A Cut for a Cut (Detective Kate Young) Read online

  ‘I’d like to come and see you. We can talk things through.’

  ‘You don’t believe it either, do you? Can you find out what really happened to him?’

  ‘I don’t know—’

  ‘But he wouldn’t take his own life. He wouldn’t!’

  ‘We can discuss this later.’

  ‘Yeah. Okay. When?’

  ‘I can’t say exactly what time. As soon as I can get away.’

  ‘Fine. I’ll be here.’

  ‘See you later.’

  There was a hiss of steam from the coffee machine and foam erupted over the sides of the paper cup; spume like bubbling lava oozed down the sides. She cursed, snatched up the cup and wiped down the sides with a thin serviette before ramming on a lid. She placed another cup in position, pressed the espresso button and, while it filled, grabbed a selection of chocolate bars off the shelves by the window. From there, she observed Morgan shaking the last drops of petrol from the nozzle before returning the dispenser to its position. She beetled back to the coffee machine to collect the coffees and settled the bill. For the time being, she set aside thoughts of Sierra and Cooper and hastened back to join Morgan.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Kate drained the cup of cold coffee she’d purchased at the petrol station, and cast about the office.

  ‘Right, folks, what have we got?’

  Emma was quick to respond. ‘Deepa Singh rang us. She’s given some thought about what happened yesterday and not only did Heather check her mobile several times prior to leaving, as if expecting a message, she also headed to the washroom before she left and reapplied lipstick. Deepa didn’t think much of it at the time, but now wonders if Heather had arranged a meeting with somebody.’

  ‘Boyfriend?’

  ‘If so, Heather didn’t mention him.’

  Kate nodded. It deserved looking into. Emma continued.

  ‘As far as she knew, Heather had no dealings with Tomkins Solicitors or Christian and there were no open cases that might indicate any connection between the two victims. At the time of Laura’s shoplifting incident, Heather was working on a different case. She didn’t recognise the pay-as-you-go number, but she did give me a possible lead. In July, Heather was assigned a case involving a local man who’d been threatening his ex-boss. She found evidence on CCTV he’d been on the premises around the time of an arson attack. I think she had some trouble with him and was going to look into it.’

  ‘Okay. Good work. Any idea when we’ll be able to get our hands on Heather’s computer?’

  ‘It’s being sent to the techies. The big cheese wouldn’t let it come directly to us.’ The big cheese, in this case, was Dickson.

  ‘Were you given any reason as to why it had to go to the lab?’

  ‘Something about not wanting crossover of information.’

  Kate didn’t understand the logic. She wasn’t interested in every case Heather had been investigating, only if she’d contacted either Laura, Kevin or even Christian. The fact that Dickson appeared to be making life as difficult as possible for her, even though he’d demanded results, only served to make her further suspect his motives. Was he deliberately setting her up for a fall so he could have her demoted or transferred, out of his life? She’d tackle him face to face about it at the earliest opportunity.

  Bloody Dickson.

  She tried not to let her irritation show. ‘Any fresh thoughts or information?’

  Jamie slumped in his seat, stared at the half-eaten bar of fruit and nut chocolate in his hand. ‘I can’t get hold of any of Christian’s workmates. No idea where the hell they all are, but none of them are answering their phones.’

  ‘Maybe they turn them off on Sundays to spend quality time with their families,’ said Emma.

  Jamie made a harrumphing sound. ‘Quality time with families. That would be nice.’

  Kate let him gripe. He’d been expecting to spend the day with his pregnant wife and kid. That was the problem with the job – it ate into weekends and encroached on family life. At least she and Chris had been able to work around their anti-social work hours and snatch some time together. ‘Try them again tomorrow when they’re back behind their desks. Emma, have you uncovered anything that might give us a clue as to who owns that pay-as-you-go phone used to contact Heather?’

  Emma shook her head. ‘She used WhatsApp messaging so we’re stuffed for the time being until the tech team can help us out.’

  ‘There must be some other way of finding out what was going on. Heather was clearly involved with somebody – lipstick, meeting and a pay-as-you-go phone,’ said Morgan.

  ‘I think the phone belongs to a married bloke,’ said Jamie. ‘That would explain why he’s using a burner. Doesn’t want his missus to find out. It could even be Christian.’

  ‘She needn’t have been seeing a man,’ said Emma. ‘Laura was involved with Ilsa.’

  Jamie’s brows drew together. ‘You think Heather was seeing Ilsa too?’

  ‘No, I didn’t mean that,’ Emma said. ‘Simply saying it’s possible Heather wasn’t necessarily seeing a man.’

  Kate didn’t add to the speculation. The only way to establish the truth was through facts and evidence. She broke in with ‘Whoever it is, we still need to identify them. Jamie, what about CCTV footage?’

  ‘I came across the same problem as Emma. Couldn’t get anyone to look into it yet. The tech team is always short-staffed on a Sunday.’

  ‘Okay. What about the gyms and clubs? Did you check to see if either of them had joined one?’

  ‘I did, and the answer is no. Heather didn’t have any memberships to any local gyms in Stafford or Longdon, where she lives, but she was into horse riding. She has a horse stabled nearby at Blackfields.’

  ‘Right. Thanks, Jamie. What about Laura’s phone records? Did they reveal any contact with Christian?’

  Emma answered. ‘There were only a couple of brief calls and a message to do with a meet-up with them all, sent late August. Nothing afterwards.’

  ‘Was there no other unusual activity on her phone?’

  ‘Nothing I could spot. I emailed a copy to Felicity and asked if she could spare a few minutes to check it over.’

  Felicity Jolly was head of the technical department, a fifty-seven-year-old gamer with a wicked sense of humour and a passion for technology. Kate always felt comfortable around Felicity, but the technician rarely socialised, other than with her partner, Bev, so Kate only saw her at work. She fumbled with her cup, picking at the cardboard edges, ripping it away. They had so little to go on and so much to prove. She was clutching at straws with an idea that had begun percolating after leaving the petrol station. ‘How much do we know about Richard Dean’s partner, Steve Rushmore? Have we done any background checks on him?’

  Morgan grunted. ‘No, but I suppose we should. There was some animosity between him and Laura.’

  ‘Shall I leave that with you?’

  ‘Yep. On it.’

  An email alert sounded on Emma’s computer and she glanced at the subject title. ‘The pathologist’s report for Laura is in.’

  ‘At last. I’ll take a look at it,’ said Kate. She abandoned her frayed cup and shifted into position behind her own monitor. ‘It’s a bastard we haven’t a damn thing to link Laura and Heather to either Christian or Kevin.’

  ‘Or to Ilsa,’ said Jamie. He pointed his chocolate bar at Kate. ‘We haven’t seriously considered that possibility either. Want me to dive in and check it out?’

  ‘Go ahead.’ She opened the attachment and read the report, heart sinking as she did so. The attack had been more brutal than they’d imagined with Laura sustaining serious internal injuries. The vagus strike hadn’t killed her, merely knocked her out, and she’d regained consciousness during the rape and the ordeal of having letters cut into her flesh, before being strangled to death. Harvey hadn’t been able to identify what had been used to cut her, only that it appeared to be a thin sharp blade, possibly belonging to a knife or even a
thin-headed screwdriver. Kate closed her eyes. The poor girl must have been terrified. Tilly’s face danced before her shut lids. At least her stepsister’s life had been spared. Laura’s fate had been sealed from the start.

  By five thirty, Kate decided to leave them to it. She needed to speak to Sierra, and the team could manage without her. With instructions to ring her should they unearth anything significant, she headed to Uttoxeter.

  Driving the familiar route to a town where she’d once lived conjured up further memories of Tilly and Daniel. It was late, but she wanted to visit her stepsister after her meeting with Sierra. Tilly had offered an olive branch and they needed some time together, even if it was only a snatched hour. Kate couldn’t let Tilly go back without making an effort to rekindle what they’d once had. She dialled Tilly’s number and was greeted with a cheerful ‘Kate! I didn’t expect to hear from you. How’s the investigation?’

  ‘Not going brilliantly.’

  ‘That’s a shame. I expect that means we won’t make the theme park for a few days.’

  She could hear Daniel asking if it was Auntie Kate on the phone. Her heart melted. ‘I’ll try to juggle my schedule so we manage a couple of hours or even half a day together.’

  ‘That would be wonderful.’

  ‘I can drop by for a quick drink in an hour or so, if you like.’

  ‘I’d love that. Have you eaten?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘I’ll order takeaway pizzas.’

  ‘Won’t it be too late?’

  ‘Not at all. Daniel, would you like pizza for supper?’

  She heard a cheer in the background. ‘I’ve got to interview somebody in Uttoxeter before I can come to you. I’ll give you a quick call when I set off.’

  ‘Super. See you in a while.’

  The market town of Uttoxeter, rich in history and famed for its racecourse, had always felt a little too sleepy to Kate. In spite of all the redevelopment that had taken place since she’d left, it still maintained a uniqueness, a hint of a bygone era, evident in the proliferation of buildings, domestic architecture and layout. Streets and alleyways led to the historic Market Place, site of a war memorial and a monument to Samuel Johnson, who’d paid penance by standing bare-headed in the pouring rain here for refusing to man his sick father’s book stall.

  Kate wasn’t interested in the past. Her father, however, had been and, whenever he’d accompanied his daughter out and about, had insisted on providing an interesting fact about the place. This was the only one she could recall.

  She circumnavigated the pedestrianised centre of town, passing a supermarket that stood on land which had, when she’d lived there, belonged to the weekly livestock market, drawing in farmers from all over the county. Sierra’s home was one of the numerous houses built on this vast area. Kate found a vacant spot on the roadside, parked up and headed on foot to number 112, a very different abode to the one Sierra had shared with her father, prior to his prison sentence. This was a simple plain-fronted terrace house with a tiny front garden and blinds at the windows. It had nothing to make it stand out from the others, which, Kate mused, was probably why Sierra had chosen it.

  Although she’d spoken to Sierra on the phone, she hadn’t seen her in several months and was shocked to see the pinch-cheeked twenty-year-old with dark trenches under her eyes who opened the door. Her voice was a mere whisper. ‘Thanks for coming.’

  Kate followed her into a kitchen where a cat was curled asleep on one of the two blue wooden chairs under the table, furniture that hadn’t come out of their old house. This place was ultra-modern with the new construction smell, a combination of the entire mixture of chemicals, volatile organic compounds, evaporating from new paints, sealants, flooring, wood and the other building materials used in the construction of the place. There was nothing here Kate recalled seeing in their home in Abbots Bromley; even the mugs on a rack appeared to have been recently purchased. She assumed everything had been left behind, along with the bad memories associated with the place.

  Sierra offered Kate a drink. ‘No, thanks, I’ve already overdosed on caffeine today. I wanted to see how you were doing?’

  ‘Pretty shit, really. I’d accepted Dad was going to be away for a while, but for this to happen!’ Cooper being sent to prison had taken its toll on his daughter. Yet Kate saw the same fierceness in Sierra’s face she had seen in Cooper’s own. ‘He didn’t kill himself, Kate. He got on fine with the other inmates, even helped some of them to get fitter, taught them some self-defence. And he was certain he’d be released early for good behaviour. He had no reason to top himself. Dad wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t think he did, either.’

  Sierra slapped her mug down onto the top. ‘Then prove it. Do something about it. Make whoever did this to him pay!’

  ‘It’s not as simple as that. My hands are tied. The prison will handle everything and I don’t have anyone on the inside I can turn to for help.’

  ‘Somebody wanted him dead and I want to know who and why.’

  ‘I’ll figure out a way. But first, have you any idea what he wanted to speak to me about?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Okay. Tell me, word for word, what he told you to say to me?’

  Sierra half-shut her eyes then spoke. ‘“Get hold of DI Young. Tell her I must speak to her alone. It’s urgent. She needs to know.”’

  ‘Needs to know what?’

  ‘That’s all he said.’

  ‘What had you been talking about beforehand?’

  ‘This house and how he was looking forward to seeing it, and how proud he was of me for sorting everything out back home for him.’ Her eyes leaked tears as she spoke.

  ‘Did he hint at or mention anyone or anything he was anxious about?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Are you sure he didn’t say anything else? Take your time and think about it. You see, somebody might have overheard you both, and whatever your dad knew might have cost him his life.’

  The tears continued unchecked down the girl’s cheeks. The cat slowly unfurled with a small yawn, a tiny pink tongue and sharp white teeth on display. It regarded Kate with wary eyes. ‘Maybe. I can’t be sure.’

  ‘Go on, Sierra. It could be important.’

  ‘It was as I was leaving. I might be wrong though.’

  ‘What was it?’

  ‘I think he said something about you, or maybe it was me, being careful and mentioned a train. At the time, everyone was getting ready to leave and there was a lot of noise so I might have misheard him. Or, it could have been somebody else speaking and not him at all.’

  Kate met the cat’s eyes, heart thudding. Sierra had heard her father speaking. He’d been wanting to talk about the gun attack on the train. Kate would have to uncover the truth behind Cooper’s death because it would lead to answers that might implicate Dickson.

  Sierra put down the mug, folded her arms. ‘What should I do?’

  The only option was for Sierra to have her father’s body examined by another pathologist and to lobby for it to be sent to the morgue at Stoke-on-Trent, where someone not linked to the prison would examine it. Maybe Kate could even involve Harvey Fuller.

  ‘The best way to go about it is for you to contact the prison and demand a second, independent autopsy.’

  ‘What happens if they refuse?’

  ‘You need support, somebody who might know a lawyer or something about the law, or people in high places.’ An idea popped into her head. ‘What about your father’s friend, Bradley Chapman?’ Kate had met and interviewed Bradley several times during the investigation into his son-in-law’s death. He’d served with Cooper in the SAS, and they’d remained friends after leaving the armed forces.

  A spark appeared in Sierra’s eyes. She nodded slowly. ‘Yes. He knows loads of important people.’

  ‘Ring him. Tell him what you suspect, and ask for his help. He most likely has his own suspicions about your father’s death; after a
ll, they were best friends.’

  Sierra picked up her mobile straight away, made the call and spoke to Bradley’s wife before shaking her head. ‘He’s out. Should be back in half an hour.’

  Kate looked at her watch. She couldn’t wait around here. Tilly was expecting her. ‘Okay, call me after you’ve spoken to him and we’ll take it from there.’ She hesitated for a moment. Bradley might not take kindly to her involvement; after all, she’d put a great deal of pressure on him during the investigation into his son-in-law’s death. He might refuse to help if he found out she was involved. ‘Don’t mention me. It’s better if we keep that between ourselves for the time being.’

  Sierra gripped the mobile tightly and nodded. ‘I’m sure he’ll help. He has to.’

  Kate mentally crossed her fingers that Bradley would have the clout needed to ensure a second autopsy took place. It would be the only chance they’d get to determine what really happened to Cooper.

  Tilly flung her arms around Kate as if she hadn’t seen her in years.

  ‘Kate!’ Daniel was equally pleased and waved a triangular slice at her in delight. ‘Mummy got pizza.’

  ‘He couldn’t wait. Sorry.’

  ‘That’s fine. It’s quite late to eat, isn’t it? I bet he was starving.’

  ‘Yes. He wasn’t hungry earlier. Our body clocks are still all over the place. I was trying to keep him up later than usual, in the hope he’ll sleep through the night and we can have a fairly normal day tomorrow.’

  ‘So, is it a good pizza, mate?’

  ‘Brilliant!’ He revealed perfect white teeth and his enthusiasm was heart-warming. She couldn’t help but smile at his dimpled cheeks and red-stained lips from enthusiastic chomping.

  ‘What did you do today?’

  ‘Skiing,’ he said, through a mouthful of food.

  ‘I took him to the SnowDome at Tamworth and we both had lessons, didn’t we, champ?’ He nodded, eyes sparkling. ‘He took to it straight away. Way better than me.’

  ‘Mummy fell over.’

  ‘Three times!’ Tilly stroked his hair with her free hand, letting it rest on his head. Claws raked across Kate’s heart. In that moment, she’d have traded places with Tilly. Motherhood had brought out a good side to her stepsister and she couldn’t ignore the first tendrils of envy wrapping around her heart like ivy covering an aged tree trunk. She had to suppress it.