by Mel Sherratt
‘They should put a bomb on that place,’ joked Perry.
‘We’d all be out of a job then,’ said Sam.
‘Perry and I spoke to all three women,’ Allie continued. ‘First up, Rebecca Adams in flat 210. She was in all evening, went to bed around eleven and didn’t know anything had happened until she saw the police the next morning and asked a neighbour what was going on. But when Jordan Johnson’s phone records came back from SPOC, it turned out that the last person to send him a message was a woman called Sophie Nicklin, living at flat 210, Harrison House.’
Nick ran a hand over his chin. ‘A false name? Why do you think she did that?’
‘Turns out she’d been seeing Jordan on the quiet for a few months, and panicked because she didn’t want the wrath of girlfriend, Kirstie Ryder.’
Another murmur spread round the room.
‘Well, there’s the reason why Johnson was at Harrison House last night,’ said Nick.
‘Maybe Johnson told Sophie Nicklin that he was leaving Kirstie and then didn’t follow through?’ suggested Sam. ‘She could be attacking him in revenge, then.’
‘It’s possible, I suppose,’ said Allie. ‘Although I have a feeling that she isn’t involved, it’s worth thinking about.’
‘Or,’ Nick continued, ‘did someone know he was going to be there, arrange to meet him? Did someone follow him there? Or was it just a random attack?’ He addressed Allie again. ‘Leah Matthews – did you get any sense out of her?’
‘There was something nervy about her, she wasn’t her usual bolshie self. She didn’t make much eye contact and was trying to put on a couldn’t-care-less attitude. She too said she was home alone, fell asleep on the sofa and also heard about it the next morning.’
‘And Stella Elliott?’
‘We spoke to her and her husband, Craig. She was in from work at eleven – that checks out with her finishing time, as well as her friend saying she dropped her off afterwards. Craig said he came in about midnight. Sam, do you want to pick up from here?’
‘CCTV footage from Flynn’s shows him leaving around that time,’ said Sam, ‘but it would take another twenty minutes for him to get to Harrison House if he went straight home in a taxi or car. Walking, I’d say about an hour. I can try and follow him if necessary to see where he goes, but either way it puts him at home much later than midnight.’
‘I’m going to talk to him once the brief is over,’ Allie added.
‘There’s going to be a formal identification taking place straight after this briefing,’ said Nick. ‘I might need you there.’
Allie looked at the floor. So much for thinking of her feelings. That was the last place she wanted to be. When she looked up, Sam was looking at her. She mouthed ‘Are you okay?’ and Allie nodded quickly.
Nick turned back to the board and pointed to another photograph of a woman. ‘This is Kirstie Ryder. She’s twenty-one now and though we don’t have any proof of illegal activity, we’ve been keeping an eye on her for a while and we believe she is helping her father to keep on top of the family business. Even though they now technically belong to Kirstie, Terry Ryder still runs the six branches of Car Wash City, located here and there around the area. We believe he controls his business through making her do some of the running around, and Ryan and Jordan have been doing the rest. I doubt it’s a coincidence that Kirstie and Jordan were an item.’
‘She also has long dark hair,’ Perry pointed out.
‘Indeed, so she too could be our mystery woman. Allie and I saw her at home this morning. Ryan was there, too. She says she and Jordan were arguing last night. She’d gone round to Flynn’s and they ended up fighting. Kirstie says she went home afterwards, claims to have not seen Jordan alive after that.’
‘We saw all that on screen,’ said Sam. ‘She packs a mean punch.’
‘Allie,’ said Nick, ‘can you have a word with the bouncers when you visit Flynn’s to talk to the staff? See if they can add anything. More importantly, see if they close ranks and remember nothing. Take Perry with you.’
‘But, sir, I thought I’d go and see Craig Elliott. Perry was going to go to Flynn’s.’
Nick gave her a meaningful look. ‘I’d rather you didn’t go alone.’
‘I’ll be fine at the flats and I think –’
‘If you and Perry are quick at Flynn’s, you can be over at Elliott’s in no time.’
‘There’re lots of officers at Harrison House. I’ll keep in their sight and –’
‘For God’s sake, Allie, this isn’t open to discussion. This is a basic command. You will stay with Perry.’
Allie stared at the whiteboard behind him, quietly fuming, realising it would do no good to complain any further. Instead, she tried not to show her annoyance that she wasn’t being listened to. Even when it concerned her own health and safety, she would never get used to it. Damn that bastard for stirring things up again. Now she wasn’t even in control of her job.
Nick looked around the room; if he noticed Allie’s belligerence, she couldn’t tell. ‘Follow up any leads that have or will come in from the press conference too. Sam, have all tenants been spoken to door-to-door now?’
‘Most but not all – I’d say ninety per cent.’
‘If they’re not all done this evening, Perry, can you finish off in the morning? We can get all we have so far checked on HOLMES then. Ideally, I’d like a good presence around those flats in case someone wants to tell us anything.’
‘What about the area around – anything found of significance?’ asked Perry.
‘Nothing on camera yet,’ said Sam. ‘But lots to look through and lots to come in yet. And a few things we’re waiting for on the ground search. I also started checking around after we found Jordan Johnson’s car and I came across Craig Elliott’s car – parked in Regina Street, one along from Sparrow Street. Not sure why it wasn’t in the car park of Harrison House. I’m still checking CCTV images from local shops and houses.’
‘Yes, why didn’t he park his car nearer to his home? There are plenty of spaces available before we commandeered it. Allie, check that out with Elliott, too.’
Allie sighed loudly. He should make his mind up when it was and wasn’t okay for her to go and see Elliott.
Nick and Trevor stared at her long enough to make her feel uncomfortable again before turning back to the team. They exchanged a quick look and then Trevor spoke next.
‘Right, let’s go to it,’ he said. ‘Someone in those flats will have seen something. Anything, no matter how small, may lead us on to something else. Or, if we get really lucky, someone will open his or her mouth. Gossip will have been ripe today – who knows what will come in once Jordan Johnson’s name is formally released. We’ll move back on site first thing after the briefing in the morning, unless we’re needed anywhere tonight. In the meantime, people, let’s crack on.’
Mark sat next to the bed in the hospital, holding Karen’s hand. It was swollen, her fingers the size of sausages because of the steroids. Gently, he rubbed his thumb across the back of it. She looked flushed again. When she had first been taken ill, almost three weeks ago now, both he and Allie had been granted compassionate leave. But as the days had dragged on, they’d both had to return to work. Now they were visiting as much as they could.
It was hard for him to look at Karen without thinking of how much danger Allie could be in if the man who attacked her sister ever got close enough to harm her, too. He knew every precaution had been put into place to keep her safe but still he worried that she might not come home to him one day. This made it raw seeing Karen slipping away, and very real, intensifying his discomfort at the situation.
He looked up as a nurse came into the room. It was Sharon.
‘Hi, Mark, how are you?’ she asked, the pallor of her skin accentuated in the artificial lighting.
‘I’m good. How are y
ou?’
‘I’m fine, thanks. How’s Allie doing?’
‘Bearing up. People don’t stop committing crimes, though, just to suit the police.’
‘You mean that man who was found dead in Smallthorne? Yes, I heard on the news. Such a shame to go like that. Does she have to go in to deal with it? It’s terrible timing for her.’
‘I think she copes better when she blocks it out.’ Mark shrugged. ‘I can’t say I blame her, to be honest.’
‘It’s easier for some people to do that.’ The nurse checked a chart at the end of the bed.
Mark sighed as he loosened his tie. Karen was slowly taking in less of the things that kept her alive. She could die within hours if she had another bleed to the brain. It could be weeks if she didn’t. It was a sad and cruel way to go but they’d been reassured that Karen wouldn’t know any pain. She would eventually slip away – or if things got too bad, he and Allie would have to make the heart-breaking decision to switch off the life support when the time came. He knew that would destroy Allie.
Last weekend, he and Allie had chatted again about what their lives would have been like if Karen had never been attacked. Karen would perhaps have got married, started a family even. It was the one thing he regretted not doing with Allie. They would have made good parents but each time the subject had come up, Allie hadn’t been able to face it. For her, there didn’t seem to be any room – it had nothing to do with her career. In the back of his mind, he thought it was the guilt of what had happened to Karen, punishment even.
But Karen hadn’t died. Did he hate her for it? He couldn’t help but wonder how different things would have been if she hadn’t been attacked. If catching the attacker hadn’t remained at the forefront of Allie’s mind for the past seventeen years. If there had been room to spare for the two of them to become a family with a child or two. He’d never voiced this to her, wasn’t sure he ever would. He loved her too much to hurt her by saying it, but this niggling feeling that he would have made a good father wouldn’t go away. Allie was nearly forty now – he was forty-four. Neither of them was too old by today’s standards, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be in his sixties when his child was leaving high school. For him, they had left it too late.
He looked at Karen now, sad that she hadn’t had a chance to become a parent either. It had been hard to visit her over the years at Riverdale Residential Home but he hated to see her like this even more. And he knew how hard it was for Allie to keep her grief inside her. Since her last case had involved the man who had attacked Karen, twice over the past week she’d broken down as she’d come home from work, tired and emotionally exhausted with keeping up the pretence that it wasn’t getting to her. He’d found her in the shower one night, water on full, sitting cowering in the corner, her arms wrapped around her knees. He’d taken her out and enveloped her in his arms, sat on the bathroom floor with her while she had cried.
He’d cried with her too, his buried feelings of inadequacy suddenly overwhelming him. His distress, how scared he was of her leaving the house and never coming back to it. His angst at not being there for her when she needed him most. His panic, which only intensified when she wasn’t with him.
Worst was the feeling that he couldn’t protect her all the time. But he couldn’t let her see that. Allie would see her independence being threatened if he worried too much. He couldn’t bear it if it broke them, if his feelings made her despise him enough to call it quits.
He would never tell her that either.
6.30 P.M.
Craig drove a few streets away from Mary Matthews’s flat and parked up at the back of a row of shops. He reached for the bag that he had thrown into the well of the passenger seat, picked it up and unzipped it. His relief at getting away from Fegg Hayes Road soon turned to frustration and then anger as he clapped eyes on its contents.
He pulled out a pair of curtains, bright frilly fancy things. He threw them to the floor of the car, his hands falling upon netting folded into neat squares, followed by several cushion covers. When his hands hit the bottom of the bag, he clenched them into fists before flinging everything to the floor.
Frantically, he unzipped the two side pockets. There wasn’t enough room to store all the money there but Leah might have had the sense to hide it in a few places rather than keep it altogether. Maybe there were a few bundles stashed there.
The side pockets were empty too.
‘Stupid fucking bitch!’ He slammed the palm of his hand on the steering wheel.
Leah Matthews was going to be in for the hiding of her life.
Leah sat on her sofa, without a clue what to do next. She hadn’t even taken off her jacket. Shivering as the nerves took over, she wished she had never laid eyes on Jordan Johnson and the money that morning. It was all well and good being an opportunist thief but getting into this much trouble wasn’t worth it. If she didn’t owe money to Kenny Webb, if she wasn’t so desperate to pay him back, if she had been able to walk away, she would have left it there, wouldn’t she?
Now, all she could picture was the image of Jordan’s face, beaten, bloody, bruised. What a cruel way for anyone to die. And if the murder had been set up, the perpetrator would most probably be a cruel bastard anyway. She shuddered.
Her phone rang; the caller display screen on her mobile flashed up Stella.
‘You lying bitch!’ Craig yelled. ‘There was no fucking money at your mother’s.’
‘Where’s Stella?’ Leah’s heart skipped a beat. ‘You’ve been to see my mum?’
‘You should never have crossed me, you idiot. I want that money.’
‘But I never said –’
‘I’m going to tear every fucking bone from your body if you don’t tell me where it is.’
Leah disconnected the phone and dialled her mum’s number. If he had killed her, it would be her fault.
‘Pick up, pick up, pick up!’
It rang several times, and then ‘Hello?’
‘Mum!’ Leah cried, relief flooding through her. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Oh, I’m fine, duck, but I’ve had a break-in. I was about to ring you but the police have just arrived.’
Leah sat down before her legs gave way.
‘Someone got in through the back. I only left the top window open on the catch. The flat is a bit of a mess but I can’t see anything missing at the moment. The police said I might remember later.’
‘So you didn’t hear anything,’ she shuddered, ‘or see anyone?’
‘No, I’d had one of those sleeping pills that the doctor gave me last week.’
‘You were in?’ Leah gasped.
‘Yes. I was awake all night thinking they weren’t going to work, got up at six this morning and then I must have dozed off this afternoon. Apparently he came in here and then out again while I was asleep.’
‘Oh, Mum.’ Leah could hear the tremble in her voice.
‘I got off lightly, duck. Bernard from next door was found on the back lawn. He fell and hit his head. The police say I had a lucky escape. Bernard was most probably hurt by the intruder, maybe not on purpose, but perhaps pushed to one side because he was disturbed. It was lucky his head didn’t crash on the concrete path instead of the grass. Poor Bernard. This is all my fault.’
‘It isn’t your fault,’ Leah tried to appease her.
‘But if I’d closed my window properly, or been awake, I might –’
‘You might have been attacked, too.’ Leah didn’t want to think about it. ‘I’m so glad that you’re safe.’
‘Well, I don’t think I’ll be venturing out into the back garden for a very long time. I don’t want to be reminded of what might have happened to me if I hadn’t been asleep.’ Leah heard her catch her breath. ‘You don’t think whoever did this will come back?’
‘No, mum. I’m sure they won’t.’
Leah said goo
dbye and disconnected the call. Elliott, that bastard. Tears of anger pricked at her eyes. How could he do that to her mother? What would have happened if she hadn’t been asleep? If he’d got into the flat and she had seen him?
He must have thought she had hidden the money there. Which meant that now he knew she hadn’t, he’d be coming after her again. Well, he wasn’t going to get the better of her. If he wanted a war, then he would get one.
6.45 P.M.
Allie and Perry walked across to Flynn’s nightclub, fastening their coats against the wind that was building up. The drizzle had stopped for the past half hour. Allie wore a woollen hat to stop her hair from blowing in her face: Perry wouldn’t flatten his hair with a hat but he would get it wet.
‘Are you okay, boss?’ Perry asked as Allie’s strides matched his own. Usually she had to walk fast to keep up with him.
‘Oh, I’m fine,’ her voice was raised. ‘I’m just sick of being told what I can and can’t do. It’s as if I haven’t got a bloody mind of my own.’
‘You haven’t when it comes to your own safety.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ she snapped.
‘You know what I mean.’ Perry pulled her back as she nearly stepped out in front of a car that was going too fast. ‘I’m sorry that I’m the one who gets to babysit you but I have to agree with Nick for once. We’re all concerned for you.’
Allie sighed. Of course they were, and if she weren’t so pig-headed she would see it for herself.
‘Sorry,’ she relented. ‘It’s just hard for me at the moment.’