Текст книги "Jessica Daniel: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water"

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 56 страниц)

26

The police’s press conference about Benjamin Sturgess had occurred just before Christmas. With little else going on and journalists generally being off work with the rest of the world, the story of Isaac Hutchings’s kidnapper already being dead led the news agenda for four straight days. Jessica tried as best she could to avoid the coverage but she had either to endure it or watch no news at all. She tried to catch up with what was going on at least once a day, either on the television or through the Internet or, occasionally, by actually buying a newspaper.

Jessica had been to the station on Boxing Day and most of the rest of the week. Despite Adam being off work, she was determined to get something done before New Year. She visited the allotments but number sixty-one was roped off while a full excavation was being attempted. As with the woods where Toby Whittaker’s clothes had been found, the freezing weather was making things difficult. Inside the shed, the floor had been pulled up to reveal the pit underneath, each piece of carpet sent off for analysis. With that gone, the hidden section seemed far less impressive and was simply a large muddy hole in the ground.

Jessica re-read the original documents relating to Toby Whittaker’s disappearance twice to see if any of it made more sense now that they were pretty sure Benjamin Sturgess was involved. When none of it did, she spent an hour pacing her office before deciding to go for a drive.

It had turned out even colder as Jessica pulled her car onto the side of the road fifty metres away from Deborah Sturgess’s house. It was Wednesday afternoon, the sun was setting, and she didn’t really know what she was hoping to achieve. She wrapped herself in a thick woollen coat and watched the woman’s front door from a distance.

Reynolds had handled the questioning and, although she trusted him to do a good job, it annoyed her that she hadn’t been present. She didn’t know if she thought Benjamin’s former wife was involved. She was certainly hard to read but perhaps it was just shock that her ex-husband had died and that a child’s body had been found in his boot. She doubted Deborah had anything to do with Isaac’s kidnapping and murder but there was still a question over whether Benjamin had been responsible for Toby’s disappearance. They would have been married fourteen years ago, but then, if Benjamin did have his allotment patch and hidden pit, maybe he had been acting alone? The one thing she was certain of was that he hadn’t acted by himself when it came to Isaac – he had arranged to meet someone at the shed. For now, other than Deborah, Jessica had no idea who that person could be.

As she was watching the front door, Jessica’s phone rang. She scrabbled around for it in the well between the seats. The display showed a local number but it wasn’t programmed into her phone so she didn’t know who was calling. ‘Hello?’

‘Is that Detective Sergeant Daniel?’ a male voice asked.

‘Who’s calling?’

‘This is Kingsley James from the Bradford Park laboratories. I tried to contact someone at the Longsight station but whoever was working there gave me your number.’

‘Okay . . .’ Jessica was always suspicious when someone she didn’t know rang her mobile.

The man didn’t seem to notice the scepticism in her voice. ‘I’ve got something you might be interested in. I’ve been in on my own today but I’ve got the phone I think you found in the Sturgess case.’

‘Which one?’

‘We examined the smartphone first but it was pretty clear there was nothing untoward with that one. It just seemed like one used for business. There were all sorts of messages on there but it didn’t look like much had been deleted. I’ve been working on the other one.’

‘Did you find any contacts?’

‘Not contacts, no, but I did manage to get back into the call history that had been erased. We’ve traced a number for you. It’s different from the one the text messages were sent to. Can I pass it on?’

‘Hang on, let me get a pen.’

Jessica put the phone on the passenger seat and frantically searched in the glove box and door wells for a pad and pen. She used to keep at least one in the vehicle and could remember a time when she had lent one to her journalist friend in a supermarket car park. Back then he had complained it didn’t work but now she couldn’t find anything at all. Jessica looked over her shoulder but couldn’t see anything in the back seat before she had an idea. She picked up the phone and opened the car door, walking around the rear of the vehicle.

‘Okay, go ahead but read slowly,’ she instructed. Kingsley read the number and Jessica scraped the digits one by one into the thin crust of frost which had started to form on her rear window. She thanked him for his help before hanging up and calling Reynolds with the number. She knew she should probably have contacted Cole but wasn’t ready to engage with him quite yet. The inspector took the information and said he would start things moving.

Getting a number from the history was just the first part. The prefix made it clear the number belonged to a mobile, while they would know which operator the SIM card belonged to from the first five digits. Things became complicated if someone decided to keep an old number on a new phone. Even when they figured that out, if a phone number wasn’t public knowledge in the telephone directory, they had to have a warrant approved to get the mobile network operator to release the details of the person the number belonged to. Sometimes that could all happen over the course of a morning, other times it would take weeks. In some cases, it would lead to another unregistered pre-pay SIM card that couldn’t be traced.

Jessica had barely got back into her car when Reynolds returned her call. ‘That was quick,’ she said.

‘Yeah, don’t get your hopes up. It’s just to say that the number definitely isn’t publicly available, we’re going to have to stick a request in. I’ll get the paperwork moving tonight but you know what it’s like at this time of year.’

Jessica returned to the station to find the forensics worker had emailed her the rest of the details, including when the call from Benjamin Sturgess’s second phone had been made and how long it had lasted. She crosschecked the dates with when Isaac Hutchings was reported missing and noted the call had been placed somewhere between three and four days before the boy had disappeared. The timing wasn’t damning and proved very little but it was at least roughly in the time frame they would have expected.

Knowing there was little more she could do, Jessica phoned Adam. They had spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day with Caroline at Jessica’s flat but were planning to sleep at Adam’s for the rest of the week. ‘On my way,’ she said. ‘Dinner better be on the table.’

Adam laughed. ‘What do you want?’

‘Just warm some of that turkey up with something. We’ve still got enough to get us through most of the next six months.’

As she drove back to Adam’s house, Jessica couldn’t stop herself from grinning. Many times over the past few years, her life had become dominated by things that were going on at work. She was still determined to find whoever was working with Benjamin Sturgess but, for the first time in a long while, Jessica was actually enjoying her life away from the station.

With another three-day weekend coming up, Jessica had largely expected things to drift into the new year before any details relating to the phone number were passed on. But in the middle of Friday morning, the information arrived. She was sitting in her office when Reynolds walked in with a pad of paper. ‘I’ve got it,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘The name and address of whoever Benjamin Sturgess called.’

‘Anyone we know?’

‘No, but there’s one little snippet which should interest you – our guy’s a teacher.’

Reynolds read out what details he had. Nathan Bairstow taught at a primary school on the outskirts of the city but, perhaps more importantly, his house was on the same estate as Daisy Peters’s. From what they could tell, he was single and lived alone. The information answered at least two of the things Jessica had been trying to figure out. Firstly, he lived close enough to Daisy to have noticed her circumstances if he was looking and, secondly, his position might give him access to the details on the list they had found in Benjamin’s allotment shed. Nothing had been proven yet but the fact Benjamin had contacted Nathan in the days leading up to Isaac’s disappearance was an important breakthrough.

Jessica stood. ‘When are we going?’

‘Jack’s sorting out a team to go with us.’

‘Have we got a photo?’

‘Nothing on file.’

‘Do we know if he’s in?’

‘No idea. The information only came in ten minutes ago and I got one of the constables to sort the rest out. We’ve moved as quick as we can.’

Jessica made a humming noise. ‘What was the DCI like?’

‘Professional. You should apologise.’

It was good advice but Jessica wasn’t ready to give in. ‘I’m not sorry.’

‘You should be. He’s doing his best to protect us while taking a lot of stick from above.’

Jessica knew he was right but didn’t want to admit it. ‘Let’s get going,’ she said, ignoring his point.

The decision had been made to go in softly but with a large backup. Jessica and Reynolds would knock on the door and, as delicately as possible, arrest Nathan Bairstow and bring him to the station. A larger team of officers would be waiting at either end of his road in case he tried to run. The problem with mounting any kind of big operation was the amount of attention it would attract from regular members of the public. It could make things complicated for any number of reasons, from having civilians in the way, to – on certain notorious estates – giving the suspect a head-start. The area Nathan lived in was perfectly respectable and Jessica didn’t envisage any problems there but, because so many people would be home from work in the week between Christmas and New Year, there was a much greater chance of unwanted attention.

Jessica and Reynolds travelled in his car, while the rest of the officers took unmarked vehicles. A secure van would be minutes away if it was required. The roads seemed to be full of families packed into cars stuffed full of bargains picked up in the sales. The traffic was worse than usual during rush hour, which left Jessica shuffling around restlessly in the passenger seat as the inspector drove.

Eventually, Reynolds parked his car a few doors down from the address they had for Nathan Bairstow. As the two officers sat waiting for confirmation that the rest of the team were in place, Jessica scanned the surroundings. Piles of slushy ice, snow and frost had been edged to the side of the road, with thin lines running along the centre of each carriageway, showing where cars had been moving over recent days.

Reynolds broke the silence. ‘It’s that one,’ he said, pointing towards a red-brick semi-detached house to their left, but Jessica had already worked it out. There was a gold foil ‘Merry Christmas’ banner hanging in the window and a string of fairy lights switched off. Aside from that, the house was as plain as could be.

Jessica tried to work out the distance from where they were to Daisy Peters’s house. The whole estate was a complex maze of one main road going through the middle, with a large number of streets funnelling from it. To drive from Nathan’s house to Daisy’s might take ten minutes simply because of having to weave in and out of parked cars. From where she was sitting, Jessica could see at least two pathways surrounded by overhanging branches that led from this section of the estate into another. If you had a good enough knowledge of where the various ginnels led, there was every chance you could navigate the complicated layout quickly and, more crucially, unnoticed.

The inspector’s mobile phone rang. After the briefest of conversations, he put it back in his pocket. ‘Let’s go.’

Jessica opened the door and stepped over one of the piles of ice, making sure she was extra careful with her footing. Their footsteps crunched as they walked to the end of Nathan’s pathway. Reynolds started to walk towards the door but Jessica stopped him.

‘He’s not in.’

The inspector turned around, looking puzzled. ‘What?’

Jessica pointed to the driveway on the other side of a small patch of frost-covered grass. It had been shielded from their view while they were waiting in the car. ‘Look at the drive,’ she said. ‘The edges have the same slush that’s everywhere else but there’s a clear patch where a car usually sits. You can see the tyre tracks across the pavement.’

The inspector looked where she was pointing and nodded. ‘We’ll try it anyway.’ They approached the door and rang the doorbell. After a few seconds with no sign of any movement, Jessica approached the window, peering inside.

‘The curtains are open,’ she said. ‘Either he’s been around recently or someone’s been coming in and doing it for him. What do you want to do, ask the neighbours?’

Reynolds started to walk away from the house and beckoned for Jessica to follow. ‘Let’s wait for a bit. It looks like he’s been around today and there are so many people out shopping, he might have nipped out for an hour. He would have seen everything on the news about Benjamin Sturgess so if he was going to make a run for it, he’ll already be gone.’

It sounded to Jessica like a relatively sensible plan, albeit one that would involve them sitting in a freezing-cold car.

She spent the next forty-five minutes half-watching the house, half-playing with her phone. Once again she and Reynolds had little to talk about, while the street was as quiet as could be. She was wrapped in Adam’s coat trying to keep warm but Reynolds appeared oblivious to the conditions, wearing his regular suit and not even bothering with a pair of gloves.

Jessica was once again looking through her old text messages when she heard the sound of a car coming from behind them. She turned to see a small black vehicle passing them before it swung sideways across the road and the reverse lights came on as it eased back onto the driveway they were watching. Jessica touched the handle of the door but Reynolds spoke quickly to prevent her from opening it. ‘Wait, let’s just watch.’

She removed her hand and focused on the man getting out of the car a few metres ahead. He was wearing a pair of heavy boots with jeans and a puffy dark blue jacket which Jessica thought looked particularly warm and inviting. He was wearing a pair of gloves and a woollen hat which he pushed away from the top of his eyes as he reached into the back seat and removed two large carrier bags. ‘Wait until his hands are full,’ the inspector said, although Jessica had already thought the same thing. She sat waiting with one hand on the handle as the man put the bags on the floor and locked the vehicle before picking them up again and walking towards his front door. ‘Now,’ Reynolds said forcefully.

The two officers opened their doors in unison and Jessica again carefully stepped over the mound of slush. She walked quickly but steadily towards the man along the path, while Reynolds rounded his vehicle and slotted onto the pavement behind her. Their target got to his front door just a few moments before Jessica reached him. He spun around, surprised, as they scrunched their way up his pathway.

‘Nathan Bairstow?’ Jessica asked. He looked sideways, before focusing back on the officers. From the small wrinkles around his eyes, Jessica would have guessed he was somewhere in his forties.

‘Who?’ the man said.

‘Are you Nathan Bairstow?’ Jessica repeated.

He put the shopping bags on the floor next to the front door and pointed to the house on the other side of his. ‘Wrong house.’

Jessica looked at Reynolds who had a puzzled look on his face. ‘Nathan Bairstow lives next door?’ the inspector asked.

‘Yeah, sorry.’ The man reached into his pocket and unlocked the front door, placing the two bags of shopping inside as the two officers looked awkwardly at each other.

‘Who checked it?’ Jessica asked.

‘I don’t know, one of the constables.’ Reynolds began edging away from the door, clearly not wanting to be heard by the homeowner.

Jessica followed his lead. ‘We should phone in,’ she said. The two detectives backed away to the pavement while the front door closed with a bang. The inspector took his phone out and started to press buttons as Jessica watched the house. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the downstairs curtains twitch. She took a few steps to the side and looked along the gap that led to the back garden. A waist-high metal gate separated the front from the rear and Jessica walked towards it, slowly at first, still watching the front window where she had seen the curtain twitch.

Her slow walk turned into a run as she heard the sound of a door banging. Reynolds’s shouting behind her only confirmed what she already knew as she leapt the gate and ran into the back garden just in time to see a man disappearing over the top of a fence panel.

27

Jessica ran as fast as she could across the crusty half-frozen lawn towards the wooden panel she had seen the man climb over. She jumped and grabbed the top, heaving herself up with a grunt that reminded her quite how unfit she was feeling after a week of turkey and alcohol. Reynolds dashed into the garden and shouted ‘He’s Bairstow’, as if straddling a six-foot fence panel in a stranger’s garden was something Jessica did every day.

If she hadn’t have been struggling for breath and trying to look below her to see which way Nathan had gone, Jessica would have replied with something withering and sarcastic. Instead she just about managed to exhale loudly before dropping down onto the other side, landing in an alleyway. She looked from one side to the other and saw a flash of dark blue running into another passageway far to her right. Cursing, Jessica turned and ran. The alley was covered in frost, overgrown branches flapping around her as she tried to dodge them. She skidded around the corner where Nathan had turned and saw the man running across a grassy area not too far ahead. Despite his head-start, Jessica could see he was struggling because of the size of his coat.

She tried to up her pace but her lungs were screaming out for air as Nathan glanced over his shoulder before veering off to his left. She kept moving as best she could but could feel a stitch developing in her abdomen. Despite the pain, she was slowly gaining on the man. Nathan’s change of direction took him towards a children’s play park where he stopped and stepped over a low red metal fence. He picked up pace as he ran across the soft black matting but Jessica hurdled the fence to gain a few more metres. From somewhere behind her, she could hear Reynolds’s voice shouting but she drove forward, jumping the fence on the other side of the play park, taking her within ten metres of Nathan.

He had another look over his shoulder and Jessica could see the anguish on his face. The stitch was burning through her body as she dashed across the solid grass, before launching herself forward and crashing into the back of the man. She tried to wrap her arms around him but she bounced off the man’s coat, falling painfully onto the back of his boots. She heard the crunch of her jaw before she felt the pain but Nathan’s feet clipped together and he tumbled forward as she clung on to the bottom of his jeans and together they fell and rolled into a shallow ditch.

Jessica felt a thin layer of ice shatter as the pair fell the yard or so into the gap. She could feel mud and water sloshing around her as Nathan tried to get to his feet but she clung hard to his ankles, heaving herself up his body. She was seeing stars from the dual pain of the stitch and the ache from her jaw but held on, shoving the man into the dirt and reaching under his coat, pushing the base of her palm hard into the bottom of his spine. He screamed in agony as Jessica crawled on top of him, pushing her forearm across the back of his neck. She was careful not to apply too much pressure but he stopped wriggling. Jessica tried to keep her cool but found herself shouting at him, the adrenaline of the chase flowing through her.

Moments later, Reynolds arrived, out of breath and unable to speak, then three more officers raced into view just behind him. The inspector pointed them towards Jessica and she released her grip on Nathan, leaning backwards and sitting with a plop in what she knew was a shallow muddy stream. The officers shouted instructions at Nathan, who held up his hands open-palmed into the air, allowing two of the other officers to pull him out. He was lying face down on the floor having his hands cuffed when one of them reached towards Jessica and helped pull her back onto the grassed area. She could feel wet hair plastered to her face and a shiver went through her from the suit trousers stuck to the back of her thighs.

‘Christ, you look a mess,’ Reynolds said none too helpfully.

Scraping her hair behind her ears, Jessica tried cupping her chin, wincing as a sharp pain ran through her. ‘Where were you?’

‘Calling for help then trying to catch you. You’re quicker than you look.’

‘Thanks, you’re slower than you look.’ Jessica tried to smile but her jaw was hurting.

‘I’ll get one of these guys to drop you home,’ Reynolds said.

‘I want to do the interview,’ Jessica protested, trying not to show how much pain she was in.

‘I’ll have to—’ the inspector began to say but Jessica cut him off.

‘I was the one who got kicked in the face. Just give me some time to go home and get changed.’

Two of the officers escorted Nathan, who wasn’t struggling, to their car while Jessica went with another.

As they were walking, Nathan called across to her. ‘I’m sorry about your face.’

Jessica wasn’t used to fleeing suspects talking to her, let alone apologising. ‘What?’

‘About your chin, I didn’t mean to kick you,’ he added. Jessica glanced sideways at the man. His coat and jeans were covered in mud, his bobble hat skewed to one side, revealing short dark hair with touches of silver.

Noticing Jessica looking at him, Nathan tried to catch her eye but she turned away. It didn’t stop him speaking loud enough for them all to hear. ‘It’s not what you think.’

A constable drove Jessica back to Adam’s house. Her phone had been in her pocket as she landed in the ditch and wasn’t responding when she tried to call him, so he was surprised as she walked through the door.

She squelched into the hallway and heard him call out, ‘Hey, you’re home’. Adam walked into the hallway, his arms wide to greet her before quickly withdrawing them. ‘Whoa, what happened to you?’

‘I fell in a ditch.’

Adam smiled but Jessica wasn’t feeling in the mood to respond and she saw him straightening his face before saying, ‘Why?’

‘I didn’t do it on purpose.’ She felt herself wince as she spoke.

‘Are you okay?’

‘I got kicked in the face.’

‘Ouch. So you’ve not had a good day then?’

‘I’m not finished yet, I’m getting changed then going back.’

Adam smiled gently at her. ‘Want a hug?’

‘I’m all wet.’

‘Never mind, I’ll live.’ Adam opened his arms again and pulled Jessica in close. She could feel her clammy clothes sticking to her and felt bad about getting Adam wet too, so released herself.

‘This is weird,’ Jessica said.

‘What is?’

‘I don’t know . . . someone being nice to me. I don’t like it.’

Adam laughed. ‘Would you prefer if I kicked you in the face too?’

Jessica giggled but quickly stopped because of the pain in her jaw. ‘I’ve got to go. I’ll see you later.’

Even though she had taken time to change before heading back across the city from Adam’s house in Salford to the Longsight station, Jessica was still stuck waiting for Nathan Bairstow to be brought up from the cells to be interviewed. Reynolds told her the suspect had been given clean clothes from a store that was kept on site. The replacement garments were effectively jogging bottoms and a sweatshirt and were usually handed out to the weekend drunks who were left in the cells to sleep off the alcohol but ended up losing control of their bladders or vomiting over themselves. It wasn’t nice but it did leave some officers with cracking stories to tell at the Christmas party which, for whatever reason, had become a New Year’s Eve celebration this year. When he was cleaned up, Nathan had been allowed to meet his solicitor, which was also taking some time.

Most of the rest of the CID team were either on leave or had left for the day. Jessica knew Cole was in his office upstairs but she hadn’t gone to see him, leaving it to Reynolds to be the middle man. She was aware of not being the most patient person at the best of times but with her jaw stiffening up as the afternoon turned into evening – and a phone that wasn’t working – she spent around an hour balling up pieces of paper and trying to throw them into the bin on the other side of her office.

Eventually, Reynolds knocked and entered. ‘We’re ready,’ he said before noticing the large pile of paper next to the door. ‘How old are you?’ he added with a grin.

‘All right, old man, calm down,’ Jessica replied with a smile of her own. ‘Just because you were outrun by a girl.’

They walked through the nearly deserted hallways towards the interview room where the inspector checked the recording equipment. Shortly afterwards there was a knock at the door and Nathan was led into the room by a man in a grey suit. Everyone sat as Reynolds ran through the formalities. As he spoke, Jessica took in Nathan’s appearance. The wisps of grey hair she had seen as he was being escorted earlier were far more prominent under the white fluorescent light above them. He’d appeared youthful when she first saw him wearing a hat but his silver hair made him look his actual age. Before she had wasted an hour throwing paper balls into her bin, Jessica read the small amount of information they had on Nathan Bairstow and, among other things, she knew he was forty-six years old.

He refused to meet Jessica’s gaze, instead staring at a spot on the table between them. When the inspector finished talking, Jessica went to start but Nathan interrupted. ‘I just want to say I’m sorry for kicking you. It was an accident.’

Jessica didn’t want to give him any kind of upper hand, so ignored him. ‘How do you know Benjamin Sturgess?’ she asked.

‘Ian Sturgess?’

Jessica kept as straight a face as she could manage. ‘Yes, Ian.’

‘We taught together years ago.’

‘How long ago?’

‘I don’t know, maybe thirteen or fourteen years?’

‘Which? Thirteen or fourteen?’

Nathan seemed slightly distressed. He lifted his cuffed hands to scratch at his face. ‘I don’t know. I’ve been at St Jude’s for six years, I was temping for two before that, then I did two years with Our Lady’s. We were at the same school before that so some time between ten and fourteen years. I don’t really know because he left.’

‘Do you remember Toby Whittaker?’

‘Toby? I . . . I know the name. Was he the boy who went missing?’ Jessica stared at Nathan, waiting for him to meet her eyes. She didn’t answer with her words, instead letting him see it in her face. ‘I’m not sure what you think that has to do with me,’ he added.

Jessica checked the sheet of paper in front of her and read out the phone number. ‘Is that yours?’ she asked.

Nathan nodded slightly. ‘I think so. I don’t really know it properly.’

‘Let’s make it easy then. Have you ever had a phone conversation with Ian Sturgess?’

‘Yes, once or twice.’

Jessica read him the date and time of the call they had traced. ‘Does that sound about right?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you’re admitting you spoke to him?’

‘Yes but it’s not what you think.’ Nathan’s voice had a pleading tone.

‘What am I thinking?’ Jessica asked.

The man’s solicitor motioned to step in but Nathan lifted his arms up. ‘No, it’s fine. I know what you’re thinking because I saw on the news that Ian had been arrested but you were calling him Benjamin. I know it was something to do with that other kid going missing, Isaac. I saw it all and I knew I should have called you then . . .’ He tailed off and sighed before continuing. ‘I think I knew you would be coming for me at some point. I . . . I don’t know why I ran. I’m sorry I kicked you.’

Jessica felt her jaw stiffen as he spoke. It was the third time he had apologised and she wasn’t going to give him any satisfaction of acknowledging it. ‘You’ve not answered my question.’

Nathan held his head in his hands, ruffling his fingers through his hair. ‘You’re thinking I had something to do with the kid going missing, or being . . . killed.’

‘Did you?’

He spoke quietly. ‘No.’

‘So what were your cosy little phone chats about?’

‘Nothing . . . I mean it was all theory. Well, I thought it was.’

Jessica continued to stare at Nathan, although he wasn’t looking up from the table. ‘What was?’

The man didn’t say anything at first but took a deep breath before croaking out an answer. ‘You won’t believe me.’

Jessica sucked air through her teeth, keeping her mouth narrow and closed so she didn’t have to feel the ache in her jaw. She didn’t want to say anything that could sound sympathetic but, before she could answer, Nathan spoke again. ‘Ask me something else.’

‘I don’t think you’re in a position to make a demand like that.’

Nathan looked up and Jessica could see liquid running from his nose, dribbling over the top of his chin. In the couple of minutes he had been staring at the table, he seemed to have aged at least ten years. He wiped his nose on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. ‘I know, I don’t mean it like that, I just . . . Look, I’ll answer. I’ll tell you what we talked about but, please, just ask me the other stuff first.’

Jessica looked at Nathan’s solicitor, who seemed slightly bemused, while Reynolds placed a hand briefly on her shoulder before removing it. Letting a suspect dictate what should and shouldn’t be asked wasn’t anything she would have comprehended doing but something felt right about the demand. After a pause, she began to speak again. ‘What type of relationship do you have with Ian Sturgess?’