‘What is it?’ Katie asked after a moment, and gave a small baffled laugh. ‘Do I have a smudge on my face or what?’
‘No, no. I was just thinking how well you look, Katie mine. Beautiful if the truth be known. You’ve blossomed since you went into the play. And you have so much going for you, a big career ahead of you, friends and family who love you. So you mustn’t fret for Chris.’
‘I’m not fretting, Momma. I miss him, I love him, but I’m practical enough to get on with my life. What’s the alternative?’
‘There isn’t one, and I’m glad you’ve got your head screwed on the right way, Katie. You’ve never been one to mope, flop around feeling sorry for yourself, thank the Lord. Anyway, you’re busy with the play, and will be for a long time. And one day you’ll meet another nice man. There must be one out there for you, darlin’.’
‘I hope so,’ Katie responded, and reached out, squeezed her mother’s hand. ‘Thanks for being so supportive. You and Dad have been great these last few weeks.’
As Katie parked outside the hospital an hour later she saw James Nelson crossing the road, heading for the nearby hospice, his white coat flapping around him in the breeze. She got out of the rented car quickly, snatched up her carryall, and called out, ‘Dr Nelson! Hi!’
He swung his head and lifted his hand in a wave when he saw her.
A moment later Katie was by his side. ‘I decided to stop in again today, on my way back to New York. I think the more Carly sees me the better, don’t you?’
‘Absolutely. And she’s making remarkable progress. Didn’t you notice that when you were here yesterday?’
‘I did. In the week I was gone she’s made all kinds of strides. I couldn’t believe it yesterday when I saw her sitting up.’
‘I didn’t expect Carly to do as well as she has,’ Dr Nelson confided, opening the door for her, ushering her into the front lobby. ‘That’s something I’ve got to admit to you, Katie. I’ve come to the conclusion that she may have been in a semi-vegetative state, but aware of much more that was going on around her longer than anyone realized.’
Katie nodded. ‘So your prognosis is good?’
‘Yes, it is. I think Carly will make an excellent recovery. There will be challenges she’ll have to deal with, but there’s a great chance she will be fully mobile eventually, and that most of her motor skills will return.’
‘That’s wonderful news!’ Katie exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.
He smiled at Katie, put his hand on her shoulder. ‘You’ve been a really good friend and I know your continuing presence here has worked wonders for Carly. You’re helping her memory to come back, of that I’m certain.’
‘Talking to her about the past, showing her photographs, playing music she knows, I think all those things have been a factor, don’t you?’
‘Yes. Just keep on doing all of it.’ He turned to go into his office, and said, ‘I’ll see you next week, I presume.’
‘You presume correctly, Dr Nelson.’
Katie hurried along the corridor to Carly’s room, went in and closed the door. As always, she went straight to the bed. The difference now was that Carly was propped up against the pillows and the feeding tube had gone. Dr Nelson had put her on soft foods, and she was managing to eat quite well. Another surprise for everyone who looked after her.
‘Here I am again, Carly,’ Katie exclaimed as she leaned over the bed, and kissed her on the cheek, squeezed her arm lightly. She drew away, looked into Carly’s eyes, and saw the lovely bright spark of life in them.
Katie beamed at her girlfriend. ‘I’m so happy, Carly, so happy. You’re getting better very quickly, you know. Much quicker than anyone ever expected. You are doing very well. Do you understand me?’
Carly attempted a smile, and then blinked her eyes. ‘Katie…Hi…’
‘Good girl.’ Katie took hold of her hand. There was a light pressure of Carly’s fingers against hers, and Katie was overjoyed again. ‘I’ll be taking you out on the town dancing before you know it!’
Carly made a small gurgling noise in her throat, and Katie frowned, stared at her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Den…ise,’ Carly said in that low mumble, and stared at Katie, her eyes frantic.
‘Denise. Is that what you’re saying?’ Katie asked, leaning closer to her.
Carly blinked rapidly. It had become one of her ways of communicating. ‘Denise…okay?’ she enunciated more clearly.
Katie suddenly remembered that she had been unconscious in the wood. She didn’t know Denise was dead. Oh my God. How can I tell her that? It could set her back, and she’s doing so well. Katie had always had an ability for thinking on her feet, and now she said swiftly, ‘Yes, Denise was hurt, Carly.’
‘Oooh.’ The noise Carly made was more like a groan, and her face crumpled slightly. Tears came into her violet-blue eyes and rolled down her cheeks. ‘Poor…Denise…’
‘Oh darling, yes, poor Denise,’ Katie murmured, her own eyes filling. She went to get the box of tissues; returning to the bedside, she patted Carly’s cheeks, drying her tears, and then her own.
There was a silence for a while.
Katie sat next to the bed, holding Carly’s hand, stroking it, wanting to comfort her friend.
There was a sudden, unexpected change in Carly. She tried to move up, lifted her head off the pillows, and her eyes were agitated. ‘Denise…me…run…Katie!’
Startled, Katie leaned in closer. ‘You and Denise ran? That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? You and Denise ran into the wood.’
Carly blinked rapidly. ‘Yes…’
Taking a deep breath, Katie said carefully, ‘Who did you run away from?’
A blank look settled on Carly’s face. She stared back at Katie. Her mouth moved in agitation and then stopped. But her eyes were bright with life again.
‘A man was chasing you. Who was it? Tell me, Carly.’ Katie took her hand again and squeezed it. ‘I’m here. Nothing can hurt you now.’
‘Denise hurt…’
‘Yes, Denise was hurt, and so were you. Who was the man who hurt Denise?’
‘Ha…nk…Hank…hurt…Denise…hurt…me.’
‘Hank? Are you saying Hank?’
Carly blinked. ‘Hank…’ she said again, and lay staring at Katie.
Katie was puzzled. She bit her lip, racked her brains, wondering who Carly meant. She didn’t know anyone called Hank. ‘Hank who, Carly? What’s his last name?’
‘Hank…Thurl…o.’
‘Hank Thurloe!’ Katie cried. ‘Do you mean Hank Thurloe?’
‘Yes…’
‘Oh my God!’ Katie was momentarily stunned, and she sat very still in the chair, her eyes riveted on Carly. After a moment she recovered, and said again, ‘Hank Thurloe?’ Hank Thurloe hurt Denise and you?’
Again Carly said, very clearly, ‘Yes…Katie…’
An hour later Katie was greeting Mac MacDonald in James Nelson’s office at the hospice. Mac was accompanied by Detective Groome, who had worked on the Matthews murder case with him ten years ago.
‘Sorry we took so long to get here from Litchfield, but the traffic was bad,’ Mac said to her. ‘And it was lucky you called when you did. I was just leaving to drive up to Sharon.’
‘This last hour has seemed like an eternity,’ Katie exclaimed, then turned to Dave Groome. ‘Nice to see you, Detective.’
‘It’s good to see you, too, Katie. You look great.’
‘Thanks. Listen, Mac, I’m going to cut to the chase. As I told you on the phone, Carly’s regained some of her memory. Enough of it to tell me who it was who assaulted them.’
Mac looked at her keenly. ‘Who was it, Katie?’ His voice was urgent.
‘Someone called Hank Thurloe.’
‘Who is he? Was he at school with you?’
‘Yes, but he was a senior, and he’d been gone about two years in 1989. He was the school football hero, the big jock, the big romeo. All the girls were crazy about him –’
‘Was Denise crazy about him?’ Mac cut in peremptorily.
‘No, no, he was ahead of us in school. As I just said. And then he left. But the other girls, the older girls, thought he was glamorous. They had crushes on him. He’s good-looking, or he was then.’
‘Tell me everything you know about him,’ Mac said.
‘Okay. Let me try and remember.’ Katie’s brow furrowed and she bit her lip, thinking hard. ‘Well, his family were affluent, that I do know. They had a very nice house in Kent, an old farmhouse. Between Kent and Cornwall Bridge. His father had some sort of business in New Milford. A printing business, I think.’
‘There’s still a printer’s called Thurloe in New Milford,’ Detective Groome volunteered.
‘Then it must be his father’s business,’ Katie said.
‘Can you give me a description of Hank Thurloe?’ Mac now asked, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice. He knew he was going to solve this case after all these years, and he felt a rush of adrenaline. Finally he was going to get justice for Denise Matthews and Carly Smith. At long last.
‘Yes. As he was then,’ Katie replied. ‘He was tall, well built, heavy-set really. His hair was light-brown. I don’t recall what colour his eyes were. I mean, you have to know someone well to remember that.’
Mac nodded. ‘How did he dress? You said his family was affluent, so no doubt he favoured good clothes.’
‘That’s right, Mac. Jeans, of course, but cashmere sweaters in winter, nice sports shirts in summer. I remember about his clothes because Niall always thought Hank looked out of place. He said Hank was showing off, trying to impress. Especially the girls.’
Mac nodded, thinking of Allegra’s profile ten years ago. My God, she had been right on the button. She had described Hank Thurloe when she had given him a partial profile of the perp. She had said he was tall, well built, with brown hair, and that he must’ve worn cashmere sweaters. There had been cashmere threads on Denise’s body and brown hair, as well. Not to mention the skin particles under her nails. DNA was going to help him put Hank Thurloe behind bars, of that he had no doubt now.
Mac said to Katie, ‘Let’s go to Carly’s room. I want her to tell me herself. I want her to name Hank Thurloe.’
The days that followed this dramatic turn of events were filled with tension for Katie.
She threw herself into the play, glad she had her work to lose herself in, because it helped to keep worry at bay.
Nevertheless, there were moments when she did find herself worrying – about Carly, and about Hank Thurloe being found and arrested.
But she had infinite faith in Mac MacDonald. She knew how committed he was, and that he wanted this unsolved case to be solved. As he had said to her after they had visited Carly’s room: ‘I want to be able to write case closed on this particular file. I want Carly to live without fear in the future, and Denise to rest in peace in her grave.’
Mac had telephoned her once during the week to tell her that they had located Hank Thurloe. He was married with two children and lived just outside Litchfield. She had hung up the phone thinking how close this was to Malvern; her mother had been right, the murderer had not moved away. He was right on their doorstep.
The log fire blazed up the big chimney, the antique Victorian lamps threw lambent light across the walls, and the sense of warmth, comfort and welcoming hospitality seemed more pronounced than ever.
Michael and Maureen Byrne, and Katie, sat at the table in their big country kitchen with Mac MacDonald and Allegra Marsh, mugs of coffee in front of them. It was a Monday afternoon, and Mac and Allegra had stopped at the house in Malvern to fill them in about the murder case.
‘As I told you a month ago, Katie, it didn’t take us long to locate Hank Thurloe. He’s an accountant, and has his own small company. His father’s retired now, and it’s his brother Andy who runs the printing business. It was through his brother that we found him.’
‘Did he seem normal?’ Katie asked, riddled with curiosity. ‘Or was he weird?’
‘He did appear to be normal on the surface, but we soon discovered he wasn’t. In any case, I went to see him with Dave Groome, and I told him we were starting new investigations into a ten-year-old unsolved murder case, because of fresh evidence that had come to light. I told him the name of the deceased, and I asked him if he would be willing to give us a sample of his blood for a DNA test. I explained that if he wasn’t willing I’d have to get a warrant.’
‘And he agreed?’
‘Oh yes, he was quite willing.’
Katie frowned. ‘Is that a normal reaction?’ she asked, staring across at Mac.
‘Yes, I think it is, because he didn’t know he was at risk. The average person doesn’t understand much about DNA. For instance, you yourself didn’t know that DNA samples last forever, Katie. And most people don’t know that either.’
‘They don’t realize that DNA is a genetic fingerprint which makes each one of us unique,’ Allegra interjected. ‘DNA is never wrong, and a person truly can be identified by a small sample of DNA, and that’s what Mac and I did with Hank Thurloe. We matched him up to the DNA samples taken from Denise’s body, which have been kept in storage at headquarters all these years. It was his seminal fluid, his skin under her fingernails, his blood, his pubic hair, and hair from his head. It was even his saliva on a cigarette stub found at the crime scene. We got him on the DNA match.’
‘And so he’s arrested and in jail,’ Michael stated.
‘Yes. He’s been charged and he’s awaiting trial,’ Mac said.
‘He couldn’t get off, could he?’ Maureen asked, looking at the detective worriedly.
‘No way, Maureen. The evidence is overwhelming. But in any case, he confessed.’
Katie was startled and exclaimed, ‘He told you he raped and strangled Denise? I can’t believe it!’
‘Believe it, Katie,’ Mac replied. ‘He sure as hell confessed. He went berserk a few days after he was arrested, and threw a crazy fit. It wasn’t an act, either. He was really out of control. Underneath that jock exterior, the football hero image, there’s a psychopath. He ranted and raved about Denise, about her belonging to him. He had a sexual fixation about her. He’s a sicko.’
‘Did he tell you what happened that day?’ Katie asked, leaning forward intently, staring at Mac and Allegra.
‘Part of it, yes,’ Mac replied. ‘And I’ve also managed to re-create the scene to a certain extent in my own mind. Hank went to the barn with some intent. He says he went to talk to Denise. Seemingly, he’d noticed her in his last year at school, really fallen hard for her. He told me at one point that he loved her blonde beauty. Anyway, he wanted to make a date with her, but when he asked her to go out with him, she said no. She rejected him. He took hold of her arm, trying to persuade her to leave with him then, to go somewhere that night for a cup of coffee. He told me over and over again that he meant her no harm. But she pushed him away, a struggle broke out between them, and then apparently Carly rushed to Denise’s defence. There was something of a scuffle between the three of them in the barn and then the girls ran outside. He says he ran after them.
‘It’s my belief he had become angry, inflamed by that time, and I think he went over the edge,’ Mac continued. ‘In the wood, he saw Carly first. According to Thurloe, he tried to push her out of the way, but she picked up a log and hit him with it. He grabbed it from her, beat her over the head with it, and knocked her unconscious. Then he went after Denise. That was his intent…having sexual relations with her.’
‘But why did he have to kill her?’ Katie cried.
‘I think everything escalated. Obviously he had the need to cover up. He says he panicked. He’d forced her, raped her. He knew Denise could bring rape charges against him, and he couldn’t face that. It seems he was newly engaged to a girl from a prominent Sharon family, Martha Eddington, whom he subsequently married. So he was in a state of panic, alarm, couldn’t risk being identified as a rapist. A
nd that’s why he strangled her.’
‘Oh my God!’ Maureen cried, covering her mouth with her hand. Michael put his arm around her, trying to comfort her.
‘And he attacked Carly because she got in the way?’ Katie gave Mac a long look.
‘Yes, he did. It was always Denise he wanted, Denise he’d watched and stalked for years.’
‘Was I ever in danger, Mac?’ Katie now asked quietly.
‘No, I don’t believe you were.’
‘But what about my school bag? The way all three of the bags were lined up in a row?’
‘I told you at the time that we never found any trace evidence on it. Only your fingerprints and those of Carly and Denise.’
‘But he could have worn gloves, couldn’t he?’
‘Yes, Katie, he could. But it’s my belief the girls found your bag in the dressing area, put it with theirs, intending to bring it to you.’
Katie nodded. ‘I guess you’re right. Do you think Thurloe was still in the wood that night? I mean when Niall and I got there, and started calling out their names?’
‘I do, yes. And there’s no doubt you saved Carly’s life. He had probably gone back to see if she was dead, realized she was still breathing and hit her again with the log. Then when he heard you and Niall, heard your voices, he ran away, bolted through the bushes, taking that log with him. We never found it.’
‘And he thought he’d killed Carly in the last attack?’ Katie said.
Mac nodded. ‘I’m sure he did.’
‘But she didn’t die,’ Michael said. ‘Why didn’t he come after her in the hospital?’
‘Because she was in a coma,’ Allegra answered. ‘If you remember, there were a lot of stories in the newspapers, and on TV, a lot of media attention was given to the murder, and the attack on Carly, at the time. The prognosis was very grim. The doctors looking after Carly said she was in a coma and would be for the rest of her life. He believed he was home free.’
‘It’s amazing how she suddenly came out of it,’ Maureen ventured, addressing Allegra. ‘I was stunned when Katie told me today.’