The Body in the Boot: The first 'Mac' Maguire mystery (24 page)

The DCS limply shook Mac’s hand again and said conspiratorially, ‘Many thanks Mac, we people at the top should always look out for one another.’

‘Absolutely,’ Mac replied, giving him a wink.

In the hallway outside Dan and Mac looked at each other and laughed.

‘You have my admiration!’ Dan exclaimed. ‘You cunning devil, you persuade him out of heading the most important press conference this station will see for years and then he thanks you for it. God but it’s been a bloody pleasure working with you Mac.’

‘Me too.’

They shook hands firmly, with feeling.

‘If I need you again, would you?’ Dan asked.

‘You’ve got my card,’ Mac replied with a wink.

‘Yes I have.’

Dan laughed again as he thought of their first meeting.

Mac went by the incident room and said his goodbyes to the team, although he had a feeling he’d be seeing Tommy again before too long and probably in the company of his daughter. He did indeed feel dog tired and was glad when he reached home. He made himself a cup of coffee and sat down in front of the television and turned on the news.

A few minutes later the announcer said, ‘We have some breaking news. A press conference is being held at Luton Police Station and we’re going over there right now.’

Mac could see Dan standing at the microphone. He spoke clearly and simply and Mac thought he did exceptionally well. He was glad that it would be Dan’s face on all the newspapers tomorrow, he deserved it. When the conference ended Mac washed his cup and gratefully slipped in between the sheets. He slept long and dreamlessly.

Sunday January 18th

Mac awoke in stages, finally drifting into a state where he knew he was awake rather than wanting to be awake. Eventually he got out of bed, checked his pain levels and found then tolerable. He stepped into the hallway and immediately noticed a white rectangle lying near the doormat by the front door. He picked up the envelope and looked at the front.

There was no stamp and just two words were handwritten there, ‘Mister Mac’. His heart started thumping wildly. He left it on the table in the living room unopened, went to the toilet, washed and made coffee. He wondered if it had been delivered this morning but he thought it just as probable that it could have been there on the mat when he came in the night before. He’d been so tired he probably wouldn’t have noticed.

He kept glancing at the envelope trying to get his courage up to open it. Eventually, and with a huge sigh, he tore the top off and pulled out a single sheet of paper. The printed header said ‘Dempsey’s Electricals’ and gave an address and phone number. His pulse was still racing as he read -

Dear Mr. Maguire,

                         I hope you don’t mind me contacting you. I wonder if you remember me, it’s been a long time since we last met.

Laura has told me about hiring you to follow Georgy. I’d be really grateful if you could contact me by phone but only if you want to. I’ll understand if you don’t want to contact me and will make no further contact if that is your wish.

Yours in hope,

Pauline Dempsey (nee White)

Mac found himself picking up the phone and dialling the number without consciously thinking about it. He held his breath as the phone at the other end rang.

‘Hello, Dempsey’s Electricals, how can I help?’ a woman said in an attractive sing-song tone.

Mac found he couldn’t speak for a few seconds. 

‘Hello is that Pauline?’ he asked at last.

Silence fell at the other end too.

Eventually a tremulous voice said, ‘Is that you Mr. Maguire?’

‘It is Pauline. Can I come and see you?’

‘When?’

‘Now would be good, I’ve waited so long.’

‘Yes, come now,’ she said and that was that.

He looked at the clock, surprised that it was already gone noon. He showered and had toast and more coffee and was just about to set off when the doorbell rang. It was Tim. Mac let him in. 

‘I saw the press conference this morning on the news and when you didn’t call I thought I’d see how you are. How are you?’ Tim asked, concerned as ever about his friend.

‘I’m not too sure to be honest, something’s happened.’

‘To do with the case?’

‘No, no, something from the past.’

Tim could see a bemused look on Mac’s face and he had to know more.

‘Tell me about it.’

Mac poured Tim a cup of coffee and said, ‘Okay let me quickly tell you the story…

One Saturday in November over sixteen years ago my team had gotten a call. I remember that it had been cold and drizzling for days and that somehow set an appropriately sombre backdrop for what was to follow. In a working class street in Haringey a neighbour had called on a Mrs. Diana White and found that the front door was open. She went in calling Mrs. White’s name but there was no reply. She found out why when she went into the kitchen at the back of the house. Mrs. White was lying spread-eagled on the floor and there was blood everywhere. The neighbour called 999 and we turned up fifteen minutes later.

I’ve never seen a scene like it before or since, blood had sprayed all over the kitchen cabinets, the work surfaces, the sink, the cooker, it was like an abattoir. You’d never think a single human being could hold that much blood. We found out later that she’d been stabbed seventeen times and had also had her throat cut. It had been a frenzied, brutal attack. The neighbour kept going on about ‘the kids’. When we calmed her down she told us that Mrs. White had two children, Pauline, who was fourteen, and Georgy, who was eleven, and that they were both missing. Also missing was Mrs. White’s boyfriend, a man called Michael Jeremiah. The neighbour was certain it was the boyfriend who’d killed Mrs. White, she said she’d seen Mrs.White with black eyes and bruises all too often recently.

Criminal Records told us that she was probably right. Michael Jeremiah had a hefty criminal history, mostly for violence against women. It turned out later that he’d been sexually abusing Pauline for quite a while as well. Her mother found out and she’d confronted Jeremiah and that’s what had led to her death. Not long after someone who knew the family came forward and told us that they’d seen Pauline and Georgy running for a bus along the High Street. They just made it, jumping onto the platform as the bus took off. They also saw a man running after the bus who fitted the description of Michael Jeremiah. Luckily he was too late to jump on the platform and tried to run alongside the bus. Fortunately for Pauline and Georgy he collided with a bicycle and lost them.

We now knew that we were in a race, a race for the children’s lives. It was likely that they’d witnessed the murder and that was why the boyfriend was after them. We worked non-stop for a day and a half following every ghost of a lead but there was no sign of Pauline and Georgy or the boyfriend. We were doing everything we could think of but I was getting really worried that we might have already lost the race.

We got our break when I was interviewing Diana White’s mother, Elsie, one more time.

I’d finished the interview when she said, ‘Those poor kids. They were only happy when their Dad was alive. I’m afraid my poor Diana wasn’t much of a mother’.

This gave me an idea. I asked her where they used to live when Pauline’s father was alive and she gave me an address only a few streets away. She also told me that the houses there were being demolished. I still thought it might be somewhere Pauline would go, as it was somewhere she’d felt safe in the past. So my Sergeant and I ran to the car, I could actually run in those days although I didn’t make a habit of it. We ran into a block of terraced houses that were half demolished and looked for the number Elsie had given me. Unfortunately none of the houses had numbers left on them so I just took a flying guess and went in the nearest house.

That’s when we heard the scream. It was coming from somewhere upstairs. Luckily the stairs were still fairly solid so we raced up them and then we saw them. Pauline was in the far corner of the building which was like huge shell upstairs as all the partitioning walls had been knocked through. She was protecting Georgy, who was hiding behind her, with her body as Michael Jeremiah closed in not more than ten feet from them. He was holding a long kitchen knife, the same knife he’d used to kill Diana White.

We went towards them but a large section of the floor had caved in between us and them meaning that there was no way that we could physically get to the children in time. Then Jeremiah turned and saw us. He looked down at the hole and gave me the most evil smile I’ve ever seen. He knew we couldn’t stop him and I knew at that moment that he was going to kill Pauline and Georgy in front of my eyes. I don’t think he cared about the consequences, he’d already killed so what more could we do to him?

Luckily, knowing how violent Jeremiah could be, I had my Sergeant sign out a pistol. He’d joined the force after leaving the Army and always got top marks at firearm training. Just as well as I couldn’t hit a barn from five feet. Anyway once he saw that smile he didn’t hesitate, he pulled out the gun and fired. The bullet went in Jeremiah’s right temple and must have scrambled his brains immediately because he dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut. I ran back down the stairs on to the street and then up the stairs of the house two doors up and I found that Pauline hadn’t moved an inch, she just stood there squashed into the corner and she was shaking violently. Little Georgy behind her still had his eyes tightly shut. What could I do? I swept them both up and told them everything was going to be alright. I gave them a hug and they clung to me like little limpets. I had to sit in the back of the car with them because they wouldn’t let go, especially Georgy who had taken a liking to my coat and was gripping it tightly.

I knew they probably hadn’t eaten for quite a while so when we were back at the station I took them to the canteen first and they wolfed down some sausages and beans. Georgy ate one handed as he still wouldn’t let go of my coat. It was getting to be late evening by now so I decided I’d leave calling the social worker until the morning. I had a fold up bed in my office and I put them in it top to tail. I had to put my coat over Georgy as a blanket because he still wouldn’t let go of it. They were both absolutely exhausted and went straight to sleep.

Together with a woman constable I looked over them that night. I tried to catch up on my paperwork but I found myself just watching them as they slept. Twice in the night Pauline sat bolt upright with a look of abject terror on her face. I tried to assure her that everything was alright and that both she and Georgy were safe. Both times she went straight back to sleep.

In the morning I got them a good breakfast and Pauline asked me my name. I told her it was Mac and Georgy immediately piped up calling me ‘Mister Mac’ and the name stuck. I was really sad having to hand them over to the social worker but I visited them in the children’s home as often as I could and saw them during the inquest but not afterwards. I’ve been curious ever since to see how those kids turned out and today I’m going to find out. I’m going to see Pauline White and I’m not sure what I’m going to find when I do’.

‘Fancy little Laura’s boyfriend being involved in an old case of yours. How come you left it so long though? Why didn’t you go and see Pauline and Georgy after the inquest?’

‘That’s been a bone of contention with me ever since if I’m honest. After the legalities were done the social worker took me to one side and suggested that I shouldn’t see the children again. I must admit it really upset me but she said it might be best for Pauline and Georgy. Seeing me would keep reminding them about the horrible ordeal they’d gone through.’

‘And you believed her?’

‘No I didn’t, or perhaps I didn’t want to, but Nora persuaded me that she might be right. Anyway the social worker said that I should wait for them to contact me. It’s taken Pauline White sixteen years but she’s contacted me at last and now I’m going to see her.’

Tim wished him luck when he went. Mac thought he might need it.

The satnav told him that he was going to Watford and that it would take an hour. After just under an hour the satnav said ‘You have now reached your destination’ as he pulled up outside a large, prosperous looking house on the outskirts of the town. There was enough space in the driveway for five or six cars but there were only one two vehicles parked, a Range Rover and a small van with ‘Dempsey’s Electricals’ on the side.

As he got out of the car he could see a woman standing in the doorway and, even sixteen years later, he knew immediately who she was. He was wondering if it was going to be an awkward meeting but then Pauline came towards him and gave him a huge hug.

‘Come on in, I’m just making some tea.’

Mac followed her inside. The house inside was even larger than he’d thought but it was comfortable, a real home. Mac watched Pauline as she made the tea. She’d must be nearly thirty now Mac thought, little Pauline White all grown up.

‘There you go’, she said handing him a mug of tea. ‘I’d have used the china but I reckoned you’re probably like my husband Mick, he won’t drink out of anything except a mug’.

‘You’re right, I hate those little, fiddly cups.’

Mac suddenly thought of his Nora and the special, porcelain cups she’d bring out when guests were in the house.

‘I need to ask you a question. Do you mind?’

‘No, ask anything,’ Mac replied.

‘Why didn’t you come and see us after the inquest? We looked out for you for weeks afterwards.’

‘Didn’t she tell you, the social worker?’

‘No. she never said anything about you.’

Mac’s heart suddenly felt heavy.

‘Well, straight after it was all done and dusted she took me to one side and asked me not to visit you or Georgy again. She said it would just keep ‘reminding the children of their trauma’ were her exact words and that you both needed to forget for a while. She said that I should wait for you to contact me. I asked her if I could say goodbye but she said you were already in the car and that she’d pass my goodbyes on. Obviously she forgot. I must admit I wasn’t happy about it and I said so to my wife. She was the wise one out of the two of us though. She just said, What if the social worker is right? What if I kept seeing you and Georgy and then one or both ended up psychologically damaged, how would I feel then? I couldn’t argue with that so I just waited. I never forgot you and Georgy though.’

‘You never tried to find out what happened to us?’

Mac shook his head.

‘No, I discussed it with my wife but she advised against it. She knew I wouldn’t be able to just stop at that, she knew I’d want to meet you. I reluctantly had to agree, after all, I couldn’t be absolutely certain that the social worker wasn’t right. Then, when I saw Georgy cutting your grandmother’s hair and I realised who he was, I was sorely tempted to knock on the door but then I thought about it and decided not to. He’s still a young man and doing so well for himself. I wasn’t sure if seeing me might bring it all back and perhaps cause him some harm and that’s why I dropped Laura’s case so quickly. I never forgot you Pauline. There wasn’t a year went by that I didn’t wonder where you both were and what you were doing but I need to know, was she right, the social worker?’