Locked In (36 page)

Randall was standing there looking directly at her with a pair of scissors in his hand.

‘You all right?’ Randall said. ‘You’ve been a while.’

Jessica heard the call connect and the desk sergeant’s voice say “hello”. In that fraction of a second she weighed up blurting out as much as she could to him, saying, “It’s Jessica Daniel, I’ve got Nigel Collins in my flat, send help.” Could she hold Randall off for long enough until help arrived? Would the sergeant understand everything in time? Was it worth the risk?

She hung up and put the phone in her pocket. ‘Yeah, was just trying Caroline to see if she knew when she was going to be finished. No answer though.’ Randall looked as if he were weighing her up. Jessica thought she might have been imagining it. Could he know? She hadn’t said anything that could give her away.

He motioned the scissors in his hand. They had long blades and were sharp on the end. ‘Do you have any tape?’ One of the boxes just broke.’

‘Yeah, hang on. Here’s your water,’ Jessica added, offering him one of the glasses and turning the tap off. She focused hard on not letting her hand shake as she gave it to him, not showing she was nervous. He took it from her without saying anything and drank. She took a few sips from her glass then tipped the rest away. She just felt sick.

Randall emptied the glass and offered it back to her. ‘Thanks.’

‘No worries.’

‘Tape’s in that drawer behind you,’ she said, pointing to a cabinet next to the door. Randall turned around and opened it, reaching in and rummaging. There was a knife rack above the drawer he was looking in. If he had figured things out, she knew she was in big trouble.

She watched him but he didn’t make any sudden movements and quickly pulled a roll of tape out of the drawer. ‘Got it,’ he said. ‘You coming?’

‘Yeah.’ She wanted him to turn around and walk out the door first, that way she could at the very least pocket one of the knives.

He didn’t move and stood holding the door open for her. ‘After you.’

She moved slowly, looking at the knives out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t necessarily want to stab him but she wanted something that would give her an advantage if need be. She thought about the distances. There was no way she could pick something up without him noticing but could she grab a weapon and back him into a corner? Even if she did, what then?

Jessica walked past the knives, in front of Randall and through the open door towards Caroline’s bedroom. She could feel him moving behind her but kept her cool and went back into Caroline’s room and waited by the side of the bed for him to go past her back towards the wardrobes. He did what she expected and pulled one of the boxes on to the bed before taping it up underneath where it had broken. Jessica just watched him.

He had put the scissors on the bed but then picked them up to cut the tape and pocketed them. ‘Right, where do we begin then?’ he said as he turned back around to the wardrobe.

Jessica couldn’t believe she was going to have to make small-talk. This was a man who had killed four people. ‘I reckon put all the trousers and skirts and stuff in one box, then the tops and dresses separate.’

‘Heh, I was going to group everything by colour. Good job you’re here.’ Randall laughed and Jessica tried to join in but there was no substance to it. ‘Can you fold?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Jessica said. ‘If you take them out, I’ll fold and you can pack.’

The situation was almost laughable. Jessica was looking for a way out. Could she somehow lock him in this room then make a call? Once again, she had been stupid. She should have phoned the police in the first place.

They started working in tandem but to Jessica it was like an out of body experience, a bit like being back in the interview room with Peter Hunt and Wayne Lapham. Her body was folding the clothes but her mind was somewhere else, desperately trying to think of how to handle things. ‘How’s the job going?’ Randall said out of the blue.

Jessica stopped halfway through folding a pair of jeans and looked up at the man in front of her. He had just put another pile of clothes on the bed and his hands were free. ‘I know you were taken off that Houdini case, it was all over the news but I just wondered how things were now.’

Jessica said nothing but folded quickly and put the trousers down on the bed. ‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘I’ve been working on other things.’

‘Not one of those TV cops who keeps working a case then?’

She thought she detected something in his voice. She tried to laugh but her voice clearly cracked. ‘Nah, not me.’

‘What’s the flyer about in your bag then?’ She saw it in his face. He knew.

The detective moved quickly towards the door but Randall was faster. He pinned her up against the wall, his forearm across her chest. ‘Why couldn’t you just leave it be?’ he shouted in her face. She could smell his breath and aftershave.

Jessica didn’t have time to think but acted instinctively. She couldn’t raise her arms properly but had enough leverage to smash the side of her hand hard into his windpipe. He instantly reeled back with a vicious cough and released her. She wriggled down away from his arms and quickly escaped out of the bedroom. The detective dashed for the front door, having no idea what to do next but he was quickly on her, bringing her down with something like a rugby tackle in their hallway. She tried to turn over but felt his fist punch her hard across the face as she did so. She saw stars, blinking to try to clear her head while hearing him continue to gasp for breath. She thought she could feel a trickle of what was almost certainly blood on her top lip.

Randall was now sitting astride her, his knees digging into her elbows so she could barely move. Her legs were relatively free but she knew she wasn’t strong enough to flip him over. His breathing was tight but his blue eyes were staring right at her. ‘It was over!’ he shouted. His tone was lighter and he didn’t scream as he had done in the bedroom. ‘It was over. I just wanted to get on with things, settle down with Caroline.’

Jessica could feel the pain in her head from the blow but could just about focus. ‘Why did you do it Randall?’

There were tears in his eyes but he still had a fierce look on his face. ‘It was Nigel. I had become Randall and was getting on with things but then two of them came to me on the stall. It was like a sign. A way to finally say goodbye to Nigel, then get on with my life.’

Jessica realised he must mean the two burglary victims. They had come to the closest place to them to get new keys cut after Wayne Lapham had broken into their homes but their appearance must have reminded Randall of a part of him he had buried. The part that still remembered being Nigel and feeling helpless. ‘How did you recognise them?’

‘I don’t forget faces.’

‘Really?’

‘Guess that’s part of being “weird”.’

‘Why didn’t you kill the boys who hurt you?’ Jessica felt the body astride her tense up.

‘What?’ It was almost as if he hadn’t heard her correctly. He used one of his hands to rub first one ear, then the other, the grip with his knees returning to what it was.

‘Why didn’t you go after the ones who had hurt you instead of their parents?’

‘They didn’t kill me, did they? They made me live like this.’

Jessica couldn’t move her body enough to nod but, in some ways understood what he meant. If he killed their parents, the ones who had hurt him would at least have to endure the emotional pain. ‘How did you change your name so easily?’

‘It wasn’t easy.’ His volume had gone up again. ‘It wasn’t just a name, it was everything associated with it; being pathetic and weak.’

‘But how did you manage to become somebody else?’

‘I lived on the streets for a while. Someone helped me, reckoned they could get new identities sorted and that.’

Jessica had a chilling thought of Harry handing over a brown envelope to a homeless man on the street. She remembered Peter Hunt’s wording in court. “Have you ever seen Mr Thomas act in a questionable way while on duty?” She had said “no” but was suddenly confused. Had that act indirectly led to all of this?

Her expression must have changed. ‘What?’ Randall said.

‘What are you going to do now?’ Jessica asked.

She felt his grip lighten ever so slightly. He blinked away more tears. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t want to kill anyone else?’

‘I love her...’ Jessica knew he was talking about Caroline. He leant back slightly and she felt even more pressure release on her elbows. She could feel pins and needles but could probably snatch them free if she needed to.

‘It’s why I started it all,’ he continued. ‘She came along and I wanted to leave Nigel behind. Once the four of them were finished with, we could have a life together. It was all over with.’

Jessica was playing for time. If she could get him to relax further, when the feeling came back into her arms, with her legs already free, she could shock him and possibly get away. ‘So why did you lock all the houses after you left?’

Randall rubbed his ears again. ‘I didn’t want to get caught. I thought if your lot were busy looking at family members and trying to figure out how it all happened, you would forget to look for things like Nigel Collins. Worked didn’t it?’

Jessica would have admitted that it had but didn’t want to let him focus on anything positive. ‘Can I ask you something?’ The directness clearly shocked him as he would have felt in control of the situation being on top. She didn’t give him time to answer in any case. ‘Do you remember when the three of us were watching the news together that morning? You said the coverage was “sick”...’

‘I was talking about them using that old photo. With my face...’ Jessica knew he meant the one of him as a teenager with his features bruised and swollen. At the time she thought he had been talking about the murders themselves.

Her bluntness had worked and his tears had stopped but he had relaxed even further. The feeling was back in both of her arms and the blurriness had cleared from her head. She thought about her options. Talking to him about letting her go or anything to do with the future would most likely anger him. He must know deep down his chances were hopeless. The only thing he could really do was kill her and either run for it or kill her and hope the investigators blamed it on Nigel Collins, not knowing he and Randall were one and the same.

Either way, her chances didn’t look good. She had to keep him off-balance. ‘How did you meet Ryan?’

It was a question completely out of the blue, something he wouldn’t have expected. He rubbed his ears again. ‘Ryan?’

‘Yeah, he was a nice guy.’

Randall shook his head slightly and stroked his neck with one of his hands. ‘Oh yeah, er. Just around. Started playing pool together and...’

Jessica didn’t let him finish. She lunged forward, using the spring of her free legs to propel him away from her. He yelled as he crashed backwards but as Jessica turned to run the few feet left to the front door, he flicked out with his foot and tripped her. She stumbled into the door, fumbling for the handle to open it. She had to take a step back to open it inwards but he slammed into her, crushing her between his weight and the door. Her arms were free and this time she reeled back and punched him as hard as she could in the windpipe. He stumbled fully back, obviously dazed.

Jessica let go of the door handle with her other hand and hammered the base of her palm upwards as hard as she could into the base of his nose. It was just as Harry had taught her and just as she had threatened to do to Wayne Lapham. Blood exploded all over her arm and Randall’s face. She saw his eyes blink and close and she quickly turned back to pull the door open, thinking she was free but she felt a hand grabbing her hair and her face was slammed hard into the frame once, then twice. She could feel the consciousness slipping but tried hard to focus, feeling her head yanked backwards.

She couldn’t open her eyes because of the pain but could hear Randall’s furious voice shouting behind her. The detective couldn’t make out anything he was saying, his nose was most likely broken and his throat would certainly hurt from her two blows. She could hear him wheezing but couldn’t stop herself being dragged back away from the door into her own bedroom and on to the bed. She was aware of what was going on but helpless to do anything about it, her head was dazed and her limbs weren’t responding. Jessica opened her eyes and could see him on top of her, tears running down his heavily bloodied face.

She thought she heard him say “I’m sorry” and then felt his hands on her throat, squeezing. She could feel the pressure and was struggling for breath, not even able kick her legs any longer.

And then she heard the front door open.

Jessica felt as if she were dreaming. Her head was hazy, like when you wake from a vivid dream and aren’t sure which reality is the correct one.

‘Rands? Jess?’ It was Caroline’s voice. Jessica was groggy but the pressure was instantly released from her throat. She could just see a fuzzy grey colour but felt the weight released from her and get up from the bed. She tried to sit up but everything was in slow motion. There were voices from the hallway. She could hear shouting and thought she heard Caroline say something like, “What’s going on?”

Jessica managed to sit up then eventually stand. There were still voices coming from the hallway. She stumbled towards the door and into the hall. Her vision was still grey but she heard Caroline scream clearly. ‘Jess.’

The detective looked across from her bedroom door towards the living room. Things were clearing for her now but her throat was on fire and breathing was painful. Randall was standing behind Caroline with his front to her back but his left arm across her hugging her into him. His face was a mashed-up mess. The red of his blood smeared across his face seeped into the grey that was affecting her vision and helped clear it. Jessica could feel blood on her face too. She must also look a mess.

Caroline had a terrified expression on her face. Her eyes were wide, while her bag had been dropped by her feet and the contents had spilled across the floor. ‘What’s going on?’ Jessica clearly heard Caroline say this time. Her voice was faltering then Jess saw why.