by M A Comley
Everyone agreed.
Lorne kissed Carol on the cheek. “How are you feeling now?”
“I’ll be fine. You know how it is with me. Once the information has flowed from my lips, I feel a thousand times better, until the next episode.”
“Listen, why don’t you go home? Try and catch up on your sleep. I’m sure Charlie can cope around here today. Can’t you, love?”
“Of course I can. You’ll help if I need you, won’t you, Tony?”
Tony nodded and filled the kettle. “This morning, I can. I need to get back to my surveillance duties this afternoon.”
“Then that’s sorted. You go home and rest. Perhaps the spirit will try to contact you again if you’re at home in a relaxed environment.” Lorne smiled at Carol.
“All right. You’ve beaten me into submission. Let me have a nice cup of coffee first, and then Onyx and I will toddle off home. How are things going with the case you’re working on? No names, remember?”
Lorne sniggered. “Frustrating the hell out of us right now. We could certainly use your help. We’re at a kind of crossroads until more information falls into our laps.”
“Yeah, ain’t that the truth? Same here, Tony. We’ll have a drink then get off, if you don’t mind.” Katy issued a toothy grin in his direction.
“Back to tea and coffee boy, am I?”
Lorne left the table, hooked her arms around his waist, and rested her head on his back. “You know you’re appreciated.”
“When it suits,” he grumbled good-naturedly.
Carol, Lorne, and Katy all left the premises at the same time, but in two separate cars.
“Well, that was the oddest thirty minutes I’ve spent in your family’s company for a while,” Katy stated as she pulled into the flow of traffic on the road that led back to the station.
“I just wish we could have informed Carol of the victim’s name. Maybe it would have prompted her—or the spirit, if it was there listening in on our conversation—to offer up some vital information to help us crack the case.”
Katy tutted. “I don’t know, Lorne. Let’s tamper down our excitement over this revelation for the time being, eh? I’d rather do that than end up with some of that yellow-coloured stuff that comes out of a chicken’s bum on my face, especially as this case is already under a vast amount of scrutiny from our superiors. Before you object—I believe Carol. I truly do. We just need to be cautious with this one. Agreed?”
“Yep, I suppose you’re right. One question for you, though.”
“Go for it,” Katy said, glancing sideways at her.
“Do eggs really come out of a chicken’s backside?”
They both roared with laughter at her bizarre observation.
At the station, Katy buried herself in paperwork in her office for the next few hours while Lorne organised the team. In spite of her unexpected visit back home and the hour they had wasted, the morning proved to be very productive.
Karen and AJ continued to search through the CCTV discs, on the lookout for guys entering the club alone. As midday approached, AJ called Lorne over.
“What have you found, AJ?” She perched her rear on the nearest desk and leaned forward to view his computer screen, which showed four individual frames.
“We came up with four possible suspects. The rest of the clientele arrived in groups, so we discounted them immediately.” Each frame showed a man entering the club.
“It’s a start. We might need to revisit that later if the suspects prove to be a waste of time. However, the security guys didn’t let on that the men who jumped on the stage that night were in a group.” Lorne pointed at the frame in the top-right corner. “That’s Simms, the guy I chased in the car park. Karen, did you find out anything when you brought up his details earlier?”
“Yep, I’ll get the results.” Karen wheeled her chair across the floor to her own desk to retrieve the information while Lorne and AJ continued with the search.
“Okay. Can we look at each individual and how they react when they enter the club? I’m looking for one of the men to show some form of agitation. The security bod thought he might be a little simple.”
“I don’t need to look back.” AJ pointed at one of the men on the bottom row. “He looked mighty shifty when he walked into the place. He seemed pretty friendly with the bouncer though, which puzzled me.”
“In what way?”
“His reactions were just odd. If he was known to the bouncer, then why would he exude some discomfort?”
“Then that’s the Gary the security guard inside was talking about.” Lorne pulled out the notebook from her jacket pocket. “He even gave me a possible address for this Gary. Unfortunately, he couldn’t supply a surname for him.”
“Well, he should be easy enough to track down. Do you want me to print off a picture?”
“Sure. Print off all four. At last, we seem to be getting somewhere.”
Katy joined them, and Lorne relayed what they had managed to find out in her absence.
“Great, if we can pull some names and addresses, we could get out there and interview these people, at least a few of them this afternoon, Lorne.”
The phone on Karen’s desk rang. She answered it then waved an excited arm to get their attention before she hung up. “That was the BBC. They’ve had to pull one of the stories they were running and wanted to let us know that the reconstruction is going to be filmed this afternoon and be shown on tomorrow’s Crimewatch.”
Katy clapped her hands together. “Wow, great timing. Karen, can you oversee the reconstruction for me?”
“I’d love to. Here’s some more good news for you, boss.” Karen withdrew the sheet of paper from her printer tray and gave it to Katy. “Colin Simms. He’s a mechanic. Owns a garage not far from the club, just around the corner, in fact.”
“Interesting. Good job, Karen. Let’s hope we get a matching positive result from the reconstruction. Do your best for me.”
“Leave it with me, boss.”
“Want to set off now or after lunch?” Lorne asked, standing alongside Katy.
“Let’s go now. Strike before anyone gets the notion we’re on to them.”
Lorne snorted. “I have a feeling that Simms already has that impression, don’t you?”
“Smartarse! What else have we got?”
AJ glanced up. “We just need to try and find a name for these two now.” He waved a hand at the computer screen.
“Has everyone on the team seen the pics, AJ?”
He shook his head. “Steve and Graham, come over here and take a gander at these two.”
Lorne and Katy stepped back, allowing the two men access to the screen.
Stephen bent down to take a closer look while AJ zoomed in on the two unnamed suspects. “No idea.”
Graham clicked his fingers then pointed to the man wearing a bomber jacket. “Now that one I do recognise.” He scratched the top of his head and squeezed his eyes shut as he wracked his brain. “Can you give me half an hour? Something at the back of my mind is leaning towards a convicted sex offender, maybe a minor charge, but still an offender, all the same.”
“Shoo… do what you have to do to come up with the name, Graham,” Katy ordered him back to his desk to start his search.
“Sounds promising,” Lorne said, nudging Katy’s elbow.
“Let’s delay our little excursion until Graham gets back to us. We might as well visit all the men this afternoon. If we get the chance, are you up for that?”
“Yep, suits me.”
“Eureka!” Graham shouted. “Chris Dilbert. I had the initials CD going through my head, just couldn’t remember his name. I seem to recall a case where he assaulted two schoolgirls in a park close to my home about eighteen months ago. He was banged up for the offence but released earlier this year. Here’s his address, boss.”
“Smashing. Great teamwork, guys. Let’s hope all this information leads us to Noelle’s probable killer,” Katy called out triumphantly.
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“Killer?”
Lorne spun around to find Diana Chesterfield standing in the doorway with the station’s desk sergeant. Shit! I’m glad I’m not filling Katy’s shoes right now.
Katy walked towards the woman and placed a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Chesterfield. I didn’t see you there.” She turned to the desk sergeant and issued a tight-lipped smile, letting him know how ticked off she was at the unannounced visit.
“You said killer. Is Noelle dead, Inspector?”
“Let’s take this into my office. I’ll bring you up to date on the case. Thank you, Sergeant. You can get back to your post now.”
The sergeant’s shoulders slumped, and he turned to leave the incident room.
Katy asked Mrs. Chesterfield to follow her and tapped Lorne on the shoulder as she passed. “Will you join us, too, Sergeant Warner?”
“Of course. Would you like a drink, Mrs. Chesterfield?”
“No, thank you. All I need is information,” she replied abruptly.
Once they were all seated, Katy intertwined her fingers and placed her hands on the desk. “We’ve obtained most of our pertinent information just this morning, over the past few hours. The sergeant and I haven’t had the chance to even interview any of the people we suspect have a possible connection to your daughter’s case. I have not deliberately kept you out of the loop, I assure you.”
“Really, Inspector? Then what’s all this nonsense about a killer? Have you found my… baby’s body?”
“No, we haven’t.”
Mrs. Chesterfield let out a heavy sigh. “Then pray tell me what you are referring to? I think I have a right to know, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course you do. Right now, we’ve uncovered leads, not concrete evidence. For all we know, what we’ve learnt could be totally false or have nothing to do with Noelle or her disappearance. You wouldn’t forgive me, us, for giving you misinformation.”
“I suppose so. Can I ask what type of leads you do have?”
“At the moment, all we’re aware of is that there were a couple of problems Noelle had during her last stint at the club.”
“Problems? What kind of problems would lead you to suspect Noelle is… no longer with us?”
“Three men, umm… disrupted your daughter’s dance that evening. Of course, those men will be where our investigation begins. Please, I’m begging you to bear with us for a little while longer. I know you feel the Met has let you down in the past, rightly so, but my partner and I are doing everything we can to right the wrongs that have gone before us.”
“So, why are you hanging around here and not out there tracking down these suspects?”
“You have every right to ask that question. I must reiterate that this information has only just come our way—in fact, we’re still collating it. Once we have everything to hand, then we will be out there, searching for the suspects and pulling them in for questioning.”
“Very well. Have you found my daughter’s car yet?” Mrs. Chesterfield asked, nodding her head in satisfaction at Katy’s explanation.
“Not yet. There is something I was going to call you about.”
“And what’s that, Inspector?” The woman sat forward in her seat.
“That the BBC programme Crimewatch will be running a reconstruction in their show planned to air this week.”
“Marvellous news. Why wasn’t that carried out when Noelle first went missing?” She waved a dismissive hand. “No need to answer that. Those idiots couldn’t organise their own grandmothers’ funerals,” she stated with a curled lip.
“We’ll keep you up to date with what comes our way from the show. Maybe it would be better if you didn’t watch the show.”
“I’ll take your advice on board.”
“Is there anything else we can help you with?”
“No. Forgive my abruptness, won’t you, Inspector. It’s the being left in the dark that is hard to take, knowing that somewhere, someone knows what happened to my daughter. How can people live with themselves? It really is beyond me. And if ever I lay eyes on the two morons who supposedly investigated the case the first time around… well, I just hope you’re there to witness it, because you’ll need to restrain me from taking my frustrations out on their heads with a cricket bat.”
“Let’s hope you never meet them in that case. I’d hate for you to get into trouble over those two officers. My partner and I will bring your daughter’s case to a conclusion, whether it has a happy ending or not.”
Mrs. Chesterfield stood and extended her hand across the table.
Katy rose from her chair and clasped the woman’s hand in both of hers. “Give us a little more time.”
“I will. But, in return, please don’t hide any details from me. I know the odds are stacked against us for finding Noelle alive. However, I need to be able to cling on to the faintest hope that she’s out there, praying that we’ll find her.”
“I understand. You have my guarantee that I’ll keep you informed of our progress, Mrs. Chesterfield. I’ll ring you on Friday with an update, how’s that?”
“You’re very kind, Inspector.”
Katy led the woman to the station’s exit.
In the incident room, Lorne slumped into her chair and placed her head in her hands. “Crap, that could have been far worse. Katy handled her remarkably well. That poor woman must be sitting at home, climbing the walls for news, and to come here and hear us acknowledge that she could have been killed must have been a real shock to her system.”
“Poor woman.” Karen shook her head. “I dread to think how I’d react under the same circumstances. Sod Travers and Campbell for trashing innocent peoples’ lives like this.”
“The thing is, Karen, as a team, we’ve accomplished far more in one morning than those dickheads managed in two months. What utter jerks they were—are. Let’s hope they get banged up and someone misplaces the key for bloody years to come. And don’t forget, this is only one case they’ve royally fucked up! There are dozens more people out there in the same position as Mrs. Chesterfield.”
Katy entered the incident room again near the end of Lorne’s speech. “Well, I’ve just assured Mrs. Chesterfield that we will conclude this case by the end of next week. I know I shouldn’t have said it, but, by Christ, I’m going to go the extra mile to ensure that frigging happens. Who’s with me?”
The team roared and raised their hands. “Too right!” AJ shouted, speaking for the rest of the team.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I think we should split up,” Lorne said as Katy stopped the vehicle on the edge of the industrial estate.
“I’ll go in the front while you take up a position around the back, in case Simms tries to do a runner again,” Katy said.
“I’ll hop out here.” Lorne jumped out of the car and walked casually around the rear of the three buildings leading up to the car mechanic’s workshop owned by Colin Simms. She pressed herself against the metal façade of the building next to the back door and waited.
She heard shouting in the distance, followed by a loud crash, which sounded like tools hitting a solid floor. Katy ordered the man to stop.
Lorne inhaled a large breath, her hands clenched anxiously at her sides. Suddenly, the door flew open. Simms looked as shocked to see her as she was to see him. “Stop right there, Simms,” she ordered.
“Fuck off!” he growled and took a swipe at her with a huge monkey wrench.
Lorne ducked, avoiding the heavy tool before it made contact with her face. The man sprinted, his speed increasing with every long stride of his athletic legs. A little dazed, Lorne took off in pursuit.
“Shit, Lorne, why didn’t you stop him?” Katy chastised as she flew out of the door and bolted after him.
“I tried,” Lorne shouted.
“It doesn’t matter now. We have to get him before he manages to get away—again.”
Two workmen walked out of one of the other buildings and cast confused glances their way.
“Police! Stop that man,” Katy shouted.
The two men stood in Simms’s path and tried to wrestle with him, but he easily pushed the men aside.
“Shit!” Katy hissed.
A sinking feeling settled in Lorne’s stomach as the absconder jumped into his car and screeched out of the car park.
Katy bent over and placed her hands on her knees. Lorne jogged up beside her and placed a hand on her back. In between breaths, she tried to apologise. “Sorry, Katy. He caught me off-guard, tried to clobber me with that wrench.”
“Not to worry. If those two guys couldn’t stop him, I doubt we would’ve been able to prevent his getaway. I’ll get in touch with the station, ask them to keep an eye out for his car. He can’t hide forever.”
“That’s true. Was there any other members of staff inside the workshop?” Lorne asked, still gasping for breath during her sentence.
“No. So he would need to return here today to secure the place—is that what you’re thinking?”
“Yep, there’s an awful lot of valuable kit lying around in a mechanic’s garage. My ex, Tom, used to be one, so I should know. Why don’t we get a surveillance team out here to wait for him to return?”
“I’ll ring the station and get that organised. I suppose he might ask a friend to drop by to secure the place for him.”
“Well, if he does that, we can pull the guy in for aiding and abetting. He’s sure to let slip where Simms is hiding out rather than take the flack himself.”
Katy turned her back and placed the call to put the plan into action. Meanwhile, Lorne took down the two men’s names and addresses and asked if they would be willing to give a statement about what had taken place. Then they walked back to the car and drove to the next interviewee’s house on their list.
Medway Estate was comprised of what looked to be council starter homes erected about thirty to forty years ago. Some of the properties were in better repair than others.
“There’s a car parked in this driveway. Let’s knock on the door and show them Gary’s picture,” Katy said, leaving the vehicle. They walked up the cracked concrete path beside the car, and Katy rang the bell.