As she continued along, that final destination became an ever increasing reality, and with each turn they took, Dani’s confusion and suspicion grew. Thus far on the journey the traffic in the early nighttime had been light enough to enable Dani to stay close, though not so light as to make it obvious she was following, though now that they were entering quiet suburbia, the task was becoming harder all the time.
Not wanting to draw Jason’s attention, Dani decided to drop back one more, but doing so meant that Jason’s car was out of sight more and more frequently as he took a series of left and right turns. When Dani next turned right, there was no sign of his car up ahead at all and she had a momentary wave of panic. She pushed her foot down. Relying on instinct, she sped up and took the next two turns on memory, retracing her earlier steps.
Sure enough, she soon had Jason’s car in sight again. It surely couldn’t be a coincidence that they were now so close to the Grants’ house?
After just one more turn, Dani’s deduction was confirmed. She slowed and turned her headlights off. The Grants lived on a cul-de-sac and if she followed Jason onto that road he was sure to spot her car straight away. Instead, she crawled to the junction and brought her car to a stop once she’d got a good enough view from around the corner.
Further ahead, Jason’s car was pulled up by the side of the road. He was just getting out.
Dani’s already turbulent thoughts were only further troubled when he didn’t head left across the road, but instead right, and up the drive of Ed Francis’s house.
‘Seriously?’ Dani said out loud.
A few moments later Jason stepped inside the house, though Dani couldn’t see from her angle who had opened the door for him.
What the hell was going on?
Dani shut off her engine. Should she get out?
No. What was the point? She could hardly go and sneak up to the window to get a look.
Could she?
Instead she sank low in her seat and simply sat there as her brain whirred away, unhappily.
With the engine off she was soon cold and shivering. What on earth was she doing? Why hadn’t she just stayed at home in the warmth and relative safety of her apartment?
Though was her home really safe now?
Dani tried to shake away the unwelcome thoughts, though she really didn’t have anything more positive to put in their place. Minutes late, her ringing phone finally stole her attention away, though the sparse relief was short-lived when she pulled the phone from her pocket and saw who was calling. Jason.
‘Hey,’ she said.
Did he know?
‘Dani, are you still at home?’
‘Of course,’ she said.
‘I’m really sorry, something has come up. I don’t know when I’m going to get back to yours.’
‘Something’s come up?’
‘Yeah.’
‘What?’
He sighed. ‘I can’t really say. Not yet. But I’ll explain all soon, I promise.’
Why was he holding back on her?
Dani opened her mouth to say just that but he’d already hung up. Less than impressed, she thumped the phone down onto the seat next to her as she glared over at Jason’s car.
What should she do now?
The reality was, there was so little she could do.
Of course she could just head home and wait for Jason to come back. Why wasn’t she doing that?
Her phone chirped again soon after, this time with a message. Dani fully expected it to be Jason once again, but was surprised to see it was from Easton, of all people.
Sorry about this morning, Dani. I know everything will work out in the end.
She really didn’t know what to make of that and didn’t bother to respond.
She remained in the car for more than half an hour more, getting colder, more tired and more anxious with every minute that passed. In that time several pedestrians, mostly dog walkers, had strolled past her car, more than one gazing suspiciously inside. She really couldn’t just sit there all night.
And she didn’t have to. Because finally up ahead she saw Jason striding down the drive and back to his car.
Dani found herself in a sudden panic. If she stayed where she was Jason would surely spot her car as he passed it, even in the dark.
She fired the engine up and as Jason ducked into his car she pushed the gearstick into reverse and pressed the accelerator and her car rolled back. She continued fifty yards, to the turning for the next street and wound her car around the bend. Then she sat and waited with her engine idling and her headlights still off. Once Jason had passed by in front she’d follow again.
Except that seconds soon turned to two minutes and he still hadn’t gone by.
Surely he couldn’t be sitting in his car outside Ed Francis’s house still.
Dani pulled her car forwards again and rolled it slowly along and back up to the junction where she’d been parked earlier. There was no sign of Jason’s car at all now.
She cursed under her breath. She’d made the most basic of mistakes. She’d always come and gone to the Grants’ house from the same direction, and had simply assumed Jason would similarly retrace his steps on leaving. But he hadn’t. At the end of the Grants’ road, he’d gone in the other direction. To where, who knew, but one thing was abundantly clear. Dani had lost him.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Steven Grant had been sitting in the front room on his own for two hours. Mary was still in the kitchen with Ethan, talking. Grant hadn’t wanted to be a party to that. He hadn’t yet figured in his own mind what he really wanted to say to his son. What questions he wanted to ask, or what answers he wanted, or hoped, to hear.
Grant was surprised at how relaxed, almost happy, Mary was at the sudden reappearance of their miscreant offspring. He wasn’t feeling quite so at ease. But Ethan was still their boy, Grant knew, and it was a father’s duty to always protect a son.
Wasn’t it?
Yet Grant’s mind remained in turmoil over what he should do.
For starters, they couldn’t keep Ethan holed up in their home forever. For whatever reason, the police were out there, still looking for Ethan. That point had been made clear to both Grant and Mary on more than one occasion. And out there wasn’t some vague expression of location. Right now, the police were literally out there.
Not long ago, as Grant was sitting in the darkened front room, staring out at the nighttime street outside, he’d spotted a car pull up on the road. The man who’d stepped out, his face caught in the streetlight, was DI Jason Barnes. Yet another detective, snooping around. Why always a different one?
Grant hadn’t met Barnes before but he’d seen him in the local paper the other day in a piece about the growing knife crime in the city. He was another murder detective, like Dani Stephens.
When Grant had first spotted Barnes emerge from the car he’d been ready to shout out to Mary. His mouth had been open but then he’d quickly shut it again when Barnes didn’t come onto their drive – as he’d expected – but instead crossed the road and went up Ed Francis’s drive.
Francis had opened the door and hadn’t looked particularly happy to see his visitor, but had nonetheless invited Barnes into the house eventually.
The policeman had been inside Francis’s house for close to an hour before leaving as quietly as he’d turned up. What was all that about? He knew there was something odd going on with Francis; there was something about the man, about his life, that didn’t add up. Yet Grant really didn’t know what the problem with him was, or what he could or should do about it.
Grant was shaken from his tumbling thoughts when a shadow appeared in the doorway. He turned. Ethan. His hands were casually slung into his pockets, but he was standing tall, looking confident and relaxed, like he was in control of this situation now. As though the problems that had been burning inside him for so long were now extinguished, once and for all.
‘Dad,’ Ethan said. ‘We need to talk.’
‘About what?’
‘I think you know.’
Yes, Grant thought he knew too.
‘Ok, give me a minute.’
Ethan turned and walked away. Grant looked over at Ed Francis’s house one more time. All remained quiet. Grant was absolutely certain that wouldn’t be the case for much longer.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Dani was still trying to shake the earlier chill from her failed spying attempts, and was heavily wired on caffeine two hours later back at her apartment. There’d been no call or text or anything from Jason in that time and she was becoming increasingly anxious and angry about what he was up to. She’d called him twice since she’d arrived back but he hadn’t answered and however much she wanted to, she wouldn’t call again and risk arousing his suspicions.
Rather than mope, she’d put her time to good use, scouring back through the HOLMES 2 system to identify any new information on the murder and missing persons cases, hoping that doing so would spark a eureka moment, but also trying to figure out if there was any explanation for what Jason was up to.
So far on her endless and roundabout search she’d found next to nothing and her brain was quickly wearing out.
Although…
She re-opened the notes on the system related to the house-to-house enquiries performed following Natalya’s murder. The last Dani had heard about that, nearly every address they’d targeted had been covered off, except for a few residences where the owners or tenants were away, and a few industrial units that were seemingly empty.
But there was more. Dani delved back into the detail. She read through the notes compiled by various DCs and DSs. She opened up Google Maps on her laptop and plotted the streets, the residences and the industrial estates.
At the last team briefing Dani had given before her suspension she’d told the team to widen the house-to-house, and their review of CCTV, but she’d never seen the results of that until now. The latest notes had only been entered into HOLMES 2 that afternoon. A small retail park in Moseley had several industrial units, but also had a privately operated CCTV which included a camera angled to the street outside. Officers had attended the estate, spoken to the owners of each of the businesses and performed brief searches of the premises. Except for one unit. A unit that didn’t appear to be in use and was owned by the same registered company that was the listed owner of the estate. The same company was also responsible for the CCTV.
The comment at the end of the notes was simply that further investigation was required to identify the directors of the company and contact them in order to secure the CCTV images and access to the unit if that was deemed necessary.
Most likely a search of that nature would be carried out by the in-house team of data analysts, though responsibility for ensuring that happened was stated on the system as belonging to DI Barnes.
She again looked at the map. Those units were several streets away from where Natalya was killed, and it certainly wasn’t a straight route from A to B given the only previous CCTV image they’d found of her. But it also wasn’t an unthinkable route, given that she was literally running for her life.
Dani sat back in the chair as her brain raced. Was that the lead Jason was now following?
She picked up her phone. Still no calls or messages from him. She bit the bullet and called him again. Still no answer. Her call went straight to voicemail.
She sent him a message.
We need to talk. Something’s happened.
Would he see that as a cry for help from her and feel duty bound to call back?
There was no immediate response. What was he doing?
Unable to set her mind at ease, Dani was soon back rummaging through the case files. But she was only wasting time now. She couldn’t get thoughts of Natalya out of her mind. And what about the other missing women? Grace Agnew? Jessica Bradford? Were they still alive?
Natalya had been bound. She’d been running for her life when she was killed. Finding where she’d been kept wasn’t just important for finding the murderer, it was important for finding any victims who were still alive.
Dani couldn’t sit there knowing even a few minutes might make all the difference.
* * *
Five minutes later Dani was back in her car and heading out of the city centre once more with the address in Moseley plugged into her sat nav. The traffic, past midnight, was light and the journey took all of ten minutes before Dani pulled into a small industrial estate that consisted of just five units erected with breeze blocks and corrugated steel. Not surprisingly given the time, there were no indications of life within any of the premises. Dani glanced at the signage above each unit and soon found the one she was looking for. She gasped when she spotted the single car parked up outside. Jason’s.
She checked her phone again. Still nothing from him.
What the hell was he doing here?
She called Jason again. Straight to voicemail. She really wasn’t liking the situation at all.
Should she call for backup?
No. She couldn’t. Who would she call and what would she say?
She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves and then stepped from the car. She went around to the boot and opened it up, taking out the socket wrench from the small toolkit next to the spare tyre. It was better than nothing, and she still couldn’t be sure what she was about to walk in on.
She walked tentatively over to Jason’s car, looking around her as she went. There was no one else about at all. The whole area was dark and eerily quiet. Isolated.
She headed on past Jason’s car to the main door of the unit it was parked by. She tried the handle. It was unlocked. She opened the door. It was dark inside and she could see and hear nothing. With the wrench at the ready in one hand, she took her phone in the other and turned on the torch. It did a lousy job of lighting up the space in front of her.
‘Jason?’ she shouted out. Nothing.
She shone the torch up to her left and right, looking for a light switch. There it was, just a step away on the right. She moved to it, flipped on the lights…
Then noticed the shadow creeping over her shoulder.
Dani spun around, ready to attack with the wrench.
‘Whoa! Dani?’
Jason. Her arms flinched but she held back from smashing his head with the wrench. Just.
‘Jason, what the hell are you doing here?’ she said, ready to collapse from fright.
‘Me? What are you doing here?’ His tone was scathing.
‘Tell me what’s going on. Please.’
‘Why are you here, Dani?’
Was there any point in lying? She quickly explained. The look on his face went from one of confusion and concern to one of outright anger.
When she’d finished he didn’t say a word. He just stood there, glaring and shaking his head.
‘It’s not in here,’ he said after a few moments. ‘Come on, this way.’
He walked out. Dani hesitated, but only for a moment. She flicked off the lights and closed the door behind her. Outside, Jason was hanging by the corner of the unit in a veil of darkness. She’d never before thought Jason had anything even close to a dark side. Was it the situation or Jason that was creeping her out now?
‘Jason, please, just tell me what’s going on. You’re scaring me.’
‘I’m sorry. I’m not meaning to. But you have to see this, Dani. Before anyone else does.’
Jason disappeared around the side of the unit. Dani cautiously followed, though she realised the wrench was now wobbling in her shaky hands.
When she rounded the corner she saw there was a side entrance to the unit.
‘It’s down here,’ Jason said, then headed on through the doorway.
‘What’s down there?’ she asked, her words as shaky as her hands.
‘Come on,’ he called, his voice echoing.
Despite her nerves, Dani followed him in, down the steps and into a basement level underneath the unit, glancing over her s
houlder every other step to make sure there was no one else behind her. There wasn’t.
A single overhead light was on in the basement. The space looked like a workshop, filled with all manner of racking and tools.
‘Jason?’
He was standing over by one of the shelves with his back to her.
As he turned around, she saw he was wearing plastic gloves.
‘Why haven’t you called for backup? For forensics?’
‘Have you seen this?’ he held out his hand. He was clutching a pendant.
Dani didn’t move from the spot.
‘I’ve seen photos from Rebecca Hargreaves, of her and Natalya together. Natalya always wore this necklace.’
He placed it back on the shelf then took another item.
‘A student’s union card for Jessica Bradford,’ Jason said.
Dani gulped.
Jason held up a small plastic wallet. ‘A railcard for a Grace Agnew.’
Dani was speechless.
‘It’s all here, Dani. All of it. You were right.’
‘Jason.’ Dani’s voice was strong and stern. ‘We have to call this in.’
He shook his head. Took something else from the shelf.
‘And this?’
Dani’s face fell as she stared at the object in Jason’s hand. She felt shock. Anger. Betrayal. Terror. A whole mix of emotions struggled to take hold.
‘My diary,’ she said. ‘But how…?’
But Dani already knew how. It had been taken the day the second note had been left. So someone really had been in her apartment.
Someone. Or was the answer far simpler than that? After all, there were only two people who knew about her diary…
‘You know,’ Jason said, ‘even though I was utterly confused when I saw this here, it was heartening when I started to read through. For a few moments I forgot where I was. What I was doing here. My head was with you again, back in the hospital. Back in the apartment after you’d been sent home. I knew you were writing this at the time, but I never saw your problems through your eyes before.’
The Essence of Evil Page 33