Ridpath answered his mobile straight away. He was sitting in the car with Sophia near the Brooks’ house, about to go back to the coroner’s office.
‘I have a lead to the man in the photo. His name is Adam Jones.’
‘Great news, Chrissy, hang on a minute while I patch Emily and Dave in on the call.’ He passed the phone to Sophia. ‘Can I get other people to listen to Chrissy?’
‘Of course, just make it a conference call.’
‘How do I do that?’
‘Simples.’ She spoke to Chrissy. ‘Hang on, I’m putting you on hold while I patch in the others.’ She showed the phone to Ridpath. ‘Put Chrissy on hold, tap “add call” to make another call and then merge calls to bring everybody together.’
Ridpath’s eyes glazed over. ‘Could you do it for me?’
She shook her head, tapping the keys of his mobile. ‘You’re gonna have to get used to technology one day.’
‘I’d rather it got used to me.’
‘In your dreams.’ A few more taps on the keys. ‘There, done. Dave and Emily added.’
‘Hi, guys, can everybody hear me?’
‘What’s up?’ said Dave.
‘Loud and clear,’ answered Emily.
‘Chrissy, can you go ahead.’
‘Hi there, Tom Gorman has had a hit on the PND for the man in the photo. It’s an Adam Jones. He’s in Strangeways charged with, get this, kidnap and assault. But there’s a problem – he’s been inside since 2016.’
‘So he couldn’t have kidnapped Gerald Duffy in 2017 or Joseph Rowlands in 2018. Dave, did you find out anything more on Duffy?’
‘Nothing so far. He doesn’t seem to have any links I can find to Daisy House. Oliver is still checking ANPR for Patricia Patterson’s car.’
‘Em, can you call Strangeways and arrange for both of us to visit Adam Jones tomorrow?’ He stopped for a moment, realising he was supposed to be taking Eve to visit her mum’s grave. He’d already floated the possibility he couldn’t go and it had gone down like a cup of cold sick.
‘What time, Ridpath?’
‘What time, what?’
‘What time shall I arrange the visit to Adam Jones?’
‘Any time you can, but after ten a.m. We should meet up to review progress at nine again. Everybody OK with the time?’
There was a chorus of OKs from the other people on the conference call.
Emily continued speaking. ‘Apparently, Patricia Patterson took her mobile and laptop with her when she left for work. I’m going to go back to HQ and see if we can track her phone. I have the number so we should be able to track her movements on the day she disappeared.’
‘Great work, Em. Chrissy, can you do one more task for me?’
‘No problem, Ridpath.’
‘It’s another missing person. Andrea Briggs, possibly using the name Andrea Brooks, disappeared in 2012.’
‘Was it reported, Ridpath?’
‘Not to the police, but to her social worker, who just happened to be Patricia Patterson.’
‘Shit,’ whispered Emily.
‘I’ll follow up, Ridpath, there must be a record somewhere.’
‘Right, good work, everyone. See you tomorrow at nine. If anything comes up, call me straightaway. Clear?’
‘Clear,’ echoed three voices.
Ridpath ended the call.
‘Where to now, Ridpath?’
‘I’m going to take you back to the Coroner’s Court, and afterwards I have to break the bad news to my daughter.’
‘Bad news?’
‘We won’t be going to my wife’s grave tomorrow. Instead, I’ll be going to Strangeways Prison.’
‘I’m sorry, Ridpath. I’m sure she’ll understand.’
‘You don’t know Eve.’
‘I think you underestimate us girls. We have far more strength and backbone than you think. It’s in our genes.’
Ridpath stared at her. ‘What did you say?’
‘She has far more strength and backbone—’
He opened the car door and jumped out.
‘Where are you going?’
‘There’s something I forgot to ask Mr Brooks,’ he said over his shoulder, running down the street.