Crimesight

by Joy Ellis

  ‘Are you getting away too, ma’am?’ Jon asked, noting the dark patches beneath Kate’s eyes.

  ‘Soon, but I need to talk to this Benedict Broome guy first, and then I thought I’d go see Toni Clarkson in the safety of her own home, and try to find something, anything, that may give us a clearer idea as to the identity of Emily.’

  ‘I’ll go with you.’ said Jon.

  ‘No, finish up here, then for God’s sake take the opportunity to get some rest. I get the feeling that things are about to hot up.’ She stabbed a finger at the grainy photographs. ‘It’s all about these sick bloody parties, isn’t it? Nic Barley here helped to organise one of the venues; Toni went willingly to one; Emily too; and Asher Leyton told us that Shauna Kelly said she had been to a weird party and was going to another. We have to find a way to stop them before more kids disappear, or die!’

  Jon thought about Emily. The Golden Hour was long gone, and time might be running out for her, where ever she was. Whoever she was? ‘If only we could get someone inside,’ he murmured.

  ‘You find me a venue, and I’ll get in.’

  Rosie McElderry stood in the doorway, a determined look glinting in her eyes.Jon felt a jolt of concern, and he wasn’t quite sure why. They all did undercover work when necessary, and Rosie was probably the best detective on the station when it came to looking younger than her years. So why wasn’t he saying, ‘Yeah! Great idea!’?

  ‘The problem is finding the next venue.’ said Gary flatly. ‘Don’t forget, we’ve been one step behind these guys for months and we’re no nearer catching them.’

  ‘But you didn’t have Nic Barley, did you?’ added Rosie looking down at the photographs of the boy. ‘As long as no-one knows that he’s been helping us, he could be our way in.’

  Kate leaned back in her chair and puffed out her cheeks. ‘He told us he did a runner when he found out he was dealing with a load of pervs. He may not find it easy to get back in again.’

  ‘Maybe not, but I’m willing to bet he knows some of the kids that do go for the free booze.’ Rosie said doggedly. ‘At least let’s talk to him.’

  Jon frowned. ‘Well, if we manage to get a location and a time, why don’t we just raid the place? Cut out any risk to Rosie and lock the bastards up, finito!’

  ‘Ah, so sweet of you to care,’ smiled Rosie, ‘…but think it through, Sarge. It may not be finito if a van-load of flatfoots charges in. What if the bosses aren’t there? I doubt the organisers attend every rave. Or what if they leg it and we lose them? I’d be one hundred per cent certain they have an escape route pre-planned. And the place could be full of minors. It’s too iffy. We need more intelligence before we can hit them.’

  ‘You’re right.’ said Kate quietly. ‘We do need to infiltrate one of these damned parties.’

  ‘Maybe I can help you there, ma’am.’

  Jon saw a tall figure standing behind Rosie. Then she stood to one side and a stony-faced Sgt Danny Page, the desk sergeant, stepped into the dimly lit monitor room. ‘Sorry to butt in, ma’am, but I think you should hear what a new witness has to say about your parties.’

  Kate stood up in surprise. ‘Someone has finally come forward?’

  ‘After a fashion.’ He turned back and ushered a young blonde, teenage girl into the room. ‘Detective Chief Inspector Reynard, meet my daughter, Jasmine. She has quite a lot to tell you.’

  Half an hour later the uniformed officer, his arm gently draped around the tearful youngster’s shoulder, escorted his daughter from the station. Kate and the others moved back to the CID room to decide their next move.

  ‘So, all we need is Jasmine’s friend Chloe’s mobile phone, and as soon as the text comes through, we’ll have the location of the next venue. We’re in!’ Excitement edged Rosie’s voice. ‘We’ve got her address. Shall Scott and I go pick it up, Guv?’

  Kate nodded. ‘Yes, from what Jasmine heard, there are sometimes several parties a week, which could make the next on anytime, tonight even!’ She looked at Rosie. ‘Go! And I don’t have to tell you how to handle Chloe and her brother, do I? There are lives at stake. You can scare the shit out of them for all I care, just make sure they both co-operate and keep their mouths shut, okay?’

  Kate and Jon walked back upstairs, leaving Gary to check the last of the CCTV films.

  ‘I guess you two better hang on now until Rosie and Scott get back. I want us all to be in close proximity of that party, where ever it is if our Flower is going in undercover.’

  ‘You and me both, ma’am,’ muttered Jon in a low voice. ‘I’m really not happy about her doing this alone.’

  ‘Well, sorry to say this, but I hardly think any of us would pass for teenagers anymore, so it’s Hobson’s choice.’

  ‘Why not send Scotty in with her?’ asked Jon.

  ‘Sorry, but Scott doesn’t do getting down and dirty.’ Kate gave a little laugh. ‘Remember the last time we tried to rough him up a bit? He still looked as if he’d walked off the cover of GQ. And anyway, I think Rosie would attract less attention if she plays this one solo.’

  ‘What about a wire?’ asked Jon, and Kate read the anxiety in his voice.

  ‘I wouldn’t let her do it without one. We need to know what’s going on every step of the way.’ She paused at her office door. ‘She’ll be fine, Jon. You know Rosie’s not what she appears and this is all part of the job. She’s a tough cookie when she needs to be, and she can take care of herself, so stop fretting.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I’m going to ring Benedict Broome. And I’m still hoping to visit Toni Clarkson, but I guess that rather depends on whether one of our nasty parties will be taking place. Perhaps you’d see if PC Andy English has had any luck with Broome’s planning permission?’

  Kate went into the office, sat down, picked up the tattered card that uniform had given her and dialled the number.

  ‘Benedict Broome.’ The voice was deep and the words clearly spoken.

  Kate introduced herself, then briefly told him of the missing girl and their having paid an earlier trip to his property on Roman Creek.

  ‘Mr Lee did tell me,’ said Broome, with the slightest hint of amusement in his voice. ‘I hope his rather threatening appearance didn’t upset your officers? And I hope that he was accommodating. Sometimes he can be a little over protective of the old place.’

  ‘They did mention his size, sir, but I assure you that he was obliging enough to show my men around.’ She went on say that considering the massive area that Windrush covered; they would need to make an extended search, and asked his permission.

  ‘Of course you must, Detective Chief Inspector. ‘I’ll notify Mr Lee of your intentions, and tell him you have my full permission.’

  After a few words of thanks, Kate hung up. The man was eloquent and charming, and his concern for the missing girl had sounded genuine. Kate stared at the phone. So why did she feel so unsettled?

  Before she could consider that question, there was a light tap at the door, and Jon entered. ‘Andy’s off duty, Ma’am, but he left you this.’

  Kate took the memo and read it aloud. “Ma’am, regarding planning permission for Benedict Broome’s project at Windrush. Will know more after I’ve spoken to a senior council official tomorrow, but I suspect things are not straightforward. I’m certain it warrants taking another look. PC Andy English.”

  Something in Kate wanted to jump up, grab a van full of uniforms, and chase out to Windrush immediately, but she knew that considering the dangerous state of the buildings and the surrounding ground, it was going to be a daylight job, and one done with a considerable amount of careful planning as well. They would need to search the place under their terms, not that of the giant caretaker, Mr Micah Lee. ‘It grieves me to say this, but it’s too late to move on this today, Jon. There aren’t enough hours of light left. We’ll go tomorrow. Why don’t you go downstairs and see how much support uniform can offer us? We’ll need a pretty big team for a place that size.’

  Jon nodded. �
��I’ll see what I can organise.’ He stopped hesitantly in the doorway. ‘You will let me know as soon as Rosie returns, won’t you?’

  Kate threw him a puzzled smile. ‘Of course I will,’ she said, as she watched him walk out. When he was gone, she murmured, ‘Mm, if I didn’t know you better Jon Summerhill, I might just wonder if …?

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  After Jon had liaised with uniform regarding a full-scale search of Windrush, he went back to his desk to wait for Rosie to return, but instead found Kate waiting for him.

  ‘It’s on tonight at ten thirty. Rosie’s just rung me.’

  ‘Where?’ asked Jon, feeling his throat constrict.

  ‘Apparently that isn’t divulged until half an hour before it kicks off. I’m not sure what Rosie and Scott said to them, but although Chloe is well pissed off, her brother Luke is singing like a bird. Scott reckons he’s got the wind up about something that happened there a week or so ago, and he’s very keen to help us.’ Kate gave him a tight smile. ‘He’s told Rosie that she can use his name as a contact to get in.’

  ‘And she trusts him?’

  ‘Luke has been going for a while now. Not to every party, but quite a few of them. He is considered ‘safe’ by the organisers, not that he knows much about them.’

  ‘Where’s Rosie now?’ he asked.

  ‘She’s gone to borrow some trendy gear from her niece. She’ll be back at ten, to wait for the call.’ Kate glanced up at the wall clock.’ It’s only six o’clock. I’m off to see Toni, then I’m going home for some supper. Why don’t you and Gary get away too, just be back by a quarter to ten, okay?’

  Jon agreed, although he was having very bad vibes about Rosie’s assignment. With a frustrated groan, he switched off his computer, picked up his jacket and went to find Gary.

  Jon sat silently in his car, the key in the ignition, but the engine not turned on.

  Gary had already gone home to organise himself, the boss was on her way to see Toni, and he was sitting in the staff car park desperately trying to think.

  Something was bothering him, something that he couldn’t quite get his head around. This time it wasn’t visions of tunnels, although he was still getting them, it was something to do with Toni Clarkson, although for the life of him he couldn’t remember what. His overpowering and puzzling concern for Rosie was wrecking his normal rational thought patterns.

  He needed to be busy to take his mind off the forthcoming night. He took out his pocket book and leafed through it. His hurried script was sometimes almost illegible, even to the hand that wrote it, but as he read the bullet points from what the girl had said in the hospital, the conversation flooded back. And so did the tiny detail that had been niggling away at the back of his brain.

  “Someone was singing.”

  He frowned. When the drug was taking hold of young Toni, she had recalled that one particular point vividly. He sat back and exhaled loudly. What kind of singing would have made a girl who was on the brink of succumbing to a powerful drug remember it. It had to be something unusual to make an impression in her failing memory.

  With a little snort of agitation, Jon pulled out his phone and dialled his boss’s mobile number.

  ‘Ma’am? Sorry to ring you when you’re driving but when you speak to Toni, ask her what she meant about someone singing. She mentioned it when she told us about the man demanding to know her birth date. I know it sounds inconsequential, but I think it’s vital that we know what she heard.’

  The hands-free was crackly, but Kate promised that she’d ask. ‘Shall I ring you and tell you what she says?’

  ‘No, ma’am. I’ll see you later, just as long as the question has been put to her.’ He thanked her and closed his phone. He particularly did not want her ringing back, because there was something he needed to do, and apart from the fact that the DCI would not approve at all, he didn’t want any interruptions. It may have nothing at all to do with it, but this was not the first time he’d heard someone mention singing.

  With new determination, he started the car and headed for the marshes.

  As he accelerated out onto the main road, he glanced at the clock. He had plenty of time, and his idea may not work, but if it did.., well, actually he wasn’t sure what it would mean; but it was something he wanted to know, he needed to know. Jon put his foot down and drove out of town.

  Kate drove fast over the lonely fenland towards Harlan Marsh. The long reed-edged drove seemed endless. There was nothing coming towards her, and sometimes it felt as if she was driving on a road with no end. She slowed down a little. She’d learnt from the moment she began driving in this terrain, never to underestimate these seemingly uncomplicated roads. A change in camber, a hump-back bridge, a sudden and unexpected bend or even simple complacency could have you nose down in a deep ditch in seconds.

  As she eased the car around a bend and saw Harlan Marsh town ahead of her, she was overwhelmed by tiredness. This visit really could have waited until the morning, but then she needed to get the search party out to the old sanatorium. Even so, right now she could be at home with her husband and her boys. Kate yawned and wondered how David would take the news that she would be eating and dashing off out again. Probably not too well. She needed to get this chat with young Toni out of the way, and get home as quickly as possible.

  When she arrived, Neil Clarkson opened the door. His demeanour was not exactly welcoming. ‘Keep it short, DCI Reynard, my daughter is exhausted.’

  She probably is, but she is alive, Kate thought to herself, and safe, unlike poor Emily. ‘Of course. Just a few minutes with her, and I’ll be out of your hair.’

  ‘Alone?’ he asked suspiciously.

  ‘It’s better that way. Youngsters don’t like their parents sharing their secrets.’

  He stood back reluctantly and pointed down the long hallway. ‘Third door along the right-hand side. Knock loudly; she’s probably glued to her MP4 player.’

  Toni’s room was a melee of girly-teen-things, shocking things and kid’s stuff. It seemed to Kate that she was at war with the many sides to her emerging personality; a young woman trying to be cool and ‘out there’, but still scared to let her childhood go.

  Two cuddly teddy bears sat in front of a poster showing some kind of night creatures locked in a bloody, pointed-fanged embrace. Kate’s boys love Twilight, but this had a more sinister, erotic edge to it, and she was pretty sure that Neil Clarkson and his wife were not particularly happy with it adorning their daughter’s wall.

  ‘What’s the music?’ she asked, as Toni took out the ear pieces.

  ‘The All Starz,’ she looked at Kate patiently. ‘You won’t have heard of them.’

  ‘Oh, I didn’t put you down as an Emo.’

  For a moment her eyes widened, then there was a hint of amusement but she didn’t comment on Kate’s apparently amazing knowledge of pop culture. And that was fine, because it was complete luck that she’d hit on Eddie’s favourite band. Well, this week’s favourite band. It could be anything from the Beatles or Taylor Swift, to the entire cast of ‘Glee’, where Eddie was concerned.

  ‘I’ve been thinking about Emily,’ said Toni slowly. ‘Did I tell you she spoke funny?’

  Kate started. ‘Like a speech impediment?’

  ‘No, like an accent. I think she’s from Eastern Europe.’ Toni’s fingers randomly brushed the touch- screen of her MP4 player and brilliant coloured pictures flashed across it. ‘I’m not sure, but I can remember something about grandparents who wouldn’t leave their village, even though it was really gross. You know? Like bombed out?’

  An immigrant! Kate puffed out her cheeks and exhaled slowly. Of course! The girl was an illegal! And that would be why they had no missing person report.

  ‘And her name’s not really Emily.’ Toni stared down at a photo of a moody looking youth with an oily-tanned torso and bleached teeth. ‘She said the English didn’t pronounce her real name properly, so she called herself Emily, because she liked it.’<
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  Kate rubbed her forehead and tried to think. This was getting more difficult by the moment.

  ‘And that really is all I can remember.’ Toni removed the artificially beautiful boy from her screen and replaced it with the latest Pokemon character.

  ‘You’ve done well, Toni. I’m proud of you.’

  ‘Do you think she’s dead, Chief Inspector Reynard?’

  The bluntness of the question made Kate shudder. ‘I’m doing my best to get to her before anything like that can happen.’

  ‘I think she’s dead. The men at that place..,’ Toni gave an involuntary shiver. ‘I saw their eyes. Especially one of them, the one that hurt me, he had horrible eyes.’

  ‘How do you mean?’ Kate asked softly.

  ‘Like blank. Like, yeah, he was all excited about the day that she was born and all that, but even then his eyes were still blank. Special effects for a zombie film can make that happen, but I’ve never seen a human being really look that way.’

  Kate felt a distinct chill descend around them when the girl spoke about the man who had taken her, and she was sure that if Jon had been with her, he would have seen spirits, bad spirits. Kate suddenly thought about Jon’s question. She had almost forgotten to ask.

  ‘Toni, when we spoke to you at the hospital, you said that somebody was singing, do you recall that?’

  Toni screwed her face up in concentration. ‘I’d forgotten that. It seemed so weird! I mean totally creepy. In that stinking cellar with the candles and the wine and funky music playing, this one guy starts to sing, and his voice was…’ She lifted her hands in a little gesture of amazement. ‘Like some choir boy! But better, stronger. I mean, like really powerful, like he had no control over the volume. It was kind of awesome.’

  Kate frowned. It meant nothing to her, but she silently hoped that it would mean something to Jon. ‘Thanks for that, Toni. I’m going to go now. I think it’s time you got some rest, okay?’ She took a card from her bag and passed it to the girl. ‘Maybe you could write down anything else that comes to you. Anything else, no matter how small, and ring me?’