Sorcerer

by Menon, David

  ‘And he sexually abused you?’

  Ed took a deep breath. ‘Yes. You could say I was raped a couple of hundred times‘

  ‘How do you even start to get over that?

  ‘You don’t get over it. That’s what I’ve been learning in here. What you have to try and do is to come to terms with it and not let it rule your life’.

  ‘Easier said than done’.

  ‘You’re not kidding’.

  ‘I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like’ said Jeff, in genuine awe of how Ed Lake and his step-sister had got through the lives they’d been stuck with.

  ‘It was like we were in one long horror movie’ said Ed. ‘We knew what could happen once the doors of our home were closed on the world and I in particular knew that my mother knew all about it but chose to deny it right up to her death. That’s why I hated her so much’.

  ‘Did she get along with your step-sister?’ Rebecca asked.

  ‘No’ said Ed. ‘They didn’t get on at all. It was always happy families in our house’.

  ‘But what made Annie disappear, Ed?’ Rebecca pursued.

  ‘She got herself a boyfriend’ Ed revealed. ‘His name was Leroy Jackson and he lived in Preston. He was this big, tall black man and my mother and Griffin did not approve one bit. He was also a single parent with a son, Ben, who was about six or seven, I think. Leroy was a few years older than Annie. He was a smashing bloke and Annie was head over heels. But it was no good. George went into countless rages. He was absolutely determined that this wasn’t going to happen. There were some terrible fights. Leroy did his best to protect Annie but Griffin got some blokes together and had Leroy beaten up on more than one occasion that I know of. Then Annie broke the news that she was pregnant. All hell really did break loose then especially as she’d been clever and hidden the pregnancy from all of us until she was past the legal limit for abortion. She wanted that baby. It was Leroy’s baby and she wanted it’.

  There were two very striking parallels in Ed’s testimony as far as Jeff was concerned. The racist parents, the single Dad with the son. It was uncanny and more than a little chilling. But it didn’t stop him putting the right two and two together in his head and when he looked at Rebecca they both knew. The three bodies at Pembroke House, an adult male, a small child, and a baby. This was all starting to fit.

  ‘I lied before’ said Ed. ‘I know Griffin used to physically abuse the boys at Pembroke House. They would be beaten to within an inch of their lives for no other reason than they looked at him the wrong way. I sometimes heard them screaming for mercy and crying out for their mother’.

  ‘How do you know all this?’

  ‘Because he made me watch sometimes. When he thought I might be a little bored, you know. He employed staff he could manipulate into being the perpetrators of all that violence. They were all big men who you wouldn’t want to cross on a dark street. All the boys suffered. It’s a wonder none of them ended up in hospital but for beating up people like Leroy Jackson he hired hoods from outside. Griffin is a sociopath. He’s like Hitler. He doesn’t feel the pain he’s causing. He just revels in the effect it has on those he deems to be inferior. Hitler did it with the Jews. Griffin did it with me, Annie, and the boys at Pembroke House’.

  ‘So how has he got away with it for so long?’

  ‘Why am I in a psychiatric unit now? These things have a way of coming round in their own time and I believe that the time for Griffin to pay for his crimes is now’.

  ‘Ed?’ said Jeff, leaning forward. ‘You know what I need to ask you?’

  Ed stole himself. ‘You want to know about the bodies?’

  ‘Yes’ Jeff answered.

  Ed’s face contorted into a mass of such clearly obvious pain. ‘I don’t know exactly what happened. Annie was there but she managed to escape. She came running to me and begged me to go away with her’.

  ‘You say she knew exactly what happened?’

  ‘Yes, because she was there and she saw what happened to Leroy, his son, and to the baby she’d had with Leroy. It must’ve been horrific but only she knows the details’.

  ‘So you’re saying that the bodies discovered at Pembroke house were those of Leroy, his son Ben, and the baby born to Annie who Leroy was the father of?’

  ‘Yes’.

  ‘Why didn’t you go with her, Ed?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Because I’d met Jenny and I thought that she could provide me with the kind of life I needed to bury my demons. She was pregnant and I just couldn’t leave her. Annie begged me. She said we could make a new start somewhere else where nobody knew us and where my Mum and her Dad couldn’t find us. I said that if Jenny hadn’t have been pregnant I might’ve gone with her but I couldn’t leave her with a baby on the way’.

  ‘So what did Annie do?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘She left’ said Ed. ‘She left knowing that I’d let her down and I’ve never seen or heard anything from her since. I’ve no idea where she went or where she is now. But if I could speak to her then I’d tell her I’m sorry for not going with her. God knows what’s happened to her in all these years’.

  ‘Ed, why didn’t you go to the police at the time?’

  ‘Because I was terrified of my step-father’ said Ed. ‘And because Annie begged me not to and I owed her that much’.

  ‘Why do you think she begged that of you?’

  ‘I don’t know’ said Ed. ‘I really just don’t know’.

  SORCERER TWELVE

  DNA tests confirmed that the human remains of the adult found at Pembroke House were those of Leroy Jackson and the child was his son Ben. They were reported missing by their family up in Preston back in 1993. DS Oliver Wright had spoken to Leroy’s mother who confirmed that Anne Griffin gave birth to a baby son only three months before Leroy, Ben, the baby and Anne all went missing.

  ‘The third skeleton, sir?’ said Rebecca.

  ‘I think that’s almost certain, DI Stockton’ said Jeff. ‘But we need to know if that’s the reason Anne Griffin ran from the scene that night’.

  ‘We’re still waiting for the Met to make contact with her, sir’ said Rebecca. ‘We’ve passed on the address that Jack White gave us but they haven’t been able to find her at home yet’.

  ‘Well I want her found because I want to know what she knows’ said Jeff. ‘In the meantime it’s time to bring in George Griffin for further questioning although I’m going to spray myself with something before I go into the interview room with him. The man makes my bloody flesh creep’.

  Mick had told his wife Pauline that he wouldn’t be home from his ‘big job’ until around ten. It was still only half eight and he told Jack that he didn’t have to leave for another hour. Jack went downstairs and brought up two cans of lager from the fridge.

  ‘Move over, big boy’ said Jack as he looked at Mick sprawled across his bed. ‘Make room for an old one’.

  Mick sat himself up and took the beer off Jack. ‘Thanks’ he said. ‘And thanks for letting me fuck you’.

  ‘Well’ said Jack as he lay down beside Mick and they clinked cans. ‘That’s a privilege I don’t give away very often because I’m usually on top’.

  ‘So you made an exception for me?’

  ‘Don’t let it go to your head’.

  ‘I’m a big lad though. I didn’t hurt you, did I?’

  ‘I had to flinch a couple of times but I didn’t mind. It was part of the pleasure. It was part of what I wanted to give to you’

  ‘It felt bloody good to me’.

  Jack smiled. He loved all this. He loved Mick being there and filling the room with himself. His life had been full of men he couldn’t have. This was a rare glimpse into another world where he could’ve been happy if fate had been kinder. He should’ve made a stand to protect all those boys. Maybe that’s why he’d never found lasting happiness, after all, they say that God doesn’t pay debts with money.

  ‘What are you thinking about?’ asked Mick.

  ‘Oh this
and that’ Jack replied, nonchalantly.

  ‘You know I don’t believe what they’re saying about you in the papers’.

  ‘What, that I was a paedophile like Griffin?’

  ‘Yes’ said Mick. ‘You’re no more a paedophile than I am’.

  ‘Thanks, Mick’ said Jack. He ran his hand up and down Mick’s big hairy arm. ‘I really am glad to hear you said that’. He was glad because Mick would be the sort of person who’d go down the pub and find Jack guilty as charged just because it had been in the papers.

  ‘They don’t know you like I do’.

  ‘Not many people do’.

  ‘What’s up, mate? You look really sad and far away’.

  ‘I didn’t want to let that show whilst you were here’ said Jack. ‘I’m felling as guilty as Hell, Mick, and I deserve to. I should’ve told the police what was happening at Pembroke but I didn’t for the sake of my career’.

  ‘It was a different time back then, Jack. And at least they’ve got the filthy bastard now’.

  ‘He’s supposed to be burying his wife tomorrow’.

  ‘You’re not going to the funeral?’

  ‘What? I’d rather have my eyes poked out with a blunt knife’.

  Mick pulled a face. ‘Ouch’. He then placed his hand on Jack’s shoulder. ‘You don’t have to pretend to be happy for me, Jack. I want you to talk to me if you need to’.

  Jack could’ve cried. Why couldn’t he have met someone like Mick thirty years ago? They could’ve had a wonderful life together. Meeting him now was like fate rubbing Jack’s nose in it. It was telling him that this is how it could’ve been if it hadn’t been decided that he would never find true happiness that was meant to last.

  ‘Thank you, Mick’.

  Mick clipped the end of Jack’s nose. ‘Don’t mention it’.

  ‘Mick, would you mind if you found out that Pauline had been up to no good?’

  ‘No’ Mick answered. ‘I’d just hope she was having as good a time with hers as I’m having with you’.

  ‘So what would you like to do now?’

  ‘Well I’ve got a beer in my hand, I’ve been fed and I’ve been well and truly seen to. So what do you think a man like me would still want after all that?’

  ‘Live football on the telly? That can be arranged and you don’t have to move a muscle’.

  Mick’s face lit up. ‘Really?’

  Jack picked up the remote control and pointed it at the bottom of the bed before pressing. A flat screen TV rose up from inside the bottom board and with one more click on the remote, the channel that was going to show the football came on.

  ‘Happy days!’ cried Mick. ‘I never get near the remote control in our house and I pay for the thing. This is paradise’.

  Jack propped himself up against the headboard and Mick leaned back against him. Just for that moment Jack was the happiest he’d been in his whole life. The football was due to start next and they were just catching the tail end of the local news. Usually it didn’t mean much but this time a repeat of the headlines made Jack’s heart leap into his mouth.

  ‘ … Greater Manchester police have issued a warrant for the arrest of George Arthur Griffin on murder charges relating to the discovery earlier this month of three skeletons, including a baby and a child, at Pembroke House which was formally a care home for boys. Griffin is already on bail after being charged recently with the rape and sexual assault of Ronnie Wiseman and seven other men who were residents of the home when they were young boys during the late eighties and early nineties. But when detectives, led by detective superintendent Jeff Barton arrived at the central Manchester flat where Mr. Griffin had been staying, they found he wasn’t there and nobody knows where he is. With his bail conditions now broken George Griffin is now a wanted man and police have appealed to the public for any information they know that could lead to Griffin’s apprehension …. ‘

  ‘He’s done a runner’ said Jack.

  ‘Too chicken to pay for what he’s done’.

  ‘He’s going to be mightily pissed off with me’.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Never mind’ said Jack. ‘But I’m going to move out. I’ll book into a hotel until they find the bastard. I don’t want to be here alone when I know he’s out there. I’m not going to make it easy for him’.

  Jenny had never been anywhere near a police station before, let alone inside one. It frightened her. She had no idea how to behave.

  ‘Where is he, Mrs. Lake?’ Jeff asked, firmly.

  ‘I don’t know where he is’ answered Jenny, somewhat feebly.

  ‘Mrs. Lake, I am in no mood for your lies and evasions now. When we came to arrest George Griffin this morning, you told us he’d gone to buy the morning paper. That was a lie, wasn’t it, Mrs. Lake?’

  ‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about’ said Jenny, nervously. Trouble with the police was something that happened to people on council estates. Solid, law abiding working class women like herself didn’t get onto the wrong side of the law. This was ridiculous.

  ‘You knew full well that George Griffin had caught wind of the fact that we were coming for him and done a runner’ said Jeff, his voice raised and sharp.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean’.

  Jeff raised his eyes to the Heavens. ‘Where has he gone, Mrs. Lake?’ he demanded.

  ‘I don’t know!’ Jenny snapped back.

  ‘This is getting very tedious, Mrs. Lake’ said Jeff. ‘His car has gone and he’s not picking up on his mobile. And you’re really expecting us to believe that you don’t know anything about it? Come on, Mrs. Lake. Help yourself by telling us the truth’.

  ‘I don’t know where he’s gone’ said Jenny. The tears began to roll down her cheeks and she wiped them with a tissue. ‘And no amount of you shouting at me is going to change that’.

  ‘Mrs. Lake, this is a murder investigation, people have been murdered’.

  ‘All I do know is that he needed to get away from the likes of you and your lies. I don’t expect anybody to understand’

  All Jenny had ever wanted was to be happy. She’d never chased fortune and she’d never gone for anything that could be deemed to be out of the ordinary in any way, shape, or form. When she’d fallen in love with Ed it had been true and genuine. There’d been nothing fake about her feelings. She knew he was a bit on the awkward side and that he could be moody. But she was a woman and she could change him. She made the mistake that thousands and millions of women the world over still make when it comes to their man. She’d thought she could fix everything she saw as an imperfection. She’d thought she could turn him into something he never wanted to be. She’d watched all her friends doing it to their men who’d all complied with the manipulation of their character in return for sex and permission to go down to the pub. But it didn’t quite happen that way with Ed. She’d wanted to change him. She’d always wanted to change him. But she’d never been able to get past all the inner demons he’d always seemed to love cherishing more than he’d loved her. And George had always been there. For years now she’d conducted a sometimes platonic, sometimes physical affair with George behind the backs of both her husband Ed and George’s wife Mary. But she’d needed George. She’d needed him to hold onto when all she could see ahead was darkness. He’d always been there. He’d always been there for her.

  ‘What do you want us to understand, Mrs. Lake?’ Rebecca asked, sternly. ‘The fact that you slept with your father-in-law?’

  Jenny looked up in a state of shock.

  ‘Ah, so you did sleep with your father-in-law even though serious allegations of sexual abuse had been made against him?’

  ‘Look’ said Jenny, trying to compose herself. ‘Nobody can appreciate just what it was like living with my husband. George was the only one who tried’.

  ‘Because he was the one who gave your husband all his problems’ said Jeff, his voice high with incredulity. ‘Could you not see that?’

  ‘No, that’s not true!
’

  ‘So your husband is a liar, is he? The very detailed statement he made to us about his step-father’s abuse was all fantasy as far as you’re concerned?’

  ‘He’s always had it in for George’.

  ‘Oh come on, Mrs. Lake, you’ll need to do a darn sight better than that!’ said Jeff. ‘Have you no compassion for the father of your daughter? He’s had a breakdown, Mrs. Lake. He’s been in a mess for years because of your lover George’.

  ‘Look, believe it or not I do retain some thought for the health of my husband but it’s like I said before, I’ve endured years of trying to keep my marriage together and I’m exhausted. I’ve borne my own unhappiness in order to try and make Ed happy and I’ve had enough’.

  ‘Is this a recent thing?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Your affair with your father-in-law?’

  Jenny bowed her head in an almost shameful expression. ‘No. It’s been going on for some time’.

  ‘So you’ve spent years lying to your husband and your daughter’ said Rebecca. ‘That must’ve been tough’.

  ‘You’ve no right to judge me’.

  ‘Oh I’m not judging you, Mrs. Lake’ said Rebecca. ‘I just pity you’.

  ‘George is not what Ed has made him out to be!’

  ‘So he’s not a child abuser?’ said Jeff. ‘Everybody is lying? That’s funny because that’s just what he said when he was in here’.

  ‘Not to mention his alleged involvement in the murder of Leroy Jackson and his son Ben’ Rebecca added. ‘And the fact that he effectively conspired to swindle your husband out of his inheritance from his family’s engineering company. Oh I’d say you’ve got yourself a real catch in George Griffin, Mrs. Lake. I’d keep hold of him if I was you’.

  ‘You know nothing!’ Jenny screamed. ‘George was there for me and despite what they’re all saying I am not going to let him down!’

  ‘Where’s he gone, Mrs. Lake?’

  ‘He just said that he was going away and that I wasn’t to worry’ said Jenny, tearfully. ‘But I love him so how can I not worry?’