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  ‘Is that you, Alec? Where have you been, dear? I’ve been waiting for hours.’

  Kate felt a deep sorrow suddenly overwhelm her. This woman had lost the only person in the world who seemed to care for her. It occurred to her just how lonely Miriam must be. Neither she nor Alec had been what you would call popular. But for all that, they seemed happy enough with each other, it appeared that they didn’t need anyone else.

  ‘It’s Kate, Miriam. Kate Burrows.’

  Miriam’s eyes cleared and she was once more lucid.

  ‘Oh, Kate. How kind of you to come.’

  She saw the flowers and chocolates Kate had laid on the bed, and her eyes filled up with tears.

  ‘Are these for me? How kind of you to think of me in here when you have so much else to do.’

  Miriam was visibly shaking with emotion and, instinctively, Kate put out her hand to grasp Miriam’s. The gesture was interrupted by Miriam slowly and painfully pushing herself up in the bed. Sitting upright, the huge lump on the left-hand side of her head was clearly visible.

  ‘You took quite a blow there.’

  Miriam nodded. ‘It hurts like hell. But I’ll be out before the morning. Just a precaution, they said.’

  ‘Well it’s better to be safe . . .’

  ‘. . . than sorry.’ Miriam finished the sentence with her and they both laughed.

  Kate was amazed at the difference in Miriam’s demeanour. That crack on the head must have done her good. She was ashamed by her thoughts, but felt them just the same. Miriam was easier, light-hearted even. Kate wondered if it was because she had had a bit of attention, because someone had bothered to see if she was all right.

  ‘Well, it’s an old saying, but a true one.’

  Kate smiled her agreement.

  ‘How’s that poor man?’

  Kate filled her in on James Delacroix and his condition. Miriam tutted and shook her head sadly. ‘They do a great job there, you know. People don’t like having those kind of people on the streets, and I can understand that to an extent. But, at the end of the day, Kate, we all have to live somewhere, even those poor unfortunates.’

  ‘I suppose so, Miriam. Not everyone is as generous-hearted as you though.’

  Miriam sighed gently.

  ‘Have you anyone to look out for you, when you get home?’

  Miriam shook her head but replied gaily, ‘Oh, I’ll be fine, it’ll take more than a knock on the head to stop me from doing my good works.’

  Kate felt her heart sink, she had a feeling that the holy Joe part of Miriam was about to burst back on to the scene. Miriam seemed to read her mind. ‘Why do people find religious belief so distasteful? Religion is the founding block for all the great civilisations of the world. I devote my life to the Bible because that is exactly what it tells you to do. If you live by it, you will be rewarded. Not here, not on earth, but in the afterlife. I just want to help people, Kate. That’s all. People who have been written off by society for one reason or another.’

  ‘And you do help people, Miriam. You are a good person.’

  Miriam looked almost tearful again. ‘I try to be, Kate. Especially now my Alec has gone. It’s been hard without him.’

  ‘I’m sure it’s been terrible for you, Miriam.’

  ‘I still listen out for his key in the front door, I still expect him to walk in as if nothing bad had happened and he was still alive. He won’t, I know that. It doesn’t stop me from wanting it to happen though, does it?’

  Kate sighed. She was humbled in the face of such abject sorrow and determined to be nicer in the future. It took all sorts and she, better than anybody, knew the truth of that old nugget.

  ‘Well, ring me when you can leave, and I’ll pick you up, OK?’

  Miriam started to object but Kate waved her protestations away. ‘I mean it. I’ll leave my mobile number with the nurse on duty. She can ring me.’

  ‘That’s very kind of you, Kate. I appreciate it.’

  ‘You’re welcome, Miriam.’

  As she made her escape, Kate felt the shame wash over her once more. Life was strange.

  ‘I’m thinking of selling the lot. Do you want an in?’

  Peter Bates was nonplussed for about ten seconds at Patrick’s words.

  ‘Are you having a laugh?’

  Patrick shook his head, but he was laughing nonetheless. ‘I am on a mission to get my Kate back. And this is the first step.’

  Peter grinned lasciviously. ‘I heard about your bunch of roses being kicked all over the club by Eve. She must have the right fucking hump with you.’

  Patrick grinned in mock shame, pulling the corners of his mouth down and making him look like a naughty schoolboy.

  ‘She has every right to have the right fucking hump with me. I treated the girl badly. But, joking aside, Pete, I miss Kate. We’d been together a long time, you know. I miss her being around, even though she can drive me up the wall.’

  Peter knew just what he meant. ‘I miss my old woman, but don’t tell anyone. The kids fucking give me swerve, and that hurts, but then I hurt their mother, didn’t I? It’s true what they say, Patrick. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’

  ‘Don’t I know it? I went past my Mandy’s hairdressers the other day. Well, what would have been her salon anyway, had she lived. And it brought it home to me how fleeting happiness can be. One minute everything is wonderful and, within a few minutes, your life becomes an emotional fucking car wreck.’

  Peter was chastened by his words. ‘You’ve had more grief than most, Pat, no doubt about it.’

  Patrick shrugged. ‘Life is never fair, it doesn’t matter who you are, how much money you’ve got. There’s always some piece of shit determined to snatch it all away. I might have been a bit dodgy, but I always played fair by the people in my life.’

  ‘Which is more than I can say, Pat. I tucked up all the people who cared about me, really cared about me. I chased the strange, and look where it got me.’

  ‘I’ll talk to the O’Learys, make sure that if you take up my offer they’ll see you all right.’

  ‘Are you really getting rid of it all?’

  ‘Yes, and this time it’s for good. Truth be told, Danny will run the legitimate businesses for me, and I’ll retire properly this time. I just thought you might want the more lucrative parts, the businesses that could be open to interpretation, if you get my gist.’

  Peter was touched at Pat’s offer, and wondered how he could get the money together. He was an inveterate gambler and that often caused problems with his cash flow.

  Patrick smiled, reading Peter’s thoughts. ‘You can pay me back over three years. I made a contract for you and, provided you keep to the scheduled payments, you’re safe.’ He passed a folder across the table to his old friend. ‘I think the world of you, Peter, but if you attempt to tuck me up I will come after you like an Archangel, all batting of wings and serious vengeance. Your gambling is your affair, but you make sure that it doesn’t interfere with my few bob. Only, I know what a slippery cunt you can be when the fancy takes you, you’d sell your own mother and buy a new one when the time was right. Now, that’s only all well and good when it doesn’t interfere with me or mine.’

  Peter laughed then. He knew he was getting a serious warning off Patrick Kelly though and he also knew that it was only their lifelong friendship that had kept him alive on more than one occasion.

  ‘I give you my word, Patrick. I needed something like this, a good earn, my own earn. That ponce I saddled meself with goes through money like a hot knife through butter. My ex still expects her wedge, and the kids want a lot, but who can blame them, eh? I treated them badly. But I swear you can trust me on this one, Patrick. You know me, mate, I can gather the money, I just can’t keep me hands on it for any length of time.’

  Patrick grinned again only this time there was not a hint of his usual friendliness. ‘As I said before, there’s a contract. Keep to the payments, to the dates therein, and me and you will be tight
er than a nun’s crutch. But I tell you now, if you even fucking attempt to have me over, there will be consequences.’

  Peter laughed out loud as the enormity of Patrick’s generosity finally sank in. This was the break he had been looking for, it was the answer to all his prayers. He would be able to access the earnings in full, not just a cut. Not that his cut wasn’t generous, but it still fell well short of everyone else’s.

  ‘No probs. I’ll make sure you get paid out. Believe me, that will be my main priority.’

  Patrick knew he had given this man the winning lottery ticket, but he also knew that Peter Bates was cunt enough to lose the fucker if he wasn’t careful.

  ‘And so it should be, but remember this much. I know you better than anyone else in the world. If you abuse my trust and friendship again I will personally see to it that neither you, nor your fucking outrageous taste in clothes, are ever seen again.’

  ‘Sounds good to me, Pat.’

  They shook on it then Patrick said happily, ‘I never thought I would ever utter these words again, but do you fancy a glass of Rémy Martin?’

  Peter laughed then, feeling the tension leave the room. ‘Is the Pope a fucking Catholic?’

  Laughing together, they toasted their new partnership. Patrick felt that Peter had learned a few valuable lessons over the years, the main one being never bite the hand that feeds you because, nine times out of ten, it would be in possession of a gun that defied ballistics.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kate was tired out although she tried to stay awake in case the hospital called. She regretted her offer of a lift to poor Miriam, but she was determined to make good on it. She did feel sorry for the woman but, at the same time, she didn’t feel the urge to be in her company unless it was deemed really necessary.

  She knew that she was being unfair - Miriam was one of life’s misfits and, as such, should be entitled to some kind of compassion. The trouble was, Kate only felt that compassion for short periods of time. It might be unjust, but that was how she felt about it all.

  Annie had already turned in. After the emotions of the day - the excitement and then the disappointment they all felt - it seemed they all needed some well-deserved space from all that was going on.

  It didn’t help that Lionel had issued a press statement saying that they had apprehended the murderer. He was a fool of the first water, a fucking moron, but then he always had been, so why she was feeling surprised at this latest balls-up, she wasn’t sure.

  She had precisely ten missed calls from Patrick. Well, he could whistle ‘Dixie’ for all she cared now. When she had spoken to him before she could hear a hangover in his voice and she mentally shrugged. It looked like he needed a drink before he could trump Eve. Well she was welcome to him. He was a two-faced ponce, and that was something she would tell him to his face if she ever saw him again. The hurt was easing though. With all that was going on, it certainly put her own problems into perspective.

  Kate opened her eyes and realised that she was on the verge of dropping off. She shook herself awake, then picked up the phone, called the hospital, and asked for Miriam’s ward. She assumed as it was evening that Miriam was still there. She put the phone down five minutes later. Miriam had discharged herself and gone home earlier. She sank back on to the sofa and cursed her under her breath. However, she did hope she was OK, and considered calling her, but it was late and she knew Miriam would be an early-to-bed kind of girl. She would call her first thing, that was all she could do for now.

  Pouring herself a large glass of wine, Kate meandered upstairs and settled herself into bed. But, as usual, she had trouble relaxing, and knew that she wouldn’t sleep. Not properly, anyway. She seemed to spend her nights napping and waking at regular intervals. She missed Patrick’s snoring, his weight on the other side of the bed but, most of all, she missed the warmth of knowing there was someone beside you.

  In the restless early hours of the morning, her mind was filled with pictures of Pat and Eve together. Not just sexually, those images hurt enough, but them sitting and talking, eating together in the big kitchen she had helped to plan, taking a shower together. It was the mundane, everyday things that really hurt her, because she missed them so much. She missed him so much. Pat had taken the chance to get rid of her, he had even had her belongings packed up and sent to her former home. He had wanted shot of her, and she had never even suspected a thing. Some kind of detective she turned out to be.

  Still, it was easier to think about Patrick’s treachery than to keep seeing those dead girls in her head. But she did see them, every minute of the day. What was the connection between them all? Who was the person responsible? Did they choose the girls at random, or did they stalk them first? If it was random, they had next to no chance of finding him until he made a mistake and she didn’t see that happening at any time in the near future. If he was stalking them, it stood to reason that someone, somewhere had to have noticed him, even if it was only for a split second. She determined to do yet another round of all the people connected to the murders. It was strange, but sometimes what you asked provided answers to questions that you had not even thought about asking. It sounded crazy, but it had worked for her before, and she was prepared to do it again. Life could be really shit at times. Kate gulped at the wine and resigned herself to another restless night.

  Margaret Dole was going through the computer evidence once more. She had names and dates, which all pertained to the girls who had died. She kept staring at the screen, trying to find some kind of common denominator. That was how she had sussed out Lionel Dart, the filthy animal, but she couldn’t see anything this time. There was nothing that could tie the girls together.

  Margaret felt that she was missing something, and the feeling was so strong that she wondered if she was making it up. She was determined to prove herself, not only to Annie but to Kate too. She wanted to prove that she could be a vital member of the team. That was very important to her, especially after she had mugged herself off with Annie. She should have realised that loyalty was all they had, when everything was said and done. She should have realised that this wasn’t a girlie night out, a meeting of friends, that these were her work colleagues, people she had to see on a daily basis for a long time. It was much better if they all got along and kept the back-biting to a minimum.

  Margaret was still staring at the screen and her vision was beginning to blur, so she closed her eyes for a few moments to rest them. When she opened them she once more began scrolling through the different girls’ appointments. She was convinced that if she looked hard enough she would find some kind of link.

  Later, she poured herself another black coffee. She liked the station late at night, she worked better in the quiet. As she strolled back to her desk, she decided to pull all the dead girls’ police files again.

  Whoever this was didn’t necessarily need to have known them as brasses, he might have known them all from school, a workplace, he might even have seen them in a shopping centre. Margaret knew, in her heart of hearts, that whoever this man was, he had picked on these specific girls for a reason though. She didn’t know why she thought that, she just knew it was how she felt inside. As Kate said, work with your instinct, and all her instincts were telling her she was right.

  Margaret rubbed her eyes and, after finishing the coffee, she started collating the details of the girls’ lives together as best she could.

  It was nine-fifteen in the morning and Kate was amazed Miriam was back at work already. The lump on her head had gone down significantly, but Kate was aware that close up, Miriam still had the dead eyes of a head-trauma victim.

  ‘Are you sure you’re well enough to be back here, Miriam?’

  Miriam nodded her head quickly. ‘I thought it best to get back to normal. As I always tell my clients, the best thing to do after a crisis is to get back to their routine as soon as possible. That way they won’t have allowed the person responsible for their trauma to win. The sooner they start living th
eir lives again, the better.’

  Kate smiled. She certainly couldn’t argue with that. ‘By the way, did young Jemimah get off all right?’

  Miriam nodded happily, her ruddy face almost beaming. ‘She left me a text message last night, bless her. I hope she finds peace wherever she lands up. God is good you know, Kate. These days He just has a hard job getting the word out there!’

  Kate smiled once more, unsure how to answer the woman.

  ‘I’d like to take this opportunity, Kate, to thank you for your concern, it meant a great deal to me, much more than you could imagine.’

  Kate was embarrassed at the woman’s openness. ‘Well, Miriam, you’re a part of this team, and we respect what you do. You are invaluable, really. Thanks to you, we can get on with our jobs without having to hold the hands of the relatives. It’s very important what you do, and I think we don’t appreciate you enough at times.’

  Miriam swelled with pride at Kate’s words.

  ‘Well, it’s always nice to be appreciated, and it’s wonderful to know I have a good friend in you. I thought maybe we could have a spot of lunch next week, you know, catch up.’

  Kate heard the words but did not really believe she had said them. She floundered, unable to think what to say to her.

  ‘Or a coffee, a quick coffee? I understand how busy you are. It’s just so we can get to know each other better. I think you were right, Kate, I need to get out more. Make another life for myself.’