Fall From Grace (8 page)

‘A body has been found, Tim,’ said Sara, down the line. ‘A young teenage girl who’s been identified as Shona Higgins. She lived on the Tatton estate.’

*

It was Anita Cowley’s first morning at the social services centre as ‘office assistant’ and she’d turned up looking like she’d defy anyone to say a single word to her that she didn’t like. Her hair hadn’t been washed and was scraped back in a tight ponytail. She wasn’t wearing any make-up and her skin was pasty. She had on a black and white track suit and Paul would swear there was a stain of what looked like baby sick on the left shoulder. She hardly looked like she was on her first day in a new job, her first ever job at that. Her face was tripping her up. Her arms and legs were folded as she sat defiantly on a chair behind the main reception desk.

‘So what am I actually doing here?’ she asked.

‘I’ve given you a job, Anita,’ said Paul who’d had the idea after being at Lorraine Cowley’s house, the morning he’d called about Anita’s brother Sam.

‘Because I think you deserve a chance,’ said Paul, who knew this was going to be a long haul but he wasn’t going to give up. ‘When I came to see your mother about your brother Sam the other day it occurred to me that you’d be perfect for the vacancy we had here.’

Anita then took a call on her mobile at ten past nine.

‘Hiya! Oh God, that’s mental… I can’t believe his parents are going for custody of her when you’re the one who’s given up school to look after her … it’s just so not fair on you … ‘

She went outside to take the rest of the call. When she came back she offered no apology or explanation. Just the same set face as before.

‘It was me friend, Belinda Hunter, okay? She’s dead upset because the parents of the father of her baby have dared to say that she’s not a fit mother and they want to go for custody. I think they’ve got a bloody cheek if you ask me. I mean, what’s it got to do with them or the baby’s father? The baby belongs to my friend, end of.’

‘How old is your friend?’

‘She’s fifteen.’

‘Well then don’t you think that the parents of the father of her child might have a point? They only want the best for their grandchild.’

‘No, it isn’t your right!’ said Paul, angrily. ‘It’s nobody’s right to have a baby, Anita. But it is society’s right to expect you to take advantage of the education the taxpayer provides you with. You can’t use a baby as an excuse to absolve yourself of personal responsibility and check out of normal life.’

‘Why can’t I if it’s what I want?’

‘Because you’re not the one who’s paying for it,’ said Paul. ‘You shouldn’t have a child unless you can support yourself and it. You can’t define yourself just by having a baby but you’ll be a better role model for your daughter if you get down to work and do something for yourself. It isn’t your right to have that baby but it becomes everyone else’s responsibility because you’re too young to support it.’

‘Hiya Mam… Well I’ve not done anything yet… yeah, I know it’s gone ten o’clock… yeah, you’re right, it is a complete waste of time… look, I’d better go, I’m getting the evils… no don’t worry, Mam, I won’t take any shit off anybody… yeah, see ya, ta ra.’

‘Anita, the more educated you are, the more choices you’re able to make and the less threatened you are by anything. Don’t you see that? Don’t you see that being at work and earning a salary is more beneficial to your child than sitting at home all day and claiming off the social?’

‘ …exactly. Your Mum hasn’t paid anything into it either. Benefits should be about a fair system of exchange, Anita. You work, you pay in, you get something out when you need it. Am I making sense?’

Anita sighed. ‘Whatever.’

‘Anita, your baby is being well taken care of in our day care centre. I’m not even asking you to work full-time. Be here for nine every morning and you can leave at three. Anita, a lot of good teachers, good well-trained dedicated teachers tried to make you see that you do have choices in life but you threw it all back in their face.’

‘School was boring,’ Anita declared, ‘I hated every minute of it. It didn’t teach you anything you really needed to know like how to bring up kids and that.’

‘I mean that if all you want out of life is a string of meaningless relationships, ever more demanding kids and a never ending struggle with money then you’ve arrived. This is it. But you’ll never get to travel, never be able to buy yourself anything nice to wear, never be able to feel really proud of yourself and what you’ve achieved.’

‘Look, I don’t care about any of that, right? It’s all crap and you’re talking rubbish. All I want is my baby and my benefits.’

‘But life isn’t all about taking everything you can and giving nothing in return,’ said Paul. ‘Anita, we are all prepared to teach you whatever you need to know to make a go of this job for the sake of yourself and your baby. Now will you at least meet me halfway?’

*

‘The Derbyshire police have sent us their initial report, sir,’ said Sara. She was addressing the whole squad but directing her speech at Superintendent Hargreaves. ‘According to forensics her body had only been there, they estimate, for less than twenty-four hours and DNA testing was able to identify her as the same Shona Higgins who we did for shop lifting two years ago.’

‘And what else does it tell us, DCI Hoyland?’ Hargreaves asked.

‘Shona Higgins had been the victim of a nasty assault, sir,’ said Sara who caught her breath before continuing. ‘She’d been strangled. There was also clear evidence of recent sexual activity and the bruises and marks on her backside and the inside of her legs suggests it wasn’t consensual. Shona was fifteen years old and now she’s never going to see her baby son grow up.’

‘Have her parents been informed, Sara?’ asked the Superintendent.

‘Yes, sir,’ said Sara, ‘they’re inconsolable as you can imagine, but they did admit something very interesting. Apparently, Shona went missing a month ago. She went to school on the morning of the 15
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and never came back but her parents didn’t call us or inform any of the authorities.’

‘Did they say why?’ asked Tim.

‘No, DI Norris,’ answered Sara. ‘But it’s not that they couldn’t say it’s that they wouldn’t say. Someone has frightened them into silence. I’ve got uniform conducting house-to-house enquiries and if they come up with anything they’ve been told to inform me immediately.’

‘Good work, DCI Hoyland,’ said Hargreaves. ‘Does the DNA tell us anything else?’

‘There are at least twenty different examples of male contact, sir,’ said Sara, quietly. ‘But it’s going to take a while for them to try and identify it all.’

‘Remote Derbyshire peak land, sir. It was a deer stalker who chanced upon her body. Gave him quite a shock I believe, as I suppose it would. There was a lot of overnight rain in the area which washed away any trace of tyre marks from a vehicle. There’s a farm two miles to the west and the nearest village is three miles to the north. The main A6 runs about five miles to the east and there are only narrow lanes and dirt tracks from there to the spot where Shona’s body was dumped. Our Derbyshire colleagues are making enquiries in the area.’

‘We’ve got to push harder on the parents,’ said DC Steve Osborne.

‘Well,’ said Sara, ‘as soon as it’s appropriate, sir, I’m going to visit Shona Higgins’ parents myself. See if I can get them to talk or at least to open up enough to give us something to go on.’

‘Ma’am, why isn’t it appropriate to do that now?’ chirped Steve Osborne again.

‘It’s not the job of the police to twist the knife of someone’s grief, DS Osborne,’ said Sara. ‘The officers who saw Mr and Mrs Higgins said they were genuinely distraught. This has clearly come as a huge shock to them and I’m only talking about leaving it for twenty-four hours. Any problem with that, DS Osborne?’

Steve was suddenly self-conscious. ‘No, ma’am,’ he said, looking over at the Superintendent, ‘none at all. I was just asking a question.’

‘Good,’ said Sara, ‘well in the meantime, we’ve got an active investigation to be working on. DS Alexander has uncovered some information that leads me to believe that the extradition case of Dieter Naumann may not turn out to be as straightforward as we first thought. As you all know his bail conditions require him to stay at Gatley Hall as the guest of Lady Eleanor Harding. But we’ve found that this is not the first time he’s lived there and the hall itself has a macabre history that potentially places Dieter Naumann right at the centre of suspicion. Joe?’

‘Ma’am,’ said Joe who then cleared his throat. ‘A man called Peter Jenkins was murdered at the Hall on June 12
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, 1940, four days after Dieter Naumann arrived in the country on his secret mission to negotiate a deal between Britain and Germany. Peter Jenkins had been having an affair with Lady Eleanor at the time but according to Naumann he and Lady Eleanor began their affair almost as soon as they’d laid eyes on each other. Wilfred Jenkins, who was then Lady Eleanor’s head of household, and Peter Jenkins’ father, were hanged for the crime on the sole evidence of her ladyship. Now we know from the transcript of the trial that Wilfred Jenkins said he found Peter in the swimming pool of Gatley Hall lying face down with Lady Eleanor and one other gentleman present but he didn’t know who that gentleman was.’

‘And you think it was Naumann?’ said Tim.

‘Yes, we do, sir,’ said Joe. ‘Lady Eleanor’s version of events, given at the trial was that Wilfred Jenkins flew into a rage when he saw his son and her together because he totally disapproved of their affair. In the struggle that followed he killed his son and she categorically denied that anybody else was present.’

‘But you think she lied to protect Naumann?’

‘Yes,’ said Sara. ‘We suspect that Dieter Naumann may have been the real killer that night in a sort of crime of passion for Lady Eleanor. But she would’ve wanted to cover it up to protect Naumann’s anonymity and what better way to do that than to use Wilfred Jenkins so that Naumann could escape justice.’

‘Sir,’ said Joe. ‘On October 19
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, 1974, Lady Eleanor’s daughter Clarissa allegedly fatally shot her father before disappearing without trace. Lady Eleanor had told the police at the time that, once again, she’d been the sole witness to events.’