Woman in Black (14 page)

‘What’s your problem?’ he demanded but his words garbled into one. He felt very drunk but couldn’t figure out why.

The two girls were still laughing. ‘Think you’ve had too much to drink, you stupid prick,’ one of them said.

Jacob stood quickly but stumbled on the wooden seat. He regained his balance but his head was spinning. He tried to shout some abuse at the women but his words blended into one, which just made them laugh even more. Trying to keep himself steady, he stomped past them out the back gate his friends had disappeared through minutes earlier. He knew where he was but, for some reason, his brain wasn’t giving him the information he needed about which direction to go in. Jacob stopped, trying to focus on a spot across the road in order to clear his head.

The strange thing was he was thinking clearly enough to know he hadn’t had enough alcohol to feel this drunk. He could remember the five drinks, which was only a little more than he might have on his own in an evening at home. He had only had a pie for lunch but that wasn’t unusual either. One thing he was known for in his circle of friends was being able to put the beer away.

Jacob stumbled to his right, not knowing entirely where the taxi rank was but realising he had a fifty per cent chance of being correct. Before he could get to the junction he felt a hand on his shoulder. He started to turn but felt a blow hammer into the side of his cheek. His vision was spinning anyway but started to go black from the ferocity of the attack.

Jacob fought to stay standing, throwing a punch of his own, but he couldn’t see where the blow had come from. His swing connected only with warm air as something smashed into the back of his head. He tried to stay focused and upright but a final blow was enough to make everything go dark.

THIRTEEN

Jessica was sitting at her desk, looking at the two constables in front of her. ‘Where’d you get the chair from, Dave?’

Rowlands shrugged. ‘Nicked it from downstairs. I figured that if we’re going to keep meeting in your office, I should at least have somewhere to sit.’ He looked accusingly at Izzy.

‘All right, kiddies,’ Jessica said, looking from one constable to the other, ‘who wants to go first?’

Izzy flicked her hair back behind her ears and started to tie it in a ponytail. ‘Me and the boy wonder have visited everyone we know that has any association with January. Everyone claims they don’t know where she is, which isn’t a surprise, I guess.’

Rowlands nodded, taking his colleague’s cue to chip in. ‘I reckon she’s hiding out with a friend somewhere. There are a few people we think might know more than they’re letting on but there’s not much we can do. Aside from sounding a bit shifty we don’t have any reason to suspect anyone specifically.’

Jessica knew he was right. ‘Next time I see the super I’ll ask him to get onto the Home Secretary about bringing in a law so we can arrest shifty-looking and -sounding people. Personally I’m all for it.’ She again looked from one constable to the other. ‘You both know about the package I was sent a couple of days ago. Because of the similarity in print on the front I didn’t even touch it and the lab boys came to take it. I got a phone call and email with the results this morning. As I thought, it contained a finger belonging to Lewis Barnes.’

‘Why do you think it was addressed directly to you?’ Izzy asked.

‘No idea really. The case has been in the papers and the details are on the website so someone could have taken it from there. Maybe it’s someone like January we’ve spoken to who knows me? There weren’t any fingerprints on the envelope so it’s a bit of a dead end. The labs couldn’t give us anything specific about printer or ink types but it was always going to be a long shot.’

‘Are you okay with things?’ Izzy asked, referring to the fact it had been Jessica specifically who had received the latest parcel.

Jessica was still having the odd flash of the first finger in her dreams and was relieved she hadn’t opened the second package. If she was honest she was a little concerned that whoever was sending the parcels apparently knew who she was but she didn’t want to show those feelings to her colleagues. Cole and Reynolds had both asked her the same question the previous day.

Jessica shrugged. ‘Not much I can do, is there? Every piece of mail I get is being screened before it gets to me now. If someone could do the same with my bills at home I’d be laughing.’ Her two colleagues exchanged a look as if to tell each other they knew she was putting a brave face on it. She pretended she hadn’t seen it and changed the subject. ‘Have either of you managed to dig up anything on Michael Wright?’

Rowlands and Diamond both shook their heads. ‘Me neither,’ said Jessica. ‘I know you guys didn’t see him but I think he’s a bit of a red herring anyway. He didn’t seem bitter to me, just sad. The poor guy loved the job and enjoyed his students’ success. He’s a little
unconventional
but nothing more.’ Jessica had almost used the word ‘weird’. Even though the man wasn’t present it would have felt as she was bullying him.

‘Where does that leave us?’ Rowlands asked.

Jessica puffed her cheeks out, shrugging. ‘In a bit of a mess. The rugby players live all over the country and I’m not convinced that’s our link anyway. If they all went to the same school, there’s every chance they did other things together. I think we’ll have one more day going back over what we’ve already got and then, after that, it’s working our way through every name on that list of school-leavers. I don’t think any of us want to be doing that. Iz, take an officer and go see Vicky Barnes. You know what she’s like but keep her calm and see if she knows anything about where January could be. We know Lewis played rugby but what else was he involved with? Did he play any other sports or was he part of other clubs and so on?’

Izzy had taken her notebook out and was writing. Jessica looked to Rowlands. ‘Dave, there are two other players from the rugby team who live in this area. I spoke to the pair of them on the phone but go and do your blokey thing with them. Take another male officer and try to get them off-guard. I’m not convinced Jacob told us all he knew. It’s probably nothing but ask them about tours and celebrations and so on. See if anyone remembers Lewis and Ed being friends or find out if they’re linked in any way aside from the rugby.’

‘Anything else? Dave asked.

‘No, when you’re done talking you can both nick off but don’t take the piss and rush. I’ve got some bits to do here but then I’ve got to leave early too.’

Rowlands grinned. ‘Oh yeah…’

‘You can take that smug look off your face.’

‘What’s going on?’ Izzy asked.

Jessica went to speak but Rowlands cut in ahead of her. ‘Tomboy Jess has a dress-fitting for that wedding today. It sounds bloody hilarious.’

‘What’s so funny about that?’ Jessica said.

‘Just you in a big fancy dress thing. I’d pay to see that.’

‘You’d pay to see women in their underwear trying on clothes? That’s not a surprise to anyone.’

‘No, I’d pay to see your face. How long have I known you now? Four years? Five? I think I’ve only ever seen you in a dress a couple of times.’

‘What are you, my stalker?’

‘In your dreams.’

Jessica saw Izzy’s knowing look but swiftly glanced away. ‘Right, let’s get going. The quicker we get all this done, the quicker we can all get home then come back tomorrow ready to wade through a list of over a hundred school-leavers.’

After they left, Jessica took her shoes off in an effort to cool down. It was still hot in the station but the weather that day wasn’t as warm as it had been. For the first time since the case had fallen into her lap, she was beginning to feel a little stuck. They had spent a couple of weeks moving from one minor lead to the next but, aside from now knowing the identity of the victims, none of it had really advanced the case. They still didn’t know if Lewis Barnes and Ed Marks were dead or alive, although she had been working from the assumption they were deceased. They also had no idea who was leaving the hands, or why.

The prominence of the case surrounding Christine Johnson’s disappearance was both a stroke of luck and a total inconvenience. In relation to Jessica’s situation, it allowed her to get on with things without too much scrutiny from above. The command structure where she would have to pass things through DI Reynolds to DCI Cole had been completely sidelined because both men were under huge pressure from DSI Aylesbury to get results. Although that suited her and left her with two constables she actually liked to work alongside, the downside was becoming apparent. Given their difficulties in tracking down January – or any other kind of lead relating to the woman in black or a connection between the two victims – their usual course of action would have been to get the media as heavily involved as possible. Unfortunately the journalists were only interested in one case and it wasn’t hers.

With no other obvious ideas, she dialled Garry Ashford’s mobile number and waited for him to answer. ‘Hello,’ he said gloomily.

‘All right, cheer up, I could be calling to tell you someone’s handed in a hundred grand that was left on the street and it’s your name on the envelope.’

‘Have they?’

‘No, but you didn’t know that.’

‘Sorry, it’s just bloody hot,’ Garry sighed. ‘I’ve spent most of the last fortnight camped outside George Johnson’s house. It’s not as if he even comes to talk to us and your lot never have anything to say. I think I’ve got sun stroke.’

‘Why don’t you go back to the office then?’

‘Christ knows. The editor wants someone here in case anything happens. There are about half-a-dozen of us sitting around in our cars like complete prats on the off-chance his wife comes home. I don’t suppose you know anything, do you?’

‘Naff all.’

‘Can I quote you on that? “A senior police source said they knew ‘naff all’ about the case”.’

‘Take out the word “senior” and you’ve got a deal.’

‘Hardee-har. What are you after?’

‘January Forrester.’

Garry sighed again. ‘I told you last week, the editor’s not interested. You got the picture printed the day after she went missing but there’s not much more I can do.’

‘So it’s only news if someone married to somebody a bit famous goes missing, not if someone who could be a serial killer disappears?’

‘Do you think she’s a serial killer?’

‘That’s not the point. She’s a suspect who’s gone missing and we could do with help finding her.’

‘Sorry, but it’s not up to me.’

‘Look, if I feed you a whole load of quotes on the record will you write something up for me? I’ll email you the photos to go with it and you won’t have to do very much at all.’

‘What’s in it for me?’

‘My eternal gratitude?’

Garry laughed. ‘Sod off. How about a future exclusive of my choosing?’

‘Done. I thought you were going to ask for one of my kidneys or something.’

‘Not with the amount of wine you can put away.’

Jessica tried not to but found herself laughing. ‘All right, funny man. If I email you a load of information can you just take some quotes out of that for me? Fill in the gaps if you want but don’t make me sound like a dick.’

‘So you want me to make you sound literate? I thought you said there wouldn’t be much work involved?’

‘Yeah, yeah, just think of the juicy exclusive you’ll have coming your way someday. How’s Mrs Ashford anyway? A big spiky-haired birdie named Dave told me you had a girlfriend.’ It had taken Jessica a few years to get him to admit it but Rowlands and Garry Ashford were old university friends. At first they had kept it very much to themselves with the constable acting as a source for his mate. Jessica had put a stop to that but kept the nature of their relationship to herself to prevent Dave getting into any kind of trouble.

Garry sounded a little embarrassed. ‘She’s all right. I don’t know why he’s going around telling people though.’

‘I think it’s sweet. Is she blind and deaf or just blind?’

‘All right, sod off, do you want a favour or not?’

‘Yeah, I’ll get typing it now. I’ll even run a spell-check just for you.’

‘Cheers, I’ll text you later to let you know if it’s going in.’

Jessica hung up with a smile on her face. She didn’t know many journalists directly but Garry would usually do things for her, even if she did have to threaten, bully or promise him things.

With the dress-fitting in the late afternoon, Jessica skipped lunch and continued working from her desk. First she sent Garry the information he might need, then started to sort the list of college-leavers. Even with the girls taken out and the rugby players crossed off who they had already spoken to, there were still just under a hundred names. Having to contact everyone individually was the last thing she wanted to do. It would no doubt be an enormous waste of time but if the two constables came back with nothing, they would have little other option.

Feeling bored and frustrated, Jessica eventually gave up and walked to the bus stop at the end of the road the station was on. Caroline had asked her a couple of weeks ago to keep the date free and said there would be free wine at the dress shop. With that in mind, Jessica had used public transport to get to work that morning. The buses and trams around the centre of Manchester weren’t too bad in general but were always overcrowded at peak hours and, from her experience, had at least one idiot on board during others. Sometimes she would flash her identification to shut them up, others she would sit in silence with everyone else. From speaking to people she knew, most officers found it hard to reconcile their post with having a ‘normal’ life when they weren’t working. When you saw someone acting unsociably, you were supposed to step in but it wasn’t quite that easy when you were on your own. Her general rule was that she would intervene if someone was causing someone else distress,  otherwise she would stay quiet.

The back of the bus had a group of kids playing music loudly through their phone but she did her best to ignore them as the vehicle moved slowly towards the city centre. Rowlands had struck something of a nerve earlier when he had spoken about her wearing dresses. He was right but it wasn’t really a conscious choice of hers in quite the way he had insinuated. The idea of the fitting was for Caroline, Jessica and the other bridesmaids to collectively make a choice about what would best match the bride’s dress. Realistically, having known Caroline for as long as she had, Jessica was aware only one person would be making that decision – and it had probably already been made.