ONE HUNDRED ONE

7.23 P.M.

‘You’re late,’ Fred Guest called down from above.

How had she not seen that the man who had helped them from that very first day had inserted himself into the investigation? It had all started at the Saltwells Nature Reserve where Fred had been in charge. She’d given him the power to point them in any direction he chose.

He had been calm, helpful and co-operative while all the time causing them to chase their tails around the Black Country.

That same man was standing eighty feet in the air with a rope around his neck attached to a beam beneath his feet. If he took just one step forward, he would break his neck and he would never face the justice of a courtroom. For the sake of Hiccup and Frost, she wanted to see that day.

But how to make it happen? What could she appeal to?

She readied her voice to shout up to him. ‘Come down, Fred. Your dad…’

‘Dad died seven months ago,’ he called back down.

What a show he’d put on for them when they visited his home. Asking them to be quiet for the sake of his ill parent who’d already been dead for months.

Now the timeline made sense to her. Fred’s father had died, taking with him what had been Fred’s only reason for existing. Suddenly, the emptiness of his life had been staring him in the face and he’d decided to do something about it. One of his first actions was deciding who he was going to use to divert attention from himself. And that man had been Peter Harris.

One step and it would all be over. She had to get up to him. She needed to be able to stop him from breaking his own neck.

She put her feet on the first rung of the ladder, ignoring the warning sound from her colleague.

‘You went and bought Peter Harris’s van,’ she said, taking another step. ‘He told you on the last litter-pick that he was getting rid of it. You found out where he was taking it, didn’t you?’

Fred ignored her question. ‘You’re too late. It’s twenty-three minutes past seven.’

She continued climbing towards him. ‘And you used his debit card to set up the account on Seekers. What I don’t understand is why?’

‘Because I’m invisible. I’m sixty-one years old and all I’ve ever done is take care of a sick parent.’

‘That can’t be all…’

‘I worked in a factory. I was a body. I clocked in and clocked out. I did nothing that I’ll be remembered for. No wife, no kids, nothing of me will carry on.’

‘And that was worth a man’s life?’

She saw him shrug. ‘He will be missed as much as me. If there’s one thing I want you to understand, it’s the emptiness of living a life that’s for someone else. To only take care of a parent. To have no meaningful existence. For this I’ll be remembered. My name will be linked to these murders and to fooling the police. There’ll be documentaries on how I?—’

‘But you didn’t really, did you?’ Kim asked, taking another step. ‘Jared did most of the work. You knew how you wanted it to start and end, but everything in between was the work of someone else.’

She was now close enough to see that despite everything he had thought of, his expression said he hadn’t thought of that.

‘Jared’s name will be all over this. You think he won’t capitalise on it?’ she asked, taking another step.

Truthfully, she didn’t know for sure if that was true, but there was little blood on his hands, and it would probably get him a few more likes.

‘What about Tracy Frost?’ she continued. ‘Was she part of the game too?’

She just wanted to hear him admit what he’d done to the reporter.

‘Inspector, when are you going to understand that all death and injury is on you? I gave you every tool to find Hiccup on time. You failed. He died. Your fault, not mine. I gave you rules to follow. I was clear that failure to do so would result in serious consequences. The reporter took that chance. Her fault, not mine.’

Kim realised she was never going to be able to make him understand that he was responsible for the violence and death that had ensued. She had to force the picture of Frost out of her mind, or she was in danger of climbing up there and pushing him off the platform herself.

‘So, it was all for fame?’ she asked, taking another step.

Just one more and she could reach out and grab the bottom of his leg.

‘Not for fame. Just to be remembered.’

‘Fred, you can be remembered for?—’

‘I want notoriety. I want?—’

‘You want notoriety enough to rape a woman in front of her young daughter?’ Kim asked.

‘I didn’t rape anyone,’ he exploded. ‘What do you think I am?’

The horror on his face convinced her he was telling the truth. As soon as she’d seen the person standing on the top of the platform, that theory had gone out of her head. Her stomach had told her that while content to cut body parts from a homeless guy, he wouldn’t entertain the concept of raping a woman in front of her child. In his mind, his torture of Hiccup had been justified to meet the needs of the game. Fred Guest wasn’t a rapist, but she had just needed to see his reaction.

‘Sorry, but time’s up, Inspector. I gave you every chance to find me, and you messed it up. You arrived late. There are rules for a reason, and they have to be followed.’

She raised one foot onto the next rung.

He shuffled forward.

She stopped dead in her tracks. Rules, timings, puppets, manipulation. Control.

‘You know what, Fred, fucking jump,’ she said, taking a step back down the ladder.

‘Wh-What?’ he spluttered.

‘Do what you like. I’m over it.’

‘You can’t say that.’

‘Says who?’ she asked, continuing her descent. ‘You see my boss here anywhere?’

‘B-But…’

Kim was thrilled to hear the panic in his voice. The fact that he no longer had any power over her was not something he’d anticipated.

A few more steps down.

‘Have you ever heard the phrase “unnamed male”?’ Kim asked, pausing to call back up to him.

He nodded down at her.

‘That will be you in about one hour’s time. Your suicide will not be related to the Jester case, and you’ll be no more than one square column inch if that,’ she said, taking another step.

‘The press will?—’

‘The press won’t give a shit,’ Kim said. ‘With no formal statement from us, they’ll assume the Jester got bored or the case didn’t get solved. There will be no link to your death. No one will ever know it was you. You’ll die completely unknown and forgotten.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ he called as she continued her descent.

‘And I no longer care what you believe,’ she said as her feet met the ground.

‘Guv, what the hell are you…?’

‘Take a look around, Fred,’ she said, ignoring her colleague’s concerns. ‘This is where it ends for you. This’ll be the last thing you ever see. No newspapers, no television channels, no Wikipedia page with your name on it. You’ll be dead and gone, and Jared Truss will be enjoying all the glory of having assisted a killer who has disappeared into thin air.’

‘You can’t cover this up,’ he shouted.

‘I can if you’re dead. Who’s gonna stop me? Who else knows that you’re responsible? You’ve done such a good job of hiding yourself that even the rest of my team don’t know it’s you. It’s just a shame that no one is ever going to know how clever you were. You’ll be as unmemorable in death as you were in life. See, I’ve worked it out now, Fred. You just wanted to feel important. You wanted to be someone’s focus. Your life was always about your dad. You wanted people to follow you, to chase you and be thinking about you.’

‘Guv, seriously,’ Bryant hissed.

Kim ignored him. She had come too far now. ‘You know, Fred, I’m not sure you’ve even thought this thing through. You got any idea what happens when you step off that platform?’

He said nothing.

‘To get instant death, you’re gonna have to take a run and jump, which you ain’t got the room to do. You’re going to step off and free-fall a few feet, and then the rope is gonna break your fall, but it’s not gonna kill you. Not straight away.’

She paused, wanting to give him the whole picture. ‘You ever choked on a piece of food and coughed until you couldn’t catch your breath? Ever had an asthma attack or allergic reaction where you couldn’t breathe deep? If you don’t immediately break your neck, you’re gonna feel all these things at once. While you’re choking to death, the blood pressure will build in your eyes and mouth causing your eyeballs and tongue to bulge. You’re gonna chew on your own tongue. You’re gonna writhe in agony until your final breath, and there’s nothing we can do from down here.’

He took the smallest step back.

She could understand Bryant’s concern at her actions, but she really had nothing left to lose. Despite having climbed the ladder, there was nothing she could have done to save him from up there. Her only chance had been to appeal to the things that were important to him.

And now she was about to seal the deal one way or the other.

She stepped back and folded her arms. ‘Go on then. Crack on,’ she called.

He would never know just how tightly she was holding on to the breath in her body. Her deliberate stance said she couldn’t care less, but she did care. She wanted to see this man face justice for what he’d done.

Very slowly, he reached up and removed the noose from around his neck.

Fred hesitated as though considering just falling to the ground. Her pulse quickened briefly before he took another step back as though feeling the impact of the ground smashing against his body wasn’t on his list of suicide methods.

He used the railings to step backwards onto the ladder that would bring him to the ground.

‘Jesus, Guv, you got me sweating then,’ Bryant whispered by her side.

‘Oh yeah,’ she said, finally exhaling as the man neared the bottom of the ladder.

She moved towards the winding tower and was waiting for him as his feet met solid ground.

She turned him around and took the handcuffs that were already in her colleague’s hands.

‘Fred Guest, I am arresting you for the murder of Anthony Parsons, the attempted murder of Tracy Frost and the kidnapping of Nazeera Khan. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’

‘I want a lawyer,’ he said before pressing his lips together.

Of course he did. Most likely an agent and business manager too.

‘Good job you like rules, Fred. You’re going to be following someone else’s for the rest of your natural life.’