by Lee Weeks
‘You hear that noise, Tracy?’ He breathed down the phone. Beneath the knocking Tracy could hear another noise: it was the sound of scraping. He started laughing and then Tracy heard muffled sounds of someone screaming. ‘That’s the sound of your daughter trying to get out of her coffin.’
The line went dead.
Tracy stared at the phone in her hand and looked at Jackson. He was looking up at her with Scruffy behind him. All three of them were frozen. Tracy looked back at the phone; her hand was shaking so much that she thought she was about to drop it but it was stuck to her hand like tar. It was burning in her hand. She gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth to try and halt the scream that was about to escape. The image of Danielle buried alive made her want to vomit. She turned and ran for the bathroom and clung to the cold porcelain of the toilet seat as she retched. Jackson came to stand in the bathroom. She washed her face and rinsed her mouth and stooped to see if Jackson was okay. When the doorbell rang Tracy squealed in fright. Jackson started crying.
‘Sorry. Sorry. It’s okay, Jackson. Nanny’s sorry.’
She went to look out of her lounge window and saw Jeanie’s white Renault. Tracy rushed towards the door with a sense of relief, picking up Jackson on the way. She opened the door to Jeanie, who took one look at Tracy’s face – white as a sheet.
‘What is it?’
Tracy shook her head as if to say she couldn’t tell her in front of Jackson. Jackson was watching her. Tracy stepped back to allow Jeanie in.
‘Come on, Jackson, show me how you can build a house out of your bricks. Jeanie led the way across the lounge with the box of toys she’d brought over from her house, borrowed from Christa. She ushered Tracy into the kitchen.
‘What is it?’
Tracy held the phone up and looked at it as if it were alive.
‘Someone rang me.’
‘Who?’
She stood there shaking her head, looking like she was still trying to work out what happened. She looked at Jeanie, panic in her eyes.
‘He knew my name. He says he has Danielle. I could hear her . . .’
‘What did he say to you? Try and remember the exact words.
‘At first I couldn’t understand what the person was saying. It was muffled, didn’t sound right.’
‘So it was a man?’
‘It sounded like a man. He had a really deep voice but it was slowed down, distorted like one of those kids’ toys that makes voices sound strange.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He asked if I could hear a noise.’ Tracy’s face paled again. She had started to shake. Her eyes lost their focus. Jeanie was beginning to think she’d have to get ready to catch her if she fainted. ‘It was a knocking sound.’ Tracy took some deep breaths. ‘He said it was the sound of Danielle trying to get out of her coffin.’
She turned away and clutched the edge of the kitchen sink and her face crumpled.
‘It’s all right, Tracy. You’re doing okay. Tell me, did you hear Danielle’s voice?’
Tracy began to slowly move her head, nodding as her eyes focused on some horror that was locked in her mind. She turned to Jeanie. ‘I heard someone scratching, someone screaming. I don’t know if it was her.’
Ebony looked around as the door to the interview room opened and Robbo called her outside into the hallway. She closed the door behind her.
‘What is it?’
‘Just got a call from Jeanie: It’s Hawk, he’s made contact. It seems he’s got Danielle Foster.’
‘Guv – a word?’
Ebony called Carter out of the interview.
‘Tracy Collins has had a phone call from Hawk. He told her he has her daughter. She heard the sound of someone knocking on wood.’
Carter turned to Zoe. ‘Have you got an office we can use? We need to talk.’
‘Sir – the interview room across the corridor is free?’
Robbo sat; Willis stood and Carter paced.
‘The only way Manson could be involved is if he’s Hawk’s accomplice. I don’t see it, do you?’
Ebony answered with a shake of the head. ‘He’s not the sharpest knife in the rack, Guv. Plus – you know what he cares about in life? His wallet. He’s still got a habit by the look of him and he sells drugs to feed it. No way is he into something this big without a payoff of some kind.’
Robbo crossed his arms around himself and his foot tapped. He was uncomfortable with the closed door but was too preoccupied to give into it.
‘You’re right – if he was going into the kidnap business it would be for a big ransom. Could Hawk have manipulated him somehow?
‘How?’ asked Carter. He stopped and looked at Robbo.
‘He could have used Manson to draw Danielle Foster out. We need to ask him about Emily Styles.’
‘The lawyer won’t like it,’ said Ebony.
‘No, but we may not get another chance to ask him,’ Carter replied as he stood to open the door. Robbo wiped the sweat from his face.
Willis and Carter went back into the interview room and Carter sat and leaned across closer to Niall.
‘Do you know a friend of Danielle’s called Emily Styles?’ Carter showed him her photo.
‘My client chooses not to answer that.’ Manson looked across at his lawyer. ‘My client has come in here to help with the disappearance of Danielle Foster, not to answer questions in a murder case.’
‘That’s the girl who was fished out of the canal?’ asked Manson.
‘Yes.’ The atmosphere in the room changed. Carter’s eyes hardened on Manson.
‘Never heard of or seen her before.’ Manson stiffened. He began looking nervous again.
Carter watched Manson as he displayed all the attributes of someone who was lying. His breathing pattern had changed; he was sweating.
‘You better start telling me the truth, Niall, because I got witnesses that say they saw you and Danielle arguing. They heard you rowing and you turned up outside the college where she’s studying. Did you see this woman there?’
Niall sat back in his chair and stared at the wall defiantly.
‘CCTV footage will confirm it, Niall. You want to save me the time, time that could cost your Danielle’s life?’
Niall rocked on his chair and then sat forward, elbows on his knees.
‘All right. I went there. So what? I went there to see the bloke she’s seeing.’
‘What for? You said you didn’t care.’
‘She’s still mine. My property,’ Manson corrected himself. He sucked air in behind his front teeth. ‘Tsss. I wanted to frighten him a bit.’
‘Did you see her?’
‘Yeah. I saw her.’
‘And him? Who was she with?’
‘Some weedy fucker.’
‘Describe him to me.’
He shrugged.
‘Was he white, black?’
‘White, six foot, average.’
‘Colour of his hair?’
‘Brown.’
‘What did you do? Did you follow them?’
‘Yeah. I wanted to see; make sure.’
‘Did you?’
Niall shrugged. ‘I saw enough. That dead woman – Emily Styles – that’s the only time I’ve seen her. They went their separate ways at the station. I’m not saying it was definitely something going on but there could have been. You know what I mean?’
‘So you went to her flat to talk about it? Yeah, and?’
‘We rowed, sure. She told me to fuck off.’
‘Did she admit to seeing someone from the college?’
‘She didn’t deny it.’
Carter watched Manson – he was telling the truth.
Chapter 18
Jeanie watched Carter arrive and park up before she left Tracy, and went out to talk to him in private. She waved for him to stay where he was and got into the passenger seat.
‘How is she?’ he asked.
‘She’s very shaken,’ said Jeanie.
‘Did h
e demand a ransom?’
‘No. Do you think he will?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Carter. ‘He had months to make contact in Emily’s case but the Styles were never contacted either to ask for money for her release or to taunt them like this. And yet we know she was alive all that time.’ Jeanie looked back at the house as she thought. The lounge was lit up. She saw Tracy hugging Jackson as they walked past the lounge window.
Jeanie looked across at Carter. His face was dark. The sky outside was grey. Overhead the clouds were full of snow.
‘He phoned Tracy to tell her he had her daughter and to involve her in her daughter’s suffering. If she’s in the loop we could use it.’
‘In the loop?’ Jeanie looked at him incredulously. ‘So we feed him Tracy to heighten his pleasure?’
‘I was thinking more that we could work on her being a human side to this. A mother figure, someone he might build a rapport with.’
‘We are talking Tracy – who gave away her only child for adoption and has more make-up than Boots the chemist?’
Carter smiled. ‘You’re a miracle worker, Jeanie – think about it for me at least.’
‘Yeah. I’ll file it under “more stupid ideas from Dan”.’
They watched Tracy come to stand at the window.
‘I’m going to have to tell her everything we know now,’ Jeanie said. ‘It’s only fair she is told about Emily Styles.’
Carter was nodding, thinking. He leaned forward and studied the other houses around. The curtain in a house across the road moved in the front window.
‘Do you think he might be watching the house?’ Jeanie asked.
‘I don’t think so.’ They sat in silence for a few minutes: both deep in thought.
‘I want you to push hard interviewing this little boy – Jackson. It’s a difficult process,’ said Carter, shrugging. ‘I understand it’s not going to be easy. But we can’t underestimate the importance of that little boy’s memory and we can’t afford to lose it.’
‘I don’t know much about Down’s, to be honest, or what his limitations are.’
‘You’ll have to work it out. Research it. Do it on the job. Use your intuition.’
Jeanie shook her head. ‘I don’t feel qualified to handle it. Have you talked to Child Protection?’
‘Yes, but I think you should handle the whole thing. You’re Family Liaison and you’ve been in Child Protection. Too many people in the house might just make him more worried and freaked out. We have a woman in the morgue, and one missing, and he’s the nearest thing we have had to a witness. What has he said so far?’
‘One man was in the flat that night. He was white with brown hair. Danielle tried to make him leave but he wouldn’t go.’
‘Anything else?’
Jeanie looked at him accusingly, then she turned away, shaking her head.
‘Look, Jeanie – bottom line, I have faith in you but if it gets too much we can pull you off it. Just remember we’re a team. We’re all in this twenty-four seven till it’s over.’
She turned on him: ‘I can’t stay round here twenty-four seven. I have Christa to consider. I have a life beyond the job.’ She looked across at Carter who was watching her. The old affection they had once had for each other gave them an intimacy. He studied her profile. It was hard not to remember what she looked like lying next to him. His eyes went past her to the large snowflakes that had started to fall, drifting so slowly down to earth.
Her eyes searched his. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have come back after I had Christa. It’s been an uphill struggle since then. Then I left myself open to the mistake that nearly cost me my life. It’s a year ago I was stabbed. Maybe I should have called it a day then.’
‘No, Jeanie. You were meant to work in this field. It’s not a job for you, it’s a vocation.’
She rolled her eyes and groaned. ‘Don’t give me that crap please.’
But he could see she knew what he was saying was right.
‘You have to juggle life.’ She didn’t answer but stared out at the snow. ‘Look,’ Carter continued. ‘I understand. I don’t want to lose you. Just be here in the day to talk to the boy and someone else can take over the evening shifts if she needs someone to stay the night. She probably won’t. How’s that?’
Jeanie sighed, rested her head back on the headrest. She closed her eyes, exasperated. ‘It’s bound to entail more than that. I’ll think about it. I have to talk to Peter.’
‘Peter knows it’s your job, Jeanie. He married a copper.’ Carter got out of the car. Jeanie caught him up. She was cross and she held him back by his arm.
‘Don’t be a tosser, Dan. Last year, almost to the day, I nearly bled to death on the job you say I was born to do – I nearly died doing it. There’s not a moment I don’t feel vulnerable. I have a hard job coping with the anxiety. You don’t understand what it’s like.’
He stopped and turned to face her.
‘I’m sorry . . . I do understand because I understand you. I know what you are capable of and how certain things are important to you. I know you can be very tough and still be your sweet, warm, loving, intuitive, wise-beyond-your-years, if not a little self-deprecating self.’
He could see a smile appearing – despite everything he’d managed to work his charm. He was pleased with himself as he turned and started walking towards the house.
She caught him up. ‘Smug bastard.’
‘We’ll get the phones fixed. Every call that comes into Tracy’s phone will go via us. Hello, Tracy.’ Carter stepped inside the house and Jeanie followed, closing the door behind her. ‘I hear you’ve had a phone call?’
She nodded: her eyes wide. Still reeling. ‘Is it Jackson’s dad?’ Tracy was whispering. Jackson was preoccupied with the new toys that Jeanie had brought over for him. Scruffy was lying beside him on the floor, in the corner of the lounge. Tracy had laid out a blanket for Jackson to keep his toys on.
‘No it isn’t him. He was in custody at the time of the call, Tracy.’
‘Who is it then? Who phoned me?’
‘Please, Tracy, keep calm. I know this is something you never imagined you’d have to cope with but you are coping with it,’ said Jeanie. She looked to Carter to continue.
‘We believe that the person who has taken your daughter was also responsible for the death of a friend of Danielle’s – a woman called Emily Styles. Do you know that name?’
‘She was the woman pulled out of the canal.’
‘Yes. She was.’ Tracy sat on the sofa, staring straight ahead. ‘What does he want with Danielle or me?’
Carter glanced at Jeanie. Tracy lifted her eyes. Jeanie shook her head.
‘I can’t answer that, Tracy. He didn’t contact Emily Styles’ family.’
‘Is he going to kill her?’
‘No,’ answered Carter. ‘Nothing is certain, Tracy. He kept Emily captive for months before he killed her. We still have time to find Danielle.
‘He knows who I am. Will he come here? What about Jackson?’
‘Someone can stay with you all the time. Or we can move you to a safe house but, for now, I’d rather you stay here because Jackson needs stability. It’s paramount we handle this right, this is now between you, your daughter and the person who has her.’ Jeanie reached out to try and reassure Tracy with a touch. Tracy had paled, her eyes wide. Jeanie sat beside her and placed her hand on her arm.
‘The phone call was distressing for you, I know, but it means she’s still alive and there’s hope.’
Tracy shook her head, uncertain. She was in a place of panic, fear, a trapped place that Jeanie often saw. It was her job to comfort and to guide families through the trauma of waiting for news about a missing child, of holding on to any hope, of facing facts in the new world they had been dropped into.
Carter tried to reassure her.
‘There is still hope that you will get your life back, Tracy, and Danielle will come back to Jackson, but we have to get it right. Let’s not
scare this man off. He contacted you for a reason. We need to leave the door open for him to contact you again.’
‘Why is he phoning?’
Carter shook his head. ‘Could be a number of reasons.’
Tracy looked at Jeanie’s face. So far Jeanie had read Tracy as a no-nonsense, tell-it-straight type. That was the way she’d deliver news to her, she’d decided. Of course, as the days and sleepless nights passed Jeanie might have to change her tactics.
‘We are doing our best to put together a profile on him, Tracy,’ she said.
‘Yes.’ Carter kept his eyes firmly on Tracy.
Tracy held on to the sides of the sofa. ‘Is he going to kill her?’ she repeated.
‘I’m not going to lie to you, Tracy – we don’t know.’ Jeanie put her arm around Tracy’s shoulders. ‘The last call you had with Danielle, did she mention that it was Emily’s body that was pulled out of Regent’s Canal?’
Tracy shook her head.
‘She told me that someone on her course had gone missing when I first went round to her flat for tea. She said that was really why she contacted me. She wanted a Plan B just in case anything happened to her. She wanted some assurance from me that I would look after Jackson. Oh God . . .’ Tracy hid her face in hands. ‘How terrible. Did she know then? Did she know that she would be taken like this?’
‘She phoned you on Thursday, on the day that the news about Emily Styles’ identity was released?’
‘Yes that’s right, in the evening. I was standing here watching the news with Steve. The identity of that young woman from the canal hadn’t come on the news at that time. It came on after I talked to her when I went back into the lounge – Danielle didn’t mention it at all. If she’d have known that it was her friend she would have told me.’
‘She must have seen the same news bulletin as you then, Tracy. Then the records show she phoned you back.’
Tracy shook her head. ‘I didn’t hear anything from her. I need to get my phone sorted. It hasn’t been working right since that thug threw it across the floor.’
‘We checked Danielle’s phone records. She phoned you here on your landline about twenty minutes after she’d spoken to you on your mobile. Did you check your messages on your landline?’