by J. P. Carter
Bolt had been told they were on their way and had been waiting at the mouth of the alley to greet them. He was a large man in a crumpled grey suit and he had a belly that flopped over his belt. He and his colleagues had already sealed off the scene and begun talking to people living and working nearby.
‘The body is still in situ because we’re waiting for forensics and the pathologist to get here,’ Bolt said. ‘But I’ve been told we’re likely to have a long wait because of all the aggro that’s going on elsewhere. I just hope we can clear off from here before it gets dark and the rioters come back, as I expect they will.’
‘The officer you spoke to at our office told me that you suspect Mr Slater was killed by a bunch of them,’ Anna said.
Bolt nodded. ‘That’s correct. It was mayhem here late on Friday afternoon and well into the evening. A mob about a hundred strong stormed along Southwark Park Road smashing their way into shops, starting fires, and mugging people they didn’t like the look of. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume Mr Slater was one of those people. From the look of the body, I think it’s fair to say that it’s been here since then. But because of the disturbances many of the shops around here were closed for business yesterday so these bins didn’t get used much, if at all.’
Anna looked along the alley, which ran for about thirty yards before arriving at a brick wall.
‘You can tell us what else we need to know while we take a look for ourselves,’ she said.
Bolt raised the crime scene tape and Anna and Walker ducked under it.
‘As you can see we’ve pulled the last bin on the right away from the wall,’ Bolt said. ‘The body was stuffed behind it and was barely visible.’
Roy Slater was lying on his back. His eyes were closed but his mouth was open. He was wearing a black quilted jacket and denim jeans.
The stab wound was on the right side of his neck and the blood that had spilled from it had left a big stain on the ground. His face was badly bruised and there was a nasty gash in the centre of his forehead.
‘Are there any wounds that we can’t see?’ Walker asked.
Bolt shook his head. ‘We lifted him off the ground slightly so that we could have a look at his back, but it seems he was stabbed only the once in the neck, and probably died pretty quickly.’
Anna hunkered down next to the body, careful not to disturb anything around it. She was in no doubt that his was the face she had seen in the photo on the evidence board that morning.
‘So it appears that Mr Slater was the victim of a random act of violence,’ she said. ‘That would mean his death was not linked to Jacob Rossi’s abduction.’
‘But it doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved,’ Walker said.
Anna stood back up and asked Bolt if Slater’s pockets had been searched.
He nodded. ‘We found a set of car keys and a couple of betting slips that were issued on Friday by a bookies’ just down the road from here. I reckon he must have been attacked shortly after leaving there. He’d placed four bets and laid out a total of two hundred pounds on horses that were running yesterday. There was no cash in his wallet so I’m guessing that the guys who did this made off with it. There were no credit cards either.’
‘We know that his Visa card has been used since then on contactless machines, but only up to thirty quid a time,’ Anna said. ‘If you access the details you might be able to track down whoever has it.’
‘We’ll get straight onto that,’ Bolt said.
‘Have you found his mobile phone?’ Anna asked.
‘Not yet. It wasn’t in his pockets and it’s not in the alley. It could be in one of the bins. We’ll go through them once forensics are here.’
‘Now what about his car?’ Anna said. ‘Do you know where it is?’
‘We do. He had a Renault key ring, so I got one of the uniforms to have a look around and he spotted it in a small car park behind the shops. We’ve had a look inside and didn’t see anything suspicious.’
‘We’ll need to take a look ourselves,’ Anna said. ‘And I’ll want forensics to examine it as well.’
They then walked back to the pavement and Anna felt a shivering unease when she saw that a group of youths had gathered on the other side of the road. They were shouting and making abusive gestures at the uniforms who were standing around the entrance to the alley and the two marked patrol cars at the kerb.
‘That’s all we need,’ Bolt said. ‘I guarantee there’ll be a lot more of them soon and they’ll start taking liberties.’
‘You need to request more support,’ Anna told him. ‘I’ll do the same from my end and stress that we need to protect the crime scene.’
‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Bolt said.
‘Have you sussed out CCTV?’ Walker asked him. ‘There must be plenty of cameras around here.’
‘It’s in hand,’ Bolt said. ‘If we get a result I’ll let you know, but there’s a big backlog of tapes from all over the city that haven’t yet been viewed.’
Bolt then asked Anna why Slater had been in the frame for the Jacob Rossi abduction.
‘His wife had an affair with Jacob’s father,’ she explained. ‘He was then paid not to go public with it, but he had a gambling addiction and not long ago he went back to Rossi to ask for more money and was turned away. So we were working on the basis that he could have taken Jacob out of revenge or to squeeze more money out of the dad.’
‘I get the picture,’ Bolt said. ‘Have you guys been to his house?’
‘We went there last night,’ Anna said. ‘When there was no answer, we applied for a warrant that we won’t need any more. MIT officers are on their way there now. I’ll get them to tell you what they find. We will obviously have to liaise closely on this one. If we rule Slater out as a suspect in the Rossi case we’ll step back and leave it to you.’
Anna then got Bolt to take them to Slater’s car, a light blue Renault Clio. She donned rubber gloves to check inside the boot and glove compartment, hoping to find something that would link its owner to Jacob Rossi or The Falconer’s Arms pub in Camberwell. But there was nothing.
After that she saw no point in hanging around.
‘We’ll head back to Wandsworth,’ she said to Bolt. ‘Please call me later with an update. Meanwhile, I’ll do what I can to get you more support down here just in case things turn ugly.’
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
The ball of anxiety in Anna’s chest continued to grow during the drive from Bermondsey to Wandsworth.
She was concerned about the lack of progress she was making with the investigation. And she was worried that another night of savagery was about to descend on London.
Darkness was encroaching fast, and already sirens were ringing out and riot police were on the move.
Anna called central control and said it was imperative that DI Bolt was provided with more back-up at the crime scene in Southwark Park Road. Then she phoned DS Prescott to see if he had arrived at Roy Slater’s house in Rotherhithe.
‘I’m here now with DI Benning, guv,’ he told her. ‘We had to force the door open and we’re just starting the search. The place is empty, and so far we haven’t come across anything of interest.’
Anna was finding it increasingly difficult to get her thoughts together. It didn’t help that she felt it necessary to have the radio on. The news was a constant and alarming distraction.
A battle between police and an angry mob was taking place outside the Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford. There were reports that a supermarket was on fire in Putney. Shops were being looted in Kentish Town. And two petrol bombs had been thrown at the Crown Court building in Southwark, causing serious damage to the entrance.
Five hundred more coppers had been drafted in from southern counties to support the Met. And there were now a thousand soldiers helping to keep order.
But so far the impact appeared to be insignificant, which was no great surprise to Anna considering there were thirty-two boroughs in London and a population of
almost nine million.
The pressure on law enforcement agencies was now unbearable, and some commentators were claiming that key services were at the point of collapse.
Hundreds of people who had been arrested still hadn’t been processed, 999 calls were not being answered, there weren’t enough forensic teams to attend ongoing crime scenes, or enough ambulances to respond to emergency call-outs. Plus, forty-two police vehicles were out of commission having been vandalised or set on fire, and public transport services – including buses, tubes and trains – were severely disrupted.
Anna felt a thud of dread in her stomach at the sheer scale of civil disobedience.
‘I fear things will get much worse before they get any better,’ she said. ‘And God only knows how many more lives will be lost.’
*
Once back at HQ, Anna did things in order of priority. First off, she phoned Chloe to let her know that she wouldn’t be able to pick her up from the hospital until much later. Her daughter’s reaction came as a huge relief.
‘Don’t worry, Mum. I’m all right. And it’s been fun here.’
‘Are you sure, sweetheart?’
‘Yep. Honest.’
‘And how is Tom?’
‘He sleeps a lot, and he’s still in pain, but the doctor says he’s slowly getting better.’
‘Can you put him on the phone so that I can speak to him?’
‘Not right now. I’m in the shop getting some sweets and a comic. And Tom wants a newspaper.’
‘Oh, I see. Never mind then. But look, you are OK aren’t you? I mean, it’s not all too much for you being in the hospital all this time? I suspect it’s pretty boring.’
Anna detected a slight hesitation before Chloe responded.
‘There isn’t much to do,’ she said. ‘And I did get a bit upset earlier in the television room. I was watching the news while Tom was sleeping and they put up a photo of Ryan and said what had happened to him. I didn’t expect it.’
‘You poor thing. I can imagine it was quite a shock.’
‘I’m fine now, though. The nurses were really nice, and so was Tom.’
‘Well we can talk about it when I pick you up. And I’m so sorry I can’t get there any sooner.’
‘And I told you not to worry.’
‘Thanks for being so understanding. I love you very much.’
Anna held on for a beat, hoping her daughter would say I love you back, but she didn’t. So Anna told her she would call when she was on her way and hung up.
Speaking to Chloe, and knowing that she was coping well in what was an extraordinarily stressful situation, gave a much-needed boost to Anna’s spirits. She no longer felt so tired and fractured when she addressed the troops in the ops room.
Detectives Sweeny and Mortimer had already briefed them on the dramatic events at the house in Dulwich. She was told that Craig Sullivan and Lorna Fitzpatrick were now in the custody suites and would be represented by the same lawyer who had turned up an hour ago.
‘Quinlan is still spouting no comment,’ DS Khan said. ‘He doesn’t yet know what we’ve got on him and the duty solicitor is on standby because I told him you’ll be wanting to talk to his client.’
‘I’m going to formally question all three of them,’ Anna said. ‘But only about a possible connection with our own investigation. If there isn’t one, which I now suspect is the case, then we’ll be handing the scumbags over to the National Crime Agency.’
Anna sent one of the civilian staff to inform the two legal reps that she would soon be along to interview their clients.
‘Before I get stuck into that I’d like to know if we’ve made progress elsewhere,’ she said.
She was told that what Michelle Gerrard had said about the incident in Bromley was true. Mark Rossi had been asked about it and recalled what had happened. But he apparently hadn’t realised that she was the same woman who went on to abuse him online. DI Benning was still trying to get the lowdown on Mark Rossi’s stepbrother, Joseph Walsh, who had apparently moved to Australia after selling his mother’s home in Camberwell. Before Benning set off for Roy Slater’s house in Rotherhithe, he’d told the team that he was waiting to hear back from the Australian embassy. Someone there was trying to find out if Walsh was still in the country.
And they still hadn’t managed to find the homeless man named George, who until recently was sleeping rough outside The Falconer’s Arms pub in Camberwell. Anna was disappointed because she knew it was possible he had seen whoever had taken Jacob there to put him in the cellar.
After the briefing, Anna collected her notebook and asked Walker to sit in on the interviews with her.
They were on their way to the custody suites when her phone rang. It was DI Benning, calling from Roy Slater’s house in Rotherhithe.
‘I’m about to make your day, ma’am,’ he said when she answered it. ‘We’ve had a breakthrough.’
Anna stopped in the middle of the corridor and felt her stomach clench into a hard ball.
‘Well spit it out, man,’ she said. ‘What is it?’
‘We’ve found Jacob Rossi’s mobile phone and wallet. As you know he had them with him when he went missing. They were in a drawer in Slater’s bedroom.’
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
It was indeed a major breakthrough. According to Benning, the phone and wallet found in Slater’s house had most definitely belonged to Jacob.
‘The wallet is exactly how his parents described it to me,’ he told Anna. ‘It’s a canvas trifold type with a Velcro fastener. It’s personalised with the name Jacob embroidered on the front. Inside are his house key, about three quid in loose change, and a few boiled sweets.’
‘And the mobile phone?’
‘I found the phone next to the wallet in the drawer. It’s a Samsung Galaxy. The battery has been removed which is why it hasn’t been transmitting a signal.’
‘And you’re sure it belonged to Jacob.’
‘Positive. It’s in a leather case and his name is written on the inside.’
‘I don’t suppose Jacob’s rucksack is also there is it?’
‘Well if it is we haven’t come across it,’ he replied.
Every muscle in Anna’s body was suddenly taut, her shoulders rigid. The phone and wallet provided an unambiguous link between Roy Slater and Jacob. For whatever reason the guy had decided to keep them in the house instead of getting rid of them. It was conclusive evidence that he was involved in the boy’s abduction, either alone or in cahoots with someone else.
‘It’s a crying shame that the bastard is dead,’ Anna said. ‘Unless he had an accomplice who we can collar we may never know what he was planning to do with the boy.’
She told Benning to gather up Slater’s personal stuff, including all his paperwork and digital media devices.
‘Bring them back to base with the camera and wallet,’ she said. ‘I want to know what he’s been doing and who he’s been seeing. And we need forensics to sweep the property as soon as possible.’
Anna was flush with excitement as she broke the news to Walker.
‘Let’s go tell the team before we talk to Quinlan and the others,’ she said. ‘We need to rethink our approach to the interviews anyway in light of this development.’
Inevitably the team were delighted with the news and they responded enthusiastically when Anna dished out more tasks. These included going through Slater’s phone records, drawing up a list of known associates, and talking to all his work colleagues.
‘I don’t want this getting out until Jacob’s parents have been informed,’ she said. ‘That will have to wait until tomorrow. By then we will hopefully have established whether there’s a link with Quinlan and the sex traffickers. And we should be in a better position to answer their questions in respect of circumstances and motive.’
She paused there as an unsettling thought wormed its way into her brain. Then: ‘I’ve just remembered what Mark Rossi said about his brief affair with Slater’s wife, R
uth. He told me his own wife Clare knows nothing about it, and that it would kill her if she finds out. But it’s hard to see how that can now be avoided.’
*
As soon as Anna walked back into Interview Room Two she sensed that Neville Quinlan was nearing the point where he was ready to cough up. The duty solicitor had no doubt marked his card about the police having fresh evidence against him.
He looked pale and drained, his eyes throbbing with fear and exhaustion.
After Walker switched on the recording equipment, Anna announced who was present and then got straight down to business.
‘The last time we spoke you told us that you were out walking by yourself last Monday when Jacob Rossi was abducted,’ she said. ‘We then established with the help of CCTV footage that that was a lie. The truth is you met a man in a pub and then went off with him in his car. That man was Craig Sullivan, who is involved in the trafficking of children for sex.’
Quinlan’s mouth dropped open and he started to breathe faster as he fought back the panic.
Anna’s mind suddenly flooded with images from the video clip she’d seen of him raping the Romanian boy. She bit down hard on her lip, determined to keep her temper in check.
‘I asked where the pair of you went when you left the pub but you refused to tell me,’ she said. ‘And I understand that you’ve continued to say no comment in response to questions from my colleagues. Is that so, Mr Quinlan?’
‘You know very well that that’s the case, Detective Chief Inspector,’ the duty solicitor said. ‘Can you therefore get to the point? You’ve indicated to me that as a consequence of further information coming to light you would like to ask my client more questions. So what are they?’