Authors: M A Comley
Tags: #police procedural, #police, #detective, #british detective, #Thriller, #Crime, #murder, #Suspense, #rape
“No. I froze on the spot. Mark
came home a little while later. He dealt with her then. Called for
the ambulance, took control of the situation.”
“I can’t imagine how you must
have felt, seeing your daughter-in-law’s life in the balance like
that.”
“It was truly awful. I was at a
loss what to do. I was so thankful when Mark came home and relieved
me of the responsibility.”
“How is Samantha?”
“She keeps asking for Kathy,
which is understandable.”
“Mark told us they were very
close.”
“Since her real mother died,
Samantha has clung to Kathy as if she were her own flesh and
blood.”
“I hear that you’ve been
helping out the family, too, looking after Samantha while Kathy and
Mark were at work.”
Yvette looked Sally in the eye
and nodded. “It’s what close families do, isn’t it, Inspector?
Watch out for each other.”
“Not always. And you got on
well with Kathy?”
“Of course. She was a lovely
girl. Anyone who takes on a grieving man and his active
five-year-old daughter must be a very special person indeed,
wouldn’t you say?”
“I would. What a shame she has
been snatched from the bosom of this family, especially as she was
loved by you all. How on earth is Samantha going to cope now?
Losing two ‘mothers’ within six months of each other?”
“She’ll cope. I’ll ensure that
happens. Don’t you worry,” Yvette snapped, as if Sally had
questioned the family’s ability to care for the grieving child.
“I’m sorry. It was merely a
question. It wasn’t meant to cast any aspersions as to anyone’s
inabilities to combat the stressful situation.”
“We’ll cope. We’re a close-knit
family who has overcome far more than this over the years and come
out the other side unscathed.”
“Glad to hear it. When you’re
feeling up to it, I’d like you to make a statement. Is that
okay?”
“Yes, can you leave it a few
days? Let me get over the shock of losing Kathy.”
“Of course. One last question
before we wrap this up. How was Mark and Kathy’s relationship?
Sorry, how long have they been married?”
“One month to the day. They
were newlyweds; how do you think their relationship was?” she
retorted harshly, almost as if Sally had asked an insulting
question, which couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
“How terrible. Now your son has
to go through the grieving process all over again.”
“He’ll do it. He has a very
strong resolve, Inspector.”
“Tell me, as a matter of
interest, have you seen much of Colin lately?”
She gasped. “Colin? You think
he did this?”
“Whoa, no, I said nothing of
the sort. Only six months ago, I turned up here and had to separate
the fighting brothers. I was just enquiring, in a roundabout way,
if the brothers had made amends with each other after they fell
out.”
“I see. Yes, he came to the
wedding. We haven’t really seen anything of him since then. He was
very distant at the wedding. I think he and Leona are going through
a tough time right now.”
“Any reason why? The fertility
problems, maybe?” Sally suggested.
“In a way, yes. Leona found out
that Gemma was expecting Colin’s child, and she went
ballistic.”
“Did
someone
let that
fact slip intentionally?” Sally asked, with one eyebrow raised.
“Certainly not! At least I
don’t think so.”
“Are you going to tell me who
that someone was, Yvette?”
Her eyes narrowed as their
gazes met. “It was Kathy who let it slip. Are you suggesting that
you think Leona might have killed Kathy now?”
“The idea never even occurred
to me, but now you’ve mentioned it, it would be unwise for me to
ignore. We’ll definitely be broadening our nets because of the
information you have provided.”
“Is that all, Inspector? I’d
like to get back to caring for my distressed grandchild now.”
“Yes, that’s all. We’ll need
you to give us a statement in the next day or two, though.”
Yvette nodded, rose from the
table and left the room without saying another word.
Jack leaned closer and
whispered, “What is it with this family? Looks like everyone has
the knives out and is willing to embed them into each other’s
backs.”
“That’s an excellent
assessment, Jack. One that I fear is going to make our job very
difficult over the coming days or weeks.”
“What’s your initial take on
what you’ve heard so far?”
“Let’s discuss that when we
leave here,” Sally said, winking.
Mark returned to the kitchen as
Sally and Jack were tucking their chairs back under the table. “Are
you leaving now?”
“Yes, we’re going to head over
to Kathy’s parents. Before we go, something is puzzling me,
Mark.”
His brow furrowed. “What’s
that, Inspector?”
“The fact you married so soon
after losing Gemma.”
He shrugged. “Because I was
lonely, I guess.”
“Did you love Kathy?”
His eyes widened. “Of course I
loved Kathy. I hope you find the person who killed her soon.”
“I have a feeling we will this
time, Mr. Whiting. We’ll be in the area for the next few days,
conducting house-to-house enquiries with your neighbours.”
“You say that as though I
should be worried about what you obtain from my neighbours.”
“Not at all. Just informing you
of what is going to take place within your area. We’ll be in touch
soon. In the meantime, if you can compile a list of what you think
the burglar took, we’d appreciate it.”
“I’ve had a quick look around
and couldn’t see that anything is missing. Maybe Kathy disturbed
the burglar before he had a chance to get his hands on any of our
possessions.”
Sally nodded, and Mark led them
into the lounge. The scene was sickening, even to Sally. Blood
covered every surface from the walls to the ceiling. There wasn’t a
clean surface in sight. Mark showed them out of the house. Walking
back up the drive, Jack muttered, “Yeah, and maybe there wasn’t a
burglar after all, mate.”
“I think you’ve got it in one,
partner. The problem we have now is proving or disproving that
theory,” Sally agreed in a hushed voice as she looked back at the
house. Mark was standing on the threshold, hands deep in his
pockets, watching them.
Sally parked the car in Kathy’s
parents’ drive in a quiet cul-de-sac ten minutes’ drive from the
Whitings’ home. A woman with curly silver hair opened the front
door to them. “Hello, Mrs. Cleeves? I’m DI Sally Parker, and this
is my partner, DS Jack Blackman. May we speak to you for a moment
about your daughter, Kathy?”
She heaved a large sigh and
nodded. “Come in.”
They followed her through the
house to a country-style kitchen at the rear of the property, where
a man of similar age was sitting, wringing his hands, at the
table.
“It’s the police, Dave,” Mrs.
Cleeves explained.
“What happened? How did my
daughter lose her life last night?”
“Is it all right if we sit
down?” Sally asked.
The couple nodded, and Sally
and Jack settled into two of the pine chairs around the matching
table.
“I’m sorry, but at this early
stage, I can’t really answer that, Mr. Cleeves. Did you go to the
hospital last night?”
“Yes. That idiot son-in-law of
mine rang us a few hours after Kathy was taken to hospital.”
“Now, Dave, that’s not fair. He
must have been worried sick and not thinking straight. We must be
thankful that he rang us at all, in the circumstances,” Mrs.
Cleeves stated compassionately.
Her husband huffed a breath in
response and shook his head.
“I wondered if you could give
me a little background information about Kathy. What I mean is, I
know that she and Mark haven’t been married long, but do you think
a spurned ex-partner is capable of doing this to Kathy?” Sally
asked tentatively.
“But we were told that a
burglar broke into the house and attacked our daughter. Are you
telling us that was a blatant lie, Inspector?” Mrs. Cleeves
asked.
“No. We’ve yet to confirm that.
I was merely covering all angles from the outset rather than
discover the information a few weeks further down the line.”
“I see. In that case, no. Our
daughter has never really parted with any of her former partners on
bad terms. We still can’t believe that we’ll never see her
beautiful smile and experience her zest for life again. And after
what we’ve just been through with her brother, too.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss.
Mark told us about you losing Kathy’s brother recently. I hope
we’ll be able to share some positive news about the enquiry with
you soon. Are you comfortable answering these questions now?” Sally
asked.
“There’s little else we can do.
As next of kin, the funeral arrangements, when the time comes to
make them, will be down to Mark to carry out,” Mr. Cleeves
said.
“I’m sure he’ll be grateful for
your input,” Sally replied, wondering if there was a message buried
in his statement. “Do you and Mark get along?”
Both of Kathy’s parents
nodded.
“And as far as you know, their
marriage was a happy one?”
Mrs. Cleeves nodded vehemently.
“Yes, they loved and cared for each other very deeply. I know they
had a whirlwind romance and tied the knot within a few months of
meeting each other, but they were true soulmates. Kathy loved
Samantha as if she were her own. She knew from day one how much
Mark thought of his daughter. It was never an issue between them.
In fact, she told me only the other day that she intended to go
part-time at work so she could care for Samantha properly after
school, to help relieve the pressure on Yvette, Mark’s mother.”
“That’s very admirable. A very
inopportune moment for this incident to happen for all concerned
then.”
Mrs. Cleeves started to sob.
Her husband placed a gentle arm around his wife’s shoulders and
hugged her to his chest. “There, there, love. Let it all out.”
Sally watched the touching
scene until finally Mrs. Cleeves sat upright and blew her nose on a
hanky that she’d produced from the sleeve of her jumper.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying hard not
to break down all the time. The thought of never seeing my daughter
or my grandchild just becomes unbearable and starts me off
again.”
Sally reached across the table
and patted the woman’s hand. “I’m sure Mark won’t prevent you from
seeing Samantha in the future.”
Mrs. Cleeves gasped, trying to
catch her breath, as fresh tears trickled down her cheeks. “I know
we’ll still stay in touch with Samantha. But we’ll never have the
opportunity to say hello or cuddle our own grandchild now that
Kathy has gone.”
Sally turned to face Jack. He
appeared as puzzled as she was by Mrs. Cleeves’s statement. “Mrs.
Cleeves, are you saying what I think you’re saying… that Kathy was
pregnant?”
“Yes, about four weeks. She
told me the same time she mentioned that she was going part-time.
So you see, we’ve not only been robbed of our beautiful daughter
but also our darling grandchild.”
Sally felt her heart miss
several beats. She shook her head. “How devastating for you both. I
was unaware of that fact. I really don’t know what to say. Words
don’t seem appropriate in the circumstances. Look, why don’t we
leave this for now. Give you time to grieve and take stock of the
situation.”
Mr. Cleeves stood up. “Maybe
that would be for the best, Inspector. Thank you for your
consideration at this sorrowful time for us.”
Sally and Jack smiled at Mrs.
Cleeves and retraced their steps through the house, with Mr.
Cleeves leading the way. “I appreciate you seeing us, Mr. Cleeves.
Here’s my card. Feel free to contact me night or day, should the
need arise.”
He took it and placed the card
on the hall table close to the front door. “Thank you. Sorry we
couldn’t be more helpful.”
“There’s no need to apologise.
Thank you for your time. We’ll be in touch soon.”
Sally heard the door close
behind her and upped her pace to reach the car.
In the car, Jack let out a long
whistle. “Wow! Coincidence or what?”
“Too much of a bloody
coincidence for us to ignore, that’s for sure. I’m going to have to
run this past the chief when we get back. I think we’ve got enough
to arrest Mark Whiting now, don’t you?”
“Either him or someone else in
the family who wasn’t happy to hear that snippet of news.”
Sally sharply turned to look at
him. “Come on, let’s hear it. Who do you think did it?”
“Take your pick. The husband,
the brother-in-law, even the sister-in-law comes into the equation
for me after hearing about the pregnancy.”
“Really? Leona? Now that’s one
person I hadn’t even thought about. Let’s get back to the station
and start thrashing things out before I bring the chief in on this.
You’ve certainly got the cogs turning with that notion, Jack.”
Sally pointed to her forehead with one hand and started the engine
with the other.
Walking through the doors to
the incident room, Sally clapped to gain the team’s attention.
“Gather around, people. Some interesting information has come our
way that we’d like to share and tear apart.”
The team shuffled their chairs
into position and either sat forward in the seats or armed
themselves with their notebooks, ready to listen.
Sally and Jack stood on either
side of the whiteboard. Jack noted down the details as Sally
spoke.
“So, we turned up at Mark
Whiting’s house to find him, his mother, and his daughter all
looking pretty shaken up by what had happened to Mark’s new wife
Kathy. The scene of the crime was like a clip from a horror movie.
The girl never really stood a chance.”
“Are you still putting this
down to a burglary gone wrong, boss?” Joanna asked, tilting her
head and raising a questioning eyebrow.