Beckett unlocked the door to Knox’s bedroom. ‘It’s basic but you have all you need.’
Knox walked inside and took everything in.
‘Well,’ Janet said, taking a step back as Knox turned to look at her, ‘I’m sure you’d like some time to settle in. We’ll leave you alone for a while.’
All eyes were now on Knox.
He dumped his bag down on the bed that was to be his own for the foreseeable future and unzipped his jacket.
He gave Janet a look.
It made her blood run cold.
CHAPTER 3
Janet had driven two streets away from the hostel and was now parked at the side of the road. She stared at her reflection in the rear-view mirror.
Dark circles were heavy under her blue eyes and her fair Irish skin looked patchy and dry. She felt her body jolt as the reality of the situation hit her full force in the gut.
She felt herself dry-heave.
Her hand flew up to cover her mouth but nothing came out except a low groan of pain from deep within.
When the feeling of sickness had subsided a little she took another look at her reflection. Her hands started to shake.
Then she broke down, consumed by uncontrollable sobs.
She let her face fall into her hands as tears flowed freely down her cheeks, between her fingers, drops falling onto her skirt.
She hit out her fist at the steering wheel, slamming it several times as tears poured down her face.
Then the passenger side door flew open.
Janet shot around, about to scream at whomever had just sat in the seat beside her, when she saw familiar eyes staring back at her.
‘This has hurt you more than you thought it would.’
Janet accepted the tissue that was now being offered to her, and blew her nose. After checking her appearance in the rear-view mirror again, she turned to face him.
Devon stared back at her, with little emotion in his face.
‘We can’t be seen like this,’ she said, sniffing back more tears and pushing strands of her long hair from her face that had worked loose from her ponytail.
Devon shrugged. ‘Anyone sees, I’m just trying to comfort my offender manager because she’s feeling sick. There’s no law against that.’
Janet shook her head but no words came out as her lip quivered.
‘You’re not strong enough, are you?’ he said. He propped his elbow up against the car door, and rested his head against his hand. ‘I said this was a stupid idea as soon as you knew he’d be coming to the hostel.’
‘I have become strong enough,’ Janet said. She wiped under her eyes with care, trying to avoid smudging any more of her make-up. She swallowed hard. ‘I have to do this for my sister.’
Devon looked across to her. ‘You shouldn’t get involved. It’s all in the past and you don’t even know if it was Knox.’
‘I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand.’
‘Someone like me?’ Devon mulled over her statement in his head. ‘Define “someone like me”?’
Janet avoided his eyes.
‘Someone like me, who has done some pretty nasty things, is incapable of understanding anything but revenge? Is that what it is?’
‘I’m talking about empathy, about family and loyalty,’ she snapped. ‘That’s what matters.’
‘There’s a hefty dose of revenge in there, too. I could see it in your eyes when he stood close to you.’
Janet bit her lip, fighting back more tears.
He gave her the once over, then stretched his legs, his muscles aching. His six-foot frame felt cramped in her small Nissan.
‘Don’t feel you have to sit here, pretending to care. Let’s not forget the real reason why you’re doing this – me getting you out of the hostel much sooner,’ she said, wiping more tears from her cheeks.
He stared out of the car window.
‘The tears,’ he said at length. ‘They need to stop.’
She snapped. ‘I can’t help it.’
‘You have to,’ he said, looking at her. ‘Otherwise he’ll know something’s up. You have to grow a thick skin.’
‘I can’t build up a brick wall and just switch my feelings off.’
‘I do.’
‘Well, I’m not you, am I?’
The tone of her voice made him pause. He sighed. ‘I’m still alive because I learned to hide my emotions. You want justice for your sister, then you have to learn to be just as devious as he is.’
She sniffed back tears, and looked into the rear-view mirror again as she dabbed at her eyes. When she’d finished, she slumped back in her seat.
‘I never wanted any of this.’
Devon’s eyes crossed to hers.
‘I didn’t want to have any contact with him. He was assigned to me. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never done anything like this before, not something that could jeopardise my career.’
Devon shrugged. ‘Like I said, it might not have been Knox.’
‘My sister, Evie, swears it was him. It was right after she moved from Ireland with my parents to join me here. I was living with my uncle, and we all stayed with him for a few weeks until we could find a house to rent together. Evie, she… She said that she’d recognise his eyes anywhere. They stared into hers through every minute of her ordeal.’
He cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘What was she doing at the regen reserve anyway? That place is notorious after hours. Kids break in, get up to all kinds of shit…’
Devon lowered his eyes when he saw the pain in her face. He felt for her, he really did, despite the coolness he showed her.
‘Any evidence he touched her is gone. Proving what he did won’t be easy.’
Janet stared at him, her resolve seeming to harden once again. She reached across him into the glove compartment and pulled out a file. She held it up.
‘There are other unsolved cases that date back to the time Knox attacked those three women.’ She dropped the file into Devon’s lap. He pulled back the cover and saw various newspaper clippings and some information she’d pulled from the internet. All unsolved rapes.
His fingers lingered on two photographs in particular. They were of the same girl, only the girl was considerably older in the second photo.
It was easy to see the family resemblance. Evie Casey was like her sister in every respect physically. Long, blonde hair the colour of spun gold. Fair skin, slender build. Their eyes were different, though. Although they were the same shade of blue, Evie’s looked out of the second photograph as though haunted.
He traced the outline of her face with his index finger, over her cheeks and lips.
‘Knox left a calling card,’ he said, closing the file again. ‘None of these women has anymutilation to the face.’
‘So he escalated. Back when Knox was captured, the arresting officer, the one who led the investigation, helped some of these women piece information together. Unofficially.’
Devon looked sceptical. He was hard-wired to be wary of the police. ‘So where is he now?’
Janet looked deflated. ‘He had other problems, personal ones, and when Knox was sentenced, Evie and I took that as punishment. We never thought he’d be granted parole.’
Devon gave her a look as if to say this was all a waste of time.
‘Look,’ she said, irritated. ‘It’s a well-known fact that Knox is suspected of more attacks than he was convicted for.’
‘Suspected… but no evidence to back it up.’
‘We’ll find it and…’
‘And need I remind you that your sister never even reported her assault.’
‘That was my fault.’
Devon’s eyes narrowed. ‘Your fault?’
Janet paused, her eyes searching his. ‘You wouldn’t understand. Forget I said that… I tried to tell her she didn’t have to be scared, that I was with her, sharing her pain. That’s all she needed to know.’
When he failed to acknowledge her, Janet looked away in disgust. ‘See, you couldn’t possibly understand.’
Devon snapped.
‘You think I don’t know fear?’
‘So it’d seem, looking at how detached you are.’
Devon moved quickly, unzipping his jeans, making Janet slam her body against the car door away from him. ‘What are you doing!’
‘You see this?’ he said, ignoring her panic. Her eyes fell on his hand as he pulled the right side of his jeans down, exposing his thigh. He pulled his underwear to one side. A long, ugly scar ran down his groin. ‘I got shanked in prison by some fucking psycho because I refused to be his bitch.’
Janet gasped. She turned her head, refusing to look again.
‘And you think I don’t know fear? I was twenty. Scared and in way over my head.’
Janet’s breathing became erratic as his anger grew. This was what she’d wanted to avoid. That temper, which had led to another man’s death. The reason he’d been locked up for the past twenty-five years.
‘I nearly bled to death!’
He reached out and gripped her face, pulling her chin so she couldn’t avoid staring at the scar again. ‘Take a good look.’
A tear rolled down Janet’s cheek. ‘I’m… sorry.’
Devon released her. He rearranged his clothes and took several deep breaths to calm himself down.
A minute passed in silence.
‘I’ll start talking to Knox tonight, get him onside, trusting me,’ Devon finally said. ‘I’ll gauge how open I think he’ll be with me, but he might not take the bait. He might see through me.’
He turned to look at her. Janet’s face was drawn, her hair lacklustre. Her make-up was patchy from where she’d cried.
‘This is your last chance to turn back. Once we set things in motion, that’s it.’
Janet froze at his words.
‘There’s no going back once this starts. You might not like the outcome.’
‘If this were you,’ she said, her voice catching in her throat, ‘what would you do?’
Devon shrugged. ‘The new, improved me everyone is convinced I am – the man I have to become to be accepted back into society – would come to terms with the fact that there’s little I can do and get reassigned.’
Janet’s eyes narrowed. ‘And the real you?’
He looked at her, his eyes giving away the answer without words needing to be spoken.
Janet looked at the file in her lap and thought of Knox’s known victims. Her sister was one of them. She knew it in her gut. Evie could’ve easily been one of the ones with her face ruined for ever.
‘That bastard raped my sister when she was barely fourteen. I can’t stand by and do nothing while he walks free… He may have convinced the parole board he’s changed, but he hasn’t convinced me.’
Devon nodded. ‘He’s been hiding and suppressing his urges for the last fifteen years. He’ll find a way to do it again now he’s out, no matter the cost.’
Janet swallowed her fear. ‘And that’s why I’m going to stop him.’
CHAPTER 4
Claire sat in a small but bright café staring out of the window that looked out onto the beach beyond.
She’d walked around the bay, braving the weather, not caring as wind and rain seeped through to her bones.
When she’d left the beach half an hour ago, she had wandered down the front, passing various family amusement arcades and a fairground. Come nightfall, everything would be all lit up with brightly coloured twinkling lights, the cold air filled with the smell of fried onions and burgers from the kiosk beside the big wheel.
Needing a respite from the bitter cold, she had taken shelter inside the café.
When her tea was brought to her, she thanked the waitress and wrapped icy fingers tight around the steaming mug.
‘You want anything to eat?’ asked the waitress.
Claire was hungry but knew she’d fight to keep a meal down. She declined and then added five teaspoons of sugar to her mug.
She was about to take a sip when her mobile rang. She set the mug down, fished the phone from her coat pocket and sighed as she read the caller ID.
DI Stefan Fletcher.
‘Fletch,’ she said, answering and pressing the phone to her ear. ‘I’m supposed to be away. That was your idea, remember?’ She sipped her tea, wincing as the heat burned her throat.
‘Nice to hear your voice, too.’
Claire’s eyes fixed on the horizon. The rain had started again, hitting the glass separating her from the elements. Big fat drops soon obscured the view.
‘How’s Scotland?’ he said, when she didn’t answer.
Claire lowered her voice when she spoke, conscious of her surroundings. ‘Cold, wet, blowing a bloody gale. Sky as black as night.’
‘Sounds heaven. What’s the hotel like?’
Claire glanced at her surroundings. ‘Hotel’s… fine.’ She swallowed hard. ‘What’s up, Fletch?’
Stefan paused. ‘Just thought I’d see how you were.’
‘That’s a precurser to something else…’
He gave a sardonic laugh. ‘Okay, you’ve called me out on it… Rupert Knox…’
‘Jesus, Fletch, not him again? What is it this time? More dog shit through the letterbox?’
Stefan cleared his throat. ‘Not since last week. No, he’s been assaulted. A clear step up from being threatened with it.’
Claire rubbed her forehead, squeezed her eyes tight shut.
Rupert Knox, father to the infamous rapist Raymond Knox, had been receiving all kinds of hate mail since the news had broken of his son’s impending release. Claire thought it’d all been talk. She hadn’t thought anyone would actually take their frustrations out on Knox’s father. Not about his person anyway.
‘Shit,’ was all she managed.
‘It was like a ticking time-bomb, Claire. The threats had been escalating, uniform were constantly going out to his house, and now we’re involved.’
‘How bad is it?’
‘He’s needed stitches in his head and his right arm is broken. Claims he was glassed from behind when he went to retrieve his wheelie bin from the alley beside his house. He usually leaves it on the boundary at the bottom of his front garden for the bin men to empty, but it’d been moved.’
‘By whoever attacked him?’
‘We think so. I’ve got Harper working on it; not that there’s a lot to go on.’
Claire watched as a few of the people scattered about started to hang around the nearby amusement arcades. She glanced at her watch. It was nearing five o’clock.
‘Lone assailant?’
‘Group of men. It was dark when it happened, yesterday night. There’s no lighting down that stretch of alley. Knox says he didn’t see anyone until he was hit. He was on the ground and they kicked him like a football. It’s a miracle he wasn’t hurt more, if I’m honest. He thinks it could’ve been a group of three to five men; he can’t be sure. Dressed in dark clothes, hoods up.’
‘They say anything?’
‘Apparently not.’
‘Witnesses?’
‘The street’s built up, was about eleven at night. Chances are someone saw something or heard it, but given who his son is…’
‘Nobody’s talking.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Double-shit,’ she said, as she drained the last of her tea.
‘Just thought I’d give you the heads-up, considering Knox was more than vocal about needing police protection.’
‘And here I was thinking I was taking a break from it all.’
‘Hey, you asked to be kept in the loop… You’re back day after tomorrow?’
‘Yeah, flight’s at 9 am. I’ll be coming in straight from the airport,’ she said, glancing at the sea again. The waves thundered across the sand. The water looked darker than before. ‘Harper’s working on it, you say?’ she said
at length.
‘Yeah. That okay?’
‘What’s Crest got on at the moment?’
Stefan paused. ‘Don’t you think Harper’s competent enough?’
‘He’s more than bloody competent, but I’ve got a feeling this is just the start of things. It’s only gonna get worse once word gets around that Ray Knox is out already. You seen the news?’
‘Been avoiding it. There’s only so much I can take on the EU referendum,’ he said with a laugh.
Claire frowned. ‘What?’ She tutted. ‘No, Fletch, I meant about Knox. The press don’t know he’s out already. The release date has been kept vague on purpose.’
‘It won’t stay that way for long.’
Claire paused. ‘Exactly. I don’t want to risk anything being leaked.’
Stefan paused. ‘We cleared that up last year. You gave Harper a second chance.’
She tilted her mug towards the waitress as she approached and offered Claire a refill.
Two years ago Claire had thought her team impenetrable, tight.
Loyal.
Leaked information about the case that nearly finished her had potentially compromised everything they were working on at the time. The police had needed to buy some time, room to manoeuvre, to catch a sadistic killer. Leaked information to the press had cast a shadow of doubt over her team.
The previous year, a few details on smaller cases had found their way into the hands of the media.
Claire had turned her suspicions to the newest member of her team, DS Elias Crest. They’d clashed two years ago. Their working relationship had calmed in the last year since he was the one who had made DC Gabriel Harper come forward about leaking information to the press.
Claire had been persuaded to give him a second chance and nothing was made official. Stefan had been the only other person to know about it.
‘Harper’s really proved himself in the last year,’ Stefan said, cutting into her thoughts. ‘Matthews was on one today,’ he continued, changing the subject. ‘Whining about taxpayers’ money being used to keep Raymond Knox’s whereabouts a secret. Personally, I don’t think he should be out yet, if ever.’
Claire silently agreed with him.
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