Breaking Point

by Frank Smith

  ‘You would have complained just as much if we’d moved her,’ Paget told him. ‘So, apart from that, what can you tell us, Reg? How and when did she die?’

  ‘Initial observation, subject to change when I get her on the slab, I’d say she drowned. But the bruising on her knees and elbows, around the shoulders, upper body, throat, nose and mouth, and on her scalp suggests to me that she struggled very hard when someone held her under. All of which, as I said, will have to be confirmed, of course.’

  ‘Any other signs of abuse?’ asked Paget.

  ‘Can’t tell as yet. As for time of death, it’s hard to say. I’m told the electric heater was on and the room was like an oven when they found her, so we may never know exactly. The best I can give you now is two to five days. That high temperature in the room does make it difficult.’

  ‘Which could mean,’ Tregalles said softly, ‘that what the old man next door said he heard around nine o’clock on Friday night, was Rose Ryan being killed.’

  Everyone else was either out in the country with Charlie or had gone to their homes long ago when Grace left the office and went to her car. The sky was clear and the temperature was dropping, which was odd, because they had been forecasting rain. But there was a decided nip in the air, and she wondered if there would be a frost before morning.

  She could have walked to where she was going, but now that she’d made up her mind she wanted to be there as quickly as possible; no delays, no second thoughts. If she didn’t do it now . . .

  She got in the car and fastened her seatbelt. Funny how comforting it felt. It was like someone holding you, keeping you safe.

  She thought of Neil, and the temptation was strong to go straight home, to draw strength from his arms and from his love. But that would solve nothing; this was something she had to do on her own.

  She drew a deep breath and started the car.

  ‘She’d undressed in the bedroom, her clothes were folded on the chair at the bottom of the bed, and the bathrobe was on the floor beside the tub,’ Charlie said. ‘So I’d say she was probably in the tub when her attacker arrived, but how he got in, I don’t know. There’s no apparent tampering with the locks on either door, so either a door was unlocked, or he or she had a key. The back door key is missing, so whoever did this must have locked up when they left and taken the key with them

  ‘She fought hard. There is skin under her nails, so her killer has a few scratches on him – I’m assuming it was a male until I see something that makes me think otherwise – but it would be almost impossible for her to fight back with any degree of success from her position in the tub. Any idea who did this?’

  Paget shook his head. ‘I wish to God I did,’ he said, ‘but it looks to me as if once we connected Fletcher to the disappearance of Mark Newman, and he was forced to run, both he and his girlfriend had to be silenced.’

  ‘You didn’t have anyone watching the house?’

  ‘Don’t have the resources,’ Paget told him. ‘Best we can do these days is have the local people keep an eye on the place if or when they happen to go by, and then only if it doesn’t interfere with their regular duties.’

  ‘So it’s wide open?’

  ‘Afraid so, Charlie.’ Paget turned to Tregalles. ‘But if someone thought it necessary to kill Rose Ryan for fear she might talk, they might do the same to the Greens, so regulations or not, I think we had better make an exception in this case. Fletcher was with them for several days, and these people don’t take any chances. So I want someone with them in their house tonight.’

  He looked at the time. ‘And since there seems to be nothing more to be done here, I suggest we wrap this up and go home and get some sleep.’

  Twenty

  Charlie Dobbs realized later that he’d seen the car as he drove back to the office, but it didn’t register at the time, so preoccupied was he with the night’s activities. His men were still out there at the cottage, and they would probably be there for a few more hours, but he would be surprised if they came up with anything worthwhile. He just wished they could find something – anything – for Paget to work with, but as things stood now, the chief inspector might as well be treading water for all the progress he was likely to make.

  But there was one thing he did know, and that was that they were dealing with an organization of some kind; an organization that didn’t like loose ends. First, Mark Newman had disappeared, then Doyle, then Fletcher, and now Fletcher’s girlfriend had been killed.

  So who was next? Was Paget right? Would they go after Bernie Green and his wife? They should be safe enough tonight with police protection, but that wasn’t going to last long by the sound of it.

  He pulled up in front of the office. He didn’t intend to stay very long, so he parked the car beneath a street light in front of the office rather than going to the bother of operating the coded gate to the underground parking. The car was alarmed, and the engine wouldn’t start without the code, so he wasn’t too worried about having it nicked. Besides, it was four years old, and not one of the top ten being targeted by thieves this month.

  He could manage an hour, he decided as he sat down at the desk and took several papers from his in tray. Reports, and more reports. Whatever happened, he wondered idly, to the paperless society everyone had been talking about when computers came on the scene? If anything, there was even more paper now than ever, and since everyone wanted a copy of everything, there must be millions upon millions of filing cabinets throughout the world just stuffed with useless information.

  The thought intrigued him, and he began to wonder if it would be possible to get a government grant to do, say, a five-year study of the filing habits of corporations and businesses. Revenue and Customs, now there would be a good place to start.

  Charlie dragged his mind back to the work in front of him, but he’d no more than read the first line when his phone rang. He groaned when he saw the calling number.

  ‘Neil,’ he answered wearily. ‘I hope you’re not calling to say you’ve got another one.’

  ‘Not exactly, Charlie,’ said Paget more lightly than he felt. ‘But I do have a missing Grace, and since time is getting on, I wondered if she’s still in the office. I tried her mobile phone, but she must have it switched off.’

  ‘I’ve only just got in myself,’ Charlie said cautiously. ‘She’s not here, but I know she said she was going to stay on here for a while this evening. She’s probably on her way . . .’

  He stopped. He remembered seeing Grace’s car on his way in. Seeing it and yet not registering what he saw, because it was where it had always been in the past, and he’d thought nothing of it. If only he’d been a little more alert he would have stopped, but . . .

  ‘Charlie? Charlie!’ Paget’s voice rose in alarm. ‘What is it? What’s the matter?’

  Charlie slammed his fist down on the desk beside the phone. ‘Damn!’ he said. ‘Missed the cheeky little sod! Sorry Neil, but would you believe it? A mouse just ran across the desk, bold as brass. I’m going to have to set traps. Now, what was I saying? Oh, yes. I was going to say Grace won’t have had any supper, so she may have stopped at that late-night deli she likes on Bridge Street for a bite before coming home. She probably thought that you wouldn’t be home until later, so she won’t be in any hurry.’

  ‘Yes, that could be it,’ Paget agreed. ‘Still, I wish she’d leave her mobile on.’

  The phone was barely back on its rest before Charlie grabbed his coat and made for the door. Down the stairs and into the car; he was doing fifty by the time he hit the end of the street.

  Grace’s car was there in front of the flat, and there was a light shining dimly behind the curtains in an upstairs window. Charlie pulled in to the kerb, switched off and left the car. The front door opened to his touch, and suddenly his head was filled with vivid images of the things that had taken place there just three short months ago, and he was filled with apprehension as he looked up the narrow stairs to the light at the top.

&n
bsp; It wasn’t the landing light – too dim, but he knew exactly where it was coming from. He called out, ‘Grace? You up there? It’s Charlie.’

  No answer.

  He took the stairs two at a time, pausing on the landing, facing the bathroom door. It was slightly ajar.

  ‘Grace?’ he called softly. No answer. He pushed the door open. It swung back silently. He stepped inside, caught his breath.

  ‘Oh, God!’ he whispered. ‘Oh, my God!’

  Paget couldn’t settle. He knew he was being foolish to worry about Grace; she was a very capable woman who could take good care of herself. On the other hand there were a lot of nutters out there on the roads, drunks, dopers, drivers with problems, and you never knew who was coming toward you.

  He looked at the clock again. The hands had barely moved since the last time he’d looked. Ten more minutes, he decided. He’d give her ten more minutes . . .

  It was as if his whole body had turned to ice. Charlie stood there in the doorway, unable to move, unable to speak as he stared at the old, high-sided bathtub so reminiscent of the one he’d seen earlier that evening. But this one was filled with water, just as it had been on that fateful night three months ago, and Grace lay there, head on one side, one arm hanging over the side, limp and lifeless.

  ‘Grace!’ The word choked in his throat as he forced himself to move. ‘For God’s sake, Grace.’ He touched her arm and suddenly a great surge of water slopped over the side of the tub and soaked his sleeve.

  Graces eyes flew open. ‘Charlie! Where did – what –? Oh, God, Charlie, you scared the life out of me. I must have fallen asleep.’

  ‘Scared the life out of you? For God’s sake, Grace, just what the hell do you think you’re doing? I thought you were dead!’

  Grace struggled to sit up, and only then did she seem to realize she was naked. ‘Hand me that towel, please, Charlie,’ she said, ‘and turn around while I get out.’

  He handed her the towel. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘would you like to tell me just what the hell is going on here, Grace?’

  ‘Just give me a minute to get my clothes on and I’ll tell you,’ she said as she climbed out of the tub, ‘but one thing I can tell you is that I feel as if a great weight has been lifted, and I feel wonderful. It worked, Charlie. It really worked!’

  ‘I don’t know what worked,’ Charlie said, ‘but I do know that Neil is worried about you. He phoned me a few minutes ago, and I think the sooner you give him a call and tell him you’re all right, the better.’

  He heard Grace gasp. ‘You won’t tell him, will you, Charlie? Please. Let me call him, and then I’ll explain everything to you.’ Dressed now, she bent and used the towel to mop up the water on the floor, then pulled the plug. ‘Thank God it was you who found me here. I hate the idea of keeping anything from Neil, but I don’t want him to know anything about this. But let’s get out of this bathroom and go downstairs and put the fire on. The water was so lovely and hot when I got in, and so relaxing that I must have drifted off, but now I’m freezing.’

  She found her handbag, took out her phone and clicked on her home number.

  ‘Neil, you’re home. I thought perhaps—’

  ‘Grace!’ His relief was almost palpable through the phone. He forced himself to keep his voice modulated. ‘I was beginning to worry about you. Where are you?’

  ‘I’m at the flat. I finally decided it was time to do something with it. Mr Perelli has been after me to turn it back to him, so tonight I decided to come over and sort out a few things. Unfortunately, it took longer than I thought, and I didn’t realize how late it was, but I’ll be home within the hour.’

  She looked across the phone at Charlie. ‘Just one more thing I’d like to sort out before I leave. It won’t take long.’

  ‘Fine, but be careful on the road.’

  ‘Love you, Neil. I’ll be home soon.’ She closed the phone and put it away.

  ‘I owe you an apology, Charlie,’ she said softly, ‘and I owe you my thanks for bearing with me and trusting me when you must have wondered what I was up to, and I can’t thank you enough for that.’ They were downstairs and Grace was standing with her back to the electric fire.

  ‘But I am going to ask you for one more favour. As I said upstairs, I don’t want Neil to know what happened here tonight or what led up to it, so I am asking you not to tell him, and I’ll explain why.’

  Grace drew a deep breath before going on. ‘You see, Charlie, I had a delayed reaction to the incident here at Christmas. I felt fine for about three weeks after the event, and then it hit me. If I so much as closed my eyes it was there in front of me. If I did manage to fall asleep, I would wake up convinced that Mary Carr was in the room. I could feel the razor on my wrists. If I looked down, I would see the blood; see my life slipping away and there was nothing I could do about it. But worst of all, I couldn’t sleep for more than a few minutes at a time.

  ‘It kept getting worse. As long as I was awake and busy, I could keep the images at bay, but they were waiting for me the moment I relaxed or went to sleep. I thought I could overcome it, but it kept getting worse. Every night I’d wait until Neil had gone to sleep, and then I’d go downstairs and curl up in a chair. I might manage an hour that way, but suddenly I would be right back here again with Mary Carr, and I would wake up in a cold sweat.

  ‘I really thought I was losing my mind, Charlie. It took me a while, but I finally got up the courage to talk to my doctor. He sent me to see a psychologist, and to make a long story short, he finally gave up on me and sent me to a psychiatrist. That’s where I’ve been going after work these past months.’

  ‘You should have told Neil,’ Charlie said. ‘He loves you, Grace; he would have helped you.’

  Grace moved away from the fire to sink into what had once been her favourite chair. ‘I couldn’t,’ she said. ‘Perhaps I wasn’t thinking very clearly, but it seemed to me that if I told Neil what was happening, things would never be the same between us. I know he would have tried to help me, but I honestly don’t think it would have done any good. I was afraid that I would become something less in his eyes, and even if I did manage to overcome it, he would be forever watching for signs of it happening again.

  ‘The trouble was, no matter what I did, things weren’t getting any better. In fact, I think going to the psychiatrist was a mistake, because he kept on about regression, about my childhood, how my parents treated me, and all that stuff, when I knew that none of it had anything to do with what I was going through.’

  Grace fell silent for a moment, then slowly shook her head as if to clear it after coming out of a long sleep.

  ‘I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it,’ she continued, ‘but it finally dawned on me that the only one who could cure me was me!’

  Grace spread her arms wide in a gesture encompassing the flat. ‘I was afraid to come here,’ she said. ‘Neil has been trying to persuade me to let the flat go, and he couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t. But I couldn’t tell him why without telling him everything, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

  ‘To tell you the truth, Charlie, I had just about given up hope when it hit me. I had to come here, This was where it happened, and this was where I had to come if I was to ever conquer my fears.’

  Her voice dropped to little more than a whisper as she said, ‘I didn’t know if it would work, but I knew it had to be done. Either it would tip me right over the edge or it would cure me, and I’ll be honest, Charlie, I wasn’t sure which it would be, and I was terrified.

  ‘Until I got into that bath, and then it was as if everything melted away. I lay back in that tub and I sang. I sang, Charlie, at the top of my voice. Every damned song I could think of from hymns to pop to opera. It’s a good thing you didn’t come in then or you would have thought I’d gone mad.’ She paused, frowning. ‘Come to think of it, how did you know I was here?’

  ‘I saw your car outside when I went back to the office, but it didn’t really sink
in until Neil phoned and said he was worried about you.’ Charlie eyed her critically. ‘I must say you look better; you even sound better, but how do you feel, really, Grace?’

  ‘I feel wonderful,’ she told him. ‘I really do. The fear is gone and I won’t be afraid to go to sleep tonight.’

  Charlie rose to his feet. ‘In that case, Grace, this never happened. I was never here tonight, and your secret is safe with me. I’m sure you’re right, but if you should ever feel the need to talk . . .’

  ‘You’re a good friend, Charlie.’ Grace stood up and hugged him briefly. ‘And thank you for being so understanding.’

  ‘Yes, well, I’m just happy to have you back,’ he said gruffly. ‘But we’d better get going before Neil starts worrying again and sends out a search party. Come on, I’ll see you to your car.’

  Twenty-One

  Tuesday, March 25

  Clouds hung low over the valley and it was trying to rain as Paget drove in to work, but neither clouds nor rain could dampen his spirits this morning, because Grace was back.

  It was odd that he should think of it this way, but that was how it felt. It was as if Grace had been away and now she was back. She had even looked different when he’d met her at the door last night. It was as if some dark cloud that had been hovering over her for the past two or three months had been lifted. He couldn’t explain it, but she had looked radiant, and she had come into his arms and hugged him as if she never wanted to let him go.

  And she was getting rid of the flat! When Grace had called from there last night to say she had decided to let it go, it was as if a great weight had been lifted from his own shoulders. He’d been so afraid that she was keeping it in case things didn’t work out between them, but there was no doubt in his mind this morning that Grace was there to stay. No doubt at all after last night.

  There was a spring in his step as he entered the building, but the euphoria that had made the drive in to work so pleasant evaporated quickly when he was confronted by the scene of Bernie Green and his wife in the middle of an argument with Tregalles.