‘I’ll drink to that.’
‘Get some glasses then and be quick about it.’
He’d been wondering if she might protest when he told her the plan was to leave the kids locked up to die. She hadn’t twitched. Which was good, because if she had, he would have had to deal with her.
Taking the kids had been the beginning of the revenge on Jack Glover. Leaving the kids to die a lingering death with no water or food – this was going to be Nick Riley’s triumph. And then, high and mighty Jack fucking Glover, who was going to be the loser?
Once the kids were eventually found dead in the rented house, with any luck it would drive Jack insane. Nick took a slug from his glass. It wouldn’t take long for those brats to die. By the time he was sunning himself on a beach most likely. After all, one of them was half gone already.
42
They had been left for so long it seemed like forever. Emily had almost given up hope.
The last time she had heard footsteps on the stairs, her first thought had been, please can they bring water. And food for Lisa.
When the door had opened, Emily wondered if it was the woman who brought the eggs though this time the woman’s hair smelled faintly of oranges. There was something familiar about the scent, though Emily hadn’t been able to work out what. Her thoughts were messed up. She wondered if she might be imagining things.
‘Can we have food?’ Lisa asked.
The woman said nothing and her hands were empty. She hadn’t brought a tray or a drink. Emily glanced at the water bottle lying by her side. Lisa had drunk the last drops a long time ago.
‘Some water please?’ Emily asked, and her voice came out as a whisper.
The woman stayed silent. She crouched and reached towards Emily’s face but then she hesitated, quickly pulling her arm back. Emily caught another waft of the woman’s orangey scent.
‘What are you doing up there?’ The man’s voice boomed from downstairs. ‘We’ve got to go.’
The woman stood and made for the door.
‘Wait,’ Emily pleaded. ‘Don’t leave us. Please. We want to go home.’
The woman ignored them both and left, locking the door behind her.
Since then there had been no more visits. Lisa cried on and off. The tears flowed freely because Lisa was no longer afraid of the man shouting at her. There were no sounds filtering upstairs from below and they both felt sure the woman and the man had abandoned them. Now, hours, or was it days later, when Lisa cried it was a horrible sound, as if her tears had all dried up.
43
Grant had a search warrant for Nick Riley’s place in Brighton. Billingham met Grant there, together with a battering ram for gaining entry, commonly known as an enforcer.
‘Do you think he’s holding the children inside?’ Diane asked.
‘We’ll soon find out,’ Grant said.
Riley’s apartment was on the second floor of a five-storey block. Billingham’s officers were already stationed at the front, on the stairwell and on the fire escape. The elevators were also covered. An ambulance waited below ready to receive the children.
‘Did you get any information from the neighbours?’ Grant asked.
‘Most are elderly and spend a lot of time inside. They say Riley’s place has been unused for months though one neighbour told us his son saw a younger man go in there a few weeks ago. No one mentioned any children.’
‘Any sign of a white van in the vicinity?’
‘Not so far. I’ve got personnel checking adjacent streets.’
‘Ready when you are, Chief Inspector Billingham.’
Riley’s apartment lay at the end of an outside walkway. The other residents had been told to stay locked inside. As Billingham gave the order, officers brought the enforcer to Riley’s door.
It was a familiar sound to Grant as the steel ram breached the door hinges. Within seconds Grant, Billingham and the six-person uniformed team were inside. Grant let Billingham’s team do what they were good at, while he waited inside the entrance, listening as they systematically checked each room and called out the results to Billingham. McGowan raced down the hallway to the furthest rooms.
‘Clear.’
‘Clear.’
‘In here, sir,’ an officer shouted. ‘She’s chained to the bed.’
Grant’s heart thumped double time. Was it Emily and Lisa? He ran to the third room along. An officer was on his knees, checking the metal cuffs chaining someone to the bed. But it wasn’t one of the children. Grant stared at the tear-stained face of Sylvie Delacourt. What the hell was she doing here?
‘H-he tied me up. He kept me p-prisoner,’ she sobbed.
‘I can’t get the cuffs undone, sir. We’ll have to cut through them,’ the officer said.
‘Do it,’ Grant snapped.
Grant got in close to the young woman. She wouldn’t look at him. ‘Sylvie. Sylvie, look at me. I need your help. Have you seen the children?’
‘He forced me to…’
Sylvie broke down. She had a wild look about her. Jesus. How long had Riley kept her here?
Grant paused and inspected her wrists more closely. Then shouting came from one of the other rooms, followed by furniture breaking.
‘Weapon! Get down,’ McGowan yelled.
Grant threw himself to the floor, pulling Sylvie with him. He pushed her as far as he could underneath the bed and crawled to the door just in time to see Riley run past, with McGowan on his heels.
‘He’s heading for the fire exit,’ one of Billingham’s officers called out.
‘Seal it off,’ Billingham ordered.
With no way down Riley had no choice, he went up. They heard his steps ringing out on the metal rungs of the emergency escape with McGowan right behind him.
‘There’s no way out from the roof,’ Billingham said.
Grant was at the doorway. ‘Then we’ve got him. Do you have the children?’
‘No sign of the children in the apartment, sir,’ one of Billingham’s officers reported.
‘Shit. You’re certain?’
‘Positive, sir. We’ve checked thoroughly.’
Grant had been hoping against hope. An apartment in a quiet neighbourhood. Recently left to Riley. The chances had been high. Damn it.
‘Then check again,’ Billingham snapped. ‘And get forensics out here. I want this place gone over with a toothcomb.’
Grant needed answers. ‘I’m going up. I’m a trained negotiator and I’ll try to talk sense into Riley. See if I can form a link with him. Billingham, get any information you can out of the young woman. Her name’s Sylvie Delacourt and she was the Glover’s au pair. Ask DS Collins to speak to her.’
Billingham got on his radio and when he turned back to Grant, he looked alarmed.
‘What’s wrong?’ Grant asked.
‘I can’t locate DS Collins. The last intel we’ve got is she was stationed at the entrance to the fire exit. I think Riley may have taken her to the roof.’
44
Nick put the blade back in his pocket. The woman copper had put up a fight, though one stab to her stomach had soon put an end to it. He leant against the elevator shaft and caught his breath. He didn’t have much time. It wouldn’t be long before they came after him.
The wind whipped across the rooftop and he searched for a place to hide. As he hunkered down in a space between two ventilator outlets, he felt the urge to take a last hit. It was strange because he had never cared that much for her, but Nick couldn’t stop his mind going back to Maria and the way Maria had stared up at him. Not much gave him nightmares but Maria’s eyes still haunted him. She’d been terrified. Snot and blood had been running down her face.
Nick Riley wiped his nose on his sleeve. He waited to hear footsteps on the fire exit. This was it. Now it was his turn.
When Maria had been found in the school playground, she had been picked up and dumped in Nick’s van. She slumped in the back footwell while Nick drove. Her nose had bled and she had cried
with mucus and blood running down. He was a monster and he would make her suffer. The withdrawal had got so bad she hadn’t had the energy to lift her own head.
‘I’m s-sorry,’ she’d kept saying. Her nose was pressed into the carpet. He had ignored her and carried on driving.
It seemed like they drove for an eternity. When they stopped, Nick got in the back and took out his kit of tourniquet and syringe.
‘I don’t want it,’ she said, her teeth chattering.
‘You know you do and anyway it’s too late to back out now.’
He took off her jacket and gripped her arm, twisting on the tourniquet. She saw a vein pop up and then he was filling a syringe and injecting her. She didn’t look at his face. The dose sent her mind spinning and her heart into a canter and as he dragged her out of the van, Maria felt her heart go into arrhythmia. She was dumped on the pavement, and the van drove away.
The ground was gritty under her cheek. It was quiet. She could see a sliver of moon out of one eye though she could not turn her head to see the whole of it.
Deep inside, she despised herself. For being dirty and worthless. And what about the children? What about Emily? She should have gone to the police. She should have been better. Strong enough. Brave enough.
She was so cold. He’d given her an overdose, she knew it and her heart was racing its way to a crisis. Soon she would lose consciousness. There was nobody in this world who cared for her apart from her brother, Billy, and Billy had written her off. Maria felt an aching loneliness. Her vision faded.
Then she heard a soft voice.
‘Maria.’
It was Billy. He was a short distance away. Digging in her nails, she tried to drag herself towards him.
‘I’m sorry, Billy,’ she whispered. ‘I tried. It was too hard.’
Billy came to kneel by her side. She remembered the good times they’d had together as children and the way he had felt in her arms when he was small and she rocked him to sleep.
‘I know you’re sorry. Why don’t you write a message,’ he whispered.
In her dying moments Maria tried to move her fingers, and as the light went out of her eyes, the last thing she knew was Billy gently stroking the side of her face.
45
Emily couldn’t think straight. The purple blotches had spread to her legs and she felt so cold not even Lisa’s cuddles made her warm. The chills were bad. Emily’s body shook and her mind drifted. Sometimes she was at home drinking hot chocolate in the kitchen, another time her mother was putting her into a warm bath and she could smell the flowery bubbles of the bubble bath.
Emily could hear her mother singing a nursery rhyme and then she realised it was Lisa, humming the tune and mixing up the words.
‘Do it again, Lise. It’s nice.’
Lisa hummed and stroked Emily’s hair, just like Mummy liked to do. And Emily’s heart beat faster and faster – ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum – it raced along as if it was galloping and might any moment burst from the effort.
46
Maria Fernandez’s photograph had been circulated to patrol officers so when a young woman matching her description was found dead, a message came straight through to Tom.
The body was hidden behind a row of dumpsters not far from Himlands Heath high street.
‘It looks like an overdose, sir,’ the uniformed officer told Tom. ‘She was found by the refuse collection guy, he’s waiting over by his van.’
‘I’ll view the body first and then I’ll speak to him,’ Tom said.
The crime scene manager was already on site, directing two SOCOs who were photographing the area.
‘Hello Delaney,’ the CSM said. ‘It looks like it’s your woman and since it’s so important I’ll make an exception and let you in quickly, but you’ll have to suit up into full gear.’ The CSM jerked her head towards her car. ‘Grab what you need from my boot.’
Tom jogged across the road and rummaged for a coverall and shoe protections. The pathologist, Luke Sanderson, arrived. Luke was a personal friend of Grant’s.
‘I know this one is a priority,’ Luke said. ‘Shall we see what we’ve got?’
The woman was lying on her stomach in a film of grime spreading out from the base of the dumpsters. Judging by the tracks in the sludge, she’d dragged herself for three or four metres. There was no syringe in sight but the injection marks on her arm were obvious. Most were old, with one more fresh.
Tom didn’t think this was a hang-out for druggies. ‘Officer, do you often get people shooting up here?’
‘The more frequent trouble spots are in the park or under the bypass. This used to be a problem area until the council installed CCTV cameras and new lighting.’
‘That’s what I thought.’
Luke was crouching. ‘These marks on her arm are healed except this one.’ He pointed. ‘This is a recent injection site and by the looks of the sores at the base of her nose, she’s been snorting cocaine on a regular basis.’
‘Can you tell what’s been injected?’ Tom asked.
‘Not unless I’ve got a crystal ball.’
‘Right. What about time of death?’
‘Give me a chance. I need to take her body temperature first.’
‘It looks like Maria Fernandez to me,’ Tom said.
‘We’ve got her fingerprints on file so it will be easy to check and I don’t see any other wounds, though it’s curious how she dragged herself.’
‘Almost as if she was trying to get away. Or go towards something. Could she have been hallucinating?’
‘If it was a cocaine overdose then hallucinations are highly likely. And if it was a bad trip then she could have died trying to escape her nightmares.’
‘Bloody hell. Any signs of foul play?’
‘Not as far as I can see.’ Luke rolled the victim gently onto her back. ‘Oh hello, what’s this?’
Maria’s arm had been covering some scratchings marked in the sludge.
‘Did she do that with her finger?’ Tom asked. ‘Or was it there already?’
‘It’s fresh and it’s like she wrote it herself and then her arm fell on top of it,’ Luke said. He waved a SOCO over to take photographic evidence. ‘It says “nine”, spelled out as a word and then maybe the start of another word which has been smudged away.’
Tom was taking a picture with his own phone when one of the SOCOs called out. ‘There’s something over here.’
It was a jacket with a flowery lining lying by one of the dumpsters. It looked as if it had been tossed there amongst the garbage spills.
‘Anything in the pockets?’ Tom asked.
The SOCO checked. ‘’Fraid not.’
A purse lay near the dumpster wheel. It could have fallen from a pocket. Or not. The SOCO reached out a gloved hand.
Small and with a zippered opening, the purse didn’t contain money. What it did hold was a train ticket, Brighton to Himlands Heath. Tom had to stop himself from shouting. And there was something else.
‘What is it?’
‘Looks like a receipt.’
He held his breath as the SOCO unfolded the paper.
‘It’s from a chemist in Brighton dated two days ago.’
‘Bloody fantastic,’ Tom yelled.
47
Tom contacted DI Sarah Hunter. Brighton was her patch and he needed her knowledge. Sarah met Tom outside the chemist and it didn’t take long for them to locate the pharmacist Maria had spoken to.
‘Oh yes,’ the young woman said. ‘She was acting sort of spaced out. I remember she wanted an antiseptic and if I look up our records for that day… yes, see here, she bought antiseptic. She told me it was for a child.’
‘Emily is likely suffering from sepsis. I think Maria bought treatment,’ Tom said.
Sarah checked her phone. ‘Chief Inspector Billingham is over with your boss at Riley’s apartment. Billingham just told me there’s a potential hostage situation so he can’t leave. He’ll mobilise officers from the station to start a hou
se-to-house. They’ll be arriving any minute to help us.’
‘If Maria walked here there’s a big chance the children are being held close by.’
‘We’ll start the search with the chemist as the central point,’ Sarah said.
‘At the scene of her death Maria scrawled the word nine. Does it mean anything to you? Anything connected with the local area?’
‘You think she left a clue? I thought she overdosed.’
‘It’s likely she did but I can’t help thinking it’s odd.’
‘Junkies do all sorts of weird things. The number nine doesn’t have any significance I can think of. There’s an area of town known as Nine Elms only that’s over half an hour’s walk away up by the hospital and it’s difficult to get to on public transport.’
The personnel in the chemist drew a blank on it too.
‘Let’s have a look at a map,’ Tom said. ‘Perhaps she meant a house number?’
Bringing up a satellite view, Tom drew circles radiating out from the chemist. ‘This is the five-minute walk radius and this is ten minutes.’
‘There are plenty of streets but there aren’t many houses which are number nines,’ Sarah said. ‘I used to patrol here when I was in uniform.’
‘Let’s start with them. The uniformed officers can do the rest systematically. How many are we talking about?’
‘If we go out to the ten-minute radius then we’ve got less than a dozen. Come on, it’ll be quicker on foot.’
They covered fourteen number nines. There were five with no one home and for those they spoke to neighbours. For the rest, when they knew it was in connection to the missing children, all the residents allowed Tom and Sarah to search inside.
‘Nothing.’ Tom wiped the sweat from his face. ‘Shit. I was so sure they’d be nearby. Emily might not have long left.’ He checked his phone again. Still no news from Grant.
Deadly Lies Page 20