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

by Stephen Edger

  Laura gasped. ‘Ma’am, I just ran a check on his car’s GPS. I think – I think he’s parked at the end of your road.’

  69

  Kate rushed to the pavement and looked left and right. ‘Where? What car does he have out?’

  ‘Uh, he’s in a blue Mondeo, registration: Kilo-Tango-Five-Six-November-Yankee-November. North end of the road.’

  Kate darted right, scanning both sides of the road, looking for any hint of blue. She spotted the car and froze.

  She whispered into the phone. ‘I see him.’

  ‘He has no reason to be there. Shall I send backup?’

  Kate’s breathing was erratic. ‘We still don’t have proof.’

  ‘It confirms our suspicions that he knows more than he’s let on. What do you want to do?’

  She was rooted to the spot. ‘He doesn’t know we suspect. I need to bring him in without letting on. Have an interview room ready for our arrival.’

  ‘What are you going to say to him?’

  ‘I don’t know… I’ll have to make something up.’

  ‘Ma’am? If you think he’s behind any of this, there are procedures—’

  ‘Laura, he has my mother. Have the room ready; I’ll get him in.’

  Kate disconnected the call, took several deep breaths, put her head down and made a sprint towards the vehicle. As she drew closer, the darkened figure behind the wheel shuffled awkwardly, but she was at his door before he could pull away. She motioned to him to lower the window.

  There was concern in his eyes. ‘Ma’am?’

  ‘Patel, thank God. I need you to drive me to the station straight away.’

  He looked as though he wanted to speak, but fumbled with the locks. She hurried round and jumped in. Was it her imagination, or could she smell cigarettes? She’d never seen Patel smoking, but perhaps that was just something else he’d kept well-hidden?

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Laura just called me. Fenton’s been arrested and he’s admitted to killing Yen, Watson, and Jacobs. The supe wants everyone in.’

  He didn’t utter another word, starting the engine and pulling out of the space. Kate kept her head facing forward, but watched him in her periphery. She pictured him holding that knife against her throat, and threatening Chloe’s life.

  She sat on her hands to stop them from shaking uncontrollably. She wanted to grab him by the throat and demand answers, but she couldn’t risk it. She watched the streetlights pass by overhead.

  His attention was focused on the road. He hadn’t even asked how she’d known where he was.

  She leaped from the car as soon as they arrived at the station. ‘The supe wants you and me to lead the interview. Wait in Interview Room 1, and I’ll bring Fenton through from the cells.’

  He nodded and headed left as they entered the building.

  She watched him until he disappeared from sight. She phoned Laura. ‘We’re here. I want you to stand guard outside the room. We are not to be disturbed.’

  70

  Kate threw the door open, slamming it behind her.

  Patel jumped. ‘Where’s Fenton? What’s going on?’

  He was sitting at the table, but she remained on her feet. The anger inside her didn’t want to be restricted. ‘Where the fuck is my mother?’

  He had a bewildered look. ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘Bullshit! Where have you taken her?’

  ‘Ma’am, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never met—’

  She slammed her hand down on the table. ‘Don’t lie to me! I’m done playing your games. I know you’re the one behind all this. Tell me where she is, before I beat it out of you.’

  ‘Behind all what? Ma’am?’

  ‘It’s over. I know everything.’

  He pushed his chair back and stood. ‘This is ridiculous, and it’s not funny. Where is Fenton?’

  ‘I already told you where he is: 13 Mawkes Close, or did you not see the message I sent you, John?’

  ‘What message? DI Matthews, I have no idea what you are talking about.’

  ‘I bet you had a good laugh at me, didn’t you? Sending those pictures. I bet you thought you were so clever, but you’ve overplayed your hand. Now, tell me where she is.’

  He placed his hands against the edge of the table and looked into her eyes. ‘Read my lips: I do not know where your mother is, or what you think I’ve done. If you want to make a complaint against me, you need to go through the proper channels.’

  Kate lunged at him and drove him back against the wall. The sound of the chair clattering to the floor echoed around the room. ‘You fucking tell me where she is.’

  He tried to push back, but she remained firm. ‘I don’t know!! I’m not who you think.’

  She looked into his familiar eyes, but refused to cave. ‘Tell me where she is, Patel! Tell me or I swear to God, I’ll kill you myself. Where is she?’

  His eyes narrowed, and he gripped her arms, using his build to force her backwards towards the opposite wall. She dug her shoes in, but he was stronger than he looked. She had to stay in control. His grip pinned her forearms at her side, but her legs were still free. With all her might she drove her knee into his gut. The tension in his arms evaporated, and she drove forwards again, sending the two of them crashing against the table and down to the floor.

  She couldn’t afford to give in. ‘Tell me where she is.’

  He regained his composure, flipping her on to her back, sitting astride her, and pinning her wrists above her head. ‘For the last time, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I know you’ve been under pressure, but this is insane.’

  She strained every muscle to try and shift his bulk. Why wouldn’t he just admit the truth? What could he hope to gain from peddling the same lie? She had him banged to rights, and there was no way he would leave without the truth escaping. ‘I know it’s you, Patel. I have proof that you knew them all. I just want to know what you’ve done with her.’

  Both turned their heads as the door opened. Laura looked worried when she saw Patel on top of her. She was about to hit the panic alarm, when Patel released Kate’s wrists.

  ‘This isn’t what it looks like,’ he said, climbing off her, his hands raised.

  Kate clambered to her feet beside him, Patel edging away. She marched out of the room pulling Laura with her, and locked the door behind them. ‘He’s not talking.’

  ‘Ma’am, she’s been found.’

  ‘What? She’s safe?’

  Laura nodded. ‘Uniform followed a tip-off to a flat in Swaythling and found her inside.’

  Kate steadied herself against the wall. ‘Oh, thank God. Is she okay?’

  ‘A bit dehydrated, so they’ve taken her to the general hospital as a precaution. She’s pretty shaken up.’

  ‘Who tipped them off?’

  ‘Anonymous. Someone called the switchboard twenty minutes ago and reported a gunshot at the location. The first responders spotted her through the letter box.’

  ‘Twenty minutes ago, I was with Patel in his car.’

  ‘I know. It’s possible he got someone else to phone it through for him.’

  Kate shook the doubt from her mind. ‘You’re right. It still doesn’t explain his link to the three victims or why he was sitting outside my place tonight.’ She tried to process her thoughts.

  Laura gently put a hand on her shoulder. ‘You should go and check on her.’

  ‘I know, but I can’t let Patel out of my sight, not now we have him.’ She paused. ‘Do me a favour, will you? Go to the hospital and check she’s okay. She has dementia, and I’d prefer it if there was someone with her.’

  Laura nodded and began to turn.

  ‘Do your best to get a statement out of her while it’s fresh in her memory. And show her Patel’s photo. I want confirmation he was the one who abducted her.’

  Laura moved away, before turning back. ‘With respect, ma’am, I think it’s time to phone the supe and tell him what’s ha
ppening.’

  ‘This isn’t over yet, Laura.’

  71

  Kate carried the folder of paperwork into the interview room and rested it on the table.

  Patel glowered at her from the back of the room. ‘You can’t keep me locked up here like this. If you believe I have committed a crime, you are duty-bound to inform Prof—’

  She cut him off with a raised hand. ‘I’m well aware of my responsibilities, but as you’ll see, I plan to talk to you off the record. You can talk to me or you can choose not to. If you’re as innocent as you claim then you’ll want to clear your name. Sit.’

  He reluctantly took the seat across from her. ‘I can’t even begin to imagine how you think—’

  ‘Enough! I will ask the questions.’ She placed the photograph of Olivia Yen in her nurse’s uniform on the table. ‘Have you seen the woman in this image before?’

  ‘You know I have. You phoned me when you discovered it in your flat.’

  ‘I’m not talking about the picture. Have you ever met Olivia Yen?’

  ‘What is this all about? You think I killed her? Are you mental?’

  ‘You can stop the pretence. It’s only the two of us in here. Anything you tell me now is inadmissible in court, so clear your conscience.’

  ‘This is insane. I didn’t kill Olivia Yen.’

  She placed the printed witness statement on top of the image. ‘Do you recognise this?’

  He sighed and picked it up, skimming it. ‘This appears to be a statement recorded by me four years ago. What of it?’

  ‘Do you remember taking the statement?’

  ‘Not particularly.’

  ‘But that is your signature at the bottom, right?’

  ‘It would appear to be.’

  ‘And who made the statement?’

  ‘According to this, Olivia Yen.’

  ‘So, you do know her.’

  ‘Barely. Taking a statement from her four years ago hardly makes us friends.’

  ‘When her body was found on Sunday morning, and a picture of her face was pinned up in the Incident Room, why didn’t you come forward and admit you knew who she was.’

  ‘You’re kidding, right?’

  ‘Answer the question.’

  ‘Do you remember the face of every person you’ve ever interviewed? It was four years ago! The statement proves I met her at some point, but I can’t say I recognise her face. Is that all you’ve got? Just because I didn’t recognise her face, you think I’m capable of killing her. Do you realise how crazy that sounds?’

  ‘Her statement proved that Bill Corsky couldn’t have abducted the missing child. You were one of the officers involved in that case, weren’t you?’

  ‘I guess so.’

  ‘Was the child ever found?’

  Patel broke eye contact for the first time. ‘No.’

  ‘How did that make you feel?’

  ‘What do you expect me to say? I pitied his family, and I was disappointed that we failed to find him or the person who abducted him. Did that mean I went out and killed the woman who helped rule out one of the main suspects? No.’

  Kate pushed the papers to one side and pulled out a picture of Watson’s remains from the pathology lab. ‘How well did you know Harold Watson?’

  ‘I didn’t know him. I knew he was a local hood, but that’s about it.’

  ‘You knew he was one of Hendrix’s confidential informants, too. Laura overheard the two of you discussing it.’

  ‘Okay, yeah I knew he was a CI, so what?’

  ‘Why didn’t you mention it when we were heading up that investigation?’

  ‘I wasn’t at liberty to do so.’

  ‘You were on my team, and I had a right to know!’

  ‘It wasn’t my place to say. He was her informant, not mine.’

  ‘That’s a cop out. Why didn’t you tell me? Were you hoping I’d mess up the investigation so you could take my place?’

  ‘That’s not fair.’

  ‘You think I don’t notice every time you roll your eyes behind my back. I know the DCI said you’d get promoted to DI, and that my arrival put an end to that.’

  ‘I have been nothing but supportive of you since you arrived. Do I like your methods and corner-cutting? No, I do not. But I’ve learned a lot since you joined.’

  Kate was surprised by his positive assessment of her, but wouldn’t let it distract her. ‘You should have told me about Watson.’

  ‘Yeah, maybe I should have, but you were only SIO for a day before Hendrix took over, and by that point it was no longer relevant. Is that it? Can I go now?’ He stood.

  ‘Sit down! I’m not finished with you yet.’

  ‘What’s next? You think I killed Jacobs too, I suppose?’

  ‘Did you?’

  ‘No. What kind of man do you think I am? I’m a police officer, not a murderer.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me you’d appeared before her in court more than thirty times?’

  He sat forward. ‘Because it wasn’t relevant! I didn’t even know it was that many times.’

  ‘So why didn’t you mention it when I confirmed her identity in the evening brief on Thursday?’

  ‘I told you: it wasn’t relevant! I knew I wasn’t the killer. Just because I knew who she was, doesn’t mean I could… what do you take me for?’

  She pressed on. ‘Why did you do it, Patel?’

  ‘ENOUGH! You want to charge me with something, go ahead. I’ll fight you every step of the way and then I’ll sue you and the service.’

  ‘Why send me all those messages? Why did you want Fenton to take the fall for your crimes?’

  He shook his head and crossed his arms. ‘I have nothing else to say to you.’

  ‘I trusted you, Patel.’

  ‘You actually think I was stalking you too? You know, the rest of them are right about you: you’ve lost the plot.’

  ‘If you really have nothing to do with this then why were you outside my flat tonight?’

  He sighed in frustration. ‘Because the supe told me to follow you.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘After he sent you home, he asked me to keep things ticking over in the office. He said he’d sent you home after you’d broken procedure. I thought he meant you’d told him about finding the photographs and messages, so I tried to defend what you’d done. It was only after he asked what I was talking about that I realised we were talking at crossed purposes. He meant you’d gone against his wishes and performed a raid on Fenton’s home. He didn’t leave me any choice but to come clean. I told him what had happened at your place, and he told me that he didn’t trust you to keep your nose clean at home, and asked me to keep a discreet eye on you. I got to your place after lunch, but you weren’t around. He wasn’t happy that you weren’t there, but told me to wait until you showed up.’

  Kate’s phone burst into life, saving her from a moment of doubt. She saw Laura’s name in the display. ‘I’m not done with you yet. When I come back in here, we’re going to start from the beginning again. I need you to sit right here and think about how you want this to end.’

  She didn’t wait for him to answer, putting the phone to her ear as she closed the door behind her. ‘Well?’

  ‘I’m with her now, ma’am, she’s on a drip, and will be kept in overnight for observation, but the doctor doesn’t believe there’s any long-term damage done.’

  ‘Does she remember what happened?’

  ‘She insists it’s not Patel. She says she was with someone called Greg. She reckons he’s a regular at the home.’

  ‘Greg? He’s one of their volunteers.’

  ‘She says he collected her this afternoon, promising her a trip out in the sunshine, but she can’t remember anything that happened after she got in his car.’

  ‘Did you show her Patel’s picture? Has she ever seen him before?’

  ‘She didn’t recognise him at all. She described this Greg as tall, with broad shoulders and a ginger beard.’ />
  Kate pressed her head against the corridor wall. ‘Fuck!’

  ‘Has he admitted any of it yet?’

  ‘He’s denied the lot.’

  ‘With respect, ma’am, I think it’s time to bring in Professional Standards.’

  ‘Maybe you’re right. Do one more thing for me: get over to my mother’s care home and see what you can find out about Greg.’

  ‘Will do.’

  Kate hung up and clamped her eyes shut. Why was he still pretending? After all this work to get her here, why was he still resisting?

  She was about to return to the room, when she heard two male PCs sharing a joke. They halted their conversation as soon as they saw her, and acknowledged her presence with a nod. Their radios crackled, and the older of the two put it to his mouth. ‘This is Victor-Charlie-One-Nine-Three-Five. Show us responding, over.’ The two broke into a sprint and raced past her to the end of the corridor.

  As Kate watched them, it was as if they were running in slow motion. She continued to stare until they disappeared from sight.

  ‘No. It can’t be—’

  She didn’t finish the thought, as the final piece of the jigsaw slotted into place, and suddenly the bigger picture was there before her eyes. It was the last thing she’d expected, and despite the ridiculousness of the thought, she couldn’t see beyond it. Not wasting another second, she threw herself down the corridor towards the staircase.

  72

  Flashes of conversations peppered Kate’s mind, as she ran towards the third-floor corridor.

  She could now see clearly that there was a purpose to each of the crimes; only a person so obsessed with upholding the law could wind up breaking it to deliver his own unique vision of justice. In the beheading of Watson, their killer showed he was ruthless and angry at a man who would never face prison after becoming an informant. He was meticulous and repulsed in the way he dispatched Jacobs, built up over years of watching her defend guilty men for money. And Yen had saved the life of a sexual predator, knowing full well he could strike again.

  And he’d targeted her to play a part in his twisted game. But why her? Well, she was the only one in the unit who wouldn’t find it so easy to recognise his voice or his methods.