Letting out the Worms: Guilty or not? If not then the alternative is terrifying (Kitty Thomas Book 1 Sue Nicholls (best short books to read TXT) 📖

She opened the up to date spreadsheet on her computer and added a column for Maurice’s calendar and worked through the dates. In most cases there was no entry on Maurice’s calendar to correspond with her mother’s diary, but on some occasions, she was able to marry them up, or add in a firm date. When she reached the day on which Twitch disappeared, Maurice had entered a single item: an asterisk.

She looked across the row where the date was recorded on her spreadsheet. According to the court report, Paul had a hangover and did not go out at all. Fee’s diary said, ‘Maurice not available until evening.’ But in Maurice’s evidence, he swore he had been home all evening, so what did happen that day?

She squeezed her sore eyes shut and combed her fingers through her hair, noting that it was getting too long.

39 KITTY

‘What a cheek.’ Sam picked up a calendar and flicked through it, saying, ‘Dad throws nothing away. I’ve been trying for ages to get him to sort his stuff out.’

He flicked through the pages and after some moments, said, ‘To be fair, if I’d found these, I would have smuggled them here, too. I suppose she was trying to help.’

‘Yeah, by snooping through my stuff and Maurice’s.’ Then it was Kitty’s turn to sigh and shake her head. ‘You’re right. She meant well. I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth and hinted at what we were doing.’

‘Don’t be too hard on her. She works well, doesn’t she?’

With a tut, Kitty ran her eyes round the room. ‘Yes, she’s excellent. The flat’s never looked so smart.’

‘Neither has Dad’s house. And he enjoyed her company. She made him tea and looked after him. To be honest, I’m glad of that - I worry about him these days.’

Kitty nodded her understanding. She too had noticed a deterioration in Maurice’s mental state. ‘OK.’ She allowed, ‘Let’s leave things be for now. I’ll tell her she can come back, and make sure I lock our work away on Fridays.’

‘And: We’ll have a strong word with her about trust,’ Sam said, picking up the calendars and tamping them into a neat stack. ‘I’ll put these back where they came from. Dad won’t have a clue they were ever missing. Some time, I might find them by ‘accident’ and ask about that asterisk.’

He changed the subject. ‘Any news about the green stuff yet?’

‘Not yet. She said it would take over a fortnight.’ Kitty opened her laptop. ‘Let’s go over my mum’s movements for a while.’

‘OK. If you’re sure.’

Kitty gave a nod and scrolled down the document to the dates when her mother and Max married in Mauritius.

Fee’s diary was blank. By then she had resigned from her high-powered job. Both Millie and Twitch had died, and Fee was at home helping Nanny Gloria care for all of them. If she had another diary, Kitty could not find it.

Paul had stopped recording his anger by that time, too. So, the only data they had, came from Kitty’s memories, the court transcript and Maurice’s calendar.

‘November 1996.’ Kitty murmured, ‘That’s when they got married.’

‘How much do you remember?’ Sam asked.

Reluctantly, Kitty forced herself to think back to that time. Max Rutherford had persuaded Nanny Gloria to collude in the surprise wedding, by sending Kitty to Mauritius as a treat for Fee. ‘I was excited,’ she said. ‘Max told Nanny Gloria and I to keep the wedding a secret. We bought a bridesmaid’s dress, and I had my hair done.’

Kitty described the adventure of an aeroplane flight on her own, dropped by Nanny Gloria at Heathrow into the care of a steward. She had sat at the front of the plane, close to the little curtain behind which, staff prepared meals and drinks. On arrival at the airport, she was led by a kind steward into the care of another person, a lady this time. They waited in the airport's cool building until the lady handed Kitty over for a final time, to a uniformed man with a white smile and a shiny car.

When she reached the part where Fee saw her for the first time, holding the sweaty stems of a posy of flowers, with her feet dancing in excitement, Kitty’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I trusted him, the bastard. He was planning to murder my mother, and I helped him.’

When Sam reached to touch her arm, she stiffened and fixed her eyes on the screen. ‘Let’s get on with this, shall we?’

‘OK,’ Sam said, forcing a business-tone. He slid the pile of paper towards him. ‘The court details tell us that the police were already investigating your dad for the murder of my mum…’ He tailed off. ‘Are you sure we can do this? It’s mad. Did you hear what I just said?’

‘I did. It is unbelievable. But we’re the only ones who can do it. Who else would want to?’

Sam nodded. ‘OK, so… They brought Paul back from Mauritius and questioned him.’ Sam flapped through the court transcript. ‘There’s barely anything here about the police in Mauritius.’

Kitty grabbed the papers from Sam and scanned through each page. ‘You’re right. Nobody was in court from there. No police and no witnesses.’ She gripped Sam’s arm. ‘We have to go there. Talk to the police, and the staff in that restaurant.’

Sam stared at her. ‘How are we going to manage that? I may have earned money from my painting, but it won’t take me to Mauritius.’

Kitty was already lifting and patting papers in search of her phone. ‘I think I can sort something out,’ she said.

40 KITTY

To Kitty’s disgust, her trusty Jim refused to advance her the money. ‘Ye’re not getting a fortune frae me to have a grand jolly wi’ some man,’ he grunted in