Silent Suspect: A completely gripping crime thriller with edge-of-your-seat suspense (Detective Jessica Daniel thriller series Book 13)

by Kerry Wilkinson

  ‘It’s okay,’ she cooed, smoothing Bex’s hair as she pressed her face into Jessica’s shoulder.

  Bex continued to cry, although she slowly regained her breath until she eventually pulled away, using her sleeve to wipe at her nose and eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she croaked.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Jessica replied.

  ‘If the pair of you want some privacy, you can use my room,’ Fran said.

  Bex nodded and then picked up her tea and a ripped courier satchel, which she hooked across herself. She and Jessica followed Fran upstairs into the bedroom Jessica hadn’t seen the inside of. It was a small box room with a single bed slotted into an alcove and clothes folded on the floor.

  ‘You’ll be left alone in here,’ Fran said, as she eyed Jessica.

  She was about to close the door when Bex gulped: ‘Thank you’.

  Fran smiled at her. ‘You’re very welcome,’ she replied, before closing the door with a soft click.

  Bex shuffled until she was in the corner and put her bag on the floor. She hugged her knees to her chest. Her sleeves hung long and limp, covering her hands. Now that Jessica had time to look at her properly, she could see the crescent curve of a bruise around Bex’s eye, another looping around her jaw. Her hair was longer, probably uncut since she’d left Jessica’s. It was unwashed and starting to matt together. The small ring was still hooped through her nose but it hadn’t been cleaned any time recently and the silver had faded to a dull grey.

  ‘It’s so good to see you,’ Jessica said, leaning her head against the wall.

  ‘You too.’

  ‘I’ve been looking for you since… well…’

  Bex nodded, understanding. They both knew about the day Bex had gone missing. ‘I didn’t know you were here until this morning,’ Bex said. ‘I’ve been keeping my head down away from the centre, trying not to be noticed – but I was so hungry. I went to this Help the Homeless place, hoping to get something. First, I saw your photo on the front of the paper. They said you were missing and I didn’t know what to think. Then I didn’t even get inside the shelter. There was this blonde girl nearby, staring at me. Then I realised I was standing next to a poster with my face on.’

  ‘I put those up.’

  Bex nodded. ‘She said her name was Alison, that someone named Jessica was looking for me. Then she brought me here.’ She took a deep breath and then sipped her tea. ‘It’s hot,’ she whispered.

  ‘Tea generally is.’

  Bex smiled sadly. ‘Been a while since I had a proper brew.’

  Jessica waited, hoping Bex would answer the question without her having to ask it, but the teenager leaned back further and stared at her feet.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Jessica eventually asked.

  Bex shivered, still staring at her feet. ‘Max,’ she whispered.

  ‘I’ve met Max Waverly – and his father. I was at their farm. But who is he?’

  Bex frowned, drawing her knees tighter to herself and shrinking away. ‘You know them?’

  ‘Not like that. I followed a trail to them. I was looking for you.’

  ‘Oh…’ Bex’s chest rose as she inhaled. She peered past Jessica towards the closed door and, for a moment, seemed like a stranger. Someone whom Jessica had never met.

  ‘Max is crazy,’ she said. ‘We sort of knew each other when I lived on the streets in Manchester. It’s hard to describe if you don’t know it. There’s a community. You don’t know everyone’s names but you recognise faces and sometimes share information about places to sleep or eat. I was friendly to him once or twice and he took it the wrong way. This was a couple of years ago, maybe a bit more. He got it into his head that we were boyfriend–girlfriend.’ She rolled up her sleeve and showed Jessica the spider’s web tattoo. ‘I had this, so he got the same thing done. He thought it’d impress me, but it was just weird. I shouted at him, screamed, told him to leave me alone. There were people around and he ran off. That was the last time I saw him – well, the last time until that morning at your house.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I was cooking in the kitchen and the doorbell went. I thought it was a parcel or something, so opened up and he was standing there. He had his hands in his pockets, all casual, as if it was perfectly normal that he was there. Like he was my boyfriend dropping round to take me out. I must’ve stepped back in surprise because he’s suddenly in the house, in the hallway.’ Bex started blinking quickly, the rhythm of her speech speeding up. ‘He was smiling, all friendly, asking how I was. Then, before I could say anything, he had this knife.’ She held her hands out, indicating the length of a large blade. ‘He told me to go with him. It was like I was watching someone else, like it was on TV or something. I remember walking out of the house and he was right behind me. I looked back and he was hiding the knife in his belt. There was this white van and he told me to get in the back. I thought about running, but he was so close and there was no time.’ She reached out and grabbed Jessica’s wrist, desperate for her to understand. ‘Afterwards, you play it all back. You wonder why you didn’t run, didn’t scream, but it’s hard to explain. All I could think was that he had the knife. I couldn’t work out how he knew where I was.’

  ‘How did he know?’

  Bex shrugged. ‘I still don’t know. He never said and it wasn’t like I was going to ask. I only found this out later on, but Max was never homeless, not like me. He used to run away from home a lot, then he’d get bored after a while and call his dad to pick him up. Who’d do that?’

  It took Jessica a moment to realise that it was a genuine question. ‘It sounds like a cry for attention,’ she said.

  ‘Someone would go that far to be noticed?’

  ‘You said he was crazy.’

  Bex tilted her head to agree. Jessica had no idea what Max actually was. She’d heard his voice in the footage on the memory card, ordering Bex to say she loved him. There were all sorts of correct medical terms, but ‘crazy’ was all-encompassing and would do for now.

  ‘Anyway, his dad would pick him up and things would be okay for a month or so, then he’d run away again,’ Bex continued. ‘He’d end up in a city somewhere in the north. After he took me, he kept saying how he loved me so much that he’d return to Manchester over and over to look for me. He’d make me say I loved him too – but I’d only said maybe a few dozen words to him before that. He’d constructed this whole fantasy in his head.’

  ‘What did he do?’

  Bex peered away again. ‘He kept me locked in the house. I think his dad let him do it because it stopped him acting up, like I was the person who kept him normal. If you can call it normal.’

  ‘On the farm with the red semicircle on the gate?’ Bex nodded slowly, eyeing Jessica sideways, confused. ‘I told you I went there to look for you,’ Jessica added.

  Bex nodded once more. ‘They put me in a bedroom upstairs. Max and his dad would work during the day and I’d be locked inside. The window was bolted in place and it was a long drop anyway.’ Bex must have seen something in Jessica’s expression because she stopped. ‘You’ve been in there?’

  ‘Last night. Fran distracted them and I sneaked inside.’

  ‘Looking for me?’

  ‘Looking for something. I didn’t know they had you. How long ago did you get away?’

  Bex shook her head, continuing from where she’d left off. ‘In the evenings we all ate together – Max, his dad and me, as if we were some sort of family. Max would ask about my day, as if I’d been out to work and had a normal life. His dad would eat his food and say nothing. He knew it was mental. Max used to record me. He’d make me say I loved him, that sort of thing.’

  Jessica slipped the memory card from her pocket and put it on the bed between them. Bex stared at it and then picked it up, eyes widening as she read her own name.

  ‘There were cards with other girls’ names on, too,’ Jessica said.

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘You didn’t know that?’
/>
  ‘No.’

  ‘Why do you think Max’s dad let it happen? Because he loved his son?’

  Bex closed her eyes, her words almost lost because they were so quiet. ‘He’d visit me, too.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Jessica didn’t know what to say. She wanted the rage that was building within her to explode but had to stay strong for Bex. If she wanted to expose the Waverlys for what they had done, being angry wasn’t the solution. She had to be smart.

  The fury could come later.

  ‘There were others, too,’ Bex whispered. ‘This guy, Peter, used to come over for meals and he’d sleep in one of the spare rooms. He always looked at me funny.’

  ‘Did he—?’

  ‘No, but he knew what they’d done. He was there with his dad. I don’t know why.’

  ‘His dad’s an electrician,’ Jessica said. ‘He rigged their meter to keep the power output down. There’s a massive cannabis factory in the attic. I think he’s taking a cut.’

  Bex peered up but couldn’t meet Jessica’s gaze. She stared at a spot somewhere around her belly button. ‘I guess that’s why it was so warm all the time.’

  ‘Have you been there all this time?’

  ‘They told me they were watching my friend.’

  ‘Me?’

  A nod. ‘They said that if I tried to run or anything, that they’d come after you. They told me all these horrible things they’d do to you. They didn’t know your name at first, but they kept asking who I’d been staying with and where my mum was, that sort of thing. I didn’t have much choice other than to tell them.’

  ‘It’s fine.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s not. At first it was just Max, but then it was his dad. They’d ask what you were like, where you worked, all those sorts of things. I told them everything.’

  Bex sat with her head hung limply, arms lifeless. Suddenly Jessica knew how the Waverlys had led her into such trouble. They’d had the full rundown on who she was and how she would likely act. There was a bit of luck involved, but they’d done their homework.

  ‘Sorry,’ Bex said.

  ‘Don’t be.’

  ‘The more I told them, the more they said they’d get you if I ever left. But I couldn’t take it any longer. I’d been working on it for weeks, telling Max that he was tying me up too tight, that he was hurting me. Slowly, he started to do the knots looser, then he stopped tying them at all. There was a morning when they both drove off in the van. I watched them out the window, waiting a few minutes and then I smashed the glass with my elbow.’ She rolled up the sleeve covering the arm without the tattoo and showed Jessica the honeycomb of scabs.

  ‘I thought you said it was too high to jump?’ Jessica said.

  Bex spun around and lifted her top, exposing a mottled mound of bruises and bumps. ‘It was – but at least I didn’t land on my legs.’ She sniffed back a sob. ‘I’m sorry they came for you, but I couldn’t stay there any longer. I thought they might be bluffing.’

  Jessica shuffled forward and put an arm around her. ‘It’s really not your fault.’ Bex snuffled another sob, nestling deeper on Jessica’s shoulder. ‘Why didn’t you call me when you got away?’ Jessica asked.

  ‘I didn’t have your number, or any money. It only happened a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been hiding, wondering what to do.’

  ‘You could have called the police.’

  Bex pushed herself away, shaking her head. ‘You don’t understand. Max’s dad is obsessed with the police. He hates them and was always going on about them. He said that if they ever come for him, he’ll burn the barn down before they can do anything.’

  ‘Why would that stop them arresting him?’

  ‘It wouldn’t.’

  Jessica stared at her. ‘Sorry, I don’t get it.’

  ‘You don’t know what’s in the barn?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘That’s where he keeps the slaves.’

  Thirty-Nine

  ‘Slaves…?’

  Jessica uttered her response before she’d had a chance to think about it, but the truth was that she knew something was not right with the maids at the hotel.

  ‘Max explained it one night,’ Bex said. ‘He thought I’d be impressed, like it’s some really clever business plan. His dad brings these people over from Europe and keeps their passports. Poles and Albanians, I think. He forces them to work in cafés and hotels for his friends, who pay him instead of them. He drops them off and picks them up, but always keeps some of them back at the barn. He tells them that if anybody thinks about running from their work, that he’ll kill the rest. When Max told me that, he was laughing. He thinks it’s genius.’

  ‘That’s awful.’

  ‘I had to play along, telling Max how smart it all is.’

  ‘Saying it is one thing, believing it is another.’

  Bex nodded, though it didn’t look like she agreed.

  ‘I’m still confused about something,’ Jessica said. ‘Well, a lot of things, but one in particular.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I get that you escaped and that Max is off his rocker – but why did they do all of this to me? I understand that maybe they wanted to find you, perhaps even get me as vengeance, but they’ve killed people to try to frame me. That’s more than revenge.’

  Bex reached down and picked up her bag. ‘That’s because they don’t just want to find me, they need to find me.’ She opened the flap of the bag and pulled out a laptop, putting it on the bed between them. ‘After I jumped out of the window, I smashed the back window and went inside to get this. It’s Vince’s and has all the details of his slaves. He buys them and keeps track of how much he gets paid by each business owner. He’s obsessed by money and is always going on about how so-and-so owes him.’ She lifted the lid and typed in a password before handing it over to Jessica.

  ‘How do you know the password?’

  ‘Max used to have things written on his hand all the time because he’d never remember. There were all sorts of names and words at various times. After I got the laptop, I tried a few things and it got me in.’ She pointed at the screen. ‘Open that file on the desktop.’

  Jessica did and scrolled through the file, amazed. Vince Waverly might be many things, but he certainly liked keeping records. Stored within the spreadsheet was a list of names, with passport numbers, a price he’d paid for each person and then monthly amounts he’d been paid. He’d even tallied for things like ‘food and board’, plus ‘upkeep’, as if they were his tenants and were working willingly. The arrogance was astonishing. He was treating these poor people – real human beings – as if they were a commodity. It was evil on another level.

  So much now made sense. Vince needed the laptop and his best chance of luring Bex into the open was to lure Jessica. He knew Bex wouldn’t go to the police automatically because she feared for the lives of those in the barn. It was no wonder he’d raced out of the house when Fran had caused a distraction the previous night. He thought that if he could get Jessica in enough trouble, get her name and face in the papers, then Bex would come out of the shadows and reveal herself. Peter and Greg Salisbury had gone along with him because they were friends and invested in the various moneymaking schemes. It was a gamble because she was a police officer, which was why he’d tried to frame her. He needed her occupied, confused and off-the-ball because his only real target was Bex. He thought Jessica might do things like put up posters around the town and ask the right questions trying to find Bex. What he hadn’t figured was that Jessica would run for it when Blackpool’s police came knocking.

  Jessica guessed that the body of ‘Peter’ was actually one of the slaves. Vince would have hoped that was enough to get Jessica arrested, but when that didn’t work he needed a plan B – which ended up being Sophie Johns. With ‘Peter’ apparently dead, the real Peter was free to do the dirty work with impunity.

  It was complicated, but it probably had to be. Somewhere along the line, they’d have been watch
ing Jessica and known Bex hadn’t been in contact. She had gone to ground and they needed the laptop back. They’d laid the trap and Jessica had fallen for it. They probably hadn’t expected her to do something like stay in Luke Eckhart’s hotel, but when she did, it made life even easier for them. Her room had been searched because someone, perhaps Luke if he was in on it, was hunting for the laptop. Eckhart was certainly compliant, in as much that he was using Vince’s slaves.

  For the most part, Vince’s plans had worked out – except for the fact that they still hadn’t found Bex.

  ‘Did you know anyone named Sophie?’ Jessica asked.

  Bex shook her head. ‘I was never allowed to leave the house. Sometimes Max talked about Peter having a girl in the house – I think that’s why he stayed over – but I never knew about it until after. Max and Peter used to hang around a lot.’ She tucked the laptop back into her bag, stretching her legs. ‘What now?’ she asked.

  ‘We should take the laptop to the police. It’s everything they’ll need.’

  Bex cradled the bag to her chest. ‘We can’t. Vince will set fire to that barn. There are people inside.’

  ‘I didn’t see anyone when I was there.’

  Bex shrugged. ‘They always mentioned the barn. They might have it rigged with explosives or something.’

  ‘Could he mean a different barn?’

  ‘I don’t know, they only ever mentioned the slaves in the barn. That was it.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘I don’t know!’

  Bex’s frustration burst out, but Jessica had to ask another question.

  ‘Did you ever actually see them, Bex?’

  ‘I… well, no. I suppose not.’

  ‘I can go through my people – Iz, Archie, the guv. They’ll—’