“Not really. We thought you might be able to make more sense of it.”
They reached the top of the stairs and were led into a bedroom. It was a large room with almost floor to ceiling windows. The air in the room felt heavy and the room was in need of airing.
“So, what did you find?” Lang was becoming impatient.
Allan walked over to the bed and picked up what looked like a shoe box. “All the evidence that we need has been taken from this: photographs, fingerprints and what not. So you can have it for your part of the investigation. I have to say, some of the things in there are a little strange.”
“I’ll get an evidence bag from the car,” Lang said. He left the room and Preston continued to observe the box.
“Can I have a pair of gloves?”
Allan handed him a pair of latex gloves from his forensic suit pocket. “Have a root around in there and tell me if you agree that the contents are slightly odd.”
Preston opened the box as Allan held it in his hands and what he saw confirmed Allan’s opinion. “What the hell?”
Allan nodded in agreement, “That’s what I thought when I saw it.”
Preston put the lid back on the box and Allan released it from his grip. “Cheers, we’ll get this down to the station and get a proper look.”
“I better get back downstairs. See you later.”
Preston stayed where he was, waiting for Lang to come back with the evidence bag. Already he had come to his own conclusions about what had happened to Sarah.
“Got it. You ready?” Lang appeared by his side. He held the bag open and Preston carefully placed the bag inside.
“Aye, let’s get this back to the station. You’ll be interested to see what’s in here.”
They left the manor and made their way back to the station to examine the evidence.
***
“I think we should get Sam Leonard in to have another chat. This confirms a lot of what he and his friend said,” Lang said.
They had laid the contents of the box on the table and had examined all of the items. Having heard everything that Sam Leonard had said about Sarah Henderson and seeing everything that was inside the box that they had collected from the house, Preston and Lang were ninety-nine percent certain of the cause of death. But to be sure, they would invite Sam into the station to examine the items himself.
“I’ll make the call,” Preston replied.
“This case could come to a quick close,” Lang said.
Preston nodded as he dialed Sam’s number. “Looks like it.”
The phone rang for a few moments before it was answered on the other end. “Sam? D.S Paul Preston here, my colleague and I wondered if you could come into the station. We have something we want to discuss with you.”
Preston hung up the phone. “He’ll be here within the hour.”
Lang gathered up the items and placed them back in the shoe box, not wishing Sam to see the evidence before anything had been explained to him.
“I’ll grab the coffees then?”
“Any chance of chucking a shot of whisky in mine?” Preston asked.
If they could’ve gotten away with it, Lang would’ve used a whole bottle.
14
Sam walked towards the door at Pitt Street station and if it were possible, his stomach would win gold in the Olympic somersault trials. All sorts of scenarios were going through his head and he just couldn’t agree with himself about what the police wanted to talk to him about that they hadn’t already covered.
He opened the door and stepped inside. Sam had never had any encounters with the police before and he was worrying now about what would happen if the press got wind of the situation. He wasn’t that famous but known well enough that if this got out then it would be all over the Scottish papers before he could blink.
Sam approached the front desk and suddenly his throat had become drier than the Sahara Desert. He found himself staring at the officer behind the desk, lost for words that would make any sense.
“Can I help you sir?” the woman asked, after realising that Sam wasn’t going to be the first to speak.
“Erm, yes; I would like to speak to D.S Paul Preston. I think he’s expecting me.”
The female officer smiled, relieved that there were no awkward silences. “Your name?”
“Sam Leonard.”
“Have a seat please Mr Leonard; I’ll have D.S Preston with you in just a moment.”
Sam sat down on one of the cold, plastic chairs in the waiting area. He felt like a criminal and his stomach was now flipping around inside him so much that he felt like he was going to be sick — again.
“Mr Leonard,” Preston’s voice boomed. “Glad you could make it in on such short notice. Come this way please.”
Sam stood up, wondering if his legs would be able to carry him. “D.S Preston, is there something wrong?”
Preston detected the worry in Sam’s voice. “We have something that we would like to show you and it is important that you take the time to study it properly.”
Sam felt a wave of confusion wash over him. He found himself in an interview room and Lang was sat on a chair at the table in the middle.
“Hi.”
“Hello, Sam. Thanks for coming into see us. I presume D.S Preston has explained why you’re here?” Lang replied.
Sam shook his head. “Not really. All I know is you have something that you want to show me. I’m confused … what is it that you have that would concern me?”
Lang glanced at Preston as Sam sat down on the seat opposite. “We do have something to show you. Don’t worry because it’s nothing sinister. We just think that you will understand it and will be able to explain it better than we can.”
Sam’s hands had become clammy, so he placed them on his knees hoping that the denim material would soak up the perspiration. “Can we just get on with it?”
“We went back to the manor house today and when we arrived we were handed this by one of the forensics team. What’s inside is definitely something that you will want to see.”
Sam observed the box with caution, almost like something would jump out and scare him half to death. “What’s in it?”
Preston sat down beside Lang. “Open it and have a look. We’ve already taken a look and it definitely involves you. It was found under Sarah’s bed.”
Sam wiped his hands on his knees and put on a pair of latex gloves which Preston handed to him. He gripped the lid and when he lifted it off to look inside, he felt a mixture of shock and sadness. “What is all this?”
“We think that it all links with what you and Jenny were talking about earlier. The hate mail, the photographs and the phone calls: I think this proves it all.”
Sam rose from his chair slowly as he peered into the box of items. He glanced at the two officers. “Can I take them out to get a proper look?”
“Be our guest,” Preston replied.
Sam reached in and lifted out a photograph of him with Jenny in a café. “I remember this day; Sarah joined us for some food and then Jenny went home. Sarah and I went to the cinema.”
Preston and Lang remained silent, allowing Sam to go through the rest of the box and take it all in.
He took out a number of different photographs and cuttings of Sam’s appearances and productions in theatre. He shook his head and sighed as he looked over each item. “I don’t understand why she did this?”
“Sam, there’s more. There was a mobile phone in the box but we’ve taken it out and are having it analyzed at the moment. However we did have a look at what was on it; can you tell us again, what the nature of the text messages and phone calls were?” Preston asked.
“When we got calls, there was never a voice at the other end. But the messages were nasty. Things like, Jenny is a home wrecker, Sam is taken, and Jenny needs to stay away from Sam. But the worst one said If Jenny doesn’t move out something terrible will happen to her. I was more pissed off than Jenny was about this; she found it funny in the end. She said
that it was sad that even though Sarah had me, she still felt the need to be nasty to other women in my life. I thought that I could change her behaviour but this obviously proves that she had a vendetta against Jenny.”
Preston nodded. “The phone, it had messages on it that fit the description you’ve given. The prints on the phone match Sarah’s and we just need to link the numbers and it proves that Sarah was your stalker.”
Sam took a deep breath. “I suppose in a way I didn’t really want to believe it. But this proves she was crazy. She didn’t deserve to die though.”
“Who does?” Lang added.
Sam put the items back in the box. “I can’t look at this anymore. Do you need anything else from me?”
A gentle tap on the interview room door silenced all three men. Preston got up and opened the door. He turned and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Preston took a piece of paper from the officer who knocked on the door. “Thanks for that.” He looked at the paper and its contents before returning to the other side of the door.
Sam looked up expectantly, wondering if Preston had more news. Preston sat down opposite Sam and slid the piece of paper across the table. “Any of these look familiar to you?”
Sam studied it carefully. “They’re all mine and Jenny’s numbers. The messages are the ones that were sent to our phones.”
“Sam, you can go now. We won’t be needing your assistance any longer.”
Sam looked across at Preston. “Is that it?”
“What else do you want me to say? You told us that you ended your relationship with Sarah Henderson because you thought she was stalking you and Jenny, and now that we’ve proved that to be true, you want me to what? Arrest her? Because that’s just not possible now, is it?”
Sam stood up, not sure how to reply. “Thanks for your time.”
Sam left the room and was out of the station quicker than an athlete sprinter. What had just happened? He felt like he had been stabbed in the gut with a blunt knife.
He knew that it was ridiculous to feel sad for Sarah after everything that he had suspected of her had just been confirmed but he couldn’t help it. Was she so alone in that house that when she found love she felt like she had to fight to keep it? It seemed that way. Their whole relationship had been a lie from day one and that little shoe box was proof of that.
His thoughts had distracted him from reality and he found himself outside his front door before he realised where he was. Sam put the key in and let himself in.
“Hey, what did they want?” Jenny said as she appeared in the hallway.
“They had a box from Sarah’s house.”
Jenny frowned. “A box?”
Sam made his way into the kitchen and lifted a beer from the fridge. “Yep and you want to know what was in it?”
Jenny noted Sam’s mixture of emotions. He seemed angry, shocked, drained and sad. “What?”
“Us!”
“What do you mean us?”
Sam laughed a little, the disbelief of the whole situation seemed funny. “I mean photos, sick sadistic words on paper of how she hated you and hated me for not hating you. And a phone.”
He gulped on the beer bottle and wished for something stronger.
“What was on it?”
“Only the fucking messages that we were getting just before I ended it. I mean, when I ended it and the messages and the tormenting stopped, I just assumed that she had decided to leave us alone. But oh no, she was dead — lying in a heap on the floor in her house on her own, dead.”
Jenny didn’t know what to do; she had never seen Sam this way. “What can I do?”
“There’s nothing you can do. Looks like Sarah either killed herself or she just fell down those stairs by accident. I don’t want to say what I think.”
“Just say it. It might make you feel better.”
Sam took another gulp of beer. “I ended it, then all of a sudden she dies. I don’t know how soon after but Jenny, it makes sense but it’s terrible for me to think that she killed herself. I think she threw herself down those stairs on purpose.”
Jenny shook her head, “Would she be capable of that though?”
Sam finished the bottle in his hand. “Deep down, I really didn’t think she was capable of doing what she did when we were together; seems like she was capable of anything.”
Jenny hugged Sam as tight as she could. “It’s over now though. As awful as it is, she’s dead. She can’t hurt us anymore.”
Sam knew it was true, that there was nothing that Sarah could do anymore. But it’s what was in his head that could still torment him.
***
A week after the discovery of the box, Sam had decided that enough was enough and it was time to get on with life and forget what had happened. The phone call that he had received from DC Lang had helped him to take the first step.
“It seems from the coroner’s report and the supporting evidence that Sarah Henderson’s death was accidental.”
“So that’s it done then?” Sam asked.
“That’s it done.”
“Thanks DC Lang.”
The conversation was short and fulfilled its purpose. Sam hadn’t wished for it to go on any longer than necessary. He didn’t want to know anything about a burial or a cremation. He didn’t want to hear Sarah Henderson’s name ever again.
15
Deborah updated her Facebook relationship status to ‘seeing someone’ and figured that it was enough to let people know that Sam was involved with someone. She wanted Sam to know how she really felt about him, regardless of how complicated things would get. She had no idea that he would ever leap into telling her about his past, especially an ex-girlfriend, and so she wanted him to know things about her own life and past in return.
He walked into the pub where they had agreed to meet via text message and Deborah’s heart fluttered. How can another human being make your heart do that? She waved him over, trying to avoid spilling the wine over the table as she did so. Her hands were shaking as if she were freezing, but it was the mere thought of his touch that caused it.
“Hello lovely,” his voice floated across the air, reaching her ears with a pleasant buzz. All she could do was smile as he bent down to kiss her on the cheek, sending a ripple across her skin.
“How are you?” she managed.
“I’m fine; however I do want to talk to you about something.”
“Ok,” she said, unsure of what to expect.
Sam ordered a whisky and coke from the bar and knocked it back to ease the nerves, while ordering a bottle of white wine for them to share. What he was about to tell his new ‘almost’ girlfriend could potentially scare her off and he could be back at square one. Who in their right mind would want to go out with someone who once had a girlfriend who secretly stalked him and his best friend and then ends up dead? He figured that Deborah would find it all a little overwhelming and want to call it off.
“So, what did you want to tell me?” Deborah asked.
Sam took a deep breath, before spilling his guts about Sarah. He told her about how things were with her and Jenny and how Jenny had tried to be friends with her. He told her about the police turning up and announcing that Sarah was dead and that they were trying to find out if it was under suspicious circumstances. After the revelations tumbled across the table, the pair fell silent with Sam allowing Deborah some time to take it all in.
“I can’t believe you just told me all that,” Deborah said, feeling exhausted with all of the information she had just received.
“Are you glad I told you? Because now you can take the time to decide if you really want to carry on with this thing that we have.”
Deborah didn’t like the sound of the phrase, ‘this thing that we have.’ Did that mean that he was trying to scare her off and he didn’t really want her? Was this his way of telling her he wasn’t interested, in the hope that she would think it was all too much and would want to leave?
“I’m
glad you told me,” she managed. There was no way that she was going to let him go after all the hard work she had put in to get him. She had made sure that she was in the right place at the right time and even though she had been as nervous as hell, she managed to catch his eye and gathered up his attention. She had allowed herself to go further than anyone else to make sure that she got what she wanted; yes it was a little far-fetched perhaps, but in this day and age you have to work to get what you want. She had ensured that she knew of every theatre date, production, colleague and anything else that she should know so that she would be in the same place at the same time. After everything that Sam had just said about Sarah, he could never know the lengths she had gone to, to make sure that she met him and lured him in with her seductive ways. It would surely freak him out and he’d would be likely to view her as psychotic, which was the last thing she wanted. She merely put herself into a situation that would work in her favour that was all; at least that was what she continued to tell herself. She had to convince herself that everything was normal, otherwise she was worried that she would crack.
“Do you really believe that Sarah was the one who sent all the messages and stuff?” she asked.
“Well, who else could it have been? It most definitely wasn’t Jenny, even if Sarah said it was. Jenny and I have been friends since I can remember; if anything she would be the one to protect me from psychotic girlfriends.”
Deborah nodded as she watched Sam open the bottle of white and pour it into her glass. She listened as it sloshed around inside the glass, realising that her brain was probably doing the same thing inside her skull. “I suppose it makes sense. You said she never really liked the fact that your best friend was female.”
Sam eyed Deborah as he heard her words, unsure if he should ask his next question. “It doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“What? That your best friend is a girl? Come on Sam, what are we, twelve years old?” Deborah gave her widest smile.
Sam felt the weight of the world leave his shoulders as the couple began to relax. He really felt that things were on the up, apart from the fact that the police had told him that his ex-girlfriend was dead. He still couldn’t get his head around that part. He didn’t like it but he could understand why he may have been a potential suspect had it turned out Sarah was murdered. But fortunately for Sam, she wasn’t murdered. Unfortunately for Sarah, no matter what way she had died, she was dead and that was the end of it.
Henderson Manor Page 9
