‘No, stop.’ The man wasn’t listening. She’d lost him. She gave the nod to the officer on the towpath and he gently crept onboard at the back end. ‘Annabel is scared. You’re scaring her. I know how much you love her. You don’t want this.’
He used his knife to scratch a clump of dried blood from his nose. Gina saw the fire in Annabel’s eyes as she punched him in the throat. He gasped for breath and stumbled back. She ran from where they’d been standing, straight into the hiding officer who’d just reached them. Evan turned the knife to his own throat. ‘Please forgive me, Annabel.’ He paused and stared at Gina. ‘Tell everyone, I didn’t kill the children. I’ve never killed anyone.’ He stepped back around the other side of the boat, the knife still on his own throat with the dark murky water behind him. A slight breeze caught his hair. ‘I didn’t kill Taylor. Tell everyone that too. I never went anywhere near her.’
Gina scrunched her brows. That statement wasn’t expected. ‘We can help you, Evan. Please step away from the edge.’
He shook his head. ‘No one can help me. I’ve crossed that line. What I’ve done was unforgivable. It all got out of hand. She was meant to love me, that was all. I was going to kill Grant. He treated her appallingly. The ketamine I used on him and Annabel, to shut them up, I got that from him. He’s a bloody drug dealer. How many people has he killed? There’s another confession for you. Nothing matters.’ He leaned over the top of the boat, his demeanour that of someone who’d given up.
Annabel broke free from the officer and ran along the towpath. ‘I hate you. You killed my little girl.’
‘I’m sorry. Please forgive me.’ Evan’s eyes glassed over and with a swift plunge, the knife pierced his throat. He fell backwards with a splash into the water.
Annabel fell to the floor on her knees. ‘I will never forgive you.’
The police boat chugged over to Evan and both Gina and the officer panted as they pulled Evan’s body onto the boat. The knife had slipped out into the canal and blood began to gush from his wound. He cracked a few half words that Gina couldn’t understand. She removed her coat and pressed it to the wound but it was no good. He was gone. The officer manoeuvred the boat to the side where the paramedics took over but Gina knew it was too late for him. The gash he’d made to his own throat was done with a purpose and that was to kill himself. She left him and hurried over to Annabel.
‘Annabel, I’m DI Harte.’ She took a foil blanket from PC Smith and she sat on the muddy path. Throwing the blanket over Annabel’s shoulders, she tilted her head. ‘Annabel.’
‘He killed my child. He killed her. He was going to kill Omar too. All that on the boat, it was lies. He’s a killer.’ She went to stand but fell.
‘Annabel, let’s get you to the ambulance. You need to get checked over.’
‘No, I need to find Cally. She’s in there, somewhere.’ She pointed at the water. ‘I am going to find her. I want to hold her.’ She stood and went to jump in.
Gina held her back. ‘Please let our officers do that. A dive team should be here shortly. You need help.’
‘She needs help, my Cally.’ Annabel’s bottom lip began to quiver. ‘She’s dead. They’re dead.’ Annabel leaned into Gina’s arm and she allowed the woman to sob on her shoulder. Gina’s eyes began to well up slightly. If she could take Annabel’s pain away, she would.
‘Guv.’ O’Connor ran down the towpath. ‘We’ve found the girl.’
Annabel broke away from Gina. In the distance PC Smith was carefully walking through brambles and entangled undergrowth, carrying the small child. The woman wiped the trickle of blood from her neck. ‘Cally.’
‘Mummy, Omar saved me,’ Cally said through chattering teeth. Her hair and clothes wet and dotted with grass and twigs.
Annabel half-hopped to reach her child and she took her off Smith and fell to the ground, hugging her closely and kissing her head. ‘It’s okay, baby girl. It’s all going to be fine. I love you so much. I thought…’ She burst into tears. ‘Omar saved you. Where is he?’
Evan’s body had now been taken and another paramedic ran over.
‘Look after them.’ Gina left them to get treated and hurried over to O’Connor. ‘Have you found Omar?’
O’Connor wiped his eye. ‘Yes.’
PC Smith cleared his throat and removed his police hat. ‘Cally said he saved her. He held her under the water so that the horrible man couldn’t see her. They held their breath and then hid in the reeds. When he’d gone, he pushed Cally to the side and told her to run and hide in the bushes. She said he was breathing funny and then he went to sleep in the water.’ PC Smith turned away for a moment. ‘Sorry.’
Gina felt herself welling up but she had to be strong. She wanted to hit something and cry. That boy had saved Annabel’s child instead of himself. Mrs Abidar had lost her son.
‘His body is trapped in the reeds which is why we probably didn’t spot it when we first looked.’
‘First Mrs Abidar loses her husband, a firefighter, killed in the line of duty, and now her teenage son. I don’t know how we’re going to tell her.’ Gina closed her eyes for a second. ‘We should have got here earlier. If only. That famous statement. We’ve caught our killer but we’ve failed.’ She bit her lip and wiped her nose with her sleeve. Undoing her stab vest, she left it flapping open and inhaled.
‘We did all we could, guv.’ O’Connor looked at his feet.
Smith left them to be with the other officers. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. I’m just going to help out.’
Gina let out a snort and shook her head in disbelief at all that had gone down. ‘How’s Jennifer?’
‘Jacob left earlier. They were bringing her round and he wanted to be there. It’s going to be a long recovery but she’s out of the danger zone. Treatment has worked and the swelling to her brain has gone down. She’ll be out of intensive care tomorrow but she’ll need a lot of physio.’
Gina smiled. ‘That’s really good to hear.’ She paused. ‘Most of it fits into place now. Evan had access to the Braddocks’s home. He took the car in their garage. Cally saw him loitering in the garden even though he was meant to be looking after her. She fell asleep. He left her alone, knowing the route that Annabel would walk and he waited for her to leave the pub. Once they stepped onto that quiet road, he took his chance, running Jennifer over and taking Annabel. Of course, Grant got there too late and saw the aftermath.’
