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

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 57 (всего у книги 60 страниц)

32

Jessica made an awkward phone call to tell Caroline she was going to be spending the day before her wedding in Nottingham. Jessica assured her friend she would be back to stay at hers that evening but wasn’t actually certain herself. Caroline took it well – they had known each other for long enough for her friend to realise sometimes the police work took over. The final thing Caroline said was, ‘Please don’t miss it’.

Because she didn’t want to rely on trains to get her back to Manchester on time, Jessica called Rowlands to ask if he would drive them down to the Midlands the next day. He was still roaring around in a boy racer-style car but it did at least seem reliable, something her vehicle most certainly was not. Jessica updated Cole with what was happening and was surprised at how much attention he gave her given the break in the Johnson case. He even offered to go to Nottingham with her but she knew he should probably be at their station with the clock ticking on the garage owner.

It was after eleven at night when Jessica finally got around to packing the things she needed to stay at Caroline’s.

Rowlands picked her up from her house the next morning. Jessica found the journey relatively stressful, largely because of the motorway traffic jams and the fact she hadn’t slept much. Her colleague kept fishing to ask who she was taking to the wedding but she ignored him. Jessica wouldn’t have admitted it to him but Rowlands was a pretty good driver. He weaved them in and out of the slow-moving traffic, getting them off at the correct junction without too much hassle before finding the police station as if he had memorised the route.

As they pulled up, Jessica hurried out of the car, leaving her colleague to offer a sarcastic ‘You’re welcome’.

‘You’ll get your thanks when you get me back to Manchester in time,’ Jessica called, not looking backwards.

The police station was a lot smaller than the one they were used to back at Longsight. It was on the outskirts of Nottingham in a little community of its own. It had just one storey and an unmanned front desk where Jessica had to ring a bell to summon someone to meet them. Sam Kellett had been let go the previous evening and asked to return to be interviewed the next day. According to the officer Jessica had spoken to, the woman was fine with that but was worried about her husband finding out she had visited the police.

Jessica’s instinct told her those were the actions of someone shocked to see their own face on the news, not a person who had spent the last few weeks chopping off hands and leaving them in public.

After ringing the bell, nobody came to the reception. Jessica shared a sideways look with Rowlands but wasn’t in the mood to be messed around. She started banging the bell with the palm of her hand repeatedly until eventually a red-faced overweight woman bundled into the area behind the glass counter.

‘Oi, what do you think . . .’ the woman started to say angrily but Jessica took her identification out of her pocket.

‘We’re down from Manchester to interview Samantha Kellett. I was assured you’d have a room ready for us.’

The woman glanced up at a clock behind her on the wall. ‘You’re a bit early like.’

Jessica nodded. ‘Yep, we’re an efficient bunch up north.’ She wasn’t annoyed with the woman as such and knew the over-zealous ringing of the bell was a little childish given the station was most likely very understaffed. Ultimately, she wanted things sorted one way or the other so she could get back to Manchester.

The officer behind the counter unlocked a nearby door, ushering Jessica and Rowlands through. ‘Sorry, there are just three of us in today. We’d love to be as efficient as you but we have budgets to stick to and so on.’

Jessica said nothing, knowing she deserved the little dig. The woman led them down a short corridor through a locked door and into an interview room that wasn’t too dissimilar to the one Jessica was used to at Longsight. Neither looked as if they had been updated in the past fifteen years with peeling dreary cream paint on the walls and a sweaty musty smell.

The other officer stood in the doorway as Jessica and Rowlands stepped into the room. She gave a big sigh before speaking. ‘In our notes it says Samantha Kellett is due to be back here by ten o’clock so you’ve got half an hour. You can hang around here and make sure everything’s up to your standards or there’s a coffee machine just down the hall. We’ll make sure she’s brought through when she gets here. Is there anything else I can help you with?’

Jessica was definitely feeling a little silly for her earlier outburst and the other officer was clearly annoyed.

‘Does your tea machine spit out drinks that taste vaguely of washing-up liquid the way ours does?’ Jessica asked.

The woman stared at them for a moment then laughed. ‘I guess that’s the standard nationwide. Don’t risk the hot chocolate either, that tastes worse.’

‘Thanks for the tip.’

When they were alone, Jessica checked the recording equipment over and everything seemed in a better condition than theirs, which wasn’t a surprise. It didn’t take long before there was a knock at the door and a nervous-looking young male officer showed Sam into the room.

Jessica could see a lot of herself in the woman. They were roughly the same age and had the same figure. The woman’s hair was black, Jessica’s was a dark blonde, but they both had it in loose ponytails and were even dressed similarly. Jessica was wearing a light grey work suit, Sam’s was slightly darker.

The woman sat across the table from them and, when the door was shut, Jessica introduced herself and Rowlands and checked Sam’s name. ‘You do know you’re allowed a legal representative with you,’ she added.

‘I don’t need one,’ Sam said confidently.

‘Are you sure? We can arrange for someone to talk to you for free.’

‘It’s fine, I haven’t done anything.’

‘As long as you’re absolutely positive.’

Sam looked determinedly at Jessica. ‘Why did you put my picture on the news?’

‘We’re investigating . . .’ Jessica started to say but she was interrupted.

‘I had to lie to my husband and tell him it wasn’t me. He pointed out how similar I looked to the photograph and I had to say I didn’t know anything about it.’

‘So you admit it is you in the photograph with Edward Marks?’

The woman twitched ever so slightly as if trying to suppress a full-on shiver at the mention of the name. ‘What of it?’

‘Can I ask you how you knew Mr Marks?’

Sam’s eyes narrowed. ‘Do you already know?’

‘We’ve been told . . . certain things.’

‘So why do you need me to tell you?’

‘Because we don’t know if what was told to us is true.’

The woman sighed, looking away. ‘Why are you bringing this back up? It was over ten years ago. I’ve moved on.’ For the first time her voice faltered slightly.

Jessica wasn’t usually nervous in interviews but she knew this one wasn’t going to get her anything. Everything about the way the woman had spoken initially and how she had handed herself in indicated she had nothing to hide. ‘Do you know what happened to Mr Marks and his friends from that holiday?’ she asked.

The woman turned sharply and looked back at Jessica. ‘I don’t care.’

‘One is definitely dead, the other five are assumed murdered.’

‘I saw about the hands on the news. What does it matter?’

‘Because you’re the one connection we have that goes back to the six of them.’ Jessica paused and then added, ‘And, from what we’ve been told, you might well have had the motive.’

Sam snorted, looking away with tears in her eyes. ‘You’re joking, right? I mean, when I read about the picture you’d released I wondered why you wanted me. I thought perhaps you might have thought I was a witness to something, maybe even that you wanted to investigate what happened back then. I should have known you were going to accuse me of, I don’t know, whatever. It’s like those shit cop shows.’

‘We’re not accusing you of anything.’

‘Why am I here then?’ Sam was shouting now, emotional, standing and pushing back her chair.

Jessica was lost for words and surprised when Rowlands spoke. ‘It’s okay, Sam.’ They were the first words he had uttered since the woman had entered the room. The outcome was strange because he had only said three words but it was almost as if hearing her own name calmed the woman. Sam looked at him and regained her composure, sitting and staring back at Jessica.

‘We’re not out to trip you up,’ Jessica said, trying to sound reassuring.

‘What do you want to know?’

‘I know it’s going to be hard but can you tell us what happened on holiday eleven years ago?’

Sam looked sideways to Dave, who gave a small nod. The woman said she had initially enjoyed a holiday romance with Edward but then went on to confirm more or less everything Steven Povey had told them. Her mood veered from anger to upset and back again before eventually finishing calmly.

‘This is the first time I’ve told anyone about this since it happened,’ she added. ‘My husband doesn’t know and we’ve been together for five years. We’ve got two kids.’

Sam seemed steady and Jessica made sure she was all right to continue talking. The woman nodded, and said she wanted everything finished with. ‘We have got to ask you about your whereabouts over the past few weeks,’ Jessica said.

‘Can I use my phone? My diary is on there.’

Jessica ran through the dates the hands had been left, as well as the nights before and a few other random times in between. With the exception of one instance, Sam had an alibi for everything. She helped out in clubs for her children and her family had recently been on a week-long holiday with friends. Rowlands took notes of everything and it would be checked discreetly but Jessica knew it would all match up. With her husband also with her on the holiday, it seemed to rule him out too.

Sam asked if they could keep everything from her husband and Jessica assured her they would try. He wasn’t a suspect and, although they would check the details of the holiday and make sure he was there, it didn’t necessarily mean he had to be informed. The woman repeated she had never told anyone, including her parents, about what had happened, insisting she’d had no contact with any of the men after that night in Faliraki. Jessica believed her and asked for the woman’s maiden name, if only for their records.

They released her and Jessica gave the woman her card just in case she managed to think of anything. Jessica phoned Cole to tell him what had happened but the car journey back to Manchester proved to be something of an inquest, the only positive that they would be back in plenty of time for Jessica to get to Caroline’s house.

‘Poor woman,’ Rowlands said.

‘It’s my fault,’ Jessica replied. ‘I didn’t know what else to do and ended up sticking her face on the news for no reason other than the fact she was attacked eleven years ago. She spent all this time getting over it then I punished her for it.’

‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Dave said but Jessica knew it was. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t had many other options; it was her who had gone to the DCI and asked to work with the press office. Jessica didn’t reply but it wasn’t long before Rowlands asked the question she knew she didn’t have the answer to. ‘What do we do now?’

Unless another hand showed up unexpectedly, they were completely out of leads. ‘I really don’t know,’ Jessica said, not even trying to hide her dejection.

Between the two of them, they went over everything that had happened so far. They still had the CCTV footage of the woman in black but no clue as to the person’s identity and, now that Sam Kellett had pretty much been ruled out – although it would take some time to officially check her alibis – no reason why the person was making things so public.

They could return to the lists of college-leavers but everything had already been gone over once and, as the holiday photo had shown, the links between the young men could be widespread and unexpected. Jessica felt deflated and unsure what she should do next.

Because of the light traffic, they had time to go via the station. Jessica went to Cole’s office, reiterating what she had told him on the phone. She would arrange for an officer to formally check Sam Kellett’s whereabouts but had no doubts it would be accurate.

Cole said the garage owner had started to speak in the Johnson case. The man apparently had text messages that could implicate George Johnson but the chief inspector said that was information that couldn’t get out. Jessica felt strange that something so big was going on where she worked but that she wasn’t a part of it and even worse that her case had stalled. They agreed to leave things over the weekend, which would give them a chance to think things over, then decide where to go next on Monday. It wasn’t ideal but, with Caroline’s wedding, Jessica didn’t have any better ideas.

Jessica tried to have a fun evening with her friend on her ‘last evening of freedom’ party as Caroline had dubbed it. The two women drank and reminisced about their younger days. Jessica tried to put to the back of her mind the feelings of failure and inertia at having her investigation come to a halt. She happily shared bottles of wine and the more she drank, the more she felt able to laugh and join in. Caroline asked who she was bringing the following day but Jessica remained tight-lipped. ‘You don’t know him,’ was all she would say, adding she had arranged to meet the person at the church.

The Saturday morning was a rush of people coming and going from Caroline’s flat. The bride-to-be had a small team of her friends and relatives from the groom’s side coming round to help her get ready, with Jessica left to sort herself and the other bridesmaids into their light blue dresses. The two younger bridesmaids were relatively cooperative and their parents were also present to help, which was a relief. The girly atmosphere wasn’t really to her taste and she was glad when everyone had finally left and it was just her and Caroline alone waiting for the car to take them to the church. The bride anxiously watched the clock on her wall as Jessica tried to assure her everything would be fine.

The car was on time, as Jessica said it would be, and she helped her friend into the rear seat. As the driver set off for the short journey, the two women were sitting next to each other but turned so they could talk face-to-face.

‘It’s really happening,’ Caroline said with a nervous giggle.

Jessica smiled back. ‘I wondered what all the dresses and fancy car were about.’

Caroline laughed again. ‘What do you think of Thomas?’

‘He picked you, so he’s got pretty good taste.’

‘I’ve been wondering if I’m on the rebound because of . . . y’know, Randall.’ Caroline’s voice had dropped at the mention of his name and she paused for a moment before continuing. ‘I’m sorry things drifted between us after that.’

Jessica looked into her friend’s eyes. ‘It’s not your fault. Things happened and it’s where we are now that matters.’

‘Do you think I’m on the rebound?’

Jessica didn’t know whether to answer honestly but it wasn’t really in her nature to stay quiet, even at what could be inopportune times. ‘I don’t know, you tell me,’ she replied.

Caroline blinked back tears and laughed. ‘I wanted you to say “no”.’

Jessica could tell her friend was being half-serious. ‘Sorry . . .’

‘It’s all right. I don’t know either. He’s nice though and he loves me, that’s what matters.’ Jessica said nothing, letting her friend get things off her chest. ‘It’s just big-day nerves,’ Caroline added. ‘I’m not going to make a dash for it when we get to the altar.’

‘I don’t think you’d get too far in those heels anyway.’

The church was a small building in a little village on the outskirts of the city that had been on the same site for hundreds of years. As the sun shone and the two women stepped out of the vehicle, the photographer rushed in, taking photo after photo. Jessica hated having her picture taken at the best of the times but she gritted her teeth and did her best to smile, knowing this was bad enough but the posed pictures that would be taken after the ceremony would really test her patience.

When he finally left them to enter the church and get into position for the aisle walk, Jessica looked up to see the setting properly. The picturesque church and its green surroundings, along with the bright blue sky, really was like something on the front of a postcard.

‘This is lovely,’ Jessica said.

Caroline looked a little emotional as they walked the short distance to the church’s main doors. They entered a small room just inside where the other bridesmaids were waiting with their parents before the adults went into the main part of the church, leaving just the four of them.

As the church organ started up with the opening chords of the wedding march, Jessica winked at her friend. ‘Deep breath.’

They stepped out of the room and began to slowly walk down the aisle. Aside from the organ, Jessica could only hear shuffling as people turned en masse to look at them walking together. Jessica had visions of tripping and wiping out her friend along with the other bridesmaids but kept a careful eye on where she was stepping.

They neared the front and Jessica glanced up to see the grinning face of Thomas and his best man then glanced to her left and almost gasped with embarrassment. The man sitting on the end of the line two rows back caught Jessica’s eye and smiled. She could see he was wearing a purple velvet smoking jacket along with dark green trousers. Jessica couldn’t see what shoes he had on, if any, but dreaded to think what they could be.

‘What are you wearing?’ Jessica mouthed silently to the man but he shook his head as if to indicate he hadn’t understood. She stopped looking at him and continued to walk until the small party arrived at the front and the organ went quiet.

It was clearly a little strange for her to be giving Caroline away but everyone involved must have known the situation. The ceremony went as would have been expected but Jessica felt self-conscious standing at the front.

After it was over and the newly married couple walked back down the aisle towards the outside of the church, Jessica didn’t waste the opportunity to slide in next to the man two rows back.

‘What are you wearing?’ she demanded in a loud whisper as the church organ blared again.

‘What?’ he said.

Jessica looked down to see he was wearing a pair of canvas trainers that matched his jacket. ‘You’re wearing purple shoes, a purple jacket and green trousers to a wedding. What kind of idiot wears trainers to a wedding?’

The man shook his head as if he didn’t understand the point. ‘You said “dress smartly”.’

‘Exactly!’

‘These are my best clothes.’

Realising she wasn’t going to win the argument, Jessica stood back up, offering the man her arm to exit the church. ‘You and I are going to have to go shopping, Hugo.’

33

The other people at the wedding seemed part-bemused, part-amused by Hugo. His real name was Francis but he was a magician who used ‘Hugo’ as a stage name. Jessica had first met him a couple of years ago and, although not a friend as such, she figured he was as good a person as anyone to take to a wedding. There was no real attraction but her thinking had been he could at least entertain the other guests. She’d overlooked the fact he could also embarrass her but, given this was the first time she had ever seen him wearing shoes that matched, Jessica figured it could have been worse. He did at least look as if he had combed his hair for the occasion, his shoulder-length brown locks as tidy as she had seen them. The one good thing was that Caroline fell in the ‘amused’ rather than ‘bemused’ camp.

Jessica tried to pretend she was enjoying herself as she was yanked, sometimes literally, from one posed photo to another. By the end of it, she could quite happily have cut off the photographer’s hand to stop him putting it in the air every time he wanted the assembled people to smile and say ‘cheese’.

When the organised picture-taking was over, Jessica finally got a chance to catch up with her parents. She had seen them in the church but only to wave to while, before that, she hadn’t seen them in a few months. Her dad took the opportunity to tease her about her new ‘boyfriend’.

The bride and groom had gone off to their hotel room for a few hours before they were going to return to the party. When the youngest bridesmaid had asked why they weren’t just going directly to the reception, Caroline had told her she and her new husband were going to ‘rest’, completely ignoring Jessica’s inadvertent snort of laughter.

‘Enjoy your “rest”,’ Jessica said with a giggle.

With a few hours to kill, Jessica, Hugo and her parents went to a local pub for a chat before heading to the reception venue. Hugo didn’t seem to mind the fact he wasn’t really involved in the conversations and happily sat around watching people go by. Jessica wondered if he was feeling hot in the velvet jacket but, if he was, he said nothing. After a couple of drinks, she even began to warm to his outfit and, before long, they had to catch a taxi to the reception itself.

The party was being held in a massive conference room at a nearby golf club where Thomas’s father was apparently one of the higher-up members. Huge bay windows on one side of the room opened out onto the course itself and it was along there where the long head table was placed.

Jessica saw from the seating plan that she was on the main table with Caroline on one side and Hugo on the other. It was the traditional spot the father of the bride might have had and she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. Her parents were on one of the circular tables placed around the room. Each one was named after a different country for a reason Jessica didn’t know. Her parents were on ‘Canada’, which was next to ‘New Zealand’.

Although Caroline told her she didn’t have to, Jessica had spent some of her free time trying to put together a speech. Despite that, when the moment came after the meal, she just ad-libbed, talking about her friend and telling the story of how they met quite by chance because they ended up sitting next to each other in a lesson many years ago. She ended with a standard ‘Congratulations’ and sat down, leaving it to the best man to poke fun at the groom.

Just when it looked as if everything was completed, with the staff hovering ready to start moving the tables so the floor could be cleared, Jessica heard someone else tinkling their glass. She looked sideways and saw Hugo rising to his feet, tapping his knife on his champagne flute to get people’s attention. Caroline nudged Jessica with her elbow and the two women exchanged the same ‘What’s going on?’ look.

Before Jessica could intervene, Hugo started to speak. ‘I would just like to add my congratulations to the happy couple and I hope they haven’t dropped too much food on themselves.’ He sat back down as quickly as he had stood up and, apart from one person who started clapping at the back of the room before stopping when they realised no one else was joining in, there was silence.

Jessica noticed Caroline look down at her lap, presumably wondering if she had dropped any food. She picked up the cream-coloured satin napkin that was still on her lap and went to put it on the table before squealing slightly and opening it out. Jessica saw there was a beautifully drawn picture of the bride and the groom on the material. She had no idea what had been used to create it but Caroline first showed it to Thomas and then turned it around for the rest of the room to see. It really was a strange piece of art but absolutely compelling because of its perfect likeness of the two people.

‘Did you draw that?’ Jessica asked Hugo, who shrugged with a vague acknowledgement as people around the room began to applaud the unconventional gift.

Caroline turned it around to have another look and then leant behind Jessica to talk to Hugo. ‘This is amazing. Thanks so much. We’ll get it framed or something, it’s so unique.’

Hugo continued to nod in the way Jessica had seen him do before when he had stunned people with tricks. This was slightly different but equally as impressive, although Jessica never ceased to be amazed by how strange he was. She wondered what else he was good at, given she could now add art to the list of illusion, singing and taxidermy he had impressed her with.

The tables were cleared by staff and a band started playing soft background music. There were plenty of wine bottles still around the edges of the room that hadn’t been finished during the meal and Jessica happily drank away. She was feeling nice and tipsy when the first dance finally got under way. The groom’s parents were both in tears, leaving Jessica feeling a little uncomfortable as she rarely showed any outward emotion. Halfway through the song, Caroline beckoned her onto the floor but it was Hugo who dragged her towards the happy couple and put his hands on her waist, initiating a slow dance. Other couples followed and, before Jessica knew it, she was in the middle of a host of people gently swaying to the song.

If anyone else from the station had been present, Jessica would have felt deeply embarrassed but, as it was, she allowed Hugo to lead her around. She stepped in closer to him, letting him hold her and figuring he was a good choice of person to bring. He was definitely odd but at least he wasn’t trying to come on to her.

After what seemed like an age, the song finally ended and everyone stopped to applaud the newly married couple. Hugo grinned and stepped away from Jessica almost as quickly as he had pulled her onto the dance floor in the first place.

While some carried on dancing, Jessica trailed her guest back to the children’s table. She didn’t know why that was where he wanted to sit but followed his lead. A few of the younger boys were racing up and down at the rear of the room but Hugo beckoned them over and showed them a trick where he made a wine glass disappear in front of their eyes. Before Jessica knew what was happening, there was a small crowd of people around them watching the magician go through a routine of making things disappear and reappear, or simply guessing the contents of their pockets after asking a few questions. As she suspected he would have, Hugo also had a deck of cards in his pocket and moved onto card tricks, bringing various ‘oooh’ noises from the people present.

At one point he borrowed a bracelet from Jessica’s mother and made it reappear on Jessica’s own arm. Neither of her parents seemed to believe that she wasn’t in a relationship with Hugo. ‘Oh, he’s lovely,’ her mum kept saying, while her dad said he couldn’t wait for the man to take Jessica off his hands, openly asking how much it would cost him. Jessica didn’t have the inclination to tell them Hugo lived above a betting shop and surrounded himself with dead stuffed animals. Luckily for Jessica, her parents left relatively early as her father was feeling tired. She kissed them both and assured them she would call in the next day or two.

The photographer was still hanging around and had moved from taking photos of the couple dancing, cutting the cake and eating the cake to focusing on the other guests. He was particularly taken with Hugo and, as the crowd slowly began to thin with the younger children leaving, he asked for a picture of Jessica and Hugo together.

Jessica wasn’t in the mood but had no time to object before Hugo shuffled into the seat next to her, beaming at the camera.

‘Can you smile for me,’ the picture-taker said to Jessica as if addressing a child. She did her best to not look annoyed. ‘Okay, now can you each hold a glass as if you’re toasting the camera,’ he added. Hugo eagerly picked up his glass while Jessica’s was again empty. Someone poured her more wine and she copied Hugo in saluting the camera with her glass, smiling wearily. ‘Okay, can you swap hands?’ the photographer said, pointing at Hugo then at Jessica. ‘You’re holding it with your left hand and you’ve got it with your right. It doesn’t look right.’

Jessica swapped and the photographer snapped away. He went to stand up but a thought popped into her head. ‘Can I have a look at those pictures?’ she asked. The man seemed confused but crouched down, turning the camera around so she could see the images in the viewfinder. In the second set of pictures, she and Hugo were holding the glasses in their outside hands. She had hers in her left, while he was using his right. In the first set, they had the drinks on their inside hands next to each other. The photographer was correct when he said things didn’t look right. ‘Thanks,’ Jessica said, letting the man stand again.

After he had walked away, she turned to Hugo. ‘Are you left-handed?’ He shrugged in the same way he always did when acknowledging something. ‘You are?’ Jessica asked again, wanting confirmation.

‘Yes.’

‘So would you always pick a glass up with your left hand?’

‘I guess.’

Jessica thought about herself. Most of the time she would drink using her right hand. On occasion she might use her left but not often. She stood quickly.

‘Do you mind if I leave, Hugo?’

‘No, I’ll come with you if you want?’

‘I’m going back to the station for a while.’ It was an odd thing to do given it was late on a Saturday evening but the man said nothing, as if her answer was the most normal thing.

‘That’s fine. I’ve enjoyed it today.’

Jessica leant forward and kissed him on the forehead. ‘Thanks for coming. We should go out again sometime.’

She left him showing off more card tricks and went to find Caroline to apologise for leaving early. She said she had a slightly upset stomach and kissed the newly married couple, warning Thomas he’d better look after his bride. The pair were going on honeymoon for a fortnight the next day, so Jessica told her friend she expected a present and hugged her a final time before walking quickly out to the front of the building.