Sleepwalk (30 page)

‘Ah. Well. Ellie is a bit of a mystery. Lovely girl; really lovely. She’s had a hard life. Her parents were killed in a car crash when she was just seven years old. It must have been horrendous for her.’

Claire almost choked on her lettuce as the story came out.
It makes perfect sense that someone who los
t their parents in a car crash c
ould have issues with regard to the Hit & Runs
…….. Mary Darch went on…….

‘Ellie was brought up by her Aunt Catherine. Catherine…….
Davis
, I think her name is. She is her Mothers younger sister. When Ellie left school and went to teacher training college in Exeter, Catherine moved to the States with her new American husband leaving Ellie with many friends, but no relatives…….. or certainly none that she knew of. After she qualified, she came to work with us here at Radstock. She became an important part of our school. We were all very sorry to see her leave. But she seems very happy now and David, her new husband is such a lovely man. She’s lucky to find someone so kind and understanding.’

‘Lucky? Does she not deserve someone like him then?’

‘Oh yes. Of course she does………. It’s just, when you get to know her, Ellie can be quite demanding. She sees things you know…….. has premonitions. Some people call it a sixth sense……….. a gift perhaps. Well, whatever it is Ellie has it. She doesn’t want it, but she has it all the same.’

‘Do you have any proof of that Mary?’

‘Of her visions? Yes. There was this one time……. We were in assembly and Ellie whispered to me, Mrs Bellamy doesn’t look well; I think we should get her a chair. Well the next minute Bellamy was flat out on the stage floor. Collapsed; fainted. She was alright in a few minutes but the whole thing caused quite a stir.’

‘But perhaps this Mrs Bellamy simply looked faint and Ellie just happened to spot it and……’

‘Another time her car was in the garage and we were walking to the bus stop together. There was a man; an old man. He was walking toward us and as we passed him she stopped me; grabbed my arm. Her face was white with shock and she pleaded with me………. ‘
We mustn’t let him cross the road
’ she said. I said ‘
Ellie for goodness sake he’s not crossing the road, look!
’
The old chap was just walking on along the pavement minding his own business. She seemed convinced something was going to happen to this old man. I got her to calm down and we carried on to the bus stop and then there was this almighty squeal behind us as a car tried to brake and a really loud thud and the poor old sod had stepped onto the road in front of a car. We both rushed to help of course but he was unconscious. He died later that day in Hospital. I mean it all happened so fast but…….. she knew it was going to happen. She’d had a premonition. Afterwards we talked about it and she’d always had these premonitions she said; ever since she was a child. She couldn’t sleep at night because of it; poor girl. She was tormented inside. And yet on the outside she always seemed so happy. She was an excellent teacher. She gave a hundred and ten percent. She should come back to teaching instead of working in that silly shop. There are lots of part time positions in teaching. I must get in touch with her and persuade her……….’

The new staircase had arrived at No 1 Mill Cottages and the builders were struggling to get the long heavy timbers off the delivery vehicle into the house. Felicity had been running around after Ollie for the past half an hour trying to keep him out of their way whilst David played project manager. They had taken a couple of hours off work on Thursday afternoon to choose the bathroom and tiles at their local builders’ merchant and were expecting a delivery at any time. David had promised to be there to help off-load it and they hoped it wouldn’t turn up at least until the staircase was inside the house, so when DC Peters arrived to talk to David he wasn’t best pleased.

‘It’s not a good time DC Peters. We’re expecting a delivery any minute and I promised to help off-load. Can’t this wait until later?’

‘No I’m sorry Mr Wilson. I won’t keep you a minute. We can talk in my car.’

They walked to the front garden and down the steps to her car and she got into the drivers seat while David went around to the passenger side and sat beside her.

‘What can you tell me about your wife Mr Wilson? I understand she has premonitions and she walks in her sleep.’

‘Yes. I expect you know about her walking out of the bedroom window. At first I thought she was trying to commit suicide. I’d never seen her walking in her sleep; unless going to the kitchen for drinks or visiting the bathroom in the middle of the night counts as sleepwalking; but apparently they caught her at it in the hospital. She’d broken her leg in three places just a few days before so they were quite shocked to find her wandering through the corridors on her broken leg with no crutches or anything. For a while the Doctors thought it may be something sinister like a brain tumour or something but all the tests proved negative. But you know DC Peters; if you suspect Ellie for what happened here you are wrong. Ellie couldn’t hurt a fly.’

‘We simply want to eliminate her from our enquiries Mr Wilson. Obviously we want to know more about her. Cases of this nature are usually down to jealousy and she is still your wife.’

‘Yes but
she
left
me
; not the other way around. She’d hardly want revenge. It wasn’t like I’d dumped her for Flick. I’ve been on my own for over a year you know.’

‘Yes, I know. What about the premonitions? I understand she has them?’

‘Ellie is a complicated character DC Peters. Life with her was never dull, let’s put it that way. There were ….. a few incidents but of course it’s all probably coincidence.’

‘Incidents?’

‘Yes. She always had problems sleeping. She used to have these dreams…….. Visions she called them. Things that happened to people, you know. It was never anyone we knew. She just saw faces and then something would be on the news or in the paper and she’d be in shock saying she should have done something to stop it. To be honest I’m quite a sceptical person but it was all probably coincidence. Look, seriously; you should forget about Ellie and be out there finding the real criminal. We’re doing all this work to Flicks house at our own expense and she’s afraid to move back in until this person is caught.’

‘Ok. Thank you for your time Mr Wilson. I’ll let you get back to your work.’

Felicity was in the back garden with Oliver pulling up weeds which he obviously thought was great fun until he started pulling up her pansies.

‘No Ollie not that one. That’s a pansy.’

‘Padsy.’

‘Yes. Look, here are some weeds. You can pull these up.’

David stood beside her on the path as Ollie began to tug at a little clump of Forget-me-nots.

‘What did she want?’

‘She was asking questions about Ellie and I don’t think it’s anything to do with the car tax.’

‘What, you mean they think she might have……… ?’ She glanced toward the house.

‘Surely not?’

‘I can’t believe she would be capable of ……… No. They’re just clutching at straws. She could never ………’

Even as he spoke David heard the sound of the first lorry leaving out in the road and he made his way round the front and sat at the top of the steps waiting for the bathroom delivery to arrive. He was obviously upset by DC Peters line of questioning. He was sitting with his hands covering his face, deep in thought. It was almost
midday
and the sun was getting hotter. Felicity turned her attentions back to Ollie who was standing in the mud proudly holding up a massive Geranium and was pulling little red petals from its only flower.

‘No Ollie not that one. That’s a Geranium.’

‘Rainy mum.’

‘Yes. Come on. Not to worry, we can re-plant it. Look it’s still got its roots, see?’

‘Ollie pant it Vic.’

‘Ok. Ollie can help. Oh you are a monkey.’

The lorry had turned up. She could hear the commotion at the front of the house and then David calling out, ‘That’s it, over to me. Easy does it.’

She took Oliver by the hand and they went to the front garden to watch.

‘
Bath
Vic.’

‘Yes. Daddy’s carrying Vic’s new bath isn’t he? Daddy must be very strong.’

David smiled excitedly.

‘Vic’s new bath Oll. Do you like it?’

‘Yeah. Like it Daddy. Big bath!’

‘It’s huge mate isn’t it?’

Felicity scooped little Oliver up into her arms; his mop of blonde curls drifting across his forehead in the summer breeze. Why would DC Peters be asking questions about Ellie unless they suspected her? What could Ellie possibly hope to gain by getting rid of Felicity? Unless she was jealous. Could it be that Ellie was still in love with David?
She pushed Ollie’s hair back out of his eyes, kissed his forehead and David’s deep blue eyes smiled back at her ………….
beneath Ellie’s fine blonde hair
.

Claire Peters pulled her car onto the wasteland and saw Vanessa Gordon’s Landrover parked haphazardly beneath the trees. She left her car and wandered down to the bridge. Slim was sitting in his car seat flicking through a sketch pad.

‘Hello Stephen. You ok?’

‘Oh great. She’s done it then. I knew she would. It wasn’t my fault and it wasn’t Bits’ fault either. It was her own stupid fault. She attacked me. I can’t believe this; it just gets better and better…………’

‘And by ‘
she
’ you mean ……….’

‘Vanguard. She’s dobbed me in for what happened aint she?’

Claire Peters crouched beside him; her back against the viaduct wall. ‘Vanessa Gordon? I just called to take another look around down here; see if there’s anything we missed. But now you’d better tell me what it is that she might have ‘
dobbed you in’
for. That’s her Landrover parked up there isn’t it? Where is she?’

‘Oh. Great. She …….. she’s in Hospital.’

‘Well, you’d better tell me all about it Stephen.’

As the boy told her what had happened that day Claire Peters found it increasingly difficult to keep a straight face. She pictured the little dog tugging at Miss Gordon’s stick and her; with her stubborn nature refusing to let go and falling as a consequence.

‘Anyway; if it hadn’t been for Vanguard turning up, Jonky would still be alive now.’

‘How? What makes you say that?’

‘I was looking out for her…….. Jonky. She was ill; feverish. I kept her warm and fed her. When Vanguard came she ran off and never came back. She would’ve been safe here with me but that mad woman was after her; looking for her.’

‘The angel of death? How do you know?’

‘Because Jonky told me; said she’d seen her loads of times and twice she’d seen her come for the old folks. She said
she
wasn’t old so why did she keep searching for her. It must’ve just been her time she said. She should have had police protection. You lot should have protected her……….
I should have protected her
; and I would have if it hadn’t been for Vanguard.’

‘Jonky didn’t tell us that Stephen. She only told us that she had seen the two incidents; the Hit & Runs. If we had known she thought this person was looking for her we would have protected her; or at least had her under surveillance.’

‘Two Incidents?’

Claire nodded. ‘She also witnessed the old guy on
Western Drive
being hit by the car.’

‘I didn’t know………… she didn’t tell me.’

There’s a lot she didn’t tell you Stephen Williams. Like the night she got killed she’d just left her boyfriend’s squat in the High Street and the post mortem revealed a dangerously high heroin content in her bloodstream. If the car hadn’t killed her, the drugs would have
……………

‘So what’s the story with the Landrover?’

‘Well she left it up there with the door open and the keys in it. I’m looking after it for her until she gets out so’s no one nicks it.’

‘Ah. I see. And is that exactly where she left it.?’

Slim shook his head and looked down at the floor.

‘You haven’t been driving it around have you Stephen?’

‘Course not.’

‘Ok. Well make sure it doesn’t move again until she comes back for it herself ok?’

‘Yes Detective.’

It had been the best two weeks of their lives. Their skin was bronzed and their faces still glowed from the hot Cretan days. They had hired a car and explored the island the first week; following the coast roads and stopping at beaches wherever they found one, and at tavernas for lunch. They had leapt from the stern of a glass bottomed boat into the deep blue waters of the
Mediterranean Sea
and swam into caves beneath the sheer rock face. They had been to Spinalonga, a small island off the coast of
Crete
which had once been home to a leper colony and wandered around the old deserted buildings. They’d had beach barbecues and danced the night away in Mahlia’s night clubs.