‘Plunged fifteen floors from his balcony. Made a bit of a mess on the concrete.’ Taylor had just confirmed what Justin really did not want to hear. He’d left the door open. He hadn’t bothered to close the front door when he’d charged in there. Knowing he was in no fit state to take the man on physically, his aim had been to get to Radley before he’d realised what was happening. Alicia had been due to arrive. The door had been open the whole time – and Radley had been on the balcony, incapable of doing anything other than realise what was happening to him. Jesus Christ.
Justin pinched the bridge of his nose hard. He couldn’t speak. He felt as if he might actually vomit. But… she couldn’t have. He tried to still his ludicrous imaginings. Panic gripping his chest like a vice, he wiped a thin film of sweat from his forehead and tried to think rationally, rather than follow the insane road his thoughts were going down.
‘Do you have any suspects?’ Alicia asked, seating herself on the sofa, her tone calm, her movements tense but composed.
Taylor shook his head. ‘Not yet, no. The circumstances surrounding his death are not being viewed as suspicious. Looks like he took his own life.’
Alicia nodded.
Justin looked back to Taylor, wishing he could read what was going through the man’s mind.
Taylor locked eyes with him, studying him hard for a long, petrifying moment. ‘There’s something else you should know,’ he said, his gaze travelling to Alicia and back to Justin.
His thoughts all over the place, Justin tried to concentrate as he waited for him to go on.
Taylor spoke, eventually. ‘You might recall we didn’t have much to go on in regard to the road traffic accident, apart from the colour and model of the car?’
Struggling to keep up, Justin nodded. ‘A black four-by-four, as driven by half the population of the country.’
‘A Land Rover Discovery,’ Taylor said guardedly, and waited.
‘The same car Paul Radley drives,’ Alicia added quietly, after a second, her gaze now on the fingers she was knotting and unknotting in her lap.
‘Apparently, yes.’ His expression grim, Taylor looked from her to Justin. ‘We made some enquiries, concentrating on body shops in the area and the suspected damage to the vehicle. One of the shop owners was reluctant to impart details of such a repair. The owner of the vehicle paid cash, it seems. The job was never logged, for tax-avoidance purposes. Obviously, we can’t say for certain whether Paul Radley was involved without further examination of the car, but…’
‘So the car he’s been driving was a rental?’ Justin asked, attempting to get his head around what Taylor was implying.
‘It would seem so,’ Taylor confirmed.
Justin dropped heavily down to the seat behind him. He’d known it. Deep in his gut, he’d known Radley had been involved in the murder of his son. He hadn’t figured out how or why, but when he’d seen those photographs, Luke and him cut crudely out of them all, he’d been sure. The only thing he hadn’t been able to fathom was why Radley would have taken the risk that he might have killed the woman he was obsessed with, too, along with the child he’d truly believed was his. But now he realised that he wouldn’t have cared. In Radley’s mind, Alicia and Sophie belonged to him. If he couldn’t have them, then no one could.
Alicia knew it too. She’d just said so. She’d known Radley owned a Discovery before Taylor had confirmed it. Yet, she couldn’t have. Unless… it had been one of the vehicles in the underground car park. He’d looked right at it. What state of mind would Alicia have been in if she’d seen it there too?
‘I’m afraid there’s more,’ Taylor said, as Justin dragged his hands through his hair and tried to stop their incessant shaking. He didn’t dare look at Alicia.
‘We’ve been waiting for a forensics report to come back in regard to footmarks retrieved from the garden of your house, which bear a significant identifier, allowing us to narrow a specific pair of trainers down to brand, possibly even batch number.’
‘And?’ Justin held his breath.
‘We were a bit stuck at that stage,’ Taylor continued. ‘More often than not, it’s impossible to identify the actual wearer unless we have them in custody, other than by information already held on the database or divine intervention.’
‘Is this leading somewhere, DI Taylor?’ Alicia asked, still sounding quite calm, where Justin felt as if his chest was about to explode.
‘It seems the divine did intervene,’ Taylor went on. ‘We can’t be one hundred percent sure at this stage, but it seems Paul Radley was the owner of a similar pair of trainers, thereby indicating that it might well have been him who broke into your home. We’d need other substantiating evidence, of course—’
Justin exchanged glances with Alicia. Leave it, was the clear message he read in her eyes. They had the substantiating evidence: the locket, the photographs. Did they really want to share that with Taylor, thereby supplying further motive for possibly being involved in his death?
‘I’m afraid it does look likely though,’ Taylor concluded, with a heavy sigh. I’m so sorry. This must all be very distressing for you both.’
‘I see.’ Kneading his temple, Justin forced himself to look back at Taylor. He needed to maintain eye contact. He needed the man to go.
‘Did you recognise him, Justin? Or his car?’ Taylor asked him curiously. ‘Did you get a look at him after the accident?’
Realising the man was looking for motive, Justin shook his head. ‘No,’ he stated categorically, making damn sure to hold eye contact. ‘Do you think I wouldn’t have mentioned it, if I had?’
Taylor narrowed his eyes, scrutinising him carefully. ‘No, I don’t think for one minute you wouldn’t have mentioned it – volubly,’ he said, his expression… conspiratorial?
His emotions now way off-kilter, wondering whether he dare read into this what Taylor seemed to be communicating, Justin looked bewilderedly back to Alicia. Her expression unreadable, she glanced briefly back at him before turning her attention to Taylor. ‘Were there any extenuating circumstances?’ she asked him, causing Justin to do a double take.
Taylor’s expression went back to grim. ‘There wasn’t a lot left of the body to examine, to be honest,’ he said. ‘I doubt the post-mortem will produce anything that suggests it wasn’t suicide.’
‘No security footage?’ Alicia pushed, causing Justin’s stomach to drop like a stone.
‘Nothing,’ Taylor confirmed. ‘It seems several power outages had damaged the security feeds, which basically means we have nothing to go on.’
Looking back to Justin, he held his gaze for a long minute, nodded almost imperceptibly and then glanced down at his watch. ‘Right, well, I’ve taken up enough of your valuable time. I’ll leave you to go out for your meal. No doubt you have a lot to discuss. One or two fences that might need mending, possibly?’
‘A few.’ Nodding, Alicia stood to see him out.
‘I’m sure they’ll all be fixable,’ Taylor said. ‘It never ceases to amaze me how strong a family unit can be when everyone pulls together.’
Turning to Justin, he reached to shake his hand. ‘Sorry we weren’t much help to you in your painstaking search for Sophie, Justin,’ he said, now wearing his apologetic smile. ‘All’s well that ends well, though, hey? I’ll find my own way out,’ he said, turning towards the door with a wave – leaving Justin inwardly reeling.
Eighty
JUSTIN
Too shocked to move, Justin stayed where he was as Alicia went to the kitchen. She was making tea. Tea? She’d just learned that the bastard who’d raped her, killed their son and taken their daughter had fallen fifteen floors to his death, his insides undoubtedly splattered all over the pavement, and her reaction was to go and put the kettle on?
Christ. Running his hands up over his face, Justin took several slow breaths and then stood to follow her.
Seating himself at the kitchen table, he clasped his hands in front of him and watched her retrieve two cups from the dishwasher, wincing as she straightened up. She’d strained her back, she’d said, moving furniture.