by J. P. Carter
‘I reckon you’re too young to know why this is happening,’ he went on. ‘You probably think we’re all a bunch of nutters high on drugs. But it’s not that simple. People like me have had enough of taking shit. The police pick on us because we’re black. They treat us like scum and they think they can get away with shooting innocent women. Well we’re showing them now that they can’t. Not any more.’
‘My mum’s not like that,’ Chloe said. ‘She’s nice, and she’s kind. And her boyfriend is black.’
‘Is that right? Well what kind of copper is she?’
‘A detective.’
‘So what happened to your dad?’
‘He was murdered.’
Wesley raised his brow and shook his head. ‘Fuck me, you’re full of surprises for a twelve-year-old. Is that why your name changed? You said it used to be Alice.’
‘No, Alice is what my dad changed it to after he abducted me ten years ago and took me to Spain.’
Wesley jolted upright and his eyes went wide. It was as though a light had been switched on inside his head.
‘Holy shit, you’re that girl who’s been all over the news and in the papers,’ he said. ‘Everyone’s been talking about what happened to you.’
‘That’s why I know that my mum is a good person,’ Chloe said. ‘She never stopped looking for me all that time. And I don’t want her to lose me again.’ Chloe dissolved into tears.
‘Jesus, kid, you’re as pathetic as I am,’ Wesley said, and the next thing Chloe knew he was patting her back in an effort to comfort her.
But it made her cry even more.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Anna learned a good deal more about DI Joe Benning on the drive back to Wandsworth. And the more she learned, the more sympathy she felt for the man. It seemed that life had been terribly cruel to him.
He got married in his late twenties and his wife gave birth to a daughter, but she was tragically killed when she was hit by a car as she ran into the road at the tender age of six. Three years later his wife left him for another man and they divorced. And then, three months ago, he was diagnosed with early onset vascular dementia, aged just forty-six.
‘It was the last thing I expected to be told,’ he said. ‘I went to the doctor because I started forgetting things, and I just didn’t feel myself. They put it down to stress at first, but eventually I had an MRI scan, which showed that not enough oxygen was getting to the top of my brain, which is a tell-tale sign of the condition. But they told me it can take years to have a serious impact on my life and my work.
‘Fortunately, the force has been incredibly understanding and I’m being monitored by a specialist, even though the symptoms haven’t progressed and most days it doesn’t feel like there’s anything wrong with me. However, on her advice it’s been agreed that I’ll soon step back from frontline investigative work and take a desk job. That’s why I was so determined to find Jacob Rossi alive. I didn’t want what might possibly be my last case to end in disaster. But now …’
Anna hadn’t expected him to be so forthcoming, but she was glad he had been. It didn’t mean she would make allowances, but she would keep a close eye on his performance. And she’d be sure not to overload him with work. After all, the riots meant that her team was seriously depleted, and she was confident that even a detective who was no longer at the top of his game would still be able to make a useful contribution.
*
When she got back to the office she checked her phone to see if Tom had responded to the text she had sent earlier. But he hadn’t, and since it was well after midnight, she saw no point in ringing him. He would have let her know if there was a problem.
She was hoping that Chloe would appreciate what he’d done by taking her to his flat. With luck it might even change her daughter’s opinion of him. She really hoped so because she loved both of them, and in the not too distant future she wanted them to be a family.
DI Walker had been holding the fort and told Anna that the team were still working flat out. However, the riots were causing problems at every turn.
‘I sent DC Niven with a uniform to Roy Slater’s home in Rotherhithe,’ Walker said. ‘But they ran into a disturbance while driving through Bermondsey. They were forced to take a detour along a road littered with broken glass and got a puncture. They’re trying to fix it, but if they can’t we’ll have to send someone along who can do it for them.’
Other difficulties they were having included getting people to respond to phone calls and collecting CCTV footage.
‘Give me twenty minutes or so to get my thoughts in order and we’ll have another briefing,’ Anna said. ‘I want to make sure we’re in a position to steam ahead when daylight comes. Hopefully things will settle down a bit then and we can make more progress.’
Benning said he wanted to make some calls so Anna told him to take his pick of all the empty desks. She also gave him directions to the vending machines and toilets.
Then she went to her office, switched on the telly, and settled down to pore over her notes.
But they didn’t amount to much, and the reason Jacob Rossi was abducted and chained up in a pub cellar remained a mystery. It did not appear as though he’d been sexually abused, although they wouldn’t know for certain until they’d heard back from Gayle Western.
So why was he held captive for so long? Was the kidnapper intending to demand a ransom at some point? Or was the aim simply to cause the family, especially his father, a lot of pain and anguish?
There were four potential suspects, but the frontrunner at this stage had to be Neville Quinlan. He was a convicted paedophile who claimed he was out walking when Jacob went missing. And he claimed not to remember where he’d walked. Anna found that hard to believe because he struck her as someone who was careful about his movements.
Three days prior to the boy going missing, he’d parked his car opposite the entrance to Jacob’s school and his unconvincing excuse was that he had stopped driving because he was feeling too unwell to carry on. Another lie, Anna reckoned, but one that would be even more difficult to disprove. It didn’t mean they wouldn’t try, though.
She felt that with their limited resources Quinlan was the one they needed to focus on. Gavin Pope was in the frame, of course, and they needed to find out if he had visited The Falconer’s Arms since Monday while his wife was at work. Was he the person who had dropped by at least once with food and drink?
Of course, it was also possible that Pope or Quinlan had an accomplice who visited Jacob. If so then it struck Anna that it could be just about anyone.
It was too early for Anna to form an opinion of Roy Slater. But if what Pope and his wife had said was true then Slater might conceivably have decided to seek revenge against the man who effectively wrecked his marriage and caused him to have a breakdown.
And then finally there was Michelle Gerrard, the woman who’d been posting vicious comments online about Jacob’s dad. According to Walker, the techies were still trying to find an address for her. Her social media accounts contained hardly any details so it was proving difficult.
They needed to establish whether there was a connection between her and Rossi. Or was she just a nutter with nothing better to do than offend celebrities she had never met?
It occurred to Anna that the worst-case scenario would be that there was no link at all between the kidnapper and the Rossi family. That Jacob was taken by a complete stranger. Someone who planned it well in advance or else seized an opportunity. It would make their job more difficult, especially in the absence of solid forensic evidence and incriminating CCTV footage.
She rubbed at her eyes, which were dry and gritty. She had an uncomfortable feeling that this investigation was going to be one of the most difficult she had ever taken on.
The news coverage on the TV served only to fuel her pessimism. The riots had now claimed at least four lives, and it was believed that the bodies of more victims were waiting to be recovered from wrecked buildings and fi
res that were still raging.
There was also startling footage from a helicopter of a blaze that was tearing through buildings close to Vauxhall tube station. The newsreader revealed that it was started by a firebomb thrown through the window of a gift shop. This was known because one of the people who had witnessed it had just minutes ago posted a clip of the incident online from his or her mobile phone. It ran for only five seconds, but you could clearly see the front of the shop as a hooded youth hurled a blazing bottle at it.
The coverage then switched to the live scene outside Buckingham Palace where police had formed a line to stop rioters throwing objects over the railings into the grounds.
‘The number of violent incidents outside London has also increased dramatically tonight,’ the newsreader said over more footage of clashes between youths and police. ‘This was the scene in the centre of Manchester an hour ago. It’s not on the scale of London but it is putting an enormous strain on the city’s emergency services. Reports are also coming in of disturbances elsewhere, including Birmingham, Leeds and Bradford.’
The roundup ended with a review of the newspaper front pages, which perfectly summed up the dire situation facing the country.
THE ANARCHY SPREADS
DESCENT INTO HELL
RULE OF THE MOB
THE BATTLE FOR LONDON
FLAMING MORONS
THUGS AND THIEVES TAKE OVER THE STREETS
Anna sat back in her chair as the blood hummed in her ears. She experienced a sudden urge to get in her car and drive over to Tom’s flat so that she could put a protective arm around her daughter and tell her yet again how much she loved her.
The motherly instinct had resurfaced the moment Chloe had come back into her life. And it was stronger now than ever because it was obvious that at this moment in time nobody in London was safe.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Her tears had dried up but inside she was still crying. It was causing her body to shake and her heart to beat so hard that she thought she could actually hear it thumping against her ribs.
She was still at the kitchen table and Wesley was sitting opposite her again. She couldn’t believe he was being so kind. He was like a different person now, and even his features were softer and less threatening.
She wasn’t sure if it was because he now knew that she was the girl who had been on the news, the one who had been missing for ten years. But she didn’t care anyway. He was making her feel safe, and she no longer thought that he was such a bad person.
‘Do you want another cup of tea?’ he asked her.
She nodded. She’d finished the first one and it had made her stomach gurgle. But it had also quenched her thirst and she felt better for it.
Wesley got up to reheat the water in the kettle and to get himself another beer from the fridge.
He had already tried to call Wandsworth police station to contact her mother but hadn’t been able to get through. He didn’t even get an answer when he dialled 999 again, and she could tell that it was making him anxious.
There was a clock on the worktop next to the toaster. It told Chloe that it was almost one a.m. on Saturday morning, which meant it’d be dark for at least another six hours. It made her wonder what state London would be in when the sun finally rose.
‘Are you hungry?’ Wesley asked as he placed a large round tin of biscuits on the table in front of her.
She shook her head. She didn’t think she would be able to keep anything down, not even a biscuit.
‘We’ll just have to sit it out for a while,’ he said. ‘I’ll keep trying to reach your mum, though. Try not to worry.’
But she couldn’t help worrying, or being scared. She had seen so many bad things in such a short time. First there was the attack on the old man who lived across the road from their house. Then Tom was dragged off by those men. Not long after that she almost fell victim to a pair of rapists. And she could still hear Ryan’s screams in her head as he fought against the flames that killed him.
Despite what Wesley had told her, Chloe was confused as well as fearful. She still did not understand why people like him thought that their actions were justified and that it was all right to turn on one another. And they were wrong to accuse the police of being the enemy. They were the ones who caught the murderers and thieves and gangsters and put them in prison. Without people like her mum nobody would be safe.
Wesley handed her another mug of tea and sat down opposite her again. His dark cheeks were damp, his eyes puffy.
‘This is really fucked up,’ he said. ‘I can’t remember the last time I cried. It must have been when I was about your age.’
‘I’ve cried every day for weeks,’ Chloe said, and the distress in her voice was evident. ‘Ever since that man pulled me into his van.’
‘I remember seeing it on the news,’ Wesley said. ‘Me and Ryan stayed in that night because we were babysitting his kid sister, Phoebe. They showed a picture of you and there was film of that warehouse. At least the sicko who took you there is dead. Shame about the woman, though. She didn’t deserve that.’
Chloe could feel the tears gathering in her eyes again so she picked up the mug and sipped at the tea.
‘You remind me of Phoebe,’ Wesley said. ‘You’re both very mature for your age. She’s taller and more streetwise, but I’m sure she’d find it just as hard to cope if she was in your shoes right now.’
Chloe put down the mug and said, ‘Will you try to get through to the police station again please?’
Wesley nodded and stood up to retrieve his phone from on top of the worktop. But just as he picked it up, it started to ring.
Chloe watched him check the caller ID and noticed how his nostrils flared suddenly.
‘This is what I’ve been dreading,’ he said. ‘It’s Ryan’s mum. She’ll be wanting to know why she can’t get through to him.’
‘Are you going to tell her?’ Chloe asked.
He shook his head. ‘I can’t. I’m not ready for that.’
He placed the phone back on the worktop and they both stared at it until the ringing stopped.
Wesley then turned back to Chloe. ‘You must think I’m a coward.’
Chloe wasn’t sure what to say so she didn’t reply. Instead, she swallowed some more tea and winced as it burned a track down the back of her throat.
‘I’ll go over to their place as soon as I get the chance,’ he said. ‘It’s best that the family hears it from me in person rather than over the phone.’
He remained standing with his eyes closed and his body stiff. Neither of them spoke for at least a minute.
Then Wesley opened his eyes, picked up the phone, and tried to get through to Wandsworth police station. But the line was still busy. He dialled 999 and got the same response.
This time it really got to him and he reacted angrily by throwing the phone across the kitchen. It smashed against the wall and dropped onto the floor.
Wesley rushed over to pick it up, but the phone was in pieces.
‘I don’t believe this,’ he said, his voice a low growl. ‘It’s the only phone I’ve got. How could I be so fucking stupid?’
Chloe felt her spirits plummet because she knew it meant that she wouldn’t be speaking to her mum any time soon.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Emotions were running high in Anna’s head as she walked out of her office into the ops room. She knew that the only way to take her mind off Chloe was to get on with the job.
DI Walker had already set things up for another briefing. He’d scrawled some more notes on one of the whiteboards, adding updates he’d got from the detectives who were out and about, and he’d gathered the team together. Anna took up her usual position between the two whiteboards and inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with a calming breath. She kicked off with a word of thanks to everyone for working through the night. And she acknowledged how difficult and frustrating the investigation was proving to be.
‘These are exceptional circumstances
,’ she said, and her voice shook a little. ‘In all my years on the force I have never known anything like it. When any of you leave here to follow up a lead or simply to go home I want you to be extra careful, especially after dark. And do not take any risks. Is that clear?’
There were a few murmurs and nods of heads. The faces that stared back at her were tight with tension. She knew that each one of her officers was just as anxious as she was about what they were up against.
Anna then launched into an account of their conversation with Gavin Pope and his wife.
‘Pope repeated what he told DI Benning about having nothing to do with Jacob’s abduction. He continues to claim that he was at home by himself on Monday afternoon.’
She then told the team about Mrs Pope’s affair with Mark Rossi and it prompted more than a few surprised looks.
‘This came as a bolt from the blue and opens up a whole new line of inquiry,’ she said. ‘Mrs Pope claims that Rossi is a bit of a player and she gave us the name of another bloke whose wife apparently fell for his charms.’
Anna ran through what they were told about Roy Slater, including the fact that he was paid off to leave Glory Entertainment and that he allegedly has – or had – a gambling problem.
‘DC Niven and a uniform were on their way to his house in Rotherhithe,’ she said. ‘But the last I heard their car suffered a puncture and they were stuck somewhere along the way.’
She asked Walker if their situation had changed in the last half an hour.
‘Niven just called in to update me,’ Walker answered. ‘They’ve managed to change the wheel themselves and are back on the road. But Christ only knows how long it will take them to reach their destination. Some of the streets in Rotherhithe are closed, and a mob has stormed the Surrey Quays shopping centre. Latest reports indicate that more than ten stores have been looted and two set on fire.’
Anna shook her head and a hot flush of rage burned across her cheeks. She was appalled to think that so many people could behave so outrageously in what was supposed to be a civilised society.