It was the last thing Mariner wanted and now part of him wished he hadn’t made the call, but having done so there was no other option. Before checking out of the hotel he called Maggie.
‘Thanks for all your help.’
‘Did you learn anything useful?’
‘I did. Nothing conclusive, but a few things I can follow up.’
‘It would have been good for you to get closure on this.’
Mariner grinned to himself. ‘Very West Coast. But thanks.’
‘Look after yourself, Tom, and keep in touch.’
‘I will.’
On the chest of drawers was the database that Trudy had printed off for him. He wondered about its usefulness now and picked it up to drop it in the bin. But something stopped him. She’d gone to some trouble on his behalf. Folding it, he tucked it into the inside pocket of his jacket instead. Mike Baxter wouldn’t be able to reach him at the hotel now, but his mobile and home numbers were on the card.
Back in Birmingham Mariner had the taxi drop him off at the cottage to pick up his car. There was evidence from a few additional items, including fresh food in the fridge, that Bill Dyson had fully moved in. But he wasn’t there, probably out on the road somewhere trying to flog his merchandise. Sales was never a job Mariner had envied.
At Jamie’s hostel Louise met Mariner at the door. They must have been looking out for him.
‘What’s happened?’ he asked.
She was embarrassed. ‘It’s rather unfortunate. Jamie and some of the other clients were out in the garden. We were tidying up so we left them outside for a while. He must have wanted the toilet but, instead of telling someone, he just did it there and then. Trouble is, the neighbour’s grandchildren were out in the garden and saw him through the fence. They’re trying to say he did it deliberately and have made a complaint. They’re accusing him of indecent exposure. You know how hard we had to work to gain acceptance here so we have to be seen to be acting on the complaint. We wondered if you’d mind taking him home for a few days until the fuss dies down.’
‘Then he can come back?’
A pause. ‘We’ll have to see. We’re trying to persuade the neighbours not to go to the press.’
‘This isn’t great timing, you know,’ said Mariner feeling like a selfish shit. ‘Anna’s away and I have to go back to work.’ Not strictly true but it would be soon enough.
‘I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I don’t know what else we can do.’
‘Couldn’t Jamie go back to Manor Park?’ The main residential facility was still open.
‘Since we’ve begun moving clients out into community accommodation they’ve cut down on staffing. There would be nowhere for him to go. You can continue to take him to the day centre though.’
Since moving to Manor Park Jamie had moved to a local day centre on the other side of Bromsgrove. From Anna’s house it would mean a round trip of twenty miles each morning and evening. Suddenly they would be restricted all over again. The placement had seemed ideal; a long-term solution that would meet Jamie’s needs and allow Anna her freedom. If it broke down it would put a completely new complexion on everything, including their plans for children. So, every cloud—
Jamie was packed and ready to go, but once they were home he wasn’t impressed, especially as Anna wasn’t there. Anna had moved into her house a couple of years ago, effectively uprooting Jamie from the family home and, although it wasn’t completely new, he was less used to coming here. ‘Ann-ann,’ he kept saying. His way of asking where his sister was. For most of the evening Jamie paced around from room to room, refusing to settle. His edginess rubbed off on Mariner. It didn’t help that the place was chilly, having been uninhabited for three days and they seemed to be in perpetual motion, hovering around one another.
Mariner briefly thought about calling Anna, but it would serve no purpose other than worrying her, and she was due back tomorrow anyway. No point in having her distracted for the entire journey back. Instead he cooked pizza, the only thing he was certain that Jamie would eat, and they sat up watching videos of Jamie’s favourite TV quiz shows, until he was falling asleep and Mariner could take him up to bed, prompting him through the routine. He’d never been entirely comfortable with dressing and undressing a grown man, and tonight it seemed to take for ever. Anna had developed numerous strategies for getting Jamie to do things. Mariner was trying to persuade him into his pyjama top when Jamie, in irritation, swatted away his hand, catching his injured palm. ‘Oh fuck, Jamie! That hurt!’
‘Fuck Jamie,’ Jamie repeated cheerfully and Mariner hoped that Anna would be back before her brother’s limited vocabulary had been totally corrupted. Despite the late night Jamie woke up well before dawn and it was still dark when Mariner drove him over to the day centre. They were the first to arrive.
Mariner got back to the house to find a message from Anna to say that she was setting off soon and would be back by lunchtime. What to do until then? He booted up Anna’s computer. There were just a few news pieces about the Special Incident Squad, mostly about the arrests that had been made, along with a final piece on the disbandment of the unit in 1995. The implication was that it had been shut down as a matter of policy more than anything else, along with others like the West Midlands Serious Crimes whose reputation had spread and tarnished other similar outfits. Neither Hollis nor Jaeger was named in the article and there was no indication of what any of the squad officers had been up to since.
Mariner had just begun another search, when he heard Anna’s car pull into the drive and was surprised to feel a stab of irritation that she was back so soon, forcing him to curb his activity. He went down to meet her and they hugged on the cold drive as soon as she was out of the car.
‘Missed me?’ she asked.
‘Of course I have.’ Did it only sound insincere to him?
But it was she who pulled away first. ‘What have you done to your hand?’
‘The back door at the cottage is sticking. I forced it and caught it on a nail.’ It came out so glibly that she accepted it without question. He was getting a bit too good at this. They unloaded her things, which seemed to be considerably less than she’d taken with her.
‘It’s freezing in here,’ she said, coming into the hallway. ‘Haven’t you had the heating on?’
‘I haven’t been here much.’ He didn’t add that he’d been down to London, but then she didn’t seem much interested.
‘Get the kettle on,’ she said, disappearing upstairs. ‘I’ve got something to show you.’
Climbing the stairs he found her where he’d been, at the computer in the little office plugging in her digital camera. She downloaded dozens of photographs of Megan playing, Megan smiling, Megan crying, Megan with Mark, Becky, Mark and Becky and very often with Anna.
‘Look at her. Isn’t she gorgeous?’ she enthused as the pictures flashed onto the screen.
‘She’s very pretty,’ Mariner conceded, though he was only saying what was obvious from the huge dark eyes and soft black hair beginning to curl at the ends. In truth she looked like almost every other baby he’d ever seen.
‘She’s fantastic. You’ve no idea what it feels like just to hold her and cuddle her. When we’re out and about Becky says, “She’s my daughter” and I can’t wait to be able to say that. “That’s my daughter” - or son of course. My son. Tom and Anna’s son. Don’t you love the sound of those words?’
To Mariner they were just words, so he made a noncommittal ‘Mm.’ and tried to imagine it. He really tried.
The pictures that were far more interesting to him were the next ones of rolling green hills and woodland. ‘And this is where they live,’ Anna announced proudly as if it was her own private estate. ‘It’s the view from their garden. No pollution or traffic noise or nasty explosions there.’
No, Mariner wanted to say, just an hour’s drive to get anywhere, nosy neighbours and forced sociability with people you may not even like. ‘Very nice,’ he said.
The slides
how ended, Anna decided to have a bath ‘to warm up’. ‘You can come and join me,’ she said, mischievously.
‘It’s the middle of the afternoon.’
‘Call it a special project. We need to get in some practice. ’
‘Aren’t we going to wait and see what the specialist says?’
‘It’s not going to stop us, is it? All we need to know is what we can realistically do to minimise the risks.’
They ended up in bed, as he’d known they would, but suddenly Mariner found that despite Anna’s encouragement his body wouldn’t co-operate. This had happened before but never with Anna. The last time was after Greta got pregnant, interpreted by his GP as his body telling him he didn’t want babies. He’d have liked to think that this time it was a one-off, because he was tired and distracted, but he couldn’t quash a creeping fear that it was starting all over again and for the same reasons.
For Anna it was grist to the mill. ‘It’s stress,’ she said. ‘Moving to the country would make such a difference and if we put both our houses on the market we could easily afford it. The house prices out there are amazing. It would be a much better place to raise a child and you could walk to your heart’s content. It would help you to relax.’
‘I am relaxed!’ Mariner snapped, making them both crack a smile at the irony of that response.
‘Jamie would love it out there, too.’
‘Shit! Jamie.’ Mariner reached over to his watch and scrambled out of bed. ‘We need to go and pick him up.’
‘What? Why?’
‘There’s been a problem at the hostel. I’ll tell you on the way over.’
Predictably, Anna was livid. ‘It’s ludicrous. I bet he hasn’t really done anything. It’s just political. This would never have happened if Simon was still here.’
‘Of course it wouldn’t.’ Good old Simon.
‘I don’t believe it. You’re still smarting about him?’
For a short time Mariner had been convinced that Anna had fancied Simon, till he’d found out that the man was gay. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Look, I’m sure once things calm down—’
But now Anna had found another crusade, and one that wasn’t entirely incompatible with the others. ‘If it does,’ she said. ‘And what about the next time? What if he does something else that can be misinterpreted by the locals? His behaviour is like that all the time. That’s Jamie. We won’t know where we are. We’ll have to find him somewhere else.’
She’d reached that decision remarkably quickly. ‘Oh that’ll be easy,’ said Mariner. ‘You’ve been through all this before, remember? There is nowhere else, not in this area. Unless you’re talking about Greencote. Do you think they’d have Jamie back?’
‘And have him back home permanently again?’ Jamie’s old day centre was at least close to where they lived, but without the residential facility. ‘It would be a retrograde step for all of us.’
What she said was true, and it wasn’t good news, but for some strange reason Mariner got the impression that underneath it all she was pleased that this had kicked off. He just didn’t understand why. Okay, she’d never really been happy about the idea of the community hostel, but he couldn’t see how the breakdown of the placement was going to do any of them any favours.
On the way over to collect Jamie up from the day centre they called at the hostel to pick up a few more of his things, mainly because Anna wanted an opportunity to give Louise a piece of her mind. ‘He’s being victimised,’ she said. But hearing the full story she could see, too, that it wasn’t Louise’s fault and that really for the sake of the other residents there was no alternative.
Jamie was at least pleased to see Anna, but the sudden change in routine was disturbing for him and all at once the house seemed too small for the three of them. Tired from the day’s travelling and upset that Jamie was at home again, Anna had limited patience.
Mariner had half-planned to tell her about what had been happening to him, but now wasn’t a good time. Instead, to give Anna and Jamie some space, he picked up the phone.
Tony Knox was sprawled in front of the TV nursing a can of beer, relaxing for the first time in . . . well, he couldn’t remember when. When the phone rang he feared the worst, but it was only Mariner. ‘Fancy a drink?’
Knox hesitated. Selina wasn’t due back from her mother’s till about ten, so plenty of time, but he walked through to the hall and examined his face in the mirror. The bruising had about gone. In the dim light of the right pub it was probable that Mariner wouldn’t notice it, and if he did? Knox would just have to fabricate something. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had the practice just lately. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘Just a quick one. But I’ve had a drink, so can you pick me up?’
‘See you in ten,’ Mariner said.
The boss was punctual as always. Knox thought he looked tired, but it hadn’t been as easy few weeks for anyone. They went to the Holly Bush out on the Stourbridge Road, a locals’ pub that did a roaring trade in food. Tonight the lounge was quiet enough to get seats, busy enough for them to pass unnoticed. Knox was glad. Mariner was telling him about the developments with Jamie. ‘I think Anna’s more annoyed because it spoils her plans for a family,’ he was saying.
‘So a week in the company of a four-month-old hasn’t put her off?’
Mariner shook his head ruefully. ‘She’s keener than ever despite having Jamie back. She’s talking about moving to the country now, too.’
‘She must really want it then.’
‘She had me at it this afternoon.’ Mariner flashed a weak smile. ‘Still I suppose it’s like that all the time with you two young lovers.’
Knox almost laughed out loud, the boss was so far from the truth. ‘Not just at the moment, no.’
Mariner realised his mistake, or thought he did. ‘Shit, I’m sorry, of course, I wasn’t thinking—’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Knox. Part of him wanted to explain to the boss that he’d misunderstood the reaction, but that would have involved confessing the truth, and right now Knox couldn’t summon the energy.
‘How did you and Theresa make the decision to have kids?’ Mariner asked.
Knox tried to stay calm. ‘To be honest I can’t really remember.’ It seemed like eons ago, and he was fast realising that it was probably the happiest time of his life. If only he’d known. ‘It was just something you did; grew up, got married, had kids. It didn’t seem to be so much of a conscious decision then. You just got on with it.’
‘And how did you feel when they were born?’
Knox felt a stab of pain for what was lost. ‘Brilliant,’ he said, his voice thick with emotion. ‘There’s nothing that prepares you for the strength of that feeling. I mean Liverpool winning the championship in 1978 was pretty fantastic, but even that didn’t come close. I wasn’t allowed in until it was all over, thank God. That was the way it was then. But it was incredible to think that we’d made such a perfect little human being. Amazing.’ He tailed off. ‘A lot’s happened since then.’
‘You’re still on good terms with them.’
‘Only just. And now comes the hard part; introducing them to Selina.’
‘It’s serious then.’
Oh, it was that all right, whether Knox liked it or not. ‘They’re part of my life,’ he said, stating the bald facts. ‘And Selina wants to meet them.’ She’d been nagging him about it for weeks now. It would have happened sooner if it hadn’t been for the bomb. Knox was just worried about what might happen when they did meet.
‘She seems like a great girl. How’s she doing?’
‘She’s getting better all the time. I’m going back to work next week.’
‘You’re ready for that?’
‘I want to get back before the boss leaves.’ It was what he’d told Selina. In truth he felt a desperate need to regain some control over his life.
‘It’ll be weird without the old man,’ Mariner said.
‘Rumour has it his replacement is going to be
a woman.’
‘That could be interesting.’
Knox checked his watch again. ‘I could do with getting back. Selina’s at her mum’s but they’ll be bringing her back soon.’
‘Well, I mustn’t keep you from the arms of your beloved,’ grinned Mariner. ‘She’s lucky to have your support.’
‘Yeah.’ It wasn’t the reason Knox needed to get back. The real reason was too embarrassing to admit.
When Mariner got home, Anna and Jamie were already in bed and asleep, and he was relieved to avoid any further discussion about kids, or moving. Knox was right though. It was time he got back to work, too. Coleman’s retirement do was tomorrow night and after that he’d only be around for another couple of weeks. Maybe it was time to concentrate his attention on those closest to him. He still hadn’t found out much about Hollis and Jaeger, but there were avenues he could explore professionally in his own time.
Chapter Twelve
Next morning Anna took Jamie to the day centre on the understanding that Mariner would do the pick-up that evening. It meant that he got in to Granville Lane nice and early to find that things were moving on Lucca, the Albanian. ‘Police over there have picked him up for questioning, ’ Charlie Glover told him.
‘What’s he saying?’
‘They’ve shown him Madeleine’s photograph, but so far he’s denying all knowledge.’
‘What about the fingerprints?’
‘He says there were bin bags in the communal kitchen. He may have touched them, but so could anyone else living in the house.’
‘It’s not true with the tape though, is it? Only the person who bound Madeleine would have touched the inside strips.’
‘We’ve got enough material evidence to bring him back, so they’re holding him until the extradition is agreed.’
‘Where are we on the paperwork?’
‘I’ve got everything together. I was hoping we could go through it before I send it off to the CPS. Talk about pedantic. They virtually want everything in triplicate.’
Written in Blood Page 16