by Joy Ellis
‘Mmm . . .’ Marie’s slender finger moved slowly along the coast. ‘Ah yes, I see where you mean. Shall I ask uniform to go check it out for us?’
‘I’d rather we went ourselves.’ Jackman gnawed on his bottom lip. ‘But no, you’re right. I need to get these reports sorted before the end of the day and uniform are more than capable of dealing with it.’ He lifted his desk phone. ‘I’ll see if the duty sergeant could get a crew over there to take a look around, maybe ask some questions of the locals.’ A few moments later he replaced the receiver. ‘Sorted.’
‘Sir?’ The door opened and the tousled head of DC Charlie Button, the youngest member of their team, pushed through the gap. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but Superintendent Crooke would like to see both of you in her office.’
Jackman thanked the young detective and swallowed the rest of his coffee. ‘Oh dear, both of us. That sounds ominous.’
Marie stood up. ‘Let’s get it over with, and pray that it has nothing to do with budgets, spending cuts, performance or targets.’
‘Or all four at once.’ Jackman smiled ruefully. ‘It has been known.’
* * *
Superintendent Ruth Crooke was a narrow-lipped woman who looked permanently pissed off, probably because she usually was. It took a lot to stir any emotion other than a negative one in the super, and when she summoned you, it was advisable to jump to it.
Marie took the stairs two at a time to keep up with Jackman. She didn’t look forward to entering the “Lioness’s Den,” but she had worked with the superintendent for long enough to know that if you could get past the hard, controlling exterior and the acerbic tongue, there was a damned good policewoman underneath, and that was what really counted.
Marie walked in behind Jackman and bestowed on the super her very best radiant smile. It failed to bring even the slightest movement to those tight, thin lips.
Superintendent Ruth Crooke gestured irritably to the only two chairs available in the room and launched into a lengthy complaint about whoever she’d just been speaking to.
‘I’ve had some damned financial analyst bleating down my ear for the last ten minutes and I swear he’s never set foot in a police station in his whole life. Every initiative he came up with was bloody crap.’ She flung a notebook across her desk and leaned back in her chair. ‘Not that I think he’ll be phoning back. I told him exactly why his money-saving theories should be flushed down the pan.’
‘I don’t know how you do it, ma’am,’ said Jackman. ‘Your job would have my brains turning into minestrone in five minutes flat.’
She shrugged. ‘Well, someone has to. And what I do, I do rather well. At least you guys have someone fighting your corner. For instance, last time I looked, you still had radios, Kevlar vests, and cars, or has something changed since I last went downstairs?’
Jackman smiled. Marie knew that although he didn’t like the boss much, he had a grudging admiration for anyone who could juggle budgets and targets.
‘No, we’re still communicating, protected and mobile. And thank heavens, because I don’t think we’d do too well trying to police these fens on bicycles.’ He sat back and gazed across the oversized shiny desk.
Ruth Crooke shook her head. ‘Anyway, as talking to you two about anything other than criminal activity is a complete waste of my valuable time, I’ll save my breath.’ She pushed a thick folder across the table towards them.
Marie saw the name on it and a shiver went through her.
Kenya Black.
‘We have some pressure on us. It’s a cold case I know, but the mother has decided to resurrect her campaign. She’s trying to get the press to run with it again, but big style this time. She is attracting interest from some famous faces and using social media to really stir things up.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘Can’t blame the poor soul, of course, but we won’t look good if we are doing sweet FA, so upstairs want it put to bed, permanently. It was never closed, and although I know that you are dealing with Shauna Kelly’s disappearance, I specifically want your team to take this one, and I want you to make it your number one priority.’
Jackman sat bolt upright in his chair. ‘My God. It must be seven or eight years since Kenya disappeared, and you are making it high priority?’
Everyone in the area knew about the disappearance of the little girl, but as neither Jackman nor Marie had been directly involved in the case, the finer details were hazy.
Jackman frowned. ‘I know it was put on the back burner, but it is still an ongoing investigation. Surely one of the other teams went over the whole thing less than three months ago?’
‘They did, but science and forensics move forward every day.’
Marie racked her brain for information. Emblazoned across her mind was a photograph that the media latched on to at the time. A child with white-blonde hair sitting on a beanbag with her pet dog. She wore jeans and a yellow hooded sweatshirt with a teddy bear motif on it. Her small fingers were clinging to the animal’s fur. She was the epitome of angelic. This heart-wrencher had instigated the biggest public-supported hunt that the Fens had ever known.
Marie frowned. Memories were coming back like flashes from a newsreel. ‘Someone thought they saw her, didn’t they? With another child, playing close to the seal reserve out at Hurn Point?’
‘And a week later one of her trainers was found washed up on the beach three miles up the coast from the sighting, which gave credence to the man’s report.’ The super’s face was stony.
‘And it was assumed that she’d been swept out to sea.’ Marie remembered the tabloid headline: Was it Murder, or just a Terrible Accident?
‘That’s the long and the short of it. The parents were well off, but no ransom demand ever came, no more evidence was found, and there were no more reported sightings — well, none other than the usual crank ones. And after a while it was decided that she had most probably drowned and we were forced to scale down the investigation.’
‘But now you want us to give it priority again?’ asked Jackman.
‘We want you to start at the beginning and go through it with fresh eyes and a considerably enhanced budget should you need it.’ The superintendent looked at Jackman with an unnerving intensity. ‘I want this case closed, for good. And although we don’t always see eye to eye, I have to admit that your team has something about it. I don’t know what it is, but if anyone can find out what happened to that little girl and get this wretched case sewn up, I believe it’s you.’
Jackman took up the file and stared at it.
Marie felt a strange sensation course through her. Excitement was not quite the right word, it was more like trepidation. No one who had worked the original investigation had bought into the accident theory, but after years of fruitless digging it had been taken out of their hands. So, maybe it was time for a new team to try to provide her grieving family with some sort of closure.
Jackman stood up. ‘We’ll give it our very best shot, ma’am, you can depend on that. But Shauna Kelly has to come first right now. And if that girl who drowned is her, I’m not going to compromise these early days of the enquiry. She belongs to one of our own, and although I wouldn’t treat it differently to any other death, we do feel deeply for her mother.’
‘Of course, I’d expect no less. And if you need help, ask, okay?’ Ruth Crooke stared at them. ‘But don’t procrastinate over the cold case either. There is a lot at stake with this. When I said the powers that be want it dealt with swiftly, I meant it, understood?’
The interview was over.
Marie’s instincts shouted that this investigation was going to be far from simple.
They walked towards the lifts.
‘Kenya Black.’ Jackman almost whispered the name. ‘I never saw that coming.’
‘Me neither,’ replied Marie.
‘How do you feel about taking this on?’ asked Jackman.
‘Well, of course we should. The super’s right. The family needs answers, and maybe new eyes will see
something different.’
‘That’s not what I asked.’ Jackman levelled his eyes at hers. ‘How do you feel about it?’
They slowed their pace. ‘If I’m honest, and I have no idea why I feel this way, I’m quite troubled by the thought of tackling this investigation.’
As they entered the lift, Jackman nodded. ‘Me too. From the moment I saw that file with that name on it, my stomach has been doing somersaults.’ He drew in a long shaky breath. ‘But you are right, it’s time that dreadful case was closed, so we’d better get our heads together and sort it, don’t you think?’
In the silence as the lift descended, Marie had a strong sense of foreboding.
CHAPTER THREE
Jackman and Marie went directly into his office and closed the door.
Jackman sat down heavily in his old leather captain’s chair and swung round to face Marie. ‘I need to get my head around this before we tell the team. I’m not sure how we are going to juggle it all. It’s going to take quite a bit of strategic planning.’
Marie puffed out her cheeks. ‘Well, the super seemed absolutely determined that we be the ones to tackle the case, even if we are already working the Shauna Kelly investigation.’
‘Mmm, she was almost complimentary about the team, wasn’t she?’
‘But thinking about it, there really is only us, isn’t there? Our counterparts are up to their ears in tying up that big fraud case and getting it ready for the CPS. They certainly couldn’t tackle something on this scale. And DI Andy Feltham’s team are way understaffed due to illness and accident.’
Jackman made to answer but was interrupted by a knock at the door.
DC Max Cohen entered, carrying a large sealed envelope. ‘Sorry, boss, but I think you’ll want to see this. It’s from the pathologist, marked urgent.’
‘Thanks, Max. We’ll be out in a moment, so perhaps you’d get hold of Charlie. We’ll meet you in the CID room in ten for a briefing, okay?’
As the door closed, Jackman stared at the manila envelope in front of him. His name was written across the front in Rory Wilkinson’s version of Gothic script. An awful lot rested on what this brief report would tell them, not least the fact that he might have to break it to one of his own staff that her daughter was dead. From the moment he had seen the girl on the beach, Jackman’s gut feeling was that she hadn’t fallen, and she hadn’t jumped.
He frowned and tore open the envelope.
The dental records confirmed that the drowned girl was Shauna Kelly. Without a word, he passed the sheet to Marie.
Marie sighed. ‘I so hoped . . .’
‘I guess we know what our next step is.’
‘A very sad visit to Liz Kelly. We’ll do it together, shall we? We’ve both known Liz for quite a time, and I’m sure she’ll appreciate it coming from people she’s familiar with.’
Jackman nodded. ‘I wish we had more to tell her.’
‘Whatever we say today will be lost on her. The only words she’ll hear are the ones telling her that her child is dead.’
Jackman stood up. ‘You go tell Max and Charlie about this, and I’ll notify the super.’ He grimaced. ‘And then we’ll go and break the news to Liz.’
‘And Kenya Black? Shall I tell the others?’
‘No. Let’s get something rolling regarding Shauna. Kenya Black has been gone a very long time, so a few more days won’t make any difference, whereas we need to really move on Shauna’s investigation while there may be evidence to gather and people’s memories are still fresh.’
‘Wilco, sir.’ Marie strode outside to find the others, and Jackman made his second visit in twenty minutes to the superintendent’s office.
Ruth Crooke looked almost haggard. ‘So what do we actually know about Shauna?’
‘We have no idea what happened to her yet, ma’am. Rory Wilkinson is treating it as a priority, so we just have to hope that something shows up in the post-mortem that will determine whether foul play was involved.’ He pushed a hand through his thick, light brown hair. ‘Apparently Shauna was always a handful, but not a bad kid. Six months ago her father left home, and things got worse. She started drinking, and Liz told me that she has had trouble keeping her away from some of the wilder kids in town.’
‘And the night she went missing?’
‘Max and Charlie have located her three times on CCTV, all around the town-centre area. The last sighting was of her laughing with a man, close to the Lincoln Arms public house on Brewer Street.’
‘Drunk?’
‘Not paralytic, but probably tipsy.’ Jackman thought back to the footage Max had shown him. ‘One thing stood out though. From the way she was acting, we are all certain that she knew the man. The image of him is poor, but Max has enhanced it as much as he can, and uniform are taking it out on the streets for us.’
‘Not much to go on.’
‘It’s better than nothing, ma’am. We could get lucky.’
‘Let’s hope. Now, to help out I’ve got you another detective. DC Rosie McElderry from DI Feltham’s team is at a loose end, so for the duration of this enquiry, she’s all yours.’
‘Thank you, ma’am. I like Rosie, she has the makings of a very good detective.’
‘Look closer, she’s already a very good detective.’
Jackman grinned. ‘Point taken.’ He pushed back his chair. ‘I’d better go, ma’am, I need to tell Liz Kelly before the grapevine does it for me.’
Ruth looked at him and he saw sympathy in her eyes. ‘Get her the best family liaison officer that we have, Rowan. I’ll notify them further up the chain and she’ll be offered every help, but . . . that poor woman.’
‘I know. And I can’t say I’m looking forward to this.’
‘I’m sure you’re not. It’s the worst part of this job, and no mistake.’ She gave him a rare smile. ‘But you’ll do it properly, I know that.’
Jackman hoped she was right.
* * *
It was after two p.m. by the time Jackman gathered the team together for a full briefing. His meeting with Liz Kelly had been extremely harrowing. The sound of the woman’s anguished cry still rang in his ears.
He was under no illusion about the Kenya Black case. He knew he had been handed a poisoned chalice. That case had a reputation, a bad one. It didn’t help that one of the detectives on the original investigation had topped himself over it. Jackman gritted his teeth and swore silently that whatever happened, he’d never let any of his colleagues get to that state, or anywhere near it.
He watched his small team move around the large incident room. They had no idea what he was going to say, but they had picked up on his tension. Jackman knew that this investigation, if successful, could affect all their futures in a big way. The disappearance of Kenya Black was referred to as one of the great unsolved crimes of the decade. To be part of the team that finally brought the truth to light could be a career maker, and even he felt a rush of nervous enthusiasm. But first he had to update them on Shauna Kelly.
‘Before we get down to it, I’d like to welcome DC Rosie McElderry to the team. She’s lending a hand as we will be running two investigations.’ He nodded towards a young fair-haired woman who sat little apart from the others. Rosie had an elfin face with fine-boned features and greenish-blue eyes. She looked much younger than her twenty-four years, but Jackman knew that she had a quick brain and a knack for picking up discrepancies in statements. She was also in possession of an extremely good memory.
The young detective raised a hand and smiled at them. ‘Happy to help.’
Jackman leaned back against the wall. ‘Now, as I just said we are going to be working two cases in tandem. The first, as you will all know by now, is that of the death of Shauna Kelly. Before we can make too much headway with this we will need the forensic reports, and the prelim should be with us by tomorrow morning. If it is foul play, then we have a murder enquiry. To get one step ahead, I want you to keep working on finding the identity of the man that Shauna was
seen talking to on the CCTV, and also go back to all of her friends and contemporaries. Someone must know something about Shauna, something that led up to her either going missing, or being abducted.’ He took a breath. ‘And the second case is something that you youngsters will have to do a lot of homework on, because,’ he paused, ‘we are about to take a closer look at the Kenya Black enquiry.’
There was a collective intake of breath.
‘Blimey! That’s a turn up for the books!’ Max’s cockney accent came to the fore.
‘Yes,’ said Jackman. ‘And to be honest, even Marie and I will need to do some in-depth reading on this case, as neither of us were around at the time. So, Marie, where are we at?’
‘Well, I’ve already called the Evidence Storage Facility. They are releasing the evidence containers later this afternoon. I reckon we’ll need a forklift to get all the boxes over here.’
‘I’ll want some items sent directly to the forensic lab. I’ve already alerted Professor Wilkinson about it.’
Rory Wilkinson was usually based in Greenborough, but for the time being he had decided to work at the County Hospital mortuary on the outskirts of Saltern town. He had immediately offered to help. His willingness didn’t surprise Jackman. The entire country had been mesmerized by the search for little Kenya Black.
‘I haven’t had time yet to go over everything, but a swift glance gives me the distinct impression that the last review of this case was something of a balls-up.’ Jackman thumbed through a sheaf of reports.
Marie nodded. ‘Quite possibly, sir. That last review took place at the time when we were being overhauled. Civilians were being brought in for a lot of jobs that some thought should have been done by coppers. Plus, that case has been dragged out of mothballs more times than I’ve had hot dinners. Maybe their hearts weren’t in it.’
‘Probably not. But that is not going to happen this time. We are going to find out what happened to that little girl if we have to spend every damned penny of the super’s generous budget. We will find Kenya, or at least discover exactly what occurred.’