Everything to Lose

by Jade Winters

  Ashley’s heart rocketed. She stopped in her tracks and spun around. “Enough with the cryptic talk, Jimmy. Spit it out! Your blood was found on at the scene. How do you explain that?”

  Jimmy sat up right and swung his legs to the ground. He sniffed loudly and wiped his eyes with the palm of his hands before he said, “I swear to you, I have no idea how my blood got there.”

  Ashley’s face creased into a frown, which sparked Jimmy to jump to his feet in protest.

  “It’s true! It’s impossible!”

  Ashley eyed him suspiciously. “So why did you lie, Jimmy? If you loved Justine so much, why wouldn’t you just tell us the truth from the beginning?”

  “You’re kidding me, right? Tell the coppers the truth?” He gave a bitter laugh. “That’s the way to get thrown in the slammer. No one’s gonna believe the likes of me, ain’t it so?”

  “I don’t know if you noticed, Jimmy, but I am also a police officer.”

  “Yeah, but you’re not like them lot,” he said jerking his head towards the door. “You’re different, proper like, I can see it in your eyes. You’re not on a power trip, just looking to send anyone into the slammer for somethink they didn’t do, jus’ because they was there after it happened. No one’s gonna listen to the likes of me.” He hung his head and looked like he was going to cry again.

  Ashley rubbed her hands over her aching eyes and gestured for Jimmy to sit down, then she took a few steps back and leaned against the door. She stood in silence, aware that her hands had begun to tremble as she anticipated what he was going to say. Would he reveal something that could shed light on Nathan’s case? She stuffed her hands inside her pockets. “Okay, Jimmy, tell me what happened. From the start and the truth this time.”

  Jimmy sat down and began fiddling with the sleeves of his shirt. “Okay. Yes, you was right, Justine and me, we had an argument. That’s what that busy body bitch neighbour must have been talking about when she was speaking to your lot.”

  “What were you arguing about?”

  “Me going to my sister’s party. I told you they didn’t get on. Justine wanted me to cut all ties with her. Well I wasn’t gonna do it. Family’s family, right? She’s an only child so she doesn’t…didn’t” he faltered, correcting himself, “…know what it was like to be close to a sibling.”

  Ashley took her notepad from her inside pocket, refusing to allow thoughts of her sibling into her mind. “What time was this about?”

  “’Bout six-ish.”

  “How do you know the exact time?”

  “Because the train I wanted to catch was the six-thirty. It usually takes me around ten minutes to get to the station, if I don’t hafta run. Anyways, we got into a fight, right, and she got all miffy like, said if I left it was over, and not to bother coming back. She went on and on, bitching and shouting. I didn’t want her to be cross with me, I love her...loved her...” He cleared his throat and carried on. “But that farting around meant I got to the station late and missed me bleedin’ train. The next one weren’t for another hour so I went back to Justine’s to see if we could patch things up. I hated it when we fought, and I didn’t want to leave it like that, right? When I got back to her place, I sees some bloke go in her block ahead of me. I thinks nothing of it, it’s just some guy going to see his bird or his mum, right? But when I got to Justine’s floor, I see the bloke walk up to her front door so I quickly went back outside again.” He stopped talking and rested his head in his hands.

  Ashley tapped her bottom lip with her index finger. “So let me get this straight – you see another man walk up to your girlfriend’s flat, and you don’t confront her or him about it then and there? Do you expect me to believe that? I’ve been on the other side of those fists, Jimmy, remember?”

  Jimmy bowed his head. “The geezer was built like a brick shit-house. Massive like. I wasn’t any match for him if things turned nasty. He’s got swagger like he’s a wrestler, you know them WWE blokes on the telly? Besides, sometimes Justine had work meetings with people and she don’t like me busting in. It made her real mad, and she was mad enough with me as it was, I wasn't going to make her madder. I tol’ you what she was like when she got angry.”

  “So what did you do next?”

  “I waited outside, by the wall opposite the flats.”

  “How long for?”

  Jimmy closed his eyes briefly. “About forty-five minutes. Then I see him walking out the building.”

  “Was he running? Did he look suspicious?”

  Jimmy shook his head. “No. That’s the odd thing, innit. He walked out as cool as a cucumber. That’s why I didn’t think anything was wrong. He weren’t acting suspicious or nuffin’. I been thinking back hard-like and I didn’t see any blood on him – although he was wearing all black, so it would be difficult to tell anyway.”

  “Did you get a look at his face?”

  Jimmy rubbed his forearm across his face. “Nope. I’ve pictured him again and again, but I couldn’t see his face at all. He had a hoodie on. All I can tell you is that he was a fucking big bloke, if you pardon my French.”

  That’s the fourth description of the same man!

  He let out a deep sigh before continuing. “So when I goes into Justine’s flat, to find out why the bloke was there, I was expecting more arguing. That’s when I found her, on the bed…dead.”

  She lowered her voice. “Did you touch anything?”

  He looked thoughtful for a few seconds then swung his head from side to side. “No. I just remember leaning over her and screaming.” He paused again, suddenly looking very pale and clammy. “Miss? You saw what my girl looked like? I can’t get no sleep without waking up screaming, them images of her body keeps floating into my mind. Her beautiful body all bloody and cut and oozing. And in my dreams she keeps saying ‘Jimmy, help me! Help me!’ I can’t sleep ’cause of it.” He paused and seemed to take a moment to gather himself. “Then I heard the old bitch from downstairs bangin’ on her ceiling with her broomstick. I took off before she called the coppers.”

  “And that’s why she saw you running from the flats,” Ashley said more to herself than Jimmy. She closed her notepad and put it back in her jacket.

  “So are you gonna let me out now? Now I tol’ you the truth ’bout what I seen?” He sounded like a little kid. Ashley felt sorry for him. She knew how the crime scene had affected her and she didn’t even know the victim. She could only imagine what it must have been like for it to have been someone you loved.

  Ashley sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m going to try, Jimmy. As long as what you’ve told me is the truth.”

  He started to openly sob now, tears streaming down his face unashamedly. “I swear to you, Miss, on me own mother’s life. I wouldn’t put a curse on my mum; she’s all I’ve got now.”

  Ashley eyed him from head to toe. “I hope not, for your own sake. Lying to me would make things so much worse for you.”

  Ashley left quickly before he could see the compassion in her eyes, but she didn’t have to worry, as he had gone back to lying in his foetal position, rocking himself in comfort.

  Once outside the cell, she leaned against the wall and tried to make sense of what Jimmy had told her and what it meant for the investigation.

  Her temples ached as she tried to connect the dots of the same man being seen at both crime scenes. There had to be a connection with all of these sightings. She was more than convinced of it now. He sounded unusually large and unmistakable. It had to be more than just a coincidence. Maybe the pathologist could fill in some of the blanks for her. Bypassing the stairs that led back up to her office she carried on walking down the hall towards the exit. For the first time in days she suddenly saw a glimmer of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Questions nagged at the back of Ashley’s mind as she knocked on the pathologist’s door and waited to be told to enter. She knew she was grasping at straws but until she dotted every I and cro
ssed every T she wouldn’t give up looking for clues for the real killer. Her brother’s freedom depended on it.

  “Come in,” the faint voice sounded from behind the door.

  Ashley pushed the door open and stepped into the room. The pathologist’s small frame was lost behind a mountain of paperwork.

  Her gaze held a touch of sympathy. “Ashley, what a pleasant surprise.”

  Ashley smiled. “How are things, Linda?”

  Linda looked towards the stack of paperwork. “One guess.”

  “I’m surprised you manage to find the time to carry out any post-mortems.”

  “Why is it that everyone else can see my dilemma but management?” she answered with a wry grin as she gestured for Ashley to take a seat. “But I’m sure you’ve got more pressing issues on your mind than my workload. What can I do for you?”

  Ashley sat on the chair opposite. “Yeah, you could say that. Linda, I need to know some more details about my brother’s case.”

  Linda gave Ashley a sympathetic smile. “That must be such a hard one for you to deal with. I have a brother and he was always in trouble as a kid and it always landed in my lap to bail him out. He seems to have straightened himself out, but it’s tough being the older sister. I’ll help you as much as I can.”

  “I would appreciate that.” She leaned forward. “Is there any possibility that Emily Hill and Justine Lockhart were killed by the same person? I mean were there any similarities between the ways the women were stabbed for instance?”

  Linda looked doubtful. “Only that both stabbings were frenzied. The multiple stab wounds had no particular pattern. But with the viciousness used I wouldn’t expect to see any. They were just stabbed repeatedly, aggressively and as you know, fatally.”

  “What about the entry wounds? Could the same knife have been used in both attacks? Was the killer left handed or right handed?”

  “All of these details are in my report, Ashley.”

  Ashley cast her eyes downwards.

  Linda sighed. “You haven’t read the report have you?”

  Ashley glanced up. “I haven’t had access to many of the case details, but I’m desperate, Linda.”

  Linda’s eyes softened. “I don’t see what harm it would do. The defence will see a copy of my report anyway. Look, the measurements taken would suggest that a different knife was used each time. There’s also the fact that Justine Lockhart appeared to have been raped, although no semen was found. Emily Hill hadn’t. From the entry wounds on both bodies it would appear that the killer was right handed. Apart from that, there is not a lot to offer you.”

  Ashley scratched the back of her head. She didn’t know what she had been expecting, but this was going nowhere. Nathan was right handed. So it seemed was Jimmy. She sighed in frustration. She was trying to hunt down a ghost – a ghost that existed only in her mind by the looks of it. Every avenue led to a dead end. She stood and reached out her hand across Linda’s desk. “Thanks, Linda, I won’t keep you any longer.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t have been of more help.”

  Ashley turned and walked to the door, stopping just as she reached for the handle. “The way things are going Linda, I don’t think anyone can help me.” She gave the tiny pathologist a small smile as she exited the room and softly closed the door behind her.

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Sitting with an ice cold beer pressed against the side of her aching jaw, Ashley switched on the TV and settled back on her sofa, hoping to find something to take her mind off Nathan and Tasha. She flicked through the channels. The death of Justine Lockhart still dominated all the news channels, pushing aside all other news.

  Ashley rolled the beer round to her mouth and took a gulp as she hit the off button. Silence engulfed her. It wasn’t the kind of quietness that she would normally appreciate after a hectic day at work. It was a deafening statement that made her realise how completely alone she was. There was no Muffin to walk, no dinner to make for Tasha. No one but her and her beaten up face in the big empty house. She glanced at her watch. 10pm. There was no point in going to bed. She was too wired to sleep, it would be futile trying.

  She stood and breathed in resolutely. The melancholy that had been shadowing her these past few days was going to swamp her if she didn’t get a grip on her thoughts. It wasn’t in her nature to wallow in self-pity. So her girlfriend had left her and her brother was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Was she going to let circumstances dictate her life or was she going to be pro-active and fight for what she believed in? She knew that her brother was innocent and she could provide a happy stable home life for Tasha. Now she just had to prove it to the world.

  She walked through the quiet house into the kitchen for another beer while the internal debate raged on. She leaned against the worktop as she flipped the lid and took a long mouthful of the cold, fizzy liquid. As she brought her head back down, her gaze caught sight of her IMac and a pile of papers resting beside it. They were the notes she had taken whilst viewing Emily Hill’s crime scene video. Something niggled in the back of her brain.

  As if on auto pilot, Ashley crossed over to the table and powered up the IMac. When the screen flickered to life she googled Justine Lockhart and followed the links to forums discussing her death. She knew it was a long shot but she wanted to see if any new pieces of information about her murder had come to light that hadn’t made their way to the police.

  An hour after searching she was still none the wiser unless she took into account the public’s list of the accused. Those being the illuminati, alien’s botching an abduction attempt, and claims that Justine belonged to a cult and had been sacrificed to fulfil an ancient prophesy. Finally, most pointed the finger at her boyfriend.

  Ashley rested her head in her hands. Despite all of the evidence against Jimmy, she believed him. In exactly the same way that she believed Nathan. She just knew. Call it gut instinct or woman’s intuition, but it hadn’t failed her in all her years of being a police officer and she was not going to discount it now, when she so desperately needed it to be right.

  Her dad always said, “The simplest answer is most likely to be the truth.” It was time to get her thinking cap on and start looking at the crime through the eyes of an investigator and not as Nathan’s sister. She needed to move back a step and put her emotions aside.

  She gathered the notes she had written whilst viewing the crime scene video of Justine Lockhart and took them back to the table with her. A large mug of coffee replaced the half-drunk bottle of beer. She would start from the beginning and compare the two scenes as she went along. Hopefully, something relevant would jump out at her.

  She wrote a list of all the things she knew. Both crime scenes had blood evidence. Nathan’s blood was in the bathroom – how could it have been transferred to the victim’s bedroom door handle? Nathan had admitted that his finger may have bled when he went to use the toilet. She made a mental picture in her mind of different possible scenarios.

  1/ The killer removed Nathan’s blood from the bathroom and planted it in the bedroom.

  2/ Forensics made a mistake and contaminated the bedroom with blood from the bathroom.

  It was highly unlikely but it was possible, and long shots were all she had to go on for now.

  Her writing became more frantic as questions and answers rushed through her mind. Unknown male seen at both victims’ homes and at Nathan’s home and work.

  1/ Was it a coincidence? Unlikely! But why then? Who was he and what did Nathan and Jimmy have in common with this man? She scribbled on.

  2/ Killer knew both victims and has had contact with Nathan in the past.

  3/ Killer has a grudge.

  She paused in thought. Did the killer have a grudge against both Nathan and Jimmy? She scribbled that out. That didn’t make sense. It was too much of a stretch. As far as she knew Nathan had never met Jimmy. But what then? Not what – perhaps it was more of a who? Justine? Was she the link between these three men? Cou
ld Nathan have been doing conveyancing for a property she wanted to buy?

  Ashley made a rapid mental calculation: If Nathan had met Justine, that could provide a much needed link. She scribbled every thought that came to mind no matter how outlandish it sounded. Often one seemingly outlandish thought led to an avenue that gave a plausible and workable lead. She carried on.

  Maybe the killer was the owner of the house being sold. He’d know who Justine’s solicitor was. Had Nathan advised Justine against going through with the purchase which in turn made the home owner angry enough to kill Justine? That’s a bit of a stretch, but there were some real weirdoes out there, as Ashley had found out in her line of work. Weirdoes who were tipped over the edge by things that normal people wouldn’t raise more than an eyebrow at.

  But what about Emily? Ashley tapped her foot on the floor. Was it just plain bad luck that Nathan had left his blood in the bathroom or had the killer planned on framing him in a different way? Maybe the killer thought Emily was Nathan’s girlfriend? That is some giant sized grudge! A giant sized grudge for a giant sized man...

  With adrenaline at an all-time high she jumped to her feet and found her phone.

  “Dale, you have to come round now! I have this crazy theory. I think I know how my brother is connected to the murders.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Dale brought his car to a standstill at the red traffic light. He turned and looked at Ashley with an incredulous stare. “How on earth did you get Colin Bond’s home address?”

  “Don’t worry, it was nothing illegal. I just looked him up on the electoral roll.”

  Dale stifled a yawn. “It’s been a long, long day, Ashley and this couldn’t have waited until tomorrow because?”

  “Because if I’m right, I don’t want him to get away!” Ashley said impatiently. She was all fired up and sleep was the last thing on her mind.

  “It’s nearly midnight. I don’t think this guy’s going to appreciate you waking him up?”