Body in the Woods (Carlos Jacobi Book 1) Page 8

  ‘I don’t think we’re going to find any answers in here,’ he suggested.

  ‘What a weirdo. How can anyone live like this?’

  ‘As opposed to your lived-in type of place, you mean?’ he quipped. Having visited Fiona’s flat in London, he understood housework was not her thing. Clutter was her thing.

  ‘Yeah, well. Life’s too short to live like this.’ She sat on the bed and stared around. ‘No photos, no pictures on the wall. This man lived in a vacuum. He doesn’t even leave a dirty handkerchief in a jacket pocket. I’ve been through every one of them. He’s got mothballs in there like my grandma used to have. By the way, have you managed to find out what happened between him and Caroline yet?’

  ‘No, nothing, except she won’t refer to him as father, dad or anything like that. I’m hoping to quiz her tomorrow. There was definitely a reaction when I suggested I would need to dig into their past.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s a family crime, this one. It comes from outside. One of the community centre people you mentioned, maybe.’ Fiona swept her hand under the mattress, an old-fashioned heavyweight that should have been thrown out years ago. ‘You’d think with all that money in the bank, he’d treat himself to a new mattress. I wonder what he was keeping it for.’

  Carlos watched her. ‘That’s what we need to find out. Do you want a hand to lift the mattress?’

  ‘Yep. Might as well. You never know, maybe there’s truth in the money under the mattress thing.’

  They heaved the mattress up, causing Lady to get up from the floor where she’d been lying in front of an old-fashioned fire grate. Carlos held it up. He could see thick springs attached to a metal frame; he hadn’t come across a bed like this in years.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Fiona. ‘Put it down.’

  ‘This is hopeless; it hasn’t helped at all.’ Carlos sat on the bed to have one last scan around. ‘Right, your turn, Lady. Find, girl.’

  Lady jumped to her feet, tail wagging furiously, and put her nose to the floor. She busied herself around the room, taking in every square inch, even sticking her nose up the chimney, which brought giggles from Fiona. Finally, she crawled on her belly to get under the bed. Moments later, she let out a yelp.

  Carlos shot down to the floor to find her lying on her side, whimpering.

  ‘What is it, girl?’

  12

  It was dark under the bed. Carlos switched on his phone torch to check what Lady had discovered. He saw the sharp end of a broken spring digging into her neck from the old-fashioned bed above. She was starting to panic, frantically trying to release herself and causing the spring to embed itself even deeper. Blood stained the white fur around her nape.

  ‘Blooming heck. She’s going to impale herself in a minute. Stop, Lady. Stay!’ The dog stopped struggling, big brown eyes pleading with him to get her out.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Fiona.

  ‘One of the springs has collapsed and split. There’s a piece in her neck; she’s trapped. Damn thing’s dug in even more with her trying to wriggle free. We need to move this bed.’

  Fiona’s hazel eyes widened as she fixed them on the metal-framed monstrosity that dominated the room. ‘It’s cast iron! It’ll weigh a tonne. Let’s get the mattress off first.’

  They lugged the heavy mattress off the bed and stood it up against a wall. Fiona stood tall at five foot ten, but her lack of fitness was in no doubt as she doubled over to catch her breath.

  ‘Give me a minute.’

  Carlos could at least see Lady now through the rusty bed base. Blood oozed from her neck, but she was staying calm.

  ‘Good girl. Nearly there. Stay.’ Lady’s fearful brown eyes stared up at him, but she didn’t move. ‘Come on, Fiona.’

  His friend stood upright, still breathless but more composed.

  ‘Right, I’m ready. Shall I take this side?’ Fiona gripped one side of the foot of the bed while Carlos grasped the other.

  ‘On three. One, two, threeeee.’ They heaved, but the bed barely budged. The humungous thing was a dead weight.

  ‘It’s a monster. I can’t even move it off the floor,’ Fiona complained. Carlos had managed to lift his side a couple of inches from the floor, but without the counterbalance from Fiona, it fell back to where it had been in the first place.

  ‘Can you tell Caroline what’s happened and nip next door to fetch Gary and Sophie?’ He recognised the two of them would not have been able to lift the bed even if Fiona had been fitter. The anniversary date would have to be disturbed.

  Carlos reassured Lady and spoke comfortingly to her while waiting for the others to arrive. Caroline came up and tentatively poked her head into the room.

  After a quick glance around, she asked, ‘Can I help?’

  ‘I’m really sorry about this, but Lady’s managed to get a spring embedded in her scruff.’

  ‘Oh, poor thing.’ Caroline ventured into the room, although still wary. ‘Dreadful thing. I don’t know why he kept it after all this time. It belonged to my grandfather.’

  Carlos heard footsteps on the stairs and then along the landing, bringing with them a sense of relief. Gary arrived first, followed by Sophie and, finally, a breathless Fiona.

  I really need to talk to her about her fitness when this is over, thought Carlos.

  Gary assessed the situation and took charge. ‘Someone will need to remove the spring once we have the bed up.’

  ‘I’m no good at lifting, but I am a first aider,’ said Fiona.

  ‘Right, you’re on the dog,’ said Gary. He placed each of them, including Caroline, strategically in the best position to distribute the weight of the bed. For once, Carlos was grateful for his geeky brother-in-law.

  ‘Tell us when,’ said Sophie.

  ‘On the count of three, we all lift and shift over to the right. Once erm…’ Gary glanced at Fiona.

  ‘Fiona,’ she said.

  ‘Once Fiona has enough space to release the dog, we can drop it down again rather than try to bring it back to its original position. If you can’t remove the spring, we’ll put it down and I’ll have to come back with a hacksaw and cut it away from the main frame first.’ Gary’s confidence slipped a little as he saw the blood-soaked white fur around Lady’s neck and his face whitened.

  ‘Gary!’ Carlos snapped.

  Bringing his attention back to the task in hand, Gary counted and they all lifted at the same time. The bed still seemed to weigh a tonne even with four of them lifting it from the foot end, and the head dragged heavily along the carpet.

  ‘Right, hold on. Get the dog free,’ panted Gary who was showing remarkable strength.

  ‘Got it!’ Fiona shouted triumphantly. ‘But I’m stuck under here so you’d better move that thing away before we’re both crushed.’

  ‘Okay. Go!’ yelled Gary. With the combined strength of four people, they managed to pivot the foot of the bed to one side, freeing Fiona and Lady completely in the process.

  ‘Lady, look at you.’ Carlos hugged his dog while Caroline fetched a wet towel. Lady wagged her tail, happy to be free again, but stayed still. He parted her fur to assess the damage. ‘She’s got a small puncture wound and has managed to tear her collar, but other than that, she’ll live.’

  Caroline returned with the towel and some disinfectant. Carlos washed his dog’s fur and cleaned as much of the rust away from the wound as he could.

  ‘Better take her to the vet’s,’ suggested Gary, paling again.

  ‘You’re right. Sorry about the mess, Caroline. I’ll come back tomorrow and clear it up. Are you okay if we don’t try to move the bed back?’

  ‘Absolutely!’ She stared at it in disgust. ‘I’ll speak to Mother about getting rid of it.’

  ‘Come on, Lady,’ Carlos called. Lady ignored him and returned to the spot where her blood now stained the carpet. She sat stock still and barked. Carlos wiped sweat from his face as his heart dropped to his stomach.

  ‘I need to go. I think I’m going to be sick,
’ said Gary, rushing out of the room.

  ‘What’s the matter with him?’ asked Fiona, but said no more as Carlos caught her eye.

  ‘I’ll go and check he’s all right,’ said Sophie.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Caroline who stood by the door, trembling.

  ‘I’m not sure. It could be nothing. She’s been acting a bit weird lately. Why don’t you go downstairs? With permission, I’d like DS Cook and I to remove the carpet and see what’s underneath.’

  Caroline’s eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth. She turned abruptly and ran from the room.

  ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Carlos. Do I need to call it in?’

  ‘Not yet. Let’s check it out first. For all we know it could be nothing but a dead mouse.’

  Carlos pulled and tugged at the carpet by the fireplace, but it wouldn’t move. He pulled out an army knife from his pocket and sighed.

  ‘This could cost you your fees,’ laughed Fiona.

  ‘Well I’m not going downstairs to ask permission.’ Carlos gave Lady a handful of treats. He checked the wound again to make sure she was all right, then dismissed her from her post while he started work on the carpet.

  Half an hour later, after fighting with the thickness of the carpet and underlay, he had removed a large square to reveal enough of the floorboards underneath to see six of them had been cut through and replaced. He grimaced.

  ‘Maybe not a dead mouse.’

  ‘You need a crowbar or something.’

  Carlos agreed. The boards had been firmly nailed back in place.

  At that moment, he heard movement on the stairs. Then Gary stood in the doorway with a crowbar and a saw.

  ‘Thought you might need these.’

  Grateful for his brother-in-law’s good sense, Carlos took the tools.

  ‘Thanks, Gary. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.’

  Gary half-turned before shrugging. ‘What the hell?’ He joined Carlos and Fiona, kneeling down beside the floorboards.

  The boards moved easily once the first one was prised loose. Gary pulled it up and placed it on the floor. Carlos handed him the next one and observed how he laid it neatly down on top of the other one.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  Carlos went back to the task in hand and removed two more boards. Fiona shone a phone torch into the space.

  ‘There’s something down there. It’s a holdall of some kind.’

  Carlos went to work on the final two floorboards, and once there was enough space for him to reach down, he donned a glove handed to him by Fiona. Wiping some of the dust from the top, he unzipped the bag, expecting to find a cash hoard.

  Gary fell back and retched when it was revealed what was inside. ‘Sorry, I need to go.’ His loud footsteps could be heard running down the stairs and out the front door.

  Fiona stared at Carlos in disbelief. ‘Now, that I wasn’t expecting.’

  ‘Me neither. When I saw the holdall, I thought it was a stash of jewels or cash. I should have known, though, from Lady’s response. We can’t smell anything but dust, but she got the scent of death.’

  ‘Who was it, do you think?’

  Carlos moved the bag to expose the smallish skeleton, still clothed in a moth-eaten T-shirt and shorts.

  ‘I don’t know, but judging by Caroline’s reaction, the women downstairs might. Call it in, Fiona, while I go and talk to them. I’ll leave the holdall down there for forensics.’

  Lady followed Carlos downstairs excitedly, thrilled with her find. Carlos texted Sophie to come and collect her. She arrived seconds later.

  ‘Gary told me. Do you know who it could be?’

  ‘No idea. I’m just going to talk to Meg and Caroline.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Can you get Lady seen by a vet? I don’t want her to get an infection.’

  ‘Of course. At this rate, I’ll need a vet and a doctor. One for Lady, one for Gary.’

  Carlos rolled his eyes, but stopped himself saying anything other than, ‘Gary was really helpful this evening. Tell him that, will you? I’ve got an idea. See you in a few minutes.’

  Carlos found Caroline sitting in a chair, hugging her knees while Meg stared vacantly out of the rear window. Tears flowed down Caroline’s cheeks.

  ‘It’s Matthew, isn’t it?’

  ‘Look, it’s going to get a bit chaotic around here for the next few hours. Why don’t you and your mum join me next door where we can talk in private?’

  Caroline shot up. ‘Yes, let’s get out of here. Come on, Mother.’

  13

  Gary left with Sophie to go to the vet in the village after calling first, leaving Carlos with Caroline and Meg. After pouring himself and Caroline coffee and Meg a glass of sherry, he joined the two women at the kitchen table, taking out his notepad. Meg hadn’t spoken a word since the grim discovery; it was Caroline who’d suggested the sherry. He could have done with a shot of whisky himself, but that would have to wait.

  ‘I’m sorry for the shock of this evening’s discovery, ladies, but I do need to ask you both some questions. If you need to leave or move around at any time, please feel free.’

  Meg’s light grey eyes remained fixed as if frozen in time. The deep lines in her forehead scrunched, the only sign she was confused by the grisly find. Her silence unsettled him.

  Turning to Caroline, he asked. ‘Who’s Matthew?’

  ‘My brother.’ Caroline’s knee was in overdrive and her confused eyes darted between him and her mother. He suspected that she, like her estranged father, preferred to be in control of her emotions and recognised the struggle.

  Carlos swallowed hard. He had guessed something like that, but pressed.

  ‘And?’

  ‘He ran away. At least, we were told he ran away.’ The controlled, albeit agitated, woman he had met earlier that day now resembled a pained child. Tears filled the attractive hazel eyes and the knee bashed mercilessly on the underside of the table.

  ‘Please, take your time.’ He moved a box of tissues towards her. Taking one, Caroline dabbed her eyes, smudging neatly applied makeup. The tearful eyes and trembling lips fought to regain order. Carlos’s heart went out to her. Meg’s glacial face remained unchanged.

  ‘It was twenty years ago. I was at university in Edinburgh, but had come home because Mother’s sister was ill. Mother and I went away for the weekend to stay with her. It turned out her sister was dying.’ Caroline took her mother’s hand, but the older woman didn’t respond. ‘It was the one and only time before my wedding that Mother was allowed to go anywhere without him.’ She spat the word “him” out with venom, but still no reaction from Meg. ‘He wasn’t happy about it, but somehow I persuaded him to let her go. I should have known the manipulative brute would have had some other reason for relenting.

  ‘The atmosphere throughout that week got more and more tense the closer we got to leaving. Matthew was supposed to come with us, but at the last minute, he wasn’t allowed.’

  ‘By your father?’

  Caroline nodded. ‘By the man who was supposed to be my father. I wonder now if this was his spiteful plan all along. When we got back, he told us Matthew had run away. He told me…’

  Caroline wiped away the falling tears. Hands shaking, she continued.

  ‘I lived in halls in Edinburgh. Matthew was twelve – he was Mother’s miracle, born when she was forty-three. After I was born, the doctors told her she wouldn’t be able to have any more children because she almost died giving birth to me. He never wanted children in the first place and was livid when Mother got pregnant again. I was only seven years old when she got pregnant. I heard him constantly telling my Mother how useless she was, what a poor mother she was and how she couldn’t cope with the one child she already had. I cried myself to sleep most nights, wishing I could do something to protect her from his barrage of abuse.

  ‘He tried to coerce her into having a termination. The pressure triggered s
ome sort of breakdown, and she was admitted to hospital. I was sent to my grandparents for a while. The doctor in the psychiatric hospital kept Mother in until it was too late to terminate the pregnancy – I think she colluded with Mother to help her, but he made sure her life was hell throughout the rest of the pregnancy.

  ‘By the time I returned home, things were even worse. He hardly spoke to me and constantly tormented my mother. That man was a beast and a bully; he hated not getting his own way.’

  Caroline stole a glance at her mother, who still showed no reaction. Carlos wanted to ask if her father had been violent, but felt it would be better to save some of the conversation for when he could be alone with Caroline.

  ‘I did my best for my brother growing up, but I couldn’t stay any longer. I was a selfish teenager and went as far away as possible.’ Caroline stopped speaking for a moment and appealed to her mother. ‘You know why I left, Mum. He was impossible.’

  With no response from Meg, Caroline turned back to Carlos.

  ‘I left home when Matthew was ten, first, to stay with my grandparents again – my mother’s parents – then I went to uni.’ Her shoulders slumped. The knee stopped knocking on the underneath of the table. Caroline sprung up.

  ‘I need to call Aiden.’

  ‘Would you like some privacy?’

  Caroline nodded.

  ‘You can phone from the lounge.’

  Carlos poured two more coffees. Noticing Meg hadn’t moved a muscle, he left them on the table and followed Caroline through to the lounge-diner. Before she could dial her husband’s number, he took her arm.

  ‘I’m going to call a doctor for your mother. She’s in shock.’

  Caroline’s watery eyes were wide. She nodded. ‘As you wish. I really need to speak to my husband.’ She pulled her arm away.

  ‘You might be more comfortable in the snug. It’s back there.’ Carlos nodded to a door off the side of the lounge. Caroline went in and closed the door.

  The front door opened and Lady bounded in, leaping at him joyfully. He bent down to stroke her, taking a look at the shaved part of her neck surrounding a dressing. She reeked of antiseptic.