DS Jessica Daniel series: Locked In/Vigilante/The Woman in Black - Books 1-3 (104 page)

Charlie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. All I remember is that it was the first time he’d gone abroad and he had to sort out a passport. It was the summer after he finished his exams
but I guess it didn’t necessarily mean they were all people he was at college with. He did this art class thing once a week too. I just don’t know.’

‘So he would have been eighteen or maybe nineteen?’

‘I guess so.’

Jessica took the photo back. ‘Can I take this for now?’

‘No worries.’

She showed him the other one of the two boys doing their homework. ‘I found this. I didn’t know if you might want it?’

Charlie took the photo from her and smiled slightly. ‘I remember this being taken. It’s nice. Dad used to make us do our homework when we got home from school before he’d let
us out. I remember him taking this.’ He used the support at the back of the frame to prop it up on the kitchen counter.

Jessica indicated towards the photo she was holding. ‘Can you keep quiet about this for a bit?’

‘Sure, it’s not as if I know anyone anyway.’

‘I mean from the papers.’

‘Whatever you want.’

Jessica drove back to the station trying to think things over but there were no obvious answers. If something had happened on the holiday, the person leaving hands around the city could perhaps
be one of the two faces from the photo she didn’t recognise – or it could still be someone else entirely. The first priority had to be finding out who the remaining two people were and
hoping neither of them had gone missing and that they would be willing to talk. Whether the holiday itself was relevant would be something they would hope to find out in due course – but at
least Jessica now knew there was a connection from Matthew Cooper to the other three victims.

After parking at Longsight, Jessica called Charlie to ask if he could look through the rest of the boxes at his house and let her know if there were any others of Ed at a similar age. Two of her
leads had already come from him and it would be irresponsible to not finish looking through things. With his agreement, she could have asked officers to go over but the house was so big, it would
be easy to miss items and there would be no guarantee they would know what they were looking for. At least Charlie was aware of the type of photos she was after and, regardless of his odd
circumstances, he did seem keen to help.

Dave and Izzy had already left for the day, as had Cole. Jessica would usually run ideas past at least one of them but, after looking around the station, she returned to her own office. DS
Cornish was sitting at her desk and it was the first time Jessica had seen her in their office for a while.

‘How’s things?’ Jessica asked.

Louise sounded tired. ‘Slow and painful. I’m seeing red vans in my sleep.’

‘No luck finding out where it came from then?’

‘We’re getting there but not easily. We thought that once we had the make and model it would be a fairly small list – but Royal Mail’s records aren’t great. Instead
of having a small list of vehicles it could be, we’ve got a long list of vans it isn’t. The DVLA are their usual shambles too – they really are the most incompetent, useless bunch
of idiots I have ever known. We’ve got a couple of leads.’

Jessica walked around her colleague’s desk and sat at her own, turning to face the other woman. ‘What about looking into George Johnson himself?’

‘I’ve been left out of that a little but it’s fine by me,’ Louise said. ‘The superintendent has been talking to a few people. We’ve gone over his bank records
and there are a few cash withdrawals that don’t seem quite right but they could be innocent enough. At some point we’ll interview him about them but there’s so much more we want
to look at first. We had to jump through hoops but we’ve got a warrant for certain emails now too. You know we wanted to do it without him knowing? That created all sorts of problems but
we’ve got tech guys looking over things.’

‘Expecting much?’

The sergeant sighed, adjusting one of the photos on her desk to make sure it lined up with the others. It was the longest conversation Jessica had had with her since the other woman started
working at the station. ‘Who knows? Some people think that if they delete emails, there’s no trace of them. Some are too stupid to delete them. Others don’t send emails at all and
our lab teams could spend the next few days looking over the dullest memos imaginable. I think it will come down to the cash that’s now not in his account and whether we can prove he’s
done anything untoward with it.’

Jessica blew through her teeth. ‘You’ll struggle. It could have gone on secret love-children, mistresses, cocaine, hookers or a giant stuffed teddy bear just for the hell of it.
He’s not obliged to keep receipts and all we can do is ask the questions.’

‘I know. There’s a steady amount of cash he takes out every month which might or might not be legit but there was one larger withdrawal last month and one the month before.
We’ll ask him but only after we’ve gone over his emails. I think his attitude could turn then too because so far he’s been the confused husband. If it gets leaked he’s in
the frame there really will be a shit-storm.’

Jessica wasn’t exactly shocked by her colleague’s language but it occurred to her it was the first time she’d heard the woman swear. As their conversation petered out, she spun
her chair around to look at her computer monitor, then pulled up the file of the rugby team she was so familiar with to make sure neither of the two faces from the holiday photo matched the other
players. They didn’t, which left her without an obvious way of finding out who the people were.

As she was thinking, Louise spoke out of the blue. ‘I’m sorry by the way.’

Jessica looked across. ‘Pardon?’

‘I’m sorry for being a bit of a cow. I know you weren’t having a go about me working. It was just a bit of a sensitive issue at the time.’

Jessica was a little taken aback as the statement was so out of the blue. ‘No, look, it was my fault. Sometimes I blurt out any old nonsense without thinking and it comes over wrong.
It’s not a surprise I also have a problem of not being able to control my own facial expressions.’

Louise nodded and smiled. ‘I’ve been wanting to talk for ages but I always miss you; either I’m here and you’re not or presumably you are and I’m not.’

‘I know; if it wasn’t for the morning briefings every now and then I wouldn’t know you still worked here.’

‘How are things with your case?’

‘Moving but not exactly quickly.’ Jessica walked over to the other sergeant’s desk to show her the holiday photo. She pointed to the four young men. ‘I found this at one
of the victim’s houses. These are the people the four hands came from. I have no idea who these two are. I’m hoping one of the other relatives does or we’re going to be stuck with
putting it in the papers and our website with an “Is this you?” request.’

‘Those types of thing always look pretty desperate.’

Jessica returned to her own desk and phoned Vicky Barnes. Matthew Cooper’s brother and Jacob Chrisp’s parents could be visited at a later date if necessary but she figured she may as
well start with the one person she’d had the most contact with. The woman was pleased to hear from her and invited her around that evening. Jessica was going to ask about visiting in the
morning but it wasn’t as if she had anything else on.

She didn’t know exactly where she was going but the woman’s house was in the Abbey Hey district, just a few minutes away from where January and Lewis lived. Given the short distance
between them, Jessica thought it was no surprise January was so annoyed at her boyfriend’s mother if she frequently came round. It was early evening as Jessica drove but there were still
groups of children on the roads of the estate. Some seemed innocent enough as they kicked a football around in the late day’s sunshine, others had a more sinister look. If she’d been
driving a nicer car, she might have felt wary of parking on the street but someone trashing her vehicle could give her the proverbial kick – and insurance payout – needed to get
something better.

After parking a few doors down from Vicky Barnes’s property, Jessica thought about leaving the car unlocked, almost willing someone to at least attempt to steal it. Ultimately, she turned
the key and walked to the woman’s house.

If the Markses’ was a mismatched property, this whole area was a disjointed estate. Jessica had driven past some properties with stale old mattresses and other items of furniture dumped in
their front gardens, next to immaculately kept houses.

The Barneses’ fell somewhere in the middle; there was nothing on the front but the lawn had been allowed to grow out and it looked very tatty. Jessica rang the doorbell and a
cheap-sounding version of ‘God Save the Queen’ played. Vicky Barnes opened the door looking almost exactly the same as the last time Jessica had seen her, wearing a tight cream crop top
that was far too small for her and leggings that looked painted on. The biggest difference was that her hair was no longer greying and had been dyed a strange mix of purple and brown that
definitely didn’t work.

‘You all right, love?’ Vicky said. ‘Come on in.’

Jessica walked into the house, following the woman into a living room. As she sat on the sofa and Vicky disappeared to get herself a drink, Jessica took the room in. Half of the area seemed to
be a shrine to Lewis. There were photos of him from all stages of life, as well as various certificates and awards that had all been neatly framed and put on display. Jessica read the words on a
certificate that must have been twenty years old and simply said the recipient had completed a ten-metre swim. Jessica was sure her parents had something similar from her childhood but it would
likely be in a box somewhere, certainly not on a wall so long after its award.

She was beginning to see January’s point more than ever. Jessica knew Lewis was an only child because of their files. There were no pictures of anyone except for him on display and, if you
assumed from that the father wasn’t present, it was a pretty sad situation for everyone. On the one hand you had a son who wouldn’t have wanted to leave his mother on her own but did
want to move in with his girlfriend. Then you had the girlfriend who Vicky would never have thought good enough for him, no matter who she was. Finally, you had the mother who was missing her son
but was, to be kind, a little overprotective.

With the fact they lived close together, it really wasn’t a good recipe for success.

Jessica looked around the rest of the room and there was a mass of trinkets and the types of ornaments people brought with them back from holiday. There were small statues of buildings as well
as plate sets, candles and all sorts of other tat Jessica absolutely hated. The only item she ever brought back from a trip abroad was as much alcohol as she could get away with.

When Vicky returned she was carrying a cup of tea and sat in an armchair opposite the sofa Jessica was on. ‘Are you sure you don’t want one?’ she asked, holding her mug up.

‘I’m fine, thanks.’

‘Do you like all my pictures of Lewis?’ Vicky pointed at a particular one above Jessica’s head. ‘In that one there he was in the school play. He was fourteen but they
wouldn’t give him the lead role. He was the best one there though – no one could have denied that.’

‘Did you know much about his friends, Mrs Barnes?’

The woman took a gulp from her tea then answered. ‘Oh yes, he played a bit of rugby and so on. I used to let him have his friends stay over. I know I probably shouldn’t tell you this
but I’d get them some beer or something on a Friday night. You know what lads are like, don’t you?’

‘Would you remember the names though? For instance did you know Jacob Chrisp and Edward Marks?’

The woman pursed her lips. ‘I wasn’t always sure about the rugby boys. Faces I’m fine with, it’s the names that don’t come so easily.’

‘You didn’t remember Matthew Cooper the other day,’ Jessica reminded her.

Vicky shrugged defensively. ‘If he knew Lewis, it must have been a friend of a friend-type thing.’

Jessica took the holiday photo out of an envelope she had been carrying around and walked over to the woman. She pointed at the two young men she didn’t know. ‘Do you know who these
people are?’

The woman looked hard at the photo. ‘I know the faces, erm . . .’ She looked up to the ceiling as if it were written up there. ‘One of them’s “Steven” but I
don’t know the last name. The other one is somebody Newcombe. They called him “Newey”. I’d know the first name if you said it.’

Jessica gave the woman time to think things over but Vicky couldn’t remember anything else. They made small talk and Jessica listened to another rant about January before she thanked the
woman for her help, adding that if she remembered any of the names fully, she could call at any time. Vicky wanted to know the significance of the photo but Jessica didn’t reveal too much.
She asked Lewis’s mother if she could look for any further photos taken around that time of her son with his friends and then said her goodbyes.

After finding the link from Matthew to the other three victims and having at least partial names for the other two, Jessica was going to drive back to the station, log the information on the
system and then go home and drink an entire bottle of wine herself. It wasn’t something she did too regularly but there were now only a few hours until her birthday and she was hoping no one
had remembered.

It wasn’t often the post turned up before Jessica had to leave for work but, as if Royal Mail somehow knew, a birthday card was waiting in the hallway of her communal
block of flats as she was on her way out. She only needed to read the handwriting on the envelope to know it was from her mother. A few years ago, the postman responsible for the round where
Jessica lived had been arrested for stealing from the mail. Over ten thousand undelivered items were found in his garage. Somehow, despite that and another year where there was a strike on,
Jessica’s mother always managed to get a card to her on time.