‘We’ll check out all angles,’ Stella agreed. ‘Start big and home in, Terry said.’
‘Bella’s got a boyfriend.’ Jack rammed the scourer into a mug.
‘That’s good.’ Despite Bella’s embargo on Stella seeing their children, Stella was consistently nice about Bella. ‘What’s he called? Have you met him?’
‘Harry!’ Jack scrubbed at the mug as if crushing the breath out of Harry. ‘I could kill him!’
‘Why?’ Stella’s lack of possessiveness was no measure of her love, but Jack wished she’d mind even a teensy bit about Bella. It made his own vengeful feelings darker still.
‘I don’t want him near my children.’
‘They’re not just yours. You’ve said Bella would be happier if she found someone who loved her.’ Stella tapped the DVD of news items against her palm.
‘I don’t want him in the house with my children. Bella hardly knows him. He could be a murderer.’ Jack’s stomach fizzed at the vision of his twins scampering into Bella’s bedroom in the mornings and snuggling up with Harry. Fists balled, he leaned against the counter. ‘He could be a paedophile.’
‘Maybe she has checked? You’re good at recognizing murderers, what did you think?’
Stella was well aware that years of searching for his mother’s killer had given Jack the ability to spot a murderer. However, this wasn’t fear that his children were sharing their home with a murderer, Jack disliked the fact of Harry. He wanted him eviscerated.
‘Plenty of biological fathers kill their children. There was that man who jumped off Beachy Head with his daughters.’ Stella wasn’t helping. ‘If those children had been with their mother and her new husband they’d be alive.’
‘That’s because he saw them as an extension of himself. Children are separate beings, parents have to be prepared to let them go.’ Jack wished he could take his own advice. They lapsed into silence and read through the file. Stella had started a new notebook. Jack’s photographic memory saved him the trouble of writing stuff down.
Around them the house settled into the night, floorboards eased, against the intermittent shudder of the fridge came Stanley’s rhythmic snores from his basket.
At last Stella put down her pen, yawned and stretched. ‘Agnes Cater confirmed in a statement that her daughter expected to “wed Mr Philips”.’
‘Philips called his wife “blameless”.’ Jack scanned an article from The Times.
‘Mrs Cater said that Philips wanted Rachel’s children. That could have been a mother’s wishful thinking. Mum wants me to, oh never mind.’ Stella restacked the papers. ‘Perhaps Christopher Philips saw it as a fling and mention of marriage and children scared him off.’
Jack was hit by the horrible thought that Bella’s ban on Stella seeing the twins suited Stella. She never complained that she couldn’t meet them.
‘Bed!’ Stella gave him a kiss. ‘We’ve got a long drive in the morning.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘Winchcombe.’ Stella was halfway up the stairs. ‘If Penelope Philips is a murderer, you will spot it right away.’
Chapter Fifteen
1980
‘Let’s have a funeral for Sarah, like we did for Robbie,’ Danielle said.
‘There’s no point.’ Lee hung motionless on the swing.
Sarah’s body had not yet been released to family. The police had finished an examination of the playground. The white tent had long gone. Only a snatch of police tape snagged in a tree beyond the railings snapped in the breeze. The news had reported that a man was being questioned about Sarah’s murder. He was rumoured to be the tramp who had been hanging around. Although a suspect was in custody, few parents let their child play there. The diminished gang had the playground to themselves.
A pall of melancholy had enveloped the children. All but Nicola (forbidden the playground) were by the swings. Crouching, Jason scraped a twig over the concrete, watched beadily by Kevin as if the operation was critical. At six years old and with little grasp on the meaning of death, the small boys had privately agreed that Sarah would get bored of being the patient (especially a dead one) and come skipping back. Nicola and Lee had taken refuge in each other. Neither discussed their lost sibling.
Only Danielle faced reality. She was infuriated that Sarah was still being dead yet Danielle wasn’t allowed to see what happened to her next. She applied herself to her other task. When Danielle had informed Inspector Darnell that she was going out with Lee, she’d expressed her intention. Since she couldn’t see Sarah’s body, she’d get on with marrying Lee. This was more realistic than might have been thought because a girl in their class had started issuing licences. Only really stupidly they only worked if the boy asked the girl.
‘A funeral would mean we could have Sarah dead,’ Danielle said. A funeral meant that she and Lee could be the mum and dad.
‘I don’t want to.’ Lee’s stepdad had threatened to make him sit up all night with Sarah’s body. So you know exactly what you did. Lee said to himself, ‘It is bad.’
‘Sarah being dead wasn’t your fault.’ Danielle took his hand. Lee snatched it away.
‘She went looking for her bracelet.’ Lee hung on the swing chains. ‘You said she was in front.’
‘Nicky dragged you off or you’d have seen Sarah wasn’t there.’ Danielle could be reasonable.
‘It’s not her fault,’ Lee said. Yet doubt crept in. Had Nicola made him leave Sarah? The evening when he’d last seen his sister was a confusion. A white tent, the police car and his stepfather punching the wall as if it was Lee.
‘Don’t blame yourself, love.’ Danielle echoed her mum comforting Cathy Ferris. Personally, Danielle thought that Lee’s mum should be in trouble. If she got sent to prison Lee could come and live with the Hindles. Danielle held fast to the fact that when Lee found out that Sarah was dead it was her he’d run to, not Nicky. Conveniently she’d blanked out that Maxine had stopped Lee in the street and brought him to theirs. She considered whether to tell Lee that next All Hallows’ Eve Sarah would walk.
‘There she is!’ Lee got off the swing.
‘Sarah?’ Danielle got a shock. It was too early.
‘Nicky.’ Lee acted like Danielle was stupid. ‘Who’s that lady with her?’
‘It’s a teacher.’ Permanently in trouble, Jason scrambled into the shadows.
Nicola Walsh was unlatching the gate. Beside her was a woman who looked to the children about ten feet tall, her high heels like stilts. She wore a raincoat with padded shoulders and a smart bag on her shoulder.
‘This is Miss May,’ Nicola announced.
‘I knew that,’ Danielle said although she hadn’t.
‘Lucie to you lot! I’m not a bloody teacher.’ Lucie May dropped in a swear word to get the kids on her side. ‘My teachers couldn’t wait to see the back of me! I was always sagging school. Bunking off, to you! Do we hate school?’
‘Yes,’ they chorused obediently. All except Danielle who came top in reading.
‘Miss… wants to talk about Sarah because Robbie is being dug up.’ Nicola clamped a hand over her mouth as if she too had sworn.
‘Exhume, not digging up.’ Danielle sidled up to Lee.
‘You’re a proper detective!’ Lucie winked at Danielle. ‘What’s your name, hun?’
‘Danielle Hindle. I’m with Lee. Sarah and Robbie played with my brother Jason. It’s sad what happened. Lee’s dad says it’s his fault. He was lured off by Nicky so didn’t hear Sarah screaming. I don’t blame Lee.’
‘He’s not my dad. I didn’t hear nothing,’ Lee mumbled.
‘Anything,’ Danielle whispered a correction.
‘Sarah screamed?’ Lucie did a sad face. ‘I’m a reporter. I’ll make sure your story is told properly. So, take it from the top, what exactly happened?’
Lucie May was the Pied Piper as she trooped the children over to the roundabout. Perching between the hold bars, she patted it for them to join her. Danielle sat next to her.<
br />
‘As I said to Nicky, it’s my job to capture baddies and make them pay for their crimes. I can’t do it alone. You’re on the ground, you know the players and their tricks. You have ears and brains. Working together we’ll lock up the murderer so no more children die.’ Lucie passed round a bag of Merry Maid toffees.
Danielle unwrapped a sweet and gave it to Kevin. Putting an arm around him she said, ‘You don’t have a big sister to save you, so if you behave, I’ll make sure you don’t die too.’
Kevin was aware that their older siblings had not saved Robbie or Sarah, but beaming, he accepted the toffee and Danielle’s unexpected attention.
‘I’m taping your clever ideas. OK with you, Danielle?’ Lucie May had divined the ring leader. She took a small black object from her bag.
‘Are you police?’ Schooled by her father, Danielle gave nothing away for free. ‘We’re only meant to talk to Inspector Darnell.’
‘The police would be nowhere without you and me.’ May shook the bag for Danielle to take another toffee.
The police detective had said to stay away from reporters, but now Danielle recalled him talking to Miss May. Anyway, Danielle wanted to be on a tape recorder.
‘Who hates stupid grown-ups telling them what to do?’ Lucie May held out her recorder.
‘Me!’ they shouted.
‘Who wants to start?’
Danielle put up her hand. ‘The man in the playground was going to kill us.’
‘No he wasn’t,’ Nicola objected.
‘You weren’t there.’ Danielle dipped her head to Lucie’s recorder. ‘Lee and Sarah didn’t see him. I came back by myself to the playground. He said he was going to do a murder. So I ran.’
‘That was a different day. You told Lee that Sarah had gone.’ Nicola rarely argued with Danielle, but the recorder had made her brave.
‘I never did!’
‘It’s easy to make a mistake when you’re scared,’ Lucie trilled. ‘Where was Sarah?’
‘She lost her charm bracelet. She was looking for it when the man murdered her,’ Danielle said.
‘How do you know if you left first?’ Lucie’s eyes twinkled like a friend.
‘I found the bracelet.’ Danielle was unruffled.
‘So you were with Sarah.’ Lucie May jerked the recorder closer to the girl. This was new information. In one of his mealy-mouthed press conferences Terry had not mentioned this.
‘I came back for Sarah even though he might kill me too.’ Excited by the interview, Danielle lost control of her facts. ‘Did you want to talk just to Lee and me?’ The lady would write in the newspaper that Lee was her boyfriend. ‘Lee came to my house when Sarah was dead and cried.’
‘I never.’ Lee was puce.
‘Nothing wrong with a few tears, big man. Your sister was dead.’ Lucie thrust the toffee bag at Lee. ‘Tell me all about Sarah. What was she like?’
‘She was funny!’ Kevin snuffled into a hand. ‘She said rude words.’
‘She did not.’ Lee shoved Kevin, making him choke on his toffee. Regarding him as a pet, Danielle pulled Kevin to her.
‘Good for her!’ Lucie did Lovely Aunty for her niece and nephew on high days and holidays and in pursuit of a scoop. However, even as a child she’d been wary of children. Unpredictable and self-serving, they emitted secretions and broke things. ‘We hate goody-two-shoes, don’t we?’
‘Yes!’ The group were in unison.
‘My mum used to say, “No one’s an angel except an angel.”’ Bloody silly. Lucie wondered again what her mum had meant.
‘Sarah wasn’t an angel, she was a tell-tale.’ Danielle felt emboldened to tell the truth.
‘She was not,’ Lee stormed.
‘She told your dad you’d let her go on the slide when he said not to in case she cracked her head open like Robbie and she did.’ Danielle heaved for breath. ‘And she made you buy her a charm with your paper round money.’
‘I didn’t mind.’ Lee got off the roundabout.
‘Keep it real, Lee.’ Lucie eased off a shoe and massaged a developing bunion. ‘My sister nicked my make-up, stole my fags but boy, was she was as innocent as the day is born if I was stupid enough to tell my mum. Angels are no fun.’
‘She did once tell on you, Lee. For letting her go on the slide,’ Nicola said. ‘And your dad hit you, I stopped your nose bleeding, remember?’
‘He’s not my dad.’ Lee rubbed his nose as he recalled the incident.
‘He liked Sarah best, but now she’s gone he’ll like you better,’ Danielle said.
‘He wants me to die,’ Lee said. ‘Sarah knew how to get her way with Alan. She’d ask for chocolate and he’d give it to her. And a Barbie.’ He looked across the concrete to where the tent covering Sarah’s body had been as if it was still there and his sister might emerge from it brushing herself down and saying how she’d fooled him.
‘Who gave her the charm bracelet?’ An item of jewellery, riddled with symbol and portent, the bracelet was a gift to a tabloid reporter.
‘Alan. She had a heart, a Mickey Mouse, a dog and letters spelling her name. And a telephone. I got her the angel saying “Best Sister”. The man from Abba stole the bracelet.’ Lee put a hand to his mouth as if this had just occurred.
Lucie thrust the recorder at Lee. ‘Do you mean Derek Parsley took it?’ Lucie was sure that a tramp called Derek Parsley would be charged with Sarah’s murder. She’d file the story after she’d finished with this lot. She was always ahead of the facts. Terry was no help.
‘Sarah found it.’ Danielle tossed a sweet wrapper away. Kevin retrieved it for putting in a bin later.
‘She didn’t or she’d have come home.’ Lee ran the zip on his Harrington jacket up and down. He was obliquely aware that talking to the reporter was wrong.
‘Sarah had on the bracelet when she was dead.’ Danielle spoke into the recording machine.
‘How do you know Sarah was wearing the charm bracelet, darling?’ Lucie ogled Danielle encouragingly.
‘Inspector Darnell told me,’ Danielle insisted. ‘With the Best Sister charm missing.’
‘Do you mean Sarah had the bracelet, but the lovely generous gift that Lee bought for his beloved baby sister wasn’t on the chain?’ Lucie often tried out phrases that later would flow so naturally from her keyboard.
‘Yes.’ Danielle was patient. Of course that was what she meant.
‘Fancy.’ Lucie lit a cigarette, juggling her lighter with the Dictaphone. Out of the mouths of babes.
‘Charms are expensive. They cost two pounds fifty.’ The sweets were eaten and Danielle was tiring. ‘The man from Abba murdered Sarah and he murdered Robbie.’
‘Are you two going out?’ Lucie aimed the recorder at Lee and Nicola. Her tactic was to embarrass the kids, put the cat among the pigeons and see what feathers flew.
‘No. They’re not!’ Danielle scoffed.
‘A bit.’ Lee reddened.
Nicola stood primly to attention.
‘Once, long ago, when I was your age I snogged my boyfriend in this very playground. My sister fell in that pond.’ Lucie waved towards the park. ‘Not my fault. My mum and dad should have been minding her, not me.’
Nicola perked up. ‘Lee wasn’t to blame for Sarah.’
‘Lee, tell you what, Mr Man. Give us your phone number and your mum’s man and me can have a little chat, how’s that?’
‘We’re not on the phone,’ Danielle said. ‘Dad didn’t pay the bill.’
‘Lee is on the phone.’ Nicola was proud by proxy. Then a moment of her old maternal self, ‘We have to go. Kev, your mum doesn’t know you’re here, she’ll be going spare. I’m not meant to be here either.’
‘I’ll come too,’ Lee said.
The three children headed for the gate.
‘It’s shit being dumped,’ Lucie said to Danielle as they watched Jason’s kamikaze launches off the slide.
‘I haven’t been dumped!’ Danielle retorted. ‘I dumped him.’ She star
ed at her boys’ boots.
‘Lee is a rescuer. He only feels sorry for Nicola. Who wants pity? The world’s divided between persecutors, rescuers and victims. And leaders like you, kiddo.’ Lucie emitted a ball of smoke. ‘Sarah was a tell-tale, was she?’
‘She got people into trouble.’
‘Who?’ Lucie tossed her stub away. It glowed in the dusk.
‘Sarah told her dad about Jason pissing on the swing. Alan hit Jason. My mum said she’d get my dad on Alan. But she didn’t because everyone’s scared of him and Dad was in prison.’ Danielle added, ‘Dad would have killed him dead.’
‘It must have made you cross, your little brother hurt and nothing done,’ Lucie crooned. ‘Did Sarah get you into trouble too?’
‘I’m not stupid.’ Danielle shouted at Jason that they were going. ‘He crushed her with a brick.’
‘Who crushed who, gorgeous?’ Lucie yawned, patting at her mouth as if bored.
‘Mr Parsley. The Abba Maniac.’ Danielle recalled a word from the newspapers.
‘You’re one smart cookie, Danielle.’ Lucie May produced a card. ‘If anything occurs here’s what you do, luvvy. Call me. From a phone box. Reverse the charges. Keep this to ourselves. No point worrying Inspector Darnell. He only wants facts.’ Lucie clicked off the recorder.
‘Will what I’ve said be on television?’ Danielle flicked the card over her fingers.
‘You’ll be famous.’ Lucie May lit another cigarette. She handed Danielle the bag of toffees. ‘Danielle Hindle, this is your life!’
Chapter Sixteen
2019
The rain had stopped by the time Stella pulled off the M40 onto a winding country lane. She passed a signpost for Winchcombe. Jack sat up when they reached the high street. Having offered to drive, he’d fallen asleep as soon as they hit the motorway.
On her trip to clean the crime scene, Stella hadn’t paid attention to her surroundings. Now she spotted changes. A building society had taken over the Lloyds bank and the post office was now a shop selling gems. There were two new clothes shops and a hairdresser’s instead of one of the butcher’s. The beauty parlour had gone. Thankfully, the Winchcombe deli was as busy as ever because she and Jack had planned on lunch there after interviewing Penelope Philips.
The Playground Murders Page 11
