Into the Darkness Page 9

  ‘Change comes whether you like it or not. You have to go with the flow.’

  Greene had said something similar, and I knew they were both right. It was obvious. ‘Maybe I’m too much of a dinosaur to change.’

  ‘Well, you know what happened to them when they couldn’t adapt?’

  ‘Exactly. I feel like I’m an extinct breed in the force now.’

  ‘Which is precisely why you need to embrace this new challenge.’

  ‘New is scary.’

  ‘Don’t be a bloody girl!’

  I laughed, despite the worries turning over in my head. ‘You’re not allowed to call me that. It’s sexist.’

  ‘Who says?’

  ‘Greene would. Haven’t you had the new diversity training?’

  ‘I escaped before they started it. It’s political correctness gone mad.’ She was as much a rebel as I was. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve had it?’ She snorted. ‘I’d like to have seen that.’

  ‘Greene would have put me at the top of the list if I wasn’t leaving.’

  ‘I can just imagine. So . . . anyway, back to the important stuff. Are you thinking of backing out of my team?’

  ‘I . . .’ I tried to think what to say but when nothing emerged, Ellie jumped in.

  ‘Look, this is a big thing you’re going through right now. Denise is gone. You’ve sold the house you shared with her for most of your married life. You’ve finally got rid of her belongings after a year. And you’re starting a new job. They’re the most stressful things people can go through and you’ve done them all in quick succession. It’s normal to have a bit of self-doubt and fear going on.’

  ‘But you’ve managed it OK.’

  ‘Because I have to. Because I had to get away from the nick where the memories of Spencer would be too much. Because I had to get away from the house for the same reason. If I stop and let all the grief and bitterness consume me, I’ll end up in the nut house.’

  ‘Yeah, well, maybe I am losing the plot.’ I rubbed at my forehead. ‘I know what you’re saying but nothing seems like it makes sense any more. It just feels like I don’t really have a clue about my life.’

  ‘Maybe it’s my fault. I badgered you into this new job – pun not intended. Maybe it was too soon for you.’

  ‘But you’re doing OK. You sound like you’re loving it.’

  ‘We’re not all the same. And it’s not a competition, is it?’ Her last words seemed harsh but they were delivered with gentleness. ‘What’s the alternative, if you don’t join me?’

  I let my head fall back against the headrest and closed my eyes. ‘I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go on a world cruise or something.’

  She didn’t reply but I knew what she was thinking. Your life is policing. What the hell will you do without this job? I thought I knew the answer, too. I’d probably become a recluse. Or an alcoholic. Or an alcoholic recluse.

  ‘I don’t want to let you down,’ I said.

  ‘And I don’t want to push you. Maybe you just got caught up in my needs because you wanted to help me get over Spencer. If you want to back out, I won’t stand in your way. I’ll be pissed off with you for a while, but I’ll get over that.’ I heard the smile in her voice. ‘And I’ll miss you. But we both know life’s too short not to at least try to be happy.’

  But the trouble was, I didn’t even know what would make me happy these days.

  ‘And I’ve had loads of quality applicants. I’d be able to find a new detective sergeant with no problem.’

  ‘So I’m dispensable?’ I quipped.

  ‘Oi! You can’t have it both ways.’ I heard someone calling Ellie’s name and she said, ‘Sorry, I’ve got to go. Why don’t you have a serious think about what you really want for your future and let me know. But don’t leave it too long, all right?’

  ‘Thanks, Ellie.’

  ‘Take care, mate.’

  ‘You, too.’

  I hung up and pushed the swirling confusion to a place in my head where I didn’t have to think about it. Didn’t have to make a decision. Future? I wasn’t sure I even had one.

  I started the engine, turned left out of the livery stables and the lane swung around in a circular shape, skirting the edge of the woods on the passenger side of my vehicle. After a short while I arrived at Parker Farm. There was a seven-foot wall around the front of the property with solid metal gates which were closed. I parked in front of the gates and got out of the car. Above the wall I could see the tops of metal spikes every metre or so with shiny new barbed wire strung across them. The same barbed wire was being attached to the top of the gates by a guy in his thirties with his hair tied back in a ponytail, working on a ladder inside the property.

  I wondered if he was installing it after hearing what had happened to the Jamesons.

  The man on the ladder looked at me over the top of the gates with suspicion and said, ‘Can I help you?’

  I held up my warrant card and told him who I was and why I was there. ‘Are you Connor Parker?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’m just speaking to the Jamesons’ neighbours to see if they heard or saw anything suspicious the day before yesterday.’

  ‘Oh, right. Hang on a sec. I’ll come down.’ He disappeared from the ladder.

  The gates were electric and opened inwards and the man stepped out to meet me. I glimpsed another red-brick house in the distance behind him and a large outbuilding amongst yet more fields.

  ‘Yeah. It sounds pretty nasty, what happened up there.’ He frowned, two thick eyebrows drawn up over two dark-brown eyes. ‘But, sorry, I can’t help you. I was out all day.’

  ‘Right. Can you tell me what time you left and when you got back?’

  ‘I left the house about six thirty in the morning. Got back about ten in the evening.’

  ‘Does anyone else live here who might’ve seen anything?’

  ‘No. I live alone.’

  ‘Did you know the Jamesons?’

  ‘Quite well, although my parents knew them better. They were friends with them, used to have each other round for drinks and meals, but my parents died several years ago. I’d stop and have a chat with Jan and Mike if I saw them in their Land Rover or out walking, but other than that I’ve only really seen them in passing in the last few years.’

  ‘You can’t think of any reason someone would want to hurt them?’

  ‘Absolutely none.’

  ‘You’re not aware of any disputes they had with anyone?’

  ‘Not at all.’

  ‘You’ve certainly got a lot of security here,’ I said. ‘Have you had any problems in the past with break-ins or trespassers?’

  ‘No. But you can’t be too careful these days, can you? Especially now, after what’s happened to Jan and Mike. I thought I’d put up some extra deterrents.’ He pointed to the barbed wire.

  ‘I don’t blame you. Well, if anything comes to mind that might be helpful, can you give me a ring?’ I handed out another business card.

  ‘Uh . . . yeah. Of course.’

  THE VIGILANTE

  Chapter 16

  Corinne’s eyes were red with dark smudges underneath. She was pale and looked as if she was on the edge of collapse. ‘What?’ she asked me desperately. ‘What did Lee say?’

  ‘Was Toni’s laptop working OK?’

  Her forehead bunched up as she thought. ‘Um . . . yes. She was using it the day before she went missing. Why?’

  I paused for a moment. ‘You were always a vodka and Coke drinker. I think you might need a large one before I tell you what I’ve discovered.’

  ‘What? What is it?’ Corinne’s jaw fell open as she stared at me.

  I told her about Toni’s visit to the library. How I suspected what she’d discovered online had been the initiating factor in her disappearance.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Corinne wailed, leaning forward at the waist and wrapping her arms around herself. ‘I was right. She didn’t run away, did she? I knew she wouldn’t. But that means . . . s
omeone’s taken her.’ She reached out and gripped my arm. ‘Do you think she’s still alive?’

  It was a question I’d been thinking constantly since Corinne had first called me, and I didn’t have an answer. I wanted to sugarcoat it with a yes, but I also wanted to be honest. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I’ve never even heard of a red room before! How can anyone do something like that? Online snuff films? What’s wrong with people?’ Corinne’s hands shook as she clasped a hand to her mouth, hiccupping back a sob.

  I searched the kitchen cupboards for a vodka bottle. Poured a generous slug in a glass and added come Coke from the fridge. Put it on the table in front of her.

  ‘According to Toni’s phone data, she hadn’t arranged to meet anyone. So why would she take her laptop with her?’ I asked.

  ‘I’ve got no idea,’ Corinne said. ‘Like I said, she only ever took it to college. Otherwise it was always here.’

  ‘Toni’s course wasn’t due to start until next week but presumably the uni is open now after the holidays. Could she have been going to the library there to do some more research on true crimes or red rooms?’

  ‘If she was going to uni, she would’ve caught the bus from the main road. Not gone through the cutting towards town. It’s in High Wycombe.’

  ‘There has to be a reason,’ I said, more a thought out loud than a question. Toni left the house of her own free will. She must’ve been intending to go somewhere. Obviously not back to the public library in town, if she was carrying her own laptop.

  I pulled my phone from my pocket and called up the satellite map of the area again. I zoomed in, followed the route from Toni’s house towards the cutting, swiped down and found the High Street just the other side of it, zoomed in again and searched around. I found the police station at the far end and then it clicked. ‘I think Toni didn’t want to tell you about what she’d found. She knew you’d be scared and worried for her. But she was convinced what she’d seen was real, and she wanted to tell the police. I think that’s where she was heading.’

  Corinne picked up her glass and gulped it. ‘Why couldn’t she just tell me if she’d found something like that, if she was in trouble? I could’ve been with her. Protected her.’ She balled her right hand into a fist, fear and anger at what these people could do to her daughter turning her face a mottled red.

  ‘Because she thought she was protecting you.’ I was angry, too, but I had to keep it together. There was no time to fall apart. Falling apart wouldn’t help Toni. I was too busy trying to work out why Toni hadn’t just written the red room website down and given it to the police. Why take her laptop to show them? I thought about the page torn out of her notebook. Maybe she had written it down on the missing page and taken that with her. But what significance did the laptop itself have that a website address didn’t? A threat of some kind that the people who ran the red room had sent her? Or just to show the police what had happened when she’d entered the site so they’d see she’d stumbled upon it accidentally and wasn’t involved in any way?

  ‘Do you think I should let the police know what you’ve found?’ Corinne asked. ‘The more people looking for her the better.’

  ‘It’s your call, of course, but I’d say no. We don’t have anything concrete, and besides, they have to follow rules and a load of bureaucracy which will just slow everything down. What Lee’s doing isn’t legal, but he’s doing it quickly and efficiently. It would take them days just to get warrants for access to the same information Lee’s found in hours.’ I took her hand in mine. ‘You trust me, don’t you?’

  Corinne’s eyes, filled with a world of pain, searched mine. Then she nodded her agreement. ‘I want her back, Mitchell. Please. I don’t care what you have to do. Just get her back.’

  THE DETECTIVE

  Chapter 17

  Next stop, Eagan’s Scaffolding. I wasn’t sure if Paula would be at work the day after her parents’ murder, but I wanted to check out her alibi, and establish whether or not Grant had one.

  I parked outside their unit on an industrial estate. A sign for reception pointed me to a front door on the right. On the left side of the building was an open-air yard with wrought-iron gates. Several guys were there loading scaffolding equipment on to vehicles but Grant wasn’t amongst them.

  I walked into the reception and found a young girl behind an old desk with paperwork in a huge pile not dissimilar to the stack waiting for me in the office. She was on the phone but smiled at me and held her finger up to indicate she wouldn’t be long. My gaze scanned behind her to a couple of closed office doors. The clanging metal of scaffold poles being thrown into the trucks outside clattered through an open window.

  The girl put the phone down and said, ‘Hi, how can I help you?’

  I showed her my warrant card and introduced myself.

  ‘Are you looking for Paula? It’s absolutely awful what’s happened. She’s not in today, though. She’s in a right state. Well, you would be, wouldn’t you? I mean, I couldn’t imagine anything like it.’ She spewed the words out quickly. When she paused for a breath, I jumped in.

  ‘Was Paula here the day before yesterday?’ I asked.

  ‘Um . . . no. She had the day off.’

  So Paula had lied to me. She’d just jumped up from a person of interest to a potential suspect. ‘How about Grant Eagan. Was he here then?’

  ‘No. They were both off. Grant’s not here today, either. He’s probably, you know, looking after Paula.’

  ‘Paula does the admin and accounts, is that right?’

  ‘Yeah. And she looks after the website and sorts out online orders. The only office staff are me and Paula.’

  ‘What about Grant? What does he do here?’

  ‘He goes out on jobs with the lads, even though he’s the boss.’

  ‘OK, thanks.’

  ‘Do you need their home address? I can give it to you.’

  ‘That’s all right, I have it. Thanks.’

  ‘Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.’

  ‘You’ve actually been incredibly helpful.’

  She gave me a sad smile as her phone started ringing again. ‘The phones have been going mad with customers who’ve heard the news, wanting to give their condolences. It hasn’t been this busy with actual jobs for ages.’

  I slipped out of reception and called Ronnie to update him on what I’d found. ‘Can you give the Eagans a call and get them to come to the nick? It’s time to have a proper chat with them both.’

  ‘Yes, guv, will do.’

  ‘Are there any updates for me in the meantime?’

  ‘I’ve been speaking to the Jamesons’ friends. They all said Mike’s and Jan’s relationship with their daughter was tenuous since Paula got involved with Grant. That they didn’t trust him and didn’t want him at the house. Jan mentioned to her friend Mavis that Paula was hassling them for money to get Grant out of trouble.’

  Which pretty much confirmed what Bill Graves had told me.

  ‘Apart from that, none of their friends know of any recent problems the Jamesons had, and none had seen Mike or Jan in the last couple of weeks. Apparently, Mike had the flu and was struggling to get over it. He wasn’t feeling that great still, so he’d been at home with Jan looking after him. Mavis phoned the house at about ten a.m. on the morning before the murder and she said everything seemed fine then. Mavis chatted with Jan for about fifteen minutes about trivial stuff. Jan said Mike was finally on the mend now and they tentatively fixed a day next week for Mavis and her husband to go to their house for dinner. None of the people I spoke to have any clothes or jewellery with small pink stones on it.’

  So the stones had jumped up a bit in significance. It seemed very likely now that they had come from whoever else was in the room at the time the Jamesons were murdered. But was that person Paula?

  THE VIGILANTE

  Chapter 18

  Maya returned to Corinne’s house with no useful leads. No one had seen Toni at the cutting. No one had heard
anything. No one had noticed any suspicious vehicles hanging around. And to make Toni just disappear, they would’ve needed a vehicle to transport her.

  The doorbell rang then, and Corinne rushed to answer it, still expecting – no hoping for – it to be Toni coming home, safe and sound. But it was just Toni’s friend, Laura.

  The contrast between the two young women was obvious from the moment Laura stepped inside the house. Laura was short, overweight, with bad acne, greasy, lifeless hair, and glasses with thick lenses that magnified her eyes.

  ‘Thank you for coming over.’ Corinne hugged Laura at the door as Maya and I waited in the hall behind her. ‘Come in.’ She took Laura’s hand and led her into the lounge.

  Laura gave Maya and me a fleeting, wobbly smile as Corinne introduced us.

  ‘This is Mitchell. He’s Toni’s godfather.’

  My head swivelled in Corinne’s direction. Her eyes met mine with a clear message. You would’ve been. If things hadn’t gone wrong.

  I ground my teeth to counteract the tightness in my chest from the weight of her words crushing me, and concentrated hard on Laura, trying to stop the images of Tony rushing into my head once more.

  ‘And this is Maya.’ Corinne turned back to Laura. ‘Please, sit down. We just want to ask you some more questions about Toni.’

  Laura sat next to Corinne on the sofa, looking bewildered and nervous. ‘I told you everything I knew. I hadn’t seen Toni for a couple of days. I don’t know what’s happened to her, I swear. And I haven’t heard from her. I would’ve told you if I had.’ She pulled the cuffs of her long-sleeved T-shirt down and hid her hands inside them, clenching the edges of the material tight with her fingertips.

  I sat on an armchair opposite them as Maya perched on the arm beside me.

  ‘We don’t think Toni ran away,’ I said gently, trying to put her at ease. ‘We think someone’s taken her. And it’s possible you do know something, even without realising it.’

  ‘Oh, no!’ Laura gasped. ‘Have you told the police?’ she asked Corinne.