Jess
Jonah took to sitting with nothing to do much better than me. He lay back, listening for the telltale sound of the children returning. I found it hard not to fidget, throw stones in the water, or talk.
Jonah opened one eye. ‘For fuck’s sake, Jessica, make a sandcastle or something.’
That wasn’t a bad idea. It wasn’t really sand, but river mud, but it gave me something quiet to do. Having ADHD was like permanently sitting on an ants’ nest. The only way to forget the itch was to keep moving. Eventually Jonah rolled over on his stomach and joined in, making an outer wall of bent twigs.
‘Never did this as a kid,’ he admitted.
‘I did – but it was always terrifying. Dad would tell me how I was doing it wrong.’
‘Your dad sounds a —’ And he used a word that I didn’t think I’d ever been able to say.
‘Don’t malign female body parts,’ I whispered back.
He sniggered.
‘Thanks for waiting with me.’
‘No problem. You certainly keep your promises. Life is much more peppery with you in the mix. Want to stay on?’
‘I can’t do Amy out of a job!’
‘Yeah, well, she might not want to come back after this.’
‘Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, OK?’
I think it was only because we were being so quiet that we both noticed the disturbance on the other bank. Someone was dragging something down the brambly slope towards the water, lanky red hair dangling. He was having difficulty as his burden kept getting caught.
‘Is that …?’ I suddenly realised what we were seeing. It made so much sense, but yet was completely insane. Why?
‘Fuck. Can you swim that far?’ Jonah kicked off his shoes.
‘Yes.’ I followed suit, wriggling out of my jeans, dumping my phone on the pile.
We both ran into the water. It was usually a busy stretch but the guy had chosen a moment when there was no river traffic – of course he had: he was trying to dump a body. Fortunately we were watching a little upstream so could use the current to take us down and across. The man – Elijah – saw us coming. He gave the body a final push and made a run for it.
‘You get that, I’ll get him,’ said Jonah, striking out for the bank.
The body was floating – if Elijah had planned to weigh him down, then he hadn’t had time. I grabbed a handful of hair and recognised Jago. He’d been knocked out and stripped. Oh God, oh God. I towed him to a clear patch and hauled him ashore. He’d got a wound to his head but I thought – yes – he was still breathing. What I really needed now was my phone – left on the other side. I looked up and saw two children watching us from the little beach.
‘Angelica!’ I bellowed. ‘Call for an ambulance – he’s dying!’
She looked doubtful but I saw Pawel pick up my phone. I shouted out the code to unlock it, though maybe you could make emergency calls? I’d never tested it.
‘You can be the hero of the hour!’ I yelled over to her. ‘Save a man, catch a killer – is that dramatic enough for you?’
She snatched the phone from her brother. I thought for one terrible moment that she was going to chuck it in the water, but I saw her talking to the operator. That gave me the space I needed to see what I could do for Jago. He hadn’t been in the water for more than a few seconds and was breathing so I didn’t think I needed to do CPR. He was just unconscious. Remembering the first aid course I’d once done as a teacher, I tilted up his head to check his breathing. Seemed OK. Next step, recovery position. I rolled him over onto his side. His eyes were moving behind his eyelids.
‘Jago, you’re OK. It’s Jessica. We’ve got you.’ I carried on this stream of reassurance, helping him surface.
‘Elijah,’ he muttered.
‘I know, I know. It’s OK – we’ve chased him off.’ If Jonah didn’t get him, the police surely would. And where were they? There should be scores of policemen within reach with the hunt going on. I knew they’d swept this area earlier but they couldn’t be too far away.
As if my thoughts summoned it, a red air ambulance flew low overhead. I waved and got a thumbs-up from the medic in the open door. She pointed over my head in the direction of the racecourse. On the other side of the river, I could see a yellow-jacketed police woman push her way through to the kids. Pawel immediately clung to her leg. Angelica tried distraction, pointing to me and claiming her part in the rescue. Great. I had been worried she’d try to take off again but she must have realised the jig was up.
Suddenly, everything went pear-shaped. Elijah burst through the bushes. He must’ve evaded Jonah and circled back. He’d got what looked like a crowbar in his hand. I misjudged his intentions, thinking he was back for another go at Jago, so stepped between him and his victim. But it was me he was after. He barrelled right into me and we both ended up in the river; I landed under him. I grappled for the hand holding the weapon but the guy was powered by insane energy. His hair blinded me. He knew this was a fight for his freedom, and I for my life. He ducked me. I managed to get a knee to his groin but there wasn’t much force behind it as I was squashed and half drowning.
Then something lifted him off me. I surfaced spluttering in time to see Jonah drag him backwards up the bank, throw him on the ground and drop on him like a rugby ball. Elijah’s hair – no a wig – was askew, showing his shaved scalp beneath.
‘Jess, you … OK?’ Jonah panted.
I was too breathless to reply. I staggered out of the river to take the crowbar out of Elijah’s hand before he recovered enough to use it.
And finally, law enforcement arrived, escorting the stretcher bearers.
‘Everyone all right?’ barked the first officer on scene.
‘We’re fine but he’s hurt,’ I said, pointing to Jago. ‘That guy did it – Elijah Ellwood. He’s your killer.’ Two policemen were already taking over from Jonah, getting cuffs on Elijah. They read him his rights and then carried him off. Elijah had completely lost it. He was shouting how we’d attacked him, how we were the crazy ones. Like anyone was going to believe him when there had been a police officer watching from just across the river.
But then, he’d revealed himself as a psycho killer so I guess he wasn’t thinking straight right now, if he ever had been.
More police arrived. In fact, the bank was soon swarming with them, including a river patrol.
‘Are you all right?’ one asked me. The boat had provided us with blankets and someone – bless their hearts – had rustled up a cup of tea from a flask. ‘Anything you need?’
‘A lift over to get our stuff?’ I suggested, pointing across to the little beach. I saw that Pawel and Angelica had already been led away. Come to think of it, I couldn’t see our stuff either. ‘Oh, it’s gone.’
‘I’ll check with my colleagues what’s happened to it.’
I followed Jonah’s example and stripped off my Thames scented T-shirt. I wasn’t going to feel good about myself until I’d had a hot shower. I looked down at myself. ‘Hey, go me.’
Jonah raised a brow. ‘Obviously always, but why this time?’
‘I’m actually wearing underwear – and they match.’
He looked puzzled. I didn’t think I’d ever told him the full gory details of the University Parks incident.
‘I’ll explain later.’
‘I’ll keep you to that.’ The boat circled closer to shore so we could board. I thought I recognised the man next to the pilot. ‘Captain?’
The police officer turned to us. ‘It’s inspector, Miss Bridges. I thought you knew?’
I grinned at Inspector George as he stood next to the wheel. ‘You’re here too?’
‘I got a break in the case and realised, a shade too late to stop him, that our attacker would be here.’
‘And you rushed down in time to see him almost claim his fourth victim?’
He grimaced at that. ‘But you stopped him.’
‘Yeah, thank God. Jonah, this is Inspector George.’
Jonah nodded curtly. ‘Will the press be waiting for us when we disembark, Inspector?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ said George. ‘Do you want a blanket or something to put over your head?’
‘Fuck no!’ Jonah looked aghast. ‘And look like the nutter you arrested. No, bring ’em on. My agent is going to love this.’
So barefoot we did our walk between the massed ranks of the news crews, me with my blanket demurely tucked under my armpits, Jonah with his slung precariously around his waist, his arm across my shoulders.
‘Is it true you apprehended the river killer, Jonah?’ someone called.
‘Ask Inspector George here,’ said Jonah, with a ‘hell yeah, we did’ grin.
‘Is this your new girlfriend?’ called another, showing what they were really interested in – a story where Jonah two-timed his gorgeous Jenny and managed to end up solving a crime.
‘No, she’s my new bodyguard,’ lied Jonah cheerfully. ‘Saved my bacon, she did.’
The story was so outlandish considering I was only a few inches over five foot and looked like a drowned rat so it threw them.
‘She’s small but deadly,’ he added, enjoying himself rather too much. I couldn’t elbow him or I might’ve lost the blanket and make the front pages.
By the time the press recovered, we were in the police cars heading back to Glenda and Ron’s.
‘How’s Jago?’ I asked Inspector George. ‘Do you know anything yet?’
‘Mr Jackson is on his way to hospital. Last we heard, though, he was awake. I take that as encouraging.’
‘Any chance of getting a lift to where’s he’s been taken?’
‘You don’t need to ask the fuzz,’ said Jonah. ‘I’ll take you. Car and driver, remember?’
Oh yeah. I’d forgotten how the other half live. Or the other half a per cent live.
‘We’ll need you both to make statements,’ warned the inspector.
‘I refuse to do anything before a hot shower and some dry clothes,’ I replied.
‘What she said,’ grinned Jonah.
‘Stop enjoying yourself so much,’ I hissed.
‘Why? One killer caught, one boyfriend type saved, two little kiddies back home – what’s not to like about this?’
He was right. It would be churlish to harp on about the three dead people – Jonah didn’t know them, nor did I for that matter. I just felt bad because I knew that even an arrest and a conviction wasn’t going to end the sentence of those grieving for them. But it was the best we could do.
We got out at Ron and Glenda’s house. Across the road, I could see many people crowded into Amy’s living room. Hopefully the kids were there, upstairs somewhere.
‘I’d better go over. She is my client after all,’ I told Jonah.
‘I’ll come with you. They won’t let you in without me,’ offered Inspector George.
I needed to help Amy by telling the police my suspicions about Angelica. If the girl was as I thought, she’d be crucifying her mother some more right now.
With a word from the inspector, I was allowed into the kitchen. Amy was sitting huddled at one end of the table, Angelica and Roman on the other side, two police officers separating them. There was no sign of Pawel so I hoped he was in bed, being kept out of this.
Roman looked up as I came in.
‘What’s she doing here?’ he asked, anger mixed with suspicion.
I ignored him. ‘Amy, how’re you doing?’
Amy gave me a ravaged expression that said everything. ‘They’re back at least. Safe and sound.’
I sat down beside her. ‘Roman, there’s something you need to know. Amy employed me to check up on Angelica – and on you. She was worried you were gaslighting her daughter.’
‘Gaslighting?’ Roman didn’t know the word but he was taking it as an insult.
‘It means persuading her of something that isn’t true.’
‘But that’s what she did! She got Angelica thinking she was ill.’
Angelica hid a dry-eyed face on her stepfather’s arm.
‘That’s not true,’ I said. ‘It wasn’t Amy and it wasn’t you, was it, Angelica?’ I let that question hover.
Roman was the first to break the silence. ‘Angelica, you don’t have to listen to this. You’ve been through enough.’
‘Oh really? What exactly has she been through? I agree it was a horrible break to lose her father so young, but after that, all she had to deal with was a mother trying to help her cope with her problems. Then you came along and she had the rivalry of a little brother. Made-up medical emergencies got her quite a lot of the family attention, I’d guess.’
Angelica’s head shot up. ‘I was ill! I didn’t make anything up!’
‘Get your story straight, Angelica: either you weren’t ill and your mother is a monster forcing treatment on you; or you were ill and she was doing her best to help. Which is it?’ I knew that tone would annoy her but unless she let her temper speak she’d find a way of turning this back on me.
‘You don’t know anything!’
‘I know that you didn’t want to see a specialist who might work out how much you were fabricating in your illnesses, not now you are old enough to realise someone might guess what you were doing. You worked on your stepfather so you could gain his sole attention. I’m not sure you really wanted Pawel with you but it pleased you to take him away from your mother, didn’t it? Made for a bigger drama with you as the lead.’
‘You’re lying!’
I turned to Roman. ‘What did Pawel say about why they went missing?’
‘He said …’ From the expression in Roman’s eyes I could see that he was putting it together. ‘He said Angelica took him to her den and wouldn’t bring him back.’
‘Oh, Angelica!’ said Amy. ‘How could you?’
‘Pawel told me he was scared of her – I thought he was confusing Angelica with their mother, but he meant his sister, didn’t he?’ He was looking at his daughter with a completely new expression.
‘Angelica, I don’t understand!’ Poor Amy. She held out a hand but her daughter snatched her own away.
But Roman did. ‘I think you have some explaining to do, Angelica.’
Angelica turned furious eyes on me. ‘She’s lying. I don’t know why you’re believing this woman and not me: I’m your daughter!’ Angelica pushed her chair back and stormed upstairs.
Amy rose as if to follow.
‘Let her go, Amy,’ said Roman.
‘But—’
‘I think she’s had enough attention, don’t you?’ Roman got up. ‘Thank you, everyone, for bringing the children back. Now if you don’t mind, Amy and I need some time alone. There’s a lot we need to talk about.’
Inspector George followed me back outside. ‘You knew?’
‘I guessed earlier today. There was something off about the girl when I met her last week. It was only when she went for the little brother that I was sure.’ I sighed. Would Angelica have hurt her brother? That suspicion was one that, thank God, hadn’t been tested. ‘I’ve done all I can for them. The rest is up to them.’
I discovered, as I probably already suspected, that both Jago and Jonah were media hussies. Jonah’s offer of a lift to the hospital in Reading wasn’t so selfless as it gave him time to set up a photo opportunity with his chosen tabloid. Jago was all too ready to agree to the idea. I kept well out of it, despite their attempts to cajole me into the frame. So they just got a picture of a bandaged swimming celebrity shaking hands with his famous rescuer. The less said about my part, the better, if I wanted to carry on with my job, including the undercover aspect of it.
And I found that I did. It had been a wild ride these last few weeks, but that was maybe what I craved. I was less likely to start getting itchy and hanker after a prescription if life was going to hell around me. I was funny that way.
The press left, escorted out by Jonah. He promised to return bearing coffee and snacks.
‘So,’ said Jago, ‘Elijah. I guess he’s our killer?’
‘Looks that way. When did you know?’
‘Rather late in the day. Just before he took a blunt instrument to my head. He’s deceptively strong.’
I remembered the thrashing about in the water. It had been like wrestling a man made of wire and steel. ‘His job is very physical – must build muscles.’
‘He told me he first met me on the documentary. I didn’t remember him to be honest. I guess that was when he started obsessing about me – where I swam, the people that use those places.’
‘They’re not going to be the first crimes he’s committed,’ I said. ‘You don’t just wake up and say, “hey, I know, let’s murder someone today.”’
‘I suppose not.’
‘I think he’ll have been imitating other people for a while – trying on their lives for size. I did notice how he was copying me, but I had no idea what was motivating it. Thankfully, I didn’t make the grade for a target.’
‘I don’t want to even imagine that.’
‘You, my friend, were his top pick. He was working his way up to you and we happened to give him the perfect opportunity. Sorry about that. It was my fault – I asked him to wait for you.’ As to why Elijah did what he did, I wondered if anyone would ever know. What tipped a man with an interesting job, successful in other people’s eyes if not in his own, to lose himself so far in fantasy that he killed for it?
Jago waved my apology away. ‘Really, not your fault. I think you bounced him into making his move. If he’d been better prepared, waited for somewhere less public, I might not have survived.’
‘He missed his last victim, so I’m thinking he got reckless – jumped to his end game before he was ready.’
Jonah came back with a takeout tray of drinks, a bag of muffins, and a familiar policeman.
‘DI George, what have I done to get the top guy to visit me?’ asked Jago.
‘He bought the snacks,’ said Jonah, in an over-the-top aside.
‘You caught me my killer – suspected killer,’ said George.
‘That’s right, officer, innocent until proven fucking guilty,’ said Jonah with some heat. He wasn’t a fan of the police, as he had told me many times.
George’s sexy little smile did not dim. He’d heard it all before, I was sure. ‘And I’ve brought you your phones and personal belongings. With the compliments of Thames Valley police.’
‘Great.’ I reached for mine and saw that Michael had tried to get in contact. Crap: I was supposed to be back there tonight after book club. And yes, look: Cory had been ringing me too.
I sent her a quick text. Just to update the girls: found lost kids, caught killer, got photographed in my undies, now sitting with Jonah Brigson and Jago Jackson. My I-Spy book of celebrities is fast filling up. Please fill in the blanks with your own wild speculations.
I checked I’d got the phone on mute because I could imagine what that would do to the WhatsApp group.
‘Have you charged Elijah?’ Jonah asked.
‘Not yet. He’s being evaluated,’ said George.
‘I can save the taxpayer the expense. The guy is a nutcase.’
‘Still, we have our procedures.’
I got up. ‘Will you excuse me a moment? I just want to check in with Michael.’
DI George held me back. ‘About that, Jessica. There’s something you need to hear first.’