THE MURDERER'S SON a gripping crime thriller full of twists

by Joy Ellis

  ‘But surely Skye said that her parents were in France somewhere, renovating a holiday cottage?’

  ‘That’s right, in the Dordogne. But earlier, when we were talking about why Daniel was so obsessed with knowing about his birth mother, she told me that she was adopted too, but she had no desire to find her own mother. As far as she was concerned, whoever gave her up did her a favour. She had a happy childhood, a good education and parents who loved her.’

  Jackman unlocked the car and threw open the door. ‘Maybe pain and all the drugs made Lisa confused. She might well have a daughter and she’s just mixed them up.’

  ‘And you believe that, do you?’ Marie fastened the seat belt.

  ‘Well, you clearly don’t.’ He turned to her and gave her a hopeless half-grin. ‘Of course I don’t believe it. I’m clutching at bloody straws, aren’t I?’ He switched on the ignition and drove towards the exit.

  Marie flipped open her phone and called Charlie. ‘Any luck?’

  There was a long silence, and Marie began to feel nervous. Then Charlie said, ‘I’m sorry, Sarge, but it’s worse than I thought.’

  ‘Is that possible?’

  ‘Oh yes. I’ve been speaking to the desk sergeant and apparently while Skye was waiting in the foyer, she had a phone call and left immediately after it. A short while later the bloke who was supposed to be giving her a lift turned up. Well upset, he was. The sergeant thinks he’s a bit keen on Skye from the way he carried on.’

  Marie gritted her teeth. ‘So as we didn’t ring her, Dunand didn’t ring her, and her boss certainly didn’t ring her, it had to be Daniel, didn’t it?’

  ‘Or maybe the prof?’ said Charlie. ‘He’s been trying to keep an eye on her while Daniel’s on the run, hasn’t he?’

  ‘Mm, he has.’ Marie thought hard. ‘Listen, Charlie, we are on our way back to the station. Go make sure that uniform know how urgent it is that we find Skye, and we’ll see you in ten.’ She closed her phone and explained to Jackman what had happened. ‘Shall I ring Guy Preston?’

  Jackman nodded. ‘I don’t think for one minute it was him, but it’s worth asking.’

  Guy answered after two rings. ‘Sorry, Marie, but no, it wasn’t me.’ He sounded agitated. ‘Oh Lord, so do we believe that she went to meet Daniel?’

  ‘It looks that way. But listen, Guy, if you should happen to hear from them, and it is possible that they’ll come to you, ring me immediately, won’t you?’

  He gave a remorseful little laugh. ‘Oh, I won’t get caught out like that again, Marie! If they turn up here, I’ll lock them in if I have to, and if either of them contact me, I’ll be on to you like a shot.’

  Marie thanked him, ended the call and stared at her phone. ‘Guy never called her. So she has to be with Daniel.’ Jackman’s face was set hard and he didn’t take his eyes from the road. ‘She trusts him. Even after everything that has happened. She believes in him and trusts that he is not the murderer.’

  ‘And you, Marie?’ he said, without turning his head. ‘What do you believe?’

  She closed her eyes for a second. ‘I never thought he was a killer, but things are escalating out of control, and now that we know about what happened to him as a child, well . . .’ She gave a small shrug. ‘You can’t afford to put your trust in someone as badly damaged as Daniel is.’ She heard again the words of the old retired detective, Peter Hodder: “Keep him close.” She shivered in the warm evening. ‘We really need to find him.’

  Jackman brought the car to a halt in the police station car park. ‘At least if Skye and Daniel are together, Skye will tell him what Ruby Kinder told us about his real mother. If anyone can convince Daniel that he’s been living under a terrible illusion, it will be Skye. There is something about that girl, and she really loves him. She’s the right person to break the news.’

  Marie wasn’t convinced. ‘As long as he believes what she’s telling him. It’s a bit like telling a little kid there’s no Father Christmas. He might think we’ve set her up and it’s all lies. We have no idea how he’ll react to such momentous news.’

  ‘True.’ Jackman removed the keys from the ignition. ‘But right now we’d do better to just concentrate on finding them. And maybe we should bring in Daniel’s friend, Mark Dunand? He and Skye were about to drive out and check some old haunts of his and Daniel’s. Maybe he knows of places we don’t.’

  Marie flung open the car door. ‘Good idea. If Max hasn’t thrown in the towel for the night, I’ll get him to go pick up Dunand.’ She hurried beside her boss as he moved quickly towards the back door of the station. ‘Have you met this Dunand guy?’

  Jackman held the door back for her. ‘No. I think Charlie saw him when they went to search Daniel’s office. Why?’

  ‘I like to put faces to names, and I like to get a feel for people. You can’t do that when you’ve never looked into their eyes.’

  ‘Then all the more reason to take a look at him.’

  Marie and Jackman entered the CID room and Charlie moved towards them. ‘I found a mobile number, Sarge. But Dunand said he’s going out to look for Skye himself.’

  ‘I hope you told him to do nothing of the bloody sort,’ spat out Jackman.

  ‘I did, guv. I said the last thing we needed was a maverick out on the streets, and that we needed him to work with us, but he more or less told me to get lost.’ Charlie looked aggrieved. ‘He was quite aggressive. He said he had a hell of a lot more chance of finding her than we did, then he switched his phone off.’

  Marie pulled a face. ‘Did he specifically say he was going to look for Skye? Not Daniel? Or both of them? Just Skye?’

  Charlie stared at her. ‘Just Skye. He never mentioned Daniel’s name once.’

  ‘But he’s Daniel’s friend,’ mused Max. ‘If he was so worried about his mate, you’d have thought he’d be eager to find him, not just Skye.’

  Jackman frowned. ‘This is worrying,’ he murmured. ‘I think we need to pull out all we know about Mark Dunand.’ He looked from Max to Charlie. ‘Go to it you two, and check carefully whether he has any connection with Saltern hospital.’

  ‘Sir?’ Marie looked pensively at her boss. ‘Dunand imports exotic foliage from abroad, in particular from Columbia.’

  There was a short silence while she waited for the penny to drop.

  Max’s eyes widened. ‘Ah, you’re thinking about Columbia’s other big export — drugs.’

  ‘It’s probably nothing,’ said Marie, ‘but it’s worth checking whether he’s been in any trouble with us in the past.’

  ‘The drugs our victims took were prescription drugs, not heroin or cocaine,’ added Jackman. ‘But drugs are drugs, and dealers don’t just stick with one product. There’s an awful lot of “on demand” dealers out there — put in your order, and as long as you’ve got the cash, they’ll get it for you.’ Jackman punched a clenched fist into the palm of his other hand. ‘The more I think about it the more I think that we need him here. You guys start digging up everything you can.’ He turned to Marie, ‘You ring the HOLMES operator and get her to feed Dunand’s name in, and I’ll get uniform to try to track him down and bring him in.’

  Marie moved swiftly to her desk and picked up the phone, as the other two detectives hurried back to their computers and began their searches.

  As she replaced the receiver, a thought occurred to her. Guy Preston had met Mark Dunand when he called in on Skye, and as he was a psychologist, maybe he had a take on the man.

  Marie picked up her phone again, then hesitated. Perhaps she should run it by Jackman first? She frowned. There was absolutely no reason to do that. Jackman would tell her to go ahead. He wasn’t her guardian. No, the reason that she didn’t want to ring Guy was simply because she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. She had phoned him several times this evening, and she was keen not to give him any encouragement.

  Her hand rested on the telephone. Sod it! The case came first. She lifted the receiver and punched in Guy’s home numb
er.

  ‘Sorry, I know its late, Guy, but we need your input on something.’ She spoke in a clipped, official tone and emphasised the “we.”

  ‘For you, anything. How can I help?’

  ‘Mark Dunand? You met him. We need your first impressions.’

  ‘Well, I only saw him briefly. If I’d known you would be asking questions about him, I’d have taken more notice.’ Guy’s voice had lost its flippancy.

  ‘It’s your job to assess people, Guy. After all the years you’ve spent analysing minds, I bet you do it automatically.’

  There was a short laugh. ‘I suppose so. Let me see . . .’ He hesitated. ‘I didn’t care for him overmuch, but that’s just a personal feeling, not a professional opinion. He seemed rather “attached” to Skye, a sentiment she clearly didn’t share. In fact I got the strong impression she wanted him gone.’ Again he paused. ‘He was pretty strung out, tense and jumpy. He has a strange habit of pulling out his fingers to make them click. It was irritating in the extreme. And he watched Skye a little too much to be just a mate of her boyfriend, if you get what I’m saying.’

  ‘I do, and it doesn’t make me feel too comfortable.’

  ‘Why do you want to know about Dunand?’ asked Guy.

  Marie wondered how much to say to Preston, but saw no reason not to tell him everything. ‘Someone made an attempt on Skye’s life tonight, only they got the wrong woman. And Mark Dunand is out there somewhere in the town, hunting for Skye.’

  ‘Good Lord! That’s terrible! And is this other poor woman dead?’

  ‘No, thank heavens, but she’s in theatre right now, and although the doctors are hoping for a good result, she may be bleeding internally.’

  ‘Then let’s hope she saw her assailant and can give you a description when she comes out of the anaesthetic,’ said Guy. ‘Are you thinking it might be Mark Dunand?’

  ‘We’re not sure about anything, but we certainly need to find him and talk to him.’

  ‘I’d offer to grab a cab and come in and assist, but I’ve had a couple of large brandies. I’m not sure I’d be too much help. Frankly, Marie, that run-in with Daniel Kinder really shook me up. I wouldn’t say this to anyone else, but when I saw him coming for me, all I could see was Terence Marcus Austin’s face. I was absolutely petrified, and I really thought I’d got on top of all that.’

  Marie visualised him touching the jagged scar on the side of his face. ‘I’m not surprised, Guy. If you’ve been in a situation where your life is threatened, and then something else threatening happens, it sets off all the old fears.’

  ‘Thank God someone understands.’ Guy hesitated for quite a long while, and Marie sensed that he was about to tell her something else. A wave of compassion swept over her. She knew she needed to keep him at arm’s length, but she still felt for him. The man spent his whole life trying to help messed-up people. Sometimes he must need someone to listen to him once in a while. ‘What’s wrong, Guy?’ she asked gently.

  ‘Oh, it’s nothing to do with the past. I’ve been thinking about my conversation with Daniel. You asked me if I might have mentioned something that caused him to suddenly run off like that. I said no, but now I’m not quite so sure.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘The thing is . . . I discovered that he has a morbid fascination with blood.’

  ‘Daniel?’ Marie’s voice rose. ‘Oh God! Surely you don’t mean that horrible fetish that Françoise Thayer had?’

  ‘No, not exactly like that, but he said that he dreams about feeling blood on his hands, and sometimes he’s almost drowning in it.’ Guy sounded uncomfortable. ‘I just hope that in some way, and completely unintentionally, I didn’t reinforce his belief that he is a murderer’s son.’

  Marie felt her skin turn cold. ‘Is there a chance that you did?’

  ‘I never said as much, but I admit that I was making comparisons in my mind.’

  ‘But he’s not a mind reader, Guy. Did you actually say anything to reinforce his stupid theory?’

  His silence was response enough, but then he said, ‘I don’t know. As I said, not in actual words, but my body language, or maybe what I didn’t say could have led him to another of his wild conclusions. So I guess the answer to your question is, I might have done.’

  Marie hung up and hurried to Jackman’s office to relay everything that Preston had said. ‘What worries me is the fact that if Daniel is not with Skye he won’t know what his mother has told us.’

  Jackman bit on his thumbnail. ‘Which means that he still believes he’s a killer’s offspring, and he could be under the impression that his psychologist agrees with him!’ He let out a low groan. ‘Call Preston in. We need to know exactly what he did or didn’t say.’ Jackman grimaced. ‘Damn! I forgot. He hasn’t got a car, has he?’

  ‘And he’s had a few drinks, guv. Daniel attacking him, albeit only a hearty shove, brought back bad memories of the time he was injured.’

  ‘As long as he’s not totally rat-arsed, get someone to pick him up. I want to know what he thinks Daniel’s state of mind was when he stole his car.’ He looked at Marie sombrely. ‘I’m afraid there’s a damned good chance that it was Daniel who attacked Lisa Hurley. I’ve just been told that there was a key left in the back door, and Daniel has a key to Skye’s place.’

  ‘Oh shit!’

  ‘Precisely. Come to think of it, it would be quicker if you and I called in on Guy Preston. Give him a ring and tell him to expect us. There’s nothing else we can do until the officers on the streets locate our missing trio. And,’ he pulled a face, ‘so far that doesn’t look too promising. I’ve just had an update from Inspector Jim Gilbert. They’ve checked and rechecked Daniel’s home and all the neighbouring properties and outbuildings, plus in Mark Dunand’s absence, they got hold of his chief packer, a woman called Carla, and unlocked Daniel’s office at Emerald Exotics. They are running out of places to search.’

  Marie nodded, and flipped open her mobile.

  ‘Right, let’s go grill the shrink. I’ll get my jacket.’

  As she walked back to the CID room, Max hurried past her and knocked on Jackman’s door. ‘Lisa Hurley is out of theatre,’ Max called over his shoulder. ‘The crew at the hospital want the boss to be there when the doctors bring her round.’

  ‘Too right.’ She turned back and re-entered the office.

  ‘I’ll go to the hospital. Marie, you go see Guy. We’ll meet back here in an hour.’ Jackman’s face clouded over, and when Max was out of earshot, he added, ‘Are you okay doing that? I don’t want to put you in a difficult situation with your old “friend.”

  ‘I can handle him, guv. What’s important right now is the investigation.’

  ‘Okay. One hour.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Marie arrived in the parking area outside the doctor’s residence in less than five minutes. As she lifted off her helmet, she looked at her surroundings. The only word she could think of at that moment was “posh.” The gardens were clearly tended by professional gardeners and not the residents, and she was certain there would be no peeling paintwork or rusty railings in Hanson Park.

  Preston’s voice sounded thick and slightly slow when he answered her ring. ‘Ground floor. It’s the garden flat towards the back of the property.’ Marie wondered whether he had been sleeping or had hit the brandy bottle again.

  It was evident that the present occupier wasn’t intending to stay in the luxury apartment. Through an open bedroom door, Marie saw suitcases, sports bags, boxes and cartons piled in a heap.

  ‘Through here. The main room is relatively tidy.’ Guy opened a door to a large airy open plan lounge diner.

  The room was tidy, although Marie thought “bare” was more apt. The kitchen looked almost untouched. Guy was clearly not into home-cooked gourmet meals.

  He looked at her apologetically. ‘Bit basic, I know, but there seemed little point in unpacking too much when I’ll be moving out in a few weeks.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘I th
ought DI Jackman was coming with you.’

  ‘Our injured woman has made it out of surgery and he wanted to be there when she wakes up.’

  ‘Of course, of course,’ Guy nodded, and, glass in hand, turned towards the kitchen. ‘Want a drink?’

  ‘No thanks. My bike cost well over nine grand. I want to keep my licence so I can carry on riding it.’

  ‘Point taken. How about a coffee?’

  ‘That would be great. It’s been so busy that I can’t remember the last drink we had. I’m spitting feathers.’

  ‘Black with one, isn’t it?’

  That was exactly right, but it irritated Marie that he had remembered correctly after so long. ‘Oh, I’ve upped the sugar intake since then. Make it two, please.’

  While Guy prepared the drinks, Marie looked around and wondered what this particular “place to pitch up in” was costing him. Still, she had to admit that it was very nice. The lounge, furnished only with two large leather recliners and a matching sofa, extended into a spacious conservatory, and then out to an immaculate patio garden. It was so quiet that it was hard to believe you were in a block of apartments.

  Along the full length of one wall were stacked plastic boxes containing books. Marie looked at the titles and saw that they were all academic or reference books, mainly relating to forensic psychology or murder. ‘I’d worry if I didn’t know you better,’ said Marie, picking up a thick tome entitled, In the Mind of the Predator. ‘Not a single Mills and Boon.’

  ‘I haven’t got round to unpacking those yet.’ Guy grinned as he handed her a mug of coffee. ‘But from your last call, I don’t think you’re here to start a book club. Come and sit down.’

  He motioned her to one of the armchairs, while he took the other.

  ‘We need to know exactly what kind of mood Daniel Kinder was in just before he nicked your car and left you on your back in the mud.’ Marie gave up trying to keep it light. ‘The thing is, Guy, we have no idea where Skye Wynyard is, and we are very concerned for her safety.’

  ‘From Daniel? Or from this Dunand chap?’