Killer Plan (12 page)

30

As Caroline approached the
end of her road, her legs felt weak. She tensed with the expectation of hearing a voice summoning her from the shadows in the trees. Shaking with fear, she struggled to keep going.

‘Come on, mum,’ Matthew called to her. ‘It’ll be dark soon.’

She hurried after him. Once she had passed the trees, her mind cleared. It felt strange to be taking Matt to the park by himself. His lone figure looked horribly solitary on the pavement up ahead of her. It was hard to imagine, but this must be what it was like for people who had only one child. Dreadful to her, for many parents it was normal. She trotted to catch up with him and then regretted it because as soon as she reached him he started whining about Ed again.

‘When’s he coming home?’ he asked. ‘It’s boring without him.’

She didn’t answer.

The park was empty when they arrived. Matt kicked the ball around on the grass in a desultory fashion. She could tell it was no fun for him without Ed. He perked up after a while when a few other kids appeared and asked to play. Matt was the one with the ball, so he took charge. For a brief time he seemed to forget about his missing brother as he shouted out directions. Watching him engrossed in his game, she wondered what their lives would be like if Ed never returned. It wasn’t a prospect she had allowed herself to consider before. She blinked as her eyes began to water. Whatever happened, she had to stay strong for Matt.

The bench jolted almost imperceptibly. Someone had come to sit beside her. Without turning her head she knew who it was. She stared doggedly at the boys kicking the ball around. It wasn’t clear where the goal posts were. For no apparent reason the group of boys all started shouting at once. Matt was jumping up and down, yelling something. There must have been a goal, but it wasn’t clear who had scored.

‘It’s a lovely evening,’ he said quietly.

An outside observer would have agreed. A slight breeze ruffled the leaves overhead. A single bird sailed across the clear sky, high above them, ragged wings and curved beak marking it out as a bird of prey. The boys were playing happily on the grass. The scene was idyllic. Only she knew the sinister truth behind this conversation in the park.

‘Don’t you think it’s a lovely evening, Caroline?’

Her name crackled on his lips like a threat.

‘Where is he?’ she muttered without looking at him.

At her side she thought she heard muffled laughter, but when she glanced sideways Brian was staring ahead with a tranquil expression. She followed his gaze. He was watching the boys playing football. Matt was preparing to kick the ball, his face set in ferocious concentration. Several of the other kids were yelling at him, but she couldn’t hear what any of them were saying.

Brian hissed so softly she barely caught the words. ‘He must miss his brother.’

‘You have to bring him home right now.’

‘All in good time. It won’t be long now.’

Her heart seemed to miss a beat. Brian had agreed to bring Ed home, if not now then soon. Her son was alive. She struggled not to cry. Her throat seemed to close up with the effort to speak.

‘When?’

‘As soon as you’ve done what I asked.’

Disappointment threatened to choke her. Then came an anger so sharp, she wanted to lash out. Dave was dead and Ed’s life was in danger. Now Brian wanted her to commit a murder. She would do anything in her power to save her son, but she couldn’t deliberately kill a stranger. The one man she hated enough to kill was the only person who knew where Ed was being held. The situation was complicated. She would have to be cunning to outwit Brian. Instead of rejecting his demand outright, she would play along with his crazy plan and see where it led. Perhaps she could warn the man Brian wanted her to kill. That way, her intended victim could go to the police on her behalf, and put an end to this insanity. It was an unlikely plan, but she had to do something.

‘What if I agree to do what you want? What then? How can I trust you to bring Ed back home?’

‘You can trust me.’

‘Tell me again where to find the man your wife ran off with.’

‘She didn’t run off with him. She wanted to, but he was already married. She wanted him to leave his wife, but then she died.’

A horrible thought struck Caroline.

‘She didn’t kill herself, did she? You did it. You killed her.’

He was silent for a moment.

‘Ed’s waiting for you,’ he said at last.

She understood he didn’t want to talk about his wife. Best not to provoke him. To change the subject she asked again about the man she was supposed to kill. With a sense of unreality she listened as he gave her the details again. He spoke as calmly as though they were arranging a trip to the cinema.

‘Now give me your word that you will carry out your part of the bargain,’ he concluded.

Despite the fact that she had never entered into any such agreement with him, she had no choice but to humour him for now. It was too late for regrets. If only she hadn’t met him in the park that first time. If only she had never spoken to him that day. If only she hadn’t rushed to give him her address or let him take a photo of the two of them together. If only she had warned Dave, and gone straight to the police – but no one would have believed her. In any case, he had given her no indication of his true intentions at their first encounter. She had believed him when he had said he was going to make Dave jealous by showing him a photo of her with another man on his phone. It had never occurred to her that he was going to kill her husband.

‘Remember, if you go to the police, or if you fail to finish the job, you will never see your son again. If you try to double cross me, I’ll know. As soon as the police knock at my door…’

He drew one hand across his throat making a horrible choking noise in his throat to indicate someone dying. She looked away. His reference to committing murder as a ‘job’ was chilling.

‘If I’m arrested, I won’t be able to take care of him. No one will ever find him. He’ll be left locked in a room to starve, all alone. You wouldn’t let that happen, would you?’

His face relaxed into a smile. She wanted to punch him.

‘What if I can’t do it? What if someone stops me?’

‘You know the terms. A life for a life. Either you end a guilty man’s life, or your son dies.’

Brian smiled at her. He sounded so reasonable, she struggled to believe what she was hearing. She had no choice but to play along with his madness. Completely insane, he alone knew where her son was. If she contacted the police, she believed Brian could actually be crazy enough to keep Ed’s whereabouts to himself. He had been crazy enough to kidnap him in the first place. Unless he had told someone else, it was possible no one would ever find Ed. She couldn’t risk alienating Brian.

‘I’ll do it,’ she agreed wretchedly. ‘I’ll try.’

‘I knew you would,’ he said. From his voice she could tell he was smiling. ‘But remember, if you go to the police, you’ll never see the boy again.’

They sat in silence for a moment. When she looked round, the bench beside her was empty.

31

Caroline had drummed into
Matthew that his brother had gone to stay with a friend of hers, and wouldn’t be home for a few days.

‘You said he’d be home today,’ Matthew whined at breakfast.

‘I know, that’s what I thought too, but then my friend called this morning before you woke up and invited him to stay on for a few days. I spoke to him and he said he wanted to stay there and I said he could.’

Matthew was only ten and he trusted her. Nevertheless, she was relieved when he accepted what she had said, although he continued to complain that it wasn’t fair.

‘How come
he
gets to miss school?’ he grumbled into his Coco Pops. ‘If
he’s
not going to school how come
I
have to go? It’s not fair. I’m having to do stupid work and he’s not.’

‘My friend’s a teacher,’ she lied desperately. ‘She’ll be giving him lots of work to do so he doesn’t fall behind.’

Matthew sniggered and she relaxed slightly. The problem of keeping Matthew quiet about his brother’s disappearance had been resolved for the time being. Now she had to face the real problem of rescuing Ed.

Matthew dragged his feet as he crossed the playground. Standing at the school gate, Caroline watched him make his way up the steps to vanish in the throng of children entering the building. Without his brother he looked isolated, in spite of the other children milling around him on the steps. As soon as he was out of sight, she telephoned the school office and explained that Ed was struggling to come to terms with his father’s sudden death. He was too upset to return to school just yet. She was keeping him at home for a day or two. Matthew had a lively imagination. No one would take any notice if he gave a different explanation for his brother’s absence. She had a couple of days’ grace. Soon Matthew would start asking questions again. It wouldn’t be long until the school grew suspicious. Neighbours might become curious, noticing she was now accompanied by only one child. But apart from the fear of discovery, she had to find Ed and bring him home. She refused to consider it might already be too late to save him.

First she had to discover Brian’s full name. Without that she had no chance of tracking him down. As soon as she reached home, she googled her primary school and phoned up. Understandably, the secretary was reluctant to divulge the names of boys who had been in her class.

‘You don’t understand.’ Caroline tried to stay calm. ‘I went to Cartpool Juniors. I was there. It’s my own class I’m asking about. I want to organise a reunion.’

‘If you give me your contact details I can certainly pass those on, but we can’t give out any personal information from our records.’

‘I’m not asking for any personal information. I just want the names.’

However hard Caroline tried to persuade the school secretary to help, the other woman refused point blank to give her the names she wanted. Unless she could discover where Brian was living, there was no way she could find Ed. She had to think fast. Even if she broke into the school, she might not be able to find class lists from over twenty years ago. They might not even exist any longer. Brian had warned her not to speak to the police, but they were the only ones who could possibly have access to the information necessary to trace Brian’s address. Afraid of what he might do if he discovered she had defied him, she was apprehensive about going to the police, but she had no alternative. By herself, she was helpless. Somehow she had to speak to a detective without his knowledge.

‘If you go to the police, I’ll tell them you talked me into killing your husband. They’ll take your children away from you... if I don’t kill them. You know I can do it. I’ll kill them if you don’t do exactly what I want.’

The words seemed to ring inside her head as she reached for the phone. She wasn’t sure whether to dial 999 or try to contact her local police station. Probably it would be best to speak to someone local, but she didn’t know the number. The police station wasn’t far away. It would be easier to just go there. It would certainly be difficult to explain herself over the phone without prompting a visit from the police. As soon as she mentioned a missing child, they were bound to send a police car to her house, with flashing lights, and sirens blaring. She had seen it happen so many times on TV shows. It had always looked so exciting on the telly. However careful she was to insist they didn’t come to the house, the policeman on the other end of the line might misunderstand her concern. Brian had warned that he would be watching. It was too risky.

After dithering for a while, she raced upstairs and rummaged in her wardrobe. Five minutes later she left the house, a large handbag over her shoulder. She crossed the main road and headed straight for the Tesco a few blocks away. She walked up and down the aisles for a while, looking at the shelves, surreptitiously studying the other shoppers. There was no sign of Brian. Finally she slipped into the toilet. Once she was safely inside a cubicle, there was no time to waste. Quickly she unzipped her bag and pulled out a rolled-up beige mac, a paisley scarf and leather gloves that were too big for her. Hurriedly she pulled them on, tucking her hair out of sight beneath the headscarf. Tears welled up in her eyes as her fingers groped their way inside Dave’s gloves. Now only her ankles, shoes and face remained the same as they had been when she had entered the toilets. Blinking furiously, she felt in her bag for a pair of sunglasses she had brought with her. She was undecided whether to wear them or not. On such an overcast day they might attract attention. With sudden inspiration, she pushed out the lenses. The empty frames made her look as though she was wearing ordinary glasses. She was ready. Before leaving the cubicle she took a quick gulp from the small bottle of whisky she had brought with her, to give her courage. Stepping out into the shopping centre, she glanced around. There was no sign of Brian. It didn’t matter anyway. He thought he had outwitted her, but she could be clever too. If he saw her leaving the toilets, or going into the police station, he wouldn’t recognise her.

32

As a rule Detective
Constable Timothy Clarke was conscientious, but after spending most of the weekend at a stag do he was too tired to think about anything but getting through the day without any cock ups. With luck, he would have slept off his hangover by the next morning. All he wanted to do was sit quietly waiting for the day to finish so he could go home. Staring at his computer screen was giving him a headache, so when a woman turned up at the desk to report a problem, he was happy to go and listen to what she had to say.

He sat down and studied the woman carefully. Head down, collar turned up, her hair concealed beneath a patterned scarf, he could see little of her face other than her black-framed glasses. There was something odd about her appearance, although he wasn’t immediately sure what it was. When she raised her head, he realised her glasses had no lenses. Seeing him looking at her curiously, she removed the frames and placed them on the table.

‘I had to come here in disguise,’ she explained earnestly. ‘He knows everything I do. He’s watching me. He knows where I go.’ Her hoarse voice trembled.

Timothy sighed. This was going to be a waste of time. Noticing a faint aroma of whisky, he supposed that alcohol had rotted her brain. Either that or she was mentally ill. Whatever the cause, she was paranoid.

‘What seems to be the problem, Miss – er – Farmer?’

The woman blinked nervously, twisting her gloved hands in her lap. As if reading his thoughts, she said quietly, ‘Freda Farmer isn’t my real name. I just made it up when they asked me at the front desk. The policeman out there said I had to give my name if I wanted to talk to someone. My real name’s Caroline Robinson. But I gave him my real address. You’re going to have to know that.’ Her lips twisted and she began to cry.

Timothy decided to give it five minutes. If she hadn’t come up with anything coherent by then, he would send her packing. He waited but she didn’t stop crying. When he pushed his chair back to stand up, she finally pulled herself together. Carefully removing her gloves, she fished a tissue out of her bag, and blew her dripping nose.

‘My boy’s missing.’

Timothy sat down again, frowning.

‘Are you reporting a missing child?’

‘Yes.’

‘How old is he?’

‘He’s ten.’

She began to cry again.

Timothy noted down the boy’s name and address, and the name of his school, and when and where his mother had last seen him. If she was telling the truth, the boy had been missing overnight. When they had gone all through the details, and established a few facts, he questioned her about her disguise. Instead of offering a predictable account of an abusive ex-husband or boyfriend, and a vicious custody dispute, she launched into a convoluted story about a man she had been at school with. Timothy did his best to make sense of her narrative.

‘Let’s go back to the beginning. You said you met this man in the park?’

‘Yes, in the park, although we weren’t exactly strangers. Like I said, we’d known each other years ago, at primary school. He recognised me straight away. He came and sat next to me in the park, where no one else could see us. And there aren’t any security cameras there. That’s how clever he is.’

Timothy looked up from his notebook.

‘And a few days after meeting you in the park he kidnapped your son?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can you think of any reason why he might have done that?’

She hesitated too long before blurting out, ‘You have to find him. Oh, please hurry. He could be hurt, or frightened, or…’

That didn’t answer his question, but she was crying again.

‘And you’ve had no contact with this man since you were at primary school, other than that one time you met him in the park?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘Can you think of any reason why he might want to kidnap your son? What does he hope to gain by it?’ He paused, wondering if the woman facing him in tears was more wealthy than she appeared. ‘Have you received any demands for money?’

‘No, nothing like that. I haven’t got any money anyway. But…’

‘Yes?’ he prompted her, glancing at his watch.

‘He wants me to kill someone, a man I’ve never met.’ She stared at him, wide-eyed. ‘His name’s Brian. I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t remember his other name. You have to find him before he kills my son.’

Timothy sighed. ‘You say he’s going to kill your son? I thought you said he wants you to kill someone?’

‘Yes. He wants me to kill a man I’ve never met. That’s the point. If I don’t do what he wants, he’s going to kill my son. And he’ll do it. I know what he’s capable of. He’s killed before.’

Timothy was no psychiatrist, but he could tell she was disturbed. She clearly had no idea how absurd her story sounded. He assured her the police would do everything in their power to restore her son to her. It was probably a waste of time, following up her ravings, but he went through the motions. He couldn’t ignore a report of a missing child, even such a far-fetched report. After assuring her that the police would do everything in their power to help, he sent her home to wait there in case the boy returned.

Once she had gone, he phoned her son’s school.

‘Ed Robinson?’ the school secretary said. ‘Yes, he’s off school today.’

Timothy’s heart skipped a beat. Perhaps the distraught mother had been telling the truth after all, and the child really was missing. The secretary’s next words reassured him.

‘His mother called in to say he’s staying at home today. I’m afraid there’s been a tragedy in the family. His father died a few days ago and of course they’re all very upset.’

Timothy answered hurriedly before she could hang up.

‘His mother phoned to tell you he’s at home, you say?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘Is she disturbed, would you say?’

‘I can’t comment on that. I’m sorry. I don’t know her. But it would be understandable. She must be terribly upset. It wasn’t a natural death, you see. I’m afraid the father was murdered.’

The penny dropped. Timothy couldn’t believe he had failed to make the connection sooner. Robinson was the name of a recent murder victim. He checked his screen quickly. The addresses matched. No wonder the poor woman was raving. He thanked the school secretary, and explained about the call the school would be receiving from the social services. There was nothing more he could do. The school confirmed that Ed Robinson was at home with his mother. She had called the school to tell them where he was. Unhinged by grief, or confused by medication, she imagined that her son had been abducted by a stranger who was going to kill him. In reality, it was her husband who had been taken from her and killed. Timothy hoped her distress would pass, and she would recover her wits. If not, the boy would have lost both his parents. With a sigh, he returned to his daily duties. Having passed the situation on to the social services, there was nothing more he could do to help the poor woman.