Vanished

Chapter 34

Ridley sat in the observation room looking through a two-way mirror into the interview room where Jack sat opposite Avril Jenkins’ alleged killer. Two uniformed officers stood just inside the door, sentry-like, in case Jack needed assistance.

On their way to the custody area, Ridley had made the decision that the interview would initially be done by Jack alone. This gave them the flexibility to introduce a second officer halfway through proceedings, to make the prisoner feel either more or less relaxed, as needed.

The man sitting in the interview room across from Jack was white, in his mid-40s, with shaved greying hair and three-day stubble. His close-set eyes were brown and, due to being slightly overweight, he seemed to have no wrinkles at all. He wore a gold stud in his right ear and a badly made friendship bracelet on his wrist suggesting that somewhere there might be a child who loved him.

‘Your passport says your name is John, so that’s what I’ll call you.’ Jack planned to start gently, regardless of the acid revulsion he could feel building in the pit of his stomach. If this guy did turn out to be one of the men who so brutally murdered Avril, Jack wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold his temper. But for now his tone remained light. ‘Unless you want to choose something else. I’m sure John’s not your real name and four days of being called something you don’t like could get tedious.’

The man didn’t flinch at the thought of being kept in police custody for four days. He’d clearly done it before.

‘How’s about Dave?’ He grinned, showing a small gold implant in his right lateral incisor. Jack grinned back. Not because he’d taken a step towards bonding with the low-life in front of him, but because he’d got him to speak, and now he knew ‘Dave’ was a Leeds man.

‘You’re facing possible charges that — when proved — will see you sent down for life,’ Jack began. Dave folded his arms, sat back and said nothing. ‘Did you know there were cameras in the house?’ The tiny muscles beneath Dave’s eyes twitched. ‘Now you’re trying to work out if I’m telling the truth. But do you know what you should have said? “What house?”’ Dave remained impassive. ‘What part of Leeds are you from?’ Dave’s lips curled into a half-smile. He thought Jack was funny, and he was definitely not afraid.

Jack pushed onwards, asking Dave about his upbringing, if he had a drug habit, if he ever met the person who gave the order to kill. He even offered Dave a deal and protection if he gave them the top names. ‘Who made the friendship bracelet for you? A daughter? Niece? You must have people you care about. I know how this works. You think you have to keep quiet to keep them safe. That’s not how you protect your family — you do it by helping us.’

Dave was ‘no comment’ from the very start. The only words he had spoken in forty minutes were, ‘How’s about Dave?’

Jack instructed the two officers to take him back to his cell.

In the observation room, Ridley was on his mobile.

‘Thank you, Steve, I appreciate that. Yeah, I’ll send them both back to you once we’ve got what we need.’ Ridley slid his mobile back into his pocket. He stared into the empty interview room. ‘The second individual called Soren Bech has just been given up for Avril’s murder. So, we could have two of them now. Anik’s escorting him across.’

‘They’re scapegoats, sir,’ Jack said. ‘Dave wasn’t even listening to me. He glazed over right after my comment about him being from Leeds. From that moment... nothing. No twitches, no micro-gestures. Nothing. He’s going to go into custody for a few months, whilst we look for hard evidence and then he’ll be released. And he knows it. He’s been told to go “no comment” and hold his nerve. And meanwhile, this Michael Mahoney — we believe him to be the sharp dresser in the Jag and the Drug Squad are certain he’s the main man, but I reckon he will vanish into thin air. Dave and Soren may well be two of our killers, but they’re not scared of being arrested.’ Jack paced the tiny box-like room. ‘And I don’t blame them! We’ve got nothing.’

Ridley released a long sigh. He knew that everything Jack said was true. ‘Let’s interview Soren Bech. Then we’ll see.’

Jack and Ridley watched the police van park up in the rear yard. It rocked slightly as the people inside stood up and moved towards the doors.

The back doors of the police van opened and Anik walked down the steps. He then turned and reached up into the van as a scrawny man with greasy hair and sunken eyes stumbled forwards. He reached out his cuffed hands and leant heavily on Anik whilst he navigated the two small steps to solid ground. He looked weak and terrified. Anik led him slowly inside.

Jack and Ridley stood by the custody desk, watching Soren’s relentless shaking; his muscle control was weak and he was soaked in sweat, every inch of him pining for his next fix. Ridley rolled his head on his neck as though fending off a headache. He then addressed the custody sergeant: ‘Get duty doc to see him. If he needs to go to hospital, source two uniformed officers. No less than two, please. Keep him safe.’

Soren tried to move towards Ridley, who he now perceived to be the man in charge, but Anik held him at a distance. ‘De ramte min lille pige. They hit my little girl. With a truck. Now she can’t walk. I have two more children back in Amsterdam. Please. They kill my baby. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do it. I’m sorry.’ Soren stumbled heavily into Anik’s arms. A PC stepped in, took some of Soren’s negligible weight, and helped Anik take him towards the cells.

Ridley was seething at the fact that Steve hadn’t sent Soren Bech straight to hospital. ‘He doesn’t want to waste any of his officers on the escort, that’s why! Look at him, Jack. We won’t be able to interview him for hours and, when we do, he’ll be “no comment” as well. All of this... this garbled half-confession is inadmissible.’

Ridley wasn’t telling Jack anything he didn’t already know, he just needed to vent. Jack led the way back towards Ridley’s office with a suggestion of tea and brainstorming. Then they’d figure how to get their case back on track.

When Ridley and Jack arrived back in the squad room, Steve Lewis was perched on the edge of Jack’s desk, his arms folded tightly across his chest. Behind him were two crates of beer. And Foxy, choosing to stand alone, had adopted much the same position on the edge of Laura’s desk.

‘Simon...’ Foxy held a file in the air and got to his feet. ‘I have more information for you on Jessica Chi.’

‘Thank you.’ Ridley checked his watch — half past six — then invited Steve, Foxy and Jack into his office whilst the team had some well-deserved downtime.

Steve took the main seat opposite Ridley’s, leaving Foxy with the smaller, harder chair and Jack standing up. Jack opted to make himself useful by putting the kettle on as Foxy indicated that Steve should speak first.

‘Here’s what we’ve got from our interviews so far. Mahoney’s northern empire has migrated south over the past three years. As we have discovered, he and his gang were notorious for using large, out-of-the-way homes as bolt-holes. Only instead of targeting vulnerable users who could already be on our radar, they targeted respectable members of the public who are on their way out, physically or mentally.’

Jack wanted to defend Avril’s character, but he didn’t bother. He figured that Steve Lewis would probably just say ‘Avril who?’ Jack put a strong coffee in front of Steve and a weaker, decaf coffee in front of Ridley. Then he made Foxy and himself a cup of tea whilst Steve continued.

‘The reason I’ve come in person is to share some video footage. I hope it’s a kind of full stop for you on the death of Jessica Chi. We were only recently able to uncover the links due to the delay clearing all the debris from the fire, and subsequently put together further surveillance footage. There’s a file in your inbox, Simon.’

Ridley downloaded the file and pressed play.

The video changed to footage from the hidden camera inside Avril’s conservatory. The view through the conservatory window was of the extensive garden, and the expanse of high trees that stood in front of Avril’s greenhouse. Nothing happened for at least thirty seconds. But Jack could tell by the smug grin on Steve’s face that something was about to. After eighty-seven seconds of watching nothing more than trees blowing in the wind, a brilliant red flame burst skyward, like a single rocket and then a huge plume of smoke rose into the air from the rear of the garden, beyond the thick foliage of the treeline.

‘That’s the greenhouse going up in flames.’ Steve’s enthusiasm was hugely inappropriate seeing as this was also the moment that Jessica went up in flames, but Foxy jumped in before anyone could take issue with it.

‘When I examined the lining of Jessica Chi’s lungs, I found a substance I couldn’t immediately identify, so I sent samples away to be analysed.’ Foxy opened the file he’d brought with him. ‘Cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, is a micro-organism that lives on the surface of unhealthy water with low-quality ecosystems. The untended pond in the woodland behind Avril’s home was like this near to the banks, where the water was shallow and could become stagnant. Cyanobacteria can make the surface of the water visually merge with the surrounding greenery of the woodland floor.’ The immediate change of expression on the faces of Jack and Ridley, told Foxy that they’d caught up with his train of thought. ‘Jessica Chi inhaled water from that pond. My guess is that she wasn’t watching her footing and in she went.’

Steve jumped in, so he could join the final dots. ‘The greenhouse would already have been warm. So, she paused there to dry off. But it looks like she then flicked on the one remaining heater which was found next to her body. That heater had been left off for a reason: we had it tested and, even with the fire damage, it proved to be faulty. It took one and a half minutes for the gas levels to become combustible and...’ Steve inflated his cheeks and then let the air escape. ‘She’d probably not have smelt it over the skunk.’ Steve sat back and waited for the plaudits to come his way.

Jack deliberately ignored him. ‘Do you take sugar, Foxy? I can’t remember.’

‘No thanks, Jack.’ Foxy moved to Jack’s side under the guise of collecting his drink, but he also took the opportunity to speak privately whilst Steve stewed in his own juices. ‘You were right about the enema, benzo and diazepam probably. Indicating, as you say, the potential for a second person to have been present. But be careful, Jack, because the current evidence floating about suggests that the other person could have been you.’

Steve slapped his hands down firmly on the arms of his chair and got to his feet before exiting Ridley’s office without another word.

As the evening drew on, Ridley ordered several large pizzas and let his team chill out with the supply of beer provided by Steve Lewis. He and Jack sat in his office nursing a small whisky each. Ridley asked Jack how things were going with the investigation into the death of Tania Wetlock. Jack knew there was nothing concrete to incriminate him but that certain aspects of the case didn’t make him look good — the champagne bottle in her bedroom being one of those things. And the bruising to Tania’s wrists and upper arms being another.

‘Tell Lyle everything, Jack. There’s nothing worse in cases like this than for details to come out later on. The tiniest thing can make a man look guilty. You taking some leave, regardless of it not being your decision, will help here.’

Jack shook his head. ‘I don’t fucking believe it.’

‘You have to, Jack. If you were at work, Lyle could be forced to suspend you, and I need you back with me as soon as possible once this is all cleared up. Keep your head down. Bide your time.’ Then Ridley smiled, adding, ‘Do you actually know how to do both of those things?’