Backlash (9 page)

‘She spent hours up here. She’d make the dolls for her doll’s house and even the furniture. She was very inventive. She made little mirrors with tin foil for the glass, and the
wigs from her own hair; she’d collect it from her hairbrush and we even found her cutting one of the boy’s curls when he was sleeping.’

‘The doll’s house?’ Anna said, recalling the one she had seen at Langton’s and the Jordans’ home video she had watched.

‘Well, Stephen made it for her, but she had started to really want a bigger one, she said she couldn’t fit in all her families. He is halfway through designing a new one;
you’ll see it in his office. It’s very grand and exactly how she wants it, with the main wall opening up to show off the different rooms.’

Anna gave a sidelong glance to Emily as she lightly touched her daughter’s hairbrush on the small kidney-shaped dressing table.

‘So what happened to her old doll’s house?’ Anna asked as she pretended to be interested in the tiny figure of a dog; it was made out of plaster and no bigger than her
thumbnail.

Emily hesitated and then gave her bracelet a twist. ‘James was telling us it was his stepdaughter’s birthday, he said he felt dreadful as he had meant to buy her a gift, but had been
held up interviewing someone, so Stephen gave him Rebekka’s.’

Anna was quite shocked on two counts. One, she presumed the woman’s mention of James referred to Langton, and the other that they would part with something of their daughter’s.

‘She didn’t want it,’ said Emily, maybe sensing her reaction. ‘She’d grown out of it and Stephen was so sure she’d come home that he wanted to finish the one
he was building as a surprise.’ Again Emily twisted her bracelet round and round and her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘He hasn’t. I think he finds it too distressing, you know, to
finish it.’

Emily covered her face as she started to weep, awful shaking sobs, and Anna instinctively went to put her arms around her. She felt terribly frail and Anna could smell a soft flowery
perfume.

‘I am so sorry, so sorry. I don’t want Stephen to see me like this.’

She broke free and backed away from Anna.

‘He’s upstairs. Please go and see him. I’ll be downstairs.’

Anna waited a moment and then headed up a narrow staircase to the top floor, where she found Stephen sitting at a large trestle table similar to his daughter’s. The room included high-tech
computers and sound equipment, but nothing much else. In one corner was, as Emily had described, a half-finished huge elaborate doll’s house.

‘I have really come to say that I’ll be leaving now, but I will be in touch if I have any further news.’

‘She’ll be nineteen next month. Hard to come to terms with how she would have grown up. She’ll always be thirteen, won’t she? Always young, always a child.’

‘It must be heartbreaking.’

‘It is. Maybe if we get something that will let us bury her. We have no grave; we have just hung onto hope for five years. It’s harder for Emily because she won’t leave the
house.’

He got up and moved closer to Anna, putting his hand on her shoulder.

‘I beg you to find out where she is and what happened to her, then we can move on and sell this house, because it’s like a haunting, she’s still everywhere. I love my wife and
I just want her to get over this terrible guilt she feels.’

Anna found the warmth of his hand on her shoulder and his closeness uncomfortable, and she stepped back.

‘I’ll show myself out. Thank you for your time and I promise I will do everything in my power to give you some peace.’

Anna did not return to the kitchen, but let herself out and hurried towards her parked Mini, bleeping it open and getting in as fast as she could. It all came down like a heavy
weight. The pain inside the white, sparkling-clean house and the anguish of Rebekka Jordan’s parents became confused with her own past. She broke down and wept for the man she had loved and
for the future she had lost with his murder. The scene she had just witnessed also brought something else home to her very strongly: she had no one, no one to take care of her like Stephen Jordan,
who obviously loved his wife Emily.

Pete Jenkins, an old colleague and friend, called Anna that evening. She hadn’t heard from him for a long time. He explained that he had tried to contact her in the
incident room at the station.

‘You were out and about and didn’t answer your mobile.’

‘I’m sorry, I had it on silent and haven’t checked it since.’

‘Well it’s nothing urgent, more of a moan, as I’ve been told you want all the crap they removed from your suspect’s home sifted. I didn’t get a clear indication
from fatty Barolli what I’m to earmark so I thought I’d ask you.’

‘Well, I need you to examine anything that may connect Oates to the victims he claimed he murdered; female underwear especially, something he might have kept as a sick token like jewellery
as well.’

‘The obvious?’

‘Yes, I suppose so. The young girl Rebekka was wearing a pink Alice band, no press release on it, but then her backpack and riding helmet were never recovered. Did you get details of her
clothing sent to you?’

‘No, and nothing for Fidelis Julia Flynn either.’

‘I’ll sort it out in the morning.’

‘Okay. In the meantime, I’ll put a mask on and start digging around. You know we have about fifteen disgusting black bin liners full of stuff. I’ve had a couple of assistants
start to comb through it all, but I’ll get on with it personally in the morning.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Dinner should be on the cards.’

‘You got a rain check on that.’

‘Maybe come to my house, meet the wife; she’s lumbering around as we’re expecting a baby next month.’

‘Oh, I didn’t know. Congratulations. Do you know what it is?’

‘No, but if it is a boy, he’s going to be called Harold. It’s taken some time to get her to agree to it, but it’s my grandfather’s name.’

‘Lovely. Fine, I’ll wait to hear from you.’

She sensed that Pete would have liked to chat more, but she didn’t feel like it. Her brief affair with him had been a long time ago.

As she hung up she felt another pang of sadness. Pete and his wife were about to start a family, and she remembered laughing and talking with Ken about raising a big family
together. He’d wanted a rugby team! He had been a very good rugby player and she had watched him playing a match, along with his sister and his two boisterous nephews cheering on their uncle
Ken from the sidelines. Now there were no tears, not like earlier in the afternoon; it was just the sadness that enveloped her. She didn’t want to go over any of the files and instead had an
early night, taking two strong sleeping tablets to make sure she slept. She liked the feeling of sinking into her pillow as they took effect and her mind went blank.

The next morning it was not her alarm that woke her, but the telephone ringing at six-thirty. Disorientated, she sat up, first catching the time on her bedside alarm clock and
then anxiously reaching for the phone.

‘You awake?’ Langton’s voice rang out.

‘I am now!’ She pulled the duvet around her.

‘You talked to Rebekka’s parents?’

‘Yes.’

‘I meant to tell you about the doll’s house. I’d fallen over the bloody thing when I got out of the hospital.’

‘Really.’

‘It may appear to be unethical to you, but they insisted, so I took it home for Kitty.’

‘Do you know what time it is?’

‘No. Is it early? Only I sleep most of the day and I can’t get comfortable. Why haven’t you called me?’

She sighed. ‘Because I don’t really have anything to tell you, only that Mike split the team into two and I’m working on—’ She was interrupted.

‘I know, I spoke to him last night.’

‘So you have the update on what we’re doing.’

‘I do, but not from you. How did you find the Jordans?’

‘Painful, heartbreaking and they didn’t recognize the photograph or the name Henry Oates.’

‘Too much to hope for, I guess.’

‘Yes, but I’m checking into an extension they had built by local builders just in case they used part-time labourers when they were digging up the ground.’

‘We did that, but then we didn’t have a suspect.’

Anna unwound the telephone extension cord as she got out of bed and reached for her dressing gown.

‘You going to interview this creep’s ex-wife?’

‘I’m thinking about it, but I’ll have to go to Glasgow.’

She switched the phone from one hand to the other as she put on her robe.

‘I’m in agony. This bloody cage round my knee is torture.’

Anna listened as he moaned and groaned about how long it was going to take before he could get out of the flat. Eventually she said that she needed to make herself a coffee and take a
shower.

‘You okay?’

She sighed and said that she was just fine.

‘You got very upset when you left the Jordans, you were crying.’

She was stunned. Emily or Stephen must have been watching from the house.

‘Yes. As I said, I found it very emotional and they are a really nice couple. It made me feel inadequate as I didn’t really know what to say to them or how to help them.’

‘Tell me about it. Five years, Anna, five years they’ve waited.’

‘They said you were a great comfort.’

‘Yeah, yeah, not good enough though, is it?’

She repeated that she needed to get going and eventually he hung up. Langton was really something else, and even though she knew his frustration must be almost as agonizing as the surgery on his
knee, she was irritated by his call. Not until she had made some toast and a fresh mug of coffee did she realize that in some ways he must have been concerned about her. She actually felt better
and less emotional than she had the previous evening.

Before she left for the station, she looked into the Jordan files where Langton’s team had questioned the builders that had built their extension. They had given the names and contacts of
all the men who had worked for them, and they had all been checked out. It was, for the Langton enquiry, another dead end, but Anna would double-check and now show the photograph of Henry
Oates.

At the station Anna made straight for Barolli to let him know that he had not given a clear instruction to the forensic team about what evidence to look for. He was rather
petulant and explained that he had specified any items that could possibly have been kept as tokens from the two victims. She told him about the Alice band and he said that as he hadn’t been
informed about any pink Alice band he hadn’t listed it as a priority.

Anna discovered a Post-it note from Joan on her desk informing her that a DCI Alex McBride was waiting for her to call him. When she was put through to him she had difficulty
following what he was saying as he had a very thick Glaswegian accent. Anna told McBride about Oates’s arrest and that she wanted to come to Glasgow to interview Eileen Oates as part of her
investigation. McBride told Anna that Eileen had two daughters and lived on a council estate. Although she had a previous record for prostitution in London, they had nothing on file, but her elder
daughter had been busted for drugs numerous times and was also arrested for streetwalking. The younger girl was pregnant by a sixteen-year-old Jamaican living on the same estate, and they were due
to be married before the birth.

‘The ex-husband Henry Oates is not known to us up here, and it appears he’s not been a part of their lives for a long time. In fact Eileen Oates has been involved with a man we
interviewed on suspicion of an armed robbery and murder. The reason why we’re so up to date on her is due to her relationship with this man. Eileen Oates gave the suspect an alibi, stating
that he was with her at the relevant time. A security guard was shot and died from his injuries and we believe she’s lying to protect her boyfriend.’

Anna decided that she would make the trip to Glasgow and McBride promised he would arrange for Eileen to be brought into their station for further questioning on his case, and if she agreed,
Anna could interview her there.

Anna next arranged to meet the building contractors who had worked on the Jordans’ extension. Owned and run by two brothers, Bill and Norman Henderson, the company was
based in Barnes, not far from Hammersmith. It took Anna over an hour to cross London from Hackney due to rush-hour traffic as it was four in the afternoon. Henderson Building Contractors operated
from a small yard at the back of a row of shops on Barnes High Street. Anna parked up in the yard beside an open-backed lorry that was being stacked with wood planks. Two white vans and an old Land
Rover were also in the yard.

Bill Henderson was waiting for Anna. He was much older than she had anticipated; white-haired and with a ruddy complexion. He introduced himself and as they headed into the
office he told her the yard had once been a stable and outhouses, and they had converted the stable into their business area. As he ushered her inside she thought the office was hardly a good
advert for their work, as it was cramped and untidy with an old mahogany desk and walls lined haphazardly with designs and architect plans for various builds. The filing cabinets were bulging with
documents and there were stacks of files and folders left on every available surface around the desk. This had a computer, telephone, fax machine and jars of pens and pencils on it. A worn leather
desk chair and two equally worn armchairs were the only other furnishings.

‘Sit down, please, my brother will be here any minute, he’s just making sure the truck gets out with a delivery.’

He seemed like a lovely man in his old knitted sweater and baggy trousers tucked into wellington boots. He asked if Anna would like a coffee or tea as he could rustle one up from a small annexe
of a kitchen.

‘No, I’m fine, thank you.’

He sat behind his desk and opened a drawer, taking out a dog-eared folder.

‘I got this ready for you. It’s all the team that worked on the Jordans’ extension. We had the same hardcore group back then that we still use on an almost permanent basis and
we hire in extra when needed.’