Geraldine decided to search through all the interviews and data, hoping to discover a new lead. All she had to go on was the thought that if Chris was innocent, then someone must have framed him. So far she had come across nothing that suggested he had any enemies. No one seemed to have even disliked the mild-mannered man, or to have had much to do with his reclusive wife.
‘She must have left the house sometimes,’ Sam grumbled.
‘Unless she was agoraphobic,’ Geraldine pointed out.
‘The doctor didn’t say so.’
‘He said there was nothing else he knew about, but he didn’t know much about her because he never saw her, and her most recent medical records were from her adolescence.’
Geraldine had intended to visit Helena that evening, but by the time she finished what she was doing it was growing late, so she decided to carry on working for another hour or so, until she was too tired to carry on. There were a lot of documents to scan through. She was about to pack it in for the night when she spotted something she thought could be interesting. The accusation had cropped up before, but she hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time. On the face of it insignificant, in the context of looking for someone with a potential grudge against Chris it raised a question mark. With very little expectation, she looked up the file and read through the report.
Chris had been accused of abducting a young woman from outside Cockfosters station not long before the death of his wife. The missing woman’s father had noted down the registration number of Chris’s van, and reported him to the police. The case against Chris had been dismissed straight away, but as she read the notes, Geraldine grew increasingly excited. Chris had never denied being at the station. His wife had confirmed that she had been in the van with him. They would never be able to discover whether she had been lying to protect her husband.
But another scenario occurred to Geraldine as she cast about for possibilities. Believing that Chris had snatched his daughter, it was just plausible that the missing woman’s father had taken matters into his own hands. There was a chance he might have killed Jamie and framed Chris for her murder, as an insane act of revenge for the loss of his daughter. Bizarre though it seemed, it might be worth looking into. The officer who had filed the original report about the alleged kidnap was not at work that evening, but would be there in the morning. Although she was interested in this potential lead, Geraldine decided to wait until she had spoken to the officer concerned before taking her suspicions to Adam. All she had now was a tenuous supposition.
It was difficult to go home and put her new theory out of her mind for the rest of the evening. Without any evidence, she was reluctant to share her idea with any of her colleagues. Keen to talk it through, she called Ian Peterson. He was so full of the major crime unit that was being established in York that she hesitated to raise her idea with him.
‘So, how’s your investigation going?’ he enquired at last.
‘Oh, fine,’ she heard herself answer. ‘I just called to find out how things are going there.’
She hung up and was putting some dinner in the oven when her phone rang.
‘Erin, it’s me.’
‘Helena? How are you doing?’
‘I need help.’
‘What? Where are you?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Aren’t you at the clinic?’
‘No. I had to leave. They knew I was there. I had to get away. Erin they’re coming for me. You got to help me. They’re going to kill me if I don’t get the money to them tonight.’
55
Having agreed to meet Helena outside Arsenal station, Geraldine drove straight there. Uncertain what to expect, she waited anxiously. The street outside the station was quiet at that time of night. It would have been very different after a football match at the stadium just around the corner. She hadn’t been able to get much sense out of her sister’s paranoid rambling over the phone, but one thing was clear. The night wasn’t likely to end well. Helena had said her life was in danger. Given the kind of people her sister consorted with, Geraldine didn’t think she was exaggerating. The drug dealers to whom she owed money were growing impatient. Geraldine had just lost her mother. She didn’t want to lose her sister too.
She had been waiting for about twenty minutes when a skinny figure tottered out of the station. She paused, looking around uncertainly. Catching sight of Geraldine waving, Helena scurried over to her.
‘Here you are,’ she said as she flung herself into the car, as though Geraldine had been keeping her waiting.
‘What’s this all about?’
‘Get away from here. Drive to your house. We can talk there.’
Geraldine refrained from pointing out that she didn’t live in a house. Reassured that Helena didn’t know her address, she made no move to start the engine.
‘We’re sitting here until you tell me what’s going on.’
‘Stay here if you like, but I’m telling you he’ll find us soon. And then you’ll be done for too. You think you got some God-given protection just because you’re a pig? He won’t know who you are. And he won’t care neither. He’ll shoot. No questions.’
Responding to the urgency in Helena’s voice, Geraldine turned the key in the ignition and pulled away from the kerb.
‘Start talking, or we’re going straight back to the clinic, which is where you should be.’
Helena scowled. Without straggly locks framing her face, her likeness to Geraldine was more obvious than ever. Talking rapidly, Helena launched into a convoluted account of how she had been befriended by a man called Benny.
‘Course, it’s not his real name. He likes bennies.’
Geraldine grunted to indicate she understood Helena was referring to the sedative Benzodiazapine. When she asked for Benny’s real name, Helena said she had no idea.
‘He’s just Benny.’
Geraldine thought she could probably trace the man known as Benny from his street name.
‘Where does he live?’
Helena could tell her nothing about the man she called Benny. All she could say was that she had believed he genuinely liked her. Geraldine knew the end of the story long before Helena stopped speaking.
‘The fucking scumbag fleeced me for everything I had, and now he knows I’m due to inherit what mum left, he’s after every penny of that too.’
‘So he’s your pimp and your supplier, and you owe him a great deal of money,’ Geraldine summed up as Helena finished her account.
It was a squalid story, but hardly unusual.
‘That’s about it, yes. And if I don’t get him his money, he’s going to kill me.’
‘He’s just trying to frighten you.’
‘Well, he’s succeeded. But this ain’t a game, sis, he really is going to kill me. I know him, and I know exactly what happens to anyone who owes him.’
‘You don’t have to refuse to pay, just stall him. Explain about your situation. You’re going to come into money soon. He’ll just have to wait.’
She knew what Helena was going to say, and knew that her sister was right. People like Benny didn’t wait.
‘He ain’t going to lose street cred over me,’ Helena said with a bitter laugh. ‘And besides, he’s pissed. He’ll kill me for the hell of it, just because he can. He don’t give a fuck. You got to help me, Erin.’
She explained she had arranged to meet her supplier near to Arnos Grove tube station.
‘I got to take the dosh in a bag and hand it over without no one seeing. I got a bag here. I put everything I got in there. You got to put up the rest. It’s got to be another four and a half grand or I’m dead.’ She held up a faded leather bag, as though that would persuade Geraldine to help her. ‘I got to meet him there tomorrow night at eleven. If I don’t show up he’ll find me. He always gets people. I been on the run from him for months
. No way is he going to let me get away from him again. I mean it, sis. If you don’t help me, I’m dead.’
There was nothing else for it. Geraldine drove Helena to a small pub with rooms that she knew of in Soho, explaining that Benny might trace her if she stayed at Geraldine’s flat. Helena acquiesced at once. In fear for her life, she wasn’t bothered about where she was going to stay, as long as she was safe. Having dropped Helena off, settled her in a bedroom and paid the bill in advance, Geraldine left, promising to return the next day. First she would need to go to the bank and draw out nearly five thousand pounds in cash.
With serious reservations about what she was doing, Geraldine set off home. She knew she ought to inform the drug squad about her meeting with Benny, but she was reluctant to draw their attention to her sister. She decided instead to follow Helena’s lead and find out more about Benny. All she needed was to see him, and take a photograph of him, and she should be able to see him apprehended, protecting herself and Helena at the same time. Determined to protect her sister, she went to bed and slept uneasily.
Her handbag stuffed with cash, she took the train to Oxford Circus and walked from the station to the pub where she had left Helena. She was nervous, with so much cash on her, but it was important to behave as though nothing unusual was happening. Besides, it was her money. So far she had done nothing wrong. Once she knowingly handed the cash to a drug addict who intended to use it to pay a dealer, she would be straying into questionable territory. But Helena was her sister.
She went up to Helena’s room and knocked on the door. There was no answer. The door was unlocked. Expecting to find her sister asleep in bed, she found the room was empty. She checked the bathroom. There was no sign of Helena. She ran back downstairs, hoping to find her sister at breakfast, but she was not in the small dining area, or in either of the bars. Helena had disappeared.
56
With a sick feeling in her stomach, Geraldine went up to the bar and asked if the girl knew where Helena had gone.
‘Are you Erin?’
‘Yes. Is there a message for me?’
The girl behind the bar nodded and fished an envelope out of the till. ‘She left this for you. She said it’s really important.’
Registering the barmaid’s wide staring eyes, Geraldine took the envelope. Taking pains to conceal her unease, she ordered a coffee and took her drink over to a small round table in a corner of the bar. Only then did she take out the note that her twin had left for her, and look at what was perhaps the most disturbing message she had ever read.
‘You got to do it. I’m sick. He’ll be in the car park. If you don’t say nothing, he’ll think you’re me. If you don’t, I’m dead.’
Geraldine sipped her coffee thoughtfully. There was no way she ought to even consider carrying out the request. All her instincts screamed at her to report this rendezvous to the drug squad. But the cash Helena needed was in her bag. If she carried out this one generous act, there was a chance she and Helena might begin to forge a relationship. It would take time, and a lot of patience on both their parts, but the possibility was coming tantalisingly close. Helena’s desperation had opened up a way for Geraldine to try and gain her trust. It had to be worth the attempt. If Geraldine refused to help her sister, that might be the end of their relationship. They were strangers. Fate had given Geraldine this chance to connect with her lost twin. Regardless of the risk, she had to do what Helena asked.
With her thoughts in a whirl, she went home and changed into her scruffiest clothes. Wearing old jeans and a loose T-shirt that made her look skinny, she made up her face to look very pale and smudged her eyeliner until it looked as though she had grey bags under her eyes. After messing up her hair with oil and a dusting of talcum powder, she hurried to the station and caught a train to Arnos Grove. Arriving at the car park with five minutes to spare, she looked around. There was no one else in sight. Everywhere she looked she saw only shadows and empty cars. As she hesitated, at the periphery of her vision she thought she caught a flash of movement. She spun round. Someone stirred in the shadows.
Geraldine started forward. ‘Helena?’ she whispered.
Squinting in the half light, she made out a hooded figure. As her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she saw a man shuffle forwards. Cutting across the shadow, a narrow shaft of light from a street lamp fell on him. From beneath his hood, pale eyes gleamed at her. She caught only a glimpse of an unshaven face before he shifted out of the light.
‘You got it?’ a hoarse voice asked.
Geraldine hesitated. The hooded figure took a step towards her. He was holding a gun.
‘Helena,’ he growled, ‘don’t fuck with me. You owe me. Take three steps towards me and drop the bag.’
‘I’m not…’ Geraldine broke off, her thoughts whirling. ‘Is that you, Benny?’
‘Don’t fuck with me, you stupid whore. Who d’you think it is? You think I’d send one of the boys?’ He spat on the ground. ‘Now give it here if you want to walk.’
Geraldine glanced at the gun. Benny had mistaken her for Helena. He might shoot her, whatever she did.
‘Give it here,’ he repeated. ‘Three steps.’
Geraldine’s fingers tightened on the handle of the bag until the hard leather dug into her palm. Without moving her head she looked around, but there was no sign of anyone else in the car park. With desperate resolve, she stepped towards the man and held out the bag. In one minute this would be over, and she could begin to build what might develop into the most important relationship of her life. Benny shuffled forwards, one arm extended. When she was a foot away from him, she leaned down slowly and placed the bag on the ground. As she straightened up he lunged for it. In that instant, a bright light snapped on.
‘Put your hands in the air! Don’t move!’ a voice shouted. ‘Hands in the air where I can see them.’
Geraldine froze.
Benny swore, swivelling frantically on his heels. ‘What the fuck…’
‘Don’t even try, Benny,’ the disembodied voice called out. ‘We’ve got you surrounded, you and your whore there, so you’d best come quietly. Now drop the gun, nice and steady, and put your hands up, where I can see them.’
Benny spat on the ground. ‘It was Monkey told you I was here, wasn’t it?’ he growled. ‘I never did trust that fucker.’
The gun fell on the ground with a faint clatter. As Geraldine went to whip out her identity card, another voice yelled at her to raise her hands in the air. Understanding what might happen if she tried to explain, she obeyed the order. As she did so, her wrists were seized in a firm grasp. Before she could say anything, she heard handcuffs snap closed and her arms were securely trapped.
‘Wait,’ she cried out firmly, confident the arresting sergeant would respond to the authority in her voice. ‘You’re making a mistake.’
The sergeant gave a bark of laughter. ‘Save it for the interview. Once you’ve been charged you can complain all you like.’
‘Listen, you’ve got this all wrong. Look in the inside pocket of my jacket.’
‘It’s Benny all right,’ another member of the drug squad called out. ‘Hello, Benny,’ he went on in a conversational tone. ‘I told you we’d get you one day, didn’t I? So, what’s in the bag, Benny?’
‘Fuck off, it’s mine. Keep your hands off it. I’m telling you, it’s mine, all above board. Don’t you touch it.’
Out of the corner of her eye, Geraldine saw Benny struggling to free himself from his arresting officer’s hold.
‘Come on, let’s get you in the car. Come on, move it. Mind your head.’
‘This isn’t the first time I’ve been in a police car,’ Geraldine muttered as she was pushed over to the waiting vehicle.
‘Well, let’s hope it’s the last time,’ the officer who had cuffed her said.
Geraldine felt as though she had been slapped in the
face.
‘You need to check my ID…’
Geraldine’s announcement was greeted with a snort of laughter. Controlling her agitation, she allowed the sergeant to lead her over to the car. It was difficult to know what to do, given that she had been caught in a deserted car park handing thousands of pounds to a notorious drug dealer. Although she was reluctant to tell her colleagues about her sister, it seemed there was nothing else for it. She had faced tricky situations before, but never anything like this. Whatever happened, it was going to be difficult to talk her way out of this problem.
Head down, she sat in the back of a police car taking her to the nearest police station. All the while they stopped and started in the late London traffic, her mind was racing. She couldn’t decide what to say when challenged about her reasons for her actions. The prospect of confessing everything to Adam and throwing herself on his mercy made her cringe, but she couldn’t think of an alternative. She bitterly regretted having agreed to have anything to do with Helena’s illicit activities. But it was too late to change her mind. And she still had no idea where Helena had gone.
57
‘Are you serious?’ Geraldine wasn’t sure, but it sounded as though Ian was trying not to laugh. ‘You are pulling my leg, aren’t you?’
‘No, I’m not.’
‘And they actually arrested you?’
‘Yes, I just told you. That’s what happened.’
‘Bloody hell. I wish I’d been there to see it. I can’t believe it. You, of all people.’
Geraldine bristled. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Just that you’re always so conscientious and…’ He broke off.
This time there was no doubt. He was laughing.
‘This isn’t funny, Ian. I’ve been suspended.’
‘Suspended?’ His altered tone indicated that he was taking her seriously at last. ‘What the hell happened?’
Deadly Alibi Page 24
