Tommy and I relaxed. Neither of us wanted to end up someone’s bitch.
Waddell continued. “It wouldn’t be in the public interest. Miss Kerr, you’ve already been a victim of a horrific crime, and Mr. McIntyre, we don’t want to draw attention to the fact that you’re alive and were in possession of a licensed gun. The press would have a field day.”
He paused to give us a stony look. “Now, if I may offer you both some advice. If you want to get involved in missing persons cases, open a detective agency. Get all the right paperwork. Stay the fuck out of police business. If you find any evidence of a crime, call us. Don’t turn vigilante and almost get yourself killed.”
He took a deep breath that went all the way down to his shoes. “Now get the hell out of my office. If I see either of you again, I’ll throw the damn book at you.”
We duly obliged, skulking off like kids who’d been called to the headmaster’s office.
“Well, that went well,” Tommy said as we walked out of the police station, squinting into the bright sky.
“Aye,” I said, “I think DI Waddell really warmed to you. Maybe I should invite him to our wedding.”
The shocked look on Tommy’s face made me hoot with laughter.
Epilogue
It turned out that as well as being hypnotized, Sheena had been zonked out on a sedative drug normally given to schizophrenic patients to make them docile and compliant. If Dr. Cassidy had told her to jump into a vat of acid, she’d have done it. She wasn’t in control of her actions, and despite stabbing Eric and being Cassidy’s little assistant, helping him to do God knows what, she wasn’t charged with any crime.
The last we heard, she was living at home with her parents and sorting out her life. We never did find out how her finger was bitten off.
The bodies of a total of nine women were found in the hospital in varying states of decomposition. Causes of death—where they could be ascertained—included manual strangulation, drowning, and electrocution. Cassidy claimed he’d been using experimental treatments and was charged with ten counts of murder, including Suzy Henderson’s.
The police are convinced there are more bodies. Two of the murdered women were unidentified girls aged between fifteen and twenty-one. Judging by their dental work, they think they came from Eastern Europe. The police believe that as well as kidnapping women off the streets, Cassidy may have bought more women from traffickers.
The police hadn’t treated Cassidy’s “death” as suspicious, so there’d been no autopsy. A relative (or someone posing as a relative, I suspect) had wrongly and probably fraudulently identified the body as his. Had they correctly identified the body, they might have been able to stop Cassidy sooner.
We paid for Tanya’s funeral. It was the least we could do. Nobody cared about her, so we had to. The only people there were us and the vicar. Eric wanted to be there, but he was still recuperating in hospital. One centimeter to the right and the knife would have ruptured his bowel and killed him.
***
After Tanya’s funeral, we got back to Tommy’s to find a woman on the doorstep. She was in her twenties and dressed in a smart suit.
She told us she was called Annabel and that Eric had sent her. “I go to his gym and he said you could help me.”
We invited her inside.
“How can we help?” I said after we were seated in the living room.
“I want to know who I am.”
Tommy and I looked at each other. Was this some kind of wind up?
“I don’t understand,” I said.
The girl smiled. “Sorry, maybe I should have started at the beginning. When I was just a few days old, my mum or whoever was looking after me left me outside a church in Edinburgh in a Moses basket. They tried to trace her and my other family, but they couldn’t. I was adopted by the Donnelly family.”
“So you have no idea who your parents are?” Tommy said.
She nodded.
“I’m not sure how we can help you,” I said. “We’re not trained private investigators.”
Annabel smiled. “I know. That’s why I came to you. I’ve tried private investigators, and they’ve come up with zip. I thought someone coming at it from a different angle might help.” She paused, looking at our unconvinced faces. “I’ll pay you well. I’ve done well for myself.”
Tommy and I exchanged glances as she held out an envelope.
“Give us the details,” I said. “But you don’t have to pay us until we get results.”
After she’d told us everything, I was puzzled. “Sorry, Annabel, but I don’t understand why you want to trace your mother after all this time. I’m not being cheeky, but you’re not a teenager, and from what you’ve said, your adoptive parents gave you a great life. So why now?”
My question seemed to throw her, and for the first time she seemed uncomfortable. “My parents died in a car crash three months ago. Two days ago, I was clearing out their house and I found a bunch of birthday cards tied together by string. They were all addressed to me.”
Tommy and I exchanged looks.
Annabel put her hand to her face. “And that’s not all. For the past few weeks, I think someone’s been following me, and this may sound stupid but…”
She broke off talking and stared down at her lap.
“Go on, Annabel,” I said gently. “Eric told you that you could trust us, and you can.”
She looked straight at me and said, “I’ve started to think that their deaths might not be an accident.”
We got as much detail from Annabel as we could and promised to look into it.
***
Later that night, I was having a shower when I heard two almighty thumps and the clatter of furniture being overturned.
What the hell?
A memory from the past shot into my head of the last time I heard similar noises: when those two thugs were ransacking my parents’ home.
Throwing on a bathrobe, I ran out to see what was going on.
Tommy’s living room was like a Wild West saloon after a bar brawl. Both chairs were upended and the TV’d been pulled out of its brackets.
There was no sign of him.
I went into the kitchen. There was a knife on the floor and a pool of blood.
I was about to shout his name, when someone pounded on the door.
“Police. Open up.”
And that was the point where I realized I was screwed because they’d think I’d killed him.
To be continued…
Don’t Come for Me
Crime Files Series Book 3
Releasing May 2015
About the Author
Jenny Thomson is an award winning crime writer and features writer who has been widely published in the UK and abroad. She’s a staunch advocate of girl power and that’s why she came up with a strong female lead character in Nancy Kerr.
She lives on a beautiful Scottish island with her rescue dog and her partner and is the author of seven other books, all with traditional publishers (including some as Jennifer Thomson).
When she’s not writing about kick ass women, she’s planning how to survive a zombie apocalypse and writing on napkins because she’s run out of paper.
Blog:
http://ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewriter.blogspot.com/
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/CrimeFilesbyJennyThomson?ref=hl
Twitter:
https,//twitter.com/jenthom72
Goodreads:
http,//www.goodreads.com/author/show/1301634.Jennifer_Thomson
Website:
http,//www.jenniferthomson.co.uk/
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Throwaways (Crime Files Book 2) Page 12
