Nine Lives by Anita Waller (best english books to read .txt) 📗

wife of a senior police officer, and a woman to be admired and respected.

‘Victoria Urland,’ Flick said, and briefly waved the picture in front of Frannie.

‘Ah, beautiful mummy Vic,’ she said. ‘She still had her pregnancy roundness. I knew what time she was going to her bonfire so I was conveniently outside her parents’ house to pick her up. She’d been in The Coffee Pot the day before, with the baby, and we’d chatted. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t pre-planned. I offered to drop her off at the civic bonfire, told her I was going to a friend’s bonfire. I think she fancied me, and she jumped at the offer of a change of venue. She was dead within half an hour.’

Flick could see Ian’s hands clenched, his knuckles white. He was reaching boiling point.

Ian spoke for the first time. ‘Did you touch them?’

‘What?’

‘Don’t act innocent. Did you touch them?’

Frannie laughed at his discomfort and aggression. ‘You can’t raise an orgasm in a dead body, Ian.’

Ian stood and slammed his hand down on the table. Flick touched his arm, and he slowly returned to his seat.

‘Answer DC Thomas’s question, please.’

‘Maybe,’ Frannie smirked. ‘They were all so beautiful…’

Flick took a deep breath; like Ian, she was struggling to control her temper. She actually wanted to grab this woman again by the hair, and slam her face into the tabletop. Instead, she said, ‘Propofol. We found your stash. Where did you get it from?’

‘An American website. You can get anything from the States. But you know that already, don’t you, you’ll have checked the vials from the fridge, without a doubt.’

Flick gathered up her file and both officers stood.

‘Is that it?’ Frannie asked.

‘No. Interview suspended. DS Ardern and DC Thomas leaving the room.’ She switched off the tape.

Leaning slightly towards a bewildered-looking Frannie, she said, ‘We’ll be back for you later to talk about the others. Probably tomorrow. We’ll maybe let you have a shower after that.’

The tension in the briefing room was palpable. Nobody wanted to go home, nobody could raise a smile, and when Flick and Ian walked in all talk stopped.

Flick moved to the front and turned to face the team. ‘She’s admitting to everything. We’ve only covered our five girls so far, but she’s given us everything we’ve asked, and this one isn’t going in front of any jury. She’s refused legal representation. We have to get our heads around the twenty-fourteen questions now, so that’s it for tonight. Thank you, everybody. I realise it’s hard to wind down after the events of yesterday, and I’ll be speaking to the DI tonight. Eight o’clock tomorrow, everybody, and not a moment earlier.’

Without exception, every member of the team asked her to pass a message of support on to Erica, and Flick smiled through it, aching inside. What she was doing should have been Erica’s job, she should have been the one to put this evil woman away for life. Instead, she was going to have to live with the stares and finger-pointing for the rest of her own life, and it simply wasn’t fair. Nobody on the team had seen this coming at all.

Flick and Ian seated themelves across from Frannie. Ian spoke their names into the recorder and immediately Frannie spoke.

‘There are four others.’

‘We know. Leanne Fraser, Lucy Owen.’ Flick hesitated as she glanced down at her notes.

‘Laurel Price and the beautiful Lilith Baker-Jones.’ Frannie smiled as she said the names.

Flick stared at her. ‘You have no remorse? You killed nine women, all at the beginning of their lives, for what?’

Frannie shrugged. ‘I can’t help it. I’ve always known one day I would be caught and then my memories will have to be the only things I have left. I tried. I battled my feelings for two years before I killed Leanne Fraser. Give me my statement to sign, or whatever you need to do, and let’s get it over with. I can spare Erica any court appearances. I’m settled; it’s over for me.’

Flick closed her folder, and stood. ‘Before we switch off, tell me the only thing that you’ve not touched on. Why did you wait five years? Why did you suppress these feelings that you say you have inside you, for five years, because I can tell you now, Frannie, you’re going to face an awful lot of psychoanalysis before they decide whether you’ll serve a prison sentence or whether you need to be somewhere more suitable for your particular proclivities. Either way, I’m sure they’ll keep you isolated from the pretty young girls.’

Frannie heaved a sigh. ‘That’s fairly simple. What I’m going to say next is the last thing I’ll say, because now is the time for me to take what’s coming and to live with my thoughts. They’ll find some medication to suppress what they will call “my urges”, and likely as not stick me in some psychiatric unit until I die. I stopped the killing in twenty-fourteen because something happened to me that was so profound it changed me. It changed me for five years but my true self has surfaced again, and I’ve had to accept who I really am. The thing that changed me five years ago was I fell in love with intended victim number five.’

Epilogue

Two months later

Erica sat on the bench and stared out to sea, wondering if it was safe to return to Sheffield. As soon as news had broken of the identity of the killer, her home had been inundated with press, and she had quickly driven Beth to her own house, gone back, packed a bag and escaped.

She hadn’t had a destination in mind, and had pulled up, blinded by tears, in a layby in Derbyshire, wondering what the hell she was doing. She had rung her Super and explained the situation at home, trying to stifle sobs, and he had calmed her down.

‘I have a cottage in Whitby, and we won’t be going there until it’s considerably warmer than this,