‘Don’t breathe. Don’t touch anything.’ Josh dangled a vented mask down to Jack and shouted an urgent instruction: ‘Mask on, Jack. I’m coming down.’ Josh took a second vented mask from his pocket and jumped down by Jack’s side.
There were two trestle tables covered in plastic sheeting running the length of two of the walls. Beneath the sheeting were Bunsen burners, plastic bags, bowls, wooden spoons, masks, gloves... everything needed to mix pretty much any drug with any other drug. And against a third wall was a floor-to-ceiling shelf stocked high with fentanyl. Josh laughed from beneath his mask as his excitement and anticipation rose.
‘Holy moley. We’re looking at a street value of three, maybe four million. This is one smart operation, Jack. I’ve seen labs and stores before, but this... this is a careful set-up. This could have been down here for years, mixing and manufacturing streets drugs and, from the surface, you’d never know.’ Josh put his hands on his hips. ‘Well, Jack, looks like we’re partners from here on in, ’cos murder and drugs go hand in hand. You know, I’ve seen some sights back home, but this is the first time I’ve seen such a pro set-up hidden beneath a suburban backyard, owned by a dismembered pensioner. How very English!’
Chapter 8
Although the two outbuildings and their contents were hugely significant, Jack was still looking for a safe which was, he assumed, where Avril Jenkins kept all of her personal information, because it sure as hell wasn’t anywhere in her house or in the wine cellar. He decided to do one final sweep of the entire property, looking behind every picture frame and tapping on every wall, looking for a false panel. But there was nothing.
He was feeling despondent when Laura called.
She’d been to visit Jessica Chi again, as Ridley had instructed. She wasn’t home, but her live-in landlady, Mrs Ashton, had told her that Jessica had only recently moved in and always paid the rent in cash. Mrs Ashton rarely saw Jessica, who seemed to be a very quiet, private girl who didn’t have many friends. Mrs Ashton had gone on to describe the only person who had visited Jessica in the past week: ‘A shortish man. Fit-looking, quite young, with black hair and black eyes with thick eyebrows.’ She said he looked like a ‘wrong’un’.
Jack was indignant. ‘What does she mean, “shortish”?’
‘Oh, that’s the bit that upsets you!’ Laura giggled down the phone. ‘Not the fact that she called you a wrong’un?’
‘Listen, Laura, could you or Anik try to find something — anything — on Avril Jenkins? There’s nothing here. No passport, no birth certificate, nothing. She was a married woman who ran a business and a house. There has to be paperwork.’
Laura said that she’d task Anik with the job, because she’d been told to get back to tracking Adam Border. ‘Ridley’s got a meeting with Steve Lewis, Mal’s boss, seeing as this is a joint op now. Who’s this Josh guy, by the way?’
‘Josh Logan. He was working with the Manchester Drug Squad, but now we’ve found fentanyl he’s going to work with us for a while. It’s already rife in the States, so he’s helping us to get ahead of it in the UK.’ As he spoke, Jack made his way out into the back garden. Laura asked if Josh was fit. Jack hung up on her.
As he watched Mal lead the methodical search inside the greenhouse, Jack felt frustrated. Every case had moments where the pace slowed right down, whilst another team picked up the baton and ran with it for a while. But this murder case had only just started, and Jack felt like he was treading water whilst watching the Drug Squad have first-dibs. He decided to go to the Drug Squad van to make himself a hot drink.
Jack was sipping an extra-strong cup of coffee when Josh asked if he could join him. ‘So, Jack, how do you think our cases connect?’
‘In all honesty, I feel like I know less now than I did when I first met Avril Jenkins,’ Jack said wearily.
Josh’s deep laugh resonated around the inside of the van.
‘She’s the piece that doesn’t fit, right enough. It’s common for gangs to target houses like this for their secluded, private grounds. And they normally target vulnerable people on their own. Maybe she truly had no idea what was going on in her own backyard. I’ve seen it happen. And you can’t see any outbuildings from the house. Maybe she discovered what was going on and became a problem they had to get rid of?’
‘Dismemberment’s overkill, don’t you think?’
‘And slow. Maybe they’re not connected at all. Maybe your killer has nothing to do with our drugs.’ Josh got up and filled the kettle to make himself a cup of tea. ‘You want a refill?’ Jack drained his mug and handed it to Josh. ‘You know what confuses me, Jack? No professional security. I mean, yes, there’s an old guy in a hut at the end of the main street only letting residents through. And the grounds are secluded. But, once you’re in, there’s nothing. Close to three million in drugs, street value, stashed beneath a lawn... and not even a security light or camera. I don’t know, Jack; some of this says professional, some of it says amateur.’ Josh beamed a huge smile. ‘Intriguing, right!’
As Jack headed back inside the house, his attention was drawn to the keypad used for opening the gate — the gate that he knew wasn’t locked on his first visit and wasn’t even closed on his second visit. This keypad had numerous, unmarked buttons on its display, and Jack noted down the maker’s name before continuing through into the kitchen.
From there, he looked out of the window and watched Josh walk beyond the trees, back towards the greenhouse. Jack followed. As he walked through the extensive garden, taking the same route as he’d done on his first visit, his mind floated back to following Avril with the wheelbarrow.
The hole she’d made when she was manically dead-heading was now filled in, but nothing had yet been planted in the space. Jack snatched a pair of gardening gloves from a wall and knelt down.
Mal was feeling his age as he continually bent down and stood upright throughout the process of meticulously sifting through the contents of the greenhouse. Now he stood, pushed his fists into the small of his back and clenched his shoulder blades together to cope with the sharp pain in his lower spine. Once the pain had passed, he relaxed his entire upper body in relief, looked out across the garden, and saw Jack kneeling in the soil, digging a hole with his hands.
Josh’s heavy tan work boots stepped into Jack’s eyeline, together with a second set of black boots which Jack instinctively knew must belong to Mal. Mal knew Jack well enough to simply wait for the explanation to present itself, and Josh followed Mal’s lead.
Sure enough, Jack’s hands soon hit something harder than soil. He found the edges of the object and lifted out a plastic bag. Jack had no inkling of what to expect inside the bag, but he certainly didn’t expect to find items of jewellery. Jack stared at the gold and diamond treasures in his muddy gloves. Josh spoke first: ‘Do you still know less than you did in the beginning, Jack? Or does that hoard shine any light on anything?’
‘I think this is the jewellery that Avril Jenkins claimed was stolen by Jessica Chi.’ Jack sat on his heels, confused and frustrated. Mal asked why she would pretend to be the victim of theft and stalking. ‘The only thing she gained was police attention,’ Jack said. ‘I think she was scared. But right now I have no idea what else is true and what’s a lie.’