Hiding behind the wall to the left of the entrance, Adrian listened to the conversation between Reece Corrigan and his wife. She was distraught and her words didn’t make any sense. Adrian wanted to make sure they were the only people here before entering the room.
He couldn’t hear anyone else, so he pushed himself away from the wall and stepped inside. The first thing he saw was a missing window: the whole side of the room facing out over the car park was exposed, yet to have the glass installed. The second thing he saw was the gun.
‘Angela, put the gun down,’ Adrian said as he approached, palms face out in the air, so she would know he wasn’t trying to hide anything from her.
As he moved forwards, he was wary of the gaping hole in the side of the room. He hated heights.
‘Just let me kill him. You can’t stop him; this is the only way to stop him. Why do you care if he dies?’ she said.
Her hands were shaking and he could see that the safety was off.
‘I really don’t care if he dies, but this isn’t about him, it’s about you. I think he’s taken enough from you. You shouldn’t go to prison for him. He’s not worth it.’
‘Just pull the trigger, Angela. You know it’s the only way to get away from me,’ Reece hissed.
‘Shut up, Corrigan,’ Adrian said.
‘She won’t hurt me; she’s got nothing without me and she knows it,’ Corrigan said.
Adrian could hear the tension in his voice this time.
‘Stand back, DS Miles,’ Angela shouted as Adrian got closer. ‘I’ll pull the trigger. I know how to use a gun … my daddy taught me,’ she sneered.
‘You deserve to have a life. If you pull that trigger, you’ll go to prison for a long time,’ Adrian said softly. ‘That’s what he wants: to own you for ever.’
‘Anything is better than this half-life I am living. I would be doing the world a favour.’
‘We can take care of him now. We found a body. That’s physical evidence.’
‘He twists things. You don’t know what he’s like.’
‘He knows exactly what I’m like,’ Corrigan said with a smile.
Was that an admission of complicity in Adrian’s assault? As much as Adrian wanted him to confess to what he had done, this wasn’t the time or the place for it. He studied Corrigan’s face for a moment. The smirk on it erased any final doubts he had about who was behind the attack in the van.
At the same time, Adrian realised that there was no way he wasn’t going to investigate who attacked him. He had kept the physical evidence, he already had a list of Corrigan’s staff, possible suspects in his attack, safely stashed in his home. As much as he thought he was ignoring it, he wasn’t. His training and instinct had already started looking for clues that he was behind his sexual assault. At some point, he would have to finish the job.
‘What happened?’ Angela directed her question at both of them before turning to Adrian, ‘Did he do something to you? I told you he could get to you,’ Angela Corrigan looked between her husband and Adrian, a new panic in her voice.
This is what Adrian dreaded; she didn’t feel safe with him anymore. Angela had a vantage point that others didn’t have and so maybe she could see those microscopic involuntary facial movements that others wouldn’t notice. Maybe Adrian was giving the game away. He was glad Imogen wasn’t here for this. If the truth got out about what had happened to him then no one would feel safe with him again.
‘Who does the body at the house in Oswestry belong to?’ Adrian said, steering the conversation away from himself.
‘No one important,’ Reece said.
No sooner had he said the words than the gun went off.
Reece Corrigan fell backwards onto the ground. He clutched at his arm and smiled through gritted teeth. Adrian thought he heard a chuckle as he made a move to help Reece.
‘Stay back, Detective Miles,’ Angela said before turning the gun on Adrian. ‘Let him bleed.’
Imogen rushed into the room a moment after the gun had fired, her face panicked. She saw Angela with the gun pointed at Adrian and then she looked down and saw Reece Corrigan lying on the floor, blood oozing from between the fingers that clutched his arm. A bullet had grazed his shoulder.
‘Angela, what are you doing? We’ve almost got him,’ Imogen said softly.
‘Who did we find at the house in Oswestry, Angela?’ Adrian said.
‘He said she left, that she found out about me and went away,’ Angela said, her eyes filling as she stared ahead, her eyes not connecting with anything but a memory.
‘Who found out about you?’ Adrian asked.
‘Because I made her leave, he told me that I had to look after him, that he was the only person left who loved me,’ she said, turning to Corrigan. ‘You told me the greenhouse was a gift. You’re sick!’
‘No one else would have taken you in, Angela, you know that. You have nothing to offer.’
‘Just stop talking,’ Adrian snapped at Reece.
‘Angela, I’m going to call an ambulance for him. He’s bleeding,’ Imogen said.
‘No,’ Angela shouted, turning the gun and pointing it at Imogen. ‘Don’t call an ambulance. If you touch your phone, I’ll shoot you. Throw it on the floor.’
Having a gun pointed at him was not a situation Adrian ever liked to be in. This wasn’t the first time and even though it wasn’t a regular occurrence, it happened more times than any police officer would like. Seeing a gun pointed at Imogen filled Adrian with a much more amplified sense of fear. He couldn’t let anything happen to her.
Imogen pulled her phone from her pocket and threw it on the floor.
‘Angela, you don’t want to do this,’ Adrian said, taking a small step forwards.
Maybe he could get to her before she did anything stupid.
‘Stay where you are, Detective Miles.’
‘Where did you get the gun?’ Adrian asked.
‘It was in his car, that’s where he keeps it. He had it the night Simon and I tried to leave; he threatened us with it. The night I watched him beat Simon half to death on the floor of his bedroom. Simon begged him to stop, but he just wouldn’t.’
‘I thought you didn’t remember?’ Imogen said.
‘I didn’t, not at first. I saw the gun at Simon’s place when they threw Simon and me in the back of the white van. He told them to kill us and dump us. It’s all coming back to me now,’ Angela said, turning to Corrigan. ‘How could you? He was your friend. I bet you are so disappointed that I didn’t die, too!’
Adrian heard the words ‘white van’ and felt a shockwave go through him. This couldn’t be a coincidence. It must be the same men.
‘He was trying to take you away from me and I won’t allow that, Angela. You’re mine. If I can’t have you, no one can!’
‘You didn’t have to kill him. We weren’t having an affair. I would have stayed with you, if you just let him go.’
‘I don’t believe you. I bet he had his filthy hands all over you. I couldn’t have that. You belong to me,’ Corrigan snapped.
Adrian edged forwards again, but Angela didn’t see him. She kept the gun on Imogen.
‘Could you identify the men who took you? Did you know them?’ Adrian asked.
‘They wore masks. I didn’t see them,’ Angela said, almost to Adrian’s relief.
‘You still haven’t told us who the body belonged to in Oswestry,’ Imogen said.
‘You won’t believe me,’ Angela said.
‘It’s him we don’t believe, Angela. He’s done. We have got him. He can’t get to you again. With your testimony, he’ll go away for a long time for the deaths of Simon Glover and whoever was buried under that greenhouse. You can get a divorce and move on.’
‘I don’t need a divorce; we aren’t married.’
‘We found a marriage certificate that says you were married in 2008,’ Imogen said, surprised.
‘That wasn’t me,’ Angela said. ‘It was my mother’s body under the greenhouse. He killed my mother. That marriage certificate was theirs.’
‘What do you mean? Your name was on it,’ Imogen said.
‘Reece told me she left after finding out about what we were doing. She left me a note and everything. Told me she never wanted to hear from me again, that I was disgusting and a disappointment. I was only fifteen.’ Angela wiped the tears from her cheek with the back of her hand.
‘Who was Joseph Purcell?’ Adrian asked, remembering the slot in the marriage certificate for the father of the bride’s name, a horrible feeling creeping over him.
Angela took a deep breath before speaking.
‘My grandfather. Angela was my mother.’
‘I’m sorry?’ Adrian said.
This changed everything. The situation Angela Corrigan was in wasn’t just domestic abuse – it was a whole host of other things that they hadn’t even considered. Even on the darkest days working for the police, this is not something you come across very often, thank God. Add child abuse, neglect, murder, rape, incest and God only knows what else to Reece Corrigan’s list of crimes. No wonder Angela was terrified of him. He’d had her whole life to show her just how powerful he was.