The Secrets of the Shadows (The Annie Graham series - Book 2) (30 page)

Ten minutes later he was holding her car keys in his hand. He turned the sign on the door to Closed and turned off the lights. Then, locking the door behind him, he strolled over to her car. This was a beautiful place, so peaceful. The sound of running water was very soothing and he thought that if he pulled the next two murders off he would leave and go as far away from Barrow as possible. Look for a small cottage in the country, one with a stream running through the garden. He could imagine stringing a hammock in a tree and lying there reading on a summer days, just like this. He would get all his groceries delivered, grow his hair and a beard and no-one would have a clue who he was; a fresh start.

He drove back into town completely avoiding the area that surrounded his house, taking the long way round and the busy road that cut through the industrial estate. He passed a couple of police cars but he had a baseball cap pulled low down on his head and sunglasses, none of them gave him a second glance. He knew they would be on high alert looking for his truck. He had purposely picked the most popular model so the police would be busy looking for every similar black truck in a five-mile radius. He had another hour before it was time to meet Sophie, so he parked at the back of Marks and Spencer’s along the side street which was permanently busy. It was a one-hour parking bay but the cars came and went so often it was hard to keep a track of them; he got out of his car and strolled around to the small shop on the main street near to the hairdressers. He got a bottle of water and a paper then went back to his car to wait, he looked like most of the other drivers who were waiting for the wives or girlfriends to finish shopping.

It was finally time for her to finish work and he drove around to pick her up. He could see her all alone inside the shop and wondered if he should just go in there and kill her but then he realised that was a stupid idea, how was he supposed to get her body out to the car without being seen. Subway was just a few doors down and it was always full of teenagers. He wasn’t thinking clearly and needed to get a grip before he did something totally stupid. She looked out of the shop window and he waved frantically at her from across the street; she grinned and waved back. Within a minute she was out of the shop, the door locked and crossing the street to get into his car. ‘Hiya, thanks for picking me up, it’s been a long day.’

‘No problem, I bet it has. Your poor feet must get so tired standing in the same spot all day. I was wondering if you fancied a change from round here and going up the Lakes? It’s such a beautiful night. This car isn’t mine, it belongs to a friend – he’s a priest but don’t let that put you off! I thought we could stop off for a bite to eat and then while we’re up there I can return his heap of junk and collect mine, which has been parked up outside the church in Windermere whilst his was getting repaired.’

He tried not to look at her whilst she made up her mind, it was a lot to ask and he didn’t want her freaking out but she nodded her head. ‘It sounds great to me, I love Windermere, it’s one of my favourite places. I love the pubs up there and I haven’t got anything to do tonight because my friends are either away at Uni or skint.’

Sean smiled. ‘Great, thank you so much. I can’t stand driving around in this car much longer, I can’t wait to get my own back.’

A part of him wanted to stop this and let her out of the car, tell her he felt ill and could they do it another time but he’d already calculated that his colleagues were busy looking for a single white male driving a black truck so they wouldn’t look twice at a couple in a silver VW Golf. The ANPR cameras wouldn’t ping this number unless they had already discovered the woman in the cafe but he didn’t think so, she hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring so hopefully no one was looking for her yet. His hands were tied. He continued driving and they began to chat about anything and everything. The conversation flowed easily as they drove out of Barrow and onto the bypass which would take them through Lindal and Ulverston. Once they were through the camera on the way out of Ulverston he could relax a little and try to concentrate on exactly what he was going to do when they got to Windermere. It was unsettling for him not to have an exact plan to work to but it was also liberating. He just hoped there wouldn’t be a welcoming committee waiting for him at the priest’s house but if there was then he would be ready to do what he must. The more he talked to Sophie the more he liked her and he would definitely regret killing her. He may even let her live if he killed the priest first. He could use her as a bargaining chip, the priest wouldn’t be able to resist, he wouldn’t let another pretty young thing die to save himself.

Chapter 35

The DI told everyone to meet back at the school car park, except for the four armed officers he’d left guarding the front and back of Sean’s house. Will was thinking about what Stu had said; he’d seen Sean’s truck heading down Roose Road so they needed to send officers to search that area. Will had an unsettling feeling that Sean had left town. He could have taken the coast road to Ulverston and from there anywhere. He’d already asked the control room to get someone to check the cameras to see if the truck had gone through them but that didn’t mean much because he could have gone past Askam and headed out west towards Whitehaven. He ran his fingers through his hair, Jesus this was a real mess. Although Barrow was the biggest cull de sac in England it was also probably the easiest to escape from with all the quiet country roads that led to the place and the lack of cameras. They did have community messaging, which was a bit like neighbourhood watch. He’d asked a PCSO to send out a message which would go out to hundreds of members of the public to ask them to look out for Sean’s black Mitsubishi and the registration; that had been half an hour ago.

They were just arriving back at the school when the control room notified them that the truck had been spotted it in a car park near to Gleaston Water Mill. A huge cheer erupted from the car and all the vehicles in the convoy turned around and began heading that way. There were two ways to approach the car park. Orders were given over the radio for vehicles to come in by different routes and block the road both ways, there would no exit for Sean or his truck. As they approached the quiet road there wasn’t a sound from anyone, the friendly banter had been replaced by a blanket of silence as they awaited orders from the Task Force commander who would run this from now on. Police vans parked up forming the blockades and the armed officers jumped out of their van and took their positions, waiting for the go ahead to rush towards the truck. There was no indication that Sean was armed or had access to any firearms but they couldn’t afford to take anything for granted. Will and Dave stood behind his BMW which was parked behind the armed response car.

‘Is it just me or do you feel sick as well Will? I can’t believe we are doing this.’

‘Boss I keep thinking it’s all a dream, let’s just hope he’s already topped himself in the car and then it will all be over with no more lives lost.’

They watched as the officers made their way towards the truck and Will felt his heart pumping with adrenaline. After what seemed like the longest walk, all of a sudden the truck was surrounded by armed officers and they gave the all clear; it was empty. The disappointment weighed heavy on Will, why was life so bloody complicated? He looked across at the cafe which was in darkness and closed up. They needed to go inside and check it out, Sean could be hiding in there. Four armed officers jogged over to check the perimeter of the building as the Task Force sergeant made his way over to where they were standing.

‘Right then, what do we do now?’

‘If he left his truck here then he knows we are onto him, so he is on foot somewhere or he’s hiding out. I don’t want to throw a damper on things but this is a huge area with so many farms and outbuildings – where the fuck do we start?’ Will said.

Dave shook his head. ‘There is option C, he could have a car stashed or have taken someone else’s. If we can locate the owner of the café they might be able to help.’

There was a lot of shouting from the back of the building and the other officers stormed around to see what was happening, closely followed by Will and Dave.

‘There’s a woman on the floor inside, she isn’t moving and is bound and gagged.’

Two officers ran over with a battering ram to put the door through and within minutes the door was open and they were rushing in to check the building and the woman. Will watched everything from the window and felt a huge sigh of relief when the armed officer bent down to touch the woman and she flinched, trying to move away from him.

‘Jesus, thank Christ for that.’

Dave peered through the window at the older, dark-haired woman on the floor. ‘You know why she’s still alive don’t you?’

Will looked at him, ‘Not really.’

‘Look at her; she doesn’t fit his profile. Too old and dark brown hair.’

Will looked at the woman who was being helped to her feet. She was crying. He was right; she wasn’t young, blonde or extremely pretty. The officer who had rescued her led her from the building and passed her to Stu who was hovering around, to wait for an ambulance to check her out; then he went back in to help secure the building.

Will walked across the road towards the woman, who was shaking. ‘It’s okay, you’re safe now.’

She looked at him for a minute and nodded her head.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Susan Letts.’

‘Susan, can you tell me what happened? We need to find him.’

‘He was so nice, even when he told me he was going to tie me up and take my car he was very polite and apologetic about it.’

‘What kind of car do you own and what’s the registration number?’

As she told him Stu as writing it down on the palm of his hand, then he stepped away to speak on his radio to the control room to get them to check the cameras for this car.

‘Did he say where he was going, anything at all that could lead us in the right direction?’

‘He said he had to go and pick his friend up because her car wouldn’t start.’

Dave looked as if he was about to keel over from a heart attack. ‘He has his next victim.’

‘We don’t know that for definite.’

‘Will if he has the sense to leave his car here and take Susan’s it’s for a reason, I don’t think he’s gone shopping for new shoes.’

Will didn’t want to think about it, they had to save this one. He turned to Stu. ‘Get back to the office and get me that list of catholic churches and flag any which are covered by Father John, it has to be one of them.’

Stu ran back towards the car.

Chapter 36

Inside the presbytery all four of them gathered in the kitchen. Jake had checked all the doors and windows again making sure they were secure. It had been a while since they’d had any updates from Will and if they’d captured Sean he would have let Annie know straight away. She took out her phone to see if she had any missed calls, the screen was blank.

‘What do we do now Annie?’

‘We sit tight and wait for news from Will, there’s nothing else we can do.’

John looked at his sister, ‘You still look worn out, why don’t you go back to bed. I think I’m going to have an early night, I’m exhausted. We can leave our very capable guards down here to keep an eye on everything, plus I’m sure they are fed up of making polite conversation with us oldies.’ He winked at Annie and then walked around to where his sister was sitting and helped her up from the chair. ‘You never know, we may just wake up in the morning and find out his has all been a terrible dream.’

She didn’t argue with him and let him lead her from the kitchen and up the stairs. He turned around and nodded at Jake and Annie who smiled back and then he disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Annie shut the door to their unofficial command centre so they could talk without being disturbed.

‘I don’t like it, why hasn’t anyone been in touch? They could at least keep us up to date, is there anything happening on your radio?’

‘Nothing but they won’t be running this on the normal channel, it will be on a special ops one.’

She held out her hand for Jake’s radio and he passed it over to her. She pushed Will’s collar number into the keypad and waited for it to ring; she heard Will’s voice and felt her breath catch in the back of her throat and wondered if this would happen every single time. ‘Will, it’s Annie, have you caught him?’

There was the briefest pause as Annie’s voice was relayed through the handset to him. ‘No we haven’t and he knows that we know. He has stolen a car and you’re right, we think he has his next victim.’

Jake looked at her. Horror was etched on both of their faces.

‘Where is he, have you checked the churches?’ Annie asked.

‘We’re on that now and Task Force are off to search them but it’s a long list and we have no idea what lengths he’ll go to.’

‘Keep us posted Will, it’s lonely up here.’

She ended the conversation and Jake nudged her. ‘He’s on his way here.’

‘I don’t think he’d be that daft, surely he knows that someone is going to be guarding John.’

‘Yes but I don’t think that matters. If he is killing women because of what happened to his family and he blames John, what would you do if you knew time was short? You would either run and wait for another chance or you would finish what you started no matter what. He has nothing to lose now Annie.’

She nodded her head as the full weight of the consequences settled on her shoulders. ‘He won’t know that it’s just you and me though. We should tell Will to send Task Force up here. I don’t want to fight another killer; I might not win this time.’

***

Father John tucked his sister back into her bed and knelt and prayed by her side, then he went back to his own bedroom. He didn’t turn on the light; he had no reason to be afraid of the dark now. As he walked across to draw the curtains he looked out of the window and felt his heart miss a beat, there was a light on inside the church. He knew he had turned them off when he left but he couldn’t be sure he had locked the door; his hands had been shaking so much. There was no way he would let the lovely Annie go and investigate, he had caused enough pain and suffering and she’d saved his life once already tonight. He would do the right thing, he needed to slip out. Of course he may have left the lights on but he was sure that he hadn’t and he didn’t want another woman’s blood on his hands. He left his room and listened from the top of the stairs to the muffled voices coming from the kitchen, the door was shut which was good. He needed to get down the stairs and into the lounge where he could escape for the second time tonight through those patio doors. He got to the bottom of the stairs and slowly opened the lounge door just enough so that he could squeeze through and shut it behind him. He wasn’t sure what he was going to achieve if Sean was inside the church, maybe he could talk him down. Explain that he hadn’t hurt Sophie and that she had died from a seizure, not as a result of what he’d tried to do. Maybe if he told him how he’d felt about his mum Sean would realise that all he’d ever tried to do was help, not to ruin his life.