Kerry Wilkinson
DS JESSICA DANIEL SERIES: BOOKS 1-3
PAN BOOKS
CONTENTS
Locked In
Vigilante
The Woman in Black
Afterword
Author biography
Copyright page
KERRY WILKINSON
LOCKED IN
PAN BOOKS
Locked In Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
THREE DAYS AGO
The killer used a gloved hand to try the front-door handle one final time and make sure it was locked. The back door and windows had already been checked and there was definitely no way in – a good thing considering the body was already dead on the bed upstairs.
Now the first part was complete, the months of careful planning that led to this night finally seemed worth it. Getting into a locked house and back out again wasn’t simple on the surface but, once the idea had been struck upon, everything had happened so easily.
The hardest part had been the final act. Until the moment the life had been choked out of the victim, the killer hadn’t been sure they could actually complete the deed. Murdering someone wasn’t easy but it had been necessary.
There was no regret, no feelings of anything really. The victim certainly deserved it, as would the others to come.
1
Jessica Daniel screwed her eyes tightly shut and thought about how much she hated morning people. For some, the dawn sun spilling through ridiculously thin curtains would herald a bright new day full of opportunity but, for her, it was just a reminder she still hadn’t asked her landlord to fix some better blinds.
Admitting she had lost the battle to stay asleep, she fumbled around for her mobile phone on the table next to the bed. It was always the first point of call in the morning, if only to remind her how little she had going on in her life. She opened her eyes slowly and struggled with the device’s unlock button, before bashing away at the supposedly touch-screen front. It only seemed to function to any great degree if your definition of ‘touch’ was actually ‘poke very hard until it does what you want’.
She had no texts, no missed calls and the only emails were ones offering her enhancements she definitely wouldn’t be needing without far more invasive and complicated surgery first.
Marvellous.
Jessica went to put the phone back on the nightstand but, before she could, it started to ring. She cursed herself for setting the ringtone to some upbeat pop tune she didn’t even like; the chirpy song really wasn’t suitable for this time of the morning. Her eyes were still seeing a hazy grey around the edges but the caller ID clearly showed Detective Inspector Jack Cole’s name. Jessica looked across at the digital alarm clock next to the bed which flashed 06.51. She was pretty sure it was a Saturday too, which made things worse.
She had been promoted to detective sergeant eight weeks ago and calls like this were something she knew she was going to have to get used to. When people were in a more junior position they could often get away with working regular shifts. Early-morning wake-up calls could now be expected more often.
‘Hello,’ Jessica said into her phone, trying not to sound too groggy.
Cole didn’t sound much more awake than she did, which at least didn’t mark him down as a morning person either. He told her ‘something big’ had happened but he wasn’t completely sure of the details and tried to give her an address.
She would happily have described herself as messy and disorganised but the one thing she had remembered to do in the past two months was keep a pad and pen next to her bed for a moment like this. Cole started to give her the details and she tried to write them down. At first she thought her eyes were still struggling with the early hour but then realised her confusion was down to the fact the pen wasn’t working.
‘Hang on, hang on,’ she said irritably, opening the drawer underneath her nightstand just in case there was a spare pen there.
There wasn’t.
It was typical that even when she had gone out of her way to be organised, things didn’t quite work out. She asked the inspector to send her a text message with the details instead and then hung up.
Cole was Jessica’s immediate superior and had been promoted at the same time she had. She had always got on fine with him when they had been in more junior roles. He was a decent guy but perhaps a bit too nice. He was about as normal a bloke as you could ever meet; one of those people whose descriptions you hated when taking statements from a witness. He was average height and weight, with sensible short brown hair and always wore regular unassuming clothes. He didn’t wear glasses or sport any distinguishing scars or facial hair. Even his voice was exactly as you would expect.