Grind Their Bones (18 page)

Chapter 58

Madeleine spread out the papers that she’d found in her husband’s locked drawers across the dining table and waited for him to arrive home. He’d texted her just over an hour ago complaining about heavy traffic and indicated that he would soon be back. The girls were now being happily entertained by a series of Disney films and a large bowl of home-made caramel popcorn out of the way in one of the bedrooms. The delay gave her plenty of time to process what she had discovered and to consider her options about how she wanted to tackle this problem, but her thoughts were a whirlwind and she still couldn’t settle on exactly what to do for the best.

Finally, when she was on her third cup of coffee and beginning to feel jittery with the effects of the caffeine, she heard the sound of the car approaching, gravel crunching underneath the weight of the wheels.

She didn’t move even when he was in the hallway and calling out to announce his arrival, but he soon located her and took in the sight of his private papers laid out on display.

‘I can explain, Madeleine.’

He didn’t look angry at her intrusion and his first reaction was to start offering excuses, which was strange. She’d have bet money on a violent reaction. Perhaps the presence of their grandchildren elsewhere in the house gave him additional pause for thought?

‘’I’m listening.’

She sipped from her cup and kept her eyes locked on him, scanning for signs that he might suddenly flip.

‘They’re for a project that I’m working on for a client. I had to ensure that they were locked away to preserve client confidentiality, and to avoid this.’

He gestured towards the contents of the table.

‘Bullshit. We’ve been together for far too long for me to fall for that old line anymore, dear. Now try again with the truth this time.’

Her voice was harsh and unforgiving, he’d sworn after the last time never to do this again and she’d believed him when he’d begged on his knees with tears in his eyes and promised that he could change. The same expression of contrition was creeping into his eyes now, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel sorry for him.

‘Well? Are you going to make me tell you what I believe, or are you going to be big enough to just admit it?’

The first flare of rage passed over his expression, but he forced it back away.

‘Go on, tell me what you believe.’

His reply was hoarse and he clenched his fists involuntarily at his sides staring directly at her.

‘There’s an assortment of paraphernalia in here detailing places you’ve been, things that you’ve bought and plans that you’ve made. Together they tell me that you’re seeing other women again.’

She turned her face to one side, blinking back tears.

‘Have you forgotten already how that ended before? Have you completely blanked the girl from your mind?’

She was growing scarlet with emotion, her voice becoming a fierce whisper. She put down her cup and dabbed at her eyes with a piece of scrunched up tissue.

‘No. I haven’t,’ he replied softly.

‘Well I bloody well hope not, because I did things for you on that night that I would never have done for anybody else. Even knowing what you’d been doing with her I still helped. You swore to me on our children’s lives that you wouldn’t put yourself in that position again.’

She paused, remembering the image of the lifeless girl in their bathtub and her naked husband standing over the battered body. He’d been a young man then, barely out of his twenties, and she’d suspected that there were other women in his life but never expected to meet one like this. I didn’t mean to. He’d said with wide fearful eyes, and, not knowing about the others, she’d believed him.

Chapter 59

Unable to contact him in any other way, I resorted to staking out Lee’s house at night after my shift had finished. I borrowed one of Hallie and Mike’s cars for the task after giving an awkward explanation, a nearly new smart black Volvo SUV, so he wouldn’t recognise my own car and drive away immediately, and settled in for what might be a long wait feeling vaguely like a love struck teenager stalking her celebrity of choice. To pass the time I listened to Zane Lowe’s show on Radio One, enjoying the enthusiasm and playful banter, and discovering a beautiful atmospheric new track by Clare Maguire called Ain’t Nobody that held my attention rapt as it was played an unprecedented three times back to back.

‘Ain’t nobody can love me like you do…’

I
             
felt like the artist was singing the story of my current pain and turmoil directly to me, and I blinked away a tidal wave of self pity.

When the track finished its third time through I snapped back out of it and checked my phone for messages out of habit. Ignoring texts about compensation I might be entitled to and banks I could claim money back from, before I found one from a familiar number that made my heart begin to race.

‘My car’s in for a service and I’m watching you from the living room. I take it you’re not going to sit out their all night? Lee.’

I looked back up at the property, which was still in darkness despite the fact that night had well and truly fallen, feeling utterly self conscious and wondering how long he’d been aware of my presence. A stab of pure anger at being left sitting here followed hot on the heels of the awkwardness, and I had to take a couple of deep calming breaths before I got out of the car, reminding myself that I was here on a peace mission not for another fight.

It was colder than I remembered outside away from the comfort of the Volvo’s efficient heater, and I fought the urge to shiver, keeping my posture upright and my expression neutral. I crossed the dark road feeling detached from myself, all of a sudden hyper-aware of every single aspect of my movements. The streetlights bathed everything in a supernatural yellow glow, and I looked up at the sudden noise of an approaching engine revving hard as I reached the pavement outside Lee’s house. I found myself frowning and squinting but not able to see anything besides the single bright headlight of a motorbike, so I continued on my way and ignored the recklessness of speeding along a quiet residential road for now.

Lee spared me the indignity of knocking and waiting for an answer, opening the door before I got there. Not quite a big hug and an all is forgiven, let’s go to bed, but a start at least, and for that I was embarrassingly grateful at this particular moment in time. He was unshaven and there were dark circles around his eyes. It looked like he’d been crying. I opened my mouth to speak, praying for something poignant and free from accusations or recriminations to come out, but the noise of the motorbike engine gave way to the sound of hard breaking, the screech of rubber on tarmac, forcing my attention back towards the road.

I didn’t see the hessian sack arcing through the air until it struck me hard in the chest, the hard heavy item inside knocking me to the ground and winding me badly. But I caught sight of the salute from the leather-clad helmeted figure on the bike as he accelerated back away from the kerbside and rounded the corner. Lee was beside me almost instantly, all antagonism between us temporarily forgotten, helping me back up to a sitting position and urging me to lean forward while I gasped and tried to catch my breath.

‘I think there’s a brick or something inside the bag, my ribs are hurting really bad.’

I managed, wheezing as I began to recover, and seeing Lee lift it up and turn it over to empty out the contents.

It took a fraction longer than it should have done for me to recognise the item that fell out, and I covered my mouth with my hands in shock when I did. The bag contained a severed head that I assumed must have once belonged to Elizabeth Perry. But its hair had been cut, dyed and curled in a passable approximation of my own style.

Chapter 60

It felt surreal lying down on the comfy settee in Lee’s neat minimalist living room with its familiar expanse of magnolia and cream colours, now that the head had been recovered as evidence and we’d both agreed to have statements submitted by mid-morning. I couldn’t help noting that there were still no signs of photographs and other personal items to advertise that a real human being lived here. I’d lost count of the number of occasions on which I’d teased him about his decorative choices, and they hadn’t made one jot of difference anyway. Lee was happy with the canvas blank for now.

‘Here, drink this, and for the record, I still think you should get checked out at the hospital.’

He handed me a good measure of malt whisky in a small tumbler and I sat up painfully to accept it from him.

‘Thanks.’

I took a sip and swallowed it straight down, enjoying the warm glowing feeling that followed.

‘I’m okay now though. It was just something of a surprise to get hit by a head that wasn’t attached to somebody.’

I raised an eyebrow and he let the smile that he’d been holding back spread across his face.

‘Still think I’m the killer?’

He delivered the question nonchalantly, but his smile faded back away and I saw the pain behind his eyes.

‘I never thought you were the killer, not even for one second. I was just working on something crazy that I stupidly didn’t share with you from the outset, and the result was relationship Armageddon when you stumbled across it.’

I shifted into a more upright position, wincing at the bruised feeling in my chest as I did so, but wanting him to see that I was sincere now that I had his attention.

‘Think about it Lee. Even ignoring the obvious fact that you’re not a frothing at the mouth psychopath with a deep seated hatred of women, you don’t match the description or any of the profiles that we’ve worked from, good and bad. I trust you implicitly and I’d stake my career on you being straight down the line in every aspect of your life. That’s just one of the reasons why I want you in mine.’

I took another sip of the smoky whisky and cast my eyes down to let him process what I was saying without scrutiny.

‘I’ve had my transfer request accepted and the notice to my landlord on this place has been put in. He’s already got plans to let it out to his niece…this is all coming too late.’

I watched him thinking about the logistics and the hassle of trying to undo what had been put into motion.

‘You really hurt me, Za. And that was after you promised not to keep things from me about the investigation again. You don’t do that to people that you trust and care about. At least not if you want to keep them close to you.’

His grey eyes rested on me solemnly, and for a moment he looked much older and sadder than his years should have allowed.

‘I’m sorry.’

Simple words but I meant them with all of my heart.

‘I know you are, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m now effectively homeless and jobless unless I follow through on the Birmingham move.’

He reached out for the bottle of scotch labelled Highland Park that was resting on a side table and topped up both of our glasses.

‘The list you saw was me building on the theory that the Grey Man is close to me in some way, perhaps even closer than we’ve ever considered before. It started out as simply a list of offenders that I’d arrested in the past, but we both know how that panned out when it was looked at in the first place. So I extended it to include a much broader cross section of the men in my life, including people like you and Mike, even though you’re obviously not involved in these offences. The intention was to quickly scrub your name back off as soon as it could be demonstrated that you couldn’t possibly have been there, but I wanted to do that without coming out and questioning you because I didn’t want to ruin things for us. Obviously that plan worked out spectacularly.’

I studiously avoided mentioning that I’d spoken to Mike and Hallie about the case over him for now. One revelation at a time seemed wiser.

‘Okay. But I’m serious about the home and work situations, and they might not be possible to undo.’

He rubbed at his eyes with his thumb.

‘I think I can sort out both of those things for you, Lee. I’ll speak to Birmingham Central CID in the morning and iron it all out, and on the home front, you could always move in with me…’ 

Chapter 61

The Grey Man lay in bed beside his sleeping wife and watched mental images of his crimes playing out across the plain white ceiling above. For once he remained uncritical of his own performance, allowing the pictures to run like videos without analysing their content in detail, the sole occupant of a private and elaborate cinema straight out of hell. He was calm again, despite a tiresome and infuriatingly long evening of listening to Madeleine prattle on and on about a crime that was so long ago and so utterly unimportant to him now that he could barely summon up more than a couple  of freeze frames of the girl. Even then they were almost devoid of colour and detail, her face and hair colour now lost in the recesses of his mind along with many others.

He sat up carefully, not wanting to find himself subject of further scrutiny, and paused to make sure she was genuinely asleep, satisfied when he saw no change in the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest. How easy it would be to place a pillow over her face now and keep it there until her struggling stopped.