Their second inspection of the house, undertaken with a specific objective in mind, took far longer. As Benson arrived in Lingtoft, she saw Diane standing by the cottage gate, in conversation with Richard Sugden. ‘Morning, Carol,’ he greeted her, ‘I was just asking your colleague how the investigation is going.’
‘We’re not usually allowed to discuss such things with members of the public,’ Carol replied, ‘but in this instance it wouldn’t make a lot of difference, because there’s nothing to tell.’
‘That bad, is it? Well, I don’t know if this will help, but I was talking to my sister Alison last night and happened to mention what had happened. I told her who the victim was, and she remembers Blake and his brother from school. She was a bit vague, but she seemed to think there was trouble of some sort. I’m not sure whether it’s of any value, but if you want a word with her, she’s calling at my house this morning to take measurements for some carpets for the bedrooms. It might be worth talking to her.’
‘Thanks, Richard, I’ll do that. You’ll let us know when she arrives?’
They had completed their detailed search of the living room and kitchen before Sugden knocked on the door. They had gone to the extent of moving every piece of furniture and even lifting the lounge carpet to see if anything had been secreted underneath. Replacing the fridge freezer in its original position was the next task, which Sugden assisted in, before walking across the road with Carol.
‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll continue on my own until you’re ready to return,’ Diane called after her superior.
Carol responded with a wave, which only Diane could see contained an extremely rude two-fingered gesture. Diane grinned, and muttered to herself, ‘I don’t blame you, I’d prefer chatting up a good-looking bloke like that to searching an empty house for something that probably isn’t here.’
Alison Sugden bore a strong resemblance to her younger brother, Carol thought as they shook hands. As she returned the inspection, Alison’s eyes widened. She turned to Sugden and asked, ‘She’s the girl in the photo, isn’t she, Dicky?’
Carol glanced at Sugden for enlightenment, and noticed that he had gone scarlet with embarrassment. ‘I’ve told you time after time not to call me that. You only do it to annoy me.’
‘I’m right though, aren’t I? She is the girl.’
‘Yes, well, it was a long time ago.’
‘I thought as much.’ Alison smiled complacently, before telling Carol, ‘Dicky … sorry, Richard didn’t have any pin-ups on his bedroom wall like the rest of the boys. No pop stars or supermodels for him. All he had was a single photo of a young girl, but he wouldn’t tell me or our parents who it was. As soon as I saw you I knew the girl in that photo was you.’
‘Really. I hope it wasn’t too revealing.’ Carol was a little confused.
‘Oh no, it was perfectly proper. It looked rather like one of those that were taken as part of a school photo, which Dicky had cut out and enlarged.’
‘That isn’t why Carol’s here, Ally-Pally,’ Sugden reminded her with a vindictive smile. ‘She’s working, remember?’
‘He’s getting his own back,’ Alison confided, ‘Ally-Pally indeed. You’re investigating Noah Blake’s murder, I believe? Such a shocking thing. You don’t associate brutal crimes such as that with a quiet village like Lingtoft, do you?’
‘You’re right,’ Carol agreed, ‘and somehow that makes it seem even worse.’
‘When Richard told me about it, I remembered Noah and his older brother Ezra. They were a bit older than me, but I recall hearing something about bother between them, but I can’t remember any of the details. I got the impression it was quite serious, though. I wouldn’t swear to it, but I think there was even some talk about one of them being expelled, but it didn’t come to anything.’
‘Can you think of anyone who might be able to tell me more? At the moment we’ve a distinct lack of information about Mr Blake.’
Alison thought for a moment. ‘I’ve got it,’ she announced with a smile of triumph. ‘Do you remember Miss Peters, the science teacher?’
‘Of course, she taught us.’
‘She’s retired now, but she still lives in Thorsby. Her address is Ox Pasture Lane, number four, I believe. I know that because I supplied her with some carpets when she moved in. It’s a rather nice bungalow, from memory.’
‘Teachers’ pensions must be better than I thought,’ Alison’s younger sibling interrupted, ‘if she can afford your prices.’
‘If you want the best, you have to be prepared to pay for it,’ Alison retorted. ‘I must be on my way; I’ve a customer to visit. An important customer,’ she added. ‘Nice to meet you, Carol, and to put a name to the face.’ With that final dig at her brother, she left.
‘Thank you for that,’ Carol told Sugden. ‘I’ll visit Miss Peters and see what she can tell us.’ She didn’t mention the photo. Sugden had been embarrassed enough by his sister’s revelations without her adding to his discomfort.
‘I’m upstairs,’ Diane called out as Carol re-entered the cottage, ‘and I think I’ve found Blake’s hiding place.’
Carol’s mobile rang as Diane was speaking. ‘I’ll be with you in a mo, I just need to take this call.’
It was the senior forensic officer. ‘I’ve got the results back from the murder weapon. However, I don’t think it will be of much use to you. The only DNA on the bat handle belonged to the dead man, so unless he bludgeoned himself, we’re no further forward.’
‘That’s disappointing, but thanks for letting me know.’
She went upstairs and found Diane. Or rather, she discovered the DC’s backside. Diane was kneeling on the bedroom floor, her head and upper body inside the fitted wardrobe alongside the bed.
‘What on earth are you doing, looking for mice?’
‘I told you,’ Diane’s voice was muffled. ‘I’ve found the place where Blake hid his valuables. Unfortunately, it appears to be empty. My arms aren’t long enough to reach the bottom of the hole.’
She wriggled backwards and appeared; her hair awry and flushed of face. ‘It’s right in that back corner,’ she pointed into the darkest recess of the wardrobe. ‘I shone my torch inside and noticed that part of the carpet didn’t sit flush with the rest.’
She held up an oblong piece of Berber carpet, in the beige colour that was so popular, then turned it over. A matching piece of floorboard had been secured to the reverse side, replacing the underlay. ‘The cavity goes a long way down, I assume to the ceiling of the room beneath. I was in the process of trying to reach to the very bottom when you came back.’
‘I’ll have a try in a minute. My arms are longer than yours.’
Before doing so, Carol repeated what Sugden’s sister had told her, and also the results of the DNA test. She got down on the floor and inched her way into the wardrobe. After several unsuccessful attempts, she managed to get her right hand to the bottom of the cavity, where it touched something that moved slightly. She wriggled backwards. ‘There is something inside. It felt like a book. Can you pass me an evidence bag, please?’ She returned to her prone position and reached into the hiding place once again. ‘Got it!’ she exclaimed.
After she removed the item and placed it inside the bag, Carol stood up again and both detectives examined their find. They stared at the title of the slim volume in astonishment. ‘Do you believe in coincidences?’ Diane asked.
‘No I don’t, but what Blake was doing with a book such as this has me completely baffled.’
As they returned to Thorsby, Carol suggested they make a detour first. ‘Let’s go via Ox Pasture Lane and see if Miss Peters is at home.’
There was no answer when they rang the bell at the former teacher’s house. ‘We could come back this evening,’ Carol suggested.
‘Not me, I’ve got a hot date.’
‘Really? Anyone I know?’
Diane tapped the side of her nose. Obviously she wasn’t prepared to divulge the name of her date.
/> ‘Not Richard Sugden, I hope?’ Carol felt a twinge of unease at the thought.
‘Carol, I do believe you’re jealous. So that’s how things are with you and the handsome Mr Sugden.’
‘That’s not true. There is nothing between us. We’re just old schoolfriends, nothing more.’
‘Nothing more – yet, but you immediately asked if it was him I was seeing. Well, you can relax, it isn’t him. You’ve the field to yourself. Mind you, if he did ask me, I’d struggle to refuse. I certainly wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crisps.’
‘Diane, I don’t know what’s worse, you making infantile puns or you being suggestive.’
Irritatingly, Diane hummed aloud as she drove them back to the police station. It was while before Carol recognized the old song by Donny Osmond, Puppy Love.
Carol returned to the teacher’s house early that evening, and saw the light on in the lounge. She rang the bell. Miss Peters, who looked unchanged by the passage of years, answered the door. Carol reached for her warrant card and was about to introduce herself, but was forestalled.
‘Carol Benson, this is a pleasant surprise. What brings you to see me?’
Carol was ushered into the lounge, where she explained the reason for her visit. Telling Miss Peters how she came by her address caused a short distraction. ‘Ah yes, Richard Sugden, the boy who had such a crush on you.’
Carol stared at Miss Peters in surprise. ‘How did you know that?’
‘It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to see it, Carol. He used to follow you with his eyes whenever you were in the same room. The funniest part was that you never noticed. Has he got over his skin complaint? I felt so sorry for him.’
Eventually, Carol managed to get Miss Peters back onto the subject of her visit. The former teacher needed little prompting to reveal all she knew about the Blake brothers, and the details surrounding the trouble Alison had remembered.
After she left, somewhat sobered and more than a little confused by what she had learned, Carol went home and took a pizza from her freezer. Having warmed it through, she ate her solitary and less than appetising meal, her thoughts in a whirl. She had complained to Sugden only that morning that they had too little information. Now, it seemed she was being threatened with too much. On impulse, she picked up the phone and dialled the number on the card Sugden had given her.
‘Is there something wrong?’ he asked, when he realized who the caller was.
Carol heard the concern in his voice, and was surprised by how it lifted her spirits. ‘How did you guess?’
‘Your voice sounded as if something was troubling you. Not your usual bright and cheerful self.’
‘I’ve been presented with a load of facts, and I don’t know which of them are relevant and which are red herrings. I’m not sure how to go about sorting the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.’
There was a short silence as Sugden thought over her problem. ‘Why not try doing what you used to do in school? Set it all down and then try to arrange the facts into a logical sequence. You were always better than the rest of us at solving problems that way.’
It was true, Carol had tackled difficult subjects that way, but how did Sugden know? She asked him, and there was another silence before he replied, with a degree of reluctance.
‘Haven’t you realised by now that I had the most enormous crush on you?’
His admission, hard on the heels of Miss Peters’ comments, sent Carol’s pulses beating a little faster. She wondered if the crush was dead, or if it could be revived, then stopped herself. Into the silence, Sugden said, ‘Do it, Carol. I know you can. Go and prove me right.’
Carol ended the call, buoyed by his confidence in her, and a little excited by his admission of the way he had felt about her. She followed Sugden’s advice, and stared at the resulting bullet points for some time, before gasping aloud as she recognized the significance of what she had written. She needed confirmation though; all she had at that point was a theory, and a fairly wild one at that. She dialled the pathologist’s number, hoping that Austin wasn’t out potting snooker balls.
He answered the phone, and listened as Carol explained what she needed to know. His reply confirmed her suspicion. Now, she knew everything. Knew it, but could hardly believe it. One more check would ensure there was no chance that she had got it wrong, but that would have to wait until morning.
Diane arrived at Thorsby station the following day, to be told that Carol would be in a little later. ‘She’s had to go to HQ for something,’ the civilian receptionist informed her.
As soon as Diane saw the expression on Carol’s face, she knew something momentous had occurred. ‘Either you’ve solved the case or Richard Sugden’s asked you to marry him,’ she guessed.
Carol smiled. ‘I’ve solved it, right enough. I’ve just been over to forensics. I wanted them to test that book for prints to confirm what I suspected.’
Diane pointed to Carol’s chair. ‘Sit down and tell me everything.’
‘OK, but later, I need you to go and collect the warrant.’
It was mid-afternoon when they arrived at Fellside Farm, accompanied by a team of armed officers. The armed men weren’t necessary, as the arrests were made without resistance. It took several hours to complete their search, which yielded all the evidence needed to convict. That was without the confession that was forthcoming next day.
On emerging from the interview room, Carol went back to her office and picked up the phone. ‘How do you fancy coming to dinner at my place this evening? I want to cook you a meal to say thanks for your help in this case.’
Sugden chuckled. ‘You’ve solved it then. I knew you would.’
‘Yes, confessions and everything, largely down to you.’
He arrived promptly, and took the glass of wine Carol poured for him. He raised it to hers, ‘Congratulations,’ he told her. ‘Rumour in the village is that you have arrested Ezra Blake and his wife.’
Carol smiled, but merely said, ‘I’ll tell you about it over dinner.’
They ate a leisurely meal, during which she outlined the facts, ‘The first thing that puzzled me was the obsessive cleanliness at Anvil Cottage. Nobody goes two weeks without creating some rubbish, and nobody cleans every surface to remove fingerprints. That in itself puzzled me. Then the forensic people told me the only DNA on the murder weapon belonged to the victim. That seemed to suggest the killer was wearing gloves, so why clean the cottage?’
Carol paused and sipped her wine before continuing, ‘What really started me thinking was the information Miss Peters gave me. She explained that the bad blood between the brothers spilled over, literally, in an incident during a chemistry lesson. Acid got spilled on Noah Blake’s hand, leaving him with a nasty scar. He accused Ezra of having done it deliberately. The school couldn’t prove whether it was deliberate or not, so Ezra got the benefit of the doubt. I asked her what had sparked the bad blood, was it that Noah was jealous of his elder brother? It was her reply that turned every theory I had on its head. From there, once I’d listed all the facts like you instructed,’ she smiled at Sugden, ‘everything slotted into place perfectly.
‘The problems between the brothers got worse, and eventually Noah took off for America. He got a succession of menial jobs, drifting from town to town. Then one weekend he went to Las Vegas. He got lucky, and came away with enough money to ensure he never had to work again. He returned to England, and as luck would have it, he met and fell for the charms of Samantha Blake, Ezra’s wife. She had married Ezra a few years earlier, but the marriage was not a happy one. Ezra was mean with money, physically and mentally abusive, and made her look after his father, who she disliked intensely. When she saw Noah, she recognized in him everything that was missing from the brother she’d married, and the affair began, the affair that would culminate in murder.’
‘What you’re saying is that Ezra found out about the affair, and killed Noah out of jealousy, right?’
‘Wrong, completely wro
ng. What Miss Peters told me when I suggested that Ezra was the older brother, was “Yes, but only by a few minutes”. In other words, Ezra and Noah were identical twins.’
‘OK. But if Ezra didn’t murder Noah, who did?’
‘Nobody. Ezra didn’t murder Noah. Noah murdered Ezra. Or at least he and Samantha did between them. They tried to claim it was done on the spur of the moment, but we know it was premeditated. Noah had secreted a book in Anvil Cottage entitled The Molecular Structure of DNA.’
‘Of course, identical twins have identical DNA, don’t they?’
‘Correct, and all they had to do was dress Ezra in Noah’s clothing and put his body in the church crypt, then hide his car in one of the barns at the farm. They said they were trying to make it appear stolen. Noah took Ezra’s place. If the plan worked, which it very nearly did, he would have rid himself of his hated brother, inherited the farm, and got the woman he loved. I think the only reason they waited as long as they did was because they were afraid that the twins’ father would notice the change. However, when he was nearly at the point of death they knew it was safe to go ahead. Noah even managed to fool the vicar into believing he was Ezra.’
‘How can you prove the body was Ezra’s, not Noah’s?’
‘Because, when I checked with the pathologist, he confirmed that there was no scar from the acid incident on the body in the mortuary.’
‘That was a damned clever bit of detective work,’ Sugden told her.
‘Well some credit has to go to you and Alison for pointing us in the right direction. If you hadn’t been in the pub on Halloween I could have needed a crystal ball to solve this.
Shiver Page 21
