At last, she finally had him!
She finally had DI Neville Parker, the incompetent fool who had gotten her sister Grace thrown into prison. She had heard he had been transferred to a Caribbean island called Saint Marie after he had been asked to travel there in order to investigate the murder of another Manchurian. It was amazing what you heard on the grapevine, and it did strike her as ironic that the corrupt copper DC Andy Buckley who had taken the Burner phone away from the murder scene which saw Grace thrown into prison, had more helpful friends.
Rebecca could have gotten her revenge over her sister's arrest much sooner, especially after Grace's suicide because she had gone in her place, but Rebecca had been reeling from her sister's death for a long time. So many what-ifs had crowded her mind at that point in her life.
What if she had mustered some degree of her strength and collected the cash from the dealers? Okay, Rebecca was still sick, barely able to focus and concentrate, but if she had just gone…
That thought in particular had been the one which had run around and around in her brain so much that Rebecca was barely able to even think. Logically Rebecca was aware that her illness had knocked her out so suddenly that she could barely get out of her bed without stumbling around without Grace's help, but still… it had just taken Rebecca a long time to get over it and move on to other things she could do.
To this day, Rebecca had no idea what the hell happened to make the rival drug dealer take the drugs off of Grace in the first place as she made the delivery to Daren and things had gotten violent, but Darren should have anticipated that factor. It wasn't unusual or even unknown for drug couriers to be robbed, but Darren had always been under the impression the world revolved around him, and that it owed him something, but he had underestimated how far her sister would go.
Both sisters had lived a tough life, and if that taught you anything it was how to fight.
While Rebecca didn't give a tinker's tossing shit about Darren since he had been a bastard, she hadn't wanted Grace to be arrested.
What if she had admitted who she was and that there was a Burner phone? Okay if she had done that, then Buckley, the fucking coward that he was, would have eventually been discovered as having taken the damn phone in the first place to just protect himself, and from what she had learnt about him, Parker was extremely tenacious. She might hate him, but she respected him for that at least.
Sadly, for all her strengths, she had more than a few flaws as well.
How many times had she tried to muster the energy while Grace was in prison during the early days to come forward and tell the police what really happened, shine the spotlight on Buckley?
Too many times, and each time..she just didn't do it. She was so scared herself. And in her time of fear, when her sister needed her, Grace hadn't been able to cope, so she had committed suicide.
When she received the news of her sister's death, Rebecca was thrown off the deep end and she needed a long time to recover. Still, when she did recover, she realised she had a large part in her sister's death, but the two police officers, Buckley and Parker were to blame; Buckley for his cowardice and inability to let the truth shine on him, and Parker for arresting Grace without probing any deeper into the case and not seeing what was under his nose.
She had spent the last few years watching DI Parker. She had followed him through his cases, looking for a way to get to him, find a way of worming into his life so then she could then destroy it to make him pay for Grace's death and for being so blind to the corruption of one of his own officers.
But she'd had a lot to do on her agenda, so she wasn't in a position to actually do it.
Rebecca had been a massive basket case when Grace was put in prison, and when she committed suicide, it had taken her months to just recover; she was so out of it that she hadn't been able to focus on her usual jobs. Well, unless she pushed herself to be focused. She wasn't just focused on Buckley and on Parker, Rebecca was also trying hard to clean up the mess caused by Grace's death, and to also try to discover what happened to the burner phone and to find out if there was any way she could put pressure on Buckley. But she had found nothing; Buckley might be corrupt, but he was still a police officer, and if there was one thing their training taught them, it was how to cover their tracks, but she was more than aware there were trails if one knew where to look.
Rebecca had mostly finished by the time she had heard Parker had been transferred to Saint Marie, and right now she was on her way there. She had decided to wait for a couple more years as she tried to find the burner phone or some way of getting to Buckley. And lastly, she had found it. After all, no corrupt cop liked it when the truth was revealed, right? Her secret weapon was waiting for her, back home. She would use it when she returned home.
But now she was here…
Rebecca knew she could have simply found a way to kill both DC Buckley and DI Parker in Manchester. But as time passed, she had begun planning. She realised the two men had to be brought down through patience and cunning. And then, as if fate had decided to bless her patience, Rebecca found out DI Parker was looking for love. She had decided to give it a few months and go to him without even looking like she was going to him, expecting to be asked out on a date.
That was Parker's Achilles heel.
And she had found something back home that would be enough for the Manchester Met police to begin looking into Buckley. With a bit of luck, within the next year, she would see both men's lives ruined forever.
As she got off the plane, her mind going over his immediate plans most of which involved a nice shower and a change of clothes after being travel worn for hours, Rebecca passed through the terminal. Saint Marie airport wasn't anything like any International airport, of course, it was small and fairly cheap, but it was easy to pass through customs. As she passed close to the door, she was surprised when she saw the man himself walking through the airport. She followed him with her eyes and she saw him looking at the suitcases before he picked it up. Quickly she got outside and waited, finding a battered old police jeep parked outside as she did, wondering how she could turn this to her advantage. And then, she had seen him coming out of the airport, lugging a heavy suitcase down the steps, and she stepped slightly closer to the jeep, bracing herself.
He was clumsy and didn't notice her until the suitcase slammed into her elbow, and she had played it all off as a careless accident, and in the confusion, she swapped the cases to find an excuse to meet him again, and hopefully go on from there.
As she drove off in the taxi, Rebecca smirked to herself. That had gone easier than she had expected; she would soon have to present a different identity, but she was prepared.
Goodbye Rebecca, Hello Sophie.
Soon, DI Parker, Rebecca or Sophie promised herself maliciously, I will make you pay.
Author's Note - The truth about Sophie was likely something many saw coming, but I doubt it was what they expected. Still, this is a good prequel to things to come.