Chapter 35

"How did you know I was here?" Steve asked.

"You are aware that your sister is all over the news, right? When I saw images of the farm and Nicholas's company I knew what happened. He wasn't exactly quiet when he threatened you in your office. I put two and two together and came up with your sister as the result. How is she? They didn't say on the news."

Despite trying to come across perfectly fine, Charles couldn't hide the nerves in his voice. Steve knew he wasn't a threat so answered sincerely.

"She's alive but she may not make it." Charles closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"I'm so sorry. You don't deserve any this. If only …"

"If only what, Charles? I know you want to tell me something. So talk," Steve said calmly. Charles raised his head and looked at Steve, his eyes full of determination.

"I need a couple of guarantees first. Firstly, what I tell you remains anonymous. I can't have my name linked to this if used to close the case. Secondly, I need protecting until the case is closed."

"Protecting from who? We have Nicholas in custody." Charles chortled.

"You think you have the top dog but you have no fucking clue. The old boys club is one where you will never be released for the rest of your life. The job is just that, a job. If I get seen going to your offices they will know it was me and I'll end up dead in a ditch somewhere. This isn't a game, lad. This is a fight to the death and I am hanging by a thread."

"Ok, I can call my colleagues and get you to a safe house but I need to know the information first. I'm not even technically working right now so whatever we discuss is off the official record anyway. You have my word. Now what do you want to tell me?"

Charles, feeling confident that Steve was telling him the truth let out a shaky breath and began. "Three days before he disappeared I ran into Christopher. He was coming out of the post office."

Steve quickly knew that meant that Charles saw him minutes after he posted the diaries to Gwen but didn't interrupt him.

"I was on my way to a surveillance gig and as soon as I saw him I knew something was wrong. He looked so ill. It took some time to get him into my car and I drove him to a café round the corner from the house I was meant to be watching. I had set off early anyway so I had time to kill before the cross over. I had never seen him the way he was. I thought he might drop at any minute he was that thin and gaunt. I got him a sugary tea and made him drink it in front of me. He kept looking around as if there were things he could see which weren't there and he kept muttering to himself. Tapping the table in a certain sequence and he couldn't look me in the eye. Then out of the blue he mentions the diaries. That he got them home at last. I asked 'what diaries?' and suddenly he changes the subject as if him talking of them was a mini blackout and now he was back awake muttering and tapping the table again. I tried to get more out of him but nothing worked not even talking about the past and the good times. Finally I had to leave because of the surveillance and we leave the café. It is when I get to my car that he reaches out and touches my shoulder stopping me. He says 'do you believe I'm a good man, Charles?' I told him I'd never met one finer. He smiled at that and I saw tears fill his eyes. He said 'at least someone does. I never intended for any of it to happen, remember that. I paid the price for manipulation.' I asked him what he meant but he turned on his heel and walked away. I tried going after him but he was too quick for me and I lost him in the crowd. The sugar had kicked in clearly. I never saw him again. Like I told you before, this job fucked up my head and I struggled for years with my mental health. I started going through my old belongings when the case got re-opened by you lot and I found this."

Charles reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out and old battered weather beaten pocket sized notepad. There was a post it note sticking out of it about a third of the way through. He handed it to Steve who opened it at that page. What he saw was a log of the conversation, the times and locations exactly as Charles had described. The entries before and after that page showed it was a real notepad from the 70s with details of other cases and his surveillances of the house.

"If you compare that to the details of the other cases before after that page, you have evidence of an encounter between me and Christopher that was never logged in the official police system. Whoever got rid of documents never had that to destroy," Charles explained.

"What makes you think someone got rid of documents?" Steve asked knowing Charles would have no knowledge of that.

"The old boys club. They are the ones who made the systems so they were the first to corrupt them. They wrote loopholes and bent rules because it meant that they got the job done and fuck everyone they trample on. There is another entry in there you might to take a closer look at. It is for May 12th 1976. Now, do I get your confirmation of this being an anonymous tip and I have your protection?"

"One last question, first. When you remembered the diaries you contacted Gwen. Why?"

"Because I didn't know if I could trust you. This case shows that even the young get easily manipulated by the system. I didn't know if you were one of them. I had to ask the one person that I knew that Christopher trusted with his life. I had to talk to her and mention the diaries. I could tell that she trusts you with her life so I knew I could trust you too. So? Can I trust you?"

Steve nodded. "I'll make a call."

Steve got Charles to a safe house as promised with the help of Maneet and others in the office but didn't hand over the notepad. Instead he spent his time sitting with Lottie looking through it. He wanted to give it to Kate and Ted in person after going through it. He may be on compassionate leave but he couldn't turn off being a detective. Within a few hours he got a text from Kate checking in and sending the news Gwen had waited forty years to know.

WE FOUND HIM

Steve looked to Lottie and told her what had happened. He kissed her forehead and told her how clever she was to figure it out. Squeezed her hands in the hope that she would squeeze his back but he got no response as expected. It did mean though that when his parents returned to the hospital for the cross over, he was in a bit of a better mood yet exhausted.

He filled up the car with petrol and bought a few beers to drink. He didn't want to eat so drank down the beers quickly. He wanted to get drunk. He turned on the Lottie playlist on his Spotify account once more a film soundtrack. The Virgin Suicides. A film set in the 1970s and the first track being Magic Man by Heart. It seemed suiting somehow given Christopher's case, being 1970s describing a man with stunning blue eyes. Unable to relax and not feeling tired, he pulled out his laptop and logged into his various work systems. He wanted to verify the notepad himself with the online entries he had. Didn't take long for him to do so and Charles's name was in every record so he knew Charles was being honest. It was a new entry of evidence.

The album finished and switched to the next. Sunshine on Leith soundtrack. Steve couldn't help thinking of Lottie and her first date recognising the songs. He was sat where he was right now that night when she walked over and pressed her finger to his.

The album though began to be less of a focus as he came across the 12th May 1976 entry. He wasn't sure what Charles had meant as there was nothing that stood out as being out of the ordinary. It was then he noticed in the top right hand corner that a set of bells had been drawn and a letter 'H' written underneath. They looked like wedding bells. He thought of Lottie and her searches of public records. He found himself doing the same as well as through official police records.

It was then he found it. Found the document that changed everything. A public record of a wedding and a police record of a murder side by side. It didn't mean proof though. He let out a frustrated sigh and the silence bothered him. He wanted to see Lottie so he pulled out his phone and started watch videos of her and looking at her photos. Seeing her singing songs that she was so passionate about made him smile. Then one video made his smile drop. It was footage from when she sang her song Driver's Licence with Alex at the piano. Near the end of the video the shot changed to that of the crowd and there Steve saw someone who shouldn't have been there. Someone he didn't expect.

"Fuck!" he yelled standing up. Lots of puzzle pieces fixed together in his mind. He quickly looked up a police profile and did one other search in public records whilst still standing, all the dates lined up. He found the top dog at last. The one who was always in plain sight.

He went to grab his car keys but then realised he was over the limit from the drinks he had consumed over the past couple of hours. He had to get to the office now. It was a busy Friday night so getting a taxi was impossible. There was no other choice, he had to run. He ran as fast as he could and tried to call the office on route but got no answer.

He was out of breath when he got to the office but didn't stop. He was relieved to see Margaret at the front desk who he knew well and her baffled look at seeing him swipe through the gate meant that she didn't even ask him to sign in. To say he wasn't expected in the AC-12 office was an understatement as the office seemed to stop as he burst through the door and then the gate.

"Does no one pick up the phone?" he asked panting, bend over because of a stitch in his side.

"Steve? What the hell?" he heard Kate asked. He stood up straight and saw Ted and Kate walk out of Ted's office towards him. "Is it Lottie? Is she ok?" Kate asked full of concern.

"She's fine-"

"Christ, son! You had us worried. What is going on?" Ted asked.

"It's Holly! Holly Lightstone. She's the missing link. She's faking her illness," Steve panted. Maneet walked over to him and handed over a bottle of water which Steve took gratefully and began to swig from. As he did he handed over his phone to Ted and hit play on the video.

"The night Lottie sang her song at open-mic night, I recorded it. Right near the end I get a shot of the crowd and there she is. Watching across the room. No walking aid, no sign of illness. This was before we met her so we wouldn't have spotted her. I did some digging into public records. She married Graham Bennett on 12th May 1976 when they were both in Germany on a month long trip before they moved there officially. It's the same Graham Bennet who worked security at the bank robbery. She told us they divorced which was a lie. He died in 1986. She changed her name back to her maiden name and moved back to the UK."

"There is no link to Christopher's death though," Kate pointed out.

"I think there is even though we weren't able to see it before now. I think she has Munchausen syndrome. We know she has a history of violence as well as wanting to be the centre of attention and the video proves that she is able bodied despite what she has presented herself of being so here. That means she would have been able to go to multiple doctors, claim she was ill and be prescribed with an assortment of drugs. She gave them to Nicholas to give to Christopher. There would be a full paper trail of this in the medical records of the doctors she visited and the rest of her general medical records but she played the game so no one would bat an eyelid over it. She wanted revenge for what Christopher did to her. He broke her heart because he was gay so she got Nicholas to be his new love interest. Manipulated him and have him be the fall guy for the bank robbery. He was a dutiful boy by covering up what happened thanks to Nicholas's manipulation but she knew he was going to crack. She gave Nicholas the drugs to give to Christopher. She gets the ultimate revenge for his betrayal, Nicholas gets Christopher out of the picture before the truth comes out and the two split the money. There is an entry in Holly's police file to say that she had a week leave in June of 1974 and where does she go? To Germany as she was the money carrier. She took all the money and opened two offshore accounts. One for her and one for Nicholas but there was a clause that she was the one in control of both accounts. That's why Nicholas has all that money and never touched it. He can't! Fast forward to 1986. Things are going south between Graham and Holly. He knew about the money and if they go to court for a divorce he is going to bring it up. He'll talk so-"

"So she killed him and came here," Ted finished Steve's sentence.

"Exactly! Charles felt something was off. He said the last time he saw Christopher the diaries got mentioned. Our investigation triggered the memory and he went to Gwen not us. Why? Because he knew there was a chance the information could trickle down to Nicholas or Holly and that could be bad for him. You saw how she turned away from Charles when we told them that Christopher was dead. Even that she made all about her! She's the top dog in plain sight. If we can prove she has Munchausen's and she was given codeine in 1974 we have her. We need her medical records, now. We need her on surveillance, now!"

"But wait; there is one piece of the puzzle missing. Vic's death in 1976. We know Mark died from the drug overdose in 1990 fuelled by his addiction and his involvement in the cover up. What about Vic?" Kate asked.

"There is a link. You know how in 1976 Holly married in Germany? That was her and Graham's second wedding. Their first wedding was in Merseyside, an impromptu service at a registry office on the same day that Vic was murdered. Same day, same place. Public record of it and a new piece of evidence from Charles. A log of work which never went on police record showing that and the full encounter of him and Christopher three days before Christopher disappeared. It checks out." Steve presented the notepad and began going through his phone gallery to show images of the various records. "I thinks she found out that Vic was looking into the cover up. She had to take him out so she used the wedding as her alibi to explain how she was there at the same time as him but no one associated the one with the other. She got away with it. What's that old saying? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?"

Stunned silence filled the room before it was broken by Ted. "Mother of God. You heard him everyone. Find Holly."