by J. P. Carter
‘That’s not enough, Sophie. It was because of you I spent seven years in a shithole Spanish jail.’ He touched the scar below his left eye. ‘Every time I look in a mirror I’m reminded of how bad it was.’
She wanted to tell him that it was no more than he’d deserved, but she held it in.
‘It was also because of you that I never got to have any kids,’ he said. ‘If I’d known you were a sterile bitch back then I wouldn’t have married you. But I did. And I looked after you while I tried to build a business for our future. But you showed your appreciation by betraying me. All you had to do was tell the police that I was with you that night. But instead you decided to stab me in the back. And there’s no way I can ever forget or forgive it.’
‘It’s fair enough that you want to hurt me, Bruno. But you need to leave Alice out of it. She’s only twelve, for Christ’s sake. What happened between us has nothing to do with her.’
‘Then you shouldn’t have got her involved, should you?’
‘What do you mean? I didn’t …’
‘You let her go wandering the streets by herself,’ he said. ‘And that was irresponsible. She didn’t know what hit her when she strolled past our van and the door opened and I pulled her inside.’
Sophie felt a jolt, like a bullet hitting her chest.
‘It happened in the blink of an eye,’ he said. ‘She didn’t even have time to scream before I had her mouth taped up and her wrists tied, and she got even more scared when she saw my face. She’s since let it be known that she recognised me from three years ago when I trailed you into your bar.’
‘Have you hurt her?’ Sophie asked.
‘Not yet.’
Sophie felt completely helpless. She was in no position to threaten him or call his bluff. He had her over the proverbial barrel.
‘Aren’t you curious to know how I tracked you down?’ he said.
She couldn’t speak so she nodded.
‘Well, you can thank your old friend, Lisa,’ he said. ‘She met a colleague of mine at a funeral and your name came up. She claimed she hadn’t been in touch with you but he didn’t believe her. So he snatched her phone when she wasn’t looking and lo and behold your number was on it. So he used our cop contacts to locate the signal. Then he came to Shoreditch and it didn’t take him long to find and follow you.’
‘I had the feeling that someone was watching me,’ Sophie said. ‘But I thought it was my imagination.’
‘Well, he did a good job keeping tabs. I was in Spain so I told him to watch you until I got back. I didn’t want to lose you again. And this morning is when I arrived. He drove me here and we parked in front of your flats. When the girl walked out he told me he’d seen her with you. I didn’t recognise her at first because her hair’s shorter and a different colour to what it was three years ago.’
Sophie chose not to tell him that Lisa had already been in touch with her. She didn’t think it would serve any useful purpose.
‘But you’ve done well to have stayed under the radar for so long,’ he carried on. ‘I had no fucking idea that you were living in London. Tracking you down in Southampton was much easier.’
‘How did you do it?’ she asked him.
He shrugged. ‘After I confronted you in Puerto de Mazarron that day my intention was to make your life hell over the following weeks. I’d arranged for a bunch of guys to kidnap your bloke and turn him into a cripple. And then you were going to be gang-raped. But you vanished before I got it organised. Your landlord wasn’t happy. I left him my number and told him I would make it worth his while if he found out where you’d gone. A few weeks later he rang to let me know that James Miller had asked him to post a parcel with some belongings in it to a courier depot in Southampton.
‘I found out what time it was due to arrive, flew over, and waited for him to turn up. And sure enough he did. Then he saw me in the park and threatened me. He had balls, I’ll give him that. But when he got physical I had no choice but to shaft him. It pissed me off because I’d wanted him to lead me to you. And if you’ve wondered what happened to the parcel, I dumped it.’
Sophie was battling a whirlwind of emotions. Anger, fear, shock, curiosity. She hated the fact that he was clearly enjoying himself, getting off on her despair, playing a vile game for his own satisfaction.
‘You should know that before I arrived at your place today my intention was to abduct you and then make you wish you had never been born,’ he said. ‘But catching hold of Alice allows me to take your punishment to a new level and to make sure your suffering is not short-lived.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means that Alice will be my guest for a couple of days and I’m going to have some fun with her. I even plan to share her with a couple of the guys who work for me and are into young flesh.’
As Sophie listened to him speak, a cold line of sweat formed on her brow and her spine grew rigid.
‘I’ll send you photos and maybe even a video,’ he said. ‘And for you they won’t make pleasant viewing, but that’s the whole point. Then after I’ve had my fun it’ll be your turn. I’ll free Alice and you’ll take her place. How does that sound?’
Sophie shook her head. ‘You can’t do it, Bruno. It’s sick.’
‘But I can and I will.’
‘Then I’ll go to the police. You’ll be arrested.’
He grinned. ‘I don’t think you’ll dare risk it. If I hear the filth are looking for me she’ll die a horrible death. But I’ll still come after you. So think carefully before you do something you’ll regret. You can’t stop the girl from losing her virginity and suffering a few bruises. But you can save her life.’
Sophie lost it then and hurled herself at him. She managed to grab his shirt front and pull on it. But he jerked his body back before she could get to his face.
And then he reacted with ferocity, jumping to his feet and seizing her shoulders with both hands.
‘Listen to me, you slag,’ he seethed. ‘You need to get it into your head that this is payback for what you did to me. It’s been a long time coming and I’m gonna make the most of it. There’s no way out until I’m done with you.’
He let her go then and stepped back, his face a mask of rage and hatred.
‘If you try to follow me I’ll throttle you and then I’ll go and take it out on Alice,’ he said. ‘So just go home and wait for me to get in touch.’
Bruno pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt, shoved his hands into his pockets and walked briskly towards the gate.
Sophie watched him pass through it before she gave in to the urge to go after him. She would plead with him to change his mind, beg him to forgive her.
‘Bruno, stop,’ she cried out. ‘Please.’
He stopped and turned, waited for her to catch up. But when she reached him he didn’t give her a chance to say anything else. He rammed his fist into her stomach and as she doubled over, he brought it down hard on the back of her head.
Sophie’s legs gave way beneath her and she hit the pavement with a heavy, painful thud. She blacked out briefly, and when her senses returned Bruno was gone.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
News of Robert and Freya Gregory’s confessions was greeted with surprise and a measure of relief by Anna’s superiors.
She was still at the house in Fulham when she took calls from DCS Nash and the Commissioner himself. She told them what the couple had said and made it clear they needed to be formally interviewed back at headquarters before charges could be brought.
After the pair were whisked away in separate police cars, a forensics team arrived at the house. Anna told them to start with the kitchen, where Holly allegedly died, and the boot of Robert’s Toyota, where he said he put the body.
Before leaving the house, which was now a crime scene, she got the SOCOs to spray the kitchen floor with Luminol. Within minutes the SOCOs got a result. The Luminol started emitting a blue glow when it highlighted latent bloodstains at the spot wher
e Freya said Holly fell on the knife.
Anna had to settle for another sandwich lunch, which she ate while addressing the team back at headquarters.
At first there was widespread disbelief that Holly Blake’s death had been accidental. But after Anna ran through what Robert and Freya said, most of them came to accept it as a plausible account of what had happened. After all, the files were full of cases where people had been accidentally stabbed to death during violent altercations.
Anna dished out various tasks. She wanted another trawl of the CCTV footage from cameras around Barnes Common, with the aim of spotting Robert’s Toyota in the early hours of Wednesday morning. She also wanted every aspect of their lives looked into, including their financial position, employment situation, social media activity and circle of friends.
At three p.m. Anna started to formally interview Robert Gregory, who had been assigned a duty solicitor. His wife remained in a holding cell to allow time for the vodka she’d drunk to pass through her system.
Anna half expected Robert to retract some or all of what he’d told them back at the house. But instead he repeated it almost word for word. At the end of the interview she told him that he would be held in custody and charges would follow.
Anna then took part in a conference call with DCS Nash and the Commissioner. She gave them a full briefing and it was agreed that Nash would consult the CPS about what charges to bring against the couple.
DCI Walker was despatched to the Royal London Hospital to inform Holly’s ex-boyfriend that he was no longer a suspect in her murder. While he did that, Anna broke the news to Nathan Wolf. The MP’s relief was palpable, and he was moved to tears.
‘So who did kill her?’ he demanded to know.
‘I can’t reveal that information at this stage,’ Anna said. ‘But you and everyone else will know in due course. I’d like to thank you for cooperating with us, Mr Wolf, and I apologise for the ordeal we had to put you through.’
‘You’ve not heard the last of it, Detective Tate,’ he said. ‘What has happened to me is an absolute disgrace. I intend to sue the Met for the part it’s played in destroying my life and my reputation.’
Anna simply responded by telling him he was free to go and then left it to DC Sweeny to show him out of the building and arrange transport for him. She then faced the grim task of going to Pimlico to make Holly’s parents aware of what had happened before the news broke.
Rebecca was understandably devastated to be told that her sister and brother-in-law had confessed to accidentally killing her daughter. She kept shaking her head and saying that it wasn’t possible.
‘If it was an accident then why didn’t she tell us?’ she said. ‘It doesn’t make any sense.’
She collapsed on the sofa and Theo did his best to console her, even though he was in tears himself. Anna felt like crying along with them so she thought it best to leave them in the capable hands of the Family Liaison Officer, who was still on the scene.
An hour later Anna was summoned to Scotland Yard to take part in a press conference at which DCS Nash announced that two as yet unnamed people were being questioned about Holly’s murder. He also said that Nathan Wolf had been cleared of any involvement in the killing.
Anna left the Yard straight after, believing that the day wasn’t going to throw up any more surprises.
But it did.
On the way back to Wandsworth she answered a call from DC Sweeny, who said, ‘Something has happened, guv, to suggest that Freya and Robert Gregory might not have been totally honest with us.’
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Sophie had been home for a couple of hours, and yet the pain was still gnawing at her head and stomach.
Bruno’s fist had struck her with the force of a pile driver and she was lucky that he hadn’t broken any ribs. It appeared that no one witnessed the attack or if they did they chose not to come to her aid as she struggled to get to her feet. The walk back to the flat had been a real ordeal and she attracted lots of strange looks from other pedestrians who probably thought she was drunk or high on drugs.
After arriving home she cancelled the taxi to the airport and the trip to Spain. And then she sobbed her heart out because she knew that she and Alice probably wouldn’t be going anywhere together again.
Now she was sitting on the sofa with a cigarette in one hand and her phone in the other. The television was on, but only because she couldn’t stand the heavy silence that surrounded her.
She had stopped crying, but inside her head she was screaming for an end to the agony and uncertainty. At the same time it was proving impossible to rein in her imagination. Shocking images of Alice being abused flashed through her mind. She was lying on a bed and Bruno was on top of her. She was on the floor, handcuffed to a radiator, her face bruised and bloodied. She was tied to a chair while pleading with Sophie to come and save her.
Sophie drew deeply on her cigarette and tried to decide what to do. One voice was telling her to call the police and tell them everything. Let them go after Bruno and bring Alice back safely. But another voice was telling her that such a course of action would only end in disaster.
Bruno would kill Alice before or after the police turned up at his door. And he’d deny even knowing who she was. He would have covered his tracks, made sure it was just Sophie’s word against his, and that there were people who’d claim he was somewhere else when she said she was with him in the park.
But she just could not see herself doing nothing while knowing that Alice was at the mercy of a cold-blooded monster. And there was no guarantee that he would keep his word and let her go. In fact the odds surely had to be against it. Wouldn’t it be safer for him if he killed them both? That way he’d get his sought-after revenge on Sophie, and Alice wouldn’t be around afterwards to pose a threat.
As if Sophie’s thoughts were not chaotic enough, another face was suddenly hurled into the mix.
Detective Anna Tate.
There she was, just six feet or so in front of Sophie, staring out of the TV screen. It was a press conference that had apparently been recorded a short time ago. Tate was sitting behind a table with two other police officers.
Sophie leaned forward and tuned in to what was being said. It was the man to her right who was speaking. On the card in front of him were the words Detective Chief Supt Nash.
‘And so I can confirm that the two individuals who were arrested in connection with Holly Blake’s murder have now been released. They are Mr Ross Moore and Mr Nathan Wolf. Two other people are about to be charged with the murder.’
As Sophie listened to the words, her eyes remained firmly fixed on Detective Tate. She appeared calm, unruffled, and Sophie suddenly wondered what the woman’s reaction would be if she discovered what had happened to her daughter.
This thought caused Sophie’s heart to trip and the air to lock in her chest.
Was that it? she asked herself. Was Alice’s real mother the solution to the terrible dilemma she faced? Would the detective be able to help her get Alice back?
Desperation drove Sophie to conclude that Tate was indeed her only hope. She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray on the table and opened up the emails on her phone. She found the one from the head of Alice’s school who had told her that Tate’s private detective had been in touch with her. Sophie scrolled down to his name at the bottom of the message. Jack Keen. Beneath it was his mobile number.
She wasted no time ringing it, and when he answered, she said ‘My name is Sophie, Mr Keen. The head of Oakfield School gave me your number after you contacted her about the Chloe Tate age progression image. Well, I’m the person who’s been taking care of Chloe for the past three years since her father was killed. Before that I was with them in Spain. I now need you to get Detective Tate to call me right away on this number. I need to speak to her urgently because Chloe is in trouble.’
CHAPTER SIXTY
Doubt was cast on Robert and Freya’s story by something overheard by Custody
Officer Noel Jackson. He was waiting to speak to Anna when she arrived back in the office.
‘It happened when we were taking the husband up to see his lawyer and his wife was on her way to see the medic because she’d complained of feeling sick,’ Jackson said. ‘By chance they passed each other in the corridor. I was accompanying Mrs Gregory and her husband took the opportunity to lean towards her and mouth the words “Stick to the story.” I don’t think he realised I saw him.’
‘Are you sure that’s what he said?’ Anna asked.
‘I’m ninety per cent sure, ma’am, because the movement of his mouth was exaggerated and that kind of thing happens all the time between perps.’
There were two ways to look at it, Anna decided. Either Officer Jackson was mistaken because he wasn’t a qualified lip-reader; or Robert Gregory was desperately concerned that his wife would change her story under pressure during the formal interview.
The couple had claimed that Holly’s death was an accident. And they had managed to convince Anna that they were telling the truth. But now she had to consider the possibility that they had lied.
‘Where is Freya now?’ Anna asked.
‘Back in the cell,’ DC Sweeny said. ‘The doc gave her something for her stomach and he reckons she’s ready to be interviewed.’
‘The question is, how do we approach it?’ Walker said. ‘She’s bound to repeat what she said back at the house. And if the story is made up then they’ll both be sticking to the script.’
Anna thought about it and said, ‘We need to get to the bottom of this before we charge them.’
Walker nodded. ‘So how do we go about it?’
Anna grinned. ‘We do exactly what we did when we got her to open up. We exploit her fragile state of mind and tell her a whopping great fib.’
Minutes later Anna and Walker were facing Freya and the duty solicitor across the table in the interview room.
Freya looked a mess and was clearly struggling to maintain her composure. Her face was swollen and the shadows beneath her eyes had become darker. Anna could tell that she was an emotional wreck, unable to control whatever was eating away at her conscience. Anna knew from experience that it would make the woman’s defences easier to breach. For that reason she wasted no time with a warm-up act.