Under Mary's Oak

by Tanya Carlysle

  ‘Oh, it’s just lovely! When did you do this?’ exclaimed Laura.

  Robert was an artist who enjoyed considerable success. The watercolours he painted sold through a local gallery and several of them had been used for limited edition prints which proved popular with the many visitors to the area. The landscapes in the north east provided him with enough inspiration to last more than a lifetime. This particular one was of a favourite spot of Laura’s, St Mary’s Lighthouse in Whitley Bay. The sea was angry, and the sky was menacing with the whiteness of the lighthouse a stark contrast to the dark greys and blues.

  ‘I did it earlier in the year and decided to have it framed as a surprise for your birthday. I know you love the view towards the lighthouse, and this sea was so magnificent I just had to capture it.’

  Robert and Laura loved living close enough to the coast to be able to enjoy the sea. The coastline was truly sensational and they had numerous spots which they frequented to just sit and stare at the ever-changing sea. The car park at St Mary’s Lighthouse afforded fantastic views not only of the lighthouse, but also the bay leading round to Tynemouth. They had spent many happy Sunday mornings sitting on one of the benches looking out to sea. It was a popular spot and they recognised other regular visitors walking their dogs or just taking a leisurely stroll.

  ‘Well, I love it. You couldn’t have given me anything better. Thank you, my darling.’

  While they enjoyed their evening together, Laura told Robert about her day.

  ‘I think we’ve managed to contact everyone, and hopefully to reassure them. I’ll have to log in tomorrow and see if we’ve had any response to the e-mail, but other than that I don’t think I need to do too much until Monday. Oh, and I must speak to Shirley tomorrow. Josie was going over there this evening.’

  ‘It was good of Josie to just turn up this morning,’ said Robert.

  ‘Yes, wasn’t it?’ Laura replied. ‘She’s been really helpful all day. And I think I’m going to need her to tease out some information from the sergeant. Arthur was quite insistent that I should try to get involved somehow, although the inspector won’t want that, I’m sure. I think Arthur’s really worried about how the school might suffer if there’s any scandal, and of course, he’s right.’

  ‘But, you can’t do anything, can you?’

  ‘No, of course not, but the sergeant seemed to take quite a shine to Josie. Maybe she can at least find out what they’re thinking, and Arthur might be satisfied with that. He said he’ll talk to the Chief Constable if he thinks the inspector isn’t doing a good job.’

  ‘Oh, that’ll go down well.’

  ‘Yes, won’t it just? Did I tell you the inspector reminded me of Columbo? Not his manner as much as his features.’

  ‘No, you didn’t, but I can see exactly what you mean. Well, if he’s anything like him he should be pretty successful at catching his man.’

  ‘Or woman,’ added Laura.

  ‘Yes, I suppose so, although hitting someone over the head isn’t a very feminine thing to do.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Laura. ‘But we do keep telling the girls they can do anything a man can! Although heaven forbid it was one of the girls!’

  ‘I don’t suppose there’s any suggestion who might have done it?’

  ‘Not that the inspector is revealing. But Josh seems to be missing.’

  ‘But surely it couldn’t be him?’

  ‘I do hope not. I don’t think Shirley could bear to have her husband killed and then discover her son was responsible. Anyway I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation.’

  ***

  The following morning Detective Inspector Jenkins and DS Todd met at the mortuary. Jack Wainwright, the Home Office pathologist who was conducting the post-mortem examination was very experienced and well respected by the local detectives. Like all pathologists he had a very matter of fact way of dealing with death and often gently mocked those police officers who found the sight of an open cadaver distasteful. To him it provided a wealth of information about how the person, who had until recently inhabited the body, lived and more importantly died.

  Jenkins was an old hand at post-mortems, and whilst he could never say he enjoyed the experience he had got past the stage when he felt the urge to regurgitate the contents of his stomach. Todd, on the other hand, was feeling decidedly queasy and only survived without making a fool of himself by fixing his sights firmly on the far wall, and trying to pretend he was somewhere else. He had a smear of Vick under his nose to mask the smells, and had foregone his breakfast that morning as an added precaution.

  Finally, Wainwright turned to the two policemen. ‘Well, gentlemen, it seems as though our victim did indeed die as a result of blunt force trauma, a single blow to the back of the head. TOD is, as I thought initially, sometime on Friday evening, probably between 7.30 and 9.30.’

  ‘Any idea about what was used?’ asked Jenkins.

  ‘We found a splinter of wood in the wound. I’ll have it analysed to see what sort of wood. And the wound was cylindrical, just over 2 inches in diameter.’

  ‘You mean like a baseball bat?’

  ‘Yes, that’s possible.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Yes, he was hit from behind, the weapon striking the right side of the skull. It suggests the killer was right handed. There are no defensive wounds, no scratches or abrasions, meaning he was probably taken by surprise.’

  ‘Haven’t we had a couple of other bodies recently with the same sort of injuries?’ asked Jenkins. He recalled two other murders in different parts of the city.

  ‘Yes, I’ll dig out the details and send them to you, but off-hand I can say both were male, two separate incidents one last week and the other about six weeks ago.’

  ‘OK, thanks. Is that all?’

  ‘Well, I suppose that’s all you need to know. There was nothing suspicious in the contents of the stomach. Some evidence of damage to the heart, and he was well on the way to cirrhosis of the liver, quite a lot of scar tissue, but that didn’t kill him. I’ll get the full report to you by tomorrow. I’ve just got to sew him up and then I’m going home for my Sunday lunch.’

  Surprisingly that was what did for Todd, and he rushed past Jenkins to head for the gents’. Wainwright looked at Jenkins and they exchanged a knowing smile.

  Chapter Nine

  Jenkins was waiting for Todd outside.

  ‘Sorry, sir,’ apologised the sergeant. ‘I keep thinking it’ll get better.’

  ‘It will eventually,’ replied his boss in a surprisingly sympathetic voice. Jenkins wasn’t known for his compassion. ‘Let’s get back to the station. I want to look at those other cases.’

  The station had the benefit of a number of large rooms which could be used as incident rooms, and Jenkins had commandeered his favourite first floor room, overlooking green playing fields. The northern edges of the city were peppered with green open spaces. Area Headquarters in Westerhope was surrounded on three sides by houses, but to the rear it was open and Jenkins believed he gained inspiration by focussing on the tranquil view from the windows.

  His team consisted of himself, his DS and three DCs. DC Sally Walker was the most experienced of the three and Jenkins knew she was looking for promotion. It would only be a matter of time before Sally became DS Walker, and he really valued her input into investigations. He would miss her when she moved on. John Nugent had been with him for a couple of years and was a solid worker, but he wouldn’t ever set the world on fire and he was a bit of a clock watcher. The third DC, Jaqui Spense, had only joined the team three weeks before. Moving north from Leicester, Jaqui was still finding her way round and hadn’t yet had time to impress her boss.

  The room had the customary board centre stage, and Sally had already fixed photos of the crime scene, and had drawn a timeline of the known events. For an investigation of just over 24 hours they had a pitiful amount of information, but if they could link it to o
ther crimes in the city it would help.

  Jenkins was desperate to turn this case round quickly. His boss, Chief Inspector Philip Manton, was a hard task master and always had his eye on the targets. If he could solve three murders he would be the boy wonder of the station, and he might just get his own promotion. It was a source of irritation to Jenkins that he had been passed over for promotion. Twice other less experienced officers had been given the chance of a senior post. He just needed the right case, with the right outcome. Maybe this was the one.

  He had called a team briefing for one o’clock, and before then he wanted to see what he could discover about the other two bodies found with similar injuries. He pulled up the files.

  Jason Burton was 31 years of age and his body was discovered at the end of March near the fish quay in North Shields. Jason had a history of gambling and it was believed his gambling was linked to his murder. He owed a lot of money at the time of his death, and whereas his murder would make it impossible to collect the debt, it could be sending a message. Again a single blow to the head was the cause of death, the wound probably caused by a baseball bat.

  Harry Westbury’s body was discovered ten days ago in the City centre in an underground car park in Lisle Street. It looked as though he had been killed somewhere else and dumped but they hadn’t found the site of the murder yet. With the same MO and the same background of gambling it was likely that the two murders were linked, but nothing had been found so far. Was there a link to Richard Hart? Certainly he seemed to have come into money recently if he was talking about taking his wife on holiday to Las Vegas and buying a new car. And, after all, Las Vegas was the gambling capital of the world. Jenkins started to believe he was onto something.

  Just before one o’clock the team was assembled. Jenkins started the briefing by outlining the case thus far, and inviting contributions at the appropriate points. All of his team had visited the scene of the crime. Sally had been the officer to visit Shirley, and the two other DCs had spoken to neighbours and checked over the CCTV footage. Sally Walker and Gary Todd had also spoken to the groundsmen and caretaking staff at the school.

  ‘So,’ began Jenkins. ‘At 8.20am yesterday morning we received a call to say that the body of a man had been found in the grounds of Mary Montgomery High School for Girls. Walker, you spoke to John Grainger?’

  ‘Yes, guv,’ Sally said putting down her mug of tea. ‘He intended to mow the playing fields, it being a Saturday morning and with no sports fixtures planned he hoped to have a quiet morning without interruption. The ride-on mower is kept in a garage alongside the Sports Pavilion at the south end of the school site. He noticed that the sports store alongside was unlocked and the door was open. He thought he’d better have a look round, and that’s when he found the body. He called the Bursar, Bob Hinchcliffe, and the Bursar phoned it in. Grainger was quite cut up about it.’

  ‘Right,’ continued Jenkins. ‘Todd and I attended the scene. The body was lying under a large oak tree just to the west of the Pavilion. There was a lot of blood, and it looked like he’d been hit on the head with something which we now know was cylindrical, just over 2 inches in diameter and made of wood.’

  ‘Like a baseball bat?’ asked Sally Walker.

  ‘Yes, that seems favourite at the moment,’ agreed Jenkins. ‘There was a wood splinter in the wound which they have yet to analyse. The pathologist gives the time of death somewhere between 7.30 and 9.30 on Friday evening. No weapon has been found, and there’s not much evidence of anything else. A few cigarette ends, some used chewing gum and a partial footprint from where it would appear the killer stepped in the victim’s blood and then started to walk away, but the print is not much use to us. It was on grass and heavy dew caused it to deteriorate and forensics haven’t been able to find out much. The cigarette ends and chewing gum could have come from a number of sources. It’s a popular spot for the pupils, and I’m sure some of them smoke when they think no-one’s looking. And the school don’t lock the gate behind the pavilion so anyone could have got in.

  The victim, Richard Hart, is Head Caretaker at the school and lives in a cottage behind the main school building with his wife, Shirley and her son, Josh. Walker, you spoke to the wife?’

  ‘Yes, guv. She last saw her husband at about 6 o’clock when she left home to visit her mother for the weekend. Her mother lives in Gateshead and confirms that Mrs Hart arrived at about 6.45. They chatted and then went for a drink to the local pub, returning home just before ten. I’ve checked with the landlord and he remembers the two of them in there, so she’s out of the picture.

  She can’t think of anyone who would do him any harm. She did mention that he’d been ill and a bit worried about money if he had to take early retirement – he had a heart attack about a year ago. But he seemed happier recently. He’d even suggested he would take her to Las Vegas in the summer, and he was thinking of buying a new car.’

  ‘Right, we’ll come back to that,’ said Jenkins. ‘Todd, you went up to the Hart home, looking for Josh.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ replied Todd. ‘He wasn’t at home, and as no-one else was there I don’t know if he had spent the night there or not. One of the other caretakers lives next door and didn’t see or hear anything. However his mother certainly expected him to be at home, and she couldn’t get hold of him on his mobile. We checked his friends but so far we’ve drawn a blank.’

  ‘Do we know anything about the relationship between Josh and his stepfather?’ asked Jaqui Spense.

  ‘According to John Grainger they got on well. Apparently they had a rocky start, but now were the best of friends,’ Sally replied.

  ‘Did we find out anything from those who worked with him?’

  ‘Not really,’ said Todd. ‘They all said he was a nice guy, and they couldn’t think of anyone who would want to kill him. No one knew anything about where he might have got money from, but apparently John is the one most likely to know. I’ll follow up on that today.’

  ‘Right, we’d better chase that up then. Nugent, anything from the neighbours, or the CCTV?’ continued Jenkins.

  ‘Nothing helpful, I’m afraid. The CCTV doesn’t cover the bottom of the school site. There is a camera from the Sports Hall which points that way, but it’s too far away to be of any use. There’s activity round the sports hall during the evening, but no sign of anyone making their way across the field. Nobody reports seeing or hearing anything suspicious.’

  ‘So, we have a fifty-two year old man who was well-liked by everyone who turns up dead with his head bashed in. Come on people, we need a motive.’

  ‘You said we would come back to the holiday in Las Vegas,’ Jackie Spense remembered.

  ‘Indeed I did,’ agreed the inspector. ‘I’m pleased someone is paying attention. Where has he suddenly got the money to buy a new car shell out for a holiday in Vegas? It wouldn’t come cheap. And what do we know about Las Vegas?’

  ‘Gambling!’ exclaimed Sally Walker.

  ‘It’s certainly a possibility,’ said Jenkins. ‘And there have been two other murders in recent weeks which might have a link. So, we need to know if he gambled, if he won or lost, and if anything changed recently. Check the bookmakers, the casinos. Go over the files of the other two murders and see if there are any links.’

  ‘Who’s running the other enquiries? Should we talk to them?’ asked Gary Todd.

  ‘Leave that to me. I’ll talk to the Chief.’ Jenkins wanted to handle this quietly at the moment. He didn’t want anyone stealing his thunder. If he could get to the killer first he would get all the glory.

  ‘What about the stepson, Josh?’ asked John. ‘Is he still in the frame?’

  ‘We need to follow up on him certainly. We can’t rule him out until we know whether he has an alibi. So we have to keep looking for him. Contact the mother again, and see if she has heard anything.

  Right, we’ve had a busy coup
le of days and a late night last night, so get yourselves off home now and be back here at 8am sharp.’

  The team didn’t need to be told twice, especially John Nugent who was despairing of getting home in time to watch the football on TV. Newcastle were playing Manchester City at home and it promised to be a lively match. The inspector wasn’t usually so generous, but he had a good feeling that he could crack this case, and he wanted his team on top form tomorrow.

  Chapter Ten

  On Monday morning Laura drove into the school grounds with a heavy heart. The place would never be quite the same. It had always seemed tranquil, almost an oasis and yet so close to the bustling city centre. Now the savagery of the murder, and the emotions it would unleash in the school community had changed that for her.

  She had tried to relax on Sunday, knowing that the demands of the coming week would be considerable, but her mind kept returning to the events of the previous day. So much had happened, and so many lives would be affected. She had rung Shirley. That was a difficult phone call. Shirley was in floods of tears and totally distraught. Her husband was dead and her son was missing. She couldn’t fail to link the two, and yet she couldn’t make sense of it.

  ‘Josh would never hurt Richard,’ she had said through her tears. ‘They got on really well, and Richard was so proud of him. He kept telling people what a computer whiz kid he was. And he was. I don’t know where he gets it from, certainly not from me.’

  Her Senior Management Team were due in at ten o’clock. There were arrangements to be made for the following day, and Laura wanted to be sure that every ‘i’ was dotted and every ‘t’ crossed. But before that she had her meeting with DI Jenkins. She hoped DS Todd would accompany him and she needed to see Josie first.

  Josie was already at her desk.

  ‘Good morning,’ said Laura. ‘What time did you arrive?’