‘Nigel,’ Joanna whispered.
Nigel Whiteley’s face was mangled, his skull crushed. Half-blinded with tears, she turned her head away. She was too exhausted to weep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
‘What are you going to do with us?’ Lily’s voice faltered as she dragged herself back on to her feet.
When Robbie said nothing, she collapsed on to the sofa, and started to sob. The bravado had vanished; all the fight had drained out of her. After waiting so long for her chance to escape, Robbie had outfoxed her. Outfoxed us, Joanna corrected herself. He’d guessed they’d try something, and taken a step back to allow Nigel to enter the room first. Good manners weren’t in his make-up; he must have been using his friend as a decoy. The ruse had saved his life, and destroyed Nigel’s.
Robbie sat on one of the bar stools, swinging his legs. He didn’t speak until Lily forced herself to look him in the eye again.
‘What’d you like me to do with you?’
He’d won, and they were at his mercy. Yet in his moment of triumph, it seemed to Joanna that he was distracted, almost bored. A strange thought popped into her head. He’s lost hope, just like us.
‘Nigel was your friend,’ she said.
The legs stopped swinging. ‘You reckon?’
‘Why did you let him die? Anyone would think you … hated him.’
‘You were always fucking dense, Joanna. Never mind that you looked down on Carrie ’cause she never got into college. Why ask me about Nige? You know what he was like.’
His contempt stung like a whiplash. You know what he was like. Was that right? Yes, she supposed so. It just hurt too much to face the truth.
‘So you meant us to kill him?’
‘Go to the top of the class.’ He gave a slow handclap. In the quiet of the underground room, the sound was unnaturally loud. ‘Nige deserved it, after ruining everything. Same as he always did.’
‘What do you mean?’
Dragging his attention away from Lily, he considered Joanna, as if she were an insect, waiting to be swatted. ‘He wanted a turn at the wheel, remember? Desperate to find out what it was like, driving a BMW. Grabbed me by the shoulder, so I spun off the road. Carrie was killed, and I was crippled. You and him walked away without a scratch.’
‘He was only messing about.’ Her breath was coming in jerky gasps. Her recollection of that night was fuzzy. She’d had too much to drink. ‘You were driving too fast. Anyway, you had concussion. Your memory’s not reliable.’
‘I remember,’ he said. ‘You’re the one who lost her marbles, not me.’
‘Robbie, we all suffered. I was ill for years.’
‘Nige was fine.’ He sniffed noisily, wiping his nose with the back of a hairy hand. ‘You know he was just practising with you? Told me himself. You were too young.’
‘You’re wrong. It was Amber who was too young.’
‘Nah, Nige liked them older. Much older. That wife of his was ancient, that’s why they only had the one kid.’ He sniggered, as if making her writhe was the last pleasure left for him to take. ‘You were up against the lovely Lysette. You had no chance.’
‘No.’ Her voice was shrill. ‘No!’
‘Followed him that night, didn’t you? When he gave you the brush off?’
‘He never …’
‘Hey, I was there. Watching the two of you, after you left the pub and went for a walk on the beach. All very lovey-dovey, but he was stringing you along. You were his alibi, just like the way Lysette started flirting with his Dad. The minute Nige got shut of you, he went to her.’
‘It’s not true!’
‘Bollocks. You followed him.’ There wasn’t a shred of pity in his voice, she thought. He despised weakness, and she was weak. Always had been, most of all where Nigel was concerned. ‘I saw you. You waited half a minute, then jumped on your bike, and pedalled after him. Bet you started wetting yourself when he wound up at the Dungeon House. Suppose you thought he fancied shagging Amber.’
Her eyes widened. She wanted to scream in protest, but could not make a sound.
‘Went tits-up, didn’t it? For once in his life. Nige was always such a lucky bugger.’ He jerked a thumb towards the battered corpse. ‘Till tonight, anyway.’
Lily said feebly, ‘What is this? What are you talking about?’
‘History lesson. Once upon a time at the Dungeon House.’
‘I don’t get it.’
He shrugged and turned away from her. The spell was broken, Joanna thought. For three years, he’d obsessed over this girl, but then she’d tried to kill him. Now she was no better than Joanna.
‘Nige was waiting in the summer house for Lysette, but Malcolm shot her. Amber ran off to the quarry garden, and Nige went up there to find out what all the commotion was about. Nige and Amber finished up together on the top path. She’d realised what was happening was his fault, as much as Malcolm’s. He’d been shagging her Mum in secret, and using her and you as a blind. She went all hysterical, and started punching him with her little fists. Until he pushed her over the edge.’
‘You can’t be sure of that!’ Joanna cried.
‘You saw him yourself, you said so the next morning.’
‘I … I was confused. How could I be certain what I saw? It was dark, and so frightening … Nigel would never have meant to …’
‘He meant it, all right.’
‘You don’t know that!’
‘Nige told me,’ Robbie Dean said. ‘Yeah, I wormed the truth out of him. He fessed up when I went round to see him on the Sunday. Not twenty-four hours after he murdered Amber.’
‘Will he be okay?’ Hannah asked the ginger-haired paramedic, as her male colleague helped the driver of Dean’s van to his feet. He was the troglodyte Hannah and Les had met up at Ravenglass Knoll. His shaven-headed sidekick was sitting on his haunches at the side of the road, swearing at the rain.
The traffic crew had closed the road, and the blue flashing lights of ambulance and traffic patrol car had tempted a handful of onlookers to brave the downpour, but there was precious little for them to see. Their car had mounted the pavement, front wing badly dented but otherwise unscathed, and safe to drive away. The van was a write-off. Having caught the car a glancing blow as Les tried desperately to avoid a head-on collision, it had swerved straight into a low garden wall.
‘Broken ribs, shoulder, and nose,’ the paramedic murmured, ‘but it looks worse than it really is.’
‘Yeah, he wasn’t exactly Jude Law before he got covered in blood.’
‘You know him?’
‘Les and I had a brief encounter with this pair earlier today.’
The paramedic considered the wrecked van. ‘Lucky devil, he got off lightly. All four of you did. Even so, take what I said seriously. Whiplash symptoms often don’t present for six to twelve hours. If you experience any discomfort …’
‘Right, thanks, got the message.’ Hannah clapped the woman on the back. Her neck was fine, but she felt spaced out. The collision had shocked her, but she couldn’t risk being carted off to hospital for a better-safe-than-sorry check up. ‘Go and tend to your patient. I’ll have a quick word with his pal.’
When the drenched lad saw Hannah approaching, he rubbed his left arm with a theatrical grimace, and the swearing became an incoherent moan. She diagnosed a young man feeling sorry for himself rather than someone in serious pain. No doubt he was hoping to blag his way to a bit of compensation. Folk like him had helped to make Nigel Whiteley rich.
‘There, there. Now, why were you in such a tearing hurry?’
‘The boss gave us a bonus, like, and we were off to have a few bevvies.’
‘A bonus? What for?’
‘Don’t ask me. Never happened before. We turned up as usual, to put the equipment in the store for the night, but he said he’d sort it out. Told us to piss off, and treat ourselves. He gave us a hundred quid each.’
‘Generous.’
‘Obvious, innit?’ He gave a sala
cious wink, and she guessed he wanted to embarrass her, petty revenge for the loss of his night in the pub with the troglodyte. ‘Bet he had a woman there. Dirty bugger wanted us out of the way so he could hurry up, and get his leg over.’
Joanna’s temples were throbbing, and the smell in the room was making her nauseous. They were sharing a tomb with a dead man. Soon Robbie would murder her, and Lily too. What use did he have for either of them? She must keep him talking, whatever the cost. At times in the past, she’d scarcely cared whether she lived or died. Now, when she was in danger through no fault of her own, she cared with a wild desperation.
Robbie said, ‘Nige would’ve killed you, that night, if he’d caught you. Lucky you ran for your life, and he was too busy keeping out of Malcolm’s way to chase you.’
‘I was terrified,’ she said. ‘In shock. I wept all night long, but I knew I had to go back, and collect my bike. I’d left it on the drive. I needed my wig, too. It caught on a branch when I was running, and I didn’t have time to rescue it. I heard the rifle shot, but I didn’t know Malcolm had shot himself. Or what I’d find there the next morning.’
‘You found me.’
True. She’d arrived at the Dungeon House as Robbie turned up to tidy after the barbecue. To her, everything had seemed unreal, out of focus. But Robbie was never one to panic. Not even after stumbling across three corpses, and a young woman half out of her mind. He’d interrogated her like a QC at the Old Bailey.
‘You weren’t making sense, blathering about Malcolm, and Nigel, and Amber. It’s a miracle I figured out what you’d seen.’
‘I was petrified.’
‘Did you a favour, didn’t I? Let you go, and never told the police you’d been there.’ He grinned. ‘You’ve a lot to thank me for, Joanna. I kept you out of so much shit.’
‘I never …’
‘Said thank you? Well, now’s your chance.’ He waved his hand. ‘Nah, doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now. Soon as the police finished asking me questions, I drove straight round to see Nige. He was expecting the cops to turn up with the handcuffs, but they never showed. It was an open goal. I told him it’d work out fine. We did a deal. I’d look after him, and he’d look after me.’
‘Look after you?’
‘Money, Joanna, loads of it. I was stony broke. No money, no girlfriend, nothing to look forward to. Nige was coming in to a fortune. The Dungeon House was sure to go to his Dad, there was no one else. But he was dying, and Nige thought he’d inherit the lot. Course, he wanted to spite Malcolm, kill his daughter in revenge after Malcolm blew Lysette’s head off. And he was shutting Amber up, when if she stayed alive, she’d tell everyone it was his fault. Then there was the cash. Nigel, the millionaire. Yeah, he’d lots of reasons to kill the girl.’
Deep down, yes, the truth had lain buried in her subconscious. When you care for someone the way she’d cared for Nigel, you understand what they care about, even if you refuse to accept it. And he loved money, more than anything. More even than Lysette.
‘I never believed,’ she began, ‘I never believed he’d do … something so awful on the spur of the moment. You’ve no idea what it was like at the Dungeon House that night. Malcolm bellowing like a wounded tiger, Amber screaming fit to burst. Two intruders in the grounds, Nigel and me. It was chaos. Madness.’
Robbie looked at the corpse on the carpet. ‘Liked taking chances, did Nige. He was set up for life with the wife of a rich man, but Malcolm stole that from him. He didn’t think twice about killing Amber when he had the chance. Nobody had any idea what he’d done, except you, and you were too crazy to matter. He was sure you’d top yourself, but you had a breakdown, and then fucked off to Manchester, and that was just as good.’
‘What about me?’ Lily said in a small voice. ‘Where do I come in?’
‘Missed Carrie, didn’t I?’ He gave her a hard stare. ‘Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve said? Nigel was too busy to spend any more time watching mucky films with his old mate. Never mind. Once I turned the old air raid shelter into a home from home, all I needed was Carrie to share it with. You were perfect. When I saw your face, your hair … well, I had to go for it. That’s one thing Nigel taught me. The moment you’re given a chance in life, grab it. Even as a kid, he loved to think of himself as a psycho. But even psychos run out of luck in the end. You brought him bad luck, Joanna. You should never have come back.’
‘You sent me that message, pretending to be Nigel.’
‘He asked me to. When you went to see him, he panicked, big style. Not like him, but he lost the plot after Shona went missing.’
‘I didn’t mean to threaten him!’ Surely Nigel couldn’t have been afraid of her? The mask of friendliness hadn’t slipped once, even when she’d dared to make a cryptic reference to what had happened that night at the Dungeon House. ‘All I said was …’
‘Who gives a shit?’ Robbie interrupted. ‘He knew he’d never be safe with you around. So he begged me to take care of you.’
A long silence.
‘Did he know about Lily?’
Joanna’s voice was barely audible. She’d been so loyal to Nigel for so long. Never said that he was to blame for the accident. Never told anyone – except Robbie, of course, when her head was still spinning – about what she’d witnessed at the Dungeon House. She’d paid such a price, suffered such torments. Her health had been ruined, her whole life blown to pieces. How could Nigel, of all people, betray her? It was beyond her worst imagining.
Robbie shrugged. ‘We never spoke about her. Some things men don’t talk about. You’re a woman, you wouldn’t understand. He guessed, even if he didn’t know I’d kept her alive.’
‘But he … wanted you to keep me here?’
‘Nah, you’re kidding yourself. He wanted me to finish you off, said it was the only way he’d be safe.’ He paused for effect. ‘Wanted me to drown you, off Drigg Point. Make it look like suicide.’
She swallowed hard. ‘You didn’t do it, though. You brought me here.’
‘Nige has ordered me around for years.’ His voice was hard. ‘Killing you was never going to work. If he’d thought straight, he’d never have suggested it. I only agreed ’cause he said he’d let the police know I took Lily. Of all the days to threaten me. He’d forgotten tonight is the anniversary.’
‘Anniversary?’
‘Don’t’ tell me you’ve forgotten too? Of the accident, stupid.’
‘Oh.’ She exhaled. ‘Sorry. It … slipped my mind.’
‘He might as well have told the police. They’ve come sniffing round already.’
‘The police?’ Her heartbeat quickened.
He laughed; a cruel, discordant noise. ‘You look as though you’ve wet yourself. No need to get excited. I showed them over the house, and they buggered off again.’
She bent her head. Was that the last hope gone?
‘Nige should have trusted me, but the cops went to see him.’ Robbie was almost shouting. ‘His daughter’s been found, but did he thank his lucky stars? Not Nige, he came here to throw his weight around. That’s when I knew everything had changed. He’d messed up, and I was paying the price.’
He walked across the room, and kicked the corpse’s torso. ‘Well, he paid too. Least he didn’t die in vain. Now I know there’s nobody I can trust.’
The tear-streaked girl cringed under his gaze. Joanna could read her mind. He still hasn’t answered the question. What is he going to do with us?
Robbie was a mind reader too. ‘It’s over. Nige’s fault, as usual.’
Jangling the keys in his pocket, he strode out of the room. Joanna was paralysed, and so was Lily. They didn’t even twitch when the steel door crashed shut behind him.
‘It’s not every day they have this much excitement in Drigg, ma’am,’ Azeem, a traffic sergeant with a Yorkshire accent broader than Les Bryant’s, was with Hannah in her car. The road was open again, and the giant young constable and Les were standing outside in the teeming rain, talking to
the recovery vehicle’s driver. He’d loaded the wrecked van, which was ready to make its final journey.
‘First, a woman goes missing, and leaves her things and a mysterious note in her car. Now a POLAC with a DCI in the passenger seat. Glad you weren’t driving, ma’am, We’d have had to call out the Superintendent, and on a night like this …’
‘Too right,’ Hannah said. A police accident had to be investigated by an officer of a higher rank than the driver involved. She’d have made herself unpopular, even though nobody could doubt who was to blame. ‘Talking about that misper, would you mind lending us a hand? We were making for Lower Drigg. An old acquaintance of the woman has a cottage there.’
Azeem pondered. Hannah had met him a couple of times at force-wide conferences, and they’d agreed there was more to traffic work than catching people who thought speed limits didn’t apply to them. Some senior detectives condescended to traffic officers, but she’d often found their input helped to solve serious crimes. Not many burglars walked to their work, for one thing, and ANPR provided clues to all manner of offences. Checking driver details with the help of automatic number plate recognition threw up countless cases of people driving without insurance, or a valid MOT certificate, or whatever, and experience showed that those who broke one law often broke others. Azeem had all the instincts of a good detective.
‘Deano, you mean?’ He pointed to the recovery lorry. ‘The gardener those scrotes work for?’
‘Spot on. Robbie Dean is our man. We called there this afternoon, and didn’t find anything untoward. What he didn’t tell us is that there’s a large air raid shelter under the premises. There’s probably nothing in it, but, Les and I want to check it out. He won’t be overjoyed to see us, and it’d be useful to have a uniformed presence. Just in case.’
‘Glad to help, ma’am.’ Azeem lowered his window and called to his colleague. ‘Ready, Beefy? We’ve got work to do.’
The Dungeon House (Lake District Mysteries) Page 26