Dead Memories (D.I. Kim Stone #10)(99)

‘And the Phelpses were an absolute gift, weren’t they?’ she asked. ‘A respectable couple out of their depth visiting their son in prison. I bet they just loved the reassurance of someone like you; so similar, so knowledgeable about the system. Joel told me they spent more time chatting with other visitors. They were the innocent trusting couple that you could easily subdue with the quick injection and then set fire to the car.’

‘The higher the dose the quicker it works,’ Mallory offered. ‘From the back seat of their car it was easy enough to give them a quick prick and then cover the seat belt buttons for a few seconds.’

Kim thought about the two of them, imprisoned by a mechanism that was designed to keep them safe.

‘You started the blaze inside the car so you had enough time to get out and drive away, while they sat there paralysed as the flames leapt up around them.’

‘Ingenious, I thought,’ she said, pleasantly.

Oh, how Kim wanted to rush across the space that separated them and smash that expression from her face, but she had to stay focussed. She knew the time was getting close.

‘But why kill Ernest Beckett?’ Kim asked. ‘You’d already blackmailed him into giving you the file so?…’

‘Because he was a weak, pathetic specimen of a man who would have gone to the police eventually. He was a loose end.’

‘So, you drugged him too and then killed him? Just another body on the pile?’ Kim spat, unable to keep her feelings out of her voice, but the woman’s disregard for human life revealed just how much she was like her father.

‘And that’s where you got the drugs from. It’s what you used to inject your father to keep his muscles…’

Kim’s words trailed away as something suddenly occurred to her. The drug used was a muscle relaxant.

‘Oh my god, he wasn’t paralysed, was he?’ Kim asked, only now wondering why someone who had no feeling would need a muscle relaxant. ‘You kept him in that chair?’

‘Made him easier to handle,’ she said as a distasteful look fell over her face. ‘For the first time in my life, I had control. I could treat him just as he’d treated me for so many years.’

It occurred to Kim that during the hate crimes investigation they had uncovered many of the Preeces’ family secrets. But maybe not all of them.

Kim took another step.

Mallory followed.

‘What the hell did he do to you, Mallory?’

‘Nothing I didn’t repay him for tenfold once I had the chance,’ she said with steel in her voice. ‘And then I had a son who was just like him. Bart was cut from the same cloth and it was like looking at the old man all over again.’

Kim couldn’t help the irony that struck her that she was exactly like them both.

‘But my Dale made everything better,’ she said. ‘He was the son I wanted, the one I really cared about. The others never mattered to me.’

Kim couldn’t stop the confusion that formed on her face.

‘But that’s what all this was for,’ she said. ‘You hate me because of your father and your son. Indirectly I took them away from you.’

Mallory’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘That’s what you think? You think I did all this for those two bastards? You think that’s at the core of my rage?’

‘Of course.’

The woman laughed out loud.

‘I don’t hate you for what you’ve done to them. They’re both dead and I hated them. I hate you for what you’ve done to the one that’s still alive.’





One Hundred Thirty-Two





‘Time?’ Bryant asked as Penn brought the car to a screeching halt in front of Chaucer House.

‘Two minutes to eight,’ Penn said, as he appraised the scene.

Groups of people were pointing up to the roof, some laughing as though the sight was being provided as night-time entertainment.

‘Fuck,’ Bryant said, as the others followed his gaze.

‘It’s her,’ Stacey whispered. ‘It’s Alison.’

The woman was hanging by a rope tied to her feet. It didn’t take Bryant long to realise that she wasn’t struggling or moving at all.

A squad car pulled up behind them.

‘Get everyone away,’ Bryant instructed, as the three of them rushed into the building.

Bryant had spotted his own car parked further along the row and once again cursed himself for making the wrong call.

‘Fucking lifts,’ Bryant growled at the out of order sign on one and the other clearly resting below ground level.

‘Stairs,’ they all said at the same time, rushing through the heavy fire doors.

A dark figure appeared in front of them.

‘Where yer going, blud?’

‘Out the way,’ Bryant said.

He held out his hand. ‘There’s a toll…’

Bryant reached out and closed his hand around the young man’s throat and hauled him out of the way.

‘Okay, who’s the fastest?…’

Penn didn’t even bother to answer as he started to run up thirteen flights of stairs.





One Hundred Thirty-Three





‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Kim asked, taking one more step towards the woman, who had clearly lost her mind.