by Jaime Raven
By now Lomax’s face was glazed with rank-smelling sweat and his breath was even more laboured.
Adam knew he didn’t have much more time to get the information out of him. Any second a doctor was likely to appear and call a halt to the questioning. And he wasn’t sure he had done enough to get the man to open up.
‘You need to see this,’ Adam said, taking the phone from his pocket.
He scrolled through the image gallery until he came to the clip of Molly being held upside down and smacked. And then he played it for Lomax.
‘That’s my daughter,’ Adam said. ‘The man who’s taken her has threatened to rape her.’
The revulsion was evident in Lomax’s expression. Adam capitalised on this by saying, ‘This is not about you, Eddie. I give you my word that you won’t face any comebacks if you rented out a property to Knight. This is about the life of my little girl, and I promise you it will work in your favour if you help me on this.’
Lomax closed his eyes and thought about it.
Adam stood back and rubbed a hand over the stubble on his face.
After about a minute, Lomax snapped his eyes open and gave a sharp nod.
‘Bobby did come to me asking if I had any houses he could rent for up to two months,’ he said. ‘He wanted it in the countryside and fairly secluded. It so happened I had three on the books and he chose the one nearest to his mum’s place in Peckham, then paid up front in cash.’
‘Where is the house, Eddie?’
Lomax blew out a breath and said, ‘In Hayes, not far from the town centre.’
A minute later Adam called Brennan and gave him the address.
‘Please get officers over there as fast as you can,’ he said. ‘I think Molly might be there.’
62
Sarah
I remained conscious despite the force of the punch from my attacker. But my face was hot with pain and my head was spinning wildly.
‘I never thought I would get a chance to do that,’ he said, his voice pure ice. ‘Bobby would be proud of me.’
I heaved myself into a sitting position and relief surged through me when I saw that he’d placed Molly on the sofa, where she remained unconscious but appeared to me unharmed. Then I stared up at him and he stared right back at me. There was something unsettling in his eyes, something unbalanced.
‘I asked you a question,’ he said. ‘How did you find this place?’
He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and his legs were wrapped in tight denim. A pair of aviator-style glasses dangled from around his neck.
I ignored his question and said, ‘My daughter isn’t well. You need to get her to a hospital.’
‘She’s fine. I had to give her a sedative to keep her quiet while I went into town. It’ll soon wear off.’
I was confused now, unsure whether to believe him or not.
‘It’s true,’ he said, as if reading my mind. ‘How else do you think I’ve been able to leave her for long spells on her own?’
‘You bastard,’ I said. ‘What else have you done to her?’
He smiled, cocky and confident. ‘I haven’t touched her, apart from that little hiding I gave her to teach you a lesson. And there’s no way I would have molested her. It’s not what I’m into despite the threat.’
I could feel an explosion of violence stirring inside me, but I knew I wasn’t yet in a position to get the jump on him.
‘Do you know who I am?’ he said and the question took me by surprise.
I nodded. ‘You’re Bobby Knight’s brother. Noah Carter.’
I’d never met him before. He had stayed very much in the background when we arrested his brother four years ago. All I knew about him was what I’d gleaned from the news. He was younger than Bobby, worked as some kind of consultant, and hadn’t been a career criminal like his brother. I’d been told that Brennan had spoken to him and his flat had been searched, but he’d not been considered a credible suspect, which as it turned out was a big bloody mistake.
‘You’re correct,’ he said. ‘So now that we’ve established you’re able to answer questions I’ll ask you again. How did you find this place?’
‘I went to the baby shop in Hayes,’ I said. ‘I saw a slide – the same one I’ve just seen out back. It was also in the last photo you sent to me.’
He gave a small, humourless smile. ‘And they told you it was delivered to this address along with some other stuff.’
‘That’s right.’
He sighed. ‘One of the many mistakes my big brother made. He should never have told the staff to deliver it.’
I looked beyond him to Molly. She hadn’t moved and I was becoming increasingly worried.
‘Look, please let me get my daughter to the hospital. If you did give her a sedative then you might have given her too much.’
Anger flashed in his eyes. ‘I told you she’ll be fine. Now stand up.’
‘She doesn’t look fine to me,’ I said. ‘She looks—’
He stepped forward, grabbed a handful of my hair and wrenched me to my feet. ‘I said stand up, you bitch.’
I yelped in pain and clung to his arm as he dragged me out of the living room and into the hall. There he let go of my hair and shoved me towards the kitchen.
‘Go in there and sit down,’ he snarled. ‘I need something to drink while I decide what to do with you.’
I turned to face him.
‘My colleagues know I’m here,’ I said. ‘They’re on their way.’
He shook his head. ‘If I thought that, I wouldn’t be hanging around. But I’m gambling on the fact that you came here without knowing what to expect so you didn’t tell anyone. But if you did and they turn up they’ll find you grieving over your dead child. I’ll cut her throat the moment I hear someone outside. And then I’ll slit my own wrists just like my father did after you fitted Bobby up and got him sent to prison.’
A red mist blurred my vision suddenly and in a frenzied panic I threw myself at him. I stabbed fists at his head and body, but most of the blows landed on his arms and chest. One struck him on the bridge of his nose and he roared with pain.
In response, he rammed his fist into my stomach and I staggered backwards, dazed and winded.
I was still doubled over, gasping and wheezing, when he came at me again. And I didn’t have the strength to defend myself.
This time his fist connected with my mouth and it sent me flying backwards through the doorway into the kitchen.
I fought to stay on my feet and tried to grab the worktop to stop myself falling. But it was to no avail and I crashed into a chair and ended up on my back.
I must have blacked out for a few seconds because the next thing I knew he was standing over me. He was holding a kitchen knife in one hand and a can of beer in the other.
My head felt like it was about to burst open and my mouth was filled with the bitter taste of blood.
‘You made a mistake coming here,’ he said. ‘The plan was always to let the kid go eventually, after we had decided you’d suffered enough.’
‘There’s no reason you shouldn’t stick to the plan,’ I said. ‘Please let Molly go. She’s just a baby.’
‘Well I suppose I could still do that. But you must know that you’re going to have to die. The only thing I can’t decide is whether to keep you alive long enough for my mother to come and see you. I’m sure she’d like to ensure that your final hours are as miserable as possible. She told me you went to see her last night and it really pissed her off. And I spoke to her a short time ago after your colleague told her they’d found Bobby’s body. She said, and I quote, “I’d like to murder that bitch with my own hands.”’
I pushed myself up so that my back was resting against the wall.
‘Are you telling me that your mum is involved in this?’ I said.
He shrugged. ‘She wasn’t to start with, but after Bobby disappeared she was happy to join forces with me so that we could see his plan through.’
I stared at
him, horrified. Then my eyes shifted to the knife in his hand and I realised that the only thing I could do was stall for time and pray for an opportunity that would allow me to seize the initiative.
‘I can’t believe you went to all this trouble to punish me for something I didn’t do,’ I said.
‘Don’t waste your breath with that shit, lady. Bobby didn’t lie to us. We know you stitched him up by planting the evidence.’
‘And he then spent the best part of four years planning his revenge. So tell me how come you got involved. I thought Bobby was the criminal, not you.’
He swigged some of his beer and gnawed on his bottom lip. Then, after glancing at his watch, he appeared to come to a decision. He pulled out one of the chairs and positioned it so that it was facing me across the kitchen floor.
‘I suppose it won’t do any harm to tell you,’ he said. ‘At least it’ll make you realise why we hate you so much.’
63
Sarah
As Noah Carter spoke, two things became obvious. The first was just how much he had revered and idolised his dead brother. I got the impression that he’d probably lived for much of his younger life in Bobby’s shadow, and to an extent had become dependent on him. The second thing was how much seething anger there was lurking beneath the surface. He may have presented himself to the world as a smart business consultant who was nothing like his ruthless, villainous brother. But it was my guess that there was a darkness in both of them that had been passed down by their dodgy parents.
‘Bobby was all set to make a fresh start in life when you came along and arrested him,’ Carter said. ‘He was happier than ever, but then you went and shafted him just to make yourself look good.’
I thought about telling him what really happened four years ago but realised there was no point because he would never believe me. It might even make him angrier and cause him to take it out on Molly. At least while she was sleeping off the sedative in the other room she was out of harm’s way.
‘It wasn’t just the time he spent in prison,’ he went on. ‘It was the knock-on effect. Lauren left him and he was completely devastated. Then our dad took his own life and our mum fell to bits. And Bobby blamed you for everything and swore that he’d make you suffer.’
Some of what he went on to say I already knew or suspected. Bobby had thought about many ways to get revenge on me, but after being told by Victor Rosetti that I had a child he’d decided to target Molly.
‘All those times I visited my brother in jail he only ever spoke about hurting you and getting Lauren back,’ Carter said. ‘He persuaded me to help him sort you out and I did because I hated you almost as much as he did. His plan was just to take your daughter and hold her for a few months. It was my idea to send the messages and images. It struck me as a good way to make you suffer.’
I wanted to hit him then, to shove my hand into his mouth and pull out his tongue. I had never hated someone so much in my entire life.
‘After we talked about it and settled on a plan I set to work getting all the information on you,’ he said. ‘I got your phone number, address and email. I then set up anonymous accounts so the emails and messages couldn’t be traced. I’m a business consultant specialising in websites and IT so for me it was easy. When Bobby got out he arranged to rent this house from some guy he’d heard about and he stalked you for a bit. I didn’t know he’d got himself another phone to take pictures, so when that copper found it under his bed it came as a surprise.’
Carter said they hadn’t expected Bobby to be linked to the kidnapping and it probably wouldn’t have happened if Rosetti hadn’t opened his mouth.
‘That was another of my brother’s mistakes,’ he said. ‘He revealed too much to that Romanian scumbag.’
‘But things must have been falling apart long before Rosetti spoke to the police,’ I said.
He nodded. ‘Bobby died before he could see it through. But it was his own fault. He was obsessed with Lauren and he ignored the threats from her father. It got to the point where he decided he was going to kidnap her as well and keep her here with your daughter.’
‘So her father had him killed?’
Something happened to his eyes, and for the first time his face showed a flicker of emotion.
‘It wasn’t Tony Kemp who killed my brother,’ he said. ‘It was me.’
He wanted to get it off his chest. I could tell that much. And by confessing to me he could make sure it wouldn’t go any further.
He described how they had a massive row over what he called his brother’s stupid plan to abduct Lauren as well as Molly.
‘We were here getting the place ready,’ he said. ‘It was the first time in years we’d argued like that. When he stormed out to the car I went after him. He punched me, so I punched him back. But he fell and struck his head on the front step. He died instantly. Just like that.’
There were tears in his eyes and his cheeks had coloured.
‘So how come he ended up being buried close to Tony Kemp’s house near Sevenoaks?’ I said.
‘I took him there after telling my mother that Kemp must have killed him. I couldn’t tell her what really happened because she’d never forgive me. So it suited me that Kemp was under suspicion because of the threats he’d made.’
It was a shocking revelation, but even so I was only half listening to what he was saying. Part of my mind was still on Molly and I was desperate to return to the living room to pick her up. Another part was trying to judge whether there was any way I could turn the tables on Carter.
‘I know I was the one who killed Bobby,’ he said. ‘It was an accident, but I’ll never forgive myself. At the same time I’ll never forgive you because you’re to blame for creating this whole fucking situation in the first place.’
The anger was building up in him again and it blazed in his eyes.
‘What happened afterwards?’ I said. ‘After he died, I mean.’
He pursed his lips and studied the blade of the knife as he spoke.
‘That was when I told my mother what we’d been planning and that I’d decided to step into my brother’s shoes to see through what he’d started. I thought she ought to know. And she surprised me by offering to help. She said it was what Bobby would have wanted.’
‘So she was the one holding the camera when you were smacking Molly.’
He nodded. ‘Everything went so well from the start. This house was all set up and ready, I’d obtained a phial of chloroform online, you turned up at your mother’s house exactly on cue, and then your father drove off in his car. Taking Molly was so easy. When we saw how desperate you were it made it all worthwhile. We realised it had been the right decision to see Bobby’s plan through. But then his name was linked to it, and suddenly it started going wrong. The video of Bobby in the pub turned up and your lot found the photos on the camera. That’s why I phoned in the tip about the body. It was clear you were closing in so I wanted to move attention away from Bobby and away from us.’
He stopped talking and after a few moments he got to his feet.
‘I’ve changed my mind about waiting for my mother,’ he said. ‘I can’t let her see you now that you know what really happened to Bobby. Believe me this was never part of the plan, but I promise you it won’t give me any sleepless nights.’
Two things happened suddenly to stop him from attacking me with the knife.
A muted cry came from the living room and I realised with a burst of relief that Molly was awake at last. And then came the high-pitched wail of a police siren outside.
64
Sarah
Time seemed to shudder to a halt and a rush of heat burned in my chest.
Carter let out an angry roar and I thought he was going to lunge at me with the knife. But instead he threw the can of beer to the floor and was out of the room in a flash. The knife was still in his hand.
I choked out a scream and struggled to my feet. My mind was a maelstrom as I ran after him, his words from earli
er ringing in my ears.
I’ll cut her throat the moment I hear someone outside.
He rushed into the living room and I raced after him. I thought he would go straight to Molly, who was sitting up on the sofa crying. But he went to the front window to look out. I saw what he saw – a police car pulling onto the driveway, its blue light flashing.
Carter cursed out loud and then whirled round to face me, a fierce rage contorting his features.
I switched my stricken gaze back to Molly and was astonished to see that she had suddenly stopped crying. Now she was holding out her arms towards me and the word that came out of her mouth set my heart on fire.
‘Mummy, Mummy.’
Carter and I were about the same distance from her and he made the first move. But some deep, primal instinct propelled me forward like a stone from a catapult. I pummelled into him just before he reached the sofa.
We both went crashing across the room into the cabinet, which stopped us from tumbling onto the floor.
He managed to hold onto the knife as we both fought to regain our balance. Then he twisted his body and lashed out with it.
It was more luck than judgement on my part that I arched my back just in time to deny the blade a target. The tip missed me by a whisker and wedged itself in the front of the cabinet. Before Carter could pull it out, I shifted my weight into him and forced him sideways so that he lost his grip on the knife. I then drove my forehead into his face and he howled in pain as blood spurted from his nose.
‘You fucking bitch,’ he yelled, and grabbed me by the throat with both hands, digging his fingers into the soft flesh.
The sudden pain was excruciating, sharp, deep, intense.
I responded instinctively by stabbing my fingers into his right eye. He jerked his head back so I pressed harder, pushing the eyeball further back into the socket.
He was forced to let go of my throat in order to seize my arm. But before he could grasp it I dropped my hand away from his face and headbutted him again, this time cracking my skull against his chin.