Ann Cleeves - Killjoy

‘Did you go out on to the street with them?’

She nodded again.

‘How did you get away?’

‘When the police came it was dreadful, chaotic. I don’t think Connor had expected it to happen like that. They weren’t interested in me by then. I walked up to the Centre. I knew Mum would be worried.’

‘Of course I was worried,’ Prue cried. ‘I was worried all night.’ But she put her arm round her daughter’s shoulder and there was no anger in her voice.

‘What will happen to John?’ Anna looked at the policeman.

‘You don’t really care?’ Prue interrupted. ‘After all he’s done…’

‘There was an accident on the Coast Road,’ Ramsay said. ‘The stolen car which John and Connor were driving was being followed by the police. It was speeding. John was the driver. As you say he didn’t seem to care what happened to him. He hit a Mini and was spun into the oncoming traffic.’

‘Is he dead?’

Ramsay shook his head. ‘He’s very ill. They think he’s got spinal injuries.’

‘And Connor?’

‘He was killed immediately.’

There was a silence. Anna stood up as if she were exhausted and said she was going to bed. The adults watched her leave the room.

‘I suppose the police will be blamed for that as well,’ Prue said bitterly. Ramsay looked at her, surprised. It must be a new experience for her to consider herself a champion of the police force.

‘We’ve got the disturbances under control,’ he said. ‘There was a danger that they’d spread when news of Connor’s death got out, but there were only a few skirmishes on the Starling Farm. There was worse trouble in the west end of Newcastle but that’s all quiet now too.’

Prue stood up and brought the whisky bottle to the table.

‘So the murders of Gabby and Amelia Wood had nothing to do with joy riding after all,’ she said.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Not directly.’ Yet there was a link, he thought, between the crimes of Jackie Powell and her son. They were motivated by the same sense of dissatisfaction, the same inability to live in the stifling atmosphere of conventional family life.

‘Why did she do it?’ Prue cried. ‘ What could she have against Gabby?’

‘Jackie Powell was Gus Lynch’s mistress,’ Ramsay said. ‘You never guessed?’

‘I knew there was someone. He made jokes about her. The little woman, he used to call her. The bored housewife who needed his attentions to bring her a bit of excitement. She’s been more demanding lately but I never realized it was so serious.’

‘Oh,’ Ramsay said, ‘she took it very seriously. She saw it as an escape. She couldn’t stand the thought of being on her own with Evan after John left for university. She thought that when Gus moved out of the area he’d take her with him. Of course he never had any intention of doing that.’

‘How did you know?’ Prue said. ‘You weren’t surprised, were you, when she went for Gus? You were looking out for her.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I thought she must be desperate by then. She hadn’t been home all day. I guessed she would try to see Lynch. That’s one reason why I spent so long at the Grace Darling yesterday evening.’ He poured himself another whisky. ‘I didn’t expect violence, though. I should have realized that was a possibility.’

‘But how did you know she was having an affair with Gus? He didn’t tell you?’

‘No,’ Ramsay said. ‘Joe Fenwick told me. He asked me to his flat on Friday night. He’d seen them together once in the Centre and when she started phoning he realized who she was. He didn’t realize, of course, how important the information was, but he thought I should know.’

‘I still don’t understand,’ Prue said, ‘ why she would want to hurt Gabby. They can’t even have known each other. Not well. I know she’d met Gabby at the party at Barton Hill but they had nothing to do with each other.’

‘Jackie Powell was protecting Gus Lynch,’ he said. ‘Gabby was blackmailing him. She was worried she might not get a grant for drama college. She used the information she had to get money out of him.’

‘She knew about the missing funds?’

He nodded.

‘Did he set Jackie up to it?’ she cried. ‘What a bastard!’

‘No,’ he said. ‘ Really. I don’t think so.’ He found it strange to be defending Gus Lynch.

‘What happened that lunch time?’ Prue asked. ‘Do you know?’

Ramsay nodded. Once Jackie Powell had begun to make her statement there had been no stopping her. The tension of the previous week had been released in a stream of words. But before he gave Prue the details he wanted to explain why he made so many mistakes during the course of the investigation.

‘It took me so long to work out what happened because I had the perspective all wrong,’ he said. ‘I knew the thing had been planned in advance-the fact that the table at the Holly Tree had been booked the day before proved that. But I thought the murderer had planned it. In fact of course Gabby set it all up, using the name of Abigail Keene. She sent Jackie a letter inviting her to lunch-if you’re going to try blackmail it’s best, I suppose, to do it in a civilized setting, and she’d expect Jackie to pay. The reply came in the envelope we found in Gabby’s drawer.’

‘So Gabby knew about the affair too?’

‘She knew everything that went on in the Grace Darling through Ellen.’

‘Yes,’ Prue said. ‘ Of course. Did Gabby blackmail Jackie about her relationship with Gus?’

‘No. Jackie wouldn’t have worried too much about that being made public. It was the missing money that was the subject of the blackmail. Gabby realized she’d got all she could expect out of Gus, and she knew Jackie wouldn’t want him to be charged with fraud and sent to prison.’

‘Tell me what happened,’ Prue said.

‘Jackie had no transport. Evan’s car was in for a service and he was using hers. So she borrowed Gus Lynch’s car. She had the keys-he’d given her a spare set so she could get into the flat. She met Gabby at the bus stop and they walked over the hill towards the Holly Tree. It was foggy that day if you remember. They were very close to the road but no one could see them.’

‘But they never reached the restaurant.’

‘No,’ Ramsay said. ‘ They never reached the restaurant. Gabby was taunting Jackie about the affair-she was there of course at the party at Barton Hill when it all began. Then she began to talk about the missing money. Gus had told Jackie that there had been administrative irregularities at the Centre and he had come under pressure from Amelia Wood to sort them out, but she didn’t know the extent of his fraud. It must have come as a terrible shock. Gabby was threatening to expose him and all Jackie’s dreams of escaping Hallowgate would be ruined. Gabby was walking over the hill ahead of her, full of herself, full of the information she had, mocking Jackie for making a fool of herself with a thief. Jackie lost control. She went up behind her and strangled her with her scarf. She says it wasn’t premeditated and I believe her.’

‘Why didn’t she leave the body there, on the hill?’

‘She panicked,’ Ramsay said. ‘Someone was coming. The fog was very thick, but she could hear voices coming over the hill. She pulled Gabby back to the car. It wasn’t far and she was terrified. She lifted Gabby back into the boot. Gabby was tiny, wasn’t she? There was nothing to her. Then she realized that Gabby’s bag was still on the hill. She flung it over the wall into the nearest garden.’

‘So that was a coincidence,’ Prue said. ‘ She didn’t mean to implicate Amelia.’

‘It was a coincidence,’ Ramsay said. ‘The only one.’