Daisy in Chains
Page 33
‘This is a gel skullcap.’ She is speaking directly to Maggie. ‘Skateboarders use them for the more dangerous stunts. I know you meant to knock my brains out, but you’ve just given me a nasty headache.’
Hamish seems about to move.
‘Stay where you are, please, Hamish,’ Pete says. ‘Maggie, I want you down on your knees with your hands in the air. I’ll make this as quick and as comfortable as possible, but we have to get you out of here.’
In response she backs away. ‘Are you mad? Do you imagine for one moment that you’ll convict me? Think about what you’ve been doing. Illegal searches of my house, breaking and entering, threatening me on that Ferris wheel. Not to mention springing a convicted murderer from prison. Any confession of mine that you taped was made under duress, when I was in fear of my life. There is more chance of the two of you going to prison than me.’ She turns to Hamish. ‘As for you, you’re going to rot.’
‘Officially, we’ve only ever been in your house with your permission,’ says Pete. ‘The break-in – or, strictly, trespass, because your door was unlocked – is likely to remain an unsolved crime. There is nothing to suggest that the origami rose, the writing under the table, the daisies delivered on Christmas Day were anything to do with us.’
‘I know they were.’ She’s practically spitting at him. ‘You staged that break-in so I’d agree to the crime scene people coming in. You released my personal information to Facebook too. You were trying to frighten me, to intimidate me into making a false confession.’
‘Prove it,’ says Pete. ‘Prove that the three of us had anything to do with that.’
‘As for the Ferris wheel incident,’ says Liz, ‘I remember it quite differently. It was your idea. You frightened me when we were at the top. Sandra and Bear will back me up on that, by the way.’
Maggie is getting angrier by the second and Pete knows he needs to wrap this up. But she has turned on Hamish now. ‘You escaped from prison and stole a plane. That is a serious crime, and if these two jerks helped you, then that alone is enough—’
‘Actually, he didn’t.’ The new voice cuts through the cold air of the cave. Pete should have known Latimer wouldn’t be able to keep out of it for long. Keeping him in the dark about the unofficial undercover operation he and Liz instigated is probably still something he’ll have to answer for. Oddly, though, he finds himself quite relieved to see the boss. Especially as he hasn’t come alone. At least two of the uniformed officers they left outside have made their way in with the DCI. Sunday is with them too.
Latimer glances around the cave and addresses Maggie. ‘There was no ten-mile hike across the Isle of Wight, no James Bond style escape in a light aircraft,’ he tells her. ‘The ladder and the handmade key were only to provide some photographs that Sunday here used to create a very convincing fake BBC website. And to provide a bit of noise on Twitter. Hamish left Parkhurst in a police car and came here via the Isle of Wight ferry and the M5. Technically, he is still in police custody and no crimes have been committed by my team.’ He glances over at Pete and drops his voice. ‘Although God knows they came close.’
‘Maggie,’ says Hamish, ‘you need to go with Pete now.’
Maggie turns back to Hamish and shakes her head. Her eyes don’t leave his, although she must surely be able to sense, if not see, that Pete, Latimer, Sunday and Liz are all making their way towards her. God knows how they’ll get her out of here uninjured if she fights, but they have to bring this to an end. Behind them, more uniformed constables are entering the cave.
‘You love me,’ Maggie tells Hamish. ‘I know you do.’
‘No.’ Liz speaks up, her voice echoing through the cave. ‘He loves me. That part was true.’
Hamish takes the last step that will bring him up to Maggie.
‘And that dog isn’t called Daisy,’ Liz shouts. ‘She’s called Cruella.’
Maggie seems to sway but she’s still looking at Hamish. Pete doesn’t think either of them have blinked for the better part of a minute. Hamish reaches out and puts his hands on her shoulders, bends down and kisses her cheek, whispers something in her ear. She seems to slump against him. Hamish looks over her shoulder at Pete and nods.
With a sudden, painful screech, Maggie rears up and strikes out at Hamish. Taken by surprise, he loses his balance. Liz rushes forward. Maggie darts away. She cannot leave the cave, there are too many officers blocking her way, but she isn’t heading for the exit. She stumbles across the last few stretches of damp limestone to the edge of the river.
‘Daisy!’ yells Hamish, as she throws herself into the water.
The current reaches up and grabs a hold of her. Every police officer in the cave runs to the river’s edge and shines his torch on the water. In Latimer’s beam they think they catch a glimpse of a pale hand as the water rushes underground. Then nothing.
Chapter 104
The Times Online, Thursday, 14 January 2016
‘CONVICTED’ MURDERER FREED PENDING APPEAL
Hamish Wolfe was released from prison yesterday by a High Court judge pending a fresh appeal into his conviction. ‘It would appear, from what I have learned this morning,’ said Lord Justice Robinson, ‘that new evidence in this case has come to light. If substantiated it may, in the fullness of time, lead to a quashing of Mr Wolfe’s conviction. In the meantime, I see no reason why Mr Wolfe should not rejoin his family.’
Police have, this morning, named thirty-eight-year-old lawyer and true-crime author Maggie Rose as their new prime suspect in the murders of Jessie Tout, Chloe Wood and Myrtle Reid. Rose fled police custody during an attempted arrest two days ago and is believed to have died. A police search for her body is currently under way.
Hamish Wolfe, thirty-eight, was given a whole life tariff in 2014 and has served fifteen months of his sentence, primarily in HMP Isle of Wight. While family and friends campaigned energetically for his release, the turning point came when he secured the confidence and support of his police liaison officer, Detective Constable Elizabeth Nuttall, thirty-four.
The divorced mother-of-two confirmed to reporters this morning that she and Wolfe are romantically involved and expect to marry shortly after his release has been formalized.
Nuttall is not the only woman to fall prey to the handsome former surgeon’s dark charm (he received, allegedly, over a hundred letters a week in prison), but in her case, the infatuation might cost her dear. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police confirmed this morning that she has been suspended from her CID job and is expected to face misconduct charges for entering into a relationship with a convicted prisoner without informing her superiors. If it is found that she acted incorrectly, she may be dismissed from the police service.
At a press conference this morning, senior officer DCI Tim Latimer refused to condemn DC Nuttall. He said, ‘Clearly there needs to be a full investigation, but at this stage I’m proud that my officers, in particular Detective Sergeant Pete Weston and Detective Constable Liz Nuttall, were prepared to put the pursuit of justice before personal considerations.’
Hamish Wolfe has been unavailable for comment today and is believed to be with his parents at an undisclosed location, but Ms Nuttall told us that she couldn’t be happier that her fiancé’s innocence has been proven and that they can look forward to a normal life together. ‘I started to believe Hamish shortly after I became his liaison officer,’ she told us. ‘After that it was a question of finding proof, and of convincing my colleagues that there’d been a miscarriage of justice.’
The couple have not yet set a date for their wedding. ‘Soon,’ Ms Nuttall told us. ‘Very soon. Hamish needs some time, obviously, to get used to being in the outside world again. I’m going to need to be patient with him, cut him some slack but, yes, it’s going to happen soon. No, I haven’t spoken to him for a couple of days, but that’s fine. He needs some space.’
When I ask what would have happened if proof hadn’t been forthcoming, if she’d remained convinced of his guilt, sh
e doesn’t have a ready response to hand. I decide to push a little and ask which came first, the belief in his innocence, or a dangerously irresistible attraction.
‘I fell in love,’ she says. ‘Obviously I’m much happier to love an innocent man, but if he’d been guilty?’ She pauses for a few seconds before giving me her answer: ‘I would have loved him just the same.’
Acknowledgements
My grateful thanks to:
My family, including my mother-in-law, who gets dragged on research trips during the coldest months of the year and who never seems to mind. My dog, Lupe, for being beautifully behaved during our stay at the Crown in Wells and for not killing the cathedral cat. Peter Warner, for advice on what lawyers can and can’t get up to with convicted felons. Adrian Summons for the detecting stuff. Brian Snell of the Mendip Caving Group, for help with disposing of bodies beneath the Mendip Hills. (Sidcot Swallet and Goatchurch Cavern are real caves, but Rill Cavern and Gossam Cave are my inventions.) Any remaining mistakes are my own.
My two UK editors, Sarah Adams and Frankie Gray, both of whom worked exceptionally hard to get Daisy to the publishable stage. A cheery wave, also, to Kelley Ragland at St Martin’s Press in the US, Andrea Best at Goldmann in Germany and all my lovely overseas publishers.
As ever, the Transworld team: Alison Barrow, Tom Chicken, Elspeth Dougall, Christina Ellicott, Larry Finlay, Giulia Giordano, Gary Hartley, Becky Hunter, Louise Jones, Naomi Mantin, Deirdre O’Connell, Gareth Pottle, Bradley Rose, Kate Samano, Bill Scott-Kerr and Nicola Wright.
By no means least, my agent, Anne-Marie Doulton, and her colleagues, the Buckmans.
Also by Sharon Bolton
(previously published as S. J. Bolton)
Sacrifice
Awakening
Blood Harvest
Now You See Me
Dead Scared
Lost
A Dark and Twisted Tide
Little Black Lies
About the Author
SHARON BOLTON is a Mary Higgins Clark Award winner and an ITW Thriller Award, CWA Gold Dagger and Barry Award nominee. Her books included the Lacey Flint novels: Now You See Me, Dead Scared, Lost, and A Dark and Twisted Tide. She lives near London, England. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Acknowledgements
Also by Sharon Bolton
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DAISY IN CHAINS. Copyright © 2016 by Sharon Bolton. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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First published in Great Britain by Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, a Random House Group company
First U.S. Edition: September 2016
eISBN 9781250103437
First eBook edition: September 2016