Imposition (DI Gardener 5)

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Mr Atkinson, but Jane won’t be in again. I’m afraid she died sometime over the weekend.”

Atkinson removed his cap and stared at Gardener and Reilly as if he wanted them to retract that last statement. He put the saddle and the cap on the table and placed his hands on his legs, rubbing his thighs slowly, staring at the saddle.

“Are you serious?” he asked. “You must be, mustn’t you? I mean you wouldn’t come all the way here to tell me that if it weren’t true.”

“I’m so sorry. From your reaction you must have been close.”

“Aye.” He replaced his cap and nodded. “Please, call me Matthew. I thought she was a fantastic lass. Do owt for anyone and ask nowt in return. I really thought a lot about her, especially the kind of life she’d had.”

Atkinson glanced around the room, as if he was lost. “Look, do you mind if I make a cup of tea? I’m gagging for one. Not had a drink all morning. I’m sure you could do with one.”

Both detectives nodded, allowing him his moment of respect, a chance to reflect. No one spoke until he’d made the tea and returned to the table.

“Thank you,” said Atkinson. “I still can’t believe it. Jane, dead? How did it happen?”

“We’re not entirely sure, Matthew,” said Gardener, taking a sip of the tea. “We were called out to the house at two-thirty on Saturday morning. Her husband had reported it at two o’clock.”

“Robbie?”

“Yes. It’s all a bit of a mystery. He came home around one-thirty, to find his house had been burgled, and his wife, Jane in an upstairs room.”

“She was dead when he found her? And you don’t know what happened?”

“Not yet. But we would like to ask you some questions about her. If you can give us some general information and perhaps tell us what Friday was like, the last day you saw her, I assume.”

“I’ll do my best,” Atkinson replied.

“You mentioned something about the kind of life she’d had,” said Reilly. “Are you aware of any problems?”

“Aye, mostly personal. She’d not been too lucky where men were concerned. Though I don’t know why, some men never know when they’re well off.”

“How long had she worked here?”

“About ten years, though work’s a strong word for it.” He took a sip of tea and then put his hand up. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. She were a damn good worker but she didn’t need to work.”

“Why’s that?” Reilly asked.

“She was born and bred in Staithes but she moved out to Dallas when she were about seventeen, working for a racing stable. They taught her everything. She were one of the most experienced riders I’d ever seen. A terrible accident finished that career.”

“What happened?” asked Gardener.

Atkinson rose from the table and tottered over to the multi-fuel stove. When he opened the door the difference in temperature was immediate. He threw a few logs on, closed the door and returned to the table.

“I don’t know everything. It all happened years ago, the Kentucky Derby I think. She got caught up in a terrible explosion: ended up with a broken arm, three broken ribs, one of which pushed upwards and restricted the flow of blood to and from her heart, damaging a valve in the process. The biggest blow was a damaged liver. She never went into details about that.”

“That might explain the tablets,” said Gardener to Reilly.

“Oh, you found them, did you?”

“Yes, but we couldn’t work out what they were for.”

“She had good and bad days and I only found out because it was a bad one. She never talked much about it. I’m not sure what they were for but I didn’t get the impression they were painkillers.”

Gardener found it interesting that Matthew Atkinson knew more about Jane Carter’s health than her husband, Robbie. He also realised that Fitz would need to clarify what Atkinson had told him.

“Anyway, about five years after that, her husband died. That’s when she came back home to England. I needed someone to help out and a woman called Carrie Fletcher stabled her horse here and she introduced us.

“Jane had been with me a couple of years when she met her second husband, Peter Strange. He ran the local Land Rover dealership and I wanted one. After spending the afternoon together, I bought the car, and Peter asked Jane out. They started dating and married shortly after.”