Butterfly Grave (Murder Notebooks) (12 page)

I know you said that the girl’s sister is in your form group at school. Dreadful for her but lucky she’s got you as her teacher. You’ll look after her, I know you will.

Josh is well and I’ve met this new woman, Kathy. She’s just been transferred to our team. She’s pretty amazing and I think things might work out for us. She’s got a daughter, Rose, who plays the violin.

I was thinking of coming up to see you in August, maybe the weekend of the 23rd. Kathy and I could drive up on Friday night and come back Monday. Her daughter can stay with a friend and so can Josh. It’s ages since I saw you and I’d like you to meet her!

Sorry again about not being able to help regarding the Butterfly Murder. Bren

The three of them were quiet. Skeggsie had turned away and was looking at the remaining cuttings which he’d spread over the table. He seemed to be sorting them out into some order. Rose read over the letter again. Joshua was muttering.

‘Stu must have asked Dad to take on this case. This girl who was murdered. He must have sent this book of clippings to Dad and then Dad said he couldn’t.’

Skeggsie was moving the clippings around on the table.

‘Why aren’t they in the book?’ Rose said, pointing.

‘These date from
after
your dad’s reply.’

Joshua closed the book and Rose moved round the table so that she was on the other side of Skeggsie. She scanned the headlines.
Man Accused of Butterfly Murder Found Dead; Butterfly Case Man Slain; Accused Man Died From Single Stab Wound; Lister Found Dead in Front Garden; Simon Lister Killed in Cold Blood.

‘He was killed on Saturday 23
rd
August,’ Skeggsie said. ‘Someone knocked on his door and he went to answer it. He was stabbed once in the heart and his body pulled behind a hedge in his front garden. He was found by the next-door neighbour the following morning.’

‘Twenty-third of August, the weekend that Dad said he might come up. What do we do with all this?’ Joshua said, sighing. ‘What does it mean?’

‘Got your laptop?’ Skeggsie asked.

Rose nodded. She went upstairs and picked it up off her bed and turned it on as she walked back down. She placed it on the table. Skeggsie sat down and tapped the keyboard. After a few moments he let out a low whistle.

‘Look at this!’

He spun the laptop round and on the screen Rose saw a single newspaper story. It was big, perhaps from a front page.

Butterfly Killer Had Planned Another Murder

The killing of Simon Lister two weeks ago has prevented a second murder. Police sources say that searches of Lister’s house and his computer have shown details of a second child who he had been stalking. His computer showed hundreds of pictures of the girl who the police are calling Child X. Along with this are lurid plans to abduct and murder this girl.

Police have also found evidence of a lock-up which was hitherto unknown. In this lock-up there were items of Judy Greaves’s clothes which were not found at the time her body was discovered. They have also found, disturbingly, items of clothing belonging to at least two other unnamed girls.

An inquiry is being set up to investigate these items and the identity of the victims of this sexual predator.

Police say that the hunt for the murderer of Simon Lister is ongoing.

Skeggsie clicked on a couple more articles. The headlines were the same:
Butterfly Killer Proven at Last; Justice at Last for Judy’s Killer; Butterfly Murderer a Serial Killer?; Simon Lister’s Murder Saves Second Girl.

Joshua had sat down. Rose was the only one standing. She felt agitated by what she’d read. She felt like she wanted to walk up and down. The three of them were frowning, Skeggsie with a small V in his forehead, Joshua with his eyebrows pursed, Rose chewing her lip.

Eventually Skeggsie spoke.

‘Do you think Stu might have done this?’

Joshua shook his head fiercely. ‘Stabbed Simon Lister? No! Stu is such a gentle guy. You know him, Skeggs. You know he wouldn’t hurt a fly!’

Skeggsie nodded. He caught Rose’s eye and gave a slight shrug.

‘Why did he keep all this stuff?’ Rose said.

‘Because it meant something to him? Because he felt for this girl in his class, the sister of the dead girl?’

‘Why keep it locked up? And then there’s the notebook . . .’

‘It’s an exercise book, Rose. School is full of them. There’s no code in it. It’s probably got nothing to do with the others. This is just something that Stu kept for reasons of his own. I’m going to put it away now,’ he said.

He stood up, opened the steel box, scooped up the clippings and the book and the envelope and tossed them back inside. Then he slammed the lid down and locked it.

‘Then there’s the name,
butterfly
,’ Rose said, glancing down at her arm where her tattoo was.

‘Stu did not have a tattoo of a butterfly. He did not!’

‘Don’t get upset,’ Rose said.

‘How can I not get upset! My uncle would never do anything like that. He just couldn’t. He is a good person.’

‘I’ll do some research at Dad’s, ask him about this case. He was in post then. There’s bound to be something he remembers about it.’

Joshua nodded stiffly.

‘Let’s go to the pub tonight,’ Skeggsie said. ‘It’s Christmas Eve. We’ll have a drink at the Lighthouse. Let’s just leave all this stuff to ferment for a while.’

Joshua got up without answering. He went out of the room with the steel box under his arm. They heard him go up the stairs.

‘This is complicated,’ Skeggsie said.

‘I’ll try to get him out tonight.’

‘I bet I’ll find something about this on the net, something more telling than the newspapers. And I’ll call Eddie about the registration number of the SUV.’

She walked to the door. Outside the snow was falling heavily, making a white carpet on the pathway. Skeggsie put his hood up.

‘Thanks for coming round,’ Rose said.

‘No thanks needed.’

She watched him walk and remembered his new haircut. Just like Eddie’s.

THIRTEEN

When Joshua returned from the hospital Rose hovered around him. She was anxious, wondering how he’d got on with his uncle after the discovery of the phone and the Butterfly Murder papers.

‘I never said anything to Stu about what we found,’ he said. ‘He seems much better now. His MRI scan was clear and they’re talking about discharging him in two or three days.’

‘That’s good,’ she said. ‘I’ll come with you tomorrow to see him.’

He nodded.

‘I can’t talk to him about any of this, Rose. It’s all too mixed up in my head. It’s like there’s this other person emerging from my uncle, a guy I thought I knew really well. But still, why should that surprise me? I thought I knew my dad well.’

Rose nodded. People weren’t always the way they seemed.

Then he’d gone upstairs and had been in Stuart’s bedroom most of the afternoon. There was no banging of drawers or sounds of anything being moved around so she guessed that he was sitting at Stu’s computer, opening and closing files, looking through Stu’s search history, trying to find clues as to what had been going on in his uncle’s life.

Rose turned the television off. The place was untidy but she couldn’t be bothered with it. She made two hot drinks, a tea for her and a milky coffee for Joshua. She took them upstairs and pushed Stuart’s bedroom door open. The room was in a mess, the bed still moved out of its place from when they had been searching earlier. Joshua was staring at the computer screen. To the side of the keyboard she could see the cream envelope with the words
Last Will and Testament. Stuart Johnson.

‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Here’s a drink.’

‘Thanks.’

‘I’m going to meet Skeggsie at the pub tonight,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you come?’

‘I need to get this stuff out of the way first.’

She put her drink down and laid her hand on his shoulder. ‘Just come for a couple of hours – to give us a break. Then we can start thinking straight about all this.’

He placed his hand over hers. ‘I don’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t for you, Rosie,’ he said, his voice croaky.

‘Don’t say . . .’

She couldn’t continue. His hand was holding on to hers tightly.

‘I can be a real pain but . . .’

He was staring into the screen and couldn’t see her face. She was glad. Her feelings were probably written all over it. She ruffled the back of his head with her other hand, his hair wiry in her fingers.

‘And Skeggsie,’ she said. ‘Don’t forget him.’

He turned round, letting her hand go.

‘Of course. Skeggsie is crucial. I just wish you two liked each other more.’

‘We’re getting there,’ she said.

About nine she changed her clothes to go out. She wore a black blouse and jeans. She got her tiny make-up bag out and applied eyeshadow, thick mascara and plum lipstick, then put on the blue earrings. Two shining discs of colour that contrasted with her smoky eyes and dark pink lips.

Why not? It was Christmas Eve.

Joshua came out into the hall as she was going.

‘You look different,’ he said.

She was looking in the hall mirror, pulling her coat on, getting ready to leave.

‘It’s the earrings,’ she said, opening the front door. ‘They give me that bit of sparkle. See you later?’

She stepped out into the snow, pulling her hood up.

‘In an hour or so,’ he called after her.

Walking along the dark streets towards the Promenade she wondered if he would come. The snow crunched under her feet and some cold air seemed to worm its way up her sleeves. She hugged herself and walked more quickly. She turned out of the street and on to the road that led up to the Promenade.

It was dark, a couple of the streetlights not working. She speeded up and almost bumped into a man as he stepped out of a shop doorway.

‘
Big Issue
?’ he said, holding a magazine inside a plastic wrapper.

‘You made me jump!’ she said angrily.

‘Sorry, missus,’ he said.

She stepped round him and walked on but then felt bad. When she looked back he’d retreated into the doorway. She made a
tski
ng sound and got some coins out of her purse. Then she paused. She pulled a note out. It would leave her a bit short but she could probably find a machine somewhere tomorrow or the next day. She walked back to the doorway and held out the note.

‘Thank you, missus,’ the man said and held out a copy of the magazine but she waved it away and walked on, holding the sides of her hood so that it didn’t blow back.

The pub was busy. Skeggsie was already there in the back room, saving some seats. Rose edged her way up to the bar. A weary-looking woman served her, calling her ‘pet’ four times. She bought two bottles of beer and then struggled through the crowd to get to the back room. It was less crowded there and the music was lower.

‘Here you are,’ she said.

‘Thanks.’

‘Did you get a chance to talk to your dad?’

He nodded. ‘He knew loads about it. In 2002, when the murder happened, he was attached to the Wallsend district. The murder was in the Whitley Bay area so he didn’t deal with it directly but everyone knew about it and some of the detectives in Wallsend were transferred across to take part in the investigation. He said it was talked about for months.’

‘You didn’t mention Stuart?’

‘ ’Course not! I’m not an idiot.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Dad said that the police in Whitley Bay were certain that Simon Lister was the killer. They were furious when he was acquitted. For months afterwards they kept an unofficial eye on him but he never put a foot wrong. When he was murdered a cheer went up in the pub that the police used. They had to maintain a professional stance of course but then they found things that were chilling. He was a very nasty man, my dad said.’

‘They never solved the crime.’

‘They tried to. They had to. It was all over the papers and it had to look as though they were trying. They investigated two of the jurors and the lead detectives on the case. They interviewed over a hundred people. Simon Lister had a lot of enemies but they didn’t find any evidence. In the end a policeman from London was brought in to look at the case.’

Rose drank her beer.

‘My dad said that the feeling among the ordinary detectives was that whoever stabbed Simon Lister deserved an award, not a prison sentence. Whoever did it actually saved the life of another girl who Lister was planning to abduct.’

‘But whoever did it didn’t know that at the time. That wasn’t known until after.’

‘True but isn’t the world a better place without someone like Lister in it?’

Rose frowned. ‘You can’t believe that? That murder is right?’