The Devil's Cliff Killings

by Simon McCleave

  ‘So, my dad mounted the pavement in blackout and killed a middle-aged woman walking along, minding her own business. He got seven years,’ Amanda explained awkwardly.

  ‘That’s terrible,’ Nick said, although he had seen a lot worse.

  ‘He woke up in the police cells again. He was a regular. He thought he’d been arrested for drunk and disorderly. He just had no memory of it.’

  ‘Is he an alcoholic?’ Nick asked.

  ‘He doesn’t think he is. But yeah, I would say so.’

  ‘Alcoholic dads. Another dark thing we have in common. Nature or nurture?’ Nick said.

  Amanda looked at him for a second. ‘Will you come and see him with me?’

  ‘Of course.’ Nick nodded. He would do anything for her.

  Amanda walked over and pecked him on the lips. He put his arm around her and pulled her in gently as they kissed passionately.

  TWO DAYS, TWO HOURS

  It was gone nine thirty and the light in the garden was fading fast. Dragging on a ciggie, Ruth looked out at the fields. The dry summer had taken its toll and the grass looked faded and patchy. The distant sound of children playing somewhere – shrill yells and screeches of joy. It brought a sharp reminder that Rosie Wright still hadn’t been found. Was Curtis Blake involved? Was he using Rosie to apply pressure on Kathy Wright? That would be a far better scenario in the short term than any sexually motivated abduction. Blake would need Rosie alive – and that gave Ruth a glimmer of hope.

  A noise on her phone signalled that a new email had arrived. It was from Steven Flaherty, her Missing Persons liaison from the Met. He had been Ruth’s point of contact at the Met from the day that Sarah had gone missing and had been incredibly patient and supportive ever since.

  The sight of his name always made her stomach clench.

  Hi Ruth,

  We’ve had information that a man bearing a striking resemblance to Jurgen Kessler interviewed for a job as an economics lecturer at Edinburgh University two days ago. Something made the admissions team suspicious and they photocopied the passport, which was for an Austrian national called Matthias Schürrle. However, something must have spooked the guy as he disappeared and failed to show for a second interview with the faculty head.

  I’m waiting for the documents to come through from Edinburgh Police. I’ve contacted Interpol in Vienna to see if we can track down Matthias Schürrle and see if it’s a stolen identity.

  I’ll ring you when I have more information.

  Kind regards,

  Steven

  Ruth took a few seconds to process the new information. She felt a little shaken, as she did whenever anything like this happened. Kessler had tried to get a job at Bournemouth University. Now he had been spotted in Edinburgh. What was he doing? Why was he hiding out in the UK? There had to be less conspicuous options?

  Ella came out with two mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits. Putting them down, she sat at the table next to her mother.

  ‘You okay?’ Ella asked.

  Ruth knew that the colour had drained from her face, but it wasn’t the right time to talk about Kessler. ‘Yeah, fine.’

  ‘I made you a tea,’ Ella said as she shifted the chair.

  ‘What are you after?’ Ruth asked sardonically as she put her phone away.

  ‘I’m not after anything,’ Ella replied defensively.

  There was a pregnant pause, and Ruth knew that Ella was itching to ask for some kind of favour. Maternal instinct was never wrong.

  ‘Go on then?’ Ruth said with an encouraging smile.

  ‘Dad’s moved his flight from Sydney forward,’ Ella said.

  ‘When is he coming?’ Ruth asked, fearing what was coming next.

  ‘Day after tomorrow.’

  ‘And you’re sure you still want to see him?’ Ruth asked. She was concerned that seeing her father after all this time might destabilise her. Especially if Dan did his usual trick of disappearing again.

  ‘I think I would really regret it if I didn’t. We spoke for nearly an hour last night,’ Ella explained. Ruth could see all the hope and joy in Ella’s face, and it angered her that Dan had been so absent in her life.

  ‘Good. I’m glad you’re getting on,’ Ruth said. There was part of her that didn’t want Ella’s dad swanning into her life, but she knew that was selfish.

  ‘He’s hilarious,’ Ella said with a smile.

  The one thing she always loved about Dan was his caustic sense of humour. She had to give him that at least. ‘Yeah, he is.’

  After a few seconds, Ella gave her a meaningful look and said, ‘Would you meet him when he comes over?’

  ‘No fucking way!’ Ruth exclaimed. It was an instinctive reaction.

  This is the man who left her to bring up Ella on her own with virtually no contact and no support. He can go fuck himself.

  ‘Why not?’ Ella asked. Ruth could see she was upset.

  Because he’s a selfish prick!

  ‘Why would I? You know what he did to us, darling?’ Ruth said through gritted teeth.

  ‘He’s my dad. And I’ve never seen my own parents in the same room together. I know we’ll never play happy families or anything like that. But it would mean so much to me to see you two together,’ Ella explained.

  Ruth knew that to say no would be selfish. And anything that helped Ella feel better about her childhood had to be a good thing.

  ‘Okay. But let me think about it,’ Ruth said.

  Ella looked at her and smiled. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I didn’t say yes,’ Ruth protested as her phone buzzed. It was another update from Twitter and the #FindRosie feed. She was frustrated that they would have to spend tomorrow pussyfooting around rather than hauling Kathy Wright in for questioning at the crack of dawn.

  It’s bloody political and PR bullshit, Ruth thought angrily, even though she had compromised and agreed to a search of the Wrights’ home. Time was ebbing away at a frightening pace. If the Blake lead proved to be a dead end, Rosie could be in the hands of someone who might not wait another day to kill her and dump the body.

  Ruth’s train of thought was broken by the sound of footsteps coming through the patio door. Sian approached with a bottle of beer in her hand. ‘What are you going to think about?’ Sian asked. She seemed to be a bit drunk.

  ‘Ella would like me to meet her dad when he visits,’ Ruth explained.

  Sian frowned and noticeably stiffened. ‘Right.’

  ‘Is that okay?’ Ruth asked, sensing the tension.

  ‘Yeah, of course. I’m just surprised after all that you’ve told me about him,’ Sian said.

  Ruth looked at her – she had definitely been drinking. And more than normal.

  ‘Ella just wanted to see me and him talking. That’s all. Are you okay with that?’ Ruth asked.

  Sian nodded and spun on her heels, ‘Not really my business, is it? I’m just going to get myself another drink.’

  Ruth and Ella watched Sian go and then shared a look. She wasn’t happy.

  CHAPTER 10

  Two days, ten hours

  It was early morning but Incident Room One was already bustling with noise, movement and the odd crack of laughter. Ruth grabbed her lukewarm flat white and documents and headed for the front of the room. Drake was already there, leaning back on the table as he casually surveyed the meeting. She might be the SIO on the case, but they were now on day three. The media was going nuts and Drake knew they needed a breakthrough.

  Social media was awash with people being highly critical of North Wales Police’s failure to find Rosie Wright or to make any significant steps to finding out what had happened to her. Ruth had already read a Twitter thread from that morning:

  Scott Chamberlain @ ScottChamberlain1981

  #FindRosie After the Andrew Gates debacle last Christmas, I smell another North Wales Police fuck up! They couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag with a map!

  Tracie @ NorthWalesExpress

  #FindRosie Where is
Rosie? The North Wales Police aren’t getting anywhere. No wonder her poor dad and the locals have taken matters into their own hands to look for her. We’re thinking of you.

  ‘Morning, everyone. If we could get started,’ Ruth said loudly as the room settled. She realised that she sounded irritated. Maybe she was? She was definitely frustrated.

  The morning sun was fully risen and cast shadows across the sixth-floor carpet. It was also beginning to heat up. A small plastic fan had been dug out from somewhere and whirred on a desk nearby.

  All that’s doing is blowing around hot air, she thought. That was the problem with being in a seventies tower block with no proper air conditioning. Only the custody suite, where suspects and prisoners were processed, was air conditioned. The bloody irony.

  Drake stood and put his hands on his hips as he faced the room. He had told Ruth that he wanted to kick today’s briefing off.

  ‘Right guys. It’s day three of our search for Rosie Wright. I know you are all working flat out, so thank you. But we also know that the statistical chances of us finding Rosie Wright alive are decreasing every hour that she is missing. This is an innocent sixteen-year-old girl who was attacked and taken. I want us to do our best work for Rosie and her family. And that means hard work and concentration. We’re working long hours, and I know that’s difficult’ – Drake walked over and pointed to the photo of Rosie dressed as a bridesmaid – ‘but let’s keep focussed and get her back safely, eh?’

  Inside, Ruth felt buoyed by his words. She could see in the faces of the CID officers in front of her that it had had a palpable effect. Drake had a natural charisma that made him a brilliant leader, and she hoped he stayed in CID and wasn’t lured by the power of senior management.

  Now Ruth had the complete attention of the room, she went to the scene boards. ‘Okay, this is what we know. Last Monday evening, Rosie Wright went with her friend Emma Haddon to join other friends at these farm buildings and a barn on Steven Haddon’s farm.’ She gestured to the map of the exact location. ‘She left her group of friends at around eight p.m. to find a better signal for her phone over by the yard. At around nine p.m., Emma went to look for Rosie, but she had vanished.’ Ruth then pointed to a SOCO photo of the patch of blood by the gate in the yard. ‘A significant amount of her blood was discovered by the gate to the yard. The volume suggests that she was attacked and was either badly injured or possibly dead when she was taken from the area. One theory is that Rosie was taken away by some kind of boat along the river there. Nick, have SOCO been down there?’

  ‘We’ll have something concrete tomorrow morning,’ Nick replied.

  ‘Good. What about this girl, Hayley?’ Ruth asked.

  Moving from the table that he was leaning on, Nick went over to the computer and clicked. A police photo of Hayley Collard came up on the screen. ‘This is Hayley Collard, aged seventeen. We believe that Rosie and Hayley had formed a relationship online. They had met secretly in Chester. However, when Hayley claimed that she was being picked up by her father, Rosie said that she saw Hayley getting into a car with three young men, one of whom was Asian. We tracked Hayley down to Rhyl, but when I tried to question her, she ran.’

  ‘You have that effect on women, Nick,’ quipped Sian. Ruth rolled her eyes, but a bit of humour was welcome this early in the morning. She was also glad that Sian was less frosty than she had been the previous evening.

  Nick gave her the finger and forced a smile. ‘Thanks, Sian. We’ve discovered that Hayley Collard has previous for solicitation and is working as a prostitute in West Rhyl. According to Rosie’s friends, Hayley was meant to be driving over to meet them on Monday night. As far as we know, Hayley never arrived. We also suspect that Rosie was trying to contact Hayley when she left her friends to go to the yard.’

  ‘Thanks, Nick. Sian, what have we got?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘Technical Forensics have checked Rosie’s laptop and gained access to her social-media accounts. There’s nothing on any of these that gives a clue as to why she was attacked. We checked the sex offenders register and came up with a Martin Hancock, who lives in Capelulo. He doesn’t have an alibi, but he was charged with the possession of indecent images of young men and has no history of violence.’

  Looking at her notes, Ruth then glanced over at Merringer. ‘What about the Wright family, Luke?’

  Merringer clicked on the computer to show a photo of Jason Wright. ‘Jason Wright. Works as the farm manager on Steven Haddon’s farm. He doesn’t get on with Rosie, and Emma Haddon claims that he has been violent with her. The general consensus is that he’s unpleasant and has a nasty temper.’ Merringer clicked and a photo of Kathy Wright appeared.

  ‘Actually, Luke, let me deal with Kathy Wright in a minute. What about the brother?’ Ruth said.

  A photo of Gareth Wright appeared on the screen next. ‘Gareth Wright. Twenty-one. Lives nearby with a friend. Has previous for possession and dealing weed. No history of violence though. Again, his relationship with Rosie isn’t good,’ Merringer said.

  Ruth nodded as she moved back to the centre of the room again, ‘Thanks, Luke. As some of you know, DCI Drake and I met with officers from the Regional Prison Investigation Team last night.’ Ruth clicked the computer to bring up a photo of Kathy Wright. ‘This is Rosie’s mother, Kathy Wright. She works as a prison officer at HMP Rhoswen. The RPIT have had her under investigation for the past six months as they believe that Kathy is running a team of prison officers smuggling drugs and mobile phones into Rhoswen.’

  There were some mutters around the room. It wasn’t surprising. This started to change the picture of the Wright family and possibly what had happened to Rosie.

  ‘However, things at Rhoswen have changed in recent months.’ Ruth clicked and a photo of Curtis Blake appeared on the screen. There were louder murmurs within the room. Llancastell CID and Blake had previous. Even though Ruth had brought Nick up to speed on the phone after her meeting with the RPIT, she could see his face had turned to thunder. Nick and Blake went way back, and Nick’s personal vendetta against Blake had sometimes got the better of him.

  ‘Curtis Blake was transferred to Rhoswen a couple of months ago. It seems that Blake has decided that he is now going to be running things at Rhoswen, and that includes the smuggling and sale of drugs and mobile phones. If Kathy Wright is running the team of bent prison officers, that means Blake has to either deal with her or get his own person. If he wants Kathy Wright to work for him now, that means either money or intimidation. And we all know what Blake is like.’ Ruth moved the presentation on to the next image. A tough-looking man in his sixties, shaved head, prison-regulation grey sweater. The side of his face was badly swollen and bruised. A dark six-inch slash from his eye socket to his lip had been stitched up. ‘This is Frank Cole. Cole ran things at Rhoswen until Blake arrived. This is what happened to Cole in the prison gym last week.’

  ‘Boss, if Blake wanted to take Rosie to gain leverage over Kathy Wright, why was there so much blood? Blake would need Rosie fit and well, wouldn’t he?’ Nick asked.

  ‘I don’t know, Nick. Maybe they came to take her and she fought them off? She was going to scream. Something went wrong. And all this is supposition at the moment,’ Ruth said.

  Drake got up from the table, signalling that he wanted to speak. ‘The intel we’ve had from the RPIT appears to be the strongest line of enquiry that we have. However, let’s not take our eye off other lines of enquiry until we have concrete evidence.’

  ‘I am running a press conference with Jason and Kathy Wright this morning in the Media Room. Sian and Merringer, I need you to meet the FLO and uniformed officers at the Wrights’ home at ten. As far as anyone is concerned, you are looking for anything to help with the search for Rosie. However, you are unofficially looking for anything that might help the RPIT in their investigation of Kathy Wright at Rhoswen. The RPIT officers will be with you as “observers”,’ Ruth said. ‘Nick, I need you to swing by the college again. At the moment, we ha
ve no idea what Rosie Wright was doing last Monday. Was she at college, at home or somewhere else? Thank you, everyone. Back here at six, please.’

  TWO DAYS, FOURTEEN hours

  It was ten o’clock when Ruth walked into the second press conference in as many days, now with Jason and Kathy Wright. As she sat down and looked out, Ruth saw it was standing room only. Journalists from around the country were clamouring for news about Rosie.

  Pushing his chair back from the table, Jason immediately folded his arms. It was a bit late to give him some body-language tips or media training, but he looked angry and anything but the concerned father. Twitter trolls are going to have a bloody field day with him, Ruth thought. Twenty minutes earlier, Jason had asked Ruth whether the press conference was really necessary and if it ever resulted in anything meaningful. Ruth had reassured him it was worthwhile, but she really wanted to ask why he wasn’t willing to do anything to get his own daughter back.

  Their appearance instigated a surge in the bustling noise in the room. In the old days, Ruth remembered the deafening noise of cameras clacking rhythmically.

  Nowadays, everything’s all bloody digital, Ruth thought.

  Kathy Wright had hardly said a word since she arrived at Llancastell Police Station an hour earlier. If their hypothesis about her and Curtis Blake was true, and she suspected that her criminal activity had resulted in Rosie’s disappearance, then she would be feeling overwhelming guilt. However, why didn’t she just come clean? A couple of years in prison for the drug and phone smuggling in exchange for help to find her daughter?

  Sensing the growing tension in the room, Ruth knew it was time to begin and could feel the nerves in her stomach. Ruth shifted to get comfortable on the chair and cleared her throat. Here we go again.

  ‘Good afternoon, I’m Detective Inspector Ruth Hunter and I am the senior investigating officer on this case. I want to update you on developments in the search for Rosie Wright. First, I would like to reiterate my message from yesterday that our search for Rosie continues unabated and we are using all available resources to find her. Second, I would like to extend my thanks to the local communities in Capelulo and the wider Snowdonia area who have assisted with our search efforts so far. The sheer number of people who have shown support during the public searches has been incredible. I would ask that all planned public searches are coordinated through us so they dovetail with the extensive search operation the North Wales Police are running. Finally, I would urge anyone who has any information as to Rosie’s whereabouts to come forward immediately. We do not have any further information that we can share with you at the moment, and I will not be answering any questions at this stage. Beside me are Rosie’s parents, Jason and Kathy, and they would like to say a few words.’