Horsey mere di tanner 5, p.10
Horsey Mere (DI Tanner 5), page 10
‘I’d need to check the arrest report,’ he replied. ‘I think he was brought in at around lunchtime today.’
Forrester glanced down at his watch. ‘So, not all that long then, given the circumstances.’
‘Unfortunately not, sir. It’s a shame he was picked up for vandalising a bus stop before we had a chance to build a case against him for the more serious charges.’
‘Well, it can’t be helped, I suppose.’
‘And I still have the Hopkins case to work on.’
‘Then you’ll have to make the girl at Horsey Mere your priority, for the time being at least.’
‘I was actually wondering how you’d feel about giving Cooper the lead.’
‘On Hopkins or the girl?’
‘The girl, sir. I was thinking that as he’s already leading the investigation into the racial attacks, it would make sense for him to carry that forward into the girl’s murder; assuming she was, of course.’
‘With you overseeing?’
‘I was actually thinking he could be the senior investigating officer, sir.’
‘Is he ready for that?’
‘If it’s as straight forward as I think it is, and we already have the culprit in custody, then he should be.’
‘And what if it isn’t as straight forward as you think it is, and the whole thing goes tits up?’
‘Then I’d have to step in.’
Forrester checked his watch again.
‘What’s your next step with the Hopkins case?’
‘To see if forensics have been able to match any of the DNA samples and prints we’ve been sending over to them.’
‘And if they don’t?’
‘We still need to push on with the various suspects’ background checks, looking for some sort of a connection. But it’s going to take time, sir. I mean, we only found out who the by-election candidates were yesterday, and if I have to oversee an investigation into the Horsey Mere girl as well, then it’s going to take even longer.’
‘Then I suppose I have no choice but to make Cooper the SIO.’
‘With me ready to step in, should I need to,’ supplemented Tanner.
Forrester let out a heavy sigh. ‘OK, very well. I suppose you’d better send him in.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Tanner replied, turning to head out.
Reaching the door, he glanced back to add, ‘Maybe you could ask him to contact Dr Johnstone’s office, to see if there’s any chance of him being able to come back to us with a post-mortem report on that girl before end of play today, even if it’s only an interim one?’
Seeing Forrester pick up a pen, Tanner thought to add, ‘And then to chase forensics for the results from the petrol we found in the back of his van. If it’s the same as was used on the shop, I think we’d be able to charge him with arson, possibly manslaughter as well.’
‘We’d need more than just the petrol to make that stick,’ commented Forrester, scribbling away.
‘True, but if nothing else, it would at least help us to convince the local magistrate that we need an extension. It would also keep the pressure on him. Oh, and then he needs to ask them to see if they can find any evidence that the girl had been in his van. If they can, then I think it’s a done deal.’
Forrester looked up from his notes with a nervous expression. ‘Look, Tanner, you may as well take the lead on this one as well. I’m sure Cooper’s keen, but I need someone who knows what they’re doing.’
‘And that’s me, is it?’ Tanner joked.
‘Well, it’s more you than Cooper, that much I do know.’
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
IT WASN’T UNTIL gone ten o’clock that evening when Tanner and Jenny finally emerged out into the police station’s cold and distinctly uninviting carpark.
With a ripple of flash photography reminding them that there were still over a dozen reporters camped outside, they hurried over to Tanner’s car, doing their best to avoid being either filmed or photographed as they did.
‘Don’t they have homes to go to?’ commented Jenny, levering herself into the seat to close the door.
‘Hotel rooms, more likely,’ Tanner replied, starting the engine before leaning forward to crank the heating up.
‘I suppose there will be even more of them when they find out what happened to that poor girl.’
‘No doubt, but with any luck, we’d have been able to charge Roy Carter by then.’
‘Do you think that’s likely?’
Tanner glanced over his shoulder to reverse out from the parking space. ‘I suppose it depends on what forensics come back with, but we should have a pretty good idea by tomorrow if it’s him.’
Jenny waited for him to finish reversing before asking something she’d been meaning to since his meeting with their DCI.
‘You never told me how Cooper took the news that Forrester wasn’t going to make him the SIO.’
‘Better than I was expecting,’ Tanner replied, facing forward to begin heading for the exit. ‘To be honest, I think he was secretly relieved. I still don’t think he’s ready. I’m not sure he does, either.’
Gently nudging a cameraman out of the way, Tanner pulled out onto the road.
‘Do you think that newspaper article we found will be of any use?’ asked Jenny, staring out at the various houses flickering past. ‘The one Vicky found showing Nick Carter shaking hands with Patrick Hopkins?’
‘If nothing else, it proves Nick Carter was lying; that he did know the former MP.’
‘Unless he’d simply forgotten about it. I mean, it was written over five years ago.’
‘I’m not sure someone like Nick Carter is the sort of person who’d forget something like that, not after he’d spent the next three months bragging about it to all his friends. I also think it’s interesting that Hopkins was given the task of opening some dodgy-looking theme park ride. I’d have thought that sort of thing would have been left to the local mayor to deal with.’
Silence followed as Wroxham’s streetlights disappeared, leaving them following the Jag’s headlights, sweeping over the hedge-lined road ahead.
‘Anyway,’ Tanner eventually continued, ‘we’ll have to keep digging into his background, but at least we know we’re not wasting our time.’
Jenny glanced down at her watch. ‘You do realise that this is yet another night we’re not going to have time to spend planning our wedding?’
‘Yes, I know. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take some time off at the weekend.’
‘What, with a double murder on our hands?’
‘Well, we’ll have to see. I’m still confident that we’ll be able to get at least one of them wrapped up by then.’
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Wednesday, 18th November
AT WORK THE following morning, Tanner had already drained two mugs of coffee before the anticipated emails finally began coming through, first from the medical examiner’s office, then forensics.
Printing them off, he spent five minutes reading through each before taking them over to Cooper. Ten minutes after that, they were knocking on Forrester’s door.
‘Good morning, sir,’ Tanner began, leading the way inside. ‘We’ve had some positive news back from both Dr Johnstone and forensics on the girl found at Horsey Mere.’
Forrester looked up at them from a file on his desk. ‘Go on.’
‘The post-mortem report confirms the girl was murdered. She’d been hit over the head, dragged over grass and mud, and half-drowned, all before being hanged by the neck until dead.’
‘And that’s good news, is it?’
‘Only when the forensics report is taken into consideration, the part relating to Roy Carter’s van. Traces of the victim’s DNA were found in the passenger seat.’
Forrester leaned forward, a hint of a smile playing over his lips.
‘Anything else?’
‘The petrol we found in the back of the van; it was the same as was used to burn down that shop.’
‘I meant in relation to the crime scene at Horsey Mere. Has any trace of our suspect been found there?’
‘They haven’t come back to us on that yet.’
‘Have you chased them?’
‘Well, no, but in fairness, it’s been the site of a major archaeological dig for a good few weeks now. As the body was only found yesterday, I think they’re going to need more time.’
‘OK, but it’s still worth giving them a call, just as a reminder. What about from the body itself?’
‘Nothing’s come up at all, I’m afraid. I’m sure that’s why she was stripped and thrown into the water. Her killer must have known that doing so would go a long way to removing any evidence.’
‘And the rope that was used to haul her up?’
‘Again, nothing.’
Forrester leaned back in his chair. ‘So we don’t have anything that directly links Roy Carter to the scene.’
‘Not yet, sir, no, but I’m confident forensics will come up with something, eventually.’
‘But we can hardly go ahead and charge him with her murder on the vague hope that they might, though, can we?’
‘Maybe not, sir, but at least we have enough to get an extension to keep hold of him. Hopefully, that’ll give them enough time to find something. It will also give us more time to spend with him in the interview room.’
Forrester returned to sitting back in his chair. ‘Are we any closer to finding out who the girl is?’
‘I’m still hoping we’ll be able to get him to tell us, especially now we know she was in his van.’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure. Not if his solicitor has anything to do with it. Nobody’s been reported missing, have they?’
‘Not yet.’
‘We could hold a press conference,’ proposed Cooper. ‘To ask if anyone knows who she is.’
‘If we could keep this between ourselves,’ said Forrester, shifting uncomfortably in his chair, ‘for the time being, at least.’
‘But it’s already in the news, sir.’
‘That she’d been murdered?’
‘That she’d been tried and hanged as a witch.’
Forrester let out a breath. ‘I assume you’re referring to the Norfolk Herald?’
‘I am, sir, yes.’ Cooper replied. ‘The other newspapers have hardly given it a mention.’
‘There’s a copy of it on my desk; if you’d like to see it?’ offered Tanner, with an amenable smile.
‘I think I’d rather be beaten about the head with a cricket bat, thank you very much.’
‘Does that mean you don’t, sir?’
‘Of course it means I don’t, you bloody idiot!’
‘Sorry, sir.’ Tanner apologised, doing his best to suppress a smirk. ‘I wasn’t sure.’
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
LEAVING FORRESTER’S OFFICE, after a brief discussion as to how best to approach their second day with Roy Carter, Tanner and Cooper headed for the interview room, only to have their attention caught by the duty sergeant, PS Taylor, bursting in through the reception’s double doors.
‘A couple’s just come in,’ he began, catching Tanner’s eye. ‘They say their daughter’s gone missing.’
Tanner stopped dead in his tracks.
‘Right!’ he exclaimed, peering over the sergeant’s shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of them. ‘I suppose I’d better have a word. Cooper, why don’t you get started on that extension application.’
‘You don’t want me to crack on with Carter?’
‘Not on your own, no.’
‘I could go in with Vicky?’
‘I’d rather we wait until we know if their missing daughter is our murdered girl. If we can go back in with her identity, with everything else we’ve found out, it may be enough to pull a confession out of him.’
With Cooper agreeing, albeit reluctantly, Taylor led the couple into the station’s second interview room, leaving Tanner hurrying back to his desk.
Printing off a selection of the photographs to show them, he was shadowed by a growing sense of dread. If the couple’s missing daughter was their murdered girl, and she hadn’t simply run off with her boyfriend, then there was every chance he was about to find himself sitting across a table from them, staring into their eyes as he told them that their daughter was dead.
As he searched for the file on his computer, haunting memories of the night he’d found the body of his own daughter came flooding back. With the thoughts came a familiar surge of unwelcome emotion, slamming against the wall he’d built up over the years to help keep them at bay.
Shaking his head clear, he re-focussed on the delicate task at hand. Hopefully, it won’t be her, he thought to himself, but his gut-feeling told him otherwise.
CHAPTER THIRTY
‘MR AND MRS Chadha?’ Tanner enquired, entering the room. ‘Have I pronounced that correctly?’
‘You have,’ replied the husband, in what sounded more like a polite reply than an honest one.
Taking the already half-filled out Missing Person’s report from the duty sergeant, Tanner presented the nervous looking couple with a comforting smile. ‘May we get you anything to drink? A tea or a coffee, perhaps?’
The man glanced briefly at his wife, standing beside him, before looking back. ‘We’re fine, thank you.’
Dismissing Taylor, Tanner offered them a seat whilst taking one for himself.
‘I understand your daughter is missing.’
‘Anya, yes.’
‘How old is she?’
‘Seventeen.’
‘When was the last time you saw her?’
‘Monday evening.’
‘Where was that?’
‘At home. She said she was going out to see a friend.’
‘Did she say who?’
‘A girl called Zara. Zara Haddad.’
Tanner made a note of the name.
‘I assume you’ve checked to see if she’s there?’
‘I called them this morning.’
‘And she hadn’t been?’
‘Not even on the first night. Zara said she hadn’t even said she would be. That’s when we decided to come here.’
‘Is there anyone else she could be staying with? A boyfriend, perhaps?’
Both parents looked utterly appalled by the idea.
‘Nothing like that, no!’ came Mr Chadha’s curt, dismissive response.
‘Sorry, of course,’ Tanner apologised, taking a moment to continue filling out the form. He knew from personal experience that just because they didn’t know anything about a boyfriend, didn’t mean she didn’t have one.
‘Does she have her own phone?’
‘She does.’
‘I take it you’ve tried calling?’
‘Messaging as well.’
‘OK, well, it’s possible that she’s simply lost it, or maybe the battery ran out.’
‘Even if it had, she’d have found some way to contact us. She’d never have left us not knowing where she was for two nights in a row.’
Tanner knew there was another possibility; that she’d run away, quite possibly with the boyfriend she’d neglected to mention.
‘How have things been at home, recently?’
With it obvious that neither had understood the question, Tanner tried again. ‘Have there been any arguments?’
The husband glanced briefly down at the table. ‘Well, she was in the middle of doing her A-Levels, you see.’
Forced to assume that meant there had been, no doubt something along the lines of her spending too much time chatting on her phone, and not enough with her head buried inside a book, Tanner returned his attention to the form.
‘Have you been in contact with any of her other friends?’
‘We’ve tried,’ the man replied, ‘but we don’t know who most of them are.’
‘So, it’s possible that she could be staying with one of them?’
‘It’s possible, but again, she’d have called.’
‘How about family?’
‘None who live here.’
‘Does she have a passport?’
‘She’s never needed one.’
Making a few more notes, Tanner asked as casually as he knew how, ‘I don’t suppose you brought in a photograph of her, by any chance?’
The man turned to his wife to mumble something in a language that sounded like some form of Arabic.
Nodding, the woman delved into a bag to bring out the requested item. With it held in her wrinkled brown hands as if it was a holy relic, she offered it for Tanner to take.
Doing so, Tanner stared down to see the face of a beautiful dark-skinned girl smiling back at him. It was difficult to imagine that she was the same person who’d been found hanging from the end of a rope at Horsey Mere, but with her small delicate chin, the distinctive shape of her nose and her gently curving cheekbones, deep down Tanner knew it was her.
The room fell into an anxious silence as Tanner’s hand rested on the file he’d brought in with him. He’d put the moment off for long enough.
‘Mr and Mrs Chadha, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but a girl was found at Horsey Mere in the early hours of yesterday morning.’
Tanner watched as the husband bit down on his bottom lip. For a moment he wondered if he was going to translate what he’d said to his wife, but it was clear from the look in her eyes that she’d understood, enough at least to know what he’d meant.
‘Now, I must stress that at this point in time, we don’t know if she is your daughter.’
He let that sink in, before continuing.
‘But we do have to accept the possibility that she might be.’
With them each giving him a nervous nod, Tanner continued.
‘I’d like to show you some pictures of the jewellery the girl was found wearing, to see if you recognise anything. Would that be OK?’
They both stared into his eyes, their own wide with nervous apprehension.
‘You don’t have to, of course,’ Tanner thought to add.
The husband placed his hand over his wife’s before swallowing. ‘We have to know… if she’s our daughter.’
Taking that as permission, Tanner tentatively slipped out the first photograph he’d printed out. It was of an unpretentious gold-chain necklace.
