Deadly Revenge

by Leigh Russell

  Christine shook her head, still crying. ‘I don’t know where they went,’ she sobbed. ‘I don’t know. Ella went out to the shop – she said she was going to the shop – and she never came back. She never came back. She took all my money and she left. I can’t help you. I can’t help you.’

  ‘You already have helped us a lot,’ Geraldine replied. ‘I’d like to send a team here to take fingerprints and samples of DNA, and search your house to help us find Ella.’

  Christine nodded.

  ‘And I’ll make sure your social worker is here when they come.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘If you can think of anything else, please call me straight away. I’ll put my number on your phone so you can get in touch with me easily.’

  Christine reached out with an involuntary movement. ‘Ella told me her husband was violent. How did her baby die?’ she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  ‘It was a cot death,’ Geraldine replied.

  For an instant neither of them spoke. Then Geraldine thanked Christine and turned to leave. Just by telling Geraldine that Ella had nearly three hundred pounds in cash, Christine had helped the investigation. With enough money to take a train or a bus out of the area, it was unlikely that Ella would still be in the village. She might even have left York. As soon as she left Christine, Geraldine was on the phone widening the search for Ella and Daisy.

  51

  Early the next morning someone knocked at Christine’s door. Pulling on her dressing gown, she went downstairs.

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Christine, it’s me. I’m with Lily and we need your help. Let us in, please. We’ve got nowhere else to go.’

  Christine frowned. ‘Go away,’ she said.

  ‘Please, Christine, if you don’t do it for me, do it for Lily. She needs your help. Please, she’s freezing to death out here.’

  There was a muffled sound of a baby crying. Christine dithered for a few seconds, then opened the door.

  ‘Come on in then,’ she said, ‘but I’m calling the police.’

  She heard Ella bustle inside, lift the pushchair over the step, and close the door. As Christine flipped her phone open, Ella took it from her.

  ‘Give that back,’ Christine cried out.

  ‘Wait, let’s get Lily settled first, and then we can talk about what we’re going to do.’

  ‘She’s not called Lily. Her name’s Daisy and you stole her from her mother. I know all about it, because the police were here and they told me what you did.’

  ‘What they told you isn’t true. Lily is my baby, and someone’s trying to take her away from me.’

  ‘Why would anyone do that?’

  ‘It’s complicated, but basically, she’s crazy. She lost her own baby and now she’s trying to get her hands on Lily, but I won’t let anyone take her from me. You’re going to help me save Lily. Here, you hold her while I warm her milk.’

  After that, for a while Christine was preoccupied with comforting the crying baby, but at last Lily was fed and changed and settled.

  ‘Now give me back my phone,’ Christine said.

  ‘Listen, I’m not going to stop you calling the police if that’s what you decide to do, but first you have to hear me out. A lot of people have been telling lies about me, and now even the police are involved, but it’s not true what they’re saying. None of it’s true.’

  Ella was so adamant that the baby sleeping peacefully in Christine’s arms was called Lily that it was hard not to believe her. The account of a mad woman who had lost her own baby and had convinced the police that Ella had taken her was more difficult to understand. As Ella said, it was complicated. What was clear was that two women were claiming to be the mother of one baby. But nothing else about Ella’s account made sense.

  ‘The police can do tests to find out who the real mother is,’ Christine said.

  ‘No, they can’t. Usually they can, but not in this case.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because – because – the woman who’s trying to steal Lily from me is my long lost twin sister. We met after we left school, so you never knew about her. It’s well known that twins often have babies at the same time, so our babies were the same age. When hers died, she went crazy and she’s been telling everyone that Lily’s hers. But because we’re identical, that means the tests can’t tell us apart. She’s always been jealous of me, and since her baby died she’s become unhinged. But she’s very good at hiding her insanity, and now it’s my word against hers. But my twin has – her husband is high up in the police and that’s why they’ve taken her side.’

  Ella explained that she had only taken Christine’s money so she could buy them both tickets to London.

  ‘You didn’t know I’d go with you,’ Christine pointed out.

  ‘I knew you’d come.’

  Just then, the baby stirred in Christine’s arms and she felt tiny fingers clutch at her hand.

  ‘Lily really likes you,’ Ella whispered. ‘I think she loves you. So you can’t let her down. You have to help us get away. If I try to leave the area on my own with her, the police are bound to find me, but they won’t be looking for two women and a baby. Come with us, and we can get away and then Lily can live with us and we can say you’re her godmother, or her aunt, or whatever you like.’

  ‘I could be her mother,’ Christine said tentatively, afraid Ella would be angry with her.

  ‘Sure, of course, that’s a great idea,’ Ella replied with surprising enthusiasm.

  ‘You’re not just saying that so I help you get away?’

  ‘Look how happy Lily is with you,’ Ella replied. ‘There’s nothing I’d like better than to have you with us, always, helping to take care of her. But you need to decide now, because we have to go soon. Lily and I can’t stay here. With or without you, we have to leave.’

  Christine hesitated, but she was never going to be offered another chance like this. Maybe Ella was lying about letting her live with them, but she had to take that chance. She couldn’t let Ella leave and take Lily away. Quickly she packed a few things into a bag, and they set off.

  ‘You don’t need that stick,’ Ella said as she opened the front door. ‘Just put your sunglasses on so no one knows who you are.’

  ‘Of course I need my stick,’ Christine protested. ‘I can’t go out without it.’

  But Ella was adamant. ‘We can’t do anything that gives away who we are. Come on.’

  It felt strange walking along the street without her stick to guide her, and several times she nearly tripped on uneven paving stones, even though she was holding on to Ella’s arm.

  ‘Be careful,’ Ella warned her.

  There was nothing Christine could do because she couldn’t see the ground, and Ella was dragging her along at a fast walking pace so she couldn’t even feel her way slowly. By the time they stopped walking a fine rain had begun to fall, and she didn’t have a hood or a scarf. Her hair felt damp and she started to shiver.

  ‘Is Lily getting wet?’ she asked.

  ‘Keep your voice down,’ Ella hissed. ‘She’s fine. She’s got a rain cover.’

  ‘Where are we?’

  ‘We’re getting a coach to London. Once we’re there, it’ll be easy to disappear. I’ve still got some of the money left.’

  ‘My money,’ Christine thought, but she didn’t say anything.

  Once they were seated on the coach, Ella let Christine hold Lily, and she was able to relax and settle down to enjoy the journey. The coach was warm and she stopped shivering. Lily felt heavier in her arms than she remembered, and her weight was soothing.

  ‘I think she’s growing,’ she said, and smiled. ‘She must be healthy.’

  ‘And happy. And we’re going to make sure she stays that way.’

  ‘I never thought I’d have a baby to look afte
r.’

  ‘I know, but remember to keep your voice down while we’re out,’ Ella muttered. ‘There are people all around us. We don’t want to draw attention to our situation.’

  It was true. Christine could hear a muffled buzz of voices that she had been too preoccupied with Lily to notice. She nodded in Ella’s direction and a few moments later the coach set off with a bump. She held Lily close, but the baby didn’t seem to stir. If she put her head very close to Lily’s face, she thought she could make out the faint purring of her breath mingling with the rumble of the engine. They hadn’t gone far when they halted, and Christine heard a disturbance. Several people began asking what was going on, and above the commotion a loud voice rang out, ordering everyone to stay in their seats. At her side, she heard Ella swear. Without a word of explanation, Ella grabbed Lily who woke up and began to cry.

  ‘You should have left her with me. She was fine,’ Christine protested.

  An unfamiliar voice called out their names. At first Ella didn’t answer, but then she began yelling, ‘Give her back! She’s mine!’

  Voices were shouting and Lily was crying, and Ella was screaming. Terrified by the commotion, Christine began to cry. She didn’t know what was happening, but she was afraid Ella’s evil twin had stolen Lily. Ella’s shrieks faded and a woman’s voice called Christine by name, and someone took her by the arm to help her out of her seat. Christine shrank back against the window.

  ‘No, no, leave me alone. Where’s Lily? Give her back! I’m not going anywhere without Lily.

  There was a pause, and a muttering, and then the woman returned.

  ‘Come on, then,’ she said. ‘We’ll take you to Lily. But you have to come with me. Lily’s not on the coach any more. Come with me, please.’

  Still sobbing, Christine was guided off the coach and taken to a car and driven back to York. She was escorted to a cold room where, shaking and crying, she was led to a chair. Her social worker arrived and tried to calm her down, and a few moments later, she recognised the voice of the policewoman who had been to her house and told her that Ella had stolen a baby called Daisy.

  ‘They took the baby,’ she cried out. ‘Where is she? Where’s Lily? You have to get her back. Don’t believe what that other woman says. They took Lily. Ella said I could help take care of her. She said I could hold her whenever I wanted. She’s Ella’s baby. She’s ours!’

  ‘It’s all right, Christine,’ her social worker said. ‘Calm down. You’re not in any trouble.’

  ‘But they took the baby,’ Christine wept. ‘They took Lily.’

  ‘Christine,’ the policewoman said gently, ‘the last time we spoke, at your house, you told me Ella stole money from you.’

  ‘She did, she did,’ Christine wept. ‘But then she came back and said she needed me to help her with the baby. She only took the money so she could buy food for the baby.’

  ‘You said she stole nearly three hundred pounds from you?’

  ‘I thought she stole it, but then she came back. She needed the money to buy us tickets. We were taking Lily to London where we could all be safe. We were going to live together and I was going to help look after the baby. She said I could help take care of her.’

  ‘That baby was not Ella’s. She’s called Daisy and now she’s been reunited with her mother.’

  ‘No, no,’ Christine wept. ‘It’s not true. It’s not true. Her name’s Lily and Ella’s her mother. Ella and me, we were looking after her. She loves me. Lily loves me.’

  52

  If anything, Ella was even more distraught than Christine.

  ‘They took my baby,’ she wailed. ‘They took my baby.’

  ‘But she’s not your baby, is she?’ Geraldine said. ‘Because your Lily died from neglect when you failed to take proper care of her, didn’t she?’

  ‘No, no. It was him, it was him,’ Ella replied. ‘He did it, he did it.’ A curious expression flickered across her face. ‘He won’t hurt either of us ever again.’

  Geraldine leaned forward and lowered her voice, speaking to Ella as though the two of them were alone together. ‘Who won’t? Look at me, Ella. Who won’t hurt you again?’

  ‘Pete,’ Ella replied, as though the question surprised her. ‘Who do you think I meant? He was a vicious brute, and when I saw he was doing it to her too, I had to stop him, didn’t I?’

  ‘What was he –’ Ian began, but Geraldine held up a hand to silence him.

  ‘Yes, you did,’ Geraldine agreed, smiling at Ella. ‘You had to stop him. So what did you do?’

  ‘He won’t hurt anyone again,’ Ella repeated.

  ‘How can you be so sure?’ Geraldine pressed her.

  ‘Because he can’t get out. He can’t ever get out.’

  It was not clear if Ella was laughing or crying. Before long she became hysterical and her lawyer insisted they take a break.

  Geraldine turned to Ian. ‘Something about this is very nasty, but I can’t quite work out what.’

  ‘A baby killed and another one abducted to take her place, isn’t that nasty enough for you?’

  Daisy had been taken to the paediatric ward of the local hospital where she was being carefully checked for injury or maltreatment. The report came in that she was in reasonably sound health and did not appear to be suffering any ill effects from her kidnapping. Jessica was with her.

  Meanwhile, Geraldine had been reading Lily’s medical record which mentioned several accidental injuries to her limbs and torso.

  ‘Ella’s crazy enough to have inflicted the injuries herself,’ Eileen commented.

  ‘But she took good care of Daisy,’ Geraldine pointed out.

  There was nothing to indicate Lily had not suffered a cot death, but there was enough to suggest that she might have been deliberately injured by Ella, or her boyfriend, Pete, who had apparently done a runner after the baby died.

  ‘It’s no wonder he scarpered,’ Ian said angrily. ‘If he is responsible for harming that baby, we need to find him and bring him to justice. A lifetime behind bars is too good for that scum.’

  ‘They tried to find Ella’s boyfriend, Pete, at the time of the baby’s death,’ Eileen said, ‘but he was never traced. He’s probably slipped out of the country by now. He could be anywhere. He vanished when Lily died, and there was no reason why anyone other than Ella would want to find him. A cot death is tragic, but it’s not a crime. As for the baby’s injuries, if they were deliberately inflicted, no one will ever know.’

  ‘Her mother would have known,’ Geraldine said quietly.

  ‘You’re looking thoughtful,’ Eileen said. ‘What’s on your mind?’ She frowned at Geraldine who shook her head.

  ‘It’s probably nothing,’ she replied. ‘But do you remember what Ella said to us when we were questioning her about Lily’s death?’

  ‘What specifically are you referring to?’

  ‘All of it really,’ Geraldine replied. ‘Don’t you remember what Ella said when we suggested she had neglected to care for Lily?’

  ‘Remind me,’ Eileen snapped. ‘Don’t play memory games.’

  Without even glancing at her notes, Geraldine recited Ella’s statement. ‘She said: “It was him, it was him. He did it, he did it.” And then she said: “He won’t hurt either of us ever again.” I asked her who she was talking about, just to be clear, and she replied: “Pete.” She said he was a vicious brute and when she saw what he was doing to the baby, she had to stop him. And then she said: “He won’t hurt anyone again because he can’t get out. He can’t ever get out.” What if she found Pete before he could get away? What if he never got away?’

  ‘That’s all very well, but if you’re right, then where is he?’ Eileen asked.

  Geraldine shook her head. ‘I don’t know, but there’s a chance he never left, and that’s why we couldn’t find him. He could still be in her flat, hidden
.’

  Eileen stared at Geraldine for only a second before she was on the phone, expediting the issue of an emergency search warrant and barking at Geraldine to organise a search team. Questioning Ella further would have to wait. They were unlikely to get much sense from her anyway.

  The search team went through Ella’s flat room by room. It was filthy, and the kitchen stank of rotting food.

  ‘No one could keep a baby here,’ one of the team said. ‘The health visitor would have it removed in a jiffy.’

  ‘The place can’t have been like this when her baby was still alive,’ Geraldine agreed. ‘She must have gone to pieces after Lily died.’

  What was unusual was that every single room in the flat had bolts on the inside of the door. Wherever Ella went, she seemed to have wanted to lock herself in.

  ‘It’s as though she was afraid of being attacked inside the flat,’ a constable said. ‘How the hell she ever kept a baby here is just unbelievable. Did she lock it in with her wherever she went?’

  ‘Talk about paranoid,’ another officer added. ‘She’s an absolute maniac.’

  ‘Do you think she was afraid of ghosts?’ the first constable asked.

  ‘Ghosts?’ his companion echoed contemptuously. ‘You think bolts can keep ghosts out?’

  ‘Nothing can keep ghosts out, because they don’t exist, you muppet.’

  ‘Well, it may not have been ghosts, but she was keen to keep herself safe from something.’

  ‘Or someone,’ Geraldine said.

  Every door in the flat had three bolts on the inside, top, middle and bottom. Only the door to the cellar was bolted on the outside. Geraldine watched as a constable pulled the bolts across.

  ‘They’re stiff,’ he commented.

  The door creaked open, and the officer drew back with a shout of disgust. The foul smell reached Geraldine who was standing a foot away, and she covered her mouth and nose at the stench with an involuntary grimace.

  ‘I’m guessing there’s a body down there,’ the constable muttered, pulling a face.