Chasing Ghosts: A Detective Jack Buchan Novel

by Michael Fowler

  ‘But it wasn’t only Emma, was it? You knew about what had happened to Pippa. You knew what Mathew had done to her, because she told you. And you told Angel. And you also knew that Angel was going to have it out with Mathew on the night before she died, because she told you she was going to. Why didn’t you tell the detective that?’

  Suddenly she looked uncomfortable. She stuttered over her words at first, then she replied, ‘I didn’t know for definite Angel had rowed with Mathew. She told me she was going to challenge him about it, but I wasn’t there so I didn’t know if she did or not.’

  Raising his voice Jack responded, ‘Emma that’s rubbish. The inquest was told that Angel and Mathew had argued on the night she died, because a neighbour heard them. You had an opportunity to tell the coroner what you believed to be behind their argument.’

  Emma shied her eyes away. She was silent for a brief time and then replied, ‘I know. You’re right. I should have, but I didn’t. Some of it was me being scared and some it was about protecting me and the agency. That’s why I left that message for you.’

  ‘Emma, why did you ring us now after all this time?’ It was Fabi who asked.

  ‘I’ve been feeling so guilty. I know deep down I should have said something, so when I heard about Mathew’s girlfriend being missing, I thought this was my time to make amends.’

  ‘How did you find out about this? There’s been no publicity.’

  ‘I bumped into David Muir a couple of days ago and he told me that Mathew was under investigation again. I don’t know, but something just set the alarm bells ringing. With what happened to Angel and now this with his new girlfriend. And then of course what he did to Pippa.’

  Fabi said, ‘You think that he’s done something to his girlfriend then?’

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I’m not sure. I don’t know the circumstances of her disappearance. David didn’t tell me. He just said she’d gone missing and that you’re investigating it.’

  ‘But am I right in thinking that you believe Mathew might have something to do with her disappearance.’

  ‘Only because of how he was with Angel.’

  Jack leaned forward and took up the questioning. ‘What do you mean by that Emma?’

  She removed her arm from the back of the sofa, pulled herself forward and dropped it down onto her lap, clasping her hands together she answered, ‘Well I never witnessed anything, but I did see some bruising once to her neck and arms. She’d tried to cover it up with foundation but you could see what it was and she blushed and put on a sweat top when she saw me looking. This is why I feel so guilty. I know I have should have said something.’

  ‘Tell us more.’

  ‘You know all about Mathew and his paintings of Angel. But have you been told how they came to be together and what he was like with her?’

  Jack raised his eyebrows. ‘No one’s told us anything. David Muir was the first person to tell us about Mathew and Angel when we went to his gallery three days ago. He didn’t say much about their relationship other than what had happened to Angel. And to be fair, we didn’t go much into it. But we’ve since found out quite a bit from our enquiries. We’d appreciate it if you’d tell us what you know?’

  She sucked in a deep breath. Exhaling slowly, she said, ‘As I say, you know about Mathew and his painting. There’s no doubt he was good at what he did and you’ve seen what Angel was like, haven’t you? She was beautiful.’

  Jack and Fabi acknowledged with a nod.

  ‘She met Mathew just as she was starting to get her face known. We joined the agency at about the same time and so we did quite a lot of things together. That’s how we became friends. At the London fashion week in two-thousand-and-nine one of the main designers took a shine to Angel, and that was it. Within weeks she was in all the magazines and a make-up firm also came in and picked her up. She did some adverts for eye-liner and lip gloss. You might have seen them?’

  Fabi had. She nodded.

  ‘Well that’s where Mathew came on to the scene. He knew someone from the commercial side of the make-up company and he was at the launch party of the eye-liner she was promoting. They got chatting, he told her he was an artist who painted portraits and he asked her if she’d come to his studio and let him paint her. It was as simple as that. She never thought it was going to be like it was. She told me she was only going because she was fascinated to see how an artist would paint her. There wasn’t any relationship between them at first. He just painted her. Then, about six months after they met she told me that Mathew was having an exhibition of her portraits and she asked me if I’d go with her to the opening. Free champers, she said, so I couldn’t resist. When I got there I could see there was more than a friendship between them and she just came out with the fact that they were seeing each other. I was pleased for her because Angel struggled with guys. With Mathew she seemed really happy.’ She paused, looked at both detective’s and said, ‘Well she was at first, but pretty soon the old Angel was back and sometimes twice as bad.’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Jack.

  ‘Well you know what she could be like, don’t you? Some of it came out in the inquest.’

  ‘We never went to the inquest Emma. We only know snippets of it.’

  ‘Well, Angel could be difficult at times. Sometimes she was high as a kite and the next thing low as anything.’

  ‘On drugs?’

  Emma shook her head. ‘Not at first. I’ve heard it was some kind of personality disorder. We used to talk about it when Angel wasn’t around. Us girls. One of the girls said she had a cousin who’d got bipolar disorder, and she acted exactly like Angel did. To be honest, when I first got to know her it was something you just accepted about her and you’d stay clear of her when she went off on one. As I became friends with her I used to make a joke the moment she flipped and she’d calm down. I know others found her difficult.’

  ‘Emma, you’ve just said you thought her moods weren’t due to drugs, but then contradicted yourself. At the inquest the police presented evidence of her drug use. She had class A in her system and they found evidence of cocaine at her apartment.’

  ‘Oh yes, it’s no big secret, she did take drugs. What I mean is that at first it wasn’t drugs. It genuinely was her personality. The drug use came when she was with Mathew. I found that out by accident. She wouldn’t dare tell me because she knew I was dead against them. You see I lost a friend when I was eighteen. She took ecstasy at a club one night and collapsed. Went into a coma.’ She engaged eyes with Fabi. ‘It was awful! I was there when her parents had to make the decision to turn off her life support. That moment stayed with me, and ever since I’ve been a bit of a crusader against drugs, so when she confided in me once that she’d taken coke at a party with Mathew I flipped. She wouldn’t tell me anything more after that, but some of the girls said they’d seen her use the stuff at parties they’d been to, and there were a couple of times when she turned up for a shoot worse for wear and Deanna had to send her home. I think she was given a warning once.’ She let out a sigh. ‘To be honest when I went to the inquest and heard that evidence – the fact that she had coke in her system – it wasn’t a surprise, but the fact that she was on anti-depressants was. I knew she was having a rough time with Mathew towards the end but I didn’t know it was that bad.’ She shook her head. ‘You see things weren’t the same between us. She’d stopped telling me things because she knew what I was like about the drugs thing.’

  Fabi said, ‘Just digressing from that Emma, what about when Pippa confided in you about what Mathew had done to her?’

  ‘At first, when she told me, I was shocked and angry. Not just about what he’d done to Pippa but for Angel as well. I knew things weren’t right with her. I could see she was depressed. Pippa telling me what Mathew had done to her made me wonder if he was giving Angel a bad time as well and that’s why she was like she was. I just thought, what a bastard, and I thought Angel should dump him. Especially as I also knew she
was thinking about getting engaged to him. Others at the agency were talking about how she was going on about getting a ring and I just thought she should be confronted with the truth about what kind of person she was getting hitched to.’

  ‘So how did she react when you told her?’

  ‘She went mental at first. Said I was lying. That Pippa was lying. That Mathew wasn’t like that. That Pippa must have led him on. That’s when she phoned Pippa up and gave her a slagging. I felt awful about it. I felt bad for Pippa. I mean Mathew had done that to her and she was getting the blame for it from Angel.’

  For several seconds there was silence between the three of them. Then Jack said, ‘Emma you mentioned earlier the bruising you'd seen. Did you ever ask her how that happened?’

  She nodded. ‘I didn’t at the time but I did a couple of weeks later. We were on a shoot together. I just asked her straight out how she’d come by them. She acted all dumb at first asking me what I was talking about, and I just said “come off it Angel anyone can see they’re grip marks on your arms and neck”. At first she didn’t want to say anything and so I just said “Mathew’s done that, hasn’t he?” She was embarrassed about it, but she told me he had. She said they’d had this big bust up. That she’d said something about him using coke, like he was and he’d gone off on one at her. She told me that she was thinking of leaving him. To be honest I wasn’t that sympathetic with her. I’ve already told you what I’m like about drugs. I just told her he wasn’t worth it and to dump him – she could do better. She said she’d like to but she was afraid of him.’

  ‘Afraid of him? She used those words?’

  Emma nodded, ‘Definitely. I said, just tell Samuel and Deanna and they’ll get someone in to protect you. She said she knew that, but I didn’t know what he could be like. That he had a nasty streak. She told me that she’d seen him once give a guy a good hiding just for coming up and talking to her and asking her for her autograph while they were out together. She’d had to drag him off and then they had this blazing row during which she’d threatened to leave him. Apparently he’d said to her “if you do I’ll kill you.”’

  ‘When did he say this?’

  Emma’s eyes momentarily drifted up to the ceiling. Returning then a couple of seconds later she said, ‘It would’ve been about three weeks before I found out what he’d done to Pippa, so that’d be about month before Angel was found dead.’

  24

  In an electrically charged CID office DI Dick Harrison took up the only empty seat at the head of the oval conference table. The seven other chairs were taken up by detectives from his squad. He had called them all together for a noon briefing following the phone call from Jack the previous evening. Shuffling forward, he tapped a bundle of papers he was holding into alignment and set down each sheet as if he was playing black-jack. Clearing his throat, he said, ‘Okay scrum-down everyone, let’s see what we’ve got.’ He cast his eyes around, checking he had everyone’s attention and continued, ‘Carrie Jefferies; early thirties, believed to originate from Australia, and currently living at Merthen Point; disappeared nine days ago, on Sunday the twenty-sixth of April, but she was only reported missing four days ago by a friend.’ He paused, looked at Jack and added. ‘I believe I’ve got that right, and I’m now going to hand things over so you can fill us in as to the circumstances of her disappearance and to tell us what you’ve got to date.’

  Jack steepled his fingers, resting the tips against his chin, and began summarising the status of his and Fabi’s enquiry by outlining the first conversation they’d had with Tammy Callaghan at the police station when she reported Carrie missing. He briefed his colleagues as to the argument at the Callaghan’s and how, since the early hours of Sunday morning, Carrie had not been heard of, and that no one, including him, had been able to contact her. He reported that there was no longer a signal from her mobile. Pausing, then moving on, he mentioned his and Fabi’s visit to the cottage where she was living with Mathew Tobias Alexander, and how, during this meeting, Mathew had confirmed that he and Carrie had argued. How he had awoken the next day to find that Carrie had taken her car and handbag and he had not seen or heard from her since. Jack went on to outline the information he had gleaned from David Muir regarding the incident involving Angel May, imparting what his partner, Fabi, had uncovered following her enquiries, specifically detailing the nature of Angel’s death and the subsequent inquest verdict. He said, ‘Following the inquest Mathew changed his name to Toby and moved to his present address.’ He continued, telling them of his mysterious voicemail, which had led them to speak with Pippa. ‘She told us that she believed the phone call had been made by a woman called Emma Kirby, who was a friend of Angel’s. Fabi and I managed to track her down last night and Pippa was spot-on. It was Emma who left me that message.’ After enlightening everyone as to what these two had told them he leaned back in his seat releasing a satisfied smirk.

  The DI took back the briefing. ‘Thank you for that Jack,’ and, eyeing Fabi, added ‘Well done you two. I think you’ll all agree we have something which warrants following up.’ Glancing at his documents he pulled aside the top sheet, ‘Okay, intelligence. You’ve told us about the circumstances of her disappearance, but what do we know about Carrie? I’m looking to you again Jack?’

  ‘We’ve hit the buffers on this one. The possessions which would help us with that, her passport, driving licence and her personal laptop, according to Mathew, were all taken by her. Fabi and I have done an initial search of the house but there are no signs of any of them. The only thing she left behind is her clothing. So what we’re left with is just what Mathew and the Callaghan’s have told us about her. And from that we think Carrie is thirty-three years old and she originates from Australia. We don’t know if she has any middle names. We don’t know what family she has, and we don’t have an address for her other than we are told she lives in New South Wales.’ He looked around the table, ‘For the uninitiated New South Wales is over three times the size of the UK so we’ve had our work cut out trying to trace her. In fact, we’ve been unsuccessful on that count with the authorities’ down-under.’

  ‘What about social media?’ Detective Sergeant Gail Simpson asked, lifting her pen from her note pad and looking up.

  Jack had been watching her doodling all through his briefing, though it hadn’t concerned him, because he knew from experience that it was a habit of hers and that in reality she was taking everything in while she was sketching away. He answered, ‘I’m not saying she’s not registered on any of the sites but we haven’t found her with the information we’ve got. There are a number of Carrie Jefferies listed, but none with her background. The other problem we have, which has complicated matters, is that we don’t really know what she looks like. We have a verbal description from Mathew and the Callaghan’s but we’ve not been able to find a photo of her anywhere. True, we have the paintings that Mathew’s done of her, but because of his style, they don’t help. No one we’ve talked to so far has ever taken a photo of her.’

  ‘Isn’t that strange don’t you think?’ It was Gail Simpson again. She had a knotted expression.

  Jack nodded. ‘I have to agree with you there, Serge. And, there are other things we’ve discovered that we found a little strange about this case.’ Jack paused briefly and then said, ‘We’ve done the normal phone requests, based on the number we’ve got for her and the info we’ve got back from the techies is not what we expected. The thing that especially stands out is the limited number of people she’s called. I can count them on one hand. The only people she’s telephoned from her mobile are her boyfriend, Mathew Alexander, Tammy Callaghan and David Muir. That’s it. And you’d have thought, especially given that she’s from Australia, that she’d have least phoned someone there. But no.’ he shrugged his shoulders. ‘That’s not the only thing. Now there might be a completely innocent explanation for this, but the only bank account we’ve found in her name is the one here in the UK. In fact, it’s one she set up here
in Penzance shortly after she moved in with Mathew twelve months ago, and that was set up with a cash sum of eight-and-a-half-thousand pounds. No foreign or on-line transactions. And, I know it’s still early doors with our enquiries but I thought we’d have found more about Carrie Jefferies than this.’

  ‘So what is it you’re suggesting Jack?’ interjected DI Dick Harrison.

  Looking nonplussed he replied, ‘Well, as I say, I know it’s early doors, but given the total lack of information we have about her, and the difficulties we’re having tracing her back in Australia, it’s almost as if before she came on the scene at Mathew Alexander’s exhibition, she didn’t exist.’

  The DI threw Jack a questioning look. It lasted a brief moment before changing. Rubbing his hands, he said, ‘Okay we’ll hold that thought. It’s something, that as a team, we can work on over the next few days. For now, there’re more pressing things to do. First things first. Have we managed to get a trace on Carrie’s phone?’

  Jack gave a quick nod, ‘Her phone stopped pinging six days ago so we think that the batteries are dead, but the last triangulation point they’ve managed to trace it to is on the old Boskenna estate.’

  ‘That’s only a few miles from Mathew Alexander’s place isn’t it?’

  Jack responded to the Di’s question with a sharp flick of his head.

  ‘So that means that in the three days before her phone went down, she, or her phone, had not gone very far at all.’

  Jack agreed with another nod.

  ‘Okay, then the priority is to get that area searched. It’s a big place so I’ll need to bring in extra resources.’ Roaming his eyes around the table, engaging a thoughtful look, he said, ‘Right ladies and gents, as from now, I’m declaring this a major incident. On the one hand Carrie Jefferies could simply just have had enough and left, but given that, as far as we know, there is no other person in Carrie’s life, except Mathew Alexander, and given what Jack has told us about what happened to Mathew’s other girlfriend, Angel, what he did to Pippa Johnson, the nasty streak in his character, which Emma and the Callaghan’s have both mentioned, I’m more inclined to think she’s a victim. Either abducted or murdered, and therefore I’m going to step things up. Tomorrow morning, we begin a search of the Boskenna estate, and we bring in Mathew Alexander for questioning and carry out a forensic search of his house.’