No Place Like Home Jane Renshaw (best books to read for beginners TXT) 📖

first met you. She said, “I’m so glad you’ve found such a lovely boy to be happy with.” She knew I wasn’t happy at home. She knew something was wrong. But I couldn’t tell her, Bram. I couldn’t tell her it was nothing to do with her.’

‘So when I suggested you go freelance, and Phoebe ran with the idea of moving back here…’

‘I felt I had to try.’ She made a choked sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. ‘And look how well that’s turned out. For a while I thought it was maybe going to be okay, that I could cope with him, but then when Max joined us… The way Dad got his claws into him… And Max being here seemed to make Dad turn on you, pressure you to be a man and set an example.’ She gulped. ‘He’s sick, Bram. He’s dangerous and I knew that but I didn’t do anything, I should have packed us all up and got us out of here when I saw what he was doing to Max, to you, but I didn’t. And now Max…’

‘Everything that’s happened – it’s not your fault.’

She took a deep breath. ‘I left that boy in the shed to die. All I could think of was how we were going to cover it up. I was – when Finn was lying there on the ground, all I could think about was Owen, and how Dad got away with it. It’s as if… as if he’s poisoned us all.’

‘We didn’t know Finn was still alive.’

‘But I should have checked him properly! We should have called an ambulance!’

For a long time they just sat there, watching the traffic, a bird flitting about in the branches of a big conifer, the clouds scudding past.

‘Does Scott know?’ Bram said at last. ‘About Owen?’

Kirsty sighed. ‘I’m pretty sure he suspects, but he’s never asked me about it. We don’t talk about Owen. Which is telling in itself, I suppose.’

‘I’m just thinking, when he sees the Bertie-cam footage…’

‘Oh, he’ll buy into the theory it was Dad. No question.’

Another long silence, in which Bram just held her.

‘He isn’t sorry, you know,’ she said eventually. ‘For murdering Owen. He has no remorse about it. Owen got his just desserts, that’s what he thinks. And you can bet he has no remorse about Finn, either. You think he’s beating himself up about it, like we are? Oh no. No. For all he knows, he killed Finn, but he doesn’t give a toss, Bram.’ She took a big breath. ‘He’ll never face justice for Owen. And that’s my fault. I should have gone to the police and told them what happened, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it to my own dad! But I can now. He can face justice for what he did to Finn. To us. To all of us.’

25

At Aviemore Police Station, Scott left them in a small room containing a table and some chairs while he took the SD card away to hand over to the DI in charge of Finn’s case. Bram could feel his heart hammering, his skin slicking with sweat, sitting there in the airless little room.

‘DI Moira Cromer,’ said the grey-haired, business-like woman who eventually came to speak to them, taking a seat at the table opposite them with another, younger woman with wispy blonde hair, whom she introduced as DC Rachel Henderson.

DC Henderson switched on the tape recorder. ‘We’re recording this, okay?’

It wasn’t really a question, but Bram and Kirsty nodded.

DI Cromer gave all their names for the tape. Then: ‘You found this footage on the camera attached to your dog’s collar?’

‘My mum’s dog,’ Kirsty corrected. ‘Our daughter must have put the camera on him just before my dad and brother went out to check around the property.’

‘And they were later joined by your son, Maxwell?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why didn’t you come forward with this straight away?’

‘We’ve only just found it,’ Bram was able to say truthfully. ‘Kirsty didn’t know that Phoebe had attached the petcam to Bertie that night, and I just remembered after Max… after he was arrested.’

‘Okay.’ She consulted her notes. ‘I’m going to ask the two of you to stay here in the station, and surrender your phones, while we arrest your father and apply for a warrant to search your parents’ property. DI Sinclair will look after you. I understand you’re old friends.’

Kirsty nodded. ‘Max–’

‘What we’re going to do now is show your son this footage – which leaves no room for doubt about what your father did, Mrs Hendriksen. Maxwell seems like an intelligent lad. I’m sure he’ll see the sense in telling the truth.’

‘He was only keeping quiet out of – loyalty,’ Kirsty whispered, and Bram grabbed her hand. He wasn’t entirely confident, no matter what she said, that Kirsty would be able to go through with this. ‘Loyalty to his grandad.’

‘Yes, I appreciate that. Theoretically he could be charged with perverting the course of justice, but I don’t think the procurator fiscal is going to consider that to be in the public interest. It’s an understandable omission, to keep quiet about this, particularly as your father explicitly told him to do so.’

‘What will happen to Dad?’ Kirsty choked.

DI Cromer pursed her lips. ‘Regardless of what we find on his property, we have enough here with the footage, your testimony and, it is to be hoped, that of Maxwell, to charge him with Finn Taylor’s murder.’

Kirsty nodded wordlessly.

Bram squeezed her hand.

Scott kept them supplied with sandwiches and water and coffee, and updated on what was going on. For an hour or so, the updates consisted merely of the fact that Max was still being questioned. Then David had been arrested, but not yet charged. Scott reassured them that Amy had been hot on the heels of the officers who had arrested David – she’d picked up Linda and Bertie, and Phoebe from the Millers, and whisked them off to Scott and Amy’s place before the team executing the