Chapter Thirty-Nine

 

Soon five members of Bradwick CID were gathered around a table in a quiet pub on the seafront. Sergeant Brian Chisholm had kept all the notes but had dispensed with his friend.

At first they each gave a summary of their interviews. Emma didn't need to concentrate on all the details – it was obvious from the outset that all three interviews had gone along the same lines.

'So,' Emma said, 'it does seem that all three women are hiding something and yet we have no idea what.'

'The real problem,' Brian said, 'is that we have literally no idea what they are hiding. And all three of them are victims. What we need is a fourth person.'

'A fourth? Three are confusing enough,' Andy Stonor said.

'No, listen, they are all victims. So, there must be a fourth person, one who knows all three women and is persecuting them for some reason.'

'Well, Eileen kicked off when we mentioned Callum Frost,' Suse said.

'Yep, Amelia was the same. She said that she remembered it, but only in a general way. But both of us had the distinct feeling that she was hiding something. The tension in the room went right up, as soon as we mentioned it.'

'And the same here,' Brian confirmed.

'So, what?' Emma asked. 'If Callum Frost was killed back in the day, maybe the three witnessed it as teenagers and now the killer is trying to terrify them back into silence.'

'That doesn't make any sense though,' Suse said. 'There were posters left at all three crime scenes. Three linked murders it stands to reason that we would investigate. Surely if the killer wanted to keep things quiet, then they wouldn't want to draw our attention to the old case?'

Everyone shook their heads and muttered.

Brian tapped the table in frustration. 'What we need is a direct route to find who knew them fifteen, even twenty years ago at school. Some window into the past.'

'I think that might be possible,' Emma said. 'But we'd have to go even further off piste.'

'Of course,' Andy said. 'Plug their names into the Haines' network and see what pops out. At the very least we should be able to find out if they really knew each other or not. Was that what they were hiding?'

'Yes, it is part of the network,' Emma said. 'But I know her too. I'll have to get the number from Rob. See if she's free this evening.'

'Well, you'd better get onto that sharp then,' Suse said. 'We've stirred the hornets' nest without any real idea of what we were looking for. Someone, somewhere is ahead of us on this.'

* * *

A strange group of people gathered in one of the chain pubs that was just off the seafront in Bradwick.

Suse was sat there looking a bit awkward, in her plain work clothes. Opposite her was Rob Haines, and next to him was his Aunt Bea. She was an ex-head teacher and centre for all gossip in the area. Joining them was Emma.

'Officially, on the record, this is a meeting between Detective Sergeant Suse Berman, Detective Constable Emma Angel and yourself, Bea Mathews,' Rob Haines said. Bea's brow creased at his strange formality. 'So, I'm not really here. Except, of course, I couldn't turn down the chance to see my favourite aunt.'

'So, you've resorted to flattery,' she said warmly, 'and bribery. You said that this would all be paid for?' She waved her hand at the meals that had just arrived.

Emma nodded sadly, thinking that her and Suse would have to tighten their belts to pay for this. There was no way this would be on expenses.

'What's so important then?' Bea asked. 'I mean I don't mind seeing you, but you were insistent that it had to be tonight.'

'We've got three women who are of interest in a case,' Emma said, sliding a list of names over to Aunt Bea. 'We think they were lying when they said that they didn't know each other at all.'

'But I checked back through school records,' Rob Haines said. 'And they were all in the same year at Bradwick High. So after five years in the same school, the names at least ought to be familiar.'

Bea took the piece of paper and scanned down it. Everyone around the table saw her face blanch slightly. 'Early noughties? Probably left around, what, 2003 or 2004?' She looked at Rob for confirmation.

'Left in July 2004. I'm guessing from the fact that you know them by name that they stood out for some reason. Either really good or really bad.'

'I've met one of them,' Emma said. 'I don't think it was for academic achievement.'

Bea shot Emma a look and she knew that she'd been told off. 'Oh, don't you underestimate these girls, Emma Angel. They were all bright and could've gone far. Been a real credit to the school.'

'What happened?' Suse asked.

'Went the other way. Too bloody bright. I tell you, the year those three left, minor instances of theft and bullying dropped right off. Trouble was we could never prove a thing. We searched their lockers, tried to get statements from pupils. But there were three of them and they always backed each other up. But they were horrible.' She held her hand up as if to apologise. 'I'm sorry. As a teacher, it's ingrained in me to see the best in our pupils, but every once in a while, you come across some who, well, they're just mean and spiteful.'

'What kind of thing do you mean? How bad were they?' Emma asked.

Bea sighed and ran her hands through her hair. 'This is very tricky. As I said they were bright and there were very few official reports or sanctions. Right. This will give you an idea. There was this girl started in year seven when The Beths were in year eight.' There were confused looks around the table. 'The Beths – we did Macbeth as a play in English and some pupils started calling them the Three Witches from Macbeth. Pretty soon they became simply The Beths. Anyway, this girl lost her mobile phone and was certain that The Beths had stolen it so she reported them. The next week, her cat vanished. The whole school lit up with rumours about what they had done to the poor animal.'

'But there was no proof?' Emma said. 'I mean, cats go missing, wander off, get run over. It's not exactly evidence of a crime is it?'

'That was their twisted genius.' Bea shook her head. 'Either they were willing to kill someone's pet, which is shocking. Or they were happy to let people think that they would kill a pet. To capitalise on an unfortunate event to build their reputation.'

Rob nodded. 'I see what you mean. Rumours in a school can be so powerful. But without proof you can't actually move against them. I bet that no one made any more reports after that.'

'Exactly. I mean, the teachers were aware, unofficially. And there were several incidents in PE. We had one broken collar bone after a heavy tackle in hockey, for example.'

'And you couldn't do anything about that?' Suse asked.

'No, that was Eileen. As best we can figure out she just went in heavy for a tackle and didn't pull back. I was down there as part of the senior leadership team when the ambulance was called. Just for a second I saw a look on Eileen's face. Kind of a smirk, but not quite. As if she was satisfied with what she'd done. But again, hockey is a contact sport, she said she slipped and went into the tackle harder than she meant. Turned on the tears, showed all the signs of remorse.'

'It's so weird. We've just interviewed these women. You'd never know it now,' Suse said.

'And it's no wonder that they didn't want to admit to knowing each other back in school,' Rob said. 'Maybe they've straightened out now and are a bit embarrassed of their past?'

'I don't know about that,' Bea said. 'But they were trouble when they were in school. I don't think Eileen did well out of school, Amelia got married and I think Jenny has a good job.' She shrugged. 'It's one of the facts of the job – you do your best but often you never know how the children turn out when they leave you.'

'But you're sure about them? The three women on this list?' Emma asked, just to be clear.

Bea nodded. 'Of course it'd all be different now. They'd have the Wellbeing and Support team involved, probably integrated with social services. We'd be able to invoke child protection and safeguarding guidelines. Of course, they escaped all that, I think it came in about the same time that those girls left.'

'I'm not sure how much this helps,' Suse sounded frustrated.

'Well, first of all we know they're lying,' Emma said, ticking off the points on her fingers. 'They definitely did know each other. And we have a fair idea why they are lying too, if they were the local bullies.'

'And,' Rob said, 'we now have an idea why someone would target them.'

'Target them?' Bea asked. 'What's happened to the girls.'

The other three all looked at each other, realising that they'd been talking shop in front of Bea.

'You might as well tell her now,' Rob said, even though he didn't really have the authority. 'I have to say, in all my years in the police, nothing that I've told Aunt Bea has ever gone any further.'

'Well,' Emma started. 'These three girls, well women now, have each discovered one of the bodies in a recent string of murders.'

'Those horrible ones that have been in all the papers?'

'Yes, those,' Emma said. 'It's just too much of a coincidence that three people who all knew each other were all at the right place and time to find a staged body. That's why we're looking at them. And if they were bullies, well then maybe one of their victims might be striking back.'

'Yeah,' Rob said, 'but it'd have to be some fairly serious bullying for the victim to wait fifteen years then start killing people and use the bodies as props just to get revenge.'

Emma and Suse looked hopefully at Bea.

She picked up the unasked question. 'Those three girls didn't really have one target. It was more complicated than that. Among the girls that were the in-crowd, they were the top of the tree. Everyone wanted to be their friends, or at least to be like them. But anyone who didn't quite fit in, well, that's who they picked on. The kids who weren't good at sports, or were too academic or didn't have friends. Either to steal things to sell, or just to humiliate them, make themselves feel bigger.'

'But there wasn't any one victim?' Suse asked. 'Even if it wasn't someone they focused on, it could be someone who was more sensitive? Took it harder than those around him or her? This could be really important, it's the best chance we have of finding the killer.'

'Sensitive?' Bea said, frowning. 'Hold on there was a boy, but he wasn't one of their victims. He was a couple of years younger. But we worked out, as teachers, that if we saw him hanging around, then he was probably acting as lookout. But if we went over to where he was, he'd run off to warn the girls. Then when we got there, all we'd find would be the victim. We couldn't ever catch them at it though and with three of them, they always covered for each other with alibis.'

'What was the lad's name?' Emma asked. The excitement was building now. This could be their mysterious fourth person. 'If nothing else, he could be the next victim. We need to talk to him and make sure he's safe. If he has any routines, then we might actually catch the killer in the act.'

'Oh, it was such a long time ago. Jeremy something? He really didn't stand out. Had a couple of brothers that you'd know, Rob. The type who weren't dangerous but always stealing cars and motorbikes, drinking in public, that kind of thing. Bradford or something?'

'The Bradleys? I know them all right. Not major league but always in and out of prison for something or other. At least the older two were. I remember that there was a younger one, but I don't think he even got cautioned.'

Which is why he was happy to leave his fingerprints everywhere, Emma thought.

'That's it! Jeremy Bradley.'

Emma made a note of the name. 'You said that he was two years younger?'

'Yes, now I've heard the name, I'm sure he was two years behind them. It was an odd relationship, to say the least. Kids usually stay in their year groups. If I had to make a guess, I'd say the girls met him when they were selling stolen phones to his brothers. But it was a really odd pairing. He was quiet and sensitive, I'd have expected him to be a victim, not part of their gang.'

'Okay, that's great.' Emma was genuinely apologetic. 'I'm really sorry, I've got to go back to the station. We need to learn more about this guy.'

'I could at least finish my drink,' Rob said, reaching for another chip. 'Seeing as I'm not officially here at all.'

'And I need to go with Emma,' Suse said. 'This is the first possible suspect that we've had in this case.'