Kate held up her bandaged hand and wrist. ‘Look Adrian. This is what the truth looks like. Your precious daughter has played you round her little finger with her lies and her manipulative ways. You really can’t see it, can you?’
‘What I can see Kate, is a woman who for some reason better known to herself has hurt my daughter so much. I thought you were special. I thought you might be the one to help me through the rest of my life but I was wrong. I wanted so much for it to be true that it blinded me. But not anymore’.
‘Adrian, I love you’.
‘Well I don’t love you’.
‘But you don’t understand’.
‘Oh I understand only too well’ said Adrian. ‘I’ll be filing a report with Paul Taylor in the morning but if you go anywhere near Jess again you’ll be very sorry’.
‘Oh is that right? I’ll be sorry will I?’ Well not half as sorry as you’ll be when you discover what happens when someone crosses me’.
‘Oh got to hell’ said Adrian who then slammed the door shut.
FOURTEEN
‘A full confession from Squires to the murder of both Terry Latham and David Harrison is rather more than I hoped for and way more than I actually thought we’d get but as soon as I brought his wife into it he capitulated’ said Jeff. He was sitting in his office with Rebecca, Adrian, and Joe. Ollie was finishing off some paperwork before joining them.
‘That and the fact that Bernie Connelly seems to have gone to ground, sir’ said Joe.
‘Yeah, that is weird’ said Adrian.
‘And worrying’ said Jeff. ‘Not to mention bloody frustrating. I want Connelly. I thought that we could get close to finally nailing him with this investigation but he’s slipped through my bloody fingers again’.
‘We don’t know that yet for sure though, sir’ said Rebecca.
‘Rebecca, his house has been cleared of everything inside it. All of his computers have gone and the house is like an empty shell. He’s made a run for it’.
‘But why now?’ said Adrian. ‘Unless … ‘
‘ … unless what?’ said Joe.
‘Unless he’s been scared away by something’ said Adrian.
‘Bernie Connelly?’ Joe questioned. ‘Are you feeling alright?’
‘No look’ Adrian went on. ‘Squires said in his statement that Connelly was his usual larger than life self that morning but that by the afternoon he’d completely changed into someone who looked nervous and jumpy. Then when our team arrived later on that’s when we discover that everything had gone and there’s been no sign of Connelly anywhere’.
‘It certainly makes sense, sir’ said Rebecca.
‘Yes, I agree’ said Jeff. ‘But who’s scared him and why? I mean who could scare the likes of Bernie Connelly?’
‘But what if … sir, what if this is somehow connected to what’s been happening with the MP woman, Martha Langton, and the threats she’s been having to stop her petition against that European paedophilia bill?’
‘Expand a little on your thoughts there Adrian?’
Adrian sat up as he warmed to his theme. ‘Sir, Squires said that Connelly had obtained that list of paedophiles from someone working at the hospital. Fair enough, that’s plausible. But they were all ex professionals and they were all well connected. None of them came from dingy dead end jobs before they were convicted. They ended up on the scrap heap but that’s not where they started off. Now it’s long been suspected that the establishment have covered up some kind of massive paedophile ring amongst their own for years. So what if those guys were all members of it? And if they gave the game away to Connelly it might mean game over for a lot of very powerful people. The same people whose identity could be threatened by the legislation contained in the European bill’.
‘Sir?’ said Ollie as he came rushing in. ‘Stuart Braithwaite is on the phone. He wants to talk to you. He’s on a mobile but we’re trying to get a trace on the call so keep him talking for as long as you can’.
Jeff pressed the button on his desk phone that switched on the loud speaker and then lifted the receiver. ‘Stuart?’
‘Yes Jeff it’s me’.
‘Stuart, where the hell are you?’
‘I didn’t have anything to do with Bradley’s murder, Jeff’.
‘And I believe you’ said Jeff.
‘I need to talk to you’ said Stuart. ‘I need to explain’.
‘What do you need to explain, Stuart?’
‘I need to explain to Fiona how sorry I am’.
‘And what else?’
‘I need to explain to you face to face. I don’t want to do it over the phone. They might be listening’.
‘Who might be, Stuart? Who are they?’
‘I’m a bad man, Jeff, I know that, but I want to try and make up for some of it if I can’.
‘By doing what, Stuart?’ said Jeff who looked up and received the nod from Ollie to say that the call had been traced.
‘By telling you everything I know about why Bernie Connelly had to run for his life’.
‘What do you know about that, Stuart?’
‘I know he’d be dead now if he hadn’t got away’.
‘Why?’
‘Because he’d upset them! Because he’d interfered in their business’.
‘Stuart, where are you?’
‘I’m at my old house. Ask Fiona where it is. Don’t be long’.
The call was then ended and Jeff immediately rang Fiona and asked what Stuart would mean by his old house. She told him it was his old grandparents house in Blackburn that passed to Stuart and which he’d been renting out but there was nobody in it at the moment. She gave him the address.
‘Right’ said Jeff after he put the phone down. ‘Ollie, get onto the local Blackburn force and tell them to go straight round to his address. Rebecca, will you come with me?’
‘Of course’.
‘Well Adrian’ said Jeff as he stood and made for the door. ‘Looks like your theory might not be so far off the mark after all’.
Adrian decided to drive over to Kate’s place. He’d had a thought that he wanted to check out and seeing as it was his day for coming up with the goods he thought he’d strike whilst that particular iron was hot.
He pulled up outside the average looking 1930s semi in Urmston and looked up. The garden was neat, the curtains were neat. Everything looked neat and tidy. There was a Volkswagen car on the driveway that he knew wasn’t Kate’s. He opened the gate and stepped round the car towards the house. To his surprise the front door opened.
‘Can I help you?’
Adrian thought the woman was probably in her late fifties, possibly early sixties and she had shoulder length blond hair and was dressed in a pair of jeans with a white blouse and a yellow cardigan over her shoulders. Looking at her it was easy for Adrian to see who her daughter was.
‘Are you Mrs. Branning?’
‘Yes, I’m Lynn Branning. And may I ask who you are?’
‘I’m sorry to call unannounced like this Mrs. Branning but I’m Adrian Bradshaw and I’ve been seeing your daughter Kate’.
‘Ah, that explains it’.
‘Explains what?’
‘Explains why you looked like you’d seen a ghost’ said Lynn. ‘Yes, she’s told us about you. Did she tell you I was dead? Well as you can see I’m alive and kicking. Did she tell you her father was dead too? Well he’s alive and kicking too and at work at the moment. What has she done to upset you? She’s normally done something’.
‘She attacked my daughter’.
‘I see’ said Lynn. ‘You’d better come in’.
Lynn led Adrian inside and put the kettle on. It was beginning to dawn on Adrian that he’d been led a right merry dance by Kate but he was also ashamed of what a stupid fool he’d been. He’d been so intent on getting her into his life that he’d been blind to the woman she really was. It made him think about himself. He was bisexual. He’d always resisted seeing himself as that and had rather dressed it up by seeing himself as a straight man who liked the occasional adventure with another man. But that was all bollocks. He was bisexual and the sooner he came to terms with that the better.
‘You look very smart’ said Lynn. ‘What do you do for a living?’
‘I’m a police officer’.
‘So is this a semi official visit?’
‘Why do you ask that, Lynn?’
‘Well I … let me explain some more before we get to that. I’ve had a few of Kate’s boyfriends come round and do some digging after she’s let them down in some way and they start questioning everything she’s told them’.
Adrian was disturbed about what Lynn had said. It was almost as if she’d been expecting him to visit. She seemed like a really nice woman but it was clear she’d ended up with something of a psycho for a daughter.
‘Is Kate an only child?’
‘No’ said Lynn. ‘That was probably another lie she told you. She has a sister called Liz who is happily married with two boys. Whenever there’s a family get together it always starts off okay but then Kate has a drink or two and she turns. She’ll start shouting and screaming. My grandsons are actually scared of her. Can you imagine that? Two little boys afraid of their Aunt? It really gets to my husband Ted. He doesn’t know what to do anymore. Do you just have the one daughter?’
‘No I have a son and another daughter too’.
‘And their mother? If you don’t mind me asking?’
‘My wife died a couple of years ago’.
‘Oh. I’m sorry to hear that, love’.
Adrian was sorry about it too. He’d give anything to have Penny back right now. ‘Kate was my first serious relationship since I became a widower’.
‘Well I’m sorry but you made a big mistake even though she’s my daughter’.
Lynn made the tea and they sat down with it in the living room.
‘So Kate lives here with you, Mrs. Branning?’
‘Yes but please call me Lynn’.
‘Okay Lynn’.
‘I feel bad talking about my daughter in this way but her father and me have had to rescue so many situations she’s got herself into’ Lynn explained. ‘You see Kate was always a very highly strung girl. Nothing was ever right for her. When the girls were young I used to have to leave for work earlier than my husband Ted and so he got them ready for school. Liz was always very laid back and didn’t bother much about anything but Kate gave her father such a hard time every single morning. He’d warm the girls clothes for them on the radiator in winter but she’d complain that they were too dry. If he put the milk on her cereal too soon she’d complain about the corn flakes being too soggy. You get the picture?’
‘I think I do, yes’.
‘She’d scream and punch and kick and fight’ Lynn recalled. ‘She’s my daughter but she was a horrible child. And it’s this jealousy in her, Adrian. It almost drives her mad. When she was told she couldn’t have children because of an infection in her ovaries that did something to make her infertile it was a hammer blow that she’s used so many times against her sister. But then she became obsessed with wanting to marry a man who already had children so she could just walk into a ready made family and live happily ever after. They diagnosed her as being bipolar a few years back but I know she hasn’t been taking her medication recently. She’s been sharp and almost vicious. We’re used to her moods going way up and then way down again but lately it’s been different’.
‘How so?’
‘Well it’s as if she’s been on a mission. Like I said she did tell us all about you and how excited she was about the potential she saw in you. She told us you were the one’.
‘I suppose I should be flattered’ said Adrian. ‘But, no disrespect, I’m not. She’s caused considerable problems for my daughter Jessica who she always teaches at school’.
‘Well at least you’re not married’ said Lynn. ‘Not like the last one. She said that all she had to do was click her fingers and he’d have left his wife for her. She never explained why she didn’t just click her fingers and get what she wanted but when he dumped her she went absolutely beserk. She slapped her father across the face one night when he was trying to get her to calm down. God there’s been some awful scenes with her in this house’.
‘Why would she tell me that you and her husband were dead?’
‘A grab for sympathy? I don’t know why she’s so needy. We gave her and her sister exactly the same. It wasn’t like she wasn’t treated equally. I’m at a loss, Adrian to be honest. I’m at a real loss and heaven only knows what’s going to happen to her when her father and me are not around to take all the blows. She’s done well to get to be a teacher but she’s even managed to screw that up’.
‘How do you mean?’
‘She can’t hold down a job’ said Lynn. ‘She won’t be at the school where your daughter is for long. She’ll say it was time to move on when really she’ll jump before she’s pushed’.
‘You say she was seeing a married man before me? What happened there?’
‘He was already seeing some other woman apparently and Kate was even less than the bit on the side if you get my meaning. She couldn’t take that. Especially when that other woman had supposedly had a child by him and that drove her insane. She’d given him the very thing Kate couldn’t and she blamed the child for her not being with his father’.