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Erin had taken the bus into Persford and was waiting in the reception at Bank Street police station. That evening she had returned once more to an empty flat. There was no sign of Scott and for nearly forty-eight hours now she’d been unable to contact him. No texts, no contact from him and all her calls remaining unanswered and connecting to voicemail. Perhaps he’d lost his phone but in that case, why had he not suspended the number on his handset? Something had happened to him, she was sure. The sergeant had taken her name and the details of her missing person and she had been told that someone would speak to her shortly.
‘Ms Jones? I’m Sergeant Donna Peters, please come this way?’
They made their way up some stairs and along a grey painted corridor and into a small room containing a couple of chairs and a table. Erin was ushered to a seat and Donna sat opposite her.
‘Now, I’d like to take some details about your boyfriend, Scott Briggs.’
‘Yes, that’s right, he’s not been home for two nights now and I can’t contact him by phone. I’m sure something has happened to him!’ and Erin started to cry.
‘Now let’s take things one step at a time, Ms Jones,’ and Donna paused whilst Erin tried to compose herself.
‘Sorry, I’m just so worried about him,’
‘Now, does Mr Briggs have a job?’
‘Well, he has several, I’m not sure exactly, this and that, Casual sort of work.’
‘Can you be more specific?’
‘Not really, he didn’t really tell me much about his work. Sometimes he did deliveries, he mentioned those.’
‘Oh, so he was a courier then. Which company did he work for?’
‘He didn’t work for a company. He did worked for different people. I don’t know their names.’
Sergeant Peters was beginning to get the picture. Scott was obviously engaged in illicit employment and most likely had a criminal record. She would check his name through the system as soon as this interview was concluded.
‘From what you can see in your flat, has Scott taken anything with him, clothes, personal possessions that kind of thing?’
‘Nothing, he’s just vanished.’
Erin was in a difficult spot. She knew that Scott’s disappearance could be connected to the recent events at the university. She knew all about the pressure being applied to Dan and Lee’s connection to someone powerful although she didn’t know who it was. She had to keep quiet about leaking the information from the university or she would be facing the sack. On her way there this evening she had gone through things in her mind and told herself she must be careful not to let anything slip, otherwise she could land herself in hot water.
‘I see. Well from what you’ve told me, there’s not a lot we can do at the moment. We don’t have any evidence of foul play apart from his phone being lost or possibly stolen. Sometimes people just want to have a fresh start.’
‘But we loved each other! He wouldn’t just leave me like that, I know he wouldn’t. You’ve got to start looking for him!’ Erin was a pathetic sight, her makeup was now completely smudged.
‘But where do you suggest? We have nothing to work with. I suggest you go home and when you remember something else, phone this number and I’ll take the details.’ Donna handed her a card with her own number and the general number of the police station.
Erin took it and held it. Tears were still running down her cheeks. Donna did feel sorry for the girl. She was going to suggest she had a cup of tea in the waiting area and then went home.
‘Wait a minute. I’ve just thought of something! He was working with a guy called Lee Percival. He works at The Flamingo Club. Lee said he’d some work for Scott and if he did a good job it could help him better himself, sort of thing.’
Donna noted this down, ‘OK, well, we’ll see if we can get in touch with this Lee Percival. We can send someone around to the club to have a word with the manager. Leave it with me and I’ll be in touch. I’ve got your number and details. Do you work?’
‘Yes, I’m an admin assistant at the university, chemistry department,’ replied Erin.
Donna stood up to indicate that Erin should leave the room now. The poor girl picked up her bag and wiped her face with the back of her hand and waddled out in her tight jeans. She would ask someone to pay a visit to The Flamingo and see whether anyone could shine more light on the matter. She would also run those two names through the computer to see if they had any past offences.
**
Inspector Mike Harris, ably assisted by Sergeant Andy Walters, was leading a meeting with the CID staff to assign duties for the following day and then most of the team would be allowed home. It had been a long day and so far little progress had been made on the triple murder enquiry. From the evidence so far it bore all the hallmarks of organised crime. The two unfortunate males had upset someone or failed to carry out their task efficiently and had been found surplus to requirements. The girl might be a sex worker, possibly from abroad or someone who just got in the way. It was too early to tell.
‘Right, guys, I won’t keep you too long. We need to make a list of urgent actions to follow up. Once we’ve listed them then Andy will assign the jobs,’ said Inspector Harris.
‘Firstly, I want to emphasise that we are not releasing a statement that the people in the van were murdered, not yet. The incident will be posted as a fatal traffic accident,’ he looked around the room to see heads nodding and notes being taken. ‘We need to check missing persons reports and follow up if there are any possible connections to this case. Chase up forensics to get the chassis details of the van. Check CCTV in the vicinity of the field and see if we can trace back. Check any reports of stolen vans. See whether ballistics can tell us whether the gun has been used before in any crime, though I doubt it. Any questions or comments?’ He scanned the room and waited a few moments as the assembled team were hastily making notes.
Mike Harris continued, ‘Good. Now we’ve had a report of an abduction which occurred on Monday but was only reported late last night. Shani interviewed the young woman and her boyfriend this morning. The woman somehow managed to escape and wounded her captor, possibly fatally. The whole story is bizarre in the extreme but we need to check it out. It’s connected with the university and if you remember the other day there was a violent assault. Andy, do you want to fill the team in with more details about this?’
‘Sure. Well, it seems the assault was a case of mistaken identity,’ and he consulted his notes. ‘A Mr Nick Thomas was wearing a jacket belonging to a Mr Dan Lythgoe and someone beat him up really badly. Mr Lythgoe has been buying from drug dealer, Wayne Roberts.’ The team groaned as this was a familiar name to them all. ‘Yes, our old friend Wayne Roberts pops up again. However it is more complicated than that. Mr Lythgoe was asked to steal some material from the chemistry laboratory and hand it over to someone who seems to be connected to drug dealing. Exactly why is not clear at this stage,’ He jotted down the names he’d mentioned on the whiteboard. ‘Paul, we need to speak to Mr Thomas in hospital and see whether he can give an identification of his attackers. Dan Lythgoe’s given a description of the person who threatened him but it’s vague.’ He paused. ‘The young girl who was abducted is the girlfriend of the man who we think was the intended victim of the assault.’ There were some murmurings from the assembled team. ‘Yes, I know, it all sounds like a tangled web. I suggest you read the exact details of Mr Lythgoe’s interview. I don’t want to go through it all now.’ He looked around the room, ‘Shani, I think you would be the best person to check out where this young lady, a Miss, what is her name, oh yes, a Miss Jessica Howard says she escaped. You’ve already interviewed her, so gain her confidence, get her talking. Also, we need to know who owns that land. I see from the transcript, Miss Howard claims she stabbed her captor through the eye with a pen.’ He paused as he sensed a couple of his team wince at the image of a pen through the eye. ‘I attended the post-mortem of the charred bodies this afternoon and Alistair suggested that one of the victims had some injury through the eye socket. This could be the person who imprisoned her. What we need to find out is how he came to be barbecued in the back of the vehicle.’ Once again Andy checked his notes before continuing. ‘Miss Howard says that a lady gave her a lift and we have her details, she needs to be interviewed.’
The team were taking notes as all this information was being relayed. Their faces showed the seriousness of the task ahead and the realisation that they were all in for long working days and nights in the next week.
‘OK, thanks for your time. Now get some rest. Hopefully, by tomorrow we will have the full report from the post-mortems and more from forensics.’
Andy and Mike stayed behind whilst the team left the room. They were both exhausted but had too much adrenaline coursing through their veins to be able to go home and sleep.
‘Fancy a pint?’ asked Mike.
‘I thought you’d never ask,’ joked Andy. ‘You know it’s all a muddle at the moment but I can’t help feeling all this is connected in some way.’
‘Oh, how do you reckon that?’
‘I’ve no idea, it’s just a hunch. Instinct.’
‘Come on then, we can talk about this over a pint,’ said Mike and they gathered their coats and left the building.
In a separate room, Sergeant Donna Peters entered the details of her conversation with Erin Jones into the system unaware of how significant Erin’s testimony would prove to be.
