The Book of Revenge (11 page)

Both women looked up as the kitchen door opened and Craig entered the room. He was fully dressed in his biking leathers and looked ready to hit the road. ‘Thanks for having me Lizzie.’

Liz was surprised. ‘You’re off? Now?’

Craig glanced at Sam, but she concentrated on her cereal.

‘Yeah, got to, lessons, you know...’

He leant down to kiss and hug Sam, who stopped munching long enough to return his affections.

Liz waited until Craig had left then she stared hard at her daughter, who eventually had to give in and look at her mother.

‘What?’

‘Are you going to tell me? Or do I have to run after Craig and beat the truth from him?’

Sam smiled at the idea of her mother taking on her six foot plus boyfriend. ‘I’ve been told to take some time off.’

‘You’re sick?’

‘Kinda. Bad dreams and panic attacks.’

Liz sank down into the chair beside Sam and took her hand. ‘Oh love, for how long? I don’t understand. You seemed fine when you went off to Uni. Are you eating properly? Sugars stable?’

Sam nodded her head and pointed to her little black pouch on the table. It held all her testing strips and blood sugar reader along with her insulin pen.

Sam looked healthy enough. She was a good colour and had been bright and cheerful the last few days. Liz was upset. She’d really thought her daughter had gone off to University strong and confident and ready to take on the challenge.

‘Of course I am. It was fine.’ Sam said, ‘at least to start with. The doc said it’s very common when you leave home for the first time.’

‘I suppose so. A bit scary, new environment and new friends...’

Sam looked at her mother in surprise. ‘It’s not about me mum. I really am fine.’

Liz was confused. ‘Then what?’ suddenly she realised. ‘Not me? Oh love, please tell me you haven’t made yourself ill worrying about me.’

Sam began to cry. Liz pulled her daughter into her arms and fought back her own tears.

‘Oh mum, I just have this feeling that something terrible is going to happen.’

‘Oh, love…’ all she could do was hold her daughter tight.

Matt knew that he could leave Jen to do the briefing. That no one would really expect him to do it. The incident room had been dismantled and then reassembled in a much larger room. More staff had been drafted in and another board had been added with Kevin’s details.

Matt stepped into the front of the room, ‘it seems we have a serial killer on our patch.’ Good one mate, he thought to himself, start by stating the bleeding obvious! He took a deep breath and carried on. ‘Good news is we might have a bit more luck evidence wise with this one.’

Jen stepped forward. ‘We’re waiting on results but he had a hair in his hand, several actually, although as yet we don’t know if there was a follicle to get enough DNA from. They were long and dark...’ she paused to glance at Matt. ‘It’s possible they belong to a woman. We need to know where he was and what he was doing early that evening. We need to trace and eliminate everyone who he had any contact with.’

‘Do we have any suspects?’ everyone turned and looked at the young DC who had been drafted in from a nearby station.

Jen cleared her throat. There were a few sniggers and the lad looked around him in confusion. Matt wondered if one of his team had told him to ask the question.

Matt looked directly at the detective constable. ‘We have a woman helping us with our enquiries.’ He said.

Jen nodded her head.

‘You should also be aware that he was into child pornography.’ Matt said, fighting the surge of anger that struck him whenever he thought about what he’d seen at Kevin’s house. ‘His computer is being analyzed and searched. We need to follow every lead that this throws up. Is it possible that they were all part of a paedophile group? This might be a vigilante killing...’

Was it possible? Could it be all about porn? Could he really be let off the hook that easily?

‘We also need to establish how it is that the killer just walks into every house. We know that two of the victims had new front doors in the last five years. We need to check on the installation companies.’ Jen said.

Matt looked around the room and then at Jen, ‘one more thing. The press is clamouring for details. Even the nationals have picked it up now. I’m sure I don’t need to remind any of you that talking to them about this case is not permissible.’

Jen nodded her head in agreement and Matt smiled to himself. So she really doesn’t know then.

Everyone left the room apart from Matt and Jen.

‘Did you find her?’ he asked, lowering his voice.

‘Yes.’ She replied. ‘I spoke to her yesterday. Her alibi is a bit iffy; she stayed in and went to bed early. Her friend confirmed it but she could easily have slipped out later that night. She has agreed to give a DNA sample; she’s coming in this morning.’

Matt looked for Liz but she didn’t seem to be in the station. He wanted to check the roster and see when she was working, but that felt a bit stalkerish. So instead he went to his desk and carried on trying to contact the people on his list to warn them to change their locks. Given the new twist in the case with the paedophile angle he didn’t feel the same worry or urgency now. But it gave him something to do and took his mind off how much he wanted to see Liz.

He saw Avril arrive, he had been looking out for her. He walked into the corridor and they greeted each other awkwardly. Aware of the spying eyes of his colleagues, he steered her round the corner, beyond the view of his office. He would have liked to take her into one of the interview rooms but he didn’t feel that was appropriate, it might raise eyebrows and questions, since she was still a suspect.

‘Who is Ted?’ he asked her, deciding that the direct approach was the only one to take.

Her face flushed an angry red. ‘Who told you about him?’ she snapped with more fury than he’d ever seen in her.

Jen walked around the corner and stared at them uncertainly.

Avril stabbed Matt in the chest with her perfectly manicured finger nail. ‘Stay out of my life.’ Then she turned her back on him and hurried towards Jen.

All Matt could do was stare after her shocked and more than a little bit worried.

Matt looked around the gym and was immediately disappointed that Liz wasn’t there. He had no idea how she had got under his skin so quickly or easily. There was something about her that had grabbed him from the moment he first saw her, and since then thoughts of her had dominated far too much of his time.

His marriage was in tatters so maybe that made him more susceptible to the charms of a beautiful lady, although he couldn’t ever remember feeling like this when he first met Avril. They hung around in the same group and as couples paired off they somehow became an item, it was almost by default rather than choice. They got on OK; they had a laugh and seemed to be on a similar wavelength. They did what all their friends were doing, they got engaged, twelve months later they were married, they bought a house and then they were supposed to have kids. That’s when it all started to really go wrong. Until then they had both been on the relationship treadmill, jogging along fulfilling everyone else’s expectations. It was when the required baby failed to materialise that they both began to question why they were together.

Matt climbed onto the exercise bike and started at a slow warm up pace. He gradually built up some speed and increased the gradient, he was soon sweating and struggling, and making his usual mental promise to quit smoking and get fitter. In the mirror he saw Liz’s daughter Sam, enter the gym. Her eyes rested on him and she weaved her way through the machines towards him.

‘I’m looking for mum,’ she said, with a big smile. She was tall and slim like her mum but the similarity ended there. While Liz had dark hair and blue eyes, her daughter's was what he thought would be described as dark blonde with hazel eyes.

He started to slow down, ‘I haven’t seen her this evening.’

‘I was hoping she’d grab a bite with me. She’s not at home, or answering her phone.’

Matt wiped his brow and climbed off the bike. ‘Everything alright?’ he asked, looking closely at her. She’d gone a bit pale and her hands were trembling slightly.

‘I skipped lunch, I’m starving.’ She did a small smile, but it wasn’t very convincing, ‘I need to eat…’ she grabbed hold of the bike saddle and with the other hand she pulled her handbag towards her, but before she could open the zip she keeled over and dropped to the floor.

Matt went down on his knees beside her. He checked her pulse, and placed her into the recovery position, a small crowd was gathering.

‘She’s out cold,’ he said to the young staff member who had rushed to his side. ‘Call an ambulance.’

‘What happened?’ Someone behind him asked.

He looked down at her and ran through the few seconds before she collapsed. He remembered her going for her handbag. He reached across and picked it up from beside her. He opened it up and tipped it upside down, the contents spilled across the floor. He riffled through the usual selection, tissues, make up bag, tampax, small hair brush, purse, a couple of packets of mints, a small can of full sugar coke a cola and a small honey pot.

‘Should you be doing that?’ a young woman said, ‘that’s private stuff.’

He ignored her and picked up the mints and can of coke. He turned to the woman; she was young, slim and attractive. ‘Do you or any of your friends have these in your handbag?’

She shook her head. ‘Are you kidding? Those things are full of sugar.’

‘Exactly.’ He said more to himself. He grabbed the honey pot and opened it, it was small, the type you get in a hotel. He scooped a large blob onto his finger and stuck it into Sam’s mouth. He rubbed the honey around her gums and then repeated the process.

He could hear the sound of a distant siren. He tried the honey for a third time, but she was still out cold. He picked up the coke and opened it, he touched her gently, ‘Sam?’ he called, but she was unresponsive.

The paramedics hurried towards them and Matt stepped aside to let them take over.

Liz was sitting on a hard chair in an empty corridor. Matt walked across towards her carrying two take out cups. She glanced up at him as he approached, he sat beside her and handed her one of the cups. ‘White with sugar.’

She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut in before she could.

‘I know, I don’t either. But you’ve had a shock so you need sugar, plus vending machine coffee tastes like shit, so it needs all the help it can get.’

Liz sipped the coffee and pulled a face that confirmed his own view.

‘Any news?’ he said gently.

‘They’re doing more tests, they want to keep an eye on her for an hour or two, and then hopefully she can come home. She’ll be fine, this time…’

Matt took her hand. ‘She’s strong…’

‘And sometimes stupid. She can’t skip meals, she knows she can’t. How many times does she have to be told?’

‘We all break the rules sometimes,’ he said.

Liz twisted in her chair to look at him. ‘They told me what you did, with the honey. The paramedics said it could have been much worse, she could have gone into a coma…’ she was struggling to hold back the tears. ‘How did you know?’

‘What teenager carries cola that isn’t diet and a pot of honey around with them unless they are diabetic? Besides, my mum was the same, a type one diabetic. She was sometimes just too busy to stop and eat properly, she wouldn’t realise her sugar levels had dropped and she had a problem until it was too late and she was keeling over. I think I knew how to open a jar of jam and stick a spoonful in her mouth even before I could walk!

Liz was tired, it had been a long and frightening night, even when they got back from the hospital she hadn’t really slept. She dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, showered and dressed, she stood in the doorway of Sam’s bedroom staring at her sleeping daughter.

‘Quit looking at me,’ a sleepy voice muttered from under the duvet.

Liz walked further into the room. Sam was half awake, her eyes barely open. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Much better,’ Sam replied, looking sheepishly up at her Mum.

‘I can phone in sick, stay at home with you…?’

Sam pushed the duvet down from her face and twisted round to properly face her mother. ‘Stop fussing mum,’ she said,’ go to work, I’ll be fine, it was a stupid mistake. I promise I’ll be more careful.’

Liz hesitated, still worried and not at all convinced about going to work.

‘Honestly, mum, my sugars are back under control. Go…’ she shooed with her hands.

‘OK, but you promise to ring me if you feel even a tiny bit off. And make sure you eat properly.’

‘Mum!’

‘OK, I’m going.’ Liz turned and walked to the door.

‘Oh, and, mum…’

She turned and looked at her daughter.

‘Thanks.’

Liz smiled, ‘not really me that needs thanking,’ she said.

Chapter Twenty Five

Liz pulled up on her drive and climbed out of her car. The sun was shining and it was a lovely spring evening. The young girl from next door waved as she hurried past. Liz smiled and waved back, and then she went indoors.