Beneath the sink were various pots and pans and there was cutlery in the drawer next to it, as well as on the draining board. Jack examined the sharp-looking carving knives that were being stored in a wooden knife-holder.
Laura grimaced when she opened the fridge. It was full of rotting food, including some lettuce and tomatoes that had gone watery and mouldy, as well as a bottle of curdled milk and some very out-of-date yogurts.
‘Amanda obviously doesn’t cook for herself,’ Jack observed. ‘What’s she doing now?’
‘She just put on an old pair of joggers and got back into the sleeping bag,’ Laura said.
‘This place gives me the creeps; it’s like nobody’s living here, even though he’s been renting it for years. Right, we do a clean sweep first then look for secret hiding places.’
Laura nodded. ‘The bathroom, apart from needing a good clean, has only a few toiletries in it: shampoo, deodorant and some cologne. Amanda’s washbag is in there, very nasty. The towels look dirty as well, but there’s nothing else. I even looked to see if the bath panel came away, but the nails are rusted, so it doesn’t appear to have ever been taken out. I also ran a test over a few tiles in case there was any blood...’
Jack was about to walk away when Laura took his elbow.
‘But I want you to see something.’ She led him back to the bathroom and pointed to a modern shower unit with new tile surrounds. ‘That must have cost a fair bit!’
Jack nodded. She bent down to what looked like an old electrical box attached to the wall. She eased the small door open as Jack watched over her shoulder. On the small shelves were rows of plastic containers filled with pills, as well as bottles with cork stoppers, all labelled.
‘I’ve photographed everything on my mobile; he’s got a virtual pharmacy in there.’
Jack nodded, unimpressed. He went into the sitting room which contained a worn sofa, two covered armchairs, and a frayed rug over the threadbare fitted carpet. There was a reasonably modern gas fire, and a small coffee table with an ashtray full of cigarette stubs as well as numerous candles with pools of wax around them. There were two dirty glasses and some well-thumbed magazines next to an old-fashioned computer. On the wall was a very large plasma TV with a DVD player and a stack of DVDs and CDs. There was also a fancy-looking stereo system with enormous speakers either side of the room.
Jack bent down to look through the CDs, which were a mixture of heavy metal, rock and new age music. Many of them looked new, and they were arranged in alphabetical order.
‘I think he must have an obsessive streak, these all look new, maybe nicked,’ he said. ‘And this equipment must have cost a bundle, especially for someone living on benefits. He certainly likes his comforts, and this is a top-of-the-range computer. Right, we’re going to take this in. There are plenty of mobile charging cables, but I haven’t seen a mobile other than Amanda’s, have you?’
‘No, just hers. It’s just like all the other rooms in here, with no pictures or photographs. Doesn’t feel as if a young guy was living here, never mind his girlfriend.’
Laura was sifting through a waste bin that was filled to the brim with old takeaway food cartons and McDonald’s containers.
Jack removed the cushions from the sofa but found nothing. He then did the same with the two armchairs, only finding a couple of cigarette stubs and a few coins.
‘OK, let’s step back and think about this. He has to have some mail or documentation regarding his benefits. I’m going to talk to Amanda because this doesn’t feel right.’
‘A lot is done online nowadays to save on paper,’ Laura said. ‘But I’ll go back through every room and move all the furniture around to double-check for any hidden storage.’
Jack was feeling very frustrated at not finding anything that could confirm his gut feelings about Rodney Middleton. But oddly the fact he had uncovered nothing incriminating, combined with the strange living arrangements in the basement, only fuelled his suspicions. He could not believe that someone would not have any memorabilia, photographs, or anything personal like letters or bills. The equipment in the sitting room proved that Middleton had spent a considerable amount of money, and Jack was hoping that Rodney’s computer would yield something useful.
As Laura re-visited the main bedroom, Jack went and knocked on the door of the back room that Amanda was using as a bedroom. He didn’t wait for her to answer and walked in, closing the door behind him. Amanda was huddled in the sleeping bag with her coat on, smoking.
‘We need to talk, and you had better be straight with me this time,’ he said brusquely ‘You lied about going to Liverpool; you never intended to catch the train with the money you got from me, did you?’
Amanda dragged on the cigarette and shrugged her shoulders. Jack fetched the hard backed-chair and placed it near the sleeping bag.
‘I am never going back there,’ she said. ‘Why do you think I ran off in the first place? She don’t want me... her so-called husband is a bastard... tried it on with me and she never believed it, jealous, that’s why.’
‘Did Rodney get in touch with you?’
‘Yeah, I went to Brixton to see him. He told me he’d tell Mrs Delaney to let me in. But I had no money, so...’ She shrugged and stubbed out the cigarette in a saucer full of fag ends.
Jack leant towards her. ‘You had better give me some straight answers now, Amanda, or I could take you in for questioning at the station, do you understand? Look at me when I’m talking to you, please. Look at me.’
Amanda leaned back slightly and looked up at him, chewing her swollen lip.
‘Right, the silver bracelet — did you do a trade with your friend Trudie?’ He was making a guess that she was her friend.
‘I never stole it; I gave her a ring in return.’
‘So Trudie was a friend of yours?’
‘Sort of, but the clasp was broken so I only wore it a few times.’
‘You also picked out Trudie’s photograph when I showed you the pictures of the girls.’
‘Yeah, and I gave you the bracelet. I wasn’t lying.’
‘So, when did Trudie come here to the flat?’
Amanda looked down and chewed at her fingernail.
‘Look at me, Amanda. When did Trudie come here?’ Jack snapped.
‘Long time ago. I can’t remember. Maybe a year or more.’
‘How did she contact you?’
‘She was at the station. We saw her there. She’d done a runner like me.’
‘So, you and Rodney used to go to the station together?’
‘Sometimes. They got shops open at night, and a food stand.’
‘Tell me about the time you met Trudie.’
Amanda sighed, shrugging deeper into her coat.
‘Like I said, we was there and she was hanging out, had no place to go, so he said she could come back and stay with us.’
‘How long did she stay here with you?’
‘Maybe a couple of weeks, but she was starting to piss me off. She was after Rodney all the time and we had big rows about it. He locked me up in here.’
‘Was Trudie sleeping with him?’
‘Yeah, why do you think I was pissed off? She was a right slag and never give me my ring back. I swapped it with her for the bracelet. It had a little ruby, a real one, but the clasp on her bracelet was broken.’