What She Saw

by Diane Saxon

  ‘I’m always available for you, Sergeant.’ His smile gave her a reassurance she hadn’t realised she needed.

  ‘They tried to lift one of the bodies last night but it was so hot it melted the plastic body bag and fell back through onto the floor.’

  Adrian’s mouth twisted. ‘Unpleasant.’ Again, his eyes made a quick tour of her face. She recognised the look, she did it to Fliss. He was checking her, making sure she was okay.

  He had nothing to worry about, she’d survive. She’d survived worse. Nothing about this case was personal. Desperately sad, but not personal.

  She gave a shrug. ‘So, we have nothing to go on yet.’

  Her mild impatience gathered speed, she tapped a rhythm out on her desk with her fingers as she continued to stare at Adrian. She wanted information as much as he did. If not more so. She raised her cup, surprised to see she was almost halfway through as time ticked away.

  With her mind kicking into overdrive, Jenna pushed away from her desk and came to her feet in one fluid motion. ‘Let’s not wait for NILO to come and debrief us.’ She caught his gaze in hers. ‘Let’s go down there and take a look for ourselves. See what information we can glean from it. It’s my case, my investigation, my decision.’

  Adrian’s lips morphed into a satisfied smile as he rose to his feet and jammed the lid back onto his coffee. It was all the answer she needed as she strode around the desk and swung open the door, speaking over her shoulder to Adrian as she went.

  ‘We’ll pick up Mason on the way through the office.’ She considered the amount of work it might entail, the information they might be able to extract once they were on site. ‘It won’t do Ryan any harm to come with us and see what’s going on, either. It’s good experience for him.’

  Her mind whirled through who else would be involved.

  She could only hope PC Gardner was not the scene guard at the site this morning. She’d seen his name on the rota but couldn’t pull from her memory the exact times he would be there. Eight hourly shifts, offered on overtime, had been arranged so each PC on the rota would have the opportunity to keep up with their other duties, and it ensured none of them became bored. Of course, he’d jump at it. He wouldn’t have voluntarily offered. There’d have to be something in it for him. It was the type of character he was.

  Scene guard wasn’t the most inspiring of duties. Tedious, it entailed keeping a log, ensuring the public stayed outside the cordon and registering everyone who entered or exited the cordons and where they went within the area. Preservation of the integrity of the scene was paramount, as was continuity of evidence. The job sounded important, but the truth of the matter was, it was eight hours of boredom, with feet that ached from standing continually. Although he deserved the tediousness of it, Jenna couldn’t imagine anything more miserable than encountering Lee Gardner every day with his face twisted with misery.

  With a philosophical shrug, Jenna moved on. The fact was Lee Gardner would be at the scene some time during the day. When that was would ironically clash with when she arrived. It seemed to be her fate.

  Cradling her coffee in one hand, Jenna took another sip as she passed Mason’s desk. Attuned so well to her, he raised his head and, as his astute gaze caught hers, she jerked her head in the direction of the door. ‘Mason, you’re with me.’

  With measured movements, he rose from his chair, stiff-legged, and Jenna held her tongue as she cruised on past. Perhaps the gym had been a mistake. He wasn’t as young as he used to be.

  Ryan leapt from his chair in the corner and dashed towards her across the office, like an excitable puppy, eyes dancing with enthusiasm and hope.

  She shot him a smile and a quick wink. ‘Ryan, with me.’

  She took the back way down through Malinsgate police station, as the boys exchanged the grunted pleasantries only men understood. Her flat-heeled shoes slapped out a rhythm which echoed in the stairwell as she swept down, with the other three following close behind.

  Ahead of them, she leaned in through the front desk window, grabbed a set of keys for one of the police-issue vehicles and held up a pen to show she was about to sign for it before Della Prince’s ice blue eyes could pierce her with a deadly stare.

  Jenna whipped around from the window to come close up against Adrian, whose breath puffed out across her ear. ‘We don’t need to take a police vehicle, we can go in mine.’

  Jenna grinned, tipping her head back so she could look him in the eye as she raised the car keys and jiggled them in his face, the same as she had the first time he’d tried to persuade her to let him use his vehicle. Then the jury had still been out on her opinion of him. Now, her response was tongue in cheek. ‘Nice try. You know the rules, Adrian, we’re not getting in your car. We’re not insured. We’re on duty.’

  He shrugged his shoulders. His lips twitched up at the sides. ‘It was worth a try. It’s better than the heap of metal you’re about to drive.’

  As his vehicle was a Range Rover Autobiography LR-SDV8, almost any other car would seem like a heap to him.

  Privileged, Mason had called him when they’d first met. He’d called him worse and revised his opinion in a short space of time.

  She ran her gaze over Adrian and bestowed him with a sweet smile. Privileged he may be, but he’d never flaunted it, never abused it and the pleasant surprise was that since their first meeting, Mason and Adrian had formed a strong bond of mutual like and respect.

  Adrian followed her out of the door to the accompanying rumbling laughter from Mason. She suspected Ryan may be amused, but he kept it to himself. Unlike Mason, Ryan was a little in awe of Adrian, both his rank and demeanour.

  Jenna jolted to a sudden halt at the kerb as a police vehicle swept past them a touch too fast, swung in a wide circle around the car park and pulled forwards into the last available space.

  Irritation swirled at the ignorance of the driver to have disregarded the pedestrians waiting to cross and even more so, her pet hate, they’d pulled the car in forwards so that it needed to be reversed out. Sheer common sense and etiquette dictated that all police vehicles were reversed into the spaces so that once a shout went up, they could be despatched without delay in the most efficient possible manner.

  Jenna pressed the fob to unlock the doors of her assigned car but couldn’t ignore the annoyance at the ignorance of the other driver swirling in the pit of her stomach. ‘Just give me a minute.’ She left the others to make themselves comfortable while she strode over to the police vehicle.

  As the uniformed officer climbed from the vehicle, the breath stopped in her throat.

  Shit!

  Too late to backtrack, she conjured up a weak smile. Of all the people, she couldn’t imagine why fate would fling this one in her path yet again. ‘PC Gardner. How are things going?’

  The flutter in her chest increased as he slammed the door closed and turned to skim his insolent gaze from the top of her head to the tip of her toes.

  ‘Jenna.’

  She reared her head back, her eyes shooting wide. ‘Sergeant Morgan, or Sarge will do. Thank you.’

  The cocky grin told her he knew he’d managed to rattle her. Tempted to raise her hand and run her fingers through her hair with frustration, she chose instead to curl it into a tight ball at her side, squeezing hard enough to break bones.

  ‘I don’t know if you’re aware, but we reverse the police vehicles into the spots.’

  ‘Why?’ His chin went up.

  She tilted her head to one side but resisted the temptation to huff out a breath. ‘Convenience and speed. It means we can get out quicker if we have a shout.’

  ‘But I needed to get in quick. I have something I need to do as a matter of urgency. So, I’ll hope you’ll excuse me’ His eyes filled with contempt.

  ‘It’s not an emergency, though, and there’s a difference, PC Gardner.’

  ‘Well, DS Morgan, I’d consider that the next person’s problem.’

  As he made a move to pass her, Jenna side-st
epped into his path, and narrowed her eyes, but stopped her hand before she poked him in the chest. He’d only have her up on assault charges, the petty little shit. ‘PC Gardner, I’d appreciate it if you got back into the car and turned it around so as not to inconvenience or delay the next person called out on an emergency.’

  His dark gaze clashed with hers as he remained motionless, neither pushing past, nor retreating, his jaw a hard line.

  ‘Sarge, do you have a problem?’ Mason’s calm tones almost whispered in her ear.

  She opened her mouth to reply as PC Gardner pushed out his bottom lip while his eyes turned sullen and arrogant.

  ‘No problem here. PC Gardner was about to move the car to make it more convenient for the next person.’

  ‘I wondered which wanker had parked it in forwards so the next person to get a shout has to reverse it out while all the rest of them are already on their way to the job.’ Mason stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with her and leaned in to flash a shark-like grin at PC Gardner. ‘Don’t want to be a wanker, do we?’

  Faced with another male, dominant, fit and challenging, PC Gardner backed down.

  ‘I was about to reposition it.’

  ‘Excellent!’ Mason’s voice roared out. ‘Get it moved then.’ Mason’s fingers encircled her elbow to draw her away. ‘We’ve got a job, Sarge. An emergency, so to speak. I’m pleased to say the last person to park the vehicle reversed it in. Clever little bugger. It must have been me.’ He tugged at her arm and Jenna backed off while the heat in PC Gardner’s eyes flared.

  As they made it back to their police vehicle, Jenna resisted the temptation to glance over her shoulder. ‘Do you think he’ll re-park it?’

  ‘Hell, no.’

  She dug her fingertips into her brow, and then grabbed the door handle of the car, swung it open and slumped into the seat.

  ‘Ignore him.’ Mason shot her a fast grin as he plopped into the seat beside her and made the car rock. ‘He’s a wanker.’

  ‘So you say. But he’s more than that. He’s a loose cannon.’

  ‘Yeah. A dangerous wanker.’

  ‘He has no respect for rank and he’s quite blatantly sexist. You shouldn’t have had to step in, Mason.’ The heat in her face blazed as her anger grew. ‘He’ll get his comeuppance and it’s going to be sooner rather than later.’

  From the silence in the back of the car, neither men wanted to interfere in her conflict with PC Lee Gardner. It was best they kept out. It was about to turn ugly.

  With a shake of her head, Jenna yanked her seat belt around her, hit the start button, slammed the vehicle into first gear and shot forwards out of the parking space in a bid to make up for lost time dealing with the arrogant tosser that was PC Gardner.

  She powered the vehicle out of the car park at a speed more conducive to a fast-response vehicle on an emergency.

  Adrian slapped his hands on the back of her seat as he slipped across the black leather seats in the rear of the car to crunch into Ryan. His low grunt only topped by Ryan’s desperate whimper as he was slammed into the side of the rear door.

  Keen to get there before NILO packed up and made their own way back to the station, Jenna kept her foot firm on the accelerator. She wanted to see them in situ, have a look around the site to experience the scene herself, not just have information thrown at her in a clinical, washed fashion.

  She hit the Queensway dual carriageway and pressed down harder to take them over the speed limit. Speed always satisfied her. Steadied her. Gave her those precious few minutes of concentration to purge herself of her annoyance.

  Pretty straightforward route, all the way along the Queensway to the end, over the roundabout with a cast-iron mineshaft. She throttled back as she navigated the new roundabout which accommodated the addition of the stretch of road to the overpopulated new houses with their single-drive homes, double-car families.

  She slipped past the next roundabout, bypassing the narrow curving road that was Jiggers Bank, which would have taken her to Ironbridge. She followed the wide sweeping curve along Buildwas Road and turned left over the small bridge to take the winding bends to Farley and Kimble Hall.

  As they bumped along the track, she scanned the scene in daylight. More organised than the night of the incident, the scene guard had evidently planned the parking. She squinted around through the thin tendrils of smoke still wisping skywards to disappear into the ether. It was all that was left of the fire.

  She drew the car up next to one of the tenders.

  All four of them stepped out of the vehicle at the same time, but it was Jenna who spotted Charlie Cartwright and made straight for him.

  ‘Hey, Charlie, back on again?’ His shifts had probably been as long as hers. She offered her hand for a quick, firm shake.

  ‘Jenna. Yeah, I’m due off in about an hour. ‘What about you? Did anyone claim the little dog?’

  ‘No. Not yet.’ At the twitch of Adrian’s lips, she expanded. ‘She’s at my house with my sister’s Dalmatian.’ Jenna gave a self-conscious shrug. They were going to know just how soft she was. ‘She took over sleeping rights of his bed.’

  Charlie’s face creased into a wide smile. ‘Let’s hope he doesn’t eat her by the time you get back.’

  It had never occurred to her. The thought circled in her mind. ‘Nah, he wouldn’t.’ He gaze caught Adrian’s warm one again as he twitched his eyebrows at her.

  Charlie’s gaze drifted across and Jenna held out her hand palm upwards as she introduced them. ‘You met DC Mason Ellis the other night. This is DC Ryan Downey.’ She circled her hand around to include Adrian. ‘And this is Adrian Hall, Chief Crown Prosecutor.’

  Charlie’s eyebrows flicked up, but he said nothing, just held his hand out to each of them in turn.

  He rubbed a finger over his top lip. ‘We’re just about finished here. There’s no chance anything else is going to set alight again. We’re doing a tidy-up job. Until this morning, everything was still hot, but we have a handle on it. I’ve sent the other tenders away. There’s no need for them.’ He kicked his boot into the ash-layered dirt and placed his hands on his hips while he squinted up at the stone building blackened with the fire. Grey smoke curled in ringlets up to the clear blue sky. His face showed the strain of the past two days and his voice dropped low. ‘It was a bad one.’

  They’d all felt it. The heavy weight of heartache pressed down on Jenna’s chest making it difficult to breathe. The updates the previous day from the safe distance of Malinsgate police station had hit her hard, but there was no comparison to being back on scene. The taste, the smell, the black cloud of despair. The dark oppressiveness begged her attention as she skimmed her gaze over the vast burnt-out building. Thick, black soot layered every surface and ash hung heavy on the air, so her nostrils burnt with the scent of it. Piles of dampened-down rubble steamed in protest. She’d attended housefires before but never on such a vast scale, nor had she witnessed a ferocity that compared to this one.

  She skimmed her gaze over the area. Quiet and calm in contrast to the last time she’d been there. An eerie cloud dampened the sound. Fire officers wandered, kicking over piles of wood to ensure every last flame had been smothered. A group of people stood at the farthest point, in front of the burnt-out shell of the house, backs to them. Instead of PPE one of them wore the simple high visibility jacket over the top of his suit.

  ‘Is that the NILO?’

  Charlie tossed a look over his shoulder. ‘Yeah. Roger Ayman. We’re about to have another update with him.’

  As the man turned, she recognised him from the day before. Windswept and not so slick looking. Face strained.

  ‘Oh yeah. Excellent.’ She nodded. Out of respect, Jenna asked the question, but she was about to anyhow. ‘Can we come over and join you?’

  ‘Sure.’ Charlie cast a quick look at the other three who stood like sentinels on either side of her. ‘Come on over.’

  As they approached, Roger Ayman turned, clipboard
in hand, dark grey eyes serious.

  Jenna offered her hand. ‘Hi, I'm DS Jenna Morgan. This is DC Mason Ellis, DC Ryan Downey. I was at your debrief yesterday. This is Chief Crown Prosecutor Adrian Hall.’

  Again, a quick flicker of surprise crossed Ayman’s face as he introduced himself and Jenna considered that having the Chief Crown Prosecutor along wasn’t considered normal. It didn't deter her or detract from the situation. She was there to find information and Adrian tucked his hands into his jacket pocket and let her take the lead.

  She smiled at Ayman and got straight to the point. She no longer had time to twiddle her thumbs while she waited for information. ‘Roger, Adrian’s come to us today with information that may be linked to the fire. I appreciate we’ve needed to wait for the site to cool down, but things are starting to move fast and we need to get cracking with some answers.’

  With a quick flicker of surprise at her directness, Ayman gave a nod. ‘Right then.’ He clapped his hands together and turned to Adrian. ‘What information have you got?’ Just as direct as Jenna, his eyebrows winged up with the question.

  Adrian stepped closer. ‘Gordon Lawrence is currently the subject of an investigation being conducted into a drugs ring based in London. I’m wading through a whole pile of paperwork picking up the links, but when I heard about the fire…’ He shrugged and narrowed his eyes as he gazed beyond Roger at the burnt out shell of Kimble Hall.

  Roger blew out a quiet breath, raised his hand to scratch the side of his nose and then shook his head. ‘Well, I can’t necessarily help with the drugs connection and if you’re after physical evidence from within the house then you’re buggered.’ He squinted at the building. ‘We have site mapping, but there’s nothing left in there but ash. The fire crew,’ he gave Charlie a nod of acknowledgement, ‘have secured the building to the best of their ability and SOCO are all over it. Initial findings haven’t changed from last night. Five bodies. Six members of the family missing. Voice flat and morose, Roger pointed at the house with his pen. ‘That’s not to say there isn’t another body in there. Again, with the site mapping it seems the first floor has partially collapsed into the ground floor. And, unfortunately, that’s created a forensic nightmare.’