Dying Truth: A completely gripping crime thriller

by Angela Marsons

  ‘Hockey accident that ended his career as a long distance runner. He’s in a wheelchair for life. And then a white transit van tries to run the entire family off the road the day they pick him up from hospital. She’s terrified that the Spades will find out where he lives. It’s all about this bloody honour code. If you refuse to join it’s a lifelong stain which—’

  ‘Oh shit,’ Dawson said, as the events of the week caught up with the words that were coming out of his colleague’s mouth.

  ‘What?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘Geoffrey,’ he said, looking around, urgently. ‘Geoffrey Piggott refused the card.’

  Ninety-Five

  ‘So, you’re thinking Thorpe could have murdered Lorraine in a jealous rage?’ Kim clarified with Bryant as they headed towards the concert hall.

  ‘Don’t you?’

  Kim shook her head. ‘Did you detect any rage when he was talking?’

  ‘To be fair he’s had a few years to calm down.’

  Kim shook her head. ‘I see your point, but he was too open about his feelings,’ she said, passing the door to the backstage area.

  ‘Reverse psychology?’ Bryant suggested.

  Kim shrugged. It was possible, but she wasn’t really listening.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ she asked her colleague as she stopped walking.

  ‘Err… no, because I was talking to…’ he paused as the call sounded again. ‘But I heard it that time.’

  They were right outside the door to the concert preparation area and someone had called for Saffie Winters. Twice.

  She strode into the room and headed for the nearest adult. It was Thorpe’s assistant, Nancy, carrying a clipboard and wearing a set of headphones.

  ‘Excuse me, did you just call out for Saffie Winters?’

  ‘I did. Have you seen her?’

  She shook her head as her stomach instantly lurched. Saffie was the star of the show, the headline act. She should be preparing to perform.

  Kim grabbed Nancy’s arm. ‘Has she been here at all?’

  The woman frowned at Kim’s hand on her arm.

  ‘Maybe a little while ago. I thought I saw her.’

  ‘Well did you see her or…’

  Her words trailed away as she looked questioningly at Dawson and Stacey heading towards them. The woman took the opportunity to snatch her arm back and mutter something inaudible as she strode away. Kim could see the anxiety on their faces.

  ‘What are you doing here, Stace?’ Kim asked. Recalling Alex’s words, she’d instructed the constable to mine for any acts of violence carried out by the older kids at Heathcrest.

  ‘I needed to tell Kev something about the Forbes family.’

  Kim had no idea who that was or how that pertained to their current investigation but her current priority was a missing sixteen-year-old girl.

  ‘Have you seen Saffie?’ she asked, as the wall of unease continued to grow in her stomach.

  Dawson shook his head. ‘No, boss, but I think we need to find her. I’m pretty sure she’s the girl who had the abortion. I reckon Sadie knew about it and was angry with her and wrote the poem.’

  Kim nodded. It’s what they had all begun to suspect. Somehow Kim had always felt that the girl had been at the centre of this entire investigation, and now she was nowhere to be found.

  ‘Okay, we need—’

  ‘Boss, there’s something else. I think we might have a kid in danger.’

  ‘Another?’

  Kim listened as he explained what Stacey had already told him.

  ‘And you think this kid, Geoffrey, is in danger because he refused to join the Spades?’

  He didn’t hesitate. ‘After what I’ve learned this week, I’m absolutely sure of it.’

  There were times when Kim trusted Dawson’s instinct almost as well as her own.

  ‘Okay, Dawson, you go and find this kid. Bryant, see if Saffie is with any of her friends, and Stacey stay here in case she turns up. I’m going to see if her parents have seen her.’

  She turned to watch as her team moved slowly away in different directions.

  ‘Hey, guys,’ she called. ‘Stay safe.’

  But none of them appeared to hear.

  Ninety-Six

  Kim stepped into the ballroom, her eyes searching the room, amongst the tuxedos and ballgowns.

  A couple swept past her, took a seat and began to peruse the programme handed to them at the door. The chairs had been arranged in two squares either side of a carpeted aisle that Kim’s boots sank into. She guessed the place was approximately half full of splendidly regaled observers, eager for the show to begin. Which was due to happen in half an hour.

  Kim looked to the left and then to the right as she headed up the aisle.

  The Winters were front row left, seated beside the Coffee-Todd family. Of course, these parents would have pride of place. The memorial was for their children. Kim glanced around, wondering who would be here for Joanna.

  She nodded to both families before speaking.

  ‘Mr Winters, have you seen Saffron?’ she asked.

  He smiled tolerantly. ‘She’s getting ready to perform, officer. She has a solo.’

  ‘I understand that,’ Kim said respectfully. ‘But have you seen her back there?’ she asked.

  He shook his head. ‘We wouldn’t disturb her before such an important performance. She needs time to collect her—’

  ‘Not even to wish her good luck?’ Kim asked, as she tried to still the panic growing inside her.

  He frowned. ‘I sent her a text, telling her to break a leg.’

  ‘And did she reply?’ Kim asked, impatiently.

  Winters reached into his pocket as alarm began to register on all of their faces. His hand trembled slightly as he scrolled down. He shook his head and held the screen towards her. ‘In fact, I don’t think it’s even been read.’

  Kim looked and saw only the tick to say the message had been delivered but no read receipt.

  He put his phone away. ‘What’s going on, officer?’ he asked, as his wife clutched his arm.

  How the hell was she going to do this to a couple who had already suffered the loss of one daughter?

  ‘Sir, it appears that your daughter Saffron has gone missing. And no one has seen her for hours.’

  Ninety-Seven

  Dawson knocked once and then entered.

  ‘Hey, what the—’

  ‘Where’s Geoffrey?’ he asked, without preamble, glancing at the tidily made bed in the corner.

  ‘Geoffrey who?’ said the kid on the bed without looking up from his iPad.

  The other two boys on the bed near the door guffawed and nudged each other.

  ‘Geoffrey Piggott, your room-mate,’ Dawson snapped.

  The kid on the iPad shrugged. ‘Who cares?’

  Dawson felt the rage ignite in his body at the superior dismissiveness of his tone.

  ‘I bloody care,’ he said, advancing towards him.

  The kid finally looked up from whatever game he was playing. His young face set in a sneer.

  ‘Good for you, you’re the only one.’

  Dawson wondered at what stage common decency entered the school curriculum, and yet even he knew that cruelty in kids was not limited to the privileged.

  ‘Hey, mister,’ said one of the kids from behind. ‘You care that much buy him some diet pills.’

  The others laughed, and Dawson had a sudden vision of life for Geoffrey in this dorm room. No wonder he studied on a seat in the great hall. At least when he had been at school he’d been able to escape it at 3 o’clock every day. This kid had no escape. He got tortured in lessons, sometimes by the teachers, at break time if he couldn’t find anywhere to hide and then when he came back to his room.

  ‘You think it’s funny to make his life a misery?’

  ‘Yeah,’ they all said together.

  Dawson detected not one ounce of regret amongst them. To them it was a staple of school life, go to lessons, go to lunch, b
ully the fat kid.

  ‘Listen here, you bunch of little shits,’ Dawson said, turning on them all. ‘Dismiss him all you like right now while he’s the fat kid and the butt of your jokes, but some day that kid is going to do something amazing with his life and boy will you wish you’d given him a chance. You poke fun at him to take attention away from yourselves in your pathetic little clan. Oh, and just so you know, this week he got the ace of spades, so someone else thinks he’s pretty special too.’

  He now had the boys’ full attention, speaking a language they could understand. If nothing else, they knew how influential a club member could be. He chose not to add that the kid had refused. The shock on their faces was enough reward as they all wondered what his new-found power could mean for them.

  ‘So, where is he?’

  ‘Sports hall,’ the iPad kid spluttered. ‘He said something about the sports hall.’

  Dawson turned and headed out of the room. A sense of urgency in his step.

  Ninety-Eight

  ‘Should I come too?’ asked Mr Coffee-Todd as Mr and Mrs Winters got to their feet.

  Kim opened her mouth to advise him when Winters’s shake of the head and warning glance told him no.

  The three of them headed down the aisle together. Kim slowed to accommodate Mrs Winters’s four-inch heels.

  Thorpe appeared in the doorway, resplendent in his tuxedo.

  Seeing her face, he frowned. ‘Inspector, is everything—?’

  ‘Saffron Winters has gone missing,’ she said. ‘No one has seen her for hours.’

  His face relaxed. ‘Officer, amongst the chaos of a big production it’s understandable that people get mislaid for a short while. She’s probably off somewhere composing herself.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Kim said, stepping around him. He really had nothing useful to offer.

  ‘Should we try her room first?’ Mrs Winters asked, holding her gown a few inches from the floor to keep up.

  Kim stopped walking and shook her head. It was the first place Bryant would go. There was no point them all looking in the same place.

  ‘Try her phone again,’ Kim said, moving aside for more couples to enter the room.

  Mr Winters did so and put the phone to his ear.

  ‘Continually ringing out,’ he said, after about fifteen seconds.

  ‘Damn it,’ Kim said, trying to think above the noise.

  Although Lorraine Peters died before Saffron was even born, Kim knew that something about the girl was connected to the death of her own sister, Shaun, and probably Joanna Wade.

  Kim toyed for a minute with the ethics of sharing what they’d learned, but the situation warranted it. She turned to the parents of the missing girl. ‘I’m sorry but I have to ask, are you aware that Saffron recently had a termination, an illegal one?’

  The initial shock on their faces was not at the information. It was at her having the information.

  ‘We know, Inspector. She asked us to arrange it; but how is that connected to—’

  ‘Sadie knew,’ Kim said. ‘She was angry; she wrote poems about it and tried to confront her sister.’

  ‘But we kept it away from her,’ Hannah said as her hand rose to her mouth.

  ‘I’m afraid you didn’t,’ Kim said.

  Right now, she had no clue how it all related to the death of a pregnant girl twenty-five years ago, but somehow she knew it did.

  Kim had a sudden thought as she looked from one stricken parent to another.

  ‘I know where we have to go,’ she said, suddenly.

  As she turned and started sprinting she hoped to God that for once she was wrong.

  Ninety-Nine

  The gymnasium was situated right below the boys’ dorm rooms and took Dawson less than five minutes to get there. He thanked God he had already spent hours navigating his way around the sprawling building.

  He arrived just as Philip Havers was locking the door.

  ‘Where’s Geoffrey?’ he asked.

  Havers appeared to look puzzled.

  ‘Piggott,’ he clarified. ‘The fat kid you pick on,’ Dawson said, making no attempt to hide his dislike of the teacher. He didn’t have the time.

  ‘Why would I know where he is?’ he asked, ignoring Dawson’s comment.

  ‘Because he was headed down here, to get a key or something,’

  Havers shook his head. ‘Not a clue what you’re talking about. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to—’

  ‘No, I won’t excuse you,’ Dawson said, blocking his path. ‘Not until you tell me where Geoffrey is.’

  Havers didn’t take too kindly to the physical barrier before him. His nostrils flared in response.

  ‘What’s the particular interest you’ve got in this kid anyway? You into young—’

  Dawson pushed him up against the wall and held him there.

  ‘I dare you to finish that fucking sentence, Havers,’ he spat. ‘Cos unlike you I’m not into bullying poor kids who can’t fight back just because they’re not as you’d like them to be; but getting them to turn on each other to…’ His words trailed away as a sudden realisation hit him. ‘It’s you that’s keeping the bloody Spades going, isn’t it? You’re the fucking Joker? Your speech about belonging and connections and lifelong bonds. Thorpe really has tried to stamp them out and—’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with healthy competition,’ Havers spat. ‘Thorpe only hates them because he was never invited to join. Fucking wimp. It’s survival of the fittest. I was the Nine of Spades and it never hurt me.’

  Dawson pinned him harder. ‘You set these kids against each other, encourage them to hate and bully for your own sick selection process.’ Everything he’d learned this week flew through his mind. ‘The fucking damage you’ve caused to innocent kids in the name of healthy competition,’ he cried. ‘Now tell me where he is,’ he said, shaking him.

  Havers held fast and shook his head.

  Dawson realised he was wasting his time. He could deal with Havers later.

  ‘I will be back, you evil bastard, but I swear if anything happens to that boy I will make your life a living hell.’

  Dawson unclenched his fists from the man’s shirt and let him go.

  Havers smoothed down his shirt and smiled. ‘You can try, but I have powerful friends just a phone call away.’

  ‘They won’t get you out of this, you sick shit,’ he said, reaching the door. He turned. ‘And if being the Nine of Spades made you the man you are today, I can assure you it did you no favours.’

  Dawson turned away and began to sprint, with the definite feeling that he was running out of time.

  One Hundred

  ‘But wh-why would she be here?’ Mrs Winters asked fearfully, as they reached the swimming pool.

  Kim no longer had the need to shout as they had travelled a quarter mile away from the focus of the evening’s attention.

  ‘You’ve tried her phone a dozen times now and there’s been no answer. If my team had located her they would have called by now.’

  ‘But why here?’ Mrs Winters insisted.

  ‘Because everything that’s happened this week is linked to an event more than twenty years ago when a girl named Lorraine Peters was murdered right here.’

  Mrs Winters covered her mouth with her hand.

  ‘I remember her,’ whispered Mr Winters. ‘But wasn’t it some kind of accident?’

  Mrs Winters looked at them blankly with no recollection at all.

  Kim shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. Now stay behind me,’ she advised, as she placed her palm on the door handle.

  Mr Winters tried to get in front of her. ‘No, Inspector, if my daughter is in there, I want—’

  Kim jostled and pushed him out of the way, forcefully.

  Exactly her point. She had no idea what they might find beyond this door, and she didn’t want either parent going in there first. She had chosen not to share with either of them the depth of her fears for Saffie’s safety with each moment that passed
with no phone call from her colleagues. As yet the girl had not been found.

  ‘Mr Winters, you need to do what I say,’ she hissed, turning the door handle.

  Kim stood still as the scene before her illuminated.

  Saffron Winters was bound and gagged at the opposite end of the swimming hall.

  A figure stepped out of the shower room.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he asked.

  Kim quickly realised that the figure wasn’t looking at her.

  One Hundred One

  ‘Any luck finding Geoffrey?’ Bryant asked, meeting Dawson in the hallway back at the staging area of the show, hoping for a fifty per cent success rate at least.

  Dawson shook his head. ‘You find Saffron?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘And she’s not been back here,’ Stacey said, joining them in the doorway.

  ‘Officers, where is she?’ Principal Thorpe cried, thundering towards them.

  ‘Sir, we’re doing everything we can to find her,’ Bryant answered.

  ‘Well, I hope you do it soon,’ he interrupted. ‘She’s supposed to be opening the show in ten minutes’ time.’

  ‘Not our highest priority,’ Bryant snapped. ‘When compared with her physical safety.’

  ‘Of course, of course,’ Thorpe said, checking himself. ‘But I really do think that she’s just having a moment somewhere and doesn’t realise the time.’

  ‘The boss is out looking for her, too,’ Bryant offered.

  He nodded. ‘Yes, she has Mr and Mrs Winters with her right now. They all took off at speed,’ he said before moving away.

  ‘Well that answers that,’ Bryant said.

  ‘What?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘Wasn’t sure whether to head off and look for the guv but if she’s got the Winters with her…’

  ‘Oh shit,’ Dawson said, suddenly checking his watch.

  ‘What?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘The bell tower—’

  ‘Is right at the other end of the complex,’ she said.