by Menon, David
As soon as he’d gone, Fiona came back down from where she’d been hiding upstairs. ‘I heard everything, Debbie’.
‘Then you heard nothing’.
‘What have you done, Debbie?’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘What have you done that you haven’t told me about in relation to Bradley’s murder? You’ve told me about the backpack but there’s more, isn’t there Debbie? There’s a whole lot more that you haven’t told me. Jeff isn’t stupid and it’s clear from the way he spoke that he suspects something about you for some reason. ‘He’ll work it out for himself sooner or later and then you could be in big trouble’.
‘There’s nothing to work out, Fiona’ Debbie insisted.
‘Oh for crying out loud, Debbie, stop lying to me! Either you tell me or I’m out of here and out of your life’.
Debbie was almost crying. ‘Please don’t say that’.
‘Then tell me the truth’ Fiona pleaded. ‘Tell me what else you know about Bradley’s murder. Are you that woman Jeff spoke about and who the police are looking for?’
‘Don’t be absurd’.
‘I don’t think it is absurd, Debbie. Now tell me or I’m walking’.
Jess Bradshaw felt like she was sinking deeper into a world of her own. Her brother and sister had been completely taken in by her father’s girlfriend Kate. They laughed at her jokes, they told her they liked the food she cooked for them all, and they all, including her father, were taken in by her. But Jess wasn’t. She hated the very sight of her. She hated the sound of her voice. She hated the way she seemed to be making her father happy. How could he be happy with that witch? Why couldn’t anybody else see what Jess thought was blindingly obvious? Kate Branning wasn’t the super nice person she liked to show to the world. Jess had seen the other side of her when she went to her about being bullied and she basically told Jess she must have got it all wrong. She’d been so cold and uncaring. She’d let Jess suffer for weeks until she’d seen it for herself and then had to take action.
She was just walking into school and she had her earphones in. She was listening to the latest album by Lily Allen and when she looked up and saw Kate Branning standing there in front of her and apparently refusing to move, she didn’t appreciate having her enjoyment of the music interrupted, especially by her.
‘Good morning, Jess’ said Kate.
‘I need to get to class’
‘Jess, why are you so damn hostile towards me?’
‘Because you didn’t help me when I needed you and I don’t forgive’.
‘Then you’ll end up a very bitter and twisted young woman’ said Kate. ‘Although what am I saying? You’re already bitter and twisted’.
‘Do you blame me? I lost my mother and now I’ve got you attempting to take her place’.
‘Your father seems to like it’ said Kate. ‘So do your brother and sister. So why are you still presenting me with a problem?’
‘Because I think you’re a fake’ said Jess. ‘And one day my father and the rest of my family will wake up to what you’re really like. You saw my father and you thought you could walk into a nice little ready- made family and make it all your own but let me tell you now I won’t let you. I will not let you take my mother’s place. I won’t let my father throw his life away on a piece of scum like you. Now get out of my way’.
Kate saw red and grabbed Jess by the arm and forced her into an empty classroom.
‘Get your hands off me!’ Jess demanded.
‘You keep your voice down and if you shout for help you’ll be very sorry’ said Kate who tightened her grip on Jess’ arm and leered down into her face. ‘Now let me make one thing very clear once and for all. Your father is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I’m not going to let a spoilt little bitch like you ruin things for me’.
Jess struggled. Kate was really hurting her. ‘You’re hurting my arm you rotten bitch’.
‘I’ll fucking break it sweetheart if it means getting through to you. If you choose to make me your friend then we can all move forward. But if you continue to be opposed to what your father and me are building together then I will marginalize you, I will make you feel like a complete stranger in your own home, I will make sure your father always takes my side over you, in fact I’ll make you so unhappy that you’ll want to join your mother and to have you out of the way of my happiness would come as a blessed relief to me. Oh your father and your brother and sister would be upset but they’d get over it in time and would stop missing you because you’re pathetic with your moods and your tantrums and they’d be glad to be rid of you. Look Jess, you really don’t know what I’m capable of so lay off me or else I will unleash absolute hell on you. Now get to class and don’t even think of mentioning our little chat to anyone. Understood?’
A few minutes later Jess was still rubbing her arm where Kate had gripped it and was sobbing her heart out. Kyle walked into school and noticed her sitting alone in the otherwise empty classroom.
‘Hey’ he said before pulling up a chair and sitting beside her. ‘It’s Jess isn’t it? Being the new boy round here I’m still trying to remember everybody’s name. So what’s up mate?’
Jess leaned into him and cried her heart out on his shoulder. He gently stroked her head and when the intensity of her sobs lessened he asked again what was wrong.
‘I don’t know where to start’.
‘Well let’s start with lunch’ said Kyle. ‘We’ll go down to that little café I’ve seen on the corner and you can pour your heart out then. Now I’m gay Jess so I’m not hitting on you or anything, but you look like you need a mate to talk to and I’m here at your service’.
Jess smiled although her eyes were still full of tears. ‘Thanks Kyle. I wish you’d walked past five minutes ago’.
‘Why, what happened? And why are you holding your arm like that? Did someone hurt you?’
‘I’ll tell you at lunch’ said Jess.
They walked down the corridor with an arm round the other. Kate Branning came towards them with a face full of fake concern.
‘Jess, whatever is the matter? You look dreadful. Has someone been picking on you?’
She tried to put her arm round Jess but Jess gently rebuffed her. She also tried to pin the blame on Kyle but Jess was strong enough to resist that.
‘Leave him out of it, he’s my friend!’
‘Oh well it seems you’re not too upset to be disrespectful to a teacher so think about that in detention this afternoon’.
‘Oh come on, Miss Branning’ Kyle protested. ‘You can see how upset she is’.
‘And half an hour for you too Kyle for your insolence’.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me, Miss? She can barely see in front of her she’s crying so much’.
‘That’s another half an hour each for both of you and one more word of protest and the penalty will become very severe indeed. Now get to class, both of you’.
Kyle didn’t know what the hell was going on here but he decided he was going to find out.
Jeff went to see Gary Mitchell in the remand centre where he was being held pending his trial. Because he was a police officer he could bypass the normal visiting hours’ restrictions and sit with Gary in a grey, soulless interview room although they were being kept company by a prison officer standing in one corner of the room.
‘What do you want now, Jeff?’ asked an agitated Gary. He hadn’t settled into his confinement well. There’d been all the usual words of support and blah, blah, blah from the governor who promised Jeff that they’d keep him safe. But he’d seen all the eyes on him like rifles being primed for firing. They weren’t going to be able to keep them away from him for long. They wouldn’t be able to keep them from giving him the battering of his life.
‘Was it Debbie, Gary?’
‘Was what Debbie?’
‘Was it Debbie who you saw in the woods last Sunday morning when you went to meet Bradley?’
‘I didn�
��t say I saw anybody’.
Jeff stood up and walked round the table to where Gary was sitting opposite to where he’d been. ‘How am I going to get it through your thick skull that I can’t help you unless you talk to me?’
Gary leaned forward and rubbed the palms of his hands together. He stared into the middle distance and Jeff couldn’t work out what was going on inside his head.
‘Yes, I saw Debbie there that morning. And even if it wasn’t I’d have wanted it to be after what’s been going on between her and Fiona’.
‘Fiona?’
Gary’s shoulders slumped. Why had he mentioned Fiona? She had nothing to do with this.
‘Are you talking about Fiona Braithwaite?’ Jeff asked. ‘What’s she got to do with all this?’
Gary wiped his mouth and chin. ‘She’s having an affair with Debbie. They think I don’t know but Lucy saw them one day and put two and two together. Then I decided to come home early one afternoon and I almost caught them at it. It was almost laughable the way Debbie claimed they’d been trying on each other’s clothes when they both come downstairs looking all flushed and post coital’.
‘Christ’ said Jeff. ‘Every day I find something else out about my neighbours’.
‘But if you think Debbie had anything to do with Bradley’s murder then you’re wrong’ said Gary. ‘She’s no more a killer than I am’.
‘Then what is she, Gary?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well you want to reassure me that she’s no killer but I suspect she’s involved in all this in some way? So why don’t you tell me?’
‘She owned the Paradise club?’
‘What?’
‘She owned the Paradise club’ Gary repeated.
‘Bernie Connelly owns the Paradise club now’.
‘Yes but my wife sold it to him’ said Gary. ‘I mean, come on Jeff, why do you think Lucy not only got a job there but kept her job there? Debbie made sure she was hired and she got Connelly to keep her on which was no problem for him since he’d been there once and was desperate to get back there again. Debbie wanted Lucy to remain dependent on being what she saw as a slut. She deliberately bought the Paradise club so that she could do that to Lucy because she knew about me and Lucy. She’s a spiteful woman, Jeff. But I’d still say she isn’t a killer’.
‘Well look Gary there’s something I need to tell you, something I think you have the right to know’.
‘What?’
‘Debbie is pregnant, mate’ said Jeff. ‘She wasn’t planning to tell you’.
ELEVEN
Adrian settled down to sleep after he and Kate had made love in their usual vigorous fashion. Kate loved snuggling up to Adrian straight after sex. He was so hirsute and sexy. She found some men handsome, and some pretty and some she wouldn’t touch with someone else’s bargpole. But Adrian was one of those men who walk around the cities and suburbs of England and are just plain downright sexy. The attraction had been instant and she’d determined to get him there and then especially after she found out he was available. And now as they fucked their way through the honeymoon period her determination was to make it last as long as possible. That’s why she set the alarm for an hour before they had to get up so they could start the day off right.
‘Do I get points for that, Miss Branning?’ Adrian asked and then cheekily added. ‘You’ve got to admit I was pretty good’.
‘Oh I’ll give you nine out of ten for all that stamina on a school night’.
‘Only nine out of ten?’
‘Just teasing, darling’ said Kate who’d already told him he was the best man she’d had in bed for a long time and she’d meant it.
‘That’s alright then’ said Adrian, pretending to sound offended although he wasn’t used to having his technique questioned by either a woman or a man. He seemed to be able to satisfy them both. And he liked to be satisfied by them both. ‘Maybe I’ll dress up in our Tom’s school uniform one night and we can do some classroom role play?’
‘Are you serious?’
‘Well you know it might be fun?’
‘I’ll have to see about that Bradshaw’ said Kate in her best schoolmistress voice. ‘But if you misbehave then you know what will happen?’
‘Ooh, yes please!’
Kate laughed. ‘Behave! I’ve given up all my girlfriends to be with you’.
‘I’m flattered’ said Adrian. ‘Although I don’t expect you to give up the life you had before for the life you have now with me. I’m not a cave man, Kate and I don’t expect you to be here every night. I don’t want you to lose touch with your mates’.
‘I know and of course you’re not a cave man’ said Kate. ‘That’s why I love you’.
‘I mean with three kids it’s pretty full on round here as you’ve already witnessed’.
‘Yes’ said Kate. ‘But still only with Jess’.
‘She is my daughter, Kate’ said Adrian who was naturally protective of Jess. Even though he and Kate were heading into serious territory with their relationship he didn’t like anybody else being critical of his little girl. ‘And she’s only a kid. She likes to think she’s a young woman but she’s still only a kid in my eyes’.
‘Oh Dads and their bloody daughters’ Kate groaned.
‘Well wasn’t it like that with you and your Dad?’ asked Adrian who was a little disturbed by the tone of voice Kate had just used. It was as if she’d set out to find a problem and now she had she was going to go for it.
‘I wouldn’t know’ said Kate. ‘I never met him’.
‘Oh’ said Adrian. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. Do you want to tell me what happened? I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to?’
‘Well it’s quite simple really’ said Kate. ‘He scarpered when Mum told him she was pregnant. Neither she nor I ever heard from him again’.
‘I see’ said Adrian. ‘And your Mum?’
‘Oh she’s been dead a long time’ said Kate. ‘It’s been just me for years now’.
‘And now I’ve come along’.
‘Yes’ said Kate. ‘And I don’t want anything to come between us. That’s why we have to do something about Jess’.
‘Oh come on, Kate, she’s not that bad’.
‘Adrian, she’s trying her best to humiliate me out of this relationship’.
Adrian couldn’t take it in. ‘What did you say?’
‘I … well I wasn’t going to mention this but I think I have to in order to protect myself. Jess has been deliberately obstructive at school to the point where I’ve had to give her detention’.
‘Yes, my Mum told me about that’ said Adrian. ‘What was it all about?’
‘Well your Mum takes the side of Jess as you might imagine’ said Kate who was gunning for Adrian’s Mum too because of her automatic acceptance of whatever Jess might tell her. ‘But then she is her grandmother after all’.
Adrian sat himself up on his bent elbows. ‘Kate, what are you trying to say?’
‘I’m saying that Jess and your Mum have taken it upon themselves to try and push me out of your life, Adrian’ said Kate who then started crying. ‘And I don’t know why because I’ve done nothing, absolutely nothing to make them act that way. All I’ve done is to love you and to try and make things alright with your family. I know I’m not their Mum but I do want to be their friend but Jess just won’t let me’.
‘Hey, hey’ said Adrian as he cuddled her. ‘Don’t get upset, baby’.
‘But you should’ve seen her at school when I gave her the detention, Adrian’ said Kate. ‘Jess I mean. She wants to cause trouble for me and I fear that false allegations will follow’.
‘Get serious’.
‘I am, Adrian, I am’ Kate insisted tearfully. ‘Jess wants me out of your life and she’ll do or say anything to make that happen’.
Adrian sat back and thought about what Kate had said and how upset she clearly was. The apparently worsening relationship between her and Jess was something he could real
ly do without but Kate would have to appreciate that when push came to shove he would put his daughter’s happiness before that of any girlfriend in his life. That was a given and wasn’t negotiable. It went with the territory of being a widowed single Dad.
‘I’ll talk to her again’ said Adrian. ‘You’ve no need to worry, Kate. I’ll sort it’.
‘I hope so, baby’ said Kate who gently stroked his stubbled face with the back of her hand. ‘I really do’.
‘Okay everyone’ said Jeff as he sat with his team round the conference table reviewing progress. ‘Gary Mitchell has identified the woman seen at the time of Bradley’s murder as his wife Debbie. Better late than never but there you are. Gary is being released on bail this morning but the charges won’t be dropped until we’re able to charge someone else’.
‘It must be our lucky day because we’ve been handed two more gifts in regard to this investigation’ said Ollie. ‘And I can only say thank God for environmental geeks with a religious bent who want to take cars away from wooden areas at the weekends’. Everybody laughed at Ollie’s aside to the type of witness who could be a pain in the arse but who could also sometimes come up with a piece of solid gold. ‘We have pictures of Debbie Mitchell in the woods and carrying Bradley Thompson’s rucksack’.
‘Tremendous’ said Jeff. ‘And what’s the other gift?’
‘Well sir a car was stopped on the M6 near Knutsford late last night for speeding’ Ollie explained. ‘It’s been flashed up to us because the car is registered to none other than Bernie Connelly. But it wasn’t Connelly who was driving. It was John Squires’.
‘John Squires?’ Jeff questioned. ‘The brother of Tim Ryder from the case we investigated last year? He must be working for Connelly. Why the hell is he doing that?’
‘Who knows, Sir’
‘Well we’re going to find out’ said Jeff. ‘I’ll also be interested to hear why Debbie Mitchell didn’t tell us she was the owner of the Paradise club when Lucy Thompson was recruited’.
