DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 (105 page)

She wondered how driven she might be to find out who she was if that was the only clue she started with.

Once Scott had discovered who his father was, he had seemingly turned his attention to finding his mother’s identity.

The pages were dated from over twenty years beforehand and listed Eleanor and Kayleigh’s birthdays, salaries, a list of payments and their then addresses. Someone, presumably Nicholas, had
added four stars in the top right corner of Kayleigh’s page.

At first, Jessica was confused by what it might be for but then the horror of the person Nicholas had been came rushing back. She wondered how many other women in his files had similar ratings
next to their name.

Scott would have worked his way backwards through Nicholas’s files. The final payment on Kayleigh and Eleanor’s documents coincided with a few months before Scott was born. He would
have seen Nicholas in action, knowing how he was with the dancers. It wouldn’t have taken much to put two and two together.

Jessica glanced towards the box to see if there were any other similar papers but there was only what was in her hands. Eleanor had told her that Nicholas didn’t like losing staff, so it
was perhaps no surprise that she and Kayleigh were the first two possibilities Scott had been able to narrow his potential mother down to – hardly anyone else left voluntarily.

Jessica peered up to see Cole standing in the door. She offered the papers to him, turning her attention to the other contents in the box. As he sat on the bed close to her, Jessica picked up a
hairbrush and turned it over in her hands. There were still a few hairs entwined in the needles but she put it to one side, eyes drawn to the envelope underneath.

Inside were three letters which Jessica read and then handed to the chief inspector. After scanning, he seemed slightly confused but Jessica showed him the hairbrush.

‘I’ve never heard of home DNA tests,’ he said.

Given the number of television talk shows where most ended with such results being announced, it was easy to see where Scott might have got the idea from.

‘Adam was offered a job in one of these places,’ she said. ‘There are a few around this area. You send them a mouth swab, or some blood or, I guess from this, some hair, and
they’ll see if there’s a match for you. I have no idea how accurate they are but you would have to assume they work. Adam didn’t fancy it, even though the money was
good.’

Cole glanced back to the letters before replying. ‘Perhaps Scott broke into Eleanor’s house in the first place simply to find something of hers that could be tested? He didn’t
know whether Eleanor or Kayleigh was his mother.’

‘I guess so. They said there was nothing missing but then so did Kayleigh. You wouldn’t expect something like a brush to go missing from a break-in.’

‘What about Oliver?’

Jessica sighed, thinking about the poor boy’s parents. ‘Only Scott will be able to tell us. Maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Perhaps Scott flew into a rage,
thinking Eleanor was Oliver’s mother and the boy had stolen his life? Either that, or he was simply practising. It’s not easy suffocating someone but I suppose, if that’s what you
want to do, you’re better starting with someone skinny and easy to overpower, then working your way up. Oliver’s body was always the one that confused us because he had no link to
Kayleigh or Nicholas. Because Scott didn’t know which of the two women was his mum, he broke into Kayleigh’s too. Dumping the body confused us because we thought it was connected to
something it wasn’t.’

The chief inspector pointed to the first printout. ‘But how did he find out where they live now? This information is all out of date.’

Jessica shrugged but, judging by the way Georgia had found Adam with such ease, it wasn’t too great a stretch to imagine that at least one of the women was traceable on the Internet.

‘Did you read the final letter?’ Jessica asked.

Cole held it up. ‘That’s how he knew for sure Nicholas was his father, because he got a sample tested.’

‘He probably saw the way Nicholas was with all the women that worked at the club. There can’t have been a shortage of things to take from his boss that could be sent off for
analysis, especially with the nosebleeds. That gave the confirmation of who his father was, then he wanted to find his mother.’

‘I can’t imagine what it must be like to kill both of your parents,’ the chief inspector said, tailing off.

Jessica turned back to the box, pulling out a browner, crustier version of the newspaper article she had read about the baby being left outside the casino. ‘I guess neither of us know what
it’s like to grow up not knowing your parents. You must spend all your time wondering who you are.’

Cole didn’t speak for a while but she could guess he was thinking something similar to her – a near-understanding of what Scott had done. He killed his parents because they
hadn’t wanted him. Whether he knew his mother had become pregnant as she was trying to pay back a debt was something only he could answer.

Jessica stifled thoughts of what could be inside her as she heaved herself up from the floor, handing the box to the chief inspector.

‘I think it’s time to go pick him up,’ Cole said.

‘We should probably wait until the club is closing and empty. He’s got no reason to assume we know. We’ve got people watching him.’

Cole nodded in agreement. ‘I’ll need to talk to the super anyway, he might want to go in heavy but I will mention the fact there would be lots of people around if he goes in straight
away.’

‘I’ll go in,’ Jessica said. ‘I think he’ll probably come quietly if we do it softly.’

‘What makes you think that?’

Jessica shrugged. ‘I don’t know, instinct.’

Jessica sat in the hospital’s waiting room staring at the floor. Her response to Cole ran endlessly through her mind.
Instinct
.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Not only that but Liam had told her not once but twice what might happen, at first hinting in the club and then in his flat, telling her to remember what he had said.

‘
. . . He has different ideas, dangerous ideas. His dad knew what to leave at home and what to bring here . . .
’

She could feel Izzy looking at her from the seat opposite but couldn’t meet her gaze. Instead she focused on a spot on the floor, following the cracks in between the tiles and trying to
forget the situation she had been responsible for.

Longsight was one of the rougher areas of Manchester, where gang violence and gun crime were higher than anywhere else in the district, but even so, she had rarely seen anyone other than an
officer with a gun and had spotted more officers with firearms in airports than she ever had while on duty. The official report would almost certainly say the chance of Scott pulling out a firearm
was minimal but that wasn’t the point – she felt guilty for not foreseeing what could have happened.

Jessica doubted there would ever be a time where she forgot what took place in the reception area of Nicholas Long’s club. Thanks to television programmes and films, you expected a gunshot
to be loud but nothing could prepare you for the way the noise seemed to suck everything else out of the room. Your ears were left ringing, the shock clouding your thoughts to such a degree that
you weren’t sure if what you saw was real.

The fact the gun had gone off only sunk in when Jessica saw the blood splattering across the bar and wall. Flecks landed on her face, making her shiver with shock.

By the time she had reached to her cheek to wipe it away, everything was over as officers stormed through one door, Liam and Nicky rushing through the other. She could see their lips moving,
accusing eyes staring towards her, but nothing seemed to make sense as the echoes of the gunshot bounced around her head.

Jessica blinked back to the present as she heard the nearby doors clunking open. She glanced up hoping to see one face but instead it was Cole who walked through. He had long since lost his tie,
and his shirt buttons were half-undone, patches of grey hair spidering through. His face already told the story but he spoke the words anyway.

‘He’s dead.’

Jessica looked up to catch Izzy’s eye but she was staring at the chief inspector.

‘They say he was gone by the time he got here,’ Cole added. Jessica stared back at the floor, even as Cole began to talk directly to her. ‘It’s not your fault,
Jess.’

She knew he would say that but it didn’t matter what anyone else told her, she blamed herself.

‘What’s going to happen now?’ Izzy asked as the chief inspector sat on a seat two away from Jessica.

‘There’ll be the usual inquiry,’ he said. ‘Nicky Long will be in serious trouble because of the weapons on his premises. He’s already in custody but not saying
much.’

Aside from a couple of people chatting quietly in the far corner of the room, there was a hush as Jessica refused to look up from the floor. It was only when she heard Izzy giggle that she
realised there were footsteps nearby. She glanced up, not knowing what to expect, but couldn’t stop herself from laughing at the sight which greeted her. She even thought she heard a gentle
snigger escape from the chief inspector.

When it was clear no one else was going to say anything, Jessica figured she might as well take it upon herself.

‘That’s an extreme way of covering a bald patch,’ she snorted.

Rowlands stood in the aisle with a bandage wrapped around his head, his arm in a sling. There was a large red graze across his chin and one of his eyes had blackened. ‘Thanks for your
sympathy. You too,’ he added, nodding towards Izzy, who was holding her hand in front of her mouth to stop herself laughing.

‘What have you done to yourself?’ Cole asked sensibly.

‘I’ve broken my arm in two places and the doctor says I’ve got concussion. Is Scott . . . ?’

The chief inspector nodded. ‘Dead before he arrived.’

Izzy was looking at Rowlands. ‘I’m still not entirely sure what happened,’ she said.

He nodded towards Jessica, saying she had the answer.

Although she wasn’t keen on constantly recanting how she had messed up, Jessica figured it was a story she would be telling frequently over the coming weeks to various high-up people.

Rowlands sat next to Izzy with a wince Jessica was convinced he was putting on.

She took a deep breath. ‘I thought Scott would come quietly because he had nothing to gain by not doing so. There was nowhere for him to go. What no one realised was that Nicky had brought
guns into the club and there was a shotgun under the counter. As Dave stepped in to arrest Scott, he yanked it out and pulled the trigger.’

Izzy looked at the man next to her, who Jessica noticed was sporting a pained expression. She wondered how long he would be able to get sympathy for it. ‘It happened really quickly but it
seemed to explode in his hands. There was this enormous bang and within a blink it was over. Scott was sort of blasted backwards into the fridges. Blood went everywhere.’

‘Ballistics have the gun and will look at what’s left of it,’ Cole said. ‘One of the guys on site said something about it possibly happening if guns aren’t cleaned
but I wouldn’t know enough to say.’

‘So what happened to you?’ Izzy asked, nodding towards Dave.

Rowlands looked at Jessica, rolling his eyes. ‘Go on . . .’

Jessica wasn’t particularly in the mood for joking around but she couldn’t look at the bandage around his head without smiling.

‘When the gun went off, there was an enormous noise but I was further away and it wasn’t pointing at me. Dave stumbled backwards and fell over a table. At first I thought he’d
been shot because of the way he went down. It was only afterwards I realised he’d jumped because of the bang.’

Rowlands threw his hands in the air. ‘He was pointing a gun at me, I thought I’d been shot!’

Although he had a point, it didn’t stop Izzy giggling. ‘Aww, did the big bang make poor Davey Wavey fall over,’ she teased.

‘How did you break your arm?’ Jessica asked.

The constable looked away, wanting to downplay things. ‘It was trapped between me and the table as I fell.’

Jessica met Izzy’s eyes and knew they were both thinking the same thing. The constable said it first. ‘So basically, you broke your arm because you’re a bit of a
fatty?’

Rowlands looked at Cole, annoyance on his face. ‘This is workplace bullying.’

The chief inspector nodded before breaking into a grin. ‘Noted, although as you are on injury leave and this isn’t our workplace, I’m not sure I can take any action . .
.’

Jessica was stifling a laugh but Izzy didn’t hold back, cackling so loudly the receptionist on the far side of the room shushed them.

‘Can we go for a walk?’ Jessica said quietly, standing and looking at Rowlands.

Izzy and the chief inspector took the hint and didn’t move, although Cole told her she would have to give a proper statement when she’d had some sleep. She knew that would only be
the start. Scott would now never be able to respond to their unanswered questions. She wondered what she would be able to tell Oliver’s parents for closure.

Rowlands stood gingerly, with Izzy smacking his backside and telling him to stop faking it. Jessica led him through a set of double doors, following the signs towards the cafe. Inside there were
half-a-dozen people sitting around tables. Although it was the early hours, Jessica could smell bacon as they approached the counter.

‘What do you want?’ she asked.

‘Are you buying?’

‘Yep, you can have whatever you want up to a maximum of four English pounds and fifty pence.’

The weary-looking server filled two bread rolls with bacon and although the bread was slightly stale and the meat overcooked, it was as good as anything Jessica could remember eating.

She sat opposite Rowlands but neither spoke as they ate. When she had finished, Jessica pushed back in her chair, watching Dave closely. It was impossible not to smile given the state of his
bandage.

‘What?’ he said, licking his fingers.