Shame the Devil, page 24
‘Can we just go over everything that happened this morning,’ Denning said calmly. ‘How did she seem?’
‘There was nothing unusual,’ he said. ‘She left for work at her normal time. She seemed OK, didn’t mention anything strange. I mean, I’m sure this stuff about these people being killed must have played on her mind, but she told me it was all to do with something that happened at the school years ago and she wasn’t involved.’
‘But she told you about the death threats against her?’ Denning asked.
He looked shocked. ‘What death threats? What are you talking about? What death threats?’
‘She didn’t tell you?’ Denning told him how in light of the recent murders they’d advised Rachel to take some precautions, especially after she refused police protection.
‘This is absurd,’ he said. ‘Are you really telling me that Rachel’s life was in danger and you did nothing?’
‘No, Mr Atherton, we did everything we could. Your wife refused to take the matter seriously, despite our insistence that she did.’
‘But what happened that day had nothing to do with Rachel. If it had been down to her then those children would never have been anywhere near that bloody park in the first place. If you want to blame anyone, blame Euan Livingstone. Rachel had to do his job for him half the time because he was so bloody useless.’
‘If he hadn’t been murdered, then perhaps we could,’ Denning said.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound insensitive. I just don’t see how any of this is Rachel’s fault. She’s damned good at her job. That school was a joke before she took over.’
Denning sat him down on a padded armchair. ‘Mr Atherton, it’s not so much that these murders are about what happened in the park that day but everything to do with what happened afterwards.’
‘I don’t understand… Somebody resigned over the incident. They took full responsibility.’
‘That’s the problem. They were made to, and I’m afraid your wife was part of that decision-making process. Now, I understand your anger and frustration, but none of this is going to help us find Rachel. Can you think of anything that has happened recently, anything unusual or out of the ordinary?’
‘No. Except…’ He thought about it. ‘She received a phone call last night that seemed to disturb her. Well not exactly upset her, just annoyed her slightly. I wasn’t listening in so I only overheard bits of it, but she said something like she wasn’t sure if she had time, but would try and fit it in if she could. Something like that.’
‘And you’ve got no idea what she was referring to?’
‘Like I said, I wasn’t really listening.’
‘OK, I understand that. It’s just from what we know so far, we believe Rachel knows the person who we suspect might have taken her. And, initially at least, she wouldn’t have suspected she was in any danger.’
‘Taken? Someone has… what… kidnapped my wife? Why?’
‘We don’t know why, Mr Atherton, and that’s the worrying thing.’ All the others had been stabbed. So why would Rachel Atherton have been kidnapped? It didn’t make sense.
‘If she’s been kidnapped then you need to get out there and look for her.’
Chapter Fifty-Seven
A small crowd had already gathered on the pavement outside the multi-story car park by the time Molly arrived at the scene. A uniformed police officer was ushering people back from the hastily erected perimeter cordon. He raised his arm when he saw her approach.
‘Sorry, madam, the car park’s off limits for the time being, due to an ongoing situation.’
Molly looked up. The building was at least eight storeys high and surrounded by concrete. Anyone falling from that height didn’t stand a chance.
She’d already fished her warrant card out of her bag and was showing it to the officer. ‘Where are they?’ she asked, trying to keep any hint of panic out of her voice.
The young officer looked at her ID, his face wrinkling in puzzlement. ‘They’re on the top level. There’s an officer with them now. A middle-aged woman and a younger woman. I’ve called for back-up and a trained negotiator. Best wait until they get here.’
Molly ducked under the barrier. ‘We haven’t got time,’ she said. ‘I can talk to them. I know what all this is about.’
‘Just a minute,’ she heard the officer say, ‘you can’t just…’
But the remainder of the sentence went unheard as she headed in the side entrance to the car park. There was a lift next to a kiosk, but Molly decided to take the stairs; she wanted the adrenaline rush to give her some focus. Plus the extra time would give her the chance to work out how she was going to play this. Of course she really should have waited for Denning to get there, but if Daisy Grieve was planning what Molly thought she was planning, time really was of the essence.
It had been an educated guess on Molly’s part: this was where Laura Grieve had died, and that was what had started this whole thing. It seemed like the most obvious place to finish it. And by now, Daisy Grieve had nothing left to lose.
By the time she reached the eighth level, she was slightly out of breath and shaking just a little bit more than she’d have liked.
She pushed open the heavy door to the car park. The area immediately in front of her was deserted and there was a strange echoing silence. She walked towards the far end, legs still slightly wobbly from both the climb and the apprehension of what she might discover; her brain powered by the sheer adrenaline of the situation.
She turned a corner and was immediately aware of a commotion coming from the far end of the car park. A uniformed police officer was talking to two women who were standing against the barrier. She recognised them as Rachel Atherton and Daisy Grieve. Grieve had a knife against Rachel’s throat and had her pressed against the low wall. The uniformed officer was talking to them, his arms outstretched, he was standing about six feet away. They all turned to face Molly when she approached.
‘Help me!’ Rachel Atherton shouted as soon as DS Fisher was in earshot. ‘She’s gone mad. She keeps saying I killed her mother.’
The officer turned to face Molly, who already had her ID in her hand. ‘We already have this under control,’ he said, though his face suggested otherwise.
‘Daisy,’ Molly said, ignoring the officer. ‘You need to stay calm.’
Molly turned to the uniformed officer who was still talking at her. ‘Leave this to me. I know both parties. I know what this is about.’
There was a crackle of static from his radio and a voice telling him something Molly couldn’t quite hear. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘We should really wait for a trained negotiator.’
‘I’ve been trained in hostage negotiation,’ Molly said. It was yet another lie. She’d watched a documentary about hostage negotiation on Channel 5 a couple of years ago, and had always intended to apply for one of the Met’s official courses, but had never got round to it. Now could be the chance to prove she had what it took, assuming she didn’t mess up and the situation culminated in two further deaths…
She could see the look of blind fear in Rachel’s face; Daisy was eerily calm. She remembered the organised, together secretary she’d met at the school just a couple of days earlier. Perhaps that demeanour wasn’t down to efficiency but the fact she was now so cut off from her emotions that there was only a chilling and efficient clarity of thought – a task to complete. The knife was pressed against Rachel’s throat, a red line where it had bit into her flesh. Molly edged closer, ignoring the mutterings of protestation from the uniformed officer. ‘We should do nothing until the official hostage negotiator gets here,’ he muttered.
She ignored him again and approached the two women, not so close that she was in danger of panicking Grieve – not that she looked like she was going to be easily panicked – but close enough to speak to them both without having to shout. Molly glanced over the edge of the wall. Far below she saw the pavement teeming with people. She wasn’t particularly frightened of heights, but looking down at the drop made her feel unsteady. She was taking a massive risk. Technically she shouldn’t be there. There were rules for these kinds of situations and they were there for good reasons.
She could hear Denning’s voice in her head, warning her about overstepping the mark, again. She could hear Betty Taggart’s voice too; berating her and threatening her with demotion and god knows what else.
She tried to hide her nerves, all too aware that if anything were to go wrong, it would be her head being squeezed through the mangle.
‘What’s your plan, Daisy?’ Molly asked, as much to keep her talking if nothing else.
But it was Rachel who answered. ‘She phoned me last night. Said she’d forgotten to tell me about a meeting this morning with the educational support team. She said she’d pick me up and drive me there. My car had been playing up over the past couple of days, so I was glad of the lift. Instead, she brought me here, bundled me out of the car at knifepoint and threatened to push me off. She’s mad.’
Molly ignored her. She was focusing on Daisy, trying to get inside her head. ‘This is about your mum,’ she said. ‘And I understand that. You blame everyone for what happened to her and you’re trying to make amends. But you’ve made your point and you need to let Rachel go.’
‘I want her to admit what she did. I want her to tell the truth about how she was responsible for my mum killing herself.’
‘I don’t understand any of this,’ Rachel said. ‘She told me her mum committed suicide, but that wasn’t to do with me. I’m very sorry about what happened to her, but I don’t see how I can be to blame. The others, yes – they were all directly involved, but I was only deputy head of the school at the time. This has nothing to do with me.’
‘It was your decision,’ Daisy said. ‘You forced my mum into resigning. You told her there was a chance she would be charged with manslaughter if it got out about her state at the time. You then persuaded everyone else involved to make my mum the scapegoat, because you were ambitious; you wanted the top job. You saw this as a way of getting it! It wasn’t difficult to persuade the others to blame my mum, was it? It suited them, but nobody thought about the effect it would have on her. It destroyed her. She already blamed herself, the added guilt just made things worse.’
‘Your mother was to blame! We’d all turned a blind eye to her turning up for work hungover or still smelling of drink. We’d run round after her and covered for her. I told Euan we should have asked her to leave long before the day trip to the park. If he’d had the guts to do what I suggested, this whole shitstorm would never have happened. But he was weak… weak and indecisive!’
‘But it wasn’t difficult to persuade him to resign either, was it? Whispering in his ear, dropping your poison, saying he was as much to blame as my mum.’ She was looking at Rachel, but still glancing back at Molly who was working out if she could be quick enough to grab the knife. She didn’t want to risk it. ‘Working at that school gave me an insight into what really went on. The staff all like to gossip, especially when you’re not around. None of them like you: “pushy, arrogant, rude”. And those are just the nice comments. In fact, I’d probably be doing everyone a favour if I pushed you off.’
‘I told you: she’s mad!’ Rachel struggled to try and free herself of Daisy’s grip, but Daisy just pulled her closer to her and pushed the knife against her throat. Blood began to drip onto the floor of the car park.
‘Daisy, this isn’t going to help anyone,’ Molly said calmly. ‘You’ve made your point.’ She tried not to grimace at the unfortunate pun. ‘But you have to let her go. It’s the only way this will end well.’
‘She’s not going anywhere until she admits it was all her fault. I want to hear her say it. I want to hear her admit this was all down to her.’
Rachel Atherton struggled again. Molly wanted to tell her to stop it as she was clearly antagonising Daisy, whose calm demeanour was either fake or in danger of breaking down completely. Either way, Molly knew it wouldn’t take much to crack.
‘Daisy, we know what happened. We know Rachel persuaded the rest of the staff to go along with her plan. We know it was all her idea. But killing her isn’t going to change anything. It won’t bring your mother back.’
Molly wondered how long it would be before Grieve either plucked up the confidence to kill Rachel, or Thomas Blake Primary School’s rather undiplomatic head teacher said something clumsy and her assailant snapped. She suspected the latter was most likely. Time was already starting to run out.
‘What difference does it make?’ Grieve said. ‘What difference will any of it make? I’m already going down for the other murders. One more isn’t going to change anything, is it? I just want to hear her say the words before I either rip her throat out or chuck her over the edge. Or maybe I’ll do both. Either way, she’s fucked. And so am I. So what have I got to lose by taking her with me?’
Chapter Fifty-Eight
‘Daisy, if you drop the knife and let Rachel go, you’ll be treated favourably by the courts. There are clearly mitigating circumstances here. People would be sympathetic. A jury would be sympathetic. But if you kill Rachel in cold blood, in front of me and all those people down there, then it’s a very different story.’
Molly hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. In truth, she had a very different idea about how the courts would treat a woman who had already murdered three people and attempted to murder another. Daisy Grieve would be going to prison for a very long time. Even if they could make a case for saying her mind was unbalanced, the absolute least she’d be looking at would be a lengthy stay at Broadmoor.
‘Let’s hear her admit it! Then I’ll think about letting her go.’
Molly down at the street eight storeys below. She saw what looked like Denning, Neeraj and several uniformed officers. As well as the trained negotiator, there was a good chance an armed response team would be on its way, which, if the situation got out of control, would only end in disaster for all involved. Molly had to think fast – there was one grenade left in her armoury that might work, but if it didn’t then she was in danger of making the situation worse.
‘Daisy, do you really think your mum would have wanted this? When she came here, she was desperate. She probably felt she had no other choice. If she’d thought her actions would have led to you doing what you did, it would have destroyed her.’
‘She still did it though,’ Daisy said. ‘She still jumped. She didn’t think what effect it would have on us.’ It was the only time so far Molly had detected any vulnerability from their killer. It meant she was getting through to her, but was that a good thing…?
‘She wasn’t thinking straight, Daisy. When people have depression, it clouds their thinking. They’re driven by desperation and despair rather than logic.’ She was thinking about Jon, trying to remember what she’d learned when she’d lived through his dark clouds and been through the joint therapy sessions they’d taken together after the last serious bout a couple of years ago. ‘Your mum was ill. Her decision to kill herself wasn’t anything to do with you, or with Josh. I suspect it wasn’t anything to do with what happened at the school, not really. In her head it had all got jumbled up together. What happened was terrible, but killing Rachel isn’t going to redress any of that.’
There was the briefest glimmer of something in Daisy’s eyes, as though at some level Molly was making contact.
‘She wouldn’t have felt like that if it hadn’t been for what they did to her.’
‘I know. And now everyone knows the role Rachel Atherton played in what happened to your mum. Everyone will see that your mum wasn’t to blame for Noah Daniel’s death.’
She could see that Rachel Atherton wasn’t happy about the direction the conversation was taking, but was also savvy enough to know that her only chance of getting out of this situation alive was to keep her mouth shut. ‘If you kill Rachel now, all you get is a brief moment of satisfaction. Then what? The remainder of your life in prison? Is she really worth it?’
Molly looked down to see another couple of squad cars had pulled up at the entrance to the car park. It was only a matter of time before an armed response team would pitch up. If Daisy didn’t let Rachel go, it wasn’t going to end well for her.
Rachel Atherton struggled, but Daisy had her in a tight hold. She looked down to the street below. A news crew had arrived now, a camera aimed in their direction. Soon Daisy would panic and do something stupid… or the armed response team would aim a rifle at her…
Molly edged closer. She was now close enough to reach out and grab the knife, but she would have to be quick. She could probably manage to grab Rachel if Daisy were to push her, but it would take split-second timing to stop her from stabbing her or cutting her throat. But she could sense that she was getting through. She was nearly there; just another little push…
‘Give me the knife, Daisy.’ She held her hand out and then stood there, waiting for a reaction. She could see Daisy’s hand shaking, the look of terror in Rachel Atherton’s eyes. She edged slightly closer. Her hand was underneath the knife now. She could just reach up and grab it, pull it away from Rachel Atherton’s throat. She reckoned she was stronger than Daisy, strong enough to wrestle the knife out of her hand.
Then Daisy pulled Rachel closer to her, gripped the knife so tightly Molly could see her knuckles turning white. The look of terror in the head teacher’s eyes had been amplified now. Molly thought she was too late. She thought this was it: Daisy was going to stab her boss and then jump, just like her mother had. There was a pause that seemed to last an eternity.
‘Daisy. Give me the knife.’
She looked at Molly, then looked at Rachel, the woman she hated; the one person she blamed more than all the others for her mother’s death. In a split second, Daisy threw the knife on the ground, shoved the terrified Rachel at Molly and climbed on to the parapet. She stood there for a second and closed her eyes, not wanting to look at the ground so far below.
