Dying Wish

by James Raven

  It took several moments for him to fully emerge from the stupor and realize that he was sitting on a chair next to the kitchen table. The room swam in and out of focus. His hands were bound behind his back with what felt like a plastic flex-cuff.

  Noah Cross was standing directly in front of him – minus the female wig and glasses – and he had a demented grin on his face. He had also shed the dressing gown and was now wearing jeans and a white T-shirt.

  Temple felt his heart start to bounce in his chest.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you again,’ Cross said, holding up a ceramic pestle, which Temple assumed had been used to knock him out. ‘There’s no need.’

  ‘I called for back-up before I got here,’ Temple said quickly. ‘A team of officers will be here at any minute.’

  ‘That’s a lie,’ Cross said. ‘I checked your phone. I also responded to the text you received from Detective Vaughan. I told him you were busy and would call him later. And I told him not to show the passport picture to anyone else.’

  It came back to Temple then. The photo Vaughan had sent him of the woman purporting to be Theresa Bellamy.

  The ‘woman’ was Amanda Cross.

  Temple tried to make sense of it. He understood that like most other people, he’d been duped into thinking that Noah and Amanda Cross were twins, when in fact they were the same person. A wig, fake breasts, big glasses and heavy make-up had turned Noah Cross into a convincing woman. That explained why there was only one car – the Corsa – and why they never seemed to be at home at the same time. But it didn’t explain why Amanda Cross’s photo appeared on Theresa Bellamy’s passport.

  ‘I can see you’re confused,’ Cross said. ‘You still haven’t put it together, have you?’

  Temple squinted at him. ‘Well, it’s obvious to me now that you were Mason’s accomplice. But how did Tom Fowler fit into it?’

  ‘He didn’t,’ Cross said. ‘I needed a scapegoat so I took his keys from the bar in the pub and planted the evidence that I hoped would convict him.’

  ‘And I take it you also broke into Mason’s house the night after he died.’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘But what about your alibi? The stag party in London.’

  ‘If you’ll remember, you first phoned me on the number Hilary Dyer gave you. So I had to answer as Amanda. And when you said you wanted to speak to Noah, I made up a story on the spot to explain his absence. I feared that if I gave him an alibi you might at some point want to speak to us both together. So I called a pal in London and got him to lie for me. I told him I’d been involved in a fight and needed the police to think I was in London. He had no idea it had anything to do with Mason.’

  ‘So why go to Mason’s house?’

  ‘I had to find out if he had left anything around that would give the game away. If you hadn’t turned up I would have had time to check the loft. I’d have found all his stuff – including that frigging map – and stopped everything from getting out of hand.’

  ‘But why invent a sister? And why pose as Theresa Bellamy?’

  But as he was asking these questions the answers jumped out at him. Suddenly everything came together in his head with a clarity that made him gasp.

  ‘My God, you’re Ethan Kane,’ he blurted.

  When there was no response, Temple continued. ‘You posed as Miss Bellamy so you could sell her house and get her money. Then you came down here to link up with your old cellmate.’

  The man he now knew to be Kane merely nodded.

  ‘Theresa was a means to an end,’ he said. ‘I didn’t have a penny to my name. She was the third woman I met after leaving prison and the one I knew I’d be able to impersonate. She was my height, lived alone with hardly any friends and her daughter was in Australia. I had to kill her, of course, but not until I’d extracted all her financial details. When the police came calling, I pretended to be her and told them that Ethan Kane had left. Since they didn’t know Theresa and weren’t particularly interested in her they simply accepted that. I then sold the house and took all her money.’

  He said it like it was something to be proud of.

  ‘So what did you do with Theresa’s body?’

  ‘It’s buried in a wood in Kent.’

  Temple took a breath that caught in his throat. ‘So you sent the email to her daughter.’

  Kane nodded. ‘I wanted her and the cops to think that Theresa had done a Shirley Valentine.’

  ‘So you came to the forest and created a whole new identity for yourself.’

  ‘That’s right. A friend from prison sorted out all the false paperwork. It enabled me to buy this place with Theresa’s money.’

  ‘Why bother creating a twin sister then?’

  ‘I didn’t. My father did that years ago when he started dressing me in girl’s clothes. She’s been with me ever since. Now I wouldn’t be without her. Switching genders is something I enjoy doing. It’s who I am.’

  ‘Did Mason know?’

  ‘Of course, but he’s the only person who did know. He liked having Amanda around because as a male-female couple it made it easier for us to get close to our victims. None of them felt threatened when we approached them in the parking areas.’

  ‘So that’s how the abductions started?’

  ‘Well, Grant was active long before I came on the scene. He told me so. But working with me made it more fun and less risky. It was something we’d talked about in prison and it’s why he suggested I move to the Forest. He said we could make hay together and we did. We were a good team.’

  A wave of fierce anger whipped through Temple. He strained to extract his hands from the cuff, but it didn’t give an inch.

  ‘You insane bastard,’ he seethed. ‘You talk about it as though it’s no big deal.’

  With a lopsided sneer, Kane said, ‘To me it isn’t. I don’t see the world as you do, Inspector. And I don’t expect you to understand.’

  Temple started to speak but his throat turned to sand and he felt sick. He closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, swallowed back the sour taste of vomit that rose up from his stomach.

  Kane looked at his watch. ‘I’ve got to pack up and get going. I want you to get to your feet.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  Kane pulled out a drawer and took out a large carving knife.

  ‘I’m going to slit your throat if you don’t do as I say. Now stand up.’

  Temple did as he was told.

  ‘That’s sensible,’ Kane said. ‘Now this is what’s going to happen. I’m taking you down to the basement so I can get sorted and make myself scarce. Lucky for you I don’t blame you for all the shit that’s happened. If I did you’d be dead by now. Grant was responsible and you’re only doing your job. So I’m going to let you live. Eventually your colleagues will turn up and let you out.’

  ‘That might not be for days.’

  ‘Well, don’t fret about that. You’ll have company down there and I’m sure the three of you will have a lot to talk about.’

  61

  He would never have known the door was there. It was set in a wood-panelled wall below the stairs and there was no frame or handle.

  Kane removed a hanging mirror to reveal a keyhole. Into this he inserted a key and pushed the door open. Then he reached in and switched on the light.

  He told Temple to step inside first, holding the carving knife up to his throat to make sure he didn’t resist.

  It was a short flight of stairs into the large, low-ceilinged basement. As he walked down them, Temple was struck by the strong smell of sweat and fear.

  And blood.

  When he reached the bottom, he was ill-prepared for the sight that greeted him. It was so horrific that he was suddenly oblivious to the pain that racked his own body.

  He stood there staring into a vision of hell.

  There were two beds and two people were chained to them. They were sitting up with their backs to the wall. He knew instinct
ively that they were Bob and Rosemary Hamilton even though they were almost unrecognizable from their photographs.

  A sob rose in his throat and his gut clenched with revulsion.

  The couple were naked and their bodies were covered in blood, cuts and bruises. They gazed back at him but their eyes were devoid of any meaningful expression.

  ‘Meet Bob and Rosemary,’ Kane said. ‘I believe you’ve been looking for them.’

  They didn’t say anything and Temple wasn’t even sure they were able to. They looked traumatized. Or maybe they’d been sedated. He couldn’t tell.

  A bolt of genuine horror shot through him and his eyes flicked wildly around the room. He’d seen it all before in the videos and photographs. The sex toys and instruments of torture hanging from the walls. The table on which the victims had been raped and abused and perhaps murdered.

  The images exploded in his mind and he started to form his own grisly picture of what the Hamiltons must have gone through.

  ‘They should be thanking you,’ Kane said. ‘I was about to kill them when you showed up. I even dug the grave. But now that I’m forced to leave here and make a new life for myself, there’s no longer any need to.’

  Temple released a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding. He turned to Kane, his pulse roaring in his ears.

  ‘What kind of monster are you?’ he yelled.

  Kane smiled. ‘I’m the kind that gets pleasure out of other people’s pain and suffering, Inspector. I’m not proud of it, but I’m not ashamed of it either. Some people are born to be good and to conform. Others, like me, are born to be bad. As I see it, we’re the ones who have the most fun.’

  Temple felt the blood rush to his head. He’d come across some psychos in his time but none of them shone a torch to this maniac. He was the devil incarnate. The very epitome of evil.

  Temple knew that if Kane walked away from here tonight, he would go on to claim more victims. It was clear that he was shrewd and calculating and would have no trouble establishing a new identity for himself in another part of the country or even abroad.

  And Temple couldn’t let that happen.

  ‘Go and sit on the floor between the beds,’ Kane said.

  Temple moved his body as though to comply, but then spun round suddenly and lashed out with his right foot, catching Kane’s arm and knocking the knife to the floor.

  His aim was perfect and he followed it through by hurling himself at Kane. The impact sent them both sprawling across the floor.

  But Kane wasn’t encumbered by having his hands tied behind his back, so he recovered more quickly. He managed to retrieve the knife before Temple could drag himself to his feet.

  And then with a guttural cry, Kane rushed forward.

  Temple backed away, but immediately came up against one of the beds. He looked on helplessly as Kane charged at him with the knife and plunged it into his side, just below the ribcage.

  62

  Temple choked back a scream as fire lanced through his belly. He slumped to the floor next to the bed and a juddering breath racked his chest.

  Kane stood astride him and pulled his lips back in an angry snarl.

  ‘For that, you’re going to die, you pathetic, fucking moron,’ he raged. ‘But because you’ve really pissed me off, I’m going to make you watch while I kill these two other lovebirds.’

  Temple felt his heart slump when he saw the determination in Kane’s wild eyes.

  But then something unexpected happened.

  A chain was thrown over Kane’s head and wrenched up tight against his windpipe.

  Kane’s eyes ballooned in size and he slumped back over the bed that was directly behind him. As he tried to struggle free he dropped the knife which cluttered on the floor.

  Temple hauled himself up and watched as Kane flailed about like a fish on a hook.

  Rosemary Hamilton had managed to tighten the chain around his neck and she was holding onto to it as she attempted to squeeze the life out of him.

  His face went red, then purple, and saliva foamed at the corners of his mouth. He tried desperately to pull the chain away from his throat, but when he couldn’t get a hold with his fingers he started to twist his body in the hope of working himself free.

  That’s when Temple threw himself against him over the edge of the bed so that his movements were restricted. He pressed his weight into Kane’s body, ignoring the pain that passed through every fibre of his being.

  The sound of Kane choking to death rang in his ears and gave him a strange, perverted pleasure.

  When Kane’s body was at last still, Rosemary Hamilton started sobbing uncontrollably.

  She removed the chain from around his neck and rolled away from him across the bed.

  Temple noticed that one end of the chain was attached to a bedpost and the other to her wrist.

  As he pulled himself upright, a dizzy sensation washed over him and he became acutely aware of the pain in his side. He looked down and saw blood seeping out of the knife wound.

  ‘You’ve got to get help while you still can,’ a voice said behind him.

  He turned. Bob Hamilton was on the edge of his bed, and no doubt conscious of the fact that the loss of blood would soon sap Temple’s strength and cause him to faint.

  ‘The knife,’ he said, pointing. ‘Kick it this way and I’ll be able to reach it. Then I can cut the cuff and free up your hands.’

  Temple looked down. His vision was blurred but he could just make out the knife on the floor. He managed to shift it closer to the bed, and Hamilton stretched down and picked it up. Hamilton then severed the flex-cuff and Temple had his hands back.

  ‘Now go straight upstairs,’ Hamilton said, raising his voice above his wife’s deep, wrenching sobs. ‘You have to get help.’

  Temple had the presence of mind to check in Kane’s pockets first to see if he had a phone on him. But he didn’t.

  Shit.

  He felt so weak and dizzy he wasn’t sure he would make it up the stairs. But he knew he had to try.

  He moved across the room like a drunk, pain and adrenaline keeping him from losing consciousness.

  He crawled up the stairs on all fours and at the top stumbled through the door and into the hallway.

  He had no idea if there was a landline in the house or where Kane would have left his mobile phone. There were none in the hallway so he went into the kitchen. And that’s where he saw his own phone resting on the worktop.

  It was only a little way across the kitchen, but to Temple it seemed like miles. His head was swimming and he was losing the strength to stay on his feet.

  One step, two steps, three …

  His knees buckled just as he was reaching for the phone and he collapsed in a heap on the lino.

  As the darkness reared up to claim him, he thought he heard the distant wail of a police siren.

  63

  He woke up in an ambulance, but only briefly. Dave Vaughan was sitting next to him, his face taut with concern.

  ‘You’re on your way to hospital, boss, and you’re going to be OK,’ he said. ‘We got to you just in time. You’ve lost quite a lot of blood, but the paramedics say the wound isn’t fatal.’

  Temple had an oxygen mask over his face and his arm was attached to a drip.

  ‘The Hamiltons are safe and they told us what happened,’ Vaughan said.

  It was a moment before the brain fog cleared and Temple remembered how he had climbed the stairs out of the basement, but hadn’t reached the phone in the kitchen before passing out. He also remembered hearing a siren.

  He raised his arm and lifted the mask away from his face.

  ‘How did you know?’ he muttered, his voice low and hoarse.

  ‘It was the passport photo I sent you,’ Vaughan said. ‘I got your text telling me not to show it to anyone, but by then I’d already circulated it and Fiona came back to me. She went with you to speak to Amanda Cross so she recognized her immediately. We tried to call you but your phone w
as switched off, so we took it upon ourselves to come out here and arrest her – or rather, him.’

  Temple could not believe his good fortune. He would surely have bled to death if the cavalry hadn’t turned up when they did.

  64

  He woke up late the following morning in the hospital. He was in a private room. His head ached and he was hurting all over. For a moment everything was blank. Then he remembered why he was there and the memory brought nausea bubbling to the surface.

  ‘Hi there, sweetheart.’

  It was Angel. She was standing over him, wearing the kind of smile that lit up her face.

  ‘Thank God you’re all right,’ she said. ‘You had me really worried there for a while.’

  ‘How bad am I?’ His voice was a hoarse whisper.

  ‘You were lucky that the knife didn’t penetrate any vital organs. You’ve been stitched up and will be as good as new in a few weeks. You’ve got a large lump on your head, but the blow didn’t cause any internal damage. I’m afraid your nose is broken, but that’ll be put right. As for the roasted skin, well that’ll be very sore for a couple of days.’

  Temple tried to smile, but it hurt his mouth. ‘What about you? Are you OK?’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m fine, you idiot. You’re the one who’s been stabbed and burned and beaten. I know you like to pretend you’re Robocop, but this is taking things to extremes.’

  He could tell from her eyes that the smile and the banter were purely for his benefit, and he loved her all the more for it.

  ‘It’s not been our week, has it?’ he said. ‘What with all this and the miscarriage.’

  She shrugged. ‘But at least we’re both still alive. And when all is said and done, you can’t ask for more than that.’

  But of course they both knew that it wasn’t exactly a happy ending. He thought of Bob and Rosemary Hamilton and although they’d survived, he knew they would never really come to terms with what had happened to them. Their terrible ordeal would blight the rest of their lives and it remained to be seen if they could be happy despite that.

  ‘You’re the hero of the hour according to the news,’ Angel said. ‘The Hamiltons have issued a statement saying that you saved them.’