Anna sat for over an hour with the artist. By that time, he had a likeness, or as much of one as she was able to remember. They then worked together on the computerized images to see if she could better it.
Langton walked in and leaned against the back of her chair. ‘How much longer?’
‘I am going as fast as I can,’ the artist said.
Anna remained silent and concentrated on the computer image. She could feel Langton close, almost touching her; she moved away slightly.
‘Okay. As soon as you are through, Anna, I want you in the incident room for a briefing.’
She was about to say something when he walked away.
Anna was printing off the images of Joseph Sickert when she was called to Langton’s office. This was connected to the incident room, but was very small and cramped.
‘Is this about the briefing?’ she asked.
‘That tape recording of Sickert — you still have it?’
‘Yes, I’ve brought it in.’
‘Good. You can leave it with me.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll go and get it.’
She walked out and returned to her desk. She had just taken the tape out from her briefcase, when Langton appeared and bellowed that he wanted everyone gathered for a briefing. As he made his way to stand in front of everyone, she noticed that he limped slightly; maybe the damp and wet from the piggery had got to him. She thought how much she would have liked to tip that manure over his head.
‘Okay, everyone, listen up.’
They gathered round, the locals standing at the back of the room. By now, the incident-room board had been worked on. Photographs of the two children and the sketch of Sickert were now pinned up. There were also numerous other pictures and details that Anna was unable to check out at that moment, as everyone was focused on Langton.
‘We have a pretty solid ID of the victim made by DI Travis, but we will still need her to be formally identified by her mother, who should be here around six o’clock. The mortuary by then will have cleaned up the victim; she will be covered so as to cause as little anguish as possible. We have the children’s photographs, as you can see; as yet, no remains have been recovered. We also have an Identikit picture of our suspect, known as Joseph Sickert.’
Langton continued the briefing, covering the ground usual at this early stage of an enquiry. The post mortem and subsequent report would not be available to them for some time; all they knew was that the body had been mutilated; her arms and legs were still missing. He told everyone that it was imperative they get as much help from the locals, the social services and the local stores.
‘They lived there for over a year, so they must have known plenty of people. So get out there and find out as much as you can. The focus is on Sickert: we have to find him. We need to track down anyone with any information.’
Langton went on, asking for the landlord, Tom Adams, to be pumped for more information. The pigs had been taken to another location; the police would perform tests and possibly even slaughter one or more to find out if they had human remains in their intestines. He made everyone laugh when he said that Adams was up in arms about them being slaughtered; he’d said, in a state of fury, that they were not ready. He planned on feeding them up before selling them onto the market and it would be down to the police to pay for them!
Langton then gave a brief rundown of what they had otherwise been able to get from Mr Adams: he did recall Joseph Sickert, and had had a few exchanges with him, as he had done with Gail’s previous husband. Adams had agreed to pay Sickert some money, as the man had said he would clean the piggery and build a henhouse.
The only other person that Adams admitted to seeing at the bungalow apart from Gail’s children was…’ Langton smiled and lifted a statement.
‘I’ll quote his actual words, so no one’s going to aim anti-racial slurs at me. Mr Adams says, “There was another darkie standing in the kitchen, but if it wasn’t for his hair being shorter than Sickert’s — he wasn’t wearing that carpet thing on his head — I wouldn’t have known if it was him or not, as they all look alike to me!’”
Anna had to hand it to him; Langton was a performer, able to mimic Adams to perfection. The team smiled.
Langton held a long pause before continuing. ‘One last thing. I don’t know how much you have been told about my recovery, but to assuage any gossip, I have been given the all clear — upstairs and down. I intend to give this case one hundred per cent and I want each and every one of you to do the same. I want this man Sickert caught. He is our prime suspect.’
He did another one of his famous pauses and tapped a desk with his pencil.
‘Travis and Harry Blunt got a tip-off in their investigation of Irene Phelps’s murder from a photograph of Gail Sickert’s: Arthur Murphy was hiding out with a known criminal and child molester, Vernon Kramer. They were able to pick up Murphy because of his association with Kramer. Kramer may well have fathered Gail’s youngest child. Our missing suspect would also have known Kramer, so I am making him a priority. I want to interview him as soon as possible—’
Langton was interrupted by Mike Lewis, who had taken a call at his desk.
‘Sir, could you please take this call? It’s from the murder site.’
The room fell silent as Langton picked up the phone. He said little, listening to the caller; it seemed to take an interminable time until he ended the call with a long sigh. He then faced the room.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry — it’s not good. They have just discovered the skull of a small child.’
Chapter Nine
Vernon Kramer was not a happy man. He was in Wandsworth prison for his part in harbouring Murphy and, as he had broken his parole in so doing, he was now forced to serve out, in addition, what remained of his previous sentence. He now faced three and a half years inside. He was brought before Langton and Anna with two guards, who remained outside the interview room. Vernon was already sweating, and after Langton introduced himself, he seemed even more agitated.
‘Okay, Vernon. Tell me about the time you went to see Gail and Joseph Sickert. You went to see them at the piggery — the place we found Gail’s body. Vernon?’
Vernon’s mouth gaped open and he sat back in his chair.
Anna glanced at Langton. She knew that, in reality, he was just surmising that Vernon had to have met Joseph Sickert; they still could not be certain of this.
‘No, I never saw them there. I swear before God, I didn’t see them.’
Langton leaned over the table. ‘Quit fucking around. You went to visit Gail and Joseph Sickert. When was this?’
‘Oh, shit.’
‘When?’
‘Just before me trial. Listen, this Rashid almost broke me door down and he punched me around.’
‘Rashid? Who’s he, Vernon?’
‘He was at the same hostel.’
‘What’s his surname?’
‘I dunno, I swear to you.’
Langton glared at him.
‘Maybe it’s Burry, somethin’ like that. I just know him as Rashid, nothin’ else. He came and went at the hostel; I dunno if he was supposed to be there, but he was. When she,’ he nodded towards Anna, ‘when she turned up at the hostel, he got very jumpy.’
‘Was this Rashid the man who slammed the door in my face?’ Anna asked.
‘I dunno, just he knew the cops were there, and he didn’t like it.’
‘Did he also know Arthur Murphy?’
‘Yeah, yeah, I guess so.’
‘Describe him,’ snapped Langton.
Vernon twisted in his chair. ‘He was a huge black guy; had some missing teeth in the front.’
‘So, why did you go to see Sickert? Come on, Vernon — we know that you and Murphy were there together, so, this second time, why did you go?’