Tiffany looked around for Brett but couldn’t see or hear him.
‘Callie wants Papa Smurf,’ came the child’s voice once again.
She had to move. Her legs felt like they were made of rag, but she and Brett had to make their escape with Jane and Callie. Then they’d be rid of David and Joanne for good. Her husband would rot in jail for what they were trying to do. She’d seen television programmes about the illegal adoption trade: children being taken in the night and sold to couples desperate to have children. Well, it wasn’t happening to her family.
With a force of will, she pulled herself up and climbed out. She had to find the strength, however much the drugs had messed her up. The car was in complete darkness, some distance from where David and the others were standing. At least it gave them a small advantage.
The voices were getting heated, and Joanne seemed to be leading the altercation; David was taking a back seat. Was this her work? Had she come into their house like a cuckoo, determined to throw the babies over the side of the nest? Was she arguing over the price of her children? Tiffany felt nauseous at the thought. She could claw the woman’s eyes out for it.
The voices were becoming increasingly tense as Tiffany opened the side door and leaned across Rowan’s empty seat to touch Callie’s hand. Only his small teddy bear toy remained.
‘Mummy!’ Callie exclaimed.
‘Shh, be quiet, darling. We’re going to play a game, sweetheart. We’re going to hide somewhere, and we have to be really quiet. Is that okay?’
Jane stirred in the child seat next to Callie. Jane was a grumpy waker; she often heralded her presence with a whine. She would take Callie first and Brett would have to lift Jane. It was a delicate operation at the best of times, but at least the raised voices were offering some degree of cover for Callie’s babbling.
Tiffany leaned over and gently unclipped Callie from her child seat, staying low. As she started to lift Callie out, she heard a shriek from Joanne. She froze, waiting to see what happened.
There was shouting, from David this time, and raised voices. Whatever language they were speaking, she could tell they were using expletives. Something had just happened; it had all become suddenly more intense.
Then, in the stillness of the New Year evening, a loud cracking sound filled the cold air. For a moment, Tiffany thought it was a firework, heralding the beginning of a new millennium. But from the panic in Joanne’s voice, she knew exactly what it was; a gun had just been fired.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Charlotte looked up into the centre of the turbine. So Joanne Taylor was here. It was hardly surprising, after Callie and Jane’s reappearance. Who else was still alive from 2000? It made perfect sense though; she’d suspected another player was involved in recent events, and here she was, one more ghost from the past.
Surely Joanne Taylor wasn’t going to make her climb all the way up there, without safety gear?
‘Can’t you come down and we can sort this out on the ground?’
It was the worst system of communication ever, her words lost in the echoes along the long, hollow body of the structure.
‘You know we can’t. Vinnie Mace won’t be far behind you. This has to be done here.’
Of course it does, Charlotte thought. She had to be mindful of Vinnie; he wouldn’t be far behind.
‘Do you have a weapon?’ Charlotte called out.
‘Just a baseball bat, courtesy of a recent visit to Kate Allan’s house. You might have locked up her house after you left. That’s how I figured out where she was hiding. That message from Sam Halford on the answer machine was all I needed. I know Sam of old—‘
Charlotte cursed that she hadn’t deleted the phone messages when she was snooping around Kate’s house. If Joanne was on the scene twenty years ago, it made sense that she’d have known of Sam from back then.
‘I only want to talk,’ Joanne continued, ‘these weapons are just for self-defence. Trust me, I’m the least of your problems compared to Vinnie Mace.’
Charlotte heard the slam of a car door out in the fields beyond the turbine. It had to be Vinnie. She looked across at the door; she’d pulled it to, so it would hopefully take him a little while to figure out which one they were in. Unless he got lucky the first time.
She looked up at the seemingly endless steel ladder. She only had plimsolls on her feet, and no harness, no gloves, no overalls and no Sam to encourage her along the way. Charlotte didn’t know if she could do it.
Sam stirred at her side and she rushed over. He was groaning and rubbing his head, dazed and confused.
‘Sam, it’s Charlotte Grayson. Are you all right?’
‘What the hell happened?’ he mumbled, his speech slurred and hesitant.
‘You’ve been hit, probably by a baseball bat. There’s a dangerous man heading this way. We need to hide you over there, by the electrical kit.’
She pointed to the large, grey electrical unit into which the cables ran from the top of the turbine. It was out of the way, behind the ladder. If Sam could conceal himself there, he would be safe.
‘Be careful, Charlotte,’ Sam warned as she offered him her arm and he staggered to his feet. ‘She’s strong, and I didn’t stand a chance. I was only up here to run a routine fault check; she ambushed me. Damn, my head feels sore.’
‘Have you got your phone?’ Charlotte asked.
‘No.’
She paused to think it through. Kate had a mobile phone which could receive a signal at the top of the turbine. Sam was in a bad way; they should call an ambulance. But Joanne Taylor was back on the scene, a twist she hadn’t anticipated at this late stage. Nothing about this affair surprised her now.
‘Here, take my phone. Wait until the man who’s following me has reached the first platform. Then call yourself an ambulance. The police will come, but don’t tell them about me, please. I have to get Kate safely out of here—’
‘Kate Summers? She took the spare key, didn’t she?’
‘Yes, it was her. She’s been hiding here.’
‘I didn’t know. I thought I’d misplaced the keys, but I didn’t say anything. I hoped they would turn up somewhere—’
‘It’s okay, Sam, it’s not your fault.’
‘Are you coming, Charlotte?’
Joanne’s voice echoed from the top of the turbine.
‘I want you to hear something from Kate. I want you to learn it from her first, not me. Then you can put it in your crappy newspaper and let everybody in Morecambe know the whole truth about what happened.’
Charlotte made sure Sam was as comfortable as possible, then moved round to the other side of the turbine’s base to begin the climb, spurred on by the desperate wish to end it all. She knew how high it was and how terrifying it would be. But Kate was up there, and she needed Charlotte’s help. She’d done it once, and she could do it again. Besides, if she wasn’t at least one platform ahead of Vinnie, he’d get a clear shot at her with his gun. There was no alternative.
She began to climb.
‘Don’t look down,’ Sam called over, his voice weak. ‘Keep a firm grip at all times and face forward as you climb. You can do it, Charlotte.’
If only she shared Sam’s confidence. However, without the boots, the goggles, the helmet, the harness and the gloves, she felt lighter and more agile. She could feel the narrow rungs through the flimsy soles and the direct touch of her hands gave the sensation of a firmer grip.
She repeated Sam’s words in her head, looking ahead constantly, one hand and one foot moving at any one time. She climbed deliberately, pacing herself, aware there was a lot further to go.
‘What happens to Vinnie Mace?’ she called to Joanne, convinced they must be working together. Vinnie had claimed ignorance about the attempt on her life at Sunderland Point. Was Joanne after some different resolution?
‘Let me worry about Vinnie Mace.’
‘Did you try to kill me at Sunderland Point?’
‘Just climb, Charlotte
.’
She was surprised to reach the first platform in a short time. One moment a blur of ladder rungs passed before her eyes, and the next she was raising her head above the solid floor of the first platform.
A clunking sound echoed from below. At first, she wondered if it was Sam, then she realised it had to be Vinnie. He spoke and confirmed it.
‘What’s the plan, Charlotte? There’s nowhere for either of you to go once you reach the top. We’ve got Will already.’
No, not Will. He got away, didn’t he? There was only one car following them, even Vinnie Mace couldn’t be in two places at once. He must be bluffing.
‘By the way, the bull is dead. It took four bullets to kill it. Which means I have three bullets remaining. One for you, one for Kate and a spare for whoever’s up there with Kate. I don’t have to shoot those bullets, Charlotte. I never needed to kill you, and we never wanted to murder you. We just need the documents.’
The undulations of his voice told her that he’d begun to climb. He would be faster and fitter. She had to keep going to stay a safe distance ahead of him.
There was a metallic clanging sound above her and something made her step out onto the platform to check what it was. A tin of something flew past her head, travelling at great speed down the central, open section of the turbine’s base. She heard it as it struck the ground. What the hell was Joanne playing at?
‘Dammit, Charlotte, you nearly had my head off!’
It was the first time she’d heard Vinnie rattled. What did he expect, that she would just give herself up for dead? Whoever had sent the tin flying down towards the bottom of the tower had done her a favour; it might make Vinnie a little more cautious and slow him down a bit.
She climbed back on the ladder and continued her ascent. This was the section where she’d frozen with fear the first time she’d made the climb. Sam’s advice was good; it helped if she moved at a steady rate and didn’t look down.
As she climbed, Charlotte continued to move her hands and feet in a well-coordinated sequence, making sure at least two parts of her body were always in contact with the ladder.
She was beginning to tire, aware of her calves burning and her arms aching. Vinnie’s movements were so forceful that she could feel the vibration as he climbed the ladder. He wouldn’t be far away from her now. As she sensed the second platform closing in above her, she became aware of movement below her, in her peripheral vision. He had reached the first platform and was continuing to the second.
Foolishly, she looked down. Her head began to spin and her legs weakened beneath her. If she wasn’t careful, her sweating palms would slide off the rungs.
‘I can see you, Charlotte. Stop at the next platform; we can still sort this out. Nobody has to die today.’
‘And what about Tiffany?’ Charlotte screamed at him. ‘What happens to her?’
‘Tiffany was a fool to herself. She should have cooperated with Fabian. She got what was coming to her—’
‘No Vinnie, she didn’t. She got what Fabian Armstrong decided to give her. It’s clear she’s the victim in all this, she and the children.’
Charlotte started climbing again, fuelled by anger. She forced herself onwards, pulling her body up the ladder with renewed strength. Her throat was dry and her heart pounded in her chest as if it might explode at any moment. She wasn’t even sure what the plan was. All she knew was that she had to reach her friend. Tiffany was protected already, and now she had to do whatever it took to get Kate Summers safely away from there.
She was almost at the third and final platform. Joanne had gone quiet. Why? Was she lying in wait for Vinnie Mace? It would make sense.
As she pulled herself up above the third platform, she hesitated, wondering what might greet her there. She swallowed hard before looking.
Joanne Taylor was standing tall, athletic and imposing, blood dripping from her lip and a dark bruise under her left eye. It looked like she and Kate had already been in a fight. She was wearing the wedding ring that had been pictured in the newspaper cuttings. Charlotte now knew for certain she’d been in Callie’s room in the ICU. Joanne had set off the smoke alarms. She had left the photographs of Kate and Brett for Callie to find.
‘Welcome, Charlotte,’ she said with a smile, her eyes focusing on something at the far side of the turbine’s summit. Casually, she picked up a tin of soup from a small pile next to a rucksack and a small gas stove. Kate had come well-prepared for her exile in the steel structure. Joanne threw the tin through the hole in the platform where the ladder entered the upper section. Charlotte heard it clanging as it ricocheted off the rungs of the ladder below.
She stood up fully and followed Joanne’s gaze. At the rear of the turbine, close to where Sam had opened the doors to allow her to take a look at the view of the bay beyond, Kate Summers was perched on a tool box, her mouth taped shut, and her wrists and ankles bound. She had her back to the dark oblivion beyond. The only thing between her and a fall that would kill her was one loose chain across the open mouth of the doorway. The remaining two chains had been unhooked at one end and discarded onto the steel floor. There was sheer terror in Kate’s eyes, knowing all it would take for her to die was a gentle push from Joanne Taylor.
‘Now, it’s time for you to hear a few home truths from your friend,’ Joanne began. ‘Did she ever tell you that she and her brother killed David Irwin?’
Chapter Thirty-Eight
‘Tell me what this is about,’ Charlotte said. She looked over at Kate again, not knowing what to do. Kate was clearly petrified, so close to the edge of the open doors that an involuntary leg movement would be enough to send her flying over the edge. Although she was signalling with her eyes, Charlotte didn’t understand what she was trying to convey.
‘I’ve waited twenty years for this moment; twenty years to flush these rats out of their sewers and send them all to hell where they belong. And I want the money that was cheated from us all those years ago.’
‘What did Kate do?’
Charlotte was mindful Vinnie was still on his way up, if he hadn’t been struck by one of the tins already.
‘She and that brother of hers killed David Irwin on the night of the new millennium—’
‘That’s ridiculous. I know Kate, she wouldn’t do that.’
Joanne stormed towards Kate.
‘No!’ Charlotte shouted.
Joanne tore the tape from Kate’s mouth. She was so tall that she had to lower her head in the confined maintenance area. It was clear now that she must have set off the fire alarms in the hospital and contacted Callie and Hollie out of the blue to bring them back into the open. But why?
‘Tell her!’
Kate looked directly at Charlotte, but she was still unable to figure out what she was trying to tell her.
‘I tried to save David Irwin that night. My brother, Brett, risked his life to save him. David was dead well before Brett reached Morecambe. He died because Fabian Armstrong crossed you. You got caught up with some dangerous men, Joanne; you were out of your depth. You and David brought that upon yourselves—’
‘Shut up!’ Joanne screamed at her. She looked unhinged, her eyes full of fire. Kate would need to keep her calm if there was any chance of getting out of there alive.
‘I told Brett not to drive off with David,’ Joanne said. ‘He wouldn’t listen to me. He refused to take me in his car. He went running to his big sister and between the two of you, you killed him and disposed of the body. I saw you in the papers, Kate. First on the scene? You were there before anybody else because you were covering your tracks.’
Charlotte’s attention was diverted. Where was Vinnie? Joanne knew he was making his way up. He had a gun too.
‘Was it you that emailed Hollie? And Callie too?’ she asked. She was desperate to understand how it all slotted together. Perhaps, after all, Joanne was working with Vinnie.
‘Of course it was me who contacted the girls,’ Joanne answered. ‘You’re a bit slow on the u
ptake, Charlotte. It’s Jane to me, of course, not Hollie. I also slipped a photo of Hollie into your husband’s pocket at the university cash machine too. Weren’t you even slightly suspicious about him, Charlotte?’
Charlotte was angry with herself for doubting Will. This woman must have been watching them, waiting for her to lead her to Kate Summers, seeding doubt in her mind to confuse her. So, Vinnie and Fabian hadn’t caused all the problems. There were two parties involved here, and they both seemed to be after a different thing. Judging from the contempt in Joanne’s eyes, she was here to settle a score or two.
‘You’re like a cat with nine lives, by the way, and persistent too. Most people would have called it a day after having a brick put through their window and a petrol bomb hurled at their workplace. You should have kept out of the way. I didn’t want to harm you, but you kept sticking your nose in, speaking to Evan Farrish and trying to unearth the truth about a case that the police had lost interest in years ago.’
‘So it was you who hit me at the causeway? Why?’
Joanne laughed like a maniac on the edge of sanity. It was as if she’d wished for this moment for so many years, and now it had come, she was unable to process it properly.
‘Yes, I’ve been following you for some time. If it hadn’t been for that fisherman coming along in his tractor in the nick of time, I’d have got both you and Kate at the same time. Imagine it, both of you found drowned at the causeway; it would have been poetic justice for Kate. As for you, you’re like a dog with a bone. I’d have expected you to back off a long time ago. You’re a pain in the neck, if truth be told. I just needed you out of the way in case you and your friend on the paper exposed me. It was nothing personal.’
Joanne stopped talking, picked up the baseball bat and walked casually over towards the hole in the floor where the ladder emerged. She concealed herself in the shadow of the turbine’s machinery. As Vinnie’s head began to emerge, his gun at the ready, Joanne waited at his rear, the baseball bat poised in her hand. Vinnie’s eyes were on Charlotte, the gun trained upon her.
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