Mr Macey wasted no time passing over the name of the driver, Denny Cole, and as he did, Aiden recognised a hint of mischief in his expression. It took Tom no time at all to track Denny the driver down and once again, his thoughts on Kelly were illuminating.
Aiden found him at the loading bay of his new firm. At first Denny thought Aiden was from the CMS or the social. He was doing a bit of cash-in-hand work, just to earn enough for Christmas pressies for his kids. Once he was reassured and pocketed fifty pounds towards the fund, Denny took a break and told him about Kelly.
‘Yeah, we’d been having a dabble on the side but it was nothing serious, or so I thought until Kelly started demanding more and more of my time. Then she came up with a plan to line our pockets and suggested I should liberate some of the stock I carried in the van, and then she could sell it on eBay and split the difference. No way was I going to risk getting nicked so I gave her the elbow, she was becoming a bloody liability.’
The thing was, Kelly wouldn’t take no for an answer and gave Denny an ultimatum – supply her with what she wanted or she’d tell his wife. Denny told her to piss off, not thinking for one minute that she meant it, but she did. As a result, Denny now lived in his mum’s caravan in her back garden, saw his kids every other weekend where he had to grin and bear pleasantries with their new stepdad. He was on the sick after having a nervous breakdown and now suffered from severe depression and had to pop pills to get him through the day. He fucking hated Kelly.
18
Billie placed the drinks on the table and took her place opposite Aiden. She’d told him he deserved another pint after his report, and she’d been very tempted to treat herself to a large glass of Malbec but refrained simply because afternoon drinking sent her loopy.
‘I ordered you a pudding too. My way of saying thank you for digging up all this dirt on Kelly.’
‘Well thank you kindly, ma’am, but you didn’t have to… so what did you get me?’
‘It’s a surprise.’
‘How do you know I’ll like it?’
‘I think you will. Let’s call it a test, how good or rubbish I am at judging someone’s character.’
‘Ah, I like tests, and I’m intrigued, but I haven’t finished yet so you might end up buying me an Irish coffee when you hear the rest.’ Aiden rubbed his stomach and smiled. ‘I’ve always got room for a bit more; nobody can ever accuse me of being shy.’ He winked and gave Billie a wicked smile, receiving a tap on the hand in return.
‘I’m still not sure how to take you or how to work out if you’re being serious or rude.’ Billie was laughing, having far too much fun under such serious circumstances but Aiden had a way of putting her at ease. It suddenly dawned on her that that was how he managed to extract so much information out of complete strangers. Clever, very clever.
‘Ah, don’t mind me, I’m teasing you. So do you wanna hear the rest?’
‘I do, for my sins. So go on, get on with it.’ Billie shuffled to get comfy and sipped her drink as she listened.
At that point, Luke arrived with a bowl of dessert and placed it in front of Aiden who looked at it, then Billie, and smiled. ‘Jam roly-poly and custard, clever girl.’
* * *
Once Aiden had the background information, he decided to put a tail on Kelly and spend some time observing her. It was a long shot because for eight hours a day she was holed up in the dental practice, or so they thought. The team watched her over a two-week period and each Tuesday, her extremely supportive boss allowed Kelly time off to attend a women’s group support session at a nearby community centre. It was run by volunteers, for victims of abuse and violence. The thing was, on Thursday nights, Kelly then drove across town to another centre where a similar group was held and even more bizarrely, the following Saturday, she attended a wellness clinic, run by a women’s charity. When Tom reported that Kelly had set up a secret Facebook group for victims, that was growing quicker than her friends list ever had, faint alarm bells rang in Aiden’s head.
He already knew from her email history that Kelly religiously kept once monthly psychiatric appointments at the hospital where she saw a counsellor, so why did she go out of her way to attend so many group sessions? Tom thought he had the answer when he explored her Google browsing history. Apart from holiday destinations around the world – a particular favourite topic of hers that fed into a Pinterest account festooned with exotic locations – Kelly had developed an interest in psychology, to be more precise, the procurement of online counselling courses and certificates.
Had Kelly stumbled on a world where she was the centre of attention, visiting centres where other women would listen to her experiences? Was she, owing to the distinct lack of bosom buddies in the real world, hoping to make new connections with kindred spirits? What if Kelly had identified a niche, a vulnerable section of society that she hoped to exploit? With distance courses for £190 that guaranteed a certificate by the end of the week, if she was as wily as Aiden suspected, Kelly could soon be coining it in.
Aiden had met all sorts during his time on the force and nothing really surprised him anymore. In the case of Kelly, that old copper’s instinct told him she was a bad ‘un. It was clear from her Facebook posts, telling of her appearances on radio phone-ins and frequent contributions to chat rooms, that she wasn’t shy or backward at coming forward.
‘It was a long shot but I got in touch with an ex-colleague, a police profiler and asked her to take a look at what I’d found and give me her opinion. When she sent me the report the pieces started falling into place and now I’m convinced that Kelly has a histrionic personality disorder. Here, I’ll read you some of it.’ Aiden opened the file on his desk and after flicking through, found what he was looking for.
‘In a nutshell, the sufferer is characterised by long-standing patterns of attention-seeking behaviour where they desire to be the centre of everything and feel uncomfortable if they are not. Interestingly, people with the disorder are prone to self-dramatisation and have a theatrical and exaggerated way of expressing emotion. They may also be perceived as shallow and, engage in sexually seductive behaviour to gain the attention they crave. They sometimes act out a role within a relationship, taking the part of a victim and may attempt to control a partner through emotional manipulation, seductiveness or in some cases, great dependency. Even more telling, is that those with the disorder have difficulty forming relationships with same-sex friends because their sexually provocative style may threaten relationships. They also alienate people with demands for attention, becoming difficult, bored and depressed when they are not in the limelight. They crave novelty and are frustrated by routine and have a tendency to move from one relationship in search of a new, more exciting proposition. Finally, Histrionic Personality Disorder is more prevalent in females.’
Aiden leant forward and tapped the folder.‘My full report is in there, perhaps you can read it in detail when you have more time. I have a feeling that like me, you will find some startling similarities to Kelly.’
Billie put her head in her hands, trying to gather so many thoughts before looking up and asking Aiden a really important question. ‘But how is all this’ – she pointed to the file – ‘going to help Stan? Surely it’s all circumstantial and supposition or whatever they say in court. None of it proves a thing.’
‘I know, but it’s given me something to work with which is better than nothing.’ Aiden didn’t appear to have taken offence that she had dismissed all his investigative work as worthless and for this she was glad.
Then another question popped into her head. ‘So where do we go from here? Because I have no idea.’
‘Well I have, but I’m going to need your help.’
‘ME! What can I do?’
Aiden sighed and leant in closer, his face serious now. ‘One of my team, Josie, has buggered off to Australia to start a new life. Working for me was a means to an end and once she had her nest egg she booked her seat on Kangaroo Airways. It leaves me without a female detective to do the stuff a bloke can’t.’
