SECRET CRIMES a gripping crime thriller full of suspense (25 page)

Chapter 27: Barbecue

Saturday afternoon

It was one of those warm, mid-October days that seem to be sent from heaven. It was now mid-afternoon. All the heavy morning dew had disappeared from the lawn. The flowers and shrubs were well past their best, but were making a valiant effort to recapture a little of their summer glory. One of the apple trees still bore its crop, a late variety whose fruit glowed in the sunlight.

On the patio, Martin Allen sipped at his glass of beer while tending the barbecue. Hannah, his and Sophie’s elder daughter, was pouring a glass of ale for her boyfriend. Jade was trying to sip from a small glass of beer while keeping hold of her companion, who was clearly nervous at being in her parents’ company for the first time. He didn’t seem to be sure whether he ought to be holding hands with Jade. Barry Marsh smiled and wondered if he should be feeling pity for this young man. Did he know just what he was letting himself in for? Jade was certainly very attractive, but so far this afternoon Marsh had managed to steer clear of her. He never knew what she was going to say and how he should respond to it. Best to avoid her. Gwen put her hand on his arm.

‘Let’s go and chat to Jade,’ she said. ‘She’s such a lovely young woman.’

‘Hello, Barry,’ Jade said. ‘I saw you watching me. I don’t bite, you know.’

How had she seen him watching her? It had only been a couple of surreptitious glances, for goodness’ sake. Before he could speak, Gwen burst into laughter.

‘She’s joking, Barry,’ she giggled. ‘She’s teasing you. Don’t take it so seriously. If you could just see how worried you look!’

Jade took Barry by the arm, pulling him away from Gwen towards a bench seat on the lawn. ‘Sit down,’ she ordered. He did. She sat down beside him, then leant towards him and spoke quietly. ‘Barry, I want you to know how much I appreciate how you’ve looked after Mum at work. How much we all do, really. It’s great to know that you’ll be there most of the time now. It means we can all rest a bit easier. I don’t think anyone realises how worried we were about her over the past few months. Things are going to be so much easier now we know that you’ll be there to keep an eye on her. You’ll do that for us, won’t you? Keep looking after her, I mean?’

‘Of course,’ he replied. ‘I mean, I’ll do my best to.’ He couldn’t think of anything else to say. Jade kissed his cheek, then pulled him to his feet and took him back to Gwen and the nervous boyfriend.

‘Why does she do these things?’ he said to Gwen, once the young couple had moved away. ‘I never know how to react.’

‘I think she likes you,’ Gwen replied. ‘I don’t blame her. I like you too. In fact I like you rather a lot. What was the kiss for?’

‘I think she was thanking me, but I’m a bit confused by it.’

The two of them walked over to have a chat with Benny Goodall, the county’s senior pathologist. He was standing quietly to one side, glass of wine in hand, admiring a bed of late-flowering dahlias. He looked up as they approached.

‘I’m glad you got it solved quickly,’ he said. ‘She’s still not fully fit, as I’m sure you’ve guessed. I would have worried if the case had dragged on too long.’

Barry nodded. ‘We were lucky. That, coupled with some determined work from the team, saw us through.’

‘Do you have the whole picture yet?’

‘Almost. All the major bits and pieces, anyway. John Renton, Sarah’s half-brother, regained consciousness a couple of days ago. He’s been able to fill in a few of the gaps. And we found a lot of stuff at Adams’s house that helped us complete the picture. He’d been seeing Sarah for a long time, since before she split with her first husband. He originally met her through Renton, though Renton didn’t know that they’d become lovers. Apparently they kept the relationship secret because he was in a messy divorce at the time. He was due to inherit some money and didn’t want to put it at risk. Adams had always been besotted with her, but it got a lot more serious when they went on a cruise together and got married on a whim, on a Barbados beach. We don’t know why she did it, not really, since she should have known it would restrict her activities. Maybe she didn’t take it seriously, but Adams certainly did. We think that she regretted the wedding almost straight away, that’s why she didn’t tell anyone. Maybe he got too controlling. But it clearly preyed upon his mind. We think she treated him like just another casual lover even though, legally, they were married. Seeing him when it suited her, refusing to move in with him, keeping her own flat. It was a recipe for disaster.’

‘But why now? Why wait this long? And why resort to such extreme violence?’

Marsh ran his fingers through his hair. ‘That was always our problem. We couldn’t see the motive for why it happened a couple of weeks ago, rather than when they first split. But apparently he didn’t know about the group sex. He just thought she was having occasional affairs, particularly because he was away with the NATO training team a lot. Then he saw a video of her on the internet, performing with two men — Shapiro and Paul Derek. And he felt totally humiliated. He would have seen it as a complete betrayal. He realised that the wedding had just been a bit of a laugh as far as she was concerned, and the resentment built up. He went after all three of them. Shapiro is lucky to still be alive. We still don’t know the sequence of events that Friday night, after Shapiro and Lily Dalton left. We suspect that Adams drugged Renton with some rohypnol on the Friday afternoon in Germany, which is why he went to his room for the rest of the day and slept. That left Adams a clear twenty-four hour window. He had everything timed to perfection. He flew to Bournemouth late that afternoon, taking a return flight on the Saturday afternoon, just after dumping Derek’s body at Burton Cliffs. Military police found some residual rohypnol in Adams’s quarters at Bielefeld, along with some of the benzodiazepine that he used on Paul Derek. He must have been busy even when he returned to Germany, because he traced where Lily lived on the internet. Will we ever get to the bottom of it all? I’m not sure we will. But we are looking into his background. There’s violent stuff there against some other women in his life, including his first wife. Maybe that’s why Sarah left him so soon after their wedding and never spoke about it.’

* * *

When Rosemary Corrigan and Ed Wilton arrived, Sophie tapped a fork on the side of her glass.

‘I’m glad everyone could make it this afternoon,’ she said. ‘I have a whole list of thank-you messages to make, so make sure you’ve all got a drink to see you through the next few minutes.’ She took a swig of beer from her glass. ‘Summer Lightning,’ she said. Gwen looked at Barry, but he merely shrugged his shoulders.

‘It’s the beer,’ whispered Hannah, who was standing nearby. ‘Multi-award-winning.’

‘Anyway,’ Sophie continued. ‘Let me start with Rosemary and Ed, who’ve shown such forbearance and understanding in recent days. Something positive has come out of all of this. They’ve found each other. It cheers me up immensely to think that I played a part in that.’

Rosemary and Ed raised their glasses.

‘To Lydia, who’s come across from Bath for the afternoon. I’m so grateful that she could help out with part of the investigation. She has a great future ahead of her. And to Gwen, on completely unofficial loan from Southampton, so unofficial that her boss doesn’t even know about it, who supplied us with a couple of key bits of information. Thanks, Gwen. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you.’ Another mouthful of beer. ‘Let me move on to the local crew. Tom Rose will be retiring very soon. You deserve a long and happy retirement, Tom. You may not know this, but you’ve always been one of the most widely-respected area inspectors in the county. We’ll all miss you.’

Tom Rose’s wife gave him a peck on the cheek.

‘To Jimmy, soon off to join Kevin McGreedie’s unit in Bournemouth. Thanks for all of your work, Jimmy, on this case and the previous ones, and I hope you’re looking forward to the move. I’m so glad that I could help you land the transfer you wanted. To Jen and Jack, uniformed duo extraordinaire, a huge thanks. You’ve both been fantastic during the past couple of weeks and I can’t thank you both enough.’ She took another sip. ‘As for the new member of our team, Rae Gregson, well, what can I say? She’s done a stunning job, got herself concussed, bruised, badly cut and still limped back for more. And that performance at Gatwick was just amazing, and so brave. You’ve passed your first test with flying colours, Rae, so I can now officially say, welcome to the team!’

A spontaneous round of applause broke out and Rae fidgeted awkwardly before replying. ‘I just want to say thanks to you all. You’ve made me feel so welcome and I feel I’ve fitted in really well. I’ve loved every minute of it.’

‘Now have I forgotten anybody?’ Sophie asked, looking around. ‘Is that everyone covered?’

‘Mum,’ Jade said, ‘Do you want me to put you to bed early with no cocoa? Because that’s what happens to naughty girls.’

‘Oh, I see that I’ve been suitably chastised,’ Sophie replied, laughing. ‘You’ve probably guessed that was the warning that Jade used to get when she misbehaved. Which was fairly regularly, I have to say. So, finally, to Barry. I don’t think he knows what he’s let himself in for, coming to work as my permanent number two. Barry, without you this whole investigation would probably have been a complete shambles. As you probably spotted, I still haven’t fully recovered from my illness, but now that you’re with me I’m not worried about it because I know we’ll be fine. The biggest thank-you of the day goes to you.’

She raised her glass and another round of cheering and applause broke out. Barry Marsh blushed even more deeply, particularly when Gwen planted a noisy kiss on his cheek.

Ed Wilton turned to Rosemary. ‘I know you’ve lost a close friend, and in the worst possible circumstances. But what she said just now was right. We’ve found each other, so something good has come out if it all.’ He squeezed her hand.

‘And you’ve started writing love songs again,’ Rosemary answered, smiling at him. ‘Maybe the world needs a few more of them. Don’t you think so?’

‘Only time will tell. I need to flog them to some gullible singer first.’

THE END

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jasper Joffe and the staff at Joffe Books for helping to add the final touches to this novel. Anne Derges, as the crime editor, has done a first-rate job in helping to smooth out my somewhat rough original.

The Beaumont Society (www.beaumontsociety.org.uk) is the UK’s leading support organisation for transgender people. The society has a network of voluntary “Regional Organisers” across the country who are able to help with problems. The author wishes to thank members of the society for their assistance with parts of this novel. The author would also like to thank Bailey at the NTPA (the National Trans Police Association) for her help in supplying background information about the experiences of police officers with gender identity issues.

THE OTHER SOPHIE ALLEN BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE NOW:

Book1:
DARK CRIMES

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A young woman’s body is discovered on a deserted footpath in a Dorset seaside town late on a cold November night. She has been stabbed through the heart.

It seems like a simple crime for DCI Sophie Allen and her team to solve. But not when the victim’s mother is found strangled the next morning. The case grows more complex as DCI Sophie Allen discovers that the victims had secret histories, involving violence and intimidation. There’s an obvious suspect but Detective Allen isn't convinced. Could someone else be lurking in the shadows, someone savagely violent, looking for a warped revenge?

BOOK 2
DEADLY CRIMES

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A young man’s mutilated body is found on top of the Agglestone, a well-known local landmark on Studland Heath 

It seems that he was involved in a human trafficking and prostitution gang. But why is DCI Sophie Allen keeping something back from her team? Is it linked to the extraordinary discovery of her own father's body at the bottom of a disused mineshaft, more than forty years after he disappeared?