Broken Girls: A totally addictive and unputdownable crime thriller (Detective Bernadette Noel Book 2)

by Joy Kluver

  ‘I can’t really see, is he covering her mouth with his hand?’ asked Bernie.

  ‘I think he must be. Wait, he’s saying something,’ said Anderson. He turned the sound up more.

  ‘Please be quiet,’ said the man. ‘I just want to kiss you. We don’t have to have sex, even though I won the race. Please, just be quiet.’

  Bernie thought there was something familiar about the voice. Definitely not an Italian accent, though.

  But Ria wasn’t quiet and screamed more. The man’s hands moved and there was a choking noise, her legs thrashing… and then, silence.

  ‘There, that’s better. You just needed to be quiet. I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to kiss you… why are you staring at me like that? Oh God, what have I done? What have I done?’

  The man leapt up.

  ‘Come on,’ said Anderson, ‘turn around.’

  As though the man had heard him, he turned and looked around him, before running off.

  Even with the video being in night vision, Bernie instantly recognised him. She covered her mouth with her hand as she gagged.

  ‘The little shit,’ said Anderson. ‘He’s been stringing us along, all this time. You OK?’

  Bernie shook her head. ‘Give me a minute.’ She buried her head in her hands and steadied herself. The normal elation of discovering the culprit wasn’t there. She sat up and looked at her watch. ‘It’s close to four a.m. Shall we go now or leave it an hour? We won’t need a full arrest team. I don’t think he’s going to give us any trouble. Although we’ll have to get past his mother first.’

  ‘Whenever you’re ready, ma’am.’

  Dawn was still a couple of hours away as they drove towards the farm. A patrol car was en route to join them but Bernie wanted to make the arrest as calm as possible, knowing he would come with her. A few birds were struggling to wake the world but most were still roosting in the trees. She was lost in her thoughts, wondering how she had missed the clues. As they approached the farmhouse, a dog began barking.

  ‘So much for a silent approach then,’ said Anderson.

  They left the car outside and walked towards the front of the house.

  ‘Is that door open?’ asked Bernie.

  ‘Yes.’ Anderson pulled out his baton. ‘Let me go in first.’

  Bernie switched her phone torch on. The house was dark but they knew the layout. There was a noise coming from the lounge.

  ‘Someone’s crying,’ said Bernie.

  They went into the lounge and found a woman sobbing on the floor by the fireplace. She held a framed photo of her son in her arms. Bernie gently lifted the woman’s face up.

  ‘I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t know.’ Tears streamed down her face.

  ‘Where is he?’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t know. He left after he told me. I couldn’t stop him. He ran out.’

  Bernie looked at Anderson. ‘I know where he’s gone.’

  The torchlight bounced as they ran. Brambles snagged at Bernie’s clothes but she pounded on, Anderson close behind her.

  ‘Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?’ he called.

  ‘Yes, we need to get to the track.’

  ‘What? I thought he was scared of that place in the dark.’

  ‘He’s more terrified by what he’s done. Come on. We don’t have time to waste.’

  They continued running until they reached the track. Bernie looked up it. Slivers of moonlight broke through the tunnel of trees; the branches, like fingers, pointing the way to their suspect. A ghost haunting the lane suddenly seemed more plausible. She heard a noise.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ asked Bernie. The air was still around them.

  ‘Hear what?’

  ‘Creaking.’

  ‘It’s just the wind in the trees.’

  Bernie turned to him. ‘Dougie, there isn’t any wind.’

  They ran up the track towards the sound, Bernie slipping a couple of times on the old bricks. They kept going until torchlight picked something out in the dark. Legs were kicking in the air. Anderson grabbed them and pushed them up.

  ‘Get the rope down!’ he shouted.

  Bernie swung the torch round to see where the noose was exactly. She caught sight of his face and winced. It was too high for her to reach. He’d used the rope for getting into the cave. She scanned the ground, looking for whatever he had stepped onto to reach that high, but couldn’t see anything. Her only option was to get to the noose itself which meant scrambling up the side of the steep bank without the benefit of the rope. She wished now she’d woken up Kerry.

  ‘Come on, Bernie, quickly.’

  Putting her phone away, Bernie started to climb up the slope. She tried to find purchase, anything to grab onto, but the sandstone soil came away in her hands. Then, grasping blindly, she found an exposed tree root. She held on and followed it as it snaked up the bank until something skimmed her head. Was it a bat? It took a second to register it was a low branch from the tree. It was moving and she knew that was where the noose must be. Her only option was to break it but that meant letting go of the root. She reached out with one hand to take hold of the branch and then the other. She pushed down on it. Nothing.

  ‘Come on, Bernie. I can’t take his weight for much longer.’

  ‘I’m trying!’

  Bernie reached up higher with her left hand and felt the top of the bank. She needed to get above the branch to put enough weight on it. Pain ripped through her left wrist as she pulled herself up. Twisting round, she brought her left arm down and pushed on the branch with both hands. The wood started to snap. She pushed harder, putting all her weight through her arms. The branch splintered and gave way. The man fell onto Anderson as Bernie tumbled down. Anderson laid him on the ground and Bernie scrabbled at the rope around his neck, loosening it. She heard the boy gasp and then retch.

  ‘Oh, Craig, why didn’t you just talk to me?’ said Bernie.

  66

  Bernie and Anderson followed the ambulance to the hospital.

  ‘I don’t understand it,’ said Anderson, as he drove. ‘Why did he go and “discover” the body? Why not leave her there?’

  Bernie leaned back in her seat. ‘Guilt. He obviously didn’t have a stomach bug. He was sick because of what he had done. He couldn’t hand himself in so did the next best thing – he gave us the body.’

  ‘But all the time and energy and money that’s been wasted. If he’d just said, “by the way, I did it”, we’d have had this sorted straight away.’

  ‘Maybe. But if he’d done that we wouldn’t have caught Ben Gardener or Rupert Fox and DCI Worth would have retired quite happily, knowing he’d got away with fraud. And we would never have…’ Bernie turned her head towards Anderson and smiled.

  ‘Well, no, obviously not. Maybe I should shake him by the hand.’ Anderson smiled back. ‘So, Miss Marple, how does everything else fit in then?’

  ‘Miss Marple? I am not an old maid.’

  ‘I know that. But I bet you have figured this all out, haven’t you?’

  Bernie put her head on one side. ‘I have a few ideas. I think that if we search through Ben Gardener’s emails, we’ll find more to Craig. I think taking Laura was a warning to Craig about going to the police. And as he admitted, he took Chloe just to wind us up. I may be wrong in all of this but I think Gardener is more of a provider and less of a partaker in the online stuff.’

  ‘Still bloody wrong though,’ said Anderson.

  ‘Yes, of course. And he’ll go to prison, no doubt about it.’

  ‘But how does this connect with hiding Ryan in a cave all those years ago?’

  ‘Ryan’s brother Gareth told me that he and his other brother were punished for what happened to him even though they swore they weren’t responsible. Maybe Ben faced the same fate, perhaps worse.’

  ‘So do you think the motorbike race was to wind up Ryan?’ asked Anderson.

  ‘Yes. I think the plan was to get Ryan to race up t
hat track. See if he was still scared. But when he refused to take part, Ben adapted the plan. Film and blackmail whoever won the prize. Except it went wrong. Horribly wrong.’ Bernie paused.

  Anderson glanced across. ‘What are you thinking?’

  ‘It was filmed. As far as I’m aware, we didn’t find a camera. Ben must have retrieved it. He would have seen her dead. And he still left her there. Poor Ria.’ Bernie shook her head. ‘Now all we have to do is find the real Rosa Conti.’

  ‘Gabriel is working on that one,’ said Anderson. ‘Hopefully she can be reunited with her grandparents soon.’

  ‘We need some good to come out of this. I’m not sure how the Moffatts are going to survive. We may have to postpone Laura’s statement.’

  ‘But we need that so we can charge Gardener.’

  ‘As you said, there are going to be plenty of charges for Gardener anyway,’ said Bernie. ‘We need to hear what Craig has to say first.’

  ‘If he can tell us,’ said Anderson.

  ‘Yes,’ said Bernie. ‘We don’t know what the damage is yet.’

  ‘I’m afraid it’s too early to say,’ said the doctor. ‘He’s still unconscious. We’ll need to do some brain scans to look for possible damage. He was deprived of oxygen for a while.’ He glanced down the corridor at the Moffatt family. ‘I’m very concerned about them though.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Bernie. ‘I’ve arranged for their local vicar to come with his wife. They’ll be in safe hands.’

  Bernie walked down the corridor. John, Caroline and Laura were all in tears. Bernie crouched down next to them.

  ‘I’m so sorry. You’ve been through hell. We can postpone Laura’s statement for now.’

  Laura looked up. ‘No, I want to do it.’

  ‘But we need one of your parents to be there and I don’t think that’s going to happen for the moment.’

  ‘I could do it,’ said a female voice.

  Bernie stood up to see Anna and Paul Bentley behind her.

  ‘I don’t mind,’ said Anna.

  ‘Are you happy for that?’ Bernie asked John Moffatt. Craig’s father gave a slight nod. ‘OK. I’ll leave Detective Sergeant Anderson with you and I’ll take you back to headquarters.’

  ‘Ma’am, I have a better idea,’ said Anderson. ‘Laura has to be discharged first so that’ll take some time. It’s only just gone eight o’clock. You need some food and sleep. The rest of the team are due in at midday. It makes sense for Alice and Kerry to take Laura’s statement. We can ask a local officer to come in and wait with the family. We can come back later.’

  Bernie was exhausted. Her arms were aching. She hated the idea of leaving the Moffatts though. She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Anna.

  ‘It pains me to say it but he’s right. Go, get some rest. I’ll take Laura to headquarters later and Paul will call you if there’s any change.’ She gave Bernie a kind smile.

  Bernie bent down to speak to Caroline. ‘When he wakes up, I’ll come back. I promise.’

  Caroline Moffatt looked defeated. ‘If he wakes up,’ she said quietly.

  ‘No, Caroline. When. He will wake up,’ said Bernie.

  Bernie struggled to get her key in the lock, she was so tired.

  ‘Here, let me do it,’ said Anderson.

  She felt his hands guide her into her cottage and up the stairs. She almost fell onto her bed. As he pulled the duvet over her, she said, ‘We’re supposed to have a date first, remember?’

  ‘Don’t worry, I have no intention of taking advantage of you. Sleep.’

  Bernie was asleep before he even left the room.

  It only seemed like a few minutes later when Bernie heard her name being called. There was a light touch on her shoulder. She struggled to open her eyes.

  ‘What?’ she murmured.

  ‘Craig’s awake and asking for you,’ said Anderson.

  Bernie pushed herself up. Her head was pounding.

  ‘I would say I’d make something for you to eat but there doesn’t appear to be much food in your kitchen. I’m going to pop over to the pub and see if they have any sandwiches left.’

  ‘What’s the time then?’

  ‘One o’clock. Have a shower. I’ll be back soon.’

  ‘Dougie, have you slept?’

  Anderson smiled. ‘I had a kip on your sofa. It’ll be enough to get me through a few more hours.’

  Craig was pale except for the livid red mark around his neck. Bernie smiled gently at him.

  ‘Hey, you had us all worried earlier,’ she said.

  ‘Why did you save me? Why didn’t you let me die? It’s what I deserve.’ His eyes were red from crying.

  Bernie took out her phone. ‘We should do this formally at the station really but you’re not well enough at the moment. I’d like to record our conversation if that’s OK with you.’

  Craig nodded.

  ‘I’ve seen the video that Ben Gardener sent you.’

  Craig looked confused. ‘What? Laura’s form tutor?’

  ‘Ah, maybe you know him better as Luke Davidson.’

  ‘Yes. I guess you want to know what happened.’

  ‘Yes. But I need to formally arrest you first.’ Bernie pressed record on her phone. ‘This is Detective Inspector Noel with Craig Moffatt. Craig, you are under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Maria Greco. You do not have to say anything. But, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?’

  Craig nodded his head. ‘Yes.’

  ‘OK. The time is fourteen thirty hours. Tell me, in your own words, Craig, what happened that night.’

  67

  ‘I guess I’m a bit of a geek,’ said Craig. ‘I’ve always got my head in a book or doing something on a computer. The other boys at school are always going on about all the girls they’ve been with. They like to wind me up. Nearly every Monday morning they ask if I lost my virginity over the weekend. They know the answer. I haven’t even kissed a girl. Never been on a date. I haven’t even asked a girl out.

  ‘So at the race that night, when that guy, Luke, offered up his girlfriend as a prize, I said yes. I didn’t want to have sex with her… I just wanted to kiss her… I just wanted the boys at school to stop.’

  Craig sniffed and wiped his face with his sleeve. ‘I didn’t think I’d win though. He’d beaten Ryan and he’s the best rider. I know now that he let me win. It was a set-up. She seemed quite keen at the beginning. She was laughing and then she started to run into the woods, looking back at me to see if I was following. Honestly, she was laughing. Until I caught up with her. She fell down as I reached her so I helped her up. I tried to kiss her. I… I was touching her as well but… I didn’t want any more than that, I promise. She started screaming and I was worried that someone would hear her. So I covered her mouth with my hand but she still made a noise. She struggled and we fell down together. She was still screaming so I put my hands on her neck to stop the sound…’

  Craig stopped. His hands moved to his own neck. ‘I… I pressed too hard. I didn’t know what I’d done until it was too late. I just wanted her to stop screaming.’

  He looked up at Bernie, his eyes hollow, his face blanched. ‘I didn’t mean to kill her. I deserve to die like she did. That’s why I did this.’ He pointed to the red mark on his neck. ‘I deserve to choke and be terrified and…’

  Bernie laid her hand on Craig’s arm. ‘Would you like to take a break?’

  Craig shook his head. ‘No. I have to tell you everything. It’s like I’ve got to vomit it all up.’

  ‘Is that why you were ill?’ said Bernie.

  ‘Yes. I was so sick when I got home. I couldn’t keep anything down for days. He sent an email with a video attached. Don’t even know how he got my address. I use a number code for it so it’s not obvious.’

  No, but he had your sister’s address. He probably hacked her account to find yours.

>   ‘I kept watching it – I couldn’t seem to stop myself. He wanted cash.’ Craig shrugged. ‘I don’t have much money and Mum wasn’t letting me out of the house so I couldn’t empty my savings account anyway. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t pay him and I couldn’t confess. So, I did the only thing I could do and “discovered” her body. I study Biology at school but I had no idea…’

  Craig gagged and his father, sitting next to him, grabbed a sick bowl. Craig waved it away. Bernie was tempted to take it herself. The memory was still fresh in her own mind.

  Craig regained some composure. ‘It was worse than I thought. If I’d known, I would have gone out sooner. I’m sorry, I’m really, really sorry.’

  Bernie glanced across at John Moffatt. His eyes were fixed on Craig. She wondered which parent had the harder job – the father listening to his son’s confession, or the mother hearing about her daughter’s abduction. With her son awake, Caroline had gone with Laura.

  ‘Does this tie in with Laura going missing?’ she asked.

  Craig nodded. ‘When we knew Laura hadn’t gone to her friend’s house like she said, he sent me another email. He told me not to say anything more to you or he’d do to Laura what I did to his girlfriend. And more. Said he’d do more than just kiss her.’

  Craig covered his face and shuddered. ‘I had to keep quiet. And then you came and asked me about the race and if I’d been there.’

  Bernie remembered. ‘Did you really see him on his motorbike?’

  Craig pulled his hands away. ‘Sort of. I ran as soon as I realised what I’d done. Got on my bike and rode up the track. He saw me leave but he must have gone to look for her. When I was wheeling the bike down our drive, I heard him go past. I think he saw me so knew where I lived.’

  ‘And I thought you were scared of your father because you’d taken his motorbike without permission.’

  ‘I was more scared about Laura. He said he’d release her when I paid him a thousand pounds. I emailed him back and said I didn’t have that much. I could only give him five hundred pounds. I was going to do that this weekend. I told him I wanted proof she was still alive. He sent me a photo of her tied up and gagged. I have all the emails still.’ Craig passed Bernie his phone. ‘It’s all on there.’