Never Say Goodbye: An edge of your seat thriller with gripping suspense (Detective Tom Fabian Book 1)

by Richard Parker

  ‘She had a boyfriend, Matt. He was twenty. She went to live in some squat in London with him. She didn’t care about anyone but him.’

  ‘What happened to her?’ But Fabian was starting to fill in the blanks.

  ‘She kept in touch with my wife and we learned she’d fallen out with Matt. We both pleaded with her to come home. But she wanted to stay… in this cesspool.’ He gestured out of the filthy window. ‘We knew we’d already lost her.’

  ‘The people you murdered were as innocent as your daughter.’

  ‘Yet somehow they seem to mean more to you than Lizzie. I needed you to take notice of what happened to her.’

  ‘And this is how you chose to do it?’

  ‘She came to you for help.’

  ‘I know about Lizzie at Embankment station.’

  ‘Lizzie phoned us. After nearly three years without a word, she called us on the night of her nineteenth birthday. She sounded terrified. Said she’d taken something. I thought whatever drug it was had made her paranoid. She told me she was sitting in her boyfriend’s car. I asked her if she was back with Matt and she laughed at me. Then ranted about how much had happened since she’d been in love with Matt. Like he was something good from an innocent past – the man who had taken her to live on a mattress in a filthy squat. She was waiting for her new boyfriend, and was petrified about what he’d do when he got there. Said she’d been with his friends, that money had changed hands and not for the first time. I realised what she’d become. She begged me to come and get her.’ A sob caught in his throat. ‘I told her to call the police. When she wouldn’t I asked her to tell me exactly where she was.’

  ‘Fitzrovia?’

  Chambers nodded. ‘Langham Street. Waiting for him and saying she’d displeased him. She started breathing faster, and I knew he was coming back to the car. Then she hung up.’

  Fabian waited as Chambers slowly filled his lungs.

  ‘When she called back he’d attacked her in the car. He had a butterfly blade and had tried to cut her with it. She’d fled but he was pursuing her on foot. I could hear her footsteps on the pavement. She was wearing heels. I told her to take them off and keep running. Tell me exactly where she was. Sue called the police while I stayed on the line with Lizzie. I lived every second of every dirty street with her – Middleton, Riding, Wells. She said she knew the area, had a friend who lived nearby. But I told her to go somewhere crowded, so she headed for Oxford Street. She spotted him following her, and he caught up with her in Newman Street. That’s where he pounced. I could hear her begging him not to hurt her and then she dropped her phone. He swore at her, and Lizzie yelled for help. Nobody came to her aid. I just had to sit there helpless while he attacked her. I heard him say he’d make sure she’d never sell herself to anyone else.’

  Fabian could see tears well up in Chambers’s eyes.

  ‘She picked up her phone and told me he’d slashed her mouth and face with his blade. Held her down and mutilated her. I ordered her to get to Oxford Street and raise help but she was sure he’d gone in that direction. She turned about and went back the way she’d come. Told me there was blood in her eyes. She’d just made it to Warren Street Tube when she realised he was coming after her again. She got on the Tube and lost her signal. Sue and I waited. The police told Sue we had to tell them exactly where she was. We counted the minutes. Eight of them. She called us again from outside Embankment Tube. Nobody had helped her. Not on the train or at the station. Even though her face was bleeding. She approached a police officer. He was dealing with a punch-up outside and told her to get herself to a hospital. Didn’t keep her there and call her an ambulance. She was on the phone to me again. I told her to hand me over to the officer, but she wouldn’t. That policeman should have kept her there.’ He drew breath and his heart beat against it. ‘She walked. Ended up at Cleopatra’s Needle on the edge of the Thames. She was hysterical by then. Was begging me to forgive her. Told me her face was ruined and that she deserved what had happened to her. I could hear the water. Tried to reason with her. She said she was going to throw herself in. It was my turn to beg then. Then the phone went dead. It was the last time I spoke to her.’

  When he considered what had happened when Tilly hadn’t made one call home Fabian could understand how Saul Chambers must have relived those moments of powerlessness over and over again.

  ‘Embankment? Was somebody going to die to put that on the map too?’

  Chambers blinked away tears and nodded. ‘We couldn’t locate her with her phone. That was lying at the bottom of the Thames. The police said they’d do everything they could to find her. They did nothing. Not for Lizzie on the night or in the months that followed. Another missing prostitute wasn’t ever going to be a priority. I tried to find her boyfriend, but I knew nothing of the life she’d led, the people she knew or the places she’d lived. I knocked on doors in Langham Street but who was going to admit to being associated with her?’

  Fabian wondered how many months of searching it had taken before Chambers’s grief had mutated into such an unconditional hatred. And how he could have allowed himself to imagine that what he’d done was justifiable.

  ‘Saul Chambers, I am arresting you for the murders of Candice Langham, Joe Middleton, Keeley Riding—’

  Chambers’s phone started ringing on the dresser.

  He swallowed. ‘That’ll be Sue again.’ He crossed the room towards it.

  ‘Let it ring.’

  Chambers halted.

  Fabian saw the blade in his fist and recoiled as the metal was thrust towards him. He felt the doorway of the bathroom against his spine and held his hands up to shield himself. The blade slashed at his left palm and he took another pace back into the bathroom, preparing himself for further attack.

  How could he defend himself? Before Chambers could enter the room he quickly pushed the door closed and turned the lock. He leaned against the panel. ‘Put the blade down, now!’

  ‘Let me speak to my wife, just for a minute. Then I’ll drop the blade and you can take me in.’

  ‘I have officers downstairs!’

  ‘I’m picking up the phone. I’ll surrender my weapon immediately afterwards but if you try to come out while I’m speaking to my wife…’

  The ringing stopped.

  Fabian strained his ear for the conversation. He glanced around the bathroom for something to use as a weapon, but there was nothing. No sound of Chambers’s voice. He couldn’t wait. Fabian turned the lock and slowly twisted the handle. The door came away from the jamb and he tugged it wide.

  The hotel room was empty, the phone gone from the dresser. Fabian dashed into the corridor and looked both ways. No sign of him. He raced for the stairs. Had he gone down them or taken the fire exit opposite?

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Fabian got out at Embankment Tube into the raw wet breeze off the Thames and swiftly crossed the busy road to the wall running along the murky river. Saul Chambers was barely ahead of him. That’s if he’d come here. He jogged along the pavement, arms pumping as he headed towards Cleopatra’s Needle.

  The Egyptian obelisk was black against the grey morning sky. Fabian squinted to see if there was anyone standing on the raised stone plinth of the monument. Traffic hurtled by but there were no pedestrians on the pavement.

  Passing the bare trees on his left he was soon looking at the rear of the dark bronze sphinx at its base and climbed the steps. He ran into a young couple just about to descend.

  ‘Sorry.’

  The teenage male stared daggers at him before guiding his girlfriend out of harm’s way. Hurrying across the paving stones to the steps leading to the river’s edge, Fabian considered that he’d made a mistake and that now he had no idea where to look for Chambers. But then he saw the figure standing at the far left edge of the platform, head tilted towards a passing river police boat.

  ‘Don’t.’

  He turned to Fabian, as if yanked from sleep.

  ‘Step back.’
<
br />   Chambers wobbled unsteadily, his feet teetering as he extended his arms to balance himself. ‘No nearer,’ he warned.

  Fabian held out his palms. ‘OK. I’m staying put.’ He estimated Chambers to be about ten feet away from him. Would he throw himself into the river if he lunged forward to grab him?

  Chambers reached into his pocket and pulled out the butterfly blade.

  ‘Let it go.’ Fabian took a pace back. ‘Think of your wife now.’

  Chambers exposed the blade. ‘I kissed Sue the morning I left. I knew that would be the last time.’

  ‘So what are you going to do? Is this exactly how you planned it?’

  ‘Yes, always.’

  A boat honked but it didn’t distract Chambers. He fixed Fabian, the blade solid in his grip. ‘Turn around and walk away. If you try to interrupt me now, you know I’ll have no hesitation.’

  ‘I can’t allow you to do this.’

  ‘No? So why was it allowed to happen to Lizzie?’

  ‘Place the blade on the floor and step away from it. You’re not going to use it on anyone else now.’

  Saul Chambers quickly drew the blade across his jugular.

  ‘No!’ Fabian darted forward.

  As blood gushed from the wound, Chambers stepped backwards and hinged into the water. Fabian reached the edge and saw its blackness fold over him. The splash sprayed his face and clothes and he immediately jumped in after him, feet first.

  The freezing cold squeezed the breath out of him but he swam down and towards where he estimated Chambers would be, thrashing his arms around in an attempt to connect with him.

  His fingers clawed icy bubbles as he circled and dived deeper but Fabian felt his body being dragged and tumbled and the pressure building in his head.

  When he broke the surface fifty yards from the Needle he suspected the current had taken Chambers as well and had to concentrate on fighting to save himself.

  He made for the bank, pounding his way there with hard strokes before he eventually gripped the slimy stone shelf with one hand and looked breathlessly behind him.

  He imagined Chambers, the warmth of his life escaping him as he allowed himself to sink to the bottom.

  Fabian waited there, treading and spitting out bitter mouthfuls for minute after minute but knew that Chambers was gone.

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Just over a week after Chambers’s confession and suicide Fabian was hastily descending the stairs to reception with McMann. Having been instrumental in Chambers’s capture the officer finally seemed to be gelling with the team. Much to Metcalfe’s distinct displeasure. ‘You’re sure of this?’

  ‘That’s what she said.’

  Fabian hoped it was a hoax. Some attention-seeker wasting police time. But before he caught sight of the people waiting at the desk he guessed it was a cruel twist he should have allowed for.

  The woman who had handed herself in turned, and he immediately recognised her from the photograph Sue Chambers had given them.

  Even though there were only a few years between when it had been taken and now, she looked so much older, her features weary and pale. There was no doubting it was Lizzie Chambers, however. There were multiple cuts to her mouth and chin that had healed into silvery slits, tracks that crossed the angry red skin that her father had recreated with his blade because he’d never seen the damage to Lizzie for himself and believed her then to be lying in the same place he was now.

  ‘Greg Litton from the Sun newspaper.’ He stepped between Fabian and Lizzie.

  Fabian didn’t register him. Was only looking at Lizzie’s injuries and considering how many times he’d seen them on the disfigured faces of her father’s victims.

  ‘She came to us first. We have the exclusive.’

  Fabian vaguely noticed a man hovering beside them with a mini TV camera.

  ‘She wants to hand herself in. Will immediately make a statement.’

  Fabian ignored the reporter. ‘Are you OK?’

  Lizzie Chambers nodded, dazed.

  Fabian took in her gaunt features and frame. A dirty pea-green jumper covered her arms but Fabian was convinced he’d find track marks if he pulled back her sleeves. She was little more than a husk.

  ‘We’ve spoken with Miss Chambers and she’s ready to cooperate with the police.’

  ‘McMann, get these people out of reception.’ He nodded to the journalist and his cameraman. ‘Miss Chambers?’

  She weakly nodded.

  ‘We’re running the story today. Her boyfriend brought her to us on Wednesday and she’s signed a contract.’

  ‘Where is her boyfriend now?’ Fabian demanded.

  The journalist shrugged.

  Fabian wondered if ‘boyfriend’ meant her dealer or even the man who had pursued her through Fitzrovia and butchered her face. But it had taken her father’s actions to make her reveal herself. He wondered if Lizzie would have come forward if she, or more likely the absent boyfriend, couldn’t make money from what had happened. It didn’t look like she could walk more than a few paces without assistance.

  All those people murdered to avenge the death of someone who was still alive. Just.

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  ‘Please, try to eat something,’ Fabian joked as he watched his daughter tear off another slice of the Stromboli the three of them were sharing and take a healthy bite.

  ‘Ha, funny,’ Tilly said through a mouthful of dough.

  Harriet caught one of the waitresses on the way past and handed her the empty bottle. ‘Could we have another bottle of red? And another mineral water. Thanks.’

  It was great to be a threesome again and as Fabian had absconded from work and avoided sitting in a tiny room learning about the station’s new in-house software, it made the late lunch doubly enjoyable. He and Harriet had travelled to Exeter together, and she’d insisted on driving. She’d wanted to talk about Toby. Said she’d had a phone conversation with him and that he was now seeing a bereavement counsellor. Fabian was still wary of Toby’s intentions but she’d assured him he was getting the help he needed. But what was clear to him was that Harriet wanted Toby in the past. And as his daughter had already alluded to her new boyfriend several times over lunch he was sure she did too.

  ‘So spill. What’s happened to Lizzie Chambers?’ Tilly wiped oil from her chin.

  The newspapers had kept the story going for a whole week, and Fabian had felt Metcalfe’s disapproval wafting down the corridor. He was still to make his report but the media interest had made it difficult to draw the line. ‘She’s in the care of her mother. Looks like the money she got from the papers is going to pay for her to go into a drug rehab programme.’

  ‘Cool. And when are you getting your promotion?’

  ‘Are you sure this restaurant isn’t too close to campus? We must be within half a mile and you could be seen out with us by your new friends.’

  ‘Don’t change the subject.’ Tilly’s face was suddenly solemn. ‘How is Marcia Cleveland?’

  ‘Recovering from her stab wounds and discharged the day before yesterday.’

  ‘That’s great.’

  ‘That was just lucky for her.’

  Harriet knew Fabian felt responsible. ‘You saved Pippa Warren.’ She met his eye. ‘She could be dead too. If you hadn’t turned up when you did…’

  ‘I should have saved Emily Mortimer and Adam Newman.’

  Harriet put her hand on the back of his. ‘Enough.’

  The wine arrived and broke the moment and Fabian wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not.

  They sat in silence while the waitress poured wine into Fabian’s and Tilly’s glasses and then deposited the glass of mineral water.

  Harriet sipped it and addressed Tilly. ‘So, do we have to drag the name of this new guy from you?’

  Tilly exchanged a brief glance with Fabian. ‘Mark. And don’t start grilling me. It’s early days yet.’ She blushed. ‘If things develop…’

  ‘We’ll wait for the
white smoke signal from the Sistine Chapel,’ Fabian joked.

  Tilly grinned for his benefit but she looked uncomfortable. Was it because now was the perfect juncture to mention Toby?

  Harriet spoke first. ‘Well, maybe we’ll meet him next time.’

  Tilly nodded at Harriet but was still going red.

  ‘Looks like you’ve had enough wine. It’s gone straight to your face.’ Harriet smiled.

  Fabian took a sip from his glass then set it down and asked Tilly all about her lecturers.

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Three days later, Fabian darted his Audi into the free parking space at the front of the station but knew better than to think it was a good omen. He had his official debrief with Metcalfe at 9.30, which he knew would be a litany of procedural infractions to answer to.

  He locked the car and strode through the sliding door and was just making for the stairs when he saw Lauren Reid walking up the corridor with a paper cup of coffee.

  ‘Early start?’

  ‘Just heading home,’ she replied wearily.

  But as she reached him Fabian could have guessed she’d been there all night from the dark circles around her eyes. ‘No rest for the wicked?’

  ‘Can’t grumble. I’ve just been on a week’s holiday.’

  ‘Somewhere sunny?’ Fabian acknowledged she still had the same grey pallor.

  ‘Nursing my sister,’ she said sternly.

  Fabian felt a pang of guilt. ‘Did you hear about Stephan Cousins?’ He watched for her reaction.

  There was none.

  ‘Arrested on Thursday.’

  Not a flicker in her eyes.

  ‘Nothing to do with my team. Cybercrime picked him up. Child pornography found on his hard drive. Probably explains his convenient fit.’

  ‘I haven’t seen Mr Cousins since he was discharged from hospital. Someone else will be handling it.’

  Fabian nodded. ‘Apparently there was an anonymous tip-off.’