by Jack Slater
‘People like me? What’s that mean? Criminals? Perverts? Killers?’
Brian paused, lips pursed. ‘I don’t think you see yourself that way, do you?’
‘You think I shouldn’t? After last year with Malcolm Burton? Lauren and Rosie and the others?’
‘Others?’ Brian frowned. ‘What others?’
Tommy smiled. ‘You only knew of those two? Don’t they tell you anything?’
‘Clearly not everything. How many were there?’
Tommy sucked air. ‘Let’s see now… There was one from Bristol. A little blonde, she was. Then there was one from a fairground. Same fair as I was working at until the other day, actually.’ He met Brian’s gaze. ‘I got to know her parents. Nice couple. They run a rifle range. No clue who I was, of course. I’m not sure if they reported her missing or just looked for her themselves. A bit like gypos, fair folk are. Keep themselves to themselves. Ideal targets, in that sense.’ He scratched an itch on his cheek. ‘Even if they do report stuff, the police don’t like them. They tend to be seen more as suspects than victims. The first one was actually a gypo. They were camped out on a back lane near the airport. There’s a wide bit of verge by a bridge. Just chance, really. We were driving by and I saw her splashing about in the brook. I looked closer and she was naked, so Mel pulled over for a better look. Beautiful. So pale, with long, black hair. Don’t know where her parents were but we watched her for a bit. Then, seeing there was no one else around, we took her.’
‘Just like that?’ Brian couldn’t quite hide his horror.
‘Well, she struggled a bit, but yeah. I held her. Mel drove. I think it scared him a bit, going through the city with her, in case she kicked up or got away. I thought we were going back to his place with her, but then he went straight through and out to the barn. That was the first time I’d been there. I said I thought she’d be cold there, but he didn’t care. Said she could burrow in the hay if she had to.’
Brian drew a breath. ‘What… what happened to her?’
‘She died.’ What do you think happened to her? he thought.
Brian paused, absorbing that. ‘And how old was she?’
Tommy shook his head. ‘Dunno. Nine. Ten. Something like that.’
‘So, slightly younger than your sister, Annie?’
‘Yeah, I suppose.’ Tommy shrugged. What had that got to do with anything?
‘But you didn’t connect the two in any way in your mind?’
Tommy looked at him incredulously. ‘No. Why would I? She was a gypo. They’re not like us. They’re like… well, wild, you know?’
‘I don’t think I do. Perhaps you could explain it to me?’
Tommy looked at him like he was an idiot. ‘Gypos,’ he said. ‘They live in tents and caravans. Don’t pay taxes or go to school or anything. They’re separate. Different. Like… savages or something, only living here in our country, using our roads and hospitals and stuff.’
‘So, you resent the fact that they take from society without contributing to it?’
Tommy shrugged. ‘Plus, they nick stuff and cause trouble. And they stink. That’s why we didn’t take her clothes with us. They reeked.’
Brian’s eyes widened in horror. ‘You didn’t…?’
Tommy’s lip curled. ‘Have you ever smelt them? It’s disgusting. You can’t bloody breathe, you get too close to them. No way we were having that in the van. We wouldn’t have taken her at all if she hadn’t been in the river, getting clean.’
Brian seemed to collect himself, rebuilding his professional façade. ‘So, you took her between you, took her to the barn. Then what?’
‘Mel used, like, a thin chain to tie one of her wrists to a loop in the wall. We left her for a few hours, then went back and started on her.’
‘Started on her? What do you mean?’
‘Pictures. Video. On her own, with Mel, then with me. He didn’t have actual sex with her.’
‘But you did?’
‘Not the first day. She was still too wild.’
‘So, how did you deal with that?’
‘No food or water the first day. No food the second. It’s like with dogs: you chain them up and starve them, they soon learn.’ Tommy grinned when Brian failed to respond. ‘I bet you’d like to do that with some of us, wouldn’t you? Chain us up and starve us like they used to do in the old days. See if you could turn us around that way instead of wasting all the money places like this cost?’
‘Places like this exist because methods like that don’t work, Thomas.’
Tommy laughed again, shaking his head. ‘Of course they do, Brian.’ He reached out to pat the psychiatrist’s leg like a kindly father with a slow child. ‘Cruelty will change a person’s outlook far quicker than kindness, any day.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
‘So, it’s just you and me this afternoon, kiddo. Home alone. Unsupervised. What do you reckon we should do, eh? Picnic on the sitting-room rug? Go to the pictures and stuff our faces with popcorn? Slob out and drink beer with the footie on the box?’
‘Dad! I’m not six and I’m not sixteen. Eighteen. Whatever. Plus, I hate football and so do you.’
‘OK. All true. But, if your mum’s going to go off and leave us, I’ve got to try and make her regret it, haven’t I?’ He winked at Louise, who was watching the exchange. ‘Computer games then. That Wee thing. What can we do with that?’
‘Nothing you’d want to.’
‘I could pop into town and get a couple of steering wheels for it and thrash you at Formula One.’
‘That’s not the Wee. It’s PlayStation. And they cost a fortune.’
‘Hey! Who’s the adult here?’
‘I sometimes think it’s me,’ Annie said with a sigh.
Pete reached out and ruffled her hair. ‘And you might even be right. But you don’t know what I have to contend with at work. It’s like dealing with a class of eight-year-olds sometimes. I need to have a playtime when I get home to get over it. And anyway, what do we have kids for, if not to play with?’
‘To perpetuate the bloodline,’ she said imperiously.
‘Oooh! Get you!’ He grabbed her and tickled her ribs until she squealed and wriggled out of his grasp. He looked up at Louise, who was standing in the doorway of the sitting room, ‘What are we raising here? She’s far too clever for us to handle. She must be some sort alien. A cuckoo bird that was dropped into our nest while we weren’t looking.’
‘You speak for yourself,’ she shot back. ‘I certainly noticed her arrival. I remember screaming for that epidural like it was yesterday.’
‘So does that doctor, I bet,’ he retorted. ‘The names you called him…’
Annie was looking from one to the other now, wide-eyed and serious. ‘Does it hurt that much, having a baby?’
‘Only when they grab on tight in there ’cause they don’t want to come out,’ Pete joked.
‘Dad!’ Annie’s face scrunched up in disgust.
‘No, love. It’s not that bad,’ Louise said. ‘We’re just joking. Now, I’ve got to go and get some sleep. Look after him, will you? Make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble?’
*
Pete took the cordless phone into the living room when Louise went to bed so that, if it rang, he could grab it quickly and minimise the chance of it disturbing her. He and Annie were curled up on the sofa, watching a rerun of Crocodile Dundee on TV when it rang. He hit the button to answer it before the first ring was complete. ‘Hello?’
‘Boss? It’s Jane. We’ve got a name. For the redhead.’
One of many they’d get over the next several days, no doubt, following the publication of the photographs. ‘What’s special about this one?’
‘The face matches. The caller told us to look at the Facebook account of an Emma Radcliffe. She’s a legal secretary here in the city. They said to look at the pictures from their Christmas party. And sure enough, in a couple of them, there she was. Standing alongside Emma. And she’s named in the caption
for one of them. Tanya Cunliffe, age twenty-three. I’ve looked her up. She’s got no record. Lives up Copplestone Road, off the Cowley Bridge Road.’
‘Best bring her in then, before she sees the papers and does a runner.’
‘If she hasn’t already. Are you coming?’
‘Do you need me to?’
‘I just thought you might want to, boss.’
‘Maybe so, but I can’t, can I?’
Annie looked up at him, then stretched up to whisper in his other ear. ‘You can go if you need to. Mum’s still here.’
He smiled at her, squeezing her hand as he shook his head. ‘I’m sure you can handle it, Jane.’
‘OK. Just thought I’d better check with you first.’
‘I’ve got to let you out on your own at some point, haven’t I? Ready for when you’re all grown-up and flying the nest.’
‘Yeah, I think that might be sooner for some of us than others, boss.’
Pete laughed. ‘I can’t think what you mean, Jane. Be safe, OK? Remember, if it’s her, she’s potentially armed.’
‘I’ve seen the crime-scene photos. I’m not likely to forget that in a hurry.’
‘Good. Go get her then.’
‘Will do.’
He hung up the phone, putting it back on the arm of the sofa.
‘You could have gone, Dad,’ Annie said seriously. ‘I’m used to being here with Mum when she was poorly.’
He gave her a hug. ‘I know, Button. But there’s no need. They’re only going to bring a young woman in for questioning. And they are all grown-up, when it comes down to it.’
‘That’s not what you said before.’
He laughed. ‘I know. We all need to act like kids some of the time, though. And I’d far rather be sitting here with you than running round the city after some girl who might or might not have something to do with a case I’ve been investigating.’
She resettled herself on the sofa, tucked in tight against him. ‘I should think so too.’
*
‘She lives in those flats just up from Glenthorne Road,’ Jane said to the rest of the team.
‘Which floor?’ asked Dick.
‘First.’
‘So, a couple of us out the back in case she legs it,’ Dave suggested. ‘You and Ben go to the front door. It’s not like you’re there to arrest her. Just ask a few questions. If she comes quietly, great, but if she refuses, we call in the Taser team. We know she’s got pepper spray and a Stanley knife she’s not afraid to use as a weapon, so it’s no good getting heroic with her.’
‘That works for me,’ Jane confirmed. ‘Ben?’
‘Yeah, of course.’
‘So, me and Jill at the back and you stay with the car in case she gets past us?’ Dick aimed the suggestion at Dave.
‘Actually, no,’ said Dave. ‘Knowing what a warren it is round there, I’ll bring the bike. I can follow her better if she nips through one of the pathways.’
‘Good idea,’ Jane said. ‘Let’s do it.’
‘I’ll stop off and have a word with the sarge downstairs,’ Dave said. ‘Make sure there’s a Taser team available if we need them. I can soon catch you up.’
‘Remember you haven’t got blue lights on that beast of yours,’ Jane retorted, heading out of the squad room.
‘Why change the habits of a lifetime?’ Dick said with a grin.
*
Fourteen minutes later, Dave rolled the big Norton to a halt outside the metal roller doors of the garages beneath and behind the block of flats where their subject lived. He cut the engine and pushed the kickstand down, flipped up his visor and gave Dick Feeney a nod.
Dick raised his mobile phone to his ear and spoke into it as Dave took off his helmet. Dick’s silver Ford was parked in one of the bays opposite the garages, Dick standing beside it while Jill, in uniform, stood next to one of the garage doors, out of sight from the flats above.
Ending the brief call, Dick slipped the phone back into his pocket. ‘Now, we wait and see what happens.’
The three-storey block had been built into the steeply sloping ground so that the garages filled the lower floor, opening at the back, while the living accommodation opened from the upper side, on the first floor. They would hear nothing from there unless something significant happened. All they could do was wait.
‘Like being in the Army, isn’t it?’ said Dave. ‘Hurry up and wait.’
‘Yeah, except you wouldn’t last five minutes in the Army,’ Jill told him. ‘You’d get slung out for insubordination.’
Dave shrugged. ‘That’s one reason I never joined.’
‘What’s the other?’ asked Dick.
‘Oh, there were several. I like my comforts, for one. And decent grub. All this sleeping in dormitories, eating out of tin cans and slogging over Dartmoor in all kinds of weather isn’t for me.’
‘You old softie,’ said Jill.
‘We ain’t going there again, are we?’
‘All right: wimp.’
Dick’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He lifted it out and answered it. ‘Yes?’ He listened briefly. ‘OK. You want to try again, give it a minute or two, in case she’s in the shower or on the bog?’ He listened again. ‘Right.’ Putting the phone away, he looked at Dave. ‘No answer.’
He nodded. ‘I gathered.’
‘She’s trying again in a minute.’
‘Might as well, now we’re here. Have we got any details on her? Has she got any family in the city? Known associates? Anything like that?’
Dick shook his head. ‘Nothing I know of, but I didn’t take the call about her. I can ask Jane.’ He reached into his pocket.
Dave grimaced. ‘Best leave it until we know she’s not in.’
Dick nodded and they lapsed into silence.
They waited another couple of minutes or so until Dick’s phone buzzed again. He took it out. ‘Yes?’ Giving the others a brief nod, he listened. ‘OK. One more for luck? What’s she drive, anyway? OK.’ He ended the call again.
‘Still no answer. Her car’s not out here, but it could be in the garage. No telling.’
‘You think?’ Dave asked, looking across at the roller doors with their padlocks through the handles. ‘Wouldn’t take much to get in there and check. She’d never know if she’s not here.’
‘See, I always knew you’d had a dodgy childhood,’ Jill said.
‘You don’t know the half of it.’ Dave winked. ‘Shall I?’ he asked Dick.
Dick shrugged. ‘Up to you, mate. I’m having nothing to do with it.’ He looked around carefully. ‘I can’t see any cameras round here.’
‘Always helps,’ Dave said. ‘Which one is it?’
‘Number three. The brass lock.’
Dave swung his leg clear of the bike and left it standing, helmet hanging from the handlebars while he approached the garage door, unzipping the front of his leathers. He reached inside and came out with a small leather key wallet. Kneeling before the garage door, he extracted a couple of thin strips of metal and inserted them into the padlock, wiggling and jiggling them until it snapped open. ‘There you go. Piece of piss.’
Dick nodded. ‘Go on then. Have a look and lock it up again.’ He glanced around to make sure the coast was clear and Dave quickly rolled the door up far enough to see under it.
‘Nothing.’ He pushed it down again. ‘Are you sure this is the right one?’
‘Yes.’
‘Right then.’ He snapped the lock back into place. ‘Might as well wait for Jane to call us, in case the car’s in for service or something. Then we can clear off.’ He straddled the bike again so that he could see both Dick and Jill, at either side of him. This was going to be a wasted hour. And on a Saturday too.
Then Dick stiffened against the side of his car.
Dave noticed the change in him. ‘What’s up?’ he asked.
‘Don’t turn around. Stay put, both of you,’ he said quietly. ‘She’s just walking up the road.’
Dave shift
ed on his seat. ‘Are you sure it’s her?’
‘I said don’t look. Yes, I’m sure. I might be older than you, but my eyes aren’t failing yet.’
‘The thing is, are hers? With Jill stood there in uniform…’
‘At least she’s in the shadows. As long as she doesn’t move, we should be OK.’
Dave grunted. ‘We hope. But then she’ll get up there and see Ben.’ He took out his mobile and hit the speed-dial number for Jane.
‘Hello?’ she came back on the first ring.
‘Target approaching up the road on foot.’
A tiny pause, then: ‘OK. Thanks.’
The line was cut.
The urge to put his helmet on and turn the bike around was almost overwhelming, but he resisted. He didn’t want to make the suspect look towards him and possibly spot Jill. ‘Is she still in sight?’ he asked Dick.
‘Yeah. Will be for a few more seconds. I’ll tell you when you can move.’
‘I bet you say that to all the girls.’
‘They don’t call me Grey Man for nothing.’
Dave almost laughed aloud when he saw the expression on Jill’s face. The struggle she was going through not to say anything was obviously immense. But he held his tongue and waited. And waited. More than a minute passed before he said, ‘Surely, she must be out of sight by now.’
‘Yeah,’ said Dick. ‘I was just enjoying the quiet, for a change.’
This time, Jill couldn’t hold in the snigger.
‘You know I’m going to get you back for that, don’t you?’
Dick nodded. ‘I know you’re going to try. But what the hell? It was worth it.’
A shout sounded distantly from beyond the redbrick building. They looked at each other, the banter forgotten – all business now. Dick nodded. Dave crammed his full-face helmet onto his head, kicked up the stand and turned the ignition. The big bike rumbled into life. He tapped it into gear and swung it around towards Feeney.
Which way would she run?
Left would bring her down past them, right was up a fairly steep incline, and the only other choice was down past the far end of the block and onto the narrow path that led through past the old folks’ home towards the lower university buildings on Glenthorne Road. If she expected them to be on four wheels, that would be a prime choice. It was an easier run than going up Copplestone, although there were other paths going off further up there, he knew. Still, panic needed speed and speed meant downhill.