Torment

by David Evans

  “I know …”

  “And she’ll be in a lot of trouble if you have to be re-admitted because you’ve been ignoring advice and overdoing it.”

  Susan sulked. “All right, all right. But here’s my take on the story.” She held out the notepad he had given her in the hospital. “Promise me you won’t change it.”

  “Well, it won’t be down to me …”

  “Promise me.”

  “Susan, I said we’d work this together. I’ll look at this and do what I can. But all reporters are subject to the vagaries of our editors, you know.”

  Susan held his gaze.

  “I’ll do what I can,” he said softly.

  By the time he got into his car, his mobile was ringing. It was John Chandler, the deputy Editor. “Bob,” he said, “we’ve got the go ahead to report on those schoolgirls. I need something within the hour.”

  Souter flipped open the notebook Susan had given him and quickly scanned what she’d written. “Already started,” he responded.

  54

  When Strong and Denholme came out of the interview room, Flynn called down the corridor to him.

  “Colin, can you spare a minute?”

  While Denholme made his way to the CID Room, Strong followed his boss upstairs.

  “Immigration have just turned up and want to remove the women to Morton Hall, their detention centre in Lincolnshire,” Flynn said. “I couldn’t put them off any longer.”

  “That’s fine, sir. I don’t think they have much more to tell, unless we get a surprise from the forensics at Luxor Grove.”

  Flynn paused at the top of the stairs. “In the meantime, I’ve got an old friend of yours in my office. And he’s none too pleased.”

  Strong was puzzled.

  “Frank Halliday’s come in complaining he wanted to interview Szymanski and Mirczack in connection with Chris Baker’s murder and you’ve shanghaied him.”

  “Should have got his arse into gear earlier then, shouldn’t he?” Strong grinned.

  Flynn looked serious. “Colin, you should have kept him in the loop with your progress on that massage parlour.” He held up both hands. “I know. It took him some time to make the connections but … play it down eh? And share what you know.”

  Strong shook his head resignedly and followed Flynn into his office.

  Halliday was standing by the side of Flynn’s desk, arms folded and face flushed. When he saw Strong, he launched into a verbal onslaught. Flynn cut him short.

  “Frank, you’re not doing your blood pressure any good.”

  “Fuck the blood pressure.”

  “Sit down, Frank. DCI Strong will bring you up to speed with progress from his side of the enquiry. Then, I’m sure, he won’t object to you sitting in on his next interview with Szymanski.” Flynn looked at Strong for confirmation as Halliday slowly sat down.

  “I’ve got no problem with that, sir. We’re just giving him ten minutes with the brief. He’s considering his position on the whereabouts of a second house.” Strong took the other seat in front of Flynn’s desk, next to Halliday. “We know there’s another location where a separate team of girls are housed. Our information is that Mirczack is currently out of the country but we should be notified as soon as he checks in for return.”

  “That’s if he comes back,” Flynn added.

  “That, of course is what I suggested to Szymanski. The implications for him are what he’s giving thought to now.”

  Over the course of the next ten minutes, Strong outlined all that had happened in the previous twenty-four hours, after which, Halliday seemed calmer.

  Strong collected Denholme from the CID Room and, along with Halliday, walked into Interview Room 2. Szymanski appeared more contrite.

  “My client will be able to provide the information you require, Chief Inspector,” the solicitor announced.

  “Thank you.” Strong restarted the recording machine. “Interview with Stefan Szymanski resumed at thirteen fourteen pm. Joining us in the room is Detective Chief Inspector Halliday from Leeds CID who is investigating the murder of Chris Baker.”

  Both detectives sat down as Szymanski glanced across at the new arrival.

  “So, Mr Szymanski,” Strong resumed, “you’ve obviously given some thought to our previous conversation.” The Pole nodded. “The other girls, where are they?”

  “I had nothing to do with any murders.”

  “Where are they?”

  “They should be at 47 Back Cooper Street. It’s off Chapeltown Road. You took the keys from me when I came in.”

  Strong looked to Denholme. “Can you fetch Mr Szymanski’s possessions from Custody?”

  Denholme got up and left as Strong made the announcement for the tape. A few minutes later, Denholme returned with a brown envelope and tipped the contents onto the table.

  The keys are on here.” Szymanski picked up a bunch of keys and isolated a Yale key and one for a deadlock. “These are for the front door.”

  “Get these down to the team. You know what to do,” Strong said to Denholme.

  The Vice Squad officer picked up the keys, returned the rest of Szymanski’s possessions to the envelope and left the room, Strong making another tape announcement.

  “Now, before you took a break to consider your position, I showed you a photograph of this man, Chris Baker.” Strong placed the photograph on the table once again. “You confirmed that he had visited Sweet Sensations on Tuesday 30th August.” Szymanski nodded. “For the benefit of the tape, Mr Szymanski has nodded confirmation. My colleague, DCI Halliday would like to ask you more about this.”

  Halliday leaned forward, barely acknowledging Strong. “Was this the last time you saw Chris Baker?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sure about that?”

  “I told you, yes.”

  “And he was a regular customer here?”

  “He liked Mariana … I mean Lyudmyla.”

  “But he also visited for another reason, didn’t he?”

  Szymanski shrugged and looked down.

  Halliday leaned forward, closer to him. “He was providing confidential information from his workplace, wasn’t he, Mr Szymanski?”

  The Pole never looked up from the table. “Yes.”

  Halliday sighed. “So can you tell me exactly what that information was?” His voice grew louder.

  Finally, Szymanski looked up at Halliday. “He was passing on details of vehicles, their owners’ names and addresses.”

  Halliday’s voice became softer. “And why was he doing that?”

  “It wasn’t my idea,” Szymanski protested. “I didn’t want to get involved.”

  “Again, why did Baker provide information to you?”

  “We had threatened to tell his wife he visited Lyudmyla.”

  “That’s another aspect of interest, thank you for that, but what I meant was, what were you going to do with these details?”

  “Mr Mirczack wanted them.”

  Halliday rubbed his face with both hands and exhaled. “Mr Szymanski, your solicitor here stated just a few minutes ago that you were willing to provide us with all the information we require. I have got other things to attend to. I would appreciate if you could just answer each question as fully as possible without holding back. That way, we can sort this mess out sooner rather than later.” Halliday studied Szymanski for a few seconds. “So, why did Mirczack want this information and what was he going to do with it?”

  “I think you know this already. But I tell you, I had nothing to do with it. I think he wanted details of certain types of vehicles located nearby so he could steal them. I only picked up bits of information and worked things out for myself. Once he had these cars he would swap identities with similar vehicles from other parts of England. I think he was shipping them out of the country where he had a market for them.”

  “Thank you Mr Szymanski. It wasn’t that difficult was it?”

  “But I wasn’t involved in any of that.”

  �
�I think you’ll find that by the very fact that you passed the information from Mr Baker to your boss, you are involved,” Halliday concluded.

  Szymanski looked down once more and shook his head.

  “Is that why Mirczack is in Riga?” Strong asked. “Latvia is one of the markets for these stolen luxury vehicles?”

  He looked across at Strong. “I’m not sure, but I think so.”

  “Who actually stole these cars and who changed their identities?”

  Szymanski looked across to the solicitor who gave a slight nod. He took a deep breath then answered. “I believe one was Chris Baker’s brother. I think he had been in trouble before to do with cars. The other was a friend of his. I’m not sure who.”

  “That would be Gary Baker then?”

  Szymanski nodded.

  “For the benefit …” Strong was interrupted.

  “Yes, I believe his name was Gary.”

  “Would the name Steve Chapman mean anything to you?”

  “I think I heard talk of someone called Steve, so that may be him. But I told you, I was not involved with cars.”

  Strong looked to Halliday to seek confirmation that the questioning was at an end for now.

  “Do you own a gun, Mr Szymanski?” Halliday asked.

  The denial came as Strong knew it would. He thought Halliday was just making a point.

  “No. I have no use for guns.”

  “Thank you for the moment. We’ll be back to ask you some more questions later. In the meantime, interview terminated at thirteen thirty-one.”

  Outside in the corridor, Strong confronted Halliday. “Look, I know you’re pissed off about what happened to Jack Cunningham and somehow you blame me for his situation …”

  “He’s an excellent officer,” Halliday interrupted. “He doesn’t deserve what’s happened.”

  “Come on, even he sees that what he did resulted in an innocent man being sent to prison for 4 years. And all because of a bit of rumpy-pumpy with a junior officer. He doesn’t bear a grudge. Why should you?”

  Strong waited as Halliday fixed him with a stare, then decided to take a chance. In a low voice, he said, “Do you want to ask him yourself? Here,” Strong took out his phone and sought the Call Log page on the menu and scrolled down to the number Cunningham had called him from on Wednesday. He held it out to Halliday. “Recognise this?”

  Halliday nodded.

  “He called me the day we found the schoolgirls’ bodies up at the farm. He wanted to give me the benefit of what he could remember when he was involved in the initial investigations when they went missing. Call him. Ask him. That wouldn’t be the actions of someone who blamed me now would it?”

  Halliday hesitated, visibly sagged, then looked up and down the corridor. “Where can we get a cup of tea in this place?”

  By the time they reached the canteen, Strong thought Halliday was more conciliatory, so he let him buy the teas. It was quite busy at this time of the day and Strong was lucky to find a free table in a corner. A few minutes later, the Leeds man joined him.

  “Jack Cunningham was a DC when I first knew him,” Halliday began. “A year later, he was my DS when I became a DI. I saw a lot of me in him. He was a good copper, a good solid detective.”

  “He still is,” Strong put in.

  Halliday shook his head. “No, this thing’s finished him. He’ll take his pension and drop out.” He looked straight at Strong. “I know Jack doesn’t blame you for any of this. But I do. I detested what I saw as an officer dob his colleague in it. He told me you were a straight up sort of bloke.” He looked around to see if anyone else was near enough to hear. In a quiet voice, he continued, “But he also told me about the incident during your drugs raid.”

  Strong’s heart rate increased as his thoughts returned to the discovery he’d made of compromising photos of Cunningham and DC Kathy Sharp. He’d tried his best to keep them discreet but, with the successful appeal of a young man wrongly convicted of sexual assault, the whole sordid tale had come out.

  Halliday saw Strong’s expression. “The problem’s mine, not yours … or Jack’s. I suppose I’m old school. But don’t worry, I was told in the strictest confidence and that’s where it’ll remain. He said you had tried to protect him. He also knew how difficult things were for you at the time and how he must have put you in a terrible position.”

  Strong relaxed slightly.

  “He stressed you did everything for the right reasons. You’re a detective who has to know the whole truth, not just what’s happened but all the whys and wherefores.”

  The two men looked at one another for a few moments.

  “What I’m trying to say is,” Halliday reflected, “I’m sorry if I caused you unnecessary grief.”

  “Forget it.”

  Halliday held out his hand and after a moment’s hesitation, Strong shook it.

  “So what finally led you to Szymanski and Mirczack?” Strong wondered.

  “We did a check on Baker’s finances. Until about six months ago, everything seemed normal. We’d also been talking to a lot of his work colleagues at the call centre. Had his behaviour changed recently? Did he talk about his marriage? Did anything seem to be worrying him? That sort of thing.” Halliday took a drink of his tea. “Again, things seemed to have changed about six months ago. From what we’ve learned since, that was about the time he discovered the massage parlour. One advantage of placing an FLO in the house has been the odd snippet DC Walters has picked up. At times, Janice and Robert have not been the most discreet. During one frank exchange between the two, Janice had told Baker senior that his precious son hadn’t been near her for over a year, if you know what I mean?”

  Strong nodded.

  “She began to wonder if he’d been seeing someone else, someone from work maybe. However, our investigations at Olympia Insurance came up with nothing.”

  Strong leaned forward. “But how did you make a connection to Sweet Sensations?”

  “Ah, that was thanks to you. After you’d spoken to Robert, he was keen to find out if Janice had any inclination. So, as I said, Rebecca, DC Walters, kept her ears open and heard him ask her if the name Sweet Sensations meant anything to her. It didn’t and he had to do some quick thinking to put her off. So, I thought I’d do some digging around with that place myself and came across the names Szymanski and Mirczack.”

  “What was unusual about his finances then?”

  “Up until around six months ago, everything was as you might expect for a married couple of their age, mortgage, two salaries, a few hundred quid on credit cards that they never seemed able to pay off, that kind of thing. But then regular cash withdrawals of a hundred pounds from a number of cash machines between here and Leeds began to appear.”

  “About the time he discovers Sensations,” Strong added.

  “So it would seem. Then, about six weeks ago, they stop. On his credit cards, there’s all the usual items; petrol, weekly supermarket shop, etcetera. Then again about six weeks ago, they disappear. Yes, there’s still the big one off’s, I think he renewed the house insurance on his card. But nothing for the day-to-day items that were there before. And he’s managed to clear them for once.”

  “About six weeks ago is when the first of the cars were knocked off. So if he was paid for his involvement in that, with cash, that would explain how suddenly, petrol and food bills were paid for, in readies,” Strong considered.

  “Exactly.”

  Strong’s attention was caught by Ormerod approaching from the other side of the room.

  “Ah, Luke, have you met DCI Halliday from the Leeds Murder Squad?”

  “Sir,” Ormerod acknowledged.

  “What news from the front?” Strong enquired.

  “We’ve been to Back Cooper Street and now have another four young women in the interview rooms.”

  “Did you get anything from them on the way in?”

  “Not a great deal. Same story as the others. Came here on the promise of a proper j
ob. Szymanski drives them in and out of Sensations.”

  Strong looked across at Halliday. “Do you want to sit in when we interview them, Frank?”

  Halliday shook his head. “Can’t see the point. Can’t think they’d have much to add to what the others have already told you. Until Mirczack shows up, there’s not a lot more I can do.” He stood up. “Thanks, Colin. Keep me informed please.” He held out his hand once more.

  Strong shook it again. “Sure.”

  When he’d left, Ormerod looked back at Strong. “Did I just see what I think I saw,” he said.

  “Don’t worry about it Luke.” Strong rose and the two walked out of the canteen.

  “As Frank says, I can’t see that these other women can add much more. I’ll let you, Kelly, John and Vince interview them. If anything interesting does come up, let me know.”

  “So what are you doing now then, guv?”

  “I’m behind with my reports, Luke,” Strong smiled. “You know how it goes. And no doubt Immigration will be glad to have to come back and collect another four women.”

  As he got back to his office, Flynn followed and closed the door. “Made your peace then?”

  “I think we’re looking at things from the same angle now, sir.”

  “Good.” Flynn walked over to the window and looked out. “He’s not a well man, you know?”

  “I didn’t.” He hid his puzzlement.

  “This will be his last case. He’s retiring at the end of the month.”

  “Sorry to hear that, sir.”

  Flynn turned round and gave Strong a look that said, no you’re not. Aloud, he said, “Carry him through, Colin.”

  Strong opened his mouth to reply but Flynn was half out the door. “Thanks.”

  55

  “Look, John. I’m closer to this story than any reporter has been to any I know. If it wasn’t for Susan, they’d still be lying in that cold, damp basement. She’s off to Leeds to study journalism as soon as she’s back on her feet. She’s a bright girl; woman really.”

  Souter was in Chandler’s office. He’d been called up to go through what was going to form the front page of the first evening edition. He’d had a good run up the M1 from Gillian’s house and was back to the office within twenty minutes. He’d read through Susan’s draft and thought it was a good attempt at a report. A few minor adjustments here and there and some additional information that Souter had gleaned, and it was submitted to his editor.