by D. E. White
As soon as he saw me watching, he just gave that smile and moved away, like it was nothing. Should I say something? Should I tell Mum or Dad? But I can’t even begin to think how I’d say it. It’s not a crime, to watch someone, is it? Jenna says he fancies her, and Caz just giggles, like she does when we hang out with the boys’ trampoline squad at the gym.
They train around the same times we do, and I’ve seen a few of the older boys at the bus stop down the road, logo hoodies and wet hair after training, high-fiving before they head home. So confident and casual in their team tracksuits. So normal.
It makes me feel cold and sick, though, like spiders are crawling across my bare skin. And it’s getting worse. Wherever we are, he is too.
Maybe I could get Jenna to wear leggings.
I wonder where he will be in ten years’ time . . . In jail probably. The thought gives me a tiny knot of fear, right in my stomach. But that’s okay, because I’ll be an Olympic gymnast, and he won’t be able to get near me. I’ll move away, get a swanky apartment in London or New York and have security guards.
I can hear the beep of security alarms now, the thud of running feet . . .
I wonder where I’ll be when I’m forty? I hope I look back and be proud of everything I’ve achieved. That’s not being arrogant, is it? It’s being hopeful. But most of all, now more than all of my Olympic dreams, I hope I am free of him.
The beeps of my security alarms are getting faster and my heart speeds up, my breathing laboured. The desert heat is back, and all I want is a drink. I am being attacked, but even as I scream and struggle, I know it will be like last time and nobody will hear me.
Beep
Beep
Beep
Beep
Beep
Beep . . .
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Dove’s phone buzzed next to her ear and she stretched out a hand, fumbling for it. She blinked at the digital alarm clock, confused. It was 1 a.m. Next to her Quinn groaned and turned over.
Mindful of his day off tomorrow, Dove crawled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom as she answered.
“Hello?”
“Dove, it’s me.” Delta’s voice, quick and panicky.
Dove woke up properly. “What’s wrong? Where are you? At work still?”
“Back at the flat. I came here after work to sort a few things out. Dove, Abi’s boyfriend just turned up, and he’s taken her away with him.”
“What do you mean? He’s abducted her?” Dove leaned against the wall, mind flickering over possibilities, fully awake and heart pounding.
“I . . . no, she just sort of went with him when he told her to. He didn’t drag her away or anything.” Delta was slightly breathless. “She told me not to call the police, said she’d be fine and he said I was an interfering little . . . Anyway, that’s why I called you instead of 999, because I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay. Can you lock the doors from the inside?” Dove asked, thinking rapidly.
“Yes, there are security bolts.”
“Do the bolts and wait for me. Don’t open the door to anyone else, okay?”
“I won’t. It’s number 289.”
“I remember.” Dove ended the call and slipped her clothes on, padding back into the bedroom. Quinn was fast asleep again. He adored Delta. Should she wake him? In the end, she fudged it and scribbled a quick note. They were so used to each other’s night-time comings and goings for work, and Dove felt this definitely counted as work. She could always call him if she needed to.
Dove found the town-centre apartment block easily. It was next to another block of cut-price student accommodation. The walkways were grimy. The stairwell stank. There was no way she was trusting the rusty lift.
She jogged up the stairs, taking shallow breaths because of the smell, but on her guard as she rounded each corner. A rough sleeper, curled in a grey, mouldy duvet, peered blearily at her on the third-floor landing.
Dove could see a light on at number 289, and as she knocked she saw Delta’s worried face appear at the window in the kitchen, peering through the net curtains.
“It’s okay, Delta, tell me what happened,” Dove said as soon as she was inside. The flat, though littered with the detritus of two teenage girls, was clean enough. Magazines, clothes and make-up were heaped on the two slightly grubby sofas, a pile of takeaway cartons had taken over the kitchen counter, and a string of fairy lights was hung around the window.
“Abi’s been weird the past few months.” Delta’s words rushed out, far from her usual cool, sardonic self. “About two weeks after he started working at Gaia’s, she started dating Leo Caper. I reckon he came by California Dreams a few times with his mates before he landed the job, but he’s one of the security team.”
“He works at the club?” Dove swore under her breath. “And Leo is the one she went off with tonight?”
“Yeah. She started off saying he was just doing the security job to save money for a house, and that he was going back to university to study law. Lots of crap, basically,” said pragmatic Delta. “He was always spoiling her — like buying her bottles of champagne and clothes and jewellery. But then he changed and started telling her what to do on her days off. He doesn’t like me at all and he even told her they should move in together, but she said it was too soon.”
“Has he ever been violent towards her?” Dove asked.
“No, not that I’ve seen . . . I mean, tonight he was arguing with her but he doesn’t really shout. He just speaks really calmly, and it’s what he says that seems to get her.”
“Would you say she was afraid of him?”
“Yes . . . I would, but she won’t admit it. He’s so controlling, but most of the time she says she would never end it because he’s such a great guy. She gets really defensive when I ask about him.”
“All right. Delta, I’m going to call it in, okay?”
Delta looked at her for a moment and then nodded, the fire back behind her eyes. “You think there’s something else too, don’t you? You’ve got that detective look going on.”
“I do not have a look,” Dove told her, picking up her phone.
“So do. Dove? Thanks for coming.”
“It’s okay. Where does he live?”
“Downstairs in Flat 8.”
Dove selected DI Rankin’s number and called him. He answered after a couple of rings, and she explained everything Delta had told her. “Well, you did say to call you if I remembered anything else.”
“Funny,” he replied. “We actually went over to the club tonight to arrest Leo Caper. We got some results from the lab — DNA samples from three of the scenes, including Neil Ockley’s, are a match, and one of the other dancers has given a statement to the effect that he bribed her to say he was working on the floor during the time the robbery and assault at the club took place.”
“He was supposed to be working tonight?”
“He was, but he hasn’t shown up. I sent a car round to his home address but the house is empty.” He gave her an address across town.
“That’s because he’s at Flat 8, on the Highcourt estate.” Dove explained the rest as rapidly as she could.
“On our way.”
Now she knew Delta was safe, Dove was worried about Abi, and also keen to keep eyes on the man responsible for attacking her sister. She went quickly and quietly down the filthy stairwell, located Flat 8 and stood, listening carefully. Just as before at the beach, she heard a scream, then sounds of a scuffle, the slap of a hand across someone’s face, and then crying.
She knocked on the door, unsure of what she could do, but focusing on the fact she might be able to distract Leo before Abi was too badly hurt. Back-up would be here soon, and she couldn’t let a teenage girl be beaten while she stood by and did nothing.
Leo himself opened the door, shock and then amusement on his face. “Oh, look, it’s Auntie Dove, the copper. I suppose Delta called you. Come in, Auntie Dove.” He swung the door wide, and Dove c
ould see Abi half-sitting half-lying on the dirty couch, a red weal across her face, and blood on the corner of her lip. Her bare arms were bruised at the wrist.
“Leo Caper, I presume, and no thanks, I’m just here to take Abi home,” Dove told him firmly.
He leaned against the door, considering her. He stank of weed and booze, but clearly fancied himself as the hard man. “You gonna tell me police are gonna waste their time on a domestic? Nothing wrong with Abi, as you can see, is there, darling?”
Abi shook her head, her hair falling forward across her face. She reached over and pulled a cardigan on, covering her bruises. Dove remembered Delta mentioning a few months ago that Abi preferred waiting the tables at the club to dancing. Was it because she could hide her bruises better with more clothes on?
“Nothing to see here, Auntie Dove.” Leo grinned again, showing a dimple in his left cheek as he smoothed his hair back.
“Yeah, she looks the picture of health,” Dove agreed sarcastically. “Of course, I called for back-up, and it’s on the way.”
“But here you are by yourself.” He leered at her. “You sleep naked sometimes, don’t you, Detective? Nice. Ha! Yes, I’ve been to your place a couple of times, and I know where you go and what you do. Shame about your car, wasn’t it? These things happen, though . . . You like to play around at night on your own. It’s dangerous on the beaches after dark. You should be more careful.”
Dove couldn’t believe he was stupid enough to threaten her.
“Don’t you have enough things to do without hanging around after me?” Her voice was calm but she was fuming. The movement in the shadows and the presence she had felt were not ghosts from the past, but this muscular drugged-up idiot trying to warn her off.
They could both see the arrival of two squad cars, blue lights flashing, but Leo shrugged casually. “I’ve been here before. You lot couldn’t care shit about some teenage stripper girl. It’ll go down as a domestic, and you’ll keep your mouth shut because you’ve got two pretty nieces who you wouldn’t want me taking out on the town.”
Dove was blown away by his arrogance. “That’s where you’re wrong, Leo. Because we do take domestic violence seriously, and it doesn’t matter who the victim is, or what gender they are. Plus, there’s the other matter of five robberies, GBH, attempted murder of Gaia Minton-Smith, and the actual murder of Neil Ockley. I think that’s plenty to be getting on with, don’t you?”
He paled in the harsh light of the passageway. “You got nothing on me about that, and Abi won’t say nothing.” He shot an arm out and grabbed at Dove’s wrist, but she slipped it neatly away. She could hear a team of uniformed offices in the stairwell. Sharp commands, the fast-moving thud of boots.
“Your DNA is all over at least three of the scenes. You should have been more careful with those men you lured into your honey trap,” Dove told him, stepping aside as her uniformed colleagues took over the scene. “See you down at the station, Leo.”
Abi stayed where she was on the sofa until Dove and a PC managed to calm her down enough for medics to treat her. The wounds were superficial, but Dove feared the scars underneath were far deeper than that.
She laid a gentle hand on the girl’s arm. “It’s okay now, Abi.”
From the shadows outside another figure appeared at the door. Delta, seeing it was safe, had come to check on her friend. With a cry, Abi tore herself from the medics and flung herself into her friend’s arms, sobbing. “I’m sorry, Delta, I’m so sorry.”
Delta closed her arms tightly around Abi, and met Dove’s eyes over her friend’s shoulder. The dark blue eyes were steady. Although she was still pale and shocked, she held Abi with strong arms.
Thank you, Delta mouthed to her aunt.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Dove smiled reassuringly at Abi. The girl was a mess, her face bruised and her hair extensions greasy rat-tails. She was hardly recognisable as the fragile beauty from California Dreams. “It’s okay, you’re safe now.”
Abi’s pale blue eyes filled with tears. She had insisted she would only speak to Dove, and Dove, keen to hear what she had to say, had agreed that one of the duty officers, Marion, would sit in on the interview while Abi made her statement.
The girl sniffed, biting her lip, before she said, “He’ll come after me as soon as he gets out. He already told me however long it takes, he’ll always find me.”
“Abi, I promise you Leo will not be coming anywhere near you, or even outside the prison gates, for a long time.” Dove paused and glanced at the other officer, who stayed silent, but nodded in agreement. “You need to tell the truth about what happened, because I only know what Delta said when she called me for help.”
There was a long silence, but Dove let her think. Delta had said Abi was swayed by the money, but also her infatuation for the man. “Did you love him?”
Abi laughed, but it was a bitter, harsh sound. “I thought I did. Delta tried to tell me he was an arsehole, so many times, but she . . . Delta’s so strong and so focused with what she wants to do with her life. Me, I was saving so we could go travelling, sure, but I hadn’t got a clue what I was going to do afterwards. My parents were so disappointed when I got a job at the club, and my sisters won’t speak to me.”
“To be fair, not many of us have a five-year plan,” Dove confided. “Did you meet Leo at California Dreams?”
“Yeah, he would come in with a group of friends, gave me great tips, always singled me out, telling me how cute I looked. I’m not stupid, and I was wary, because, I mean, he’s thirty and I’m nineteen . . .” Her voice trailed off. “Then he got a job as part of the security team, and I thought if Gaia had checked him out, he must be okay.”
“Did you date?”
“He took me to some flash places, a few clubs and bars. We got in the VIP lounges. It was . . . different to what I was used to. Leo started saying why was I wasting my time going backpacking and living like a student, when I could be out with him every night, shopping designer and maybe doing some modelling.”
Dove felt a twinge of pity. It was a classic grooming story, and victims were always picked carefully. Leo had sussed Abi out, and no doubt she had soon told him about her college-drop-out history, her rows with her mum and dad, feeling the rest of her old schoolfriends and siblings had turned against her because she worked as a dancer at the club.
“One night he asked me to target a particular client at California Dreams. He told me his name, gave me photographs . . .”
“What was his name?” Dove asked, showing the girl a photo of their supposed first victim, but the girl shook her head.
“Arthur, Arthur Andrews. This was back in May. I got him to meet me in a car park next to the old leisure centre.”
Dove frowned at the thought that, as they had suspected, there were more victims who had been too afraid to come forward. “How badly was he hurt?”
“Oh, not badly at all,” Abi assured her, chewing her lip again. “Leo only threatened to hit him and he was crying and handing over all his stuff. Leo gave him a slap at the end just because he said he was a wimp and deserved it.”
“Charming. What about these people?” Dove flipped the iPad round and showed Abi the line-up of the five other men, including Alex Harbor, Neil Ockley and, just for fun, Gaia.
“All of them. I asked why to start with, but he just said get friendly with them and get them to meet me somewhere after work.” She paused again. “I told him no way. Gaia’s really strict about that, and Leo was saying you know, promise them sex, or a date or whatever. I freaked when he said sex. I’m not a bloody prostitute!”
“What happened when you refused?”
“Leo was quite nice about it, just said okay, but later that day, he came back to our flat, and started telling me he was in a lot of debt. All the places he had taken me, the clothes and jewellery he had bought to make me feel special, had used up all his spare cash.”
“He made you feel guilty?” Dove’s colleague asked.
/> “Of course, and then he broke down and cried, said he wanted us to be together properly but he didn’t deserve me and he was worried about the age gap.” Abi straightened and pulled her shoulders back, a little bit of confidence in her eyes. “Okay, I know how dumb it sounds that I fell for it, but he was pulling my strings. I can see that now.”
“It’s okay, he’s probably used the same routine on a lot of girls.” Dove decided not to bring up the fact Leo was a both a pimp and a drug dealer just yet, but Abi surprised her.
“I know, and me and Delta asked around. People know he’s bad news. But after we did the first scam on Andrews, I was trapped. I promise I never knew he was going to beat them up. He just said I should distract them and he would come in and steal the wallet, or watch or whatever was there. He said they would never tell the police because we only chose men who had good jobs, married with kids and a lot to lose. They were never going to tell the police they arranged to meet a nineteen-year-old stripper for a date, were they?”
“I guess not,” Dove agreed. “But then you arranged to meet Alex Harbor at Claw Beach on the night of July twenty-fifth?”
“Yeah. He was a big one, always flashing a lot of cash in his wallet, expensive watch, lots of jewellery for a man . . . Leo said we might have enough for us to set up with a place together after we did him, but by then I was scared, in too deep and scared. I really wasn’t sure ”
“Abi, are you sure you don’t want a solicitor present?” Marion, Dove’s colleague, interjected, but once again Abi shook her head firmly.
“Did Leo give you drugs?” Dove asked.
“Pills. I think it was just Ecstasy, but it gave me a buzz and carried me through the dates.” Her gaze faltered. “I felt like Leo was letting it go on too long. It was my job to get them to meet me, and drive to somewhere remote — Leo would tail us from a distance. My phone’s got a tracker and he always used a different car. But he was supposed to come in and steal stuff before I had to do anything . . . I didn’t want to actually have to have sex with them, but I felt like that’s what he wanted. He was getting a kick out of it.”
