I can remember sitting on the sofa in our living room, shaking so much that when the policewoman handed me a cup of tea, I spilled it down my nightie. It was scalding hot but I hardly felt a thing as I looked at Ray sitting next to me with his head in his hands.
The policewoman asked if we could phone someone to sit with us. A neighbour or a friend perhaps?
‘We’ve got a lot of information coming in already,’ the policeman said. ‘We’ll be able to tell you a lot more as soon as we hear. I think you need someone with you.’
I shook my head. We’d lived in our house for 20 years, going out to work, bringing up our children, never causing anyone any problems or bothering them. The only person I knew I wanted to speak to was my brother Alan. We were from a family of nine children and he and I had always been close. Four years earlier, he’d lost his only son Spencer in a terrible road accident. It had happened the day before his 17th birthday. Cycling to his job at Next, he’d been knocked off his bike by a lorry and had died when he got to hospital.
He and Lee had grown up together and had been very close. He was such a lovely lad and had started training to be a fireman when he died. It had always been his dream job but, as he had to wait until his 18th birthday to join the Fire Service, his job at Next had been a stop-gap. Alan had been through this nightmare. He’d know what to do, what to say.
Alan’s daughter answered the phone and passed it over to her dad when I asked to speak to him.
‘I know how you feel about losing Spencer,’ I blurted out when Alan asked me what was wrong.
‘Lee’s been in a road-rage attack. Oh, God, Alan, he’s been murdered. Can you come over?’
Alan didn’t ask me any questions. He said he was on his way and rang off.
I told the police I didn’t want them to contact Michelle. She was 27 at the time, two years older than Lee, and they’d always been so close. I couldn’t begin to imagine how she’d take in any of this. The thought that she might hear about it on the news was unthinkable. I just wanted her to get home safely with Steve and Paige before Ray and I got to her and told her what had happened.
The officers looked at each other. ‘We can tell them for you,’ the policeman said.
Ray was on his feet, still crying.
‘No,’ I shouted. ‘Ray and I will deal with it. She’s pregnant.’
The policeman nodded. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll keep Lee’s name from the press until then,’ he said.
Alan and his wife Babs arrived within ten minutes of my call. Their journey from Sheldon in Birmingham would normally have taken a good half-an-hour but Alan later told me he’d driven at 90mph most of the way.
Ray and I were in tears again as soon as they came through the front door. I can remember all of us hugging each other and crying as we explained what the police had told us.
‘None of this rings true,’ Alan said quietly, as he held me in his arms. ‘Why didn’t Tracie phone you?’
The policeman shook his head. ‘We don’t know any more than what we’ve told you,’ he said. ‘There’s bound to be a lot more information coming in to the incident team and, as soon as they know more, you’ll be told.’
‘I want to see Lee,’ I told the officers. ‘You could have made a mistake, but, if it really is him, then I need to be with him. I’m going now.’
The police explained that Cooper’s Hill, the lane where it had happened in Alvechurch, just three miles from our home in King’s Norton, would be closed to enable officers from the West Mercia Police Forensics Team to begin their investigation into Lee’s death. ‘No one but the police will be allowed there,’ the policeman said.
I was crying again. ‘Please,’ I begged him. ‘Please let us see Lee.’
The policeman took out his phone and punched in a number. He walked into the kitchen as he spoke. I could hear him telling whoever he was speaking to that we were devastated. I looked at Ray, the tears rolling down my face as he came back into the sitting room moments later.
Alan was trying to calm me down. ‘They’ve got to get as much evidence as possible,’ he said gently. ‘You can’t just go charging up there.’
I knew he was right but all I kept seeing in my mind was Lee lying in the road alone.
The policeman came back into the room. ‘I’m afraid it’s just not possible, Maureen,’ he said. ‘You’ll be able to see him as soon the forensics team has finished its work.’
‘Couldn’t I speak to whoever you’ve just spoken to?’ I pleaded. ‘They must be able to tell us something else.’
The policeman handed me the phone.
‘Mrs Harvey?’ I heard a calm voice on the end of the line. ‘I’m so sorry but this is a murder inquiry and it’s vital that we get all the evidence. We’ve set up a roadblock to stop anyone going up the lane…’
‘I just want to be with Lee,’ I interrupted him. ‘I’m his mum.’
The incident officer waited for me to finish. ‘I don’t know if this helps in any way, but Lee wouldn’t have felt any pain. He sustained multiple stab wounds and lost a lot of blood. He would have gone very quickly.’
Whoever spoke to me that night did the best job anyone could have done under the horrifying circumstances to calm me down and bring me to my senses. However painful it was to listen to, I knew what he was saying was right and handed the phone back to the policeman.
‘Have you phoned Anita yet?’ Alan asked.
I looked at Ray and shook my head. Lee had split up with Anita three years earlier but they’d remained close friends because of their little girl Danielle and the fact Lee had wanted her to be a big part of his life and ours. I can still remember Lee sitting on the edge of my bed the night he came home and told me Anita was pregnant. ‘It wasn’t planned, Mum,’ he admitted. ‘But I know I can be a good dad.’
He was only 20 at the time and money was tight, but Ray and I knew his child would never be short of love. When Lee split up with Anita two years later, he remained devoted to Danielle. He moved back home and set about converting our spare room for her. When she came to stay at the weekends, she’d spend hours setting up furniture in the doll’s house he’d bought and repainted for her.
Lee was the best dad any little girl could have wished for – caring, kind, generous and loving. He would push Danielle on the swing, sit on the seesaw and jump on the trampoline with her. Like so many little girls, she was mad about prams and pushchairs and Lee would take her for a walk so that she could take her dollies out in the pram. He’d let her help him wash his car and then they would get a little bucket and sponge so that she could wash her bike too. He would always sing songs with her, watch videos and pretend to be the customer in her game of shops. He never tired of drinking the endless cups of pretend tea that she made for him in her wendy house.
One time, he and Michelle took Danielle to feed the ducks. There weren’t many ducks at the pond, but, as soon as Lee started to throw bread, hundreds of ducks, geese and God knows what else appeared from nowhere and completely surrounded the three of them. When they started pecking him, Lee had to pick Danielle up and they all made a run for it!
We never saw Lee happier than when he was with his girl. Like two peas in a pod. They had the same brown eyes and dark hair and absolutely adored each other.
Tracie’s daughter Carla, from a previous relationship, was only a year older than Danielle and the two girls