The Secrets of the Shadows (The Annie Graham series - Book 2) (20 page)

They both nodded their heads. ‘Dimwit here said that you couldn’t burn toast in this toaster, he said it had a special cut off button. Isn’t that right Eric?’

Annie looked at the basic stainless steel toaster. ‘Did you dream that last night? That toaster is almost as old as me.’

Another two slices of black toast popped up and all three of them laughed. She left them to it and went to the locker room to get her kit on. She zipped up her body armour, then fastened the heavy black belt around her waist; technically she didn’t need the belt because of the new state-of-the-art stab vests but she found them heavy enough without adding a baton, handcuffs and CS gas to it. Not to mention the assortment of fine books, pens, latex gloves and first aid kit. She was ready for any eventuality; well almost, she had declined the taser training that some of her colleagues had been keen to do. She was naturally clumsy and didn’t have the best track record when it came to safety. Jake had been convinced the only people she would actually hit with the taser would be either him or her, possibly both of them at the same time, but definitely not the target. Picking up her hat from the top shelf of her locker she walked back down the corridor and out of the station, the smell of burnt toast following her.

The church was a short walk from the station and she hoped that the priest was in, if not she would knock at the presbytery next door. If Annie had enough money she would like to buy an old church and renovate it into a home, there was something so peaceful about them, that it might be easier to switch off from the dearly departed if you lived in a house which once belonged to God. Coach after coach of Japanese tourists drove past, their heads bobbing and hands frantically waving. She waved back and grinned, Kav would bloody hate it up here because he wasn’t much of a people person. Annie on the other hand liked it; in fact she was beginning to love it. She reached the old wooden gates to the churchyard and walked through, along the path to the church and tried the door handle. It was locked. She walked around to the rear of the church just in case he was pottering around on such a lovely morning. There was no sign of anyone so she went back out of the gate and walked the short distance to the presbytery. It was a beautiful building and built in the same style as the church, from limestone which would have been from a local quarry. There was a lot to be said for devoting your life to God, priests got the most amazing houses to live in and call home! She opened the much smaller gate and stepped onto the path, the scent of old English roses filled the air, it was beautiful and so was the front garden. Annie stopped next to a bush filled with pale pink blooms; she lifted one of the flowers to her nose, the aroma was divine.

‘You can’t help but stop to have a sniff can you? I do it every time I go in and out of the gate and I don’t think I could ever tire of it.’

Annie turned to see a man with a shock of thick silver hair and crinkly blue eyes standing on the front step to the house. He was wearing a pair of three-quarter denim shorts and a faded Rolling Stones tee shirt, trainers and no socks.

‘They are gorgeous; I don’t suppose you know what it’s called. I’d love to plant some in my garden.’

‘I don’t but I think Father Simon might, he’s in hospital at the moment but you could always ask him when he comes out. I’m sure he would be grateful for a visitor who didn’t want to know about whose turn it is to arrange the church flowers.’ He winked at her and she laughed.

‘I might just do that.’

‘Please forgive me, I’m stopping you from carrying out your duties; I’m sure you didn’t come to discuss the roses. Do you have a more pressing matter?’

‘I’m looking for Father John Trelmain; I just need to have a quick chat with him.’

‘Would you advise that I tell that I’m him or should I have told a white lie and said he wasn’t in either?’

‘I’d rather that you admitted to being you, it’s nothing for you to worry about but it is really important. Do you have five minutes?’

‘For an officer of the law I have all morning if I’m not in any trouble. Please come inside and we can chat without the local residents paying too much attention and it’s much cooler inside, these big houses are lovely and cool in the summer but a bugger to keep warm in the winter. Still you can’t have it all.’

She held out her hand to shake his, ‘Annie Graham.’ He took hold of it, shaking it firmly, then opened the door and walked inside. Annie followed. The hall had a beautiful original mosaic floor, and a huge oak sideboard which was ornately carved to depict the Last Supper. Everything was pristine and immaculate but then she supposed that it would be, no kids had ever run wild in this house to cause any damage. She followed him into the kitchen where a huge table filled the middle of the room.

He pointed to a chair. ‘Would you like a drink?’

‘Coffee would be lovely, thank you. I haven’t had one this morning because I didn’t want to be late for work.’

John laughed, ‘Well that’s no good, I can’t have you running around all morning with no caffeine in your veins – you might not survive, I know that I wouldn’t.’ He made two mugs of coffee and put some chocolate biscuits onto a plate, placing it onto the table in front of her. ‘I think I can guess what this is about – I believe they found another woman’s body in the churchyard three days ago.’

Annie picked up her mug, ‘Thank you. Yes and to be honest we are still at a loss as to why. I’ve been asked by the Detective Sergeant in Barrow to come and have a chat with you to see if there is anything at all you might know that could shed some light on the matter. Do you know of anyone who may hold a grudge against the church or you?’

‘There are probably millions of people who hold a grudge against the church, religion is not everyone’s cup of tea. But personally to my knowledge I can honestly swear on the holy bible that as far as I know I have no enemies as such. Don’t get me wrong there may be the odd jealous Mother’s Union woman who I haven’t given much attention to but these women are even older than me. As far as I know I have no parishioners who have displayed psychotic tendencies if that’s what you are thinking. In fact I don’t have many parishioners full stop. The church is in decline and the majority of people who bother to turn up for mass are my age or older, although there has been an influx of Thai people lately who are the most gentle, beautiful souls that I have ever met. I would never point my finger at any one of those. I would be surprised if whoever is killing these women has ever come to a church service.’

Annie picked up a biscuit and nibbled at it before sipping her coffee. ‘I think you may have a point, maybe they should start checking with local hospitals to see if any patients who hold a fascination which the church have been released. Did you know that the last victim was a police officer? ’

‘No I didn’t, that must be terrible for you all, how do you even begin to cope with such tragedy?’

‘I didn’t know her very well but I feel sorry for her colleagues and friends. She was last seen leaving a pub with a man who we haven’t managed to identify as yet.’ She realised that she didn’t have a picture of the man to show him. ‘Damn, I can’t believe I didn’t print a copy for you to look at, in case you recognise him.’

Annie realised she had just blasphemed in front of a priest but he didn’t look in the least concerned that she had.

‘I’m going out to do a couple of home visits to sick parishioners in the next half an hour but I should be back after two if you want to pop back with it?’ I could get the housekeeper to rustle up some lunch and you can sit and have a proper break.’

‘If you don’t mind that would be great, but don’t bother going to any trouble, I don’t want to put you out.’

‘Annie it would be my pleasure, it’s nice to have some company, it’s very lonely up here. It’s even nicer to have a conversation which doesn’t revolve around how much you’ve sinned this week. It drives me mad, yes I’m a priest and it’s my calling but I have a life as well. I love to read, listen to rock and roll and I’m partial to the odd bottle of wine but that’s between you and me. I don’t want to tarnish my image as a pillar of society.’ He winked at her again and she grinned.

‘Thanks for the coffee Father and the biscuits, you certainly know the way to a girl’s heart.’

He bowed, ‘At your service Officer.’

Annie stood up, sad to be leaving the cool, peaceful kitchen to face the burning sun. She could have stayed all day. If she ever got fed up of working for the police she might just look into becoming a vicar…,

‘I’ll look forward to seeing you around two, if you’re busy don’t worry. Just come when you can.’

Annie made her way down the path and past the gorgeous roses and began to walk back towards the police station so she could email Will and get him to send her a copy of the photo of Laura and her mystery man.

***

Will finished the last line of his email to Grace, which he had read twice over to make sure it all made sense. He pressed the send button and hoped that whoever she was on holiday with would forgive him for just spoiling it. He looked up at the whiteboard, which was above Laura’s desk. The desk was just as she’d left it. No-one had wanted to be the one to move her things so they hadn’t, they had left it, including her mug and empty packed lunch box. The pictures of the two women were very similar, there were pictures of them when they were alive and two larger ones of them before they had their post mortems. They definitely had a look of each other. Same long blonde hair, thin, both pretty although not so much on these photos because these were death masks. Laura the prettier of the two but they both looked relatively peaceful, which was the only saving grace, it would have been terrible if they had been sliced open like the girls last year. Those images were the last things he saw most nights before he closed his eyes, he could never forget them.

He walked to the far corner of the room where the kettle was and switched it on; he was waiting for the DI to arrive. The office was empty which was nice; Will liked his own company, it gave him the chance to think without any interruptions. He took his mug of coffee back to his desk and began checking his emails. He had one from Annie and his heart skipped a beat. He opened it and read down, she’d talked to the priest and he definitely had no suspects. She wanted him to email the picture to take and show him and he cursed himself, had no-one sent out a global email with the picture of the man to see if anyone recognised him? He was just hitting the send button when his phone began to ring, he looked at the display and cringed but answered immediately, ‘I’m so sorry to bother you Grace.’

‘Will, I can’t believe it and to be honest it is very nice here but it’s ever so boring. I was about to resort to buying a new book to read but this is much better.’

Will paused.

‘Oh my, I’m sorry Will. I didn’t mean that how it sounded. Poor Laura, poor you, I’m home in three days but I’ll go over everything you’ve sent me and get back to you, is that okay? Because if not I can come home sooner, but whatever, as soon as I’m back in England I’ll grab some clean clothes and come straight down.’

‘Thank you Grace, that’s really kind of you. I hope I haven’t ruined your holiday too much.’

‘Don’t be soft; you know I love my job as much as you love yours even though it takes over. I want to help and I’m glad that you asked me.’

She ended the call and he felt a little bit better, knowing that her input might be able to make the difference because up to now they didn’t have a bloody thing. The church was just a body dump, Matt had told him that they had died elsewhere because of the Liver Mortis on the small of their backs and necks, yet they had been found lying on their sides. He just had no idea where to start looking. If only they could track down this mystery man. Will had a feeling that he might be falsely pinning all his hopes on this guy as the killer but it was all that they had up to now, along with a boot print they couldn’t say wasn’t from one of the uniformed officers who had attended the scene.

Chapter 23

Annie went straight back out on foot patrol after emailing Will; she didn’t want anyone catching her moping around in front of the computer like a lovesick teenager waiting for him to reply. She wanted to make a good impression and get to know the locals and the best way to do that was by walking around and meeting them. She headed through the town and towards the pier and the boat club, there was something about the place and it was the ideal place to fantasise about being rich. Bowness was busy today; she got stopped to have her picture taken at least six times. She smiled, nodded at them and continued on her way. The Teal had just docked at one of the piers and there were quite a few passengers waiting to board. Annie waved at the crew members who were busy on deck and they paused to wave back. The hills and mountains which surrounded Lake Windermere were a luscious mixture of almost every colour green you could imagine. There were lots of small rowing boats out on the water and a couple of sailing boats which were gently bobbing on the calm surface of the lake; she stood for a moment to take in the view. It was one that she could never tire of and she wished she knew how to write poetry so she could write something to describe how lucky she felt but literature had never been her strong point, she wouldn’t have a clue where to begin.

‘Annie.’

The voice broke into her daydream and she turned to look behind her in the direction that it had come from. She smiled to see Lily making her way towards her.

‘I’m so glad that I’ve seen you, I wanted to ask you if you would like to come to our barbeque on Friday night. Tom gets this unearthly desire to cremate every piece of meat in a three mile radius when the sun shines for more than two days.’

Annie didn’t know what to say, she was touched that they had thought to invite her, but she hated anything like that. ‘I would love to, thank you. I’m working until six but I could come after if that’s okay?’

Lily squealed and then stepped forward and hugged her. ‘Marvellous, it will be a good chance for you to get to know some of the locals and it would be the perfect chance to introduce you to Tom’s son; I think you two would really get on.’