Дэвид Муди - Strangers

‘Yes.’

‘You positive?’

‘Yes. Wait… I might have taken a couple of wrong turnings… that estate’s like a maze. I got a bit lost.’

‘So you didn’t drive straight there?’

‘You’re twisting my words. I went straight to the house. I hadn’t been there before and I took a wrong turn, but that doesn’t mean I did anything to that woman.’

‘You can see where I’m coming from though, can’t you Scott? Here’s me telling you about a murder on Saturday evening, and that you were seen in the vicinity, and there’s you telling me you weren’t there, but wait, maybe you were there and you were just driving around the place on your own.’

‘I wasn’t just driving around…’

‘I think you were. It’s not the first time, is it?’

‘What?’

‘Angela Pietrszkiewicz was a sex worker, Scott. You’ve a history of using prostitutes. Done for kerb crawling near to the Hagley Road in Birmingham. You dirty little bastard.’

Scott put his head on the desk. This was getting worse by the second. ‘That was a mistake,’ he said. ‘It was almost ten years ago. It was a one off.’

‘Hardly. Mrs Morris said she’d seen your car before, a week or so back. Had you been that way before? Perhaps before the rest of your family arrived in Thussock?’

‘No comment,’ he mumbled.

‘I think you’d been to see Angela previously, hadn’t you, Scott? I think you paid Ms Pietrszkiewicz for sex.’

‘No comment,’ he said again, because lying was safer than telling the truth.

‘So, apart from taking advantage of vulnerable young women, paying for sex and cheating on your wife, are there any other bad habits you think you should tell me about? Because there is something else interesting on your record…’

‘Stop it. You’re just twisting everything. This is all circumstantial. You’re trying to make me out to be some kind of—’

‘I’m not trying to do anything,’ Litherland interrupted, ‘except find out who killed all these people and stop them before they kill anyone else.’

‘I need my lawyer,’ Scott mumbled, barely able to form cohesive words now.

‘I really think you do.’

‘I had nothing to do with any of this.’

‘What about Graham McBride?’

Scott started to sob involuntarily. He tried to stop himself, but that just made it worse. ‘We had a fight,’ he managed to say. ‘I already told you.’

‘That you did, aye. We know you were involved in his death, though whether you caused it or not is something the coroner’s going to have to decide, and we should have her findings shortly.’

‘What would you have done?’ Scott asked, pleading almost. ‘He exposed himself in front of my step-daughter. I did what anyone would do. Are you a parent? Do you have kids?’

‘That’s irrelevant. But for the record, yes, I do have kids and yes, I’d have certainly done something if I’d caught a man flashing at my daughter. I’d maybe not have killed him, though.’

‘But you know why I did what I did, don’t you? I saw red. You do these things for your kids.’

‘Not so good with other people’s children though, are we, Scott?’

His heart sank. A few barely suppressed tears became an uncontrolled flood. ‘This has got nothing to do with what happened back home. I made a mistake and I’ve been punished for it. Believe me, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t—’

‘When you don’t what, Scott? You see, I’m having trouble tying a few things up here. You’ve a history of lying to the police and—’

‘And I’ve paid the price for that. Jesus, please…’

‘You knocked a girl down and killed her, then just drove on.’

‘I panicked.’

‘Doesn’t change what you did.’

‘I was gone for a matter of minutes. I wasn’t thinking straight. I didn’t know what to do. I turned straight around and drove back but by then…’

‘By then other folks had got to her. By then it was too late.’

‘It didn’t make any difference. She was already dead. I did it. It wasn’t my fault, but I did it.’

‘That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? That’s why you moved to Thussock.’

‘How could we stay in Redditch? She lived on the same street as us, for Christ’s sake. We knew her parents. I’d got people throwing paint at the house, people badmouthing me all over the place.’

‘Hardly surprising.’

‘I’m not going to argue. If I could turn back time I’d do it in a bloody heartbeat. My business went down the pan… I lost almost everything.’

‘Not as much as the family of that poor kiddie though, eh? Or the relatives of any of the people who’ve died round here recently either.’

‘I didn’t do any of this. I punched that guy in the face, yes, but I didn’t have anything to do with any of the others.’

‘Then who did? I tell you, Scott, it’s causing us some real problems. We’re a small rural force, and our resources are stretched as it is.’

‘Then stop wasting them on me.’

Litherland looked at him for a few seconds, weighing him up. ‘This killer,’ he said, ‘whoever he is, is a devious little fucker. He’s not leaving a bloody trace, you know. Not a single clue. No footprints, tyre tracks, fingerprints… So you can see why we’re following up every lead, and why you’re so interesting to us.’

‘This has got nothing to do with me,’ Scott sighed, exasperated, wishing he could find some way of convincing the detective but knowing he probably wouldn’t.

‘Sick little bastard, we’re dealing with here, Scott,’ Litherland continued, not finished yet. ‘I do hear what you’re telling me, but I can’t dismiss your involvement. You saw poor Shona’s body so you know how sick what’s happening here really is. These people have virtually been bled dry, their bodies mutilated. Excuse my language, Scott, but I think you can probably understand how bloody angry this is making me. I’ve innocent people being abused then murdered in my town, and I’m gonna put a stop to it.’

‘It’s horrific,’ Scott said, ‘but I don’t know how else to tell you… it’s got nothing to do with me. You can’t accuse me of—’

‘I’m not accusing you of anything yet. I’m simply pointing out my concerns and asking you to clear a few things up. Surely you can see where I’m coming from? I might not have all the forensics I need yet, but alarm bells are ringing as far as you’re concerned and you’ve said little to convince me otherwise. Look at it this way, the killings only started after you arrived in Thussock.’

‘It’s coincidental.’

‘Lot of coincidences, though. You’re the one who found Shona, Ken Potter died not far from where you’re working, you’re seen driving around on Saturday evening when Angela Pietrszkiewicz was killed and you’d already paid her for sex, you’ve confessed to beating the shit out of Graham McBride…’

‘It’s all circumstantial. It’s not even that, it’s just bullshit. I want my brief.’

Litherland stood up, pushed his chair under the table and collected up his gruesome, blood-spattered photographs. ‘Fair enough, Scott. I’ll have you taken back to your cell, then we’ll do this all over again when the duty lawyer arrives.’

PC Mark Hamilton couldn’t remember anything like this ever happening before. Not anywhere, and certainly not in Thussock. Born and raised in the town, he’d gone off to university then spent several years travelling before coming back home. He’d managed to get himself in (and out) of various dodgy situations whilst abroad and had seen more than his fair share of trouble in other postings around the country. He’d dealt with inner-city gangs, drugs traffickers, fraudsters, deviants – the whole gamut of shysters and bastards and society’s dregs. But not here. Not in Thussock.