay glimpsed a uniformed police officer sitting on a chair pushed against the wall. Anothe
r stood with his hands clasped beside a small cabinet set to one side of the bed, and she realised Sharp would have organised round-the-clock surveillance to ensure Peter Evans didn’t try to take his life once more.
A doctor appeared and ushered Sharp from the room, then pulled the door closed behind him.
‘Your officers understand my patient has to rest?’ he said.
‘They do,’ said Sharp. ‘We can’t question him without his solicitor being present anyway, and I’m sure that’s not going to be happening tonight, is it?’
The doctor shook his head, and held out his hand. ‘I must be off,’ he said. ‘I’ll let you know if anything happens, but otherwise I’ll talk to you in the morning.’
‘Thanks.’
The doctor nodded at Kay as he passed, then disappeared down the corridor, his shoes squeaking on the polished floor with every step.
‘How is he?’ said Kay once the doctor was out of earshot.
‘He’ll live,’ said Sharp, his eyes weary.
‘What happened?’
He jerked his chin towards the exit. ‘Let’s find somewhere to have a coffee, and I’ll bring you up to speed.’
Kay fell into step beside him as he led the way from the ward and along the main corridor of the hospital. He ignored the elevators and instead pushed through double glass doors that led to a staircase. As they descended, he sighed.
‘You okay?’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Long day.’
He opened the door at the next level to let her through, and they followed the signs to a small cafeteria.
Their footsteps echoed off the walls, the space abandoned, and only one set of lights shone above a glass counter and till, both of which were unmanned. Kay withdrew her purse and headed for the vending machine, selected two coffees and joined Sharp at a table he’d chosen towards the back of the empty café, his back to the wall, facing the exit.
Kay placed the two plastic cups on the table between them and lowered her bag to the floor before sliding into the seat opposite him.
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