Sleepwalk (29 page)

‘I want you to stay with me Flick……. At least until the police have caught this man.’

Only until then
?
Did he mean
…………?

‘I don’t want you to go back to that cottage until I know you’re safe. And you’re safe here with me.’

So that was that then. David only wanted her to stay until it was safe for her to return to her own home. The question that had been on her lips for the past few weeks had been answered. He didn’t want her to move in with him…… properly; permanently. He must have seen her disappointment then because he asked her what was wrong.

‘Nothing’s wrong. I ……. I’m really happy to stay here David; really I am. I love being here with you, and Ollie. I will be eternally grateful to you. You’ve helped me through all this and I don’t know how I would have managed without you.’

‘You don’t have to thank me Flick. I would do anything for you. You should know that by now. I’m really very fond of you.’
He just couldn’t say it could he
…………?

Slim had been walking all night. He’d covered almost every street, lane, driveway, pub, club, café, shop and bar searching for Jonquils angel of death and her black chariot and had come up with nothing. He’d found lots of dark blue cars but none of them matched the one in her sketches and he’d seen no one that looked like her killer. He made his way back to the viaduct and unlocked the driver’s door of Vanguards Landrover. When the ambulance had picked her up she had left it parked on the wasteland with the keys inside. He had locked it up and slipped the keys into his pocket. Of course he’d meant to hand them back to her but they had taken her still wrapped in his blanket and without his blanket he would be cold at night. He’d figured it was best he slept inside the vehicle to keep himself warm and so for the last few nights, that’s exactly what he’d done. In any case, she hadn’t asked for the keys and being in the cab was like staying in a luxury hotel. He could stretch out across the three seats with his coat over him. It was bliss. In the morning when he woke up cold he would turn the key in the ignition and let the engine run for a short time until the heater kicked in. He turned the key now and fired the old diesel engine into life. Bits, who was sitting on the passenger side looked at him as if to say, ‘
Come on then.

Let’s go
.’ Slim put his foot down hard on the clutch and lifted the gear stick into reverse, then he released the clutch and the Landrover began to move backwards, slowly at first and then fast……… much too fast and then he remembered he had to put his foot on the brake and the clutch at the same time but his foot hit the brake first and the vehicle juddered to an abrupt stop stalling the engine. The motion lunged his upper body forward and then jarred him back into the seat hard and Bits shot off the front seat and landed in a heap on the floor.

‘Sorry mate; haven’t done this for years. We’ll put it back where we found it eh?’

He tried again. ‘Gear in neutral……. start the engine…….clutch, into first and away.’

This time he got it right and the Landrover came to rest back where he had started with a nice, smooth stop. Of course now he had a taste for it and he couldn’t leave it there could he? And Bits was giving him that
but we haven’t actually been anywhere have we?
look and so he did a few more reverse-forward actions and then felt so confident that he pulled slowly up over the gentle woody incline to the road and away he went…… Slim, the car thief; Slim the law breaker; Slim, the cool dude driving a Landrover. He managed to get into third gear by the time they reached the warehouse and then slowed and stopped, turned around
incredibly competently
, pulled away and managed to get up to fourth gear before he reached the bend. He turned onto the wasteland and reversed the vehicle under the trees very carefully until it was out of sight of prying eyes. He left it there then and returned to his bucket seat beneath the bridge and fed his little canine friend from the bag of dried dog food he carried around in his rucksack. Every week on Giro day Slim bought a big bag of it and it had to last until the next week so he fed him scraps from the skips when he could to make it go further. Occasionally he found dented tins of dog food but mostly Bits had to make do with whatever little luxury came their way. So far this week there had been nothing more exciting than a dented tin of spam which they had shared lovingly. A
s the little dog tucked into his dried meat and biscuits
Slim lay back in his seat, watching Vanguards Landrover from the corner of his eye and he wondered what it must be like to be paid extortionate amounts of money by someone in return for your daily services; to live in a real house with curtains in the windows; to watch tv; to sleep in a soft warm bed at night and to drive around all day looking after the river and the wildlife……. and be paid for doing it…………

Felicity, David and Oliver were at the cottage. They had called in to show Ollie where Vic lived and to give David the chance to see how the loft was progressing before going to her parents for Sunday lunch. Oliver had to see every little nook and cranny of the house and the garden and Felicity held his hand as she showed him around.

‘Wassat Vic?’

They were upstairs in the front bedroom and he had spotted the ladder going up to the loft space. It was amazing to see daylight flooding through the roof space. She had seen it for the first time yesterday after work when the two dormer windows had been fitted up there and she’d been astounded when she’d climbed the ladder to see the floor all boarded and the windows and en-suite walls in place. Bob had told her the stairs were due in on Monday and some more plasterboard had to be fitted around the window recesses and then it would be ready for plastering.

‘Wanna see Vic!’ Ollie had his hands either side of the ladder about to climb it.

She looked to David for some direction.

‘Come on then mate. You go up Flick and I’ll come up behind him. I haven’t seen it yet.’ David was just as excited as she was.

The three of them climbed the ladder and Ollie ran to the far side of the huge room excitedly. They looked out of the front window which overlooked the road and the fields on the opposite side, then they went to the back window and looked out.

‘Wow!’ David was enthralled. ‘That is some view Flick. You can see right over the valley. I reckon you’ve added a lot of value to this place by doing this. I’m no expert on property prices but I do know a very good estate agent……….’

‘I’d say when it’s finished it’s added at least ten thousand to the value so you were right David, it was well worth doing.’

‘It’s much bigger than I thought.’ David was in his property developer mode. ‘In fact, it’s more like an apartment than a bedroom. You could actually put a little kitchenette in here Flick alongside the bathroom and rent it out as one; become a Landlord. You could earn some money toward your mortgage payments …… and you’re in the right business to know how to manage a let.’

‘Let’s not get too carried away, eh? I don’t much fancy having someone living right above me; I’d lose my privacy.’ Felicity smiled as she said it but she had had the very same ideas when she had seen the conversion yesterday.

‘Woah! Ollie mate come away from there.’ David ran to the hole in the floor which would become the landing at the top of the second flight of stairs and scooped up his son before he managed to climb back down the ladder.

Felicity had had another idea yesterday too…. That if David did ask her to move in with him she could let her house and the loft and have two incomes which would more than cover the cost of her mortgage payment leaving her free to contribute to his mortgage and pay back the money he had loaned her. But he hadn’t asked her….. and it didn’t seem likely that he would. As she gazed over the vast green valley and the distant hills at the back of her new loft conversion she sighed a deep mournful sigh. So much had happened in the last six months. Everything had changed. Whoever it was that had invaded her privacy while she slept alone; hit her over the head; brutally took the life of her poor little cat and started the fire here in the sanctuary of her little cottage they seemed to have gone quiet. Perhaps they had moved on. She had moved on. She had found a life with David…..and she had never dreamed this view existed.

Claire Peters had gone over both cases so many times she thought her head would explode. She had the files on her desk in front of her. Their prime suspect in both cases was Eleanor Wilson, although, other than a little background information no one really knew very much about her and there was nothing more that could be done until Saturday evening when the plane from Crete arrived at Gatwick, then they would be waiting for her. Ellie worked part time at a flower shop near Exmouth and her boss had spoken highly of her, as had everyone else Claire had spoken to; neighbours in
Rose Lane
and at their previous address. According to her current employer Ellie had qualified as a junior school teacher and used to work at a village school on the Devon/Dorset border but had left her profession when she became pregnant with her first child, Oliver. He obviously didn’t have a close relationship with her though as he was under the impression that she still lived at
Rose Lane
with David. Claire made some enquiries and found the name of the school where Ellie had worked and decided to take a trip up there. She contacted the Headmaster and set off along the A35 to
Dorset
. By the time she arrived it was almost
ten thirty
and the little village school was already on its mid morning break. The playground was awash with children, laughing, skipping, screaming and shouting. She walked between them and they made a path for her to the front entrance with its huge oak doors that opened into a hallway with a polished wooden floor. A sign on the wall contained the names of classrooms; their areas and locations. Claire found the location for ‘Headmasters Office’ and made her way along a wide polished corridor. Paintings, poetry, mathematical charts and scientific diagrams drawn by the children adorned the walls on either side of her as she passed by empty classrooms and came to a door at the end of the corridor marked ‘Charles Braithwaite-Headmaster’. She knocked the door and a deep voice said ‘Come’.

‘Mr Braithwaite? DC Peters from East Barton constabulary.’ She held her hand out to him and he stood briefly and shook it and then sat back down in his padded leather swivel chair and beckoned her to the chair in front of his desk.

‘Now then Detective Constable Peters; I understand you want to talk about Eleanor Wilson? What has she been up to then to bring you over here?’

‘We don’t know that she has ‘been up to’ anything Mr Braithwaite. Her name came up during our investigation of a particular case and we simply want to eliminate her from our enquiries. I don’t know if you can help. I’m just trying to paint a picture……

Find out what kind of person Mrs Wilson is. What can you tell me about her?’

‘Ah. In that case DC Peters, perhaps it’s not me you should be talking to. I can tell you she is a first class teacher. The children loved her and were quite upset when she left to raise a family. We had various supply teachers for almost a year after she left in the hope she would return to work after the baby……. but it wasn’t to be. She left her mark on year two I can tell you.’

‘Left her mark?’

‘They found it hard to adjust to anyone else after she left. Children don’t like change DC Peters. They gave a few replacements quite a hard time. Ellie is a lovely girl with a sweet nature; and it rubbed off on her pupils. Always happy they were. Happy children learn more.’

‘When she worked here, where was she living?’

‘Had a flat with her boyfriend. What was his name? ……….. David. Nice chap. They got married that first year in the summer holidays.’

‘I see. So you don’t know anything of her personal life?’

‘Ah. Well that’s where I fall short. Our year two English teacher might be able to help you there; Mary Darch. They were quite close, she and young Ellie.’

‘Ok. Well thank you Mr Braithwaite. You’ve been very helpful. Do you think it might be possible for me to speak to Miss Darch now?’

‘No. I suspect you’ll have to wait until lunch time. Break’s over now. She’ll be in lessons until
twelve thirty
.’

Claire said she would come back then. Mr Braithwaite arranged for her to meet with Miss Darch at
twelve thirty
in the school canteen and that was when she acquired the history that actually had some relevance to the case.

‘Would you like some lunch DC Peters? It’s a bit bland sometimes but very healthy.’

‘Please, call me Claire. Titles are so formal.’

They sat at a table in the designated staff area of the canteen; out of earshot of the children who had been playing Chinese whispers …
she must be a new teacher
…… and giving her curious glances since she had returned at lunch time.

Mary Darch was a woman in her late thirties and had dark hair which she wore in a shoulder length bob style and her face was quite plain in a scholarly kind of way.

‘Now….. Claire…… First of all, she’s not in trouble is she, Ellie?’

Claire shook her head as she cut into the baked potato smothered in healthy grated cheese…….

‘We’re investigating a case and her name came up. She’s out of the country on holiday at the moment so I can’t talk to her and I just want to know a little about her so that we can eliminate her from our enquiry; that’s all.’