Vigilante (30 page)
Authors: Kerry Wilkinson
Tags: #Kerry Wilkinson, #Crime, #Manchester, #Jessica Daniel, #Mystery, #Police Procedural, #Thriller
Jessica wasn’t going to push her luck by mentioning the fact he’d gone after Farraday a few nights previously. She asked Dennis if he could sit back at the table and give them the full details they would need. Facially he barely reacted but he did what she asked, resigned to whatever was going to happen to him.
When he had finished speaking, he was taken back to the cells as Jessica passed the details of the man’s sister to his solicitor. She didn’t know if there would be any cooperation between the prisons to allow people to meet and, given everything that had happened, didn’t really care.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Jessica walked along the gravel path and listened. The few birds that hadn’t yet flown south were chirping noisily but, aside from that, she couldn’t hear anything other than the scrunching of her own footsteps. She realised the quiet was almost more deafening than the noise she was so used to. Living in a city, even on the outskirts, you grew accustomed to the low hum of traffic and people and it became the norm. She didn’t know if the tranquillity was better or worse. In some ways the constant clamour she was so familiar with was reassuring.
She followed the trail around the church and then moved onto the grass, walking carefully in between the gravestones to find the one she was looking for. There had been dew earlier in the morning and the ground felt soft underfoot. Jessica looked from side to side, taking in the names and wondering how everyone came to be there. Most of the dates on the stones would have meant it was simply old age but, every now and then, there were names of people who died young. She found it humbling, seeing the details of people born after her but who were already buried beneath her feet.
The graveyard was bigger than she remembered but Jessica eventually saw the stone she was looking for. The whole area was a mix of old weathered monuments and new chiselled markers. Carrie Jones’ stood out as the wisps of morning sunlight reflected off its surface. Jessica crossed towards it and placed the flowers she had been carrying next to the fresh ones already there. She stood looking down at the engravings, with Carrie’s name, date of birth and death, and a simple message.
‘Always in our hearts.’
Jessica sat between the plot and the one adjacent to it, leaning gently on the gravestone. For a while she listened to the breeze and the birds and then she smiled. ‘I can see why you left this place,’ she said with a small giggle. ‘Bit quiet, ain’t it?’
The ground was wet underneath her and she could feel the dampness seeping through her jeans but it was already too late to do much about it. ‘Your mum’s a character, I can see where you got the laugh from now. I don’t know how you stayed so thin though, all she wanted to do last night was feed me. She’s doing all right, looking after your dad and shouting at the rugby players on the TV. I’m not sure if she shouts louder when they’re winning or losing.’
She moved her head to the side so it was resting on the stone. ‘Everyone keeps telling me I did a good job for figuring things out and getting Dennis to talk but no one wants to tell me the truth. Maybe if I’d been a better mate we would have been able to talk about your bloke and things would have happened differently? I’ve not told anyone about things but Farraday – your John – quit last week. He called me into his office to tell me first and then announced it officially to everyone else. I think he felt guilty.’
Jessica was wearing a thick jacket but felt a chill go through her as the breeze picked up. ‘I think I lost it for a while somewhere along the line. I was seeing things that weren’t there and acting without thinking things through. I look at it now and it doesn’t even seem like me, it’s as if I was watching someone else doing those things.’
She tried to suppress a shiver as she continued talking gently to the stone. ‘I spoke to Denise Millar a few days ago. She’s keeping everything together for Jamie and says he’s got a job now. I think catching the person that killed her other son has helped her come to terms with it all.’
She stood and wiped as much of the dampness from her trousers as she could, peering back at the stone. ‘I’m just here to say goodbye and thanks for being a mate when I needed one.’
Jessica turned and walked briskly away back to the cemetery’s entrance. There was a wide wooden gate which she unclasped and moved through before shunting it back into position. She leant back onto it and took out her phone, skimming through the first couple of contacts. She highlighted Adam Compton’s name and typed out a simple text message.
‘I’m sorry. J’
She pressed the button to send and walked quickly out towards the waiting taxi on the main road before getting into the back seat. ‘You all right, love?’ the driver asked.
‘Yeah, can you take me to the train station now?’
The driver pulled away as Jessica leant back into the seat and closed her eyes. She felt her mind beginning to drift but was snapped back to the present as her phone beeped to say she had a new message.
NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As with
Locked In
, I will fully admit to taking a few liberties with the length of time certain scientific processes take. This has only been done in order to keep the story moving even though, in theory, I guess they could be called ‘mistakes’.
This book is a lot more science-based than the first one for obvious reasons if you have reached this bit without just skipping to the back first (tsk, tsk if you have). I’m not a very scientific person myself but, as far as I can check and tell – and according to the people I’ve spoken to – everything in the story should be correct.
As for the police work itself, my aim wasn’t to create something one hundred per cent accurate in terms of procedure as I’m not really sure how much enjoyment people would take from reading numerous chapters about filling in paperwork. These books are meant to sit close to reality. Many of the places are real but locations such as Longsight Police Station aren’t really as I’ve described them, certainly in terms of the interior.
The people who have helped me with the editing and research for the book know who they are and I can only thank them all yet again.
Thanks for your comments and questions.
COMING 19 JULY 2012:
AS IF BY MAGIC
A Jessica Daniel Interlude
After finding an abandoned package at Manchester’s Piccadilly Station, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has two choices. One option leads to the entire north west transport network grinding to a halt – and more importantly Jessica missing her train – while the other involves her opening the box.
For Jessica, the choice is clear – but what’s in the box, who left it, and how will it affect her weekend away?
This 50,000-word "half-book" is being released to celebrate the one-year anniversary of UK no.1 bestselling novel Locked In being released.
It contains a bonus features section, with scans of the original hand-written plot outline and the full first chapter of the upcoming Think Of The Children (Jessica Daniel book four).
It can be read standalone, or as part of the rest of the Jessica Daniel series.
See
http://kerrywilkinson.com
for more details.
This story occurs between Vigilante and The Woman In Black
ALSO AVAILABLE:
THE WOMAN IN BLACK
Jessica Daniel Book 3
Someone has left a severed hand in the centre of Manchester and the only clue Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has to go on is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing it carefully on the ground.
With a lengthy missing persons list and frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones, the detective has plenty to deal with and that’s before a detached finger arrives for her in the post.
By the time a second hand is found and a local MP’s wife goes missing, Jessica is left struggling to find out who the appendages belong to, how they are connected and just what the mysterious woman in black has to do with it all.
This is book three in the Jessica Daniel series, following on from
Locked In
and
Vigilante.
COMING FEBRUARY 2013:
THINK OF THE CHILDREN
Jessica Daniel Book 4
Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is first on the scene as a stolen car crashes on a misty, wet Manchester morning. The driver is dead, but the biggest shock awaits her when she discovers the body of a child wrapped in plastic in the boot of the car.
As Jessica struggles to discover the identity of the driver, a thin trail leads her first to a set of clothes buried in the woods and then to a list of children’s names abandoned in an allotment shed.
With the winter chill setting in and parents looking for answers, Jessica must find out who has been spying on local children, and how this connects to a case that has been unsolved for 14 years.
This is book four in the Jessica Daniel series, following on from
Locked In
,
Vigilante
and
The Woman In Black
COMING SOON:
UP IN FLAMES
Jessica Daniel Book 5
by KERRY WILKINSON
Seven years ago Martin Chadwick set fire to a building, not knowing a teenager was sleeping inside. With the media hyping the man’s impending release from prison and the victim’s father hinting at revenge, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is given the task of keeping an eye on the former prisoner.
Graffitied threats are just the start as the apparently remorseful man is left fearing for his life – but that’s just the start of what seems to be an escalating campaign of intimidation.
At first the culprit seems obvious – but with Martin’s son connected to a young girl’s death and a private investigator making a nuisance of himself, Jessica is caught squarely in the middle.
Meanwhile, someone in her midst seems intent on burning everything to the ground.
This is book five in the Jessica Daniel series, following on from
Locked In
,
Vigilante, The Woman In Black
and
Think Of The Children.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kerry Wilkinson is something of an accidental author. His debut, Locked In, was written as a challenge to himself but, after self-publishing, it became a UK number one bestseller within three months of release.
His three initial Jessica Daniel books sold over 250,000 copies in under six months, making him Amazon UK’s top-selling author for the final quarter of 2011, its biggest-ever sales period. He then signed a six-book deal with Pan Macmillan.
You can email Kerry at
[email protected]
Website:
http://kerrywilkinson.com
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kerrywk
Table of Contents
COMING 19 JULY 2012: AS IF BY MAGIC
ALSO AVAILABLE: THE WOMAN IN BLACK
