CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

 

The morning started with a green-gold sunrise that lit up the fields with a clear warm glow.

Gary and Kate left her car in a small parking area just off the A17, and proceeded by the quickest route: on foot down the tow-path. The River Welland was wide and fast flowing at this point. Years ago there had been rickety old wooden moorings along the bank, but they had been taken down since Kate had last walked this way.

‘The kids used to love it here,’ she said softly, part of her mourning the loss of those two piping voices, and the sturdy little legs running and chasing butterflies.

The long straight path, with the river only a few metres away on one side, and wide swathes of cabbage fields on the other, stretched on ahead of them.

‘Better way to start the day than usual,’ said Gary, swatting at a small fly. ‘I assume the interviews threw up nothing?’

‘Asher Leyton is remaining silent. Micah Lee has been arrested for my assault. He’s been seen by the doctor, and although he’s calmer now, I decided to give him a little longer before we interview him.’ Kate touched her bruised face. ‘And Benedict Broome, well, I’m not sure about Benedict. He was very upset when he heard that Micah had attacked me, but he seemed even more disturbed by the fact that his house-keeper was being questioned.’

‘Do you think Broome is connected to the drinking clubs, ma’am?’

Kate kicked a stone, and watched as it rolled ahead of her. ‘I can’t see it.’

Gary watched as a cormorant flew slowly down river, its black body just feet above the greenish water. ‘My mate at Harlan Marsh said that Cade has been ‘busy with other matters’. It seems that his enthusiasm to help you out has waned.’ He gave a little snort. ‘Mind you, he was pretty pissed off to hear that Jim Salmon had tried to interview Micah Lee, but interestingly enough, he let it go when he heard that Salmon had got nothing from the man.’

‘Surprise, surprise.’ Kate looked along the path to where a small cottage sat between two big rectangular fields. ‘Is that it?’

Gary nodded. ‘Now we just need to get him to talk.’

 

Duncan Hewitt opened the door, and Kate knew instantly that she was going to need every ounce of persuasion that she possessed.

The man was tall, a little over-weight, and his face had a rouge-coloured toning across the nose that suggested that he liked his drink. He had retained a full head of grizzled hair, and his outfit was strictly ‘outdoors’, with dark green cargo trousers, a check shirt, and a worn khaki gilet with an abundance of bulging pockets. And he was aggressive to the point of bloody rude.

For a while Kate wasn’t certain how to tackle him. She was pretty sure that being nice would be construed as being patronizing, and she was also certain that if she adopted her version of his own belligerent attitude, he’d slam the door in their faces. She finally decided on a detective to detective approach, and endeavoured to throw him enough tempting little tasters to make his natural copper’s curiosity to kick in.

And somehow it worked. Ten minutes later she and Gary were sitting in cane armchairs and sipping strong tea in neat little three-penny bit shaped conservatory.

‘I swore I’d never talk about it again.’ said Hewitt, ‘But..,’ he gave a gruff sigh. ‘The damned memories never leave me be, so what the hell? ’

‘Our own case is harrowing.’ said Kate with feeling. ‘A body count of thirteen young women.’

Duncan Hewitt whistled through his front teeth. ‘That’s bad. So, what can I tell you?’

‘What really happened in Alderfield?’ Gary spoke softly, and Kate got the feeling that for his own benefit, the man needed to know.

Hewitt gave a derisory laugh. ‘I’d love to know!’ He drew in a noisy breath, then placed his mug on the cane table, and sat back. ‘I’ll tell you what we saw, and what I suspect, and what you do with the information is up to you, except..,’ he stared at Kate. ‘It never came from me. Is that understood?’

Kate and Gary nodded in unison.

‘Alderfield was a good-sized country house with quite a few acres of land. When we got the call, we weren’t sure what we’d find, because it was one of the children who dialled 999.’ Hewitt swallowed. ‘We found Simeon Mulberry in the entrance hall, a double-barrelled shotgun beside him, and his wife Charlotte, lying at the bottom of the stairs. They had both been shot in the head. The gun had discharged both barrels, and two shell cases were found close by.’

‘And the children?’ asked Kate, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer.

‘They were all there. Silent as the grave. White faces, and terror in their eyes. Some had blood on them.’ Hewitt shuddered as if he were back in that old house and seeing it all afresh. ‘It freaked us out, DCI Reynard. Totally freaked us out.’

‘How many were there?’

‘Six. Five boys and a girl. The oldest must have been late teens, and the youngest, little more than a toddler.’

‘So does anyone know what caused Simeon to snap and murder his wife?’

Duncan Hewitt drew his thick eyebrows together. ‘Maybe I should tell you about that man before we go on.’ His eyes darkened. ‘Simeon Mulberry, to the outside world, was rich and influential. He was an astute business man with the Midas touch, and he was clever enough to make friends with a lot of important people. But in truth, he was a perverted sadist of the first order, and he hid his vile activities behind an elaborate façade.’ He stared at them. ‘Simeon was the most evil man I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet.’

‘You actually met him?’ Gary sounded shocked.

‘Oh yes, at some of the formal functions that we were forced to attend. Handsome as a movie star, he could charm the birds from the trees, but he had a heart as dark and cold as a frozen cesspit. My one sadness is that he never came to court, or went to prison, because in prison he would have been justly rewarded for his actions. The inmates would have seen to that.’

Kate suddenly saw a picture in her head of blood-spattered children, and a nauseous feeling cramped her stomach. ‘What kind of sadist?’

‘The worst kind.’ Hewitt’s face was full of disgust. ‘Guess what we found when we searched the place? Beneath the house was a basement room with bars at the small high windows, and locks on the door that would have kept in a mad Hereford bull. And in there, we found a row of purpose built cages, DCI Reynard.’

Kate felt a jolt of memory. Jon had seen cages when he touched Tanner’s signet ring. She quickly locked the thought into her mental vault, as Hewitt was still speaking.

‘The children themselves never spoke of the abuse that they suffered, but on medical examination their scarred bodies spoke volumes. At the hands of their own father, they had suffered every kind of maltreatment in the book. It was very hard, probably impossible, to assess the depth of their trauma. On the surface they were remarkably well-adjusted and very intelligent, with the exception of one boy, who had sustained a head injury in early childhood, probably at his father’s hand.’

‘So what happened to them?’ asked Gary. ‘We were never told anything.’

‘They were taken away and protected for sometime, then given new identities and new lives. I’m told that they had psychiatric monitoring and support for years, but as they began to take responsible roles in life, it was considered only fair to allow them to move on without the stigma of their past being continually dug up.’

Kate stared out of the window, across the acres of farmland. This was not the whole story.

Duncan Hewitt looked at her and gave a knowing smile. ‘You’re waiting for the next instalment?’

Kate nodded. ‘You should never have been railroaded out of the county, just for doing your job, so it makes me think it has something to do with all those ‘important’ people that you mentioned? The ones that Simeon cultivated.’

Hewitt clapped his hands slowly. ‘Well done, well done! Oh yes, there were politicians, councillors, barristers, financiers, and policemen; Simeon had sucked them all in. And when he was about to be exposed as a monster, it was both horribly embarrassing and very dangerous for a lot of valuable careers.’ His tone was edged with bitterness. ‘I have to say, the cover-up was a major piece of people-engineering. I believed then, and I still do, that I was close to uncovering a connection between Simeon Mulberry and one of our Top Brass.’ He looked at Kate grimly. ‘There was something rotten within our ranks, and my keen nose was following a little too close to the cause of the stink,’ Hewitt pulled a face ‘…so I was eradicated.’ He paused briefly. ‘But that was not the whole reason. I was the only one to voice an opinion to my commanding officer that Simeon’s ‘suicide’ was nothing of the sort. He was ‘helped’ into the next world, as sure as we are sitting here.’

‘Helped?’ Kate’s eyes widened.

Hewitt looked tired. ‘You know what our instincts are like, DCI Reynard. You get a feel for something, and there was something not right when we walked into Alderfield that day.’ He heaved a sigh. ‘Not that I could ever substantiate anything, but everything was wrong. The bodies, the children, the gun. It was all there, just as you’d expect, but..,’ He gave a shrug. ‘I wasn’t the only one to think this; I was the only one stupid enough to say it.’

‘Say what?’ asked Gary slowly.

‘There was a belief amongst some of us; that the children, having witnessed their mother’s death, might have been instrumental in Simeon’s demise.’

‘The children?’ Kate felt mildly sick.

‘Who else? And could you blame them? That monster begat six off -spring, and he abused every single one of them.’ Duncan suddenly stood up. ‘I’ve got something if you’d like it? I call it my memory box.’

The man left the sunny conservatory and Kate felt a chill seep through her whole body. She had imagined nothing like this. And worse still, she had no idea what any of it meant in relation to Fleur, or to the deaths at Windrush.

Lost in thought, she hardly heard Hewitt return. ‘Here you are.’ He handed her a large cardboard box. ‘It’s all yours, DCI Reynard. My diaries, my notes, a few illicit mementos; all those interesting little things that I just had to keep.’ He drew in a long breath. ‘I hope they help you, but be warned, they do not make good bedtime reading. Oh, and I don’t want them back. I was going to burn them And if you don’t take them, I still will.’ He looked at her solemnly ‘And when you leave, I’d rather you didn’t come back, because with that box gone, I intend to put the Mulberrys behind me, forever.’

Clutching the box, Kate stood up. ‘The senior police officer involved with Mulberry, who was he?’

Hewitt’s face hardened as he swung the door open. ‘I value the meagre existence that I still have. And as his seed still flourishes within this fertile land, I won’t be sharing that information. Good bye, Chief Inspector.’