Urban Myth (15 page)

‘Y
ou need to eat, Jack,’ Nicole said.

‘I’m not hungry.’

‘I don’t care. I’ve made soup. I want you to get it down.’

‘I’d rather stay out here,’ I said.

She took my arm, steered me towards the front door.

‘Come inside,’ she said. ‘If Tina is watching the house then she’s probably reluctant to make an appearance with you standing outside looking as though you’re going to give her a major bollocking.’

‘I won’t be doing that.’

‘I know it and you know it. But she doesn’t. So come in.’

I’d spent most of the morning outside, wandering around the grounds and praying for my daughter’s safe return. Her second text message had completely thrown me. What’s more it had convinced the two detectives that she was OK and therefore there was no need to mount a search … and no need to for us to worry. But I still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was very wrong. Call it a father’s intuition. Or a refusal to accept that my daughter would take off by herself in the dead of night. Unanswered questions were also still eating away at me. Like how did she get beyond doors and windows that were locked on the inside?

I joined Nicole and Michael at the kitchen table. Michael was spooning piping hot chicken soup into his mouth. He was pale and subdued and had hardly said a word all morning.

My appetite returned with a vengeance with the first mouthful of soup. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.

‘This is good,’ I said.

Nicole forced a smile and dabbed at her lips with a napkin.

‘It’s homemade apparently,’ she said. ‘Mr Slade had frozen it in a carton. There’s plenty more.’

Mention of the landlord’s name raised my hackles. I’d phoned him twice since the two detectives had left and still got no answer. I just hoped the cops had better luck than me.

For a couple of minutes a heavy silence descended on the kitchen, broken only by the slurping of soup and the chewing of crusty bread. Then Michael sat back, wiped a sleeve across his mouth, and said, ‘Is this house haunted?’

We both looked at him. There was no trace of fear in his wide-eyed expression; only curiosity.

‘We don’t know what’s going on,’ Nicole said, placing an arm around his shoulders. ‘But whatever it is we don’t want you to worry. We won’t let any harm come to you.’

‘But if there are ghosts here then why are they angry with us?’ he asked in all innocence.

‘Who said they’re angry?’ Nicole replied.

He scrunched up his shoulders. ‘Why else would they try to scare us?’

Nicole looked at me because she didn’t know how to respond. I put my spoon down, cleared my throat, said, ‘Don’t assume that ghosts are responsible for what’s happened here, Michael. If they were I’m sure we would have seen one by now.’

Michael tilted his head. ‘But I think I have seen one.’

‘You’ve already told us about the figure in your bedroom,’ I said. ‘But that was a dream. Right?’

‘I don’t mean that time,’ he said. ‘I mean last night.’

‘So you had another dream?’

‘I don’t think it was a dream,’ he said. ‘I think I was awake.’

I felt my spine stiffen.

‘So why haven’t you mentioned it before now?’ There was a
sharpness
in my tone that made him flinch.

‘I forgot about it,’ he said.

‘Well now you’ve remembered, tell us what you think you saw.’

He looked at his mother. She ruffled his hair and said, ‘I’m not surprised you forgot, sweetheart. We’ve all been distracted this morning. But we would like to hear about it.’

Michael picked up his spoon and started passing it from one hand to the other. After several long beats, he said, ‘Something woke me. I
don’t know what it was, but when I sat up I heard a noise outside. So I got out of bed and looked through the window.’

Michael’s bedroom was at the back of the house. It overlooked the garden and the woods beyond.

‘Well go on,’ I said. ‘What then?’

He swallowed a lump and licked his lips. ‘It was dark but the moon was out. I saw someone walking across the grass. At least I think I did.’

‘Can’t you be more specific? What exactly did you see?’

‘That was all,’ he said. ‘It was just a black shadow that was shaped like a man.’

‘You said it was walking across the grass. Was it coming towards the house or moving away from it?’

‘Coming towards it,’ he said. ‘I rubbed my eyes to try to see better but when I opened them again it was gone.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘I went back to bed. I thought I’d imagined it. But now I’m not so sure.’

A white hot fury swept through me and I jumped to my feet.

‘Why the hell didn’t you wake us?’ I barked at him. ‘You should have told us that you saw someone.’

Michael stiffened against the anger in my voice and tears filled his eyes. Nicole leapt to his defence, saying, ‘Don’t you dare shout at Michael. It wasn’t his fault.’

‘But Tina’s missing, for Christ’s sake. Whoever the boy saw might have had something to do with it.’

‘That’s ridiculous. You said yourself there were no signs of a
break-in
. And besides, he isn’t even certain he saw anything.’

‘But what if he did? What if someone came to the house last night? It changes everything.’

‘But that still doesn’t make it all right for you to turn on Michael,’ she said, her lips trembling over the words. ‘He’s scared enough as it is without you losing your temper with him.’

I felt the blood stir inside me, a hot flush in my veins. I rubbed my hands over my face and blew out a long breath. Michael started to cry then and Nicole pulled his head close to her chest. She fixed me with a brimstone stare that caused the gooseflesh to rise on my skin.

‘Are you happy now, Jack? That was totally unnecessary.’

Shame climbed into my cheeks. I opened my mouth to speak, to apologize for my outburst, but the words wouldn’t form. Instead, I turned on my heels and hurried out the back door, slamming it behind me. I stood on the patio, my guilt stalking me like a great black shadow. The afternoon light had darkened to a sombre grey, causing my mood to plummet still further.

After about a minute I rubbed my eyes, hard, digging with my thumb and forefinger. At the same time I seized the emotion and shoved it down. I needed a clear head to collect my frayed thoughts.

I looked up at Michael’s bedroom window. Below it there was just brickwork. The kitchen door was a few yards to the right and the double doors from the living room were even further over. I checked them again just to confirm what I already knew. There were no scratches on the panels and no broken locks. Even with a key an intruder would not have been able to gain access. I looked around the patio, then wandered onto the small lawn, but saw nothing that could be construed as a clue.

Finally I walked over to the back fence and stared off into the woods. And that’s when I glimpsed something. At least, I thought I did, because when I tried to focus it was gone. I screwed up my eyes to sharpen my vision, wondering if I had merely spotted a deer or pony. I scanned that section of wood but there was nothing there. Yet the impression stayed with me of someone standing amongst the trees. It wasn’t Tina, though. I was sure of that.

The figure was taller than my daughter and almost certainly a man.

I climbed over the gate and dashed across the narrow stretch of grass to the woods. I stood where I thought I’d seen the figure, but there was nothing on the ground to suggest anyone had been there before me.

I stepped into the woods, my eyes quickly adjusting to the gloom. The canopy of branches and leaves kept much of the daylight at bay. My body was rigid with tension as I trudged across the soft, springy topsoil. Around me shadows blended into deeper shadows.

I took shallow breaths, tried not to make a noise, but the forest was far from still and silent. There were sounds all around me; the crunching of leaves under the feet of tiny animals, the trilling of
countless
birds, the creaking of tree branches bending in the breeze. I saw a
flicker of motion to my left. My eyes lasered in on a woodpecker attacking decayed timber. Then something drew my attention to a dense thicket of hawthorn to my right. This turned out to be only a curious squirrel chewing on an acorn.

I stopped moving and waited for something to happen. Or someone to appear. But nothing happened and no one appeared.

And yet I had the strangest feeling I was not alone. An insistent and growing intuition told me that I was being watched. And it stayed with me as I walked slowly back towards the house.

D
amien Roth was brought up to Temple’s office when he arrived at police headquarters. Roth explained that he’d been shopping in the city centre when he received the call informing him that the police wanted to conduct a second interview.

‘The timing couldn’t have been better, Inspector,’ he said. ‘After two hours’ traipsing around the shops I’d had just about enough. So I left Belinda in Primark and said I’d pick her up when you’ve finished with me.’

‘Well I appreciate you coming in,’ Temple said. ‘I’ll try not to keep you long.’

Roth sat on the other side of Temple’s desk. The chair seemed too small for him – he had the posture and thick cut of an athlete. Temple studied him for a moment and noticed that his dark, sunken eyes were uncomfortably penetrating. It was something he hadn’t been aware of during the first interview at his house.

‘As I explained to you yesterday, Inspector, I want to be as helpful as I can,’ Roth said, his taut, dry voice soft and calm. ‘But in all honesty I’m not sure there’s anything I can add to what I’ve already told you.’

‘I need to ask you a couple of questions that have cropped up during the course of our inquiries,’ Temple said.

‘And I’ll be happy to answer them. I can’t bear the thought that Genna’s killer is still at large and free to murder someone else.’

Temple leaned forward on his desk, grimly intent. ‘We’re
determined
that won’t happen, Mr Roth.’

‘So does that mean you’re close to making an arrest?’

‘Let’s just say we’re making good progress,’ Temple said. Then he flipped over the cover of a leather-bound folder in front of him and
glanced at the typewritten note on a sheet of A4 paper. ‘Can you start by telling me what your relationship is with Nathan Slade?’

Roth’s face turned dark. ‘That man is a sick bastard. I don’t have a relationship with him.’

‘But you know him. In fact, according to his phone records you’ve called each other on a number of occasions.’

‘Unfortunately I do know Slade,’ Roth said. ‘But I haven’t seen him in weeks, thank God. And I hope I never see him again.’

‘Care to explain?’

Roth took a big breath, said, ‘It was actually Genna who introduced us to Slade. He was one of her regular clients. She would go to his place in the forest at least once a week and he would pay for sex.’

‘This would be King’s Manor?’

Roth nodded. ‘That’s right. Weird place. I’m sure it’s haunted.’

‘So you’ve been there?’

‘Sure, we’ve shot a couple of movies there. That’s how it all started with Slade. When he learned that Genna was doing porn movies he got her to give me a call to see if I was interested in using his house as a location.’

‘You mean to film porn there?’ Temple said.

‘Exactly. I jumped at the chance, of course. The house is big and isolated so it gave us scope to be creative.’

‘How often did you go there?’

‘Five times in all. The upside was that it was a great location. Plenty of space and light and no problems with the neighbours. And we didn’t have to pay for it.’

‘And the downside?’

‘Well, in return for letting us use the house for free, Slade had to watch all the shoots. He also insisted on taking part in one of the movies. The guy is a pervert and nobody likes him. He creeped us all out.’

‘Can you expand on that?’

Roth pondered this a moment and said, ‘He was rough with the girls for one thing. I cast him in a bondage scene but he got carried away and we had to stop him from really hurting Genna. He left a bite mark on her left breast.’

‘He sounds like a real piece of work.’

‘He is. And get this: he has an obsession with snakes. There are a lot of them in the forest. He likes to go out and find the non-poisonous ones to bring back to the house. A couple of times he scared the girls with them and once there was a bit of bother because he answered the front door with a snake wrapped around his neck. It scared the life out of the visitor who happened to be a small boy. The boy’s dad came to the house later and threatened to punch Slade’s lights out. Me and another guy, who was the talent, had to warn the father off.’

‘Do you know where Slade is now?’ Temple asked.

Roth shrugged. ‘At King’s Manor I assume. We haven’t spoken since I told him we wouldn’t be filming there again.’

‘He’s renting the house out to a family on holiday,’ Temple said. ‘So we need to find out where he’s staying.’

‘I don’t know where he is, Inspector, and I really don’t care.’

Temple jotted down some notes. ‘Tell me about King’s Manor, Mr Roth. Why do you think it’s haunted?’

‘Don’t get me wrong,’ Roth said. ‘I’ve never believed in all that ghost crap. But things happened there that I can’t explain. It got to the point where Belinda wouldn’t even go there. It scared her.’

‘So what happened?’

‘Well just a bunch of strange disturbances such as lights going on and off and doors opening and closing by themselves.’

‘I’ve been to see the family who are staying there now,’ Temple said. ‘They say they’re experiencing strange happenings.’

‘Well I pity them,’ Roth said. ‘That paranormal stuff is OK in the movies and on television. But when it really happens it fucks you up and you don’t know what to think.’

‘Did Genna warn you about it before you went there?’

Roth nodded. ‘She told us she had seen and heard some weird things but it didn’t seem to bother her much.’

‘Does it bother Slade?’

He smiled without humour. ‘The prick seems to think it’s funny. He used to joke that he shared the house with a ghost.’

Temple was becoming increasingly interested in Nathan Slade. The guy was now high up on their list of suspects. The sooner they tracked him down the better.

‘Have you ever been in trouble with the law?’ he asked.

Roth’s eyebrows lifted a few centimetres. ‘Absolutely not – apart from a few speeding tickets, that is.’

‘So were you ever questioned by Scotland Yard’s Serious Crime Directorate?’

Roth’s mouth tensed. ‘Well you obviously know that I was. But that was a year ago.’

‘Care to tell me what it was about?’

Roth issued a heavy sigh, said, ‘The police were investigating a man who had some snuff movies in his possession. I was in his contacts book because we’d used him in the past as the male lead in a couple of our films. I told them I hardly knew the guy and that was that. No big deal.’

‘But it’s your understanding that this bloke had bona fide snuff movies?’ Temple said, surprised.

‘That’s what I was told by the officers who questioned me. But my guess is that the films were fakes. Real snuff movies are an urban myth. I’m sure of it. I’ve never seen one and I don’t know anyone who has.’

Temple had never seen one either, but it was his understanding that they were no longer an urban myth. He’d been told on good authority that a number of genuine snuff movies – in which people are murdered on camera for the sake of entertainment – had turned up in recent years. Law enforcement agencies across the world were now taking seriously the notion of an underground film industry that catered for a sick, perverted sub-culture. The internet and mobile
technology
meant there was less risk attached to making such films. And producing them no longer required expensive equipment and highly trained crews. In addition, the huge increase in the trafficking of
helpless
young women ensured an endless supply of unwilling victims who would never be missed.

Temple thought it was an avenue of inquiry worth pursuing. Given Genna’s dubious professions it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that she had been murdered to satisfy someone’s sadistic sexual fantasy – or that her murder had been captured on tape.

He closed his folder, said, ‘Well that was an interesting
conversation
, Mr Roth. You’ve given me a lot to think about.’

Roth seemed surprised. ‘No more questions?’

‘Only one. What was the title of the movie that Slade appeared in?’

Roth told him and Temple recognized the name. It was one of the DVDs they had taken from Genna’s flat.