Taunting the Dead (DS Allie Shenton)

by Sherratt, Mel

  Phil groaned through clenched teeth. The pain was unbearable, especially since he’d seen Terry do all this before. He was going to die, he was certain.

  ‘And then there’s this business around Sarah Maddison. How exactly did the knife that I finished her off with – the knife I told you to get rid of – end up in my house for the police to find?’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Phil was having trouble concentrating on anything through the pain. Then it dawned on him. It must have been Steph who had taken the knife from the outhouse. But how would she know it was there? Had Kenny told her? Or had it been Steve? Had his own brother set him up?

  ‘It was the baby that was the last straw,’ Terry said. ‘There was no way I was having your bastard child running around my house, reminding me of you.’

  ‘Baby?’ Phil managed to say.

  ‘Oh!’ Terry beamed. ‘You didn’t know Steph was pregnant? Well, that’s hardly surprising because she didn’t know either unless she guessed. She didn’t get the chance to find out her results. You see, I know this bird, Pamela Ruston. Works at the doctor’s surgery. She told me the happy news as soon as it came in.’

  Phil could hardly see Terry through all the blood. Although determined to keep talking, he wasn’t going to let on about the knife. If he was going down, he was going to hurt Terry too, even if he did have to bend the truth a little.

  ‘You think Steph got one over on me?’ Blood bubbled between his lips as he spoke. ‘She didn’t. She screwed us both. She couldn’t stand you anymore. She put up with you because she wanted the big house, the lifestyle, the money. Steph was the smart one. She had to keep you sweet. And you fell for it. But me? I’d been fucking her for ages. And all that time, I knew. She didn’t love you. She loved me.’

  Terry took a flick-knife from his pocket and plunged it into Phil’s heart, twisting it for one final act of revenge.

  In that split second, Phil knew his time was up.

  Terry pulled out the knife and stood back to admire his handiwork. ‘No, you’re wrong,’ he said, watching as Phil’s head lolled to the side and his eyes glazed over. ‘Steph only ever loved herself.’

  Shane and Mitch were back fifteen minutes after Terry called them.

  ‘Never to be seen again, yeah?’ said Shane, handing Terry his keys.

  Terry nodded.

  ‘Same with his car?’

  ‘Yeah. Take it as far away as possible.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  As Thursday turned into Friday, Allie lay in the dark shadows of the early morning trying not to wake Mark, who was asleep on the far side of the bed. She wished she could manage to drop off again. She’d flitted in and out of sleep for most of the night.

  Mark’s words lay heavy on her heart. Apart from him moaning about the long hours she worked when a murder case came in, nothing had ever come between them in terms of work. The statistics were high for failed marriages for police personnel so she knew she was lucky to be part of something good, something so strong.

  But then again, despite the issue of her sister, wasn’t the problem here caused by her and not Mark? Weren’t Mark’s insecurities down to her recent behaviour?

  As she turned onto her back, a hand reached over and touched her thigh, gently resting on it as if it were an apparition.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Mark.

  Usually this was the time that Allie would turn to him and say, ‘Yeah me too.’ But she didn’t speak.

  A gentle tap of the hand on her thigh. ‘I didn’t mean to go off on one.’

  ‘Yes, you did.’

  The hand was pulled away abruptly, followed by a sigh and a silence that spoke a thousand words. Then, ‘Your work consumes you at times, Allie. It’s what I love about you but it’s what I hate about you too.’

  Allie pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘It’s six o’clock in the morning and you want to continue where you left things last night?’

  Silence again.

  ‘I’m tired of this,’ he replied. ‘We’ve always been so good together.’

  Allie pulled back the duvet and marched across the room. ‘That’s funny, because I thought we still were.’

  ‘Allie!’ Mark shouted after her.

  She went to the bathroom to stew over his words. With the door firmly shut, and water rushing over her, she cried secret tears of frustration. What was wrong with her? Was she losing her mind? How on earth had her life changed so much in the space of a few days?

  Minutes later, she heard a tap on the door as she dried herself. Mark pushed it open slightly. Standing there naked made Allie feel vulnerable. She wrapped the towel around her body, but as his gaze travelled lazily from her eyes to her chest, she felt a longing so deep that it scared her. God, she needed to feel loved by him.

  ‘Let’s not fight,’ she whispered, her hand reaching for the elastic waistband of his pyjama shorts. She drew him close, felt the frustration dropping as sexual tension built up. He pulled her into his arms, kissing her long and hard, hands tugging at the towel that then dropped to the floor.

  Allie groaned as his hands moved over her. She needed to feel him inside her, needed to assert her oneness with him after allowing Terry to get so close. She arched her back as he kissed her neck.

  See, this is where I belong, she thought as he lifted her up by her thighs and her ankles clasped together behind his back. Here, in the arms of my husband.

  This is my rightful place to be.

  Lee woke up when a lorry rumbled past in the distance. He switched on the interior light and checked the time. It was half past seven. The image of what was left of Shaun’s head swam before his eyes every time he closed them so he hadn’t had much sleep. Moving his neck from side to side, he stretched his back. Jeez, that was aching too. For a minute, he got out of the car to stretch his legs but it was too cold to stay outside. His stomach rumbled away. It was ages since he’d eaten. After lighting a cigarette he got back in, started the engine and kept it idling while he warmed up.

  As the good people of Stoke-on-Trent awoke to another chilly day, Lee sat and contemplated his future. That is, if you could call it a future. Eighteen years old and already he’d killed two people. What else was going to go wrong?

  He wondered if he would get away with his plan ‒ if indeed it was a plan and not a suicide mission. But he had to get money from somewhere. And two sources were better, even if one was pretty damn risky.

  At eight, he tried Phil’s phone but his dad didn’t answer. He disconnected it, wondering if he’d got the hump with him now for not getting back to him the night before. But what could he do? He couldn’t chance anyone going near his house, not yet.

  He waited another half hour before trying again but still no reply. Then he called Kirstie. It was time to talk smooth and put his plan into action.

  ‘Lee! Where have you been? I tried your phone forever last night. I was over at Ashleigh’s. I could have come to see you.’

  ‘Sorry, babe.’ Lee put on his best soothing voice. ‘I didn’t feel too good so I went to bed early. Didn’t realise my phone was off.’

  ‘But if you were ill I could have come round to look after you. I could have given you some T.L.C.’

  ‘Actually, I wondered if you fancied catching up this morning. Can you get away?’

  Lee heard her catch her breath. ‘I can’t.’ She sounded disappointed.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I need to be close during the day, in case the police find out anything about Mum. It’s easier at night to slip out and pretend to be at Ashleigh’s. That’s why I was after you.’

  ‘Can’t you pretend that you have to hand some work in at college? I can meet you somewhere and we can come back to mine. No one will be any the wiser.’

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  ‘I’m dying to see you, Kirst,’ he lied. ‘I can meet you at the Festival Park in half an hour. We can leave your car there and it’ll look like you’ve been in Boots for something, hea
dache tablets or the likes, if you do get caught. Better to get a bollocking for that. What do you say?’

  A pause.

  ‘Okay, just for a bit, then.’

  Lee sighed with relief. Part one of his plan had worked. Leaving Kirstie’s car at the Festival Park would mean that when Ryder started looking for her, he wouldn’t find it anywhere near his house.

  Allie had been at her desk since seven a.m., running through her team’s findings from the day before. All around her, people had started to drift in. Trying to put her personal life in a box until her shift was over, she concentrated on her work. The missing persons call Carole Morrison had made regarding Shaun landed on her desk an hour later as a hunch from a young police constable who recognised the name. After the morning’s briefing, she headed over to The Orange Grove.

  ‘I didn’t think anything of it at first,’ Carole said, indicating for Allie to sit down at a table downstairs. ‘We’d been arguing since he’d found out about… me and Terry.’

  ‘What time did you last see him?’ Allie opened her notepad.

  ‘He left here shortly after you yesterday. We had a sixtieth birthday party booked in for four o’clock, with eighteen guests to attend to. I’d been preparing for it for most of the day – can’t stop working even when I look like this.’ She pointed at the bruising now prominent on her face. ‘So I got on with it. But after the first few guests arrived, I knew we’d be understaffed without him. I rang him but his phone was switched off. I had to greet the guests telling some story that I’d tripped up the steps in the kitchen.’

  ‘What time was that?’

  ‘Half five, sixish, I guess.’

  ‘Did you try his mobile again?’

  Carole nodded. ‘Every ten minutes or so but it was still switched off. By the time they’d all gone around nine, there was still no sign of him. I called the station at eleven. Some bloke told me to ring again if he was still missing this morning. Well, he is and I haven’t slept a wink all night.’

  ‘It does seem strange,’ Allie started, ‘after everything that’s gone on recently.’

  ‘You don’t think he’s in trouble, do you?’ Carole’s hand rose to her chest.

  ‘Probably not – Shaun seems like a nice guy. But sometimes people have secrets and –’

  ‘We don’t have secrets,’ said Carole sharply. ‘There’s nothing wrong with our marriage.’

  Allie decided not to comment on the obvious. ‘Has anyone been to see him lately? Someone who wouldn’t see him usually? Or Terry. Has Terry Ryder been about?’

  Carole scowled at the mention of his name. ‘I haven’t seen him since he attacked me. But I do know that Shaun said he was going to see him.’

  ‘Shaun was going to see Terry?’

  ‘Yes, that’s what he said.’ Carole paused. ‘But Terry wouldn’t have done anything to him.’

  ‘Yes, I agree,’ Allie soothed. Terry Ryder wouldn’t do anything to get himself into trouble, not when things were too close to home. ‘Anyone else?’

  ‘That Kennedy has been snooping around.’

  Allie raised her eyebrows. ‘Phil Kennedy?’

  Carole nodded. ‘And his son.’

  ‘They came together?’

  ‘No, at different times. I thought something funny was going on but Shaun told me not to worry.’ Carole glanced up at Allie. ‘You’re right. Things did start to happen but it was before Steph was murdered. Phil Kennedy called to see Shaun the day before she died. We owed him money and a couple of days later, Shaun told me that everything had been sorted. That the debt had been wiped out.’

  Allie sat forward. ‘Didn’t you find that a little odd?’

  ‘Definitely. Even I’m not stupid enough to believe that. But Shaun was insistent. Then we had an intruder in the kitchen that Shaun saw off – he didn’t want me to report it. Maybe that was one of them but we do have trouble with squatters. I did ask Shaun what Phil wanted but he didn’t say. But I clearly heard him say he needed him to take care of something for him.’

  ‘Take care of something?’

  Carole nodded. ‘Shaun denied anything was going on. Then the day before yesterday, Lee Kennedy was parked outside. I was upstairs and I saw Shaun go out to him. They were arguing but I couldn’t hear about what so I went downstairs. When I got to them, they stopped. Young Kennedy got in his car and drove off. Shaun told me not to worry then, too.’ She looked at Allie, desperate for her to make sense of things for her. ‘One of those Kennedy bastards has done something to him, haven’t they?’

  Allie placed a hand on the woman’s arm. ‘Let’s hope not.’ She turned to go as Carole began to cry. But as she got to the door, she stopped.

  ‘Carole, did Steph ever cause damage to The Orange Grove?’

  Carole paused for a moment. ‘Not that I can recall,’ she sniffed. ‘She used to break the odd glass when she was drunk but that was about all. Why?’

  ‘No reason.’ Allie decided not to tell her of Terry’s accusations. The woman had enough to worry about with Shaun going missing. She didn’t need to make things any worse.

  She needed to find Shaun.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  After Allie had left, Carole started to go over everything again. Shaun had never gone missing before. He would always ring her if he was going to be late. He’d text if he hadn’t time to ring. And since they worked so closely together, she wasn’t far from him at all times. It was so unlike him to stay out and not contact her.

  She started to wonder if Terry could be involved. Surely he wouldn’t do anything to harm Shaun? It seemed too close to home after all that had gone on recently. But the more she thought about it, the more it seemed possible. In the end, she rang him.

  ‘Shaun’s missing,’ she sobbed down the line. ‘Have you done something to him, you bastard?’

  ‘Missing? I haven’t done –’

  ‘You’ve done something to get your own back on me, haven’t you?’

  ‘I haven’t done anything to him. Look, shut up a minute and let me think.’

  But Carole went on. ‘I reported him missing to the police this morning.’

  ‘What did they say? Who did you speak to?’

  ‘Allie Shenton’s been round. She asked me who had been to see Shaun lately. I told her he’d gone to see you. I told her about Lee Kennedy and Phil –’

  ‘Lee Kennedy?’ Terry forgot all about the mention of Allie or himself.

  After Carole filled him in with the details, Terry disconnected the phone and felt the hairs stand up on his neck.

  After ringing Kirstie, Lee called his dad again but still no answer. Fuck! Where was he? He’d have to chance it and call in at number two. But if the police were at his house already, he’d have to leg it without seeing his dad first for some cash.

  Everything was quiet when he drove past. He parked in the side entry and, using the key he had to the house, opened the door and let himself in.

  ‘Dad?’ he shouted. ‘Dad?’ He went through to the living room, the kitchen, ran up the stairs to check the bedroom but the house was empty. He rang him again; still no answer. His shoulders sagged. Where was he? Surely he wouldn’t do a runner without him? He checked his watch. There was no time to see if he had. He’d have to pick up Kirstie and bring her back here. He could tie her up while he thought what to do next. Jumping down the last few stairs, he dropped into the cellar. He found a piece of rope and shoved it into his jacket pocket. It would have to do for now.

  Kirstie was waiting for him where he’d arranged to meet her. She slid into the passenger seat.

  Lee pulled her into his arms and kissed her. ‘I missed you,’ he lied.

  ‘I missed you too.’ She moved his hand to her breast.

  ‘Plenty of time for that later.’ He started the car engine. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’

  On the short drive back, Lee quizzed Kirstie about Steph’s murder enquiry. What the police were up to. What they’d asked her since he’d last seen her. Fr
om what she told him, it looked like he was safe for now, at least.

  He parked on the dirt track down the side of number two again. ‘I need to call at my dad’s first,’ he said. Making sure the rope in his jacket pocket was well hidden, he grabbed her hand and ran. ‘Come on. He wants to see me about something.’

  ‘Wait up!’ Kirstie tottered as she tried to keep up with him. ‘My heels.’

  Once at the door, he opened it and stepped aside. ‘After you.’ He threw out his arm.

  Kirstie giggled and tottered into the hall. Lee banged shut the door, grabbed her hand again and ran upstairs.

  ‘Hey!’ Kirstie protested. ‘We can’t go up there!’

  He took her into the back bedroom and threw her onto the bed. She sat back up again but he pushed her down. He reached for the rope. When she saw it, Kirstie flipped.

  ‘What the fuck’s going on, Lee?’ She noted the cold in his eyes.

  Lee cracked her hard across the face.

  ‘What was that for?’ she wailed.

  ‘I want you to shut up. Do you think you could manage that for now?’

  Kirstie tried to nod through her panic.

  ‘Good.’ Lee pulled one of her hands up and tied her wrist to the end of the metal headboard. Then he grabbed the other and pulled it across the bed to the opposite side, intending to tie it there so that her arms were outstretched. But the rope wasn’t long enough. He cursed loudly. Not thinking straight, he tied the rope tighter around the one wrist that was fastened and added a couple of double knots. He pulled at them to reassure himself that she couldn’t slip the wrist free. She wouldn’t be able to do much with one hand, especially after he’d finished with her, anyway. He took a small clear bag from out of his jeans. It contained several sleeping pills, the ones he’d used to ensure she was out of it last Friday night. He waggled the bag in her face.