Chapter 61
Sixty-One
Gina
Gina’s stomach rolled as she thought of O’Connor in hospital.
There had been the slightest of pulses when the paramedics had treated him and then he’d been rushed to Cleevesford General.
Gina had called Mrs O over and over again, but there had been no answer.
She was away and had no idea that her husband had been stabbed in the neck while on duty, while she slept soundly in another country.
Edwin Hammond sat opposite her with his young male solicitor next to him. Jacob introduced them all for the tape.
Gina stared at him, wanting nothing more than to jump over the table and stab him in the neck with her pen so he could suffer like O’Connor had.
She clenched that pen tightly and prodded her pad with the tip.
Jacob leaned back, ready to take notes. The muscles on his temples twitched as he ground his teeth.
Gina traced the scratches on her face. She’d been slapped by branches, every muscle hurt from giving chase and diving through the air to bring Edwin down but her heart hurt more because she had no idea if she’d ever see kind, loveable Harry O’Connor again.
She wanted to cry for Harry and kill Edwin at the same time.
A flashback to Terry lying at the bottom of the stairs as she finished him off lingered in her mind.
It never went away and she knew why. Mens rea – the Latin for guilty mind.
She’d had one of those then and she had one now.
Her hands itched to strangle their perp with her bare hands.
Thankfully for her she managed to contain that feeling by strangling her damn pen instead.
She threw the pen to the table before relaying the details of Edwin Hammond’s arrest to him.
‘You’ve been arrested for the murders of Mindy Carson and Claudia Forster.
For the attempted murders of Dustin Fuller and DC Harold O’Connor.
’ She struggled to carry on. From what she’d been told, Dustin was likely to never be able to even feed himself again and wouldn’t know who he was when or if he came round.
Harry, her lovely friend Harry. She hoped with all her heart he’d pull through.
She bumbled through the rest of the charges. Kidnap… false imprisonment.
‘My client has a statement he wants me to read out and that’s all he has to say for the time being.’ The solicitor yawned.
Gina let out a long slow breath. It might be three in the morning, but the interview ploughed on. Edwin Hammond looked into his lap as the solicitor cleared his throat. The standard issue grey tracksuit was tight over his arm muscles. He’d overpowered all his victims with ease.
The moment she saw him at Ursula’s salon, he’d come across as such a gentle person, a man who cared, a man who loved his dog and wanted to help Ursula. He’d provided a witness statement, lying through his teeth with conviction.
The solicitor started. ‘The following words are all my own in the order I wanted to say them. I confess to all that you’ve accused me of and I can only say that they deserved it.
I picked up where you and society failed.
The justice system lets bad people off all the time.
Mindy, Dustin and Claudia ruined my life. I didn’t mean to hurt your colleague.’
Didn’t mean to hurt him. She knew how much strength and effort it would have taken to drive the knife through Harry’s neck.
‘His name is Harry. He has a wife and he is a much-loved member of our team. He’s a gentle soul and…
’ Gina stopped herself before she snapped.
She had to keep it professional for Edwin to have his moment in court.
Edwin wiped a tear away and continued looking into his lap.
The solicitor continued. ‘You wondered how I did some things. I set up Mindy to be harassed by the watchers on OpenMeSmiler. Her back window had been broken when I started so I got in easily, stole the back-door key and got it cut. I knew you’d soon catch up with me so I planted the chains and Jackson’s wallet at one of his projects to try to frame him.
I don’t feel bad. His son had shared photos of a girl, ruining her life and Jackson had stuck up for his son. They deserved what they got.
‘It was all me and I’m relieved to be able to confess. I’ve carried my hurt for so long, I’m ready to let it go.’ The solicitor paused for a breath. ‘Dustin was the easiest. He came to me with barely any threats.
‘I trained as a locksmith before studying IT at uni. Getting in and out of houses was easy. I planted cameras everywhere. I set up OpenMeSmiler. It was all my work. As for Claudia, she was the reason I had to leave school. She set me back in life by distributing my naked photos to everyone at school. You will see a meme of me online if you search for it. However hard I tried to take it down, it hasn’t worked.
It keeps coming back with another hurtful slogan.
I’ve had to live with this for years.’ The solicitor paused and then continued reading.
‘I saw Mindy pop up online last year. I blackmailed her. I took the cash and I thought that would be it but she moved back to Cleevesford just as I did when my mum needed a bit of help due to illness, and all I could think of was getting back at those who ruined my life. I soon realised that Mindy, and Ursula’s husband Spencer, were humiliating Ursula and I grew to love Ursula.
She was kind to help Mindy and I loved her dog.
I also had a Yorkshire terrier growing up. ’
The solicitor continued. ‘Ursula knew nothing but I did tip her off that her husband was having an affair with Mindy. I felt close to her because I knew what it felt like to be humiliated. She didn’t deserve that.
’ The solicitor paused and sipped water from a paper cup.
‘They took all my humanity from me. They made me the person I am today. I’m not proud of that person but the hurt, anger and need for revenge won.
Only now do I feel at peace and I know that the cost for that peace is my freedom.
’ The solicitor pressed his lips together for a few seconds and drank more water.
‘I am truly sorry to one of the people I hurt. I didn’t mean to stab DC O’Connor.
He came at me so fast and I just reacted.
I will not even try to defend myself in court.
I’m pleading guilty. I did it and I want to pay for what I did to him and I pray he will pull through, not because the charge will change but because I know he didn’t deserve what I did to him. That is not who I am. He hurt no one.’
Edwin began sobbing into his hands, loud deep sobs.
Gina felt the room closing in on her. Her heart banged, her chest pricked as it burned up and her knuckles itched to turn the table over.
The conflict within was eating her up. She hated what Mindy, Dustin and Claudia had done to Edwin as a vulnerable teen but all she could think of was Harry’s bleeding body on the pavement as paramedics had worked to resuscitate him.
How could a person feel sick, angry, heartbroken, pity for the perp, rage against the same perp?
She hated people, she hated society. It was sick and justice didn’t always get served up right.
As a police department, they could only do their bit and sometimes perps got off, sometimes juries let perps off, sometimes judges made poor decisions.
Life sometimes sucked. Her mind whirred with everything, all at once, and all she wanted to do was scream but she sat there, in silence, holding everything in as she waited for more, just a little bit more.
The solicitor continued. ‘I couldn’t let that be the end.
There are so many bad people out there which is why I’ve hopefully left a better world behind, one where the bullies and abusers live in fear and think twice about their actions.
Bad people look out for other bad people because they see a shared darkness in their hearts and that is something that can never be changed.
Just look at who runs the world and who has all the power.
No good person ever fairly took that power.
I tried to change that. I want those who aim to hurt to be the ones looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.
I want them to feel the constant burn of humiliation. ’
The solicitor turned the page and cleared his throat. ‘I hope my statement has helped. That is all I have to say. The ending to this will be revealed.’
There was more? ‘What ending?’ Gina stared at him but he continued to stare into his lap. ‘What ending?’ she shouted.
Edwin looked up and wiped his reddened eyes with the back of his arm and smiled. ‘Operation Big Picture.’