Authors: Lee Shepherd
Taylor so badly wanted to believe that she would wake and give him the statement he desperately needed. Knowing that Messenger knew that she was still alive, albeit not in any fit state to talk, he thought it a good idea that Georgie stayed, just in case Messenger or somebody else came back to try and finish her off. He then offered to go back to her hotel room to gather the rest of her belongings, as she hadn’t had chance to do so since leaving there in the ambulance.
‘I’ll go and grab your stuff from the hotel, Georgie. I know we’re officially off the case, but I still fully intend on bringing this to a conclusion and getting justice for the witness and the murdered victims against Messenger and the murderer. My team remain loyal to me. We
will
solve this, Georgie. I reckon you were right about Charles
Lee — my colleague found out that he had changed his name via deed poll years ago. We are waiting to hear back from them any day now as to whether he used to be called Jonathon McMullen.’
‘Please just be careful, Taylor. I don’t want to be having to sit beside two hospital beds over the next few days, or worse still!’
Taylor could sense the sincerity and care towards him from her. In a non-sexual way, he gently placed a kiss on her forehead and assured her that he would be fine, before leaving her to watch over the witness whilst he went and collected her belongings.
Charles failed to tell Rebecca that he had been visited by the police, as he knew it would lead to a whole new line of questioning and suspicion from his wife and couldn’t bear the thought of her actually thinking he was capable of doing such things. He instead chose to remain quiet and try and figure out a way of throwing the police off his scent. He could sense that the net was closing in on him though, and if he could not get to all his intended targets before the police got to him, then there was just one last thing he needed to do, which was to find and kill Chief Inspector Messenger. At least he would be easy to locate as opposed to his other abusers. He had been so high-profile as of late; it wouldn’t be hard to track him down and hand him his fate.
He never expected the opportunity to present itself so quickly though, as he discovered after watching the news the very next day; Chief Inspector Messenger had decided to once again address the media. He explained how they had a very strong suspicion that they knew who the suspect was in connection to all the recent abductions and murders in the area over the past six months, and then pleaded with anybody who knows or knew of a Jonathon McMullen to please come forward and help them with their investigation. Charles knew that it was only a matter of time before he was discovered, and set about developing a plan to find and kill the Chief Inspector before he got to him.
***
The Chief Inspector, not knowing that Taylor’s team had discovered that Charles Lee hadn’t always being known by that name, was doing all he could to stop the news of him and his accomplices’ wicked crimes being exposed. He rashly decided to send out that plea in an effort to try and find Jonathon McMullen and hopefully send out an
armed response unit to dispose of him before he had a chance to speak out about his reasons for his actions in recent months. He knew that if that bitch in the hospital didn’t wake up, and he managed to find and kill Jonathon, then all that is left is hearsay and unwilling witnesses. He also knew that if Detective Taylor and Georgina Riley tried to expose him, not only did he have the photographic evidence of their night together, he also knew he could destroy them career-wise by exposing the fact that they placed a witness alone in a hotel room, leaving her to be the victim of an attempted murder — or better yet, a murder victim if she never wakes up.
Less than twenty-four hours later, one of the Chief Inspector’s staff alerted him that there was a call for him from a woman who wished to remain anonymous, but had observed his plea on the TV and maybe had some information that could help in the search for Jonathon. Messenger sat and listened intently as the woman told him all the details of the night she gave birth to Jonathon, and how she had desperately in vain been trying to contact him over the years, but that the trail went dead by the time her son had turned sixteen. Messenger let the woman continue as she told him Jonathon’s date of birth and other details, but he already had all of this information from Brian before his death, and also remembered what Jonathon looked like as a child, so everything the woman told him was irrelevant. What he needed was someone who knew his whereabouts right now, not forty years ago. He politely thanked the anonymous woman and hung up, no further forward than he was to begin with.
***
Unbeknownst to Messenger, as he was trying to trace down the whereabouts of Jonathon, Charles had actually begun to follow him. He had called Linda and told her to once again clear his schedule for the week, as he wasn’t feeling up to coming into work, but neglected to tell Rebecca this. He did not want to raise suspicion and
wanted to keep up appearances at home, thus giving him the opportunity to be out all day planning how he was going to ensnare the Chief Inspector.
After following Messenger home from the station that evening, Charles watched as the Chief Inspector left his family home in Brampton, just nine miles from Carlisle, at eight o’clock the following morning, and once again followed him to the station, arriving at twenty minutes past the hour. He did this for the following few days to try and build a picture of his routines. Who he spoke to, the places he visited, what time he took a lunch break…anything to help him get a better understanding and clearer idea of how and when to strike without being seen.
Taylor was also cautiously tailing Messenger and Charles, driving around in an unmarked hire car he had recently leased in an effort to remain inconspicuous and out of sight of the team of detectives Messenger had obviously placed on him.
Taylor had a rough idea of what Charles was planning, but chose to sit on this information and see how it unfolded. He knew if he was to catch Charles in the act before it was too late, it would pave his way back into the force, and he secretly hoped that Charles would then help him expose Messenger and his network, although he knew that this was a long shot.
***
Three days had passed since Taylor’s witness had been admitted into Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary with Georgie by her side, and the chances of her making a full recovery were dwindling. Taylor was seriously starting to despair; he knew it was just a matter of time before Charles was to strike again. Although he hoped Charles would help him bring down Messenger and the paedophile network, he couldn’t be sure, and was praying for his witness to wake. He also hoped that he seriously hadn’t made an error in judgement by putting all his eggs in one basket in believing that Charles was
definitely Jonathon, the man they were looking for.
His suspicions were confirmed the very next day when he received a call from his staff member, the one he had asked not to speak to Messenger if he found any further developments into the search for Jonathon McMullen.
‘Hello, sir,’ came a quiet voice down the end of line as Taylor answered his mobile. ‘I can’t really say much right now, sir, as Messenger and his team of detectives are scrutinising every bit of evidence that you and Miss Riley uncovered, and are wanting to know everything about the case. What I can say though, sir, is that you were right about Charles Lee being Jonathon McMullen; I’ve just got off the phone to deed poll and they have eventually located the records and confirmed your suspicions. The only problem is, sir, I don’t know how long I can sit on this information before I will have to inform Messenger of my findings.’
Taylor was overjoyed at hearing this news, and thanked his junior for coming to him first, and also complimented him on his good work before asking, ‘Who else knows about what you’ve just told me?’
‘Nobody, sir, like I said, I’ve just this minute got off the phone, and I immediately called you.’
‘Right, this means I need to act fast. I just need you to give me at least forty-eight hours before you reveal this information to Messenger, and he sends out an armed response unit to bring him in or —’ Taylor stopped himself from finishing his sentence, as he knew if he was to say take him down, this would cause the man to ask questions.
‘Like I said, sir, I don’t know how long I can sit on this, but I will try my best to give you the time you need. Just be aware, Messenger has really got his teeth into this now, sir, and he’s determined to bring it to a swift end!’
Before Taylor had time to thank the man once more, the voice on the other end said, ‘I’ve got to go, sir, good luck, and I’ll be in touch.’
The line went dead.
Taylor, his thoughts racing, immediately contacted Georgie and informed her he was on his way over to the hospital, as what he was about to tell her he couldn’t over the phone. Georgie knew he must’ve unearthed something, and waited with anticipation until he arrived.
‘You were right, Georgie, it’s him, it’s Charles Lee. He was, and is, Jonathon McMullen!’ His tone was excited but hushed; he didn’t want to alert anybody that might be eavesdropping in on their conversation.
‘How do you know?’ she asked him.
Taylor then relayed to her everything he had heard over the phone, and continued to tell her that Messenger was determined to track the killer down before he could reach him, and probably kill him and stop the risk of him speaking out against him. Georgie once again implored Taylor to be careful, as she could sense that this case was about to come to a climax and feared for her colleague; she knew that Messenger, being hell bent on ending the case and stopping himself from being exposed, he would do absolutely anything to make that happen. She feared that he would even kill one of his own officers, as he seemed to have had no qualms about trying to kill their witness to save his own skin.
Rebecca was starting to realise that something wasn’t right at home, and started to suspect that Charles was maybe having an affair; he hadn’t touched her in weeks and was spending a lot more time away from the house than he had been as of late. Also, he had become so distracted and snappy towards her and the girls, which caused her to believe that something definitely wasn’t right. She asked him what it was that he was up to that was making him act so irrational and out of character.
Charles was obviously far past telling her the real reason for his recent mood swings and late nights out of the home. He assured her that he wasn’t having an affair, and that he wasn’t even remotely interested in being with another woman. He once again blamed the stresses of work, and lied by telling her that one of the other vets from the practice was on long-term sick leave so he was picking up his colleague’s work load so that the practice didn’t lose money.
It was plausible, she thought. She then reminded him of his promise not that long ago, where he said he would be taking more of a backseat role at work and leaving the others to take care of things. He then reassured her that he had meant every word of it, and told her how everything would be back to normal very soon. In his head, ‘very soon’ meant ‘upon dealing with Messenger,’ but obviously omitted this part.
He was totally delusional at this stage; his mind was overcome with thoughts of vengeance. He knew the police had their suspicions and were possibly building a case against him, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He continued to plot Messenger’s death, thinking he’d better do it sooner rather than later in order to lay all of this to rest and get back to a stable family life.
***
The weekend was steadily approaching, and Charles thought to himself that this would be the perfect time to strike; Messenger never worked weekends, preferring instead to leave the station in the hands of his trusted staff. Charles figured that if he could get him away from his house and out of sight of his wife and kids, he could take him away somewhere remote and spend some real “quality time” with him.
He thought about possibly taking him to the makeshift dungeon that Lucy Mitchell and Sarah Davidson were buried in, but suddenly remembered how bad the stench of rotting flesh had been the last time he had been there. Then it came to him — why not re-visit Haywood farm? There wouldn’t be any activity there now as it had been a few weeks since Beattie’s death. What’s more, it would be a fitting place to kill the Chief Inspector, as it was whilst staying with the Beatties that young Charles had been introduced to Messenger when he was a young, abusive junior police officer.
Once again, Charles carefully and purposefully prepared his rucksack with all the instruments he had used in the past, only this time he added a blow torch and a pair of pliers, as he wasn’t going to let him get off relatively lightly as he had Brian. No, this time he was going to spend a full weekend slowly torturing Messenger in the worst ways he could possibly imagine.
He then informed Rebecca how he would be attending another conference for the weekend, and tried to convince her that he had mentioned it a few months earlier, but she knew he was lying and had said no such thing. All she could do was trust her husband’s words, but she would also be looking for any tell-tale signs of an affair upon his return. She strongly suspected that the other woman was possibly Linda, Charles’ receptionist from work.
***
Taylor had been cautiously following Charles, who was
following Messenger over the past few days, and knew his time was running out before the details of Charles being Jonathon were released. In a way, he secretly hoped that Charles would go after the Chief Inspector anytime now so he could maybe catch him in the act and bring the two of them to justice, putting an end to this nightmare. When he’d taken on the case, he’d never expected just how complex and deep-rooted it would turn out to be — well, who would have?
He sat two hundred yards back from where Messenger lived, on this Friday evening in early May 2014, watching from afar for any signs of Charles exiting his Volvo and approaching the Chief Inspector’s home. Taylor was exhausted and looked unkempt and dishevelled; the pressure of the last week had totally taken its toll on him by now. He was somewhat relieved to see Charles start his engine and pass by where he was purposely hidden, heading away from Messenger’s home. Taylor knew Charles couldn’t be planning on going after him tonight, so he decided he would go home and try and get a few hours’ sleep and maybe a hot meal, instead of the stale service station sandwiches and pasties he had been getting by on over the past few days. He also needed a shower; he was starting to stink due to him sitting in the car for hours on end in the warm May sunlight. He headed home.