CHAPTER FOUR

 

It was close to six o’clock but Jon had no inclination to go home. Home didn’t mean much these days. Certainly it was comfortable; any riverside apartment towards the centre of Saltfleet town would be comfortable, especially one that cost as much a small rural farmhouse. To Jon it was just a place to get your head down when you could no longer find an excuse to stay at work. And right now, finding something new in the Jamie Durham enquiry was a very good excuse.

Jon gazed across the CID room and saw DC Rosie McElderry talking animatedly to her colleague, the fourth member of Kate Reynard’s team, DC Scott Verdun.

Jon watched Rosie for a while, and couldn’t help but smile. With her long blonde hair caught back in a casual pony-tail, she looked more like an American cheerleader than a detective. But Jon knew that looks could be deceiving, and was certainly the case with Rosie. For a start, she was well into her twenties, even though she still looked like a sixth former. Plus she was an integral part of their small team, and a woman with a heightened sense of understanding people. Somehow, reading body-language came as naturally to her as playing the cello did to his mother. And that meant she could spot a liar at forty paces, which was a very useful string to the team’s collective bow. Along with Scotty of course. Every team needed a techno-wizard, and he was theirs.

Jon looked at the youngest member of their team almost fondly. DC Scott Verdun’s expertise with technology was something of an enigma. He seemed to talk to the machine as if his brain was a brother computer. If it held back secrets, he could coax it into giving them up, with just a few light touches on the key pad.  And thankfully he did not look like your average techno-nerd. Scott was ultra trendy, sported designer clothes; expensive shoes, a Max Stuhrling watch, and a modern-cut hairstyle that would have made a premiere league footballer chew his boots with envy.

Jon dragged his eyes reluctantly away from the outer office and tried to focus on the evidence that they had accumulated regarding Jamie Durham’s last hours. And it wasn’t easy, because he’d been over it so many times before and found nothing new.

With a muttered curse, Jon stood up and began pacing his tiny cupboard of an office. He paused at his computer desk and picked up the note that Kate had left him earlier. Things had gone badly with the Kelly family, and she had decided to go back and sit with them for a little longer before heading for home. And Jon knew that his boss felt exactly as he did, that Shauna had not died accidentally. He may not have picked up anything clairvoyantly from her body, but he had felt instinctively that her death was suspicious.

He paced again. They desperately needed to be free of the Jamie Durham case, and not just for their own sakes. The man, Cullen Payne, who had without a doubt killed the boy, was a scum-bag, and he needed to pay the highest price for what he’d done.

Jon bit hard on his bottom lip and felt a salty taste on his tongue. He had to do something, and he needed to do it soon, because if Shauna Kelly was indeed a murder victim, all their efforts would be directed on her and Payne would walk free.

With a grunt, he dropped down into his chair.

There was of course one thing he could try. It was risky, and it was something that the Boss had expressly forbidden him to do. In the silence of his room, he sucked in air and weighed up the consequences.

After a while he stood up, grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, waved a swift goodnight to Rosie and Scott, and hurried down to his car.

What did they say? Desperate times called for desperate measures?

 

A few hours later, as darkness shrouded the fen, two youngsters, unsteady in their high heels, tottered along the uneven pavements of Harlan Marsh town.

‘Are you sure this is the place?’ Jasmine drew her thin top closer to her equally thin body, and shivered.

‘This is it.’ said Chloe. ‘I followed Paul here last week. I watched him go in.’

The two girls looked dubiously at the rusting wrought iron fencing that surrounded the concrete steps, and saw the peeling paintwork on the heavy old door down in the shadowy basement area.

‘Well, nothing is happening tonight, that’s for sure. Let’s go home, Chloe. This place is a dump, it gives me the creeps.’ Jasmine had been unenthusiastic about gate-crashing the party from the outset.

Chloe frowned. ‘But I sneaked a look at his mobile. There was a new message saying that it was on tonight. And I know this is where my brother came before.’

‘Maybe it was cancelled at the last minute.’ Jasmine shifted from foot to foot. It had been a stupid idea anyway. So what if there was free booze? She didn’t even like the taste of alcohol, and if her Dad ever found out, he would go ape-shit and probably ground her for the rest of the year.

‘Can I help you young ladies?’

The voice was friendly enough. Jasmine turned around to see an older man smiling at them. He had a short modern haircut, trendy clothes and was carrying a large case of wine bottles.

‘You the geezer who runs the parties?’ asked Chloe brashly.

The man narrowed his eyes. ‘What parties?’

Chloe jabbed a finger towards the case of wine. ‘So you are going to drink that lot all on your own, are you?’

‘Smart kid.’ He grinned at her and placed the heavy box on the ground. ‘So, are you two club members?’

Jasmine felt a stab of anxiety, and suddenly wished they had never left home.

‘Course we are.’ said Chloe, trying to look bored. ‘Why else would we be here? And my mobile phone message definitely said it was on, so…?’

The man sighed. ‘But you never received the venue change. Ah, well, I’m sorry about that. Must have been some sort of mix up.’

‘Oh great!’ Chloe snorted. ‘So if it’s not here, where is it? We don’t want to spend all night on the friggin’ pavement.’

The man looked from one girl to the other. ‘Funny, I’ve never seen either of you before, and I’ve got a pretty good memory for faces.’

Jasmine took hold of Chloe’s arm. ‘Come on, Clo, just leave it.’

‘No way!’ Chloe pushed Jasmine away and placed her both hands on her hips. ‘These guys have cocked up, end of. Just because we’re new members and have only been once before, doesn’t mean we should miss out on a party.’ She turned aggressively to the man and said, ‘Does it, granddad?’

The man, who in honesty couldn’t have been more than thirty, tilted his head and stared at them for a moment. ‘How old are you?’ He asked.

‘I’m seventeen.’ said Chloe quickly. ‘And she’s sixteen, if it’s any of your business.’

‘ID?’

An odd look of interest, or maybe it was amusement, passed across the man’s face when Chloe told him they had left it at home. And Jasmine began to shiver again. She hated it when Chloe lied about their age. She knew that they looked much older than their fourteen years, and she knew the way they dressed didn’t help, but this was beginning to get uncomfortable. ‘Sorry, but I’m going, Chlo. You do what you want.’ She turned to walk away.

‘Okay, okay.’ The man shook his head and grinned at them. ‘You win. The venue is in Carters Way tonight. There’s an old warehouse, it’s about half way down on the left hand side, there’s a side door and..,’ He stopped and gave a little sigh. ‘Oh, wait here, I’ve got another of these crates to collect and then I’m going down there myself. I’ll take you if you like, by way of an apology for the muddle with the text.’

‘It’s the least you can do.’ said Chloe indignantly.

Jasmine threw her friend a horrified look as the man walked a few doors down and disappeared into a rough looking house. ‘You can’t get into his car alone, Chloe! Don’t be totally stupid! We never do that, never!’

‘Then come with me. It’ll be fun. We’ve practically got him..,’ she nodded her head down the road, ‘..eating out of our hand. Lighten up, Jasmine for God’s sake. My brother thinks these parties are the coolest thing ever! Really wicked! Free drink all night, music, dancing, snogging, anything you want.’ She lowered her voice. ‘And I mean anything. He didn’t know that I was listening, but I heard Paul telling his spotty mate Darren, that he actually did it with his girlfriend! Can you believe that!’

Jasmine didn’t even want to think about it. The thought of Paul and his skanky girl friend jammed up against a wall made her feel ill. Doing it, as Chloe had so crudely put it, should be special. Jasmine wanted flowers, incense sticks and a big soft bed for her first time, not some dingy basement surrounded by piss-heads.

‘I’ll go on my own, Jas, honestly I will.’

‘You can’t. What if your brother turns up? He’ll kill you if he finds you there. And he’ll know that you’ve snooping through his mobile.’

‘He won’t, he’s gone to a concert in Sheffield.’ The girl looked up as she heard a door closing further down the deserted street. ‘Please, Jas? Just let’s see what it’s like? If you don’t like it, we’ll go home, I promise.’ She watched as the man approached them. ‘And he’s harmless, you can tell by just looking at him.’

Two minutes later, as Jasmine reluctantly followed Chloe into the back of the car, she knew that she was making a seriously big mistake, but even knowing that, there was no way she could have watched her best friend drive away alone.