by LJ Ross
Angela’s ragged voice tore through the silence and they didn’t need to ask what she meant. The family always wanted to know how and why, even when it caused them nothing but torment.
“We don’t know exactly how he died,” Phillips told her. “But I have to tell you we are treating Duncan’s death as murder.”
Her eyes closed and more silent tears made tracks down her face. There was another long pause as she digested the information, processed the horror and, finally, welcomed the rage that burned through her body when she thought of how her boy had suffered.
Angela’s eyes opened again and they were bone dry when they turned on Phillips.
“Who killed him?”
He perched on the other side of the sofa, so he and Yates flanked her on both sides in a display of unity.
“I don’t know, Angela, but we’re going to find out.”
“How can I help? I want to help. And I want to see him, to see Duncan—to tell him—”To tell him how much his mother loved him.
“We’ll arrange it, as soon as possible.”
“It’s time he came home,” she murmured, thinking of how close he had been to her all these years and she’d never known.
* * *
It was almost eleven o’clock by the time Phillips and Yates finally left Angela Gray to her grief and prepared to make the long journey back to the city. They were forestalled as they wound their way through the trees when they encountered a couple of local squad cars heading in the opposite direction towards Kielder Waterside, followed by a small convoy of high-spec 4x4s used by the Mountain Rescue team.
Phillips made an executive decision, performed a quick U-turn in the road and followed them back to the little complex that was swarming with police and forest rangers for the second day in a row.
“I thought Ryan was supposed to be back at CID?” Yates remarked as they exited the car. Phillips followed the line of her gaze to where the man stood briefing a group of local police and started to get a creeping feeling that something was very badly wrong.
“Howay,” he said. “Let’s go and find out what’s happening.”
Ryan spotted them immediately and stepped away from the small crowd of police to head them off.
“We’ve got a twenty-two-year-old missing male,” he said, without preamble. “His name’s Guy Sullivan and he’s one of Anna’s postgraduate students. So far as we know, he went missing some time after four o’clock this morning, which is the last time he was seen before his friends went to bed after a heavy night. Nobody knows where he went after that, only that he wasn’t in the lodge when they woke up. They did a search of the vicinity and tried calling his mobile several times, waited a while, then raised the alarm with Anna just before eight o’clock. I happened to be there,” he explained, never more conscious of the fact that he was working on borrowed time.
Right on cue, the phone in his pocket began to vibrate, signalling that he had stepped into a rare hotspot of mobile reception. A quick glance told him there were several missed calls and a voicemail message, all from the office.
He slipped it back into his pocket.
“As far as we know, this could be as simple as a young bloke wandering off into the forest and getting lost. But…” Ryan shook his head and looked across to where Anna stood beside the remaining group of students, trying to reassure them.
“But?”
“I don’t know, Frank. Something about it feels off, coming so soon after the body we found yesterday.”
“Could be coincidence,” Yates offered, and watched two heads swivel in her direction.
“Do you want to say it, or shall I?” Ryan asked Phillips.
“You do the honours.”
Ryan inclined his head.
“Yates, in this business, we don’t believe in coincidences.”
She nodded and made a mental note to cultivate a more suspicious outlook.
“Look, I have to get back to the city,” Ryan continued, and was surprised the words didn’t stick in his throat. “Anna and her students are pretty worried but they’re holding up. The tech team are trying to triangulate Guy’s position through the telephone companies but that could take hours or even days, considering it’s the weekend. There’s a search co-ordinator from the police organising a search with a rep from the Forestry Commission.”
Ryan stopped mid-spiel, suddenly remembering that Phillips and Yates had been driving in the area and that could only mean one thing.
“Who was he?”
Phillips heaved a sigh.
“Duncan Gray, born and raised in Kielder. He went missing back in October 1981 along with a rucksack, some clothes and a few odds and ends. We told his mother this morning.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
Ryan looked out across the water, not envying them their task but at the same time feeling robbed of a duty he felt he owed to the young man he’d made a silent promise to avenge.
But it was not his investigation any longer and that duty belonged to someone else now.
“Let me know how things progress,” he said abruptly, before striding back to his car.
With one final, sweeping glance at the water and sky, Ryan turned away and prepared to face whatever awaited him back at the office.
* * *
“What have you done?”
They stood and watched the police swarm the area like ants as they began to search for the student who had died for no reason other than because he resembled the boy Duncan Gray had been.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Roly whispered. “I panicked, I—”
“It was incredibly stupid, and you’ve endangered us both.”
“I—but I thought it was him!”
Thankfully, the picnic area was only half-full and nobody seemed to have heard that little outburst. It was clear to see the madness in Roly’s eyes, if you looked hard enough. Over the years, sanity had obviously eroded until the discovery of Duncan’s body had opened the floodgates to full-blown paranoia.
The problem was, how to manage it?
“How could it possibly have been him? Duncan’s dead; he had his accident years ago, don’t you remember?”
“Yes. Yes, I remember.”
But Roly’s eyes skittered away, scanning the faces of the men and boys, just to be sure. A decision needed to be made, quickly.
“We can’t be seen together. Don’t call my number again; if they look at your phone records, they’ll find it. I’ll get a burner and get a message to you with the new number so you can contact me if you need to.”
“Okay. Okay,” Roly repeated. “You won’t leave me alone, will you?”
It was pitiable to see such weakness, to see the fear that was so potent.
“I’ll be in touch.”
CHAPTER 11
“She wants to see you, right away.”
As Ryan had predicted, Lucas was waiting for him as soon as he returned to the office just before noon. He didn’t bother to respond to the edict delivered by her personal assistant but turned and walked directly to the enormous vending machine in the corridor. A man was entitled to one last meal before facing a threat of unknown proportions and he chose to have a black coffee and a Kit Kat.
Five minutes later, he entered the superintendent’s office.
Lucas did not immediately acknowledge his presence but continued to read a stack of papers sitting neatly in front of her. Years ago, he might have found her deliberate silence intimidating, but not now.
Finally, she closed the folder, rose, walked to a filing cabinet to return it to its proper place, returned to her chair and sat down again.
Only then did she look across to where Ryan stood in the middle of the room, feet planted, looking very much at ease. Anger flowed like lava, strong and hot; almost too much for her to control. It had always been that way with him, right from the very beginning, and she resented her own weakness bitterly. There had always been a terrible need to try to curb him; to control him and harness the en
ergy. It had become an obsession, a dark, unnatural thing she thought she had banished from her life. It had taken years of work to regain the balance she had once lost and it was now within her grasp to see him pay for what he had once reduced her to.
Lucas’s hands began to shake and she clasped them tightly in her lap.
“I see you’ve deigned to come in to work, after all,” she said. “I thought I had made myself very clear yesterday, when I told you that your place was here at the office.”
“You did.”
“And yet you defied an order from your superior officer and went outside the bounds of your responsibilities. Again.”
“On the contrary, I acted according to my primary duty as a police officer, to report an incident and ensure the matter was acted upon. Once I was satisfied correct procedures were in place, I stepped aside.”
“You wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place, if—”
Lucas stopped herself just in time but Ryan’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“If…what, exactly? If I hadn’t been with my wife—where I belong?”
Her hands began to shake again and she dug her nails into the palms of her hands to try to stop it.
“If you had been committed to your role here at CID.”
“You mean, if I had committed myself to being here at all times, at your beck and call,” he threw back, then laughed. “You’re delusional.”
She thrust upwards, all semblance of control gone.
“One word from me and you’ll be out on your ear.”
Ryan felt his phone begin to vibrate and made a point of checking the caller, giving her time to calm down. The moment he saw it was Phillips, he knew what they had found.
His eyes were bleak and hard when they turned back to face her.
“I’m returning to Kielder, where I should have been since yesterday morning,” he said.
“If you walk out of that door, you’ll be out of a job.”
With unhurried movements, he strolled closer to where she stood with her hands braced against the desk.
“Go ahead,” he said softly, calling her bluff. “You can pull me up on a disciplinary and watch the office revolt against it, watch Morrison dismiss it and undermine your authority, and watch the local press back me to the hilt. Or, you can accept that I know how to run my department, that I know how to motivate my staff, and you can save face by pretending we came to that conclusion together. Either way, we both know you have no intention of sacking me.”
“Oh? And why is that?” she asked in a brittle voice. “Because you’re so bloody good at your job?”
Their eyes locked.
“I wish that were the reason, but no. You aren’t going to sack me because you came up here to destroy me and you want me to be on hand to watch you doing it, to witness you breaking things apart, bit by bit. You want me to understand what you’re doing, and why, but I’m not going to give you the satisfaction.”
He nodded as the truth of it flickered in her eyes.
“Do what you like, Jen, but know this: you’re not dealing with a naïve boy any more. You’re dealing with a grown man. Whatever you rain down on me, I’ll return tenfold this time, and I don’t give a damn who you choose to hide behind.”
There was an electric silence as they measured each other.
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s a fact.”
“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” she whispered.
“I know exactly what you’re capable of and your games stopped having any effect on me over a decade ago.”
With that, he turned and left the room, clicking the door softly shut behind him.
* * *
Lowerson caught up with Ryan as he made his way towards the staff car park, dark thoughts circling his mind and lending him an air of general discontent that would have put off a lesser man.
“Boss! Do you have a minute?”
Ryan paused outside the driver’s door and consulted his watch. He’d already wasted enough time facing off with Lucas and he was conscious that the first few hours of a murder investigation were the most important of all.
“We’ve found another body up at Kielder, Jack, so a minute is about all I have. What’s up?”
“Another one? Like the one before?”
“This one’s as fresh as they come,” Ryan muttered, jiggling the car keys in his hand while he waited for Lowerson to come to the point.
“I thought you were chained to your desk?”
“Not any more,” Ryan said, with satisfaction.
“Right. Well, I won’t hold you up. I wanted to let you know how my meeting with DCS Lucas went.”
Ryan’s face became completely shuttered. Wasn’t it possible to have a conversation without the woman’s name turning up like a bad penny?
“And?”
Lowerson swallowed, detecting the sudden drop in temperature.
“She wants me to come and work with her, in exchange for a promotion to sergeant. She, ah, she seems to think I’ve been held back.”
Ryan’s face gave nothing away but it was as if he’d just received a sucker-punch to the stomach.
“Oh? And what do you think about that?”
“Obviously, I told her it’s rubbish. You’ve been the one pushing me on, right from the start.”
Ryan let out the breath he’d been holding.
“I’m glad to hear it. So, if that’s settled—”
“Do you think I should take up her offer, though? I might not agree with her reasoning, but it’s still an opportunity, isn’t it?”
No, Ryan thought. It’s a snare, designed specifically for lonely young men without enough life experience to see it.
“Look, Jack, I can’t talk now. I need to get back up to Kielder. But if you’ll give me a few hours, we’ll sit down properly and discuss it. If you want to progress, let’s talk about how to make it happen using the right channels.”
“The offer is open until the end of the day,” Lowerson interjected. “I need to give her an answer before you go.”
For Ryan, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Then tell her the answer is no! For God’s sake, Jack, can’t you see? Jennifer Lucas is toxic. She’ll use you up, turn your life upside down and you won’t even realise she’s doing it until there’s nothing left. It’s who she is, it’s what she does, and it has nothing to do with wanting to promote you.”
Lowerson stood in stunned silence and then an angry flush spread across his neck because, unwittingly, Ryan had touched a raw nerve.
“So you think no woman could take me seriously.”
Ryan lifted a frustrated hand in appeal.
“What? No, that’s not what I meant. But surely you realise Lucas is trying to manipulate you so she can break the team apart?”
Lowerson barked out a laugh.
“Oh, I forgot. You’re the Almighty Ryan. Everything has to be about you.”
He could hear the bitterness in his own voice and wished he could claw the words back but it was too late; they had taken flight and could not be unspoken.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ryan flung at him. “I think of you as—” He almost said, a brother. “You’re one of the best there is, Jack, and I’ve done everything I can to help you. I thought you were happy working with me.”
Lowerson wondered what had come over him. With every word, he was pushing his friend further away but he couldn’t seem to stop the acid rolling off his tongue. Professional and personal frustrations poured out in one long tirade until he rammed home the final nail in the coffin.
“D’ you know what? I’m tired of listening to people telling me how bloody lucky I am to work with you. The truth is, I’ll never be my own man as long as I’m living in your shadow.”
There was a thrumming silence.
Ryan regarded Lowerson as if he were a stranger. It was like history repeating itself, he thought, with friend turning against friend as
Lucas flitted around pouring poison in the ears of anybody who would listen. How he wished he could allow Jack to step inside his mind and see the memories he harboured there, but it was already too late.
“In that case, I wish you every success in your new position.”
* * *
Lucas watched the altercation from her office window, which happened to overlook the staff car park. She read the body language of each man and thought it was incredible, really, what one could learn from a textbook or two on behavioural psychology. Add a few years’ experience into the mix and it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Clearly, her assessment of Ryan’s relationship with Lowerson had been on the mark. She knew he had never been able to resist playing the big brother, taking a younger chick under his wing and nurturing it until it was ready to fly on its own. Ryan’s problem was that he couldn’t see himself through other people’s eyes. To Jack Lowerson, he was a living, breathing, bona fide hero; but he also reminded him of everything he didn’t yet have, and petty jealousies could easily turn love into hate, given the right conditions.
Thankfully, hate was an emotion she readily understood and could easily exploit.
Down on the tarmac below, she watched Lowerson jab an angry finger into Ryan’s chest and thought he had been the easiest convert yet.
When Ryan climbed into the driver’s seat of his car, Lowerson stood for a while longer and, if she wasn’t mistaken, his shoulders were shaking. A minute later, he turned back inside the building with a determined look on his face.
Taking that as her cue, Lucas sauntered back to her desk and spoke to her assistant.
“Priya? When DC Lowerson comes up, let him straight in.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
* * *
Ryan drove on autopilot, braking and accelerating whenever necessary as much of the landscape passed by in a blur. The argument with Lowerson spun around his mind like a broken record and he blamed himself for failing to handle the situation better. He should never have lost his temper. He should have known Jack was vulnerable; an easy target for a predator like Lucas. Worse still, he should have realised how much he had contributed to the younger man’s resentment. There was a saying somewhere, wasn’t there, about people climbing mountains because they were there? Perhaps, in this case, simply by being who he was, he had drawn Lowerson’s own life into stark contrast and failed to realise it.
