Woman in Black (37 page)

Just when it looked as if everything was completed, with the staff hovering ready to start moving the tables so the floor could be cleared, Jessica heard someone else tinkling their glass. She looked sideways and saw Hugo rising to his feet, tapping his knife on his champagne flute to get people’s attention. Caroline nudged Jessica with her elbow and the two women exchanged the same ‘What’s going on?’ look.

Before Jessica could intervene, Hugo started to speak. ‘I would just like to add my congratulations to the happy couple and I hope they haven’t dropped too much food on themselves.’ He sat back down as quickly as he had stood up and, apart from one person who started clapping at the back of the room before stopping when they realised no one else was joining in, there was silence.

Jessica noticed Caroline look down at her lap, presumably wondering if she had dropped any food. She picked up the cream-coloured satin napkin that was still on her lap and went to put it on the table before squealing slightly and opening it out. Jessica saw there was a beautifully drawn picture of the bride and the groom on the material. She had no idea what had been used to create it but Caroline first showed it to Thomas and then turned it around for the rest of the room to see. It really was a strange piece of art but absolutely compelling because of its perfect likeness to the two people.

‘Did you draw that?’ Jessica asked Hugo, who shrugged with a vague acknowledgement as people around the room began to applaud the unconventional gift.

Caroline turned it around to have another look and then leant behind Jessica to talk to Hugo. ‘This is amazing. Thanks so much. We’ll get it framed or something, it’s so unique.’

Hugo continued to nod in the way Jessica had seen him do before when he had stunned people with tricks. This was slightly different but equally as impressive, although Jessica never ceased to be amazed by how strange he was. She wondered what else he was good at, given she could now add art to the list of illusion, singing and taxidermy he had impressed her with.

The tables were cleared by staff and a band started playing soft background music. There were plenty of wine bottles still around the edges of the room that hadn’t been finished during the meal and Jessica happily drank away. She was feeling nice and tipsy when the first dance finally got under way. The groom’s parents were both in tears, leaving Jessica feeling a little uncomfortable as she rarely showed any outward emotion. Halfway through the song, Caroline beckoned her onto the floor but it was Hugo who dragged her towards the happy couple and put his hands on her waist, initiating a slow dance. Other couples followed and, before Jessica knew it, she was in the middle of a host of people gently swaying to the song.

If anyone else from the station had been present, Jessica would have felt deeply embarrassed but, as it was, she allowed Hugo to lead her around. She stepped in closer to him, letting him hold her and figuring he was a good choice of person to bring. He was definitely odd but at least he wasn’t trying to come on to her.

After what seemed like an age, the song finally ended and everyone stopped to applaud the newly married couple. Hugo grinned and stepped away from Jessica almost as quickly as he had pulled her onto the dance floor in the first place.

While some carried on dancing, Jessica trailed her guest back to the children’s table. She didn’t know why that was where he wanted to sit but followed his lead. A few of the younger boys were racing up and down at the rear of the room but Hugo beckoned them over and showed them a trick where he made a wine glass disappear in front of their eyes. Before Jessica knew what was happening, there was a small crowd of people around them watching the magician go through a routine of making things disappear and reappear, or simply guessing the contents of their pockets after asking a few questions. As she suspected he would have, Hugo also had a deck of cards in his pocket and moved onto card tricks, bringing various ‘oooh’ noises from the people present.

At one point he borrowed a bracelet from Jessica’s mother and made it reappear on Jessica’s own arm. Neither of her parents seemed to believe that she wasn’t in a relationship with Hugo. ‘Oh, he’s lovely,’ her mum kept saying, while her dad said he couldn’t wait for the man to take Jessica off his hands, openly asking how much it would cost him. Jessica didn’t have the inclination to tell them Hugo lived above a betting shop and surrounded himself with dead stuffed animals. Luckily for Jessica, her parents left relatively early as her father was feeling tired. She kissed them both and assured them she would call in the next day or two.

The photographer was still hanging around and had moved from taking photos of the couple dancing, cutting the cake and eating the cake to focusing on the other guests. He was particularly taken with Hugo and, as the crowd slowly began to thin with the younger children leaving, he asked for a picture of Jessica and Hugo together.

Jessica wasn’t in the mood but had no time to object before Hugo shuffled into the seat next to her, beaming at the camera.

‘Can you smile for me,’ the picture-taker said to Jessica as if addressing a child. She did her best to not look annoyed. ‘Okay, now can you each hold a glass as if you’re toasting the camera,’ he added. Hugo eagerly picked up his glass while Jessica’s was again empty. Someone poured her more wine and she copied Hugo in saluting the camera with her glass, smiling wearily. ‘Okay, can you swap hands?’ the photographer said, pointing at Hugo then at Jessica. ‘You’re holding it with your left hand and you’ve got it with your right. It doesn’t look right.’

Jessica swapped and the photographer snapped away. He went to stand up but a thought popped into her head. ‘Can I have a look at those pictures?’ she asked. The man seemed confused but crouched down, turning the camera around so she could see the images in the viewfinder. In the second set of pictures, she and Hugo were holding the glasses in their outside hands. She had hers in her left, while he was using his right. In the first set, they had the drinks on their inside hands next to each other. The photographer was correct when he said things didn’t look right. ‘Thanks,’ Jessica said, letting the man stand again.

After he had walked away, she turned to Hugo. ‘Are you left-handed?’ He shrugged in the same way he always did when acknowledging something. ‘You are?’ Jessica asked again, wanting confirmation.

‘Yes.’

‘So would you always pick a glass up with your left hand?’

‘I guess.’

Jessica thought about herself. Most of the time she would drink using her right hand. On occasion she might use her left but not often. She stood quickly.

‘Do you mind if I leave, Hugo?’

‘No, I’ll come with you if you want?’

‘I’m going back to the station for a while.’ It was an odd thing to do given it was late on a Saturday evening but the man said nothing, as if her answer was the most normal thing.

‘That’s fine. I’ve enjoyed it today.’

Jessica leant forward and kissed him on the forehead. ‘Thanks for coming. We should go out again sometime.’

She left him showing off more card tricks and went to find Caroline to apologise for leaving early. She said she had a slightly upset stomach and kissed the newly married couple, warning Thomas he’d better look after his bride. The pair were going on honeymoon for a fortnight the next day, so Jessica told her friend she expected a present and hugged her a final time before walking quickly out to the front of the building.

A couple of taxis were already waiting and Jessica got into the first one.

‘Are you “King”, love?’ the driver asked, half-looking over his shoulder.

‘Sorry?’ Jessica replied.

‘I’m here to pick up someone called “King”. I thought it was a couple though.’

Jessica realised the golf club was out of the way and the only taxis would be ones other people had booked. She couldn’t be bothered waiting. ‘Yeah, sorry it’s just me,’ she said.

‘Where are you off to?’

‘This might sound weird but can you take me to Longsight Police Station?’

‘Are you sure you’re “King”? My note said a couple to go to Stockport.’

Jessica sighed. ‘All right, you’ve got me. My last name isn’t King but I am a police officer who’s a little bit tipsy and I could really do with getting back to the station.’

The driver turned around and Jessica saw him eyeing her outfit. ‘All right, whatever you say, love. I’ve not seen too many “officers” wearing a dress like that.’

Jessica wouldn’t have let too many people get away with looking at her the way the driver had and it was clear he didn’t believe who she was. Partly because of the alcohol she’d had but also because he started driving in the direction she needed to go, Jessica said nothing.

The man tried to strike up a conversation more than once but Jessica was pretty adept at giving dull answers to make him stop and he eventually pulled up outside of the police station. ‘Are you sure this is where you want to go?’ he asked sarcastically. Jessica ignored his tone and dropped some money on the passenger seat before getting out of the vehicle and walking towards the main door.

Most of the officers on duty on a Saturday night would have been in the city centre dealing with various amounts of trouble. Jessica knew the station would only get busy in a few hours when the first van of people arrested for various drink- or violence-related crimes would arrive.

As she walked into the station, the desk sergeant first looked her up and down and then did a double-take when he realised the woman in the blue dress and matching shoes with her hair clean and down was the same person who usually wore a trouser suit with her hair tied back in a ponytail. Jessica ignored his stare, walking around the counter as she would do usually.

‘Are you all right?’ the sergeant asked.

‘Fine. I’ve just got to check something in my office and then I’ll need a lift home if you can get someone to sort that?’

‘I’ll see what I can do.’

Jessica walked along the corridor to her office and opened the door. She turned the lights on and headed to where there were the usual piles of clutter on her desk. She sifted through a few things and then settled on a copy of the photo that showed Edward Marks and the woman who had been Samantha Weston.

Something about the photo hadn’t seemed right to Jessica when she had looked at the picture before and only now was she beginning to understand what it was. Ed and Sam were holding their glasses towards the camera in exactly the way the photographer had said looked awkward. Thoughts began to swirl around her head as Jessica wrote frantically on a pad the names of people she would have to speak to before the weekend was over.

THIRTY-FOUR

Jessica spent her Sunday partly at the station and partly at home, trying to get hold of the people she needed. By mid-morning on the Monday, she had checked over the final few things from her flat. There had been little point in going to the station as the commute would have wasted time.

Jessica phoned Cole’s mobile but it went straight to voicemail so she called his desk phone, which also went unanswered. She then called the station’s reception and told the person who answered who she was. ‘Is the DCI around?’ she asked.

‘Haven’t you heard?’

‘What?’

‘They arrested George Johnson first thing this morning. He’s been in there with him all morning, it’s chaos here.’

‘What about Jason?’ Jessica asked.

‘I’ve not seen him all morning. I assume he’s there too.’

‘Shite.’

‘Do you want me to take a message?’

‘No, I’ll be in later.’

Jessica had learned the hard way a couple of years earlier not to go charging in on her own but felt hamstrung by the fact all of her supervisors were unreachable. She could have contacted one of them the day before but didn’t feel as if she had the entire picture and figured gathering that evidence before taking it to her bosses couldn’t do much harm.

She drove to the location she needed to be at, completed one final task and stood outside of the big front door feeling the rain fall on her hair. As she had struggled to figure everything out over the past few weeks, the sun had shone but now she believed she knew a lot of the answers, the weather had finally turned. The irony of it happening just after the air-conditioning had been fixed at the station wasn’t lost on anyone.

After knocking on the door, Jessica waited in the rain for the man to answer

 Charlie Marks soon opened the door wide and waved her in. He was eating a piece of toast, rotating his free hand around in a circle as if to apologise. When he had finished chewing, he smiled. ‘Sorry about that, I know we spoke yesterday but I didn’t know exactly what time you were coming.’ Jessica closed the door behind her as Charlie ate the final piece. ‘Was there anything in particular I can help you with?’ he added.

Jessica shook her head. ‘Not specifically, we’re just tying up a few loose ends.’

Charlie was unmoved. ‘Do you want to look through the things upstairs again?’

‘There are a couple of pictures I was hoping I could borrow for a short while.’

Charlie shrugged. ‘That’s fine, do you need my help? You’re welcome to look on your own if you know what you’re after.’

‘I’ve seen them before. They’re just upstairs if you don’t mind.’

‘It’s fine. I’ll be in the kitchen if you want me.’

Jessica made her way up the stairs in the same way she had done a few times previously, heading to the room where Charlie had handed her the photo of the rugby team and where she had found the photo of the six young men on holiday. She could feel her heart beating faster as she stepped across the threshold, walking towards the window. There was a steady beat of the rain falling outside as Jessica looked out towards the back garden wondering about the specific questions she didn’t yet know the answers to.

The serene view was almost hypnotic as she stared into the distance before turning around and walking towards the box where she had previously looked through the photographs. She was partly relieved to see the ones still there from the last time she had been in the room. Jessica had no reason to think they would have been moved and ultimately it wouldn’t have altered her theory but it was nice to hold some degree of proof in her hands.