The diary had become a real solace for Dani after her TBI. At the suggestion of one of her doctors she’d written at length about her recovery, about her mixed emotions, about her troubles finding herself again and reconnecting with the world and with Jason.
‘But then I got to the most recent chapters.’
He tossed the book over to her. She caught it. Confused, she flicked through to the back pages. She hadn’t written anything in the diary for months. Not since the day she’d kicked Jason out of her apartment. But sure enough, there was a whole host of new entries she’d not seen before. Dani frowned.
‘That’s your writing,’ Jason said. ‘Isn’t it?’
Dani said nothing. Was it her writing? It looked like it could be. But she couldn’t remember writing any of it. She read some of the gruesome words. Gory details through a killer’s eyes. Grace Agnew. Natalya. Jessica Bradford. It was all there.
Her brain started to blur. What was happening to her?
‘I didn’t do it,’ Dani said. ‘You must know I didn’t kill any of them?’
Jason said nothing.
‘You must know it’s not me!’
‘You’re right. I know it wasn’t you. Not the Dani I know. But—’
‘There is no other me! I’m not a fucking schizo with split personalities!’
Jason didn’t say anything. His silence made her question her own strong words. She wasn’t mad. Was she?
‘If you need help, Dani… I’m here for you.’
She didn’t know what to say. What to do. She dropped the diary and turned for the door. She just had to get out.
‘No, Dani!’ Jason shouted.
She ran up the stairs, out into the cold night, a thousand thoughts blurring in her mind. She didn’t kill those women. She couldn’t have. But then… her brother was a murderer. Was there a killer in her too?
With her confused brain consumed by those demented thoughts, she didn’t see the figure standing outside until it was too late. She had no time to react as the gloved hand sprang forwards, a small black object sticking out from its grasp. The taser pressed into Dani’s side and a surge of electricity rushed through her body, knocking her clean off her feet.
She landed on the cold paving slabs with a painful thud. In a daze, she was only vaguely aware of the sound of a scuffle above her, before another body flopped down right next to her.
Unable to move, Dani stared into Jason’s eyes, as both their bodies twitched uncontrollably. She heard but couldn’t see the figure move up behind her.
The taser stabbed into her back and the pulse of electricity that surged through her seemed even more powerful than before, sending both her brain and her heart into a panic. Sparks and stars danced in front of Dani’s twitching eyes.
But not for long. Seconds later, everything turned black.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
The first thing Dani saw when she opened her eyes was Jason. Her head was bowed forwards and turned to the side. She was sitting on the cold hard floor of the basement, her legs out in front of her. She tried to move, to fully sit up, but realised she couldn’t. Her hands were behind her, linked together – metal handcuffs? – and wrapped around a hard object of some kind. A metal pole, was Dani’s best guess.
She tried to pull her head up to look around the room but it was heavy, and even moving a few millimetres sent a searing pain through her neck and down her spine. Was that because she’d been sitting in the awkward position for so long, or was it the after effects of the taser?
Dani’s eyes remained focused on the forlorn figure of Jason. He was lying on the ground in front of her, his eyes closed, his body hog-tied; wrists and ankles clasped together with plastic cable ties. Two sets, no, three, all linked together. He had a large gash up above his eye; the smear of red blood on his face glistened in the electric light.
The light. It was so bright.
Dani fought through the pain in her body and lifted her head as best she could to survey the room she was in. Was it the same basement still, or a different room altogether? She could just about make out the shelves, a workbench. A single overhead bulb, like before. But that was emitting only a dull orange glow, yet there was a piercing white light in front of her that was almost impossibly bright to look at, like staring into the sun. It was so bright and glaring that Dani couldn’t even see where exactly in front of her it was coming from, and she could see nothing of what lay beyond.
‘Jason,’ Dani murmured, looking back at him, her tongue and lips struggling to form the word. She focused, tried again. ‘Jason. Can you hear me?’
She saw the slightest of twitches from him. Heard the slightest of groans.
Then she heard a noise from across the room in front of her. Dani’s head whipped around and she cringed in pain.
‘Who’s there?’
Nothing. Silence.
‘Who the fuck are you?’ Dani screamed, finding a strength that surprised her.
She heard a long but calm sigh. Then movement. The first thing she saw were the shoes. Shining brown loafers. Because of the position of that bright spotlight Dani could make out nothing of the figure the shoes belonged to. Not until he took two more steps forwards. Finally his whole body was visible, the spotlight now on his back and creating a long shadow that swept forwards onto Dani.
She looked up into his eyes. She’d never met him in person, but she’d seen enough pictures of him to recognise him instantly.
It was Ethan Grant.
Chapter Sixty
‘DI Stephens,’ Ethan said, his manner calm and confident, though his face was twisted in a grimace as he stared at Dani. ‘I understand you’ve been looking for me.’
Dani’s mind whirred with so many conflicting questions that nothing would stick.
‘So what’s the plan?’ she said, sounding way more direct and focussed than she had any right to be. ‘You set me up for killing Reeve already. Now those poor women too?’
Ethan laughed. ‘You mean the diary? Do you like that touch? When I starting reading it in your apartment, I just knew what I had to do with it. I mean, look at you. You’re so fucked up. I bet even you thought for a few moments that maybe you really were a murderer. Like your loser brother.’
Dani winced. Ethan was right. She had doubted herself when she’d read those gruesome words in her diary.
Ethan moved over to the workbench off to his right where a variety of tools were laid out. A large glass jar half filled with clear liquid was on the worktop. Grim thoughts fired through Dani’s mind. Her conversations about serial killers with Steven Grant replayed in her head. Methods for disposing of bodies. How a killer could leave no trace.
But Ethan Grant was barely an adult. Could he really do such a thing?
Dani looked down at Jason. His eyes were still closed. Was he conscious? Did he understand what was happening?
‘You’ve got a lot to be thankful to DI Barnes for,’ Ethan said as he turned back to face her. ‘I felt sure that by now you would have been locked up for Paul Reeve’s murder, and I can only assume it’s his blind love for you which has saved your skin. For now. Unfortunately, the reward for DI Barnes’s loyalty isn’t quite going to be what he hoped for.’
‘You’re fucking crazy,’ Dani said. ‘No one will believe this.’
‘Believe what? That the twin sister of a sociopath is herself a sociopath? It’s not so hard to comprehend really. No, you’re one crazy bitch all right. Not only did you kill Paul Reeve and three innocent young women – quite why, no one really knows – but when the heat on you got too much you turned on your former boyfriend. After that… you just disappeared.’
The finality with which Ethan Grant delivered that final word sent a chill right into Dani’s core.
Ethan grabbed an object from the workbench he was standing by. A wallet? He started flipping through the contents. He put it down and picked up a thick rubber glove, then took the wallet and stepped over to the glass jar and lifted off the lid.
&n
bsp; ‘You’re going to like this next bit.’
Ethan moved the wallet down inside the jar and as it touched the liquid it began to foam and froth as the acid ate away at the material. Ethan looked at Dani, smiling when he saw the look of horror on her face. He carefully dropped the wallet into the jar and placed the lid back on top as the acid consumed the remainder of the object.
‘Quite something, isn’t it?’ Ethan said. ‘Dani Stephens, serial killer. Disappeared into the night.’
‘Tell me, Ethan,’ Dani said. ‘How many people have you killed exactly?’
The continued strength in her voice surprised Dani, as did the question itself. Of all the burning questions she could ask in that moment, she really wasn’t sure why that was the first to come from her lips. Was she simply looking to latch onto facts and concrete information, to help her try and work out and make sense of the whole situation?
But the reality was that Ethan Grant was a teenager still, had only recently left home, and even before he opened his mouth to answer, that realisation caused a horrible feeling to creep over Dani.
‘Just two, actually,’ Ethan said. He winked at Dani. ‘So far, that is.’
Thoughts crashed through Dani’s weary brain.
‘Natalya,’ Dani said as the pieces started to fall together and Steven Grant’s words echoed in her mind once more. ‘And Reeve? But not the others.’
Ethan’s slight grin told her the answer. Dani frowned, still deep in thought as the sequence of events continued to take shape in her mind. She thought through everything that had happened over the last few days. The last few months, even. The turmoil she’d gone through because of what her brother had done. The feelings of guilt and shame and anger and that need for revenge and to lash out that she’d tried so hard to keep hidden away. She thought about the visits to see Ben, the conversations and ideas about what made him a killer. She thought of Reeve and Natalya, their pale bodies in the morgue. The other bodies – Jessica Bradford, Grace Agnew, others? – who hadn’t been found. Lastly, she thought of those conversations she’d had with Steven Grant, the murder expert.
Steven Grant. The murder expert. The damaged soul.
‘There’s someone who’s been waiting to say hello,’ Ethan said, as though he’d been party to Dani’s thoughts.
He turned and crept out of sight. Dani heard the door at the top of the stairs open and close, and then all was silent.
She wasn’t going to sit there and wait for the next act. She squirmed and bucked against her restraints. No, there was simply no way she could get free of the cuffs on her wrists.
But Jason on the other hand…
‘Jason!’ Dani hissed, her voice a loud whisper. She was quite sure they were now alone in the room but she remained cautious nonetheless.
Not even a murmur from Jason.
‘Jason, wake up!’ Dani said.
If she could wake him, he could help. He only had simple cable ties securing his wrists and ankles. Yes, those things were damn secure, but if you knew how…
And Dani did.
The only problem was, Jason was out of it.
Was he drugged?
‘Jason, please,’ Dani said, her voice pleading and desperate.
He shivered and opened his eyes a fraction. His hands twitched.
‘Please,’ Dani said again.
Then she heard the door opening, somewhere beyond the spotlight. She heard footfalls, coming down the steps. More than one set.
Moments later Ethan Grant came back into view, a horrible smirk on his face.
‘DI Stephens… oh, and DI Barnes too. You’re awake. Well, that’s great, you’re just in time.’
Dani looked down at Jason. His eyes were now fully open but he remained listless. She looked back up to Ethan. She’d already prepared herself for the face of the person who would step forwards next to him.
But how wrong she was.
The figure came into view.
Not Steven Grant at all, but his wife, Mary.
Chapter Sixty-One
Mary stepped forward in front of her son.
‘What the fuck is going on here?’ Jason slurred, finally coming around to the reality of the situation.
Mary looked from Dani and down to him.
‘Did Dani not fill you in?’ she said. ‘And I thought you two were playing so nicely together.’
‘You?’ was the only word that came out of Dani’s lips.
Mary raised an eyebrow and shook her head. ‘Wow, you must have thought long and hard about that one.’
‘I… I don’t get it,’ Dani said.
‘Well of course you don’t, Detective. That’s why you’re sitting on the floor like that, and why I’m not.’
Dani again looked down at Jason. He was shaking his head in confusion, but at least he appeared more lucid now. Jason was their only hope of getting out alive.
‘Does Steven know what you’re going to do to me?’ Dani asked.
Steven Grant. Dani had been certain that it would be him making the grand entrance. After all, he had a morbid interest in murderers. He had a direct connection to Jessica Bradford, which he’d lied to Dani about. He had first-hand experience of being at the mercy of a killer. Did he know what Mary was?
‘Steven?’ Mary said, a little perturbed. ‘You’re on first name terms with my husband now? Does DI Barnes know you’ve developed something of a crush on the professor? Or was it not my husband, but the subject of death that pulled you in?’
Dani again thought back to her conversations with Grant. What makes a killer? Nature or nurture. The answer was complex. Impossible to test. Yet Dani saw a slim window of opportunity.
She knew what she had to do.
‘Ethan,’ Dani said. ‘Don’t let her do this. Don’t follow her path.’
‘I know you didn’t mean to kill Natalya. It was a mistake.’
Dani saw Ethan clenching his jaw. She was right. ‘She was your first, wasn’t she? What happened, Ethan? Did you get scared? Did you panic and give her the opportunity to escape?’
Mary turned to Ethan who gave his mother a sheepish look. He held his tongue.
‘You had no choice but to kill her in the open. And then Reeve? Were you trying to cover your tracks? Hoping the police would link the deaths and put them down to gang violence? Why? Was Reeve getting too close to the truth?’ The flinch on Ethan’s face suggested perhaps that was the answer. ‘What about Harland? Did he know too?’
‘Dean?’ Ethan said. ‘No, DI Stephens, his death is on you, not me.’
‘Well done,’ Mary said. ‘Very perceptive, Dani. You’re right, I’ve been working with Ethan, trying to teach him. But he’s so impatient. And naturally, he has his own views and ideas. He just needs reining in sometimes. What happened with that young girl… he very nearly ruined everything. Until you came into the mix. It’s just a shame for you that you’ve figured all this out too late.’
‘Ethan. You’re not like her!’
‘Oh, come off it,’ Mary scolded. ‘You’re not going to suddenly break through to him. This is what he is.’
Dani stared at Ethan and the blank stare he gave Dani in return was almost lifeless. Except for a faint flicker of something. Regret?
‘Ethan’s always been trouble,’ Mary continued, then she sighed. ‘He’s always been my son. There’s nothing we, or he, can do about that. It might have taken him some time to realise the truth, but now he knows. He’s not going to fight against it anymore.’
Yet Dani had seen something in Ethan’s eyes. She was certain she had.
‘This next part should be of interest to you, Dani,’ Mary said. ‘I—’
A piercing chime cut Mary off and she glared over to her side. She took two steps forwards and Dani caught a glimpse of a faint light coming from one of the shelves. The source of the light was concealed by boxes and plastic containers. What was it? A small CCTV monitor?
‘What is he doing here?’ Ethan said, sounding more exasperated than anythin
g else as he looked over his mother’s shoulder.
Mary remained unflustered though it was clear the interruption was not welcome.
‘Let me deal with this,’ Mary said as she turned away. ‘If either of them move, kill them. It’d be a shame to spoil the best part, but we never take chances.’
Ethan nodded and Mary moved out of sight. Dani heard her walking up the stairs and then opening and closing the outer door.
‘Ethan, who is it?’ Dani asked. ‘Who’s here?’
Ethan said nothing. He pulled out a metal chair and sat down, then glared over at Dani.
‘Your dad?’
Ethan shook his head slowly.
‘The police?’
Ethan smiled and shrugged.
‘They’re going to catch up with you sooner or later. You must realise that? Even if I don’t make it out of this alive, you can see how close we’ve come. We won’t be the last.’
‘No. You won’t be the last. You’re right about that.’
‘You don’t have to do this. You’re not a killer, Ethan. Don’t let her corrupt you like that. She’s insane!’
‘I used to think that too,’ Ethan said. ‘Do you know how old I was when I found out the truth?’
Dani didn’t answer.
‘I was fourteen. I’m not sure I was supposed to, but I could almost sense Mum’s relief. But I was confused. For a long time. Can you imagine the fights we’ve had over the years? But I know now that it wasn’t me fighting with her. Not really. It was me fighting with myself. I’ve been in denial for too long. I am just like her. I was born this way, and there’s nothing I can do about it.’
‘That’s not true, Ethan. It’s simply not true. There’s always a choice. Always another way. And your dad? He’s not a killer. You’re as much him as you are her.’
Ethan’s face took on a hard edge at the mention of his dad. What did that look mean?
Dani looked over at Jason. He’d been so quiet through the conversation. Too quiet. Dani soon saw why. She knew exactly how to break through plastic cable ties. The most obvious way was to cut through them. But really you didn’t need a saw or a knife or anything as heavy duty as that. A bog standard shoelace would do the trick if you created enough tension. It was one of the many survival techniques Dani had picked up over the years, which she’d become even more interested in following her near-death experience at the hands of her own brother.
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