A Knot of Sparrows

by Cheryl Rees-Price

  ‘Nasty scratch you’ve got on your arm,’ Meadows said.

  Donald looked at the livid red mark that ran up the inside of his forearm and wished he’d kept his dressing gown on.

  ‘It was a cat.’

  He forced himself to look at Meadows. He had black curly hair and bright green eyes. A nice face, Donald thought, someone you could confide in. He knew he had to be careful, it would be easy to talk to this man.

  ‘Yours?’ Edris asked.

  ‘What?’ Donald turned his head to look at the other detective. This one was blond and good looking. He didn’t trust him, he’d be like all the good looking boys at school, either ignoring you or laughing at you.

  ‘Cat, was it your cat that scrammed you?’ Edris asked.

  ‘We don’t have a cat,’ his mother said.

  ‘It was outside. I was playing with it,’ Donald said. He put his hands on his knees applying pressure to try and stop them jiggling.

  ‘When was the last time you saw Stacey?’ Meadows asked.

  ‘Tuesday, she was in the shop.’

  ‘What time was that?’ Meadows asked.

  Donald shrugged his shoulders, he couldn’t remember.

  ‘About six, Donald went to get some milk because we had run out,’ his mother said.

  ‘And what did you do after that?’ Meadows asked.

  Donald felt his shoulders relax a little, he knew what he was supposed to say. ‘Came back, had food, then went to the vicarage. I was helping Vicar Daniels set up. We had a film night.’

  ‘Is that a sort of youth club?’ Edris asked.

  ‘No, just a church activity,’ Donald said.

  ‘Donald does a lot with the church,’ his mother said. ‘He’s been going since Sunday school and he’s there every Sunday morning. He’s always helping out the vicar.’

  ‘What film did you watch?’ Edris asked.

  ‘The Shack.’

  ‘What time did the film finish?’

  ‘After ten. I helped clean up and got back about eleven.’

  ‘It was no later than that,’ his mother added. ‘I was still up when he came in.’

  Donald watched the detective write in his notebook. He would have to be careful to remember everything he told them. He knew it was important to stick to the story.

  ‘Do you often walk down the Cwm?’ Meadows asked.

  The sudden change of question brought on a fresh wave of panic. He could feel the sweat soaking through his T-shirt under his arms and hoped the detective didn’t notice. ‘Sometimes. I walk down there then up to the cairns.’

  ‘And you saw Stacey there?’

  ‘Yeah, she was always down there with her friends or boys.’

  ‘Any boy in particular?’

  ‘Jack Hopkins, Alex Edwards, some others.’ Donald didn’t want to say who else he had seen her with.

  ‘Did you see anyone else hanging around down there in the past couple of weeks? Someone you wouldn’t expect to see maybe or someone that was watching Stacey?’

  ‘No, not really. I sometimes see Bible Bill, and Mrs Kelly walking the dog but no strangers if that’s what you mean.’

  ‘Did you see Bill talking to Stacey or watching her and her friends?’

  ‘No, why would he? She was mean to him. Calling out in a flirty voice, saying things like, “Hey Billy boy, you’re looking very sexy today,” then laughing.’

  ‘How did he react?’

  ‘Just muttered to himself and carried on walking. I heard him call her a wicked girl once, but it just made her laugh more.’

  ‘Did Stacey ever call you names? Tease you?’

  An image of Stacey flicking her blonde hair came to Donald’s mind. He could hear her laughter, and her voice full of scorn. See the way she looked at him as if he was shit. There would be none of that anymore.

  The detective was looking at him waiting for an answer. His mouth felt dry and his tongue too heavy. He cleared his throat and forced himself to concentrate. ‘All the time, but I took no notice. I wasn’t the only one. Stacey picked on anyone who wasn’t popular.’

  ‘Like Erin Kelly.’

  Pain gnawed at Donald’s stomach. Erin was never far from his thoughts, all he could do was nod.

  ‘I understand that you were good friends with Erin,’ Meadows said.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘It must have been very hard for you when she died.’

  Donald looked down at his hands. He tried to fight the emotion, but he could feel his throat constricting and tears stinging his eyes.

  ‘He was inconsolable, didn’t go to school for weeks,’ his mother said. ‘She was such a nice girl, always coming around.’

  ‘Donald?’ Meadows asked.

  Donald looked up. He didn’t want to talk about Erin. It hurt too much. ‘Yes, I miss her. She was my friend. My only friend.’

  ‘Did you blame Stacey for Erin’s death?’

  ‘And the others. They were always picking on her. They wouldn’t leave her alone. Calling her names, tripping her up in the canteen so she would fall in front of everyone. It wasn’t just in school. She had to stay home after school and the weekends to avoid Stacey. If we were lucky and set off early we could walk up the mountain to get away, but Stacey always found a way to get to her, Facebook and Twitter. Always posting shit.’ The words came tumbling out and he couldn’t stop them. ‘Once Stacey and her friends made a fake Facebook account, pretended to be one of the boys from school and flirt with Erin. They kept it up for weeks. Erin was suspicious at first but then she was really happy thinking someone liked her. A meeting was set up down the Cwm. Erin got dressed up and went down the Cwm thinking it was a date. Stacey and her friends were there, laughing. They filmed it and put it up for the whole school to see. It was really cruel.’

  ‘Did Erin talk much about her father?’ Meadows asked.

  ‘No, Erin didn’t have a father. It was just her and her mother.’

  ‘She didn’t talk about finding him?’

  ‘No, she never mentioned it.’

  ‘Did Erin take drugs?’

  ‘No!’ These people didn’t know Erin, or what she went through, Donald thought. They think she was some druggy. ‘Why are you asking all these questions about Erin?’

  ‘We are trying to find out who killed Stacey and to do that we have to look at her past. Look at people connected to her. In this case you said that Stacey bullied Erin, so we have to consider that someone wanted revenge for what happened to Erin.’ Meadows let the statement hang in the air.

  Donald was sure the detective could hear his heart beating. The silence stretched on and he wanted to leap from the chair and lock himself in his bedroom.

  ‘Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Stacey?’

  Loads, Donald thought, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘There was a video posted online of Stacey down the Cwm with a man. Do you know anything about that?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did you see it?’

  ‘Everyone saw it.’ He felt heat crawling up his neck and spread until his whole face prickled.

  ‘Do you know who posted the video?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do you know the man in the video?’

  Donald felt bile rise in his throat. ‘No.’ He stood up. ‘I’m not feeling very well.’

  ‘Okay, we’ll leave you to get back to bed. Thank you for talking to us,’ Meadows said.

  Donald bolted from the room, straight upstairs and locked himself in the bathroom. He couldn’t go on with this much longer. He’d have to talk to someone.

  Chapter Eight

  ‘Are we going to pay Bible Bill a visit?’ Edris asked. ‘His name keeps cropping up.’

  ‘Yes, but not yet, Sarah Kelly only lives a few doors down. Let’s call on her first.’

  ‘So what do you make of Donald?’

  ‘I think he’s hiding something.’ Meadows looked back at the house. ‘He looked scared and that was no cat scratch on his arm.�
��

  ‘Yeah, I did notice. His reaction was a bit odd when he came downstairs. Most people don’t start with “I didn’t kill her”.’

  ‘No, but then again I don’t think Donald comes under the category of most people. The headmistress’s description of him, his lack of social interaction and minimum eye contact makes me think he has some social issues. Added to that is the death of his best friend. I’m guessing he also has some emotional problems. Maybe even suffering from anxiety and depression.’

  ‘It doesn’t help to be named after a cartoon character. Imagine being called fuck-a-duck on a daily basis. No wonder the poor kid is introverted.’

  ‘It sounds like Stacey and her friends made a habit of bullying people. What else did they get up to?’ Meadows knocked on Sarah Kelly’s door.

  Sarah Kelly didn’t look surprised to find two detectives on her doorstep. She stood with a miniature white poodle in her arms and gave them a wry smile.

  ‘I thought you’d make your way to see me,’ she said. ‘You better come in.’

  The layout of the house was the same as Donald’s with the stairs directly in front and the sitting room to the right. That was the only similarity. Where the sitting room in Donald’s house had been cluttered, Sarah’s was minimalistic, light, and airy. There were no ornaments, just a picture of Erin on a shelf with a small vase of flowers and a candle. The smiling teenager had the same red hair and blue eyes as her mother.

  ‘Have a seat.’ Sarah indicated the sofa before sitting in an armchair and placing the dog on her lap.

  ‘Thank you.’ Meadows sat and waited for Edris to settle and take out his notebook. ‘As you probably guessed we’re here about Stacey Evans.’

  ‘Because of what happened to Erin you think that I might have had something to do with her death.’

  She could have been in on it with Erin’s father, Meadows thought. ‘We understand that you held Stacey responsible and that you went to the school to make a complaint on more than one occasion.’

  ‘Yes, her and those…’ Sarah tucked her hair behind her ear. ‘It wasn’t just Stacey, but she was the main contributor. If you are expecting me to say that I’m sorry Stacey’s dead then you’ll be disappointed. I’m not sorry, she made Erin’s life hell.’

  ‘I appreciate your honesty,’ Meadows said.

  ‘Good, I didn’t kill her. There were times late at night when I thought about it, but you can’t arrest someone for thoughts. Erin had her whole life ahead of her. I’d messed mine up, but she had a chance. She was going to go to university, leave this place.’ Sarah sighed. ‘I’d see Stacey sometimes, full of life and laughter. She’d cross the road to avoid me. You’d think I’d feel some sort of relief now she’s gone, that the pain would go away. I don’t feel anything. I’m just an empty shell, I have been since Erin died.’

  ‘I’m sorry to have to ask but was it a drug overdose?’ Meadows said.

  ‘No, she jumped off the top of Herbert’s quarry. She walked there. Can you imagine? It took her three hours. I walked in her footsteps. Three hours to think about it, three hours to change her mind. How desperate she must have been to escape this life.’ Sarah looked across at the photograph. ‘There are many times I thought about joining her. Suicide isn’t blameless like an accident or illness. It’s preventable, imagine knowing that your child was in so much pain and couldn’t turn to you for help. I should have seen the signs, done something more. My pain is my punishment for not being able to protect her.’

  Meadows wanted to reach out to her and give her some comfort. He wondered if there was anyone who held this woman in her grief. He wished he didn’t have to ask these questions and stir up the pain but there was another mother that was grieving. ‘I’m so sorry. Was Erin your only child?’

  ‘Yes, I had Erin when I was seventeen, it was just the two of us.’

  ‘What about Erin’s father?’

  ‘He wasn’t part of Erin’s life.’

  ‘We still need to speak to him,’ Edris said.

  ‘You think he killed Stacey for revenge? No, why would he? Like I said, he had no part in Erin’s life, no financial help, not even a birthday card. It was what I wanted.’

  ‘Is he local?’ Edris asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then he knows about what happened to Erin.’

  Sarah ran her fingers through the dog’s hair then looked at Edris. ‘There were no tears, he didn’t come to see me. He came to the funeral but so did the whole village. Even Stacey and her friends. I didn’t want them there, I thought they would have stayed away out of decency. I caught a glimpse of them standing with their class. If I’d been more myself that day I would have slapped them.’

  ‘We’re still going to need his name,’ Meadows said.

  Sarah shook her head.

  ‘Did Erin know who her father was?’

  ‘Yes, I would never have held back that information. She didn’t want anyone to know. I promised her no one would find out. I’m not breaking my promise to her.’

  ‘I understand,’ Meadows said. ‘I assure you that we only need his name to eliminate him from our enquiries. It won’t go any further.’

  ‘You can’t make those assurances. If you question him then people are going to wonder why,’ Sarah said.

  ‘We’ll be as discreet as we can. You know the pain of losing a child, there is another mother who is grieving and needs some answers,’ Edris said.

  ‘She knew what her daughter was like. I spoke to her, asked her to get Stacey to leave Erin alone.’

  ‘If Erin is the reason Stacey was killed then I’m sure her mother will regret not intervening for the rest of her life.’ Meadows hoped that thought would be enough to persuade Sarah to give him a name.

  ‘Fine, it’s Bible Bill. You can understand why Erin didn’t want anyone to know. I know what people would say. The gossip and sneering. It doesn’t bother me what they say behind my back, but I don’t want Erin’s name dragged through the mud.’

  ‘We haven’t met him yet,’ Edris said. ‘But we’ve heard about him.’

  ‘I would imagine that he is quite a bit older than you,’ Meadows said. ‘May I ask if you had a relationship with him?’

  ‘Are you suggesting he forced himself on me?’ Sarah asked. ‘No, he didn’t. I guess I was a bit like Erin at that age. I didn’t have many friends. Bill was always nice to me, so I’d hang out around the farm. His parents didn’t mind. I just wanted someone who would love me. Pay me attention. I didn’t love him. He offered to marry me when I told him I was pregnant. I don’t think he wanted to, he was just trying to do the right thing. When I turned him down he was relieved. I never told anyone he was Erin’s father. He was happy to keep the secret.’

  ‘Thank you for telling us. We will need to speak to him,’ Meadows said.

  ‘If you’re thinking of seeing him now he won’t be in. He visits his mother most afternoons. She’s in a nursing home. He’ll be back in about half an hour. I usually see him when I’m walking the dog.’

  Meadows stood. ‘We appreciate your time and honesty.’

  ‘There is no point in being anything but honest. When the worst has happened, you find there is nothing to fear.’

  Chapter Nine

  As they stood next to the car, Meadows had the feeling they were being watched. He looked at the upstairs windows of Donald’s house and saw the curtains move.

  ‘Are we going to wait outside Bible Bill’s house until he comes home?’ Edris asked.

  ‘No, I don’t want to scare him off, let’s go over to the church, see if the vicar is there. I want to check out Donald’s alibi.’

  ‘Can’t see he’d make it up,’ Edris said as they crossed the road.

  ‘You never know, he may be counting on us not checking. He’s got motive and he’s at least six foot, solid. Strong enough to overpower Stacey. He is definitely hiding something. At the very least we can rule him out.’

  They walked past the wall of the church yard which ran
along the perimeter enclosing the graveyard. The headstones spread out past the side of the church and sloped gently behind. When they reached the lychgate they stepped under the wooden roof and Meadows looked at the noticeboard. A quick scan of the information told him the time of services at Saint Herbert’s church and the officiating vicar, Reverend Timothy Daniels.

  ‘He probably knows all that goes on in this village,’ Edris commented.

  ‘That’s what I’m hoping.’

  A gravel path led to a porch with an oak door. Meadows gave the door a push and it creaked open, startling a sparrow that had nested in the crevice of the stone wall. He watched it fly out before stepping inside. The church smelled of old wood with a hint of incense. The temperature felt cooler than it had outside. A large stone font stood to the right and a worn crimson carpet ran down the aisle to wooden railings. On each side were rows of long wooden pews. The walls were whitewashed, and all the windows were stained glass depicting scenes from the Bible. Meadows walked slowly down the aisle taking in the atmosphere of the church. It was peaceful and he could imagine the congregation of old filling the church and raising their voices in praise.

  At the end of the aisle an ornate pulpit was to the left and two steps led to a pipe organ which stretched up to the ceiling on the right. At the rear of the church, under a magnificent stained glass window, stood the altar behind brass pillars and rope.

  ‘Doesn’t look like there is anyone here,’ Edris said.

  ‘The vicar could be in the vestry,’ Meadows said.

  ‘Should we shout out? I think the vestry is off limits to the public.’

  ‘I think it’ll be fine,’ Meadows said. ‘We’ll just knock the door, it’s not like it’s the middle of the service. I think you’ll find it’s more of an office.’

  ‘As a child you wouldn’t dare go past the railings.’

  ‘You went to church?’

  ‘Yeah, Sunday school.’

  ‘You’re full of surprises.’

  ‘My grandmother took me. Don’t remember much about it. Just a few stories but I’d always get sweets after if I’d been good.’

  Meadows laughed. ‘I bet that wasn’t often.’