Game Point

by Malcolm Hollingdrake

  One of the officers moved the vehicle off the road onto a farm gate entrance before calling for back up.

  ***

  Within fifteen minutes Grant had told them everything. He had genuinely believed the laptop to be lost until Cooper had received the call from Val’s brother. Neither Shakti nor Owen was convinced that he was risking everything to redress the wrong that Valerie had suffered as a result of the first documentary. The fact that he had kept valuable intelligence from the police might well have put himself, Cooper and Liz in harm’s way. There would, they assured him, be serious consequences.

  Owen escorted Grant to collect the laptop and within the hour the computer was on its way to Newby Wiske. Grant, however, was sitting in a cell and so too was Cooper.

  ***

  The three items collected from the Ilkley Auction House had been couriered directly to Forensics and the statement was sitting on Cyril’s desk along with a disc. He collected them and went into the Incident Room.

  “Shakti, put this on, footage of our mystery car boot lady.”

  Within seconds Cyril identified the woman as Cameron.

  “Her prints will be all over the painting and the pins. If they contain traces of DNA from Atkins and Coulson, we might have our murder weapons. How deeply is Grant involved in all of this, if at all? Or was Cameron planted at the Stray Agency to help discover just what Atkins was up to? Did anyone interview the previous secretary?”

  Cyril received blank faces as Owen checked through HOLMES.

  “Paula Baker. No, she left before both murders, a good three months. Cameron’s placement started mid August so she had time to find out what was going on. She was planted there. I’ll organise an interview with Miss Baker.”

  Peg Podmore entered. “Cyril, Met Police has sent a report after interviewing the manager of Revelations, the production company that preliminarily commissioned the documentary, ‘Modern Farming Today’. They confirmed that that was the working title. They saw the evidence on a laptop and Valerie Atkins was, according to their staff, exceptionally convincing and professional. Its evidence covered people trafficking, importing drugs and cannabis production within the rural community of North Yorkshire. They were not allowed to keep the images until a formal contract had been signed. Grant had been down in London the day Liz was taken. They report that he was there to plead for more time. Allegedly, Valerie had suffered a bout of depression and he had played the medical card. Generously, they extended the deadline by a week. Nobody was aware that Valerie had been murdered. Unbelievably, since knowing the consequences of her investigation and the material held, they are now keen to extend the deadline indefinitely and are happy to sign an open contract. Mercenary bastards!”

  She dropped the report in front of Cyril. “It’ll be on there shortly, all the names etc.” She pointed to the computer in front of Owen.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Charles sat on the floor opposite the makeshift bed. Liz was propped in the corner, the rough blanket cocooning her. He looked at the chain that appeared out from the side of the blanket before rising to the ring on the wall; a steel umbilical cord. He then noticed the scratchings. There were now four vertical lines crossed through, a tally of time. It was the name Cyril on which he focussed.

  He stood and moved over to the wall, stretching out the nail-varnished index finger before tracing the word. Each time he followed the letters, he applied more force until the finely manicured nail began to scratch and erase the lettering.

  Liz, sensing someone was close, barely opened her eyes; she remained motionless and afraid. Charles moved away, returning to the far end of the cell. He stared at the damaged varnish before smoothing the nail’s now rough edge with his other hand.

  “Bitch! Bitch!” she heard him whisper. “I know you can hear me, I saw your eyes open and then close. You can stop this pretence otherwise I’ll give you something that will make you sit up.”

  Liz opened her eyes and focused on the man sitting opposite, his crossed legs, his bleach blonde hair seemed totally incongruous with his muscular build.

  “We haven’t been formally introduced, even though, my dear, I guess you could say that I know you intimately.” He lifted his head and stared back at her. The endless depth to that stare made the hairs on her neck and arms tingle. “Don’t worry, ladies are not on my preferred menu.”

  Liz immediately heard alarm bells ring in her head. The fact that he was here, facing her in plain sight, telling her who he was, made her shudder. Why would he suddenly allow her to see him, know him? She instantly felt nauseous.

  “It’s all Bennett’s fault, your Cyril!” He pointed to the mark where she’d scratched his name and she noticed that it had been totally defaced. “We had a good business, steady, lucrative, bringing no harm to anyone. Years we ran it, like clockwork, tick, tock, tick, tock. And then along comes Cyril Bloody Bennett!”

  Liz shuffled uncomfortably on the bed, rattling the chain as she tightened the grip around her legs.

  Charles took from his pocket what appeared to be a piece of broken glass. He rolled it along the floor until it ricocheted off the side of the bucket before coming to rest between them.

  “You’ll not know what that is. No, you’ll think it’s a piece of worthless glass, a trinket, but then you don’t know much do you DS Graydon? In fact you know fuck all. That…” he pointed to the glass almost hidden in the dirt, “that little piece of carbon is what’s known as a rough diamond. Some people called them blood diamonds. How many people died extracting these? It doesn’t matter, the rebels controlled the diamonds and you were either with them or you were rendered armless.” Charles laughed. “Armless get it? Fuck, girl you know nothing. Christ if you didn’t join the rebels they removed your hands or arms so you couldn’t dig for stones or fight against them. Anyway, parents were happy to get their daughters out of the country and we offered that service for small pouches of these. They believed their girls were going to help in family homes in Europe, safely away from the rapists and murdering youths of Sierra Leone. In some ways that was true but in others, it was from a frying pan into a fire!”

  Liz took a deep breath, angered both by his arrogance and her weakness.

  “Child prostitution, pornography, drug addiction, that’s what you gave them, not the promise of a better life!” Liz suddenly felt outrage overtake her fear. She had seen what traffickers did to young lives.

  Charles was startled by the anger in her words. “You judge me too soon, we gave them something that they and their parents didn’t have and couldn’t hope ever to have.”

  “Don’t you lecture me, don’t you dare tell me you gave them hope! You sit there as if you were some kind of charity, some kind of benevolent god and saviour. I’ve seen what happens to these children, it’s happening all over Europe right now. People are taking advantage of those in dire need of assistance, desperate people who trust the words of those who appear to be in a position to help. All too sadly, they fail to comprehend the one human frailty that’s ever present and that’s greed, Charles, greed. Avarice, in the eyes of many, including myself, is a sin. Think what good you could have done!”

  Where this courage had come from she would never know, but she was not one to listen to bullshit no matter how tight a corner she was in. Whatever she said now would not change the outcome of her predicament, maybe it would accelerate whatever end she faced.

  “Good? I’ve never been good, ever in my entire life. You’ve no idea what being sinful has brought me.”

  “Trinkets that are for the here and now, it’s material wealth, not spiritual. It has no value other than to those who seek the same, the greedy and the selfish. You’ll never take them with you. Come the day, you’ll have exactly the same possessions as me, only you’ll have the crippling burden of guilt. I despise what you’ve done to those human beings before me and I despise what you’re doing to me. You’ll never get me to bend or bow to you no matter how much you frighten me. Yes, you do frighten me, y
ou’ve hurt me and done whatever else to me. You might break me physically but you’ll never change the Liz that’s in here.”

  Charles clenched his fists and felt the frustration build inside. “Bennett will bend, he’ll feel the crippling burden of guilt and he’ll carry it with him for ever. He will come and I’ll crush him.”

  He smashed a fist into the palm of his hand before standing to collect the diamond. He held it between a finger and thumb admiring the refracted coloured light.

  “I’m not greedy.” He tossed the gem into the bucket.“I’m no different from the High Street entrepreneur. I’m a businessman, I give people what they want and I take a fee, there’s no difference. And now, goody two shoes, they’re queuing along the African coast, ready to be picked like ripe apples. Life has got so much easier. No matter what you say or what you do, it will never stop. Business is blooming, bitch!” He left the room slamming the door.

  Hearing those few words, Liz knew that her life would never be the same again. The nausea returned and she moved quickly to the bucket and vomited.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cyril and Shakti looked at the images of the girls, as they had been taken from the van.

  “We’re getting warmer, Shakti. I wonder which one of those we saw on the video? It also looks as though we have the source of Valerie’s habit. The driver’s said nothing and the accomplice is still at large. Dogs and helicopter are searching. He shouldn’t get far.”

  The late afternoon was busy but there had still been no contact with the missing passenger from the van. The girls had been interviewed but very little was known of their location, but a vital clue surfaced in that they had not been travelling. They gave a detailed description of their arrival in England including quite a graphic description of a journey in a small boat and how they had been extremely wet, hungry and cold. Two also described being sexually abused. They described with great accuracy the room and the film set up.

  “I want a full house to house of Pateley Bridge tomorrow, particularly any garages or industrial units. If that brings nothing, we’ll increase the sweep to include the outlying farms.”

  All the while the cost of the operation was weighing heavily on Cyril’s mind. He would need to seek support from a higher level.

  He was just passing the Reception counter at the building’s entrance when the phone rang; the duty officer answered as he watched Cyril pass. He immediately dropped the receiver and dashed after him. Cyril returned mumbling under his breath that he should dig a bloody tunnel to escape.

  “Bennett.”

  “It’s Peg. Thought you’d like to know that the laptop Grant collected was blank apart from Valerie’s videos. He wouldn’t have been able to extract those as they were heavily encrypted. Someone’s cleared it or saved it and cleared it. I’ve been in touch with Wigan and James Atkins isn’t at school nor at home. Wasn’t in work today; he rang in sick at 07:55. The shits apparently.”

  “Check for his car.”

  “It’s at his house. Neighbours say it hasn’t moved all day. Nobody has seen him.”

  “See if anyone holds a spare key and get them to take a look, if not put a watch on him. I’ll organise a warrant. How did Owen go on with Paula Baker?”

  “He said he’d call if there’s anything to report. Have a good evening.”

  “And you, don’t work too hard. Remember very early start again tomorrow.”

  Peg had no intention of leaving, there were one or two loose ends she had to look into, besides a hotel room held little attraction. She immediately rang The Jeffrey’s building to chase up the DNA on the pins and painting seized from the Ilkley Auction House. As suspected, the painting contained Christina Cameron’s prints but the pins held the DNA of both Coulson and Valerie Atkins; brain tissue traces were detected on both as well as vitreous humour on one. They now had a direct link with the murder weapons and Cameron.

  Peg was sitting next to Paul Mortimer who had just returned on shift. Owen came into the Incident Room. He tossed his car keys onto the table and went for a drink.

  He returned to the room stirring the coffee, allowing the contents to dribble down the sides before placing the mug on the table. A small, brown reservoir collected around the base.

  “It’s right what it says on this mug, Harrogate and Crime. Never seem to see much of the other things marked, like Art and Festivals. I could do with going to a bloody good festival.” He stopped stirring and the spillage stopped.

  “Well, do you bring tidings of great joy?”

  “Where’s Flash?”

  “Governors’ Meeting at the local Primary School and then he’s seeing Julie. He said something about returning some property he’d borrowed.”

  Owen just smiled and winked. “Right!”

  “Well, she didn’t jump she was pushed!” He slurped his coffee. “Paula Baker. She was never pregnant. She was shagging Grant but was never… anyway, it appears that she had a visit from a very persuasive gentleman who recommended she leave. The pregnancy was all contrived.”

  “The gentleman who paid her a visit?”

  “Large, blonde. Offered her money, a year’s salary and support with the story. She did very well out of it, Grant turned over ten grand for her to terminate what wasn’t there. Little did he know he was about to introduce a cuckoo as well as a new squeeze into his office!”

  Peg moved away from the table. “Cyril was right, they, Cameron and Charles knew that Valerie was onto something from the social media links with Coulson. You can see why the police keep a very close eye on social media as the potential for crime is massive. By the way, Owen, Grant’s been duped again. The laptop he collected from Valerie’s brother had been cleaned. Seems James Atkins has done a runner too unless, of course, Charles has got to him first.”

  Owen slurped the dregs from the bottom of his mug. “Could never quite understand that relationship. She hated him, he hated her, he even stated that he wouldn’t come to the funeral, hated Cooper for something that occurred at school. Hated his parents. Doesn’t make sense to me and then she goes and leaves the most valuable item…”

  “And the most dangerous don’t forget.”

  “Yes, there is that. You don’t think she’s deliberately put him in harm’s way, do you?”

  “Retribution! Remember, Owen, revenge is best served cold. After all, she’s well and truly cold. You should also know, murder weapons are the two Charles Horner pins, DNA. Clever to leave them in the auction, another month and they could have gone anywhere.”

  ***

  Cyril crossed Skipton Road before taking the footpath. His scarf was wrapped high around his neck as a northerly breeze brought what seemed an early winter chill. He could see Julie’s apartment across the short patch of The Stray. He rang the bell and Julie appeared in the bay window. She smiled.

  He stumbled in as the door automatically unlocked. He felt the immediate welcoming warmth against his cold face. What a last few days! He just needed an hour of reality and he would be thinking straight again.

  As he entered Julie’s apartment, he immediately saw the glass of whiskey on the coffee table alongside the two hatpin boxes.

  “Thought you’d need the cockles of your heart warming, DCI Bennett.” She smiled and moved across to kiss him. “You poor creature, your nose is like ice.”

  She took his coat.

  “What news? Shop talk is most definitely allowed this evening.”

  Cyril went through the whole case as she topped up his glass and fed him slices of pizza.

  “You obviously pissed this Charles guy off pretty badly but you didn’t arrest him.”

  “Never ever saw him, a ghost as far as we were concerned.”

  “So why, if he’s running a business in this country again, commit crimes that are so, so, in your face for want of a better description?”

  “They’re committed to drawing me in. DI Peg Podmore from NCA believes he’s going to demand a swap, me for Liz. I’m happy for that to happen but
whether the powers that be will agree is another matter. It’s out of my hands. Anyway we’re crossing bridges before we can even see the rivers.”

  “Why would Atkins post a laptop to her brother, a brother she’d not seen for ages, didn’t communicate with, siblings who supposedly didn’t like each other? Christ, Cyril, you said that she even lived with the bloke who drove her brother away. Now if I’d been her brother, that would have pissed me off, believe me! There’s something called family loyalty.”

  Cyril sipped the whiskey and slipped his feet onto the coffee table.

  “I’m getting too old for this, Julie. I’ve just got to get Liz back. Tomorrow there’ll be a mass of coppers stomping throughout Pateley Bridge but we’ve no guarantee she’s anywhere near. The group of illegals stopped today may have been the last tranche.”

  Cyril glanced across at Julie who was pacing the far end of the room, deep in thought.

  “Valerie lost a sister when she was younger, hit and run, I think you said when we last spoke.”

  “That’s right. James was with them: being the oldest he was responsible for looking after them. Driver was never found. Mother reported that he became quite introverted after the accident, cold like his father, I believe she said.”

  “Let me run this past you Cyril, a woman’s perspective. Imagine that his reluctance, his introverted behaviour was not a feeling of guilt for his failure to look after his sister, but a guilt for not telling the truth, a truth that covered up for his sister.”