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

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 51 (всего у книги 56 страниц)

24

Moss Side was separated from Longsight by the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. With the high number of battles between youths from estates belonging to the two communities, that meant the medical facility was in the perfect location a few years back. When Jessica worked in uniform, every officer knew Whitworth Park at the back of the hospital was the place where the gangs of Moss Side would square up against their rivals from Longsight every few weeks.

Since then, much of the gang warfare had died down, or at the least the lower-scale trouble. But while stabbings, drug charges and public disorder figures had decreased, firearms offences were up.

There were specialist teams in Greater Manchester’s Police service trained to deal with gang-related crime but neither they, uniform, or anyone else had been prepared for what happened on the night of Nicholas Long’s death.

After arriving back at the flat, Jessica watched the news on the television in the bedroom, before turning it off, rolling over and pretending to be asleep the moment she heard Adam’s key in the lock. He whispered an apology for being late and she struggled not to tense as he kissed the back of her head.

The following morning, Jessica headed straight to Moss Side, where smoke was still rising. Police had cordoned off the roads heading in and were checking each car attempting to enter and exit, leading to long queues in the surrounding district. Jessica parked Izzy’s car a short distance away and walked. She struggled not to shiver, her decision to stand in the rain the previous evening returning to haunt her. Her hair was still matted and knotty, despite the fact she’d had a shower.

The morning itself was dry and bright, although the air smelled of burning as one of the uniformed officers waved her through and told her where the rest of the team were.

Jessica saw the initial burned-out car at the end of the road – the first of half-a-dozen. There was a host of officers crowded around, with a fire engine parked on either side blocking the roads. Stones and broken glass littered the tarmac as Jessica tried to step around the debris.

She realised quickly that the only reason Cole had asked her to attend was to keep up appearances. The chief superintendent was strolling around the scene with two news cameras in tow and there were officers massed throughout. She could guess the way things had happened that morning, with the high-ups requesting every district from across the city send an officer or two to at least make it appear as if they were reacting to what had gone on the previous evening.

A man in a suit Jessica recognised as a detective sergeant from their neighbouring North division caught her eye and she weaved her way around one of the vehicles, making sure she stayed out of the camera’s view.

‘You got the short straw too then?’ he asked. He was at least fifteen years older than Jessica with curly grey hair and a slouch that made it look like he’d long since given up.

‘I’m thinking of changing my middle name to “shat upon”,’ she replied with a weak smile.

The man laughed. ‘If nothing else, it will get you funny looks at the airport.’

‘What are we even doing here?’ Jessica asked.

‘Just follow me and look busy.’ He turned and walked away from the cars. ‘I’m Geoff,’ he said, offering his hand.

‘Jessica,’ she replied, shaking it.

Geoff began pointing at rocks as they walked. ‘If we stay together and walk around pointing at rocks and bottles like this, anyone watching from a distance might think we’re gathering vital evidence, rather than simply making up the numbers in a show of force.’

Jessica copied him, pointing at a broken piece of glass. ‘Haven’t we got specialist teams to go through scenes like this?’

He crouched, picking up a rock and showing it to Jessica, then holding it up to the light as if he had noticed something important. ‘They’ve already got most of them in custody, it’s just kids, teenagers and young blokes who fancied a tear-up. We’re only around because the cameras are here – people will want to see lots of officers on the news this evening and in the papers tomorrow.’

Geoff stood again, walking back towards the cars with Jessica by his side.

‘How long do you think we’ll have to hang around?’ she asked.

He nodded towards the chief superintendent. ‘As soon as the cameras go, he’ll be off within five minutes, then we’ll get back to some proper work five minutes after that. Then the local lot can get on with things without us trampling around in the way.’

‘What happened? I saw some of it on the news yesterday but it wasn’t a good night for me.’

‘Did you hear about Nicholas Long being killed?’

Jessica didn’t want to say how involved she was in the case, replying with a simple ‘yes’.

‘He came from around this area,’ Geoff continued as they walked. Every now and then, he would point at a random half-brick, just in case the cameras were focusing on them. ‘He paid for some social club around here and apparently lots of kids looked up to him and so on. As soon as word got around that he had been killed, the rumour mill went into overdrive and, before you know it, every little scroat and thieving shitbag was on the street moaning about “feds” and “cops”, plus every other Americanism you can think of.’

Jessica tried to give most people the benefit of the doubt, especially when they had grown up in an area of poverty, telling herself it was easy to look down on others when she had parents who loved and cared for her. That didn’t mean she didn’t sympathise with and largely understand Geoff’s cynicism.

‘I saw some of them in town yesterday,’ Jessica replied.

‘Aye, someone sent all of the riot squad into the centre. As soon as this lot realised they wouldn’t be able to cause any trouble there, they all came home and smashed their own area up instead. I doubt many of them had even met Nicholas Long, let alone knew he came from here. He was just an excuse to go out and cause trouble.’

‘Anyone hurt?’

‘Not really. Lots of scared locals but I think they mainly damaged objects rather than people. I heard a few of ours got carried away. Still, you never know if someone’s going to pull a gun on you when you’re out this way, do you?’

Jessica didn’t reply as she wasn’t entirely sure what she thought about that. They arrived back at the burned cars just as the chief superintendent was leading the cameras away to talk to some nearby locals. She wondered if they had already been screened by a press officer to prevent them saying anything unexpected on camera. A few of the other members of CID began to make eye contact with each other, wondering if they could return to their real jobs yet, as uniformed officers waited around, wanting to get to work properly.

‘Do you think there’ll be anything else tonight?’ Jessica asked.

‘Have you been to your station yet?’ Geoff asked with a smile.

‘I came straight here.’

He turned so he was facing away from where the cameras might be and broke into a laugh. ‘Where are you based?’

‘Longsight.’

He laughed even harder. ‘Just down the road then. Wait until you get in, then you won’t need to ask that question.’

As Jessica walked through the station’s front door, she knew instantly what Geoff had been trying to tell her. A queue of people was winding out of the door as she pushed her way through to reception. She offered the desk sergeant a sympathetic grin, heading towards the main floor where the constables worked. She had a quick look from side to side to make sure Rowlands was nowhere to be seen, then moved quickly across to Izzy’s desk and swapped car keys.

‘Are we full downstairs?’ Jessica asked.

Izzy smiled. ‘Everyone’s full. They arrested everyone out on the street last night but there wasn’t anywhere to fit them all. The cells are jammed at all the local stations and we can’t get people in and out quickly enough. There aren’t enough duty solicitors to go around and we’ve had angry parents storming in and out all morning. Some of them have already been processed and shipped off to the magistrates but their parents are still turning up here. Some of the ones involved in the more serious stuff are being kept downstairs too.’

‘I got sent out to the estate this morning to make up the numbers.’

‘Is it as bad as it looked on the news?’

‘Not really, most of it happened at the end of one road.’

Izzy didn’t appear too relieved. ‘Still, one riot a year is one too many, we’re not going to hear the end of this for months. Next thing you know, we’ll have a five-step plan about how to spot a riot and what to do about it. Step one: is anyone throwing stones? Step two: where are the stones coming from?’

‘So young, cynical and purple,’ Jessica smiled back, before straightening when she saw Rowlands entering the room. ‘I’ve got to head back to Nicholas’s club to talk to the staff. Are you coming?’

Izzy seemed confused. ‘Aren’t you taking Dave?’

‘No.’

Jessica’s reply was deliberately firm, meant to end the enquiry, rather than to invite more.

Izzy took the hint. ‘Whenever you’re ready then.’ She paused before adding: ‘My car is in one piece, isn’t it?’

‘Why wouldn’t it be?’

‘It’s just . . . your reputation . . .’

Jessica rolled her eyes. ‘Let’s go. I’m driving.’

On the surface, Nicholas Long’s club looked the same as it had on every other occasion Jessica had visited it but by the time she reached the back set of offices and rooms, it had changed dramatically. A thick piece of chipboard had been bolted in place of the old fire door. Jessica led Izzy through the hallway, showing her how everything had been. The toilet was unrecognisable, the sink ripped out and exposed water pipes sealed off with a plastic stopper.

After checking how everything had been left, Jessica and the constable went back through to the main part of the club. Half-a-dozen women were sitting on the sofas in the same spot as the first evening Jessica had come by. Their attire was very different on this occasion, tight jeans and combinations of jumpers and tops, rather than skimpy underwear.

Jessica and Izzy stood next to the security door as the assembled workers eyed them suspiciously.

‘Do you fancy talking to them?’ Jessica asked quietly, not wanting them to hear. ‘I don’t think I give off the right vibes.’

‘Why would you think I would?’

‘You just look . . . trendier.’ Jessica indicated Izzy’s tied-back purple hair.

The constable narrowed her eyes before responding. ‘“Trendier”? Is that a nice way of saying I look a bit like a stripper?’

‘If that’s how you want to think of it.’

‘I’m not sure if I should take it as a compliment.’

‘Either way, I think they’ll talk to you more than they will me. I’ve had a bunch of dirty looks already.’

Izzy nodded. ‘Who are you going to talk to?’

‘The bar manager, Liam, and the guy who works on the front desk – Scott. I’ve already taken a look at their statements and I want to go over a couple of things. The times are all over the shop.’

Izzy nodded at the women. ‘We’ve already got statements from this lot too, haven’t we?’

‘That’s not really why we’re here. This is supposed to be a less formal thing to discuss wider issues of what it was like working for Nicholas.’

‘Is there anything you want me to ask specifically?’

‘Skirt around it and do your girly thing but see if you can find out if any of them were sleeping with him. Just bear in mind it might not have been entirely a two-way thing.’

‘Is it going to matter now if they were?’

Jessica shook her head. ‘Probably not but there are so many people that may have had it in for him, it wouldn’t do any harm to know if he was having an affair.’

Izzy took a deep breath, readying herself. ‘Is this why you brought me instead of Dave?’

‘Well, that and the fact Dave’s a dick.’

Izzy laughed, thinking Jessica was joking. ‘What’s new about that?’

Liam and Scott were both sitting on stools at the far end of the bar talking quietly. As they saw Jessica approaching, they stopped, standing as if she had commanded them to.

The dim light glinted off Scott’s styled spiky hair. Instead of the smart clothes he had been wearing at their last meeting, he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. In his suit he had looked like an usher at a wedding, thrust into the job at short notice with a suit one size too big, bought by his parents so he could grow into it. If anything, the casual clothes made him appear even younger.

On the other hand, there was little Liam could do about his brutish appearance. He too was wearing jeans with a T-shirt but his arms were practically bursting out of it. While Leviticus was well-defined, he had a charm about him that Liam certainly didn’t. With a voice that was squeaky and held no authority, Jessica could see why Nicholas had been happy to bring Liam in on work experience. He was someone who could be moulded into something far more useable.

‘How can we help?’ Liam asked in a tone higher than usual.

‘I’m going to talk to you one at a time in the reception area,’ Jessica said. ‘You first,’ she added, pointing at Scott.

She led him through to the porch, sitting on one end of the sofa and nodding for the man to sit at the other.

‘Am I in trouble?’ he asked nervously. ‘I did speak to you yesterday.’

‘I wanted to run through your statement and to clarify a few things about your relationship with Nicholas Long.’

‘Okay . . .’

‘How did you come to work here?’

Scott answered instantly without thinking. ‘Word gets around when Nicholas is looking for someone to hire. He had a bunch of us in on work experience, not here, at one of the pubs he owns out Rusholme way. I helped out with the barrels.’

‘How long ago was that?’

Scott ummed for a few moments, his slight frame shrinking into itself as he glanced at the ceiling, counting on his fingers. ‘Three years or so?’

‘How did you end up working here?’

Scott looked away nervously. ‘I’d been here a few times just for, y’know . . .’ He peeked up to catch Jessica’s nod. ‘Anyway, through that I’d started chatting to Liam. A few months back he told me they’d be looking to take someone extra on and that he’d put in a word with the boss.’

‘Is Liam your best friend?’

‘I suppose . . .’

‘What’s he like?’

Jessica saw a minor look of panic shoot across Scott’s face but she recognised it as the expression most males gave when they were asked to talk about other men, as if admitting they liked someone as a mate meant they were secretly attracted to them too. She stared at him, eyebrows raised, letting him know she wasn’t in the mood for immature blokes on this particular day.

‘I guess . . . he’s a good guy . . . ?’ Scott’s inflection made it sound like a question.

‘Is he or isn’t he?’

Scott squirmed awkwardly and Jessica wanted to shout ‘it doesn’t make you gay’ in frustration.

‘He looks out for you,’ Scott finally replied in what Jessica guessed was about as ringing an endorsement as she was likely to get from him.

‘Talk me through what happened the night before last.’

Jessica already knew from the CCTV that the club had been serving drinks after their licence said they were supposed to have closed for the night. Because it was something Liam should have been on top of – and because it didn’t matter in the bigger picture – she didn’t say anything as Scott told her a white lie about everything being ‘normal’ and them closing ‘on time’.

Aside from those issues, he said they had gone to his own flat after locking up to play computer games until the early hours, something they did regularly. As he pointed out, they worked odd hours.

Liam’s version of events on the night Nicholas had died matched Scott’s. He had been hired in a similar way to Scott, but had moved up quickly in Nicholas’s organisation to the point that he was now some sort of right-hand man. As well as being the bar manager for the club, he worked one day a week as a regional manager, visiting the other pubs and clubs Nicholas owned to ensure everything was running as it should be. Jessica didn’t push what exactly that might mean, although she thought the Serious Crime Division might be paying him a visit sometime soon to ask more probing questions.

The more she spoke to Liam, the more Jessica could see what Nicholas clearly had. He was happy to make eye contact but there was a vulnerability there. He refused to say anything negative about Nicholas, proving his loyalty, but the fact he was comfortable talking about accounting showed he had an intelligence too. Coupled with his physique, it was quite a combination. She wondered quite how deeply entrenched in Nicholas’s other pursuits he might be.

Jessica’s final question was as much for her own gratification as the investigation. ‘Who’s going to be the new boss with Nicholas gone?’

Through their talk, Liam had been leaning forward and using his hands as he spoke, even though it didn’t seem particularly natural for him. As Jessica asked the question, he crossed his arms defensively. ‘I had a phone call yesterday.’

‘Who from?’

‘The other Nicholas, his son.’

Jessica had been wondering how long it would be before the younger Long came up. ‘What did he say?’

‘He wants to meet. I think it would have already happened if you hadn’t have been coming down today.’ Liam had spoken affectionately about his old boss but clearly didn’t have the same feeling towards the man’s son.

‘Have you met him before?’

Liam nodded. ‘Once. His dad brought him in to give him the tour around a year ago. I knew he had a son but he was off at school somewhere and would only come home for a few weeks each summer.’

‘What was he like?’

At first Jessica thought Liam was going to say something derogatory but he stopped himself mid-sentence, perhaps wary of the fact that the eighteen-year-old was possibly going to be his new boss. ‘He’s . . . different.’

Jessica knew Nicky was someone she should try to meet sooner rather than later. And Leviticus Bryan’s earlier assertion that the young man wasn’t too keen on ‘waiting his turn’ was a particularly interesting choice of phrase, given what had happened to his father.

25

Jessica had been wary of spending time alone with Adam recently, even before watching him in the restaurant with the mystery woman. Since then, she had done everything she could to avoid him, although she saw the irony of text messaging him to say she was working late when she instead went and moped in the nearby pub. Far from seeking an explanation, she didn’t want to hear what he might have to say, worried about the effect it might have on her professional life if she let her relationship fall apart while she was still in the middle of a case. She felt she owed it to Kayleigh, Eleanor, Oliver’s parents and everyone else to find out what was going on, then she would figure out the best way to deal with what was happening at home.

The other problem was that the Longsight station was becoming less and less of a respite too. Avoiding Rowlands was hard to do, meaning she either spent all of her time in her office, or made sure she travelled in a pair, walking around with DS Cornish or someone nearby if she needed to go anywhere.

They were still dealing with the fall-out of the Moss Side disturbance too, with half of the cells still full three days after it had happened. The enormous police presence on the morning after had worked in one way, with the media backing rather than criticising them, although even that had an edge to it, the insinuation being they should shoot anyone under the age of eighteen who happened to be on the streets after dark. Jessica knew one or two people within the station who probably shared that view but that wasn’t helping either.

With at least two area taskforces being set up, as well as the shifting of resources to the gang crime unit, few officers seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing. It wasn’t helping that DI Reynolds hadn’t yet been replaced.

What also wasn’t helping was that ever since she had been drawn into the whisky-drinking with Nicholas, Jessica could feel something wasn’t right with her body. For the first few days, she had put it down to her own stupidity but it had gone past that now. The constant tiredness was something she had experienced in the past but her limbs were beginning to ache and she frequently felt hungry, even after just eating. She woke each morning knowing she should visit the doctor but not wanting to hear what he might have to say. At the same time, she feared she would burst into tears and be signed off work with stress.

Instead, Jessica kept acting as if nothing was wrong.

She was somewhat surprised to be called into an early morning briefing by Cole, and even more concerned when he told her to come to the media room rather than his office. Although it was technically called the Press Pad, most officers went out of their way to call it anything but. The reasons for his choice of location became clear when Jessica saw the number of people there, including Izzy, three other detective constables and a handful of uniformed officers.

Not to mention Rowlands.

Rather than talking at them, the chairs had been arranged into a near-circle. Jessica deliberately sat a quarter of the way around from Rowlands, next to the chief inspector. It was far enough away not to have to speak to him but not opposite, meaning she didn’t have to look at him either. Small briefings she could deal with, but this was the type of corporate shite she hated: ‘blue-sky thinking’, ‘pushing the envelope’, ‘moving forward’, ‘thinking outside the box’ and any number of other made-up phrases that people came up with. Basically, let’s all sit in a circle and talk at each other until someone pulls out a weapon and puts everyone out of their misery.

Cole offered her a weak smile and she wondered how things had been going with his wife. They hadn’t had any time alone since they had talked in the gardens outside Kayleigh’s house and they had never had a close enough relationship for her to assume she could ask. She knew she wasn’t one to talk but the areas under his eyes were dark and the wrinkles on his forehead seemed to have doubled over the past month or so. He looked as if he could do with an entire weekend in bed.

After everyone had settled, Cole explained that things were awkward with officers being pulled in all directions, often with no notice. Through careful negotiating, he had managed to ensure that everyone in the room, with the exception of himself, would be free to continue investigating the deaths of Oliver, Kayleigh and, almost by default, Nicholas Long. He did point out that the Serious Crime Division were also investigating Nicholas’s activities, although they hadn’t yet taken on the man’s death because they weren’t too keen on looking into the elements relating to Oliver and Kayleigh. It was typical that the deaths of real people were being thought of as an impediment, rather than a spur into action.

After a few introductions, he told them time for briefings such as this would be at a premium in the coming weeks, so they should get as much out into the open as possible and share any ideas.

‘I do have some early results from Nicholas’s body,’ he added. ‘It’s as we expected. He died from asphyxiation in much the same way as Oliver and Kayleigh. There’s an additional gash in his head from where it looks like he hit his head and a significant amount of pressure was placed on the bottom of his spine.’

‘Was anything found at the scene?’ one of the keener constables asked.

‘You should all have diagrams and photos of the area. The sink is covered in fingerprints, so identifying any that don’t belong to staff members, or Nicholas himself, is going to take some time, if not prove impossible. A handgun was recovered from the scene but the numbers match what we have on file for a weapon legally registered to Nicholas himself. It shouldn’t have been out of his house but that’s a different issue. Taking anything from that is proving difficult given the fact it was found in a puddle of urine. They’ve taken the whole of the fire exit door to check as well.’

Cole tried to explain how someone could open a fire exit from the outside but wasn’t doing a good job, so Rowlands talked everyone through it. Jessica stared off into the distance but was unsurprised he knew the trick. The chief inspector emphasised that it only worked on old-style doors and that most buildings weren’t so easy to get into. He also pointed out that none of this ignored the possibility that someone who worked in the club had deliberately left it open.

Jessica talked the officers through Scott and Liam’s statements, as well as her additional chats with them both.

Izzy had not had the most productive of times speaking to the female workers. None of them seemed to share the disdain for Nicholas that Eleanor did but the constable described it as a consistent mix of fear and awe, something Jessica could understand from her dealings with the man. None of them would open up further than describing their own movements on the night Nicholas had been killed. It also seemed apparent a few of them were working without the knowledge of their family, something which complicated things further.

Jessica talked about the impression Leviticus and Ruby had given her of the man and they all knew about the suspicions around his business dealings and the position he held within the community. Finding someone with a motive was never going to be difficult, which left them trying to connect possible suspects back to Kayleigh and Oliver’s killings.

Two officers were tasked with tracing back everything they had in their files that could link the three people, with another small group working with the local CCTV footage. The initial examinations had found nothing from the cameras around the streets and Jessica doubted they’d get anything. It was still worth looking into, despite how time-consuming it would be.

When one of the officers asked who was likely to be taking on the business, Jessica said she had heard Long’s son Nicky seemed probable.

‘We’ve tried to make contact with both Nicky and his stepmother, Tia, but neither have so far been that cooperative,’ Cole added. ‘We took a statement with a few of the basics in, such as the fact that Nicholas often doesn’t arrive home from the club until five or six in the morning, but not much more.’

Another officer was given the task of finding out anything about Nicky, although Jessica knew it would be a struggle because of his age.

As they were getting ready to split up, Cole did reveal one interesting fact, insisting it couldn’t leave the room. ‘Serious Crime are going big on getting access to the filing cabinets at Nicholas’s club,’ he said. ‘They’re off to court later this week to try to argue they have the right to search them. Basically, if you’re at the premises, stay away. If you’re not, forget I ever said this.’

Jessica hung around, waiting until it was just her and Cole, noting that Rowlands hadn’t stopped to chat. Although the chief inspector had stood to send everyone on their way, he then sank back into his seat, as Jessica dragged hers around so she could see him face to face.

‘Is everything all right?’ she asked.

Cole offered a short ‘fine’ without looking at her, letting her know that any conversation unrelated to work was off limits.

She knew the feeling.

‘Do SCD think they’ll win in court?’ she asked.

His demeanour brightened as he laughed at the suggestion. ‘They’ve got no chance, they’re just trying it on. If they had enough evidence before, they would already have the files. They’re hoping they’ll get a lenient judge because of everything that happened in Moss Side this week. Nicholas’s wife has a lawyer on the case to stop anything we do.’

Jessica remembered Leviticus telling her how meticulous Nicholas was with his record-keeping, although one thing had always bothered her about the statement. ‘What I don’t get is why someone like Nicholas would keep records of everything if it might come back to bite him at some point. He must have known the agencies were desperate to get hold of them?’

Cole smiled, but the wrinkles around his eyes folded into one, making him look even more tired. ‘Why would Richard Nixon record everything that went on in the Oval Office? It’s not to do with knowing it could implicate you, it’s the arrogance of assuming it won’t matter.’

Jessica couldn’t argue, having seen the man’s ego close up.

‘I need to visit Nicky,’ she said.

‘I know.’

‘Are Serious Crime going to mind?’

‘Probably, but what they don’t know and all that . . .’ Jessica couldn’t be sure but she thought he had winked at her. ‘We’re going to have to be careful,’ he added.

He was already on his feet before Jessica realised that meant he was coming too.