Dark of Mind

by Robin Roughley

Fishing the Polos from his pocket, Lasser handed one over as they drove through the gates and onto the drive.

  Bringing the car to a halt, the DCI crunched the sweet and swallowed the remains.

  'Right, let's go and see what Faith can tell us about her old man's girlfriend,' he said as they climbed from the car.

  They had taken five steps towards the door when it opened, and Suzanne smiled out at them.

  'All right, Sue, how's it going?' Lasser asked as he gave her a quick hug.

  'Well, things have been better, I'm just glad you two are here and I hope you have some answers for Faith.'

  'Where is she?' Bannister asked.

  'In the back garden with the girls.'

  'Right, I'll go and have a word, you get a brew, Lasser, I don't want her seeing your ugly mug, this requires the tender touch,' he said as he slipped past his wife and vanished into the house.

  'You know, sometimes I think that husband of mine is totally deluded,' Suzanne said with a shake of the head.

  'You'll get no argument from me on that score,' Lasser replied with a smile as he stepped over the threshold, closing the door quietly behind him.

  110

  Stone placed the coffee cup on the kitchen table as Livy smiled up at him.

  'Thank you,' she said as she slid a strand of hair behind her ear.

  Sitting down opposite, he took a drink from his own cup. 'Did you sleep OK?'

  'Surprisingly, I did, I mean, considering what happened last night I thought I would be up all night, but that bed is so comfortable,' she paused and smiled faintly, 'plus I felt safe.'

  'Good, I'm glad.'

  'I mean it, you have a lovely home here I would have thought you would have been married or at least have a girlfriend,' she said.

  Stone caught the brief flicker of something in her blue eyes though he was unsure what the emotion actually was.

  'No wife or girlfriend,' he answered.

  'Well, I can't thank you enough for what you did, it was one thing to save me from that animal but then to bring me here was more than kind.'

  'What will you do now?' he asked, wrapping his hands around the cup, the French doors were open, the sound of birdsong filtered into the kitchen from the open fields beyond.

  'I'll have to get a flat sorted – and fast – and then at some point I'll have to go back and see John, all my belongings are at the house, personal things, you know?'

  'So, you won't be giving him another chance?'

  'Good God no, I can put up with a lot of things but not that, not violence.'

  'Can't say that I blame you,' Stone paused, 'tell me, have you ever been married?'

  This time there was no mistaking the brief look of anger that flared in her eyes. 'I was married once, but it didn't work out.'

  'Another bad guy?' he asked, watching her closely.

  'What can I say, I'm easily fooled,' she gave a slight shrug.

  'I was married once too.'

  'Ah, so you're divorced?'

  Placing the cup on the table, he sighed slightly. 'No, she died two years ago, she had cancer.'

  'Oh, I'm sorry, that must have been hard for you.'

  The voice was pitched just right, even the sudden look in her eyes hinted at sympathy but there was something about her reaction that felt somehow forced as if she was accessing a bank of automated responses to any given situation.

  'I'm over it now,' he lied.

  'Well, I know I'll never get married again,' she said with certainty.

  'Put you off for life, did he?'

  The woman looked at him, a sudden hardness in her eyes. 'Believe me, he was not a nice man, and, in the end, I had no choice but to leave him,' she paused, 'and lost everything in the process.'

  Rising from the chair, Stone picked up his cup and headed over to the sink before emptying the dregs and returning to the table, only this time he didn't sit down. 'I have something I need to ask you?' he said.

  Livy looked up at him, a slight frown marring her otherwise perfect brow. 'OK, go ahead.'

  'Someone wants you dead, and I need to know who that someone could be?'

  The woman lurched back in the chair, the legs scraping across the tiles as she shot to her feet. 'What!? What are you talking about?'

  Stone held up his hands. 'Before you run from the house just listen to me for two minutes,' he pleaded.

  She looked at him and for once the look of anxiety in her eyes was real. 'You just stay away from me or I'll scream the place down,' she warned.

  'To be honest you could scream but the nearest house is over half a mile away, but I am not here to hurt you, believe it or not I'm here to help.'

  'Help me, what makes you think I need any help?' she asked, backing away slightly.

  'I wasn't just passing the house, I was there looking for you,' Stone said as she took another hurried backward step.

  'Look, I've had enough of weird bastards in my life, so I am going to leave right now and you're not going to stop me.'

  'I won't stop you, you're free to go,' he said as he sat back down in the chair and folded his arms.

  The woman hesitated, her mind in turmoil as she glared at Stone, part of her wanted to run from the house and never look back and yet the more she studied the man, the more she felt the need to know what he was talking about.

  'What would make you say something like that?' she asked as she shuffled further back towards the open French doors.

  'I say it because it's the truth, someone out there hates you and wants you dead.'

  'How do you know that?'

  Stone thought for a moment before answering. 'I know because I was the one he sent to kill you.'

  Beth Robbins swallowed the sudden sense of terror and then she was dashing for the open French doors, her hair streaming out behind as she ran.

  111

  Bannister sat on the freshly mown grass, Faith facing him, Belle and Kelly had headed back into the house to give them some privacy.

  'Please tell me he's going to be OK?' Faith asked, nervously wrapping a lock of hair round and round her finger, her face fragmented with fear and anguish.

  'I won't lie to you, Faith, your father has been beaten quite badly but before the ambulance arrived, he did manage to speak so I would imagine given time he will be fine.'

  'What did he say?' she asked.

  'He just said one word, ''Livy''.'

  'And that's it?'

  'I'm afraid so.'

  Faith glanced up at the bright blue sky. 'He didn't ask about me?' her voice sounded fragile; the tears sparkled in her eyes.

  'No, but like I said the paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital.'

  'Can I go and see him?'

  'Of course you can, we can sort that out later.'

  Faith looked at him and nodded in understanding.

  'Is it OK if I ask you a few questions?' Bannister enquired.

  'About what?'

  A blackbird flew across the garden, landing on the fence before dropping down into next door's garden.

  'Well, let's start with your father's girlfriend,' Bannister watched as the girl's face soured.

  'Was she the one who attacked my dad?'

  'I doubt it,' he paused, 'her name is Livy, right?'

  'Yeah.'

  'What about her second name?'

  'Sharp.'

  Bannister plucked at a blade of grass; his face thoughtful. 'And how long have they been seeing one another?'

  Faith thought for a moment as she wiped her eyes. 'Around twelve months.'

  'Does she live with your father?'

  'She moved in almost straight away, I mean, he's had girlfriends before and sometimes they would stay over at the house, but she came and just never left.'

  'What is she like with you, do you get on OK?'

  'At first, I thought she was nice, we even went shopping a few times, I think she wanted me to dress differently but I wasn't interested in the stuff she liked, and, in the end, she stopped asking me t
o go with her.'

  Bannister pictured the scene, Beth Robbins swanning through the designer shops spending money that wasn't hers and trying to change Faith into a clone of herself.

  'She pretends to love my father, but I know it's all an act.'

  'What makes you say that?'

  'I know I sound like some spoiled brat, but I'm not like that. My father has never bothered about me, he just used me and pushed me to get impossible results and then he would criticise me constantly for failing to get one hundred percent in everything.'

  'Did you get along with any of his other girlfriends?'

  'To be honest, none of them ever lived at the house, though occasionally I would see them leaving in the morning, but that was about it.'

  'But this one is different?'

  Faith nodded. 'She's a gold-digger, but my father has never seen it.'

  'Have you ever considered telling him how you felt about her?'

  'God no, you saw what he was like, he would never have listened to a word I said, and she would have loved it.'

  'Loved it how?'

  Faith sighed, her shoulders sagging even further. 'She knows what he's like, how he treats me, so all she would have to do was deny everything, and he would have believed her over me. It's been hard enough living with them as it is, but it would have been a whole lot worse if I'd said a word against her.'

  Bannister could see the upset in her eyes, and he realised that she had spent all her young life striving to do her best for her father and all for nothing. She had no real voice; she was ignored until exam time and then criticised when she failed to meet his impossible demands.

  The dislike he had felt for John Hinton changed into anger; the man was an arsehole, but worse than that he was also a bully with a bloated sense of self-importance.

  'So, you kept quiet in the hope they would ignore you?'

  Faith nodded slowly. 'I know it sounds pathetic, I'm not a kid anymore but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.'

  'And a part of you thought he would get what he deserved if he stayed with her?' Bannister asked in a quiet voice.

  Faith looked at him, her eyes widening slightly. 'Does that make me a horrible person?'

  Bannister shook his head. 'No, Faith, it makes you human,' he pictured Hinton bloody and battered on the hallway floor and felt nothing but satisfaction at the image.

  'After my mum died, I thought it would bring us closer together, but it was almost as if he forgot about her straight away.'

  'You needed him, and he wasn't there?'

  Faith nodded again; her face full of distress. 'Six months after she died, he started seeing someone else and I didn't know what to do, I used to sit in my bedroom crying. I missed my mum and it was obvious he didn't, sometimes I think he was glad when she died so he could start seeing other women and do what he wanted.'

  'Well, the fact is you're not a kid anymore, Faith, you're a young woman and your father can't demand that you do anything.'

  'But you saw what he's like, he hit me and if that man hadn't turned up then I don't know what would have happened, but I know it wouldn't have been good.'

  Bannister gave his earlobe a tug, trying to remain calm though inside he seethed as he pictured Hinton dragging his pregnant daughter into the house so he could…

  'I felt so scared, he hates the fact that I'm pregnant, he kept calling me horrible names, making out I'd been sleeping around, but I swear I only ever went with Danny East one time.'

  Bannister sighed. 'Look, Faith, no matter what happens we will help you get on your feet, you can count on that.'

  She looked up at him gratefully before bursting into a fresh flood of tears.

  112

  Robbins sat in the car staring out at the panoramic views, though he saw nothing of the beauty, his gaze was fixed on the internal landscape, a crazed mixture of dark joy, doubt and fear.

  Beth was dead, her body no doubt waiting to be discovered, her sightless eyes staring into oblivion, hopefully Zero had made her passing as painful as possible, and yet the truth was he felt the strange sense of dread closing around his heart.

  No matter how hard he tried to dislodge the feeling it wouldn't be denied, he felt as if he had overlooked something, something of vital importance yet he couldn't grasp what it was. He only knew that if he failed to find it then it could prove his downfall.

  The sun was starting to slide slowly towards the earth and yet time felt as if it had lost all meaning as he remained transfixed on the fear.

  Surely, he had covered all the angles, hadn't he? When the police came to question him, they would be unable to link him to either Foster or the one named Zero, he had made sure of it and yet the doubt remained, slicing into his brain and making rational thought impossible.

  He had no doubt that Lasser would push harder than ever to get to the truth, perhaps that was where the fear came from, and yet he had bested the man more than once so why did it feel different this time?

  All the plans he had made had come to fruition and this was a moment that should have been the crowning glory, his hated ex-wife was dead and he was free and yet the expected feeling of euphoria had been short-lived, a brief flash of joy that had been replaced by fear-filled uncertainty.

  Shifting in the seat, he glanced at the clock on the dashboard, wishing the time away then he could ring Zero to find out exactly what had happened at Hinton's house. Perhaps hearing the details of her death would dispel the feeling of fear and replace it with the joy he craved.

  Robbins nodded and cleared his throat, that was what he needed, he needed to hear all about it from the horse's mouth. He knew that eventually all the information he wanted would be freely available on the internet, images of the house of death would be shown, and reporters would gather to dish out the gruesome details. He would delight in studying the reports, knowing that behind the front door of the house his ex–wife had been slain, cut to ribbons, strangled, stabbed, his mind conjured the images to match her demise, the blood, the offal stink of wet organs strewn across the floor!

  No doubt the media would film the body bag being removed from the house; he envisioned a future where documentaries were made about the case, perhaps he would even be interviewed about it all.

  Robbins smiled as he pictured himself lamenting the death of his ex-wife for the cameras, the tears shining in his eyes as he prayed that her killer would be found and all the time the police would look on, impotent in their rage, as he mourned the demise of the woman he 'would always love'.

  The scenario made him gasp in delight, Lasser would fume and yet he would be unable to do a thing about it. Even if at some point they caught Zero he would be unable to tell them anything of use…

  Robbins suddenly stopped smiling as he pictured the faceless Zero being grilled by Lasser, they would work on him for weeks, but surely it would lead them to a dead end?

  Still the fear remained, tarnishing the beauty of the whore's death.

  With a deep sigh he continued to search his mind, going over things again and again like someone with OCD and yet he couldn't see any faults in his plan, so why did the fear remain, crackling through his brain like an approaching lightning storm?

  The minutes continued to tick by, the fear slowly turning to terror as Robbins pulled out of the lay-by and headed for home.

  113

  Lasser took a gulp of fresh orange juice as Bannister came striding into the lounge, his face pinched in anger.

  'Where's Faith?' Suzanne asked as he came to a halt in the middle of the room.

  'She's gone upstairs to the girls.'

  'Any luck on finding out about Beth Robbins?' Lasser enquired.

  'Bugger all really, she just knows her as Livy Sharp.'

  'So, she kept her maiden name,' Lasser said as he drained the glass.

  'Yeah, but it doesn't help us find out what the hell happened to her, does it?'

  'Calm down, Alan, it's no use getting all worked up about it.'

  Bannister gl
anced at his wife and sighed before nodding and Lasser marvelled at Sue's ability to say things that no one else would get away with. He knew that if he had said the same thing then the DCI would have gone ballistic, his face incandescent with rage as he jabbed out a quivering finger.

  'The way I see it Beth Robbins had either left the house when Hinton was attacked, or she was there and then forcibly removed after Hinton was beaten.'

  Lasser nodded in agreement with Bannister's assessment. 'Well, let's pray she wasn't at home when the nutter came calling,' he said before placing the glass on the coffee table.

  'The point is if she wasn't there then whoever is responsible for the attack will be trying to find her to finish the job.'

  Suzanne could feel the tension in the air, the sense that time was rapidly running out for the woman named Beth Robbins.

  'Even if Robbins is responsible for all this, there's sod all we can do about it, he's already wound up his clockwork toy, so all he has to do is sit back and wait for him to complete the job and there's nothing we can do about it,' Bannister grumbled in frustration.

  Lasser tried to think of something constructive to say but the DCI was right, Robbins had set all this up from a distance making sure that he was in the clear, no links to either Foster or the new would-be killer.

  'For now, we have to forget about Robbins,' Lasser reluctantly said. 'The important thing is finding the ex-wife and then the one responsible for attacking Hinton and more than likely killing Foster.'

  'You think I don't know that?' Bannister snapped.

  Suzanne looked from one to the other and then she stepped forward. 'Have you two eaten today?' she suddenly asked.

  'Eaten?' Bannister asked.

  'And I don't mean a burger from the drive-in,' she looked at Lasser and raised an eyebrow.

  'I had some toast this morning,' he replied.

  'Right, go and sit in the garden and I'll cook you both something.'

  'We can't sit in the garden feeding our faces while there's a nutter out there, Sue. I mean, I'm always pushing the team to go the extra mile, so how would they feel knowing we were tucking into a late supper and watching the sun go down?'