All Things Bright

by Ted Tayler

  “Right, guv,” said Luke, “ready, Neil?”

  “Born ready, mate.”

  When they were in the car park, Neil turned to Luke.

  “Gus has got it sussed, hasn’t he? I wish I could see the complete picture.”

  “What if Debbie Read doesn’t have an alibi for Sunday night, Neil?”

  “You can’t believe it involved her, Luke. Debbie was home with Lucy.”

  “What if Debbie sent Lucy to bed early that night?” said Luke. “I can’t see anywhere in the files where Lucy mentioned the time. Debbie told Gus it was nine and that she went to bed at eleven.”

  “What makes you think she’s capable? Ryan Lock confirmed it was drug-related. Stacey was hoping to foil a drug deal in the nature reserve. It’s odds-on that if anyone else entered the reserve that night, it was a junkie.”

  Luke drove them out of town and made for the Wootton Bassett road into Swindon. He continued to mull over the facts they possessed, trying to fashion a viable solution. It was one of Gus’s jigsaw analogies. They had a piece that appeared to fit but needed to get moved for the remaining pieces to gel.

  Once on Juno Way, it was only two minutes before Luke knocked on Karen Lock’s door.

  “Mrs Lock? DS Sherman from Wiltshire Police. My colleague is DS Davis. Can we come in?”

  Karen Lock nodded and stood aside as the two detectives entered the hallway.

  “In here,” said Karen, “sit yourselves down. What was it you wanted to know?”

  “Our colleagues visited Ryan today,” said Luke. “He’s concerned for your safety.”

  Karen Lock looked nervous. Her hands shook as she grabbed at a pack of cigarettes and a lighter on the table in front of her.

  “My safety? What’s he been saying?”

  “I think it’s time to speak out, don’t you, Mrs Lock?” said Neil.

  “Ryan’s dead if he’s talked. He wouldn’t. You’re fishing. I won’t go against him.”

  “Who, Karen,” said Luke, leaning forward. “Who’s got the two of you so scared?”

  “We can protect both of you, Karen,” said Neil. “The wheels are in motion. You just have to cooperate, and we’ll take care of everything.”

  “That man has made my life a living hell for eighteen years,” said Karen. “Ryan would have stayed honest if that brute hadn’t come back. Once he got his claws into Ryan with the drugs, he manipulated him any way he wished.”

  “Ryan’s in a better place now, Karen,” said Neil. “He’s getting help. If you want him to stay free of this man for good, then just tell us what you know.”

  “We’re talking of Ryan’s father, aren’t we, Karen?” said Luke. “A man who got you pregnant when you were what, fourteen or fifteen?”

  Karen Lock nodded and took a long drag on her cigarette.

  “I was fourteen and a half when it happened. I was in town with my friends in a café, just killing time. We skived off school most afternoons. He was in there every day. One time he offered to take us home. One by one, he dropped off my mates, and then I was alone with him. He wouldn’t let me out of the car.”

  “Did he rape you, Karen?” asked Neil.

  She nodded.

  “Why didn’t you report it?” asked Luke.

  “He told me what would happen if I did,” said Karen. “I had a younger sister. Then a few months later I realised I was expecting. And he was gone. I never saw him again for years.”

  “This was in 2000, is that right?” asked Neil.

  “In the spring, yeah,”

  “Give us Ryan’s father’s name, Karen,” said Luke.

  “I can’t. He came back, and he’s got eyes and ears everywhere. If you go near him, he’ll know it was me. He won’t rest until he’s finished both of us. He’s an animal.”

  “We’ll arrange for this place to be watched twenty-four-seven,” said Luke. “Protection is already in operation at YOI Feltham. We’ll do everything we can to identify this man and get him behind bars.”

  “I hope you do. I’d love to live my life without looking over my shoulder.”

  “Do you have a photograph of you and Ryan when he was a baby?” asked Luke.

  Karen nodded towards a bookcase behind him.

  “There are several in that larger picture frame. You can take one if you promise to bring it back.”

  “We will,” said Luke.

  “Do you have any photos with Ryan’s father in them?” asked Neil.

  “Nothing,” said Karen.

  “Give us a description,” said Luke.

  “He was around thirty back then. A little under six foot tall, dark hair, heavy build, and he had a scar an inch long on his left cheek, close to his mouth.”

  “Any tattoos?” asked Neil.

  Karen Lock shook her head.

  “Call, if you change your mind about giving us his name,” said Neil. “It would help you both move on so much faster.”

  “When I know Ryan’s safe,” said Karen.

  Neil and Luke left Juno Way and drove to Penhill. Vanessa Nicholls was walking along the street as Luke parked the car.

  “Perfect timing, Mrs Nicholls,” said Neil. “Let’s get on with it, shall we?”

  Vanessa Nicholls let them in, walked into the front room, flopped onto the settee and looked at Luke and Neil.

  “What is it now?” she asked. “I’ve just finished work. I’m shattered.”

  “We tried to get hold of Rod Maidment using a number got from another witness,” said Luke. “It appears to be incorrect. Can you give us the number you used to contact him?”

  Vanessa fished in her bag for her phone and scrolled through her contacts.

  “There it is,” she said, showing the screen to Neil.

  “Thank you,” said Luke. “Do you have an address for him in Wroughton?”

  “No. I never went there.”

  “He drove a new Honda when you knew him. Is that right? What was the registration?”

  Vanessa closed her eyes and tried to reel off the letters and numbers.

  “It was something like that, a gold coloured car.”

  “Do you know how long he’s worked at Honda?” asked Neil.

  “Oh, since the early 2000s. Why the interest in Rod? I haven’t seen him in ages.”

  “Were you ever linked with him on social media?” asked Luke.

  “He didn’t get involved with that stuff, nor do I,” said Vanessa.

  “We’re trying to find photos of him or his cars,” said Neil.

  “He didn’t enjoy having his photo taken back then.”

  “Description?” asked Luke.

  “Tall, dark, and overweight,” said Vanessa. “I said that the first time you lot interviewed me. Rod told me he used to be fit, but he put on weight after he stopped playing sport. He was talking about trying to lose weight before we finished. One day, months later, I saw him when I travelled on the bus to meet Debbie at Rushey Platt. Rod was thinner, but he still had the beard.”

  “Any distinguishing marks?” asked Neil.

  “Rod loved a tattoo,” said Vanessa, “he had a dragon on his back, and a hardcore sleeve on his left arm.”

  “Any idea how old he was?” asked Luke.

  “Not sure, somewhere between forty-five and fifty. Rod was older than me, for sure.”

  “Thanks, Mrs Nicholls,” said Luke. “That’s it for now.”

  “I hope so. It’s not much fun talking about your mistakes in public.”

  “Rod Maidment was a mistake?” said Luke. “I thought you were together for several months?”

  “There was something off with him,” said Vanessa. “Rod could be controlling, and he never gave much away. As you said, Rod had his secrets. I never knew a thing about where he was in the days between dates. The physical side was good, so I ignored the secrecy.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything else, Mrs Nicholls,” said Luke. “We’ll let you relax for a while. No doubt you’re working tonight?”

 
“There’s nobody else bringing money into this house,” she snapped. “I have to work to live.”

  Luke and Neil arrived back to an empty office it was gone half-past five.

  “We should update our files before we leave,” said Luke. “If Gus gets Rick on board first thing, the more data he has available, the better when reassessing our strategy.”

  “I’ll phone Melody and tell her I’ll be an hour,” said Neil.

  “Nicky will blow a fuse,” said Luke. “We had a squash court booked.”

  Tuesday, 24th July 2018

  The team felt a different vibe in the office as soon as they arrived. Gus was first upstairs, and Alex and Lydia found him poring over the Freeman Files. Blessing Umeh soon joined them, and Gus told them what Luke and Neil had learned.

  When Luke and Neil came through the lift doors a couple of minutes later, they weren’t alone.

  “We found this waif and stray in the car park, guv,” said Neil.

  “Well done, Rick,” said Gus, “how long have we got you with us?”

  “I’m needed back at the weekend, guv. Four days tops.”

  “That should be plenty, Rick. Find a chair, and I’ll bring you up to speed.”

  Rick grabbed a visitor’s chair and sat next to Blessing.

  Just as Gus was going to speak, two phones rang. Gus and Alex picked up.

  “How are you settling in?” Rick Chalmers asked Blessing.

  “It’s what I wanted to be doing,” she said. “Making a difference.”

  “I can tell you’re new,” laughed Rick. “The novelty will wear off.”

  Blessing hoped that wouldn’t be for a long time yet.

  “That was Jake Latimer at Gablecross,” said Gus when his call ended. “We asked him for details of drug dealers operating in the area surrounding Rushey Platt over the past decade. There’s a long list, as you can imagine. However, Jake couldn’t link anyone on his radar to the description Karen Lock supplied.”

  “A name might help, guv,” said Alex. “That was Karen Lock on the phone. Ryan must have spoken to his mother yesterday evening to tell her to trust us. He agreed that she could tell us his father’s name. He’s James Neville, ‘known as ‘Jammy’. According to Karen, Neville was unemployed when she met him in the café but was waiting to start a new Swindon job.”

  “Neil, can you get back to your mate, Jake, and ask him for details on this James ‘Jammy’ Neville. Find out where he is, so we can get him nicked. If Ryan’s telling the truth, then Neville was the man Stacey was waiting to confront.”

  “Where do you want me to start, guv?” asked Rick.

  “At the Honda factory, Rick. We have a description of Rod Maidment from Vanessa Nicholls, and an approximate registration for the gold Honda car he drove at the end of 2013. We won’t go barging into Reception and ask to speak to him. I don’t want Maidment alerted to our interest. I’m not sure now how he connects to the case, but I’m hedging my bets. At the next shift change, we need someone in a position to tail Maidment to this mystery address in Wroughton. The description is your best bet, plus the gold colourway. Maidment sounds a creature of habit, so although he’s probably on a later plate, we have a reasonable chance of finding him quickly.”

  “When is the next shift change?” asked Rick.

  “Two o’clock, guv,” said Neil. “They have operatives on a three-shift pattern, six to two, two to ten and ten to six. There’s also a two-shift pattern that Pat Read is on, which starts at five forty-five and finishes at two forty-five. This week Pat will do three to midnight.”

  “There you go, Rick,” said Gus, “Six opportunities to clock Maidment between now and midnight.”

  “I’ll get over to Swindon ready for two o’clock,” said Rick. “What do I do when I’ve identified him and confirmed his address, guv?”

  “Call me,” said Gus. “We’ll get another body out there to run surveillance. I want to know what he’s up to when he’s at home.”

  “Who’s next, guv?” asked Neil.

  “Debbie Read,” said Gus. “You can drive out to Dorcan this afternoon and follow her back to Gorse Hill.”

  “She’ll be cycling, guv,” said Neil.

  “Be inventive, Neil. I want to know whether she cycles straight home. Make a note of everything Debbie does until you see the light go out in her bedroom. Understood?”

  “Yes, guv,” said Neil.

  “Who’s looking after Juno Way, guv?” asked Luke.

  “Jake Latimer has people assigned to that duty,” said Gus. “When he gets an address for James Neville we’ll get you to sit on that to gather information on where he does his dealing and who else might be involved.”

  “Are we approaching the endgame, guv?” asked Lydia Logan Barre.

  “It’s getting closer every day, Lydia,” said Gus.

  CHAPTER 13

  Wednesday, 25th July 2018

  Gus drove into the Old Police Station car park at eight forty-five. Perhaps their luck would change today.

  Jake Latimer had searched high and low for James ‘Jammy’ Neville but couldn’t find him.

  “We don’t catch all of them,” he said when he contacted Gus with the news. “Karen Lock met Neville in 2000, and he was unemployed. What’s saying he hadn’t just moved to the area for work? When he learned she was pregnant, he did a runner.”

  Gus had stressed to Jake that Karen reckoned Neville made her life a misery for eighteen years. Jake asked whether he tormented her in person, or from a distance. Gus had phoned Karen Lock, and she told him that once Neville discovered where she lived, he sent the occasional card reminding her he could get to her whenever he pleased.

  Neville first approached his son Ryan outside the school when her boy was twelve. Karen hadn’t seen Neville in person since 2001 but knew through Ryan that he looked older and hairier than when they first met.

  Jake concentrated on the period between 2013 and 2015. Ryan was using drugs between those dates. Stacey Read had started her campaign to get him to stop in the autumn of 2014, but Jake still came up empty.

  “Neville didn’t work for any of the usual suspects,” he said. “He must have been a small-time solo operator who never came to our attention.”

  Rick Chalmers had studied faces and vehicles at the Honda factory throughout the day. It was impossible to cover staff leaving at two forty-five and the three o’clock arrivals. He’d not given Gus any good news before the team went home. He reported in just before five to remind Gus that gold appeared to be the most popular colour for the cars on site. A model number would narrow the field. Gus tried Vanessa Nicholls after he got home from work, but she didn’t reply. He’d left a message.

  Neil had sat in his car and watched staff leaving the Royal Mail site in mid-afternoon. Debbie Read sailed out of the exit on her bicycle, wearing a helmet, and a hi-viz jacket. Neil waited for two minutes and then followed. The volume of traffic slowed him sufficiently that he didn’t catch her more than once. Neil overtook her and stopped in a lay-by, pretending to be on the phone until she passed him. He studied the panniers on the back of her bicycle. There might be something in them, but it might just be her wet-weather gear and her lunchbox.

  When they reached Gorse Hill, Neil parked fifty yards away from the house and kept watch. Nobody left the house, and nobody arrived, so Neil drove home at ten o’clock.

  Rick Chalmers struggled to stay awake by midnight, but he revived once he spotted a golden bronze metallic Honda CR-V with a tall, thin, bearded driver nudging fifty years of age. Rod Maidment was working the three to midnight shift this week.

  Rick followed him beyond Wroughton to a spot between there and Broad Hinton. Rick couldn’t follow the car when it turned off the main A361 road but watched for when the rear lights disappeared. He waited five minutes, switched off his lights and ventured into the lane.

  Rod Maidment lived in a dilapidated smallholding with three outbuildings of various sizes. Rick decided it was time for bed. He would report in to Gus
in the morning.

  By ten o’clock, Gus had the team organised for the following two days. Luke, Neil, and Alex would sit on Rod Maidment with the help of Rick Chalmers.

  Thursday–Friday, 26th to 27th July 2018

  The four detectives tailed their man to and from work and noted everything they saw from Rick's vantage point while Maidment was at home. He didn’t know they were watching him. When they reached the end of the working day on Friday, their sum of useful information was negligible.

  “He’s been nowhere, and he’s met nobody, guv,” said Rick.

  In Gorse Hill, Blessing and Lydia had spent hours keeping watch on Debbie Read.

  Gus Freeman followed Debbie out to Dorcan and home again. The Friday afternoon ride took eight and a half minutes longer than the average trip on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. There was no change in the weather.

  Gus wasn’t unhappy with the limited amount of information they’d gathered. After they had said their goodbyes to Rick Chalmers, Gus took the team through the next steps.

  “Okay, is everyone clear what they have to do?” he asked.

  “Yes, guv,” came the reply.

  Sunday, 29th July 2018

  Neil collected Gus from the bungalow at eight o’clock, and they drove towards Swindon.

  “Luke’s collecting Blessing from the Ferris’s farm, guv,” said Neil. “We should arrive at our designated points together, give or take. Alex and Lydia only have to drive over from Chippenham.”

  “Jake’s meeting us at the rendezvous point, is he?” asked Gus.

  “He contacted the landlord at the pub to tell him we’d be using his car park for an hour or two. Once Jake told him we were driving unmarked cars, he was fine.”

  “Is Jake bringing reinforcements?”

  “Jake will have people covering the potential exits once our targets are inside the perimeter, guv,” said Neil. “He knows what to do.”

  “I hope I’ve got this right, Neil,” said Gus. “Or I’m going to look a right idiot.”