Matilda gasped and the tears came quickly. Henrick remained steadfast whilst he fulfilled his duty to Jack. ‘Yes, Detective Warr, this is our daughter Jessica.’ And then he too crumpled. Matilda sobbed as she took Jessica’s face in her hands and kissed every visible inch of cold skin, repeating certain words over and over, sometimes in English, sometimes in Dutch: ‘I’m sorry. ‘I love you. Goodbye my darling.’ In contrast, Henrick looked at the ground, statue-like, and allowed the tears to effortlessly fall from him. He couldn’t look at Jessica and he certainly couldn’t touch her. After a few minutes, the pain got too much for Matilda. She walked out of the chapel and collapsed into a chair in the corridor, sobbing into a hanky and numbly accepting Laura’s comforting arm around her shoulder.
Henrick finally looked at this daughter.
‘I’d like to sketch her,’ he whispered. ‘To paint later. To... to bring her back to life. Paintings are about immortalising those you love. May I? Please.’
Jack completely understood Henrick’s need to turn this horrific moment into something else. Something beautiful that would be easier to revisit. He suggested that Henrick sit with Matilda, whilst he collected Henrick’s art folio for him.
‘Two days ago, I was a father. Now, I’m not.’ Henrick looked Jack dead in the eyes. ‘Are you a father?’ Jack nodded his reply. ‘I need to feel sad and mourn... and instead I feel anger and hatred. But the truth is, if the man who took my daughter was standing in front of me now, I’m not sure what I could do. I’d like to think I would tear out his heart with my bare hands... but I’m not a bold man, Detective Warr. Not like you. This...’ Henrick laid his hand on Jessica’s arm, gently at first, before instinct took over and told him to grip tightly onto her and never let go. He closed his fingers around her wrist and sobbed. ‘This is wrong. Please make it right. Not as a policeman. But as a father.’
Henrick then walked into the corridor, where Matilda stood to meet him. He cradled her head against his chest and rocked her in his arms.
Jack stared at Jessica’s wrist — Henrick’s finger marks were still visible as indented white lines where her lifeless skin had not bounced back into shape when he’d finally dared to let go. How he’d let go at all was beyond Jack.
Jack covered Jessica’s hand with the sheet to stop thoughts of vengeance-by-proxy filling his mind. He could not think like a father, as Henrick had asked. He had to think like a policeman. Although he didn’t know if he’d still be so logical when he finally faced the person behind the brutal murders of Avril Jenkins and Jessica Chi.
Chapter 24
Jack and Laura huddled together at the far end of the chapel corridor, whilst Matilda stood at the window watching her husband sketch their dead daughter. ‘You’ve got to get back to the squad room, Jack. Ridley texted when you were in there with Mr Chi. He’s not happy about something. Again! He’s so volatile recently. Anik thinks he’s been dumped, but my guess is the male menopause.’ Jack frowned as though to say she was talking rubbish. ‘It’s a thing!’
Ridley had been Laura’s guilty crush for more than six months. At first, she was frightened of him not feeling the same, then she was frightened of him feeling the same, then she decided that the reality would not match the fantasy and that she loved the thought of him more than anything else. Now she had Josh.
Laura told Jack that he’d better head back, before Ridley came down to the chapel and caused a scene. She’d look after the Chis until they went back to their hotel, then she’d pick up with Interpol. ‘The likes of Hester Mancroft thought Avril could have been married before she met Frederick Jenkins, but even their solicitor doesn’t know for sure. We don’t know if she was married to Andre Boogaard, they could just have had a kid together.’
Jack was about to suggest that Laura make a second visit to Hester, but then decided against it. So far, he’d kept her cannabis oil use out of the investigation and, for now, wanted it to stay that way. Using home-grown cannabis oil was illegal and he might need Hester again, so he wanted her to know that he was someone she could rely on to keep her secret. Instead, Jack suggested that Laura and Anik extend their international enquiries to Germany, as that was a key European country in Josh’s bigger-picture investigation. Laura whispered her ranted reply, so as not to disturb the mourning that was occurring just ten feet away.
‘You’ve got to be shitting me, Jack. How the hell is Adam Border-slash-Boogaard-slash-whatever staying under so many radars? He’s done a uni course, for fuck’s sake. He’s been seen by dozens of neighbours at the Jenkins house, digging and pruning, and driving round in a bloody Porsche. He’s been investigated for B&E, theft and stalking. And we have nothing. No employment or unemployment records, no benefits, medical records, car insurances or parking fines. Adam Border-slash-Boogaard-slash-whatever doesn’t exist. Not here. Not in Amsterdam. And you now want me to look into tracing him in Germany?’ Laura let out a heavy sigh and turned her back. ‘Oh, just piss off back to the squad room.’
Jack smiled and said thank you.
Ridley sat at his desk washing down two tablets with a bottle of water. He waved Jack into his office and told him to close the door. ‘I just received a call from DCI Steve Lewis. He was surprised to see you appear on undercover surveillance footage from the workplace of Jason Marks.’
Jack pursed his lips and the tiny muscles under his eyes twitched. Of course he knew Jason Marks had been followed from Avril Jenkins’ wake, but he didn’t know that he was under constant surveillance. Jack said nothing as Ridley laid into him.
‘He’s a suspect in a dual investigation. We don’t know anything about him yet, he could be vital, and you’re strolling up to his front door and knocking on it. Embarrassing me is one thing, Jack, but embarrassing a DCI from another division can get you removed from this case.’
‘Sir...’
‘Don’t speak!’ Ridley’s shouted instruction cut Jack dead. ‘Lewis is leading an investigation which requires an ongoing agreement to share information. What you did is an infringement of that agreement and jeopardises our position in the case. He can have me removed, Jack. And if I go, you go.’ Ridley sat back in his chair and laced his fingers on his lap. It was now Jack’s turn to speak.
‘Sir, I would never intentionally embarrass you or threaten your position. And if the Drug Squad was sharing information, then we’d have known that Jason Marks was under surveillance. I’m investigating the murders of Avril Jenkins and Jessica Chi. Avril listed a Rossetti painting as being stolen from her home, she accused Jessica of stealing from her and Jessica was seen in possession of a stolen Rossetti. Seeing as Avril and Jessica are both dead, of course I was going to question the only art dealer connected to the case.’ Ridley sat in stony silence as Jack explained in more detail. ‘It could have passed through his hands. He could have it. Or it could have gone up in flames alongside Jessica. I don’t know. But approaching him was a perfectly legitimate step in my investigation.’
Ridley gave a long sigh, turning away from Jack, shaking his head.
Laura stood next to Matilda at the chapel window and they both watched Henrick seated next to Jessica, sketching her face. He looked happily lost in the moment. The image of Jessica that was slowly appearing on Henrick’s sketch pad was astonishingly beautiful and serene. Not dead — just waiting to wake. Like Sleeping Beauty. She possessed a long-gone life, that was clearly coming from Henrick’s memory.