'It has to be a hoax, the bastard who snatched her is probably turning the screw on the poor sod.'
Lasser said nothing as he took up position in the centre of the road, the cars passing in a blur of speed.
'I mean, it can't actually be her, can it?' the DCI asked, uncertainty in every word.
'Christ knows,' Lasser replied as he slowed down for a roundabout, almost coming to a stop as an elderly woman appeared from the right in an old Morris Minor, seemingly oblivious to the siren and flashing lights.
'Come on, Miss Marple, get your skates on,' Bannister urged through gritted teeth.
Lasser manoeuvred around the car before setting off again, his foot hitting the gas.
Ten minutes later, they pulled up at the Lomax house, the front door being flung open before the Audi's siren had even been silenced.
Lasser and Bannister leapt from the car as Lomax waved his hand in a gesture full of urgency.
'She's alive,' he gasped as he stepped back to let them in, leading them straight into the kitchen.
'Can we see the message?' Bannister asked.
Lomax nodded before fiddling with the phone for a moment and handing it over.
Lasser moved to Bannister's side, and they read the text together, then the DCI looked at Lomax as Lasser read it again.
'I take it everything in the message is accurate?'
Lomax licked his lips, his hands shaking. 'I swear to you every single word is true, so it has to be my Rea, and it means she's alive and well!' Lomax's voice rose, his eyes manic with relief.
Bannister said nothing as he read the message again in disbelief.
'Fine and happy,' Lasser mumbled, unable to fathom what he was actually reading.
'I know this might sound harsh, Mr Lomax, but had you argued with your daughter before she went missing?' Bannister asked.
'God no, we never argue.'
'You didn't like Draper, had you mentioned that fact to Rea at any point?'
Lomax shifted his feet before pushing a hand through his grey hair. 'I'd told her in the past that I didn't trust the man, but you know what people can be like and she wouldn't listen to me.'
Bannister nodded before taking a deep breath.
'You're going to keep looking for her, aren't you?' Lomax suddenly asked as the thought occurred to him that Rea's message might remove the urgency to find her.
'Don't worry, nothing changes,' Lasser replied.
'I just don't want you to think that she did any of this deliberately, there's no way my daughter would have just left without saying anything to me.'
'We realise that,' Lasser paused, 'and this is good news, it means that your daughter is safe and well.'
Lomax nodded his hands locked together. 'I get that,' he paused, 'but for how long?'
For that neither of them had an answer.
82
'Please, boss, just give me the chance, I know I can do this,' Gemma Fox said, her eyes alight with a sense of determination.
Karmen looked at her across the desk and smiled. 'Believe me, I'm only telling you this because I think you are the right person for the job.'
She nodded in relief. 'Thank you.'
'Though you have to understand that this has to be done very carefully, that's another reason I chose you, it needs tact and as far as I'm concerned that is one of your strongest attributes.'
She felt the thrill of pride at Karmen's compliment. 'And the source has said that the police might be looking into Charles Jepson?' she asked, trying to calm her emotions, the last thing she wanted to do was come across as unprofessional.
The editor nodded. 'That's right, though to be honest that was all they said, they didn't go into detail, apart from saying it was linked to the death of Julie Emmeret and the disappearance of Rea Lomax.'
Gemma felt the thrill continue to grow inside though she managed to keep her expression neutral.
'Don't get me wrong, there is no suggestion that Lord Jepson is guilty of anything, and you have to keep that at the forefront of your mind.'
'I promise I will.'
'Just try and imagine how Brewster would approach this.'
'Brewster?' she asked with a grimace.
'Yes, just do the complete opposite, because if his lordship gets any hint that he is suspected of anything illegal then remember he is partly responsible for keeping us all in a job.'
Gemma felt the first shiver of apprehension run through her mind.
Karmen nodded again, seeing the unease cloud her eyes. 'Tread lightly, Gemma, risk nothing.'
'But how will I find anything out without asking questions?'
'A good journalist always finds a way,' he replied cryptically.
He watched as the look of determination reappeared on her face. 'Leave it to me, boss.'
'Right, off you go, and keep me informed.'
With a nod, she rose and left the room, Karmen eased back in the swivel chair, hands behind his head, his face impassive.
83
'I don't know what the hell to think about any of this,' Bannister said as he took a pull on the cigarette.
They were parked around the corner from Lomax's house, the sun bright, the day warm – something of a rarity in Wigan.
'Well, obviously relief that she's alive,' Lasser said, one hand resting on the wheel.
'Obviously,' Bannister flicked him a sharp look.
Ignoring it, Lasser ran through the message again in his mind and shook his head. 'This is just fucking bizarre,' he said.
'Agreed, but what are we going to do about it?'
Lasser was at a loss to think of how to move forwards and then he sighed. 'I know we said we would keep looking, but what the hell are we meant to do now?'
'Carole will support us in this, but if those higher up the ladder find out then they might well tell us not to waste resources on finding Rea Lomax, they'll point to the fact that she's contacted her father and that she's safe and well and that changes everything.'
'Yeah, but she didn't use her own phone to send the message, the number was blocked and that suggests that someone allowed her send the text knowing that we couldn't trace where it came from.'
'I know and that's what worries me,' Bannister admitted.
'OK, so for now we concentrate on Draper and Nash, we know crimes were committed there and we know there's a link with Rea – at least where Draper is concerned.'
Bannister nodded. 'Good thinking.'
'Though how we go about that I have no idea,' Lasser admitted as he flicked ash through the open window.
Bannister scratched at his chin, his face thoughtful. 'How can she be fine and happy, she was snatched from the side of the road, standing there by the side of Julie Emmeret's broken body, that alone must have been terrifying, so how the fuck can you go from that to being happy?'
Lasser watched as a black cat slinked along the pavement before jumping onto a wall and vanishing from sight. 'Truth is, we know Julie was running but we don't know what her state of mind was at the time.'
'Meaning?'
Lasser thought for a moment before answering. 'Meaning she could have been ''fine and happy'' as well.'
'Don't be bloody ridiculous,' Bannister spat out the words in disbelief.
Lasser held the sigh at bay, knowing that he was going to have to jump through the usual hoops before Bannister would listen. 'I'm not being ridiculous, the autopsy showed that Julie hadn't been harmed during the four months she was missing.'
'What about mental torture, what about that, eh?' Bannister demanded.
Lasser turned to face the DCI. 'What about learning to trust the one who snatched her?'
'Behave, that's crap and you know it.'
'It's not unheard of for a prisoner to come to rely on their captor, there are documented cases of that happening.'
Bannister opened his mouth to deny Lasser's words and then grunted. 'Tall tales made up by shrinks who are normally as cracked as the people they claim to treat.'
&nbs
p; 'I get that and if you were snatched and locked away then it would be a nightmare experience, especially for a woman, imagine all the thoughts that would fly through your brain, all the terrors that your mind would conjure.'
'Doesn't bear thinking about,' Bannister agreed with a grimace.
'Of course not, but your mind would still insist on torturing you with those thoughts.'
Bannister sniffed before taking another pull on the cigarette. 'Go on.'
'But what would happen if those threats never materialised?'
'What are you talking about?'
'You know exactly what I'm getting at,' Lasser said as he raised his eyebrow.
Bannister held his gaze for a few seconds and then his shoulders slumped slightly. 'The relief you would feel at not being raped, tortured, killed would be immense.'
'Exactly.'
'But it's a long stretch from that to feeling safe with the bastard who took you.'
'That depends on what they're offering.'
'Offering?'
'Look what Rea put in the message, ''fine and happy'', those were her words.'
'Someone could have forced her to write that text,' Bannister claimed.
'And why would they bother to do that? If she was snatched with the intention of hurting her, why would they allow her to contact her father in the first place. Killers don't do that, they don't allow their victim to send text messages to loved ones.'
Bannister had no reply to offer, his mind was busy trying to come to terms with what Lasser was suggesting.
'Like I said, Julie could have been ''fine and well'', we have no way of knowing, but we do know that Rea used those words to describe how she was feeling, which means that for now she mustn't feel threatened.'
'Still sounds far-fetched to me,' Bannister said though there was no real argument in his voice as the seeds of Lasser's words lodged into his mind.
'I'm not saying I'm right, but just say I am, then what sort of person could do that, could take a woman's terror and turn it into trust?'
'I know where you are going with this,' Bannister replied with a scowl.
Taking another pull on the cigarette, Lasser blew out the smoke. 'Come on, look how Jepson was with us, he has a way of defusing a situation, we've both felt that first-hand. He was the same when I went to see him with Carole, you go in there wanting to get the guns blazing and before you know it, you're back in the car wondering what the hell just happened.'
'Charm isn't a criminal offence.'
'Of course not, but the ice-cream man said the same thing, they went marching on the house, all they needed were burning torches and pitchforks and yet they came away with their tails between their legs. He charmed them, made them think that they were being unreasonable, and he was just a misunderstood multi-millionaire with a peerage. They went there seeing him as the enemy and came away speechless at the way he turned the tables on them.'
'But you said Mr Whippy or Softie Top or whatever idiot name he uses hated the bastard,' Bannister reminded him with a scowl.
'Yes, years later, he knew he'd been played and that had left him feeling angry as much with himself as with Jepson, because he fell for his 'charm'. Though the bottom line is that the Market closed down, he drove them out of business, so despite all the smooth talk and winning them over he still put them out of business, he still got his way and steamrolled over the lot of them.'
Bannister looked pained for a moment. 'He also has the resources you would need to do something like this, but again we have no sodding proof. We might convince ourselves that we're onto something, but it could also be a load of bollocks with not a shred of truth in it.'
Lasser nodded feeling suddenly despondent again, the earlier sense of hope began to subside as he acknowledged that Bannister was right, gut feelings were worthless in court. 'What do you want to do?'
'I want to close my eyes and sleep,' the DCI replied as he cracked a yawn.
Seeing the yawn made Lasser do the same, and they sat in the car both looking knackered and feeling dejected.
84
Roger and Odette sat together facing the desktop computer, the image showed Jepson sitting by the side of a picturesque lake, lily pads floated on the surface of the water packed with white and yellow flowers. When Odette heard Brewster's voice she immediately scowled.
'You have a truly beautiful home here, my lord.'
Typical Brewster, Odette thought as she crossed her arms.
'Thank you, Michael, glad you like it and please call me Charles, or Charlie if you prefer.'
The camera cut back showing a view of the house, even at a wide angle it was still impossible to get the whole of the building in one shot.
'When was this filmed?' she asked.
'Ten years ago,' Roger replied, his eyes still fixed on the screen.
Seconds later, Brewster was doing a voiceover as the image of the gigantic house continued to fill the screen.
'This monumental home has been the ancestral seat to the Jepson family for over eight hundred years and, as one of the oldest families in the country, their lineage can be traced back over those long centuries. Imagine the tales this house could tell, imagine the things it has seen, history in the making.'
'He's in creep mode,' Odette said, her scowl growing ever deeper.
'Putting on an act?' Roger asked as Brewster continued to witter on about the glory of the Jepson family.
'I suppose it wasn't long after this that he got his own TV show, doorstepping the dodgy builders, chasing them down the street with his hair blowing in the wind,' she said.
Roger smiled at the image and then the scene on the screen shifted and suddenly there was Brewster walking across an immaculate lawn with Jepson by his side.
Odette shook her head, they looked like two hippies from yesteryear, Jepson's fair hair touching his shoulders, Brewster's poodle curls were dark brown, not a grey hair in sight.
'What are your earliest memories of growing up in this magnificent house?'
'Well, Michael, to be honest I do remember getting lost quite a lot when I was a child.'
Brewster had laughed lightly, and Jepson had smiled.
'I think I would still be getting lost in a house this size,' Brewster quipped.
'Quite,' Jepson replied.
Another shot appeared, interior this time, they were in what looked like the library, sitting opposite one another on huge Chesterfield sofas.
'The history of this family is a long and somewhat colourful one,' Brewster said.
Jepson nodded, his thin face thoughtful. 'I suppose there have been a few characters, though I would imagine every family is the same, especially when there are records of their shenanigans.'
Brewster had laughed again, sounding false and about as insincere as a politician promising to commit their life to helping those in need.
'Christ, it's no wonder this has only been watched five hundred times,' Roger said as he eased back in the chair.
They sat and watched the rest of the ''documentary'', at one point Jepson told Brewster about an ancestor who had ridden naked over the fields chasing poachers.
By the time it was finished they were both stifling yawns.
'No mention of the slave trade,' Roger said, lacing his hands behind his head.
'Plenty about his lordship's charitable work, they made sure they got all that in.'
Leaning forward, Roger started to tap at the keyboard and then clicked on a link.
'It says here that Jepson became a major stakeholder in Orbital TV about eleven years ago.'
'And I take it that they're the ones who made the documentary?' she asked.
'Got it in one, and it's also the same company that Brewster made his ''Catch the Criminal'' series with.'
'Well, obviously after he was caught making up the so-called facts, he lost all that and ended up at the bottom of the pile again.'
Roger looked thoughtful for a moment. 'So, Jepson didn't stand by him, he didn't try to keep him in
the limelight.'
Odette felt another yawn growing and she stifled it before answering. 'To be honest we don't really know what input Jepson had back then with the media, I mean, someone as rich as he is will no doubt sit on countless company boards, but that doesn't mean he takes a real interest,' she said and then looked towards the window, rubbing at the ache in her neck, her expression thoughtful.
When the door opened, she turned to find Carole walking towards them, her expression one of bemusement.
'What's happened?' Odette asked.
They listened as she told them about the text message Dan Lomax had received, allegedly from his missing daughter.
By the time she had finished, Odette knew she was sporting a look of confusion to match Carole's.
'And her father thinks it's genuine?'
Pulling out a chair, Carole sat down and nodded. 'Like I said, the contents of the message were things only known by Rea and her father.'
'But perhaps her captor got the information out of her and forced her to send the message,' Roger suggested.
Carole looked at him and nodded. 'It's possible, though I suspect that those higher up the ladder will simply tell us to back off when they find out about this.'
Odette sighed in understanding at Carole's words, and Roger continued to look baffled.
'But surely they can't do that?' he asked.
'They can if they deem it a waste of resources, but we have Nash and Draper still missing and we have the obvious link between Rea and Draper, so if we can find out who snatched him then hopefully it will lead us to Rea Lomax as well,' Carole explained.
'Well, if the message is legitimate then at least it means that she's still alive.'
They both looked at Roger seeing the hope in his eyes.
'''Fine and well'',' Carole replied. 'Whether or not that is the truth we have to try and sort this before I start getting pressure from above to back off from the Rea Lomax case.'
'Well, we've just watched Brewster doing his documentary with Jepson.'
'Find anything?'
Odette grimaced. 'To be honest not much, it was the kind of thing a loving fan would make.'
Driven by Fear (The DS Lasser Book 27) Page 28