She shrugged her shoulders and looked away.
‘And Francesca Carter. What about her?’
Alison Reed frowned. ‘He hasn’t said anything, has he?’
‘We have enough evidence already. The families of these young women deserve to know what happened. Neither you nor Mr Reed will be walking amongst the general populous for a long time. I’d be surprised if you ever will. All you have left is the truth.’
Her shoulders dropped. ‘I didn’t want him to leave me. I got drawn into his games. One minute I disgusted myself, the next, it almost thrilled me.’ She paused. ‘I don’t know where it all went wrong. I started it. I shouldn’t have gone up to Holly’s room. I can’t explain what came over me, I can’t.’ She paused and wiped her face. ‘It just felt like another game. I didn’t go anywhere near Francesca though.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘Will it help my case if I tell you everything? I can’t stay in prison forever, I just can’t.’
Gina couldn’t make any promises but she’d always note that the perpetrator had been helpful if they had. ‘It always helps to tell the truth. The courts will look more favourably on you.’
‘Trevor killed Francesca. When I told him what I’d done to Holly, he became really turned on and wanted to know every detail. I’ve never seen that side of him. It’s like I unleashed something within him, some transfixed beast. He had to try it for himself.’
Gina sat a little closer, keeping the woman engaged. The two killings had enough differences to be inflicted by two different people. She continued to listen, feeling numb to everything Alison Reed was saying. She’d experienced too much horror in a few short years and she hated that she almost felt immune to that horror. She wanted to feel something, anything. Hatred, upset, sadness – anything. All she could do was sit and listen as Alison bleated on about how distraught she was that her daughter would now know everything.
‘And the worst of it, knowing now that the baby wasn’t Trevor’s,’ she said. ‘Had I have known that, I would have stayed away from Holly but she lied to Trevor. She wanted his money to bring her baby up. She wanted to take him away from me. She wanted security and she was trying to steal everything I had. I wasn’t going to sit by and let that happen… I had to keep him. I turned into a monster.’
Gina had to agree. Alison and Trevor Reed had killed and hurt people for pleasure, for their own perversions. ‘Kerry had known Holly and Francesca since school? Those young women had trusted the Reeds.’
Alison burst into tears of self-pity. ‘They used to come and stay with us for sleepovers. Cass did too for a while.’
‘They probably looked up to you like you were a second mother to them. They trusted you and you breached that trust when you took Holly’s life and almost killed Cassandra.’
Alison’s tears began to dry up and she folded her arms. ‘I did.’ Still, Alison Reed was playing a game, a part. She had no empathy for her victims, she was just saying what she thought she should say.
All signs of emotion left the woman’s face. ‘I think I’ve said all I want to say. I did it. I killed Holly and I left Cass in the cellar, tied to a chair.’ She shrugged. ‘Make a note. I didn’t kill Francesca. Tell that to the judge.’
‘One more thing, why the carnations?’
She let out a small laugh. ‘I stared at her dead body and I saw the carnation in her room. Kerry buys me those and Trevor and I buy them for our mother’s. The Mother’s day flower. That was the closest Holly would ever get to a Mother’s day gift.’
Gina had seen enough. She had all she needed for the Crown Prosecution Service and she was ready to make that call.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Gina stepped out of her car and stood outside the Angel Arms, smiling at what Cassandra had told her. Wyre followed her closely. Several men roared with glee as one of their teammates scored a one eighty on the dartboard.
Hannah took a sip of her gin and tonic as she rolled her eyes at Gina. ‘Mum, I said I’d pop over in a bit. There was no need to come here and get me, for heaven’s sake.’
‘I’m not here for you, Hannah.’
Cass told her what she needed to arrest Samuel Avery on charges of sexual assault against Francesca Carter on the night of Kerry’s wedding. The woman had heard everything that Robin Dawkins and Samuel Avery had said after the gatecrashers had gone.
‘What’s going on?’ Hannah slipped off the bar stool, landing clumsily on her heels as she watched the scene unfold.
Even in her most painful moments, Cassandra had made sure Francesca had got justice too, even though she was helping a woman who’d made her life a misery as a schoolchild.
‘I heard them boasting and laughing. Sam had forced his hand up Fran’s skirt and she’d tried to push him away but he carried on, touching her. He went on, laughing like he thought he was some sort of stud. He kept saying women like it and they’ll do anything when they’re hot for you, that they just need convincing,’ Cass had said.
She had heard everything and with the statements that Francesca and Cassandra had given, she finally had enough to make him pay for his crime. She doubted Trevor Reed’s statement would help given that he turned out to be Francesca Carter’s murderer.
‘Samuel Avery, I’m arresting you on suspicion of the sexual assault of Francesca Carter on the evening of Saturday the ninth of May. 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.’ With Cassandra as a new and willing witness, she was finally able to progress with this case too.
‘Not this again, this is police harassment.’ He let out a sneer and a laugh at the same time. ‘You’ve already tried that one, Inspector. Whatever. The girl is dead anyway.’ He came from behind the bar and stood next to Hannah, placing an arm around her waist and his head next to hers as he squeezed her.
He knew exactly who he was and his grin was no more than a façade. She felt her shoulders tense and her hands begin to roll into a ball. For a split second, she imagined grabbing his scarecrow hair and slamming his face into the bar until he bled. She shook her head, hating her thoughts – but he’d messed with her daughter. Keep calm, Harte. ‘Another witness has come forward. You will need to come with us to the station.’ He was worth losing a hot bath over. She was going to spend the evening interviewing and charging him herself. He was hers and she’d waited a long time.
Hannah batted his hand away from her. ‘I didn’t say you could touch me.’
‘Like mother, like daughter.’ He cast Hannah a sleazy look.
Hannah grabbed the full gin balloon and tossed the contents of the drink into his face. Gina only hoped that she’d seen everything of Samuel Avery that she’d need to see and that any friendship with him would be over. The darts players had stopped and the pub was silent.
‘Come on. Time to go.’
Gina recognised the girl behind the bar. Leslie Benton. She’d spoken to her earlier in the week when she came to interview Avery. Her mouth was ajar and her braces were in full view. She threw a beer towel at the bar. ‘He touched me too. I want to make a statement.’
Gina knew this time he wasn’t going to slip away. His time had come too. It was the perfect end to the day. Hannah’s gaze flitted between Avery, Gina and Leslie before she stormed out of the pub.
Chapter Seventy-Three
Cass lay on the ward, eyes closed as she kept recounting what had happened in the basement. Why her? All she wanted was a friend and Kerry had come back into her life. At first, she’d wanted to know why they were all so cruel to her and why Kerry had allowed it to happen when they had been so close. Now she’d never know.
Kerry had money and she couldn’t imagine her sticking around to be with a husband who didn’t care in a town where her parents were about to be exposed as murderers. She recalled the look on Elvis’s face as she’d told him she wanted him to go. He was bad for her. Deep
down, she thought people could change as she hoped Kerry had, but Elvis had kept such a dark secret from her and she knew she’d never be able to forgive him. The call he made on his way to the hospital, telling her the whole truth about what he’d done had shocked her to the core. She hadn’t stopped thinking about that poor schoolgirl since.
She reached for her neck and swallowed. The pain was getting worse. No one was coming for her, no one wanted to be with her; she was definitely one of life’s loners. Maybe that’s how it would stay.
‘Cass?’ She felt the breeze of someone pulling the curtain back a little.
‘Kerry?’
‘I’m so sorry. I can’t believe what they did to you.’ Kerry hurried to her side and placed a hand on her arm. She pulled the sleeves of her sweater up and a tear trickled down her cheek.
‘Thank you for coming.’
‘I had to come.’ She paused. ‘I don’t know what to do, what to say.’
Cass yelped a little as Kerry leaned in to embrace her and then she flinched. It hurt, everything hurt. Her heart hurt and her mind was all over the place. All she knew was that people deserved second chances. She’d lived through her ordeal and she felt like a warrior. She’d survived and she’d lived to tell the tale. There were moments that she thought she didn’t want to live but after being so close to death and accepting that her time was over, she’d never felt so alive. ‘Everyone deserves a second chance.’
‘I don’t know how you can still want to be anywhere near me after all that has happened. I won’t let you down, Cass.’
Cass smiled, clapped her hands twice and clapped Kerry’s and then her own again in a little clapping sequence they learnt in junior school. Kerry laughed through her tears. They’d both lost a lot and they could both start again.
‘Hurry up and get better. We have so much catching up to do.’
‘We do.’ Cass lay back down with a smile on her sore face. She had her flat, she had a job and she had a friend – that was a start. Those women at work were going to see a new side to her once she was well enough to go back. Through all that pain came a strength she never believed she could ever possess.
Epilogue
Two days later
‘Mum,’ Hannah called as she let herself into Gina’s house.
Gina remained seated at her kitchen table, staring out at the squirrel feeder nailed to the fence as she dwelled on the conversations she’d had with Marianne Long and Charlie Carter. At least the families could now start planning funerals and lay their loved ones to rest. A squirrel perched on the nut feeder. Gracie ran through the house and straight into Gina’s arms.
‘Hello, chicken. It’s so lovely to see you.’ She kissed the giggling child’s forehead.
‘I’ve been to Cadbury World, Nanny.’
‘Gracie, come with Mummy a moment.’ Hannah put some cartoons on the television. ‘Here, you can have the chocolate buttons. Mummy just needs to speak to Nanny for a minute.’ She came back into the kitchen and pulled out a chair. ‘I guess he’s been charged. Sam?’
Gina nodded. ‘I told you he was a bad one but you wouldn’t listen.’
‘I’m sorry, okay.’ Hannah’s face was beginning to redden, just like it always did when she was stressed.
‘Where were you when I was trying to get hold of you?’
Hannah swallowed and nervously scratched her forehead. ‘Sam had gone to his sister’s in London and he called to see if I wanted to join him. He promised to show me the sights.’
‘So you just went?’
She nodded.
‘Were you sleeping with him?’
‘No way. When you came to the Cleaver and he was there, he’d helped me home from the pub. I’d had too many and I really thought he was simply being a nice person. I guess I just enjoyed feeling wanted for a while. Now I see through him, he was just trying to rile you. He wasn’t my friend at all.’
Gina could see that there was more to Hannah’s story. ‘What’s going on, love? You can’t fool me. There’s more to this than you just getting drunk in the Angel.’
‘It’s stupid.’
Gina placed her hand over her daughter’s. ‘It’s not.’
She shrugged her shoulders and stared at the table. ‘Greg has been working away a lot and we’d been arguing so I went out a few weeks ago. I just wanted to feel like I was free, just for a while and I met a man. I cheated on Greg.’
That wasn’t what Gina had expected. For some reason she imagined the blame would lie with Greg, an assumption she wasn’t proud of making. ‘I gather he found out.’
‘I told him. I couldn’t base our relationship on lies and secrets.’
Gina almost felt the pain of her statement. Her relationship with her daughter was littered with secrets and she knew the tension they caused. ‘And?’
‘We muddled along for a while but then he said he needed time to think which is why I came here. He was so upset, Mum. He cried. I broke him.’ She smiled. ‘The good thing is, he called. We’re giving it all another go. He’s going to cut down on working away and I am going to do everything in my power to make him trust me again.’ Hannah paused. ‘When I came here, I wanted to tell you but as always you were called away, and I’m sorry I acted the way I did. I was just so confused and I was angry that you’d gone again.’
Gina gripped Hannah and hugged her. ‘I may be called away for work but I am always here for you. You can always talk to me, tell me anything and I’ll listen without judgement.’
Hannah hugged her mum back. ‘Thanks, Mum. I have to get going now. Greg is waiting for us. I need to get home and try to fix my little family.’
‘I’ll miss you.’
Hannah wiped her damp eyes and stood. ‘Come on, Gracie. Come and say bye to Nanny before we go.’
The little girl ran in and held out her chocolate-coated fingers and gripped Gina in a clumsy embrace. ‘Love you, chicken. You be a good girl for Mummy and Daddy and I’ll see you soon.’
‘Bye, Nanny.’
‘Catch you soon, Mum.’
As quickly as she’d arrived, Hannah had left. A tear trickled down Gina’s cheek. Those few moments between her and her daughter had meant everything. Whatever the future held, Hannah would always have her and now Hannah knew that. Gina glanced at the returning squirrel as it continued to crunch on nuts. She shivered in the silence of her cold house that lacked love and happiness. Ebony meowed. She bent over and stroked the cat.
Her phone beeped. It was a message from Briggs.
Gina, please come over tonight. Let me cook for you. We don’t need to talk. In fact, number one rule, no talking. That’s a promise. Just us, having dinner – and it won’t be egg and chips. I promise. We could take Jessie for a walk too. X
Gina smiled. She’d love to go over and walk his dog, then be treated to a lovely dinner without the pressure of talking about her horrible past. Her smile faded as she replied. But was it a good idea? She pressed reply and typed away. Maybe it was time to live a little.
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Books by Carla Kovach
Detective Gina Harte Series
The Next Girl
Her Final Hour
Her Pretty Bones
The Liar’s House
Her Dark Heart
Her Last Mistake
Meet Me at Marmaris Castle
Whispers Beneath the Pines
To Let
Flame
AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
The Next Girl (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Final Hour (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Pretty Bones (Available in the UK and the US)
The Liar’s Hou
se (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Dark Heart (Available in the UK and the US)
A Letter from Carla
Dear Reader,
I’d like to say a huge thank you. At a time when millions of books are available at the press of one click, you chose to read Her Last Mistake. For that, I remain truly grateful.
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Without you, my journey as a writer wouldn’t be complete. Every writer wants their stories to be enjoyed and their words to be read. It still makes me smile that people are enjoying Gina Harte’s world and the cases that she solves.
This particular book made me think a little deeper about Hannah and Gina’s relationship. At the end of the day, sometimes families don’t get on at all but, more often than not, they are there to help and support when needed.
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Her Last Mistake - Detective Gina Harte Series 06 (2020) Page 28
