Chapter 47
Tina thinks it isn’t natural. Jon is Carla’s brother and they’re so close in age that they’ve always had a special bond. But now that bond has turned into an unhealthy obsession.
Maybe I have a twisted mind, but I suspect Jon’s interest in his sister might be more than brotherly.
I wish his mother was still alive, because she’d know what to do.
Tina’s young, only a couple of years older than Dale, so I feel I can’t ask her to intervene, although she keeps telling me that something’s not right and accuses me of ignoring what’s going on.
Tina says she caught Jon spying on Carla in the bath last night, and when I challenged him about it, he punched me, his own father. Tina says I should get professional help for him, but whenever I try to speak to him, he says I don’t understand and accuses Tina of poisoning my mind against him.
Dale’s away in the States, travelling and making his own way in the world, so I’m not inclined to bother him with this. But I need advice and I don’t know where to turn. I think the loss of his mother and my remarriage to Tina so soon afterwards disturbed the boy. Maybe it is all my fault.
4 February 2011
Tina has offered to have a word with Carla. She thinks that underneath her denials she’s actually frightened of what her brother might do next. Maybe I’ve buried my head in the sand for too long. Maybe it’s time for action. But I told Tina to wait.
I wish I could make Jon and Carla see that Tina’s no threat to them. I sometimes worry she’ll lose patience and leave. The age gap seemed irrelevant when we first met, but now I wonder whether the situation will drive her away.
6 February 2011
I have told Jon that he needs to get a place of his own.
I think it’s the only way to resolve the situation.
Tina says she’ll help him look for somewhere, but he shouted at her to back off, so she did.
I saw the fear in her eyes and I worry this will destroy our marriage, but I don’t know what to do about it.
I caught Jon stroking Carla’s neck. She managed to break free and ran off crying, obviously terrified.
I felt I couldn’t let the matter go, so I spoke to her.
She said Jon had been smoking dope and didn’t know what he was doing.
I think she’s torn between fear and her loyalty to her brother.
One day I’m afraid fear will win out. And that’s when the real danger will begin.
‘The poor girl must have been terrified,’ said Wesley.
‘Terrified enough to kill herself in that awful way?’ Gerry wondered.
Wesley shook his head. ‘There are easier ways than locking yourself in with a hungry tiger.’ He pointed to the book. ‘We haven’t finished. What’s next?’
Gerry turned the page.
9 February 2011
Carla’s really upset because her dog, Poppy, has had a seizure and the vet diagnosed a growth on the brain. I tried to explain to her that fourteen is a good age for a dog and that it might be kinder to put her to sleep, but this didn’t help.
Tina said it’s cruel to let Poppy suffer and she offered to take her to the vet.
Carla seemed to accept the inevitable and I bought her favourite takeaway to soften the blow.
After we’d eaten, Jon tried to stir things, whispering poison in Carla’s ear, saying that Poppy’s death was Tina’s fault and that she’d hated the dog and couldn’t wait to get rid of it, which simply isn’t true.
Last night, Tina was crying. It’s a terrible thing to say about your own son, but I wish he’d hurry up and leave this house.
Wesley said nothing. He feared he knew what was coming and he could hardly bear to read on. But he had to know.
13 February 2011
My little girl is dead. Yesterday she was cleaning Rajah’s enclosure as she’d done many times before and somehow the tiger got to her.
We all assumed it was the most tragic accident, that the gate between Rajah’s sleeping quarters and the enclosure had become stuck somehow.
Then I found a note in her room saying she couldn’t bear life without Poppy and she wanted to die.
The police are crawling all over the place and there’ll be an inquiry.
I can’t bear to think that Rajah’s still here.
Jon said he’ll put him in the van and take him to another zoo.
I told him he could do what he liked. I never want to see that animal again.
I tried to contact Dale in the States but had no luck.
The two men sat in silence for a few moments. This seemed to confirm the findings of Carla Gadson’s inquest.
‘Is there any more?’ asked Wesley as Gerry leafed through the book.
‘There are lots of blank pages after that. Poor bloke probably couldn’t bring himself to write anything else, and I can’t blame him.’ Then he reached a page at the back filled with Gadson’s now familiar writing. ‘Hang on, Wes. There’s more.’
15 April 2011
Tina’s in a terrible state. Now that Jon has left, she said she’d tidy his room.
It hasn’t been touched since he walked out to go and live in some rented house near Neston.
She was emptying the bin when she came across some scrunched-up pieces of paper, and when she flattened them out, she found that they were copies of Carla’s suicide note, some unfinished.
It looked as though he’d been practising her handwriting.
I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say.
I tried to tell myself that there must be some reasonable explanation; that he was so close to Carla that he might have done it as a sort of twisted memorial.
But Tina said that she was starting to wonder whether Jon had deliberately failed to feed the tiger and tampered with the gate.
Carla had rejected him, so maybe he’d decided that if he couldn’t have her, nobody could.
They say that love can be destructive, especially love of the obsessive, forbidden kind.
I refused to listen. She was accusing my own son of killing his sister.
Jon might have his problems, but I find it hard to believe he would murder someone he claimed to love so much.
There’s a growing coldness between Tina and me. We no longer share the same bed.
20 May 2011
Today Tina stormed out, saying she’d waited too long to find out the truth.
I asked her if she was leaving me and she said she just needed some space but there was something she needed to do first. Then I found that her suitcase had gone along with some of her clothes and her passport.
Maybe it was na?ve of me to expect it to last, given our age gap.
I’m scared this is the end, but I won’t try to find her.
If she wants to come back, she needs to do it in her own time.
I heard from Dale today. He says he’s received my messages but he won’t be back for another few months. I can’t wait to see him. He needs to be here. Now that Tina’s gone, I don’t feel I can face life alone.
‘Well,’ said Gerry. ‘What do you make of that?’
‘It doesn’t look as though Carla Gadson’s death was ever investigated thoroughly.’
‘Neston station dealt with it. Took it for an accident at first until they found the note.’
‘Which could well have been forged.’
‘They obviously never thought of that. Lazy buggers. You know what this means . . .’
‘Jon Gadson disguised his sister’s murder as suicide. I always thought it was an odd way to do away with yourself. And now we’ve found Tina’s body, we know she didn’t go abroad as her husband thought. I think she guessed the truth and went to St Julian’s to confront Jon.’
‘What about Sue Potter? What’s she got to do with this?’
‘She was Tina’s cousin and she had that leaflet about the zoo in her possession. What if she went there recently to try and find out what had happened to Tina?’
‘Dale never mentioned it.’
‘Maybe he didn’t think it was important.’
‘And even if she went there, how on earth would Jon know?’
‘That’s something we have yet to discover.’
‘And how does Aleric Donnal fit into all this?’
Before Wesley could reply, Rachel rushed into Gerry’s office without knocking.
‘Rob’s got something. He couldn’t find any trace of a Jon Gadson who was the right age, so then he had the idea of looking for Jon’s mother’s maiden name, just in case he’d decided to use that.
I went through all the routine statements taken from everyone who was at the scene when Aleric Donnal’s body was discovered and found someone with that surname.
It’s cropped up in the investigation already, albeit on the distant fringes. ’
‘Go on,’ said Wesley, excitement taking the place of despair.
Once he’d heard the name, another piece of the jigsaw slotted into place, and he went to his desk and picked up his phone.
‘Hello, is that Suzy Porter?’
‘Speaking.’
‘This is DI Peterson. We met a few days ago.’
‘I remember. Are you going to prosecute the woman who sent those terrible messages?’
‘This is about something else entirely,’ said Wesley quickly, determined to keep the focus on the investigation. ‘You mentioned that you were being disturbed by noise a few weeks ago.’
‘That’s right. But I don’t see what it’s got to do with—’
‘What kind of noise was it?’
‘Machinery. Those terrible buzzing chainsaws. It was a terrible racket.’
‘Where was the sound coming from?’
‘The churchyard. I was about to complain to the vicar, but then it stopped. Look, are you going to—’
But before she had a chance to say any more, Wesley thanked her and ended the call. He needed to speak to Mark.
His brother-in-law answered almost immediately, and very soon Wesley had all the information he needed. He knew now why Sue Potter had been targeted.
He rushed to Gerry’s office to break the news, and the DCI’s face lit up as he leapt from his seat, all pain forgotten.
‘Well, well. Who would have thought it, eh?’
At that moment, Wesley’s phone rang. After a swift one-sided conversation, he looked at Gerry, his eyes shining with excitement.
‘I asked the team earlier to extend the search of the area around Sycamore House. They didn’t find anything new at first, but then Helen Jones told them about a piece of woodland about a quarter of a mile from the house.
It looks as though it belongs to a nearby farm, but it turns out that the land actually belongs to Sycamore House.
Mrs Jones didn’t realise that until she had a closer look at the deeds, and she passed on the information to the search team.
Anyway, they came across a tumbledown wooden outbuilding hidden by trees and overgrown shrubs.
They described it as looking like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. ’
‘And?’
‘When they hacked away the undergrowth and gained entry, they found something inside. Two cars hidden under old tarpaulins. One is registered to Aleric Donnal and the other to Tina Gadson. There was luggage inside Tina’s. Looks as though she was intending to leave home after all.’
‘I was wondering what had become of the victims’ vehicles. Now we know.’
‘There was something in the glovebox of Donnal’s car. A blue notebook. They’re bringing it over. I told them to get a move on.’