by David Menon
Barton had just come from having finally got Ken Stratton to confess to the murders of the male escort Ethan Clark plus the historical murders of the little girls Vanessa Hermitage and Stratton’s own sister, Imelda. His reason for killing his own little sister had pushed Barton’s patience to the limits. Ken had been jealous of her because after she’d come along he was no longer the centre of his parent’s attention. They’d got into a scrap one day on the way home from school and his temper had got the better of him. She’d taunted and teased him. She’d told him that she was their parents favourite now because she was the darling little princess that her father especially had always wanted and soon he was going to introduce her to his ‘friends’. Ken remembered slapping her so hard it knocked her out and he finished the job with the scarf she’d been wearing. Her friend Vanessa had been a witness so she’d had to be got rid of too. Stratton had tried to plead that he’d done the girls a huge favour because by killing them he’d saved them from the sex parties of the circuit. But Barton wouldn’t have any of it and charged him with three counts of murder with no mitigating circumstances taken into account. Stratton had gone hysterical saying that he couldn’t go to prison and that he was on his way to becoming prime minister one day, to which Barton had replied ‘Maybe in the next life, Mr. Stratton. In this one you’ll have to pay for your crimes’.
‘Did you see all the press outside, sir?’ asked DC Emily Ng after Barton had come back into the squad room. She was glancing out of their first floor window. ‘There are masses of them’.
‘And all because our twisted friend is a politician’ said Barton in disgust. ‘There weren’t that many when we announced we’d charged Mark Donaldson, Alastair Franklin and the others with historical sex crimes’.
‘None of them will have a very good time in prison’ said Ng.
‘Yes well I won’t lose any sleep over that’ said Barton who was finding it all very pleasant standing with Emily and chatting away. But he wasn’t planning to take it any further. She had a fiancé and he really didn’t want to come between another couple. He wouldn’t want to cause that kind of trouble for Emily.
‘Me neither’ said Ng. ‘They deserve all they get as far as I’m concerned. Getting together every weekend and using their children for sex was beyond evil’.
‘And then dumping them when they got into their teenage years and were then considered too old’ said Barton, shaking his head in absolute disgust. ‘But at least we’ve got them now and they’ll pay for what they did’.
‘Just like Nick Eades tried to make the families pay by murdering their daughters’.
‘Except that he didn’t have a right to take the law into his own hands’.
‘He was frustrated at all the corruption that had let the guilty go free for all these years’.
‘Yes, well now the circuit is dead and buried and can do no further harm’ said Barton. He understood the point Emily was making. Nick Eades had been taking revenge for terrible wrongs that had never been put right because of the status of the people who’d committed them. In some small way he could be sympathised with. But he murdered the innocent to hurt the guilty and in such a brutal way. He could’ve used the legal system to try and get justice for his mother. In the end all he became was a despicable, murdering thug and Barton wished he was still alive so that he could face justice too.
‘There is one person in all this who I do feel sorry for’ said Emily.
‘Jennifer Donaldson?’
‘Yes’ said Emily. ‘Such a sad waste of a life’.
‘Did she tell us who the natural father of Nick Eades was?’
‘No, come to think of it she didn’t, sir’.
‘Is she still waiting to be driven back to the seaside at Lytham and the tender loving care of Mrs. Hastings?’
‘I believe she is, sir, yes’.
‘Then let’s go down and talk to her’ said Barton. ‘And by the way, Emily?’
‘Yes, sir?’
‘It’s been really good working with you’ said Barton. ‘I look forward to it continuing’.
‘Me too, sir’ said Emily. ‘Very much’.
‘Just give me half an hour and I’ll be with you’ said Barton. ‘I’ve got something to do first. So don’t let them take her before I get there’.
He then asked DCI Wright to come into his office.
‘So Ollie, I remember the conversation we had a few days ago when you told me that the team were anxious not to get caught up in a fight between me and the now former chief constable Ronald Hermitage. In the light of recent events, have things calmed down?’
‘Oh very much so, sir’ answered Wright. ‘I’d say that the problem has disappeared’.
‘Good’ said Barton. ‘Because I wouldn’t like for there to be any hangover from this’.
‘Absolutely not at all, sir’ Wright assured. ‘And you know that I’d tell you if that wasn’t the case, sir’.
‘Oh yes’ said Barton. ‘I know I can rely on your honesty, Ollie which is one of the reasons I asked you’.
Wright smiled. ‘I’ve got your back, sir. I’ll tell you if I hear anything but you can safely say that normal service has now been resumed’.
‘Thanks, Ollie. See you down the pub?’
‘I’ll see you there, sir.’
Barton was on his way down to meet DC Ng and talk to Jennifer Donaldson when he bumped into Chief Superintendent Geraldine Chambers in the corridor.
‘Jeff! I’m so pleased to see you’ she enthused. ‘Congratulations on a job very well done’.
‘Thank you, ma’am’.
‘Not only have you taken down the circuit but you’ve brought to justice some of the most depraved specimens I’ve ever come across’ Chambers went on. ‘And that murdering hypocrite Ken bloody Stratton. He’s my MP, you know?’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, but I never voted for the duplicitous little twat. I’ve been a tactical voter. My heart is with Labour but I’ve voted Liberal Democrat because they had the best chance of booting out Stratton in the North Cheshire constituency. But the Lib Dems are no longer what they were so I don’t know who I’ll vote for in the by-election that’s coming up now he’s behind bars’.
‘You still think the Conservatives will win it?’
‘Oh yes’ said Chambers. ‘It’s still the kind of seat where if you put a blue rosette on a donkey it would win. I’ll never be able to fathom why so many of our police colleagues vote Conservative. What have they ever done for us?’
‘Well I’m with you on that one, ma’am’.
‘Anyway, on this case Jeff you’ve done us proud’.
‘The team have done us proud, ma’am’.
‘Under your leadership, Jeff’ Chambers insisted. ‘You even managed to close down the fraud in trade supplies after what you discovered at the house of Nick Eades and the testimony of Callum McIntyre. But that was just the icing on the cake’.
‘Well I’m just happy to see some of those people involved in the sexual abuse go down, ma’am’ said Barton.
‘Some of them?’
‘Well I think it’s a pity that Rosie Franklin will be spending a good chunk of the rest of her life in prison after what was done to her. But the law is the law. And of course Ronald Hermitage played a large part in his own downfall’.
‘Didn’t he just’ said Chambers who then looked around before softening her voice. ‘May I ask if you’ve spoken to his wife since all of this happened?’
‘No, ma’am, I haven’t’ Barton replied, equally as softly. ‘She hasn’t tried to contact me and I think that means she’s just focusing on starting her new life back home in Finland with her mother and her son. She’s left all of her past in this country behind’.
‘Have you tried to contact her?’
‘No, because she asked me not to’ said Barton who for a moment found himself missing Lena. She was one amazing woman. ‘She really wanted to start all over again without any of her past haunting her’.
‘I’m sure she must, ma’am’ said Barton who really didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
‘Well I take it your newly expanded team is bedding down well?’
‘Very well, ma’am. DS Masters and DC Ng have proved to be very valuable additions to the team and fit in nicely with dynamic of DCI Wright and DS Bradshaw and our Louisa of course who’s worth her weight in bloody gold’.
‘Some of our civilian support workers don’t get the credit they deserve’.
‘Well I make sure Louisa does’ said Barton. ‘I’ve tried to talk her into joining the force but I’m afraid she isn’t interested. But look, we’re all going to the pub in about an hour’s time. Why don’t you join us?’
‘I won’t be spoiling the party by being there?’
‘No, ma’am. I think they’ve all worked out by now that you’re pretty human’.
Chambers smiled. ‘Then I think I will, Jeff’.
‘Good’ said Barton. ‘Now I just want one final word with Jennifer Donaldson before they take her home. So I’ll see you later’.
‘You will’ said Chambers. ‘And Jeff?’
‘Ma’am?’
‘Hermitage can no longer harm either of us or anybody else. That’s something to drink to’.
Barton was working on the assumption that whoever had fathered Jennifer’s baby was involved with the rest of the case and that a specific charge of the rape of Jennifer might be able to be brought. He was determined that one way or another he was going to get her some kind of justice after her son’s rather dramatically misplaced efforts. All he’d been able to get so far was a charge against Alastair Franklin for signing the warrant that committed Jennifer to the sanatorium knowing it was false, and the general charges of the rape of underage girls that had been made against Franklin and all the others. But Barton wanted something else. He wanted something he could show Jennifer that they were on her side. She was waiting downstairs and Barton and Emily led her into one of the interview rooms. Barton brought in cups of tea for all three of them and Emily set up the room for a little chat rather than a formal interview, removing the table and arranging the chairs so they were all sat in a little semi circle.
‘Jennifer, there’s something we need to ask you’ said Barton. She looked so sad and no wonder.
‘I had no idea about what my Nick was up to’ she declared.
‘Yes and we believe you, Jennifer’ said Barton reassuringly.
‘But now you want to know who the father of my Nick was? You started to ask the other day and got interrupted’.
‘Yes we do, Jennifer’ said Emily. ‘Do you feel like telling us now?’
‘You’ve heard of give me the boy and I’ll hand you back the man? Well it was Ken Stratton who was given to me on his fourteenth birthday. I knew he was the father of my baby because all the others used protection when they penetrated me. But because I was being used for Ken to lose his virginity, I was forced to do it without protection so that he could feel the full natural sensation’.
My God, thought Barton. Was there no end to the depravity of those so-called men? He took hold of Jennifer’s hand as the tears for the life she’d endured and the son she’d lost began to flow heavily down her cheeks. Emily Ng moved closer to Jennifer and put her arm around her.
‘I’m so sorry, Jennifer’ said Barton.
Jennifer placed her hand affectionately on Emily’s hand and then managed to reply to Barton between her sobs of absolute heartbreak.
‘It’s alright, Detective. At least somebody has said sorry after all these wasted years’.
THE END
But DSI Barton and his team will be back soon in ‘CRYING IN THE NIGHT’
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