‘This is the police, Mr Seabury. I am Detective Chief Inspector McDevitt, Homicide Command. We need to talk to you.’
His anxiety took a dip, but only slightly. It wasn’t one of the killers at his house. But why were the police there? His muscles relaxed as he realised that Katie must have called them. But two seconds later, his world was back aflame: ‘This is about a murder at your shop, Seabury, and for your own sake you need to come in.’
He gripped the phone tightly. ‘What murder?’
‘This isn’t going to be done on the phone.’ Then his voice went quiet, as if he had removed the receiver from his mouth. He heard something like ‘searching the kitchen’ spoken to someone else and then the voice was back, loud and clear.
‘Seabury, I know it was self-defence. The truth will come out, but you need to come in as quickly as possible.’
The phone came away from his ear. Self-defence. The shop. The detective was talking about one of the men who had chased them. Dead. In his shop. But both guys had been alive and well when they fled. What was going on?
When he put the phone back to his ear, he heard: ‘You there, Seabury?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Karl replied.
‘We know the weapon used was from your shed.’
Karl almost dropped the phone. The lawnmower blade from his own shed. The man had threatened them with it, and now someone was dead by that very weapon. ‘This can’t be… this isn’t…’
‘Seabury, listen to me carefully. I will help you. Hand yourself in, immediately.’
‘They came to kill me, but we ran, and they were alive. We got away. They were both still alive.’
‘You need to hand yourself in, Seabury.’
And in the passage of one moment, Karl went from utter confusion to horrific understanding. Hand yourself in. Self-defence. A weapon from his shed. And: set-up. Someone had killed a man in his shop. Somehow made it look like Karl was the murderer.
‘This is… you’ve got this all wrong. There’s more to this than—’
Forty-Six
Katie
Caller: You think. There’s a woman with me?
Home: I know, Seabury, i know. Her name is Elizabeth Grafton. You both need to come in.
Caller: How do you know?
Home: Her husband was killed at his hideaway cottage last night. We know that. We know she escaped and you rescued her. We found evidence of that. And your wife told us. She agrees with us that you need to hand yourself in.
Caller: The people who killed her husband sent two men to my shop. And they sent people to break into my house last night because they thought i had Liz with me.
It was all real, then, Katie realised. Everything Karl had said. Every fear he’d had. If not for the words knitting onto the screen before her very eyes, she wouldn’t have believed it.
The DCI had turned away from her, faced the wall, and the DC had herded her into the kitchen doorway, shutting her away so she couldn’t hear the conversation. Desperate to know what was being said, she had rushed upstairs, back to the computer. She’d never been so grateful for Karl’s career and all the mod-cons that came with it.
The microphones wouldn’t pick up Karl’s voice, though. But audio capture wasn’t the only trick available. Karl had installed transcription software on the phone for business use so clients calling his home could speak their orders or reviews of products and he could email them to the shop.
HOME: KARL, YOU CANNOT RUN. YOU NEED TO HAND YOURSELF IN. I WILL MEET YOU. I WILL HELP YOU.
CALLER: HOW’S MY WIFE DOING? SHE DOESN’T BELIEVE I KILLED SOMEONE, DOES SHE? PUT HER ON THE PHONE.
HOME: NO, KARL, SHE DOESN’T. AND I DON’T, EITHER. AND YOU CAN’T SPEAK TO HER JUST YET. I CAN HELP YOU, BUT NOT WHILE YOU’RE ON THE RUN. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CANNOT RUN. YOU CANNOT FLEE FROM THIS. IF YOU’RE INNOCENT, WE WILL PROVE IT. BUT YOU NEED TO COME IN. BOTH OF YOU. YOU AND LIZ GRAFTON. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT I MEET YOU BOTH. WILL YOU MEET ME, KARL, AND END THIS?
CALLER: AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN? THERE ARE PEOPLE AFTER US. ON THE STREETS. I DON’T KNOW HOW MANY, OR WHERE, OR WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE.
HOME: THE SAFEST PLACE FOR YOU IS IN CUSTODY, KARL. I WILL ESCORT YOU IN, TAKE YOUR STATEMENT, ARRANGE FOR YOUR BAIL, AND POST MEN OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE FOR PROTECTION. THE SAME FOR MRS GRAFTON.
CALLER: SO YOU BELIEVE ME? YOU BELIEVE THAT WE’RE HIDING FROM THE MEN WHO KILLED HER HUSBAND? YOU BELIEVE THAT I HAVEN’T HURT ANYONE?
HOME: I BELIEVE YOU, SEABURY. RONALD GRAFTON HAD A LOT OF ENEMIES AND THEY CAME FOR HIM. HIS WIFE ESCAPED, AND YOU HELPED HER. WE HAVE EVIDENCE OF ALL THAT. YOU GOT CAUGHT UP IN THIS BY ACCIDENT. SHE TALKED YOU OUT OF GOING TO THE POLICE, DIDN’T SHE?
CALLER: YES. SHE WANTED TO WAIT UNTIL MORNING. I THINK SHE THOUGHT HER HUSBAND WOULD SORT IT OUT.
HOME: THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO INVOLVE THE POLICE. BUT WE’RE INVOLVED NOW. NO MORE RUNNING. IT’S NOT SAFE FOR YOU OUT THERE. I WANT YOU BOTH TO HAND YOURSELF IN TO ME. I WILL ARRANGE TO FAST-TRACK EVERYTHING AND HAVE A SOLICITOR WAITING AT THE STATION, SO THAT THIS WILL GO AS SMOOTHLY AS POSSIBLE. AND I CAN ARRANGE FOR YOU TO SEE YOUR WIFE.
CALLER: OKAY. WHICH STATION? AND WHO WILL BE WITH YOU?
HOME: I’LL COME ALONE. AND NOT A POLICE STATION, BECAUSE IT’S QUICKER AND EASIER FOR YOU IF I RECORD YOUR STATEMENT BEFORE WE BOOK YOU IN. LESS TIME LOCKED IN A CELL. WE NEED TO GET YOU FAST-TRACKED THROUGH THIS SO WE CAN GET YOU HOME QUICKER. ST DUNSTAN’S CHURCH, STEPNEY. TWO HOURS FROM NOW EXACTLY, WHICH WILL BE ABOUT TWELVE-THIRTY. MAKE SURE MRS GRAFTON IS WITH YOU. ARE YOU OKAY WITH THAT?
CALLER: ST DUNSTAN’S, STEPNEY. TWELVE-THIRTY. CAN YOU BRING MY WIFE? I WANT TO SEE HER BEFORE I GET LOCKED UP IN A CAGE FOR HOWEVER LONG THIS TAKES.
HOME: I CAN BRING HER ALONG. YOU CAN HAVE SOME TIME TOGETHER WHILE I RECORD YOUR STATEMENT. TWO HOURS, SEABURY. LET’S GET THIS MESS CLEARED UP. BUT IT’S VITAL THAT ELIZABETH GRAFTON IS WITH YOU, UNDERSTAND?
CALLER: WHAT’S YOUR NAME AGAIN?
HOME: I’M DCI MCDEVITT. BUT CALL ME MAC, BECAUSE WE’RE FRIENDS NOW. SO YOU’LL BE THERE?
CALLER: HALF TWELVE.
Numb, Katie rushed downstairs. She was not supposed to know what had been said, so knew she had to let the detective tell her. She had to forge ignorance. She walked into the living room, kept the urgency off her face, and said: ‘Is he okay?’
The big detective nodded. But said nothing, surprisingly. She prompted him with: ‘Is he coming in then?’
‘Later today.’ He put the phone down, and she noticed a spot of blood on the earpiece from his damaged ear.
She grabbed her coat off the sofa. ‘I should come with you to the station.’ She was careful to say station because she wasn’t supposed to know about this St Dunstan’s place.
Now he was supposed to say sure, okay, let’s go. But the response was: ‘No, you must stay here. We’ll bring you down to the station later.’
That puzzled her. ‘Shouldn’t I be with him when you take his statement?’
‘He’ll be allowed visitors, but we need to speak with him before that and get this cleared up. I’ll send a car for you when it’s time.’
Now she was confused. ‘So you’re going to meet him at a station? He’s going to hand himself into a station? That was what you arranged?’
He gave her a long look, suspicion creeping in. ‘A police station is where he needs to be, Mrs Seabury.’
He called for his colleague, who came like a loyal dog, and then they said they were done, thanked her and made to leave. Just like that. Fifteen seconds later, they were walking down the path, and Katie was on the doorstep, watching their backs.
None of this made sense. The detective had lied to her. Why did he want to meet Karl alone?
Forty-Seven
Karl