"But Adrian..."
"No mum, you should follow those people over there. They are going around the estate. I'm going with this group; they are going to the allotments."
Jocasta was upset that Adrian didn't want to walk with her. She had only agreed to go with him because it might mean they would spend some time together and now she had to traipse around the estate with people who never acknowledged her, to look for a girl she didn't really care about, although she did hope that they found her quickly, Eastenders was on tonight and she really wanted to know what was going to happen to Roxy who had just been driven into a frozen lake.
-x-
Adrian wasn't panicking about Savannah being found. He knew her body would come to light at some stage and decided he would like to be in control of when that might be. When he saw the expected News reports on the television, it pleased him that the Wests had jumped on the media bandwagon and had decided to hold their own search rather than allow the police to do their job.
Knowing where he had hidden Savannah's body, Adrian knew he needed to be on the search team which went over to the allotments, so on reaching the crowd; he kept his ears open to ensure he knew which groups were going where. He didn't want to be distracted by his mother wittering on in his ear so made sure he directed her to another search team.
When his group of searchers - which included Savannah's step-father - set off, Adrian was at the front, leading the group at a brisk pace. Whilst walking along the streets to get to the allotments, Adrian made a big show of looking in hedges and calling Savannah's name. The groups were followed by several media companies all hoping to be present when Savannah was found alive or dead.
About fifteen minutes later, Adrian's group entered the rusted gates of the allotment. Adrian had been speaking to Mike, who told Adrian he had been called by countless newspapers and was currently sorting out a deal to sell his story. He told Adrian that even if Savannah was found alive he still stood to make at least ten thousand pounds out of it. Adrian was actually disgusted by Mike's attitude towards Savannah's situation. He realised he actually thought a lot more of Savannah than her own family. He decided he had probably done her a favour and saved her from a life spent in misery.
The group comprised of around six people if you didn't include the media who were happy to observe and report about the search rather than actually take part in it. Adrian turned to the group and began to direct them to different corners of the allotment, suggesting they all meet back at the gates once the search was completed. Adrian headed off in the direction of the stream which ran behind the allotments. He was followed by his new found friend Mike who was rolling yet another cigarette. Adrian called out, "Savannah." A few times, Mike lit the cigarette and kicked half-heartedly through the various vegetables which grew in plots around them. Adrian and Mike followed the stream until they reached the tunnel which went under the dual carriageway that ran past the allotment. The tunnel was heavy with vegetation and the stream was barely visible. "Come on," said Mike, "She won't be in there, she can't swim."
"I will go in and have a look though, you never know, we have to check everywhere." Adrian replied. He stepped down the shallow bank into the stream and made his way through the vegetation into the tunnel itself.
Mike, who was still of the mind-set that Savannah was alive and hiding in a friend's house somewhere stood and waited for Adrian to return. He exchanged pleasantries with the cameraman who had followed him and confirmed with them his belief of where and how they would find Savannah.
"Oh my fucking god," a cry came from inside the tunnel.
The cameraman immediately put his mobile video recorder up to his eye and pointed it in the direction of the tunnel where he had heard Adrian make that comment.
Mike and the cameraman heard the sounds of footsteps splashing in the stream and watched Adrian come out of the tunnel, carrying the grey and swollen body of a child in his arms; laid flat on its back with legs and arms dangling towards the ground. Long brown hair hung over the child's eyes obscuring its face.
Mike stepped forwards and moved the hair out of the way.
"It's her." he shouted. "It's Savannah, oh my God." He sank to the floor on his knees and began to cry.
The cameraman propped his camera in the crook of his arm and reached for his mobile phone. He rang the number on the leaflet after calling his reporter colleague. PC Mann answered and he said, "We've found her, she's dead. You need to come to the stream behind the allotment, now."
Adrian stepped out of the river and sat down on the grass, cradling Savannah in his arms. He waited for the police to arrive so he could deliver his angel into their arms.
-x-
Jocasta heard amongst her group that Savannah's dead body had been found. When she was told that it was at the allotment, her first thought was of Adrian as she knew he had been in the group which had gone to that area to conduct the search. Rather than return to the Community Centre as asked, Jocasta made her way to the allotment. She had to be sure that Adrian was ok.
When she arrived at the allotment it was teeming with police officers, men in white suits, cameramen and reporters. Countless vehicles were parked in the alleyway leading up to the gates and Jocasta carefully moved herself around them until she got to the rusted gates at the end of the alleyway. She was stopped by a young officer as she tried to go through them.
"I'm sorry Ma'am, you can't go in there," said the officer.
"My son was on the search party." Jocasta told him. "Please I have to see if he's ok."
"Ma'am I can't let you in there, we have a job to do and we don't want to contaminate the scene any more than is necessary. Let me find out where your son's gone, what's his name?"
"Adrian Brown."
The officer got onto his radio and quietly spoke into the receiver. He twiddled the knobs on the radio and then held it close to his ear, the crowds about him making it difficult for him to hear. After a brief conversation the officer turned back to Jocasta and said, "It seems as if it was your son who found her ma'am."
Jocasta gasped, she was shocked; poor Adrian, she thought, to have seen a dead body, he must be in a really bad way. "Well I really must go to him then, where is he now?" she asked.
"He's been taken back to Olinsbury police station so that he can make a statement. If you want to see him you will need to go there. Now please ma'am, you really do need to leave the scene."
"Yes ok, thank you." Jocasta turned away from the officer and tried to work out her best course of action. The only way she could think of getting to Adrian was by bus so she made her way back towards her estate and waited twenty minutes for a bus to come along. As she sat on the bus all she could think about was how Adrian must be feeling. She had never seen a dead body before, she could only imagine what that must be like and to see a dead child must be ten times worse in her estimation. She was concerned that this may psychologically affect Adrian and resolved to take him to the GP when they were able so she could get him some counselling. She wasn't going to let this spoil Adrian's life.
Jocasta was so consumed in her worry for Adrian, she barely gave little Savannah a thought. Not being directly related to her, Jocasta did not feel affected by Savannah's death. It was no different to how she felt when children were reported in the media. She was sad and found it despicable, yes, but it only warranted a thought when actually pushed in her face by the papers or the television. Her feelings about it disintegrated along with the newspapers the news was written on. This time, however, something had happened to her son and she was desperately worried about how he might be suffering.
Jocasta arrived at the police station and went straight to the front counter to ask after Adrian. A man in a grey suit came out of a door leading off the reception area and made his way towards her.
"Hello ma'am, I'm the investigating officer in this case, my name is Detective Inspector Turnbull." He held out his hand to shake Jocasta's and she obliged. She looked up and thought what a handsome m
an he was. Certainly a man who could turn her mind away from a situation - if only briefly - he was a silver fox just like Philip Schofield she thought. To add to this, he was tanned and had laughter lines around his eyes, the thing she noticed most about him though were the green eyes which gazed upon her. She had seen most colour eyes but none so vividly green as these, they looked as if they could see into her very soul. DI Turnbull gave a slight cough alerting Jocasta to the fact she still had hold of his hand and had been shaking it for longer than was required. She pulled her hand away.
"Are you Mrs Brown?" He enquired.
"It's Miss Brown. Where's my son?"
"He's just giving his statement to police and we need to take his fingerprints and DNA for elimination purposes." He told her.
Jocasta didn't understand what DI Turnbull was saying. "What does that mean?" she asked.
DI Turnbull cleared his throat and explained. "Your son found Savannah, Miss Brown. He picked her up from the stream and carried her to the bank. He may well have left his fingerprints or DNA at the scene or on Savannah so we need to identify them in the hope we can separate them from anything her killer may have left."
"Was she murdered then?" Jocasta was horrified by this notion. She had believed that maybe Savannah had fallen in the stream and banged her head, that it had been accidental. It hadn't occurred to her that Savannah may have been brutally murdered.
"It looks that way." DI Turnbull started to shift from one foot to another, he obviously had some place else he wanted to be. "I can't really discuss it any further with you, if you would like to take a seat we will send Adrian out to you when he's ready."
"OK thanks." Jocasta sat in the same blue seat she had sat in six years ago, the last time Adrian was at the station. She sat back and watched the continuous stream of humanity which came and went from the police station. She was glad that at least this time Adrian was here because he was a hero rather than a villain. Knowing there was no way she would get to watch Eastenders now; Jocasta sat back and closed her eyes to wait for her son, her hero, her Adrian.
Chapter 16
'Keep your love for each other at full strength because love covers a multitude of sins.'
I Peter 4:8
Detective Inspector Todd Turnbull was known as Todger to his friends and colleagues, mainly because he had been rumoured to be 'over the side' with nearly every female police officer he had ever met. Having such a reputation within the police did not make Todd an outcast amongst his colleagues. He was a good copper, had earned his right to be an inspector and was respected as a good detective who hadn't lost sight of his job, despite being promoted into an office. He was known as someone who got his hands dirty and actively participated in investigations rather than just overseeing them from behind a desk. Todd actually believed it was an advantage to gain a nickname amongst his peers, even though he hadn't earned that particular accolade. In reality he had only slept with ten women; which at the age of forty was not that many. His handsome looks made him the pursued rather than the pursuer and the females never seemed to brag about the fact he'd knocked them back.
When the report landed on his desk about Savannah West's disappearance he was of the same opinion that she was just another runaway teen. It came as a shock to him when a call came from PC Mann informing him the little girl had been found in a stream that morning. To Todd's chagrin the body had been moved and touched by a few people before proper police protocol could be put into place to preserve the crime scene. Todd was annoyed that appropriate steps hadn't been taken to ensure the people searching knew not to touch anything they found, but he understood that no one really expected to find anything.
He had arrived at the allotments to find the little girl lying naked on the grass by the stream. She didn't seem like a human being, her skin was no longer the colour of flesh, she was grey and swollen a gaping wound was evident on her chest. Her eyes were half open, it was as if she was looking directly at him, waiting for him to speak to her, but he knew the eyes saw nothing and never would again. Todd found himself drawn to her, he had an urge to pick her up and hold her. She was so young, he needed to cuddle and protect her. Todd fought these urges and forced himself to turn away from Savannah. He looked for the Scenes of Crime officer who was usually covered head to toe in white protective overalls. He saw her now coming out from the tunnel the stream flowed into.
"Jan." he shouted, getting her attention.
"Jan, come over here." He gestured at her to leave the stream and join him on the bank. Jan came over, only her chubby face visible in the elasticated surround of her paper hood.
"Hello sir." Jan came to stand beside him.
"What have you found?" Todd asked her.
"Well there's nowhere to get fingerprints from Guv." She shrugged. "She was found in running water; anything that may have been there has probably been washed away. Hopefully we can get something from her body. Poor little mite."
Todd returned his gaze to Savannah, he couldn't stand to see her so bare against the ground.
"Ok do we actually need her here still?" he shouted at the people milling around. They all stopped to listen to their Inspector.
"Has the photographer finished?" Todd asked.
"Yes Guv." The photographer waved his camera at Todd.
"Has the Coroner carried out his investigations?"
"Yes Guv," came the group response.
"Right then get her covered up and get the ambulance men to pick her up and take her to the Coroner's office. If you had finished you should have covered her up, she's a baby for fucks sake." Todd knew they had probably left Savannah's corpse in situ so he, as the investigating officer, could see her. But as it was not the actual spot she had died in, he saw no purpose in that. He turned to his DS who had walked up beside him.
"OK Mary, get the search team in here. I need these allotments gone over with a fine toothcomb. I want to know if this is where she died, we need to find her clothes and we need to know how she got in that tunnel."
"Yes Guv."
"Where is the person who found her?"
DS Mary Webb gestured to Adrian and Mike who were at the edge of the allotment; Mike still on the ground, his grief apparently taking away his ability to stand. Adrian was just looking in their direction, wet up to the knees, hands in pockets, watching the goings on around him.
"The one standing up found her sir," said DS Webb. "The one on the floor is her step-dad."
"Her step-dad; what, he was here when she was found?" asked Todd.
"Yes he was on the search party that came to the allotments."
"That's convenient." Todd was already looking for suspects. A study of child killers he had read suggested the killer would often return to a crime scene and would even take some part in the investigation. It was reported that most killers who had been caught had been spoken to in the first week of investigation. Todd knew all of this and also knew that it was often somebody known to the victim. Right now Mike the stepfather was looking to be his most likely candidate for investigation.
Todd once again encouraged his staff to be thorough and to remove Savannah's body as quickly as possible. He wanted her looked at in the confines of the mortuary so they could get as much evidence as possible and catch the daemon who had killed this poor child. He demanded that the stepfather and the boy who had found the body, be taken to the police station so they could be questioned and then decided to head back there also as he wanted to prepare the questions to ask Savannah's stepfather. Hopefully the right question with the right delivery would get Todd the answers he needed.
As Todd went to leave the allotment he heard a heart wrenching screech come from the entrance.
"My baby, my baby, oh my baby." came the cry. He saw a woman stumble through the gates and down on the ground beside the stepfather. The woman started hitting the man about the head and shoulders and he sat, allowing the blows to rain down upon him. A police officer stepped in and grabbed the woman under her arms, pulling her up
into his embrace where she then relented and stood crying into the officer's shoulder.
"The mother," DS Webb said.
"Yeah thanks Mary, I'd worked that one out for myself." sniffed Todd. "She doesn't seem too happy with her fella does she?"
DS Webb shrugged, "Wouldn't surprise me if she thinks he did it." She said.
"You know, I was just thinking the same thing." Todd confided in her, "What a fucked up world we live in."
-x-
Will Turner, the Coroner; finished his autopsy of Savannah West. Having been a Coroner for many years he had seen copious amounts of dead bodies in differing degrees of decay. Nothing turned his stomach; he could quite easily eat his lunch whilst peering at the remains of an elderly man who had not been discovered until after the build-up of his stomach acid had caused him to explode.
Recently however, Will had become a father to a beautiful baby girl called Betsy-Lou. She was the most precious thing he had ever set eyes on and a great desire to protect her had overcome him. Whilst he may never grow up enough to stop playing with his remote controlled planes, he had certainly matured into a nurturing father who understood the love a parent has for their child. Savannah's autopsy was his first child's body since his life changing fatherhood and he found himself more and more enraged as he uncovered the circumstances of her death.
DI Turnbull entered the room once the autopsy was complete. He never entered whilst a body was on the table. He didn't feel the need to share in every grisly detail of a victim's dissection and Todd felt it was more respectful to give them their privacy, even in death.
"Hi Will, what have you got for me, and please;" He held up his hand before Will could reply. "No medical jargon, just give it to me straight."
"OK," Will readied himself to deliver the news, "I'm afraid she was raped and sodomised."
Todd took a step back to lean on the bench near the wall of the sterile environment. He had been expecting rape or some sort of sexual abuse but had not expected such complete violation of a young girl.
Mother Be The Judge Page 10