Ann Cleeves - Too Good to Be True

‘But you tried to help her?’

‘Of course! I went to see her in Edinburgh to check she had everything she needed. She wouldn’t take money from Miles. Then she applied for a job at the school here, and I was happy to let her rent the house I own in the village.’ Tom paused. ‘She was a great young woman, full of life and energy. I thought Miles had treated her badly and that she could use some support. Perhaps you know that her parents have problems of their own.’

‘You let Lucy be taken into care,’ Perez said. ‘She’s your niece. How could you do that?’

Tom didn’t answer and Perez changed tack.

‘Sarah saw you together,’ he said. ‘It was in the health centre. You and Lucy looked so alike that Sarah assumed you were the girl’s father.’

Tom frowned. ‘So that’s why she started the petition to get Anna sacked from the school.’ He sounded shocked. ‘I didn’t realise. She tried to talk to me about Anna, but I could only think about my promise to my brother.’ He stopped in his tracks again.

Looking back towards Stonebridge, Perez could see the small grey houses and the wood smoke rising from the chimneys in the still air. It looked very peaceful.

‘What does this mean?’ Tom said. He turned and started to pace back towards the village. ‘Does it help you find out who killed Anna?’

Perez didn’t know what to say to that. He had no idea how important these new facts were. He needed time to think about what he’d just learned.

‘I’m not sure. But I do know that you have to talk to Sarah,’ he said. ‘It’s making her ill thinking that you might have had a child with a younger woman. She’ll keep your brother’s secret. If you still think it’s a secret worth keeping…’

‘Of course you’re right.’ Tom was walking so quickly now that he was almost running. ‘I’ve just been so stupid. I’ll go home and see her this afternoon. I have a couple of hours free. We can talk while the children are in school.’

Perez followed him back to the surgery and stood in the car park until Tom had driven away. He had a sudden sense of being watched and shifted his gaze to the street. Again the strange man was standing at some distance, close to the entrance of the school, and staring at him. It was as if he was desperate to speak to Perez but couldn’t quite find the nerve to approach him.

‘Come here,’ Perez shouted. ‘I might be able to help you.’ But the words just seemed to scare the man and he turned and ran away.

Perez chased the man who’d been following him. He was certain that this stranger held the answer to the mystery of Anna Blackwell’s death. The man took a road that Perez hadn’t explored yet. It led quickly out of the village and rose into dense woodland. Perez thought these must be the woods he’d seen at the back of Sarah and Tom’s house. They were conifer trees, planted very close together, and they blocked out most of the light. It was as if night had come early.

The man left the road and took a path through the woods. Perez was fit, but the stranger seemed to run without effort. He knew just where he was going and Perez soon felt lost. He was out of his comfort zone. He was used to Shetland with its open hills and big skies. There were few trees in the islands and he’d never been in a forest as dense and dark as this before. All he could see was a glimpse of a shadow heading into the undergrowth. Then even that was gone and Perez knew that the man had escaped him.

Despite the cold, Perez was sweating after his run. He stood still for a moment and tried to figure out the way back to the road. The little light that was left was fading, and he knew he’d have no chance of finding his way back to the village in the dark. He stumbled through the trees, hoping to see lights from houses or cars.

And all the time his mind was working. He’d figured out who he’d been following. A glimpse of the stranger’s face had shown a family likeness to a person Perez had come to know well. The man must be Sandy Kerr, Gail’s brother. He’d been one of the people in the wedding photo at the farmhouse. This case was all about family secrets, Perez thought. That was why it had been so hard to find out what had been going on, to find out what had led to Anna’s murder.

Perez lost his footing and slid down a steep bank, landing on a hard surface that scraped his hands. Tarmac. At last, and quite by chance, he’d found the road.

Jimmy started breathing more easily, and the panic he’d felt when he was surrounded by trees slowly left him. He just had to follow the road back to Stonebridge and his hotel. He knew that Sandy Kerr lived with his sister. It shouldn’t be hard to find him and see what he had to say. Perez had the feeling that Sandy wanted to explain what had happened to Anna. He was ready to talk.

Perez had walked a few hundred yards when he heard the sound of an engine behind him. He moved to the side of the road. He was tempted to flag down the car and get a lift into the village. Now that he had an idea what might have happened here in Stonebridge, Perez wanted the case finished as soon as possible. He longed to be on the ferry back to Shetland. He was missing his daughter, Cassie, and his house by the water. He could never be truly happy when he was away from the sea.

Perez put out his hand to wave at the car. In Shetland people were used to giving lifts, and in more remote places they always stopped for walkers. Surely it would be the same in a village like Stonebridge, a village that claimed to be friendly?

But the car showed no sign of stopping or even slowing down. Perez thought perhaps the driver hadn’t seen him, and resigned himself to walking back to the hotel. After all, it couldn’t be that far. He stood on the verge to allow the car to pass safely. The road was very narrow here.

Then he saw that instead of passing carefully by, the car was heading straight towards him.

All Perez could see was the glare of headlights as he jumped from the grass bank into the ditch that separated the road from the trees. There was a screech of brakes as the car careered away from him. It all happened so quickly and it was so dark that he couldn’t even make out the type of car. There was no way he could see who the driver was.

Perez stood shaking by the side of the road. He felt angry, not just because the unknown driver had tried to kill him, but because he’d been foolish enough to put himself in danger.

He had Cassie to look after now, and he should be more careful. He’d bruised his leg jumping into the ditch. It was full of snow, his feet were soaking wet, and his hands were still bleeding from the fall onto the road. He thought his dis-comfort served him right and he started limping back to the village.

At the hotel, Perez managed to get to his room without being seen by the nosy landlady, Elspeth. He would have struggled to explain the torn trousers and the muddy footprints left on the lobby floor. Jimmy jumped into the shower and changed into clean clothes and at last he stopped feeling cold. Then he phoned Robert Anderson, the local cop, with whom he’d worked in Aberdeen.

‘Is there any chance you could get over to Stonebridge this evening?’

‘You think you’ve solved the case for me, do you, Jimmy?’ Anderson’s voice made the question sound like a joke.

Perez answered seriously though. ‘I think so.’

Now Anderson sounded surprised. ‘You’re telling me you’ve got enough evidence to make an arrest?’

‘No physical evidence yet, but I’m sure there’ll be fingerprints on the note I found in Anna’s bedroom.’ Perez paused. ‘Besides, I think the culprit might be ready to confess.’