Witch Is When It All Began (15 page)

I stared at Amber's finger, and something clicked.

“Sorry, I have to go,” I said.

“Jill?” Kathy looked daggers at me. “You can't just—”

“I have to. Something urgent just came up on one of my cases.”

I could tell that Kathy didn't believe a word I was saying.

“Girls, I'm really sorry about this,” I said.

“Don't worry about it, Jill,” Pearl said. “Go catch the bad guy!”

“Yeah,” Amber chirped. “We'll be fine. Make sure you come and visit us soon!”

“I will. I promise.” I turned to Kathy. “Sorry.”

“You and me are going to have words later,” she said in a whisper.

“Is that Josie Trent?” I had to shout to make myself heard.

“Speaking.”

Josie Trent was still on board The Grand Oceans, a luxury liner, which was somewhere off the coast of Barbados.

“My name is Jill Gooder. I’m a private investigator. I’m investigating the murder of Caroline Fox.”

“Poor Caroline. I still can’t believe it. I thought they’d arrested someone. Isn’t he some kind of nutter? A serial killer, I heard.”

“There has been an arrest, but I’d still like to ask you a couple of questions if I may.”

“Sure, but I don’t know what help I’ll be. I was here when it happened.”

“Did you know that Caroline was going to get engaged?”

“What did you say?”

“She was going to get engaged.”

“Who to?”

“Danny Peterson.”

I thought for a moment that the line had broken up, but then I realised it was the sound of laughter.

“Who told you that? Caroline wasn’t going to get engaged to that loser. She only went out with him a few times then she gave him his marching orders.”

“Do you know why?”

“She said he was a creep.”

“Was she seeing anyone else?”

No reply.

“Josie? Do you know if she was seeing someone else?”

“Yes, she was.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s really important, Josie. It may help to catch Caroline’s murderer.”

“I honestly don’t know his name. The last time we spoke, she told me she was seeing someone. I’d never known her so happy or excited.”

“Are you absolutely sure she didn’t tell you his name?”

“He was married. That’s why she wouldn’t tell me.”

I believed her, but I was pretty sure I
did
know who he was.

Graham Tyler’s expression, when he saw me walk into the shop, confirmed everything I’d suspected.

Beth was busy with a customer, so I went straight through to the office, and closed the door behind me.

“How long had you and Caroline been having an affair?”

“Don’t call it that.” Tyler put his head in his hands. “You make it sound sordid. We were in love.”

“Then why didn’t you come forward after she was murdered?”

He looked up—there were tears in his eyes. “How could I? I’m married with a child. It would have destroyed my marriage.”

From where I was sitting, he’d already done that all by himself, but this wasn’t the time.

“How long had you been seeing Caroline?”

“For about three months.”

“What about Danny Peterson? How did Caroline hide it from him?”

“Danny?” Tyler managed a half-laugh. “There was no Danny. She’d dumped him before we got together. She thought he was a bit of a joke.”

“Are you sure about that? Could she have been lying to you?”

“No! I’d have known. I loved her. “

Of course you did—just like you love your wife.

Chapter 23

“Hello, Danny.” I stepped out of the shadows just as he opened the door.

“You scared me to death.”

“Sorry about that.” I'd been waiting outside his flat for the best part of an hour when his car pulled up.

“What do you want?”

“I have a question for you.”

He unlocked the door. “I just want to forget all about it. I need to move on. I'm sorry.”

“Just the one question, and then I'll leave you alone, I promise.” I crossed my heart.

“What?”

“Why did you kill Caroline?”

The silence seemed to hang over us for an eternity, but I guess it was no more than a few seconds.

“You're crazy.” He tried to slam the door in my face, but I pushed it open with ease. He went flying backwards and landed in the hallway in a heap. I'd cast the 'power' spell as soon as I’d seen his car arrive

“I'll call the police,” he said, as he got to his feet.

“Be my guest. You can tell them how Caroline ended the relationship ages ago. How she thought you were a joke.”

Danny looked as though I’d punched him in the stomach.

“That's a lie!”

“Not according to Josie Trent. You know Josie, right? Caroline’s flat mate.”

“How would she know? She’s been out of the country for months.”

“She and Caroline spoke on the phone.”

“Josie’s a liar. She always has been.”

“Did Caroline tell you where to shove your engagement ring?”

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

“She did, didn’t she? But you wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, would you?”

“Get out of here!”

He raised his hands to push me, but I blocked him, and then threw him up against the wall.

“You asked her to marry you, and she said 'no'. Did she laugh in your face when you showed her the ring?”

“I loved her!”

“You strangled her!”

“I was only trying to make her be quiet. I had to make her understand how much I loved her. I would have given her anything, and I would never have cheated on her. She was seeing a married man. Did you know that?”

“I did actually. In fact I’ve just been talking to him. Was that the final straw, Danny? Couldn’t you handle the idea that Caroline would rather have shared a married man than be with you?”

“You'll never prove it. The police have already charged Kilburn with her murder.”

I took the digital recorder from my pocket, pressed 'rewind', and then 'play'.

“I loved her!”

“You strangled her!”

“I was only trying to make her be quiet.”

“This had better be good,” Kathy said when I arrived at her house. “Amber and Pearl were harder work than the kids.”

“Sorry about leaving you in the lurch like that, but it was all in a good cause.”

“I heard on the news something about another arrest?”

“Danny Peterson has been charged with Caroline Fox’s murder.”

“Hang on. Wasn’t he your client?”

I nodded. “He was delusional. He'd convinced himself that Caroline Fox wanted to marry him even though she'd ended the relationship ages ago. He couldn't or wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. She was actually seeing someone else.”

“How did you know he'd done it?”

“I have Amber to thank for that. When I saw her swollen finger, I realised it was similar to the injury on Caroline Fox's finger. Danny Peterson had tried to force the ring onto her finger. She laughed in his face and tried to pull it off. He lost control and strangled her. She managed to get one of her hands between his hands, and her neck, but it wasn't enough—he was too strong. The small puncture wound on her neck came from the diamond ring. After she was dead, he forced the ring back off her finger.”

“How come the police didn’t pick up on the fact that she was seeing another man?”

“Her new man was married—someone she worked with. Caroline and he had both kept their relationship under wraps. Even after she was murdered, her new man daren’t come forward for fear of what it would do to his marriage.”

“He should have thought about that before. I still don't understand why Danny Peterson came to see you in the first place.”

“Even though his brother had given him an alibi, Danny was still worried the police might put two and two together and come after him. The so-called 'Animal' serial killer fiasco was a godsend for him. It made it look as though Caroline's murder was one in a series of murders. But the story was in danger of losing legs. He thought my involvement might be enough to resurrect it.”

“What about the guy the police had already arrested. The serial killer?”

“There was no serial killer. That was just press talk. Pauline Lyon and Trisha Lamb were murdered by Derek Cairn—Trisha Lamb’s brother. He’d been an extremely talented hairdresser in his heyday. He'd won awards and appeared to have a promising career in front of him. But then the drink had taken over. He'd already lost a couple of jobs because of his drinking. Trisha had been trying to help him through it. She must have thought the new job was a sign of better things to come, but then he was sacked again. He'd been drunk, and had made a total mess of Pauline Lyon's hair. She'd complained and Cairn was fired. That pushed him over the edge. He was so enraged at being fired that he tracked down Pauline Lyon and killed her.”

“Why kill his sister though?”

“We may never know, but my guess is that Trisha had seen the artist's impression of the murderer's tattoo and realised it was her brother's. The eye witness had described two daggers through a heart when in fact it was actually a pair of open scissors through a heart. She probably tried to persuade Derek to hand himself in to the police. When he refused, she must have threatened to go to them herself.”

“Wow! So you nailed both murderers. What did Maxwell say?”

“About what?”

“Don't be coy. About the small matter of you single-handedly solving all three murder cases for him?”

“I haven't spoken to him since the arrests, but I do have a meeting with him in the morning.”

“Make sure you wear something sexy.”

The next morning, I was in interview room three at the police station. Jack Maxwell, aka smiling boy, was seated opposite me. I'd taken Kathy's advice and dressed sexily—jeans and a baggy jumper.

“Nice décor,” I said.

“Do you ever turn off the smartass?”

“Just making conversation.”

“The stunt you pulled with Peterson was stupid.”

“Getting him to confess, you mean?”

“A secret recording like that is inadmissible.”

“Has he formally confessed?”

“Yes, but—”

“So why are you giving me a hard time?”

“I'm just saying. There are procedures to be followed.”

“Those procedures weren't getting you very far were they? You'd charged the wrong man with three murders.”

“Cairn has now been charged with the murder of Pauline Lyon and Trisha Lamb. Danny Peterson has been charged with the murder of Caroline Fox. Martin Kilburn will be charged with wasting police time, and Peterson's brother has admitted he provided a false alibi. He will be charged in due course. ”

“And?”

“And what? That's everything.”

“I was waiting for the part where you say 'thank you'.”

“I wouldn't hold your breath.” He looked me straight in the eye, hesitated, and then said, “People like you are the bane of my life.”

“People like me?”

“Private investigators.”

“Do you have some kind of P.I. phobia?”

“They’re a blight on society. Things worked out this time, but they don't always—take it from me. If I find out that you have interfered in any more of my investigations, I'll come down on you hard.”

“If that's your idea of a 'thank you', I gotta tell you—it kind of sucks.”

“And now, I want the name of your source inside the force.”

“What source?”

“Don't try to be cute. There are things you couldn't possibly have known without an insider. Someone is feeding you information, and I want to know who.”

“I don't have a
source
inside your
force
. You have my word on that.”

He laughed. “And I'm supposed to take your word for it?”

“You can please yourself, but it's true.”

“How do you explain how you knew about the puncture mark on Caroline Fox's neck? That information was never made public.”

“I used magic.”

“What?”

“Didn't you know? I'm a witch. Would you like me to show you? I could turn you into—”

“We're done here.” He stood up.

“I suppose a reward is out of the question? Or a medal?”

He glared at me. I took the hint. When I was halfway through the door, I turned to him and said, “And seeing as how you were wondering, I’m a great kisser.”

His face flushed red, but before he could speak, I was out of there. What was I thinking? That wasn't like me at all. Still, the expression on his face had been worth it.