DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 (18 page)

‘I’m just going to leave the plate here,’ the person added. ‘I’ll be back later to pick everything up.’

Lloyd wasn’t in the mood to give a proper answer, mumbling something as the person exited back through the hole, lowering the wooden cover in place. He moved quickly across the room and
tried to get his fingers underneath it. He had seen some sort of hook on the wood and figured the person was hanging something heavy from it when they left, stopping him lifting it. He desperately
tried to squeeze his fingers into the small gap but could not manage it.

Turning around, Lloyd looked at the plate of food as steam gently rose. He had figured out a day or so ago that the reason he was feeling so tired was because something was being added into
either his food or his drink. He had seen a television programme once where a tiger’s food had something added to it that made the animal go to sleep.

He had been left a large bottle of fizzy drink and some plastic cups a few days ago. If whatever was making him tired wasn’t in that bottle, it was either in the ketchup he had eaten
previously or the sauce that went with the baked beans. Lloyd didn’t know what to do. He knew from school that you had to eat and drink so he didn’t have much option. He tried to drink
as little of the liquid as he could and left most of the baked beans, scraping off the sauce from the rest of his food. He was beginning to think his mother wasn’t in hospital at all. Maybe
the person who had taken him had done something to her? Maybe they had Marcus too? The only time he had seen the person unhappy was when he had made some noise by banging on the walls. Lloyd knew
he had to get out but with the window so high and the hatch weighed down, it wouldn’t be easy.

As he finished scraping sauce from the sausage and ate it, he thought that, if he could stop himself from feeling so tired all the time, he might be able to think of a way out.

Jessica stood solemnly, listening to the voice speaking from the front of the church. She wasn’t taking in the words but whatever was being said sounded appropriately
sincere. She was one of the officers representing the force at Isaac Hutchings’s funeral. It had taken time for the body to be released due to the post mortem and further tests but with
everything now complete and suffocation confirmed as the cause of death, the family were finally allowed some closure.

Kayla was standing at the front with her husband Mike and their daughter Jenny. It was the first time Jessica had seen Isaac’s father. While Kayla had thanked the officers for coming, he
had ignored them, refusing to shake hands. Jessica didn’t blame him. Even outsiders could see they had achieved very little in trying to find who had taken and killed their son. Jessica
watched Jenny cling onto her father throughout the ceremony, refusing to let him go. It was as if each was a comfort blanket for the other. Even from the very brief greeting at the start, it was
clear there was a lot of tension between husband and wife. Jessica remembered Kayla telling her Mike blamed her for not collecting Isaac from school. She wondered if it would ever be
reconciled.

The end of the ceremony was as awkward as the initial greeting. Before everyone headed off for the wake, Kayla approached Jessica, Reynolds and Cole to thank them again for being there. Mike and
Jenny were standing awkwardly, close to one of the cars that were carrying family members. He eyeballed the officers as if daring one of them to speak to him.

Sensing the unease, Kayla spoke quietly to Jessica in the churchyard. ‘Don’t worry about him,’ she said. ‘He’s angry with everyone at the moment, me
especially.’

‘It’s okay,’ Jessica said.

‘Are you any closer to . . . ?’ Kayla didn’t finish the question but she didn’t have to.

Jessica shook her head without committing herself to anything specific. ‘We’re trying.’

‘I saw on the news that someone else had gone missing. Have you . . . ?’

‘Not yet.’

From the look on the woman’s face, it seemed as if Kayla was closely following Lloyd Corless’s disappearance. Jessica guessed she believed that finding Lloyd’s abductor would
be the key to Isaac’s murder. She tried to offer a reassuring smile but false sincerity was something Jessica had never been good at. Kayla nodded and gripped Jessica’s hand as she
shook it. Her palms were still feeling raw from the fall a few days previously but she tried not to wince. Kayla’s long black hair was clean and neatly tied back and she looked better than
when Jessica had last seen her, although there were still heavy dark bags under her eyes, despite the concealer she had used.

‘Can you do something for me?’ Kayla asked.

‘What?’

‘Call if anything happens. If you find him or whatever, the other boy, can you let me know?’

‘I’ll try.’

Jessica didn’t want to promise because if they did find Lloyd, whether he was alive or dead, there would be a lot of people who would need to be spoken to. Kayla seemed to accept what
Jessica was saying.

‘Okay, thank you. Are you coming to the hall?’

Jessica glanced across towards Mike, who was still staring at them. ‘I’m not sure that’s really for the best.’

Kayla looked behind her. ‘You’re probably right.’ She stared directly into Jessica’s eyes before turning and the look said more than her words could: ‘I need to go,
but please find whoever did this’.

As she walked away, Jessica looked to her colleagues. ‘Are you off back to the station?’ she asked. Jack nodded but didn’t speak. Jessica had known him for years and he was
looking older than ever, the stress of the past few days and lack of progress weighing on him heavily.

‘We’ve got more meetings later this afternoon,’ Reynolds said. ‘Are you coming?’

‘I think I’m going to visit Rachel Corless again and maybe Adrian too if you don’t mind.’

The truth was Jessica wasn’t enjoying the atmosphere at Longsight. To outward appearances, nothing had changed but everyone was feeling the pressure to make a breakthrough.

‘Are you on to something?’ Reynolds asked.

Jessica shook her head. ‘I’m just going to check in.’

She hadn’t told any of her colleagues but she had been text-messaging Esther each evening to swap accounts of what their respective departments had found out that day. There was very
little but Jessica felt she probably knew as much as anyone given the tension between CID and the kidnap team. To the media they were presenting a united front but behind closed doors, they were
blaming each other for not being able to find Lloyd. It was typical internal politics.

Jessica made her way back to where she had parked. The weather had been getting colder, the rain replaced by morning frosts and flimsy flurries of snow. None of it settled but each day seemed to
be chillier than the one before.

As she sat in the driver’s seat, Jessica took out her phone and called Esther. After making sure she was at Rachel’s and not too busy, Jessica drove to the house. The giant Christmas
tree and inflatable Santa across the road were still present and had been joined a few doors down by a huge snowman that looked as if it was made of polystyrene. Jessica shook her head and allowed
herself a small grin, wondering how Esther had taken to the new oversized piece of tat.

She rang the doorbell and Esther answered. Before going inside, Jessica nodded across the road towards the snowman. ‘I know,’ Esther said with a wicked grin, stepping out of the
house and pulling the door closed without locking it in place. Her hair was tied into a ponytail, and the suit had been replaced by a pair of jeans and woollen jumper. Because she was staying with
Rachel as a permanent support figure, it made sense for her to dress more informally. ‘Still cold out then?’ Esther added, walking along the path with Jessica next to her.

‘Bloody freezing. I was up in Sunderland the other day and it’s worse up there.’

‘I heard you fell over . . .’ Esther turned, grinning.

‘Who told you that?’ Jessica was stunned the other woman knew.

‘Oh, I have spies everywhere.’

‘If we could channel all the energy that’s spent gossiping about me into actual police work, we’d have wrapped this all up weeks ago.’

‘Are you all right?’ Esther asked.

‘Fine. How’s Rachel?’

Esther let out a small sigh. ‘She’s just . . . difficult to read. I think she’s coming to the realisation Adrian isn’t involved after all. She’s been really calm
because I think she was convinced Lloyd would be back any day and his dad would be in trouble. She was a bit upset last night and I think it’s dawning on her that it’s not going to
happen like that.’

‘Does she know anyone else who might be involved?’

The two women stopped at the end of the pathway. ‘No, it’s difficult to get much of anything out of her. Having her friend around helps but she can’t be here all the time. She
spends all day cleaning then watching TV in the evening. Then she keeps talking about getting the place ready for Christmas, as if everything’s normal.’

‘What about the other son?’

‘Marcus? He spends a lot of time in his room. I had a bit of a chat with him the other day but you’ve got to be careful talking to minors. I think he’s coming to terms with it
better than his mother. How’s it going at your end?’

Jessica was perfectly happy to tell Esther the truth, knowing it wouldn’t go any further. ‘Shite. We’ve got nothing and, worse still, the papers know it. Everyone’s
assuming they’re getting ready to lay into us. The chief super was around yesterday but it’s not as if he can do much. He’s putting loads more officers out onto the streets to
make it look like we know what we’re doing.’

‘Sounds about right. Shall we go in? It’s bloody freezing out here. I’ve got this jumper on but it’s boiling in there. The heating’s permanently on full. I’d
hate to be paying those gas bills.’

‘I was going to but it sounds like you’ve got enough going on. I think I’m going to nip up and see Adrian again. He might have some ideas now he knows we’re not looking
into him.’

‘Have you formally ruled him out?’

Jessica blew into her hands to warm them. ‘More or less. You know what it’s like, you do as much digging as you can and, if you can’t find anything, you just assume
they’ve hidden it well. The official line is “not a suspect”, the unofficial one is “keep looking”. The even more unofficial one is that we don’t have the
officers to “keep looking” because they’re all out on the streets.’

Esther turned. ‘All right, let me know how you go.’

Jessica drove steadily up the motorway, not wanting to push her car too hard, and arriving just before sunset.

Adrian opened the door and invited her in. ‘No one’s been telling me anything,’ he said and Jessica knew he had good reason to complain. While Esther had been sent to stay with
Rachel, Lloyd’s father had been left almost entirely out of the loop. The man offered her tea and Jessica waited in the kitchen with him while he made it. ‘Can you tell me what’s
going on?’ he asked.

‘We’re still looking for your son, Mr Corless,’ Jessica said.

‘Just call me Adrian. Are you having any luck?’

Telling the man the truth would be fairly unprofessional, so Jessica fudged the issue as best she could. ‘We are following a few leads.’

‘That sounds like classic police-speak. “Proceeding in a westerly direction” and all that crap. Have you at least moved on from trying to go after me?’

‘You’re not on our list of suspects.’

‘That’s one thing at least.’

Adrian poured boiling water from the kettle into two mugs and took two teabags from an open box on the counter top, dropping them in. ‘I’ve been out driving each day,’ he said.
‘I know it’s a waste of time but you just hope you’ll spot something. Sometimes you see some kid with the same coat and your heart jumps until you get a bit closer and realise
it’s someone else. The worst thing is, I can’t talk to anyone. Rach doesn’t answer my calls and then you lot go to her, not me. He’s my son too, y’know.’

There was a clear frustration but Jessica thought she would probably be far angrier than he was if the roles were reversed. She certainly wouldn’t be making cups of tea.

‘I know we asked you the other day but is there anyone you can think of who might want to harm Lloyd?’ Jessica asked as sincerely as she could.

‘I’ve been trying to think,’ Adrian said, making eye contact. ‘I’ve not just been sitting around and wondering – I’ve made lists. I thought about
everyone over the years who I’ve fallen out with and so on. The thing is, apart from Rach and her family, I’ve not really pissed people off. I’ve worked when I’ve had a job
and tried to find something when I’ve not. I don’t owe anyone any money, I’m not in any gangs or anything and I hardly ever go out on the piss. Until I split with Rach, everything
was simple.’

‘Why did you break up?’

Adrian opened a small fridge and took out a pint of milk, pouring some into each mug before putting it away and offering one to Jessica. ‘It was a build-up of things. Rach was happy when
there was money coming in but when I lost my job, she couldn’t accept it. When I couldn’t get another one full-time and was relying on scraps from the job centre, she was furious. She
thought I couldn’t find a job because I didn’t want one.’

He stopped to take a sip of his tea before waving Jessica towards the living room. He sat on one of the chairs at the dining table, Jessica taking another.

‘Is that why you broke up with her?’ Jessica asked.

‘Sort of. I knew she was really materialistic when we were together. She always liked spending money on things but it was fine because we had the money to spend. Our wedding was
ridiculous. It got to the point where I didn’t even want to know how much she was spending because I wouldn’t sleep. Every time I brought it up, she’d go on about it being
“her” big day. Never “ours”, always “hers”. I thought that once we got through that, it would change. Then Marcus and Lloyd came along and it was sort of better.
She liked spending money on them. After I lost my job, she acted as if I’d failed her and the boys. She was used to a comfortable lifestyle and claiming benefits wasn’t something she
wanted to do. Then it was all her mum in her ear about how I was never good enough and all that. But we stayed together for the boys until I couldn’t take it any longer. They were at an age
where they were just about old enough to understand and I told her it was over. She’d been giving me all that abuse over the years but I still ended up being the bad guy because I was the one
who split with her.’