‘Why didn’t you wait until you had her in the car? At least you could have driven her somewhere remote and dumped her body. Now you’re going to have to clean your flat, get rid of it and stop.’ He realised he was muttering out loud.
Panting at the exertion, he managed to cram her into his cleaning cupboard and slammed the door. He twisted the key in the lock but didn’t remove it in case he misplaced it. Keys were not his friend; he was always losing his flat or car keys.
He expected no visitors, he never really had them but there was always the chance someone could turn up. He hadn’t made much noise, and no nosey neighbours would be coming down to check if he was okay, thank God. But still, this was not ideal. Pressing his back against the cupboard door, he inhaled deeply, trying to get control of his spiralling thoughts and get his breath back. Then grabbing a fresh kitchen roll, he pulled paper towel after paper towel off it, dropping them onto the pooled blood. He mopped up the worst of it and then put them in a plastic bag. The metallic smell was strong. The closer to the floor he got, the stronger it became, and his stomach was churning. He carried on, no time to spare. When the thickish pool of blood was soaked up and the towels placed in the plastic bag, he soaked the tea towels and used them to wipe up the bloody smears the best he could and then put them in with the blood-soaked paper towels.He’d ruined his new towels from TK Maxx that he’d bought in Kendal last week.
Straightening up, he knew that if a forensic team were to ever come in here, they would have a field day. It would have to do for now though; time was not on his side, he needed to get back to work. Stripping off his clothes as he went into the bathroom, he turned on the shower and stepped under the lukewarm spray, shivering. The piece of ancient crap needed to run for five minutes at least before it warmed up, but he was almost out of time. Towel drying his hair he looked for another shirt similar to what he’d been wearing, hoping that nobody would notice his abrupt change of clothes.
Tying the handles of the plastic bag into a knot, he carried it to the car and put it in the boot. He would dispose of it in a bin somewhere that was far from here when he got the chance.
He placed the palm of his hand on his heart and began to rub it gently. There was an uncomfortable feeling inside of his chest, it felt as if the muscles were contracting tighter and tighter. He paused as he got into the car. Was this how it was going to end for him, lights out, heart attack, game over? After the mess he’d just made of things, it might not be a bad thing. He didn’t know how he could get out of this massive error of judgement unscathed. He knew things were tightening up, his time was getting shorter, and he had a choice. Cut his losses and run, or hang around and stick it out a little bit longer? If he cut and run now it would be like handing it to them on a plate, and he was enjoying the chaos he was causing a little too much to leave. Maybe the cops wouldn’t figure it out this time and he would be able to carry on as normal.
The only issue he had was how he was going to dispose of his so-called mother’s corpse without any of his neighbours seeing him doing it and phoning the police.
FORTY
Cain was alone for the time being. Stan had been cornered by Bigfoot and dragged off to his office whilst he’d been brewing up. Cain had heard his voice booming down the corridor and dived into the stationery cupboard until the coast was clear. He should finish work and call it a day. Go home and maybe cook something nice for Angela. Then he remembered the flowers and bag of shopping in the boot of the car for Amy and stood up. He’d go see her first, Angela wouldn’t mind, and Ben was at the post-mortem with Morgan. They would be gone for hours and no doubt go straight home.
They’d well and truly lost the golden hours on this case, he thought. It was too complicated and, if he was being honest, they had dropped the ball from finding Sharon Montgomery, the first victim in this weird, messed-up case, and now three sisters were all dead, brutally murdered and they were no closer to ending this than they had been from finding Sharon’s body. He’d looked through all the social media posts he could stomach for one day, looking for any mention of a brother. It was messing with his head. He looked on Facebook occasionally, but that was to be nosey, to see what his mates were up to. Who was seeing who, which cars they were driving, the latest vacation they’d beenon. He wasn’t really into social media, so he reckoned he was wasting his time by mindlessly scrolling through it. He had no idea what to look out for. Amy was the expert. He wondered if she’d want to take a pop at it. He could feed and bathe Ava whilst she had a mooch around the Williams sisters’ accounts. Amy would probably jump at the chance for a little normality; spending all day feeding a baby and changing its dirty nappies wasn’t exactly riveting fun, even as gorgeous as Ava was. That was as long as he could get out without Bigfoot catching up with him.
He left the office and headed towards the back stairs that were technically the fire escape, but everyone used it when they needed to be discreet. It would take him away from everyone else’s offices, straight down to the changing rooms and out of the exit in the Task Force changing rooms that only they ever used.
He made it to the car park unscathed and a free man, driving out through the gates as if he was on his way to an IR with his blues and sirens on.
When he knocked on Amy’s door it was less than seven minutes later. She opened the door, took one look at him, the flowers and bag of junk food, and burst into tears.
‘Oh, I can come back tomorrow. Is now not a good time?’
She shook her head, wiping her damp cheeks with the sleeve of her dressing gown. ‘No, it’s perfect timing. I look a mess, I feel a mess and all I want is a hot shower, but Ava’s not settled long enough all day for me to even pee properly. Is Angela okay?’
‘Uncle Cain is here; I’ll sort Ava. You go do something with that hair, I mean I’m not sure what look you’re going for but wild is pretty accurate. And yes, thank you, Angela is fine. She mether friend for lunch and probably got a bit carried away with the old Prosecco.’ He grinned at her, and she smacked his arm, but gently, and smiled back.
‘Don’t know what I’d do without you, Cain. As much as you get on my tits, you’re a lifesaver.’
He shrugged. ‘Can’t be a hundred per cent perfect all the time.’
He squeezed past her, handing her the flowers and bag with nappies and chocolate in it, making a beeline for Ava who was restless in her baby chair. Scooping her into his arms, he held her close and began to gently rock her. Ava looked at him, and he was sure she smiled.
‘Hey, she just smiled at me. Can she do that yet?’
‘No, she’s not old enough.’
‘Well, I’m pretty sure she did.’
Amy was ripping the wrapper off a bar of Galaxy. Breaking off a strip of chocolate, she crammed it into her mouth and sighed.
‘She probably did for you; she’s like a different baby when you enter the room. Maybe you and Angela should take her for a couple of weeks and give her back when she’s more than just a crying, feeding, crapping machine.’
Cain gently covered the baby’s ears and whispered, ‘She doesn’t mean that, sweet girl, don’t listen to her. She’s grouchy and tired, the worst combination for your momma.’
‘I do mean it. This is much harder than I ever anticipated.’
‘Yeah, but I’m not being funny, Amy, you didn’t anticipate having to do this on your own, did you? I mean you thought Jack would be here—’ He stopped talking, watching her expression to see how much he’d put his foot in it.
Amy didn’t burst into tears, she shrugged.
‘Well, I didn’t think I’d be alone that’s true. Not only did he dump me, but he also went and died too. Talk about selfish.’ Shewinked at him, and he released the pent-up breath he’d been holding.
‘Hey, leave the jokes to me. You’re rubbish at them, but yes, nobody saw that one coming, bless you.’
