Mightier than the Sword - Final Part

Chapter 25

When Tony, Sabine and Chip got to the hospital it took them a little while to get to find what room Julia had been taken to, but they eventually found her ward.

‘Sorry it took us so long to get here,’ Chip said as the three of them walked up to Julia’s bed, Chip and Sabine on one side, Tony on the other. ‘This hospital is as disorientating as being in a maze or mirrors with a hangover.’

‘Don’t worry about it, I knew you would be here soon enough,’ Julia replied from her position of lying on her back with her damaged leg elevated by a piece of equipment that looked like a swing designed for a little Pixie.

‘They seen to you yet?’ Sabine checked.

‘Yeah a Doctor has seen me already, there wasn’t a lot she could tell me because of the swelling was masking a lot, also they can’t operate until the swelling goes down. One thing we know for sure is that morphine is good!’

‘Oh yeah morphine rules!’ Chip enthused.

‘What the hell were you thinking going to that house alone? That was so illogical,’ Tony asked Julia like a disappointed parent whose offspring had gone to a party without permission.

‘I know, I know, it was crazy. But at that moment when I discovered there was a link between one of my best friends and a gang of serial killers, I really wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be passing any Mensa tests. I forgot all about being a police woman and acted like a human.’

‘You acting like a regular human can never be a good thing,’ Tony relented a little.

‘Probably true,’ Julia conceded. ‘Can’t believe you’ve been in here over a minute now and not made some sort of “told you so” comment about Luke.’

‘I’ll save that for when you’re off the morphine, want to make sure you are fully coherent and that you will remember it,’ Tony said with a smile.

‘There’s something for me to look forward to.’

‘In the mean time,’ Chip changed the subject. ‘I’m free all day, so I can stay with you as long as you like.’

‘After you get yourself checked out,’ Julia said.

‘I’m fine, nothing I wouldn’t have picked up from a few collisions and scuffles on the pitch,’ Chip said and waved his hand theatrically.

‘Even by your standards that fight was brutal, you will get yourself checked out,’ it was Julia’s turn to sound like a parent.

‘Okay I will, to stop you pestering if nothing else.’

‘I’m probably going to fall asleep pretty soon anyway,’ Julia added.

‘In that case I reckon we’ll take a look round Luke’s house,’ Sabine said about herself and Tony.

‘Yeah and check back in at the station to see if there’s been anymore news yet,’ Tony agreed.

‘Good call,’ Julia said. ‘Although this feels like the end of this case, there’s still an awful lot of things to explain and loose ends to tie up.’

‘We will of course keep you fully up to date on anything we find out,’ Sabine said.

‘Yeah, we’ll come and visit you this evening,’ Tony added.

‘Damn right you will, on both counts,’ Julia said with a smile. ‘Oh and I prefer the green grapes.’

‘We’ll keep that in mind,’ Tony replied as he and Sabine set off out of the ward and the hospital.

‘I’ll go and see about getting checked out, you get some sleep and I’ll be back soon,’ Chip told Julia.

‘Sounds good to me, then we can have that chat we were planning to have,’ Julia replied and held her hand up for a high five.

‘Looking forward to it already,’ Chip replied after high fiving Julia.

Just after six o’clock that evening Sabine and Tony returned to visit Julia. Chip was sat at her bed side and the two of them were chatting away.

‘Tell me you’ve got some news,’ Julia said as Sabine and Tony pulled up chairs and sat on the other side of the bed to Chip.

‘A few loose ends have definitely been tied up,’ Sabine said whilst nodding and the merest hint of a smile. ‘First of all though how are you doing?’

‘Knee is still a mess and morphine is still my best friend right now, anyway about those loose ends?’ Julia replied quickly.

‘Okay,’ Sabine said with a smile. ‘I’ll try to cover everything we’ve discovered today. Luke was definitely behind the whole plan. He’d left this message on his answer phone saying that he’d left a note on his computer and how we could find it. This is the note,’ Sabine said and passed Julia a piece of paper.

Julia held the paper so both Chip and her could read it. Luke’s note read as follows:

If you’ve got this note you must have worked out my secret. I suppose you’re asking all the usual sort of questions you people always ask, mainly why have I done what I’ve done. I must admit that part of it is just because I wanted to see if I could get away with it. Early in my life I came to the conclusion that life is not even close to being fair. From there I decided that there can be no meaning to life. If nothing we do in our lives really matters then life itself can’t really matter. So I decided to do exactly what I wanted. If you’re thinking I’m treating life like a game then you’re right, I’m just glad I’m a lot better at the game than you guys are. There is another more interesting reason but I’ll leave you to work that out for yourselves. Something none of you ever knew about me is that I hate cops. I was absolutely distraught Julia when I found out you were going to become one, but I decided you were too good a friend to blank completely because of that. Besides I always had so much fun taking the piss out of Tony. I ‘met’ Scott Thatcher online and my plan started to take shape. I told him to get a group of around six people who like him were all prepared to commit murder. Then I could put my theory, that I could control the mind of somebody like that, to the test. It was hilarious seeing him getting all confident about the success from the plan, he actually started to believe himself that it was all his idea. I told him not to tell any of the other gang members about me, other wise he would find it harder to demand their respect. So they all thought that all of the planning was his idea. I just couldn’t resist bringing them over to Manchester because I was fairly sure that Julia and Tony would be put on the case. That meant that Julia would come running to me to ask for my help and I couldn’t miss out on the possibility of being asked to help catch a gang that I had created and was controlling. How I kept a straight face during them marathon, talking sessions we all had, I’m still not sure to this day. Anyway I have got away with it because there’s no way you’re going to find me now. Oh and by the way I’ve left a copy of my latest novel there, I think you’ll find it fascinating. I’ve already cut a deal with my publisher where they give me half a million pounds and I give them all the rights for the book and the subsequent film. Once you crack this writing stories business, especially when one of you novels gets made into a film, you really do have complete control over the publishers. So now I’ve got the royalties from the first of my novels to be turned into a film, plus the five hundred thousand from my latest I think I’m going to enjoy my life on some exotic resort don’t you? I think it was US President F.D. Roosevelt that said something along the lines of ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’. I’m sorry but that’s only half the tale, you guys did plenty but nothing good enough to catch me. All the good systems in the world are almost always powerless against one individual. Thanks for the game.

‘Unbelievable.’ Julia commented after she had finished reading the note. ‘You think know somebody and it turns out you didn’t know the first thing about him,’ she shook her head and wiped her eyes.

‘The fact that this guy fooled you for so long says absolutely nothing bad about you at all,’ Chip told her.

‘Not exactly great that a detective can’t even spot a serial killer when he’s been right in front of her for years,’ Julia said.

‘It’s no secret that I didn’t like the guy,’ Tony said. ‘But even I was nowhere near thinking of him as somebody capable of all this, if anything I should’ve spotted it more than you, it’s tough for anybody to imagine that a friend can be capable of anything bad, let alone orchestrating thirteen murders.’

‘I guess we can never truly know anyone,’ Julia conceded. ‘So have you taken a look at his latest novel?

‘Yeah we’ve had a quick flick through it. It’s a story about a gang of six murderers, he uses all the names of the people who were actually in the gang. All the killing methods are true to life, he’s just written a story about the thing he was making happen,’ Sabine replied.

‘Kind of like mirror image of Charles Foster Kane who wrote fiction as if it was truth,’ Chip said.

‘It’s all very surreal,’ Sabine said.

‘He’s still left us something to think about, why he actually did all this apart from seeing if he could get away with it?’ Tony added.

‘I just get this feeling this case is never going to end,’ Sabine said. ‘Mainly for curiosity, Tony and I are going to go round to his publishers tomorrow and see what they have to say about the deal.’

‘That could be interesting,’ Julia commented.

‘Yeah it should be fun if nothing else.’ Sabine agreed.

‘What else have you found out? Any news on the other gang members?’ Julia checked.

‘We found one body at the house, turns out it was some guy called Ronny, almost certainly one of the gang,’ Sabine said. ‘Later today we heard about Don Burton being found dead in the streets, beaten to death outside some night club.’

‘That only leaves the other woman, Natasha,’ Julia said.

‘Yeah no sign of her, or Luke obviously,’ Tony said.

‘I’m guessing you’ve already got her description circulated round again, plus the port block should still be in place,’ Julia said.

‘Yeah, she shouldn’t be able to get far and you’d think she’d struggle to stay free for too long,’ Sabine said. ‘My guess would be it all got too much for her and she ran away.’

‘Sounds as likely as anything,’ Julia agreed. ‘So did you find anything else out today?’

‘Luke definitely left in a hurry,’ Tony said.

‘He obviously realised his slip of the tongue sooner than I did,’ Julia replied with another shake of the head. Julia pondered for a moment with her hands over her mouth and nose. ‘Tomorrow you guys look more into the last cop that was killed,’ Julia suggested. ‘Nobody hates cops for no reason and I really find it hard to believe that anybody can cause thirteen murders purely for the sake of a game.’

‘Sounds worthwhile to me,’ Sabine replied. ‘I’ll have to be heading home soon and I want to be flying back with as few loose ends as possible.’

‘I hate leaving things unexplained, so I’ll definitely be with you,’ Tony added.

Chapter 26

The following morning Sabine and Tony went round to the publishers who had published all of Luke’s novels. After going in and saying they were on police business and they wanted to speak with the publisher who dealt with Luke Grant’s work, Sabine and Tony were dealt with politely and were shown to the office of that publisher by the secretary. He stopped doing the paper work he was absorbed in as soon as the secretary told him the police were here to see him. Although he couldn’t think of anything he’d done wrong, the publisher fumbled a couple of bits of paper, fidgeted in his seat and elaborately cleared his throat a couple of times.

‘Hello Mr Marshall I’m Detective Tony Robins and this is Lieutenant Sabine Larksson from the LAPD,’ Tony told the publisher and showed him his police badge, as he walked into the room and he and Sabine sat down on two comfortable chairs without waiting for an invitation.

‘Hello there, what seems to be the problem?’ He asked as he half got up to welcome them, then nearly missed his chair on the way back down.

‘The problem is Sir that you’ve just agreed to publish a novel by a Mr Luke Grant,’ Tony told him.

‘I know some people don’t like his stories, but I really don’t think it’s a police matter.’ Mr Marshall responded more than a little perplexed.

‘The thing is that his latest novel is a story of a gang of six murderers,’ Sabine commented.

‘Yes that’s right,’ Mr Marshall confirmed.

‘It just happens that everything in his story actually happened and what’s more important is that he made it happen,’ Sabine continued.

‘Excuse me are you saying that Mr Grant is a murderer?’

‘Oh no not quite, he just organised and planned at least thirteen murders, just as it happened in his novel. Weren’t you alarmed by the similarities of the novel and the murder case that’s been in all over the media lately?’ Sabine went on.

Mr Marshall became increasingly flustered and he got out of his chair before he replied.

‘Just because one of my authors sends me a murder story I don’t automatically assume there’s another serial killer on the loose. I mean I’m trying to run a publishing business here, I can’t be expected to read between the lines of everything that get gets sent to me and start making a psychological profile of all the authors. I suppose you think we should have sent Agatha Christie down for two hundred and sixty seven life sentences,’ he ranted wildly as he walked back and to behind his desk and waved his arms around frantically.

‘Mr Marshall have you actually read the novel?’ Sabine asked, suspecting this bizarre bravado was all an attempt to cover up a lack of professionalism.

‘What do you mean have I read it? I’m a respected publisher of course I’ve read it,’ he replied angrily.

Sabine wasn’t convinced. ‘Have you?’

Mr Marshall sat back down and looked right at Sabine, his face was red and his blood pressure didn’t look to be in too good a state. ‘No,’ he confessed emphatically.

‘Thanks Mr Marshall that would be all,’ Tony announced and got up out of the chair.

‘Yeah thanks for your help and your honesty Mr Marshall,’ Sabine added as she too rose out of her chair.

Mr Marshall couldn’t conjure up a verbal reply, instead he just let his head drop quickly to his desk with a loud bang.

‘We’ll see ourselves out Mr Marshall,’ Sabine remarked with a little smile.

The next port of call was for them to look into the last murder victim, they went back to the station, found files on the victim’s police career and set about reading them.

Whilst Sabine and Tony had been doing the investigating Julia was stuck in hospital. Chip had visited her during the morning and afternoon when the visiting hours had allowed him, Julia had insisted that he take the evening off from his visiting duties, to rest the mild concussion he had picked up in the scrap with Justin and Anna if nothing else. She had assured him that Sabine and Tony would be along to visit in the evening so she wouldn’t be alone. As promised Sabine and Tony did indeed arrive in the evening, just a couple of minutes after the visiting hours commenced.

‘Before you ask,’ Julia said as the two of them walked towards her bed. ‘The Doctor has been in and reckons I’ll be able to have an operation some time tomorrow evening. So that’s me done, you guys tell me what you’ve been up to today, because if I’m not mistaken I detect a sense of satisfaction at progress made, something none of us have had for a while.’

‘Wow your senses are good,’ Sabine replied.

‘The publisher?’ Julia checked.

‘Oh not much to report on there, the guy simply hadn’t read the damn book before agreeing to publish it,’ Sabine said.

‘The big news is that you were right to look into the last victim,’ Tony said.

‘Absolutely,’ Sabine agreed. ‘Did you know that Luke was an orphan?’

‘That I did know,’ Julia said. ‘He never knew his Dad and he reckoned his Dad never even knew Luke existed. His Mum died giving birth to him,’ Julia continued, looking at Sabine who started to shake her head. ‘That’s all bullshit isn’t it?’

‘Afraid so,’ Sabine replied. ‘They were actually both killed by a drunk driver when Luke was six years old.’

‘Let me guess, the drunk driver happens to be victim number thirteen,’ Julia said.

‘That’s it, as an off duty cop. Despite being four times over the limit and driving at seventy in a thirty zone he got away with a fine, one year driving ban and an suspended 12month jail sentence,’ Tony replied.

‘That sort of shit really does give us a bad name,’ Julia said. ‘Have to admit Luke was clever as well as evil, by the time it came to victim number thirteen we were well past looking at motives to kill the particular victim.’

‘I can’t imagine wanting somebody dead so much that your prepared to kill twelve other people at random to cover your tracks,’ Sabine said.

‘No wonder we couldn’t make any sense out of this case, it never had any sense to it from the start,’ Julia added.

‘At least it appears the killings have stopped,’ Tony said.

‘Yeah I think Luke has finished with his little game,’ Julia replied.

‘And I really don’t think Natasha will be planning to continue the killing spree on her own,’ Sabine said.

‘No news on her?’ Julia asked.

‘None at all,’ Sabine replied. ‘So far she’s done a great disappearing act. Maybe the tearful, frail looking young woman was the smartest one of all.’

‘So is there anything else left for you to do here?’ Julia asked Sabine.

‘I still don’t feel like it’s all finished, but at the same time there really isn’t a great deal for me to do, so I will be heading back home tomorrow.’

‘Oh wow, hope it goes without saying to keep in touch, and not just with any updates on the case,’ Julia said.

‘I’m definitely going to keep in touch with you,’ Sabine replied. ‘That way I can have a cheap holiday in England some time.’

‘And I’ve always wanted to visit Los Angeles, only reason I’ve put up with you this past week or so,’ Julia replied as they exchanged little smiles.

‘Look at you two, and you ladies always say that guys can’t express their feelings, why don’t you both admit that you both have massive girl crushes on each other,’ Tony revelled in pointing out the ladies rare shyness.

‘I’m not even going to deny that,’ Julia said with a much bigger smile.

‘Me neither,’ Sabine matched the smile and gave Julia a hug. ‘In fact why don’t you come over to Los Angeles real soon, I’m guessing you’ll be getting some time off work because of your knee,’ she added excitedly as soon as she broke away from the hug.

‘That’s an awesome idea, I’m due some holiday time as well actually, as soon as the Doctors say I’m alright to fly, consider me on a plane,’ Julia more than matched Sabine’s level of excitement.

The three of them chatted away for the rest of the allotted visiting time, all enjoying the opportunity to talk about anything but the case, completely guilt free.

Chapter 27

Sabine arrived back in her apartment, it was early evening Los Angeles time, but that didn’t really mean anything to Sabine, all she knew was that she was exhausted. After leaving her suitcase just inside her door and closing that door, she threw her hand luggage bag onto her sofa and headed for her bedroom. She kicked off her shoes and lay flat on her back on top of her bed covers. Several deep breaths were followed by her closing her eyes. Her eyes were only closed for a few seconds, within a second of opening them she was sat upright in her bed. Her hands went to her mouth then she worked through the thought that had just hit her, the thought she’d been waiting to have for about two months now, it seemed so obvious now that she couldn’t believe it had taken her that long. Sabine jumped off the bed and walked briskly with a bounce in her step to her balcony.

‘Bert are you out there?’

‘Hey Lieutenant! Great to see you’re back, I’m guessing you caught them in the end?’

‘Sort of, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow when I’m more coherent. First of all though I have to tell you that all of those words have three consecutive letters in them that appear in their word in alphabetical order.’

There was a silent pause for thought from Bert before he replied. ‘Oh absolutely fantastic, excellent, first class. I knew you’d be the one to solve that riddle, I can’t tell you what a weight off my mind that is, I can die happy now.’

‘It sure was one heck of an annoying riddle,’ Sabine agreed. ‘I’ll sleep even easier now, catch up with you tomorrow Bert.’

‘Looking forward to it Lieutenant, sorry I mean Sabine.’

‘Don’t worry about it, I’m way too tired to admonish you.’

Just three days after she had got back home Sabine had a phone call from Julia.

‘Hey Julia, how’s that knee doing?’

‘Not too bad, they’ve assured me that the operation was a success and I should be walking again soon enough.’

‘Oh that’s awesome, must be a relief for you.’

‘Yeah and it does feel better already. You weren’t just being polite about me coming over to LA were you?’

Sabine produced a little laugh. ‘No not at all, you’d be more than welcome.’

‘That’s good because I’ve already booked a flight,’ Julia produce her own little laugh.

‘I love your decisiveness, when you coming over?’

‘Flight is in about three hours, I’m heading to the airport now.’

‘Definitely love the impulsiveness,’ Sabine had another giggle.

‘I should land around eight in the evening your time, will you be able to pick me up?’ Julia checked. ‘It’s totally fine if you can’t, just send me your address and I’ll get a taxi.’

‘Of course I can pick you up, I’ll see you tonight.’

‘Oh and we’ve got another loose end to look into when I get there.’

‘Really? Consider me intrigued.’

‘I’ll tell you all about it when I get there.’

This time at the airport, with the roles reversed from last time, there was no problem in recognising each other, not only had they met each other now, but Julia was easy to spot on her crutches. Walking along side Julia was an airport official, pulling along Julia’s suitcase in one hand and carrying her hand luggage in the other.

‘I’ll take them from here,’ Sabine said to the male official and held out her hands for the bags.

‘You sure?’ Julia checked. ‘My smile and tight trousers should be more than enough to get him to go all the way to your car,’ she added with a deliciously mischievous smile at the official.

‘Way more than enough Julia,’ he said, whilst nodding and smiling. ‘But I really should get back and do my real job now.’

‘That’s fine, as long as I know I haven’t lost my charm and it works on this side of the Atlantic too,’ Julia replied.

‘You’ve definitely got it and it would work anywhere,’ he replied. ‘Have an excellent stay in LA.’

‘I’m sure I will,’ Julia replied as he turned to walk back to his duties.

‘Not even out of the airport and already hitting on American men,’ Sabine said shaking her head theatrically.

‘I feel dominant at flirting at the domestic level, I want to test myself on the international scene, besides it was the easiest way to get someone to carry my bags.’

‘I’m sure it was. Anyway, welcome to LA!’

‘Thanks it’s all very exciting, and thanks for picking me up.’

‘Oh no problem at all, although you did cut into my crossword puzzle time, so it is a big favour I’m doing. Follow me to the car and by the time we get to it, you will have told me all about this loose end.’

Julia laughed a little. ‘Oh okay, I guess I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. From searching Luke’s house Tony and the team found a parcel addressed to Luke, but it had a return address on it, and the address is in Los Angeles. Could be nothing, but we thought it would definitely be worth checking out.’

‘Definitely, we can check it out tomorrow, if that’s okay with you, actually you don’t even have to come if you don’t want to.’

‘Are you kidding? I know you’ve lived with this case for a lot longer than I have, but ever since it became clear that Luke was involved, trust me nobody wants find out more about this case than I do.’

‘Don’t worry, I totally get that. So no news on Natasha yet?’

‘None at all,’ Julia said as the got to Sabine’s car.

‘You hungry?’ Sabine checked.

‘Could definitely eat something,’ Julia replied.

‘How about Chinese? We can compare it to that one we had at your place.’

‘Sounds perfect.’

The next day Sabine drove them around to the address that was on the parcel in Luke’s house. Sabine knocked on the door and a middle aged woman answered.

‘Hello Ma’am, sorry to trouble you, I’m Lieutenant Sabine Larksson from the LAPD and this is my colleague from England, Detective Julia Gough. A case we’re working on has brought us to this address, we were wondering if you knew a man called Luke Grant?’

‘Oh that sounds so familiar,’ the woman said and put a hand to her forehead. ‘Oh of course yes Luke, he was one of our daughter’s best friends. Do you want to come in?’ She checked. ‘You especially look like you could do with a sit down,’ she said to Julia with a smile.

‘That would be great if it’s no trouble,’ Julia said.

‘Of course not,’ she replied and showed them into the homely, well kept living room.

‘What’s your daughter’s name?’ Julia asked after lowering herself onto a sofa next to Sabine.

‘I have two, the one who was friends with Luke was Jade.’

‘Sorry, was?’ Julia checked with a great deal of trepidation.

‘She died,’ she said softly as she sat down in an armchair.

‘Oh I’m so sorry,’ Julia said.

‘Don’t worry about it, you weren’t to know. It was only a few months ago, I’m still at the numb stage.’

‘How did she come to know Luke?’ Sabine asked.

‘He came over just after finishing high school back home, I think he travelled around the US a little, but spent most of his time here in LA. I can’t remember how they met now, but they definitely got along great.’

‘Don’t suppose you have any idea where he is now?’ Sabine inquired with a lot more hope than expectation.

‘Not at all I’m afraid, why is it you want to speak to him?’

‘We’ve been working on a murder case that we think Luke could help us on,’ Sabine replied.

‘Luke hasn’t killed anyone has he?’ The thought looked to horrify her.

Sabine and Julia looked at each other.

‘No,’ Julia said. ‘Luke hasn’t killed anyone.’

‘I was going to say I can’t begin to imagine Luke killing anyone.’

‘I know what you mean,’ Julia said.

‘I think that is all,’ Sabine said. ‘There’s really no need for us to trouble you any further,’ she added as she got up out of the sofa and helped Julia back up onto her crutches.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be of anymore help,’ she said as she got up and showed Sabine and Julia to the front door. ‘It’s funny,’ she said as she opened the front door. ‘When you said you were the police I thought you had some news on Natasha.’

Sabine and Julia stopped dead in their tracks and looked at the woman. ‘Excuse me? Natasha?’ Sabine checked.

‘She’s my other daughter, my youngest, she went away a couple of weeks ago and we’ve hardly heard from her since. She said she was staying with friends in England last we heard.’

‘Is this Natasha Levski you’re talking about?’ Sabine asked.

‘No, our surname is Morris.’

‘Do you have a picture of Natasha?’ Julia asked.

‘Sure I can get one right away,’ she said and went back into the living room and quickly came back out with a photograph of Natasha. Sabine and Julia looked at the photograph, looked at each other, Sabine gave Julia a slight nod and then the two of them gently shook their heads.

‘Sure is pretty ain’t she,’ Natasha’s Mum said.

‘She certainly is,’ Sabine replied.

‘Has that helped at all?’

Sabine looked at Julia again. ‘No, no I’m afraid not, it was just that a young woman called Natasha was also involved in this case. Nothing for you to worry about. Thanks again, bye,’ Sabine replied then turned to go out the door. Just at the moment a postman arrived, he only had one piece of mail.

‘A postcard,’ Natasha’s Mum said. ‘Haven’t had one of those for years, oh look at that it’s from Natasha.’

‘Do you mind if we take a look?’ Sabine asked.

‘Sure if you think it might help.’

‘You never know what might help,’ Sabine said and held the postcard so that she and Julia could read it at the same time.

Hey Mom and Dad, just letting you know that I’m doing fine. I’m really sorry but I don’t think I can be around you guys anymore after what happened to Jade, I need to start a completely new life. Please forgive me for being selfish not being strong enough to help you through this horrible time. But I promise that I’m okay, thanks for everything you’ve ever done for me.

All my love always, Natasha. Xxx

‘I’m sorry this is really none of our business,’ Sabine said as she handed the postcard back to Natasha’s Mum. ‘Sorry to have troubled you,’ she added as she and Julia made her way back to her car.

‘No need to apologise,’ she said then closed the door behind them.

Julia got herself into the passenger side of Sabine’s car and looked at Sabine in the driver’s seat.

‘We did the right thing didn’t we?’ Julia checked.

‘Yeah, having one daughter die is more than any parent should ever have to deal with. She can do without knowing that her other daughter has committed two murders as part of a serial killing team and that the nice young man who was friends with her daughter actually masterminded that plan.’

‘You’re right,’ Julia said. ‘Postmark was Manchester England, but with her real surname and I’m guessing a change of appearance she could be anywhere by now.’

Natasha sat at a bar on a beach, her bikini and wrap around skirt were more than enough to keep her warm. The glass in her hand now only had ice in it, she held it on the bar and slowly swirled the glass around, causing the ice to rattle. She didn’t notice the man walk up right behind her.

‘If I didn’t know how much you hate guys who hit on girls in bars, I’d offer to buy you a drink,’ he said.

‘If you’d have been here on time you could’ve bought me this one,’ Natasha said without turning round to face him, then she slowly turned round to face him, frowning at first, then she broke into a broad smile. ‘Great to see you Luke,’ she said and gave him a big hug.

‘Always good to see you Natasha,’ he replied as they hugged. ‘So you get away clean?’ He checked as they came out of the hug.

‘Yeah not a problem at all, couldn’t have been a smoother exit, told you I’d been fine.’

‘Must admit I am still very impressed by the forethought of getting a new passport, with the picture having you with the short blonde hair,’ Luke said whilst nodding.

‘Even impressed myself with that one, did get a funny look at passport control on the way in, but that didn’t really matter. So how was your escape?’

‘A lot more rushed than I wanted it to be, but managed to get away with it in the end.’

‘Why was that?’

‘Stupid slip of the tongue on my part, fortunately I picked up on it a lot quicker than Julia did.’

‘You got here, that’s the main thing. I read on the internet that Scott, Anna and Justin all got arrested and the two other members of the gang have been found dead,’ Natasha said.

‘Leaving only the youngest, prettiest member of the group unaccounted for.’

‘And she’ll never be able to survive on her own,’ Natasha said with a delicious smile.

‘That’s what they’ll all be thinking, how little they know you,’ Luke replied.

‘They know you even less, that Julia is going to be seriously pissed with you.’

‘She certainly will, it’s a pity, she was good to have as a friend,’ Luke said as he got his wallet out. ‘I actually am going to buy you a drink, still on Bacardi and coke?’

‘Yeah tried and trusted.’

‘So did Scott never hint at my existence?’

‘Not at all, as far as the rest of the group were concerned this was all Scott’s plan.’

‘Thought it would appeal to his ego to have everyone think he was the one doing all the planning.’

‘His ego was plenty big enough.’

‘I can imagine that the whole group wasn’t short on ego.’

‘They weren’t all that bad,’ Natasha said with a little shrug. ‘Don was a total nightmare, horrible human being. Justin was fine, quieter than a mute in a library but not offensive at all. Ronny had his own problems. Anna, I’ll actually really miss Anna.’

‘I’m sure we can find you a new psycho friend here.’

‘I’m really not sure that killing people necessarily makes you a psycho anymore,’ Natasha sighed as the drinks arrived.

Luke held up his drink in front of Natasha. ‘To Jade,’ he proposed a toast.

‘To Jade, you were better than both of us,’ Natasha said. ‘Much, much better.’

Sat in Sabine’s car, parked outside Natasha’s parent’s house, Sabine and Julia were looking at each other, swapping little shakes of the head.

‘So two people have completely outsmarted us,’ Sabine said followed by a sigh.

‘That does really hurt,’ Julia agreed. ‘Positive spin time, we did save two lives and all the people likely to commit more murders are either dead or in prison.’

‘Hate getting beat though,’ Sabine said.

‘Right there with you.’

‘So what do you want to do now?’

‘Only thing I can think of is go shopping, then get to the beach, I don’t care what the Doctors say about the strapping on my knee, it’s coming off, I am not going home without a seriously good all over tan,’ Julia said. ‘Plus get very drunk.’

‘Now I’m right there with you on all three counts.’

Chapter 28

After a week of much needed relaxation in Los Angeles, Julia was back in Manchester. She had gone to a prison, where there was somebody she wanted to talk to. Julia made her way down a corridor, still on crutches then swung a door to an interview room open.

‘Interview’s over guys,’ Julia said.

‘Looks like you don’t get to decide when it ends either,’ Anna said with a mischievous smile.

‘You sure Ma’am?’ The seated officer checked.

‘Forget about her,’ Julia said. ‘She knows even less about this whole thing than we do. She was just one of the puppets in the show.’

‘Guess that makes two of us sweetie,’ Anna said then flashed another smile, this time at Julia.

‘There was a lot more than two of us.’

‘At least I had some control in the part I played.’

‘Shut up and wait for someone to take you back to your cell,’ the pacing officer told Anna.

‘To the visiting room please, don’t forget I have a date.’

‘He can wait a few moments,’ Julia said to Anna.

‘How do you know it’s a guy coming to visit me?’

‘There’s only one person I can think of who lives nearby and is crazy and caring enough to come and visit you.’

‘You jealous sweetie?’

‘Not at all,’ Julia replied with a blank expression. ‘You two can leave us now,’ Julia said to the two police officers.

‘You sure ma’am?’ One of them checked.

‘I’m sure, Anna and me go way back, she’s not going to hurt me, not again anyway,’ Julia said and then gestured with her head for the police men to get out. Both of them left the room and the last one to leave closed the door behind him. Julia sat in the chair opposite Anna.

‘Nice tan sweetie,’ Anna said. ‘You must have been away, no chance you got that over here.’

‘Been over to Los Angeles actually, you know the place where you killed your first victim.’

‘Remember it well.’

‘You committed the fourth murder right?’

‘That’s me.’

‘Must admit we couldn’t work out how you chose your first victim.’

‘He used to be my boss at work for a while, he was bully,’ Anna answered as she stared at Julia.

‘Being a nasty boss was enough for you to think they deserved to die?’

‘No, that was just what brought him to my attention, I became a little obsessive about him after I got fired, found out that he beat his wife. I even spoke to his wife about it, but she didn’t want to report it.’

‘Never ceases to amaze me how many don’t report it straight away.’

‘I used to think that.’

‘Before it was you?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I know I can’t begin to imagine what that is like,’ Julia looked at Anna with some genuine sympathy.

‘No you can’t,’ Anna said and looked away.

‘So you remember your murders well, you remember Natasha well?’ Julia asked whilst staring intently at Anna.

‘Remember? She’s not dead is she?’ Anna said quietly.

‘Far from it, she’s escaped to a faraway land, looks like she’s got out of this whole thing completely unpunished.’

Anna afforded herself a little laugh. ‘The little cutie turned out to be the coolest and smartest of all of us.’

‘By a long way,’ Julia added. ‘You get to know her well?’

‘We did get pretty close, about as close as you can get in a situation like that. Close enough to know she was an absolute sweetie, two murders aside of course.’

‘It’s hard for me as a police woman to put aside the fact that a person is a murderer.’

‘Natasha’s not a murderer, she’s someone who committed two murders,’ Anna said as she leaned right back in her chair after a little shake of the head.

‘So you don’t think she represents a danger to society?’

‘No way, not anymore. This was all about avenging her sister, it was something she felt she had to do. When she left us that night I could tell for sure that she felt she’d done what she needed to do.’

‘What happened to her sister?’ Julia checked.

‘Some guy fucked her, even though he knew he had AIDS, and she caught it and died from it pretty quick.’

Julia sighed and shook her head. ‘That is truly horrific,’ she said. ‘But nothing justifies murder.’

‘I’m sure if Natasha was here right now, she’d be agreeing with you,’ Anna said. ‘Legally nothing ever justifies murder. Morally I’m not quite so sure, that’s for the individual to decide. Do you have kids?’

‘No.’

‘Imagine you had a daughter and she was raped, tortured and killed by someone, and you had a chance to kill that person, are you telling me you’d just arrest them?’

‘Here’s hoping that I never find out.’

‘Glad you admit that the situation can dictate your behaviour sweetie. I’m just glad that it’s all over.’

‘Sweetie,’ Julia said and leaned forward on the table, stared at Anna. ‘This isn’t near over.’

THE END.

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