Chapter Fifteen

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The first thing Melissa did upon her return to the police station in Oakhurst, was put the kettle on. While she waited for it to boil, she made her way along the passage to the cell that held Oliver Ryder.

"I hear you've been behaving yourself," she said as she peered through the small viewing window in the door of the cell. "What's wrong? You ill?"

When more than half a minute passed without a response from the normally loudly vocal Oliver, Melissa changed tacks. "Do you want something to drink?"

Another half a minute ticked by before Oliver finally spoke," Stella."

It didn't surprise Melissa that Oliver would ask for something like that, it was in his nature to be a pain. She sighed and resisted the urge to swear. "You know I can't get you that, Oliver; you can't have alcohol in here. I can do you a cup of tea or coffee, or water – I think there might be a can of coke in the fridge, if you'd rather have that."

Oliver was tempted to tell Melissa where to go, and to hell with her offer of a drink. He knew, however, that if he did it would be hours before he was offered anything to drink again, and since he was already a little thirsty, he preferred not to give Melissa, or any of the other cops, a reason to leave him without refreshment.

"Coke then, and make sure it's cold," he couldn't resist adding.

"I'll do my best, but I can't promise anything," Melissa told him.

The kettle had boiled by the time she returned to the kitchen, and quickly she filled the three mugs she had prepared. Two of the mugs, she delivered to Mitchell and Constable Pritchard, while the third, she kept for herself. With the mug in one hand, and the last can of coke from the fridge in the other, Melissa headed back to Oliver.

"I'm very sorry, Oliver," she said sincerely when she had unlocked the cell and handed over the can. "Sergeant Mitchell and I have just come back from taking your uncle to town; he's confirmed that the body found this morning is your cousin, Georgina."

"No!" Oliver launched himself off the bed with a howl of anguish. Coke fountained from the can in his hand as he crushed it in his hand and then threw it aside. His eyes flashed angrily, his nostrils flared, and his hands clenched and unclenched themselves into fists as though they ached to be smashed into something or someone.

Melissa had always been frightened of Oliver Ryder – not so much of him as a person, but of the violence he was capable of when angry. She stood her ground, though, determined not to show what she was thinking or feeling, and sipped at her coffee in an outward show of calm that was almost betrayed by the minor trembling of her hand.

"It's okay, everything's fine, there's no need to panic," Melissa told her colleagues when they hurried along the passage to find out what was going on.

"You sure?" Mitchell asked, looking past Melissa and into the cell, where Oliver was pacing up and down, and swearing under his breath.

Melissa nodded. "It's fine, Oliver's just blowing off some steam, aren't you, Ollie," she said with a quick glance over at her shoulder at the pacing prisoner. "I just gave him the news about Georgina, and he's a little upset."

"Okay, well I'm just along the passage if you need me," Mitchell said. "You behave yourself, Oliver."

Melissa was trying to decide what to say next, and how to say it, when Oliver surprised her with a question.

"Have you arrested him yet?" he asked as he stopped his frenetic pacing to face Melissa with his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Perplexed, the mug in Melissa's hand froze on its way to her lips. "Arrested who?" she asked, though she realised straight away who he must be talking about.

"That psycho prick, Wright, who d'you think I mean?"

"No, we haven't arrested him, we have no reason to. What've you got against Kieran Wright?" Melissa wanted to know. "I know you think he's a prick, but I've never heard anyone else say anything bad about him, other than that he can be a bit full of himself, and you're just as bad there. Personally, I'd pick you as a murderer ahead of Kieran, especially after earlier."

"If you guys hadn't come, I'd have finished that asshole."

"Exactly. But why? You must have a reason for hating Kieran so much, and for thinking he killed your cousin. If you know something, you have to tell us," Melissa insisted. "This isn't just about Georgina, Ollie, Lucy's missing as well."

"What're you talking about?" Oliver surged to his feet again. "Why hasn't anyone told me Lucy's missing? How long's she been gone? What's happened to her?"

"If you hadn't acted like such an idiot earlier, racing off to attack Kieran the moment you were told about Georgina, you'd have found out then. It's part of what we wanted to talk to you about," Melissa told him. "Her mum reported her missing last night. Of course, we couldn't do anything then because she's sixteen, but her mum still hadn't seen or heard from her by this morning.

"After Georgina was discovered, we realised we had to take her absence seriously; so far we've discovered that the last time she was seen is yesterday afternoon, about two..."

"Let me guess, by Wright!" Oliver spat the name. "Can't you see, you should be arresting him, not standing here talking to me like it's any other time you've got me banged up. That sick bastard killed Georgie, and he's probably killed Lucy by now as well. I don't even wanna think about what he did to them before he killed them, the sick fuck!"

"What is your problem with him? Come on, what is it? There must be a reason for you to hate him so much."

"You wanna know what my problem with that asshole is. He's a rapist, that's my problem with the bastard, he's a fuckin' rapist!"

"Are you saying Kieran raped Georgina? When did this happen?"

"No, I don't know, maybe; she never said anything if he did. I'd've killed him already if she told me something like that."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"Lucy."

"Kieran raped Lucy?"

"As good as. He sure as hell tried to." Oliver's face darkened, and he punched one fist into the other palm, hard enough to make Melissa wince. "That's why she dumped his ass. He got her one night, up at the picnic area, when they were seeing each other. He tried it on, and when she said no, he attacked her.

"If she hadn't managed to get away, he'd've raped her." He saw the look on Melissa's face. "You don't believe Lucy would be seeing someone and not sleeping with them."

"Her reputation does make it difficult to accept."

Oliver gave her a look of amused bemusement. "Don't ask me to understand women, especially Lucy. She were with Wright for months, and wouldn't let him go further than copping a feel, but she jumped me the first night."

"Did she tell you Kieran tried to rape her? She never reported it to us. At least not that I heard, and I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about it if she had."

"Yeah, she told me, she told me after he attacked her the second time." As he spoke, Oliver rhythmically slammed his fist into his palm; a smacking sound gave testimony to the strength with which he did so. "He was seeing Georgie by then, but that didn't stop him when he saw Lucy walking home after he dropped Georgie off one night. He grabbed her, and tried to rape her again.

"She got away and bumped into me. I took her back to my place to calm her down, that's where she told me what happened, and that it weren't the first time."

"And that's when you attacked him." Melissa recalled the incident easily, she had gotten a black eye while trying to break up the fight. "Why didn't she tell her parents, or report it to us, the first time he attacked her?"

"Would you have believed her? You already mentioned her rep; you know what people think of her. I doubt anyone'd believe her over Wright. They'd just assume she was lying to cause trouble."

"So instead, she told you."

"Yeah. We'd hooked up a few times and started seeing each other when it happened, if that's what you want to call what we do. So, when I took her back to my place and calmed her down, she told me. She needed to tell someone, and knew her parents wouldn't listen, and you guys wouldn't believe her."

"And you decided the best way to deal with the situation was to find Kieran and attack him."

Oliver shrugged, as if it was what anyone else would have done in his place. "I knew it weren't worth looking for him that night, he would've been home by the time I got to him, and attacking him there were a stupid idea. He's got a shotgun, and so's his dad. I did it the next time I saw him in the village.

"He were just coming out o' the pub when I nailed him, and I nailed him good," he said, his satisfaction evident in his face and voice. "I would've finished the job if you guys hadn't come along and dragged me off him."

"It's just as well we did, if we hadn't, you'd be in jail now for murder."

"Better that than leaving him alive to do whatever he did to Georgie and Lucy. I'd have gone to jail happily, if it kept Georgie alive. So, are you gonna arrest that bastard now?"

"That's not up to me," Melissa told him. "It's up to Sergeant Mitchell. I'll tell him what you've said. I'm sure he'll want to talk to you about it later. I know he was planning on talking to you anyway. He'll be the one who decides who we arrest."

"If you don't arrest that prick for what he's done, I swear to God, I'll fucking kill him the next time I see him."

"So, you don't think we should pay any attention to what Oliver said." Melissa's voice was disapproving. "You think we should just ignore him."

"I didn't say that," Mitchell said, pausing in the act of getting out of the car. "I just don't think we can do anything, when all we have are the suspicions of a guy we know has a problem with Kieran. We have absolutely no reason for thinking Kieran's responsible for Georgina's murder, other than Oliver's accusation. It's not like Kieran has a history of violence, nor has anyone complained to us about his behaviour.

"If Lucy had come to us, or even told her parents what Kieran supposedly did, or tried to do, we might be able to do something with it, but it's an accusation made by someone we know has no problem lying to us, against someone we know he can't stand. For all we know. Oliver could be trying to cause trouble for Kieran, just to be a pain in the ass."

"Maybe," Melissa agreed. "But it could also explain why Ollie's attacked Kieran three times in the last month, when he's barely paid any attention to him before. And Ollie explained why Lucy didn't come to us or tell her parents, she didn't think she'd be believed, or that we'd do anything about it, though I'd like to think we'd have looked into it, even if we weren't convinced she was telling the truth."

"Of course we would," Mitchell said quickly. "We'd investigate any accusation, no matter what it was, or who made it." With that he got out of the car and started up the path, signalling that he was done discussing the matter.

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