Hand On Heart: An Unputdownable British Crime Thriller (DI Benjamin Kidd Crime Thrillers Book 5)

by GS Rhodes

  He couldn’t get his phone out, couldn’t take a moment to text Craig, not without arousing suspicion. So his phone stayed in his pocket, burning a hole in it, all of this potential to save Craig’s life and none of it was to be achieved.

  Andrea, Samuel, and the driver got out of the car first, waiting for Kidd to join them. He wasn’t about to try and fight his way out of this one, wasn’t about to try and make a run for it. The police station was only around the corner, but what was he supposed to do once he got there? He’d have to tell Zoe everything, maybe even Weaver, and then where would he be? Out on the street and jobless most likely. No. He needed to figure this out on his own.

  They made their way into the lobby. Kidd didn’t know of another way out of the building other than down the stairs and out of the front door. If Craig hadn’t already gone, he was in for it now.

  Please don’t be there, he thought. Please.

  “Want to lead the way?” Andrea asked, a twisted smile on her face.

  Kidd turned to her. “Tell me what you want from him,” he said.

  “He owes us a lot of money,” Samuel said, flatly. “Debts need to be paid.”

  “Alright, alright, stop with the Mafia bullshit already,” Kidd snapped. “Tell me what you want from him and what you’re going to do with him.”

  “Hardly in a position to be shouting the odds just now, Ben,” Samuel replied.

  “Tell me.”

  He locked eyes with Samuel, a standoff between the two of them in a pristine, minimalist apartment complex in south-west London. Hardly the Wild West but it would do.

  “Andrea explained the situation to you, I understand,” he said. “Craig stole money from us to make his escape. He impacted our business. He nearly killed some of our closest associates.”

  A word twinged in Kidd’s head at that. Nearly.

  “He left them in quite a state,” Samuel continued. “He owes us. And he owes us big. And given the fact that you’ve been hiding him from us for all of this time, I would wager that you owe us a little something too, wouldn’t you?”

  “Hardly,” Kidd growled.

  “Then take us to him,” Samuel said with a smile. He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world, like it didn’t involve Kidd betraying a man that he had once loved, someone that he wanted to protect. “Once you take us to him, your debt is repaid and we can all move on. All this ugliness will be forgotten.”

  Kidd opened his mouth to respond, to counter, but couldn’t find the strength. They wouldn’t be stalled for too much longer. If Craig hadn’t already made a run for it, he was done for, and there was nothing Kidd could do about it.

  They made their way up the stairs, Kidd pulled the keys out of his pocket as he made it to John’s flat. Slowly, as disruptively as he could, Kidd opened the door, holding his breath as the door swung open to reveal…

  John’s empty living room.

  “Call his name,” Andrea hissed.

  Kidd sighed.

  “Craig?” he shouted. Even he could hear that it was half-hearted but there was no point. “Craig, are you here?”

  “Go look for him,” Andrea barked at the driver. He pushed past them into John’s bedroom. Kidd could hear him clattering around, opening wardrobes, probably looking beneath the bed, and still, Kidd held his breath.

  The driver reappeared empty-handed and a little sweaty.

  Craig had listened to him when he’d come to talk to him last night. He had made a break for it, even without Kidd’s help. It had been more than twelve hours, he could have been anywhere by now.

  A weight lifted from Kidd’s shoulders as he thought of Craig running off into the sunset, escaping from all of this, hopefully never looking back. Maybe he would actually manage to be free this time around.

  “Where is he?” Samuel asked.

  Kidd shook his head, unable to keep the smile off his face. “Your guess is as good as mine,” Kidd said. “I thought he was still going to be here. Guess he did a runner again.”

  “Where did you tell him to hide this time?” Andrea asked, her voice laced with venom. But even Kidd could tell that her heart wasn’t in it. She was clutching at straws and, blessedly, he genuinely couldn’t help her.

  “I didn’t tell him anything,” Kidd said. “I told him that I couldn’t help him, that he shouldn’t stick around and…” He gestured around the empty room. “You know Craig better than most, Andrea, he’s not usually the best listener, but I guess he actually decided to take notice of me for once.”

  “Lucky for him,” she said, turning around to leave the flat.

  “Hold on now,” Kidd said. She stopped and turned back to him. Samuel’s eyes widened. “I’ve got a few questions myself. There are parts of this story that don’t quite add up.”

  Andrea narrowed her eyes. “What parts?”

  “Well, correct me if I’m wrong,” Kidd said, “but I’m pretty sure that you told me a couple of days ago that Craig killed those men that he stole the money from. Didn’t you?”

  “He did,” Andrea said quickly. “He’s a murderer and we want to bring him to jus—”

  “Stop talking, Andrea, you’re embarrassing yourself,” Kidd interrupted. “Samuel said ‘nearly.’” Andrea froze. “Didn’t you just say ‘nearly?’”

  “Well, I-I don’t-I-” Samuel stuttered.

  “Not quite the cold-blooded murderer you were painting him out to be,” Kidd said. “So what happened? What really happened?”

  Andrea looked to Samuel and then back at Kidd. Neither one of them seemed to want to speak. Kidd decided to press a little bit harder.

  “Craig told me that there was a news report that said they were dead,” Kidd said. “It would be a shame if I were to look into that case, wouldn’t it? I wonder what I’d find if I dug a bit deeper.”

  “They weren’t of any use to us anymore,” Samuel said. “They’d let Craig get away with thousands of pounds, they’d gotten in the way of what we were doing.”

  “So you killed them,” Kidd said. “Or had them killed. I can’t imagine for a single second that either of you would have been keen to get your hands dirty.”

  Samuel opened his mouth to respond but quickly thought better of it. “As I said, they weren’t of use to us anymore,” he replied.

  “So, apart from stealing from you, which I’m not about to condone of course,” Kidd started. “Craig hasn’t done a damn thing wrong apart from try and get his life back from you. He’s carried around that guilt for the past two years which I think is a pretty long punishment, don’t you?”

  “That money—”

  “You’ve likely already made that money back,” Kidd interrupted. “There was something else. What about Billy?”

  “Who the fuck is Billy?” Samuel spat.

  “Not sure,” Kidd replied. “But Craig seemed awfully concerned about him and his whereabouts. Any ideas?”

  “Not a clue,” Andrea sneered. “Up and left around the same time Craig did. Could be dead in a ditch for all I care.”

  Kidd snorted. “How delightful,” he said. “Thank you for all of that. You can go now, if you want. Oh, no, wait, I do have one more thing for you.”

  Andrea and Samuel froze in the doorframe, eyeballing Kidd with looks of frustration. He could see Samuel’s clenched fists, Andrea’s clenched teeth, and he had no intention of making things any better for either of them.

  “I’d suggest you call off the search for Craig now,” he said. “Your little revenge plot is over.” Kidd pulled his phone out of his pocket, the recording he had started back at the pub still running. It wasn’t much, and he didn’t know how well it would have caught all of that from inside his pocket, but it was enough to make both Andrea and Samuel’s complexions turn a little bit ghostly.

  Samuel walked out of the apartment, the driver following close behind. It was only Andrea who stayed behind, looking at Kidd with a shocked expression, like she hadn’t expected him to do something like this. It seemed like, despi
te all the time they had spent together, all of the work they had put into finding Craig, they didn’t really know each other as well as either one of them thought.

  Kidd crossed the room to her, putting his phone back in his pocket.

  “I don’t want you ever to contact me again,” Kidd growled. He was shaking, the rage in him bubbling, threatening to spill over. “And if I ever hear that you have gone near Craig, or done something to him, I will make sure that you regret it.” He kept his voice level which seemed to be enough to strike fear into Andrea.

  She nodded and walked away. Kidd took a deep breath and looked around the apartment. Maybe Craig was really gone this time and he would never see him again. Maybe it was for the best. It was only a shame he never got to tell him what Andrea had done to him. Maybe one day.

  He looked back to the doorframe, to where Andrea had been standing just a few moments ago. If he ever saw her again, it would still be too soon. This part of his life was coming to a close, and he was incredibly glad of that fact.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  DC Ravel and DC Campbell left the Earle residence with a lot of information in their pockets. While they didn’t know who it was that Michael had spoken to while he was in prison, it was clear that someone had impacted him and whoever that was, was likely to be important to this case.

  Oscar Harkey had said that Michael had always said he was innocent, but maybe being in prison had ended up causing more harm than good and broken him down to a point where maybe he’d started to believe that he had done it. At least until that mystery person had shown up.

  “Back to the station?” Campbell asked, heading towards the driver's side door.

  “First of all, you’re not driving,” Janya said.

  “Best three out of five?” Campbell suggested, balling his fist up ready for another game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

  “You lost fair and square,” Janya replied. “No way I’m letting you drive. I don’t fancy seeing my breakfast in reverse, thank you very much.”

  “Fine,” Campbell grumbled. At least, Powell always let him drive.

  Janya’s phone rang. DS Sanchez was big and bright across the front of it.

  “Hello?” Janya said.

  “Kidd has just popped out for a bit,” Zoe said. “But I’m starting to feel like we’re running out of time on this. Can you do me a massive favour?”

  “Anything,” Janya replied.

  “I want you to go and chat to Phil Jackson,” she said. “The name keeps coming up. Over and over again, everyone keeps talking about Phil bloody Jackson, and while I know that Campbell and Powell would have gotten what they could out of him, I still think we need to have a proper word.”

  “Alright then,” she said. “What do you want us to do?”

  “Pay him a visit,” Zoe said. “See if you can get him to come in for a chat and, if not, just see what you can get out of him for where he was on the night that Holly Grant was murdered. I’m not convinced that he wasn’t involved in it somehow. Not anymore.”

  “Gotcha. We’ll keep you posted,” Janya said, hanging up the phone and putting it back in her pocket. It felt like a big deal to have DS Sanchez calling her and asking her to do something. She was usually very hands-on and would either be out with one of the DCs investigating or at Kidd’s side keeping him in line. But if Kidd was off doing something else, it was Zoe’s job to step up and get things done. And she had asked Janya to help.

  She couldn’t help but beam with pride.

  “What do you look so bloody happy about?” Campbell asked, looking a little bit grumpy.

  Janya rearranged her face. She didn’t want to gloat. She would let herself have this feeling without making Owen feel bad about not being called. It might not have meant much to anyone else, but Janya really looked up to Zoe. If she was honest, she wanted to be just like her in her career.

  “You know Phil Jackson’s address?” she asked as she got in the car. Campbell quickly followed suit. He eyed her carefully from the passenger seat.

  “Yes,” he said. “Why?”

  “That was Zoe on the phone,” she started. “I think he’s come up again in interview.”

  “Yeah.”

  “She wants us to pay him another visit,” Janya said. “When you and Powel went he was in shock and the focus has been on the severed body parts. But she wants to know exactly where he was the night of Holly Grant’s murder. She wants the details. It’s finally time to get that missing statement off of him, I think.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Kidd made sure to clear up the mess that Andrea’s driver had made of John’s apartment. He would be able to come back here now that Craig was gone. There was a part of him that was excited to tell him. Even though John had been incredibly understanding about the whole situation, he knew that it was playing havoc with their relationship. Now that Craig was out of the picture entirely, they could carry on. The weight that had been lifted when Kidd had realised Craig wasn’t in the apartment wasn’t just because he was safe from his sister. He could start living his life properly.

  He made his way back to the station, immediately being collared by Zoe when he walked in the door.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” she hissed when he got to his desk. She clearly didn’t want to alert Simon to what was going on. He didn’t know how successful she was being at that. Kidd was fairly sure he saw Simon twitch.

  “I had something I needed to do.”

  “Something with Andrea?” she asked. “Kidd, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on here. I’m worried about you.”

  “There’s nothing to worry about,” Kidd replied. And he actually could say that and not be lying to her now. There really wasn’t anything to worry about anymore as far as he was concerned. Craig had disappeared once again, and Andrea was going to leave him alone. And if she didn’t…

  If she didn’t, Kidd would have to make good on his promise to make her regret it. He would have to make sure he kept that recording somewhere safe so that he didn’t lose it. He hoped he would never need it. But you could never be too careful.

  “Ben, please, I don’t want you getting into any trouble,” she said.

  “I’m not,” he said flatly. “Trust me on this okay? Everything is going to be fine.”

  Zoe looked at him carefully, sceptical. It was understandable. Kidd had priors of getting himself into all sorts of scrapes, but this time he really meant it. It felt like it was going to be okay.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what the bloody hell I’m going to do with you,” she groaned. “Who’s going to look after you if I ever get another job?” she asked. “You’re going to be out here, all on your own.”

  “Simon will take care of me, won’t you, Si?” Kidd raised his voice, bringing Powell into the conversation. His eyes widened in panic, a rabbit in headlights. Maybe he hadn’t been listening after all.

  “Won’t I what, sir?”

  Yes, definitely wasn’t listening, Kidd thought.

  “Never mind.”

  “Where is everybody else?” Kidd asked. “I thought Campbell and Janya would be back by now.”

  “I sent them off to have a word with Phil Jackson,” she said. “I didn’t know how long you were going to be.”

  Kidd nodded. “Good call, good call,” he said.

  The phone rang at Zoe’s desk. She picked it up after the first ring, barking a short “Hello?” into the receiver.

  “Fantastic,” she said. “Won’t be a minute.”

  “Who was that?” Kidd asked when she put the phone down.

  “Well, I had to do something while you were off doing whatever the bloody hell it was you were doing. I don’t want to know about it anyway,” she said quickly, winking at him. “I got in touch with Suzanne Grant.”

  “Oh?”

  “She’s here for an interview.”

  ◆◆◆

  Suzanne still seemed a little bit shaken. They had only seen her early on that day but the tensi
on she was holding in her shoulders hadn’t vanished and the tearful look in her eyes was still present. She looked like she could fall apart at any moment, and the last thing Kidd wanted to do was to prompt that.

  As they got into the interview room, she spilled a little of her tea on the table. Her hands were shaking so much it was hardly surprising.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, pulling a tissue out of her pocket and mopping it up. She seemed at a loss as to where to put the tissue, considering her pocket for a moment before deciding to ball it up in her hands and keep it there. “Just a bit nervous. It’s been…oh gosh, it’s been quite a day, hasn’t it?”

  “Quite a week,” Zoe said, offering her a warm smile. “I hope you don’t mind us wanting to have another little chat with you, Suzanne. There were just a few things that came up in our interview with Caleb that we’d like to ask you about, if that’s okay?”

  “Absolutely,” she said. Her eyes were still a little watery. “I’m so glad he could go some way to helping you. I…I didn’t know how much use he would be. He wasn’t very old when Holly was…when Holly died.” She cleared her throat. “What can I help you with?”

  “Phil Jackson,” Kidd said bluntly.

  “Phil Jackson,” Suzanne repeated, nodding a few times. Her mouth had formed a thin line. “What about Phil Jackson?”

  “When did you first hear about him?” Kidd asked.

  Suzanne raised an eyebrow at them. “What was it that Caleb told you?” she asked.

  “He told us about how Phil didn’t really come up in conversation until a couple of years ago,” Kidd said. “I just want to know when you first heard about him.”

  Suzanne hesitated. Suddenly it seemed like Kidd had struck on something interesting, something that they might be able to use.

  “Harrison brought him up around the anniversary a couple of years ago,” she said. “I think it was the fifteenth. Yes, it must have been the fifteenth because…” She looked down at the tissue in her hands. “I was emotional around the fifteenth. It was only then that I realised just how long she had been gone and…I didn’t deal with it well.”