Authors: Michelle Davies
As tempted as she was to call the number herself and find out who it was, Maggie knew she couldn’t. Instead, as she hurried towards the park exit closest to the police station, she used
her own phone to call Steve. He answered on the second ring and sounded upbeat for someone who had just confessed to his boss that he’d cocked up.
‘It’s me. Have you spoken to Umpire yet?’
Steve’s voice hardened. ‘I’m just about to. He’s been tied up with something.’
Maggie didn’t believe him. ‘If you don’t tell him, I will.’
‘I thought we were friends,’ he said huffily.
‘We are. But this is serious, Steve. You have to tell Umpire about the sighting.’
‘Is this why you’ve called? To have a go at me?’
‘No, I need a mobile number checked.’ She read GS’s number from Rosie’s phone then repeated it. ‘Can you run it through the system?’
‘Give me five minutes.’
Next she rang Pearl, a CID admin support assistant she was friendly with, and begged her for a favour too.
‘Is that birdsong I can hear?’ Pearl asked, after Maggie had told her what she needed.
‘I’m in the park,’ Maggie explained.
‘Bit wet for that, isn’t it?’
‘Pearl, can you help me or not?’ said Maggie, trying not to snap.
‘Not if it gets me into trouble, young lady.’
Maggie didn’t blame her for being wary. FLOs didn’t usually call up during an investigation wanting to check alibis.
‘Anything happens, it’s back on me,’ she told her. ‘But if I’m right about this, it’ll be fine.’
Pearl didn’t sound convinced, but said she’d do as Maggie asked.
‘Do you want me to email it as an attachment?’
‘That would be great.’
‘Give me a few minutes to dig it out.’
Maggie was at the park exit by the time Steve rang back in a panic.
‘Tell me where you got this number from,’ he said.
‘Remember those diary entries on Rosie’s old laptop I asked you to tell Umpire about?’ she said pointedly. ‘About someone called GS harassing Rosie? The number is stored
in her old phone under those initials. I want to know who it is before I speak to the DCI.’
‘Shit, Maggie, this is really, really bad,’ said Steve dolefully.
Her skin prickled with alarm. ‘Why? Whose number is it?’
‘It’s registered to an Edward Sinclair, one of the security guards who patrol Burr Way.’
Maggie’s insides lurched like she was on a fairground ride that had just tipped upside down.
‘Steve, he’s not the guard you saw on the CCTV with the suspect?’
‘Yes, it’s him.’
The small metal plaque screwed into the wall said the lift could take up to twelve people. Maggie was grateful to be its only occupant as it ascended steadily from the bowels
of the building. The claustrophobia that had dogged her since she was little, from the time Lou locked her in a wardrobe for a joke, added to the nerves she already felt at the prospect of seeing
Umpire in person for the first time since he was at her flat yesterday. Only when the lift had jolted to a halt on the station’s third floor and the doors opened to spew her out did her
breathing begin to steady.
Her arrival in the incident room caused heads to swivel in surprise. News of Mack’s hospitalization would be common knowledge by now and as she weaved through the banks of desks towards
the front of the room, Maggie guessed the team was wondering why she wasn’t with him and Lesley while he was being treated. One officer she knew, a DC named Nathan, said hello with a raised
eyebrow, but Renshaw was less circumspect and declared loudly from her desk, ‘Should you be here?’
Ignoring her question and the curious stares, Maggie didn’t stop until she reached Umpire, who was deep in conversation with his deputy SIO, a detective inspector called Sol James she knew
only by reputation. Umpire faltered when he saw her approaching then smiled. His reaction pleased her.
‘What are you doing here?’ he said. ‘How’s Mack?’
‘Still waiting to be seen by the consultant but it doesn’t look serious, thankfully. I’ve found out something though, something I think is important, and I thought it was
better to tell you in person,’ she said nervously.
‘Go on,’ said Umpire.
‘Here?’ She could feel her colleagues’ stares boring into her back and didn’t savour having an audience.
‘Yes, here’s fine,’ he replied, crossing his arms. As he listened intently, Maggie launched into how she’d come to find out GS’s identity. She didn’t pause
for breath, anxious to get to the end of her account before he could interrupt or explode, whichever came first.
‘. . . DC Berry checked the number for me just now,’ she finished, hoping that by mentioning Steve in a good light, Umpire might go easier on him later, ‘and it’s
registered to Edward Sinclair, a security guard who works for the firm that patrols Burr Way. So it looks like Sinclair’s the one who’s been harassing Rosie, and Kathryn indicated to me
that GS might be behind the attack on her last night. It’s just a guess, but Rosie might have nicknamed him GS because it’s the reverse of SG, for Security Guard.’
The room went very still. Maggie’s face was inflamed and she couldn’t read Umpire’s expression at all; he just stared at her, unblinking. In the end, it was DI James who gave
him a nudge in the side with his elbow and snapped him out of his stupor.
‘You’re sure about this?’ said Umpire.
She handed him Rosie’s BlackBerry.
‘The messages were sent from a number registered to him.’
Umpire’s brow furrowed as he and DI James huddled together to read them. When he looked up, Maggie saw his eyes were flinty and filled with anger. But, to her relief, it wasn’t
directed at her.
‘It’s eleven thirty now so let’s assume he’s at work. Renshaw, Thomas, I want you to come with me and DI James to bring Sinclair in.’ There was a scuffle of noise
as Renshaw and Nathan jumped out of their seats and began pulling on their jackets. ‘Akinyemi,’ he barked at an officer Maggie didn’t know, sitting at the desk next to Nathan,
‘find out where Sinclair lives, get a warrant organized and let Matheson know. I want his place turned upside down for any sign of Rosie.’ He snatched up his suit jacket, which was
hanging on the back of a chair, and said to DI James, ‘I’ll let the Chief Constable know what’s going on while we’re on the road.’
As she watched her colleagues race into action, Maggie felt like the invisible eye of the storm. Had this been a Force CID case, she would most likely have been one of the officers dispatched to
arrest Sinclair. Here, as FLO, her job was to stand back and let others follow up her lead.
‘Did Kathryn say anything else that makes you think Sinclair is GS?’ Umpire asked her.
Still waiting for a rebuke, she was momentarily taken aback. ‘Only that whoever attacked her was wearing a dark blue top, which is the same as Sinclair . . .’
Their eyes locked and she knew immediately what he was thinking. Without a word, his eyes never leaving hers, he picked up the telephone on the desk nearest him and dialled an extension.
‘Tom, it’s me, DCI Umpire. Have you got anything back on that photograph of Rosie Kinnock yet?’ He paused for a moment to listen. Maggie’s heart was in her mouth as she
waited. ‘You’re sure about that?’ A few more seconds dragged by. ‘Great, thanks.’ He hung up. ‘HTCU have enhanced the image and you were right about it being
some kind of clothing. They can’t say exactly what it is, but it looks like woollen material . . .’
‘Like a dark blue jumper the guards employed by Umbra security wear,’ she finished for him.
Her heartbeat accelerated as the implication that Sinclair was the one who took the near-naked picture of Rosie hit home. It was all starting to add up: he had unfettered access to Burr Way,
which allowed him to stalk Rosie, and an insider knowledge of the security system at Angel’s Reach, which meant he could’ve easily disabled the CCTV cameras on Tuesday morning before
she vanished.
‘If it is Sinclair’s jumper in the photograph and we can prove he took the photo, we can get him for taking indecent images of a child and engaging a child in sexual activity just
for starters. You’ve done really well with this,’ said Umpire, shrugging on his jacket. DI James already had his on and was waiting by the door to leave, ‘and because of that
I’m prepared to overlook the fact you interviewed Kathryn without my knowledge.’
Maggie had a comeback already prepared.
‘Sir, Lesley asked me to check on her while we were at the hospital. I only popped my head round the door and then she got upset.’
The look he shot her suggested he was no more convinced by her excuse than she was herself. But he seemed prepared to let it go.
‘Can I tell Lesley an arrest is imminent?’ she asked.
‘Yes. Tell her it’s Edward Sinclair, but that’s it—’
A sonorous voice broke through their discussion.
‘Did someone mention an Edward Sinclair?’
It was Pearl, the admin support assistant Maggie had called earlier. Almost as wide as she was tall, she waddled up the office towards them, her girth draped in a voluminous navy cotton dress
patterned with huge red poppies that demanded attention and matched the shade of her lipstick.
‘I thought I recognized you from across the room,’ she said to Maggie, and handed her a sheet of A4 paper. ‘Here, this is what you wanted. It sounds like that Sinclair’s
been a very busy boy indeed.’ She was out of breath, even though she’d barely walked twenty paces.
Maggie read what was printed on the paper and groaned. ‘I don’t believe it.’
‘What is it?’ Umpire demanded.
‘I was curious to know who gave Kathryn her alibi for the time Rosie went missing.’ She thrust the paper at him. ‘According to this, it was Sinclair. This says he left the
Umbra office in Haxton on Tuesday morning around the same time Kathryn said she left Rosie to go to the stables and he saw her on his way.’
‘Shit,’ said Umpire. ‘If he wasn’t near Burr Way, he can’t be the one who took her.’ He pored over the document. ‘Ah, it says that he saw Kathryn on the
approach to Burr Way, not long after ten, so the timing still fits.’
‘But we already know he’s not the person who was behind Lesley in the lottery queue,’ Maggie pointed out.
‘That doesn’t mean he’s not involved. Or he might have seen something but not reported it because he didn’t want us to find out about his photography hobby. Right,
I’ll speak to you when you’re back at the hospital.’
‘Oh, just one more thing before you go,’ said Maggie hastily, suddenly remembering her conversation with Lesley in the high street. ‘Lesley told me Suzy Breed has been
blackmailing Mack for money and that’s why they’ve been texting.’
Umpire looked across the office. ‘Renshaw!’ he bellowed. She trotted confidently towards them, unruffled by the loud summons.
‘Have we got Suzy Breed’s phone records yet?’ In an aside to Maggie, he added, ‘Bloody phone company was meant to get them to us yesterday but didn’t.’
‘Yes, and they prove Mack did go to the house where she was staying when he was in Scotland because there are messages between them arranging when,’ said Renshaw. ‘Police up
there have been round again but she seems to have vanished.’
‘Is there anything in the messages to suggest she was extorting money from him?’
Renshaw smirked. ‘That’s his cover story? How unoriginal. No, there isn’t, sir. The messages are affectionate, not aggressive. Reading between the lines, it does sound like
there’s something going on.’
Maggie felt sick. ‘Lesley will be so upset when she finds out he’s lied.’
‘So don’t tell her,’ said Umpire. ‘Wait until Mack’s in a position to talk, tell him we know and let’s see how he’s prepared to deal with it. If he
decides to stick to his story, that’s his business.’
‘What, so we just let Lesley carry on thinking he’s telling the truth?’ said Maggie, aghast.
‘It has nothing to do with our investigation,’ said Umpire. ‘It’s their marriage, let them sort it out.’
By the time he’d finished, his entire back throbbed with pain. Mrs Roberts hadn’t been as easy to manoeuvre as he imagined she might be after death. It had taken
him almost an hour to wrap her body up in the square of blue tarpaulin he’d found next to the pool house and lug her all the way to the rear of the garden where he deposited her onto the
compost heap. It wasn’t the ideal place to leave a body – it wasn’t exactly concealed – but it would do until he could find a better solution for its disposal.
Returning to the pool, he lay down at its edge and scooped up a handful of water to splash on his face as heavy raindrops beat a tattoo on the crystal blue surface.
Then he started to cry.
This was not how he’d planned any of this. When he’d found out his client Charlie knew someone who not only lived in the same road as Mack and Lesley Kinnock but happened to be
looking for someone like him to treat an injury, he was full of hope, seeing it as the perfect opportunity to get to know the Kinnock family and perhaps show them he wasn’t just another
chancer begging for a handout. He had been confident that once he’d explained who he was and the role he’d played in their winning the EuroMillions jackpot, they’d gladly help him
out.
He shouldn’t have been so impatient. He should’ve waited until he could engineer a proper introduction, instead of getting sucked into a situation from which he had no idea how to
extricate himself. He should’ve listened to reason, but it was drowned out by all the deafening white noise in his head.
‘You’ve just fucking strangled an old woman,’ he berated himself as he cried. ‘You’ve just killed someone.’
He wasn’t a bad man, but he’d just done a very bad thing and he had no idea how to undo it. The ridge on his forehead throbbed as he cried tears of self-pity.
‘What are you doing here? You’re not meant to be here now. If anyone sees you hanging around they’ll call the police.’
The voice startled him. He sat up and wiped the tears and chlorinated water from his face, bristling with anger as he saw the figure coming towards him. This was their fault, not his. They were
the ones who’d fucked everything up with those stupid photographs. He stood up and reached in his back pocket for the Stanley knife he’d found in Mrs Roberts’s shed and used to
cut up the tarpaulin. Slowly he slid the catch back so the blade was exposed. For days now he had put up with their stupidity making matters worse. Not any more. Now he was running the show on his
own.