‘I’m still not having much luck either,’ he said.
‘Actually, as it happens, I’ve got a good result on the bracelet,’ she told him. ‘What are you working on?’
‘Trying to track down this woman called Sandra Raynor for the sarge.’
‘Is she a missing person?’
‘No, well, I’ve not had any bites from them. I’ve been through births marriages and criminal records and not got anything, or from the Holmes database’
‘Jack’s never mentioned her name to me,’ she said. ‘Do you want me to have a go? Could be in deaths?’
‘No, it’s OK. I’m going back a few more years next and maybe I’ll get lucky.’
Jack spoke briefly about his suspicions whilst Laura listened, silently. They had not worked together for a while, and she had missed being with him. She no longer fancied him, though, and had concluded that dating fellow officers was not a good idea anyway.
‘Do you ever hear from that guy with the DEA in New York?’ Jack asked.
‘No, we e-mailed and had a couple of calls but then I moved on. I don’t seem to be able to find Mr Right. I’ve been thinking about joining a dating agency or going to one of those speed-dating sessions, you know, where you sit opposite a guy and talk to them and a bell rings, and you move on to the next one. But it costs a hundred quid, so I think I’ll try online dating first.’
Jack laughed but told her that she had to be careful, especially being a Met officer.
‘Well, I know that! I’d use an assumed name. As soon as you mention you’re a policewoman you get the same old jokes about wearing your uniform and your police hat.’
‘Ah, so you’ve tried it?’
Laura laughed. ‘Yeah, did a phone-in date app, bloody boring. What can you tell from a voice at the other end of the phone? They could be any age, really fat, or even a criminal.’
‘I’m sure you’ll find someone when you least expect it; you’re very attractive. And the best thing about you, Laura, you make me laugh.’
‘Thanks for the compliment.’
‘OK, Laura, we’re here. It’s the basement flat. I’ll call Mrs Delaney, the caretaker, to give me the keys. No one has been occupying it for quite a while, and I’d like to have a good nose around before Middleton’s released.’
Jack parked the car and took out his briefcase and mobile phone. Laura went to the railings of the basement.
‘Jack, there’s someone there. The lights are on.’
‘Shit, he couldn’t be out yet, surely?’
Jack led the way down the steps, past the array of over-flowing bins. The same empty milk bottles were still there. He rang the doorbell, waited and then knocked. After a while he loudly said that it was the Police and please could the door be opened. He sighed, not wanting to have to carry out any theatrics by kicking open the door. Instead, he went back up the steps to the main entrance of the building. Laura remained waiting in the basement courtyard, wrinkling her nose at the foul smell of rotting food waste and rubbish spewing out of bins.
Above her, Jack kept his finger on the front doorbell. Eventually he heard footsteps and the door was inched open.
‘Mrs Delaney, its Detective Sergeant Jack Warr. I spoke to you recently. I want access to the basement flat.’
‘He’s not there, and I can’t let you in,’ she said firmly.
‘Yes, you can. I have a warrant.’
Jack showed her the warrant and she peered at it.
‘Well, ring the basement doorbell then.’
‘I have done, but no one answered. If Mr Middleton isn’t home, who’s living there?’
Jack suddenly knew without her telling him. ‘Is it his girlfriend, Amanda?’
‘Yes, she’s expecting him home. He called me to say she could go in and wait for him. I need him here as my husband’s back is worse and I can’t get the bins up the steps. We missed the collection this week.’
Jack had stopped listening and hurried back down to the basement courtyard to join Laura.
‘His bloody girlfriend is in there.’ He banged on the door.
‘Open the door, Amanda. OPEN THE DOOR!’
He heard the chain lock being removed, and then the Yale lock clicked. Very slowly, the door opened and Amanda peered out. She was still dirty and was wearing the same old coat. Her face looked grey and the cold sore on her lip seemed to have spread almost to her nostril.
Jack held the warrant out as he pushed his foot inside the door frame to wedge it open.
‘Stand away from the door, Amanda. This warrant gives me the right to enter and search the flat, so you need to move.’
She inched back, and he pushed the door open wider. She was wearing socks, but no shoes, and the smell of damp was over-powering. It was also freezing cold.
‘It’s cold in here, Amanda. Is there no heating?’
‘I don’t know how to switch it on. It’s a meter thing with dials. I know it does the hot water but it’s not on.’
‘Right, let me put some more lights on. It’s very dark in here.’
They were standing in a narrow hallway, with a rubber-backed strip of carpet over stone flooring. The walls were painted in a faded cream colour and there was a small wooden cabinet close to the door. There was no other furniture or pictures. It felt empty.
Jack looked over to Laura, and then back to Amanda. He asked her to show him the bedrooms and the rest of the flat, suggesting that she should go and put on some more clothes as she was shivering. Amanda hesitated and then said that the first door was the main bedroom, but she was sleeping in the back room. Laura took her by the arm and asked her to show her where she was sleeping.
Jack checked the drawers in the wooden cabinet. There was a directory, a lot of pizza delivery leaflets, Check-a-Trade advertising leaflets, and a central heating instruction book. There were also various warranties regarding a microwave, a cooker, and washing machine. The other drawers were empty.
Jack went into the main bedroom. There was a large double bed with four pillows, and a stained duvet with a fake fur rug slung halfway across it. The wooden floor was bare, apart from a cheap rug on one side of the bed. There was a pine chest of drawers with one drawer partly open. Jack methodically searched each of the drawers, finding a neat stack of t-shirts, underpants, vests and socks, as well as old worn jeans, folded neatly but unwashed. He checked the pockets and felt around the base of the drawers, but there was nothing of interest.
A narrow wardrobe had a lopsided door on one side. It contained a denim jacket, a raincoat and a duffle coat with plastic shoulder pads, as well as two pairs of black trousers folded over a wooden coat hanger.
At the bottom of the cupboard there were four pairs of worn trainers, a pair of heavy boots and some thick-soled canvas boots. It smelt of moth balls. Jack bent down to look beneath the bed. There was an old newspaper, along with a lot of dust. He then carefully stripped the bed, searching every inch of it. He found nothing, not even a tissue. The bedroom, like the hall, had no photographs or pictures. The walls were the same cream colour, and the curtains were drawn over the barred window, which looked out into the yard.
Jack had never searched a room that was so devoid of anything personal, apart from the clothing. It felt like a prison cell. He went back out into the hall as Laura was coming out of the room that Amanda was using.
‘There’s just a sleeping bag, a cupboard, a hard-backed chair, and a rope-handled chest containing tools. Amanda has her holdall with a few dirty items in it. The other clothes are folded on the floor next to the sleeping bag. There are some dirty ashtrays, a bottle of water, and an empty bottle of vodka.’
‘Does she have a mobile?’ Jack asked.
Laura passed it to him. It was an old flip-style model and had a low battery signal. Jack told Laura to ask Amanda for a charger so that they could see what was on it. He then went into the kitchen which was situated at the rear of the basement. The window in there was barred, but the surfaces appeared to be clean. The lino flooring was a dark red with numerous indentations, as if from high-heeled shoes. A Formica-topped folding table was leaning against a wall with two pine chairs with plastic seat cushions. Together they searched through the cupboards. One contained china, with plates and mugs neatly lined up, and another cupboard was filled with tinned food, mostly soups, tuna, and baked beans. There was also an open packet of crackers.