Ann Cleeves - The Moth Catcher

In her own mind she’d decided Shirley was a veggie. And, indeed, the list seemed to confirm that: olive oil, basil, pasta, green peppers, mushrooms. No meat. No wine, either.

The list had been written on the back of an envelope. Holly turned it over and saw Shirley’s name and address. And a postmark, unusually clear: Wychbold, Herefordshire. Where Alicia Randle lived and where Patrick had grown up.

Joe was heading up the briefing because Vera was at Shirley Hewarth’s post-mortem. Everyone was scratchy and wired: lack of sleep, an overload of caffeine and the excitement that comes with a possible break in the case. An underlying sense of failure because they hadn’t caught the killer before another person had died. He’d been home to snatch a couple of hours’ rest and a shower, and now he stood in front of the team trying to order his thoughts. To wonder what Vera would do to get them to focus, if she was standing in his place. There was a mumble of chat as people got more coffee, found places to sit.

Holly slid up to him. He hadn’t seen her since she’d been sent to Shirley’s flat to notify any possible next of kin of the woman’s death. A thankless task. She looked cool and refreshed, though she’d probably had less sleep than him. She waved a clear plastic evidence bag in front of his nose.

‘What am I looking at?’

‘A shopping list. I found it in Hewarth’s house.’ Her hair was still damp from the shower. She turned over the plastic bag so that he could see Shirley’s address written on an envelope. ‘Look at the postmark.’

‘Herefordshire.’ Now his mind was racing.

‘Wychbold, Herefordshire. Where Alicia Randle lives.’

‘Could be a coincidence.’ But he didn’t really believe that.

‘It’s a very small town. I checked. So it’d be a very big coincidence.’

‘I don’t suppose you found the letter that was inside it?’ Because understanding why Patrick Randle, or his mother, had written to Shirley Hewarth would make all the difference to the investigation.

Holly shook her head. ‘I had a quick look, but the boss told me to leave it for the search team. They’re going in first thing today.’

‘So you told Vera?’ Of course she had, Joe thought. That’d be the first thing she’d do. Like a kid wanting a gold star. To be recognized as top of the class.

‘She said not to phone you, in case you were managing to get some sleep.’

He didn’t know what to say to that, so he just nodded and called the briefing to order.

‘Now we have another victim, and this has to stop before anyone else dies.’ He felt the need to say that, though Vera wouldn’t have bothered. She’d have taken it as read. ‘Of course this killing will be part of the Gilswick Valley investigation. Hewarth and Benton were obviously connected. She’d been his boss and, when his contract ended, he worked at the charity as a volunteer. Besides, Hewarth’s body was found only a mile or so from the first scene. Now I’d like to concentrate on Hope North-East. We need to find out everything there is to know about the organization. It’s run by a group of trustees. Who are they? Let’s get the forensic accountants to check out the finances. And we want a detailed list of the clients. Most of them will be known to us. Did anyone have a grievance? What was going on there, to make two of the workers so vulnerable? And why the time gap between the two murders? That doesn’t fit the profile of an offender with a grudge suddenly taking it into his head to wipe out the people who’d pissed him off and going on a killing spree.’ Joe paused for breath.

Charlie stuck up his hand. ‘Where does Randle fit in then? Are we saying that the intended targets were Benton and Hewarth all along, and Randle got in the way? That the moth-trapping connection was just a coincidence?’

‘The moth-trapping brought them together.’ It was a new young officer, cocky. ‘That’s why Benton was out at Gilswick. Like you said, Randle might just have got in the way. Bloody unlucky.’

Joe raised both hands to catch their attention. ‘We think this might be a bit more complicated than Randle being collateral damage. Last night Holly found a connection between him and Shirley Hewarth. Tell them, Hol.’

He listened while Holly explained about the envelope and the postmark. There was silence as they tried to take in the implication of the link.

‘Of course there are other connections between the victims.’ Joe had been leaning against his desk and now he pushed himself to his feet. ‘Shirley Hewarth was involved with the Redhead family, whose daughter Elizabeth will be released from prison this weekend. Hewarth’s body was found very close to the Redhead home. Also close to the big house where Randle was acting as house-sitter, so we have geographical proximity on all sorts of levels.’ He felt suddenly overwhelmed. There was too much information and too many complications. Vera might enjoy the challenge of a labyrinthine investigation, but he preferred things to be straightforward

Holly stood up. ‘Any idea how Shirley got to the valley at Gilswick?’

‘We found her car, tucked into a farm gateway close to where Randle’s body was found off the track. No idea whether she drove it there or if that was the work of the killer.’ Joe thought they had very few ideas about what might have happened the night before.

Holly was still on her feet. ‘Do we have a next of kin yet? When I looked round the flat I had the impression there was a man in Shirley’s life. A son?’

That gave Joe the chance to leave the speculation behind and to pass on the concrete details that had been gathered overnight. He stood in front of the whiteboard and pointed to a photograph of Shirley.

‘Shirley Hewarth, aged fifty-eight. She was divorced from Jack Hewarth ten years ago. He was a journo with The Journal in Newcastle until he was offered redundancy several years ago. He hasn’t worked since, but he’s older than her and now lives off his pension. There’s one grown-up son, Jonathan, now twenty-one. When the couple first divorced, Shirley stayed in the marital home, but when Jonathan went off to uni they sold it, split the profits and Shirley’s been living in the flat in Cullercoats ever since. At around the same time she left the probation service and started work for Hope North-East.’

‘Have we tracked down the ex and the son?’

‘Jack Hewarth still lives in Kimmerston with a new partner, who has her own business, that classy dress shop on Front Street. He seems to go in for younger women. Jonathan is a third-year student at Northumbria University. Doing drama and music. Living in a student flat in Heaton. They’ve both been informed of Shirley’s death.’ Joe paused for breath. ‘Obviously we’ll need to talk to them at some point today, because they could give useful background to the victim, but I don’t see either of them as potential suspects.’

The door banged open and Vera sailed in straight from the post-mortem, scarf trailing behind her like a pennant, bags in each hand.

‘We don’t talk about her as “the victim”,’ Vera said. On her high horse. ‘Her name’s Ms Hewarth. Or Mrs Hewarth. Or Shirley. She’s entitled to a bit of respect.’ A pause. ‘She was killed by stabbing, like Benton. Is that significant? Not killed where she was found, so we’re looking for yet another murder scene. Hol says there’s no sign of violence in the flat where she lived, but we’ve got the CSIs checking that now. There’s no weapon yet, but Paul Keating did go so far as to say it looked like another kitchen knife. How far have you got, Joe? Have you told them about the envelope? Which would indicate that all three of the deceased were connected. Find the connection and we’ve got the killer.’