‘What’s going on, Tracy?’ he shouted.
The girl from the office called back. ‘I’ve no idea. The police are here,’ she added unnecessarily.
Sam approached the mechanic who had left the workshop. ‘Daniel Saunders?’
He turned and scowled, recognising her. ‘You were here before, weren’t you? What is it this time? Does your car need fixing?’ He sneered at her, while his eyes darted around, assessing the situation.
All at once he barged past her and sprinted for the exit. Sam leapt towards him and seized his arm, twisting it up behind his back.
‘I may be smaller than you,’ she panted, ‘but I trained in ninjutsu for over twelve years.’
‘What the fuck?’
‘It’s a form of Japanese martial art…’
‘I don’t give a fuck about your martial arts, you bitch. What the fuck are you doing here?’
Sam smiled as she snapped handcuffs on his wrists and formally arrested him for the murders of Jamie Cordwell and Louise Marshall.
Daniel refused the offer of a lawyer. He sat, red-faced with anger, watching Sam and Adam across the table.
‘We’ve got enough proof to nail you,’ Adam told him, after the charges had been formally read out for the tape. ‘And now, we’re going to search your office for evidence you altered the dates on your paperwork relating to Chris Cordwell’s van, and we’re going to search your house…’
‘No!’ Daniel shouted with sudden passion. ‘You’ve got no right to set foot in my home!’
Adam nodded at a constable standing by the door who slipped out of the room.
Daniel’s shoulders slumped. He spoke softly, but with conviction. ‘He took my daughter. He deserved what he got.’
‘Is that your daughter who’s in New York?’ Sam asked. ‘Bethany, isn’t it?’
‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Daniel shouted, violently angry again. ‘That bastard took her and he killed her. I saw him, didn’t I? But would anyone listen to me? So when I saw his van in my garage, I knew what I had to do. I would’ve got away with it too if your lot hadn’t come snooping around.’
‘You can ask your ex-wife if you don’t believe me,’ Sam said. ‘Bethany’s in New York. She went there to get away from you.’
Speaking as slowly and clearly as she could, to make sure he understood, she related what Veronica had told Geraldine. With a roar of fury, Daniel leapt to his feet. A constable stepped forward to restrain him.
‘It’s lies!’ he yelled, ‘all damn lies! My daughter needs me. I’m going to find her and bring her home.’ He broke off, shaking.
Sam glanced at Adam who nodded at her. She placed her phone on the table on speakerphone. Daniel stared at it, his eyes bulging.
A voice spoke from the phone. ‘Yes, this is Veronica James, Bethany’s stepmother. I’ve signed a statement to confirm that Bethany’s in New York. She went there to get away from her father, and I helped her to go. It was the best thing for her. The best for both of them. I explained it all to Inspector Steel when she came to see me.’
‘Steel?’ Adam pounced on the name.
Sam kept her eyes averted.
‘But, don’t worry, Daniel,’ the disembodied voice continued, ‘Bethany’s fine. And she’ll be back in touch with you before too long, I’m sure. She just needs some space.’
Sam looked at Daniel who was sitting, shoulders slumped, tears streaming down his face. He shook his head, too overcome to speak. He just kept mumbling his daughter’s name. It was not clear whether he was weeping with relief that his daughter was alive, or grief at having lost her.
‘I don’t think he’s crying for the two women he killed,’ she muttered.
As Adam was preparing to pause the interview, there was a knock on the door and a constable looked in.
‘Is it important?’ Adam asked. ‘Only we’re just finishing off here. Can’t it wait?’
‘It’s just that we’ve heard from the team searching his house,’ he said, ‘and there’s a woman in a clown’s mask…’
‘A woman in a clown’s mask?’ Adam repeated, with a frown. ‘Well, bring her in. She could be a witness.’
The constable shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not. She’s been beaten to death.’
65
Geraldine was relieved when the rehabilitation clinic called her.
‘Helena’s back, and she’d like to see you.’
Hoping her sister wouldn’t have done another runner by the time she arrived, Geraldine drove straight there. Helena was sitting in an armchair in a small reception room, waiting for her. Without make-up, and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, she looked more like Geraldine than ever, apart from her twitching. She stood up when Geraldine entered, looking even more jittery than when she had thought her pusher was after her, and more frightened.
‘I want to do this,’ she said in a rush, before Geraldine could speak. ‘I been thinking. This is my chance, innit? The only chance a loser like me’s ever going to get. I’m going to give it a try.’
Geraldine was stunned to feel tears welling up in her eyes. She shook her head.
‘I don’t cry,’ she muttered, attempting to grin.
‘Ha! Me neither,’ Helena replied, tears coursing down her gaunt cheeks.
Their eyes met in fleeting mutual understanding, before the gulf in their experience separated them again, and they were once more struggling to communicate.
‘The thing is,’ Geraldine hesitated.
If she confessed that she was out of a job, and no longer in a position to pay the clinic, Helena might change her mind. But since she was no longer working for the Met, she could rent her flat and move out of London. She was free to go anywhere. Staring into her sister’s terrified eyes, she reached her decision.
‘You know I’ll support you,’ she said.
‘I know what you done. You went and got yourself nicked.’ Helena gave a wonky smile. ‘You risked your job for me. For me! No one ever done nothing like that for me before. No one ever gave a toss about me…’
‘Milly loved you.’
‘So now you know everything about mum? You said you never even spoke to her.’
‘The letter she wrote to me was about you. You’re the only reason she wanted to see me when she realised she was dying. I can show you her letter if you don’t believe me.’
‘You said you threw it away.’
‘Well, I didn’t. Listen, you knew her for forty years. That letter was the only thing I ever had from her. It’s pathetic, I know, but I didn’t want to share it with anyone. But the point is, she wrote to me to beg me to take care of you. That’s why she left me half her savings. She knew money alone couldn’t save you, because you’d only blow it on your habit. She was desperate to do anything she could to help you. And once she was gone, she wanted me to take care of you.’
Helena shook her head and turned away to stare out of the window.
‘I’m not promising anything,’ Geraldine went on. ‘You’re the only one who can sort your life out. But I want to do whatever I can to help you.’
Helena’s answer came out in a whisper. ‘Why the fuck would you do that?’
Geraldine shrugged. ‘Because we’re sisters, I suppose.’
Helena turned round and stared at Geraldine for a long time. ‘We’re more than sisters,’ she said at last. ‘And I’m going to do this, for you. I want to be a proper twin sister to you one day.’
Although she was wary of trusting anything Helena said, Geraldine felt a surge of happiness. If their relationship never developed any further, at least they had shared this moment.
‘We’re closer than sisters,’ she agreed. ‘We’re identical twins.’
‘I never even knew I had a twin before. I mean, it’s fucking weird. How do we do it?’
‘We’ll have to wor
k it out as we go along. And now, I’m sorry, but I have to go.’
‘Work?’
Geraldine nodded. Hesitating to embrace, they settled on pecking each other on the cheek. It was a start, Geraldine thought, as she felt the touch of Helena’s dry lips on her skin. In itself trivial, it felt like a significant moment in her life. She left, promising to return soon. She didn’t voice her doubts aloud, but she hoped Helena would still be there the next time she visited the clinic.
It was true that she was going to work, but it would be for the last time. Adam had allowed her to return to the station to inform Chris that he was being released.
‘You thought he was innocent all along,’ Adam had told her over the phone. ‘If it hadn’t been for you, the wrong man might have been sent down.’
‘You would have uncovered the truth sooner or later.’
Adam hadn’t answered. They had both known she was being generous.
Her satisfaction at being there at the conclusion of the investigation was tempered by her sadness on seeing Chris. Sitting on his bunk, he gazed listlessly up at her when she told him he was free to go.
‘We’ve tracked down the man who killed both Jamie and Louise,’ she told him. ‘It’s the man who accused you of kidnapping his daughter.’
Chris shrugged. He showed no sign of interest in anything she had to say.
‘Come on, Chris, on your feet,’ she said at last, when he made no move to leave. ‘You can go home.’
‘Home?’ he repeated slowly as though the word was unfamiliar to him.
She left him sitting, dejected, in the cell, with the door open. It was going to take him a long time to move on from the trauma he had experienced, but one day he might start a new life, without his wife, free of the horrific accusation of having murdered the two women he had loved. And perhaps one day Helena would be able to start a new life for herself, a life free of drugs. At least Geraldine had given them both a chance. The thought made her feel a burst of optimism. Even Celia had a completely new life growing inside her.
Surrounded by so many opportunities for growth and change, Geraldine wondered whether she should also begin to think about moving on with her life. She didn’t want her career to end. She loved her job. But the change she had to confront was easier than the challenges facing Chris and Helena. She pushed her shoulders back, lifted her head high, and went to Adam’s office.
‘You appreciate you can’t stay here,’ he told her straight away.
He looked so sad, she felt guilty for having let him down.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she muttered. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking of. And I’m really grateful to you for rescuing me, and keeping this all so quiet.’
‘But there are limits.’
‘Yes, yes, I know my career is over. I’ll go quietly.’
She could hardly believe she was hearing herself say the words.
He nodded and she had the impression he was relieved. ‘I understand you were concerned about your sister, but we of all people can’t allow our personal problems to affect our work. We have to be, and we have to be seen to be, working within the law, and whichever way you look at it, handing five thousand pounds over to a known drug dealer in a private transaction…’
‘Hardly appears lawful,’ Geraldine interrupted. ‘I know, I know.’
‘Is really rather stupid, I was going to say,’ he replied, with a wry smile.
‘Especially if you get caught,’ she added.
‘So, the question is, where do we go from here?’
Geraldine held her breath, but he didn’t say anything else.
‘What I did was indefensible,’ she ventured.
‘Oh, I don’t think so, under the circumstances. Who can judge you for being ruled by your emotions in such highly charged and stressful circumstances? Discovering a twin sister, as you meet and lose your birth mother, is hardly a normal situation. Who can say they wouldn’t temporarily lose their grip on their sanity if they were in the same situation? Oh, I’m not saying you were temporarily insane,’ he added quickly, seeing her expression, ‘just that I don’t really think anyone else has a right to condemn you for doing what you did.’
‘That’s very generous of you.’
‘It’s not generous to speak honestly. What’s happened to your sister now?’
‘She’s gone back into rehab.’
‘Do you think she’ll see it through?’
Geraldine shrugged. ‘God knows. But at least she’s going to try.’
Adam sighed. ‘That’s all any of us can do.’ He paused. ‘So, what’s next for you? Are you really intending to walk away from detective work altogether? Only…’ he hesitated. ‘This is delicate, Geraldine, and what I’m about to tell you must stay strictly between us. The thing is, I’ve been speaking to a colleague up in York who thinks there may be a place for you there, if you were to request a transfer. They’re setting up a new major incident unit there, and are looking for experienced officers. It seems someone there put in a good word for you. We’d have to do this very quietly, with no mention of the real reason for you leaving the Met.’ He paused again. ‘So it’s up to you if you want to move out of London. And it would mean stepping down from your present rank.’
‘To DS?’
‘Yes.’
Geraldine grinned. ‘For a moment I thought I was being offered a post as a constable.’
‘Nothing’s been offered yet, you understand. This would have to come from you as a formal request to step down from your post here and move away.’
‘Yes, I understand. Would that look odd?’
‘No, not really. It’s not that uncommon. People have all sorts of reasons for wanting to reduce the stress of their work. Being an inspector doesn’t suit everyone. Of course, you were an ideal candidate for higher office, if things had worked out differently…’ He left the thought unfinished. ‘So, what do you think?’
Geraldine smiled. ‘It doesn’t matter where I am. What matters is that we get the job done.’
‘I’ll be sorry to lose you,’ he said, with genuine regret. ‘I hope it works out for you, Geraldine. You deserve…’ he sighed. ‘Well, you deserve better.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ she assured him, and was pleased to see him smile.
Although she wasn’t sure why she felt the need to reassure him, she was convinced that she was right to be optimistic.
I hope you enjoyed reading this book in my Geraldine Steel series. Readers are the key to the writing process, so I’m thrilled that you’ve joined me on my writing journey.
You might not want to meet some of my characters on a dark night – I know I wouldn’t! – but hopefully you want to read about Geraldine’s other investigations. Her work is always her priority because she cares deeply about justice, but she also has her own life. Many readers care about what happens to her. I hope you join them, and become a fan of Geraldine Steel, and her colleague Ian Peterson.
You can read about more of Geraldine’s murder investigations in Cut Short, Road Closed, Dead End, Death Bed, Stop Dead, Fatal Act, Killer Plan, and Murder Ring.
You can follow Ian Peterson’s investigations in Cold Sacrifice, Blood Axe, and Race to Death.
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll know that I love to hear from readers. I always respond to comments from fans, and hope you will follow me on @LeighRussell and www.facebook.com/leigh.russell.50 or drop me an email via my website www.leighrussell.co.uk.
That way you can be sure to get news of the latest offers on my books. You might also like to sign up for my newsletter on www.leighrussell.co.uk/news to make sure you’re one of the first to know when a new book and is coming out. We’ll be running competitions, and I’ll also notify you of any events where I’ll be appearing.
Finally, if you enjoyed this story, I’d be really grateful if you would po
st a brief review on Amazon or Goodreads. A few sentences to say you enjoyed the book would be wonderful. And of course it would be brilliant if you would consider recommending my books to anyone who is a fan of crime fiction.
I hope to meet you at a literary festival or a book signing soon!
Thank you again for choosing to read my book.
With very best wishes
Leigh
Copyright
This ebook edition first published in 2017
First published in 2017
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