Detectives Merry & Neal Books 1-3

by JANICE FROST

  “I’m fine, really I am. My throat’s still a bit raw and my voice sounds like it belongs to someone else, but I had a lucky escape and I’m focusing on how great it is to still be here. The more people keep asking me how I really feel, the more pissed off I get.” Maggie’s voice, soft at first, had risen until heads began to turn in their direction.

  Ava touched her arm. “Last month I nearly killed someone. I really wasn’t feeling that bad about it because I acted in self-defence and he didn’t die, but they made me see a counsellor anyway. Maybe if he had died I would have felt differently. Working out how you feel about something is not always straightforward. You need time to process what happened to you. I know my experience was nothing like yours, I didn’t almost die.” Ava paused. “I did once though, so I do know how it feels.” Ava hadn’t meant to tell Maggie this. She’d never shared it with anyone, not even her parents.

  Maggie gave her a look, beseeching her to continue.

  “It was when I was a student. I made friends with another girl, called Sophie. She’d had a very difficult childhood. She was sexually abused by her uncle for six years. He was her mother’s brother and had stepped in as a kind of father figure after Sophie’s dad died. It was the usual story. He was a well-respected professional and when Sophie told her mum about the abuse, she didn’t believe her. Worse still, Sophie found out that her mother was in a relationship with the uncle.”

  Maggie gasped. “That’s terrible! What happened?”

  “She ran away when she was fifteen and went into a women’s refuge. She was lucky enough to be befriended by an older woman there who’d escaped from an abusive relationship, and they moved into a flat together. They sort of helped each other.”

  Ava ate another piece of chicken. It tasted of nothing. She washed it down with a slug of wine. “I’m sorry to say this story doesn’t have a happy ending. Sophie got herself together enough to get to university. Then she got a call about her friend, the woman she’d met at the refuge. The woman’s husband had tracked her down and killed her. As you can imagine, Sophie was distraught. She . . . well, she took some pills. When she didn’t show up for lectures I raised the alarm. I went to her room with the warden of the residence where she was living and when she unlocked the door with the master key, we found Sophie. She was still alive but she died of liver failure a couple of days later.”

  Ava thought of that last time she’d seen Sophie, so still and so dead. She pushed her plate away, her appetite suddenly gone.

  “You went after her uncle, didn’t you?” Maggie whispered.

  “Yes. I confronted him, and Sophie’s mother.” She winced at the memory. “They were a formidable pair, wouldn’t admit to a single thing. They told me Sophie was a twisted little liar who’d hated her mother and been jealous of her uncle. When I told them I was going to the police to get justice for Sophie, the uncle went berserk.”

  “He attacked you?”

  “Yes. And I wasn’t a martial arts expert in those days. He had his hands around my throat and I’m convinced he would have killed me if Sophie’s mother hadn’t suddenly come to her senses and picked up a breadknife.”

  “Oh my God!”

  “She stabbed him in the back.”

  “She killed him?” asked Maggie.

  “No. She punctured a lung, but he survived. I thought I was going to die,” Ava said. “The way his eyes looked when his hands were round my throat. There was no emotion in them, know what I mean?”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah.” Ava shrugged. She put down her knife and fork and leaned back in her chair.

  Maggie stared out of the window, then she asked, “Is that why you gave up your studies?”

  “Yes, but not for the reason you might think. It wasn’t that I was traumatised by what happened to me. I just felt that it was a bit of an indulgence to be spending my time reading books when there was so much injustice out there in the world. Sounds naff, I know, but the whole experience of being a victim just made me want to fight back. I never wanted to find myself in a vulnerable position again, so I took up karate, kick-boxing, the lot, and applied to the police because I wanted to help people like Sophie and her friend.” A pause. “That’s how I dealt with my near-death experience.”

  Maggie nodded slowly.

  “Don’t lock what happened to you away in a box, Maggie. That box will just sit there and you’ll become more and more afraid of what’s inside. I think that’s what happened to Sophie, eventually. Her friend’s death made her believe there was no escaping the past.”

  “Your job puts you in danger all the time. How do you cope with that?”

  “Because I know I can. Physically, and more importantly, up here.” Ava tapped her head.

  “And emotionally? How do you know you’re not just doing a dangerous job because you haven’t really confronted what happened to you? All this keep-fit business that Jimmy says is an obsession with you, isn’t that just a form of denial, of running away, even?”

  Maggie’s question caught Ava off guard. “We all find our ways of coping,” she answered, but her tone was less assured than before. “Anyway, we’re supposed to be talking about you.”

  Maggie gave a strange smile. It was almost smug. “I said I was fine, Ava, and I am. Seems to me like you’re the one who needs to look inside the box.”

  Ava sighed. She had set out to get Maggie to open up about her experience, but somehow Maggie had turned the conversation around and Ava had said none of the things she’d intended to say. Instead, she had revealed a whole lot more about herself than she felt comfortable sharing. She’d also learned a lot about Jim Neal without even asking. It was perplexing. She looked at Maggie Neal and thought her statement about feeling fine might just be the truth.

  “I’m assuming that our conversation this evening is confidential?” Ava said. “Your brother is a very private man at work. I don’t think he’d be too pleased that you’ve told me all about Myrna.”

  “Of course,” Maggie answered. “And thanks for the advice, Ava. You can tell Jimmy I’m fine and that I’ve already made an appointment to see a counsellor. They found me one before I left hospital. I just hadn’t got around to mentioning it to him.”

  “Oh,” Ava said, yet again.

  Maggie gave her a warm smile. “Let’s get together again soon. I think it’s so cool that we get along so well.” She reached over and patted Ava’s arm. “I have a feeling we’re going to be just like sisters. Now, tell me all about this Dr Agard you’re seeing.”

  * * *

  “Gabe North still lives in Stromford. And I’ve got an address for Tess Woodson! PJ shouted.

  “Good morning to you too.” Ava wasn’t feeling her best.

  PJ looked her up and down. “Saw your car in the car park this morning. Did you stay over at Joel’s?” She made it sound like an accusation.

  “No. I had dinner with Maggie Neal and drank too much, so I had to leave the car and take a taxi home. I got another taxi in with Ollie this morning.”

  “How is it going with Joel?”

  “Okay.” Ava said, aware of sounding unenthusiastic.

  “Not the one, then?”

  “Probably not.” Ava moved to her desk. She didn’t feel like confiding in PJ. She’d done too much confiding the evening before. The truth was, Joel had dumped her. It was something new for Ava, and while she wasn’t upset — they’d only had a handful of dates — her ego had taken a bit of a knock. Joel was a smart guy. He’d probably worked out that she wasn’t interested in a long-term relationship with him and had cut his losses. She’d tell PJ soon enough. After last night she was still feeling a bit exposed emotionally.

  “Inspector Neal wants to see you,” PJ said.

  “Where is he?” Ava had already noticed that his office was empty.

  “With George Lowe. He should be back any minute now.”

  By the time Ava had grabbed a coffee, Neal was waiting for her. Entering his office, she felt nervous. There was no
particular reason why she’d never talked about her traumatic experience. She’d only told Maggie because she thought it would encourage Maggie to open up and confide in her. Now she understood that Maggie was much savvier than she’d thought. She hoped Maggie had kept her word and not told her brother.

  “Maggie seems to have enjoyed herself last night,” Neal said, cheerily by his standards. “Thanks for speaking with her, Ava. It turns out she’d already arranged to have some counselling, but I’m grateful to you nevertheless.”

  “I enjoyed her company,” Ava said, realising that she meant it.

  “Good. Right then. Let’s get down to business. Did PJ mention she’d got addresses for Gabe North and Tess Woodson?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’ve contacted North and arranged for him to come in this morning. He’ll be here in half an hour. I’d like you to sit in on the interview. He’s not a suspect as such but it will be useful to find out what he knows about Ewan Cameron and the Pines.”

  “What about Stephanie’s daughter?”

  “I’ve asked PJ to contact her and arrange for us to visit. Did she say if she’d managed to organise that yet?”

  Ava shook her head.

  * * *

  Gabe North turned up ten minutes early. PJ showed him into an interview room and made him a cup of tea. By the time Ava and Neal joined him he was fidgeting in his seat and glancing at his watch.

  “I’m sorry if we’re keeping you from your work, Mr North. We’ll try to keep this as brief as possible. I’m Inspector Jim Neal and this is my colleague, Sergeant Ava Merry. We’re investigating the murder of Mr Ewan Cameron. I believe you once knew Mr Cameron and his friends Rhona and David Pine?”

  “We weren’t friends. I was at the art college at the same time as Cameron and Pine, that’s all. I saw them around.”

  “You were all questioned ten years ago about the disappearance of a young woman by the name of Stephanie Woodson. You were a suspect, as you were probably the last person to see Miss Woodson alive. You told the investigating officer that you believed Cameron had something to do with her disappearance. On what did you base your accusation?”

  “Does your report mention that I was the one who reported Steph missing?”

  “Yes it does.”

  “There’s something I didn’t mention at the time. I’d like to mention it now.”

  Ava and Neal exchanged glances.

  “I went to Pine and Cameron’s flat the night Steph disappeared. I thought Steph would be there with Cameron. I believed she was having an affair with him. I was a stupid, jealous kid and I expected to find them in bed together. I didn’t mention this to the police at the time because I was supposed to be babysitting Steph’s daughter, Tess, and I left her alone for a couple of hours. Not only that, but the babysitting was my alibi. I’m not proud of leaving a young child alone. All I can say is I didn’t really appreciate what a responsibility it was at the time. I thought she’d be all right as she was sleeping.”

  Neal nodded. “Why did you think Cameron was involved in Stephanie Woodson’s disappearance? Our records of the investigation show that he was questioned and claimed not to have known her personally. No one else who was questioned could recall seeing them together.”

  “I . . . he . . . I don’t have any proof. It was just a feeling. She told me she’d posed nude for him a couple of times and I saw them talking together in the street once, so I assumed they knew each other.”

  “And you were in a relationship with her?”

  North coloured. “I thought I was, but with the benefit of experience and hindsight, I can see now that she was merely using me.”

  “Were you in a sexual relationship with her?”

  “We had sex on one occasion. After that Steph made a lot of excuses to avoid having sex with me.” He looked down at his hands.

  Ava noticed that his nails were bitten to the quick. “How long had you been in a relationship with Stephanie before she disappeared?” she asked him.

  “About four weeks. And I did a lot more babysitting than lovemaking in that time. I was rather naïve for my age, Sergeant.”

  Ava couldn’t help thinking of Reg Saunders’s observation that North must have thought he’d died and gone to heaven when Stephanie Woodson had paid him some attention. Annoyingly, he was probably right. Gabe North had matured into a confident enough individual and he was not bad to look at. Only his nail-biting habit hinted at the nervous young man he’d once been.

  “I’m still having trouble understanding why you’d think Ewan Cameron might have harmed Stephanie.”

  “But his alibi . . . all of their alibis . . .”

  “We only have your word for it that there was no one at their flat the evening you called there. And the police didn’t even know that at the time, because you chose not to tell them.”

  “You see? That’s another reason why I didn’t bring it up sooner,” North said. “I suppose I’m now a suspect in Ewan Cameron’s murder investigation?”

  “It would help if you can tell us what you were doing the night he was murdered,” said Neal.

  “I was at home. Alone. Working on a project. I’m an architect.” He held his wrists out. “Might as well arrest me now.”

  Neal ignored the gesture. “Tell me what you know about Ewan Cameron. You must have known him better than you say to have formed the opinion that he was capable of murder. That is what you think, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” North stared again at his hands, looking abject.

  For pity’s sake, grow a pair. Ava was beginning to feel impatient with North’s fecklessness. She said, “So, apart from the fact that you were jealous of him because he drew your girlfriend without her clothes on, you have nothing to support your opinion?”

  “They weren’t at the flat. Ask them where they all really were that evening.”

  “We’ll do that. Thanks for your time, Mr North. We’ll be in touch,” Neal said.

  North stood up uncertainly. “Are you going to reopen Steph’s case?”

  Ava looked at Neal. He had that tight-lipped, frowning expression on his face.

  “I’ll see you out, Mr North,” she said, and walked to the door.

  After North’s departure, Neal called Ava and PJ into his office. He filled PJ in on the interview, he asked for their opinions.

  “Well, he has a motive for killing Cameron, don’t you think?” Ava said. “He obviously resented Cameron’s ‘relationship’ with Stephanie and he still has strong feelings about it, I reckon. Then again, why would he wait this long? Unless he’s recently made some sort of discovery that’s got him all riled up again.”

  “Maybe he killed Stephanie too,” PJ chipped in.

  Neal and Ava looked at her, encouraging her to continue.

  “Well, he could have been angry at her for cheating on him with Ewan Cameron. We only have his word for it that Steph went out at all that evening. What if she stayed at home, they rowed over Cameron and North lost control?”

  Ava added, “The original investigators considered that a possibility, but there was no evidence to back it up. Saunders and his then partner did search Stephanie’s flat and forensics failed to find anything. Pity they didn’t search the flat Ewan Cameron and David Pine shared.” She added, “The investigation wasn’t exactly thorough.” She turned to Neal. “You heard what DI Saunders said, sir. He had a pretty low opinion of Stephanie and was content to believe she simply abandoned her child. He could have acted on Gabe’s suspicions about Cameron but he didn’t. He simply accepted the alibi the Pines gave him. I appreciate the lack of evidence but . . .”

  “We need more information on Stephanie Woodson. PJ, find out what you can. Contact her old school, any friends or relatives you can track down, anyone who remembers her. Ava, we’ll speak with Stephanie’s daughter, Tess, and Stephanie’s sister.”

  “I’ve just had a thought,” PJ said. “Mr North said that Stephanie posed as a nude model for Mr Cameron. Do you think any of
his drawings might have survived? It would prove that Cameron knew Stephanie, wouldn’t it?”

  Ava was glad Neal didn’t point out that even though Steph had modelled for Cameron, she still might not have known him personally.

  “By all means look into it, DC Jenkins,” Neal said.

  * * *

  Tess Woodson lived in a busy market town around twenty miles from Stromford. Only a few weeks ago the fields on either side of the road would have been blanketed with snow. The big thaw had uncovered another, less beautiful monochromatic landscape. Or so it seemed to Ava, looking out of the car at a flaccid, colourless sky drooping over fields of grey and black.

  Her companion’s mood seemed to have darkened along with the landscape and the weather. Neal had fallen silent as soon as they left Stromford. Ava wondered absently if he suffered from seasonal affective disorder. She had yet to work with him in the spring and summer months. She imagined him sitting next to her dressed in shorts and a sleeveless Hawaiian shirt, a pair of Ray-bans perched on his aquiline nose. Would he be smiling? Or perhaps it would take more than a bit of sunshine to cheer him up. According to Maggie he had not always been so serious. Then, at a busy roundabout, a white van cut in front of them from the outside lane. Ava cursed the driver loud and long, and Neal laughed.

  The satnav led them to a street of fifties’ semis on the outskirts of Pippinham. After a longish wait, a smartly-dressed woman answered the door. Tess’s aunt was still wearing her outdoor coat and had clearly just returned from work.

  “Would either of you like a drink?” she asked. They declined and followed her down the hallway. She pushed a door open with her foot, saying, “Tess is in the sitting room.”

  Aunt and niece both had the slender gracefulness of ballet dancers. Their deep-set eyes gleamed with intelligence. Ava wondered if people mistook them for mother and daughter. Tess seemed very shy. She was, Ava knew, eighteen or nineteen, but she seemed younger.

  “Are you here about my mother?” Tess asked.

  Neal nodded at Ava.

  “Yes and no,” Ava began. “We’re investigating the death of a man by the name of Ewan Cameron. You might have heard about it on the news? His body was found in the Stromfordshire lime woods area last week.”