Two Victims

by Helen H. Durrant

  “I don’t want you out around the city at night until we’ve cleared this case up,” Rachel said firmly. “It isn’t safe and you’ve come close to this gang as it is.”

  “Nicu? A gang member? I don’t think so, Mum. You don’t know a thing, do you? He’s a smart lad. He has a job, money, the lot.”

  “Who does he work for?”

  “Some leisure firm.”

  Rachel was unimpressed. That could mean anything. “Does he talk about the people he works with?”

  “I’ve seen him once, when he let us into the apartment the other night, so I’ve not spoken to him at all.”

  “You need to be careful, Megan. This Nicu isn’t someone I want you mixing with. Never forget, it was his friends gatecrashed and got you into bother, wasn’t it?”

  Megan didn’t respond, and she remained silent for the rest of the journey. Traffic into Manchester was slow, and it took a good hour before the multi-storey on Oxford Road finally loomed up in front of them.

  Rachel parked up, and they crossed the busy road to the coffee shop.

  “That’s Shannon.” Megan pointed to a pretty blonde girl in a window seat, working on her laptop.

  Rachel handed Megan a tenner. “You get the coffees.”

  She went over and sat down opposite the girl, who, intent on her laptop and with earbuds in, took little notice. Smiling at her, Rachel tapped her shoulder.

  “Has Megan told you why I’m here?”

  The girl removed the buds and nodded. “This has to be all wrong, Mrs King. Nicu is okay. Everyone says so.” She frowned. “I won’t get into bother or anything for speaking to you? I don’t want a gang of morons coming after me.”

  “Didn’t you say this Nicu was okay? So what makes you think that will happen?” Rachel said.

  “He is, but he doesn’t like people talking, you know, interfering in his business.”

  “You get the smallest hint that all isn’t well, contact me.” Rachel passed her card over. Now to get to the real point of the visit. “The next time you get information about an apartment being free, will you contact me?”

  Shannon looked doubtful. “I daren’t. If I grass and Nicu finds out . . .”

  Time to spell it out. “How can it be grassing, Shannon? You insist Nicu isn’t a criminal. But you need to know that we’re dealing with the murder of one young woman and the disappearance of another — your friend, Ruby. I need to speak to Nicu as soon as possible. He knows Ruby too, and he’s looking for her. If he finds her, she may be in real danger.”

  “I haven’t seen her in a while, and if it’s that serious, it’ll be me in danger for telling you.” Shannon shook her head. “I know how these things work. I talk, and one dark night, someone will creep up behind me.”

  “Help me get these people off the streets, Shannon. Do that and everyone will be safer. Neither Nicu or those he works with will ever know that you spoke to me.”

  As they were talking, Megan had come over with their coffees.

  Shannon looked from Rachel to Megan, and shook her head. “I’ll think about it. After the bust the other night, he might lie low for a while.”

  That was a blow. “Just keep me informed,” Rachel said. “Getting these people off the streets is in everyone’s interests.”

  The girl looked puzzled. “I don’t understand all the interest in Ruby. She rarely comes to any of the parties.”

  Rachel chose not to comment. “Will you let me know?”

  Shannon nodded.

  “How well do you know Nicu?” Rachel asked. “Does he know what course you’re on at uni for instance?”

  Shannon shook her head. “I’m just another girl in the crowd.”

  “Good.”

  Rachel sipped at her coffee. She had what she wanted. With luck, it would lead to bringing Nicu in.

  * * *

  Back at the station, Rachel found Elwyn at his desk, looking through Agnes’s diary.

  “The addresses in this are no help. There’s new tenants in them now, and no one recalls any pregnant girls having been there before them.”

  Another dead end. “In that case, we’ve got nothing,” Rachel said.

  “Well, we might have something.” Elwyn waved the diary at her. “There are dozens of girls’ names in here. Just first names against a date, and only some with addresses. I’ve been trying to work it out, and my best guess is private appointments with Agnes.”

  “Not official clinic ones?”

  “Given that the clinic didn’t recognise the names, I doubt it. There are some notes at the back. This name here, a girl called Roxanne, she delivered at the right time and Agnes has starred the entry in red. In the back of the diary there is another red star with an address against it.”

  “You think that Agnes found her somewhere to live? Where?”

  “It’s not local. Quite far out in fact. Glossop.”

  “I wonder why Roxanne felt the need to move so far away?”

  “I intend to go and ask her,” Elwyn said. “With luck she’s still living there.”

  “I’ll join you,” Rachel said. She dumped her stuff in her office. “You all sorted for tonight? Suit pressed or whatever?”

  “Ah, our date.”

  Rachel hit him with a folder. “Our non-date, moron.”

  Ignoring the jibe, Elwyn said, “I thought we’d aim to be in Glossop by about two this afternoon. There’s no surname, so I can’t look her up and tell her we’re coming. We’ll just have to take pot luck that she’ll be in.”

  “In the meantime, some food and a catch-up with what we’ve got so far.” She paused. “Heard anything from Kenton and his crew?”

  “Thankfully, no.”

  “What does he think? That we’re just going to sit on our hands and do nothing? What happened to Akerman is directly linked to our current case, and he knows it. I don’t understand Harding either. He just rolled over like an obedient little lapdog.”

  “Tread carefully, Rachel. Kenton’s not a man you make an enemy of. Talk has it that he’s a hard boss to work for, and makes a difficult colleague.”

  “I can do difficult. I can do bloody hard-core if I’m pushed!” She suddenly noticed the empty desks, the absence of chatter. “Amy and Jonny still pounding the streets?”

  Elwyn nodded. “Jonny rang in about half an hour ago. They’ve got nowt so far. Some good news though — Jude rang, says she’d like a word.”

  Rachel went into her office to ring Jude back.

  “We extracted the bullet from Agnes’s head, and after scouring that trench, we found the one that I presume killed our unknown,” Jude said. “The striations on both bullets are a match. They both came from an old army gun.”

  “You’re telling me that some of those old weapons are still hanging around — and they’re usable?”

  “Very much so, Rachel. Veterans who didn’t hand them back stick them in a drawer, and every so often they surface. They’re easily restored to working order if you know the right people. Oh, and good news. We’ve had the area looked at and there are no more bodies. You can hand the plot back now. I’m sure Mr McAteer will be thrilled.”

  Rachel decided to keep that information for later. “You know that Salford are investigating the Akerman killing?”

  “Yes,” Jude said. “We’ve had our instructions. Hand the scene over to their people — butt out, in other words.”

  “But you’d started, you’d taken photographs, samples and the like. Er, this is rather delicate, Jude. Refuse if you feel you must, but would you continue to process what you have for us?”

  A silence. “Are you ringing me on your own mobile, Rachel? I’d hate to think anyone was listening in, or recording this on the landline.”

  “Yes, Jude, it’s my own personal number.”

  Rachel heard Jude take a breath. “Okay. I’ll do what I can and be in touch. Not a word to anyone, mind, not even your team. If and when I get something, we’ll decide what to do with the information. DCI Kenton isn’t
someone you mess with, Rachel. He doesn’t forgive, and he doesn’t forget.”

  Rachel snorted. “I don’t give a toss. I just want to find who killed our victims. The Akerman case is ours. I just know it’s related to the deaths of Agnes and the unknown.”

  Tapping on her mobile, Rachel returned to the main office to join Elwyn. “I’m leaving a message for Megan. She has a friend with a link to Nicu. The minute another party is arranged, I want to know.”

  “If we’re to make the do tonight, we should get off. Glossop isn’t just down the road, you know.”

  “A quick coffee and then we’ll go.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Rachel gazed at the countryside rolling past the window. “Why d’you think Roxanne moved all the way out here?” she asked. “It’s very pretty and all that, but it’s a helluva long way from the backstreets of Manchester where she came from.”

  Elwyn shrugged. “There’s nothing in Agnes’s diary to say. But if she was in danger, like our unknown, maybe Agnes wanted to get her out of harm’s way.”

  That made sense. Rachel was beginning to regard Agnes as a caring individual who helped a lot of people, including giving her sister one of her kidneys. “What were they scared of, Elwyn?”

  Elwyn smiled. “We’ll be sure to ask her.”

  “I have a theory about Agnes. I don’t think she simply helped the girls with advice and their pregnancies. I believe she was trying to get them free of the grooming gang.”

  “Where did the notion of a grooming gang come from?” he asked.

  “DS Colin Howe. He said that the gang Nicu is involved with are into trafficking and grooming young girls.”

  “If your theory’s right, then there’s your motive for murder. Agnes was killed to stop her interfering.”

  “If we’re to prove that, we’re going to need a lot more evidence,” Rachel said.

  Roxanne Buckley lived on a council estate. They’d driven through Glossop and were in the countryside on the way out again when it sprawled in front of them.

  “I remember this place being built,” Elwyn said. “It was meant as an overspill estate to house the people who lived in the condemned terraces of inner Manchester.”

  “Much trouble?”

  He shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of.”

  They parked up. “Let’s see what Roxanne can tell us,” Rachel said.

  Waiting at the front door, the two detectives could hear children playing inside. A young woman answered, holding a toddler perched on her hip.

  She looked at them and grimaced. “You the police?”

  “Yes, Roxanne, but you’re not in any trouble.” Rachel smiled. “We’d simply like to ask you a few questions.” Rachel looked around and saw a pair of net curtains across the road give a distinct twitch. “Can we come in?”

  “Bloody witch across there never misses a trick,” Roxanne said. They followed her into the house. “I’m a registered child minder, hence the kids and the mess. I wasn’t expecting visitors.”

  “You guessed who we were, though.”

  She looked at Rachel and nodded. “I’ve been half-expecting you. This is about Jess, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know, Roxanne, but it might be. What I have to tell you isn’t very pleasant, but I have no choice. We are speaking to anyone we can find that was helped out by Agnes Moore.”

  Roxanne smiled. “She certainly helped me. She’s a good woman, but I haven’t seen her recently.”

  “Agnes is dead,” Rachel said. “Murdered. But we’re here now about another body that was found nearby — that of a young woman. We’re trying to identify her. No one has come forward, and no one fitting her description is on our missing persons list.”

  “But you think it’s Jess?” Roxanne asked.

  “We’ve no idea who she is. You are the first person to mention that name.”

  “I didn’t know Jess right well, but we were pregnant at the same time, and that drew us together.” She’d gone pale. “I’m sorry. I can’t get over the fact that Agnes is dead. It isn’t fair.”

  “When was your baby born?” asked Elwyn.

  “Two months ago. I had Nathan and we moved here. Jess still had a week or so to go, and I never saw her again.” She looked at the floor. “I don’t even know what she had.”

  “Why did you move out here?” Elwyn asked.

  “Agnes sorted it for me,” Roxanne said. “The house came free so it had to be quick. I didn’t have time to tell anyone.”

  “You moved here on your own?” Rachel asked.

  “Nathan’s dad wasn’t interested and I’ve no family. It’s a fresh start for me. I like it here, there’s plenty of fresh air and no complications.”

  “And you didn’t keep in touch with Jess, or any of the other pregnant girls? You must have seen a lot of each other, attending the same clinic like you did.”

  “We didn’t go to the clinic — Agnes took care of us privately.”

  “Surely you needed a midwife or doctor when it came to the delivery?” Elwyn asked.

  “Agnes was also a midwife. Any major problems and the girls ended up in hospital, although I never knew that to happen. Agnes was great and very capable. She looked after us well.”

  “That isn’t normal practice. Didn’t any of you question what Agnes was doing?” asked Rachel.

  “Look, we were all in trouble, all running from something. None of us wanted to be found. Attend hospital, go for all that ante-natal stuff and before you know it, your past catches up.”

  “You were taking a risk, though, so was Agnes,” Rachel said.

  Roxanne looked at each of them. “How did you know where I was?”

  “We found Agnes’s diary and took a chance on an address we found written in it. Do you have any idea who would have wanted to harm Agnes?”

  Roxanne was very pale now. The reality of what had happened to Agnes must have finally hit her. Placing the toddler in the playpen, she flopped onto the sofa. “I’m sorry. She didn’t deserve to end like that. Murder.” She shook her head. “Do you have any idea who killed her?”

  “No. We’re still investigating,” Rachel said. “Do you know a girl called Ruby?”

  “No. There was no Ruby back then. Mind you, she could be new. Plenty of girls used to go to Agnes.”

  “What about Nicu?”

  “Him?” She sat up, her legs trembling. “He was bad news. Practically kept Jess prisoner. He was the main reason we were all so secretive about being pregnant. That man is an animal. Pregnant or not, he still expected the girls to work just as hard.”

  “Why not report him to your employers, or the police, even tell a relative what was happening?”

  Roxanne shook her head. “We were too scared of what Nicu would do to us if we went to the police. As for family, none of us had anyone we wanted to tell.”

  Rachel remembered what DS Howe had said about Ruby being on her own, with no one to come looking.

  “But Nicu wasn’t interested in you, not like with Jess?” Elwyn asked.

  “He didn’t like me. I don’t know why, and I’m glad he didn’t. Attracting his attention meant trouble.”

  “But he liked Jess?” Rachel asked.

  “Yes, he was always going on about a special job he had for her, though I’ve no idea what it was.”

  Rachel watched her carefully. “You sure?”

  “She didn’t trust him. Jess was a loner — she did her own thing and wouldn’t have thanked me for sticking my nose in. As for the other girls Agnes saw to, I’ve no idea what happened to them. I’m just grateful she was there, on our side and happy to help the way she did.”

  Roxanne was nervous all of a sudden. Hearing Nicu’s name had done that. “What about Agnes, did you keep in touch with her?” Rachel asked.

  “She came round a couple of times at the beginning. Nathan is a sickly baby and she helped. That’s what she was like.”

  “What’s your full name, Roxanne?” Elwyn asked.

&
nbsp; “My surname is Buckley.”

  “Do you mind if we check your record at the Medical Centre in Beswick?”

  “There won’t be any.” Roxanne sounded pretty certain of this. “Like I said, the only person I saw all throughout my pregnancy was Agnes. No one else.”

  Rachel knew that wasn’t legal. What was Agnes doing working on her own like that? If she’d been found out she would have been sacked and her nursing registration withdrawn. It was a big risk to take. Had there been an incentive, perhaps?”

  “Why no clinic, Roxanne? Agnes was risking everything by treating you on her own. Did she ever ask you for money?”

  “No, and I had none anyway.”

  “So, what did she get out of helping you all?” Elwyn asked. “She took all the risks.”

  “She was just like that.” Roxanne reddened and looked away.

  She was lying.

  “Did she deliver Nathan?” asked Elwyn.

  Roxanne nodded.

  “And your friend, Jess, was Agnes looking after her too?”

  “Look, Agnes was a friend. She helped us. She didn’t do anything wrong!”

  “She did, Roxanne. You should have been in the care of the midwifery team at the clinic. I still don’t understand why it was necessary for you to be under the radar like that,” Rachel said.

  “To keep us safe, stop the likes of Nicu finding us.”

  “Agnes and our unknown victim — we have no idea what they’d done to deserve their fate. We need people to talk to us. You too,” Elwyn said.

  “Tell us what you know about Nicu,” Rachel added. “Did you work for him?”

  Roxanne looked away. “He got me a job in a club. A sleazy dive down a back street off Deansgate near the river.”

  “What sort of job, were you waiting on tables?” Elwyn asked.

  She gave a hollow laugh. “Nothing so simple, we had to offer extras. We were sex workers. I hated it, so did most of the other girls. Nicu is trouble, and dangerous.”

  “We think he might have something to do with those deaths,” Elwyn said.

  “If the unknown girl is Jess, then I’m sorry but I can’t help you.” Roxanne folded her arms and sat back.