Alex Barclay - Time of Death

‘Hold it right there,’ said Cliff. ‘Mothers have instincts when their kids have done wrong. The crucial thing is — did your mother stand up for you when you were innocent?’

‘I never was,’ said Ren.

‘There you go, then. I’m sure if someone had accused you of something you didn’t do, she would have waded right in there.’

‘But Luke Sarvas is a liar.’

‘He’s a seventeen-year-old kid whose mother thought she’d lost him for good.’

‘You know in a movie where there’s this kid who just has these knowing eyes that slide around the place to flag the fact that there’s something weird about them? Luke Sarvas gives me that vibe. It’s not that I think he’s weird. But he is not some innocent. You can’t be innocent if you’re doing blow and hanging out in titty bars.’ She smiled at Cliff. ‘I know I sound like someone’s grandma, but I liked it when kids were more innocent. God, if I have kids it’s going to be like The Village .’

‘You’d be surprised at how you adjust,’ said Cliff. ‘And you’d be surprised at how you can bring up your children a certain way that acknowledges the world we live in and just gives them the coping skills to navigate through it.’

‘Wow,’ said Ren, ‘would you like to be the father of my children?’

‘Just up until the point of conception.’

Ren smiled.

‘So,’ said Cliff, ‘about you murdering Douglas Hammond…’

Ren shook her head. ‘You heard.’

‘Of course I heard,’ said Cliff. ‘Why were you meeting him on a dark night?’

‘I can’t get into that, Cliff,’ said Ren. ‘I’m sorry. You know I love you, but…I can’t.’

‘Is it to do with your friend Helen?’

Ren nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘And while we’re at it,’ said Cliff. ‘Do you know something about Trudie Hammond?’

‘Here’s the thing,’ said Ren. ‘I know something about me . Like, I did not have a hand in Douglas Hammond’s death. I do, however, look as though I did. So…if I could, for example, work out whether maybe he was the target of his wife’s killer all those years ago, then I could at least have some evidence in my defense.’

‘It probably looks like you did because you lied about it.’

‘There’s more to it than that, Cliff. Which I know is annoying to hear when I’m not revealing what that “more” is. I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be, but don’t get in trouble because you won’t ask for help.’

‘OK.’

‘So, what is the JeffCo Cold Case Unit looking at in the Hammond case?’

‘Running DNA tests — glass fragments, nightgown, carpet.’

‘Any theories?’

‘Firstly, I think it’s weird that Hammond didn’t insist on it earlier. And secondly…well, let’s see what comes up.’

‘Was she raped?’

‘No signs of rape at the autopsy. She did have consensual sex with her husband that morning.’

‘It could just be an intruder expecting to burgle an unoccupied house during the morning when people are out at work,’ said Cliff. ‘They had a nice house, rich pickings…’

‘But I’m wondering, could someone have been waiting for Hammond to come home?’ said Ren. ‘Hammond could have been the intended target.’

Cliff nodded. ‘Maybe he witnessed something and someone needed to get rid of him. Maybe they felt that his wife’s death was warning enough to put him off, but something happened recently that made them think that he could still expose them?’

Ren shrugged. ‘Could it have been connected to someone who was part of the original investigation? Like…a crooked cop.’

‘Doing what?’ said Cliff.

‘I don’t know…maybe Hammond came across something recently that led him to believe a cover-up had happened?’

But could Helen Wheeler fit into that scenario? And if so, where?

‘If in doubt, coffee,’ said Ren.

‘Yes, please,’ said Cliff.

Ren’s phone rang as she was carrying the mugs back in.

‘There you go, baby-daddy,’ she said, putting one in front of Cliff.

‘Thank you, octo-mommy.’

‘I have to do it that many times?’ said Ren.

‘Answer your phone,’ said Cliff.

‘Barefoot and pregnant, that’s all I am to you now.’ She looked at the number flashing on the screen. ‘It’s the lab.’ She picked up and listened. ‘Wow,’ she said. ‘OK.’

‘What?’ Cliff mouthed.

Ren put her hand over the receiver and spoke to Cliff. ‘Curiouser and curiouser. DNA on the nightgown. Semen. And not Judge Hammond’s.’

She took her hand away and spoke to the lab. ‘In that case, could I ask you pretty please to do a cross-match for me?’

Ren sat at her desk and rested her hands on her keyboard as if she intended to use it. ‘Ooh,’ she said, a few moments later. ‘Speaking of mothers in denial…’ She picked up the phone and called Kitty. ‘Mom, Cliff and I were talking about moms and kids and denial, etc. I just wanted to know…’ She got up and walked into the hallway. ‘Mom — when was the last time you spoke with Rita Parry?’

‘Rita, gosh…Well, that is the most upsetting part,’ she said. ‘It was several months ago, before all this cards business. Ricky called me, he said that his mom wanted to speak with me. So, I dropped everything and went over to her. I was with her for hours, Ren. I even fed her while I was there, I got her out of the bed, I helped bathe her, dress her…it was…I don’t think I’m any saint for doing this, by the way. It just seems such a jump to where we are now.’

‘Did she ask Ricky to get you to come look after her?’

‘No, no, it wasn’t like that. She asked him to get me to come talk to her. The rest was just…well, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I wanted to help.’

‘What did she want to talk to you about?’

‘Death. I mean, the two of us, we’re the Catholics on the block, so she thought she could confide in me.’

‘About what?’

‘She wanted to know my opinion about suicide and sin.’

‘The gall of her.’

‘No, Ren, it’s not what you think. It wasn’t about Beau. Well, not strictly speaking. It was more…she wanted to know if it was wrong in the eyes of the Church, her wanting to let go. She wanted to know if it was a form of suicide to let yourself slip away, to stop fighting for your life.’

‘Euthanasia, you mean?’

‘No, no. Just letting go. She knew she was failing and she wanted to give up the fight and let go. Because she wanted to meet Louis again. She told me she was ready to meet Louis again.’

‘She thinks Louis is dead.’

‘She said that she knows he is dead…I think it’s possible that she had known it all along. She wanted to know did I feel that way about Beau, did I want to follow him. That was why she asked me over. So, I told her-’

‘Mom, I don’t need to hear this.’

‘You do,’ said her mother. ‘I told her that I felt that way for quite some time after Beau died. I’m sorry, Ren, but I did. I’m sure that was obvious to all of you, anyway.’

‘We tried not to go there.’ Tears welled in her eyes.

‘Rita said that she had felt that way too. But I told her that many years had passed and that to some degree I had managed to come to terms with the loss and that I loved your father and all of my children so much that I could not bear the thought of being without you. And I told her that if I were in her position right now, I would fight. I would not give up.

‘Rita Parry wasn’t told she had days to live, Ren. She wasn’t given a finite time. I told her that maybe, if I had felt I was hours from slipping away, I would find comfort in knowing that Beau would be there at the other side to meet me, but it wouldn’t be a reason for me to want to go.’