Psycho Alley

Fourteen

He was back in his miniature office by six thirty a.m., attempting to stay awake by means of strong black coffee and to keep focused by making lists. Unfortunately the lists were all over the place, no sequence to them, no structure. There was just so much to be done.

The priority was to keep the momentum going with the Kerry Figgis disappearance. She’d been missing twelve hours and he was gravely concerned about the situation, so finding her was his number one priority. What he didn’t like to add was ‘dead or alive’. He’d decided that he would spend the morning fighting for more resources, and if he didn’t have a hundred cops working on it by lunchtime, he would chuck himself off the tower.

Jane strolled in at six thirty-five, shocked by Henry’s appearance.

‘Jesus!’ she gasped.

‘Where was your hubby last night?’ he asked accusingly.

‘I don’t know … what the hell …?’

‘I got jumped,’ he said and explained his encounter, which had, in the cold light of day, resulted in scratches on his forehead to add to the still-discoloured black eye. He didn’t mention the hidden scrapes and scratches underneath his clothing which he had discovered when naked.

‘I can’t see him doing something like that,’ Jane said, but not too convincingly. ‘But he wasn’t home when I got in, admittedly.’

‘Well, whoever it was got away …’ His voice trailed off. ‘I am so pissed off with being the target for mad people … but today is about Kerry Figgis and Jodie Greaves and all the other young girls who have gone missing in the region in similar circumstances. I want to start catching bad men today.’

Jane nodded, though she was clearly affected by Henry’s assault.

‘Listen hard, because I’ll only say this once.’ He picked up his notes and apologized. ‘No particular order to this, just a melting pot of ideas at the moment, others welcome, but here goes …’

The motley crew of world-weary detectives who paraded on at seven were briefed, tasked and duly dispatched.

Next were the Support Unit officers, who came in at eight. They were tasked to search the route Kerry Figgis had taken from home, through Song Thrush Walk and to the car park behind the convenience store; they were also asked to start house-to-house enquiries. By eight fifteen they were out. Henry was eager to get bodies out on the streets.

His next heads-down was with Jane in his office, together with Jerry Tope.

Just as he was about to launch into his discussion, his mobile phone rang. He almost ignored it because there was no caller ID, but habit more than anything made him thumb the green phone icon.

‘Hello …’ He glanced round at the people in the office and shook his head, irritated because there was no response from the phone. ‘Henry Christie here.’ Then he could hear breathing, then the choking sob of a woman, then the line went dead. He placed the phone down on his desk, troubled by the call, the second of its nature. ‘Strange,’ he said. ‘Right … let’s get our heads round this: Jodie Greaves dead in a car after being abducted from Harrogate; George Uren, who we are sure was one of the kidnappers, is murdered with the same weapon that killed Jodie. He may have killed her, let’s not forget that. The car was set alight, as was Uren’s body, using incendiaries. Was he murdered by his accomplice? That’s rhetorical, by the way,’ he said to Jerry Tope who had opened his mouth to utter something. ‘We’re sure Morrison isn’t the man we’re looking for, thanks to your analysis, Jerry.’ He took a breath. ‘The circumstances of Jodie’s abduction fit with the disappearance of at least three other girls in the region, yeah? You can nod, or murmur if you concur,’ he said to the lifeless couple. Jane and Jerry nodded. ‘Good, I like yes-men and — women. Bottom line, we have a cross-border investigation to start to manage, which includes us and four forces. That needs to get off the ground today. We’ve also got the addition of Kerry Figgis, snatched on us last night, which doesn’t fit the pattern … but you never know.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Good enough summary?’

‘Yep, if a bit simplistic,’ Jane said.

‘I like simplistic,’ he said defensively. He looked at Tope. ‘Contact the relevant Intel officers in the forces where the other missing girls have disappeared from — which I know you already have done — but this time get a summary of all the crime committed in the two-week period leading up to the date of these abductions, OK?’

‘What am I looking for?’

‘Patterns. That’s what you do, isn’t it?’

‘Gotcha.’

‘And, I want to know how Uren made his living. He was on benefit, but it wasn’t enough to sustain his lifestyle. See if you can find more.’

‘Will do.’

Henry sat back. ‘OK, then — at the risk of repeating myself, this is the strategic hypothesis driving this investigation as of today, bearing in mind it could change at any time: we are investigating the possibility that the four girls who have gone missing from surrounding forces have all been taken by the same person or persons, who could well be living in Lancashire. George Uren is one of those people, now deceased. His companion is the man we are now trying to urgently trace.’

‘It’s sounding good, Henry. Did you swallow a dictionary?’ Jane teased.

He gave her a stern glance. ‘And I continue: whilst the disappearance of Kerry Figgis does not totally fit in with this series of crimes, we believe it may be connected, though we are keeping an open mind about that. And that’s my hypothesis, for what it’s worth — and that’s what we’re sticking to at the moment.’

Jane looked slyly at him, ‘You couldn’t be rehearsing for the press conference later this morning, could you?’

Henry gave her his best expression of innocence. ‘As if — but most of what I’ve said isn’t for their consumption, especially speculation about series crimes. The last thing they need is to get hold of the possibility we might have a serial killer at large. They’d run us ragged with it.’

There is a feeling of realization, a palpable sensation, that comes over people when it suddenly dawns on them that they are being set up. It is a feeling of creeping dread. It doesn’t always come quickly, indeed, it’s usually the opposite, but when it arrives it’s accompanied by a churning and twisting of the pit of the stomach.

The exact feeling Henry experienced at ten thirteen that morning: thirteen minutes into the press briefing.

Up to that point, things had gone well enough. They rarely go as planned, but that’s the way it is with the media, and Henry accepted that. But other forces were at work that morning.

All disciplines of the media had been wheeled into the tiny press room at Blackpool nick, and Henry had taken up position behind a lectern on a raised dais at one end of the room. He was reading from a statement he had prepared that morning, which was designed to keep the hounds at bay — tell them not very much, but get them on side at the same time. It had seemed to be going pretty well and they were all up for it — until the guy from the local rag, a short-arsed individual called Eddie Skirvin, who described himself as crime correspondent (as well as cookery, travel and anything-else-he-was-chucked- at correspondent), raised his hand languidly.

Suspecting nothing, Henry nodded at him. He knew the guy had his knives into the police and had a lot of sport with them, but as he permitted him to speak, he had no reason to think anything was other than well.

‘DCI Christie,’ he said, sort of chewing the name. ‘Temporary DCI Christie,’ he smugly corrected himself in a way which made Henry’s eyes squint and set off a distant alarm bell. ‘It’s actually true to say that Blackpool is now in the grip of fear of a homicidal, child-killing maniac — wouldn’t you say?’

Taken aback, Henry said, ‘No, I wouldn’t.’

‘Parents are actually in fear of letting their kids out on the streets now, aren’t they?’

Henry stiffened. His fingers tightened on the edge of the lectern. He had never really enjoyed dealing with the media, despite going on the course. ‘No, I wouldn’t say that.’

‘Oh, really?’ Skirvin said, raising his eyebrows. He paused, then posed and pounced at the same time. ‘It’s true to say that you’ve been running an investigation into the abduction and attempted abductions of a number of young children, haven’t you?’

Henry nodded dourly. Where was this going?’

‘I believe it was a number of months before the police even connected the incidents … by which time a number of youngsters had either been abducted, assaulted, or attempts had been made on them. And all the while, the people of this town were kept in the dark about this. Is that true?’

‘It’s not always easy to make connections,’ Henry started to explain.

‘A monkey could have put two and two together and made that connection,’ the journalist said. A roomful of media bods tittered, enjoying the floorshow. ‘The press were not told about these incidents and we could have done a valuable community service by letting the townsfolk know about the dangers to their children.’

Henry started to splutter.

‘And now,’ he ploughed on, ‘within the space of a few days, one girl is dead, another is missing and the police fear for her safety. Yes, I would go as far as to say the town is now in the grip of fear.’

‘The fear of crime is often worse than the reality,’ Henry said stupidly, realizing immediately he had said the wrong thing. This room was hot now. He was sweating.

Skirvin made an expression of mock horror, as though he could not believe what he was hearing. ‘Is that something you’d like to repeat to a grieving family and an extremely anxious one, Temporary DCI Christie? The fear of crime around here exists because crime happens and people suffer. Serious crime happens. Violent crime happens … and I’d like to know what you’re doing about it, as would my colleagues.’

There was a murmur of agreement from the assembly.

Henry scratched his head, tugged his tight collar and fixed the journalist with a defiant stare designed to burn him all the way to hell. ‘With regards to the series of incidents concerning approaches made to young children, there is now a man in custody for these offences. He will be appearing at court today.’ He really then wanted to add, ‘Nah-nah-ne-nah-nah,’ and pull out his tongue.

‘And the dead girl and the missing girl, Kerry Figgis?’ the journalist harried Henry. ‘Are they connected?’

‘It’s too early to say for sure,’ Henry said evenly. He was thinking, You’ve been fed stuff, you bastard. ‘My analysts are looking at the possibility as a matter of routine.’

‘And what about the three girls abducted in surrounding forces?’

Henry blinked and tried to keep surprise out of his face. At the back of the room he saw the time on the clock: ten thirteen. ‘What about them?’ Henry said.

‘What I want to know is — is there a serial killer at large who is operating from inside Lancashire? Is that the hypothesis you’re working to, one which you’d rather keep from the press?’

‘That’s not something I can answer. We always look at the possibility that crimes are connected, maybe committed by the same people, but as yet there is nothing to connect the crimes which I believe you are referring to.’ Oh God, this was poor bullshit, he thought, a rage creasing through him like a great fire. Bitch, he thought, as he speculated at who could have told Skirvin about the other incidents in surrounding forces. ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll be so kind, this briefing has concluded.

‘Actually, actually,’ the offensive little journalist stood up. ‘Just one last question, temporary DCI Christie.’

Henry’s shoulders dropped. Bad body language.

‘Do you actually think you are the best officer available to deal with such a complex, emotionally charged investigation? After all, you do have a history of, how shall I put it?’ He feigned a wince. ‘Stress?’

‘How can it be?’ Henry was shaking from head to toe following the encounter with Eddie Skirvin. He paced up and down his office, three steps one way, three steps back. ‘How can it be,’ his index finger pointed angrily, ‘that within minutes, almost, of me using the word hypothesis, a journalist throws it back at me? And how did he know we didn’t connect the earlier abductions? That never went to press as such.’

He knew he looked dreadful, but didn’t care. He wanted to come across as the baddest, nastiest thing Jane Roscoe had ever encountered in her life. She was sitting in his office, her legs drawn up tight to the chair to allow Henry the room to rant and rave. Now he stopped and towered over her, fuelled by anger, probably about to lose it.

‘Honestly, Henry, I don’t know,’ she said croakily, intimidated. ‘I didn’t tell him, didn’t tell anyone.’ Henry glared disbelievingly at her. ‘I didn’t, honestly.’

‘There’s only you and Jerry Tope who knows what I’m thinking.’ His teeth ground loudly. He pushed past her legs and she drew them further back. ‘Must be him, then. I’ll sort the little shit out,’ he growled and spun out of the office. He had been gone a few seconds when an almost audible thump landed in Jane Roscoe’s stomach. She gave chase.

Henry was well ahead of her. He had reached the MIR and was striding across to Jerry Tope, now having lost his rag completely. ‘You!’ he bellowed across the busy room, full of detectives, uniforms and police staff. Work stopped instantly, everyone turned and shut up. ‘You!’ he shouted again and the meek DC realized it was he who was being singled out. He sat up, shock on his face, and pointed at himself.

‘Me?’

‘Yes — you,’ Henry reiterated for the third time and used a phrase heard in countless police dramas, something he had never uttered in his life before. ‘My office — now!’ Even in the mist of his red rage, there was something naff about saying it, but he couldn’t think of anything else.

‘But … I … I’m …’ stuttered the DC.

‘I don’t effin’ care what you are,’ Henry said. ‘Get into my office, you little snitch.’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Henry!’

He turned as Jane ran in behind him, his head twisting, his expression contorted, lips a-snarl like a werewolf. ‘What?’ he barked.

‘It’s not him,’ she panted. Her shoulders fell. ‘It’s not him.’

They were back in the office, door closed, Henry leaning on it to ensure they were not disturbed. Jane was sitting demurely in a chair on the ‘public’ side of the desk, knees together, hands clasped on her lap, shoulders hunched. Her tongue was visible, the tip of it touching her top lip. Her eyes were closed.

‘Do tell,’ Henry invited.

‘After our conflab this morning,’ she said after a pause, ‘you know?’

‘I know the one.’

‘I did speak to someone about what had been said,’ she confessed, tugging down the hem of her skirt. She paused again.

‘I’m waiting.’

‘Dave Anger wanted an update.’

Not for the first time that morning, Henry’s teeth ground together. ‘Dave Anger?’

‘He, er …’ Jane’s body language — shrugs, little jerky hand gestures, tight facial expressions, clothing adjustments — all testified to the feelings of guilt she was experiencing at being disloyal to Henry. She gulped. ‘He wanted me to keep him informally … up to date with progress … to get a true picture.’

Henry’s head snapped back against the door with a bang. ‘So you are spying for him?’

Speechless, Jane held out one hand, then the other, as if trying to balance something.

‘I’m the SIO. I’m the one who updates him.’

‘I know, I know,’ she said desperately. She covered her face with her hands and drew them down, dragging her features.

‘Basically you’ve been giving me bullshit.’ He sounded wounded.

‘I was caught in the middle.’

‘A rock and a hard place?’

‘He’s a chief super. What choice did I have? No, sod off, I’m not telling you anything? I don’t think so.’

‘You could have told him the correct route to get info about a case, to go to the SIO, in other words.’

‘Not an option.’

‘Or you could have told me what you were doing?’

She shrugged.

‘Career plans?’ he said, watching her face fall and knowing he’d hit the right button. He nodded understandingly, a sardonic look on his face.

‘I wanted us to be all right, y’know, you and me, honest,’ she pleaded.

‘But at the same time you decided to snitch on me?’

‘He has every right to know what’s going on during a murder enquiry.’

‘Yeah, he does, he’s the boss, but it’s my job to tell him, not for him to have moles operating like bloody informants. It’s me who tells him, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’ Meek.

‘But that’s not the point, is it?’ Henry moved away from the door, sat behind his desk, swivelling his chair so he could see the shark on the wall. ‘OK, you snitched. I can live with that. I can live with you not liking me, or wanting to rub my nose in it, and maybe I deserve it.’ He could not remove the sneer from his face. ‘I should’ve guessed it was him. He basically set up a two-bit journo to make me look a dick in public — and that really hurts.’

‘You don’t know he did.’

‘Jane.’ His look was withering. ‘Don’t be silly. The question about me being a stress-head? Where else could that have come from? Eddie Skirvin was prompted and that press conference was hijacked to take away all my cred. I’m waiting for my slot on TV’s most embarrassing blunders now. Fuck!’ He rubbed his eyes with the balls of his hands. He was exhausted. ‘Dave Anger talked to the press and set me up … bastard.’

‘It wasn’t that bad.’

‘Jane, fuck off,’ he said, but not nastily, because his rage had dissipated away into despair. ‘When I’ve bottomed this job — and I will — I’m off this bloody team. He can shove FMIT right up his rear end. Some comfy office in the back corridor of headquarters’ll do me fine for the next three years. It’s just … what have I done to him that’s so bad?’

‘You mean you don’t know?’

‘No,’ he said.

‘He says you shagged his wife.’

‘Why can’t even this be simple?’ Henry thought as he faced Debbie Black in his office.

‘Are you ordering me to go back to Harrogate again? Already?’ she said indignantly.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever ordered anyone to do anything,’ he said mildly. ‘I want you to go back across there because you’ve established a good relationship with the Greaves family. And I want you to show Grandmother Greaves some mugshots, including George Uren, as per the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, to see if she can ID him as one of the guys who burgled her.’

‘Why?’ It was a very defiant word, because she did not want to go. ‘You’re just getting me out of the way, aren’t you?’

‘No, I’m not, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll order you to go,’ he said finally, holding up his hands. ‘I’m trying — we’re trying — to solve a particularly nasty murder of a young kid. You told me that Granny had been the victim of a bogus official job a few days before Jodie was snatched.’

‘And?’ Her face was set hard.

‘It’s something I want to follow up. I have a feeling that Uren could have been committing this sort of crime to fund his lifestyle. It’s a hunch, just one of those old-fashioned cop things. Please,’ he finished.

‘Right, OK, I’ll do it,’ she relented. ‘But on one condition.’

‘What would that be?’

‘A drink … and I promise not to get arseholed this time.’

‘You’re on.’

The next hour was spent trying to arrange an urgent meeting with SIOs from surrounding forces so they could discuss the possibility of a joint investigation and work out protocols and procedures. Times like this, Henry wished he had a lackey to run around for him, or was the correct term a ‘PA’?

In the end he left messages with all the relevant detectives, none of whom he managed to contact personally, leaving him no further forward in the respect of setting up a cross-border enquiry. Such a meeting, though, was beyond urgent.

He sat back and the photograph he’d looked at in Dave Anger’s office flashed into his mind. The wedding photo, bride and groom, both happy and blushing. He tried to recall the detail of the woman, the one he was supposed to have slept with, but it was only really a blur. He had not studied it carefully. So Dave Anger thought Henry had ‘shagged’ his wife. Why the hell did he think that? It was preposterous. Surely it would be something he would have remembered? Wouldn’t it?

Henry had little time to ponder for the remainder of that day. In fact he had hardly time to take a breath and scratch his backside. There were so many facets to deal with, most of which revolved around dealing with a complex investigation which needed managing and leading.

He lorded it over the MIR all that afternoon, deciding to take a hands-on approach for a change. Much work was done with the family of Kerry Figgis, although the elusive real father remained that — elusive. House-to-house enquiries were expanded on Shoreside and Preston Road for other witnesses. Nothing much seemed to be coming, though, and Henry was more concerned than ever about Kerry.

More was done with Jodie Greaves in terms of enquiries about the Vauxhall Astra that Uren had been driving, in an effort to find out who he had bought it from.

Everyone was kept busy, doing the routine stuff associated with such investigations, and Henry controlled it all, sitting there like Captain Kirk on the bridge of the starship MIR.

His next disagreement came with the appearance of DC Sheena Waters, something he had expected earlier, was prepared for, but not looking forward to. She marched into the MIR, all revved up and steaming to go.

‘Why the hell did you bail Troy Costain?’ she demanded. ‘After all the kerfuffle about you being so upset because he’d stolen from your mum, and you go and let the little shit go! Now what’s all that about, Henry?’

‘Calm down, calm down,’ he said, using the palms down gesture, ‘he’s only a crim.’

‘He robs and terrifies old people,’ she protested.

‘Look.’ Henry stood up. He had been sitting at the Allocator’s Desk, sifting through actions. ‘Try not to get upset … let’s go to me office and have a chat.’

‘No,’ she said, clearly upset. ‘He has a string of allegations to answer and I’ve spent all day gathering evidence to put to him, only to discover you let him go last night. And I was wondering why the custody officer hasn’t been chasing my tail all bloody day. It’s because there’s no prisoner … so here, in public,’ — she looked round the MIR and at everyone in the room — ‘give me your reasons for letting him go.’

Henry tightened up, wishing he’d dealt with this earlier. ‘When I said my office, it wasn’t an option, Sheena,’ words which, again, did not sit comfortably with him. Ordering someone to his office again. Not good.

‘OK,’ she relented, ‘but it better be good, otherwise this is going further.’ She marched out, Henry behind her, wondering whether he should leave his face set in a thunderous expression because it seemed to be its default position these days.

Sheena left his office not remotely satisfied. Henry’s cooing, ‘You’ll just have to trust me on this one,’ was not going down well at all. He realized that by letting Costain go, it would be impossible for Sheena to gather important evidence, because Troy would simply destroy it. What she did not know and what Henry did not tell her was, of course, that Troy was an informant and the reason why he had let him go. ‘You’ll have to trust me on this one,’ did not do the trick. She was rightly miffed, because Costain was a good prisoner and there was the possibility of clearing up some serious crime on her patch.

As she left the office, Henry knew he had not heard the last of this. ‘Oh to be a DC on NCIS,’ he thought. ‘Life would be so much simpler.’

A knock on the door made him jerk up his head. It was the one-man intelligence cell, DC Jerry Tope, who had so nearly invoked Henry’s misplaced wrath earlier. He bore his usual sheaf of papers.

‘Sorry to interrupt.’ He was clearly afraid of Henry

‘Come in, Jerry, it’s OK. Sorry about earlier — wrong end of the stick.’

‘No probs, boss.’ He waved his papers triumphantly. ‘Bingo.’

‘Thrill me.’

‘Your … er … hypothesis about burglaries?’

‘Yep — shot to shit, I take it?’

‘No — spot on, actually. I’ve looked at each of the disappearances in the other forces, and in each case there were several bogus official-type burglaries in the weeks prior to their abductions. I’ve hacked into the crime recording systems of each force, GMP, West Yorkshire, Cheshire — don’t ask, but it’s easy — and there’s about forty burglaries in total, all very similar, all directed at old women.’

‘Carried out by one man?’

‘Two men. White males, thirty to forty years. All descriptions tie up. One could easily be George Uren. A ponytail is mentioned in some descriptions.’

‘Any arrests?’

‘Not a one. All undetected.’

‘How much have they made?’

‘Close to a hundred grand, mainly cash.’

Henry whistled. ‘You’ve hacked into police systems that are not our own?’

‘Basically, yes. Saves time, bureaucracy.’

‘Brilliant. Illegal?’

Tope nodded. ‘Extremely.’

‘Can you be traced?’

‘No,’ he said confidently.

‘Now we need those forces to do that trawl themselves and get each scene revisited for a full forensic hit, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Yep.’

‘That’ll be something for the big SIO meeting to action,’ Henry said. ‘If I ever get them off their lardy arses. OK, well done. I think we’re on to something here.’

The debrief was at nine p.m. A round-up of the day’s events and progress, or otherwise. Kerry Figgis was still outstanding and concern continued to grow; they were still no closer to catching the mystery man. He thanked everyone for their efforts and asked them to be back by eight next morning. They were all whacked after a lengthy day of graft, and they left a little subdued and dispirited by the lack of progress. Henry sensed a growing despair, one he was beginning to feel himself.

He spent the next hour with the policy book, going over everything that had been done, satisfying himself he’d covered all bases. He closed the book, knowing there were no obvious gaps in the investigation, but realizing there was every possibility this was going to be a long haul.

Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose, a headache coming on. A combination of a day of bad food, too little sleep, not enough water, and stress. Henry was always close to the edge and had, through the years, been over it. He was determined that it was a place he would never visit again. It wasn’t the stress of the investigation that was worrying him this time, though. It was the other things. If he could get rid of all that peripheral shite and be left with a complex murder investigation, he’d be tickety-boo.

He rolled his head, neck creaking. Why did everything creak now? Neck, knees, back. He was beginning to feel like a car that had reached that time in its life when things started to go wrong, when it became more expensive to maintain and run that it was actually worth. When a trip to the showroom was called for to trade it in for a new model.

Four years short of fifty.

The prospect of the half-century struck him like a rampaging elephant.

‘Oooh, no, no, no,’ he admonished himself, placing his hands on the desk to assist him stand up. ‘No navel gazing for me,’ he announced to his empty office. ‘I’m going right now to increase my water intake for the day — disguised as a pint of Stella — then I’m going home, have a JD nightcap, leap into bed with my ex-wife and make hot lurv. She’ll think all her birthdays and Christmases have come all at once, when in fact it’ll be me.’ He giggled, a noise which stopped abruptly as a large figure appeared at the office door, making him jump.

‘First sign o’ madness,’ the man said with an American accent. ‘Talkin’ to yourself.’

Karl Donaldson stood there, his wide frame completely blocking the door. ‘Mind if I come along for the drink, but I’ll pass on the lovemakin’, if you don’t mind?’