Bella’s eyes seemed to bulge in their sockets as she pitched forwards, her lips parted in an unearthly scream. At the same instant, Geraldine sprang to her feet and hurled herself sideways. Her attempt to avoid an attack came too late, as Bella lunged at her, brandishing a kitchen knife. A sharp pain sliced into Geraldine’s side, and she fell to her knees with a cry of pain.
62
Bella sprang back as though she had been stung.
‘Look at it!’ she cried out, waving the knife in front of Geraldine. ‘Just look at it!’
Geraldine drew back in alarm, afraid that Bella intended to slash her again. Partly shielded by the back of an armchair, she grabbed a cushion and clutched it firmly against her side in an attempt to stem the bleeding. Gasping with pain at the pressure against her injured side, she struggled against the panic that threatened to overwhelm her. Above all else, it was imperative to control her terror so that she could think clearly. Once Ian discovered Susan had left Bella’s house, he would call Geraldine, and when she did not answer her phone, he would come looking for her. But that would only happen if he discovered that Susan had left Bella’s house before Geraldine arrived, and it was quite likely he would not notice. Not only that, but since Geraldine had asked him to move out of her flat, there was no reason why he would realise that she was missing overnight. Probably no one would be aware of her absence until she failed to turn up at her desk the following morning, by which time she might have been attacked again, if she hadn’t already bled to death from her existing injury.
Staring into Bella’s crazed eyes, Geraldine shivered.
‘Look!’ Bella repeated, her face twisted in an expression of dismay. ‘Look at it! Blood! There’s blood everywhere!’ She stared at the knife in fury, muttering under her breath. ‘No more blood. No more blood.’ She looked up and glared at Geraldine. ‘How am I supposed to hide the evidence this time?’
‘This time?’ Geraldine whispered.
For all Bella’s fussing and carping, there was very little blood soaking into the cushion. It seemed to be dribbling from her injury, rather than gushing, suggesting Geraldine had received a nasty scratch, rather than a deep stab wound. Admittedly her injured side was agonising, but she told herself it must be a superficial wound, and tried to block out the pain as well as she could. She could not afford to allow anything to distract her from her priority, which was to make her escape. In this moment, nothing else mattered.
Bella’s eyes swivelled round to fix on Geraldine again. ‘You made me do that,’ she hissed, ‘and now look what’s happened. There’s blood everywhere. What a mess. How am I ever going to clean this up? Look! There’s blood on the chair. Can’t you see it? Blood everywhere.’
Stupefied, Geraldine looked at where Bella was pointing, and saw a bright red smear on the fabric. All at once, she felt nauseous, sickened by the realisation that she was being compelled to gaze at her own blood, as if this was a crime scene from which she was completely detached. Forcing herself to remain outwardly calm, she watched Bella closely. Her attacker was still gripping the handle of the knife tightly, her knuckles white with the effort. There was no way Geraldine would be able to disarm her, without risking further injury. But she was not so dazed that she failed to register Bella’s dismay at the sight of blood on the chair.
Tentatively she suggested that Bella might want to put the knife down. ‘If you don’t want to get any more bloodstains on your furniture,’ she said, ‘it might be best to take that knife very carefully back to the kitchen and rinse it under the tap. Otherwise you might touch the walls or another chair with the blade, and you can see for yourself that it’s covered in blood.’
As Bella glanced down at the knife in her hand and hesitated, Geraldine made her move. Whipping the cushion round so that she was holding it in front of her like a shield, she darted out from behind the chair. With one swift blow, she knocked the knife out of Bella’s hand. Dropping the cushion, she seized Bella’s wrists. It was the work of a moment to subdue her adversary now, the action automatic, after so many years of training. Twisting one of Bella’s arms up behind her back until she yelped in pain, Geraldine pushed her roughly down on to the floor. At the same time, she became aware that her wound was beginning to bleed more profusely with all the movement, and she started to feel faint.
‘Get up!’ she shouted urgently, jerking Bella to her feet. ‘Walk!’
Holding both Bella’s wrists in one hand, as soon as she could reach her bag, Geraldine tipped out its contents on the sofa and found her handcuffs. With Bella’s hands secured, Geraldine was finally able to collapse on the bloodstained chair, shaking, with her phone in her hand. There were seven missed calls, six of them from Ian. Before she could call him, there was a deafening crash, and a loud voice bellowed that the police were entering the premises.
‘Put down your weapons!’ the voice yelled. ‘We have an armed response team surrounding the property, and we are coming in! Stand away from the door and put down your weapons! Arms where we can see them.’
‘Oh for goodness sake,’ Geraldine murmured irritably.
She could have done without this additional drama. Too weak to raise her voice to remonstrate at such a pointless waste of police time and resources, she clambered unsteadily to her feet, and staggered out of the living room into the hall.
‘Geraldine!’ Ian cried out, rushing forward.
‘Keep back!’ a masked figure called out.
‘It’s all right, it’s over,’ Geraldine told the armed officer. ‘There’s no threat. She’s not armed. She’s in there,’ she nodded at the living room door, ‘and she’s handcuffed.’
‘You’re injured,’ Ian said, his eyes alert with alarm.
‘Yes, she had a knife, but she’s no threat to anyone now. It’s all over.’
‘Stand down!’ a deep voice called out.
Behind her, Geraldine heard movement, and then uniformed officers were running past her, jostling and shouting. Overhead there was the sudden roar of a helicopter circling.
‘What is all this fuss?’ she asked Ian, who barely managed to catch her as her legs gave way.
‘You’re getting blood on your clothes,’ she murmured, aware of his breath on her face as he leaned over to brush her forehead gently with his lips.
‘No need for any of this,’ she murmured as she passed out.
63
Eileen did not bother to remonstrate when Geraldine turned up at the briefing the next morning, although she did raise her eyebrows and ask if Geraldine was sure she was all right.
‘I’m fine,’ Geraldine replied. ‘I’d like to be present when we interview Bella. I don’t think she’ll try to cover up what she’s done if I’m there. She knows I know.’
Eileen frowned. ‘Do we have to talk in riddles?’
‘What I mean to say is, Bella made a confession, of sorts, while she was attacking me.’
‘We can get her for assaulting a police officer, if nothing else,’ Ian said, with barely concealed anger.
‘We should be able to get her for at least two murders as well,’ Geraldine said.
‘At least two?’ Eileen repeated.
‘Yes. She as good as admitted she killed Angie and Leslie, although she didn’t say so in exactly those words.’
‘What did she say?’ Eileen demanded.
‘She told me they weren’t women at all, but demons sent by Satan to lead her husband astray.’
Eileen laughed bitterly. ‘So she’s preparing a plea of temporary insanity?’
‘We can’t let her get away with that,’ Ian said. ‘These murders were very carefully planned. She knew exactly what she was doing.’
‘I’m not sure her insanity is temporary,’ Geraldine replied. ‘I think she genuinely believes Satan tempted her husband to sin, and it’s her sacred duty to save his soul from eternal damnation.’
‘O
h please,’ Ian said. ‘Spare us the mumbo-jumbo. Those two women were killed.’
‘I’m not sure they were her only victims,’ Geraldine said. ‘She seemed very exercised about my blood on her furniture.’
‘Well, it is a bit of a giveaway,’ Eileen said. ‘Apart from your testimony, she can hardly deny having attacked you with a knife that has your blood on the blade and her prints on the handle.’
‘Yes, but her reaction was odd. She seemed very angry about the blood. Fortunately it was just a scratch. I didn’t bleed very much and most of it soaked into a cushion, and there was a fairly small bloodstain on the arm of a chair. But she told me there was blood everywhere, and it was my fault, and then she wanted to know how she was supposed to get rid of it. She kept repeating, “No more blood”, and asked me how she was going to hide the evidence this time. I definitely had the impression this wasn’t the first time she had stabbed someone.’
It did not take long for a match to be found for Bella’s DNA. Two years earlier, a young woman had been fatally stabbed in her own bed, in Leeds. DNA of an unidentified female had been discovered at the scene, which proved a match with Bella’s, along with a single partial fingerprint that was a possible match. Armed with this new evidence, Geraldine and Ian prepared to interview Bella, who was formally charged with committing three murders and assaulting a police officer. Bella listened to the charges in silence while her lawyer looked anxious. Geraldine wondered whether he had managed to get any sense out of his client.
‘Well?’ Ian asked. ‘Do we have to go through the charade of hearing you deny the charges, or are you going to save everyone time by giving us a full confession?’
Bella stared blankly at him and muttered that she wanted to see her husband. ‘He’s my husband. I have a right to see him.’
‘I’m afraid you waived any rights when you decided to embark on a killing spree,’ Ian replied.
‘You make it sound so wicked,’ Bella replied, ‘but it’s your accusations that are pernicious.’
Geraldine snorted. ‘Committing murder hardly gives you the moral high ground.’
Bella sat forward suddenly in her chair. At her side, her lawyer stirred.
‘You do not have to say anything,’ he muttered urgently.
Ignoring the interruption, Bella looked straight at Geraldine. ‘Surely that depends on who you kill. You understand, don’t you? Of course you do. You deal with the wicked all the time. You know, better than anyone, that there are fiends among us who do not deserve to live. They come among us but they are not human. Sometimes they have to be destroyed, to protect the innocent. But the blasphemous libertarians who guard our morality refuse to allow that. Look at any other period in history. Witches were burnt, and demons exorcised. What do we do to protect ourselves from the forces of darkness now?’
‘So you are claiming to be carrying out some kind of moral purge by murdering innocent women who happened to catch your husband’s eye?’ Ian asked. ‘It seems pretty obvious that the only people in need of protection are innocent women who end up in bed with your husband.’
‘It is my duty to save my husband from the demons who are sent to corrupt his immortal soul.’
‘Oh, I’ve heard enough of this nonsense,’ Ian snapped. ‘Your husband is a serial adulterer who abused his position as a hotel manager to seduce young women. Adultery isn’t a crime, but if it were he would be locked up for life for what he did. As his wife, you faced two choices: put up with his infidelity, or leave him. It’s a choice many women have to make. There’s nothing special about you or your husband. Some men are unable to keep their dicks in their trousers, and he’s one of them. We all get that, except you. Out of some misguided sense of entitlement, you couldn’t face the fact that your husband was unfaithful. Refusing to blame him for his behaviour, instead you channelled your rage against the women he seduced. You lashed out and ended up killing at least three. For all we know, there could have been more. You can try and hide behind this pretence of insanity, but the fact is you are a violent, possessive woman, and you chose to murder your rivals out of sheer jealousy. This has nothing to do with morality, or God, or the devil. And you are going to be locked up for the rest of your life. Prison is too good for you.’
Bella shook her head, her eyes blazing with fury. ‘The Lord will save me,’ she cried out. ‘He will save my soul and you will burn for all eternity.’
‘Very well,’ Ian said. ‘Perhaps you’re too good at this to end up in prison, and you’ll spend the rest of your life in a padded cell. I don’t really care what happens to you, as long as you’re incarcerated somewhere. In a previous era, you would have been burned at the stake, of course,’ he added softly.
‘The Lord will smite you down with a flaming sword,’ Bella screeched.
‘Oh, give it a rest, will you?’ Ian replied.
Bella’s lawyer spoke for the first time. ‘My client is not of sound mind. You are obliged to speak to her with respect.’
‘Tell that to the families of her innocent victims,’ Ian said, ‘you know, the women she murdered.’
‘Those women are not innocent,’ Bella raged. ‘They were sent by the devil. I was carrying out the Lord’s work when I ended their lives.’
‘We’ll take that as a confession then, shall we?’ Ian said. ‘Thank goodness for that. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve heard enough of this nonsense. Interview terminated at fifteen twenty.’
64
It was all over now, bar the procedure. Following a trial, Bella would be locked up for the rest of her life, probably in a psychiatric unit. The lives of her husband and her daughter had been destroyed, along with the lives of her victims and the people who had loved them. Yet it was a result of a kind, and the mood at the team’s celebratory drink was one of bitter triumph.
At her flat that evening, Geraldine handed Ian a large glass of wine.
‘Tell me what happened with Helena,’ she said.
She was pleased that her voice sounded steady, although her hand shook as she poured a glass of wine for herself.
Ian sighed. ‘Can we spend one evening together without arguing about your sister?’
‘Tell me,’ she repeated, glaring at him.
‘Oh, very well. You’re obviously spoiling for a fight.’
‘I just want to know what happened.’
‘For goodness sake, did you think I would ignore what was happening to you?’ he replied. ‘Geraldine, look at me. Did you really think I was going to abandon you to those idiots in the anti-corruption unit, without making any attempt to rescue you?’
‘So you went ahead and acted on your own, knowing you were going directly against my wishes.’
‘It’s not out of order to bend the rules to protect someone you care about.’
‘Isn’t that what Bella was doing?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. How can you compare my actions with those of a murderer? On the contrary, what I did probably saved you from being killed in prison. You can’t honestly say what I did was wrong. Or did you want to spend the rest of your life behind bars? Geraldine you’re being unreasonable. You must know I couldn’t abandon you to a life in prison.’
‘You couldn’t abandon me, but you were happy for me to abandon my sister,’ she replied bitterly. ‘This was never about me or what I might want. It was about you. You had no right to interfere.’
She was aware that she was being harsh, but she was too upset to even attempt to control her fury.
Ian stared at her. ‘What else was I supposed to do?’
‘You could have spoken to me. ’
‘I knew what your answer would be.’
‘So you admit you knew I wouldn’t condone what you did.’
‘Condone it? You didn’t know what you were doing. I rescued you from yourself, Geraldine.’
‘And I’m supposed to be grate
ful?’ she demanded coldly, hating herself for her bitter resentment, yet unable to stop herself. ‘You think I should be grateful to you for betraying my trust?’
‘Geraldine,’ Ian said, very quietly. ‘Stop it. You know how I feel about you. You know that I love you.’
‘That isn’t love, Ian. You can’t use love as an excuse to do whatever you want.’
Ian rose to his feet and gazed at her in dismay. ‘Geraldine, I really don’t know why you’re being so unreasonable. Listen, first of all I never broke my word to you.’
Geraldine stared at the floor and clutched her wine glass. When she spoke, her voice sounded oddly forced.
‘When I tried to speak to Helena, I found that her phone had been disconnected. So I went to see her, and do you know what I discovered? Yes, of course you do, because you arranged it. Someone else had moved into Helena’s flat. Now if I try to find my sister, there’ll be no record of her anywhere. It’s as though she never existed. She disappeared without trace, and it happened overnight. Someone arranged for her to vanish. She could be dead, or living somewhere else with a new identity.’ She raised her head and looked at him, no longer making any effort to control her tears. ‘I’ll never know.’
Ian heaved a sigh and sat down. In a faltering voice, he explained how he had been unable to leave her locked in a cell.
‘I couldn’t bear to think of you in there. I couldn’t sit back and do nothing, just as you couldn’t abandon Helena to her addiction. You risked your career to save her from her drug dealer. Is the risk I took to protect you any different from what you did to save her?’
‘Only now neither of us can find out where Helena is, because if I ever try to contact her again, it would risk revealing her location. And there are men out there who will seize any chance they can to put pressure on me to do whatever they want. Everything that has happened in this case has been about people trying to protect one another, and it has all gone horribly wrong.’ She paused, shaking her head. ‘You do realise that, thanks to your intervention, I’ll never see my sister again. Never. I dare say you couldn’t tell me where she’s gone even if you wanted to, because any trail will have been expunged by now. She’s probably no longer in the country. She could be anywhere. She might be dead.’
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