It had been many months since Dani had last made the trip to this part of Worcestershire. The population of the sleepy village known as South Littleton was barely twice that of the nearby Category A prison – Long Lartin – a sprawling and depressingly bland 1970s construction. Unfortunately, it was to the prison that Dani and Easton were headed.
Dani parked up her car, shut down the engine then took a deep breath before she stepped out.
‘Don’t look so worried,’ Easton said to her as they closed their doors.
Dani didn’t respond. Why was she feeling so anxious anyway? It wasn’t like she hadn’t been here to see Ben before. Though this was the first time since she’d tried and failed to find the evidence that would prove that he was behind Damian Curtis’s killing spree, and the first time since Curtis’s trial had started.
Was it because of what she saw as her own failure that she felt so daunted now? Knowing Ben he certainly wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to taunt her.
Not that Curtis was top of the agenda for today.
There’d been a fresh smattering of snow overnight, though the freezing temperature had turned the thin layer into ice. Dani carefully crunched across it as they headed through the car park to the visitor entrance. She checked her phone on the way, noting the missed call from McNair. Dani was holding off speaking to the boss as long as she could. Undoubtedly, she was in for a reprimand – at the least – over her decision to hastily pull Easton away from the mess at his home the day before. She’d already had the update from him in the car that Wesley had been charged – while still in hospital – with assault and breach of the peace, but had since been discharged and was now out on bail. Easton would still have to answer questions about his role in the events, and Dani couldn’t stop the big machine if it was determined that he too should be charged, but for now she wanted him by her side.
‘I feel bad coming here,’ Dani said.
‘I already said, you—’
‘I don’t mean because I’m apprehensive about seeing Ben. I mean because I’m worried about Ana. The more time that passes—’
‘We’ve a whole team back at HQ following up, trying to find her.’
True enough. Though that still didn’t make Dani feel any better. Any delay could prove disastrous for Ana.
Perhaps they were already too late.
Dani hadn’t expected they’d be meeting with Ben alone. Not after everything that had happened. So it was no surprise when the prison guard opened the door to the interview room and Ben was sitting behind the table in the middle of the room with his slimy lawyer Gregory Daley by his side. Daley was dressed immaculately, as always, even down to the finer details including his designer glasses, gleaming cufflinks and tie-pin. Though he was also now sporting a goatee beard that Dani hadn’t seen before and which added at least a decade to his age and didn’t suit his rounded face at all.
Ben… well, he looked older too, his hair wiry and almost entirely grey, his face more lined than before, his cheekbones more jagged from loss of weight. The ageing hadn’t come across properly when she’d seen him at distance on the video link the other day, but every time Dani saw Ben up close and in the flesh he seemed to have aged several years, as though the prison was in a time-warp where the days, weeks, months and years passed by more quickly than on the outside.
Not that she felt sorry for him at all.
‘How’ve you been, Dani?’ Ben said with a warm smile as she and Easton took the seats opposite Ben and Daley. The interview-room door was shut and locked behind them.
‘All the better for not seeing you,’ she said, though she chastised herself for her churlish response, which only added to Ben’s smile.
‘We weren’t given much notice for this meeting,’ Daley said. ‘So you can appreciate if we’re under-prepared, but I’m assuming this is going to be related to Damian Curtis?’
Dani set her hard glare on Daley. ‘You assume? Why would you assume we came here to discuss Damian Curtis? Is that because you believe your client has something more to tell us regarding Curtis’s crimes?’
Daley held his tongue.
‘It was a nice performance, though,’ Dani said to Ben. ‘Your little cameo in court.’
‘I’d asked to go in person, but—’
‘But you’re a dangerous murderer, so a day out wasn’t on the cards.’
Ben shrugged. ‘I thought I saw you on the link,’ he said.
‘Detective Stephens, if this has to do with my client’s testimony—’
‘We didn’t come here to discuss Damian Curtis,’ Dani said. ‘Or the trial. Or the little show that Ben put on the other day with that sudden recollection of events related to Dr Collins that he’d never before mentioned to anyone.’
Daley gave a ‘so what’ look. ‘The evidence was there to find, it’s not our—’
‘Yes. It’s my job, the police’s job, to find evidence. The CPS to present that. And believe me, I will get to the bottom of what happened between you and Curtis and make sure you get what you deserve.’
Dani held Ben’s gaze for a few moments. Each second that passed, a sliver of his confidence seemed to disappear. He looked away first, to his lawyer. Daley said nothing.
‘Anyway,’ Dani said. ‘Enough of that. Like I said, we’re not here today to talk about Curtis. Something very different, in fact.’
‘Which is?’ Daley said. He looked a little uneasy now.
Dani nodded to Easton and he slapped the picture onto the table then pushed it across the desk to Ben.
‘Can you tell us if you recognise the people in this picture?’ Easton said to him.
Ben made a macho point of staring out Easton for a couple of seconds before he reached for the photograph with his cuffed hands and brought it closer to him.
‘Would you care to explain the purpose of this?’ Daley said.
‘If you’re patient, we will,’ Dani said, never taking her eyes of Ben. ‘So?’
‘Well, of course I recognise myself,’ he said with a smug smile, though it only lasted until his eyes briefly met Dani’s. He looked back down to the photo. ‘It’s a team photo from when I worked at Ellis Associates.’
He sat back in his chair. Nonchalant.
‘You know the names of all the people it shows?’ Easton asked.
‘I’d have to have a good think, but I certainly did know them, at the time. When was this? Five, six years ago?’
‘Close,’ Dani said.
‘We’re particularly interested in what you remember of this man.’ Easton reached forwards and put his finger on Liam Dunne’s face.
‘James?’ Ben said, looking perplexed. ‘James Alden?’
‘That’s the one,’ Dani said. ‘Except his real name was Liam Dunne.’
‘Have you heard of that name?’ Easton asked.
‘I have,’ Ben said.
‘How?’ Easton asked.
Ben looked to his lawyer before he answered, though Daley didn’t even flinch. It was clear this was all news to him.
‘I don’t remember the exact details, but it was found out that James – or Dunne or whatever he was called – had lied about who he was. I don’t know why. But I do know it got him the sack.’
‘You don’t remember how you found out?’ Dani asked.
‘No,’ Ben said with a carefree shrug.
‘Do you remember how your employer found out?’
According to Henry Welter it had been Ben who blew the whistle.
‘I don’t know,’ Ben said.
At least one of them was lying then, and Dani was far more inclined to believe it was Ben than Welter. But why?
‘What was your relationship with Dunne?’ Dani asked.
‘Relationship? We worked for the same company. On the same project team for a few months. Until he left. That was it. There was no relationship.’
‘What was his relationship with your wife?’ Dani said.
Ben’s face screwed up in anger ‘Excuse me?’
‘We were alerted to an altercation between yourself and Liam Dunne,’ Easton said. ‘This altercation took place at a nightclub in Birmingham, called Gino’s back in 2014. A—’
‘Detective,’ Daley said, ‘I really think you should cut to the chase here. You’re asking—’
‘I was trying to get to the point until you interrupted,’ Easton said. That shut the lawyer up. ‘Can you explain what happened that night?’ Easton asked Ben.
‘I’m presuming you already think you know the answers to that,’ Ben said.
‘Give us your version then,’ Dani said.
‘From what I remember it was a drunken argument. Nothing more.’
‘Over Gemma?’
Ben paused for a moment. ‘I really don’t remember the spark. I was drunk. So was he. I took offence to something. When I brought him up on it, he got in my face.’
‘So what? You punched him?’
‘There was a scuffle. As I recall neither of us was hurt. Though our whole party was thrown out of the club. We all went home. End of story.’
‘Is it?’
‘What?’
‘Is that the end of the story?’
‘I just said so.’
‘So you and Gemma were fine after that?’
‘As far as I recall.’
‘And you never took your disagreement with Dunne any further?’
‘It was a drunken argument, that’s all.’
‘So you weren’t the person, who, two days after that disagreement, told your employer about Dunne’s duplicity?’
‘Is that…’ Ben stopped and seemed to mull over whatever he’d been about to say. ‘OK. Yes. That was me.’
‘Wow, Ben. I’m impressed. I didn’t even have to force that truth out of you. So how did you find out?’
Ben looked to Daley again. The lawyer leaned over and whispered into Ben’s ear. Likely telling him not to answer the question, for whatever reason.
Dani sighed, sensing Daley wasn’t going to like where this was going and deciding she was better just getting there. ‘Why don’t I speed up this process a bit, rather than us dithering on your patchy recollection of your own actions.’
‘I agree that would be most helpful,’ Daley said.
‘Liam Dunne has been missing since 2015.’
Ben didn’t react at all to that.
‘We don’t know where he went, or if he is still alive,’ Dani said. ‘We do know he went missing just a few months after he lost his job at Ellis Associates. Because of you.’
Daley couldn’t help himself. ‘If you’re suggesting—’
‘I’m not suggesting anything,’ Dani said. ‘Did you know Liam was missing?’
Ben shook his head, though he looked a little more worried now than before.
‘Do you know this woman?’ Dani said, taking the copy of the photo of Liam and the mystery woman from Easton’s pile, and sliding it across the desk.
Ben glanced at it for only a couple of seconds before he looked up and shook his head.
‘You’re sure?’ Dani asked. ‘You don’t remember Liam having a girlfriend, or ever bringing a date along to one of your nights out?’
‘Never.’
Perhaps the woman was a dead end, but Dani wanted to hold onto the hope that she was of significance, if only she could figure out who she was.
‘Now, this is where the story gets really murky,’ Dani said. ‘Because last week, we found Clara Dunne, Liam’s sister, dead in her home. We’re treating her death as murder, and we have strong evidence that before her death she was performing a personal investigation into her brother’s disappearance.’
She let that one hang but neither Daley nor Ben said a word.
‘In relation to Clara’s death, and Liam’s disappearance, we are currently investigating the activities of a gang believed to be involved in various criminal activities including prostitution, drugs and extortion. The gang are all Romanian nationals.’
Dani indicated to Easton.
‘Do you know any of these men?’ he said, placing three more photos onto the table – one each of Victor Nistor, Alex Stelea and Nicolae Popescu.
‘You don’t have to answer that,’ Daley said, looking as anxious as he sounded now.
‘I don’t know them,’ Ben said.
‘You don’t? Because where I’m sitting the circumstantial evidence is looking very strong indeed.’
‘What evidence?’ Daley said. ‘And evidence of what?’
‘You were convicted of the murder of your first wife, Alice,’ Dani said. ‘Correct?’
‘Correct,’ Ben said through gritted teeth.
‘Though my client has never admitted guilt,’ Daley decided to point out, as though that had any bearing. ‘And you are probably aware we are currently in the process of considering grounds for appeal.’
Dani ignored him. ‘And, through your association with a prominent local gangster, known as Callum O’Brady, who you also later killed, you were able to cover up Alice’s murder for a number of years.’
O’Brady. An Irish gangster who Ben had become indebted to. Who Ben, after killing Alice in a crime of passion, turned to for help in covering up her murder. That had worked. Until years later when Ben’s life, and his mental health, began to spiral out of control. In the end he’d killed O’Brady along with several members of his gang to try to break free from their grip, and had tried to kill both Gemma and Dani when they’d discovered the truth about Alice.
‘Ben?’
‘My client is hardly going to admit to these ludicrous statements,’ Daley said. ‘He has already been tried in relation to the deaths of both Alice—’
‘I’m well aware of his trial, thank you,’ Dani said. ‘Given I was one of the people Ben tried to kill. My point is, the circumstances are startlingly similar, don’t you think?’
The room was silent for a few moments.
‘You killed Alice,’ Dani said. ‘For revenge, I might add, because she wanted to leave you. You then used Callum O’Brady to cover up her death to make it look like a home invasion gone wrong. Fast-forward a few years. You knew Liam Dunne. You had a falling out with him. Over his hands-on nature with your wife.’
Ben was getting seriously riled. Every mention of Gemma made him angrier. Which was exactly where Dani wanted him.
‘So you had reason to want revenge on Dunne too. Then… pouf. He disappears. Now, years later, we realise not only is there a link between him and you, but we’re able to link the death of his sister – who was desperately searching for her brother – to another local gang. This one run by Victor Nistor.’
Dani tapped the head of Victor on the picture on the table as she spoke.
‘So, let me ask you very clearly. How do you know Victor Nistor?’
‘I don’t know him.’
‘Did you kill Liam Dunne?’
‘I—’
‘Do not say another word,’ Daley said, slamming his hand onto the table. ‘Detectives, as you are very well aware, my client is speaking to you today of his own volition, and not under caution. Unless you are intending to charge him, then this meeting is over.’
Nobody said a word as Dani considered that proposition.
‘So?’ Daley said.
Dani kept her eyes on her brother, though the return of his smug expression said it all. ‘Ben?’
He shook his head.
‘We’re done here,’ Daley said, getting to his feet.