Pure Evil

Chapter Thirteen

Jack arrived at the labs the following morning just after eight thirty. The battery had died on his mobile phone, which he’d forgotten to charge overnight. When it had enough juice to be turned on again, he found he had missed three calls from Laura. He decided to wait until he got the results from the IT team about Middleton’s computer and Amanda’s mobile phone. The forensic department had also said they would test the tools, alongside bedding from Middleton’s bedroom.

Christopher Deacon, the young scientist who was working on Middleton’s computer hard drive, was eating a bacon roll when Jack found him. He had on thick, Harry Potter-style glasses and his head was shaved on both sides with a tuft on the top slicked up with gel.

Deacon had printed out a pile of material for Jack, and was still producing further data. He had an unfortunate manner of eating whilst he was talking, spitting out breadcrumbs everywhere and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

‘My God, there’s more stuff on here about mental illness than in a bloody medical journal,’ he said. ‘He’s concentrated on manic depression, schizophrenia, multiple personalities, the mental states of serial killers and their trials. There are lists of prescription medications, stuff about psychoanalysis, hypnosis and suicides... I could carry on... it’s obsessive.’

Jack pulled up a chair and sat beside him. Deacon then talked about all the computer games that Middleton had accessed, but there was no pornography, or accessing of paedophile sites; Middleton had just downloaded cartoons and Disney films.

‘Anything personal? Any family snaps?’ Jack asked.

Deacon shook his head. ‘No. He’s done a lot of research about arson, though, and bizarrely, documentaries about seriously obese people weighing over forty stone... but nothing personal, not even e-mails. But I’m going to do some more digging as they could be carefully buried. This is not a very up-to-date computer, but your user is pretty savvy.’

Jack sat with Deacon for over half an hour, reading the printed material. He then went to get a coffee and to see if there was any development on the content of Amanda’s mobile phone. The phone department was a very small area and they only worked on mobiles. There were two young specialists who, like Deacon, looked like teenagers to Jack. They had laid out in front of them about thirty different mobile phones taken from drug dealers and other criminals. Amanda’s mobile was relatively old and they had easily retrieved the numbers that had been called and received. The most recent calls were to a café close to Brixton prison, the basement flat and the hostel. There were also two other mobile numbers and a Liverpool number.

By the time Jack had finished, he was armed with a thick dossier of printed material. It was after 11 a.m. when he parked at the station and headed towards the incident room, carrying a takeaway coffee and a bulging briefcase. Pushing open the double doors he stopped in his tracks. Every desk was occupied and standing by the newly placed white crime board were DCI Clarke, Laura and Anik. Photographs of the missing girls were pinned up on the board, along with Rodney Middleton’s mug shots and information about the search of the flat. Jack could also see that two teams of officers had been allocated for 24/7 surveillance of the basement flat.

Jack felt as if the ground was opening up beneath his feet and he had to take a deep breath as he walked over to his desk and put his briefcase down. His hand shook as he eased the lid off his coffee.

DCI Clarke gestured to Laura and pointed at Jack.

‘Give Sergeant Warr an update in my office, Laura, and then get back as soon as you can for a meeting in the boardroom. Also, we’d like the information from the IT team following your visit this morning, and as soon as possible.’

Jack knew he was flushing, not from embarrassment but anger as he struggled to take it all in. What the hell had Laura been doing in the twenty-four hours since he had last seen her?

Laura shut the office door and before Jack could say a word, she rounded on him.

‘I’ve been trying to contact you since last night, Jack! Why the hell haven’t you called me? I even spoke to your mother this morning and told her it was urgent... and you just breeze in with a bloody takeaway coffee. I’ve been up half the night and...’

‘Shut up, Laura,’ Jack interrupted, ‘and just tell me what the fuck is happening out there.’

Laura pursed her lips and took a deep breath. ‘Right, I did exactly as you asked me to do last night. But when I got back here, DCI Clarke was still here and asked me how it had gone on the search. I told him, and he just took over. We worked most of the night creating the crime scene board and collating all the information to date. He called in six more officers and delegated the surveillance team, and he’s expecting more officers to arrive for the board meeting. He has just taken over, Jack, and there was nothing I could do or say. He’s pressuring missing persons for results and updates, and he has a search warrant for the outside cellar coal hole. The officers who arrested Middleton are being brought in for a debrief, and an interview has been arranged with the man Middleton assaulted. The DCI is having meetings with Middleton’s probation officer, also his psychiatrist — Angus Seymour — but someone you tried to interview, George Donaldson, is away on holiday, and...’

Laura had to stop to draw breath. ‘I think he’s gearing up to bring Rodney Middleton in for questioning this afternoon.’

Jack drained his coffee cup and tossed it into the waste bin.

‘I might as well fucking go home,’ he muttered bitterly.

‘Jack, listen to me. I don’t want you thinking I did anything behind your back. To the contrary, I told the chief exactly what you suspected and that you had been determined to find the evidence. I explained the frustration regarding not being able to trace the missing girls. The DCI said he believed you were right, and this was a much bigger and more urgent situation than he had realised. I was here until God knows what hour. He called Anik in to help get all the info onto the board. I don’t think he even went home.’

‘I bet Anik is loving it. He can’t wait to take over.’

Laura glared at him. ‘Just stop it, Jack. This has all come from your intuitions and gut feelings and nobody is going to take away any credit from you now that it’s become a whopper of a case. Now, we need to get into the boardroom, alright?’

Jack took a deep breath. ‘Yeah, sure. I’m sorry for not returning your calls. My battery died and then I had to get out early to the labs.’

‘I hear you.’

‘Sorry to sound off at you like that; it was uncalled for.’

Laura nodded before walking out.

The incident room was almost empty. Jack went to his desk to collect his briefcase. Hendricks walked by, carrying a loaded tray of empty coffee mugs and stale sandwiches from earlier and asked Jack to open the door for him. As he passed through, Hendricks paused.

‘A quick question: the trace Leon has been working on, Sandra Raynor... do you want her name on the crime board too?’

‘No, drop it,’ Jack said quickly. ‘We’ll talk about it later.’

Hendricks hurried away down the corridor as Jack made his way to the boardroom. When he walked in, he was taken aback at how many officers were now gathered, some in uniform but also numerous plain-clothed detectives who had been brought in from other stations. DCI Clarke was at the head of the table, stacking papers in front of him. He indicated the empty chair beside him.

‘Good timing, Jack. Come on in, I was just about to start.’

Jack sat down and placed his briefcase on the table in front of him, nodding to everyone as DCI Clarke cleared his throat then sipped from a bottle of water.

‘Right, everyone, I’m going to make this as brief as possible. Firstly, I want everyone to know that Detective Sergeant Jack Warr was originally given the Rodney Middleton case in preparation for his forthcoming trial on an assault charge, with Middleton being held at Brixton prison. At the time he had not been granted bail due to a previous similar assault charge using a knife. Middleton was arrested at his flat and admitted the assault. He went quietly and handed over the knife he had used in the attack at his local corner shop. He was taken before a magistrate and pleaded guilty.’

He took a sip of water before continuing.

‘To all intents and purposes this was a straightforward arrest. Detective Warr had to prepare for the trial but as an extremely dedicated officer he wanted to eliminate any possible loopholes. I think I am correct in saying that he subsequently became suspicious about Middleton’s ability to use his mental health history to secure lenient punishments and to avoid a prison sentence. Detective Warr then became aware of the disappearances of a number of underage females. He has been able to establish that some of these girls lived with Middleton and his girlfriend, Amanda Dunn, who went missing at the age of twelve. She’s lived with Middleton for the past five years and was at times being held as a virtual prisoner. It will be our priority to remove her from the premises as she could be in danger, but we also have to consider the likelihood of her aiding and abetting Middleton to entice the girls to his flat.’

DCI Clarke paused and took another sip of water.

‘So far we have been unable to trace any of the missing girls, who were all picked up from Euston Station before being taken to the basement flat. In each case, Middleton subsequently told his girlfriend that he had “got rid of them”. I believe that Middleton is a very dangerous individual and we need to consider the possibility that these girls are murder victims, and there may possibly be more. Middleton was released on bail yesterday so there is obviously an urgent need to find the evidence to justify an arrest.’

Clarke then asked Laura to describe the search of the basement flat. She explained, concisely, what they had discovered, including the bleach, the large amount of prescription drugs, and the fact that the flat was devoid of any personal items. Laura explained that the search warrant did not cover the basement’s large bunker-like space which had previously been used as a coal hole. They had been able to obtain the dimensions and it was surprisingly big, extending halfway beneath the road outside the flat. The delay in gaining a search warrant for the coal hole was because the original warrant had only been for the flat Middleton was renting.

It was then Anik’s turn to confirm that they had allocated a surveillance team to monitor Middleton, and see whether or not he would access the bunker. This had proved difficult as it was hard to see any movement on the basement level from the road, so the surveillance team had asked the landlady, Mrs Delaney, if they could use one of the front rooms above the basement yard, to enable them to look down onto it. Surveillance had reported that there had been no movement during the night, but they were continuing to observe.

Sara then took over from Anik to talk about the missing girls, also summarising the results of their meetings with the firefighter and the probation officer, and the visit to Joyce Miller and her husband Harold.

At last, it was Jack’s turn to stand up. He suggested that everyone read the printouts regarding the contents of Middleton’s computer, as well as the details of the calls from Amanda Dunn’s mobile phone. He told them about the bracelet Amanda had given him, claiming she had found it in Middleton’s bed, and that they had verified it had belonged to Trudie.

‘I think we need to be wary of Amanda. She may well be involved in drawing in other runaways, even if she claims she was locked in a bedroom when other girls were there. We need to consider that Rodney has groomed her over the years she has lived with him, and I think she is very much under his control.’

The printed material was passed around the boardroom table as Jack continued.

‘I do not think we should arrest Rodney Middleton prematurely, certainly not before we get access to the coal hole. I’m hoping that, at the moment, he believes we don’t have any incriminating evidence so he may think he’s in the clear, so long as the surveillance team haven’t tipped him off. Mrs Delaney is not to be trusted and she might well have told our suspect that he’s being monitored. But if he thinks he’s being watched, it means he can’t remove anything from the bunker, which could work in our favour.’

DCI Clarke raised his hand. ‘I have given the green light for us to begin the search in an hour’s time. I am concerned about the safety of Amanda Dunn, but I am prepared to go with DS Warr’s delaying tactic since we have a surveillance team in place. Right, we are open to questions but let’s keep it short as I want to move on this as fast as possible.’

A young detective raised his hand. ‘Sergeant Warr, if you believe that Middleton is a killer, what evidence do we have, apart from the fact that the girls are missing?’

‘Well, no direct evidence. But there’s a new shower unit, gallons of bleach, and he’s locked up his girlfriend for hours, sometimes days at crucial times. I’m certain we’ll find the clues inside that bunker. It’s possible that he dismembers his victims, and puts the parts in the refuse containers in the courtyard of the basement. His landlady told me that they were sometimes very heavy, and she often needed her husband to help carry them to the pavement to be collected.’

The meeting continued for another half hour as questions were asked and answered. DCI Clarke then called for everyone to begin their assignments. He turned to Jack as he was about to get up and walk out along with everyone else.

‘One second, Jack. I received a warning shot over the bows before the meeting. I took a very curt phone call from Georgina Bamford, the barrister you met in court. She complained about harassment of Middleton, who she’s representing while Colin Marshall is off sick. Middleton said he was being targeted by officers searching his flat because he had been granted bail.’

‘That’s bullshit!’ Jack burst out. ‘She can’t have any idea why we were searching his flat and it has nothing to do with his bail. I even left a copy of the search warrant.’

‘Yes, I know that,’ Clarke said, making a placating gesture, ‘but we need to be careful. Let’s just hope we get a result today.’