Silent Suspect: A completely gripping crime thriller with edge-of-your-seat suspense (Detective Jessica Daniel thriller series Book 13)

by Kerry Wilkinson

  Jessica sighed. ‘I know… that’s what I’ve been thinking about while waiting for you, but… I know how they work. How they have to work. The minute you’re arrested and in the interview room, that’s when the paper trail starts. Everything’s documented. Common sense goes out the window and everything has to be done in a certain way.’

  ‘Is that a bad thing?’

  ‘Not really… it safeguards everyone – but it won’t help me. Maybe they will believe me, but I’ll be questioned for hours and I don’t have much to give them other than conjecture and theories. There’s almost nothing I can prove. Everything connects to this farm a few miles away. They’re cultivating loads of cannabis in the attic—’

  ‘—so tell them about that.’

  ‘I would but…’ Jessica stopped, wondering how best to put it. ‘For one, I shouldn’t have been in the attic in the first place, so explaining how I know about it is a tough one. The farm is owned by this bloke named Vince Waverly. Telling the police might get him in trouble – but doesn’t really help me.’

  ‘So what do you need me for?’

  Jessica reached into her pocket and took out the memory card. ‘I need to find out what’s on here.’

  Andrew turned, nodding towards a white and green van parked on the other side of the road.

  ‘Good job I brought a van.’

  Jessica had visions of a vehicle packed with high-tech surveillance equipment in the back, with rows of complex computer gear, plus listening devices and a full-size R2D2. Something like that anyway. As it was, the van was rented – which was probably best if Andrew didn’t want to be trailed to Blackpool.

  They sat together on the wooden floor inside the back of the van as Andrew flipped his laptop lid and inserted the memory card into the side.

  ‘Couldn’t you have brought chairs?’ Jessica moaned.

  ‘We can nip off to B&Q if you want? I’m sure nobody there will recognise you.’

  ‘Fine!’

  Jessica wriggled uncomfortably on the hard floor as Andrew waited for the card to register through the laptop. Once the icon appeared, he clicked it and twisted the screen to face Jessica.

  ‘Are you ready to see this?’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘There are video files labelled “Rebecca 1”, “Rebecca 2”, and so on, up to 17.’

  Jessica stopped fidgeting, having failed to distract herself. She wanted to see the videos but, at the same time, wasn’t sure that she could. The blood on her car had belonged to Bex and her mind had already filled her with thought after horrifying thought about how that could have happened. If this footage was going to reveal where the blood came from, Jessica didn’t know if she wanted to see it.

  ‘I can look at a few seconds if you prefer,’ Andrew said, as if he’d read her mind. ‘You don’t have to watch it.’

  Jessica shook her head. ‘I suppose this is why I came here…’

  She braced herself, expecting the worst. Andrew opened the file and it started to play automatically. Jessica gasped at the sight of Bex – it was really her. She’d already known it would be, but it was still the first time she’d seen her since the day Bex had disappeared. In that time, Jessica had feared all sorts, but here the teenager was, sitting in an office chair, facing slightly off-camera, a dark sheet covering whatever was behind her.

  ‘Do you love me?’ asked a man’s voice.

  Bex nodded. Her face was thinner than the last time Jessica had seen her, the teenager’s cheeks hollowed inwards, eye sockets darker and deeper.

  ‘So say it,’ the voice added.

  ‘I love you,’ Bex replied. Her lips were chapped and dry and her gaze didn’t leave the spot at which she was staring, close to the camera.

  Andrew paused the footage. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  He pointed to the screen. ‘She’s tied up.’

  Jessica hadn’t noticed, but he was right. It wasn’t immediately obvious as, at first glance, it looked like Bex’s arms were by her side. It was only as Jessica peered closer that she could see the angle at which Bex’s arms jutted behind her, looping through the arms of the chair. She was only visible from the waist up, so there was every likelihood her feet were secured.

  Andrew touched Jessica’s hand and she realised she was shaking. His palms were warm and she allowed him to clasp her hand in his as he pressed play again.

  ‘Say it properly,’ the man’s voice said.

  ‘What do you want me to say?’

  ‘You know.’

  Bex leaned slightly forward, straining against her bonds. ‘I love you, Max,’ she said. ‘I really love you. You mean everything to me.’ She gulped but her tormentor didn’t seem to notice. Now that she’d said the name, Jessica recognised Max’s voice. The venom with which he’d sworn at his absent father the night before was underlying everything he was saying in the footage. The menace and fury was barely concealed.

  ‘Why wouldn’t you tell me that earlier?’ Max said. ‘Why do you always make me do this?’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘If you loved me, really loved me, you wouldn’t make me do this to you.’

  Bex bit her bottom lip, holding back a sob, breaking Jessica’s heart. ‘I know.’

  ‘You know that you make me like this.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘You make me bring you here, tie you up. This is your fault.’

  ‘I know it is.’

  Andrew’s grip tightened on Jessica’s hand as she struggled to hold it together.

  ‘So why wouldn’t you tell me that earlier?’ Max asked again.

  ‘I was scared.’

  Bex certainly looked it. She was trembling, elbows bumping against the armrests to which she was tied. There was a short silence where her eyes widened as she stared at the out-of-shot Max.

  ‘You were scared?’ he asked, voice as calm as if he were ordering an ice cream.

  ‘Yes,’ Bex replied, voice cracking.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I just was.’

  ‘Look at me.’

  Bex’s gaze flicked upwards slightly. ‘Okay.’

  ‘Are you scared of me now?’

  Bex shivered and, even in the slightly hazy images on screen, the goosebumps on her bare arms were clear.

  ‘You can tell me,’ Max added.

  ‘I’m scared,’ Bex replied, her eyes shifting lower again.

  ‘What would make you feel better?’

  Bex bit her bottom lip and then started to chew on it until it popped out of her mouth again. ‘I—’

  ‘You can say. If I don’t know, then there’s nothing I can do.’

  Bex’s gaze shifted slightly until she was staring directly into the camera, as if talking to anyone who would be watching. ‘Jessica,’ she said.

  Jessica gulped, reaching forward and stopping the footage mid-frame, leaving Bex staring out from the computer monitor at her.

  Andrew released her other hand and breathed out noisily but said nothing.

  ‘That’s how they did it,’ Jessica said.

  ‘Did what?’

  ‘I got a call from a phone booth on South Shore. It was Bex. She only said my name and then she was gone. But it wasn’t her at all. It was Max, his dad or Peter. They replayed the audio of her saying my name. That’s all they needed and that’s how they got me here. Everything that’s happened has come from that. They knew I’d be desperate and curious and I played into their hands. I made it so easy for them.’

  Andrew’s finger hovered over the button to continue playing the footage.

  ‘Do it,’ Jessica said.

  ‘Who’s Jessica?’ Max asked.

  Bex twisted to face him again, no longer talking to the camera. ‘A friend.’

  ‘What sort of friend?’

  ‘Just a friend.’

  There was another short pause. When he ended it, Max’s tone was lower, spitting with rage. ‘But you love me?’

  ‘Yes.’


  ‘Tell me.’

  Bex’s reply was monotonous, deadpan: ‘I love you.’

  ‘Tell me properly.’

  She leaned in again. ‘I love you, Max. I really love you. I need you in my life.’

  ‘You love only me?’

  ‘Only you.’

  The screen flickered and then returned to the desktop screen displaying the file list. There were another sixteen videos, but Jessica didn’t want to watch them. She’d seen enough. Andrew understood without asking. He closed the laptop lid and ejected the card, handing it back to Jessica, who pocketed it.

  ‘Why did they lure you here?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know. They’re looking for Bex, too, so perhaps they thought I knew where she was? Maybe they were following me, hoping I’d lead them to her?’

  ‘But if that were true, why set you up?’

  Jessica shook her head. ‘I have no idea.’ She was about to add something else when her phone started ringing. She took it from her pocket, expecting to see ‘unknown’ on the front, but it showed Fran’s name instead.

  ‘Hello…?’ Jessica answered. She’d not expected to hear from Fran again.

  ‘Jess?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘You need to come back to the Shanty immediately.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I can’t say on the phone, but it’s an emergency. Be quick.’

  The line went dead.

  Thirty-Seven

  Andrew drove them south along the promenade with Jessica ducked down on the passenger side. He asked her where she needed to go, but Jessica wasn’t sure. She had learned her way around the streets by following Fran’s lead of sticking to back alleys and cut-throughs. She eventually told him to follow the signs for the train station, knowing the Shanty was close by. With the ocean clinging to one side of the town, the tracks could only enter and leave in the opposite direction and she should be able to find her way.

  ‘Did your friend say what’s wrong?’ Andrew asked.

  ‘No, just to be quick.’

  Andrew took a corner, following the signs, just as his phone started to ring. It was in a small holder close to the handbrake.

  ‘Can you see who it is?’ he asked.

  Jessica picked up the phone. ‘Someone named Jen.’

  ‘Any chance you can put her on speaker?’

  Jessica pressed the button to answer and then for speakerphone, before holding the device out for Andrew to speak into.

  ‘Hang on, Jen,’ he called, before glancing quickly away from the road towards Jessica. He put a finger to his lips and then continued: ‘Okay, what’s up?’

  A female voice replied. She sounded like she was in her twenties, far younger than Andrew in any case. ‘Should I be worried that the police have just been around?’ she asked.

  ‘Why were they there?’

  ‘How about you tell me what you’ve been up to and I’ll let you know if that’s why they were here?’

  ‘C’mon, Jen. I don’t have time.’

  ‘Pfft… you’re such a spoilsport.’

  Jessica was trying to catch Andrew’s gaze as he waited at a set of traffic lights, but he was staring straight ahead. There was the merest hint of a grin on his face.

  ‘They were asking where you were,’ the voice on the phone said.

  ‘What did you tell them?’

  ‘That you’d gone out on a job. They asked where and how long you’d be, all that sort of stuff. I told them I didn’t know, because… well, I don’t.’

  ‘Good girl.’

  ‘So what do they want?’

  Andrew risked a quick sideways glance at Jessica as the lights changed to green. He edged ahead slowly as their lane joined another that wasn’t moving. ‘No idea,’ he said.

  ‘You know I’ll get it out of you.’

  Another glance at Jessica. ‘There’s nothing to tell, Jen.’

  ‘So who’s Jessica Daniel?’

  Jessica didn’t know whether to be angry, concerned or both. Should Andrew’s assistant really be quite so… well, annoying? And how had the police figured out that she and Andrew were in contact? They’d had a connection in the past but not recently. Perhaps they were trying lots of people?

  ‘Someone I used to know,’ Andrew replied calmly, eyes not leaving the road.

  ‘They seem to think you still do. They were asking me if I’d seen her, had some picture, but I didn’t know what they were on about.’

  ‘Did you tell them anything?’

  ‘I don’t know anything!’ She paused. ‘So, anyway, where are you?’

  Andrew turned to the phone, frowning, and then quickly back to the road. ‘Liverpool,’ he said.

  ‘Liverpool?’ she repeated.

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Will you be back later? They said they’d try to get in contact with you, but…’

  ‘I’m on my way back now. Give me an hour or so.’

  ‘Okey-dokey. See you soon.’

  Jessica thumbed the button to hang up and then returned the phone to the holder. ‘Liverpool?’ she asked.

  ‘Your lot were still in the office,’ Andrew said.

  ‘Oh…’ Jessica couldn’t hide her surprise. ‘How d’you know?’

  ‘You don’t know Jenny. She might have asked how long I’d be, but she wouldn’t ask where I was. If she needed to know, I’d have told her before I left.’

  ‘The sneaky bastards,’ Jessica huffed.

  ‘They’re your colleagues,’ he reminded her.

  ‘My sneaky bastard colleagues.’

  Andrew followed another sign towards the train station. They were close.

  ‘Assuming you hired the van in your name, they’ll know soon enough.’

  ‘I’ll be back in Manchester by then.’

  ‘What will you say if they come and ask where you were?’

  ‘I’ve got a private investigator licence, so I’ll tell them it’s confidential. If they arrest me – which they won’t – I’ll say I was doing a job that took me from the Fylde coast to Liverpool. What are they going to do?’ He broke off to indicate and pull in at the side of the road. The train station was in sight. ‘I probably shouldn’t help you any more, though. Just in case.’

  ‘I know… thanks. I owe you, well, more than one.’

  ‘In that case, you better get on and clear your name – you’re no use to me if you get booted out of the force.’ He laughed to himself and then realised he’d misjudged it. ‘Sorry,’ he added.

  ‘You’re fine.’ Jessica rubbed his shoulder. ‘You ever sort things out with your ex-wife?’ The half-smile gave her something of an answer. ‘Like that, is it?’ she added.

  ‘Like that.’

  ‘I’ll see ya around.’

  Jessica clambered down from the van and closed the door. She pulled the hood up on her coat and then headed past a petrol station towards the estate through which she’d be able to get to the Shanty.

  As Jessica emerged into the now-familiar cul-de-sac, she checked her phone. It had been less than twenty minutes since Fran had called. She passed underneath the trees and squeezed through the fence until she was in the garden at the back of the Shanty. She approached the door but stopped, her wrist cocked. Jessica had been to the house a few times in the previous few days, but something didn’t feel right.

  After their conversation that morning, Jessica had thought she wouldn’t see Fran again. It was a shame because she did like her, but Jessica’s presence was putting the rest of the women in potential danger. Not only that, Jessica hadn’t said it, but there were a fair few people in the Shanty who knew her face and name. All it would take was a careless word – perhaps even a deliberate word – and the police would be onto her. Jessica trusted Fran, but did she trust the others?

  She put her hand back to her side, staring at the door, wondering if she actually did trust Fran? The phone call had come out of the blue – and what could Fran possibly want that was worth bringing Jessica back here? That was worth endang
ering the women she’d done so much to help?

  Could DCI Fordham be waiting on the other side of the door?

  It was a horrifying thought, not only because of the fact that Jessica would be left in custody, fighting for her career, reputation and freedom; but also because of the betrayal. Jessica was hard-wired to be sceptical of people, to query their motives, yet she’d taken Fran at her word throughout.

  She raised her hand again, ready to knock but still holding back. This was the test of who she was as a person. After everything she’d been through, not just this week but in the past year, could she really trust a stranger?

  Jessica knocked four times, paused and then tapped twice more. She held her breath as the bolts unclicked, expecting Fordham.

  It was Fran and she was smiling. ‘That was quick,’ she said.

  ‘I wasn’t far.’

  Fran nodded over her shoulder. ‘You coming in?’

  The invisible creature itched at the back of Jessica’s neck, whispering in her ear, telling her to turn and run.

  ‘Of course,’ Jessica replied, stepping forward.

  Fran stepped around her and bolted the door in place. No way out. She offered Jessica another smile and then led her along the hall towards the living room, pausing by the door.

  ‘Everything all right?’ she asked.

  ‘You said it was urgent…’

  ‘Well… it sort of is.’

  Fran stood to the side, blocking the living room and nodding towards the kitchen. Jessica turned and gasped. She was so surprised that she stumbled into Fran, using the other woman’s shoulder for support.

  Standing in the kitchen, fingers cradling a steaming mug, was Bex.

  Thirty-Eight

  ‘Oh…’ Jessica didn’t know what to say.

  Bex’s head was bowed slightly and she peered over invisible glasses towards Jessica, wearing a small, weary smile. ‘Hi.’

  They stared at one another for a few moments and then Bex’s head drooped and she burst into tears. Jessica bounded across the room, taking the mug and putting it on the side, before wrapping her arms around Bex’s shoulders. The teenager bobbed up and down, sobbing uncontrollably. She was trying to speak but the words were lost to an asthmatic series of gasps. Jessica held her tight, feeling the jutting, sharp bones poking from her shoulders. She’d been slim to begin with but had lost even more weight in the months since she’d left Jessica’s house.