Strange Blood (19 page)

Shading her eyes from the sun she scanned the rows of shops. Where did the path come out? She ran past the chemist's and the newsagent's and round a corner, pausing when she got to the lake. There was a path round the edge of it but she couldn't see where it led because the land rose up in a series of hillocks on the other side. There was an elderly woman sitting on a bench a few feet away.

‘Excuse me,' Megan panted, ‘Can you tell me how to get to Pendleton College from here?'

The woman pointed back towards the precinct. ‘You need to go back through there and turn right by the church, love.'

Megan gasped her thanks and ran back towards the main square. As she passed the newsagent's she caught sight of the woman in the sunglasses. She was walking past the supermarket in the direction of the carpark. A few yards behind her the cyclist stood with his back to Megan, looking in the window of the electrical shop. In the strong sunlight she could see that his helmet was black – just like the one Tessa Ledbury's neighbour had described to the police.

Megan quickened her pace as the woman disappeared from view. She saw the cyclist mount his bike and pedal off in the same direction. Megan ran as fast as she could, but when she reached the carpark there was no sign of the woman or the cyclist. As she stood gasping for breath she caught sight of a yellow car driving through the exit barrier.
Ceri
's car. It
was
her, then. So where was the cyclist? There was no chance of catching Ceri up so Megan ran towards her own car. If he was following Ceri he might have gone on ahead to the junction to see which way she went at the lights.

By the time she reached the junction Ceri's car had gone and the lights were on red. ‘Damn!' Megan thumped the dashboard with the heel of her hand. At least she knew which way Ceri would be going. If she put her foot down she could catch her up before she got home.
Home?
Megan frowned. Why was she going home? Why hadn't she gone to Pendleton nursery to collect the children? It was only a stone's throw from the carpark, but she wouldn't have had chance to fetch them in the short time it had taken to follow her out of the precinct. Neil must be looking after them, she reasoned. She fervently hoped that he was; that Ceri was not going back to an empty house.

Reaching into her bag she punched out Dave Todd's number on her mobile. She was certain he would think she was over-reacting, but she didn't care.

‘Dave? I need your help.' In a few brief sentences she told him what she'd seen.

‘I'm in Stockhall now,' he said. ‘What's the address?' From the tone of his voice he was taking it seriously. ‘Okay, I'll be there in five.' And that was it. No questions asked.
Thank God for that,
Megan thought.

As the lights changed she sped past fields of green barley on the road that led to Stockhall. A few seconds later she was forced to slow right down as a tractor pulled out of a farm gate up ahead. She craned her neck, trying to overtake, but it was impossible. By the time she reached the turn-off to Ceri's road perspiration was sticking her clothes to her skin.

She pulled up sharply outside the house. The car was in the drive. There was no sign of the bike. In her rear view mirror she caught sight of Dave Todd at the wheel of the black Mondeo. There were four other people in the car. Then she spotted a squad car coming along the road towards her. Bloody hell, she thought, he's pulled out all the stops.

As she jumped out of the car something shiny caught her eye. Her insides froze. It was the rim of a bicycle wheel. Almost hidden by her sister's green wheelie bin. ‘Oh my God!' She stood on the pavement, rooted to the spot.

A split-second later Dave Todd was by her side. ‘No one else in the house has a bike?' She could hear the urgency in his voice.

She shook her head. ‘I've got a key to the front door.' Her hand trembled as she groped in her bag.

‘Right. No point pussyfooting around.' Todd motioned to the officers in the two cars. ‘Go up to the front door with Penny,' he said to Megan. ‘Don't call out or anything. Just stay on the step, okay?'

Megan's legs were like jelly as she walked up to the house. She glanced at the upstairs windows. What if her sister was lying dead in the bedroom? She tried to shut out the images that came crowding into her head. Her arm was shaking so much as she lifted the key to the lock that she had to steady it by grasping her wrist with her other hand. The woman police officer pushed the door open slowly. The hallway was deserted. Megan could see the children's anoraks hanging on pegs by the kitchen door. In the split second before Dave Todd and the others rushed up the path Megan heard someone coughing. A man's cough. And it had come from upstairs.

Chapter 14

Megan pressed her back against the wall as Dave and five other officers hurtled past. The thunder of footsteps on the stairs was followed by shouts and the sound of furniture and bodies crashing onto the floor. Amid the chaos Megan thought she heard a scream.

‘Oh my God!' she cried out. ‘Ceri!'

Before the policewoman could stop her Megan raced up the stairs. She froze in the doorway of her sister's bedroom. Ceri was on the bed, naked but for a pair of red stiletto shoes. Her wrists and ankles had been lashed to the brass rails with what looked like her own black stockings. Megan could not see her face. It was turned to one side, away from the doorway.

Megan felt as if her whole body was paralysed. She wanted to run to Ceri but she couldn't move. Beyond the bed, on the floor beside the window, the detectives were holding a man face down on the floor. He was naked except for a pair of white boxer shorts and as he struggled his black ponytail swished against the wooden floorboards. One of the officers grabbed it and he was still.

For a split second nobody moved. The room and the people in it were like freeze-frame images from a film. Suddenly a scream filled Megan's ears. Ceri's body began to writhe on the bed.

‘Justin!' Ceri screamed, her back arching as she struggled against her bonds.

‘Let him go! Bastards!'

*   *   *

Mariel Raven was lying low at the house of a friend who lived ten miles from her Pendleton home. She had driven off at high speed last night, pursued by reporters from the tabloid press, and had only managed to shake them off by driving into a multi-storey carpark in Wolverhampton town centre. Abandoning her car she had hidden in the ladies' toilets while phoning her friend, who had picked her up in a dimly-lit back alley a few streets away.

She was glad Justin had friends he could stay with. She wouldn't have wanted him going back to the house. She wondered how long it would be before the vultures gave up. Her hand shook as she picked up the newspaper lying on the coffee table. It was open at the photograph of her husband's head grafted onto a figure in a black cloak.
Sean Raven as he would look at a witches' coven.
What bollocks! How
dare
they do that to him! Seizing the paper in both hands she screwed it into a ball and stamped on it with her spike heels.

*   *   *

‘My name's Justin Preece. I'm a Media Studies student at Pendleton College.' The boy looked barely out of his teens. He was on his feet now, his wrists handcuffed. ‘She'll tell you! Tell them Ceri! You invited me here, didn't you?'

Megan cringed as she watched her sister struggle into jeans and a sweater. Ceri wouldn't even look at her.

‘Is he telling the truth, Mrs Richardson?'

Dave Todd's use of Ceri's surname just rubbed it in. ‘Yes! Of course he's telling the truth!' Her eyes had narrowed to kohl-rimmed slits and her nostrils flared. ‘Would you mind telling me what the hell's going on?'

‘We're investigating the murders of Tessa Ledbury and Joanna Hamilton, Mrs Richardson,' Todd said, voice matter-of-fact. He turned his attention back to the boy. ‘Your address?'

‘One-seven-one Linden Close, Pendleton, Wolverhampton WV30 1QR.' He recited it robotically, staring at the ceiling. Megan blinked. Linden Close? That was the name of Sean and Mariel Raven's road. She saw Dave Todd exchange glances with the officer making notes.

‘Mr Preece,' Todd said, emphasizing the title with a hint of sarcasm, ‘are you related to a Mr Sean Raven?'

Justin's lip curled. ‘You know damn well I am,' he snarled. ‘What is this? Some bloody vendetta? First my stepfather, now me! Why don't you go and lift my mother while you're at it?'

Megan stared from the boy to Ceri. The look of confusion on her sister's face told her that the name Sean Raven meant nothing to Ceri. Unless she had seen the morning papers there was no reason why it should.

‘Where were you between nine-fifty and eleven o'clock on the morning of Thursday the twenty-fourth of May?' Todd was standing in front of Justin now. Megan couldn't see the expression on the boy's face.

‘He was with me!' Ceri's voice was shaking. ‘He was in my lecture at Pendleton College! Satisfied?'

Todd glanced at her then turned back to the boy. ‘Can you account for your whereabouts between the hours of 2.30pm on Wednesday May the sixteenth and 11am on Thursday the seventeenth?'

There was a moment's silence. Megan saw that her sister's head was shaking in disbelief. ‘He was at college, weren't you Justin?' There was a note of hysteria in her voice now. ‘He's always in my lectures on Thursday mornings! He'd have been in another class on the Wednesday afternoon!'

Todd nodded an acknowledgement without turning his head. ‘And the Wednesday night?' he said to Justin. ‘Where were you that evening?'

‘I was at home with my mother and stepfather.' The tone was defiant. ‘But I'm sure you're not going to believe me when you haven't believed a single word
they've
told you!'

‘Justin Preece,' Todd said, ‘I'm arresting you on suspicion of murder.' He recited the standard clause about the boy's right to remain silent before ushering him out of the room.

‘No! Justin!' Ceri reached out to grab him but was held back by the WPC and another officer. Megan could have wept at the sight of her. She looked completely bereft, as if the bottom had fallen out of her world.

‘Please,' Megan said, ‘let me talk to her.'

Ceri turned her face away.

‘We'll have to take a statement first,' the WPC said. ‘But we can do it here if you'd prefer, Mrs Richardson?' Ceri nodded dumbly. ‘You'll be free to talk to your sister as soon as we've finished, Dr Rhys.'

Megan walked out of the bedroom in a daze. She went outside to see the squad car pulling away, Justin Preece in the back between two police officers.

Dave Todd was standing on the pavement with his back to her, talking into his mobile.

‘She's his lecturer, yes,' Todd was saying. No doubt he'd been telling Steve Foy all the gory details. She felt numb. Could Justin really be the killer? Had he and Sean Raven carried out the murders together? Or had she just subjected her sister to a terrifying, degrading experience for nothing?

Ceri had
invited
Justin into her house. She was having an
affair
with him. That in itself was devastating enough for her family, but it didn't mean he was capable of murder. She thought about Tessa Ledbury. Tessa had once had an affair with Sean Raven. What if it had started up again? What if she'd been involved in some sort of bizarre threesome with the stepfather and the stepson? But what about Joanna Hamilton? Yes, she had a connection with the college and could possibly have met Justin there. But she was a lesbian. She had been trying to persuade Vicky Tomlins to move in with her. No, Megan thought, it just didn't add up.

‘Yes, Guv,' she heard Todd saying, ‘I'll ask Dr Rhys if she'll come.' He shoved the mobile in his pocket and swung round. Behind the gold-rimmed glasses his eyes were full of concern. ‘This must terrible for you,' he said. ‘I'm so sorry.'

Megan nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak.

‘I don't know how you feel about coming to the station, but the Guv would like you there if you feel up to it.'

She swallowed hard. ‘I could come later.' Her voice was hoarse with emotion. ‘I'd like some time with my sister first.'

‘Of course,' Todd said. ‘Take as much time as you need. Would you like one of the officers to stay with you?'

She shook her head. ‘I'd just like to be alone with her, if you don't mind.'

Half an hour later the other officers had gone. Megan sat on a chair in the living room, her sister on the sofa. The room was unusually tidy. No toys lying on the rug or clothes draped over the radiators. Ceri must have wanted the place spick and span for entertaining her boyfriend. Megan wondered how old he was. She couldn't believe her sister had risked her marriage, her home,
everything
for a fling with one of her own students. She opened her mouth to speak but checked herself. Who was
she
to stand in judgement?

‘I know how you must be feeling,' she began. It sounded lame. As far as Ceri was concerned she had been violated. Violated and humiliated. She probably felt that being murdered would not have been much worse than the experience the police had put her through.

‘I don't know how you can say that.' Ceri's voice was full of bitterness. ‘And I don't want to talk about it – to you or anyone else!' She rose to her feet. ‘I need to get the children.'

‘Where are they?'

‘At the nursery, of course!' The corners of her mouth turned down. ‘Did you think I'd abandoned them somewhere? Terrible mother as well as a tart?'

‘No, of course I didn't,' Megan said. ‘I thought that Neil…'

‘He's at a conference in Brussels,' Ceri cut in. She paused in the doorway. ‘If you want to know why I didn't tell you it's because I knew you wouldn't approve!'