by Sally Rigby
‘Would you care to share this with me?’ George asked, frowning in Whitney’s direction.
‘I know this might sound far-fetched, but what if all three women were in it together? Maybe they found out about each other and decided to take matters into their own hands. Especially if Tracy thought she’d have a claim on the estate with Verity being the only living relative. She could have agreed to split it three ways. Or maybe two of them, say Tracy and Leigh, and then it would be an equal fifty-fifty split. It could have been one of your folie thingie situations, like we had with the twins.’
‘You mean folie à deux. Madness of two. It’s possible, but not likely. For that to apply they would have known about each other for a while and spent time together. Long enough for the leader out of the two to influence the other.’
‘Okay, so even if it’s not that. Could they have all been in it together?’
‘Anything is possible, but we’d need more concrete evidence than a fleeting thought.’
‘I realise that, but it’s still worth considering. I’ll get Ellie on it when we get back to the station. She’ll find out if anything connects them.’
‘Yes, that’s a good idea.’
The small, Victorian terraced house where Natalie McKay lived was a twenty-five-minute drive from Leigh Dempster’s flat. Whitney knocked at the door and an elderly woman in her late seventies, early eighties, answered.
‘Hello, we’re looking for Natalie McKay. I’m DCI Walker and this is Dr Cavendish.’ Whitney held out her warrant card for the woman to see.
‘Natalie is my granddaughter. Is it about the man from work who was murdered with all of his family?’
‘Please may we come in?’ Whitney asked not answering the question.
‘If it is about David Barker, then she’s been devastated ever since we heard the news on the telly.’
‘You know about him?’ Whitney asked, frowning.
‘Of course. Natalie tells us all about her colleagues. Please come in and wait in the front room. I’ll fetch her. May I be with her during your questions, for support?’
‘We’d rather she was alone.’
‘I understand,’ the elderly woman said, nodding.
They were shown into a small room which had a wrought-iron fireplace with a tiled surround along one wall, and a floral three-piece suite. There were family photos on every conceivable space. It was a comfortable, well-lived in space and reminded Whitney of the home she’d grown up in.
After a few minutes, a young woman in her mid-twenties walked into the room. She was tall, slim, and blonde. The same as Tracy and Leigh. Did he have a type? It certainly appeared that way.
‘Hello, I’m Natalie.’ She sniffed, and her eyes, which were red from crying, filled with tears. ‘It’s about David, isn’t it? I keep hoping it’s a bad dream, and I’m going to wake up from it.’
‘Yes, it is. Let’s all sit down,’ Whitney said, kindly.
‘Okay.’ Natalie sat on the easy chairs, and Whitney and George on the sofa.
‘We’ve been informed that you and David were a lot closer than colleagues. Is that correct?’ Whitney asked.
Natalie blushed, stood up, and closed the door. ‘I don’t want Nanna to hear because she doesn’t know and she wouldn’t approve, what with him being married.’ She returned to her chair.
‘How long were you seeing David?’
‘We’d been close for over a year, since I started in the department, but we only recently got together. About eight weeks ago. I can’t believe I’ll never see him again.’
‘How often would you go out together?’
‘It depended on his work. We’d sometimes stay late at the office and then go for a drink afterwards and on for something to eat. Or on to a … we had a hotel we’d go to, sometimes.’
‘Did you ever bring David back here?’
‘No. My nanna and grandpa wouldn’t have liked it.’
‘Would you say the relationship was serious?’
‘David talked about the possibility of us living together.’
Seriously? Another one.
‘Did he tell you he was going to leave his wife?’
‘Not exactly. He said I should get my own place and that he’d help me with the rent if I couldn’t afford it. He didn’t want me to carry on living with my grandparents.’
‘And you interpreted that as you possibly living together?’ George asked.
‘Well, no. But he said when his children were a bit older we would.’
Not that line again?
‘Did you start looking for a flat?’
‘Last week I found one online, and asked him to come with me to view it because I knew he was going to be in the office that day, but he said no.’ She bit down on her bottom lip. ‘We had an argument.’
‘What about?’
‘Me moving into a flat. He said he had a lot on his mind and that we should cool it for a while. He said I was getting ahead of myself. I wasn’t. He was the one to suggest the flat, not me.’ She balled her hands into tight fists in her lap.
‘Do you know what he was worrying about? Did he say?’
‘No, and I didn’t ask. He wasn’t in the right mood to discuss it. I thought maybe there was something going on at home with his wife. I know she could be difficult sometimes. He only stayed there because of the children.’
Something else they’d heard more than once.
‘Is that what David told you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did he talk about his children, Keira, Harvey, and Tyler?’
‘Sometimes. He was proud of them and their achievements. He hated when he had to miss anything at their school because of being away with work. He was such a good father.’
Whitney squeezed the pen in her hand so tightly that it almost snapped. How could so many intelligent women be taken in by the creep?
‘Have you heard of a woman called Tracy Osman?’ Whitney asked, scrutinising Natalie’s face to see if she showed any recognition.
‘No, I haven’t heard that name before, sorry.’ She shook her head.
It seemed genuine to Whitney, but George would confirm. She noticed the tiniest of tells, which most other people would miss.
‘Do you remember when Leigh Dempster was working at the firm?’
‘Y-yes,’ Natalie replied, her eyes pensive.
‘Do you know why she left?’
‘Her work wasn’t up to scratch.’
‘Who did you hear that from?’
‘Everyone knew.’
‘Even though it always used to be fine. Didn’t people wonder what happened for her work to suddenly become unacceptable?’
‘Apparently, it hadn’t been good for a long time but it was covered up.’
‘By whom?’ Whitney asked, though knowing the answer.
‘David. It had finally got to the stage when he could no longer accept the quality of what she was producing.’
Bingo.
‘Did you know David had an affair with Leigh?’
‘That was just office gossip. You know how it can be sometimes.’ She glanced away. Was she being honest with them?
‘How do you know it wasn’t true?’
‘Because David told me.’
‘And you believed him?’
‘Well … I’m … I mean … Yes. I think he was telling me the truth.’
Only think. Interesting.
‘What were you doing last Saturday between 10 p.m. and midnight?’
‘I was here at home.’
‘Can anyone vouch for you?’
‘Yes, I was with my grandparents.’
‘So, you didn’t go out on a Saturday night with your friends?’
That didn’t ring true. Most women of Natalie’s age wouldn’t stay in at the weekend.
‘Not this Saturday night. I’d planned to go clubbing with my friend and had arranged to meet in a pub in the city, but she backed out at the last minute, and I decided to stay in and didn’t contact an
y other friends.’
‘Thank you for your cooperation. We’re going to leave now but will check with your grandmother on the way out to confirm that you were here the entire time on Saturday night.’
‘Don’t you believe me?’
‘We have to exclude everyone from our enquiries, that’s all.’
‘Okay, I get it.’
After receiving confirmation from Natalie’s grandmother that she was there, they returned to the car.
Whitney pulled over her seat belt and clicked it in place just as her phone rang. She glanced at the screen.
‘It’s Claire. I’ll put her on speaker.’ She pressed the speaker button and rested the phone on the dashboard. ‘Hi, Claire. You’re on speaker. George is here with me.’
‘Hello, both of you. I’ve heard back from toxicology and thought you’d want the results straight away.’
Whitney looked at George, mouthed, ‘Wow,’ and grinned. ‘Thanks, Claire, what have you got?’
‘As I suspected, midazolam was used on each of the victims.’
‘Is it possible to tell the order in which they were killed, after David Barker who was first?’ George asked.
‘Not in respect of the children, because they all had equal amounts of the sedative in their bloodstream. In the case of Gillian Barker, it was less concentrated.’
‘Do you believe that was on purpose?’ Whitney asked.
‘I have many talents, but mind-reading isn’t one of them,’ Claire snapped.
‘Now you tell me,’ Whitney said, tutting.
‘I’m fairly confident I’ve mentioned that to you in the past. Having said that, it’s possible she was the last person to be injected and the killer used what little they had left.’
‘But she still was given enough to kill her?’ Whitney said.
‘Obviously, as she’s dead. Is there a reason for your somewhat inane questioning?’
‘That’s harsh, even for you, Claire,’ George said.
‘Thanks, George. Why are you being so snippy, Claire?’
‘Try because I’ve had to do more post-mortems in a single week than I usually get to do in six months. Add that to the department being short-staffed and you have your reason.’
‘Apology accepted,’ Whitney said.
‘I don’t recall saying sorry.’
‘You meant to. Anyway, we have David Barker killed first and Gillian last. Keira tied them up, and Gillian was the only person to have duct tape on her mouth. Why? And how significant is this?’ Whitney said.
‘That’s your conundrum,’ Claire said.
‘I’m still of the opinion that it’s linked in some way to her being the last person killed, but, as I’ve already pointed out, without the motive it can’t be established,’ George said.
‘Is there anything else that came back?’ Whitney asked.
‘There was no alcohol or drugs, other than the midazolam, found in the blood any of them. The meal left in front of them was properly cooked. No shortcuts taken, and it was all fresh food. Leeks, lentils, lamb, and fish sauce.’
‘Fish sauce with lamb? That’s disgusting. Who would do that?’
‘Again, it’s up to you to find out.’
‘What about the wine?’
‘I was coming to that. It was aromatised red wine, flavoured with cinnamon.’
‘That’s it,’ George said, sharply.
‘What is?’
‘When you said—’
‘As interesting as I’m sure this is, I’m too busy to listen to your musings.’ Claire ended the call.
‘So …’ Whitney said.
‘I know the significance of the meal.’
Chapter 25
George walked behind Whitney into the incident room. She’d explained her theory to Whitney and there was one more thing she’d like confirming before being confident that she was correct.
‘Attention, everyone. Dr Cavendish has something she’d like to tell you all. And, like me, you’re going to be blown away by it. Over to you, George.’
‘Before I start, do we know what crockery the meal left in front of the victims was served on?’
‘Doug, you investigated that. What did you discover?’ Whitney asked.
‘It was stoneware and from what I could tell, didn’t belong to the Barker family. Sorry, I meant to tell you, but it had totally slipped my mind.’
‘No problem,’ Whitney said, waving her hand. ‘Is the crockery important, George?’
‘It’s the last piece of the puzzle. I’m now confident in my interpretation of the meal’s significance.’
It was moments like this that confirmed her decision to continue working with the police, utilising her skills, and assisting in the solving of cases. She didn’t wish to cast aspersions on her colleagues at the university, but she doubted they’d be as effective as she had proved herself to be.
She scanned the room. Every member of the team was looking directly at her, eagerness in their eyes. Very different from how suspicious they were of her when she’d first joined them. Though that was also due to Whitney’s reluctance to be assisted by an academic.
‘Come on, don’t keep us in suspense,’ Frank said, interrupting her thoughts.
‘The killer has replicated Jesus’s last supper in exact detail, even down to the plates used.’
‘How did they know what was on the menu?’ Brian asked.
‘Good question, because until recently, no one did. There was a study undertaken by two Italian archaeologists who used a variety of sources to discover what was most likely to be on the table, based on what was available at the time. It was a groundbreaking discovery, and the killer had obviously read up on it.’
‘But why the Last Supper? What’s the significance?’ Brian asked.
‘Betrayal. Judas, betrayed Jesus,’ Frank said.
‘Whoa, get you,’ Doug said.
‘What’s that meant to mean? I went to Sunday school as a kid. Some things stick in the old memory banks.’
‘You are correct, Frank. These murders are all about betrayal.’
‘And if we uncover who the betrayer is, or who’s been betrayed, then we’re on the way to solving the case,’ Whitney added.
‘Great call, doc,’ Frank said.
‘And that’s why she’s on the team,’ Whitney said. ‘Now, let’s run through everything else we have. Let’s start with David Barker. He’s married but had another life … a woman who had his child and who he saw on a regular basis. We know now of two other women who he’d had affairs with during this time—’
‘Dirty—’
‘Not now, Frank. I know what you’re going to say, but we’re not here to discuss the morals or otherwise of this man. To maintain this double life, he used more than one phone. Doug, did you manage to find the second one that Tracy Osman told us about?’
‘Yes, it was hidden in one of his jacket pockets.’
‘And this was definitely the one she shared with her? Ellie?’
‘Yes, guv. I’ve gone through it using the self-service kiosk and there’s no doubt that it is.’
‘Anything of interest on there?’
‘There were general messages between them, more like you’d have with someone you live with. Things like what time will you be home and what would you like for dinner? It was as if they were a married couple.’
‘Was there anything which stood out?’
‘No, guv.’
‘Did you get his main phone back from forensics?’
‘Yes. I ran it through the kiosk because they hadn’t had time, as you know. This one was a lot more interesting. When I went back into the history, there were messages between him and Leigh Dempster from several months ago and—’
‘They must have been the ones that Keira found,’ Whitney said, interrupting.
‘Yes, guv. There were also some nasty texts from Natalie McKay.’
‘Really? Read them out.’
‘This is what she sent a week before the deaths: yo
u’ll pay for what you’ve done.’
‘Did he respond?’
‘Yes, he said: leave me alone. We’re over.’
‘And this is from the woman who took the time off work after he’d been killed because she was so devastated by it,’ Whitney said, shaking her head.
‘If she’s the killer, it’s a reaction she could have orchestrated to put us off the scent,’ George said.
‘Well, she was a bloody good actor then. You saw her. All teary, red-eyed and sniffing. Did you suspect her of lying?’
‘No, I didn’t,’ George admitted.
‘My money would’ve been on Leigh Dempster out of the two of them, after what had happened to her. We need to bring Natalie McKay in for a formal interview. Brian, contact Birmingham police and ask them to escort her here tomorrow morning.’
‘Yes, guv.’
‘Ellie, was there anything else on his phone? Were there any texts from Leigh Dempster, other than the ones from a few months ago that Keira found?’
‘No, nothing. Unless they’d been deleted.’
‘I want you to look at Natalie McKay in more detail. She’s living with her grandparents, and they gave her an alibi for the night in question. Although if they’d gone to bed early, she could have sneaked out without them knowing. Frank, get her car registration details and check CCTV to see if the car was in Lenchester on Saturday.’
‘Okay, guv.’
‘Who’s looking at Gillian Barker? I know the investigation is throwing up issues with David, but we mustn’t discount someone having an issue with her.’
‘I am, guv,’ Ellie said. ‘I’ve done standard checks on her, but nothing has alerted me to any issues. She was on the school parent-teacher association, regularly attended yoga classes, and helped at various charity events.’
‘Continue digging. We can’t make this a one-sided investigation. No stone left unturned or Douglas might make us regret it,’ Whitney said.
‘Yes, guv.’
She turned to George. ‘Let’s grab a coffee in the canteen as it’s been ages since my last one.’
‘Guv,’ Frank called out, as they were heading towards the door.
‘Yes?’
