‘But she’s not a child now. She’s twenty-six years old.’
‘She’s still our child. And she was immature for her age.’
‘Peter, that’s not true at all,’ his wife scolded, her distaste at his comment clear.
‘What are you talking about?’ he said. ‘She dropped out of university three times. She couldn’t hold any job for more than six months before getting bored or sacked or both.’
‘Because you were always so stable in work, right?’
‘I did just fine, thank you very much,’
‘But you never exactly had a strong work ethic. She’s more like you than you realise. Stubborn. Single-minded. Easily distracted because you’re always thinking about the next project.’
Peter said nothing to that. They stopped their bickering. Linda gave Dani an apologetic look.
‘What about friends?’ Easton asked. ‘Have you spoken to them? Is there anyone you think we should be speaking to?’
The Agnews both thought about that question for a while.
‘The thing is, we really didn’t know her group of friends that well,’ Linda said. ‘Not recently at least.’
‘Recently?’ Dani asked.
‘She’s been living over in Bournville for the last eighteen months or so. We really haven’t had much contact with her since then.’
‘It was her boyfriend. That’s why she moved over there. We only met him twice but we never liked him.’
‘But they split up anyway. About six months ago, I think. She moved into a bedsit with someone she didn’t even know.’
Peter Agnew shook his head in disbelief. About which part of the story Dani wasn’t quite sure.
‘Is there a reason you didn’t get along with him?’ Easton asked.
‘Because he was a lowlife piece of scum—’
‘Peter!’
‘Well he was! Thought he was the bees’ knees because he almost had a shot at a football career at one point, but he was just a loser. We were glad when she kicked him into touch. We thought maybe she was finally going to get herself straightened out. We begged her to come back home to live with us. She was distraught about the break-up. But typical, stubborn Grace, she was determined to do things her own way.’
Linda tutted and shot her husband an unimpressed look as though the stubbornness and their daughter’s poor decision-making was entirely his fault.
‘What’s his name?’ Dani asked. ‘The ex.’
‘Paul Reeve. We told the other detectives all about this too. They surely would have spoken to him by now.’
‘I’m sure they did. I’m just making sure we’re all aligned.’
Dani finished her coffee and indicated to Easton for him to do the same. They put their empty cups down on the oak worktop.
‘We won’t take any more of your time.’
‘I’ll see you out,’ Peter said, putting his own mug down.
‘It was nice to meet you, Mrs Agnew.’
She sniffed at that. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, DI Stephens, but you’re a homicide detective and I really hope we won’t ever meet again.’
Dani said nothing to that.
* * *
‘A penny for your thoughts?’ Dani asked Easton minutes later as they were driving back towards Birmingham.
Easton looked up from the papers he was holding and sighed as he thought about his answer.
‘Odd couple,’ was his only response.
‘I admit, they weren’t quite what I was expecting.’
‘Just goes to show, money really doesn’t buy happiness.’
‘Still, if they offered me fifty million I wouldn’t turn it down.’
‘True. What do you reckon about this Paul Reeve?’
‘That Missing Persons should speak to him, if they haven’t already. We only went to the Agnews to see if we could ID our Jane Doe. It’s not our job to find Grace.’
Easton huffed and shuffled through the papers he was holding for a few seconds.
‘Apparently mis-pers did contact Reeve. Looks like nothing came of it.’
Dani sighed, then the car fell silent. Dani’s brain whirred with thoughts, but she really didn’t have many answers. She looked at the clock on the dash. Nearly four p.m. The day was quickly catching up with her, she realised. She’d been due to take her pills more than an hour ago but had forgotten. It wasn’t like her to not keep to her regimen. She relied on the medication more than she would ever have wished, and first day back on the job she felt she needed them more than ever.
With the thought planted in her mind, Dani felt a stinging pain in the front of her head. As she drove on, her vision intermittently blurred to white. Then her hands began to shake on the wheel. She squinted, pushing the growing feeling of nausea away, trying to refocus on the road ahead.
‘Dani? Are you ok?’
‘Yeah, fine,’ she said, his voice bringing her back around, out of the fog.
What the hell was that?
‘So what do you reckon?’ he asked.
Dani’s mind finally cleared. She took a gulp of air. ‘That I’ve no idea what’s happened to Grace Agnew, but it’s really not our concern right now. We’ve got three other missing persons that could be our Jane Doe. We need to check them all out. We have to find out who she is. Otherwise we may never find out what happened to her.’
Chapter Ten
Thoughts of the last few months cascaded through Dani’s mind as she splashed her face with cold water, hoping it would do the trick of reinvigorating her. She’d just downed the pills she should have taken nearly two hours ago, and taken some extra painkillers to try and quell the growing throbbing in her head. It was nearly five p.m. She could call it quits for the day. No one would mind, would they?
But then she wouldn’t be doing herself justice. She still had a job to do. She hadn’t gone through nearly twenty-four months of rehabilitation for nothing. She’d gone through it to prove she could still be her. Could still be DI Stephens.
‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,’ she told herself out loud, before heading for the exit.
Dani stepped outside the toilet and spotted Easton casually leaning against the corridor wall, waiting for her.
‘You sure you’re ok?’ Easton asked.
‘Piss off, Easton,’ Dani said, storming past him. She was angry, even if she knew it was only because she was afraid he’d spotted her vulnerability.
He set off by her side, not in the least perturbed by her response.
‘We’ve known each other for less than a day,’ Dani said. ‘I don’t need you checking up on me. If there’s a problem, I’ll damn well tell you.’
‘Yeah, I get that sense from you. You don’t exactly hold back, do you?’
Dani ignored that comment. She knew that her irritability was just one of many side effects of that damn TBI, but she didn’t feel like trying to justify it each and every time she snapped at someone unnecessarily. She carried on walking quickly along the corridor and through the Homicide team’s office. The floor was already emptying for the day, but Fletcher was there, standing just outside McNair’s office. The DCI was next to her, pouring water from the cooler into a little plastic cup.
‘Stephens,’ McNair said looking up. ‘Where the hell have you been?’
‘Ma’am?’
‘I told you earlier. We’re having a press conference. We needed you to help prep.’
‘You didn’t tell me what time,’ Dani said.
‘I didn’t?’
Dani looked to Fletcher who was unable to meet her eye. Dani remembered the call she’d taken earlier in the day in Harborne. Not for the first time she wondered if Fletcher was deliberately holding back on her. But why even bother? It wasn’t as though Dani was much competition to her at the moment.
‘Well, too late now,’ McNair said. ‘We had to work around you. Come on, Fletcher.’
Fletcher just shrugged and set off alongside McNair. Dani scuttled behind.
‘Where exactl
y have you been all day anyway?’ McNair quizzed, sounding less than impressed, though Dani had no idea why.
‘We were with forensics at the murder scene,’ Easton said. ‘Then at the house of Mrs Staunton across the road. We think the killer may have snuck in there.’
‘Then I went to Missing Persons with Fletcher,’ Dani said.
‘Then to the house of Peter and Linda Agnew to see if we could ID our victim,’ Easton added.
McNair looked around, an eyebrow raised. Was that an impressed look? The activity list certainly sounded like a lot to cover in one day.
‘And?’ McNair said.
‘And everything’s in the balance at the moment,’ Dani said. ‘We weren’t able to ID our Jane Doe. Yet. But we do have some other possibilities to check out.’
‘Then we go ahead with the press conference as planned,’ McNair said.
‘So how are we playing this?’ Fletcher asked.
‘You and me, just like we planned,’ McNair responded. ‘Stephens, Easton, you can sit this one out.’
‘Ma’am, don’t you think I should be up there too?’ Dani protested. ‘I’m SIO. And for continuity? Fletcher won’t be around much longer.’
At Dani’s words Fletcher frowned and began gently stroking her bump, as though what Dani had said was somehow offensive to her unborn child.
‘Good point,’ McNair said. ‘But…’
McNair looked Dani up and down, clearly disapproving of something.
‘But you’re too recognisable right now, Stephens. Because of… you know. I don’t want the press’s attention to focus on you and your brother rather than this case.’
‘That’s bloody ridiculous!’ Dani said, and the glare McNair gave in return showed Dani had just earned herself another black mark. But how was she supposed to act? And how was she ever supposed to get back to just being a normal detective if everyone was always going to treat her with kid gloves now?
‘If it’s continuity you want we could always have Easton up there too,’ McNair offered.
Dani was even less happy about the prospect of giving her podium position away to a DS.
‘Ma’am, I agree with Stephens,’ Fletcher said to Dani’s surprise.
Dani welcomed the intervention, though she realised it only made Fletcher seem even more righteous and in control.
McNair looked at Fletcher and sighed. ‘Very well. Stephens, me and Fletcher. Easton, you’re sitting this one out. But, Stephens, you’re there to take questions on this case only. If anyone talks about… you know—’
‘Understood,’ Dani said, still angry, but accepting she’d got the outcome she wanted.
Though as it turned out, Dani wasn’t so sure about that. Yes, she wanted to be up there in front of the cameras, as the Senior Investigating Officer, because she wanted so badly to get her life, and her career, back on track. But when McNair opened the doors a moment later, and Dani saw the gaggle of reporters and photographers, and the cameras started flashing incessantly, almost blindingly, Dani immediately felt nauseous again.
For the first ten minutes the press sent an inevitable barrage of questions Dani’s way, largely related to her fuck-up of a brother, and Dani was soon feeling as dazed as she was depressed. McNair, increasingly angry with the reporters, successfully shot down each and every attempt to steer the conversation down that path, and finally questions were being fired relating to the dead body found that morning.
‘Have you identified this young woman?’ came a clarifying question from a reporter from the Birmingham Mail.
‘No,’ McNair said. ‘I think we’ve made that clear already, which is one of the reasons for holding this press conference. The sooner we can identify her, the sooner we’ll be able to properly target the investigation and catch her killer.’
A lengthy back and forth began as to the nature of the killing and whether the police believed it was random or targeted, whether it was a crime of passion or a planned attack, whether it was gang-related or not. Anything that came Dani’s way she answered as blandly and as safely as she could, though all the talk of killers and victims started to trigger thoughts of her own dark past, and her mind began to fog over.
‘DI Stephens, this is your first case since returning to the force following the successful murder conviction of your brother?’ came a question from a smartly dressed male reporter Dani didn’t recognise.
‘Correct,’ Dani said.
‘Please, I thought we were done with all that,’ McNair interjected, sounding as pissed off as she looked.
‘Sorry, but this is related,’ the reporter said. ‘DI Stephens, have you been put onto this case because it shows similarities to the types of case you worked in the past?’
‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ Dani said.
‘I’m talking about serial killers. Do you believe this could be someone who has killed before?’
‘Yes,’ Dani said. ‘Based on some of the circumstances, I’d say that’s very possible.’
There was an immediate hubbub in the room as a myriad of hands were thrown into the air. Dani realised her mistake almost as soon as the ill-thought-out words had passed her lips, but by then it was already too late.
She looked over at McNair. All that was missing from the raging look on her face was steam coming from her ears and nostrils.
Dani sank even lower in her chair. For months she’d wanted to break free from her isolation, get out of her apartment and back to her job and her old life. But in that moment, she simply wished she was cooped up once more. Despite her earlier protestations, perhaps she simply wasn’t ready for this level of pressure.
Maybe she never would be again.
Chapter Eleven
‘What the hell were you thinking?’ McNair blasted as she stormed after Dani.
Dani said nothing, just carried on away from the conference room, back through the corridors towards Homicide’s office. She knew Fletcher and Easton were also in tow. Well, they wouldn’t want to miss out on this slanging match, would they?
‘Stephens. I’m talking to you! What was that all about?’
‘What was what about?’ Dani said, coming to a stop and turning around.
McNair stopped too. Her face was creased in anger. Fletcher and Easton were a couple of steps behind, pensive looks on both their faces.
‘You spouting crap about serial killers! I told you to only take questions on this case. Our Jane Doe. That was it.’
Dani returned her boss’s glare. ‘Which is exactly what I did.’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous. You basically confirmed to the press that we’re looking for a multiple murderer!’
‘That’s not what I said! I think you’ll find the question was, do you believe this could be someone who has killed before?’
‘And you bloody well said yes without even thinking!’
‘Because that’s what I think.’
‘But that doesn’t mean you have to tell the bloody press!’
‘Why not?’
‘Seriously? I was really hoping for a different answer from you. Something like, your brain injury means you’ve got no filter now. That despite your media training and all of your other case management training you now spout crap without thinking it through and there’s nothing much we can do about it.’
Which kind of was the truth, though Dani wouldn’t give McNair the satisfaction of agreeing.
‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ Dani said.
McNair was now incredulous. ‘Can you imagine the backlash we’re going to see tomorrow? You’ve taken a simple local murder case and turned it into a national media frenzy!’
‘I said what I thought.’
‘Based on what evidence exactly?’
‘How about that our victim had most likely been kidnapped and then imprisoned somewhere before she escaped and was murdered? We don’t know when she was taken or how, where she was kept even. In my mind, someone who undertakes such pre-planned and meticulous and frankly dire behaviour is likel
y to have committed previous offences. How—’
‘You’re putting two and two together, even with those assumptions.’
‘We also have several other young women who’ve gone missing in West Midlands recently who fit a similar profile to our Jane Doe, who may or may not be dead already.’
McNair’s look soured further. ‘What are you—’
‘And how about the intruder at Mrs Staunton’s house? Not satisfied with killing Jane Doe, the perp heads across the road, seamlessly breaks into a house, drugs the occupant and then stands watch over our crime scene investigation before vanishing into the ether. Again, that suggests to me a repeat and calculated offender.’
‘Suggests being the correct word, Stephens. That’s not evidence; it’s wild fantasy. You have no evidence those other women are dead, and certainly not at the hands of the same person. You have no evidence that the intruder at that house, and the killer of Jane Doe are the same person, or that they’re even in anyway linked.’
‘But it’s possible! And quite frankly them being the same person is more likely than it being a coincidence.’
‘In your opinion.’
‘Yes, in my bloody opinion. I am a detective. I do get to have one.’
‘Dani,’ Easton said, tentatively coming over to her and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. ‘Perhaps we should head off for the night. It’s been a long day.’
Dani opened her mouth, ready to tear into him, but managed to hold herself back. Just.
‘I think that’s a very good idea,’ McNair said, sounding calmer herself, though her eyes remained pinched with distaste. ‘Get some rest, Stephens. We’ll talk about this in the morning.’
Dani said nothing else, just turned and walked off.
* * *
As she headed up the stairs of her apartment block, Dani’s head was still pounding despite the earlier medical intervention. Until the press conference her first day back on the job had gone by without serious incident, but now she was jaded and mentally shattered and wondered if the damage done with McNair was at all repairable.
She was also angry. Had Fletcher asked for Dani to be at the press conference just so she could be made a fool of? Dani had never seen Fletcher as the conniving type but perhaps she now felt her position was under threat with the prospect of several months away from the force, in the same way that Dani was feeling threatened coming back after so long on the sidelines.
The Essence of Evil Page 7