Kill Me Again (46 page)

Nobody spoke. They wouldn’t have been heard.

The surface of the water broke again, and Mark’s head appeared.

Only Mark’s.

Maggie sat on the cold, hard ground, wrapped in a jacket that a young PC had given her. Nobody was paying much attention to her. All eyes were searching frantically for Becky Robinson.

What if she died? It would all be Maggie’s fault.

Duncan had been convinced his plan would work. As they had stood on the side of the quay he had told her his idea.

‘Let’s make this real. In a moment you’re going to escape from me. You’re going to run off, calling your policeman as you go. You’ll be out of breath. You need to say I’m going to kill you – I’m going to drown you. You don’t know where you are, but it’s a deserted wilderness just outside Manchester. There’s a wide river. He’ll know where it is. He’ll come, Maggie. He’ll come to rescue you.’

Maggie hadn’t been expecting this, and for a moment she wavered. Duncan saw it in her eyes.

‘Don’t let me down, Maggie.
Please
.’

She had looked down, unable to meet his eyes.

‘This is where I need you to be very clever. After you’ve made the call, I’m going to leave you. I’m going to get out through a narrow gap that I found yesterday and disappear into the back streets of Manchester. You need to go back to the water’s edge and wait. When you see car headlights, it will be the police. You start to shout, scream, throw your arms around as if you’re fighting somebody. They’ll be too far away to see properly, and there are no lights on this side of the water. They’ll just see a shadow. Then you throw yourself into the river. You can swim, Maggie. But I can’t. By the time they get here, they’ll believe I’m gone. Drowned. You say I was trying to kill you and you dragged me in with you.’

It was a good plan. She had seen how it could work.

But if that pretty young detective with all her life ahead of her drowned tonight, Maggie knew she would have to tell the truth. Becky Robinson couldn’t die for nothing.

Tom’s eyes were still fixed on the centre of the river. They couldn’t give up now. If Mark was tired, Tom would go in, or one of the others. But then there was a muffled cheer as Mark dragged up a head. A head that wasn’t moving, wasn’t making a sound.

A young policeman dived into the river to help Mark bring Becky to shore as quickly as possible. To one side of him, Tom was conscious that an officer had wrapped Maggie in his coat, but his eyes were glued to Becky’s lifeless face.

He fell to his hands and knees by the edge of the quay and helped pull her out, turning her on her side, placing his fingers in her mouth to drain any water. The helicopter remained overhead, still lighting the scene. There was nowhere safe for it to land. Tom rolled Becky onto her back and felt for the correct position on her chest. He started compressions, but nothing happened. He lifted her chin and gave her two breaths, then started the compressions again.

‘Come on, Becky,’ Tom whispered.

Mark was out of the water and kneeling by her head, stroking her hair. ‘Come on, babe.’

An ambulance was on its way, but Tom didn’t believe it would get to them in time. The paramedics would have to navigate the whole of bloody Pomona Island before they could reach Becky.

Two more breaths, and Tom checked her pulse. Nothing. He was sure she had gone. Mark clearly thought the same, his chest rising and falling in juddering sobs.

But Tom wasn’t giving up. Two more breaths.

From inside Becky’s body came a rumble, and she started to vomit. There was a sigh of relief all round, and Tom turned her on her side until the fluid drained away.

‘It’s not over yet,’ he said, before giving her more mouth-to-mouth to get oxygen into her body. She vomited again.

‘Shh,’ Tom said sharply, his ear close to her nose. He grabbed her wrist. ‘She’s breathing,’ he said. ‘She’s got a pulse.’ Tom felt his eyes sting and he bit his top lip between his teeth. He took a deep breath, reached out and touched Mark on the shoulder. ‘Thank God you were here.’

‘She phoned to tell me where she was going. I
told
her to wait for you, but I knew she wouldn’t.’

‘Well, maybe next time she’ll listen.’ Tom said, feeling the ball of tension in his chest begin to unravel.

Mark lifted his eyes to Tom’s and they both knew that was unlikely.

70

It wasn’t until mid-morning that Tom was able to get away from headquarters and make his way to the hospital. He now had two people to visit in ICU, but thankfully both were doing well and were due to be moved onto a ward that afternoon.

He walked past Leo’s cubicle, and saw she had a visitor. It was Julian Richmond and Tom smiled. He hoped it worked out for her.

Tom carried on along the corridor in search of Becky. She was alone, and a nurse told him that Mark had finally gone home to get changed. He had been dripping river water everywhere but had refused to leave Becky’s side until he knew she was all right, so they had lent him some scrubs until they could persuade him that she was out of danger.

Becky’s prognosis had not been good when she was brought in. She had stopped breathing for a long time, so they had hitched her up to a machine to monitor her vital signs.

Tom looked at her now as she lay propped against the bright white pillowcases. She looked terrible and extremely young. Her eyes had purple smudges around them, and her skin was chalk-white with a blue bruise on one temple, but she turned her head slightly and smiled when she realised somebody was there.

‘You’re a bloody idiot, Becky Robinson,’ he said softly, knowing that his gruff voice wouldn’t hide the emotion he was feeling. ‘I thought we’d lost you. Christ, what were you
doing
?’ He walked into the cubicle and sat on the only chair.

‘I’m a good swimmer, but my leg got tangled in something. I don’t know if it was Duncan Taylor grabbing me, but it felt like rope,’ she said, her voice husky. ‘What about Maggie Taylor?’ Becky asked. ‘She knew her husband couldn’t swim when she dragged him into the water with her.’

‘If he was trying to kill her, who can blame her.’

‘What’s she saying?’

‘Not a lot. She looks stunned.’

‘Why the hell didn’t she tell us what was going on? Surely some of this could have been prevented?’

‘We don’t know how much she knew. Not much, at a guess. And if you’ve known somebody – loved them even – for years, it takes more than five minutes for you to accept that they’re not what you believed them to be.’

‘Well, she’s going to have to be brave now. It’s not going to be easy, dealing with the aftermath of all of this.’

Tom decided it was time to change the subject. ‘Your Mark’s a bit of a hero, isn’t he. Are you going to marry him?’

‘You can’t ask me questions like that,’ Becky said with mock indignation.

‘Why not?’ asked Tom, pinching a segment of chocolate orange off Becky’s cabinet.

‘So how’s Leo?’ Becky asked with a faint trace of her usual cheeky grin.

‘I think she’s doing okay. The nurse told me she’s being moved onto a ward later. I was going to call in to see her, but Julian’s with her so I’ll come back another time.’

‘No chance you two will get back together again, then?’

‘Don’t be nosey, Becky.’

‘I can be anything I want today. I’m the heroine, and anyway you asked me about my love life, so why can’t I ask you?’

‘Because I’m the boss,’ Tom said, nonchalantly biting into the chocolate.

‘Not in here you’re not. Come on. Are you going to have another go?’

Tom feigned shock. ‘That’s not very delicately put, if you don’t mind me saying so.’

Becky tutted. ‘You’re obviously not going to tell me. I’ll remember this, though.’

Tom owed her after the events of the past week, so for a moment he was serious. ‘We won’t be getting back together. We’re friends, but it wouldn’t work now, and anyway she seems keen on Julian.’

‘Good,’ said Becky.

Tom raised his eyebrows.

‘Oh, Leo’s okay, I’m sure. But you have other fish to fry. The lovely Louisa called in to see me earlier.’

Tom shook his head. ‘I don’t think she wants to know. I thought she might, but I’ve seen her a couple of times in here and she’s not been the same. She’s been friendly, but her eyes are telling a different story.’

‘Dear Lord, why are men so stupid?’ Becky asked, holding her hands out to her side and looking to heaven. She brought her gaze down to glare at Tom. ‘She thought you were with Leo!’

Tom stared at Becky and realised that she was right. He remembered that she had intimated that but he’d been so tired he’d completely forgotten.

It was time to put an end to this conversation. He had revealed far too much of himself to Becky for one day.

He was saved from more questions by the ringing of his phone, and he was surprised to see it was his daughter, Lucy.

‘Hi Lucy – This is a nice surprise.’

‘Daddy, I was so worried about you. Mum said I was being stupid, but I had to call you.’

It was rare these days that Lucy called him Daddy – and he still loved it.

‘What’s up, sweetheart?’

‘It said on the news that a police officer had nearly drowned, and I was scared it might be you.’

He could hear that she was close to tears.

‘Lucy, love, there are thousands of police officers in Manchester. Why did you think it might be me?’

‘Because you’re daft enough to jump into a freezing river to save one of the bad guys, that’s why.’

‘No, I’m not. You’d have to be very stupid to jump into a river to do that.’ Tom looked at Becky. ‘I promise it wasn’t me. It was Becky.’

There was a squeal down the phone and Becky held out her hand for Tom’s mobile. She had often looked after Lucy when Tom had been suddenly called in to work during one of his weekends with his daughter. Tom listened to them chatting away and smiled, realising what a hole Becky would have left in their lives if tonight had turned out differently.

When the call was over, he stood up and reached out to squeeze Becky’s hand. ‘I’m glad you’re okay, Becky, but next time, do as you’re bloody well told. And if you don’t want to listen to me, listen to Mark. Okay?’

She smiled back at him, clearly understanding without being told how much she had frightened him.

‘Oh, one thing, Tom. Just before the chaos of last night you asked me to find out Sonia Beecham’s mother’s name, and it kind of got lost in everything else. It’s Rose. Why did you want to know?’

Tom stopped. ‘Rose Beecham. Of
course
. Sonia went to see a counsellor, but her mother made the arrangements and went with her the first few times. Rose Beecham’s name was on the counsellor’s appointment record – the same counsellor as the boys.’

‘Well, I don’t know if it’s relevant, but do you remember I told you that Maggie Taylor was working with a psychologist on the Alf Horton case?’

‘Vaguely, yes.’

‘His name’s Frank Denman. I got confirmation just before the call from Maggie. Denman was the counsellor the three boys saw. But they were all patients or clients or whatever in different years. There was no cross over at all.’

‘So he knows Maggie Taylor.’

Tom stared at Becky, his mind elsewhere. This was the connection they had been searching for. It had to be. But he still couldn’t see how it hung together. He lifted his hand in a distracted wave as, still deep in thought, Tom walked out of the cubicle, all idea of leaving a message for Dr Louisa Knight driven from his head.

71

4 days later

Maggie had just said goodbye to Suzy when they came. Her sister had been a rock, understanding that there was so much she didn’t know but accepting it. Maggie had kept the children home from school and hadn’t told them anything yet. How could she? She wanted to be close to them, and couldn’t stop hugging them, much to Josh’s feigned disdain. He needed it as much as anybody, though.

As Suzy left, she promised to come back in a couple of days, but she had been missing her own children. Her ex, Ian, had been surprisingly supportive and had agreed to have the children for another few days so Suzy could come back and help Maggie sort out the rest of her life.