Evil Games (37 page)

She stumbled forward but righted herself. Now she could see that Alex was only ten, fifteen feet in front.

Kim willed her legs to move quicker. She flew over the gravel path, gaining every second.

She gave one last kick and lurched forward, slamming Alex right into the ground.

SEVENTY

Kim realised she had miscalculated when her arms encircled the fabric of Alex’s sodden trousers instead of her waist. But she had hold of something and she was not letting go.

Alex gasped and fell forward. Kim hung on tightly, gathering Alex’s limbs to her body tightly like a hard-won rugby ball.

Alex was now writhing on the ground, trying to pull herself forward and out of Kim’s grasp.

Kim felt the fabric of the trousers slipping through her arms as the stockinged feet pounded her chest. Kim was grateful the shoes had been lost.

Grabbing hold of Alex’s left ankle, Kim twisted it sharply to the right.

Alex shrieked out in pain but continued moving forward. It was useless, Kim needed something else.

‘Alex … I … have the answer … that you want.’ Kim forced the words out on the short, sharp breaths she had available.

Alex stopped fighting for a second. And that was all it took.

Kim turned Alex onto her back and scrabbled up her body. She locked her knees against Alex’s ribs.

They were on the edge of a pool of light cast by the street lamp on the bridge.

Kim could feel the movement of Alex’s chest as her lungs expanded, fighting to fill them with air. Her proximity to this woman left a worse taste in her mouth than the water.

‘Get … the hell … off me,’ Alex raged.

Kim shook her head. ‘Not a chance … you damn psycho.’

Kim ached to punch and kick the life out of this woman beneath her, but first they needed to talk.

Kim felt as though they had been staring at each other across the dance floor for weeks. She wiped a strand of wet hair from her eye.

‘I have the answer you want.’

‘What are you … talking about?’

Kim smiled. ‘I left Jessica’s house two hours ago.’

‘So?’

Kim laughed. ‘Is that it?’

‘You’ve lost me.’

‘You manipulated Ruth into murdering Allan Harris. You were behind the actions of Barry Grant. Jessica Ross came to you for help, but she was far more disturbed than the authorities knew. You know what she’s done but you couldn’t give a shit. It’s about how she felt afterwards. Isn’t it?’

Kim felt Alex stiffen beneath her.

‘Were you as disappointed in Ruth as you were in Shane?’

‘I haven’t seen Ruth since …’

‘You didn’t need to. Bryant and I told you what you needed to know. You never asked to see Ruth again.’

Alex said nothing.

‘Jessica; your latest guinea pig. The woman who left your office this morning and went home to suffocate her child.’

‘Oh my God, she …’

‘Cut the bullshit, Alex. You wanted me in this game and here I am, so don’t insult me. There’s nothing I can do about it and that is exactly what you wanted.’

Kim felt the body relax beneath her.

‘If you say so.’

‘Do you want to find out what happened?’

Alex remained still. Kim could tell that she desperately wanted to know. The woman was soaked to the skin, lying on her back on a canal towpath and she was offering no resistance. Oh, she really wanted to know.

‘Ask me the question and I’ll tell you.’

Kim could see the tension in her jaw.

‘Come on, Alex. Ask the question.’

‘How does Jessica feel?’ she asked, softly.

‘Point proven. Don’t you even want to know if the baby is dead or alive? I’ll answer that, even though you don’t give a shit. Jamie is alive, Alex. But you only want to know how Jessica feels.’

Alex’s stare burned into her.

‘Well, let me tell you. She feels as guilty as hell.’

Alex bucked against her but Kim was ready. She bore every ounce of her weight down onto Alex’s stomach and lay down low, as though riding her bike, altering her own centre of gravity. As the flailing arms attempted to hit her face, she grabbed them and held them tight.

‘All your life, you’ve lived with no conscience … no accountability. You know that a sociopath can never develop a conscience and you wanted to turn that around. You wanted the power to take conscience away. All this to try and turn a vulnerable person into a dangerous sociopath, get them to carry out despicable acts without guilt.’

Alex’s mouth had formed into a hateful line. All attempts at rebuttal were gone.

Kim continued. ‘You knew you could manipulate your test subjects into doing what you wanted, but you wanted them to do it without guilt. You were arrogant enough to think you could control human nature.’

‘Good luck in court. You have no …’

Mid-sentence, Alex bucked her body upwards and dislodged Kim’s right knee.

Kim tried to push her back down but she was wriggling every limb she had. Kim reached for Alex’s right hand but Alex had got to hers first.

Seizing her bandaged palm, Alex dug her fingers in, hard. The stars in Kim’s eyes were immediate as the pain shot as far as her head.

She tried to break her hand free, but Alex squeezed it again.

Kim felt the sickness rise up in her stomach.

Alex squeezed again and Kim fell sideways in agony.

In one swift movement, Alex was astride her and the position of power had been reversed.

‘Right, Kimmy, now it’s time to talk about you.’

SEVENTY-ONE

Bryant stormed into the squad room.

‘Tell me one of you has heard from her?’

Dawson and Stacey shook their heads.

Bryant took out his phone.

‘Christ, Bryant, we’ve probably killed her battery with missed calls.’

Bryant tried again anyway. As the call rang out, he had an ominous sensation.

A feeling of trepidation rolled around in his stomach that was mirrored by both of his colleagues. He had the inexplicable feeling that he’d let her down.

He had known that Kim was still investigating Doctor Thorne, because she was unable to leave it alone. So many times she had tried to speak to Bryant about her suspicions and he’d blown her off; told her she was imagining things. He knew he’d underestimated her resolve. In Kim’s world, no one got away.

And now no one knew where she was.

‘Should we go looking?’ Stacey asked.

‘And start where?’ he asked.

The three of them running around the West Midlands looking for their boss was bound to get back to Woody, and that would not be a good thing for Kim.

‘Shit, guys, we’ve just gotta trust her.’

Perhaps they were worrying for nothing. She was entitled to turn off her phone. Have some time to herself. It was a lovely thought but not one he could actually believe.

He just knew his friend was in trouble and there was nothing he could do to help.

SEVENTY-TWO

‘Don’t you fucking dare call me that,’ Kim screamed at her.

Alex offered a smile in response, finding this position far more comfortable. She preferred to be on top looking down.

Now she was going to have some fun.

‘Sorry, that’s a term used only by your mother.’

Alex was suitably rewarded by the utter hatred she saw reflected in her adversary’s eyes. Love, hate, so clearly entwined. She’d take it.

Kim bucked and thrashed against her, but she had the thigh muscles of a horse rider and held Kim firm. All the time Kim had been talking, Alex had known if she could just get on top, the game was hers for the taking.

Violence had never been her forte. And physical combat was not where Kim’s weaknesses lay. Alex had no wish to break Kim’s bones. Because eventually they would heal and she would remain unaffected by their game. No, the frailties of the woman beneath her were deliciously set in the past. Playing around with the mind was her art and it was time to break the detective in half.

‘You intrigue me, Kim. You’re highly intelligent but isolated within yourself. You constantly fight against the life that fate had mapped out for you.’

‘Fabulous insight but can we get to it? I have things to do.’

‘Sarcasm, Kim, your usual defence of choice. But don’t you think about that all the time? Every day you battle against what you should have been.’

‘And, what should I have been, Freud?’

‘An alcoholic, a drug addict. The fact that the only person you’ve ever truly loved died so horrendously right beside you should have produced a bitter, mean individual full of hate. Your early life experiences at the mercy of your own mother …’

‘Is this your idea of a pissing contest, Alex?’ Kim asked, turning her body to the side.

Alex readjusted her position. She leaned forward, pinning Kim to the floor by her forearms, forming the woman’s body into a cross.

Their faces were much closer now.

Alex paused to enjoy the hatred. She lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘I’ve read the book and I understand the way you live. You will never trust another human being for as long as you live, and who could blame you? Your brother …’

‘Leave him out of this, you fu— ’

‘Mikey was the only person you’ve ever loved and he was taken from you by your mother. She abused and neglected you both until he could bear it no more. And yet you still call your mother once a month, don’t you, Kimmy?’

Alex allowed herself to enjoy the triumph that was sweeping through her. This woman was so badly scarred by the past that any trip back could break her forever.

‘Your hatred for her is what keeps you together. Every achievement, every victory is two fingers to her. You don’t even ask why she did the things she did. You can’t afford to. If you did, you might be forced to forgive. So she must be completely evil, right?’

‘You don’t know anything about …’

‘I know your mother has violent episodes right before every parole hearing. Yes, Kimmy, your mother keeps herself locked up for you. It is the only gift she can give her daughter. So, how does that compute with the image you’ve built?’

No response from the eyes. Not even a flicker or a blink.

Alex was thrilled that the bullets were hitting their target. Every single one of them.

‘The bruises and hospital visits are documented in the book. Your mother’s delusions persuaded her that Mikey was the devil and she constantly tried to kill him. You had to watch constantly just to keep him alive.’

Alex smiled to herself as the eyes so close to her own began to empty of emotion. Kim was travelling back to the past and Alex would happily take her there.

‘And yet in the end you could do nothing but watch him slip away. You lay beside him with a few crackers and a bit of Coke. You rationed those supplies; fed Mikey but took little for yourself, but it still wasn’t enough, was it? You told him it would be okay, that someone would come, but they didn’t, did they? And you lay there holding him as he quietly lost his fight for life.

‘How long did you lie beside his dead body before help came, Kim?’

Alex expected her adversary to buck but there was no movement from between her thighs. The gaze stared unseeing right past her. Alex knew that she had broken this woman. She had played on her weaknesses like a violin. Not a flicker of movement or emotion was present. She had taken Kim back to the past and left her there. Alex prayed that she never made it back.

Kim Stone would never be the same again.

SEVENTY-THREE

Kim kept her gaze on the street lamp as her index finger continued to move.

Just … one … more … there it was. The safety pin was dislodged from the bandage.

Kim refocused her eyes and smiled. ‘Was that really your best shot, Doc?’

She enjoyed the confusion on Alex’s face for just a second before she whipped the bandaged hand up from the ground.

Her palm met with Alex’s neck. Kim felt the pin enter the skin and she pushed her hand in closer, burrowing the point as far as she could.

Alex screamed out in pain and attempted to fall to the side, but Kim formed a grip around her neck and twisted herself out from beneath.

She raised herself to a standing position, dragging Alex up with her. Alex’s hand clawed at her fingers but Kim would not let go.

Her grip held the woman upright as she looked deeply into fearful eyes.

‘I expected so much more from you, Alex.’

Alex tried again to pry Kim’s hand away.

‘But I wanted you standing for this.’

Kim drew back her left hand and, using every ounce of strength she possessed, she launched it forward into Alex’s face.

The force of the punch pitched Alex backwards, forcing Kim’s right hand to jolt free.

Kim staggered forward and towered above her. Ready, just in case she got up.

A movement to her left caught her eye. A figure was running towards her.

‘Kim … Kim … what the hell …?’

David stopped short of the inert form lying on the ground.

Kim’s legs gave a wobble of fatigue and David reached out to steady her.

Kim shook her head. ‘Get Dougie, he’s on the ladder.’

David took one more look at her and then headed in the direction she’d pointed.

Kim knew that Dougie would have done exactly what she’d told him to do. Out of the water he’d have been vulnerable and Kim had needed all of Alex’s attention on her.

Dougie would be cold, wet, frightened and fatigued. But alive.

Kim sank to the floor beside Alex, watched as the blue eyes opened. A trickle of blood ran down her neck and into her hair.

The battle was over.

Kim stared into the darkness, relieved to see two figures emerge.

‘You know I’ll never let you go,’ Alex said, quietly.

Kim watched David guide Dougie onto solid ground as she spoke. ‘And that has been your undoing.’

The two figures appeared beside her.

‘Alexandra Thorne, I am arresting you on suspicion of the attempted murder of Douglas Parry. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’