DS Jessica Daniel series: Locked In/Vigilante/The Woman in Black - Books 1-3 (74 page)

Things had been confusing though. That photo of Donald McKenna had ended up on television and in the papers. He didn’t know how they could have figured it out but waited to see if anyone
came for him. The killer wasn’t quite sure if he understood all of it himself when it came to McKenna. He had tried not to think about it but it was something niggling away at the back of his
mind. Either way, when they hadn’t come for him, he realised he might be in the clear after all. Perhaps if he just dealt with the next person on his list, the people that wrote their columns
would realise he wasn’t the bad guy after all?

He began to start planning exactly what he would need to do next. Obviously he didn’t want to get caught and most of the people he went after were bigger or stronger than him. It was all
about biding his time and looking for a routine.

But then the woman had come to him. It was strange but, after talking with her, he knew he had to change his plans and go for a different target. He wasn’t sure if she knew about his
project or not but, even if she didn’t, it didn’t matter. She hadn’t told him specifically this man should be targeted but her careless talk had given him enough to go on. Maybe
he would tell her afterwards that he had done it for her? Maybe she would guess?

In any case, after watching the person for two nights, it was clear the new target had a very simple routine to follow – this would be the easiest one yet.

He was grateful for the darker evenings as it meant he could comfortably get into place in time. He pressed himself into the bush and watched as the car pulled forwards towards the garage. As
with the last few nights when he had simply been an observer, he knew the vehicle would stop and the man would get out to open the garage door. That was when he would strike.

The headlights illuminated the chipped paintwork of the garage door and the killer heard the car slide into neutral.

Just a few more seconds.

He stepped forwards out of the hedge, crouched and moved silently towards the driveway. He heard the car door open and saw the person he was waiting for stand and start towards the garage door.
The man had his back to him and the killer moved quickly as the wide door started to slide upwards.

The killer took his hand out of his pocket, holding the knife tightly ready to strike but, as he pulled back, the target suddenly dropped to his knees and rolled backwards.

The man with the knife stopped and looked sideways but the other man on the ground was looking directly at him.

How could he know?

The killer motioned to turn and run but the man spoke loudly and clearly. ‘Game’s over, Dennis.’

Dennis Doherty panicked and looked to his right but saw officers swarming out from under the garage doors. He spun and ran as fast as he could towards the gate. As he got nearer it started to
open and he wondered if somehow he had a guardian angel who was setting him free – but more officers poured through the gate towards him. He looked backwards but was surrounded and walking at
the front of the officers was the woman.

The penny suddenly dropped – the one he thought might be on his side had set him up.

‘Drop the knife, Dennis,’ she said.

He did as he was told, the weapon falling to the floor with a clang which echoed around on the breeze. The woman didn’t stop walking though. He put his hands out, waiting to be cuffed and
knowing it was over. Instead of reaching for his wrists, she launched forwards and hammered her fist into the lower part of his nose.

He felt the liquid explode around his face, pain lurching through his body as he tried to shove her away. He couldn’t move his arms, as someone else pulled them behind him, wrenching them
into handcuffs. Dennis looked up to see the woman inches from his face. ‘That was for Carrie,’ she said, rubbing the blood from her knuckles.

FOUR DAYS AND FIVE HOURS AGO

Jessica looked at Farraday standing next to her by John Mills’s hospital bed, trying to catch her boss’s attention. Mills noticed her expression first. ‘Hey,
do you know who it is?’ Jessica said nothing but told the chief inspector with her eyes they had to leave.

The two detectives stood but the patient raised his voice. ‘Oi, I have a right to know. Tell me who it was. Hey.’

Jessica and Farraday headed out of the ward together with the man shouting after them. The nurse outside muttered something about not getting the patient excited and dashed in behind them but
Jessica and the DCI were already walking quickly away.

‘What is it?’ Farraday said.

‘Outside.’

The two of them hurried out to the car park and Jessica strode towards an empty bench. They both sat down and she kicked away the smattering of cigarette ash that was next to her foot.

‘Do you know who it is?’ the DCI asked.

‘Yes but I don’t think we have anything to arrest him for. Mills’s description wouldn’t be enough.’

‘Tell me.’

‘When you left last night there was one thing I couldn’t quite recall, something that felt on the tip of my tongue. I remembered it when we were in there.’

‘What?’

‘Well, the other reason I was so sure it was you was because of one of the front-office guys at the prison.’ Farraday was looking confused. ‘You have to understand, I was so
convinced, I was really sure. I thought you were either related to McKenna or had somehow smuggled his blood or something out.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I took in a picture of you and asked this guy on reception if he’d ever seen you. He came back to me a few days later and said one of the other women who worked there had. He knew
your name.’

‘I’ve never been to the prison. Lots of people would know my name from the picture, especially if they were following the case.’

‘I know that now but he had me convinced. I didn’t think it through, I was sure it all made sense that you had been there and it didn’t even cross my mind I could be wrong.
That’s why I wanted to get your blood tested, I thought you were related or something. I know it sounds crazy now but I’d put all the pieces together and . . .’

‘. . . It does sound pretty crazy,’ DCI Farraday interrupted, smiling softly.

‘I’m sorry, Sir.’

‘There’s time for that later. What are you saying? That it’s this prison reception guy?’

‘Mills said the guy had bright blue eyes and a scar on his face. The guy at the jail is called Dennis, you can’t miss his scar but the eyes too. I was so obsessed before I
didn’t even see it. McKenna, his sister Mary, and Dennis all have those same light blue eyes. They almost look through you with them.’

‘You think they’re all related?’

‘I don’t know, I have no idea but why would Dennis say he’d seen you when you’ve never been near the place?’

‘We can’t arrest him because he has a scar that’s a little bit similar and blue eyes. We’d have thousands of people to bring in if that were the case.’

‘I think I know how we can find out for sure, Sir.’

‘We can’t just take hairs from him or take blood to check him and we can’t swab him without arresting him for something. Any evidence would be inadmissible.’

Farraday scratched at the mark on his face, an unconscious movement at the place where Jessica had cut him.

‘I know but if we catch him in the act . . .’

‘We still can’t entrap someone.’

‘Maybe not but say we had an anonymous tip telling us someone’s life was in danger. We could watch that person and if someone did try to attack that person, there would be no problem
arresting them then, would there? Then we get a swab and, if it just happens to match the ones we had before, we’d know for sure if this person was our killer or not. Even if there was any
confusion with his DNA matching someone else’s, we would have caught him in the act.’

‘Are you still talking about this Dennis character?’

‘Yes.’

‘How would you know who he was going after next?’

‘Say I gave him a push in the right direction? Maybe dropped a few hints that someone in authority was a little corrupt? That must be why the warden Lee Morgan was killed. I think
there’s a good chance he would go after someone else.’

‘Why would he listen to you?’

‘He may not but I have a little feeling he might.’

‘It still sounds like entrapment.’

‘Maybe we can cross that bridge if it all works?’

‘Who are you intending on putting in the firing line?’

‘There’s already one person I’ve asked him to look at the picture of. All I would have to do was tell him I was asking about that man because they were possibly on the
take.’

DCI Farraday puffed out his cheeks, blowing through his teeth and rubbing his head. ‘I’m not going to like the sound of this, am I?’

Jessica, Cole and Reynolds were sitting in Farraday’s office. The chief inspector put the phone down and glanced between the three of them. ‘The superintendent
doesn’t have a solution,’ he said.

‘How long has Doherty been in custody?’ Reynolds asked.

‘Almost two days. I went to the magistrates earlier and we’ve got two days more maximum, then it’s charge or release.’

Jessica swore loudly. ‘We got him red-handed though.’

The DCI looked across his desk at her. ‘How’s the fist?’

‘Fine.’

‘It’s a good job twenty-three officers saw him slip and fall on his face, isn’t it?’

‘I said I was sorry.’

‘Are you?’

‘No.’

DCI Farraday said nothing. He couldn’t be seen to endorse violence from his officers. ‘I know we got him red-handed but the problem is, at best, we could only charge him with
attempted murder. At worst, trespassing.’

‘What about the knife?’

‘What about it? He’s no-commenting and his solicitor could just say he found it on my property.’

Cole spoke next. ‘Surely the fact his DNA is a complete match for everything we’ve found is enough?’

The DCI answered again. ‘I thought so too. I’ve been talking to the super and he’s been going back and forth with the CPS. Basically, no one knows because the situation is so
unusual. Normally when you find DNA at a scene and pair it to someone, that’s the end of it. The problem is it’s also a direct match for McKenna.’

Jessica cut in. ‘But we know they’re twins now, so what?’

‘Identical twins who aren’t, well, identical. Look at it from a jury’s point of view. You have one scientist who gets up and tells you the DNA is a definite
one-hundred-per-cent match to Dennis Doherty – the defendant – but that it’s also a complete match for someone else too. It’s hardly “beyond reasonable doubt”,
is it?’

‘Yeah, but that other guy is in prison,’ Jessica said, exasperated.

‘Doesn’t matter though, does it? There’s still doubt and it could go either way. All it takes is a clever barrister who has a different expert witness banging on about planting
evidence and some dopes on the jury let him walk.’

‘John Mills is an eyewitness. He saw the guy.’

‘He saw someone with a bit of a scar after he had already been stabbed. Besides, all it would take is a witness to his bad character and he’d be laughed out of court. If the other
side had any sense they’d use a female barrister and the misogynistic prick would blow his top anyway.’

Jessica nodded in agreement but still tried to force the point. ‘We
know
it’s Doherty though.’

‘What are we sure of?’ Reynolds asked.

The chief inspector spoke. ‘Not enough. There’s no doubt they are twins. Their DNA matches for a start and we’ve got both birth certificates – they have the exact same
birthday and birthplace. McKenna has a mother listed but no father, Doherty has a
different
mother listed and a father. Just to confuse matters more, their half-sister, Mary
O’Connor, doesn’t have a birth certificate.’

DI Cole sighed before he spoke. ‘We know Mary said she was born to travellers and certainly the area McKenna and Doherty were born in was home to traveller families. Is there any chance
the mother could have given away a daughter and then, a couple of years later, split up twins because she couldn’t cope?’

Farraday looked across at the three of them. ‘I’m not sure we’ll ever know that. You don’t have to have a baby in a hospital and although the parents should legally
register a birth, we know from Mary’s experiences it doesn’t always happen. None of their parents are alive and it would have happened before any of them were old enough to know any
better. I think the only thing we can ask is if either McKenna or Doherty – or both – have realised since they were related. It would help if we knew why they looked different too. With
Doherty no-commenting, we may never know.’

‘Did you get much from McKenna at the prison?’ Jessica asked, turning to Cole.

‘A long stream of “no comment”s.’

The four detectives looked at each other, as if hoping for inspiration. ‘What do you reckon?’ Jessica asked the DCI.

‘I think the CPS could possibly charge him with the murders and then hope we actually dig something up before the pre-trial hearing. Otherwise, everyone’s screwed.’

‘Can I talk to him?’ Jessica said.

The chief inspector looked at her. ‘You know why I’ve kept you out. For one, you can’t just assault someone, even if he did “slip”. Secondly, if he brought up the
fact you dropped him my name, we could end up with nothing. Frankly, I don’t know why he hasn’t done it already.’

‘Do we know why he’s giving us no comment?’ she asked.

The DCI gazed at her quizzically. ‘Same reason they all do, so they don’t give anything away.’

‘But he’s not just our standard killer, is he? If he wanted to cause a fuss, he would have told his lawyer about me already but he hasn’t. Don’t forget, he went after
specific people because he thought they deserved it. I don’t think he’s afraid of facing up to his crimes – you might even find he wants to go to prison because he’ll have
better access to the people he’s targeting.’

‘If that was true, why wouldn’t he just confess?’

‘Maybe he needs an incentive?’

‘Like what?’

‘Let me talk to him.’

‘No. Tell me your idea and one of us will try it.’