Locked In (37 page)
Randall didn’t just have his left arm around his girlfriend, he had the scissors in his right hand placed next to her neck. ‘Stay calm,’ Jessica said. She couldn’t speak clearly and her thoughts were scrambled. She was speaking to Randall as much as Caroline. ‘Just stay calm.’
Randall had more tears running down his face, blending in with the blood and causing vertical streaks to form down his skin. ‘Why couldn’t you just leave it?’ he said.
Caroline clearly didn’t have a clue what was going on. She just kept staring across the hallway at her friend. ‘Jess?’
‘It’s him,’ Jess said softly. ‘He’s Houdini. He’s Nigel Collins. He killed those four people.’ Jessica saw Caroline’s body slump.
‘What...?’ Jessica didn’t know what else to add. Caroline was wearing a grey work suit and Randall’s blood had begun to run on to her shoulder. She was shaking her head despite still being gripped by her boyfriend and having the scissors held to her neck.
Randall coughed loudly, spluttering more blood. He moved his body around so his back was to their front door. ‘You’re going to let me go,’ he said but his words weren’t coming easily. He coughed loudly again and Jessica saw his head twitch once, then twice. Caroline had clearly felt his grip slacken as she must have moved and was then snatched back hard into her boyfriend’s body.
‘Where are you going to go Randall?’ Jessica said. Her own throat still felt sore but her vision had more or less cleared. She knew she was pushing her luck.
Randall shook his head and blinked rapidly. ‘I... it doesn’t matter. I’ll start again.’
Caroline was whimpering, clearly not able to process everything that was happening.
‘Let her go...’ Jessica said and took a step forward. Her eyes were on the scissors in Randall’s hand. She saw his fingers tense on the grip of them but not move any closer to her friend’s neck.
‘Stop,’ Randall said.
‘Just let her go. You told me you loved her, remember?’ Randall looked up and coughed again, before another furious blinking fit. Jessica took a few more small steps towards them while he struggled. She was eight feet or so away from them.
The man’s grip on the scissors was still tight but, if anything, his grip on Caroline had slackened. ‘No closer,’ Randall said but his eyes were not backing up his words.
‘What’s wrong Randall?’ Jessica said. She could see the confusion on Caroline’s face and shuffled a little closer as Randall tried to control his blinking. He snatched his left hand away from Caroline but moved the one with the scissors in so they were touching the front of her neck. Using his left hand, he first rubbed his eyes, then hit his own left ear a couple of times before putting it back across Caroline and holding her close to him while again moving the scissors a little further away from her.
Jessica just watched them and took another small step forward. Six feet now. ‘You need to let her go now,’ Jessica said, her eyes fixed on Randall, trying to catch his eye. He looked at her, still blinking.
‘What have you done?’ he asked.
‘There was an aspirin in your water,’ Jessica said, edging forward. ‘The pain you thought was from me hitting you in the throat is actually your windpipe swelling. You need to let her go then let me call you an ambulance.’
Randall stuttered something but Jessica could see his eyes had widened. He dropped the scissors but put his right hand tighter around Caroline’s throat and used his left to fumble with the front door handle.
‘Randall...’ Jessica said. He launched into a coughing fit and Jessica flung herself at him, carefully targeting the left side of his body with Caroline held to his right. She caught him with her shoulder and his head cannoned back into the door. Caroline fell to the floor but was free, while Jessica used her feet to kick the scissors away. Randall was on his knees spluttering and struggling to breathe.
The funeral had been far more emotional than Jessica had expected. She sat next to Caroline, with her arm around her for large parts of the ceremony. So many more people had turned out than Jessica would have expected. The marks around Jessica’s throat had already begun to get their colour back, while the cuts her face had endured would heal in time. The mental scars her friend must be feeling would be something that took a lot longer to fix.
Jessica had never discovered if it was in fact Harry who had provided the method for Nigel Collins to change his identity; she didn’t want to know. If it were true, part of her personality as a detective, the parts she had learned from Harry, would be destroyed. She had not phoned him, nor visited and never would.
Gradually the police had filled in the gaps between Nigel Collins leaving hospital nearly six years ago and the first body turning up. He had tried to reinvent himself but, with his memory for faces, had recognised the parents of his tormentors. At first it had been something of a coincidence that two of Wayne Lapham’s victims had gone to him but he had seen it as a sign and followed things through to a conclusion.
‘Thank you for coming.’ Jessica was standing with Caroline in the church’s hall after the body had been put to rest. Paul Keegan was stood in front of them, offering his hand to be shaken. ‘Mary would have liked it, I think,’ he added.
‘It was lovely,’ Jessica said. ‘Are you going to be okay?’
‘I think so. Thank you, you know... for catching him.’
Randall Anderson, or Nigel Collins as he had previously been called, was currently in isolation and on suicide watch while on remand at Manchester Prison, formerly known as Strangeways. As he had crouched struggling for breath on the floor in their flat, Jessica had called 999 and an ambulance as well as what seemed like most of the Greater Manchester Police force had been sent to her flat. The paramedics had arrived in time to save him but he was in no state to fight or escape.
Since then, he hadn’t said a word to anyone. Jessica had been offered leave, given her injuries and the severity of the case. She wouldn’t have wanted any part of his police interview anyway, even if it had been offered to her. Not that he had spoken about anything. He hadn’t given a confession and offered no details of how things had been conceived. Some of the plan would never be known.
The police had raided both his old flat and his new one. It had been awkward because he didn’t seem to own much and what little he had was in boxes at the new place, while the old one had been cleaned out but they had found a small coil of thick metal wire in the wheelie bin at the back of the block where he lived. Tests had shown it was very similar to the implement used to kill the four people, with the assumption he had cut pieces off to use for each victim. After going back to the stall where he worked, the owner had said it was the exact kind of wire they would use to help bind shoes together they were fixing. Two days later and the bins would have been emptied and the evidence lost. On first thought it seemed careless to ditch something like that in a bin so close to his flat but from Randall’s point of view, it must have seemed as if he was in the clear. Not only that but he was moving anyway.
Building a case would be hard given the lack of DNA but the trail from the locks to his stall, plus the wire and her evidence – and his refusal to speak – should be enough in court.
In terms of Jessica herself, everyone had been so concerned about her that no one had brought up anything about her following up a case that wasn’t even hers. She didn’t know if there would be some sort of disciplinary action down the line but didn’t care either.
Caroline hadn’t coped well. Jessica didn’t really know how to deal with things but eventually her friend had gone to stay with Jessica’s parents for a couple of weeks. They said they saw her as a daughter anyway.
And now, a few weeks later, the two of them were at the wake following Mary Keegan’s funeral, along with many members of the investigating force. DI Cole had left not long after the ceremony had finished but DCI Aylesbury had now come over to speak to the dead woman’s husband. Jessica guided Caroline away towards some plastic seats to leave the two of them to it. Jessica felt guilty for her early attitude to her boss. She could now see what an asset he was. He had been terrific looking after her following the arrest. The first instinct would have been to interview her and find out everything she knew but he had shielded her from everything.
Garry Ashford meanwhile had written a string of stories about her bravery. She didn’t know where the details had come from and felt largely embarrassed about it. He had been at the funeral too, a few rows over from Jessica. She had seen his solemn face during the readings, thinking he was someone else she had misjudged at first.
Caroline sat down and Jessica went to take the seat next to her. Her friend waved her away. ‘It’s okay. You go mix. I could do with a few minutes on my own.’
The woman gave a thin smile and Jessica kissed her forehead. She turned around and walked over to Garry Ashford, who was standing on his own drinking from a plastic cup near the door. ‘Hey.’
‘Hey.’
‘You can take the piss out of my looks now if you want,’ Jessica said pointing at one of the cuts by her face. ‘Looks like I’ve gone a few rounds with a heavyweight boxer, doesn’t it?’
Garry smiled. ‘Maybe a middleweight. Your nose is only horrifically deformed off to one side, not fully smashed up.’
Jessica grinned, bigger than she had done in weeks. ‘Oi.’
DC Rowlands came over to join them. ‘Garry this is Detective Constable Rowlands. Detective Constable, this is Garry Ashford,’ Jessica said. The two shook hands.
‘How are you doing?’ DC Rowlands asked her.
‘Not too bad. Why are you concerned about me, Detective?’ she said sarcastically. ‘That’s lovely...’
‘Well y’know, if you’re not back fit and healthy soon, I’m going to have to find someone else to take the piss out of.’
Jessica laughed. ‘Cheers. You’re all heart. I’m surprised you’re not over there trying to cop off with one of the nieces or something. She pointed off towards the buffet table where two pretty twenty-something girls were chatting to each other.
‘I’m not that low,’ DC Rowlands said, looking over towards them. ‘Still, they are next to the food and I’m feeling a bit peckish.’ He rubbed his belly and grinned, before giving her a wink.
‘See ya Dave,’ Garry said. Jessica just shook her head, smiling.
‘One day he’ll get his comeuppance,’ she said.
Garry shrugged. ‘So are you okay then?’
‘Yeah. It’ll all be fine.’
Garry took a deep breath. ‘So how about a drink one night then?’
Jessica looked back at him. ‘Are you using a wake as an opportunity to ask me on a date?’
‘Maybe.’
Jessica looked away and gave a very audible “Umm” intended for his benefit.
‘Well if I say “yes”, are you going to explain to me how you know Detective Constable Rowlands’ first name?’
OUT NOW: VIGILANTE
It has been fourteen months since Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel found the so-called “Houdini strangler” but there is now a new killer on the loose.
This time she has no doubt what connects the victims as they are all hardened criminals but, as her new boss seems grateful someone is doing their job for them, Jessica is left feeling isolated.
The detective has a big problem when forensics match blood from the crime scene to a man already serving life in prison and that’s before a lab worker points out that planting DNA in the way it was found is all-but impossible.
With a media that doesn’t know whose side it’s on, Jessica is left with little option other than to face the obvious. Can a man really walk through the walls of his maximum-security cell and, if so, is it really in her best interests to stop him?
This is book two in the Jessica Daniel series, following on from
Locked In
.
COMING LATE 2011: THE WOMAN IN BLACK
Someone has left a severed hand in the centre of Manchester and the only clue Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has to go on is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing it carefully on the ground.
With a lengthy missing persons list and frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones, the detective has plenty to deal with and that’s before a detached finger arrives for her in the post.
By the time a second hand is found and a local MP’s wife goes missing, Jessica is left struggling to find out who the appendages belong to, how they are connected and just what the mysterious woman in black has to do with it all.
This is book three in the Jessica Daniel series, following on from
Locked In
and
Vigilante
.
Kerry Wilkinson was born in Bath, Somerset but currently lives in Preston, Lancashire. He has a degree in journalism and is a full-time production worker for a national media company in the UK. He has lectured in journalism, volunteers as a magistrate and plays a lot of computer games while he’s supposed to be writing. Find out more at:
http://kerrywilkinson.com
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