Someone You Know (15 page)

‘We've teams coming up from Maydown,' Burns said. ‘They'll get him along the road.'

Sure enough, a moment later, Lucy could see the strobing blue lights ahead. So too could Carlin, for all of a sudden he swerved to the left off the carriageway, pulling down Judge's Road, alongside the rugby club.

Fleming relayed this information through the radio.

‘Keep on him,' Burns shouted.

‘Really? I was planning on letting him go now,' Lucy muttered to herself.

Lucy followed Carlin, taking the turn sharply then having to correct her position quickly as the road curved again. To their left now, the dark mass of Enagh Lough, reflecting the clear sky above, was visible past the boughs of the massive trees lining the road's edge. Ahead, the red tail lights of Carlin's car disappeared around another bend.

Lucy slowed a little, taking the corner more gently than the last. As she did so, she and Fleming caught sight of the red Corsa, which was now careening along the straight stretch of road. Suddenly, the car swerved and mounted the narrow pavement bordering the roadway before breaking through the tree line at the edge of the road. It seemed to sit suspended for a second then fell forwards into the lough.

‘Jesus,' Lucy screamed, slamming on her brakes, the car sliding towards the gap in the trees now.

As her car screeched to a halt, Lucy undid her seat belt and jumped out, Fleming following her.

Carlin's car was already beginning to sink. She could see Carlin winding at the window, trying to open it in order to escape the vehicle.

Without thinking, Lucy peeled off her coat and launched herself into the water. The cold winded her, causing her muscles to spasm. She breathed through it, her teeth gritted. She'd swum every morning for years while she'd been working as a fitness instructor before joining the police.

She pounded against the water, aware as she neared the car that it was slipping deeper into the water. Carlin had the window down now, and was fumbling with his seat belt, the cold presumably making it hard for his numbed fingers to release the clasp.

She neared the vehicle, reaching in and gripping Carlin's jumper, while she held on to the roof of the car. Too much of the vehicle was submerged now for her to try pulling open the door against the weight of water pressing against it. Dragging Carlin out through the window was the best option.

‘Get out,' she shouted, as the front of the car dipped under completely, the boot rising slightly in the water.

‘Peter, get out,' she repeated, pulling at his jumper.

The water was past his chest now, his chin breaking the surface as he tried to look down at the seat belt.

He looked at Lucy, his eyes wide, his mouth open. ‘I can't free the belt.'

‘Keep trying,' Lucy shouted. She let go of him and tried pulling at the door, but knew already that the water pressure would make it impossible to open.

Carlin was screaming now as he tried to pull at the seat belt The water filled his mouth, causing him to spit it out again, angling his head back to try to keep his mouth clear of the surface. But already the level was rising.

‘I'm sorry,' he cried. ‘The girls. I'm sorry for them all. But I didn't do the killing. I didn't kill anybody. Jesus, forgive me.'

‘Any of who?' Lucy shouted. ‘How many girls?'

Carlin had stopped fumbling with the seat belt now and had begun winding up the window as the car slipped further below the surface. He turned to look at Lucy as the glass slid up between them, catching her hand, trapping it between the glass and the rubber of the frame. His face was drawn with terror as he opened his mouth.

The car dipped further, the water lapping the roof now, as Lucy pulled to free her hand from the window.

Beside her, a figure appeared, his baton raised. Mickey beat at the glass until it shattered, freeing Lucy's hand. Then he gripped her around the chest from behind as he pulled her away from the bubbles that surfaced as the car finally slipped below the water, even as she fought to get back to Carlin.

B
urns, Fleming and the ACC were in discussion in the CID suite when Lucy arrived back in the incident room. She'd been brought straight back to the station, dismissing suggestions she attend A & E and instead opting for a hot shower in the station's locker room and changing into a spare uniform someone had managed to find, her own clothes still soaked through from the lough. Tara, along with a few other members of the team, sat in the main incident room, sharing tea and sandwiches.

‘Are you all right?' Tara asked when Lucy came in. ‘Do you want tea?' she added, not waiting for a response to the first question.

‘Please,' Lucy said. ‘I'm grand,' she added.

‘You're nuts jumping in after him,' Tara said.

‘Nearly cost you and Mickey both your lives,' someone commented.

Lucy glanced around; it was Mickey's partner, the DC from Foyleside. She sensed from his tone that only one of those outcomes caused him concern. She was acutely aware all of a sudden that she was not one of them, not CID.

‘It was instinct,' Lucy offered by way of explanation.

‘Your instinct should be to stay alive,' he countered.

The door of Burns's office opened and he peered out. ‘You're back,' he said, nodding at Lucy. ‘All OK?'

‘Fine,' she said, taking the tea which Tara was offering her.

‘Bring it in here for a quick chat if you're feeling up to it,' Burns said.

Tara raised her eyebrows quickly at Lucy then moved away towards her seat again.

Burns held open the door for Lucy and, as she passed him, she caught the faint scent of his aftershave. When she entered his room, she saw her mother sitting behind his desk, while he and Fleming had clearly been sitting on the opposite side. There was only one spare seat.

‘You sit,' Burns said. ‘I'm good standing.'

Lucy thanked him and sat down, sipping from her tea. Tara had added extra sugar to it, its sweetness too sharp.

‘DI Fleming has filled us in on what happened up to Carlin going in the water,' her mother began without preamble. ‘Maybe you'd help fill in the rest of it for us.'

Lucy nodded, took a second mouthful of tea, then set the cup on the edge of the desk. She glanced at Fleming who smiled briefly.

‘After I saw the car going in, I went in after it. It all happened very quickly. At first Carlin was trying to get out. His seat belt must have been stuck or something, because he'd wound down the window, but seemed to be fumbling with the belt. I tried dragging him out, but the belt prevented it. When he realized he was going down, he said he was sorry.'

‘Sorry?'

Lucy nodded. ‘“I'm sorry for them all,” he said. “But I didn't do the killing.”'

‘You're sure of that?' Wilson asked.

Lucy nodded, glancing at both Burns and Fleming, neither of whom had spoken. ‘He said “them all” and that he hadn't killed them.'

‘“Them” plural,' Burns commented. ‘We know of Karen Hughes. Who is the rest of “them”?'

‘And how many?' Fleming added.

Lucy watched Wilson. Her face, always sharp, had thinned. When she removed her glasses, two red ridges marked the sides of the bridge of her nose. She was still attractive, Lucy conceded, but she was beginning to show her age. Either that, or her position as ACC was beginning to tell on her.

‘And, of course, if Carlin didn't kill “them”, then who did?' she added.

‘What's happening at the site?' Fleming asked.

‘The car's being removed from the lough,' Wilson said. ‘But it'll be morning before it's out. The underwater team has recovered Carlin's body and any obvious belongings. We've sent a team out to start searching the house on the Foreglen Road to see what they can find.'

‘That's on the way to the Ness Woods, where the Finn girl's phone was found, isn't it?' Burns said.

‘Yes. Though we have to work on the assumption that, if Carlin was trying to make contact with her, then he probably isn't the one who took her.'

‘Nor was Kay,' Fleming said. ‘Unless he took her in the middle of the night, disposed of her, and then went for coffee to photograph groups of girls.'

‘Have we anything connecting Kay to Karen Hughes?' Wilson asked.

Burns shook his head.

‘So, in fact, he might have nothing to do with Karen Hughes at all. His being in the centre might have been sheer coincidence.'

‘I don't believe in coincidences,' said Burns defensively.

‘Why not?' Wilson snapped. ‘They happen all the time. Cut Kay loose then, pending a file on the images he's admitted to taking. If we can ever recover them,' Wilson added.

‘What about Carlin?' Lucy asked. ‘Does he have a record?'

Fleming shook his head. ‘All low-level stuff. He was questioned about flashing at a school girl in the bus depot a few years back.'

‘What happened?'

‘He was warned off. Told to stay clear of the depot. He was occasionally visiting the community mental health team. He was deemed a vulnerable person.'

‘Not that that necessarily makes him a predator,' Wilson said.

Fleming nodded in agreement.

‘We'll see what the searches of the car and house throw up,' Wilson decided. ‘As for the events of this evening, the Ombudsman will have to investigate Carlin's death. You'll need to make statements about the events. Best get it out of the way tonight, while it's fresh in your mind. I've already contacted their office to get someone down here to take initial statements.'

Lucy nodded. It was standard practice that the Ombudsman would investigate the death of an individual who'd had immediate prior contact with the police.

‘If it turns out that Carlin was abducting and killing young girls, no one's going to mourn his death,' Burns said.

‘Least of all Eoghan Harkin,' Lucy reflected. He'd asked for half an hour with the person who'd killed Karen. If Carlin had told the truth, that person was still walking free.

It was pitch black in her room when the phone woke her at 6.30 the next morning. She'd only been asleep for two hours, yet had dreamed again of Mary Quigg and the fire. It meant that it took her a moment to realize she was awake when, upon answering, she was told that Gene Kay's house was burning down. And that he was still inside it.

W
hen Lucy arrived, a number of Land Rovers lined the roadway leading to the junction of the Trench Road. At first, Lucy couldn't understand what was preventing them moving closer to where Kay lived. Then, as she got out of her own car, she noticed the flaming carcass of a car, angled across the junction, illuminating the pre-dawn scene. Behind it, their features covered with scarves, their figures seeming to ripple and shimmer in the heated air that rose from the burning vehicle, Lucy spotted a crowd of a hundred or more youths, already dressed for battle. Occasional bottles and stones arched over the burning car, breaking through the thick plumes of black smoke and skittering impotently along the tarmac of the roadway. Only once did one explode with a hollow thud against the side of a Land Rover, the sound being greeted with cheers by those beyond the smoke. Despite the attempts to provoke a response from the PSNI officers, Lucy knew why her colleagues were holding back. Any heavy-handed attempt by the PSNI to break through the line of youths would be immediately politicized and could undo years of painstakingly developed cooperation between the residents in the area and the community policing teams.

‘The fire service can't get in near it,' Fleming told Lucy after he spotted her among the gathered officers. ‘They've gone up the other way and are coming down the Trench Road from the upper end. We're going to try to push through here when they arrive. Hopefully, the kids will be so focused on what's happened at this end as we come at them, they'll miss the fire crews coming from behind.'

‘Any word on Kay?'

Fleming shook his head. ‘A case of bad timing. He was released before midnight. The first word of the fire came from a neighbour about half an hour ago. The crew who did it probably didn't even realize that he was back in the house.'

As they spoke, Lucy noticed teams of officers, in Tactical Support gear, moving quickly into formation behind the Land Rovers. They heard the heavy clunk of the doors on the vehicles closing and the familiar roar of the engines as they came to life. The kids on the other side of the burning car must have heard it too, their ears well tuned through experience to the sounds of a gathering force. Lucy could make out, through the smoke, as they fixed their scarves around their lower faces, some passing round bottles and stones. She noticed a few of them huddling together, their backs turned to the officers, then saw the blooming of light between them as they ignited the first of the petrol bombs.

There was a thud as the first Land Rover pulled off the kerb, where it had been parked, and, revving its engine, it began moving towards the car, inching its way forward. It was clearly hoping to push the vehicle to one side, thereby allowing those vehicles and officers behind enough space to move towards the gathered crowd.

‘The plan is to push the kids back down the Old Strabane Road and free up the junction so we can get to Kay. Tactical Support will hold them in bay once we get them shifted,' Fleming explained.

Stones began clattering against the armoured sides of the Land Rover now, a bottle shattering against the reinforced windscreen. Then the first of the petrol bombs was thrown. It had been sloppily packed, and the flaming rag became dislodged as it turned in the air, a horsetail of flame in its wake as its contents spilled, so that, by the time it hit, the flames it produced on the Land Rover's bonnet spluttered and quickly died.

The Land Rover pushed forward, its front grille now making contact with the burning car. The driver had approached at an angle so that, as he moved, the car shifted down to the right, into the junction.