Malicious Intent (41 page)

On the floor, he fiddles with something in his hand, then a minute later, you stand back and shoot him in the shoulder.

That evidence is indisputable.’

‘I had to do it.’ She knelt down next to Brody. ‘He said Kate was running out of air and that I’d have to kill him to save her.

That was the only way I could get to Kate in time.’ Anya realized that was only partly true and didn’t know how to explain it to Brody. Something told her to wait before telling him about Ben. Kate was not in her thoughts when she fired that second shot. Her actions could have cost Kate’s life, rather than saved it.

For the first time, Brody seemed unsure of himself. ‘Why would he want you to kill him?’

‘He had cancer and he knew it.’

‘That doesn’t matter. He could have been dying in ten minutes but if you cut short his life, it’s still murder. What happened next?’

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Anya struggled to think through the specific order of events. ‘I went to his house. No, I didn’t mean to go there. I mean –’

‘Take your time. It’s me you’re talking to, remember? I need you to tell me what happened in your own words. As though you’re telling a story in a pub.’

Brody sounded authoritative and Anya felt relief flow through her. Brody had a brilliant legal mind. She’d be free in no time. Vaughan Hunter would be the one behind bars.

‘Vaughan’s the one who abducted the women who committed suicide. The fibers in their lungs must have come from that chamber he kept them in. By depriving them of light and sound, he controlled their behavior.’

Brody took copious notes.

She continued, explaining about the games he’d played and how he had set her up to kill him.

Brody paused. ‘He told me he’d only be off work for chemotherapy for a few weeks. He’d taken on new cases. Are you saying he wanted to die?’

God. He even had Brody believing his pathological lies.

She had to make him understand. ‘Yes! This man experimented with people’s lives. Fatima Deab, Clare Matthews, he named them all.’

She tried to read Brody’s face but couldn’t. His eyes were fixed on the paper.

‘Did he admit to killing any of the women?’

Anya shook her head. ‘He did say, though, that Mohammed Deab didn’t kill Fatima.’

Brody colored in a row of boxes he’d sketched on top of the page, almost tearing the page with the pen’s pressure. ‘What did your son have to do with all this?’

‘He told me he’d taken Ben and that if I saved Kate, I’d never find out where Ben was, or what had happened to him.’

As she spoke, she realized how farfetched the story sounded.

Thank God she had it all on tape. The police hadn’t had time to listen to it yet.

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Brody continued to take notes.

‘I refused to kill him – I had to make him tell me where Ben was. He said I was killing Kate anyway, because he’d made sure a vacuum pump sucked air out of the chamber. She only had minutes left.’ Anya paused and took a deep breath. ‘Then he told me he’d murdered Ben.’ She put her face in her hands, and sobbed. ‘The bastard lied about that too. He bluffed . . .’

‘Hold it together, Anya. You’ve got to. What did you do next?’

‘I shot him again, grabbed the keys to the door, rang the ambulance and police and ran as fast as I could to find Kate. By the time I got her out, the ambulance and police had arrived.’

‘So you shot him, believing he’d killed your son?’

‘Yes.’

‘But the tape he played you wasn’t of your son?’

‘It was Ben’s voice, but he’d taped them at the Easter Show, climbing up stairs of a ride together.’

‘You gave him permission to be with your son that time?’

He sounded so judgmental.

‘Yes.’ Anya began to see how guilty she sounded. ‘But I didn’t know he’d taped Ben. Dan, Vaughan Hunter set me up to kill him. It’s what he wanted.’

‘Unfortunately, that’s a difficult thing to prove.’

‘Haven’t you heard of suicide by police?’ she pleaded.

‘Where someone threatens the police, goading them to shoot.

That’s what he did to me. He used Kate and Ben to get me angry enough to shoot him.’

A knock at the door interrupted them. Brody excused himself and disappeared outside. A few minutes later he reemerged.

‘Anya,’ he said, sitting again, ‘I have some bad news. The recorder in the study didn’t have anything in it.’

God. The bastard must have had enough strength to take the tape out when she phoned the ambulance.

‘What about the one in his pocket, with the women screaming on it?’

Brody shook his head. ‘Nothing else to corroborate your KATHRYN FOX

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story. I have to say that without sound, the video is extremely incriminating. Vaughan doesn’t even put up a fight. Realistically, we can’t plead self-defense.’

‘This can’t be happening.’ She’d left the room with Hunter bleeding from two gunshot wounds. He must have reached up and grabbed the recorder from the table and kept the tape of Kate and the others. They could be anywhere between the house and the hospital. Hunter obviously hadn’t intended them to be found. Why couldn’t Brody understand? ‘I had to shoot him, or Kate would have died.’ She had to believe that, herself.

‘Luckily, a switch in the control room of the chamber supports your contention that he knew Kate would suffocate. The switch triggered a vacuum system that extracted air from the chamber. They’re fingerprinting it now.’

The switch high up on the wall, she thought. It dawned on her that Hunter hadn’t turned on the vacuum device at all. She had when she smashed it with the keyboard. That meant that he had been bluffing about suffocating Kate, too. How could she have been so gullible?

‘My fingerprints aren’t on it,’ she said flatly.

‘To be honest, you are lucky there is nothing to confirm that Vaughan threatened your son. If it can be proved you shot him, especially in anger, you’re up for attempted murder. We’d better hope he survives.’

Anya listened in disbelief. Hunter had set her up to prove that dysfunctional people fucked up their lives at every opportunity. How could she have fucked up enough to be charged with attempted murder?

Her chest felt like lead, her heart beating so fast that her blood pressure plummeted. She lowered herself to the floor.

Hunter had never intended to abduct her. She’d imprisoned herself and become his greatest manipulative triumph.

She thought of Ben. What would happen to him with his mother in prison? Martin would guarantee that she’d never see him again.

‘I’ll organize a bail hearing for this afternoon. The fact that 338

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you called the ambulance and the police as soon as he was shot goes toward your statement that you wanted him to live.’

Yelling came from one of the nearby rooms. She trembled at the thought of going to prison.

Brody touched her shoulder.

‘I’m going to argue that you had to inflict harm to save Kate Farrer’s life, which you did. Brilliantly, I might say. The shoulder injury was masterful.’

She sighed, relieved that her friend had survived. ‘Can we get a sound technician to examine the video and see if there was audio that the equipment didn’t play?’

‘To be honest, we’d be better off without it. If they can prove you shot out of anger, the chances of mounting a credible defense disappear.’

Brody secured bail and drove Anya home. Overwhelming numbness had replaced distress at the hearing. For the moment, she was free, but she had no idea for how long.

Hunter was out of critical condition, listed as serious, under police guard in hospital. The bastard had to live, to pay for what he’d done. He’d be charged with kidnapping, deprivation of liberty at the very least. Brody felt sure he wouldn’t get bail, but doubted whether someone with gunshot wounds and a large chest tumor would ever be fit to stand trial. In case the lymphoma went into remission, kidnapping a policewoman had sealed his fate. For now, in her kitchen, Anya felt safe.

Elaine greeted her with a motherly hug and squeezed her tightly, too tightly. Anya had no idea what to say. Thankfully, Elaine didn’t ask.

Brody had decided to talk to the Director of Public Prosecutions and argue that the charges should be dropped, given that Anya’s actions had saved a police officer’s life.

‘Try to get some rest,’ he said, and pecked her on the cheek before leaving.

As Elaine poured a cup of coffee, someone came in through KATHRYN FOX

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the front door. She headed off to stop whoever it was from coming any farther.

‘I’m sorry, but Dr. Crichton is unavailable right now,’ she said in her sternest voice.

‘But I have to see her. I have to know what the police found out. So far you have refused to tell me.’

Anya walked to the hallway and faced Anoub Deab.

‘It’s okay, Elaine. I should talk to him.’

The three stood in the dimly lit space. ‘I want to know who left my sister with drugs in the toilet. What did he do to Fatima?’

‘He abducted her, kept her in a dark, silent chamber. She had no choice.’

‘You know who he is and have spoken to him?’ Anoub appeared anxious, hands plucking at the pockets of his jacket.

‘What else did he say?’

‘He knew your father didn’t kill Fatima.’

The young man clenched his fists. ‘My father
is
innocent.

They have no right to keep him in jail.’

Anya remembered what Hunter had said. If Mohammed Deab had murdered Fatima, his ego wouldn’t have let him give credit to anyone else.

‘What makes you so sure your father didn’t inject Fatima with heroin?’

‘My father knows nothing about how to filter and inject drugs.’

Anya shot Elaine a concerned glance. The secretary slowly retreated to the office. Out of the corner of her eye, Anya saw her pick up the phone, ready to dial.

Only the crime scene officer knew about the tampon filter.

It didn’t appear in the PM report the family had seen.

Anya took a step closer. ‘But you do.’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

After what she’d been through today, Anya was not going to be bullied by the Deabs.

‘Fatima didn’t use tampons. She had no need to, being too thin to menstruate. You went to the toilet block. I guess you took the drugs with you, or maybe they were already there for 340

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Fatima to use. You must have got a tampon from your girlfriend. Am I right?’

He stepped forward, one hand raised, just as his father had done in prison.

Elaine dialed the police as Anya stood firm, refusing to be intimidated. He lowered his hand.

‘You do not understand,’ he shouted. ‘She brought dishonor upon our family. That man telephoned our house and told me where she was. He knew she had that disease.’

Anya didn’t flinch. Just like his father, he was weak without thugs around him. ‘The man who took Fatima forced her to have sex. She did nothing dishonorable.’ Anya jabbed a finger into his chest. ‘Your sister was innocent and you killed her.’

‘You do not understand any of our culture. She was no longer innocent. She had to die.’ Deab edged backward toward the front door. ‘She could never marry our cousin. Everybody would know she was not a virgin.’

The rage from the past week rose again. Anya could barely stop herself from hitting him. ‘I understand perfectly well. You went there and forced her to inject poison.’

Anoub fidgeted, clenching and unclenching his fists. ‘I wanted to protect my family and show my father I know what is right and honorable.’

Anya wanted to know. ‘Was he with you when you did it?’

Anoub wiped his eyes with his forearm. ‘No. He came later to see where Fatima had died. Instead of being proud’ – he faltered – ‘my father said I had shamed him. He wanted me to leave home after the police started following us, at the funeral.’

‘You were guilty and your father was planning on taking the blame if he had to. So you used me to find out whether the police had any evidence to prove Fatima had been murdered.

You honestly thought you’d get away with it?’

Anoub didn’t answer. He turned and ran out the front door, and Anya made no attempt to stop him.

57

Two days later, Dan Brody appeared on the doorstep, hands behind his back.

Anya opened the door, fearing the worst. Why else would he have come in person?

‘Great news,’ he declared. ‘You’re in the clear. The charges have been withdrawn.’ He pulled a bottle of Bollinger from behind his back and invited himself in.

‘How?’ Anya tried to digest what he’d said. ‘When?’

Grinning, Brody explained, ‘Crime scene identified only one set of fingerprints on the switch that operated the air vacuum system in the anechoic chamber – Vaughan Hunter’s. The police believe he switched the unit on with the intention of killing Kate Farrer. Given that you shot to disable Hunter and phoned for an ambulance, the prosecutor accepted that the need to save Kate’s life justified the shooting.’ He paused, waiting for some sort of reaction, then bent closer. ‘Congratulations.

It’s over. You’re a free woman!’

‘Thank you. I can’t believe it.’ Anya threw her arms around Brody and hugged him. ‘Thank you so much.’

He reciprocated without hesitation and she felt the cold bottle in the small of her back.

‘Too early for bubbly?’

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Anya didn’t care about the time. This man was one hell of a lawyer. ‘Not today,’ she said, pulling two glasses from the dry-ing rack in the kitchen, still there from his last visit. ‘What did Hunter tell the police?’

Brody popped the cork, which hit the ceiling. Alcohol flowed down the side of the bottle and Anya caught some in one of the glasses.

‘He’s refused to speak about the incident, apart from saying he felt sorry for you because he couldn’t save you from yourself, or something like that.’

The smug bastard still thought he had won.

Anya felt relieved, but knew her release was purely due to luck and, mostly, her own naïveté. If she hadn’t switched on the vacuum system by mistake, her story would’ve had no credibility and she would have been standing trial for attempted murder.