by Carla Kovach
‘Not really,’ he said as he sniggered. ‘Look, barely a scratch.’ He leaned forward, showing the tiniest of marks on the back of his ear. Sophie can’t have hit him as hard as she’d thought. ‘I used a bit of Maggie’s make-up to cover it up. Anything else you want to know? I’m all talk today.’ His solicitor shook his head and coughed before whispering to the man again.
Richard was becoming animated in his replies. Shoulders shrugging and fingers pointing. He was not only losing it, he was enjoying losing it, and Gina was glad. She knew this was the one moment in his life where he was being heard. There was more to come from Richard.
‘Why Aimee?’
‘Again, the error of her ways. Sleeping with that older man, her constant flirting and she wanted it with Noah so badly, I could tell. I knew what Noah was like from the past. Back then at the party, the way he treated Jade when he was dancing with Samantha, and now there was another attractive young woman acting like a stupid whore. I wasn’t going to kill her.’
‘Just like you weren’t going to kill the others.’
‘They were an accident!’ He stood and punched the wall, the skin on his large knuckles splitting and dotting blood over the wall. ‘I just wanted her to see…’ He paused and let out a forced laugh.
‘What did you want her to see?’
Sweat ran down his face and he stared at her with his mouth open. ‘Actions have consequences. Before she could hurt someone with her loose ways, I had to intervene.’
‘Someone saw you when you kidnapped her, didn’t they, Mr Leason?’
‘The other man. See, that’s one of the reasons I had to take her. Look what she was doing to everyone, to all the men. They all watched her, wanted her. It would lead to bad things. Someone would eventually get hurt.’
‘In what way?’
‘I just don’t know! With the others I saw it happening, people and children were getting hurt. With Samantha, I was getting hurt; that stupid married man Derek was getting hurt and his children would have suffered if I hadn’t have stepped in. With Jade, she’d changed. The demure woman at the party with her dignity intact had lost it. She had a child. She should have been at home looking after her. One thing leads to another – that poor little girl would have felt it at some point. I had to help her child.’ She saw a distant look in his eyes as he went silent. There was something about the children that had caused his grin to drop.
‘Why do you care about her daughter?’
‘Because children are innocent,’ he spat. His bottom lip began to tremble. ‘If she carried on like that, the child would have got hurt. Noah would have gone and that little one would have been in danger.’
‘Danger?’
‘Other men in their lives. Mother’s bring men home and those men hurt children.’
She was getting somewhere. ‘How?’
His veins were almost popping out of his neck and his face was almost beetroot-red. ‘These men abuse them, they rape them; they humiliate them. I saved her child.’
‘You killed the child’s mother.’
He shook his head rapidly and began to tremble. ‘No, no, I saved the kid. I saved her. It couldn’t happen again to someone else. I just want these women to see. I told Diane to stop but she wouldn’t.’
‘Is this to do with Diane?’
‘The men paid her. They’d come over when she wasn’t there.’
‘When you were a child?’
He yelled and began hitting himself on the side of the head. ‘I can never tell. I can never tell. I can never tell.’ He scarpered to the floor like a scared animal and shuffled on his bottom into the corner of the room. ‘Don’t let them hurt me.’ Tears streamed down his face. ‘Stop talking.’ He clamped his hands over his ears.
‘Mr Leason?’ Gina shouted as she stood and walked over to him. The solicitor remained in his chair and stared at his phone.
‘Ouch, keep them away. I need you to protect me,’ he said in a childlike voice. He leaned forward and began bashing his head against the back wall, again and again. ‘Don’t let them hurt me. Don’t let them hurt me. Please, don’t hurt me.’
They’d lost him. Jacob ran across the room towards her. This man had put PC Smith’s life in danger. A part of her wanted to leave him to continue bashing his head against the wall until his own brains were spilling out. A part of her also wanted to understand him more. He’d been hurt and he’d never had the chance to process everything that happened to him as a child, and, right at this moment, he had reverted back to being that petrified child. She wrapped her arms around his head and held him with all her strength, trying to stop him from bashing his head into the wall again. ‘Call an ambulance.’ That’s all she needed, three people in hospital. ‘And make sure uniform go with him. I want the room under twenty-four-hour guard.’ She now had plenty to charge him with but on looking at him, she wondered if he’d put in a defence of insanity or diminished responsibility. He looked to be genuinely affected but when she was interviewing him, she was sure she was speaking directly to a psychopath. She might never know if his breakdown was genuine or real. If he was playing them or had genuinely regressed back into his childhood trauma. A psych evaluation would tell her more.
Jacob grabbed his phone and called for help. His phone beeped. ‘It’s an email from forensics. They have some news about the Leasons’ garden. And there’s news on Smith.’ He stared at the phone open-mouthed.
Seventy-Three
Gina ran along the hospital corridor, straight to the recovery ward and saw Smith lying on a bed with monitors beeping all around him. The wound on his neck had been packed with dressings. ‘I’m thirsty,’ he mumbled as he tried to open an eye. His wife smiled and wiped a tear away.
‘Mrs Smith,’ Gina said. The woman held his hand as she looked up.
‘The dog is in the bins eating candyfloss. Shall we see Mick Jagger before we have a wash?’ Smith closed his eyes, forgetting about his thirst for a short while.
Mrs Smith gently placed his hand on the top of the crisp white sheet and crept over to Gina.
‘How is he? We heard he’d come out of surgery.’
‘It was a success. He’s going to be fine. They missed the major artery but he still lost a lot of blood. I didn’t fully understand what they told me but he’s going to be fine.’ She turned away and began to sob. Gina placed an arm around the woman.
‘If there’s anything you need just call me or call the station. Anything? I’m going to head over to see someone else in the hospital, but I’ll be back in a while. I’ll bring a drink and something to eat.’
The woman wiped her long brown hair from the side of her mouth. ‘I’m not hungry. How can I eat when he’s like that?’
Gina pulled away and placed her hands on the woman’s shoulders. ‘Because you need your strength. When he comes home, he’s going to need a lot of help for a while.’
‘Why is the cake in the shed?’ Smith called out, his eyes still shut.
‘You’re right.’ Mrs Smith smiled and sat in the chair next to her husband’s bed and held his hand again. Another couple walked towards the bed, an ashen-looking round woman and a tall man; both looked to be in their late sixties. Smith’s parents. Gina slowly crept away. She had other visits to make and Jacob would have arrived at the hospital by now.
Seventy-Four
‘He’s one screwed up man, guv,’ Jacob said as they walked along the corridor heading to the ward at the far end.
‘I know. All those lives wasted. I don’t envy Wyre having to speak to Noah Ashmore.’ She shuddered at the thought of the conversation they’d be having now. She’d seen it before, families torn apart by violence and murder. He’d have to manage alone with his daughter, attend to her grief and heartache. She knew he’d been playing around and their relationship had been far from perfect, but the loss wouldn’t be any less because of that. Samantha Felton’s family would also have to be told about the remains in the Leasons’ garden and Richard Leason’s workshop. The bottom
half of a young female body had been found under the pagoda and the top half buried in his cubbyhole in the workshop. Her stomach almost turned as she imagined the poor woman on his workbench being sawn apart. She thought he’d probably been trying to chop the body into smaller pieces but had given up. Bernard had reported saw marks on some of the other bones. Richard had obviously given up and buried her in two halves. Gina knew she had to be the one to speak to Diane.
Gina’s phone vibrated in her pocket. ‘DI Harte.’
‘Guv, the officer who went in with Aimee just called. She’s been assessed and has asked for you.’
Gina made a mental note of the ward number and headed up the stairs. ‘This way. Aimee Prowse has come around and wants to speak to us. I could seriously do with a clone.’
Hurrying along the corridor, past a row of coffee machines, Gina took a right and pressed the buzzer outside the double doors. A nurse looked up. Gina and Jacob held their identification up to the little window and the nurse released the doors. ‘That was quick.’
‘We were already here.’
‘Oh yes, I heard about your colleague, I’m sorry. Follow me.’ The woman’s loose bun bounced as she walked.
‘How is she?’
The nurse slowed down while Jacob and Gina caught up. A uniformed officer was sitting outside a room. Gina knew that’s where Aimee was recovering. ‘She has two broken fingers, mild concussion and is severely dehydrated, but she’s taking fluids. I will warn you, she’s on some heavy duty painkillers, at her request. With that and her concussion, she may not make as much sense as you’d maybe hope, but she’s going to be fine.’
‘Thank you.’
The nurse held her hand out, gesturing towards the room. ‘If there’s anything else I can help you with, just head back to the nurses’ station.’ She smiled and left.
Nodding to the officer, Gina smiled and opened the door. The young woman was lying under a white sheet, her pale skin almost matching its tone. ‘Aimee, it’s DI Harte. How are you feeling?’
She stirred and opened her eyes. ‘I wanted to tell you… he took me.’ Aimee went to sit slightly but soon returned her head to the pillow. ‘Woah, not good.’ She felt around the bedside table. ‘Water.’
Gina grabbed the glass of water and held it under Aimee’s chin as she sipped from the glass.
‘Thank you. That man, Richard, took me. I was in my house and—’ Aimee lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. ‘It was him, he locked me in a coffin wall.’ The woman coughed and sobbed. ‘I thought I was going to die.’
‘You’re safe now. We’ve arrested Richard Leason.’
Aimee glanced in her direction. ‘You have him?’
‘We do. You just concentrate on getting better and you can tell us everything then.’
Someone knocked on the door. Aimee’s friend Nicole entered followed by the nurse. Aimee rolled over in bed, yelping as she turned. ‘It may be best if you come back a little later. The doctor is on his way to examine her further and she really needs to rest.’ The nurse’s instructions were firm.
‘Oh my goodness, look at you!’ Nicole ran over to her friend and placed a loving hand on her shoulder. ‘Your mum is on her way and Rhys came over, asking about you. I told that idiot where to go.’
Aimee gripped her friend’s hand and smiled. ‘Love you, Nicole.’
Gina nodded, knowing that Aimee was now in safe hands. ‘Take care, Aimee, I’ll speak to you soon with regards to making a formal statement.’
Aimee ignored her and began crying for more pain relief. That’s all they were getting from Aimee for now.
Gina had caught Richard with Aimee at his workshop, she had all the evidence she needed. As soon as she’d told Rex that he needed to go to the station and report what he’d seen, he’d done it. Wyre and Briggs had taken his statement and had charged him with stalking Aimee. Gina had given him no choice in the matter. Either he tell them all he’d seen and explain why or she’d hand her CCTV into the station and get him charged with harassing her. She hoped that being arrested would give him the jolt he needed to see the error of his ways. Ultimately his evidence would help them with the case against Richard Leason.
As they left the ward, Jacob checked his watch. ‘What a day!’
‘It certainly has been a day we’ll never forget.’ Gina stared at the coffee machine as she thought about what would happen next. Placing a few coins in and selecting a latte, she waited for the coffee to spurt out. ‘Can you grab a sandwich from the shop and take that and this coffee to Smith’s wife? I said I’d be back with food but there’s something I need to do.’
Seventy-Five
‘Hello, Diane,’ Gina whispered. Diane turned and half-smiled.
‘Detective? I’m sorry you found me the way you did.’ She sipped a cup of tea and heaved slightly. ‘I didn’t want to live, I don’t want to live. My brother was right. I’m a bad person, I’ve done bad things. I hurt him—’ Tears slipped down her face. ‘Why didn’t you just let me die?’
‘Diane—’
‘I deserved to die.’
Gina was out of her depth, Diane needed counselling. How on earth was she going to deliver the news of her brother’s arrest and breakdown?
‘I’ve had enough of living with secrets.’
Diane paused and had another drink. Gina knew how she felt. Is this what her future looked like? Would her secrets begin to weigh her down so badly she’d crush herself to end the agony? She went to speak but Diane interrupted.
‘I need to tell someone. Can I tell you?’ Diane slowly turned and stared directly at Gina, her wet eyes glistening. There was another person in the small ward, sleeping to the sounds of the television. Gina pulled the curtain halfway to give Diane a little privacy. ‘Years ago, when I was in my late teens, our mother died. We watched her slowly get sicker until one day; that was it. We were expecting it, but knowing didn’t make it any easier.’ Diane paused and stared at her lap. Tears soaked into the hospital blanket as she slowly relayed her story. ‘I didn’t want to lose Richard to the care system, he was a few years younger than me. We had no money so I did things to make money, things I shouldn’t have been doing. Men were my way to money and very soon I had my regulars.’ She shook her head back and forth, words refusing to escape as she let out an almost silent pained squeal.
Gina placed her hand on Diane’s shoulder, waiting for her to find her next sentence.
‘I didn’t know they were abusing him. I let them into our home. How can I ever live with the fact that I let these brutes abuse my baby brother? He hates me and you know what, I hate me. I hate me so much, I want to slash at my wrists, I want to drink poison, I want to ram my head into a wall over and over again. I want to get in a car and drive it straight into a wall or over a cliff. I wanted it all to be over and you made me live – now go away.’ Diane turned away.
Gina almost missed a breath and felt her body raring up as if she was suddenly awash with fever. This is what secrets do to a person and one day, she might be just like Diane. Her daughter would always resent her, she knew they would never be close. She thought of a young Diane selling her teen body to any man around, while all the time, thinking she was doing it to protect her brother.
‘Do you hate me?’ Diane turned back to her. ‘Now you know the type of person I am, do you think I’m dirty, disgusting? I didn’t want Richard to go into care so I had to provide for him. It’s all my fault.’
Gina undid a couple of buttons on her shirt and took a few controlled breaths. ‘Of course I don’t hate you, Diane. You were just a girl. I’m sad that things were so hard for you and you didn’t get the help you deserved after your mother died. I’m also glad I found you and that you’re here now. You don’t realise how much you have to give. Look at the relationship you had with Samantha, she needed you and you were a wonderful friend to her. You have so much to give but you have to let go of the guilt that is weighing you down as it’s holding you back. Forgive yourself – you were a girl, a
desperate girl who felt she was doing the best she could. I’m so sorry the system let you down or you felt that you couldn’t trust it.’
Diane burst into tears and gripped Gina, leaning her head against her chest. Gina placed an arm around her, allowing her to weep until she eventually calmed down. After a few minutes, she loosened her grip and shuffled back. ‘Have you heard from Richard? Does he know I’m here?’
‘Diane, I’m really sorry to tell you that we’ve arrested him for the murder of Jade Ashmore and the abduction of Aimee Prowse.’ Gina’s foot tapped on the floor as she waited for Diane to respond.
‘And Samantha?’ Diane was joining up the dots.
‘We have found a body under your brother’s pagoda in the garden.’ She didn’t have the heart to tell Diane that only half of the body was there.
‘My beautiful friend,’ she cried as she lay down and hugged her pillow. Gina sat beside her. Diane had no one. Gina had nothing to hurry home for. She wouldn’t leave, not for a while.
Epilogue
A Month Later
Half an hour to go. Gina had arrived at the coffee shop far too early for her meetup. She scrolled down Facebook and smiled at the photos of Gracie that Hannah had posted. She was growing up so quickly. Whatever happened, she wasn’t going to break their date next weekend – she was going to have lunch with her daughter and take her granddaughter out for a couple of hours. She closed Facebook and stared at the Tinder app. Thoughts of Rex ran through her mind and she shivered. He’d been a prize weirdo. He also knew better than to come near Gina again. She pressed on the Tinder logo and deleted the app.
There was only one person she’d ever care enough about and she couldn’t allow herself to get caught up with him. His relationships never really lasted and hers had been laughable since their affair. Both of them trying to show the other that they were fine and getting on with things. How did she know? Her phone buzzed. This is how she knew, he called her often and she didn’t tell him not to. ‘Briggs?’
