Death Trap (28 page)

Rio knocked her head back as the glass touched her lips. She grimaced, wanting to spit rather than swallow. Thirty per cent alcohol burned a path down her throat, but still wasn’t strong enough to stop the shit swirling around her head. She wasn’t just off the case, she was out in the cold.

Suspended.

No warrant badge.

No Detective.

Just plain old Rio Wray born in Notting Hill, West London.

God, it hurt. Really hurt.

‘I got a pretty mellow Glenfiddich at home, DI.’

Hearing the words whispered close to her ear, Rio slo-mo turned her face to the side to find Jack Strong beside her. Strange thing was, she zeroed in on those eyes of his – a kind of sparkling, magical blue, probably the brightest thing inside this dark dump. She mentally shook her head – no, the brightest things were the bottles tempting her to consume more.

She turned back around as he spoke, surprised that her words were rock steady. ‘Haven’t you heard? I’m not a detective inspector no more.’ She lifted the glass again and pressed it against her lips. Tipped it back. Fire hit her belly. Slammed the glass back down.

‘Let’s get you out of here,’ Strong continued, his hand touching her shoulder.

Rio violently shook him off. ‘No. Like it here.’ She twisted her whole body around, almost tipping off the stool. But she didn’t notice, only intent on talking. ‘Know why? Because I think every last person in here has fucked up as well.’

The man beside her made no response; instead he slid his arm around her waist and heaved her up. Her feet didn’t feel like they were on the ground.

As Strong gently started to lead her away, Rio mumbled, ‘You believe me, don’t you? Someone killed those men before I got there. Someone else was inside that house.’

‘Sure I do.’

Strong kept her moving, not letting up until a nasty blast of cold air shook Rio up. She gulped in massive bands of air, each inhalation making the world come more into focus.

Rio started talking again. ‘No more red-eye when we get to your place. Just chuck a bucket of cold water in my face.’

Rio gasped for breath as the unexpected water blasted her in the face.

‘What the hell did you do that for?’ she stammered, gasping at the water clinging and dripping on her face with the power of Greenland ice. ‘I didn’t really mean it when I said dump water on me.’

She’d been half-slumped in a high-back chair in Strong’s kitchen. Now she was ramrod straight after he’d heaved a large glassful of cold water in her face. She glared up at him. He grinned back.

‘You need waking up. Plus I still owe you for that coffee trick you played with your elbow.’ Then his face became serious. ‘Never thought I’d have to shake up the mighty, all-powerful Detective Inspector Rio Wray.’

Rio used her fingertips to swipe some of the water from her skin, her expression intensifying. Everything above her shoulder hurt as the booze pushed her head into a spin. ‘What do you want me to do? Get a bloody mega-phone and stand on the rooftop of The Fort preaching “Some bastard dunnit!” to the world.’

Strong swung a chair out and shoved himself into it with such urgency the top half of Rio shuffled back slightly. Her head was back thumping again. His eyes held hers with the force of being pinned to the floor. ‘I want you to follow the truth.’

That made Rio start sobering up. She licked her dry lips. Spoke. ‘The only way to do that is to not go by the book. I don’t bend the rules, don’t break them, I just follow them. I rattled the rules one time today and look at the awful mess I left behind.’

Frustrated, Strong flung his hands in the air. ‘The first thing I learned as a boy in blue was to listen to my gut instinct. And your gut is shouting at you that something in that house wasn’t right. If that’s true, you know what that means? There’s still a hitter out there gunning for that girl. Probably killed the gang as—’

‘Don’t you think I’ve told myself that?’ Rio winced as she yelled, but couldn’t hold it back. Who the hell did he think he was, getting in her face and reciting what she already knew? ‘If I start down that path I’m going to end up like . . .’ Rio clamped her mouth shut.

But she didn’t need to say it because the man opposite said it for her. ‘Like me.’

The silence in the small room was no silence at all, its power a huge pane of glass shattering around them.

Suddenly Strong looked exhausted as he leaned across the table. ‘You want to know what happened four years ago?’ Rio said nothing, just stared back, some of the anger draining away from her. ‘I got it wrong, that’s what happened. Not the way you think.’ He inhaled deeply. ‘I wasn’t there.’

Confusion quickly followed by surprise changed Rio’s features. ‘What do you mean—?’

‘I should’ve been there, but I was laying flowers on my wife and daughter’s graves. They died in a road accident six months earlier and tore my world apart. I was a mess; didn’t know if I was coming or going.’ The unevenness of his breathing touched Rio somewhere deep in her chest. But she remained quiet, letting him talk. ‘I got to work that evening, but couldn’t stop thinking about them. You know, thinking about the last time I saw them frozen forever on a slab inside a black body bag. So I skipped out of the office, without telling anyone, and went to their graves.’ He smiled. ‘My Debbie was the same age as Nikki – sweet sixteen. Gorgeous girl who had the best future waiting for her.’

The smile dropped away. ‘Got back to base to find a shit storm waiting for me. There was no way that the top brass were going to admit that the senior officer - me – wasn’t there. And they were right; I should’ve been there. The buck stopped with me. I owed that family an apology.’ His head flipped up, the belligerent Jack Strong she’d come to know back in place. ‘But I didn’t owe no accounting to this black group, ethnic minority watchdog, Islamic whatever they were calling themselves—’

‘But we’re part of the public service and that means we serve the public. How the heck are they going to have any confidence in us if their sons and daughters end up taking their last breath inside a prison cell?’

‘I am what I am. I know what I did was wrong, but what about you, Rio? You going to continue letting a wrong be a wrong, while you sit around bleating about playing it by the book? While Nikki Bell’s life’s still at risk?’

Rio shoved out of her seat. Started pacing. Where was another Devil’s Juice when she needed one? Rio knew he was right . . . but so was she. When she’d joined the police force she’d signed up to all the rules and regulations, all the processes and procedures. They were there for a reason: to be fair; to keep order, so everyone, including the bad guys, knew exactly what to expect. Start breaking that cycle and chaos reigned supreme. Hadn’t she just seen that in action when she’d gone against orders on the raid? But no matter how she tried to convince herself, Rio couldn’t get Nikki’s face out of her head.

Nikki crying.

Nikki smiling.

Nikki sulking.

Nikki dead?

‘I . . .’ Rio swung back around to find Strong almost on top of her. His gaze was intense, so was hers. Without really thinking what she was doing, Rio clasped her palms around his face and drew his face down to hers. Strong jerked out of her hold. They stared at each other breathing heavily.

Rio spoke first. ‘For God’s sake don’t say you think of me as a daughter.’

‘No,’ Strong uttered softly, ‘I think of you as a mate and mates don’t break that unwritten rule.’

Rio looked up as she shook her head. ‘If only you’d been by my side three years ago with that advice.’

There was a moment’s silence before he said, ‘You – friend – need to get some shut-eye. Spend the night. I’ve got a spare room.’

Less than a minute later they were in a room that Rio suspected had once been his daughter’s but she kept that to herself. Instead she stared at the neatly made single bed.

‘I’ll leave a towel for you in the bathroom—’

‘Thank you . . . for coming to get me.’ Rio didn’t turn around as she talked.

The only answer she got was the quiet click of the door as it closed. Now alone, Rio moved towards the bed and sat heavily on it. She flopped back into its softness as her mind came to terms with her new status in life and started figuring out what she was going to do about Nikki Bell.

thirty-seven

1:04 a.m.

Rio checked her watch. She hadn’t been able to sleep. Couldn’t stop thinking about Nikki.

1:30 a.m.

Rio still couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t get rid of the thoughts that might turn her world upside down.

1:49 a.m.

Rio got out of the bed that Jack Strong had offered her for the night and went to the bathroom. She took her mobile phone.

1:55 a.m.

‘Are we agreed on this?’ Rio’s tone was quiet, but rushed and urgent as she spoke to Calum on her mobile.

She stood in Jack Strong’s unlit bathroom. Chill clung to her half-open blouse and the floorboards drove cold through the bare soles of her feet. She’d been speaking rapidly to Calum for the last five minutes. Her breath almost hurt in her throat as she waited for his answer.

He kept her waiting another half minute before saying, ‘OK. Are you coming over now?’

Rio shook her head. ‘No. I still need some massive thinking time—’

‘Rio?’ Her gaze bounced up at the door as she heard Strong call out her name.

‘Got to go,’ she hurriedly whispered to Calum as she heard Strong’s movements in the corridor.

‘Was that another voice?’ he asked. ‘Who’s with you?’

The handle to the bathroom started turning.

‘I’ll see you at your office later on.’ The words came out quickly.

The bathroom door opened as she cut the call. Rio wrapped her hand around her phone as Jack Strong appeared in the doorway. They looked at each other. Neither moved.

‘You OK?’ he finally asked.

Rio’s palm tightened around her mobile. ‘Yeah. Couldn’t sleep. Mind just keeps moving. Can’t get it to stop.’

‘I make a mean chamomile tea—’

‘Jack Strong and herbal tea?’ Rio let out a low laugh. ‘Now that’s a combination I never thought I’d see.’

The side of his mouth flicked up. ‘My Rachel loved the stuff. I always keep a box in the cupboard.’

Rio moved towards him. Looked in his eyes. ‘Never thought I’d say this but I do believe that you’re a good man.’

Before he could answer her she left him. A minute later she found herself back on the bed. This time she didn’t lie down, but fixed her hair into medium-sized twists. She needed an as-perfect-as-she-could-get twist-out afro for the day she was about to face.

2:10 a.m.

‘Nikki. Nicola. Wake up.’

Dazed Nikki felt the hand against her shoulder as she lay on her side, facing the wall, in bed. She groaned. Didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to move.

‘Calum. Too tired.’ She wrapped her hand around the duvet and pulled it closer to her chin.

‘No-can-do, little lady. We need to get out of here now.’

Nikki groaned some more as she finally turned to face him. He looked bigger than usual, looming over the bed. She scrubbed a fist over one eye and then uncurled her hand and ran her fingers through her Ophelia-styled shorn hair.

‘It’s still dark outside,’ she said as she sat up.

‘I know. But there’s good news. The people who murdered your family aren’t going to be a problem anymore.’

‘What? How?’ She pushed her legs over the bed and stood up.

Calum placed his warm palm against her shoulder. ‘That doesn’t matter at the moment. What you need to do is get ready.’ His hand fell away. ‘I thought you wanted to see your cousin Ophelia?’

Nikki couldn’t hold back the pants of excitement that escaped her. Lia. She’d be with cousin Lia again. Just the thought of being held in her cousin’s arms made the world seem right again. A place where no one could hurt her anymore.

‘Where’s my bag—?’

‘Don’t worry about that, I’ve packed up all your gear.’

‘But I need my gloves – the long, lacy ones that she gave me. I want her to see me wearing them—’

‘We need to move. Now. You can put the gloves on in my car.’

Calum was already out of the room by the time she started scrambling into her jeans and trainers. Her hands shook as she threw on her jumper. She couldn’t believe it – she was going to see Ophelia again. She wanted to laugh. Jump. Punch the air. Do some stupid dance where she rocked out to a made-up tune called ‘Ophelia’.

Nikki grinned as she joined Calum in the narrow, dark corridor. He stood by the door holding her black, lime-green handled bag. She liked the way he smiled at her as she joined him. One of those big, easy smiles that made any existing tension inside her disappear.

‘Will I get to see Rio again? I’d like to thank her.’

‘Yeah, you’ll get to thank her kid.’ His smile dropped away. ‘The car’s already open. Take this.’ He handed her bag to her. ‘Put your bag on the backseat. I’ll be out as soon as I put on the alarm.’