Anna was busy typing up the list of action points when the BBC ran the story about the boy found dead inside the derelict pub in Camberwell.
Surprise quickly turned to anger when they identified him as Jacob Rossi.
Quoting an unnamed source was their way of saying that there had been a leak. Anna was pretty sure it hadn’t come from a member of her own team. She trusted them all implicitly. More likely someone at the Yard or within the fire brigade had let it out either accidentally or on purpose.
The press office would now have to release a statement pointing out that the body hadn’t been formally identified. But they would also be obliged to say that it was believed to be that of the missing boy.
DI Walker came rushing into her office to tell her what she already knew.
‘I’d stake my life on it not being one of our lot who leaked it,’ he said.
Anna nodded. ‘I agree with you, Max. So make it known that I’m not about to cast aspersions. It’s bloody annoying, but not entirely unexpected. I’ll talk to Nash about a response.’
The DCS had just emerged from a meeting of senior Met officers when Anna reached him on the phone. He’d been told about the BBC story but hadn’t seen it for himself. And he didn’t sound too fazed by it, probably because he had so many other things on his plate.
‘I’ll talk to media liaison right away and get them to issue a press release,’ he said. ‘To be honest I’m a little surprised it’s taken this long for the hacks to get wind of it. You know yourself that the Met is like a sieve these days. Leaks are all too common.’
‘Do you think we should make it known that Jacob was chained to a wall in the cellar, sir?’ Anna asked him.
‘I don’t see why not. The more impact it has the more chance we’ve got of it generating some useful leads.’
He asked her how the case was progressing, but she sensed that he was only half-listening to what she told him.
‘I won’t be coming back to Wandsworth for a while,’ he said. ‘There’s too much going on here and everyone is in a right panic. Have you heard about the army being deployed in some areas?’
‘Yes, I have … I just hope that it doesn’t make a bad situation even worse,’ Anna said.
‘I agree, but the truth is we’re not coping. This is now a crisis of epic proportions.’
They agreed to talk again in a few hours, and Anna hung up. She then put in a call to Phillipa Moore, the family liaison officer with Jacob’s parents. Unsurprisingly, Moore was awake because the couple had already received several calls from reporters following up the BBC story.
‘On my advice, Mr Rossi has declined to speak to them,’ Moore said. ‘But he and his wife are really struggling. They still can’t accept that it was Jacob who was found in the cellar.’
‘I’d like one or both of them to carry out a formal identification as soon as possible,’ Anna said. ‘I’ll talk to the pathologist and get back to you with a time.’
Gayle Western was also working through the night. When she answered the phone to Anna she was on her way back to the mortuary from Brixton where a man had died from a knife wound outside a superstore.
‘We really need to get back control of the streets,’ Gayle said, her voice shrill with anxiety. ‘If this carries on we’ll soon run out of body bags.’
Gayle said she would arrange for Jacob to be identified by his parents at ten a.m., and after that she would aim to proceed with the post-mortem.
Anna passed this information on to Phillipa Moore, then went back to typing up the list of action points. She printed off hard copies and attached it to a group email she sent to every member of the team, plus Nash.
The night passed quickly after that, and Anna spent it flitting between her office and the ops room. The questions continued to tumble through her mind at a rate of knots.
But the answers didn’t start coming through until after five a.m.
*
The first update of any significance came from DC Niven who was in Rotherhithe. He had eventually arrived at Roy Slater’s home only to find that he wasn’t in.
‘He’s living in a terraced house that’s a bit run-down,’ Niven said. ‘There was a light on next door so I rang the bell and spoke to the neighbour. She said he’s a single guy, and keeps very much to himself. He works as a packer in a warehouse off the Old Kent Road. The neighbour saw him go out in his car yesterday afternoon, but he hasn’t returned and his car isn’t parked in its usual place out front.
‘I went to the warehouse and it has a night shift. The supervisor told me Slater has been on leave for over a week and isn’t due back until next Thursday. I was given his mobile phone number and I’ve tried ringing it, but it’s switched off.’
‘Did the supervisor tell you anything about the guy?’ Anna asked.
‘He’s worked for the company for about five months,’ Niven said. ‘He’s moody and quiet apparently, and not very popular with his colleagues who don’t appear to know much about his personal life. He doesn’t socialise with any of them. But it’s no secret that he likes a bet. He’s always moaning about losing money on the horses and fruit machines. And he confided in one workmate that he’s been struggling to pay off a bunch of payday loans.’
‘OK, if you haven’t already got his car registration then go and get it so we can run it through the system,’ Anna said. ‘With luck it will turn up on an ANPR camera, which will hopefully give us a clue as to where he is. I’ll see if I can get a warrant to search his house so go back there and wait for me to call. If by chance he turns up then let me know. It could be he’s just gone away for a couple of days.’
DI Walker had already established that Slater, who was fifty-four, was on the police database. He’d been convicted and fined two years ago on three counts of shoplifting. Walker took it upon himself to pursue the search warrant and work up Slater’s profile.
Meanwhile, the question of whether the forensics team would find anything significant in Neville Quinlan’s flat was answered by DS Prescott.
‘It looks clean,’ he said. ‘They’ve taken a few things away to be checked for Jacob’s DNA and clothes fibres. But there was nothing to link him to the boy.’
‘And how was Quinlan?’ Anna asked.
‘He was cooperative even though he wasn’t happy about being hauled out of bed. I got the impression that he was expecting us to turn up at some point and was resigned to it.’
‘Well I’m tasking you with staying on his case. Bring him in for further questioning if you think it’s necessary. As I’ve already made clear, I just don’t buy his story about parking outside Jacob’s school because he felt too unwell to drive. The guy’s a convicted paedophile, for heaven’s sake. I’m convinced there’s more to it than that.’
‘I hear you, guv,’ Prescott said. ‘There’s no point bringing him in yet, though. I need to carry out more checks and round up some more CCTV footage.’
‘I’ll leave it to you then,’ Anna told him. ‘Meanwhile, I’ve circulated a list of action points. It’ll keep you abreast of what else is happening.’
Anna then called forensics to see if any of the exhibits taken from the pub had been processed yet. She spoke to a crime scene investigator named Kenny Fallon, who she knew quite well. He said they were under huge pressure so were making slow progress.
‘What I can tell you is that we’ve carried out an initial assessment of the boy’s clothes, the mattress he was on, the quilt and the holdall that was next to the bed,’ he said. ‘No bloodstains are visible to the naked eye, but there are various hairs and fibres that will need to be examined under the scope. The problem we face is that most of the stuff has been contaminated by water, soot and dust. And as you know the cellar itself offered up very little in the way of potential evidence.’
Fallon said he would send over a preliminary report as soon as he was able to.
Walker then provided a further update on Michelle Gerrard, the woman who had been hounding Mark Rossi on social media platforms.
‘She wasn’t at home when an officer called round,’ he said. ‘But neighbours told him they don’t see much of her and they don’t know where she is. Apparently she often disappears for days at a time.’
‘Well let’s keep trying to find her, if only to eliminate her.’
During the next half hour Anna discussed the updates with the rest of the team while they all monitored the TV news channels. Stories relating to the riots were the only ones being covered, and included the boy who had died while chained to the wall in the pub cellar.
The press release from the Yard was enough to convince the media that it was indeed Jacob Rossi, even though a spokesperson stressed that the body hadn’t been formally identified. The story was expanded to include information about Jacob’s father, his school, and the search that had been underway for him since Monday.
At six a.m. Detective Khan returned from Camberwell, leaving detectives Sweeny and Mortimer behind to keep an eye on the crime scene and be on hand if a likely suspect turned up.
Khan had two nuggets of information to report from the house-to-house inquiries he’d been helping to carry out. A couple of the neighbours had told them that a homeless man named George usually slept rough in the doorway of the derelict pub, and sometimes inside it.
‘Apparently he’s a familiar face in the area, but since the riots began, he hasn’t appeared,’ Khan said. ‘I’m guessing he’s found a safe place to kip. Sweeny and Mortimer are on the lookout for him. Also, one of the home owners living opposite the pub had noticed a dark car drive onto the forecourt several times during the past few weeks and park around the back of the building. He assumed at the time that it belonged to someone working for the estate agents. According to this bloke, and several others we spoke to, there used to be a rope across the entrance along with a no trespass sign. But it disappeared months ago and was never replaced.’
‘Do you have the make of the car or, better still, the plate number?’ Anna asked.
‘I’m afraid not. The guy said he didn’t pay much attention to it. But he thinks it was a saloon rather than a hatchback. And it was dark blue or black.’
‘Plug away at it then,’ Anna said. ‘We’ve got some officers starting afresh later having had a night’s sleep. Arrange for them to take over from Sweeny and Mortimer. And put the word out on the homeless guy. If he was bedding down next to the pub it’s possible he saw something. And speak to the estate agents to find out if the car does belong to one of their staff.’
Another hour came and went, then Anna took a call from Phillipa Moore. The FLO sounded breathless and distressed.
‘You need to get over here right away, ma’am,’ she said in a high-pitched voice. ‘There’s been a development.’
‘Calm down and tell me what you’re on about, Officer,’ Anna said.
Moore took a breath before continuing. ‘The postman just arrived with a letter for Mr Rossi,’ she said. ‘He explained that there’s been a delay in delivering mail because of the riots, and that the letter was posted with first-class stamps on Tuesday, the day after Jacob disappeared. Inside was a note that appears to be from whoever abducted him. And with it is a photo of the boy chained to the cellar wall.’
‘My God.’
‘I’ve made sure that nobody has touched any of it apart from Mr Rossi. I’ve put each item into an evidence bag, including the padded envelope.’
‘That’s good, Phillipa. Now what I’d like you to do is take photos of the items and send them to me. I want to know what we’re dealing with before I head over. And then you need to tell Mr and Mrs Rossi that I’ve arranged for them to visit the mortuary at ten o’clock this morning.’
Anna rushed into the ops room to alert the team. Seconds later pictures of the letter, the photo, and the envelope arrived on her phone. As she opened them up and viewed them, a cold weight settled in her chest and she was suddenly unable to speak.
The added pain that must have suddenly been inflicted on the poor parents just didn’t bear thinking about.