Sally frowned; his moods swung the more she challenged him. One minute, she thought he was being helpful and compliant; the next, she felt he was toying with her, dangling a carrot just within her grasp. He might have been exhibiting a severe bout of psychotic behaviour. She pushed on regardless, determined to force him to admit her accusations were correct. “Go on, admit I’m right.”
He winked at her. “And save you the job of figuring out if you’ve hit the nail on the head? Nah, not going to happen, Inspector.”
Sally leaned back and crossed her arms and reiterated what she’d surmised so far. “Let’s see. Dorling wronged you when you were friends. He also told us that you asked him for a supply of sperm because of your impotency.” His eyes narrowed. “Oops, sorry, wrong word. Your infertility. Let me know if I get anything wrong, won’t you?”
“I will.”
“So, you’ve had his sperm on standby for years just so you could eventually pluck up the courage to put your vindictive plan into action. Is that right? Or was it genuinely so you could father more kids. Although why still confuses the hell out of me. But then serial killers aren’t known to think things through thoroughly. They have a tendency to attack first and ask questions later. That’s how most of them slip up.”
He remained silent, staring at her.
Then something changed. The more she repeated the accusations, the more he squirmed in his seat.
“But your new wife was desperate to have a child, wasn’t she? Did she know you had a stash on standby at the fertility clinic?”
“No!”
“So, the trigger has to be Michael’s ill-health.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “You blamed him for your son’s deteriorating health, didn’t you?”
Liddell’s jaw moved from side to side.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” She smiled and winked as his cheeks flared in rage.
“You think you’re so damned clever, but I’m the one who achieved the satisfaction of seeing that fucker go to prison.”
“Is that all that matters to you? You have no intention of showing any kind of remorse for your victims in the slightest? Dorling isn’t even going to prison.”
“And I would have got away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for the last one.”
Sally nodded and agreed with him. “You’re probably right. Shit happens, eh?”
“There’ll be others,” he mumbled under his breath.
She slammed her fisted hand onto the table to gain his attention and glared. “No, there won’t.” Her voice had risen, and he flinched. “Even if you hired the best defence you could afford, I’m going to ensure you spend the rest of your worthless life behind bars. No one deserves to have their life terminated because of another sick person’s pointless vendetta. No one.”
“The women all enjoyed it. They revelled in the interest I showed them that others failed to do. Not to mention the mind-blowing sex I bestowed upon them.”
“Bestowed upon them? Are you for real?”
“You had to be there, Inspector. It was definitely consensual. No woman can resist my charms.”
She refused to feed his over-inflated ego, so she ended the interview with a deflating shot. “Delusional until the last minute. Now, why am I not surprised by that? Expert research shows that serial killers are mostly delusional and lacking in virility.” She had no idea if that was true or not, but she enjoyed the put-down, nevertheless.
He laughed, a moronic laugh that reverberated around the room. Sally thanked the solicitor for attending then instructed the PC to return Liddell to his cell.
Back in the incident room, Sally instructed the team to continue to dig into Liddell’s background, scraping together every last morsel of evidence they could pin on him, determined not to let him get away with his crimes. Then she turned to Jack. “I have one last visit I need to make today, and I’d like you to join me. But first, I have to go tell the DCI we’ve cracked the case.”
The DCI congratulated Sally and asked her to pass on his appreciation to the team, which she did while instructing the team to go home for the evening. All except Jack.
He seemed bemused as he followed her out of the station. They drove the short distance in silence.
He uttered a single word when they pulled up outside her old house. “Ah!”
She winked at him, regretting the action due to the pain still emanating from her bruised socket. “I hope you’ve got your cuffs handy?”
Darryl was surprised to see them standing on the doorstep when he opened the door. He looked dishevelled, as if they’d interrupted his nap. Sally hoped it wasn’t anything else, like having another woman in the house. Then she chastised herself for thinking such a thing. Who he shagged shouldn’t have mattered to her. “What are you doing here?”
Sally watched him survey his handiwork with a twinkle in his eye. “One hit too many, Darryl. Jack, arrest this man for assault please.”
Darryl tried to slam the door in Jack’s face, but Jack pushed the door with such force that Darryl ended up flat on his back on the hallway floor. “Don’t fight the inevitable, shithead. Cowards never prosper.”
Sally let out a relieved sigh after Jack placed her cuffed ex-hubby in the back of the car. “Is it really over, Jack? Can I truly begin to live once more?”
“You can, boss. Hey, if he resists arrest once we get to the station, I’ll take pleasure in knocking seven bells out of him.”
“I doubt that’s going to happen, do you? He seemed to accept his fate.”
“I’d say he had little choice in the matter, considering the incriminating evidence. You’re well rid of him.”
“Yeah, I know. It was Liddell’s arrogance that prompted me to finally concede Darryl needed to be punished for his actions. In Darryl I could see the same arrogance running through him that runs through Liddell. Oh, I’m not saying that he would go on to mimic him in other ways, like setting out to kill. The thing is, I wasn’t prepared to take the risk.”
Jack nodded. “I wish more women had the courage to do what you’ve just done.”
“So do I. Let’s get him back to the station and charge him. I know two people who will support me in my actions today.”
“Yep, I know that you’ve just made your mother and father very proud.”
Sally grinned and nodded. Yes, I sure did.
THE END
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CRUEL JUSTICE (Justice #1)
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