‘Get out of my head,’ Dani said through gritted teeth, glaring at herself in the mirror.
She reached up and pulled her hair back, then wound the hairband around to make a tight bun. She’d had her mousy brown hair dyed lighter two days ago, and had felt pleasantly energised about the new look. She had also bought a new suit and new shoes for her big first day back at work. New look, new Dani. That was the theory. That had all been blown to crap the day before with the rude awakening from McNair. Now the clothes and the look all seemed silly and pointless. Like she was pretending. A fraud. And who really gave a shit anyway?
She spent a couple of minutes putting on some light make-up then sighed and turned away from the mirror. She grabbed her suit jacket from the bed then moved out into the hallway and slipped on her battered old work shoes. The new ones she’d worn yesterday had cost her over a hundred pounds but had left her with painful blisters on both ankles. She really didn’t need that aggro on top of everything else.
She was on her way to the front door when her phone began buzzing on the hall table. Dani grabbed it. Looking at the screen, she frowned.
Gemma?
* * *
An hour later Dani sat on a park bench as her niece and nephew raced about in the play area at Sutton Park. Chloe was five. Harry ten. It was half term and Gemma had been let down by her childminder and couldn’t get out of the morning meetings she had planned in the office. Dani was surprised Gemma had thought of her. She was sure she wouldn’t be first on the emergency list, even though she was technically family.
McNair had been accommodating enough about the situation, and Dani had promised to make the hours up. Perhaps she’d already had enough of Dani following the press conference. Dani wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but having slept on it, she was now feeling more than embarrassed about what she’d said – not just to the press, but to McNair afterward. All she’d wanted was to get back to the job she loved. Already her boss and colleagues probably thought she was a crazed idiot.
‘Good job,’ she muttered to herself.
She’d left Easton following up as best he could with the families of the other missing persons cases. If all went to plan she’d be back at work by lunch. Not that she was itching to get back there, only to make a fool of herself again. Plus, the unexpected time with her niece and nephew was a refreshing change. She only wished she made the effort to see them more often. She’d barely seen them for months after her injury. Hadn’t really wanted to, in honesty. Like many things in her life, she’d not been able to find pleasure in their company anymore, instead feeling like they were just unnecessary hassle. She cringed inwardly at the thought. She knew it was wrong to have felt that way, to still feel that way at times, yet that was simply the way her brain was wired now.
Chloe came whizzing up to Dani on her scooter.
‘You look funny today.’
‘Funny?’
Chloe pursed her lips and cocked her head, looking pensive.
‘Your hair’s different. And your clothes.’
By which Dani assumed Chloe meant she was more used to seeing her aunt dressed in jogging bottoms and hoodies. Comfort wear.
‘I was supposed to be at work this morning,’ Dani said. ‘You remember what I do?’
‘Yeah. You catch the bad guys.’
Dani smiled. ‘I certainly try my best.’
‘Did you know we have the same surname?’
‘I know. Perhaps one day you could be Detective Stephens too.’
‘No. I’m going to be an astronaut.’
‘Wow. Can I come to space with you?’
‘No. You have to be really strong. You’re too fragile now. Mummy said so. You might break.’
Dani laughed even though she wondered about how that conversation between mum and daughter had gone, and what Gemma’s intention had been.
‘Where’s uncle Jason?’ Chloe asked.
‘He’s at work.’
‘Mummy said he’s not your boyfriend anymore.’
Dani sighed. ‘No. He’s not.’
‘I like him.’
‘Yeah,’ Dani said.
‘He’s big and strong. Maybe he could come to space with me.’
‘Maybe you should ask him.’
Chloe looked away coyly. A second later she was whizzing off again. Feeling more at ease than she had in ages, Dani watched them both intently for a few minutes. In many ways she wished she lived in such a world of innocence like they did.
Harry bounded over, his cheeks reddened from his non-stop activity.
‘I’m starving,’ he said. No pleasantries like his talkative sister, just straight to the point. An undoubted Stephens characteristic. ‘What have you got to eat?’
* * *
It was barely eleven a.m. but Dani didn’t care. They sat down in McDonald’s and Harry pulled out his Big Mac as Chloe dove straight into her Happy Meal box for the toy.
‘Yes!’ she said. ‘I really wanted this one.’
‘Must be your lucky day,’ Dani said, taking her burger out of its box.
The three of them tucked into their food in silence for a couple of minutes.
‘Have you been to see Dad?’ Harry asked with a mouthful of fries. The question, coming out of the blue, knocked Dani. She wondered how much the kids knew about what had happened. She’d certainly never had a conversation with them about it. Nor had she spoken to Gemma much about it. In fact, she’d talked to pretty much no one about it. She certainly wasn’t going to be the one to explain to Harry that his father had killed his biological mother all those years ago in a fit of rage, covered up the crime, then years later when his life of lies and deceit was steadily unravelling, decided to go on a killing spree which included trying to kill his twin sister and Gemma – his new wife, mother to Chloe. Even Dani couldn’t make sense of that, never mind a ten-year-old and a five-year-old.
‘No. I’ve not seen him at all,’ Dani said. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘I really want to see him. But Mum says no.’
‘Why do you want to see him?’
Harry looked down at his food, his sorrow clear. ‘Because he’s my dad. I miss him.’
Dani looked from Harry to Chloe. She seemed oblivious to the conversation. She’d only been three at the time, perhaps she couldn’t even remember Ben properly. But Harry had been eight. Not only would he remember Ben but he probably knew most, if not all, of what had happened from one source or another.
‘Prison isn’t a nice place for kids,’ Dani said, realising she was treading on thin ice. This was really the last subject she wanted to be thinking about, and she didn’t want to put her foot in it and say something she shouldn’t to a ten-year-old.
‘That’s what Mum says too. But it’s not fair. I know what he did, but…’
‘But?’
‘He was a good dad. I wish he was still here.’
Dani really didn’t know what to say to that.
‘Do you think he’s a really bad person?’ Harry asked.
‘I think there’s good in him,’ Dani said, her own words shocking her.
Did she really mean that? Or had she only said it in order to ease the suffering of a child?
‘But you’re his twin,’ Harry said. ‘Aren’t you both the same? It’s not fair that he’s stuck in there and you’re out here.’
Dani was by now feeling a build-up of mixed emotions; regret, sadness, but also anger. What did set her and Ben apart? She’d asked herself that same question countless times during her recovery. She’d never got to a satisfactory answer. Was it just bad luck, bad judgment that had led to his fate? Or if there really was something wrong with him, something in the way his brain was wired that had turned him into a violent criminal, then was Dani not affected by that too? How long before she snapped like he had?
‘I just feel sorry for him,’ Harry said. ‘He must be so lonely in there. He can’t do anything. Ever again.’
‘I can go and see him. For you. If you want me to
.’
Once again the words passed Dani’s lips without any real forethought and she immediately regretted them, even though she’d contemplated plenty of times whether seeing Ben could be a good thing for her. Wouldn’t it help her recovery if she were to face him head on? Ask him all of the questions she had to know the answers to, in order to understand what he’d done and why?
‘I think he’d like that,’ Harry said, smiling.
Dani sighed and looked away. What had she just done?
Moments later her phone was ringing. It was Easton.
‘I need to take this. I’ll be back in a sec.’
Dani got up and headed towards a quiet corner in the restaurant.
‘Yeah.’
‘We’ve had a breakthrough. A call to the hotline about the press con.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yeah. A friend who thinks she knows the vic. She’s coming to the station in an hour.’
Dani looked at her watch. Gemma was due to take the kids back in forty minutes.
‘I’ll be there.’
Chapter Fourteen
It turned out Dani had plenty of time. Having already pushed thoughts of her murderous brother to the back of her mind, she dropped the kids off with Gemma five minutes early and hotfooted it back to Birmingham with ten minutes to spare, only for Rebecca Hargreaves to be nearly forty-five minutes late. That wasn’t too big a problem. While they waited, Dani and Easton sat in an interview room and swapped notes on what they knew so far. Which was little. The post-mortem of Jane Doe was yet to be completed. There were no results from forensics. Easton had managed to speak to only one of the families of the other missing women that Dani had pinpointed, but had again drawn a blank in identifying their murder victim. Which meant a lot of the waiting time was spent with Easton talking about football and his alternative fantasy life as a football agent. He was certainly enthusiastic, if a little naive, and at least there was no talk about the press conference the previous day, or any of Dani’s other problems, for that matter.
When Rebecca Hargreaves finally arrived, she wasn’t alone, bringing a friend – Laura Finlay – for support. While Dani would object to such a companion in a more formal interview, she wanted Rebecca to be open and at ease so didn’t question it. Dani knew that the DCs on her team were more than capable of carrying out an interview like this one, but she was still feeling rusty and thought it would be good to immerse herself in the nitty-gritty of the investigation, until she felt properly acclimatized to her job once again. If that point ever came.
Easton brought the two young ladies to the room. Rebecca was pale, her skin almost translucent. The only colour anywhere on her face were her bloodshot eyes, and the dark eye make-up surrounding them. It was clear she’d been crying. Dani, in a strange way, felt optimistic, seeing Rebecca so distraught. It suggested that perhaps this was a fruitful lead after all.
‘Rebecca, thank you for coming to see us,’ Dani said, getting to her feet. ‘I’m DI Stephens, please take a seat.’
Rebecca looked around the room nervously as Easton came and sat down next to Dani. The two young women took their seats somewhat awkwardly. Easton had briefed Dani on the small amount of information he had found about Rebecca on her Facebook profile, so she knew she was twenty-one and a waitress in a bar. She looked younger than twenty-one, though, maybe only sixteen or seventeen, with a painfully thin frame and long spindly arms and legs. Her eye make-up was so dark it was like looking into two black holes. Her straight hair was a clash of black and pink and blue. Dani thought the look would be described as ‘emo’ although she wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly.
Her friend sported a similar look. Both girls’ eyes had thick bags underneath them and they were twitchy, not really focusing on anything. Together with their swollen nostrils and overall washed-out appearance, Dani felt she knew what it all added up to. There were no needle marks on these girls’ arms, so Dani doubted they were heroin addicts, but they probably took all manner of other substances, legal and illegal: alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, coke, meth, ecstasy.
Dani noticed Rebecca’s eyes fix on the one-way mirror.
‘There’s no one behind there,’ Dani assured her.
‘Are you recording this?’ Rebecca asked.
‘No. This isn’t a formal interview, Rebecca. Not yet.’
‘Not yet?’
‘We’re at an early stage of the investigation. We’ll take notes of what’s said here, of course, but there’s no need to take a full recording. You have nothing to worry about in speaking to us today, we’re not here to trick you. We just want to find out what you know. We can take a formal statement at a later time if we think it necessary.’
‘I just can’t believe she’s gone,’ Rebecca blubbered and started sniffing and spluttering into her tissue.
Laura reached out to rest her hand on Rebecca’s arm and her friend grew in strength slightly. Dani pushed a composite picture of Jane Doe across the table. It was too soon to show these two anything more graphic. And anyway, it was the composite that had been used for the press conference the previous day, together with a grainy CCTV image they’d found, and managed to blow up, of the young dead woman running scared through the streets.
‘Who do you think it is, Rebecca?’
‘Natalya. It’s Natalya. I know it’s her.’
‘What’s her full name?’
‘I don’t… know.’
Dani and Easton shared a questioning look.
‘Then how did you know her?’
Rebecca looked at Laura as though searching for reassurance as to what to say. Laura just nodded.
‘We were friends. We hung out with the same group of people.’
‘But you don’t know her full name?’
‘No, I already said that.’ Her tone was now defensive.
‘Do you know where she lived?’
‘I can give you the address. She lived alone. She was from Romania. At least I think she was. She doesn’t have any family here.’
‘When did you last see her?’
‘The weekend before last. The Saturday night. She was in the bar where I work. She came in most weekends.’
Rebecca gave her friend that same look again. Dani’s mind buzzed as she tried to think of how to eke out whatever secrets the two girls were clearly hiding.
‘Which bar?’ Dani asked.
‘Neptune.’
Dani knew it. A late night bar in Digbeth that was something of a dive; dark, dingy and loud. And that was just the punters.
‘Do you know why anyone would want to hurt her?’ Easton asked.
That look again.
‘Rebecca. Look at me,’ Dani said. ‘Not at Laura. Do you know who killed her?’
A tear escaped Rebecca’s eye.
‘No. I really don’t.’
‘But you do know something. Don’t you?’
Rebecca sighed, exasperated. ‘Look, Detective,’ she said, sounding more in charge all of a sudden. ‘She’s an escort. Ok?’
‘Escort?’
‘I’m sure you know what I’m getting at.’
‘And you two?’
‘It’s good money.’
‘And did she have any regulars?’
‘Of course she did. We all do.’
‘And how about a pimp?’
Laura scoffed. ‘That’s not how it works. We’re not seedy back alley prostitutes. We organise everything ourselves.’
There was a slight pause in the conversation as Dani gave the girls a chance to defuse slightly. She had no need to rile them, she just wanted them to tell her what they knew.
‘Is there anyone at all who you think could have done this to Natalya?’ Dani asked.
Laura looked at her friend. Rebecca looked frozen.
‘Go on,’ Laura said. ‘Tell them.’
‘There’s one guy. Creepy as hell. It could be nothing. I don’t want to get him into trouble for no reason.’
‘Rebecca, if he killed Natalya t
hen I wouldn’t say that’s no reason.’
‘Ok, ok. This guy, he’s been hanging around all the time. But only the last couple of months. I don’t know much about him, just that he wanted Natalya to see him. You know, properly see him. He wanted to take her out.’
‘And did she go out with him?’
‘I think so, yeah. It happens all the time. These guys forget what the whole deal is, they want us to be their girlfriend all of a sudden.’
‘But she did go out with him?’
‘I warned her not to. I told her how messy it could get.’
‘Do you know his name?’
‘I just know he’s called Jimmy.’
‘Just Jimmy?’ Easton said. ‘Like it’s just Natalya?’
Rebecca glared but said nothing.
‘Ok. And what do you know about this Jimmy?’ Dani asked.
‘Becs isn’t involved in any of this,’ Laura stated, her tone acidic.
‘In any of what?’
‘Laura,’ Rebecca said, turning to her friend and giving her a pleading look which Dani read to mean shut the hell up.
‘Girls, just be straight with us. Tell us what you know. Who was Natalya mixed up with?’
‘Jimmy deals coke,’ Laura said, matter-of-factly, as though it was something she’d always disapproved of and she was now pleased to be spilling the beans.
Rebecca hung her head.
‘I mean, he isn’t… he’s not a gangster or some big shot like that. But he used to buy coke, sometimes E, off someone he knew and sell it to his mates and… well, us.’
‘How did Jimmy get into that?’ Dani asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Rebecca said. ‘I honestly don’t know. I’ve barely spoken to him before properly.’
‘But you think Natalya’s death has something to do with him?’
‘Makes sense, doesn't it?’ Laura said. Rebecca stared down at the table, not engaging. ‘I mean, that’s a pretty messed-up world to be involved in. We’re not saying Jimmy did it. But what if it’s because of him?’
‘Rebecca? Do you know who could have killed Natalya?’ Dani asked again.
‘I’ve told you what I know.’
The Essence of Evil Page 9