Driving Dead

by Stephen G Collier

  ‘I entered into an agreement with the devil. I agreed not to discuss Avril’s disappearance, ever. And he promoted me to deputy estate manager with a hefty pay rise and eventually estate manager.’

  ‘Do you regret what you did?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Randall leaned forward and switched off the DVD after closing down the interview. Philpott was escorted back to his cell.

  The cell door closed on Philpott. Randall looked through the hatch. Philpott looked diminished, dirty and repentant. It is amazing, Randall thought, how a police cell can reduce a man to his emotional component parts.

  59

  Kirsty sat down opposite Tanya with her own coffee cup, after rousing Tanya and putting her coffee in her hand. She took a few sips, but it wasn’t enough not to let her fall asleep again. Kirsty managed to get her mug out of her hand before she spilled it all over the sofa.

  ‘Why on earth have you got yourself in this state, Tanya?’ Kirsty asked herself, not expecting any answer.

  Tanya was slowly coming around. ‘You don’t know much about me, do you, really?’ she slurred.

  ‘I know enough.’

  ‘Izz been three long years, y’know.’

  ‘What has?’

  ‘Sinz the crash. Three years of mourning my husband and my boy, a depression, deep, inside, me.’ She thumped at her chest. ‘Three years of never watching Randy Junior grow up, to take his place in the world, of which I could be proud. Wish all the crap dished out to me as a kid, I want’d some revenge and youz arrested my Siiimo…’ Tanya collapsed onto the settee.

  Kirsty wondered what she was talking about. She tried to rouse her again. She couldn’t let her sleep with all that alcohol in her body.

  Kirsty went back into the kitchen to make some more coffee. While she was in the kitchen, she removed the vial from the cupboard and put it in her pocket. She wanted to know what it was and had a deepening suspicion, that it was something to do with the drugs that Tanya was investigating for her and Jake.

  She was just leaving the kitchen, when Tanya stood in the doorway, clearly not as drunk as she had been making out. ‘Come and sit down for a moment, Kirsty. I’m afraid I can’t let you leave, until I get Simone back.’

  ‘Oh, why?’

  ‘To start with, you can return my property, which you have in your pocket.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘The vial, Kirsty. Don’t treat me like a fool.’

  ‘I was looking for mugs and coffee to get you sober, but you’ve been having me on, I see. Why?’

  ‘I wanted to know how much you thought you knew?’

  ‘I didn’t know anything, until I found it. Here.’ Kirsty removed the vial from her pocket. ‘What is it, Tanya?’

  ‘A new drug the company is working on.’

  ‘The company, or just you?’

  Tanya glared at Kirsty and pushed past her into the kitchen. Opening the fridge, she poured herself another glass of the white Chardonnay she’d been drinking. It only filled the large goblet halfway.

  ‘Shit,’ she mumbled and quickly downed the glass then threw the empty bottle into the trash. It clattered and fell in amongst the other bottles.

  Kirsty could do nothing but stare at her friend. It was as if she had forgotten that she was there with her.

  Grabbing a whiskey bottle from the kitchen unit, she filled the glass with the amber liquid and took a big slug of the drink. She closed her eyes.

  She looked directly at Kirsty. ‘You know, I always knew, that once you had found out about those drugs, you’d come running to me for help. Go to your friend, you no doubt told that boyfriend copper of yours?’

  Kirsty went to reply, but Tanya swiftly walked over to her, pushing her against the kitchen unit and clapped her hand over Kirsty’s mouth.

  ‘You’re going to listen to me,’ she hissed, ‘without saying another word.’

  Kirsty nodded. Memories of Tyler’s abduction in her apartment flooding her mind. She started shaking. She tried to keep calm. She tried not to cry. Tanya stood back from Kirsty.

  ‘Don’t’ you go all weak and feeble on me, Kirsty,’ Tanya jabbed a finger towards Kirsty.

  ‘But you don’t understand,’ Kirsty said, composing herself.

  ‘I understand all I need to, you on the other hand do not, so I’m going to tell you why I would do this to people I didn’t even know,’ said Tanya.

  Kirsty kept quiet, in the hope that Jake might get there soon.

  ‘I’m being pulled in two ways. One way to do the right thing and stop at these collisions which I orchestrated and conform to my hypocratic oath. And another was still to seek revenge for everything shitty thing that has happened to me in my life. Why did I do those things? What’s possessing me? Other people don’t go around killing people, just because their family died at the hands of a drugged-up driver.’

  Kirsty said nothing.

  Tanya smiled. ‘I have, of course, questioned my intentions, but after my husband and child were killed by a lorry driver, who was also high on amphetamines on a tornado-driven highway in Indiana, I couldn’t believe it when both of my families had been destroyed by drugged up drivers. So you can certainly see my predicament.’ A cold smile. ‘The fact that I am a microbiologist helped my cause better than I could have hoped.’

  Kirsty could keep quiet no longer. ‘But…’

  ‘… Shh – be quiet, I said. It’s my turn.’

  ‘I will not be quiet!’ Kirsty said.

  Tanya slapped Kirsty. ‘You will speak when you are spoken to and not until. Children are seen and not heard.’

  ‘I’m not your child.’ Kirsty received another slap. Instinctively, Kirsty retaliated and slapped Tanya hard around the face.

  ‘How dare you,’ Tanya screamed and went to strike Kirsty again, but she moved out of the way and backed ot of the kitchen. She rubbed her face and glared hard at Tanya. Kirsty tried another tactic. ‘Tell me about your parents.’

  Tanya came towards Kirsty with a raised hand and Kirsty moved away again and the threatened assault didn’t come. Tanya pushed past Kirsty and sat down on the sofa. She seemed as if the question about her parents had subdued her a little.

  ‘We’d all driven up to Alton Towers, somewhere I’d had pestered Mum and Dad to take me for months. We went there one Friday during the holidays. I didn’t know that I’d signed their death warrant. All I wanted to do was enjoy the rides. I blame myself. Guilty as charged. As I got older, I discovered that Mother was pregnant with my brother, so not only did I feel guilt and anger about their deaths, but also for snuffing out the life of my unborn brother.’

  Kirsty looked at her watch. Tanya saw, but said nothing. Simply carried on with her story.

  ‘We had a good day. The sun shone. We had ice-cream. We played in the old castle. We went on some rides – Mum knew I shouldn’t, but I was tall for my age and managed to get away with it. We were all happy that day.’

  She stared off into the corner of the room for a moment in remembrance.

  ‘On the way home, we had a sing-song. I can’t remember what we sung, all I knew was happiness – the whole family was happy, no bad words between any of us.’

  Kirsty saw that Tanya’s eyes had begun to water. She was going to make a move to leave, but she wanted to hear the end.

  ‘When we got near to home, Dad left the motorway and drove towards Northampton. We were nearly home. We were so close to home. It happened so quickly. The sun that had shone down on us all day was to be our downfall. Never mind the fact that the female driver was pissed and drugged-up, although she claimed she never saw our car, because the sun was in her eyes.

  ‘I found this out later as well. The fact that she was doing seventy in a thirty, as her car slammed head on into the front of our car. She only had minor injuries and cleared off from th
e accident. And not once did she ever show any remorse for what she’d done, standing in the dock with a smug look that she really needed wiping from her face, with an axe.

  ‘She only got two years. One year for Dad and one year for Mum. I only realised later on, as I got older, trying to find out exactly what happened. But the simple fact was that she was driving pissed and drugged. How to screw up a kid in one easy lesson. I was never the same. I wanted my revenge, but it seems I am now more than an avenging angel.

  ‘The police knew she had a habit. They knew of her. She was on their system, but they couldn’t stop her driving. She just wouldn’t quit. The only good thing to come out of it all was that I discovered that the driver had been found dead in some abandoned houses a few years after she came out of prison, having shot herself up with heroin. Too strong for her and killed her almost instantly. That was judgement upon her.’

  There was silence in the room.

  ‘So, there you have it.’

  ‘And what about what happened in Indiana?’ Kirsty asked, thinking that the longer she could keep her occupied, the better. She was beginning to wonder where Jake was.

  ‘I don’t want to go there tonight,’ Tanya said.

  ‘In that case, Tanya, I’ll be going then.’ And Kirsty marched towards the front door but Tanya blocked her way. ‘I’ve told you you’re not going anywhere. I wouldn’t want you to end up like Simone’s boyfriend.’

  ‘Oh, and who was that – or can I guess?’ Kirsty bristled.

  ‘Your third body in that wood, I think,’ laughed Tanya.

  ‘So, what’s the problem with me leaving?’

  ‘Well, I need to know why your boyfriend has arrested Simone.’

  ‘How should I know? I’m a doctor, not a copper,’ Kirsty replied, trying to move closer to the door.

  ‘He tells you things, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Nothing to do with work, unless it’s something we’ve been working on together.’

  ‘Like this little drug problem you’ve got?’ she said, holding up the vial and shaking it in front of her.

  ‘Yes, like that.’

  ‘So, I’ll ask you again, why has he arrested Simone?’

  ‘Probably because she’s in on your illegal activity as well,’ she scolded.

  Kirsty received another slap around the face. ‘Don’t be insolent.’

  ‘You like a bit of violence, do you?’ Kirsty spat, wiping a small amount of blood from her mouth.

  Tanya went to hit her again, but was prevented by Kirsty holding up her arm stop it.

  ‘You’ve got a nasty temper,’ Kirsty said. ‘Didn’t see any of this at university, did I?’

  Tanya smiled coldly.

  Kirsty knew that it was now even more important that she tried to get away from her. She felt threatened and frightened, by the way Tanya had turned from the woman she met again a few weeks earlier to someone she no longer recognised as her friend. She had been wrong all the time. Jake had been wrong all the time. If she was the killer of those drivers, they’d given her all the evidence for her to dispose of and get away with it. No, she had to get away. Tanya and her daughter were in it together.

  It all made sense now – the reluctance to help, stalling the results of the samples they’d given her, trying to prevent a search of the premises and staff records. It all made sense. Jake had not told her he was arresting Simone, out of support for her friendship with Tanya she supposed. As far as Kirsty was concerned, there was no more friendship as of this moment. Tanya’s attitude towards her had changed. It was aggressive and angry. She had to get out of the house.

  ‘As I can’t help you, Tanya, perhaps it would be best if I leave you now.’

  ‘No!’ Tanya exclaimed. ‘You know too much,’ she growled. Tanya appeared to have a constant manic smile on her face. ‘If you put two and two together, and I think you have, you’ll know what’s occurring here.’

  ‘Tanya, this is stupid. You can’t keep me here.’

  ‘Actually, I can,’ said Tanya, taking another step forward. Kirsty could see that she had taken something out of her pocket. Realising what it was she ran back into the kitchen and tried to get out of the back door. But Tanya was closer than she thought and had grabbed at her hair. Tanya dragged her backwards and kicked Kirsty’s legs from under her and she fell to the floor, with Tanya still holding on to her hair. Pain shot through her head as Tanya knelt down by the side of her. Kirsty struggled and tried to get up, but Tanya plunged the syringe into Kirsty’s neck.

  Succumbing to the drug, Kirsty felt her eyes watering as her body went into a spasm. She couldn’t move. She thought she shouted at Tanya that Jake was on his way but couldn’t be sure. This cannot be happening again. In her mind she was crying, her eyes closed.

  The only thing she knew was that Jake was on his way.

  60

  Jake and Prentice approached the house on Eastlands. As soon as they drove into the cul-de-sac, Prentice looked at Jake. ‘I know this place,’ Prentice said.

  ‘I bet you do,’ Stevens said with a smile. He was sitting in the rear seat of the traffic car.

  ‘Have you got the keys, Clive?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I have.’ He jingled them in front of him.

  Prentice drove onto the drive of the little house. The police van pulled up behind them and four other officers got out. Jake went up to the front door and unlocked it. Pushing the door open, he looked in and saw an uncarpeted hallway and stairs on the left of the hall. Both the kitchen and lounge doors were on the right, with an under-stairs cupboard.

  Jake entered the premises with Prentice, Stevens and the other officers in tow. He told the other officers to start upstairs.

  Sparse and mismatched furniture was in the rooms. ‘It’s as if nobody really lives here,’ Prentice said.

  ‘Just used to bringing people back to experiment on them,’ commented Stevens.

  The kitchen sported all sorts of empty takeaway cartons, a kettle, toaster and a small table-top fridge. Stevens opened the fridge and gagged at the smell. ‘Milk’s off!’ he said and closed the door. But then he opened it again. Something was not right with the contents. Removing the bulging milk carton that looked as if it were going to explode at any minute, he saw a small plastic box at the back of the fridge. Removing it, he took off the lid and beckoned his colleagues over. Inside was a tray of vials full of a clear liquid.

  ‘I think we’ve found what we’re looking for,’ Jake said.

  ‘I’ll bag it up, but we need to get SOCO in here as well now.’

  Jake nodded and Stevens left to make the necessary arrangements. Jake rifled through some kitchen draws. One had some knives, forks and spoons liberally thrown in, along with some plastic accoutrements. He looked into another draw, an unpaid gas bill, electricity bill, some delivery notes, in the name of Simone Nicholls. Still, he thought, they might reveal something. He bagged them up also. As he walked from the kitchen to the lounge, one of the officers searching upstairs called to him. He went upstairs and was shown a small room with a bed and table. On the floor was a stainless steel kidney bowl with three empty syringes scattered about.

  ‘Looks as if this is where they kept PC Parker,’ the officer said to Jake.

  ‘It does, so let’s withdraw and wait for SOCO. DS Stevens is on to that, as we speak.’

  The officer nodded and they left the house to wait for scenes of crime.

  About thirty minutes later, a SOCO van turned up and Jake explained the situation and what they were looking for. He handed over the two exhibit packets to them for safe keeping and left them to it.

  In the time they had been in the house, night had fallen and the calm evening had turned into rain. Jake remembered that he had to visit Tanya’s house. It might give him some of the extra evidence he needed, he thought, so he told the other two that he needed to make a detour and
they made their way to Tanya Nicholls’s house on the opposite side of town.

  Jake saw Kirsty’s Audi TT parked next to Tanya’s Mercedes and he parked behind the Audi. He told his colleagues that he needed to check whether all was OK and to wait in the car.

  He rang the doorbell. Tanya opened the door.

  ‘Where’s Kirsty?’

  ‘Sorry. Not here.’

  ‘That’s her car there.’ He pointed to the Audi, but as he did so beckoned for his colleagues to join him. ‘Can I come in anyway?’

  ‘No!’ shouted Tanya and she shut the door in Jake’s face. He went back to the car and asked for the same van who’d helped him at Simone’s address to attend Tanya’s house.

  ‘What’s up?’ Stevens asked.

  ‘I wasn’t allowed in.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Something’s going on. Tanya answered the door in a state I’ve never seen her in before, and she failed to acknowledge that Dr Kingsfield was in the house. Kirsty’s here, I know it. That’s her car.’

  ‘When she looked out, she looked the same as the description of the woman who attacked the DI earlier.’

  ‘You think it was Dr Nicholls?’

  ‘I reckon.’

  ‘Why don’t we just break down the door and go in?’ asked Prentice.

  ‘We do have reasonable grounds,’ Stevens replied.

  ‘To save life, prevent injury,’ Jake said.

  ‘Seems reasonable,’ Stevens said, ‘if you think that Dr Kingsfield is in there and being held against her will.’

  ‘I do,’ Jake said. He got in the car and moved it back onto the road. As he did so, he saw the van approaching with its blue lights flashing. He explained the situation to the officers, as they put their protective overalls on. Jake told HQ what was happening, but before getting a response, he decided that the situation in the house could be deteriorating and had to go in anyway.

  One of the officers approached the front door with the big red door key and smashed through the door with shouts of ‘Police!’ and ‘Stay where you are!’