The Game Changer (46 page)

‘ADAM, IS THE BABY OKAY?’ KATE’S VOICE WAS BARELY above a whisper.

He took her hand in his, kissing it. ‘It’s early days, Kate, but so far so good. The consultant says you need plenty of rest.’

Kate closed her eyes, a mix of relief and anxiety flooding in. ‘Adam, what if something happens? What if it doesn’t work out? What if …’

‘It will work out. If that baby is as determined as the woman I’m looking at, everything will be fine.’

She attempted a smile. ‘And, how do you feel about it?’

‘Kate, I love you. I love you more than anything. If I’m being honest, I’m nervous about being a father again, but part of me already loves that baby as much as I love you. I only hope I can be a better dad this time around.’

‘What if it’s a girl? I dreamed it was a girl.’

‘Then myself and Charlie will have a battle on our hands.’ He kissed her forehead. ‘Are you in a lot of pain?’

‘My chest hurts, and it’s hard to breathe.’ She paused, closing her eyes again. ‘I remember seeing a car coming out from the side, but I can’t remember anything after that.’

‘We haven’t any details on the car yet, other than a witness hearing it pull away at speed, then seeing you at the side of the road. The consultant thinks you travelled some distance. It’s a miracle …’

‘I didn’t get to see Aoife.’ She panicked. ‘I was early for our appointment – maybe she came afterwards and thinks I didn’t turn up.’

‘I don’t know what’s up with Aoife. I rang her parents. They haven’t seen her.’

‘What about Addy?’

‘Stop worrying about that pair. Declan’s on his way here with Charlie.’

‘But—’

‘There was no point in telling him not to come. I certainly wouldn’t have listened if our roles were reversed. And there’s twenty-four-hour security on the door. Declan won’t let Charlie out of his sight.’

‘Okay, I guess.’

‘When they get here, I may have to slip out for a while. There are a few loose ends I need to look into.’

‘What kind of loose ends?’

‘The woman who gave the statements to PIU is Kevin Baxter’s sister.’

Kate scrunched her forehead, trying to take in the information. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Fisher and I interviewed Madden earlier. He’s in Harcourt Street as we speak. I’m expecting a call at any moment but, according to Madden, she made contact with him fairly recently. He says he was trying to help her but …’

‘What?’

‘Kate, I really don’t think I should be worrying you with any of this.’

‘You’ll worry me more if you don’t tell me.’

‘She’s been renting your old house from Holmes & Co. There’s another guy connected as well, a Clarence Webb. They were the ones I got the information from during the house-to-house.’

‘Where is she now? Kevin Baxter’s sister?’

‘Her name’s Jessica. We don’t know where she is.’

Kate remembered the name Pat Grant had given her. She put her hand up to her head.

‘Kate, are you all right?’

‘Was Jessica fostered, like Kevin?’

‘Yes. Their mother wasn’t well. She suffered from bipolar.’

‘When was it diagnosed?’

‘Before Jessica was born.’ He leaned closer to her. ‘Listen, Kate, I want you to stop thinking about all that now. The priority is you and the baby.’

‘I know.’ She swallowed hard.

‘And try not to talk so much.’

‘Adam, why did she want to live in my old house?’

‘That’s enough, Kate. Stop trying to find answers. Trust me, I’ll get to the bottom of this.’ He kissed her on the lips, gently, lovingly.

‘Adam, I remember something else. I saw a young man’s face behind the steering wheel. I’m not sure I’d be able to describe him. It all happened so fast.’

‘Don’t worry about that either, not now.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course I’m sure.’

His mobile rang. ‘Hold on a second,’ he said, ‘it’s Harcourt Street. I need to take this.’

ADDY HAD NOWHERE TO HIDE. THE CHURCH WAS small. They would find him in seconds, and if he had Sarah’s phone on him, that would mean trouble too. It wasn’t going to take a lot more for that door to open, especially with the number of kicks being applied. He climbed down from the spire, jumping the last bit when he was near the bottom. He hurt his ankle, but managed to push the phone into the hole the fox had scurried through.

‘What are you up to?’ Stephen shouted, as the door crashed to the ground. His joy at catching Addy unawares was all too clear. He had two other male members with him.

‘Nothing.’

‘Finding religious inspiration?’

‘You could say that.’ Addy tried to sound calm, even though he knew Stephen wasn’t buying it.

Stephen moved closer, and Addy flinched when he saw him pull out a knife and twirl it in his hand, like before, as if he was trying to decide what to do next.

‘I saw you sneak in here.’ Stephen sniggered, placing the blade underneath Addy’s chin.

‘I’m one of you now,’ Addy answered.

‘Is that right?’ Stephen twisted the blade, drawing blood. ‘We’ll see about that, won’t we, men?’

The two other members grabbed his arms, and Addy knew there was no escape. He wasn’t sure if John Sinclair had believed him, but at least he had made the call. Now his choice was simple. Either put up a fight and lose, or hope that somehow, if he got back to the commune buildings, Donal could help him.

ADAM LISTENED AS FISHER RECITED THE information Malcolm Madden had given him. None of it was good news, and Valentine Pearson’s role was far murkier than Kate would be able to cope with right now. According to Malcolm, as far as Kate’s abduction was concerned, it was a classic case of mistaken identity, exactly as Kate had suspected. Her disappearance had caused the cracks to appear, and Valentine had finally got wise to what had been going on, shutting down the grouping. He wasn’t responsible
per se
, but he was certainly guilty of not notifying the authorities. Neither had he dug any deeper at the time to find out the identity of the victims. In Malcolm Madden’s opinion, somehow or other, a number of years later Valentine had found out the truth, and although he couldn’t be completely sure, Malcolm suspected that he had discovered something else, perhaps a more serious wrongdoing, worse possibly than even the abuse. From then on, Valentine had been a broken man. His arrogance, his angry outbursts, the infidelity had all stopped.

Adam remembered what Kate had told him about the night her father had taken her aside and apologised to her. Maybe he had just found out. By then Jessica would have been a grown woman. Not that it excused anything, but it explained why he had changed so dramatically.

‘Is Malcolm still at Harcourt Street?’ Adam asked.

‘For now, although the only thing we can get him on is obstructing justice by holding back information.’

‘Keep squeezing him. Someone has to do time for what happened back then, and right now, he’s our only live candidate.’

‘I’ve checked the airlines. We’ve found a match for Jessica Fraser
on a flight to New York, two days before Tom Mason’s killing. She was alone.’

‘Lee, did Malcolm say how much Jessica knew about what went down?’

‘She knew a lot, and my guess is that Malcolm did his fair share of filling in the blanks. He saw her as the victim in all this, and he was her knight in shining armour.’

‘Hardly shining?’

‘I suppose that’s subjective. From what I can tell, he still thinks he’s one of the good guys. Adam, what are you thinking?’

‘That after Mason and O’Neill were killed, depending on what she discovered from Malcolm, there could have been a shift of emphasis.’

Adam looked at Kate. She was still asleep, but he took the rest of the call outside.

‘Lee, are you still there?’

‘Yeah.’

‘It makes sense that as soon as she found out Valentine Pearson could be her father she turned her attention to Kate. She may have been watching her for years, because of Valentine’s connection with the group, or maybe somehow she found out that Kate had been luckier than her and got away. But a number of things are slotting into place.’

‘I don’t think Malcolm Madden realised he was putting Kate in danger. Jessica had him wrapped around her little finger.’

‘Is Fitzsimons there?’

‘He’s beside me.’

‘Ask him to get on to that script specialist. I’m pretty sure the sender of the notes to Kate is Jessica Baxter, but we need him to look at Amanda Doyle’s letter again. That, potentially, is a bomb waiting to go off. For all we know, that other guy, Clarence Webb, could be the Saka character.’

‘Like a front man, a fall-guy for Jessica?’

‘Yeah. What did Malcolm say when you asked him about cults? Did he think Jessica was capable of it?’

‘He said no, but he was blind-sided, Adam, only he doesn’t want to admit it yet.’

‘It all feels too crazy.’

‘I’ve known prisoners to be murdered because they snore in their sleep. Nothing surprises me any more.’

‘We’ll need a photo of Jessica Baxter.’

‘Fitzsimons is organising that now, and I’ll keep the pressure on Malcolm Madden.’

‘Okay.’

‘Are you going to tell Kate any of this?’

‘She has enough worrying her without me adding more to the list. Look, Lee, I have to go. The chief super is phoning me.’

It was only as he hung up that he noticed the missed calls from Addy and an unknown number. They must have come through when he’d had his phone on silent.

He answered the chief super, listening as he told him about John Sinclair’s phone call. A series of miniature explosions went off in his head. It hadn’t crossed his mind that Addy could be connected to any of this, but he’d soon joined the pieces together, and when he had, he knew he must move fast. That phone call had also put Aoife’s meeting with Kate in a different light. It could be part of all this. Ethel O’Neill had been killed by a hit-and-run, which meant what had happened to Kate might not have been an accident. He had no time to waste on the script analysis. His gut told him Kate had been right all along, which meant that a great many other things were wrong. The chief super had made contact with the police commissioner: a full marine and air operation was already in place. He didn’t want to leave Kate, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

‘What’s wrong?’ Kate asked, when he came back into the room.

‘Kate, I have to go, but I don’t want you to worry. I’ve had a chat with Matthews outside, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

‘But—’

‘Rest now. I’ll phone you later. I’ve told Matthews not to let
anyone in other than hospital staff, Declan or Charlie. They should be here in the next few minutes.’

∞

On his way to pick up John Sinclair, Adam dealt with one call after another. It was a risk having Sinclair involved, but the chief super was right: he might be able to ID Saka. He rang Fitzsimons too. ‘Is there any word on that image of Jessica Baxter?’

‘We should have it from Justice in the next half an hour.’

‘When it comes in, get a copy over to Matthews, and keep working with Fisher.’

The last call he made was to Declan, telling him how Kate was doing. In less than an hour, the air and sea response units would be in place, and after that, who knew when he would get back?

STEPHEN HELD THE KNIFE AT HIS SIDE ON THE WAY back to the commune buildings, constantly turning it in his hand. Addy didn’t take his eyes off him for a second. He could tell that Stephen was on some kind of high, and even though few words were spoken, the bits of conversation Addy heard told him they were excited about something, and Stephen was going to be an important part of it.

When he finally pushed him into the room below ground, two things came into his mind at once. First, Donal: he hoped they hadn’t found him; and, second, that somehow he would be able to get Addy out of there.

The look on Stephen’s face as he pulled the door closed, locking it behind him, told Addy he would be back. He was a psycho, nothing surer. At some point, the bastard intended using that knife on him. He wouldn’t forget about Addy. It was only a question of time.

∞

For what seemed an eternity, he listened for any sound other than the pipes gurgling in their chambers. If Donal had managed it before, he should be able to manage it again.

When he heard movement outside the door, at first he thought Stephen had come back, but then he heard Donal’s voice. ‘Addy?’

‘Donal, get me out of here.’

He heard the key turn in the lock, and when Donal opened the door, he could have hugged the boy.

‘Addy, something terrible is about to happen.’

‘It’s okay, Donal. Calm down. I got a message through to Sarah’s husband, but I can’t be sure he’ll send help.’