“That would be from 57, Luxor Grove?”
“You know this.”
“I’m just making sure that
you
do. You see, those girls were kept in that house which was locked.”
“I was only concerned for their security.”
“I’m sure Immigration will be delighted to hear you had their best interests at heart, especially when we discuss their status.” Strong isolated a photograph in the file. “But what I want to know is what happened after you all got to Sensations.”
“We open up, there is nothing to tell.”
“Did this man come in as a customer?” Strong passed the photo of Chris Baker across the table. “For the benefit of the tape, I’m showing Mr Szymanski photograph P2.”
He gave it a cursory glance. “I can’t remember.”
“Your security tapes confirm he did,” Strong bluffed.
Szymanski looked alarmed. “They were wiped. There was nothing on them.”
“That’s a common misconception. I told you our experts can recover information that most people think is lost forever.” He moved a few papers around in his file, allowing the Pole time to consider his answer.
“Yes, I think he did come in,” he finally responded.
“He came in because he had some information for you, didn’t he?”
“I don’t know what …”
“Information you wanted to pass on to your boss, Mr Mirczack.”
Szymanski looked flustered.
“Where is he, by the way?”
“I don’t … He’s away on business.”
Again another shuffling of papers. “And that would be Riga, wouldn’t it?”
Szymanski coloured. “How …?”
“When is he coming back?”
“Su… I’m not sure.”
Strong and Denholme exchanged glances.
“You’re not sure when, or you’re not sure if, he’s coming back?” Strong leaned forward on the table. “You see, Stefan … if you don’t mind me calling you by your first name … you see, if Mirczack doesn’t come back, you’re going to be the one carrying the can, if you’re familiar with that expression.” Strong leaned back again, looked over to Denholme then back to Szymanski.
He looked worried, bowed his head and studied the table.
“Now, let’s start getting some straight answers here. Once more from the beginning; where do you bring the other girls from? The ones known as …” he turned to Denholme.
“Sylvia, Janice, Crystal and one other, not their real names, of course,” the Vice Squad detective offered.
Szymanski looked to the solicitor who raised his eyebrows.
“I think, gentlemen,” the lawyer said, “if I could have some minutes with my client.”
“Interview suspended at twelve-fifty-two pm
.
” Strong got to his feet. Before leaving with Denholm, he turned and addressed the solicitor. “I’d advise your client to think very carefully. There are some serious matters here and his cooperation could make a vital difference to all concerned.”
53
Sitting in Gillian’s living room, Susan told Paul all she could remember from her time in the basement. He asked a few questions and she gave answers as best she could. He listened to all she had to say, then put his hand on hers. “Thank you,” he said. He looked dazed. Souter couldn’t imagine what it must be like for him; to have to take all this in. Bad enough to be finally told his sister had died all these years before, he always suspected that, but now, to have it confirmed and to have some indication as to what had happened to her, he was distraught.
He stood up. “I have to go,” he said, “I’ve to be with Mum and Dad. They’re devastated.” Souter got to his feet as Gillian accompanied him to the door. He watched from the window as Paul got into his car and slowly drove away.
“Can we report this now?” Susan asked as Gillian returned to the room.
“Susan, I want you in bed. You need to rest,” Gillian said.
“I’m okay. We need to write this. Bob, you promised.”
“I did,” he said, “But Gillian’s right. You’ve only just been let out of hospital.”
“But …”
“And that’s a serious leg injury,” Souter interrupted. “They only let you out because Gillian said you’d be looked after here.”
“I know …”
“And she’ll be in a lot of trouble if you have to be re-admitted because you’ve been ignoring advice and overdoing it.”
Susan sulked. “All right, all right. But here’s my take on the story.” She held out the notepad he had given her in the hospital. “Promise me you won’t change it.”
“Well, it won’t be down to me …”
“Promise me.”
“Susan, I said we’d work this together. I’ll look at this and do what I can. But all reporters are subject to the vagaries of our editors, you know.”
Susan held his gaze.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said softly.
By the time he got into his car, his mobile was ringing. It was John Chandler, the deputy Editor.
“Bob,”
he said,
“we’ve got the go ahead to report on those schoolgirls. I need something within the hour.”
Souter flipped open the notebook Susan had given him and quickly scanned what she’d written. “Already started,” he responded.
54
When Strong and Denholme came out of the interview room, Flynn called down the corridor to him.
“Colin, can you spare a minute?”
While Denholme made his way to the CID Room, Strong followed his boss upstairs.
“Immigration have just turned up and want to remove the women to Morton Hall, their detention centre in Lincolnshire,” Flynn said. “I couldn’t put them off any longer.”
“That’s fine, sir. I don’t think they have much more to tell, unless we get a surprise from the forensics at Luxor Grove.”
Flynn paused at the top of the stairs. “In the meantime, I’ve got an old friend of yours in my office. And he’s none too pleased.”
Strong was puzzled.
“Frank Halliday’s come in complaining he wanted to interview Szymanski and Mirczack in connection with Chris Baker’s murder and you’ve shanghaied him.”
“Should have got his arse into gear earlier then, shouldn’t he?” Strong grinned.
Flynn looked serious. “Colin, you should have kept him in the loop with your progress on that massage parlour.” He held up both hands. “I know. It took him some time to make the connections but … play it down eh? And share what you know.”
Strong shook his head resignedly and followed Flynn into his office.
Halliday was standing by the side of Flynn’s desk, arms folded and face flushed. When he saw Strong, he launched into a verbal onslaught. Flynn cut him short.
“Frank, you’re not doing your blood pressure any good.”
“Fuck the blood pressure.”
“Sit down, Frank. DCI Strong will bring you up to speed with progress from his side of the enquiry. Then, I’m sure, he won’t object to you sitting in on his next interview with Szymanski.” Flynn looked at Strong for confirmation as Halliday slowly sat down.
“I’ve got no problem with that, sir. We’re just giving him ten minutes with the brief. He’s considering his position on the whereabouts of a second house.” Strong took the other seat in front of Flynn’s desk, next to Halliday. “We know there’s another location where a separate team of girls are housed. Our information is that Mirczack is currently out of the country but we should be notified as soon as he checks in for return.”
“That’s if he comes back,” Flynn added.
“That, of course is what I suggested to Szymanski. The implications for him are what he’s giving thought to now.”
Over the course of the next ten minutes, Strong outlined all that had happened in the previous twenty-four hours, after which, Halliday seemed calmer.
Strong collected Denholme from the CID Room and, along with Halliday, walked into Interview Room 2. Szymanski appeared more contrite.
“My client will be able to provide the information you require, Chief Inspector,” the solicitor announced.
“Thank you.” Strong restarted the recording machine. “Interview with Stefan Szymanski resumed at thirteen fourteen pm
.
Joining us in the room is Detective Chief Inspector Halliday from Leeds CID who is investigating the murder of Chris Baker.”
Both detectives sat down as Szymanski glanced across at the new arrival.
“So, Mr Szymanski,” Strong resumed, “you’ve obviously given some thought to our previous conversation.” The Pole nodded. “The other girls, where are they?”
“I had nothing to do with any murders.”
“Where are they?”
“They should be at 47 Back Cooper Street. It’s off Chapeltown Road. You took the keys from me when I came in.”
Strong looked to Denholme. “Can you fetch Mr Szymanski’s possessions from Custody?”
Denholme got up and left as Strong made the announcement for the tape. A few minutes later, Denholme returned with a brown envelope and tipped the contents onto the table.
The keys are on here.” Szymanski picked up a bunch of keys and isolated a Yale key and one for a deadlock. “These are for the front door.”
“Get these down to the team. You know what to do,” Strong said to Denholme.
The Vice Squad officer picked up the keys, returned the rest of Szymanski’s possessions to the envelope and left the room, Strong making another tape announcement.
“Now, before you took a break to consider your position, I showed you a photograph of this man, Chris Baker.” Strong placed the photograph on the table once again. “You confirmed that he had visited Sweet Sensations on Tuesday 30
th
August.” Szymanski nodded. “For the benefit of the tape, Mr Szymanski has nodded confirmation. My colleague, DCI Halliday would like to ask you more about this.”
Halliday leaned forward, barely acknowledging Strong. “Was this the last time you saw Chris Baker?”
“Yes.”
“Sure about that?”
“I told you, yes.”
“And he was a regular customer here?”
“He liked Mariana … I mean Lyudmyla.”
“But he also visited for another reason, didn’t he?”
Szymanski shrugged and looked down.
Halliday leaned forward, closer to him. “He was providing confidential information from his workplace, wasn’t he, Mr Szymanski?”
The Pole never looked up from the table. “Yes.”
Halliday sighed. “So can you tell me exactly what that information was?” His voice grew louder.
Finally, Szymanski looked up at Halliday. “He was passing on details of vehicles, their owners’ names and addresses.”
Halliday’s voice became softer. “And why was he doing that?”
“It wasn’t my idea,” Szymanski protested. “I didn’t want to get involved.”
“Again, why did Baker provide information to you?”
“We had threatened to tell his wife he visited Lyudmyla.”
“That’s another aspect of interest, thank you for that, but what I meant was, what were you going to do with these details?”
“Mr Mirczack wanted them.”
Halliday rubbed his face with both hands and exhaled. “Mr Szymanski, your solicitor here stated just a few minutes ago that you were willing to provide us with all the information we require. I have got other things to attend to. I would appreciate if you could just answer each question as fully as possible without holding back. That way, we can sort this mess out sooner rather than later.” Halliday studied Szymanski for a few seconds. “So, why did Mirczack want this information and what was he going to do with it?”
“I think you know this already. But I tell you, I had nothing to do with it. I think he wanted details of certain types of vehicles located nearby so he could steal them. I only picked up bits of information and worked things out for myself. Once he had these cars he would swap identities with similar vehicles from other parts of England. I think he was shipping them out of the country where he had a market for them.”
“Thank you Mr Szymanski. It wasn’t that difficult was it?”
“But I wasn’t involved in any of that.”
“I think you’ll find that by the very fact that you passed the information from Mr Baker to your boss, you are involved,” Halliday concluded.
Szymanski looked down once more and shook his head.
“Is that why Mirczack is in Riga?” Strong asked. “Latvia is one of the markets for these stolen luxury vehicles?”
He looked across at Strong. “I’m not sure, but I think so.”
“Who actually stole these cars and who changed their identities?”
Szymanski looked across to the solicitor who gave a slight nod. He took a deep breath then answered. “I believe one was Chris Baker’s brother. I think he had been in trouble before to do with cars. The other was a friend of his. I’m not sure who.”
“That would be Gary Baker then?”
Szymanski nodded.
“For the benefit …” Strong was interrupted.
“Yes, I believe his name was Gary.”
“Would the name Steve Chapman mean anything to you?”
“I think I heard talk of someone called Steve, so that may be him. But I told you, I was not involved with cars.”
Strong looked to Halliday to seek confirmation that the questioning was at an end for now.
“Do you own a gun, Mr Szymanski?” Halliday asked.
The denial came as Strong knew it would. He thought Halliday was just making a point.
“No. I have no use for guns.”
“Thank you for the moment. We’ll be back to ask you some more questions later. In the meantime, interview terminated at thirteen thirty-one.”
Outside in the corridor, Strong confronted Halliday. “Look, I know you’re pissed off about what happened to Jack Cunningham and somehow you blame me for his situation …”
“He’s an excellent officer,” Halliday interrupted. “He doesn’t deserve what’s happened.”
“Come on, even he sees that what he did resulted in an innocent man being sent to prison for 4 years. And all because of a bit of rumpy-pumpy with a junior officer. He doesn’t bear a grudge. Why should you?”
Strong waited as Halliday fixed him with a stare, then decided to take a chance. In a low voice, he said, “Do you want to ask him yourself? Here,” Strong took out his phone and sought the Call Log page on the menu and scrolled down to the number Cunningham had called him from on Wednesday. He held it out to Halliday. “Recognise this?”