The Secrets of the Shadows (The Annie Graham series - Book 2)

by Helen Phifer

Sean smiled. ‘Great, thank you so much. I can’t stand driving around in this car much longer, I can’t wait to get my own back.’

  A part of him wanted to stop this and let her out of the car, tell her he felt ill and could they do it another time but he’d already calculated that his colleagues were busy looking for a single white male driving a black truck so they wouldn’t look twice at a couple in a silver VW Golf. The ANPR cameras wouldn’t ping this number unless they had already discovered the woman in the cafe but he didn’t think so, she hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring so hopefully no one was looking for her yet. His hands were tied. He continued driving and they began to chat about anything and everything. The conversation flowed easily as they drove out of Barrow and onto the bypass which would take them through Lindal and Ulverston. Once they were through the camera on the way out of Ulverston he could relax a little and try to concentrate on exactly what he was going to do when they got to Windermere. It was unsettling for him not to have an exact plan to work to but it was also liberating. He just hoped there wouldn’t be a welcoming committee waiting for him at the priest’s house but if there was then he would be ready to do what he must. The more he talked to Sophie the more he liked her and he would definitely regret killing her. He may even let her live if he killed the priest first. He could use her as a bargaining chip, the priest wouldn’t be able to resist, he wouldn’t let another pretty young thing die to save himself.

  Chapter 35

  The DI told everyone to meet back at the school car park, except for the four armed officers he’d left guarding the front and back of Sean’s house. Will was thinking about what Stu had said; he’d seen Sean’s truck heading down Roose Road so they needed to send officers to search that area. Will had an unsettling feeling that Sean had left town. He could have taken the coast road to Ulverston and from there anywhere. He’d already asked the control room to get someone to check the cameras to see if the truck had gone through them but that didn’t mean much because he could have gone past Askam and headed out west towards Whitehaven. He ran his fingers through his hair, Jesus this was a real mess. Although Barrow was the biggest cull de sac in England it was also probably the easiest to escape from with all the quiet country roads that led to the place and the lack of cameras. They did have community messaging, which was a bit like neighbourhood watch. He’d asked a PCSO to send out a message which would go out to hundreds of members of the public to ask them to look out for Sean’s black Mitsubishi and the registration; that had been half an hour ago.

  They were just arriving back at the school when the control room notified them that the truck had been spotted it in a car park near to Gleaston Water Mill. A huge cheer erupted from the car and all the vehicles in the convoy turned around and began heading that way. There were two ways to approach the car park. Orders were given over the radio for vehicles to come in by different routes and block the road both ways, there would no exit for Sean or his truck. As they approached the quiet road there wasn’t a sound from anyone, the friendly banter had been replaced by a blanket of silence as they awaited orders from the Task Force commander who would run this from now on. Police vans parked up forming the blockades and the armed officers jumped out of their van and took their positions, waiting for the go ahead to rush towards the truck. There was no indication that Sean was armed or had access to any firearms but they couldn’t afford to take anything for granted. Will and Dave stood behind his BMW which was parked behind the armed response car.

  ‘Is it just me or do you feel sick as well Will? I can’t believe we are doing this.’

  ‘Boss I keep thinking it’s all a dream, let’s just hope he’s already topped himself in the car and then it will all be over with no more lives lost.’

  They watched as the officers made their way towards the truck and Will felt his heart pumping with adrenaline. After what seemed like the longest walk, all of a sudden the truck was surrounded by armed officers and they gave the all clear; it was empty. The disappointment weighed heavy on Will, why was life so bloody complicated? He looked across at the cafe which was in darkness and closed up. They needed to go inside and check it out, Sean could be hiding in there. Four armed officers jogged over to check the perimeter of the building as the Task Force sergeant made his way over to where they were standing.

  ‘Right then, what do we do now?’

  ‘If he left his truck here then he knows we are onto him, so he is on foot somewhere or he’s hiding out. I don’t want to throw a damper on things but this is a huge area with so many farms and outbuildings – where the fuck do we start?’ Will said.

  Dave shook his head. ‘There is option C, he could have a car stashed or have taken someone else’s. If we can locate the owner of the café they might be able to help.’

  There was a lot of shouting from the back of the building and the other officers stormed around to see what was happening, closely followed by Will and Dave.

  ‘There’s a woman on the floor inside, she isn’t moving and is bound and gagged.’

  Two officers ran over with a battering ram to put the door through and within minutes the door was open and they were rushing in to check the building and the woman. Will watched everything from the window and felt a huge sigh of relief when the armed officer bent down to touch the woman and she flinched, trying to move away from him.

  ‘Jesus, thank Christ for that.’

  Dave peered through the window at the older, dark-haired woman on the floor. ‘You know why she’s still alive don’t you?’

  Will looked at him, ‘Not really.’

  ‘Look at her; she doesn’t fit his profile. Too old and dark brown hair.’

  Will looked at the woman who was being helped to her feet. She was crying. He was right; she wasn’t young, blonde or extremely pretty. The officer who had rescued her led her from the building and passed her to Stu who was hovering around, to wait for an ambulance to check her out; then he went back in to help secure the building.

  Will walked across the road towards the woman, who was shaking. ‘It’s okay, you’re safe now.’

  She looked at him for a minute and nodded her head.

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Susan Letts.’

  ‘Susan, can you tell me what happened? We need to find him.’

  ‘He was so nice, even when he told me he was going to tie me up and take my car he was very polite and apologetic about it.’

  ‘What kind of car do you own and what’s the registration number?’

  As she told him Stu as writing it down on the palm of his hand, then he stepped away to speak on his radio to the control room to get them to check the cameras for this car.

  ‘Did he say where he was going, anything at all that could lead us in the right direction?’

  ‘He said he had to go and pick his friend up because her car wouldn’t start.’

  Dave looked as if he was about to keel over from a heart attack. ‘He has his next victim.’

  ‘We don’t know that for definite.’

  ‘Will if he has the sense to leave his car here and take Susan’s it’s for a reason, I don’t think he’s gone shopping for new shoes.’

  Will didn’t want to think about it, they had to save this one. He turned to Stu. ‘Get back to the office and get me that list of catholic churches and flag any which are covered by Father John, it has to be one of them.’

  Stu ran back towards the car.

  Chapter 36

  Inside the presbytery all four of them gathered in the kitchen. Jake had checked all the doors and windows again making sure they were secure. It had been a while since they’d had any updates from Will and if they’d captured Sean he would have let Annie know straight away. She took out her phone to see if she had any missed calls, the screen was blank.

  ‘What do we do now Annie?’

  ‘We sit tight and wait for news from Will, there’s nothing else we can do.’

  John looked at his sister, ‘You still look worn out, w
hy don’t you go back to bed. I think I’m going to have an early night, I’m exhausted. We can leave our very capable guards down here to keep an eye on everything, plus I’m sure they are fed up of making polite conversation with us oldies.’ He winked at Annie and then walked around to where his sister was sitting and helped her up from the chair. ‘You never know, we may just wake up in the morning and find out his has all been a terrible dream.’

  She didn’t argue with him and let him lead her from the kitchen and up the stairs. He turned around and nodded at Jake and Annie who smiled back and then he disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Annie shut the door to their unofficial command centre so they could talk without being disturbed.

  ‘I don’t like it, why hasn’t anyone been in touch? They could at least keep us up to date, is there anything happening on your radio?’

  ‘Nothing but they won’t be running this on the normal channel, it will be on a special ops one.’

  She held out her hand for Jake’s radio and he passed it over to her. She pushed Will’s collar number into the keypad and waited for it to ring; she heard Will’s voice and felt her breath catch in the back of her throat and wondered if this would happen every single time. ‘Will, it’s Annie, have you caught him?’

  There was the briefest pause as Annie’s voice was relayed through the handset to him. ‘No we haven’t and he knows that we know. He has stolen a car and you’re right, we think he has his next victim.’

  Jake looked at her. Horror was etched on both of their faces.

  ‘Where is he, have you checked the churches?’ Annie asked.

  ‘We’re on that now and Task Force are off to search them but it’s a long list and we have no idea what lengths he’ll go to.’

  ‘Keep us posted Will, it’s lonely up here.’

  She ended the conversation and Jake nudged her. ‘He’s on his way here.’

  ‘I don’t think he’d be that daft, surely he knows that someone is going to be guarding John.’

  ‘Yes but I don’t think that matters. If he is killing women because of what happened to his family and he blames John, what would you do if you knew time was short? You would either run and wait for another chance or you would finish what you started no matter what. He has nothing to lose now Annie.’

  She nodded her head as the full weight of the consequences settled on her shoulders. ‘He won’t know that it’s just you and me though. We should tell Will to send Task Force up here. I don’t want to fight another killer; I might not win this time.’

  ***

  Father John tucked his sister back into her bed and knelt and prayed by her side, then he went back to his own bedroom. He didn’t turn on the light; he had no reason to be afraid of the dark now. As he walked across to draw the curtains he looked out of the window and felt his heart miss a beat, there was a light on inside the church. He knew he had turned them off when he left but he couldn’t be sure he had locked the door; his hands had been shaking so much. There was no way he would let the lovely Annie go and investigate, he had caused enough pain and suffering and she’d saved his life once already tonight. He would do the right thing, he needed to slip out. Of course he may have left the lights on but he was sure that he hadn’t and he didn’t want another woman’s blood on his hands. He left his room and listened from the top of the stairs to the muffled voices coming from the kitchen, the door was shut which was good. He needed to get down the stairs and into the lounge where he could escape for the second time tonight through those patio doors. He got to the bottom of the stairs and slowly opened the lounge door just enough so that he could squeeze through and shut it behind him. He wasn’t sure what he was going to achieve if Sean was inside the church, maybe he could talk him down. Explain that he hadn’t hurt Sophie and that she had died from a seizure, not as a result of what he’d tried to do. Maybe if he told him how he’d felt about his mum Sean would realise that all he’d ever tried to do was help, not to ruin his life.

  ***

  They finished their drinks. It was a glorious night and sitting by the lake outside one of the nicest hotels in the area it was difficult to imagine what he was going to do in the next twenty minutes. They went back to the car and Sean opened the door for her, she giggled and stepped inside. The light was fading now which was better for him. Up to now they hadn’t passed any police cars going in either direction so he wasn’t doing too badly. He had a feeling things would go to plan. Will might be the detective of the year but he wasn’t psychic and he could only guess Sean’s next moves. He wouldn’t have the resources for a full on countywide manhunt, well not for a couple more hours. One thing Sean had learned while being a police officer was that they didn’t move fast, especially when they had no idea what they were dealing with. Every decision had to be agreed by several senior officers, it could be tomorrow before they got their act together. He drove on to Windermere without incident and when Sean pulled up outside the church and parked the car Sophie looked at him.

  ‘Your car isn’t here, what are you going to do?’

  ‘Bloody hell, he’s my friend but he can be a total pain. He’s either nipped out in it or parked it somewhere else. Come on, we might as well go and wait inside the church, hopefully it will still be open, and I’ll ring him.’

  Sophie got out of the car and began walking towards the church, Sean opened the bag he’d thrown in the back seat and took a couple of plastic bags, some duct tape and a knife out of it. Stuffing them into his pocket, he jogged to catch up with her. There was no-one around and the presbytery looked as if it was all in darkness. He didn’t see the police car as Jake had parked it around the back out of sight. If the church was locked he would have to kill her in the church grounds and then go and find Father John. Sophie was one step ahead of him and already twisting the handle on the old oak door which opened and Sean smiled. She didn’t step inside on her own though and waited for him to catch up.

  ‘I hope we find a light switch, I don’t fancy sitting in here in the dark. That would be bit spooky.’

  Sean agreed with her, he didn’t want to draw attention but he couldn’t kill her in the pitch black; he needed to see what he was doing or it could get messy. They stepped inside; it was so quiet and peaceful, there was nothing to give away the battle which had gone on earlier.

  Sophie shivered. ‘It’s a bit chilly in here. I hope we don’t have to wait too long.’

  Sean took a small torch from his pocket and shone it around until he found a light switch. He walked over and pressed it, bathing the church with light. ‘That’s better; I’m not too keen on the dark.’

  He felt in his pocket for the thick plastic bag and pulled it out, she was too busy looking around to take any notice of what he was doing.

  ‘I’ve always loved churches since I was a kid, I mean I’m not into religion or anything but I just find them so peaceful.’

  Sean was close by her now, his hands behind his back clutching the plastic bag. He needed her to turn away from him so he could put it over her from behind. She stepped towards a plaque on the wall, turning to read its inscription. Sean stepped forward and pulled the bag over her head, holding it tight.

  ***

  Father John stepped inside the church to hear some muffled yelling and shuffling, then he saw the man who had been committing these heinous acts and he didn’t know what to do. The woman with him was fighting for her breath inside a plastic bag which Sean was holding over her head, John did the only thing he could do and ran towards the couple, hitting Sean from the side and knocking him off balance. He stumbled and released his grip on the girl, who managed to claw at his hands enough to make the grip on the bag release. She pulled the bag from her head, throwing it away from her and taking huge gulps of air. She began coughing and crying but didn’t stay still and began to run towards the door.

  John looked at her, ‘Go to the house, there are some police officers inside.’ John turned to face Sean who was rubbing his slightly bleeding hand onto the leg of his je
ans, trying to wipe the blood away. ‘It’s you and me now son, let the girl go.’

  Sean looked at the priest and nodded his head. ‘I’ve waited a long time for this Father John. You killed my sister and because of you my own mother didn’t even want to be with me. She killed herself and then you let them take me away. I was bundled into a car like a criminal and driven to a place where I didn’t know anyone.’

  John shook his head, ‘I was trying to help, don’t you see? I didn’t want your sister to die; I only wanted to help her. She died of a seizure; it was so sudden there wasn’t anything we could have done. As for your mother she was the only woman I ever loved and I was devastated that she took her own life. I was too afraid to tell her how I felt, maybe if I had things would have been a lot different. I’m not denying you were left broken-hearted and hurting but there wasn’t anything I could do. I’m a priest and we are not allowed to have children or I would have kept you, but it wasn’t fair to make you stay in the house where both your sister and mother died within days of each other. I was scared for you Sean, in case the shadow man came back for you and I thought that by letting them take you away I was keeping you safe.’

  ***

  Annie was passing a mug of coffee to Jake and almost threw it at him when someone began hammering on the door. Jake rose from his chair, his baton drawn, and ran towards the front door with Annie close behind. He looked through the hole and saw a dishevelled young woman screaming at him to open the door. He threw it open and she fell inside.

  ‘He tried to kill me, you have to stop him.’

  Annie dragged her inside and slammed the door shut, ‘Who tried to kill you?’

  The girl struggled to speak, but she forced herself to, ‘Sean. He’s in the church with a priest.’

  Annie looked at Jake, ‘You’re okay now, you’re safe. Stay in here and shut the door and don’t open it unless you see one of us on the other side.’

  Jake was frantically talking into his radio which he’d clipped back onto his body armour. They both began to run towards the church, barging through the door which was still ajar. They were greeted by Sean who had Father John in his arms with a plastic bag over his head. Jake ran one way and Annie the other.