Fatal Promise: A totally gripping and heart-stopping serial-killer thriller

by Angela Marsons

  ‘Do you have any idea what time?…’

  Yes, Stacey knew it was almost ten at night and she didn’t care. ‘I’m happy to do this on the doorstep, down the station or inside, Mr Dunn, your choice.’

  ‘Come in,’ he said, standing aside.

  She stepped into the lounge and waited for him to close the front door and join her.

  ‘Is your daughter here, Mr Dunn?’

  He shook his head and forced a questioning frown on to his face. ‘Why would she be here? I told you I haven’t seen her since she was four years old.’

  ‘Yes, I remember that’s what you said, but you weren’t telling the truth, were you?’ she asked, trying to keep the anger out of her voice. It was his daughter she was searching for and he had lied to her.

  ‘You took a look around the house yourself?’ he said, evasively.

  ‘And I’m going to do it again,’ she said. ‘Only this time I’m calling a forensics team to help me and if they find any trace of Jessie here in this house, you are going to be in some serious trouble,’ she said, taking out her phone.

  Indecision showed on his face. He was wondering if she was telling the truth.

  She decided to clear that one up for him.

  ‘You told me about all the tests that Jessie had when the three of you were a family. You mentioned MRIs which Jessie never had until she was in her teens, way after the time you left. You couldn’t have known that unless someone told you and I’m guessing it was Jessie herself.’

  He looked to the ground and said nothing.

  Stacey was not prepared to back down. It had been a long day.

  ‘Mr Dunn, if I call forensics in they will find traces of her if she’s been here. Just one hair or DNA sample will catch you out, and then I’m going to wonder exactly what it is you’re hiding from—’

  He held up his hand. ‘Okay, she was here,’ he said, slumping down on to the sofa.

  She put away her phone and sat in the single armchair.

  ‘But why did you lie?’ she asked.

  ‘I didn’t want to get her into any trouble. Her mother doesn’t know we’re in contact and wouldn’t be very pleased if she did, but whatever has happened Jessie is my daughter and I love her.’

  ‘How did you find her?’

  He smiled. ‘I didn’t. She found me. On Facebook of all places.’ He shook his head. ‘Don’t get the fascination with it myself but I play for a local cricket team and they put updates about fixtures and dates and stuff on the Facebook page. She sent me a message, and it was one of the happiest days of my life.’

  Stacey thought about his reaction to her threat about finding just one hair.

  ‘The other times she ran away, she was here, wasn’t she?’

  He hesitated before nodding. ‘Just one night. I know I should have sent her home both times, but she was here and she wanted to spend time with me. It was a gift I just couldn’t turn down.’

  ‘And a part of you wanted to pay back her mother?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘If I’m honest, yes. But I sent her away this time. She was here on Saturday afternoon. The day before she disappeared. She wanted to stay for a day or two, and I said no even though I was desperate to say yes. I told her to go home and talk to her mother. I thought it was the right thing to do. I drove by the house later and saw her bedroom light on, so I knew she’d gone home. I thought that would be the end of it.’

  ‘Did she say why she wanted to stay with you?’ Stacey asked.

  He shook his head. ‘Just wanted to be alone, needed some space.’

  ‘Did she ever mention any issues with Emma?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘And you’re telling me the whole truth this time?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘The last time I saw Jessie was on Saturday afternoon and I swear to you that I haven’t seen her since.’

  Right now Stacey wasn’t sure whether she believed him or not.

  Seventy-Nine

  The case was still running around Kim’s head when she pulled up outside Ted’s house at ten past ten.

  Truthfully, she would have preferred to make a strong pot of coffee and spend the night in her garage building the bike. But today was Thursday and, regardless of murder, Friday was still the end of the week, and Woody had made his timescale clear.

  ‘Come on, boy,’ Kim said, opening the car door.

  She’d taken him for a walk once she’d got home but after a long day she didn’t want to be separated from him again. She suspected he cared less about that than she did.

  ‘Aah, two for the price of one,’ Ted observed. He petted Barney on the head and stood aside.

  ‘Sorry to come so late,’ Kim apologised, following Barney, who was eagerly sniffing Ted’s front room.

  ‘Not the first time, is it, Kim?’ Ted observed.

  She smiled at the memory: She’d been thirteen years old and suffering. Foster family four, Keith and Erica had recently been killed in a car accident, following the happiest three years of her life. She’d been returned to the care system like a stray cat, where people had prodded and poked her to open up and talk about her grief, her loss. Everywhere she went: school, Fairview, all talking at her, trying to crack her open like a coconut.

  One night she had ducked out of Fairview and caught the bus to Ted’s house. It was the only place she’d felt she could get some peace.

  ‘You asked if you could come in and just sit a while,’ Ted said, sharing her memory.

  She recalled it well. Ted had asked if he could help. She’d shaken her head and gone outside to the wooden companion seating set. Ted hadn’t joined her. Instead, he had called Fairview to tell them she was fine and that he would ensure she got back safely.

  ‘You know, I still wonder what it was that you were thinking about that night,’ he said, filling the cups.

  She’d never told him and she never would.

  Only she knew that she’d sat in the safety of Ted’s garden allowing the memories of Erica and Keith into her brain. Keith showing her how a spark plug worked as they sat on the garage floor amongst a collection of motorcycle parts. Erica making a delicious evening meal while humming tunelessly in the kitchen. Inevitably thoughts of Mikey had tagged along too; the feeling of his warm body against her before he lost his grip on life. And the pain had been unbearable. Somewhere inside herself she had felt something breaking, dying. She had fought for breath as the agony had engulfed her body and she had known that she couldn’t live through it, that she couldn’t return to Fairview or school and function or even survive.

  Any thought of family had the power to weaken her, destroy her ability to focus towards adulthood and freedom.

  She had wondered how she could get through the next five minutes, let alone five years.

  And then she’d watched the fish. How they swam and swam and swam over the same area, time and time again, the monotony of being on repeat. She recalled having read they had a five-second memory, so each swim was probably a new experience for them every time.

  How great to have no memory, to not keep looking back. Only forward to the other end of the pond.

  Suddenly it seemed so simple. Just don’t think about the things that held the potential to do her harm, to weaken her. Put the memories away. Picture them being placed into a box, sealed away; safe. Keep busy, keep focussed and ignore it.

  She had repeated these words over and over as the fish swam and Ted watched her from the doorway.

  Eventually her breathing had regulated, the panic had subsided and the pain had begun to fade.

  ‘You pushed past me to leave and I asked if you were okay. You told me you were “sorted”,’ he said.

  ‘And I was,’ she replied, following him through to the lounge.

  ‘Hmm… not so sure about that,’ he said. ‘But we’ll leave that for now. Have you given any thought to the things that were making you so angry the other day?’

  Kim shook he head. ‘No, I’ve been a bit busy, and to be fair, there are br
and new things that piss me off every day.’

  ‘Yes, quite, but I think some of those things are important to explore.’

  Kim felt a dread beginning to form in her stomach. Perhaps she would have been better seeing a force shrink after all.

  ‘I went in hard on a guy today,’ she admitted. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to share that with Ted but the words had just come out.

  ‘Why?’ he asked.

  ‘I roughed him up verbally, questioned him aggressively. Lost control a bit.’

  ‘Tell me about him,’ Ted said. ‘The guy you were hard on.’

  She shook her head. ‘Doesn’t really matter. Could have been anyone.’

  ‘But it wasn’t. I’m sure you’ve interviewed many people this week. So, tell me about him. Just three things to describe him. The first three that come to mind.’

  She pictured Giovanni Mancini.

  ‘Young, handsome, cocky.’

  ‘Int—’

  ‘Ted,’ she snapped.

  ‘He’s not Dawson,’ Ted said.

  ‘Don’t be bloody ridiculous,’ she bit. ‘I know he’s not Dawson. He’s a suspect who may be responsible for two or more deaths. That’s why I went in hard,’ she said, feeling the heat flush her face.

  ‘On some level, he reminds you of Dawson. Those are three words you would have used to describe him. You’re angry with him because he died.’

  ‘You know,’ Kim said, tipping her head, ‘you could get a job on one of those cheap help phones with insights like that.’

  He met her gaze. ‘Ooh, there’s a raw nerve. Always has a direct line to your defences, which blazes a trail to your vicious tongue.’

  She opened her mouth to argue, but they both knew he was right.

  ‘Have you cried?’ he asked.

  She considered lying but then shook her head.

  ‘Interesting,’ he said, pursing his lips.

  ‘Ted, you’re sounding like a therapist,’ she warned as Barney turned twice before lying at her feet.

  ‘So, how are you feeling about elevating your colleague and giving her more?…’

  ‘She’s working her own case right now,’ Kim declared, defensively.

  ‘Freely?’ he asked.

  ‘Of course not,’ she snapped. ‘She’s a constable. It’s my job—’

  ‘What kind of case is she working?’ he asked.

  ‘Missing girl, probably a runaway.’

  ‘Dangerous?’

  She shook her head. ‘Unlikely.’

  ‘And the new guy, Penn. You like him any better than you did the other day?’

  ‘He’s a good officer,’ she said.

  ‘Great answer for someone’s question but not mine. I asked if—’

  ‘I heard your question,’ she snapped. ‘And the answer is no.’

  ‘Why not? Is he aggressive, lazy, arrogant, useless, ignorant, rude?’ Ted pushed.

  ‘Jesus, Ted. Are you forgetting how many people have tried to get into my head? I just don’t like him. It’s that simple.’

  ‘But you did before,’ Ted said, unruffled. ‘When he was someone else’s charge.’

  ‘You make it sound like he was Travis’s kid?’ Kim acknowledged.

  ‘Interesting that you would say that,’ Ted said.

  Kim groaned and allowed her head to roll back against the sofa. Her sudden memory of jokingly calling Stacey and Dawson ‘the kids’ was pushed firmly to the side.

  ‘But that’s what it’s like, isn’t it? Like being given a child you didn’t want. Imagine taking Barney to the dog park and somehow he gets out. And then someone gives you another dog, any old dog. It wouldn’t be the same. But you came with one dog and left with one dog so what’s the difference, right?’

  Just the thought of it prompted her to lean down and rub Barney’s head.

  He paused and regarded her for a few seconds.

  ‘Over the years I’ve grown used to your obstinate silence. Our sessions normally consisted of you not answering my questions, but I’d like you to answer just one.’

  She said nothing. She would never commit without knowing the question.

  ‘How many times have you wished it had been you that had gone up that bell tower instead of Kevin Dawson?’

  She gave it serious consideration. Ted rarely asked for anything, but for some reason, he was asking for this.

  ‘A few times,’ she answered, honestly.

  He nodded.

  ‘You dare say interesting one more time…’ she warned.

  He shook his head. ‘I wasn’t going to,’ he said. ‘I was just thinking about your reaction to Stacey becoming more independent. You realise that if a parent loses a child they become more protective of the child they’ve got left.’

  ‘Oh, Ted, you’re—’

  ‘Hear me out, Kim,’ he said, holding up a hand to her protests. ‘You’ve admitted that you’ve wished you’d gone up there instead of him, that you’d died instead of him. That’s normally a selfless act reserved for those closest to us. Normally our nearest and dearest relatives.’

  She shook her head.

  ‘You really don’t see it, do you?’ he asked, shaking his head.

  She shrugged. ‘See what?’

  ‘You were not only building a team, you were building a family.’

  She opened her mouth to argue but her opinion wasn’t important. Only his was going to Woody.

  ‘I disagree, but even if you’re right, did I pass and do I get to keep my job?’ she asked, verbalising the only question that mattered.

  ‘Well, Kim, that is between me and your boss.’

  Eighty

  ‘Okay, guys, it’s been confirmed that Nat Mansell received twenty-nine stab wounds in total.’

  She paused, waiting for some smart-arse comment about her popularity that would normally have come from Dawson.

  There was silence.

  ‘As already noted, the majority of wounds were to her abdomen, which has to mean something, but I have no idea what,’ she admitted. ‘So, we have Cordell murdered, his son dead within twenty-four hours. Nat Mansell dead and her mother, but her mother was killed first. We think Nat Mansell and Cordell were having an affair and both were involved in the complaint against Angelo Mancini. So – ideas, people?’

  ‘Jealous spouse?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘Nat Mansell was divorced, and Mrs Cordell couldn’t have cared less,’ Kim answered. ‘As long as he kept it away from her house. And would anyone be jealous enough to murder a family member too?’ she asked.

  ‘Unlikely,’ Stacey said.

  ‘Ramon Salcido killed most of his family in 1989 when he thought his wife was having an affair,’ Penn voiced. ‘Took his three daughters to a dump site and slashed their throats. Killed his mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law and then went home and killed his wife.’

  Kim knew the case. ‘But the jealousy was a delusion. He was on the verge of unemployment and divorce and had started using cocaine,’ she said, coolly. ‘Most people kill only the object of the jealousy or the person who is a threat and, very occasionally, both, but not normally the loved ones of both people involved in the affair. The only potential suspect in that scenario is Mrs Cordell, and it isn’t her.’

  ‘Did anyone else have anything to gain?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘Only the Mancinis as far as I know,’ Kim said. ‘Any luck on the registration number of that van?’ she asked.

  ‘Still working through them, boss, and trying to narrow them down geog—’

  ‘Okay, Penn, keep on it,’ she said. ‘Mancini was questioned yesterday and gave us nothing…’

  ‘Despite the boss’s best efforts,’ Bryant chirped up.

  ‘But we did establish that their alibis for each other concerning the murder window for Doctor Cordell were a crock of shite. Neighbour confirms they were not at home, and trust me, she knows.’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ Bryant ad-libbed again.

  ‘We got a match on fibres from Mrs Mansell’s l
ips and Cordell’s wound, so we have that forensic—’

  ‘Yeah, ain’t that a novelty?’ Bryant said.

  Growing increasingly annoyed at his heckling, she turned to him. ‘Go on, Bryant. You clearly have something pressing to add.’

  ‘How many cases have we worked where we’ve had a direct link between victims from forensic evidence?’ he asked. ‘Looking a bit like CSI here.’

  Despite her irritation at him she knew he was right. These trace evidence connections were few and far between. And yet she couldn’t bring herself to argue with science.

  ‘Bryant, gift horse and mouth is all I’m going to say, as well as Mitch is working round the clock and has come up trumps on this one.’

  She turned back to Stacey and Penn.

  ‘Mitch should have emailed the details of the fibres, so get cracking on the manufacturer and who they supply the cleaning cloths to, though I think we know what they’re going to say. Hope to have something on the footprint later, but nothing on the hair until we have something to match it against. Everyone clear?’

  A nod travelled around the room.

  ‘Okay, Stace, how’s your missing girl case?’

  ‘Getting weirder and weirder,’ she admitted. ‘Jessie Ryan is due to go into hospital today for exploratory heart surgery, which would make me wonder if she has run away because she’s scared, but her phone turned up in Emma Weston’s bedroom in a very clever and devious hiding place.’

  ‘And her explanation?’

  ‘Her mother was as shocked as I was and called her. Emma claims she didn’t know and that Jessie must have put it there.’

  Kim frowned. ‘Stay on this, Stace. I’m not liking the sound of what I’m hearing. If we get nothing more today I’m gonna speak to Woody about a search team and a press appeal.’

  Stacey nodded her understanding. ‘I think her parents would appreciate that, boss. They’re beside themselves with worry about her health, there’s no love lost between the two families, and I’m still a bit concerned about Emma’s history of violence.’ The constable took a breath. ‘Added to that, her absent father hasn’t been as absent as we thought and has been hiding her for a night on her previous disappearances. I’ve searched the house and don’t think she’s there but can’t be totally certain he doesn’t know more than he’s letting on. Only admitted that much because I caught him out in a lie, but Emma Weston and her mother are raising my hackles more.’