Trust No One - Keri Beevis Page 0,6

bag and wheeling her trolley out to the car park. The Wham! song ‘Last Christmas’ was stuck in her head and she hummed it as she clicked her keys at her car and loaded the boot. She had just returned the trolley to the loading bay and was about to climb in the driver’s seat, when she noticed the piece of paper stuck under her front wiper blade.

Frowning, she plucked it up, assuming it was someone having a go at her for parking over the white line. (Hardly her fault. Supermarkets needed to start making the spaces bigger.) Instead of a note, it was an envelope with her name on it, and her insides went cold as she slipped inside the car and closed the door, locking it. She glanced around, but there was no one paying her undue attention.

She quickly ripped the envelope open, knowing from the last two she had received that this one would contain a veiled threat of some kind. She read the words, her mouth dry.

Does Martin know he is married to a murderer?

He will. Soon.

For a moment she couldn’t get her breath, panic clawing at her belly as she reread the note. The mince pie she had eaten was threatening to make its way back up.

The words were more direct than the last two notes she had received. They had all arrived with her name typed on the front, no stamp. They had been hand-delivered and left in places where only she would find them, but this was the first one that named her husband and also the first one that mentioned murder.

Suspiciously, she glanced around again. No one was watching her, the nearby cars all empty. She carefully refolded the note and put it back into the envelope, her hands shaking. She slipped the envelope into her bag, took out her phone and pulled up Fern’s number.

It rang several times before cutting into voicemail, Fern’s husky voice telling her to leave a message.

‘Fern, it’s me, Janice. Look I really need to talk to you. I’ve received another note. Please call me.’ She ended the call, willed her old friend to get in touch.

It had been possible to ignore the first two notes because the threat was vague, possibly even a prank. But this one was different. Whoever had sent it was making a serious accusation.

The worst bit was, it was true.

4

Her mother had come to the hospital as soon as she had received the call.

The whole situation was a little surreal and Olivia felt like she was viewing it down a tunnel. They were in the A&E department, where she had been rushed by the driver of the car that had hit her outside of the Cadwallader house. She had been lucky not to have broken anything, walking away from the accident with sore ribs, a bruised arm, and concussion.

The police were at the house. She knew from the snippets of conversation she had overheard that there was an officer on his way to speak with her. An ambulance had been sent to the house too, along with a fire engine. The latter would be needed, but the ambulance was unnecessary. They were too late to save the man.

Although Olivia had tried her best to explain events to her mother, she wasn’t sure that she entirely grasped the seriousness of what had happened. It wasn’t until they were sat in a room with Detective Constable Upton that it finally began to dawn on Elena exactly what her daughter had witnessed.

‘Why do you think my Olivia had anything to do with this?’

‘We are not saying she did,’ the DC gently pointed out, his tone calm against Elena’s frantic one. ‘At this stage, we are just trying to establish if there is a connection between Olivia being called to the house for the viewing and the victim being set on fire.’

He turned to Olivia. `We’ve spoken with your boss, Mr Dandridge. According to him they haven’t been able to trace Karen Mortimer, the viewer of the property. She isn’t answering her mobile phone or replying to any emails. You say there was definitely no trace of her at the house?’

‘Nothing. I tried to call her too. When it went to voicemail… well, that was when I decided to go inside.’ Olivia faltered, lacing her fingers to stop them trembling. The too recent memory of what had been waiting for her still etched clearly in her mind. ‘There was a car parked in the driveway,’ she