Blood Lines

by Angela Marsons

  Unfortunately, her taste buds were not so easily fooled, and her enjoyment of food had been temporarily suspended.

  She walked from the dinner line and looked for a single seat away from the groups.

  A few heads turned her way as they had done every meal time. Some were just curious glances. She knew she was different to the people in here, and they knew it too.

  Others tried to catch her eye to offer an incline of the head towards a spare seat.

  She wasn’t interested.

  The human condition had a propensity to belong. Groups formed and people felt more comfortable being part of a collective. Individuals were drawn to like-minded people to gain from strength in numbers.

  She did not.

  It wasn’t the only reason she was different. She was superior and she knew it. Her intelligence outweighed that of all of the cliques combined.

  Of course they all wanted her to join their little friendship circles. She was an asset to any group. She could do many things for them, but they could do nothing for her.

  She had identified the people that could be of use to her. No one else mattered. They were extras in a film. Paid to represent an anonymous body as part of a crowd.

  And once she had identified the people who were useful she had taken the time to understand their weaknesses, exploit their vulnerabilities.

  Of course, being imprisoned curtailed her imagination somewhat but it simply called for a higher level of creativity, although the plan itself had started forming in her mind the moment she’d been led away from the canal side in handcuffs.

  And she had always known that the plan would include Detective Inspector Kim Stone.

  Alex had known from their very first meeting that their futures were intertwined.

  She had seen the darkness and the hate that lived inside. She had seen the rage that danced permanently behind the eyes. The impenetrable expression that welcomed no one.

  Her sharp intelligence had shone like a beacon, and Alex had relished the challenge of matching her. Beating her.

  They had played with each other, mauled and danced and eventually physically fought. And Kim may have won the first battle but the war had only just begun.

  Just as Alex understood the woman’s strengths she also knew her weaknesses, and for Kim Stone those weaknesses would never go away. Her pain was so deep-rooted in the past that it was what lay at the very core of her. It held her together.

  Her refusal to address the issues ensured they weren’t going anywhere, which suited Alex just fine. She needed that poison that lived inside her: she needed to tap into it, break the seal and let the venom free, to corrode the person that she was.

  Alex had dreamed many times of their first meeting, and Kim had not disappointed her. Alex allowed herself a genuine smile. And she never had.

  The few extra pounds agreed with her and that was the only difference. Her raven black hair was still short and untidy, framing a face that was more attractive than the owner would ever know. The woman’s refusal to enhance any feature with make-up made her all the more attractive. The strong square jaw that could have been masculine but was not. It simply added further intrigue to an intense, complicated face.

  Her manner was unchanged but for one small but vital thing: she had been guarded, which warmed Alex right through to the place her heart should have been. It meant that she knew there was something to fear, that her vulnerabilities had been exposed. Had Kim been confident of her own defences, she would not have been wearing her guard.

  For the hundredth time Alex had to wonder just how close she’d come that day on the canal bank to breaking the woman’s tenuous grip on her sanity.

  But like any scab, if you picked at it enough it would bleed.

  Alex left her delicious thoughts of Kim in the favourite part of her mind as she saw Tanya near the end of the dinner line.

  Her cronies were in the usual place, occupying an entire table to the far left. A seat had been saved in the middle for their leader.

  Alex had seated herself at the furthest point to the right surrounded by empty seats.

  As Tanya reached the end of the line she would have to choose to turn left or turn right.

  Alex looked back down at her plate. She didn’t need to watch.

  Tanya would turn right.

  Another mouthful of food, and her cellmate lowered herself onto the seat opposite.

  ‘What you doing snooping around on my sister?’ she asked, setting free the question that had burned in her brain all morning.

  Find the weakness, control the puppet, Alex thought to herself. For her plan to succeed she was relying on her knowledge of human behaviour, although, now and again, she liked to be surprised.

  What if Tanya had chosen to turn left and sit with her friends? Alex would have been forced to find another way, would have faced a challenge.

  Unfortunately and fortunately there was not one person here who presented a challenge.

  One night in Tanya’s company was not long enough to perfect any of her manipulation techniques. She had always known that. For this pawn in her game she could only use the direct threat approach.

  ‘There’s something I want your sister to do for me,’ Alex said.

  Tanya shook her head. ‘You talking to me, bitch. You leave her out of it.’

  Alex shook her head. ‘I can’t. You’re not in the right place. It has to be your sister.’

  ‘Nah, my sister ain’t doing nothing for no one, bitch. She’s keeping her head down, do her time, get out,’

  Of course she was, Alex thought. All twenty-three years of it.

  ‘She will,’ Alex said, calmly. ‘She will do exactly what I want her to do and, what’s more, the instruction will come from you.’

  Nothing like a guiding hand of encouragement from the older sister that you love and trust. An extra touch, yet vital to her plan.

  Tanya took hold of her tray and moved herself backwards.

  ‘You ain’t listening, bitch. My sister gonna stay out of trouble, get out and be with her son.’

  Alex smiled. ‘And where is your nephew supposed to be right now, Tanya? I wonder if he’s safe and sound.’

  Tanya’s eyes lit with fire as Alex’s meaning became clear.

  ‘Go, on, Tanya,’ she goaded. ‘Make the call and find out.’

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Kim noted the absence of the liveried van as they approached the house in Wombourne.

  In its place was a brand new Golf GTI. The personalised number plate of JAC 247 told her it was Jason Cross’s personal vehicle. Kim couldn’t help feeling it was a touch indulgent for such a happy family man.

  This time the front door was closed, denying them immediate access, but the faint sound of the radio was travelling from the back of the house.

  Kim headed around the side and paused to look into the kitchen window.

  As though sensing her presence he looked up from the instruction diagram he was studying. Displeasure shaped his features. He glanced at the door and moved towards it.

  Not quickly enough, Kim thought, as she stepped into the chaos that appeared unchanged from the previous day.

  ‘Good morning, Mr Cross,’ Kim said pleasantly. ‘It’s nice to see you again too.’

  He glared at her. ‘I think I made my position clear yesterday,’ he said, taking out his phone.

  ‘Feel free to call your lawyer, Mr Cross. You are incredibly defensive for a man who has done nothing wrong or has nothing to hide.

  ‘We came here yesterday for a simple discussion that could have ended there. You got quite hostile and even had the audacity to lie to us.’ She glanced to her left. ‘And Bryant here doesn’t like to have his intelligence insulted. It makes him even keener, if you know what I mean.’

  ‘I didn’t lie to you,’ he said, still holding the phone.

  ‘Yes you did,’ she said, confidently. ‘And that’s my worry.’

  ‘So what did I lie about?’ he asked, placing t
he phone on top of an unopened box.

  ‘You slept with Deanna, Mr Cross, which doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but your reason for lying does.’ She paused. ‘It makes Bryant wonder what else you’re hiding and when he starts digging… ’

  ‘Okay, it was just the once,’ he said, grudgingly.

  And score for her gut, Kim thought, now that he had finally admitted it.

  She offered no response, and he allowed the silence to stretch for just a few seconds.

  ‘I swear. It was only once,’ he said again.

  Kim still said nothing. Silence demanded speech and it wasn’t going to come from her. As if he was going to get away with that level of detail after such an admission.

  He sighed heavily. ‘It was while I was ripping out the old kitchen. There was a leak from the drain. I got covered in dirty water and sink waste. Deanna insisted I go upstairs and take off my clothes while she found something of her husband’s for me to wear.

  ‘I was getting undressed when she came in and we just stared at each other.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t even remember how it happened but there was just a moment and the next thing I knew we were… ’

  Still Kim said nothing. She wanted it all.

  ‘We both knew afterwards it had been a mistake. She didn’t want her husband to know. She told me twenty times how much she loved him. I took a shower and when I’d finished my clothes were washed and dried. I didn’t see Deanna again. She avoided me until I finished the job and then her husband sorted out the final invoice.’

  Kim wondered if he saw the seediness in what he’d just said. Mitchell Brightman had the task of paying the man that had slept with his wife.

  ‘I’m not convinced it was only once,’ Kim said, finally speaking. ‘I know that’s going to be your hair found in her car.’

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I can’t answer that. It must have been on her clothes or something but it was only the one time, I swear.’

  She gazed at him for a long minute before turning to Bryant.

  ‘Satisfied now?’

  Her colleague raised one eyebrow. ‘For now,’ he said.

  The relief on the face of Jason Cross had Kim thinking he was going to launch across and hug Bryant for saying those two words.

  ‘Okay, Mr Cross, thank you for your time, and don’t go too far in case we need to speak to you again.’

  The relief drained from his face.

  Kim headed out of the kitchen and towards the car.

  ‘You do know he’s not telling us the whole truth, don’t you?’ Bryant offered.

  ‘Of course,’ Kim spat, insulted. ‘But pushing him too hard is going to get us a solicitor who won’t let us near him until we have a DNA match.’

  ‘Jeez, this is a bit softly, softly for you after your conversation with him yesterday, guv.’

  There was nothing soft about her approach to Jason Cross. He was hiding much more than he was sharing. During their meeting yesterday she had observed his mannerisms. His tell was a neck stretch. When uncomfortable he would push his chin slightly higher every few seconds, as though trying to clear his throat.

  Admitting the truth should have cleared the head bob. If he had nothing more to hide. But it hadn’t. His chin had continued to raise every few seconds.

  No, there was nothing softly, softly about her approach

  It was more about getting all her little ducks in a row, Kim thought as her phone began to ring.

  ‘Stace?’ Kim said, answering the call.

  There was a hesitation on the other end that led all the way to her stomach.

  ‘Stace?’ she repeated.

  ‘Boss, you might wanna pop back to the station.’

  ‘Why?’ she asked, looking to Bryant. There was an element of dread in the constable’s voice that she didn’t like.

  ‘The afternoon edition of the Dudley Star has just come out. And I don’t think you’re gonna like it one little bit.’

  Kim closed her eyes as she sensed the shit storm that was building around her.

  And she had a good idea where it had started.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Alex was standing just inside the door when she heard the footsteps along the hall. She counted backwards on her fingers.

  Three, two, one.

  ‘Bitch, you better tell me where the fuck—’ Tanya stormed, as her hand grabbed Alex around the throat and pushed her backwards.

  Alex groaned as her back hit the wardrobe door. Damn it, she thought, as her eyes began to water. She’d thought they were beyond this by now.

  The anger she had seen in Tanya before paled beside the pulsating rage she could feel as the hand tightened around her throat.

  ‘Loose me or he dies,’ Alex spluttered.

  The hand loosened but did not drop.

  ‘If you hurt one fucking hair on his head, I swear I will… ’

  ‘Let me go and we can talk,’ Alex said. ‘And I’ll tell you where he is.’

  The hand unclasped her throat.

  ‘Calm down, Tanya,’ Alex instructed, rubbing her throat. ‘He will not be harmed as long as you do as I say. Now sit down and we can talk about this calmly.’

  Tanya took two steps back.

  ‘Calm down you fucking psycho. You’ve kidnapped my nephew and you want me to calm down. My aunt is going mental.’

  ‘Has she called the police?’

  ‘Of course she’s called the fuck—’

  ‘And have you told her to cancel them like I told you?’

  The woman hesitated. ‘Yes, but you’d better—’

  ‘Tanya, sit down,’ Alex instructed as she sat herself. She wasn’t going to talk to the woman while she was on her feet. Seated on the bed gave Alex some warning of any intent to strike her again.

  Tanya sat.

  ‘There is no reason for your nephew to be harmed. He will be taken care of and will be home in an hour. This is a demonstration, Tanya. I need you to understand what I can and will do.’

  ‘You’re sending him back?’

  Alex nodded. She was not in the business of kidnapping children. This was simply a lesson in power and validation that she was the one who had it.

  Alex felt the point had been proved and now it was down to business.

  ‘Who do you use to communicate with your sister?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m telling you, bitch. You hurt one hair on his head.’

  Could this woman not move on? Alex thought, wondering why she was still desperately trying to get the upper hand.

  ‘Look, Tanya. You have to understand that my intelligence ensures that I will get what I want. I have shown you that, even from in here, I can engineer the abduction of your nephew. The quicker you accept that I am in control of this situation the better for you and your nephew. He may be having a nice time today, but the next time will not be… ’

  ‘My cousin, Jenson, visits both of us,’ she said, quietly.

  Good, Alex thought. The woman was talking to her in a conspiratorial manner so the guards wouldn’t overhear.

  ‘You need to get your cousin to come and see you, and he has to take a message to your sister. It’s a name,’ Alex said.

  ‘Of what?’ Tanya asked.

  Alex allowed the smile to form on her face.

  ‘It’s the name of the person your sister is going to kill.’

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  ‘What the fuck were you thinking, Kev?’ Kim screamed at the young detective.

  Dawson had pulled up in the car park at the same time as she and Bryant, after she’d instructed Stacey to call him in. Stacey had then called her back and read the piece to her word for word.

  The article was not an appeal for witnesses, although the sentence was in there, buried amongst the attempt to link both Deanna and Maxine to a drugs deal gone bad. The piece referred to the place where Deanna’s car was found as a known ‘drug den’. The full-page spread rehashed the accurate record of Deanna’s murder printed earlier in the week with headl
ines that screamed prostitution and drug use. And who the hell was Bubba something or other?

  By the time Stacey had finished reading, Kim’s anger had reduced to red hot, but the sight of Dawson had turned her rage straight back up to boiling.

  Bryant had headed upstairs, and she had brought Dawson to the far edge of the car park.

  Her hands were on her hips as she waited for an answer.

  ‘You asked me if we should appeal for witnesses and I said no. You do remember that part, don’t you? The bit where I said no?’ she raged.

  Dawson was busy staring at the ground while chewing the inside of his lip.

  ‘Do you think either family is going to gain anything from that tripe that’s been written? The connotations attached to the names of both women will stick… ’

  ‘It was supposed to be an appeal for witnesses,’ he offered, lamely.

  ‘Oh, it’ll be that all right,’ she raged. ‘Do you have any idea what we’re going to have now?’

  He moved from one foot to the other. Kim found herself wishing there was a naughty step because Dawson would be sitting on it for the rest of the damn month.

  ‘How the hell did this happen, Kev?’

  ‘It was that kid,’ he said, miserably. ‘The one from the paper. He kept—’

  ‘Hang on, you’re really going to try and blame some kid that doesn’t know better? That is beneath you,’ she said with disgust. He had fucked up and now she expected him to own it.

  He shook his head and looked back down to his shoes. ‘No, boss, it was my fault.’

  ‘Anyway, I don’t care about him. I’m not responsible for his actions, but I am responsible for yours. Help me out here, Kev. What did you think you were doing?’

  ‘I just thought it would be a good idea to appeal for anyone that might have seen… ’

  ‘We’ll see just how good that idea was later but I’m not talking about that. We’ve disagreed many times before but you’ve always respected the decisions I’ve made.’

  His hands were burrowed deeply into his pocket as he kicked at a loose stone.

  He remained silent.

  She let out a long sigh and tried to expel the balance of her anger. It was melting into a pool of disappointment.