David Stuart, the rookie cop, who was one of the Constables raised his hand. Goldstone acknowledged it with a nod.
‘Why are the sons on the board, sir? Daniel and Todd.’
‘Good question.’ Stuart sat back in his seat, looking smug. ‘Truth is, I don’t know. There’s something they’re not telling us. They are to be observed 24/7.’
He moved away from the desk.
‘Wendy Cross may not have been kidnapped at all. The Fenton’s seemed too laid back about it. Yet Helen Cross, her mother, is distraught.’
‘Why the high profile?’ asked Detective Thomas.
‘Fenton’s a dangerous man. He needs taking down.’
‘Can’t we just let the Bristol mob do it?’ said Thomas. ‘I've got lots to do and I ....
‘Detective Thomas, this is your current task. Keep me informed of any development and I mean any.’ Goldstone said angrily, interrupting detective Thomas.
‘Drop everything. Just bloody sort it.’
Everyone in the room noticed the anxiety on Goldstone’s face and they all knew there was something, he wasn’t telling them.
‘Sure, sir.’ The detective stood and pointed to Stuart.
‘I want to know everything about Harrison and Bolan. Dig where you have to. I want it on my desk by close of play tomorrow.’
‘Yes, sir.’ said Stuart, not looking so pleased with himself now.
Thomas turned to Tracy.
‘Sergeant, how’s the surveillance on the brothers going?’
She smiled one of her sexiest smiles. Thomas loved that. ‘There are two officers there now, sir. I'm just about to relieve them for a couple hours, so they can eat, sir.’
‘Good. Make sure you sleep. I need you fresh in the morning. The rest of you, go home. Nine on the dot in the morning.’
With that the room emptied except for Stuart, who was Googling the name Katy Harrison.
Sergeant Tracy Bates got into her car. She looked in the mirror, re-arranged her hair, took some Lipsol out of her pocket and applied it. Oh what fun it is to be a policeman.
It was a chilly night, but the skies were clear. She could see the stars out of her windscreen; she thought how nice it would be to make love under those stars, maybe on a sandy beach or a field laden with soft grass. She closed her eyes and sighed a little as she imagined how nice that would be. She hadn’t been in a relationship for seven months now and, that one had ended dreadfully. He had turned out to be a bully and tight as a duck’s ass as Tracy had put it. There had been no one since then, despite almost everyone on the force thinking she had screwed her way to being Sergeant, but the truth was she loved her job. She thought of the last time she had sex, but put it out of her thoughts quickly. No one had interested her since, not until now. She started the engine and put the car in gear. Daniel, here I come, she said to herself and drove towards Ashbourne.
Chapter 24
The Pizza place was just on the outskirts of St. Paul’s just before the exit to the M5. It had been boarded up and derelict for years, originally vandalised, but now generally left to rot. The roof was still intact and the windows plus doors had been boarded up. Throughout those years, people had found ways in.
Today Frankie’s Perfect Pizza was empty, well it had been until Jezz had brought the girls there to meet Bill. He had parked the car behind the restaurant, so as not to be noticed from the road. Jezz was feeling a bit anxious now. He didn’t mind looking after the girls at his flat. In fact, he had enjoyed it. Now was a different kettle of fish. He felt uncomfortable and at one time, he was going to let the girls go, telling Bill they had escaped. But he knew how angry Bill would get and Jezz thought he might probably pay with his life. He was a match for Bill, he thought, but that man just would not give up. It seemed there was nothing Bill wouldn’t do. The girls remained terrified, throughout the short car journey. The solitude and security of Jezz’s flat was now gone, and they were due to meet the man who terrified them most.
Bill was waiting inside as Jezz pulled back a flap of boarding to gain entrance. Bill was sitting on a chair, leaning on a table which had surprisingly been left undamaged. ‘Good man.’ he said to Jezz, once they were inside.
The girls stood and looked at their new home. It smelt of damp and sweat. The high ceilings seemed to eat up the sound. Every crack and hole appeared to hide the darkest of secrets. They could hear the skittering of mice. Katy just hoped it was only mice. The feeling of not wanting to be there overtook Wendy’s body and mind. Not wanting to be there, especially with him.
It was surprisingly hot and as Jezz closed the flap behind him, it was stuffy. The main counter was still there, vandalised, but still there. It seemed to look eerie as if ghostly figures would suddenly emerge, holding pizzas. Behind the counter, you could see the ovens where the pizzas were once cooked. The walls were full of graffiti and the floors were strewn with rubbish, mainly broken bits of furniture and glass from broken windows. With her brain playing tricks, Wendy almost felt like ordering a pizza.
Bill thanked Jezz and told him to leave. As he left, Jezz looked at the girls solemnly. Deep down, he felt like he was betraying them. The thought of him leaving, frightened the girls even more, they didn’t want to be left with this monster. The girls looked at him, almost pleading, to free them from this ordeal.
‘It will be okay.’ Jezz simply said and left, hoping beyond all hope, that it wouldn't be the last time he saw the girls.
As he drove away he didn’t notice Mickey Bolan, hiding in the nearby bushes. Mickey had followed Jezz and the two girls to the Pizza place. He didn’t see Bill, or anyone else there and with all the windows being boarded up, plus it was in the dark of the night, it was impossible to see inside no matter how close he could get. He was surprised to see Jezz leave. He could only presume that the girls had been delivered. That had to be the case, or the girls would have left. He knew he couldn't tackle Bill on a one to one basis. Bill would surely kill him if he tried. He had never had a plan, wasn’t even sure why he was there, but there were three things on his mind. They kept going round and round in his head: one, he would kill Bill; two, he would give Katie a slapping for leaving him and three, oh yes, especially three, the bitch he helped kidnap was going to get a good shagging.
Bill sat at the table, smoking a cigarette, looking dirty, smelly and as mad as ever. He threw his cigarette on the floor. For a moment Wendy hoped it would catch and set the building alight. They would all be in panic as they fled the building and they could make an escape, but it was just her mind playing tricks.
He told Wendy and Katy to sit, pointing to the floor. They sat next to each other as close as they could get, having checked the floor and kicking away any rubbish first. A mouse ran out from behind the rubbish they had kicked. Katy let out a silent scream. That was when they noticed the holdall on the floor besides Bill. Wendy hoped beyond hope, there weren’t instruments of torture in there. Her mind was shot at the moment, playing all kinds of tricks with her. Katy clutched Wendy’s hand with her own. They both held tightly. There was silence, a real uncomfortable silence as Bill just sat smoking, looking at the girls. It felt as if he was judging them, deciding who to hurt first, deciding who to kill first. His look made both girls shudder. Katy stared at the floor. Wendy looked at him, eye to eye, her heart raced. She had to get her head clear.
‘So what’s your plan?’ she asked. She tried to smile, but it came out more of a grimace.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the plan, if there was one, especially if the plan involved pain or death. But just sitting, waiting, not knowing what would happen next, she could not bear. In the last eight hours, this was the third place to which she had been taken. She just needed to know. She just had to ask the question and hoped she could cope with the answer.
Bill didn’t answer at first, he just stared at Wendy. His mind drifted to his son, Daniel, thinking how lucky his son was. He thought of Todd, the son he had never really known, and wondered what sort of b
oy he had turned out to be. They had never visited him in prison, where he could have seen them. He had wanted to see them. They never came. They had deserted him. He stood up, still not speaking. He walked over to the serving counter, bent down and grabbed the metal foot rest and pulled it as hard as he could. It held firm. The girls just watched. He stood, went to his holdall. He lifted it, put it on the table and unzipped it. The girls’ eyes never left his movements, Katy had thought about running while he was pulling on the foot bar, but she knew that by the time she got the flap open, he would have got her. Even if she had got through, he was too fast. There was no getting away, at least not yet. He pulled out a blanket and laid it in front of the footrest on the floor. He motioned for the girls to sit on the blanket. They both got up and did so. It felt better than the floor, not much, but better. No one said a word. As they sat on the blanket with their backs against the counter, they watched as Bill took two sets of handcuffs out of the holdall. He handcuffed Wendy’s right arm to the foot bar and Katy’s left. The girls held hands with their free hands.
Bill sat at the table and pulled out a pistol from the bag. For one terrifying moment the girls thought that this was where they were going to die. They gripped each other’s hands as tightly as they could. They thought about the goodbyes they would never get to say as they watched Bill lay the gun on the table, putting the holdall on the floor. He leant back in his chair, putting his feet on the table.
‘This is the plan.’ he said. ‘Get some sleep. You’re going to need it.’
With that he closed his eyes. With their arms handcuffed to the foot bar, Wendy and Katy lay down, got themselves as comfortable as they could and huddled each other, as they both drifted in and out of sleep. Meanwhile, outside in the bushes, Mickey Bolan slept like a baby.
It was now one am. Jezz was sitting in his flat. The place wasn’t quiet. Three floors down the police were still there. Most of the neighbours, at least in the flats that were occupied, were awake. Many of them were in the corridors, nattering to each other. Incidents in the flats weren’t uncommon and the police seemed to be there as often as some of the residents. They liked winding the police up and Jezz could hear a lot of name-calling by his neighbours. It made him smile, but he wasn’t happy. The information which Jezz found out on returning home, was that there had been no body found at the flat, just a pile of clothes with blood on. There were officers from the South Wales Police, who were looking for a missing girl, she was believed to have been staying at the flat after being kidnapped.
He sat in his chair, pulling at a roach. There were three things he could do; go down, talk to the police, tell them everything; make a phone call to the police anonymously, telling them to look in the Pizza Place; or he could do nothing. He pulled on his roach, thought about how much he liked the girls, how much he would really like to help them. Then he thought about Bill, even if he were put away, he had contacts. The Governor would see that Jezz paid. As he was thinking, there was a knock on the door. He had been expecting it. He opened the door and there stood two policemen.
‘We are making enquiries regarding a missing person.’ one of them said.
Jezz invited them in. In the five minutes he spent with the police, Jezz Dwayne told them nothing.
He made a coffee, lit a cigarette, he was missing the girls. Even though he knew they were there under duress, he felt let down, he felt used. Bill Fenton had used him again, all for a few fucking quid. He stood up, kicked over the table. His coffee was on it, which spilled on the carpet. He stood looking at the empty mug and the stain growing on the carpet. He knew he wouldn’t sleep, too much going on in his head. His head monsters wouldn’t let him go to sleep tonight. ‘Fucking Fenton,’ he said. ‘Fuck him!’ he shouted and kicked the mug.
Part Two
Chapter 25
Family Get Together
As Wendy and Katy drifted into an uncomfortable sleep, Carol Fenton, Becky Fenton, Daniel Fenton and Todd Fenton sat in the living room of the Fenton’s family home. Sleep was far from their minds. It had been a tough day, as tough as it gets. Their estranged father had kidnapped the only girl Todd had ever loved, believing it to be the wife of his older brother, Daniel. They knew that the police had messed up big time. By making it public, they had put Wendy’s life in danger, Bill Fenton must never know he'd got the wrong girl. Now there was only one thing they could try. One thing they had never ever tried before.
‘We can't go looking for her. The cops outside will just follow us.’ said Daniel. He sat in the armchair, looking at his mother who was sitting between Todd and Becky on the sofa.
‘So me and Todd’s got an idea.’ Daniel added.
Daniel nervously played with his ear, Carol noticed his nervousness. From the time Daniel was old enough to realise it, (about the same time he tried to catch a plane home, because he knew his mother was going to have his brother) he knew he was different from other boys. He could feel things. Things that he wasn’t meant to feel, things that were impossible to feel. It was like his mind would go into a spasm, a sixth sense would take over his body and give him information. Daniel tried to hide it as much as he could. He certainly controlled it. As he grew older, he found out that if he thought hard enough, the recipient of those thoughts had a mind that Daniel could get into, a mind that was open to exploitation, he could get people to do things. It frightened him.
As he grew more mature, he stopped it. He now knew that if the authorities knew his power, they would exploit him and want to use it in their so-called research or development. So he controlled it, the longer he controlled it and laid it to rest, the harder it was to get it to resurface. Today Daniel was almost a normal regular guy. Almost.
His kid brother, however was different. He could find things, which, in everyday normal life was a good thing and Todd had used it many times to find lost keys, etc. When Daniel asked him how he did it, he had no real explanation, other than telling him that he had a feeling that he knew where the lost things could be found.
Todd was an enigma. He had an enormous range of gifts which people, if they knew, would describe as super powers. Astral projection was one of them, where he could put himself in two places at once. He had done it once when he was a kid. Both boys had been sleeping in the same room. They were about seven and twelve. Daniel woke up to see his brother floating above him in the bedroom. His brother also lay in bed soundly asleep. Daniel chatted to his floating brother, whilst he also lay asleep in his bed.
The next morning, they were terrified and swore never to tell a soul. Daniel made Todd promise that he would never do it again. People would treat him like a freak show.
Todd’s laid-back personality was not ideal for a man of his ability. He didn’t understand. Didn’t care to understand it and certainly didn’t understand what would happen if the consequences got out. When Todd was nine, a school report stated that Todd showed unusual behaviour in class, sometimes he frightened other pupils with his behaviour. This behaviour had been playing tricks, moving things. Some of Todd’s behaviour, gift, power, call it what you will, seemed to be generated by trauma and could occur at unpredictable times. That was what made Todd vulnerable. That was why Daniel was always close, to protect Todd from these occult practices, which society might label astral projection or paranormal behaviour. The Bible suggests it opens up the individual to demonic possession. Years ago he would have been burnt at the stake. Until now they had hidden this.
‘Just tell us.’ Carol said.
Daniel shifted in his chair ‘Well, you know how Todd used to find things.’ Carol nodded, Becky sort of knew, as Daniel had told her bits. Todd sat there, nervously.
‘Well,’ Daniel rolled his tongue around his mouth, licked his lips, shifting again in his chair. He didn’t like this, ‘Well’ he continued ‘He's going to try to find Wendy.’
Everyone’s eyes looked towards Todd. Todd sat forward.
‘When I was young I used to sit in my wardrobe. It was massive then.’ he said. ‘I
t used to sort of make contact with me.’ He licked his lips,
‘Make contact. How?’ Carol asked.
‘Not speak. It was just like there was a presence, it made me see things. Later on I found out I no longer needed the wardrobe. I think the wardrobe was my sanctuary. It was a place for me to hide. It made me feel safe.’ He shifted in his chair. He crossed his legs, then immediately uncrossed them.
‘Why can't you see her now, Todd?’ asked Carol.
Todd held his mother’s hand with both of his eyes, looking straight at her.
‘Whenever I've seen or felt anything, it’s not because I wanted to see it, or chose to see it. It just happened and I really only realised it had happened after the event has passed. Then it would scare me. It was like I was evil. As I grew up, I knew it wasn’t evil. It just happened. Daniel has it, but perhaps to a lesser extent’
They all looked at Daniel. He nodded. He wanted to tell them that he had controlled it. He was a stronger man. Todd was weak in that way. But he couldn’t tell them that. He daren’t.
Carol knew. My two boys, my wonderful boys, with that curse, or blessing, resting on their shoulders, she thought. At that moment she was as proud of them as she ever could be. She didn’t know that she would soon become even more proud.
‘I don't understand, sweetheart.’ said Carol.
Todd stood. Daniel stood beside him.
‘I need to go upstairs and try to summon whatever it is that I feel, to try to find Wendy.’
The Fenton Saga: Never Say Goodbye / There Was No Body. Page 12