Butterfly Grave (Murder Notebooks) (28 page)

She felt her throat go hard and tried to swallow a couple of times. She was near to tears so she turned and looked in the other direction towards Newcastle. It was the place where Skeggsie was brought up and now would never leave.

Joshua was staring out of the window towards the Angel. He didn’t look as if he was going to say anything. She closed her eyes and laid her head on the headrest.

She was tired.

The investigation into Skeggsie’s death was continuing.

Bob Skeggs had come round to see them a couple of evenings before. There had been some good news on the forensic front. Skeggsie had put up a fight. They had found skin and blood under his fingernails. It meant they had a DNA sample and although it hadn’t matched anything at the moment it would be on the database. On top of that some shop CCTV cameras further along Jesmond Road had picked up an image of a young man in a balaclava walking away from the scene round about eleven twenty. They’d also picked up an image of a woman with light-coloured hair walking her dog but Bob Skeggs had laughed this off.
It was one of those Jack Russell dogs
, he’d said.

It was too soon to talk about a funeral for Skeggsie, Bob had said, but as soon as it was set he would let them know. Bob had insisted again that Joshua use Skeggsie’s car and the flat until the end of the academic year. Then they would think again. When Bob got up to leave Joshua followed him out into the hall and she heard them talking for what seemed like a long while. When he came back in he looked tearful and turned the television on, the sound loud.

They’d talked about their parents and the Butterfly Murder but only ever for a short while. The conversation started well but quickly drifted into acrimony. Joshua had become defensive and said that they hadn’t heard the whole story, that they didn’t know all the facts. Rose sank into gloom. They knew one fact for sure. Their parents were involved in murder, assassination; whatever name they wanted to give it. It was not something that Rose could stomach.

There was a beep in the car.

‘New message,’ Joshua said, his voice breaking the quiet.

She looked over to see who the message was from. The name Bob Skeggs was there.

‘Why is Skeggsie’s dad texting you?’

‘I asked him to do something for me.’

‘What?’

‘I asked him to pull some strings and trace the origin of the text message I got from Dad and Kathy.’

Rose didn’t say anything. She stared at her hands.

‘It’s a difficult thing to do. It needs all sorts of warrants but Bob’s in a good position at the moment. A lot of people are feeling sorry for him and he can ask a few favours. So he asked someone he knows in the Drugs Squad to do it and they did.’

She wasn’t going to speak. She wasn’t going to be drawn into this any more. She was leaving the past behind. Joshua didn’t notice her silence and went on talking.

‘They can only triangulate an area that it might have come from. Here, he’s given me some postcodes . . .’

Joshua got Google Maps on his phone.

‘Look, somewhere between Wickby, Southwood and Hensham. That’s where the text came from.’

‘Why have you done this?’

‘I want to know where they are, Rose.’

Rose looked at the triangle on the map. Three small villages in Essex.

‘Dad sent the text from there. Doesn’t mean that’s where they are but that text was sent in a hurry. I’m guessing they’re somewhere in that area.’

‘Doing what? Waiting to kill someone?’

‘I don’t know. But whatever they’re doing I’m going to find them. I’m not going to give up. I have to go on. For Skeggsie’s sake.’

Joshua’s hand was on hers. She knew she would support him whatever he wanted to do but in her heart she didn’t want to get involved. Not now that she knew the truth.

‘Come on,’ he whispered. ‘let’s go and see the Angel, close up. The way Skeggsie wanted.’

They got out of the car and walked towards the Angel, its arms out as if welcoming them.

Also by Anne Cassidy

Dead Time

Killing Rachel

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney

First published in Great Britain in November 2013 by

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

This electronic edition published in November 2013 by

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

The moral right of the author has been asserted