Текст книги "Jessica Daniel: Locked In / Vigilante / The Woman in Black"

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 60 страниц)

25

The woman might have been a prostitute and caused misery for her neighbours but she didn’t deserve to die in the brutal way indicated by how she had been found. Jessica followed the screams into a room on her left as she saw Kim standing over a double bed, hysterical. Jessica’s first thought was a selfish one; Kim had blood on her hands and had already contaminated the scene. The biggest uniformed officer physically picked up the shouting, kicking daughter and took her outside.

The woman sprawled across the bed was naked and face down. Aside from the unclothed limbs, there was a mass of bleached blonde hair spread out but discoloured in parts by the deep red blood. Jessica stopped any of the other officers from entering the room, waiting at its entrance. She told them to help calm down Kim, and ensure the woman who lived upstairs went nowhere either. Jessica took her phone out of her pocket and called the station to report what they had found and then called Cole. She would leave it to him to pass the news up the chain, while a Scene of Crime team would be requested.

Jessica took in the whole of the bedroom. The scene of this murder seemed much more vicious than the first two and Claire must have fought harder than the previous victims. The obvious first response was that whoever had killed her had been a client but Jessica knew full well that a locked door was no obstacle if the killer was the same as that of the first two victims.

With the rest of the flat empty, she took the chance to look around. The kitchen was a grubby room at the end of the hall. It had once been white but now had a distinctive yellowy-brown tinge. There was a round dining table in the centre of the room with four cheap-looking stools. Jessica could see a washing machine still full with a light flashing next to the dial at the top. It was bright white and looked new, standing out from everything else in the room. The floor itself was years old cheap linoleum that was peeling away from the surface. There was also an old-looking cooker, its top covered with hardened food stains.

Jessica scanned the scene and saw a handbag, mobile phone and some cash on the counter top. She didn’t want to risk touching the paper notes in case the killer was a client and this was what he had paid. It seemed unlikely that their mystery man would have left such an obvious clue even if that was true but Jessica didn’t want to risk it. She could see how much was there, a crumpled dirty ten-pound note and a much newer, crisper twenty. Thirty quid was the cost of someone’s life nowadays, she thought, shaking her head.

Jessica saw a kitchen roll next to the sink and tore off a sheet, using it to cover her fingers while she looked through the woman’s bag. She didn’t have to look far and found exactly what she was searching for straight away – a set of keys in the main part.

Jessica moved into the hallway. She could still hear a commotion outside as the officers presumably tried to calm Kim. She tried the door opposite the bedroom, still using a piece of kitchen roll to shield her fingers, entering a second room. There was another bed but this one was neatly made. The room had a lot of purple in it, both the duvet cover and carpet a matching colour. The walls were light and the room was full of clothes. Jessica didn’t enter but scanned the scene from the doorway. She could see a wardrobe towards the back with the doors open. Even from this distance, Jessica saw it was packed with dresses, outfits and attire that would only be suitable for indoor use, or at best on the main road on the other side of the flat. The floor was scattered with more regular clothes, jeans and tops. Jessica’s own room was messy but this was far beyond that.

She backed out and re-closed the door, then tried the other one leading from the hallway. It opened into a basic bathroom, containing a shower, toilet and sink. She could see a few soaps and shampoos but nothing out of the ordinary, so closed that door and made her way to the living room.

The main room of the house was cluttered but a lot cleaner than the kitchen and second bedroom. There was a large flatscreen TV pinned to the wall and a couple of large comfy-looking light pink sofas facing it. Jessica could see some assorted celebrity-type magazines on the floor but there were tidy racks full of DVDs and CDs. She scanned the titles, noticing names of films she had seen and liked. On top of the racks were some photographs. Jessica could see the smiling face of the woman most likely lying face-down in the other room. She saw a picture with a younger-looking Kim and another with a different young teenage girl. In the final photo, Kim looked around twelve and was with the girl from the other photograph and a boy. They were all young children, standing on a beach grinning at the camera. In none of the pictures was there a sign of a man or anyone who could be the children’s father. Having seen the bedrooms and kitchen, this whole room was a contrast to the rest of the house.

Untainted.

It almost made sense to Jessica. When you gave up a massive part of your life in the way the victim apparently had, perhaps you needed something to separate yourself from it? Money was exchanged in the kitchen, while the first bedroom was where it was earned. Seeing as the lifestyle couldn’t be kept away from the other bedroom, nor the bathroom, that left this one room as a haven of sorts.

She returned to the first bedroom to have a final scan before the Scene of Crime team arrived. The main light on the ceiling had been left on but a black lampshade ensured the room’s dimness. The brightest thing was the victim’s hair, despite the blood that had seeped into it. The bed had dark purple satin sheets but there were obvious bloodstains there too. Jessica couldn’t see any cuts in the victim’s neck as it was shielded by the woman’s hair.

With little else she could do, Jessica left the flat. There was only one door in, while the only two windows were in the living room and the bedroom that didn’t have a dead body in it. The curtains were pulled and Jessica hadn’t bothered to see if they were locked but she knew they would be.

Misdirection.

Kim was allowing herself to be comforted by one of the officers as the neighbour spoke to one of the others. Jessica could hear sirens in the distance. She told one of the tactical officers that they needed to take both Kim and the neighbour to the station and that she would follow shortly.

‘Don’t arrest them or lock them up,’ Jessica said. ‘Holding room with an officer, not a cell.’

It was going to be another busy Saturday.

Back at the station, they first had to make sure Kim was eighteen or older. From her appearance, it was hard to tell. If she was younger, it would have been necessary to have someone there to act as her guardian. Although Kim had continued to veer from sheer aggression to outright grief, it had quickly been established there was another daughter who lived nearby. Once they had the full name and address, a police car was sent out to pick up her older sister: Emily Hogan. The other thing it hadn’t taken long to find out was that there was definitely no father present.

‘I don’t have a dad,’ was all Kim would say.

Jessica wanted to ask about the boy she had seen in the photos in the living room but figured that could come later. Kim clearly didn’t like the police and hadn’t been overly cooperative. She kept shouting: ‘You lot never gave a stuff when she was alive,’ and other similar phrases.

Jessica was torn between giving her space to grieve and actually needing to speak to her. The Scene of Crime team had taken over the flat and would be working on a time of death, as well as taking photographs and chronicling everything that could be relevant. Jessica hung around just long enough to see them gently turn over Claire’s body and reveal the deep wounds in her neck, just like those of the other victims.

The neighbour had been spoken to first, with Kim given time to calm down in a holding room. The woman clearly didn’t have an awful lot to add and had been released. She hadn’t seen or heard anything out of the ordinary that week.

‘The only thing different is that it has actually been quiet the past two nights’, was perhaps the only useful piece of information she had. It gave Jessica a rough time of death until a more accurate one came in from forensics. Presumably that meant Claire Hogan had been killed at some point in the last forty-eight hours.

It hadn’t taken long for Emily Hogan to arrive. She would have already been told about her mother’s murder by a trained officer who collected her. Jessica met her in reception and took her through to see her sister. Emily and her sister looked a lot alike, although Emily was an inch or two taller. She didn’t seem too upset but cradled her younger sister, who cried loudly.

Jessica gave them space until Emily turned to her. ‘I presume you want to talk to us?’

Before Jessica could answer, Kim cut across them. ‘Come on, Em, they were never bothered before. They were only interested in Mum when they wanted to bring her in.’

Emily had a softer tone than her sister. ‘I know but that’s gone now. We’re not going to find out who did this on our own.’

Kim shrugged and sat down as Emily stayed on her feet. ‘Do we do this here?’

‘No,’ Jessica said. ‘The interview room’s set up. You’re not under arrest and can leave any time you want but sometimes it’s better to get things on tape anyway. It’s for your own protection.’

‘Okay.’

Jessica took Emily to the interview room where she had sat across from Wayne Lapham just seven days ago. A uniformed officer was left with Kim, who hadn’t run out at the mention of them being able to leave. Cole was already waiting for them and Jessica said there was a solicitor available if Emily wanted it.

‘I’ve not got anything to hide,’ Emily replied. Before Cole could start the tape, she added: ‘Don’t mind her. She’s had it tough. She was always the closest to Mum too.’

Jessica nodded as Cole made the introductions. ‘When did you last see your mother?’ Jessica asked first.

Emily spoke clearly and eloquently. She was obviously intelligent and came across very well. ‘Not for a while, we didn’t really get on. Maybe a month ago?’

‘Why didn’t you get along?’

‘I didn’t approve of her . . . job.’

‘I’m sorry to ask this but, for the record, can you say what she did?’ Jessica knew the answer.

‘She slept with men for money.’

Jessica didn’t want to dwell the point. ‘What was she like the last time you saw her?’

‘The same as always. High.’

‘She did drugs?’ Jessica hadn’t seen any obvious paraphernalia at the house but hadn’t gone looking too closely.

‘Where do you think all the money went?’ Emily said as if it was obvious. ‘She somehow scraped together enough to buy that dump a few years ago and the rest went up her arms.’

‘How long ago did you move out?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t spend a lot of time at home anyway. Maybe five years ago? I’m twenty-three now so work it out. That place was never going to be big enough for us all.’

Emily went on to tell them that she lived with her boyfriend and year-old son in the north of the city. Somehow, despite everything, Emily had turned into a rounded adult. She and her partner had founded a promotions company and were apparently doing well for themselves.

‘Tell me about your sister,’ Jessica said.

‘Kim? She’s only eighteen, a kid. She just moved out a few months ago and got a job selling bags and stuff. I would have got her something better but she wanted to do it for herself. For a while I thought Claire was going to drag her down to her level.’

It was the first time she had directly referred to her mother. She hadn’t called her ‘Mum’ or anything similar.

‘Claire?’ Jessica queried.

‘If someone doesn’t act like your mother, you can’t really call them that, can you?’

Jessica nodded, trying not to give anything away through her expression. ‘So your mother lived alone?’

‘Yes.’

‘No boyfriend?’

Emily laughed but not with any conviction. ‘What do you think? A different boyfriend every night maybe, nothing more than that.’

‘What about your father?’

‘Who knows? He left a long time ago.’

‘How long?’

‘Eight or nine years back. Kim wouldn’t have even been ten by then.’

‘Do you know why he left?’

‘No.’

‘Wasn’t it something you ever talked about?’

Emily shook her head. ‘Claire did all of her talking through a bottle back then.’

‘Have you seen your father since he left?’

‘No.’

‘Whose choice?’

‘What choice? I wouldn’t even know where to start looking. One day he was there, the next he wasn’t. I was only fifteen or so. Claire spent the first two weeks telling us he was away on business.’

‘How long has your mother been . . . working like this?’

‘Not forever. We had a pretty decent childhood, believe it or not. Two-up, two-down, summers at the seaside and all that. Then Dad moved out and Claire eventually fell apart. A few years later we all ended up moving to that shithole. There was never much space for me, so I left straight away.’

Jessica took Emily’s dad’s name from her – they would check him out if possible. Some people dropped off the face of the earth when they walked out on their wife and kids. Others hooked up with different women and paid child maintenance but, given Emily said she hadn’t seen her father in all that time, it seemed likely he would fall into the first category. Jessica doubted there was any Child Support Agency file on him and thought finding him would prove quite a task – and that was if he had even kept the same name.

She stopped to think what to say next. From what she had seen at the scene, the neck wounds and the way the flat was secured, her first thoughts were obviously that this murder was related to the other two. But while the first two had happened to people most of the public would consider ‘normal’, this was a bit different. That wasn’t to devalue a life, just that a drug-addicted prostitute was always going to be likely to attract people who might see her as vulnerable and want to do her harm. Could Claire Hogan really be connected to Yvonne Christensen and Martin Prince in some way?

Cole had brought in the hard-copy files they had for the other victims, the ones Jessica had caught Ryan looking through. She took out a photo of Yvonne Christensen from before she had been murdered and handed it to Emily. ‘Do you know who this is?’

Emily looked at the photo and narrowed her eyes. ‘She sort of seems familiar.’ Jessica felt her heart give a slight jump but her hopes were instantly let down again. ‘She’s been in the papers and on TV, hasn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

‘She was killed too. This “Houdini” guy.’

Jessica still hated that nickname but it wasn’t the time to argue about it. ‘Yes.’

‘Do you think whoever killed her killed Claire too?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I just thought . . . when the officer told me . . .’ She tailed off, struggling to find the words. ‘I suppose I’ve been expecting something like this for ages now. Given what she did for a living . . .’

Jessica let the thought evaporate and then handed her a picture of Martin Prince. Emily knew them both but only from the media coverage. ‘Do you know of anyone who might want to harm your mother?’

‘Her clients? I don’t know. No one specifically. Kim is closer to her than I am. She visits her a couple of times a week.’

‘Do you have a key for the flat, Emily?’

Emily laughed, again with nothing really behind it. ‘I’ve never had one.’

‘What about Kim?’

‘I don’t think so. You’ll have to ask her. Claire never gave any of us keys – she didn’t want anyone walking in on her. Kim used to come and stay at ours some nights when she couldn’t get in. There was no room there anyway. When it was the three of them, Claire, Shaun and Kim, Shaun used to sleep on the sofa with Mum and Kim sharing. It was ridiculous.’

‘Is Shaun your brother?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where is he?’

‘You should know.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You lot banged him up two years ago.’

26

Shaun Hogan had been very easy to track down. He was currently three months away from potentially being paroled in HM Prison Leeds.

Jessica had first gone to talk to Kim and then returned to her desk to look up their brother. Kim hadn’t been too keen to speak at first but they brought her sister in to sit next to her and the aggression level dropped. Much of what she said confirmed what they had already been told by Emily.

Kim lived in a flat half a mile or so away from her mother and had reluctantly admitted she’d had enough of living with her mum a few months previously. When she had lived at home, Kim wasn’t allowed a key and there were certain hours of the day where she wasn’t permitted to be inside, instead spending her time roaming the streets. Despite being only eighteen, she had done that for the best part of five years.

Kim obviously cared for her mother and had wanted to try to help but had reached the end of her young tether. As she cried and made her admissions, Jessica felt devastated for her. She was so young but her childhood had been ruined, having seen everything she must have done. Despite all of that, she refused to criticise her upbringing.

Given what connected the first two victims, there was one question Jessica had been waiting to ask: ‘Do you know if your mother was ever burgled?’

‘What would you have cared?’

‘We would always respond to something like that.’

‘You didn’t do much when those kids were harassing her.’

‘I’m sorry about that.’

‘You weren’t too bothered when your lot were threatening to arrest her and scaring her off the street.’

Emily helped calm her sister and Jessica eventually got her answer. ‘No.’

Jessica already knew Claire Hogan’s flat wasn’t one of the addresses Wayne Lapham had been caught in possession of stolen goods from but he was still their only link to the first two victims. ‘Was’ now seemed to be the appropriate word. If the prostitute’s murder was linked to the other two, the one connection they thought they had – burglary – was no more.

Shaun Hogan was an interesting character though. He was now twenty-one and there were a few minor crimes on his record, things like shoplifting when he was in his teens. He had been jailed two years ago for a serious assault on a man outside a bar in Leeds city centre. Emily and Kim both seemed reluctant to talk about him but the older sister told them her brother left the area shortly after Claire moved into the flat.

For reasons that seemed obvious, given the lack of room, he had apparently not been too keen on living with his mother and younger sister. When Claire had moved out of whatever house she shared with her husband and moved into the flat, both of her eldest children had left home quickly, Emily at eighteen, Shaun at sixteen. Emily had somehow managed to turn her life around as Shaun had gone the other way, moving to another city and ending up in jail. Kim, meanwhile, had stayed at home for almost the entire time.

Jessica thought it was a very mixed-up family, while realising how lucky she had been to be brought up well. It put her silly argument with Caroline into perspective.

She called the prison, arranging to visit Shaun on the Monday. Someone would break the news about his mother to him in the meantime. After that, she spent the rest of the day in meetings with the DCI and Cole. At the moment, there was nothing concrete to link the latest killing with the previous two. The initial forensics results should at least confirm a similar murder weapon. Jessica felt sure everything was somehow connected and that the property had been locked almost to taunt them. Whoever the killer was could easily have got access to the flat given Claire’s profession. Getting out might have been more difficult but whoever was responsible had set the scene up similar to the previous ones for a reason. If initial results confirmed a similar method of killing, the DCI said he would give another media briefing to ask for help.

A firm plan of action would be hard to come up with. Even if someone had seen a strange person entering Claire Hogan’s flat it wouldn’t have been anything out of the ordinary and the police weren’t expecting too many of her clients to phone up either. It was going to be a hard thing to manage via the media. Getting members of the public to pay attention to a murder appeal for someone who seemed a bit like them, suburban and respectable, was easy. Getting people to care about the murder of a prostitute would be harder to pull off. It was the last thing they wanted to do but Cole suggested embracing the ‘Houdini’ name. Jessica hated the idea but had to admit it would keep the media on-side and give them their best opportunity of getting people to contact them.

As she emerged from the discussions to head home, she noticed there were three missed calls on her phone. She’d had it on silent all day, moving from interviews to meetings. The caller’s identity was obvious, her only surprise being he hadn’t called earlier. Jessica thumbed the redial button and the other person answered on the first ring.

‘Mr Ashford,’ she said. ‘I’ve been expecting you.’

Garry Ashford still felt as if he was constantly riding his luck at work. The profile of DS Daniel had somehow managed to get him into everyone’s good books. He even had a text message from her saying she owed him. He would have settled for any kind of communication that didn’t involve copious but impressively creative swearing but that was even better.

He wasn’t entirely sure how it was going to go down in the office but the editor had been upbeat about the piece. Garry had claimed it as an exclusive, even though much of it hadn’t come from Jessica herself. That along with the background piece he had put together on Wayne Lapham had given him two more days of decent coverage.

The pay rise still hadn’t materialised though.

Despite the text he received from DS Daniel, he didn’t respond and hadn’t contacted her since. Garry figured it was probably best to keep that goodwill stored up in case something else significant happened.

This particular Saturday he was hoping for a quieter day given what he had ended up being asked to do the past few weeks. When he saw his source’s number ringing his phone, he groaned. He half-thought about ignoring it but then took the call. He listened to the details and wrote everything down, before hanging up and calling DS Daniel. There was no answer and he wondered if she was avoiding him. He phoned his editor and then set off to catch a bus out to the latest victim’s address. His source said they didn’t have a name but knew where the crime scene was. He tried DS Daniel one more time but there was still no answer.

‘Another fine Saturday,’ he moaned to no one in particular.

‘Hi,’ Garry said. ‘I guess you know why I’ve been calling.’

‘You’re still going to have to tell me what you think you know.’

The journalist informed Jessica that he had visited the murder site and spoken to the upstairs neighbour. He knew Claire Hogan’s name and that the woman who lived upstairs had been keen to talk about the dead female’s chosen profession, as well as telling him how the police had smashed in the door that morning. He wanted Jessica to confirm this murder had been committed by the same person as the first two.

Jessica could answer that question honestly. ‘I don’t know that yet.’

‘What do you think, though?’

‘I think you’re putting me in an awkward position. We don’t have any results yet. I still shouldn’t be talking to you.’

‘I don’t have to use your name.’

Jessica thought for a few moments. ‘Who will you quote?’

‘A senior source close to the investigation.’

‘ “Senior?” ’

‘Okay. A “source” close to the investigation.’

‘ “Close?” ’

‘Come on . . . You’re taking the mick now.’

Jessica laughed. ‘Yeah, I am. Okay, fine, I do think it’s the same person but that is it. I owe you no more. We are even.’

‘All right.’

‘And no more phone calls. You’ve got to go through the press office like everyone else.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes! I know my sexy phone voice is a big turn-on for you but talking to the media can get me into trouble.’

Garry Ashford laughed awkwardly. ‘Okay.’

When Jessica arrived home, Caroline was waiting for her in the living room, alone. Jessica had gone to leave her bag and shoes in the usual position, on the floor by the door, when her friend turned around to look at her. ‘Hi,’ Caroline said.

‘Hi.’

‘Long day?’

‘Another body.’

Caroline raised her eyebrows in surprise. ‘You’re joking?’

‘I wish.’

They looked at each other and there was a short pause that Caroline broke. ‘Are we okay?’

‘Yeah, of course we are.’

‘I was only trying to help. I wanted to cheer you up.’

‘I know.’

‘What did he do?’

‘It doesn’t matter really.’

Jessica sat next to her friend on the sofa and hugged her. ‘Where’s Randy?’

They both giggled.

‘I told Randall I wanted to spend the evening in with you.’

‘That’s nice. Is he still looking after you?’

‘Yeah, he’s a great guy. He was really upset the other morning. Neither of us knew what had happened with you and Ryan. You had both left. We were there staring at each other in confusion. He felt bad his mate had upset you.’

‘It wasn’t his fault.’ Jessica moved slightly away from the embrace. ‘Wine?’

They both laughed again. ‘Of course.’

Jessica was feeling a lot better as she fetched a bottle from under the sink with some glasses. At some point, someone would call her with the results they were waiting on and they had Shaun Hogan to see on Monday. She was expecting a busy week and was pleased to have made up with her friend.

Back in the living room, she sat next to Caroline putting her feet up on the sofa and poured them each a glass of wine. ‘So is it getting serious with you two, then?’

‘Maybe,’ Caroline said with a smile. ‘He’s been talking about getting a new job. He’s had enough of working on the market now. He’s better than that anyway.’

Jessica weighed up what to say next. She knew what she wanted to ask. ‘Are you going to move in with him?’

It was something Jessica had been thinking about since she had first seen the two of them together, the way they looked at each other left the thought nestling in the back of her mind.

Caroline looked directly at her friend. ‘It was always going to happen to one of us sometime.’

‘I know. It’s a shame. We’ve had a good run.’

Jessica could see a tear in her friend’s eye but was determined not to cry herself after her recent sob fests. She put her arm around her friend. ‘What type of job is he looking for?’

‘I don’t know really. He’s only worked on that stall, fixing shoes and other bits and bobs. He’s skilled though. Good with his hands.’

Jessica burst out laughing.

‘Not like that,’ Caroline clarified, giggling herself through a thin stream of tears. ‘Dirty mind. He’s only young, he’ll find something.’

‘So now you’re admitting he’s young?’ Caroline smiled. ‘Cradle-snatcher,’ Jessica added with an even bigger grin.

‘Jealous.’

‘I’m pleased for you both.’

‘We had talked about looking for a place when he gets himself fixed up with a better job. It was his decision. I said I could afford it at first but he reckoned he couldn’t let me do that.’

‘You’re not going to move away away, are you?’

‘Of course not. You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.’

‘Shame, I could get some good rent for that room.’