Descent (A Kate Redman Mystery Novella) Page 8

  Louise, after a moment, nodded. Her eyes never left Kate’s face.

  Kate began. “I think it was you who went to the ravine that day. I think you contacted Karyn through your husband’s phone, and it was you who took that phone with you.” A pause and then she asked softly, “Am I right?”

  Louise nodded again. She began to speak and her voice sounded as though she had a bad cold or as if she hadn’t spoken aloud in weeks. “You have – you have to understand, I wasn’t thinking properly, I wasn’t – I wasn’t in my right mind. Since I found out, I hadn’t eaten anything, literally nothing. I couldn’t. I was sick when I tried. I hadn’t slept for two days. And I had to try and be normal for the children and that took – that took everything from me. I was – I was mad.”

  Kate nodded. Slowly, she stroked her thumbs over Louise’s bony hands, trying to comfort her.

  Louise gulped and carried on. “I knew I had to see her. I just couldn’t not see her. I think I wanted her to deny it. I still now don’t believe it, not really. Not Karyn.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I knew – I knew she wouldn’t come if it were me asking her, so I sent her a text pretending to be Paul. She said she was going out running that morning. The psychopathic bitch was actually going running. She’d ruined my life and she’s out running—” For a moment, her face contorted with rage. “I took Paul’s coat because it was the warmest one we’ve got. I was so cold – I couldn’t stop shivering.”

  Silence fell again in the room.

  Louise took another deep breath. “She got such a shock when she realised it was me. And she wouldn’t talk to me. She was such a coward. She just wouldn’t meet my eye. She wouldn’t even look at me.”

  “So what happened?” murmured Kate, hoping not to break the confessional spell.

  Something strange happened to Louise’s face then. It emptied, as if the life within it had been suddenly wiped away. “She was running. She was scared. She fell.”

  Kate paused for a moment. “Louise, was she running away from you?”

  “Not in the way that you think.” Louise still looked as though her consciousness was far away from her body. “She – we were arguing. Or I was shouting. I think – it’s a blur. In some ways I feel like it didn’t really happen.” She looked at Kate, who nodded. Disassociation. Not unheard of in times of extreme trauma.

  “Did you push her over the edge, Louise?”

  Louise’s haunted eyes met hers. “No. She fell.”

  “Did you cause her to fall?”

  “No. She fell.”

  And that was all that she would say on the matter. Kate pushed – a little – but there was something stony and implacable in Louise’s face now, something that would not yield.

  Kate cleared her throat. “Did Paul leave the house that day?”

  Louise said nothing but Kate could feel the jump in her hands.

  “Did he?” Kate persisted.

  Louise looked down at the table. “No,” she muttered.

  Kate breathed in. “But you wanted him punished.”

  Louise said nothing. After a moment, her head bobbed, just once.

  They sat in silence for a minute. Kate, eventually, gave Louise’s hands a gentle, supportive squeeze and then drew her own hands back.

  “Louise—” Kate began, but the other woman began speaking over her.

  “You asked me to confess because my family was under threat. That’s what you said to me at the beginning.” Louise held her gaze. Kate waited, knowing there was more. “You were right, in a way. But not right, really, because my family doesn’t exist anymore. The two of them saw to that. They saw my family and they destroyed it, and it can never be put back together. Not really. And the worst thing of all?” Kate tensed, waiting. Louise’s voice broke a little. “The worst thing of all? It never existed. Not really. My life – the life I thought I had – it just didn’t exist. It wasn’t there. I thought it was, but I was wrong. They stole my reality.” Her voice thickened again. “That’s why I don’t care what happens next. At least whatever happens next will be real.”

  Kate blinked, her eyes suddenly hot. Never before had she wished so much that the outcome of a case could have been quite different. She got up from the table, slowly, feeling exhausted.

  She was almost on her feet when Louise spoke again. “It was a mistake, anyway.”

  “What was, Louise?”

  Louise looked away. She sounded oddly tranquil. Perhaps the rage and hate and pain had been burned away by her confession, if only for a time. Kate found herself strangely glad. “It was a mistake, to wish her dead.”

  “I’m glad you feel like that—” Kate began. She sat down again.

  “Oh, no, it’s not that. It’s not that I regret her dying, or not in the way you think. No, it’s that death’s too good for her. Now she’s dead, she can’t suffer any more. Whereas I’ve got to suffer every day of my life for what they did to me. I should have kept her alive to suffer.” For a moment, rage suffused her voice.

  There was a moment’s silence. Kate was gathering herself to get up when Louise spoke again and this time, there was a brightness in her voice, a glittery insane brightness that sent a cold chill down Kate’s spine. “Still, at least I can remember the look on her face when she fell over the edge. At least I have that. I think about it all the time, you know. It comforts me.” Her gaze met Kate’s and the brightness dropped away. Louise’s mouth trembled.

  “Come on,” Kate said gently. She took the other woman’s shaking arm in her hand. “Come with me.”

  Carefully, as if Louise White was an old, frail woman, Kate led her through the door and away to the cells.

  *

  It was a subdued Kate that knocked on the door of Anderton’s cottage that night. Anderton’s beaming smile as he opened it to see her dropped away in a hurry.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Kate sighed and stepped forward into the welcoming enfold of his arms. “Bugger it all,” she said into his shoulder, muffled.

  “Come on in and tell me about it.”

  They went through to the cosy kitchen and Anderton poured Kate a glass of wine. She sat down with a thankful sigh, unzipping her boots and throwing them and her overnight bag into a convenient corner. She told him all about what had happened, watching him move around the kitchen preparing their meal.

  “Well, they’re not going to charge her with murder,” said Anderton, poking at the joint in the roasting tray. “They wouldn’t have a hope of making it stick. Manslaughter, at the very most.”

  “You think so?” Kate brightened for a moment and then slumped.

  “Maybe not even that. Perverting the course of justice, maybe. Preventing a lawful burial. Concealing a body. I don’t know—” Anderton shot the roasting pan back into the Aga and shut the door with a clang. “Anyway, you did what you could.”

  “I know. It’s just – I suppose it’s one of those cases in which nobody wins.” Kate held her wine glass out for a refill.

  “Well, they’re all like that, Kate. Really.”

  “I suppose so.” Kate rotated her newly filled glass in her hands, watching the lap of wine against the curved bowl of the glass. “You know, I will never, never understand a man – or woman – who throws their family away for the sake of a shag. Never.”

  Anderton looked uncomfortable. “Well – you know, I’m probably not the best person to talk to about that.”

  “Yes, well,” Kate said, darkly. “I hope you’ve changed.”

  “Shush, now,” said Anderton soothingly. “Have some more wine, some dinner, and you’ll feel better.”

  Kate sighed again and attempted to sit up out of her slump. “Yes. Yes, you’re right.” She cast about for some positive news. “Oh – I’ve decided to take my inspector exams again, just like you suggested.”

  Anderton looked genuinely
pleased. “Good. Good show. I’m very pleased to hear that.” He began to take plates out of the warming part of the oven. “Oh – and I’ve got a present for you.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes. Hold on.” Anderton put the plates down and hunted for his wallet on the breakfast bar. “Now, where is it?” He located the item and opened it up, extracting something that gleamed silver under the lights. “Hold out your hand and close your eyes.”

  Grinning, Kate did so and felt something small and cold being placed in her palm. She opened her eyes to find a silver key lying there. Quickly, she looked up to see Anderton smiling at her.

  “Your key to the front door. I think it’s about time you had one, don’t you?”

  Grinning even wider, Kate tried to conceal the delight on her face. Then giving up, she got up and kissed him. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

  Anderton tipped her face back and smoothed a thumb along her jaw. “You mean a great deal to me, Kate. I hope you know that.”

  “Well, it’s always nice to hear it.” Kate kissed him one more time. “Come on, let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  He released her and she carried the plates to the table for him. Before it could be lost, she transferred the key to her keyring and tucked it away safely in her handbag. Then she went to join Anderton at the table, feeling happy.

  THE END

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  Want some more of Celina Grace’s work for free? Subscribers to her mailing list get a free digital copy of Requiem (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 2), a free digital copy of A Prescription for Death (The Asharton Manor Mysteries Book 2) and a free PDF copy of her short story collection A Blessing From The Obeah Man.

  Requiem (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 2)

  When the body of troubled teenager Elodie Duncan is pulled from the river in Abbeyford, the case is at first assumed to be a straightforward suicide. Detective Sergeant Kate Redman is shocked to discover that she’d met the victim the night before her death, introduced by Kate’s younger brother Jay. As the case develops, it becomes clear that Elodie was murdered. A talented young musician, Elodie had been keeping some strange company and was hiding her own dark secrets.

  As the list of suspects begin to grow, so do the questions. What is the significance of the painting Elodie modelled for? Who is the man who was seen with her on the night of her death? Is there any connection with another student’s death at the exclusive musical college that Elodie attended?

  As Kate and her partner Detective Sergeant Mark Olbeck attempt to unravel the mystery, the dark undercurrents of the case threaten those whom Kate holds most dear…

  A Prescription For Death (The Asharton Manor Mysteries: Book 2) – A Novella

  “I had a surge of kinship the first time I saw the manor, perhaps because we’d both seen better days.”

  It is 1947. Asharton Manor, once one of the most beautiful stately homes in the West Country, is now a convalescent home for former soldiers. Escaping the devastation of post-war London is Vivian Holt, who moves to the nearby village and begins to volunteer as a nurse’s aide at the manor. Mourning the death of her soldier husband, Vivian finds solace in her new friendship with one of the older patients, Norman Winter, someone who has served his country in both world wars. Slowly, Vivian’s heart begins to heal, only to be torn apart when she arrives for work one day to be told that Norman is dead.

  It seems a straightforward death, but is it? Why did a particular photograph disappear from Norman’s possessions after his death? Who is the sinister figure who keeps following Vivian? Suspicion and doubts begin to grow and when another death occurs, Vivian begins to realise that the war may be over but the real battle is just beginning…

  A Blessing From The Obeah Man

  Dare you read on? Horrifying, scary, sad and thought-provoking, this short story collection will take you on a macabre journey. In the titular story, a honeymooning couple take a wrong turn on their trip around Barbados. The Mourning After brings you a shivery story from a suicidal teenager. In Freedom Fighter, an unhappy middle-aged man chooses the wrong day to make a bid for freedom, whereas Little Drops of Happiness and Wave Goodbye are tales of darkness from sunny Down Under. Strapping Lass and The Club are for those who prefer, shall we say, a little meat to the story…

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  More Books By Celina Grace…

  Hushabye (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 1)

  On the first day of her new job in the West Country, Detective Sergeant Kate Redman finds herself investigating the kidnapping of Charlie Fullman, the newborn son of a wealthy entrepreneur and his trophy wife. It seems a straightforward case… but as Kate and her fellow officer Mark Olbeck delve deeper, they uncover murky secrets and multiple motives for the crime.

  Kate finds the case bringing up painful memories of her own past secrets. As she confronts the truth about herself, her increasing emotional instability threatens both her hard-won career success and the possibility that they will ever find Charlie Fullman alive…

  Hushabye is the book that introduces Detective Sergeant Kate Redman.

  Available Now

  Imago (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 3)

  “They don’t fear me, quite the opposite. It makes it twice as fun… I know the next time will be soon, I’ve learnt to recognise the signs. I think I even know who it will be. She’s oblivious of course, just as she should be. All the time, I watch and wait and she has no idea, none at all. And why would she? I’m disguised as myself, the very best disguise there is.”

  A known prostitute is found stabbed to death in a shabby corner of Abbeyford. Detective Sergeant Kate Redman and her partner Detective Sergeant Olbeck take on the case, expecting to have it wrapped up in a matter of days. Kate finds herself distracted by her growing attraction to her boss, Detective Chief Inspector Anderton – until another woman’s body is found, with the same knife wounds. And then another one after that, in a matter of days.

  Forced to confront the horrifying realisation that a serial killer may be preying on the vulnerable women of Abbeyford, Kate, Olbeck and the team find themselves in a race against time to unmask a terrifying murderer, who just might be hiding in plain sight…

  Available now.

  Snarl (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 4)

  A research laboratory opens on the outskirts of Abbeyford, bringing with it new people, jobs, prosperity and publicity to the area – as well as a mob of protesters and animal rights activists. The team at Abbeyford police station take this new level of civil disorder in their stride – until a fatal car bombing of one of the laboratory’s head scientists means more drastic measures must be taken…

  Detective Sergeant Kate Redman is struggling to come to terms with being back at work after long period of absence on sick leave; not to mention the fact that her erstwhile partner Olbeck has now been promoted above her. The stakes get even higher as a multiple murder scene is uncovered and a violent activist is implicat
ed in the crime. Kate and the team must put their lives on the line to expose the murderer and untangle the snarl of accusations, suspicions and motives.

  Available now.

  Chimera (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 5)

  The West Country town of Abbeyford is celebrating its annual pagan festival, when the festivities are interrupted by the discovery of a very decomposed body. Soon, several other bodies are discovered but is it a question of foul play or are these deaths from natural causes?

  It’s a puzzle that Detective Sergeant Kate Redman and the team could do without, caught up as they are in investigating an unusual series of robberies. Newly single again, Kate also has to cope with her upcoming Inspector exams and a startling announcement from her friend and colleague DI Mark Olbeck…

  When a robbery goes horribly wrong, Kate begins to realise that the two cases might be linked. She must use all her experience and intelligence to solve a serious of truly baffling crimes which bring her up against an old adversary from her past…

  Available now.

  Echo (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 6)

  The West Country town of Abbeyford is suffering its worst floods in living memory when a landslide reveals the skeletal remains of a young woman. Detective Sergeant Kate Redman is assigned to the case but finds herself up against a baffling lack of evidence, missing files and the suspicion that someone on high is blocking her investigation…

  Matters are complicated by her estranged mother making contact after years of silence. As age-old secrets are uncovered and powerful people are implicated, Kate and the team are determined to see justice done. But at what price?