‘I tell you what,’ she went on, growing desperate, ‘let me go, right now, and I won’t report this. You don’t really want to murder a police officer, do you? You’ll never get away with it, and you’ll be banged up for life.’
Her captor burst into raucous laughter. ‘Report it? Report what? Do you seriously think you’re in a position to threaten us? Listen, you’re the one in trouble, not us. You don’t call the shots here.’
‘What do you want from me? What’s this about? You wouldn’t risk abducting a police officer if you weren’t after something. But you won’t get anything out of me, and if you threaten to kill me, you know as well as I do that won’t get you anywhere.’
‘No one’s threatening to kill you, for fuck’s sake. Did anyone mention wanting to kill you? Has anyone even hurt you? Now just shut up and listen. Here’s the deal.’
Tempted to retort that she would never make a deal with criminals, Geraldine hesitated. Her only priority right now was to get away. Once she was back with her colleagues, any promises she had made under duress would be void.
‘Go on,’ she said.
The man grunted. ‘You do exactly what we want, or your sister’s back on the smack. And this time you won’t be able to save her.’
‘You won’t get anywhere by threatening me like that.’
‘Maybe we won’t get anywhere with you, but do you really want to stand by and see your sister lose everything?’
‘This has nothing to do with my sister.’
‘On the contrary, this has everything to do with her.’ He stared at her. ‘What did you expect to hear me say?’
‘I didn’t think you had brought me here for a picnic.’
He laughed. ‘You can’t afford to refuse my offer, not if you care about your sister.’
‘What offer?’ she asked, hoping he might reveal something about himself.
‘You follow my orders, to the letter, and we leave your sister alone. Otherwise –’ He shook his head.
‘What orders? You haven’t told me what you want me to do.’
He shrugged. ‘Whatever I need when the time comes.’
‘I can try to help you,’ she lied, ‘but I won’t break the law.’
‘Sod the law. The law doesn’t come into it. It’s very simple. All you have to do is follow my orders. And no messing around or you’re –’ He made a gesture miming a gun shooting himself in the head. ‘Only it won’t be you. No, it’ll be your precious sister.’ He held out his arm and mimed injecting himself inside his elbow.
‘You have to tell me what you want me to do,’ Geraldine said.
Her voice sounded thin, like a wire about to snap.
‘We’ll be in touch and when we are, you’ll do exactly as I tell you. And in the meantime, not a word to anyone. You know how to keep your mouth shut, don’t you? And you know what will happen if you don’t.’
She watched as he repeated his sickening mime of injecting himself. A moment later, she felt her ankles being untied. With an effort, she resisted the temptation to leap up and give the man behind her a strong kick. There was no point in antagonising her captors. For the time being she had to put on a show of co-operating with them, until she had worked out what to do. If it proved impossible to retain her integrity as a police officer and still protect Helena, she was not yet sure whether she would sacrifice her sister or her principles. Somehow she had to find a way to safeguard them both.
The older man spoke again. ‘Your sister won’t be touched if you do as you’re told. But you have no idea what she’s going to suffer if you let us down.’ He stood up. ‘Think about it.’ He lowered his voice until Geraldine had to strain to hear what he was saying. ‘If you mention a word of this to anyone, we’ll find out soon enough, and before she knows what’s happening, your sister will be experiencing her favourite rush. Only this time you won’t be around to help her to get clean, because you’ll be behind bars where you can’t get to her. Yes, poor Helena’s going to be all on her own with her addiction. How long do you think she’ll last? And we’ll make sure she knows who abandoned her this time.’
Without warning the hood was thrust over her face from behind. In suffocating darkness she was hoisted to her feet and shoved forward. Terrified, she stumbled along blindly, powerless to resist as she was forced forwards. Once again she was bundled into the back of a van which jolted into gear, and they drove off. After a while they stopped and she was pushed out on to the road, her hands swiftly released and her hood yanked off. With a roar, the van sped away and she found herself on the road under Skeldergate Bridge, not far from her apartment. Grabbing her bag, which had been slung out after her, she realised she was not wearing her shoes. Out of immediate danger, she began to tremble violently.
17
Blinking and shaking, Geraldine picked up her bag and made her way home, dashing tears from her eyes as she stumbled along, and talking to herself crossly. Breaking down in tears was no way for a detective sergeant to behave.
‘Where have you been all day?’ Ian asked as he came out into the hall. ‘I tried to call you at lunch time.’ His eyes widened in alarm as he caught sight of her. ‘What the hell happened to you? You look like – Were you knocked down? What happened? Are you hurt?’
Geraldine ducked her head. ‘I’m fine, I’m fine. I just need a shower.’
She attempted to push past him before he could see how distressed she was.
‘No!’ She paused at the urgency in his voice. ‘Tell me what happened. Have you been attacked?’
She nodded uncertainly. ‘It was an accident,’ she mumbled.
She would have to admit the whole truth at some point, but was not yet ready to talk about her ordeal.
‘I just need a few minutes to myself,’ she said by way of explanation, as she made another attempt to pass him.
‘Geraldine, the last thing you want to do is take a shower.’
She nodded, understanding his drift, and burst into tears.
‘I’ll put a plastic bin liner on a chair in the living room so you can sit down,’ he said. ‘I’ll make you some tea and then you can change out of those clothes and tell me exactly what happened, while it’s all still fresh in your mind.’
He fetched a bin liner, spread it on a chair and Geraldine obediently took a seat and waited while he made the tea. Placing a steaming mug on the table in front of her, he questioned her gently, and gradually she regained her equanimity sufficiently to give him a brief outline of what had happened, taking care to leave out any mention of her twin sister, Helena.
‘So you’re saying a criminal threatened you in an attempt to force you to protect them?’ Ian asked her, when she had finished her account. ‘Scum!’
‘It sounds crazy, I know, but –’ She broke off, aware that her voice was wobbling.
She wondered whether she would find it easier to maintain her composure if she spoke to someone else. She still did not know what to do, and needed time to think. It was difficult for her to lie at the best of times and almost impossible when she was talking to Ian. He knew her too well.
‘We’ve most likely got the DNA of at least one of your attackers on the database,’ he was saying.
‘They were wearing gloves and they put a hood over my head. I don’t think they touched me or breathed on me, and I never laid a finger on either of them. I wish I had now.’
‘Yes, if you’d managed to scratch one of them –’ Ian paused. ‘But then they might not have let you go.’
She nodded and her first lie slipped out. ‘That’s what I thought.’
Instead of being annoyed with herself for failing to acquire vital evidence that might lead to her assailants’ arrest, she was relieved to have so far protected their identity. Until she had devised a way out of the situation, she could not afford to take any steps that might antagonise her captors.
‘Y
ou said your hands were secured behind your back and that’s why you couldn’t defend yourself, so there could be DNA on your wrists.’
‘They were both wearing gloves.’
‘So you’re sure there’ll be no DNA?’
Geraldine went over what she had seen and heard, as sketchily as she could, omitting to mention any details about the shed where she had been held.
‘Did you see anything?’
‘No,’ she lied. ‘I was blindfolded the entire time.’
‘And did you hear anything at all other than the two men’s voices?’
‘Nothing. And their voices were disguised.’
Ian looked faintly puzzled, but didn’t question her response. Instead, he nodded briskly.
‘I’ll note down everything you said, and you can check it, and then I’ll drive you to the station to make a formal statement. Don’t worry we’ll get these bastards, even though you haven’t given us much to go on. You can’t say how far away their hideout was, or describe anything about the place or the two men who abducted you. Nothing at all?’ He ended on an interrogative note which Geraldine ignored.
‘I need a shower.’
‘You need to go to the station first. They’ll want to swab you for DNA whatever you think.’
‘You can take my clothes, but they didn’t touch me,’ she lied, with a faint shudder as she recalled how she had been checked for a wire.
‘What about your shirt? How did that tear?’
She shook her head. ‘I think I stumbled when I was pulled out of the van. It must have caught on something. No one’s going to believe what happened,’ she added, with a faint laugh.
After her shower, she saw that Ian had put on gloves before slipping her clothes into a large evidence bag. She did her best to stall him, but he became annoyed when she refused to make a statement, and she was afraid that she would be unable to prevent him from taking matters further.
‘Ian, I can’t report this,’ she said firmly. ‘Not yet. I need time to think.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘And you can’t report it either.’
‘Geraldine, you’re not making any sense. What else happened? Did they threaten you?’
Finally she broke down and told him the truth.
‘They told me that if I mention a word of this to anyone, they’ll visit Helena. They threatened to make her start using again. I can’t do that to her, Ian, not after all she’s been through. I may have to accede to their demands, at least until I can discover who they are.’
Ian stared at her, horrified. ‘Geraldine, you’re not thinking clearly. What about what you’ve been through? You’ve been demoted, and had to leave your home, and nearly lost your job altogether, all to protect your sister. Are you seriously saying you’d be prepared to break the law to keep her from going back on heroin? And what guarantee do you have that she wouldn’t slide back into it anyway, whatever you do?’
Geraldine shrugged miserably. There was no guarantee. For a drug addict who had kicked the habit, every day held a risk of relapse. Only Helena’s continuing determination stood between her and addiction.
‘Listen,’ Ian went on, ‘nothing that happens to your sister is your responsibility. She’s made her choices. What if you sacrifice yourself and she starts shooting up again? Do you really think you can prevent her doing it? And don’t you think the guilt she’d feel if you were caught protecting a criminal gang because of her would drive her to it? What difference does it make who gets her back on it? She might give in to irresistible temptation regardless of what anyone else says or does. If she wants to do it, you can’t stop her, Geraldine. No one can. The stark truth is, you can’t protect her, and you have to start accepting that before both your lives are ruined. And mine,’ he added softly.
‘So you’re saying I should turn my back on her and leave them to destroy her? It’s as good as murdering her.’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t do it, Ian. I just can’t.’
‘Then I can’t do what you want,’ he said. ‘I won’t sit by and watch you throw your life away like this. I can’t do that, and you can’t demand it of me.’ He stood up, and hovered for a moment as though he was waiting for her to tell him she had changed her mind. ‘If you won’t go to the station and report what happened, I will.’
Geraldine nodded. ‘All right,’ she replied. ‘I’ll do it. But first you have to give me time to warn my sister.’
‘One week,’ he replied sternly. ‘You have until next Friday and then I’m going to the DCI myself.’
‘Give me until midnight next Friday,’ she said. ‘I’ll go to see her as soon as I can get away. I need to see her one last time. Give me that, at least. Don’t force me to tell her this over the phone.’
18
This time the planning had been meticulous, and the disposal of the body had been carried out with consummate skill, bordering on genius. It was truly brilliant, because there was absolutely no way the corpse could be traced back to the location where the execution had taken place. The death itself was history, all but forgotten by the time the corpse was deposited in the open air to be found by a stranger.
The delay in moving the body was not the sole reason the killer’s identity would remain hidden. Sooner or later, of course, someone would come across the body. No doubt they would be shocked, but that was too bad. Speculating about the finder’s reaction was curiously diverting, but it was ultimately unimportant, because the discovery of the dead woman’s physical remains was utterly insignificant. What really mattered was that nothing could possibly link the two key locations: the site of the death and the discovery of the body. In that respect, the plan had worked perfectly. Admittedly the body would be found not far from the scene of the murder, but that was of no consequence, since the killer could not be traced.
What had made the operation particularly tricky was that the body had to be transported along a crowded pavement, in full view of anyone passing by. If moving the body had not been so difficult and stressful, it would have been entertaining. In retrospect, it was actually quite hilarious. So many stupid people – no doubt all regarding themselves as intelligent – had walked past the body, completely oblivious to what was happening right in front of their eyes. People were blind when it came to noticing what was in front of them. So the body had travelled along the street, unobserved. That had been challenging. After that, there had been nothing to do but slip away without attracting attention, and wait. Before long, there would be an announcement in the news. The police would start scurrying around, searching for evidence to lead them to the killer. They wouldn’t find any, for all their forensic examination of the scene, and teams of officers questioning potential witnesses. As it happened, there had been witnesses, and plenty of them, only none of them knew what been going on right under their noses.
In the meantime, he had returned to his daily routine as though nothing had happened. For all that anyone else knew, nothing had happened. But for one woman everything had come to an end, and for those close to her, nothing would ever be the same again. In a way, that made it all seem desperately sad. If only he could stop pursuing other women, no one else would need to suffer. Somehow there had to be a way to banish the devil from his heart. But before that happened, he had to want to walk away from the path of sin. Only if he truly repented, could he receive divine pardon from a forgiving God.
19
The music was so loud Jamie couldn’t hear what any of his friends were saying, although they all seemed to be shouting cheerily to each other easily, as though they were having a normal conversation. He found it hard to believe they could possibly make out what was being said above the noise of a roomful of people yelling to make themselves heard above the din the DJ was making. The bass alone was enough to drown out any other sound. After less than half an hour, he was beginning to feel more than a little nauseous. He wasn’t sure of th
e exact time, but it was certainly past midnight and his head was throbbing in time to the beat. If he didn’t leave soon, he was in danger of throwing up all over the girl dancing right in front of him. She was slim and energetic and under any other circumstances he would have made a move, but as it was he had to get out of there. Fighting a passage across the crowded dance floor, he made his way towards the neon exit sign. It seemed to take forever. His head was spinning by the time he finally reached the door.
A bouncer with a square face nodded at him as he stepped outside. ‘You going to be all right?’
‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ he replied thickly.
‘What have you been taking –’ the bouncer began.
‘No,’ he interrupted quickly, shaking his head. ‘It’s the noise.’
Bright spots of light darted across his field of vision with the movement, and he froze.
‘Too many beers,’ he said, speaking as clearly as he could.
He staggered away from the bouncer who immediately lost interest. Drugs on the street were not his concern. With one hand on the wall for support, Jamie made his way around the corner of the building into a narrow alley where the light was gratifyingly dim. His nausea subsided as he stood in the alley, away from the glare of neon lights. Rummaging in his pocket for his cigarettes, he pulled one out with his lips. Cupping one hand around the tiny flickering flame of his lighter, he barely noticed a bundle lying at his feet which he had accidentally kicked. Inhaling deeply, he leaned back against the wall and felt the pressure in his head ease. He wondered whether it was worth returning to the bar to try again. The girl he had been eyeing up earlier might still be there, if he could find her in the throng. If not, there were plenty of other girls displaying themselves, any one of whom would do. Finishing his cigarette, he tossed the butt away and retraced his footsteps.
No sooner had he entered the bar again than he felt a strong hand seize him by the arm.
‘What’s this?’ a voice shouted in his ear.
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