The Art of Murder

by Rebecca Muddiman

  ‘Okay,’ Karen said. ‘So now what?’

  ‘So now I have a good reason to pay Mr. Fisher a visit. I’m working on getting a search warrant too so we can go in there and find this evidence you saw.’

  ‘And Nick? What about him?’

  ‘If we get Fisher, we have a connection between him and Nick,’ Azrah said, holding up the phone.

  ‘But what if he has an explanation?’

  ‘Like what? He was in his car talking to the man who’s killed half a dozen people. At least. And didn’t report it to his superiors or any of his fellow officers? He’d need a good explanation.’

  ‘And he usually does. I know him. He’ll have it worked out. We need to catch him in the act.’

  ‘What act? If you’re right and Nick wanted Fisher to kill you, then Nick wouldn’t be anywhere near you when it happened. If we get Fisher, we can see what he has to say about Nick. Take it from there.’

  ‘No,’ Karen said. ‘I know Nick. He’ll find a way out of it.’

  ‘Karen–’

  ‘And you’re wrong about him being nowhere near when it goes down. Nick loves attention and praise, and being the most important person in the room, more than anything. I think he’s going to set Michael up. I think he’s planning to get him to kill me and then he’ll arrest Fisher, make himself out to be the hero. We have to catch him doing it. It’s the only way.’

  Azrah shook her head. ‘I can’t leave this guy out there on the streets.’

  ‘I know that but you know who he is now. You know where he lives, where he works. You can watch him. If he goes near anyone else, then you stop him. But if I’m right, he’s coming after me next and you can get him and Nick.’

  ‘No way. It’s too dangerous. For you and the rest of the public. Lynch would never agree to it.’

  ‘Please. Nick wants me dead. He’s helping a serial killer. He’s supposed to be stopping him but he’s helping him. Do you really want him to have a chance to get away with this?’

  Azrah sighed and stood up again. ‘Hang on,’ she said and left Karen alone once more.

  Thirty minutes later, she came back with Lynch who looked like he’d been kicked in the balls. ‘Mrs. Kelly,’ he said and sat down across from her.

  A couple of hours later, Karen was at Jamie’s apartment, making excuses for why she couldn’t spend the night at home. The police were watching Michael’s house and workplace with the intention of keeping their distance unless they had any reason to believe a life was in danger. Nick was allowed to leave as normal, but someone was keeping an eye on him too.

  In the morning, Azrah was in touch to say that Michael had returned home in the early hours, but not from work. By the time they’d dispatched people to watch the 7-11, Michael had left but didn’t return home until a couple of hours later. There’d been concern he could’ve been with someone else since he’d left work, but they had no way of knowing where or who with, so the plan was to go ahead.

  They’d followed Michael as he left his house mid-morning, watched as he stopped by the bookstore before taking a seat in the café opposite, presumably to wait for Karen. They’d hoped Michael would contact Karen himself, but by mid-morning they were all getting twitchy and decided Karen would have to initiate things. Jamie’s request for the paperwork gave her a good reason to head home so she left Jamie’s to go back to her apartment where Azrah was waiting. On the way, she sent Azrah a message letting her know she was en route. A police car followed, another had eyes on Michael as he drank his coffee in the café.

  As soon as she got the message, Azrah made sure she and the other officers were hidden away in the spare bedroom. Once Karen was home, she made the call, pretending to have misdialed. She knew Michael would see it as an invitation and it wasn’t long before he turned up at the apartment. As predicted, Nick arrived around the same time, but waited outside in the car until he believed it was time to intervene.

  Karen had never felt so nervous as she opened the door, pretending to be surprised to see Michael. She wished that Azrah would storm out straightaway and arrest him. She’d insisted she was fine with the whole operation, but once she was faced with him, the reality hit home. This man was there to kill her.

  There were three police officers waiting in the bedroom to intervene as soon as necessary, but Karen wondered if they would be fast enough. There were cameras in the room so Azrah and the others could see everything that happened, as well as microphones to hear and record everything Michael said. They had more than enough to take him in, but it was Nick that Karen wanted more. So she waited, making sure Michael revealed Nick’s involvement. That, coupled with the fact he was waiting outside, was enough.

  It was only when Michael pulled the gun that Karen really thought she’d fucked up. They’d assumed he would have a knife or try to strangle her. He’d never used a gun before.

  Thankfully, Azrah was out of the bedroom before he’d even had chance to aim properly. Karen wondered if Azrah actually needed to shoot him, although she couldn’t say she minded very much. And then, not long after Michael went down, Nick burst through the door and Karen wondered if Azrah had fired in order to lure Nick upstairs. Whatever. It worked. And now her husband was being taken to the very station he worked in, arrested on charges of conspiracy to murder and perverting the course of justice.

  And what better story was there than that?

  79

  Michael

  Michael took his seat in the interview room, the pain in his shoulder a little distracting, although the painkillers had taken the edge off. Apparently Detective Azrah Khan knew what she was doing. There was no real damage according to the ER doctor, who seemed to want Michael out of his way as soon as possible.

  To be honest, it felt something of an anti-climax to be sitting there in that dingy room and, of course, it was a huge let down that he hadn’t been able to complete the final project. He didn’t think Karen had it in her. But from his point of view it wasn’t so bad. Though Karen’s role in the story hadn’t been quite what he imagined, her involvement would still garner a lot of attention.

  And Michael had made other arrangements to cement his reputation so that no matter what happened in that apartment, his name as well as his work wouldn’t be forgotten. In case Nick reneged on their deal, Michael had set up his emails to be sent to every media outlet he could find an address for, setting a time for the messages to go out. He glanced at the clock on the wall and realized that reporters up and down the country would be discovering his work right about now. He smiled, which caught Azrah’s eye.

  ‘Why don’t we begin?’ she said and made all the necessary introductions. ‘Should we start with what happened today? With Karen Kelly?’

  ‘Sure,’ Michael said in a tone less suited to a police interview and more for a prime-time TV slot. ‘What would you like to know?’

  ‘How about your relationship with Nick Kelly and how that led to you being there today.’

  ‘I’m not sure you could call it a relationship. We only met yesterday. It all happened so fast.’

  ‘Yesterday? You only met yesterday?’

  ‘That’s correct.’

  ‘See, I don’t believe that, Michael. Because I think you’re a planner. From what I’ve seen of your… work, you seem like a meticulous person.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘So I don’t believe that you’d do this on the spur of the moment. I think you’d want time to plan.’

  ‘And you’d be right about that. So let me clear something up. Killing Karen wasn’t Nick Kelly’s idea. It was mine.’ Michael watched as Azrah looked at her colleague, an older man whose name Michael had forgotten already, as he was no more than a supporting character, although Michael suspected the man was the woman’s boss.

  ‘Are you telling me that Nick Kelly wasn’t involved in plotting his wife’s murder?’ Azrah asked.

  ‘No, he was. But I’d already decided to do it. I met Karen a couple of weeks ago. She was something of a late
addition to the project, you see, someone else had dropped out and–’

  ‘Excuse me? Did you say dropped out? As in, they had opted in in the first place?’

  ‘No, not quite. It’s just I’d started making preparations for this other woman’s project but then she moved to Paris so that went out the window. I had to find a replacement and that’s when I met Karen.’

  ‘And did you target Karen because of who her husband was?’

  ‘No. If you can believe it, it was a coincidence. I only found out that little gem a few days later. To be honest I was starting to wonder if she was going to be a viable project, but then I saw her with Nick and it seemed like fate, you know. I knew I had to go ahead with it.’

  ‘All right. So you were already planning to kill Karen Kelly. How did Nick get involved?’

  ‘I came home one day and found him in my bedroom. I assumed he’d come to arrest me, although it was a little unconventional him hiding in my room.’

  ‘He was in your house?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why? How? Had he followed you? Did he know about you and Karen?’

  ‘I believe the answer is yes, he did know about me and Karen, but I don’t think he much cared when he thought I was just sleeping with her.’

  ‘So why did he go to your house? Why break in?’

  ‘Because by then he knew who I was. Or what I was.’

  Azrah looked to her colleague again. ‘He knew? Before he broke in, before he saw what was on your wall?’

  ‘By the time we met, he’d already broken in once. You might have to ask him to clear up the details, but I believe he was led to me by Elena Jones.’ Michael saw the expression on Azrah’s face. ‘You didn’t know? She was one of mine too.’

  ‘No. I’m aware of that. We’ve already been to your house. But how did Elena Jones lead Nick to you?’

  ‘Again, you’ll have to ask him for details, but the night he spoke to her, I’d tried to kill her. It wasn’t planned for that night, but she’d found out where I worked and you know, that was very very unhelpful. So I took her home, tried to kill her but her stepson showed up and I had to leave before it was quite finished. I did think I was done then, but no one came for me. I figured Elena hadn’t gone to the police for some reason, so I killed her outside the gym instead, in case she changed her mind. So there I was, thinking I was in the clear, and the next thing I know, Nick Kelly is in my house wanting to make a deal. He’d been to my workplace, seen a picture of me on my file and put it all together, I guess.’

  Michael watched as Azrah tried to process it. Was she really surprised that Nick had kept all this from his colleagues? That he was capable of it? As far as Michael could tell, Nick was an asshole. Surely these detectives already knew that.

  ‘So he came to your house, wanting to make a deal? What was the deal?’

  ‘He wanted me to kill his wife. He said he’d let me go free if I did, but that wasn’t what I wanted. Turned out he had no intention of letting me go.’ Michael shook his head. ‘I don’t know if that counts for anything. Also, he asked me not to kill anyone else.’

  ‘And when was this?’

  ‘Yesterday afternoon.’

  ‘And yet you killed Cas Nazan later that day.’

  ‘I did. To be fair, I did tell Detective Kelly that I wanted to finish the project. But he was insisting that I could only kill Karen. He said if I did that he’d make sure I got what I wanted.’

  ‘Which was what?’

  ‘For everyone to see my work. To get credit for it.’

  Azrah pushed a photograph towards Michael and he looked down. It was him and Nick in the car outside the 7-11. ‘This was after Mr. Nazan’s murder. After Nick had been at the crime scene. What did he say to you here?’

  ‘He was a little upset. I think he felt bad about my completing the Cas Project.’

  ‘But he didn’t try to bring you in?’

  ‘No. He hadn’t got what he wanted.’ Michael shrugged. ‘That’s when I knew I could pretty much do what I wanted. He handed me a phone, told me to call the number in it when I was about to do Karen. He’d be waiting to swoop in, be the hero.’

  ‘And that would be one of the phones we found on you today?’

  ‘Yes. The other was for Karen. The one from Nick only has the one number in, which should correspond with the phone Nick has.’

  Azrah nodded and Michael assumed they already had Nick’s phone. He had to wonder why Nick wouldn’t dispose of it as soon as Michael had called. Apparently, some people don’t think clearly in stressful situations.

  ‘What did you mean when you said you could do what you wanted?’ the other guy said.

  ‘Just that I knew I could finish what I’d started. I knew I probably wasn’t going to have time to find a replacement for Elena. I’d hoped I would because Elena wasn’t done right. It was extremely inelegant. But…’ He shrugged again. ‘I knew it would be tricky to find the right person and figured even Nick’s patience might run out if I held things up too long. So I had to count Elena if I wanted to make it an even ten.’

  ‘Ten?’ Azrah said, and Michael could see the cogs whirring, trying to work it out.

  ‘Wait? You haven’t found her yet?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Phoebe. I did her early this morning. I guess no one’s missed her yet. Strange. She seemed important.’

  He saw the look between Azrah and the other guy, enjoying their panicked expressions. ‘Phoebe Devereaux,’ Michael said and gave them the address. The other guy stood up, rushing towards the door. ‘You might want to hurry. I think the media might already be there.’

  ‘You do realize that Nick’s deal means nothing,’ Azrah said. ‘No one is going to know your name. This bullshit you call art will never be seen. By anyone.’

  Michael looked at Azrah, almost feeling sorry for her. She must’ve known that some of it would leak, regardless of what they did to stop it. But it was too late for that anyway. Michael’s emails had long since been delivered.

  ‘You might want to check online,’ he said, nodding to the phone he could see poking out of her pocket.

  Reluctantly, she took out the phone. ‘What am I looking for? Which site?’

  ‘I don’t think it really matters.’

  Michael watched Azrah’s face as she took it in. He hadn’t had a chance to take a look himself, but he imagined it had been picked up by most news sites as well as being across social media. He didn’t think it was immodest to say it was a big story. And though he doubted the mainstream media would publish the photographs, there were plenty of outlets that would.

  So, along with the photographs, there would be details of the victims and the reasons they were chosen, how they had squandered their talents. He had included a manifesto of sorts, outlining his reasons for the project. He mentioned his parents, how he believed he would’ve made his mother proud, and proved to his father he would do something with his life. And, of course, there would be his own image in the final photograph holding Phoebe’s severed head. No matter what Azrah Khan said, it was impossible to stop it. His name, his face, and his work were already out there. His fate was sealed. He would long be remembered for his work and even if he never got to do it again, this was his legacy.

  80

  Nick

  Why did it have to be her? Of all the people to be sitting across from him right now, why Azrah fucking Khan? He could tell she was enjoying it, was trying to make it worse than it already was. Nick looked over at Lynch, who was standing in the corner looking as though his favorite puppy had been put to sleep. Nick knew he had to appeal to Lynch. There was a chance Lynch would believe him.

  ‘It’s bullshit,’ Nick said when Lynch refused to meet his eye. ‘You really believe what Michael Fisher is telling you? The man who’s killed, what, seven people? At least?’

  Azrah smiled at Nick and he wanted to reach over the table and slap the smirk from her face. ‘So tell us your version, Nick. Because right now, I have to sa
y, I’m fairly convinced by the serial killer.’

  ‘How is this right?’ Nick pleaded with Lynch. ‘You know she has it in for me.’

  ‘Don’t be a child, Nick,’ Lynch said, finally coming over and sitting down. ‘Tell us what happened. How was it that you were there so quickly? Or rather, how was it that you were there before anything actually happened? Why were you sat out there? What were you waiting for?’

  Nick said nothing for a moment. He’d had time to consider his options, to come up with a story, but he had no idea what Azrah already knew. Clearly Fisher had talked, but Nick believed that most of what he’d said could be dismissed. He was hardly a reliable witness.

  But then there was the possibility of other evidence coming back to bite him. He was fairly confident he’d left no trace in Fisher’s house, he’d worn gloves at all times. The phone could be an issue, but again he’d worn gloves and could push the angle that it had been planted in his car. As far as he knew, there was nothing else linking him to Fisher.

  But then he had to wonder how Azrah had known enough to be waiting for them at the apartment. It had to have something to do with Karen. But how had she known? Nick knew he had to be vague and play the game as if he was on the other side of the table, hoping Azrah would show her hand.

  He wondered if Alison Goodwin would still be a problem, but at that point it would be the least of his worries. Elena Jones was more of an issue. By now, Azrah and Lynch would know that Elena had been murdered by Fisher too, so her death would become part of their investigation. It was that, more than anything, that bothered Nick. There were too many loose ends – the 7-11, the desk officer, the phone call. But Nick knew that if he stayed on his toes he could explain all that away.