Dead Memories: An addictive and gripping crime thriller
Page 31
She groaned. ‘Bryant, have I not done enough good in my life to—’
‘Just one fucking minute, Stone,’ Frost called louder.
Kim grudgingly changed direction and headed towards the journalist.
‘What is it, Frost?’ she asked, reaching the cordon.
‘Your voicemail broken?’
‘My voicemail is perfectly fine, thank you. I was under strict instructions from my boss to stay away from the press and no matter how many messages you leave I’m not gonna call back and discuss the finer details of an ongoing—’
‘Oh, how I’d love to let you continue your lecture and allow you to look even more ridiculous,’ she said, folding her arms and tipping her head so that her long blonde ponytail swished across her back. ‘But I think I’ll just shut you up right now by telling you there’s a big, thick file in the back of Bryant’s car.’
A file? Her file?
‘Yeah,’ Frost continued. ‘Stupid bitch sent it to me thinking I’d publish it.’
And the hits from Mallory Preece just kept on coming.
‘You weren’t tempted?’ Kim asked.
‘You ain’t all that, Stone. Much more interesting stuff to report this week.’
‘But you read it?’ Kim asked, knowingly. The woman was a reporter after all.
She shook her head. ‘Like I said, you ain’t all that.’
Kim offered her a smile and turned away realising she could still be surprised by people after all.
One Hundred Thirty-Seven
Kim rubbed her right palm against her hip as she waited to be shown into the visitor’s centre.
In the days since the confrontation with Mallory on the roof her thick dressings had been reduced to a thin bandage and had begun to heal. And itch.
Mallory Preece had been charged with the murder of Amy Wilde and Mark Johnson, John Duggar and the Phelpses. CPS were dubious about the murder of Ernest Beckett as the only tangible link was the use of the drug Baclofen but with no proof of who had injected it. They hadn’t given up yet and her team would continue to work towards a conviction. The one they had to let go was the horrific assault of Billie Styles who had not seen or heard her attacker and had only responded to a message to meet John Duggar at the park.
Mallory was saying nothing and had chosen to hide behind a very expensive lawyer. Kim wasn’t sure what she was hoping to achieve but CPS were confident that she’d never see freedom again.
Amy’s mother had been truly mortified that her suspicions about her daughter’s involvement had been groundless. After a little digging had confirmed it to be the same MO as seven other attacks traced back to a travelling gang from Lincolnshire, Kim had been able to reassure her that Amy had had nothing to do with her attack and mugging. Kim had felt as though she was piling guilt on top of guilt when speaking to the woman, but once the horror faded she hoped her memories of her child would be a bit more positive. Amy deserved that much. Sadly, she had been unable to find anyone who cared about Mark’s demise.
But Kim consoled herself that wherever Mark and Amy were, they were together, which was clearly what they had wanted. Other than some petty theft neither of them had ever hurt a soul. There was no doubt in her mind that they had loved each other very much.
Ernest’s colleagues at Children’s Services had been genuinely sorry about his death. He’d been a hard-working, genial man with a kind word at the ready for everyone. She was pleased they’d been able to quash the rumours following the bogus complaint and could leave his memory and reputation intact.
Alison was on the mend and had ventured on her first run earlier that morning, accompanied by Stacey who had insisted on needing to shift a few pounds. Kim was interested to see how long that would last. Not because the constable lacked determination but because, whether or not Stacey realised it, she was actually completely content with herself.
Jamie Hart had been questioned and charged with one count of murder and one of attempted murder due to Alison’s tenacity and Stacey’s assistance. A partial fingerprint had been found on the flamingo earring that had belonged to Beverly and a search of his home had turned up Jennifer’s missing silver earring at the bottom of the toilet bowl. Curtis had been released, and Jennifer’s parents had been there to greet him.
All the loose ends had been tied up. Except one.
She had known since her time on the roof with Mallory that this was a conversation she had to have and she didn’t relish it.
The guard gave her the nod.
She entered the visitor’s hall and spotted him straight away. The anxiety shone from his eyes.
‘Dale,’ she said, taking the seat opposite.
‘Inspector…’
‘Kim,’ she corrected.
For a few seconds their eyes held across the silence.
He rubbed at his forehead. ‘I don’t even know what to say to you. How can any kind of apology from me help what?…’
‘It can’t,’ Kim said, honestly. ‘But that doesn’t make it your fault.’
‘How could I not have known? She’s my mother.’
Kim could hear the bewilderment in his voice, and the last sentence was filled with so many emotions she couldn’t even begin to pick them apart.
‘She’s very much like your grandfather, Dale. There’s a ruthless streak that she got from him.’
‘And then passed on to Bart. So, how the hell did I get so lucky?’
Kim looked around. ‘Lucky?’
‘I’d rather this than live with so much hatred.’ He closed his eyes and shook his head. ‘How many deaths are my family going to be responsible for?’ he asked, not really seeking an answer. ‘And how many of them have tried to kill you?’
She smiled. ‘I attract it.’
He didn’t smile back. ‘All those poor people. They lost their lives because my—’
‘You can’t change it, Dale, and you can’t hold on to the guilt. That’s great advice coming from me but you weren’t the one to kill them. Your mother has to live with what she’s done.’
Kim knew her words were going nowhere. Dale Preece was the only decent human being to come out of that family and he would assume the guilt of his mother’s actions just as he had with his brother and grandfather, thinking it would help the victims or their families in some way.
‘I saw the news report. The roof of that building. Did you talk to her?’
The question she’d been waiting for.
She nodded.
‘And did she offer any explanation. Did she admit she’d done all this because she holds you responsible for the deaths of my brother and grandfather?’
No, Dale, she did it because of you. She killed all of those people because she didn’t have your full attention. She only ever loved you and got caught in some sick and twisted jealous rage because you looked my way. So, indirectly, the death of six innocent people really does come right back to you. Now, eat that guilt for your supper… is what she should have said if she was being truthful.
She raised her gaze and met his. ‘Yes, that’s exactly what she admitted to me,’ she lied easily. This man had saved her life, and she would not saddle him with even more guilt for his mother’s actions. That she had done it all for him.
‘I still can’t fathom…’
‘Why did you buy the book?’ she asked, crossing her arms.
‘Curious,’ he answered, honestly.
‘And?’ she asked, pushing out her chin.
‘I didn’t read it,’ he said. ‘Got to the end of page one and it felt too invasive. It’s not a book you wrote yourself. You had no control over the contents and I didn’t like that feeling.’
Kim appreciated his honesty.
‘So, your mum took it?’
He nodded and Kim could picture Mallory gobbling up every detail of the book imagining ways she could use the information to cause as much pain as possible.
And now for the last piece of the puzzle.
‘You were the mole in Symes’s hate club?’
/>
All along they’d thought it was John Duggar.
He nodded. ‘Symes approached me within hours. Green as I was I mentioned it to Officer Gennard, who asked me about my acting skills, and I’ve been pretending to hate you ever since.’
‘And you probably should, you know: hate me.’
He shrugged. ‘But I don’t.’
‘So, what happens for you now?’ she asked. It hadn’t taken long for the prison grapevine to find out that it was Dale who had alerted Gennard to Symes’s plan. He had known that once beyond the confines of the prison walls Symes had many opportunities of reduced security to find a way to break free. And come looking for her.
Symes had still been transferred to the hospital but with double the security presence and two armed police officers.
‘I’m being transferred to Featherstone this afternoon. I’m not safe here now but you should know that Symes won’t stop trying to get you. If he ever does manage to get out of here he’s coming right for you. He uses every day to stroke his hatred of you. It’s all he talks about, all he thinks about.’
‘I know,’ she said as a shudder worked through her.
Silence fell and Kim realised there was nothing left for either of them to say.
She stood, unable to offer her hand across the table.
‘I’d shake your hand if I was allowed to,’ she said, honestly.
‘And I’d have been honoured to shake yours.’
‘Take care, Dale, and don’t feed the guilt.’
She turned and walked away, feeling his eyes on her back as she went.
She glanced at the clock on the wall as she left.
Now to her real reason for coming.
One Hundred Thirty-Eight
Kim parked the car opposite the entrance to the crematorium giving herself a good view of the entrance.
She watched silently as the two hearses made their slow approach along the main roadway towards the group of friends and neighbours who had congregated outside the door.
Kim tried to ignore the irony that the Phelpses had both wished to be cremated. The furnace would have less work to do than normal.
The cars pulled to a stop and the black-clad team focussed respectfully on the first coffin, removing it and wheeling it into the building seamlessly, practised hundreds of times, before moving the first car forward to remove the second coffin.
She couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Keith and Erica’s funeral had been. The one she hadn’t been allowed to attend, cut off by Erica’s sister because she wasn’t ‘real’ family. She was a foster kid, a social conscience act. But not to Kim and not to them. They had loved her and she had been their daughter. She wasn’t sure just how much ‘real’ family meant anyway. Despite her daughter’s excitement, Gemma’s mother had once again managed to get in trouble just hours before her impending release from prison and another bunch of flowers had landed in the bin. Kim took no pleasure in having called it correctly at the beginning of the week.
A week that had brought many emotions, all to be buried. Too many memories to be avoided and ignored and in some cases simply denied. Mallory Preece had violated her entire life and chosen the most traumatic events, picked at the closed boxes in her mind to destroy her. And it could have had she not chosen to push the emotions down and bury them all over again.
In truth she had wanted to curl up in a ball beneath heavy blankets when she’d first seen Mark and Amy chained together in the flat. Her arms had felt the familiar sensation of Mikey’s body within her embrace. She had remembered his smile, his laugh, his pain, his death.
When she’d seen the burnt-out car outside the old speedway site she’d been rushed by memories of the three years she’d spent with the loving couple and the safety she’d felt in their home. But also the terror when they had both lost their lives.
There were no words to describe the emotions that had coursed through her when she’d seen the brutalised figure of Billie Styles in the woods.
She understood Bryant’s concern about her refusal to deal with issues from her past and maybe she had swallowed a ticking time bomb that would explode at some time in the future, but it wasn’t now and no more people would die because of someone’s twisted jealousy towards her.
But throughout it all the one thing, the one emotion, that had refused to be silenced was regret. Regret that she hadn’t fought her corner or asked someone to fight it for her. She should have been allowed to say goodbye to the only parents she’d ever known.
She had visited the graveyard afterwards to say her own goodbye but their ashes had been scattered at the rose garden and the small plaque bearing their names had not yet been made. It hadn’t been a suitable farewell and that final missing piece had haunted her always.
She watched as the final mourner entered the building and reached into the glovebox for the last remaining copy of The Lost Child, the book about her life. Something to read while she waited.
She turned in her seat to Joel Greene, suited, grateful and without handcuffs.
‘Go on, Joel,’ she whispered, emotionally. ‘Go in and say goodbye to your parents.’
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A Letter from Angela
First of all, I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read Dead Memories, the tenth instalment of the Kim Stone series.
This book is the perfect example of how characters can suddenly dictate a different direction of travel. My mind is always a couple of books ahead with regard to what I want to explore at what stage of the journey. So I knew the theme I wanted to study in book 10, however that was not meant to be and as I began working on book 10 another idea kept interrupting my thoughts.
I made a note of the idea thinking this would quiet it for a while but it had the opposite effect and more and more ideas, plot lines and characters flew into my mind. I fought it for weeks before eventually giving up the battle and starting book 10 again.
The idea that refused to go away was about a killer that wanted to recreate traumatic events of Kim’s life causing her to re-examine both her own past and previous cases worked by the team. Even I was eager to know how she would handle such a situation and I hope you enjoyed the result.
If you did enjoy it, I would be forever grateful if you’d write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it can also help other readers discover one of my books for the first time. Or maybe you can recommend it to your friends and family…
I'd love to hear from you – so please get in touch on my Facebook or Goodreads page, twitter or through my website.
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If you haven’t read any of the previous books in the DI Kim Stone series, you can find them here:
1. SILENT SCREAM
2. EVIL GAMES
3. LOST GIRLS
4. PLAY DEAD
5. BLOOD LINES
6. DEAD SOULS
7. BROKEN BONES
8. DYING TRUTH
9. FATAL PROMISE
Thank you so much for your support, it is hugely appreciated.
Angela Marsons
www.angelamarsons-books.com
Books by Angela Marsons
Detective Kim Stone Series
1. SILENT SCREAM
2. EVIL GAMES
3. LOST GIRLS
4. PLAY DEAD
5. BL
OOD LINES
6. DEAD SOULS
7. BROKEN BONES
8. DYING TRUTH
9. FATAL PROMISE
10. DEAD MEMORIES
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Other Books
1. DEAR MOTHER
2. THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN
SILENT SCREAM
Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Series Book 1
#1 BESTSELLER
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Even the darkest secrets can’t stay buried forever…
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Five figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult-sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood …
* * *
Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country.
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But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realises she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades.
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As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?
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Fans of Rachel Abbott, Val McDermid and Mark Billingham will be gripped by this exceptional new voice in British crime fiction.