She stepped into the overgrown garden and shivered. ‘Wyre, cover the back door, I’m heading to the front. Count to twenty and go in.’ Running around she gave the nod. ‘Go now.’ PC Smith began slamming the old front door with the battering ram. The deadlocks fought back but after three goes, it caved in.
‘Police.’ She nodded to two officers to head along to the kitchen and she went to open the living room door but it was locked, from the inside. The back door must have been unlocked as she could hear Wyre and Jacob entering. ‘Hello, police.’ She banged on the door where the music was coming from and the laughter continued, followed by a thud. Gina flinched and stepped back. ‘Stand away from the door, we’re coming in.’
As PC Smith battered the flimsy door down, Gina’s ears were filled with the sound of the music. She entered and almost stumbled back as a spray of blood came from the pulled out knife. There was blood everywhere. On the walls, the green carpet, the chair and the music, it kept playing.
Jhanvi Kapoor straddled a gurgling Curtis Gallagher, his eyes wide and his laughter loud as she held the knife to his neck. Her own blood mingling with that coming from his arm. The flesh lying loose under her wrists made Gina heave a little. Tears ran down Kapoor’s face.
‘Put the knife down, Jhanvi. You’re safe now.’ She shouted to be heard.
Kapoor held it to his throat, pressing the tip against his jugular.
As he spluttered, he spat a glob of blood down his cheek. Gina could see that he had a couple of missing teeth.
Kapoor glanced up at Gina then back at Curtis and with shaky hands she held the knife out to Gina, who grabbed it and handed it to the officer behind her and Smith. Smith ran straight over to his colleague and helped her up, leading her gently into the hallway. As the record music came to an end and clicked off, the sound of sirens filled the street and an ambulance pulled up right outside. The room seemed hauntingly silent.
‘Curtis Gallagher, you are under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Amber Slater, the assault of Madison Randle and the kidnapping of Jhanvi Kapoor. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?’
The weasel-featured man gasped until he regained his breath and nodded.
‘Are you injured?’ Not that Gina cared but it was her job and she wouldn’t have poor care of the perpetrator hamper their case.
He shook his head and rubbed his neck. The scratch on his shoulder was superficial but would need treatment, maybe even a couple of stitches. Plus treatment for missing teeth. Kapoor pushed Smith away and ran back, aiming to kick Curtis in the side but Gina stood in her way. As her colleague broke down on her shoulder, Gina hugged her closely and led the young woman into the hallway as uniform finished up with Curtis Gallagher.
Kapoor pushed her away and for the first time since she’d entered, Gina properly looked at her young colleague. Tears slid down her cheeks, blood seeped down her arm and wrists.
‘I need the paramedic in here, now. We’re getting you to the hospital, Jhanvi. Do you hear me?’
Jhanvi didn’t reply. She brought a trembling finger up and pointed to her lips, which were sealed together. Gina placed an arm around her and led her to a waiting paramedic. Jhanvi turned back and nodded to Gina as she was led out. There would be time to talk later.
Gina hurried back into the living room and stared at the hellish prison that Kapoor had been trapped inside. A photo of a dark-haired teenager sat on a shelf in the corner. The mechanical chair was in the lean-back position. That’s the position Amber had died in. Binds were tied through the contraption and in Gina’s mind she could see Kapoor peeling off her own skin to free herself. The woman was a fighter and that had most likely saved her from a knife to the heart.
This very moment was just the beginning of the end and she wouldn’t rest until she had answers. She closed her eyes and all she could see was Kapoor covered in blood, the feral fear in her eyes that said so much even though she was rendered speechless. She wondered if her lovely colleague would ever be the same again.
68
Curtis Gallagher slumped over the table in the interview room, the duty solicitor by his side. The young woman whispered a few words into his ear as Gina loudly exhaled. They had been questioning him for half an hour and all he’d replied with was requests to use the toilet, for a drink, a smoke but not a word had come from his lips about the crimes he’d been arrested for. Wyre checked her watch.
Curtis began to roll his shoulder in its sling then he flinched. His wounds had been superficial and only a few stitches had been required. Most of the blood on his body had been PC Kapoor’s.
Images of Amber Slater’s body and the remains of Curtis’s mother filled her mind. The young man in front of her had murdered two people. He’d attacked Madison Randle and what he’d done to Jhanvi Kapoor made Gina grimace. Curtis glanced at her. It was as if he could tell what she was thinking. The glint of light in his dark beady eyes that peered up through the gaps in his greasy fringe gave her the creeps. ‘Let’s try again. Let’s talk about your mother.’ He put his thumbnail to his mouth and began to bite. Gina wondered if Kapoor’s blood was still under his dirty brown nails.
He snorted and a broad smile filled his face. ‘Let’s not.’
He may not have replied in the manner she’d hoped for but it was a start. They were getting somewhere.
‘What happened?’ The woman’s remains were undergoing a post-mortem as they spoke. They didn’t yet know the cause of death, all they knew was that she’d been restrained in a chair in the shed where she’d died.
‘She got what she deserved.’ His smug grin turned to a wide-eyed glare.
‘How?’
He burst into laughter. ‘I can see what you’re trying to do. You think I killed her, don’t you? I didn’t kill her, I just left her there and she died.’
That was the same thing. She imagined the woman being locked in the cold shed, slowly dying of hypothermia or starvation. ‘You left her there to die, your own mother, restrained in a shed?’ Gina felt her body shiver for just a second as she thought of the woman.
He shook his head. ‘Like everyone else, she wouldn’t shut up so I shut her up, alright. I was trying to get her to see but she wouldn’t.’
‘See what?’
