The questioning went on. Maggie felt removed from it all, as if it were happening to somebody else and she was merely an observer. She gave no thought to her answers and was barely aware that she was talking.
Tom jolted her back to reality. "We"re concerned about your ongoing safety, I"m afraid, and we do need you to be extra vigilant." He was leaning forward and resting his forearms on his thighs.
"Why? You"ve caught them, haven"t you?"
"We have two men in custody, but we have reason to believe there"s a third man."
She swallowed. How did they know? "What makes you think that?" she asked, her voice, even to her own ears, sounding like stone scratching gla.s.s.
Becky took over. "We don"t know if he"s involved in the current crimes, but we strongly suspect that a third man Michael Alexander was involved in the other unlawful killings we mentioned the ones that took place twelve years ago."
Maggie couldn"t speak. She wanted to, but her throat seemed to have seized up.
Becky continued to explain their concerns. "Michael Alexander went off the radar about twelve years ago. He told his university tutor that he was going home to nurse his sick mother."
Maggie felt herself relax a little. They didn"t know where he was.
"That doesn"t sound like something a murderer would do," she said.
"Well, you never know with psychopaths," Tom Douglas added. "Sometimes they seem like the most caring people, although it"s all a carefully constructed act. In any case, it wasn"t true. His mother was an alcoholic and died when he was eight. He"d been in care since he was five."
Maggie felt the room spinning and she gripped onto the arms of the chair.
"Are you okay?" Becky asked.
Maggie closed her eyes and tried to get some degree of composure back.
"Sorry, I"ve not eaten much in the last twenty-four hours, and I"ve drunk too much coffee."
"Shall I ask your sister to join us?" Becky asked. "If you need somebody with you, I could look after your kids."
Maggie quickly shook her head. "No, I"m fine." She turned to look at Tom. "Why do you think he"s still a danger if he"s not done anything in the last twelve years?"
Tom and Becky looked at each other for a moment.
"We didn"t say that," Tom said. "You"re probably aware that the police often hold back some information about murders, sometimes so that we can differentiate between copycat murders and repeat offences serial murders, in other words."
Maggie felt herself nodding, although she didn"t feel she had any control over her body at all anymore.
"There are some similarities between the murders here in Manchester and another series of deaths down south. I can"t go into detail, but that coupled with some evidence retrieved from Ben Coleman"s phone is enough to make us strongly suspect that Michael Alexander is involved."
Tom Douglas continued to talk, but Maggie was far away. She remembered her shock when Samil Ben Coleman, as she now knew he was had read out the fantasy death of Tamsin from his phone. Duncan"s fantasy. She had recognised it, but pushed it from her mind.
It was a mode of death that had become infamous in Suffolk over the past few years.
The murders had begun with a neighbour of Maggie and Duncan"s. The wife of the couple concerned had liked a drink, and Maggie had seen the look of disgust on Duncan"s face many times, but the husband seemed relaxed about it. Then there had been an embarra.s.sing occasion at a party when the woman had been so drunk she had fallen over, knocking into a display cupboard holding a number of pieces of antique gla.s.s. The doors of the cupboard had shattered and the wife had cut her arm. But worse, most of the valuable gla.s.s had been broken too. Her husband had gone white. He had picked his wife up from where she was laughing hysterically on the floor and apologised profusely to the hosts, saying he would recompense them in any way that he could. Two days later, the woman was found floating in the Suffolk Broads. Drowned.
At first people a.s.sumed she had been drunk and had fallen in, but the police soon made it clear that it was murder. There were marks on her neck that indicated her head had been held under the water. The nature of the marks, and the fact that there were multiple bruises, suggested that she had been repeatedly held under the water. The husband was the obvious suspect but was cleared almost immediately.
And so began the reign of terror of the Teetotaller, as the killer became known. Four women, including Maggie"s neighbour, had been found floating in the broads. Each of them had had a serious drink problem. Other women in the area had disappeared over the past few years, and at least two of them were suspected to be victims of the Teetotaller.
The detectives" words washed over Maggie after that, and she wanted to curl up in a ball. The fear and heartbreak of the past few days had been collecting inside her, gathering to form a bomb that was about to explode. And when it did she would have no means of stopping everything from gushing out, every little detail. She didn"t know how long she could hang on. She no longer knew if she wanted to. But she couldn"t tell them now because they would realise how much she had been hiding. She had failed to tell the police what she knew. Exactly as Duncan had all those years ago.
"We"d like to put a policeman in the house with you for your own safety," Becky Robinson said, jolting her out of her reverie.
Maggie felt herself shaking her head. "No, really. It"s not necessary. My sister"s husband is coming to stay. He"s arriving any time now. And I want Josh to feel that everything"s getting back to normal. I need him to stop worrying. We"ll be fine."
She listened to their arguments, but she couldn"t let that happen. She knew what had to be done, and a policeman in the house would ruin everything.
The two detectives stood up. Tom was watching her carefully but she was sure he would put her distress down to a combination of the events of last night and concern about the third man. He gave her a sympathetic smile. "We"ll be needing a formal statement from you, but it"s just procedure. The two men were caught with Leo, and they"ve no way of escaping justice for what they did to her."
As Maggie opened the door to the hall, her sister was coming downstairs. She smiled at the two policemen.
"Thanks for the coffee, Mrs...?"
"Peters. Suzy Peters. Miss. And it was my pleasure."
"Tom, I don"t mean to be a total wimp, but I"m going to have to go and have a couple of hours" kip. I don"t need much, but I do need to revive myself. I can"t think straight."
Tom was glad Becky wasn"t the one behind the steering wheel; her driving was erratic at the best of times. He looked at her now, and her cheeks were a washed-out grey colour with two pink spots one on each side. She looked almost feverish.
"Me too. I need to go back to the hospital and see how Leo"s doing as well, but we can leave the team to carry on hunting down our man."
Becky turned to look at Tom, her head on one side.
"I know that look. What"s going on in your head?" she asked.
"Maggie Taylor looks like the other three. That makes four potential victims. It"s odd that they hadn"t already killed Leo; their MO seems to have been to kill and get rid within twenty-four hours. Logically, they were planning on sticking to three victims, which means that Leo might have been a reserve. But a reserve for what? Was Maggie the real victim? Was she the one they wanted to kill all along, with the other two killed to confuse us? And if that"s the case, why would anybody want her dead? As a criminal lawyer she"s potentially got more reason to be hated than most, but she"s a defender, so that doesn"t make much sense. That fact is, we don"t know, and with my brain the way it is at the moment, I can"t work it out."
"Where"s Maggie"s husband supposed to be? Given what"s happened, I was surprised she said her brother-in-law was coming to stay but no mention of her husband rushing to be by her side. She looked to have been knocked for six by the whole thing."
"That"s what I thought too. I"m going to have him checked out. She avoids talking about him, and there are no photos, even though there are plenty of her and the children. He could have left her, of course. Josh was uneasy about mentioning him as well. Anyway, forget about it all for a few hours and have a break. Coleman and Mellor have been processed so you deserve some rest. I"ll be back this evening. What about you?"
"Oh, I"ll be back. Four o"clock at the latest, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed." Her voice was drifting off as she spoke.
"Just before you leave this earth for your world of dreams-" Tom saw a faint smile on Becky"s lips, "-there was something that Maggie"s sister said, something I felt should have meant something. Do you remember?"
Becky gave a small grunt, which could have meant anything. "She said she was Miss, and Maggie had referred to her husband, but that"s not particularly odd. People do that sometimes if they"ve been together for a while."
"No, it was her name. Why does Suzy Peters mean something?"
But Becky was gone dead to the world. It would have to wait.
66.
Suzy took one look at her sister"s face when the policemen left and ordered her to go and lie down. She didn"t ask any questions, and for that Maggie was grateful.
Maggie lay on the bed, a throw over her legs, listening to the chatter of her children drifting up the stairs and managed to shut out all other thoughts for a few moments. Only Josh and Lily mattered. Then reality broke through her feeble defences. What was going to happen now? What did she want to happen?
She should have told the police everything, and then it would all have been over. But as she had listened to everything they said, she had found the idea of the truth impossible to deal with. A memory of last night in the mill struck her and her stomach lurched. She flung herself off the bed and into the en-suite bathroom, just making it in time for the meagre contents of her stomach to come hurtling up and out of her body as she thought of how it might all have ended; how she might have seen her husband advancing towards her with a knife if she had told him as she"d intended to that she had to be the one to die. Would he have killed her? She no longer knew the answer.
The spasm lasted no more than seconds but left her weak, her throat burning with acid. From her knees Maggie fell sideways onto her hip and rested her head against the cool wall tiles. Her weakened body was no longer able to hold back the horror that was pressing down on her. She lifted one leg and kicked the bathroom door firmly shut.
How had this happened to her? What had she done wrong?
She could no longer ignore what Tom Douglas had told her and had to face reality. They were looking for Michael Alexander. She knew who he was and had said nothing. She hadn"t known what to say. She had tried more than once to open her mouth, but the words had drained away.
She rested her head on her bent knees and gave in to sobs that made her ribs ache.
Gradually the tears subsided. Maggie felt drained. She tried to push herself up from the floor, but the effort was almost too much. She got first to her knees, and then used the washbasin to pull herself upright. Using one hand against the wall for support, she made her way back into the bedroom and was staggered to find it was dark outside. A cold cup of tea was sitting by the bed.
She climbed onto the bed, crawled under the covers, and finally exhaustion won the battle.
The house was silent when Maggie woke up. The children must have gone to bed, and there was no light creeping under the door, suggesting Suzy was no longer up either. What time was it? She rolled onto her side and pressed the b.u.t.ton on her mobile. It was after midnight. For a moment, the room was lit by the glow from her phone, and Maggie rolled over onto her other side as the light went out.
In that fraction of a second, she had seen something that set every nerve ending on fire. There was a man there, in her room, sitting in the chair by the window.
The room was black again now and she could see nothing. Maybe she was wrong. It could have been a shadow. But she knew it wasn"t. It was him. For the first time she was scared of her own husband.
Her body was rigid, and of course he knew she was awake he had seen her check the time. Was he going to speak?
He couldn"t know she had seen him, though. It was a flicker in time. Should she pretend to go back to sleep?
She heard movement a slight shuffle, but not enough to indicate he was standing up. He was adjusting his position. Then there was a click, and the small reading lamp next to the chair came on. As the lamp rocked slightly, light and dark shapes moved around the room swinging towards her and away again as if trying to capture her. But Maggie"s eyes were glued to his face, one side brightly lit by the yellow glow of the lamp light, the other in deep shadow.
He didn"t speak; Maggie didn"t move.
His voice, when it came, was quiet. "Shall I come to bed?"
Maggie"s body jerked in response, and she quickly sat up, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them as if to protect herself. She couldn"t answer.
"The police were here," she said.
"That was inevitable. What did you tell them."
Maggie looked at her husband and shook her head.
He smiled and leaned forward. "I have a plan, Maggie. A plan that will save us all. But I need your help."
Duncan sounded eager, excited almost. For a moment it felt like old times, with him coming up with a plan for a holiday or a day out. She thought back to the night before and his apparent indifference to killing the wounded girl. She had so many questions for him but somehow there was no point asking them. He would just lie. She knew that now.
He seemed to guess what she was thinking.
"I had nothing to do with the murder of those two women last week, you know." Duncan"s voice had an edge of irritation. "Samil wanted revenge. On me. He wanted to punish me for not fulfilling my part of the bargain twelve years ago. I never agreed to kill his stepmother, Maggie. I need you to believe that. It would have been murder in cold blood, and I had nothing against the woman. I didn"t think he meant it. How he knew I was back in Manchester, or about my connection to William, I really don"t know. But I don"t suppose I"ll be able to ask him that now."
Duncan paused, but Maggie made no response. She wanted him out of her room, out of her house, but she didn"t know what would happen if she tried to insist.
Duncan"s eyes narrowed. "They killed the first two to scare me and you. The third victim was going to be you, if I didn"t do as they asked, which was to kill Leo in front of you. She apparently looked like you. The idea was to make it even more painful for you, although by the time we saw her, she was barely recognisable. They thought that would be the end of my life, because you would never want me near you again. But I didn"t do it, Maggie, so why are you so cold with me?"
Maggie needed some thinking time. She risked a question, not really caring about the answer.
"So where were you when the woman was killed last Wednesday the one whose picture was on your phone because I know you"d finished your job long before you had to pick the children up?"
Duncan walked to the bed and sat down beside her. He reached out to hold her hand, but she jerked away from him.
He sighed. "I went to buy you some flowers. I knew there were problems ahead, and I wanted you to know how much I love you."
She looked at him. There had been no flowers.
"Stupid f.u.c.king woman in front of me in the shop couldn"t make her mind up, so I ran out of time. I didn"t want to be late for the kids."
Maggie had no words left. Who was this man?
Duncan reached out a hand to stroke her hair, winding it around his fingers. She shivered.
"Sorry about the flowers," he said, pulling her head back to lay bare her throat.
She flinched as she felt his lips touch her flesh.
67.
Tom felt better that evening after a couple of hours" sleep, and he and Becky had both returned to the incident room at around the same time. The capture of Adam Mellor and Ben Coleman had given everybody a huge boost twenty-four hours ago, but now the adrenaline rush had gone there was a sense of deflation in the room. The fact that Tom believed there was a third man out there wasn"t for the moment creating the buzz that it should have done.
Tom knew there were enough people in the team sorting through every sc.r.a.p of evidence to track down Michael Alexander and he wasn"t really adding anything.
"I"m going back to the hospital," he said to Becky. "Don"t hang about for too long it"s probably better to make an early start tomorrow."
Becky shook her head. "No, I"m fine. I got about four hours" sleep earlier, so I"m okay. You go see how Leo"s doing."