Juliet returned to the office surrounded by an invisible yet tangible wall. To my surprise, she insisted on accompanying me as I explained the case’s conclusion to Ida and Evie, then Jordan and his mum. Juliet was a quiet spectator as Ida absorbed the news in sad silence, her friend gripping her hand. Jordan had sobbed brokenly from his mum’s arms.
The end of a case was hard for friends and relatives to navigate. Their relief it was over swamped by guilt as their last tenuous link to someone they loved was severed.
The lift doors opened. Where we’d been greeted on our last visit to this hotel by expensive silence, now muffled shouting filtered into the hallway. I followed it to suite four. It stopped abruptly when I knocked.
Juliet finally seemed interested in proceedings as a breathless Terence opened the door. ‘What?’ He caught himself, realising we weren’t hotel staff. ‘Oh. How can I help you?’
‘Can we come in?’ I asked. ‘We know you’re all anxious to hear what happened to Melanie.’
Terence stood aside to let us into the suite. Leo’s eyes were rimmed with pink behind his thick glasses. He sat on the bed, his school blazer and tie discarded beside him. His father stood straight backed and imposing in a spotless grey suit. Terence gravitated to a bulging suitcase beside the desk, the wooden top swept bare.
Juliet and I stood just inside the door. There was a collective stillness in the already tense room, like the intake of breath before a diver jumped off the board.
‘Melanie was killed by Karl Biss,’ I announced. ‘He confessed and was charged with her murder this afternoon.’
Leo bunched a fist to his mouth, desperately holding back tears. Terence’s eyes widened while his father’s narrowed.
‘Karl didn’t know Melanie,’ I went on. ‘He had no plan to kill her, but instead took the opportunity when it presented itself. As she left the estate, he followed her into the forest and shot her.’
‘Why did he kill her?’ Leo asked, his voice wavering.
Dunlow’s rough words cut across the room. ‘He wanted to hurt me.’
Juliet straightened. ‘What makes you say that?’
Dunlow’s blue eyes fixed on her. ‘Because he’s my son.’
Leo and Terence turned to their father, faces slack.
‘It’s true,’ I said, drawing all eyes. ‘Jennifer Clements, Karl’s mother, became pregnant after a brief relationship with your father. I believe you didn’t know about this?’
Dunlow shook his head. ‘She didn’t tell me. He didn’t either. I discovered it today.’
‘Jennifer told Karl about his true parentage, but he only searched for you after he’d lost his mother,’ I said. ‘He began working at the Dunlow Estate to get to know you all.’
‘Why didn’t he say anything?’ Terence’s face was marred with uneven pockets of pink.
‘He thought you would treat him differently,’ I stated.
If the mixture of guilt and shock on the Dunlows’ faces was any indication, then Karl was right. He might not have been welcomed with open arms by his biological family, but more would have been offered than casual dismissal and rudeness.
‘But why did he kill Mel?’ Leo asked again, hands bunching on his lap. ‘If Karl wanted to hurt Dad, why didn’t he kill me or Teddy?’
His older brother blanched, not as willing to offer himself up in Melanie’s place.
‘We believe, despite how he felt snubbed by your family, he retained a connection to you,’ I explained. ‘He was looking for an opportunity to hurt you, and killing Melanie had a huge impact on all of your lives. He didn’t plan to do it but grabbed the chance. Very sadly, Melanie was in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
Too often, women were the fatalities when men butted heads. They were discarded like pawns, not seen as people with their own lives.
Leo shook his head violently. ‘I should never have let her leave on her own.’
Dunlow gripped his younger son’s shoulder. ‘No. This was my fault. I should have done more background checks before employing him.’
‘Enough.’ Juliet’s crisp command broke through their self-admonishment. ‘There’s no one to blame for what happened to Melanie other than Karl. He pulled the trigger.’
‘There’s no way you could have predicted what would happen that night,’ I added. Juliet’s brand of comfort needed softening. ‘You can’t blame yourself for what you did or didn’t do. That’s no way to live.’
I spoke from experience. I’d spent enough sleepless nights wondering if Barnabas would be alive now if I’d hidden for longer, if I’d turned right instead of left when I searched the warehouse for food, if I’d screamed louder when the bad man pulled me across the floor.
Nothing brought my brother back. Just like regrets wouldn’t bring Melanie back either.
‘Right then.’ Terence grabbed the handle of the suitcase. ‘I’ve had enough of this.’
Dunlow’s face instantly blotted with patches of bright red. ‘Terence. Do not leave.’
‘I’m done.’ Terence charged towards the door. ‘I don’t want to be part of your mess.’
Juliet and I sidestepped out of his way, but Terence paused with his hand on the door.
‘Leo, that doesn’t apply to you,’ he said briskly. ‘Dad, do you want to know why that woman didn’t tell you she’d had your son? It’s because no one would ever choose you as a father, if they could help it.’
Terence stormed from the room, allowing the door to whisper shut behind him.
There had always been an edge of hardness to Dunlow, a solid certainty of his place in the world. That had been stripped away. His eyes darted, fingers fidgeting with his cufflinks as his Adam’s apple bobbed.
I wasn’t sure how to comfort this man I both pitied and reviled. His family was broken. I understood how isolating and confusing that could be.
‘You couldn’t have known what Karl was going to do,’ I offered.
Neither Leo nor Dunlow should blame themselves for what happened. I hoped it would bring them closer. Maybe Dunlow would see the people around him as worthy of kindness and respect. Consideration, at least.
If the way he looked down his nose at me was any indication, he wasn’t a changed man yet. ‘Come, Leo. We need to see to the dogs before it gets too dark.’
‘You’re looking for homes for them, right?’
Leo smiled as he stood from the bed. ‘Would you want one?’ Even his father looked interested at the prospect of offloading one of their dogs.
‘Maybe. I’ll give you a call.’
As Dunlow led Leo through one of the suite’s inner doors, Juliet and I walked out into the hallway. I rubbed my face as we rode down in the lift, my brain heavy like a waterlogged sponge.
There was no hint that what had transpired had affected Juliet at all. Our conversations with the various people surrounding Melanie glanced off her.
Maybe that was why we partnered so well together. Juliet was reserved and controlled, kept her distance, while I absorbed what needed to be felt. We shared the emotional and intellectual labour.
‘You worked well on this case too,’ I said, as we crossed the hotel reception.
Juliet blinked at me. ‘Of course I bloody did.’
I grinned as we walked outside. Back to the station now, to dive into the miles of paperwork involved in catching a criminal.