CHAPTER SIX

 

‘I want to go back to work.’

Kate gritted her teeth and carefully placed her coffee mug down on the kitchen table. David was something of a master when it came to picking his moments.

Even before he dropped his little bombshell, Kate’s mind had been filled with a plethora of work related thoughts, worries and ideas, all vying for attention. Now her head felt as if it had gone into spin-cycle.

‘We’ve already been through this, David.’ She avoided his eyes as she spoke and tried to keep her voice level. ‘You know how I feel about it.’

‘So my feelings don’t come into it? Is that right?’ The huffy tone didn’t suit him.

I really don’t have time for this, she thought. Not right now. She picked up the cooling slice of toast and stared at it. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, of course what you think matters, but I thought we’d agreed to wait until the boys are just a little older, especially Eddie.’

‘No, you decided on that course, Kate. Not me. Not both of us.’ He leant up against the sink; his arms folded in front of him and stared morosely at the floor.

For a moment Kate wondered if he did it on purpose. Chose those times when she was up to the gunnels with work, and desperately needed him to be the one to take the reins at home. She stood up. ‘Can we talk about this later, please? You know I have to be in early this morning.’

‘It’s always “Manana” with you, isn’t it, Kate?’ He moved to one side to let her tip the remains of her coffee down the sink, then gave a little snort. ‘You’d think after all these years, I’d be used to playing second fiddle to the Fenland Constabulary, wouldn’t you?’

‘You don’t come second!’ Kate spun round on him. ‘You never have. I love you and the boys more than anything; it’s just the nature of my job to be time-consuming and bloody anti-social. But it’s what I do, and what I am, David, and you know that, you’ve always known that.’

Scared of saying more, or too much, she grabbed up her handbag and car keys. ‘We’ll talk tonight. Come what may, we will talk.’

 

At work, Kate fixed herself a large black coffee to compensate for the one that went down the sink, and took it back to her office. She was still smarting, but with an effort, she pushed her personal problems to one side and thought about Jon and his early morning call. Half of her was buzzing with excitement over his locating the murder weapon, and the other half wanted to throttle him for going solo over the marsh at night.

As if on cue, there was a tentative knock on her door and Jon looked in, a sheepish expression hovering about his handsome face. ‘Is it safe to come in?’

‘I haven’t decided yet. Maybe you could risk it.’ She watched him close the door behind him. ‘What the hell were you thinking by going out there alone? I’ve told you before, I go with you. I won’t interfere with whatever it is that you do, but at least I’m around if things get weird, or you accidentally fall into the bloody river!’ She tried to look angry, but the outcome of her sergeant’s night sortie was the best thing that had happened in a long while, and all things considered, staying mad at him was not really an option. ‘Okay, Sergeant, consider yourself bollocked, promise not to do it again, and then I can congratulate you on your work last night.’

‘Sorry, ma’am, and I will let you know next time I go out cavorting with the spirits after dark. It was just that I knew what a shitty time you were having with the Kelly family and I didn’t want to add to your worries.’ He endeavoured to look contrite, but a boyish grin lurked beneath the humble appearance.

Kate sipped her coffee, and looked at him over the rim of her mug. Jon was a very hard man to tell off. ‘Okay, so now I can say “well done”. You’ve found the one thing we needed to tie that scum-bag druggie, Cullen Payne to young Jamie’s death. Forensic have confirmed that the blade still has blood evidence on it and in his hurry to get rid of it, Payne didn’t even clean off his prints. Everything fits into place now. Even the CPS will have to admit that we have tied this one up tight enough to hang the bastard.’

‘But sadly not literally.’ Jon slipped two paracetamol from his pocket, popped them out of the foil and swallowed them with a gulp of coffee. ‘Poor little devil. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

Kate nodded and a great surge of sadness welled up inside her.

‘Jamie Durham was the same age as your youngest son, wasn’t he?’

Jon had an un-nerving knack of knowing exactly what she was thinking. ‘Just thirteen, yes. And although my Eddie has terrible problems with his OCD, I think Jamie’s learning difficulties must have made his short life a misery.’

Kate had been the one to tell the Durham family that their boy had been murdered, and she had realised instantly that his miserable life not been because he was ill-treated or loveless. His family had done their best, but none of them were educated, they existed on the edge of the poverty line, and Jamie, the youngest of four, had suffered merciless bullying from the other children at his school.

“He never understood why those horrible kids were so awful to him.” Jamie’s mother had sat on a sofa that had sagged so far down on its springs that Kate had wondered how she would ever get out of it. The woman clutched at a large men’s handkerchief in her chubby hands and rung it mercilessly as she spoke. “So trusting, my Jamie. Wouldn’t hurt a fly, and look what’s happened. It’s not fair! With all those terrible people out there, why did someone have to take my angel?”

Kate had silently agreed that it wasn’t fair. Jamie had only been looking for his sister’s missing pet dog. When their father had told the boys not to come back until they’d found it; Jamie had taken him seriously. At ten at night he was still walking the lanes where he used to exercise the little Jack Russell. At the boathouse he didn’t find the dog, but he did find a drug addict clawing at the walls for want of a fix. Cullen Payne didn’t know Jamie had the mental age of a seven year old, and being half off his head, Payne mistook the lad’s innocent remarks for his taking the piss. He also didn’t believe Jamie when he said that he had no money on him. By the time he realised that the boy had been telling the truth, Jamie was bleeding to death.

‘I still can’t make head or tail of what Jamie said to the paramedic who worked on him.’ Jon’s face was creased into a deep frown.

‘The child was dying, Jon. His brain was probably starved of oxygen by that time. What he said probably meant nothing.’

‘I think it did.’ Jon stared into his coffee.

‘You actually believe that someone else saw him lying there after he’d been attacked? And did nothing to help him?’ Over the years Kate had seen the very worst of human nature, but even she couldn’t believe that scenario. ‘Even if whoever it was didn’t want to be identified, they could have rung 999 anonymously. His brothers didn’t find him until almost an hour after he’d been stabbed, if he’d been found sooner, he just may….’ She left the sentence unfinished.

‘Don’t go there, ma’am.’ Jon looked at her seriously. ‘Dangerous ground. But all the same, I do think he saw someone, although the part about hearing angels singing, well…?’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe you’re right. The poor kid was bleeding out by that time.’ He placed his empty mug on a coaster on her desk. ‘So, apart from hours of mind-numbing paperwork, the case is now closed.’

‘Aren’t you forgetting one other tiny little point?

Jon sighed. ‘Oh yeah, the usual problem of how do we explain how I found the knife?’

‘Exactly. And we need to get on top of that little conundrum pretty smart-ish, before someone in high places starts asking questions for which I have no answers.’ Kate frowned. ‘Any ideas?’

‘We need something convincing, something that we haven’t used before.’ Jon grimaced. ‘Mm, tough one.’

Kate nibbled on her thumb nail, and tried to concentrate. ‘Hell! My mind is all over the place this morning. I can’t think straight.’

‘Me too.’ agreed Jon with feeling.

‘Ah! Sod it! I’m sorry I forgot to ask you how it went with your parents yesterday.’

‘Okay, I guess. It’s never easy. My mother is very sensitive,’ he paused. ‘Not quite like me, but she has something verging on clairvoyance.’

‘It must have been a long time ago, your sister’s death? And she’s still badly affected by it?’ Kate wanted to ask more, but hesitated.

After a moment, Jon said, ‘We all felt responsible, even though it came out later that there was a hereditary flaw, a tendency towards self-harm.’ He looked at Kate. ‘But even knowing that Isabel was born on a road to destruction did nothing to help. Because..,’ Jon searched for words and didn’t find them ‘Another time, maybe.’ He forced a grin. ‘Right now, we need an excuse for the Super, remember?’