Maddie handed him another wet-wipe and with it he scrubbed her bumper. It took him less than a minute to make it look good as new. Casting his gaze over it, he knew it would take more than a close-eye inspection to detect she had been the culprit. Pushing himself up and holding her gaze, from the pained look she returned he knew that the last thing she needed right now was one of the bosses giving her a dressing-down for a simple error of judgment. Making a snap decision, he said, ‘Look, I’ll sort this, don’t worry. You’ve got enough on your plate. I’ll park in your place and say it was me. Okay?’
Maddie held Hunter’s gaze. She blinked back a tear. ‘I don’t mind owning up.’
‘As I say, this can easily be sorted without it costing a penny. Leave it with me. You’ve got enough problems right now.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m sure.’ Hunter reached out and reassuringly patted her shoulder. ‘Now, let’s get our cars switched around, we’ll grab a cuppa and then I’ll sort it.’
Back in the office, after freshening up her face, Maddie put the kettle on and made two teas. Hunter picked up his steaming mug and glanced across at Maddie, who was just turning on her computer. She was still wearing a worried look.
He said, ‘I’ll sup this and then find out who the Merc belongs to.’
‘Thanks, Sarge, and if it’s going to cost anything, I’ll pay.’
‘It’s Hunter when it’s just you and me, and it’s not going to cost anything, believe me.’
‘Thank you again.’
‘You’re welcome.’ He took a slurp of tea and said, ‘And then do you fancy doing a bit of detective work for a change, Maddie?’
‘Certainly would. What have you got?’
‘Remember the Bannister file you handed me?’
‘Them all going missing?’
Hunter nodded. ‘That’s them. Well, I’ve found a couple of things that need following up. It might be something and it might be nothing, but it wants checking. I’ve also made a list of things that I want you to make a start on. We’ll finish our cuppas, you sort out what you need to and I’ll make a couple of phone calls. I’ve got two witnesses I need to speak with and if they’re still living on Wath Road, or near there, I’m going to fix up an appointment for you and I to go and see them. Is that okay?’
Maddie rubbed her hands together, breaking into a grin for the first time. ‘Sure is. Detective work at last.’
Steadily drinking his tea, Hunter ran the registered number of the Mercedes through the computer. It was registered to a dealership in Sheffield, and he guessed the DVLA hadn’t yet logged the new owner. Hunter made a note of the dealer’s name to call later and then returned to the Bannister file, picking out the remaining witness statements. There were three. One from the crime-scene photographer, another from the scenes of crime officer who’d examined the house and found the attempted clean-up of bloodstains in the kitchen, and the last one from the first police officer who’d attended the Bannister home, recorded the signs of disturbance in the lounge and taken Alice Bannister’s statement.
Hunter saw that the officer undertaking those roles had been Roger Mills. What a surprise. Roger had been the constable who had tutored him at the beginning of his probationary period in 1991. He was retired now. He glanced at Roger’s signature on Alice’s statement. This was one officer Hunter knew he could trust to have done a thorough job.
His thoughts suddenly swung back to his first few weeks on patrol with Roger. It had been with Roger that he had dealt with his first sudden death, that later turned out to be a rape and murder committed by a man called Dylan Wolfe. The victim had been called June Waring, and coincidently had lived only four streets away from the Bannister house, on Mexborough Row. They had found the sixty-four-year-old dead in bed and Roger had led him through the process of what to do as first officer at the scene of a death; initially it hadn’t been suspicious until the post-mortem revealed her sexual assault and suffocation, and that had led to a major enquiry in which Hunter had played a key part, including Wolfe’s capture. For several seconds Hunter’s thoughts lingered on that case; in 1991, Dylan Wolfe had attacked four women in Barnwell and had been given a life sentence for his atrocious crimes.
Hunter’s reflections triggered a lightbulb moment. This was something he couldn’t ignore. The Bannister family’s disappearance had occurred only four months before the rape and killing of June Waring, and whilst there were differing anomalies to that case, the victim, Tina Bannister, was a young woman of similar age to Dylan Wolfe, who more than likely would have known him. And Denise Harris’s witness statement put a stranger at the house only an hour prior to David Bannister coming home, and George Evers mentioned that he’d seen a man coming out of the house a week before they all disappeared. The fact that Dylan Wolfe’s first victim only lived four streets away certainly put his name up there as a Person of Interest.
Hunter scribbled down Dylan’s name and doodled a star beside it. He also added Roger’s name on his list of people to see; even if he couldn’t add anything to his follow-up review, it would be nice to catch up with him again, he thought.
Hunter found that Alice Bannister still lived in the same house as in 1991, and except for a one-digit addition to the area code she still had the same telephone number. Hunter rang and she answered on the fourth ring. The first thing she asked, after Hunter introduced himself, was, ‘Have you found them?’ He told Alice he hadn’t, that they were reviewing the family’s disappearance and that he’d like to talk to her about the case. Whilst she responded somewhat downheartedly, she welcomed their visit.
Alice’s house was a three-bedroom 1960s semi on an estate only half a mile from Wath Road. As he and Maddie walked down the short driveway, Hunter cast his eye over the front of the house. It was of a typical design from that era: flat-fronted and characterless with a constructed stone lower half and red-brick upper floor, an exact replica of each of the forty or so houses that filled the street.
The front door was encased by a glass and wood porch, and Alice appeared before Hunter had time to knock. He and Maddie showed their ID and she let them in to a carpeted hall, taking them through to the lounge.
Alice guided them into a lounge that was clean and tidy but cluttered with framed photographs of all sizes, all of which, at a quick glance, appeared to be a down-the-ages collection of family portraits of mum, dad and son. They filled the shelves of a bookcase in one alcove and lined the mantelpiece of a faux Adams fireplace. In the frames atop the mantelpiece Hunter saw photographs of David, whom he recognised from his photo in the case-file. In a couple of them he was holding a baby, which he guessed was Amy. There were none of Tina. Hunter made a mental note as he sat down on the sofa with Maddie.
‘You said on the phone that you were reviewing their disappearance. Does that mean you’ve got some new information as to what’s happened to them?’ Alice asked, eyes probing.
‘No, we haven’t, I’m afraid. I work in the Cold Case Unit with my colleague Maddie here,’ Hunter returned, settling back in the sofa. ‘Our job is to go through all the old cases and see if we’ve missed anything from the past. Your family’s case is one we’re currently reviewing to see if there is anything that could give us a lead as to what happened to them back in nineteen-ninety-one. The beauty about doing this, aside from refreshing people’s minds, is that forensic capabilities have advanced so much this past decade that we also look at any forensic evidence we recovered at the time and see if it’s worthy of being examined to give us a fresh clue. What we’re here for this morning, Alice, is to go over the statement you made to officers back in nineteen-ninety-one and to see if you can add anything to it that may give us something extra to focus on. I don’t want to build your hopes up. This is us having a look with a fresh pair of eyes at the investigation into your son’s, daughter-in-law’s and granddaughter’s disappearance to see if there is any avenue of enquiry we can make that might indicate what happened to them. Is that clear?’
Alice let out a heavy sigh. ‘That’s all I’ve ever asked for. I’ve been waiting for this for years.’
Hunter sensed frustration in her reply. He said, ‘What do you mean, Alice?’
‘All those letters I’ve written that you’ve ignored.’
‘Letters?’
‘Yes, letters! I’ve written to your lot every year asking for you to re-look at what happened to them, and all I’ve had back is two letters telling me that you’ve done everything you could and that you’ll update me if there are any changes. Since nineteen-ninety-three, I’ve heard nothing.’
Hunter sensed rising tension in her voice. He thought about the case file he’d gone through. He hadn’t seen any letters from Alice in it. He responded, ‘I’m sorry to hear that, Alice…’
Mrs Bannister interjected, ‘Can you imagine how I felt being told that David had killed them and then committed suicide and seeing it spread all over the papers and on the news? I told that detective, St. John-Stevens, that he’d got it wrong, but all he kept saying was that the evidence pointed to that. I got so angry with him that I told him not to come back until he apologised and had something different to tell me. In the end I went to see my MP, and he wrote on my behalf asking for the case to be re-opened, but he was told the same thing: that my David killed them.’
‘And you don’t think that at all?’ Hunter said, taking back his lost ground with a compassionate tone.
‘No! My David would never do anything like that. He doted on Amy. She was the light of his life. He would never have harmed her.’
Hunter studied her face, giving her a few seconds of breathing space, making sure she had got things off her chest. He continued, ‘I can’t promise you a different outcome, Alice, but I can promise you we will be doing a thorough review of all the evidence. We will be speaking not only to yourself but other witnesses as well to see if any new light can be cast on their disappearance. We will be coming back here once we’ve visited everyone to update you, and if there is anything that’s a lead, I can assure you we will follow it up. Okay?’
Alice let out a sigh, nodding slowly. ‘Thank you. As I say, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.’
Hunter let his words sink in for a few seconds, then he said, ‘What I want to do now is slowly go through that day you discovered them missing. My colleague, Maddie, is going to make some notes. Are you able to do that?’
Alice nodded sharply. ‘I’ve lived that day for the past nineteen years. It’s as fresh in my mind as it was back then.’
‘Good. So, in your own words, can you tell me what happened?’
She briefly glanced upwards before returning her gaze to Hunter. ‘Well, just to fill you in first, after Amy was born, I’d taken to going around more to their house. It was mostly to see Amy, but I occasionally dropped by when I had some shopping to do to see if they needed anything. I also helped out with the washing and ironing. Before then, it was usually David who came to see us, usually on his way home from work. And when Tina got a job, I started having Amy. It wasn’t every day, just when I was needed.’ Alice let out a quick sigh, adding, ‘Tina’s mum wasn’t much help. The only person she was interested in was herself. Fawning herself around with whichever fancy-man she was with at the time.’ Then with continued disdain she said, ‘You can see where Tina got it from.’ Following a quick shake of the head, she continued, ‘Tina got a part-time job at the sewing factory to help with the bills, but she hated it and then she was offered work behind the bar of The Tavern. But she wasn’t there for long. David put a stop to it because of the rumours, and so she got a job at the bingo hall a couple of days a week…’
Alice’s opening sentence instantly jarred with Hunter’s thoughts. He stole another glance at the photo frames with their lack of photos of Tina in them, and coupled with what Alice had just said, he immediately had the impression that Alice didn’t have a good opinion of her daughter-in-law. Whilst he wanted to divert his questioning at this stage, he decided not to. Instead, he stored her comments and let her go on.
‘That day I paid their house a visit it was Tina’s day off, and ordinarily I wouldn’t have gone, but I’d heard the rumours again about her messing around and I was hoping to catch her out with her fancy man…’
As soon as Alice said this, Hunter determined that he needed to interject. There had been only brief mention in the case file that it was suspected that Tina had an illicit relationship, and it may well provide the answer as to who the stranger was that Denise Harris saw at the Bannister home the day before their disappearance and George Evers the week before. He said, ‘Can I just interrupt you there, Alice? You’ve just mentioned that Tina was having an affair with someone. Is that correct?’
‘Just one of many,’ she harrumphed. ‘I warned David the moment I clapped eyes on her. She was a looker all right, but I knew that Tina Henshaw was trouble. There were rumours about how flighty she was years before our David got smitten by her charms.’
This information was a complete surprise to Hunter. He glanced at Maddie, raising his eyebrows, and then returned his gaze to Alice, picking his thread back up. ‘Do you know, or have an idea who she was seeing?’
‘I was told there were a few. I know that just before they disappeared she was seeing someone when she worked behind the bar of The Tavern. Apparently, it was common knowledge that she was at it with him. The only person who didn’t know was David, until one of his workmates told him he’d seen her with him. I know he had words with Tina about it. Strong ones. He made her leave.’
‘We have on file that police were called to their house over a domestic row three weeks before their disappearance. Was it to do with that?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘David wouldn’t say too much about what happened about that. He was embarrassed about the police going to the house. He’d never been in trouble in his life. It could have been, although she’d left the pub a couple of months before they had that row. You’ll know more about that than me.’
‘I’m afraid I don’t, Alice, that’s why I asked. What happened back then would have been recorded on paper, so I think it’s been destroyed now. Can you remember what he said about it?’
‘He said nothing at first. I found out they’d rowed and the police had been called from a neighbour, and I confronted him about it. He wouldn’t tell me anything to begin with, but I eventually got something out of him. He said he’d hit her. I was mortified, I can tell you. In all of my twenty-two years of marriage, my John’s never laid a finger on me. I had a right go at him there and then, and he admitted that he’d hit her after she’d attacked him. He said he’d confronted her about the affair and she told him it was lies. They had an almighty bust-up, and she went for him and he slapped her across the face. David said he’d apologised and he told me that the police had warned him that if there was a next time, he’d be locked up.’ Alice paused, taking in a deep breath. ‘That detective, St. John-Stevens, kept going on about that row, trying to make out our David was a wife-beater or something. He wasn’t, I can assure you. It was Tina’s fault, that. All of her fancy goings-on came out after they disappeared.’
‘So did the police find out who she’d had her affair with?’
‘Detective St. John-Stevens did. He confirmed it was a man from David’s work.’
‘Did he tell you his name?’
Alice shook her head. ‘No, but we found out later. The bloke was given his cards. Went off to work for another building supplier. A delivery driver. I heard he got killed in an accident on the motorway about five years ago.’
Hearing that news disappointed Hunter, and then he remembered that George Evers, David’s work colleague, had tipped him off about seeing Tina with another man and wondered if it was the same man. He stored his thinking for later and said, ‘Well, that’s filled in details about the domestic incident at their home and the reason behind it. But that was three weeks before they all disappeared. You wouldn’t happen to know if Tina was still seeing this man just before
she disappeared, would you?’
‘She wouldn’t admit to David that she was seeing him. We only found out it was someone from his work when the police investigated them going missing. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was, though. Tina was a bit too free around men. Like her mum, she loved to be the centre of attention. That’s why she liked working behind the bar. If it had been up to me, our David would never have married her. I mean, look what’s happened.’
Although understanding the way she felt, Hunter didn’t respond. Instead, he nodded. He said, ‘Were you made aware that a man had been seen at the front door of their house the day before they disappeared?’
‘Detective St. John-Stevens told me about that and asked me if I knew who it might be. I told him about what Tina was like and the rumours, and that also that one of David’s work colleagues had tipped him off about her seeing someone, but he came back a few days later and said it wasn’t the man from David’s work. He’d eliminated him, he told me. He was at work during the time that man had been seen at the house. Detective St. John-Stevens said it might have just been an innocent caller. No one had actually seen him go into the house or come out of it. When I asked Denise, the neighbour across the road, about it, because I found out it was her who’d seen him, she told me she hadn’t actually seen the man go in, just standing at the door.’
‘Denise Harris, you mean?’
Alice nodded sharply.
‘I’ve seen the statement she gave to an officer, Alice, and she’s on my list to talk to, but I’ve just checked to see if she’s still living there and nothing’s coming up on the voters list. You wouldn’t know if she’s still there, would you?’
Alice shook her head. ‘She’s moved. She moved years ago now. Not long after what happened. Her husband got his redundancy from the pit and they bought a B&B in Bridlington. Me and John went and had a weekend stay there about ten years ago. We’ve only been away that once since they went missing. I can’t relax anymore. It’s always at the front of my mind as to what happened to them, especially little Amy, poor thing.’
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