The Dead Tracks Read online

  'You don't have to watch this,' I said.

  'I do.'

  'I can watch it and tell you what you need to know.'

  'I'm watching it,' he said, teeth gritted.

  On-screen, Markham repositioned himself. He wasn't a man used to this kind of thing. Even as his eyes filled with tears there was a strange kind of reticence to him, as if he was frightened by everything he was feeling.

  Then he started again: 'I had a lot of guilt left over after Sue and I divorced. The way she went downhill so fast.' A pause. 'I mean, I had her committed. Who commits their own wife?' He stopped for a second time. 'And then, when she got out, I didn't even contact her. I didn't know what I was supposed to say. I couldn't face her. Couldn't deal with her. And I guess he used that. He played on that. He used all the guilt, and made me think I'd never get the chance to say sorry.'

  Healy shook his head. I could smell the sweat on him now.

  'So I took Leanne.'

  As Markham spoke her name a subtle change passed across Healy's face and I realized something: he hurt too deeply to ever get over what he was about to be told. He could get his vengeance, but it would never repair the hole left behind. All the frustration, all the aggression, all the violence to come — ultimately it meant nothing.

  'He must have first picked me out through the youth club,' Markham said. 'He must have been watching that place - watching Leanne and Megan — and seen me there on a Monday. I had a good relationship with both of them. I suppose they trusted me. I mean…' He stopped. "Why wouldn't they?'

  I glanced at Healy. He was absolutely still.

  'He called Leanne my practice run. I had to make her think I wanted to be with her. Then I had to take her to the woods and give her to him. He told me that if I got found out, if I left anything for anyone to find, he would cut me adrift, and I would never see my wife again.' Markham looked away for a moment. 'So that's what I did. I made Leanne think I liked her. I forced myself into her life. And then, when I had her fooled, I just… fed her to him.'

  'Healy,' I said.

  'It stays on.'

  'You can —'

  'It stays on,' he spat, turning to face me. In the dull light, something shimmered in one of his eyes. And then he fixed his gaze back on the television as Markham got up from his seat. He sniffed, walked past the camera — and everything turned to black.

  A second later, it started again.

  He moved from behind the camera and headed back to his seat. This time he appeared more composed. 'I got the sense Megan was more important to him than Leanne. I don't know why - that was just what it felt like. He planned everything out for Leanne, but he seemed to be even more meticulous with Megan. Maybe it was just that

  Leanne was easier to get at. She wasn't very bright and she'd had a disrupted home life. Her mother was having an affair, and her father was never around.'

  I glanced at Healy. Nothing.

  'Megan was different. She had wealthy parents, and with wealth comes resources. If she disappeared, they'd use that wealth. They'd use all of it if it meant finding her. Leanne, I just got for him. But Megan came with a set of ground rules.'

  I looked at Healy again. Sweat had soaked through his shirt, under his arms, at his collar. He turned to me, face blank. 'What Does he mean by "ground rules"?'

  'I think he means the London Conservation Trust,' I said, pushing Pause on the VCR. 'Glass set that up to make himself untraceable. He used bogus newsletters to hide messages in, and the site to give her details of meetings. She thought it was all being sent from Markham - but it wasn't. It was Glass.'

  'And Megan didn't think it was a bit weird?'

  I shrugged. 'Maybe. But remember, Markham was nearly twenty years older than her. In fact, technically, she wasn't even an adult yet. Glass probably told him to play on that, made Markham tell her that he had a public- facing job and couldn't risk any controversy. Markham must have ended up convincing her that it was safer to use the LCT as cover until she turned eighteen — and then they could tell people about their relationship.'

  'What the hell was she thinking?'

  'He was the first guy she ever fell in love with. Her friend said she'd never been that way about anyone in her life. She just got swept away by it.'

  'They never spoke on the phone?'

  'I doubt Glass allowed Markham to communicate with Megan in any other form but the LCT No other emails. No messaging. No phone calls. Nothing traceable. Only face to face at the youth club and via the website. I mean, what would be the point of going to the trouble of setting up the LCT if they had each other's mobile number?'

  Healy shook his head, reached forward and pushed Play.

  'It was going okay with Megan,' Markham continued, his voice beginning to wobble. 'I'd managed to convince her that what I felt was genuine, like I had with Leanne. And once she started to believe me, it became easier to fool her about things like the website.' A pause. Another finger brushed his face, this time closer to his eye. 'But then the boy turned up at my door, shouting and threatening me and…' He seemed to shrink a little. 'I know it sounds stupid, but I think the things he said to me hurt more than anything anyone's ever said to me in my life. To be called a pervert, a paedophile…'

  Markham looked down into his lap. Sniffed. Silence descended on-screen. Healy glanced at me. 'Is he talking about the Bryant kid?'

  I nodded. 'Charlie, yeah.'

  'How did the kid know about Markham?'

  I remembered something Kaitlin said to me about Charlie. He was, like, in love with Megan. Totally in love with her. Sometimes he'd go over the top and creep us all out… He'd follow her around.

  'He must have been watching her,' I said. 'He must have gone to tell Markham to stay away from Megan.

  Charlie was jealous. But by then it was too late. Megan was in love with Markham — or, at least, the idea of him.'

  Markham cleared his throat, the sound distorting through the speakers on the TV. 'Maybe he was right about me. Maybe I was a pervert.' He cleared his throat a second time. Then, as he spoke again, his voice started to tremor. 'It was an accident,' he said quietly. 'It was just an accident. She was supposed to be on the pill.'

  Healy looked at me. 'Do you think the Bryant kid knew?'

  'That Megan was pregnant? Yeah, he knew. He was the one that warned Kaitlin off telling the police about it, remember. Megan might have told him outright, but it was more likely he found out some other way. Maybe he followed her to a supermarket, or a walk-in clinic, or a pharmacy. Maybe he saw her buying a pregnancy kit.'

  The video jumped, crackled, and more lines drifted down the picture. Markham began talking again. 'When he called me the next night, I told him we had a problem. I told him Charlie Bryant knew about Megan and me. I told him about Megan being pregnant as well, thinking that would be the end of the line for me, and for Sue. But he wasn't angry.' He frowned. 'He just laughed. And then said, "Oh, Daniel - that's perfect. Absolutely perfect."'

  'Why would he be pleased she was pregnant?' I said, pausing the tape. Healy just shrugged at me. I turned back to the TV. 'It Does explain something, though.'

  'What?'

  'Why Charlie - and his father — were killed.'

  'The kid got too close.'

  I nodded. We both let that settle, and in the silence

  I could see Healy's mind ticking over. Eventually he turned back to me: 'Why, though?'

  'Why what?'

  'Why did he start using Markham? He takes five women before Leanne without the help of Markham. Then he takes three more — Leanne, Megan and Sona — with his help. Why?'

  'Maybe he wanted to insulate himself.'

  'So why didn't he do that from the start?'

  I saw where Healy was going. 'Because of Frank White.'

  'Exactly. I think Glass was operating just fine on his own until 25 October last year. Five women already in the bag, no one able to pick up his scent. Then things get screwed up at the warehouse, Frank White dies, and suddenly
he's back to feeling mortal again. He realizes it only takes one mistake for the whole house of cards to come down. So he pinpoints Markham.'

  'Because of his connections to the youth club.'

  'Right. Glass spots Megan somewhere — in the street, on a bus, somewhere - and follows her to the youth club. He sees Markham at the club, maybe sees the way Megan looks at him or something, and he realizes he can use Markham to get at Megan, without risking more exposure. And there's an added bonus…'

  'Susan Markham.'

  Healy nodded. 'Glass Does a bit of background on Markham and finds out not only that he seems to be in with Megan, but he can be manipulated through his wife.'

  I glanced from Healy to the television screen and back again. He was looking at me, no hint of anything in his face now, a mixture of sweat and aftershave coming off him. Maybe this was how he dealt with emotion: bottled it up, pushed it down, until one day he couldn't contain it and ended up doing something he regretted. Like putting his wife in a neck brace. Or arguing with his daughter. Or telling his boss he was going to rip apart the man who'd taken her.

  When I started the tape again, it clicked and whirred.

  'If you're watching this, he's probably killed me,' Markham said, pausing for a moment. 'I've probably tried to find a way out. I can't take this. I can't see an end. Leanne, Megan, and then we moved on from the youth club; on to Sona…' Eye contact with the camera now. 'I know, unless I refuse to do this any more, it's just going to go on and on, and he's going to keep on using me. And although…'

  He stopped. An eye watered. A part of me felt sorry for him; at the way a good man had been manoeuvred into position against his will. But I couldn't forgive him for taking those women. Because when you faced darkness, sometimes there wasn't a light. Sometimes you had to step in blind and have enough faith, enough fearlessness, to try and find the right way. And the right way for Markham would have been to fight back.

  On-screen, he shifted in his seat and he brought out a photograph from under him; from beneath a leg, or out of an unseen pocket. He held it up to the camera.

  'This is Sue,' he said. She was pretty: dark, petite, bright eyes. In the photo she looked almost shy; slightly turned away from the camera, a smile on her face. She wore a white blouse and a chain around her neck, a silver heart dangling at her throat. 'Whoever finds this tape, can you tell her something for me? Can you tell her that, although I know I've done some terrible things, and I know I don't deserve forgiveness, I'm just…' His voice broke up. 'I'm just so sorry.'

  And then he got up, walked to the camera — and everything went black.

  Healy didn't move. When I turned to face him, he was still staring at the black screen. After a couple of seconds he stirred, glancing at me, a blur in one of his eyes. Then he looked away.

  'We'll find him,' I said.

  He didn't reply. Didn't move.

  'I promise you—we'll find him.'

  * * *

  Chapter Fifty-eight

  Forty minutes later, we were nosing along City Road, heading towards a knot of council houses in King's Cross. In one of them, insulated from the outside world, was the one who'd got away.

  Sona was a huge break. A giant rift that should have broken the case the minute she was found. Instead, everything she'd seen, everything she knew, was hidden inside the walls of the safe house in which she was being kept. Her family had watched her disappear, and for a month they'd been waiting for the phone to ring: news that someone had seen her, mentioned her, any scrap, however small. But they'd still be waiting in another month. And they might still be waiting in a year. Because the police weren't going to call them. They were going to squeeze every ounce of recollection out of her in order to get at Dr Glass - and then bury the rest in the ground. It made me sick even thinking about it.

  'Her family don't know she's back?'

  Healy shook his head. 'No. Just the police.'

  'But she didn't just magic herself into police custody. Someone must have seen her when she came up for air. There must be witnesses. So where are they?'

  He glanced sideways at me. 'You been following the news?'

  And then it hit me.

  I remembered the story I'd seen in passing twice over the past week: once in the cafe near Newcross Secondary; and once through the windows at the front of Liz's house. Woman found floating in the Thames.

  'That was Sona?'

  He nodded.

  'But I thought she'd been returned to her family?'

  'So Does the rest of the world.'

  I could feel bile rising in my throat and anger tightening in my muscles. 'It's all a lie?'

  'The bit about finding her wasn't. The witnesses aren't either. But everything else is. She didn't ask for anonymity. She didn't ask for anything'

  'So what happened?'

  'She washed up in the Thames at seven in the morning. An empty tour boat yanked her out, and one of the tour guides dialled 999. She had mild hypothermia and concussion. Dazed and confused. Didn't say much. Didn't know where she was. No ID, no real idea of where she'd been or what had happened, plus she was pretty messed up.'

  'In what way?'

  'Bruises. Lots of cuts. Bleeding.'

  'What happened after they fished her out?'

  'She gets rushed to A&E and the tour guides go off and talk to the media. Next morning, it's playing out in the nationals. That's when Phillips and Hart got wind of it. Luckily for them, half her face was damaged, which made describing her hard. The tour guides told the papers as much as they knew, which wasn't a lot. Next day, the task force leaked a story saying they "believed" she was in her late forties…'

  Which would have put her out of the age range of any of the women who'd gone missing - including Sona - and dampened any expectation their families might have had. Another hole plugged before it took everything down.

  'Couple of days after that, Phillips leaks another story to the media telling them she and her family want to remain anonymous. End of story.'

  I looked out into the night, fists clenched, teeth locked together. So many lies, one on top of the other. 'How has everything been contained?'

  'What do you mean?'

  'I mean, why haven't Professional Standards got wind of this? People talk. You can't tell me everyone on the task force has remained silent.'

  'I can — because they have.'

  'Nothing has slipped out?'

  He shrugged. 'The task forces are small. Trusted. They'll burn the uniform before they give Professional Standards anything to feed on. Cops who investigate other cops are pond life.'

  I remembered Phillips's comment to Healy on the phone earlier: There's a reason you're not part of this task force, or any other task force for that matter. And it's because you can't be trusted. 'If it's so watertight, how do you know so much?'

  'After Leanne went missing, one of the guys helped me try to find her. I'd known him a long, long time. He told me some things. I worked the rest out myself.'

  I looked at him. In his face I could see the rest: And I dug around in places I shouldn't, I found out things I wasn't supposed to, and both the task forces know. That was what Phillips had meant when he said Healy couldn't be trusted. Now the battle wasn't in keeping Healy from telling anyone about what was going on; Healy was too invested in avenging his daughter to be concerned with spilling secrets. The battle was in trying to prevent him from pulling down every pillar they'd raised in their pursuit of Glass and his little black book.

  'Does Sona remember why she was in the Thames?'

  'No. She hasn't really talked.'

  'About what happened?'

  'About anything.'

  'At all?'

  'A little, but not much. He's either totally screwed her up or she genuinely can't remember. Doctors reckon she's got some sort of post-traumatic stress. Maybe mild amnesia too. She needed fourteen stitches in her head.'

  'Surely she wants to tell her family she's alive?'

  'Phillips, Hart, Davi
dson, the rest of them - they're playing on her fear. She basically thinks that she can't tell anyone she's alive or Glass will be back for her.'

  'This is insane.'

  'I told you it would be like this.'

  His words from the night before came back to me: You can come with me, or you can back down. But if you come with me, be prepared for it to get bad.

  'Do we have to worry about her having police protection tonight?'