Deadly Revenge

by Leigh Russell

  But as he spoke, a grating voice cried out from the darkness at the foot of the stairs leading down into the cellar.

  ‘Let me out! Let me out! Let me out, you fucking bitch. I’m going to kill you!’

  The constable slammed the door shut and slid the middle bolt across. ‘Fucking hell,’ he whispered. ‘There’s someone in there!’

  Geraldine approached the door and pulled it open, trying not to breathe in the horrible smell.

  ‘Peter!’ she called out. ‘This is the police and you’re under arrest for the murder of your daughter, Lily.’

  In the light from a torch, Geraldine and a member of the search team made their way cautiously down the wooden stairs leading to the cellar. The walls were slimy with mould and damp; the smell became almost palpable as they reached the bottom. The constable shone the beam of light around to reveal a hideous crouching figure, covered in filth. His eyes, which were closed against the unaccustomed light, were crusted in filth and mucus and he was standing in a pool of vomit and excrement. A thick chain had been crudely wound around his arms and legs, pinning them to his sides, and preventing him from walking more than a couple of steps.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ the constable cried out. ‘How long has he been here?’

  ‘About three months,’ Geraldine replied, struggling to control her nausea. She turned back to the stairs. ‘I’ll send someone down to help you get him out of here.’

  Her colleague nodded. ‘He was locked in here by the mother of a baby he killed, wasn’t he?’

  ‘That seems to be what happened.’

  ‘I doubt if he’ll be able to get himself up those stairs,’ the constable said, speaking very fast, ‘and it seems a shame to get our hands dirty moving him. Why don’t we just leave him here?’

  Geraldine hesitated, fighting the temptation to agree with the constable. With only the word of an insane woman to secure a conviction against him, Pete might evade a prison sentence. But Ella had taken the law into her own hands by punishing Pete herself, and that was a dangerous path to follow. Much as she abhorred the prospect that Pete might escape prison, Geraldine had devoted her life to the pursuit of justice. And that meant that even a villain like Pete had to face a fair trial, whatever the outcome. The other choice could only ultimately lead to chaos where the most powerful would inevitably triumph, regardless of right and wrong.

  ‘We’ll bring him out to face trial, and let’s hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars where he belongs,’ she said firmly.

  ‘It’s going to be tricky getting him out of there,’ the constable said. ‘Any attempt to move is going to be agonising for him, after he’s been trussed up like that for so long.’

  Geraldine and the constable exchanged a glance of complicity, although neither of them actually smiled.

  ‘Make him crawl up the stairs,’ she replied.

  53

  After waiting half a morning for the duty solicitor to arrive, Geraldine faced Ella in the interview room and started the tape running. With the preliminaries completed, she began with a direct accusation to see how Ella would react.

  ‘You stole Jessica’s baby.’

  ‘No, I never,’ Ella replied at once, her voice rising indignantly. ‘If that’s what she told you, then she’s a liar. I never stole her baby.’

  ‘If you didn’t kidnap Jessica’s baby, how do you account for your being discovered trying to escape from York with her?’

  ‘I’m not saying I didn’t have her, only that I never stole her.’

  ‘I suppose you’re going to tell us next that Jessica gave you the baby as a Christmas present?’ Geraldine gave Ella’s lawyer a patient smile which he did not return. ‘Take as long as you like, Ella. Neither of us is going anywhere until you’ve told me the truth. Jessica never gave you her baby, did she?’

  ‘Yes she did. That’s what I’m telling you, if you’d only listen. That’s exactly what happened. Jessica gave me her baby to look after, because she wanted to do whatever she could to protect Daisy from her father. Jason was a vicious man, just like Pete was. That’s how come I understood her. I understood everything. Jessica showed me the bruises where he used to wallop her.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I know what that feels like, I can tell you. When I warned her what might happen to Daisy if she kept her baby anywhere near that man, Jessica begged me to take Daisy away from their house. She said it was like sitting on a ticking bomb, waiting in fear for Jason to injure Daisy. She paid me to take the baby and look after her, and hide her from him. I never stole that baby. There was no need.’

  ‘Jessica alleges you did.’

  ‘That’s because I refused to give her back.’

  ‘It comes to the same thing,’ Geraldine said. ‘You kept her baby against her wishes. That’s stealing.’

  ‘I had to do it after Jessica told me what she’d done. She came to see me, all smiles, and said it was safe to take Daisy back home with her because she’d dealt with Jason. When I asked her how she could be so sure he wouldn’t come back, she told me she’d killed him.’

  ‘How did she do that?’ Ian asked.

  ‘She told me he was leaning over in the garage, and she crept up behind him and whacked him on the head with a hammer. He never got up again, so after a while she wrapped him in a blanket and lugged him into the car at night, and heaved him over a fence out by some allotments she’d driven past, somewhere she thought no one would see.’

  ‘Jessica told you that?’ Ian asked.

  ‘That’s exactly what she told me. So I had to refuse to give the baby back. I had to protect Daisy from her mother. If she’d killed once, who was to say she wouldn’t do it again? I had to keep that baby safe. When she threatened me, I told her she could do her worst; only, if she took Daisy away from me, I’d tell the police what she’d confessed to me, about doing away with her husband. That shut her up.’ She grinned. ‘I never did tell, of course.’

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘She complained to me that her money had run out and she couldn’t afford to pay me any more. She thought that would make me give her back her baby, but I couldn’t do that, could I? So I told her father what she’d done. I figured he’d be willing to pay a fair amount for my silence. He wouldn’t want anyone else finding out what she’d done.’

  ‘You blackmailed him?’

  ‘No. I never did. It wasn’t like that. I just wanted him to help me out now and again. Just a few quid here and there, for his granddaughter. He’s a wealthy man. I was right. He wanted me to keep quiet about it only before he even gave me a penny someone topped him. Talk about bad luck!’

  Geraldine and Ian exchanged a glance. With Ella’s statement, the whole sorry story was beginning to unravel.

  ‘So according to Ella’s statement, which may or may not be reliable, Jessica killed her husband, allegedly to protect Daisy from his violent outbursts.’ Eileen gazed around the assembled team. ‘Ella says that Jason had hit Jessica on more than one occasion, and she was concerned for her daughter’s safety. After handing the baby to Ella, Jessica murdered her husband and then asked for her baby back. Ella refused to give Daisy up, and went to David when Jessica refused to give her any more money. Shortly after that, David was killed.’ Eileen paused. ‘Did Jessica kill her father? She had a strong motive for silencing him once Ella had told him about Jason’s murder.’

  ‘I wonder why she didn’t try to kill Ella, not her father?’ Geraldine said. ‘With Ella out of the way, the only accusation against Jessica would be hearsay, and in any case she could probably have convinced her father that she was innocent. Plus she would have been able to take back her baby.’

  Eileen frowned. ‘Let’s see what Jessica has to say about her father’s death.’

  ‘She denies having killed her husband,’ Ian said. ‘But the forensic evidence points to her.’

  Eileen sighed. ‘If you can persua
de her to confess, it would make our lives a lot easier.’

  Jessica stared belligerently across the table at Geraldine and Ian. ‘When can I go home to Daisy?’

  Anne Armstrong had employed a clean-shaven young solicitor in an expensive suit to represent and advise Jessica. He turned to his client.

  ‘They have to release you in a couple of hours.’

  ‘Unless we charge her,’ Ian pointed out.

  The solicitor returned Ian’s glare impassively. Jessica seemed increasingly agitated, demanding to see her baby.

  ‘Tell us again about Jason’s disappearance,’ Geraldine said gently.

  ‘He went off to a stag do and never came back,’ Jessica snapped. ‘I’ve told you again and again. That’s all I know. He didn’t come home, and then ten days later the police knocked on my door and told me they’d found his body. He was dead.’

  She broke off, as though she was overcome by emotion, but she dropped her face in her hands and Geraldine could not see her expression.

  ‘Only Jason never went to a stag do.’ Ian leaned forward and spoke very slowly and clearly. ‘We’ve questioned all his friends and can find no evidence he ever went anywhere. We have a witness who claims you killed your husband because he physically abused you on a regular basis, and you were terrified he might injure your baby.’

  Jessica hesitated and glanced at her lawyer who gave a slight shake of his head.

  ‘No comment,’ Jessica said.

  ‘Is it true Jason used to hit you?’ Geraldine asked.

  ‘No comment.’

  ‘We have medical evidence that suggests you suffered injuries over a prolonged period of time,’ Geraldine pressed on. ‘If you were provoked, were in terror of your life, and fearful for the life of your baby, a jury is bound to view your actions sympathetically –’

  The lawyer interrupted. ‘This is harassment and my client is not going to respond. My client would like to go home now, with Daisy. She has not been charged with any crime.’

  ‘Very well,’ Ian said. ‘We’re charging her now. Is that what you want?’

  He proceeded to read Jessica her rights and charge her with the murder of Jason Colman and David Armstrong. Her reaction was surprising.

  ‘David Armstrong?’ she repeated, her face flushing with some undefinable emotion. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘You know your father was murdered?’

  ‘Murdered?’ She sounded genuinely shocked. ‘I knew he was dead. He died. It was – they told us he suffered a fatal haemorrhage.’

  ‘He ingested a fatal dose of drugs, and when he collapsed, he was suffocated. He was murdered, Jessica,’ Ian said.

  ‘No, no, he can’t have been,’ Jessica replied.

  She looked shocked.

  ‘Where did you kill your husband?’ Ian demanded, returning to the crime the suspect had not denied.

  Jessica shook her head. ‘He was my father,’ she stammered. ‘How can you think I was responsible? He was my father.’

  But she did not deny having killed her husband.

  ‘Did you kill Jason at home or had you gone out?’

  ‘He deserved it,’ was all she said.

  ‘What I don’t understand is why you didn’t kill Ella instead of your father,’ Geraldine said. ‘With Ella out of the way, you would have been able to persuade your father not to tell anyone that you killed your husband. Your father would have done anything for you.’

  Jessica shook her head. ‘I couldn’t kill Ella,’ she replied. ‘She told me she had her boyfriend locked in her cellar, and she said she was going to put me down there with him if I tried to take Daisy back.’ She shuddered. ‘I was afraid of what he would do to me down there. Ella frightened me.’

  ‘Pete isn’t going to do anything to anyone ever again,’ Ian told her.

  ‘Nor is Ella,’ Geraldine added.

  She did not explain that Ella was going to spend the rest of her life behind bars, probably in a secure mental institution. Nor did she add that a similar fate might await Jessica.

  ‘So you killed your father?’ Ian repeated.

  Jessica burst into tears. ‘No, no. Don’t keep saying that. He was my father. How could I kill him? Do you think I’m a monster?’

  Geraldine saw her own surprise reflected in Ian’s face, but neither of them made any attempt to reply to Jessica’s question.

  54

  ‘She did seem shocked to hear that her father was murdered,’ Geraldine said.

  ‘Or was she shocked that we discovered he was murdered?’ Eileen replied. ‘Jessica might have done it and thought she had got away with making it appear her father had died from natural causes.’

  Ian nodded and looked at Geraldine. ‘Did you see how agitated Jessica became when you talked about David’s murder?’

  ‘Yes,’ Geraldine agreed. ‘She appeared genuinely shocked on hearing her father was murdered, and we don’t know she killed him. There are other possibilities.’

  ‘If Ella told David that Jessica had murdered her husband, he might have threatened to tell other people. Jessica’s liberty could have been at risk,’ Eileen said.

  ‘I’m still not convinced Jessica killed him,’ Geraldine insisted.

  ‘Who else could have been so concerned to keep it quiet they would have been prepared to kill David to protect Jessica from discovery?’

  ‘Her mother?’ Geraldine replied quietly. ‘Isn’t it at least possible that David confided to his wife what Ella had told him?’

  ‘You really think Anne could have killed her husband?’ Eileen asked.

  ‘To protect her daughter?’ Ian said. ‘That would be a horrible repetition of Jessica’s crime, if she killed her husband to protect her own daughter.’

  ‘This all sounds a bit fanciful,’ Eileen said. ‘Let’s speak to both women again before we speculate any further.’

  Geraldine and Ian went to see Anne Armstrong.

  ‘What is this about?’ she asked when she opened the door, scowling at them.

  ‘Can we come in?’

  ‘What do you want?’

  There was no doubt she was nervous, but she stood aside to let them in. Sitting opposite them in her front room, she gazed anxiously at them, her fingers twisting in her lap. For a moment no one spoke, while tears slid down her pale cheeks.

  ‘First my granddaughter disappeared, then I lost my husband,’ she whispered, ‘and now my daughter’s being harassed. As if she could have killed anyone. It’s an outrageous accusation. Outrageous. No one should have made that allegation against Jessica. The poor girl only just got her baby back, and now she’s been taken into custody. It’s monstrous.’

  As she was speaking, a baby began to cry somewhere in the house and Anne jumped to her feet.

  ‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘I have to see to her.’

  ‘Of course.’ Geraldine glanced at Ian. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  Anne turned back. ‘Why? Do you think I’m going to run off with her?’

  Geraldine followed Anne into the kitchen where the baby was lying in a travel cot, yelling. Anne scooped her up, making soothing noises as she fetched a small jar of baby food from a cupboard and settled the crying baby in a high chair. As soon as she placed a spoonful of the mush in the baby’s mouth, the baby stopped crying and began slurping and gulping the food.

  ‘She’s beautiful,’ Geraldine said, and Anne smiled.

  ‘There’s no way we’re losing her again,’ she said.

  ‘Ella took good care of her for you,’ Geraldine said. ‘Fortunately, now Jason’s gone you can put all that behind you.’

  ‘Yes, Daisy’s home where she belongs.’

  ‘Jessica isn’t,’ Geraldine said.

  A faint look of irritation crossed Anne’s face, then she looked over at Geraldine with tears in her eyes. ‘Yo
u have to help her. That man she married, he was a monster. He used to beat her. Whatever happened to him he had it coming. I swear, if she hadn’t killed him, I would have done it myself.’ Her eyes glittered as she spoke.

  Geraldine waited while Anne finished feeding the baby before reiterating how beautiful Daisy was, and asking to hold her. Anne’s eyes never left the baby as she handed her over and followed them into the front room where Geraldine nodded at Ian.

  ‘We would like you to accompany us to the police station to answer a few more questions,’ he said.

  ‘You’ll have to ask me here,’ Anne replied. ‘I need to put the baby to bed.’

  ‘She’s already asleep,’ Geraldine said, without putting the baby down in the cot. ‘I’ll wait here with her until we have a vehicle to take her with us to the police station where she’ll be well cared for until your release.’

  ‘My release? What are you talking about? Jessica’s already in custody for a crime she didn’t commit, and now you want to take me as well? I don’t believe this. I refuse to go with you. I’m calling my lawyer.’

  ‘Good,’ Ian said. ‘He can meet us at the police station.’

  Still protesting, Anne made her phone call before accompanying them to the police station. Daisy was transported in a separate vehicle with an appropriate car seat.

  Anne’s solicitor was waiting for them when they arrived. A slickly dressed man in his thirties with a southern accent, he insisted on speaking to his client before they began to question her.

  ‘That evil witch put you up to this,’ Anne began when the interview commenced.

  Geraldine and Ian had not yet posed a question but neither of them interrupted her. Anne was sufficiently agitated to make a blunder without any prompting from them. The lawyer narrowed his eyes and listened anxiously, ready to interrupt if it became apparent that his client was going to incriminate herself. On balance, Geraldine was fairly confident she would.

  ‘That Ella, she set this whole thing up. She’s crazy. We all know she lost her own baby, due to her neglect, and now she’s trying to get her hands on Daisy. She’s already stolen her from Jessica and attempted to run away with her. This is all down to her. She killed her partner because he mistreated her baby, and then she killed Jason and David, so she could keep Daisy. You can’t trust a word she says. She’s the one you should be going after her, not me or Jessica. Leave us alone. We’ve been through enough.’