‘Gabriel Swift!’ shouted another officer. ‘Where is he?’
‘He went through that door at the back,’ replied the vicar and the men rushed past.
‘Are you all right?’ barked another policeman in black boots and what looked like body armour. ‘Has he hurt you?’
April and the vicar both shook their heads and the man gestured that they could put their hands down. He led them out towards the main entrance, the doors now splintered, one hanging on its hinges.
Why so much fuss for poor Gabriel?
thought April, but then she supposed they didn’t know him as the beautiful boy with the dark eyes who brought her flowers in the rain. To the police, he was an escaped felon, a vicious murderer who took hostages, a desperate criminal who was capable of anything. April slipped her hand inside her pocket and crossed her fingers.
Please get away, Gabe
, she thought,
please don’t let them catch you
.
April and the vicar walked out together, into the glare of car headlights pointing at the church. April hoped to see the familiar face of DI Reece, but instead she was confronted by a short man in his fifties with grey hair. He was, inevitably, standing next to Dr Tame.
‘Sorry about the door, Reverend,’ said the first man. ‘I’m
DCI Johnston and this is Dr Tame. You’ll be April Dunne, I take it.’
‘She is indeed,’ said Tame before she could speak.
Two uniformed officers stepped up to take April, but the vicar waved them away. ‘I don’t think that’s necessary, is it?’ he said with authority. Johnston nodded.
‘Let’s get you to the station where we can have a proper chat.’
‘Why?’
‘We have plenty of questions for you, April. I’m sure we’ll find something.’
April felt a sinking sense of déjà vu as she sat in the interview room waiting for her mother to arrive. Four walls, a bare table and chairs, nothing else. It was horribly plain. Maybe that was the idea. Nothing for violent offenders to smash up, nothing for people like her to look at.
People like her: suspects
. If it was meant to be unsettling, it was working. April knew they thought she was involved somehow. When Gabriel had escaped, they must have started watching her, and if she’d been followed they would know she spoke to DI Reece, then met Ling and went to the church. Poor Ling, maybe they were questioning her too.
But she didn’t care. One bright shining thing pushed all the bad things into shadow: Gabriel was back in her heart. He loved her, wanted to be with her and he hadn’t cheated on her. All he’d wanted to do was protect her, look after her – he’d been prepared to go to jail for her! Sitting here in this grubby police station she should have been frightened, but she felt elated – and a little guilty, of course. She had treated Gabriel terribly, acted like a brat and had even considered going off with Benjamin. But Gabriel loved her and that was all that mattered. Yes, he was on the run and yes, she was still surrounded by people who wanted to drink her blood, but she felt better equipped to deal with it. Right now, in fact, April felt she could face anything.
‘April!’ her mother burst in, throwing her arms around her, squeezing her tight. April relaxed into the embrace, savouring it. She might be angry with her mother, but she was tremendously relieved to see her and a hug from her was such a rare
occurrence that she had to make the most of it. All too soon, Silvia stepped back.
‘Have they done anything you?’ she asked. ‘What have they said?’
‘Nothing, Mum,’ said April. ‘They stuck me in here to stew, hoping the nerves would get to me or something.’ She saw her mother’s expression and shrugged. ‘Well, that’s how it works on the TV cop shows.’
‘This is real life, April. It’s serious.’
‘They haven’t charged me with anything yet. Maybe they were waiting for you to come.’
‘They haven’t charged you
yet
? You think they might? What could they possibly think you’ve done?’
‘I haven’t done anything!’ she said. ‘I was in the church talking to Ling, then Gabriel turned up and it turned into this massive police siege.’
‘But the police told me you’d been taken hostage.’
‘That’s rubbish. They just wanted a reason to bash down the door. Gabriel would never do anything to harm me.’
‘What makes you so sure? I know you liked this boy, but he killed Marcus Brent, April.’
‘I thought you would want to thank him for that, Mother, or have you suddenly gone all Buddhist?’
‘It’s one thing wanting to strangle that monster for what he did to my baby, it’s quite another thing to actually murder him in cold blood. He told me he’d protect you …’
‘And that’s exactly what he did!’ cried April. ‘You can’t have it both ways, Mum. Would you rather Marcus had torn my throat out?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’m simply saying it’s naïve to assume Gabriel is as innocent as he says.’
‘Mum, he told me he didn’t kill Marcus and I believe him, all right?’ Silvia looked at her for a long moment.
‘Okay,’ she said finally, sitting down. ‘Let’s not get too het up until we hear what they’ve got to say. Gramps’ lawyer is on the way. We don’t have to say anything until he gets here.’
‘Why not? Do you think I’m going to incriminate myself? I haven’t done anything!’
‘Of course you haven’t, darling, but we don’t want them twisting your words.’
‘Mum! I don’t have anything to hide.’
‘Are you sure? There’s nothing you haven’t told me?’
‘You’re a fine one to talk.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means that I’m not the one sneaking out at night, having secret meetings with old boyfriends.’
‘Don’t start on that again.’
The door opened and in walked DCI Johnston, quickly followed by DS Amy Carling, the detective who had often visited her with DI Reece.
They didn’t waste much time finding that one a new partner, did they?
thought April. She had never liked the plain-looking woman in the clumpy shoes, there was something of the bully about her.
‘Mrs Dunne, I presume,’ said Johnston, offering her his hand. ‘I’m the officer in charge of the case. I believe you already know DS Carling.’
‘Where’s Inspector Reece?’ asked Silvia.
‘He has moved on,’ said Carling tonelessly.
‘I am in charge of this investigation now, Mrs Dunne,’ said Johnston.
‘Well you’re going to have to wait for our lawyer before you start investigating,’ said Silvia.
‘That is of course your right, but this isn’t a formal interview, Mrs Dunne. We just want to ask April a few questions about what happened tonight.’
‘So I’m not under arrest?’
‘No, no,’ said Johnston, as if it was the last thing on his mind. ‘You are free to go at any time.’
Silvia immediately stood up. ‘You didn’t think to tell me this when I arrived?’ she snapped. ‘Come on, April, this is a disgrace.’
The inspector held up a finger. ‘You will however still need
to answer a few of our questions. We can of course organise a formal interview for the morning if you’d prefer?’
Silvia narrowed her eyes.
‘So free to go in the sense of “stay where you are”?’ said Silvia, the fury in her voice obvious. ‘Is this usually the way police go about their business, Inspector? You drag me to a police station, giving me the impression I will be picking up my daughter, who has been the victim of another crime the police seem powerless to prevent. But no, it seems my daughter has been held here for hours without charge because you “have a few questions”? Is this your idea of professionalism?’
‘I assure you, Mrs Dunne, we never had any intention of …’
Silvia pulled a sour face and sat down again.
‘Spare me your assurances, Inspector,’ she said. ‘They’re clearly not worth a great deal. Let’s get this over with – assuming they
are
“just a few questions” and not something our lawyer will need to advise us on?’
‘Just questions,’ said Johnston.
‘Fine. But I want it made clear that my daughter has done nothing wrong and I resent the implication she is in any way mixed up in this business.’
‘Noted,’ said Johnston. ‘So perhaps you can start by telling us what happened after you left school this afternoon, April?’
Slowly April told them about walking through the park, meeting Ling and going back to the church.
‘Why the church?’ asked Johnston.
‘Why not the church?’ said Silvia, narrowing her eyes.
‘Well, it seems a strange place for a seventeen-year-old girl to go, especially a non church-goer. Why not a coffee bar or your house?’
Silvia was about to reply when April put a hand on her arm.
‘Mum, please,’ she said. ‘It’s a simple enough question. We went into the church because Ling wanted to talk about something personal, so we wanted to go somewhere quiet.’
‘Personal?’ said Johnston.
‘Personal,’ repeated April. ‘Girl’s stuff.’
‘Girl’s stuff like meeting boyfriends?’ asked Carling.
‘No!’ said April. ‘I had no idea Gabriel was going to be there. And he’s not my boyfriend.’
‘Really? We were under the impression that you and Gabriel Swift were dating.’
‘No. Well, yes we were for a while. Not dates as such, but …’
‘You were intimate?’ said Carling, an oily smile on her face.
‘No,’ said April, blushing and glancing at her mother. ‘I liked him, that’s all. But it’s all over now.’
‘Yes,’ said Johnston, looking down at his notes. ‘You quarrelled on the night of the party in Waterlow Park? What did you argue about?’
April shrugged. It must be common knowledge by now – it had been a pretty public argument.
‘He was with another girl.’
‘Oh, I bet that made you angry,’ said Carling.
‘Yes, it did. Of course it did. That’s why I left the party.’
‘Is it?’ said Carling.
‘What? Of course it was! I saw him kissing another girl.’
‘What’s all this about?’ said Silvia. ‘What are you getting at?’
‘Well, it seems rather strange,’ said Johnston.
April frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, that your boyfriend, the man who saved your life only weeks before, would suddenly arrange an assignation with another woman. In public, after he has arrived with you. That’s rather odd, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Not really. It was actually a misunderstanding. I thought he was messing me about but I got the wrong end of the stick.’
‘This is ridiculous,’ said Silvia. ‘What exactly are you accusing my daughter of?’
‘Nothing at this time,’ said Johnston, ‘I’m simply trying to establish what happened the night of the party.’
‘I thought that was obvious even to you: Gabriel Swift killed Marcus Brent – and good riddance too.’
Johnston nodded.
‘That would seem to be the story, yes.’
‘Well, what other story is there?’
‘We don’t dispute that Gabriel Swift killed Marcus: we pretty much caught him red-handed.’
‘Literally, actually,’ said Carling, drawing a weary look from Johnston.
April was desperate to defend Gabriel, point out that they had simply assumed he was the killer instead of looking for the real culprit, but she had a horrible feeling that would only get her into more trouble. She thought back to her last meeting with DI Reece. ‘Watch yourself,’ isn’t that what he’d said? ‘They need someone to pin this on, and they can’t blame everything on Gabriel.’ She knew they were under pressure to wrap up the Highgate murders as soon as possible, but surely they couldn’t blame her? April became aware that Johnston was staring at her as he spoke.
‘Unfortunately we only have April’s version of events for what happened that night. No one saw Marcus Brent attack her, we have no idea why he was there …’
‘Possibly because he was a psychopath?’ said Silvia impatiently. ‘Do I need to remind you that he almost tore my daughter’s arm off a few months ago?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Johnston. ‘As I said, it all seems rather strange and I don’t feel I’m being told the complete truth.’
Silvia pushed her chair back and stood up.
‘All right, April, seeing as we’re free to leave, I think that’s exactly what we’ll do.’ She glared down at DCI Johnston. ‘Rest assured your superiors will hear about this.’
‘Don’t threaten us, Mrs Dunne,’ said Johnston. ‘I really don’t think they will be interested in your complaints this time. It has become a priority at the highest level to stop the violence in Highgate. The plain facts are that your daughter has been present at four of these incidents, which leads me to believe she knows more than she’s telling us. We are therefore perfectly entitled to ask her as many questions as we see fit, and we will continue to do so until these murders stop.’
‘Well next time, you will be asking your questions with a solicitor present.’
‘I look forward to it. One last question, April. Where is Gabriel Swift?’
‘Don’t answer that, April,’ said Silvia, then turned back to Johnston. ‘You don’t want to make an enemy of me, Inspector,’ she said, her voice icy cold. ‘You really have no idea who you’re dealing with.’