Scorned

by Denver Murphy

  ‘Heard what?’ Ruby sighed irritably, her concern for the officer’s well-being evaporating.

  ‘About the attack,’ he said, withering under her intense gaze.

  ‘Of course we know,’ she responded, pushing past him and heading for the exit to the car park. ‘We’re going there now.’

  ‘Yeah, sorry. I guess you guys are really busy, what with two of them in one night.’

  ‘Come again?’ This time it was Cooper’s turn to demand an explanation.

  ‘I didn’t mean anything by it,’ the young man responded meekly, backing away and glancing in the direction of the duty desk as though seeking some kind of support. ‘I was just asked to pass on the message.’

  Ruby slipped past Cooper and grabbed the freewheeling officer. Under other circumstances she might have found the way he winced at her touch amusing. ‘What message? What are you trying to tell us?’

  ‘About the murder in the flats,’ he pleaded.

  ‘What murder?’ Ruby said, bringing her face so close to his that their noses were almost touching.

  ‘The one just discovered by the cleaner; the one done by the same gang.’

  ‘Holy shit!’ Ruby declared, piecing together what she’d just been told. ‘Give us the address!’

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Lexie was fuming. The criminal underworld might not keep to normal working hours but it was nearly 8am and all three boys were still in bed. Once she and Jordan had got back to the house and everyone relaxed, she had forced herself to go to bed in a vain effort to get some sleep. By 6am she had given up and had sat at the kitchen table drinking cup after cup of the awful instant coffee from the cupboard. It might still be too early to get out there and start shifting the stuff but at least everyone could be up and raring to go like she was.

  ‘That’s it!’ she declared, pushing back her chair and heading into the hallway. ‘Don’t you think it’s time you lazy fuckwits dragged your arses out of bed?’ she shouted as she thundered up the stairs.

  Flinging the bedroom doors open in turn, she decided that Taylor’s was probably the safest to enter first. The stench that met her made her regret it. ‘Come on, we’ve got work to do,’ she said, quickly retreating.

  Cole’s wasn’t much better but a grunt from under the covers implied she need not stay to try and rouse him. Turning around, she was startled to find Jordan stood by his own doorway. For a big guy, he could move delicately when he chose to.

  ‘You alright?’ she enquired with a quick incline of the head to suggest the question was more than conversational.

  ‘Big day ahead,’ he replied with a wink.

  ‘Exactly,’ she responded, attempting to latch on to the positives of the answer. ‘Whilst you lot have been asleep I have been looking at flights for this evening,’ she said loudly enough so everyone could hear. ‘I reckon if we’re out on the streets by 9am we should have most of the stuff shifted by lunchtime.’

  ‘Okay, okay, enough of the pep talk,’ Cole said, pushing past her in the direction of the bathroom. If Lexie hadn’t already decided that this was the last day they would be together, the sound of his urine pounding the bowl, with the odd splash indicating he had veered off onto the seat, would have been enough to convince her.

  ‘You getting up then or what?’ she demanded of Taylor before a large but surprisingly gentle hand rested on her shoulder. ‘Drake had quite a watch collection that we’re relying on you to move on quickly,’ she continued more softly, hearing the bed creak as Taylor swung his legs to the floor.

  ‘One or two of those are quite specialist pieces,’ he responded with an air of pomposity that fitted his recent streak of confidence. ‘I’m not sure my usual contacts will appreciate them all.’

  ‘Look, do whatever you think is necessary,’ she said, trying to hide her irritation. ‘Just get the best price you can so we can be out of here sharpish.’

  ‘What’s the rush?’ Cole asked, stepping out of the bathroom without washing his hands.

  Other than the fact I can’t stand the sight of you any longer? Lexie thought bitterly. ‘Last night went as well as could be expected but I think we’d be pushing our luck if we hung around any longer. Besides, it’s not as though we need to consider doing another job, what with last night’s haul.’

  ‘Just think about it, this time tonight we could be sat around some beachside bar,’ Jordan said, receiving a look of thanks from Lexie.

  ‘I want one of those lagers with the lime shoved in the top of the bottle,’ Taylor responded, pulling his jeans over the same pants he had worn to bed.

  ‘Faggot,’ Cole called from back inside his own bedroom and Lexie took the lack of an enraged response from Taylor as the unusual détente between the two boys enduring.

  ‘I’ll see you all downstairs in a couple of minutes,’ she said walking away.

  * * *

  Half an hour later, and being the last one to leave, Lexie ensured the front door was double locked. Her concern for the money from the previous jobs being stashed inside wasn’t that they might suffer a break-in of their own – as the only housemate to possess the deadbolt key, she didn’t want any of her friends deciding they would take their chances with it.

  The delay she had fabricated by stating that she needed to go and fix her hair wouldn’t see her set back because she wouldn’t need long to flog her portion of last night’s bounty. With Taylor concentrating on the watches, Cole in charge of devices and Jordan the man to deal with credit and debit cards, it left her with the jewellery. With the team having cut their teeth on petty theft over the years, she was used to visiting one of the countless pawn shops that specialised in buying gold, and had long perfected creating the right look for herself. By wearing designer labels that had seen better days, it struck the balance between appearing to once have been able to afford the items she was selling and looking sufficiently down on her luck now that she was needing to trade them all in. And if she received a quizzical look from the counter staff, some sniffing accompanied by some anxious twitches always served to hint at a reason why she might need some fast cash.

  But whilst Mrs Drake seemed to appreciate quantity as much as quality there were a couple of finer items Lexie would hold back on. Those containing precious stones would be a waste to take to one of these places and, assuming everything went smoothly with flogging the cheaper stuff, she would head to a couple of independent jewellers she had scoped out previously. Although they didn’t claim to buy as well as sell, she was sure they would be only too happy to take on some stock at a cut-down price and, with a handsome profit in their eyes, they were unlikely to ask the sorts of questions a salaried employee at one of the chain stores would.

  Besides, today it was acceptable to take a few risks as long as neither she, nor any of the boys, rang any alarm bells with their conduct. It wouldn’t matter if any of the items were eventually traced back to their original owners, they would be long gone before anything came back to bite them, and even if anyone became suspicious, with both Mr and Mrs Drake dead, it would take some time for the relatives to log the specific items with their contents insurers and for the police to complete an inventory of everything that was missing.

  As Lexie slowly trudged in the direction of town, she found it fitting that the day was bleak and cold. She hadn’t yet booked any tickets but, one way or another, she was determined to end the day somewhere warm. Whether that was alone or with Jordan she had yet to decide but the thought of Cole and Taylor sitting on the plane with little more than the clothes they were wearing caused a smile to cross her face. She wondered how long the current peace would remain between them.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  The feeling that the events of yesterday must have been some dreadful nightmare was compounded by Kate following the same routine as normal. Acceptance that she was in a state of shock saw her walk past the coffee shop on her way to the office. Even if she could trust herself to hold a normal conversation, she knew that the caffeine w
ould only make her more jittery than she already was. Once at work she could pass off anything unusual about her demeanour as relating to her supposedly sick mother, and she tried to convince herself that the hardest part was over.

  It was close to 2am by the time she had returned home. With Scott failing to even stir from his slumber she had clambered into bed to try and come to terms with what had happened. She knew that she had acted irrationally, not in getting so worked up by David’s initial inattentiveness, but in not electing to call the police the moment she saw him lying dead on the floor. That she didn’t, wasn’t so much the idea that they might not believe she had acted in self-defence, but how humiliating it would be to phone Scott from the police station. Conducting her own sordid affair was meant to be her way at getting back at him, and all it would now do would give him the ammunition to move in with Donna, and, regardless of whether the police would go along with her version of events, he would put enough spin on them to ensure their family and friends sided with him. For whilst she was the victim in all this, she knew how it could be made to look.

  After regarding David’s lifeless form for a few moments she did the only thing she thought appropriate under the circumstances. Getting a new J-cloth from the cupboard under the sink she proceeded to wipe all the objects and surfaces she had touched. She knew that their, albeit brief, love making would have left some DNA that she was unable to eradicate but the mere process of wiping away some of her time there was therapeutic.

  Not that it had left her completely calm. As she had worked her way from the kitchen back into the bedroom, she couldn’t resist finding the items David had been so keen to hide when he had first brought her to the flat. What had started off as curiosity had turned into a frantic search that, even once she found the photo frame stuffed into a cupboard, saw her continue to upend the rest of the flat to find more evidence that he was the same brand of philandering shit that Scott was, all the way through to pulling out the World’s Best Dad boxer shorts she discovered in the chest of drawers.

  Finding those and matching them to the picture of David, Sadie and their two children up a hill with camping gear somewhere, made her glad that he was dead. Sure, they would all take the news badly, but it was far better than finding out the real truth about him. Whilst he was alive, Kate had thought the only way to save Sadie was for her to know the truth; a truth made only more potent and real that it would come from the same kind of woman she was. But the act of killing David had not just saved Kate’s life but also hers. In choosing to depart the flat without calling the police, and leaving as few clues as she could about her being there, including taking his phone in case he had sent any messages in the same manner she had whilst he was otherwise occupied, she would spare Sadie the sort of pain she had been going through as a result of Scott.

  However, once lying back in her own bed Kate had realised it had been an effort in futility. She had spared Sadie nothing because a dead body could not go unanswered. As soon as it was discovered the police wouldn’t stop until they found the culprit. Whilst Kate had never been in trouble with the law before, and neither were her fingerprints nor DNA stored in a database somewhere, surely it wouldn’t take them long to piece things together.

  All she had done was to postpone the phone call she would have to make to Scott, and leave the job of convincing the authorities of her innocence that much harder. Kate accepted that the longer she left it the worse it got and the best thing to do would be to hand herself in at the nearest police station. And yet, in leaving David’s flat last night the die had been cast and she would see how this one played out.

  ‘How’s your mum doing?’ Sandra, an obsequious little mouse of a woman asked virtually as soon as the lift doors opened.

  ‘She’s on the mend but at her age…’

  ‘I know, I know,’ Sandra responded, her empathetic nods almost a bow. ‘My mother is quite elderly too and, thank God, nothing has happened to her yet but if—’

  ‘I’m really sorry but I’m so far behind with my work, what with what’s happened…’ Kate interrupted, seeing a slight flash of annoyance temporarily cross Sandra’s otherwise mild features.

  ‘Of course, of course, I’d better let you get on,’ she replied, stepping out of the way, although Kate could swear she heard her mouth bitch as she walked past.

  But Sandra was the least of Kate’s worries and, under the guise of catching up, she intended remaining glued to her computer screen, checking the news feeds.

  ‘Over here!’ Mark called from the entrance to his office, when Kate had got as far as her chair but had yet to sit down.

  With a wistful look at the blank monitor, Kate sighed. ‘I was going to catch up with you,’ she lied, crossing the floor and trying to fix a smile that suggested she was pleased to see him and yet was still hurting inside.

  ‘Come in,’ Mark said enthusiastically as she approached. ‘Firstly, I wanted to thank you for your commitment to the company during a difficult time for yourself.’

  Kate had to stifle a snort of derision; she may have largely kept to her contracted hours over the past few days but the sum total of actual work she had completed was fuck all.

  ‘And I was wondering how that tender was going?’ Mark continued.

  Kate stared incredulously at her boss. When she had told him of her mother’s accident he had feigned concern, even suggesting she take as much time off as she needed but, like all men, he couldn’t keep up the pretence of compassion for long. All that stuff about valuing her commitment to the company was bullshit; rather than view her coming into work each day as positive in itself, he still wanted to exact his pound of flesh.

  Kate opened her mouth to tell him where he could stick his fucking tender. What did she have to lose? By the end of office hours she was likely to be arrested, so it was just a matter of time until she lost her job, as well as everything else. At least if it happened now it would be on her terms and she could have the gratification of informing this sanctimonious little prick that he is just the same as all the other men in her life. She might not be able to get to Scott in the manner she had intended but, having shown David the consequences of being a misogynistic pig, she could dish out Mark some similar medicine in the form of a few home truths.

  But it wasn’t so much that no words would come out that shocked Kate, more what happened next.

  She burst into tears.

  ‘Oh, Kate, I’m so sorry. I know it was insensitive for me to ask under the circumstances, but I thought you might want to see an outcome for the dedication you have shown. Please don’t cry, nothing is as important as your wellbeing.’ Having delivered his apology and now hovering beside her, unsure whether he should offer some physical comfort, Mark took a deep breath. ‘Why don’t you wait in here whilst I go and get you a tissue and a glass of water or something?’

  Kate slumped into the chair, barely noticing that Mark had slunk away as soon as he had made the offer. If she had planned to turn on the waterworks, she would have gained some satisfaction from having manipulated him once more, but instead she felt humiliation. Despite the huge mess she was in, the one thing Kate wanted to hold on to was her dignity and, as keen to take responsibility for her outburst as Mark had been, she was sure he would be quick to tell the police when they arrived that her lack of composure was a sign of her guilt.

  ‘I’ll get on with it now,’ she said when he arrived back, taking the bundle of tissues but leaving Mark holding the plastic cup.

  ‘There’s no rush, honestly!’ he called after her and Kate could hear the relief in his voice at their awkward encounter having ended.

  Even if her colleagues hadn’t picked up the gist of their conversation; one glance at Kate’s face was enough to see them suddenly find something else that required their undivided attention. And that was fine as far as she was concerned; having narrowly avoided giving Mark both barrels, the best thing for everyone was for them to leave her alone.

  Finally sitting down at her computer a
nd waiting the eternity it seemed to take to boot up, she wondered why she hadn’t made more of the situation with Mark and used her obvious distress as an excuse to leave. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t continue to check the news feeds on her phone, as she had done all morning when coverage allowed. But going home would only add to the humiliation when the police finally identified her, and she saw no point in attempting to use the time between then and now to flee. It wasn’t just a case of not having the first clue where she would go but she knew that there was little chance of her escaping with all the surveillance and tracking at the disposal of the authorities.

  Instead she would sit and wait for the inevitable, refreshing her screen until the news came through that David’s body had been discovered. She would then decide whether to wait up there or take the lift down to meet the police at the entrance.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  ‘Don’t rush me!’ Ruby chided.

  ‘You heard what Nelson said on the phone. He needs us to report back in time for the press conference,’ Cooper said.

  Ruby didn’t offer a verbal response and merely scowled at her partner.

  ‘Look, it’s going to be hard enough for him to face the media today after what happened last night, especially since he had asked them to hold off for twenty-four hours. He’ll look doubly incompetent if he has to add to it within a matter of minutes of making it.’

  ‘It would be better for him to have no information than something that winds up being wrong,’ Ruby stated bitterly.

  ‘And what might that be?’ Cooper countered, gesturing around the interior of the flat. ‘We have a dead businessman and evidence of his place being searched for items.’

  ‘He’s stark bollock naked under that dressing gown! What, you think they followed him back, barged in here and asked him to strip before whacking him over the head? And look, his wallet’s still there on the counter!’

  ‘But where’s his phone then?’