by K Leitch
‘BUT KNOW THIS, WHAT I HAVE TOLD YOU IS THE TRUTH, I SWEAR THIS WITH MY DYING BREATH. JUST AS I CURSE THOSE FOUL CREATURES THAT HAVE BROUGHT ME TO THIS END.
THEY ARE ALL GUILTY; THEIR HANDS ARE ALL STAINED WITH BLOOD.
THE CRUEL ABUSERS, THE SELF SERVING DECIEVERS, THE SNEARING INDIFFERENT AND THE UNCARING INDOLENT BIGOTS.
MAY THEY ALL KNOW PAIN AND SUFFERING AS I HAVE DONE. MAY THEY DIE IN AGONY AND BURN IN THE FIRES OF HELL FOREVER.’
Imogen listened sobbing and squirming on the bed, repeating ‘No no no no,’ over and over as he spoke.
He carried on, ‘FATHER SEAMUS LEARY, SISTER FRANCES, ALFRED SHEENAN, JONAS SILCO, OLIVER HANLEY, INGRID DELANEY, AGNES CRAY. You have all been found guilty as charged.’ He stopped then and nodded at his companion.
Imogen screamed, high pitched terrified screams as her ankles were grabbed painfully and her legs spread wide…then she saw the glint of a knife.
‘NO…PLEASE…NO…NO FOR GOD’S SAKE… I AM INNOCENT…PLEEEAAASSE!!
CHAPTER 56 - HELEN
It had been easier than Andy had thought it would be, but in a way that just made him feel even more of a bastard.
Helen had a drawer in her studio where she kept cash that had yet to be paid into the bank. He hadn’t taken all of it, but enough to satisfy Mum, about £150. He had taken a ring as well, he didn’t know if it was even valuable, but it looked very sparkly so he thought it must be.
Mum had been to the school three times since the last time he’d spoken to her, he hadn’t been able to go over to her but she had made sure he had seen her…just to make sure he remembered.
Andy was miserable; he hated stealing from Helen and Maya. He loved them, all of them, and he had never been happier in his life, until Mum had come back on the scene and made him feel so bad about himself. He still made excuses for her though; it was the drink that made her the way she was. Andy had hazy memories of a smiling happy Mum, when his Dad had been around, when they had first moved into their flat. Then Dad had gone and Mum had changed from a smiling carefree woman into a grumbling, violent drunk.
He was determined though that this was going to be the one and only time he betrayed Helen and Maya’s trust. He would make it very clear to Mum that there was no more he could do, and although he was happy to see her, he would not steal for her again.
Brave words, but now as he stood by the school fence and waited for her Andy felt his courage fading.
Maya had a staff meeting and so Andy had told her that he would play with Robert on the field until she was ready to take him home.
‘Ok sweetheart,’ she had said giving him a hug, ‘but no more fighting him ok?’
Andy had smiled his promise and gone out to the fence to wait for Mum. He spotted her as she walked along the street towards where he was waiting. She had obviously got the money from somewhere to have a drink, she looked unsteady and belligerent.
‘Ok boy,’ she slurred as she got closer, ‘you got somat for me ‘ave ya?’
Andy nodded and pulled out the roll of notes from his pocket, he pushed them through the wire fence. Kathy grabbed them and counted them greedily.
‘£150…that’s not going to get me far is it…I told ya I needs at least £200, for a room and stuff,’ she whined stuffing the notes into the pocket of her jeans.
‘I got this as well,’ Andy said pushing the ring through the fence.
Kathy grabbed it and looked at it carefully her face scrunching up in disgust. ‘Pah!’ she spat on the floor, ‘what’s this old tat, it ain’t even got no ‘all mark. It’s fucking rubbish, I won’t get more ‘n fifty notes for this….’
‘That’s all I could get,’ Andy began nervously, his mum’s hand flashed through the fence and grabbed him by the neck.
‘Well you’d better go back and get me somat good ‘adn’t you boy.’
Andy squirmed as her fingers found his ear and she twisted it hard.
‘I can’t Mum,’ he shouted, his eyes watering. ‘I can’t do it anymore they might throw me out….’
‘Oh boo hoo,’ Kathy mocked, ‘well we wouldn’t want that would we?’ She let go off his ear and grabbed his shirt pulling him hard towards the fence, she brought her face right up close to his. ‘I ain’t telling you again right, you owe me! So you go back and get me some good stuff or I’ll tell your fucking dykey mummy’s that you’ve been stealing from them,’ she gave him a nasty smile. ‘I’ve got the ring to prove it now ‘aven’t I, so you’d better come good boy, or you’re going to lose your cushy little number anyway…so think on.’ And with that parting shot she was gone.
Andy sat and sobbed by himself next to the fence, what the hell did he do now? If he didn’t steal for Mum she’d tell them that he had, and if her did he was betraying them once more…what the hell was he going to do?
He hastily dried his eyes as he spotted Maya waving over to him; obviously the meeting hadn’t lasted as long as she thought it would. He tried to put on a smile as he travelled back home with her, listening to her chatter about the holiday and where she would like to go. If she noticed he wasn’t joining in much she didn’t say anything and as soon as they got home he ran upstairs, hoping that he could avoid the little ones for a while.
He threw himself onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to wrack his brains for a plan to get him out of this mess. There was a tap on his door and Nonna walked in, Andy sat up and smiled at her, she didn’t smile back. She sat down on the bed next to him and took his hand.
‘I see you,’ she said looking hard at his face. ‘I see you this morning Andy, you took money and you took ring… I was watching.’
Andy went to pull his hand away but Nonna held on tight.
‘Why you do this sweetheart?’ the old lady said to him gently. ‘Do you need some money? Is that it?’
Andy shook his head, his tears running freely down his face.
‘Then why? Please tell me Andy, because I know in my heart this is not you…you are good boy, you never steal, tell me sweetheart, maybe I help you.’
Andy broke down then and haltingly at first, he told Nonna all about it. By the time he had finished they were both crying and Nonna was hugging him fiercely.
‘You don’t worry anymore, Nonna will sort this, I promise,’ she said.
Andy slept soundly for the first time in ages that night, Nonna was going to help him and he knew he could trust her.
Nonna on the other hand lay awake seething with anger at how any mother could treat their child as Kathy Hunt had. She lay awake and made plans, that woman was not going to get the chance to hurt Andy again of that she was determined.
CHAPTER 57 - CARLA
Carla was enjoying a rare lie in with James. What with the two murders and the play, they had hardly had time to do more than pass the time of day just recently but Carla had been determined to take this morning off. Truth be told her head was all over the place anyway at the moment, she felt like if she had some distance from it just for a little while she might be able to make some sense of it all.
James was dozing beside her, she looked at his face, so familiar and beloved and thanked her lucky stars that she had him to come home to, when all around her was murder and mayhem. She ran her fingers gently over his brow and along the edge of his chin feeling his morning bristles. His eyes opened and he smiled at her.
‘I’ve been watching you from a distance without you knowing,’ Carla said smiling back at him.
‘Isn’t that illegal detective?’ James replied sleepily, ‘Isn’t that stalking or peeping toming or something like that?’
‘Something like that,’ Carla said kissing him gently on his lips. ‘Aren’t you going to make a citizen’s arrest?’
James rolled over on top of her and pinned her arms above her head, ‘Oh I don’t think we need to take it that far, as long as you promise not to do it again,’ he said kissing her neck.
‘But I don’t promise…I intend to do it again and again so…’ she broke
off giggling as James shuffled down under the covers kissing her as he went….
‘Mum,’ wailed Rosie when Carla eventually made it down to the kitchen a while later. ‘Will you tell Harry to stop taking the Mickey out of me, I’m trying to learn my lines and he keeps on shouting over me.’
‘Harry,’ Carla said going over to the toaster. ‘Stop teasing your sister, you know how important this play is to her.’
‘But she is just sooo irritating,’ Harry said, ‘talking in that stupid voice all the time…who said she had to talk like that for God’s sake…I mean it’s just so lame….’
‘It is not lame,’ Rosie cried, ‘Andrea says that we need to try and get into the character we are playing and Julie Houseman was….’
‘Boring,’ said Harry covering his ears.
‘Muuum,’ Rosie protested again, ‘look at him, he is deliberately being horrible, just because he hasn’t got a part in the play. He’s just jealous that’s all….’
‘Oh will you two just stop it!’ shouted Carla. ‘Harry stop teasing and Rosie, try and remember that it’s not all about you and this play all of the time. Maybe you could practice with your friend at school rather than at the breakfast table….’
Rosie looked at Harry resentfully, ‘Dickhead,’ she said under her breath.
‘ROSEMARY RIGHT!’ Carla gasped, ‘Don’t you ever let me hear you using language like that in this house.’
Harry smirked at Rosie, making her even angrier. ‘Well Dad says it all the time,’ she started, ‘I heard him say it about Mr Ambrose when we were at the garden centre….’
‘That is neither here nor there,’ said Carla, ‘Daddy shouldn’t be saying it either, but he’s an adult….’
‘And I heard you call Felicity Whickers a dozy cow the other day so…’
‘That’s enough Rosie,’ Carla said, desperately trying to get back the higher ground. ‘Whatever you’ve heard Daddy and I say, I am telling you I will not have you saying things like that to your brother at the breakfast table. No,’ she held up her hand as Rosie would have continued, ‘I have looked forward to spending this morning with you lot and you are not going to spoil it with your arguing ok?’
Rosie nodded sulkily.
‘Harry?’ Carla turned to him eyebrows raised.
‘Whatever,’ he said not looking up from the magazine he was reading.
James came in, his hair wet from the shower. ‘Morning family,’ he said stealing a slice of toast from Carla’s plate and completely oblivious to the rather strained atmosphere.
Rosie and Harry mumbled ‘Morning’ sulkily back at him, James raised his eyebrows at Carla, she just smiled and shook her head.
‘Rosie, didn’t you say you had a form I needed to sign?’ James said putting more bread in the toaster.
‘Oh yes it’s about the trip to the London aquarium, I’ll get it,’ Rosie said, her sulks forgotten as she rushed out of the room. Just then Carla’s mobile rang, it was Mandy.
‘Hi Mandy, what’s up?’
‘I am so sorry to disturb you Ma’am, I know you were planning a morning off but we’ve had a call from David Wiseman, he is frantically worried about his mum. Apparently she’s gone missing and…’
‘What does he mean she’s gone missing, how long has she been gone?’
‘Well he doesn’t seem quite sure Ma’am, he and his wife spent the last couple of days in London, they just got back this morning and she’s not there. He is mostly worried because he got a weird voice mail message from her on Friday night, said she sounded as though something had scared her and when he tried to call her back he couldn’t get through. Also it appears she hasn’t taken anything with her….’
Carla sighed heavily, ‘OK I’d better come in and check it out, can you let Frank know I’ll meet him at the house…ok love no worries.’
James just shook his head when Carla got off the phone; she went over and put her arms around him.
‘Sorry sweetheart, I really think I have to go and see about this one,’ she said.
‘Ok,’ he said resigned, ‘but I want you to promise me now that as soon as you have solved this case, you are booking a couple of weeks off…you need a holiday love…we need a holiday, all of us so….’
‘I promise,’ Carla said before she kissed him.
Frank was already there when Carla pulled up a while later. He got out of his car and came over to her.
‘Morning,’ he said with a smirk, ‘I hope this call out didn’t interrupt anything?’
Carla shook her head and smiled back at him. ‘Nothing that can’t be continued later,’ she said as she walked towards the house.
David Wiseman had obviously been on the lookout for them, he opened the door before they had time to knock.
‘Detectives, thank you for coming so quickly,’ he said shaking their hands and ushering them into a small living room.
A rather elegant blond woman was sitting on the edge of one of the settees in the room; she stood when they came in. David introduced them to Millicent, his wife, and then they all sat down.
‘Mr Wiseman,’ Carla began, ‘can you tell me why you think your mother is missing, rather than just… gone away somewhere?’
‘Well it’s like I said to the young lady on the phone,’ David began, ‘Mummy tried to call me on Friday evening. Millie and I had taken the girls to see a show in London, they’d had an awful day…well we all had, it was my father’s funeral on Friday you see.’ He stopped as Carla nodded sympathetically.
‘And why do you think she tried to call you?’ Carla asked.
‘As to that I don’t know,’ he said shaking his head, ‘but she sounded funny, a bit scared actually which isn’t like her at all. Anyway I tried to call her back about twenty minutes later, but then I just got her voicemail, I tried a few more times that evening, but I couldn’t get through.’
‘And you got home when exactly?’ Frank asked.
‘We got back at about eleven thirty this morning, and I knew as soon as I walked in that something just wasn’t right…’
‘Why was that?’
‘Well for one thing the TV was still on in the little sitting room, the one my mother uses when she’s on her own, and there was a cold cup of tea on the little table beside the sofa in there. I called for her looked all over the house but there isn’t a sign of her anywhere….’
‘Isn’t it possible that she might have popped out for some reason, or even be on the grounds somewhere…talking to the gardener or something like that?’ Carla said grasping at straws.
‘She isn’t anywhere, don’t you think I checked with Flood and Mrs Flood before I called your lot,’ David snapped. ‘And then there’s her bag, her handbag I mean…it’s still next to the sofa in the sitting room, she doesn’t go anywhere without a bag Detective Inspector, and none of her clothes have gone…it’s like she’s just disappeared into thin air.’
‘Ok Mr Wiseman,’ Carla said getting up, ‘well it does sound like we need to look around the house, I’ll get the forensic team up here see if they can spot any sign that your mother has been taken against her will. While we do that, perhaps you and your wife could provide us with the details of your movements for the last couple of days and we’ll also need to speak to your brother if he’s around.’
Millicent Wiseman snorted, ‘Yeh good luck with that,’ she said, Carla looked at her questioningly.
‘You’ll be lucky if you can pin him down,’ Millicent went on, ‘we’ve not seen hair nor hide of him since we’ve been here. He’ll be with that new bit of stuff I expect, always goes AWOL when there’s a new girl on the scene,’ she finished on a laugh.
Her husband glared at her and then looked at Carla. ‘You can be sure we’ll try and track him down Inspector, he can’t have gone far after all,’ he went on, ‘I’ve got his car, mine’s in the bloody garage…again, still what can you expect from cheap foreign rubbish,’ he finished shaking his head.
Carla asked to see the little sitting room a
nd Imogen’s bedroom; she was starting to feel quite worried. David hadn’t let anyone touch anything he said and sure enough there was a cold cup of tea, and Imogen’s handbag near the sofa. Carla donned a pair of gloves and carefully looked through the bag. Everything seemed to be there, her purse, her credit cards even her reading glasses.
Upstairs things didn’t get any better, the drawers were still full of neatly folded clothes and underwear, there didn’t seem to be anything obviously missing, even her dressing gown was still hanging on the back of the door. Carla’s concern increased the more they looked around, she had a really bad feeling about this especially after the events of the last few days.
Forensics arrived and started the painstaking process of dusting for prints and checking for evidence of intruders. Carla went back downstairs and left them to it. About an hour later, Dorothy popped her head around the door where Frank and Carla were questioning Pammy, one of Imogen’s granddaughters.
‘Can I have a word Carla?’ she said beckoning for her to join her in the hallway.
‘What’s up?’ Carla said.
‘I’m not sure if this is anything that we need to worry about,’ Dorothy began, ‘but we found this under the bed and it seemed out of place so I thought….’
She was holding up a clear plastic evidence bag and inside it Carla could clearly see was a photograph of Missy Gattoré.
‘Holy Moly,’ Carla said taking the photo from Dorothy and examining it carefully.
‘There looks to be a pretty decent print on it, that’s one good bit of news,’ Dorothy said, when Carla handed it back to her.
‘Can you try and process that ASAP Dorothy?’ Carla asked. ‘Was that it? No sign of any blood, or of a struggle of any kind?’
Dorothy shook her head, ‘No, it’s as clean as a whistle. If someone has harmed Imogen they’ve taken her somewhere else to do it or they’ve done a bloody good job cleaning up after themselves.’
‘OK love,’ Carla said with a sigh, ‘can you let me know as soon as you have anything on those prints?’
