Murder Undeniable Read online

  He showered, changed into shorts and a T-shirt, then went downstairs to join his wife. She was awake.

  ‘Isn’t it lovely,’ she said. ‘The sound of that water, just perfect.’

  ‘It’s beautiful. Are you going out tonight, or do I get you all to myself?’

  She laughed. ‘Young Wives group, but I’ll be back for half past eight. Then I’m all yours.’

  ‘Good. It’s been a rotten day. And how are you? Fully sober now?’

  ‘I’m fine. A murder tends to do that, wipes out the alcohol.’

  ‘I have a meeting tomorrow in London.’ He broached the subject with caution. ‘Would you like to go with me?’

  ‘I can’t. I have a meeting tomorrow as well. Nothing as glamorous as London, mine’s in Nottingham. Are you staying overnight?’

  ‘I think so. If it finishes early I’ll head home, but if it’s late I’ll stay. I’ll let you know when I ring you.’

  She nodded. ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I’ve to be in Nottingham for about half past nine, ready for a ten o’clock meeting, but hopefully it will all be over for midday. Ring any time after that.’

  He kissed her. ‘Okay. Now, are we eating before you go to Young Wives, or after?’

  ‘I’m not hungry. Seeing Mr Jackson…’

  ‘I know. I don’t know what to say to help you. It was bad.’

  ‘I’ll maybe have a sandwich when I come back in.’

  ‘Then I’ll wait for you, do something for us. Then bed.’

  ‘Oh, yes please.’ She smiled.

  ‘Hussy,’ he responded. ‘I meant we’ve both got an early start tomorrow, so needed an early bedtime. Mind you, your idea was better than mine…’

  ‘Kiss me.’ She held out her arms.

  He willingly obliged.

  Kat left home an hour later than her husband. She rang the hospital first to see how Bethan Walters was, and this time got a grudging, ‘She had a comfortable night.’ She wondered if Beth herself would have echoed that.

  Driving to Nottingham gave her time to reflect on the happenings of the previous day and she wondered what on earth had been so bad that one person had died, and the other one was critically injured.

  She switched off the windscreen wipers as the rain seemed to have stopped, although she hoped her action wasn’t temporary. Sunshine had been promised, and she was damned if she was going to settle for a murky grey day.

  By the time she reached the hotel where the meeting was to take place, the sun had come out, and she was deeply regretting not bringing her sunglasses.

  Throughout the entirety of the meeting, she struggled to follow what the speakers were saying. Sometimes her own small church seemed far distant from the bigger churches and cathedrals in the area, and she found many discussions to be irrelevant. Half way in, she decided she wasn’t going straight home, she was going to the Northern General. She would brave the intricacies of Sheffield city centre, its ring road, and multiple incomprehensible roundabouts, and go find Bethan Walters.

  The journey was as bad as she had feared, and when she finally reached the hospital, she had to drive around for half an hour trying to find a parking spot. By the time she reached the critical care ward, she was ready to deck anyone who said one word wrong to her.

  There was a young officer sitting on a chair outside the room. He stood as she approached. ‘Can I have your name please?’

  ‘Reverend Katerina Rowe.’ She touched her clerical collar for extra emphasis, ready for an argument.

  ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ he said, and held the door open for her.

  She felt quite deflated.

  Bethan Walters was connected to several drips, her eyes closed, and a tube to help her breathing feeding like a snake down her throat. Her face was bruised quite spectacularly, but Kat rejoiced. It meant she had survived thus far.

  Kat waited patiently; Bethan was having her blood pressure and temperature checked. The nurse finished and smiled at Kat.

  ‘Prayers will help,’ she said, and moved the blood pressure machine out of the way, allowing Kat to sit on a chair by the bed.

  Beth had a bandage around her head, indicative of trauma to some degree, and scratches and dark blue bruising to her face. With the blood cleaned off, Kat could see how pretty the young woman was.

  It was an automatic reaction to ask God for his help; Beth clearly needed it. Kat sat for two hours, holding Beth’s hand, occasionally talking to her, telling her she was the woman who had found her, and her name was Kat. There was no response, and Kat knew she would be back every day until there was some recognition.

  The doctor arrived, and despite Kat’s questions, could tell her very little. They had operated on her head because she had a blood clot, and now it was a matter of waiting. They were sedating her, but when they stopped doing that it could be some time before she came out of the coma. Her injuries were severe, but she was in the best place.

  Kat thanked him, and just before five, left to go home. She stood in the doorway and stared back at the still figure in the bed. ‘Sleep tight, Beth,’ Kat whispered. ‘And God bless.’

  She said goodnight to the constable, who said it would be someone different on the following day, so she needed her white collar again. She laughed. ‘Thank you, I’ll try to remember it.’

  Leon rang as she was driving home, grumbling about the pharmaceutical business in general, and he was thinking of going into building a theme park because it would be much more fun.

  She laughed. ‘I’m sure it would. You’re just pissed off because you can’t get home tonight, and it’s probably been a boring meeting.’

  ‘It was about three new drugs that are coming out, all aimed at diabetes. They seem to be pretty powerful too, if the patter is anything to go by.’

  ‘You’ll be glad they’re on the market if you ever get diabetes. Some drugs are good drugs, you know.’

  ‘I know,’ he grumbled. ‘I just didn’t think it would take all day. I thought we could…’

  ‘We did, last night.’

  ‘We can’t do it two nights running? What are you saying, woman? Am I rationed?’

  She giggled. ‘You’ll never know, will you. You’re not coming home.’

  She heard someone call his name, and he said he had to go. He was sharing a taxi to his hotel.

  ‘Speak to you tomorrow. Love you,’ she said, and disconnected.

  It was only then that she realised she hadn’t told him she had been to see Beth. Kat shrugged; maybe it was for the best.

  It was quiet in the house. Katerina didn’t bother sitting out in the garden; the promised sunshine hadn’t warmed things up much, so she settled on the sofa with a book. She loved crime books that were solved by forensic evidence, and tonight she had decided Patricia Cornwell was the author to be reading.

  Leon rang Katerina to say goodnight, sounding ever so slightly tipsy, and made her promise to double check the doors and windows were all secure before going to bed.

  ‘I’m not afraid of being on my own,’ she laughed. ‘It’s never bothered me. Now go to bed, and make sure your own door’s locked. See you tomorrow, sweetheart.’

  She switched on the late-night news, and caught the beginning of the local section. Leon’s shop was clearly visible as the camera panned along the front of it, and then down the alleyway.

  The presenter was asking for information, saying the police believed a taxi using false plates had brought the couple to the alleyway, before shooting the man. He then went on to say that the man lived in Eyam, although the woman’s address was being withheld pending notification to next of kin.

  Lived in Eyam? Katerina knew shock must be written on her face, and she closed her mouth with a snap.

  This was only a small village, and she didn’t know anyone by that name. She pulled her laptop towards her and entered “Anthony Jackson”. She found very little; nothing to do with an inadequate search engine, a broken-down Internet, Google not understanding what she was asking
, it was simply that Kat didn’t do technology.

  She could type her sermons, save them, and print them. Anything beyond that would never happen.

  It was frustrating, but she would have to wait for Leon’s return, and ask him to show her, once again, how to make it work for her.

  She closed it down – she knew how to do that – and carried it back to the bookshelf. One day, she promised herself, as she did at least three times a week, one day I will take a computer course. I’ll get a certificate that will prove I’m not as thick as I appear to be.

  If computers could smile, her laptop would have done so.

  She set the house alarm and went to bed.

  Chapter 5

  Kat was at the hospital by ten. She settled by the side of the still-comatose Beth. The nurse confirmed that Beth was holding her own, no better but no worse, and they were hopeful.

  Just after eleven, an elderly lady was escorted into the room. She took one look at Kat with her white collar clearly visible, and her face drained of colour.

  ‘Oh my god,’ she said. ‘Mouse, is she…?’ She staggered as she tried to rush to Beth’s bedside.

  The nurse accompanying her reassured her. ‘No, Mrs Lester. This lady is the one who found your granddaughter. This is Reverend Rowe.’

  Kat stood and led the older woman to the chair. ‘Please – sit down. There’s been no change since I arrived about an hour ago. I’ve just been sitting and talking to her. I don’t know whether she can hear or not, but they always say keep talking to people in a coma, so that’s what we can do.’

  Doris Lester reached across the bed and grasped Beth’s hand. ‘Oh, Mouse, sweetheart. What has he done to you?’ She lifted her head to look at Kat. ‘I’ve only just found out. I’ve been at my sister’s house for a couple of days but had to come home early this morning for a doctor’s appointment. There was a police car outside waiting for me.’

  Kat reached across and held her hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Lester. I’ve been praying…’

  ‘Will she live?’

  ‘They keep telling me she’s holding her own, whatever that might mean. She’s sedated, so won’t be waking up until they can reduce what they’re giving her. But I’ll leave you with her. I’d like to keep dropping by if that’s okay.’

  ‘Of course.’ Doris stared at her granddaughter. ‘Look at her lovely face.’

  ‘The bruises and scratches will heal,’ Kat said gently. ‘Here’s my card. Ring me if you need me. Any time. You called her Mouse…?’

  ‘She was tiny when she was born, about six weeks early. She looked like a little mouse, and we all took to calling her Mouse. It’s stuck within the family, all her life. I call her Bethan when I tell her off.’

  ‘That’s lovely,’ Kat smiled. ‘You must love her very much.’

  The elderly lady nodded, took the card, slipped it into her bag, and turned back to the bed. ‘More than life itself,’ she said. ‘More than life itself.’

  Kat slipped out and headed to her car. She drove slowly, deep in thought. It wouldn’t be quite so easy once Leon was back home, and she knew her continued interest in Beth Walters would cause dissent between the two of them, but she had to continue to visit the desperately ill woman.

  And it wasn’t about it being part of her job, it wasn’t about her being the one to be the first to help Beth, it wasn’t about praying for her; it was a compulsion born of heaven knows what. She had to be there for her, and nobody was going to stop that.

  Later that evening, she spoke at length with Leon. She told him about her hospital visits, about the unconscious woman’s grandmother, she even told him about driving around and around the hospital grounds, desperately searching for a parking space.

  He listened to it all, then sighed. ‘You worry me, Katerina Rowe. Do you know this woman, this Bethan Walters?’

  ‘Beth. Mouse.’

  ‘Okay, Beth. Mouse? What’s that about, and why have you taken it upon yourself to champion her?’

  ‘She’s badly injured, Leon. But I’m convinced she’ll get better. And Mouse is what her family calls her. It’s kind of nice, shows she’s loved. I think Beth and Anthony must have been in that taxi they’ve caught on CCTV, thinking they were being driven to his house. Do you know where he lives?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘He lives in Eyam. According to the news, anyway. I don’t know where, so he’s not a churchgoer. You told the police you knew him. So do you know where his house is?’

  ‘No idea. I don’t really know him. I just know he’s got a bit of a reputation for some not quite legal deals, and they’re only rumours. I’ve never been in his company socially, he’s kind of the opposition, if you like.’

  ‘I tried to look him up on my laptop.’

  ‘And?’ He grinned as if he knew what was coming.

  ‘I think I broke the Internet.’

  ‘You can’t break the Internet.’

  ‘It didn’t tell me anything. I assumed I’d broken something. I must learn this, Leon. I can’t be so monumentally stupid.’

  This time he laughed aloud. ‘You’re not stupid, look at the exams and qualifications you have, the degree you have. You’re more than capable of cracking this. You just don’t have the confidence to believe you can do it. You must listen to me. You cannot break anything. Well, you could if you threw the laptop out the window in temper, but there’ll be no need for that. Come on, let’s have a look. See if we can find where he lives. Lived.’

  She opened the laptop, and he told her to type in Jackson’s name. Leon then took her through several avenues that would lead her to the information she needed and revealed that Anthony Jackson had lived at the opposite end of Eyam to their own place, in a house situated in the middle of a field with an Eyam postal address, but nearer to the tiny hamlet of Bretton.

  Kat looked at it pensively. ‘So, they must have entered Eyam from our end, driven through the centre of the village, and to that alleyway. He killed him, knocked her unconscious, and disappeared. Wonder if he went back the same way. Or did he head out towards the Jackson house anyway? I feel as if I need to know this.’

  ‘Why?’ Leon frowned.

  ‘I have no idea, but there’s something so wrong about this whole thing, don’t you think? I mean, this is a small village, nothing’s happened here since the plague in 1666, and now we have a major police presence in the village, the alleyway is closed off and you can’t access your shop’s back door… Aren’t you concerned? You can’t even open the shop yet.’

  ‘Of course I am, but not that concerned I want to track down this taxi driver. Who I suspect isn’t a taxi driver, by the way. Taxi drivers don’t tend to go around shooting their passengers.’

  ‘But people don’t have random black cabs, do they? Just on the off chance it might be needed for a crime one day. I could have understood more if it had been a car, but the cab had to have come from a genuine cab company. We need to find out which one.’

  ‘What? We don’t need to find out anything!’

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘Guess I got carried away.’

  Leon stared at her. ‘Promise me you’ll drop it, Kat. Don’t go causing trouble. I don’t want you ending up like this woman, this Beth.’

  Her fingers were crossed as she said, ‘I promise.’

  ‘We’re going to reduce her sedation today, see if she can come out of her coma on her own,’ the nurse said quietly. ‘The doctor is hopeful. She’s young, fit, everything’s on her side, so we’ll monitor her until there’s a change, and see what happens.’

  ‘Does her nan know?’

  ‘She does now. She’d gone home by the time the doctor took the decision last night, but I rang her earlier. She’s on her way in.’

  Kat nodded. That was good, Beth would need her nan there, when her eyes eventually opened.

  Kat moved to sit by the bed, making sure there was a chair for Mrs Lester when she arrived, and took hold of Beth’s hand.

  ‘Hi, Beth,
it’s me again. Kat. May the Lord bless you.’ She shuffled her chair a little closer, and grasped the cold hand again. She rubbed it between her own hands, trying to warm Beth.

  ‘You need gloves on, Beth, your hands are cold. It’s beautiful outside, lovely sunny weather. Your nan will be here shortly, so I won’t be staying long today, I’ll leave you with her. They’re reducing your sedation so hopefully we’ll meet properly soon.’

  Kat felt a squeeze on her fingers and she gasped.

  She turned around to the nurse. ‘She squeezed my hand!’

  The nurse moved across to the bed, and Kat got out of the way, almost falling over the chair leg in her panic to give the nurse the room she needed.

  ‘Bethan. Can you hear me, sweetheart? Squeeze my fingers if you can.’

  Kat saw the slim fingers move slightly, and the nurse raised Beth’s eyelids and shone a light into them. The nurse reached across the back of the bed and pressed a bell. A doctor was there within seconds.

  ‘It seems she’s coming round, doctor,’ the nurse said.

  He repeated her actions with his torch, and smiled. ‘Okay, Bethan. You seem to be waking up. It may take a while, but there will be someone here monitoring you.’ He turned to the nurse. ‘When she surfaces properly, press the bell. I’m just down the corridor doing some paperwork. Can we have a blood pressure and temperature check done right now please?’

  The nurse nodded, and wheeled the machine across the room. Kat waited to one side while the professionals dealt with Beth.

  Doris Lester came through the door like a whirlwind. ‘Is she…?’

  Kat laughed. ‘She’s certainly surfacing, Mrs Lester, but it’s going to take some time. Would you like me to get out of your way?’

  ‘No, I would not,’ the elderly lady declared. ‘You’ve been here for Mouse every day, stay as long as you want.’