Dead of Night

by Deborah Lucy

  ‘Say what you have to say and go. How the hell did you know where to find me anyway?’

  She hesitated. ‘I followed you last night, after I saw you. Thank God I did. Look, can I sit down?’

  Temple reluctantly pulled out a kitchen chair for her to sit on. Ana went to another chair and sat down. Temple stood as Gemma sat on the edge of the chair and rested her elbows on the table. For a few seconds she said nothing, as if deciding what it was she wanted to say. Temple stood against the stove with his arms crossed, waiting. He exchanged glances with Ana.

  ‘Some money’s gone missing. A lot of money. Drugs money. The people who it’s owed to came round to my flat yesterday morning and took something from me. They said that they would only give it back when I paid them. They’re dangerous and I need your help.’

  Temple let out a sarcastic laugh. ‘Why do you think I will help you? Have you come here for money? You’re crazy. Get out, Gemma.’ He moved to open the back door to show her out.

  ‘No. I haven’t come for money, that’s not why I’m here. Listen to me. Please. I’ve been trying to help some girls. Drug runners. Young girls. I’ve been trying to help them get away. Now money’s gone missing. They’re going to punish me for it. They’ve got something that’s mine and that’s how they’re going to punish me.’

  ‘So . . . what? You want me to get involved in some kind of drugs spat you’re having? Are you mad? If you’ve lost money, go down the local station and report it. See how much sympathy you get when you tell them it was drugs money.’

  ‘You’re not listening to me. I want you to help me get back what’s mine from these evil bastards. I want your help in this because I can’t do it alone and I don’t want the police involved.’ It was as if she was pleading for her life. She looked at him in a way that no one had ever looked at him before. There was sheer desperation in her eyes. And something else: fear.

  ‘But I am the police – you know that. And to be honest, I don’t care what they’ve taken from you. Why come to me? I couldn’t give a shit. Why not go and speak to your dad? He’ll get the cavalry in for you.’ Temple looked at Ana. ‘Her father is Clive Harker. He’s a detective chief superintendent who used to be my boss, so he can help her, but she comes here, to me.’ He turned back to her. ‘It doesn’t make sense, Gemma.’

  ‘I haven’t seen my dad for more than sixteen years. You’re not hearing me. I don’t want the police involved. You know what happens in drug vendetta kidnaps. They hardly ever get reported to the police. They get sorted out. Besides, I don’t want my dad to know anything about this. That’s really important. I don’t want him to know.’

  ‘You’re talking in fucking riddles, woman. What drugs vendetta kidnap? You said they’d taken something of yours – like what?’

  She looked him in the eyes as she spoke.

  ‘They’ve taken my daughter. They’ve taken my little girl. That’s the reason I’m here.’

  Chapter 23

  Ana let out a small gasp. Temple didn’t believe her. Gemma Harker having a daughter would have been something he would have been aware of if it were true. It was inconceivable for it not to have been picked up on intel reports, and in turn, not be general knowledge amongst him and his colleagues.

  ‘You’re in trouble with your filthy mates and you’ve come here with some old moody story to get me involved in helping you. Nice try, Gemma, but the answer’s no. So you can go now.’

  ‘It’s true,’ she pleaded.

  ‘So where’s she been then, this mystery daughter of yours?’

  Her head dropped and she looked at the table. ‘She was adopted five days after she was born, sixteen years ago. I was in no fit state to keep a kid by the time I knew I was pregnant, let alone when I had her – the social worker saw that. I was on drugs and everything else.’ Gemma looked across at Ana, not sure how much to disclose before she lost her sympathy. She went on, looking across at both of them, tears welling up in her eyes as she spoke.

  ‘It was the best thing I could have done for her. She was adopted by a lovely couple in the Midlands who wanted a baby and there I was, able to give them what they’d always wanted. And they’ve done a really good job; she’s lovely.

  ‘Then a few months ago, I got tapped on the shoulder by one of the Samaritans. They handed me a letter that said she had traced me as her birth mother and asked if she could meet me. They handed a letter back to her from me and we had an exchange of letters. Even in this day and age, it had to be done by letter, no emailing or texting. Anyway, with the permission of her mum and dad, we arranged to meet; she wanted to spend some time with me, get to know me, in her half-term holiday. So I cleaned myself up over the last few weeks and she turned up. Oh, she’s beautiful.’ She sniffed into a tissue that Ana had supplied her with. ‘The night before last, in they come, their faces covered with Halloween masks. It was terrifying. And they took her.’

  ‘I don’t want to appear unsympathetic but why didn’t you just report it as an abduction to the police?’

  ‘Because you know as well as I do that if I do that I’ll never see her again. I need this sorted – fast. Without the fucking police circus. Under the radar – it’s the only way I’ll get her back. You know it and I know it. And I don’t want my dad involved in any way. I don’t want him to know about Prayer.’ She was tearful now. She didn’t know what she’d do if he wouldn’t help her.

  ‘Is that her name?’

  ‘Yes, Prayer Taylor. I’ve got to get her back.’ She looked at him, pleading with her eyes.

  Temple didn’t want to believe her. However, he knew that what Gemma said about drug vendetta kidnaps was true. They happened so frequently with gangs in disputes over money and drugs that they went largely unreported. Usually these situations were resolved without police intervention.

  ‘Please help me. Please. If nothing else, for old times’ sake.’

  Temple looked at her. For old times’ sake. Those four words suddenly took him back years and penetrated the anger he felt towards her for coming into his home. It was as if they were the only two people in the room. He hadn’t seen her in years and now here she was. A ghost of the girl he’d once known. He now remembered their last meeting and seeing the way things had turned out for her, he had to acknowledge his part in that.

  He recalled how he had loved her once, more than loved her; he’d been besotted with her and she with him. He remembered how they’d seen each other for six months without Clive Harker’s knowledge. Gemma was a bright star academically but they’d fallen hard for each other and they both knew that Harker would take some persuading about her having a relationship with a probationer constable. They both knew Harker had his sights set much higher for her. She was his pride and joy, and she was going places until she met Temple.

  Temple knew he should have taken the punch that night, that powerful, awful, knockout punch that Clive Harker threw in his direction. But out of instinct, he’d dodged out of the way, leaving Gemma to catch the full force of her father’s blind fury. Harker’s fist unintentionally smashed into Gemma’s jaw, painfully breaking it and sending her flying when he’d found them together on his settee, embarrassingly caught in the act.

  The violence, the ambulance, her being taken to hospital, the police being called, the then Detective Inspector Clive Harker being taken into custody for assault, the humiliation of being kept in a cell with the prospect of being charged by his own daughter. What had started as a romantic evening when they’d agreed to ‘go public’ had spiralled nastily out of control. Temple also knew he should have stood up to Clive Harker’s subsequent threats to drive him out of the job if he saw Gemma again. But he didn’t. He decided then that he needed his job as a new probationer constable more than he needed Gemma Harker.

  He wanted to find his mother’s killer and for that he needed to be on the inside. He wanted to progress to detective, learn the craft, be a good one. A detective who could ultimately catch killers, who would find his own mother’s kille
r. And so, for the sake of that, he’d backed off as Clive Harker had demanded him to. He sacrificed Gemma, the woman he loved, for that unending quest.

  Her response to her father’s interference and influence on the love of her life had been to leave home, drop out of university, go on the vodka, heroin and cocaine, and disappear onto the streets as a sex worker. Temple had been ‘the one’ and she wanted to punish Harker and the love of his life – his job – and knew just how to do it to maximum effect. She became part of his world but from the wrong side, criminalising herself and becoming an embarrassment to him. And now here she was after all this time, coming to him for help to find her daughter.

  She was a different person to the lovely girl he’d fallen in love with back then, but he had also changed. And maybe if he hadn’t left her as he had, she wouldn’t be like she was now. Now she was hard; there was a bitterness to her voice that hadn’t been there when they were together. Maybe this was reserved for him because perhaps both their lives could have been so different. They were in love once and that should have taken its natural course. Maybe they would have married – it had certainly felt like they would at the time. Instead, she took her life off a cliff into drugs and prostitution, and he’d married Leigh and fucked her life up too. For old times’ sake.

  ‘I’m sorry about before, Gem. . .’

  She knew what he was apologising for and was dismissive. It was odd being in his home, speaking to him after all this time, seeing him in a domestic set-up. She’d wondered now and then over the years how it might have been between them, imagining their life together.

  She’d concluded that he couldn’t have loved her as much as she’d loved him or he wouldn’t have let her go like that. If only she could have moved on from him at the time, it might have been different. But she hadn’t been able to. So she’d punished her father and punished herself for not being good enough for Temple to go after her, fight for her. She knew she was no longer the same person; she saw that in his eyes, in the way he looked at her. That Gemma was long gone. But it was right that she was here. He had to help her.

  ‘I haven’t got time to care about all that shit now. You made it quite clear you were following my dad’s orders not to keep in touch with me. Detective Inspector Clive Harker pulled your strings then, probably still does. If he gets to hear about Prayer, I’ll never see her again.’

  ‘I hate to be the one to break it to you, but do you really think this is going to make her want to see you again? Go and see your birth mother and get mixed up in her world, and be kidnapped into the bargain – really? I think that ship’s sailed, don’t you?’ She knew this was true but she didn’t want to hear it. At least his voice was softer now.

  Her head dropped. ‘Let’s just get her back.’

  ‘You’d better tell me everything. What’s that you said about helping some girls?’

  ‘That’s what this is all about. I’ve been trying to help these young girls. The Albanians have been moving in wholesale. Lots of drugs, lots of brothels, lots of girls. They ship them in from Stansted, Luton, Cardiff, other airports, and they’re put straight on the game. But I also see a lot of young English girls – and boys – on the streets, used to drug-run for London-based Albanian dealers. There were these two girls, one of them’s a local. They’d been ferrying bags of drugs and money around. I was trying to help them, stop them doing it, show them it wasn’t worth it.’

  ‘And how did you do that?’ he pressed her, still sceptical. He knew about the surge in sex trafficking and kids being used by drug dealers, but Gemma had spent a long time on the streets. She knew every trick and scam going and this could be another one.

  ‘I let them know they could use my place to stay. That it would be somewhere safe for them. When they stayed, I spoke to them, told them about me, what I was, how I ended up. There was still a chance for them not to make my mistakes. A week ago, these two girls came back to mine. They had drugs and money. I don’t know how much exactly. We hid it and popped down the shops, all three of us. I was going to make sure they had some food inside them. When we got back, the drugs and money were gone. Vanished. They were so scared they just ran out of the flat.’

  ‘So how do I know that you didn’t take the drugs and money and just set them up?’

  ‘It wasn’t me, stupid. I’m trying to get them away from all this. It’s different now, not like it was years ago. The Albanians, they just don’t give a shit. This is like wholesale, supermarket-sized organised crime, not what I used to get up to – this isn’t prostitution. This is above the law, outside the law; the law can’t get to them. Oh, I know who took the money all right. But they want it back and they’ve taken Prayer to make sure I get it for them.’

  ‘So? Who took the drugs and money?’ Temple was finding it difficult to get one step ahead of her.

  ‘Simon Sloper of course.’ She lived in this world so easily, she couldn’t understand how others couldn’t see what to her was blindingly obvious.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Simon Sloper took it. Detective. Sergeant. Simon. Sloper.’ She spoke to him as if he was being too slow to take it in. Temple knew he had seen him last night in Swindon, coming out of a druggy’s house. He remembered the men he’d seen outside, Eastern Europeans. The girl he had followed from the railway station had disappeared around there. Something occurred to him.

  ‘Give me the names of the two girls you say you were helping.’

  ‘China Lewis, she’s local. You might know her – Gary Lewis’s sister. He’s shitting himself because they’re leaning on him for the money too. The other girl I only know as Megon. She told me she was from London.’

  Chapter 24

  Linda Davidson had told Temple that China Lewis had turned up at her house a day ago, following Amy reporting her missing for three days. If what Gemma was saying was true, no wonder she was trying to keep a low profile. She’d been using the Davidsons’ house to hide herself.

  ‘How long was it before they realised the money was gone – the Albanians?’

  ‘I don’t know; they were in contact with the girls by phone. Hours, a day, I don’t know.’

  ‘So why don’t you just ask Sloper to give the money back?’

  ‘He wouldn’t give it back even if I begged him to. He’s done it before. It’s what he does. His way of showing the Albanians that he’s still in the game, to get respect from them, payment from them.’ She was tired now. She’d given him more than she’d intended. But she was past caring. All she wanted was Prayer back safe.

  ‘If you’re spinning me a line, Gemma, I’m going to take you in. Stay here. I’m going out and I want you here when I come back, or I’m not going to help you; I’ll go straight to the station and tell them everything you’ve told me. Ana, give her a cup of tea, no booze and keep your eye on her. Don’t leave her alone.’

  * * *

  Temple headed off towards Swindon to see Linda Davidson. When he reached the street where she lived, he drove slowly and parked up. He walked to the house and saw lights showing above the curtains. He knocked on the door. A man answered.

  ‘Mr Davidson?’ Temple asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’m DI Temple. I called yesterday and spoke to your wife. Is she or Amy in?’

  ‘You better come in. I told her this would happen. I knew it.’

  Temple went inside. Both Linda and Amy Davidson were in the lounge, reclining over a corner group settee, and surprised to see him. They sat up as he came in.

  ‘Enjoy the pictures last night, ladies?’

  Linda Davidson looked awkward.

  ‘I told her to ring you and put you straight. Since you’re here, she can do it now,’ Mr Davidson said. He was standing behind Temple. ‘Go on, tell him the truth.’

  ‘So, what have you both got to tell me?’

  Linda looked at her husband and spoke up. ‘Gary Lewis came round here looking for China after Amy had been to the police station. He told her to contact you and tell you tha
t she’d made a mistake – that China wasn’t missing. He said she would get China into big trouble if she didn’t. Amy wouldn’t do it, would you, Ames?’

  Amy shook her head. ‘I hate that bastard. I’m not doing anything he tells me. And I’m not frightened of him either.’ She shot a disapproving look at her mother.

  ‘I told him that I would ring the police and tell them that China had turned up here, that she was no longer missing. It amounted to the same thing. He just wanted to make sure the police weren’t involved in looking for China. We’ve had a hell of a row about it here, but I don’t want no trouble. I don’t want the likes of Gary Lewis coming round here, threatening us.’

  ‘So let’s get this straight. China wasn’t here on Monday evening?’

  Linda looked at Temple. ‘No she wasn’t.’

  ‘Is Linda in trouble, Officer?’ asked Mr Davidson, anxious for his wife.

  ‘No. But you lied to me, Linda. Do you think you can tell me exactly what Gary Lewis said?’ She looked sheepish, having been caught in her own lie.

  ‘Of course I can. He turned up here on the doorstep, with his dog. He wasn’t here long. Told me he knew Amy had reported China missing and to get her to ring the police and tell them she’d turned up here. Call the police off, he said. If we didn’t do it, he said that China would be put in real danger. You know the rest.’

  * * *

  Temple returned home. He sat in the dark in his car, needing to think before he went back inside. Gemma Harker with a daughter. Prayer was an apt name considering the predicament she was now in, if Gemma could be believed. And if what she was saying was true, it didn’t bear thinking about what was happening to her. There was one fast way to pay back drug debts and that was lying on her back. She could already be hundreds of miles away, trafficked, being drugged, raped and sold. Albanians were ruthless bastards and life was cheap. Money was king and if you were female, you were a commodity. Nothing more than a human slot machine.