by David Menon
Mrs. Hastings lowered her head sheepishly.
‘Mrs. Hastings?’
‘I didn’t … haven’t told him. My sympathies were with Jennifer. I thought that if after all these years she could finally find some real happiness with the son she’d been forced to give up then nobody should stop it. I didn’t think anybody had the right to stop it’.
‘And then she went missing?’
‘Two weeks ago’ Mrs. Hastings confirmed.
‘With Nick Eades?’
‘Yes. And Mark Donaldson doesn’t know about that either. I mean, why would it matter to him? He hasn’t visited her in the entire twenty years she’s been here, nor has her mother. The only one to have retained contact was her sister Stacey and that was only by telephone. She hadn’t had any visitors at all, not one in twenty years, until Nick Eades turned up. She deserved to be given back a chance to have something of a life. Don’t you think?’
SIXTEEN
Nathan had been having a somewhat trying day receiving petitions where he worked at the constituency office of his boss and secret lover, Ken Stratton, Conservative MP for North Cheshire. The petitions were signed by people who were against a proposed bill to go before parliament that would allow voluntary euthanasia, albeit with stringent safeguards against people in vulnerable positions because of family pressure. Ken was going to vote against it because he knew that’s what the majority of his constituents wanted. His constituents were all fairly traditional Tories and a high percentage were in the senior age bracket. The northern and eastern boundary of the constituency not stretching far enough to take in the more socially progressive voters of middle-class south Manchester.
Nathan got back to his apartment building and ran up the steps two at a time to the first floor. He was looking forward to pouring himself a glass of shiraz and relaxing a bit before thinking about dinner. Earlier he’d had a missed call from his friend Callum’s boyfriend Angus. He’d tried to call him back several times but the line was always busy. He didn’t know what that was all about but he’d try Angus again once he’d settled in. He was about to put his key in the door when he heard the door open on the other side of the landing and tuned round to see his neighbour Barbara, a single girl in her fifties who only ever wore trousers, never skirts, looking rather anxious.
‘I’m so glad you’re back, Nathan, but I don’t know what you’re going to find in there’.
‘What I’m going to find in there? I don’t understand?’
‘I heard noises coming from inside a few minutes ago. I hope you don’t mind but I called the police who are now on their way. I thought it was probably burglars’.
‘No, that’s fine, Barbara and thank you’ said Nathan who turned anxiously back to his own door. ‘I know there’s been a few house burglaries round here lately but it doesn’t look like anybody has broken in. The lock and the door both seem fine’.
‘They could’ve come in through one of the windows?’ Barbara suggested. ‘It was probably one of those Sudanese gangs that are operating in the city now. We should never have let them in’.
Nathan really wasn’t in the mood for one of Barbara’s paranoid discourses. She was a good woman overall but he detested her racist streak. If she could find some way of blaming something that was wrong in society on immigrants with a different skin colour she surely would, regardless of whatever facts could prover her wrong. But that was the problem with people like Barbara for whom life has proved to be rather disappointing. The facts often get right in their prejudiced way.
‘Well anyway, thanks Barbara’ said Nathan.
He could feel his heart beating fast as he put his key in the lock and turned it.
‘Be careful’ said Barbara.
‘I will, don’t you worry’ Nathan answered. He stepped in and was immediately confronted by his lover Ken Stratton standing there in the hallway. It was something of a shock. He hadn’t expected to see him today and thought he was in his office down at Westminster. He looked like he’d just got dressed quickly too. Very strange.
‘Oh it’s okay, Barbara, panic over. It’s a friend of mine who I gave a key to’.
‘Well thank goodness for that’ said Barbara. ‘I’ll see you later’.
Nathan smiled across at her and then closed the door. ‘Well hello lover, this is a nice surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you today’. He stepped towards Ken and pushed out his lips to kiss him but Ken stood back. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Did I hear that your nosey neighbour has called the police?’ Ken asked, furiously.
‘Well yes, she thought I had burglars’.
‘Stupid bloody cow. Why couldn’t she just have kept her nose out?’
‘Why. Ken? What the fuck is going on here?’
Ken looked through to the bedroom. Nathan followed his eyes and it was only then that he saw what the problem was. He gasped in horror. A young guy was lying naked on the floor. It looked like he was either unconscious or dead.
‘What the … ?’ said Nathan as he knelt down and checked the guy’s pulse on his neck and then on his wrist. He’s dead, Ken. Do you hear me? He’s dead’.
‘We had an argument. I slapped him and it knocked him off balance’ Ken blurted out in an almost panic stricken voice. ‘He hit his head against the corner of the set of drawers and then he slumped down like that onto the floor’.
‘That must’ve been quite a slap you gave him’.
‘Look I’m sorry, Nathan, but he threatened to expose me’.
‘But who is he and what was he doing in my flat?’
‘Well it’s our flat really although my name isn’t on the lease’ Ken corrected. ‘But you said it was mine just as much as it was yours’.
Nathan took a sharp intake of breath. This was no time for Ken to be his usual pedantic fucking self. ‘I couldn’t give a fuck about any of that, I want an answer to my question!’
‘I needed something different’ said Ken.
‘Different?’ Nathan questioned as the penny finally dropped. ‘You mean? You mean you picked him up?’
‘I hired him’.
‘He was an escort?’
‘I crave variety’.
‘Says the man who’s married to a woman and has me on the side as his male lover! What more fucking variety do you want?’
‘There are certain things I enjoy that I can’t ask you to do’.
‘Like fucking what?’
‘Strangulation whilst ejaculating’ Ken answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world. ‘You’ve got a ten second gap between enjoying the best orgasm imaginable and death. The feeling is incredible and the thrill comes from cheating death itself. I couldn’t ask you to do that, Nathan. You’re my lover. When we’re together I want it to be romantic and tender. I just hired him as a sex toy. Do you understand the difference?’
Against his better judgement Nathan did understand and was rather glad that Ken had spared him his more extreme sexual urges. But what the hell were they going to do now?
‘You see, I thought that if I hired someone form the other side of the city then he wouldn’t recognise me. But he did recognise me because he’s a student reading bloody politics at Manchester university. Trust me’.
‘Oh yes, poor you, but at least you’re not dead. He’s probably got parents who are going to be heartbroken. I don’t suppose you thought of that? No, you were too busy thinking only about you and your needs as usual’.
‘I can’t go down for this, Nathan’.
‘Well the police are on their way so you’d better have a bloody good explanation’.
‘Bloody hell, Nathan! Weren’t you listening? I said I can’t go down for this’.
‘So what do you want me to do? I’ve got a dead escort in my flat and the police are on their way. Tell me, Ken, what the fuck am I supposed to do here?’
‘If you loved me like you’ve always said you did then you’d know the answer to that, Nathan’.
‘Excuse me?’
‘It’ll all be over before you know it. You’ll be out in a few years with good behaviour’.
Nathan could suddenly feel his heart beating faster and faster and he broke out into a sweat. He couldn’t get over what Ken was actually asking him to do. ‘Ken, you can’t be serious?’
‘You know more than anybody that if my private life was exposed I’d never make PM. It would be the end of my political career. The only concession I’ve ever made to so-called modernity is to shorten my name from Kenneth to Ken. They’d bloody crucify me in prison. I’m just not the sort’.
‘But I am?’
‘More easily than me, yes. It wouldn’t be so far for you to fall into that … class of people’.
‘You brought an escort into my flat, into my bed, and you want me to take the wrap for killing him? You’re also looking down your nose at me and where I come from just for good measure’.
‘Look, don’t get all emotional about it’.
‘Jesus Christ! How delusional are you? I’ve sacrificed everything to be with you. I’ve been prepared to forget all idea of a normal one-to-one relationship for the rest of my life if it made you happy’.
‘I never asked you to’ said Ken, nonchalantly.
‘You bastard’.
‘Well I didn’t. It was your decision and you knew exactly what you were getting into’.
‘How can you stand there and say that?’
‘Because it’s the truth. And now if you’re so keen to make all those bloody sacrifices that you crow about far too often for my liking then make this ultimate one for me. I’ll keep your job open for you. I know you want me to be successful, Nathan. I know you want me to get to the top and reach my goal. And if you loved me as much as you say you do then we wouldn’t be having this discussion’.
Nathan could feel his eyes filling up. His friends had been right about Ken all along although he didn’t think that even they would’ve thought him capable of an outcome like this one.
‘Nathan, what do you think they’d do to me in prison?’ Ken went on. ‘A politician who’d murdered a male escort, even though it was accidental. How can you say you love me and yet still be willing to put me through all that?’
Nathan ran his hands through his hair. ‘This really can’t be happening’.
‘I can’t go to prison, Nathan’.
‘Yes, you keep repeating that like some fucking mantra! But you want me to go in your place. I’ve never asked anything of you. I’ve never asked anything to do with your marriage or to make me feel more secure in our relationship. But you’re quite willing to do this to me and watch me go down for your sordid little games that went so terribly wrong?’
‘Like I said you knew what you were getting into’.
‘I didn’t know I was getting into this you twisted little fuck!’
Their heads both turned when they heard the police sirens getting nearer.
‘Goodbye, Nathan. Don’t try and contact me when you’re inside. I know exactly what to do to make it look like you’re the delusional one. This isn’t the first time I’ve got away with murder’. He watched Nathan’s eyes widen with disbelief. ‘Oh yes, it’s true. But they never caught up with me then and they won’t this time either. Not if you really love me like you say you do’.
The next few minutes all happened in an absolute blur as far as Nathan was concerned. He froze to the spot as Ken brushed past him and made his way out of the flat, down the stairs and out through the back door. Looking all around him and trying to look as normal as possible, he headed for his car which he’d parked a couple of streets away. If you are going to indulge in illicit sex with a male escort then you have to be organised and that meant adhering to the basics and not parking right outside where the particular rendezvous was due to take place.
Nathan managed to open his front door to the police and within minutes he was being led away in handcuffs, his head spinning with Ken’s parting words about it not being the first time he’d got away with murder.
The operation wasn’t the kind to be given an actual name. After all they weren’t picking up a bunch of suspected terrorists that would make for some compelling headlines on the nightly news. But they would make the other kind of compelling headlines that societies everywhere were getting used to. The collective carpet wasn’t big enough any longer for everything to be swept under and Barton wondered just how extensive the strain of sex crimes in modern society actually was. People didn’t have to suffer in silence anymore. But even so, it didn’t always mean that every victim of a sexual crime came forward confidently. Some of them were still scared of the possible repercussions of breaking their decades long silence although she had now made her long awaited statement on the basis of which the raids were being made to pick up those who’d got away with it for far too long. Amongst those now in custody were Mark Donaldson, the father-in-law of DS Ben Masters, Alastair Franklin, their wives and five other couples who were a mixture of lawyers and police officers. So it was true that the circuit had shrunk considerably in recent years but now it was of a size that it could be cut out of the body of policing in Greater Manchester.
A team also went to the home of Nick Eades with the intention of picking up the main prize in the current investigation now that Barton and his team were focusing on him as being the killer they were looking for as fa as their female victims were concerned. But when they arrived there it wasn’t their man they found.
It was his mother Jennifer Donaldson.
It occurred to DS Ben Masters that with their parents both in custody, Rosie and her sister, Ben’s wife Kaitlin, were exposed to the still at loose Nick Eades who was now being thought of as the prime suspect in the team’s investigation. After discussing it with DSI Barton he ordered a squad to guard Kaitlin at the marital home that he had moved himself and their son Josh out of and called her to tell her what he was doing and why. She was surprisingly grateful considering the way things were between them and everything that had happened. Then he called Rosie and said he was arranging the same for her too. Rosie also wanted to talk to him about the missing Callum who he knew was one of Rosie’s friends.
‘But it’s been more than twenty-four hours now, Ben’ Rosie emphasised. ‘Have you got no idea at all as to where he might be?’
‘All we know is that his car was caught on CCTV heading northwest out of Manchester at about five on Tuesday afternoon’ said Ben. ‘There are no reports of any accidents involving him and he hasn’t been admitted to any hospital across Greater Manchester’.
‘Well he can’t have just disappeared, Ben’.
‘We’re doing what we can, Rosie, believe me’.
‘It’s strange because he rarely goes out of the Manchester area on jobs’ said Rosie who was very worried about her friend. ‘And it’s just not like him to be out of touch like this, especially not with his boyfriend Angus or with me. I mean, we’re on the phone with each other at least a couple of times a day’.
‘Well we’re checking all the mobile phone records and I expect that report back today. I’ll let you know, yea?’
‘Yea, please do’.
‘We’re doing all we can, Rosie’.
‘I know you are’ said Rosie. ‘I wasn’t having a go’
‘At your favourite brother-in-law? Heaven forbid’.
It went silent between them as Rosie’s attention was caught by a text she’d received on her mobile.
‘Rosie?’
‘Yea, I’m still here’ said Rosie whose head was spinning with what she’d just read. ‘What the fuck is all this about? I’ve just received a text from the parents of my friend Nathan McIver. Ben, it says that Nathan has been arrested for the murder of some stranger in his flat’.
Jennifer Donaldson sat on the chair in the interview room with her coat still on and clutching her handbag in her lap. Her auburn hair was shoulder length and brushed back off her face. She wasn’t wearing any make-up and that made her look a good few years older than her official age of 39. She�
��d only been thirteen when she’d given birth to her son.
‘How did you come to get pregnant, Jennifer?’ Barton asked. He wanted to go as gently as he could but he still needed answers to some pretty pertinent questions.
‘The parties my parents held’ Jennifer answered in a soft almost childlike voice. ‘They made me do things I didn’t want to do but when I protested they did it even more’.
‘Did you try and get any help?’
‘Who would’ve believed me against the word of my father? They didn’t believe me. When I tried to tell the police they locked me up in the sanotarium and gave me electric shocks. They wanted to prove that I was crazy as an explanation for making allegations against my father’.
‘That’s what seems clear to us too, Jennifer’.
‘But I wasn’t crazy’.
‘I know’.
‘I was assaulted repeatedly over several years’.
‘I know that too, Jennifer’.
‘So you believe me?’
‘Of course I do’ said Barton who was struck by how well composed this woman was. Maybe it was all these years she’d spent by herself that had led to it. ‘But Jennifer, we need to know where Nick is now?’
‘He’s probably gone out early on a job, sir’ Jennifer answered. ‘He’s a hard working boy’.
‘You don’t need to call me sir, Jennifer’.
‘Alright’ she smiled. ‘I suppose then we can all be friends’.
Barton and DC Ng who was sitting beside him looked at each other with the same idea of pity for this poor woman. He’d brought in Emily Ng with him instead of DCI Wright because he thought Jennifer Donaldson might open up more easily to a woman.
‘How did Nick find you, Jennifer?’ asked Emily.
‘Oh his adoptive father Royston told him’ Jennifer revealed. ‘I think Nick must’ve been rather cross at his father’.
‘Why was that, Jennifer?’
‘Well Royston is a friend of my father Mark, you see? So he’d known all along who I was and where I was. It seems Nick had been trying to go through some sort of agency for months. They were getting nowhere and his father just stood by and let Nick waste his time and money because it had been a private adoption’.
