‘How do you mean?’
‘Vincent Addison was completely unhinged but he appeared quite normal to his colleagues, well, reasonably so.’
‘That’s just your opinion. What would I base it on?’
The detective constable reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. ‘DCI Kane wanted you to take a look at this.’
‘So Kane sent you,’ accused Tom.
‘Nobody sent me. I came to talk to you about the Sean Donnellan case,’ and when Tom gave him a disbelieving look he held up his hands. ‘All right, Kane gave me the letter and asked me to show it to you when I saw you next. He knows we …’ and Bradshaw seemed to be searching for the correct phrase, ‘cooperated,’ he explained. ‘We found this at his home. He didn’t even hide it, just left it on a table for us in case anything happened to him.’
‘What is it?’
‘An explanation,’ and Bradshaw took the letter from the envelope and handed it to Tom, ‘of sorts.’
Tom took it gingerly, ‘but this is evidence isn’t it? I’m not supposed to see this,’
‘The man’s dead. There won’t be a trial. Just say it’s from a police source and leave it at that,’ he instructed Tom. ‘Kane’s already cleared it,’ he added, ‘at the highest level.’ Bradshaw avoided letting Tom know of his resentment at the way DCI Kane managed to get a leak to a journalist officially sanctioned, when his own unofficial leaks to Tom Carney had come so close to costing him everything.
‘You mean your top bosses know you are showing this to a journalist?’
‘They are not stupid people. The alternatives don’t play well for anyone.’
Tom opened the letter and was immediately struck by the erratic handwriting, which seemed to have been put down on the paper at speed and with some force.
He showed it to Helen and they read the letter together silently.
Vincent Addison’s words were a rambling, paranoid, delusional attack, on society in general and women in particular, whom he appeared to blame for all the troubles of the world. The letter was an unstructured diatribe, which quoted bible verse as a justification for his murders. Most strikingly, he seemed convinced that he wasn’t actually harming any of his victims, he felt sure he was saving them in fact.
‘I am not killing little girls,’ his spidery scrawl concluded at the foot of the page, ‘I am making angels. Suffer the little children to come unto me.’
When Tom had finished the letter, Bradshaw said, ‘Now you can see what we were up against.’
Tom was still contemplating the motives of a man who had murdered four terrified, little girls for nothing, so they could be transformed into angels. ‘He was a madman,’ he said. ‘All of this suffering because of a twisted belief in God.’
‘Much of the evil in the world is committed in the name of religion,’ the detective reminded him, ‘always has been, always will be.’
‘I’ll write a piece,’ Tom told him.
‘And your angle?’
‘That nobody could have spotted this delusional madness festering inside any man.’
Bradshaw thanked him. ‘I guess I’ll be seeing you around then,’ he told Tom before he left.
When he was gone, neither Helen nor Tom felt like talking for a while. Instead they sat on the bench watching as pedestrians and passing cars went by. Helen marvelled at the way the village just seemed to carry on. She knew it was ridiculous but somehow she wanted it to stop and collectively acknowledge the seismic events it had just witnessed. Instead the scene looked as calm and peaceful as ever.
She couldn’t have known it but, next to her, Tom was thinking too. He was struggling to find the right words. Tom knew Helen would soon announce that she had to be going and that, once the spell of working on this murder together had been broken, once the unreal bubble they had been encased in for days had burst, they might not have a cause to ever see each other again. Right now, for reasons he didn’t want to think too closely about, Tom was desperate to avoid that happening. He needed to explain to her that she was wrong to stick with this boyfriend who would never appreciate her or her career. He wanted to say that though he had no idea what his future would bring, he wanted her to be some part of it.
He also knew Helen well enough to realise that if he said any of this right now, she would panic. He’d be left feeling like an idiot while she swiftly disappeared from his life forever.
‘What?’ she asked him suddenly.
‘Nothing,’ he said, ‘I didn’t say anything.’
‘But what are you thinking?’ she prompted and she seemed a little nervous then, as if she was concerned at what he might say next.
‘I’m thinking,’ he began, ‘that after the day we just had, I could really use a drink,’ then he looked at her hopefully. ‘Can I buy you one?’
‘No,’ she told him firmly, ‘you can’t,’ and before he could protest she climbed to her feet. Just when he thought she was going to leave him sitting there on that bench all on his own, she stretched out a hand to him and said, ‘I’m buying you one. Come on.’
Acknowledgements
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Penguin Random House for their faith in this book. In particular I owe a massive debt to my editor, Emad Akhtar, for believing in No Name Lane and working tirelessly with me to improve it. It has been a pleasure grafting with him and we didn’t come to blows once.
I am lucky enough to be represented by the best literary agent in the UK, Phil Patterson at Marjacq. I would like to thank ‘Agent Phil’ for all of his help, good judgement and friendship over the years and for always believing in me. I would also like to thank Luke Speed at Marjacq for his hard work on film and TV options and Sandra Sawicka for her dedicated handling of foreign rights.
No Name Lane wouldn’t have been a Howard Linskey book without the fine judgement and attention to detail of Keshini Naidoo. Thanks for helping me get to the end, Keshini.
A special thanks to Ion Mills and everyone at No Exit Press for giving me a big break and exhibiting grace and class at every turn along the way. My thanks also to Peter Hammans and all at Droemer Knaur in Germany.
The very fine actor of both stage and screen, Dave Nellist, also deserves my gratitude and respect for bringing my work to life in the audio books.
I would like to thank the following for their help, kind words and faith, all of which sustained me during the years when a more sensible person would have given up entirely: Adam Pope, Andy Davis, Nikki Selden, Gareth Chennells, Andrew Local, Stuart Britton, David Shapiro, Peter Day, Tony Frobisher and Eva Dolan.
My lovely wife Alison has put up with my writing for years now, along with all the ups and downs that go with it and she never stopped believing I would make it into print. I couldn’t have completed this book without her unflagging support, for which I thank her wholeheartedly.
Finally, I must thank my wonderful daughter Erin, who makes me smile every day and turns my world into a much better place. Thanks for your love and very kind heart Erin. Your dad couldn’t have done this without you.
THE BEGINNING
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MICHAEL JOSEPH
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa
Michael Joseph is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published 2015
Copyright © Howard Linskey, 2015
Cover images: © Alamy, Arcangel; Getty Images; Silas Manhood; Trevillion.
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-718-18033-1
Table of Contents
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
CHAPTER FIFTY
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
CHAPTER SIXTY
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Acknowledgements
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