It turned out to be a relatively uneventful journey to Bromley for Anna and DI Benning. They drove south through Dulwich, Forest Hill and Beckenham. Thankfully the riots hadn’t yet spread to those areas. But traffic remained heavy and it took them close on an hour to get there.
Benning had phoned ahead to let the family liaison officer know that they were coming. He told her only that they had an update, not that Jacob’s body had been found.
Mark and Clare Rossi lived in a large detached house close to a park. They’d moved in only ten months ago, which was when Jacob had been enrolled in the private prep school nearby.
Anna felt weighed down by dread as she drew the car to a halt on the driveway. No matter how many times she delivered news of a loved one’s death, it never got any easier.
The FLO answered the door to them. She was a tall, thin woman and she introduced herself to Anna as Phillipa Moore.
‘Jacob’s parents are waiting for you in the living room,’ she said. ‘You should know that they’re fearing the worst because I haven’t been able to tell them what you’ve got to say.’
‘Well it’s not good news, I’m afraid,’ Anna said.
Moore nodded. ‘That’s what I thought.’
On the inside the house was modern and spacious, with light-coloured walls and carpets. One of the first things to catch Anna’s eye was a framed photo of Jacob on a table in the hallway. He was wearing a football kit and giving a thumbs-up to the camera.
His parents were sitting next to each other on a long white sofa in the living room. They were facing a wall-mounted TV that had been muted while tuned to a news programme showing footage of the riots. Another white sofa was positioned at an angle to it and behind that patio doors provided access to the rear garden.
Mark Rossi stood up as Anna and Benning entered the room. He was wearing an open-necked shirt and jeans, and his face was pale and unshaven. He seemed a shadow of the man she had seen so many times on the television. Anna knew he was in his mid-forties but he looked much older here in front of her, which was understandable in the circumstances.
He switched his gaze between the two detectives and panic flashed across his features.
‘So what’s happened?’ he said, anxiety rattling in his voice. ‘Have you got news about Jacob?’
‘Can I suggest that you sit back down, Mr Rossi, and I’ll explain everything?’ Anna said. ‘I’m Detective Chief Inspector Tate and I’m now leading this investigation.’
Rossi opened his mouth to reply but his wife beat him to it.
‘Does it mean you’ve found our boy?’ she said, her voice wavering with emotion. ‘Is that it?’
Mrs Rossi spoke while remaining seated, her back ramrod stiff, her hands tightly balled together in her lap.
She was a slight woman about the same age as her husband, with short curly blonde hair and a narrow face. Her eyes were glassy with shock and exhaustion, and Anna wondered how much sleep, if any, she’d had since Monday night.
After an awkward pause, Anna cleared her throat and bit down on her bottom lip. There was no easy way to say what she needed to say so she decided just to come right out with it.
‘I’m really sorry to have to tell you both that your son is no longer alive. His body was found a few hours ago. We got here as quickly as we could to inform you.’
Clare let out a shrill cry of anguish and dropped her face into her hands. Her husband screwed up his face and said, ‘Are you sure it’s him? Please tell me it could be a mistake.’
Anna shook her head. ‘You’ll be asked to make a formal identification, Mr Rossi, but I can assure you that it isn’t a mistake. If there was any doubt I would tell you. The boy who’s been found is definitely your son. A blazer with his name in it was near to his body.’
Rossi started crying then, great wet sobs racking his body. He dropped back onto the sofa and put an arm around his wife.
Their suffering was palpable, and Anna knew it would intensify after she told them how and where Jacob had died.
The FLO hurriedly left the room, saying she was going to put the kettle on, and Anna was certain she saw tears in the woman’s eyes.
It didn’t surprise her, though, because she felt like crying herself, and if she’d been alone she probably would have.
Instead, she sat down on the other sofa and Benning sat next to her. His breath sounded laboured suddenly and his hands shook. It was as though the guilt he felt had reared up to consume him. Anna had seen it before with other detectives who believed they had badly let down victims of crime. One thing they all had in common was that they always found it hard, or in some cases impossible, to forgive themselves.
It took Rossi almost a full minute to regain control of his emotions. As his wife continued to sob into her hands, he wiped his tears with his sleeve and looked at Anna. Red veins laced the whites of his eyes and the lines across his forehead were more pronounced.
‘We need to know what happened,’ he said. ‘Was Jacob in an accident? Did someone hurt him?’
An image of their son chained up by his wrists in the cellar resurfaced in Anna’s mind, sending an icy flush through her veins.
She swallowed back the lump in her throat, and said, ‘It saddens me to have to tell you this, Mr Rossi, but your son died this afternoon from smoke inhalation while trapped inside a derelict building that was set on fire by rioters. Whoever was responsible for the fire almost certainly wouldn’t have known he was inside.’
Clare Rossi’s head shot up and the shock was evident in her expression.
‘Are you saying that our son was alive all this time?’ she sobbed.
Anna nodded. ‘He was indeed, Mrs Rossi.’
The woman turned her gaze on Benning and her features hardened.
‘So why the hell didn’t you find him? You told us that you would. You promised.’
‘There’s a reason that DI Benning’s team were unable to locate Jacob,’ Anna said. ‘The person or persons who abducted your son went to great lengths to ensure he wouldn’t be found.’
Clare frowned. ‘What do you mean? Where has he been since Monday?’
There were times when Anna wished she hadn’t followed in her late father’s footsteps and become a copper. And this was one of them.
She pushed back her shoulders, drew in a breath, and said, ‘The building Jacob was found in is in Camberwell and it used to be a pub. It’s been derelict for some years. It appears that Jacob was taken straight there after he was abducted on his way home from school. And he remained there until today. If it wasn’t for the riots he would probably still be alive.’
‘But who would do such a thing?’ Rossi said. ‘And why didn’t anyone know he was there? Surely someone would have seen or heard him crying out.’
‘We have no idea at this stage why he was taken there,’ Anna told them. ‘However, we do know why nobody came across him and why he couldn’t escape. But you really need to brace yourselves for what I’m about to …’
‘Oh, just get on with it, Detective,’ Rossi cut in. ‘I’m sure there’s nothing else you can say that will make us feel any worse than we do already.’
Anna knew that he was wrong on that score, but she also knew that they had a right to know the full story. And better they heard it from her before it was in the public domain.
She left it a beat and then spoke in a low, sympathetic voice. ‘I’m afraid your son was being held in the pub cellar. And he was chained to a wall. When the building went up in flames the smoke deprived him of oxygen. His body was discovered by fire officers after they put the blaze out and went into the building.’
The couple reacted in different ways to the gruesome revelation. Rossi lifted his head, squeezed his eyes shut, and screamed something unintelligible at the ceiling.
But his wife made not the slightest sound as her eyes rolled upwards in their sockets and she slumped forward onto the floor where she promptly passed out.