Unfinished Business (31 page)

“I do, as long as you work hard at getting well again.”

“I will, I really will,” she said, nodding her head.

“Everyone who hurt you has gone. Now you can start living and doing things how you want. You’re just at the start of your life, not the end.”

“Will you visit me? Please say you will. I don’t have anyone else now Mark’s gone.”

“I will Lauren,” he said, hoping he didn’t sound as reluctant as he felt.

“Thank you. They won’t give me Doctor Prosser again, will they?” she said, a little distraught.

“No Lauren. Doctor Prosser’s not working as a doctor anymore.”

“He’s not?” she said, looking more cheerful already.

“No. He had a little accident and he’s not well enough to work anymore. He won’t be a doctor ever again.”

“That’s good, that’s very good.”

“He wasn’t a nice man.”

“No. He was horrible,” she said quietly.

Prosser had disappeared a few days after Seth and Sarah were arrested. Strangely enough he’d turned up in Liverpool a week later, found wandering along a canal towpath, beaten and confused. He was also missing the tops of all his fingers up to the second joints. He wouldn’t be touching another traumatised woman again. He’d refused to say who’d done it and subsequently had a nervous breakdown. Currently he was residing in one of the mental hospitals he’d worked in. Brodie approved of what Tommy Shenka had done. That was real justice.

“Lauren, I need you to tell me exactly what happened today,” he coaxed. “The police won’t leave you alone until you’ve told your story.”

She wiped her palms across her eyes. “Yes. I’ll tell you anything Brodie, you know that.”

“Thank you Lauren. Would you mind if DS Clarke sat in to listen?”

“Do you think I should let him?”

“Yes.”

“Okay then.”

Brodie slowly got to his feet, being careful not to make any sudden movements that might startle her. He opened the door to find Cass and Clarke still talking quietly together, holding hands.

“She’s ready to talk,” he said a little gruffly.

Clarke excused himself to Cass then followed Brodie into Lauren’s room, shut the door and took the seat on the opposite side of the bed. “Hello Lauren, it’s me again,” he said in a friendly tone.

“Yes, I remember. Can we get this over with? I’m very tired.”

“I’m ready when you are,” he said, taking out a Dictaphone.

There were no surprises. Lauren’s tale progressed just as they’d already figured. She started the fire in the living room. By the time she went upstairs it was already raging. Maggie was asleep when Lauren entered her room. Maggie woke when she started tethering her arms to the bed frame with rope. Lauren was younger, stronger and fitter than her mother and easily pinned her down. Maggie lay there helplessly as the fire rushed up the stairs towards them. It turned out the house wasn’t very fireproof. 

Brodie and Clarke glanced at each other with raised eyebrows as Lauren described her mother’s reaction to waking up and realising she was about to burn to death. She left nothing out of her graphic description of her screams and cries. All the while Lauren had sat in the chair by the window watching her mother slowly roast alive, waiting for the flames to consume her too.

“I didn’t realise it would hurt so much,” whispered Lauren, exhausted by talking. “I’ve burnt myself before and it didn’t hurt half as much as that. I saw the skin of my legs swell up and split open and stuff run out. I didn’t know it would be like that. I’m going to be scarred forever.” A dreamy look came into her eyes. “But the fire was so beautiful. Mum was screaming but I think she appreciated it. Have you ever seen a fire?” she asked Brodie. “I don’t mean a controlled one, I mean one that’s set free.”

“No Lauren, I can’t say that I have,” he replied, spine rippling with unease.

“It’s a living thing with a mind of its own. It’ll go in one direction then suddenly change its mind and turn a different way. You’ve got to be so careful, it’s very unpredictable. I watched it creep its way towards Mum. I told her not to be frightened but she kept crying anyway, she never did listen to me,” she said bitterly.

“You did that to her for Mark and for letting your dad hurt you?” said Brodie, for Clarke’s benefit.

“I did and I’m not sorry. She knew what Sarah and Seth were going to do to Mark.”

“When did she know?” said Brodie.

“After you came round asking questions. Seth told her the whole thing. She went along with it because she was frightened of him, she knew he was like dad and that one day he might try to kill her.”

“Did your dad try to kill her?”

“No, although he threatened to so many times. It’s true what you said, every woman he killed was her, he hated her.”

“Why?”

“Because he hated all women, even me, even though I was only young. He didn’t think that we were human beings, just things to be used.”

Brodie leaned forward in his seat. “Did your dad’s parents abuse him?”

“I overheard Mum and Seth talking once. They said Grandma used to hurt Dad, hit him. They said he learnt his own bad behaviour from her. They stopped talking when they realised I was listening in and when I asked them about it they refused to tell me even though it involved
my
family. They always treated me like a child, I was sick of it.” She smiled grimly. “They can’t control me now. I showed them.”

“Did your dad ever mention the abuse?”

“No but he did keep telling us how much he hated his parents. It only confirmed what I already knew.”

“Did you ever see or speak to your grandparents?”

“No. Dad never allowed it. I never met them. They died and we didn’t even go to the funeral, even though Dad was dead.”

Anger twisted like a knot inside Brodie. Seth and Sarah had used Bryan Creegan’s parents as a smoke screen to keep him looking away from what was really going on. While he was chasing ghosts they’d been abducting and murdering women.

“Seth worshipped Dad, it didn’t matter to him that he kept hurting us all. Dad wanted Mum dead and she thought that one day Seth would kill her in his honour, so she did anything to keep him happy. Plus he said she could see Donna and Megan whenever she wanted, so she sacrificed Mark for herself and those two little brats. Seth said when they took Mark hostage they’d call her in so she could shout and yell and make it look like she was winding him up to shoot them. It was Seth’s way of putting Mark’s death on her shoulders.”

Brodie cringed inwardly. He’d insisted on dragging Maggie Creegan into the mix. Then again, Mark Creegan’s fate had already been sealed. Seth would have ensured he was shot whether Maggie had been there or not. “I hope you don’t mind me asking Lauren, do you love Seth?”

“I did, until he killed Mark.”

“Even though you were scared of him?” he said, leaning forward in his seat. Finally he was going to learn the truth about what happened all those years ago.

She nodded. “He reminded me of Dad too much but I knew Seth would never hurt me. It was Mum he hated, not me. As he got bigger he started sticking up for me with Dad. The day I…killed him…Seth was out. Mum was watching telly in the front room and Mark was upstairs doing his homework. I went into the kitchen for a drink and Dad was there, I didn’t know, I thought he was out but he’d come back from the pub and come in through the back door. He always went there after work. He was drunk as usual. He’d been in his shed first.”

“Doing what?”

“Looking at his trophies, bits of skin and jewellery he took from the women. Mum threw them out before we called the police.”

“Why did he collect the pieces of skin?” Seth had always refused to say.

“It wasn’t enough for him to take something that belonged to them. He wanted a part of them. It made him feel like they were truly his.”

Brodie grimaced. The piece of skin Seth had attached his own skin trophies to had belonged to one of Bryan Flynn’s victims, carefully preserved by Bryan himself. Seth had taken it before Maggie could throw it away and hidden it for years until he could utilise it for his own sick purposes. The whole thing was one massive fucked-up situation.

“Okay. Go on Lauren,” he said gently.

“Dad started hitting me, he thought he could because Seth wasn’t in. Mark heard the noise and came down, he tried to stop him but Dad punched him and knocked him out. Then Seth came home. Dad stopped when he walked in and they stared at each other. That’s when I picked up the knife and started stabbing him. Seth didn’t stop me, he just watched until I got tired. I dropped the knife and collapsed and he caught me and hugged me, telling me it would be alright, he’d sort it. Mark woke up and saw Dad’s body and screamed the house down. I don’t know when Mum came into the room but she didn’t do anything except smoke while Seth sorted it out. He convinced Mark to take the blame, he said they’d lock me away in an asylum for life if he didn’t.” She started to cry. “So he said he’d do it, for me. Seth wiped the knife, so my prints wouldn’t be on it, then he made Mark stab Dad’s body. He couldn’t do it at first so Seth put the knife in his left hand…

“Why his left hand?”

“To confuse the police. Seth wanted them looking at him not me if they doubted Mark. It worked too. Seth stood behind Mark so he wouldn’t get blood on him, and forced his hand. Mark was crying and sick. Then Seth said it had to look like Dad attacked him, so he’d get off with the self defence plea. He punched Mark and he fell on the floor. When I went to him Seth told me to stay back. I wanted to comfort him but Seth wouldn’t let me. Then he broke a couple of things to make it look like they’d been fighting.” Lauren released a sigh of anguish. “Mark was so sweet and that broke him. He was a mess but he said he’d do it for me. I didn’t want him to,” she sobbed. “I couldn’t take the guilt, I had problems before but they just got worse. The sicker I got the more Seth and Mum took over my life, telling me what I could and couldn’t do, not letting me out on my own.”

“They were frightened you’d tell somebody.”

“The only place I was allowed to go alone was to see my therapist because everything I told them was confidential. But I wouldn’t have told anyway, that would have made Mark’s sacrifice pointless and I couldn’t do that to him.”

Brodie could relate to that. He found it eerie how the actions of the Creegans mirrored his own family’s. Well, almost anyway.

Lauren’s body relaxed, as though she had just rid herself of a weight that had pressed down on her for years and had most likely been at the root of her mental health problems. She yawned and sank back into the pillows. “I’m sleepy.”

“Just one more thing Lauren, if that’s okay?”

“For you Brodie it is,” she said lazily.

“Can you tell DS Clarke about what your dad did to those women in Camden?”

Clarke’s sharp eyes flicked to the scars on her bare arms. Of course he’d already spotted them.

“He was The Carver down there,” she said, picking at her nails again. Seth and Sarah had refused to confirm it, although everyone knew.

“He did that to you?” said Clarke, indicating her arms.

She nodded.

When he noted her hands were shaking Clarke decided to leave that subject, for now.

“Is that all? I’m so tired,” said Lauren.

“For now,” said Clarke, closing his notepad. “But I will have more questions for you at some point, if that’s okay?”

“You’re a friend of Brodie’s?”

When he wasn’t sure what to answer, Brodie said, “yes he is Lauren. He’s a good man, you can trust him.”

“Then I will. Please visit me Brodie,” she said before dropping off, black eyes sliding shut.

Brodie was annoyed as he left her hospital room. He’d thought all ties with this case were severed. Now he’d said he’d visit her he’d have to. It was a point of pride that he always kept his word.

“What will happen to her?” he asked Clarke after they’d stepped out into the corridor and closed the door to her room behind them, leaving the guard on her door.

“When she’s recovered she’ll be transferred to another hospital for a mental health assessment. I reckon with her history she’ll be found unfit to stand trial. She’ll spend the rest of her life in a secure mental hospital. She won’t go to prison.”

Brodie nodded. It was the right thing to do. At the other end of the corridor he saw someone he really didn’t want to see walking to meet them. “What do you want ya wee wank?”

Matt’s smile was almost a smirk. “Lauren Creegan’s in there,” he said, nodding to her hospital room. “Apparently she just burnt her own mum to cinders.”

“What the fuck has that got to do with you?” seethed Brodie.

“Take it easy Brodie,” Clarke warned before turning his attention to Matt. “You can’t see her. Ever.”

“I don’t need to see her. Just give me the highlights.”

“You’re getting nothing. Do one.”

“You can’t chuck me out, this is a public building. I’m here visiting a sick auntie.”

“Bollocks. Don’t let him fool you Clarke,” said Brodie.

Clarke gave him a wry look. “I wasn’t about to. Despite what you think I’m not a complete moron.”