Chapter Seventy-Nine
Josie
I’ve somehow known, since the day Gil showed me the birthday card, that Joanna Neal is still alive. But my suspicions that she had staged her own kidnapping were entirely wrong.
Then, one day, Gil calls me to her flat and there, alive and well, is Joanna Neal, along with two men. One she introduces as Neville Logan and the other is her father, Donald.
‘Stuart King kidnapped me,’ Joanna tells us.
‘There may have been someone else involved, but I didn’t see them.
I managed to get out one day when someone came to the door.
King panicked and rushed down, so I was able to stop the door from slamming shut.
It was then that I saw his face. He got me down to the basement again.
I knew then that I would never be released.
Luckily, on the night he planned to kill me, Mr Logan came with the new pool cover. ’
At this point, Neville Logan chips in. ‘Joanna had said they wouldn’t be moving in until the pool was fixed, so I thought the house would be empty and used my key. There were lights around the pool, and I figured it wouldn’t take long to attach the new cover.’
‘Where was King?’ asks Burrow.
‘He was being oddly nice to me that evening,’ says Joanna.
‘He bought fish and chips and a bottle of wine. Perhaps because he knew it was my last night alive. Then we heard someone come into the house. King panicked and rushed down, giving me time to grab the door. I thought it was Danny and the police, as I couldn’t think of anyone else who would have a key.
I screamed for Danny, but got no reply. I was cautious.
I took the wine bottle as a weapon. When I got upstairs, I saw King attacking Nev with a hammer.
That’s how Nev got his shoulder injury. I managed to hit King over the head with the wine bottle.
We then tied him to a chair, and he told us that Danny… ’
She begins to cry, and I hand her a tissue. I feel she is lying, but I have no way to prove it.
‘King said Daniel Neal had organised the kidnapping. King was supposed to let her go after the second ransom drop,’ says Logan. ‘But she saw King’s face, and I guess Neal was afraid that King would put him in it.’
‘Neville saved her life,’ says Donald. ‘I should have known that gobshite was behind it.’
‘Why didn’t you phone the police right away?’ asks Burrow.
Joanna sighs. ‘I was hurt and angry that Danny could do that to me. I wanted to be able to prove it, but King had a heart attack, and so the only way was to confront Danny myself. I wanted him to think everything had gone as he’d planned.’
‘Bit risky, wasn’t it?’ says Burrow.
‘No,’ she replies sharply. ‘He wouldn’t have had the guts to hurt me himself.’
Burrow stands up. ‘So you feel sure he’s left the country?’
She nods.
‘I’ll get Interpol to look into it. We may be able to trace him.’
I turn to Logan. ‘If you don’t mind giving us a sample, we can check your blood against the DNA of the blood found in the garage and van.’
‘Of course.’
Burrow indicates that we should leave.
‘What do you think?’ he asks me, once we are in the car.
‘I think she’s protecting Logan, but from what, I don’t know.’
‘I agree.’
‘We have enough here,’ he says, rustling a handful of printouts, ‘to prove Daniel Neal was behind the whole thing. Joanna Neal is alive and well. Case closed.’
There was nothing I could do but agree.