‘You’ll look like a suicide, just like poor little Lauren,’ said the voice that ripped at her heart.
Kim closed her eyes for a moment.
She took a deep breath before she pushed open the door.
‘How the hell could you do it, Sal?’ Kim asked, walking into the room.
She instantly saw Gemma. The girl was standing on a chair, gagged, her throat in a noose tied to the light fitting. Her old friend was standing perilously close to the chair.
‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ Sal cried, turning towards her.
‘I’m here to stop you taking the life of anyone else, Sal,’ she said, taking a step forward.
Sal moved closer to the chair, so Kim stopped moving.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Kim. I’ve not killed anyone. Me and Gemma was just having a little game here. I’ve always protected these kids, just like I protected you.’
The fear in the girl’s eyes and the blood dripping down her right arm disputed that fact.
Kim stood still but had to maintain Sal’s attention. One good kick of that chair and she would be adding another name to the board.
‘You put the £5 notes in the handbags of Kelly and Donna, didn’t you? We were focussing on their last customers and you pointed us right towards Roger Barton. But it was you that was waiting for them when they came back to the strip.’
Sal was regarding her with interest, so she continued.
‘I wondered about the locations, Sal. First one behind a Chinese takeaway and the second in a ladies’ public convenience. Both very easy places to lure your fucking friends,’ she said, bitterly.
‘And the blood in the car of Roger Barton. Kelly Rowe’s blood was in the passenger seat footwell. He hadn’t been with Kelly Rowe recently but I saw you get into his car on Sunday night. You had the woman’s blood on your shoes from the night before when you killed her. And you left it in Roger Barton’s car.’
Sal shrugged and turned back towards Gemma. It was like she’d been accused of taking too many biscuits from the jar.
‘What the hell happened to you here, Sal?’ Kim asked and she didn’t mean the obvious.
The same memory she’d had earlier in the week had returned to her again as she’d run towards her bike. And that’s when she’d known where to find her old friend.
‘You weren’t protecting me when we were kids by stepping in to prevent me from being brought here by Mr Nelson. You were getting rid of the competition.’
‘He brought me presents,’ she said, proudly. ‘And all I had to do was let him put his small, limp dick inside me for a few minutes. Fucking easy. And even better when I learned that if I moved around and made groaning—’
‘Stop it,’ Kim cried, unable to stand the thought of the child with the apple groaning and grinding to earn herself a few presents.
‘What’s the matter, Kim. Can’t you stand the thought that I saw an opportunity and exploited it?’
Sal looked around. ‘This is where I learned my craft, where I finally understood what I had that I could use and it was so bloody simple. It didn’t cost a fucking penny.’
‘You weren’t helping when you alerted me to that young girl on the corner, were you?’ Kim asked. ‘You just wanted her gone.’
Sal grinned. ‘Yeah but you didn’t know that.’
‘But why kill them? They were your friends. What did Lauren do?’
Sal blew air through her lips. ‘Slag was only at it for a few months; fucking bitch was getting all the business. The minute Kai put her out on the street no one else could get a fucking look in.’
‘And then Kelly Rowe, you started that rumour that she was planning to bounce, didn’t you?’
Sal’s face didn’t change one bit. These women meant nothing to her.
‘Even Donna?’ Kim asked.
‘What’s your fucking shocked indignation about, Kim? I don’t give a shit about any one of these bitches. Why would I?’ she asked. ‘You tell me what we learned about loyalty and lasting friendships growing up. Fuck all. We learned how to take care of ourselves and my rent just keeps coming around.’
‘Fuck your rent,’ Kim spat. ‘It has nothing to do with it. You can’t stand the fact that the punters were choosing the other girls over you, could you?’ Kim baited.
Sal took two steps towards her, which sent her two paces away from the chair beneath Gemma’s feet. Kim saw the relief on Gemma’s face but Sal was not yet far enough away for safety. She needed to bait the woman closer.
‘Even Donna, who in your mind was a lice-infested druggie, was getting more business than you.’
Kim finally understood that this was not just about murdering her competition. Sal had given away something of herself in this room almost thirty years ago. She had allowed something to shrivel up and die, and that had been okay. Until now. Sal’s age was working against her every single day. And if, before she’d even reached her forties, her golden gift was gone, had it been worth it?
‘Face it,’ Kim taunted. ‘You’re finished. No one wants to fuck an old cow when there are young, fresh kids out there.’
Sal came hurtling towards her but Kim was ready. She lunged forward bringing her right arm around Sal’s front at the neck. Sal continued to move forward, stepping out of her heels, reducing her height by a few inches, bringing Kim’s arm level with her mouth.
Sal snapped her head to the left and managed to capture the fleshy heel of Kim’s hand in her mouth. The teeth punctured her skin and burrowed down into her flesh. The jaws locked on like a pit-bull
Kim screamed out in pain and tried to shake her hand free. Sal shook her head like a terrier. Kim reached up with her left hand and grabbed a handful of hair to pry her head away. Sal’s head craned backwards. She spat out Kim’s hand and lurched forward with brute strength.
Kim felt the hair tear from Sal’s scalp as the woman got free.
Gemma cried out as Sal moved towards her precarious position. One good kick and it was all over.
Kim stumbled forward, realising that only twenty feet separated Sal from Gemma and the woman was advancing all the time. She sprinted forward with only one target on her mind. She launched herself through the air aiming for Sal’s body to bring her down.
Sal fell to the ground with Kim on top of her. She tried to scrabble forward beneath Kim’s body, desperate for those extra inches.
Kim knew if she moved up the body they could roll into the chair and snap Gemma’s neck.
She punched Sal in the head. The pain shot through her hand all the way to her brain.
But the woman was stunned enough that Kim could climb over her. She clasped Sal’s ankles and dragged her across the floor, away from Gemma. Sal shook off her hand and sprung to her feet. She looked towards Gemma and back towards the door. Kim saw the indecision and kicked at the back of Sal’s calves. Sal fell to her knees but like a sprinter from the blocks she managed to advance towards the exit.
But Kim was ready and pushed Sal back to the ground.
Every movement was taking them closer to the door and away from Gemma.
Kim rounded on Sal and kicked her in the left kidney. The woman clutched her side but continued the forward movement. Kim took a second to get her breath.
‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’ she said, leaning down.
She grabbed Sal’s right arm and turned her onto her back, lodging her knee into Sal’s back.
‘Nooooo,’ Sal screamed, and with one almighty push managed to dislodge Kim’s right knee.
Pumped by hatred and adrenaline and a life behind bars Sal managed to throw Kim to the side but her focus was no longer on escape. Her eyes were filled with hatred as Kim felt herself being thrown backwards. The back of her head bounced off the concrete floor.
Sal was on top of her. Her hands closing around Kim’s throat.
‘You fucking bitch, you fucking interfering bitch…’
Kim felt the air leaving her body. She gulped wildly but nothing could
get past. Her head began to swim. She heard sirens in the distance. She knew she could not hang on until they got there. She would live for less than a minute.
Her hands scrabbled at her side trying to push herself away from Sal’s grip as her vision started to fail.
The darkness brought clarity into her mind’s eye. She suddenly knew exactly where they were. She opened her eyes but her vision was now gone completely. Her lungs were starved of oxygen. And she had one chance to save her own life. She gathered every ounce of determination she possessed and rolled to the left. Taken by surprise Sal rolled with her and toppled to the ground.
A piercing scream filled the space.
The pressure on her throat suddenly loosened. Kim opened her eyes but her vision was blurred.
Sal’s hands were reaching all over her body. She rolled again as though covered in flames. The tacks stuck out of her back like a pincushion.
Kim hungrily gulped in the precious oxygen.
Sal fell to the side and Kim scrabbled to a sitting position. Her lungs ached but her vision was returning.
The sound of the metal door exploding open was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. She shouted her location and Bryant was beside her in a second. He quickly appraised the situation and the marks around her neck.
‘Jesus Christ, guv,’ he exclaimed.
‘Get Gemma, both of you, she’s in there.’
Two uniformed officers stomped into the scene.
Kim raised her hand and pointed at Sal who still writhed around the floor.
‘Cuff her,’ she managed to say, before she passed out.
EIGHTY-NINE
Kim came around to find herself being held hostage by a tall green alien.
She struggled to free herself.
‘Easy, guv,’ Bryant said. ‘It’s just the paramedic, checking you over.’
‘Where’s Sal?’
‘On her way to hospital under police guard. She’s not going anywhere.’
Kim nodded her understanding.
‘Gemma?’
Bryant smiled. ‘Waiting to speak to you.’
Kim pushed herself up from the stretcher in the back of the ambulance.
Her head felt woozy but she pushed herself forward.
‘Guv, you need to go to the—’
‘Bryant, stop fussing and get out of the way.’
Bryant stepped aside to reveal a sea of strobes that lit up the area like a blue version of the Northern Lights. Her eyes fell on Gemma and Dawson, standing closely together by Bryant’s car. Dawson’s overcoat was draped around Gemma’s shoulders.
Kim could see the kid was still trembling.
Gemma turned before Kim reached her. The fear in her eyes instantly disappeared.
‘Kev, give us a minute,’ Kim asked.
Dawson nodded and stepped away.
‘You okay?’ Kim asked, placing her left hand on Gemma’s arm.
Gemma nodded covering the hand with her own.
‘Are you?’ she asked.
Kim smiled. ‘I am now you’re no longer hanging around.’
She turned to Kim. Her eyes glistened and her voice was thick. ‘Look, what you did in there…’ She shook her head. ‘No one has ever… I just don’t…’
‘What else was I supposed to do?’ Kim asked.
‘I tried to kill you,’ Gemma said, hoarsely.
‘No, you didn’t,’ Kim said, smiling sadly.
‘I was in your house, ready and—’
‘You were in my house two days before eating my bloody oven chips but you didn’t try then, did you?’
‘I hadn’t had the instruction then,’ she answered, honestly.
Kim folded her arms and tipped her head. ‘So, how exactly were you gonna do it?’ she asked.
‘Well, I… err…’
‘Shit, that makes me frightened for my life. You didn’t even have a bloody plan.’
Gemma surprised her by throwing back her head and laughing out loud. ‘Now that you come to mention it, I actually didn’t.’
They laughed together and then sobered.
‘Listen, Gemma, the problem with you is that you’re not as bad as you think you are. You’re not as stupid as you think you are, and you’re not as worthless as you think you are.’
Gemma guffawed and then lowered her head.
‘Hey, look at me,’ Kim said.
Gemma raised her head and Kim saw the tears rolling over her cheeks.
‘Yeah, kinda proving my point there,’ she said, gently.
Kim couldn’t help the sudden rush of tenderness that coursed through her. Jesus, what was it with this kid?
A paramedic appeared beside her. ‘Need to get her off to be checked…’
‘Yeah, yeah, no problem,’ Kim said, stepping aside. She tipped her head at Gemma. ‘Now, don’t go giving them any shit. They’re trying to look after you.’
Gemma wiped at her eyes and blew a raspberry.
The door was almost closed before Kim pulled it back open.
‘And if you’re passing mine some time, drop in if you like.’
‘Seriously?’ she asked with wide eyes.
‘Yeah, but bring your own food. You’ve seen my fridge.’
She heard Gemma chuckle right before the door was closed for good.
She watched the vehicle drive away before striding towards her colleagues.
‘Ellie?’ Kim asked.
‘In a police car on her way home,’ Bryant said.
‘Boss, boss, are you—?’
‘I’m fine, Stace,’ she reassured the detective constable barrelling towards her.
‘Your neck…’ she said, staring.
‘Honestly, Stace. I’m good,’ she said.
They all looked around at each other. The smiles were wide and genuine.
‘Good job, guys, bloody good job.’
They all nodded.
‘Guv, there’s an ambulance waiting to take you…’
Kim rolled her eyes. ‘Please send it off to deal with sick people.’
He shook his head and motioned for the ambulance to leave.
‘You know something, Bryant?’ she said.
He turned to her, clearly waiting for some kind of profound statement about the events of the evening.
She turned to him and smiled. ‘I bloody love this job.’
NINETY
Kim enjoyed the peace of the office as she stared at the wipe board.
Bryant was interviewing Sal, Dawson and Stacey were interviewing Jeremy Templeton, and she’d just finished up with Kai Lord who had remained silent and glowering throughout the process. Roxanne was waiting in a cell, and Ellie was safely back home with her mother.
All that remained was to wipe the board. An action that went hand in hand with the settling of her gut. It was the final act to signify that the case was solved.
It was a literal and symbolic gesture of wiping away.
And she wasn’t quite ready to do that yet.
She really should have seen it sooner. She should have seen that every line on the board somehow led to Sal.
Kelly Rowe had been forced into a corner by circumstance. The sex trade had been a temporary measure for her and, despite the cliché, from what she had found out about Kelly it had been true. She was a loving mother who wanted to do the best for her child.
Donna Hill had been a lost soul, battling addiction and doing whatever she could to survive. She had been lured from an angst-ridden relationship with her mother by a ruthless, soulless, ambitious woman who had no capacity for empathy. And she had very nearly scored again with another innocent soul.
Poor Lauren Goddard had been cruelly sacrificed into the sex trade by her own mother and then pushed off the edge of a building by someone masquerading as a friend.
All three of them had been working the streets for different reasons, befriended by Sal, a woman of more experience, compassion, protection. And she had been none of these things. Instead they had found a woman who had been t
wisted as a child. Her own perception of value distorted by abuse and cruelty. Kim had assumed the seeds had been sown during her years in care, but now she couldn’t help wondering if there had been some truth to the rumour that Sal had tried to hurt her newborn sister. Perhaps she had feared competition right back then. She suspected she would never know.
And then there’d been Ellie. Innocent, naive and desperate to grow up, she had been trapped and exploited, groomed by Roxanne for the streets and then sold – destined for Ukraine.
She thought about the case Dawson and Stacey had been working. About Cristina, who had been willing to sacrifice anything for her child. Would suffer never seeing or holding her baby again to give him a better life than she’d had. The child was still safely placed with the foster family, who were growing more attached to him every day. Already his life was complicated but she trusted that social services would ensure the child’s welfare whatever the outcome.
Through Cristina and her father, Dawson and Stacey had exposed a network of illegal workers being exploited, beaten and abandoned. People being treated like dogs or farm animals with no proper accommodation, meals or healthcare. Individuals who had been deceived and then bought and sold like cattle.
And then, finally, there was Gemma. Defensive, rebellious, hardass Gemma who was still selling her body to get a meal. The kid that had once been manipulated into trying to kill her but hadn’t quite been able to pull it off.
Would coming this close to losing her life change anything about the way she chose to live it? Kim wondered, acknowledging the smile that teased at her lips.
Her team, as ever, had surprised her. They had welcomed a near stranger into the fold and adapted professionally to his involvement. Penn was not the warmest of characters but he was intelligent, intuitive and a little bit quirky. And he had been a great help.
She smiled as she thought about Dawson’s determination in keeping his colleague in sight, guarding her flat until he was sure she was safe. She admired Stacey’s bravery in getting back out into the real world. And then there was Bryant, the glue that held the team together, and he didn’t even know it.
She couldn’t help the feeling of pride that surged through her as she heard the tentative footsteps approaching the doorway.
Broken Bones: A gripping serial killer thriller (Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Series Book 7) Page 28
