Three Little Maids (25 page)

52

‘Gran, I want to see my Mum.’

‘You can’t. She’s not here.’

‘You can find her. Get her to come please, Gran. Get them to ask for her on TV. Or on the radio. Tell her, it’s me, Raymond. Her son wants to see her. She’ll come. I know she will, Gran. I need her here.’

June Perkins felt in her roomy purse for her cologne scented handkerchief. She’d always dreaded this day. She thought that it might come
sometime when he was old enough to express his feelings. And now it had. What could she say? He was waiting. She had to tell him the truth. She blinked and swallowed hard, her mouth was dry.

‘Gran, please. You’ve got to try for me. I need her here right now.’

‘You’ve got me. I’ve been like a mother to you, haven’t I?’

‘Yes
- but it’s not the same. I want my Mum.’

‘She-she can’t come, dear,’ she blurted it out from where it had been hurting for so long inside. ‘She’s dead, dear. Your mother is dead.’ He was staring at her now, his eyes glistening with tears, and she felt her courage faltering but it had to be said, ‘She died when you were three years old. I couldn’t tell you not then. And afterwards,
well- I thought that you might grow out of it. You’ve never asked for her before...’

His loud agonizing scream was heard as far out as the front desk and sent the officers rushing into the room where June Perkins was trying to comfort him as he beat off the loving arms that she attempted to comfort him with.

‘Bugger off! You killed her! You sent her away, didn’t you? Told her to clear out. You told her she was a bad girl, didn’t you!’ he yelled back at her.

‘You’d better go, Mrs Perkins. He might hurt you.’

Peebles said, ‘I never knew the kid had it in him. Shows he’s got a violent side, doesn’t it?’

53

Peebles opened up the cell with a strong sense of alarm. There was a pool of blood on the floor and Raymond Perkins was lying with an arm hanging limply over the side of the bed. The Sergeant saw the slow trickle of the red stuff running down his hand and the shirt sleeve on the arm that lay across his chest was drenched crimson. He raised the alarm immediately.

Kent was given the disturbing news as he studied his notes at home with a glass of shandy for company. ‘The ambulance is on the way now, sir.’

Kent exploded. ‘How the hell did he manage it?’

‘He threw his meal across the floor and he must have kept a piece of plastic cutlery, sharpened a broken bit and used it to jag a vein in his wrist with it. Made a pretty good job of it an’ all.’

The prisoner had attempted suicide. It wouldn’t go down well in Head Office. How long he’d been losing blood wasn’t certain. They were keeping his arms above his head. The police doctor had been called and came quickly, sensing the urgency of the situation. The Para Medics followed up and Raymond was on his way to the hospital now.

‘Raymond Perkins! Suicide attempt! How is he, guv?’ Turner said sleepily. He hadn’t long got into bed. ‘How on earth did he manage it?’

‘His Gran visited him in the afternoon. Perhaps she said something to him that he didn’t like. They said he was upset and went bananas. She had to leave. He didn’t need much to tip him over the edge obviously. Something that upset him so desperately he wanted to take his life.’

‘So where does that leave us?’

‘Sherwood is in the hospital. More than likely helping his gran to mop up her tears.’

The night’s rest was over as far as Kent was concerned. He tried not to make many sounds moving around the flat. The car would be coming early for him. And it was the Hospital first stop. He was becoming increasingly more distrustful of the evidence which seemed to point at Raymond’s guilt. He heard the back door open downstairs. Beazy was going out early it seemed.

Viviane stayed in the kitchen when she heard him come down the stairs. She didn’t move from the table. She tried to imagine that she had concrete blocks for feet. She must not display too much interest lest it came out as nosiness for her part. It was so early he wouldn’t expect her to be up anyway.

So when the knock came on the kitchen door she didn’t get up in a rush to open it. She called, ‘Come in.’

He was in his blue towelling robe still. ‘Not interrupting anything, am I?’ Kent said looking at the plate of buttered toast set in front of her. ‘Are you so hungry? And so early. Since when have you got up at five?’

‘I couldn’t sleep. You want to talk?’

‘Yes-if you don’t mind?’

‘I got
up; Beazy wanted to go out. And I can’t stop thinking about the case. And Raymond Perkins.’ She laughed. ‘I didn’t realise that I was making so much toast, not at first. I can’t eat it all. Even Simon’s appetite is not so good with this hot weather.’

‘May I,’ he said taking a chair. ‘I thought I’d better tell you now. Just in case you bump into Mrs Perkins later and you don’t know.’

‘Don’t know what?’

‘Raymond is in hospital.’

‘Why?’ Her cup clattered in the saucer. ‘What’s happened? You haven’t tried to beat it out of him, have you?’ He wasn’t smiling. ‘Sorry I take that back. I didn’t mean it. It wasn’t funny.’

‘It’s worse than that, Viviane. He’s in there because he tried to kill himself last night.’

‘Tried to kill himself.’ She stared back at him for a moment. Blinked and shook her head. ‘No. You aren’t kidding are you? Oh, God! How dreadful!’

‘Yes.’

‘How? Did he try to hang himself? I thought care was taken so prisoners can’t do that.’

‘It is.’

‘So how then?’

He picked up a piece of toast and munched it. ‘It ought not to have happened, Viviane. The young devil cut his wrists with a sharp piece of plastic cutlery. Perhaps he was only trying it out. He was determined to do some harm to himself somehow. Peebles had a shock when he went to see how he was after the evening meal. He was worried about him. He hadn’t been eating.’

She shook her head. ‘I still can’t believe it. How did Turner feel about it? I think he has a soft spot for the boy.’

‘He has and he’s not happy. Far from it. I phoned him as soon as I heard. I hope he got to sleep. Though I doubt it. He’s probably down in his kitchen raiding the fridge right now and drinking gallons of strong tea.’

She laughed. ‘That’s him. And I bet he’s got through some peppermint lumps too. When he stopped smoking, he got onto them instead. Carole said she can’t stop him eating them plus extra sustenance from the fridge. Hence his weight problem.’

She doubted Kent was taking it in but she had to keep talking.

‘Turner will be over soon, I expect. You can imagine this has muddied the waters considerably if you like.’

‘It most certainly has,’ he agreed automatically.

‘Has Raymond done this because he’s guilty? Or for some other reason entirely?’

‘We shan’t know till he’s able to be questioned,’ he said taking a cup of tea from her. ‘Thanks.’

‘You don’t usually try taking your life unless you think there is no other way out. Nowhere else to go. Or you’re trying it out to see if anyone cares about you. He’s lost Maureen remember. And his new friend, Jodie, was taken as well. So what about Raymond’s mother? Have you thought about her?’

Kent frowned and thought for a moment. ‘You could be right. His mother! Could be, I suppose. I think his grandmother might shed some light on that.’

‘Yes. Speak to her, Jon. See what Raymond talked about when she saw him yesterday.’

Kent studied her carefully for a moment or so. ‘Oh-ho! You’re not just a sweet attractive woman. You’ve got a brain there.’

‘Thank you, sir. Glad to be of help. Honestly. I really would like to see you tie up this case satisfactorily.’ She smiled. ‘Don’t look like that. You’ll do it. Sometime soon this killer will make a mistake. Bound to- he’ll get too clever.’

‘I hope you’re right. God! What’s that? It’s hardly the dawn chorus,’ he groaned as the wooden cuckoo in the clock across the room made its wobbly appearance and announced the time in six shrill calls minus the coos. ‘Can’t you get that poor bird fixed? He’s pathetic, Viviane.’

She grinned. ‘No. He’s not. He cheers me up. Whenever I feel a bit down, I only have to see him trying to do his best. Beazy tried to chew him up that’s why he wobbles. And he makes me feel I can do something, if only I try harder.’

‘Well, I suppose there is that way of looking at it. You never cease to surprise me. I think you could do anything if you put your mind to it. Getting into one of those wasp waisted corsets for a start.’ He chuckled as she scowled back at him over her tea cup.

‘Don’t you dare think it. It’s a lost cause.’

‘Well
, I think I’d better get dressed. This might not do your reputation any good if Turner sees me chatting you up in here.’

54

At the hospital Sherwood greeted them with a tired smile. It had obviously been a worrying night. She was about to come off duty and PC Harrison was taking over. They looked into the room where Raymond Perkins was lying pale and supine in bed with a formidable array of pipes and drips attached.

‘How’s he been?’

‘Once they sorted him out, topped up his blood and knocked him out with sleepers, he’s been fairly stable. He must have been pretty desperate, sir.’

‘Where’s his grandmother, Mrs Perkins? Is she still here?’

Sherwood groaned. ‘I’ve had to bolster her up, sir. She’s been in a really bad way. Crying and sobbing. I think she blames herself. If anything happens to Raymond she might try it on, I think. I made her go to the hospital canteen to get something to eat. Here she comes now.’

June Perkins face was tearstained, her eyes red rimmed and swollen. ‘Mr. Turner. Inspector? I hope you’re satisfied. Look what Raymond’s gone and done to himself.’

‘Mrs Perkins. This has nothing to do with us. Raymond did this.’

‘Did you say anything to upset him yesterday, Mrs Perkins? Sergeant Peebles said he had quite a paddy on him while you were there. Got upset, didn’t he? And Peebles had to ask you to leave.’

‘You’re saying that I was responsible for this? Mr. Turner asked me to go and see him because Raymond wasn’t eating.’

‘What did you say to him? Did you by any chance mention his mother?’

She gulped, sniffed and dabbed her red eyes. ‘Yes-yes I did.’

‘So what did you say?’

‘I told him his mother would want him to eat. I didn’t know how else to encourage him. Then he asked to see her. He was upset. He was talking a lot about Maureen and Jodie. He cried, Mr. Turner. He didn’t murder them girls like you lot are saying he did. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.’

Kent sighed this was getting them nowhere. But she had talked about his mother. ‘What did he actually say when you mentioned his mother?’

‘He got excited. I don’t want to talk about it anymore,’ she said tearfully and sat down heavily on a chair. ‘You’ve got to go out and catch the wicked man who killed those girls. And let my Raymond come home.’

‘He could have done it to attract attention from his mother.’

She burst into tears. They waited till she was able to speak. She lifted her agonized face ‘No, he didn’t. He kept asking for her, Mr. Turner. I had to tell him that his mother died. An’ he went crazy.’

Turner looked at Kent. ‘My daughter
, Pammie, died when he was small. She was pregnant again... I was angry. I didn’t know what to do about her. Didn’t know who the father was. She left home. Went to London. And I was told by the police later she’d died from a backstreet abortion. I couldn’t tell the boy that, could I?’ She wept into her cologne soaked handkerchief.

‘Pretty useless to ask her anything else, guv. She’s tired out. She’s said enough, I think.’

‘Sister?’ Kent approached the nurse coming out of the room. ‘How long will it be before the young man is able to speak to us?’

‘We want to keep him sedated and calm for the time being. To give him a chance to recover, Inspector.’

Kent was uneasy. How were they going to sort all this out. They could only keep him for a while longer. They had no definite proof to hold him with. There were only the prints in the van to offer as evidence. But they might not stand up in court.

55

It was Viviane’s day on the library van. She was glad to do it. It took her out of town and the library. And away from the library where worries crowded in on her. Where she was sure to see someone who reminded her only too easily of the crimes that had taken place.

And the day before, she’d recalled it was Jon’s
birthday coming up on the weekend. Perhaps he didn’t like them to be numbered and remembered. But he needed something to cheer him up. That was for sure. The previous week she’d spotted a Toby Jug sitting on a top shelf in a small antique shop in Pealinghurst where she making a call that morning. It was just an idea. But anything that pleased him was worth a try.

It was busy morning. The regulars were waiting for her when the mobile library pulled in on the village green. All those that she knew well since she had been doing it.