Kill Me Again Part 15

'Shall I put you through to somebody else, madam?' a polite female voice asked.

'I don't know.' Maggie couldn't decide what to do. 'When's he back on duty?'

Having asked for Maggie's name, the woman agreed to check the duty rota and she was put on hold. If she spoke to somebody who didn't know her, it would waste so much time. 'Madam, I've had a look and Sergeant Shaw is due in on first shift tomorrow morning. Does that help?'

Maggie sighed with relief. That would be fine. She would get Suzy to look after the children and go in to talk to him in person. She could show him the note with the picture.

She had only just put the phone down when it rang again. a.s.suming it was the police calling back, she picked up the phone.

'Maggie Taylor,' she answered.

'h.e.l.lo, Maggie.' She froze. 'Good to see you out and about with the children this afternoon.'

Maggie wanted to scream at him ask him what he thought he was playing at but her mouth had gone dry. This man had somehow been involved in the murder discovered today, and probably the previous one too. Maggie had dealt with murderers before, but only in the safety of a police station. She didn't have time to plan what to say.

'Have you seen the news?' he asked.' Did you recognise our latest offering? Sadly they showed a picture of her on the television without the special hair and make-up we gave her. But I bet you knew who it was, didn't you? That could have been you.'

The silky voice made her skin crawl. She wanted to lash out at him and suddenly she found her voice.

'Was it you in that van today? You need to know I've called the police. So don't phone again, don't leave me any more disgusting photos and don't speak to my children.'

When he spoke again his voice had a harder edge. 'That's a real pity, Maggie. You don't know where Duncan is, do you?'

Maggie didn't answer.

'But I do. If you show that picture to the police your husband will feel the pain. Pain you can't imagine. Duncan owes me, Maggie. He owes me.'

She could feel the man's rage now that the smooth tones had been scrubbed away by something brittle, dangerous.

'Tell me how much and I'll pay you. We've got savings.' She could hear the pleading in her own voice and hated herself for appearing weak.

A line had been crossed. She knew it. They had been playing with her before scaring her for some reason she didn't understand. As a means of getting to Duncan certainly, but now it felt as if the game had changed.

'Money won't solve the problem, Maggie. There's only one way back for your husband. If you talk to the police, his life is over.'

The line went dead.

35.

Sunday Any ideas Becky Robinson may have nurtured of having a lazy Sunday had been blown out of the water by the discovery of the body of Mich.e.l.le Morgan. Not that she would have been taking the time off anyway with so little progress on Hayley Walker's murder, but the added workload created by the second victim had made it even easier for Becky to avoid going to Mark's mum's for Sunday lunch. It wasn't that she didn't like her, but if she mentioned grandchildren one more time, Becky was going to throttle her.

Mark thought it was funny. He always put on his serious face and nodded, knowing he was winding Becky up. Last time his mother had asked if they had named the day yet, and Becky hadn't known what to say. They hadn't talked about getting married, and she wasn't sure she was ready. They had only been seeing each other for a year and she had made so many mistakes in the past that she wanted to be sure. Becky had been certain that she loved him, but now she had a nagging doubt. If she truly loved him, why did she get all hot and fl.u.s.tered around other people?

Mark hadn't been annoyed that she couldn't make it; he had just teased her about missing out on the planning of their future for the next twenty years. He knew she wasn't ready to commit, and he was happy with things as they were. But that was Mark. Generally happy with life.

Becky pushed open the door to the staff restaurant. She needed food, preferably something loaded with carbs, to get her through the next few hours. As she waited in line, she turned her head and saw one of the desk sergeants standing next to her. Bill Shaw had been in the force for years and in Becky's opinion was as solid as a rock.

'How are you doing, Becky?' he asked. 'I bet you've got your hands full now. Any further on with the first murder?'

Becky shook her head slowly. 'I wish we were, but for the moment it's not coming together. It will, though.'

Becky reached out to take the cheeseburger and chips she was being handed and put it on her tray, feeling slightly embarra.s.sed that the duty sergeant had selected a chicken salad and she'd got a burger and a doughnut. She walked over to an empty table and sat down.

'Mind if I join you?' he said, not waiting for an answer. 'You found out who the first murdered girl is, didn't you?' he asked as he pulled out a chair.

'Yep, she was a nurse. Hayley Walker. We've got some leads, but they're all a bit tenuous at the moment.'

'I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the drawing in the paper on Thursday. I thought "I know that girl," but then realised it couldn't be who I thought I'd seen her alive and kicking when the victim would already have been dead.'

'Who did you think it was?' Becky asked.

'The drawing was the spit of Alf Horton's solicitor. I nearly picked up the phone to Tom. I would have, if I hadn't known it couldn't be her. I'm glad it's not, though. Nice woman.'

'Poor cow, getting Alf Horton as a client,' Becky said.

The sergeant laughed. 'Funnily enough, Maggie Taylor that's her name tried to phone me last night, but I was off duty. She said she wanted to talk to me about something but she didn't call or come in this morning.'

Becky bit on a chip. 'What did you do?'

'I decided to give her a quick call before I came over here to check she was okay. It's a bit odd, really. She tried to brush it off, but I could hear the stress in her voice.'

'Did she say what was worrying her?'

'She said she thought it might be nothing, but she'd noticed a white van parked at the top of their road a couple of times, and when she went for a bike ride with the children yesterday, it followed her.'

Becky waited. That wasn't enough to make anybody suspicious, surely?

'She's had a couple of odd phone calls too. No number came up on the screen, and I guess it'll turn out to be an untraceable mobile. She said there was no explicit threat just a man saying he knew where she was, or something. The thing is, it was as if she wanted to get rid of me as if she wished she'd never called. I actually wondered if she was a bit spooked because she looks so much like your first murder victim the nurse. Maybe it's made her feel vulnerable.' Bill shrugged and stuck his fork in a cherry tomato.

Becky had never claimed to have the same level of gut instinct that Tom had, but she felt a p.r.i.c.kle at the back of her neck. A woman that looked like the first victim and like the second victim was supposed to look and she thought she was being followed? Becky couldn't imagine that this woman was the hysterical type if she was used to handling sc.u.mbags like Alf Horton.

'Who's dealing with it?'

'Dan Pierce. Do you know him?'

Becky thought she recognised the name but couldn't place the guy. Tom would probably know him; he seemed to know everybody.

'Thanks for telling me. I'll mention it to Tom, if that's okay with you. I'm sure it's not relevant to our enquiry, but you never know. Have they got anything to follow up on? If it's a ubiquitous unmarked white van and the calls were from a disposable mobile it doesn't sound like there's much they can do.'

'Well, it seems we have all or part of a registration number. So they'll be running a PNC check to see what they come up with.' The sergeant ate his last forkful of a small salad, and stood up. 'I'll leave you to your lunch.'

Becky looked down at her plate and suddenly the burger didn't look so appetising. Tom always said he hated coincidences, and maybe it was catching. But if a woman who looked like the other victims believed she was being stalked, it wasn't something Becky should ignore.

Much to her frustration, Becky had to wait to get some time with Tom. He was tied up with Philippa Stanley, who had asked for an update. That should have taken about two minutes as there was so little to report, but for some reason he was gone for an hour. She kept her eye on the door and finally saw him walk into the incident room and make his way towards her desk.

'You wanted to see me, Becky?' he asked.

'Yes. It may be something or nothing, but I thought I should run it by you.'

He signalled her with his head to follow him into his office, and once they were settled she explained what she had heard about Maggie Taylor.

Tom sat back in his chair and gazed at the ceiling in what Becky always thought of as his thinking pose. It didn't last long.

'I don't like it,' he said, leaning forward again. 'We thought the first woman was Leo. Don't look like that, Becky. We're over that, aren't we?' Without waiting for her response, he continued. 'As far as we know, Leo's missing. I accept, knowing her the way I do, that she could easily have decided to take herself off because the new boyfriend p.i.s.sed her off. But failing to turn up to her niece's christening is a step too far even for Leo.'

Becky saw Tom take a big breath. 'I've suggested to Ellie that she officially reports Leo missing. She's resisted up to now for the same reason Leo is as unpredictable as h.e.l.l but we need to take this seriously.'

Becky said nothing. There was no appropriate response, and she knew Tom was right.

'So now we've got both Maggie Taylor and Leo, who look similar to the first victim and to how the second victim was supposed to look. The thing that's puzzling me, though, is that this makes four potential victims, and all those years ago we were pretty certain that the magic number was three.'

'Maybe Leo has nothing to do with it. It's an unfortunate coincidence, and as you say she's gone off on one.'

Tom gave her a look that suggested he didn't believe that for one second.

'Let's make a quick call to Dan Pierce and see if he has any updates on the supposed stalker,' he said, and put the call through.

It was frustrating only being able to hear one half of the conversation, but Becky got the gist.

'What did the PNC check throw up?' Tom asked. He listened to the answer.

'And what do we know about this Adam Mellor?' There was a pause.

'You're certain about that, are you?' Tom said, looking at Becky, his eyes opening wide. 'I'll get back to you, Dan. I need to speak to my inspector Becky Robinson. One of us will talk to you in a few minutes.'

Tom hung up and looked at Becky with raised eyebrows.

'What's up?' Becky asked.

'The PNC check. The number turned up one white van registered to an address in the Manchester area with sufficient matching digits to make it a strong possibility. It's owned by a guy called Adam Mellor. They sent somebody round to have a word with him, but apparently he's away and has been since last Sat.u.r.day. n.o.body knows where he is.'

Becky watched Tom's face. His eyes were focused somewhere behind her as if he was trying to match up bits of the puzzle.

'The other thing they found out is that Adam Mellor works for Maxwell Jenkins, Manchester's biggest corporate finance firm.

'And that's significant because...?' Becky said.

'You remember I tracked down Leo's new boyfriend, Julian Richmond? He's also in corporate finance. And guess which firm he works for?'

Tom's eyes met Becky's. They were both silent for a moment, and then Tom pushed back his chair.

'Get your coat, Becky. Ask one of your team to track down Maggie Taylor's address. Mrs Taylor needs to know that we're on our way to see her and she needs to be in, but we have one other call to make first.'

36.

When Maggie woke up on Sunday morning she hadn't been sure what she was going to do. She had no doubt at all that the threat to Duncan was real so now she was torn. What if her children were in danger? But yesterday the two men in the van could easily have taken Josh, and they hadn't. But if they couldn't get Duncan to do whatever it was that they wanted, would they be back for her, for Lily, for Josh?

The decision felt as if it had been taken out of her hands when she received a call from Bill Shaw, the desk sergeant she had been trying to contact. A note had been left for him to say she had called, so he was calling to check she was okay.

Maggie hadn't had time to think of an excuse, so she had told him the minimum that made any sense. She had focused on the phone calls and the van maybe enough for the police to take an interest but not enough for her to have endangered Duncan. And if the two men were watching, they would know she hadn't left the house. She couldn't tell Bill Shaw about the note and the photo it would be impossible to keep a breakthrough like that out of the press, and she might be signing her husband's death warrant.

After the call ended, Maggie walked into the kitchen and sat down, unsure if her legs would hold her up for much longer. Without a word, Suzy walked across to the kettle and clicked it on, giving Maggie time as she stared out of the window to where her children were playing outside. At least they seemed a little more relaxed this morning.

Maggie came out of her daze as Suzy put a mug of tea in front of her. 'Thanks,' she said. 'Sorry for leaving you to deal with the kids.'

'It's okay, Mags. You don't have to apologise for anything. What did you say to the police? Did you tell them Duncan was missing?'

Maggie shook her head. How could she have told them that without explaining the rest? And if she had, how much danger would she have put him in?

'What's going to happen now?' Suzy asked.

'I don't know. I don't know anything anymore, Suze. What's happening to Duncan? All I can think is that he's got mixed up in something by mistake, and he doesn't know how to get out of it. Maybe he saw something he shouldn't you know, when he was out doing a job. Perhaps he saw the girl being killed but didn't know what it was at the time. What if they're threatening him, and because he's not here, they're threatening me? Maybe they're after him because he knows too much a gang or something. So he's gone into hiding to keep them away from me. Maybe he's scared, Suzy, with n.o.body to help him.' Maggie's voice cracked.

The phone rang. She ignored it.

'Shall I answer it?' her sister asked.

'No!' She waited for the answer phone to click in. It might be the man again.

'Mrs Taylor? I'm calling from Greater Manchester Police. I need to speak to you urgently. Could you please call me back on-'

Maggie raced to the phone and picked it up.

'h.e.l.lo. This is Maggie Taylor.' She listened as the policeman told her that two detectives would like to come and talk to her about her report this morning. 'It's good that you're taking me seriously, but can't you update me on the phone?' She couldn't keep the confusion from her voice. This was overkill for the report she had made.

'I'm sorry, madam, but one of our senior detectives would like to come and talk to you, if that's okay with you. He should be with you in about an hour as he has another call to make first. Will you be in then?'

'Yes, of course.'

'Thank you. It'll be Detective Chief Inspector Douglas. I'll let him know you'll be there.' The line went dead.

Maggie replaced the handset and stood looking at it, her back to her sister.

Tom Douglas, the head of the team running the murder enquiry. Why was he coming to see her? Did he know something about Duncan? Had something happened to him?

With all her heart she wished she could talk to her husband, to give him the chance to explain what was happening to their family and find a way of putting it right.