Taunting the Dead (23 page)

‘Ashleigh, can you remember?’

As Ashleigh shook her head, it was obvious to Allie that she was holding back on something. She stood up.

‘Thank you for your time, ladies.’ She handed them each a card. ‘If there’s anything you need to talk to me about or tell me, any tiny detail that you think might help, call me.’

‘Thanks.’ Kirstie took it from her and, without looking at it, threw it onto the bed.

Allie smiled at them both before locking eyes with Kirstie. ‘A word on your own, please.’

Kirstie sighed loudly and shuffled to the end of the bed. ‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ she told Ashleigh and followed Allie out onto the landing. She stood like an insolent child, one foot in front of the other, arms crossed in defiance.

Allie moved her head forward a little. ‘Look, unless you want to get your best friend into trouble, quit messing around. I can see that Ashleigh is worried about something. So I’ll ask you once again, while you’re on your own. Did you stay at her flat on Friday night or were you with Lee Kennedy?’

At the mention of his name, Kirstie gulped. She looked down at her feet. ‘I was with Ashleigh,’ she said quietly.

‘You’re quite sure about that? Because if I find out you’re lying, I’ll want to know what you’re covering up.’

‘I’m not!’

‘Are you sure?’ Allie probed. ‘I can –’

‘I was with Ashleigh,’ Kirstie snapped. ‘Why won’t you believe me?’

‘Because I know you’re not telling the truth.’ Allie paused for a moment. ‘I just don’t know why yet.’

Kirstie held Allie’s gaze for a moment before sighing. ‘Okay, okay. I was with him. But you mustn’t tell my dad. He’ll kill me.’

‘Go on,’ said Allie, thankful that she was getting somewhere at last.

‘We had a row, me and Mum, before she went out,’ Kirstie told her, omitting the part where they’d hit each other. ‘I knew that Dad wouldn’t be coming back so I stayed the night with Lee.’

Allie took out her notebook. ‘What time did you get there?’

‘About sevenish.’

‘And what time did you leave?’

‘About half nine the next morning.’ Kirstie chewed on her bottom lip. ‘You won’t tell him, will you?’

‘And you were there all night?’

Kirstie nodded. ‘We had a takeaway and a drink in the house.’

‘And then what?’

‘We… we had sex.’

Allie frowned. ‘I meant did you go out at all?’

‘Oh!’ Kirstie blushed immediately. ‘No.’

‘So you were together all night?’

‘Yes! But please don’t tell my dad.’

Allie walked off, leaving Kirstie in suspense. Of course she wouldn’t mention anything to Terry unless he asked and then she wouldn’t lie. And didn’t he have enough to think of at the moment without worrying about his wayward daughter? Seriously, what on earth was she doing hanging around with Lee Kennedy?

Allie was barely out of sight of The Gables before she was parking up the car again to question Sam.

‘What did you think of the wonderful Mr Ryder?’ She turned towards her.

‘My God, he’s hot.’ Sam fanned her face with her hand. ‘He had me blushing.’

‘Why?’ Allie gasped. ‘What did he say?’

‘That’s just it. I don’t think he said that much. It was the way he looked at me. It’s like he… like he’s undressing you with his eyes. And not in a perverted way.’

Allie threw Sam a weird look then laughed as she realised she was winding her up.

‘There’s definitely something about him,’ Sam agreed. ‘But he’s not my type.’

‘I should think so,’ Allie said, sharper than she’d anticipated. ‘You’re married.’

‘So are you! But I can see how women fall at his feet. He has a certain magnetism. You do need to be careful, though.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Despite you wanting to see my reaction, he only had eyes for you.’

‘Don’t be absurd.’

‘I’m telling you, he followed your every move. Even when you were upstairs, he was watching the door for you to reappear.’

‘That’s his guilty conscience, if you ask me.’ Allie batted away the comment. ‘He’s worried what we’ll find.’

‘Maybe.’ Sam shrugged. ‘Still, I think you should visit him on your own next time. He’ll be better when it’s just the two of you. And what did he mean about the flowers?’

‘Oh,’ Allie rattled off the first thing that came into her head, ‘some arrangement that I nicked off the table last week.’

‘You stole flowers from a charity do?’ A look of disbelief crossed Sam’s face before she laughed. ‘Ha! Nice one, Sarge!’

‘Not a word,’ Allie warned Sam, thankfully knowing that she could trust her colleague not to say anything.

Sam crossed her heart with her finger.

Allie smiled then. Her secret was safe, even though it was a lie.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Shaun knew it was only a matter of time before he had a visit from Phil. In fact, he wouldn’t put it past him to be watching from the shadows for the police to come and go. He knew they’d be there to question Carole. He thought he would have been round first thing on the day of the murder and, for once, had been glad to get up to Terry’s for a couple of hours even though the atmosphere had been tense. He’d hardly slept the previous night, getting up at four thirty after Carole told him off for fidgeting and looking out of the window. So although his nerves were shot and he was dreading the outcome, it was almost a relief when he noticed him crossing the road, coming towards The Orange Grove that afternoon.

‘Hold the fort for a while?’ Shaun said to Carole as he walked past her towards the door. ‘I’ve got business to sort out.’

‘What sort of business?’

‘Nothing for you to worry about.’ He held up a hand to acknowledge Phil as he came through the door.

Phil pointed to the stairs. ‘A word.’

As they went from her view, Carole stopped folding up napkins. What the hell was going on? Phil Kennedy was visiting far too many times for her liking. She had never seen so much of him in ages. And he hadn’t said a word about Steph. Even without mentioning the affair, all three of them knew her. He could have said something in general conversation.

What was Shaun up to with him? Kennedy only visited when he was after something. Suddenly she froze. Please God, Shaun hadn’t borrowed any more money. Or even worse, was just about to. She went to the bottom of the stairs, but fear of what Phil might do stopped her from going up. She’d have to wait until he’d gone and collar Shaun instead. Besides, she had enough on her plate looking after Terry without worrying about him.

Shaun followed Phil up the stairs and then showed him into the living room.

‘You have more bottle than I gave you credit for,’ Phil said.

Shaun gulped. He couldn’t speak. His mouth had gone dry, his lips were sticking together and he could feel sweat erupting in tiny pinpricks over his brow.

‘You kept that rage deep within there.’ Phil prodded him firmly in the chest.

‘It’s best kept in there most of the time,’ Shaun replied.

And in that split second, he realised there was no going back. He’d made the biggest mistake of his life. If not with Phil Kennedy, it would be Terry Ryder. If not with Terry Ryder, it would be the police. If not with the police, Carole would most probably murder him. He was well and truly screwed.

‘What happened to the knife I gave you?’ Phil interrupted his thoughts.

‘I couldn’t use it.’ Shaun flopped down on the sofa as he prepared to lie for his life. He tried not to notice Phil’s facial expressions becoming darker by the second. ‘I knew her too well to see her dying. If I stabbed her, I might miss and not kill her. If I didn’t get the right place, I – I might have bottled it and rung for an ambulance. Or run away while she was still alive.’

‘So you beat her head to a pulp?’ Phil’s fist curled into a ball.

‘It was quick and easy,’ Shaun guessed. ‘And it was over for her in no time. Better that way.’

‘What did you hit her with?’

‘What?’

‘What did you hit her with?’

‘Does it matter?’ Shaun stalled for time.

‘Of course it fucking MATTERS!’

The atmosphere in the room changed to arctic cold.

‘I used a brick.’

‘A brick?’ Phil sounded amazed.

‘Yeah, it was easier for me to just hit her and hit her.’ Shaun had seen this on a recent episode of
Silent Witness
. The girl had run from the murderer and fallen to her knees, and he’d battered her a few times with half a house brick. At the time, Shaun had to look away at the sheer brutality caused by such an inanimate object. Now it served its purpose as a memory rather than a clip from a television program.

‘And what did you do with this brick? You didn’t lob it, I hope?’

Shaun felt queasy as he imagined what the brick would be covered in. Imagining what would be on his hands, he wrung them hastily as if to rid himself of it. Finally, he gained his composure enough to continue.

‘I chucked it in the canal,’ he lied. ‘About two miles from the pub. Along with the knife you gave me.’

Phil nodded. ‘But what happened to the cleanup crew?’

‘Hell, I don’t know. I rang but no one answered. I was shitting it in case someone came out and saw me.’ Shaun glanced up and back down quickly. ‘I kept trying the number for ages, but still no one answered so I legged it. I didn’t have your number and I didn’t want to hang around with – with. I – I didn’t know what to do.’

Phil stepped nearer, his finger in Shaun’s face. ‘You should have come to see me, you stupid PRICK! Not leave her there for anyone to find. I would have sorted it!’

‘I didn’t know that!’ Shaun cried. ‘I’ve never done this kind of thing before. I panicked.’

Phil took a deep breath to calm himself down. He wanted to kill Shaun so much right now. He had to get out of there before he did something he’d regret.

‘Your debt is cleared – for now,’ he told him, shoving his hands deep into his coat pockets to stop them lashing out. ‘But if I hear from Shane or Mitch that you didn’t ring them, then you’re fucking dead.’

The more time Shaun and Phil spent upstairs the more Carole worked herself up into a frenzy, wondering what they were meeting about this time. Shaun was going on the other day about the bar bill that had come in and who they were going to fail to pay while they cleared that debt instead. He must have borrowed more money. She’d kill him once she got her hands on him.

By the time she saw Phil come back downstairs ten minutes later, Carole was livid and no amount of reasoning by Shaun was going to make things better. She rushed upstairs but Shaun was already halfway down. She pushed him back up and into the living room again.

‘You’ve sold us out, haven’t you?’ she hissed, prodding him in the chest sharply.

‘No, I haven’t,’ Shaun replied.

‘So what was all the secrecy? And why wasn’t I included in the meeting this time?’

‘Relax,’ Shaun cajoled. ‘You have enough to worry about with Steph at the moment. Let’s just say that I’ve sorted things for now.’

‘But how?’ Carole didn’t understand. ‘How can you pay off twenty grand just like that?’

‘I haven’t. Phil wiped it out for me.’

‘Phil Kennedy wiped out our debt?’ She laughed. ‘You don’t expect me to fall for that, do you? Phil’s a loan shark. He wouldn’t let you off unless you had something on –’ She stopped suddenly, her hands starting to shake as a ripple of fear ran through her. ‘You don’t have anything on him, do you? He wasn’t involved with Steph’s murder?’

‘No! I don’t know why he did it,’ he continued. ‘I suppose he felt sorry for us and let me off with a warning.’

‘A warning?’ She frowned. ‘What kind of warning?’

‘Nothing sinister, if that’s what you mean.’

‘This is Phil Kennedy we’re talking about. He wouldn’t let you off paying back twenty grand.’ She shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t.’

‘He would and he did.’ Shaun took both her hands in his own. ‘Look, I don’t see what the big deal is. We’re debt free again. Don’t you think we should be celebrating instead of falling out?’

‘No.’ Carole snatched her hands away and walked over to the window. She looked down onto the street below, watching people walking by as if they hadn’t a care in the world. She kept her back to him as she tried to figure out what the heck was going on. No matter how many times Shaun would try to convince her otherwise, Phil Kennedy would never drop twenty grand as a favour.

‘It’s because of Steph,’ she said without turning back to face him. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘No!’ Shaun walked over and stood by her side. ‘It hasn’t got anything to do with her. Apart from that he feels sorry for what happened. He feels slightly responsible for her death.’

‘Oh?’ Carole turned to face him again.

‘Look, don’t say anything but he was in The Potter’s Wheel the night she died,’ Shaun chanced a lie. ‘He said he saw you two and –’

‘I never saw him,’ Carole lied too, knowing full well that he’d been standing at the bar before she’d left.

‘It was late on. He called in on his way home. Said he saw Steph but he didn’t –’

‘Did he see me?’ It was Carole’s turn to look guilty.

‘I don’t know. He told me about Steph as he felt bad about things. He said if he’d offered her a lift home, then maybe none of this would have happened. It has knocked him about, Carole. So he thought he’d help us out.’

Carole stood in silence, staring at her husband. That was a pathetic excuse. She knew he was lying. She just hadn’t worked out why yet.

Phil Kennedy knew that Shaun was lying too. He hadn’t worked out why yet, either. Collar drawn up against the sleet that had started an hour ago, he marched down to where he’d parked his car off Broad Street.

It had taken all his strength not to jump the few strides across the room and ram his fist into Shaun’s face. Already, he could imagine returning with a hammer and using it to bash the brains out of him. Shaun must think he was stupid. He’d checked with Shane and Mitch before he’d visited The Orange Grove. They hadn’t received a phone call and he knew they wouldn’t back down on a job. Unless they were out to set him up too, which was quite feasible if they were in this with Terry.