The Blackness (The Mac Maguire detective mysteries Book 4)

by Patrick C Walsh

  ‘What about Jo and Gerry?’ Martina asked.

  ‘They’re still out looking for Jonny Aldis. Gerry had an idea about where he might be hiding so keep your fingers crossed they find him and that he knows something. Until then let’s get cracking.’

  Mac and Tommy were given a sheet of paper by Martin. It was headed ‘John Hasington’ who was born in Lincoln in 1969 and attended a local primary school called St. Peters. They looked up the local hospital and newspapers on the internet and got started. They started with the local newspaper, The Lincolnshire Echo. There was only a junior reporter on duty. She said she’d do her best to see what she could find and call back. Mac gave her his mobile number.

  ‘We’ll probably get a lot of this, so it might be best if we call out on your phone and use mine for call-backs,’ Mac suggested.

  They got another sheet of paper with another name and ploughed on. Bits of information dribbled back over the next few hours. In the case of John Hasington they found out that he was admitted into hospital for a badly sprained ankle when he was eight and two years later was named Cub Scout of the Year for the Lincoln area. Mac duly noted this on the sheet of paper and returned it to Martin.

  Some three hours and nine suspects later they still had little to report and Mac was beginning to wonder if it had been such a good idea. He stood up to stretch his back when the door to the incident room opened and Jo and Gerry walked in. In between them was a tall young man with had long bedraggled hair and a look of total exhaustion on his face.

  They’d found Jonny Aldis at last!

  Chapter Twenty One

  Jo sat Jonny down at a vacant desk. He slumped down into the seat and closed his eyes.

  ‘Bloody good work you two. How did you find him?’ Dan asked with some excitement.

  ‘He more or less walked into us when we were searching the bit of land I told you about,’ Gerry replied.

  ‘Did you have any trouble?’

  ‘No, none at all. I rather got the feeling that he was quite relieved that we’d found him to be honest.’

  ‘Look at him, the poor lad’s totally done in,’ Jo added sympathetically.

  Jonny’s head was now on the desk, his arms hanging straight down. He was fast asleep.

  ‘Pity to wake him but we need to find out if he knows anything,’ Dan said.

  He shook Jonny gently and then a little harder when he didn’t wake up. Eventually he opened his eyes.

  ‘What, what?’ he said, clearly confused as to where he was.

  ‘I’m Detective Superintendent Carter and I’m in charge of the team that are looking for Natasha. Please don’t go back to sleep, we need to ask you some questions.’

  Jonny shook his head. Jo produced a wet wipe which Jonny used to wipe his face. The room fell silent as rest of the team stopped work and watched the interview avidly.

  ‘I couldn’t find her,’ Jonny said. ‘I looked and looked everywhere, I must have walked for miles but I couldn’t find her.’

  He looked dejected and on the verge of tears.

  ‘Is that what you were doing, looking for Natasha? Is that why you hid yourself away all this time?’

  ‘When I heard that you were asking about me I was afraid that you might have thought that I did it. I know I’m a bit different so I thought I’d be the main suspect. I couldn’t have you lock me up, I just couldn’t. I needed to be out there looking for her.’

  ‘Did you find anything while you were looking for her?’ Dan asked.

  Jonny shook his head.

  ‘Nothing at all?’ Dan asked again clearly getting a bit desperate.

  Jonny thought for a moment.

  ‘I thought I saw her yesterday.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ Dan asked gently.

  ‘I saw someone walking on the other side of the street. She was a few yards ahead of me and, from behind, I really thought it was Nat. I ran ahead to get a better look but it turned out to be some old woman. I’ve failed her, haven’t I?’

  ‘No Jonny, not if you did your best, but tell me what made you think that this woman was Natasha?’

  ‘I suppose it was the dress really, it was just like the dress that Nat was designing. She showed me the sketches not long before she disappeared. It was so like it but it wasn’t her.’

  Mac noticed a hint of excitement on Dan’s face.

  ‘Where did you see her Jonny?’

  ‘On the Ickleford Road somewhere I think but I can’t be sure.’

  ‘You’re good at drawing aren’t you?’ Dan asked. ‘I’ve heard you’ve got a really good memory too. Could you draw this woman for me?’

  Jonny thought about this for a moment and then nodded.

  ‘I’d need my sketch pad and pencils, they’re at home.’

  ‘Tommy go around to Jonny’s house and get his pad and pencils,’ Dan ordered. ‘Tell his parents that he’s safe and helping us with a line of enquiry. Tell them we’re not going to be keeping him for more than a couple of hours and that we’ll drop him home when we’re finished.’

  Tommy shot off.

  Dan turned back to Jonny who was now nodding off again.

  ‘Jonny please try to keep awake. We’ll have your pad and pencils in a few minutes but while we’re waiting is there anything else you can tell us that might help?’

  Jonny told them what had happened the last time he and Natasha had met. They’d talked mostly about the project she’d been working on but, before he left her, she’d promised to try and meet him in the Millstream on the night she disappeared. They now understood why he’d been looking out for her all night.

  ‘So you didn’t see Natasha at all that night then?’ Mac asked.

  ‘No I was outside most of the evening looking out for her but I never saw her.’

  ‘Did you know that Natasha was dropped off near the pub at around quarter to ten by a taxi?’

  ‘Really?’ Jonny looked surprised. ‘Quarter to ten?’

  He gave it some thought and it was obviously hard work.

  ‘I was outside with Matty around that time. Oh, I remember now, a police car drove by and he pulled me around the side of the pub. He was…’

  Jonny didn’t finish the sentence.

  ‘Yes we know what Matty was doing, he was smoking something he shouldn’t have been smoking. Don’t worry you haven’t got him into any trouble.’

  ‘Well I wasn’t really expecting Nat until after ten so I kept him company until he finished.’

  A sudden thought hit Jonny. His face went even whiter.

  ‘God, oh God, if I hadn’t gone with Matty then I might have seen Nat, I might have been able to save her.’

  ‘It wouldn’t have made any difference,’ Dan said reassuringly. ‘We believe that Natasha was being stalked and if she hadn’t have been abducted that Saturday then our man would just have waited for another opportunity. All that you would have achieved would be to just delay it a bit.’

  Thankfully the door opened and Tommy arrived with the drawing equipment. A rugged weather beaten man in his early forties followed him in.

  ‘It’s Jonny’s dad. He insisted,’ Tommy explained with a shrug of the shoulders.

  Jonny and his dad hugged each other fiercely.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked his son.

  Jonny nodded. Both father and son were on the brink of tears.

  ‘We’ve asked your son to help us by drawing someone he saw yesterday,’ Dan explained.

  ‘A suspect?’ Jonny’s father asked.

  ‘Yes a suspect.’

  ‘Well, you’d better get to work then son,’ he said.

  Jonny did just that.

  Mac watched Jonny closely as he drew. He was totally transformed, his eyes were bright and alert as his hand flew over the surface of the paper. Out of a mass of grey pencil lines a picture slowly emerged. Detail on detail was added until something not far off the quality of a photograph emerged.

  Jonny put his pencil down.

  ‘Will this do?’ he a
sked.

  ‘I should think so. It’s bloody brilliant!’ Dan exclaimed.

  Jonny’s dad looked quite proud of his son.

  The drawing showed a slim woman of around forty or so. She had medium length dark hair and wore glasses. She had a shopping bag in one hand and a small handbag was slung over a shoulder. She had shoes with a medium heel and she walked very erect.

  ‘That dress, what do you think?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Martin, where’s that sample of lace I gave you?’ Mac asked.

  Martin dug out the plastic bag. Mac compared the lace to the detailed drawing.

  ‘Yes, it could be the same but I think we need an expert. Could we get Julie Waddington in?’

  ‘Good idea. Tommy can you drop Jonny and his dad back home and get Julie Waddington up here as soon as possible. She’ll probably be with Mrs. Barker.’

  His father helped Jonny towards the door. He was nearly out on his feet.

  ‘Well there’s someone who’ll sleep well tonight,’ Dan said after they’d gone.

  He only noticed then that the room had gone quiet and no-one was working.

  ‘Back to work everyone,’ he ordered. ‘This might be something or nothing and we still need as much information as we can possibly get.’

  Dan looked at the drawing closely.

  ‘What do you think Mac? Could it be that we’re looking for a couple and not a lone killer?’

  ‘Well, if it is a couple perhaps that might explain a lot,’ Mac replied. ‘Our man must have been stalking the girls and perhaps over quite some time. Maybe that’s why we’ve never been able to identify anyone showing an interest in the girls, I mean no-one would be looking for a woman, would they?’

  ‘That’s true and I suppose being in a couple is good camouflage, I mean we always seem to be looking for unsociable loners for crimes like this.’

  ‘If that is the case then I’m also wondering if a woman could have been used during the abduction. The girls would have been a lot less wary of a woman wouldn’t they?’

  ‘I wonder where this is exactly?’ Dan asked himself. ‘It looks like that’s a shop in the background. Anyway better get Martin to scan this, he might be able to tell us.’

  Martin scanned the drawing and zoomed into the background.

  ‘Where did he say that he saw the suspect?’ Martin asked.

  ‘Somewhere on the Ickleford Road he thinks but he’s not sure exactly where,’ Dan replied.

  ‘Okay let’s have a look then.’

  Martin opened up the map and then selected one end of Ickleford Road and selected Street View. He took them slowly down the road virtually. He had to go right to the other end of the road before he saw it. He adjusted the view so that they were looking directly at the shop. On the left of the shop there was a red post box. The post box was also there in the drawing.

  ‘Yes that’s it!’ Dan exclaimed. ‘Well done Martin. Now if we can identify the woman then we’d really be getting somewhere.’

  Tommy turned up with Julie Waddington in tow. She looked almost as tired as Jonny Aldis had.

  ‘Julie, thanks for coming in,’ Dan said. ‘Jonny Aldis thinks he saw someone wearing a dress similar to the one that Natasha was wearing the night she disappeared. He’s drawn the dress and the woman wearing it. We’d just like you to have a look and tell us what you think.’

  He showed her the drawing. She studied it carefully and then looked up at Dan.

  ‘Well?’ Dan prompted her.

  ‘It looks very like Nat’s dress. See just here,’ Julie pointed to the bottom of the dress, ‘she undid the seams and re-stitched them so that it would be tighter around the legs. It was based on a design from the fifties, a ‘pencil skirt’ she called it.’

  ‘What about the lace?’ Mac asked.

  ‘Yes, she followed the shape of the dress with the lace just like this one does.’

  ‘So do you think this could be Natasha’s dress?’ Dan asked while mentally crossing his fingers.

  ‘Yes, yes it could be but, if it is, what I’d like to know is why on earth would she be wearing it?’ Julie asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

  ‘She? You know this woman?’ Dan asked with growing excitement.

  ‘I wouldn’t say that, I mean I don’t know her name or anything but I’ve seen her around.’

  ‘Where have you seen her?’

  ‘At the pub, the Hen and Chickens, she’s one of the footballer’s wives.’

  He sat in church hearing but not listening to the priest’s sermon. He was looking at the man nailed to the cross. He was looking at the blood on his hands where the nails had ripped into his palms and his torso where the spear had cut him deeply. He had made a blood sacrifice and everyone here seemed to love the fact. The carpenter must have bled a lot.

  He would also be making his own blood sacrifice soon too but not with his own blood of course. He thought of how it would be and he felt his pulse starting to race as he pictured the snick of the scalpel on her throat and the gush of red that would be such a release for them both.

  It was the right thing to do and he knew that God knew that too. He’d heard God speaking to him many times. He knew who it was, that voice could belong to no-one else. He looked at the stained glass window, Jesus was looking straight at him and smiling.

  ‘Today,’ a voice said in his head.

  He had hoped to keep the girl a little longer but he knew that he could never go against God’s word so today it would be. He’d take her one more time and then release her spirit. He smiled at the thought.

  People started standing up around him. It was time for the communion. He shuffled towards the priest and accepted the round wafer of bread with little excitement. Well, bread was just bread, wasn’t it? It gave life but it was boring. No it was the next part of the ritual he was really looking forward to. When he didn’t have a girl it was the high point of his week.

  He moved to the side of the church where a parishioner held a gold cup, a cup full of God’s own blood. He slowly raised it to his lips and sipped. The blood made him tingle with excitement. God had spoken to him and he knew how it had to be.

  The next blood he would drink would be warm and full of life.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Mac turned to Tommy, ‘Can you quickly run up to the pub and see if Kelly’s on duty? If not bring the landlord.’

  Tommy dashed out of the door.

  ‘If anyone can identify her it’s probably going to be Kelly. She’s a barmaid at the pub,’ Mac explained to Dan.

  Mac waited with impatience until Tommy returned with a once again breathless Kelly.

  Kelly nodded at Julie as she tried to regain her composure.

  ‘Kelly we believe that you might know this woman,’ Dan said as he showed her the drawing.

  ‘Yes that’s Nicky,’ she replied.

  ‘Do you know her second name?’

  Kelly shook her head.

  ‘No, I just know her as Nicky.’

  ‘Is there anything you can tell us about her?’ Dan persisted.

  ‘Well, she’s usually in once or twice a week and she’s always alone which I suppose is why she started sitting with the footballer’s wives.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘I remember once when I was collecting glasses and they were all talking about their husbands. She said that hers was in IT. That’s all I know really.’

  ‘Was she ever there when Natasha was in the pub?’

  Kelly gave it some thought.

  ‘Yes, now you mention it. She was always there on a Saturday, as was Nat, but I remember her being there on Tuesdays too. That’s the only other night that Nat came in.’

  ‘Thanks Kelly,’ Dan said. ‘Tommy if I get Martin to print off a copy of the drawing can you go back with Kelly and show it to the rest of the staff just in case they can add anything?’

  He went over to Martin.

  ‘Printing off,’ Martin said before Dan could say anything.

&nb
sp; Dan noticed a very thoughtful expression on Martin’s face while he waited for the drawing to print. After he gave it to Tommy he went back.

  ‘Come on spit it out, you’ve thought of something haven’t you?’ Dan said.

  ‘I might have…can you give me five minutes? I just want to check something.’

  Dan poured himself and Mac a coffee while he waited. He never took his eyes off Martin’s hands as they skimmed over the keyboard. Three minutes later Martin’s hand went up.

  ‘What have you got?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Might have a name. It’s a bit tenuous but…’

  ‘Forgets the ‘buts’, tenuous is better than nothing so tell me.’

  ‘Okay something’s been stuck in my head ever since I started doing research on the properties bought by the ninety two. I thought that I might be on to something, so I checked it out with the estate agent to make sure it wasn’t a typo. He confirmed it, he’d actually dealt with the sale himself, so in the end I put it down to coincidence and thought no more about it.’

  ‘Go on, cut to the chase,’ Dan implored.

  ‘A house was bought by a Ms. Nicola Moncrieff a couple of months before the rail works started, a Victorian house with a cellar. She paid cash. Now there’s also a Nicholas Moncrieff who works on the project but he has a home address in London and I couldn’t find anything to link the two of them at the time.’

  ‘What’s his job?’ Mac asked.

  ‘He’s the Head of IT for the project,’ Martin replied.

  ‘Yes!’ Dan said excitedly.

  ‘Best of all, the house I mentioned is also on the Ickleford Road and no more than two hundred yards from the shop where Jonny saw the woman.’