Pressing a hand to his heart, he smiled encouragingly. ‘Both of you,’ he said, reaching for Alicia’s hand.
Alicia looked at him, emotion climbing inside her. She knew what he was trying to say, and why he’d needed to say it now, before DI Taylor arrived: he thought he might not be around to afterwards. ‘I love you,’ she mouthed, squeezing his hand hard. And I will, always, whatever the future may bring.
Looking somewhat reassured, Justin nodded and turned back to Sophie. ‘Sorry I scared you, Pumpkin,’ he said. ‘I’ll try not to be so clumsy in the delivery of my next emotional speech. I’ll write it on my cuff or—’ He stopped as the doorbell rang, his gaze shooting fearfully towards Alicia.
Alicia didn’t need to see the police car outside to know who it was. Was DI Taylor accompanied by uniformed officers, she wondered, steeling herself for whatever news he’d come to deliver.
‘I’ll get it,’ Justin said, getting quickly to his feet. Alicia guessed from his steely expression that he was also readying himself for bad news.
Seventy-Nine
JUSTIN
‘Justin.’ Taylor’s smile was inscrutable as Justin pulled the front door open. ‘How are we?’
‘Disorientated, tired,’ Justin answered truthfully. ‘Trying to pick up the pieces.’
Taylor nodded understandingly. ‘It will be a case of taking it one day at a time, I suspect.
‘Definitely.’ Trying not to look obviously nervous, Justin scanned his face, searching for some indication of why he was here. The small talk, along with the fact that he appeared to be on his own, didn’t point to an imminent arrest.
‘Do you mind if I, er…’ Taylor nodded past him to the hall.
‘We were actually about to go out. A belated meal for Sophie’s sixteenth,’ Justin said, testing the waters, hoping the man might say it could wait. A forlorn hope, he guessed. Taylor obviously wasn’t here on a social visit to enquire after their welfare. ‘Sophie was looking forward to it. Can it wait?’
‘It’s important, Justin.’ Taylor smiled again, but still his expression gave nothing away. ‘It’s probably better if I have a quick word now, if I may?’
His stomach tightening, Justin nodded and stepped back to allow him access. It had to be about Radley. Why else would he be here? The ketamine he’d injected into him would have been easily tested for. Justin had handwritten the prescription requesting some from the pharmacy. He’d been right outside his apartment block with his daughter, Taylor as his witness. There was no way to deny what he’d done.
‘Ah, Sophie.’ Taylor’s mouth curved into a warm smile as Sophie came through from the lounge, heading for the stairs, ‘I’m very pleased to see you looking brighter, young lady,’ he said, extending his hand.
‘I’m feeling brighter, thanks to Dad.’ Sophie glanced at Justin, beaming him a smile that would sustain him. It would have to. Justin had thought he was ready for this, that he was mentally prepared. He wasn’t. His daughter was safe, he reminded himself. She had a future with the person most important to her – her mother. That was what mattered here.
‘I’m not so sure I’m pleased to see you though,’ Sophie added, looking the detective guardedly over.
Taylor chuckled at that. ‘Such is a policeman’s lot. We grin and bear it for the greater good.’ He sighed stoically.
To her credit, Sophie didn’t quite roll her eyes at his obvious theatrics.
‘Do you mind if I have a brief word with your parents in private, Sophie?’ Taylor asked her. ‘I gather you have a dinner engagement, so I won’t keep them too long.’
Justin felt a little of his anxiety dissipate. If it really was only a quick word he wanted, then hopefully he hadn’t come to read him his rights.
Looking relieved that it wasn’t her he wanted to speak to, Sophie shrugged easily. ‘No, it’s cool. I was going up to ring Chloe anyway,’ she said, giving Justin an impromptu hug and then turning for the stairs.
Justin watched her go, grateful that she seemed to be getting back to somewhere near normal, wanting to get in touch with her friends and pick up the threads of her life.
‘I take it she’s glad to be home,’ Taylor observed, as Justin led the way to the lounge.
Where she would have been a long time ago, if you’d followed up my suspicions, Justin wanted to say. He decided it was probably better not to point that out.
‘DI Taylor.’ Alicia smiled brightly, turning from the window – though Justin could see that beneath the smile she was as nervous as he was. ‘I was just about to boil the kettle. Would you like something? Tea? Coffee?’
‘No, thank you,’ DI Taylor declined, his expression serious. ‘I won’t take up too much of your time. I’ve actually come with some news regarding Paul Radley.’
And there it was. Justin could almost feel the cell door clanging shut behind him.
‘What is it?’ he asked, swapping worried glances with Alicia. He’d known this would come. He’d resigned himself to prison the second he’d started out on the path to extract information from Radley regarding Sophie’s whereabouts. He’d wanted to scare the bastard as much as he’d terrorised his wife. Once he’d known for certain that his instincts were right, that Radley actually had her, nothing had mattered other than finding out where he was holding her. When he’d realised what Radley had done to her, on top of the torture he’d inflicted on Alicia, his instinct had been to kill him. He’d convinced himself that being locked up for life was a small price to pay.
Taylor looked him over, taking his time. Justin wished he’d bloody well get on with it. ‘Paul Radley is dead,’ he finally announced.
Dead? The news hit Justin like a sledgehammer.
But he hadn’t…? He’d stopped. It had taken every ounce of his willpower to pull back from tipping the man over. Even knowing the bastard might never be brought to justice, he’d stopped, unable to condemn his daughter to living the rest of her life with a murderer for a father and causing Alicia’s nightmare to go on forever.
And now… the evidence all pointed to him having killed him anyway. Justin felt sick to his soul.
‘Or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint,’ Taylor added blandly.
Justin stared at him, uncomprehending. But… ‘How?’ He choked the word out, his gaze shooting towards Alicia. Her face was hard, resigned, almost knowing. He noted the straight set of her shoulders, the defiant tilt to her chin. She looked indifferent – satisfied, almost. Jesus.
‘Suicide,’ Taylor supplied, as Justin attempted to focus and failed miserably. ‘Not long after we left the vicinity, it seems, which puts you in the clear, Justin. A detective inspector’s sworn statement is about as cast iron an alibi as you can get, I imagine.’
Justin felt his blood stop pumping. ‘By what means?’ he asked, swallowing hard as his mind raced through all sorts of scenarios.
‘Plunged fifteen floors from his balcony. Made a bit of a mess on the concrete.’ Taylor had just confirmed what Justin really did not want to hear. He’d left the door open. He hadn’t bothered to close the front door when he’d charged in there. Knowing he was in no fit state to take the man on physically, his aim had been to get to Radley before he’d realised what was happening. Alicia had been due to arrive. The door had been open the whole time – and Radley had been on the balcony, incapable of doing anything other than realise what was happening to him. Jesus Christ.
Justin pinched the bridge of his nose hard. He couldn’t speak. He felt as if he might actually vomit. But… she couldn’t have. He tried to still his ludicrous imaginings. Panic gripping his chest like a vice, he wiped a thin film of sweat from his forehead and tried to think rationally, rather than follow the insane road his thoughts were going down.
‘Do you have any suspects?’ Alicia asked, seating herself on the sofa, her tone calm, her movements tense but composed.
Taylor shook his head. ‘Not yet, no. The circumstances surrounding his death are not being viewed as suspicious. Looks like he took
his own life.’
Alicia nodded.
Justin looked back to Taylor, wishing he could read what was going through the man’s mind.
Taylor locked eyes with him, studying him hard for a long, petrifying moment. ‘There’s something else you should know,’ he said, his gaze travelling to Alicia and back to Justin.
His thoughts all over the place, Justin tried to concentrate as he waited for him to go on.
Taylor spoke, eventually. ‘You might recall we didn’t have much to go on in regard to the road traffic accident, apart from the colour and model of the car?’
Struggling to keep up, Justin nodded. ‘A black four-by-four, as driven by half the population of the country.’
‘A Land Rover Discovery,’ Taylor said guardedly, and waited.
‘The same car Paul Radley drives,’ Alicia added quietly, after a second, her gaze now on the fingers she was knotting and unknotting in her lap.
‘Apparently, yes.’ His expression grim, Taylor looked from her to Justin. ‘We made some enquiries, concentrating on body shops in the area and the suspected damage to the vehicle. One of the shop owners was reluctant to impart details of such a repair. The owner of the vehicle paid cash, it seems. The job was never logged, for tax-avoidance purposes. Obviously, we can’t say for certain whether Paul Radley was involved without further examination of the car, but…’
‘So the car he’s been driving was a rental?’ Justin asked, attempting to get his head around what Taylor was implying.
‘It would seem so,’ Taylor confirmed.
Justin dropped heavily down to the seat behind him. He’d known it. Deep in his gut, he’d known Radley had been involved in the murder of his son. He hadn’t figured out how or why, but when he’d seen those photographs, Luke and him cut crudely out of them all, he’d been sure. The only thing he hadn’t been able to fathom was why Radley would have taken the risk that he might have killed the woman he was obsessed with, too, along with the child he’d truly believed was his. But now he realised that he wouldn’t have cared. In Radley’s mind, Alicia and Sophie belonged to him. If he couldn’t have them, then no one could.
Alicia knew it too. She’d just said so. She’d known Radley owned a Discovery before Taylor had confirmed it. Yet, she couldn’t have. Unless… it had been one of the vehicles in the underground car park. He’d looked right at it. What state of mind would Alicia have been in if she’d seen it there too?
‘I’m afraid there’s more,’ Taylor said, as Justin dragged his hands through his hair and tried to stop their incessant shaking. He didn’t dare look at Alicia.
‘We’ve been waiting for a forensics report to come back in regard to footmarks retrieved from the garden of your house, which bear a significant identifier, allowing us to narrow a specific pair of trainers down to brand, possibly even batch number.’
‘And?’ Justin held his breath.
‘We were a bit stuck at that stage,’ Taylor continued. ‘More often than not, it’s impossible to identify the actual wearer unless we have them in custody, other than by information already held on the database or divine intervention.’
‘Is this leading somewhere, DI Taylor?’ Alicia asked, still sounding quite calm, where Justin felt as if his chest was about to explode.
‘It seems the divine did intervene,’ Taylor went on. ‘We can’t be one hundred percent sure at this stage, but it seems Paul Radley was the owner of a similar pair of trainers, thereby indicating that it might well have been him who broke into your home. We’d need other substantiating evidence, of course—’
Justin exchanged glances with Alicia. Leave it, was the clear message he read in her eyes. They had the substantiating evidence: the locket, the photographs. Did they really want to share that with Taylor, thereby supplying further motive for possibly being involved in his death?
‘I’m afraid it does look likely though,’ Taylor concluded, with a heavy sigh. I’m so sorry. This must all be very distressing for you both.’
‘I see.’ Kneading his temple, Justin forced himself to look back at Taylor. He needed to maintain eye contact. He needed the man to go.
‘Did you recognise him, Justin? Or his car?’ Taylor asked him curiously. ‘Did you get a look at him after the accident?’
Realising the man was looking for motive, Justin shook his head. ‘No,’ he stated categorically, making damn sure to hold eye contact. ‘Do you think I wouldn’t have mentioned it, if I had?’
Taylor narrowed his eyes, scrutinising him carefully. ‘No, I don’t think for one minute you wouldn’t have mentioned it – volubly,’ he said, his expression… conspiratorial?
His emotions now way off-kilter, wondering whether he dare read into this what Taylor seemed to be communicating, Justin looked bewilderedly back to Alicia. Her expression unreadable, she glanced briefly back at him before turning her attention to Taylor. ‘Were there any extenuating circumstances?’ she asked him, causing Justin to do a double take.
Taylor’s expression went back to grim. ‘There wasn’t a lot left of the body to examine, to be honest,’ he said. ‘I doubt the post-mortem will produce anything that suggests it wasn’t suicide.’
‘No security footage?’ Alicia pushed, causing Justin’s stomach to drop like a stone.
‘Nothing,’ Taylor confirmed. ‘It seems several power outages had damaged the security feeds, which basically means we have nothing to go on.’
Looking back to Justin, he held his gaze for a long minute, nodded almost imperceptibly and then glanced down at his watch. ‘Right, well, I’ve taken up enough of your valuable time. I’ll leave you to go out for your meal. No doubt you have a lot to discuss. One or two fences that might need mending, possibly?’
‘A few.’ Nodding, Alicia stood to see him out.
‘I’m sure they’ll all be fixable,’ Taylor said. ‘It never ceases to amaze me how strong a family unit can be when everyone pulls together.’
Turning to Justin, he reached to shake his hand. ‘Sorry we weren’t much help to you in your painstaking search for Sophie, Justin,’ he said, now wearing his apologetic smile. ‘All’s well that ends well, though, hey? I’ll find my own way out,’ he said, turning towards the door with a wave – leaving Justin inwardly reeling.
Eighty
JUSTIN
Too shocked to move, Justin stayed where he was as Alicia went to the kitchen. She was making tea. Tea? She’d just learned that the bastard who’d raped her, killed their son and taken their daughter had fallen fifteen floors to his death, his insides undoubtedly splattered all over the pavement, and her reaction was to go and put the kettle on?
Christ. Running his hands up over his face, Justin took several slow breaths and then stood to follow her.
Seating himself at the kitchen table, he clasped his hands in front of him and watched her retrieve two cups from the dishwasher, wincing as she straightened up. She’d strained her back, she’d said, moving furniture.
When? She hadn’t had a bad back when she’d met him in the car. And she would hardly have gone back into the house and started shifting furniture with the sister she wasn’t exactly on very good terms with after certain events. Plus, there was the matter of Radley’s twisted text. Was she likely to have been moving furniture after reading that?
‘This heavy weight you lifted…’ he ventured, mentally calculating Radley’s weight, which he reckoned to be at least that of Alicia, plus half again. ‘Did Jessica help you with it?’
Alicia didn’t answer immediately, appearing to ponder as she poured hot water into the teapot to warm it.
Turning to him, eventually, she looked at him, her gaze long and searching. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I was adamant I could do it on my own, but Jessica insisted on helping.’
‘Right.’ Justin studied his hands – hands that had come so close to committing murder. He would have done, if not for his wife and daughter, whose lives Radley had almost succeeded in destroying.
‘How do we tell Sophie?�
�� Alicia asked, her voice worried now.
Justin took a second to digest this, and then looked back at her. She was holding her breath. Her beautiful, cornflower-blue eyes wide with fear, she was waiting for his reaction.
Tugging in a tight breath, Justin got to his feet. ‘Together,’ he said softly, walking across to her. He needed to hold her, to be there for her, to try to the best of his ability to keep his family safe.
* * *
***
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The Babysitter
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You trust her with your family. Would you trust her with your life?
* * *
Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it?
* * *
As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces.
* * *
But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants …
The Affair_A gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist Page 28
