Twice the Lie

by M K Farrar

  Now his family had paid the ultimate price, and Doug had the feeling he was soon going to join them. He didn’t care anymore. He was happy to say goodbye to all the material things he’d thought were so important—things he’d put his family’s life in danger for—and slip into the darkness that beckoned.

  Chapter Nineteen

  RYAN KNOCKED ON HIS boss’s door, waited for her to call to enter, and then stepped into the room.

  DCI Mandy Hirst was sitting at her desk, and she looked up as he walked in. “What can I do for you, Chase?”

  “There’s been some significant progress in the Lloyd double murder. I believe we now know where Russell Mabry was dropped off with Douglas Lloyd, and I have an idea about where they might be hiding out. I’d like to request additional backup in the form of extra officers and a dog unit, the helicopter, too, if that’s possible.”

  She nodded. “Whatever you need if it means bringing them to justice. Have you got any idea what the full story is behind the murders yet?”

  “We found a significant amount of cocaine in Mabry’s company car and traces of the drug in Lloyds’ company vehicle, too. We can’t say for sure just yet, but it looks as though they’ve been using their job roles as pharmaceutical sales reps to travel around the country, dealing cocaine while they’re there. From the way the house had been rifled through before the killing, my guess is Lloyd took something from Mabry, and when he was disturbed by the family, he killed them.”

  She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Jesus Christ, those poor people. You can have whatever it takes to apprehend the bastard responsible.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “Good work on finding them.”

  “We haven’t found them yet, ma’am, and it was a team effort. Everyone has really pulled together on this.”

  “That’s good to hear. Teamwork is everything in this job.”

  He agreed one hundred percent. Sometimes it was hard to let go of the need to do everything himself, wanting to make sure everything was done exactly right, so it was important to have people like Swift, and Mallory, and Penn on his team who he could trust.

  “Do you think there’s a possibility either of the men are armed?” DCI Hirst asked him. “Do you need an armed response unit as well?”

  “I don’t believe so, ma’am. The weapon used was a knife, and we have that in our possession now. We don’t have any intel to say they have access to guns. I also have good reason to think both men are hurt—Lloyd possibly fatally. I think we should consider Mabry unarmed but dangerous.”

  “Very well. Whatever you think.”

  Not wanting to waste any more time, aware that he needed to get people mobilised before they lost light again, he proceeded to put everything in place that was needed to bring in Mabry and Lloyd.

  WITHIN THE HOUR, HE had the teams ready to go at the location on the road where Alec McKenzie said he had dropped off Mabry and Lloyd. Checking satellite images of the area, he’d ascertained it was mostly lakes and fields, but there was a row of huts used for birdwatching.

  His team stood waiting for his command—Swift, Mallory, Penn, plus several uniformed officers and the dog handlers. The helicopter was in the air, and Ryan would bring it in if either man tried to run, not that he thought Lloyd would be in any condition to run. He hadn’t wanted to have it overhead yet, for fear of alerting them to the police presence. He also had an ambulance nearby since it was expected that they’d find at least one, if not both, men injured.

  He raised his voice to address his team. “We have reason to believe Russell Mabry has knowledge of the fishery and knows this area, which is why he asked the driver who picked them up to drop them off here. Consider both Russell Mabry and Douglas Lloyd unarmed but dangerous.”

  There was a chance Mabry had moved on, leaving Douglas Lloyd for dead and making his escape. But if he was covered in blood and injured as well, with no way of contacting anyone, hopefully he’d decided he’d be better off laying low until the heat died down.

  The fishery covered almost ten acres, but much of that was water. If either of them had tried to cross the water to cover their trail, it would make it harder for the dogs to track, though not impossible. Dogs could smell a track that was even a couple of inches under water.

  Ryan went to the dog handlers. “We’ve been told this is the location the two men were dropped off. We have items of clothing from both of them–a t-shirt taken from the Lloyd house, and a jacket found in Mabry’s car. We have reason to believe they were together initially, though there’s a chance Mabry has dumped Lloyd, alive or dead, and made out by himself. Both men are injured, Lloyd more severely than Mabry as far as we’re aware.”

  One of the dog handlers nodded. “Don’t worry, the dogs will distinguish between the two scents. If they separated, we’ll still find them.”

  “That’s what I want to hear.”

  Swift joined his side. “Teams are ready to go, boss.”

  “Thanks, Swift.”

  They’d follow the dogs, but they also had uniformed officers sweeping the area for any clues. The handful of fishermen who would normally be sitting around the lake had subtly been asked to leave and questioned as to whether they’d seen anything suspicious. None of them had.

  A bark came from the dogs.

  “We’ve got a scent,” one of the handlers called over his shoulder.

  Ryan glanced at Swift. “Hope you’re feeling fit.”

  She threw him a smile. “Not in the slightest.”

  “Me neither.”

  The dogs followed the road for several meters and then ducked through a gate to enter fields. The fishery was still some distance away, but the lake was visible, the water shimmering in the late afternoon sun.

  He hoped Mabry and Lloyd were out there somewhere.

  Chapter Twenty

  IT FELT AS THOUGH THEY’D already been going for miles, but when Erica glanced behind her again, the road was still in sight. They were moving at a brisk pace, and her lungs burned, her thighs ached, and the muscles in her calves twitched, threatening to cramp.

  The dogs could have run far faster but were held back by the speed of the handlers. Erica was thankful for that.

  The two DCs were with the uniformed officers, sweeping the area for any signs of the two men. She envied them their slower pace.

  “Swift, look,” her boss said from beside her, also out of breath.

  He jerked his chin in the direction they were heading. Sure enough, the wooden structures of the bird-watching cabins were ahead of them, still a far enough distance to appear only as brown dots on the green landscape.

  They kept going, the dogs barking.

  Movement darted out from one of the huts.

  A man. He glanced over his shoulder and set off at a lurching run. His arms swung as he tried to compensate for what appeared to be an injured leg that he was dragging along behind him. That must have been why he hadn’t made a run for it before now. Perhaps he’d been hoping it would start to feel better before he tried to make a move.

  “Is that Mabry?” Erica asked. They were too far away to get a proper identification on the man.

  “I don’t know,” Ryan said, his brow drawn down in frustration. “We can’t release the dogs unless we know for sure.”

  “Stop! Police!” Erica shouted, though either the man was too far away to hear her, or he ignored her on purpose and kept going.

  Whoever the man was, he wouldn’t get away. There were too many police around, and he’d never outrun the dogs, especially not injured. But there was still a fair distance between them, and he turned the corner of a different hut and vanished out of view.

  “Fuck,” Ryan swore.

  “He can’t get far,” Erica said.

  They approached the huts, the dogs getting there first. The animals stopped at the second hut, their barking and frenzied activity rising to a crescendo.

  There wasn’t any door to the wooden shelter, just four walls and a gap
where a door should be, and a glass window that covered most of the far wall. Sitting slumped against the wall, his eyes shut, shirt drenched in almost-dry blood, was Douglas Lloyd.

  “Get the paramedics,” Ryan shouted to the uniformed officers nearby, before ducking into the shelter.

  Erica kept going. “I’ll go after Mabry,” she called back to him. Then to DC Penn, who was nearby, “I need backup.”

  She rounded the last of the huts, and something hit her across the chest, sending her reeling back and gasping in shock.

  He’d hit her with a two-by-four he must have found on the ground. Son of a bitch. An arm wrapped around her neck, choking her, hauling her back against the side of the cabin. She was already winded from slamming into the wood, and now her opportunity to draw in a new breath had been cut off. Her lungs burned, her chest tight. Even though she knew her fellow police officers were right around the corner, the bright flare of panic filled her mind that this was going to go horribly wrong. What if he killed her and she never got to see her family again?

  But then she remembered Russell Mabry had been injured in the car accident and how he’d been half dragging one leg as he’d tried to run, and she lifted her booted foot and swung it backwards. Her heel connected with the leg he’d been dragging, and he howled in pain. The hold on her throat immediately released, and she sucked in a long breath and spun to face him. He was about to rush her when Ryan rounded the corner behind Mabry. Ryan collided with him, forcing Mabry to his knees, eliciting another yowl of pain from the wanted man.

  “It’s over, Russell.” Ryan clipped cuffs around his wrists. “Russell Mabry, you’re under arrest for the murders of Elizabeth and Keira Lloyd, and the attempted murder and abduction of Douglas Lloyd. You are also under arrest for the intent to supply class-A drugs. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

  “No, please,” Mabry begged. “This has all just got out of hand. I didn’t mean to hurt them! That son of a bitch Lloyd stole my phone, and I was looking for it when they came back. Beth kept saying she was going to call the police. I couldn’t let her do that. My whole business has worked because I’d kept my nose clean, and if this was reported, I’d go to jail. There were drugs in the back of my car. A lot of drugs. I’d go down for it, and the men I work for have people in jail who would want to make sure I kept my mouth shut. For good.”

  “So, you stabbed her?” Erica said in disbelief.

  “I didn’t mean to! I threatened her with the knife. I thought it would be enough to stop her, but she said she wasn’t going to let some arsehole with a knife tell her what to do. She’d almost dialled nine-nine-nine by this point. I couldn’t let her dial that final nine.”

  “And what about the little girl, Keira?” Ryan growled. “Did you mean to kill her?”

  “She wouldn’t stop crying. I told her to be quiet, but she wouldn’t. She was crouched over her mother making this awful noise. I tried to grab her to pull her away—I didn’t know what I was going to do with her at that point, I just wanted her to stop—but she shook me off and ran for the stairs. She screamed, and I was sure the neighbours were going to hear. I put my hand over her mouth and nose, just to keep her quiet; that was all, I swear. But then when I took it off again, she wasn’t moving.”

  Ryan yanked him to his feet. “I suggest you save all of this for your interview down at the station.”

  But Russell didn’t seem to want to stop talking. “Doug came home. He rushed over to her, but then caught sight of Beth through the open doorway. He looked over at me, and I knew I didn’t have any choice. I stabbed him in the stomach, but I couldn’t kill him yet. I still didn’t have the phone. But I also knew that I couldn’t stay in the house in case someone had heard Keira scream and had called the police. I spotted Beth’s car keys on the side and grabbed them. I’d parked a couple of roads away so that my car wasn’t seen near the house, but it was too far to get Doug while he was bleeding. I just had to take my chances. I thought I’d managed to get away with it, but then that arsehole attacked me while I was driving and forced us off the road.”

  “You might as well save your breath,” Ryan said. “You’re going to be repeating all this all over again at the station in a formal interview.”

  A couple of uniformed officers joined them, and Ryan handed Russell Mabry over to be put in the back of a squad car and taken down to the station.

  The paramedics had arrived and were working on Douglas Lloyd.

  “You think Lloyd will live?” Erica asked him.

  Ryan glanced back over towards the cabin. “Unsure yet. But considering both his wife and daughter are dead, and that he’ll be going away for some time under drug charges, I’m not sure he’ll even want to make it.”

  “Do we have enough evidence to charge Mabry with murder?”

  “Absolutely. Russell Mabry will be going inside for a very long time.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  THE PARAMEDICS INSISTED on checking Erica over, though she hadn’t suffered anything more than a few bruises from Mabry’s attack. Nevertheless, they wouldn’t continue to let her work until they’d made sure nothing was broken, so she sat in the back of an ambulance and let them do what they needed.

  It was late, but there was still a lot of work to do. The fishery was now a crime scene, Mabry would need to be officially interviewed, despite his confession when he’d been arrested, and they needed to tie in Lloyd’s involvement with traces of drugs found in the boot casings of his company car.

  She felt they owed it to Russell Mabry’s wife to hear the news in person, rather than getting a phone call. Giving anyone bad news was never something she enjoyed, and she was about to tell Michelle Mabry that her entire life was about to be ripped out from under her feet.

  Mrs Mabry had gone to her mother’s house, at their advice, so, once the paramedics reluctantly let her go, Erica went to that address.

  She rang the doorbell and stepped back.

  The door swung open, and Michelle stood in the empty space, her eyes hollowed with shadows, her skin pale. Her lips looked chapped and sore from where she must have been picking and chewing at them because she’d been so anxious.

  “Can I come in?” Erica asked. “I have some news.”

  “Yes, of course. Come through.”

  She led Erica into the lounge.

  “We’ve located your husband, Mrs Mabry,” Erica said.

  Michelle’s legs seemed to go out from under her, and she sank onto the sofa. “Oh, thank God. Is he all right? Is he alive?”

  “Yes, he’s alive. I’m afraid he’s been charged with the double murder of a mother and daughter, the attempted murder and unlawful imprisonment of another man, and intent to supply class-A drugs.”

  She shook her head frantically. “What? No, that can’t be right. You must have the wrong person.”

  “I’m sorry, but we don’t. It’s definitely your husband. We’re going to need to ask you to come down to the station so we can ask you some questions.”

  “You’ve made a mistake. Russell is a good man. He’s a good father.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “What am I going to tell my son? How would we manage for money?”

  Erica understood that it was easier to believe the police had it wrong than consider the possibility they were right.

  “We’ll make sure you have the support you need to figure out your next steps,” Erica told her.

  “I won’t believe it,” Michelle insisted. “My husband is innocent. You’ve made a massive mistake, and before long you’ll be apologising to both of us!”

  Considering the amount of evidence they had against him, that was highly unlikely. But it wasn’t unusual for a wife to stick by her husband, no matter what facts were presented to them. Over time, Michelle would realise the man she married was nothing like what she’d thought, and she’d carve herself out a new kind of life, one where her
husband and the father of her child was a murderer. Erica felt sorry for the boy as well, having to grow up with that stigma hanging over his head, but she felt even more sorry for little Kiera Lloyd, who would never get the chance at a life at all.

  Her phone rang as she helped Michelle into the back of her car to be taken in for questioning.

  It was DI Chase.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  “Much as expected. What about Douglas Lloyd? Is he still with us?”

  “They’ve stabilised him. It looks like he’ll pull through.”

  “That’s good, I guess.”

  She wasn’t sure she’d want to regain consciousness knowing her family were dead and she was facing a long spell behind bars if she were Lloyd. She didn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for him, though. His actions had brought about the murders of his wife and daughter, and they were the true innocents in all of this.

  Ryan’s voice brought her focus back round.

  “Thanks for all your work on this, Swift,” Ryan said. “You’ll be after my job one day.”

  “Thanks, boss.”

  Erica hoped she had the makings to be a good detective inspector at some point in her future. But, for now, she would be content to go home to her baby girl and husband.

  It had been a very long day.

  DID YOU ENJOY ‘TWICE the Lie’? DI Ryan Chase is getting his own series, with book one, ‘Kill Chase’, now available to order from Amazon!

  And if you haven’t come across Erica Swift before, she has a six book series already out. Start with ‘The Eye Thief’ – you won’t regret it! All books are available to read for free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

  Kill Chase: A Detective Ryan Chase Thriller: Book One

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  When fishermen haul a bag containing a dismembered leg from the river Avon, a search ensues to find the rest of the body.