Twisted Read online

  TWISTED

  Also by Lynda La Plante

  Wrongful Death

  Backlash

  Blood Line

  Blind Fury

  Silent Scream

  Deadly Intent

  Clean Cut

  The Red Dahlia

  Above Suspicion

  The Legacy

  The Talisman

  Bella Mafia

  Entwined

  Cold Shoulder

  Cold Blood

  Cold Heart

  Sleeping Cruelty

  Royal Flush

  Prime Suspect

  Seekers

  She’s Out

  The Governor

  The Governor II

  Trial and Retribution

  Trial and Retribution II

  Trial and Retribution III

  Trial and Retribution IV

  Trial and Retribution V

  First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2014

  A CBS COMPANY

  Copyright © Lynda La Plante 2014

  This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

  No reproduction without permission.

  ® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

  The right of Lynda La Plante to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

  1st Floor

  222 Gray’s Inn Road

  London WC1X 8HB

  www.simonandschuster.co.uk

  Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

  Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  HB ISBN: 978-1-47112-587-4

  TPB ISBN: 978-1-47112-588-1

  EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-47112-591-1

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Typeset by M Rules

  Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

  This novel is for a caring, dedicated doctor, a wonderful husband and father. His three sons and five grandchildren will always remember his generous, loving spirit and wonderful humour.

  My last memory is seeing him surrounded by his beloved family in his new panama hat. My proud, brave brother, Michael Reid Titchmarsh, may you rest in peace.

  Acknowledgements

  Twisted was a difficult journey and one that required in-depth research from psychologists, who guided me through the various medical issues. My thanks and respect to the doctors and specialists who gave me their time and expertise. To Gillian Gordon for lending me volumes of medical journals and for giving me great insight into the specific medical conditions depicted in the novel. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to Callum Sutherland for his constant support and research, both in the police procedures and the editing. He is such a dedicated man with a genuine, thorough patience and an ability to ensure that I get the facts correct. I have been fortunate to have Susan Opie again to do the final edit, and as always I thank her for her enthusiasm and brilliant notes and suggestions.

  I have a terrific team at Simon & Schuster, and would like to thank in particular Suzanne Baboneau and Ian Chapman; James Horobin and his amazing sales team; Dawn Burnett and Jamie Groves for marketing; Simon & Schuster International sales team, all my friends at S&S Australia; Jonathan Ball in South Africa; Simon and Gill Hess in Ireland – I look forward to seeing you all soon. My gratitude to all other departments, who work so hard to design my book jackets and produce the finished books.

  Thank you to my dear literary agent, Gill Coleridge, who has guided and advised my career for so many years, and to Cara Jones of RCW; and to Stephen Ross, Dan Ross and Andrew Bennet-Smith at Ross, Bennet-Smith for their support and financial guidance.

  I also want to express my sincere thanks to Nigel Stoneman, who has guided all the publicity and promotions for my novels for many years. Nigel’s constant support, enthusiasm and generous spirit makes life on the road a pleasure. Also, thanks to Tory Macdonald who is my personal assistant and a jewel I am fortunate to have beside me.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 1

  It was the first dinner party Lena Fulford had agreed to attend since the separation from her husband. She was eager to show off her new image, although she couldn’t help a shiver of trepidation at being on her own. She had chosen to wear a new, and very expensive, figure-hugging Ralph Lauren white cocktail dress. Her thick blonde shoulder-length hair was loose and she’d made sure her makeup was perfect by going to the beauty salon that afternoon. She had decided to take herself to the dinner party, and she felt more in control by doing so. However, she began to doubt her decision as there was not a parking space to be found on Richmond Hill. After having to go past her host’s house twice, in frustration she decided to leave her car in the guests’ area at the Richmond Hill Hotel. From there she walked to the Berkoffs’ house, which was midway up the hill. Nervously she clutched her small white bag and flushed with embarrassment when the hostess opened the front door and shrieked.

  ‘Oh my goodness, JUST look at you!’ Maria Berkoff was her usual theatrical self.

  She was a large overweight woman, which was accentuated by her tight red evening dress. But her hair was well-coiffed, and she wore chandelier drop earrings along with a multitude of pearl necklaces.

  ‘Lena, you look absolutely stunning, darling, and you seem taller than I remember. I might need a divorce so I can get to slim down and look so good – you must have lost pounds.’

  ‘Marcus and I are not divorced quite yet, and I think the weight loss is down to all the stress.’ Lena gave a small smile.

  ‘Oh how awful, but I thought it was all very amicable?’

  ‘It is, but I have been so busy organizing a new children’s themed party business, designing toys and—’

  ‘Really,’ an uninterested Maria said as she turned away.

  ‘I’ve called it Kiddy Winks. It’s been exhausting having to deal with all the hire of new staff and—’

  ‘Oh Kiddley Winks – what a super name.’

  ‘It’s Kiddy—’ Lena started to say before Maria interrupted.

  ‘The Middletons have had the most fantastic success running just the same sort of thing, so I’m certain yours will be strong competition. Now come and have a glass of champagne and let me introduce you to everyone. I think you have met most of them be
fore at some time or other.’

  Lena followed Maria into a large glass conservatory, where numerous well-heeled guests were gathered. Maria’s portly and effusive husband Sasha hurried to hand her a drink.

  ‘How lovely to see you, Lena! We do miss old Marcus, he was always the life and soul of our little events. How is the old chap doing?’

  ‘He was very well the last time I spoke with him,’ Lena assured him.

  ‘Good, and what about that daughter of yours – Angie, is it?’

  ‘No, Amy; she’s doing very well and enjoying boarding school.’

  ‘Jolly good, now let me introduce you to a very dear friend – he used to play squash with your husband, thrashed him regularly.’

  Lena found it all completely excruciating, even more so as everyone was eager to know how Marcus was doing and repeatedly told her how much he was missed. Although she had met most of the Berkoffs’ guests before she had always been accompanied by her husband on such occasions. Now she had to endure being the focus of everyone’s attention simply because she was single. At dinner Lena found herself seated next to a much younger man and had to put up with Maria, always delighted with an excuse to gossip, giggling that perhaps her glamorous looks were down to her finding a ‘toy boy’.

  Lena was infuriated and said curtly that she had no interest in forming any new relationship.

  ‘My latest business is my priority right now,’ she added.

  ‘Just teasing, darling, you are such a clever lady and very successful,’ Maria said as dinner was served.

  For Lena it was three courses of substandard tasteless offerings, made worse by having to listen to one guest after another recalling previous evenings when Marcus had held court. He was a great storyteller, often with self-deprecating anecdotes about himself and his failed business ventures. The fact that Lena had invariably financed his thwarted attempts at success was never acknowledged. Being attractive, and somewhat vain, Marcus always relished the attention, and would have enjoyed listening to everyone repeating how much he was missed.

  ‘So will you be staying on in that gorgeous house?’ Maria asked.

  ‘I’m not sure, we haven’t discussed or finalized anything as yet.’

  ‘So where is that ex of yours living?’ Sasha asked, pouring himself some wine, and then proffering the bottle to Lena for a refill.

  ‘He has rented a flat in Mayfair from a friend who is abroad,’ she said and placed her hand politely over her wine glass. ‘I’m driving so I will just stick to water thank you, Sasha.’

  ‘Mayfair! Well do pass on our warmest regards, and email us his address. He never answers his mobile or the messages I leave him, and Maria and I would love to see him.’

  ‘I think he has a new number, and I’ll remind him to call you,’ Lena managed to promise politely.

  At the earliest opportunity after coffee and mints, she excused herself, saying that she had a business meeting scheduled for early the next morning.

  ‘What, on a Sunday?’ Maria demanded loudly.

  Lena flushed and explained that due to the success of Kiddy Winks she needed every spare moment to deal with the ever growing sales and orders for more stock. The by now rather drunk Sasha guided her to the front door, his sweating hand clasping her elbow and moving to her waist as his flushed face came too close.

  ‘Perhaps we could have dinner one evening,’ he suggested, leering. ‘You know Maria and I have a sort of open thing and I’d like to get to know you on a more personal level.’

  She moved away from him, and reached to open the door herself, but he was persistent.

  ‘How are you fixed for next week? There’s a new restaurant opened in Chiswick. I think Maria saw Marcus there one night.’

  She gave him an icy stare, refusing to even contemplate answering. He opened the front door wider as she edged past him without saying a word. As she walked down the short path and headed back to where she had parked, she was horribly aware that he was standing there watching her. It had been a really hideous evening and one she would not consider repeating. She had been separated from Marcus for two years, yet tonight for some reason it felt as if it had only just happened. She had refused many other invitations to parties and dinners, but badgered by Maria she felt forced to attend this one, even though she knew full well the Berkoffs were really Marcus’s friends, as were most of the people seated round the dinner table.

  It took a while for her to ease the car out of the parking space, moving backwards and forwards and becoming even more agitated as the hotel car park was by now full for a big function. Why had she agreed to go? She’d known what it was going to be like. By the time she had succeeded in manoeuvring out of the tight space she had answered herself. She had wanted to prove that she could do it. She also wanted to tell everyone about how successful Kiddy Winks was becoming. This latest business venture had been a major part in getting her life back in order, and then deciding that if she could make the business work then she could also do something about herself. The marriage had been very strained for some time before the separation, and she had allowed herself to overeat and had spent days in an old tracksuit. She had not bothered with hair or makeup, her skin had erupted in patches, and the depression that had dominated her life was only relieved by her determination to make a success of Kiddy Winks. But now she’d lost the extra weight and was back to size twelve.

  It had been a strange relief when Marcus had suggested they first separate or take ‘time out’, as was his crass way of putting it. Marcus had moved out; his design company was already in financial trouble, and shortly before his decision to leave he had wondered whether he should continue keeping it afloat. Lena had been impatient; this was not the first business venture that had failed. Over the seventeen years they had been married, she had constantly diverted money from her accounts to his in the hope that he would, as he had always promised, repay her with interest. This last time she had refused, and after taking advice from her accountant she had confronted her husband with worrying discrepancies in their joint bank account. Marcus had withdrawn thirty-five thousand pounds, leaving no money to pay for the mortgage on their substantial house in Richmond, the household staff or the utilities. Lena had to arrange to pay from her private account or they would have been taken to court.

  Lena cancelled the joint account and Marcus had given her one of his childish shrugs, saying that she should consider what it meant. She could hardly believe that he was insinuating that it virtually signalled their marriage was over. In reality it was the start of their already strained relationship reaching breaking point, so by the time he had suggested they have a trial separation, his ‘time out’, she knew the marriage was heading for permanent closure. She had loved him, and they had been an enviable couple to their mutual friends, who were breaking up or divorcing throughout their seventeen years together. What few of even their close friends knew, as had been obvious that evening, was that Lena had always been the main breadwinner. She had never so much as hinted at it, she had cared that much for Marcus. He had tried numerous career moves, and with every new venture she had been supportive and encouraging. The fact they all turned into failures, and lost money – her hard-earned cash – never really bothered her as she had always felt badly for him. He appeared on the surface to take a positive attitude, refusing to feel sorry for himself, and always determined that the next idea he dreamed up would be successful. She knew deep down he was crestfallen and disappointed, and that he refused to show how much it affected him, for her benefit. So she had thought it churlish to complain.

  It wasn’t hard to pinpoint when exactly the change in her attitude towards him began to take seed. Prior to the separation she had embarked on opening new companies and he had been dismissive, suggesting that surely she had enough to keep her occupied. His attitude had only made her more determined and her animal-print cushions and handcrafted nursery furniture companies became a success and, like her new venture, Kiddy Winks, were all doing very well, tak
ing orders from John Lewis, Harrods and Harvey Nicks. Dealing with the orders and travelling to the various factories and small producers had meant that her schedule was fully packed. Choosing the fabrics and designs alone was time-consuming, and she had by now fifteen women sewing and making the cushions. She was not exactly working twenty-four seven, but close. The past two years had been made easier because their daughter Amy had started at a weekly boarding school in Berkshire. Lena or Marcus would collect her from the school mid-morning on the Saturday, so she would be home for the weekend and returned before seven o’clock on the Sunday evening.

  Lena did try not to work on the Sunday, but often Amy had friends to see and parties to attend, so she was not as dependent on being amused, especially now that she was fifteen and increasingly self-sufficient. Lena used the time to check over her accounts and sales orders. She had even stopped making the obligatory Sunday roast – it had always been just the three of them around the kitchen table, but since Marcus had left, and with Amy having alternative arrangements, she would mostly have a BLT and a cup of coffee. There had been a minor emotional upheaval when they had told Amy about the so-called trial separation. She had cried for a few days but calmed down after both assured her that they were still to be friends and she could, if she wished, spend alternate weekends with her father in Mayfair.

  When divorce was eventually discussed, Amy had grown used to her parents being apart. She had begun to quite enjoy the freedom of choosing whether or not she spent the weekend with her mother or her father. There had also been numerous times when Amy had actually stayed with a friend so had not been at home with either parent.

  The house in Richmond for just herself and Amy was large, and did require a lot of maintenance, but as Lena had paid for the mortgage from the moment they had bought it shortly after they were married, it had never occurred to her that she would be forced to sell. She had also furnished it, and it was very much her style throughout. Marcus had never taken much interest in decorating, or for that matter, what furniture Lena collected, and since they separated she was happy to remain living there; she even redecorated the kitchen and the master bedroom. Amy had kept her bedroom as it was, and she had rarely if ever brought up the fact that her father was absent. He obviously was, but then if Amy were not at his rented flat, but at home with her mother, he would call, so he was a constant and regular part of her life.