Daisy in Chains(104)

‘Keeping me exactly where you wanted me. Totally in your power.’

‘Something like that. Of course I also have enough evidence hidden away to have got you out at any time, should my mind have changed.’

‘Victims’ hair? Clothes? In a safety deposit box somewhere? Ready to plant on some unsuspecting patsy?’

She smiles.

‘So what happens now?’

She shrugs, feigns carelessness, even though her heart has never beaten faster. ‘You’re a free man. The dead woman at my house will ensure that. I’ll be the killer of six people, you’ll be the innocent man, wrongly accused. You’ll be a national hero. You can return to your profession, make a fortune from public appearances, start a family, have the life you used to dream about.’

‘And you’ll be behind bars?’

‘Oh, I didn’t say that.’

He looks long into her eyes and she knows he has guessed her intentions. If Hamish turns his back on her tonight, she will climb to the highest point of the Gorge. She won’t be the first wronged woman to seek solace on its cold, high edge.

She makes a show of looking at her watch, although from the moment she entered the cave she has known exactly what the time is. ‘They’ll be hot on our heels, my long-lost lover. Which is it to be?’

He breathes out a sigh so long, so heavy, that she half expects to see him deflating. Then, awkwardly, as though he has been sitting too long, he gets to his feet. He reaches down, takes her hand and pulls her up. For one, heart-stopping moment, she thinks he will kiss her. Then he takes a long step back.

‘I’m truly sorry about what I did to you at Oxford.’ His eyes lift, go over her shoulder and fix on something behind. ‘But you should have gotten over it.’

Maggie spins round to see dim pools of light immediately in front of the rocky overhang. She can just about make out two forms. Pete.

And Sirocco.





Chapter 103


‘MAGGIE ROSE, I am arresting you for the murders of Jessie Tout, Chloe Wood, Myrtle Reid, Odi Smith and Broon Richards.’ As he speaks, Pete is thinking fast, measuring the distances between the four people in the cave, reminding himself where the dangerous places are, because he’s seen the look in Maggie’s eyes and he knows this could still go very badly wrong. She will almost certainly have a weapon and she is very close to Hamish. ‘You do not—’

‘Shut the hell up!’ It is Pete at whom she yells, but her eyes haven’t left the woman at his side. ‘Who the hell are you?’ For the moment she is ignoring both Pete and Hamish, but that won’t last long. Soon the full force of her rage will be directed at the lover who spurned her. A second time.

The woman Maggie knows as Sirocco Silverwood opens her mouth to speak but Pete catches hold of her arm and stops her.

‘This is Detective Constable Liz Nuttall,’ he says. ‘Hamish’s liaison officer. You didn’t hurt her just now, you’ll be relieved to know, but she was wired up and we heard everything that went on in your house. Hamish is wired too, by the way.’

Out of the corner of his eye, Pete sees Liz allow her huge coat to gape open, to let Maggie see the body armour that was meant to protect her from knife wounds. All the same, he will never again send a constable into such a situation. The fifteen minutes that Liz was in Maggie’s house were the longest in his life. Especially when she went into the cellar and they lost comms.

Maggie spins round to look at Hamish.

‘You knew? You were part of this?’

Hamish bows his head once. His eyes leave her and settle on Liz. ‘It took me a while to persuade Liz, but I got there in the end.’

‘And Liz convinced me,’ says Pete. ‘It’s over, Maggie. I need you to come with me now.’

He moves forward again, trying to block Maggie’s view of Liz, because he really doesn’t like the way the two women are looking at each other. Liz, though, is not about to be intimidated by the woman she’s worked for months to bring to justice. She lifts up both hands and takes off first the beanie cap, then the long black wig.

‘This is a gel skullcap.’ She is speaking directly to Maggie. ‘Skateboarders use them for the more dangerous stunts. I know you meant to knock my brains out, but you’ve just given me a nasty headache.’

Hamish seems about to move.

‘Stay where you are, please, Hamish,’ Pete says. ‘Maggie, I want you down on your knees with your hands in the air. I’ll make this as quick and as comfortable as possible, but we have to get you out of here.’

In response she backs away. ‘Are you mad? Do you imagine for one moment that you’ll convict me? Think about what you’ve been doing. Illegal searches of my house, breaking and entering, threatening me on that Ferris wheel. Not to mention springing a convicted murderer from prison. Any confession of mine that you taped was made under duress, when I was in fear of my life. There is more chance of the two of you going to prison than me.’ She turns to Hamish. ‘As for you, you’re going to rot.’

‘Officially, we’ve only ever been in your house with your permission,’ says Pete. ‘The breakin – or, strictly, trespass, because your door was unlocked – is likely to remain an unsolved crime. There is nothing to suggest that the origami rose, the writing under the table, the daisies delivered on Christmas Day were anything to do with us.’