The ball of anxiety in Anna’s chest continued to grow during the drive from Bermondsey to Wandsworth.
She was concerned about the lack of progress she was making with the investigation. And she was worried that another night of savagery was about to descend on London.
Darkness was encroaching fast, and already sirens were ringing out and riot police were on the move.
Anna called central control and said it was imperative that DI Bolt was provided with more back-up at the crime scene in Southwark Park Road. Then she phoned DS Prescott to see if he had arrived at Roy Slater’s house in Rotherhithe.
‘I’m here now with DI Benning, guv,’ he told her. ‘We had to force the door open and we’re just starting the search. The place is empty, and so far we haven’t come across anything of interest.’
Anna was finding it increasingly difficult to get her thoughts together. It didn’t help that she felt it necessary to have the radio on. The news was a constant and alarming distraction.
A battle between police and an angry mob was taking place outside the Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford. There were reports that a supermarket was on fire in Putney. Shops were being looted in Kentish Town. And two petrol bombs had been thrown at the Crown Court building in Southwark, causing serious damage to the entrance.
Five hundred more coppers had been drafted in from southern counties to support the Met. And there were now a thousand soldiers helping to keep order.
But so far the impact appeared to be insignificant, which was no great surprise to Anna considering there were thirty-two boroughs in London and a population of almost nine million.
The pressure on law enforcement agencies was now unbearable, and some commentators were claiming that key services were at the point of collapse.
Hundreds of people who had been arrested still hadn’t been processed, 999 calls were not being answered, there weren’t enough forensic teams to attend ongoing crime scenes, or enough ambulances to respond to emergency call-outs. Plus, forty-two police vehicles were out of commission having been vandalised or set on fire, and public transport services – including buses, tubes and trains – were severely disrupted.
Anna felt a thud of dread in her stomach at the sheer scale of civil disobedience.
‘I fear things will get much worse before they get any better,’ she said. ‘And God only knows how many more lives will be lost.’
*
Once back at HQ, Anna did things in order of priority. First off, she phoned Chloe to let her know that she wouldn’t be able to pick her up from the hospital until much later. Her daughter’s reaction came as a huge relief.
‘Don’t worry, Mum. I’m all right. And it’s been fun here.’
‘Are you sure, sweetheart?’
‘Yep. Honest.’
‘And how is Tom?’
‘He sleeps a lot, and he’s still in pain, but the doctor says he’s slowly getting better.’
‘Can you put him on the phone so that I can speak to him?’
‘Not right now. I’m in the shop getting some sweets and a comic. And Tom wants a newspaper.’
‘Oh, I see. Never mind then. But look, you are OK aren’t you? I mean, it’s not all too much for you being in the hospital all this time? I suspect it’s pretty boring.’
Anna detected a slight hesitation before Chloe responded.
‘There isn’t much to do,’ she said. ‘And I did get a bit upset earlier in the television room. I was watching the news while Tom was sleeping and they put up a photo of Ryan and said what had happened to him. I didn’t expect it.’
‘You poor thing. I can imagine it was quite a shock.’
‘I’m fine now, though. The nurses were really nice, and so was Tom.’
‘Well we can talk about it when I pick you up. And I’m so sorry I can’t get there any sooner.’
‘And I told you not to worry.’
‘Thanks for being so understanding. I love you very much.’
Anna held on for a beat, hoping her daughter would say I love you back, but she didn’t. So Anna told her she would call when she was on her way and hung up.
Speaking to Chloe, and knowing that she was coping well in what was an extraordinarily stressful situation, gave a much-needed boost to Anna’s spirits. She no longer felt so tired and fractured when she addressed the troops in the ops room.
Detectives Sweeny and Mortimer had already briefed them on the dramatic events at the house in Dulwich. She was told that Craig Sullivan and Lorna Fitzpatrick were now in the custody suites and would be represented by the same lawyer who had turned up an hour ago.
‘Quinlan is still spouting no comment,’ DS Khan said. ‘He doesn’t yet know what we’ve got on him and the duty solicitor is on standby because I told him you’ll be wanting to talk to his client.’
‘I’m going to formally question all three of them,’ Anna said. ‘But only about a possible connection with our own investigation. If there isn’t one, which I now suspect is the case, then we’ll be handing the scumbags over to the National Crime Agency.’
Anna sent one of the civilian staff to inform the two legal reps that she would soon be along to interview their clients.
‘Before I get stuck into that I’d like to know if we’ve made progress elsewhere,’ she said.
She was told that what Michelle Gerrard had said about the incident in Bromley was true. Mark Rossi had been asked about it and recalled what had happened. But he apparently hadn’t realised that she was the same woman who went on to abuse him online. DI Benning was still trying to get the lowdown on Mark Rossi’s stepbrother, Joseph Walsh, who had apparently moved to Australia after selling his mother’s home in Camberwell. Before Benning set off for Roy Slater’s house in Rotherhithe, he’d told the team that he was waiting to hear back from the Australian embassy. Someone there was trying to find out if Walsh was still in the country.
And they still hadn’t managed to find the homeless man named George, who until recently was sleeping rough outside The Falconer’s Arms pub in Camberwell. Anna was disappointed because she knew it was possible he had seen whoever had taken Jacob there to put him in the cellar.
After the briefing, Anna collected her notebook and asked Walker to sit in on the interviews with her.
They were on their way to the custody suites when her phone rang. It was DI Benning, calling from Roy Slater’s house in Rotherhithe.
‘I’m about to make your day, ma’am,’ he said when she answered it. ‘We’ve had a breakthrough.’
Anna stopped in the middle of the corridor and felt her stomach clench into a hard ball.
‘Well spit it out, man,’ she said. ‘What is it?’
‘We’ve found Jacob Rossi’s mobile phone and wallet. As you know he had them with him when he went missing. They were in a drawer in Slater’s bedroom.’