For Your Own Protection(80)

‘Maybe you should go back and enjoy family life, Matt.’

‘I read the news reports. Alex wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. And yet his colleagues, fellow cyclists at UGT, said he always wore a cycle helmet.’

‘So?’ James was flushing. ‘He forgot the helmet on the day he needed it. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.’

‘I didn’t see it at first,’ Matt continued. ‘Not until yesterday. It was in the slide-out drawers under Charlie’s bed. Alex’s cycle helmet. He’d written his name underneath the fabric.’

James looked on, not speaking.

‘It was you, wasn’t it, who Charlie saw at the top of the stairs? He called you the “naughty man”. What did you threaten him with not to name you?’

Again, James said nothing, his tongue pushing against the inside of his cheek.

‘You decided to flee and abandon Beth and Charlie, Michael and Sean to their fate. But then you remembered you’d left the helmet in the top-floor office, and rushed back to retrieve it. Except in the meantime, Charlie had found it first, taken it down to his bedroom, and hidden it away. When Beth came home in the middle of your frantic search, you waited upstairs, but Charlie saw you and you ran, without the helmet and without the bag of cash you’d left in the storage space.’

James surprised him by smiling and slow-clapping. ‘You know, Matt, I underestimated you.’

‘Why did you kill Alex?’

‘I tried to convince him not to go to the police. We were handling it okay. All we had to do was stick to our story, and Samson would get bored and walk away. He couldn’t be sure about what we’d done. We were doing fine. But then Alex lost his nerve and penned a letter explaining everything, thinking the police would offer protection. It would have brought us all down with the fool. Fortunately, I managed to stop him sending it.’

‘By killing him.’

‘I tried to reason with him.’

‘And what about Rachel Martin?’

‘I couldn’t be sure Alex hadn’t told her what had happened.’

‘But you didn’t push her in front of that Tube train. The person who did it was picked up on CCTV. Who is he?’

‘Someone I hired. He also was driving the untraceable four-by-four that so effectively dealt with Alex. You make a lot of useful contacts in the drugs trade.’

‘You stole Alex’s cycle helmet that day at work to make sure he wouldn’t survive the impact. And your hired hand did the rest.’

James just grinned.

‘The same person – you also hired him to follow me.’

‘Possibly.’

‘He was seen following me on the Thames, and at the leisure centre.’

‘He followed you pretty much everywhere, Matt,’ James stated. ‘I needed to be sure Sean wouldn’t tell you what was going on. I knew how you’d delight in ruining everything for me if you were to find out. So I arranged for him to keep a close eye on you.’

‘You sound paranoid.’

‘Just careful,’ James replied. ‘Tell me, have you told the police about all this?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Not ever, I bet.’

‘How can you be so sure?’

James smiled. ‘Because you can’t tell the police about me without incriminating Sean – and I know you wouldn’t want to do that, would you, Matt?’

‘Sean didn’t commit murder.’

‘No, but he is a drug dealer. He’ll face jail, and his career will be as dead as Alex McKenzie.’

‘You’re right. I don’t want to incriminate Sean.’

‘Then what the hell are you here for, Matt?’

‘I met with Jessica.’

‘Oh? Thinking of rekindling that old romance?’

‘She explained how you set me up.’

‘I thought she would. She’s a bitter, rejected woman, out for revenge.’

‘She also told me about your anger-management issues.’

‘Oh really?’

‘She showed me the marks on her neck from where you throttled her. And it isn’t the only time that’s happened, is it?’

‘I’m not sure where this is going, Matt. But please, do hurry up, I need to finish the movie.’

‘She’s going to the police,’ Matt revealed. ‘She’s willing to testify you physically assaulted her, on numerous occasions.’

‘It’s her word against mine,’ James said dismissively.

‘If the jury believes her, your career will be over. And even if there isn’t a conviction, the police investigation, the trial, will derail your hopes of a quick getaway.’

‘It that all you’ve got? She’s bluffing. She won’t go through with it.’

‘She won’t have to,’ came a voice from the doorway.





CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO


Matt looked across at his friend. ‘Sean, I told you to wait in the—’

‘She won’t have to go through with it,’ Sean repeated, meeting first Matt’s, then James’s gaze. ‘Because I’ve told the police everything – Michael knows too, and he’ll support the story.’ He looked over at Matt. ‘I called them on the way here, when we stopped at the services. They’ve just arrived.’ He looked back at James. ‘I couldn’t let you get away with what you did.’