Gone Too Far : DCI Miller 4: Britain's Most Hated Celebrity Has Disappeared

by Steven Suttie

  “Is it true that Kathy is struggling with a mental health condition at the present time?”

  “I don’t know why you are asking that as you know that it is confidential information. Right, thank you everybody.” Jo stood up and nodded at the press as she stepped down from the small stage and walked through the crowds of cameramen, photographers, sound engineers and journalists, and out of the hall.

  “Fucking knobs!” she said under her breath as the door closed behind her.

  Chapter 17

  “Hello, my name is Detective Inspector Keith Saunders, and this is my colleague Detective Constable Helen Grant from Manchester Police. We would like to speak to Jack Greenwood, if that’s possible, please?”

  Saunders and Grant were standing in the reception of London FM, the radio station where Kathy Hopkirk’s husband presented the afternoon show.

  “Oh, I’ll check he’s still here,” said the receptionist as she pressed a few buttons on the phone. “Just a moment please.”

  Saunders and Grant knew that Jack Greenwood was still in the building, as a number of photographers and reporters were standing outside the famous studios, waiting impatiently to “pap” the missing woman’s husband on his departure.

  “Hi it’s Beth on reception. I’ve got detectives here asking to speak to Jack. No problem, alright, thanks.” The receptionist placed the phone down and looked up at Saunders. “Jack’s just doing a phone interview with Phil Collins. He’ll be out when he’s done. You can take a seat there while you wait.”

  “Well, how long do you think it’ll take?” Saunders wasn’t impressed.

  “Oh I don’t know. Not long, hopefully.”

  Saunders and Grant shuffled across to the leather sofa and took a seat. The walls were filled with signed pictures of the stars that had visited the famous radio studio over the years, they were all there. Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Madonna had the biggest pictures.

  “Bloody hell, can you imagine if all these had sat on this same sofa that we’re sitting on now?” Grant look quite excited by the idea. Saunders looked less so.

  “Doubt it. It looks quite new this sofa. Hard luck!”

  “Oh well, maybe one or two recent stars have sat on here!” Grant seemed optimistic that a tiny little bit of superstar DNA could be ingrained into the leather.

  “Coldplay were sat on there last Wednesday,” said the receptionist, smiling. “Chris Martin was sat right next to you!”

  “No way, that’s amazing!” Grant smiled, and with it she had a look of youthful innocence which made Saunders’ belly flip over. This type of conversation would normally really irritate the DI. Usually, that kind of pointless waffle would make him change the subject. But the fleeting look of wonderment on Grant’s face had really melted him.

  Shit, he thought, as he looked down at his bag by his feet and began pulling his notepad out of the pocket. Saunders recognised that he and Grant needed to talk shop, and utilise this time as best they could. He needed to be a strong boss, with excellent leadership skills. Not a flirty, awkward moron, talking shite, he considered.

  “Okay, let’s just go over this for a few minutes then, while we wait for Jack Greenwood. So…” Saunders began talking through his notes with Grant, and was making a list of questions on the right-hand side of the pad as he and Grant discussed the time-line of Kathy’s disappearance in Manchester, and the matters that they wanted to discuss with Kathy’s husband.

  By the time that Jack Greenwood appeared at the reception door, and invited the Manchester detectives into the radio station, Saunders’ notes and questions had filled up half of the page.

  Whether it was down to Saunders’ lack of concentration due to Grant’s presence, or if it was just a general oversight wasn’t clear. But one thing was certain; allowing the press to photograph his page of notes through the radio station’s window had been a significant error of judgement on his part.

  Chapter 18

  As the “BREAKING NEWS” banner flashed up on the Sky News screen, announcing that Jack Greenwood was a suspect in the disappearance of Kathy Hopkins, the story suddenly began moving with an incredible burst of life.

  The photograph which had been taken through London FM’s reception window clearly showed DI Saunders, the detective who had been photographed as he entered The Midland only hours earlier in Manchester, and his colleague DC Grant. The hand written notes were clearly eligible and it was the photograph of the notes which had now become the main story.

  “Sky Sources have revealed this incredible photograph, which quite categorically lists a number of damning questions that Manchester detectives wish to ask Kathy’s husband, Jack Greenwood, the veteran radio DJ who has shocked many people today, by turning up to present his afternoon show, despite the fact that his wife is missing.” Sky News’ afternoon presenter Sue Bentley was quite visibly excited by this unexpected scoop, which really did inject a much-needed boost of information to what had become an achingly slow-moving story.

  “Well DI Saunders and his colleague are still inside the London FM studios, where Jack Greenwood came off the air just a short time ago. Our reporter, Kerry Gregory is there, Kerry – what’s going on?”

  “Yes, thank you Sue. We are not quite sure what is going on, but one thing is for sure – Jack Greenwood appears to be very high on the list of people that police wish to speak to about Kathy Hopkirk’s disappearance.”

  “And what did the questions in DI Saunders’ notebook consist of?”

  “Well, many of the questions in the photograph are standard police questions which you would expect from an enquiry of this nature, questions such as, when did you last see Kathy? Is everything okay between you? When did you last speak to your wife?”

  “I can sense a but coming…”

  “Yes, that’s right Sue. Because apart from these questions that we would expect, there are quite a few that are really quite damning. For example, DI Saunders wants to ask Jack Greenwood why he felt it was appropriate to present his radio show today. He wants to know if Jack had asked for compassionate leave today, and if not, why not?”

  “Well, that is a very good question…”

  “Yes, some people may believe that it is a reasonable thing to ask Sue, but, there are those people who would argue that surely this should be a private matter, and not something which is now being discussed on Sky News, and every other news network for that matter.”

  “I imagine that Jack Greenwood is regretting that decision to go to work today?”

  “Very possibly. This could end up being a very costly error-of-judgement on Jack Greenwood’s part.”

  “Thank you Kerry, stay there, and keep a close eye on what’s happening.”

  * * *

  Saunders was inside a recording studio with Jack Greenwood and DC Grant. The radio presenter seemed quite shocked, and extremely hostile.

  “Look, I’ve been through all this bollocks yesterday, with the Met’s officers. Why the hell are you turning up here at my work, its unforgivable! It’s totally indefensible!”

  “We’re not here to annoy you. We’re trying to figure out where Kathy is. We’ve just driven down from Manchester.”

  “I don’t give a shit if you’ve come from bloody Reykjavik. You don’t just turn up unannounced at my workplace! This is massively unprofessional, and I am going to sue the fucking arse off you inept bastards!”

  “Whoah, can you just tone it down a bit mate?”

  Saunders looked seriously stressed-out with the abuse from Greenwood. Grant was shocked by how forceful Saunders became in his tone and physical demeanour.

  “Well, it’s unforgivable!”

  “What is? We’re here to try and find your wife! How is that unforgivable?” Grant had stepped in now to give Saunders a bit of back up.

  “Bullshit. I’ll tell you what, you can both just piss off back to Manchester, and get out of my face.”

  “That’s not goi
ng to happen, Mr Greenwood. Now, you can calm yourself down and talk to us here, or I can arrest you and take you down to the police station, and we can have the conversation there. But I’ll advise you to stop your swearing, and aggressive attitude.”

  “Arrest me for what?”

  “Obstructing a police officer. Conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Public order. That’s three that you qualify for already.” Saunders was talking calmly, but Greenwood just didn’t seem to be hearing the DI. He was pacing around the room, getting himself more and more worked up.

  “Just calm down.” Said Grant, softly. “We’ll be done in fifteen minutes.”

  “I went through all of this bollocks yesterday! Over an hour of my day was taken up by talking to police, and now you want to go over it all again! It’s fucking bollocks!”

  “Right, Jack Greenwood, I’m arresting you on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice…” Saunders took his handcuffs out of his pocket and cuffed Jack Greenwood as he read him his rights. Greenwood froze, and offered no resistance at all. It was bizarre, the middle-aged DJ suddenly became extremely quiet and compliant.

  “This is so unfair! Do you know who I am?” He said, quietly. He sounded as though he was pretending to cry.

  “Can you phone the duty sergeant at Shepherd’s Bush and request a van to take Mr Greenwood in, please DC Grant? Cheers.”

  Jack Greenwood began sobbing, and sat down at the table. Saunders noticed that several of Greenwood’s colleagues were staring through the glass, watching this extraordinary spectacle. By the speed that their mouths were moving, Saunders could see that lots of conclusions were being reached by the staff of London FM.

  “You could have just answered our questions calmly and there’d have been no need for all this unpleasantness!” said Saunders as Grant spoke on her phone to the sergeant at Shepherd’s Bush.

  “I’m… this is so unfair! It’s got nothing to do with me! How can you frame me for it?”

  “Nobody is being framed for anything. We came here to ask a few routine questions. We’d have been on our way by now if you’d just helped us. Anyway, I can’t be arsed going over it now, we can discuss it at the police station.”

  Jack Greenwood began sobbing again, and on the other side of the glass, his colleagues’ mouths continued wagging, and one or two were taking photos on their phones.

  * * *

  The press members who had gathered outside London FM were absolutely ecstatic when the police van turned up with blue lights revolving. Two officers raced out of the vehicle and ran into the radio station’s reception, and then through the internal door. This dramatic footage was being recorded by several news channels, and BBC News were the first to transmit the pictures, just seconds after the uniformed officers had disappeared inside the famous building. The radio station’s receptionist looked extremely shocked and confused by this extraordinary turn of events, and was also wary of the press-pack outside, who were very clearly training their cameras on her. It made her do extra things out of nerves, like touching her hair, double-blinking and raising her eyebrows for no reason. There was a huge TV screen on the radio station’s wall, just above the terrified looking receptionist. It was tuned to Sky News, and was showing images of the receptionist, sitting at her desk. It was a good job that she couldn’t see what was on the screen as it would have made her even more edgy.

  “So as you can see,” said one excited reporter to his cameraman, “it looks as though the story we broke just moments ago, regarding Kathy Hopkirk’s husband Jack Greenwood, has escalated dramatically in the past few minutes. We have received reports from staff within London FM, and what we are hearing is that Jack Greenwood is currently in handcuffs inside that building, and we understand that he will be taken to a police station for questioning about the mysterious disappearance of his wife. And, yes, here come those police officers with Mr Greenwood now.”

  The radio station’s inner door had opened, and in-between the two uniformed police officers was a man, bent double, with a coat over his head. The receptionist dashed round from her desk and raced to the door to open it for the officers. DI Saunders and DC Grant were following behind.

  “Well, this is quite incredible, I can’t remember reporting on anything as shocking as this since Rebecca Brooks battered Ross Kemp. The scenes that we are witnessing here, on the steps of London FM are incredible. The man who is being obscured by the jacket is London FM’s afternoon presenter Jack Greenwood. We can only assume that these extraordinary scenes are connected to the disappearance of Kathy Hopkirk.”

  Within seconds, the police officers had managed to scuttle through the excitable press-pack, and had Greenwood banged up in the back of the van. Just moments later, that police van was pulling off into the rush-hour traffic, a number 148 London bus flashed the police van, its passengers were all staring down at the press wondering what all the drama was about. It wouldn’t be very long until they found out.

  * * *

  “Welcome to the ITV tea-time news, I’m Chrissie Hecquet. There has been a major development this evening in the search for missing TV star Kathy Hopkirk.” The look on the ITV newsreader’s face conveyed the high-level of drama and excitement which surrounded the bizarre development in London. As the broadcasters and online news apps were reporting this sensational turn-of-events, the character of Jack Greenwood was being scrutinised by every single journalist that had been handed the story.

  Every hack in the country wanted to be the first to find a story, or unearth a rumour that could have warned the world that Kathy was in danger, before she actually came to any harm, if in fact that was what had happened at all. It was a very, very confusing picture for all of the journalists who had to piece the jigsaw together. The only source of information that they could go on, apart from the arrest, was DI Saunders’ hand written notes which had been the hot-topic of conversation in the media just moments before the high profile arrest. This story was moving so quickly, that DI Saunders was still unaware that his notes had been the lead item on this story for the past half-an-hour. For now, at least.

  * * *

  Saunders and Grant were sat in an interview room planning a revised conversation with Jack Greenwood, once he had calmed himself down a bit. Saunders felt his phone vibrate and grabbed it from his pocket.

  “Oh hi boss, I was about to ring you…”

  “Hi Keith. What the hell is going on mate?”

  “Aw, I don’t know. This Jack Greenwood started acting all weird, acting like a bit of a diva.”

  “What are you on about Keith? The press have published photos of your fucking notebook. They’re reporting it as though he’s killed Kathy, and its all because of your notes.”

  The colour drained quickly from Saunders’ face. His grey complexion had aged him instantly. DC Grant looked concerned.

  “Are you alright?” she mouthed.

  Saunders put his head down. “Oh shit. Fuck’s sake! How’s this happened?”

  “What’s up?” mouthed Grant. She looked really concerned. Saunders was ignoring her.

  “It looks like it was at the radio studio, you’ve been papped through the window. The photos of your notes are all over the news. You circled the word alibi, and wrote double-check, didn’t you?”

  “Aw shit. This is unbelievable. How the hell have I allowed that to happen?” Saunders was holding his head in his hands. He knew that there was much more written on the page than just the bit Miller had gently mentioned.

  “What the fuck is going on?” asked Grant, this time with a snappy tone in her voice. Saunders held up his hand to request silence from his DC, as he continued to stare down at the floor.

  “Well, it’s not as bad as it could have been. Now he’s been arrested it looks a lot neater. Make sure you ask every question that’s on your pad.”

  “Okay Sir, no worries. Fuck, that’s a schoolboy error, I can’t believe it.”

  “Why have you taken h
im in, anyway?”

  “Oh, he was playing stupid buggers, wasn’t co-operating. I warned him but he just carried on being a gimp. He changed his tune when the cuffs were on, though!”

  “They always do. Right, so the next question is going to be about expenses…”

  “You what?”

  “Well you’re not coming back tonight are you? You’re going to be there a long time un-digging this grave. So do you want me to book something for you and Grant?”

  Saunders was still shell-shocked by his massive own-goal regarding the notebook. He hadn’t given any thought to getting back up the road to the north.

  “Yes, cheers. Text me the details… and, I’m really sorry Sir.”

  “It’s alright, chill out. It could be a lot worse if he wasn’t in custody, so him being a bit of a dickhead has saved your bacon and eggs!”

  “Yeah, God, cheers Sir. I’ll go and grill him now, Sweeney style!”

  Miller laughed. “Lay it on thick with Greenwood, and I’ll release a statement that the press have over-stepped the mark. Let’s make sure this story goes away. Good man. I’ll be in touch later on. Cheers.”

  “Oh, Sir, is Jo still about?”

  “Yeah, she is…”

  “Tell her she played a blinder in the press conference. We were listening to her in the car. She was excellent.”

  “I will do, she’ll be buzzing with that. Cheers.”

  Chapter 19

  “Right then, Jack Greenwood. Have you pulled yourself together a bit now?” Saunders wasn’t being remotely friendly to the DJ. He was going to have to sleep in London, in some crappy motel or something now, because of this moron. Not only that, the DI was still smarting from that press photographer getting one over him at the radio station. Although he rarely did bad moods, Saunders was in one this evening.