Reunion: a gripping crime thriller (DI Kate Fletcher Book Book 4)

by Heleyne Hammersley

For a second she considered shouting for help. But who would come? There were no other adults within earshot and none of her classmates would be able to do anything – they were just a bunch of kids.

  There was nobody here to help them. Nobody at all.

  10

  Priya Das was the polar opposite of Kate’s previous DCI, Bill Raymond. Raymond had been an imposing figure and his physical stature and forceful personality had gained him a reputation as someone not to be crossed. Where Raymond had been tall and broad, Das was tiny. Where Raymond had been loud and sometimes belligerent, Das was softly spoken and showed others due consideration in discussion. And where Raymond had been ‘old school’, Das was keen to embrace new technology and cutting-edge methods of investigation. That was one reason why she’d wanted to attend the post-mortem of the body from the storage facility – it was a puzzle and, Kate knew, Das loved a puzzle.

  Now facing the DCI across Raymond’s old desk, Kate felt like she was being assessed to see exactly where she fitted into some bigger picture. Das’s dark brown eyes stared into her own as though trying to read Kate’s thoughts, allowing Kate time to study her boss and to try to work out what was going on.

  Despite her small build, Das appeared to have the knack of dressing for maximum impact. Almost as soon as they’d met, Kate could see that she was a woman who knew exactly which clothes and make-up suited her and how to use that knowledge to her own advantage. Today she was wearing a dark grey suit, appropriately sombre considering she’d attended a post-mortem but, underneath, she wore a deep red blouse which complemented her dark skin and minimal make-up. It was a slash of colour that flashed a warning to anybody who thought they might be able to intimidate or manipulate her.

  Das’s short black hair was styled into what some might describe as a pixie cut but nobody who knew the woman would dare associate her with a playful sprite. Priya Das was a woman to be reckoned with and Kate was now facing a reckoning of her own.

  ‘Ma’am, if I could just ask what exactly–’

  ‘Sit,’ Das barked, pointing at a chair while she remained standing by the window. Backlit by the fading sunlight she was a blur of red and black.

  Kate did as instructed and waited for the onslaught of Das’s wrath. She wasn’t sure what she’d done but she had no doubt that, whatever it was, the DCI felt justified in treating her like this. Sam hadn’t been wrong when she’d hinted at Kate being Das’s favourite, but it looked like that was firmly in the past.

  ‘Chris Gilruth,’ Das began. ‘You knew him?’

  ‘I worked with him in Cumbria,’ Kate said, trying to keep the details of her relationship with Chris as simple as possible.

  ‘You also found his body a few days ago.’

  So, it had been him. Even though she’d been expecting it, the grief was a blow. Images of Chris played in her mind on fast forward until that final one – the body on the wet hillside at dusk.

  ‘I didn’t find the body. An elderly couple spotted it when they were heading back to their car. I wasn’t even sure that it was Chris.’ Suddenly this fact seemed important. Kate had just kept a vigil. She hadn’t been the one to find Chris.

  ‘It was. Cumbria Constabulary confirmed it this morning. A DCI Bland asked me to pass the information on to you.’

  Kate nodded. This still didn’t explain why Das was so angry.

  ‘Bland also hinted that you and Gilruth had been a little closer than colleagues.’

  Was that what this was all about – rumours of a workplace romance had got the DCI’s back up? If so, her reaction was disproportionate to the supposed offence. Kate wouldn’t have categorised her relationship with Chris as a romance.

  ‘It was nothing, ma’am,’ Kate replied truthfully. ‘We were both having a rough time with our respective partners and things went a bit further than they should have. A few kisses and that was it. Chris wanted to make things work with his wife and I… well, I moved down here. I really don’t see how a misjudged friendship a few years ago would make you want me off this current case. I’m sad about Chris but I hadn’t spoken to him for three years.’

  Das shook her head. ‘It’s not that. Not just that. We got DNA back on the body from the storage place. Kailisa talked me through it as the results came back while I was at the PM. All the body parts are from the same victim – which is good news. She wasn’t on the database but Kailisa had asked for a familial match as well in case we could track down a relative.’

  ‘And one turned up?’

  ‘Indeed,’ Das said. She stepped away from the window and sat down opposite Kate.

  ‘The dismembered woman’s DNA flagged a match with a police officer who was living in Cumbria. She was Chris Gilruth’s mother.’

  Kate closed her eyes as the room started spinning. Nothing was making any sense. How could the two be linked? An accident in the Lake District and a murder in Doncaster? How could the dismembered body be Chris’s mother?

  Then she saw what Das had seen. The connection was her, Kate. She’d known Chris and she was involved in the investigation into the murder.

  ‘I’m afraid there’s more,’ Das was saying. ‘Gilruth’s body underwent a PM because of the circumstances of the discovery. Kate, I’m really sorry but Chris Gilruth was murdered. The local team think he was approached by somebody who stabbed him in the chest – possibly under the guise of asking for directions. The details are sketchy. They think he might have been pushed from a height in order to prevent his body from being discovered. His wife had reported him missing three days before he was found and Mountain Rescue had been out looking – it’s likely that the heavy rain washed the body down the hillside.’

  ‘He was killed?’

  Das nodded.

  ‘And his mother? But that makes no sense. Chris’s mother lived near Kendal. I met her. How did she turn up dead in Doncaster?’

  ‘I don’t have any other details.’ Das was almost apologetic. ‘But I need to take you off this case until things are a little clearer.’

  ‘No.’

  Das raised her eyebrows. ‘No?’

  ‘The dismembered body is Margaret Wallace also known as Margaret Whitaker. I’m almost certain of that – Sam’s spent a lot of time digging and she’s rarely wrong. How can she be Chris’s mother? I met Chris’s mother.’ Kate knew that she was repeating herself, but she could only go round in circles with the information that she had. ‘Hang on. Surely Cumbria Constabulary have been in touch with Chris’s family. They’d know if his mother was missing as well. His wife would have known. You need to find out. Her name was Maureen Gilruth and she lived in Staveley. You need to find out.’

  Das made a note on the jotter on her desk. ‘I’ll contact Bland and see what he says. I understand how upsetting this is for you but, until we’ve conclusively established the identity of the dismembered body, I feel I need to keep you away from this case. If the press get hold of the link, they’ll have a field day.’

  So that was the problem – bad publicity. She’d come to expect this from Raymond but she’d hoped that Das could think a little more creatively.

  ‘Listen,’ she tried again to make her case. ‘Dan and I have been to a nursing home where Margaret Wallace was staying. She was discharged from there by a woman claiming to be her niece. Dan’s got the records, including a fairly recent photograph. Her husband’s serving six months in Wakefield for a grooming offence. He could identify the body if the photograph is inconclusive. If this woman is Chris Gilruth’s mother, then I’m almost certain that she isn’t the woman I met in Cumbria. And if she is his mother, what are the chances that David Whitaker or Wallace, whichever you prefer, is his father?’

  Das tapped her pen on the desk, her eyes focused on a point somewhere above Kate’s head. ‘Okay,’ she said eventually. ‘I don’t want to kick you off the case, Kate. I was just so bloody angry when I thought you hadn’t told me about the connection between Gilruth and our body.’

  ‘But I–’

  ‘I know, you ha
d no idea,’ Das said, holding up a hand. ‘But it’s still a hell of a coincidence. I need to check through the notes that Hollis got from the residential home – I can send the photo to Doctor Kailisa to see if he can confirm identification. With a provisional ID we might be able to access her dental records if the husband will give consent. I’ll get Kailisa to see if there’s a DNA match between Gilruth and Whitaker as well – that might take a bit of time. I’ll ring Bland and see what he can tell me about Maureen Gilruth. But, until I can get this clear in my head, I want you to take a break from it. In fact, go home now and take tomorrow off. It’s not official and I don’t want to have to make it official, so stay away until I ask you to come back. I’ll ask O’Connor to take up the slack.’

  Kate wasn’t mollified. It felt like she was being suspended even though she knew that Das was actually trying to spare her some trauma. ‘What about the leads from the nursing home? We need to get CCTV and to follow up on the addresses for the niece.’

  Das sighed. ‘Kate, you run a tight team. I know they all have their own skills and talents and I know that a lot of what they’re capable of is down to your mentoring. Trust me and trust them.’

  Das was right. Every member of the team could follow up on the information they already had without even being asked. Cooper would check the CCTV. Barratt would organise the interview with Calvin Russell. Dan would follow up the DNA and organise for Whitaker to ID the body if necessary. And O’Connor? Well, maybe he’d enjoy being in charge for a few days – although Kate found that a little unlikely.

  She’d run out of arguments.

  ‘Kate,’ Das said softly. ‘Go home.’

  11

  When Kate pushed open the door to her flat she could hear the radio, and steam was drifting into the hallway from the kitchen. Nearly a year on and she still hadn’t got used to finding Nick making dinner when she got home. Not that he was there every night. She loved him but she also loved having time and space to herself and she was glad that she’d found somebody who could respect that. Even on the rare nights that she stayed at his house he’d never smothered her or tried to persuade her to move in with him.

  Her flat was the better option for both of them – close to Doncaster Central and five minutes from the hospital where Nick worked as an oncology specialist – but they both agreed it was far too small. Kate thought that they might, eventually, live together, but that was still quite a way into the future.

  ‘What’s for tea?’ she asked, pushing the kitchen door wider open. Another blast of herby steam welcomed her.

  Nick turned, his dark hair plastered to his forehead by the damp heat of the kitchen and Kate felt her pulse quicken. Nearly a year and he could still take her breath away. ‘Moussaka? I’m just making the sauce.’

  She laughed and stepped forward to wrap her arms around his waist. ‘Moussaka, isn’t that a bit of a cliché?’

  ‘What, I’m not allowed to cook Greek food because I’m Greek? Then you can’t make shepherd’s pie, or Yorkshire pudding, or fish and chips.’

  Kate grinned at him. ‘Deal. No cooking for me.’

  He smiled back at her. ‘You’re early. This was supposed to be in the oven by the time you got home. Everything okay?’

  She paused before answering. How could she explain how shit everything was without giving out details of the case? Eventually she opted for, ‘Not really, but I can’t talk about it.’

  Nick nodded and turned back to the cooker to stir his sauce. ‘Tough case?’

  ‘Something like that. I heard that the body in Langdale was Chris Gilruth. I’d been expecting it, but it still came as a bit of a shock.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Nick said without turning round. They’d spoken about Chris the evening of the discovery of the body, but Kate hadn’t told Nick everything. He thought that she and Chris had just been colleagues.

  ‘Das sent me home.’

  Nick turned to face her again, frowning this time. ‘How come?’

  ‘Can you turn that off and come and sit down with me. I think we need to talk. There’s some stuff that I want to tell you before you hear it anywhere else.’

  ‘What sort of stuff?’

  Kate shook her head. ‘Not here. Turn it off and come into the sitting room.’

  She walked down the hallway, hoping that he’d follow, and threw herself on the sofa in the lounge. This wasn’t a conversation for a casual chat over the stove. This could be serious – if her relationship with Chris became common knowledge it could undermine her authority with her team, especially given the connection with the current case.

  ‘What’s up?’ Nick joined her on the sofa and turned to face her.

  ‘I haven’t told you everything about me and Chris.’

  ‘Me and Chris?’ Nick pulled a face that was half smile, half scowl. ‘I wasn’t aware that there had been a “me and Chris”.’

  ‘There wasn’t, not really. It was something and nothing.’ She reached out and put a hand on his thigh, more to reassure herself than him. ‘Before I moved back down here, me and Chris were close. We worked a couple of cases together, did some late nights and one thing led to another. I was still reeling from Garry’s latest betrayal and Chris thought his marriage was over.’

  Nick’s eyes narrowed. ‘One thing led to another? Did you sleep with him?’

  Kate withdrew her hand and edged away from him. ‘Oh, please don’t tell me you’re jealous. This was a couple of years before I knew you.’

  ‘Did you sleep with him?’ Nick repeated.

  ‘It’s none of your business – what I did before I met you and who I did it with. What the hell’s wrong with you?’

  Nick stood up and strode over to the window. ‘It’s not that,’ he said, his back to her. ‘I’m not jealous.’

  ‘So, what’s up?’

  He turned to face her, his dark eyes serious. ‘It’s the hypocrisy. You told me all about Garry and how he went off with other women – but what about you?’

  ‘Garry had left me,’ Kate said, baffled. This wasn’t like Nick at all.

  ‘But Chris was married. You told me that he lived with his wife and kids in Kendal. You were upset for them when you thought the body was him.’

  ‘And he went back to her. He made a go of it. Nothing we did hurt his wife because he went back.’

  ‘Did she know? His wife?’

  Kate shrugged. ‘I have no idea. Two months after Chris said he wanted to make his marriage work I moved down here.’ She thought she should tell Nick that she hadn’t slept with Chris. That she’d wanted to, but they’d decided that it was a bad idea. They’d done the right thing. But she didn’t need or want Nick’s forgiveness just as she didn’t deserve his judgement.

  ‘I just don’t think it’s right, that’s all,’ Nick continued. ‘You knew how it felt to be the other woman and yet you did that to somebody else’s wife.’

  ‘Jesus!’ Kate spat. ‘What’s this? Your bloody orthodox upbringing suddenly kicking in? You have no right to judge me. You weren’t there. You have no idea what happened or how I felt.’

  ‘So, tell me,’ Nick said, slumping in the armchair opposite the sofa. ‘Explain.’

  For a second, Kate was tempted. It was just a couple of kisses and what ifs but neither she nor Chris were really interested in a relationship and she’d been relieved when he’d told her that he didn’t want to take it further, that he wanted his marriage to work. But the stubborn part of her brain and the part that was still stinging from the way Das had treated her conspired to make her shitty day just a little bit shittier.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘Why should I? I’m sick of having to defend myself and justify my actions – I get enough of that at work. What happened between me and Chris is my business, it’s on my conscience and it’s in the past. I’ve had a crap day and it’s just getting crappier. I want you to leave.’

  Nick flinched back, his expression one of surprise and hurt. ‘But I…’

  ‘Just go, Nick!’ she yell
ed, marching out of the sitting room and shutting herself in her bedroom. ‘And take your fucking moussaka with you!’

  12

  DC Matt Barratt felt almost sorry for the young man sitting opposite him in the interview room. Calvin Russell looked like a child who’d been caught shoplifting and been turned in by his parents to teach him a lesson. He sat with his chair pulled in close to the desk, sitting up straight as though trying to show that he was attentive and willing to co-operate. He’d removed his dark blue baseball cap and tried to smooth down his dark hair probably more out of habit than necessity given the shortness of the cut. His eyes flicked from Barratt to O’Connor who was sitting next to him and then to the two corners of the room that Russell could see from his position. He didn’t look at the duty solicitor: didn’t even acknowledge her presence until she spoke which seemed to make him jump slightly in his seat.

  ‘I want it on the record that my client came in for interview willingly and that he is keen to co-operate with this enquiry,’ she said as soon as Barratt had started the recording and got the formalities out of the way.

  Barratt nodded. ‘And, as you’re aware, we’re not conducting this interview under caution, but it is being recorded with Mr Russell’s permission. Mr Russell claims to understand what that means and has stated his intention to co-operate.’

  Barratt hadn’t encountered Sherry Pines before but some of his colleagues had warned him that she was an absolute stickler for procedure and that she would call an end to the interview at the slightest hint of irregularity.

  Pines nodded for Barratt to continue.

  ‘Thanks for coming in so early, Calvin. It’s important that we get on with this as quickly as possible.’

  Russell nodded. ‘Early is best. At least I won’t miss too much work. Mr Hibberts says he’ll pay me while I’m here, but I don’t want him to think I’m skiving.’

  Barratt gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. ‘So, Calvin, on the day you discovered the body, you told me that you were good with computers. Do you remember that?’