THE MURDERER'S SON a gripping crime thriller full of twists Read online

  She skimmed the list. Only three names were left. She ran a line through the name Mark Dunand. She had seen him a few days before and had satisfied herself on the few small questions that hung over his head. She had already ascertained that his importing business was clean, no drugs, nothing illegal at all, and his interest in Skye had been, as she’d thought, unrequited love. My best friend’s girlfriend, and all that jazz.

  ‘Who’s next?’ She picked up the phone and dialled the next number. Peter Hodder answered after two rings.

  ‘I promised to tell you if Daniel Kinder really was Thayer’s son, sir, and I’m delighted to tell you that he is not.’ She gave the retired officer the bare bones of the story.

  He gave a shaky little laugh. ‘I always hoped that her death would mean that the world was a safer place, Marie, but she still managed to taint that boy’s life, even from her grave.’

  ‘So I assume that you’ve not changed your mind about having your old notebooks back?’

  ‘Absolutely not! I’ve felt so much better, just knowing that they have gone from my life. I’ll never be free of her, but she’s moved a little further away.’

  They talked for a while, mainly about motorcycles, then he wished her well and they said goodbye.

  Marie turned her attention to the copy of Motorcycle News that lay on her desk. She had sold the damaged Kawasaki to a young rookie copper who wanted to rebuild it, and she’d thrown her racing leathers in for good measure. Every time she looked at that black and green jacket, she saw Guy Preston’s unhinged expression as he pulled it on.

  So, it would seem it was time for something completely different. She stared, almost lustfully, at the picture of the electric blue and black Suzuki V-Strom 650. Now that was very nice, but there was also the scarlet and black Suzuki Gladius. She skimmed the spec, but veered off when she saw the description of the blood-red coachwork. She’d seen enough blood recently. She touched the glossy picture of the blue bike. ‘Looks like it could be you, my beauty.’

  ‘You sound scarily like Gollum, my precious.’ Max looked over her shoulder and frowned at the shiny motorcycle. ‘Ever thought of a nice safe car?’

  ‘Piss off, Cohen.’ She grinned at him. ‘Time enough for one of those when I’m old and wrinkly.’ She drew a line through the name Peter Hodder, then looked again at her list. The final name was Orac.

  The IT genius had pulled out all the stops to help them, and Marie doubted that many people actually bothered to go thank her. Marie smiled to herself and took a small carefully wrapped box from her desk drawer. She stood up and glanced across to where Jackman’s office door was firmly closed. She knew that he was expecting a visit from Lisa Hurley and had asked not to be disturbed for a while. Typical! Again he had managed to avoid a trip to Orac’s underworld lair.

  She found Orac in her usual place, wired in to her computer.

  ‘Please don’t be offended, but I wanted to say thank you. Your work was invaluable to the investigation.’ She placed the silver-wrapped box on the woman’s desk.

  Orac looked up at her, those strange eyes glinting metallically in the glare from her monitor. Without a word, she opened the gift and stared at the ultra-modern hand-crafted earrings.

  ‘Sit down, if you’ve got a few minutes to spare?’ Orac said.

  Marie sat.

  Without taking her eyes from the earrings, Orac said, ‘I’ve found your missing evidence boxes from the Françoise Thayer case.’

  Marie’s eyes widened. ‘Really? Where are they?’

  Orac glanced at her watch. ‘On the A17, probably somewhere near King’s Lynn. Traffic allowing, they should be with you in an hour and a half. They were in Norfolk, in a storage facility used for old closed cases.’ She gave Marie a rare smile. ‘Not that I think you’ll need them now.’

  ‘Certainly not for what I originally wanted them for, but they should definitely be kept somewhere safe. Documents and evidence as sensitive as that should never have gone missing.’

  ‘Do you think you’ll ever read the case notes?’

  ‘I’ve read Peter Hodder’s notebooks, Orac. They were enough for me.’ She shivered.

  Orac nodded. ‘I have to admit that even I was shaken by some of the things I discovered.’ She lightly touched the surface of one of the earrings. ‘And they brought back some very bad memories.’

  Marie looked at her enquiringly. This was too weird for words. Orac had proper conversations with no one.

  ‘In another life,’ she stared at Marie. ‘. . . I had dealings with some ruthless people. I’ve seen men, deliberately and without conscience, take lives and torture people. However, they did it for what they believed in, for the causes or the organisations that they were deeply committed to. But Françoise Thayer did it with a smile, and warmed her hands in their innocent blood. It’s inconceivable.’

  ‘It is,’ Marie agreed, then chanced her arm and asked, ‘What did you do, in this other life?’

  ‘Things I’d prefer to forget.’

  Marie decided that she had probably pushed it far enough, maybe too far, but Orac suddenly said, ‘I was brought in from the field when one of those zealous men that I was talking about, blinded me with a purpose-designed stiletto driven directly into my left eye. A centimetre deeper and it would have pierced my brain.’ She tilted her head forward, and pulling down the bottom lid, manoeuvred the contact lens down into the lower part of her eye, carefully removed it and then looked up at Marie.

  Marie sat in stunned silence. Orac’s left iris and cornea was almost totally black, giving it the cold, dead appearance of a shark’s eye.

  ‘Full thickness corneal laceration, Sergeant. Not pretty. So, I know for sure that there are some very unpleasant people out there.’ Orac gave a cold laugh. ‘But not you, DS Marie Evans, you are at the opposite end of the spectrum. This is a first.’ She gestured to her gift. ‘And they are beautiful, thank you.’

  Marie stood up. ‘They are from Jackman, too, but he’s with someone in his office at the moment and . . .’ suddenly she didn’t want to make any more feeble excuses for him, so she just shrugged and pulled a face.

  Orac let out an unheard of laugh. ‘Oh Marie! Jackman-baiting is such fun.’ She deftly slipped the contact lens back in. ‘Before you go, two things: One, I only tease people I like; and two, tell no one about what happened to me,’ she paused, ‘or I’ll have to kill you.’ She turned back to her computer and once again, thousands of numbers began streaming down the screen.

  * * *

  Jackman leaned back in his captain’s chair and savoured a few moments of comparative peace. His office door was closed, and for once no one was demanding anything of him. He stared at the gemstone globe that sat on his desk. It was not only beautiful but tactile, and he gently ran his fingertips over it, wondering at the patience of the craftsmen who’d constructed it. Each country was accurately cut to shape from stones like jasper, agate, jade and tiger eye. The oceans were mother of pearl and the lines of longitude and latitude were made of twisted gilded wire. It stood on a brass stand and took pride of place to the right of his reclaimed prize of a desk.

  He pushed it, and gently made the world spin. If only everything were that easy.

  As Jackman watched the Pacific Ocean, as it smoothly passed out of sight and the Americas appeared, there was a knock on his door.

  ‘Someone to see you, guv.’ Max stood back and held the door open for Lisa Hurley to enter.

  Jackman jumped up, welcomed her and pulled out a chair. She eased herself carefully into the seat and grimaced.

  ‘Still sore?’ Jackman asked.

  ‘Pretty uncomfortable, but all things considered, it’s a drop in the ocean, isn’t it?’

  ‘It was far more than that, Lisa. He nearly killed you.’

  ‘I’m trying not to think about the “what ifs” or maybes right now. I consider myself lucky beyond belief.’ She looked at him with a curious smile. ‘Rather like your sergeant, Marie Evans, I understand?’

&nb
sp; Jackman nodded. ‘Yes, maybe you two should start a survivor’s club?’

  Lisa smiled and nodded, ‘Maybe we should.’ Then her expression became serious. ‘I came here to thank you for the care and concern you showed to Skye, and to respectfully ask that the knowledge that you have about her being my natural child remains between us. She is very happy with her family, and with Daniel, and it was never my intention for her to find out about me.’

  ‘You can rest assured,’ Jackman leaned forward, elbows on the table, ‘Marie and I will tell no one. You were her direct boss at the hospital and a caring friend. It ends there.’

  Lisa looked close to tears. ‘At least for once I was able to help her when she needed it. She is such a beautiful girl and I’m so proud of her.’ She took a tissue from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes.

  ‘Is it a coincidence that you both work in the same field of medical care?’ asked Jackman. ‘It’s been intriguing me since we found out about you.’

  ‘Oh no, I was in business management, working for a big private health care company. When I finally traced Skye, and discovered what she was training for, I transferred to a post in hospital administration. When Skye finally settled at Saltern General, I moved into a new post there; as manager in charge of staffing in the Physiotherapy and OT departments.’ She smiled at him. ‘And it was the best thing I ever did. I never wanted to give my baby up, but I was in a desperate situation and I had little or no choice if I wanted to put my child first. But I never forgot her.’

  ‘Did you name her Skye?’

  Lisa nodded. ‘I have never seen a tiny child with such a sunny disposition, or such intensely blue eyes. And, the Isle of Skye was my grandparents’ home. It just seemed fitting.’

  ‘And what now?’

  ‘I think it is time to move on. I’ve been offered a post down south, and I think I’ll accept. I cannot afford for Skye to become suspicious about my concern for her. My mind is now at peace regarding her safety and her wellbeing. She has a family that loves her and I’ve no doubt that in time Daniel will make enough of a recovery to enjoy life again, like he did before. I really hope that the two of them will stay together.’

  ‘They are very well-suited, and the prognosis for that young man is apparently excellent. His mother, Ruby Kinder is home now, with no more plans to run off to foreign climes, so with her and Skye as support, he has the best chance, I’d say.’

  ‘Can I ask one last question, Inspector?’ Lisa shifted uncomfortably in her seat. ‘Did Guy Preston have any connection to our hospital? I’ve never seen him there and I work quite closely with the psych department.’

  Jackman gave a little shake of his head. ‘No, he was affiliated to several private hospitals and clinics. Obtaining drugs was easy for him. And when he chose his last two victims; it would appear that they had both asked for total discretion, for personal reasons they wanted to be seen off the record. We believe he even used a different name with them. He groomed them carefully, so that in the end they trusted him implicitly.’

  ‘And then he killed them.’ Lisa looked up angrily. ‘How could he do that? He was a doctor! What happened to First, do no harm?’

  Jackman bit at his bottom lip. ‘Marie assures me that he was a good doctor once, Lisa. He was one of the best. He helped a lot of damaged people to get their lives back.’ He told her about the way that a murderer had attacked Preston in the interview room.

  ‘The mind has incredible strength, but on the other hand, it is as fragile as a butterfly wing.’ Lisa stretched. ‘I suppose if you work in that sort of environment and something happens to you, well, none of us know how it could affect us or what we are capable of, do we?’ She rubbed gently at her injured shoulder. ‘And talking of mental breakdowns, when I saw Daniel with Skye just before he ran away, I knew he was very ill. I went home and looked up all I could about fugues. For a long time there, that poor boy must have been in hell.’

  ‘Apparently,’ Jackman indicated the report lying on his desk, ‘his life would have been chaos. At some points, reality would have had no meaning at all, then at others, he would seem to be his normal self.’ He looked up at Lisa. ‘And in his other state, he self-harmed. Not deep razor slashes or anything serious, except of course the last time. Generally it was just some sort of bloodletting. There were several sets of clothes found hidden in his cellar, all had his own blood on them, some quite old.’

  ‘Wouldn’t he have realised that he was doing it, when he was himself again?’ asked Lisa.’

  ‘Daniel says he noticed the wounds, but had no idea how he had got them. And it added to his anxiety about the gaps in his memory. Strangely, he was able to look and behave in an unremarkable manner, even when his mind was confused and distressed. It’s the nature of the beast. But he is finally getting the best treatment, and now he knows that all of these horrible episodes were caused by the damage from the carbon monoxide, he has answers based on fact, so he can move forward.’

  ‘As I hope we all can, Inspector.’ Lisa stood up. ‘And thank you again for your discretion regarding Skye. I’ve never believed in hiding the truth when it comes to parentage, and poor Daniel’s case would bear testament to that, but just sometimes things are best left undisturbed. If Skye ever felt the need to trace her birth mother, then that would be different, but as things are . . .’

  ‘Ignorance is bliss.’

  Lisa nodded, ‘Indeed, Inspector Jackman, indeed.’

  THE END

  ALSO BY JOY ELLIS: The DI Nikki Galena Series

  CRIME ON THE FENS

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/CRIME-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01H98SG5G/

  https://www.amazon.com/CRIME-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01H98SG5G/

  A NEW CRIME THRILLER WITH A COMPELLING DETECTIVE WHO WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO AVENGE HER DAUGHTER

  DI Nikki Galena Book 2

  SHADOW OVER THE FENS

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/SHADOW-gripping-crime-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01HHA49SY/

  https://www.amazon.com/SHADOW-gripping-crime-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01HHA49SY/

  TWO BRUTAL KILLERS ARE LOOSE ON THE FENS BUT WHO CAN DI NIKKI GALENA TRUST?

  Detective Nikki Galena’s friend and neighbour meets a tragic end but there’s more to his death than meets the eye . . .

  And someone terrible from DS Joseph Easter’s past is back . . .

  NIKKI GALENA BOOK 3

  HUNTED ON THE FENS

  A vicious criminal is targeting DI Nikki Galena and her team. One by one he will hunt them down and destroy their lives, unless she can stop him first

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUNTED-gripping-crime-thriller-twists-ebook/dp/B01IYIDWCM/

  https://www.amazon.com/HUNTED-gripping-crime-thriller-twists-ebook/dp/B01IYIDWCM/

  DI GALENA BOOK 4

  KILLER ON THE FENS

  DETECTIVE NIKKI GALENA’S DYING FATHER HAS ONE FINAL REQUEST: “FIND EVE.”

  DI Nikki Galena faces a personal challenge which will stretch her to the limit. She must fulfil her father’s dying wish and discover who the mysterious Eve is. Meanwhile a dead drug dealer is found on an abandoned airfield that the locals say is haunted. The trail of both mysteries will lead to the most shocking discovery of Nikki’s career and put her whole team in mortal danger.

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/KILLER-gripping-crime-thriller-twists-ebook/dp/B01JTYN9RS/

  https://www.amazon.com/KILLER-gripping-crime-thriller-twists-ebook/dp/B01JTYN9RS/

  Glossary of English Slang for US readers

  A & E: Accident and emergency department in a hospital

  Aggro: Violent behaviour, aggression

  Air raid: an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on ground targets

  Anorak: nerd (it also means a waterproof jacket)

  Artex: textured plaster finish for walls and ceilings

  A Level: exams taken between 16 and 18

  Auld Reekie: Edinburgh

  Au pair: live-in childcare hel
per. Often a young woman.

  Barm: bread roll

  Barney: argument

  Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids

  Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle

  Benefits: social security

  Bent: corrupt

  Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)

  Biscuit: cookie

  Blackpool Lights: gaudy illuminations in seaside town

  Bloke: guy

  Blow: cocaine

  Blower: telephone

  Blues and twos: emergency vehicles

  Bob: money

  Bobby: policeman

  Broadsheet: quality newspaper (New York Times would be a US example)

  Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead

  Bun: small cake

  Bunk: do a bunk means escape

  Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant

  Buy-to-let: Buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit

  Charity Shop: thrift store

  Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket

  Care Home: an institution where old people are cared for

  Car park: parking lot

  CBeebies: kids TV

  Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments

  Chemist: pharmacy

  Chinwag: conversation

  Chippie: fast-food place selling chips and other fried food

  Chips: French fries but thicker

  CID: Criminal Investigation Department

  Civvy Street: civilian life (as opposed to army)

  Clock: punch

  Cock-up: mess up, make a mistake

  Cockney: a native of East London

  Common: an area of park land/ or lower class