Killer Plan

by Leigh Russell

  ‘Come on,’ she whispered as she reached in and opened the window. ‘Be careful. There’s broken glass on the floor under the window. Don’t cut yourself.’

  Gingerly they clambered into the silent house.

  76

  This time Geraldine was careful to register her destination with Computer Aided Despatch herself, so the nearest patrol car would reach her quickly if she summoned backup. On the way to Brian’s house she called the station. As she had expected, Reg wasn’t at his desk. Even though it was after nine, she called him at home. To her relief he answered the phone almost straight away. Quickly she told him what she had learned from Brian’s former sister-in-law, and why she felt unable to wait until the morning to investigate further.

  Reg expressed surprise at hearing that Nick had been sleeping with Brian’s wife. It was easier to speak to him about it when she couldn’t see him glaring at her. Even so, she held back from telling him about her own affair with their dead colleague.

  ‘He was a good officer, Reg, but he was a serial adulterer.’

  ‘You know that, do you? It’s not just rumours and…’

  ‘It’s true. There’s no doubt. Ask anyone.’

  Reg grunted. She didn’t mind that he sounded put out. After all, she had disturbed him at home, in the evening. At least he was listening to her. Once he accepted what she was saying, he couldn’t ignore the significance of the connection.

  ‘So you think Brian killed Nick because his wife had an affair with him?’

  ‘I think it’s possible.’

  ‘But Brian’s wife died years ago.’

  ‘It was over three years ago. Alleged suicide...’

  ‘Alleged?’

  ‘That was the coroner’s conclusion, but the deceased’s sister didn’t believe it was suicide.’

  ‘She wouldn’t, would she?’

  ‘No. Of course it’s perfectly reasonable to suppose it was suicide, and I suppose we’ll never know…’

  ‘Unless he confesses…’

  Geraldine smiled. Reg was taking her accusations seriously.

  ‘Brian may not be our killer, but he has to be a suspect now.’

  ‘So how does the missing boy fit in with all this?’

  ‘I don’t know how he fits in,’ she admitted, ‘it’s just that Caroline accused Brian of kidnapping him. She must have had a reason for suspecting him. Perhaps the boy saw something and Brian needed to make sure he couldn’t talk. Unless she’s lying to cover up for herself.’

  ‘Like you say, we can’t be sure of anything yet. But too many fingers seem to be pointing at Brian. We need to look into him. And given Caroline’s accusation, we need to move fast. Send a message to all traffic police, train stations, bus depots and airports, nationwide, to be on the lookout for a man and a boy travelling together, with descriptions of the missing boy and Brian Stanbury, just in case he tries to take off with the boy.’

  ‘I’ll get onto Max right away.’

  ‘Circulate his description, and say he might be accompanied by the boy.’

  Neither of them suggested that Ed might already be dead.

  ‘As soon as I’ve spoken to Max I’ll take a look around,’ Geraldine said. ‘I’m outside the house now.’

  Reg warned her to wait for backup, and she promised to be careful.

  ‘You know where I am.’

  ‘Yes, but you’re on your own there, Geraldine. Wait for backup. That’s an order. I can’t afford to lose another inspector. They’d string me up for being careless!’

  Behind his joking tone, she could hear fear in his voice. Whether it was on her account or his own no longer mattered. They were on the same team.

  ‘I won’t go in unless I have to, but if I think the child is in immediate danger…’

  ‘Call for backup now!’

  The house was in darkness. Geraldine stood outside the front gate, waiting for the backup team. Brian could be in bed, but there was a chance he had become alarmed and fled. She hoped she hadn’t arrived too late. He might have gone away, taking the boy with him. As she waited, she heard the sound of glass breaking at the back of the house. It seemed she wasn’t the only visitor to Brian’s house that evening. She ran to the front door and rang the bell to warn Brian about the break in, but there was no answer. She tried the lock. After a few seconds of fiddling, one of her keys turned with a loud click and the door swung open. She pressed herself against the wall beside the door and waited, listening. There was no sound. Cautiously she stepped forward and peered inside. Nothing was moving. The backup team would be there at any minute. Leaving the door ajar for them, she went inside.

  There was a street lamp right outside the house. Light shone through the fanlight above the front door, illuminating the hall with a dim orange glow. Geraldine gazed around. She had been there before, but everything looked different at night. From outside, the faint drone of a passing car reached her. She stood perfectly still, listening. The car didn’t stop. Her colleagues hadn’t arrived yet. She hesitated. The obvious course was to stay in the hall and prevent anyone escaping that way onto the street. No one was covering the back, but her presence at the front door was better than nothing.

  As she waited she heard voices. They were speaking so quietly it was hard to make out the words. She inched forward until she reached the door to the kitchen where the sound was coming from.

  ‘I told you to wait there,’ a woman’s voice muttered angrily.

  ‘I want to come with you. He’s here, I know he is.’

  The door was open. All Geraldine’s instincts prompted her to rush forward. It was an effort to remain perfectly still, watching and listening.

  More alert than Matthew, Caroline was first to notice Geraldine standing in the doorway. Her eyes widened.

  Matthew broke the silence. ‘What’s she doing here?’

  ‘Same as us, I expect,’ Caroline answered. A faint smile curled her lips for an instant.

  ‘But…’ Matthew began then fell silent, evidently recalling where he had seen her before.

  ‘More to the point, what are you doing here?’ Geraldine asked, although the answer was obvious.

  Caroline stepped forward, but before she could speak the boy replied.

  ‘We’ve come to get Ed.’

  Quickly Geraldine explained that backup was on its way. There was nothing for Caroline and Matthew to do but leave matters to the police. They would search the house, taking it apart brick by brick if necessary. She didn’t add that this was no place for Matthew. As she was insisting Caroline took Matthew away, they heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. Someone else was in the house, and it didn’t sound like a team of police officers.

  77

  The first thing that ran through Geraldine’s mind was that Brian had come home. With a sickening lurch in her guts, she remembered that she had left the front door ajar. If Ed was concealed somewhere in the house, dead or alive, Brian would hardly have forgotten to shut the front door when he went out. On his return, he would have noticed the door was open. She guessed he had run upstairs to check whether Ed had escaped while he was out. But she had looked in every room. There was no one upstairs. If Ed was being kept in the house, there was only one possible explanation for his silence. She couldn’t work out why Brian would have gone upstairs instead of legging it as soon as he realised someone else had been in the house, and might still be there.

  ‘He’s here, I know he is. Let me look for him,’ Matthew said.

  The thought of Matthew discovering his dead brother was too terrible to contemplate. Before anything else, she had to protect the living. She turned to Caroline and gestured to her to leave.

  ‘Take Matthew and get out of here now,’ she hissed. ‘My colleagues will be here soon. We can deal with this. You’ll only get in the way. Go!’

  Before either of them could stop him, Matthew darted from the room. Caroline grabbed for him, but she was too slow. Geraldine charged after him. At her heels, she heard Caroline panting. M
atthew ran straight for the stairs. He bounded up them two at a time, with Geraldine racing after him. Reaching the landing, she stopped. There was no sign of Brian or Matthew. Caroline started forward but Geraldine put her hand on the other woman’s arm to stop her.

  ‘Come with me.’

  To her relief, Caroline obeyed without question. She looked terrified. Geraldine couldn’t afford to lose sight of her as well. They looked in the nearest bedroom. It was empty. As they turned, a figure darted out of the bathroom and went haring down the stairs. It was the boy. Brian was still upstairs. Geraldine ran into the bathroom expecting to see him in there. Caroline followed her. The bathroom was empty. Geraldine’s best option was to run back downstairs and wait there. Wherever Brian was, she had to make sure he didn’t leave the house. If she didn’t succeed in finding him by the time backup arrived, he would stand no chance once the search team were in place. They would arrive at any moment. She turned and whispered to Caroline.

  ‘I’ll make sure he doesn’t get away. You go and find Matthew and keep him away from the hall. It could be dangerous.’

  Caroline was sobbing uncontrollably. As Geraldine urged her to hurry, Brian bounded past them. Geraldine swore. She dashed forward but the momentum of his leap had already taken him out of reach. By the time she started down the stairs he was at the open front door. There was no one outside. All her muscles tensed, poised to leap. If she mistimed her landing, he might yet escape her.

  A thin voice rang out. ‘Wait!’

  To Geraldine’s surprise, Brian stopped in the doorway and turned round. Below her, she could see the top of Matthew’s head and Brian, staring at the boy as though transfixed.

  ‘Ed,’ he called out, stepping back into the hall. ‘Come with me.’ He gave a tentative smile and reached out his hand in a gesture of entreaty.

  Caroline started forward. Geraldine seized her by the arm to stop her. Motioning to Caroline to stay where she was, Geraldine edged silently down the stairs, one step at a time. Brian’s gaze was fixed on Matthew who stood scowling at him across the hall.

  ‘Come with me,’ Brian repeated. He sounded desperate.

  He edged towards Matthew. One more step and Geraldine would be able to reach out, grab his arm and twist it up behind his back to incapacitate him. She stood, poised to lunge.

  ‘We can go to the seaside again,’ he urged. ‘You liked that, didn’t you? And I’ll buy you ice cream, as much as you want.’

  Caroline swore. At the sound of her voice, Brian seemed to come to his senses. He blinked in surprise. As Geraldine sprang forward there was a commotion below her. A burly uniformed constable charged in through the front door, yelling, followed by more officers. The backup team had arrived.

  Brian’s gaze never left Matthew, not even when the constable seized his wrists. Caroline darted forward and slapped Brian’s face so hard he almost lost his balance. At the same instant, Matthew ran forward, screaming, ‘Where is he? Where is he?’

  The constable lifted Matthew easily off his feet, and put him down out of Brian’s reach.

  ‘Now,’ Geraldine said firmly. ‘You need to tell us where Ed is.’

  Standing right in front of Brian, she heard him expel all the air from his lungs. His shoulders drooped and he hung his head. But he didn’t answer.

  ‘Make him tell, make him tell!’ Matthew cried out. ‘Torture him until he tells!’

  Fleetingly, Geraldine wished she could. Instead, she issued instructions for the search team to set to work. Immediately the hall was full of uniformed men and women. Half the team raced upstairs, the others began spreading out downstairs.

  ‘We need to get Matthew out of here,’ Geraldine told his mother urgently.

  ‘It’s OK, mum,’ Matthew said. He was crying. ‘Ed’s OK. I know he is. I’d know if he was hurting.’

  Geraldine and Caroline exchanged a worried glance.

  ‘Come on, son, we’ll wait for him at home.’

  78

  ‘In here, ma’am!’ a woman’s voice rang out above the background noises of footsteps and muttered exchanges.

  Geraldine ran over to the cupboard under the stairs.

  ‘There’s a door at the back there,’ the constable said. ‘It’s locked, but it looks as though it’s recently been opened.’

  The constable shone her torch onto the back wall of the under stairs cupboard. Standing side by side, they stared at a small door almost hidden behind a hoover and an ironing board resting up against it. The floor to either side of the door was dusty, but a central pathway leading to it was relatively clean, as though someone had recently made their way over to the door a few times.

  ‘He could have just been using the ironing board,’ the constable said.

  ‘Open it! No, wait, stand back. I’ll do it. We don’t want to frighten him.’

  The constable moved out of her way, and Geraldine approached the door at the back of the cupboard. It was illuminated by the powerful beam of her colleague’s torch. Quickly she shifted the hoover and the ironing board, wondering if this was exactly what the killer had done. She shivered, seeming to sense his presence in the cramped space. It didn’t take her long to force the lock. Cautiously she pulled the door. It opened slowly. A musty odour of damp and faeces assailed her. As she was raising her hand to cover her nose and mouth, the door flew back on its hinges so suddenly it nearly bowled her over.

  Before she could regain her balance, a small figure leapt out of the darkness. He was brandishing what looked like a club in his right hand. Reacting swiftly, Geraldine reached out and grabbed his skinny forearm. She shook it until, with a squeal of rage, he dropped his weapon and began pummelling her in the chest with his other fist. Looking down, she saw the weapon he had dropped: a metal torch. If he hadn’t been dazzled by the constable’s light, he might have caused her a serious injury.

  Gradually Geraldine relaxed her hold on his arm. He was trembling so much he could barely stay on his feet. Nevertheless he continued to punch her.

  ‘It’s all right, Ed,’ she said softly. ‘I’m a police officer. We’ve arrested Brian. He’ll never be able to hurt you again.’

  He didn’t look like his identical twin right now. Blue eyes stared balefully at her from a face dark with dirt. His blond hair was grey with grime. He squirmed and grunted in her grasp like a feral child.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘we’re going to take you to hospital to make sure you haven’t been hurt.’ At least they could check him for physical injuries. The mental trauma would take longer to heal. ‘They’ll give you lots of nice things to eat. Whatever you want. Your mother will be waiting for you there.’ She nodded at the constable who pulled out her phone to call Caroline. ‘And after that your mother’s going to take you and your brother home.’

  At the mention of his mother, Ed finally stopped wriggling and hitting. He collapsed against her chest and began sobbing noisily. Tears left pale runnels in his dark face.

  ‘All he left me was Coco Pops,’ he mumbled, bending double and clutching his stomach. ‘It hurts.’

  Relieved at finding Ed alive, Geraldine cursed her own poor judgement in having trusted Brian. Ed had been in the house all along and she had walked away, leaving the poor child imprisoned there. She was even more relieved when the doctor who examined Ed found no evidence of sexual abuse. Ed insisted that Brian had never touched him. It seemed Brian’s worst crime was multiple murders. That was bad enough. If there was any justice in the world, he wouldn’t leave his cell until he was carried out in a box. Prison was too good for him. Geraldine hoped he would be branded a paedophile as well as a murderer. It would make his stay in prison less comfortable.

  She spoke to his mother while Ed was asleep. Caroline was anxious to get back to his bedside. She kept glancing at the door, to see if a nurse had come to fetch her.

  ‘They said I can be there when he wakes up.’

  ‘I just want to ask you a few questions. It won’t take long,’ Geraldine reassured her.


  That wasn’t strictly true. She had a lot of questions for Caroline. She did her best to control her curiosity and focus on the priority.

  ‘Tell me everything you know about Brian Stanbury.’

  Caroline shook her head. ‘I don’t know anything about him, except that he’s an evil bastard. Really, I’ve only seen him a few times in the last few weeks. And before that we hadn’t seen each other since junior school.’

  ‘Tell me about your recent meetings.’

  Distracted, Caroline gave a garbled account of her meetings with Brian in the park.

  ‘It was all my fault. I was an idiot. If I hadn’t let him take that bloody photo of the two of us together – he said he was going to show it to Dave to make him sit up and take more notice of me. He had his arm round me!’ Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared in outrage. ‘How was I to know what he was going to do? There was no reason to suppose he was going to do that, was there? I mean who would do that? Kill a complete stranger, and lock up a child...’ She paused. ‘And he wanted me to do it too. Kill someone, I mean. He said that was our deal, but I never said I’d kill someone. Why would I? Why would anyone?’

  When a nurse came and told Caroline she could see Ed, she jumped up and ran out without a backward glance. Only then did Geraldine realise how tired she was. She wished she could just go home and sleep, but first she had to write her report. She would have to word it carefully.

  79

  As soon as Caroline revealed that her proposed victim had been a police officer, Brian’s motive became clear. The whole tragic episode had been driven by his jealousy of the man his wife had loved. He had killed Dave with the sole intention of persuading Caroline to kill Nick in exchange. As long as they were both careful to leave no clues at the scene, there would be nothing to connect them to their victims. The plan was ingenious but evil. When Caroline had refused to carry out his demands, Brian had kidnapped Ed in an attempt to persuade her to kill Nick, and ensure her silence. For a time it had worked, but he had run out of patience and carried out the second murder himself. With Nick dead, there was no reason for Brian to keep Ed locked up. He refused to be drawn on what had happened between him and the boy. All Ed would say was that Brian was horrible, and had shut him up in the dark. Brian’s reaction on seeing Matthew in his hall was the only clue they had about the feelings he had developed for Ed. Suffering from paranoia, at some point he had turned against the boy and locked him in the cellar.