The Goodnight Song: An absolutely heart-stopping and gripping thriller

by Nick Hollin

  ‘I’ve been listening very carefully,’ says Katie. ‘And what I’m hearing is that you absolutely need our help. Nobody knew Mike better than me. Nobody knows the Steven Fish case better than I do.’ She jabs her forefinger on the table. ‘Nobody knows this journal better than Nathan. I’m pretty sure the press are going crazy over this. In fact, knowing how leaky this place can be, I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t already heard about our return to London. This is super-high-profile. Career-defining. Career-breaking. By tomorrow morning we will have an alibi for Mike’s murder. If you still don’t trust us, then by all means provide an escort. Hell, you can assign twenty officers to watch us if you want.’

  Stocks is still shaking his head and opening his mouth, but before he can get a word out, Sam Stone cuts in. ‘Fine,’ she says, standing up and pulling her sharply pressed jacket around her shoulders. ‘You can get started in the morning. And you will have an escort throughout this entire investigation. You will have me.’

  Eight

  Katie has never felt as alone as she does now, walking into the room where her friend and mentor, Mike Peters, is laid out in the cold of the mortuary. Her dad is gone, Mike is gone and Nathan is distant in a way she couldn’t ever have imagined a couple of months ago. Having spent the last few hours of the night in a cell at the station, with Nathan in the cell next door, she doesn’t feel rested. She feels on the point of collapse.

  The sheet – brilliant white under the medical lights – is pulled up to just above Mike’s chin. Katie leaves it there as she looks down at his face, still kind, untroubled, despite what she knows he’s been through. She wants to say a few words, to make her usual promises about bringing him justice and to tell him how much she’s always cared, but Sam Stone is close beside her. Worse still, the medical examiner, Dr Miles Parker, is lurking in the corner of the room. So far he’s kept his distance, out of fear, she suspects, rather than respect for her feelings, but she knows it won’t be long before they are at each other’s throats.

  Katie draws in a long breath, summons her hard-won professional strength, then carefully lifts the sheet. It feels strange and awkward to see an older man she’d always looked up to naked, but nothing is going to stop her getting to the truth. The line across his neck is smooth and unbroken, a confident sweep of the blade that ended fifty-four years of life.

  ‘So the head wasn’t removed completely?’ she asks, not taking her eyes from the body.

  ‘Not this time,’ says Dr Parker, taking a step forward. ‘But it’s definitely the same killer. The removal of the skin from the back has a certain…’ he lifts his hands and carves at the air, ‘delicacy. On initial inspection, the blade used is likely the same. And perhaps the head remaining on is a refinement, an increased level of control. We certainly shouldn’t consider it hesitation. Not many people could keep their hand that steady as they run a knife the entire length of a body.’

  ‘Fortunately, not many people would want to,’ says Nathan, who is standing well back in the opposite corner to Dr Parker.

  ‘We know someone who’s imagined it, though, don’t we,’ says Miles. ‘In frightening detail.’ Although she still can’t bring herself to look at his face, Katie can hear the grin in his voice.

  ‘Imagination and action are two very different things,’ she says in Nathan’s defence, glancing across at a series of blades on a nearby table, before finally looking Dr Parker right in the eyes, ‘and you should be grateful for that.’

  ‘Is that a threat?’ he says, looking to Sam Stone for backup. ‘Did you hear that, ma’am?’

  ‘Stop it, you two, let’s just get on with this,’ says Sam, in a tone that suggests she’s bored rather than bothered. She turns to Nathan. ‘Are you ready?’

  Nathan nods and steps tentatively forward. He’s prepared in the way that he normally would be. For fear that the press would identify Nathan and Katie, Sam hadn’t allowed them to travel to the river in Richmond where the body had been found, instead giving them access to photos and videos of the scene of discovery on her private laptop. Katie had to admit they were methodically compiled, as good as anything she might have taken herself, but Nathan has an amazing talent for spotting the details even the highest-resolution camera with a giant lens could miss. In the past, he’s always worked from the crime scene, taking in the complete picture, the sights and sounds and smells.

  On the journey over, in the back of a police van, Katie had tried to help by talking to Nathan about Steven Fish, the case Nathan had never dared to consider too carefully before, for fear it was so close to his darkest desires to kill that it might nudge him over the edge. Then she’d told him everything she knew about Mike, which only served to highlight how little she knew the man behind the uniform. The only real revelation she could offer was whispered in Nathan’s ear above the roar of the engine as the van raced through the streets of London: that he had a younger brother. Sensitive, troubled, addicted to drugs, Ben Peters had been kept a secret from everyone other than her.

  ‘That was who the house in Wales was intended for?’ Nathan had whispered back. ‘And who Richard had been looking after?’

  She’d nodded.

  ‘But he’s not a suspect?’

  This time Katie had shaken her head vigorously. ‘No way. Which is why I’m not telling anybody about him yet. We’ll get to him when we can, see how he’s coping, but he won’t cope at all if the whole world is on his doorstep.’

  In the mortuary, Katie has retreated from Mike and is watching Nathan closely, waiting for his remarkable brain to kick into gear, producing all the familiar ticks and twitches, a sign that his imagination is taking over. But he remains perfectly still, with his head bowed. It looks as if he’s praying, or paying his respects. His posture doesn’t change, and his hands don’t move, bunched into tight fists by his side. Finally, he lets out an exasperated groan and spins round to face her.

  ‘I can’t do it,’ he says, and she can see that he’s close to tears. ‘It’s – it’s not there anymore.’

  ‘Maybe you need some space,’ says Katie, glaring at Miles and then Sam. ‘A bit of privacy?’

  Nathan steps away from the body and towards Katie, Sam just behind him.

  ‘I think it’s because I couldn’t kill Christian,’ he says. ‘Not even for you. It proved to me that I wasn’t a murderer, so now I can no longer think like one.’

  Katie can see Miles scoff and shake his head in the background and again she has to fight the urge to march across and flatten his nose.

  ‘I don’t think that can be it,’ she says, returning her attention to Nathan. ‘It’s more likely to be what this case reminds you of. You’ve always had trouble with the Fish case.’

  Nathan places both hands on top of his head and slowly draws them down over his eyes, as if trying to wipe the tension from his face. ‘Well, maybe now we know the real reason why. It wasn’t just because of my brother’s guilt – it was because I’d already been there in my mind, writing down a similar murder in my journal. I still can’t believe I didn’t remember that.’

  ‘There are plenty of things we somehow shut out,’ says Katie, thinking of all the happy memories of her dad that only seem to be returning now that he’s gone. ‘You just need time to adjust. And it’s different because you know him.’ She lowers her head and takes another fleeting look at the body. ‘Because it’s Mike.’

  ‘Which is why I have to help.’ Nathan’s eyes are wide, his voice is trembling. ‘If I can’t even help you with this…’

  ‘Let’s go,’ says Katie, firmly taking his arm and dragging him towards the door. ‘You’re still a good detective. You’ve still got a great mind. We can work this out a more traditional way. Together.’

  Before they’ve even reached the end of the corridor leading out to the car park, they both know something is wrong. The muffled sound of a crowd travels towards them from behind a locked door at the end, which rattles like it’s being shoved. A couple of flashes of a camera send Kat
ie into retreat, hiding her face with her hand.

  ‘How the hell did they find out we were here?’ says Sam, following close behind.

  ‘The same way Nathan’s journal was leaked, I bet,’ says Katie, kicking open the door back into the mortuary. Miles, standing at a sink in the corner, looks up as they enter, failing to put on a convincing look of surprise. She’s about to charge when she feels Nathan grab her and pull her back.

  ‘Think about Mike,’ he whispers in her ear. ‘Don’t let anything stop us from finding the person that killed him.’

  Katie looks across at the now covered but still familiar-shaped body on the table to her left, takes a couple of deep breaths and relents.

  ‘Why?’ she asks, staring straight at Miles. ‘What possible reason could you have for getting in the way of an investigation into a colleague’s death?’

  ‘Not this madness again,’ says Miles, turning off the tap. ‘What am I supposed to have done now?’

  ‘You told the press we were here,’ says Nathan.

  ‘I did no such thing,’ says Miles, turning away to grab a towel. ‘And that just about sums you two up, doesn’t it? Accusation without evidence. Emotion over reason.’

  ‘Let me apologise on Mr Radley and DI Rhodes’ behalf for their unwarranted remarks,’ says Sam calmly as she takes a couple of steps towards the doctor, who has his back up against the wall. ‘Please rest assured that I will use my authority, which is considerable, to investigate who was really behind this breach of confidentiality, and that when I do find who was responsible, they will feel the full weight of the law.’

  ‘That’s good to know,’ says Miles, swallowing hard.

  ‘Now, I wonder if you could help us find an alternative way out of this building?’

  Two minutes later, Katie is peering out from behind an emergency door. There’s a courtyard to cross and a wall to scale, but she reckons if they time it right they can make it without being spotted.

  ‘When did you say your man would be here?’ Katie asks.

  ‘We’ll wait till he’s texted,’ says Sam, checking her phone. ‘That way he’ll definitely be waiting.’

  Katie looks back up the corridor they’ve walked down and sees Miles’s head pop out through a doorway, then disappear again.

  ‘What’s your problem with the doctor?’ asks Sam.

  ‘I dare to think beyond the science,’ says Katie, with a sigh. ‘That, and the fact that I’ve rejected his advances half a dozen times.’ She touches her cheek. ‘Not that he’ll be making any more of those.’

  ‘Well, whoever was responsible for leaking your whereabouts, they’ve really made things difficult for us. I was hoping we might at least have a day or two without the media on our tail.’

  ‘So, you don’t think we’re to blame for Mike’s death?’ asks Nathan.

  ‘Only in the sense that DS Peters was most likely killed to bring you two back.’

  Katie gasps. It had always been a possibility, but hearing it from somebody else has made it so much harder to take.

  ‘And not because he was getting somewhere with the Fish case, suspecting that Christian wasn’t to blame?’ asks Nathan.

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ says Sam, checking her phone again. ‘We still haven’t been able to figure out what made him doubt Christian’s guilt in the first place, but rest assured, Steven Fish is key to all this.’

  ‘But he was a nobody,’ says Katie. ‘A petty criminal with a minor drugs charge, nothing else. Who would go to all this trouble?’ She squeezes her eyes shut, desperately trying not to picture Mike’s body.

  ‘Minor or not, the drugs connection is a lead we should look into,’ says Sam.

  ‘Something tells me you already have,’ says Katie, peering out, ready to make a dash for it. ‘Perhaps it’s the fact that a senior figure from the National Crime Agency is actively involved in this investigation, a figure who, I believe, now I come to remember your name, achieved her seniority thanks to high-profile successes in bringing down drugs gangs.’

  Katie’s not certain she has clearly remembered Sam Stone, or the link to drugs gangs, but she’s willing to search for the answers she’s not being given, and Sam’s sigh suggests she’s hit the mark. She decides to push a little further. ‘Not so successful with Carl Watkins, though.’ If saying the name brings the reaction from Sam Katie had hoped for, she doesn’t notice it as Katie’s too busy fighting to keep her own emotions under control. Carl Watkins is a criminal she’s loathed like no other. She’d tried and failed to pin two murders on him, gangland killings that nobody else on her team seemed to care much about. Perhaps that’s why Katie was so desperate to bring the victims justice. Or perhaps it was because she’d seen beyond the good looks and charm and knew that Watkins was responsible. Perhaps it was because she’d seen first-hand the damage his drug empire was doing to vulnerable people. She’d pushed herself to the point of exhaustion trying to uncover the evidence to put him away. Failing to find anything had brought disbelief and anger in equal measure, and with the merest mention of his name it’s all come back.

  ‘Can’t win them all,’ says Sam, with a shrug.

  ‘We might be able to win this one, though,’ says Katie, trying to refocus. ‘If you start telling us what’s going on. What is your interest in Steven Fish?’

  ‘Just because I don’t think you’re to blame doesn’t mean I trust you,’ says Sam.

  ‘And how exactly are we going to earn that trust?’ asks Katie.

  ‘By doing what you’re good at. By helping me to find a killer.’ Sam is looking back along the corridor they’ve just walked down, which remains empty. ‘I like science. But science is telling me I cannot ignore the success rate your and Nathan’s alternative methods have achieved over the last ten years.’ She gestures towards the exit. ‘So, when we’re out of here, you take the lead.’

  ‘Even if we’re going over ground that you’ve already covered?’

  Sam smiles. ‘I’ve heard you were always relentlessly thorough. Besides, no harm in getting a different perspective on the same information.’

  Katie stares hard at Sam, trying to get a sense of the woman, but she’s closed to her in a way that both frustrates and intrigues Katie.

  ‘I know where I need to go first,’ she says.

  ‘I?’ says Sam, raising an eyebrow. ‘You’re not going alone.’

  ‘I won’t be. I’ll be taking our doctor friend from Wales, Richard Evans.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because the subject knows him. The man I’m going to visit will not talk if you’re there,’ she says to Sam, before turning to Nathan. ‘Or you.’

  ‘I understand,’ says Nathan, and it’s clear that he does. He recognises not only that she wants to speak to Mike’s brother, but that this is nothing personal, no fallout from the argument they had the day before. Going their separate ways is strictly a professional need. He takes a couple of paces back along the corridor. ‘I’m not coming with you, anyway.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ says Sam, pointing to the car park. ‘This way is the only option.’

  ‘No, it’s not,’ says Nathan, pushing a hand through his thick black hair and tugging at the roots as if to test their strength. ‘I’m going to do something I should have done after the inquest, rather than running away. I’m going to go and face up to the media.’

  ‘And what do you think that will achieve?’ asks Sam, still maintaining her calm despite the obvious frustration.

  ‘First, it’ll be a distraction for you lot. Secondly, I’ll be able to get across my side of the story, at least try and answer some of those accusations. Thirdly, it’s a way of speaking to the killer, letting them know I’m not hiding anymore.’

  ‘It will royally piss off Taylor and Stocks,’ says Sam.

  ‘And there’s another benefit I hadn’t thought of,’ says Nathan, with a half-smile.

  ‘I can’t let it happen,’ says Sam, moving to block Nathan’s path down the corridor.
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  ‘You can’t stop it happening,’ Nathan replies, turning to face in the other direction. ‘If you want, I can open this door and call out for the press right now. That way you’ll have to face up to the questions, too, and something tells me you don’t want too much publicity on this occasion.’

  Katie wonders if the change in Sam’s expression is anger or amusement. She’s seen so little emotion of any kind from the woman that it’s hard to determine.

  ‘Okay,’ Sam says finally, releasing a long-held breath and reaching into her pocket to pull out a phone that’s different to the one Katie has seen her using before. ‘Here’s what’s going to happen…’

  Nine

  Nathan settles his breathing, sweeps his too-long fringe away from his eyes and then unlocks the door. At first he thinks he’s going to be rushed by the crowd of maybe two dozen journalists, but as he steps out he finds they’re keeping their distance, as if he might strike out, as if they believe all the terrible things they’ve written about him.

  While he’s given room to walk, there’s little opportunity to speak, as each and every one of them shouts questions in his direction. He says nothing until he’s made it to the middle of the car park, at which point he stops and slowly raises a hand. They eventually fall silent.

  ‘I came here,’ he says quietly, as the microphones move in, ‘to see my friend Detective Sergeant Mike Peters. He was a good man, a remarkable detective, and was an essential part of all the successes our team has enjoyed over the years. He was thorough and honest and relentless and brave. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.’ Nathan hears his voice thicken as the memories gather to support his words. ‘Especially me. Because Mike didn’t judge me the way most have…’ He pauses and takes in the crowd, staring into television cameras and some, perhaps not journalists at all, who are holding up mobile phones. ‘He was open-minded and fair, considerate and kind. He saw the good in people. He believed in people.’