Nine Elms (Kate Marshall #1)(102)

Tristan hadn’t met Myra before, but Kate had talked about her, and he saw that her eyes were red from crying. “I was down on the beach. First Kate went up and then Jake,” she said. “I thought they were coming back. We were on the beach paddling . . . Then I came up and found that poor police officer had been stabbed in the side of his head . . . I was only making him a cup of tea this morning.”

“You didn’t see anybody?” asked Tristan. Myra shook her head. He looked around at the police cars and the body bag, which was now closed and being wheeled to the pathologist’s van. He saw a receipt poking out of the cash machine outside the surf shack. Tristan went over to it and pulled it out.

“The time stamp on this is twenty minutes before Kate called me,” said Tristan, handing the receipt to Varia.

“So?” she said.

“Kate joked that she was the only person who used the cash machine in the winter. Do you use it, Myra?”

“No. It charges you five quid a time,” she said. “Kate or the police officer might have used it. There’s hardly anyone up at the RV park.”

“There’s a camera mounted on the front of the cash machine that activates when someone makes a withdrawal. It might have caught something?” said Tristan.

Varia’s eyes lit up. She took the cash machine receipt from him and pulled out her phone to make a call.





64

When Kate woke up, she felt a hard surface under her back, and her mouth was wet where she had drooled. She put her hand gingerly to her face. Her nose hurt to the touch, and it was badly swollen. A light burned bright above, and she was shocked to see her hands weren’t bound.

She sat up. She was still wearing the jeans, T-shirt, and jumper from the beach, and beside her lay Jake. He was very still and pale. He wasn’t wearing any shoes, and his feet were still covered in sand.

“Oh my, oh my God,” she said, feeling him all over. He still felt warm, and she put her hand to his neck. There was a pulse. A moment later he coughed, and his eyes opened. It took him a moment to realize, and then he screamed. Kate put her hand over his mouth.

“No! Please, Jake,” she whispered. “Please don’t scream.”

He started to cry, and she felt his hot tears on her hand. She took her hand away, and he huddled against her.

“Mum, what’s happening? Who was that man? Where are we?”

“His name is Joseph Castle-Meads,” she said. She didn’t know what else to say. Her mind was still reeling from the revelation that the son of the barrister who had tried the Peter Conway case was the copycat killer. She tried to recollect what had happened. He’d got into her house. He’d attacked her in the living room. After that there was nothing. She felt around in her pockets, then remembered that Joseph had smashed her phone. “Do you know how we got here? What can you remember?”

Through tears, Jake told her that he had come back up to the house and found Joseph tying her up with tape in the hallway.

“Did he hurt you?” said Kate, checking him over.

“No. But he scared me and I . . . I . . . I wet myself,” he said, starting to cry again. “He put something on my face. It smelled of chemicals, and that’s all I can remember.”

“It’s okay,” said Kate, squeezing him tight. She had to keep it together and stay calm.

Kate looked around. They were in a windowless room with a stone floor. It was small, about ten feet square. A bare bulb burned above them. The walls were white. In one corner was a small Perspex dome containing a CCTV camera. They each lay on a thin sleeping bag, which smelled new and clean. In the corner was a large two-liter bottle of mineral water and a bucket with a roll of toilet paper beside it.

She got to her feet. Jake stood with her, still holding on to her hand. Her head was throbbing, and her arms and ankles were still dead from where they’d been bound. She felt around the walls and found the outline of a door. They were in a storage room or walk-in freezer. If it was the latter, it was switched off. Why weren’t they bound and tied up? Why were they under surveillance? Did walk-in freezers these days come equipped with extensive CCTV cameras?

They went to the door, and Kate hit it with the flat of her hand, but it made little sound. It must be thick metal. She put her ear to it, but again, nothing.

Now her senses were coming back, she could smell the metallic, gamy scent of dead meat. She looked around again and wondered if there was an air supply. There were no vents. There were three drains at intervals in the concrete floor. Drains meant sewage, which meant pipes. It was an air supply. Her throat was dry, and she could taste the chemicals from where she had been sedated. She looked back to Jake, who still held on to her hand and was following her gaze as she looked around. His eyes were wide, and he looked so scared.

“Are you thirsty?” she asked. He nodded.

“Mum. This room, it feels like it’s getting smaller,” he said.

“It’s not. I promise. It’s okay.”

She went to the water bottle sitting by the bucket. It was still sealed. She twisted off the cap and sniffed it, then poured a tiny amount in her mouth to taste. It was fresh. She then took four long gulps and wiped her mouth.

“Here, drink this and you’ll feel a little better,” she said. She tilted the bottle for him, and he took a few gulps. Jake was shivering now, and Kate wrapped him up in one of the sleeping bags.