Killer Plan

by Leigh Russell

  Talking wouldn’t make things right. Of course he wished his life could go back to how it had been before his father died, but there was more to it than that.

  He tried to explain. ‘I’m not upset about my dad. I mean, I am, but it’s not just that.’

  He could tell she didn’t believe him.

  ‘What is it then?’

  ‘It’s not fair,’ he snivelled.

  ‘What’s not fair?’

  She was easy to talk to. It all came out in a rush, how his mother had let his brother go away, while he had to stay at home and go to school. It wasn’t as though his mother was even being nice to him. His teacher was so sympathetic that he grew bold.

  ‘I’m sure your mother cares about you both…’

  ‘No she doesn’t, and anyway she’s a liar. She lies all the time. She lied about my brother. She told them we were both at home in bed yesterday, but Ed’s not at home. He hasn’t been there for ages.’

  Miss looked puzzled. ‘Who did she say that to?’

  ‘A policewoman.’

  He felt a flicker of triumph at having told the truth. His mother wanted him to keep his mouth shut, but why should he listen to her? She never listened to him.

  60

  The following morning, after the rush hour, Geraldine drove to Caroline’s house. The twins were likely to be at school by the time she arrived, but that was fine. She wanted to talk to Caroline on her own first, to find out how much she knew. Any suspicion levelled at the children would have to be sensitively handled, and she needed to be sure of her ground before setting things in motion to question them. She was hoping there would be an innocent explanation for the child’s DNA that had been discovered on the body in the van. But whatever the reason for the sample, there was no getting around the fact that one of the boys had been in close contact with the dead man after he was killed.

  Caroline came to the door so promptly she could have been expecting a visitor. Dishevelled and bleary-eyed, she looked ill. Geraldine wanted to feel sorry for the recently bereaved widow, but it was worrying to think she was responsible for the welfare of children not much older than Geraldine’s own niece. From her appearance, she looked as though she could barely take care of herself. This time she didn’t try to shut Geraldine out. On the contrary, if anything she seemed to be in a hurry to invite Geraldine inside.

  Once she had closed the front door, the difference in her demeanour was marked. She apologised at once for her hostility the previous day.

  ‘I just don’t want the boys to be involved in all this any more than they have to be. I mean, they’ve just lost their father. I don’t want them to be upset with questions raking it all up again.’

  It was reasonable enough for a mother to want to protect her children from further distress, after the violent loss of a parent. Recent events could hardly have been more traumatic for them. If one of the children’s DNA hadn’t been found on another dead body, Geraldine would have been happy to leave them alone to cope with their loss as well as they could. As it was, she had to press on.

  ‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to need to speak to your sons. We’ll do it very sensitively, and we’ll be careful not to upset them. We have officers trained to speak to children.’

  Caroline’s smile vanished. Her eyes glittered warily and she took an involuntary step backwards, away from Geraldine.

  ‘They’re not here. They’re at school. They didn’t want to go back, but it seemed best for them to keep to their usual routine as far as possible.’

  Geraldine inclined her head.

  ‘That’s why I don’t want you talking to them. It’ll only upset them all over again. Please, I’d like you to leave them alone. I don’t want you – or anyone – talking to them about what happened. They need to be left alone to get over it. You’re not helping!’

  ‘I’m sorry, but something’s come up that we think they can help us with. If you like you can bring them to the station after school. I can assure you they’ll see an officer who’s trained to speak to children, and you can be present the whole time. The last thing we want to do is upset them. Or we can come here, if you think they’ll be more comfortable at home. We’re just trying to establish what happened to your husband, and we think they may be able to help us. They won’t be in any trouble, not at their age,’ she added.

  It wasn’t an unreasonable request, given the circumstances, but the widow shook her head. With a scowl, she asked Geraldine to leave.

  ‘Not until I have your assurance that we can speak to the boys.’

  ‘They’re at school,’ she repeated, with a hint of desperation in her voice. ‘Look, I want you to find my husband’s killer, of course I do. But the boys were both with me all the time on Saturday. They were at football practice and then we came home and I made them supper and all the time he was…’ She broke off in tears. ‘I’ve told you all this. I gave a statement at the time. There’s nothing more to say. Please, just leave us alone.’ With a sudden burst of anger, she added, ‘We’re the victims here, me and my sons. You have no right to hound us like this. Now please, leave my house and don’t come back until you’ve found out who killed Dave, and locked him up.’

  Geraldine let herself out. It was true. Caroline was the victim. But the problem wasn’t going to go away. There was no question about it. Her son’s DNA had been found on another corpse. Until that point, Rob’s death had appeared unrelated to Dave’s. Now the whole murder investigation had taken a horrific turn. Geraldine drove away, resolving to return later, when the children would be home from school. There didn’t seem to be much else she could do, short of going to the school and hauling the boys out of their lessons, which was unlikely to encourage them to talk.

  Baffled and dejected, she returned to the station to resume going through documents but she couldn’t settle to anything. She was troubled by an image of two young boys seated beside their mother, sobbing. She tried to picture the twins’ expressions, wondering if there could be a clue there, but at the time she had focused on their mother and hadn’t paid the children much attention. She hoped that hadn’t been a mistake. In any case, the two boys were indistinguishable. Their DNA was identical. If one of them had been somehow implicated in murder, how would anyone be able to identify which twin was culpable? The whole situation was fraught with problems, and she couldn’t see any way through it.

  61

  He hadn’t seen his mother for ages. He missed her more every day, and he missed his brother so much it was a physical ache in his stomach, making him feel sick. They had never been separated before. At first it had been an adventure going off like that, all by himself. Brian had made him feel special because he had wanted only him, and not Matt. He had never gone away without his brother before. For the first time in his life he had felt independent, and free. Brian wanted to be called by his first name, not Mr Something, or Sir. It had seemed very grown up, addressing him by his name. The novelty soon palled.

  It was over a week since he had gone home with Brian, and apart from the ice cream it was boring. Brian kept telling him his brother had gone away to another friend of their mother’s, because she needed some time to grieve. Ed wasn’t sure he believed him any more.

  ‘How much longer do I have to stay here?’ he asked.

  Brian’s face twisted so he looked ugly. Ed didn’t like him any more.

  ‘I’m disappointed in you,’ Brian replied quietly.

  Ed didn’t care how Brian felt. He wanted to go home.

  ‘Sit down. We need to talk.’

  ‘I don’t want to sit down. I don’t want to talk. I want to go home.’ He was close to tears.

  ‘Sit down, I’ll get you some ice cream, and then I’ll explain why you can’t go home.’

  He spoke with an air of finality that scared Ed.

  ‘I don’t want any ice cream. I want to go home.’

  Brian shook his head.

  ‘You can’t go home, not yet.’

  ‘Why not? You can�
��t stop me.’

  ‘There’s no point. The house is empty. Your mother’s not there.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘Why would I lie about it? Your mother’s gone away to recover from the shock of losing your father. It’s understandable, isn’t it? She needs time to get over it. That’s why you and your brother have come to stay with me and another friend of your mother’s.’

  ‘Why can’t I see Matt? Where is he?’

  Brian shook his head again, as though he was really sad about it. ‘I’d like to take you there, and I would if I could, but it’s too far away. And anyway, I’m not sure it would be a good idea to travel there right now.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Brian gazed at him earnestly. ‘You know I care about you.’

  Ed nodded his head, uncertainly.

  ‘I promised your mother I’d look after you and keep you safe, and that’s what I’m going to do, whatever it takes. There’s something you need to know about. The people who killed your father, they want to kill you and your brother too. Matthew has been taken far away, somewhere they’ll never find him, and the police have put your mother in a safe house. No one knows where you are. I managed to whisk you away in time, before the bad people caught wind of where you are. But it’s not safe for you to go out of the house right now.’

  Ed sat down. He thought about what Brian had said.

  ‘What about the man who came looking for me here?’

  ‘He was a scout. They must have sent spies out to all the people who knew your mother, all the friends she trusted. But he never went back to report he’d seen you.’

  ‘Won’t they wonder what happened to him?’

  ‘They won’t know for certain that he saw you. But they might find out what happened to him, and then they’ll be back.’

  Ed was really frightened now. He couldn’t understand why Brian was talking so calmly. He jumped to his feet.

  ‘We need to call the police.’

  ‘No. We can’t do that.’

  ‘But the bad people might come back.’

  ‘Yes. That’s why we’re going to hide you, somewhere safe, until this is all over. You have to keep very quiet if you hear anyone in the house, and not let anyone know where you are.’

  ‘What if they see me?’

  Brian smiled. ‘Where you’re going to be hiding, no one will see you. No one will know where you are but me. And I’m not going to give you away. You do trust me, don’t you?’

  Ed nodded although he wasn’t sure if he trusted Brian or not. The first chance he had, he was going to run away. If he went straight to a police station, before the bad people saw him, he would be safe. He decided Brian was weird. He would never say as much to Brian, but he didn’t trust him, not one little bit.

  ‘Come on, then.’

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Come with me.’

  Pulling a torch out of his pocket, Brian led him to the hall where he opened a door to a narrow cupboard under the stairs. Ed had never looked in there before. Now he saw that it was packed with boxes and bottles of cleaning stuff. There was a broom, a dustpan and brush, a hoover and a bucket and mop. It smelled funny in there. With barely room for Ed to stand behind him, Brian opened a low door on the far wall. Crouching down, he clambered through the doorway and disappeared. His voice sounded echoey as he called out to Ed to follow him. Resisting an urge to turn and run, Ed manoeuvred his way past the broom and hoover, and squatted down on his heels to peer through the opening.

  In the beam from Brian’s torch, he made out a narrow wooden staircase that led down under the floor.

  ‘Come on,’ Brian called up to him. He couldn’t see him in the darkness. ‘It’s a secret hiding place. No one but us knows it’s here!’

  Responding to the jubilation in Brian’s voice, Ed felt a rush of excitement. This was a real adventure! Cautiously he made his way down the crude wooden staircase. The floor was dirty, covered in grey concrete. A few paces away, Brian face was lit from below. He looked ghastly, grinning in the white torch light.

  ‘No one will be able to find you here, and you’ll be safe as long as you stay quiet.’

  Although it was an adventure, and Brian was with him, Ed was scared. Brian stepped back and was swallowed in darkness.

  ‘I can’t see,’ Ed complained. ‘I don’t like it here.’

  ‘I’ll leave you the torch,’ Brian said, suddenly brisk. ‘There’s a bucket when you need to go, and I’ve left you enough supplies to keep you going for a few days. No ice cream, because it would melt, but there’s chocolate and sandwiches and fruit. It’ll be fun, like camping. And you can sleep here.’ He waved the torch around until it rested on a camp bed that was made up with blankets and a pillow.

  ‘You’ll be quite safe here,’ he repeated. ‘But you have to keep quiet. I’ll leave you now but don’t worry, I’ll be back soon to see how you’re settling in.’

  He turned and walked towards the narrow staircase, the ground ahead of him illuminated in the beam of light.

  ‘You said you’d leave me the torch!’ Ed called out in a panic.

  ‘Yes, I was just finding my way to the stairs. Here you are.’

  He put the torch down on the bottom step, still switched on so its beam lit up the plaster wall. Hurriedly he climbed the stairs which were lit from above through the open door. Before Ed could remonstrate, Brian reached the top and scrambled through the opening.

  ‘Wait,’ Ed called out, ‘wait! I don’t like it here. I don’t want to stay here by myself…’

  The door closed with a sharp crack leaving him in darkness.

  Cautiously he shuffled across to the torch. Seizing it, he tried to hold it steady, but the beam of light shook in his grasp making the shadows in the cellar move as though they were alive.

  62

  Geraldine was about to leave when she received a message that a woman was asking to speak to her.

  ‘What’s it about? Only I was just going to try and arrange to speak to Dave Robinson’s sons – if we can get near them,’ she added under her breath.

  The sergeant who had brought her the summons grinned. ‘That’s what she said she wants to talk to you about.’

  ‘I hope she’s got them with her this time,’ Geraldine said. ‘I’ve heard enough excuses about why we can’t speak to her sons.’

  The sergeant shook his head. ‘She’s on her own.’

  Geraldine set off for the interview room, prepared to be firm. Expecting Caroline, she was surprised to see a stranger waiting there. The woman didn’t look much older than twenty. She had highlighted straight blonde hair that hung down to her shoulders, and a broad, pleasant face.

  ‘Did Mrs Robinson send you?’ Geraldine asked without any preamble.

  ‘You mean Ed and Matthew Robinson’s mother?’

  ‘Yes. Did she send you to see me?’

  ‘No. But I wanted to talk to someone about the twins.’

  ‘What about them?’

  ‘I’m their school teacher.’

  Geraldine sat down. ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘I’m concerned about the twins, both of them. We all thought it was wrong to send one of them to school, and keep the other one off…’

  ‘What do you mean? Weren’t they both at school today?’

  ‘No. Matthew came back to school almost straight away – possibly too soon – but we haven’t seen Ed, not since their father’s death.’

  Geraldine hid her alarm.

  ‘Where is Ed?’

  ‘That’s just it. We don’t know. His mother told us he’s staying with a friend of hers, which we all thought was a bit odd, keeping one son at home and sending the other one away, especially seeing as they’re twins. But today Matthew said he heard his mother tell a police officer that Ed was at home. He might have got the wrong end of the stick, but if his mother is lying about it, I just thought maybe someone ought to look into it and find out exactly what has happened to Ed. Matthew gen
uinely doesn’t seem to know where he is, and he’s worried. He seems to think his brother just disappeared, so perhaps he has gone to stay with one of his mother’s friends. I mean, it could be that Matthew misheard, or lied about what his mother said to your colleague. Kids do lie for all sorts of reasons, and it would be perfectly natural for Matthew to want some attention, given what’s happened…’

  Geraldine interrupted her. ‘Matthew wasn’t lying. I was the police officer their mother spoke to. I didn’t realise Matthew was listening. His mother told me both boys were home and asleep in bed.’

  The two women exchanged an apprehensive glance. There was no point in Geraldine trying to hide her anxiety any longer. She thanked the teacher for coming forward.

  ‘Do you think something’s happened to Ed?’

  Deliberately Geraldine adopted a reassuring smile in an attempt to mask her true feelings. ‘I’m sure there’s a sensible explanation.’

  It must have been obvious she was lying. She couldn’t help wondering whether Ed was the twin who had been present when Robert’s body had been moved. Perhaps he had seen too much. She thanked the young teacher for coming forward, assuring her they would keep her informed. As soon as she finished talking to her, Geraldine mustered a search team and returned to Caroline’s house. She went to the door by herself. This time she didn’t hold back.

  ‘We’d like to come in,’ she announced. ‘I’ve got a team waiting outside. We can have a quick look around now, or we can come back later with a warrant and take the place apart.’

  It wasn’t much of a choice.

  Caroline’s face went white. ‘The boys are asleep upstairs,’ she blurted out.

  As though to prove her wrong, one of the twins appeared in the hall behind her. He was fully dressed.

  ‘Has Ed come home?’ he asked.

  There was no point in Caroline attempting to sustain her lie. Geraldine took a step forward and spoke softly so the boy couldn’t eavesdrop again.