Ridley released a long sigh. He knew that everything Jack said was true. ‘Let’s interview Soren Bech. Then we’ll see.’
Jack and Ridley watched the police van park up in the rear yard. It rocked slightly as the people inside stood up and moved towards the doors.
The back doors of the police van opened and Anik walked down the steps. He then turned and reached up into the van as a scrawny man with greasy hair and sunken eyes stumbled forwards. He reached out his cuffed hands and leant heavily on Anik whilst he navigated the two small steps to solid ground. He looked weak and terrified. Anik led him slowly inside.
Jack and Ridley stood by the custody desk, watching Soren’s relentless shaking; his muscle control was weak and he was soaked in sweat, every inch of him pining for his next fix. Ridley rolled his head on his neck as though fending off a headache. He then addressed the custody sergeant: ‘Get duty doc to see him. If he needs to go to hospital, source two uniformed officers. No less than two, please. Keep him safe.’
Soren tried to move towards Ridley, who he now perceived to be the man in charge, but Anik held him at a distance. ‘De ramte min lille pige. They hit my little girl. With a truck. Now she can’t walk. I have two more children back in Amsterdam. Please. They kill my baby. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do it. I’m sorry.’ Soren stumbled heavily into Anik’s arms. A PC stepped in, took some of Soren’s negligible weight, and helped Anik take him towards the cells.
Ridley was seething at the fact that Steve hadn’t sent Soren Bech straight to hospital. ‘He doesn’t want to waste any of his officers on the escort, that’s why! Look at him, Jack. We won’t be able to interview him for hours and, when we do, he’ll be “no comment” as well. All of this... this garbled half-confession is inadmissible.’
Ridley wasn’t telling Jack anything he didn’t already know, he just needed to vent. Jack led the way back towards Ridley’s office with a suggestion of tea and brainstorming. Then they’d figure how to get their case back on track.
When Ridley and Jack arrived back in the squad room, Steve Lewis was perched on the edge of Jack’s desk, his arms folded tightly across his chest. Behind him were two crates of beer. And Foxy, choosing to stand alone, had adopted much the same position on the edge of Laura’s desk.
‘Simon...’ Foxy held a file in the air and got to his feet. ‘I have more information for you on Jessica Chi.’
‘Thank you.’ Ridley checked his watch — half past six — then invited Steve, Foxy and Jack into his office whilst the team had some well-deserved downtime.
Steve took the main seat opposite Ridley’s, leaving Foxy with the smaller, harder chair and Jack standing up. Jack opted to make himself useful by putting the kettle on as Foxy indicated that Steve should speak first.
‘Here’s what we’ve got from our interviews so far. Mahoney’s northern empire has migrated south over the past three years. As we have discovered, he and his gang were notorious for using large, out-of-the-way homes as bolt-holes. Only instead of targeting vulnerable users who could already be on our radar, they targeted respectable members of the public who are on their way out, physically or mentally.’
Jack wanted to defend Avril’s character, but he didn’t bother. He figured that Steve Lewis would probably just say ‘Avril who?’ Jack put a strong coffee in front of Steve and a weaker, decaf coffee in front of Ridley. Then he made Foxy and himself a cup of tea whilst Steve continued.
‘The reason I’ve come in person is to share some video footage. I hope it’s a kind of full stop for you on the death of Jessica Chi. We were only recently able to uncover the links due to the delay clearing all the debris from the fire, and subsequently put together further surveillance footage. There’s a file in your inbox, Simon.’
Ridley downloaded the file and pressed play.
Jessica Chi walked down the street that ran adjacent to the east wall of the woodland area beyond Avril Jenkins’ property. She wore the clothes that her charred corpse was found in, and she carried a duffel bag on her shoulder. Once she headed down the footpath by the side of the golf course, she was no longer trackable...
The video changed to footage from the hidden camera inside Avril’s conservatory. The view through the conservatory window was of the extensive garden, and the expanse of high trees that stood in front of Avril’s greenhouse. Nothing happened for at least thirty seconds. But Jack could tell by the smug grin on Steve’s face that something was about to. After eighty-seven seconds of watching nothing more than trees blowing in the wind, a brilliant red flame burst skyward, like a single rocket and then a huge plume of smoke rose into the air from the rear of the garden, beyond the thick foliage of the treeline.
‘That’s the greenhouse going up in flames.’ Steve’s enthusiasm was hugely inappropriate seeing as this was also the moment that Jessica went up in flames, but Foxy jumped in before anyone could take issue with it.
‘When I examined the lining of Jessica Chi’s lungs, I found a substance I couldn’t immediately identify, so I sent samples away to be analysed.’ Foxy opened the file he’d brought with him. ‘Cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, is a micro-organism that lives on the surface of unhealthy water with low-quality ecosystems. The untended pond in the woodland behind Avril’s home was like this near to the banks, where the water was shallow and could become stagnant. Cyanobacteria can make the surface of the water visually merge with the surrounding greenery of the woodland floor.’ The immediate change of expression on the faces of Jack and Ridley, told Foxy that they’d caught up with his train of thought. ‘Jessica Chi inhaled water from that pond. My guess is that she wasn’t watching her footing and in she went.’
Steve jumped in, so he could join the final dots. ‘The greenhouse would already have been warm. So, she paused there to dry off. But it looks like she then flicked on the one remaining heater which was found next to her body. That heater had been left off for a reason: we had it tested and, even with the fire damage, it proved to be faulty. It took one and a half minutes for the gas levels to become combustible and...’ Steve inflated his cheeks and then let the air escape. ‘She’d probably not have smelt it over the skunk.’ Steve sat back and waited for the plaudits to come his way.
Jack deliberately ignored him. ‘Do you take sugar, Foxy? I can’t remember.’
‘No thanks, Jack.’ Foxy moved to Jack’s side under the guise of collecting his drink, but he also took the opportunity to speak privately whilst Steve stewed in his own juices. ‘You were right about the enema, benzo and diazepam probably. Indicating, as you say, the potential for a second person to have been present. But be careful, Jack, because the current evidence floating about suggests that the other person could have been you.’
Steve slapped his hands down firmly on the arms of his chair and got to his feet before exiting Ridley’s office without another word.
As the evening drew on, Ridley ordered several large pizzas and let his team chill out with the supply of beer provided by Steve Lewis. He and Jack sat in his office nursing a small whisky each. Ridley asked Jack how things were going with the investigation into the death of Tania Wetlock. Jack knew there was nothing concrete to incriminate him but that certain aspects of the case didn’t make him look good — the champagne bottle in her bedroom being one of those things. And the bruising to Tania’s wrists and upper arms being another.