“Hold on a minute. I need a word.”
Tanya stopped and turned, smiled at him. “Why don’t we go back to the office. I could do with one of your lovely coffees.”
“I haven’t got time for that. I’m surprised you have. I want what you have about the victim in my case. Send it to me electronically. And, Tanya...”
She turned to face him full on.
“I expect you think you’ve been clever, but you’ll regret this. I am very interested to know just how you were able to access information about my case, although I have a bloody good idea. I’m going all the way to the top in this job and I will remember this. Oh yes. I will remember this, and you and your spies and toadies will be on my radar,” he said.
“I’m sorry, Brian, I can’t really send you anything just now. All I have is what the poor woman in detention said.” Actually, she had already shared all there was, but she wasn’t about to reveal that particular truth. “Soon as I’ve spoken to her tomorrow I’ll be in touch. I think in the meantime it might be useful if you let me have what you have managed to find out so far. If there is anything. You could ask Detective Constable Price to send it on to me if you like.”
She turned and left him speechless behind her. She knew she had made an enemy and it was possible that, with his connections, he truly was heading for the top table, but she had bested him. The teams and the DCI would know, and given the grapevine, so would everyone else. She didn’t know why it mattered so much, in the face of the greater problems, but it did. It just did.
Chapter 62
By the time she arrived home, Tanya was dead on her feet. She had a drink of milk to wash down more painkillers, a chocolate biscuit, and then staggered upstairs and flopped into bed.
The burble of her mobile phone dragged her out of deep sleep. It was still dark. She hadn’t bothered to close the curtains and could see rain blowing against the window; tiny beads lit by the streetlamps raced down the glass. She fumbled for the phone and read Kate Lewis’s ID. It was just before seven o’clock.
“Kate. What’s happening?”
The other woman didn’t bother with apologies for the early hour, or ask whether or not she’d disturbed Tanya, but launched into the drama immediately. “Boss, there’s a call from the detention centre. Came through to my mobile for some reason, but I guess it doesn’t matter. Ana, the girl we interviewed…” There was a short pause and Tanya could hear Kate breathing rapidly. She heard her take a deep breath. “She’s dead, ma’am. That poor, frightened woman is dead.”
Tanya had already begun to get up. She had squirmed out from under the duvet to stand shivering in her nightdress, but the shocking words took the strength from her legs; she sat suddenly on the rumpled bed. “I don’t understand. What the hell happened?”
She was found in a cleaning cupboard. She’d hung herself, boss. That poor, bloody woman hung herself because of us.”
“No, no, just a minute. First of all, how the hell could this have happened? There’s going to be hell to pay. And it wasn’t because of us, Kate. You can’t think like that, you really can’t.”
“I’m sorry, boss. I just think if we hadn’t gone there yesterday, if we hadn’t told her about her friends being dead, then she’d still be alive.”
“But her friends are dead. Us talking to her didn’t change that. Look, where are you?” Tanya could clearly hear her officer sobbing now. “Kate, where are you?”
“I’m in the car, boss. I didn’t want to disturb the girls and George.”
“Right. I’ll meet you at the office. We’ll find out just what happened and then…” Tanya’s mind was racing, replaying the meeting of the day before – the triumph of getting one up on Brian Finch. “Well, then we have to try and sort out what we do next. Kate, can we try not to let this get out for the moment? Don’t tell anyone. If Finch hears about it, we may well lose the case.”
“How’s that?”
“I need to get dressed and I’ll tell you all about it when I see you. Just don’t let anyone know what’s happened.”
“Okay.” The detective constable had calmed down now. “Sorry, boss, I didn’t ask how you are. I’m sorry I woke you and, for the drama, I should have been able to deal with this better. It just upset me so much.”
“I know, Kate, it’s ghastly, but we didn’t do it. Oh, and I think I’m much better, thank you. I will be when I’ve nicked coffee from Brian’s machine anyway. If you’re there before me, get it charged up – yeah?”
“Yes, I will. Sorry, ma’am, I’ve got myself together now. It was just that I reckon Ana is just a bit older than my eldest and, well…”
“It’s okay. I understand. I do.”
Chapter 63
Headquarters was still in early morning weekend mode – here and there a few people were using the quiet to catch up on paperwork. There weren’t many civilians around – the corridors and most of the offices were dark. Kate had started to make the coffee. She turned as Tanya stepped in. “Boss, I’m sorry for losing it like that.”
“It’s okay. I realise what a shock it was.” Even though she said she understood, Tanya had been surprised. Kate was usually cool under pressure and level-headed. As she handed the cup across the desk the detective constable obviously had more to say.
“I’m all over the place some of the time. I er … I.” She paused as her face flushed with embarrassment. “Well to put it bluntly, boss. It’s the soddin’ menopause. I’ve had some tests and it’s confirmed. I’m now officially an old hag.” She tried to laugh but it wasn’t convincing.
Tanya didn’t know how to react, she remembered her mother complaining about hot flushes, but at the time Tanya had been young – it hadn’t meant much to her. That was something that happened to old women. She lowered her eyes to look at the drink in her hand. Kate pressed her lips together. “It makes me a bit illogical at times. I don’t quite know how to deal with it yet. I think that had something to do with it, boss. Although I have to say the call was a shock.”
“Do you need time off?” It was the only response Tanya could think of. She could see immediately that it had been the wrong one.
Kate shook her head. “It’s not like that. This isn’t a bout of flu – this is me getting old. No, I don’t need time off. I just need to work through it. I’m really sorry about this morning and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” What might have become a bonding session had ended, and Kate was back to her professional self.
Tanya had never had women friends – not many friends at all come to that – but the ones that she did have were like Charlie Lambert, young cadets, and then newly qualified officers. Fit and young and vigorous. She really didn’t know how to handle this. “But you run marathons.” It was a stupid comment and Tanya knew it immediately. “Well, you know if you do need some time…” But she could tell it was already over. It was obvious this wasn’t something she understood and Kate was no longer a ‘could be’ friend but back to being just a colleague.
Tanya was glad, relieved. She wasn’t good with sympathy and especially with something so obscure.
“No, really, boss, it’s fine. If I feel as though things are affecting my work, I’ll do something.”
This was obviously not the time to mention the tearful phone call again. Tanya pulled the cardboard file from her drawer where it had been locked overnight. “Right, well. There are some things you need to know up front.” She spent the next ten minutes relating details of the meeting in Bob Scunthorpe’s office.
“So, with this morning’s news we are deep in the shit, aren’t we? The lead we had, the advantage over Detective Inspector Finch – it’s all negated now,” Kate said.
“Yes. That’s why we’ve got to keep this quiet for as long as we can. There’s no need for the detention centre staff to contact anyone else here. We have to take what we have, which is not much, and try to make some progress with it. I need you on top form, Kate.” Shit, she shouldn’t have said that – oh well too late, sh
e couldn’t take it back.
“We’ll let Paul Harris know what’s happened. Get in touch, will you? We’ll have a meeting. Not here, Finch could come in and I don’t want to risk it. Let’s go back to my house. Send everything you haven’t already shared to my computer and then we’ll meet Paul back at home.”
“It’s a bit unusual, ma’am.”
“I know and if you’re not happy then say so, but I don’t see I have any option. Once they know my witness is dead, they could very likely revert to the instructions from the ACC and that’s it, I lose the case. I can’t let that happen. I especially can’t let it happen now. I owe it to them all to find out who has done this, but I owe it even more to poor Ana. Are you with me?”
“Yes, boss.”
Chapter 64
They set up a temporary incident room. The images of the whiteboards were displayed electronically on Tanya’s sixty-inch screen. Paul Harris drooled when he saw it. It had been a wild extravagance and the truth was she hardly ever used it. Maybe she should think about selling it. Maybe she could sell some of her other stuff, start to reduce her overdraft. She pushed the thoughts aside – now was not the time.
They brought the DS up to date. When he cursed DI Finch, Tanya thought it wasn’t the time to remind him of his earlier attempts to befriend the newcomer.
“So, we know she’d been held somewhere and ran away. We know there are other people there, even now, and we know our decapitated victims had also made an escape. It doesn’t explain the woman in the graveyard, or why Ana was so convinced that it was her fault she’d been killed.” Kate seemed fully in charge again as she went over the facts.
“Are we assuming the bodies had been decapitated and had the hands taken simply to hide their identities?” Paul said.
“As opposed to what?” Tanya asked.
“Well, I don’t know. They’re foreign, aren’t they? Maybe it was some sort of revenge thing, something specific to where they come from. We don’t even know for certain where that was yet, do we?”
“I have done some research into the names and they are common in places like Serbia and Bosnia.” Kate held up a printed list.
“Well, there we are, those places – they have all sorts of organised crime and what have you,” Paul said.
“Oh right, not like here then?” Tanya couldn’t help the reaction to his latent racism.
“Well, yeah, but… Oh, it was just a thought.”
“Not that helpful really. Can we try and come up with something a bit more useful?”
“Sorry, boss,” Harris muttered.
Kate had been reading through the notes and sellotaped the image of Ana to the edge of the giant tv screen. Tanya winced but didn’t say anything. The outburst from the officer earlier had made her leery of saying anything that might cause another meltdown.
“I reckon the best lead we have here is Ana. Well, of course it is.” Kate corrected herself. “She was the link to all of them and to where the others are kept.”
“Do we reckon others are in danger? We don’t know how many there are, but it’s a few – from the little we were able to find out,” Tanya said. “I have to say I’m concerned at the body count since this thing started. Okay, apart from the two original victims, and the graveyard woman, we seem to have had one suicide, Ana. One suicide that has turned out to be murder, and poor old Steven Traynor who seems to be just collateral damage. Though there is a connection between the three foreign victims, how does that connect with Baker… or does it? Maybe that’s a different thing, but really what are the chances? And why was Emilia’s murder so different?”
“All I will say, ma’am, is that we have to get this bastard. We need to find him, or them, before we have another death.” Kate was touching the screen now, one victim image after the other.
Tanya paced the room. “If Ana had no money when she ran away, how did she get to the high street where she was arrested. Did she walk? If she did then we need to start a search around there. I mean, okay, she was young, but how far could she reasonably have walked. She was panicked when she stole the phone because she was desperate to call home, so that indicates to me that it was soon after she had fled.”
“She could have hitched though, couldn’t she?” Paul said.
“I suppose so, and if she did, that could be helpful if we can find whoever gave her a lift. I would have thought, though, if she did hitch, she would have headed for London – that’s where she thought her friends were. And if someone gave her a lift, wouldn’t they have let her use their phone? No, I reckon she just walked to the nearest place where she could find a way to call her family. Kate, let’s get Google Earth up on the screen.” Tanya could feel the buzz of excitement in her belly, she was back on track.
Chapter 65
They peered at the greens, browns and blues of the satellite image. They identified the golf course, the lake known as Duke’s Cut. They zoomed closer onto the high street where the drama with the mugging had happened. In and out, close ups of farms and fields pathways and roads. They were not really sure what they were looking for, but just hoping that something would stand out and connect their ideas to things that were fact.
Paul Harris hadn’t been at the interview, but he still stared at the screen. “Did she say it was a farmhouse?” he asked.
“An old house and some caravans and a factory.”
Tanya pointed at a group of buildings. “What do you think that is?” They all leaned closer.
“Just a farm,” Kate said.
“There, what’s that one.” Tanya pointed at the screen, “I think it’s a warehouse or something.”
“Hang on I’ll zoom in.” Kate moved the mouse. “It’s industrial for certain and look, there’s an old house just a bit away. There looks to be a road connecting them, don’t you think?”
“Yeah but what about the caravans?” Harris said.
“Well they’re caravans, so they’re mobile; perhaps they weren’t there then.”
“When? How do you mean? Do you reckon they’ve moved them?”
Kate frowned at him. “No, I don’t think so. What I mean is they weren’t there at the time this image was taken.”
“It’s Google Earth. It’s a satellite thing isn’t it.”
The breakdown in communication was irritating Kate. Tanya saw her make fists. She hoped that this was just the stress of this case and not the way that things were going to go; she needed Kate to be her usual cool, efficient self. Maybe she should think again about encouraging her to try for promotion. Then she felt guilty, disloyal to her gender.
The other woman took a breath and obviously calmed herself. “The images are not in real time, Paul. I thought you understood that.”
“How do you mean they’re not real?”
“They’re real, of course they’re real, but just not taken now as we’re watching. Look.” She pointed to the details in the corner of the screen. “There you are this was recorded more than two years ago. In the cities they tend to be more up to date, but in the countryside, though they update them regularly they’re not…” She puffed out a sigh. “They’re not instant. Look the main thing is that although there are no caravans in the image they could be there now. We have two out of three at this place. I’m going to zoom in, find out where it is and see if there’s any more identification. Maybe in street view there’ll be a name or something.”
They leaned closer, waited for the image to clear as they changed the view. “There…” Tanya was excited as she pointed at the screen. “Can you get closer. Yes, there. It’s a factory alright. Woodland or something – is that it?”
Paul read it out loud, trying to regain some kudos. “Yeah, Woodbarn Foods. That name rings a bell. We’ve heard it recently. That or something very similar. Where the hell was it?”
For a minute no one spoke, and it was Kate who put the thoughts into words. “Oh, bloody hell.”
Chapter 66
With the sudden breakthrough, it was difficult not to
become over enthusiastic, but Tanya understood that what they really had to do was work deliberately and carefully.
“Kate, go back to the office. Put the facts together so that we can apply for a search warrant. We need to search the factory, the house and anywhere else connected with it. Make it as convincing as you can – everything we have. I’ll give you a little while and then call the DCI, alert him to what to expect. Then you send all you have to him. If we can get that sorted, he should be able to justify some more physical help,” Tanya said. “Paul, you go and have a look at the house on the ground. You know what you’re looking for.”
“Yes, boss, the caravans.” He glanced at Kate.
“Ideally yes, but anything else of course. You shouldn’t really be having to do this on your own, but we have no one else. I’m going to see Mrs Baker. I’m going to try and get access to the factory, better if she takes us in as we won’t need a warrant then. It’ll be so much quicker. Listen, both of you, we should have backup but there’s no one available. We can call in Finch and the other two once we’re sure of what we’ve got, but not yet, not until we have something solid. Take care, keep in touch all the time.” She ignored the cynical looks they gave her, knowing that of all of them she had been the guiltiest in recent times of going out on a limb.
She watched them drive away and followed to the junction where Kate turned right to their left. The first thing they had to do was find more proof they were looking at the right location. Acknowledging that she probably was still unfit to drive she was careful. She raised a hand to Paul Harris as he pulled away.
She had to convince Tricia Baker to let her search the factory; she would tell her it was about her husband – it wasn’t a lie. For a moment she thought about calling the woman and alerting her to the visit but decided against it.
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