‘You sure I shouldn’t go home?’
‘Yes. Like I said, I just came here to make you aware of everything, and to tell you that I love you.’
Jack lowered his mask and kissed her. He hated seeing how concerned she was, but he reassured her again that they would be fine. Maggie watched him leave the hospital, then hurried back to the ward. She spoke to the head of department who was working the schedules for all the staff and explained that there was a family situation and she needed someone to take over her shift after lunch because she had to go home.
As Maggie was a highly respected doctor, and had never asked for personal time off, it was agreed that she could leave after the lunch break. Despite Jack’s reassurances that everything was OK, she was not going to take his word for it. He had never come to the hospital before just to tell her to be vigilant, and she wanted to be at home with her daughter and Penny.
Jack arrived at the station and knew that something had been leaked as there were a group of press photographers waiting outside. He side-stepped them and went inside to the main desk. The duty sergeant released the security gate for him to go into the main corridor.
‘They’ve been here all morning, like bloody wasps; it’s always a sign that something big is going down, not that I’m likely to be told. But if they try to get in, they’ll get short shrift from me.’
Jack headed to the canteen and could feel the anticipation that something big was happening. There were only a few officers in there, and by the time he got his breakfast they had left. He carried his coffee and bagel down one flight of stairs and headed along the main corridor to the incident room. Nobody passed him and when he pushed open one of the double doors and stepped into the incident room it was oddly quiet, even though most of the desks were occupied.
Making his way to his own desk, he passed Anik wearing an Armani suit with a crisp white shirt and tie and looking very pleased with himself. In contrast, Jack still had some of Hannah’s breakfast splattered on his jacket and his shirt was very crumpled, with a tie that had already dangled in his coffee mug. But at least he had shaved. He felt loath to bite into his bagel as everyone appeared to be poised and waiting. As if on cue, the door to the incident room opened and Sara put her head in.
‘We have Amanda Dunn’s mother in interview room one with one of the WPCs. She has asked for a coffee. Can someone organise that from the canteen as I have to be out in the yard?’
Leon stood up and hurried out after Sara. Then Hendricks appeared, to let them know that Amanda Dunn’s brief had arrived and was waiting in reception. Anik got up, straightening his tie, saying that he would go and talk to him. He picked up a thick folder of files as he walked out. Laura came in carrying a coffee and said they had received confirmation that Amanda Dunn was arriving via the back entrance. She asked that the officers assigned to meet her be ready to usher her into the interview room with her brief after she had been booked in with the custody officer.
‘She has a social worker with her and hasn’t been told that her mother’s here. I presume she’ll be joining her in the interview room.’
Jack looked on with some amusement and decided he might as well tuck into his bagel. At that moment DCI Clarke opened his office door and came out carrying a clipboard.
‘Right, can I have everyone’s attention please. Before we begin to question Amanda Dunn, have we received confirmation that Miss Margaret Langton is available to attend as the appropriate adult?’
There were glances around the room before Laura put up her hand. She stood up beside her desk and DCI Clarke nodded at her.
‘Miss Langton is six months pregnant and not currently fit to attend.’
DCI Clarke gave a tight-lipped nod and closed his eyes.
‘Didn’t anyone check this out? Let’s hope Mrs Dunn will be acceptable as a supervising adult; if not, get someone else on standby. We should be ready to begin the session in fifteen minutes. I have allowed her solicitor to have a private consultation pre-interview.’
He walked back into his office and Jack quickly finished his bagel, screwing up the napkin and tossing it into the waste bin. Laura looked over to him and raised her eyebrows. Like Jack, she felt the whole situation was being over-orchestrated. Everyone was waiting for the arrival of their prized witness, who alternatively could end up being charged as an accessory to murder. There was no window in the incident room to see into the yard, so everyone just waited patiently for information.
DCI Clarke appeared again, saying that Amanda Dunn was now here and would be taken into Interview Room Two to confer with her brief and Anik. He then asked everyone listed on the board to be present in the viewing room, to go directly there and to wait for the interview to begin.
Jack, coffee in hand, sauntered across to the board. It had now been extended so many times that it was covering most of one wall. There was a list of the officers required to be in the viewing room and he noticed that he was at the top of the list, along with Laura, two other officers, and Glenda Bagshot.
Jack knew from past experience that it would take some time before everyone would be ready for the interview to commence. He left the incident room and headed along the corridor and down a flight of stairs, heading towards the interview room. He passed one of the smaller interview rooms, and through the window in the door he could see a small, bleach-blonde woman sitting with a mug of coffee. She was wearing a very loud plaid coat with a wide collar, and knee-high leather boots, and was clutching a bulging leather handbag. There was something about her over made-up face that gave her the appearance of being beaten in some way.
Laura caught Jack looking through the window.
‘That’s her mother. Sara is trying to sort out her return ticket to Liverpool, and to get some petty cash for a meal for her.’
‘Yeah, I thought she must be the mother. What’s going on with Anik and our star witness’s brief?’
‘Well, he has to be given a certain amount of disclosure, but we haven’t yet charged her and at the moment she is just “helping police enquiries”, so I don’t know how long it’s going to take. He’s very good looking, though, a young Indian man. He must be worth his weight, as he’s a pet boy of that Georgina Bamford. He was wearing a very expensive long cashmere overcoat, and gorgeous...’
‘For Christ’s sake, Laura! Where’s Amanda?’
‘They took her into the private interview room first, then when the cashmere coat is ready, she’ll have a meeting with him before it all goes down.’
‘Terrific, I’m glad you dragged me in here. I could have had a few hours extra kip.’
Laura walked off as Jack continued along the corridor, heading down the staircase to the lower ground floor where the new high-tech viewing room was located. He went into the ‘spectator’ section and found Glenda Bagshot overseeing a trolley with an array of takeaway cartons.
‘Miss Bagshot, I have to say you are fast becoming everyone’s favourite person. I presume this is down to you... It looks like a feast.’
‘Listen, Sergeant Warr, I have been in this business a very long time and I know just how important it is to feed the workers. But don’t think I’m a walking charity; I make them pay for all this. Clarke tried to tell me it wasn’t ethical, so I told him to stuff it. Help yourself because it’s going to be a long night.’
‘Night? Bloody hell, Glenda, it’s only three o’clock in the afternoon.’
‘We might all be running around the clock to keep to a bloody timetable, but this is a very big investigation, on a par with Fred West. And it’s even more newsworthy because we have two young kid killers. God only knows how the press will handle it when some of the facts get out. I have nothing against the DCI but it’s his first major murder investigation and in my opinion, he’s out of his depth. I heard the commander was here so that must have put a rocket under him.’