Fireflies (22 page)

‘Yes’ said Sophie who was wiping her face with a tissue. ‘Well I’m not most people and I believe in getting my own back’.

‘With murder?’

‘If necessary’ said Sophie. ‘Sometimes people have to be taught a lesson they’ll never forget’.

‘Is that a little bit of home spun philosophy from your brother Bernie?’ Jeff wanted to know.

‘Leave my brother out of this’.

Jeff leaned forward and rested his clasped hands and forearms on the desk. ‘Well come on, Sophie, all this confession is very useful but let’s get down to what’s really going on here. Where did Andrea Kay get the
rohypnol from?’

‘I have no idea’.

‘I don’t believe you’.

‘Are you calling me a liar?’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m calling you’ said Jeff. ‘Are you really trying to convince us that you had no part in either the murder of James Clifton or Piers Jones except for identifying them to Andrea Kay?’

‘That is the truth, yes’ Sophie insisted.

‘And Malcolm Barnes? Were you behind his murder as well?’

‘I swear to God I knew nothing about that and if you don’t believe me then ask yourself why I would confess to everything else and not that?’

‘Everybody has their limitations and yours is when it comes to the truth’ Jeff went on. ‘You give us so much but you don’t give us it all. I think your brother not only supplied the rohypnol but provided you, Clarissa Dalton-Wood and Andrea Kay with the support of every kind you needed to carry out your evil deeds’.

‘You’ve got a trip wire in your head when it comes to my brother’.

‘So convince me otherwise?’

‘You’ve got all of this so very wrong’.

‘Oh is that right?’

‘What did you do after Andrea Kay drove off with a drugged James Clifton in her car, Sophie?’ asked Rebecca.

‘We went back to Clarissa’s place and broke open a bottle of champagne’.

Jeff and Rebecca looked at each other and shook their heads.

‘And you pretended to all the world like you were so distraught’ said Jeff.

Sophie shrugged her shoulders. ‘Wouldn’t you in the circumstances?’

‘Were you present on the night Piers Jones was lured away, presumably by Andrea, and murdered?’

‘Yes’ said Sophie. ‘It happened more or less the same way as with James. He came out of Annette Bryson’s flat and Andrea used whatever charms she has to get him into her car’.

‘And neither you nor Clarissa saw Piers or Andrea again that night?’

‘No, we didn’t’. 

‘Whose idea was it to try and blame Tina Webb for Clifton’s murder, Sophie?’

‘Andrea’s’ said Sophie. ‘Clarissa and
me just told Andrea what we wanted her to do and she just did it in the best way she saw fit. She was like a puppy. A stupid, obedient little puppy’.

‘Who would even kill for
you’.

‘That’s about it, yes’ Sophie confirmed.

FIREFLIES NINETEEN

‘It looks like she struggled’ said June Hawkins, the pathologist who was crouched down over the body of Tina Webb which was still halfway out of Andrea Kay’s bedroom door. ‘Her neck is broken but there are marks on the back of her neck and at the top of her back. I think she’s been hit with something or had something pushed up against her neck and then pressure applied. She must’ve been terrified in those last few moments’.

‘I don’t think we need to draw up a list of suspects’ said Jeff. ‘This is Andrea Kay’s work’.

‘And Tina Webb must’ve been bloody angry with her if she’d found out that someone she thought was her friend had in fact set her up for murder’ said Rebecca.

‘Well Andrea Kay clearly got the better of her’ said Jeff.
‘Just like she’s got the better of us all this time’.

‘You should get a lot from all that lot’ said June, gesturing her head towards all the pictures and clippings from Andrea Kay’s ‘secret’ wall behind the lockable screen.

‘Discovering that was probably what got Tina Webb killed’ said Jeff.

‘So you’ve charged Sophie Cooper and Clarissa Dalton-Wood I understand?’ June asked.

‘Yes and you should’ve seen the commotion’ said Jeff. ‘Sophie Cooper completely lost it. She started screaming and then she tried to lift one of the chairs and throw it at us. Clarissa Dalton-Wood was a little better but she couldn’t begin to imagine how a poor little rich girl like her could possibly be placed in a standard cell’.

‘Like there’s a non standard cell?’ June questioned with a smile on her face.

‘Exactly’ said Rebecca.

Jeff was satisfied that they were reaching the end of investigations into the murders of James Clifton and Piers Jones. But then there were the murders of Malcolm Barnes and now Tina Webb. There was something occupying his subconscious that was making him restless. Everything was pointing at Andrea Kay. But what if they were wrong?     

‘We need to talk to Andrea’s grandmother’ said Jeff.

‘She’s sitting in the lounge’ Rebecca explained. ‘She found the body when she came home from shopping and not surprisingly she’s pretty upset’.

Rebecca followed Jeff downstairs where he pulled up a stool and sat next to Andrea’s grandmother, Marjorie Kay.

‘Mrs. Kay, I’m really sorry to have to ask you this’ Jeff began, his voice and manner as gentle as he could make them. ‘But did you have any idea of what your granddaughter was up to?’

‘No’ Marjorie answered, swallowing her tears and staring into space. ‘She was such a sweet child. She had her dolls and her toys. My daughter was a good mother but her heart was broken by her husband Brian. I could bloody well swing for that man. He destroyed my daughter’s life and now he’s destroyed my granddaughter’s too’.

‘How has he destroyed Andrea’s life, Mrs. Kay?’ Jeff asked, gently.

‘By marrying that bitch of a woman Helen he made a choice between her and Andrea. She never got over it. She must’ve been driven mad by the sense of betrayal. Oh God I should’ve known! I never asked why she kept her bedroom door locked even from me. I indulged her. I over compensated for what she’d lost and it’s led to all this’. She started to weep. ‘A lovely young girl like Tina dies in my house and my Andrea … I’ve lived here over fifty years. My late husband and I brought up Andrea’s mother here and this is where I gave Andrea sanctuary when she couldn’t live with her step-mother anymore’.

‘Mrs. Kay, none of this is your fault’ said Jeff, gently. ‘You mustn’t blame yourself’.

‘Then who is to blame? Somebody has to be’.

‘When we find your granddaughter we may be able to find the answer to that, Mrs. Kay’ said Rebecca. ‘Have you any idea where she might have gone?’

‘No’ said Marjorie, crying unstoppable tears. ‘I’ve known my granddaughter for all of her years on this earth and yet now I understand I don’t know her at all’.

‘Mrs. Kay?’ asked Jeff. ‘What is the relationship like between Andrea and her father now?’

‘Well … they don’t see each other as far as I know but maybe that’s something else she’s kept behind my back. I’ve looked after her all these years … I just can’t understand why she’s acted the way she’s done’.

‘What about her relationship with her step-mother Helen?’

‘Oh that’s a relationship that will never heal’ said Marjorie. ‘Andrea blames Helen for the death of her mother and so do I. It was Helen’s affair with Brian that caused the heartbreak that led my daughter, Andrea’s mother, to commit suicide’.

‘Could you think of a situation where the relationship could be repaired?’ Jeff went on.

‘No’ said Marjorie, firmly. ‘But like I say, I never thought my granddaughter would be capable of killing someone so don’t quote me on anything’.

Jeff and Rebecca got back to the squad room and Jeff was consumed with the idea that they were looking in the wrong place.

‘Sir?’ said Ollie. ‘I’ve just had the editor of the Manchester Evening Chronicle on the line. He said that a journalist of theirs, Sharon Bellfield, went to interview Brian and Helen Curzon at the Mayfair hotel two days ago’.

‘And?’

‘She was supposed to file her copy on the interview straight after but they haven’t heard from her since, there’s no answer at her flat and her mobile is going straight to voicemail, sir. She wasn’t due any leave and the editor has checked with her family. They haven’t heard from her either’.

Jeff stood and thought for a moment and then said ‘Alright, people, this is what we’re going to do. DS Stockton and myself will lead a squad of uniformed officers to the Mayfair hotel to bring Helen Curzon in for questioning. All the way through this investigation we’ve known that if Andrea Kay is our killer then she must’ve had help, right?’

‘But it can’t have been Helen Curzon, sir’ Rebecca reasoned. ‘Andrea Kay detests her step-mother’.

‘That’s true’ said Jeff. ‘But I think Helen Curzon will give us the final answers. Don’t ask me why. Just go with me’.

Just before they were about to leave for the Curzon home another call came through. This time it was from Anita Patel, former employee of the Curzon’s at the Mayfair hotel, who was
calling from Mumbai with information she’d told to the reporter from the Manchester Evening Chronicle but which she thought she really ought to tell to the police.

Andrea Kay had already administered the rohypnol drug to her father Brian. She’d stripped him naked and was getting ready to relieve him of his manhood.

‘You really don’t feel anything for him, do you’ said Helen who was standing behind Andrea in the lounge of her house out on the edge of the
Saddleworth moors.

‘Do you?’

Helen turned her eyes to the view out of the window. It was possible to see the two counties of Derbyshire and Yorkshire plus the start of the urban conurbation of Greater Manchester but that’s not what was occupying her thoughts today. She and Brian had bought the place when she thought nothing would be able to offer even the remotest threat to their happiness. But that joy had been soured. Anita Patel was just the latest in a long line of affairs that Brian had humiliated her with. And yet she’d done everything for him. She’d brought out the best in him and restored his confidence after that miserable bitch of his first wife had sucked all the joy out of his soul. She’d worked night and day building up the business and making sure they had a future. Then Brian had risked it all by going into business with that evil crook Bernie Connelly. They’d brought prostitution into the Mayfair. How fucking dare they! She’d wanted to establish a legitimate business and that’s what she had done. Brian and his friend had ruined everything. She knew that the only reason they were experiencing a high occupancy rate was because of the ‘other’ services they offered and that’s why she’d agreed to Andrea’s little plan. If she could do something to damage the reputation of the business to the extent that it couldn’t even survive as a glorified knocking shop then she and Brian could cut their losses and sell from under the nose of Bernie Connelly. They could’ve then added what money they did make to what they would’ve made from selling the house and then bought something on the continent right away from everything. But then she’d discovered Brian’s affair with Anita Patel and something had snapped inside her. She ran out of strength to keep up the brave face. It was over.

‘We’re more alike than you’d like to think, you and I’ said Helen as she watched her step-daughter meticulously prepare her act of savagery.

‘How do you make that out?’

‘We’re both intense characters’ said Helen. ‘We don’t forgive or forget’.

Andrea had been happy to work with her step-mother whilst it was expedient. But she still hated the sight of Helen even though she’d been useful. It had been a strange set of circumstances that had brought them together. Helen had realised that the female in black who the police had been looking for after the murder of Kim Barnes in the Manchester Hilton had been Andrea. She’d confronted Andrea who’d admitted to what she’d done but Helen had promised not to inform on her if Andrea promised to help her out with something that would be beyond the law if she ever needed it. She’d made up her mind that one more affair and she would have Brian killed. It was no idle threat she’d made to him. But he’d callously dismissed her feelings and jumped into bed with Anita Patel. That’s when she called in the favour from her step-daughter. She knew she’d be able to use Andrea’s hatred for her father as a weapon to get her onboard. 

‘Do you want me to wait until he’s coming to?’ asked Andrea.

‘Yes’

‘You really want him to know what I’m going to do to
him?’

‘Yes’

‘You must hate him as much as I do’.

‘Yes, I think I probably do’.

‘I’m getting revenge for my mother’.

‘I’m getting revenge for myself’.

‘You had nothing but contempt for my mother’.

‘Do you really want to do this now?’

Andrea walked up to her. ‘Maybe we could’ve been friends?’

Helen gave a half-smile. ‘I somehow doubt that’.