A man stepped out into the corridor. He wore a long, dark coat with the hood up and tight over his head. His face was flushed, his eyes bright and intense. He was the right age to be Garner and the slim build, the coat and the shape the hood made all matched the blurred image on the dashcam footage. His jacket hung open over a white top and black jeans that rucked over boots that had a thick lip running around them.
‘You are wise to be cautious,’ Harry said, ‘but we must move. Your heroic actions have attracted attention. We will move you to safety, somewhere you can regroup. This is a common scenario for us.’ Harry had been keeping his hands in his pockets but he took them out and raised them slightly in an open gesture as he spoke. Garner’s attention seemed to follow his hand movements and was drawn to Harry’s left and the bloodied cotton tied around it.
‘You have the wound!’ Garner grinned with delight.
‘Of course. I made the choice.’ Harry repeated a phrase he had seen a number of times in the messages. He was aware that he was quickly running out of stock phrases, though. There hadn’t been much time to study the phone message history for long and he wasn’t going to stand up to much scrutiny. He needed to move this on. ‘We received your last expression. Is she here?’
‘I was told to wait. Why?’
‘Your expressions have come to the attention of the local police. They may come here at some point. This is not the right place to finish your work. The final act of loyalty is something we need to see and savour. That way there is no doubting you. You have done well. You have achieved much. We seek to witness your final expression.’
‘Then take a seat!’
‘Not here.’ Harry growled, the change in his tone was marked and deliberate. He needed to act like he was in charge.
Garner’s smile dropped away and he glanced back into the bedroom from which he had stepped. His hand reached in, a light blinked on inside and made a sharp silhouette of him against the side wall. Harry could see into a section of the room and some of the far wall. There was missing plasterboard from which yawned a mustard-coloured tangle of what would have been insulation. He couldn’t see much else. He couldn’t see Rhiannon.
‘Come and see her. While she is restrained. While she is ready. Come and see how I prepare them!’
Harry stayed still. ‘Bring her. You will prepare her again for us all. You will have time and space. Here, we do not.’
‘Come see.’ Garner’s tone changed and was tinged with menace. He didn’t believe Harry’s façade, not for a second. Harry had to get closer now. He stepped forward, out of the light. He moved down the corridor. The man’s right hand was still concealed behind the door. Harry’s hands were back in his coat pocket, his right gripped tightly around the solid metal of his baton. As he moved closer the man stepped further into the room. Harry got a flash of someone else’s arm further in but Garner hampered his view. He was almost close enough to touch him. The man turned back into the room, his movement just enough for Harry to see in better, to see the side of Rhiannon’s face. Her eyes were bulging, her mouth flinching over a piece of rope passing tightly between her jaws. They made eye contact. It was a split second. It was all Harry needed.
The blows came at the same time. The man stepped away from the door and his right arm rose up in a blur of movement, the blade catching the light from the room. Harry’s right fist had to swing in an arc. The hall was too narrow to extend the baton, but gripping it in his fist gave his blow extra venom. The knife never reached Harry. Instead the man stumbled backwards, enough for Harry to make it to the edge of the doorway and to see in. Garner looked dazed but he recovered quickly and shifted his weight to where he had a steady base. His face was a snarl but his attention shifted and he turned towards Rhiannon, still holding the knife. She was strung up the same as in the photo, her whole side on show, no means of protecting herself. He lunged towards her. Harry hit out again. This time his baton snapped open in the air. He felt the blow through is forearm, a solid hit across the side of Garner’s head and down his back. He roared out as he lost balance and crashed into the far wall. Harry looked over him. He was still holding the knife in his right hand. Harry brought the asp down again on his exposed side as hard as he could. There was another roar of pain. He lifted the baton to strike again.
‘HARRY!’ Maddie’s voice was shrill as it cut through his fog. His baton was still raised but he held it in the air. The man gave a low moan. He didn’t look like he was trying to get up. Harry stepped forward, his front foot resting on the knife and trapping the man’s fingers at the same time. The man barely reacted. Harry turned to see Maddie fussing over Rhiannon. She was saying something he couldn’t make out and talking fast. There was blood on Rhiannon’s side and more leaked as he looked. It was a lot. Rhiannon had been fidgeting against her restraints when he walked in. She wasn’t now. Her face was down, her eyes still wide but unfocussed. The colour was running from her face.
‘She’s hurt! Where is she hurt?’ Maddie had stepped back, frozen. The blood was now coating Rhiannon’s lower half; it looked to be leaking out from everywhere. Harry had a better idea where it was coming from. He lifted his foot and snatched the knife. The end had a film of red that caught in the light as he lifted it to cut through the ropes holding Rhiannon up. It was a thick rope, but it came apart in just a few seconds. Rhiannon dropped towards him and he was able to support her under her shoulders as in an embrace. He was rough and hurried laying her onto the bare floor. He knew there was so little time. He was on his knees but straightened to tear off his belt. Rhiannon was still in tight-fitting running bottoms. He pulled them down. Her white underwear was drenched red. The blood was suddenly unabated, spurting from an ugly gash in the top of her right thigh. It caught him on his neck and his chin, and some into his eyes. He turned away momentarily to gasp. Her leg rose up — someone was lifting it. Harry was now aware of a police uniform next to him, nothing else. He swiped his sleeve over his face and wrapped his belt above the wound then pulled it as tight as he could. It should have hurt like hell but there was barely a reaction from Rhiannon. More officers were in the room, a voice boomed through: Vince’s. He was rough-handling the man on the floor. He sat him up. His hands were cuffed behind his back. His bright blue eyes seemed almost backlit as Harry turned to them. He beamed a smile.
‘I am part of something now! I have proven worthy! I will be protected!’ His voice was filled with glee.
‘HARRY!’ Someone had been calling his name, now they were yelling. A hand took a firm hold of his shoulder too. He shrugged it off but it was enough to break his attention from Garner. His eyes fell back to Rhiannon’s injury. The blood loss might have stopped; it was slower for sure.
‘HARRY!’ This time he was pulled backwards. ‘HARRY! The ambulance is here! Let them through!’
He scrambled backwards, still pulled by his shoulders. Two green uniforms bumped him as they passed. They put holdalls down that they immediately started emptying. Garner was gone. Harry hadn’t seen him go. He hadn’t seen the room fill with officers either, but now they were everywhere he looked. It was a small room and they all took a step back as the paramedics got to work. Suddenly he couldn’t see Rhiannon. The hand pulling his shoulder was gentler, as was the voice in his ear. It was Vince again.
‘Come on, boss. Let’s get you cleaned up at least.’
Harry allowed himself to be led back down the hall. The rest of the caravan was full of police too. They all fixed on him and he heard a hushed ‘Jesus!’ as he moved past. He stopped under the light of the living area and looked down at his hands. They were so sticky with blood he could barely part his fingers. It was everywhere.
‘Doesn’t work!’ Vince’s was at the dusty sink spinning the taps. ‘You okay?’
‘Maddie?’ Harry spluttered.
‘Still in there. She won’t leave Rhiannon, boss.’
Harry looked to the doorway at the end of the corridor. A uniformed officer stepped out of the room shaking her head.
She ran a hand through her hair, held her hat against her chest and turned her shocked expression to the floor.
‘We need everyone out,’ Harry said. ‘They need room to move. We need everyone OUT!’ Heads turned to him and there was an immediate response as officers made for the door. Harry stayed still. Vince did too. ‘I don’t know how we recover from this — any of us . . . If she . . .’ Vince didn’t reply. Then there was a shout and the soles of bare feet appeared at the door. Two officers were either side of Rhiannon. She was being carried flat. They bumped and scraped against the doorway. Maddie followed, holding Rhiannon up under her shoulders. A paramedic came next with a bag of fluid above his head so gravity could get it into their fallen colleague. It wouldn’t be enough, surely? She had lost a lot of blood. It was everywhere, splattered up each of her colleagues and still marking the floor as they moved.
Harry moved out of the way as the procession moved past and out the door then he followed. The rain was back and much heavier. Rhiannon was loaded into an ambulance that had pulled around just a few metres away. Police cars were being hurriedly moved to allow it to get back out. The moving lights from the vehicles sliced up the dark expanse and the thick raindrops. The ambulance pulled away and the rain seemed even harder somehow. Harry turned his face up to it. He rubbed his hands together in it, too. The blood ran off him as he listened to the siren fire up loud. Patrol cars fired up too; they would race ahead to help clear a path. Harry couldn’t help but think that it was too little too late. That he had failed, that he could have done something different. He felt a hand back on his shoulder.
‘You did good, boss,’ Vince said. ‘Everything you could.’
‘Not good enough.’
‘Let’s get you cleaned up. Rhiannon’s got every chance. You patched her up quick. She’ll be alright.’
‘And if she isn’t?’
Vince sighed. ‘You told me something once when I was a lot younger in service. You were telling me off at the time and I thought you were a right miserable bastard. You said don’t go building a bridge until you find a river. Hardly original, but you were right.’
‘I’ve always been a pompous shit.’ Harry shivered, suddenly aware of water running down his back.
‘Oh, I know that! Something else you said to me once, or someone did anyway: a good copper never gets wet. Now look at us stood out here!’
Harry felt a light touch on his shoulder again and he allowed himself to be led away.
Chapter 35
Two days later
Maddie remembered the white noise of traffic from the bus depot opposite and the passing traffic from her first visit. The frontage of the Victorian terrace was the same, too, as was the experience when she pressed the doorbell marked Mills. Alyssa Mills’s dad had been visited on numerous occasions in the previous forty-eight hours. There was an important message about his daughter that needed delivering and it needed to be done face-to-face. Maddie didn’t wait long until she was back to leaning on the doorbell. She would stand there all day if she had to. She was certain he was in.
‘Keep your eye on the window up there,’ Maddie said. She had come out with a uniform officer, someone who had been before and failed to get a response. When Maddie had seen that the message was still outstanding, she had a sudden desire to be the one delivering it. She had been there. She had seen what had happened and part of her felt responsible.
‘You lot again!’ Maddie turned to where her colleague was leaning back at such an angle that his hat threatened to fall off. ‘I don’t take visitors! I ain’t seen her. If she’s in some sort of trouble you need to take it up with her!’
Maddie stepped out from under the porch and Mills’s head shifted to her. He was leaning far enough out for her to see his bare arms. She was pretty sure they were sticking out from the same vest he wore last time. His face creased into an instant smile. ‘Oh, well . . . Detective Graves, right?’
‘Ives. Maddie Ives. I need to come up and speak with you.’
He waved his hands like he was waving her away. His movements were a little clumsy and he tipped towards the window. His right arm shot out to steady himself. ‘Well, now, that’s different. I know better than to say no to the prettiest police detective in all the forces, now, don’t I!’ He disappeared as if the building had sucked him back in. It was to push him back out again almost instantly. Maddie just had time to roll her eyes at her colleague before the voice from above was back.
‘You ain’t gonna nick me, are you?’
‘No. That’s not why I’m here at all, Mr Mills.’
‘Kevin, remember?’ He grinned and then he was gone again. It was longer than it should have been before the door opened. Mr Mills’s entire outfit appeared to be identical to Maddie’s previous visit: the same tracksuit bottoms and the same bare feet that then propelled him up the stairs. Maddie followed him up. As before, the front door to his flat was pushed open. This time he remained standing at least, but the task of looking down and concentrating on his television remote had him swaying. Finally it clicked off and he looked up. ‘I figured I’d do it first this time, before you did!’ He was still beaming. ‘Get you anything?’
‘No, thank you. As before, sir, we’re here about Alys—’
‘Yeah, I ain’t seen her. I know she goes away. She’s done it before. She goes to a mate’s house and she’s got an aunt.’ His smile was gone. He rubbed the back of his head. He looked embarrassed; his stance was like that of a small boy trying to explain that he had done something bad. ‘I drink, you see. My angel, she doesn’t like it. She looks after me, but sometimes she takes a break. I get that. She’ll be with a mate or with her aunt. I got her address somewhere . . .’ His hands plunged into his pockets like he was searching himself.
‘We’ve found Alyssa, Kevin.’ Maddie was aware that her colleague reached up to take her hat off in a well-practiced movement. Kevin watched it; his face immediately drained of all colour.
‘Oh no, no! Not bad! Not my Alyssa!’
‘She was involved in a road traffic incident. I’m sorry, Kevin. She died at the scene.’
And there it was. Maddie had seen this too many times. The human form froze. It was like someone had waved a wand to change them into a waxwork version of themselves. The skin became ashen, the expression unmoving, the eyes opaque. It lasted a few seconds then life seemed to return in the form of a sharp inhalation. He stumbled a little. Maddie reached out. He ignored her. The sofa was behind him and he fell to sit on the arm.
‘Died . . .’ he whispered. His eyes burst with silent tears. His right hand lifted and just hung in the air. Finally his hand rested under his nose.
‘I’m so sorry. Do you have someone that can come here, that can be with you.’
His eyes lifted to hers. ‘She was everything, everyone. No one else . . . they all left me to it. To drink myself to death. I don’t blame them . . . She didn’t . . .’ The hand now squeezed his nose. More tears followed. They were still silent.
Maddie lowered herself to more of a squat, closer to his level. ‘I would really like to get someone here. Who’s this aunt you talk about? Is that your sister? I could call—’
‘You need to leave.’ There was suddenly strength in his voice. It wasn’t anger — Maddie had seen that enough times when delivering a message like this — it was more like determination. His eyes fell to the floor; they seemed to be searching. She followed his gaze. There were empty bottles of cheap-looking wine and cider under a low table. He bent forward to pull some of them out. He checked their content and threw them to the side of the room in disgust then walked to the kitchen area.
‘I’d like to get someone here to be with you!’ Maddie called out.
‘You need to LEAVE!’ This time there was anger, clear anger. Kevin Mills reappeared with two bottles of wine, one in each fist. He swigged at the open one.
‘I know this is a shock, but that won’t help. You need—’
‘I NEED YOU TO LEAVE!’
&nbs
p; She could see there was only escalation from here. She held up her palms. ‘Of course. But I am so sorry, Kevin. I’d like to come back in a couple of days, maybe. Just to be sure you’re doing okay. Is that alright?’
‘Doing okay!’ He chuckled. His eyes rested on the contents in the bottle in his right fist. He swirled it.
‘You’ll have questions, when this has all sunk in. I’ll sit down with you and we can talk it out.’
His right arm jerked. The sound of the bottle smashing against a far wall made Maddie jump. She hadn’t seen that coming. He threw the full bottle too, but this thudded into the carpet and didn’t break. He lifted his hands and seemed to be inspecting them closely.
‘Questions? I’m terrified of the answers . . . I know I’m part of this, no matter what happened. I pushed her away. All that time I lost, all that time I should have been spending with my girl — being a dad! I saw the way she looked at me. She told me she knew who I was, that it didn’t matter, but you can’t hide a look. I just kept telling myself that I would be her dad, that there was still time for me to be something she was proud of. But I never will . . . I never will!’
Maddie saw a mobile phone on the counter that divided the living area with the kitchen. She scooped it up.
‘What’s the name of that aunt? You need your family around you at this time. Is she your sister?’
Kevin nodded. It turned into a shake of the head. ‘We don’t speak, not for a long time. My fault.’
Maddie was already scrolling through the contacts. There were six. The only female name was Sandra. She stepped away. Kevin slumped from the arm of the chair into the battered-looking sofa that seemed to part-swallow him. He was still muttering about how it was his fault. His eyes were down.
Sandra’s voice sounded instantly surprised. The conversation was very short.
Maddie squatted back in front of him. ‘She’ll be here in a few minutes. She asked if there was anything you needed. She sounded genuine.’
HE WILL FIND YOU an absolutely gripping crime thriller with a massive twist Page 33
