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The Alibi

Page 31

by Jamie Raven


  Cain curled his lips contemptuously. ‘It does if she was blackmailing you. And we believe she was. In the same way she was blackmailing Danny Shapiro.’

  ‘You can’t be serious.’

  ‘Oh, but I am. I believe your daughter told you that she was writing her autobiography and that she was going to reveal the truth about you unless you paid her money. You decided that you had too much to lose, including marriage to the new woman in your life.’

  ‘You’re making this up,’ Fuller said. ‘What possible reason would Megan have to blackmail me?’

  Cain’s mouth tightened a little. ‘What about the fact that you repeatedly abused her as a child? You raped her from the age of five until she was ten. And you threatened to hurt her if she told her mother. She believed you because there were times when you were violent towards her. Isn’t that right, Mr Fuller?’

  Fuller stared at the detective, mesmerised, in shock.

  ‘Megan told her psychiatrist everything,’ Cain said. ‘It all came out after she started seeing him about her depression. She told him what you did to her as a child and about your violent rages. It blighted her life. At the last session with him she indicated that she’d finally come up with a way to get her own back, but she didn’t tell him what it was. Now we know, don’t we?’

  Cain fully expected Fuller to deny it, to say that what Megan had told the shrink wasn’t true. But he didn’t because at that point he must have realised the game was up.

  He stopped crying and closed his eyes. Then he inhaled slowly, deeply, and said, ‘I warned her not to push it. I told her I wouldn’t let her destroy my life. But she wouldn’t listen. She was determined to dig up the past and I couldn’t let her do it. I knew that if I paid her what she asked for then that wouldn’t be the end of it. She’d only come back for more.’

  It took another hour for the full story to come out. He said it began when Megan called him a month ago, having not been in touch for years. She told him she was going to reveal the secrets of her childhood in her book unless he paid her £30,000. She phoned him on the Friday to tell him the price had gone up to £40,000. She knew he had the money in the bank from the sale of his house before he moved in with Amy.

  ‘We went to bed as usual on Friday night at about eight,’ he said. ‘And as usual Amy had a mug of drinking chocolate beforehand with a couple of sleeping pills. Once she drops off it’s impossible to wake her. But I couldn’t sleep. I was so angry. So I decided to go and have it out with Megan and at the back of my mind I knew that I was going to hurt her.’

  He said he drove to Balham and parked some distance from Ramsden Road. He walked to Megan’s house, via a route not covered by CCTV cameras.

  ‘When I was approaching the house I saw Danny Shapiro coming out,’ he said. ‘He looked angry and I wondered if he’d gone there for the same reason I had. I didn’t let him see me, though. As soon as he disappeared I rang Megan’s bell and she let me in. I tried reasoning with her, but she refused to back down over the book and the money. It made me snap and I grabbed the knife from the worktop and stabbed her. It wasn’t my fault. It was hers.’

  After killing Megan he used her phone to send a text to himself asking him to come over in the morning because she needed to talk to him.

  ‘It was a way of making sure I wasn’t a suspect,’ he said. ‘And it meant there was a legitimate reason for my prints and DNA to be in the kitchen. I didn’t notice the blood on my shoes.’

  He quickly searched the house for Megan’s manuscript and notes relating to her book, but didn’t find anything. Then he saw an opportunity to put the blame on Danny Shapiro and lied about Megan claiming that he’d threatened her. He went on to act as the distraught father.

  Fuller finally finished his confession at 7 a.m. He then crossed his arms, locked his lips together and stared at the ceiling, his face stark and emotionless.

  At 7.15 a.m. he was charged with murdering his daughter.

  There was a lot of back-slapping in the incident room after Fuller was charged. Cain was given most of the credit for solving the case. But he didn’t feel like celebrating. He knew that he wasn’t going to be the blue-eyed boy for very long.

  He made two quick calls to Beth and to Danny and filled them in. Then he was called into Redwood’s office.

  ‘You did well, Ethan,’ the DCI said. ‘You should go home and get some sleep. It was a long night. I’ll take care of all the paperwork.’

  Cain didn’t argue. He felt knackered. But once outside the station he decided not to go straight home. He needed time to think through his options.

  Trouble was they were few and far between. Despite the successful resolution to the case he was still wading up to his neck in shit. And he was still filled with self-loathing.

  Try as he might he couldn’t will away the image of Peter Kline being garrotted by Frankie Bishop. The guilt had settled in his chest like a sack of bricks.

  As he walked he was oblivious to those around him and his limbs felt as heavy as lead. He heard an ominous crack of thunder overhead but ignored it. Even when it started to rain he carried on walking until it became a belting downpour.

  He was walking past Wandsworth Road station so he ducked inside. A voice in his head told him to get on a train and ride around for a bit. Perhaps he could get some perspective on things in the company of commuters who would all be reflecting on their own trials and tribulations.

  He bought a Travelcard and as he walked onto the platform he thought about what a disappointment he was to himself as well as to everyone else. What he had done to Beth and Rosie was unforgivable. And once he was arrested and charged with corruption they would be right in the thick of the scandal. It wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right.

  He loved Rosie too much to put her through that. His feelings for Beth were still strong too. They both deserved better.

  He felt the emotion well up in his throat. He couldn’t believe he’d fucked up his life – and their lives – in such a spectacular way. What happened? he asked himself. Why did he allow that idealistic young police officer that he once was to be sucked into a downward spiral of betrayal and debauchery?

  Why couldn’t he have been satisfied with what he had? Why couldn’t he have embraced the luck and good fortune that came his way?

  Why had it never been enough?

  He heard the announcer informing those who were waiting that the train now approaching would not be stopping and to stand back from the platform edge.

  Cain looked up and suddenly realised what he had to do. For Beth’s sake and for Rosie’s.

  He saw the train coming towards him. Waited until it had almost reached him.

  And then he jumped.

  60

  Beth Chambers

  I had just stepped out of the shower when Ethan rang to tell me that they’d charged Nigel Fuller with his daughter’s murder.

  I got straight onto The Post’s newsroom. Grant Scott took the call and began to ask me if I was feeling better, but I talked over him.

  ‘I’ve got an update on the Megan Fuller murder,’ I said. ‘And it’s an exclusive.’

  Grant was as shocked as I’d been to learn that Megan had been killed by her father.

  ‘I’ll put a story together from here,’ I said.

  ‘That’s great, Beth. Give us the headlines for the website and then a longer piece for the front page.’

  I filed it all before getting dressed and it wasn’t until afterwards that I thought about how we had all been taken in by Nigel Fuller. He’d convinced me and everyone else that he’d been a loving father when in fact he’d subjected his daughter to years of vile sexual abuse.

  After Cain told me on the phone that Fuller was their man I’d been forced to apologise to Danny for having convinced myself that he’d done it.

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Danny had said. ‘It was the obvious conclusion to draw after you found out about the alibi.’

  It occurred to me then that Peter Kline had di
ed for nothing – the victim of a callous cover-up that would not have been necessary if the police had got at the truth sooner.

  Before Danny left our house I’d told him I would never forgive myself for not telling the police I knew that Peter Kline was dead. It was unfair on his family, who would always live in hope. I also said that I would never be able to forgive him and Cain for the parts they had played in Kline’s death.

  ‘I wouldn’t expect you to,’ he’d said.

  That was how it was left when he went home. But I did thank him again for saving my life. And I did let him hug me even though I didn’t want him to.

  Two Weeks Later

  There was a good turnout for Ethan’s funeral. That was because the Met decided to cover up the truth about what kind of police officer he was.

  I was told off the record that the flash drive that Frankie Bishop had put in the post had ended up on the commissioner’s desk and he saw no point in making it public. So it was buried along with the secrets it contained.

  I was glad and, as I stood in the crematorium with Ethan’s fellow officers, I tried to focus on the good years before it all went belly-up.

  Ethan may have turned into a filthy, lying scumbag, but he had given me the one thing I treasured above all else and that was Rosie.

  The shock of his suicide had worn off and my mother had summed it up perfectly when she’d said it was probably the best thing for all concerned that he had chosen the easy way out.

  I couldn’t disagree with her, but it didn’t bring about any kind of closure. My life had been turned inside out and the future seemed more uncertain than ever.

  After the funeral I did what I had told myself I wouldn’t do – which was to meet up with Danny. We hadn’t seen each other since we returned from Southampton, but he’d called me twice asking if we could get together because there were things he wanted to say. Curiosity had finally got the better of me and in any case there was something I needed to say to him. So I’d agreed.

  The venue was his luxury mews house in the heart of London’s West End. He said I was the first person to visit there, and it made me realise again that despite his wealth and power he was a pretty sad and lonely man.

  He explained why he lived there and that it was a safe haven. And then he passed on a message from Callum.

  ‘He wants to know if you’ll go and see him again and if you can maybe persuade your mother to go as well.’

  ‘You can tell him that my mother is thinking about it,’ I said. ‘I’m sure she won’t be able to resist talking to him one last time, if only to give him a piece of her mind.’

  ‘So what about you, Beth? Will you visit him?’

  I’d given a great deal of thought to what I should do now I knew that Callum Shapiro was my father. In fact it was pretty much all I’d been thinking about for the past couple of weeks.

  ‘No, I won’t,’ I said after a beat. ‘I don’t want any further contact with the man. And the same goes for you, Danny.’

  ‘I was hoping that we might stay in touch. Build up a relationship.’

  I shook my head. ‘That’s not going to happen. I don’t want you as a brother, Danny, and the thought of you being an uncle to my daughter appals me.’

  He didn’t look shocked, just disappointed. ‘Do you really mean that?’ he said.

  ‘Of course I do. You’re a bad man, Danny. You’re a gangster and a killer. You’ve done terrible things and you’ll no doubt carry on doing them. It’s who you are and I wouldn’t be able to live with that.’

  ‘Won’t you at least think about it?’

  ‘There’s no point. I’ve made up my mind and I’m not going to change it. But I promise I’ll never tell anyone about what happened to Peter Kline and Frankie Bishop. And I want you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone I’m your half-sister.’

  He nodded slowly. ‘If that’s what you want.’

  ‘It is.’

  Danny pursed his lips. ‘And there was me thinking that I’d suddenly been blessed with a ready-made family.’

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that so I didn’t try. Instead, I picked up my bag from the floor and slipped on my sunglasses.

  ‘I have to go,’ I said. ‘But before I do I want you to know that I’ll never forget that you saved my life. I’ll be forever grateful and so will my mother.’

  ‘It was my pleasure,’ he said. ‘And I want you to know that if you ever have second thoughts about staying in touch then just give me a call. Things change and so do people, Beth. It’d be great to hear from you.’

  I held his gaze for a few moments and realised that a part of me felt sorry for the man. But it was only a small part.

  Then I turned and walked out of the room and along the hallway to the front door. As I let myself out I glanced back over my shoulder and saw him standing in the doorway, staring at me, his head tilted slightly to one side.

  In that moment I knew I had made the right decision. Danny Shapiro was never going to change. He would continue to be a cold, heartless villain just like his father was.

  In fairness to Danny he really had no choice – not if he was determined to remain the most powerful figure in the London underworld.

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