by Rashad Salim
There were two seats on the other side and Clark was sitting in one of them. Richardson cautiously sat in the other seat while I stood at the side.
“Clark,” Stein said, his voice was soft but firm. “Richardson tells me he has reason to believe there might be a link between the two cases you lot are working on. What do you think?”
Clark shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that yet, guv. My boy’s still missing. There’s nothing to indicate he’s been abducted or worse.”
“C’mon,” Richardson said. “Think about it. You know deep down you thought of the same thing.”
“Yes, I did. And then I came to my senses when I took everything into consideration.”
“Boss, what are the chances both boys go missin’ so soon together?” Richardson asked.
“A lot of boys have been reported missing,” Clark said. “I don’t know why you think my one’s that special.”
“Both boys were the same age. Both 16 and both Indian,” Richardson said. “What are the chances?”
No one spoke. I guessed we were all waiting for the Chief to have his say.
Chief Stein thought it over and nodded. “How far have you two got with this murder case?” he asked Richardson and me.
I was going to say something but Richardson beat me to it.
“We’re workin’ on the families and friends. DI Rahman and PC Enfield are workin’ together right now to find out if any family members have seen or heard of any of the offenders photos they’ve been shown.”
“Anything else?” Stein asked.
“That’s about it,” I said.
“Do you have any suspects at this stage? Anyone you think is good for the crime?”
I thought about Lawrence Wilson and looked at Richardson, willing him to mention the ex-convict working at the local hospital.
Richardson shook his head and I felt a little anger towards him for not bringing up something so major. I was going to have it out with him about that later.
“What do you make of this?” Stein asked me.
Richardson and Clark both turned to face me.
“I think...there’s a good chance they might be related.” Richardson slapped his knee and made like I had validated his views. “...But like DI Clark said, it’s still a bit too early to be makin’ assumptions about them being linked.”
Richardson’s mouth fell open. He turned to the Chief. “What are we waitin’ for? The missin’ boy to show up dead?”
“We don’t know that!” Clark said. “For all we know he went out and done something stupid he’s probably embarrassed about and he’s on his way home right now.”
“Yeah,” Richardson said, nodding. “Just went on a road trip, did he?”
Clark was fuming and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the two of them had come to blows. I’d heard all kinds of stories about this police department and wondered how many of them had been true.
“Why don’t you mind your own business?” Clark said to Richardson.
I looked at the Chief and wondered if he’d intervene.
Leaning back into his seat with his hands resting together on his belly he seemed to be used to this.
“The way I see it,” Clark said to the Chief, “DI Richardson ought to be busy working on his own case instead of hampering mine. Just because he hasn’t found shit himself, he’s poking around at other cases looking for clues that don’t exist!”
“Oh, fuck off,” Richardson said and looked away in disgust.
Clark had exposed our lack of progress and how we were dealing with that. I had been part of plenty of investigations in the past where nothing was moving ahead and so we ended up going around in circles, over and over the same findings, hoping we’d discover something that had been overlooked before, thinking we were still making progress when all we were doing was killing time.
I couldn’t explain how awkward the atmosphere had become in the office right then but I was grateful Chief Stein finally decided to weigh in.
“...Let’s get back on the ball,” he said. “Clark, you’re doing alright. Keep it up. Go on now.”
Clark walked out of the office without acknowledging either me or Richardson.
“Shut the door, Cole,” Stein said to me. “And take a seat.”
I closed it, dreading what was coming next and sat down.
“Richardson, since you’re the senior officer leading the investigation I’m going to say this. Get your arse into gear. Don’t come to me without anything solid.” Stein looked at me. “You keep him from making a fool of himself again, okay?”
I nodded while Richardson sulked.
“What if I’m right?” Richardson asked Stein.
“Let’s just hope you aren’t,” Stein said. “Now get back to work, both of you.”
We got up and Richardson walked out first. I held back for a moment while he went straight to our office and shut the door. I stood out in the open floor office where all the other officers sat behind their desks, busy working on their own cases.
I spotted Clark at his desk and thought about going over to ease the tension from the discussion we just had but he looked up and saw me, shook his head and looked away.
It was too early for me to be pissing off the other members of the department and in one go I had managed to rub two of them the wrong way. I walked over to my office.
The second I walked through the door, Richardson looked at me and said, “What the fuck?”
I looked at him confused.
“You were supposed to have my back on that! Fuck’s sake, you’re the one who told me all that shit you got from that cunt Clark!”
He had twisted it and I was about to explain when I remembered about Lawrence Wilson.
“Never mind that. Why didn’t you mention Lawrence Wilson? We looked empty handed in there ‘cause you never brought up the one suspect we’ve checked out so far.”
He didn’t say anything. He just sulked some more.
“...And Clark might be a tosser but he had a point. You’d do the same if you were in his shoes.”
He remained silent for a long time. I sat down at the opposite end of the desk, facing him.
“...How’d you know about Wilson?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what’s so special about him?”
“I told you before – he sexually assaulted teenage boys in the same area back in the day.”
“Nah. There’s more to it than that. You better tell me right now.”
He looked at me and shifted about in his seat. “I caught him. Had him sent down. And now he’s back out there.”
I wanted to say I knew it but I didn’t. I was just sure there was something special about the attention he had given Wilson. Richardson hadn’t pressed for anyone else so far. Just Wilson. And that made me concerned.
“And this time you wanna send him down again?”
He leaned forward. “It’s just a matter of time before he gets up to his old habits.”
“You’re barkin’ up the wrong tree, mate,” I said. “We’ll take him into consideration, don’t worry, but you turned this investigation into settlin’ a personal vendetta and that is a fuckin’ mistake.”
He looked stunned.
It was the first time I had criticised him and I don’t think he was ready for it. I didn’t care. It’s what he needed to hear.
“We better get a move on now,” I said. “We got a lot of work ahead of us.”
15
DC Cole
A few hours after the meeting with the Chief I was going over some case files in the office with WPC Burton when DI Richardson came rushing in.
“I told you there was a link and there is!”
I gave him a dirty look. I couldn’t believe him. After all the shit we had said earlier.
“Ravinder Singh is in the same class as Asim Patel!”
“What?”
“The boy who found Rishi Malhotra’s corpse!”
“I know who
he is,” I said. “How do you know Asim is classmates with Ravinder?”
“DI Rahman told me.”
I was aware DI Rahman was acting as the family liaison officer for both Ravinder Singh and Rishi Malhotra’s families but I was still confused.
“How did he find that out?”
“He was at the Singh’s family home just now and thought it was funny that their son was at the same school as the boy who found Malhotra’s body. He asked them if their son knew anyone by the name Asim. They said they didn’t but they showed him a class photo taken earlier this year. The thing was Rahman never met Asim so he couldn’t tell. He phoned me and I went around to have a look. I saw him, Cole. Asim was in the class photo. I even phoned up the school there and then and they confirmed it.”
“Does DI Clark know about this?”
Richardson narrowed his eyes. “Fuck him, as far as I’m concerned we have a link here.”
“Did you speak to Ravinder’s parents? They tell you anythin’ we don’t already know?”
“I spoke to them briefly but I had DI Rahman fill me in. Wasn’t anythin’ notable. Come on. Let’s go.” He gestured for me to stand.
“Where?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s only one forty-five. We can still catch Asim at school.”
We rushed out to get to Richardson’s car.
“Why are we payin’ him a visit? You think he knows more than he let on?”
“Don’t know but we’re gonna find out. You don’t think it was a coincidence do you that the boy who finds a dead boy now has a missin’ classmate?”
16
Asim
I was in Geography class when there was a knock at the door. Mrs Hawkes went to answer it. Through the door window I saw two white men outside. They didn’t look like teachers.
Miss Hawkes popped outside and left the door ajar while she talked to them and that was when I recognised them. They were the two detectives who had questioned me when I found Rishi Malhotra.
Miss Hawkes called me over. All the other students were watching as I got up and walked out.
The four of us stood outside in the corridor.
“Asim, these gentlemen are from the local police station. They were hoping to speak with you, is that okay?”
I glanced at them and then back at Miss Hawkes. I nodded.
The way I saw it I wasn’t given much of a choice.
The younger one, DC Cole, smiled and stuck his hand out and introduced himself. “We met before, do you remember?”
I told him that I did and we shook hands.
The other cop, DI Richardson stuck his hand out and introduced himself too but there was no smile from him.
Miss Hawkes led us into the empty classroom next door. “You can have a chat here.” She turned to me. “You can come back in when you’re done, Asim.” And then she left us alone.
DC Cole gestured for me to take a seat at a nearby table. When I did, he and his partner sat down opposite me.
“Is this about Rishi Malhotra?” I asked.
I was nervous and struggled to think of a reason why they wanted to see me. I had answered all their questions at the time the corpse was discovered.
“Well, there’s a few things we wanted to talk to you about,” Richardson said.
“Tell us about Ravinder Singh,” Cole said.
“Are you still lookin’ for him?” I asked them. “Is he okay?”
“We don’t know that yet,” Cole said.
“We were hopin’ you might be able to tell us somethin’,” Richardson said.
“About where Ravi is?”
Richardson shrugged. “You tell us.” I didn’t like the tone in his voice.
“I haven’t got a clue where he is. I thought that was your job, finding him.”
“Would you say you were friends with Ravinder?” Cole asked.
“No, I wouldn’t say that at all.”
“So you didn’t get on with him?” Richardson asked.
“No, he didn’t get on with me.”
“I see.” Richardson looked at me strangely.
I felt like he was accusing me of something but was too chicken shit to come right out with it.
“You think I killed him and left him in a canal somewhere, is that it?”
“Oh!” Richardson jumped back. “I didn’t say that.”
“Yeah, let’s not get carried away here,” Cole said.
They were coming across as fools and I wondered what chance the police had in finding Ravinder if these were the people everyone was relying on to find him.
“See, the thing is,” Richardson said, “We spoke to a few people and from what we’ve heard, it sounds like you didn’t like Ravinder very much.”
“And he didn’t like me.” It was important they were clear about that. “...Am I a suspect?”
Neither of them spoke.
“...Seriously, am I a suspect here?”
“Look,” Cole said. “We’re just wonderin’ if you know somethin’ that might be able to help us.”
“Then why the fuck didn’t you just say that in the first place?”
I didn’t care how rude I was coming across. The way I saw it, they deserved it.
“If Ravi was kidnapped by the same person who kidnapped and killed Rishi Malhotra, then I’m just as much at risk!” I said. “Why aren’t you out there tryin’ to catch the killer instead of stressin’ me out?” I kicked the chair beside me in frustration.
“Steady,” Richardson said softly.
“...What makes you think you might be at risk?” Cole asked.
I thought twice about telling them but now was the time to bring it up. “...At the time I thought it was a big deal but then I calmed down about it ...but now I’m really scared about it.”
“Slow down,” Cole said. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“The man in the white van,” I said. “You remember I told you about that on Saturday?”
He nodded.
“I saw him and he saw me.”
“At the time you said it might not have been anythin’,” Richardson said.
“That was then. I couldn’t have been sure. But now...”
“Now...?” Richardson asked.
“Ravi’s missin’. Just like Rishi was before he turned up dead.”
“You think the man in the van was responsible for Rishi Malhotra?” Cole asked.
“Don’t you?” I asked him.
He was silent.
“...And not only that, the reporters me and my mate Omar spoke to printed our full names in the paper!” I took a deep breath and exhaled. “...So not only does he know what this ‘witness’ looks like,” I prodded myself in the chest, “he also knows his name.”
There was a long awkward silence until I heard Miss Hawkes from behind.
“Is everything okay in here?” she asked.
“Everythin’s fine,” Cole said.
“Yeah, we’re finished,” I said and stood up.
“No, we aren’t. Sit down, Asim,” Richardson said.
I stayed standing.
“It’s fine,” Cole told Miss Hawkes and stood up too. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his card. He gave it to me and told me I should contact him if I heard anything important about Ravinder.
“Try not to panic, okay?” Cole said. “Don’t worry, we’re workin’ on this.”
I put his card in my trouser pocket and said bye to him and Richardson, who slowly rose to his feet.
I turned my back to them and went back to class while Miss Hawkes spoke to the officers. Once I was back in my seat, the boys seated on both sides of me began pestering me, trying to find out what the detectives had wanted from me.
I ignored them. I watched the detectives through the door window and lost all hope of ever seeing Ravinder again.
17
DC Cole
After we spoke to Asim Patel, DI Richardson and I went to a few other classes to talk to see what his friends had to say abo
ut him.
I was in two minds about doing all that because it was still DI Clark’s case and were pretty much told by the Chief and Clark himself to not interfere with that case.
I told Richardson I didn’t think Asim had been hiding anything. The boy seemed clean to me and Richardson reluctantly agreed with me on that.
Once we were done at Ravinder’s school, we sat in Richardson’s car and went over what we knew about Rishi Malhotra and tried to determine if he had anything in common with Ravinder Singh.
We had spoken to Rishi’s family, his friends and classmates at his school. There was no inkling of a rivalry between him and a fellow student the way there was between Ravinder Singh and Asim Patel – something which had proved to be insignificant anyway.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what Asim had said about being a witness at risk so I brought it up again.
“The boy wasn’t a witness,” Richardson said. “All he did was stumble upon the body.”
“You gotta see it from the white van man’s perspective though.”
“What fuckin’ white van man? ...Okay, fair enough he exists but I doubt he could make out Asim in the dark. The boy said he never had his lights on, remember?”
“What about the fact that Asim’s name got printed in the papers?” I asked.
“That was his own fault for talkin’ to the rags in the first place.”
“Now you’re just being silly,” I said. “He’s sixteen. How much sense did you have when you were that age?”
“Fine,” he said. “What do you wanna do? Put him in witness protection? I can see how pleased the Chief would be to hear that.”
I decided to drop it. If that’s how the senior member of the investigation wanted to play it then that’s how we’d handle it. However, with one kid dead and another missing, I didn’t like the idea of knowingly leaving another at risk.
18
Asim
I was still raw about the interrogation from the cops when waiting for Omar to show up at the foyer at the end of the school day. I sat in one of the seats against the wall when I heard someone call my name.