‘When did you last see him?’
Yesterday morning, before I came to school. I don’t know what happened, but when I got home he wasn’t there.
Forest turned to Singh. ‘We need to get a team out to the house to search for anything that might tell us where he’s gone. Check for CCTV in the local area as well, see if there’s any sign of him leaving on foot. He can’t have gone too far, with the snow so bad.’
He was at home in the afternoon, when we were all in the hall, Samira offered. I was texting him, telling him about what had happened to Mr Achembe. I told him he needed to go to the police, but he refused.
‘Are you sure he was at your house?’
She nodded. We video chatted for a couple of minutes. I saw my room, he was definitely there. But I put my phone away because there was someone behind me and I didn’t want him to be found out.
‘How were you communicating with him?’ Singh asked. ‘We’ve been monitoring his phone.’
Leon said you’d do that, Samira replied. So I gave him an old one of my brother’s.
‘Outsmarted by a couple of fifteen-year-olds,’ Forest muttered. ‘Okay. Thank you, Samira. We’ll need the number of the phone you gave him. Is there anything else you can tell us? And I mean it. Lying to the police isn’t a laughing matter, and you can get into trouble for it.’
That’s all, I promise, she signed quickly, fear evident in her eyes. Leon made me promise not to say anything. He was so scared. Where has he gone?
‘That’s what we intend to find out.’
Chapter 35
The rest of the day dragged on for what felt like forever. Forest asked me to accompany Singh to Samira’s house in case Leon came back again and they needed an interpreter.
Samira’s family lived in a semi-detached house on a reasonably busy road on the outskirts of Lincoln. I sat in Singh’s car for most of the time, huddled into my coat in an attempt to stay warm. The crime scene investigators turned up after half an hour, lugging various items of kit into the house with them. While I was waiting, I texted both Max and Anna to let them know what was happening. I’d kept them both updated the night before, and I didn’t want either of them to worry.
I was starting to wonder if I could leave when Singh came outside and got into the car next to me.
‘Not a sign of him,’ he said. ‘She was telling the truth, though. The lock on the front door has been forced, so someone broke in. There’s a sleeping bag on her bedroom floor that’s obviously been used, as well as various food wrappers under her bed. He didn’t leave a note or anything saying why he’d gone, and Samira gave up her phone so we know he didn’t text her to tell her.’
‘So, he’s been here all along,’ I said, shaking my head in disbelief. ‘If only she’d told you sooner.’
Singh groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. ‘It was my own stupid fault for believing teenagers. But I honestly never would have thought a family could not notice there was a missing teenager staying in their house.’
‘Will Samira get in trouble?’
‘I don’t know, at the moment. It really depends on what happens next.’
There was a parade of shops on the other side of the road, and I knew the police were hoping that one of them would have CCTV that might cover the front of Samira’s house. They knew the reasonably narrow timeframe in which Leon had left the house, so that would help. Uniformed officers were knocking on the doors of houses nearby, in the hope that someone had seen something.
‘Sir.’ A PC approached the car and knocked on the door to get Singh’s attention. The man held something up, and as Singh took it from him I could see it was a rucksack, matching Sasha’s description of the one Leon had taken with him on the school trip.
‘Where did you find this?’
‘It was dumped in a bush next door,’ the PC replied.
‘Have you opened it?’
‘No, sir.’
Singh called to one of the crime scene officers and asked them for a pair of latex gloves, which he snapped on before carefully opening the bag.
‘It does look like it’s probably Leon’s,’ he said, pulling out a hoodie that Sasha had mentioned Leon had with him.
After a bit more rummaging, Singh pulled out a mobile. ‘This is his original phone, the one we’ve been keeping an eye on in case he turned it on again. He’s probably got the one Samira gave him with him. Forest has sent the details to the tech team to start tracking it.’
Singh put the rucksack and its contents into a large evidence bag, sealed and labelled it and handed it over to one of the crime scene officers. She looked at the list of contents and frowned.
‘We just found another phone,’ she told Singh, who looked puzzled.
‘Where?’
‘It had slipped under the table in the hallway. It was wedged quite far back, so I don’t know if someone dropped it and kicked it under there by mistake, or maybe it fell down behind it.’
Singh went inside to find the evidence bag containing the other phone, and when he came back he looked grave.
‘The phone they found inside matches the description of the phone Samira gave to Leon. It’s locked, though, so we need to get it back to the station before we can have a look at the messages.’
‘Why would he leave without his phone or his bag?’ I asked. Maybe he’d heard about Saul’s murder and had run because he thought he was in danger, but I couldn’t see him doing that without his stuff.
‘That’s what I’m wondering,’ Singh replied.
‘Hang on. He had his original phone, his secret second phone, and also the one Samira gave him. Two of these phones are here, so does that mean he still has one?’
‘You’re right. We’ll need to make sure the forensics team keep an eye out for the third phone, though, in case he left that behind, too.’
I was about to ask another question when a PC waved Singh over to the house next door. As I wasn’t police I couldn’t really go with them, but I walked to the edge of the garden and loitered by the hedge separating Samira’s house from the one Singh had walked over to. If I stood very still, I could hear the conversation.
‘Please can you tell the detective what you told me,’ the PC was saying.
An elderly lady spoke next, presumably the neighbour. ‘I was letting the cat in, and I heard a noise coming from the house next door. I knew Samira should be at school, but I wondered if it was her brother. Sometimes he has people round and they play dreadful music, so loud. It’s all thump thump and words that I can’t understand.’
She paused, and Singh chimed in, trying to encourage her along. ‘Could you see anything?’
‘Yes, there was a black car outside, and as I looked there was a boy coming out the house. Someone else was with him, pushing him and grabbing his arm, but I didn’t see their face. They had a big coat on, with the hood up.’
I shifted position slightly so I could see them through a gap in the hedge.
‘Was it a man or a woman?’ Singh asked.
‘I couldn’t tell, love. Anyway, they shoved the boy into the car, and they drove off.’
Singh asked the neighbour which direction the car had gone in, and she indicated up the road away from the city centre, and then he and the PC were walking back towards me.
‘Did you get all that?’ he asked me with a wry look, when he saw where I’d been standing.
I shrugged. ‘Who was in the black car?’
‘That’s what we need to find out.’
I had travelled there with Singh, so I couldn’t leave until he did. One of the PCs was dispatched to find out if there was any luck with CCTV from the shops opposite, and she came back with a gleam in her eye.
‘We’ve got it,’ she said. ‘One of the shops has a camera that covers a good portion of the road. We can’t see the people, but we can see the car stopped outside Samira’s house. There might be enough detail to get a partial number plate.’
‘That should help,’ Singh said. ‘Right, until then I’m goin
g to go back to the school. We need to try and find out which other student Saul Achembe was referring to in his email to Jane Villiers.’
We didn’t talk much on the journey back to the school. Singh was lost in his thoughts, and whenever I tried to engage him in conversation his replies were limp and distracted, so eventually I gave up. Shortly before we got there, an ambulance raced past us, lights flashing and siren wailing.
As we pulled up at the gates, we saw the ambulance parked outside the residence and my heart dropped into my stomach. Had something happened to one of the students?
‘What’s going on?’ Singh asked the first person we could find, Jess Farriday. She had tears in her eyes as she turned to me and signed.
It’s Mike. He’s been attacked.
‘Mike Lowther?’ Singh checked. ‘Attacked how?’
Someone stabbed him, she replied, sniffing as a tear rolled down her face. I came to find him in the residence, and he was just lying there on the floor in the library.
‘But he’s alive?’ Singh asked.
She nodded. I got Karen in the office to call 999.
Singh went over to the ambulance to see what was going on, and a moment later two paramedics emerged from the residence with Mike on a trolley. They rushed him into the ambulance, one of them then getting into the driving seat while the other talked to Singh, before shutting the doors and leaving.
I stood next to Jess and watched the scene unfold, the irony not lost on me; both of us were Mike’s ex-girlfriends, but I couldn’t conjure the tears that Jess was still shedding. A treacherous thought in the back of my mind said maybe Mike had brought it on himself somehow, that he’d been attacked because he’d pissed off the wrong person. I felt a bit guilty for suspecting him of murdering Steve and Saul, but this attack surely meant he was innocent.
Singh came back to us and looked at Jess. ‘Do you mind answering a couple of questions?’
She shook her head. Was this the same person who killed Steve and Saul?
‘I don’t know at the moment. Mr Lowther was conscious but confused, so I don’t know if he’ll be able to tell us who did this.’
A strange look flashed across Jess’s face but I couldn’t decipher it.
Why would someone attack Mike? she asked.
‘That’s something I wanted to ask you. Do you know of anyone who would want to?’
She shook her head, but she didn’t look at Singh as she did. Instead she stared at me.
Mike went out with you, too. Didn’t he? Her stare was accusing. He told me about it the other night, how he still loves you but you won’t even talk to him.
Not this again. ‘What has that got to do with anything?’ I asked, speaking and signing at the same time.
Maybe it was you, she signed, taking a step closer to me. You look at him like he’s shit on your shoe, maybe you wanted him out of your life for good.
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head before I interpreted her rant for Singh.
‘Miss Northwood has an alibi, because she was with the police when he was attacked, several miles from here,’ he said drily. ‘When you came over to the residence, did you see anyone else?’
Jess stared at me for a moment before answering. No, nobody. Sasha and the students are over in the main building, having lunch.
‘Okay, thank you. I think perhaps you should go now.’
She walked away, throwing a glance back over her shoulder at me.
‘What was that about?’ I asked, genuinely confused as to why she’d decide to cast the blame on me.
‘With Steve dead, maybe she was looking for another man to do her bidding, and she didn’t like it when she found out Mike was pining for you, not her.’ Singh watched me carefully as he spoke.
‘Don’t say it like that,’ I replied. ‘He doesn’t miss me, he misses the way he was able to manipulate me. And that was an old version of me. He’s not going to get back under my skin now.’
‘Sorry,’ he said, and he did look genuinely apologetic.
‘You’re forgiven,’ I said with a wry smile. ‘Is he going to be okay, though?’
I couldn’t stand Mike for the way he’d treated me, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to die. Even though I wasn’t upset in the way Jess was, I didn’t wish him ill. I just wished I’d never met him, or had seen through him much earlier in our relationship.
‘The paramedics seemed to think it wasn’t serious, but obviously they’re taking him to hospital to have him checked over. He seemed very disorientated when I tried to speak to him.’
‘Was it the same person?’ I asked, echoing Jess’s earlier question.
Singh sighed. ‘I can’t answer that, but it looks the same. Stabbing with a sharp implement. There was a kitchen knife lying on the floor next to where the paramedics found him, they said, which I assume was the weapon used. The murderer must have dropped it when they ran off.’
‘You think they were interrupted?’
He nodded. ‘Otherwise why didn’t they finish the job? Jess might have saved Mike’s life.’
Or maybe she was nearly caught in the act, I thought, but didn’t voice it. Even though Singh knew my history with Mike, I didn’t want to come across as the jealous ex blaming another ex.
‘It’s imperative we find Leon; he’s in grave danger. This killer has been successful twice and it could have been three times if they hadn’t been interrupted. I’d better go and speak to the deputy head while we wait for a crime scene crew,’ he said, but when we walked over to the main building we discovered Liz Marcek was in a meeting with the governors.
‘It’s been going on for hours,’ the receptionist, Karen, told us, keeping her voice low. ‘I took in tea and coffee a little while ago, but they didn’t show any sign of wrapping it up.’
‘You might as well go home,’ Singh told me, and he walked me back to my car. ‘Don’t worry too much about Mike,’ he said.
I didn’t tell him that far from being worried about Mike, there was a part of me that wondered if I might be rid of him once and for all.
Chapter 36
I texted Max before I left, and he told me he’d meet me at my flat. I was looking forward to coming home and cuddling up with him. I needed a break from the case, from the atmosphere in the school, from everything to do with Mike, and I hoped an evening with Max would provide that.
I opened the door to the flat and immediately felt the tension in the air. Naively, I jumped to the conclusion that Max and Anna had had a falling-out and I would have to come in and smooth things over. When I walked into the living room, however, I could see that something had happened. Max was leaning against a wall with his arms folded and Anna was sitting on the sofa, her jumper pulled over her knees like she used to do when she was a teenager and she knew she was in trouble.
Hi, I signed to them both. Everything okay?
Why the hell did you never tell me about Mike? Max signed, the expression on his face a mixture of hurt and anger.
I shot a look at Anna, and she winced. He started asking questions, and I wasn’t going to lie to him. I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you hadn’t told him anything at all.
When you said you didn’t want to talk about your past relationships I assumed there’d been someone pretty crap, but I didn’t expect this, Max signed, his face red. And now you’re working with him?
I’m not working with him, I snapped. He works at the school in Lincoln where I’ve been for a few interviews, that’s all.
And he’s turned up outside your flat twice in the last week. Max glared at me. I glanced over at Anna but she avoided eye contact. How could you keep something like that from me, Paige? I care about you but you have to trust me with this sort of stuff.
Turning to face Anna, I stared at her for a moment until she shrugged and gave me a wide-eyed look.
What? she asked, trying her best to look innocent.
Would you leave us to have this conversation in private?
For a moment I thought she was going to
dig her heels in, but she got up and slunk off to her bedroom. I recognised her body language – she knew she was in the wrong, but she would defend herself vehemently if she had to. I was too angry to bother with her at this point; I needed to sort things out with Max before we talked about what she’d done.
With Anna gone, I took off my shoes and sat down on the sofa, taking my time to try and stay calm. I was exhausted from broken sleep, and all I wanted to do was have a shower and try to forget about this case, but I wasn’t going to get that chance just yet.
I understand why you’re angry, but it’s my past, my history. That means it’s my right to tell whoever I choose, or to keep it from them. Anna shouldn’t have told you.
I’m glad she did, he replied, leaning against the wall opposite. How am I supposed to help you, or protect you from a man like that, if I don’t know about it?
I made an exasperated noise in my throat. I don’t want you to protect me! Have I ever asked that of you? No. I can protect myself, or if I can’t I’ll call the police. Don’t you see this is just like the problem I had with Mike, that he thought I was weak? He wanted to manipulate me; you want to protect me. Yes, there’s a difference, but when do I get a say in it?
Max looked at me with his mouth open, as if I’d just thrown my drink in his face.
How can you compare me to him? he asked slowly. Do you seriously think we’re alike?
Of course not, but you have to admit that your reaction had the same sense of propriety over me, I replied, standing up to face him. You see your role as my protector, which doesn’t make us equal partners. Can’t you see that?
From the tightness of Max’s jaw I could see that I wasn’t explaining myself well. I put my head in my hands and thought for a moment.
Sit down, I told him. He resisted for a couple of seconds, but then did as I said.
How much did Anna tell you? I asked.
Everything.
Define ‘everything’. I knew it was possible Anna had just given Max the bare bones, and when he related the story back to me I was right – she’d told him I had a manipulative ex who had now cropped up in one of my cases, and had turned up on the doorstep a couple of times to bother me. For the second time in two days, I told the full story of what had happened between me and Mike. It was a story I hadn’t ever intended sharing with anyone, and now I’d shared it with two people in a short space of time. I really hoped that Anna hadn’t told Max that Singh knew about Mike before he did, though. The last thing I needed was extra jealousy piled on top of how he was feeling.
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