RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
The last part of the novel is a rollercoaster. Erika manages to track down one of the women who reported being assaulted while staying in the school of art, and they agree to meet at Vicky's funeral. Erika takes Kate with her, and it is obvious that none of the mourners welcome them. I find their attitude weird. I know that they had to answer their questions, but they should be eager for the police to find the culprit. Erika doesn't know what the woman, Becky, looks like, and she can't identify her. When the service is over, most of the attendees go to the pub, and Erika gets a call from Crane, telling her that there is a glitch in the investigation, and Wakefield didn't give a sample of his DNA, and they have also discovered that the man worked as a caretaker in the drama school when the assaults take place.
When Erika and Kate go to the pub, there are two women who identify themselves as the women who Vicky was doing the podcast about. They tell Erika and Kate that Vicky persuaded them to take part in the podcast, and she was nervous because this was the first podcast which had involved proper investigation on her part. The podcast was supposed to be posted one Thursday, but when that didn't happen, they tried to contact Vicky, and days later they learnt that she had been killed. They mention that Vicky was nervous about the neighbour, Charles, because he had been the caretaker in the school, but he had reacted with hostility.
Erika now has reasons to arrest Wakefield, so she calls the local station to send two plain policemen, but instead two uniformed policemen are sent, and the arrest ends up with Wakefield being injured. When Erika questions him, he denies having talked to Vicky about the podcasts or the assaults. They have found a thteatening note, mentioning a name Lily Parkes and urging him to be quiet. Wakefield says he knows nothing about it.
While the results of the DNA, Erika decides to go and talk to Cilla, who is staying with the other teacher, Colin. The day before Erika and Igor have met, drunk and ended up in bed. In the middle of the night she had heard a noise, which came from the cat, George, and she had stepped on some broken glass. Igor had taken her to the hospital and as a consequence, she had needed stitches. Now Erika is on crutches as she goes to the house. Cilla is with Colin and Ray, and when she asks about Lily, Cilla says that it was a girl who came to the school as work experience. Ray takes his leave, and while Colin walks him to the car, Cilla finds a photo album and finds a group photo showing Lily. Erika notices taht Colin has his hand around her shoulders and very close to her breasts, and then looking around she notices the paper on the desk, which is the same unusual paper as the note that Wakefield received. When Colin returns, and Erika confronts him, saying that he is the assailant and he used Lily to seduce Thomas and had him blackmailed because he had seen him sneak into some girls' rooms. Colin loses it, and suddenly, she grabs Cilla and drags her to a room and there are screams, and the woman ends up dead. Erika, who he had also pushed and made her fall, is dragged to her car, and he pushes her into the car, making her in a position she can't move, and then he releases the handbrake and the car starts descending the slope towards a busy road. Erika can't even react because he also made her swallow several of her painkillers. Erika ends up crashing but luckily, she avoids some of the cars and lorries on the road.
When Erika comes round, it is two weeks after the accident. Lenka, her sister, is there, and she tells her that she broke her two legs as well as some ribs and had concussion, but she is going to be all right. When the team visits, they tell her that Colin has been arrested and is in prison for assaulting the women, for the murder of Vicky and Sophia, and for Erika's attempted murder. They say that some garments with blood from Sophia and Vicky were found in his house, and he also made the mistake of not having the key in the ignition of Erika's car, and they found the keys in the house as well. Thomas is also speaking. The police told him that Lily had lied and she was not underage when he slept with her, but she was of consensual age, so he has nothing to fear, and the man started talking.
Erika is discharged and Isaac drives her home where her sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews and Igor are waiting for her. They have been fixing the new house, and Isaac tells her that she needs to enjoy this time with the people who love her.
I really enjoyed the book. I had no idea who the killer was, and until the last moment I didn't know.
No comments:
Post a Comment