by Sarah Flint
‘Shit.’
‘That’s how I came up with the idea of persuading him he’d picked the wrong son. I just had to hope that it would throw him, thinking he had let the favourite escape and was about to kill the wrong one. Thank God you backed me up on it, otherwise I’ve got no doubt he would have killed Dean in front of us and there would have been nothing we could have done. The armed lot would have taken him out, but that’s what he wanted; to be killed in a blaze of glory. He wanted the recognition at last.’
‘Rather than being the forgotten son.’
‘He’s been side-lined all through his life; by his mother, by his ex-wife leaving him and taking his kids, even at work, sitting in the background. He was born here originally, but after his mother died, he moved all around the country, working in Kent and Surrey constabularies, never being picked for promotion, never really being included properly because he just comes across as a sad, bitter little man.’
‘Which he was.’
‘Except that no one had a clue how dangerous he also was and what he was capable of. So don’t blame yourself for being fooled by him. We all were.’
They fell into silence at the thought. Charlie watched as Dana was gently prised apart from her daughter’s dead body, wrapped in a blanket and taken from the pit. She was still sobbing hysterically, but at least she was alive, though Charlie could hardly begin to imagine how difficult it would be for her to come to terms with Gemma’s death. She knew how much her own mother had struggled to cope with Jamie’s.
Thank God her plan had worked and Colin had paused in confusion, just long enough for her to launch herself at him, knocking the knife from his hand and giving the surrounding officers a chance to reach him before he could pick it up again or get to his other one. It had been difficult with her legs bound together but she’d got close enough as he’d forced her to decide on how he should kill Dean. She’d been lucky, so lucky. He could have turned the knife on her just as easily.
Fortunately too the armed officers had held their fire. Hunter had obviously realized what she was doing. When she had dived at Colin, Hunter had thrown himself towards the melee and the others had followed suit. Colin was captured alive; his plans of being pumped full of police bullets foiled. The public would be horrified and repulsed at his evil, warped world, almost as much as they all were, looking at the sights in front of them now.
With Colin taken from the scene and Dana on her way to hospital they now needed to search the whole site and track down all the other pits. God knows what they would find. Hunter had suggested Charlie and Naz go to the hospital to be checked out but Charlie was having none of it. She was determined to stay and see it through.
Naz too was refusing to leave, even though she was still in shock and desperate to comfort Dean. Charlie knew exactly why she needed to stay. They all felt responsible for allowing Colin to thrive and kill under their very noses. Of course, she knew it wasn’t really their fault. He knew all the pitfalls to avoid; checking the progress of the investigation daily and using his knowledge of forensics, CCTV, phone work, to keep one step ahead the whole time.
How he must have loved the whole stalker business with Annabel that had muddied the waters and given him time to claim his last few victims. No, they had just needed luck to be on their side and in the end it had, thankfully, come from a middle-aged Eastern European lady watching Crimewatch. Who would have guessed that?
The whole team was now anxious to help, in any way they could. Bet and Paul had just arrived, with Bet immediately volunteering to look after Dean for Naz, her vast experience coming to good use to soothe the petrified boy. Paul was to co-ordinate the seizure of exhibits. Sabira had remained at Lambeth HQ but was obtaining the full story and statements from Olga. Hunter was in charge. And so it was with hope that Naz, with Charlie by her side, started to retrace her footsteps through the woods. Overhead, the clouds had disappeared, allowing the light from the moon and stars to cast what little light they could down on to the scene. Any other time the sky would have been stunning, a small, remote corner of London where the absence of neon lights allowed a glimpse of the firmament above in all its glory. Tonight, however, as each dark, brooding copse of trees revealed its secret, any possible beauty in the heavens was eclipsed by the pure evil of what had lay hidden beneath the soil.
Chapter 44
The sights Charlie saw that night would remain with her forever. Every last scrap of hope at finding any of their victims still alive was soon extinguished. Helena and Daisy’s grave was located first, shortly followed by the decomposing remains of Julie and Richard in their copse; five bodies of women and children, whose only misfortune was to have come across the wrong man at the wrong time.
By the time she arrived back at Lambeth headquarters, it was nearly noon the following day and she was exhausted; mentally and physically. More of Colin’s victims were still to be traced; Mary and Cain Townsend for a start, not to mention his own mother and brother. There could be more over the years that he had dispatched but whose disappearance he had concealed. The investigation was just beginning.
She tried to concentrate her mind on having saved Dana, Naz and Dean, but over-riding any positive thoughts were the images of those woodland graves. She would never forget them.
Other officers and colleagues were clustering around her, congratulating her on her work. They seemed overjoyed that they had at last got the killer. But they hadn’t seen what she had seen.
Making her excuses, she pushed through the group and headed towards the custody area just in time to bump into Justin Latchmere being showed through to the exit by Hunter.
‘What’s he doing here?’ she blurted out. He obviously wasn’t involved in the abductions because they had Colin now. ‘He’s not trying to get Butler off is he?’
An image of Dana and Gemma in the pit flicked back into her memory. ‘I’m sorry for your loss though.’
Justin was unusually silent, turning his head away, rather than looking her in the eye.
‘Maybe if Justin here had been more honest with us in the beginning, we would have had more time to concentrate on the real suspect, rather than trying to untangle his web of lies. Anyway. He’s just been bailed pending further enquiries. The custody officer took pity on him because of the circumstances and got him dealt with quickly.’ Hunter said, ‘I’m showing him out.’
Justin twisted back towards them. ‘No charges though.’
‘Even if you’re not eventually charged, your career is shot to pieces. You’ll never work again.’ Hunter was blunt and caught Charlie’s attention with his directness. ‘By all accounts he was the driving force behind the assault on Keith Hubbard, not that that was a bad thing. A little bird told us that when Keith was being assaulted, his bully boys named Justin here. I think you met them, Charlie? Called themselves Bear and Ratman ’cause they thought that made them sound really tough.’
She nodded.
‘Anyway the officer in the case does a bit of digging and it seems like Justin has represented them on a few occasions and got them off. Had them in his pocket, so to speak. One good deed deserves another and all that. So the officer carries on digging and then guess what he finds?’
Hunter was in his element now.
‘Only that Justin here had phoned old Bear’s mobile, several times in the few hours before they burst through Keith’s door and beat the shit out of him. So, cutting a very long story short, Justin got nicked for conspiracy to assault. Seems like he can never say the right things these days.’
He turned to Latchmere. ‘You must be losing your touch, old boy?’
Justin scowled back at Hunter.
‘I haven’t been charged.’
Hunter ignored him.
‘That’s the least of his worries, Charlie. By all accounts, the officer who’s looking after Dana now, says that she wants nothing to do with him. She blames him and his womanising for everything that has happened to them. I’m very sorry for your loss too, Mr Latchmere,,,
but can’t say I blame Dana, can you?’
Justin was waiting for him to open the door. Hunter had his hand on the handle but was looking towards Charlie. She could still hear Dana’s wail of anguish as she clung on to her daughter’s body.
‘Can’t say I do either, Mr Latchmere,’ she said eventually. ‘I bet she wishes that she’d never set eyes on you.’
*
Colin Butler had been settled into a sleep period when Charlie walked through into the custody office. Although everybody who worked at Lambeth just wanted to see him given a taste of his own medicine, he was in fact getting the reverse.
He was a criminal celebrity now; another twisted serial killer to be probed and analysed and he had to be treated as such. It made her feel physically sick, especially when she thought of what he had done. She longed to be able to tell him exactly what she thought of him; how incomprehensible his crimes were; how being a police officer made what he’d done a hundred times worse; how he was supposed to be the one fighting for justice, not dispensing his own warped reality. Everything in the custody office was recorded these days though and nothing was worth risking his possible acquittal. She knew how the system worked only too well. So did Colin.
She was checking the board to make sure all the correct procedures had been followed when the door to custody was thrown open and Keith Hubbard was launched into the custody cage. He turned round as he came through, spitting and swearing towards the officer behind him who just happened to be Bill Morley. For that, he was grabbed round the shoulders and held against the railing, his head pressed flat against the metal, his face pointing away from him.
‘Don’t you spit at me you animal,’ he murmured under his breath.
Hubbard reared up, as if to fight and then changed his mind, defeated.
‘There that’s better. Don’t start anything you can’t win.’
She watched as Bill frogmarched him over to stand in front of the custody sergeant. To his rear a whiteboard flagged the names of each person arrested and in custody and their offences. Bill turned towards her and winked.
‘Great job, Charlie. Heard all about you getting Butler in. Who’d have thought, eh? The evil bastard.’ He nodded towards the board. ‘And I’m glad you’re here now, ’cause I think you might be interested to hear what I’ve got to say.’
She had no idea why Hubbard was here this time. He still bore the marks of his assault. A dark mauve bruise extended all around both eyes, his nose was still slightly swollen and out of shape and his fingers bandaged and splinted. She could still hardly bear to look at him.
‘You’d think he’d have given up fighting by now, wouldn’t you,’ Bill said, obviously reading her mind. ‘Unless his opponent is a woman, of course. Those are the only fights he wins. Maybe if he’d kept his fists, and feet to himself in the first place, he wouldn’t have got his whole family into this. Not that he cares.’
‘If you lot had been doing your fuckin’ job properly , none of this would have happened.’
Hubbard laughed suddenly, his lip curling at the side. Nodding towards the white-board above the sergeant’s head, he took a step towards Charlie.
‘Nice to see you’ve got the right man at long last. Maybe if you’d got him in the beginning you wouldn’t have had to come hassling me and had that nasty fall, if you get what I mean.’
He leered towards her, looking her up and down as he spoke the last words.
Bill Morley was having none of it. Grabbing Hubbard by the arm, he pushed him up against the sergeant’s desk, lifting his handcuffed wrists up slightly at the rear so that Hubbard was forced up on to his toes, whimpering out in pain.
‘Sarge, I have arrested this man for GBH on DC Charlie Stafford here.’
He looked across and winked at her again. ‘Further evidence has come to light and the CPS has advised that he should be arrested and charged with her GBH. I have all the statements and paperwork to show you.’
He turned to her, this time grinning broadly. ‘I’ve been looking forward to saying that for a long time. You might want to go to the first interview room. Everything will be explained there.’
Charlie was amazed. She’d had no idea this was about to happen or what the new evidence was. Surely they’d got everything they could have got the first time. Still, the news was just the tonic she needed. Hubbard was quiet now, brooding on the details. She rubbed her fingers carefully against the scar on her head. It was still tender to the touch. As she walked towards the interview room, she turned one last time to look at the man who could so easily have killed her. She still hated every molecule of the man.
‘Looks like we did get the right man after all, doesn’t it?’ she put her finger to her lips as Hubbard went to speak. ‘Now shut it, and don’t open them again unless it’s to say “Guilty” in court.’
*
Meg was sitting in the interview room when Charlie walked in. She got up immediately and opened her arms towards her. Although, curious to know why she was there Charlie couldn’t have been more delighted. She almost fell into her mother’s arms, feeling the tiredness wash over her as she rested her head against her shoulder. They didn’t need to say anything. Perhaps it was better that way. They’d only muck it up.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked eventually, confused. Today was throwing more surprises at her than she could ever have imagined.
Meg ignored her, her face full of concern. ‘You look shattered, love.’
‘I am, Mum. It’s been a long time since I slept.’
‘It sounds like you’ve been busy. I’ve been hearing all about how my daughter saved the day.’ She hugged her close. ‘I’m very proud of you.’
‘Thanks mum, but it wasn’t just down to me. Anyway, what are you doing here?’
Meg pulled a chair up for Charlie, sitting down on the one next to it and patted the seat for her sit down. She did as she was told, smiling at the realization that she always did as her mother instructed.
‘Well?’
‘Well,’ Meg took hold of her hand. ‘You’re not the only one who has been busy. Do you remember me telling you recently I’d taken on two new boys that were special needs in a new school?’
She nodded, vaguely remembering the conversation.
‘Well it wasn’t any old school. It was Ryan Hubbard’s school. I had to do something, so I persuaded my boss to let me go on a placement. I phoned the school direct and offered my services as a child and adolescence mental health service counsellor. I said I was doing work on the mental health of young adolescents who had been traumatized by recent events. Did they have any children that might fit this category? Luckily they came back to me with two, one of whom was Ryan, as I’d hoped. They didn’t have a clue you and I were connected, otherwise I doubt they would have ever let me work with him. I know it was a bit unethical, but I couldn’t bear what that man, Keith, had done to you and how he’d got away with it.’
Meg shuffled in her seat, looking uncomfortable. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to flatten out a stubborn wave, and tilted her head to one side. Charlie suddenly realized how alike they both were.
‘You know me. I can’t just let these things go. I thought that if I worked with Ryan and befriended him I might be able to find out what really happened that night and whether Ryan had witnessed anything.’
‘But Hubbard said Ryan was in a room downstairs and didn’t see anything.’
‘Yeah, well it turns out that Ryan has managed to see an awful lot more than his dad thought he had. He’s a sweet kid really, always eager to please. Even in the short period of time that I worked with him, he got quite attached to me and I to him. I gave him lots of attention, something he apparently hadn’t had from either parent, and he responded straight away. I would read with him and was there to give him any extra support he needed. Even though it’s only been a few weeks he started to talk very openly about what’s been happening recently.
‘The other day he came in with a load of bruise
s on his arms and a cut at the side of his mouth. He wouldn’t tell me where they came from to start with. Anyway, as luck would have it, we had a visit from the local schools police officer that day. He was only doing a talk about road safety but it seemed to get Ryan on edge. I had a session with him straight afterwards and we started chatting. He said he wanted to tell the police officer something but last time he’d spoken to one, his dad had beaten him up. I asked him what he meant. He said that he had seen his dad beaten up the other night by two men who had forced their way into the house. He’d heard exactly what they had said to his dad. He even heard their names, Bear and Ratman.
‘He didn’t tell the paramedics or police at the time what they had said because Keith had told him not to, but afterwards the police had come and spoken to him again and he thought he should tell them, because his dad’s injuries looked so bad. He thought he was doing the right thing. The two attackers got arrested a few days ago, as has the main guy Ryan said they’d mentioned. Keith was asked again if he wanted to press charges but he still didn’t want to know. Of course he found out that it had been Ryan who had spilled the beans. That’s how Ryan got the bruises. Apparently Keith gave him a backhand across the face and threw him about a bit.’
‘Poor kid,’ Charlie was horrified. ‘I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that man’s fury. I thought he stooped low enough beating up women, without taking it out on kids too. So what happened then?’
‘Well… Ryan was in a right state. He was upset and angry. He told me he hated his father and didn’t want to live with him anymore and that he wished his mother had taken him away too when she disappeared with Richard. He kept punching his fist down on the table. I told him he should tell the police what his father had done to him, but he said it was no use, because his mum had tried that in the past and nothing had happened. Keith would just take it out on him even more. I tried to say that wouldn’t happen, but it’s sad really; even at his young age he’s realized that victims don’t get the help they need.