Scorned

by Denver Murphy

  More than anything, if it was confirmed that Jordan had been in St. Albans last night then it didn’t matter that Ruby had lost Kate. She and Ramsey could return to the station to clock off and Kate could merrily carry on with whatever the fuck she was doing. Sure, Ruby would need to mend some bridges with Cooper tomorrow, but with the euphoria of finally getting their man, she didn’t think it would be too hard, especially if she acknowledged that he had only been trying to help her with his words of warning earlier.

  ‘Ma’am?’

  Ruby didn’t so much put the phone to her ear the instant she heard the voice come back on the other end of the line, as smash it against her head. ‘What have you got?’

  ‘We don’t have total coverage of his entire route, suggesting he cut across country…’

  ‘And?’ Ruby prompted tersely.

  ‘But the timings of when he does ping the cameras are consistent with there not being any significant deviations to his course.’

  ‘Did he come here?’

  ‘I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t follow…’

  ‘Did he come to St. Albans, yes or no?’

  ‘No, ma’am, he travelled in an easterly direction the whole time. After leaving Luton he is first picked up on the…’

  Ruby left the officer in dispatch to her detailed description of Jordan’s route and hung up the phone.

  ‘Well?’ Ramsey asked expectantly.

  ‘We’re fucked, if that’s what you’re asking,’ she replied sourly.

  ‘Oh,’ he responded, lowering his head. ‘Hold on a second, I think I have an idea,’ he added, looking up with bright eyes.

  ‘Seriously, I’m not in the mood for…’

  ‘Well, it was your idea really,’ he continued. ‘Why don’t you call back and have them run Kate’s mum’s plate through the ANPR cameras?’

  Ruby stared at the man next to her for a few moments, waiting for the flaw in his plan to become apparent. It didn’t. ‘You’re a genius,’ she declared.

  ‘Thanks,’ Ramsey beamed, seemingly to have instantly forgotten all the bad feeling.

  ‘Except you phone that through, I have a different call I need to make.’

  Chapter Sixty-nine

  The wait in her cell felt like torture to Lexie. Without anything to distract her, she couldn’t help but worry about all the variables her release depended on. Chief among them was whether Jordan had actually gone to the place he claimed to be his sole childhood holiday destination. With the police bound to be keeping a close eye on his actual relatives, visiting Uncle Stanley seemed logical to Lexie.

  Having made her play, only time would tell whether it had been the right one. DCI Nelson may have looked to play down the distinction between the original terms of the deal and what he came back with, but Lexie appreciated the differences. Her freedom had been dangled in front of her but would come at greater cost.

  As had characterised all her decisions lately, she was perfectly happy to take on extra risk as long as it would lead to greater reward. The only thing that troubled her was what had prompted Nelson to make the change. Fearing that it might have been because of some new evidence they had uncovered, evidence that might work against her claims of innocence, Lexie had drawn strength from DC Cooper’s behaviour towards her. DCI Nelson had proven harder to read but the more junior detective had been pretty clear in his belief that she should soon find herself set free.

  Trusting that all would soon be revealed didn’t stop Lexie jumping with shock when the shutter to her cell door opened with a crash. DC Cooper’s face peered through. ‘I hope I didn’t frighten you but it’s time to come with me.’

  ‘What’s happened?’ Lexie demanded, any notion of playing it cool evaporating.

  ‘Well, I should probably leave that until we have you in the interview room,’ he said, unlocking the door and swinging it open, ‘but we have arrested Jordan.’

  Lexie wouldn’t allow herself to give in to the wave of relief that was trying to wash over her. ‘And he was exactly where I said he would be?’

  ‘You didn’t say exactly where he would be,’ DC Cooper corrected, but not unkindly. ‘However, yes, he was found in a caravan site in the vicinity of Great Yarmouth.’

  ‘Great, so what happens now?’ Lexie asked greedily, even if it wasn’t quite the question she really wanted to pose.

  ‘That really needs to be left until we’re back with the DCI,’ he said before cocking his head to one side. ‘But between you and me, it’s good news.’

  Lexie merely nodded, keen not to prove ungrateful for this indiscretion by requesting specific detail. As she allowed herself to be led from her cell, she wondered whether all coppers were as bad as she had believed them be. For every bitch like that DC Knight perhaps there was a decent one like DC Cooper.

  ‘Come in Lexie,’ DCI Nelson said warmly, holding open the door to the interview room. ‘I hope you don’t mind but I’ve already briefed your solicitor on where we stand.’ Lexie looked at the man who had barely spoken three words to her and was disgusted by the smug smile on his face that implied he had somehow been responsible for the transformation of her fortunes here.

  ‘You have arrested Jordan?’ she asked, sitting down, keen not to entirely betray DC Cooper’s confidence.

  ‘Yes we have, and he is currently in transit here,’ DCI Nelson replied.

  Lexie allowed herself a brief smile of satisfaction before remembering the elaborate back story she had provided. Moreover, the look of fear on her face wasn’t entirely manufactured. Not that she expected the police to be as incompetent as to put them in direct contact, the thought of even being in the same building as Jordan, when she was sure he would know it was her who had given him up, sent a shiver down her spine.

  ‘You needn’t worry, you’re perfectly safe here and there’s every chance you might have gone by the time he arrives,’ DCI Nelson replied with a smile that appeared genuine.

  ‘You’ve charged him already?’ Lexie asked and the brief moment of laughter from Nelson made her regret reminding him of the exact deal.

  ‘We can’t do that until he is here but I can assure you that he will barely have got himself settled before I formally charge him with the murders.’

  Lexie wanted to ask what made DCI Nelson so sure Jordan had done everything of which he was suspected, but reconsidered. The sooner this was all wrapped up the better. ‘So, what now?’

  ‘Well, as I was just saying to your solicitor…’

  DCI Nelson was disturbed not so much by the brief knock on the door but the way it was swung open. ‘Sorry to disturb you, guv, but you’ve got a phone call,’ said the officer in uniform.

  DCI Nelson swung around to glare at the intruder. ‘Whoever it is, you’ll have to tell them to wait. I’m in the middle of…’

  ‘You don’t understand, guv,’ the officer interrupted nervously. ‘It’s DSI Robson and he says it’s urgent.’

  Chapter Seventy

  Ruby would have felt far better if she knew her call to DSI Robson hadn’t come too late, but to call the station to check, even if she got Ramsey to do it on her behalf, could arouse suspicion as to what had prompted his intervention. Part of her felt guilty for potentially dropping Nelson in it but she trusted he was wily enough to talk his way out of the situation.

  Besides, she had more important things on her mind, with Ramsey waiting for the news from the ANPR cameras to come back. She knew they wouldn’t be lucky enough to get Kate’s exact location but any clue as to where she had gone would be most welcome to Ruby, especially as explaining the situation to DSI Robson had put her reputation on the line too.

  ‘Okay, got it,’ Ramsey said after repeating the cameras triggered in sequence. Ruby pulled up a map of the area on her phone.

  ‘If we had followed her just one more junction, we’d have known she wasn’t coming here,’ she said, tracing her finger along the route they had both taken. ‘See here how she is carrying on around St. Albans in a loop?’

&n
bsp; ‘And that’s where the hits end,’ Ramsey stated, pointing a little further up the map where the North Orbital Road running from Hatfield arrives at the Park Street roundabout. ‘She must have turned off here, otherwise she would have pinged more cameras as it continues on… and the same would be true if she was taking the A414 towards Hemel. Assuming she didn’t turn left towards Radlett, that would mean she was heading into St. Albans from the south west along Watling Street.’

  ‘Definitely not the route to take if you’re heading here,’ Ruby said bitterly. ‘It still doesn’t really help us in finding out where she actually went.’

  ‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Ramsey said, zooming the screen in slightly. ‘Unless you can think of a reason why she would be turning off into the Cottonmill Estate, there’s only two directions she could have gone at the double roundabout at the top. One would lead her into town and into more cameras so she must have turned left.’

  ‘And where does that lead?’ Ruby demanded, anxious to snatch back the phone but knowing that Ramsey was doing a better job of navigating then she could.

  ‘Well, lots of places. As soon as she passes King Harry, she’ll…’

  ‘What did you say?’ Ruby blurted out a moment before her brain could catch up.

  ‘Ma’am, what are you doing?’ Ramsey asked.

  ‘I haven’t got the first clue why she would be going to King Harry but that’s the only place which links to the attacks.’ She slammed the Vauxhall Insignia into first gear. ‘You might want to buckle up by the way; no more of that covert bullshit until we’re close.’ And with that she flicked the switch on the dash to activate the lights hidden in the grill.

  Chapter Seventy-one

  The delay was pure torture for Kate but she knew it was better than if she had stayed at her mother’s longer. Sat in the bedroom she could have found ways to dissuade herself, but at least being here made denying the inevitable that much harder. She might have been forced to wait in a rapidly chilling car for half an hour before the first signs of people returning from work presented themselves, but she knew her opportunity was getting closer all the time.

  Kate just needed someone walking home from the station or wherever and she could pounce; having used the time in the interim to decide on her approach. Attempting to recreate one of the previous attacks had seemed a simple notion but once she got to thinking about it in more detail, a crucial problem presented itself; one that hadn’t occurred to her even as she had driven past the bouquets of flowers further up the street. The likelihood of the man she selected living alone was slim. Although it wouldn’t be her preference, she was willing to kill a woman if strictly necessary. Kate may have come to despise most men, but equally she knew that there were plenty of evil women out there too. People like Donna, who can’t be bothered to find their own man and have to steal someone else’s.

  Or attempt to, one of the more welcome voices in Kate’s head said, causing her to grin; the thought of that whore’s current suffering only further justifying the need to keep hidden the truth of what really happened.

  But sacrificing more than one person was too great a cost to pay. The solution had originally appeared simple, where she would attack the man before he went into his house, but that would be to differ too much from what had happened previously. Kate would just have to hope that when he answered the door, the wife was sufficiently far inside that she failed to appreciate what was happening until her escape had been made.

  Through her windscreen Kate could see that the time for deliberation was now over. Approaching her on the opposite pavement was a man; his business suit illuminated by the streetlamp above. His face remained in shadow. Kate watched his confident swagger for a few moments, trusting that it was an indication that he was the sort of man who would spend his day fucking his secretary and then come home to have dinner with his wife as though everything were normal.

  But tonight wasn’t going to be normal, for there would be no dinner and no other nights after this, and with that thought in her head Kate opened the car door and moved around to the boot. From the corner of her eye she could see the man was now passing her position. She lifted the hatch back and peeled away the inner lining to reveal the spare wheel. Nestled within were the tools required to fit it and she reached down to take the wheel wrench, feeling the weight but not the cold steel beneath her gloved hands.

  Although anxious he would now be a good few feet in front of her, Kate was careful not to slam the boot shut. Gently resting on it until she heard the click of it closing, she checked no-one else was in sight before turning her focus to her quarry. At any moment another car could come around the corner, bathing her weapon in bright light, so she tucked it under her coat.

  However, there was no car and after only walking a few feet she saw the man turn into a driveway.

  Kate began jogging to make up some of the ground between them.

  Chapter Seventy-two

  Since starting work in St. Albans, Ruby had become used to forcing her way through traffic when responding to an emergency, but it felt today like every other motorist was either ignoring the blue lights or so desperate to get out of the way that they ended up making her job of overtaking more difficult.

  Ramsey had resorted to wagging his finger out of the passenger window when they eventually got past; a gesture far more polite than Ruby would have been tempted to offer. Retracing their path out to the North Orbital would have given them the advantage of spending a fair proportion of their journey on dual carriageways but cutting through the city centre halved the distance. As bad as things were as they fought their way through the high street, once they had passed the cathedral things opened up a little and Ruby was able to weave between the cars without too much impediment.

  Even if she wasn’t entirely familiar with the location of the King Harry development, passing the Abbey station at the bottom of Holywell Hill, the place where Lexie and her gang had tracked their last victim together, was a sign that they didn’t have too much further to travel. The darkness of St Stephen’s Hill, with the trees either side looming over so as to block out the moonlight was a stark contrast to the artificial brightness of town and Ruby had to slow her pace to prevent the dazzling headlamps of the oncoming cars making her veer outside of her lane.

  Arriving at the double mini roundabout that had come to a complete standstill as drivers first hesitated at the approaching blue lights and then became confused as to whose right of way it now was, Ruby was forced to bump up the pavement to avoid being caught up in the melee.

  ‘It’s just up here,’ she said as much to herself as Ramsey as they drove down King Harry Lane and the older properties lining the road gave way to the first houses of the new development. She flicked off the emergency lights and pulled into the main residential street. Ruby had become so convinced they would see the Honda Civic parked outside the house from the previous attack that she might have believed she had made a wrong turn were it not for the bunches of flowers resting on the grass verge.

  ‘She’s… she’s not here,’ Ruby said, slowing their pace to little more than a crawl.

  Such was their desolation that they barely noticed the vehicle accelerating towards them and didn’t think to turn to look at the driver once she was alongside and their sight was no longer blinded by the car’s headlamps.

  Instead Ruby gently built up speed, looking for a junction a little further ahead in which she could turn.

  ‘Stop!’ Ramsey called a few moments later.

  ‘What? Ruby said, but only slowing in anticipation of making the manoeuvre.

  ‘Stop right now!’ The force in Ramsey’s voice wasn’t just far greater than Ruby had experienced from him but was also more than she had thought him capable of. As much through shock as anything, she pushed down further on the brakes.

  ‘What the hell?’ she exclaimed, turning towards him at the same time as he flung open his door.

  With Ramsey out and already heading in the direction fro
m which they had come, Ruby flung open her door and no sooner had she stepped outside than she understood what Ramsey had been reacting to.

  There was screaming and not just coming from one person but, by the sounds of it, a woman and a child.

  Ruby knew what had happened even before she rounded the drive and saw what was through the open front door, only partly obscured by Ramsey’s silhouette. There was a body lying in the hallway and crouched over it was a woman trying to hold back a small child.

  By the time Ruby arrived at the doorway Ramsey too was bent over the victim. ‘What happened?’ she demanded.

  The wife didn’t even look up at her, much less provide a response and Ruby was about to repeat her question when her eyes fell on the wheel wrench lying next to the body; providing the final confirmation to all her fears.

  ‘I… I think I feel a pulse,’ Ramsey said, his voice uncertain as he moved to change position. ‘Yes, there’s definitely one,’ he added a few moments later having now also checked the victim’s wrist. ‘Have you called an ambulance?’

  It was those final words that finally shook the wife, but Ruby grabbed her before she could head down the hallway. ‘I’ll do it,’ she said, pulling out her phone. ‘Take your daughter into the living room.’ Ruby could see that she was reluctant to leave her husband, but her maternal instinct must have kicked in because she got up and ushered away the distressed child.

  ‘His breathing is shallow but steady,’ Ramsey commented as soon as she ended the call, having also requested back up. Ruby would have liked to believe that the relief she felt was entirely for the welfare of the man, but her thoughts quickly turned back to the wife. Walking into the living room Ruby found her and her child curled up on the sofa, silently sobbing into each other’s arms. ‘The ambulance is on its way and my colleague says your husband is in a stable condition. We’ll wait with you until more units arrive but I need you to tell me what you saw.’