Evil Games (38 page)

Kim pushed herself to her feet. The longer she stayed on the ground the harder it would be to get up.

Sirens sounded in the distance.

She looked at David. ‘You?’

He nodded.

Her own phone was somewhere at the bottom of the canal.

She stepped forward and stood before Dougie. Kim placed her left hand against his cheek. He didn’t pull away.

‘Thank you for trusting that I would save you. I know how difficult that was.’

His eyes continued to stare up to the left but his right hand rose up and covered her own.

A surge of emotion flooded into her body. That was good enough for her.

The contact was broken as footsteps sounded from all directions. Beams of torchlight fell upon them. Kim shielded her eyes.

‘Marm …’

Kim was delighted to see her old friend Sergeant Jarvis. Their disagreement at the crime scene of a rapist seemed such a very long time ago.

Kim pointed to Alex. ‘She’s to be taken to the station. The charge is attempted murder and she’s been read her rights.’

He nodded as the two officers reached down and helped Alex to her feet.

‘And these two need to be taken home. Any questions can wait until morning.’

David stepped forward. ‘Kim … I don’t know …’

Kim held up her hand. ‘Just get Dougie home and get him dry.’

David nodded and then smiled.

‘That’s a powerful left hook you’ve got there.’

Kim shrugged and held up her hand. The knuckles were swollen and reddened from the blow.

She stared at her hand for a moment and a new sickness began to form.

‘Oh … shit,’ she said to no one in particular as the picture of the Dunn girls came into her mind.

Now she knew who had been in the room.

SEVENTY-FOUR

Kim dismounted the bike and groaned into the darkness. Today was turning into a day without end. She couldn’t even recall the last time she’d seen the station but right now it was a welcoming sight. As was the man that stood waiting at the entrance.

Sodden clothes still clung to her body, sending the occasional shiver right down to her bones.

Her body screamed with every forward movement. A pool of blood had surfaced on the fabric now wrapped loosely around her hand.

Kim dreamt of a long hot bath and a rest on the sofa with Barney, but for now it would just have to wait.

‘Jesus, Kim …’

She noticed the use of her name.

He looked her up and down with horror and opened his mouth to speak.

She held up her hand. ‘Really … no.’

He nodded his head and the hundred jokes about her appearance died in his mouth.

‘Are they here?’ she asked as he held the door open.

She had called him with instructions from David’s phone.

‘Yeah, but I still don’t understand what …’

‘You will,’ Kim offered. She was not going to explain herself twice.

Bryant followed her lead as she revisited a room she’d stood in before.

Again, she followed the maze, but unlike the last time, both constables were standing.

Both were dressed in sweatshirts and jeans.

‘Almost, boys. You almost had me stumped,’ she said, leaning against a locker. Her body was glad of the support.

‘But not quite.’

Jenks’s face turned crimson. The trembling in his legs was visible through his jeans. He lowered himself to the bench.

The older one, Whiley, stared past her. A slackness was pulling at his jaw.

‘Was that the intention, when you punched him? That his case would never get to court?’

Jenks hesitated for a second. ‘No … I just saw red … I thought about those little girls …’

‘Shut up, Jenks. I wasn’t talking to you.’ She turned to the constable who faced retirement.

‘Whiley, I’m talking to you.’

Every spot of colour drained from his face.

‘It wasn’t Jenks that punched him, but you let him take the fall. You hit him and then got your colleague to say he’d done it because of your retirement.’

She turned once again to Jenks. ‘Is that why he asked you to do it? Did he tell you he just couldn’t control himself because of those little girls?’

Jenks nodded, his eyebrows drawn together as he looked from her to Whiley.

‘You’ve been had, mate,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘It’s got nothing to do with his retirement. It’s because he was in the room.’

Jenks’s mouth dropped open and he began to shake his head. Kim did not have the energy to convince him.

There was one thing she needed to know.

She dragged her body to the other side of the room and stood inches away from Whiley.

She stared right into his eyes. And there she saw the truth.

‘Did you touch them?’

‘I swear … it wasn’t me … I don’t know …’

‘Open your locker, Whiley.’

Realisation dawned in his eyes.

She held out her hand. ‘Either open it yourself or give me the key.’

His trembling hand snaked out of his pocket.

Kim took the key and turned it in the lock.

The cramped space held shirts and jumpers hanging from the bar. The floor of the locker was piled high with boots and high-visibility equipment. But it was the top shelf of the locker she reached for.

Her hand landed on a book. She took it out and showed it to Bryant.

‘
The Longest Road
,’ he said, shaking his head.

‘You already knew him,’ Jenks shouted. ‘He called you by your first name when we attended that call.’ The disbelief in his voice was clear. ‘I never clocked it, but you fucking well knew him.’

Jenks rose from the bench but Bryant was already beside him.

‘You fucking bastard,’ Jenks screamed, around Bryant.

Kim turned back to Whiley.

‘I ask once more. Did you ever touch them?’

Kim thought the emotion inside her was spent. But as her knee raised slowly to his groin, she knew there was always a little bit more.

‘Did you touch …’

‘No … no … no …’ he said, wiping the beads of sweat from his chin. ‘I just wanted to see. I was curious … I swear I didn’t …’

Kim stepped away, the nausea too high in her throat. One more word and that would be it.

‘Sergeant,’ she called to the doorway.

Again, Sergeant Travis appeared.

‘Busy night, Marm,’ he said, with a smile behind his eyes.

She offered him a cordial nod. Now they understood each other.

‘Please get this disgusting thing out of my sight.’

‘With pleasure, Marm.’

Kim collapsed onto the bench beside Jenks.

His hands still trembled with rage.

‘You’ll get a slap on the arse for your part in it, Jenks. But you will have a career after this.’

‘Thank you. But how did you know?’

‘Yeah, Guv, how did you know?’ Bryant repeated.

She took Jenks’s right hand and turned it over. ‘You were holding your head in your hands. No swelling, no marks when I came into the locker room just after it happened. Whiley kept his hands in his pockets.’

‘Is that all?’ Bryant asked, rubbing his chin.

‘Not quite. When you mentioned the name of that book, I knew I’d either heard it or seen it somewhere.’

Kim didn’t mention the reading glasses, or the fact that during the visit for the domestic incident Whiley had been quick to remove Dunn to the kitchen and that he’d taken the liberty of sending the girls to bed. No wonder Wendy Dunn had never clocked it. He was a bloody police officer.

She turned back to Jenks. ‘Whiley caught me up in the corridor after the assault, just to reinforce what you’d done. He also hinted to me that you knew where the property was. I knew it was someone the girls had already met, and once I realised that you didn’t hit him, there was only one person’s actions left to question. Whiley has never been violent in his career and Dunn is not the first abuser he’s met, so there had to be more to it than that.’

‘Jeez, Guv, talk about a leap of …’

‘I’ll leave you to get all the details. You get to interview him.’

‘It will be my absolute pleasure.’

Kim pushed herself to a standing position. ‘But can you do me a huge favour first?’

‘Course.’

‘Grab your car and just take me home.’

SEVENTY-FIVE

Kim stood before Mikey’s grave, seeking answers to the questions still rattling around in her head.

Woody had insisted she take a week off. And for once she’d offered no argument.

The first couple of days had been spent sleeping and walking the dog. Eventually Barney had stopped responding to the jangle of the lead and had steadfastly refused to move from the sofa.

Initially, she had been unable to focus on the bike and had spent many hours staring at the manuals and diagrams, unable to decipher even the simplest instruction. Three days ago she had managed to fish the broken nut from the exhaust manifold.

The encounter on the canal side had left her with too many questions. Everything in her past was separated, boxed and labelled in her mind. It was a corner of her brain she did not visit, yet Alex had stormed in there and decimated the packaging, leaving memories and emotions strewn around.

For a moment there Kim had been tempted. Part of her had wanted to follow Alex into the darkness. To let it all go, to give up the fight. To dissolve into the memories of Mikey and the first six years of her life. But she hadn’t because then Alex would have got away.

It had taken a while to fold everything away and reapply the tape. In the days since, Kim had wondered how tenuous her grip on sanity really was. She guessed that the time was coming to make a decision. Either open the compartments of her mind completely and examine the contents, or close them even tighter. She knew the consequences of both actions. To let it all out would consume her. There might be no way back to life as she knew it.

If she nailed the boxes shut she would be safe from the darkness; she would maintain her sanity and be protected, but condemned to a life of loneliness and mistrust.

Her feelings towards Alex were no less complicated. She hated the doctor for her ruthlessness in playing with people’s lives and emotions and yet was fascinated by the woman’s ability to do it. She hated the doctor for exposing all of her darkest fears, yet admired the woman’s skill in almost destroying her.

Kim took a deep breath and folded herself slowly beside the cold stone. Her right hand traced the name of her dead twin. Emotion gathered in her throat as she sent him a silent message.

‘Sweetheart, I’m sorry but I’m not ready for you yet. I miss you every single day and when I’m strong enough I promise I’ll remember every minute we had together.

A movement to her left caught her eye. A familiar figure walked up the hill towards her.

Her voice was no more than a whisper. ‘But for now, I’d like to introduce you to my friend.’

Bryant reached her and held out a takeaway coffee.

Kim nodded towards the headstone. ‘This is my twin brother. He died.’

Bryant turned his head to the grave.

One of Bryant’s best assets was knowing when to ask questions and when to keep quiet.

She stepped away from the grave and sat on the bench.

Bryant sat beside her. ‘Kim …’

‘Tell me where we are,’ she said, taking a sip of her drink.

‘Okay, Whiley has confessed to being in the basement with Dunn. He claimed it was his only time and the recordings supported his words. With his testimony on top of the rest of the evidence Dunn is not going to walk, despite the smack in the face.’

‘Did you go and see Ruth?’

Bryant nodded. ‘By the time I’d told her everything she practically begged for the opportunity to testify against the doctor. A plea is being worked out in Ruth’s favour. She’ll serve time but will still have a whole chunk of life left to live.’

About Ruth, Alex had been correct. She would never have committed the crime without intervention.

Kim already knew that Jessica had been re-diagnosed with puerperal psychosis and had been removed from her family and placed into residential care. As a favour to Kim, Ted had agreed to treat her and Kim felt confident she would get the best possible help.

She’d called Sarah Lewis herself. The ‘For Sale’ sign had been removed from the front of the house. The small family could finally put down roots.

‘Barry Grant is off life support but still in intensive care. The prognosis is mixed. His memory was impaired and the irony that he’ll never walk again is not lost on anyone.’

She’d spoken to David, who had visited Shane in prison. Shane had been uncommunicative and had revealed nothing of the events that had sent him back to prison. He had instructed David not to visit him again.

During her conversations with David he had dropped not so subtle hints about his wish to see her restoration project. Although Kim hadn’t invited him around yet, the possibility hadn’t been completely discounted.

So, most of Alex’s victims were doing well, but with regard to herself, Kim wasn’t quite so sure. Externally, her façade was back. She was ready to work cases; she was sleeping badly and drinking more caffeine than was good for her.

‘Okay, thanks for the update, now get lost and go back to your family.’

‘You do know this isn’t your property and you can’t really tell me when to leave.’

‘Yeah, but what if I say please?’

‘I’d put you into the recovery position and call for a paramedic.’

‘Almost funny,’ she groaned.

He stood. ‘But seeing as you asked like a normal person. I’ll leave you in peace.’

He took two steps and turned. ‘Kim, thank you.’

‘Yeah, whatever, now piss off.’

He laughed as he turned and walked away.

She stood and surveyed the view over the heart of the Black Country. It was not a beautiful vista. It was a basin that had more than its fair share of poverty and crime.

A smile tugged at her lips as she remembered that somewhere down there was a baby boy whose heart still beat strongly within his dinosaur pyjamas. Like Kim herself, baby Jamie had fought back from the brink and won.

LETTER FROM ANGELA

First of all, I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read
Evil Games.
I hope you enjoyed the second instalment of Kim's journey and hope you feel the same way I do. Whilst not always perfect she is someone you would want fighting your corner.