I wasn’t sure if I imagined it, but I sensed scepticism in her voice, as if she had doubts about this part of my story. ‘I’ve asked myself that question dozens of times today,’ I said. ‘And the only thing I can conclude is that he’s setting me up.’
‘If he just wanted to set you up, he could have done that with the body in the bed last night. It still doesn’t feel right using you for the killing.’
‘None of it feels right. Maybe we can get some answers here.’
‘Well, now’s your chance,’ she answered, looking once again in the mirror, ‘because I can see two uniforms coming up from the basement flat, and it looks like they’re leaving.’
41
Matt
As soon as the police had passed us and disappeared from sight, we were out of the car. The wind had picked up. As had the rain.
‘Stay well back and out of sight,’ said Geeta as we hurried down the street. ‘I’ll knock on the door, show my old warrant card, and then you appear when she lets me in.’
‘What if she doesn’t let you in?’ I asked.
She gave me a look from under the hood of her coat. ‘I’ll get us in, don’t worry.’
I believed her. And not for the first time, her confidence unnerved me. Could I trust Geeta after what she’d done?
A slippery set of stone steps led down to the front door, and I hung back as she pulled out a warrant card and rang the doorbell.
A few seconds later, the door was opened a few inches. I heard the rattle of a chain as I leaned back out of sight.
Geeta was as smooth as I expected. ‘Hi, Laura, my name’s DCI Anand. I need to ask you a few quick questions about today.’
I immediately recognised Laura’s voice as she spoke. ‘It’s not a good time right now.’
But Geeta was insistent. ‘It’ll only take a few minutes.’
Laura muttered something inaudible under her breath, but I heard the chain being removed . . . and then Geeta was inside, with me following closely behind.
‘What the hell’s going on?’ said Laura, taking a step back as I shut the door behind me, flicking the chain back on and pulling my hood off. ‘He’s the one who killed Piers.’ She looked rapidly from me to Geeta and back to me again, clearly thinking we’d come to do her harm.
‘It’s okay, Laura,’ said Geeta, putting both hands up in a semi-passive, unthreatening stance that she’d once told me all cops use to defuse dangerous situations, as she walked further into Laura’s cosy lounge. ‘Let’s all just calm down.’
‘He killed Piers.’ Laura pointed at me accusingly. ‘I saw him. So no, I’m not going to calm down. And you’re not really the police either, are you?’
‘No, I’m not. But I’m not here to hurt you either.’
‘What happened this morning was an accident,’ I told her, taking a step forward to see if she was still wearing the chain with the drive attached. It didn’t look like she was. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt Piers,’ I continued, willing her to believe me, ‘but they have my pregnant fiancée, and they will kill her unless you give me the drive you were wearing round your neck this morning.’
She shook her head firmly. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘You know exactly what I’m talking about,’ I said, raising my voice in frustration.
Geeta gave me a look. ‘Keep your voice down.’ Then, to Laura: ‘Look, please. We just need that drive, then we’re gone.’
Laura looked like she wanted to believe Geeta, and I could tell she was wavering. ‘How do I know you won’t do to me what you did to Piers?’ She was staring straight at me as she said this, and it made me feel awful that someone could be so scared of me.
‘I’m not a killer,’ I told her, ‘I promise. It was an accident. All I wanted was that drive and my fiancée back. I’ve got until nine p.m. tonight or they’ll kill her.’
‘The people who have his fiancée are the same people who wanted Piers dead,’ said Geeta. ‘Maybe we can work together to deal with them. Otherwise you’re likely to be in danger. Do you still have the drive?’
Laura looked at us both in turn. I knew that if she’d given the drive to the police, I was doomed. But then she nodded, and I let out a sigh of relief.
‘I was going to get rid of it,’ she said, ‘but I’ve been at the police station all day. Whatever’s on it, I don’t want to be a part of it.’
‘Do you know what’s on it?’ asked Geeta.
She shook her head. ‘No. Piers only gave it to me this morning, for safe keeping. I haven’t looked. As far as I’m concerned, the less I know about it the better.’
‘Did Piers give you any idea what this was all about?’ I asked her.
‘I know he was negotiating a deal with someone. He had some information from his time as a psychiatrist that he was trying to sell. We hadn’t had much luck of late, and we were going to use the money to go away together. I knew that whatever it was wasn’t strictly legal, but I didn’t think it would get him into the sort of trouble where someone would kill him.’
‘Do you have any idea who he was trying to sell this information to?’ asked Geeta.
‘No, but I had the feeling he might be dealing with different parties, playing one off against the other. He had two meetings and I’m certain they were with different people.’
‘How do you know?’ I asked.
‘Because he took me along both times. The meetings were in public places and my job was to stay out of sight and make sure no one tried to hurt him. Both times he was collecting money. The first meeting was three days ago with a woman at a café. The one today was at Brent Cross, and it was with a man.’
‘Can you describe either of the people he was meeting?’ asked Geeta.
‘I can do better than that. My job was also to take photos if possible, and I got shots of them both. But the ones of the woman are much better, because she and Piers were sitting together in the café window for a few minutes and I was parked almost opposite.’
Geeta took a step forward. ‘Can we take a look?’
Laura produced a phone from her pocket, pressed some buttons and handed it to Geeta, who stood there staring at it. Then, without a word, she handed it to me.
The first photo − the one from today’s meeting − was of an older man in a thick coat and a flat cap. It was clearly taken from a distance and wasn’t good quality. I knew for a fact that I hadn’t seen the man before.
But the woman from the other meeting was a lot easier to recognise.
Because it was Kate.
42
Matt
‘It’s your fiancée? It’s Kate in the photo?’ Geeta looked at me incredulously. ‘Are you sure?’
I was just as shocked. I genuinely didn’t know what to make of it. ‘I know what my fiancée looks like,’ I said. ‘It’s definitely her.’ I stared back at the photo. Kate was standing up in the café window, a box file under her arm, an inscrutable expression on her face as she turned away from the man sitting at the table. And that man was Piers MacDonald, who appeared to be putting something in a briefcase on the seat next to him.
‘Can I have my phone back, please?’ asked Laura, who was staring at both of us.
Feeling sick, I handed it to Geeta, who gave it back to Laura. ‘You said that meeting was three days ago,’ I said.
‘That’s right,’ said Laura. ‘The date’s on there.’
‘Where was it taken?’
‘Gerrards Cross.’
Where Kate had gone supposedly to meet her friend. And where she’d been followed by the woman who’d ended up dead in our cottage.
I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to get out of there. ‘So,’ I said to Laura, ‘can I have the drive?’
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. ‘Piers collected some money this morning. Five thousand in cash. The police never said anything about it, which means it wasn’t there when they found his body. Which means you have it.’
‘I don’t know anything about a
ny money,’ I said, truthfully.
‘I need that money. I don’t want to hang around after what’s happened to Piers. You’re going to have to give me five grand for the drive.’
This was the last thing I needed. I thought about forcing Laura to give it to me, but I’d tried that this morning, and not only had I failed, it had made me feel sick with shame.
‘I’m sure we can come to an arrangement, Laura,’ said Geeta smoothly. She fished out her car keys and turned to me. ‘My purse is in the car, Matt. In the boot under a blanket. There’s a thousand in cash in there. Go get it and I’ll stay here.’ She turned back to Laura. ‘That’s all we’ve got and it’s our best and final offer. Enough?’
Laura nodded. ‘Okay.’
I caught the keys as Geeta threw them to me, momentarily perplexed. Why would she have a thousand pounds in cash? And why would she leave her purse in the car when she was the most security-conscious person I knew?
Then I realised. She was going to get the drive from Laura by force and didn’t want me to see it.
I felt bad, but with barely three hours to go until my deadline was up, I wasn’t going to argue.
I turned towards the door, unsure whether I even wanted to know what was on the drive. Or what I was going to say to Kate if I ever saw her again. Because it was clear she was a total stranger to me. And whatever her connection to the disgraced psychiatrist Piers MacDonald was, it wasn’t likely to be pleasant. The photos of them together didn’t give the impression of two old friends catching up. They looked more like a blackmailer and his victim. And now the blackmailer was inadvertently dead at my hand, leaving a lot of unanswered questions.
I opened the door, immediately letting in cold air, and by the time I registered there was someone standing there, the blow had struck me right on the bridge of the nose, sending me crashing backwards onto the living-room carpet.
43
Matt
The pain was excruciating and I could feel blood running down my nose and onto my upper lip. Even so, I sat up fast, blinking hard as my vision blurred and darkened then finally cleared. As I wiped my face with the back of my hand, staining it bright red, I saw the same man standing there who’d waylaid me at the cottage earlier. He was still wearing the same balaclava and holding the exact same gun, which he pointed at us as he closed the door slowly behind him.
‘All right, everyone stay calm,’ he growled. ‘I only want to talk to him. You ladies, sit down on that sofa and stay quiet, and all will be well.’
‘Please don’t point that thing at me,’ said Geeta with her customary calm, adopting the same hand gesture she’d done with Laura earlier. ‘If it goes off, you’re looking at a murder charge.’
‘I know exactly what I’m looking at,’ said the gunman. ‘But I’ll also tell you this. I’m being paid a lot of money to get answers out of this piece of pond scum as to where his fiancée is. Enough to pull the trigger if I have to.’
‘Look, this has got nothing to do with me,’ said Laura, unable to take her eyes off the gun.
‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ said the gunman. His whole bearing was composed and authoritative, as if holding three civilians at gunpoint was part of his everyday routine. Which for all I knew it was. He waved the gun at the sofa and Laura sat down uneasily.
‘And you,’ he said to Geeta, who was staring at him defiantly. I’d always liked that about her. She was strong, even in the face of real danger, and I remembered how she’d once won an award while off duty for rugby-tackling then disarming an armed robber who’d held up a convenience store. When reinforcements arrived, they’d found her sitting astride him, his confiscated knife between her teeth, holding him in a tight armlock. Which was Geeta all over. Fearless.
But this time she did as she was told, moving slowly over to the sofa under the gunman’s watchful eye, while I used the opportunity to crawl out of his line of fire and get unsteadily to my feet.
The gun moved back in my direction. ‘You. Stay exactly where you are.’
I stopped dead, swallowed. Told myself to keep calm. Perhaps I could enlist this man’s help rather than antagonise him, since it seemed clear we were both after the same thing. ‘Listen, I wasn’t lying earlier,’ I said. ‘I don’t know where Kate is. I’m desperately trying to find her. That’s why I’m here.’
‘Is that right? And have you told your friends here that you’re a failed actor, hired to supposedly spontaneously meet the woman who is now your fiancée, then pump her for information while she fell in love with you?’
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Geeta pause in a half-crouch as she sat down next to Laura, her eyes widening with surprise, then almost instantaneously narrowing in anger.
‘That’s bullshit,’ I said firmly. ‘Whoever told you that is lying. I’m in love with Kate. She’s pregnant with my baby, for Christ’s sake. The man you’re working for − Sir Hugh Roper − knows that.’
‘I haven’t heard anything about her being pregnant, except from you. And you’ve spent your career being paid to lie. So no, I don’t believe you. It’s time to start back where we left off. Wasn’t I just about to shoot you in the kneecap?’
My heart jumped as he lowered the gun to my knee. And this time I had no one with a taser to rescue me.
But something struck me. When this man had been tasered earlier, his finger had definitely squeezed down on the trigger, and yet the gun hadn’t gone off. Was it even loaded? Because it was the same gun, I was certain of that, having been on this end of it only a few hours earlier.
‘Where’s your fiancée?’ he said. ‘Just tell me. We’ll go and get her, and if she’s all right, I’ll hand you over to the police.’
‘How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t know. She’s being held hostage.’
‘I’m going to start counting to five again.’
The gun was steady in his hand as I furiously worked the odds. My guess was there was a seventy-five per cent chance it wasn’t loaded. They were good odds, but not so much if the twenty-five per cent meant death or life-changing injury. But if I did nothing, I was probably never going to walk properly again anyway, and the thought of that filled me with terror. I loved walking the forests and hills that surrounded our hotel, with the smell of a thousand different spices filling the warm, fresh air. I didn’t want to limp for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to die either, but I knew I had to do something.
Anything.
Geeta was still in her half-crouch, as if waiting for an opportunity, and the gunman could see this. ‘I told you to sit down,’ he said, turning his gaze – and more importantly, the gun – away from me for just one second.
I’m not a brave man. You know that by now. But right then I was a desperate one, and that was enough.
We were only ten feet apart, and I charged him.
The problem was, I was never going to make it. This man was a professional and he’d already turned the gun back in my direction so that I was staring straight at it just before we collided, knowing I’d made the wrong decision . . .
But the gun never went off, and with a howl of rage, fear, exhilaration and who knows what else, I hit him front-on, trying and failing to wrap my arms around him as he twisted away from me. I kept going, slamming shoulder-first into the front door and bouncing off it before landing in a heap on the floor.
The gunman had somehow stayed on his feet − but then he was a big guy − and he was already coming back round to face me, still holding onto the gun, when he was suddenly pitched forward as Geeta jumped on his back, scratching at his face and yanking up the balaclava so it covered one eye. He cried out and stumbled, kicking me either by accident or design as he tried to stay upright and fight her off, the gun waving round all over the place but still largely aimed at me. And still, thank God, it didn’t go off.
But I wasn’t hanging about. I half crawled, half scrambled across the floor and out of range, then jumped to my feet as the gunman lurched backwards, deliberately slammi
ng Geeta against the front door in an effort to dislodge her.
At the same time, I saw Laura get up from the sofa and run into the kitchen.
I knew I had to go after her, but there was no time. The gunman rammed Geeta into the door a second time and with a lurching twist freed himself from her grip, sending her sailing over a glass coffee table and into the sofa, which flew back with her momentum.
The gunman was hurt, with one eye bloodied, but he was still upright and holding the gun. But everything was happening so fast that it was too late to stop and I charged him again, certain now that the gun wasn’t loaded. This time I caught him off guard and managed to get him in a bear hug, keeping my body low. We both hit the front door together, bouncing back off, and then, just when I thought I might be winning the battle, he broke free of my arms with far too much ease and punched me in the side of the head, sending me back to the floor.
And then he was right above me and I was looking straight up at the end of the gun barrel.
‘You piece of shit. I’ll make you pay for that,’ he snarled, and this time I was certain he would pull the trigger. But then I heard Geeta howl with rage, and the next second there was a loud smash as she hit him over the head with something, and I was covered in a spray of broken glass.
This time the gunman finally did go down, toppling sideways like a felled tree, his head cracking off the wall before he finally hit the carpet and lay there groaning.
There was no time to feel any relief or satisfaction. I had to get that flash drive, and the only person who knew its location was Laura.
The whole fight had probably lasted a dozen seconds at most, but already I could hear a door slamming shut at the back of the property.
Panting with exertion, and without even acknowledging Geeta − who was holding what was left of a vase − I took off out of the living room and through the long, narrow kitchen towards the door Laura must have gone through, flinging it open and rushing out into the cold, wet air, where a short flight of stone steps led up into a patio garden.
Kill A Stranger: the twisting new thriller from the number one bestseller Page 18