The Burying Place

by Vicky Jones

  As soon as Hargreaves stormed off, Michelle rushed over to Rachel and threw her arms around her. “You had me worried there,” she said when they finally broke apart.

  “I don’t mind admitting that I was worried too,” Rachel replied.

  Chapter 23

  Hargreaves expected to see Rachel sat in front of her, ready to brief her fully at 9 a.m. Without fail, she’d arrived on the dot. She looked and felt like shit, having had hardly any sleep, but she was still just about functional thanks to consuming her body weight in caffeine.

  “Right, I’m all ears. Begin,” Hargreaves said as she leaned forward in her brown leather office chair and glared at Rachel, who stifled a yawn and cleared her throat.

  “Amanda Walker was having therapy due to grieving the loss of her father who took his own life and it was coming up to the anniversary of his death. Last night, she disclosed to her therapist that she had killed a cyclist six months ago, after hitting him with her car. Told him she had stood over him and watched him die. She had got a thrill from it.”

  “Charming,” Hargreaves said. “Carry on.”

  “Amanda had been drinking and taking drugs at the time. The cyclist was reported missing and presumed dead. So the case went cold. Baker made a welfare call to me last night, as he had reason to suspect she was about to hurt her own mother too, whom she blamed for the death of her father. So, myself, Baker and his friend, who is a serving police officer from Helston CID, called round to the Walker residence. Amanda was there, and quite brazenly told us she was willing to kill us, as she had already killed three other people.”

  “The unsolved cases we’re getting shit for?”

  “Yes ma’am. Amanda heard rumours about them being arseholes, so she thought they would be ideal victims. She killed them in cold blood. It was sport to her.”

  Hargreaves clasped her hands together and made a steeple with her fingers.

  “Ma’am, Amanda set all of this up with her mother. She kept her mum captive, while pretending at first she’d been kidnapped, to divert us away from suspecting her. She then orchestrated this subterfuge of her mother supposedly planning to take her own life.”

  “Why such an elaborate plan, when she could have just done what she did with the other murders and got away with it?” Hargreaves asked, her brow wrinkling.

  “Because the other murders were in some way justifiable. There were rumours spreading about the moral fibre of the three that went missing, so in some way Amanda must have thought it was OK. But when it came to her mother, she couldn’t do it straight away. She had to make her suffer first. Drag it out, so her mother could feel the pain and suffering Amanda was feeling over the death of her father. Somehow, using suicide as a cover story seemed fitting, I guess. Karma for her mother, you could say.”

  “Sick young woman.”

  “So, she told us she takes out her dad’s fishing boat, and goes out to sea around Mullion Cove, weighs the bodies down and dumps them over the side. Her friend Poppy must have disturbed her last night and ended up being tied up down in that cellar too. She was no doubt going to be Amanda’s fifth victim. We also found the collar of her ex-boyfriend’s dog down in the cellar, which was reported missing the morning after he broke up with her. He got freaked out when, during a night of rough sex, Amanda cut him deep with a knife to the point the bedsheets were soaked in his blood.”

  “Did he not report this? That’s GBH. We could have had her for that, got a search warrant for the bedsheets, then investigated that house a bit more.”

  Rachel swallowed, knowing Hargreaves was correct. “The boyfriend didn’t want to make a statement. Anyway, as I passed the desk sergeant on the way in, ma’am, I was informed that the badly decomposed body of an IC1 male has been recovered from undergrowth at the side of Lincoln Road.”

  “Relevance?”

  “That’s the road Amanda’s hit and run happened on. The male has been identified by his driving licence and security tag on the bicycle next to him as a Mr. Declan Short. Married. Newborn twins at the time.”

  “Bollocks,” Hargreaves muttered.

  “I’m going to speak to his wife straight after this.”

  “Leave out the bit where she watched him die slowly, won’t you?” Hargreaves advised.

  “Ma’am.”

  “So, to sum up?”

  “In conclusion, we’ve solved one high profile case, three cases in the public eye, and one we didn’t know about. Amanda also searched the victims on Google and Facebook before they went missing, therefore showing premeditation. The culprit is dead so no lengthy court case wasting more taxpayers’ money,” Rachel said, knowing she was saying all the right things.

  “A great result, Rachel. Well done. We might get some peace around here, finally?”

  “Thank you, ma’am.” Rachel got up to leave.

  “Oh, and Rachel,” Hargreaves said. Rachel turned. “I’m glad you didn’t get hurt in all of this.”

  Rachel recoiled, surprised by the lightness in Hargreaves’ voice.

  “Me too, ma’am.”

  “One last thing,” Hargreaves said as Rachel pulled open her door. “It seems a lot for a young slip of a girl to do all alone. I mean, how did she get the bodies to the boat? Were there any accomplices?”

  Rachel froze. She’d been dreading that question. She waited a second before answering. “No. She acted alone.”

  Hargreaves’ eyes narrowed. “OK. Great work. I’m glad you didn’t listen to me when I said to give up on the case.”

  Rachel smiled and closed the door behind her, not entirely sure if Hargreaves' last comment was made in jest or not.

  Outside the station, as Rachel was making her way to her car, Ben Taylor jumped out in front of her.

  “For fuck’s sake,” Rachel exclaimed, pressing her palm against her chest.

  “I just need to know what’s happening and if I’m going down?” he said, rubbing his stubble. “What did you do with her mobile phone?”

  Rachel stared at him. “I must have accidentally dropped it as I was walking near the cliff edge this morning when I listened to the audio files she’d taped.”

  Taylor sighed with relief.

  Rachel leaned into him and snarled. “I’m not protecting you, you ignorant shit. You should have known better than to get involved in all of this. If it wasn’t for all the other people caught up in this, I’d have your fucking badge.”

  “And what about the group? What should I tell them?”

  “Go back to your manor, DC Taylor. I don’t want to see you in my town ever again. Understand? Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to go and tell a wife that the decomposing corpse of the father of her twins has just been pulled out of a ditch.”

  Rachel drove away from the Short residence, feeling close to tears herself. Telling a wife her husband wasn’t coming home had been hard enough, but seeing her holding two six-month-old babies in matching pyjamas made it near on unbearable. She sat in her car after stopping at the end of the street and broke down in long overdue floods of tears.

  It was almost half an hour before she composed herself enough to drive on. Her mind now made up, she drove to the first address she had written in her notebook after her final visit to Richard Baker. She wanted to see for herself who the members of this group were. She knew she should do the right thing.

  Arriving in Penzance, she pulled up across the street from a smart, detached house about a mile from West Cornwall Hospital. Grabbing her jacket and warrant card, she pulled at the handle of the car door just as the front door of the house opened and a middle-aged brown-haired lady emerged carrying a small child. She put him down on his feet and kissed his head, then ruffled his hair.

  “Bye, Granny, I’ll see you in a bit,” the little boy yelled as he ran to the outstretched arms of his mother.

  “Thanks, Mum! What would I do without you?” the dark-haired woman called back to the house.

  “Love you both,” the middle-aged woman replied, blowing a kiss
and waving them off.

  Rachel watched the scene unfold, then clasped her eyes shut.

  “I can’t do this,” she whispered to herself, pulling her hand away from the car door. Without a second thought, she pocketed her warrant card, started the car engine and set off. She knew she should have arrested all of those involved. But it didn’t feel right, not after she learned more about the cases from her last meeting with Baker.

  Curious to see the others involved, she set her satnav to the next address she had in her notebook and arrived in front of a gorgeous cottage, with perfectly landscaped gardens. There, her decision not to arrest any of Richard Baker’s group was reinforced further by the scene of tranquillity before her. A fit looking man with short dark brown hair was holding a glass of water to a man in a wheelchair’s lips. They looked completely lost in each other as the first man wiped a few stray droplets from the second man’s mouth.

  The final address was a similar picture of domestic bliss. On the front lawn of a terraced house in the suburbs of Helston, a man was sat with his wife and a teenage girl playing Twister. Their laughs as one fell over made Rachel smile.

  “They’ve all suffered enough,” Rachel said under her breath. She picked up her phone and dialled a number she had neglected from ringing for far too long.

  “Mum, hi. It’s me. Fancy lunch? My treat?”

  Epilogue

  “Call for you, boss,” Michelle said as Rachel sat at her desk.

  “Who is it?”

  Michelle made a face which told Rachel it was best she didn’t keep the caller waiting.

  “This is Detective Inspector Rachel Morrison.”

  “Detective Morrison, this is Superintendent Graham Jenkins up at Merseyside Police. I heard about your excellent work down in Cornwall and was wondering if you’ve ever thought of a change of scene?”

  “Sir?” Rachel replied, confused.

  “We have a position just opened up at Merseyside Police, in Liverpool. I spoke to your super down there, and now all those misper cases have been sorted out, we wondered if you’d like to come up here and join us on an investigation we’ve got going on. We could do with a fresh pair of eyes on it.”

  “A change of scene?” Rachel repeated. Could be just what I need, she thought.

  The decision had been an easy one in the end. With Adam still not returning her calls, and the dull boredom of very little to investigate in a sleepy town, now she had cracked the Walker case, Rachel had taken a few days to mull it over with her mother, but they had both reached the same conclusion.

  Her last day was the Friday before she was due to start up in Liverpool. Michelle hadn’t spoken to her properly since Rachel had told her.

  “Hey mate,” Rachel said, walking up to Michelle with two glasses of orange juice.

  “Alright,” Michelle replied, taking one glass.

  “Come on, this is supposed to be my leaving do. You’ve had a face like a slapped arse all week.”

  “I’m pissed off at you for leaving me with Vinegar Tits over there,” Michelle riposted, pointing over at Hargreaves, who was standing outside her office.

  “She’s a pussycat really. You’ll be her new star player now, with your promotion. You didn’t even tell me you were taking your exam. But DC Barlow does have a great ring to it. I’ll even give you my desk organiser, how about that?” Rachel bumped her shoulder into Michelle’s.

  “You’d better come and visit. And if you pick up a scouse accent, I’ll arrest you myself.”

  “I promise I won’t,” Rachel replied, crossing her heart.

  “I bet your new partner’s going to be shit too. Just saying.”

  They burst out laughing and clinked glasses. “To new beginnings,” Rachel said.

  Hargreaves raised her arms to call for hush. Michelle nudged Rachel and leaned in. “Speech time. Good luck.”

  Rachel unlocked her car and dumped a massive pile of presents and cards on the passenger seat. As she was about to sit down, Hargreaves called her back to the police station entrance.

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “I’ve just had a call from Dave Connolly. Otherwise known as Drunk Dave?” Hargreaves watched Rachel as she waited for a reaction.

  “Is he still banging on about lights in the sky?”

  “Out to sea, actually. Adamant he’d seen them a few weeks ago and wanted to know what we were doing about them.”

  “He thinks they’re aliens, ma’am.”

  “No, he doesn’t. Not anymore.” Hargreaves walked over to Rachel. “He’s been doing some research. He gave me the exact make and model of the fishing vessel he believes the lights belong to. He also gave me the dates he’d seen it out there.”

  “Ma’am?”

  “The dates match with the dates the people Amanda murdered went missing.” Hargreaves waited for that to sink in with Rachel, who remained silent. “I thought Amanda only had a little rowing boat? With an outboard motor at best.”

  Rachel gave a nervous laugh. “Ma’am, with all due respect, are we seriously going to take the word of a man who is hardly ever sober, over a full confession to myself, another police officer and Amanda’s own therapist? I mean, she’d even researched the victims online prior to them going missing. We have her hard drive down in evidence. She had motive, means and the opportunity.” Rachel stepped forward to Hargreaves. “And you have all cases wrapped up nice and neat.”

  The merest glimmer of a smile formed at the corners of Hargreaves’ tight lips. “Hmmm…so it would seem.”

  Nodding, Rachel turned away and headed back to her car.

  “But something else, Rachel…” Hargreaves called out, causing Rachel to stop in her tracks.

  “Ma’am?” Rachel replied, turning around.

  “I’ve also had the lab report back from the boatyard near Amanda’s house. The starter motor on her dad’s boat was broken.” Rachel felt her legs wobble slightly. “And the force of the current out by Mullion Cove would have torn that hull to shreds. It would have been suicide for Amanda to sail out there alone. Well, row as it would seem now.” Hargreaves’ eyes bored holes into Rachel’s face. Before she could think of what to say, a voice called out behind them both.

  “Superintendent Hargreaves.” John Stretton, MP for Kynance Cove South, rushed over to them and reached out his hand for Hargreaves to shake. “I just wanted to congratulate you and your team on a fantastic result for the community. All those disappearances solved. Thank you for not giving up. If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a photograph with you? The paper said they’d run the story tomorrow.” He leaned into her. “And it will look great for my approval rating.”

  As he rushed away back over to the press party by the flagstone steps at the entrance, Hargreaves looked sidelong at Rachel, who smiled. “Well, I guess some things will have to remain a mystery. Won’t they?”

  “Ma’am,” Rachel replied.

  “Best of luck, DI Morrison. Keep in touch,” Hargreaves said. She took a deep breath and strode over to the press pack.

  Returning to her car, Rachel sat in the driver’s seat and began sifting through the cards again. As she started the car, she noticed a small white piece of paper tucked underneath one window wiper. She opened the car door and reached for it and read the typed message.

  Heart racing, she felt her lungs tighten, Rachel spun around in her car seat. There was nobody to be seen. Her blood like ice, she looked down at the message again.

  I know what you did. It was a great cover up. But don’t worry, it’s our little secret.

  For now…

  FREE BOOK FOR YOU!

  Liked The Burying Place?

  Want to know more on the backstory of the three mysterious characters we met in the lighthouse?

  Click HERE for your FREE digital copy of the prequel to The Burying Place, to find out more about The Nurse, The Teacher and The Gardener.

  Also in the DI Rachel Morrison series

  Book 2: We Don’t Speak About Mollie

&n
bsp; What if you were told you’d killed your little sister… but had no memory of it? Order NOW.

  Also in the DI Rachel Morrison series

  Book 3: Wolves

  Would you ruin your chances of a normal life… to save others?

  Also by Vicky Jones and Claire Hackney

  Meet Me At 10

  Four lives inextricably linked. Will tragic events part them forever? Shona Jackson is on the run again, fleeing Mississippi and the town she’d called home. Arriving in Alabama, to continue her journey to safety, she convinces Jeffrey Ellis, the wealthy co-owner of a machinery plant, to give her a job. But when Chloe Bruce returns from college and is introduced to the workforce, there are devastating consequences for all those involved. Read NOW.

  Also by Vicky Jones and Claire Hackney

  The Beach House

  New town. New life. Old enemies. With the past and present colliding and threatening their future together, can Shona protect her new life and the lives of those closest to her? Read NOW.

  Also by Vicky Jones

  Bucket List Book 1: Project Me, Project You