by JANICE FROST
This time Neal fetched the chairs and Ava took the lead.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, Darren,” she began.
Darren, who had only glanced at Ava and Neal when they entered the room, now acted as if they weren’t there. He knew they were police even before they showed him their ID.
Neal spoke more gently. “I understand you’ve been informed that your brother, Liam, died of his injuries. I’m sorry for your loss, Darren.”
That got a reaction. Darren swallowed hard and coughed a little. His eyes filled with tears. In spite of herself, Ava felt a glimmer of pity.
“Fin O’Shea had nothing to do with what happened to your brother,” Ava said.
“No, but that cheating prick he brought to our house did.” Darren looked straight ahead.
“Hector Cornish,” she said. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t him either. Look, Darren, we’re pretty sure you and your brother were the targets of a hit. We have an idea how it came about but we can’t prove it. I know you cared about your brother and that you want justice for him. You help us out here, and that might become a possibility. How did you get away? Did you see the shooter?”
“Did more than see him. I shot the fucker,” Darren said. His words were slurred from the medication, but there was an unmistakeable hint of pride in his voice.
“How badly injured was he?” she asked.
He almost smiled. “Got him in the arm. He dropped his gun. I got to it first, and he ran. There was a driver waiting for him.”
“Where is the gun now? What did you do with it?”
Darren shrugged. “It’s safe.” No doubt he’d been intending to sell it at some later date.
Ava stared at him. “Come on, Darren. Tell us where it is. You want us to find him, don’t you?”
Darren’s eyes began to roll back in their sockets. Ava shook his arm.
“What the . . . ?” He started awake. “I jacked a car. Drove up here. Gun’s in the boot.”
“Where’s the car now, Darren?” Darren waved his arm. “Here.”
“Here? In the hospital car park?” Darren nodded, and yawned.
Neal stood up and went to the other side of the room. He whipped out his radio and spoke into it quietly. If the car was in the car park, they’d find it soon enough.
Darren made an effort to rouse himself. “Liam?” he said, for the first time looking straight at Ava. “He wasn’t dead when I left him.”
“No. He survived the attack. But not for long. He spoke to the police before he died.”
“Wh-what did he say?” Ava thought for a moment. Blunt had told them Liam had been rambling and incoherent. He’d mentioned Fin and Hector, probably because Darren had just got back from Stromford and informed him of the deal he’d made with Fin. She knew what Darren was fishing for. She could easily make something up. She glanced at Neal, still speaking softly into his radio, and then back at Darren, his eyes pleading for some words of comfort.
“Nothing,” she said at last. “Nothing about you.”
It was the truth, after all.
Chapter Twenty-one
Ava arrived just in time for the morning briefing. She sat down next to PJ, who was by Tom and Lesley Curran. Lesley had joined them for the meeting to give a report on the case that she and her team were slowly building against Paul Cornish.
“Good morning,” Neal said. Like all of them, he was looking more rested than he had for days. Ava flashed him a smile. She was feeling better disposed towards him since Maggie Neal’s call the previous evening. Maggie had put her in the picture about the reason for Myrna’s recent visit. Neal smiled too. But he was smiling at everyone. There was a lot for everyone to smile about this morning.
Paul had been arrested and charged with the murders of Russ Marsh and Dana Schell. Gail had withdrawn her support for his alibi on the evening of Paul’s murder, and he had failed to supply an appropriate alibi for the time of Dana’s murder. Moreover, the forensic case against him was building.
The fragment of false nail which Gail Cornish had found clinging to Paul’s jumper had been retrieved from her jewellery box. Traces of Paul’s DNA were on it. Dana had tried to grab at his face in her dying moments, and clutched at his jumper, tearing off a section of her new nail. But they had more than that.
“Just to bring everyone up to speed,” Neal said. “The gun used to kill Liam Sharp and injure Darren was retrieved from the stolen car. There were traces of the shooter’s blood on it.”
He paused, appearing to bask in his colleagues’ approving nods.
“DI Blunt commented that murders committed by a hitman are hard to prove. Apprehending that hitman is even harder, and yet we’ve done that very thing, in a matter of days. Ironically, Darren Sharp was our unwitting accomplice. We were able to identify the man from police records. We’d expected him to disappear, but Darren’s bullet hit an artery and he couldn’t stop the bleeding. His driver dropped him at the nearest A&E, where he immediately set off alarm bells. By his own account, he regarded time in prison as being preferable to dying from loss of blood. Anyway, to cut to the chase, he’s given us a truckload of information in the hope of obtaining a reduced sentence and police protection. We now have the means to go after not only Paul Cornish, but also the Nottingham-based drug gang he was laundering money for.”
Neal glanced at Lesley, who smiled broadly. She said, “My colleagues in finance are going to have a field day thanks to your investigation.”
“What I still don’t understand is why Paul Cornish didn’t just pay Liam the money Hector owed,” PJ said. “It would have been far easier.”
“Power. Ego. People like Cornish have their own moral code, not unlike that of Darren Sharp and his brother. They do things because they can,” Tom said. “Believe me, people involved in the drugs business don’t have room in their heads for pangs of conscience.”
“I understand why he killed Russ Marsh. He had to ensure Russ didn’t blow the whistle on his corruption, but why Dana Schell?” Lesley asked.
Neal attempted to provide an answer. “Dana tried to blackmail Russ over his affair with Gail. We suspect she tried it on with Paul too. She most likely told him she’d tell Gail she’d been having sex with him in return for gifts and money. Paul’s pride wouldn’t have allowed him to stand for that. It’s also likely that Dana told Paul that Hector was dealing drugs, and wanted to be paid to keep her mouth shut about that too. Hector was already a liability to Paul. If he were prevented from taking up his position in the City because of a drugs scandal, Paul’s name would also be tainted. It would be bad for business. But more than any of that, we think Paul saw the messages on Russ’s mobile, and misunderstood. It’s likely he thought Dana had somehow found him out in something incriminating, and was offering to give Russ information in exchange for money. It was Paul that deleted the texts on Russ’s phone.”
“Why didn’t Paul just get rid of Dana’s phone? I mean, I know he threw it into the bushes, but it was easy enough for us to find it,” Lesley said.
“We think he was disturbed. When we appealed for witnesses, a couple came forward, who’d been cutting through the wood at around that time. He probably panicked, and didn’t want to be found with it on his person.”
Neal looked around. “Good work, everyone.”
Ava noticed that PJ was looking a bit troubled. “Okay, PJ?” she asked.
“I was just thinking about Lizzie Hamilton and the Marshes.”
“Ah,” Ava said. She knew that Stephen Hamilton had contacted Neal the morning after the hostage incident at the hospital. Lizzie had not come home, and Stephen had been out of his mind with worry.
A little later, Neal had spoken with Laurence Brand, a suspect on a case that he and Ava had investigated some months ago. Laurence’s wife worked in the café at the cathedral. He had been making his way over to meet her when he came across a woman sitting on the wall, near the west front. He would have walked on, but something about her made him pause. She was hunched over, sh
uddering violently.
Laurence had persuaded Lizzie Hamilton, for that is who it was, to accompany him to the café to warm up. She confessed she had been sitting outside all night. Inside, she’d told him she’d contemplated taking her own life the night before.
She’d allowed Laurence to call Stephen Hamilton.
“Lizzie’s had so much tragedy to deal with in her life,” PJ said.
“If you ask me, that whole family needs to go into therapy,” Ava added.
“It’s worse than you know,” PJ said. Everyone looked at her. PJ gave a sigh. “I went round to see Val and Ruth Marsh yesterday. Remember that first time you and the DI interviewed the sisters, the morning Val discovered Russ’s body?” Ava nodded, wondering what was coming next. “You sensed a tension between them. I remember reading something in your notes, Ava, about the strange sort of interplay between them. How one of them seemed dominant, then the other?”
“Yes. That was weird. They both strike me as strong women, but in each other’s company they seem to be unsure of themselves.”
“Well, there’s a lot of history . . .”
“Are we talking about abuse?” Neal said.
That was perceptive of him, Ava thought, as PJ nodded.
“Which sister?” Tom asked.
“Val, of course,” PJ said. “It was infrequent. It started when their father lost his job and began drinking. Val was fifteen. That’s why she left home. Lizzie refused to believe Val at the time.”
“And does she now?” Ava was appalled.
“Val thinks she does. Lizzie said something to Val about understanding why Ruth never told her about her part in Will’s tragedy. She said Ruth was struck speechless by her guilt, or words to that effect. She told her sister that’s how she felt about Val’s accusation against their father. Speechless. Lizzie had always been the favourite. Maybe she wondered why her father hadn’t chosen her. Maybe that’s why he didn’t choose her. Either way, Lizzie felt guilty for not protecting her younger sister. But she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it.”
“Let’s hope they get the help they need and can start to rebuild their lives,” Ava said. “This case. I think we all need a drink later, to put it to bed.”
“I’ll second that,” Tom said.
Lesley Curran gave him a dismissive look. “Count me out. I’ve got a ton of work to do.”
Ava saw PJ and Tom exchange a meaningful look. She’d have to ask PJ what it meant.
“So, PJ,” she heard Tom say. “I hear you’re into laser tag?”
“For pity’s sake, Tom. Don’t you think PJ’s seen enough of guns to last her a lifetime?” Ava said.
“On the contrary,” PJ said. “I can think of nothing I’d rather do to get this case out of my system.”
“That’s settled, then. I’ll book a slot. This evening, six thirty. That okay with you two?” Tom asked, looking from Neal to Ava.
Neal gave a doubtful nod.
“Can’t wait,” Ava said. She put her two fingers together like a gun and pointed them at Neal.
As they all moved away, PJ whispered in Ava’s ear, “You got him. Straight in the heart.”
THE END
OTHER BOOKS BY JANICE FROST
NEAL & MERRY
Book 1: DEAD SECRET
Book 2: DARK SECRET
Book 3: HER HUSBAND’S SECRET
Book 4: THEIR FATAL SECRETS
Book 5: DIRTY SECRETS
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BOOK 1 FEATURING NEAL AND MERRY
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Shocking family secrets come to light when a young woman is murdered
Amy Hill, a nineteen-year-old student, is strangled and her body dumped on open ground in the city. New police partners, DI Jim Neal and DS Ava Merry are called in to investigate this brutal crime. The last person to see Amy alive was Simon, the son of a family friend, but before he can be properly questioned he disappears.
Detectives Neal and Merry are led on a trail of shocking family secrets and crimes. Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies? Stopping this tragic cycle of violence will put DS Merry’s life at risk in a thrilling and heart-stopping finale.
If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, Ruth Rendell, or Mark Billingham you will be gripped by this exciting new crime fiction writer.
BOOK 2: DARK SECRET
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Who killed Gray Mitchell?
Gray Mitchell’s body is found buried under fresh snowfall in the early hours of the morning outside Stromford Cathedral. DI Jim Neal and DS Ava Merry are called in to investigate. It seems that a number of people had motives to kill him, including Mitchell's partner.
Then another shocking act of violence occurs, also connected to the cathedral. Detectives Neal and Merry’s investigation reveals an intricate web of secrets connecting the crimes. But there is something the detectives have missed, the dark secret which can break open the case.
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First a shooting, then a grisly discovery on the common . . .
Police partners, D.I. Calladine and D.S. Ruth Bayliss race against time to track down a killer before the whole area erupts in violence. Their boss thinks it’s all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine’s instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate.
Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the press publicize the gruesome crimes? Detectives Calladine and Bayliss are led on a trail which gets dangerously close to home. In a thrilling finale they race against time to rescue someone very close to Calladine’s heart.
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A NEW CRIME THRILLER WITH A COMPELLING DETECTIVE WHO WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO AVENGE HER DAUGHTER
Glossary of English Slang for US readers
A & E: Accident and emergency department in a hospital
Aggro: Violent behaviour, aggression
Air raid: an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on ground targets
Anorak: nerd (it also means a waterproof jacket)
A Level: exams taken between 16 and 18
Auld Reekie: Edinburgh
Badger-baiting: illegal sport where badgers are drawn from their setts and killed by dogs
Barm: bread roll
Barney: argument
Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids
Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle
Benefits: social security
Bent: corrupt
Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)
Biscuit: cookie
Bloke: guy
Blow: cocaine
Blower: telephone
Bob: money
Bobby: policeman
Brass monkeys: cold, as in cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead
Bun: small cake
Bunk: do a bunk means escape
Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant
Buy-to-let: Buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit
Charity Shop: thrift store
Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket
Care Home: an institution where old people are cared for
Car park: parking lot
Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments
Chemist: pharmacy
Chinwag: conversation
Chippie: fast food place selling chips and other fried food
Chips: French fries but thicker
CID: Criminal Investigation Department