Deadly Betrayal: A gripping crime thriller full of mystery and suspense (Detective Jane Phillips Book 4)

by OMJ Ryan

  Jones made his way back to speak to her. ‘Why do you ask that?’

  ‘Well, I’m not one for gossip,’ said the lady in hushed tones, as she glanced behind her to check if she was being overheard. ‘But as I understand it, he was one of those.’

  ‘One of what?’ asked Jones.

  ‘You know.’

  Jones shook his head. ‘I’m afraid I don’t. One of what?’

  ‘A ho-mo-sex-ual,’ said the lady, her voice barely audible now as she broke the word down into its syllables.

  Jones felt his eyes roll. ‘Oh, I see. Yes I believe he is, but no, that’s not why we’re here. You see, that’s not been a crime since 1967 so I think we’re all quite safe now,’ he said, his tone sarcastic.

  Bovalino returned from the bedroom. ‘Doesn’t look like anything’s been taken.’

  ‘Well, where the hell is she?’ said Jones.

  At that moment, Entwistle called through on Jones’s mobile. He answered it quickly. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Have you found Shaw yet?’

  ‘No. She’s not at the apartment. Why?’

  ‘I’ve just seen a report that a young woman was hit by a tram this morning in the centre of town, at St Peter’s Square.’

  A shot of adrenaline coursed through Jones’s body. ‘Tell me it’s not Shaw?’

  Bovalino raised an eyebrow and moved closer.

  ‘The woman’s not been identified but she matches her description – and the tram from Droylsden passes through that stop,’ said Entwistle.

  ‘Which hospital was she taken to?’

  ‘The MRI Accident and Emergency Department. The incident happened at about 8.30 a.m. She was treated at the scene for over an hour before they transferred her.’

  ‘Right, we’re heading there now,’ said Jones, then ended the call.

  Bovalino’s face was filled with concern. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘I’ll tell you on the way to the car,’ said Jones as he turned to face the old woman. She remained in position by the front door, her eyes wide and expectant. ‘I’m afraid we need to be going now. Are you ok to lock up?’

  The woman seemed slightly affronted, as if she too was hoping for a full debrief on Jones’s call. ‘Oh right. Well of course, yes.’

  Jones offered a fleeting smile and headed out of the flat. Bovalino was hot on his heels as they marched towards the car.

  Bovalino’s voice brimmed with tension as he caught up to Jones. ‘What the fuck’s going on? Who’s in hospital?’

  Jones continued walking at pace. ‘A woman’s been hit by a tram in St Peter’s Square this morning. Entwistle’s not one hundred percent sure, but the victim’s description matches that of Shaw.’

  ‘You’re kidding?’

  ‘I wish I bloody was,’ said Jones as they reached the car. ‘She was taken to the MRI A&E. Sounds like a bad one.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Bovalino. ‘With the lights on, I’ll get us there in no time.’

  True to his word, Bovalino snaked through traffic and made it to the MRI in just ten minutes. As they strode through the automatic doors to the A&E Department, Jones noted the time on the wall clock: 12.44 p.m. Jones quickly explained the reason for their visit to the receptionist, who immediately called one of the doctors.

  He appeared a few minutes later, a grave look across his face.

  Jones was prepared, holding his ID ready. He wasted no time. ‘We need to speak the young woman who was hit by the tram.’

  ‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible—’

  ‘Look, we won’t stay long, but we need to speak to her,’ Jones cut him off.

  ‘She died an hour ago,’ said the doctor.

  Jones felt his face contort. ‘What?’

  The doctor nodded. ‘Her injuries were extensive. There was nothing we could do. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Has she been identified?’ asked Bovalino.

  ‘Yes, we found her driving license in her purse.’ The doctor looked down at his notes. ‘Her name was Cindy Shaw.’

  Bovalino continued, ‘Was it a suicide?’

  ‘We can’t say for sure, but her injuries were consistent with jumpers that I’ve dealt with before. The pathologist will be able to tell you for certain.’

  Jones was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of guilt that smashed down over him like a wave; he pictured her breaking down in tears the previous evening as he and Bovalino interrogated her. He turned to his partner now. ‘This is my fault, Bov, I was too hard on her last night. I could see she was upset. I should have been more careful.’

  Bovalino placed his large hand firmly on Jones’s shoulder. ‘That’s bullshit. I was there, mate. You weren’t too hard at all. She was in the shit and she obviously didn’t want to face up to it. Don’t you dare blame yourself.’

  ‘If there’s nothing else, I’m afraid I must be getting back,’ said the doctor.

  ‘Yes of course, thank you,’ said Bovalino.

  Jones said nothing. He felt numb all over. ‘I need some air,’ he mumbled as he made his way back outside.

  41

  After hearing the news about Shaw’s untimely death, Phillips had agreed to meet Jones and Bovalino at her apartment. Wearing latex gloves, she worked her way slowly around the lounge room, looking for anything that might help explain her death. She’d been there for about five minutes when Bovalino walked in alone, a grim look on his face.

  ‘Where’s Jonesy?’ she asked.

  Bovalino pointed over his shoulder. ‘He’s outside, Guv, having a fag.’

  Phillips did a double take. ‘Jones is smoking again? Since when?’

  ‘Since we found out Shaw was dead. He’s taken it personally.’

  ‘Seriously? Why?’

  ‘He reckons he pushed her too hard when we were here last night, and that’s why she killed herself. I’ve told him that’s bullshit; he did everything by the book, Guv.’

  Phillips frowned. ‘I’m sure he did. And besides, who’s to say it was suicide.’

  ‘What? You think she might have been pushed?’

  ‘With everything that’s happened with this case up to now, Bov, I’m not ruling anything out. In fact, Entwistle is looking at CCTV footage at the tram stop as we speak.’

  Phillips pushed past Bovalino and headed outside, where she found Jones stubbing out his cigarette. ‘What the fuck’s this all about?’

  Jones frowned. ‘I just needed a cigarette.’

  ‘After two years without them?’

  Jones pulled the packet from his jacket pocket and reached for another smoke.

  ‘Where the hell did you get those?’

  ‘I made Bov stop at the garage on the way over here.’

  Phillips checked to see if they were alone, then stepped forwards, out of Bovalino’s earshot. Her voice was low, her tone irate. ‘Do you really think this is gonna help you get Sarah back? Feeling sorry for yourself and chain-smoking?’

  ‘Oh come on, Guv. I think that after everything I’ve been through in the last couple of weeks, I’m entitled to a little self-reflection. You said yourself that I needed some time off.’ Jones placed the cigarette between his lips.

  ‘Yeah and I meant it. If the job’s getting on top of you, then go home and get your head straight. But if you’re at work, then you’re on your game, not hanging outside potential crime scenes smoking yourself silly like a moody teenager.’

  Jones removed the unlit cigarette and stared open-mouthed at Phillips.

  ‘Bov tells me you’ve taken this case personally.’

  ‘Did he, now?’

  ‘Yes he did.’

  ‘Well, he’s a fine one to talk; he’s not exactly firing on all cylinders either,’ said Jones petulantly.

  ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’

  Jones’s shoulders sagged and he looked away. ‘Nothing. Ignore me. I’m just venting.’

  Phillips stared at Jones in silence until he turned back to face her. She could see the pain etched on his face, and s
he softened. ‘Look, I know you think you were too hard on Shaw last night and that caused her to jump in front of a tram this morning, but I know you too well to believe that. You’re the best copper I’ve ever worked with and you know where the line is. If she did jump, then her state of mind had to be incredibly fragile in the first place. People don’t do something like that after just one police interview, no matter how tough it might have been.’

  Jones closed his eyes and exhaled loudly. ‘God, what a mess.’

  Just then, Phillips’s phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket. ‘I want you to hear this,’ she said as she answered it. ‘You’re on speaker, Entwistle. I’m here with Jones. Have you found anything?’

  ‘Yes, but only from one camera at the moment, which is part of the main Council CCTV system in St Peter’s Square. I’ve requested footage of the tram stop platforms from Metrolink, but that’ll take a couple of hours to come through.’

  ‘So what can you see on the stuff you’ve got?’

  ‘The angle’s not great, but it captures her falling from the platform onto the track, just as the tram pulls into the stop.’

  ‘How does she fall?’ asked Phillips.

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘Does she fall forwards, backwards, head-first?’

  ‘Oh right, I see. Head-first with her arms out in front of her, kind of like she’s lost her balance at the edge of a pool.’

  ‘How many jumpers have you ever seen dive in front of a train like that? They always jump up and out,’ said Phillips. ‘Was there anyone behind her?’

  ‘A few people actually. It’s hard to see for sure, but there was definitely a surge of movement from one guy right behind just before she fell.’

  Phillips continued, ‘If you had to bet money on it Entwistle, would you say she jumped or she was pushed?’

  ‘Like I say, it’s hard to say for sure, but from this angle, it looks to me like she could have been pushed.’

  Jones’s posture seemed to straighten in an instant and his features softened. ‘So, maybe it wasn’t my fault?’

  ‘What wasn’t your fault?’ asked Entwistle sounding confused.

  ‘Nothing. Never mind,’ said Phillips. ‘Look, we’re going to be here for a while, so make sure you chase up the Metrolink footage and find out who was behind her when she dived off the platform. Call us the moment you find anything.’

  ‘Will do, Guv.’

  Phillips ended the call and smiled at Jones. ‘Bet you wish you hadn’t started smoking again now, don’t you?’

  Jones chortled. ‘What? Like a moody teenager, you mean?’

  ‘Yeah. Sorry about that. I—’

  ‘You were right, Guv.’ Jones cut her off. ‘I’m the one that should be sorry. I made it all about me and I wasn’t pulling my weight.’

  Phillips pulled out two pairs of latex gloves and handed one to Jones. ‘I’ve got extra large for the gorilla in there,’ she said, lightening the mood.

  Jones laughed. ‘For Bov and his banana fingers, you mean?’

  ‘Yeah,’ chuckled Phillips, then led the way back into Shaw’s apartment.

  For the next hour, the team painstakingly searched the small apartment, trying to piece together Shaw’s last hours in her home. Frustratingly, they found nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever.

  Dejected, they gathered at the edge of the lounge, where it connected with the small semi-open plan kitchen. Phillips blew her lips. ‘Does it look any different to last night?’

  ‘Tidier maybe, but not by much. I mean, it was hardly a mess or anything,’ said Jones.

  It was getting pretty warm in the small space with three bodies moving around.

  ‘I’m bloody roasting. I could do with a breather,’ said Bovalino as he stepped to one side and squeezed past Jones towards the narrow hallway. As he did, his broad shoulder caught a picture frame, causing it to fall to the floor and smash. He looked down and then back at Jones and Phillips, his expression like that of a child caught up to no good. ‘Ooops!’

  ‘What was it you said about banana fingers, Jonesy?’ joked Phillips.

  Bovalino stepped into the kitchen and grabbed the small waste bin, then bent down to pick up the broken pieces. Something stopped him in his tracks. ‘What’s this?’ he said as he stood up and inspected the back of the frame.

  ‘What have you found?’ asked Phillips.

  ‘I dunno, but it looks electrical.’

  Phillips moved to get a closer look at the small circular object that had been attached to the frame. It had a tiny piece of wire hanging out of the base. Bovalino handed it over and she squinted, holding it up to the light for a long moment as Jones moved next to her. Her voice was a whisper. ‘Maybe it’s me being paranoid,’ she whispered, ‘but is this a listening device?’

  Jones brow wrinkled. ‘As in a bug?’

  Phillips nodded as they both continued to stare at it, then took a photo of it on her phone and sent it through to Entwistle with the message:

  Any ideas what this is? An audio bug, maybe?

  Next, she turned her attention to Bovalino. ‘Pass me an evidence bag will you, Bov?’

  She placed the picture frame inside and handed the bag back to Bovalino. ‘Get that over to the Digital Surveillance Team. See if they can identify it.’ She turned to Jones. ‘In the meantime, I want a forensic team to go through this place with a fine-toothed comb.’

  ‘Jesus, Guv,’ said Jones as he pulled out his phone. ‘This case gets weirder by the minute.’

  ‘Doesn’t it?’ Phillips chewed her bottom lip as she considered what they had potentially uncovered. ‘And I have a horrible feeling it’s only gonna get worse!’

  42

  Whilst Bovalino and Jones hightailed it over to the Digital Surveillance Team on the second floor at Ashton House, Phillips stayed behind at Shaw’s apartment to wait for Andy Evans and the rest of his forensic team. After debriefing Evans outside the apartment on the events of the morning – and explaining her own paranoia regarding the potential listening device – she left him and the team to their work, with strict instructions to call her immediately if they found anything else.

  Thirty minutes later, the full team reconvened in the conference room of the Major Crimes Unit. Entwistle had connected his laptop to the big screen in readiness for the debrief.

  Phillips took a seat at the head of the large conference table, facing the projector screen. ‘How did you get on with Digital Surveillance?’ she asked looking at Jones and Bovalino.

  ‘They’re pretty sure it’s a bug of some kind,’ said Bovalino, ‘but not something commonly used in the UK,’

  ‘That would make sense,’ Entwistle said as he activated his laptop screen. ‘I had a look online and I couldn’t find the exact match to the picture you sent me, but it definitely looks like this kind of stuff being sold from Russian and Chinese sites.’

  A web page filled with devices similar to the one found in Shaw’s apartment appeared on the big screen.

  Phillips stared at the screen and her brow furrowed. ‘Why would Wong or Shing, or anyone, for that matter, want to bug Cindy Shaw’s apartment?’

  ‘She was Carpenter’s PA, so surely it had to be something in connection to her. Maybe she was working with her, trying to stop the development, somehow?’ said Jones.

  ‘Playing both sides, you mean?’ Phillips said. ‘Unless she was an amazing actress, I can’t see it. And besides, according to Don Townsend, they weren’t close at all. In fact, he said Carpenter considered Shaw to be Jennings’s hire.’

  The team fell silent for a moment as they each processed the information so far. Then Phillips’s phone rang. She answered it eagerly. ‘Evans, have you found another one?’

  ‘Yes, Ma’am, we have. In fact, we’ve found five more – one in each of the rooms – positioned in the same way as the first, behind picture frames.’

  ‘My God,’ said Phillips, drawing raised eyebrows from the team.

  ‘This place is wired for sou
nd. There isn’t a single spot in the whole apartment that doesn’t have one.’

  ‘Right. I want a full forensic sweep of the whole house; you’re looking for fingerprints, fibres, DNA, footprints, anything that might help us identify who put the devices in there.’

  ‘I thought you might say that,’ said Evans. ‘We’ve already started.’

  ‘Excellent work, Evans,’ said Phillips.

  ‘Thank you, Ma’am.’

  Phillips ended the call and briefed the team. ‘There’s bugs in every single room.’

  ‘You’re kidding?’ said Jones.

  ‘No, I’m not. Evans has found five, so that’s six including the one Bov discovered.’

  ‘That’s hardcore,’ said Entwistle.

  ‘Whoever put them in had to have had free rein of the flat in order to install them, so it had to have been when she was out for a long period of time,’ said Phillips.

  Jones nodded. ‘Like all day at work?’

  Phillips continued, ‘So whoever it was would’ve known her routine.’

  ‘Could it have been Jennings?’ asked Bovalino.

  ‘I’m not sure I see him as an espionage kind of guy, Bov, but he may well have helped whoever it was by telling them Shaw’s movements. He would have known them better than anyone.’

  Jones’s eyes narrowed. ‘The neighbour, Bov.’

  Bov recoiled. ‘You think the old lady is responsible?’

  ‘No, you daft bugger. I’m thinking what she said about Shaw being burgled recently. Could that have been when the bugs went in?’

  Phillips sat to attention. ‘Aaron Carpenter said that they had been burgled too. A few months before Carpenter was killed.’ She pulled out her phone and called Evans back.

  He answered promptly. ‘Ma’am?’

  ‘When you did the sweep of Victoria Carpenter’s house, did you ever find anything that resembled one of those listening devices?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Ma’am, remind me which one was Carpenter’s? We see so many crime scenes.’

  ‘The hanging in Withington.’

  ‘Oh, yes. No, nothing. But, now you mention it, I do remember finding sticky residue on a number of picture frames at the house. We tested it, but it was nothing more than glue and matched the kind of adhesive you’d find on picture hooks you’d stick to the wall. It went in my report, but it seemed of no consequence.’