Dead to Me: A serial killer thriller (Detective Kate Matthews Crime Thriller Series Book 1)

by Stephen Edger

  ‘Why didn’t you go at Mrs Gillespie’s?’

  ‘I did. Please, I’m desperate.’

  Kate pulled towards the exit and indicated to come off, following the road round and parking the car in a space near the entrance to the Little Chef. Chloe unfastened her seat belt and met Kate at the front of the car and they held hands as they walked across the car park. They had just passed through the sliding doors when Kate heard the familiar tone of her phone.

  She bit her lip as she checked the display, relieved to see it wasn’t the supe.

  ‘I just need to take this call,’ she told Chloe, as they headed to the ladies. ‘When you come out you can look at the menu. Maybe you can choose a cake to eat.’

  She took a table close to the exit, watching Chloe skip off to the toilet while she was placing the phone to her ear. ‘Matthews.’

  ‘Ma’am? Oh, thank God. It’s Laura.’

  ‘Laura? Where are you calling from, I didn’t recognise the number.’

  ‘I’m at a payphone near the train station, ma’am. What’s going on? Where are you?’

  ‘Laura, you shouldn’t have phoned me. I’m not allowed to speak to you.’

  ‘I don’t understand. Why not? When you didn’t come back to the Incident Room, I went to the supe and asked where you were. He didn’t answer me, but led me back to the Incident Room and declared to the team that you were unavailable to continue as SIO, and DS Patel would take the reins for the day until he could appoint a new SIO. What’s going on? Is this because of yesterday?’

  ‘I told you, Laura, I can’t discuss it with you. It’s for your own good.’

  ‘Bullshit, ma’am. I’m sorry, but you need to let me help you.’

  Kate was surprised by Laura’s manner, and felt a little tingle of pride. ‘It’s about time you grew a pair, DC Trotter! Off the record, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.’

  ‘Has he suspended you from duty?’

  ‘Not officially, but I’m sure that’ll follow. I broke the rules, but the supe doesn’t believe the ends justified the means.’

  ‘What’s going to happen to you?’

  ‘I’ll probably just get a slap on the wrist,’ Kate lied. ‘I’m sure everything will sort itself out in the end. You need to steer clear of me for now though. The fact that he hasn’t said anything to you means you won’t be affected by my choices, but you need to avoid doing anything to piss him off, like speaking to me on the sly.’

  ‘Okay. Understood, ma’am. Is there anything I can do for you? Or anything specific I can follow up on the case?’

  ‘Actually, yeah. I was speaking to Ben, the pathologist, last night. Can you pull the arrest records for Harold Watson and Danny Fenton and go through each one, see if their paths ever crossed with Eleanor Jacobs’s? I just know these three murders are linked somehow, but at the moment I can’t work it out.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  Kate put the phone in her handbag and waited for Chloe. Laura had taken a big chance in contacting her, but it was nice to know she had someone on the inside ready to fight her corner.

  After a drink, a slice of cake and another trip to the toilets, they headed back to the car. Kate put her bag in the boot, and buckled Chloe into the child seat. She was about to open her own door when a van pulled up in to the space next to theirs.

  She didn’t hear the figure approaching from behind. She didn’t have time to scream. He forced a small hessian hood over her head, and pulled her arms behind her back, fixing her wrists with a cable tie, then he bundled her into the van. She heard the door slide shut a minute later. It all happened so quickly that her mind couldn’t process what was happening. As the van screeched away, she screamed for Chloe.

  58

  ‘KAAAATE?’ Chloe screamed in terror.

  Kate’s head darted manically beneath the hood. ‘Chloe? Where are you? CHLOE?’

  She thrashed against the cable ties around her wrists. Every time she tried to break free, the plastic dug deeper into her skin.

  Kate wriggled around on the floor towards Chloe’s terrified sobs, trying to shake the hood from her head. ‘Come to the sound of my voice, Chloe. Roll to me if you can. I’ll come to you too, and we’ll meet in the middle.’

  ‘I c-c-can’t move my hands.’

  Kate tried to sound calm for both their sakes. ‘You don’t need to be scared, sweetie. I’ll protect you.’

  It was impossible to move in one direction as the van jerked one way and then the other. She could hear Chloe wailing, and in that moment wanted nothing more than to hug her child close and wake her from this nightmare.

  She shuffled and rolled until her leg touched something. ‘CHLOE? Is that you? Can you feel me? I’m here next to you.’

  Chloe moved closer, and Kate could feel the warmth of her body. ‘Oh thank God. Are you hurt?’

  ‘My hands hurt,’ she sobbed.

  ‘I understand, sweetie. My hands hurt too. Try not to think about the pain. It’ll be okay.’

  ‘I’m really s-s-scared.’

  ‘Don’t be scared. This is just a game. There is nothing for you to worry about. The key is to think about something else. Tell me about the best holiday you’ve ever been on. Where was it; why was it so good? Can you do that for me?’

  Chloe sniffed and her breathing calmed as she slowly began to tell Kate about the trip to Disneyland Paris that Rob and Serena had taken her on last year. Kate tried to listen, but her mind was elsewhere.

  The van shifted to the right, forcing Kate to roll onto her back.

  She closed her eyes beneath the rough material over her face and tried to remember how the van had left the services. Were they still heading west, or were they on their way back to Southampton? As hard as she tried, her mind was blank. All she knew was that they were travelling at some speed, and intermittently changing lanes.

  The van lurched to the left, and she rolled again. Having her wrists tied behind her back was incredibly painful. She tried pushing her arms beneath her bottom, but she couldn’t even get the cable ties past the base of her spine.

  She was sweating heavily beneath the hood. It was already a hot and humid day, but her breath had nowhere to go, and it felt like her face was in a sauna.

  The driver slammed on the brakes and the van slowed before accelerating again. Kate and Chloe slid towards the front of the van, crashing into the large panel separating them from the driver’s compartment.

  Kate writhed with the pain in her shoulders, but noticed a glimmer of light near her chin and shook her head vigorously. The hood remained in place. She felt Chloe huddled up beside her in a foetal position, but Kate had no words left to reassure her.

  Her phone was back in the car. Wherever they were headed, she had no way of letting anyone know.

  She rolled and slid around, as the van left the straight road and found bends, speed humps, and uneven surfaces until it finally slowed and turned right, before coming to a stop.

  The engine went silent, and she heard the driver’s door open. She heard footsteps on the path outside and the key being inserted into the panel door’s lock. Her heart raced uncontrollably, as the door began to slide open.

  She was ready to pounce.

  59

  As she kicked frenziedly with her feet, someone grabbed at her ankles, forcing them into a hold with large hands and pulling her towards the light.

  ‘Who are you? What do you want?’

  No answer; instead, she was pulled roughly up onto her feet.

  ‘Chloe? Can you hear me? It’ll be all right, sweetheart.’ She leaned towards the figure and grizzled through the hood at whoever held her. ‘You harm a single hair on her head and I swear to God, I’ll kill you.’

  She was pushed forwards, the ground beneath her feet felt cracked and uneven, making it a struggle to stay upright. She heard a gate creak open, followed by a key in a door lock.

  ‘Where are you taking us?’

  He forced her through the doorw
ay, Kate resisting with every step until they hit carpet and she could no longer dig her feet in. Wherever they were, it was much darker now.

  He stopped suddenly, and released her arm. Her breaths came in short, sharp bursts from inside the hood. She would have tried to run if she had any idea which way to go. She heard a door being opened, and a hand on her back guided her into another room. The door closed.

  ‘Chloe?’

  There was no answer.

  She yelled: ‘Chloe!’

  She heard movement, and before she could react a shadow fell across her. Her head was yanked back as the hood was pulled off.

  The breath caught in her throat as her eyes fell on the figure in front of her.

  60

  ‘Fenton? What the fuck?’

  He grinned proudly. ‘I’m glad you could make it.’

  Kate looked around anxiously as she fought against the cable tie securing her wrists. ‘Where the hell is my daughter?’

  He held up his hands passively. ‘She’s fine. My man Len is looking after her.’

  ‘I want her with me. Now!’

  He shook his head gently. ‘I told you: she’s fine. You and I need to talk, and you won’t want her to hear what I have to say.’

  She screamed as the tie cut deeper into her skin as she struggled against it. ‘Fuck you, Fenton! Do you know how many laws you’re breaking right now? Release me and my daughter, or else—’

  ‘Or else what? What on earth can you do right now? If you calm down, I’ll cut that plastic tie.’

  ‘You’d better fucking cut it now, or I swear—’

  ‘Kate, please, I need you to calm down.’

  ‘Calm down? Fuck you. You had me abducted and flung into the back of a van!’

  ‘I’m sorry about that. I needed to speak to you, and I couldn’t risk anyone following you back here. I mean you no harm. Now, please calm down, so we can get to business.’

  ‘I want to see my daughter. I won’t calm down until I know she’s safe.’

  ‘She’s in the kitchen with Len. He’s got a TV in there, and some sweets. She’s having a whale of a time.’

  Kate tried to separate her wrists again, but the tie remained firm. She huffed. ‘Untie me.’

  ‘Only if you promise to be civil. I have a fresh pot of coffee on the table. You look like you could do with something to drink. Swear you will settle and hear me out.’

  She glared at him, grinding her teeth. ‘Fine.’

  The cocksure grin returned, and he cut the tie with a penknife from his pocket.

  She wanted to pin him down, but she had no way of restraining him. She had to tread carefully. If he had killed Watson, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her and Chloe. ‘Do you know how much trouble you’re in? Abducting us is yet another charge you’ll face when we arrest you.’

  ‘Are you all right?’ He sounded genuinely concerned.

  She showed him the abrasions on her wrists. ‘Was the cable tie really necessary?’

  He rested his hands beneath her wrists and examined them closely. ‘Do you need me to get you something to clean these up?’

  She pulled her hands away. ‘No, but you can tell me exactly what the fuck I’m doing here.’

  ‘I needed to find somebody I could trust with the truth.’

  ‘What truth?’

  ‘The truth about who really killed Harold Watson at my warehouse the other night and the reason why.’

  ‘You know who killed Watson? Why didn’t you tell me when you came in to the station with your solicitor?’

  ‘It’s complicated.’

  ‘Tell me why I should believe a word you say,’ she hissed.

  ‘Because it’s the truth.’

  ‘And the murder weapon under your bed?’

  ‘I have no idea! I told you yesterday, I’ve never seen that thing before.’

  ‘I have a photograph of you holding it.’

  ‘Impossible…’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Wait, in this photograph, am I wearing some kind of Hawaiian shirt? Do I look really tanned?’

  She tried to picture it. She hadn’t paid much attention to his outfit or the tone of his skin. ‘Maybe.’

  He laughed. ‘Where did you get that photograph? I was on a business trip in Hawaii last year. A man I met invited me to his house for dinner, and he had a huge machete hanging from his wall. He let me hold it for a photograph. But that’s not the machete that you found under my bed. So, how did you know where to find it?’

  Kate narrowed her eyes. ‘I got lucky. It happens sometimes.’

  ‘Bullshit! You turned up, knowing exactly what you were looking for and where you would find it. How?’

  ‘Good detective work.’

  ‘Bullshit! You were tipped off.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter how I knew where to look. What matters is the murder weapon was found in your house, in a locked room, under your bed. Harold Watson’s blood is on the blade. You should turn yourself in now. You’re currently evading arrest, which only makes you look guiltier.’

  ‘But I didn’t do it, and I intend to prove I didn’t.’

  ‘How, exactly? Where were you that night? I know Nicholson is covering for you, but I don’t understand why.’

  ‘I’ll get to that. I’ll tell you everything, if you just give me a chance to explain. Please, take a seat.’

  The back room was large, with a fireplace at one end, a large flat-screen television on the wall and two large armchairs facing it. He led her to one of the chairs and passed her a cup.

  Kate put it to one side. ‘What is this place?’

  ‘It belonged to my mother.’

  ‘So, this is where you grew up?’

  ‘No, no. I grew up in Swindon. My aunt and her husband lived here. We would come and visit for weeks at a time in the summer. It’s got happy memories for me.’

  ‘It’s only a matter of time until my colleagues figure out you’re here.’

  ‘There’s no reason they should. At least, not yet. My mum bequeathed the house to an old family friend. He lives in the south of France and rarely comes here. I look after the place for him. There’s nothing on paper to connect me with it. Anyway, I don’t plan to be here for too long.’

  She watched him light a cigarette, before resting it on the edge of a glass ashtray on a table next to his chair. ‘I think I know why Watson was murdered. I need you to help me prove it.’

  ‘Why me? It’s not my case.’

  ‘I asked around about you and you’re clean. You’re someone who won’t stop until she gets to the truth, no matter the cost. I need someone I can trust.’

  ‘What makes you think you can’t trust the SIO in charge of the enquiry?’

  ‘Because I know for a fact that someone on that investigation is on the take, and will do whatever it takes to see me go down.’

  61

  Fenton finished the cigarette and stubbed it into the already overflowing ashtray. ‘What do you know about a cocaine smuggling operation a while back?’

  Kate heard Chloe’s distant giggle from the other room and relaxed a little. ‘You’re referring to the importing of cocaine in the frozen carcasses of fish.’

  ‘That’s right. What I’m about to tell you is off the record, and if you try and arrest me for my involvement in any of this shit, I’ll lawyer up and deny we ever had this conversation.’

  If he wanted to speak, she’d let him spill but she wasn’t making any promises. ‘If you feel that way about it, why bother telling me?’

  ‘Because I think once you’ve heard the truth you’ll conclude that I’m not the man you’re looking for.’ He paused. ‘Almost a year ago the Thompson crew approached us and suggested the play: importing Venezuelan coke and weed into Norway, packaging it up with fresh fish, and shipping it to the UK. It was likely to be lucrative for both groups, but they needed our contacts down at the docks to facilitate the operation. It took months to grease the right palms to get everything necessary in place, but once it was, the play ran l
ike clockwork. They were bringing in two shipments a month. Everyone was making money, and for the first time ever there was a truce between us and the Thompsons. It was all going so well, until—’

  ‘The police seized the shipment.’ She remembered hearing about the bust when she’d first transferred down. Hendrix had been the toast of the station.

  ‘They had photographs of the operation and copies of all the paperwork. They pinched everyone at the dock including a couple of the captains, so it was pretty fucking serious. My boss calls me and says they’re certain there must be an undercover officer in our ranks. You’ll have heard of Operation Fortress?’

  ‘Of course. They’re the task force cracking down on drug importation in the county.’

  ‘My boss had someone inside the Operation Fortress unit on the payroll. He’d been tipping us off for more than a year, but didn’t mention this other one. I was told to pay him a visit, but he’d scarpered. His house was empty and there was no trace of where he’d gone. Turns out, that insider was audited at the start of the year. He’d panicked and told them everything. They’d put him in protective custody.’

  She couldn’t understand what any of this had to do with the murders, but made a mental note to pursue it when this case was complete. Fenton should have known better than to think this conversation wouldn’t lead further. ‘So, you think he was the one who tipped them off about the fish?’

  ‘No, no, no. He couldn’t have. He knew nothing about it. I got hold of his address and paid him a visit. He tells me that there is no one undercover in the Quinn or Thompson crews. That meant it had to be someone on the inside who’d turned grass about the fish scam.’

  She’d heard nothing about an informant being identified within the service, but it was no surprise that it hadn’t been widely broadcast. ‘Wait, how could you trust this guy who’d already given up his involvement with your boss?’

  ‘His head was in a vice when he told me. He was one more turn from his eye popping out, so I’m pretty confident it was the truth.’

  She winced at the thought and he enjoyed her reaction. ‘My boss gave me a list of names of everyone involved in the Norway-UK side of the operation. I questioned them all, but there was only one person who knew every intricate part. The one person who should have been at the docks that day, but was absent.’