Chapter Seven
After the super left, Kate took stock of her office. It was smaller than the one she had at Forfar, but the desk and chair were nowhere near as dilapidated as she was accustomed to. It reflected the priority level the Tayside force gave to Eastern division, which came lower in the pecking order than Central.
She sank into the leather swivel chair and twirled back and forth. This definitely was a lot more comfortable than her saggy old one. Pulling out the top right desk drawer, she frowned when she saw it was full of reports. Security evidently had not been a priority with the previous DI, and if he was sloppy about security it would reflect back on the team. Things here would have to change.
She lifted the reports out of the desk drawer and riffled through them. Nothing seemed to be urgent or pending so she got up to lock them safely away in the filing cabinet, snorting softly to herself when she discovered the cabinet wasn’t even locked. She pulled out the top drawer. It was full. She tried the rest of them until she found space in the bottom one. Placing the reports in it she slammed the drawer shut with her foot.
A wave of despondency overtook her and she slumped back into the chair. What had she got herself into? It would take forever to sort out this mess of paperwork, never mind whip the team into shape. She stared at the closed Venetian blinds on the window separating her room from the main office and willed herself to get up and open them. If the team thought she was watching them maybe they would buck themselves up.
She was halfway across the room when her mobile rang. Fishing it out of her pocket she flipped it open and frowned. Her finger hovered on the accept button for a moment but then she closed the screen and rammed the phone back into her pocket. It was probably another of those silent phone calls she’d been getting lately. She should report it and get a trace put on it but that would send out the wrong signal to whoever was making the calls, and she didn’t want to give them the pleasure of knowing they irritated her. Better to ignore them and the caller would eventually give up.
Pulling the cord to open the venetians she stared with angry eyes into the team room. DS Rogers, the auburn-haired woman, was rummaging in a filing cabinet drawer. The desk next to her was now empty. DC Cartwright was hunched over a computer, while the other DC, whose name she couldn’t remember, had his head down studying a file.
Her lips tightened when she noted no sign of DS Murphy. The venetians swung when she let go of the cord to open the office door. Marching into the main office she approached DS Rogers who was now shrugging her coat on.
‘I’d like a word about procedures.’ Kate found it difficult to suppress her annoyance, but Rogers had done nothing to warrant it.
Sue smiled apologetically. ‘Can it wait, ma’am. The super asked me to represent him at a meeting at Tayside House and I don’t want to be late.’
‘See me when you get back.’ Kate turned away in an attempt to hide her anger. The super knew she would be starting today. Why hadn’t he asked her?
She took several deep breaths until she felt calmer, walked over to the water cooler where she filled a paper cup and gulped its contents. That was better, her heart had stopped racing and she felt more in charge of her emotions.
‘Ma’am!’
She had been deep in thought and had not heard the constable approaching. ‘Yes?’ She smiled. ‘It’s DC Cartwright, isn’t it?’ The girl seemed hardly old enough to be a constable let alone a detective.
‘Yes, ma’am. I’ve found some interesting chat room stuff on the computer and we need to check it out with Mrs Fraser.’
Kate frowned, concentrating on what the super had told her about ongoing cases. ‘Is that the family whose daughter is missing?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘You’ve met the family?’
‘Yes, ma’am. I went with Bill – I mean DS Murphy, on the initial investigation.’
‘I see. I suppose we could wait for DS Murphy to come back. Do we know when that will be?’
‘No, ma’am.’ The young woman seemed embarrassed. ‘Should I wait for him?’
‘No, no!’ Kate nodded towards the detective constable at the other desk. ‘Take him with you.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
A few minutes later Kate prowled round the empty room, thinking it was amazing what you could deduce from a person’s desk and working space. When she came to DS Murphy’s, she tutted with exasperation and lifted the three files sitting on his desk. He needed a lesson on data security. She would make sure his name was put forward for the next training course.
The phone in her office rang, breaking the silence. She walked briskly there, dropped the files on her desk, and lifted the receiver. ‘DI Rawlings!’
She listened with rising excitement, scribbling the details on a writing pad. Replacing the pencil on the desk, she said, ‘Find DS Murphy, wherever he is, and instruct him to meet me at the Overgate multi-storey car park.’ She listened for a moment. ‘I don’t care what he’s involved in. This is a suspicious death and I’ll accept no excuses from him.’
* * * *
Bill drew into the kerb in front of the house in Johnston Avenue. It was one of a row of two-storey, semi-detached villas set back from the street with a small area of garden in front. He sat for a moment thinking what he was going to say, but when he finally got out of the car he was still undecided.
The iron gate hung open and he strolled up the garden path and rang the bell.
The sound of raised voices coming from inside the house stopped. He stood back to get a better view of the windows, waited a moment and rang the bell again. When there was no response he pressed it yet again and this time he kept his finger on it.
Muted voices, the sound of scuffling and someone running downstairs, preceded the door opening.
‘OK, OK.’
The slight young man who opened it looked flustered. A strand of hair had escaped his ponytail and flopped over his face.
‘You must be Ryan,’ Bill said, doing mental arithmetic. The boy was fifteen at the time of the initial investigation. He must be twenty now, although he looked younger – maybe because he was small.
‘Yeah!’ He frowned as if trying to remember who Bill was.
‘You don’t remember me?’ Bill rummaged in his wallet for his ID card. Finding it he held it up. ‘I was involved in the investigation of your sister’s disappearance.’
‘That was a long time ago.’
‘Yes,’ Bill said, ‘we’re having another look at it. D’you think I could talk to your parents?’
‘Mum’s at work. She won’t be back until after four.’
‘What about your father?’
‘He’s not here anymore.’ Ryan shuffled his feet and looked away.
‘And good riddance too – he was a waste of space.’ The girl coming down the stairs was slim with the same honey blonde hair he remembered her mother having, although hers was shorter and worn in a straight style that covered her ears and partly hung over her face almost masking one eye.
‘You must be Emma?’ Bill reckoned she would be eighteen now, although her unsmiling face, which reflected a mixture of maturity and vulnerability, made it difficult to tell.
‘Must I?’ she mocked, looking at him with serious eyes.
He changed his mind about the vulnerability. This was a girl who would be able to hold her own.
Bill considered for a moment before saying, ‘Can I come in and talk to you?’
‘What’s there to talk about? You weren’t able to help at the time. What’s different now?’ Emma tilted her chin and glared her defiance. ‘Besides it’ll upset Mum all over again. She’ll think you’ve found her.’
Ryan fingered the earring in his left ear. ‘Maybe we should listen to what he has to say. It can’t hurt.’
Emma turned on her brother. ‘You want Mum to have another breakdown?’ she demanded furiously. ‘You know what she was like the last time.’ She seemed to remember Bill was there, and added, ‘She’s never been the same since Jade disappeared but at least she’s stabilized now and this will set her off again.’
It was obvious they were unaware their mother had phoned the department so all he said was, ‘I’m sorry if it will upset your mother but we do have to take another look at the circumstances around Jade’s disappearance. It could help because there have been others.’
‘D’you think we don’t know that? We read the newspapers, and it hasn’t helped Mum. It’s only stirred things up again.’
‘Maybe it might help her if she knows we’re reinvestigating Jade’s disappearance. At least she’ll know we haven’t given up on finding her.’
‘Emma’s right, what good is false hope going to do her? Jade’s not going to come back now.’ Ryan’s voice was flat and Bill thought he saw tears in the young man’s eyes before he turned away.
Bill reckoned nothing could be gained by interviewing Ryan and Emma while they were in this state. ‘I’ll come back when your mother’s at home,’ he said, before turning to walk back to the car. The door slammed behind him.
His mobile rang while he was inserting his car key into the door. Sliding into the driving seat he lifted the phone to his ear. ‘On my way,’ he said, put the car into gear and headed for the Overgate multi-storey car park.
Chapter Eight
After the door slammed shut, Emma and Ryan stood silent, deep in thought. Ryan was the first to speak.
‘D’you suppose after all this time she is still alive?’
Emma desperately wanted Jade to be alive, to walk in the door as if nothing had happened, and for a moment she almost believed it was possible. In her heart she wanted it to be so, but her head told her otherwise.
‘Of course she’s not,’ she grated. ‘She would have come home long before now if she had been.’
Ryan blinked hard and Emma thought she saw the glint of a tear.
‘Why d’you think the cops are interested in Jade after all this time?’ He turned his back on her and walked down the hall to the lounge.
Emma followed him. ‘It’s not about Jade. It’s about all the other girls who have disappeared. They think if they reopen her case it will look good in the papers. It’ll look as if they’re doing something.’
‘I suppose.’ Ryan sounded doubtful. ‘It’ll upset Mum though.’
Emma flopped into an armchair, leaned back and closed her eyes. She remembered only too well how Jade’s disappearance had affected her mother. Overnight she had changed from a confident career woman into a neurotic wreck with an obsession for cleanliness. Her father had been no use, he had lapsed into an alcoholic haze, while Ryan couldn’t stop crying long enough to offer any support. It had been down to Emma. She’d had to grow up fast, and at thirteen she had said goodbye to her childhood.
‘I have to go to the club with the mock-up for Tony’s website. I’ll see Mum there and let her know what’s happening.’
‘Yeah, you do that,’ Emma said.
It was time Ryan started to pull his weight. She hoped he wouldn’t botch it and upset Mum even more.
* * * *
Diane lugged the vacuum cleaner up the stairs. The hose kept getting in the way of her feet, and her arms and shoulders ached. Stopping at the top she clutched her breast and waited for her breathing to become calmer, before pushing open the door into the night club. This was where many of Tony’s customers, mostly men, gathered to watch the pole dancers and strippers while they paid exorbitant prices for their drinks.
The night club was fancier than the downstairs disco, with its plush red chairs, and glass topped tables edged with mahogany. A circular glass stage, with several silvery poles reaching to the ceiling, dominated the middle of the room, and she thought it must be here the dancers performed. However the carpet and chairs were grubby and the whole room had a tawdry look, which no doubt wouldn’t be noticed when the entertainment was at its height.
Diane plugged the cleaner into a wall socket and lapsed into a semi-aware state, listening to the buzz of the motor as she pushed the machine over the red carpet, which in her opinion could have done with a deeper clean.
Feeling less than satisfied with the job she’d done, she pulled back the red velvet curtain on the back wall. Marlene had left the door open for her and she passed through it, lugging the vacuum cleaner up another flight of stairs.
Compared to the disco toilets, Tony’s en suite bathroom wasn’t difficult to clean, although the marble tops and gold fittings made her eyes widen.
Likewise, the huge mahogany desk and the leather armchairs positioned in front of a large one-way glass wall, and the deep pile carpet, provided a feeling of luxury that was absent from the club area.
‘You’re not the usual cleaner.’
Tony’s voice made Diane jump. ‘No, sir,’ she said, switching off the vacuum cleaner. ‘Bella’s off sick and Marlene asked me to clean up here.’ She pulled the electric plug out and started to reel in the cable. ‘I usually clean downstairs.’
‘Ah,’ he said, looking at her appraisingly.
Heat suffused Diane’s body and she turned away to avoid the penetrating stare of his eyes. It had been a long time since a man had looked at her in that way and she found it embarrassing.
‘Don’t mind me,’ he said. ‘I won’t get in your way.’
‘It’s all right,’ she mumbled. ‘I’m finished here anyway. I only have the nightclub toilets to clean and then I’m done.’ She picked up the vacuum cleaner and left the office as fast as possible. Anything to get away from those eyes.
Downstairs once more, she stashed the machine beside the others at the back of the small room at the end of the back lobby, which was known as the cleaners’ cupboard. Each cleaner had her own equipment as well as her own area of responsibility. Bella, when she was not off sick, cleaned the upstairs nightclub and Tony’s office; Diane cleaned the entrance hallway as well as the downstairs disco and bar, while wee Lizzie cleaned the lounge bar and the Members Only area in the small room behind it.
‘They watch porn movies in there,’ she had whispered to Diane one day, ‘but I’m not supposed to know.’
At the time, Diane had shrugged. It made no difference to her what went on, but she had warned Emma to stay clear of that part of the club when her daughter had landed the temporary barmaid job.
Grabbing a bucket she filled it with scalding water. The nightclub had a better class of customer so the upstairs toilets shouldn’t be as bad as the disco ones, but they would still need a good scrub.
* * * *
It was the good-looking blond one who admitted Ryan to the club. ‘Come to see the boss, have you?’
Ryan looked up into the man’s face and nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
‘The name’s Phil,’ he said, holding out his hand.
Ryan took it. The warmth sent a shiver down his spine.
Phil smiled. ‘I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.’ He was still holding Ryan’s hand.
A door opened and the moment was lost. Phil let go of his hand and said, ‘Follow me.’ He led the way up the corridor, hesitated a moment at the bottom of the stairs, and turned to look back at Ryan. ‘Come on, if you’re coming.’ There was a hint of suggestion in his voice.
Heat spread from Ryan’s neck into his face and he tightened his grasp on the briefcase. The fingers of his other hand were tingling from the contact with Phil, and he wondered what was happening to him. After all, he was a normal guy, wasn’t he? He should not be having these feelings. Pulling himself together he strode towards Phil. ‘I was just checking I had everything,’ he mumbled.
Phil laughed. ‘Sure,’ he said. The note of suggestion was still in his voice.
Ryan’s knees suddenly felt weak but he followed Phil up the stairs to the nightclub. They had just pushed through the door when he spotted his mother coming towards them.
‘Ryan?’ she said placing the bucket of water on the floor.
‘I’m seeing Tony about his website,’ Ryan explained. ‘I shouldn’t be long, wait for me and I’ll drive you home.’
Diane nodded and picked up her bucket. ‘I’ll wait for you in the cleaners’ room off the back lobby.’
Phil laid his hand on Ryan’s arm. ‘Are you coming, or what? Tony doesn’t like to be kept waiting,’ he said.
Ryan nodded and followed him through the deserted night club which looked a lot different from the last time he had been in it. Then, the glitter-ball had spun shafts of light over the dancing girls below, writhing round the silver poles on the uplighted glass stage, and the men sitting at the tables, watching. He remembered his disgust when a man at a nearby table inserted a note into the g-string of the girl lap dancing in front of him and how the man’s finger lingered and caressed her skin. Rage had swamped him, catching him unawares, reflecting his hatred of men who took advantage of women.
Phil pushed aside the red velvet curtain covering the wall and tapped a number into the keypad of the door behind it. Ryan followed him up the stairs and into the office.
Tony moved away from the one-way mirrored wall which overlooked the club, strode to the door and grasped Ryan’s hand in a firm handshake. ‘You’ve got something for me?’ He seemed in a better mood than the last time Ryan had been here.
‘Yes,’ Ryan said. ‘I think you’ll like it this time.’
‘Let me see what you’ve got.’
Ryan walked over to the desk, opened his briefcase and laid out sheets of paper. ‘These are mock-ups but the finished thing will have animations. You see the banner here? I thought we could have spotlights sweeping over the name of the club which will have a glitterball circling behind it and sending out facets of light.’ He paused to gauge the effect on Tony, before continuing. ‘A midnight blue background should set the lights off to perfection and I thought the name should be in gold lettering.’
‘That sounds good.’ Tony picked up one of the sheets of paper. ‘The photographs down the side, will they be animated as well?’
‘Yes.’ Ryan could hardly contain his excitement. ‘The photos of the club will be in a slide show that cycles through all the different areas of the club, and below that I’ll put a framed programme of events.’
‘I see.’
‘In the middle will be a list of facilities with icon logos that can be clicked on to give more details. And the left side will have all the links to the different pages of your site.’
Tony tapped the page. ‘Remember what we discussed about having one of the dancers featured on the site?’
‘Once you approve the general layout I’ll come back with my video camera and get that done.’
‘Right, I’ll phone you as soon as I’ve set it up. We’ll use Angel. She’s my best dancer.’ Tony handed the sheet of paper back to Ryan. ‘See him out, Phil.’
Ryan scooped up the other papers and snapped his briefcase shut. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said, but Tony had turned away.
* * * *
Diane washed her bucket, tidied the cleaning stuff away, and waited for Ryan. But she couldn’t settle and, taking a polishing cloth, she started to wipe down the shelves.
She had finished cleaning the shelves, mopped the floor and polished her bucket before she heard footsteps in the lobby. Opening the door, she peered out. ‘Ryan,’ she said as her son approached, ‘I’m in here.’
Ryan hugged her. She relaxed, winding her arms round his wiry body. He had never been big and as a child had been bullied because he was smaller than the others, but that had never mattered to her. ‘Good things come in small parcels,’ she had always said.
‘Mum.’ His voice sounded anxious.
‘Yes?’
‘We had a visit from that policeman today. You know, the one who came when Jade disappeared.’
Diane froze. Time stopped. She struggled to breathe. ‘They’ve found her! Thank God! I knew they would . . . ’
‘No Mum, they haven’t found her. But the cop said they’re looking into it again.’
Diane’s heart missed a beat and she struggled to overcome her disappointment. ‘But don’t you see,’ she said, ‘that must mean they have new information and they’ll find her.’
Ryan’s eyes were troubled.
‘They will find her. I know they’ll find her.’ Diane wrapped her arms more tightly round her son’s waist. ‘They will find her,’ she repeated.