‘Dear boy, that can’t be possible,’ said Philip.
‘It is. I lied. I’d sailed across from Ibiza two days before because I wanted one last shot at persuading her to dump Declan for me. Katy knew I was coming.’
Philip and his wife sat in stunned silence, until Patricia spoke.
‘That day on the beach, she left purposely to meet you, didn’t she? She engineered a row with me so she could flounce off.’
Johnnie nodded.
‘Yes, but she never turned up where we arranged to meet. I waited and waited but there was no sign of her. I assumed she’d changed her mind about seeing me.’
‘Why on earth didn’t you tell us?’ asked Patricia, her voice quavering with rage. ‘That was vital information that could’ve helped the police track her movements. Where were you planning to meet?’
‘On the boat I had back then,’ said Johnnie, shamefaced. ‘I was moored on the far side of the marina, where I wouldn’t be noticed.’
‘Where we wouldn’t have noticed you,’ she said icily. ‘That’s almost half a mile from the beach – Katy could’ve gone missing at any point between there and the marina. But instead by saying nothing you let the police search in the wrong place. I will never forgive you for this, Johnnie.’
‘I don’t blame you, but in my defence I just panicked. I never thought we wouldn’t ever see Katy again, I thought she’d turn up safe. I knew she wouldn’t want to risk your wrath by admitting she was seeing me, so I kept quiet, for her sake.’
Patricia erupted. ‘Don’t you DARE try to blame me for your actions—’
‘I’m not trying to! I was being selfish too. I knew what the police would make of our secret meeting – they’d assume I was the one who must’ve killed her.’
Philip couldn’t help himself.
‘Did you kill Katy?’
Their godson’s face drained of colour.
‘How can you ask me that?’
‘Because you’ve lied about everything else! And now there is another girl missing. Are we to assume those are Jade’s earrings and they just happened to turn up on your boat?’
‘Someone put them there!’
‘But that’s not the only evidence against you.’
‘Philip!’ Patricia admonished. ‘You mustn’t say anything.’
But her warning was not enough to stop him.
‘We’ve also seen the photograph of you with the hire car, and we know about the suitcase. Is that where you put Jade, before you hid her someplace else?’
‘What hire car?’ asked Johnnie, flabbergasted. ‘What suitcase? What are you talking about?’
‘You were seen,’ said Philip, ignoring his seething wife.
‘I’ve never had a hire car in Saros.’
‘What about the earrings then? Where did you get those?’
‘I told you, someone planted them in the ice box.’
‘Poppycock! You lied about going fishing. Where had you been on that dinghy? To dispose of Jade’s body somewhere?’
Johnnie looked to Patricia in desperation.
‘I never hurt Katy, I swear. I loved her.’
Her expression wavered. ‘I know you did. But people kill all the time in the name of love.’
‘But not me! I wouldn’t have harmed a hair on her head. Nor Jade – it’s not me who’s got her.’ Johnnie raked a hand through his hair, desperation coming off him in waves. ‘Look, this morning I was out on my dinghy because I had to deliver something to my friend’s yacht, which is in the next bay. I said I’d been fishing because what I was doing was illegal. I swear to God I’ve never seen these earrings until you knocked the ice box over and they fell out. Someone came on board my boat and put them there.’
Philip didn’t know what to believe.
‘What were you delivering?’ he asked.
Patricia answered for their godson. ‘It was drugs, wasn’t it? I always wondered how exactly you funded your lifestyle. I should have guessed.’
As Johnnie hung his head, Patricia turned to her husband. ‘I believe him—’
A volley of bangs on the apartment front door suddenly interrupted them. Philip jumped in fright and Johnnie reared out of his seat in obvious panic.
‘It’s the police,’ he said.
‘Let me deal with them,’ said Patricia, rising quickly to her feet.
But nothing she said could dissuade the Spanish officers from doing what they were there to do. DCI Walker, DC Paulson and DS Shah had accompanied them.
‘Johnnie Hickman-Ferguson, we are arresting you on suspicion of the abduction and homicide of Katy Pope, the abduction of Jade Reynolds and the attempted abduction of Lara Steadman,’ said one of the Spanish officers in broken English. ‘You are also wanted for questioning in connection with the attempted abductions of three women in Es Cana . . .’
Johnnie drowned out the rest of it by letting out a high-pitched wail.
‘It wasn’t me; I didn’t kill Katy! Tell them, Patricia, please.’
But it was too late. The officer restrained Johnnie’s arms behind his back while a colleague applied handcuffs.
Horrified to see their godson arrested, Philip grabbed Walker by the sleeve.
‘You can’t possibly think it’s him,’ he implored.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Pope. We need to let them do their job.’
‘I’ll call George,’ Patricia told Johnnie. ‘He’ll know what to do. Where is he?’ she asked Philip, as Jasso’s men bundled a now-crying Johnnie out of the apartment.
‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since he got back from the airport.’
74
Jade had vomited twice in the last hour and now lay listlessly on the bed, her skin glistening with sweat. She was napping fitfully when the door to the bedroom burst open and he came in. She barely had the energy to turn her head to look at him but when she did it made her quail: he looked furious. She had no idea what about, though, as he was muttering in Spanish.
He came over to the bed and retched.
‘Oh God, you’ve been sick everywhere.’
The stench of her vomit made him cover his mouth and nose with his hand and he backed away from the bed.
‘You need to get up,’ he ordered.
‘I can’t,’ moaned Jade. ‘I’m too sick.’
He went across to the window and opened the shutters to let in some air. Jade winced and snapped her eyelids shut as bright white daylight flooded into the room, her eyes too accustomed to darkness to adjust properly.
‘You need to get up,’ he said. ‘I need to move you.’
‘To where?’
He wouldn’t meet her eyes. Jade felt her terror rising.
‘What about our second date tonight?’ she said desperately. The sequence of three dates was the only guarantee she had that he was going to keep her alive.
‘I don’t want to do it any more,’ he said dismissively.
Jade grew hysterical and tried to sit up.
‘You said I was the most beautiful woman. You said you wanted me.’
‘Well, now I don’t.’
‘Please don’t kill me.’
Suddenly he snapped. ‘Why are you women all the same? Don’t do that, do what I say – it’s never-ending.’
Summoning her last bit of energy, Jade managed to swing her legs off the bed, but couldn’t raise herself up and her upper body lolled backward onto the pillows, where she promptly threw up again. There was nothing in her stomach, however, and all that splashed on the pillows was bile and hot breath.
‘Just leave me here and go,’ she whimpered. ‘I won’t tell anyone. I don’t even know who you are.’
‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ he breathed malevolently, thrusting his face towards hers so their noses were almost touching. ‘You’ve seen what I look like. And because of that I’m afraid it’s your turn to follow Katy into the pond.’ Then he pulled back, disgusted. ‘You reek of vomit.’
Jade knew that reasoning with him was pointless. The per
son he was had disappeared and all that was left was the monster who was going to kill her and cut up her body. With an almighty effort, she sat up.
‘Please don’t kill me,’ she repeated.
He grinned maliciously as he advanced towards the bed.
Then, screaming as loudly as she could, Jade rammed the comb’s plastic spike handle into his left eye socket. Blood began to spurt as he yowled in terror and she ran for the door, her legs pumping quickly. The sound of his screaming followed her into the hallway and downstairs, but to her horror there was no way out – every exit was locked and she couldn’t find keys for them. Running back upstairs, she hurled herself into the bathroom and locked the door. She would rather die in here, alone, than be murdered by that madman. She dragged herself over to the sink and gratefully lapped cold water straight from the tap, ignoring the hammering on the door that had started up.
Pretending to be ill was a genius move her dad would be proud of. She’d had to force herself to throw up on the bed to make it look realistic, which wasn’t easy when she had barely anything in her stomach, but it had worked. Her abductor had been too distracted to know she was faking it, just as he’d been too distracted to see her sneak the comb into the waistband of her jogging trousers when she was in the other bedroom. This time she’d made sure she didn’t miss.
‘Open this now,’ he shouted, ‘or I’ll break it down.’
But he sounded weak, like he was in pain.
‘Do your worst, you arsehole,’ she screamed back.
More hammering, then he must’ve decided the conciliatory approach was going to have more effect. ‘Jade, my love, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Come out here and we can talk about it.’ Then she heard him let out a low moan, followed by a string of angry Spanish.
‘Jade,’ he faltered. ‘I need a doctor. My eye—’
Suddenly there was a loud thump, then silence. Had he passed out?
Jade took the heavy ceramic lid off the cistern and sat down with her back against the bath, cradling it in her lap, ready to use it as a weapon if she needed to. She had seen enough horror films to know that there was always a final scene when the victim was lulled into thinking everything was okay and they were safe, then the killer jumped out again to finish them off. Her dad had taught her to never be so stupid, so she sat on the floor behind the locked door and waited.
75
Maggie leaned forward in her chair, fixing her gaze unflinchingly on Annika’s face.
‘Who is the monster, Annika?’
‘Before I tell you, I want you to know that I never encouraged him. It was the opposite, in fact. I never liked him – and that’s why he’s done all this. He punished those women because he couldn’t bring himself to punish me instead.’ She paused then, clearly upset.
‘Go on,’ said Jasso gruffly. ‘We don’t have the luxury of time right now.’
Annika nodded quickly. ‘I understand. But I think it’s important you know what caused this.’ Her gaze landed back on Maggie. ‘He had a crush on me. It was sweet at first and even though he was younger I found myself drawn to him. I thought he had a good soul. But I was wrong.’
She sucked in a deep breath while Maggie held hers in anticipation.
‘He asked me on a date. I humoured him and said yes. It was a drink, nothing else.’
‘When was this?’ Jasso interrupted.
‘A few weeks before Katy was murdered. During the drink he was being very forward, aggressively so. He kept saying I was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met and that we were going to have an amazing life together. He started talking about us having children and that we should start trying straight away, that evening. I felt very uncomfortable and scared.’ Annika fought back tears. ‘I knew he wouldn’t listen to me saying no and I needed to make him slow down, so I told him that I always abided by the three-date rule – I never took things further with a man until we’d had three dates. But he knew it was a lie, because he knew I’d had other flings, some lasting only one night. That’s the trouble with living in Saros, everyone finds out your business.’
‘How did he react to you lying?’ asked Maggie.
‘Oh, he got so angry. It was like he became this different person. He dragged me outside the bar and tried to force me into his car. I knew that if I didn’t fight back, he would take me somewhere and rape me. I discovered a strength I didn’t know I possessed and managed to get away.’ Annika choked back a sob. ‘He was so strong, a young girl like Katy didn’t stand a chance against him.’
‘So he was the person who you reported?’ Jasso was asking, as Maggie’s phone suddenly pinged with a text. For a split-second she thought it might be from Umpire, saying he was willing to hear her out, and her stomach somersaulted in hope, but it was from Walker.
The Ibiza cops say someone matching Johnnie’s ID tried to abduct 3 women in Es Cana over 4-year period, ending June 2009 – Katy murder date. We’ve got him.
‘Yes. But when he found out what I’d done, he threatened to kill me,’ said Annika. ‘I was terrified.’
‘You let Katy Pope’s killer walk free,’ said Jasso accusingly.
‘So did you,’ Annika shot back. ‘You had him in your palm and you let him go.’
Maggie froze. ‘How can that be? The police never brought Johnnie in for questioning.’
‘Johnnie?’ Annika reacted with surprise. ‘You mean Johnnie Hickman-Ferguson? That’s not who I’m talking about. Johnnie and I did sleep together once but we both knew it was just a one-night thing, nothing more, and we became friends afterwards. He’s a lovely, kind man. No, the person I’m talking about is Julien Ruiz.’
76
Fifteen minutes later, Jasso stumbled out of the apartment ahead of Maggie, his face ashen after hearing the rest of Annika’s account. Annika watched them leave, tears streaking her face, her grief raw.
‘I was the one who checked his alibi,’ Jasso said as they clattered down the staircase to the apartment block’s car park, where his vehicle was. ‘I spoke to the friends at the hostel who vouched for him.’
‘You heard what Annika said he was like – I expect he either threatened them into covering for him or paid them to.’
‘I took them at their word, Maggie – I never double-checked what they said. Martos was so convinced the killer was Declan Morris that he told me not to spend any more time on Ruiz, so I didn’t. I filed my report and forgot about it.’
‘You did what you were told to do,’ she said. ‘The blame lies with Martos.’
She was being kinder than she needed to be. Even acting under orders, it was still a monumental error on Jasso’s part, who back then was an experienced officer and should’ve known better than to take the word of Ruiz’s friends without verifying it, especially in the light of the statement given by the couple from Penge who claimed Ruiz had slept with Katy.
Less understandable was why Annika had never come forward with her suspicions about Ruiz. She claimed she was too scared of what he might do to point the finger directly, so she made up the story about seeing Katy crying on the seafront the day before she died in the hope it would plant the idea in the police’s minds that there had been another male involved. But because the police – presumably under Martos’s orders – had been so determined to implicate Declan, his name had been inserted into her statement and all thoughts of a second boy were forgotten.
Outside in the street, Maggie called Walker, who sounded jubilant.
‘We’ve got the bastard. He was arrested at the Popes’ apartment ten minutes ago. He was only sitting there holding Jade’s fucking earrings.’
‘It’s not Johnnie, boss.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. He’s banged to rights.’
‘He’s being framed by Julien Ruiz. Annika has identified Ruiz as [email protected] and it all adds up. We need to find him before he kills Jade and before he lets an innocent man go to prison for what he’s done.’
She heard Walker gasp.
‘Start at th
e beginning and this had better be good,’ he said, his voice hoarse.
Jasso got into his car and began revving the engine impatiently. Maggie jumped in beside him, explaining to Walker what Annika had told them about Ruiz attacking her and how she was now certain he’d killed Katy weeks later in a fit of retaliation.
‘Why Katy though?’
‘I’m only guessing here, but I think it’s because she knew Johnnie and he might’ve introduced her to Ruiz while she was in Saros. It turns out Johnnie and Ruiz were as thick as thieves when they were younger. Both of them used to spend their summers in Saros visiting their grandparents and Annika said they started hanging around together and became friends. Ruiz was obsessed with her and was furious she picked Johnnie over him.’
The tyres of Jasso’s car squealed against the concrete as it peeled out of the car park.
‘Where to first?’ he asked her.
‘The restaurant.’
‘What was that?’ Walker wanted to know.
‘Sorry, I was talking to Inspector Jasso. We’re heading for Annika’s restaurant.’
‘Why?’
‘When Ruiz was there earlier he dropped something on the ground. I think I know what it is, but I want to check. Can you meet us there?’
‘Yep.’
‘But can you find George Pope and bring him with you? Tell him to bring his wallet.’
Even though they were up against the clock and adrenaline was running high, Walker couldn’t resist cracking a joke.
‘Now’s not the time to be asking him to shout us lunch,’ he said.
‘I’m hoping he’ll do more than that, boss – I want him to shout us a house.’
77
Maggie had the passenger door open even before Jasso had applied the handbrake. She ran down the street and rounded the corner to the restaurant. Walker was already waiting, with Shah, Paulson and George. But Maggie ignored them, and went across to the holm oak she’d been standing beneath earlier, when she was feeling unwell.
‘What is she doing?’ she heard Paulson ask.
‘Quiet,’ Walker ordered him.
Dead Guilty Page 27
