Woman in Black (9 page)

‘First things first,’ she continued. ‘We don’t actually know if these two are dead yet given the fact we’ve not found the rest of their bodies. Obviously the first issue is whether we’re looking at a murder investigation or a missing persons one. Given the length of time they’ve been gone – and having spoken to Jack earlier – I think it seems sensible to treat this as murder.’

The two officers were nodding as she spoke. ‘Dave, can you write this down? This is what we have to try to answer. First, are Lewis and Ed connected in any way other than going to the same college? Were they even friends? It seems too much of a coincidence for them to be total strangers. Second, can we connect January Forrester to Ed in any way? She’s still our only formal suspect but finding her isn’t too easy given we have hardly anyone else to help.’

Jessica looked to Izzy, who was playing with a strand of her long red hair as she spoke. ‘The calls have slowed to a stop. I spoke to the press office yesterday but they said the main media aren’t interested in publicising January’s photo. We’ve had a few mentions but no major coverage. It’s on the website for all the good that is but she’s gone to ground.’

Izzy looked back to a nodding Jessica for approval.

‘Exactly,’ Jessica replied. ‘Dave, find anyone connected to January you can and doorstep them. She could be hiding with a friend but someone must know where she’s gone. I don’t think she’s the type to live on the streets. Take an officer in case you do stumble across her and she runs.’

She winked at him, struggling to contain a mischievous grin as she remembered how out of breath he had been during their last chase.

‘Iz, I want you to carry on working from here. See if you can link Lewis and Ed or Ed and January. Just in case, see if we can get a list of everyone who finished sixth form at the same time as them. There’s no way we can contact them all to say they could be danger, not that we know they are, but at least we’ll be prepared. While you fish around, you might find out they were all members of some school club or something.’

Izzy was making notes of her own and Jessica knew she was the right person for the job. ‘Check in with me during the day. I’m going to look at Charlie Marks. He was feuding with his brother. There might be nothing in it but it’s worth going over. He’s a year and half older so would have been in a different year at school but if you see any reference to him, let me know.’

Jessica sent the two officers out for the day and then turned on her computer. She had become used to her office being empty as Cornish was almost never there. While she waited for her computer to boot up, Jessica walked across to the other sergeant’s desk, checking the photos were still perfectly in line.

The missing MP’s wife was huge news and officers from other areas had been called in with the superintendent taking an active part in the investigation. Jessica guessed it was down to political pressure but didn’t want to get too involved herself.

The information they held on the Marks brothers was limited as neither of them had criminal records so she called someone she hadn’t contacted in a while. Garry Ashford was a journalist on the
Manchester Morning Herald
newspaper. They’d had a fractious professional relationship in the past but he had certainly helped her on occasion, infuriating her on others. He had a dress sense that was a throwback to an age of tweed and long hair and, although she actually quite liked him, she would never have told him that.

He answered on the second ring.

‘Garry, it’s Jess. Have you got a minute?’ she said.

‘Sure.’

‘Can you do me a favour?’

‘It depends…’ Jessica thought his tone of voice betrayed a slight amount of panic. She knew he was a little scared of her and liked playing up to it.

‘It’s nothing too bad. I was just wondering how easy your archives are to work with and whether you could check something for me?’

The man paused before replying. ‘They’re not brilliant. The company employed someone to start digitising everything last year but then sacked them four months into the job because it was taking too long and costing too much. Everything’s very patchy so it’s pot luck really.’

Jessica gave him the name of the Marks’ father. She told Garry she was looking for a story about his wife’s death that could be anything up to thirty years old. She was also after something about his own death from approximately five years beforehand.

‘I might be able to find something on the man’s death if there was an obit but there’s no chance on the other one,’ Garry said. ‘The library might have something if you’ve got an exact date or you can come in and go through our archives yourself if the editor agrees. I’ll have a look for the more recent one on our system and call you back.’

Jessica thanked him and hung up. She didn’t have the time or inclination to hunt through newspapers and didn’t know an exact date the father had died anyway. Without going back to Charlie Marks she was unlikely to get it and she didn’t want to alert him to the fact she was checking his background. Twenty-four hours after meeting him, her suspicions had waned but she wanted to check all angles before ruling him out in her own mind.

In complete contrast to the previous day, Jessica’s office was sweltering. She was trying to keep it quiet that it was her who had broken the air-conditioning system because the whole station was baking. It seemed typical that, in a city where it was consistently grey and wet, they were in the middle of a heatwave as their cooling system was broken. She hadn’t told Rowlands but the engineer told her he would have to order a part and it could take weeks to get everything fixed again.

Despite the discomfort, Jessica continued to work as best she could before calling Rowlands in the middle of the afternoon. He had visited January’s parents, who lived separately, as well as a few of her friends. Either no one knew where she was or they didn’t want to say.

As for Izzy, she had compiled a full list of college-leavers and spoken to one of the old teachers who still worked at the establishment. Unfortunately, the person couldn’t even remember the names, let alone tell her if Ed Marks and Lewis Barnes had been friends. Neither she nor Jessica could find any connection between the two victims, not to mention January or Charlie.

After a couple of hours, Garry phoned back but he could only confirm what Charlie had said. The father’s obituary had been accompanied by a news piece which had a couple of lines saying the man’s wife had been killed by a medical mix-up years previously. Garry said it sounded as if it had been a big story at the time but it would be too much work for him to go back through the archives. She thanked him but had a sinking feeling all of their leads were slowly drifting.

Cole was involved in various briefings because of Christine Johnson’s disappearance so Jessica emailed him an update before leaving for the day.

Usually her drive home was a depressing tale of red traffic lights and commuters who didn’t know what lane they were supposed to be in but Jessica had other plans for the evening. The steering wheel was far too hot for her to grip properly as she started her car’s engine. Jessica cursed herself for parking where the shade had been that morning instead of where it had moved to by the end of the day. The weather had been clear and sunny for over a week now, something almost unheard of in Manchester. She often thought people got so used to moaning about the rain they didn’t quite know what to do when the sun came out for longer than a couple of hours.

Jessica lived south of the city centre in the Didsbury area but travelled west crawling at an even worse speed than she usually did. One of the other side-effects of the good weather was that everyone was in a rush to get home and enjoy it. Drivers weaved in and out and Jessica saw at least half-a-dozen people jumping red traffic lights that she could have pulled over. She tried to keep her patience, eventually manoeuvring her way to Salford Quays. The area had been extensively redeveloped over twenty years and what had once been largely wasteland was now a thriving hub for the media industry, surrounded by posh apartments.

Jessica parked her car in an area dominated by vehicles that dwarfed hers both in size and value. She had only been to the area a few times in the past but knew where she was going and rang a nearby doorbell. A voice crackled through the speaker to ask who she was before a buzzing sound indicated the front door opening. Jessica walked up three flights of stairs and saw a woman holding the door open for her with a big smile on her face.

‘Glad you could make it,’ she said.

Jessica hugged her. ‘Good to see you, Caz.’

Caroline Morrison pulled the door open the whole way and invited Jessica in. She had long dark hair and olive-coloured skin. Her appearance had barely changed in the sixteen or seventeen years Jessica had known her. She was wearing a short flowery white dress and Jessica felt underdressed in her work suit.

‘I’ve not had much time to clear up,’ Caroline said. ‘I’ve been cooking us tea.’

The flat looked pretty clean to Jessica. Certainly if this counted as messy, it didn’t say much for her own apartment. The two had lived together for around ten years and it had always been Caroline who kept the place tidy. Jessica walked through the hallway into the main living room. It had large bay windows looking out over the Quays and the whole scene looked gorgeous on a sunny day like it was that day.

Caroline opened up the sliding door which led onto a balcony. ‘You can sit out if you want? I’m just in the kitchen. Tom will be home soon.’

‘Nah, I’ll come and annoy you.’

Caroline giggled and the two women walked through into a separate open-plan kitchen. Everything was spotless and, even though she had seen it before, Jessica couldn’t help but be impressed. When they had first moved in together it was to a flat far smaller than this one. They had carried on living with each other not because of any financial necessity but just because they liked each other’s company. Caroline had a successful advertising career and could have moved into her own place whenever she wanted. She had been planning on moving in with Randall before Jessica discovered his true nature and it was only after that incident that they went their separate ways.

They hadn’t had any sort of argument but had become different people. It was hard to meet without remembering what had happened. They gradually went from seeing each other every day, to meeting once a week, to talking on the phone, to swapping text messages. Before long those had dried up but, after over a year of almost no contact, Caroline had called to say she was getting married and asking if Jessica would be a bridesmaid.

It was a shock to Jessica given she didn’t even know her friend was in a relationship but, from there, they had gradually come to know each other again. A lot of the back-and-forth had initially been wedding-related but Jessica was pleased they were beginning to talk about things as mates again. Neither of them had ever spoken about Randall and Jessica had no plans to do so. She had only met Caroline’s fiancé Thomas once before and that was brief, so tonight her friend had invited her around to get together properly.

‘How is Tom?’ Jessica asked.

‘Same old. He says he’s excited about the wedding but you never really know with blokes, do you? He’s started writing a book in his spare time.’

‘What is it he does again?’

‘He works in television production just over the water. He’s only got a five-minute walk to work. All right for some, isn’t it?’ Jessica thought about her own commute and couldn’t disagree. Before she could say anything, Caroline continued, ‘What about you? Are you helping to find that MP’s wife that’s been all over the news?’

‘No, I’m on something else at the moment.’

Caroline made a ‘hmm’ sound as she started to stir something in a saucepan that was simmering on the hob. ‘Have you got a bloke on the go yet?’

Jessica didn’t want to dwell on the issue. ‘Not at the moment, I’m too busy working.’

Her friend glanced up from the saucepan, smiling. ‘Come on, there must’ve been somebody?’

Jessica let out an involuntary sigh. ‘There was this guy Adam but it didn’t work out.’

‘That’s a shame. What happened?’

‘Not much, just work things.’

A few years ago, Jessica wouldn’t have hesitated to tell her friend everything but she didn’t feel comfortable opening up yet given their distance. The reason she and Adam had split was entirely down to her. She had been working on a case and made some terrible assumptions and mistakes. Her paranoia had got on top of her and she asked Adam to break the law for her. He had done it but at the expense of their relationship. Losing him and trying to reconcile the way she acted was something that had stayed with her in the seven months or so since. Every now and then she would get a text message out of the blue and hope it was him but he hadn’t contacted her since and she had to respect his wishes.

Before Caroline could ask any further questions there was the sound of the front door opening and a man’s voice saying, ‘Hello’. Caroline called out, ‘In here’ and her fiancé walked into the kitchen.

‘Hey, hon,’ he said.

‘All right?’ Caroline replied.

‘I was talking to your bridesmaid,’ he said with a wink.

Jessica had first been introduced to him by his full name, Thomas Bateman. While the two women were both in their early thirties, Tom was in his early forties. The only thing that gave away his age was his greying hair. He was fit and athletic with a grin that made him look years younger. Caroline had always gone for younger men and this was the first time Jessica had known her go out with anyone older.

He leant in and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Nice to meet you again, Jessica,’ he said.

Jessica smiled back. ‘Jess is fine.’

‘Oi, where’s mine?’ Caroline said with a grin of her own, patting her lips. Tom walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead.

The meal itself was as terrific – as it always was when Caroline cooked. As the three of them ate on the balcony looking out at the sun reflecting off the water, Jessica remembered how good her friend’s culinary skills were. She had become so used to eating takeaways and microwaved meals and, while they sat, ate and chatted, Jessica realised how much she missed having a best friend. The sun stayed high and Caroline opened a bottle of wine that she shared with Tom. Jessica never had anything alcoholic when she was driving and turned down a glass. Caroline’s fiancé was genuinely funny and had the two women giggling frequently. Jessica found herself warming to him greatly but couldn’t help but wonder if Caroline had been drawn to him on the rebound. Ultimately she had been out of her friend’s life for too long to know for sure but it had only been two years ago their lives had been torn apart by Randall and now she was on the brink of marrying someone else.