Let the Dead Speak (Maeve Kerrigan #7)

‘No, well, she wouldn’t. We’ve brought her up to be polite to her elders, even if they don’t deserve it.’

I frowned, unconvinced. ‘Bethany said something like you don’t know what I am when I was talking to her.’ I saw Eleanor start, her eyelids flickering. ‘She said I shouldn’t even be here. I think that was the wording. Can you tell me what she might have meant?’

Eleanor flushed deeply. ‘No. No idea.’

‘Mrs Norris,’ Derwent said gently. ‘Please.’

She looked up at her husband’s face for a moment, communicating silently. He nodded and she turned back to us.

‘I think she must have meant that we had great trouble when we were trying to conceive her. We tried for a long time. There were tests, clinics … it was humiliating. We were told there was no chance at all.’

‘It was a miracle when Eleanor fell pregnant,’ Norris said, squeezing her shoulders again. ‘It was the happiest time of my life. We were concerned of course that she might not carry the pregnancy to term. We couldn’t believe we could be so lucky, to beat the odds that way. But Bethany was fine. She was perfect.’

‘She said it like it was a bad thing,’ I said.

Oliver Norris shook his head. ‘I don’t know what she could have meant.’

‘She was loved and wanted from the start,’ Eleanor said. ‘I’ve always told her so. I’d have done anything for a child – for her – and in the end all I could do was pray. We were desperate. We’d exhausted every other option.’

‘And our prayers were answered,’ Norris said with a smile that set my teeth on edge.

Derwent must have felt the same way. ‘That’s a hell of a burden to place on a kid, isn’t it? Telling her she’s a gift from God, or whatever it was you said to her. It puts her under a lot of pressure to be perfect.’

‘I disagree,’ Eleanor said coldly.

‘Of course you’d find some way to make us look bad.’ Oliver Norris was glaring at Derwent as if he wanted to murder him. ‘You want to pin it on us. It’s our fault our daughter is suicidal.’

‘You’ve spent a lot more time with her than DS Kerrigan,’ Derwent said with a glint.

‘Look, none of us knows precisely why Bethany’s here,’ I said quickly. ‘I think the best thing is to hear what she has to say.’

‘I forbid you to speak to her,’ Oliver Norris said.

‘Mr Norris, it’s not really up to you any more. She’s an important witness in a murder investigation and we have to be able to talk to her.’

‘Absolutely not. You’ve done nothing but harass my family since you started investigating what happened to Kate. And you don’t seem to be making much progress with it, I might add.’

I felt my cheeks grow warm: Norris was right about that. And he wasn’t finished.

‘I think it would be best all round if you left.’ He glowered at us both in a way that left no room for negotiation. ‘If we can’t see her, you certainly can’t.’

‘So what now?’ Derwent asked as we walked out of the hospital.

‘Well, we have one thing we didn’t have before.’ I showed him the mobile phone I’d picked up from the railway embankment.

‘Is that Bethany’s?’

‘No, the Norrises don’t approve of them, remember? This is Chloe’s.’

‘Nice one.’

‘I thought so.’

‘Have you looked at it?’

‘It’s locked. Password-protected. I was going to ask Bethany to tell me what the password was.’ I turned it over in my hand: a Samsung Galaxy with a custom cover featuring a close-up of Misty the cat. ‘Colin might be able to get something off it, but we’ll probably have to send it to the lab to get a full forensic download.’

Derwent wrinkled his nose. ‘I don’t want Colin trying out his skills on this. Too important. If we send it off, I think we can get to the top of the list with a bit of badgering. Potentially, that phone can tell us a lot about where the two girls went and why they ran away.’

‘What I’m wondering is why Bethany had the phone. We haven’t found any of Chloe’s stuff – her clothes, her wallet, anything that she took with her when she ran away. Just the phone, and we wouldn’t have known about that if Bethany hadn’t needed to use it.’

‘Maybe Chloe gave it to her.’

‘Why?’

Derwent shrugged. ‘Because she knew we could track her if she had it.’

‘We tried that. It was switched off.’

‘See? They were aware that the phone could give them away.’ He tapped his head. ‘Savvy.’

‘I’d believe that of Bethany. I’m not so sure you could say that about Chloe.’

‘Maybe it was how Chloe was going to keep in touch with Bethany after they went their separate ways. She’s kept in the dark ages, technologically speaking, isn’t she?’

I nodded. ‘No internet, no social media, no phone.’

‘And Chloe couldn’t exactly send her a postcard.’

‘Makes sense,’ I said. ‘I still think it’s worth searching Bethany’s house again in case there’s anything else she conveniently forgot to mention.’

‘That’ll need another search warrant.’

‘I’ll put in the request now.’ I looked past him. ‘Oh, that’s not a good idea.’

Derwent turned to see William Turner hobbling across the car park towards us. ‘For shit’s sake.’

I moved to intercept him. ‘William—’

‘I want to see her.’

‘If it’s Bethany you mean, no one can see her. Not us, not her parents. She’s in the mental health unit under sedation.’

Turner’s eyes glittered and he turned away for a second, getting himself under control.

‘What happened?’

‘She tried to throw herself under a train.’ The unembellished version, courtesy of Derwent.

‘If you hadn’t told us she was in trouble, she’d probably be dead,’ I said. ‘You saved her life.’

‘Strictly speaking, DS Kerrigan saved her life,’ Derwent said reprovingly, as if Turner had claimed all the credit. Then, magnanimous as ever, he added, ‘But she couldn’t have done it without you.’

‘Why did she want to kill herself?’

‘Good question,’ I said. ‘Actually, you might be able to help with that.’

I asked him the same questions I’d asked Bethany’s parents – what Bethany had meant by saying they were staying away ‘until it was all over’ and why she’d said ‘I shouldn’t even be here’. To give him his due, Turner tried very hard to come up with an explanation but in the end he had to admit defeat.

‘Sorry. If I knew I would tell you.’

I believed he was telling the truth. Derwent frowned at him. ‘Last time I saw you, you were half dead. What are you doing walking about?’

‘I discharged myself from A and E.’ He stared Derwent down, the effect slightly ruined by the bruising that kept one eye from opening properly. ‘I’ve spent enough time in there lately.’

‘Well, unless you want to be heading straight back there, I’d stay away from Bethany Norris. Her dad is up there and he’s spoiling for another fight. I’m serious. He’ll do you some damage.’

‘I need to talk to Bethany about Chloe.’ Turner faltered as he said her name. ‘I need to know what happened.’

‘Join the club,’ I said. ‘But as I said, no one is talking to her at the moment. Doctor’s orders.’

‘When, then?’

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