Keeper by Johana Gustawsson

Author:Johana Gustawsson [Johana Gustawsson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912374069
Publisher: Orenda Books Ltd
Published: 2018-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Paddington Station, London

Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 11 am

EMILY STARTED THE CAR and motioned for Alexis to hurry as she lugged her suitcase into the boot. Alexis fell into the passenger seat with barely a word of greeting.

Emily had called Alexis the previous morning. She hadn’t mentioned their falling-out at Falkenberg Police Station a few days earlier, but had made a proposal that had left Alexis lost for words.

The writer had immediately bought a ticket to London and told Stellan and her parents she was leaving, with no room for discussion. That hadn’t prevented her mother from sharing her opinion at great length. This meet-the-parents visit had quickly taken on the air of a stage drama and Alexis had closed the door leaving three worried faces behind her. She had to resolve this whole affair once and for all. File it away. Bury the past that was weighing down her present.

She was on her way to meet Richard Hemfield at the Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital. He wanted to apologise. Apologise. An initiative that owed more to his sense of voyeurism than actual repentance, she reckoned. It didn’t take a degree in psychology to figure that out. Still, the information she gleaned would allow Emily to fine-tune her profile and further the investigation, whichever direction it might lead them in. Even if they had conflicting opinions about Hemfield’s guilt, Alexis had to play the game.

‘We’ve got the lab results,’ the profiler told her, without taking her eyes off the road. ‘The DNA found in Maria Paulsson’s and Julianne Bell’s socks is identical to that found in Jeanine Sanderson’s, the first Tower Hamlets victim.’

I know who Jeanine Sanderson is, Emily. I know her height, her weight, her mother’s maiden name and the shoes she was wearing when Hemfield took her. Gold faux-leather ballet flats.

Alexis swallowed her anger before she opened her mouth.

‘You already suspect Hemfield wasn’t responsible for the Tower Hamlets murders, don’t you?’

‘It appears he might not have been,’ Emily replied.

‘Don’t you think he might have had an accomplice, at least?’

Alexis turned to look at the profiler, waving her hands in front of her face in line with her mounting anger.

‘I just don’t understand, Emily. I can’t wrap my head around your reaction or the way you’re going about this! I can’t believe it… you’re in complete denial. I just hope you’re following your own rule of thumb that the theories should fit the facts, and not the other way around.’

The sound of Alexis’s high-pitched voice filled the car like the kind of music you wished you could turn off.

Emily didn’t react. Her body was relaxed, her movements fluid. She was cool and controlled, as if she hadn’t heard a word Alexis had said.

‘I’m considering and exploring every single possibility,’ she finally said in a calm tone of voice, once Alexis had simmered down.

Alexis shook her head and twisted her lips in resentment. She was almost looking forward to getting to the psychiatric hospital.

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