Ready or Not

by Thomas, Rachel

  And why the hell was he involved in the disappearance of Stacey Reed?

  ‘Where’s the best place for you to meet with him?’ Chris said, thinking aloud. ‘We need somewhere open - somewhere there are plenty of other people around. This needs to be during the day too, not in the evening. It’s too risky otherwise.’

  At the word ‘risky’ Kate flinched. Chris noticed and apologised quickly.

  ‘What about the park?’ Matthew suggested. ‘It’s Saturday tomorrow – there’ll be plenty of people about. You could meet him at the coffee shop by the kid’s play area.’

  Chris mulled over the idea. ‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘We can keep an eye on you there without being spotted. Arrange to meet him at midday at the coffee shop. Call him first and we’ll go from there.’

  Kate reached for her phone, hesitated and changed her mind. She put the mobile on the desk, staring at it as if it may explode.

  ‘I don’t want to do this any more than you,’ Chris said, glancing at the phone, ‘but we can’t let this bastard get away with what he’s done. Try and get a hair from him.’

  Kate laughed loudly, the sound sharp. ‘A hair?’ she repeated scathingly. ‘What – you’d like me to pull one from his head without him noticing? Excuse me, my dear, but I’d like a hair to remember you by?’

  Chris leaned towards her. ‘This is important, Kate. Another person’s hair was found on the scarf that was covering Joseph Ryan’s head. If we can match the DNA we’ll be a damn sight closer to nailing him. Take one from his jacket. Do what you have to.’ He paused. ‘Use your imagination.’

  Kate didn’t like the insinuation. Chris had moved away from her; she looked to him, but he refused to meet her eyes. It was as if he didn’t want to be anywhere near her and certainly not close enough for physical contact. He was angry, and it showed. He hadn’t yet forgiven her for getting close to Neil Davies, Adam: whatever the bloody hell his name was.

  Feeling awkward, Matthew got up, excused himself and left the room.

  ‘We don’t know that he’s murdered anyone,’ Kate said, trying to convince herself that this may be true. ‘Yes, we’ve found out that he’s a liar. Does that make him a murderer?’

  ‘And a violent alcoholic,’ Chris added, as though she needed reminding. She thought of Neil trying to strangle his sister-in-law. Pictured him hitting his own daughter.

  ‘Kate, all three men knew this mysterious ‘Adam’. He was the last person seen with Joseph Ryan. If he’s innocent, why hasn’t he come forward, why hasn’t he told us? Why hasn’t he told you? He’s guilty as hell. We just have to prove it.’

  She pictured the man as she had last seen him; staring right at her with that brooding, piercing gaze. She had wanted so much for him to be one thing that she had been blinded to everything else.

  Now she understood the secrecy around him.

  ‘You’re right,’ Kate admitted, ‘I know.’

  ‘Let’s get this done and let’s see if we can get you a bit of time off afterwards. God knows you could do with a break from this place. I’ll speak to Clayton, see what I can do.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Kate said suddenly.

  ‘What for?’

  ‘Being a terrible judge of character, for one,’ she said. ‘I never meant to hurt you.’

  Chris paused. ‘Why would you have hurt me?’ he asked.

  A fleeting glimpse of a drunken union, all those months ago when her father had died and Lydia had just left Chris, passed before Kate’s eyes. She blinked as though to fight back the memory. She didn’t want to remember that night; not now, when things were complicated enough. She didn’t want to remember how she had let him close then pushed him away again, fearing rejection from a man whose wife had only just left him and, she knew in her heart, he wasn’t ready to let go.

  It was Kate’s turn to reach for Chris’ hand. She held his fingers lightly and avoided looking at his face.

  ‘Someone knows something about Daniel,’ she said quietly.

  For a moment Chris said nothing. The air between them was filled with an awkward silence that seemed heavy with words they were both unable to speak. Kate felt his fingers tighten in hers slightly then he pulled his hand away from hers.

  ‘Andrew Langley,’ she explained when Chris didn’t pursue the revelation. ‘If I’ve got the right one, he’s a private investigator based in Bristol. He told one of the desk sergeants to tell me he’s got news about Daniel. That was all he said.’ Her hand clenched into a fist and she banged it against the side of the desk. ‘And now I can’t bloody get hold of him.’

  Chris had turned away from her and when he looked back he didn’t look pleased that she might be closer to finding out what happened to her brother. Instead, he looked tired. Kate couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want her to have closure; he just didn’t want to see her hopes built up only to be dashed down again, and it had already happened so many times before.

  But never like this.

  Never from someone who might genuinely know something concrete.

  Chris cared, and it was because he cared that it hurt him to see her chasing what, deep down – like so many others - he believed was just a ghost.

  ‘I wish…’ Kate said suddenly, just as Matthew came bursting into the room holding another coffee. Kate gave her head a quick shake, urging Chris not to mention Langley or Daniel in front of Matthew.

  ‘I forgot to ask if anyone else wants one,’ Matthew said. If he’d noticed the tension in the room, Matthew didn’t give anything away. He wasn’t that clever, Kate thought; he hadn’t noticed.

  Both Kate and Chris shook their heads, refusing the offer of another coffee.

  ‘You made the call yet?’ Matthew asked.

  Kate reached again for her mobile, dialled Neil’s number, which she had retrieved from the note he’d given her on Wednesday and pressed call. After three rings the phone was answered.

  ‘Neil?’

  ‘Kate. Where are you calling from?’

  His voice was light with his usual confidence. Where before it had sent a shiver through her, it now sent a chill and Kate tightened her grip on the mobile. A voice in her head told her she’d never be able to get through tomorrow without being caught out.

  ‘I lost my mobile,’ she explained briefly. ‘Um…’

  Chris raised the palm of his hand, urging Kate to stay calm. She met his eyes. She had already let him down too many times; she couldn’t do it again. If she couldn’t get through tomorrow for herself, she would have to do it for Chris. She would have to do it to try and put things right.

  ‘I really enjoyed last night,’ Neil said.

  ‘Yeah. Me too. Actually,’ she said, quickly changing the subject, ‘I was wondering if you’d like to meet up tomorrow?’ Kate didn’t want to think about last night. She needed to look ahead now, and to keep looking.

  She felt her heartbeat quicken and tried to breathe deeply to calm her nerves.

  Chris gave her the thumbs up.

  ‘I’d love to,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a few things to see to in the morning, so it’ll have to be after that. That OK?’

  Liar, Kate thought. ‘Of course. That’ll be fine.’

  Kate moved the phone away from her ear and grimaced. She wanted to throw the thing across the room.

  ‘Actually,’ she said, looking at Chris, ‘I need to do a bit of shopping in the morning as well, so if we could meet somewhere in town that’d be ideal. How about the park? Midday?’

  ‘Look forward to it. Where shall I meet you?’

  ‘Do you know the outdoor coffee shop in the middle of the park?’

  ‘Is that open this time of year?’

  ‘Yeah. I’ll see you there.’

  ‘OK. See you tomorrow. Bye, Kate.’

  She ended the call and exhaled loudly.

  ‘Well done, Katy,’ Chris said. He smiled approvingly at her, but it failed to make her feel any more confident. She was going to have to put on a first class performance to
morrow. She’d never been a convincing liar and was certainly no actress. She wasn’t sure she was up to it.

  Kate looked to Chris. She wasn’t sure he believed she was up to it either.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ she confessed. ‘I don’t like it at all. If this goes wrong…’

  ‘It won’t go wrong,’ Chris reassured her.

  ‘You hope.’

  Chris said nothing.

  ‘It still doesn’t make sense,’ Kate said, shaking her head. ‘If he murdered those men, or even just Ryan, why would he try to get close to me? Why would he expose himself like that – put himself at that sort of risk? He kills a man and then takes a detective for lunch? It’s like he’s trying to get caught.’

  Matthew put his coffee on the desk. ‘Perhaps he is,’ he said thoughtfully, looking past Kate. His voice sounded hollow; distant.

  ‘Perhaps that’s exactly what he wants.’

  Forty Three

  By the time they arrived back at the flat Kate felt physically and emotionally exhausted. Chris had followed behind in his own car, insisting on making sure she got home safely. He didn’t trust Neil Davies not to be following Kate, and wasn’t prepared to take that chance.

  Kate had been clearly upset at the station and had made a poor attempt at trying to conceal her conflicting emotions. She had pointed out that if her acting skills were so poor that she was unable to hide her feelings from Chris, it perhaps didn’t bode well for the challenge that faced her with Neil tomorrow.

  Chris didn’t want to be the one to tell her that tomorrow it would be easier; that perhaps hiding her feelings from him was harder than keeping them from anyone else.

  Or perhaps, he thought, that was what he hoped.

  He pulled the car up behind hers in the car park. The sky was unusually dark, clouds lying oppressively over the town. The threat of a storm hung over them and Chris hoped it would hold off until the following evening. If it rained tomorrow morning the whole plan could be kicked into touch. Neil might suggest elsewhere and there was no way that Chris would allow Kate to meet him unprepared and without back up. He wasn’t going to risk Kate meeting Davies somewhere less exposed, it was too risky. If anything happened to her…

  He shook off the thought and waited in the car, watching as Kate took her bag from the passenger seat. She locked the car and made her way over to him.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, leaning against his car door.

  ‘You going to be OK?’

  Kate shrugged. She looked suddenly far younger than her thirty seven years, vulnerable and insecure and Chris wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and hold her, if only to offer her some sort of comfort. He cast the thought aside.

  ‘If you need anything, just call,’ he told her. Kate nodded. Chris started the engine. ‘Tomorrow then,’ he said, not wanting to leave her on her own but not wanting to question her independence. ‘Try and get some sleep.’

  He put the car into reverse, but before he could lower the handbrake Kate’s hand was on the opened window, urging him to stay a moment longer.

  ‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ she asked.

  She hated the sound of her own voice: weak, pathetic; desperate. She didn’t care. She didn’t want to be on her own, not tonight.

  Chris breathed an inward sigh of relief and accepted the offer.

  Up in the flat Kate kicked off her shoes and went straight to the kitchen to put the kettle on. She opened the fridge to get the milk from the door and saw a half empty bottle of wine that was begging to be finished. She took it from the shelf and into the living room.

  ‘Fancy something a bit stronger?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m driving,’ Chris reminded her, jangling the keys that were still in his hand.

  Kate smiled tiredly. ‘Of course. Sorry.’

  She went back into the kitchen, taking the wine with her. Ask him to stay, Kate, she thought. You don’t want to be alone. Especially not tonight.

  Just ask him.

  She reached for two mugs from the cupboard. She couldn’t ask him, not now. It would be misleading, would give the wrong impression, and she didn’t want to step on Lydia’s toes, not while there was a chance that she and Chris were trying to work things out between them.

  She turned suddenly when she sensed Chris in the doorway.

  ‘Want me to make them?’ he offered, nodding at the mugs. ‘Look, I can go if you want,’ he added. ‘You look tired.’

  Kate placed the mugs on the worktop. ‘Can’t imagine I’ll get much sleep anyway,’ she said.

  ‘You have to try. I know it’s going to be hard, but you can’t be tired tomorrow. You’ll need to be one step ahead of Davies.’

  ‘I’m just worried I’m not that good an actress.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Chris said. ‘You can be a bit of a drama queen at times.’

  Kate laughed softly. ‘Thanks.’

  Her smile faded and she distracted herself by pouring boiling water into the two mugs.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, changing her mind and pushing her mug to one side. ‘I definitely need something stronger.’ She reached for the wine bottle and took a glass from the cupboard. ‘You don’t mind do you?’

  Chris shook his head. ‘Carry on.’

  Kate poured a glass and returned the bottle to the fridge. She squeezed the tea bag in Chris’ mug, put it in the bin and added milk to the water.

  ‘Chris…’ she started, stopping herself before she continued. ‘Doesn’t matter.’

  ‘What is it?’

  She shook her head. ‘I’m just being silly,’ she said.

  ‘What’s new?’

  Kate jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow as she made her way past him and into the living room. Chris took his tea and followed after her.

  ‘Does Neil know where you live?’ Chris asked, sitting next to her on the sofa.

  She looked at him, surprised that he had forgotten the details of her confession earlier that evening. She then remembered that she hadn’t provided him with that many details. Nor had Chris asked to hear them. She’d been sparing his feelings, or trying to at least. If he had known, it was almost certain he wouldn’t have forgotten about it.

  ‘He walked me home,’ she said, flinching at the recent memory.

  Chris shook his head incredulously. ‘Christ, Kate. What if he comes here?’

  She put her wine on the coffee table. ‘When?’ she said concerned.

  ‘Tonight!’

  ‘You don’t think he would?’

  ‘I don’t know. Like you said, we know nothing about him. We don’t know what he’s capable of, do we?’

  ‘God,’ Kate said, taking a large swig of her wine. ‘What’s wrong with me? I can’t believe I’ve been so bloody stupid.’

  Chris distractedly fiddled with the zip of a cushion beside him. ‘Let me stay,’ he suggested suddenly. ‘I’ll sleep on the sofa. He probably won’t come here, but we don’t want to take the risk.’

  ‘I’ll be OK, honestly,’ Kate said, not wanting to appear any more desperate than she already had that evening. ‘I’ll be locked in, I’ll be safe enough.’

  ‘Please,’ Chris said, unprepared to take no for an answer. ‘I won’t sleep if I know you’re here on your own.’

  She smiled; her relief a little too obvious. ‘Thanks, Chris. You have the bed – I’ll take the sofa.’

  He frowned. ‘As if,’ he said. ‘Don’t be daft. And don’t let me keep you up either.’

  Kate got up from the sofa and went back into the kitchen. If he was going to stay, it wouldn’t matter if he had that glass of wine she’d offered. She took the bottle back out of the fridge and paused at the end cupboard, looking at the calendar that was stuck to its door. Tomorrow was marked with a thick black X.

  Forty Four

  She couldn’t sleep. She was too hot and lay with the duvet pushed down to her legs. Occasionally she thought she heard Chris in the next room, shifting about on the sofa. She had never slept this clos
e to him, with just a wall separating them, and she wondered if he was also lying awake, unable to sleep. She wondered what he was thinking about. She’d like to talk to him, although she wasn’t sure exactly what she’d say if given the chance.

  In her head she had listed all the things she needed to ask Neil the following afternoon. It should be easy enough to bring up the subject of his kids and wife; after all, she had already told him too much about her own family and she thought it was his turn to do the talking. She would be returning the favour by lending a patient, attentive ear. That should be the easy bit, unless he managed to so skilfully divert attention from himself yet again. If he did that Kate wasn’t sure how she would cajole him into talking. He’d been two steps ahead of her all week and if she tried to push the subject he was bound to see straight through her and suspect that she was fishing.

  And if he did talk it was going to be difficult to sit through his lies, nodding and responding as though she didn’t know any better.

  The more Kate thought about it, the less likely it seemed that Neil would confide in her with the things she needed to hear. There was always the chance that he would evade the subject of his wife and kids, as he had successfully managed to do all week. He would shift the focus back onto her; turn things around in a way he was obviously expert at. He had done it without her even noticing. He would manipulate the conversation, as he had been doing all week.

  She couldn’t let him, not this time. It was definitely Neil’s turn to do the talking, no matter how she had to persuade him to do it.

  The image of his face on the CCTV footage they had watched from Candy’s haunted her. The image of him froze in her mind, as it had on the TV screen. His face, already so familiar and yet now strange to her, stared back at her with a vacant stare, both beckoning and repelling her. Was he really responsible for the murder of Joseph Ryan, the man whose body had been found in the same park in which they were to meet tomorrow? If so, had he also been responsible for the deaths of Michael Morris and Jamie Griffiths?