The House Across the Street Page 19

  ‘Did he keep in touch with his brothers and sisters?’

  ‘No, he couldn’t stand them. He said they were like their mother, always wanting a handout. I’ve never met any of them; he didn’t even invite them to our wedding.’

  Charles sensed she knew nothing more about her husband’s siblings, and so he moved on. ‘Why did you go to live in Hendon? Was there a reason for that?’

  ‘After the war he got to know a couple of Jewish businessmen who lived in Golders Green; I think he was involved financially with them in the building business that went bust. There are lots of rich people living there and I think he had the idea that it could rub off on him, especially as many people thought he was Jewish, with his dark hair and eyes. Of course, he couldn’t afford to buy a house there, but Hendon was close by and cheaper.’

  ‘What were his interests, Deirdre – hobbies, that sort of thing?’

  ‘Just money, really, and nice cars,’ she said and smirked. ‘He liked to make out he was very rich, his Jaguar was part of that. He made our house look grand, too. It was detached and he put all this fancy stuff on it, a thing called a portico with pillars around the front door. He was very proud of that.’

  ‘Sounds like you weren’t struck by any of it?’

  ‘No, I wasn’t. I found it a bit embarrassing. On top of that, as soon as we moved in there, the beatings got far worse. I will never, ever go back there. I can’t even begin to tell you what he put me through.’ She pulled up her sleeves to show him her arms were covered in cigarette burns. ‘My entire body is covered in scars. Even if I was to meet a nice, kind man, I could never let him see what’s been done to me, I’m too ashamed. Ed’s favourite trick was to lock me in the garage. It’s sort of under the house, but he soundproofed it, so it was like a cellar and no one could hear me. Even the lights switched on and off outside. He’d chain me to the wall and torture me. Sometimes he kept me in there for days.’

  Charles knew she was telling the truth, and it made him feel shaky to think Katy was in this same man’s clutches. Could she be locked in that garage?

  ‘Why didn’t you run away the first time?’ he asked. ‘Or even after your first child was born?’

  ‘I often ask myself that same question,’ she sighed. ‘In my defence I’d been in an orphanage run by nuns as a child, and they made me feel worthless. I was also young when I met Ed, and very naive. When he said he loved me and wanted to marry me, I could hardly believe my luck.

  ‘Back in the early days, he would apologize after beating me, tell me how much I meant to him, and beg me to give him another chance.’ She looked at Charles, her eyes filled with tears. ‘He told me that he was like it because of stuff he’d seen during the war, and I stupidly believed that. Besides, I didn’t have anyone to turn to, nowhere to go. But he got worse as time went on; the children crying, me breaking something, being late getting a meal ready, anything would set him off. It was only when he started hitting Jane and Tony that I knew I must get away. It’s one thing to take a beating yourself, but what mother would watch her children get hurt and do nothing?’

  ‘You are a good mother, Deirdre, always remind yourself of that.’

  He felt deeply for her; he doubted her internal scars would ever heal, and she had to be very lonely, just her and the two children, surviving on very little money. But Katy needed rescuing, and her need was greater than Deirdre’s. He sensed she had nothing further to tell him, only more tales of beatings and her terror.

  ‘I really must go now,’ Charles said. He wanted to check out the house in Hendon immediately. ‘You’ve been so brave telling me all this, and I really hope someone comes into your life before long to make you happy. You’ve got my card with my phone number. If you think of anything that might be useful, do ring me.’

  He took a twenty-pound note out of his pocket and put it on the coffee table. ‘Take Jane and Tony somewhere nice for a treat.’

  She started to protest, but he leaned forward and put a finger on her lips to silence her.

  ‘It’s just a little token of my appreciation,’ he said.

  She smiled, and this time her eyes brightened. ‘I do so hope you find Katy, and that she becomes your girlfriend. I will phone you, if only to ask if that wish has come true for you.’

  He moved closer, and this time put his arms around her to hug her. He felt so sorry for her, it made his heart ache.

  15

  Katy could barely move for the pain. It wasn’t just in one place but everywhere, her head and face, her arms, torso, back and stomach, even her legs. She didn’t know how anyone could be in such terrible pain and survive. But she needed to use the lavatory, so she had to get up.

  With great difficulty she managed to roll to the edge of the bed. By putting one foot down on the floor and pushing up on the bed with her right hand, she managed to stand up. She thought her left arm was broken, as it was hanging awkwardly and hurt like hell when she moved it. She was fairly certain she’d been knocked unconscious and had remained that way for some time, as the blood on her face was congealed now.

  It took every ounce of strength and willpower she’d got to reach the lavatory. Once there, on the floor beside the washbasin, she saw the electric kettle and the other things Reilly had brought to make her tea.

  Even though her mouth was so swollen and her lips cut, and she doubted she could actually drink tea, the thought of it cheered her. At least she could boil the kettle and wash in warm water.

  It took forever to tentatively clean the dried blood from her face, using the face flannel Reilly had used on her when he was being kind. Now she wondered how on earth she could have started to think she’d got him wrong and grown to like him? Every movement hurt so much she couldn’t help but cry.

  She’d had many low points since Reilly locked her in this prison, but this was the lowest. There was no hope that he’d come back now. Instinctively she knew his visits were over; starvation and pain were all that was left now, before death.

  The act of making a cup of tea helped a bit, just by the nature of its normality. But she felt dizzy with the pain, there were spots before her eyes, and it crossed her mind she could be concussed. Surprisingly, the milk hadn’t gone off, and she put a lot in the tea to cool it. Even so, it was hard to drink, as her mouth was so sore. Looking at herself in the mirror didn’t help; she looked grotesque, with two black eyes, her cheeks and mouth so swollen she didn’t think even her own mother would recognize her.

  She shuffled back to the bed and drank the remainder of the tea, trying very hard not to dwell on her situation.

  But there was nothing else to think about. There was a packet of biscuits Reilly had brought with him, an orange and a banana. The flask he’d brought the soup in, which he claimed he’d spoon-fed to her, was empty.

  Fortunately, she didn’t feel hungry; that was something to be thankful for, she supposed. Her arm hurt so much she wanted to scream. But when she tried to tear out the lining of her chiffon dress to make a sling, it hurt even worse, so she abandoned that idea.

  Lying very still was the only way she didn’t hurt as badly. She pulled the eiderdown over her and hoped for oblivion.

  Charles was back in London at one o’clock. Before he even left the station, he telephoned Pat to tell him he’d found out where Reilly lived and said they should get there immediately.

  ‘Thank God for that,’ Pat said. ‘I’ve only just got back myself, and I’ve got a lot to tell you, but that can wait till I see you. Hop on the tube and I’ll pick you up at Hendon station.’

  Charles had another phone call to make, and that was to Jilly. He knew she’d been getting more and more upset about her friend, and it might help her a bit to know they had finally got the address of the man who’d abducted Katy.

  He thought he would have to leave a message for her, as she’d told him she was often out of the animal medical centre during the day. But to Charles’s delight she was there, by the phone.

  ‘That is the best new
s ever,’ she said when he told her that he’d got the address in Hendon. ‘Well, it will be, if you can find her.’

  She didn’t have to add ‘alive’; that was on Charles’s mind all the time.

  ‘I’ll ring you at home, or come over this evening. Keep the faith,’ he added before ringing off.

  Pat was waiting in his car outside Hendon station. He had a tense look about him, as if he might deck anyone who messed with him. Charles knew that look very well; Pat had often got into trouble back in Cambridge for lashing out.

  ‘What’s up?’ Charles asked as he got into the passenger seat.

  ‘I think the bastard could possibly have taken another woman,’ Pat said. ‘And her two children.’

  ‘No! What makes you think that?’

  ‘Remember the doctor’s wife, Margaret Foster, from Hampstead? Well, she changed her name to Peggy Ashcroft, and now she’s disappeared.’

  ‘Why does it look like Reilly is involved?’

  ‘According to a friend she’d made in her village, a man came to see her sometimes, a good-looking bloke with dark hair. One morning, just after Christmas, she had a black eye and came up with some lame excuse. A few days later she upped sticks, took her kids and vanished.’

  ‘She took all her belongings?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, she was more likely to be doing a moonlight flit than anything else. Murderers don’t clean out their victims’ homes,’ Charles said.

  ‘That’s true, but where has she gone to? She hasn’t contacted her parents.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Just a couple of weeks ago. She was living near Eastbourne, so she could have read about Gloria’s death in the local papers and panicked, the way Edna did. But my money is on Reilly; she was seeing him, and he hit her. Whether she scarpered with the kids and her worldly belongings, or he took her, remains to be seen. But I’m convinced Reilly was the man she was seeing.’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t her husband, we know he was in Florida at a surgeon’s convention.’

  ‘Her friend in the village said she was quite surprised that she had a man friend. She said Margaret/Peggy was anti-men. But how did Reilly find her? And why? Was he looking to punish her in some way because of his wife?’

  ‘Maybe the connection between the two women was the Whittington Hospital?’ Charles said thoughtfully. ‘But let’s go to Reilly’s house now and have a look around. We might find some answers.’

  A few minutes later, they drew up outside the house. Charles saw what Deirdre meant when she said Reilly had tried to make it look like a rich person’s house. It stood up on a bank, as all the houses did in that road, but his house had a grand drive sweeping down to a garage under the house. The stone portico around the front door was pretentious, out of keeping with a house built in the thirties, and there were two stone crouching lions either side of it. The front garden was extremely well manicured, mostly evergreen bushes trimmed into balls and cubes. There wasn’t one stray weed, sweet wrapper or bus ticket in the garden. Most people’s steps up to their front doors would be green with mould in early March, but his looked like they’d just been scrubbed.

  ‘You stay here,’ Pat said. ‘Blast on the hooter if anyone comes.’

  ‘You aren’t going to break in, are you?’ Charles was horrified. ‘Why don’t we just call the police right now?’

  Pat grinned wolfishly. ‘And spoil my fun? Besides, if Katy is in that underground garage, don’t you want to get her out double quick?’

  ‘Of course, but I can’t condone breaking and entering. It would ruin my career; I’d be struck off.’

  ‘You didn’t see me do it,’ Pat said. ‘As far as you know, I just knocked on the door. On my head be it!’

  Charles watched as Pat went up the drive and rang the doorbell. He wondered what far-fetched story he’d tell Reilly if he opened the door.

  Reilly wasn’t in, so Pat went down to the garage and banged on that door with a long, thin implement that was clearly going to be used for breaking into the house if the garage proved to be empty. Pat had his ear to the door, and he shook his head at Charles, confirming that he didn’t think Katy was in there. Then he disappeared through a side gate and out of sight.

  To Charles it seemed like he sat there for hours, worried sick at what would happen if Reilly came back, or a neighbour rang the police to report burglars. In fact, Pat was only gone for twenty minutes, but they were the longest twenty minutes of Charles’s life.

  ‘It’s incredibly clean and tidy in there,’ Pat said as he got back into the car. ‘All his tins of food are lined up like soldiers in a row, labels all to the front. His suits and jackets are all arranged by colour, starting with black, ranging down to a white linen one. Each shirt has a colour-matched tie over the shoulder. Poor Deirdre, if she was forced to keep to that regime.’

  ‘Did you find anything useful?’ Charles was a bit irritated with Pat’s casual attitude, as if this was the works’ spring holiday outing and not a young woman’s life at risk.

  ‘Some Ordnance Survey maps,’ he said. ‘Odd, I didn’t get the impression seeing that obsessional tidy home that he’d like the great outdoors. They were mostly of the South Coast, and a particularly well-thumbed one was of Kent. In fact, he’d slipped up in his tidiness there; it was folded back to show the coast by Dover. I’d say he’d been studying it recently.’

  ‘He comes from Dover. Deirdre said he was obsessed with going there.’

  ‘Then maybe we ought to go there,’ Pat said. ‘But right now we must take what we’ve got to the police. Much as I’d like us to find Katy, it requires more manpower than just the two of us. This place needs to be staked out in case Reilly comes back here, and a background check should be run on him, along with his family and connections in Dover.’

  Charles breathed a sigh of relief. Pat was so gung-ho, he’d been afraid his friend would want to conduct the whole investigation. ‘I hoped so much she’d be here. Did you find anything to give us any further clues?’

  ‘No. I don’t think he’s taken anyone in there, or even been there himself, for some time,’ Pat said, and patted his friend’s arm in sympathy at his disappointment. ‘It is absolutely sterile in there. Not a photograph, not the odd little thing of Deirdre’s or the children’s still there. Not even some fruit in a bowl. I looked in wardrobes, in drawers, everywhere. For a man who was desperate to find his wife and children, it is remarkably sinister that he’s got rid of all their stuff.’

  Pat started up the car and drove off. ‘I’ll go to the police now. I know a lot of the officers, and that really helps to put a fire under them. I don’t think it’s advisable for you to come too, it might muddy the waters later on. If you’ll just give me all the stuff you discovered in Brighton, I can pass it off as my investigation.’

  ‘So what am I going to do?’ Charles was a bit irritated that his friend was suddenly so high-handed.

  ‘I thought maybe you could go down to Dover tomorrow and poke around? You’re good at talking to people.’

  Charles somewhat reluctantly got out his notepad, in which he’d written a complete report of what Deirdre had said to him. He put it on the dashboard. ‘Chapter and verse of what took place today.’

  Pat glanced sideways and grinned at him. ‘No wonder you ended up the barrister, and not me. You always were good at taking notes, looking up details. I’m better at twisting people’s arms to talk.’

  After Pat had dropped him home, Charles rang Michael Bonham and told him all the latest news.

  ‘Katy’s father and brother are frantic with worry,’ Michael told Pat. ‘I think you know Rob, the brother, is down in Bexhill now – I met him and Albert at the prison. Rob and I went to a local hotel for a drink and a sandwich afterwards so we could talk more. That poor lad is beside himself with fear for Katy. I’ll ring him now and pass on all this latest information. But there is some good news: all charges against Albert will be dropped, hopefully tomorrow. Rob is going to stay in
Lewes until that is done and he can take his father home.’

  ‘And the mother? Is she going to welcome Albert back?’

  ‘Rob is working on her. He thinks she may be suffering from some kind of mental illness. But Rob has made it quite clear that if she doesn’t allow Albert home and treat him with respect, he will leave with his father. I was impressed by the lad, he’s strong and forthright, like his sister and father, but even the strongest people can buckle under this kind of strain.’

  Charles told him he had to call Jilly and let her know the latest, too. ‘She’s another one who’s frantic with worry,’ he said. ‘She’s had to let the flat go that she and Katy were going to move into. She couldn’t afford to pay all the rent on her own, and persuaded the landlord to refund what she’d paid in advance. I think she felt it was tempting fate to try and hold on to it in the hope Katy is rescued.’

  ‘The chances of that are getting slimmer by the day,’ Bonham sighed. ‘I didn’t, of course, say that to her father or brother today. There is always hope, though, especially if the police pull out all the stops now they know it is Reilly behind Katy’s abduction.’

  Charles rang Jilly after seven when he knew she’d be home from work.

  ‘Any good news?’ she said the minute she heard his voice.

  ‘Well, yes, in as much as we know who Katy’s captor is and where he lives, and my friend Pat is handing it all over to the police as we speak.’

  He told her some more details, as he knew she was desperate to be fully in the picture. ‘I thought I’d go to Dover tomorrow and see what I can dig up there,’ he said.

  ‘Could I come with you? Please!’ she pleaded. ‘It will be better for you with me alongside. People are more inclined to talk to a couple, rather than just a posh bloke in a smart suit.’

  Charles smiled at that. ‘But you have to be at work.’

  ‘I can get my aunt to ring in and say I’m sick. Please let me come, Charles? I want to do something to help find Katy. And women are always better at noting the little details than men.’