Brutal Pursuit

by Diane M Dickson

  “I have to go now. I’ll try and keep in touch. If I can. Good luck.” Karen could feel tears gathering in the back of her throat. She wondered, not for the first time, whether she was really cut out for the job.

  Outside, in the gathering dusk, Ana’s eyes flicked back and forth. It was starting to rain, the clouds of drizzle lit by lamps in the car park. She looked at the van pulled up to the rear doors of the building and then back along the corridor where they had just walked. It seemed she might run, but there was nowhere to run to. She stopped, raised her hand, her eyes wide and shocked.

  The immigration woman grabbed out at her. “Come on love, don’t let’s have any trouble. It won’t help.”

  As they shuffled her out of the narrow doorway, Ana twisted backwards, “Please, is Dani. Is my friend. Please tell her where I am.”

  It made no sense until, as they hustled her into the back of the van, Karen realised just what had attracted Ana’s attention. On the noticeboard by the door, the image, with the usual ‘Do You Know This Woman?’ banner underneath.

  She ran from the building waving her arms in a vain attempt to attract the attention of the van driver. “Wait, wait. Stop.” It was no good, they were gone.

  Karen grabbed the poster and ran back down the corridor to the front desk.

  Chapter 49

  They had tracked Jamie Mulholland all the way up the motorway, right to the parking place outside his flat. With every mile, Tanya became more and more disheartened. If he had been involved in murder, in the dismemberment of a body, then why would he be coming back from a trip abroad and heading for his own home?

  By the time he had stepped from his van, rubbing at tired eyes, and then reached back to grab his bag from the passenger seat, a squad car and Tanya herself, with Paul in his own car as backup, had pulled in behind him.

  His initial instinct appeared to be to turn and run. He glanced back and forth, and took a step away from the van. But with two burly officers and Paul Harris facing him, he realised that wasn’t the way to go. He placed his bag on the ground beside him and faced them down.

  “Alright, lads, take it easy.” The Liverpool accent was more pronounced now, maybe the result of tiredness and tension.

  Tanya stepped forward with her warrant card held high in front of her, though it was probably too dark for him to have any sort of real look at it. It didn’t matter, he knew who she was from the occasion at the golf club. “Mr Mulholland. We’ve been looking for you. I have to tell you that we had occasion to enter your home.”

  He stepped forward and she felt Paul Harris tense behind her, noticing the other officers lay hands on their tasers. She didn’t want this to end in violence. She continued to speak. “We’re still investigating the suspicious death at the golf club and, I don’t know whether or not you are aware, but Mr Traynor has died as the result of a heart attack.”

  “Shit. What, Steve? Oh, bloody hell.” He kicked at the ground in front of him, sparking up small pieces of gravel. That’s – well…” He ran out of words.

  “I’m sorry. There have been other developments and we were concerned for your wellbeing.” It wasn’t strictly true, but she hoped it might keep him calm.

  “My wellbeing. Why the hell would you be bothered about me? I just work in the club.”

  “I wonder if we can have a look in your vehicle, sir?” As she spoke Tanya moved towards the white van.

  Mulholland turned and slammed the door, plipped the key and thrust it into his pocket. “No.”

  “We’re conducting a murder enquiry, Mr Mulholland. You don’t really want to be obstructive.” As he spoke, Paul had moved alongside Tanya. Now he pulled himself up to his full height, which was a good few inches taller than the other man. But Mulholland had learned well from his dealings with the Merseyside force and wasn’t intimidated.

  He looked Paul Harris up and down with a sneer. “Alright, mate, you come back with a warrant, you can have a look at my van. If you’ve done any damage to my place, I’ll have you for it. Now, I’m tired, I’m going in.” With that, he pushed passed and stormed off towards the apartment block.

  There was nothing they could do. The search warrant had been for his flat, so the van was out of bounds. Tanya stepped up to the vehicle. There were no windows, the back doors were tightly locked and the whole exercise was a complete waste of their time.

  She turned to Paul. “I want him watched. I want him followed.”

  “Right, boss. It’s going to be a bit difficult with only me and DC Lewis.”

  “Bugger. Yes, of course it is. Look let’s just keep an eye on his place here and track him if he goes off again on a jaunt. If he tries to leave the country, we could be able to hold him as a person of interest. I’ll get on to the DCI, apply for a warrant to search this. If he carried either of the bodies in here, it’ll light up like a firework display when we get the luminol and UV on it. Stay here for now, I’ll come back in a couple of hours and take over, let you get home. If he leaves, let me know.”

  She could tell by his dour expression that it wasn’t how Paul Harris had planned to spend the night, but she was so frustrated she had no sympathy. She would go home and have a shower, make a flask and some sandwiches to see her through the night and then come back. If the suspect had anything on his conscience that would drive him out into the cold drizzle, then she would know about it. There was just a CCTV image of the white van at the clubhouse in the days before the body was found and the other video of the same sort of vehicle driving towards the hut and away again. It was so little, but it was everything they had. She knew very well that it was the little things that eventually led to the big breaks. This was still worth following.

  She stormed across the forecourt, turning as she reached her own car. She looked up through the orange glow of the streetlamp and saw the shape of Jamie Mulholland in his window, watching.

  Chapter 50

  It was after eight when Tanya relieved Paul Harris, by which time he was grumpy and cold. She pulled in at the kerb out of sight of the flats, flashed her headlights and waited until he walked back to slide into her car with a huff. “Sorry, Paul. I’ve been tied up trying to organise a warrant to search Mulholland’s van. I think we’re in with a chance but probably tomorrow. We might consider hauling him in for a chat, but I don’t want to pre-empt things and make life difficult later. I brought you a burger and coke.”

  He took the fast food bag with a grunt of thanks. “So, back here tomorrow then?”

  “Yes. But I’m going to hang around now, just in case. You get off though. Thanks.”

  “Can I ask you something, boss?” Paul said.

  “Of course, what’s up?”

  “I’ve been sitting, thinking. Nothing else to do, was there?”

  Tanya let him get away with the dig. She knew all too well how boring surveillance was, especially on your own.

  “Why did Brian Finch not want me on his team? Don’t get me wrong, I already said I think this is a more challenging case. But you know I thought we were getting on okay, him and me. I just wondered if it was some sort of reflection on my performance.” He waited, picking at the lid of his drinks cup.

  “He did want you. I had to fight for you. He wanted you and Kate. I wasn’t having it. I told him that I needed you both.” Tanya had to hide a smile as she saw the lift of Paul’s head, the squaring of his shoulders. Men and their egos.

  “Oh, right. So, he got the second string then?”

  She sighed, no matter how often she told herself he was improving, he would soon let himself down with stupid comments.

  “No, I got the team that would be of more use to me because of the way we’d been working. Anyway, if you’ve finished stinking up my car with that food, you can go. Back here tomorrow early. About seven.”

  “You’re not staying all night, though?”

  “I’ll have to wait and see. If he just stays put, I suppose it’ll serve me right. I’ve brought a blanket and a flask though. Go on, get
off home to your poor wife.”

  “She’s okay, she’s got her mother staying.”

  It seemed that Paul and his wife spent very little time together as just the two of them. They hadn’t been married long but they were sharing the early years with a lot of other people. Maybe this was the way that they could make it work. She hoped so, she hated to think of them adding to the long list of broken relationships. Again, she told herself it just wasn’t worth taking the risk. Simon Hewitt was waiting for a call to arrange dinner – it was niggling at her. She had put him off in the restaurant, telling him that she was too focused on the case to be any sort of company, and he was patient and understanding. It made her feel guilty. It was just another thing that she would need to deal with. As Paul’s car drew into the rain-swept road, she rubbed a hand over her face. It was so much easier when you didn’t care about people. She had known that for a long time.

  In the flat a shadow moved across the window, and the curtains twitched. Where Paul had been, on the main road outside the apartment block, the road was dry. But already the rain was darkening the tarmac. She saw Jamie Mulholland lean to the window and peer down into the darkness. So, he had known he was being watched. That was the trouble dealing with habitual criminals, they knew as much as the police did about procedure. She pulled away from the kerb and drove around the corner. If he had noticed her car then he might believe that she had left. She turned off her headlights and reversed across the junction where she parked on the forecourt of a boarded-up house. The entryway was muddy and full of weeds so there was little danger of it being used by the owners. From here she had a view of the road, his flat and his van. She slithered down in the seat and poured a cup of coffee, cursing as the steam clouded the car windows. She rubbed at them with a tissue.

  After a couple of hours, the front door of the building opened and the dark figure of Mulholland stepped out, head bent against the chilly drizzle. The indicators flashed briefly as he approached his van but when he left the car park, he had not turned on his driving lights. She waited as long as she dared before pulling around the corner. She could just make out the ruby glow of his rear lights, both of them, as the van turned at the first junction.

  She realised after just a few minutes that he was heading in the direction of the golf club. Tanya knew she should call for backup but didn’t want to spook him with extra vehicles. She would follow him and when she had a better idea of what he was up to, then she would bring in help. If she needed it.

  Chapter 51

  There were a couple of cars in the car park. Through the window of the clubhouse, Tanya could see the drinkers, people for whom sitting behind the rain-soaked windows with a glass of wine or beer was more tempting than being in their own homes on this rainy, chilly evening. She knew there were meals served and wondered who oversaw the bar while Jamie Mulholland was off in France, or Spain, or wherever. She must check that they had been interviewed. With the death of the secretary it was possible that some staff members had been missed, people who were only there sporadically. She’d speak to Kate.

  The white van pulled passed the parked cars and into the side alley where it had previously been picked up by CCTV. Jamie jumped down from the driving seat and disappeared around the corner of the building.

  Tanya parked between two hulking Range Rovers. If Mulholland came back this way, she hoped he wouldn’t notice her little car between the two juggernauts. If he did then she would deal with it; it was an open investigation, she could come up with a reason for her presence.

  She crossed the gravelled area keeping as close as possible to the shadowed edges. She pulled up the hood on her jacket, partly to hide her face, but mainly because of the cold rain blown by a strengthening, peevish wind.

  Pressed against the wall of the clubhouse, she peered into the alley where light from a storage unit spilled out and across the gravel. She could hear Jamie Mulholland moving around. When he left the unit to return to his van she pushed backwards, crouching between the sopping branches of some ornamental shrubs.

  Jamie opened the rear doors of his truck, turned on a light inside and then vanished back into the storage unit. Tanya uncurled from her cold hiding place and ran the few steps to the vehicle. The cargo space was filled with boxes. Most of them were sealed with tape and secured with straps. She took out her phone and recorded a few images. She knew that she had no authorisation to be doing this, and it wasn’t what she had been expecting. In truth, she couldn’t have said what she really did expect. If the van floor had been marked with dark stains; if there had been blood splattered plastic sheeting; if there had been knives and tools that could be used to cut up a corpse, it would have been the find of a career. Instead, all she had was a van filled with – well with the stuff that a van should be filled with. Another blind alley. Another case of floundering in the dark and ending up with nothing.

  She kicked out at the tyres and cursed her own ill-thought-out actions, turned away and stepped to the side of the van. That was when the world exploded in a flash of pain and the edges of her vision darkened as she slid into a heap on the puddled ground.

  Chapter 52

  There was pain, and noise, and a horrible swell of nausea. Tanya tried to open her eyes, but the light was too bright. Someone was patting at her hand and there was a voice, close to her ear, too loud. She batted at the presence.

  “She’s coming to. Get her a drink. Water, just water.”

  She heard a groan, realised it was herself, and cut it off. She was half sitting, half lying on a soft seat, but there was too much noise; a throbbing in her aching head. She lifted a hand and felt sticky warmth.

  “It’s alright, love, you’re not bleeding much anymore. You’ll be okay. We’ve sent for an ambulance. Here, take this.” A glass was pressed to her lips and, as she swallowed the cold water, she forced her eyelids open.

  A tall man bent over her, offering her the drink. Beside her, gripping her other hand sat a skinny woman – what her mother would have described as a gin woman: heavy make-up, garish, dangling earrings pulling at her lobes, and a tight leopard skin top. She leaned closer and Tanya smelled booze and garlic; the nausea threatened again.

  “Keep still, bab. You’ve had an accident.”

  She knew it sounded ridiculous and as the words left her lips, she wanted to bite them back. “Where am I? Who are you? What happened?”

  She pushed more upright on the settee, reached out and took the glass of water into her hand. She smiled up at the tall bloke, leaned away from the garlic breath of his companion. In the background was a crowd of interested spectators. She knew now where she was. The inside of the club room was warm, it smelled of food, and perfume, and wet clothes.

  “What happened?” she asked again.

  “Well, love.” Gin woman shook her head. “We don’t know. Bob here –” she pointed at the man who had given her the water “– he went out to bring the car round to the door and you were flat out on the ground. Wet through in the rain. You’re all muddy, look.” She pointed at Tanya’s rain-soaked trousers which were smeared with mud and marks from the gravel.

  Her brain was clearing and though her head pounded, she was managing to think more logically. She peered into the little group who were watching the drama. Jamie Mulholland wasn’t one of them. She leaned a little to the side to look past, but he wasn’t behind the bar either. A young woman was polishing a glass as she stared across the room, eyes wide, enjoying the fuss. There was a man in kitchen whites, a check kerchief over his hair, who stood in a doorway to the side. Tanya searched her pounding head for the last thing she could remember. She had followed the club manager to the car park, she knew that. Then there was nothing. Had she confronted him? She couldn’t recall.

  “Does anyone have any idea what happened to me?” She felt pathetic asking yet again for information, but there was a gap in her memory, and she needed to fill it quickly.

  The man called Bob spoke. “I think you might have been hit by a branch
, love. It’s pretty windy out there, and there are bits of tree all over the car park. I didn’t take that much notice, to be honest. The weather has turned really nasty and I just wanted to get you inside.”

  “Thank you.” Tanya smiled at him. “But was there no van?”

  “No love, nothing. You were over in the gap between the clubhouse and the pro shop. It was just luck that I saw you. There’s no parking over there. We think your car is in the area by the hedge. Did you put it next to a silver Discovery? Can you remember?”

  “I think so. Yes, that’s probably mine. A small blue one.”

  “Aye, that’ll be it. Listen here comes the ambulance now. They’ll see you right.”

  “Oh, no. No, I don’t want an ambulance. I’m fine really.”

  “Well, it’s too late.” The woman moved to stand from the seat beside her and Tanya caught a faint whiff of body odour. It really didn’t help. “Can you remember your name?”

  “Yes, of course. Yes.” She pushed a hand into her pocket and pulled out her warrant card, flipped it open and held it up. “That’s me. Detective Inspector Miller, and I’m fine. Thank you.”

  “Oh right. I thought I recognised her.” This from one of the secondary watchers. “She was here about that body. The one in the shed. She’s the one who tried to help Steve. Used the defibrillator and what have you.”

  The mumbling became white noise as Tanya closed her eyes and fought to remember.

  * * *

  It took a while, but she managed to convince the paramedics that she didn’t need to be taken to the hospital. They stuck a couple of Steristrips on her injured head and made her promise to see her own doctor in the morning, and report to A&E immediately if the dizziness and nausea returned or worsened.