Claire’s face was serious then. ‘Heard what?’
‘Something Williams said to Michael when you terminated the interview for a break.’ The words played over and over in Jane’s mind.
You’re fucking her, aren’t you?
Claire’s eyes widened as Jane revealed what she’d heard.
‘What is this?’ Claire said, looking to Stefan.
‘She was talking about you, Guv,’ Jane said, her voice starting to crack.
‘What’re you saying?’
Jane became flustered as she spoke. ‘I don’t know, I just thought it was wrong and then there’re the other things, little things, like when you talk about Williams in team briefings. He changes.’
‘Changes?’ Stefan said.
‘The way the light dies from his eyes. The way his body language alters… You’re going to think I’m imagining it all, but there’s also the way they looked at each other in that interview room.’
Claire listened to Jane’s words and what Amelia had said to Michael.
You’re fucking her, aren’t you?
She analysed each syllable, and played the words in her head in two types of context.
After what seemed like an age in slow motion, her mouth opened, her lips dry.
Her body felt instantly cold and when she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.
‘You think they…’ Her voice caught in her throat.
‘I don’t think I’m wrong, Guv.’
Stefan ran his hand back through his hair. ‘Christ, Jane. Think about what you’re saying.’
Claire’s eyes looked more icy than usual as she stared back at Jane. When she spoke again, her words were barely audible.
‘You think they know each other.’
CHAPTER 74
Chloe had given up trying to make conversation with the man.
He’d given her nothing but muted answers here and there, showing no interest in her words, yet still she noticed how he never took his eyes off her.
They were in the living room again, and she was sitting perched on the arm of a chair, pretending to watch the television, even though the volume was very low.
Now and then she would look at him, hoping he’d stopped staring at her, but each time she was sorely disappointed. After the fifth or sixth time she’d had enough.
‘When’s the other copper coming back?’
Michael smiled thinly. ‘I told you, she has better things to do.’ He picked up his mug, still steaming with tea, and walked towards her. ‘Why? Aren’t we having fun?’ he said, smiling.
Chloe felt the hackles going up on her back.
‘She’s nicer than you. At least she talked to me… Why do you keep staring at me?’
Michael edged closer and she stood up from the chair.
Their eyes were fixed on each other for several seconds before Chloe quickly looked away.
‘I want you to leave now, please,’ she said, her voice catching in her throat. ‘I’ll be fine.’
Michael ignored her and took a step closer.
‘I don’t think so.’
Chloe instantly felt her stomach in her chest, and she backed away from him. Her brain worked overtime as she tried to place his face. So familiar to her, yet she had no name to put to it to ease her mind.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said, her voice a little shaky. She thought about how he could be a customer from the club, but still the idea didn’t sit well inside her.
He smiled again, as he reached out to take her mug from her hands.
He noticed she was shaking.
He set the mug down with his own on a side table and reached out his hands, cupping her face.
Chloe was frozen to the spot, as he made her look deep into his eyes, his hands feeling firm against her cheeks.
Those strong hands…
‘I don’t feel as though I’ve properly introduced myself. Forgive me, Chloe, but it’s been a long time. About fourteen years or thereabout, isn’t it?’
His hands tightened their grip around her face as she tried to pull away from him, tears welling in her eyes.
‘It can’t be you… Stevie? It can’t be you.’
Please don’t let it be you…
The realisation hit her full force, so hard she felt like her bones would shatter underneath him.
She knew him, that attractive familiar face. His eyes were different somehow, his hair now dark, but she remembered him clearly now.
Michael smiled at her and there was a hint of laughter in his voice when he finally spoke.
‘Hello, Chloe.’
‘You’re back,’ she said, shaking her head from side to side in disbelief. Tears now fell down her cheeks, fear taking hold of her when she realised why he was there.
‘Chloe, honey…’ he said, his voice almost soothing, ‘…I never went away.’
Before she had any time to realise what was happening, he swung his head forward. There was a loud crack as his skull hit against hers.
The force knocked her out cold.
***
When Chloe woke again, only ten minutes had passed but what was to come would feel like hours.
The ache in her head and nose felt like an explosion had gone off inside her skull, and she could taste blood when she licked her lips.
She moaned with pain as she tried to roll over onto her side, but felt someone sit down on her torso, legs either side of her.
Michael’s weight crushed her chest, and she started to cry.
‘Now, now, Chloe, be a big girl,’ he said and brought his face forward until she could practically taste his breath. ‘You’re a screamer, I know, but I can’t have that.’
He reached behind him for the television remote and pressed the volume key.
The sound shot up and Chloe let out another scream, which was cut short by a sharp jab to her ribs.
She instantly felt sick. Coughing hard, she turned her head and spat bile from her mouth. It rolled down from the corners of her mouth, down her neck.
‘You bastard…’
Her voice rasped with each breath and she thought she was about to pass out. She sucked in air and looked up at his face, shaking her head. ‘Why?’
Michael laughed, and in what seemed like one fluid motion, he stood and dragged her up with him, his arms under hers, hauling her to her feet.
‘I would’ve thought that was obvious,’ he said, and without more than a second of hesitation he swung his fist and caught her hard in the mouth.
Her head snapped back hard. She tasted blood. Drops of it trickled from the corner of her mouth.
She stumbled back, grabbing her jaw instinctively, her eyes burning into his through a mass of her matted hair.
‘You killed Father David,’ she said, specks of blood spattering her pale skin as she spoke. ‘You and Amelia, you’re both crazy!’
She lunged at him, her fingers reaching for his face, itching to claw out his eyes.
He was too fast for her.
He caught both her hands and twisted them back.
She screamed at the pain, her voice almost drowned out completely by the television. Her body collapsed in his arms and he threw her on the sofa.
‘Stay down!’
‘Why couldn’t you both have just stayed away?’
‘I thought you’d be happy, Amelia back on the scene?’
‘I moved on from her after what happened at Stokebrook.’
‘Ah, yes, that. What did it feel like to help her after all those years? She took another lady lover in there, did you know that?’
‘Stop this!’
‘You never really did mean anything to her, you know that don’t you? You were just her play thing, a distraction.’
Chloe tried to raise herself from the sofa, but Michael shoved her down again, batting her legs out the way with his hands.
‘There’s so much you never knew, Chloe. Amelia played you good.’
Before she had time to think, he was on top of h
er, his hands at her throat, squeezing the life from her.
‘I’ve waited so long to do this. You nearly took her away from me…’
She clawed at his hands and bucked her body trying to throw him off but he was far too strong.
Play dead!
Desperation was taking its toll on her, but before she had any more seconds to think, unconsciousness took its grip.
Soon there was nothing more than a curtain of darkness in her eyes as her body fell limp underneath him.
CHAPTER 75
‘How could I have been so blind?’ Claire sat at her desk, still in disbelief at what was unfolding around her. ‘Why didn’t you say something sooner if you had doubts?’
Jane shook her head. ‘What was I supposed to do? Ask you if what Williams said was true? Ask if you’re screwing Michael and compromising an investigation?’
Claire rose from her chair. ‘Perhaps you should’ve done.’
Stefan moved across the room to gain Claire’s attention. ‘I think we need to take a step back and look at what we have here.’
Claire shot him a dark look but he remained composed.
‘So Michael knows Williams. So what? He may have come across her during other assignments. Maybe they met and hooked up once. We just don’t know. We need to ask him first, not jump to conclusions. After all the years he’s worked with us, we owe him that much.’
Claire looked at him and shook her head.
‘Come on, Claire, he’s one of us.’
‘Why didn’t he say anything in the beginning, then, if it means nothing?’
‘I can’t answer that. Only Michael can and that’s why we need to call him back in and ask him outright. There’s got to be a reasonable explanation for it.’
His words were little comfort to her.
Suddenly all the looks that had been exchanged between Michael and Amelia were flashing back through her mind.
The day of Wainwright’s funeral came back to the forefront of her memory. He’d been talking to her in the graveyard and Amelia had run off when Claire found them.
None of this seemed to make sense and she could feel her stomach pulling taut inside her as she explored every possibility inside her head.
How much did she really know about Michael outside of work? Outside of her bed?
She blushed when she realised she knew very little at all.
Here was a man she’d invited into her personal life, and only the other week she was contemplating reliving their affair all over again.
She realised all she knew was the basics. He never talked about his childhood, his parents or anything else in his personal life, and she realised that the man she spent most of her days with may as well be a stranger to her.
Claire watched as Stefan picked up the phone next to her.
‘I’ll try his mobile.’
Jane looked around and felt a little uncomfortable. She felt like she’d just walked in on a conversation she shouldn’t be hearing.
‘I’m going to call Thames Valley,’ she said to no one in particular and left the office.
Claire watched Stefan’s face. She let out a loud sigh and sat down in her chair when he shook his head, returning the receiver to its cradle.
‘No luck. Not even diverting to voicemail.’ He took a seat beside her. ‘What do you want to do?’
Claire weighed up the idea before shaking her head.
‘We’ve still not located Williams. From what information we got from Jenkins we know Amelia almost certainly faked her own death and I’m guessing this Stephen helped her.’ She paused and shook her head again. ‘I don’t like the way this is going, Fletch. You go over to Chloe’s, get Diego back here to see me.’
Stefan nodded and rose from his chair.
‘What about Chloe?’ he asked, looking back over his shoulder.
‘Take a uniform with you in case Diego kicks off. The FLO should still be there to watch Chloe.’
He nodded and made for the door.
‘Stefan, wait,’ she called out.
Claire thought to herself for a moment and felt a little stupid as she heard her own words escaping her mouth, as if she had no control over them.
‘This may sound stupid, but did you know Michael wore contacts or glasses?’ Stefan shook his head.
‘No. I couldn’t see him having glasses. Can’t say I’ve noticed or heard him talk about wearing them.’
‘But what about contact lenses?’
Stefan looked confused and walked closer to her again. ‘Claire, what’s this about?’
‘I don’t know really. I just… I found an empty contact lens case in his drawer when I was looking for some tablets. It just struck me as odd.’
‘What can I say? He’s a dark horse. Maybe he’s embarrassed by the fact he needs glasses. Loads of people wear contacts, Claire.’
‘I don’t think this looked like a prescription lenses case. Never heard of 4 EyeZ before.’
Stefan let out a sound of recognition and Claire looked at him. ‘That company specialises in lenses which are purely cosmetic. You know, if you fancied a change? I used to wear those cats-eye ones, just to freak my parents out.’ Claire raised an eyebrow which did not go unnoticed by him. ‘I went through a bit of a Goth phase, believe it or not,’ he added.
‘Even I can’t imagine you wearing those, Fletch,’ she replied. ‘That still doesn’t explain Diego.’
‘I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this.’
Claire avoided his gaze and looked at her hands. ‘I sure hope so.’
***
It had taken DC Harper about ten minutes to talk his way into Shrovesbury Manor, only to have Father Manuela all but force him out again with the help of his housekeeper less than ten seconds afterwards.
Cursing under his breath, he decided to sit in his car outside the main gates to the Manor. The turning into the grounds was overgrown, rounded off with two large willow trees, their branches obscuring the view to the main road.
Harper noticed how beautiful and tranquil the scene looked as he took in the view, contented.
After about half an hour he was growing hungry. He’d skipped breakfast this morning, rushed to work burning on nothing but a cup of tea that had gone cold, and now his stomach was raging.
He checked the glove compartment, which contained nothing but the usual and half a pack of mints, which were a little dusty.
Hardly appetising.
He let his head fall back against the headrest and stared at the roof of the car. Then he remembered the shopping bag in the boot, his emergency stock of energy foods if the occasion called for them.
Today it most certainly did.
He climbed out of the car and opened the boot, fumbled for the shopping bag, then rummaged inside.
His hands fell upon a bottle of cheap energy drink. He eagerly popped the cap, taking several swigs.
As he screwed the top back on he heard a noise and swung around, but before he could understand what was happening, he felt a hard blow to his temple and the last thing he remembered seeing was the ground rushing up to meet him.
Then darkness.
CHAPTER 76
Stefan parked his car in one of the allocated parking bays and shut off the engine. PC Brennan pulled a grimace as he looked around.
‘Don’t think you can park here.’
‘We won’t be here for long. Residents won’t argue with us about it.’
Brennan pulled a face. ‘I wouldn’t be so sure on this estate, Guv.’
Stefan ignored him and got out of the car. Brennan followed suit and they headed into the tower block towards the lifts.
As the steel doors closed them in, Brennan noticed the graffiti on the walls.
‘Have you read that one?’ he said, pointing to a rude message and a telephone number for some girl known only as Stacey. Stefan read the message. ‘Bet her mother’s proud,’ Brennan added.
‘Enough of that. Remember why we’re here.’
>
‘Babysitting some stripper into showing off her gash, yeah, word already got round.’
Stefan shot him a hard look.
‘Her name’s Chloe. She’s a vital witness, Brennan, and we’re trying to protect her, not babysit, or disrespect her.’
Brennan knew he’d overstepped the mark. He nodded and remained quiet.
They arrived at Chloe’s floor and Stefan knocked on her door and waited. No one answered.
He tried again, then several times more. When no noise came from the other side he began to worry. His stomach pulled tight as he remembered what Jane had told them earlier.
‘You said DS Diego is supposed to be watching her now?’
Stefan didn’t answer, as his fist hovered against the door, ready to knock again.
Then he had a better idea. He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialled Michael’s number.
The call diverted straight to voicemail.
‘Shit.’
‘Maybe there’s no signal in there?’
‘He would’ve heard us knocking.’ Stefan pushed his ear to the door and listened. He heard nothing. He stepped back and thought for a minute before looking at Brennan. ‘We’ve got to force it.’
‘Is that wise?’ Brennan’s eyes narrowed with disapproval.
‘We’ve got no choice.’ Stefan placed the palms of his hands flat against the door and ran them across the surface then along the hinges. ‘Something’s not right in there.’
‘Maybe Diego took her out?’
‘Bollocks. He knows better,’ Stefan said as he took a few steps back from the door.
He stared at it a moment and gathered that the wood was more like chipboard than oak, flimsy and unreliable like most of the others in the older council blocks falling into disrepair.
He took a deep breath and hurled his foot at the door in one fast swoop.
The wood groaned but remained intact. He kicked at the door again, only this time towards the hinges, but still it stood fast.
Brennan rolled his eyes. ‘Do much breaking and entering in CID?’
Stefan looked at him hard in the face, feeling a little berated. ‘Shut up, Brennan, you’re not helping.’ He took a few steps back. ‘Last time I broke a door down, I had an Enforcer…’
For All Our Sins: A gripping thriller with a killer twist (DCI Claire Winters, Book 1) Page 31
