by Diane Saxon
Simi leaned in and scooped the child from Zak’s arms as he stood up. At the change in hold, Joshua whimpered but snuffled into her neck, the familiar scent of her evidently soothing him as he fell back to sleep in her arms. Exhaustion getting the better of him.
Zak moved away, skimming his fingers through his thick, dark hair. ‘Yes. Yes. I understand.’
Tempted to follow him, Jenna came to her feet and hovered behind him while he stood with his back to them all.
‘When? Yes, I’ll be there as soon as possible. Thank you.’ His voice choked on his final words petering out to a tearful whisper. ‘Thank you so much.’
His shoulders shook as he ended the call and slipped the phone into his pocket. He raised his hands to cover his face, his breath coming in harsh gasps in the silence of the room.
They gave him time, and when he was ready, he dropped his hands to his sides and swivelled to face them, his gaze taking them all in and then landing on his mother. ‘They’ve brought Imelda out of the coma.’ His chest expanded as he hauled in a long breath. ‘I need to go and see her. They’re carrying out tests right now, but said by the time I get there, they’ll have more information.’ His lips quivered as he pressed them together. Eyes filled with sadness turned to Harry. ‘I don’t want to leave Joshua with anyone. I can’t let him out of my sight.’
Jenna knew exactly how he felt, she’d not wanted to leave Fliss’s side once she’d found her again. Nothing would have persuaded her to leave Fliss in someone else’s care. Except maybe…
Harry’s smile came fast and natural. ‘You don’t need to leave him. It isn’t an issue.’ She flipped her phone from her back pocket and glanced at the screen. ‘We’ll all go. You, your mum if she wants to.’ Simi gave a wild nod. ‘Joshua and myself.’ Harry turned to Jenna. ‘He’s had the all-clear from the medics, so he’s good to go from that point of view. DI Taylor, if I accompany them, do you have any issues?’
Taylor poked his tongue on the inside of his cheek, making it puff out as he gave it some thought. ‘Other than the fact that there is someone out there on the loose. We don’t know if they’re responsible for attacking Imelda and kidnapping Joshua but we do know they are dangerous. We have a victim in hospital who can attest to that.’
‘Hospital? Who’s in hospital?’ Zak’s eyebrows twitched downwards as he turned to Harry and then Jenna. She knew she’d mentioned the injured victim, but stress affected people in different ways and he’d evidently not taken in the information she’d relayed. It hadn’t processed because he’d been focused on his son, but they were used to having to repeat things. She’d go through it again.
‘In the house we found Joshua in, there was also a victim of a stabbing. The victim is currently undergoing surgery at The Princess Royal Hospital to remove a knife from her stomach.’
An inkling of recognition washed over his narrowed gaze. ‘So, who stabbed her? I assume you have them in custody.’
Jenna was already shaking her head before he’d finished asking the question. ‘Not yet. We have an all ports call out on her, but, as it stands, we don’t have any leads as to where she may have gone.’
‘Who is she? Just, who the hell is she? Is this the woman who stole my son, or did the stab victim?’ Now the initial shock had worn off, it appeared Zak’s brain was starting to fire on all cylinders again and anger began to filter through.
Jenna shook her head. ‘We don’t know what happened or who stole Joshua. All we know is we have a stab victim who claims Emily attempted to kill her.’
‘Emily?’ Zak’s frown deepened.
‘According to the Council records, an Emily Shenton is registered as living at the address where we found Joshua.’
Colour leached from Zak’s face to leave it pallid and sweaty as he staggered back a step, his mouth gaping open. He sucked in breath after breath, but his knees gave way, and he sank onto the small sofa. His hand went to his heart and he patted his chest as he gasped.
‘Oh my God, Emily.’
39
Tuesday 13 July, 12:20 hrs
With a zap of electricity fizzing through her veins, Jenna flew to Zak’s side, sinking down onto her knees at his feet. She pushed her face close to his. ‘Zak, you know this woman? You know Emily Shenton?’
He nodded, his mouth opened and closed for a moment, then he cleared his throat. ‘You asked me if I knew anyone who held a grudge against Imelda and not once did I imagine the grudge was against me, not my wife.’ He lowered his head and banged the heel of his hand against his forehead. ‘Why didn’t I think? Everyone loves Imelda. She doesn’t have any enemies. Why would she?’
Jenna leaned in. The frost in his eyes as he raised his head gave Jenna a moment to consider that the gentle man they all thought him to be might not run all the way through and that the spine of steel he’d so far exhibited might also run to a tougher core. ‘Tell me how you know her.’ She squinted up at him.
He gave Simi a quick sideways glance. ‘Mum knows. Emily and I were… together.’ He puffed out a breath and sat back, running his hand through his hair. ‘I thought… It never occurred to me that she’d have anything to do with this. I thought she’d moved on, got a new life. I’ve not heard from her for so long.’ He leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. ‘Emily and I worked together at Wright, Thomas & Hooper, an accountancy practice.’ He met Jenna’s eyes. ‘She still works there, as far as I know.’ He chewed his bottom lip. ‘When we first started seeing each other, we had so much in common. We worked together, had the same circle of friends.’ He sighed as though he couldn’t drag in enough air. ‘She was full on, you know. She took the initiative. Moved the relationship on, probably faster than I wanted at the time, but I was okay with it… to start with.’ He tossed a glance at his mother. ‘Mum wasn’t keen.’
Simi’s mouth tightened and her eyebrows twitched up.
‘Before I knew it, she’d moved into my apartment. Her stuff…’ Zak shook his head. ‘And then she started talking about getting married. We’d been together less than four months and I knew I didn’t want to marry her. She was fun, you know. Vivacious. The life and soul.’ He blew out a gusty sigh and shook his head. ‘At first, things seemed fine, if a little intense.’ He glanced over at his mum again. ‘Then she accused me of seeing other women. Women in the office. Women we both knew.’
‘Were you?’ Jenna asked.
‘No. I’m not like that. If I don’t want to be with someone, I’ll let them know and move on. What’s the point of testing the waters elsewhere? I’ve been brought up better than that. If you don’t want to be with them, you don’t. And I didn’t, so I told her.’ He sucked his breath in through his teeth.
Jenna sat back on her haunches. ‘And then what happened?’
He rolled his lips inwards and nodded. ‘Hysterics. Crying, begging. Constant phone calls. Texts. It was awful. She threatened to take her own life. She threatened to take mine. Going to work became a nightmare. She wouldn’t leave me alone. I couldn’t leave my desk and she was on me.’
‘Did you report it to anyone?’
‘Yes. But it was awkward. You know.’ He flicked a hand to indicate himself. ‘A big guy like me being stalked by a woman. The MD thought it was funny, told me to grow a pair.’ Zak’s lips thinned.
Double standards worked both ways, Jenna was all too aware. Progress had been made within West Mercia to take complaints of this nature seriously but by and large, companies and the wider world still lagged behind in their thought processes. Jenna had witnessed plenty of instances of men being harassed, stalked, abused by women. It wasn’t something she would ever dismiss if a man came to her with such a problem.
‘What about HR?’
Deadpan, he turned his gaze on her. ‘She was HR. The manager.’
‘Jesus.’
‘Yeah. I had no alternative. I found another job and left the company. Gave them a month’s notice. A month of hell. She broke into my apartment…’
‘Broke in?
Did you report it?’
Zak scraped his hair back from his forehead. ‘No. She still had a key. She wouldn’t give it back. I spoke with the MD of the company and we agreed I could take the holiday owing to me and just leave. There was no way I could concentrate on my work with her there. He didn’t seem to think it was anything out of the ordinary. He said he spoke with her and she seemed calm and rational. Nothing like I’d described to him. She’d worked there longer than me, never been a problem. Quiet. Kept to herself on the whole, but really good fun at social events. Not that many friends but quite often HR don’t, because of the nature of their jobs.’
Zak shrugged. ‘I moved out of my apartment. At the time, my parents were looking to downsize, the house had become too much for them to handle especially with so much gardening to be done. The house has been in our family for three generations, four now.’ He glanced at his son. ‘I didn’t want to see it go to someone else. So, I sold my apartment, moved in with Mum and Dad while they found themselves something smaller and we did a deal.’ He sent his mum a grateful smile. ‘I had to inform the company of my forwarding address, which concerned me at the time, but Emily went quiet and I thought that was it. I believed she’d moved on. That was almost two years ago now. I’ve not heard from her since. It never occurred. I met Imelda pretty quickly after that. We found out she was pregnant within a couple of months.’ He shrugged, from the lack of defensiveness in his voice, he was more than happy with the situation. ‘When she became pregnant the second time, we got married.’ A smile kicked up the edges of his mouth. ‘When you know it’s right…’ His lips straightened to a flat line. ‘I haven’t given Emily a thought ever since. Why would I?’ He ran his gaze over each person in the room, begging for help. For understanding.
They all understood.
Zak shook his head. ‘What the hell triggered this? I knew she wasn’t stable, bit of a head case, but this. This is on another level. Why would she attack Imelda? Kidnap Joshua?’
Jenna had no solution to the question.
What had triggered Emily? After so long, why would she suddenly react again?
She patted Zak’s knee. ‘We have a search out for Emily.’
His gaze bored into hers. ‘So, she’s still out there? On the loose?’ Panic cracked his voice.
Jenna shook her head. ‘She wasn’t at the house when we arrived. She’d gone.’
‘And who was the stab victim?’
‘We don’t know. Scenes of crime are on it right now, but it appears there’s no evidence of identification in the house for either woman.’
He sat up straight. ‘I can give you a description.’
‘That would be useful. I’m sure SOCO will find something, a photograph, but so far, we’ve got nothing.’ Jenna pushed to her feet at the same time as Zak. ‘I don’t suppose you have any photographs?’
His lips twisted. ‘I may have.’ He raised his hand and scratched at his head. ‘I’m not sure. I’ll have to have a look. I possibly deleted them all when I had my new phone. There would be no reason to keep them.’ He pulled his phone from his back pocket and glanced at the screen. ‘I need to go. I should gather some stuff for Joshua. We could be some time.’
Mason picked up a plastic carrier bag and opened it wide so the contents could be seen. ‘Nappies, wipes, food, milk. One change of clothes. Will that keep him for now, save you going back home?’
Surprise flashed over Zak’s face, but he sent Mason a grateful smile. ‘That should do it. I’m sure we can always grab more if we need it from the shops over there. There’re bound to be some close by the hospital.’
‘I have a child seat in my car.’ With an embarrassed bob of his head, Mason winced. ‘It was in Emily’s house. We used it to take Joshua to the hospital. It’s brand new.’
Zak squinted, and then shrugged. ‘It makes no difference to me. If it’s new, we’ll use it for now and then get rid of it. We need to get off. I want to see Imelda.’ Zak offered his hand to Jenna. ‘Thanks for your help, DS Morgan.’ His dry hand encompassed hers.
‘Let me know how you get on.’
‘I will.’ He dropped his hand from hers and nodded at the rest of the team.
Harry smiled. ‘No worries, we’ll be in constant contact.’
As they headed for the door, Jenna flipped her phone open and typed in the name of the accountants, DI Taylor by her side.
‘Whereabouts are they?’ DI Taylor scratched his chin and reached for his radio.
‘Little Dawley. We’ll go.’
Taylor shook his head. ‘Salter and Wainwright can go. They’re chomping at the bit right now. Nothing but dead ends so far, they’ll be pleased to get out of the station for a while.’
She wasn’t so sure, the cool of the air con at the station was enough of a temptation to keep them inside even if it rattled and groaned and wasn’t as effective as it could be, but she’d go with Taylor’s decision as he nodded at her.
‘You get yourself back to the station, get everything written up.’
She finished off the last of her coffee and picked up her phone and radio from the coffee table as she listened with half an ear.
Taylor directed a stony look at Ryan. ‘You make sure you keep that promise and, in the meantime, you stay here until your shift ends. You should be able to get some notes in while you wait. Not a lot for you to do but drink more over-sweetened coffee.’ He cruised a gaze over Ryan. ‘No wonder you can’t stay still for more than a second. I thought it was excess energy. Now I see it’s a sugar rush.’
Ryan flushed to the tips of his ears as words stumbled out of his mouth. ‘Does anyone need to stay here, sir? It’s not like I’m protecting anyone. They won’t be coming back, will they?’
Taylor scratched the side of his nose. ‘They will be coming back, DC Downey. Until we find Emily Shenton, Zak and Joshua are at risk. Very possibly Simi and her husband too. So, they will all need to stay here for the foreseeable future while Emily is at large. She’s already proved that she’s a danger.’
Jenna raised her radio to her mouth. ‘I’ll get someone to pick up Mr Cheetham from his place of work. Perhaps he can pack a couple of cases for Simi, Zak and Joshua before he meets them back here.’ The least amount of coming and going, the better, just in case Emily Shenton was bright enough to follow.
She’d proved clever enough to evade the police so far.
40
Tuesday 13 July, 19:25 hrs
Emily blinked open gritty eyelids and stared at the square, white ceiling tiles above her that swirled in a fuzzy haze as she tried to focus. Pain pulsed in ever-widening ripples from her centre to the very tips of her fingers and toes.
Lungs burning, she breathed in little sips of air and closed her eyes again while the encroaching darkness threatened and churned. She was never going to drink again.
Her left arm refused to raise until she used her right one to guide it upwards. Cool air pumped across her overheated skin, but beads of sweat still popped out, the thick smell of alcohol and toxins seeping from her pores, so her nose wrinkled with disgust at her own stench. She needed a shower. She needed water. She needed food. Her stomach heaved, rebelling at the mere thought. Steeped in acid, it clenched in protest at the abuse she’d heaped on it.
The vague memory of her loose grasp on the third bottle of wine surfaced. Self-disgust curdled her stomach while flashes of dark memories assailed her senses.
‘Oh, God.’
Her tongue adhered itself to the roof of her mouth so she could barely draw in a breath through a throat that throbbed as though she’d been stabbed…
Stabbed.
The memory surfaced. She’d stabbed Fern.
You killed your own sister. The dark amusement in the voice stirred her.
She pulled in a deep breath and then coughed it out again as pain seared through her chest.
You stabbed Fern and now she’s dead.
She took her time, memory circling like black crows gathering in the dusk.
The crisp white sheets crackled as she rolled onto her side, grunting out her agony. She reached for the glass of water from the bedside cabinet and propped herself up on one elbow while she gulped it down. Her throat parched like a desert after all the alcohol she’d consumed. The coolness of it should have been refreshing. Instead, it merely made her crave more. She reached out for the jug of water and every muscle screamed at her. She flopped back on the pillow, the white, starched cotton cool on her cheek as she allowed herself to drift.
She’d stabbed Fern.
With a sense of relief rather than regret, Emily allowed herself a slow smile. Pious cow that she was. She’d deserved everything she got. At least Emily no longer had to listen to her preach her miss goody-two-shoes perfection.
In the silence, she strained to hear.
Nothing, except the sly voice. Fern’s gone. Emily’s free. Free as a bird. You can fly now, you have nothing to stop you.
She closed her eyes and let the darkness pull her down.
41
Tuesday 13 July, 19:50 hrs
Jenna pushed her fingertips into her closed eyelids and pressed until bright sparks dappled the blackness.
Disappointed Adrian had been waylaid in London, she had to acknowledge she probably didn’t have the strength to speak with him if he had made it home. It would have been nice just to curl up next to him though. One short, to-the-point text was all she’d managed in response. She was proud enough she’d used three emojis and a kiss.
‘Long day?’
She raised her head and smiled at Fliss as her younger sister handed her an ice-cold glass of white wine and shuffled her backside on the raffia settee next to her, allowing enough room for Domino to climb up beside them. Instead of taking up the space left for him, he settled his backside and then stretched out across both of them as though it was important for him to connect them all.