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

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 56 страниц)

30

Jessica wasn’t enjoying her first week back after New Year. A case which involved a string of street robberies over the Christmas period had been dumped on her while everyone seemed to have conveniently forgotten that somewhere out there Benjamin Sturgess had an accomplice.

She was sitting in the station’s canteen picking at a plate of chips when Rowlands dragged a chair across to sit opposite her. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, I just can’t get this Sturgess guy out of my mind.’

‘Izzy told me you asked her to look into some things quietly. She’s not been able to get away to see you but she says she hasn’t found anything.’

‘Me neither. I just wanted to re-check the guy’s past. See who he used to be friends with, that kind of thing. I’ve been trying to look into Deborah too.’

‘The wife?’

‘Yeah, what did you think of her?’

Rowlands shrugged before taking a chip from Jessica’s plate and biting it in half. ‘I dunno really. Hard to read.’

It was exactly how Reynolds had described Deborah Sturgess after interviewing her and Jessica would have used the same expression too. ‘I’ve not found anything,’ she admitted. ‘I checked her and her husband, the marriage, the divorce, all of it. They’re just so normal. If he hadn’t crashed that car we would never have found any of this.’

‘Why would he wait so long?’ Rowlands asked.

‘How do you mean?’

‘We’re assuming it was him who kidnapped and killed Toby. If that was the type of thing that got him off, why would he wait fourteen years to do it again?’

‘Iz was looking into that a few weeks ago because I thought the same. We couldn’t find anything to connect him to any other disappearances from the past few years. Honestly, I don’t know.’

‘There wasn’t anything to connect him to Isaac though, was there?’

Jessica nodded reluctantly. ‘I guess . . . I just . . . how could he go undetected for so long if he was taking other kids during that time? I don’t understand why you would kidnap a child just to kill them.’

Dave stole another chip. ‘Who knows why half these nutters do what they do.’

Jessica winced. ‘It’s more than that. Think about the cases we examine and the motives people have. These aren’t the first children to be snatched, but there’s always a reason, even if it’s only in the perpetrators’ own twisted heads. There are sickos who do it for sexual pleasure – but Isaac wasn’t abused in that way. Maybe you do get off on killing – but why would it be specifically a child? There would be so many easier targets. Look at all the people who live on the streets, or even those who walk home on their own after dark. If killing people excited you, wouldn’t you be more likely to choose a different situation?’

Rowlands held up his hands open-palmed. ‘I don’t know. Maybe he liked killing kids? Perhaps it was a challenge to get away unseen?’

‘I thought of that but it still doesn’t really make sense. Think of the list we found. Why write their names and addresses down? Why that order? Isaac was at the top, so was he planning to kill all nine but do it from the first name to the last? If you just got off on killing children, why would you bother with all that formality? You’d do your homework, watch the schools and check what time everyone left and so on, then you’d strike. Even if you had access to those details – and we’re pretty sure Sturgess didn’t – then why would you go through all that effort?’

‘And the map too.’

Jessica nodded. ‘Exactly. I’ve been banging on about that ever since we found it. You only need a map if you don’t know where you’re going. Even if it was Sturgess who was responsible for Toby Whittaker’s disappearance all those years ago, he didn’t know where the clothes had been left. If he did, he would have just gone there.’

‘So do you think his ex-wife was in on it?’ The constable didn’t sound convinced by his own question.

‘I don’t know, maybe. I’m not convinced she told us everything. She gave us just enough to wrap things up neatly from her point of view. She’s not a suspect but she didn’t really dish the dirt on her husband either. It’s just very . . . tidy.’

Rowlands nodded and Jessica could see his mind working. ‘Have you told the DCI all this?’

‘Sort of. I spoke to Jason but I don’t think it’s up to either of them. From the outside we look successful. It’s only us who know how shit we’ve done.’

Rowlands gave her a weak smile. ‘It’s good that you care, Jess.’ She looked back at him and thought about how much he had grown up over the past couple of years, then realised she had too. He must have been able to tell she was feeling uncomfortable because he quickly spoke again. ‘Is there anything else?’

Jessica sighed. ‘Not much. Results have started dribbling in on everything that was recovered. Forensics say there are traces of Isaac on the carpet from the shed but we expected that. No blood though, curiously. Adam’s working on it, so he’s already told me – even though it isn’t official. The search team didn’t find anything at Sturgess’s house other than the computer and phones. All the emails he sent to Nathan Bairstow were recovered, so we know he was telling the truth.’

‘Is he going to be charged anyway?’

‘I’m not sure, it’s with the CPS, but probably. We have the evidence and a confession. Forensics reckon there’s nothing else they can recover from the phones while the number those two texts were sent to is apparently untraceable. Whoever had that SIM card hasn’t used it since we found out about the number.’

Rowlands finished the final half of the chip he was holding before reaching for another but Jessica batted his hand away. ‘They probably ditched it after whatever they were planning came off,’ the constable added.

‘Exactly. Either way, that’s about all we’re getting. With Deborah’s statement about Benjamin using the name Glenn Harrison, the allotment key being found on Sturgess’s body and Nathan’s statement – plus the emails they recovered – that’s it done.’

‘Did Jack tell you to stop working on it?’

‘Not as such, they’ve just given me loads of work to try to ensure I don’t have time to do any more.’ Jessica picked up the final chip and held it out. Rowlands took it from her, swallowing it in one.

‘Thanks,’ he said with a mouth full of potato.

‘I don’t know how Chloe puts up with you.’

Rowlands grinned. ‘Have you been back to see the parents?’

‘I spoke to the liaison officer who was with Kayla, Isaac’s mum. She’s doing okay, just a bit shaken by the way everything came out. Our lot wanted to get it across the news over Christmas to make them look good, but they didn’t bother to think of her feelings. I spoke to Esther from the kidnap team a couple of days ago. She checked in with Rachel, Marcus and Lloyd Corless and reckons they’re about as back to normal as they’re going to get, considering how dysfunctional they all seem.’

‘What about Toby’s mother?’

‘Lucy? I don’t know. The poor woman’s been forgotten in all this. I might visit her just to make sure she’s all right.’

‘I heard you didn’t get on too well last time.’

Jessica raised her eyebrows. ‘That wasn’t really her fault. We spent fourteen years not finding her son, then rocked up and said, “Here’s his football shirt”. I’d be pissed off too. Someone should at least let her know what’s been going on.’

‘Do you need me to make something up about where you’ve gone?’

‘No, sod that. If I get any grief I’ll just go to the papers. Bollocks to the lot of them.’

31

Jessica called Lucy Martin and asked if she could visit. Toby’s mother didn’t seem too pleased but didn’t object either. She was on her own when Jessica arrived, but appeared better than on the previous occasion they’d met. She’d tied her long black hair up in a neat ponytail and was wearing a long red jumper with tight jeans. Jessica remembered her husband, Neil, telling her how December was a bad time emotionally for his wife. Lucy seemed to have more of a healthy glow to her as she let Jessica into the house.

Jessica wondered if she had misjudged Lucy’s mood during the phone call because, as the woman showed her into the living room and offered to make tea, she seemed perfectly comfortable. She brought in two mugs and then settled on the sofa across from Jessica, tucking her feet underneath her. ‘Neil will be home in about an hour. He picks the girls up after school,’ she said. Before Jessica could reply, she added: ‘I’m sorry about last time.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘When you were here before and I was a bit off-hand. I know everything that happened back then isn’t your fault.’

Jessica waved her hand. ‘It’s fine, don’t worry.’

‘Why are you here?’ Jessica realised she didn’t really have a reason. Lucy must have read it in her face because she added: ‘I saw all the stuff on the news about that man being responsible for the other boy. I guess I wondered if . . .’

‘I came to make sure you were all right. I didn’t know how everything on the news might have affected you over Christmas.’

Lucy smiled slightly. ‘Did Neil talk to you last time?’

‘No, I . . .’

‘It’s fine if he did. Whatever he said was probably true, I’m not that good when the evenings draw in. Then Christmas comes along. I try to keep it together for Olivia and Tasha but it’s hard.’

Jessica was struggling to know what to say but Lucy seemed happy to talk. ‘Did I tell you that City shirt you found was Toby’s last-ever Christmas present?’

‘No.’

‘Dean, his dad, was always a big football fan but Toby wasn’t really interested for the first few years. I think it was just one of those things that when he got to a certain age he wanted to be like his dad. I still remember Dean’s face when Toby came down to breakfast one morning and asked for the City shirt. It was as if Dean himself was getting the present.’

‘I’ve never been into football myself.’

‘Ha! Me neither. I think you pretty much expect it when you have boys.’ Lucy took a sip of her tea. ‘Do you have kids?’

‘No, no . . . I’d never cope. I can barely look after myself.’

Lucy laughed. ‘I used to think like that. It’s just one of those things. Before you know it you’re in the swing and it’s as if you knew what you were doing all along. You get the odd moments but, most of the time, you just trust your instincts.’

Jessica wasn’t so convinced she had those motherly instincts. ‘What are the girls like?’ she asked.

‘They’re great but it’s different from having boys. Everyone says they’re going to be a nightmare when they become teenagers together.’

‘Isn’t that the same for boys and girls?’

‘I don’t know, maybe. I’m just going by what other people say. My other daughter, Annabel, wasn’t great as a teen but that was understandable with what happened to Toby, and then me and Dean separating. It’s no wonder she won’t speak to me.’

There wasn’t much Jessica could add, as she didn’t know the woman well enough to offer anything other than general condolence. It did seem as if Lucy was getting a lot of things off her chest that she had been coping with over a long period of time.

‘I invited Annabel up for Christmas,’ the woman continued. ‘I always do but she didn’t respond. I don’t even know if she’s got children of her own or anything.’

‘Did you tell her or Dean that we’d found Toby’s clothes?’

Lucy untied her hair and let it fall around her shoulders. As she spoke, she re-tied it into a tighter ponytail. ‘I told Dean. He was going to come up but I told him there wasn’t much point until you found . . . something.’

‘We did look,’ Jessica assured her.

‘I know, I’m not saying you didn’t, it’s just . . . I’ve been waiting all this time for someone to come around and say you’ve found Toby. I don’t know when I stopped thinking he’d be alive but I always expected something. When you came around that first time, I thought that was it, you’d found his body or something else and I’d be able to let it go.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘No, don’t be, it’s not your fault.’ Lucy stood and picked up her mug. ‘Do you want another?’

‘No, I’m fine.’

Lucy left Jessica alone in the living room. While she was gone, the detective stood, examining the photos on the wall. Most of them were of Olivia and Natasha, who looked strikingly similar to each other. There were a couple of just Lucy and Neil in various poses where they seemed happy. Jessica remembered her brief suspicion about Neil himself. He was certainly someone who gained from everything that happened but she hadn’t followed it up other than a brief look into his background.

When she was trying to think of a motive, it was the one question she’d kept returning to. There was apparently no sexual motivation and there weren’t too many people around who killed for the sake of killing. With that in mind, it left her stuck with the same question: assuming he was responsible for both, what did Benjamin Sturgess gain from taking Toby and Isaac?

‘That was taken in Marbella,’ Lucy said from behind Jessica, who hadn’t heard her re-enter the room. She turned to face the woman, then looked back at the wall. The photo was of Lucy and Neil sitting together, each raising a glass of wine to the camera. ‘We left the girls with Neil’s parents and went away for a week,’ Lucy explained. ‘I didn’t want to go because we had never left them before but he talked me into it. We had a good time but I was always worrying about everything being all right at home.’

Lucy sat on the sofa again, wrapping her legs underneath her as Jessica returned to her seat. ‘Did the man on the news take my son too?’ Lucy asked. Her eyes were fixed on Jessica, who felt compelled to answer.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Are you just saying that?’

‘No, I really don’t know. We can’t question him because he died in a car crash.’

Lucy nodded but didn’t stop looking at her. ‘Do you think it was him?’

Jessica paused, thinking of how she should answer. ‘I’m not sure I should say.’

‘Why are you here, then?’ Lucy hadn’t raised her voice but there was definitely a harsher tone to her words. Jessica knew she had a point. Deep down it was why she had come – because she wanted to tell someone what was going on.

‘I could get into trouble if I tell you things I shouldn’t.’

‘I won’t tell anyone.’

The two women were still watching each other and Jessica looked into Lucy’s eyes before making the decision. She knew it was not procedure but felt that Lucy deserved an answer. She took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know if Benjamin Sturgess kidnapped and killed your son but I think he probably did. There’s no way we’ll be able to prove it and I’m not sure you’ll ever get justice. I can only say I’m sorry.’

Lucy was cradling her mug of tea, interlocking her fingers through the handle and holding it close to her chest. She nodded slowly, taking in the words. ‘Why do you think it’s him?’

‘He taught at your son’s school. I read all of the paperwork from the time and, although his name was mentioned, there was absolutely nothing to properly connect him to Toby’s disappearance. The team back then did everything they could.’

‘Why did he take the child this time?’

‘I don’t know. I’m not sure we ever will.’

‘Did he . . . touch him? Isaac?’

‘No.’

Jessica wondered how long the woman had wanted to know the answer to that question with regard to her own child. Lucy nodded the slightest of acknowledgements.

Before either of them could say anything else, they were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Jessica heard young girls’ voices from the hallway before the children from the photographs came skipping into the room. The younger of the two, Natasha, stopped for a moment when she saw Jessica before stepping shyly towards her mother, sitting next to her on the sofa, and hiding her face behind Lucy’s shoulders. Olivia was a little bolder but also sat next to her mum.

Neil walked into the room behind them. When he saw Jessica, he raised his hand in a half-wave. ‘Hi . . .’ It was as if he realised mid-sentence what her appearance might mean. His expression changed, with his eyes widening. ‘Oh . . .’ Jessica shook her head slightly to answer his unasked question, while not letting on to the children that there was anything wrong. Neil was halfway through a word in reply but stopped himself and turned towards his family on the sofa. ‘Have you told your mum what you got up to today, Olivia?’

Jessica couldn’t stop herself from smiling as Lucy grinned widely. ‘What have you done today, dear?’

Olivia reached into her bag and pulled out a sketchbook, opening it to show her mother something she had drawn.

‘What was that?’ Jessica asked, suddenly curious. Olivia smiled and turned the book around to show a drawing of a house with a row of people outside. The figures had oversized heads and no shoulders but made Jessica smile.

The young girl could barely contain her excitement as she pointed from one character to the next. ‘That’s Mummy, that’s Daddy, that’s Tasha and this is me.’

‘Wow, that’s really good,’ Jessica said but it wasn’t the drawing she had been asking about, it was what Lucy had said. She paused for a moment, considering the previous few seconds, then stood. ‘I’ve got to go now.’

Lucy stood too and escorted her out to the front door. ‘Thanks for coming,’ she said. ‘Is it all right if I tell Neil everything you told me? He won’t tell anyone.’

‘Yeah, it’s okay.’

Unexpectedly, Lucy held out her arms and hugged Jessica, who didn’t know how to react. Before she could feel too uncomfortable, the other woman released her.

Jessica walked out into the chilly winter afternoon wondering if Lucy had just solved their case without knowing it.

32

Jessica drove back to Longsight going over what she thought she knew. It was one thing to have a theory but she needed a way to prove it – without involving Cole or Reynolds. Apart from the odd word in passing, she had not spoken to the chief inspector since their argument before Christmas and didn’t want to risk being shot down until she had some evidence. If she talked to Reynolds, it would simply put him in a difficult situation.

By the time she arrived at the station, the sun had almost set, even though it was barely four o’clock. Jessica parked on the road outside the main gates and phoned Dave. She asked him to make whatever excuse he had to in order to get out, then come and join her.

As he sat next to her complaining how cold it was, Jessica told him everything. There were still gaps in her theory but she indicated who she thought the accomplice was, and another person she believed was indirectly involved, a stranger she had never properly met whose help they would need, and why she had to break the law to prove it all.

‘I don’t mind if you go back inside and forget we ever had this conversation,’ Jessica said. ‘I know it’s not fair to ask you to help me but I can’t ask Izzy because of the baby and I can’t take it higher.’

Rowlands didn’t hesitate in his reply. ‘Let’s do it.’

Jessica knew it would take at least a couple of days to put everything in place. Before she could do anything, she realised she had one other responsibility to fulfil. That evening, she cuddled up to Adam on the sofa at his house and told him everything that had happened over the past few weeks. Then she told him what her plan was. Like DC Rowlands before him, Adam listened to everything she had to say before replying. ‘Is it dangerous?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Can I help?’

‘No.’

‘Are you going to get into trouble?’

‘Probably.’

Adam held her tight and kissed the top of her head. ‘I love you.’

‘So you should.’

The next part of the plan involved checking the facts. Jessica had already read everything they had in the files but sometimes mistakes could be made. She and Rowlands avoided Izzy, who was clearly suspicious of what they were up to, and went through every piece of information they had access to. None of it offered enough evidence to prove that Jessica was correct – but it didn’t disprove her theory either.

With the easy jobs out of the way, Jessica again asked Rowlands if he wanted to change his mind before they went any further. Secretly she was almost willing him to say he did but, if anything, he seemed more determined than before to help her out.

On a cold January night just before three in the morning, Dave and Jessica got out of the constable’s car and walked the few hundred metres through the deserted estate until they reached the front of Benjamin Sturgess’s abandoned house. The official police search had been completed before Christmas but the place was now empty, secured by the officers.

Jessica was wearing a pair of old gym trainers to avoid making a crunching noise on the frost that surrounded the property. Without speaking, they moved around the side of the house, stopping by the side door. She crouched and gently pushed the cat-flap she had noticed on their previous visit. It had been locked from the inside but that was what she expected.

‘Are you ready?’ Jessica whispered.

Reynolds nodded. ‘Just don’t crash my car.’

Jessica could barely see his features in the gloom. The street lights were too far away, the only illumination coming from the bright white moon above them. She touched him on the arm. ‘If anything happens, just run.’

She spun and walked quickly back towards the car. After readjusting the seat and mirrors, she drove slowly and carefully until she was outside the house next door to Sturgess’s. She left the engine idling with the handbrake on and checked her phone before taking a deep breath and then she pressed her foot down on the accelerator, increasing the rev count to the maximum. The enhanced exhaust which so annoyed her roared into life as Jessica kept her foot on the pedal, watching the clock on her phone count twenty seconds. As soon as time was up, Jessica removed her foot from the accelerator, put the car in first and eased the vehicle away as steadily as she could. She had done her homework, memorising the layout of the estate and drove in a loop, parking it two streets away, before walking as quickly as she could back to the side of Sturgess’s house.

As soon as she arrived, she could see in the moonlight that Rowlands had been successful. She walked around to the rear of the house where he was pressed against the wall. ‘Dave?’ she whispered.

‘Jess.’

‘Good job.’ Quietly they walked back to the side door where the cat-flap had been kicked through, taking most of the plastic panelling with it. ‘I take it no one saw you?’

‘Didn’t hear a soul. Like you said, anyone up and about would have only heard the car anyway.’

Jessica reached into her pockets and took out a pair of woollen gloves. ‘I’ll be five minutes. Call my phone if there’s a problem. It’s on silent but I’ll see the light. Just call and ring off.’

She crouched and reached through the gap in the door. Not only had Rowlands kicked the cat-flap through but parts of the white plastic had broken too. It was a tight squeeze but, because of the flexibility in the plastic around where the flap had been, Jessica hauled herself into the kitchen of Benjamin Sturgess’s house.

If she had asked, there was a chance she might have been given the key to the property the police were currently holding. Despite that, Jessica knew there would be a problem if DCI Cole stuck to his guns and refused. This way, if she was careful, the break-in would be blamed on an opportunist. If she had asked to be allowed into the house and been denied, it would have looked incredibly suspicious if someone had then smashed their way in shortly afterwards.

Jessica crept through the property, not bothering to use the light from her phone until she reached the living room. She remembered how she felt when she had been in here the last time. She’d had an almost overwhelming sense of how normal everything seemed. It was only when Lucy spoke to her daughter that Jessica realised the house was anything but regular. Hidden in plain sight was something that she, Rowlands and all the search teams couldn’t have failed to see – except they didn’t know what they were looking at.

Switching on the light from her phone, Jessica entered the living room. The space was a mess, carpet torn up and shoved to one side, furniture piled at one end. Jessica tiptoed across the room to the far wall where she used the light to check the photos hanging on the wall. It was the fourth one she checked that made her stomach lurch. She had spent the last few days wondering if what she thought she had seen was true but, with the evidence in front of her, she was almost disappointed. Jessica hoped she had made a mistake but it was now clear she was right.

She turned her phone around and took a photo of the picture that could only have been left hanging by someone who knew they had got away with everything. The flash went off, illuminating the room for a moment.

As she was about to put her mobile in her pocket, the light on the screen flashed Dave’s name before a second screen appeared to say she had a missed call.

Someone was outside.