Brutal Pursuit

by Diane M Dickson

  “I want copies of everything we have. Send me an image of the boards. My occurrence book is in my briefcase, I’ll need that. I need a secure link between us, and you need to keep me up to date constantly.”

  “Ma’am, Sister Rouse said rest – you’re on the sick.”

  Tanya simply shook her head. It was a mistake. She groaned and laid a hand over her eyes. “I’ll be okay here. I can rest if I need to, but you know I have to stay on this. It’s started to come together. If I don’t keep on top of it, DCI Scunthorpe will have no option but to hand it over to someone else, probably DI Finch. I’m not having it.”

  “But Sister Rouse will have made a report.”

  “That’s why I need you to cover for me. If you have any problems from Scunthorpe’s office, you need to make it look as though I’m toeing the line.”

  “But, ma’am, if anything happens to you…”

  “Nothing is happening to me. Not if I can keep on top of all this. Oh yes, and Kate, please don’t worry about staying. It’s kind of you to offer but really, you should be at home, and you also need to be available in case we have to act quickly.”

  “I was supposed to stay, ma’am.”

  “I’ll ring you a couple of times, just to let you know I’m okay. If anything happens that worries me, I’ll let you know. No offence, Kate, but really, I would prefer to be on my own. I’ve only just got my house back to myself. Sorry if that sounds rude.”

  “No, I understand, ma’am, I do. Do you promise you won’t do anything dodgy?”

  “I promise. Now let’s get things set up. I can work in the living room, that way I can have a break in comfort, if I need it.”

  “Well, at least let me make you some tea and toast.”

  “Oh, go on then. Thanks.”

  * * *

  “Have you heard how the other investigation is going, Kate?” Tanya put her empty cup and plate back on the tray.

  “Well, it hasn’t been as cut and dried as everyone thought, apparently. According to Dan Price, they haven’t been able to identify the woman.”

  “Hmm, that’s interesting. Another Jane Doe turning up. Tell you what, keep in touch with Dan Price. Is that okay? I don’t want to put you in a difficult position. Probably best not to mention much to Detective Constable Rollinson, she may feel her loyalties a bit – erm – stretched.”

  Kate smiled back at Tanya’s choice of words. “It’s fine, ma’am. Dave and me often meet for a coffee or lunch. He’s a lovely bloke, young enough to be my son, I know, but we’re mates.”

  “Okay, back to our own case. Let me know as soon as we hear anything from the immigration people. I want you to be ready to go and interview this witness, as soon as we find out where she is. I really hope it’s not too late. If they’ve shipped her out already it’s going to get terribly complicated. If I thought it would do any good, I’d have that sergeant hauled over the coals but really, what’s the bloody point. We are all working ourselves to death and if you can slope your shoulders now and then, well…”

  Kate gathered up her belongings and, much against her better judgement, prepared to leave Tanya, an officer whose shoulders were never going to slope.

  Tanya was still not finished. “I need to go and speak to Mrs Baker. I don’t want to pass it off onto anyone else. So, for now, we can’t let this latest information about her husband get out. I’m hoping that by tomorrow afternoon I’ll be up to it.”

  “Oh, boss. Sister Rouse’ll crucify me.”

  “I’ll take full responsibility; and think about it: if someone you cared about had been murdered, you’d expect to be told about it pretty bloody quickly, wouldn’t you? We’ve already missed any chance of securing the place properly as a crime scene, but she needs to have a liaison officer assigned. It should be today but let’s plan on tomorrow. We haven’t had anything in writing from the morgue, so we should be able to muddy the water a bit. In fact, would you do that as well? Explain to Dr Hewitt and ask him to slow down on his report, play the sympathy card if you need to. Tell him I want to visit the widow in person but I’m not up to it right now.”

  Tanya continued, “It’s not far and you can come with me. I’ll be fine. Pick me up early afternoon. Thanks, Kate. You’ve been great, but you know what? I reckon right now I could use a bit of a sleep. I’ll be in touch later and we’ll see where we’re at. Keep pegging away at Mulholland and let me know as soon as you break him. You will, you and Sergeant Harris. You will.”

  Chapter 56

  She slept for more than three hours. The lights in the lounge were on timers and when the room suddenly brightened, Tanya jolted awake. Her neck was stiff and her feet cold, but she felt better. The pain in her head was a dull background ache, but her vision was clear and steady.

  She leaned from the settee and dragged her laptop across the coffee table. When she swished a finger over the touch pad, there were messages from Kate and one from Simon Hewitt. She knew that once she started reading there would be action to take and responses required. She needed to pee and wanted a shower. She wanted to get into softer trousers and a warm hoody. For a minute she was torn but, in the end, went upstairs by way of the kitchen, where she stopped to turn on the coffee maker and put a couple of waffles into the toaster.

  Once she was clean, comfortable and with a hot drink, and some stodgy snacks, she was ready to work. With luck, this was the beginning of the end.

  The message from Simon was a mixture of concern and information. He offered to come to her home with whatever she needed. He offered to stay, or to have one of his female members of staff move in overnight. She grimaced at the thought of strangers babysitting her, but the thought of Simon in her home, taking care of her in his quiet way wasn’t awful. She wouldn’t accept, but it wasn’t awful.

  The rest of the message was in response to a request from Kate to keep them informed about Finch’s case – the graveyard body. Tanya was impressed that the detective constable had taken the initiative. Dr Hewitt was aware of the situation between Tanya and Brian Finch and he would be discreet. As far as anyone knew the two cases were unconnected but Tanya felt instinctively that they should follow developments.

  At first, the news about Mulholland made her smile. Once he was told that they had matched the hair and blood to Tanya, once they stressed that they had irrefutable evidence of his assault on her and she was now very ill and there was grave concern for her wellbeing – Kate had posted a grinning emoticon beside the comment – then he had admitted that yes, he had been responsible for the attack.

  ‘He tried to say he hadn’t known who you were boss and thought someone was nicking stuff from his van. But when he realised, he was probably going down for it, we helped him to see the sense in coming clean. I’ve got his full statement and it’s interesting reading, I’ve attached a copy. I need to tell you though, it’s probably not what you want to hear – or see in this case.’

  Kate signed off with an arrangement for either herself or Paul Harris to collect Tanya the next afternoon to take her to see Patricia Baker.

  The coffee went cold in the cup as Tanya read the statement and as she did so, her heart sank with disappointment. She had been so very sure that they were about to get to the heart of the thing.

  The electronic copy of his statement showed the force logo, the headings that she had expected and when she scrolled to the end there was his signature. She skimmed the preliminaries and then read the pertinent sections a couple of times, looking for anything that might give her a reason to hope that it hadn’t all been misdirection. There was nothing.

  … I drove to the golf club. I went into the store room and when I came back outside, I saw there was someone interfering in the back of the van. There was a load of money tied up in that cargo. Wine, spirits, fags. I thought it was somebody trying to nick stuff. I didn’t know it was a police officer and I certainly didn’t know it was a woman. I’m sorry I hit her. I hope she’s okay.

  I bought the stuff in France and Spain. I�
��ve been doing it for a while now. Me and Steve – Steven Traynor – the secretary of the golf club, had a thing going. We got the stuff cheap, sold it in the club full price and we didn’t report it anywhere. The money went into our pockets, we split it fifty-fifty. We’ve been doing it for about eighteen months. I didn’t think there was any harm in it. Those rich bastards can afford it.

  I didn’t know Steve had died. I was in France. When I found out I didn’t know what to do but I just thought I’d carry on. Until there was a new secretary it would have been okay, and I could have kept all the money.

  After the body was found in that hut, Steve – Mr Traynor – was panicked and wanted to stop. He was scared the filth was hanging around and thought we’d get caught. I had tried to tell him they wouldn’t be looking at us, but he was a bit of a wuss. Anyway, maybe that’s why he had the heart attack, I don’t know. Nothing to do with me that.

  I don’t know anything about the poor sod in the hut, I’ve never even been in it. I don’t play golf – that’s for the nobs. I’ve only played a round once and I was shit at it.

  If the police woman had kept her nose out, none of this would have happened so it’s not my fault is it …

  Tanya lay on the settee and closed her eyes. They were back to square one. All the time and energy she had spent, all the hope – it had been about smuggled booze and some pathetic side-line. Tears trickled from under her lids and she pushed up wearily from the settee.

  She reached out to call Kate Lewis and before she dialled realised that there was nothing to say. It was over and now it was up to the CPS to decide whether to prosecute. At that moment, the idea of Jamie Mulholland in the dock was small comfort, and the idea of having to explain it all in court was ghastly. She had been acting on her own, that was wrong. She didn’t have a warrant, that was wrong. It had all been a massive misdirection, that was wrong. There was so much wrong with what they’d done that it was a real possibility the case would fail. Even the assault would be weak as she had been working alone and hadn’t gone down official channels. He would more than likely walk away. She was livid with herself, with him and with the system. There was nothing more to do right now than to go to bed.

  She did eventually manage to sleep. Her dreams were tormented. Over and over she chased unreachable enemies down endless roads on limbs that couldn’t carry her fast enough. Over and over she came just close enough to grasp at fading, indistinct figures, only to watch them vanish and reappear further away. She was glad when her alarm sounded, and she could drag herself from the wrinkled bed.

  * * *

  There was a new suit in her dressing room, a pair of shoes she had only worn once and some new underwear still in the tissue paper wrapping. New things always made her feel better, there had been so few of them in the past.

  She had a shower, spritzed herself with some Joy perfume and took her laptop into her small office. She stood for a minute in front of the mirror. The new outfit looked good. There were still dark shadows under her eyes, her hair didn’t look right where her scalp was swollen but she stared at her reflection. The face looking back was hard and honest.

  She thought of the rotting corpse in the hut; the sad, soaked, woman’s body abandoned in the pond; and the ghastly limbs and skull thrown like trash in woodland. They needed her to let go of the self-pity. They demanded the best that she could do. She straightened her shoulders and turned to her desk, opened her files, and went back to the beginning.

  She worked for a solid couple of hours, scribbling notes on the pad beside her and highlighting points on the screen.

  She rang Kate. “Have you found that missing immigrant woman?”

  “Yes, ma’am. She’s being held at Colnburn. I’m waiting for a call back to let me know when I can interview her. Should be this afternoon.”

  “Right. I’m coming with you. I want you to pick me up as soon as you can. We need to get moving; this has all gone tits up and it’s my fault. Get on to the morgue and ask for a viewable image of the woman in DI Finch’s case. Only speak to Dr Hewitt. There are bodies turning up everywhere, we’ve got our two, the graveyard girl and Peter Baker. All in a small area. All in a short space of time. We need to look for connections.”

  “But, boss, they’re all different.”

  “No, they’re not. They’re all dead is what they are. Get a copy of the post-mortem report for Finch’s case. Quick as you can. I’ve been a bloody fool, and this is all coming back to bite us on the bum. Baker’s house first and then on to Colnburn. If they haven’t got back to you, we’ll blag our way in. Oh yes, tell Detective Sergeant Harris to fix the boards while we’re gone. Do you think he’ll be able to do that without cocking it up?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll give him a quick briefing.”

  For the next half hour, Tanya paced back and forth along the hallway, peering outside now and then, as if just looking would bring Kate’s car down the road more quickly. She swallowed some painkillers and drank more coffee, but adrenaline had done more for her than medicine and caffeine and the idea that the case was slipping away had energised her. She was buzzing.

  Chapter 57

  Tricia Baker was dressed in black from head to foot. She looked stylish and poised. Her brother was at the house when they arrived and took a seat on the settee next to his sister. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders briefly.

  The widow initiated the conversation. “I assume you are here to tell me that I can have his body now. I need to arrange things. My husband had many friends, we are planning a quiet funeral and cremation and then a memorial service. We can’t do any of it until you let me have him. There are things that need to be sorted out at the office, I can’t concentrate on any of that until things get back to normal.”

  Tanya wondered about the reference to a normal life when it would forever be without her husband. She let it go, the woman was grieving. She took a breath and shook her head. All designed to prepare them for news that they would not want to hear.

  “I’m afraid, Mrs Baker, that there will be more delay.”

  It was Robin Turner who exploded. “Don’t be bloody ridiculous. How long are we supposed to put up with this? This is torture for my sister. How can she be expected to move on? I shall have a word, I have contacts. This is totally unacceptable, Detective Inspector.”

  It was no more than they had expected. Tanya and Kate sat quietly until he regained some composure.

  “There has been a further development I’m afraid. I have some upsetting news for you, Mrs Baker,” Tanya said. “Further to the post-mortem and toxicology results from the lab, I have to tell you that it would appear there was a third party involved in your husband’s death. I am so very sorry. We will arrange for a family liaison officer to be assigned. We will work as quickly as we can and keep you informed at all times. We will need to examine the garage and car again. We will need access to his room, and anything that you can tell us about his business contacts, or indeed anyone with whom he may have had disagreements. All of that will help to move things along more quickly.”

  Tanya waited for the tears and the disbelief. The fury was unexpected.

  Patricia Baker shook with anger as she stood from the settee. “Don’t be so bloody ridiculous. What on earth are you talking about? A third party. What third party? Get out, get out and take care of your business. Let me have my husband’s body back, or I can promise you, Detective Inspector there will be repercussions.”

  At first, they thought that she had misunderstood and although they had tried to be gentle, Tanya saw that she needed to be more straightforward. “Mrs Baker, what I am telling you now is that your husband was most probably unlawfully killed. Do you understand me?”

  “Ridiculous,” Tricia Baker said. She turned to her brother who now stood beside her. “Robin. Make them leave. Do something.”

  “Mrs Baker. Please try to calm down. I understand that this must be a terrible shock, but there are things that we need to do now. There are questions that we
must ask you. We will do all that we can to find who did this terrible thing, but really, I must ask you to calm down. Would you like a glass of water?” As Tanya spoke, she nodded at Kate Lewis who prepared to go into the kitchen and fetch a drink.

  “No. I don’t want a bloody drink of water. I want you to leave, take your horrible suspicions and filthy lies, and leave.”

  There was a real risk that the woman was about to become hysterical and it was obvious this wasn’t the time for questions. Robin Turner had wrapped his sister in his arms and led her back to the settee. He murmured calming words.

  “We’ll come back later. I’m afraid there is no choice. Mr Turner, it may be a good idea to call your sister’s doctor,” Tanya said.

  “I don’t need your advice, thank you and please ring before you come back here. In the meantime, I am going to make some calls. This is unforgivable.”

  Back in the car Tanya and Kate sat in silence for a while. The outburst had shaken both of them. “Poor woman,” Kate said.

  “Hmm. Nasty shock for her. We’ll have to come back though. I don’t care how many contacts they have and who they can call, we need to speak to her again.”

  Chapter 58

  On the way to Colnburn Detention Centre’s women’s unit, where a couple of dozen females were held, Kate received a text confirming the interview. They showed their IDs but didn’t need to have their fingerprints or photographs taken. They signed the log. They left their personal stuff locked in the car boot in preference to leaving them in lockers in the reception area. Once through the metal detector, they were led to a visitors’ room.

  The girl waiting to speak to them was pale and thin. She had dark rings under her eyes, which were puffy and red. They were told she was still refusing to say anything about where she was from, what family she had or anything that would help them to decide what would be the best thing for her. She didn’t mix with the other detainees, and they were seriously concerned for her mental health. She had told them her name was Ana but beyond that she was mute.