The Madam

by Jaime Raven

  ‘Where are your daughters?’ I asked.

  She turned to face me.

  ‘Laurel is at uni and Clare is on holiday in Ibiza.’

  ‘Your husband mentioned them to me a couple of times while I was being questioned,’ I said. ‘It sounded like he was very proud of them.’

  ‘He was. They’ve been hard work like all teenage girls, but Neil doted on them. We were a happy family back then, or so I thought.’

  ‘Did you have any idea that he was taking bribes from Joe Strickland?’

  She shook her head. ‘None whatsoever – I’d never even heard of Strickland then. Neil always seemed so devoted to his job.’

  ‘You said he gambled. Did you know about that?’

  ‘Not the extent of it. I knew he bet on the horses and played poker occasionally with his colleagues, but I didn’t realise he was running up big debts. We had to take out a loan to pay some of them off.’

  Despite the fact that this woman was also a victim I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for her, not after what she had done to me.

  ‘You know you’ll probably be arrested,’ I said.

  She nodded resignedly. ‘It’s no more than I deserve. In a weird way it’ll be a relief. Deep down I’ve known this day would come and that’s probably why I kept the disc. But it’s the girls I’m worried about. They’re going to be devastated.’

  Neither of us spoke again until Ash and McGrath arrived some ten minutes later. Mrs Ferris saw them from the front window and said, ‘They’re here.’

  ‘Then you’d better go and let them in,’ I said.

  She showed them into the living room and when they saw me they both came to an abrupt halt.

  Ash said, ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’

  I tried to remain calm. ‘I’ve been waiting for the pair of you to arrive.’

  His small dark eyes flickered to Mrs Ferris and then back to me.

  ‘Have you got us here so that you can hand yourself in?’ he said. ‘Is that it?’

  I grinned. ‘Actually no. You’re here to watch some telly.’

  The pair exchanged glances, and I felt smug because I knew that the tide had now turned in my favour and I was intent on enjoying the next few minutes.

  ‘Have you lost your fucking marbles?’ Ash said. ‘You’re wanted for questioning in connection with a murder, one which you so obviously committed. Your prints are on the weapon and you were seen running from Ruby Gillespie’s house.’

  ‘I was framed,’ I said.

  Ash rolled his eyes. ‘Here we go again. The little whore is the victim of yet another conspiracy.’ He turned to Mrs Ferris and asked her. ‘Are you all right, Pam? Has this mad woman threatened you?’

  Mrs Ferris shook her head. ‘No, she hasn’t.’

  ‘So why did you get us to come here? You said you had something to tell us.’

  ‘I asked her to call you,’ I said.

  Ash wrinkled his brow. ‘Is that right? So am I missing something here? What the hell is going on?’

  ‘I’ve already told you,’ I said. ‘There’s something I want you both to see on Pam’s television. It’s a production featuring her late husband.’

  That drew another confused look from Ash. But the expression on McGrath’s face was altogether different. He suddenly looked worried.

  It was Ash who spoke first. ‘I don’t understand. Is this some kind of sick joke?’

  Mrs Ferris responded. ‘I lied to you, Martin, when I said that Neil didn’t leave a suicide note. He did, along with a DVD on which he made a confession. I didn’t want anyone to know about it, especially the girls.’

  Ash was dumbfounded. ‘Are you serious? I don’t believe it.’

  ‘Well, it’s true,’ I said. ‘I just watched it. And guess what. Your dead colleague reveals who really killed Rufus Benedict and what happened to Karina Gorski. He even tells us where she is buried.’

  As I spoke, I kept my eyes focused on McGrath’s face and the shock was evident. I could tell he knew the game was up and was weighing up his options. But I wasn’t going to give him time to come up with a way out. I was already holding the TV remote so I pressed play, and the screen flickered into life.

  The two detectives stood like statues as Neil Ferris started talking. Neither of them moved a muscle, until it came to the part where Ferris revealed the name of his partner-in-crime. Then their faces suddenly became animated. Ash’s mouth fell open and his eyebrows shot up. And McGrath shut his eyes and mouthed a swear word under his breath.

  ‘I want my colleagues on the force to know how sorry I am,’ Ferris said. ‘Especially DCI Ash who I worked with on the Benedict case. I deceived him into thinking I was doing my job when I was really colluding with Paul McGrath to get a conviction against Lizzie Wells, even though we both knew she was innocent.

  ‘Unlike me, Paul has shown no remorse. That’s why I want to name and shame him. He’s a bad apple and I blame him for getting me involved with Strickland in the first place.

  ‘He’ll probably say I’m lying and if he does then just check out his bank accounts and mobile phone records. He’s been taking bribes from Joe Strickland for years. There might even be traces of his DNA on Karina Gorski’s remains.’

  When the four-minute disc had run its course the tension in the room was thick enough to slice with a knife. Ash turned to McGrath and said, ‘What have you got to say for yourself?’

  McGrath swallowed a lump and tried to speak, but the words refused to come out.

  I crossed the room and stood in front of him, close enough to smell coffee on his breath.

  ‘It was you who left the note on our car,’ I said. ‘You’re the mystery man wearing the cap on the CCTV. You knew I was being released that day so you must have followed us from the prison. And it must have been you who gave my number to Strickland so they could send a text message to me from Ruby’s phone. No one else had it.’

  McGrath remained silent. His mouth became a taut wire, and sweat glistened on his forehead. His eyes were filled with a mixture of fear and hatred.

  I looked at Ash. ‘I thought you were the one I couldn’t trust. McGrath here was always so nice and helpful. Now I know why. The fucker was just as keen as Strickland to stop me stirring things up.’

  Finally, McGrath opened his mouth to speak, but I didn’t want to hear some lame protestation of innocence. So I shoved my knee into his groin and he doubled over.

  ‘That was for the part you played in getting me convicted,’ I said.

  Then I punched him as hard as I could on the back of the head, and he dropped to the floor like a heavy sack.

  ‘And that was for trying to do it to me a second time.’

  The pent-up anger and frustration exploded out of me and I rained more blows on McGrath’s head as he tried to get up off the floor.

  Ash pulled me away before I could cause any real damage, but at least I had the satisfaction of knowing I’d hurt the bastard.

  As soon as McGrath was on his feet, Ash let go of me and seized him by the arm.

  ‘You need to sit down while I call this in, Paul,’ he said.

  He forced McGrath onto the sofa and looked him square in the eyes.

  ‘These are serious allegations that have been levelled against you, and they need to be investigated,’ Ash said.

  ‘It’s all bollocks,’ McGrath responded. ‘Ferris was lying.’

  ‘Why would he do that?’

  ‘Well, apart from the fact that he was off his trolley, it was his way of getting back at me. We never did like each other. He was a pathetic tosser. I told him that to his face more than once.’

  ‘So you’re not bent?’ Ash said.

  I saw the jut of his jaw. ‘’Course not. But I always suspected that he was on the take. He was desperate for money all the time because he kept pissing away his wages on the horses. He was a loser and I wasn’t surprised he topped himself.’

  Mrs Ferris suddenly pushed me out of the way so she could stand i
n front of McGrath.

  ‘How dare you say that?’ she screamed at him, her face just inches from his. ‘It was you who talked him into going down that road. He wasn’t a bad man, and he wasn’t pathetic.’

  ‘He was a corrupt twat and you must have known it,’ McGrath sneered. ‘Is that why you didn’t tell us about the DVD? You wanted to protect your own reputation as well as his?’

  I thought for a fleeting moment that she was going to spit in his face. Instead she reached out and grabbed a pen that had been sticking out of the top pocket of his suit jacket.

  Neither I nor Ash realised what she was going to do with it until it was too late.

  So we watched, horrified, as she raised it above her head in a stabbing motion and then plunged it straight into McGrath’s right eye.

  Ash immediately pulled her away and wrestled her to the floor. Her screams were drowned out by the inhuman sounds coming from Paul McGrath.

  He was lying back on the sofa, pressing his fingers against the unsightly mess that was his eye socket. Blood was spurting out of it like water from a garden sprinkler.

  The damage was extensive, but as he writhed in agony I found it hard to keep from smiling.

  Everything that happened after that was a bit of a blur. My eyes misted over and my brain struggled to take it all in.

  McGrath screamed until he passed out and Ash did a lot of shouting into his phone.

  This was followed by flashing lights and the plaintive wail of sirens.

  Mrs Ferris sat on the sofa, her mouth pinched and drawn in tight. She didn’t speak and she didn’t seem to regret what she’d done. It was as if she’d gone into a trance.

  Eventually the room filled up with police officers and paramedics. McGrath was carried out on a stretcher, and Mrs Ferris was led away in handcuffs.

  When it was my turn to be carted off, Ash put his hand on my shoulder and asked me if I was all right.

  ‘I feel like a bomb has gone off inside my head,’ I said. ‘But I’m also relieved that you now know the truth about Benedict. And at some point I’ll expect a grovelling apology from you and everyone else.’

  He shook his head. ‘Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, Lizzie. We still need to ask you questions about Ruby Gillespie’s murder.’

  ‘But you don’t really believe I did it, surely.’

  ‘I don’t know anything for sure right now. This is a real mess and it’s got to be sorted.’

  ‘Are you going to arrest Joe Strickland?’

  ‘Officers are on their way to pick him up now, along with some of his people.’

  ‘Does that include Sean Delaney?’

  He narrowed his eyes at me. ‘Why do you ask?’

  ‘You know why. Delaney and another bloke attacked my brother and me.’

  He pursed his lips. ‘Yeah, well, we think Delaney’s dead. There was a fire on a houseboat at Bursledon last night – his houseboat. A body was found in the wreckage. It’s not yet been identified, but it’s probably him.’

  ‘Can’t say I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘The man was an animal.’

  ‘Were you by any chance out Bursledon way last night?’

  ‘I was too busy staying one step ahead of your lot. Besides, how would I have known he lived on a boat?’

  He gave me an arch look. ‘You’ve got a point there, I suppose.’

  A thought jumped into my head and I said, ‘Why did you go to Strickland’s house last night?’

  His brow peaked. ‘How do you know I went there?’

  ‘I saw you. You arrived just as I did. I hid behind his BMW and then left when you went inside.’

  ‘Well, I gather you went back later. He called a short time ago to tell me you barged in and attacked him with one of his own kitchen knives.’

  ‘It was the only way I could get him to admit that he was behind all three murders – Benedict, Ruby and Karina. His wife was there. She heard him.’

  ‘Was your girlfriend also a witness?’

  My eyes widened and I didn’t know how to respond, so I didn’t try.

  ‘That’s another thing we need to talk about back at the station,’ he said. ‘I was at the hospital an hour ago. We know you took her there, but what we’re not sure about is who stabbed her and why.’

  ‘She must have told you.’

  ‘She said she was attacked when she went to pick you up from outside Shamrock Quay.’

  ‘That’s right. Some bloke appeared out of nowhere and wanted money. When we told him to fuck off he pulled a knife. Donna got stabbed in the struggle.’

  ‘So what happened to the guy?’

  ‘He ran off.’

  ‘Can you describe him?’

  ‘I’m afraid not. It was too dark and it happened too quickly.’

  He didn’t seem convinced. ‘So why didn’t you call the police?’

  ‘Because I was in too much of a state. I started tending to Donna’s wound with the first-aid kit in the car and then I rushed her to the hospital.’

  ‘Well, your girlfriend was bloody lucky. She could have been killed.’

  ‘How was she when you spoke to her?’

  ‘She’s been patched up, and it seems she’s more worried about you than she is about herself.’

  ‘I’d like to go and see her.’

  ‘I’m sure you would. But that can wait.’

  Ash signalled for one of his officers to take me away. But as I was led towards the door I turned back to him and said, ‘You didn’t answer my question. Why did you go to see Strickland last night?’

  He simply shrugged. ‘I thought it was only fair to warn him that you’d been seen running away from a crime scene. I had a feeling you might turn up on his doorstep, and I was right.’

  So it still wasn’t over for me. I faced awkward questions about the attack on Scar and I was still suspected of killing Ruby.

  Strickland and McGrath would no doubt deny any involvement in Ruby’s murder. And it was a fair bet that Delaney’s cousin Ron Parks would be busy constructing an alibi.

  The thought that I remained in the frame filled me with dread.

  On the way to the station my thoughts turned to Scar and Tiny. I hadn’t heard from them in ages, and I wanted to tell them what had happened.

  I turned on Scar’s phone and saw that I’d had five missed calls from an unidentified number.

  I wondered if Tiny had been trying to get through so I phoned his mobile, but once again it failed to connect.

  This time I left Scar’s phone on, and it was a good thing I did because it rang just as we were approaching the central police station.

  I answered it and my heart jumped when I heard Tiny’s voice.

  ‘Thank God I’ve got you,’ he said.

  I told him I’d been ringing his mobile, but he said he’d dropped it in the mud while running away from the houseboat.

  ‘I’m at the hospital, Lizzie. They just let me in to see Donna and she’s doing well, so don’t worry. But I need to tell you what to say to the police about last night, assuming I’m not too late.’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ I said, keeping my voice low so the officers in front couldn’t hear me. ‘They know I was with Donna when she was stabbed.’

  ‘That’s okay because it’s also what she’s told them. She said she went to meet you at Shamrock Quay after you phoned her. She parked in a poorly lit part of the street and got out of the car. When you came along some bloke suddenly appeared and demanded money. It was dark and neither of you got a good look at him. When you told him to bugger off he pulled out a knife. There was a struggle and Donna was stabbed. He ran off and you rushed Donna to the hospital.’

  ‘That’s basically what I’ve told them,’ I said.

  ‘Good. And don’t admit to going to Delaney’s houseboat. You probably know there’s nothing left of it.’

  ‘I saw the news. You did a good job.’

  ‘It wasn’t hard. There was a can of paraffin on board and plenty of matches.’

  I fille
d him in quickly on what had happened, but as he started to ask questions we arrived at the station, and I was ordered out of the car.

  ‘I’ve got to go,’ I said. ‘Give my love to Donna.’

  27

  They put me in a cell and I was glad because I was completely wasted.

  The events of the past twenty-four hours had sapped every last drop of energy from my body.

  When I stretched out on the hard, smelly mattress my brain felt like a dead weight. Even the adrenaline that rampaged through my body couldn’t keep me awake.

  I dreamt of blood and knives, and bodies being buried in shallow graves. And I saw a stream of faces, all soaked in tears. Scar. Leo. Ruby Gillespie. Pamela Ferris. Anne Benedict. Karina Gorski.

  When they woke me up I was covered in sweat and my mouth felt as rough as sandpaper. I was astonished to learn that I’d been asleep for no less than eight hours.

  Ash had apparently told his people to leave me alone while they carried out various inquiries.

  I was given a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich, which I demolished in minutes.

  Then I was escorted to an interview room where Ash and another officer I didn’t know asked me a bunch of questions. They were polite rather than aggressive and I began to believe that maybe the worst was over.

  I told them what had happened from the time I received Ruby’s text message to the moment Ash and McGrath walked into the Ferris house. The only part I left out was the visit to Delaney’s houseboat. I had to go through the knife attack on Scar and I twice, presumably so they could be sure that my account matched the one she’d given them. Ash told me there were no CCTV or traffic cameras near the spot where the attack took place and I realised that if there had been our story would have collapsed.

  It was only after they were satisfied with my statement that Ash started to tell me what had happened while I’d been asleep.

  ‘McGrath is in hospital still and I’m told he’s serious but stable,’ he said. ‘Unsurprisingly he’s lost the use of his right eye. But given what happened I’d say he’s lucky to be alive. We’ll hopefully start to question him tomorrow.

  ‘Meanwhile, we’ve already had a peek at his bank statements and phone records. There’s no question that Ferris was telling the truth about him being on Joe Strickland’s payroll. He was bent all right.’