Jack didn’t look at Maggie because this wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have. He just kept thinking, please don’t ask me why I’m tracking Jimmy Nunn, because he honestly didn’t know the answer, he just knew that he had to do it.
Maggie talked for a while longer about how Jimmy Nunn didn’t seem to be a man worth knowing, about how Charlie should be their priority and about how she didn’t want Jack to be hurt if Jimmy turned out to be even worse than he already sounded.
‘These are dangerous people you’re mixing with now, Jack. I know that’s all part of your job, but when you’re on a case, the dangerous people stay in the office. These ones are in my home and I don’t like it. I don’t like Tony Fisher, although I do like her — what’s her name? — Dolly Rawlins. I think maybe I can empathise with her. Do you think perhaps she shot her husband because he was filling their spare room with his insane obsession?’
Jack suddenly laughed out loud. God, he loved Maggie! He threw both arms round her neck, pulling her head to his chest. She turned her head to the side and they both looked at his evidence wall.
‘Just be careful,’ she whispered.
Jack stood at the front of the squad room and led the briefing. Ridley stood just outside his office, legs wide and arms folded — he was a mix of emotions. He was pissed off with Jack’s disregard for his authority, but he was impressed with the information Jack was sharing now. As Ridley listened along with the rest of the team, he was deciding whether or not to give credit where credit was due.
Jack put a printed iPhone image of Connie up on the board.
‘Crikey!’ Anik blurted out, once again speaking before his brain had kicked into gear. ‘Look at the size of her!’
Laura threw him a stern look. ‘Nice.’
Jack began his handover. ‘Connie Stephens talked about the train robbery in exactly the same way as Ester Freeman did. She said the first they knew about it was the following morning when the police arrived. This tallies with the statements taken at the time. Nothing’s changed in 24 years.’
‘Suggesting she’s telling the truth.’ Anik was trying to redeem himself with Ridley. ‘I mean, lies are hard to remember so there’d be discrepancies in their stories if they were lying, either then or now.’
Ridley chipped in. ‘Sure. But “I never saw anything” isn’t that hard to remember.’
Anik looked disappointed in himself. He needed patting on the head every now and then, and Ridley wasn’t really a ‘patter’. Ridley just looked back at Jack, indicating that he should carry on.
‘Neither Ester nor Connie is living in a manner that suggests they’ve got thirty million lying around. Their bank accounts show nothing unusual, in fact Connie goes overdrawn at least once every month. Ester’s slightly better off, but that’s because the money she spends is Geoffrey’s. I think the original investigation was right to eliminate them as suspects.’
Anik’s mobile rang and he stepped to the side of the room to take the call.
Jack continued, ‘I’ll still track down and interview Julia Lawson and Angela Dunn, but I’d be surprised if they gave me anything different.’
Anik bounced to the front of the room.
‘Sir!’ He beamed. ‘I expanded the Missing Persons search, like you said, and my mate at Paddington Green nick just called. A lady by the name of Susan Withey reported her estranged husband missing two days ago.’ Jack went to his desk to examine his notes as Anik continued, ‘Mike Withey is the same height and build as our murder victim from Rose Cottage. And he’s an ex-copper from this station.’
Ridley unfolded his arms quickly. ‘Anik, Jack and Laura. My office.’
Without another word, he turned on his heels. On his way across the room, Jack got out his mobile and started to search through all the notes connected to this investigation so far.
‘Anik,’ Ridley said calmly, once they were all assembled, ‘we need to be mindful of those around us when announcing information as potentially volatile as “the corpse in our mortuary might be that of an ex-copper from this station”. Do you know when Mike retired? Do you even know if he retired? Or was he sacked? Did he work with any one of those officers out there?’
Anik understood his mistake. ‘I don’t know, sir.’
‘Tell me what you’ve got.’
‘That was pretty much it, sir. My mate’s sending me all the details now.’
Anik got out his mobile, opened his emails and refreshed the app. At the same time, Jack was rifling through his own mobile, trying to find the notes he needed.
‘I’ve heard the name, sir,’ Jack mumbled. ‘Mike Withey’s already connected to this case somehow, I just can’t... Bear with me...’
Anik was desperate for his email to come through before Jack could steal his moment of glory, willing the page to refresh.
‘Ah, right,’ Jack said finally. ‘Mike Withey is the son of Audrey Withey and the brother of Shirley Miller, the model shot dead during a diamond raid in ’84. That raid was planned and carried out by Harry Rawlins, husband of Dolly Rawlins, who bought The Grange back in ’95.’
Ridley rocked back in his black leather ergonomic chair and rubbed his eyes. Jack and Anik, both with mobiles in hand, looked at each other. Then at Laura. They all waited for Ridley to finish thinking whatever he was thinking.
‘If our murder victim is Mike Withey,’ Ridley said after some consideration, ‘we need to tread very carefully indeed. Anik, seeing as this is your information, I want you to come with me to see Susan Withey. We need a DNA sample for comparison.’
‘Wouldn’t Mike’s DNA already be on file for elimination purposes?’ Anik asked.
Ridley thought his question was logical, even if it was naïve.
‘Not if he left before 2006, because it wasn’t mandatory till then. Jack and Laura, while Anik’s waiting for Susan Withey’s home address to come through from his friend at Paddington Green, I’m going to request permission to see Mike Withey’s service file. Once I’ve got that, I want you two, and only you two, to go through it with a fine-toothed comb. Until we get a positive ID on the body, Mike Withey is just a person of interest... but let’s find out a bit more about him. Tread carefully.’
Anik’s mobile pinged.
‘I’ve got an address for Susan Withey, and one for Audrey Withey.’
Ridley picked up his desk phone. ‘Anik, you’ll lead when we arrive at Susan’s home. Go and prep how you’re going to handle it and you can run it by me in the car.’
Anik couldn’t believe it. He was going to lead the interview of a case-breaking individual, in the company of his DCI. He almost ran from Ridley’s office, completely forgetting to say ‘Thank you’ or ‘Yes, sir’ or anything at all.
‘I’ll find a private room to view the file, sir,’ Laura reassured him as she closed Ridley’s door behind them.
Jack and Laura sniggered as they followed Anik out.
Ridley pressed the top button on his phone and waited for no more than five seconds before it was answered.
‘Ma’am, I need you to authorise the release of an officer’s service file.’
Ridley leant forward in the driver’s seat of his BMW and peered through the windscreen. Susan Withey’s house was set back from the road at the end of a gated driveway. The gate was open and a white Smart car was tucked almost out of sight under a tree. Anik sat in the passenger’s seat, using twice as many words as he needed to.
‘... if they’re estranged, I’ll ask her for Mike’s current address. I’ll also ask if Mike has any children and if we can get a sample of their DNA to check against the cremated rem—’ Anik checked himself. ‘I won’t refer to the body as cremated remains, obviously.’