End Result

by M A Comley

  He turned to face Hero at last, his eyes moist with frustration. “All right. You’ve got a deal. I want those statements before I retract my complaint, though?”

  Hero laughed and shook his head. “What kind of fucking idiot do you take me for?” He walked away and called out. “Ring me tomorrow to let me know you’ve done the right thing, Wade.” He jumped in his vehicle, carried out a three-point turn, and sped away. Looking back, he noticed that Wade had stepped out of his car and was pacing the road while running his hand through his hair.

  • • •

  The following morning, as Hero came within reach of the incident room, he heard a commotion coming from inside. He pushed open the door and shouted, “Guys, keep the noise down. What’s going on?”

  Foxy stepped forward, looking concerned. “We’ve had notification from the prison, sir, that Cathy Daws attempted suicide last night.”

  “Jesus! Attempted?”

  “Yes, sir. She was rushed into hospital.”

  “Is she all right?”

  “They’re monitoring her. She tried to slit her wrists during her evening meal, but the guard found her before she lost too much blood.”

  “Crap, this could mean one of two things. Either she’s innocent and found the situation intolerable, or it’s a sign of guilt.”

  “Yes, sir. It could have been a cry for help,” Foxy offered.

  “Where is she now? Let’s go and see if we can get to the bottom of this, Foxy.”

  “Salford Royal. I’ll grab my jacket.”

  While Foxy went to her desk, Hero approached Lance. “I’m expecting a call from a Mr. Wade this morning. Give him my mobile number if he calls, will you?”

  “Sure. What do you want the rest of the team to do, sir, in your absence?”

  “Chase up any loose ends to the case.”

  Lance frowned. “Such as what, sir?”

  “Use your head, man, for a change. Jason was trying to find out about Lomax’s car. Follow up on that, for one thing. If Cathy Daws is innocent, then we still have a murderer out there. Let’s be prepared to take the shit from the media for screwing up, okay?”

  Lance nodded and looked embarrassed by the dressing down.

  Foxy joined Hero, and they rushed out to the car.

  “What’s your gut telling you on this one, Foxy?” Hero asked once they were on their way to the hospital.

  “To be honest, I think Cathy is innocent. She tried to commit suicide because she knows that despite having a solid alibi, everything is pointing to her being the guilty party.”

  “What about the witnesses? They indicated she was the culprit during the line-up, don’t forget.”

  “Reluctantly, sir,” Foxy rightfully pointed out.

  Hero spent the rest of the journey contemplating how to handle Cathy when he arrived at the hospital. He would need to treat her with kid gloves.

  Hero flashed his warrant card at the prison officer sitting outside Cathy Daws’s private room, explaining that he was the arresting officer. The man granted them access to the room.

  Cathy Daws’s face was pale as she glanced their way when Hero and Foxy walked in. One of her arms was cuffed to the bed, and a nurse who was fiddling around with the IV drip stopped what she was doing when the door opened. She moved to the bottom of the bed to check Daws’s chart.

  “Hello, Cathy,” Hero said.

  Cathy mumbled a response. Her gaze shifted nervously between the two detectives and the nurse.

  “Why did you do it, Cathy?”

  She glanced at Hero for a split second then at the nurse before turning to look out the window.

  “Cathy? Come on, share with us? I’m sorry you felt compelled to do such an awful thing.”

  Cathy’s head swivelled towards him again, and she began to shake it slowly. “I’m innocent, I said. I’ve told you that right from the beginning.” She snuck a look at the nurse before her gaze settled on her clenched hand lying in her lap.

  Hero thought about asking the nurse to leave so they could talk freely, but one look at Cathy’s pallor made him reconsider. Maybe it would be best to have someone with medical expertise on hand, just in case Cathy’s recovery faltered during the questions he wanted to put to her.

  “Is that why you tried to…‌well, harm yourself? Because you’re innocent?”

  Cathy sighed heavily, and when she looked up at him, her eyes were moist with tears. She forced out one word: “Yes.”

  “All right, Cathy, then tell us who the murderer is?” Out of the corner of his eye, Hero saw the nurse replace the chart and move over to look out of the window. When his attention returned to Cathy, she was watching the nurse, too. “Cathy, we can’t help you if you won’t trust and confide in us. Who did it?”

  Cathy continued to stare past the nurse, out the window, until her eyelids started to droop. She struggled to keep them open, then her hand flew up to her chest, and her breathing became erratic.

  “Do something!” Hero demanded of the nurse.

  She remained fixated to the outside world and refused to help her patient. She seemed to be trying her hardest to suppress a smile. He reached for the panic button above Cathy’s head and ran around the bed to try to shake the nurse into action.

  Hero cried out and stumbled back, clutching his side. Foxy darted for the nurse and knocked the knife out of her hand before the woman could stab her, too. She called out, “Help! Help me in here.”

  The prison guard rushed into the room.

  “Stop her. The nurse, restrain her,” Foxy said, scrambling to ease Hero into the only chair in the room. “Hang in there, sir. I’ll get help.”

  The guard gripped the nurse in a bear hug.

  The doctor who’d answered the panic button call ran into the room. Alarmed, he asked, “What the hell is going on in here?”

  Hero, fighting for breath, pointed at Cathy. “Check her, doc. When we came in here, the nurse was tampering with the drip.”

  The doctor rushed around the bed and pulled out the line. “What did you give her? Wait a minute, who are you? I don’t recognise you. What are you doing here?”

  The nurse snarled, “Putting her out of her miserable existence. She wanted to die. I was helping her with that wish.”

  With the line withdrawn, Cathy began to recover a little.

  Hero asked her, “Cathy, do you know this woman?”

  Cathy nodded slowly. “She’s my sister.”

  Hero’s mouth dropped open. “You said you didn’t have any family. Why didn’t you mention her?”

  “To me, she was dead. I didn’t know she was around until today. I swear,” Cathy pleaded, stifling a yawn.

  “Yeah, like you were dead to me. I told you I’d get revenge one day. Well, baby, that day has come, over and over again these past few weeks. Men, they’re such dicks, easily led, most of them. Show them a bit of pussy, and they’re game for anything.”

  “What the heck are you talking about? Stuart never mentioned that he knew you.”

  “Well he wouldn’t, would he? I bet you didn’t know he liked to spend all your hard-earned cash on prossies, did you?”

  “You? A prostitute?” Cathy shook her head in disbelief.

  “Yeah, when it suited. Like I said, I got my revenge after all these years. No one does the dirty on me.”

  “Foxy, call for backup.” Hero tried to straighten up, but blood continued to pour out of the hole in his side.

  “My God! You’re wounded. Let me help you.” The doctor rushed to tend to Hero’s side, and the nurse used the distraction to wriggle free for a second. She pounced on Cathy and started slapping her face and beating her chest with her fists until Foxy and the guard restrained the nurse again. Foxy slapped the handcuffs on the woman’s wrists. She wouldn’t be escaping again.

  “Cathy, what’s her name?”

  Welling up again, Cathy said, “It’s Candy, Candy Drake. She’s my half-sister.”

  Hero clicked his fingers, and Foxy turned his way. �
�The last word Foster said was ‘Ca…‌’.” I’m sorry, Cathy. I presumed he meant that you had attacked him. He was obviously trying to tell me it was Candy, not Cathy.”

  “He was a waste of space who I doubt is going to be missed anytime soon.” Candy laughed a sick, demented laugh that seemed to rebound off the sterile white walls.

  “And what about Lomax? Why did you kill him?” Hero asked, wincing as the doc studied and prodded at his side.

  “Yeah, him, too. I used him to do the jewellers, him and that dipshit of a husband of hers, and they both screwed up. Lomax effing took his mask off. He had to be killed.”

  Hero’s eyes narrowed at the cold, calculated way the woman recapped the events. “And Stuart Daws? Did he help you kill Lomax?”

  “Yeah, he had an incentive to help me kill him.” She laughed again.

  “And that was?”

  “Because he got greedy. He wanted Lomax’s share of the money when the idiot had messed up. All men get greedy in the end.”

  “Keep still,” the doctor said, tugging at Hero’s arm.

  Hero groaned and slumped back in the chair. “So that was you in the alley? You killed Daws?”

  “Yeah, what about it? She shouldn’t have done what she did all those years ago. If she hadn’t treated me so despicably back then, none of this would’ve gone down.”

  Hero studied the woman. She was Cathy to a T. The resemblance explained why the witnesses thought Cathy was the woman who’d visited Lomax’s and Foster’s homes. It was all finally slotting together at last.

  “So let me get this right. You killed Lomax first, and Daws witnessed that murder, so you killed him. Then because Foster knew about you murdering Daws, you got rid of him, too.”

  “If my hands weren’t cuffed, I’d applaud you. It’s a shame you didn’t figure it out sooner, eh, Cathy?”

  “Why? You mentioned you wanted revenge. For what?” Hero asked.

  “Ask her.” Candy motioned with her head in her sister’s direction.

  Cathy shook her head, refusing to speak up.

  “She thought it was a huge joke at the time. Well, who’s had the last laugh now, Cathy, eh?” she spat at her sibling.

  “I’m sorry. I had no control of what he was going to do to you,” Cathy stated.

  “Yeah, well you had plenty of time to stop it. Instead, you pissed yourself laughing, didn’t you?”

  “I’m sorry,” Cathy repeated sheepishly. “I thought he was messing around. We were all drunk. I had no idea he was going to tie you up and rape you.”

  Candy shuddered and Hero shook his head in disbelief. “What? Am I hearing this right? Your boyfriend raped your sister, and you allowed him to do it?”

  Cathy covered her face with her hands. “He also abused and raped me. How could I have stopped him? I tell you…‌I couldn’t. Nothing I could’ve said or done would’ve made any difference.”

  Hero winced again and slapped the doctor’s hand away. “I don’t know which one of you I feel more sorry for. You’re both sick.”

  The doctor rose to his feet and dragged Hero with him. “This can wait. Your bleeding can’t. Come with me.”

  Hero placed his arm on Foxy’s as he passed. “Deal with this, Sergeant. I won’t be long.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ve got it all in hand. You just let the doctor patch you up.”

  EPILOGUE

  At work a few days later, Hero, still feeling relatively sore from being stabbed, had insisted on returning to work to tie up the case.

  The team cheered when he pushed through the incident room doors. Even his partner Julie was there to greet him. “Hello, sir, welcome back.”

  “You, too, Julie. I’m glad to see you back where you belong. Everything all right?”

  “I’m getting there.”

  They heard the phone ringing in his office. Gingerly, he made his way in there to answer it. “Hello, DI Nelson. How can I help?”

  “So you’re back then?”

  “Is that you, Gerrard?”

  “It is. Not affected your observation powers then? I heard about the stabbing. Are you all right?”

  Hero chuckled. “Yep, it turned out to only be a nick. It’s still pretty sore, though. What can I do for you?”

  “It’s more what can I do for you, Inspector. I have the results from the DNA samples. They’re not a match.”

  “Now there’s a surprise,” Hero said, exhaling a relieved breath.

  “Meaning what? I don’t understand?”

  “We caught the real culprit. It turned out to be Cathy’s half-sister, Candy.”

  “Ah, that explains it,” Gerrard told him with a tut.

  “What? What am I missing here?”

  “The mitochondrial DNA is the same. I take it they have the same mother?”

  “Ahh…‌I see. Well, we’re going to be questioning them both fully over the next few days. They’re in custody. That’s the main thing.”

  “So, it was a double act. Is that what you’re saying? Because that’s not what the DNA is telling us.”

  “No. But something happened in the women’s past that led Candy to exact her revenge on her sister. Cathy will be charged with an accessory charge for that distant crime, and we’re in the process of trying to trace her ex-boyfriend, so that we can throw the book at him, too.”

  “I wish I hadn’t asked now. I’ll leave you to get on with it then. Toodle pip for now.”

  Hero was still smiling when he hung up. He hadn’t even started on his paperwork when his mobile rang. He answered it promptly when he saw the name on the caller ID. “Hey, Sis. How’s it going?”

  “Wonderful. It’s so much nicer here now that Wade has gone.”

  “That’s great, sweetheart. And the rest of the group are all right towards you? You’re not getting flack for being a snitch?”

  “No. If anything, they’re acting like I’m their best buddy. It turns out, he’s touched up a lot of the women in the class, but none of them had the courage to speak up about it.”

  “Whoa, really? Just goes to show, doesn’t it? Well, tell them not to worry. Wade will get what’s coming to him. I know he’s resigned, but I’ve decided to make sure the proper authorities know exactly what he was up to. Will you be okay to give evidence against him?”

  “Too right. I’m sure the others will be prepared to give evidence against him, too, if I ask them.”

  “That’s excellent news and a great end result all round.”

  Hero hung up and reclined in his chair, wincing as the stitches in his side pulled tight. “An excellent end result indeed.” Touching his side he added, “Almost.”

  NOTE TO THE READER

  Thank you for reading End Result; I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this novel as much as I loved writing it.

  If you liked it, please consider posting a short review as genuine feedback is what makes all the lonely hours writers spend producing their work worthwhile.

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  CRUEL JUSTICE (Justice #1)

  #1 Best-selling novel in two categories, Police procedurals and Women sleuths in both US and UK and Amazon top 20 novel in 2013.

  The headless body of a wealthy widow is discovered decomposing in Chelling Forest. Then a second victim is found. Detective Inspector Lorne Simpkins and her partner, DS Pete Childs are assigned the case. Before they can discover the identity of the killer they must make a connection between the two victims.

  After a third murder, Lorne receives a grisly surprise. Clearly, a vicious serial killer is on a rampage…‌and Lorne has become the killer’s fixation.

  Lorne can’t allow her failing marriage or her new boss—a man with whom she shares a sensuous secret—keep her from focusing on her job. She must catch the macabre murderer, or risk becoming the next victim.

  IMPEDING JUSTICE (Justice #2)

  For eight long years, Detective Inspector Lorne Simpkins has tracked the vicious
criminal known as The Unicorn. But the killer has frustrated MI6 at every turn and remained successful at Impeding Justice.

  When Lorne is targeted in a trap that results in the death of her partner, the tragedy shakes her confidence to the core. Before she has time to recoup, her teenage daughter is kidnapped. More than Lorne’s professional reputation rests on her bringing The Unicorn to justice.

  FINAL JUSTICE (Justice #3)

  A ruthless killer returns—and former DI Lorne Simpkins is forced to revisit her ugly past.

  After suffering a breakdown and quitting the force, Lorne Simpkins finds herself embroiled in an MI6 covert operation to hunt down her old enemy, a sadistic and merciless criminal whose ambition is to become the world’s richest man.

  Lorne tracks the madman through France, attempting to thwart his plans and bring her long-time nemesis to Final Justice.

  FOUL JUSTICE (Justice #4)

  Detective Inspector Lorne Simpkins is back on the force. Before she can get comfortable with her new partner, newly-promoted DS Katy Foster, the two are assigned a tragic murder case that looks like a robbery gone wrong. However, when another wealthy footballer’s family meets the same deadly fate within twenty-four hours, it is clear the crimes involve something far more sinister.

  Keeping her focus on unravelling the complex case isn’t easy for Lorne when she learns news that throws her personal life into a spin—her fiancé, M16 agent Tony Warner, is involved in a dangerous covert operation in Afghanistan.

  But innocent people are dying on her patch, and someone must catch the killers. Lorne can’t allow this Foul Justice to prevail.

  GUARANTEED JUSTICE (Justice #5)

  Retired DCI Lorne Simpkins thought she knew what she wanted when she started an animal rescue centre with her husband Tony. Although saving and retraining exploited dogs is fulfilling, Lorne can’t help but feel that something vital is missing from her life. Linda Carter is brutally raped and left for dead in an alley. By some miracle, she survives, but now she lives each day terrified by the perpetrator’s final threatening words—that her sister, Fiona, will be his next victim.

  The sisters decide to adopt a guard dog and contact the rescue centre. During a home check to see if the girls and their flat are suited for a German Shepherd, Lorne witnesses Linda’s horrendous injuries. The young woman knows the identity of her rapist—wealthy, playboy Graham Gibson—however, the police haven’t made an arrest. The shocking story turns into a life-altering moment for Lorne. She decides to become a Private Investigator, and urges the girls to let her take up their case. Little does she know that more victims will come forward to accuse Gibson of rape.