Woman in Black (38 page)

Jessica stood thinking about her next move. Should she return to the station with what she was holding? It appeared Cole was going to be unavailable for most of the day and, although she was confident she knew what was going on, Jessica wasn’t completely sure.

After a few moments’ thought, she took the photographs downstairs, entering the kitchen where Charlie was sitting on a stool typing on a laptop computer that was on the main counter.

He glanced up as she walked in. ‘Did you get what you needed?’

‘Yes, here you go.’ Jessica held out one of the photos and Charlie took it, looking at the picture then up to Jessica, clearly confused. ‘What about these?’ She handed him two more photos which he took, glimpsed at and then put on the counter.

‘I’m not sure what you’re showing me,’ he said.

Jessica smiled thinly. ‘Is there something you want to tell me, Charlie?’

‘Like what?’

There were a few moments of silence which Jessica let hang before continuing. ‘Given it was Sunday yesterday, it took a bit of doing but I managed to speak to a couple of your former colleagues at Bennett Piper. It wasn’t the first time I’d talked to them but this time I knew the right questions to ask.’ Charlie shuffled nervously but didn’t move from his stool. ‘This time I asked about how you quit your job and I’m sure you know what the reply was.’

The man shook his head. ‘I sent them an email, so what?’

Jessica nodded. ‘That’s right; an email to your boss and a couple of text messages to your other colleagues. If I had known that all those weeks ago, it might have had me thinking straight away.’

‘About what?’ Charlie reached forward, closing the lid of his computer.

‘About the fact no one I can find has seen you in person since you announced you were moving back up north to see your brother again.’

Charlie was silent for a moment, as if thinking how to reply. ‘I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.’

Jessica nodded and picked up the pictures the man had put on the counter. ‘What were you like as a kid, Charlie?’ He shrugged as if not knowing what she was getting at. She held up the photos one by one for him to see. They were the same ones she had looked at upstairs a couple of weeks ago before finding the one of the six men on holiday. ‘You liked football, yes?’ she asked, showing him the one of the young boy with a ball.

‘So what? Lots of people do.’

‘Were you a good angler? I’m not sure I would have guessed you were a keen fisherman.’ Charlie looked at the second photo and shrugged. ‘What about building sandcastles with your brother? Do you remember that?’

‘I have no idea what you’re getting at.’

Jessica picked up a fourth photo from the counter. It was the one of the two boys doing their homework together while sitting across from each other. ‘Even your body language since I walked in has told me everything I needed to know. When you were eating as I came in, the toast was in your left hand. When you shut the laptop lid, you did it with your left hand.’

Charlie started to stand but Jessica raised her voice and he almost cowered under it, sitting back down. ‘How about this photo of you building sandcastles? The older, blonder child – Charlie – is using his right hand while Ed, the younger dark-haired kid, is using his left. In the one of you doing your homework, Charlie, the older, blonder child is using his right hand while Ed, the younger dark-haired kid, is using his left.’

The man shuffled nervously but seemed transfixed by what she was saying. ‘How about young Charlie kicking a football with his right foot? Or young Charlie holding a fishing rod with his right hand? And that’s where the problem is because, in the photo of Ed having a drink with Sam Weston on holiday, just like the ones from when he was young, he is using his
left
hand to hold his drink.’

The man winced at the sound of Sam’s name. ‘You know her name, don’t you,
Edward
?’ He said nothing but Jessica stood, continuing to speak. ‘It wasn’t Edward’s hand we found first of all, it was Charlie’s. You killed your brother, then took his identity, acting as if you were only just returning from London. I checked the dates and Charlie’s colleagues say he left his job a fortnight before his hand was found. When I spoke to you on the phone, you said you were coming up to Manchester on a train. But you were already here because you’re Edward and you never left.’

The man shook his head. ‘I don’t know why you’re saying all of this. I use my right and left hands to do things.’

‘It’s not about being right- or left-handed. That was just what got me thinking. The hand we’ve been thinking of as Edward’s this whole time was never identified by anyone because we didn’t have anything else to match it to – except for when you came along and gave us a mouth swab. But all that proved was that the hand belonged to your brother. You reported “Edward” as missing, even though you
are
Edward. When we matched the DNA and you told us you were Charlie, we made the obvious conclusion we had found Edward’s hand. But the DNA was always going to be a match because you
are
brothers. We just didn’t know which one had lost a hand and which one hadn’t.’

Jessica stopped for a breath before continuing but he didn’t attempt to respond. ‘From the photos, you look fairly similar,’ she added. ‘Because Charlie had been out of the area for such a long time, all you had to do was dye your hair and you would easily pass as him as long as none of Charlie’s colleagues in London ever saw you.’

The man’s voice was level and had a small undercurrent of menace that wasn’t lost on Jessica. ‘Even if all of this were true, how would you prove it?’

Jessica was feeling a little nervous and wondered if she should have involved officers higher-up from the station. She ignored his question and continued. ‘I still don’t know everything. I don’t know which brother contacted the other about reconciliation but I guess it was you because it was the only way you could make the plan work. I assume the figure in black on the cameras was also you? You’re roughly the same size and shape but the same thing always confused us; the way the person walked in those shoes. I’ve not figured it all out yet but there were women’s shoes in one of the bedrooms upstairs at the bottom of a wardrobe. Considering the only people who lived here were you, your brother and your father, I don’t know why there would be the need for female things. There were so many random items around it didn’t register at the time but there were women’s heeled shoes in there plus other female clothes in boxes. When I first came here, your neighbour told me he didn’t like to stick his nose into other people’s business but, when I visited him this morning and asked what he meant, he said he’d often seen a man in women’s clothing coming in and out of the house late at night. He was pretty sure it was the young man who owned the house but didn’t want to say anything about it. There’s no law about cross-dressing but I can’t help but wonder if that’s why you were so confident about walking in heels?’

He said nothing, narrowing his eyes but Jessica was on a roll. ‘As for why you made everything so public with leaving the hands, I’m not really sure. It was you who gave me the leads from the photographs too. I think maybe you wanted everyone to find out what the other men had done when they’d attacked Samantha. Perhaps she was your first proper girlfriend and you never recovered from it?’

‘You don’t know anything.’ His tone was hard to judge – firm but unthreatening.

‘That’s what I’m saying,’ Jessica said. ‘I really don’t. I have no idea why you killed your brother but all I can come up with is that it was the only way to make your plan work. You’d fallen out with him over who owned the house so it got that out of the way while also confusing us. As Edward, all you’d have to do is sign the house over to your brother, who you planned to kill, then set the wheels in motion. I don’t really know why you sent me fingers but perhaps that was part of the game? I also don’t know how you managed to subdue the other men because they are almost all bigger than you.’

‘You’re so wrong.’

‘Am I?’

‘Yes and I can prove it.’ The man quickly got to his feet, surprising Jessica with his movement. She took an involuntary half-step backwards but he didn’t move towards her, instead stepping towards the kitchen door, holding it open for her. ‘Come and see.’

Jessica was a little confused. She realised she didn’t know everything but felt sure her explanation about which brother was which was correct. Without really thinking, she walked towards the door, ducking ever so slightly under the man’s arms and going through it. It was then Jessica realised she had made a terrible mistake as something sharp puntured her neck and the man pushed her to the ground.

Jessica swung violently with her legs as the man lunged down on top of her, sitting across her midriff and pinning her arms to the floor. She heard a clattering noise as something bounced to the ground. He was a lot stronger than she would have thought and no matter how much she fought, she couldn’t escape his grasp. His eyes locked on hers; they were fierce and staring, although he seemed completely in control of himself. ‘Just go with it,’ he said.

As Jessica tried to struggle, she could feel her arms and legs heavy with the effort. Her mind was alert and but her body wasn’t reacting to her commands. She didn’t know how much time had elapsed while he was on top of her but it didn’t feel long before he stood. Jessica couldn’t move her neck far but saw him crouch and pick up an empty syringe from the floor. She tried to move but her limbs weren’t responding.

‘I really didn’t think that would work,’ he said, a mixture of confusion and amusement on his face.

THIRTY-FIVE

Jessica wanted to speak but her lips wouldn’t move and she could feel a small amount of drool around the corner of her mouth. The man went into the kitchen then returned without the syringe. He picked Jessica up and leant her against the wall so she was in a sitting position.

‘Sorry about that,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you to swallow your tongue or something stupid.’

Jessica’s mind was screaming ‘GET OFF ME’ but no words were coming out.

The man stood back and looked her up and down. ‘If it’s any consolation, you’re right, I am Edward. It’s pretty clever figuring it out from those photos. If I’d thought it through, I would have hidden those ones but the left-right-handed thing didn’t even occur to me. I wanted you to find the rugby photo and so on. As you say, I wanted people to know what those animals did to Samantha. I was hoping it would get on the news a bit more so they would be exposed but it didn’t quite work as I hoped. The problem with this
unfortunate
situation is that it might never come out now.’

Jessica was trying to stay calm and focus on breathing. It wasn’t hard exactly but felt slightly unnatural because she found herself thinking about it. She felt so stupid – she had literally fallen for the oldest trick in the book. Someone had said, ‘Look over there’ and, while she had, they’d seized their chance.

Edward sat cross-legged on the floor a few feet away from her, his head tilted slightly. ‘Pancuronium if you’re wondering. It’s a muscle-relaxing drug. When my father was ill in his later days he was in a lot of pain and his doctor prescribed it. Small doses would help him sleep but I managed to keep plenty of it over the final few months. Larger doses of it leave you in a state, well, like you are in now. As you can probably tell, most of the other men were bigger and stronger than me, so I needed something in my favour. Jacob was a bit different but it was easy enough to spike his drink. This is quite a useful little drug really. It takes around a minute to kick in and then, depending on the person’s size, can last for anything up to three hours. I didn’t want to take any risks with Jacob because he’s a big guy.’

Jessica continued to focus on her breathing. She had never heard of the drug but didn’t doubt the things Edward was telling her were true. Her arms felt floppy and useless by her side and she fought to move one of them a small amount. She realised she wasn’t totally paralysed but certainly couldn’t do much more than twitch her right arm.

Edward scratched his chin, appearing a little unsure. ‘As I’m sure you know by now, this wasn’t really part of the plan. I don’t actually know what to do with you. I’ve got this storage unit in the city with two big chest freezers. I got them about a year ago from this supermarket that went out of business. After I’d killed them, that’s where I kept the bodies before going back for the hands when I needed them. I’ve never had a live victim in the house so I’m at a bit of a loss because my tools are all there.’

He stood and paced before walking into the kitchen and returning. He sat back down in front of Jessica and started playing with a large kitchen knife, moving it from one hand to the other and staring closely at the handle and blade before looking back to her. ‘This is a pretty good knife, you know. I like cooking and I use it a lot. I don’t really want to have to throw it out but it’s not as if I can use it on you then go back to chopping carrots tomorrow, is it?’

He laughed slightly as he spoke. ‘This is like one of those big movie moments, isn’t it, where the dastardly crook reveals everything to the plucky secret agent, who is seemingly in an impossible situation but the agent then somehow escapes.’ He shuffled forward and poked Jessica in the shoulder. ‘You’re not going anywhere though, are you?’

Edward stood and put the knife deliberately on the floor close to Jessica, then stepped towards her, picking her up and holding her over his shoulder. She felt sick, her head hanging limply against his back. She bobbed up and down as he walked toward the area where the pool was being built. Edward pushed through a plastic curtain, then placed her gently on the floor, propping her up so she could see the room before he left.

Jessica couldn’t do anything other than twitch her arms but it was suddenly obvious what he had done with the bodies of the other men. When she had seen the room before, the whole area was covered in plastic sheeting and she hadn’t bothered to look. It was uncovered now, revealing a giant pit in the centre of the room where the pool would go. The surface wasn’t level, with some areas far deeper than others and a few sections filled with concrete that had set.