Authors: Linda Mather
He didn’t even consider anyone else in the room, and at one point grabbed Vera for a pretend
snog
when he thought that the perpetrator was looking in his direction.
Vera wondered what the hell he was playing at and thought that he was coming on to her, but he had to keep up the pretence because...............
He had a hunch and he was following it.
Chapter Thirty
-Three
Sophie pushed Victoria in
to the taxi cab, before she could kiss anymore strangers goodnight and tell them that she loved them.
She was horrendously drunk, semi unconscious and weighed a ton. But she was thankful that the night was over and that she could keep her wayward sister safe, for tonight at least.
She’d had to prevent her from going off with different blokes to ‘parties’ where there would
be plenty more booze they had said. It had been a nightmare evening and Sophie would be glad to get home.
Sophie decided that she
would talk to Victoria tomorrow over coffee about how concerned she was at how much she put herself at risk. There was no point talking to her now, not while she was drunk.
**********
Paul managed to lose
Vera;
he made the excuse that he was going to the toilet and slipped away, keeping a close eye on his suspect.
He knew that if he had got this wrong he was in big trouble, he’d possibly
be
up on a disciplinary and there is no way he could say what he thought and why he’d left his team and not communicated with anyone. But he knew he was right, there were too many coincidences, he couldn’t be wrong.
The anxiety still chewed away at him, no matter how many times that he tried to
convince himself that he was
right, his hunches were spot on;
t
here was still this wrench in his stomach that he might be wrong and if he was, he was going to be in big trouble.
He saw his suspect leave the building and
he
hesitated, what if he was wrong?
Then with minutes already lost, he thought ‘fuck it, if I’m wrong then maybe this
isn’t
the right job for me anyway. If I’m wrong than I’ll resign’, and
he
dashed out
of
the
club in p
ursuit of his suspect, leaving V
era to fend for herself.
**********
“Do you come her
e
often love?” Vera sidled up to John, who was standing at the bar.
“Only in the mating season” he replied and they both laughed.
“Where’s Paul?”
he asked concerned that she was on her own.
“Don’t know he went to the loo and then disappeared, so thought I’d come and look for a real man to take care of me” she laughed.
“He’s probably outside having a
spliff
” Derek interrupted having walked up and overheard their conversation.
“What Paul smokes dope?
”
Vera asked.
“It’s pretty bloody obvious don’t you think” Derek answered, “anyway the nights almost over, you two spot anything
?
”
“
No not really, g
ave a few descriptions to the boys in blue, like you and the others, but can’t say I’m overly convinced we’ve got the right man” John answered feeling disappointed in the night. “Come on let’s call it a night, not a lot we can do now and I don’t know about anyone else but I’m whacked.”
John gave the nod to the other detectives and then left the club with Vera, hanging on to his arm.
“These bloody shoes are killing me” she said.
**********
Sophie had managed to get her sister into the house and up the stairs to bed
,
“I...Love you sis” she slurred, as Sophie put the bed covers over her still fully clothed body.
“You too” she said but Victoria was completely out of it as soon as her head had hit the pillow.
She turned off the light and went downstairs to make her bed up on the sofa.
**********
Paul had followed his suspect by car for twenty minutes, when the car that he was in pursuit of, pulled up outside a dingy cottage on the outskirts of a council estate.
He watched as
its
occupant sat for a while and the
n
got out and knocked on the door of the cottage
. Whoever answered the door spoke for a while and then let his suspect in.
His heart was pounding as he got out of his car and snuck around the back of the building.
The bushes surrounding the cottage were high and he had to climb up and over them cutting his legs in the process from the prickly twigs.
Once over the hedge there was a tree in the garden he was able to hide behind which gave him a
reasonably
good view of the kitchen diner, through its patio doors.
Both his suspect and a pretty looking woman in her early thirties were sat at the kitchen table, the woman having just brought two cups to the table, and a teapot which she began pouring from.
His suspect and the woman appeared to know each other, and the woman appeared to be consoling his potential predator.
His anxiety returned, his heart was thumping, and his stomach was churning.
‘What if I’ve got this wrong,’ he thought ‘I have left Vera in potential danger, and abandoned the operation, I will be slaughtered for this.’
He watched the woman get up from the table and walk out of his view
, but as she did this his suspect leaned over and tampered with the woman’s teacup.
Pa
u
ls mind was working overtime was this innocent or was the woman’s
drink
being spiked. He was too far away to be able to see
for certain
and it was too risky to attempt to move further up the garden.
He watched as the two people sat drinking their tea, it appeared like an innocent interaction between two people late at night, and seemed to go on ceaselessly, although perhaps only minutes ticked by. Paul didn’t know he had no sense of time just fear.
Fear that he may have got it all wrong and the trouble he would be in, combined with the fear that he might have got it right and that he was in an impending dangerous situation on his own with no back up.
The woman then got
up;
she appeared to be wobbling from head to foot as she put her hand to her head.
The suspect stood up
too
as the woman began to stagger out of view. The suspect moved forward quick
,
as if the woman had perhaps stumbled
and the suspect was going to catch her.
That was it; they were both out of Pauls view.
He waited to see if they came back into view, he waited for what seemed like an eternity, nothing!
He needed to do it now; he needed to make a decision to intervene because if this was not an innocent transaction between two friends late at night he could be too late.
Decision made,
his adrenalin was off the scale now and the hairs on the back of his head were stood up. Now or never he thought
.
Paul ran like a battering ram towards the patio doors and smashed through them, luckily they
were wooden an
d the wood was relatively old,
they
splintered and broke quite easily.
He landed on the floor of the kitchen,
dazed,
then
having a clear view to the living room he met his suspect’s eyes just as she was putting the pillow over the woman’s face.
Paul jumped to his feet, quickly removing his cuffs from his belt ran towards her and managed to grab both her arms and cuff them before she had time to think
.
As he did this a small card fell to the floor, the writing face up:
He, who laughs last, laughs longest!
“Tanya Wright I am arresting you for the murders of Jane Smith, Lizzie Benton and Fiona Stafford anything you
say will be taken down
in evidence and............
.............................
.”
“What the fuck is going on here and who are you?”
Victoria had woken up, ca
me down the stairs and walked into
the
chaos
that was evolv
ing
in her living room, with her sister laying on the floor groaning as she was coming out of unconsciousness.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Saturday 3
rd
May
The homicide room was buzzing, it was seven thirty and all
the staff
had been notified of Paul’s arrest in the early hours of the morning, although not who it was
.
C
uriosity taking a hold of them they had all gone in early
to
learn who it was that had impacted on their weekends over the last couple of months and all wanting a glimpse of
a serial killer that they had mercifully never encountered before in their careers.
All except Stephen, it appeared that he was not as excited as the rest of them. Rumour went round the team that he was probably pissed off that it was Paul that had made the capture; it was common knowledge between them that Paul was not exactly Stephens favourite amongst them.
They were all astounded when they learned that the killer they had been chasing for the last couple of months was Stephen’s girlfriend, and all were making assumptions on how he might react. As much as they had been eager to learn who the perpetrator was, they were even more keyed up at seeing Stephens face when he learned this information.
Paul of course was getting plenty
of
pats on the back and congratulations from his team and his superiors, he was so glad this had turned out the way it had, and was fully aware of the repercussions if it hadn’t. He still had to have
his meeting and explain why he
had
left his team and
dealt with this alone, but he was sure they would understand once he explained things.
It was eight thirty when Stephen had arrived, shoulders back, head high and a huge grin on his face, anticipating the praise that he was sure to get for this excellent piece of police work that he had been the lead in.
**********
Stephen had walked through the main room and was surprised at the lack of excitement in the main office, he was not a stupid man, he noticed straight away that some members of his team were unable to give him eye contact, and others nodded then looked away.
‘What the hell is going on here’ he thought as he then noticed Michael stood in his office doorway.
In the seconds it took for him to walk to his door, greet Michael,
sit
at his desk and watch
Michael close his door, a number of thoughts ran through his head. He couldn’t quite fathom out what this was all about, but he knew one thing for sure something had gone drastically wrong!
Michael sat in the chair opposite Stephen and took a deep breath.
“Stephen
” he said obviously struggling with what he was about to say. “This is not easy, but I’m just going to get straight to the point”
Stephen’s heart was pounding now, he almost felt the urge to cry because he knew, sensed that what he was going to hear was something he wasn’t going to like.
“Stephen” Michael said again almost as an avoidance of breaking this awful news to his colleague and friend.
“The serial killer was caught last night as you know, what you don’t know is that it was Tanya, Tanya Wright”
It took several seconds for the information to sink in but when it did Stephen’s anger was visible.
“That is the most preposterous thing I have ever heard, so is that it, that arsehole has arrested the wrong person,” he stood up and banged his fist on the table “my fucking girlfriend, where is she, and whe
re is he? H
e’ll be disciplined for this”
He stopped suddenly noticing Michael’s face
, he believes this crap, he thought. Michael thinks that Tanya is the serial killer, he felt like he was living in a parallel universe, or on candid camera.
“Surely you.......”
“Stephen” Michael interrupted aware of his colleague’s feelings. “Sit down” to which Stephen did as he was told.