The Hero's Fall (DCI Cook Thriller Series Book 14) by Phillip Strang (best classic romance novels txt) 📗

‘He’ll not stay long, prefers the cold outside most of the time,’ she said.

‘Jock?’

‘He’s good for me, and he’ll not let me down, not like others.’

‘Your father? Your brother?’ Isaac said.

‘Our parents ensured we had food in our bellies, a decent education, but children want more than that. They want love, to be told they’re wanted.’

‘You weren’t?’

‘Rarely, and then it was begrudgingly. At Christmas, a hug. Apart from that, never. It stuffed me up for a while, the reason for the bikers’ gang, and Mike, well, you know about him.’

‘What do we know?’

‘His depressive nature, his single-mindedness.’

‘His ability to walk.’

‘I didn’t know, honestly. I know what the doctor had said, but Mike said there was no reason to try. I can’t blame Kate for running out on him, but that Skinner, what a choice.’

‘If she had chosen Simmons?’

‘I would have understood.’

‘And yet, you hated Angus,’ Isaac said. ‘Is it because of your childhood, forged in adversity, that you and Mike remained connected as adults, a unique closeness?’

‘I don’t understand.’

Wendy didn’t either. She looked at her chief inspector, a perplexed look. ‘Nor do I,’ she said.

‘The inseparable bond, brother and sister, finding solace in each other, and Kate in the middle, but she was an inconvenience. And there’s Deb, patronised by Angus, treated as a sister, wanting more.’

‘I did love him, you’re correct there, but as a brother,’ Deb said.

‘It was more than that. Your brother, you couldn’t have, but his greatest friend you could. Did you make a play for him, get a knockback? Is that why you were unpleasant to Maddox Timberley, the woman who had what you couldn’t?’

‘I was unpleasant because she was using him for her benefit.’

‘She loved him,’ Wendy said. ‘With him, she felt safe.’

‘I’ve seen her on the media, a new man, making out in public.’

‘I can’t say I approve of her behaviour, but she’s back with her mother now.’

‘Did Angus reject you?’ Isaac asked. ‘Did you love him, not as a brother, but as something more?’

‘Always, from the first time I met him. Every time I brought up the subject, Angus would say that I was his sister, the sister he never had. Laughed at me, that last time, when I told him about my feelings for him, that I still cared,’ Deb said.

‘When? Just before the accident?’

‘Two months before. I was up there for a few days, the two of them planning the trip.’

‘And then, after your brother accused Angus of letting him fall, the pieces fell into place. The rejection, the accident, the hatred your brother had for Angus, the anger you couldn’t help, reciprocating emotions with your brother.’

‘Alright, I did hate him. Not at first when Mike came back in an air ambulance, not when he was in that hospital, but in time, I could see it. Angus, charming, loved by everyone, an optimistic outlook on life, and my brother, sullen, unloved, loved by me, fleetingly by Kate. I understood my brother; you wouldn’t.’

‘It was you, wasn’t it? It was you that took that shot?’

‘DCI!’ Wendy exclaimed. She was shocked by his accusation.

‘How dare you?’ Deb said.

‘You knew of the unresolved issues with your brother, remembered that last rejection. You decided to act,’ Isaac said. ‘You had spent time with a bikers’ gang. You would have witnessed violence, received it more than once. No doubt the occasional ritual, the slaying of other gangs’ members. Death didn’t concern you.’

‘You can’t prove that.’

‘Wendy, phone for a couple of uniforms from the local police station, cordon this place off.’

‘Gordon Windsor?’ Wendy said.

‘They can come down as soon as possible. For now, take hold of that rifle leaning up against the wall in the other room, put it into an evidence bag. We found the bullet, didn’t we?’

‘They did at the Shard. Are you saying…?’

‘That rifle fired the shot at Angus Simmons. That’s what I’m saying. Deborah Hampton, what about you?’

‘Mike wasn’t responsible for that woman’s death; you do know that? He never killed anyone.’

‘I do now.’

Wendy went out to the car, took an evidence bag from the boot. In the house, on her return, Deb looked at Wendy. ‘I did it for Mike, don’t you see?’

‘The uniforms?’ Isaac said.

‘Five minutes. I’m not pleased with this,’ Wendy said.

‘Nor am I.’

After another two hours, with Deb Hampton locked in a cell in Dorset and with Gordon Windsor and his team on their way down to check the house, Isaac and Wendy drove back to London. The arrested woman would be transferred to London the next day.

Jock, unable to comprehend the situation, returned to his farm, promising to come over the next day and check on the place.

***

Jerome Jaden did not appreciate the chief inspector’s attitude, and he wasn’t slow to let him know.

‘What are you accusing me of, Cook?’

‘I’m accusing you of duplicity. Of letting Tricia Warburton believe she was to be the star of a new show, even going so far as to present her with a contract, knowing full well that you had no intention of honouring the agreement.’

‘I didn’t kill her, did I?’

‘Indirectly, you did. Not that you’ll let your conscience get in the way. How much did you gain from her death? How much from Simmons’s?’

‘Nothing. They both hurt ratings.’

‘But now you’re running documentaries on the two of them, making out that your station stands for law and order, new programmes focussed on crime and the breakdown of society. Are more people watching your station? Is the advertising revenue up?’ Isaac asked.

‘I admit that I took the opportunity to bolster the revenue, lift the stock price in this company, and cover further losses. That’s not deceitful or malicious; that’s good business