The Blackness (The Mac Maguire detective mysteries Book 4)

by Patrick C Walsh

  ‘Well I suppose you have to check these things out but I can guarantee that Tony had nothing to do with Natasha’s disappearance.’

  ‘What makes you so sure?’ Mac asked.

  ‘He was a good teacher, not as inspirational as some perhaps, but he was a solid dependable teacher. I’d give a lot to have a few more like him on my staff right now.’

  ‘I’m sorry but I have to ask this question. This is a girls only school, I have to know if there were ever any problems reported related to Mr. Hamilton’s conduct with the girls?’

  She stood up and paced up and down before answering.

  ‘Yes there was, just the one. Around seven years ago I’d guess,’ she replied.

  ‘Was Natasha here at the time?’

  ‘She’d have probably just started with us around the time this happened.’

  ‘Tell me,’ Mac said, sitting on a desk himself.

  ‘We had the misfortune to have a girl called Joy Ackley join us a couple of years or so before Natasha did. Even after all this time her name still makes me feel a little nauseous. She was bad news right from the start, disrupting classes, stealing and then later on she was accused of threatening behaviour towards her fellow pupils and even teachers. She played truant a lot and, if I’m honest, I was quite glad when she did as the school always ran that little bit smoother when she was away. Let’s see, she’d have been thirteen when she made the accusation against Tony.’

  ‘Tell me exactly what she accused Mr. Hamilton of,’ Mac said.

  She gave an audible sigh.

  ‘She claimed that Tony had cornered her in the book store and put his hand down her knickers. She said that he’d sexually assaulted her.’

  ‘In what way?’

  The headmistress looked up to the ceiling.

  ‘Joy said that Tony had ‘fingered her’. Her words not mine.’

  ‘And had he?’

  She looked offended.

  ‘No, of course not. I’d have had him out of the school in a second if I thought there was even the slightest possibility that he had. I took the matter seriously of course but I also had the school’s reputation to think of as well. I investigated the matter thoroughly and even got an independent investigator involved. We both reached the same conclusion, that she was telling us a pack of lies.’

  ‘Who was the independent investigator?’

  ‘An ex-policeman, he used to be a Detective Superintendent.’

  ‘A friend of yours?’ Mac asked.

  ‘Yes he was but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t thorough. Bob was a good investigator and I told him to leave no stones unturned. I trusted Tony but I needed to be absolutely sure that Joy was lying.’

  ‘And he was able to confirm that?’

  ‘Yes. He interviewed a number of the girls in her class and they stated that Joy had been talking about getting her own back on Tony for some weeks before she claimed the assault took place.’

  ‘Her own back for what?’

  ‘Tony had caught her smoking on school premises for about the umpteenth time. A lot of teachers would look the other way where Joy was concerned but not Tony. Joy told some of her class that she was going to get Tony alone somewhere and then claim that he ‘touched her up’, her words again.’

  ‘How did she take the findings?’

  ‘She went mad, cursed us with some words even I hadn’t heard before and said she’d get even with the school if it killed her.’

  ‘And did she?’

  The headmistress shook her head.

  ‘We said that she or her parents could go to the police and formally report the matter but she never did.’

  ‘Her parents never reported it?’ he asked with some surprise.

  ‘No and if you want me to tell you what they’re like I’m afraid I can’t, except for the fact that they obviously never cared that much for their daughter.’

  ‘If you never met them then how can you be so sure?’ Mac asked.

  ‘Because in all the time she was here they never visited the school once, not for the open day, not for sports day, not any day. I was wondering if it was Joy putting them off somehow until I had a word with the truant officer. He’d had meetings with them after he’d issued them with some penalty notices for non-attendance. He said that it was quite obvious that they couldn’t have cared less whether Joy attended school or not.’

  ‘What happened to her?’

  ‘She got expelled a year later and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when it happened.’

  ‘What exactly did she get expelled for?’

  Another large sigh.

  ‘For bringing men on to school property and trying to entice younger girls to have sex for money,’ she said through gritted teeth.

  ‘Not exactly sugar and spice then?’ Mac said.

  ‘No, I honestly believe that she’s the most malicious, manipulative, evil creature I’ve ever come across in well over twenty five years as a teacher.’

  ‘And that was it? That was the only problem that you ever had with Tony Hamilton?’

  ‘Yes, he was a model teacher in most respects, he even gave up a lot of his own time to produce school dramas and the like.’

  Mac thought through what he’d just heard. He knew he’d have to follow it up just in case but couldn’t help wondering if this might be a stone best left unturned.

  ‘What was the name of the Detective Superintendent?’

  ‘Bob, Bob Waters,’ she replied. ‘Unfortunately he died last year.’

  A bit of bad luck there, Mac thought.

  ‘Where did he work out of?’

  ‘Stevenage Police Station.’

  He could always ask around the station and find out what he could about Bob Waters.

  ‘Do you still have copies of yours and DS Waters’ investigation reports?’

  ‘Yes they’re still on file somewhere. It might take me a while to find them.’

  ‘Can you send them here when you do?’ he said writing down Martin’s email address. ‘I’d appreciate it if you made this a priority. Oh and we’ll also need an address for Joy or her parents, if you have one that is?’

  ‘I’ve no idea where Joy is or what she’s doing and I don’t want to either. There’ll be an old address for her parents somewhere in the records. I can probably let you have that quite quickly. If you wait in reception I’ll have someone bring it to you.’

  She held the door open for them. The audience was at an end.

  ‘God she’s a bit scary, isn’t she? We should employ her to interrogate suspects,’ Tommy said as they walked back to the reception area. ‘I’m sure she’d get more out of them that we ever would.’

  Mac laughed out loud. He knew exactly what Tommy meant.

  They only had to wait a few minutes before a young woman brought them the Ackleys’ address. It was on one of the estates on the other side of Hitchin. Mac had never visited there before but it looked much the same as many in the area, brick built in the sixties, most of the houses being neat and tidy and with a reasonably new car parked outside. Except for one that was, the one they pulled up outside.

  The paint was peeling and there was a small patch of garden that hadn’t seen a spade for decades. Mac rang the bell. There was no sound. He rang again and again there was no sound. He knocked the door, hard.

  There was the sound of shuffling from the other side of the door as a figure, blurred by the patterned glass in the door, approached.

  The door opened a few inches and a face appeared. It somehow didn’t look that much different that it had in the patterned glass. It was puffy and blurry and topped with long, lank greasy hair of an indeterminate colour. Looking at the woman gave Mac the sudden urge to clean his glasses. He could smell alcohol on her breath and it wasn’t cooking sherry.

  ‘What do you want?’ she said aggressively, the words slurring into each other.

  ‘Mrs. Ackley, we’re the police,’ Mac said showing her his warrant card.

  She peered at it, her
head going backwards and forwards in an attempt to focus. She eventually gave up.

  ‘What do you want with me then?’ she asked.

  ‘Can we come in? I’m sure that you won’t want the neighbours to hear,’ Mac asked in a conciliatory manner.

  ‘Sod the neighbours, they can all die as far as I’m concerned,’ she said sharply.

  ‘Okay, we’re trying to find your daughter Joy. Is she still living at home?’

  ‘No, I kicked the bitch out years ago after I caught her stealing from my purse.’

  ‘Any idea where she’s living now?’

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘Don’t know, don’t care.’

  ‘You’ve no idea at all?’ Mac asked.

  ‘On the game in Luton last time I heard. Is that it?’

  Before Mac could answer she slammed the door shut. Another audience over.

  ‘With a mother like that then it’s no wonder Joy turned out like she did,’ Tommy said.

  ‘Well I’m sure it didn’t help any. Come on let’s go to Luton Police Station, if she’s been on the streets for any length of time she’s bound to have been arrested or at least cautioned.’

  Tommy knew the way well enough, he’d been working there only a few weeks before. As they walked into the office Tommy had to shake hands and bear the brunt of something that might have been called wit had it been a bit funnier. Mac saw DC Mary Sullivan seated at a desk in the corner and made a beeline for her.

  ‘Hello Mary, how did the exams go?’ he asked.

  She looked up from her computer in some surprise.

  ‘So it’s yourself then. What brings you back to the beautiful town of Luton, doing a bit of sightseeing?’ she asked with a wide smile on her face. ‘By the way the exams went great, I’ll officially be Detective Sergeant Mary Sullivan in a few weeks.’

  ‘I had every faith that you’d do it.’

  ‘I found what you said really helped,’ she said.

  Mac thought but couldn’t remember any sage bits of advice he might have given her.

  ‘What did I say exactly?’

  ‘About how you failed the exam first time around. I thought that if the great Mac Maguire could fail one exam then it was okay if I did too. Kind of took the pressure off a bit. Ended up in the top ten per cent, so they told me.’

  ‘Good for you, really well done. However I’m not here sightseeing I’m helping out with the Natasha Barker case.’

  Mary’s face took on a serious expression.

  ‘How can I help?’ she asked.

  Tommy came over and joined them. After he and Mary had exchanged greetings Mac got back to business.

  ‘We’re looking for a woman called Joy Ackley. She’d be around twenty now and we think she’s been on the streets for a couple of years or so. Can you check to see if she has any sort of a record? We need to speak to her so an address would be nice.’

  ‘No problem,’ Mary replied.

  A few minutes later she had an answer.

  ‘Joy Ackley, she been cautioned but not charged. She gave the same address the last two times so you might be in luck.’

  Mac had Tommy write it down.

  ‘Thanks,’ Mac said. ‘Oh and good luck with being a sergeant, although personally I don’t think you’ll need it.’

  Mac turned to go and Tommy followed for a few yards.

  ‘She made sergeant?’ Tommy asked, the penny having finally dropped.

  Mac nodded. Tommy ran back to congratulate Mary while Mac made his way to the car park. A step later Mac came to a sudden stop. His left leg had gone almost totally numb from the knee down, numb except for a blinding pain that shot down it from his lower back. It really shook him. Even after all this time pain could still come as a surprise.

  No, not now, he said to himself.He could hear Tommy running to catch up with him. He quickly wiped a tear away from his eye.

  ‘Okay Mac?’ Tommy asked.

  ‘Just waiting for a certain slowcoach that’s all,’ Mac said, trying to keep his voice even. ‘Come on let’s see if Miss Ackley’s at home.’

  Mac managed to sit down in the car without making a sound, something that took all the willpower he had.

  ‘Not the nicest area of Luton,’ Tommy said as he looked at the address.

  He was right. It all looked very familiar to Mac. He’d been here before when he’d helped Dan Carter with the Hart-Tolliver case. They drove down streets lined with Victorian terraced houses, some of which were well looked after having had fresh paint jobs and new white plastic windows. However the street that they pulled up in looked shabby and neglected. The house they were looking for had black plastic bin bags rather than flowers in the tiny front garden. Many had been chewed at by animals and the contents were leaking.

  Finding no bell Mac rapped at the door. Getting no answer he rapped again.

  The door was eventually opened by a young woman wearing a torn pink dressing gown and little on underneath. She was as pudgy and indeterminate as her mother.

  ‘Look I told you I’d have the money tonight…’ she said as she opened the door. ‘Oh, who are you?’

  Mac showed her his warrant card.

  ‘Alright, what the bloody hell have I done now?’ she asked as she went back inside the house.

  Mac and Tommy followed her in. She led them into a bare living room and sat down on the only seat, an old stained chaise longue as big as a single bed. He guessed that it was used for quick sex sessions and that explained the stains. Mac didn’t want to sit down and so had no choice but to stand. It did his pain no good.

  ‘We’re here to ask you some questions about allegations you made against a teacher some time ago, a Mr. Anthony Hamilton.’

  She looked at them suspiciously.

  ‘Why? Why now? It’s been at least seven years, hasn’t it? Is this one of those, oh what did they call it? You know sort of abuse cases?’

  ‘Historic abuse cases, you mean?’

  ‘Yes that’s it, like for that old perve Savile. I heard some of them he abused came into some money, compensation like.’

  ‘This is nothing like the Savile case. We’re just checking the facts around your allegation of sexual abuse by Mr. Hamilton. The headmistress investigated the matter and came to the conclusion that you were lying. Did you lie?’

  She pulled a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of her gown and took her time lighting it up. While she did this Mac could see the cogs going around in her head. She finally reached a decision.

  ‘No, I wasn’t lying. That skinny bitch covered up like they always do. They always protect their own, don’t they?’

  ‘You mean the headmistress, Hilary Meredith?’

  ‘Yes, the cow had me expelled, fitted me up she did.’

  ‘So you’re saying that you were sexually assaulted and that it was covered up?’

  ‘Yes that’s exactly what I’m saying,’ she said, drawing her dressing gown tightly around and exposing even more of herself. ‘I think I’d like to make it legal, how can I do that?’

  ‘You mean you want to press charges against Mr. Hamilton for sexual assault?’ Mac clarified.

  ‘Yes that’s it. What you just said.’

  Mac had been afraid of something like this but if she wanted her day in court he couldn’t deny it to her, especially as so many genuine allegations of child abuse had been swept under the carpet in the recent past. Mac had serious doubts about Joy Ackley being a genuine victim though, he hadn’t liked the way her eyes lit up when she said the word ‘compensation’. However, as he often had to remind himself, it wasn’t up to him.

  ‘Well what do I do?’ she said standing up.

  ‘If you want to get dressed and come with us we’ll take your statement.’

  She glanced over at the clock.

  ‘I’ve only got an hour and a half, will that be time enough?’ she asked.

  ‘We’ll take your statement at Luton Police Station and then you’ll be free to go.’

  T
hey waited in the car and ten minutes later she wobbled out on some red high heeled shoes. Her skimpy dress was definitely a pint pot holding a quart and a bit. Mac presumed that she was going to work straight away after making her statement.

  No-one said a word the whole way to the station. Once there Mac did his duty and warned her that giving a false statement was a criminal offence but she didn’t appear to be listening.

  She repeated her story for the tape but added in something new.

  ‘So now you’re saying that Mr. Hamilton had sex with you? This wasn’t mentioned in the original investigation.’

  ‘That’s because it didn’t happen until later, until after the cover up. He was free to do what he wanted then, wasn’t he?’

  ‘And how many times did sex take place?’ Mac asked.

  She had to think for a while.

  ‘Six times.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Same place where he touched me up, the book store. It was his little sex room, wasn’t it?’

  ‘That’s the book store in the classroom where he used to teach?’

  ‘That’s right. It wasn’t just me either. I saw other girls too, that Natalie was one. I saw her coming out of the book store once and she didn’t look very happy.’

  ‘Natalie?’

  ‘That girl who’s missing, you know Natalie,’ she confirmed.

  ‘You mean Natasha Barker,’ Mac replied.

  ‘Yes that’s her. Knew it started with an ‘N’. Well not long before they got rid of me I saw old Hamilton giving her the eye. Bet the next thing was did was ask her to help with the books like he did with me. Once in there he locks the door and then does what he likes.’

  ‘Are you absolutely sure?’

  ‘Course I’m sure. That Natalie was different looking wasn’t she? It was definitely her.’

  Mac gave this some thought.

  ‘If you wait here someone will write up your statement and then you can sign it and go,’ Mac told her.

  ‘Will I get a lift back?’ she asked anxiously. ‘I’ve got to be somewhere.’

  ‘Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you get to work on time.’

  They left her in the interview room. He slowly walked to the car park while Tommy arranged for someone to process her statement. His pain wasn’t getting any better. He looked at his watch. It was nearly six. He asked Tommy to drive him straight home.