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

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 35 (всего у книги 60 страниц)

28

‘What?’ Jessica said.

‘They’ve pulled a mobile phone out of the pipe that connects his sink to the wall. It was wrapped in a plastic bag to stop it getting wet.’

Jessica remembered wobbling that exact pipe when she had been in his cell, not knowing she was millimetres away from something that could have given them a break weeks ago. ‘How did they find it?’

‘Some routine cell check. It sounds like they surprised him and he didn’t have time to put the tubing together again properly. A guard noticed it was a little out of place and they found the phone.’

‘What’s happening now?’

‘The phone is being examined by the labs to see if they can get anything from it. There’s a basic call history we’ve already got but it’s just numbers at the moment. Farraday’s been going crazy.’

Jessica wondered if the DCI was frantic because he was worried his number was on the list. ‘Do we have matches for any of the numbers?’ It was almost as if someone was playing a trick as the reception on her phone crackled at that point and she couldn’t make out what Cole was saying.

‘Sorry? I can’t hear you.’ Jessica moved quickly around the car park to see if she could find a better spot and his voice reappeared mid-sentence. ‘Can you say that again?’ she asked.

‘Can you hear me now? I said there are no matches yet. We don’t need a warrant to check numbers to names but there were only two people McKenna had called and as far as we can tell they’re both unregistered pre-pay numbers.’

It was a long shot and she doubted the DCI was careless enough to let the prisoner have his main number but they finally had a lead. ‘What’s happening now?’

‘McKenna’s in isolation at least overnight. He’s been charged with unauthorised possession of a wireless communication device.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘For us directly? Not much – he’ll probably get a few months tagged onto his sentence but he’s already in for life. I’m guessing he won’t have a cell to himself any longer. I’ve booked us in to go see him tomorrow afternoon. If he’s actually been in contact with someone on the outside it gives us a whole new set of questions to ask.’

Jessica was feeling positive about the case for the first time in a while and said she would see him in the morning. If she could just connect one of those pre-pay phone numbers to the chief inspector that would be enough.

She dashed back into the hall and told Rowlands they had to go. They said their goodbyes to Carrie’s mother and Jessica promised to call if they had any major breaks.

In the taxi back to the station and on the train journey home, they talked about the development. Both of them were excited, passing theories back and forth. Jessica kept her thoughts about the DCI to herself but found it nice to chat like friends again.

‘Do you think he got the phone from that warden?’ Rowlands asked.

‘It’s hard to tell, but probably. I know we didn’t find any hidden bundles of cash but there was definitely something not right about Morgan’s bank records. If McKenna was starting to be linked with crimes happening outside of the prison it’s no wonder the warden was getting twitchy if he had smuggled a phone in. If he’d said something to the prisoner about it, maybe that was the trigger – McKenna just phoned whoever he knew on the outside and gave the word for the prison officer to be killed.’

‘You know how they get phones in, don’t you?’

‘I don’t really want to think about it.’

‘I read this article about some guy who was in court for sentencing and knew he was going to get sent down. He bought this phone from the newsagents and got a SIM card off one of his mates. He put it in one of those plastic sandwich bags, then lubed it up and shoved it up his arse.’

‘Eew.’

‘I know. He only got caught as he’d given the number to the guy who’d given him the SIM card and his mate phoned to ask how he’d got on in court. He hadn’t put it on silent and, because his case had been delayed, he was stood in the dock and the bloody thing started ringing.’

‘No way . . .’

‘Seriously. The judge didn’t realise what was going on at first and was telling whoever the phone belonged to they were in contempt, then one of the security guys realised it was the defendant. They checked his pockets and couldn’t find it then he told them where it was.’

‘Trust you to remember something like that.’

‘I’ve not even told you the best part yet. The ringtone was “The Birdie Song”. Stupid bastard was in court with the tune sounding out.’ Jessica laughed and, for the first time since Carrie had died, wasn’t even faking it.

When she arrived home, there was still a little tickle in the back of her mind telling her she should be watching DCI Farraday’s house just in case but, for the first time in days, she ignored it. With McKenna safely in isolation, there was no way any further crimes could be pinned on him and Jessica was confident the chief inspector wouldn’t risk anything.

She went into her bedroom planning to take a towel to the bathroom for a shower but her bed suddenly seemed incredibly appealing. Jessica reached under the covers to look for her nightwear but the sheets and duvet itself had an almost hypnotic hold as she breathed in their smell and finally allowed herself to succumb to the tiredness.

Jessica was feeling clear-headed and determined the next day, eager for the afternoon trip to the prison. She had slept through the entire night in her clothes from the day before. An alarm was permanently set on her phone but she hadn’t needed it recently. It was her saviour in the morning though, waking her up when she could have dozed through the day.

At the senior officer briefing, Jessica could see something had changed in Farraday’s attitude. The week before he had been combative and happy to throw his weight around but now he seemed downbeat. She still followed her earlier pledge to not openly defy him or push issues such as Carrie’s phone records but there was something in his demeanour that almost seemed resigned to whatever was going to happen.

She had half-expected him to announce he was going to interview Donald McKenna himself but that would have been hard for him to justify as he hadn’t had much to do with things – plus, if the prisoner was looking to admit to anything, it wouldn’t have helped the chief inspector’s cause to be present.

At the prison, Jessica and Cole were greeted in the reception area by Dennis but she was relieved to see they weren’t the only visitors at that time. After they had been scanned, they were left to talk among themselves as the man continued registering the afternoon’s other visitors. Instead of the governor meeting them, it was someone Jessica didn’t recognise. They introduced themselves as one of the senior wardens and led the officers along the familiar path up to the interview room.

Cole checked the recording equipment and asked Jessica if she wanted to lead the questioning.

‘Just try to stop me.’

McKenna was brought in handcuffed alongside his usual solicitor but he was looking far more dishevelled than the previous time they had met. There was a five o’clock shadow on his chin and his dark hair had started to grow out. He was beginning to look his age too, his wrinkles far more defined, but it was his eyes that surprised Jessica the most. The cool confidence he had displayed before had been replaced by the same look of defiance and resignation most prisoners had when you looked them in the eyes.

‘How was the isolation cell?’ Jessica asked when they were all sitting. The prisoner said nothing and wouldn’t look at her directly. ‘I’ve seen those rooms,’ she continued. ‘Not very nice, are they? One big stone slab on the floor to sleep on, all that noise of the other prisoners screaming through the night. What was the smell like? That’s where all the dirty protestors end up, isn’t it? Bit of a difference from having a cosy double cell to yourself, I reckon.’

McKenna wasn’t reacting and Jessica could sense his solicitor was about to step in. ‘So let’s talk about the phone, shall we?’ The prisoner was staring at his own cuffed hands, refusing to speak or acknowledge he was being asked anything. ‘Oh, come on, Donald, you were so keen to engage the last few times we’ve been in. Aren’t we friends any longer? You can’t have been that quiet on the phone, well, unless you used it for dirty phone calls. Is that what gets you off, all that heavy breathing?’

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘So were you just using the phone to play games or something? Maybe you needed the calendar on there to manage your busy diary? What is it? Wake up 7a.m, breakfast at eight, table tennis at nine, pottery classes at eleven? I don’t think you need a phone to remind you of all that.’

McKenna’s solicitor finally interrupted. ‘Is there really any need to taunt my client?’

‘Oh, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings. I know he must be of a delicate persuasion.’

The inmate had clearly had enough and banged his fists on the table. ‘Just ask your damn questions.’

‘Fine. Question number one: where did you get the phone that was found in your cell?’

‘No comment.’

‘It wasn’t a miracle then? It didn’t just materialise out of nowhere?’

‘Don’t ridicule my beliefs.’

‘Faith still strong?’

‘I fight temptation every day. Sometimes I don’t reach the levels I should.’

Jessica nodded. McKenna still hadn’t met her eyes but the final words did actually sound genuine. She had no idea if his religious conversion was genuine or not but pushing him on it wasn’t going to get her anywhere. ‘Who did you call? We know there were two numbers but who did they belong to?’

‘No comment.’

‘How long have you had it?’

‘No comment.’

Jessica sighed and looked behind her towards Cole, then at the man’s solicitor before finally focusing on the prisoner again. ‘What are you hoping to achieve by refusing to answer questions?’

‘What have I got to gain? I’m probably going to die in here so what do you want me to say? Grasses aren’t very popular around these parts.’

‘Okay, but if you are a believer and genuinely have no knowledge of everything that has been going on outside of here, then why wouldn’t you do everything possible to clear your name?’

‘I’m at peace with myself. I know I’ve done nothing wrong and if you don’t believe me then maybe it is part of His plan?’

‘So why not tell me about the phone? Tell us who you were talking to and why you had it.’

‘No.’

‘Did you have Lee Morgan killed because he smuggled you in the mobile and was beginning to ask questions?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘It’s how you did it though, isn’t it? Is that why you allowed your accomplice to plant your blood and hairs at the scene, so that we’d be looking at you instead of them?’

‘No comment.’

‘Why won’t you give us the name? Is it because you’re scared?’

‘Mortals don’t frighten me. I’m only worried by His judgement when the day of reckoning comes.’

‘I thought you said you didn’t want to “grass” because of what could happen.’ McKenna said nothing. ‘If you’re so worried about your day of reckoning, wouldn’t it be better to tell us everything you know?

The prisoner clearly had no intention of adding anything and his solicitor spoke again. ‘Detectives, I’ve said before, if you want to charge my client with anything then please do so. You can’t keep returning here and endlessly ask him the same questions over and over. He has repeatedly told you he knows nothing.’

Jessica looked from the solicitor back to McKenna. She had one final question and wanted to make sure she could see any changes to his expression. ‘Final question then, Donald. Is the reason you won’t talk to us because there’s someone in authority you’re worried about? Perhaps a person that’s high up in the prison service or a senior police officer?’ She felt Cole fidget nervously in the seat next to her but more importantly thought she saw the smallest amount of recognition on the prisoner’s face. His top lip and the bottom part of his nose twitched as if he were about to say something but he stayed silent.

‘I think we’re done here,’ Jessica said. She had been thinking of Farraday and wondered if that was what had crossed McKenna’s mind when she thought she saw that flicker of movement.

After the prisoner had been escorted out, Jessica and Cole were left in the interview room waiting for someone to take them back to the entrance. ‘What was that last question about?’ he asked.

‘Nothing really, I was just wondering if there’s someone else working here who might have something to hide?’

Jessica wasn’t sure if her superior was convinced but he didn’t follow his question up.

‘Didn’t get much, did we?’ he asked instead.

‘I don’t think either of us were really expecting to. The problem with the life prisoners is they have nothing to lose by keeping quiet. It’s not as if their sentence is going to be overturned. I still don’t know if this whole religion thing is a front but either way he doesn’t have much to say.’

A minute or two later, a guard knocked on the door and led them back to the front office. Dennis asked them both to sign out and they walked through the main doors towards the car. As they got to the vehicle, Jessica started flicking through the files she was holding. ‘I think I might have left something in reception. Can you wait here a minute?’ she said.

Cole looked a little confused but shrugged his shoulders and nodded. Jessica walked quickly back to the office. She knew she hadn’t left anything but there was one more thing she wanted to do. She beckoned Dennis over towards the door away from any of the other staff in the room. He looked surprised to see her returning but moved over to her.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

‘Dennis, how long have you worked here?’

He seemed confused and a little shy given that she was talking to him directly. He stuttered as he replied. ‘A few years.’

‘Have you always been on reception?’

‘Yes but I’m in the training programme so I can move onto the wings.’

‘Do all visitors come through here?’

‘Yes, this is where the body scanners are. Even the governor and staff have to pass through them each day.’

Jessica reached into one of the envelopes she was carrying and took out a clipping from the previous week’s newspaper. Originally it had been a story about Carrie’s death but at the bottom of the page had been a photograph of DCI Farraday that was taken at a press conference. Jessica had cut the photo out without its caption so it wasn’t obvious who the image was of. She handed it over to Dennis. ‘Do you know if this man has ever visited here? Maybe in the past six months or so?’

Dennis took the picture and looked at it, narrowing his eyes and then pushing out his bottom lip. ‘He sort of seems familiar but I wouldn’t want to say for sure. I can ask around if you want?’

‘That’s fine,’ she said. ‘I’ll give you my number.’

She didn’t want to give him an official card so instead wrote her mobile number on the back of the picture. ‘Can you try to be discreet. Only call me if someone’s sure they’ve seen this person. It doesn’t really help if people aren’t one hundred per cent certain.’

Dennis nodded nervously at her.

Jessica left the reception for the second time in a few minutes and headed back to the car. She knew it was a gamble but thought of Carrie’s mother and the funeral she had been at the previous day. She wanted a result for them. If news did somehow make its way back to the chief inspector she would simply say Dennis had misunderstood what she asked him to do. She doubted the man would end up reporting anything though. Cole had been right on their first visit and the man’s nervousness had given him away; he definitely had a thing for her. Jessica hoped he didn’t follow it up by calling her for no reason.

As she was approaching her car, Jessica took her phone out to turn the volume back up having muted it for the visit. She had a few unimportant emails but also a missed call and another text message from Adam. She thought about deleting it but out of pure curiosity she clicked to open it.

‘Call me pls. Urgent. Not abt us.’

Jessica had reached the car but didn’t open the door to get in. She didn’t particularly want to talk to him but the way he had worded the message was different to the others he had sent. Jessica ducked to look through the car’s window and catch Cole’s eye. She pointed to her phone to let him know she had to make a call. He nodded and she turned around, leaning back on the car before dialling Adam’s number.

He answered after one ring. ‘Hello?’

‘Hi, Adam.’

‘Oh God, look, um, thanks for calling.’ Jessica hoped she hadn’t been duped into contacting him for personal reasons. She knew it was all her fault but couldn’t face things just yet. He soon told her the reason for calling. ‘I’ve not told my boss yet, Jess, but I think I’ve got something. I’ve tested and re-tested all morning. I think Donald McKenna has a sister.’

29

Jessica felt an enormous sense of familiarity as it had only been a day ago she’d had a phone conversation where she couldn’t quite take in what she was being told. ‘I’m sorry, what?’

‘A sister. I know there’s nothing in his birth records or anything like that but there’s something not right here.’

‘Are you at Bradford Park?’

‘Yes.’

‘We’re coming over.’ Jessica hung up and quickly got in the car, telling Cole they had to go to the laboratories. When he asked why, she said she wasn’t completely sure but something big was happening.

She knew from experience the inspector was a steady driver but tried to stay patient during the journey across the city. Jessica had seen the records herself which all said Donald McKenna was an only child. An officer had even photocopied his birth certificate and related family documents from the local register office and they knew there were no other known relatives. The idea of him having a sister was barely believable.

Eventually they pulled into the labs’ car park and Jessica made for reception, Cole lagging behind. Her haste didn’t do her any good as they had to wait for someone to lead them through to the lab areas anyway. They were greeted by a woman Jessica didn’t know and Adam, who nervously kept his eyes on the floor. She introduced herself as the head scientist for the facility and knew Jessica because they had talked on the phone. She led them into a small office where the four of them sat around a table.

‘I know why you’re here,’ the woman said, ‘but I should tell you we don’t have one hundred per cent confirmation for you yet. I think Adam should be able to fill you in.’

Adam looked at Cole and his boss but refused to acknowledge Jessica. She didn’t blame him but hung on everything he said. ‘We had a routine request come in this morning from the Avon and Somerset Police force. They arrested a woman in Bristol last week on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. Because of the severity of the incident she was remanded but in the meantime they logged her swab onto the National DNA Database. That’s all completely normal but what happens on the system is that it links together family members.’

His boss cut in. ‘The reason it does that is if we go to a scene and get a blood sample or something like that, we might not find an exact match for it in the database because the person has no criminal record. But we could end up with something like a fifty per cent match which would indicate the culprit was a parent or sibling of someone we already had registered.’

‘That’s pretty clever,’ Cole said. ‘So even if you don’t have the person on your system you can tell if they’re related?’

‘Right,’ said the woman. ‘Sorry, Adam, you tell them.’ Jessica said nothing, eagerly waiting to hear what they had found.

‘After they logged the DNA, it gave them a quarter match to Donald McKenna, which might mean this woman was his half-sister or aunt or niece or something like that. Because Mr McKenna has no known relatives, they called this morning to say it looked like there might be a mistake on the system. It wouldn’t usually happen but an error like that would be so rare the guy down there thought he would check.’

The female scientist cut in again. ‘With the notoriety of McKenna at the moment, Adam did a full retest on the sample and passed it back through to the Bristol labs where they confirmed it. This woman is definitely related to him.’

‘Do we know how?’ Jessica asked.

‘I don’t want to baffle you all with science but we check something called “mitochondrial DNA”,’ the woman said. ‘This is only inherited from your mother and is how you can follow a family line backwards. Through looking at that, we know McKenna and the woman in Bristol are half-siblings and have the same mother but different fathers.’

‘Does that mean this woman could be responsible for the murders up here?’ Jessica asked.

‘No, it’s not as simple as that,’ the lab manager answered. ‘We know this woman is related but, at the same time, her sample is still different to her half-brother’s. It’s only a partial match.’

‘Has anyone told this woman or asked her if she knows McKenna?’ Cole asked.

‘I can’t tell you if she already knows but, from our end, the only people aware are us and the Bristol lab.’

‘Good work,’ Jessica said.

‘It’s Adam you should thank,’ his boss replied. ‘He was the one who spotted it. We have one final round of testing to do but you’ll have confirmation one way or the other by the end of the day.’

Adam kept his head down as Cole congratulated him and Jessica made sure she spoke at the exact same time as her boss so her words would be drowned out.

‘While we’re here,’ Jessica said, ‘is this where McKenna’s phone was brought?’

‘Yes and no,’ replied the female scientist. ‘It is this building but on a different floor. I can take you up if you want?’

Jessica was relieved that Adam stayed behind as the woman led them upstairs towards a department that worked with electronics. They didn’t get anything new from the people who had been testing the phone though. The expert said they had only been able to extract the numbers that had been stored in the phone book, which they already had. As far as they could tell it had never called a different number, had never received a call and no text messages had either been sent or opened.

Pretty much the only thing it did tell them was that, whatever was happening, it was likely McKenna was calling the shots in one way or another as people weren’t calling him, he was phoning them.

Back at the station, Jessica was looking forward to telling Farraday what had happened. Cole did the speaking but Jessica didn’t take her eyes from the DCI. She wondered if he already knew about McKenna’s sister and if she was somehow connected to everything that was going on. If he did know, or if he was surprised, he showed no emotion at all.

Having already spent large parts of one day on a train to Wales that week, Jessica had another journey to Bristol, this time with Cole. Neither of them were big on small talk and Jessica spent the trip flicking through a magazine and reading Internet sites on her phone. She had half-expected either Adam or Dennis to message her the night before but there had been no contact. For the second evening running she felt confident enough not to watch the chief inspector’s house and had another uninterrupted night of sleep.

After their train arrived at the station, they caught a taxi from the rank outside but the driver didn’t know where he was going. Jessica checked the papers she had printed out the night before and told him the prison they were looking for was next to a village called ‘Falfield’ north of the city.

Eastwood Park Prison was about as different to Manchester’s as Jessica could have imagined. The one in the north handled 1,300 of the most serious male offenders with the one McKenna’s half-sister was at holding 350 lower-risk females. Strangeways was full of heavy metal doors and cells that stretched three storeys high but the building Jessica and Cole were shown into had a mixture of one– and two-storey rooms and everything was decorated in more delicate cream and red colours.

Back at Manchester, even when the wing had been cleared for her to look at McKenna’s cell, Jessica had felt an air of menace that wasn’t present at the women’s prison. She didn’t doubt there were still plenty of unsavoury things that went on behind closed doors but thought the atmosphere was more geared towards education and rehabilitation than it was where McKenna was based.

The governor greeted them both at the entrance of the prison and was far cheerier than the one at Strangeways. The previous evening, Cole had established the prisoner’s name was Mary O’Connor and spoke to the governor, assuring him the woman wasn’t suspected of any further crime but that they wanted to speak to her as a potential witness.

On arrival, they first went to the governor’s office where they explained to him their situation and said there was a good chance Mary might not know she had a brother. It was good practice given as the man’s staff would have to deal with the prisoner once they had left.

He led them through to an empty visiting room and Mary O’Connor was brought through uncuffed and sat opposite them. Two prison guards stood close enough to act if there were any problems but far enough away so they weren’t in earshot. Jessica introduced herself and DI Cole and explained they had travelled down from Manchester to see her.

The woman had long black hair with grey strands around her ears. Facially she wasn’t similar to McKenna but Jessica could see her light blue eyes were identical; they must have inherited them from their mother. The colour seemed familiar to Jessica in another way too but she couldn’t place them.

Jessica checked the woman’s name and then her age. ‘What I’ve got to say may or may not come as a shock to you, Mary,’ Jessica said. ‘But do you know you have a brother?’

The woman smiled at them. ‘Not me, you must be thinking of another Mary O’Connor. I was brought up on my own and my ma and dad died years ago.’

‘I’m sorry, Mary, but we’re not telling you this because of your name, it’s because of the mouth swab you gave when you were arrested. I don’t want to make it too complicated but basically that sample was matched to someone else in prison and it shows you’re related as you have the same mother.’

Mary’s smile had begun to slip as Jessica spoke and her expression was now a look of pure puzzlement. She had an accent that was hard to place. There was definitely a twinge of Irish but something from the local area too. ‘Is he younger or older than me?’

‘Younger by a couple of years.’

‘See, that’s why it must be a mistake. My ma couldn’t have children after me. She always told me they wanted to have a big family but there was some medical problem so I ended up on my own.’

‘I can’t tell you whether what you were told was right or not, Mary, but these tests aren’t wrong. I know it’s a bit scientific but we brought these papers down for you.’

Jessica reached into an envelope and pushed some sheets across the table. She had looked over them herself on the train. The language wasn’t the clearest but even from the graphics you could see that whatever it was displaying matched the other part. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t read well,’ the woman said. Jessica told Mary the man’s name was Donald McKenna and did her best to show her the parts of the chart she should be looking at but felt hampered as she wasn’t completely certain either.

The woman rubbed her head and grimaced. ‘If this is right, what are you saying? That my mum is his mum?’

‘Well, that’s partly why we’re here, we don’t know. We have a copy of Mr McKenna’s birth certificate and wondered if we could compare it to yours?’

‘You’ll do well, I’ve never had one.’

Jessica looked to Cole and back again. ‘How is that possible?’

‘My ma and dad were travellers and we moved around a lot. There was always some kind of work. Usually you’d get married in the community but they died before I was an adult and it wasn’t the life for me. I ended up settling around this area.’

‘But how did you get work, a passport or driving licence?’

‘Never had a passport or driving licence but I did get a national insurance number. I don’t know if it’s easier now but I got passed from agency to agency back then. Event ually someone was given my case and sorted it out. They told me it’s not completely uncommon for traveller children to be unregistered and reckoned they get three or four every year. It didn’t stop them arsing me about for a couple of years but I ended up with a number that lets me work. I still don’t have a birth certificate though.’

Mary looked as if it was a story she was familiar with telling. Given the employers, councils and other organisations that would have asked the question over the years, it wasn’t surprising.

‘That’s mad,’ Jessica said.

‘You’re telling me. I’ve had to put up with this all my life.’

A possibility was occurring to Jessica. ‘Mary, can I ask you something personal?’

The woman looked back at her. ‘I think you’re going to ask me something I’ve had in the back of my mind for the past fifty-odd years.’

‘Do you think there’s a chance your parents weren’t actually your parents?’

Tears suddenly formed in the prisoner’s eyes and Jessica felt guilty for asking it. Given she was locked up, Mary was about as calm an inmate as Jessica had ever met. She found herself wondering how on earth this mild person in front of her had assaulted someone seriously enough to end up here. Jessica motioned for one of the guards, who picked up some tissues from one of the other tables and brought them over. Mary took one and blew her nose. ‘I guess it would answer a lot of questions,’ she finally said through the tears.

‘The problem is, Mary, that Mr McKenna’s mother has also passed away and there’s no father listed on his birth certificate. Without your parents, the way I understand it is that we have no way of knowing whether you and he shared “your” mother or “his” mother. All we know is that you definitely had different fathers. Your dad could well still be your own.’