by M. A. Hunter
‘I don’t know how he manages to do it, but it doesn’t seem there’s anywhere we can go where he won’t find us. He is charming and manipulative, and rich. I suppose he must bribe and threaten to get the information he wants. Last time, we barely made it out of the house before he turned up. We thought London was big enough that we could slip between the cracks, but it will only be a matter of time until he finds our address, and then we’ll have to move again.’
Hearing Morag talk so candidly, I feel awful for ever questioning her true motive towards Daisy, and I can understand why she would fight so hard to keep her secrets buried.
Reaching out, I rest my hand on hers. ‘I’m sorry for doubting you, Morag. Is there anything I can do to help?’
She looks up at me and tilts her head. ‘I think you have enough problems of your own without taking on mine.’
I don’t know how to respond to such a blunt statement and take a sip of tea.
‘I’m sorry,’ she quickly adds. ‘I heard you lost your son a few months ago. It can’t be easy to grieve with Grace starting school.’
She has no idea.
‘There isn’t a single day that’s passed when I haven’t thought about Luke,’ I admit, ‘and how my actions were probably the reason he died.’
‘I’m sure that isn’t true,’ Morag counters, but she really doesn’t have a clue about my own dark secrets.
‘I suffered post-natal depression after Grace,’ I say, my eyes stinging at the memory. ‘It was diagnosed quickly, and I received counselling and medication, but my mental health never truly recovered. I threw myself into work to battle my demons, but without the medication, I could only last a few weeks before my condition would spiral.
‘When I fell pregnant with Luke, I made the conscious decision to stop the medication. I was terrified that the antidepressants would affect his development, but I didn’t tell anyone how tough I was finding it. Work, family, pregnancy – it was all getting too much. I started to use alcohol to get me through the bad days, even though it was a risk, and…’
I take a deep breath. ‘I was drinking the day the labour started. I was two weeks from the due date, and it was another dark day. I just wanted to get to the hospital and let the midwife take control of my situation. I thought I could get to the hospital without an issue, and didn’t want to call an ambulance, but my God, do I regret that decision! I remember getting behind the wheel, but then there is a black hole, and my next memory is being dragged from the car and transferred to a trolley, and put in the back of an ambulance. The man who’d found me said it looked as though I’d been run off the road, due to the damage to the car, and I… didn’t challenge the story.’
The tears roll down my cheeks. I don’t know why I’m so freely admitting my darkest thoughts to Morag. Maybe it’s because she understands what it is to lose a son.
‘I should have been breathalysed, but for some reason I wasn’t, maybe because the contractions had started, I don’t know. A policeman eventually came to my room in the days after Luke’s death, but only to ask what I remembered about being run off the road. I panicked, and told him the first thing I could think, which was that a car I couldn’t really remember had caused the accident. After some investigation they couldn’t prove one way or another what had actually happened, and no further action was taken.’
The needle slipping and stealing my legs is the least I deserve for Luke dying. Had I not been under the influence, maybe I would have kept control of the car, and if I hadn’t had the accident, maybe he would have survived the labour.
Morag dabs her own eyes. ‘Thank you for being honest with me, Jess. I know it can’t have been easy, and I don’t think you should blame yourself for what happened. We’re all guilty of actions that in hindsight weren’t the wisest. I blame myself for Sharon’s demise at the hands of my son, but some things are beyond our control.’
The sound of footsteps on the staircase causes us both to turn and watch as Daisy enters the kitchen behind us. ‘Can I have something to eat?’
The clock on the wall beside the stove tells me it is close to six, and I have no idea where the time has gone. I should be getting home to feed Grace, and tackle my problems with Charlie head on. There is still daylight through the kitchen window, but it won’t be long until the darkness comes.
Morag stands, and hugs Daisy close, and I can see nothing but affection in the embrace. It can’t be easy for Daisy to process the loss of her mother and father, and a new life, a new name, and a fresh start in a different city. Maybe that was why she approached me in the park on Thursday. Not because she was scared of Morag, but because she doesn’t understand her place in this family.
‘I should head home,’ I say, wheeling back from the table. ‘If there’s anything you need, a place to stay for the night, or even just someone to talk to, please don’t hesitate to ask.’
Morag smiles at me with fresh tears in her eyes. ‘Thank you, Jess. I’m sure we’ll be okay once Angus has spoken with you know who.’
My heart skips a beat, as I realise the error of my ways.
‘What is it, Jess?’ Morag says. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
How could I have been so stupid? How could I have forgotten what I’d done before I went to collect Grace from school?
I can barely get the words out of my throat. ‘He knows where you are.’
Morag frowns deeply. ‘What makes you say that?’
Grabbing at the scrunched-up image of Mia, I flatten the paper on the table, and point at the ‘Contact’ box at the top of the sheet. ‘I messaged the uncle and told him where he could find Mia. He knows, Morag. I gave him your address.’
The blood drains from her face too, but before either of us can truly comprehend the implications of my actions, the front door flies open with a heavy kick.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Before – Morag
The front door swings on its hinges, the door frame splintered under the impact, and what is left of the evening’s light comes pouring through. And in the middle of all that, the man I’ve been dreading seeing for nearly two years.
‘Hello, Mum,’ he sneers, pressing both palms against what remains of the doorframe. ‘Been a long time.’
Daisy is trying to peer around me to see who is speaking, but I do my best to keep her out of his sight.
My son – it sickens me to even think of him as the baby I once swaddled – stands tall, his shoulders and upper arms like those of a body-builder, his hair long and dishevelled, and his brown beard thick and nest-like. He looks nothing like the skinny runt who ran away from home all those years ago. The blazer and trousers which struggle to hold in his monstrous frame are tailor-made, and the half-open collared shirt has a glossy sheen to it beneath the porch light. I guess he can now afford the luxury items Angus and I never could.
‘Aren’t you going to invite me in, Mum?’ Tommy roars from the doorstep.
I wish he would stop calling me that, because every time he does, Daisy’s face pokes out more.
‘And who do we have here?’ he says, stepping into the house, and giving the front door one final shove to ensure it collapses to the floor with a boom.
He’s looking just past me, and I would give anything to reset the clock by five minutes and keep Daisy in her room where he wouldn’t see her. I take a step back, forcing Daisy behind me, hoping I can get close enough to the back door before he realises what I’m doing.
‘Get out of my house,’ I shout towards him, but my voice is thickened by nervous energy and doesn’t sound as forceful as I’d hoped.
I have imagined this moment so many times; it has haunted my nightmares. In none of those encounters am I on my own, without Angus. Jess is the only thing that stands between Tommy and us, but what good can she be? She is pale as a sheet, and I have a strong sense that she is off the medication I saw in her kitchen on Sunday.
‘I’ll phone the police,’ I shout again, slightly firmer this time, but as I scan t
he kitchen worktops, I can’t recall where I left my phone. I had it when I answered the door to Jess, but my clouded mind is suppressing my short-term memories.
‘Go ahead and call them,’ he sneers back, still moving forwards, his giant strides accounting for two of my backward shuffles. ‘It’s about time I formally had you charged with abducting my daughter. Mia? You don’t have to be afraid of me. I’m your dad.’
Daisy’s head is out again, but this time my attempts to push it back in fail, and she pulls away from me, so she can take in the man moving towards us.
He stops, drops to his knees, and watches her, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. ‘Do you recognise me, Mia? You do, don’t you? That’s because I am your father, and you lived with me for several years, before your mammy and grandma here plotted to take you from me.’
‘It wasn’t like that!’ I yell back, but stop myself from saying he left me little choice when he murdered Sharon. One day I plan to tell Daisy the truth about her parents, but she’s too young to process any of that just now.
‘You always were a jealous old bat,’ he says, glancing from her timid face to mine. ‘Look at me now, Mammy. Your son has made a name for himself. I’m rich and powerful, and people respect me.’
I snort. ‘People are scared of you, Tommy; it isn’t the same thing.’
He brushes off the challenge. ‘They should be scared.’ His eyes return to Daisy. ‘You don’t need to be afraid of me, Mia. I’ve been looking for you for a long time. I’m going to take you back to my house, and you will have a far grander life than you can imagine. You’ll be treated like a real princess. And who knows, maybe I’ll even buy you a pony one day too.’
It was a mistake to lie to Daisy about her parents. After much debate we settled on telling her that her parents had both died in that fire, and that was why she would live with Angus and me. We’ve kept pictures of Tommy and Sharon from her, in the hope that she’d eventually begin to forget their faces and settle down. Despite how close he’s come to finding us before, I always clung to the hope we’d manage to stay one step ahead of him.
God, I wish Angus was here with me now, and the breath catches in my throat. He was supposed to be meeting with Tommy today.
‘What have you done to Angus?’ I demand, an invisible blade passing through my heart.
A small flicker of a smile passes over his face, but his eyes remain locked on Daisy’s. ‘Would you like to come and live with me in my house, Mia?’
I feel her hands coil around my leg, and I rest a hand on her shoulders, relieved that she is smart enough not to fall for his routine.
‘It’s a much bigger house than this. You’d have your own room, a television set the size of this kitchen, and a swimming pool too. You’d be able to throw big parties and invite your friends to come and play. Leave all of this shit behind and come and be with your real family.’
‘She’s not going anywhere,’ I say, grasping for the last of my inner strength. ‘Daisy is not your daughter anymore.’
He puffs out his cheeks and rises effortlessly. It’s the moment I’ve been waiting for. Spinning, I yank open the back door, and usher Daisy outside. ‘Go to our special place, my darling. Do you remember? The place I told you to hide in an emergency? Go there now, and I will come and find you soon.’
Daisy doesn’t move, staring back at me, as I hear Tommy moving closer.
‘Go, Daisy, go. I will find you soon. Please, just run.’
She takes off up the garden, as I slam the door closed and lock it, just as Tommy crashes me into the glass.
His breath is warm against my face. ‘You made a mistake, old woman.’
I can barely breathe with his weight crushing my chest against the cold glass. ‘The only mistake I made was not turning you in to the police when you first stole from me.’
‘You left me no choice but to fend for myself. You were always so keen to help other people at the hospital, but you couldn’t see what I needed. I was your flesh and blood, but you preferred to abandon me with childminders so you could go and help perfect bloody strangers.’
Is that really how he feels, or is he just saying things to try and make me feel bad, and to justify all the hurt and pain he has caused others?
Jess clears her throat, and I start, having forgotten she was still in the room. ‘I’ve already called the police,’ she says defiantly. ‘They’re on their way now. That’s why I sent you that message through the website. We wanted to lure you out so they could come and arrest you and take you away. You’ve minutes at best. A smart man would get away while he still can.’
Tommy sniggers at the suggestion and, pinning me to the back door with his forearm, he turns to look at Jess. ‘I suppose I should thank you for helping me track down Mia at long last. I had planned to have Daddy-o followed home after our meeting, but then I received your message through the site, and my plans changed. You gave me the perfect answer: take Dad’s money and get Mia back. It’s Jess, right? How about I offer you a finder’s fee, Jess? Say twenty thousand, and all you have to do is leave this place, and never look back.’
Jess remains where she is. ‘I’m not going anywhere until you’re led away in cuffs.’
Tommy leans harder into my chest, and it’s as if I can feel my ribs being slowly crushed, the pain so intense that I can’t even scream, let alone breathe.
‘I really don’t want to hurt a cripple, but if you don’t want to accept my generous offer, you leave me little choice.’
He releases his arm, and I can’t stop myself sliding down the glass pane, slumping on the floor, as I try and get my breath back, but then something cold and hard is pressed against my eye. The long barrel stretches all the way back to his hand and long arm, and I’m waiting for the world to go black, but he suddenly withdraws the weapon, and hops away, yelping as he does.
Jess’s hand is the next thing I see, as she offers to help me back to my feet while Tommy leaps about swearing, and from the way he is holding his shin, I can only assume she has driven one of the foot pedals into the side of his leg in an effort to save me.
‘We need to get out of here,’ she whispers, and I don’t need telling twice, pulling on her arm until I am upright again, but I’m barely standing when Jess’s hand yanked away from mine, and I watch as the chair flies back through the air, crashing against the wall on the far side, Jess falling helplessly to the ground in a heap. Before I can react, Tommy charges at me, and I feel the cold glass as my cheek and forehead crack into it, and this time the world does turn black.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Now
Thrusting open the door of the interview suite, Mike was surprised to find Nazia Hussain wide-eyed and stalking the corridor.
‘I need to talk to you urgently,’ she said, taking him by the arm and leading him out of earshot.
Polly joined them a moment later, closing the door behind her. ‘What’s going on?’
Nazia handed them the tablet she’d been clutching and pointed at the screen. ‘Look familiar?’
Mike instantly recognised Tommy Chamberlain’s face. ‘Our victim. Where’s this picture from?’
‘It’s the photographic identification provided to the missing people site when the report was submitted for missing Mia. Only the man in the picture isn’t identified as Tommy Chamberlain, but in fact Adam Croft.’
Mike looked up at her. ‘If you’re about to tell me we’re dealing with a weird twins plot twist, I may lose control.’
Nazia shook her head. ‘Not twins, no, but the man we know as Tommy Chamberlain does have a string of other identities we weren’t aware of. This one is Adam Croft, but I’ve now also located Adam Thomas, Tom Croft, Adam Chamberlain, and, wait for it… his birth name, Thomas Kingston.’
Mike stared blankly back at her. ‘Is that name supposed to mean something to us?’
Nazia stabbed her finger at the screen, loading up a new page. ‘Meet Morag and Angus Kingston, parents of Thomas Kingston, the man lying in the mortuary.�
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Mike had to steady himself against the wall. ‘Tommy Chamberlain is Morag Kilbride’s son?’
Nazia nodded grimly. ‘There’s more.’
Mike thought back to the strange face Morag had pulled when he’d showed her the victim’s photograph during their late-night interview. ‘She knew he was her son and she said nothing. Why wouldn’t she tell us she recognised him? Why would she allow him to remain unidentified on a mortuary slab?’
‘I just finished speaking with a PS Rupert MacTavish in Aberdeen, who was the officer who was dealing with the restraining order against Tommy Chamberlain. He was very interested to learn the whereabouts of Chamberlain, as apparently, he’s wanted in connection with an assault on a woman in her fifties called Gwen Barfoot, who’—Nazia took a deep breath—‘is the sister of Morag Kingston. Turns out this Tommy is a real nasty piece of work, and although he has several arrests to his name, he’s never been charged, on account of victims withdrawing testimony, and cast-iron alibis.’
‘That explains why his prints and DNA weren’t matched on the database,’ Polly observed.
‘But it doesn’t explain why Morag or Jess would kill him,’ Mike challenged.
‘Maybe not, but what if the missing people report was right? What if Tommy really is Mia’s dad, and Morag and Angus took her from him?’
Mike’s world was spinning. Had they been looking at this all the wrong way round? One thing was for sure, two people knew the truth, and neither of them were nearby.
‘Get units out to the Heathrow Travelodge, and have Morag Kilbride brought in immediately. Polly, you come with me.’
‘Where are we going?’ Polly asked, as he stalked away.
‘The secure wing of Dr Savage’s hospital. We’re going to find out once and for all what Jess Donoghue knows about last night.’
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Before – Jess
Morag lies crumpled on the linoleum floor, a bloody imprint of her face on the glass where her face just slammed. She isn’t moving, but she is the least of my concerns right now. I can’t see Daisy in the garden, but then I can no longer see past the patio, as darkness slowly engulfs the lawn and the trampoline beyond it. I don’t know where Morag told her to hide, but I hope it is far away from here, and with someone who can watch over and keep her safe.