They were all waiting for him when he arrived at the incident room in Stretford station the following morning.
‘Morning, Ridpath.’
Chrissy smiled warmly. Emily grunted a greeting, while Oliver Davis handed him a coffee, bought from the drive-thru Costa at White City, before sitting down next to Dave Connor.
‘Sorry I’m late. The daughter…’ His voice trailed off and he shrugged his shoulders.
‘Trouble waking up in the morning?’ asked Chrissy.
Ridpath nodded.
‘Use dynamite under the bed, that’s what I did. Worked every time.’
‘Sometimes I wonder whether you are joking, Chrissy.’
‘I’m not,’ she said with a straight face.
Ridpath noticed there was more information on the boards now, not just a few pictures. ‘Let’s get started, shall we? You go first, Chrissy, give us some more dynamite. You were checking up on the staff at the children’s home. Find anything?’
‘I’ve only done the workers with direct contact to the children, not the ancillary staff yet.’
‘And?’
‘Four were found guilty of child molestation in 2013, after the Operation Pharaoh investigation. By that time, one had even been promoted to be the deputy head of Children’s Services for Manchester City Council…’
‘Unbelievable…’ muttered Emily.
‘I spoke to one of the coppers who worked the case. He said more were involved but they couldn’t prove it. Files were sent to CPS and they decided not to proceed. I’ll go through them, there should be a list of employees somewhere, it’ll save us applying for a court order from Manchester.’
‘Anything on HOLMES 2, Chrissy? You were checking for similar cases, and if any bodies had been found without hands.’
‘Nothing so far. I’ve sent a query through to the National Police Agency but I didn’t get any hits on HOLMES.’
‘So what happened to the bodies?’
They all shook their heads.
‘Write it on the board, please, Oliver.’
It always fell to the most junior officer, or the one with the neatest writing, to put the questions that needed answering on a whiteboard at the side of the incident room.
‘Great, Chrissy, keep pushing on HOLMES and find the list of employees, including ancillary workers. And you, Emily, how did you get on?’
‘Not great, I’m afraid. I did full background checks on the film crew and, with the exception of the usual speeding tickets and one DUI, they all seem kosher. Their statements add up and they were all together during the filming.’
‘Who decided to film at Daisy House?’
Emily checked her notes. ‘It was a production decision five weeks ago. They film the series quickly.’
‘They’ve been talking to the press.’
‘Looking for free publicity, I think.’
‘Right, anything on the house to house?’
‘I went over it again. Oliver did a good job. One old biddy thinks she saw somebody wandering around a week ago, but couldn’t give a description or an age.’
‘Not very useful.’
‘No. As for the backpack itself, I rang the manufacturers in Leicester. The lady was extremely helpful. This particular model was produced in 2009 as a limited edition, only six hundred made. They were popular with skateboarders, selling out as soon as they went on release. Apparently, three were sent to Manchester.’
‘My daughter spotted something last night as I was looking at the backpack—’
‘The one who sleeps late?’ asked Chrissy.
Ridpath nodded. ‘She said this backpack is only available at one place in Manchester. It’s called Bagsy in Afflecks.’
‘I know it. On the second floor, I used to get stuff there.’ Emily wrote a note in her book.
‘Great, can you check it out? See if they remember the backpack. Even better if they remember who they sold it to.’
‘Could be difficult after nearly twelve years.’
‘Have a go anyway, we might get lucky. Oliver, have you anything?’
‘I checked the hospitals, university anatomy departments and funeral directors in a forty-mile radius to see if any body parts had been stolen recently. Nothing. They were all a bit miffed with my questions, citing the laws regarding the protection of human tissue. Apparently, these were strengthened in 2004. Didn’t teach us that at college. They were all scared shitless I was accusing them of breaking the law.’ He laughed to himself. ‘I also checked police reports and there are none with embalmed body parts being stolen.’
‘Great, well done, Oliver. Your work rules out a prank or joke played by some students.’
‘Thank God,’ said Dave Connor.
Ridpath ignored him and carried on. ‘Right, your turn, Dave. Yesterday, Hannah Palmer had a hit on the DNA of one of the hands. It came up as a Joseph Rowlands, aged fifty-two, of Moston. What did you find?’
The detective walked over to a picture of a dour man with short, cropped hair and close-set eyes. ‘This is Joseph Rowlands. He came up on the DNA database because he was convicted of child molestation in 2013 and sentenced to two years in prison. He was placed on the Sexual Offenders Register and released in late 2014. I checked his old address yesterday and the one he gave to the register. Nobody had heard of him. There were no further arrests in Manchester.’
‘Nothing on the Police National Computer?’
Dave shook his head. ‘Nothing. And the last address on the Sexual Offenders Register was after he was released. In 2015 he was living in Moston. I also checked with Walton Gaol where he did his time. Apparently he was badly assaulted in prison in early 2014. His hand was broken and he went for surgery at the Royal in Liverpool. The plate was removed in 2015.’
‘So we have confirmed the identity is Joseph Rowlands?’
Oliver Davis was sticking a summary of the case notes under Rowlands’s picture.
‘We have,’ replied Dave Connor.
‘He vanished, until yesterday when we discovered his DNA. No reports of him missing?’
‘There was a report filed in 2018 that Chrissy dug up. It’s been emailed to you. I also checked the case files from his arrest in 2013.’
‘And?’
‘Guess what?’
‘I hate guessing games, Dave, just tell me what you found out.’
‘Joseph Rowlands was employed from 1995 until 2006 as head gardener at Daisy House Children’s Home.’