Captive Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  Donna noted this down, ‘OK, well, we’ll see if we can get in touch with this Lee Percival. We can send someone around to the club to have a word with the manager. Leave it with me and I’ll be in touch. I’ve got your number and details. Do you work?’

  ‘Yes, I’m an admin assistant at the university, chemistry department,’ replied Erin.

  Donna stood up to indicate that Erin should leave the room now. The poor girl picked up her bag and wiped her face with the back of her hand and waddled out in her tight jeans. She would ask someone to pay a visit to The Flamingo and see whether anyone could shine more light on the matter. She would also run those two names through the computer to see if they had any past offences.

  **

  Inspector Mike Harris, ably assisted by Sergeant Andy Walters, was leading a meeting with the CID staff to assign duties for the following day and then most of the team would be allowed home. It had been a long day and so far little progress had been made on the triple murder enquiry. From the evidence so far it bore all the hallmarks of organised crime. The two unfortunate males had upset someone or failed to carry out their task efficiently and had been found surplus to requirements. The girl might be a sex worker, possibly from abroad or someone who just got in the way. It was too early to tell.

  ‘Right, guys, I won’t keep you too long. We need to make a list of urgent actions to follow up. Once we’ve listed them then Andy will assign the jobs,’ said Inspector Harris.

  ‘Firstly, I want to emphasise that we are not releasing a statement that the people in the van were murdered, not yet. The incident will be posted as a fatal traffic accident,’ he looked around the room to see heads nodding and notes being taken. ‘We need to check missing persons reports and follow up if there are any possible connections to this case. Chase up forensics to get the chassis details of the van. Check CCTV in the vicinity of the field and see if we can trace back. Check any reports of stolen vans. See whether ballistics can tell us whether the gun has been used before in any crime, though I doubt it. Any questions or comments?’ He scanned the room and waited a few moments as the assembled team were hastily making notes.

  Mike Harris continued, ‘Good. Now we’ve had a report of an abduction which occurred on Monday but was only reported late last night. Shani interviewed the young woman and her boyfriend this morning. The woman somehow managed to escape and wounded her captor, possibly fatally. The whole story is bizarre in the extreme but we need to check it out. It’s connected with the university and if you remember the other day there was a violent assault. Andy, do you want to fill the team in with more details about this?’

  ‘Sure. Well, it seems the assault was a case of mistaken identity,’ and he consulted his notes. ‘A Mr Nick Thomas was wearing a jacket belonging to a Mr Dan Lythgoe and someone beat him up really badly. Mr Lythgoe has been buying from drug dealer, Wayne Roberts.’ The team groaned as this was a familiar name to them all. ‘Yes, our old friend Wayne Roberts pops up again. However it is more complicated than that. Mr Lythgoe was asked to steal some material from the chemistry laboratory and hand it over to someone who seems to be connected to drug dealing. Exactly why is not clear at this stage,’ He jotted down the names he’d mentioned on the whiteboard. ‘Paul, we need to speak to Mr Thomas in hospital and see whether he can give an identification of his attackers. Dan Lythgoe’s given a description of the person who threatened him but it’s vague.’ He paused. ‘The young girl who was abducted is the girlfriend of the man who we think was the intended victim of the assault.’ There were some murmurings from the assembled team. ‘Yes, I know, it all sounds like a tangled web. I suggest you read the exact details of Mr Lythgoe’s interview. I don’t want to go through it all now.’ He looked around the room, ‘Shani, I think you would be the best person to check out where this young lady, a Miss, what is her name, oh yes, a Miss Jessica Howard says she escaped. You’ve already interviewed her, so gain her confidence, get her talking. Also, we need to know who owns that land. I see from the transcript, Miss Howard claims she stabbed her captor through the eye with a pen.’ He paused as he sensed a couple of his team wince at the image of a pen through the eye. ‘I attended the post-mortem of the charred bodies this afternoon and Alistair suggested that one of the victims had some injury through the eye socket. This could be the person who imprisoned her. What we need to find out is how he came to be barbecued in the back of the vehicle.’ Once again Andy checked his notes before continuing. ‘Miss Howard says that a lady gave her a lift and we have her details, she needs to be interviewed.’

  The team were taking notes as all this information was being relayed. Their faces showed the seriousness of the task ahead and the realisation that they were all in for long working days and nights in the next week.

  ‘OK, thanks for your time. Now get some rest. Hopefully, by tomorrow we will have the full report from the post-mortems and more from forensics.’

  Andy and Mike stayed behind whilst the team left the room. They were both exhausted but had too much adrenaline coursing through their veins to be able to go home and sleep.

  ‘Fancy a pint?’ asked Mike.

  ‘I thought you’d never ask,’ joked Andy. ‘You know it’s all a muddle at the moment but I can’t help feeling all this is connected in some way.’

  ‘Oh, how do you reckon that?’

  ‘I’ve no idea, it’s just a hunch. Instinct.’

  ‘Come on then, we can talk about this over a pint,’ said Mike and they gathered their coats and left the building.

  In a separate room, Sergeant Donna Peters entered the details of her conversation with Erin Jones into the system unaware of how significant Erin’s testimony would prove to be.

  Chapter 49

  Dan and Jessica had spent the night in a budget hotel on the outskirts of Persford. The next morning Jessica awoke very early as she was nervous about having to revisit the spot where she climbed over the wall. The police were clearly annoyed that she’d not reported the crime earlier but there was little she could do about that now. She would have liked Dan to be able to accompany her but there was nothing he could contribute and besides he’d been contacted by Phil Sweetman that he was expected in his office at 9 a.m. for an important meeting. Dan had told Phil that he couldn’t come to the university this morning but would phone him. Dan knew he was in for a complete carpeting over his behaviour at the dinner last night and he would need to confess to his drug habit. They both had a tough day ahead.

  She sensed Dan stirring next to her so cuddled up against him and he kissed her hair. They had about half an hour before they needed to get up and prepare for the day so she just took comfort in the warmth of his body next to her. She hoped that Dan wouldn’t betray her trust and confidence in him by not facing up to his habit. He’d been given a second and final chance otherwise this would be the end of their relationship.

  **

  DS Andy Walters was at his desk by 7 a.m. as was usually the case when a serious crime had just occurred. They had allocated two tasks last night in the team meeting but he still had the rest of the workload to delegate. Mike had asked him to take charge of this as he had some divisional paperwork to complete this morning. CID now had three murders to investigate, the imprisonment of a young girl who had miraculously escaped and a serious assault. This would mean an above average workload for their already stretched workforce.

  His routine each morning was to check the incident log to see what had happened overnight. To his great relief, there was nothing too serious, the usual assaults, thefts, road traffic accidents and so on. He then scanned the records of any member of the public phoning or presenting themselves at the station to report crimes or missing persons. He looked at the list and his eyes settled on the testimony of a Ms Erin Jones who had given details of a missing boyfriend and his friend. This in itself was not unusual but there was a detail which particularly interested him. Ms Jones claimed that the missing man had been offered some work by a permanent employee at The Flami
ngo, a well-known lap dancing club on the outskirts of Persford. This club was owned by a prolific businessman Ron Radford who had never been charged with anything illegal but Andy was sure that there were many activities that were not wholly above board. The problem was proving that to be the case. Could the murdered girl with the poor teeth have possibly worked there?

  He ran the two names Erin had given through the police computer to see whether either had a criminal record. Scott Briggs, her boyfriend had a few juvenile offences but nothing recent. These were mainly for stealing cars, driving without insurance or a licence and vandalism. He’d spent some short spells in a young offender institute but had no recent convictions as an adult. Lee Percival had a criminal record as an adult and had spent a few years in prison for theft, aggravated burglary and assault. Most recently someone had accused him of an assault outside The Flamingo but the charges were later dropped.

  He sat back in his chair. He must be wary of trying to create links where they didn’t exist but he would definitely get someone to find a few minutes in their day or more realistically their evening, to pay a visit to The Flamingo and ask a few questions about their staff.

  **

  DS Shani Patel was driving Jessica to the outskirts of Persford to locate the wall where she had escaped. Shani was chatting to Jessica about her plans for the weekend rather than focusing on recent events in order to try to get the poor girl to relax. She was fidgeting, wringing her hands, touching her hair and picking at bits of fluff on her jacket.

  ‘Which way now?’ asked Shani.

  ‘I think it’s right at the roundabout, yes, that’s it as we turned left going the other way.’

  Shani indicated and pulled over to the right-hand lane. She followed Jessica’s instructions and they proceeded along the road which had grass verges on each side.

  ‘Slow down a little,’ said Jessica, I think it was along this stretch, she said looking over to the right-hand side of the road.

  ‘I’ll pull in at this lay-by and we can take our time. Perhaps it would be better to get out and walk along the verge a little?’

  ‘I wonder whether my coat is still snagged on the wire on the top of the wall?’

  ‘Well, let’s get out of the car and see what we can see?’

  The two women crossed the road and walked carefully along the verge which was muddy in places. They had walked for about two hundred yards when Jessica saw some tyre tracks in the grass. She stopped.

  ‘I think this is where the lady stopped and gave me a lift. She definitely pulled over on to the grass so she didn’t cause an obstruction.’

  ‘So this is the spot where you climbed over then?’

  ‘Wait a minute, no, it’s not here, I remember now, I climbed over and crouched down by the wall for a while. Then I started to walk along the road. But I couldn’t have walked very quickly as I had no shoes.’ Her voice started to break as she relived the trauma of her escape.

  ‘You’re doing very well, Jessica,’ encouraged Shani, passing her arm around Jessica’s shoulders. ‘Just take your time, there’s no rush. Take some deep breaths.’

  After a minute or so they continued along the verge. Jessica was deep in thought. She paused.

  ‘I think it was about here, as I remember that large tree there. It shielded me from the traffic as I sat on the grass.’

  ‘Excellent!’ said Shani. ‘Well there’s no trace of your coat so presumably, your abductors have seen it and removed it. I’ll just radio in about our progress so far.’

  Jessica stood aside and looked around. The surroundings looked so different in broad daylight. As she looked up at the wall she could hardly believe how she had climbed over. It was amazing how adrenaline in the face of adversity could spur the body to achieve something which would seem impossible under normal circumstances.

  ‘OK, yes, we’ll do that,’ said Shani, disconnecting the call. ‘Let’s go back to the car, we don’t want to be spotted by anyone. But I want to drive along this road to see whether we can see a gate or an entrance or something. We can find out who owns this property when we get back to the station but I’d like to take a look all the same.’

  ‘OK, if we are in the car, I just want to get away from here,’ said Jessica, ‘It’s all coming back to me, memories of being locked up. It’s horrible.’

  They made their way back to the car. Jessica had done really well. Shani hoped she would be with the team that came back to interview the resident of the property. It was a pity that Jessica had dropped the keys, they could have been powerful evidence. She just hoped that they could find some other incriminating details.

  **

  Dan phoned the university and asked to be put through to Phil Sweetman’s office. He felt extremely anxious and slightly sick.

  The phone was answered, ‘Phil Sweetman.’

  ‘It’s Dan.’

  ‘Oh, yes, I think you’ve got some explaining to do. I was rather hoping you would have the guts to come in and see me in person,’ said Phil sternly.

  ‘I can explain why I’m not coming in today. I hope you’ll understand.’

  Phil exhaled. ‘Well that depends on what you have to say but firstly I want to say that I have never been so embarrassed at a university dinner as I was on Thursday evening. It was quite obvious what you had been doing before you returned to the table and started on your, how shall I call it, your floor show. Your pupils were so dilated and you were as high as a kite. I’m surprised Prof Zeng didn’t think we had some sort of drug lab going on here rather than being at the forefront of cancer research!’ Phil’s voice had increased in intensity and his face was flushed. ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’

  ‘Sorry, I’m going to go for counselling. I admit I’ve developed a drug habit and I want to stop. I’m mortified at my behaviour at the dinner. It was disgraceful.’

  ‘Hmmm,’ said Phil. ‘Well at least you’ve had the decency to admit you were wrong and have vowed to seek help.’ He paused. ‘For goodness sake, Dan, you were doing so well. One of our best scientists. I would never have imagined you just wanted to throw it all away.’

  Now more than ever Dan was in need of some help from his white powder but he knew that those days were over.

  ‘I’ve spoken to Ian and he says the police are assuming that Nick Thomas was beaten up in a case of mistaken identity. You were their intended target. Does that mean you owed the drug dealers money? Nick could have died because of you. How much did you owe them?’

  ‘I didn’t owe them anything, it’s more complicated. I’ve been to the police and told them the full story. Perhaps I’d better tell you. It all concerns UP-627.’

  Phil couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘What? The front-runner compound? But that’s not psychoactive? You aren’t making any sense.’

  ‘It’s a long story. I’ve screwed up big time. It’s such a complete fuck-up,’ and Dan started to cry. Through periods of sobbing, he told Phil the whole story about the demands of the potential cancer drug and Jessica’s ordeal.

  If Phil could have seen Dan he would have been shocked at what a pitiful sight he was. Phil listened in silence.. He’d arrived that morning thinking he might have to give Dan a formal warning over drug abuse and now he was listening to something which sounded like it was a TV drama. This could have huge ramifications for the future of the planned spin-off company. He just hoped that the fallout could be limited and contained.

  Chapter 50

  Nick was feeling slightly better after a few hours sleep during the night. It had been an emotional reunion with his parents last evening. Lots of tears from everyone. He was pleased that today he didn’t have any scans to endure, he could concentrate on getting well enough to be discharged, hopefully after the weekend. One of the healthcare assistants came over to him and told him that there was a police officer here to see him provided that he felt well enough to answer a few questions.

  ‘Mr Thomas, I’m Detective Constable Paul Goodman,’ and he shook han
ds with Nick. ‘How are you feeling today?’

  ‘A little better, thanks,’ replied Nick.

  ‘Well, that’s great. I won’t keep you long but we just need to go through the events on Thursday evening when you were attacked.’

  ‘It’s all a bit of a blur really and it was dark, so I can’t tell you much,’ said Nick and he closed his eyes and put his head back on the pillow. ‘I’d left my coat in my wife’s office, she works at the university. Dan had a formal dinner so had left his coat behind as he’d changed into his suit. It started to pour with rain so I borrowed his coat and that was the mistake I made,’ Nick paused.

  ‘Take your time, sir,’ said Paul.

  ‘They kept shouting something about the wrong stuff and calling me Dan. I kept shouting that I wasn’t Dan and it wasn’t until my hat fell off that they finally realised.’

  ‘Can you give a description of either of them? Did you hear their names?’

  ‘No, nothing, sorry. They were quite big. One taller than the other, really tall. Both quite stocky. Southern accents, nothing distinctive. Sorry.’

  ‘Not to worry, we have to check all the same,’ and Paul closed his notebook.

  ‘So, I assume that Dan got mixed up with some drug dealers then? I’ve seen him snorting coke at the university. I was going to speak to someone about it but then this happened.’

  ‘Well, it seems so, although it may be more complicated than that,’ and he got up to leave.

  ‘How so?’ asked Nick.

  ‘Well, I’m afraid I’m not able to comment on an ongoing investigation. Anyway, I must get back to the station now.’

  ‘OK, I see, well, bye,’ said Nick.

  Paul put his notebook away and picked up his coat. He raised his hand in a friendly gesture and left the ward, thanking the nurse on the way out. Nick reached for his phone and looked at the various news sites to see whether there were any further updates. He messaged Polly to tell her about his recent visitor. Nick thought back to Dan’s recent behaviour and began to try to make sense of all that had happened since he’d started at the university merely a week ago. He could hardly believe so much had happened in so short a space of time. Just when he appeared to be making a real contribution to the project he found himself in hospital. Life was cruel and he began to think that it was time for a complete change.