by Helen Phifer
The front door was locked. He took a step back and ran at it as fast as he could; there was a loud crack as his shoulder connected and he fell backwards, trying not to cry out in pain. He looked through the window again and saw that Lucy was trying to stand upright against the wall.
Patrick had to stifle the scream that was swelling inside his lungs. It was some primal instinct taking over and he stuffed his fist into his mouth, clamping his teeth against his knuckles to clear his head. All this time – he’d waited so long since he’d killed Jenny. It was mainly because he’d been terrified of getting caught and being sent to prison. His childhood memories of being inside a prison had been enough to deter him from murdering anyone else for a long time. He’d never survive inside, cooped up like John Carter had been. He’d killed Jenny not far from where John had left Carrie’s body, which had been a fitting tribute to the man whom he had learnt to idolise.
He wondered what John would think of him now. He’d kept himself out of trouble, had never told a single soul about his desire to kill. He’d listened to John’s advice and waited until he had a plan that was worthy of being carried out. His heroes had become his inspiration and he’d spent years thinking of ways he could pull it off. All this time he’d had to make do with reading and devouring other people’s murder reports at work. They had satiated him until he could stand it no more and had to put his plan into action. But now it was over.
The panic was threatening to take over; he was fucked. He could hear Mattie hammering on the metal fire door behind him. The only way he was going to get out of here was if they were all dead, every single one of them. He picked up the can of petrol that he’d brought in from the garage earlier, afraid that the acid fumes might mix with it and combust. His hands were shaking as he unscrewed the cap. He had no choice but to burn the house down with them inside it. That would cause enough of a fuss for him to slip away and escape. What were a few more bodies to add to his murder count? He ran over to the kitchen counter and took a packet of matches from the drawer, pushing them into his pocket. He picked up the can and began to slosh the petrol around, all over the wooden skirting boards, the bottom of the doors and everything wooden he could see.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Toby stared at Lucy through the glass. She looked a little hazy and it was then that he realised the room was beginning to fill with smoke. She looked at him and he knew then what she was going to do – she was going to throw herself through the window. He shook his head.
‘Don’t do it! Let me.’
He ran back down the steps, looking around for something heavy enough to break the glass. He spied an old, crumbling house brick and picked it up. Lucy bent down, lifting her arms as high as she could to cover her head as he launched the brick towards the window. The sound of shattering glass was loud enough to wake the dead as it splintered and cracked, shards flying everywhere. Toby saw the flashing blue-and-white lights of the police van pull up behind him and breathed a sigh of relief. Two officers ran towards him as thick, black smoke began to pour out through the gaping hole in the window. One of them drew his baton, smashed the rest of the glass from the frame and leant inside. He grabbed hold of Lucy as best he could and dragged her out; they both tumbled backwards and landed in a heap. There was a loud crackle as orange flames began to lick against the glass of an upstairs window.
Toby shouted at the officers, ‘There are two of ours in the garage – you need to get them out.’
One of them ran back to the van to get the big red battering ram. Toby bent down, not watching what they were doing as he began to loosen the gag around Lucy’s mouth. As he wrenched it down, she took a huge gulp of air into her lungs. Meanwhile, he frantically started to loosen the ropes around her wrists and ankles. She grabbed his hand.
‘Thank you, Toby.’
They both looked up then and saw the figure of Patrick staring down at them from the upstairs window. Lucy stood up, brushed herself down and ran to the officers, who had almost managed to buckle the garage door.
‘I need your cuffs and baton.’
She didn’t wait for an answer as she slipped them from his belt, tucking the cuffs into her trouser waistband as she drew the baton and ran towards the broken window. Toby, horrified when he realised that she was going back inside the burning house, screamed out her name. But she didn’t even pause. Her mind made up, she clambered back onto the windowsill and threw herself into the smoke-filled room. Tugging the gag around her neck back up over her mouth and nose, she ran to the lounge door and kicked it until it flew open. The entire house was filling up with thick smoke that instantly made her eyes water, but there was no way she was letting Patrick stay in here and burn to death. She’d lost Lizzy Clements; she wouldn’t lose him too. He would face a jury in a court of law and answer for his abominable crimes.
Running up the stairs, she headed in the direction she thought he was in. As she entered the room, she paused. He was standing on a chair in front of an open wardrobe, scrabbling around to get something from the top shelf. A voice inside her head yelled Gun! Not caring where it was going to land her, she racked the baton and then ran at him. Swinging it as hard as she could, she smacked it across the back of his legs. He shouted out in anger and pain. Her hope and determination renewed, she hit him again, even harder, across the back of his head. He lost his balance and hurtled towards the floor. The crash was so loud that the wooden floorboards shook and she wondered if they were both going to fall through the ceiling into the flames below. Within seconds she was on top of him, dragging his hands behind his back. She cuffed one of his wrists and locked the other cuff around hers. Then she felt a wave of heat so hot it singed the back of her hair as the flames whooshed into the room.
The garage was full of thick smoke now. Browning looked at Mattie, who was searching the van for its keys so they could ram the doors from inside. Mattie was swearing profusely because there were none to be seen. The sound of the metal door being whacked from outside was deafening. The smoke coming through the gap under the kitchen door was suffocating them, making them cough. Mattie had never been so angry – if he was going to die he’d be fucked if it was by being burnt to a crisp in Patrick Baker’s garage.
At last, the door buckled enough that they could lift it up a couple of metres off the ground. Mattie dived under it first, glad to be able to gulp clean air into his lungs. Browning, who was slightly bigger than him, took a little longer to wriggle out. Mattie and one of the other officers grabbed his arms and yanked him through. He looked at the sunlight and breathed a sigh of relief. Toby helped Browning up and Mattie looked around.
‘Where’s Lucy?’
His voice was so high-pitched that it sounded as if it belonged to a woman. Toby pointed back towards the burning building and Mattie let out a cry full of anger and fear.
Lucy couldn’t breathe. The landing was alight and the heat was intense. There was no escape that way. Slamming the door shut, she dragged Patrick towards the window and looked down to see Mattie below. She banged her fist on the glass to get his attention.
Toby poked Mattie’s arm. ‘There she is!’
A fire engine turned into the drive and Lucy felt her heart fill with hope. Maybe this was all going to work out okay and she hadn’t just done the stupidest thing in her entire life. Not sure where she was getting the strength from, she opened the window as wide as it would go and pulled the dazed Patrick to his feet so they could take in breaths of clean air. The floor underneath her feet was getting hotter and hotter by the minute. Not sure if it was going to hold them long enough for the fire crew to put up a ladder, she looked down at the drop; it wasn’t that far. The worst she could do was to break a leg; maybe a little concussion. Before she could think it through any longer, she felt a strong push from behind. She felt her legs go from under her and she fell through the open window, her arm almost being pulled from its socket by Patrick’s dead weight as he fell on her and the pair of them began to freefall to the ground. She did
n’t even have time to scream, it all happened so fast.
Mattie, Toby and Browning watched in horror as Lucy came tumbling out of the window, followed by Patrick. There was nothing anyone could do to help. There was a loud thud and Mattie looked away. Browning ran towards the bodies on the ground and saw that, by pure luck, because of his weight Patrick had landed first, with Lucy sprawled on top of him. Both of them groaned and Mattie, who’d been holding his breath, ran towards them. He bent down to check she was okay and she stared at him.
‘I think I’ve dislocated my shoulder.’
He looked at the way it was positioned and nodded. ‘Ouch – yep, I think you might have.’
The officer who had been watching it all with his mouth open ran towards Lucy and unlocked the cuff around her wrist. Not taking any chances, he snapped it down onto Patrick’s free hand. Mattie lifted Lucy off the semi-conscious man on the gravel and walked her away.
‘Are you mental? What were you thinking?’
She began to laugh, a little too wildly, and knew she was on the verge of hysteria.
‘Yes, I probably am. I was thinking that there was no way he was going to die in that house and get away with murder.’
Browning and Toby began to laugh with her – there was something so wrong yet so right about her euphoria that even Mattie joined in.
‘Boss, you’re a fucking liability. But we wouldn’t want you any other way.’
She looked at Browning. ‘Thank you, I’ll take that as a compliment.’
They were quickly hustled out of the way by the fire officers, who were running around with hoses and shouting commands at each other. One of them ran over to Patrick with an oxygen mask and she wanted to tell him to let the bastard choke, but she didn’t. She’d risked her own life to make sure he would go to court, so it was probably best that he didn’t succumb to smoke inhalation.
An ambulance arrived soon after and Patrick was loaded onto a stretcher. The two Taser-trained officers got in with him. For a fleeting second, she had a vision of him overpowering them and escaping. Then it was gone – he was concussed, definitely winded and probably very pissed with her for whacking him so hard with that baton. It didn’t matter; she could live with the use-of-force forms she would need to fill out back at the station. Another ambulance arrived to take a look at her and she let Mattie lead her into the back of it, where she was surprised to find Stephen smiling at her.
‘I’ve come to treat the casualties.’
‘I’m fine, just strained my shoulder.’
He tilted his head. ‘Yeah, you have. Just a little – so do you want me to pop it back in now or do you want me to do it back at the hospital?’
‘Now, please. I’m too busy to go to the hospital.’
He turned on the gas and air canister, passing her the mask. ‘Take a few deep breaths and close your eyes. It will only hurt for a minute, I promise.’
Mattie turned away and cringed at the loud crunch as her shoulder popped back into its socket. Lucy swore loudly and her face went white underneath her soot-stained complexion, but she nodded at Stephen.
‘Thank you.’
He nodded back. ‘You’re welcome.’
She stood up and walked towards Mattie, who gave her his arm to help her out of the ambulance. She was determined not to let anyone see how much her legs were shaking, as the reality of what she’d done flooded over her.
‘Where to, boss? It’s your call. The hospital, the station or home?’
She paused. ‘Take me back to the station for a coffee – I think I’ve earned one.’
He smiled at her. ‘I think you have too.’
They watched as the ambulance drove away, followed by the armed response vehicle that had just arrived at the scene. They would ensure Patrick Baker wouldn’t be able to walk out of the hospital like Lewis Waite had; he would be under armed guard until he was back in custody. Brooklyn Bay was a safe place to live again for the time being.
If you enjoyed reading about Detective Lucy Harwin and her team in Brooklyn Bay, see where it all began in DARK HOUSE - a shocking, dark and gripping serial killer thriller.
Available now!
Dark House
An absolutely gripping serial-killer thriller (Detective Lucy Harwin crime thriller series Book 1)
Lizzy pulled the covers over her head. Then she realised what was being dragged behind the person with the torch. She rammed her fist into her mouth to stop herself from screaming…
After a previous case ended in a tragic double murder, Detective Lucy Harwin, has been on enforced absence from the force. But when the body of an elderly man is discovered in an abandoned hospital, she is plunged straight back into a case that will test her to breaking point.
For decades, The Moore housed the forgotten children of Northern coastal town, Brooklyn Bay. But ever since a scandal forced its closure, the abandoned building has been left untouched.
Together with her partner, Detective Mattie Jackson, Lucy begins to unearth its terrible history, and soon finds herself on the trail of a killer ruthlessly fixated on avenging the crimes of the past.
As Lucy begins to close in on the killer, a woman is found murdered on her own doorstep. With the attacks escalating, and those closest to her now a target, can Lucy protect them and herself before it’s too late?
An absolutely terrifying and gripping thriller that will chill readers of MJ Arlidge, Angela Marsons and Rachel Abbott to the bone.
Order now!
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Also by Helen Phifer
Detective Lucy Harwin series:
1. Dark House
2. Dying Breath
A Letter from Helen
It goes without saying that real life can be much crueller than fiction. There are many killers out there who have taken so many loved ones away from their families in the blink of an eye. To all of those living with such horrendous loss, I send my deepest sympathies and my heartfelt respect.
I’d like to thank you, my amazing readers from the bottom of my heart for buying this book and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy it I would really appreciate it if you could leave a review, they make such a difference and are a fabulous way to let other readers know about my books.
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I like to think Lucy Harwin would be a force to be reckoned with in her relentless quest to solve horrific cases and I hope you agree.
I have one other book set on Brooklyn Bay in the Detective Lucy Harwin series, so if you enjoyed this book and haven’t read Dark House yet, I hope you will love reading it too.
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Love, Helen xx
https://www.helenphifer.com/
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to the super talented, amazing, gorgeous, ever-so-patient Keshini Naidoo for all her expert editorial input. I’m forever in your debt, you take a rough draft and turn it into a work of art.
Another huge thanks to Mamma Bear, Kim Nash, for all her hard work and looking after the Bookouture authors. It’s amazing to know that you’re there any time, night and day to offer advice, hugs and support. A special thank you to the lovely Noelle Holten.
What can I say about the rest of the amazing team at Bookouture? I owe them a huge debt of gratitude for everything, especially Oliver Rhodes for taking a chance on me. Thank you to Claire Gatzen for working so hard on the copy edits and to Claire Rushbrook for the proof read. It’s an honour to work with such true profes
sionals and I thank you all.
I’d also like to thank my fellow Bookouture authors. I’m truly amazed to be amongst such a super talented, bunch of writers. Your support is wonderful and I’d especially like to thank Angela Marsons, Caroline Mitchell, Holly Martin and Kierney Scott.
Bloggers and reviewers are the lifeblood of a writer and I’d like to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for all your support, it means the world to me.
A special thank you to Donna Trinder and Nikkie Capstick, you’re both amazing.
Thank you also to Kirsty Rigg and Mike Wallace for the advice and thank you to Paul O’Neill for being such a fabulous reader with an eagle eye. I’d also like to thank Trisha Sherwood for double checking everything.
It goes without saying that I’d like to thank my family for always being there, for making my crazy life fun filled with love and lots of laughter. Sometimes there are tears, but mainly laughter. I’m truly blessed to have you all in my life and I appreciate and love every single one of you, most of the time.
Published by Bookouture
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