Twisted

Chapter 22

Reid arrived at the station early Saturday morning to work on the Crime Night TV appeal. DS Lane told him that Marcus Fulford had agreed to do the show and be interviewed, but he didn’t know if his wife would accompany him after the fracas over Gail Summers. Reid said he would call and ask her as he also needed some video footage of Amy from her. He was checking over his reports from the previous day when his office phone rang.

‘It’s the front counter officer here, sir. I’ve got a psychologist called Marjory Jordan wanting to speak to you about your investigation.’

‘Thank you,’ said Reid, trying not to show his surprise. ‘Would you get someone to show her up to my office please?’

Marjory Jordan was in her mid-forties, well dressed, very attractive and curvaceous, with shoulder-length highlighted blonde hair, and her makeup was rather thick, with dark red glossy lipstick. Reid registered that she was quite a forceful presence as she shook his hand, thanked him for seeing her and took a seat opposite his desk. Opening her wallet, she brought out her business card and handed it to him, before telling him that as the psychologist treating Lena Fulford she was bound by the rules of client confidentiality. Reid was confused by her statement and asked why she come to see him. Miss Jordan explained that a distressed Agnes Moors had asked her to go to Mrs Fulford’s house. Now, having seen and spoken with Lena, she had serious concerns and felt it was necessary to speak to him.

‘I am aware of the situation regarding her daughter, so under the circumstances I was there within half an hour of receiving Mrs Moors’ call.’

‘Is Mrs Fulford all right?’

Miss Jordan sighed. ‘Again, I have to consider my client’s confidentiality, but it was very fortunate that I was able to see her so quickly.’

Reid wanted her to get to the point. If she had bothered to come and see him he knew that there was something she wanted to tell him, irrespective of client confidentiality. He asked her again if Lena was all right.

Miss Jordan took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing. ‘Well, it could have been a lot worse; Lena has self-harmed before, but last night she gouged deep wounds to both her arms. Obviously the distress over her daughter, and the forthcoming divorce proceeding, brought it on as she had been well for months. I discovered Lena hasn’t been taking her medication – without it her mood can swing from being very agitated one moment to severely depressed the next.’

‘I know she has been diagnosed as bipolar,’ he said quietly.

‘Yes, but I am here to warn you that I do not think she will be able to handle the interview on the Crime Night show which she told me you are arranging.’

‘I would obviously like her to be present, but I will be guided by your advice and thankfully her husband has agreed to take part.’

She nodded, and hesitated before asking if there had been any news of Amy’s whereabouts.

‘Sadly none. Did you know Amy?’

‘I met her briefly a couple of times when she waited for her mother. She seemed a very calm well-adjusted girl, very attractive and polite as well.’

‘What about Marcus Fulford?’

Again she hesitated, then said Lena had first been brought to her by him as he had been given her name by another client. To understand Lena’s problems it had been necessary for her to speak to Mr Fulford, who said that Lena had unpredictable mood swings that had created a lot of tension in their relationship.

Reid smiled. ‘Not easy to live with?’

She shook her head. ‘Not at all, and for Mr Fulford, not understanding the causes and symptoms was very distressing. It was a long road, but Lena responded well to therapy, and once we got her medication right she improved rapidly. Just as she was controlling her illness, her husband asked for a separation.’

‘From what I have gathered it was purportedly a very amicable split,’ Reid remarked.

‘Lena may have acted as if it was, but mentally it was deeply depressing for her and I was very nearly back to square one with her treatment. However, she opened up another business, which proved to be successful, and in many ways she channelled the energy of her hyperactivity periods to good use.’

Reid had carefully made no mention that he didn’t believe the separation to be amicable, both from what he had witnessed and what he now knew. Instead he asked her to tell him what she knew about Marcus Fulford.

‘Well I suppose I can talk about him as he was not my client. I found him to be genuinely worried about his wife’s mental state, and for him to bring her to me shows he clearly cared deeply for her. She loves him – I think she still does – and I am certain that he really and truly loved her. Before the separation he had taken a lot of abuse from Lena, and her possessiveness made his life very difficult.’

‘Do you think that Lena’s illness could have affected their daughter and that maybe Marcus did not work because he wanted to make sure Amy was in no danger?’

Miss Jordan wafted her hand. ‘No, no, not at all, there was never any question of that. Lena is a wonderful caring doting mother, perhaps over-protective, and we had numerous sessions where I made her understand and accept that Amy should be allowed to spend quality time with her father.’

As she was talking Reid wondered if Miss Jordan had also found Marcus Fulford attractive, perhaps even having a sexual relationship with him. To give himself some time he began to rearrange the papers on his desk before he asked if he could ask her a personal question. She cocked her head to one side and gave him an open smile, saying he could ask her anything he wished as long as it was not going to cross the confidentiality barriers of her work.

‘Did you have a sexual relationship with Marcus Fulford?’

She gasped and leaned forward. ‘Absolutely not, though I admit he is very attractive, but there is no way I would jeopardize my position. It would be catastrophic, as my concerns are for his wife, as a patient.’

He wondered if she was being a bit too adamant, but didn’t feel he could pressurize her further, as she was quite a formidable woman.

‘He told me that he had been faithful, and had not had any extramarital affairs during their marriage, but was finding it very difficult to have a sexual relationship with his wife. He also told me at length about Lena self-mutilating and causing scratches and marks on her body that she covered up and even denied the existence of. He said it was making him think about his mother.’

Reid leaned forward, ‘His mother?’

‘Yes, and before you jump to any conclusions it was not anything sexual. He told me his mother had suffered from severe psoriasis all her life. It’s a skin affliction that is very painful – the skin erupts in itchy patches that can become infected and cause weeping sores. Eventually they dry out and form scabs of dry skin. He said his mother was often covered in sores and scabs and could not bear to be touched – for him it was horrible as she would even have it in her hair and would shed her skin, and he described it as like living with a human snake.’

‘So when Lena cut herself…’

‘He found it repellent. He said that she used to have the softest most beautiful unblemished skin, but when she was in a manic state she hated to be touched. He also started to find it difficult to live with her, so that was really the main reason he had to leave.’

Reid leaned back, silently speculating that the large number of women Marcus was known to be involved with was more likely to be the real reason for his leaving Lena. He chose his next question carefully and asked Miss Jordan if, considering what she had just told him, there was any sexual or physical abuse of his daughter.

She considered his question and took a long time to reply. ‘I cannot give you a direct or professional answer as I only had a few brief meetings with Amy. From my interaction with her father I seriously doubt that anything of a sexual nature would have been instigated or carried out by him.’

‘But it’s possible?’

‘In my profession I have come to learn that anything is possible, Detective Reid, but I stand by my answers about Marcus Fulford.’

She picked up her briefcase and stood up. He shook her hand and walked her out of his office and down to the reception, reassuring her that he would obviously treat everything she said as confidential. When he returned to his office, Chief Superintendent Douglas was waiting to see him and slapping his thigh with a thick file.

‘Morning, sir, I thought you’d be off on a Saturday,’ Reid said with a smile.

Douglas had no time for pleasantries. ‘What the fuck do you think you were doing at the bloody forensic lab? It was a shambles of whores and girlfriends and screaming wives. I want an explanation because I need to know just what the hell you think you are playing at!’

Reid sighed. ‘I realize it all went a bit pear-shaped, sir, but I was trying to save time and money on expensive forensic work.’

‘Don’t give me that crap. You went against normal procedure and should have informed me of what you were going to do. Whether it was naïvety and inexperience, or just plain stupidity, is debatable.’

It took Reid a considerable amount of time to calm Douglas down and explain the reasons for his actions and that they were waiting on the DNA results. By the time he had gone through all his reasons it was coming up to twelve. Douglas was still uptight and was convinced that it had been unnecessary to subject the mother of their missing girl to a confrontation with Gail Summers, a woman who had betrayed her trust, not to mention that she had slept with her husband.

‘Some of the underwear belonged to her, sir, as well as to two prostitutes. Marcus Fulford also liked to wear it and masturbate.’

‘Sick bastard. Was Amy stealing the panties of these women from her father?’

‘Well her father said they were kept in his room, so either Amy stole them or someone else put them in her room.’

‘Why would she take women’s underwear stained in semen from her father’s room?’

‘Only Amy knows the answer to that, but it could be connected to him abusing her. Until the profile of his and Amy’s DNA comes through I’ve no strong evidence to really question him on.’

Douglas shook his head, flicking through one report after another. It took another three quarters of an hour as he gradually digested the amount of questionable sexual activity in the case, not only concerning the girl’s father, but also the fact that Amy had been caught on CCTV trying to pick up punters. Eventually he stood up.

‘You know what this tells me?’

Reid gave a quizzical look as Douglas tucked the file under his arm.

‘She’s simply run off and is shacked up with some bastard. Jesus Christ, I have a daughter almost the same age, but this girl is a modern-day Lolita. Plus she obviously likes to sell her body for sex.’

‘We don’t know that for certain, sir.’

‘She’s got plenty of money, her mother’s loaded, so soliciting must be like some sort of hobby to her.’

Reid thought it best not to argue the point as Douglas had formed his opinion and wasn’t likely to be budged on the matter.

Douglas clicked his fingers and then pointed towards Reid. ‘What about that Simon Boatly character – you tracked him down yet?’

‘No, sir.’

Douglas yanked open the door. ‘Get onto it; my money is on him. He’s close to the family, and loaded, and Amy likes the high life.’

‘We believe he’s still in the Bahamas, sir…’

‘Believing is not the same as proving it. If he’s abroad, or in this country, track him down and bring him in.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Get the parents to do the Crime Night appeal.’

Reid interrupted him to say that Lena Fulford was probably not going to be fit enough.

‘What the hell is the matter with her? Her daughter’s been missing for nearly a week, and what, she’s lost interest in helping us find her?’

‘I’ll talk to her, but her therapist said she was very distressed.’

‘Therapist, I’ll be bloody needing one after this load of shit. Just see if she’s capable of shedding a few tears. We need to get a result on this, Reid. At the moment it’s like a steam train running out of coal.’

Douglas slammed the door shut after him and Reid slumped down onto his chair. He was loath to think like his boss, or describe the situation as preposterously, but the truth was, the more they uncovered, the more it was starting to look as if Amy Fulford had multiple reasons to disappear.