by Caz Finlay
‘Has she told you that?’ Grace asked.
He looked at her.
‘Has she?’
‘Not in so many words, no.’
Grace stared at her brother-in-law. She loved him dearly. Even before she had married Michael, Sean had been one of her closest friends. But she loved his wife Sophia too, and they had always seemed like the perfect couple. Before she and Michael had got together, she had always envied Sean and Sophia’s strong relationship.
‘Are you and Sophia okay?’ she asked quietly.
He looked into her eyes. ‘Yes,’ he said firmly. ‘It’s nothing like that. I just miss being in the thick of it, that’s all.’
‘Your brother wants out and you want back in? What are you both, some kind of tag team?’ she said with a laugh.
He laughed too and she was relieved that there was no further tension between them. Just then, Michael walked back into the room carrying a tray loaded with coffees and cake.
He placed the tray down on the desk.
‘How much cake did you get?’ Grace asked as she eyed the tray full of pastries and gateaux.
‘Yeah. Just how much is this new place going to cost us?’ Sean asked as he stared at the tray.
Michael laughed. ‘They’re not all for us. They were about to be binned. I’ll take what we don’t eat to Dad and Sue when I pick the kids up.’
Sean nodded. ‘Right, show me the plans for our new gaff then.’
Chapter Ten
Grace walked into the offices of Cartel Securities. She and Michael had handed over the day-to-day running of the business to their new business partners, Luke Sullivan and Danny Alexander. Grace and Michael were still the CEOs but they left most of the operational decision-making to Luke and Danny. Grace liked to call in from time to time to see how things were going. Luke and Danny were a great fit for the growing Carter/Conlon empire. They were proving themselves to be assets and had become indispensable to Jake and Connor, which only made them go up further in her estimation.
The door to Michael’s old office, now Luke and Danny’s, at the back of the building was closed. Grace tapped lightly on the door.
‘Come in,’ she heard Luke shout.
Grace stepped inside to see Luke, Danny and a young woman whom she’d never met before. The three of them looked slightly awkward, making her wonder what she had walked in on.
‘Hi, Grace,’ Luke said with a smile as he crossed the office to stand in front of her, leaving Danny to scowl in the corner and the woman looking similarly annoyed.
‘Hi,’ Grace replied. ‘I’ve just called in to pick up that paperwork for the new contract. Have you both signed it?’
‘Of course,’ Luke said as he walked towards the desk and picked up an A4 envelope from the top of a pile.
Whatever look passed between him and Danny obviously snapped Danny from his bad mood. ‘Nice to see you, Grace,’ Danny said with a flash of his charming smile. ‘I don’t think you’ve met my little sister, Stacey?’
Grace looked at the young woman and saw the resemblance to her older brother. ‘No, I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure,’ she said as she stepped forward and offered her hand.
Stacey shook it warmly and smiled, whatever annoyance had been bothering her momentarily forgotten. ‘Hi, Grace. It’s so lovely to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.’
‘Well, don’t believe everything you hear,’ Grace replied with a laugh.
‘Oh, it’s all been good, don’t worry.’ Stacey laughed too. ‘Luke and Danny love working for you.’
Grace looked over at the two men. ‘Glad to hear it. They’re a great addition to our team.’
They both smiled appreciatively. There was still tension in the room and Grace decided she’d take the paperwork and leave, not wanting to get involved in any family drama. She knew that Luke was an only child and that he and Danny were like brothers. She wondered how Stacey fitted into their relationship. Was she close to Luke too?
‘I’ll take those papers and head off,’ Grace said.
Luke handed them to her. ‘You’re not going to stay for a coffee?’ he asked.
‘Not today, thanks. I’ll leave you all to it.’
‘I’ll walk out with you, Grace,’ Stacey said as she picked up her handbag. ‘I really need some air.’
‘Stace!’ Danny snapped.
‘I’m done arguing with you,’ she said as she lifted her bag onto her shoulder.
‘At least let one of the lads take you home,’ Danny said with a sigh.
‘I can drive you,’ Luke added.
‘I can look after myself,’ she snapped.
‘I can offer you a lift?’ Grace said.
Stacey smiled. ‘That would be great. Thank you.’
That seemed to satisfy Danny. ‘I’ll call you later,’ he said to Stacey.
Grace and Stacey had said their goodbyes and were sitting in Grace’s car on the way to Stacey’s flat in Aigburth when Stacey spoke. ‘Do you have any annoying older brothers, Grace?’
‘Nope. I’m an only child. I always wanted a brother though – or a sister.’
‘I’m sorry. I know I’m lucky to have a brother who cares about me so much, but sometimes it feels like he still treats me like I’m fourteen instead of twenty-four. It’s suffocating.’
‘At least you know it comes from a good place?’ Grace offered, although the truth was she knew little about Danny and Stacey’s background. He had mentioned a sister who had recently returned to Liverpool, but he hadn’t talked a lot about her.
‘I know it does, and believe me, he has good reason to feel protective, at least he did when we were kids, but he doesn’t seem to realise that I’m a grown woman who can look after myself,’ she said with a shake of her head.
‘He went to prison when you were young, didn’t he?’
‘Yeah. I was only thirteen. He still feels so guilty about it.’
‘About what he did?’ Grace asked. She knew that Danny had killed his abusive stepfather in a fight, and wondered why he would feel any guilt over that.
She shook her head. ‘No, not about killing that rotten excuse for a human being. For me having to go into care.’
‘Oh, I see. It seemed like you were in the middle of something when I walked in. Everything okay?’ Grace asked.
Stacey paused before answering. ‘I have such a complicated back story, it’s hard to explain, to be honest. But let’s just say my ex is a real nasty piece of work and he’s on the missing list. The police are looking for him and before he disappeared a couple of months ago, he made contact with me again. There’s been nothing since, and I have no idea what’s happened to him, but Danny and Luke are convinced that I’m in some sort of danger. They would keep me wrapped up in cotton wool if they could.’
‘Well, that’s understandable, I suppose. Protecting people is their job after all.’
‘I know you’re right, and for the most part I accept that, but when they try to interfere in my life, well, it really pisses me off,’ she said with a sigh.
Grace glanced at her watch and saw it was almost lunchtime. ‘Do you have anywhere to be?’ she asked.
Stacey shook her head. ‘No. I lost my temping job last week, so I’m a free agent.’
‘Do you fancy grabbing a quick bite to eat? I’m meeting Michael at one of our restaurants in an hour or so. We could get some lunch first? My treat.’
Stacey turned to her and smiled. ‘That would be lovely. Thank you.’
Thirty minutes later Grace and Stacey were sitting at one of the best tables in Sophia’s Kitchen waiting for their food to be delivered.
‘Thank you for this, Grace. I love this place,’ she said with a beaming smile. ‘It’s not the easiest place to get a table at though.’
‘What? Just ask Danny or Luke and they can get you a table any time.’
‘I know. But I’d rather not ask them for favours. It kind of undermines my argument that I don’t need anything from them,’ she said wryl
y.
‘I suppose so. Well, now that you know me, you can always ask me instead.’
‘Oh, thank you, Grace. That’s so kind of you. But to be honest, I don’t have that many people I can go to places like this with. When I do go for dinner, it’s usually with Danny anyway. I don’t really have any friends as such.’
‘Oh?’ Grace was surprised. In the very short time Grace had known Stacey she had found her to be bright and funny, and generally good company.
‘I find it hard to trust people that I don’t know,’ Stacey replied. ‘Which makes this a bit odd, because I feel like I could talk to you for hours,’ she said. ‘I suppose I feel like I know you. Danny and Luke talk about you a lot,’ she said with a grin. ‘They absolutely love working for you.’
‘What are you going to do now for work then? You said you lost your job?’
‘Yeah. It was only a temping job working as a receptionist at an accountant’s. I was providing maternity cover, so I knew it wouldn’t last. But I’d been there for six months and I was really starting to enjoy it. I got a good reference though and I’m sure the agency will find me something else, but I’d like to find something permanent. But I have so little experience. I’ve never really worked since leaving college – which is a whole other story – so most girls my age have been doing this for years already. That’s kind of what I was arguing with Danny about.’
‘Oh? Why?’
‘I was looking at some jobs in hospitality. I do have some qualifications, but I’d like to work my way up, so I was thinking waitressing or bar work just to get some experience under my belt before I started applying for the more senior-level jobs.’
‘Why were you arguing about that?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. I think they’d prefer me to stay in a quiet little office somewhere. And that would be fine, but there are no quiet little office jobs around. Not that I can find anyway.’
‘Well, I can’t offer you a quiet little office job,’ Grace said. ‘But I do have an opening for a waitress in one of the busiest and most exclusive restaurants in Liverpool.’
Stacey stared at her. ‘What? Here?’
‘Why not?’
Stacey shrugged. ‘I heard competition is fierce to get a job here, that’s all. I’ve never done waitressing before, you know.’
‘You mentioned that. But it would be a week’s trial. If you don’t cut the mustard, you don’t get the job and you move on. No harm done.’
‘But why? Why would you give me this opportunity? Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful, but I’m happy to work my way up from the bottom. I don’t want any special treatment,’ she said as she looked down at the table.
‘It’s not exactly special treatment. I need a waitress. You need a job. I like you. I like your brother and if you have his work ethic then you’ll be fine here. My gut very rarely lets me down, and I have a good feeling about you, Stacey.’
Stacey looked up with a smile. ‘I don’t suppose Danny and Luke can protest too much about you offering me a job, can they?’ She started to laugh.
‘Can you start tonight?’
Stacey nodded eagerly.
‘Good. I’ll introduce you to Lena after we’ve eaten. She’s our new head waitress. She will tell you all you need to know and give you your shifts for the next week.’
‘Fantastic.’ Stacey beamed. ‘I won’t let you down. Promise. I’m so glad I bumped into you today. A slap-up lunch and a job, that’s not a bad afternoon.’ She raised her glass of iced water in a toast. ‘To new beginnings.’
Grace raised her glass too. ‘Indeed,’ she replied with a smile. She had a good feeling about Stacey Alexander.
Chapter Eleven
Leigh Moss was in her office sifting through the evidence of what was now being colloquially referred to as the Liverpool Ripper case. She knew there was a vital clue left by the killer. There always was, but for now, it was eluding her. The killer was clever, or at least one of them was. The theory that there might be more than one perpetrator was one she’d been mulling over since Grace had first mentioned it a few days earlier. She supposed it would make sense. Three bodies in just over a month was a lot to deal with. Not only that, all three victims hadn’t been seen for two to three weeks prior to their deaths, and their wounds indicated they had been bound and abused for some time prior to being killed. That was a lot for one man to cover up on his own.
Leigh sat back in her chair and rubbed the bridge of her nose. It was dark outside and she was alone in the office. She switched on her desk lamp and took a swig of her lukewarm coffee. She would give it another half an hour before heading home to her empty house. She missed Nick. When it was cold out, he’d always have the central heating on by the time she got home. The kitchen was always filled with the smell of food – whether it be a takeaway or something he’d picked up from the supermarket that he could bung into the oven. He wasn’t a great cook, but he could follow instructions on a packet.
The shrill ringing of Leigh’s office phone echoed around the empty floor and snapped her from her melancholy. She wondered who it could be at this time of night.
Picking up the receiver, she placed it to her ear. ‘Hello?’
‘Leigh,’ she heard the voice of her colleague from Greater Manchester police, DI Natalie Smith. ‘I thought I’d probably catch you still at your desk. You’re a workaholic like me,’ Natalie said with a laugh.
‘Hi, Nat,’ Leigh said, thankful for the distraction. ‘It’s lovely to hear your voice. How are things?’
‘Oh, you know, same old, same old. I was thinking before how I haven’t seen you for ages, so thought I’d give you a call and see how things are.’
‘I know. I’m sorry I cancelled our last night out, but we got this case—’
‘Oh, God, don’t worry about that, Leigh. I know how it is,’ Natalie interrupted her. ‘How is your investigation going anyway?’
Leigh sighed heavily. ‘Not as well as I’d like it to, let’s just put it that way.’
‘Oh, like that, is it?’ Natalie asked sympathetically.
‘Yep.’
‘I read the newspaper reports and saw your interview on the news. You were very good.’
Leigh cringed at the memory. It should have been the DCI leading the briefing but she’d been involved in a minor car accident on the way and Leigh had to step in at the last minute. She’d had the appropriate experience and training to talk to the press, but it wasn’t a role she particularly enjoyed. ‘Thanks, Nat. But I hated every second.’
Natalie laughed. ‘I can imagine. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about another case it got me thinking about. It was about six months after our trafficking case wrapped up, so two years ago. The victim was Melanie Simmonds.’
Leigh listened intently as Natalie gave her the details of the case in Manchester, which had some similarities to the Liverpool Ripper, enough at least to raise Leigh’s suspicions as well as her colleague’s.
‘And you never caught the perp?’ Leigh asked after Natalie had given her the case summary.
‘No. She was naked and there was evidence of recent sexual activity as well as penetration with a blunt object, which we believe was non-consensual due to the other injuries, but the cause of death was strangulation.’
‘So there was DNA on the body?’
‘Yes, there were traces of semen in her vagina. But there were no matches on the databases. Because of the strangulation and the sexual activity, it was assumed we were looking for a disgruntled customer or her pimp. We interviewed dozens of suspects and collected DNA samples but no matches.’
‘Perhaps the DNA wasn’t from the killer?’
‘It’s a possibility, but like your victims, Melanie hadn’t been seen for a couple of weeks prior to her death and she had ligature marks on her wrists. It was suggested that they could have been made during the course of her work – she was known for being willing to engage in bondage – but it could well have been that she was being held somewhere beforehand.’
‘There are similarities, Nat,’ Leigh said with a sigh. ‘But there are stark differences too. Our killer hasn’t left any DNA for a start and there was no evidence of sexual activity, at least immediately prior to death. Perhaps it was a heat-of-the-moment act?’
‘Perhaps. Or perhaps efforts were made to try and make it look like one?’
‘Maybe? I feel like my judgement is clouded with this one. I’m so desperate to catch this bastard, I don’t want to be seeing links where there are none.’
‘I get that. Let me send you the case file and see what you think.’
‘What do you think? You know the case and I trust your judgement.’
‘If I’m honest, Leigh, my gut tells me that this has something to do with our trafficking case.’
‘What? How?’
‘Melanie Simmonds mixed in the same circles as some of our trafficking victims. She was often the entertainment for the same parties. At least one of her former pimps was one of the men we put away. Perhaps she was a loose end?’
Leigh picked up her pencil and started scribbling notes on the yellow notepad beside her.
‘Did you pursue that line of inquiry?’ Leigh asked.
‘Not officially. As you know, any suggestion that we didn’t get the whole trafficking ring isn’t welcomed by the powers that be. But I looked into it as much as I could, not being one of the officers on the case. But from the little digging I was able to do, I wouldn’t put it past our very own Teflon Ted to have had a hand in it.’
‘Shit!’ Leigh breathed. Teflon Ted was the name the two of them had given to Sol Shepherd, one of the biggest gangsters Manchester had ever seen, and who they believed was one of the big players behind the trafficking ring they had helped to bring down years earlier. Despite Leigh and Natalie’s efforts as the two Detective Sergeants on the case, they were never able to provide any concrete evidence of his involvement, and despite him being arrested and questioned, his expensive brief had ensured he’d never been within two feet of a courtroom. Then there had been threats of legal action for harassment and defamation of character, and Chief Superintendent Barrow, who had been in charge of overseeing the strategic elements of the joint investigation between Greater Manchester and Merseyside police, had warned them off.
