Woman in Black (7 page)

The man who had previously chased January took a step back and hammered his boot through the midsection close to the lock. The timber splintered and imploded, the door swinging open after just one blow.

Jessica told two of the officers and Rowlands to wait as she entered. Behind the door was a staircase that had a thinning patchy red carpet running up it. She walked up the stairs with the officer who had broken the door down behind her. At the top was another door. Jessica knocked loudly again.

‘January, are you in there?’

The door felt as thin as the one downstairs. Jessica knew she had already broken procedure, if not the law itself, by not waiting for the warrant.

The officer looked at her, eyebrows raised as if to ask whether or not he should bust through this door too. Jessica nodded. The constable didn’t have as much room but was as brutal with the second door as he had been with the first, smashing through the thin wood with barely a grunt. Jessica was impressed at his athleticism.

‘Wait here,’ she said to him, walking through the shattered remains of the timber into the flat. Her instincts told her January wasn’t home and she didn’t want anyone else potentially disrupting the scene seeing as the place would have to be searched by a trained team.

The front door led directly into the living room. Aside from a television, the rest of the room was fairly empty. It looked lived-in though, a few books and odd items of clothing littering the floor. The randomness of the objects reminded Jessica of the way she lived. Frequently she found items of clothing or things like her phone charger in places around her flat without knowing when she had left them there.

‘January?’ Jessica called but everything was quiet. She jumped slightly as the silence was broken by her phone ringing. From the caller ID, she could see it was Cole.

‘Sir?’

‘We’ve got the warrant,’ he said. ‘I’ve requested two of the lab team to come and assist you too.’

‘Thanks. She’s not answered her door yet.’

‘What does her flat look like?’

The comment confirmed her one fear about someone she had been close to professionally being promoted. When he was an inspector, Cole had seen exactly the way she worked and would have had a good idea she was going to get access to the flat as soon as she could.

‘Now we’ve got the warrant, I’ll get one of the officers to break through,’ Jessica replied, figuring there was little point in confirming his suspicions.

Cole paused for a moment. ‘Fair enough. If anything changes, let me know. If she’s genuinely missing or made a run for it, we’re going to have to get a photo of her out to as many media outlets as possible as soon as we can. The longer we wait, the further she could get if she has run.’

Jessica hung up and continued to look around the apartment. There wasn’t much to it but she did make a point of carefully opening the wardrobes in the bedroom to see if the black cloak was present. Almost all of the clothes were black, making it hard to differentiate one item from the next without actually touching them.

There was no sign of January anywhere.

The kitchen was the worst-looking room by far. Jessica rarely used her own, except for the microwave, but it looked as if January’s was almost untouched. Dirt lined the bottom of the white skirting boards, with cheap brown linoleum peeling away from the edges. A once-white cooker was in the corner but was covered in red and brown stains and the worktops were littered with empty food packaging. Jessica didn’t want to venture too far into the room could see a faded red stain more or less in the middle of the room near to a small dining table. She walked carefully towards it, crouching to get a better look. She didn’t know for sure but it looked like dried blood someone had tried to clean. Given the state of the rest of the kitchen, it could be something as innocent as spaghetti sauce or gravy but its position in the centre, away from the cooker, worktops and the dining table, stood out.

Jessica returned to the front door, thinking she would mention it to the lab team when they arrived, although they were professional enough to spot it anyway.

The officer was still waiting for her on the stairs outside. ‘Not in then?’

‘Not unless she’s a contortionist and hiding in the fridge.’

The reason for January not being in could be innocent but Jessica seriously doubted it. The fact the hands were being left in public places showed whoever was leaving them was trying to play games. Being arrested and then placing the hand of her boyfriend to taunt them seemed the type of thing the person might want to do but Jessica had looked into January’s eyes in the interview room and it was hard to imagine her being that cunning.

She led the constable outside to where Rowlands and the other officers were standing. A small crowd had gathered not far from the shop’s doorway. Jessica shook her head at Rowlands to indicate she hadn’t found anything and then sent him and one officer back to the station. ‘Izzy’s looking to see if there’s a connection from Lewis Barnes to anyone else reported missing,’ she told the constable. ‘Give her a hand. I’ll be back soon.’

Jessica waited with the other two officers for the lab team to arrive but phoned Cole to ask if January’s photo could be released to the media. The picture of the woman in the cape alongside Lewis provided a good up-to-date likeness.

When the Scene of Crime team arrived, Jessica mentioned the substance she thought could be blood in the kitchen, then left the two officers with them. The constables would remain for a while in case the woman did arrive back. Someone would have to stay until the lab workers had left and the property could be boarded up and secured.

Jessica knew it was a bit cheeky but asked the officers if they minded her taking the second car. They didn’t have a lot of choice but she felt a little better about asking rather than telling them she was going to drive back to the station. They would either have to phone into the base to get a lift, or take a bus. The pair didn’t seem overly pleased but didn’t object.

It was lunchtime and the sun was again warm on her arms as she drove but Jessica had barely pulled away when her phone rang. She pulled over to the side of the road and answered.

Jessica recognised the voice as Diamond’s. ‘Sergeant Daniel?’

‘I’ve told you before to call me Jess,’ she said. ‘I’ve sent Dave back to help you.’

‘He’s not here yet but we think we’ve got something.’

‘What?’

‘We started with Lewis Barnes’ school records given the age thing. There are so many names but we found someone he left sixth form with when he was eighteen. There’s an “Edward Marks” listed as finishing at the same time as him, then an “Ed Marks” on our list of missing people. I don’t know if it’s the same person but they’re the same age. I’ve got a contact number for his brother who reported him missing.’

Given it was a family member who had told them the man was absent, Jessica knew a simple swab would be able to tell them if the brother’s DNA was a match for the first hand.

‘That’s brilliant work, Iz. I’m on my way back now. Call the brother and I’ll go pick him up.’

The woman at the other end of the phone paused for a moment. ‘There might be a problem with that…’

SEVEN

Jessica’s heart sank. ‘What’s wrong?’

Izzy spoke confidently and fluently. ‘The man who’s missing is Ed Marks and it was his brother Charlie who reported it. Ed comes from around this area but, according to the notes we have, Charlie lives in London.’

Jessica knew the news wasn’t as bad as it could have been but it meant the chance of picking Charlie up and getting a swab off to the labs to potentially identify the first hand wasn’t going to happen that day.

‘It’s fine, Iz. That’s really great work. I’m on my way back now. Can you leave Charlie Marks’ details out for me and keep looking – there could be somebody else with a similar connection. I’ll call the brother when I get back and we’ll set him up to visit a police station near to him.’

Even if the man lived in London, he could give a DNA sample locally that the labs down south could process and send through.

As Jessica drove back to the station, she couldn’t help but be impressed by the almost ruthless efficiency of Izzy’s work. Some officers complained and stomped their feet when given tasks, others tried to delegate as much as they could, but the new recruit just got things done. Once again, Jessica found her colleague’s competence and attention to detail almost intimidating.

Back at Longsight, Jessica walked briskly through to her office. DS Cornish wasn’t at her desk and Jessica assumed she was out trying to track down Christine Johnson. Because of the intensity of her own case, she hadn’t been involved in the hunt for the missing MP’s wife but that seemed intriguing too.

On Jessica’s desk was a printout of Edward Marks’ missing persons report, which she read. The man’s brother Charlie did live in London. He had been unable to contact Ed on the phone and called the police to report him missing approximately a month ago. Give or take a day or two, he had disappeared at the same time as Lewis Barnes.

Jessica picked up the phone on her desk and called the contact number they had for Ed’s brother. The man answered on the second ring.

‘Hello, is that Charlie Marks?’ Jessica said.

‘Yes, who’s this?’ said a man’s voice.

‘My name is Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel and I work for Manchester’s Metropolitan CID division…’

Before she could continue, the man cut in. ‘Have you found my brother?’

‘That’s what I’m calling about, we’re not sure. It’s a bit complicated.’ Jessica felt a little stuck because the first hand might not belong to Edward Marks and the fact he had been to the same school as Lewis Barnes and had gone missing at roughly the same time could be a coincidence. She didn’t want to jump in and tell Charlie they might have found his brother’s severed hand without having more to back it up.

‘I don’t want to say too much,’ she continued. ‘I wondered if you might be able to visit your local police station in the next day or two? If you tell me which one it is, I’ll make the arrangements so you can just go in and out.’

‘Why do you want me to do that?’

Jessica sighed. ‘I don’t want to talk out of turn but we’d like to take a mouth swab from you. It gives us DNA we can check…’

The man cut her off mid-sentence again. ‘Have you found a body?’

Jessica tried to keep her voice as level as possible. ‘Mr Marks, I know this is hard but I don’t want to tell you things that could end up not being true. I promise that, if you can work with me, I’ll tell you everything once we’ve tested your sample. I’m aware you don’t know who I am but if you can trust me on this it will be better for everyone.’

Charlie’s voice had been a little high-pitched throughout the conversation but the tone lowered slightly as he replied. ‘Okay but I’m actually in the process of moving back to Manchester. It’s been on the cards for a while. I’ve been selling off the bigger items I own down here and just have a few suitcases now. I’m catching a train in the morning and that’s it, I’ll be back in the north permanently.’

Jessica felt lost for words, stumbling over  replyt. ‘Right…um, would you like us to pick you up from the train station?’

‘Have you moved into taxi services now?’ The man gave a nervous-sounding laugh as he spoke.

‘No, I just meant we could…’

For a third time, he cut her off. ‘No, it’s okay, I know. I think I would rather drop my cases off if that’s all right. It’s an early train anyway. If you tell me where your station is, I’ll be there by lunchtime.’

Jessica had little choice but to accept; it wasn’t as if he was under arrest, he was helping them out. ‘Yes that’s fine, just ask for me on reception.’

Charlie asked her to send him a text message with the address of the station so he had a record he could look at, rather than something verbal. She tried not to use her personal mobile phone for police business but sometimes it was unavoidable, especially as the force consistently seemed to be a few years behind the real world when it came to technology.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Almost a day later and Jessica was sitting back at her desk. Things hadn’t moved on since the identification of the second hand. Izzy and Dave were both trying to find a second link from Lewis Barnes to anyone else on their missing persons list. So far no other names had matched. Meanwhile, there had been no sign of January Forrester. She hadn’t returned to her flat the previous day and there had been no sightings of her. It didn’t help that even the local television channels and newspapers were fully focused on Christine Johnson. If it wasn’t for that, the press office might have been able to push to get January’s photo somewhere high up the news bulletins or near the front of the papers. As it was, the search for her was barely mentioned. January’s photo had been put on the force’s website and posted on social media networks but Jessica knew hardly anyone looked at those. She had once jokingly suggested in a meeting a few months ago that the best way to get the public to visit their website was to have a pornographic image at the top of each page. The idea hadn’t been warmly received.

If that wasn’t enough failure for one twenty-four hour period, the Scene of Crime team hadn’t found the black cape at January’s flat and had come away with little other than the slice of linoleum which might have a blood stain on it. Jessica spoke to one of the scientists the previous evening but they told her it would be hard to get a solid match given someone had tried to clean it and it would have likely been walked on many times since. If they could get something conclusive from the cutting, it wouldn’t be in a hurry.

Jessica was contemplating the state of everything when the officer on reception phoned to tell her Charlie Marks had arrived. At the front desk, a man she didn’t recognise was standing to one side, nervously moving from one foot to the other. He wasn’t very tall but his frame was lean and tight, as if it were mainly muscle with little fat. The mini heatwave was somehow still lasting and Jessica thought the checked shorts and T-shirt he was wearing looked a lot more comfortable than the suit she was in. He had short sandy hair that was tousled in a just-got-out-of-bed way some men seemed to prefer. Because of the shade, she couldn’t tell if it was bleached or his natural colour.