Jack smoothed his hair and smiled at Penny. ‘That’s a very impressive toaster, Mum. Tell Maggie I’ll see her in the morning. I’m on nights now so I won’t be back until then. Please just tell her that I love her, and I’ll organise a dinner for just the two of us.’
He left quickly, not wanting to get into any further conversation.
Chapter Nineteen
Jack was surprised to see how many officers were on duty. The incident room was a hive of activity and the crime board had now got two additional sections listing the officers assigned to various duties. Jack checked which department was dealing with contacting the missing girls’ families, but nothing new had been added, so he went to his desk, which was piled with files and other paperwork for him to deal with. He sat down and opened his notebook.
Laura came in, wearing a bright yellow quilted coat that made her resemble a Michelin Man and carrying a McDonald’s takeaway bag.
‘Good evening, Jack.’
He waved in her direction as she hung up the outrageous coat. It reminded him of his new toaster.
‘I’ve just been out to get a burger.’
Jack had started sifting through all the files on his desk and didn’t reply.
‘I must say, you’re looking very dapper, all suited up.’
She approached his desk.
‘You want a few fries? They always give you too many. I even asked for a child’s portion.’
‘I wouldn’t say no, thanks,’ Jack said.
Laura tipped some of the fries into a paper napkin and passed them over.
‘What are you working on? I wouldn’t mind you popping into the boardroom to have a look at what I’ve been doing. Anik was working on it during the day but was called out to do something else, so I took over. Why are you looking so smart?’
‘I felt I needed to be ready for the long night ahead. I have a theory, which may be a waste of time.’ Jack ate a handful of the fries.
‘What about?’
‘Well, Middleton’s been able to use his medical history to get away with claiming mental incapacity, and that’s obviously the last thing we want now.’
Jack finished the fries and threw the napkin into the waste bin.
‘You know Middleton’s very manipulative. Well, what I found odd were the two assaults. They didn’t make sense because he was known at both of the shops and could be recognised by the owners. He also gave up his weapons, admitted the offences in interview and told them he would plead guilty. Now, at the last arrest, he came out of the flat with his hands up.’
‘Yes, I know that, so what are saying? He’s stupid?’
‘No, to the contrary. I believe he’s a psychopath, as well as being a narcissistic shit. I think he plans it out and is almost wanting punishment. Or perhaps he wanted to be removed from the flat to give himself an alibi of sorts. So, I reckon he did these assaults after he had murdered and dismembered the missing girls.’
‘We obviously don’t know he did that yet,’ Laura countered.
‘I know. But I was there when they uncovered the blood bath in the coal hole. I now just need to match the dates the girls went missing with his arrests.’
‘Right now, Jack, we don’t have confirmation that it was all human blood. And we are assuming there were more than two girls, aren’t we?’ Laura said, still playing devil’s advocate.
‘Yes, we are,’ Jack insisted. ‘He may have dismembered them and put the body parts into bin bags. Forensics found bloodstains in the bins — not confirmed as human yet — but if Jamail was the first victim, Mrs Delaney’s husband saw her at the flat, so that gives us a time frame. Mrs Delaney also spoke about a stench from the basement, which Middleton claimed was rat-infested.’
Laura nodded as she munched on her burger. Jack ruffled his hair.
‘Middleton needed help to carry the bins up to the pavement because they were very heavy, right? Are you still with me?’
‘Yes, but if Jamail was the first, didn’t he get arrested after she disappeared?’
‘I thought of that. She would have gone missing around the time of the stench. I’ve looked back at all the refuse collections and the bins were all collected as usual, until the last one after his second arrest. That may have been around the time of Nadine O’Reilly; there was a strike in that area and the rubbish was mounting up on pavements.’
‘At the moment it’s still all supposition, Jack, and until we get an ID on the victims you might be wasting your time. So far, the most damning evidence we have is the bracelet that we know belonged to Trudie. The girlfriend told you she found it in the bed sheets, right?’
‘Yeah, but she also said it belonged to Jamail, so she lied about that.’
Jack leaned back in his chair, frowning. Laura went back to her desk and picked up a flask.
‘Come into the boardroom and I’ll give you a proper cup of coffee.’
He pushed his chair back and followed her out of the incident room into the boardroom. The table was covered with photographs of the items of jewellery that had been taken out of the boxes found in Middleton’s plastic container. The boxes were lined up in a row, and above them were photographs of the items taken from them.
‘Anik made sure they weren’t all jumbled together. The team going up to visit the missing girls’ parents have photographs. We placed them in separate clear bags beside each box. As you can see, we have five small boxes, indicating that we could possibly have five victims. But in a couple of the boxes there are just small items, broken chains, a crucifix and a silver necklace...’
Jack moved around the table and picked up one of the photographs. He stared hard at it for a while.
‘Let me see the contents of this one.’
Laura picked up the bag and placed a sheet of white paper down on the table, to tip the items onto. Jack pulled on surgical gloves. There was a beaded friendship bracelet, a string of cheap pearls and red beads, one earring, a hair grip and three painted false nails. Jack peered closer, using a pencil to divide and separate the items. He separated out a small gold ring with a ruby stone.
‘This belonged to Amanda Dunn; she traded this for the bracelet she said Trudie gave her.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because she told me it was not a fair trade; the bracelet clasp broke shortly after they had swapped. She said that Trudie refused to give the ring back to her. She described it as gold, with a real ruby.’
Laura leaned forward. ‘Shit, this would mean that Trudie...’
Jack straightened up, still staring at the ring. ‘Any news on Amanda?’
‘We know she’s recovered, but she’s on suicide watch whilst we determine what to do with her. I think the guv wants her in a safe house for her own protection; they refer to it now as “special measures” because obviously she’s going to be a valuable witness, unless it’s proven that she was an accessory. What do you think?’
‘She’s naive, but at the same time she’s cunning and a very good liar. She told me that she was always locked away in the back room when Middleton was with one or other of the runaways, but who knows what the truth is. She also, as I just said, initially lied about the bracelet belonging to Jamail. I did put this all in a report. If we’re to believe that Amanda was with Middleton from the age of twelve, he could have manipulated her into being an accessory, helping to pick up the runaway kids from the station. If it was up to me, I would arrest her and put the frighteners on her. She could be a mine of information.’
‘But she’s still a juvenile, Jack. I think we should take good care of her; maybe out of his grasp, she will come to her senses.’ Laura replaced the items Jack had looked at as they all still needed to be taken to the labs for testing. She then indicated a large evidence bag at the end of the table. ‘We had this taken to the forensics and they’ve done some tests, but as yet nothing conclusive. However, when it came back to us, I took a good look.’