Authors: Clare Donoghue
‘That’s what you’re hoping,’ Roger said. ‘That’s what we’re all hoping.’ He sat down next to Jane. ‘Have you spoken to Phil?’
‘He’s on his way in,’ Lockyer said, not quite able to look at Roger.
‘We need to get a better idea of Lebowski’s state of mind, of what he might do,’ Roger said. Neither Lockyer nor Jane said anything. ‘Are you still going over the documentation sent in on Saturday?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Jane said. ‘I’m hoping there will be something in here that could tell us where Lebowski might be headed.’
Roger stood and put his hand on the door to the briefing room. ‘Fine. Keep me up to date. If he isn’t found in the next hour I want you to speak to Air Support.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Jane said, nodding.
Roger turned to leave. ‘And, Mike,’ he said, looking over his shoulder at Lockyer, ‘I will not expose individuals in this team, past or present, to scrutiny unless I have to.’
Lockyer waved away the comment. ‘I know, boss,’ he said. ‘I know.’
Jane reread the two pages again. ‘I think I know what happened to Kieran.’ She looked over at Lockyer, who was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. Phil had done the same when she had met him. Maybe it was a guy-thing?
He tipped forward. ‘Go for it,’ he said, rubbing his eyes. They had been reading for several hours. For everything Jane could say about Lebowski, she couldn’t criticize his initial research. It was thorough in every sense of the word. No wonder Mort had pinched it.
‘There’s a description for a proposed experiment on taphophobia,’ she said. ‘He wanted to excavate a site on the university grounds. He intended to refit a coffin with the appropriate safety measures and lower it, with an occupant inside, into the site, before covering the area with a rectangle of contained soil that could be lifted in and out of the site easily.’
‘Contained?’ Lockyer asked.
‘He doesn’t go into specifics on that. I assume he means that the excavated soil would be stored in a bag or container of some kind, to prevent the need to dig and refill the hole at each stage of the experiment.’
‘He would have needed a crane to transport that much earth,’ Lockyer said. ‘I like this guy less and less.’
‘I know. He talks about the “occupants” as if they were lab rats, nothing more,’ she said, pointing at the papers. ‘Anyway, from what I can tell, he couldn’t get permission from the university for the dig, let alone the experiment, so he looked for other sites that would meet his requirements.’
‘Did he tell the university what he was planning to do?’
‘No. He gave them a basic overview of his requirements, but didn’t tell them about the taphophobia angle. If Lebowski is anything like Mort, he was probably paranoid about people poaching his work.’
‘Nutters,’ Lockyer said, holding up his hands.
‘He did some research into suitable sites and stumbled on Elmstead because of Chislehurst Caves. There were details of aborted entrance sites, et cetera. He must have used ground-radar equipment to locate them.’
‘And no one noticed?’
‘He was studying for his Masters back then, full time, so this research was not only off-campus, but out of hours. He was going down to Elmstead at night.’
‘And he’s documented all of this?’ Lockyer’s mouth stayed open.
‘Yes, down to every last detail, pretty much.’ She turned to the next page. ‘He then spent two months adapting the site: digging down to create the access tunnels, installing the hatch, camera, air-hose, and ensuring the internal walls were fit for purpose.’
‘And he did all of this at night?’
‘Looks like it,’ she said, just as astonished as Lockyer seemed, that Lebowski had managed to accomplish such a feat of engineering without anyone noticing.
‘Hang on, there wasn’t a camera or air-hose in Kieran’s tomb,’ Lockyer said.
‘I know. He adapted two sites,’ she said, raising her eyebrows when Lockyer looked at her. ‘I told you he was thorough. He prepared two burial sites, both fitted out with the same kit. He must have removed the wires and tube after things went wrong.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m assuming Kieran was the first guinea pig,’ she said. ‘Lebowski doesn’t mention him by name, but he does talk about subjects . . . subject A, B and C.’
‘Does that mean we need to start looking for two more bodies?’ Lockyer asked.
‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘His notes stop halfway through the experiment with “subject A”. I think what happened to Kieran was an accident.’
‘Oh, come on, Jane,’ Lockyer said, standing up. ‘Give me a break. Lebowski raped and murdered Amelia Reynolds six years ago. Kieran disappeared less than a year later. And we both believe he killed Maggie Hungerford. Not to mention Mark. Do tell me how killing Kieran was an accident?’
She waited for him to stop pacing. ‘Listen. Subject A,’ she said, looking down at the papers in front of her, ‘agreed to go down into the underground tomb for five separate sessions of two, four, six, eight and twelve hours at a time. There are notes here on the exact timings, dates – everything. The sessions were filmed with a night-vision camera and the subject was monitored. I’ve asked Franks to check Lebowski’s residence and the university for DVD footage. The subject was allowed food, water, a torch for emergencies or, I suspect, in case they freaked out, and a Dictaphone so they could record their physical and emotional reaction to being underground. Lebowski listed all of the initial experiments as a success, but decided the food, Dictaphone and torch undermined his overall goal. So he set up another session, and this is where I think something went wrong,’ she said, trying to ignore Lockyer huffing and puffing on the other side of the room. ‘The subject agreed to a longer stint underground: forty-eight hours without water, food or the torch. Nothing.’
‘Why would anyone agree to that?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I’m just telling you what’s here.’
‘All right, all right,’ Lockyer said, sitting down. ‘Go on. I’ll stop interrupting.’
‘Like that’s even possible,’ she said, sighing. Lockyer pulled an imaginary zip across his lips. She managed a smile, but her heart wasn’t in it. ‘Okay. Lebowski had the camera hooked up, but he had to be on-site to view it. He couldn’t be there during the day or at any time when he might be seen, so he was only able to monitor the subject—’
‘Can you call him Kieran, please?’ Lockyer asked. ‘The “subject” sounds bloody awful.’
She raised her eyebrows. She knew Lockyer wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut. ‘Fine. Lebowski monitored Kieran the first night. From his notes, it looks like Kieran struggled with this burial far more than he had with the others. He was showing signs of stress, and at one point Lebowski thought he might have had a fit.’
‘And you don’t think leaving him down there after that is murder?’
She didn’t bother to answer him. She was going to get this all out even if she had to talk over him for the rest of the evening. ‘Lebowski continued to observe, and satisfied himself that Kieran was okay, before leaving.’
‘I’m still failing to see where the “accident” part comes in,’ he said, pushing his fingers through his hair. Jane wished he would get a haircut. It was like talking to one of those troll-dolls that were popular in the Eighties.
‘On all of the previous sessions Lebowski had a strict routine. He checked the camera and the air-hose, taking pictures. Again, I’ve asked Franks to search for these, as they’re not included in this bundle. Anyway, when Lebowski had to leave the site, he cleared away any mud or leaves that might impede Kieran’s air supply. The last entry, when he left Kieran, he didn’t check the air supply. Looking at the times, Kieran would have been unattended from five in the morning until gone midnight the next night. In that time it’s entirely possible that the ground around Kieran’s air-hose was disturbed. The woods are frequented by walkers, dogs, local wildlife. Any one of these could have covered the air-hole.’
‘Or Lebowski did it,’ Lockyer said.
‘The remaining air in the tomb would have lasted for five or six hours, maybe a few more, given the size of the tomb – but not until the next night, no way. Lebowski comes back, sees that Kieran is dead and panics. He takes out the air-hose and camera and pretends it didn’t happen.’
Lockyer’s eyebrows were disappearing into his thatch of hair. ‘What about the other tomb? Why leave his equipment there?’
‘I don’t know. As I said . . . he panicked, cleared the evidence away from Kieran’s tomb and then legged it. He couldn’t risk going back, could he?’ Lockyer was shaking his head. ‘Look, it’s an idea,’ she said. ‘There’s no motive to kill Kieran. From the paperwork, it was a simple experiment.’ Lockyer’s eyebrows went even higher. ‘I don’t understand it any more than you do, Mike, but that’s how it reads. It’s dry, boring research. Even I remember some of the terms from school: having a “control” environment, that kind of thing. The point is, everything is catalogued and documented from the beginning, right through, but everything stops the night he left Kieran in there. There’s nothing after that. Whether it was an accident or not doesn’t really matter. I’m just telling you what I think. Amelia Reynolds was raped and murdered. I don’t doubt that. Lebowski put Maggie in the tomb to die. I don’t doubt that, either. The tomb in Elmstead was the perfect place to hide the body, and he was the only one who knew it was there.’ She finished speaking and stared out of the window at the buildings opposite the station. An image of Maggie’s parents appeared in her mind, followed by an image of Gary Reynolds. The death of his daughter had ruined him, but Maggie’s parents were just at the start of that road. Jane had to find Lebowski. She had to get justice for them, to stop them ending up like Gary.
‘And what about Mark?’ Lockyer asked. ‘Where the hell has Lebowski stashed him? We’ve checked Elmstead. He’s not there. Is there anything in Lebowski’s notes about other sites – places we can look?’
Jane’s focus seemed to come back to her all at once. ‘There are,’ she said. ‘Lebowski had two possible sites further out. I’ll speak to Jared and ask him to get the GPR over there and see if he can find anything.’ She thought again. ‘And I need to speak to Sue. She must know Mark bought the allotment plot in Deptford. I have to make her understand that whatever she’s hiding could be crucial to finding Mark and Lebowski.’
‘You need to prepare yourself, Jane,’ Lockyer said.
‘For what?’ she asked, looking at him. She had already resigned herself to the fact that finding Mark alive was never going to happen.
‘Lebowski knows about the second tomb. He’s not stupid. He’ll know it’s only a matter of time before we ID Kieran. He’ll know we’re going to get him; that he’s not going to slip through the net this time.’
‘What’s your point?’
‘My point,’ Lockyer said, resting his hands on the table, ‘is that if he thinks it’s over, suicide might seem like his only option.’
‘Don’t say it,’ she said, trying to ignore the smiling face of her son that was pushing its way into her thoughts.
‘Come on, Jane,’ he said. ‘We all knew it was a possibility, the second we found out those kids were missing. If Lebowski decides to end it, he may well take his kids with him.’
Jane felt a wave of nausea. She knew Lebowski’s children were in danger. She knew she had to find them before Lebowski did anything stupid, but she couldn’t bear to think about what that really meant. If she had let him go and those two children died, because of her, she would never forgive herself. Never.
5th May – Monday
The Monday-evening traffic was heavier than Jane had anticipated as people drove home after the bank holiday. She weaved in and out of the bus lane, much to the chagrin of her fellow road-users. A red light at Tesco’s brought her progress to a halt. She pulled her handbag onto her lap and rooted around for her phone. She wanted to call her mother, to check on Peter. She swerved around a bus and accelerated away. She hadn’t told Sue she was coming. Despite their friendship, she couldn’t afford to give Sue time to prepare. She needed the truth. At Catford gyratory she turned left onto Brownhill Road, joining a long line of traffic. ‘Shit,’ she said, flicking on her lights. After a few seconds a path opened up and she pushed her way through.
All she could think about was Lebowski and where he had taken his children. The question made her stomach tighten. She had to keep her focus on the immediate future, on speaking to Sue, finding out what she knew and going from there. If she thought too much about what was happening to Lebowski’s children, she would go mad. How must Lebowski’s ex-wife be feeling now? The turn for Mark and Sue’s road was up ahead on the right. She waited for a line of cars to move off from the traffic lights. There was nothing coming in the other direction, so she flicked on her lights again and darted out into the opposite lane and made the turn.
She pulled up to the curb outside Sue’s house. There were no lights on. ‘Damn it,’ she said, turning off the engine and getting out of the car. The air temperature had changed. It was muggy. The air around her felt heavy. She turned and leaned into the car doorway to grab her handbag off the passenger seat. There was a noise behind her. As she turned towards it, she saw something black out of the corner of her eye. At the same time the back of her head exploded with pain. Her knees crumpled beneath her, her vision blurred. She blinked again and again. As her world went black, she thought she could hear someone breathing.
5th May – Monday
Lockyer looked down at Lewisham High Street. The scene in front of him was incongruous. It was past nine o’clock, the street lights casting their orange glow over the traffic, but people were still wandering around in shorts and T-shirts. He let his blind fall back into place, walked over to his desk, picked up his mobile and dialled the number Jane had given him. As far as she was concerned, Gary had sent the package containing Lebowski’s research. She had asked Lockyer to get confirmation, but as he listened to the phone ringing he wondered whether, in the scheme of things, with Lebowski on the run with his kids, it really mattered.