Claire’s eyed widened for a second, telling Byrd not to piss her off anymore.
Byrd gave her a slow nod, decided to say nothing more.
Fallows started laughing. Byrd wondered what was so hilarious. ‘You – you think that was Mackenzie who killed them people seven years ago?’ She tilted her head to one side. ‘Well, you would do. After all… that’s what I told you, wasn’t it? Oh God… this was so easy, Max. How could I just walk into your department like that?’
Byrd felt an anger build up inside but didn’t show her words were getting to him.
‘I killed them people, Max. I did. They deserved all they got. They’d mistreated people all their lives and even killing them was not enough. I took Dilton under my wing after months of getting into his head. Yes, he’d violently attacked a man in Essex one night and had been enrolled on a program with me, so he wasn’t exactly an angel, but once I knew him, Max, I realised he was a shy, young man, who didn’t respond to the world like everyone else did. I blame his upbringing. It was awful. It’s not what a child should go through – don’t worry, I’m not getting into it. Let’s just say his first attack was him expressing himself. During the time I got to know him, I realised there was more he had to give, otherwise he’d go crazy. So what better way to do it than to get back at people who really deserved it. You see, I know he wrote you and Orion a letter, saying he found this website online and he blah blah blah… the truth is, is that I found the website. And I contacted Dilton. I asked him if he wanted to unleash some of that frustration I knew he had deep down in him.’
‘So killing people is the answer?’ asked Byrd, shaking his head.
She nodded. ‘If they deserve it, yes. This website was horrible. The things they did to victims on there is something I don’t want to even think about. And to make money doing it – it’s utter madness.’
‘How did you find the website?’
‘Someone – a contact – had sent me a link. I checked it out. I actually, to find out what it was about, joined up and paid the fee. After witnessing what happened as a watcher I knew I couldn’t let this go on. You see, when getting to know Dilton, I realised he was a whiz kid on a computer. He did things beyond my comprehension. Codes. Algorithms. Jesus, Max. You name it. I told him about it, so he joined up. He had the skills to locate the players using their IP addresses, and well… you know what happened after that.’
‘So,’ said Byrd, ‘what happens now?’
‘Well, now I kill your wife, and the baby growing inside of her. Then maybe you’ll feel like I’m feeling right now.’
Byrd looked at Claire. Tears ran down her cheeks.
There was no way he could let that happen, but he didn’t know what to do. In all his years in the police, he’d never come up with this dilemma. If he tried to save her, Fallows would put the knife into Claire’s stomach and kill their unborn son and her too.
He took a deep breath.
Fallows was still leaning over Claire with the tip of the knife at her stomach. Byrd calculated Linda’s face was inches from Claire’s. He looked at the tape around her mouth, hands, and feet. There was a loop of tape around her middle, holding her to the chair.
Maybe Claire could move a little, maybe just enough.
Byrd looked directly into Claire’s eyes and nodded slightly.
Claire’s eyes narrowed, not quite understanding, then it clicked. He needed her to do something to distract her. It was the only way out of this.
As Byrd raised his hands in surrender, Claire rocked to the side and gave her best headbutt into the side of Fallow’s face, knocking her off balance a little. Byrd darted forward and wrapped his arms around Fallows, not thinking about the knife, and knocked her over the bed, onto the floor near the wardrobe with a thud. The knife flew from her hand and landed on the carpet. He punched her three times as hard as he could in the face, the second one popping her nose, the third one knocking her unconscious.
He jumped up, unwrapped the duct tape from Claire and held her for a long time while she cried.
After the police had come to arrest Fallows, it wasn’t long before the house was filled with people. The forensic officers checked the house, particularly the kitchen and garage. The undertakers collected the body from the garage, and finally, the paramedics checked over Claire to make sure the baby was okay. Byrd and Claire grabbed some overnight things and left the house in the X5, checking into the nearest Premier Inn as she needed to get away from there.
Claire had explained that there’d been a knock at the door, and her friend had opened it to allow Fallows in, saying she was a colleague of Byrd’s and was looking for him. Claire had asked her if she wanted a coffee so her friend had gone into the kitchen to make her one. Linda had followed her and killed her. She then came back with the bloody knife, demanding her to go upstairs.
Byrd counted his blessings.
He was a single moment away from losing everything.
Once Claire was settled in the hot bath filled with bubbles, Byrd answered his ringing phone and stepped into the bedroom for privacy. It was Fuller, who’d heard what had happened. Byrd briefed him and told him he was taking a few days off and that if Fuller wanted his report doing right there and then, he was retiring.
Fuller told him to take a few days off and come back when he was ready to.
‘Look after your wife, Max. Family is the most important thing in the world. It’s taken the last few years for me to realise that myself.’
‘Speak soon,’ Byrd said, and hung up, then threw his phone on the bed.
He went into the bathroom and sat down on the closed toilet seat and looked at Claire. Her eyes were teary, thin lines of mascara running down both sides of her face.
In the bath, the tip of her stretched stomach was just above the waterline. Byrd leaned forward, put a palm on it. Claire smiled and placed both her wet soapy hands on top of his.
‘Everything is going to be alright, Alan,’ Byrd said, then leaned over and kissed her forehead. He returned to the bedroom and yawned. What a day it had been. One he wouldn’t forget for a long time.
His phone pinged with a text message. He picked it up. It was from Tanzy.
Heard what happened, Max. Hope you’re both okay! Love you both very much. There’s never a dull day in this fucking town.
92
Wednesday Morning
Police Station
Although Byrd had taken a few well-deserved days off to look after Claire, Tanzy, even with his bruised knee, had made it in to work just after nine. He’d dropped the kids off at school, which he seldom had the chance to do, then headed straight over, parking next to Fuller’s Jaguar F-Pace.
He stepped out, and stretched, looking up at the sun. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Today was going to be a beautiful day.
He passed Lisa in reception and smiled, then used his key card to get through the next sliding doors. Down the corridor, before he reached the office, he saw DC Leonard walking towards him. There was a skip in his step and a smile on his face.
‘Morning, James.’
‘Morning, sir. How’s the knee?’
They stopped.
‘Getting there. A little bruise won’t stop me.’
Leonard smiled wider.
‘What are you so happy about?’ Tanzy asked, curious about Leonard's grin.
‘We’re getting a dog,’ he said. ‘A cross between an Alsatian and something else, I’m not sure. She’s found a place online. Place in Romania. Dog shelter type place. Getting her at the weekend.’
‘You already have a dog?’
Leonard nodded. ‘We do. But she needs some company.’
Tanzy nodded this time, then narrowed his eyes. ‘By ‘she’, who do you mean?’
‘I think you know, boss.’
Tanzy would be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed that Weaver and Leonard were close. They had been for a little while; it was obvious to see.
‘Are you ready for this morning – did you get
my text?’
‘I did. I was coming to speak to you about it.’
They chatted a little while longer and come up with a plan, then parted ways, Leonard went to the canteen and Tanzy went into the office. His colleagues nodded in his direction, confirming they’d received his text message earlier and understood what was happening.
Yesterday, after they’d arrested Fallows and Cornty, they’d brought them back to the station to interview them both individually. It was interesting, to say the least.
Tanzy went in to see Fuller, who was sitting behind his desk, just coming off a phone call. They discussed the plan and Fuller gave him the go-ahead. He stood up, made his way through the office, out the other side, down the corridor towards IT. Mac didn’t know the plan yet.
Tanzy knocked on the door.
‘Come in,’ Mac said.
Tanzy opened the door and stepped inside. Even though the window was open, the hot air coming in didn’t help cool the room. The fan to the right of his desk didn’t seem to be doing much, apart from circulating the hot air. ‘Morning, Mac.’
Mac turned on his desk chair and smiled, lines of sweat trailing down his temples. ‘Morning, boss. What do I owe the pleasure?’
‘I’ve realised I hadn’t updated you on what happened yesterday and the plan for today?’
His eyebrows furrowed.
Tanzy moved over to the desk and pulled out the spare chair, then sunk into it. ‘About Dilton, Linda Fallows, and DC Phillip Cornty.’
‘I heard about the arrests.’
‘What did you hear?’ Tanzy leaned forward a touch and tapped the desk with his right hand.
He turned further towards him, watching Tanzy’s hand. ‘That Detective Cornty had been arrested. He was the man responsible for the online website I tried to access for you.’
Tanzy nodded twice. ‘What of Fallows?’
‘That she was working with Mackenzie Dilton all along… she helped him.’
‘Good. So the only thing I need to tell you is about the plan today,’ Tanzy said.
He nodded, waiting, his hands hovering over his keyboard.
‘Well, after speaking with Cornty yesterday, we made some discoveries. Let’s just say I was surprised by this.’ He smiled and leaned back. ‘You see, I wondered how he had come up with the website. How a Detective Constable, who works for the police, came up with a website so intricate that you couldn’t get in to. I couldn’t fathom it out. You’ve got on to sites like that in the past. You’re our number one man.’
‘I know. But you were there. You saw me try. The website, had these—’
Tanzy raised a palm. ‘Bear with me here…’
Mac fell silent, nodding.
‘So if our lead IT guy couldn’t get on to a site that a detective constable created, who by the way, had no genius IT training, let alone the ability to build firewalls so complex, they were unbreakable… it got me thinking.’
‘About?’
‘That someone must have helped him set it up. They must have. Someone with vast experience and expertise in the field.’
‘Like whom?’ Mac shook his head. ‘Whoever it was, they were very talented. Whatever firewall they’d installed, trust me, was uncrackable. You saw it yourself.’
‘I did, you’re right. You know Denny from the Met?’
Mac nodded. Donald Dennett, aka Denny, had worked with Mac on several occasions in the past. If there was something Mac wasn’t sure on, he’d ask Denny. The Metropolitan Police didn’t mind as they helped each other out.
‘What about Denny?’
‘I got in touch with him. Sent him over the link.’
Mac frowned. ‘Did he crack it?’
‘He struggled to, but he got there in the end. You wouldn’t believe it. The website had been set up on the dark web. That’s why you couldn’t get in. The original website was a front for the whole thing. Think of it like an onion. Attheend.com was only the outer layer.’
Mac nodded, intrigued. ‘That makes sense.’
‘The players and watchers paid via Bitcoin too. It was a genius idea. Almost untraceable…’
Mac widened his eyes, looked down at his desk in amazement, then smiled. ‘That’s a very clever way of doing it.’
Tanzy agreed with a wider grin. ‘But… they didn’t cover their tracks fully.’
Mac focused back on him. ‘How do you mean?’
‘IP address.’
‘The IP address kept jumping all the time. Even I couldn’t track it. What did he find?’
‘Denny told me all about that. He told me if there’s a trail, even something minute, there’s a possibility it can be found.’
Mac waited. ‘What was the IP address?’
Tanzy clapped his hands twice.
Mac frowned.
The door opened to the right, and DC Leonard walked in holding a closed laptop, followed by PC Weaver and PC Andrews. Leonard placed the laptop down on the desk.
‘The IP address was located to that specific laptop,’ said Tanzy.
Mac stared at it, said nothing.
‘The only reason you’—Tanzy raised both hands to physically show inverted commas with his fingers—‘couldn’t crack the website, is because you’re the one who set it up for him. You knew exactly how to get in because you designed it.’
Mac fell into a lengthy silence, looked away from the laptop he recognised as his own, and focused on the monitors in front of him. He didn’t speak for nearly thirty seconds. The longest thirty seconds of his life.
Tanzy pulled a set of handcuffs from his pocket, threw them on top of the laptop. ‘Put them on, Mac.’
‘I – I…’ He looked away and sighed.
‘Now, Mac.’
He grabbed the cuffs and did as Tanzy asked, then Weaver and Leonard walked him out of the room.
Tanzy sighed heavily, leaned back in the chair, and closed his eyes.
93
Two months later,
Darlington Memorial Hospital
Claire held tightly onto Byrd’s hand, her nails digging into his skin, sending waves of pain through his body, but he couldn’t stop it now. Couldn’t interrupt what was happening.
The head was visible, Byrd could see as he leaned over. A full head of black hair, just like his.
‘I can see him, I can see him,’ Byrd shouted excitedly, looking back at her red, sweaty face.
‘Just breathe,’ said one of the midwives, a woman bordering on the age of sixty who’d been a midwife since she left school. ‘Come on, Claire. We’re nearly there. On your next one, you need to give it one last push and he’ll be here. You’ve done brilliantly.’
When the baby came out, the midwives took little Alan over to check him out. In that time, which felt like an eternity, Claire looked over with wide, searching eyes, asking Byrd where they’d taken her baby. Once he was checked and given the okay, the midwife brought him back to them.
‘Everything is okay. There you go.’ She lowered him onto her bare chest. ‘He’s beautiful.’
Claire started crying. Byrd couldn’t control himself, crying more than she was, his body heaving in the emotions that a parent could only endure during these life-changing moments. Byrd stroked his little head with a trembling finger, then stood up, kissing Claire’s sweaty forehead.
‘You did it, Claire. There he is. Baby Alan.’
A while after, once the chaos had subsided, Byrd told Claire he needed some air. Before he left through the door, Claire and Alan were both asleep, holding each other. He stood for a moment, absorbing the beauty of it, realising their lives would never be the same again.
He made his way down the corridor and left through the security door, then to the lifts, pressing the button to call the closest one. From the four lifts, the left one opened. He stepped inside and pressed ‘G’ for the ground floor. Once he was outside he took out his phone and paused, feeling sad it wasn’t his mother or father he was ringing first to tell them about their new arrival.
&n
bsp; He found the number he wanted and pressed CALL.
It rang three times, then it was answered. ‘What’s happening, Max? She must be close by now.’
‘Congratulations, Ori,’ Byrd said. ‘You’re an uncle to Alan Max Byrd, born twenty-past four, weighing in at 9 pounds 3 ounces.’
‘Aww, I’m thrilled to bits for you, mate. Well done. How’s Claire?’
‘She did amazing, Ori. She really did.’ Byrd wiped a tear from his eye.
‘Well, send her my love. Send them both my love. I can’t wait to see him.’
‘Midwife said she’s staying in overnight. Something with having a different blood type so they need to monitor him to make sure he’s okay. Nothing ever simple is it?’
‘Well, you know what they say, don’t you?’ Tanzy replied.
‘What do they say, Ori?’
‘That there’s never a dull day in this town. And today my friend, is no exception.’
Epilogue
Linda Fallows was charged with being an accessory to murder and taken back to Essex. After the courts had viewed her case, the jury had given her a life sentence. At her age, she wouldn’t see another day outside of prison.
DS Phillip Stockdale, because of his involvement with the online games, taking part and telling the hosts to kill and make their victims suffer, was given twelve years. He’d be out just after his fiftieth birthday.
DC Cornty, the man responsible for running the online games, taking money from the people who logged on, and killing three victims, was sentenced to life in prison. He also wouldn’t see the light of day again, metaphorically speaking.
Mac, the IT wizard in DFU, admitted to helping Cornty set the website up, and got eight years for his sins. Although it was he who aided Cornty in his horrific acts, he physically didn’t kill or harm anyone.
Tanzy, Pip, and the kids decided to move to a new house. They’d had enough of where they were living and decided to move into a detached house near a great Primary School. The location would be ideal for Jasmine and Eric to go there and then a nearby secondary school afterward. Tanzy had promised to build Eric a den for his bedroom, not that he needed reminding by Pip, who, on a weekly basis, had mentioned it.
No One's Safe: DI Max Byrd & DI Orion Tanzy book 3 Page 31
