Deadly Revenge

by Leigh Russell

  She breathed a cautious sigh of relief when Christine opened the door on the chain, eyes scanning the air in front of her with rapid irregular movements in a way that Ella remembered. She used to join in the mockery of her blind classmate when they were at school together, and now she found herself automatically rotating her own eyes to mirror Christine’s wandering gaze.

  ‘Christine,’ she blurted out, and paused.

  ‘Yes? Who is it?’

  ‘Christine, it’s Ella, from school.’

  ‘Ella?’

  In the light overhead she saw a faint frown flicker across Christine’s face.

  ‘Yes, you remember me, Ella Wilson. We were at school together.’

  ‘Of course I remember you.’

  There was a bitter timbre in the blind girl’s voice. It was hardly a warm greeting.

  ‘What do you want, Ella?’

  Ella decided it was best to be as honest as the truth would allow.

  ‘I – I need your help,’ she said simply.

  Christine began to close the door. As if she realised this was a critical moment, the baby woke up and began to howl.

  ‘Is that a baby?’ Christine asked, halting in surprise.

  ‘Yes, she’s mine and we have nowhere to go and it’s raining,’ Ella said quickly. ‘If you don’t let us in I don’t know where else we can go at this time of night, in the dark and the rain.’ The baby was crying more loudly. ‘She’s called Lily,’ Ella added.

  Too late, it occurred to her that she should have given Christine a different name. The police would know she had a baby called Lily, and they were looking for her. But as she had hoped, Christine seemed oblivious of the police interest in her new visitor, and barely seemed to register the baby’s name.

  ‘Oh well, you’d better come in then,’ she said, releasing the chain and opening the door. ‘At least until the rain gives over.’

  ‘Do you live here by yourself?’ Ella asked, and then kicked herself for putting a question that sounded so suspicious. Christine might think she had come there to rob her. ‘It’s just that my baby is very wary of men,’ she added quickly. ‘She won’t settle if there’s a man in the house.’

  Remembering the back story she had fabricated, Ella was already laying the groundwork. But, more importantly, she had to know if anyone else lived in the house. If so, they would almost certainly have seen her face plastered all over the news.

  ‘You’re all right, there’s no need to worry,’ Christine answered, taking a step back to allow Ella to enter the house. ‘It’s just me here. I have a friend who drops by every week to check I’m all right, and there are plenty of people I can call on if I need anything, but I manage fine on my own. I’ve always been independent. School taught me how to cope on my own,’ she added.

  If Christine felt bitter towards Ella for the years of bullying she had endured, she didn’t show it.

  ‘I’m sorry if we gave you a hard time,’ Ella said cautiously, feeling her way.

  She didn’t want to set off an emotional row. She just wanted somewhere safe to stay, with someone who would not have seen her picture in the news.

  ‘Oh, that’s all water under the bridge now,’ Christine assured her, a trifle too heartily for Ella’s comfort. ‘We were children then.’

  ‘Yes, but we still should have known better.’

  The baby let out a loud cry and Christine frowned. ‘Is she all right?’

  ‘She’s hungry,’ Ella replied, thinking, ‘We both are.’

  ‘You’d better come through and feed her and then we can have a chat and catch-up and you can tell me what you’re doing here.’

  Christine led her into a living room and gestured to an armchair. ‘I think you’ll be comfortable there?’

  Ella realised that Christine was expecting her to breast feed the baby. She wanted to. She had tried. But her milk had disappeared a while ago, and nothing she had done had caused it to return. Those days were over.

  ‘I need to heat up some milk,’ she said. ‘Is there any chance you could hold her while I prepare a bottle?’

  She took what she needed from her backpack as quickly as she could and found her way to the kitchen. Lily meanwhile was screaming loudly. Hurriedly fumbling with the teat, Ella ran back into the living room. She didn’t want Christine’s neighbours to hear the baby crying and become curious. The baby stopped crying as soon as her lips fastened on the teat.

  ‘People might think it was the television,’ she said, unintentionally voicing her thoughts aloud.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Oh, nothing.’

  ‘Would you like some tea?’ Christine asked and went to put the kettle on.

  ‘Are you sure you can manage?’ Ella called after her.

  Christine grunted and didn’t bother to reply. By the time she returned with a tray of tea, Ella had finished feeding and changing the baby, who was contentedly gurgling in her arms.

  ‘Do you want to hold her again?’ she asked. ‘She’s happier now.’

  Christine held out her arms and Ella carefully passed Lily over, keeping her own hands beneath the baby until she was sure Christine was holding her securely. Glancing at Christine’s happy expression, Ella began to relax for the first time since she had seen her photograph in the local paper. She hadn’t stopped to read the article, but she could imagine what it said. Only when Christine switched the television on did she rouse herself from her pleasant doze.

  ‘Can we change the channel?’ she asked, worried that the news might pop up after the quiz programme Christine had put on.

  ‘What would you like to watch?’

  Christine turned her head in the direction of Ella’s voice, her eyes moving rapidly as though she was annoyed.

  ‘I’m sorry, did you want to watch this?’ Ella asked. ‘Only Lily prefers cartoons.’

  Christine’s expression softened and she held the remote control out in Ella’s direction. As she switched channel, Ella thought about what had just happened. There was no reason why Christine would be pleased about Ella turning up out of the blue like that, asking to stay, but she definitely enjoyed holding the baby.

  ‘She likes you,’ Ella said. ‘She won’t stay with most people. I can’t believe she isn’t crying.’

  ‘What happened?’ Christine asked quietly. ‘Who are you running away from?’

  Ella heaved a loud sigh. ‘It’s my husband,’ she lied. ‘He’s always been bad-tempered. He can be violent. I kept meaning to leave him but then Lily came along and he promised to be different. But he didn’t change. People never do.’

  She glanced apprehensively at Christine, afraid she had reminded her of their time at school together.

  ‘Not once they’re adults anyway,’ she amended her statement. ‘Anyway, I was afraid he might hurt Lily, so I ran away.’

  Christine frowned, considering what she had heard. Ella held her breath.

  ‘You ought to report him,’ Christine said at last, in a decided tone of voice. ‘You can get the police to issue an injunction against him.’

  ‘What does that do?’

  ‘It means he isn’t allowed to come anywhere near you and if he does he can be arrested. You can’t let him near the baby. And you shouldn’t let him hit you, for that matter.’

  ‘I know; you’re right. He kept promising he would change, and I kept giving him another chance, and another one. But with Lily it’s different. If he lays a finger on her, he could kill her. She’s so tiny. I had to get her away from there. I had to bring her somewhere he wouldn’t find me. So you mustn’t tell anyone we’re here, not until I’ve figured out what to do.’

  ‘You did the right thing,’ Christine said. ‘We’ll keep her safe. No one’s going to hurt her. We won’t let them.’

  ‘I can’t believe she’s settled so readily with you.’

>   Christine let out a grunt of contentment as she felt the warm bundle resting in her arms. Smiling, she stroked Lily’s tiny fingers and Ella congratulated herself on having had the wit to find a safe haven, while outside the police continued hunting helplessly for her.

  47

  Within hours, DNA evidence found at Ella’s flat had been confirmed as a match for Daisy. They knew who had taken Jessica’s baby, but now Ella had vanished.

  ‘It can’t be that easy for a woman to disappear with a baby,’ a constable said.

  Several other officers agreed.

  ‘Assuming she still has Daisy with her,’ Geraldine muttered, voicing everyone’s worst fear.

  Panicking and alone, Ella might have realised the game was up. On her own she might be able to avoid attention, but with a young baby to care for wherever she went, her chances of escaping detection were slim. Clearly she was deranged to have kidnapped a baby in the first place, which meant her plans might be erratic at best, and certainly unpredictable. If she had decided to ditch Daisy, after leaving her flat off Holgate Street, there was no way of knowing what she might have done with the baby. The outlook for Daisy was not looking positive, and the longer Ella remained at large, the more of a danger she was going to pose, whether to Daisy, or to anyone else, including possibly any other baby she chanced to come across. At the risk of causing widespread panic, Eileen decided to give a statement to the media. It was a tricky subject, and Geraldine was concerned about what the detective chief inspector was planning to say, and how sensibly the media would report the story. Lurid headlines of a baby snatcher would not help the investigation.

  That evening Geraldine and Ian watched the local news headlines at home. The first item involved a fight outside a pub where two drunken youths had ended up in hospital. That was followed by a brief mention of David Armstrong, whose death was considered newsworthy since he had been a public figure of some standing. After that, a photograph of Ella appeared on the screen.

  ‘Police are looking for a young mother who might be in trouble and in urgent need of medical assistance,’ the presenter said evenly. ‘She goes by the name of Ella, although she may be using a false identity, and she is believed to be travelling with a baby. If anyone knows where she is, please contact your local police station without delay, or call the number displayed on the screen.’

  It was a neat way of asking for information, without focusing on the missing baby at the heart of the investigation. There was no point in mentioning Daisy by name. Ella was probably using a false name for herself and Daisy, if she still had her.

  Geraldine would have liked to work on finding Daisy. Even though a murderer – possibly two – could be on the loose, the missing baby seemed more urgent a case. But there was not much she could do. A massive hunt was now under way, with numerous officers drafted in from surrounding forces to help with the door-to-door questioning, the search of the area surrounding Ella’s lodgings, and the scrutiny of hours and hours of closed circuit television film from local stations and bus stops. So far no positive sighting had been made, but the search was not going to be called off until every inch of the vicinity had been explored.

  Meanwhile, Geraldine was sent to speak to the Armstrongs’ doctor. The surgery was not far from the police station. It was a lovely day, and she would have liked to walk there, but she couldn’t afford to spend the time so unproductively. She arrived at the surgery and went straight up to the reception desk, where a couple of people were waiting.

  ‘Hey, there’s a queue,’ a disgruntled patient called out.

  Without acknowledging the complainant, Geraldine held up her identity card to the receptionist and asked to speak to the relevant doctor.

  ‘Do you have an appointment?’ the young woman behind the desk replied.

  Geraldine sighed. When she had first been promoted to the rank of detective inspector, she had quite enjoyed parading her position. These days it just felt dreary. She wasn’t sure if that change was due to the response she received from the public, who seemed increasingly hostile towards the police, or if it was because she herself had become less excited about her role since her demotion. Probably it was a combination of the two. Now she held up her identity card again, right in front of the receptionist’s eyes.

  ‘Kindly take your eyes off your screen for a second and look at this, and then I’d like to speak to Dr Merrill as soon as his current appointment finishes.’

  The receptionist frowned and began to trot out her practised response. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to wait your turn –’

  ‘Listen,’ Geraldine said quietly, ‘I don’t want to have to charge you with wasting police time and obstructing the course of an investigation into a serious crime, but I should warn you that’s the way this conversation seems to be heading.’

  The receptionist glared at her. ‘I’ll call the practice manager,’ she said. ‘Please take a seat.’

  ‘So you’re still asking me to wait? Listen, I need to speak to Dr Merrill as soon as possible, and neither you nor your practice manager is going to cause me any further delay. As soon as the patient who is with him right now leaves his consulting room, I want to speak to him.’

  ‘I’m calling the police,’ someone shouted out.

  Geraldine turned round. ‘Yes, please do that,’ she replied loudly, holding up her identity card. ‘And please tell them that I need the nearest patrol car here right away, so that two uniformed constables can close the surgery until we’ve finished our enquiry.’ She turned back to the receptionist. ‘Or you can tell Dr Merrill I’d like to speak to him right away. It’s up to you.’

  An older woman came bustling out of a door behind the reception desk.

  ‘What seems to be the trouble?’ she asked.

  Once again, Geraldine held up her identity card and lowered her voice. ‘I need to speak to Dr Merrill, and your receptionist seems to think it’s your practice policy to obstruct the police in conducting an enquiry into a serious crime.’ She flipped open her phone. ‘You have my location. I need a couple of uniformed officers to help me out here with a situation, and we’ll need to charge a couple of ladies with obstruction –’

  ‘No, no, wait!’ the practice manager cried out in alarm. ‘There’s no need for any of that. Of course you can see the doctor right away. This way, please. And please, cancel that request. This is all a misunderstanding.’ She turned and glared at the receptionist.

  Muttering ‘Cancel that’ into her unconnected phone, Geraldine followed the manager along the corridor to a consulting room. As soon as a patient emerged, the manager ushered Geraldine into the room.

  ‘This is a detective sergeant,’ the woman said, anxious to smooth over the disagreement. ‘She would like to ask you a few questions.’

  ‘Are you a patient?’ the doctor asked.

  ‘I’m here in a professional capacity.’ Geraldine turned to the manager. ‘I’d like to speak to the doctor alone.’

  Mumbling under her breath, the manager left.

  ‘I’m part of the team investigating the death of a patient of yours, David Armstrong,’ Geraldine explained.

  ‘Oh yes, of course. Please, take a seat. How can I help you, although I have to tell you I’ve already been questioned at length and have nothing further to add to what I’ve already said.’

  ‘I appreciate you have patients waiting and won’t take up much of your time,’ Geraldine said as she sat down. ‘What we need to know is: did you recently prescribe any drugs containing cetirizine to David or Anne Armstrong?’

  The doctor frowned. ‘Cetirizine can be purchased over the counter for allergy relief,’ he replied. ‘It’s not necessary to have a prescription.’

  He turned and consulted his computer. After a moment he turned back to Geraldine, frowning.

  ‘Thirteen years ago, David Armstrong was admitted to hospital suffering a severe reaction to a dr
ug containing cetirizine. It’s unusual to experience such a severe reaction, but by no means unheard of. He had somehow contrived to take an overdose, as a result of which he was no longer able to tolerate it in any significant quantity.’

  Geraldine drew in a deep breath. ‘And his wife would have been aware of that?’

  ‘Well, he was admitted to hospital,’ the doctor replied gravely. ‘Of course, you may not be at liberty to share the implications of this with me, but if there’s anything else I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask.’

  Thanking him, and with his assurance that he would not mention the subject of their discussion to anyone, Geraldine left. She was aware of the receptionist glaring balefully at her as she passed the desk, but she was too busy on her phone to react.

  48

  Having called in at the police station to report her findings, Geraldine went home. While the hunt for Ella continued, Geraldine and Ian were focusing on looking into everyone who might have had any dealings with the two murder victims. Despite living and working side by side, Geraldine and Ian had not spent much time together since Ian had moved back in with her four days earlier. At the police station they focused on their individual allotted tasks, and when they were not at work they inevitably found themselves drawn into discussing the case. Geraldine didn’t mind, but when Ian complained they were ‘living and breathing work twenty-four seven’, she wondered whether he was beginning to regret having moved in with her.

  Over a late breakfast, as they discussed their plans for the day, she wondered how the conversation might have gone if they had not been investigating a double murder, and whether Ian was thinking the same.