Unquiet Souls: a DI Gus McGuire case

by Mistry, Liz

  ‘Yeah. They’re all waiting in that car over there. Do you think that’s a safe enough distance away?’

  Ormerton assessed the distance between the house and the vehicle. ‘Which room is the package in and where is it located?’

  Gus told him. Ormerton nodded. ‘If it’s at the back of the house they should be fine there for now. Now, tell me about the package.’

  Ormerton listened carefully as Gus explained, as succinctly as he could, what had happened. He drew a quick diagram of the layout of the kitchen and the parcel’s position on the table.

  Finally, the other man nodded. ‘Ok, I’ll get my suit on and then I’ll go in to assess. You’re right to be cautious. Nowadays with all this easy access to bomb components and the internet instructions to make the fuckers, it’s better to take precautions.’

  Gus smiled slightly at the sergeant’s swearing. Whistling, Ormerton strutted over to his army vehicle, spoke to another officer on his radio and began to don a padded suit and helmet before entering the house. Gus stood, eyes focussed nervously on the front door. Within minutes, Ormerton was back.

  ‘Designed to create a loud bang rather than do any actual damage. I can’t see anything explosive attached to the tin but I’m going to open it under a controlled unit. Fucks up your forensics I’m afraid but better than getting your balls blown off.’

  Feeling his own balls shrivel at the very thought, Gus moved over to the squad car and got in. He wished he’d grabbed his coat from the back of the kitchen chair before he left the house. A few minutes later Ormerton’s colleague arrived and the pair of them, similarly clad and carrying a metal structure, re-entered the house.

  Gus felt edgy. Despite the welcome warmth, he couldn’t settle in the car so when he saw PC Owens approach with a plastic mug of steaming coffee and a blanket, he got out. Handing both to Gus, who wrapped the blanket round himself, they leaned against the car and waited. Gus didn’t know about Owens, but he knew his own body was tense, bracing itself against the sound of a blast. Fortunately, it never came.

  Ten minutes passed, then Owens nudged him gently and nodded to the right. Alex Graves, also coatless, had left the confines of the heated car and was approaching. It was clear from the slump of his shoulders and his nervous glances towards the house that the morning’s events had taken their toll on the man. Gus sympathised. He wasn’t so emotionally involved, but he still felt like he’d been dragged through a thorn bush in the scud. He was hoping against hope that The Matchmaker, because he was certain that’s who was behind this, had contented himself with frightening them with the first big bang and hadn’t left any more surprises for Sergeant Ormerton to find.

  ‘Any news?’ said Alex.

  Gus shook his head. ‘No, we’re still waiting. The bomb expert’s inside as we speak and as soon as he’s done we’ll send the forensics team in. Maybe you and your family should head off somewhere warm till the house is declared safe.’

  Alex thrust his hands into his pockets and shrugged. ‘I don’t think we want to leave just yet. Beth’s feeding the baby and at least they’re warm in the car.’

  Standing side by side the three men continued their vigil. Then, with a sideways glance Gus said, ‘Did you know Jessie visited her son four years ago?’

  Alex tensed and then his head swivelled towards Gus. ‘What?’ He sighed and swept his hand over his hair. ‘Christ, she breached the witness protection.’

  Gus nodded slowly. ‘Looks that way.’

  A heavy silence hovered between them, until finally Alex said in an anguished voice, ‘That’s why she’s nearly catatonic. She’s not said a word since we left the house.’

  Gus nodded again. ‘Probably shock. She’ll be ok.’

  When Alex replied, it was with venom. ‘She might be ok, but what about Molly? She could be dead for all we know. Who knows what those bastards are doing to her.’

  Gus was about to place his good arm round Alex’s shoulder, when he heard a shout from the house. Ormerton still wearing his protective clothing and helmet stood at the door. One hand was raised in an unmistakeable thumbs up.

  Turning to Alex he said, ‘Stay here,’ before walking towards Ormerton, who was divesting himself of his heavy armour as he approached.

  ‘All clear in there now, Inspector.’

  Gus turned and nodded to the forensic team, who’d arrived a while back and were currently waiting a few feet away. Immediately, they jumped into action. Gus walked over to join Ormerton who’d stopped a few feet away from his truck.

  ‘Find anything useful?’

  Ormerton shook his head. ‘Whoever sent that parcel is a fucking bad bastard. He left a little gift behind and in my mind it’s as bad as a fucking bomb.’ He shook his head as if to rid himself of an awful image. Then he pulled his hand out from his pocket and offered his card to Gus. ‘You ever need me for anything, call any of these numbers. I’m working here for another three weeks and it would be my pleasure to help bring this bastard down.’

  Gus narrowed his eyes. ‘What are you not telling me?’

  Ormerton glanced back at the house. ‘Go and have a look.’ He jerked his head back towards Alex, ‘But don’t let him in till everything’s cleared away.’

  Gus’s eyes narrowed and then with a nod he headed to the house.

  Chapter 66

  Wednesday 4pm

  Sampson, eyes red with tiredness, opened the door to the incident room. It was deserted, except for Compo, who was devouring a tuna mayo sandwich at his computer. Sampson walked over to him. He was wired by a combination of too much Red Bull, caffeine and adrenalin. The brainstorm had hit him minutes ago, just as he finished compiling the file he was about to pass on to Compo.

  Now, he stood next to Compo’s untidy desk, his face alight with excitement despite his fatigue, and waited for Compo to look up. When he’d explained his idea, Compo, equally enervated, high-fived him. He quickly dumped his half-eaten sandwich haphazardly on the desk behind him, oblivious to the smear of mayo he left on a file marked ‘Urgent and Private’. He wiped his hand down his Rolling Stones T-shirt, Mick Jagger’s pouting lips open to receive the large blob of mayo he deposited there. Once he was satisfied that his hands were clean enough, his danced his fingers quickly over the keyboard. When Meatloaf’s ‘Bat out of Hell’ suddenly blared from the speakers, he turned round and high-fived Sampson again, before rubbing his hands together like a Yorkshire version of Fagin.

  ‘Yippee, cowboy, let’s bring ’em in.’ he said.

  Slightly bemused, Sampson watched as, head bobbing ferociously to ‘I’ll be gone, gone, gone’, Compo uploaded the footage he’d retrieved onto the PC. Maybe it was the Red Bull, maybe it was Compo’s infectious enthusiasm, but all of a sudden Sampson found himself executing a complicated riff on an air guitar as Compo worked.

  Sampson had been trawling through CCTV footage of the three roads that led to Dales Way Link. He’d been logging each vehicle’s details and comparing them to a list of residents’ vehicles, in the hope they’d identify the car used to drive Molly Graves away from the area. He’d completed the last tape and had inputted the vehicle reg numbers into the ANPR system and was waiting for it to churn out details of the various cars’ whereabouts, when he had a sudden thought. If the Molly Graves’s abduction was linked to both the trafficked children and the attack against Jamal Asif, then maybe, just maybe, the abandoned car found in the Cemetery Road Asda car park had been used to stake out the Graves’s residence prior to being abandoned.

  Sampson realised that if he correlated the movements of that car between the time it was stolen and the time it was found, then they’d have a rough idea where the driver had been in the car. Hopefully, that would then throw up areas of interest where they could access CCTV and cross-match to ID the shooter and get some clues to where he was holed up. Sampson didn’t know a quick way to do this, however, he knew a man who did. Which was why, half an hour later, while one of Compo’s special little computer programmes did its thing
, the two of them were letting off steam in the deserted incident room.

  That was when the door opened and in walked DCI Hussain. Noticing the senior officer first, Sampson tried to attract Compo’s attention by coughing and allowing his hands, mid riff, to drop to his sides. When Compo finally realised, he was in the process of executing an ungainly half-split. Immediately, he toppled over onto the floor, knocked a pen pot off a nearby desk and then quickly scrambled up to silence Meatloaf.

  DCI Hussain looked unamused. His body was tense, hands clasped behind his back. His normally patrician face was lined with a frown that started at his forehead and didn’t stop. When he spoke, he enunciated each syllable in an accusing monotone. ‘What exactly is going on here?’

  Sampson and Compo exchanged nervous glances, then realising they were expected to reply, Sampson spoke. ‘We just got a bit of a breakthrough and… er… whilst the computer programme was running we thought we’d… em… well, celebrate.’ He splayed his hands in an apologetic gesture, while Compo, head bowed beside him, remained silent.

  Hussain’s eyes narrowed. ‘Idiots! I’ll be bringing this up with DCI Chalmers. I always thought DI Gus McGuire didn’t run a tight enough ship and this just proves it.’ He glanced round the room, his mouth curled up in distaste at the less than pristine evidence of hard work. ‘I’m looking for my daughter. Where is she?’

  Sampson all but saluted. ‘Sir, she’s in Ilkley with DI McGuire.’

  ‘Hmmph, she’d have been better off here, keeping an eye on you two fools.’

  Sampson, slightly narked by the inference that Sadia was superior to him, reddened but stood his ground. ‘With all due respect sir, DC Hussain is of equal rank to both myself and DC Compton and as such she’s not in a position to ‘keep an eye’ on me.’

  Hussain’s frown deepened. ‘Are you contradicting me, Sampson?’

  Compo, agitation making him bounce on the spot, glared at Sampson and said, ‘No, no, sir. DC Sampson wasn’t contradicting you. You wouldn’t dream of it, would you, John?’

  ‘For goodness sake, stand still. Does McGuire not have a single normal officer, other than my daughter, on his team?’ And before they could reply he spun on his heel and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

  Chapter 67

  Wednesday 4:30pm, Ilkley

  The house was freezing as Gus walked along the hallway, his shoes dripping slush on the highly polished real wood floor. Ormerton had switched off the Aga and the scene of crime officers had been trailing in and out with their equipment leaving the doors open. Before entering the kitchen, he grabbed a bunny suit from the box by the door, hitched his tall frame into it, donned some nitrile gloves and covered his shoes. Ready, he walked through the door.

  A very faint smell of burnt cardboard lingered. The exploded box had been moved to the work surface and now all that lay on the table was the tin box that Ormerton had cleared. Gus’s jacket still hung on the back of the chair, which was pushed out as he’d left it. He grabbed it and shrugged it over his shoulders. He nodded at Hissing Sid, the senior Scene of Crime Officer, who waved him over to the table where a few scattered pieces of scorched cardboard lay with the red metal tin open in the centre.

  ‘Not a lot we can pull from here really, Gus. Soon as you’ve seen this in situ, we’ll bag everything up and be out of your way.’

  Gus’s eyes strayed to the tin. When he saw what was inside a muscle twitched in his cheek. Now, it looked like they had the confirmation they needed that Molly Graves had been abducted. Tresses of golden red curls, on a scrap of white fabric lay in the centre of the open tin.

  ‘Fucking sick bastard, eh?’ said Sid

  Gus nodded.

  Sid pointed to the pictures on the fridge. ‘It’s hers, isn’t it? That hair’

  ‘Yep, looks like it.’ Gus’s gaze moved to a scrap of paper that had been unfolded and lay beside the tin. It had four creases showing where it had previously been folded. Gus read the words that were scrawled in red crayon. ‘You’ve got email.’

  He turned to PC Owens who had followed him in and now stood at the door. ‘Get the family back up here now and see if you can find either DS Cooper or DC Hussain.’

  Owens nodded and left. Gus looked at Sid. ‘Child’s writing, you reckon?’

  Sid looked at it. ‘Probably, yes. But we’ll know more when I’ve analysed it.’

  ‘Can you bag it open like this? I’ll show it to the parents see if they can identify the writing as Molly’s.’

  ‘Sure thing.’

  Gus turned and saw Alice entering the room. Her gaze immediately fell to the tin and the note. Her hand flew up to her mouth as she took a single step nearer. ‘Fuck.’

  ‘My sentiments exactly,’ said Gus

  He turned to Alice. ‘When this lot have gone, I want you to bring the family back in. We need to access their emails. And get Compo here.’ Leaving Gus to strip off his bunny suit and flick the kettle on she left.

  By the time Beth, Alex and Jessie, accompanied by Janine Roberts the FLO, had returned to the house and settled baby Sam in his pram, Gus had mashed a pot of tea and was busy pouring it into mugs. He sat down opposite Beth. ‘I’ve got something to tell you and it’s not pleasant but I need you, for Molly’s sake, to hold it together, ok?’

  Beth paled and she clutched her husband’s hand. With a single nod, she indicated she was ready for Gus to continue. Knowing there was no way to lessen the blow Gus spoke slowly and clearly his gaze never wavering from Beth’s face

  ‘We found tresses of curly golden red hair that seems to match that of your daughter. They were in the tin that was inside the cardboard parcel.’

  Beth scraped back her chair, rushed over to the sink and vomited. The acrid smell hung heavy in the air, as Alex rushed to join his wife at the sink. Quickly, he rinsed the sick away and took her into his arms. She collapsed against him, shoulders heaving for a few seconds and then, abruptly straightened and walked back to the table. Wordlessly she sat back down. Meanwhile, Jessie sat at the other end of the table weeping silently, tears flowing unchecked down her cheeks. Janine Roberts had her arm round the older woman’s shoulder.

  Beth looked at Gus and he resumed. ‘We’ve sent it off for analysis but at the minute we’re assuming the hair is Molly’s.’ He paused. ‘There was also a note.’ He turned the bag over and pushed the note closer to them. ‘Does that look like Molly’s writing?’

  Beth took a quick glance and nodded.

  Gus tapped the bag. ‘Then we need you all to access your email. It looks like the kidnapper has communicated with one of you.’

  Alex jumped to his feet and took the laptop from the cupboard that housed the security equipment. Laying it on the table, he booted the laptop up. ‘We’ve not even looked at our emails today. Too busy worrying about Molly.’ Then when it was ready he said, ‘Whose mail shall I check first?’

  ‘Beth’s, I think. If it is this Matchmaker character, then it’s Beth he wants to hurt,’ said Gus.

  With trembling fingers Beth accessed her email. Gus moved round the table to stand behind her so he could see the screen over her shoulder.

  ‘Anything?’

  Beth scrolled down her mail and stopped at an email with the subject heading ‘I’m coming to get you’.

  Gus grabbed her hand as she looked about to open it.

  ‘Wait! Don’t open it yet.’ He turned to Alice. ‘Is Compo on his way?’ Turning back to Beth he said, ‘I want my IT expert to check this out. I don’t want any clues that might lead us to the sender to be erased if we open it without taking precautions.’

  Beth sagged back in her chair her eyes never leaving the screen.

  Ten minutes later, Gus met Compo at the door. Looking slightly dishevelled, Compo stomped up the steps and into the hallway lugging a huge bag over one shoulder and pulling a trolley case. ‘Vultures are gathering out there now, Gus.’

  ‘Suppose it was only a matter of time really. You manage to get everything you need?�
�

  ‘Yes, brought most of it yesterday but we expected them to communicate via phone. Never mind, I’ve got all I need here. I’ll have to hook up to their PC though.’

  Compo shuffled into the kitchen behind Gus. When Gus turned round he recognised the other man’s nerves and smiled encouragingly. Compo looked at the spacious kitchen table where Alex’s laptop sat and turned to Beth. ‘You ok for me to spread out here?’

  Beth nodded abruptly and continued to stare open-eyed at the screen whilst her baby nuzzled greedily at her breast.

  Compo hooked up various pieces of gadgetry to the computer and then moved back to monitor his own screen. He pressed a couple of keys and then said, ‘You can open it now’

  Beth, hand trembling, leaned forward and clicked on the email. There was no message, just a video attachment. She glanced up at Gus, who waited till Compo nodded before saying. ‘Right, Beth, open it.’

  At first it was unclear what they were seeing as the camera wobbled all over the place. Gus frowned as he realised that it was pointing at the roof of what looked like an old warehouse. Then, it panned down and steadied. There in front of the recorder was a young girl with a head full of golden red curls, sitting on a mucky mattress, her knees curled up to her chest, and a soiled sheet draped round her skinny shoulders.

  ‘Molly!’ Beth rammed her knuckles into her mouth to stop herself screaming.

  Molly’s face was tear-stained, her hair dishevelled, making her eyes look huge in her pallid face. A muffled distorted voice addressed the girl and then a figure wearing a Scream mask and a white coverall, walked over to her. She screamed and scrambled back up the bed, her feet kicking frantically against the mattress. When she could go no further, she turned to her side and tucking her head in she curled into a ball. Frantic, hiccupping sobs rent the air. Her shoulders heaved. The figure in the Scream mask turned, sneering into the camera and then the distorted voice spoke, echoing into the kitchen. ‘Now you’ll see what it is to suffer, bitch!’