by Menon, David
‘I’m more than certain that he is, yes, Becky’ said Jeff. ‘That’s why we need to build up a solid case against him. He needs to be put away for good’.
SORCERER FIVE
Jeff had just completed leading a press conference which he’d called with the intention of using the media to flush out George and Mary Griffin. The press pack, a little surprisingly, had been reasonably supportive of Jeff and his squad. Everybody wants to catch a potential child killer and abuser and nobody likes to risk such an investigation until any gaping holes are too good for the press to ignore. Jeff was determined to keep things as tight as he could. This was potentially a massive case and normally he avoided giving the press any help with their side of keeping the public informed. But this time they could not only be useful in getting to George and Mary Griffin but they were already proving to be useful in attracting alleged victims of abuse at Pembroke House to come forward. They now had two more sworn statements from boys who were now men but who’d never got over the horror they’d been through when they were too young for them to ever get over it.
He was about to call Rebecca for them to go out and try and talk to Ed Lake when he received a message from Chief Superintendent Hayward to meet him at his car in fifteen minutes. When he got there Hayward had changed out of his uniform and into a pair of chinos and a sweater.
‘Would you get in, please, Detective Superintendent Barton?’ asked Hayward politely but in that way that suggested he wasn’t expecting a negative response. ‘There are things I need to tell you but I don’t want to do it round here’.
‘Very well’ said Jeff as he got in the car with him. ‘It must be serious’.
‘It’s about as serious as you can get. By the end of this afternoon I shall have resigned’.
‘What?’
‘You can’t really say you’re surprised, Jeff?’
‘Well I got the impression that you weren’t telling me the truth the other day’.
‘And you were right’ said Hayward. ‘And perhaps you thought you’d find more dirt on me that I’d deny until the pressure forced me out?’
‘That kind of scenario did cross my mind, yes’.
‘Well I’m afraid I’m going to deny you and everybody else their fun’ said Hayward. ‘But here me out before you prepare the gallows for me Jeff because I think you’ll be more than a little surprised by what I’ve got to tell you’.
Hayward drove them down Chester Road heading away from the city. ‘There’s a pub just before we get to Altrincham called the Mallard and Fox’ he said after they’d gone about two miles. ‘Do you mind if we go in there?’
‘No, of course not’ Jeff answered. Now he knew why Hayward had changed his clothes.
‘This will be a whole lot easier over a drink’.
‘Just as you like sir’
‘And it’s Ian for this meeting, Jeff. I don’t want to arouse people’s curiosity by hearing you call me sir’.
‘I’m not going to like this, am I?’
‘Maybe I should’ve sorted it out a long time ago’.
Jeff thought the Mallard and Fox was quite an acceptable little place. It wasn’t a big pub but it benefitted from the warmth it conveyed. The landlady semi recognized the superintendent as she pulled him his pint of best bitter and Jeff had the same.
They sat down at a small round table just inside the door and close to the side of the bar where all the food was being served from. Hayward had made no mention of lunch and Jeff was hungry. Maybe he’d have to go without.
‘So where do you want to start, Ian?’ Jeff asked as a means of breaking the silence that had fallen on them since they’d sat down.
‘The boy in the picture you found?’
‘Yes?’
‘He’s my son’.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I was involved romantically with the secretary who worked at Pembroke House’.
‘You were seeing her?’
‘No’ said Hayward. ‘I was having an affair with her. I was engaged to Jackie who became my wife but I was seeing the secretary on the side’.
‘What was her name?’
‘Cheryl Eaton. She was a very attractive girl with an astonishing figure and half the men who met her wanted to sleep with her and the other half must’ve been gay. I was more than flattered when she reserved her attentions for me but I was considered as being quite a good looking young chap and I never had any difficulty finding women. We used to sneak away for dirty weekends, dirty afternoons, dirty times in the back of my car, whenever we could we did. I was in my early twenties and it was so bloody exciting. She taught me a lot about being a good lover too. She’d been around’.
‘But you were engaged to Jackie and presumably making wedding plans?’
‘Don’t say it in that moral tone, Jeff’.
‘I wasn’t, Ian. You’re being paranoid. I was keeping my voice level but you may have interpreted it differently for your own reasons’.
Hayward blushed. ‘My God, I almost feel sorry for all those criminals who end up on the other side of the table from you in an interview room. No wonder you’re so good at your job. I take your point. I do have some residual guilt about Cheryl considering what happened next’.
‘And what was that?’
‘I was in lust with Cheryl but I was in love with Jackie. I never had any doubt that Jackie was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with from the moment I first saw her. Something went off inside me that I’d never felt before and never have since. Jackie will always be the only woman with the power to hurt me. If she ever left me I really don’t know what I’d do. I’ve got an eye for the ladies, yes, I don’t deny that and I’ve broken a few hearts by refusing to leave Jackie for whoever I was involved with at the time. I’m not proud of that but I do always make it clear right from the start that I’m married to Jackie and that will never change’.
‘So more fool them if they end up falling for you, is that what you’re saying?’
‘Something along those lines, yes. I know it makes me sound rather conceited but that’s the way it is. I love Jackie with all of my life but physically I need something more and deep down she knows that but she also knows that I’ll never leave her. And I’ve never done anything in front of her or with any of her friends, although she should question whether one or two of them are her actual friends when her back is turned but that’s another matter. I’ve always been discreet and always will be’.
‘Okay, but can we get back to Cheryl Eaton and the child?’ Jeff asked.
Hayward drank some more of his pint. He was only halfway down which was slow compared to his usual standards.
‘Cheryl told me she was pregnant. I asked her if it was mine and she slapped my face. I accepted that it was mine and you can see from the photograph that he was a little mini-me. There could be no doubt about who his father was’.
Jeff remembered when June Hawkins saw the photograph and said there was something familiar about the little boy. Now Jeff knew what that was.
‘But before you got that far other things must’ve happened?’
‘I’d already become friendly with George Griffin and the other people who worked at Pembroke’.
‘Did you know what was going on there?’
‘I had an idea that the duty of care was administered rather severely but Jeff, I knew absolutely nothing of the extent of what was happening until Ronnie Wiseman made his allegation. That’s when the game changed’.
‘How?’
‘Cheryl had the baby, a boy, and he was adopted by her sister and brother-in-law who couldn’t have any children and were desperate to have them as much as Cheryl was desperate not to become a single Mum. I said that I would pay maintenance and she and the baby would never go without but it wasn’t enough. She said she didn’t want to bring up a child who couldn’t see his Daddy on Christmas Day because he was second best to Daddy’s other family’.
‘That’s a fair point’.
; ‘Yes I can see that too’ said Hayward. ‘I’m not a completely heartless cad. But when Ronnie Wiseman made his allegation I confronted Griffin. He turned really evil on me and for the first time I saw another side to him. He knew where my son was’.
‘How? Was Cheryl Eaton still working at Pembroke?’
‘Yes, and apparently she’d told him everything about my son being adopted. So he arranged for him to be abducted’.
‘What?’
‘He hired a man and woman to snatch him from the garden of his home. They took him to Blackpool which is where the photo was taken. Griffin told me that if I filed Wiseman’s complaint he’d have my son killed’.
‘Are you serious?’
‘Absolutely’ said Hayward.
‘But he can’t have been more than two or three years old?’
‘Yes, he was only two but Griffin still meant it. So I didn’t file the complaint and the boy was returned safe and sound. I do feel badly about Ronnie Wiseman. How could I not do? I went against all my instincts as a police officer and I let him down’.
‘You should see him’ said Jeff. If he lived to be a hundred he’d never forget the look on Wiseman’s face. It was the ravaged look of a man defeated by the slow passing of time and by the loss of what he’d never had. ‘He’s had absolutely nothing of a life and I’m afraid he includes you in the blame for that’.
‘I think I would too in the circumstances’.
‘And it looks like there may be many others like him out there’.
‘And all of their sad lives are down to me too, yes, I know, Jeff. I could’ve stopped it happening but I didn’t because he would’ve killed my son’.
Jeff couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for Hayward. There were no winners and losers in this. Not Hayward, not Ronnie Wiseman or any of the others. There was just a trail of sorrow and pain that led right up to the door of George and Mary Griffin.
‘Who else in the force knows anything about this, Ian?’
Hayward shook his head. He felt such intense shame even though he could never have risked his son’s life to Griffin and his twisted intentions. ‘Nobody’.
‘Ian, are you sure?’
‘The assistant chief constable’ Ian confessed. ‘He was my protector. He was a sergeant back then and he arranged for Ronnie Wiseman’s complaint to go missing’.
‘Is he going to resign?’
‘Yes by the end of today’.
‘Does Jackie know?’
‘No but I’ll have to tell her now’.
‘And does your son know he was adopted?’
‘Yes’ said Hayward. ‘But he doesn’t know that I’m his father or that Cheryl Eaton, his Aunt, is his mother. I’m still kind of in touch with the family. They’re part of my outer circle of friends if you see what I mean’.
‘I get the picture’.
‘And he’s done me proud. He went to university and got a first degree in physics. He’s now flying fighter jets for the RAF. He must be a clever little sod. And brave too’.
‘One of the heroes’.
‘Yeah, and a sexy little bugger in his flying kit’ said Hargreaves feeling a pride he couldn’t help but show on his face.
‘Isn’t there another way we could deal with this without you having to resign?’
‘No’ said Hayward. ‘Despite the circumstances I failed to report a major crime having taken place and that includes the kidnapping of my son’.
‘But what about your career, Ian?’
Hargreaves turned to Jeff and said ‘That was over the day I didn’t file Ronnie Wiseman’s complaint. It was just a question of time’.
Jeff was nursing a heavy heart when he got back to the station. If some gangster had kidnapped Toby he’d sell his soul to the devil to get him back. He understood why Hayward had done what he did. His son’s life was at stake. But it had led to the suffering of so many others. That’s why Hayward’s only choice was to resign. It still didn’t seem right though.
‘Sir?’ said Rebecca when she looked up and saw Jeff walking in.
‘Rebecca?’
‘I’ve just had word from the Antwerp police in Belgium, sir’ Rebecca went on. ‘They traced George and Mary Griffin to a house on the outskirts of the city, not far from the Dutch border. They were going to detain them’.
‘Going to?’
‘Sir, Mary Griffin died yesterday today from a massive heart attack and George Griffin is bringing the body back to the UK’.
SORCERER SIX
George Griffin got dressed and went into the kitchen. He’d brought the body of his wife Mary back home yesterday and had been immediately arrested by Jeff on suspicion of the rape of Ronnie Wiseman and two other boys from the Pembroke House years. He’d been cautioned and then released on bail pending further enquiries. Then he’d gone back to the house he’d once lived in with Mary and which was now empty because it was between tenants. But the place had been besieged with journalists waiting to talk to him and it was clear he’d have got no peace staying there. So a friend offered him the use of his Manchester city centre apartment.
‘I thought you’d appreciate this’ said Jenny Lake as she turned the sausages over in the frying pan. ‘I assume you’d like the works?’
‘If you’re cooking it, my dear, I’ll eat whatever is placed in front of me’.
‘How can you be so clam after what the police put you through yesterday? I mean, arresting you at the airport like that. You’d barely had enough time to sort out Mary’s coffin’.
‘And look at where I am today? I’ve got one of the prettiest women I’ve ever met worrying about me. It’s not all bad’.
Jenny blushed. ‘If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were a dirty old man’.
‘But that’s the point, isn’t it. You do know better’.
‘George, your wife who was my mother-in-law is barely cold’.
‘You never worried about her before’ he said as he wrapped his arms round her waist.
‘Well I’ve done a few things in life that I’m not very proud of’.
‘Including marrying my step-son?’
‘You’re the original twister of words, George’.
‘He’s so weak you’d be better off without him’.
‘Ed is my husband’.
‘And Mary was my wife but neither of those facts stopped us’.
‘Sometimes … well you can’t stop yourself despite the circumstances’.
George took Jenny’s hand. ‘I’m not going to force you into anything. I’m just glad to see you’.
‘And I’m glad to see you, George’ Jenny admitted.
‘And thank you for coming over’ said George. ‘I’d have been a bit lost without company. You don’t believe all those wicked things they’re accusing me of, do you?’
Jenny cradled George face in her hands. ‘Of course I don’t. I don’t believe a single word’.
‘Thank you. It’s so good to hear you say that’.
‘I just can’t get over the insensitivity of the police’.
‘I suppose they’ve got a job to do’ said George. ‘But they’ve got nothing on me other than the twisted words of some urchin’.
‘I believe you and I just hope they do too’.
‘They will’ said George, confidently. ‘Have no doubt or fear’.
‘And George, thank you for agreeing to pay for Gabby’s wedding. I can’t tell you what a relief that is. I’ll break it to Ed later on’.
‘Why don’t you let me do that? After all, Ed and I have got to speak at some point’.
‘I suppose that does make sense. I wasn’t relishing the idea of telling him anyway’.
‘Well now you don’t have to. I’ve lifted that particular burden off your shoulders’.
Even though he was so much older than her, there was still something about George that Jenny found alluring with the glint in his eye and the cheek in his smile. There was definitely something and she felt vulnerable in his presence. Not because she fe
lt threatened by him. It was because she felt threatened by herself and her own feelings.
‘By the way, how did Ed take the news of his mother’s death?’
‘It’s hard to say. You know what Ed’s like. I told him. I poured him a glass of scotch, he drank it and I filled his glass up again. I’ve no idea what he was thinking but then I never do’.
Jenny served up the sausages with some bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, fried bread, mushrooms and tomatoes. She’d just made some toast for herself. She’d come round early and hadn’t managed to eat anything before she’d left home.
They were just finishing off their breakfast when the intercom buzzer sounded.
‘If that’s anybody from the press they’re going to get a piece of my mind’ said Jenny. She lifted up the handset and said ‘Hello?’
‘Police’ said Jeff. ‘We’re here to see Mr. George Griffin. Is he in?’
‘Yes’ said Jenny, tentatively. ‘But can I remind you that he’s here to bury his wife?’
‘Just let us in, please’.
Jeff and Rebecca plus the two uniformed officers went up in the lift to the eighth floor and apartment 35. Jenny let them in after the warrant cards had been shown.
‘I think you know why we’re here, Mr. Griffin’ said Jeff. Some of the other former residents of Pembroke House had spoken of listening to other boys whimpering and begging for mercy. They spoke of the terror of being accused of ‘telling’. And they spoke of lives having been destroyed before they’d even begun and all because they’d had the misfortune to have been placed in Pembroke.
‘I know what’s been said about me’.
‘Indeed’ said Jeff. ‘You need to accompany us to the station. Could you get your coat, please?’
‘And if I refuse?’
‘You’re not in a position to refuse, Mr. Griffin’.
Jenny was outraged. ‘You can’t do this. George is in mourning for God’s sake!’
‘Just let us do our job please, Mrs. Lake’ said Jeff.
‘This is bloody outrageous!’ Jenny exclaimed.