Acid Row (11 page)

“I've seen the mother a few times ... 7 said to my friend: ”What's that eejit Gregory want with a woman half his age?“ ”Dirty old man," she says back to me. Kimberley'll be jealous as sin. You just wait.

They'll be killing each other before long."

"I did see a child very much like this photograph .. . pretty little thing with long dark hair .. . She was with a man in a car .. . they stopped beside me at the traffic lights .. . it was a black car, I think .. . not a Mini or a Rolls .. . those are the only ones I can tell apart.. ."

The police had taken over the church hall next to the Catholic church in Portisfield as their incident room. In one corner, DCI Tyler briefed his superintendent early on Saturday afternoon.

"There's something damned odd going on ... I can't get a handle on it at all. Biddulph's clearly distraught .. . swings between screaming and yelling at Kimberley Logan, and sitting like a zombie .. . then refuses to leave the house or make a plea for Amy. Rogerson's the opposite .. . level-headed, polite, composed, ready to do anything we ask .. . then bursts into tears the minute the cameras point in his direction."

“Why does that surprise you?”

"He was cracking jokes before we went into the press conference.

Anti-women by and large." He rotated his hand to encourage a response.

“What happens when your dishwasher breaks down?”

“I don't know.”

“Kick her.”

“Mmm.” The Superintendent stroked a thoughtful hand down the back of his neck. "It may be his version of screaming and yelling at the Logan girl. We can't all do and say the right thing at the right time." He paused. “You say the parents hate each other.”

Tyler nodded. "Rogerson's quite forthcoming about it, says the age barrier meant they had nothing in common .. . claims he was a fool to marry her .. . should have recognized what was likely to happen .. .

Townsend was an affair waiting to happen. He admits that some of the blame was his because he spent too much time at work, but he says he doesn't bear any grudges, even suggests he's quite pleased to be shot of her.“ He smiled cynically. ”That's what he alleges, anyway."

“You don't believe him?”

Tyler thought about it. "I don't know. He's too insistent that his only concern is for Amy's welfare when, by his own admission, he doesn't pay child support and hasn't seen the kid in nine months. He explains it away by blaming Laura for returning his cheques when she was living with Townsend, then vanishing completely. He says she's manipulating the child's affections to give herself a bargaining chip when it comes to the divorce. You haven't supported her, she doesn't like you, won't want to live with you .. . that sort of thing."

"It happens. Children become footballs in these situations. It's sad but not unusual."

"But that's the point, sir. I can't see that there is a situation.

It's rare for a father to be awarded custody, particularly one who works the hours Rogerson does, so why is Laura convinced she's going to lose the kid? It doesn't make sense. They should be looking for joint custody, then everyone's happy." He paused to consolidate his thoughts. "Something else that doesn't make sense is Rogerson's house.

You wouldn't think a kid had ever lived in it. There are no toys .. .

the TV's about six inches square ... no videos ... no climbing frames in the garden .. . valuable bits of china all over the place. Amy must have been scared of breaking something every time she went into a room.“ He shrugged. ”I'm questioning whether he wanted a child at all, let alone custody of her if the wife buggered off."

Another drawn-out 'mmm'. People who didn't know the boss well assumed he was humming to himself. Those who did were accustomed to these verbal ellipses by which he gave himself time for thought. Most of his subordinates had picked up the habit themselves, although they were careful never to mimic him to his face. "Interesting. Did you put any of this to Rogerson?"

Tyler nodded. "Before the press conference. I asked him why they'd been fighting over the child when joint custody would have solved the problem, and he said he agreed but there was nothing he could do about it if his wife wouldn't talk to him."

“What was Laura's reaction?”

“He's plausible therefore he's a lawyer. Or vice versa.”

“She's right. They're all bloody sharks.”

The DCI smiled. "There has to be something else, though, sir. One of them's got a stranglehold over the other, but I don't know why and I don't know which. My gut feeling says Rogerson has some dirt on his wife possibly to do with Townsend otherwise she wouldn't have sold herself to Logan to put a roof over her head."

“What do we know of Townsend?”

"Not much. He's on holiday in Majorca with his new girlfriend.

Rogerson's still acting for him, which strikes me as a bit bizarre.

You'd have expected him to kick him into touch when he nicked his wife." He looked up with raised eyebrows.

“In what capacity? Personal? Business?”

“Both. Laura says they're always on the phone to each other.”

The Superintendent looked thoughtful. "Maybe you should turn the question on its head and ask why Townsend would want a man he'd two-timed as his lawyer. That's more interesting, don't you think? It suggests they have more things in common than just Amy and her mother."

“Like what?”

"Secrets? Perhaps it's the men who have a stranglehold over each other? Where's he based? What's this business?"

"Southampton. It's a building company called Etstone. Rogerson gave us both addresses. We've had a car outside Townsend's house since nine o'clock last night in case the kid turned up, and we've talked to the neighbours. One or two of them remember Laura and Amy, but none was particularly friendly with them. They all described Townsend as a player“ pretty tasty” was the way one woman described him and said he was often away. He's been married twice. The first wife lasted three years, the second only twelve months. He's had a multitude of affairs but Laura's the only girlfriend who was allowed to move in. According to the same woman, he's far more interested in one-night stands than in relationships. Gary Butler, who interviewed her, said she was definitely one of the one-night stands, and wasn't too happy about it."

“A bit of a bastard then?”

"Sounds like it. We've had no success talking to anyone at his office.

It's closed for the weekend and the answer phones don't give contact numbers. He left his hotel address in Majorca with his immediate neighbour in case of emergencies, so we're trying to get hold of him there. The manager told us he has a hire car and disappears off to a nudist beach further down the coast. He's expected back this evening.

I'll have another go then."

“Do you think he's involved?”

Tyler shook his head. "I don't see how he can be. He's been out of the country since Tuesday and Amy's been vanishing every day. I'm just tying up loose ends. He might be able to throw some light on what's going on between the parents."

“Mmm.” The Superintendent studied him closely for a moment. "You're chasing wild geese, old son. Rogerson was at the office all day Biddulph was on her checkout and Logan was driving his bus. Rogerson might have paid someone to snatch her and hang on to her till the heat dies down .. . but he has nothing to gain by it. It's not as if he can produce her after a week or two and say it was all a mistake. There's no record of abuse, and the kid's teachers describe her as balanced and above average.“ He made an impatient gesture. ”We're looking for a psycho. It's the only explanation."

Tyler shook his head in frustration. "Then where's the wretched kid been going every day? Who's she been with?"

One of the incident room computers was routinely reporting police messages from other divisions. "There's a riot going on in Bassindale," said its operator to Tyler as he paused on his way out.

“Why?”

“They seem to be targeting a paedophile.”

“What's his name?”

“Milosz Zelowski.” He scrolled through the messages. "He was moved from Portisfield two weeks ago .. . interviewed this morning .. . house searched .. . requested protection .. . advised police resources stretched .. . rumour that Amy was seen in his road last night .. . two hundred plus crowd after him with stones and bottles .. . barricades going up ... WPC on the ground not responding .. . Zelowski's phone out of order .. . situation out of control.“ He looked up. ”That's a hell of a choice, sir."

“What?”

"Do we look for the kid or protect the paedophile? We haven't got the bodies to do both."

Police Message to all stations >28.07.01 >14.43 >Bassindale Estate UPDATE Missing officer-WPC Hanson Hanson's scheduled visits this a.m.-W. Barber, 121 Finder Street M.

Furnow, 72 Harrison Way J. Derry, Flat 506, Glebe Tower >4' automatic calling .. . Barber 729431/Fur now 729071/Derry 725600 > No response >

No response > No response > No response > No response  

Saturday 28 July 2001 Glebe Tower, Bassindale Estate

JIMMY JAMES STARED angrily at the "Out of Order' notice on the lift doors in Glebe Tower then, for good measure, landed a heavy fist on the pockmarked metal where an air gun had stitched a V into the grey paintwork. He was after a guy on the eighth floor who owed him money but he drew the line at climbing the stairs. The creep had been dodging him since Thursday, so ten to one he was out anyway. Probably on the street with the rest of the morons.

The block was eerily quiet. On a normal Saturday, the metal stairwell echoed with the shouts of children, but today they were locked in their flats or trailing after the mob like camp-followers. Earlier in the afternoon he had passed a group of seven-year-olds chanting outside the school where Melanie's foot soldiers were gathering. "Beef eyes out ..

. beef eyes out.. ." They didn't even know what they were supposed to be saying"paedophiles out' let alone what it meant, and he doubted if the adults were any better informed. It depressed him. Ignorance always did.

He lit a cigarette and pondered his options. There was no avoiding what was happening. Melanie had talked about 'a protest march' but the smell of petrol in the air suggested something else. He had taken a detour to look at one of the exit routes and found it blocked with cars, some on their sides, all with the fuel caps off and the petrol siphoned out or spilling across the tarmac. He watched boys fill bottles with petrol and girls stuff rags into the necks, and he didn't have to be Nostradamus to predict the war that was coming. A solitary police car was visible on the far side of the barrier and the anxiety on the faces of the two officers mirrored his own.

The paedophile was just an excuse for the boiling resentment of Acid Row's underclass. They were the Jews in the ghetto, the blacks in the townships, the people without a stake in the affluence beyond their boundaries. And the irony was they were mostly white. Jimmy could sympathize with them up to a point as could every black in the land but he also despised them for their unwillingness to change. He had plans to take Melanie and the kids out of this .. . find somewhere in London where he could go straight and make something of himself... or did, he reminded himself gloomily, until he discovered that none of his contacts were doing business that day.

At least two had had the sense to get off the Row before the barricades went up and a third refused to open his door. For different reasons none of them wanted a brush with the law, and that meant keeping their heads down till the trouble passed. Out of sight was out of mind and tomorrow was soon enough to resume negotiations. Jimmy was rapidly coming to the same conclusion. He should have been on a train by now with money in hand and something to sell, but, in the absence of either, his only choice was to lie low in Melanie's house. Time enough to go straight when his deals were done, but now he was beginning to worry. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to leave Mel and the babes to do the march on their own? Who knew what the fuck wits of Acid Row were planning for Humbert Street?

He ground the cigarette out under his heel and jabbed his finger viciously against the lift button. All he'd needed was for one thing to go right, but nothing worked in this godforsaken place. It was a slap in the face to a useless piece of machinery but with a metallic clunk the doors juddered apart. He thought his luck had changed till he saw the body on the floor. Ah! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!

He didn't stop to think .. . just took to his heels and ran.

Inside 23 Humbert Street Sophie retreated into a corner and felt in her pocket for a tissue to wipe the taste of the old man's hand from her lips. She was so frightened her fingers wouldn't respond, and she pressed them against the wall to stop their trembling. The room was cluttered with oddments of furniture, and Franck stood guard in front of the doorway, his head cocked to one side, listening for his son who was moving something heavy on the landing. His eyes never wavered from her face, a long unblinking stare that forced her to stare back. What if he moved? What if he attacked her again? The crowd's words echoed in her mind.

“Animal.. fucker .. . pervert.. .”

Nothing made sense. Where had the crowd come from? What had started it? The street had been virtually empty half an hour previously. Fear for herself coloured her thinking and dashed all thoughts of Melanie's paedophile from her mind. Had she been lured there? Had someone seen her come in and guessed she was in danger? "Animal .. . fucker .. .

pervert.. ." Then why attack her when she tried to leave? And where were the police?

It was like groping her way through a fog. Her thinking was paralysed by the old man's malignancy. Nothing she imagined about him could be worse than the reality. She knew he was reliving his hands on her breasts as they reached the top of the stairs and his stabbing erection against her arse, felt him suck the juice out of her every little tremor that told him she was reliving it, too. He took a sudden step forward.

“I'll kill you,” Sophie warned, her voice croaking with dryness. She felt for the pepper spray in her pocket, couldn't believe that on the one occasion she needed it it was locked inside her case along with her mobile. Where was her case? Had Nicholas retrieved it, or was it still beside the front door?