Was her mother’s death another murder? Kate couldn’t quite work out the legality, her brain was too preoccupied with trying to keep Caroline’s attention away from the lights, but Kate knew that Caroline could be held culpable for providing the drugs.
Where was the person with the light? Surely they should have reached the lock by now. She desperately wanted to turn round, to see who was approaching, and to yell for help, but the knife blade forced her to be still.
‘So that’s three people you’ve killed,’ Kate said.
‘I know. I don’t need you to remind me. But I want you to know that Maddie was unavoidable. I think at first I was trying to frighten her into keeping quiet. But I could see that it wouldn’t work so there was no other way. I was… oh, I don’t really know what I was doing. I just needed time to get away. And I am sorry about her. But not Dennis. He got what was coming to him.’
‘And I’m to be number four? Is that the plan? What’s the point? If you kill me there’ll be others coming after you. My colleagues know that you’re alive. They’ll find you eventually.’
‘They already have,’ said a voice from the darkness. ‘Put the knife down, Caroline.’
Kate struggled again but Caroline tightened her grip and raised the knife until it was next to Kate’s right eye.
‘It’s no good,’ said another voice, this one from behind her. ‘We’ve got you surrounded. You can’t walk away from this. Let her go.’
Kate tensed, puzzled. She recognised Cooper’s voice but the second, another woman, was a stranger. Kate could make out one dark figure near the lock but she couldn’t see anybody else. Was Cooper a bloody ventriloquist? A sudden flash of light lit up Sam’s face as she put her phone to her ear.
‘I’m calling for backup, Caroline. Let Kate go. This is over.’
‘I don’t… I can’t. I didn’t want this. I just want it to be done with.’ Her grip tightened and she wrapped her forearm around Kate’s neck.
‘Don’t,’ Kate said quietly. ‘Just let go and it’s over. Dennis is dead. We found Jeanette. Let it go, Caroline. There’s nowhere left to run.’
After a few seconds of holding her breath, desperate for her words to have resonated somewhere in Caroline’s warped psyche, Kate felt the woman behind her loosen her grip; the pressure from the blade was gone. She turned herself round quickly, grabbed Caroline’s hand and twisted her wrist until she dropped the knife. She sagged against Kate, the fight gone. Gently, Kate eased her down onto the wooden lock gate, kicking the knife away from her feet as she sat down next to her.
‘It is done, Caroline. We found Jeanette. Dennis is gone. It’s over.’
Sam walked towards them, her head torch switched back on, spearing Caroline Lambert on the beam of light like a butterfly pinned to a board. The change in the woman shocked Kate as she saw her properly for the first time since Caroline had grabbed her in the car. The blonde hair was dyed dark brown and the understated make-up had been replaced by bold colours and red slashes of lipstick. Kate might not have recognised her if she’d passed her in the street.
‘I’m sorry about Maddie,’ Caroline said as though she was apologising for treading on Kate’s toe or knocking her drink over. ‘I just didn’t know what else to do. She wanted us to go to the police and for me to admit that I’d been blackmailing her. Obviously I couldn’t do that. It wasn’t part of the plan. It was her or me, I suppose, and my need for survival turned out to be the strongest.’
Kate remembered the sodden body that they’d removed from the same spot a few short weeks earlier and the boy who’d sobbed at his mother’s funeral. Suddenly the compassion that she’d felt for this pathetic figure dissipated like morning fog in a hot sun. She didn’t deserve sympathy. She’d killed an innocent, vulnerable woman and whatever had happened to her in her past didn’t excuse that.
Kate took a deep breath. ‘Caroline Lambert, I’m arresting you on suspicion of murder. You don’t have to say anything but…’
Epilogue
Cooper grinned as she passed Kate a white envelope.
‘What’s this?’ Kate asked.
‘Wedding invitation,’ Sam said, blushing.
‘You and Abbie?’
Cooper nodded.
‘Congratulations. I’m glad you’ve worked things out,’ Kate said, wondering what Nick’s reaction would be if she asked him to be her date to a lesbian wedding. Only one way to find out, she decided. It would be a good test. They’d already been out twice; once for drinks and once for dinner. He was an interesting man and he wasn’t pushy, allowing Kate to take her time to get to know him. The more she knew, the more she found that she liked him.
‘We’d worked things out before that night,’ Cooper was explaining. ‘We’re only going to live on the boat in the summer.’
‘So no more walking along the canal bank on winter nights?’
Cooper laughed. They’d thoroughly debriefed about that evening, but Kate still couldn’t quite believe that Sam and Abbie had managed to convince Caroline Lambert that they were there on purpose and that they’d known to find her on the canal bank. Abbie in particular had impressed Kate with her quick thinking and calmness under pressure. She’d suggested to Sam that Abbie might like to apply to join the police force but Sam had laughed and muttered something about the joys of separate lives.
They’d moved on to other cases, other deaths, but she knew that they’d grown together in the last few months. She was even feeling more charitable towards O’Connor. If he’d not found the link to Julie Wilkinson they might never have discovered Jeanette’s body and Kate would always be thankful to him for that break in the case.
‘Hey, you lot,’ she said, clapping her hands to get their attention. Four heads turned in unison. ‘It’s half six. Any of you got anything that can’t wait until tomorrow?’
Three head shakes and an unintelligible mutter from Hollis.
‘Good,’ she said. ‘Grab your coats. It’s beer and pizza time.’
‘You paying?’ O’Connor asked with a cheeky grin that made him look like an overgrown garden gnome.
‘I am indeed,’ Kate confirmed. ‘But it’s not like any of you deserve it.’
She slipped on her jacket and followed her team out of the office, smiling at the sight of Sam punching Barratt for some daft remark and Hollis pretending to pull her off.
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Acknowledgments
As always, a huge thanks to the team at Bloodhound Books for continuing to have faith in my writing. I’d also like to thank the other members of the Bloodhound (Books) Gang for encouragement, advice, humour and support.
I’m grateful to Morgen Bailey, my editor, for her helpful suggestions, detailed feedback and for her patience with some of my worst habits.
I must thank my brother Graeme for sharing his knowledge and expertise on the subject of canals and narrowboats. I had no idea that a lock would be the best place to drown somebody.
The online blogging community deserves a massive thank-you. The book bloggers and reviewers work so hard to help authors to promote their books and it’s greatly appreciated.
I also need to thank everybody who has bought and read Closer to Home, the first in the Kate Fletcher series. I hope you’ve enjoyed the second part of her story and, if you did, I hope you’ll stick around for the third.
And finally, as always, thanks to Viv, first reader, critic and bringer of tea. Your support means everything to me.
Merciless: a gripping detective thriller (DI Kate Fletcher Book 2) Page 27
