Schemer (38 page)

‘Do you think Wayne’s dead?’

It was an impossible question to answer, so Pam had no choice other than to sit on the fence. ‘I don’t know, sweetheart, I really don’t know.’

Barry Franklin was seated at a table in the Bishop Bonner pub in Bethnal Green. His father, Smasher, had only recently come out of prison, and Barry was enjoying listening to him and his old cronies reminiscing about the good old days.

‘It’s proper changed in this boozer. Do you remember when we used to get all the old boxers in ’ere? I bet Henry Cooper wouldn’t set foot in the shithole now,’ Smasher said, gloomily. The pub had really altered since he had gone inside and he didn’t like the atmosphere of it now one little bit.

‘It ain’t been the same since Freddie and Rita had it, if you ask me. Those were the good old days – when we used to have Chas and Dave down here on a Thursday night and everybody got up and sang. Do you remember the old boy who had the fish stall down the Roman? He used to bring the house down, and you certainly don’t get characters like him in here any more,’ Smasher’s pal, Charlie, told Barry.

Barry raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t had a beer with his father for Christ knows how long and had been expecting a jovial piss-up, not a melancholy look back in time. ‘Yeah, I do remember Chas and Dave singing in ’ere when I was a kid, but now they’re famous I doubt they’d wanna be slumming it round ’ere again. Times have changed, lads, and we have to move with ’em, unfortunately.’

‘Gonna have a little chat with me, boy. We need a bit of a one-to-one,’ Smasher said to Barry.

Barry followed his father outside. ‘What’s up?’

‘Nothing, lad, unless you wanna include your whore of a mother spreading rumours. She’s been going around telling people that you killed Jake the Snake.’

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake. She sprang that one on me in the motor on the way home from the brief’s office. I thought she was just talking drunken bollocks, I didn’t actually think she would start telling people. Who did she tell? Do you know?’

‘It’s Fat Carol who’s been mouthing it off round ’ere. I went and knocked on her door yesterday and, apparently, Lairy Mary, who now lives in Dagenham, had told her. I’ve warned Fat Carol that she better keep her gob shut else she’ll have me to deal with. You didn’t have anything at all to do with the old boy’s death, did you, Bal?’

‘What do you take me for, Dad? I’ve told you many a time that I quite liked the geezer, so course I never. Anyway, I’ve got bigger fish to fry than poor old Jake, ain’t I?’

Smasher smirked. He was well aware of Barry’s quest for revenge against the two people who had betrayed him in the worst way possible. ‘Has Jacko been found yet?’

‘No sign of him,’ Barry replied, grinning.

‘And how’s it going with the bird?’ Smasher asked, referring to Steph.

‘Sweet! I’ve got her and the mother eating out the palm of me hand and it won’t be long before I strike. What goes around comes around, eh, Dad?’

Smasher laughed. ‘That’s my boy.’

Stephanie felt her heart pounding nineteen to the dozen as the two coppers sat down on the sofa opposite her. They seemed much more important than the two who had visited her the other day. These were plain clothed and had an air of power about them. One of them introduced himself as DI Jobson and told Steph that his colleague was DC Moore, then Jobson spoke directly to her.

‘I’m afraid we have had little success in tracing Mr Jackman’s movements after he left the club that he was drinking in. One of the doormen gave us a statement saying that he saw Mr Jackman leave and cross the road, but from there the trail goes cold. We do have some other news for you, though. We have conducted a thorough search of Mr Jackman’s business activities and we now know that he had recently sold most of his assets. Were you aware that the money your fiancé received from the sale of your house in Collier Row had been taken out of his account and was supposedly used to pay off debts?’

‘No, I wasn’t aware of that – and what do you mean by “supposedly”?’ Stephanie asked, anxiously. She had ordered her mum to take the children to the park and now wished she hadn’t.

‘I say “supposedly” as we cannot find any proof of Mr Jackman actually paying off these debts. It’s all very much hearsay at the moment. We have taken statements from quite a few of Mr Jackman’s friends and work colleagues, and apparently he had spoken quite openly of the financial difficulties he had found himself in. Did you know that he had recently sold a part of his gym, and had also taken out a massive loan against it?’

‘No, I didn’t, and I just can’t believe all this is true. Wayne never showed any sign of being in debt to me, although he did say a couple of strange things to me just before his stag night.’

‘What did he say?’ DI Jobson asked.

‘I can’t remember to be exact, but he did drop a hint that he had a cashflow problem. Actually, I do remember it now. As Wayne was about to leave for his stag do, he made a comment about how he’d only invited a few people to it because he was footing the bill.’

DI Jobson pulled out a notebook and jotted something down. ‘Anything else you can remember about that conversation?’

‘I think I said to Wayne that it was unusual for him to worry about money; then he said something about everybody having to pull their horns in sometimes. I didn’t take much notice of what he said, to be honest. I just thought that Wayne was referring to the cost of the wedding.’

‘How would you describe your relationship with Mr Jackman? Did he seem different recently? Distant perhaps?’ Moore asked.

Stephanie glared at both officers. What were they trying to insinuate, for Christ’s sake? Were they hinting that Wayne had fallen out of love with her and had disappeared of his own accord? ‘I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting at, but I can assure you that there was nothing wrong with Wayne or our relationship,’ she replied, angrily.

DI Jobson sighed. It was part of his and Moore’s job to ask these types of questions, so why did people always seem to take them as a personal insult? ‘Look, Stephanie, all we are trying to do is find out what has happened to Wayne. His disappearance is rather baffling, to say the least, and I’m afraid that we have to explore every avenue possible. Some questions we ask you, you might not want to answer, but it would help us enormously if you did.’

Stephanie immediately saw the error of her ways. Jobson was right. He and his colleague were only trying to find Wayne, so she quickly decided to speak from the heart. ‘Wayne and I have been together since school. We’ve had a few ups and downs over the years, but who hasn’t? I would say that our relationship was really good overall, but to be perfectly honest, over the past six months or so, I did feel that we had become like ships that pass in the night. Wayne was always at work so, apart from first thing in the morning and sometimes last thing at night, I rarely saw him some days. We did still socialize at weekends, though. We didn’t really go out any more because of the kids, but just recently we had friends over quite a few times.’

‘Where did Wayne work in the evenings?’ Moore asked Stephanie.

‘At his gym. It didn’t shut until ten at night, therefore by the time Wayne had locked up and that, he didn’t get home until after midnight. Between me and you, I think he and a couple of the lads used to have a few drinks after work. I smelt alcohol on his breath a few times when he got home late, and he admitted to me that he liked to de-stress after a long, hard day.’

Jobson glanced at Moore. They had already spoken to Wayne’s employees from the gym and, apart from on the odd occasion, the employees reckoned that Wayne had rarely been there of an evening. Something didn’t ring true. Determined to get to the bottom of it, Jobson carried on with the questioning.

Stephanie answered as best as she could, but she found the experience extremely unsettling, and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard her mum and the kids return from their trip to the park.

‘Are you policemen? Have you found my daddy yet?’ Dannielle asked, as she bounded into the room and stared at Jobson and Moore.

‘Yes, they are policemen, and no, they haven’t found Daddy yet. Now, take your brother upstairs for a minute, Danni. Me and Nanny need to have a little chat.’

‘Why aren’t you wearing policemen’s clothes?’ Dannielle asked. She had always been an inquisitive child, and could not understand why Jobson and Moore were not in uniform.

‘Take Tyler upstairs now, darling,’ Stephanie urged, raising her voice. Dannielle was far too clued-up for her age to be listening in on what the police had to say. That is why she had wanted her mum to take the kids over to the park in the first place.

When Dannielle did as she was told, Pam turned to Jobson. ‘So, what’s happened? Is there any more news?’ She could tell by Stephanie’s face that whatever news her daughter had received wasn’t particularly good.

‘Your daughter will explain what we’ve already spoken about to you later, Mrs Crouch. There are a few more questions myself and my colleague need to ask Stephanie, though, and then we’ll be out of your way.’

Pam sat on the armchair next to Stephanie and supportively squeezed her daughter’s hand. When her own husband had been killed in an accident, Pam had felt as if her whole world had fallen apart, but at least she had known what had happened to him. What Steph was going through was a hundred times worse, unless it had a happy ending, of course.

Jobson cleared his throat. ‘In the sports bag that Wayne had with him on the night of his disappearance, we found some receipts amongst other things. One was from a pawnbroker’s and it stated that Wayne had pawned a lot of jewellery earlier that day. I take it he never mentioned anything about this to you?’

‘No, nothing,’ Stephanie replied, grasping at her mother’s hand for support. How many more secrets had Wayne kept from her?’

‘And how was Wayne acting on the day of his disappearance? Did he behave in an unusual manner at all? Or perhaps say or do something that he wouldn’t normally do? Were you actually here when he left to go to his stag party?’ Moore asked.

Remembering her and Wayne’s frantic sex session that morning, Stephanie felt herself blush, but said nothing. The way Wayne had made love to her that day had been rather unusual, but there was no way she was going to discuss something as intimate as that with the police. ‘Wayne was completely normal on the day of his stag do, and yes, I was here when he left to go out. There was nothing odd about his behaviour at all as far as I can remember.’

Jobson nodded. ‘Please do not worry when I ask you my next question, as I have already told you that we have to cover every bit of ground. Enemies. Were you aware of any that Wayne might have had?’

Wondering if she should mention to the police that Tammy thought that her fiancé’s disappearance had something to do with Barry Franklin, Stephanie decided against it. Deep in her heart, Steph could not believe that her ex had anything to do with Wayne going missing. Barry had been absolutely wonderful throughout all of this trauma, and Steph was sure that Tammy was barking up the wrong tree. ‘My Wayne didn’t have any enemies as far as I know. Wayne’s always been a good partner, a good father and a good man, and I can’t imagine anybody disliking him, can you, Mum?’

Pam didn’t agree with the good father bit, but decided to sing Wayne’s praises anyway. ‘You speak as you find, officers, and Wayne has certainly always made my daughter happy. And, Steph’s right. I can’t imagine anybody having it in for him, either.’

Hearing one of Tyler’s familiar screams coming from upstairs, Stephanie leapt up. ‘I’m gonna have to see to my kids now. My mum will talk to you for a minute.’

‘We’re actually done, for now. Thank you, Stephanie, you’ve been most helpful. We’ll pop round again in the next couple of days to speak to you again. Obviously, if we have any news in the meantime, we’ll inform you immediately,’ Jobson said.

When Steph dashed out of the room, Pam stood up and shut the lounge door. ‘I couldn’t say anything in front of my daughter because I don’t want to upset her any more than she already is. Why were you asking all those questions about Wayne acting differently?’

‘We just need to build a picture of Wayne’s mood and his movements to help us further our enquiries,’ Jobson replied.

‘Well, what do you think has happened to him then? Because if it is something bad, I would much rather you told me so I can prepare my daughter for the worst,’ Pam said.

Jobson glanced at his colleague before answering her question. ‘We really can’t speculate at the moment, but as soon as we have any concrete news regarding Wayne or his whereabouts, I can assure you that you and your daughter will be the first to know.’

Pam led the two officers to the front door, then leant against it as she closed it. She was sure that the police knew more than they were letting on, but what that was, she didn’t know.

CHAPTER THIRTY

As the weeks turned into a month and there was still no news of Wayne’s whereabouts, Stephanie began to lose all hope of finding her fiancé alive. The police had sent one of their trained counsellors around to speak to her and prepare her for the worst, but Steph had found the experience extremely upsetting and had refused to have any more to do with the counsellor afterwards. In Stephanie’s eyes, the constabulary had not pushed the boat out as much as they could have to find Wayne. They had appealed for information via a local newspaper, put posters up around Soho, and had interviewed Wayne’s employees, friends and family numerous times, but other than that they had done very little else. Stephanie wasn’t stupid and she knew what the police thought had happened. Wayne had told numerous friends and his grandparents of the debt he had got himself into, and the police had already insinuated that they believed the pressure of losing his business and the cost of the wedding might have tipped Wayne over the edge – so much so that he had taken his own life. Wayne’s GP had also verified that Wayne had been to visit him twice in the month before his disappearance and he had been extremely anxious and depressed. His GP had also said that Wayne had spoken about having suicidal thoughts, which in the eyes of the police made their theory more probable than ever.