Sorcerer (17 page)

‘Oh my goodness!’

‘Don’t worry, Aunt Jocelyn’ said Owen. ‘I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation’.

‘I’m driving over to help you’.

‘Okay’ said Owen. ‘Ring me when you get close to see where I am’.

Owen drove into Didsbury village and as he passed Cameron’s Place he saw Cameron setting up the outside tables in front on the pavement. He slowed down and pulled up, lowering his window as he did so.

‘Hey, Cameron!’

‘G’day, mate! How’s it going?’

‘I don’t know, mate’ Owen answered. ‘Look, have you seen Gabby anytime since yesterday?’

Cameron leaned down with his hands just above his bent knees as he spoke to Owen through his car window. ‘Actually that’s a point, mate. Gabby was due to go to her Aunt Jocelyn’s for dinner last night as you probably know and she asked me to make her a dessert to take. So I did her a good old Aussie pavlova with fresh cream and everything. Trouble was she never collected it’.

‘Really?’

‘Nope’ said Cameron. ‘Said she’d be round just before closing time which is at five but she never showed. No message, nothing’.

‘And that’s not like my Gabby’.

‘No, it isn’t’ said Cameron. ‘Mate, is something wrong?’

‘I hope not, Cameron’ said Owen. ‘But I’m getting the strangest bloody feeling’.

‘Look, mate, park your car and come in. I’ll put some coffee on and we’ll get our heads together. Are you thinking she’s disappeared or something?’

‘It’s starting to look that way’ said Owen. He hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. ‘The bastard! If he does anything to her I’ll fucking kill him!’

‘Who, mate?’

‘George Griffin!’

‘How do you know it’s anything to do with him?’

‘Cameron, get real, he does a runner and Gabby disappears at the same time?’

‘I agree it does sound suss’ said Cameron. ‘Look, mate, like I said park your car and come in. And I think you should call the police straight away, especially if you turn out to be right about this Griffin bloke’.

‘I will kill him, Cameron’ said Owen. ‘I will kill him if he’s got her’.

‘Well if you’re right then you’ll be one of many contenders, mate’.

SORCERER THIRTEEN

Jocelyn and Doreen went to see Jack in his new sanctuary.

‘Well, well, well’ said Doreen as she looked round Jack’s suite at the Lowry hotel. Its postcode is Salford but its only on the other side of the River Irwell from the centre of Manchester. ‘You don’t do hiding on the cheap’.

‘One of the advantages of having money’ Jack replied and then immediately regretted it after the look he got from Jocelyn.

‘Did anybody see you coming here?’ asked Jack.

‘I don’t think so’ said Jocelyn, curtly.

‘You signed in with security?’

‘Yes, we did, Jack’ said Doreen.

‘It’s a good job you had a chance to take steps to protect yourself’ said Jocelyn. ‘My poor Gabby wasn’t as lucky’.  

‘So you’re ensconced in this mini palace with hotel security pacing up and down outside every five minutes’ said Doreen. ‘What’s the story, Jack?’

‘I want to know what’s happening with Gabby first?’ said Jack, trying to work round the decidedly frosty atmosphere amongst them. ‘Jocelyn?’ 

‘Poor Owen is beside himself’ said Jocelyn. Doreen was sat beside her on the very grand looking sofa. Jack was sitting opposite them. He’d ordered tea and they were all sipping from their cups. ‘He’s over at his parents’ house with his phone permanently in his hand waiting desperately for a call. Why hasn’t somebody sorted Griffin out by now? Don’t they call it taking him out? How come nobody has done that before now? How come he’s got away with it all these years?’

‘So the police do think that Griffin has taken her?’ asked Doreen.

‘Yes’ said Jocelyn as she wiped her face with a tissue. ‘A man answering his description pulled up outside Gabby and Owens’ place the day before yesterday and she hasn’t been seen since’.

‘Oh dear God’.

‘They don’t know how he managed to get her away’.

‘He must’ve tricked her in some way’ said Doreen. ‘The bastard’.

‘You should’ve heard what I’ve been calling him’ said Jocelyn. ‘It would make even your hair curl, Doreen’.

‘Then they must’ve been some very choice words’ said Doreen. She looked across at Jack and mouthed ‘say something’. He was sat there with his elbows bent on the table and his hands clasped together in front of his mouth.  He mouthed back ‘like what?’ It wasn’t often Jack was lost for words and this wasn’t the time for it to happen. Jocelyn needed the support of her friends and Doreen was more than a little irritated by Jack’s dubious silence.   

‘So what are the police actually doing?’ Doreen asked.

‘Well it’ll be all over the news today’ said Jocelyn. ‘The hunt they’d already launched for Griffin has now been extended to include the hunt for my Gabby’.

‘Oh Jocelyn’ said Doreen. ‘Jack? Don’t you have anything to say?’

Jack took note of the reproachful tone in Jocelyn’s voice. It hurt considering it was coming from one of his best friends. ‘I’m wondering how all of this affects Anne Griffin’.

‘Ah yes’ said Jocelyn. ‘The one who disappeared on the night of three particularly gruesome murders but who you’ve been financially supporting all the years since’

‘I thought I owed it to her, to the family’.

‘You owe my nephew millions, Jack. You’re able to hide away in this luxury because you swindled Edward out of his inheritance. In fact, you’ve been the snake in the grass all the way through this’

‘That’s not fair, Jocelyn’.

‘Well to you it wouldn’t be but it is from where I’m standing’ she charged. ‘And since we’re all friends here I’ll be straight with you. Since I found out that you’ve known the truth right from the start, I’ve wondered how you’ve been able to sleep at night for the last twenty years. I mean, it absolutely beggars belief. Not just the murders but the fraud against Edward’.

‘It wasn’t fraud’ Jack insisted.

‘Well then what would you call it?’ Jocelyn demanded. ‘You bought those shares knowing that Griffin was using them to cheat Ed out of what was due to him because you were selfish and greedy. You knew the abuse Ed had suffered at Griffin’s hands and it didn’t make any difference to you. You grabbed what you wanted and damn the consequences for someone who was supposed to be your friend’.

Jack took a deep breath. ‘They were blackmailing me’.

‘Well you should’ve called their bluff! Your friends would’ve supported you and perhaps all this could’ve been avoided?’

‘Alright, Jocelyn’ said Jack. ‘You’ve got to blame someone and it may as well be me’.

‘Don’t you bloody patronize me, Jack’

‘Well have you finished?’

‘Jack, how do I know if there’s a whole lot of other stuff you’re keeping to yourself?’

‘Jocelyn does have a point, Jack’ said Doreen. ‘Even I was shocked by the extent of what you knew and yet hadn’t come clean about’.

‘I will not be everybody’s whipping boy for this!’ Jack retorted angrily. ‘I’m not a bloody criminal!’

‘Jack, you’ve held on to information that could’ve brought Griffin to justice and healed the wounds of so many people who’ve been in so much pain for so long’ said Doreen. ‘That’s what Jocelyn and me are having problems with, Jack’.

‘Yes’ said Jocelyn. ‘And that’s why our friendship, Jack, is, as far as I’m concerned, up for review’.

Jack was genuinely shocked. ‘Jocelyn?’

‘I just don’t know how you could’ve done it, Jack’.

‘You’re not interested in hearing anything I’ve got to say?’

‘Gabby is out there with that monster and your twenty year silence is partly responsible so no, Jack, I’m not interested. But if he hurts her I promise you I will make damn sure you pay dearly for it’.

‘Just what are you doing here, Jack?’ Doreen questioned. ‘Why have you gone into hiding?’

‘Mary Griffin was my sister’.

‘What did you say?’ asked an astonished Jocelyn.

‘Mary Griffin was my sister’.

Jocelyn marched up to him and slapped him hard across the face.

Jeff had never been to Chief Superintendent Hayward’s house before and when he got there he was surprised at how grand it was. There was even a stone statue of a lion at the gate and pillars either side of the front door. There was a large stone pot of flowers that formed a makeshift island in the middle of the gravel forecourt. This was Downton Abbey meets The Only Way is Essex and in this part of Wilmslow in Cheshire everybody thought they were in the former when really they were in the latter. Jeff wondered if his wife had come from money.

Hayward answered the door in a dark red lumberjack shirt, dark blue jeans and casual slip-on leather looking shoes. He asked him in and led him through to the kitchen where he’d just made a pot of coffee.

‘This is a pretty grand place, Ian’ said Jeff, looking round. ‘You must be good with money or something?’

Hayward didn’t answer. He just looked at him and then looked away.

‘Ian, this isn’t altogether a social call’.

‘You’ve come about the statement I put out?’

‘Yes’.

‘I thought you might’.

‘Ian, it’s a pack of lies’.

‘Yes, well that’s how it’s got to be’.

‘Ian, I have fought bloody hard to keep the whole story of your son out of all this’.

‘And I’m grateful, Jeff. Believe me, I’m grateful’.

‘Ian, I understand about all the mitigating circumstances and why you didn’t report anything to do with your son being kidnapped when he was tiny. I do understand all that. But in that statement you claim to not know anything about the activities of George Griffin and we both know that’s a lie. Why, Ian? Why are you potentially letting him get away with it?’

‘Jackie isn’t letting me get away with it’.

‘Your wife? Why, what has she said?’

‘She’s always known that I can’t keep it in my trousers but she’s never had her nose rubbed in it like the discovery that I was already a father before we had our two. She can’t even bear to contemplate that our first wasn’t my eldest. She even wants me to go to a solicitor and try and make sure that my son has no claim on my estate’.

‘That’s petty and immature of her if you don’t mind me saying so’.

‘She says that if I ever acknowledge my son publicly then our marriage will be over. She knows I’ll never do that but neither does she want me to see him in private. She wants me to have absolutely nothing to do with him at all’.

‘I see. Well, I’m sorry but I think her stance is pathetic and selfish. She should be grown up enough to acknowledge and accept what happened before she met you. But that still doesn’t change what you’ve done here, Ian’.

‘How’s the search for Griffin going?’

‘Nowhere’ Jeff admitted. ‘We have no leads whatsoever and now we believe he’s taken his granddaughter Gabby Lake. I’m sure he has her but what scares me is why’.

‘Well believe me he will have his reasons’ said Hayward. ‘Look, don’t underestimate him, Jeff. He’s a very devious man’.

‘That’s what I’m beginning to find out’.

‘Look, there’s something else. Griffin threatened to kill my wife if I ever told anyone about what Anne Griffin had accused him of’.

Jeff was struggling to keep his cool. ‘Ian, are you saying you knew all about Anne Griffin too?’

‘Of course I knew’ said Hayward. ‘That’s another reason why I had to put out my statement. Jeff, you’ll catch up with Anne Griffin. And when you do she’ll have a story to tell’.

‘Ian, has George Griffin been in touch with you since he came back to the UK?’

‘Now that would be telling’.

‘There’ll have to be an enquiry at work’.

‘No, there won’t be’.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know what I mean’ said Hayward. ‘There won’t be an inquiry because there won’t be any evidence of any wrongdoing for anyone to base a case on. Oh and I’m being moved to a new position with the Merseyside constabulary. My resignation has been withdrawn’.

‘So that’s it?’

‘That’s it’.

‘No explanation?’

‘You know what the explanation is, Jeff’ said Hargreaves. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out for you’.

‘I shouldn’t be here’ said Jeff as he picked up his car keys. ‘Thanks for the offer of the coffee but I think I’ll pass’. He marched down the hall to the front door. ‘I’m disappointed, Ian’.

‘In me?’

‘Yes, in you and in the system that’s going to protect you’.

‘Well you’ll learn to live with it. But I’m sure our paths will cross again’.