Lethal Game, page 28
‘And Shannon? Shannon Hendry?’
Billy’s head-shaking had continued but now there was a snort to accompany it. ‘Wrong place, wrong time. He watched her for a while. He said he went along to a running club to find someone. I think she stood out to him as being fast.’
‘He knew she would win.’ Joel was thinking out loud again.
‘Maybe, but I don’t think that mattered. Even if Kelly had been the one to survive, her life would have been tough after that. For her whole family. I guess he would still have got what he wanted.’
‘He was right.’ Joel’s mind ran with images of the last time he’d seen Shannon Hendry. She was a frightened, anxious shell of a woman who in just a few days had uprooted her home and her whole life to run from an invisible threat. Kelly might have been the lucky one, but the word lucky was barely applicable.
‘And Alan Lewis?’
Billy’s head was still shaking. ‘I can’t help you with that one. I would guess another person in the wrong place, but he’s never mentioned that name.’
‘Is there another survivor out there? From when Bradley was killed? That one seems different, like Robert changed what he was doing.’
The sound of a chuckle fell from Billy’s mouth but there was no warmth of humour behind it. When he locked back onto Joel his eyes looked glassy, almost like a drunk’s, and he took a moment to focus. ‘I don’t think so but I don’t know for sure.’
‘You gave me a card that warned me of Bradley’s death. We both know that’s the Death Card in your game. You must have known what that meant.’
‘I didn’t! I mean, of course I know what it means in the game, but I didn’t know in this context.’
‘But you still delivered it for him,’ Joel said.
‘Robert told me to. He said I might get arrested, he told me to have the card on me so you would find it. The moment I saw it I asked if there were more people in danger and he said that there would be if the police dared arrest his dad. Then he asked for my phone, he did something and said that he could track it and if he saw me go to a police station then he had something set up at Burgoyne Heights that was ready to go. Something about two people tearing each other apart and how it would be the fault of the police.’
‘And you didn’t tell me this when you gave me that card?’
‘I didn’t know what it meant. How could I?’ Billy shook his head, his face twitching like he might break down again. ‘I wasn’t going to show you at all, that’s why I hid it. I thought you might see it as a threat and if you ever found my boy you might … Well, it might show him up as a bigger threat than he is.’
‘But you did show me. At the same moment my officers arrived where Bradley was being held.’
‘That’s why I showed you! I knew there was danger, for you, for whoever was there, for everyone. I just wanted you to be careful, to know everything there was to know before you acted, and I panicked. I can see now that it was too late …’
‘What else did he say? Is there anything else you’ve kept from us, anything else he’s said or asked you to do?’
‘He said the game’s changed. He’s changed the strategy, he said he was keeping it fresh and he had a big grin like he was so proud. I think he thought I would be too. Escape! is my game. It was like he was expecting me to be impressed that he was putting his own stamp on it.’
‘Changed? What does that mean?’
‘This whole thing was about the people he took at first … but now—’
‘By “took” you mean kidnapped?’ Joel couldn’t help but cut in.
‘I do,’ Billy said, shaking his head more vehemently than ever.
‘But now, what?’ Joel said.
‘Now he sees it as playing against you, against the police.’
‘So we’re his target now?’
‘I don’t think so. He said he had been giving the police chances to stop him all the way through. I think … Those people that got hurt, I know how he thinks, you had a chance to stop it, it’s your fault they died, and finding the card on me was supposed to be part of that.’
‘Why involve the police at all?’
‘You would always be involved, wouldn’t you? When people get hurt, I mean. And he hates the police, I know that. Not just because he thinks you had something to do with moving his mother away but before, when you used to come to the house, he always said that the police never listened to him because he was a boy. His words were always dismissed. I think this is his way of being impossible to ignore.’
Joel sat back. It was starting to make a little more sense. They had known the link to a game early on, but the changes in the crime scenes, in the methods used, had seemed odd. And now they didn’t. DS Rose had been right in what she had said in her shocked state just after Bradley Reynolds had been shot dead; the police were there to play their role in a game – and, for Robert at least, they had done it perfectly.
‘Where is he, Billy?’ DS Rose cut in. ‘Where is Robert?’
‘I don’t know.’ Billy’s answer was quick enough to suggest it had been ready to go. It would have been the one question he knew was coming. ‘I don’t know anything about him. I guess I never really have.’
‘When did you see him last?’ she continued.
‘Two days ago. He’s been borrowing my car … I thought about that, when I was sat in that cell. I thought about what might have happened in that car, what he might have been using it for. I didn’t ask him. You don’t ask Bobby what he’s doing.’
‘Did Robert ask you to take the blame? Maybe more threats if you didn’t?’
Billy shook his head. This time his fight against breaking down was more obvious. ‘I don’t know why I did that and I knew it wouldn’t work anyway. He … he did say something else to me, OK, he said there’s more.’
‘More? What does that mean?’ Joel said.
‘I don’t know any details but he said it was tonight. You left me in that cell and I had some time to think and I realised that I was wasting my time taking the blame. If I could have got you to believe me I would have stayed here and then something would happen and you would know it wasn’t me. It would all have been for nothing.’
‘What is this something else, Billy? You have to help us, you have to tell us what you know, for your sake, for Robert’s sake too. We can stop this getting any worse for him.’
‘I don’t know, OK, I know you’re going to want to know all about it. All he said was there’s a storm coming. He said it was on the news and I’ve seen it myself but I knew he meant something else, like something bad was going to happen. I was horrified, I begged him to tell me what he meant but I could see he was enjoying himself, enjoying my reaction. He’s lost, Inspector, he’s lost to me. I really don’t recognise him anymore.’
‘What did he say exactly?’ Joel pushed.
‘That was it, there’s a storm coming and that it’s the fifth day … I guess this all started five days ago, did it?’ Joel looked away from him to lock eyes with DS Rose. Billy Easton continued. ‘He’s still my boy, you know? He’s still my little boy and I’ve seen some good in him, I really have. It’s the anger … It festers in him, it changes who he is.’
‘He doesn’t plan on getting away with it, does he?’ Joel held his breath for an answer he already knew. Those wanting to get away with their crimes had to show some restraint and so far Robert Easton had shown very little. Billy’s answer started with a shake of the head.
‘That’s the thing that bothers me the most – he knows it’s coming, he knows the police will catch up with him eventually and he’s not bothered by that. I think this is how he wins, this is how he proves his point to the people that wronged him. He can’t see past this, he can’t see a future, so he can’t see he has anything to lose …’ Billy raised his hands to cover his face. It didn’t stop the sobs from escaping.
‘I think maybe we could all do with a break,’ Lovelock cut in. Joel had forgotten he was there; it was like the solicitor had unmerged himself from the grey walls. His words seemed tight with tension.
‘Fine,’ Joel said. ‘But we’ll be back. I need you to think about where he might be, Billy. We need to find him, for everyone’s sake, including his. Do you have any way of contacting him?’
Billy unburied his face to reply. ‘No. He hasn’t had a phone for a while that I’m aware of.’
‘And his mother, do you have any way of finding her?’
‘No. Not for a long time now. She said she was disappearing, I thought it was temporary, like I said, but she meant every word. It’s been years, Inspector. I’ve lost her and now I’m losing my son … Everything I’ve ever cared about.’
‘Do you think he will come to you?’
‘I don’t know what he will do anymore. My own son and I don’t know him at all.’
‘If he does come to you, you need to tell us, Billy. We need to pick him up.’
Billy stood up, his movement sudden enough to make Joel jump. Billy walked to the corner of the room. DS Rose had also jerked to her feet and Joel lightly touched her arm to hold her back. Billy stopped so he was facing away from them. ‘I will,’ he said. ‘He has to be stopped. He doesn’t belong out there, I know that, I think I’ve known that a while. And then maybe me and Joy … Just to be able to speak to her again! Just to know where she is, that she’s OK …’
Joel ended the recording. He put his card down on the table and waited for a knowing nod from Tom Lovelock. He would pass the details over and Billy Easton would help them find his son – and then the two missing women could be found in time.
In a perfect world.
Chapter 47
The screen on Joel’s mobile phone carried two pieces of key information as he checked it on the way out of custody. The first was the time – 1 p.m. – while the second was confirmation in the form of a text message that DCI Kemp had arrived. Joel had tasked Eileen with getting him over; he had the beginnings of an idea that would need the DCI’s endorsement, and the interview he had just left had reinforced it as the only option they had.
Joel bundled through the door to his temporary office – his movements were always clumsy when he was tired – and the DCI stood up to greet him.
‘How did it go?’ Kemp said instantly.
‘Better than it could have gone, not as good as I hoped.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It confirmed that we’re looking for the son. Billy helped us understand why but he didn’t help with where.’
‘Is he holding that back? We still have options if he wants to play that game. He’s committed offences, we could go for a charge and remand for conspiracy to murder—’
‘I don’t think heavy-handed is our way forward here,’ Joel said to cut him short.
‘Oh?’
‘We need to let Billy Easton go,’ Joel said, ‘as soon as possible. As soon as we can arrange the necessary surveillance.’
‘Surveillance? You think this Robert will go looking for his dad?’
‘Robert Easton told his dad that he had something planned, something that happens tonight. We have to assume that involves our two missing women and we have to assume it’s bad news for them. The impression I got from that interview is that Robert somehow believes that what he’s doing is for his dad, as much as it is for him. I think he’s going to want to involve him.’
‘Surveillance is resource-intensive, Joel, time-intensive too. You and your whole team would be needed to support a surveillance team, assuming we could even get one. What you’re describing is all eggs in one basket and that’s not how I like to run an investigation.’
‘Jesus, boss, me neither but I don’t see any other option. We do still have Major Crime looking for the women so there are other avenues being explor—’
‘Major Crime have their own murder to investigate. They’ve kicked back, argued that this is no longer a misper search, it’s part of your murder investigation, and I’m inclined to agree.’
‘This is how we find them. Billy Easton met with his son as recently as a few days ago. The son borrowed his car and talked to him about what he was up to. If tonight is his finale then I think he’ll make contact with him at some point.’
‘We’ve seized Billy’s phone, his car too,’ Kemp said.
‘Exactly. So the only way he can speak to his old man is in person, turning up at the house.’
‘That’s not quite true, Joel. He probably has a landline, or a laptop for an internet call.’
‘I know that. I think there’s a way to push Robert to go and see his dad. We put surveillance on the house and then pick him up when he does. Robert might be the only person who knows where those women are.’
‘Push a killer? I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’
‘Press release. There’s a lot of press interest around this job already, and they can smell there’s more to it. All we have to do is put out a release that we’ve arrested a sixty-three-year-old man from Tunbridge Wells in connection with the murder of Kelly Marshall and he’s been released pending further enquiries. Robert will see that and he will want to know what went on.’
‘He’s scared of him, Joel, terrified, you could see that. Billy thinks his son could hurt him and we know he’s capable of it,’ DS Rose cut in. Kemp reacted with a questioning look.
‘It’s a risk, but it will work, it will draw him out and it will give us a chance to get hold of him.’
‘There’s nothing stopping him killing those women first, then getting in touch with his dad to gloat, to show him what he’s done,’ Kemp said.
‘I know that.’ Joel huffed out his frustration. ‘Billy told us that his son has something planned for tonight. That means we still have time to get Billy out of here and to get word to the press, to force Robert Easton’s hand. If we do that he will make a mistake and stick his head up.’
‘He might not, Joel.’
‘He might not, but it’s like you said, all eggs in one basket.’
Chapter 48
The movement of the ocean was unrelenting. It had swept in to fill the space three times already, lifting Jessica Harrington up each time as it did. The anchored wooden pallet she was chained to did not keep her entirely above the water and her neck ached from having to lift her head to gasp for breath. The constant waves that rolled in were pushing her to the back of the cave where the ceiling was lowest, and it was now scratching and scraping at her face. The constant movement of water over time had found weakness where it could, eroding the soft chalk of the cave wall and ceiling so only the stronger rock was left exposed, pointing downwards like stone daggers.
Her fingers bled, and she had lost two nails from constantly fighting to drag herself back to where the ceiling was high enough to create a pocket of air. The water level had been at its highest point for long enough now, and the tide might even have turned already, but it would be some time before she was dropped back to the gravelly sand and given any rest.
The waves that rolled in to slap against the back wall then fizz an enthusiastic retreat all around her were becoming noticeably bigger, their movement harsher. The wind that Jessica had heard whistling and whispering its threats over the rocks at low tide was starting to live up to its billing, growing in strength. There was a storm coming, she knew that; this was just the start. The Met Office had said as much on the news, but she hadn’t been paying attention at the time and couldn’t remember much about it.
The pallet lurched on the biggest wave yet, ripping her hands away to drive her towards the back of the cave. The sound of splintering wood was inevitable. It wasn’t the first time it had happened but it was no less terrifying. She could only watch as bits of the only thing keeping her above the water line broke off to be sucked back out into the angry mass of ocean.
She reached back up for the ceiling, her hand wrapping around the sharp stone, ignoring the pain as she dragged herself backwards once again, the exertion forcing the air from her nose. Her mouth was gagged by a sopping, salty rag tied tight enough to hurt. Her eyes burned, her mouth burned, her arms burned.
But she was still fighting.
Chapter 49
When DCI Kemp came back through the door his face and neck were flushed. He had left the office to make some calls after announcing that if he had to negotiate with people who might free up a surveillance resource, he didn’t want to do so in front of a live audience.
‘How did it go?’ Joel was back on him immediately.
‘Seems you can’t just summon up a surveillance team. They’re deployed, north Kent on a county lines job with the Met.’
‘You can’t pull them?’ Joel said. County lines were a web of drug dealers based in the capital. It was a big priority for the force – and rightly so – but it was ongoing, had been for years, and at that moment his job was surely higher up in the priority stakes.
‘No, and you can be sure I tried. There’s an Initial Surveillance Course at Headquarters that finishes at four and there was some suggestion that they could help, but I’m not holding out too much hope.’
‘Initial Course?’
‘Yeah, cops new to surveillance but most of the way through their three-month course.’
‘And what, they can’t help?’ Joel was doing his best not to explode. This was serious, life or death, how could someone else not see that?
‘I spoke to the guy leading the course. He’s got twenty years of experience in surveillance behind him and he wasn’t keen. He said it was destined to fail with what he had but he would talk to his students and one of the other trainers. It’s not the sort of thing I have any sway over, I can’t order a team out to do a job they’re not signed off for yet.’
‘We don’t have time for them to have a cosy chat. I need to go and get Billy Easton out of here. I’ll get a uniform to drop him home so we have him housed. Have you still got a direct number to this surveillance trainer?’
