‘Chris, you came to me,’ Kim said gently. Empathy and understanding had saved Archie’s life. If she tried to shout above Lena, there would only be one winner.
‘There’s a part of you that wants this to end. Inside—’
‘Don’t listen, Chris. She knows she’s in danger. She knows she’s not going to—’
‘Inside, there’s a part of you that wants to sever that control. You see, I know things about you that your sister doesn’t.’
He turned his attention towards her.
‘I know that you didn’t want to hurt any of these people,’ she said, remembering the graphologist’s report. ‘You are a decent—’
‘Oh, shut the fuck up,’ Lena cried. ‘Just do it, Chris. For once you have the power—’
Kim tried to tune her out as she fought to hold his attention.
‘You are decent and have integrity. You mourn for your victims; you empathise with—’
‘Do it, Chris,’ Lena shouted. ‘Just take the knife and do it. How could I ever beat you? Finally, you will have won.’
Chris moved towards her.
‘Don’t do it,’ Kim said, trying to remain calm. ‘If you do, you’ll never be free of her and—’
Suddenly, he lunged towards her holding the knife forward. She saw the blade heading towards her chest and the determined look in his eyes.
Lena had said the magic words. She had told him he could win.
Kim threw up her arms to shield herself from the knife.
Lena chanted in the background as Kim slunk down to the ground and writhed around to avoid his hand.
He used his free hand to grab her hair and pull her head down to the cold concrete floor. She kicked out, but he had moved around her body so her feet were meeting with thin air. She tried to sit up, but his hand grabbed her around the throat and kept her still.
She fought for breath while trying to push him away and keep her chest covered.
He raised the knife and looked into her eyes.
‘I’m sorry but I have to win.’
She watched in horror as the knife travelled down towards her heart.
She opened her mouth, but any words were cut off as a searing pain thundered into her head and the world went dark.
One Hundred Five
‘What the fuck just?…’ Kim asked, opening her eyes to a flurry of activity. Instant panic engulfed her at the figure leaning over her. Chris and his knife heading towards her chest.
The man was dressed in green.
She swatted away the paramedic. ‘Get off me,’ she said, trying to sit up.
‘Just need to check—’
‘She’s fine,’ Bryant said from behind.
‘Jesus,’ she said, rubbing the top of her head.
‘You were pretty close to the door, guv,’ Bryant offered.
‘You did this to me?’
‘Better than a knife in the heart, but that’s okay, you can thank me later.’
Her second attempt at sitting up was more successful.
‘What the hell happened?’ she asked as two police officers hauled Christopher Manley to his feet.
Bryant turned away as he helped Lena Wiley to her feet. ‘Are you okay, Superintendent? Let me—’
‘Bryant, cuff the bitch,’ she said as everything came rushing back to her.
Her colleague turned with a horrified expression. ‘Guv, that bang to the head—’
‘Trust me, Bryant. She’s Chris’s sister. Cuff her.’
He hesitated for just a second before motioning another two officers in from the doorway. ‘You heard the DI. Put the cuffs on her.’
As they moved into the room, he came to stand beside her.
‘How’d you find me?’ she asked, rubbing her head.
‘Asked the officer downstairs if he’d seen you, and we both started searching. Knew you couldn’t be far,’ he said, holding up his phone. I tried to call, and it went straight to voicemail. You were in a black spot. Saw the spill of the rubbish bag in the corridor. I shoved open the door as I heard the superintendent shouting something, which I’m sure you’ll explain to me later once you’re feeling better.’
Kim nodded and swallowed down the nausea as the cuffs cracked around Lena’s wrists. Kim hauled herself to her feet. After what she’d witnessed, she wanted to face this woman head-on.
Their eyes met as Lena drew level with her.
‘I won, you know,’ Lena said. ‘He was going to kill you.’
Kim marvelled at the triumph in her eyes. Even now, when she was being led away to police custody, her focus was still on the game.
‘What exactly did you win, Lena?’ Kim asked. ‘You can’t beat someone who isn’t even in the game. You’ve thrown away your whole life to triumph over someone who didn’t ask to be born, just because you were jealous. I once respected you as a strong woman who had succeeded in this difficult environment, but now I see that Chris would have been a much better addition to the police force than you. Somehow, he managed to keep some shred of decency even while committing horrific crimes. He is human but you are not.’
Her face reddened. ‘You can’t speak to—’
‘Oh shut up, I’m not finished yet and you’d better get used to not having the last word. I saw with my own eyes how you’ve manipulated and shaped him. Innocent people have died, and a young boy terrified and taken away from his family in your efforts to be the best, but there is something so incredibly twisted and warped that you don’t even realise yourself.’
‘Like what?’ Lena said, sticking out her chin in defiance of any insight Kim had to give. There was nothing this woman didn’t already know.
‘Everything you said about your brother is equally if not more true of you. You’re pathetic and desperate because you always kept it going. Chris would have stopped but you were always the first. You couldn’t let it go. It was you who wanted the attention, the love, the approval from your brother, so fill your boots with triumph: it’s a victory you can savour and enjoy for the next twenty to thirty years.’
‘Oh, we’ll see about—’
‘Fuck off, Lena. You’re not in control now, and I don’t want to look at you any more.’ She nodded to the officers. ‘Get her out of my sight.’
‘Okay, I think I’m starting to catch up now,’ Bryant said as Lena was led from the room.
‘Not before time,’ she said, leaning against the wall. The room that had emptied around them was now spinning every ten seconds or so.
‘Go on, guv, it’s just us now,’ Bryant said. ‘You can admit it. I saved your life, didn’t I?’
‘By knocking me out cold?’
‘Yeah, but you’re alive, so go on, just between us, you can say it.’
Oh, how he wanted to hear those words. Such a simple gift for a simple man.
‘Bryant, you…’ she paused, ‘…could have got here a bit sooner.’
He laughed out loud and looked to the back of her head.
‘Yeah, definitely no permanent damage.’
She let go of the wall and took a few tentative steps as her aching head caught up with her movement.
Bryant walked beside her, knowing better than to offer her help.
The dizziness had passed, but the rage had not.
She now had to tell three families they’d lost loved ones all because of a fucking game.
One Hundred Six
‘You okay?’ Kim asked Alison as they got back into the car.
‘Allergies,’ the behaviourist said, wiping a tear from her eye.
‘Nothing to do with seeing Archie surrounded by a ton of Lego while his mum beamed with love and relief from the couch.’
‘Nope, nothing to do with that at all.’
‘You helped make that scene,’ Kim said.
Kim had been prepared to visit all three families alone but had decided to bring Alison along for two reasons.
‘I know why you asked me to come,’ Alison said, cutting into her thoughts. ‘You think I’ll retur
n to active service.’
Kim shook her head. ‘That’s your decision. I asked you to come so you could explain the dynamics of sibling rivalry, to offer the families some understanding of what happened.’
Kim knew that nothing either of them said was going to ease their grief, but she and Alison had at least been able to offer peace of mind that the people responsible had been caught.
‘And that’s the only reason?’ Alison asked, putting her handkerchief away.
‘Okay, I also wanted you to see first-hand the fruits of your labour. I know I’ve been hard on you this week and you didn’t have to take even a minute of it, but it yielded results.’
She’d also wanted Alison to witness the comfort and closure her findings would bring to the families of the victims, that her input had value and that she could make a difference. She sincerely hoped the woman would reconsider her role in active duty and once again consult for teams that would benefit from her expertise.
‘My head wasn’t in the game as much as it should have—’
‘I’m not accepting that, Alison. It was you who understood the intense, consuming kind of rivalry we were looking at, and I don’t think any one of us would have made that connection. If you want to stay away from consulting, do it because it’s not right for you or because you want to focus on something else, but not because you’re going to convince yourself you’re shit at it. You’re not.’
Alison shook her head in wonder. ‘Who’d have thought after all these years I’d hear those words coming from you?’
‘Yeah, well, enjoy them cos you won’t hear them again. You’re not so bad for a profiler.’
‘Behaviourist,’ Alison snapped as she had during their first meeting.
They both laughed.
‘So do you think she’s going to crack?’ Alison asked, and Kim didn’t need to ask who she meant. It was the second day of questioning and already Chris had spoken freely, against the instruction of his brief, unlike Lena Wiley, who had not yet uttered a single word. And despite Bryant and Penn’s best efforts, Kim suspected this was not going to change.
Kim shook her head in response. ‘What would she even say in defence of her actions? Would she deny the picture Chris has painted of systematic verbal, physical and psychological abuse carried out in the absence of parental control?’ she asked.
Would she deny the cuts and bruises, the pinches and the slaps? Would she refute his claims that she’d tried to smother him with a pillow or hold his head under the bath water?
‘The physical injuries don’t even come close to the psychological damage she’s done to him over the years,’ Alison said as Kim started the car.
The methods of which Kim had caught a glimpse. That level of degradation – the insults and put-downs over the years, with nothing positive on the other side to even attempt to offer balance – was far more damaging than any violence.
‘Chris has barely even mentioned his parents,’ Kim said. ‘It’s almost as though they didn’t exist.’
‘If they were remote and distant, then really Lena and Chris’s existence became all about each other,’ Alison explained. ‘If rivalry was brewing from an early age and went unchecked by the parents, where are the boundaries?’ she asked, speaking rhetorically. ‘Our boundaries come from our parents and without them we flounder and make up our own.’
‘Chris has explained how Lena had always been competitive, always goaded him to prove his worth but that it grew worse when their parents died together in a hotel fire in the Philippines.’
Alison nodded. ‘That’s often a catalyst for sibling rivalry to escalate. In Lena’s mind, her chance of gaining approval and attention from them was lost for ever and for that she blamed Chris.’
Throughout his interviews, Chris had told his own story and, in doing so, had revealed Lena’s. Inadvertently, he had painted a picture of a three-year-old child who had been simply cast aside when her brother had been born; she had resented him from the moment she’d set eyes on him. In her own simplistic way she had just wanted him to go away. She had wanted things to go back to normal. When her efforts failed, she had convinced herself she needed to be better than Chris at everything to regain her parents’ affections. She had to win. But eventually Chris had decided to fight back, and the war between the two of them was born because he had to win too.
Whatever had twisted Lena as a child, Kim could feel little sympathy for the woman. She herself had once been an older sister. Only for six short years and only senior by the ten-minute head start she had on her twin, and yet her only instinct with Mikey had been to protect him, to love him.
Lena’s acts against innocent people had been more brutal, more aggressive than those of her brother. There had been a part of her that had enjoyed causing harm and taking life. She didn’t sense that lack of humanity from Chris.
There was no doubt that he had matched Lena crime for crime. He’d admitted every one and handed over the phone to which Lena had sent her inciting messages, but she detected no joy or achievement in his acts. He had reached out for help and had listened when she’d asked him to spare the boy.
When asked, Chris had admitted that he’d never intended to take Archie after killing his mother. In his mind, it was some kind of victory, something that Lena hadn’t done; in some twisted way he hadn’t wanted to leave the boy alone.
Once back at Chris’s spacious home in Malvern, Archie had been taken care of. Chris had fed him, washed and dried his clothes and entertained him with toys and gadgets. He admitted that at one point he had not known what to do with the child and had considered killing him, but Kim’s plea to spare the boy had reached him. When Lena killed Nicola Southall, he’d formed a plan to get her, using Archie as a distraction.
Through gentle questioning, Archie had confirmed Chris’s story, and other than missing his family and being confused, he had not suffered while in the man’s care.
‘You had to do a bit of work to bring Ella Nock round, didn’t you?’ Alison asked as Kim pulled up at a red light.
‘Definitely not my number one fan,’ Kim admitted.
She’d had a fair bit of explaining to do to the woman: both about her front door and her suspicions. Ella had been somewhat appeased when Kim had offered to pay for the damage out of her own pocket. In fairness, the woman’s main concern had been for Archie. After spending an hour with Andrew, Mia and Ella, Kim could see how close the family was. Yes, she was bossy and forthright with a hint of dominance, but it was clear that she felt nothing but love for her niece and her younger brother.
Ella had been more gracious than Kim would have been if the roles had been reversed.
‘What’s happening with Sean Fellows?’ Alison asked. ‘Given that there’s no confession from Lena yet about the sexual assault on Gemma.’
‘Both Brierley Hill and the CPS are happy to move forward with the process, taking into account the lack of evidence against Sean Fellows and based on the assurance that Chris will testify against his sister.’
Stacey had been on the phone to Brierley Hill the second that Chris had admitted to the sexual assault of Lesley Skipton, in order to set the wheels in motion to get Sean Fellows released from prison.
Stacey had been right: the man currently inside Featherstone had neither attacked Lesley nor Gemma.
Unfortunately, the paperwork and process did not facilitate an immediate release for Sean, but they were talking days not weeks.
‘Next left,’ Alison said as Kim turned right towards Lutley Mill.
‘Just pull in there,’ she said, pointing to a parking area in front of a small factory that had been converted into apartments.
‘So no more killers to profile, no more bollockings, no more walking around the police station and no more families to visit. Does that mean we’re done?’ Alison asked with a lopsided smile.
Kim genuinely hoped that the woman would give serious thought to returning to active duty, especially after what she’d witnessed today, but it was a
decision she would have to make for herself.
‘Yes, Alison, we’re finally done,’ she said as Alison got out of the car.
‘Until the next time,’ Kim shouted out the window before driving away.
One Hundred Seven
Stacey collected herself before she picked up the phone in the Bowl. Her boss had offered her the privacy of her office to make a call that had been especially set up. She had been content for the news to be communicated via the normal channels, but the boss had insisted she make the call herself.
She keyed in the mobile phone number she’d been given. It was answered on the second ring.
‘Hello,’ said a deep voice that did not fit with the person she knew was holding the phone.
‘Nathan?’ she asked, checking that she was speaking with the young prison officer she’d met the other day.
‘Speaking.’
‘It’s Detective Const—’
‘I know. I’ve been waiting for your call. He’s right here and he has no idea.’
Stacey felt a shiver of anticipation run over the bare flesh of her arms as she heard the phone being passed to Sean Fellows.
‘What the fuck is?…’
‘Sean, it’s Stacey Wood,’ she said, straight away. She was sure he was unused to being passed the mobile phone of a prison officer. ‘Remember, I came to speak to you earlier in the week.’
‘Yeah, I remember but this is a bit suss. You got a thing for me or something?’
She laughed. ‘No, Sean, you’re not my type, mate.’
‘Shame,’ he said, and she could imagine the shrug of the shoulders. ‘So what the?…’
‘Remember when you told me you were innocent?’ she asked.
‘Oh yeah, course I do. You gave me the same look as every other c… bugger I’ve told.’
Stacey appreciated his effort in minding his language.
‘Well, turns out you were right.’
Ten second silence.
‘You shitting me?’
Deadly Cry: An absolutely gripping crime thriller packed with suspense (Detective Kim Stone Crime Thiller Book 13) Page 27