by Mel Sherratt
She hoped he’d leave her alone then. But she could see him coming towards her, then towering over her. Stooping down, he pressed his hand over her mouth and nose.
‘Oh, Mary, Mary, Mary. Always watching, listening and saying too much,’ he chided as she struggled to take in air.
Her arms flapped about and she tried to claw at his gloved hands. But he was too strong for her. All of her life she had tried to help people, be a good neighbour, and now she was in trouble because she had done the right thing. Her head was throbbing, her leg bent awkwardly beneath her. The pain was unbearable, her breath almost gone.
As he disappeared from her vision, her world went black. But she knew one thing. Seth Forrester was evil.
She had been right to blame him for something he hadn’t done.
Back in his home, Seth could hear Shelley in the bathroom. He lit a cigarette and took three quick bursts for a hit of nicotine. He removed his hat and gloves and ran a hand over his head as he paced the living room.
That stupid woman! He was only going to give her a shove, a scare even, but as she’d been lying there at the bottom of the steps, helpless, bloody, he’d wanted to get rid of her so much. He hadn’t meant to kill her but she’d made him lose his temper. Putting his hand over her mouth and nose seemed like the simplest thing to do. He should have stopped at giving her a warning.
Yet for months now she had been on his back, spreading rumours, complaining to the housing association about him, watching every move he made. She hadn’t even been satisfied with the money he’d given her to keep her quiet.
He stopped. The money! Shit, it was in her flat. He’d have to go back and get it. She must have her keys on her as she’d left the flat. If he was quick no one might have found her yet.
But then he reasoned with himself. He couldn’t go back.
Sirens rang through the air. He rushed to the kitchen window to see blue flashes slicing through the dark. One of the nosy fuckers must have called the police already. That was the trouble with Harrison House. People say they saw nothing but they weren’t too slow on reporting anything amiss.
He needed her dead now. If she wasn’t and he could be ID’d, then he would be going back to prison. Fuck, he wasn’t going there again, no matter what.
‘What’s going on outside?’ Shelley came in behind him.
Seth turned to see her wrapped in a white dressing gown, pink toenails on her bare feet.
‘Don’t know.’ He shrugged. ‘Someone’s called the police again.’
Shelley paused. ‘Are you okay? You’re sweating so much. I hope you’re not coming down with that flu bug that’s going around. Everyone I know has it, and I don’t want to catch it as— Hey!’
Seth pushed past Shelley and made his way into the bathroom. He couldn’t stand listening to her wittering on. He had other things to think about. He’d have to come up with something as to why Mary had the money.
He’d used gloves today but his prints could be on the envelope or the notes.
2012
The paramedics arrived at Finn’s flat and two police officers followed a few minutes later. Finn was unconscious and they were trying to stem the bleeding before they moved him. By now a crowd had gathered at the entrance to the flats to see what was going on.
Ruby sobbed in the background. ‘One minute we were talking, the next he was being attacked,’ she tried to explain to an officer.
‘And you didn’t see who did it?’
She shook her head and pointed to the armchair. ‘I hid behind there.’
‘Why? Was someone after him?’
‘I … I don’t know. It was just something he told me to do.’
She wasn’t sure they believed her but they didn’t pressurise her. A woman officer tried to move her away but she stayed put.
‘It’s better if you’re not here,’ she justified. ‘Give the paramedics more room to work.’
‘But he’s dead, isn’t he?’ Ruby shook off her arm. ‘He’s not coming back.’
‘He’s alive at the moment. Let them do their job.’
Eventually, Ruby was shown into the back of the ambulance. The paramedic wrapped a silver blanket around her shoulders as she clung to Lily, who was in her arms.
‘Do you know who it was that attacked him?’ a different police officer asked. ‘It’s okay if you’re frightened to tell me but it would help us. It was quite brutal.’
Ruby shook her head.
‘Did you see if it was one person? Two? More?’
Ruby shook her head again, afraid to say anything.
‘Not to worry. And there’s bound to be CCTV nearby so we’ll be checking that too. Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t need to be looked at in A&E yourself?’
‘No, I’m fine.’
It was then she looked down to see she was covered in Finn’s blood. It was all over her hands, her clothes, underneath her nails. She hugged Lily closely. All she wanted was to get the men who had hurt Finn. But first she needed him to stay alive.
At the hospital, they were taken through into the emergency area. Behind a door was a long corridor with several cubicles leading off them. While they worked on Finn, she was shown into a side room where she waited for news and was given a cup of tea.
It was just past midnight. Her hands shook as she tried to drink the sweet liquid. The police still wanted to talk to her and she wondered how much she should say this time. She wanted to tell them everything but Finn had warned her enough not to. She was concerned about getting him into trouble too. It wasn’t a fight that had escalated beyond the point of no return. Dane and his men meant to kill him.
Tears slid down her cheeks. Lily stirred in her lap and she held on tightly to her daughter, praying that Finn would be okay, that he would stay alive.
She closed her eyes as she thought back to his laboured breathing.
A woman in blue overalls, her hair scraped from her face in a ponytail, came over to her.
‘Are you a relative?’ she asked.
‘I’m his girlfriend. Is he going to be okay?’
‘Finn has been stabbed, several times.’ The woman took her hand. ‘The scan showed internal bleeding so we’ve taken him down to theatre for emergency surgery. He’ll be assessed while he’s there.’
Ruby gasped. ‘Is he going to die?’
‘There’s no way of knowing that until the surgery has been completed. He was bleeding heavily so has lost a lot of blood. Also, knife wounds can look superficial on the outside. It’s the damage caused inside that we have to investigate. I’m sorry I can’t tell you any more than that for now. Let’s wait to see how he does before making assumptions.’
‘He is, isn’t he? He’s going to die!’
‘Is there anyone I can call for you?’
She shook her head. She had no one to help her. She couldn’t burden her dad with this, not after so long away from him. But how she wished she could.
‘Please tell me he isn’t going to die.’
When the woman said nothing, Ruby pushed a fist against her mouth and sobbed.
He couldn’t die. She couldn’t live without him.
Ruby sat with Lily in the side room for what seemed like hours, but in actual fact only fifty minutes had passed. She watched the hands of the clock going round and round, shredding a tissue, her eyes so sore she could barely see out of them.
All the time she waited for the door to open. For someone to come in and tell her more news of Finn. That he was still alive.
Please don’t let him die.
She didn’t want those bastards to win.
When the police arrived to question her again, she told them nothing. Finn said he could handle the gang himself. They were going to leave so she didn’t want to make matters worse. He’d been threatened with his life before, and now it had been carried out. She broke down again, curling up in the uncomfortable chair with Lily.
What was she going to do if she lost him?
THIRTY-FIVE
> When her interview with Ruby Brassington finished, it was half past five. Grace grabbed a sandwich and a bag of crisps from the canteen and headed back to her desk. Sam had left her a note to say there were no security cameras on any houses in Minor Crescent so they were none the wiser as to who had carried out the hit and run on Caleb Campbell. Grace wondered if Caleb had been followed and deliberately targeted in a quiet street.
She was about to check up on Finn Ridley when there was a shout from Allie’s office. Grace popped her head up as she came over to them.
‘Suspicious death,’ Allie told everyone. ‘A woman has been found at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Dave Barnett has been called out too.’ She looked at Grace. ‘It’s Harrison House.’
‘You’re kidding!’ Grace shot out of her seat.
Allie shook her head. ‘Thought you could come with us.’
‘Yes, of course.’
They were out of the building and on their way in less than five minutes. As Grace raced through the traffic she spoke to Frankie, who was beside her.
‘Do you think this could be connected to our case? Surely it’s too much of a coincidence that two crimes would be committed so close together, for them not to be linked?’
‘I guess, but until we know who the woman is we can’t be certain.’
Grace kept her eyes on the road then. At the flats, the area being cordoned off was a hive of activity. Uniformed officers tried to keep a growing crowd behind the crime scene tape. Residents were dotted around in their groups of twos and threes, mouths going nineteen to the dozen. Grace knew they would be surmising, presuming, supposing. But she was only interested in the facts.
‘I’m glad we had Ruby Brassington in the station when I heard the news,’ she told Perry as they donned the necessary protective gear. ‘If we hadn’t, I would have assumed someone had got to her. Even so my heart was in my mouth when I was told.’
They signed the log to say they were attending the crime scene and walked towards the communal staircase where the body had been found, where a woman had lost her life. The area had been sealed off, hidden behind a white sheet as a tent was unable to stand. Spotlights had been lit to illuminate the scene.
‘Residents are complaining that they can’t use the entrance to get to their flats,’ Allie said as she went up the first set of steps.
‘We’ve already been in touch with the council, Ma’am,’ an officer told her. ‘For now they can enter from the side, the fire escape. It’s not ideal but this is the only way in.’
They drew level with the body and Grace closed her eyes momentarily to shut out the sight.
‘It’s Mary Stanton, from flat 108,’ she said eventually. ‘I’ve interviewed her twice this week in connection with Tyler Douglas’s accident.’ Guilt flooded her as she wondered if Mary’s visit to the station had anything to do with her death.
Dave Barnett, the senior CSI, was stooping over the body. He stood up when he realised they were behind him, pushing his glasses up his nose.
‘It’s a bit of a nasty one,’ he said. ‘At first it looked as if she’d taken a tumble, but on further investigation, she’s been hit in the face. With a fist most likely, causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards judging by her stance.’ He pointed to the side of her head where there was a deep gash. ‘She caught the edge of a step there, and then there’s the thud she took when she landed. If it wasn’t for that nose bleeding, and the marks appearing around her mouth, I would have said it was an accident, until further inspection.’ He looked at them from the corner of his eye. ‘But then you’re the detectives, I guess.’
Grace couldn’t even give him a quick eye roll. She liked Dave and a sense of humour was always a great asset in their jobs, as long as the general public didn’t see any of them laughing when someone had been murdered. But this was playing heavily on her conscience right now.
‘And no signs of anything missing?’ Perry asked. ‘Do we know who found her?’
‘A neighbour,’ Dave replied. ‘He lives on the same floor as our victim. He called for the emergency services.’
‘Did she have anything on her?’
Dave pointed to an evidence envelope containing a set of keys and a purse. ‘No one else has been up or down since I’ve been here.’
Allie nodded. ‘Grace, come with me and Perry.’
‘Yes, Ma’am.’ Grace turned to Frankie. ‘Can you liaise with uniform and set things up for me? I’ll join you once I’ve given her home the once-over.’
Frankie nodded and went downstairs.
Grace took a deep breath and followed quickly behind Perry and Allie. She was not looking forward to this at all.
THIRTY-SIX
Whoever had murdered Mary Stanton had waited for her to leave her flat. Two days ago it would have seemed tricky with such a large police presence but now it had been pared back, it was easier to get around.
Inside, the first thing Grace spotted was the woman’s knitting that she’d seen when she’d visited before, and felt sad that whatever Mary had been making would now never be finished. They searched carefully through drawers in units, kitchen cupboards, wardrobes and bathroom cabinets, looking for next-of-kin details.
They continued to look around but there seemed nothing out of place, nor any indication as to why the woman had been killed almost on her own front door step. Was someone taunting the police, doing things right under their noses? It took her back to her previous case where two women had been strangled in open spaces. The killers were behind bars now but the case had been difficult as there weren’t many clues, and the murders had happened so quickly that forensics hadn’t come back before the second woman had been attacked.
When she had seen enough, Grace came out of the flat and stood on the walkway. Most of the neighbours were outside too, despite the bitter cold, gawking at the goings-on.
She beckoned Perry to her.
‘Mary Stanton could see the Douglas’s front door.’ She pointed. ‘Do you think someone was trying to shut her up, now we know Tyler’s fall wasn’t an accident?’
‘I think it’s a valid question. Maybe she’d seen something that her killer thinks she shouldn’t have.’
‘She said she saw Seth Forrester hanging Tyler Douglas over the wall.’
‘Which we now know may not be true, since Ruby told us that it was Finn.’
‘Which also means that it could be Seth who attacked Milo Benton as he said he was in the car park to get a gym bag from his car.’ Her brow furrowed. ‘You don’t think Seth is responsible for this, do you? And why, if he had nothing to do with the Tyler Douglas case?’
Perry sighed loudly. ‘Your guess is as good as mine. He’s done some nasty things in his time, and I’m sure he’s capable of it.’
‘Do we have enough to bring him in?’
‘Not yet.’
Grace nodded. If it wasn’t Forrester, could it be Finn Ridley? She had updated everyone about him that afternoon, and how it was alleged that he had dropped Tyler over the walkway. Was Ridley involved somehow in the murder of Mary Stanton, now that they had a positive ID? Although, to be fair, they only had Ruby Brassington’s word for it so far and she’d cried wolf far too many times for Grace’s liking.
Mary could have seen everything if she was out on the walkway and someone had clearly wanted her to keep her mouth shut. What they needed to work out was whether the suspect had meant to kill her or if they just went too far? Either way, that poor woman had lost her life.
Grace turned as Allie joined them, removing her forensic mask and taking in a deep breath of fresh air.
‘The residents are going to be up in arms about this,’ she said.
‘I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking ill of us,’ Grace replied. ‘It could have been my fault. She’d been talking to me.’
‘You didn’t push her down the stairs.’
‘Even so, I feel responsible. And I bet no one saw anything, as usual.’ Grace shook her head in disdain. ‘It’s
so galling. When Tyler Douglas went over the railing no one saw anything, and now there’s been a murder, it’ll be “what are you doing about it” but still “we saw nothing”. I don’t know what they expect us to do. We could be a lot quicker if someone actually had been looking out for some of the neighbours.’ She shook her head. ‘Poor Mary. She seemed a lovely lady, even though a bit of a busybody. And where would we be without people like her?’ Grace could think of several cases where neighbours had given key pieces of evidence to connect the links to the killers.
‘I’m going to talk to the man who found her,’ Perry said. ‘Want to come?’
‘I think I’ll go and find Frankie.’
Grace went back downstairs, to be met with lots of people laying flowers. Already there seemed to be half a florists outside the main entrance door. It was heartbreaking and heart-warming at the same time to see the tributes laid out.
There was a community meeting arranged for tomorrow afternoon. It had been set up to talk more about the safety issue of Tyler going over the railing, but now that there had been a murder, Allie was going to use the opportunity to see if anyone had anything to say about Mary Stanton.
Could this be connected to the Tyler Douglas incident anyway? Had someone seen Mary watching, told her to keep her mouth shut and then an argument got out of hand?
Had Mary Stanton been pressurised into saying ‘I saw nothing’ and then found it hard to keep quiet? Had she been singled out because she was a witness to Tyler’s case?
2012
It was a long night for Ruby. The police had questioned her again but left her alone for now. They must have got all they needed.
Lily was asleep on the settee beside her. The nurses had brought drinks as she waited for news. Finally, after she’d managed to grab an hour’s sleep, the door opened and a man walked in.
