Blood Lines

by Angela Marsons

  ‘Our children were taunted and beaten up by the other kids. Our house was bricked every other night. We had dog shit put through our letter box. Everything you could think of and more. Our lives were hell.’

  ‘He died in prison,’ Dawson said.

  No answer but no crack to the ankles.

  Dawson knew he had to keep her talking. The support team would be closing in and the place would be crawling with police. She had no hope of escape. He just had to not die in the meantime.

  ‘He should never have been there,’ she spat. ‘He was clearly ill. Mitchell Brightman painted the picture of a monster and then in her statement that girl had exaggerated everything my boy had done.’

  Stacey had briefed him in the car of what she had found, had described the girl’s injuries, and he could not believe what he was hearing but he couldn’t react. The fact that the case had relied on the victim’s statement instead of her testimony didn’t seem to affect her at all. The girl’s suicide didn’t even register. But he couldn’t let his anger show now. He had to try and keep her focussed.

  ‘And with Geraldine. She testified that Luke was fit to stand trial. You tried to kill her partner first, didn’t you? She was the person Geraldine loved most in the world but you couldn’t get to her again.’

  ‘I got her daughter instead,’ she said, triumphantly. ‘It was her child and she will never recover, just like I will never get over losing mine. Stupid bitch testified that my boy was fit to stand trial and that disgusting judge sent him away.’

  ‘But you murdered a child,’ Dawson said.

  He could tell she was moving around his body in the darkness. He heard the crack of the twigs close to his left ear.

  ‘Wasn’t a particularly nice child,’ she said, without emotion. ‘But Howard adored him. It was going to be his wife until I saw how he looked at that little boy. It was a change of plan. Nothing more.’

  Dawson listened intently. He wished he could hear activity in the distance.

  She was pacing around him in the darkness.

  The crack of leaves and branches to his left ear; two steps – crack to his right ear. Six steps – crack to his left ear.

  It occurred to him she was trying to decide what to do with him. He had to keep her attention. He knew she had a knife. He couldn’t use his hands, but maybe he could use his feet.

  ‘You met Jason Cross at Geraldine’s house, didn’t you? And you recommended him to Deanna Brightman? You had the perfect opportunity to set him up when he slept with Deanna. His clothes turned up washed and dried. You took that hair and placed it in the car.’

  He turned his foot to see how much movement he had within the confines of the ties. His foot met with no resistance. He recalled the kick out when he’d regained consciousness. It must have prevented her securing the tie wrap properly.

  She chuckled. ‘Just a distraction, officer. A bit of misdirection.’

  Dawson suddenly knew what he had to do to get out alive.

  He had to count the steps.

  ‘And what about DCI Woodward. What—?’

  ‘I was there when that bastard turned up and took my son away.’

  Crack to the left

  ‘That was an easy one,’ she said.

  Two steps.

  Crack to the right.

  ‘I enjoyed killing that child,’ she said.

  Three steps.

  He swallowed the shock and horror of her words and concentrated on the count.

  ‘She’s not dead,’ he said.

  A pause. Halfway. Level with his feet.

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  He raised his legs up so that his knees almost touched his chin.

  And kicked.

  Pain ripped through his ankles as his soles made contact with her shins, and her squeal of shock and pain covered his own as she fell backwards.

  The stars were exploding in his eyes but he knew he had to make the most of her confusion.

  He launched himself to a sitting position and brought his bound hands underneath his behind. He cried out loud as he swept his hands beneath his ankles but with his hands now in front of him he scrabbled around on the ground, feeling for any part of her.

  His hand touched a shoe. She had fallen directly backwards.

  He knew he couldn’t stand quickly enough to maintain the few seconds’ advantage he’d gained. There was only one thing he could do, but if that knife was in her hand he was fucked.

  He launched himself forward and landed right on top of her.

  She made a sound as the air was pushed from her stomach. He used his hands to turn himself sideways and throw his bulk across her body.

  ‘Get… off… me,’ she cried.

  Dawson knew that his weight not only held her in position but confined her hands. He mentally checked himself over and could feel no fresh pain sites.

  He knew he was no longer in danger from the knife.

  She spluttered beneath him.

  There was only one thing that was still confusing him and it had been their one key reason for ruling her out immediately. ‘Your phone, your alibi, it all checked out that you—’

  ‘She posted it, Dawson,’ said his boss from the darkness.

  He blinked rapidly as a torch illuminated the area like a stage spotlight.

  His boss stepped forward.

  ‘She posted it to herself so it tinged to the mast closest to Wolverhampton. She used Deanna’s lost phone to call Deanna’s new phone, and she had her own phone back the next morning when we came to question her and the family.’

  His boss took another step closer to the head of the woman on the ground.

  ‘Sometimes, it’s the simple things,’ she said, taking another step. She was now as close as she could be, except his boss didn’t stop walking.

  The toe of her boot met with the side of the woman’s head.

  ‘Oops, sorry, but that was for the children.’

  The woman cried out and then struggled to break free.

  ‘You okay there, Dawson?’ Kim asked as she bent down and offered her hand.

  ‘Yeah, what took you?’ he asked, accepting her offer of help.

  She smiled. ‘Hey, gotta give you guys a little fun now and again.’

  He cried out when his standing weight rested on his ankles. He stumbled but his boss’s arm snaked around his waist and steadied him.

  The irony of that simple gesture was not lost on him.

  He smiled and so did she.

  They stood together looking down at the spent form on the ground.

  His boss spoke first.

  ‘Okay, time to get her up.’ She paused and looked at him. ‘You up to doing the interview?’

  He felt the slow smile spread across his face at the trust she was prepared to place in him after everything he’d done.

  ‘Oh yeah, boss, I’m up to it all right.’

  CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT

  Kim pulled onto the drive at ten minutes to two in the morning.

  What her tired body wanted more than anything else was a cuddle from her furry best friend.

  Unsurprisingly, Charlie’s lights were all out. She would go and fetch Barney in the morning.

  She would have to be content with a hot shower and bed.

  She turned the lock and opened the door.

  The absence of the whooshing tail and paws on the laminate was unnerving, but there was something else. Something in her home was out of kilter, off balance.

  She sharpened her senses and listened keenly. There was no sound.

  The light from the outside street lamp and familiarity of her own home enabled her to negotiate the living room with ease.

  The kitchen was in total darkness.

  She switched on the light and stopped dead.

  Leo stood on the opposite side of the breakfast bar.

  In front of him was a terrified Gemma. A kitchen knife poised at her throat.

  The room swayed before her slightly as her brain compute
d that this was not some nightmare scenario but actual real life. She swallowed deeply as she made eye contact with the tortured young man.

  She tried to inject strength and calmness into her voice, but she didn’t dare move towards him.

  ‘Leo, put the knife down.’

  He returned her gaze and shook his head.

  ‘I can’t,’ he said.

  Kim nodded. She did not break eye contact for a second. She couldn’t offer the terrified girl any reassurance. If she looked away it would only take a second.

  ‘You can,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t understand,’ Leo said, casting his eyes down to the top of Gemma’s head.

  She waited for his gaze to lift again.

  ‘Yes, Leo, I do,’ she said, meaningfully.

  He blinked, and then she saw understanding dawn in his eyes.

  Alex had a plan. It was the same as before. Only two things had stood in the way of an appeal: Ruth and her. She had tried to have Ruth killed by two separate people. And again, she had tried to loosen Kim’s grip on sanity.

  But she’d also had a contingency plan. And that had been Gemma.

  Alex had slipped up when she’d mentioned Kim’s habit of picking up waifs and strays. What better person to infiltrate her life than someone who was so much like herself?

  ‘I promise you, Leo, I understand,’ she said, softly.

  In one swift movement he turned Gemma away from him and pushed her to the ground.

  The girl slid across the kitchen floor and landed against a kitchen cabinet.

  Kim heard a stunned whimper from the side but she didn’t look. She didn’t care. The girl had been here to kill her.

  There was now only her and Leo.

  ‘She’s never going to let me go,’ he said, brokenly.

  Kim stopped herself from moving towards him even though it was what she wanted to do.

  His pain travelled right into her heart.

  ‘Leo, I know how she’s made you feel, but I know someone who can—’

  ‘Nobody can beat her. She ruins lives as if they were nothing.’

  Kim didn’t want to talk about Alex because she knew she could not disagree. She wanted to talk about him.

  ‘But she doesn’t have to control you anymore, Leo. Now you know what she is you can arm yourself against her.’

  ‘I believed her, you know. Back at Hardwick House. I believed she could make me feel clean. I believed she could make me feel normal. I believed she would stop the nightmares and that she would take the picture of his face from my mind. But the dirt is still there. He is still there.’

  Every fibre of Kim’s being wanted to grab hold of this tortured soul and wrap protective arms around him so that nothing could ever hurt him again.

  ‘Leo, I can—’

  ‘He moves around my veins like sludge. He seeps into my organs. I thought killing him would make it stop but in a way it made it worse. It was the worst thing I could ever do, and it still wasn’t enough because I could only do it once.’

  A tear slid from his eye. ‘There’s no escape from either of them.’

  Kim wanted to take this young man in her arms and try and soothe his pain. The aching lay heavy at her throat.

  ‘Leo, please. Let me—’

  ‘We both know there’s only one way I can be free,’ he said, raising the knife out front.

  The scene before her turned into slow motion as the knife plunged into his chest.

  She leapt around the breakfast bar and fell to the ground. The knife had missed his heart but was gushing blood.

  ‘Phone an ambulance, now,’ she barked at Gemma.

  Gemma scrabbled to her feet and took out her phone.

  Kim sat on the floor and pressed a tea towel around the wound. Removing the knife could kill him instantly.

  Leo leaned against her.

  ‘Please… stop… ’ he said.

  Kim felt the emotion choking her.

  She continued trying to apply pressure. It was the only thing she could do.

  His hand rested on top of hers.

  ‘Please… Kim… no… ’

  The sound of her name on his lips ripped her heart in two. She knew what he wanted. She knew what he needed, but she didn’t know if she had the strength to do it.

  ‘It’s on its way,’ Gemma said.

  ‘Good, now get out,’ Kim cried.

  Gemma hesitated.

  ‘Get out,’ Kim screamed, and didn’t watch as the girl headed out the door.

  She looked back to Leo’s face, cradled in her lap.

  His eyes beseeched her. ‘I have… to… be… free… let… go… ’

  Kim stared into his eyes and saw the truth.

  She slowly removed the pressure from the wound.

  The tears blurred her vision but she wiped a lock of hair from his eyes.

  She saw the peace start to come as she stroked his forehead and temple.

  ‘You’re… only… one… knows… her,’ he whispered.

  Kim nodded.

  ‘Tell… something… from me?’ he asked.

  ‘Of course,’ she spluttered, as the tears fell onto his face.

  His eyes locked with hers. ‘For a moment… clean… right now… happy… ’

  She nodded. ‘I’ll tell her but, Leo, you were always clean.’

  By the time she finished the sentence she knew he was gone.

  She howled and sobbed as though her heart was being torn in two but she lay still and caressed his head.

  And that’s where she was when the paramedics finally arrived.

  CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

  Kim stepped into the prison meeting area for what she knew would be the last time.

  She had passed the young female officer in the corridor. A smile and a nod had told her all she needed to know.

  Kim took a moment to get two coffees from the machine and sat at the table she’d occupied with Alex the other day.

  As soon as the cups were placed onto the table she dug her hands back into the trouser pockets. No matter how many times she’d washed them she could still see Leo’s blood all over her hands. There had been no sleep.

  She had cried and she had cleaned and then she had cried some more. She mourned for the little boy that had suffered but his last words would stay with her for ever.

  And that was the message she had come here to give.

  She had managed to grab a moment with the warden before being shown through to the visitors’ room. Alex’s previous cellmate, Cassie, would now be released on the intended date and be with her family early the following week. Kim had recounted to Mr Edwards how Alex had harmed herself to send Leo back to prison. He had listened in bewilderment but he had listened and he had believed.

  It hadn’t taken much digging to find out that Alex’s previous cellmate to Cassie had been Gemma, who had donned a blonde wig to visit Alex under the name of Alex’s sister, Sarah Lewis. Kim guessed rightly that Sarah would never have visited Alex in prison and the solicitor, Barrington, had admitted to bringing in the letters from Kim’s mother from the P O Box.

  The fate of Tanya and Tina was yet to be decided while the prison, police and CPS wrangled over the appropriate charges and action to be taken.

  Alex had also blackmailed Natalya – Elenya’s mother. She had unearthed the fact that Natalya had another daughter who had been involved in the armed robberies but had not yet been caught. She had gained Natalya’s trust and established where her second daughter was hiding, and then she had threatened to turn her in if Elenya did not carry out her wishes.

  Natalya had been forced to consider sacrificing the daughter who was already in prison to ensure the safety of the one that was not. And so she had sent the instruction to Elenya to kill Ruth.

  Ruth herself was now out of danger but would remain in hospital for a while longer until a safe place was established. Two attempts on her life dictated she would not be returning to Eastwood Park.

  ‘Kim, I wasn’t expecting to
see you,’ Alex said, taking a seat.

  ‘Yes, I’m sure,’ Kim said, smiling. ‘But plans change, don’t they?’

  She saw Alex note the coffee cups which she then pointedly ignored.

  She tipped her head at Kim. ‘You looked a little peaky when you left the other day. Are you okay?’

  Kim smiled. ‘Yes, just a virus. But it’s almost gone now.’

  ‘Glad to hear it. So what brings you here?’

  ‘Leo is dead, Alex. He is finally free of you. You can’t hurt him anymore.’ She did not expect to see any emotion from the woman, but was rewarded with a flash of annoyance. ‘But he wanted me to give you a message. He wanted you to know that he died in my arms and he felt clean. For just a few moments he felt happy. He wanted you to know that.’

  Kim pushed down the emotion that rose in her throat at the memory.

  The news had no effect on the woman’s expression at all. Kim could imagine that her only thoughts were for herself and wondering where it had all gone wrong.

  Kim continued. ‘Your little puppet, Gemma, was all poised to carry out your contingency plan and kill me, but Leo saved my life.’

  Kim saw the confusion that entered her eyes. That eventuality had not occurred to her at any time.

  ‘But you didn’t even know him,’ Alex said.

  ‘Yes, but he knew me. He’d been watching me, Alex. And that’s what you never allow for in your plans. Emotion. Because you have none you can’t even begin to understand how they affect people’s actions.

  ‘He knew Gemma was supposed to kill me, and he couldn’t let it happen.’

  Alex said nothing. Her look was filled with hatred.

  ‘And you’ll be pleased to know that Ruth is out of danger and an enquiry has already been launched. Obviously I have offered my full assistance,’ Kim clarified.

  ‘How is your mother, Kim? Isn’t it her parole hearing today?’

  Kim laughed out loud at the woman’s desperation in trying to undermine her composure.

  ‘I really don’t see how that has anything to do with you. It’s not your business, Alex, but I would like to thank you for the gift.’ Kim smiled widely. ‘It is going to give me so much more than you planned.’

  Alex looked close to exploding.

  ‘And now that I’ve delivered the message Leo wanted me to, I’m afraid I must be going,’ Kim said. She looked hard into the eyes of the woman whose calculating brain was still trying to come up with a sum that would work.