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Dan and Jessica had spent the night in a budget hotel on the outskirts of Persford. The next morning Jessica awoke very early as she was nervous about having to revisit the spot where she climbed over the wall. The police were clearly annoyed that she’d not reported the crime earlier but there was little she could do about that now. She would have liked Dan to be able to accompany her but there was nothing he could contribute and besides he’d been contacted by Phil Sweetman that he was expected in his office at 9 a.m. for an important meeting. Dan had told Phil that he couldn’t come to the university this morning but would phone him. Dan knew he was in for a complete carpeting over his behaviour at the dinner last night and he would need to confess to his drug habit. They both had a tough day ahead.
She sensed Dan stirring next to her so cuddled up against him and he kissed her hair. They had about half an hour before they needed to get up and prepare for the day so she just took comfort in the warmth of his body next to her. She hoped that Dan wouldn’t betray her trust and confidence in him by not facing up to his habit. He’d been given a second and final chance otherwise this would be the end of their relationship.
**
DS Andy Walters was at his desk by 7 a.m. as was usually the case when a serious crime had just occurred. They had allocated two tasks last night in the team meeting but he still had the rest of the workload to delegate. Mike had asked him to take charge of this as he had some divisional paperwork to complete this morning. CID now had three murders to investigate, the imprisonment of a young girl who had miraculously escaped and a serious assault. This would mean an above average workload for their already stretched workforce.
His routine each morning was to check the incident log to see what had happened overnight. To his great relief, there was nothing too serious, the usual assaults, thefts, road traffic accidents and so on. He then scanned the records of any member of the public phoning or presenting themselves at the station to report crimes or missing persons. He looked at the list and his eyes settled on the testimony of a Ms Erin Jones who had given details of a missing boyfriend and his friend. This in itself was not unusual but there was a detail which particularly interested him. Ms Jones claimed that the missing man had been offered some work by a permanent employee at The Flamingo, a well-known lap dancing club on the outskirts of Persford. This club was owned by a prolific businessman Ron Radford who had never been charged with anything illegal but Andy was sure that there were many activities that were not wholly above board. The problem was proving that to be the case. Could the murdered girl with the poor teeth have possibly worked there?
He ran the two names Erin had given through the police computer to see whether either had a criminal record. Scott Briggs, her boyfriend had a few juvenile offences but nothing recent. These were mainly for stealing cars, driving without insurance or a licence and vandalism. He’d spent some short spells in a young offender institute but had no recent convictions as an adult. Lee Percival had a criminal record as an adult and had spent a few years in prison for theft, aggravated burglary and assault. Most recently someone had accused him of an assault outside The Flamingo but the charges were later dropped.
He sat back in his chair. He must be wary of trying to create links where they didn’t exist but he would definitely get someone to find a few minutes in their day or more realistically their evening, to pay a visit to The Flamingo and ask a few questions about their staff.
**
DS Shani Patel was driving Jessica to the outskirts of Persford to locate the wall where she had escaped. Shani was chatting to Jessica about her plans for the weekend rather than focusing on recent events in order to try to get the poor girl to relax. She was fidgeting, wringing her hands, touching her hair and picking at bits of fluff on her jacket.
‘Which way now?’ asked Shani.
‘I think it’s right at the roundabout, yes, that’s it as we turned left going the other way.’
Shani indicated and pulled over to the right-hand lane. She followed Jessica’s instructions and they proceeded along the road which had grass verges on each side.
‘Slow down a little,’ said Jessica, I think it was along this stretch, she said looking over to the right-hand side of the road.
‘I’ll pull in at this lay-by and we can take our time. Perhaps it would be better to get out and walk along the verge a little?’
‘I wonder whether my coat is still snagged on the wire on the top of the wall?’
‘Well, let’s get out of the car and see what we can see?’
The two women crossed the road and walked carefully along the verge which was muddy in places. They had walked for about two hundred yards when Jessica saw some tyre tracks in the grass. She stopped.
‘I think this is where the lady stopped and gave me a lift. She definitely pulled over on to the grass so she didn’t cause an obstruction.’
‘So this is the spot where you climbed over then?’
‘Wait a minute, no, it’s not here, I remember now, I climbed over and crouched down by the wall for a while. Then I started to walk along the road. But I couldn’t have walked very quickly as I had no shoes.’ Her voice started to break as she relived the trauma of her escape.
‘You’re doing very well, Jessica,’ encouraged Shani, passing her arm around Jessica’s shoulders. ‘Just take your time, there’s no rush. Take some deep breaths.’
After a minute or so they continued along the verge. Jessica was deep in thought. She paused.
‘I think it was about here, as I remember that large tree there. It shielded me from the traffic as I sat on the grass.’
‘Excellent!’ said Shani. ‘Well there’s no trace of your coat so presumably, your abductors have seen it and removed it. I’ll just radio in about our progress so far.’
Jessica stood aside and looked around. The surroundings looked so different in broad daylight. As she looked up at the wall she could hardly believe how she had climbed over. It was amazing how adrenaline in the face of adversity could spur the body to achieve something which would seem impossible under normal circumstances.
‘OK, yes, we’ll do that,’ said Shani, disconnecting the call. ‘Let’s go back to the car, we don’t want to be spotted by anyone. But I want to drive along this road to see whether we can see a gate or an entrance or something. We can find out who owns this property when we get back to the station but I’d like to take a look all the same.’
‘OK, if we are in the car, I just want to get away from here,’ said Jessica, ‘It’s all coming back to me, memories of being locked up. It’s horrible.’
They made their way back to the car. Jessica had done really well. Shani hoped she would be with the team that came back to interview the resident of the property. It was a pity that Jessica had dropped the keys, they could have been powerful evidence. She just hoped that they could find some other incriminating details.
**
Dan phoned the university and asked to be put through to Phil Sweetman’s office. He felt extremely anxious and slightly sick.
The phone was answered, ‘Phil Sweetman.’
‘It’s Dan.’
‘Oh, yes, I think you’ve got some explaining to do. I was rather hoping you would have the guts to come in and see me in person,’ said Phil sternly.
‘I can explain why I’m not coming in today. I hope you’ll understand.’
Phil exhaled. ‘Well that depends on what you have to say but firstly I want to say that I have never been so embarrassed at a university dinner as I was on Thursday evening. It was quite obvious what you had been doing before you returned to the table and started on your, how shall I call it, your floor show. Your pupils were so dilated and you were as high as a kite. I’m surprised Prof Zeng didn’t think we had some sort of drug lab going on here rather than being at the forefront of cancer research!’ Phil’s voice had increased in intensity and his face was flushed. ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’
‘Sorry, I’m going to go for counselling. I admit I’ve developed a drug habit and I want to stop. I’m mortified at my behaviour at the dinner. It was disgraceful.’
‘Hmmm,’ said Phil. ‘Well at least you’ve had the decency to admit you were wrong and have vowed to seek help.’ He paused. ‘For goodness sake, Dan, you were doing so well. One of our best scientists. I would never have imagined you just wanted to throw it all away.’
Now more than ever Dan was in need of some help from his white powder but he knew that those days were over.
‘I’ve spoken to Ian and he says the police are assuming that Nick Thomas was beaten up in a case of mistaken identity. You were their intended target. Does that mean you owed the drug dealers money? Nick could have died because of you. How much did you owe them?’
‘I didn’t owe them anything, it’s more complicated. I’ve been to the police and told them the full story. Perhaps I’d better tell you. It all concerns UP-627.’
Phil couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘What? The front-runner compound? But that’s not psychoactive? You aren’t making any sense.’
‘It’s a long story. I’ve screwed up big time. It’s such a complete fuck-up,’ and Dan started to cry. Through periods of sobbing, he told Phil the whole story about the demands of the potential cancer drug and Jessica’s ordeal.
If Phil could have seen Dan he would have been shocked at what a pitiful sight he was. Phil listened in silence.. He’d arrived that morning thinking he might have to give Dan a formal warning over drug abuse and now he was listening to something which sounded like it was a TV drama. This could have huge ramifications for the future of the planned spin-off company. He just hoped that the fallout could be limited and contained.
