Evil Impulse

by Leigh Russell

  Zoe sat down on the bed. ‘Where am I supposed to go?’

  ‘I don’t know. Anywhere. But you can’t stay here.’

  ‘Why not? Won’t you all be downstairs having tea? I’ll be really quiet, and we’ll keep the door shut, and no one will know I’m here. I can be quiet, you know I can. Your parents haven’t heard me, have they? I suppose there’ll be a birthday cake,’ she added wistfully.

  Laura drew in a deep shuddering breath and explained that her cousins sometimes went in her room to use her computer, and she did not want them to find Zoe hiding there.

  ‘My parents would go apeshit,’ she wailed softly so as not to risk being overheard by her mother. ‘If they find out you’re here, they’ll never forgive me. They’ll never trust me again. Never.’

  ‘I might have a little more sympathy for your situation if mine wasn’t so much worse,’ Zoe muttered crossly. ‘Where am I supposed to go?’

  ‘Go home.’

  ‘I can’t. And what’s more, I’m not leaving, so you’ll just have to make sure no one comes in here.’

  Laura shook her head and hid her face in her hands, mumbling, ‘I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do.’ After a few moments she raised her head. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but you have to leave. Now.’

  ‘Where’s your mother? What if she sees me?’

  ‘I’ll say – I’ll say you just popped round.’

  ‘Just popped round? Doesn’t she know I’ve run away from home? How could I just pop round, when I’ve been missing for ages? What are you talking about? Listen, you have to stop your cousins from coming in here.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Well if you can’t stop your cousins from coming up here, then you have to hide me somewhere.’

  Hurriedly they hatched a desperate plan. First of all, they cleared a pile of clothes out of Laura’s wardrobe. They lay them in a pile on the bed, and covered them with the duvet. Unless anyone lifted up the bed cover, or realised that the duvet looked unusually high, they were hard to spot.

  ‘I’ll leave the door ajar so you can hear if anyone’s coming up the stairs,’ she told Zoe. ‘If I’m with them I’ll talk really loudly to make sure you hear us, but it might just be one person coming up to go to the toilet without my realising, so you need to listen out really carefully, all the time. Don’t lose focus for a minute.’

  Zoe nodded. ‘And as soon as I hear anyone coming upstairs, I’ll creep into the wardrobe and wait in there.’

  Just then they heard Laura’s mother calling for her to come and help. Ignoring Zoe’s whispered demand to be brought some birthday cake as soon as she could get away, Laura hurried downstairs to help her mother, leaving her bedroom door ajar.

  42

  A bulky custody sergeant opened the door of Geraldine’s cell and nodded at her, his wide face creased in a smile.

  ‘Go on, sling your hook,’ he said amiably.

  Geraldine stood up and stretched.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘It seems they’ve decided you’re not a dangerous criminal after all,’ he grinned. ‘Bunch of idiots those ACU officers,’ he muttered. ‘You’re free to go,’ he added loudly.

  ‘How come?’ Geraldine asked in surprise. ‘What’s happened?’

  He entered the cell and pulled the door to behind him, answering in a low voice. ‘Don’t ask me. I’m just the messenger. But if I were you, I’d make yourself scarce while you can, before they change their minds. There’s no predicting what they might do from one day to the next. Throwing their weight around, if you ask me. Nothing else to do but pick on innocent officers just to make a point. It’s a job creation scheme for police officers who don’t want to deal with real criminals. Go on, get home and clean yourself up. You look terrible.’

  Geraldine was taken aback at being so unceremoniously released. As she was driven home, her initial wave of relief was overwhelmed by apprehension. There was something about her release that didn’t feel right. Barely an hour later, she was back at the police station, having showered and changed her clothes. Bewildered and not a little scared, she went to report to Eileen. The two anti-corruption officers who had arrested Geraldine were waiting for her in the detective chief inspector’s office. The female officer explained that new evidence had come to light which cast serious doubt over her guilt and possible conviction.

  ‘What new evidence?’ Geraldine demanded.

  ‘That’s confidential.’

  ‘So now I’m a matter of national security?’ Geraldine asked, investing her voice with as much sarcasm as she could.

  The anti-corruption officer gazed at her impassively. ‘No you’re not,’ she replied. ‘You know this has nothing to do with you. The information is confidential.’

  ‘Nothing to do with me?’ Geraldine blurted out, momentarily too incensed to control her temper.

  Eileen interrupted briskly. ‘Never mind about that. Thank you for returning my sergeant to her duties. I expect a full report about this farce to be on my desk first thing tomorrow. I suppose an apology to my sergeant is too much to hope for? And now, if you don’t mind, we have real police work to get on with here. You can show yourselves out. And don’t come back,’ she muttered after the anti-corruption officers had left, giving no assurance that an explanation of Geraldine’s arrest would be forthcoming.

  ‘Bunch of incompetents,’ Eileen said. ‘What a balls-up. They had no reason to come after you. No reason at all. I’m going to lodge an official complaint. Why didn’t they unearth their so-called new evidence before putting you through all this? Locking you in a cell overnight. It’s outrageous. And they took you away from our investigation. Now, Geraldine, we need to get back to work. We have a briefing due to start.’

  Still confused by what had happened, Geraldine followed Eileen to the incident room. She looked around at her colleagues with a curious sense that she had been away for a long time, and was almost surprised that nothing seemed to have changed. She did notice that no one seemed to want to meet her eye, but it wasn’t unusual for everyone to be focused on Eileen when she addressed them. There was still nothing definite linking the two murders, and nothing had been found that connected the victims during their lifetimes. Geraldine wasn’t sure whether it would be worse to look for one multiple murderer, or two different killers who had each claimed one victim. Either way, they didn’t seem to be making much headway with the investigation. Eileen kept repeating that it was ‘early days’, but it was obvious she was becoming frustrated. Despite a major search, there was no sign of the hi-vis jacket that had allegedly been stolen outside the newsagent’s.

  Back at her desk, Geraldine had the same sense of unreality. She had only been in custody for twenty-four hours and off work for one day, but once again she had the feeling that she had been away for weeks. After giving Geraldine a few inquisitive glances, Ariadne invited Geraldine to join her in the canteen for a coffee, ‘To discuss the case,’ she added quickly, as Geraldine began to protest that she had too much work.

  ‘So, I just wanted to warn you that there’s been a bit of gossip while you’ve been away,’ Ariadne said, when they were seated with drinks. ‘I mean, not everyone has been talking about you, but a few of the constables have been saying you ran off with Andrew.’

  ‘Andrew?’

  ‘Yes, he’s been recalled to Northallerton to help with an investigation he’s been working on for over a year. The point is, he left at the same time as you disappeared, so the gossip is that your brush with the anti-corruption unit was a fabrication, and the two of you ran off together.’

  Geraldine laughed. ‘That’s ridiculous.’

  ‘Well, I know that. I’m just telling you what I heard.’

  Geraldine launched into her rehearsed speech, hinting that her brush with the anti-corruption unit had been a mistake.

  ‘You know how gung-
ho they’re said to be. Well, it seems their reputation is well deserved.’

  Her colleagues would all be thinking there was no smoke without fire, and she must have done something to merit investigation, so she was not unhappy about the story linking her absence to Andrew’s departure. When the truth came out, Ariadne would remember that Geraldine had covered it up. But it was quite possible no one would ever find out where she had been taken, and why, because the officers of the anti-corruption unit never spoke about their work to anyone. All Ariadne had seen was Geraldine being marched away, but that could easily have been in the course of an investigation into someone else. The fact that she had returned to work so soon after leaving in the company of the anti-corruption officers surely confirmed that she was of no real interest to them. So she smiled at her colleague, as cheerily as she could, and reassured her that everything was fine.

  Ariadne nodded and spent the next ten minutes bringing Geraldine up to speed on the murder investigation.

  ‘I’ve been liaising between all the teams checking CCTV film from the vicinity of both crime scenes, but we’re no further forward.’

  Geraldine nodded, silently preoccupied with her own troubles. Only one thing seemed clear; somehow Helena held the key to the recent confused turn of events. She called her repeatedly, but Helena’s phone failed to connect. Trying not to panic, Geraldine turned her attention back to her work but it was difficult to focus on the murder investigation.

  43

  All was quiet for a while, and then Zoe heard the door bell and voices mumbling downstairs in the hall. The bell rang again and there were more muffled voices. After that, she heard only the occasional burst of laughter, or shrill voices raised in excitement, competing to be heard. Zoe couldn’t understand why Laura had been so agitated when all she had to do was enjoy a birthday tea party. Zoe was the one who was stuck upstairs, unable even to use the toilet without risking discovery. She was the one who should be feeling put out, not Laura. But it was typical of her friend to panic. Her mother had just invited a few people over for tea, that was all. There was no reason why anyone should discover Zoe hiding in Laura’s room. It had been a lot of fuss over nothing, emptying out Laura’s wardrobe and hiding clothes under the duvet. Irritated, she threw herself down on the bed and closed her eyes. She hoped Laura wouldn’t forget to bring her some cake when all the guests had gone home. It would be typical of her to finish it all off herself and forget to bring any up to Zoe.

  When she heard footsteps they sounded as if they were just outside the door, although she had not heard anyone coming up the stairs. She leapt off the bed, dashed to the wardrobe and flung herself inside, pulling the door closed behind her with a thud. She had to keep her head lowered and her arms pressed to her sides in the dark interior of the wardrobe. As she stood there, scarcely daring to breathe, the door of the wardrobe swung slowly open and a shrill voice addressed her.

  ‘Hello. I heard you, but when I came in, there was no one here.’

  Zoe twisted her head around and saw a fair-haired boy of about six. He had a freckled face and a snub nose, and he was staring inquisitively at her.

  ‘What are you doing in there? Are you hiding? It’s not a very good hiding place,’ he added with a shrewd air. ‘I found you straightaway, because I’m good at finding people. Some people would have taken a long time to find you, but I found you really quickly. Why don’t you want any cake?’

  Zoe didn’t answer.

  ‘You’re not very good at hiding. I saw the wardrobe door closing as I came in,’ he went on. ‘It was easy to find you. Who are you and why are you hiding in the cupboard?’

  ‘You found me very quickly,’ Zoe replied. ‘You mustn’t tell anyone I’m here or you’ll ruin the game.’

  The boy reached into his pocket and brought out a squashed sandwich. ‘I’m Richard. Who are you? Would you like a sandwich? My mum won’t let me have any cake until I’ve eaten a sandwich, but I put it in my pocket.’ He laughed.

  Zoe took the sandwich and gobbled it down gratefully.

  ‘Are you going to come out of the cupboard?’

  ‘No,’ she replied crossly, ‘I told you, I’m hiding. So you’d better not tell anyone you’ve seen me.’

  ‘OK. I won’t.’

  The boy turned and scampered away. Zoe wondered whether it was safe to come out of the wardrobe, or if she might be wiser to stay where she was in case anyone else entered the room. It was stuffy in there, and cramped, and she decided it was stupid to spend the whole afternoon in there, when all of Laura’s family were downstairs having tea. She had just lain down on the bed again when she heard footsteps on the stairs, accompanied by childish voices raised in excitement and several other voices all talking at once. She jumped off the bed and barely had time to fling open the door of the wardrobe before Laura’s mother burst into the room, closely followed by Laura and a rabble of children and adults.

  ‘Good lord!’ a woman exclaimed. ‘Is this a friend of Laura’s? Why isn’t she downstairs?’

  But Laura’s mother had recognised Zoe instantly and was staring at her in astonishment.

  ‘I’m calling the police,’ she said, recovering from her shock.

  ‘The police?’ the other woman said. ‘But she’s a child. Don’t you know her, Laura?’

  ‘Yes,’ Laura muttered. ‘I know her.’

  ‘Then it’s hardly a matter for the police –’

  ‘Oh, do be quiet, Betty,’ Laura’s mother interrupted the woman crossly. ‘You can’t come into my house and behave as though you’re in charge. I know what I’m doing. Now take all the children back downstairs, and I’ll deal with this. Go on, go.’

  Having shooed everyone but Laura out of the room, she turned to her daughter.

  ‘Now, Laura, I’d like you to explain. But first I’m calling your parents, Zoe. You must realise they’ve been going out of their minds with worry, and the police have been searching everywhere for you. There is no excuse for wasting so much of their time. Where have you been?’

  Zoe lowered her eyes and tried to look contrite. ‘Here,’ she mumbled. ‘I’ve been here.’

  Laura’s mother glared at Zoe. ‘You’ve caused a lot of people a lot of trouble with your nonsense.’

  Zoe drew herself up to her full height. ‘It’s not nonsense,’ she replied haughtily. ‘I’ve run away from home. And if you’d just let me get past you, I’ll leave your house and you’ll never see me again.’

  ‘As for you,’ Laura’s mother went on, ignoring Zoe’s protest and turning her attention back to Laura, ‘I expected better from you. I’m not responsible for Zoe’s childish running around, but I will be dealing with you very severely. Let’s hope we’re not all in trouble with the police for harbouring a runaway.’

  ‘The police can’t arrest Laura,’ Zoe began, ‘she’s too young –’

  ‘Be quiet,’ Laura’s mother snapped. ‘You’ve caused enough trouble already. Now, sit down on the bed, both of you, and don’t say a word.’ She tapped the keys on her phone. ‘Police please. I’d like to report that we’ve found the missing girl, Zoe Watts. Yes, that’s Zoe Watts, reported missing ten days ago. She’s here, in my house and it seems she’s been here all along.’

  Zoe glared helplessly at her friend while Laura’s mother gave the police her name and address. ‘That snotty nosed kid, Richard, betrayed us,’ she muttered.

  Laura shut her eyes and began to cry.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re crying for,’ Zoe hissed. ‘I’m the one who’s been caught. The police are probably going to lock me up now, because I’m not going home.’

  44

  Zoe and Laura went downstairs. Once Laura’s mother recovered from her vexation, she wasn’t angry with Zoe at all. Smiling, she sat her down and gave her a thick slice of cake, and insisted she eat it.

  ‘You look half starved,’ she said. ‘How on earth did
you manage to survive, hidden up there all this time?’

  ‘I took food up to her,’ Laura answered for Zoe, whose mouth was crammed with cake. ‘I’ve been looking after her. Zoe’s my friend, and her parents are horrible to her.’ She burst into tears.

  Laura’s parents were very kind to Zoe, assuring her that she wasn’t in trouble.

  ‘There’s no need to feel frightened,’ Laura’s mother said gently.

  Zoe was about to point out that she wasn’t afraid of anything, but Laura silenced her with a warning frown and a slight shake of her head.

  ‘You did what you felt you needed to do, both of you,’ Laura’s father said. ‘No one can criticise you for that.’

  ‘But next time you have a difficult situation to deal with, speak to us, Laura. You shouldn’t have tried to deal with this on your own,’ her mother added seriously. ‘And the same goes for you, Zoe.’

  It wasn’t clear if she was telling Zoe she ought to speak to them or to her own parents, but before they could continue the awkward conversation there was a knock at the door. Two police officers had arrived to collect Zoe. One of the two policewomen spoke quietly to Laura’s parents, while the other one sat down next to Zoe and talked to her.

  ‘Hello Zoe. My name is Susan and I’m here to make sure you have everything you need. We know you’ve had a spot of trouble at home, and we’re here to help you get this sorted out, and make sure you’re happy with what happens next.’

  ‘Thank God you’re here,’ Zoe heard Laura’s mother say. ‘I had no idea she was here. She’s been hiding upstairs for nearly two weeks! I called you the moment we discovered her hiding up in Laura’s room. Please, she can’t stay here. I don’t know what to do with her. And her poor parents must be going out of their minds with worry. If I’d known, I’d have got in touch with them immediately.’