Two for Joy

by Louise Collins

  “Keep your head.” Romeo growled. “Even if you lose your job, it would be worth it to clear Chad’s name.”

  “Yeah,” Zac sighed. “You’re right.”

  Romeo closed his eyes. “You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that.”

  “What?”

  “Just to know someone out there is on Chad’s side.”

  Zac looked away. “So we’re clear. I’m here for Chad. Not for you. I hate you. I find you repulsive, evil.”

  “I would be disappointed if you felt anything less.”

  “I think about when I saw you in the city. I apologized to you, said I hadn’t had time to look into the graffiti on your barn and you told me—”

  “Not to worry. You had more pressing matters. You thanked me for understanding, then I asked about Chad.”

  “You were right in front of me, right there, and I didn’t suspect a thing. You had Chad. He was hurt.”

  “I looked after him.”

  “I could’ve saved him if I only opened my eyes.”

  “I went into the station and complained about the graffiti. I passed many officers, looked many in the eyes, even Chad, and he didn’t know I was the killer.”

  “Still… I’m always gonna feel shit about it.”

  “But that is why you’re gonna help him now.”

  Zac let out another long breath, then nodded. “Holly Stevenson reported a break in, ten weeks ago. Her jewelry, and purse were snatched from the property. There’d been a spate of robberies around her apartment block, it was linked to that.”

  “But what if it wasn’t? What if the killer knew about the robberies and used them to his advantage?”

  “For what?”

  “Her laptop.”

  “She didn’t report it stolen.”

  “Because it wasn’t.”

  Zac groaned. “You’re not making sense.”

  “She was writing a feature article on me, four-page spread. She wanted to be thorough, she even wrote about my dreams.”

  “Dreams?”

  “I have unsettling dreams, about magpies.”

  “Magpies?”

  Romeo narrowed his eyes. “Yes, magpies.”

  “Sorry.” Zac waved his hand for Romeo to continue.

  “Holly wrote about magpies tormenting me in my sleep. I don’t know what she put exactly, but I know they feature in the article. The copycat must’ve read the article, and leaves feathers at the crime in homage to me. He sends them to me, too, a signal that he’s claimed another victim. He wants to connect with me.”

  “So you think the killer broke into Holly’s apartment, made it look like a burglary so he could read her article about you, then followed in your footsteps?”

  “Yes.”

  “If what you’re saying is true, the break in was months ago … there won’t be any evidence in the apartment, or fingerprints on the laptop, and from what I hear, the killer’s careful, he leaves no trace. If it was him that broke in, we’d never know.”

  “But what if he saved that article to a hard-drive. What if he took himself a copy? The laptop will have records of when the article was saved, and what to.”

  “A USB?”

  “It’s an idea. A memento, something to look back on. Victim three. The DI told me the killer left the same film on, at the same point, that wasn’t referenced in any media until I told Holly, she told me she put it in her article.”

  Zac stared blankly.

  “Okay, when I killed number four … two dogs were euthanized afterwards, right?”

  Zac shuddered. “I found that body … I saw those dogs.”

  “Not important.”

  “What do you mean it’s not important.”

  “Just listen. The copycat killed both dogs at his number four’s house. When I killed number four, those dogs didn’t even make it into the papers. No one cared, no one knew, not until I told Holly about them months ago. They’ll be in her article.”

  “Wait…” Zac whispered. “That’s what Chad said to me…”

  “What?”

  “He said it was strange the copycat killed the dogs. Said they were never spoken or written about. He thought the killer must’ve had inside knowledge, and then the DI started to investigate internally, as well as externally.”

  “Chad was right, but not anyone at the station, they’re using Holly’s article as a reference.”

  “Okay,” Zac said. “I get it. What happened when you killed number two, what did you do differently?”

  Romeo frowned. “I called the police from Audrey’s address. When I told Holly, she said it was a sign of my guilty conscience, that somewhere deep inside, I wanted to be caught.”

  “So the copycat will have read that in Holly’s article, he’ll want to take after you. He’ll call the police after he gets number two.”

  “Yes. I hope so. If that happens, this barrage of hate against Chad will stop.”

  Zac closed his eyes.

  “What is it?”

  “I’ve tried to convince the DI to look at other avenues, but they think it’s Chad. They all do.”

  “You don’t.”

  “No. I don’t know what went on between you. I’ll never understand it, and to be honest, I don’t want or need to. As far as I’m concerned, you’re Chad’s hobby, part of his private life, and that has nothing to do with me, but his team…”

  “What about them?”

  “They tried to convince him to stop visiting you, but he refused, told them it was none of their business, and for a while, they backed off, but when they found the first victim, number five. The tension between them mounted. They started to turn on Chad. They no longer sympathized over what happened to him, but were angry he continued to visit the countdown killer. Detective dickishness we call it…”

  Romeo scrunched his face. “What?”

  “They have this pack mentality, and all other departments are beneath them, unworthy. Everyone else in the station calls them dicks.”

  “This pack singled Chad out. Rejected him.”

  “Yeah, you could say that. It was getting to him, I could see it … we talked about it a few times, and I know he was struggling. The only way of redeeming himself, of dispersing the tension, was finding the copycat himself.”

  “That didn’t work out well for him last time.”

  “I told him that, too. He couldn’t go at it alone, he needed his team behind him, but they weren’t. Then Gareth said something, and it pushed him over the edge. He lashed out and got suspended.”

  “But Gareth wasn’t?”

  “As I said, pack mentality. Chad’s not one of them anymore. They look after their own, and everyone else is beneath them.”

  “Did you visit him after he was suspended?”

  “Yeah, I went to his place. It was set up like an incident room, pictures and articles pinned all over the place from your countdown. He’d taken things from the present investigation, too, things he shouldn’t have removed from the station.” Zac sighed. “That’s when he said about the dogs. The killer knew things that he thought only he knew. That … upset him.”

  “Upset him?”

  Zac swallowed hard. “Thinking that you’d shared this information with someone else. That someone knew other than him, than us. That you might’ve been … I dunno, coaching someone. That you might have got yourself an apprentice, someone that understood you in a way he never could. I think he was just hurting, getting it from all angles.”

  “When did you last see him?”

  “The day before he vanished. He wasn’t in a good way. He knew his team were closing in on him. I told him he was being paranoid, that he was under a lot of stress, and looked as if he hadn’t slept in days … but I guess he was right. They think he’s the killer, and they found evidence to support it.”

  “All circumstantial evidence. Do you know where he went?”

  “I shouldn’t be discussing this…”

  “Please.”

  “Neil, h
is ex-fiancé contacted the police yesterday. Chad had been staying with him, hiding out there, but he called the police and told them. Chad managed to get away, but last I heard they were closing in on him.”

  Romeo leaned over the table, pleading with his eyes. “You’ve got to help him.”

  “The DI won’t listen to me.”

  “Make him, Zac. His whole life is being laid out, torn apart. Chad needs you.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Do more than try.”

  Zac turned away. “Why do you want me to help him?”

  “Because he’s innocent, I care about him.”

  “Do you want him to be proved innocent or are you just desperate for him to come back here? For him to visit you so you keep your control over him, keep your game with him going.”

  “I want him to be found innocent because he is. It’s the right thing to do.”

  Zac smirked. “Really, this is all to clear his name?”

  Romeo gritted his teeth. “Fine. Both. I want you to prove him innocent, because he is, and he’s a good guy who doesn’t deserve any of this shit. And, I want him back. I want him to keep visiting me because I need him.”

  “You say you care about him.”

  “I do.”

  “I believe you.”

  Romeo blinked. “You believe me.”

  “If I push this, make sure the DI takes notice, do absolutely everything in my power to make those dickish detectives see sense, then I want something in return.”

  “What?”

  “I want you to let Chad go.”

  “I don’t force him to come here.”

  “I know you don’t, but you could refuse the visits, you could let him go for good. Let him move on from all that happened.”

  “He doesn’t want to move on, he wants to be with me, and I want him here, too.”

  Zac gestured to the room, the barrier between them, the camera behind him. “He can’t be with you, and you can’t be with him. Why can’t you see it? The kindest thing you could do for Chad is let him go.”

  “You mistake me for a man with a heart. If he chooses to stop visiting me, then so be it. I can’t do anything about it, but I won’t abandon him. I won’t scream, and shout at him to leave. I won’t make that mistake again, not when the stakes are so much higher this time.”

  Zac gave him a long hard stare, then stood up. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Wait…”

  “What is it?”

  “When you do convince the DI it’s not Chad, if the killer reveals himself by calling from number two’s address, you need to get Chad somewhere safe until you catch the real killer.”

  “Somewhere safe? Why?”

  Romeo bit his lip. “I think he could be in danger.”

  “I think it’s his mind that’s his worst enemy at the moment. He’s at breaking point.”

  ****

  Romeo had always openly looked at car crashes.

  His mother had told him off for doing so, but he preferred to be honest about looking, rather than side-eye the scene. Destruction and death were fascinating. When he asked his mother why he shouldn’t gawp, she told him it was the wrong thing to do, and when he asked what the right thing to do was, whether he should ignore the sight out the window, she fell silent.

  All the cars passing slowed for a look, despite knowing they might see something horrendous. Broken glass, blood, a flung-out body, people trapped as the car caught fire. Horrible, and despite trying to convince themselves they didn’t want to see it, it was wrong to look, they still did.

  Romeo looked because he was interested, and no scene, no matter how bloody, or disturbing, would ever truly affect him.

  Romeo only understood the whole “I can’t look, but I can’t not,” when he watched the endless news reports about Chad. He didn’t want to look, thought he’d be better off not watching, but he couldn’t help himself.

  First the Canster Times, courtesy of Holly Stevenson, exposed that Chad had been visiting the prison regularly for almost a year. Romeo knew the DI had tried to keep it hush-hush, but once it was out in the open, he couldn’t deny it to the media.

  Chad had been visiting Romeo since the first week he’d been locked up.

  Chad piqued the media’s attention, the new countdown killer, the good cop turned bad. They started digging into his past, found out about his drug addict mother that had no time for him, who didn’t love him, who loved making money from her body to feed her addiction.

  Blueprints for a serial killer, according to Holly at the Canster times.

  But she wasn’t done assassinating Chad’s character.

  She dug deeper.

  Chad didn’t have friends at school. His teachers didn’t have time for him once they found out about his mother. He went into the care system, but refused to settle with any family, he even lived on the streets for a while.

  There was no mention of Toby, Chad’s savior, his happiness, his companionship. The most important thing in Chad’s life wasn’t important to anyone else, wasn’t worthy of a mention, or even remembered by the people Holly unearthed from Chad’s past.

  Instead of running a story where despite all his setbacks, Chad became a detective. Chad turned his life around. They ran with articles stating he had infiltrated the police force. As if he had somehow snuck his way in, a time bomb ready to blow. Chad hadn’t been found guilty, the evidence was all circumstantial, but the media and Holly Stevenson didn’t care.

  The media had been Romeo’s best friend during his spree. They championed him, glorified him, gave him a paper trail of mementos, but looking at the news, knowing every newspaper in the country would have Chad shown in negative light … the hatred boiled Romeo’s blood, and he lashed out at the walls.

  He was to blame.

  It wasn’t Neil that had betrayed Chad this time, but him. He’d manipulated Holly for fun, grew her possessive streak, her obsession, her hatred of anything that could come between her and Romeo. Then in front of her, he’d said about there being a copycat, and Chad being the prime suspect.

  “It’s gonna be hard for him to get his fourth victim with all this attention.”

  Romeo slid down the bars, eyes fixed on the TV. “How many times do I have to say it?”

  Will laughed. “Okay, okay … let’s say he’s not.”

  “Finally, you’re listening to me.”

  “The real killer’s gonna be loving this. No one suspects them, they can sit back and watch the shitstorm, get their fourth victim no problem.”

  Romeo frowned. “Number two.”

  “Huh?”

  “That’s the next in their countdown. When I got my number two, I called the police from the address.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Nothing, I left it connected. The point is, if this copycat is as thorough as he seems to be mimicking me, he’ll call when he gets number two. Then they’ll know Chad was nowhere near the place.”

  “Unless it is him, then you’ll feel stupid.”

  “It’s not him, and once everyone knows that, they’ll back off, leave him alone.”

  “Seems to me like Holly Stevenson has it in for Chad. Do you really think she’d just drop all this?”

  “I hope so.”

  Will laughed. “The evilest emotion of them all. Hope.”

  The killer was eager, leaving less time between victims, a month, not two like him. Romeo prayed his craving got the better of him. The quicker he got number two, the quicker the media would stop tearing Chad to shreds. There was no way a wanted man could sneak around killing people.

  “Just hang in there, Magpie.” Romeo whispered.

  Chapter Thirteen

  First thing in the morning, before Romeo had even had time to reject the gruel slid into his cell, Fred and Paul appeared.

  “Detective Inspector Grimes wants to talk to you.” Fred said.

  Romeo backed up to the bars without them asking, presenting them with his wrists.

&nb
sp; It had been a week since Zac had visited. A week of Romeo stewing in his cell while time ticked by at a blisteringly slow pace. Another week where Chad was completely on his own with the world against him while Romeo was helpless in his cell, taking his frustrations out on the walls.

  As soon as the cuffs were on, he rushed out of the cell, and down the corridor despite Fred asking him to slow down. He didn’t look at any of the other prisoners, not even Justin who was pacing around his cell like a caged tiger.

  It had been a month since number three, and Romeo suspected the killer had struck again. The killer had got his number four and cleared Chad’s name in the process.

  “No, this way.” Fred said, guiding Romeo to a different door. The one where there was no barrier between visitors.

  The DI was waiting for him, along with Zac, and Gareth. They were sitting on one side of a huge table. Romeo’s lip twitched into a half smile. Zac had gotten through to the dickish detectives. He’d made them see sense, but Zac’s expression wasn’t triumphant, or hopeful, he looked utterly defeated.

  “Undo his cuffs.” The DI said.

  Paul made an unsure noise.

  “Now.”

  Fred took them off, then backed away. Romeo brought his hands to the front of his body and massaged the pinched flesh. It was the first time in almost a year he’d been in a room with people without his hands cuffed at his back.

  The DI gestured to the chair in front of Romeo, and he sat down, trying to read their expressions. They ranged from Zac’s defeatism, to the DI’s anger, to Gareth’s remorseful, darting eyes.

  “Leave.” The DI said.

  Paul and Fred scarpered from the room, and the door slammed shut behind them.

  “At 4:30 this morning, we received a call from Mary King’s house. We immediately went to Mary’s cottage, thirty miles out from Hatton.”

  “The killer got his number two.” Romeo said. “Not Chad, everyone in the county is looking for him, there’s no way he could’ve done it.”

  Gareth closed his eyes and hung his head. “It’s not Chad.”

  “You’ve got to find him, get him somewhere safe. He won’t be so reluctant to be found now the Copy—”