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

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 35 (всего у книги 56 страниц)

27

As Jessica entered Andrew Hunter’s office, she couldn’t help but scowl at his open-mouthed welcome. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

He hastily looked away as she sat down, brushing a copy of the morning’s paper off his desk onto the floor.

‘Subtle,’ she said sarcastically.

‘Sorry, I . . .’

‘It’s fine.’

‘Is there anything I can do?’

Jessica wriggled in the seat. ‘Getting a new chair would be a start.’

‘Sorry, I’ve got one on order.’

‘You told me that last time.’

‘Er, yeah . . .’

‘Forget it. Look, I need you to do something for me. I’ll pay whatever your rate is but it’s all unofficial, nothing to do with the police, it’s not CID, it’s a personal thing.’

Jessica could see the man looking uneasy in his chair. He glanced nervously away from her. ‘I don’t want your money,’ he said.

‘Why?’

‘Aren’t you going to need it? With the . . .’

‘You can say “fire”.’

Jessica was becoming annoyed by the way everyone skirted around the issue. After emerging from the shower the previous evening, finally clean of the soot and smoke, she had resolved to get on with sorting things out and, regardless of what Cole said, finding out who had tried to kill her.

‘Sorry . . .’

‘And stop apologising!’ Andrew seemed suitably chastened and Jessica felt bad about raising her voice. ‘Shall we start the conversation again?’ she suggested.

Andrew offered his hand across the desk and they shook. ‘I still don’t want your money,’ he said.

‘Why?’

‘Honestly? I don’t need it. You might not believe it given the state of this place, your broken chair and the fact I come to work each day – but I’ve got money. I could stay at home and live off it if I wanted. I’m not massively rich but I could get by if I invested it sensibly and lived off the interest.’

Jessica was stunned by his revelation. For the first time, she properly eyed Andrew’s appearance. When she had first seen him at the scene of Sienna’s death, she had thought he was so plain, she would struggle to remember what he looked like. That was still true but he did have something appealing about him too, although it was hard to pinpoint what. He had sand-coloured hair that was cut short and had been left to fall in no discernible style. His clothes seemed too tight and his suit certainly wasn’t an expensive one given the way it was cut.

Andrew must have noticed her interest because he smiled – and Jessica knew what it was that made him stand out. It was when he grinned or joked. Unlike most people, he only seemed to show the beam on one half of his face. The right side of his mouth would crinkle upwards, the left unmoving. It was an odd yet strangely attractive feature.

‘It’s not that hard to believe, is it?’ he added.

‘Did you win the lottery or something?’

Andrew laughed again. ‘I wish it was that simple. It’s complicated but, because you’ve got bigger things to worry about, let’s just say I was married, now I’m not. I just have money instead – that’s why I don’t need yours. Whatever you want doing, it’s fine.’

‘Can I ask a question?’

‘Go on but I didn’t kill her, if that’s what you’re wondering.’

Jessica laughed. ‘No, but at least you think like one of us. I was wondering why you haven’t got a better bloody chair over here if you have money.’

It was Andrew’s turn to snigger. ‘Money I’ve got. I’m just lazy. Sometimes I think I’d rather this all fell through so I could just stay at home. Maybe I don’t really want clients? I have no idea.’

Jessica thought about his reply for a few moments. ‘That’s pretty honest.’

Andrew shrugged dismissively.

‘Would you like to hear about my morning?’ Jessica asked.

Andrew leant forward slightly, offering the half-smile she now associated with him. When he replied ‘go on’, she felt a tingle of relief she only partly understood. He was largely a stranger but she could see something behind his eyes that she felt herself. It was probably because she now knew him in the context of something happening with his ex-wife. As he’d mentioned that he had previously been married, she had seen in his face that he was still in love with whoever the woman was. She could understand wanting to hide emotions through work.

‘It’s been pretty shitty to be honest,’ Jessica said, feeling her voice croak before correcting herself. ‘This morning I had to phone my parents to tell them I was fine. They live in Cumbria so luckily don’t get the papers or the same news as us. Before I’d even finished talking, my mum had jumped on the Internet and seen the pictures. They wouldn’t believe that I was fine. I think my dad already had the car keys in his hand to come down before I managed to talk them around.’

‘That’s good though, right?’

‘Oh yeah, I didn’t mean it like that. I see all sorts of shite mums and dads and people who couldn’t care less about their kids. Mine are amazing. It was just that moment in their voice where you tell them something bad has happened. It’s like you’re breaking their hearts. I hated it.’

‘My parents loved my wife . . . ex-wife . . . Keira. I don’t think they’ve ever come to terms with us not being together any more.’

Jessica wondered if she should ask what happened but Andrew stared at her, clearly expecting her to finish explaining her day. ‘That was just the first thing I did,’ she continued. ‘Then I had to go to the house. Have you any idea what it’s like to go to a burned-out house?’

‘No, I never went to Harley’s.’

‘It’s just . . . horrible. There are these fire investigators who first check the scene. They had already decided it was started deliberately and then you’re allowed back onto the site. One of the fire guys escorted me around. I don’t know if they do it for everyone or if it’s just because it was me. It’s everything you can imagine but worse. Everything’s black, even the bits that aren’t burned, because of the smoke. You see fragments of your things, part-burned, part-not. It’s not even those items that you think about – it’s the memories that come with them.’

‘Was there much left?’

‘Unbelievably, most of the things in our bedroom. It sounds stupid but I keep my phone charger next to the bed and you wouldn’t have known anything had happened. Most of Adam’s clothes are fine. Some of mine. A lot of the things we might need day-to-day are all right. Some of them are smoke-damaged but the ceiling didn’t collapse and the guy said it was lucky we lived in a house built just after the war.’

‘Why?’

‘He says the new homes have thin walls and thinner doors. That the fire just goes straight through it. Either way, I’ve got a carful of clothes. It was lucky I left my car keys in a pocket, else they would have been downstairs too.’

‘Where are you going to stay? I might . . . ?’

Jessica didn’t know what he was going to offer but she waved her hand. ‘I’ve sorted it. One of my friends, Caroline, she’s got this place on the Quays. She broke up with her husband and it’s up for sale but it’s empty for now. I’m going there after here to dump everything.’

‘That’s nice of her.’

‘Well that’s what I’ve realised this morning. It was horrible being at the house but, beyond that, people are bloody good. I’ve had my mum offering to drive a few hundred miles just to give me a cuddle. My mate’s letting us stay in her flat for free. I spoke to one of my colleagues who is on maternity leave. She was telling me I could have all her clothes because they don’t fit anyway. She practically ordered me to come over for tea. She’s got a baby to be looking after but she was going to do that anyway. My phone’s not stopped going all morning – it’s a bloody good job I found that charger. Sometimes I think I forget that people are generally pretty decent. I just end up dealing with most of the shits.’

‘So what do you do now?’ Jessica started to reply but couldn’t stop another coughing fit charging through her. Andrew handed her a tissue as she doubled over. Unable to stop herself, she checked it afterwards, seeing more flecks of black and spots of blood.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

Jessica nodded but only answered the first question. ‘Now? Now I have to sit around. I spoke to my DCI too. He told me he doesn’t want to see me for at least a week and, even then, assuming they haven’t solved it by then, I won’t be working on the case about who burned down the house and whether it’s connected to the other ones – including Harley’s.’

‘Why?’

‘Policy? I don’t know. I told him I’d speak to the superintendent and he said he already had – and that they were in agreement. I said I’d go to the chief constable but he’d done that too. Aside from the Home Secretary, there’s not much else I can do. Basically, that’s it. Unless he changes his mind, I’m off for six more days and then I go back as if nothing’s happened.’

‘But . . . don’t you think you should take the time off? Is your fiancé doing all right?’

Jessica knew the newspaper article, and presumably the news broadcasts, had only made a passing reference to someone other than her being involved in the fire.

‘We both slept in the hospital last night,’ she said. ‘I saw him before leaving this morning and dropped in again before coming here. The doctor says he’s doing okay but he probably won’t be released until tomorrow.’

Andrew spoke nervously. ‘Maybe he’d like to spend the week with you . . . ?’

Jessica knew what he was saying was true. She had been telling herself the same thing but above that was an overriding feeling that she wouldn’t be able to feel safe until whoever had set fire to her house was caught. She ignored him, finally moving onto the reason she was there.

‘What have you got on Ryan and the people he hangs around with?’

The investigator seemed surprised by her abruptness, certainly by the fact she had changed the subject so quickly. His eyebrows shot upwards as he looked off to one side as if thinking. ‘I’m not sure. Only what I’ve told you. I gave you the number plate of the girl but never heard back from you.’

Jessica knew she shouldn’t be passing on the information but, given what had happened, didn’t even hesitate. ‘It belonged to a nineteen-year-old woman called Lara Sullivan. I visited her house and although I didn’t specifically ask about the money, I did ask her about Ryan.’

‘What did she say?’

‘Not much. Every girl I mention his name to has a similar response. I’m not sure if it’s fear or unease but there’s something there.’

‘I don’t have anything else. I’ve not been following him everywhere but I’ve kept an eye on him in the evenings. He’s not been doing much.’

Jessica gave him Lara’s address and the details she could remember. ‘Will you see if you can find anything on her?’ she asked.

‘Wouldn’t it be better if someone you knew from the station did that?’ he asked.

‘They won’t work with me, let alone help.’

‘I’ll do what I can but it won’t be much.’

‘I want you to keep following Ryan too. I would but he knows me. If he meets this Lara again, call me.’

‘Do you think he was the one who . . . ?’ Andrew tailed off, clearly not wanting to say, ‘burned down your house’.

‘I don’t know. But there’s no one else I can think of. His dad was in hospital. I know my colleagues are going over his past to see if there’s anything else but they either haven’t got anything – or won’t tell me.’

‘What’s he got to gain though?’

Jessica didn’t want to mention that she had slapped him. She wondered if that was reason enough.

‘Say fire was his thing,’ Andrew continued, ‘I guess that could be a reason but what about the other things you were talking about with the girls and everything? What could he be involved in?’

‘Money and girls have always made the world go around,’ Jessica said.

‘True but what would he have been paying Lara for? Sex? How would that connect to the other girls? Do you think he paid them too?’

‘I don’t know but everything has happened since his father was released from prison. That can’t be a coincidence.’ Andrew shrugged as if to say he couldn’t think of a reason to disagree. ‘Is Harley still paying you?’ Jessica added.

‘Sort of. He is but I’m putting all the money in a separate account and I’ll either give it back if he’ll take it or give it to charity. I’ve told him there’s nothing I can do. He’s been so different. When he first hired me, he was short and to the point, now he wants to have conversations. I don’t know what to say. He’s lost his house and daughter, it’s not like I can take him down the pub to drink it off. He keeps asking what can possibly happen next.’

‘When was the last time you saw him?’

Andrew shrugged sadly. ‘Not for a while. He’ll call but I think he’s embarrassed about being seen. I asked if he wanted to meet and he couldn’t get off the phone quickly enough. I think the biggest thing is that he has no closure because he doesn’t know why it all happened.’

It was something Jessica could understand as well as anyone. ‘Perhaps if you can get to the bottom of everything that’s happening with Ryan, Lara and whoever else, you’ll find him an answer after all?’

There was very little that annoyed Jessica more than having to act girly. In order not to be recognised from the morning’s coverage in the papers and on television, she wore her hair down and found a low-cut top in the pile of clothes salvaged from the house. Rather than wear something over it, as she would usually, Jessica wore just that and a skirt to ensure the garage owner would be looking at her chest and legs as opposed to her face.

She kept her phone in her hand just in case Andrew called, explaining to the person who worked there that her vehicle was making ‘a funny sound’. She giggled and flirted in a way that disgusted her but it at least had the desired effect as she noticed the man’s gaze constantly drifting down towards her chest before he realised what he was doing. If he knew the amount of padding that was being used to create the illusion, Jessica suspected he wouldn’t be quite so impressed.

‘Do you want us to give you a bell when it’s ready, love?’ he asked.

‘I’ll just wait around, it shouldn’t be long, should it?’

The mechanic took one final glance across at her chest before replying. ‘No, I’ll start on it right away.’

Jessica’s plan to poke around the garage Ryan worked at wasn’t exactly high-tech. Andrew was keeping an eye on the college waiting for him to leave, while, after dropping her clothes off at Caroline’s flat and checking in on Adam, she had driven to the garage and made up something that sounded plausible. Andrew had pointed out the flaw in the idea that her face was all over the news and someone could recognise her, which had led Jessica to the current position she found herself in.

She remembered her old vehicle and thought that, if she had brought that by, it could have been a good two or three days before she saw the beloved thing again. With her new car, she knew there was nothing wrong with it.

As the mechanic and someone else went to work under the bonnet, Jessica looked carefully at the surroundings. There were large plastic cans marked ‘petrol’ and ‘diesel’ pushed into the far corner and another area held cans of spray paint. Jessica didn’t check them any more closely but it didn’t really matter if there was a yellow one now because there could have been at some point. She wondered if Ryan could have tried to frame Anthony by leaving the items in his back garden and the shed. Could he have burned down his own house for the same reason? It seemed far-fetched but then there was a likely insurance payout to come – and it could have landed Thompson in trouble. It didn’t explain why the back of the house had been blocked to try to keep Martin inside but she was sure there would be a reason somewhere.

Jessica made her way through to the garage’s reception area and then outside into a small car park. She took out her phone and called Rowlands. As it rang, she huddled close to a wall, trying to keep warm. Although the late afternoon wasn’t exactly cold, her outfit wasn’t really suitable for the time of year.

‘What took you so long?’ Jessica said, showing her agitation when the constable answered.

‘Sorry, I was busy. What’s up?’

‘That’s what I was phoning you to ask. What’s going on?’

Rowlands paused for a second. ‘Jess . . . you’re supposed to be off.’

‘Sod off, Dave, just tell me.’

He sighed. ‘You know I shouldn’t but we’re all working hard for you. People are going over your statement, we’re checking the times, we have spoken to your neighbours. We have got the initial report from the fire investigator. Honestly, we’re doing everything we can.’

‘But you’ve not got anywhere yet?’

‘Jess . . .’

‘There haven’t been any other suicides, have there?’

‘No, but . . .’

Jessica was too annoyed at his stalling to let him finish his sentences. ‘Will you call me if you find anything?’

Rowlands sighed again. ‘Jess, don’t put me in this position. Just get yourself better and we’ll see you soon.’

Jessica knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere. ‘All right, fine. Bye.’

She hung up and put the phone in the bag she was being forced to carry because there were no pockets in what she was wearing. She went back into the reception area and sat looking around at the various posters on the wall.

‘Are you all right, love?’ asked the female receptionist. She was only a teenager herself and Jessica could see her holding a puzzle book as she stared over the counter.

Jessica nodded. ‘Fine, thanks.’

‘You seem familiar.’

Jessica looked at the coffee table she was resting her feet on and noticed a copy of that morning’s Herald with her photo on the front. She stood, stepping between the table and reception desk. ‘Do you watch morning chat shows?’ she asked.

The woman put her puzzle book down and beamed. ‘Oh God, yeah. I love ’em.’

‘I was on one a few weeks back. You probably know me from there.’

‘Oh wow, you’re famous! Which one were you on?’

Jessica turned around and picked up the newspaper, casually folding it over as if she were reading but shielding the picture from view before turning back to face the woman. ‘It was called “My brother’s really my dad”.’

The woman’s eyes were wide with surprise. ‘Really? Your brother’s your dad?’

‘Yeah and my aunt’s my uncle. It was this big thing they did over two days. My brother, who is really my dad, ended up having a fight with his brother, who’s really his cousin.’

‘I think I remember that one.’

Jessica had made it up but, if it had been a real subject, she wasn’t surprised. ‘Anyway, that must be where you saw me. I was sat at the back.’

The woman’s mouth was open, staring at Jessica. ‘Can I have your autograph?’

‘Really? I was only at the back.’

‘Yeah but you were on TV.’

The woman held out her puzzle book and pen. Jessica dropped the newspaper in the bin next to the desk but the woman was so in awe, she didn’t notice. Jessica took the pen and signed ‘Davina Rowlands’ on the back of the book before handing it back.

‘I’ll get it framed,’ the woman said, staring wide-eyed at the signature.

‘You’re welcome,’ Jessica replied, before taking her seat, while thinking England really was a strange place.

28

Jessica’s attempts to involve herself in the investigation were not going well. Shortly after her conversation with Rowlands, Cole had called to tell her to take an extra day off on top of the week he had already ordered. For most people, the time off work would be a blessing, but he knew Jessica wanted to get back as soon as she could. He said that each time he heard a report of her speaking to anyone at the station he would make her take another day off. He also reiterated that the next phone call would come from the superintendent, the one after that from the chief constable.

She knew there would be the offer of counselling sessions when she did return – but even so she wanted to get back as soon as possible. Even if they did force her to work on other cases, she would still easily be able to catch up on the gossip.

The next morning, she put her focus on Adam, although what was going on at Longsight was constantly in the back of her mind. It hadn’t helped that the day’s news coverage, although not entirely devoted to her, extensively recapped recent events. It linked all of the blazes and mentioned that Martin’s release from prison had preceded everything.

Outside the hospital, Adam was determined to get into the passenger seat of her car by himself but she saw him wince as he crouched. Aside from the coughing, she pretty much felt back to her old self but Adam’s voice was still deeper and rougher than it should be.

‘You’re going to like Caroline’s flat,’ Jessica said. ‘There’s a great view.’

‘I’ll sort something out so we don’t have to burden her.’

‘Take it easy, you know what the doctor said.’

‘You’re one to talk.’

When she had first seen the flat, Jessica was relieved that her friend had good taste. Much of Caroline’s furniture was still there, which she suspected was because no one was too keen on trying to get it back downstairs in the lift. Caroline said they could treat the place as their own and that, as yet, there were no offers so they would have a couple of months at least to sort themselves out.

After they arrived, Jessica showed Adam around but, as much as she tried to talk up the benefits, she knew they would never be able to call it home. For Adam, the destruction of the house had meant he’d lost many of the memories from his childhood and beyond.

As they settled into Caroline’s wide leather sofa, Jessica pulled a pair of boxes out from under the coffee table. ‘Look what I found.’

Inside were the photographs and certificates that had been in the attic. She heard Adam cough gently but he was grinning as he began to look through the items. She knew there were photographs of his grandma from when she had been younger, as well as ones of Adam as a child too. ‘Aww, look at the little thing,’ Jessica said, pointing at a photo of a naked Adam as a baby.

Before Adam could reply, her phone began to ring, Rowlands’s name flashing up. Jessica stood and walked into the open-plan kitchen.

‘Look who it is, Judas Rowlands.’

‘Hey, I didn’t tell Jack you were calling me yesterday. I was in a meeting with him when you rang.’

Jessica thought his story sounded plausible but she wasn’t entirely convinced. ‘Adam was released today,’ she said. ‘You remember my friend Caroline? We’re staying in her flat that’s up for sale over on the Quays.’

‘Did you get a call from Hugo?’

Jessica laughed. ‘Hugo’ was the stage name for a magician friend of Rowlands who she had come to know well. ‘He said me and Adam can go stay in his flat any time we like.’

Dave snorted. ‘You know he’s still living above that bookies’?’

‘I know. I said we would let him know if we needed somewhere. For one, it’s just a one-bedroom place so who knows where he thought we’d all sleep. Secondly, he’s still got all those stuffed animals and everything. There’s no way I’d be able to sleep there. I’d be terrified of one of the mice coming back to life or something. Nice of him to offer though.’

‘He’s got a one-night-a-week residency at this comedy club in town. He does tricks and stuff. We should go some time.’

‘I’ll see what Adam says. I’m not sure either of us are in the mood for much comedy at the moment. Anyway, what’s going on?’

‘Jess . . .’

‘Just tell me, you’ve called anyway.’

Dave sighed. ‘All right, fine, but don’t tell Jack. We’re trying our best. We have been going as far into Martin’s background as we can but there’s nothing there that couldn’t be explained away through coincidence.’

If they delved deeply enough, Jessica knew they would find most people could be linked to a crime simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just because a person was in a town when there was a robbery or a fire, that didn’t mean they had anything to do with it – but when the police looked into histories as thoroughly as they were examining Martin’s, something would come up.

‘Did you link him to the fire at his old school?’

‘Nothing that would stick. He was released from hospital today. I wasn’t there but apparently it’s mainly cuts and bruises. They did all the brain scans and everything and he’s fine.’

‘What about Ryan?’

‘We found a little about him – a couple of fights while he was in care but nothing serious.’

‘What about anything found at the house?’

‘Nothing. Because you have a lawn at the front, anything, such as footprints or something, would have been destroyed as they needed the ladder to get you out. People would have walked on it. Your neighbours were all sleeping, as you’d expect.’

‘What about Sienna and Molly?’

‘It’s sort of been sidetracked. Apparently calls to those helplines are up, so the media coverage has had one good effect. There haven’t been any other deaths.’

‘So the world’s still turning without me in the centre of it?’

She heard Rowlands sniggering. ‘We’re all missing you, Jess. Get better and then come back.’

Jessica hung up and rejoined Adam in the living room. She wasn’t used to being off work during the day and, although it was barely lunchtime, she felt at a loss. ‘There was something else which survived the fire,’ she told Adam, kissing him on the forehead before taking his hand.

‘What?’

Jessica led him towards the bedroom. Caroline had come by the previous day with clean sheets and helped her change everything because Jessica knew neither she nor Adam would feel comfortable in someone else’s bed.

‘You know most of our clothes were okay?’ she said.

‘Yes.’

‘There’s a certain dress I’ve been promising to try on for quite some time . . .’

The bedroom curtains were wide open as Jessica and Adam lay watching the sky slowly darken.

‘It’s better when it’s sunny,’ Jessica said. ‘Caroline reckons that you can see mist forming underneath you on the water on the cloudy mornings. Her exact words were, “It’s beautiful, just bloody cold”.’

‘What are we going to do?’ Adam said, wrapping an arm around Jessica and pulling her closer to him on the bed.

‘We’ll get a place of our own and start again.’

‘What about getting married? We can’t do that and then come back here. Everything’s going to take so long to sort out with the insurance and so on.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Jessica said.

‘Neither do you. I just . . . I want you to be happy.’

Jessica moved her head further onto his chest, being careful not to press too hard. ‘I’m going to be. We will be. At least we both got out.’

‘Do you remember it?’

‘Bits.’

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.’

Jessica wriggled up and straddled herself across Adam’s stomach. ‘It doesn’t matter. If you hadn’t tested those bloody smoke alarms once a week when I was trying to watch TV, neither of us would have got out. It’s as much down to you as me.’

‘It doesn’t feel like that.’

Jessica rested her hands on his chest and began to smooth down the hairs. ‘Ad, what matters is that we’re both out. You don’t have to be a knight in shining armour. You’d piss me right off if you were. You’re just you.’

Adam put his hands on her hips and pulled her into an embrace. ‘You’re so cool,’ he whispered before dissolving into laughter which inevitably became a very unsexy chesty cough.

As Jessica tried to stop herself from joining in, her phone rang, Andrew’s name flashing on the screen. Adam was doubled over and unable to protest, so Jessica answered.

‘What’s up?’

‘You told me to call if I saw Ryan and Lara together again?’

‘Where?’

‘The pub next to the hotel he’s staying in.’

‘I’ll be right there.’