Woman in the Water

WOMAN IN THE WATER

Katerina Diamond

Copyright

Published by AVON

A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Copyright © Katerina Diamond 2019

Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

Cover photograph © Claudia Carlsen/Arcangel Images

Katerina Diamond asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008282950

Ebook Edition © November 2019 ISBN: 9780008282967

Version: 2019-09-17

Praise for Katerina Diamond

‘Diamond is the master of gripping literature’

Evening Standard

‘A terrific story, originally told. All hail the new queen of crime!’

Heat

‘A web of a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader on their seat … don’t read it before bed if you’re easily spooked!’

Sun

‘A page-turner with a keep-you-guessing plot’

Sunday Times Crime Club

‘Packed with twists until the last page’

Closer

‘Deliciously dark, keeps her readers guessing throughout as she leads us on a very secretive, VERY twisted journey’

Lisa Hall, bestselling author of Between You and Me

Dedication

For Pat and Kitty

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Praise for Katerina Diamond

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Eight

Chapter Forty-Nine

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-Two

Chapter Fifty-Three

Chapter Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Five

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Chapter Sixty

Chapter Sixty-One

Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Six

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Chapter Seventy

Chapter Seventy-One

Chapter Seventy-Two

Chapter Seventy-Three

Chapter Seventy-Four

Chapter Seventy-Five

Chapter Seventy-Six

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Chapter Eighty

Chapter Eighty-One

Chapter Eighty-Two

Chapter Eighty-Three

Acknowledgements

Author’s Note

Keep Reading …

About the Author

By the same author

About the Publisher

Prologue

It’s so cold out here. I stare up at the ink blue sky above me, not a cloud in sight, and focus on the stars, a passing airplane twinkles and blinks as it crosses. I hear my name being called, but aside from shivering, I can’t move, my whole body numb. I don’t want them to find me.

I’m as close to death as I have ever been, but I still hang on. I don’t know why when I have wished for the end so many times before. I need to stop fighting it. I need to let myself just slip away.

Chapter One

DS Adrian Miles soaked in the sunrise as he drove home along Glasshouse Lane after a few days away with his partner, DS Imogen Grey, far from local prying eyes. They had barely noticed the relationship creeping up on them. They had gone from strangers to good friends within weeks of meeting each other, then things had blossomed and grown between them until the chemistry was undeniable. They were still in the early stages, not enough to announce anything, not enough to tell anyone.

He smiled to himself as he thought about the last few days, weeks, months. Every moment was a countdown to the next time they could be alone together.

It was always so quiet on these suburban streets, especially at this time in the morning, and the calming effect of the River Exe seemed to ebb into these surrounding neighbourhoods. Something about living near water makes people generally more relaxed. He must have driven past at least ten people out for a morning stroll with their dogs. Maybe getting a dog would be a good way to get out of the house more; these days, he mostly just drove anywhere rather than walk.

More often than not, as he drove he found himself thinking about Imogen and missing her when she wasn’t beside him, in any capacity. These feelings had crept up on him and he found himself completely losing himself to her, as though he had no choice in the matter. He’d also sometimes find himself smiling, without realising. Was this happiness?

It was certainly difficult with Imogen wanting to keep it a secret. Although relationships were allowed it definitely complicated things at work. The DCI had expressed in the past that she wasn’t overly keen on relationships within the unit. It was a mess for sure, but worst-case scenario one of them could transfer to a different division. He wouldn’t let work get in the way of this. Adrian had never felt like other people in as much as he had never thought himself capable of a meaningful and grown-up relationship. If that’s what this was then he would rather lose his job than her. He couldn’t lose her, not after all the pain of losing his previous more serious relationships. Jobs were replaceable, people weren’t.

He spotted a group of women gathered by the riverside wall. As much as anything, it was a strange time of day for this kind of gathering. The sun was barely up. They were looking over towards a small muddy offshoot of river that ran through the thickets. There was something about the way they were talking to each other that made Adrian pull the car over. Brows creased, they turned towards him, eyeing him suspiciously before turning their attention back to something on the other side of the wall.

‘Everything all right?’ Adrian said, pulling his warrant card from his pocket and showing the women.

Their faces lightened immediately and one of the women stepped forwards. She scrutinised his ID before speaking.

‘There’s something in the water. The kids were out playing on that patch of grass last night. They kept saying how there was someone in the water and this morning my two maintained they saw a dead body down in the water before they came home – had nightmares because of it. We thought it was part of their game last night, you know what kids are like. We can’t really see from here and none of us want to climb the wall to go and check. There’s something there but it’s in the shadow of those bushes. It could be anything.’

‘Why didn’t you call the police?’ Adrian asked.

‘I don’t know if you’ve got kids, but they can be known to tell the odd porky. I asked the girls if they would come with me and look, but there are so many bushes we can’t see anything clearly.’

‘Where?’ Adrian said, walking up to the wall and looking over into the riverside shrubbery.

The light was terrible and so he would have to climb over to take a closer look.

‘Can you see that blue thing?’ The same woman who had spoken pointed towards the left side of the greenery.

Adrian put his card back in his pocket and hoisted himself over the wall, trying to make it look effortless – he had an audience, after all.

The drop on the other side was a little lower and he just managed to save himself from embarrassment when he fell by placing his hand on the ground as though he were a superhero who had fallen from a great height. Anything over four feet was a bit too high for Adrian. It wasn’t like he was trying to impress anyone, but he wanted to avoid any humiliation, as this could all end up in a police report, depending on what he found in the river.

He took his phone out of his pocket and switched on the torch; the sky had adopted a grey-and-orange hue as the sun hid behind the houses. The blue thing in the bushes looked like denim. It was obscured and could just as easily be a discarded denim jacket or plastic bag from a newsagent as anything else. He tried not to think about the anything else. As he got closer it became clear that whatever it was, it wasn’t a discarded item of clothing. Please don’t let it be a child.

Holding his breath, Adrian edged closer to the pair of legs that lay in the undergrowth, the top of the body still obscured by the bushes. Forced to climb into the river, he put his phone between his teeth as he walked around the legs into the water. It was cold and muddy; he tried not to slip on the mud banks as he made his way to the top of the form. After taking the phone from his mouth, he shone the light on the legs, gradually moving upwards until he found a head.

It was a woman. She wore a baggy cream Aran jumper and jeans. One of her boots was missing. Her right arm, hips and backside were submerged in the water, but her body was contorted in such a way that her head, legs and left arm were out of the water. Her face was dirty, one eye swollen from a possible fracture as the bruising had closed it, but her other big blue eye was staring at him, fixed.

He turned the torch off on his phone and dialled DI Matt Walsh.

‘We need a team down on Glasshouse Lane. I’ve sent over my location. I’ve found a body in the water.’

‘A body in the water? A dead body? How?’ Walsh responded.

‘Well, I was driving down the road when I saw a group of women by the riverside wall. I approached the women and they said that last night their kids were playing outside and this morning told their parents they saw something that resembled a body.

‘Description of the victim is: female, Caucasian, maybe twenty-five years old, blonde hair, blue eyes. Looks like she was assaulted beforehand. She’s been here at least the one night, not sure how much longer.’

Suddenly, Adrian felt a hand grip his calf. The kind you half expect when you step out of bed in the middle of the night. He froze. He took a deep breath before turning the dim light of the phone screen towards the woman to illuminate her face. She blinked slowly.

She was alive.

‘Adrian?’ Walsh said.

‘She’s alive, Walsh, get an ambulance! She’s alive!’

Chapter Two

Adrian immediately removed his jacket and threw it over the woman to keep her warm. He stuffed his phone into his back pocket and knelt down next to her, gently removing the muddy hair from her face. She was younger than him, mid twenties at a guess.

‘Can you hear me? I’m Detective Sergeant Adrian Miles; I’m going to help you. Can you move?’

She nodded her head weakly. How long had she been here? She must be freezing. Even in the summer the river wasn’t warm.

‘Can you tell me your name?’

‘I’m so c-c-cold,’ she said faintly.

‘We have to wait here for the guys with the stretcher, OK? I don’t want to move you in case anything is broken.’

He went to stand again but she grabbed his hand, this time with more strength than before.

‘P-p-please get me out of h-h-here,’ the woman whispered.

DS Miles could see she had tried to pull herself out of the water, which is why only part of her was still submerged.

‘We really should wait for the paramedics.’

‘C-cold … P-please,’ she rasped.

‘OK, I’ll try. But you tell me straight away if I hurt you.’

Lying next to her on the bank, Adrian got as close to her as he could, the chill of the water against his thighs inconsequential. She groaned as he tilted her enough that he could slip his shoulder underneath hers and gradually slide his arm under her for support as he tried to pull her from the brambles. She was weak and completely limp, with barely enough strength to lift her head. The left side of her torso was supported by the right side of his. Some of her blonde hair had become entangled in the spiny branches that protruded from the hedge. Adrian gently tugged at the hair to dislodge it, leaving some of it behind.

As soon as she was free, he put his arm around her waist and tried to move with her away from the hedge. Her head thumped against his chest. He felt her sigh heavily, her weak heartbeat gently beating against his arm. He pushed his legs against the floor of the muddy bank and as he moved up onto the safety of the grass, she moved with him. He sat up and she lolloped forwards, weak from exhaustion. Adrian didn’t care to think how long she had been lying there. He moved her onto his lap and put her arm around his shoulder.

‘Can you put your arms around my neck and hold it? I need to use my arm to leverage myself to standing.’

Fingernails dug into his skin. He could feel that she was using everything she had to hold on and probably wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long, so he pushed himself up before quickly making sure both of his arms were securely around her. He heard the gasps of the women as he emerged from the bushes with the woman lying against him.

‘Oh my God!’ one of the women cried.

‘Is she alive?’ another shouted.

‘Could you get some blankets or something to warm her up quickly while we wait for the medics?’

In situations like this, it was instinct and training that carried Adrian through, but at some point, there is a moment where you get to think about what is actually going on and that’s when the reality of the situation hits home. Who was this girl? How had she got here? Who had done this to her? She was petite and her injuries were not the result of an accident. He could see fingermarks on her neck and he clenched his jaw to suppress the rage that threatened.

Adrian lay her on the grass and stroked her forehead. She began to tremble and Adrian hoped the medics would appear before she got hypothermia.

‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice breaking as she spoke, and a guttural moan followed soon after as she began to cry.

The ladies from the houses opposite the wall appeared holding blankets. He noticed one of them was filming with their mobile phone, which ignited the anger that he was fighting so hard to suppress.

‘I’ll be back in a moment. I’m just going to grab those blankets, see if we can warm you up a bit.’

She tried to grab at his shirt, to stop him from leaving. She mouthed as if to speak but nothing came out.

‘I won’t be a second. I’m coming back, I promise.’

He stood and walked over to the woman holding the phone.

‘Can I ask you not to share that video until we have had a chance to identify the woman and inform her family. It would be horrible to find out something like this from a video on the internet, wouldn’t it?’

‘Oh, I wasn’t going to share it,’ she said, her cheeks flushing.

‘My colleagues will be here any second to take all of your names. Please just wait here.’

‘I got you these blankets; they are my kids’ blankets; it’s all I had. Sorry.’

‘Thank you.’

Adrian took the blankets and walked back to the lady on the ground. He was starting to feel cold himself. He was thankful that the area was poorly lit, so at least the video would be poor quality. He covered her with the kitten-patterned blankets and waited for the ambulance; the sirens were getting closer.

In the back of the ambulance, Adrian stayed with the woman. It felt wrong to leave her at this point. She must have been terrified and hopefully, she knew she could trust Adrian by now. The paramedics had cut off her wet jeans and covered her in a thermal blanket to help bring her temperature back up.

‘What happened?’ one of the paramedics said.

‘Some kids found her; I just pulled her out. I’m hoping the doc can tell us more about what’s happened to her.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘I don’t know,’ Adrian said, realising she hadn’t answered him when he had asked her before.

‘What’s your name, love?’ the paramedic asked the woman, leaning down to hear better.

The woman winced and closed her eyes as the ambulance went over a pothole. She squeezed Adrian’s hand weakly.

They pulled up outside the hospital and Adrian saw that Dr Hadley was waiting outside the emergency department’s bay doors. Adrian had texted her to come and meet them. Dr Hadley had worked with the police on numerous occasions and Adrian knew she specialised in women’s cases, especially where sexual assault was a probability. The clothes the victim was wearing were intact when he found her, which was unusual in cases of sexual assault. But whatever had happened to her, this was a horrific attack that she wasn’t going to be getting over anytime soon. If she made it, that is.

‘I’m going to go now, but I will be back.’

‘Please don’t go,’ the woman said.

‘This is my friend Dr Hadley and she is going to look after you, OK? I’ll be back before you know it,’ Adrian told her.

The woman nodded.

‘Thank you, DS Miles. I’ll give you a call after I’ve done a thorough examination,’ Dr Hadley said with a heavy sigh as she appraised the woman’s condition.

Adrian watched as they wheeled the trolley into the hospital through the emergency doors, two uniformed officers following behind. The ambulance doors closed and the vehicle drove out of the bay.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, DS Miles texted Imogen to come and pick him up. Still covered in mud, his clothes still damp, Adrian needed to get changed before the last half an hour got a chance to creep under his skin. Someone had hurt this woman and discarded her. He was going to find out who.

Chapter Three

Imogen put a towel down on the passenger seat of her car before Adrian sat down. He had that look in his eye, that angry, determined look he got when he was well into a case and it wasn’t going their way. Whatever he had seen had obviously affected him; he seemed anxious and slightly haunted.

‘What happened? I only saw you a couple of hours ago,’ she asked.

‘That woman I found. She was completely fucked up, thrown away like rubbish. It was awful. I thought she was dead. She looked dead.’

‘You found her in time, though. You got her to the hospital.’

‘Who does that to another person? Sometimes I feel like we are swimming against the tide with this job, I really do. Every day it’s something else; it never stops.’

Imogen knew that this was about more than the woman he had rescued today – it was about the woman he grew up with, about his parents. Adrian rarely talked about his mother, but Imogen knew that his father had been violent and that Adrian struggled to accept aggression towards women on any level. She knew what it was like to grow up in challenging circumstances, but not a day went by when she wasn’t grateful that there was no kind of abuse in her own childhood; she had seen what it had done to friends. Working in the police, she knew how demoralising an abusive childhood was and how massively it impacted who people became.