Текст книги "Jessica Daniel: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water"

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 18 (всего у книги 56 страниц)

33

Jessica could hear voices outside the front door. She dashed to the front window and opened a gap in the net curtain narrow enough to peek through. A uniformed police officer was standing at the door looking at his watch. A few metres behind him on the road she could see a marked police car parked with the passenger door wide open and another officer sitting in the driver’s seat.

She swore under her breath as she let the curtain fall back into place. Jessica didn’t know if someone had heard Rowlands kicking through the cat-flap or if her distraction had been too overt and persuaded someone to call the police. She wondered if the officer outside knew the significance of the property, or if they had just responded to a standard call. Jessica froze, holding her breath until the loud bang on the front door shook her into action. If it was simply a complaint from a neighbour relating to the revving car, the officer wouldn’t be knocking. She walked quickly into the hallway and moved silently up the stairs into the front bedroom.

The search team hadn’t made anywhere near as much mess upstairs and, aside from the open drawers and cupboards, everything else seemed normal. She walked towards the window, opening the curtain a crack. There was still an officer sitting in the car, the one below was out of sight. Jessica sat on the floor under the window and took out her phone. Rowlands’s name was still on the front screen from the missed call. Just in case he hadn’t put his phone on silent, Jessica typed out a text message to him.

‘Where r u? U on silent?’

She pressed her back hard into the wall as the sound of the officer knocking on the front door echoed through the house. She knew that as soon as he walked around to the side, he would see the smashed back door and the game would be up. Her phone flashed once with Rowlands’s name. She pressed the button to answer the call. ‘Dave, where are you?’ she whispered.

Dave spoke quietly making it difficult to hear but Jessica pushed the phone hard into her ear. ‘In the back under one of those plastic sheets the search team left.’

‘An officer is at the front door.’

‘Shit. I saw the car pull up. I didn’t know if they were just here because they had received a complaint. Are you stuck inside?’

‘I’m upstairs. There’s one in the car, one at the front. I don’t think they’ve noticed the side door yet.’

‘How are you going to get out?’

‘I don’t know. You?’

‘No idea.’

Jessica sighed. ‘All right. Look, I’ll think of something. When the opportunity comes, just make sure you run.’

She hung up and leant her head back against the wall. For a second or two she felt defeated but a third bang on the door brought her back to reality. There was no way the officer would knock a fourth time, which meant his next point of call would be the side door.

Jessica stood and looked around the room. On top of a dressing table was a statue of what looked like a small monkey. Jessica walked across and picked it up, weighing it in her hand. She didn’t know what it was made of but it was certainly heavy. Pocketing it, she walked back to the window and peeped through a gap in the curtains. The second officer had switched the car’s engine off and was standing next to it. He began walking towards the house as Jessica heard the other officer’s voice booming through the house, shouting that whoever was inside should come out. She guessed he was shouting through the cat-flap but he wouldn’t necessarily know the person who had broken in was still inside.

With the second officer disappearing out of view, Jessica tried to open the window but it wouldn’t budge. There was a small keyhole in the frame and she looked around the sill just in case but there was nothing there. She dashed across the hallway as quietly as she could into the second front bedroom while the officer downstairs continued to shout. She flung the curtains open and tried the window. At first it stuck in the frame but she gave it a sharp shove, relief surging through her as it stiffly gave way.

Jessica leant out and looked below to see if either of the officers were there. With no one in sight, she had to take the chance they were by the back door. Lowering herself feet first out of the window, she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as she held tightly onto the frame before letting herself drop.

Only too aware her body had taken a battering in recent weeks, she offered a silent prayer as she landed on both feet without any surges of pain shooting through her. Jessica almost gave a squeal of delight as she ran to the hedge that was furthest from the passage leading to the back of the house, edging along until she was on the road. She glanced at Sue’s house, wondering if she had been the person who had called the police. Everything was still and Jessica quickly scanned the other houses to make sure no one was looking, then reached into her pocket and took out the monkey statue. She took a deep breath and made a promise to whichever god might be listening that she would definitely join a gym if he or she allowed her not to get a stitch this time around. Her silent prayer complete, Jessica arched back and hurled the statue into the rear windscreen of the parked police car.

Things seemed to move in slow motion as the glass cracked with a loud crunch. Jessica turned and ran in the opposite direction, deliberately heading past the passageway where she knew the officers would be able to see her. She heard a shout from behind but knew she would have at least a thirty-metre head-start on whoever was chasing her. She thought of the uniformed officers at Longsight, knowing there were plenty she would definitely fancy her chances against in a race and hoped that whoever was now after her came from a similar mould.

Although she had memorised the layout of the estate so carefully, converting that into three dimensions while running as fast as she could in her old gym shoes was a different matter. Grabbing a lamppost, she used it to swing herself around and headed into a ginnel she felt certain would lead to a second passageway that would hopefully bring her out next to Rowlands’s car. She hoped he had used her distraction to get himself off the property but there wasn’t much else she could do.

She was starting to tire as she hurled herself into the second alley, risking a look over her shoulder but there was no one there and she couldn’t hear footsteps. Instead of slowing, she upped her pace, sprinting for the car while reaching into her pocket for the key. As her fingers closed around the fob, remote central locking seemed like the greatest invention ever. Without breaking stride, she pressed the button and saw the vehicle’s indicator lights flash twice. Jessica grabbed the handle, opened it and hurled herself onto the back seat.

She lay in the foot well barely breathing and not daring to move. It seemed like hours but it was definitely still dark when there was a tap on the window. For a moment, Jessica froze, expecting to look up and see one of the officers peering in. Instead, it was a weary-looking Dave offering a thin smile as their eyes met. She sat up and pressed the button to unlock the door again, allowing him to slide into the driver’s seat.

‘I didn’t know you had such short legs,’ Rowlands said, shunting the seat backwards while Jessica climbed into the front and passed him the keys.

‘They were long enough to outrun those two,’ Jessica said. ‘You got out all right, then?’

‘As soon as I heard that crash, I looked out and they were running off towards the road. I watched them around the corner of the house. One of them went after you, the other got on the radio. As soon as he was facing the other way I legged it. Nice job on the car window by the way.’

‘Thanks, it felt ridiculously good to be honest.’

‘Did you get what you needed?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So you were right about everything?’

‘I think so.’

After seeing the photo, Jessica was as confident as she could be that she was correct. Things had not gone according to plan but at least neither she nor Rowlands was in trouble. In the list of things she had to do, getting access to the picture was the third toughest, so it was hard for her not to feel too relieved as there was so much more to do.

The next night’s task wasn’t as hard but it did need a degree of setting up. Jessica arranged to meet Dave at the allotments at two in the morning but she arrived half an hour early. She jumped the fence and made her way across to plot sixty-one, trying to avoid the muddiest parts in order to not leave any clear footprints, just in case. The moon was particularly bright, making the whole area of land clearly visible, except for where the hedges cast their shadows.

The outside of the plot looked the same as before, with mounds of dirt from the excavation. She approached the door and lifted a set of bolt cutters, squeezing hard and eventually slicing through the thick metal of the padlock.

Jessica’s dad had been keen on DIY when she was younger and always told her it was worth spending a bit more to get the best-quality tools. She had taken that on board at the hardware store earlier that day, buying the most expensive set of cutters, hoping the outcome would be this easy.

Unlike the outside, the interior of the shed was a total contrast to how it had been. The floorboards in the middle of the room had been torn up, exposing the pit underneath, the table and chair removed. Jessica had tried to think of a better place than this for her final confrontation but something about this cramped room seemed right.

Rowlands soon arrived with the items they needed and together they fixed the shed as best they could. It was never going to look as it did before but at least they managed to sort out a solid floor with a combination of the wood Rowlands had brought and the broken floorboards which had been shunted into a corner.

As they left the shed before sunrise, Jessica put on a new padlock and handed Rowlands one of the keys.

Her penultimate task didn’t involve breaking the law but it did call for her to be at her persuasive best. She visited Lucy Martin at a time when she knew the woman would be on her own and asked for Annabel’s contact details on trust alone. The woman was reluctant to pass on the information, especially as Jessica insisted she couldn’t tell her why she needed it. Ultimately, as silly as it might have seemed to an outsider, the bond they had made over a mug of tea was enough to swing it.

Jessica phoned in sick the next day, taking the train to London to meet Lucy’s estranged daughter. Annabel was an essential part of Jessica’s plan, but the years apart from her mother and the bitterness she felt made her reluctant even to listen to Jessica’s idea, let alone help. She kept repeating that she had a new life – she was twenty-seven with a career, a boyfriend and a flat. Everything that happened up north when she was a child felt as if it had occurred in a different lifetime.

Annabel’s passion for making the most of the life she had created for herself made Jessica wonder if she was doing the right thing. As she watched the woman drink her cappuccino, she saw herself, albeit a little younger. Annabel was a person who had left home and gone to find out what a big city could hold. Jessica wondered whether finding out the truth was worth it, but then made a decision she knew she would have to live with for a long time.

Her recent activity involved her breaking and entering twice, committing a burglary and damaging public property. In the next few days she would have to lie and become a thief. As Jessica broke Annabel’s heart by telling her that over half her life had been a lie, there was no doubt in her mind what the greatest crime from that list was.

34

Without Adam to listen to her, Jessica wasn’t sure she would have been able to go through with everything. He met her off the late train at Piccadilly Station. ‘Your chariot awaits,’ he declared with a smile. Jessica immediately burst into tears and told him how she had destroyed a young woman’s life. He didn’t say very much, listening without judging.

After the conversation with Annabel, it was too late for Jessica to retreat from what she had set in motion. In a quiet moment at the station, she told Rowlands that everything was almost in place. She made the phone call to set up the final meeting and, after their shift was over, Jessica and Rowlands made their way to Deborah Sturgess’s house.

The woman welcomed them in, seemingly unaffected by everything that had been in the news about her husband. Jessica noticed that her roots had recently been bleached so that she no longer appeared to be greying. Accepting the offer of a hot drink, they were left alone in the living room while she went off to the kitchen.

As soon as the door closed, Jessica sprung to her feet and stepped across to a side table. ‘Can you see it?’ she hissed.

Rowlands was looking from side to side but shook his head. ‘No. Where do you keep yours?’

‘In my pocket.’

‘Yeah, but you’re not really a girl, are you – she must have a bag or something.’

Jessica ignored the first half of the constable’s remark. ‘All right, I’ve got an idea. When she gets back, keep hold of your mug but only take the odd sip.’

Rowlands looked at her suspiciously. ‘What are you going to do?’ Jessica had no intention of answering but Deborah entered the room shortly after with three mugs of tea. She placed them on a table and then settled into a reclining seat facing them. Rowlands picked up his mug and took a small sip.

‘How can I help you?’ Deborah asked.

Jessica tried to sound as empathetic as she could. ‘We’re just here to make sure you’re okay after . . . everything.’

Deborah nodded. ‘Oh, right. Thanks for coming. It’s been hard with the neighbours. Some of our old friends have been back in contact and said they couldn’t believe it about what had happened. You think you know someone . . .’

Jessica didn’t want it to sound like an interrogation. ‘How long ago did you divorce?’ she asked, already knowing the answer.

‘Around six years.’

‘It must be hard for you?’

Deborah was clearly revelling in the gentle questioning. She put her feet up on the seat, cradling her mug in the same way Rowlands was doing. ‘I just can’t understand why he would do something like that.’

Jessica slipped her hand into her pocket as she listened to the woman’s response. It was so guarded, so perfect, the words were barely worth paying attention to. In the brief silence after Deborah had finished speaking, a cheery pop song begun playing from somewhere outside the room. For a moment, the woman looked confused, then she hopped up, returning her mug to the table. ‘Sorry, that’s my phone,’ she said, going quickly out to the hallway, returning moments later with a puzzled look on her face, holding the phone in the air. ‘Um, it’s you . . .’ she said.

Jessica put her hand in her pocket and took out her phone, swiping her fingers across the screen with a puzzled look on her face. ‘Sorry, I must have left it unlocked and called by accident. It’s not the first time, I once called my mum fifteen times in an hour when I was in the cinema. She told me she would pick it up and hear a rustling noise, then she’d hang up but it would ring again two minutes later.’

Jessica kept hold of her phone as Deborah returned to the armchair, putting hers on the armrest. Jessica hadn’t known if her number had been stored on the other woman’s phone but it really didn’t matter.

‘I’m not great with technology either,’ the woman said, pointing towards the phone. ‘I’m not sure of half the things it can do.’

Jessica nodded enthusiastically. ‘I’m like that too. I only found out mine could do this a few days ago.’ She turned the phone around so the screen was facing Deborah and swiped her hand across the front wildly, swinging her elbow back and knocking into Rowlands’s hand. The tea he was holding cascaded over the top of the mug, spilling into his lap. Dave yelped and jumped up, dripping more of the liquid onto the floor.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Jessica exclaimed but Deborah was already on her feet.

‘Quick, quick, through here,’ she said, beckoning the constable towards her as she rushed out.

With the room empty, Jessica reached across and snatched the woman’s phone from the armrest. She pulled the back compartment off, forcing her nails into the small gap and taking the battery out to ensure it couldn’t ring before putting everything in her other pocket.

Jessica walked through to the kitchen where she saw Deborah dabbing at Dave’s crotch in a way that would have been hilarious, if what she had just done hadn’t been so serious.

Jessica held her own phone in the air. ‘We’ve got to go,’ she said.

Deborah glanced up and nodded at Jessica. If she was suspicious, she did not show it. ‘Are you going to be all right?’ she asked the constable.

Dave grimaced. ‘I’ll be fine.’

Jessica raised the phone higher. ‘Come on, they said it’s urgent.’ She turned to Deborah. ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Sturgess, something’s come up. We’ll come back another time.’ The woman nodded and led them back to the front door before saying goodbye.

Rowlands didn’t say a word until they were back in his car with the doors closed. ‘Did you get the phone?’ he asked as he started the engine.

‘Yes.’

‘Couldn’t you have thought of something better than that? You could have asked her to show you where the toilet was or something, then I could have grabbed it.’

‘Sorry. That would probably have worked too.’

The constable indicated and pulled out onto the road. ‘Why couldn’t I spill tea in your lap, then grab the phone?’

‘Because if either of us was going to be touched up by a middle-aged woman, I’d rather it was you.’

Dave laughed but Jessica could tell there was no real amusement in it. He changed his tone. ‘Are we ready?’ he asked seriously. Jessica took the pieces of Deborah’s phone and put it back together, waiting for it to start up. When it arrived at the home screen, she pressed the button to bring up the contacts list.

‘Yeah, we’re ready,’ she said, pointing at one name but knowing her colleague was watching the road.

‘Isn’t she going to realise you took her phone?’

‘I don’t know and I don’t care. She’ll probably think she’s lost it somewhere first of all. By the time she’s checked through the house and called it a few times, I’ll have used it.’

‘Tonight?’

‘Tonight.’

Over the course of her life, Jessica had taught herself not to be nervous. It was a hard thing to describe to other people because apprehension was such a natural emotion. No one would have believed it now but as a twelve-year-old, she was a good athlete. She never practised but could run fast and beat other people with little effort at all. Her dad loved coming to school events and watching her win but, even though she knew she was the best runner, her nerves would become too much for her. She would eye her competitors and wonder what might happen if she tripped, or if one of them got a better start than she did.

Eventually she taught herself to lock the emotions away. Instead of thinking of what might go wrong, Jessica started every race not caring if anything went awry. Though she had grown out of sports, that ability to ignore any nerves was something that had stayed with her.

But now, as she sat in a fold-up chair in Benjamin’s shed, she felt the type of anxiety building she had rarely experienced in over twenty years. In the course of her career, she had had amazing highs and the worst of lows. Nothing compared to the way she had made a mess of things with Adam the first time around and, as she stared at the patched-up floor, Jessica thought of him waiting at home for her. He was the man who pretty much forgave her anything and was quite happy to support her no matter what the consequences were. She wasn’t sure she had forgiven herself for everything that happened with him initially but the fact he had smiled and said it was okay amazed her every morning she woke up next to him.

The night was cold and Jessica could see her breath drifting out of her mouth. She looked up at Annabel, who was sitting in a similar chair. ‘Are you okay?’ Jessica asked. Annabel said nothing but she could see plumes of air coming from the other woman’s mouth too. ‘I’m sorry,’ Jessica added, knowing it meant nothing.

Both women looked up as they heard a gentle tapping sound on the wood at the back of the shed. ‘Be brave,’ Jessica whispered as everything went silent again. She could hear footsteps outside, a mixture of crunching from the frost and squelching from the puddles that hadn’t frozen over. Jessica found herself holding her breath as the door rattled and then opened. In the dark, a silhouette of a man stepped into the room.

‘Hello?’ he said.

Before he had finished speaking, the door banged into place with the sound of a padlock slotting into the bracket. The man spun around towards the door with a startled ‘hey’ as Jessica pressed the button to turn on the light they had rigged up. She found herself squinting as the bright white lamp illuminated the room and the man twisted to face her.

His eyes were wide with surprise as Jessica spoke. ‘Hello, Toby.’