Sorcerer (15 page)

‘But when we interviewed you before you made no mention of the fact that you arranged these assaults on Leroy Jackson’

‘Because I didn’t arrange them’

‘But you’ve just admitted it?’

‘No, I said that I had given Griffin the name of a man who could arrange the assaults on Jackson. It’s not the same thing, detective’.

‘No, but it is pretty close’ said Jeff.

‘But just not close enough’ Jack retorted.

‘Who was Leroy Jackson, Mr. White?’

‘You think it’s him, don’t you? The adult male skeleton you found?’

‘That’s a pretty big leap to make, Mr. White’ said Jeff. ‘I only asked you who he was’.

‘Look, you know they were threatening to out me! I told you yesterday that I had to do as they said or else I’d have lost everything’.

‘With relation to your investment in Valley engineering, yes’ said Jeff. ‘But what else did you help Griffin cover up and how far did you go to make sure you weren’t exposed?’

Jack felt his insides lurch. He breathed in deep. ‘Okay, I was there that night’.

‘What night, Mr. White?’

‘The night they brought Leroy Jackson to Pembroke’ said Jack. ‘He’d taken a right pasting but I suspect that was only the beginning of what they put him through’.

‘Who were they?’

‘Griffin and the men he’d hired to pick Jackson up’.

‘And what had Jackson done to offend Griffin so much?’

‘He was going out with Griffin’s daughter Anne but Jackson was black and Griffin didn’t approve. Dominic Power was there that night but he hid where they couldn’t see him. But he’d have seen them bringing Jackson in and taking him downstairs. I saw Dominic Power and I promised him I wouldn’t tell Griffin. If I had then God knows what they’d have done to Dominic’.

‘Dominic Power told us he was sexually assaulted by Griffin’.

‘Did he?’

‘Did you know about that?’

‘Yes, I knew he was one of the boys they abused’.

‘And you did nothing about it like you did nothing about the rest of them?’

Jack breathed in deep. ‘That’s correct’.

‘Mr. White, is Anne Griffin the same individual as the A.Griffin you’ve been paying a thousand pounds to every month since the night Leroy Jackson disappeared?’

‘You’ve checked my bank account?’

‘Of course’ said Jeff. ‘This is a murder investigation’.

‘So we’d like the truth now, Mr. White’ said Rebecca.

‘Yes, it’s Anne Griffin’ Jack confirmed.

‘And do you know where she is?’

‘Yes. I have an address in west London for her’.

‘Good’ said Rebecca. ‘But before you continue we’re going to place you under caution. Serious crimes have been committed that you failed to report to the police. That places you firmly on the wrong side of the law, Mr. White’.

Ed Lake had been doing a lot of talking lately. In fact, he’d done more talking in the last week than he’d managed in the last twenty years and this morning it was finally time to tell the police all about what George had done to him. 

‘You don’t mind my Aunt being here?’ Ed asked as he looked at Jocelyn.

Jeff smiled. ‘Of course not’. He was sitting with Rebecca in the psychiatric unit of Wythenshawe hospital where Ed was still being treated. 

‘It’s just for a bit of moral support’ said Jocelyn. ‘Ed’s been through so much’.

‘We understand’ said Jeff.

‘Thank you’ said Jocelyn.

‘I should’ve told you all about this a long time ago’ said Ed. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t’.

‘Well let’s forget all that and start today’ said Jeff, gently. ‘Do you know what happened to your step-sister Anne, Ed?’ 

‘Annie was a beautiful girl’ Ed remembered. The fondness he still felt for Anne showed in the way his face had just lit up. ‘But I let her down badly’.

‘How did you do that, Ed?’ asked Jeff. ‘Tell us what happened?’

‘Annie was into all the Seattle grunge rock that was all over the charts back in the early nineties’ Ed explained. ‘She loved Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I don’t know what she’d make of groups today like Girls Aloud. She’d hate all that artificial sounding crap. She’d be an Ed Sheeran girl as a nod to modern style guitar men who could make it real for her. But the trouble was that my mother and step-father didn’t like her wearing all the make-up that went with the grunge rock look and the style of clothes. They thought it wasn’t in keeping with the kind of social status they perceived we had as a family’.

‘What did they do about it?’ asked Jeff.

‘She was banned from wearing any of it in the house and if they found out she’d worn it when she was out she’d get a beating from her father when she got home’.

‘What sort of beating?’

‘Do I really have to spell it out for you?’

‘I didn’t mean to sound insensitive, Ed, and forgive me if I did. But if you give us every detail it really will help us put together a case against your step-father’.

‘Yes, well I do understand that. They haven’t pumped me so full of drugs that I’ve lost all reason. He would slap her, punch her, kick her in the stomach when she lying on the floor. He’d drag her by the hair across the room and lift her up by it. She was older than me but she was slight and wasn’t a strong person physically. He could overpower her without meeting much resistance. And he often did it just before he went to speak at some local function or other. It was as if he was taunting her into daring to say something about what he did. Who would believe her when he was such a local hero?’

‘The same as who would believe you for the same reason’ said Rebecca.

‘Yes’ said Ed. ‘He was the manipulator of manipulators. Sometimes Annie and I would get together and try and laugh our way through it but he was like Hanabel Lecter without the charm and when he came home we’d both get frightened again’.

‘And he sexually abused you?’

Ed took a deep breath. ‘Yes. You could say I was raped a couple of hundred times‘

‘How do you even start to get over that?

‘You don’t get over it. That’s what I’ve been learning in here. What you have to try and do is to come to terms with it and not let it rule your life’.

‘Easier said than done’.

‘You’re not kidding’.

‘I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like’ said Jeff, in genuine awe of how Ed Lake and his step-sister had got through the lives they’d been stuck with.

‘It was like we were in one long horror movie’ said Ed. ‘We knew what could happen once the doors of our home were closed on the world and I in particular knew that my mother knew all about it but chose to deny it right up to her death. That’s why I hated her so much’.

‘Did she get along with your step-sister?’ Rebecca asked.

‘No’ said Ed. ‘They didn’t get on at all. It was always happy families in our house’.

‘But what made Annie disappear, Ed?’ Rebecca pursued.

‘She got herself a boyfriend’ Ed revealed. ‘His name was Leroy Jackson and he lived in Preston. He was this big, tall black man and my mother and Griffin did not approve one bit. He was also a single parent with a son, Ben, who was about six or seven, I think. Leroy was a few years older than Annie. He was a smashing bloke and Annie was head over heels. But it was no good. George went into countless rages. He was absolutely determined that this wasn’t going to happen. There were some terrible fights. Leroy did his best to protect Annie but Griffin got some blokes together and had Leroy beaten up on more than one occasion that I know of. Then Annie broke the news that she was pregnant. All hell really did break loose then especially as she’d been clever and hidden the pregnancy from all of us until she was past the legal limit for abortion. She wanted that baby. It was Leroy’s baby and she wanted it’.

There were two very striking parallels in Ed’s testimony as far as Jeff was concerned. The racist parents, the single Dad with the son. It was uncanny and more than a little chilling. But it didn’t stop him putting the right two and two together in his head and when he looked at Rebecca they both knew. The three bodies at Pembroke House, an adult male, a small child, and a baby. This was all starting to fit.

‘I lied before’ said Ed. ‘I know Griffin used to physically abuse the boys at Pembroke House. They would be beaten to within an inch of their lives for no other reason than they looked at him the wrong way. I sometimes heard them screaming for mercy and crying out for their mother’.

‘How do you know all this?’

‘Because he made me watch sometimes. When he thought I might be a little bored, you know. He employed staff he could manipulate into being the perpetrators of all that violence. They were all big men who you wouldn’t want to cross on a dark street. All the boys suffered. It’s a wonder none of them ended up in hospital but for beating up people like Leroy Jackson he hired hoods from outside. Griffin is a sociopath. He’s like Hitler. He doesn’t feel the pain he’s causing. He just revels in the effect it has on those he deems to be inferior. Hitler did it with the Jews. Griffin did it with me, Annie, and the boys at Pembroke House’.

‘So how has he got away with it for so long?’

‘Why am I in a psychiatric unit now? These things have a way of coming round in their own time and I believe that the time for Griffin to pay for his crimes is now’.

‘Ed?’ said Jeff, leaning forward. ‘You know what I need to ask you?’

Ed stole himself. ‘You want to know about the bodies?’

‘Yes’ Jeff answered.

Ed’s face contorted into a mass of such clearly obvious pain. ‘I don’t know exactly what happened. Annie was there but she managed to escape. She came running to me and begged me to go away with her’.

‘You say she knew exactly what happened?’

‘Yes, because she was there and she saw what happened to Leroy, his son, and to the baby she’d had with Leroy. It must’ve been horrific but only she knows the details’.

‘So you’re saying that the bodies discovered at Pembroke house were those of Leroy, his son Ben, and the baby born to Annie who Leroy was the father of?’

‘Yes’.

‘Why didn’t you go with her, Ed?’ asked Rebecca.

‘Because I’d met Jenny and I thought that she could provide me with the kind of life I needed to bury my demons. She was pregnant and I just couldn’t leave her. Annie begged me. She said we could make a new start somewhere else where nobody knew us and where my Mum and her Dad couldn’t find us. I said that if Jenny hadn’t have been pregnant I might’ve gone with her but I couldn’t leave her with a baby on the way’.

‘So what did Annie do?’ asked Rebecca.

‘She left’ said Ed. ‘She left knowing that I’d let her down and I’ve never seen or heard anything from her since. I’ve no idea where she went or where she is now. But if I could speak to her then I’d tell her I’m sorry for not going with her. God knows what’s happened to her in all these years’.

‘Ed, why didn’t you go to the police at the time?’

‘Because I was terrified of my step-father’ said Ed. ‘And because Annie begged me not to and I owed her that much’.                  

‘Why do you think she begged that of you?’

‘I don’t know’ said Ed. ‘I really just don’t know’. 

SORCERER TWELVE

DNA tests confirmed that the human remains of the adult found at Pembroke House were those of Leroy Jackson and the child was his son Ben. They were reported missing by their family up in Preston back in 1993. DS Oliver Wright had spoken to Leroy’s mother who confirmed that Anne Griffin gave birth to a baby son only three months before Leroy, Ben, the baby and Anne all went missing.

‘The third skeleton, sir?’ said Rebecca.

‘I think that’s almost certain, DI Stockton’ said Jeff. ‘But we need to know if that’s the reason Anne Griffin ran from the scene that night’.

‘We’re still waiting for the Met to make contact with her, sir’ said Rebecca. ‘We’ve passed on the address that Jack White gave us but they haven’t been able to find her at home yet’.

‘Well I want her found because I want to know what she knows’ said Jeff. ‘In the meantime it’s time to bring in George Griffin for further questioning although I’m going to spray myself with something before I go into the interview room with him. The man makes my bloody flesh creep’.

Mick had told his wife Pauline that he wouldn’t be home from his ‘big job’ until around ten. It was still only half eight and he told Jack that he didn’t have to leave for another hour. Jack went downstairs and brought up two cans of lager from the fridge.

‘Move over, big boy’ said Jack as he looked at Mick sprawled across his bed. ‘Make room for an old one’.

Mick sat himself up and took the beer off Jack. ‘Thanks’ he said. ‘And thanks for letting me fuck you’.

‘Well’ said Jack as he lay down beside Mick and they clinked cans. ‘That’s a privilege I don’t give away very often because I’m usually on top’.

‘So you made an exception for me?’