Hidden Agenda (DI Kayli Bright Trilogy Book 3)

by M A Comley

  Once that was arranged, they returned to the car and set off for the police station. Talbot sat in the back, a permanent scowl on his face, as if he were running through the events of the day Sarah was murdered.

  Kayli refused to speak to him on the way to the station. She’d come up with the tactic early on in her career. Suspects were often infuriated by the silence, making them likely to slip up once they were in the interview room.

  She pulled into the car park and went into the station. “Sergeant, do you have anyone free to help me in with a suspect? He’s already tried to escape once, and what with Dave being incapacitated at present, I don’t want to risk any more shenanigans.”

  “Of course. Salter, go with the inspector,” he ordered a PC standing alongside him who was sorting through some paperwork.

  The young officer quickly appeared at Kayli’s side and followed her out to the car. Salter opened the back door, placed his hand on the man’s head, and pulled Talbot’s arm until he swung his legs round, easing himself out of the vehicle.

  Kayli and Salter escorted the suspect into the station while Dave hoisted himself out of the car.

  “This is Danny Talbot. He’s been arrested for the murder of Sarah Abel, if you can process him for me, Sergeant. I need his DNA to be sent to Forensics as soon as you can. I’ll interview him when I have the time. Make him comfortable in a cell until then, if you would?”

  “Will do, ma’am. Do you want me to call a duty solicitor for you?”

  “Yes, leave it an hour or so. I have a few things to sort out first.” Kayli glanced at Talbot, whose chin was resting on his chest. He was obviously feeling sorry for himself. She shook her head in disgust and walked up the stairs.

  Donna and Graeme turned to look at her, eager to hear the news. Kayli punched the air. “We’ve got him. Dave spotted the mobile poking out from underneath the passenger seat. He tried to run as soon as we told him we wanted to inspect his car.” She held up the bag with the phone inside. “Donna, I need you to get me a warrant for Talbot’s address ASAP.”

  “Consider it done, boss. Congratulations.”

  Dave came into the room and rushed towards his chair. “Blimey, I swear those stairs are getting steeper every time I walk up them.”

  They all laughed at the sweat forming on his brow. “I think we could all do with a coffee.” Kayli bought and distributed the drinks. She took her coffee into the office and sat down at her desk. After taking a couple of sips, she picked up the phone on her desk and placed a call.

  “Hi, Naomi. It’s Kayli. I have good news for you.”

  “We won the lottery in the syndicate, and they chose you to break the news to us all?”

  Kayli laughed and relaxed into her chair. “Nope, not this time. I had no idea you played in a syndicate.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Inspector. Are you going to share this good news with me, or keep me dangling?”

  “We’ve arrested someone for Sarah Abel’s murder. I’ve called SOCO to pick up the suspect’s car, and I’m awaiting a warrant to search his address.”

  “Excellent news. I’m delighted for you. Are you going to tell me who it is?”

  “The man who gave her a lift home that night after work.”

  “Whoa! A work colleague? Any idea why?”

  “Not yet. I want to see what’s in his flat first before I tackle him. He’s a butter-wouldn’t-melt kind of guy. Sickening that he would take her life the way he did. My take is that he doubled back to see her after saying farewell. We know he drove off, or we suspect he did as the boyfriend witnessed him leave. Actually, Young said he drove away after he saw her kiss him.”

  “Either way, you’ve got him. May I ask how?”

  “We managed to trace her phone via the GPS to his vehicle.”

  “I’m not with you. Did she drop it in his car? That’s hardly condemning evidence, Kayli.”

  Kayli sighed and smiled at the same time. “It wouldn’t be ordinarily, but we have proof that she made a couple of calls from home, spoke to two friends whilst inside her flat. There’s no way she could have done that if she’d left the phone in Talbot’s car.”

  “Great detective work. Well done. Let me know when you get the warrant. I’ll put a team on standby for you.”

  “Excellent. Thanks, Naomi. I’ll speak to you soon.”

  They had a long wait before the warrant was issued. The time was almost five o’clock. “Great, another late night,” Kayli announced to the team. “Donna, do me a favour and ring the pathologist. She’s awaiting my call. I want to get over to the address before it gets too late. Graeme, Dave, I want you to come with me.”

  “I’ll take my car, boss,” Graeme replied, standing up to slip on his jacket.

  “I was going to suggest the same. Are you up to this, Dave?”

  Dave nodded emphatically. “Yep, the adrenaline is kicking in, giving me my second wind.”

  ~ ~ ~

  When the three of them arrived at Talbot’s flat in the centre of the city, they found a shabby exterior but a very neat interior. The place was a typical bachelor pad. Everything was either grey, white or black—no splashes of bright colour. The lack of pictures and knickknacks made it obvious that a woman had never resided in the flat. Kayli and her team, wearing the obligatory plastic gloves, began to search the flat. It didn’t take them long to find the evidence they were seeking.

  Kayli pushed open the door to the bedroom and gasped. Shaking her head in disgust, she entered the room. Every conceivable inch of wall space was taken up with photos of the victim. The man was clearly besotted with Sarah, and Kayli couldn’t help wondering if Sarah knew.

  Dave whistled. “Jesus, he’s one sick fucker.”

  Graeme opened a wardrobe door and reeled. “Bloody hell, what a stench.” Kayli placed a hand over her nose and mouth and joined him. She knelt down to rummage through the items at the bottom and extracted a light-brown jumper that had evidence of vomit on it. Beside it was a black balaclava. “Crap, I bet this belongs to Sarah.”

  “What? The jumper or the vomit?” Dave asked, shaking his head.

  “My guess is the latter.”

  Kayli heard voices in the front room, and Graeme went to see who it was.

  “The forensic team has arrived,” Graeme said, poking his head back in.

  “Good, let’s get them in here to bag this lot up.”

  Two forensic guys walked in and looked around them. “Okay, do you want to leave this to us now, Inspector? Is there anything specific you’re looking for?” the younger guy asked.

  Kayli held out the jumper. “I think everything we need is on this. Plus, his infatuation of the victim is evident on the walls.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll photograph it all for you and get the DNA results back to you ASAP.”

  “Brilliant. We’ll leave you to it then and call it a day.”

  Kayli, Dave, and Graeme left the room.

  Dave shook his head, surprised. “Really? You’re going home now? What about Talbot’s interview?”

  “Yes, I’ve made the decision to let him rot in a cell overnight. I’ll interview him first thing in the morning. We’ve got enough on him now not to be concerned about him getting away with this.”

  “Your call. I’m not objecting. My leg is giving me jip anyway, so I could do with an early night.”

  “Why don’t I drop you home? You can get a taxi into work in the morning. How does that sound?”

  “Sounds good to me, if you don’t mind?”

  “It’s not as if I’m doing anything else tonight.”

  The three of them left the house and went their separate ways. When she dropped Dave off at home, he tried his hardest to persuade her to join him and Suranne for something to eat, but Kayli rejected the offer. “All I want to do is go home and soak in the bath, matey, but I appreciate the offer. Have a good evening.”

  “You too. Glad we nailed the bastard today.”

  “Me too. We’re sti
ll the best team around.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Kayli drove into work the next day, still buoyed about arresting Talbot, but regretting that she’d lain awake most of the night, thinking about Mark.

  The team were all laughing when she entered the incident room. “Glad to see spirits are so high. We need to sort out a celebratory drink. How about tonight?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Dave was the first to reply. Graeme and Donna followed suit.

  “That’s sorted then. Right, Dave, are you going to join me for the interview? The desk sergeant has placed the call for the duty solicitor to join us.”

  “Try and keep me away.”

  They left the office ten minutes later. Talbot entered the interview room, his hair a mess, and he had dark circles around his eyes, hinting at his lack of sleep. The duty solicitor was a young man Kayli had seen once or twice before by the name of Abbott.

  Dave initiated the tape recording and announced who was in the room before Kayli hit Talbot with her first question. “Why? Why did you kill Sarah Abel, Mr. Talbot?”

  His head sank onto his chest. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “What do you mean? Are you telling us that you were in her flat the day she died?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I went back to ask her a question.”

  “After you dropped her off, you’re telling me you entered her flat?” Kayli asked, clarifying what the suspect said.

  “That’s right.”

  Kayli twisted her pen in her right hand. “What question did you expect her to answer?”

  “I wanted to know if she wanted to go to a concert with me at the weekend.”

  “I see. And what was her reaction to that?”

  “Things didn’t go to plan. She’d already rejected me once, it made my blood boil. I rang the bell and hid. She was just about to close the door, something inside snapped. I barged into the house.”

  “And what happened then?”

  “I tied her up in the bedroom. You know the rest,” he added brusquely.

  “You killed her. Someone you were so infatuated with. Why? Because she rejected you, or was there more to it than that?”

  He was silent for a few moments then raised his head to look at her, a smirk pulling at his mouth. “She got what she deserved. She could have had it all with me, but she chose to deny her feelings for me. She flirted with me every second of the day at work.”

  Kayli’s eyes narrowed. “She kissed you on the cheek goodbye. That was what triggered all this, wasn’t it? You thought she was giving you the come-on and knocked on her door, hoping she would let you into her bed. How am I doing?”

  Glaring at her, he shrugged.

  “Instead, she rejected your advances. If you loved her that much, why did you set out to kill her? There’s no point denying how deep your feelings were for her—we’ve seen her pictures plastered over your bedroom walls at your flat.”

  “We could have been happy together. Even when she realised her life was about to end, she took pleasure in rejecting me. Told me that she was going to get back with him.”

  “Him? Young, you mean?”

  “Yes. She was too good for him.”

  “And for you apparently,” Kayli snapped back harshly. “I’ve heard enough. To me, you’ve confessed to murdering Sarah Abel. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us before I end this interview?”

  “Nope. I’d do it all over again, given the opportunity. She was a tease, loved flaunting her flesh at work.”

  “In your eyes only, it would appear. Over the course of our investigation, we’ve heard nothing but good things about Sarah. Maybe you imagined her to be something she clearly wasn’t. Mislabelled her to suit your needs, and when she rejected you... well, we all know what your reaction to that was, don’t we?”

  He hung his head in shame at last.

  Kayli shook her head. “You’ll be formerly charged and sent to a detention centre by the end of the day.”

  Dave ended the tape, and Kayli motioned for the PC to escort the suspect from the room.

  “Thanks for coming, Mr. Abbott.”

  “My pleasure.” The solicitor shook her hand.

  Kayli and Dave left the room with the solicitor, who went through to the reception area while they walked slowly up the stairs again. When they reached the top, Kayli’s mobile rang. Her brother’s name filled the small screen. “Hello, you. What can I do for you?”

  “You sound happy?” Giles noted.

  She detected a little tension in his voice. “Unlike you. What’s wrong? It’s not Annabelle, is it?”

  “No, love. Everyone is fine here. Are you sitting down?”

  Kayli leaned against the bannister and looked over at Dave.

  He rubbed her arm and mouthed, “Are you okay?”

  She nodded and swallowed. A vice-like grip clenched her heart. “Go on. I’m sitting,” she lied.

  “Kayli... they’ve spotted him.”

  Her legs gave way beneath her. Dave tried to break her fall, but his crutches got in the way. Tears swiftly filled her eyes. “Where? When?”

  “In Kabul. Intel says that he was being moved someplace else.”

  “Where to?” She tried to stand, but her legs gave way again.

  “That’s the thing—we don’t know. Listen, that’s not important. At least we know he’s alive now.”

  “My God, I don’t believe it. What now?”

  “We sit and wait.”

  “What? No way!” She looked up at Dave as she said, “I’m going out there.”

  “You are not!” Giles shouted as Dave shook his head.

  “Watch me,” she said defiantly. Forcing her legs to work, she stood up. “We’ve just wrapped up the case. I’m going to see the DCI now. Get me on a plane, Giles. I don’t care if it’s on its last legs. Just get me on a plane.”

  “You’re crazy. I can’t—no, I won’t let you go out there alone.”

  She gasped. “Then come with me.”

  “What? I can’t do that. What about Annabelle?”

  “Sorry, I was being selfish. Get in touch with your contacts and tell them to expect me soon, Giles. I’m deadly serious about this.”

  “I know you are. Jesus, you can be such a stubborn bitch at times, sis. Give me a couple of hours to sort things out. Oh fuck! Mum and Dad are going to kill me when they hear about this.”

  “They won’t. They’ll understand.” Kayli hung up and stared at her partner, whose mouth gaped open. She shrugged. “I have to do this, Dave.”

  “I know. You know what? If I were in your situation, I’d be saying exactly the same thing. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you better go and clear it with the DCI.”

  “Wish me luck.” She raced along the corridor and into Fiona’s office. “Sorry, it’s an emergency. I need to see her now.”

  “Let me make the call,” Fiona replied, frowning. She swiftly picked up the phone. “DCI Davis, I have Inspector Bright here needing to see you urgently... Okay, I’ll send her in.”

  Kayli smiled, and before the secretary could hang up the phone, she knocked on the door and entered the DCI’s inner sanctum.

  DCI Davis was sitting upright in her chair, a pile of paperwork on the desk in front of her. “Is something wrong, Inspector?”

  “Two things I needed to see you about, ma’am. I think I’ll need to sit down before I tell you, if that’s okay?”

  DCI Davis placed her pen on top of the papers she was dealing with and pushed them to one side. “This looks serious. You better get to the point, Inspector. Do you have a problem with the case, or is this personal?”

  She sighed and smiled half-heartedly. “You’ll be pleased to know that we’ve just arrested a suspect for the murder of Sarah Abel.”

  “I see. Therefore, this visit must be personal.” She sat back in her chair and clenched her hands together in front of her.”

  Kayli’s gaze drifted to the bookshelves behind the chief, and she struggled to keep the tears
from forming. She gulped and inhaled a shuddering breath. “I need time off, ma’am.”

  “Of course. I thought you were struggling to cope. It must be hard with Mark missing. Glad you managed to bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion. I appreciate all the effort you put in on this case.”

  “I was only doing my job, ma’am. Giles, my brother, rang me a few moments ago to inform me that Mark has been spotted in Afghanistan.”

  DCI Davis sat upright and bounced forward in her chair. “That’s great news, isn’t it? Why the glum face?”

  “Because he’s still a prisoner. He was in the process of being moved, and we have no idea where to. All I know is that he needs me. I can’t tell you more than that, but I need to go out there and rescue him.”

  The DCI’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? You can’t go out there. It’s far too dangerous for you. For any civilian woman, come to that. Please reconsider your decision.”

  Kayli shook her head defiantly. “I won’t do that. My mind is made up. I’m going. My brother is making all the arrangements now. I just needed to clear things with you first. Look, I’ll understand if you think I’m running out on you and you need to fill my shoes, especially when Dave is incapacitated at present, but my need to help rescue Mark far outweighs my desire to chase criminals at the moment. It’s imperative that I do this, and I’m hoping you’ll understand my reasons why.”

  DCI Davis threw her hands up in the air and left her chair. She walked around her desk and perched her backside on it ahead of Kayli. She took Kayli’s hand in her own. “No one truly understands the power of love until they’re faced with an impossible situation such as this. I will not stand in your way, and to be brutally honest with you, if I were in your shoes, I’d stubbornly be saying the same thing. Answer me this, though? Have you truly considered the danger you’ll be putting yourself through?”

  Kayli nodded. “I know what my life has been like over the past few weeks and how intolerable it has been sleeping in my bed alone. I love him. If there’s a way for me and Giles to get him back, then I’m willing to risk everything to do that.”