So another suspect had been lobbed into the mix, and in terms of plausibility, Craig Sullivan certainly ticked the boxes. He was thought to be part of a child sex trafficking gang that used to be run by his brother, Tony. And he met up with the paedo Neville Quinlan the very afternoon that Jacob Rossi was abducted. It was therefore either a big coincidence or else the man was in it up to his neck.
Anna took the decision to hit the road with DI Walker. She instructed DS Prescott to stay in HQ and have another go at getting Quinlan to open up.
It had become a fast-moving situation suddenly, and even before they set off there was another development. DC Sweeny called in to say that Sullivan had re-emerged from his house after only a few minutes and was back in his car.
‘We’re tailing him, guv,’ she said. ‘But the roads are chaotic and there are diversions everywhere. So I don’t know how long we can keep him in sight.’
‘Where is he heading?’ Anna asked.
‘North along Norwood Road towards Tulse Hill.’
‘Stay with him if you can, Megan. We’ll head that way and I’ll try to get some back-up.’
But it took Anna only minutes to discover that they were on their own. There were no patrols available to join the pursuit. Units were already responding to emergencies all across the city as a fresh wave of disturbances kicked off. The rioters were on a roll again, emboldened no doubt by the belief that they were on the winning side. They had the police against the ropes, and soldiers were taking to the streets to help quell the unrest.
As Anna and Walker embarked on the four-mile journey from Wandsworth to Tulse Hill, they soon saw for themselves that London faced another grim day of violent disorder.
Passing through Clapham, they witnessed skirmishes between police and mobs of young men on the Common, and then they were directed away from the High Street because rioters had erected a barricade across the road.
They were rerouted through Balham, the neighbourhood where the accidental shooting of a pregnant woman during a police raid on Tuesday had triggered the riots. Damage to homes, shops and vehicles was considerable. Some buildings had burned down, while others were still smouldering. The pavements were packed with restless youths of both sexes who seemed to be having the time of their lives. They were winding each other up, intimidating local residents and shopkeepers, brazenly committing acts of vandalism.
‘What I find really scary about all this is how the emotions have changed from anger to euphoria,’ Walker said. ‘They’re really fucking lapping it up, aren’t they? The more people they hurt, the more buildings they trash, the more clobber they nick, the happier they are. And the icing on the cake is seeing us struggling to subdue them. It’s as though Christmas has come early for everyone who has a grudge against authority and feels the need to do something about it.’
Anna was about to make a point of her own when a newsflash on the radio broke into her thoughts, and caused them both to wince.
‘Video footage has emerged which shows two police officers beating a teenage girl with batons during street clashes in Brixton,’ the newsreader said. ‘The girl, who’s black, was forced to the ground where one of the officers then kicked her twice in the head before other protesters managed to drag her away. It’s understood she’s now being treated in hospital. In the last few minutes a Scotland Yard spokesperson has said the incident will be the subject of an investigation. Meanwhile, a prominent community leader in Brixton has described it as a vicious example of the type of police brutality that has encouraged many people to take part in the riots.’
Anna slammed her palms against the steering wheel and gritted her teeth.
‘That’s all we need,’ she said. ‘It’s like throwing gallons of petrol onto a fire that’s already raging out of control.’
*
DC Sweeny called with another update as they were passing by Tooting Bec Common.
‘Sullivan just stopped to pick someone up, ma’am,’ she said excitedly. ‘They’re now heading west towards Dulwich.’
‘So who did he pick up?’ Anna asked her.
‘A man in a grey overcoat who looked to be in his fifties. He was waiting on the corner of Norwood Road and Leigham Vale. As soon as Sullivan’s car pulled up he got straight into the front passenger seat.’
‘So where exactly are you now, Megan?’
‘We’re on Thurlow Park Road. Fortunately, it’s pretty quiet here.’
‘That’s good. We’re actually not far behind you.’
‘Do you want us to pull them over?’
‘Absolutely not. I want to see where they go. This is looking increasingly iffy to me.’
Anna was very familiar with this part of London so she stuck to the back streets once they had passed Tooting. They encountered fewer problems because the rioters were focusing on the high streets, shopping malls and council estates. Just beyond Tulse Hill Sweeny came back on to say that they had followed Sullivan to a detached house on the edge of Dulwich Village.
‘He parked on the driveway and both he and his passenger got out,’ she told Anna. ‘We managed to pull into the kerb about twenty yards back and saw them approach the front door. It was opened by a young woman who let them in.’
‘So you’re now parked up with a view of the house.’
‘That’s correct, ma’am.’
‘Then give us your exact location. We’ll be there in minutes.’
Walker tapped the address into the sat nav and they were on their way.
‘So how do we play this, guv, bearing in mind that we have no idea what the hell is going on here?’
‘Craig Sullivan is a person of interest in the abduction and imprisonment of Jacob Rossi,’ Anna replied. ‘We know he’s an acquaintance of another suspect, namely Neville Quinlan, who happens to be a convicted paedophile. We therefore need to question him ASAP.’
‘So what do we do if we go knocking on this house and he won’t come to the door?’
‘We execute a forced entry. And before you remind me that we’re without a warrant, as far as I’m concerned we don’t need one. We’re in pursuit of someone who we believe has committed a serious crime.’
Walker laughed. ‘That’s why I like working with you, Boss. We’re always on the same wavelength.’
Seven minutes later they turned into a short residential street. There were terraced homes on one side and detached houses on the other. Most of the cars were parked in front of the terraced properties, including the familiar black Vauxhall Corsa from the MIT pool.
There was a space directly behind it, which Anna pulled into. Seconds later she and Walker were in the back seat of the Vauxhall behind detectives Sweeny and Mortimer.
Sweeny pointed through the windscreen. ‘It’s the house on the right over there. You can see Sullivan’s BMW on the driveway. No one has appeared since he and the guy he picked up went inside.’
The house was smaller and less well maintained than those either side of it. The white exterior was in dire need of a fresh coat of paint and the tiny front garden to the right of the driveway had weeds sprouting up through the gravel.
‘So what we know is that there are at least three people inside,’ Anna said. ‘One of them is a man who we believe to be involved in the trafficking of children for sex, which is why we want to question him about Jacob Rossi. However, we don’t know the identities of the guy he brought here or the woman who answered the door to them. And we don’t know if there’s anyone else inside. For that reason we need to tread carefully.’
‘It might be sensible to wait for back-up,’ Sweeny said. ‘Or even an armed response team.’
‘If we do that we could be waiting all day,’ Anna said. ‘And my gut’s telling me that we need to move quickly. Something bad could be happening inside that house and it might well involve children.’
They all knew it was a justifiable concern, which far outweighed the risks they faced by forging ahead unarmed and without back-up.
‘Max and I will go to the front door and I want you two to see if you can make your way around the back,’ Anna said. ‘Be prepared to stop anyone fleeing the scene, but don’t confront them if you think they might have a weapon.’
Anna’s brain was in overdrive as she approached the house and her stomach was in tight knots. Her suspicions were further aroused when she saw that the curtains were closed across all the windows despite the fact that it was a bright day.
A gate to the side turned out to be unlocked so Sweeny and Mortimer were able to access the back garden while Anna rang the front doorbell. When there was no response she pressed it again and left her finger on it. Eventually a woman’s voice came from inside.
‘Who are you and what do you want?’ she said in a gruff voice.
Anna suspected the woman was watching her through the peephole so she held up her warrant card.
‘I’m a detective with the Metropolitan Police,’ she said. ‘I’m here with my colleagues to speak to Mr Craig Sullivan.’
‘Nobody by that name lives here,’ the woman said.
‘That may well be so. But we know that Mr Sullivan is here at the moment because we saw him enter the property. And that’s his car on the driveway.’
The woman didn’t reply, so Anna continued. ‘You might as well open the door because we won’t be leaving here until we’ve spoken to Mr Sullivan. And if that means forcing our way in then so be it.’
‘Have you got a warrant?’ the woman asked.
‘We don’t need one since we’re acting on information that Mr Sullivan may have committed a serious crime.’
The woman fell silent, and for about twenty seconds nothing happened. Then suddenly they heard shouting coming from the rear of the house.
Anna told Walker to stay put as she dashed over to the side gate, fearful that her two colleagues were in trouble. She pushed the gate open and ran along a path to the back garden.
She arrived in time to see her two detectives grappling with Sullivan in the middle of a large paved patio. He was lashing out with his fists as they tried to pull him to the ground so that they could cuff him.
As Anna approached them, a woman in jeans and a T-shirt stepped out through an open back door. She was brandishing a baseball bat in both hands and began screaming at the detectives to let Sullivan go.
Anna threw herself forward and lunged at the woman just as she was about to strike Sweeny from behind. The woman was taken by surprise as Anna rammed into her, shoulder first. She lost her balance and tumbled sideways onto the patio, dropping the bat as she did so.
Anna didn’t give her a chance to recover. She leaned over, grabbed the woman’s T-shirt, and rolled her onto her back before pinning her down with both knees. She then pulled her arms up her back, whipped out the cuffs she always carried in her jacket pocket, and slipped them on the woman’s wrists.
Behind her Sweeny and Mortimer were managing to do the same to Sullivan.
Anna stood up and hauled the woman to her feet. She was somewhere in her twenties with short black hair and a freckled face.
‘You have no right to do this,’ the woman cried out. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘Then why wouldn’t you let us in?’
‘We thought …’
‘Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch,’ Sullivan yelled at her as he was being pulled up off the patio floor. ‘Don’t say another bloody word.’
Anna looked at him and saw that his nose was bleeding and there was a swelling on his forehead above his left eye.
‘So what is your problem, Mr Sullivan?’ she said. ‘Do you have an aversion to talking to the police or have you got something to hide?’
He glared at her, baring his teeth.
‘Go get fucked, copper,’ he fumed. ‘I’m saying nothing until I talk to my lawyer.’
Just then Walker appeared in the doorway that Anna now saw led into a kitchen. He was holding on to the arm of a man in a grey overcoat, who Anna realised must be the guy Sullivan had picked up in Tulse Hill. He too had been placed in cuffs.
‘I caught this fellah trying to do a runner out the front door,’ Walker said. ‘I’ve checked all the downstairs rooms and they’re empty. But I think I heard a noise upstairs.’
Anna turned back to Sullivan. ‘So who else is in the house, Mr Sullivan?’
He swallowed, and Anna saw the anger in his eyes turn to fear. He opened his mouth to speak, but then decided not to and clamped his lips together.
‘We’ll find out for ourselves then,’ Anna said.
She told Sweeny to hold on to the woman while she and DC Mortimer took Sullivan back inside. Mortimer was a big, beefy lad with more muscle than fat under his suit, and he had no difficulty forcing Sullivan through the kitchen and along the hall.
Anna followed closely behind, dread pooling in her stomach. She had an awful feeling she knew what she was going to find.
As they mounted the stairs, Sullivan started muttering curses and trying to free himself, but he was no match for Mortimer.
When they reached the landing, they encountered five doors, all closed. Anna moved ahead of Mortimer and opened the first door. It led to a bathroom that was empty. But when she opened the next door and saw what was inside her heart exploded in her chest.
Two boys wearing pyjamas were sitting on top of a made-up double bed, their faces pale and fearful. Anna asked them if they were all right and they both nodded.
‘I’ll be right back,’ she said and hurried along the corridor to check on the other three rooms.
They were all bedrooms, but only one of them was occupied by a girl who was no older than twelve. Chloe’s age. She was curled up in the foetal position on a king-size bed and sobbing quietly into a pillow.
And she was completely naked.