DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 (57 page)

Jessica remembered her conversation with him in the back of the van, when he spoke about his drinking. She hoped he hadn’t returned to that and, more than anything, she hoped he had an
alibi and wasn’t involved.

Louise had been working on a different case but Jessica assumed she had been brought in to listen to everything as a fresh set of ears. ‘Do we have anything we might be able to bring him
in on?’ she asked.

Reynolds waved towards Cole. ‘I don’t know. We were talking about this earlier. The guy was released from prison and served his time so we have got to be careful. In essence, he has
no connection to Anthony Thompson, other than what happened in the past. It’s circumstantial that he wasn’t at the hotel. We could see if he has an alibi but we don’t want to be
seen to be harassing him.’

He glanced at Jessica before continuing, clearing his throat. ‘That said, I’ve had people looking into Martin’s past and his old school was burned down a year before he was
arrested for the fire that killed Alfie Thompson.’

It was the first Jessica had heard about it. ‘Seriously?’ she blurted out.

Reynolds nodded. ‘Yes. He was never a suspect and, other than the fact he went there, there’s nothing to link him to it. It’s just something to bear in mind.’

‘Let’s not forget his house was burned down too,’ Jessica reminded everyone.

All five officers looked at each other as if searching for inspiration. ‘We’re clutching at straws,’ Reynolds said. ‘Maybe someone’s trying to set Martin up? Maybe
someone’s out for revenge on him or Anthony? If any of you have any theories, they would be most welcome.’

Again, no one said anything and Jessica could only think of Ryan.

Before the silence could last too long, Cole interrupted. ‘Moving on for now, I’ve got an update on our two suicides.’ He picked up a folder from his desk, before shuffling
some papers around and picking up the one he wanted. ‘I think you all know the details about Sienna Todd, the first victim. Jason and Jess visited the parents of her friend, Molly North,
yesterday after a second apparent suicide. We have the early results in, which basically say all the signs point to suicide.’

‘Did Molly have any self-harm marks?’ Jessica asked.

‘Nothing,’ the DCI replied. ‘No note found either, nothing untoward at the scene.’ He turned to face Rowlands. ‘David?’

Jessica hadn’t expected the constable to speak but she realised he must have been given her duties from the morning.

He looked apologetically towards Jessica for a moment and then spoke. ‘I talked to Sienna and Molly’s friends earlier this morning. To say they were no help would be an
understatement.’ He nodded towards Jessica. ‘I know Jess and Jason spoke to the same girls at the school but I couldn’t get anything from them either.’

As if reading Jessica’s mind, Cole cut in, speaking to her. ‘I asked Dave to do the interviews because I thought they might have felt drawn to someone male who is a bit younger than
myself or Jason.’

‘Did you get anything at all?’ Jessica asked.

Rowlands shook his head. ‘Nothing really. They all said they only knew Molly through Sienna. None of them seemed to think either of the girls were particularly depressed or anything like
that.’

‘Do you think it could be some vow of silence?’ Cornish asked. ‘Like a cult or a club or something like that?’

‘I honestly don’t know,’ Rowlands replied.

Jessica thought of herself at that age and the way she and Caroline pretty much kept themselves to themselves. There were other friends they might do things with, but their secrets and worries
were only shared with each other, if at all. Although she had found the other girls’ attitudes hard to fathom, she could just about understand why they might not know the intimate details of
each other’s business.

‘I don’t know if it’s relevant,’ Jessica said softly. ‘But Molly was most likely in love with Sienna. She might have killed herself because of that.’

‘Did you question the parents?’ Cole asked, slightly surprised as it was the first he had heard of it.

‘I think her mother knew but her father didn’t. It’s not fair to any of them to bring it up now. If Nicola – the mother – chooses to tell her husband then it should
be her decision.’ Jessica spoke firmly enough to make it clear to the others that it shouldn’t be negotiable.

For a moment, no one said anything, as if digesting her words, before Cole spoke. ‘With the coroner’s verdict confirmed on Molly North, I think we’re all aware of what
tomorrow’s headlines might bring. Dual suicides of young girls and the like. I’ll liaise with the press office about what to do if we end up with the worst type of coverage. We
absolutely cannot allow people to think there’s some sort of suicide cult.’

‘What if there is?’ Louise asked, quite reasonably Jessica thought.

Cole shook his head. ‘Then we’ll still tell them there isn’t.’

Jessica had rarely seen him angry but he appeared close to losing his temper before composing himself. ‘Because everything has been happening at once, we haven’t yet put together a
concrete plan of who should be doing what. I know that’s my fault but let’s sort this now.’

‘Are we ruling out the possibility that everything is linked?’ Jessica asked, knowing it wouldn’t go down well.

She saw Reynolds and the DCI exchange the briefest of glances to confirm her suspicions that they had already talked about her while she wasn’t there. ‘I wouldn’t say
we’re ruling it out,’ Cole said, ‘but we don’t have any reason to think they might be connected. Obviously, there was a fire at the house of Sienna Todd’s father but
that could be bad timing.’

‘Or it could be relevant,’ Jessica replied, trying not to sound too aggressive. The inspector and DCI exchanged another glance, infuriating Jessica, who suddenly found herself
raising her voice. ‘Look, I’m not just picking on him but you’ve got to admit there’s a link to Ryan in all of this. He knew Sienna. Molly and the other girls were nervous
talking about him. He was angry over Anthony’s interview.’

There were a few moments of silence before Cornish spoke. ‘Why would he set fire to his own house? And what about the suicides? Are you saying he was somehow involved?’

Jessica’s anger dissipated as quickly as it had erupted. She slumped into her seat. ‘I don’t know. I just think we’re missing something.’

More silence.

‘What are you suggesting, Jess?’ Reynolds asked gently. She knew the inspector was trying to be delicate but she didn’t like the idea of her colleagues trying to patronise her.
‘We can’t just follow Ryan around,’ he added to emphasise his point.

‘We can’t,’ Jessica replied. ‘But I know someone who can.’

Andrew Hunter had been doing whatever he could to forget the case he didn’t want to be working on. He took on a job running a pre-marriage background check for a man on
his potential wife. Quite what that said about ‘love’ and ‘trust’ between the couple before their big day, he wasn’t too sure. Either way, one of his contacts who
worked for a credit rating agency had passed him some information which showed the woman in question had some debts her spouse-to-be didn’t know about. Andrew passed it on and took his fee,
realising more and more each day that he had probably made the wrong career choice.

He was sitting in his comfortable chair, spinning himself around in the absence of anything meaningful to do, when his mobile phone rang. The name which flashed up filled him simultaneously with
excitement and a little fear.

‘Sergeant Daniel,’ he answered, before being reminded to call her ‘Jess’.

‘How are you?’ Jessica asked, which was the first time Andrew could remember her asking him something similar. He was instantly suspicious.

‘I’m all right. You?’

‘Good, good,’ he heard Jessica reply. ‘Look, I’ve got something for you. A sort of “You scratch my back, I might be able to pass a few things discreetly your
way”-type thing.’

‘Is that how the saying goes?’ Andrew asked, trying to make a joke.

‘What?’

It was clear to Andrew that Jessica worked very much with one-sided conversations which she controlled. ‘Nothing, don’t worry about it,’ he replied. ‘What are you
after?’

Jessica explained the only link she knew of between the suicide of Harley’s daughter and the fire which destroyed the man’s house. It was a young man named Ryan, whose father was a
convicted killer and arsonist. He had been in the photos she had taken from him. As she spoke, Andrew reloaded the images on his computer so he could familiarise himself with what the teenager
looked like. From the photographs he had, Ryan was the person who had fed Sienna chips.

‘Obviously this call hasn’t happened,’ Jessica said. ‘But I was just wondering if you could perhaps keep an eye on Ryan? You’re being paid to find out information
which could be relevant to him anyway and, of course, I’d be really grateful . . .’

Andrew almost laughed, wondering if the sergeant knew how fake her pleading voice sounded. She had the bollocking-angry one down to a T – but the one where she was trying to be nice needed
work. He wondered if he should tell her but figured he didn’t want to risk hearing the irate voice again.

‘What am I going to get in return?’ he asked.

‘I’ve already given you information about Ryan which could help you,’ she replied.

‘Are you saying he could be the father?’

‘Maybe . . .’

‘You’re not, are you?’

The line went silent for a moment before Jessica began to speak, her voice slightly harsher. ‘No, probably not. Well, maybe. Look, do you want me to be honest?’

Andrew laughed. ‘Go on then.’

‘Basically, we don’t have a bloody clue what’s going on. We’ve got fires, attempted arsons, suicides, knobheads working at newspapers, all sorts. I suggested you might be
able to help. The people I work with aren’t so keen but I think they’ll turn a blind eye as long as any shite ends up sticking to me, not them.’

Andrew couldn’t stop himself from laughing again. ‘That’s a lovely picture you’re painting.’

He heard Jessica join in and, for the first time since she phoned, Andrew felt as if she was being herself with him. ‘People tell me I have a way with words,’ she said.

Andrew suddenly realised he had missed something. ‘Hang on, “suicides”? As in more than one?’ It was the first he had heard of it.

‘That’s the other thing,’ Jessica replied. ‘Sienna’s best friend, Molly, killed herself yesterday. We’re expecting it to hit the news tomorrow. It might even
be on TV tonight, I don’t know. Our press office is trying to keep things quiet for now but it’ll only stay like that for a while. That’s where my knobhead at the newspaper comes
into things.’

‘Where are you from?’ Andrew asked. ‘You’re not a Manc, are you?’

‘No, why?’

‘Because if you’re going around calling people “knobheads”, you’ve definitely been working here too long.’

He heard Jessica sigh. ‘Yeah, you’re right. Anyway, we don’t know why these girls killed themselves. We don’t know why Harley’s house was burned down, or any of the
other stuff I told you about. All we know is that Ryan is the only person we know who links it all together.’

‘So you want me to follow him?’

‘I can’t ask you to do that.’

Andrew was confused. ‘You don’t want me to follow him?’

He heard the woman give an exasperated gasp. ‘I don’t think you heard me quite right,’ she replied, annoyed. ‘I can’t ask you to do anything. If you do choose to do
something along those lines and then call me regularly to tell me what’s going on, that would be up to you. Obviously if that were to happen, there may be times in the future where I might be
able to call you and pass on pieces of information you might not necessarily have. As a friend, of course. If anyone were to examine certain phone records, I would just be talking to an old mate on
the phone.’

Andrew laughed, feeling stupid for not picking up on her initial hint. ‘We’re friends then?’

‘Oh yeah, we go way back. You, me, my boyfriend, your girlfriend, wife, boyfriend or whatever. It’s all dinner parties and that type of shite. Old, old friends.’

‘All right but, if we’re such old pals, you would know that I don’t have a girlfriend or boyfriend.’

‘Wife?’

‘Yeah, she’s just not married to me any longer.’

‘Oh.’

Andrew heard Jessica pause. He wanted to make a joke of things to stop the conversation being uncomfortable. ‘Trust me Jess, never get married,’ he said as breezily as he could, not
believing anything he was saying. ‘Only fools get married. Or “knobheads” as you might say.’ The silence from the other end started to become uncomfortable. ‘Er,
Sergeant . . . ?’

‘It’s Jess.’

‘Yeah, sorry, erm . . . I was only joking. You’re not married, are you? It’s just you said boyfriend, so I . . .’

She replied far too quickly and Andrew knew he had said the wrong thing. ‘No, no, it’s fine. So, er, right. Are we all right, then? On the same page and all that?’

‘Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll call you.’

‘Thank you. Bye.’

The line went silent. Andrew stared at the screen for a few moments before it hit him. He remembered seeing the engagement ring on her finger the very first time he had met her in the service
yard at the back of that electrical store.

He remembered Keira’s engagement ring, bought when he had hardly any money. It was a thin strip of white gold fitted with the smallest of diamonds. Even given its size, he had to haggle
over the price because he couldn’t have afforded it otherwise. She insisted it was perfect but the look on her father’s face when he saw it – half-amusement, half-disgust –
was something Andrew had never forgotten.

‘Sorry, Jess,’ he said quietly to the empty room, hoping she had more luck than he had.

Andrew was beginning to regret the first decision of his day. Jessica had told him that Ryan didn’t drive – even though he worked in a garage – and, given
that, he thought it would be best if he got some exercise and used public transport. That was definitely his first mistake. Sitting in his own vehicle in traffic that hardly seemed to move each
morning was a nuisance. Sitting in a vehicle with fifty or more strangers in traffic that hardly seemed to move went far beyond that.