Clean Cut (10 page)

‘Don’t bother,’ said Blunt.

‘Yeah, just ignore it,’ Brandon agreed.

‘I can’t–she is accusing me of lying!’

‘You’ll be accused of a lot more in this job if you stay in it long enough, believe you me,’ said Brandon cynically.

Blunt returned to his desk. ‘Hang the bastard,’ he said, to no one in particular.

Anna drove back up the dirt track to the Sickert house. It had been raining heavily. Her Mini was not the best car in which to drive over such muddy uneven ground. The same array of kids’ toys was out on the front lawn: a broken bicycle, a plastic slide and a plastic red pedal car. She stepped over the broken bricks laid out as a path to the front door, but before she got there, Gail Sickert opened it. A skinny little boy with a face covered in freckles was beside her; when he saw Anna, he ran off clutching his Action Man doll.

‘Gail, it’s Anna Travis.’ She showed her ID.

‘I’m not talking to you, and you’d best get out of here before my bloke comes home.’

‘Threatening to dump pig food over me?’ she smiled.

‘He’s gone out for some planks; the hens got out last night, and he’ll as good as smash your car up with them, so just go away! I mean it!’

There was a noisy argument from inside the house. Gail turned to yell at her two eldest children, then looked back to Anna. ‘I mean it–just go away. I’ve got enough on me plate, what with them two off school with colds and doing my head in!’

‘No, I won’t. I want to know why you’ve told lies about me.’

‘Piss off!’

‘You can yell and shout at me as much as you want, but I am not going anywhere until you tell me why you’ve lied. Don’t make me report the fact that your young daughter was found here alone. You think the social services won’t step in?’

‘What fucking lies?’

‘The photograph, Gail–the one you gave to me. Why have you lied about it being taken without your permission?’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about. My bloke is gonna be back here any minute.’

‘Yeah, with planks–you said. Now why don’t you let me come in and see why your kid is screaming its head off?’

Tina was in the same condition as when Anna was last there, naked apart from a soiled disposable nappy; this time, she also had an empty bottle clenched in her teeth. Gail went to the fridge, shook up some formula and poured it into the bottle she’d yanked out of the child’s mouth. It did the trick: the little soul plonked herself down on the stained dirty carpet and gulped as if she was starving.

‘Do you never change her?’ Anna said.

Gail gave her a filthy look and disappeared, returning with a new nappy. She changed the child without bothering to use wipes or clean her up, then sat the little girl in a swing seat, the bottle still in her mouth; with her foot, she made the swing bob up and down.

‘Won’t that give her indigestion?’ Anna asked.

‘No, she likes it. What are you, some social services spy, coming round here snooping? Well, let me tell you,
my kids are all fine. I take ’em to the clinic regular as clockwork.’

‘That’s good.’

‘Yeah.’

‘So can you tell me why you have told your brother’s solicitor that the photograph, the one you gave to me, was taken without your permission?’

Gail shrugged her skinny shoulders. ‘It could get me into a lot of trouble.’

‘How come?’

The woman only sighed.

‘Please tell me if you have been threatened. If you need protection, I can arrange it.’

‘You don’t understand! He’s got friends; just ’cos he’s banged up, he can still get to me.’

‘Your brother?’

‘Yes! He’s been calling–said he’ll send some goon round. I just don’t want any trouble.’

‘But you lied.’

‘Yeah, so what? They won’t get me into any court, if that’s what you’re worried about. If they do, they’ll be sorry, ’cos I’ll tell them that he’s a bastard and always has been. He made my life a misery and he never paid for what he done. All I’ve tried to do is get away from him, and now this has brought him back.’

‘Gail, your brother murdered someone. He is not going to be free, not for a very long time. If he has made threats—’

Gail interrupted Anna angrily. ‘That’s what I just told you–he’s been calling me here, and that Vernon. They’re both saying stuff about me, and I just don’t want any more aggravation. He must have got my number
from my mum, seen it written down some place. Probably my address too.’

Anna took a deep breath to remain calm. ‘If you are in any way being threatened, then you can call your local police.’

‘Oh yeah? You think they give a toss about me? Last time I saw that bastard, they come out ’cos he was so drunk and pissing in the road; he give me a black eye then, but they did fuck all about it.’

‘Did you file a complaint against your brother?’

‘No fucking way. If I done that, he’d have killed me.’

‘But you know now he can’t hurt you, he’s arrested.’

‘He’s been bloody arrested before! He’s been in the nick before and he gets out!’

‘This time, he’s going down for life.’

‘
He
says different, his solicitor says different, and guess who I’m gonna trust–not the fucking cops, for starters.’

Anna was really trying hard to keep her voice steady. ‘Gail, I can get an order for him not to molest—’

‘Molest? He’s already done that! I got orders to keep him away from me, but a fat lot of good that done. I changed me phone number so many times I can’t even remember it.’

A truck was heard rumbling up the drive. Gail ran to the window. ‘You’d better clear off–he’s back.’

Anna felt very uneasy; the last thing she wanted was a confrontation with Gail’s partner–or worse, a plank through her windscreen. ‘All right, I’m going, but all I am asking from you is to tell the truth. You gave me that photograph willingly.’

‘Yeah, yeah, I did; now you’d better go.’

Anna picked up her briefcase and hurried to the front door.

The truck bounced over the potholes as it headed for the rear of the property, laden with planks of every shape and size. As Anna walked out, it stopped. She hurried to her Mini and opened the door.

‘Oi, you–what you doing here?’

Anna started the engine as Gail’s bloke jumped down from the truck.

‘You! I’m talking to you!’

The man Anna presumed was Mr Sickert was heading towards her. He was black and at least six feet two, with bulked-up muscles and long dreadlocks.

Anna reversed and drove past him fast; he had to step aside to avoid her running over him. By this time, Gail was at the front door, calling out to him not to make a scene. He kicked out at the Mini, but missed. Anna accelerated out of the driveway, heart pounding as he ranted and raved in her rearview mirror.

Gasping with nerves, she continued on down the lane before she stopped at a safe distance. Then she reached over for her briefcase and opened it, turning off the tape recorder. She had got what she came for: the admission from Gail that she had actually given her the photograph of her own accord. Anna knew her actions were illegal, especially as she had no authority from Sheldon to even have the meeting with Gail, but at least if it was brought up, she would have the transcript as evidence.

Still shaken by the interaction with Sickert, Anna let herself into her flat. She knew that the poor little soul Tina in the swing chair was not his child, as she was white. Perhaps it was Gail’s ex-husband’s child; she had used the name Summers when she had first taken over the lease of the bungalow.

Anna made herself a cup of strong coffee and then sat down to put together some notes. Taking out the tape recorder, she transcribed the entire conversation in shorthand, to make it easier for her to then write up her report. She could hear Langton’s voice warning her about taking risks, and knew she had, yet again, done something that was unethical.

It took quite a while replaying the tape back and forth to make sure she had everything required. At the point on the tape where you could hear the truck arriving, she got up to refill her cup and was almost out of the room when she paused to listen to Sickert’s voice.

‘Oi, you–what you doing here?’

She heard her own Mini starting up and the door of the truck slam as he got out.

‘You! I’m talking to you!’

The sound was quite distorted, as she was reversing, but she could hear Sickert continue to shout. Anna fiddled with the dials on the tape recorder and played it back one more time.

‘You want to get cut up like your bloke? You white bitch, you fucking come back and you’ll be sorry! Stay the fuck away from here or you’ll get the same–you hear me, whore?’

Anna went cold. She replayed it over and over to make sure she heard correctly.

‘
You want to get cut up like your bloke?
’

Anna licked her lips; surely he couldn’t know about Langton? If he did,
how
did he know? It was a mystery. No matter how many times she replayed the same section, it still made her frightened.

What was the connection? Could Sickert have been involved in the attack on Langton? And even if he was,
how did he know about her relationship with Jimmy?

Anna took a shower to calm herself down, then went back and replayed the entire tape from beginning to end. She then put in a call to Lewis, but his cell phone clicked on to voicemail. She asked him to call her, as she needed to talk to him urgently. Next, she called Barolli; he also went onto answerphone. She left the same message.

It was almost twelve by the time Anna went to bed. She had not heard back from either Barolli or Lewis. After a very restless night, she left early to drive to the station, where she typed up her report on her computer and printed it out. She could not get rid of the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach: if there was no connection, it was one hell of a coincidence. Could Murphy have somehow overheard someone talking about her and Langton during his period in the station? It didn’t make sense. Anna knew that she would have to make sense of it–and the only way was to discuss Langton’s attack with him.

D
CI John Sheldon sat in his office, twisting a piece of silver paper round his index finger, then straightening it out with his nail on his desk. In front of him was her report. Anna had her tape recorder with her and asked if he wished to hear it.

‘No.’ He tapped her report. ‘First off, this is highly irregular and you bloody know it. Secondly, this Griffith solicitor is a slimeball; whatever he’s trying to get on inadmissible evidence means fuck all. Murphy is going down for murder; we’ve a shedload of evidence and his own admission that he killed Irene Phelps. Whether we got to him via his sister handing over a photograph or not, the prosecution will chuck it out. The CPS has no problems.’

‘But she has now admitted that she did give it to me.’

‘I’m coming to that.’ He stood up and jerked his trousers higher. ‘What I don’t like, Travis, is you freewheeling around, interviewing this stupid bitch without any witness, no back-up, zilch. You acted unprofessionally and could have got yourself hurt in the process. Obviously, your experience working with Langton has given you some kind of vigilante attitude that is totally
unacceptable to me. We work as a team for a reason: it’s called protection, Travis.’

‘Yes, I know, I’m sorry.’

‘So you should be. I am responsible for you and for my entire team, and I will not condone any single one of you—’

‘I apologize, it won’t happen again.’

‘Don’t interrupt me. If this did have any kind of repercussion, you could have put the entire case in jeopardy. I will not tolerate this behaviour.’

‘I do understand,’ she said, ‘and I assure you it will never happen again; it was just that I felt so angry at the way she had lied.’

‘What you felt is immaterial! What I want are officers that pool all their information. It will be
my
decision what action should be taken.’

‘Yes, I know that, sir.’

‘So, in future, don’t let this happen again.’

Anna clasped the tape. ‘I would like you to listen to the end section of the tape, sir. It is of great concern to me. Gail Sickert’s boyfriend made threats. He says that—’

It was Anna’s turn to be interrupted. ‘I’ve read your report. At the briefing, we will discuss it with the entire team. That’s it, you can go.’

Anna sat through the briefing from Sheldon on the trial date and the attempt by Murphy’s solicitor to muddy the waters. He was very confident that the entire enquiry would result in a fast-track trial, as the evidence against Murphy was so strong. Added to this was his taped confession; with his past record, there seemed no likelihood of the defence creating problems. He then moved on to Anna’s report.

‘I do not approve of any officer working without detailing their agenda, as you all well know. However, DI Travis does have a serious concern regarding the last section of the tape, when Gail’s boyfriend–partner–whatever you want to call him, returned to find her there. It appears on the tape that Sickert makes a personal threat.’

Sheldon nodded for Anna to play the last section. Everyone listened. Sheldon played it again.

‘The threat is possibly him just mouthing off, but you can hear him say “You want to get cut up like your bloke?’”

There was a low murmur. Sheldon looked to Anna.

‘We are all obviously aware of the attack on DCI James Langton. What we now need to discuss is if there was any possibility that during the time Murphy was held in custody and also Vernon Kramer, either could have picked up knowledge of the attack.’

Sheldon continued. ‘This could have been a coincidental threat, not connected to Langton. Nevertheless, by using the words “your bloke”, it seems that Sickert might have known about DI Travis’s relationship.’

There were looks of confusion around the incident room: not many of the team had been aware of her connection to Langton–until now.

Brandon raised his hand. ‘There was a hell of a lot of news coverage on the incident.’

‘Yes, we are aware of that,’ Sheldon said, brusquely.

‘Well, could Sickert, or Murphy for that matter, have known about it via the press?’

‘No!’ Anna interjected. ‘There was never any reference to myself, nor that I was connected to Langton.’

Sheldon sighed. ‘So we have this guy simply making a
threat out of the blue, or coincidentally just making the reference to DCI Langton? What do we know about this Sickert, apart from the fact that he’s now living with Murphy’s sister? Do we even have a Christian name?’

No one actually knew anything; it had never even been a point of discussion during the investigation.

‘Okay, I suggest we get what we can on Sickert and, if necessary, bring him in for questioning. That’s all we can do.’

The briefing broke up for Sickert’s background to be investigated. Although Gail used the surname Sickert and had, at times, referred to him as her husband, the officers were unable to trace any marriage certificate. They checked via the address he lived at with Gail, only to discover that the smallholding was rented in the name of Donald Summers, Gail’s previous husband. They also discovered that, due to Murphy’s harassment of his sister, she had been give protection against him; social services had assisted the move to the bungalow from a council estate in Hackney about eighteen months ago.

Gail had two children aged six and seven, a boy and a girl, called Keith and Sharon, both from different fathers; the toddler, Tina, had no father listed on her birth certificate. Gail had a history of social services visits, and the two children had been on the ‘at risk’ register because of the accusations of molestation she had made against Murphy. The local school was able to give confirmation that both the older children were currently pupils. The staff did recall many times when the kids had missed odd days, but these were due to colds and coughs. They confirmed that the children were often very scruffy but did not appear to be malnourished. It transpired that Gail had asked to be called Sickert after her husband
Donald Summers had deserted her. However, the police drew a complete blank on Sickert, the man whose name she had taken; all they had was Anna’s description of him. By mid-afternoon, it was decided that they would bring Sickert in for questioning, for threatening an officer.

It was after five when Brandon and Blunt arrived at the smallholding. It had been determined that Anna should not accompany them.

The same array of children’s toys was littering the grass; a new henhouse had been started, but the hens were running free around the yard. The bungalow was in the same filthy state inside, with unmade beds and dirty laundry still in the washing machine. No Gail, no children, and no Sickert: they had all disappeared.

There were bundles of clothes and children’s toys half-stuffed into bin-liners. Odd shoes and baby bottles with blankets and pillows were dumped by the front door, and drawers were tipped out in every room, their contents left on the floor. It was obvious that the family had left in a hurry.

The men found few documents of any importance. Gail was on benefits to help pay gas, electricity, food and rent, but what rent she did have to pay was in arrears. Child benefit books were not found, nor was anything that had Sickert’s name on. They also found no men’s clothes in the house, but left by the back door was a large pair of Wellington boots that perhaps had belonged to him.

Sheldon had talks with the local police. They had had two call outs to the bungalow, but these had been
connected to Arthur Murphy and possibly Vernon Kramer; both men had been drunk. These had been many months apart; they had no further disturbances from the Sickert address. The police were aware of Gail’s protection order against her brother but did not know who Sickert was.

The landlord, a Tom Adams, was owed six weeks’ rent; he had seen Sickert a couple of times, but most of his dealings had been with Gail and the social services. He had written complaints to the DSS about the rent arrears, but had received no reply.

Brandon reported back to the station. As the identity of Sickert remained a blank, there was not a lot they could do. Gail, with three children, would have to find financial assistance so it was possible they would be able to trace her eventually; if she did make any contact with the DSS or with social services, they would be informed.

‘What if she went unwillingly?’ Anna asked.

Sheldon shook his head. ‘From the evidence at the bungalow, she took provisions and clothing for her children, and it did not look as if she had been forced to leave. It is not against the law to move or do a runner, albeit she owed rent. We do not have any reason to believe that she was in any kind of danger.’

‘But she was frightened of Sickert.’

‘But we have no evidence of abuse, no police complaints; we’ve checked with the school, social services and so on. It is going to be down to them to trace her–that’s really not our problem. We have no cause for arrest.’

‘Well, there were threats from Sickert to
me
.’

‘I am aware of that, Anna. We have done, to my mind, all that we could do at this stage. Unless we have
further evidence, all I suggest is we keep an open mind, remain in touch with the DSS and see what comes up. We have taken fingerprints and will run them through the database. If he’s got a record, then we’ll know who he is. Right now, our priority is the trial of Arthur Murphy.’

Anna had only been at home for a few moments, when Mike Lewis rang to say he was close by–could he drop in and see her? When he arrived, he was very apologetic about not getting back to her sooner, but he had heavy work commitments.

Anna poured him a glass of wine as she told him about the photograph and how they had arrested Murphy. She continued about her visit to Gail, and how she had taped the entire interaction with her.

Lewis interrupted her. ‘Anna, can you get to the reason why you called? You said it was urgent.’

She picked up her tape. ‘This is why I called you: listen to what this man says to me when I am driving out.’

Lewis leaned forwards, listening. She stopped the tape and played it again.

‘Did you hear what he said?’

‘Yes, yes.’

‘He said I’d get what my bloke got, right? “Cut up like your bloke”, yes? Well, you tell me: how did this man know about Langton?’

Lewis sighed, shaking his head. ‘Maybe he just said it–you know, in a rage.’

‘What if it is connected? What if, somehow, this man knew about me and Langton?’

Lewis sipped his wine. ‘What did he look like?’

Anna gave a description. Lewis said nothing.

‘Does that fit the description of either of the men who escaped after Langton was slashed?’

‘I’m not sure. Both were black, but I don’t recall one of them having dreadlocks. I don’t have that clear a memory of either of them; it all happened so fast.’

‘Krasiniqe gave you two names, right?’

‘Yes, but neither was Sickert.’

‘So? It could be an assumed name. We have found no record of him and we don’t even have a Christian name. We’ve taken prints from the bungalow but there’s no match on the database.’

‘Anna, I don’t know. I mean, I’ll talk to Barolli and see if he has a better memory of the guys, but we were both in shock.’

‘Are you saying you wouldn’t be able to recognize them again if you saw them?’

‘I dunno. Like I said, it went down so fast.’

‘What about the prints taken from the hostel where they were living?’

‘Yeah, we got prints.’

‘So, what if we try and match them from the ones we got from this guy Sickert?’

Lewis took a deep breath. ‘Well, you can ask Sheldon to instigate that.’

Anna chewed her lip. ‘To be honest, he’s very much against even carrying on looking for Gail, Sickert or the kids. Can you help me with it?’

‘Anna, you’ve got to understand, I’m involved in another murder enquiry.’

‘Forget it!’ she snapped.

‘No, listen to me. I will do what you ask, but you have to understand this has got to be formally directed.
I would say that the correct people to go and see would be those who are involved in trying to trace—’

Anna didn’t wait to listen; she got up and glared at him. ‘You know they are just dicking around. Langton’s alive; if he was dead, it would be a different matter. With thousands of illegal immigrants loose, not to mention those on bloody parole missing, this will just be placed on a stack of thousands of other missing bastards.’

Lewis now stood up as well. ‘Does he know?’

‘He doesn’t know anything. Right now it’s the last thing he needs. He has to use all his strength to recover. To get him all stirred up over what may be a dead-end…I don’t think is a good idea.’

‘Right, just get mine and Barolli’s angst up.’

‘Forget it; just forget it, Mike.’

‘I can’t, all right? I can’t. I’ll do a print check, but for Chrissakes, Anna, give me a break!’

She walked him to her front door, where he said a rather curt goodnight. She watched him head down the stone stairs to the main exit then bolted the door.

Anna called Glebe House and was put through to Langton’s room. She told him she would not make it over to see him that evening. She put it down to the pressures of work, and said that she’d had a long day but didn’t feel like going into details. He didn’t sound disappointed, and talked about how well his physio session had gone: he’d been walking around the gardens.

‘That sounds like a big improvement; without a stick?’

‘Yeah–well, most of the way. Will I see you tomorrow?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good–only if work pressures aren’t too much,’ he said sarcastically.

She didn’t want to get into an argument, but he was no fool and knew her case was winding up for trial, so her excuse didn’t ring true.

‘Everything okay?’ he asked, this time softly.

‘Not that good, but I’d prefer to tell you all about it when I see you.’

‘I’ll make sure I’m available,’ he joked.

‘See you tomorrow then.’

‘Yep, until tomorrow.’ He replaced the phone before she could say anything else.

She sighed; she knew how important her visits were to him even though he’d never say so. She redialled and asked to speak to him again. A night nurse answered, who told her that he had asked not to be disturbed.