Lethal Game, page 29
The DCI took a scribbled phone number out of his pocket. ‘You think you might have more luck?’
‘I did a foot surveillance course. I know that’s nothing like full surveillance, but we took part in a live job as part of our training. I know it can be done and I’m going to suggest they do the same here.’
‘He’ll know that too and he definitely didn’t offer it up. What if he still says no? You need a plan B.’
‘Then I’ll head over to Headquarters and ask him face to face. I’ll be a lot more difficult to turn down when I’m choking him out.’
‘That’s some plan B.’
Joel had taken the number to start typing it into his phone. ‘And the press release?’ he said.
‘With the Press Office. It should be out on the force social media channels already. The nationals monitor that so they’ll pick it up straightaway. It will be everywhere by the time Easton leaves the building.’
‘That makes surveillance more important than ever,’ DS Rose said, her discomfort about putting Billy at harm’s risk still obvious.
‘This will work out. It has to,’ Joel said. But if he was trying to reassure DS Rose, his boss or himself, he failed on all counts.
Chapter 50
‘OK, so it would appear that common sense has prevailed!’ Tom Lovelock looked to be back in his comfort zone. His demeanour was closer to Joel’s limited experience of defence solicitors: self-assured and well aware that the legal framework of an early investigation was massively stacked in their client’s favour. Billy Easton, by contrast, looked exhausted, fragile and beaten. A night in a custody cell could do that to a first-timer.
‘We got to this point as quickly as we could,’ Joel replied with a shrug. ‘We had a lot to try and work out, I’m sure you understand.’
‘Every hour is like five hours when you’re sat in one of those cells, I can tell you that much. I’m too old for those mattresses.’ Billy’s voice was breathy and feeling sorry for itself. His wallet, watch, belt and an open envelope were tipped out onto the custody desk in front of him. The bag he had brought was secured with a plastic tag through the handles, and the car magazine, which he hadn’t been allowed last night, was still poking out of the top. ‘So what happens now, Inspector?’ Billy said.
‘Get yourself home, catch up with any sleep you might have lost and, like we discussed back in there, if Robert makes contact with you, call me straightaway. Any time of day.’
‘And if he doesn’t, will you need to speak to me again?’ Billy replied, but it was Tom Lovelock who jumped in to provide the answer.
‘Not without contacting me first, Billy, and you don’t have to respond. DI Norris may want to speak to you as a witness as some point, and should that happen’ – Lovelock thrust his card towards Billy – ‘I would recommend you insist it happens here, with me present. Remember, I only care about your interests, the inspector here only cares about convicting prisoners. At least I think that’s what he meant by crushing into the carpet.’
Joel held back on explaining how solicitors get paid per consultation and how Lovelock was very much pushing his own interests. Instead, all Joel could muster was ‘until we meet again then’, directed towards both men, then he nodded to a response officer who had been loitering in the background. ‘My colleague here is going to run you home. I imagine a taxi fare would be quite steep from here and I don’t see the need to make you wait at a bus stop in one of our tracksuits and a pair of plimsolls.’
Billy peered down at his feet. ‘There’s really no need. Call me a taxi if you like, but I’m sure your colleague here has more important things to do.’
‘I insist,’ Joel said, ignoring the ever-increasing smugness of Tom Lovelock, who took the opportunity to speak again.
‘Come now, no need to be out of pocket. They don’t give many people a ride home. This is as close as you will get to an apology for your twenty-odd hours of incarceration for no good reason.’
‘My boy …’ Billy said, appearing to study Joel closely, ‘when you find him, you will let me know, won’t you? And go easy, OK, he’s not such a bad lad.’
Joel repeated his earlier request. ‘Get him to call me, Billy. You’ll be doing him a favour in the long run. Or you can call me direct. This needs to stop, all of it.’ Billy had no more answers. Instead, he turned for the custody exit. Joel waited for the door to shut before lifting his phone to his ear.
‘Billy Easton has left the building.’
Chapter 51
Jessica gripped the pallet and felt the underside scrape against the sodden sand as the water continued to recede. Her fingers ached, indeed her whole body did, and she knew she was just about done, that she wouldn’t survive another high tide. The weight of the chains and padlock on her stomach and torso that had given her a sense of doom were now a comfort to her – like a weighted blanket. When the time came, they would take her to the bottom and they would hold her there. The frothing, chaotic violence of the surface would still play out above her, but she would be in the depths, laid out on the seabed, away from it all. And for her, this would all be over.
She had been submerged and battered, lifted and scraped against the teeth of the stone beast, fighting to survive each time, and now she was close to the ocean placing her gently back on its floor, a heap of sodden exhaustion.
But it was a cycle, and it would start all over again.
Time and tide wait for no man. This was a phrase that had been bouncing around in her mind over and over. A Chaucer quote, recalled from her English studies all that time ago. Forgotten for most of her life, but it had made a return with middle age, with seeing her kids grow to adults themselves and even start their own families. It was true, of course. There are very few certainties in life but, from the moment we are born, we are running out of time. Perhaps it was this understanding that allowed her to think so calmly and clearly. Her energy levels, a gathering wind and a marked change in the ocean’s mood had forced the realisation that her time left was now extremely short.
This would be how she died.
The next high tide would arrive when the night was at its blackest, agitated by that strengthening wind to consume her. And she would let it. The fight had only caused her pain, panic and utter desperation. There was nothing left now, nothing left to fear, nothing left to fight.
The pallet bumped and scraped on the sand as the sea retreated from the mouth of the cave, and she lay still. The salt burned on her skin and blurred her eyes until the entrance was just a bright white blob, visible when she arched her head back. She watched a wave roll back in, the water flicking up to force a shiver. Most of her skin was exposed; she was only wearing a coarse dress and underwear.
With the water gone, the breeze seemed louder, surrounding her with whispers laden with menace, spoken from the pockets of shadow in the ceiling. The message was clear.
This would be where she died.
She wiped at her eyes with her hand. It made no difference; if anything her vision was made worse by the grit that dripped from her forearm. She had given up trying to pull the gag away. It was too tight, too painful. And it didn’t matter anyway. Not anymore.
There was movement on the other side of the cave from the other woman laid out on an identical-looking sodden pallet. She lifted her leg to bend it at the knee, her head lolling in Jessica’s direction. Her dress was also black. Jessica could see it only as a block of blurred colour, contrasting with the white smear that was her gag.
She had survived this far too.
Jessica felt sorry for her. She wished she could talk to her and tell her not to fight, to succumb to her exhaustion, to stop the pain and let it happen.
Death was going to be merciful to them both.
Chapter 52
Joel peered in through the open passenger door of a red Ford Focus being driven by DS Rose. They were still in the yard of Medway Police Station. The door rocked in a breeze that was strengthening.
‘We have three cars, two of them from the initial course and one other the surveillance team could spare. And us, of course. It’s better than I had hoped.’
‘And you didn’t have to get anyone in a choke-hold,’ DS Rose said.
‘No, I made him aware of a few more of the details and he seemed a little more keen to be involved. We got lucky. Let’s hope that holds out.’
DS Rose had already driven to the speed-gate at the back of the police station, a piece of furniture that was surely named by someone with a sense of humour. As they both watched it crawl open, right to left, in front of them, Joel continued, ‘We’re meeting the surveillance lot nearby. They need to give us an encrypted set. They were very keen to tell me that we just need it to observe.’
DS Rose managed a nervous chuckle. ‘I bet they were.’
Surveillance teams used different radios from standard police resources. They had a higher encryption that the surveillance team would say was to add a layer of assurance that the target couldn’t listen in. But the real reason was to ensure those ‘standard’ police resources were not monitoring what they were up to. Coppers were nosey; it was part of the job, part of their makeup, and most wouldn’t be able to help getting involved in something that sounded ‘juicy’ on air. So surveillance didn’t give their radios out lightly.
Sure enough, the greeting from the makeshift surveillance team was businesslike to the point of cold. Their support included a caveat: if there was no movement by nightfall they would be standing down. A reasonable instruction from a team cobbled together out of volunteers nearing the end of their shift; Joel wasn’t about to argue. It was nearly 3 p.m. Easton would arrive home in an hour or so. It was fully dark around 9 p.m.
It didn’t feel like a big window of opportunity.
Chapter 53
‘Subject has been returned to his home address. He still wears the custody issue navy tracksuit. There are no vehicles assigned to the property. A blue Nissan Note is assigned to next door and I can confirm the registration matches with the one provided. No other vehicles present. Subject states he will be having an early night.’
The update was from the uniform colleague Joel had borrowed to drop Billy home. He had managed to drag the journey out to an hour and ten minutes, enough time for the surveillance team to get into their positions. The broadcast had come over on the standard radio set, and Joel had to swap to the encrypted set to hear the instant chatter in response, each car confirming its readiness.
Joel thanked his colleague and confirmed that he was clear to come away. They were in position too; DS Rose had parked them up the A228, Paddock Wood, an arterial road that put them in reasonable striking distance of Billy’s address. She had turned the engine off. It was just twenty minutes before she would need to turn it back on again.
‘Standby, standby, standby.’ The pause that followed was maddening. ‘Blue Nissan Note vehicle passes me on Harold Road, general direction of Rusthall village. One male occupant. Unable to confirm ID.’
‘Margaret Marshall’s car!’ Joel said. ‘Billy’s moving.’ It had been part of Joel’s briefing that Billy was known to have had access to this car previously – Margaret herself had told them that – and that it was his only option for transport. He straightened up. DS Rose had been on her phone but it was now abandoned in a cubby to bump and scrape with the movement of the car. The Nissan Note’s general direction was towards them. The three cars that made up the surveillance team now called in their positions, trying to plot ahead as best they could. Two sightings came in one after the other. The way Billy was driving was helping; the Nissan Note was sticking to the legal limit. One of the cars was quick to report that they had fallen in behind it.
Then the radio fell silent.
Joel held his hand over his mouth, gripping his lips tight enough to hurt, desperate to know what was going on. His mind filled with scenarios. The most optimistic was that Robert Easton had made contact with his dad via the landline to arrange a meeting and he was now on his way.
Three more hurried updates came through as a flurry, the stress clear in the different voices of the team, their inexperience showing perhaps. With the fourth update Joel finally took his hand from his mouth to sigh with relief.
‘Vehicle is stopped. We are Rusthall High Street, vehicle has pulled off to park in Hill View Road. Male driver exits vehicle, confirm no other occupants. Standby.’
Joel brought the location up on the mapping app on his phone. It was familiar from the day before, when they had been looking for lunch.
‘Driver enters Cheese Pizza … approaches counter. Confirmation, male occupant is the target. Now wearing blue jeans, black hooded top and brown boots …’ Another pause, then another update. The excitement that had been just under the surface of the words was now starting to fade. Joel’s excitement was quick to diminish too as they listened to a very detailed description of Billy Easton picking up a pizza before heading home.
‘Seems like a man planning on having a night in.’ DS Rose said what they were both thinking and Joel let it fester for a minute or two.
‘Do you think he knows where those women are? I didn’t ask him outright on purpose. I thought it might make him clam up, make him realise how serious this is for his son.’ Joel finally voiced his worst fear. He had had Easton in front of him – what if he could have helped?
‘I get the impression he doesn’t know his son at all and Robert is acting on his own. No way he would risk using somewhere his dad knew. I think Billy would rat him out if he could.’
‘Do you? His own son?’ Joel said.
‘I think he’s devastated. That was how he came across. He’ll want to end this before it gets any worse, surely.’
‘Do you think Robert will come to see him?’
‘I honestly don’t know. I think he will want to know what happened at the police station but if he does …’
‘If he does, what?’
‘I think we will have put Billy in a lot of danger.’
Chapter 54
The gate sagged under Joel’s weight when he leant on it. They had moved to a different waiting position and the hinges creaked like they were feeling the strain. Joel could relate. DS Rose had chosen the location, a tight strip of tarmac that cut through Broadwater Forest, three miles from Billy Easton’s house, as good as anywhere to wait for more activity at that address. Choosing locations was difficult as they needed quick access to the address while also staying out of the way enough that Robert Easton wouldn’t drift right past them on his way to visit his dad. They might be in plain clothes and in an unmarked car but they would be screaming police vibes to the paranoid criminal.
Joel peered out into a thick forest that was starting to show the beginnings of dusk. As the shadows lengthened, so did the odds of Robert Easton making an appearance at all. Going to see his dad would be a mistake, something Robert Easton had avoided up to this point.
It was almost 8 p.m. Another hour and this operation would be over, and with it all chances of finding those women alive. DCI Kemp’s comment about all eggs in one basket was already part of Joel’s internal dialogue and he was forced to wonder if the fact that he was leaning idly on a gate while time slipped away was down to his failings as a detective. But where else could he be? There was only one other consideration that wouldn’t go away. That maybe he should be somewhere with Escape! laid out in front of him, poring over it in the finest of detail, reflecting that there was one ‘zone’ left of the four – Abandon Ship! – that was the obvious clue to where they should be looking for their missing women. Joel had asked Eileen to make some enquiries about redundant shipping in Kent and further away, and the result had not been a good one. There was no database for a start, no central place where redundant or disused vessels were listed. There were any number of companies involved in ship breaking, repair or storage. It wasn’t just a needle in a haystack; it was worse than that. They didn’t even know which haystack to start looking in. And it could only be a huge waste of his resources.
Joel’s feeling was that the game was a red herring anyway. At least, it was now. Robert Easton had guided them to make the connection with his dad’s game, then used that link to exert control over Joel’s investigation. It was a link that had to be broken. Joel felt sure that Robert wanted him to be poring over Escape! – that he was supposed to be searching every rusting vessel in a hundred-mile radius. That was the role Easton had for him now. They had to break from what was expected – just like Easton had himself. But doing that had led them here, to the edge of a forest with the sun setting on the only move he had.
‘Joel!’ He spun towards DS Rose’s voice. It was accompanied by the sound of ringing through the car’s speakers. He’d left his phone plugged in to charge. It was Eileen.
‘Eileen, what have you got?’ DS Rose had already pressed to answer as he fell back into his seat.
‘Some things you need to know,’ came the maddening reply.
‘More specific?’ Joel said.
‘The search at Jessica Harrington’s office is done. They couldn’t get into the computer system but they could get into the filing cabinet. They read out a list of what was in there, all casual, like—’
‘Eileen!’ Joel cut across, biting his tongue to stop him saying anything more.
‘OK! A phone number. Miss Harrington has a stack of appointment books up to 2018. She must have gone digital after that. Joy Harper’s phone number was shown against her appointments, but the old one, the one we already had.’
‘You didn’t call me to tell me that,’ Joel said, still holding back.
‘I did not. In the back cover is another phone number, labelled just as Joy. It could be our woman, but it might not, of course. I haven’t called it or done anything with it. I didn’t know—’
‘That’s fine. Send it through, Eileen. Excellent work. Did they find anything else relevant?’
