No Questions Asked (18 page)

‘Are you serious?’

‘Well you know it might be fun?’

‘I’ll have to see about that Bradshaw’ said Kate in her best schoolmistress voice. ‘But if you misbehave then you know what will happen?’

‘Ooh, yes please!’

Kate laughed. ‘Behave! I’ve given up all my girlfriends to be with you’.

‘I’m flattered’ said Adrian. ‘Although I don’t expect you to give up the life you had before for the life you have now with me. I’m not a cave man, Kate and I don’t expect you to be here every night. I don’t want you to lose touch with your mates’.

‘I know and of course you’re not a cave man’ said Kate. ‘That’s why I love you’.

‘I mean with three kids it’s pretty full on round here as you’ve already witnessed’.

‘Yes’ said Kate. ‘But still only with Jess’.

‘She is my daughter, Kate’ said Adrian who was naturally protective of Jess. Even though he and Kate were heading into serious territory with their relationship he didn’t like anybody else being critical of his little girl. ‘And she’s only a kid. She likes to think she’s a young woman but she’s still only a kid in my eyes’.

‘Oh Dads and their bloody daughters’ Kate groaned.

‘Well wasn’t it like that with you and your Dad?’ asked Adrian who was a little disturbed by the tone of voice Kate had just used. It was as if she’d set out to find a problem and now she had she was going to go for it.

‘I wouldn’t know’ said Kate. ‘I never met him’.

‘Oh’ said Adrian. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. Do you want to tell me what happened? I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to?’

‘Well it’s quite simple really’ said Kate. ‘He scarpered when Mum told him she was pregnant. Neither she nor I ever heard from him again’.

‘I see’ said Adrian. ‘And your Mum?’

‘Oh she’s been dead a long time’ said Kate. ‘It’s been just me for years now’.

‘And now I’ve come along’.

‘Yes’ said Kate. ‘And I don’t want anything to come between us. That’s why we have to do something about Jess’.

‘Oh come on, Kate, she’s not that bad’.

‘Adrian, she’s trying her best to humiliate me out of this relationship’.

Adrian couldn’t take it in. ‘What did you say?’

‘I … well I wasn’t going to mention this but I think I have to in order to protect myself. Jess has been deliberately obstructive at school to the point where I’ve had to give her detention’.

‘Yes, my Mum told me about that’ said Adrian. ‘What was it all about?’

‘Well your Mum takes the side of Jess as you might imagine’ said Kate who was gunning for Adrian’s Mum too because of her automatic acceptance of whatever Jess might tell her. ‘But then she is her grandmother after all’.

Adrian sat himself up on his bent elbows. ‘Kate, what are you trying to say?’

‘I’m saying that Jess and your Mum have taken it upon themselves to try and push me out of your life, Adrian’ said Kate who then started crying. ‘And I don’t know why because I’ve done nothing, absolutely nothing to make them act that way. All I’ve done is to love you and to try and make things alright with your family. I know I’m not their Mum but I do want to be their friend but Jess just won’t let me’.

‘Hey, hey’ said Adrian as he cuddled her. ‘Don’t get upset, baby’.

‘But you should’ve seen her at school when I gave her the detention, Adrian’ said Kate. ‘Jess I mean. She wants to cause trouble for me and I fear that false allegations will follow’.

‘Get serious’.

‘I am, Adrian, I am’ Kate insisted tearfully. ‘Jess wants me out of your life and she’ll do or say anything to make that happen’.

Adrian sat back and thought about what Kate had said and how upset she clearly was. The apparently worsening relationship between her and Jess was something he could really do without but Kate would have to appreciate that when push came to shove he would put his daughter’s happiness before that of any girlfriend in his life. That was a given and wasn’t negotiable. It went with the territory of being a widowed single Dad.

‘I’ll talk to her again’ said Adrian. ‘You’ve no need to worry, Kate. I’ll sort it’.

‘I hope so, baby’ said Kate who gently stroked his stubbled face with the back of her hand. ‘I really do’.

‘Okay everyone’ said Jeff as he sat with his team round the conference table reviewing progress. ‘Gary Mitchell has identified the woman seen at the time of Bradley’s murder as his wife Debbie. Better late than never but there you are. Gary is being released on bail this morning but the charges won’t be dropped until we’re able to charge someone else’.

‘It must be our lucky day because we’ve been handed two more gifts in regard to this investigation’ said Ollie. ‘And I can only say thank God for environmental geeks with a religious bent who want to take cars away from wooden areas at the weekends’. Everybody laughed at Ollie’s aside to the type of witness who could be a pain in the arse but who could also sometimes come up with a piece of solid gold. ‘We have pictures of Debbie Mitchell in the woods and carrying Bradley Thompson’s rucksack’.

‘Tremendous’ said Jeff. ‘And what’s the other gift?’

‘Well sir a car was stopped on the M6 near Knutsford late last night for speeding’ Ollie explained. ‘It’s been flashed up to us because the car is registered to none other than Bernie Connelly. But it wasn’t Connelly who was driving. It was John Squires’.

‘John Squires?’ Jeff questioned. ‘The brother of Tim Ryder from the case we investigated last year? He must be working for Connelly. Why the hell is he doing that?’

‘Who knows, Sir’

‘Well we’re going to find out’ said Jeff. ‘I’ll also be interested to hear why Debbie Mitchell didn’t tell us she was the owner of the Paradise club when Lucy Thompson was recruited’.

‘So we’re treating her as a suspect now then, sir?’ Rebecca wanted to know. She was getting well used to separating her feelings for Jeff from the workplace. His apparent rejection of her though was still causing her to cry alone at night and she hadn’t yet decided if she could stay on in his team.

‘Yes we most certainly are’ Jeff confirmed. ‘Her movements certainly fit the timeframe and it could be said that she had the motive to cause pain to her husband’s lover’.

‘Even though she was engaged in an affair herself, sir’ said Joe.

‘I’ve known Debbie for a long time, Joe’ said Jeff. ‘She goes through life on one rule for herself and another for everybody else. I’ve heard her argue that black was white with Gary on occasions. She can never accept an opinion that’s different to her own’.

‘Plus we now have the murder of another known former paedophile, sir’ said Ollie. ‘According to our very own June Hawkins David Harrison died under torture’.

‘Not another torturer on the loose’ said Jeff, grimacing. ‘Not after that case last year’.

‘Well this one seems equally as enthusiastic to cause maximum pain, sir’ Ollie went on. ‘His arms were ripped from his shoulders and his limbs had been virtually ripped from his body. June Hawkins said he must’ve been strung up by raising his arms behind him and so causing his body to bend forward and put maximum pressure on those shoulder joints. She said it would have been a particularly slow and painful death’.

‘What’s the matter with people these days?’ said Jeff shaking his head. ‘It’s like we’re going back to the dark ages everywhere’.

‘Well I don’t think many members of the public wouldn’t shed any tears about the demise of David Harrison’ said Rebecca. ‘Considering the crimes Harrison committed in the past’.

‘Yes but we didn’t get to him quick enough either’ said Jeff. ‘He was taken before we could tell him to be careful’.

‘But the question that’s in my mind is this, sir’ said Ollie. ‘Terry Latham and David Harrison were both former paedophiles but who recently could claim a clean record. What prompted Latham, and we don’t yet know anything about Harrison, to go back into their old ways? Something or someone pushed them into it. But why would someone do something as abhorrent and despicable as that?’   

‘Even if Latham and Harrison were guilty of having gone back into their old ways’ said Joe ‘Because we’ve no proof other than Latham’s DNA on Bradley Thompson’s body to say that he had returned to what had always defined his earlier life. We have nothing about any previous contact at all and Lucy Thompson says she doesn’t recognise him or any of the other former paedophiles he was supposedly looking after’.

‘I agree, Joe’ said Jeff. ‘Although we haven’t started yet to investigate Harrison’s movements before he disappeared but you’re right in saying that there is no evidence yet to suggest anything was going on’.

‘But Bernie Connelly still had Latham killed’ said Adrian. ‘I think we can safely say that and that he was probably behind the killing of Harrison too’.

‘Yes’ said Jeff. ‘It looks like he’s conducting his own investigation into what happened to his son Bradley Thompson and has targeted the group of former paedophiles who worked with and around Terry Latham. I take it Harrison was part of that group, Ollie?’

‘Yes he was sir and he was the only one we couldn’t account for when we were chasing them up’ said Ollie. ‘We know why now’.

‘What about the rest of them on the list in terms of their current status?’

‘They’ve all been warned but they tend to lead fairly secretive lives anyway, sir’ said Ollie.

‘Old habits die hard’ said Joe.

‘Precisely’ said Ollie. ‘And that would make it difficult to keep tabs on all of them all the time even if we could summon the resources to do that’.

‘Right’ said Jeff. ‘Well we’re bringing in Debbie Mitchell this morning so let’s start there and remember everybody this is all still wide open. But look for anything and there’s still the threat made in the note to the shadow home secretary. This is by no means over yet’.

‘Why have you released my husband?’ Debbie demanded as if she was the one who’d summoned Ollie and Rebecca to be interviewed. Jeff was watching on the monitor screen in the CCTV room.

‘Because we’re no longer certain he committed the crime of murdering Bradley Thompson’ said Rebecca. ‘And can I remind you Mrs. Mitchell that you’re here to answer our questions and not the other way round?’

‘I’m a senior manager in the NHS, dear’ said Debbie in her best condescending voice. Better to go for the attack as the best form of defence. It always works for her. ‘So don’t try and get the better of me’.

‘Alright, Mrs. Mitchell’ said Rebecca, firmly. She’d already had enough of the arrogant bitch and she wasn’t going to take her as a prisoner. ‘Cut the attitude because it doesn’t impress either me or my colleague DS Wright and when we ask you a question then you will give us an answer unless you want to make this more formal by having your solicitor present. Now do I make myself clear? Good. So, let’s start again. Were you in the woods at the back of your street last Sunday morning when Bradley Thompson was murdered?’

‘No I was not’ said Debbie in rather clipped tones. ‘And let me tell you that I will be lodging a formal complaint against Detective Superintendent Barton for betraying my confidence and telling my husband I was pregnant when I didn’t want him to know’.

‘Mrs. Mitchell … ‘

‘ … that was a private matter that I told Jeff … that I told Detective Superintendent Barton about in a private conversation between friends and I will make sure his superiors know about it’.

‘Mrs. Mitchell, this is an active murder inquiry and your confidences, intended or otherwise, are no concern of mine right now. Now I’m going to ask you again, Mrs. Mitchell. Were you in the woods at the back of your street last Sunday morning at the time of Bradley Thompson’s murder?’

‘And I repeat that no I was not’.

Rebecca paused. Either Debbie Mitchell was playing for time in some way or she really did think they were idiots and somehow a lower form of intelligence to her.

‘Okay, we’ll come back to that’ said Rebecca.

‘You can come back to it all you like the answer will still be the same’.

‘Mrs. Mitchell?’ said Ollie. ‘Can you tell us what your role is within the NHS?’

‘I’m the senior manager for strategic planning for the North Manchester NHS trust’.

‘And what does that involve exactly?’ Ollie pursued.

‘Managing budgets mostly’ said Debbie. She didn’t know where they were taking this. She couldn’t even guess. Why did they want to know about what she did at work?

‘So do you spend a lot of time on the shop floor as it were?’ Ollie asked. ‘I mean on the wards and different departments?’

‘No’ said Debbie. ‘I can hardly find my way around the hospital where my office is. It’s an old hospital that’s had a lot of extra building added to it and we’ve got these coloured lines everywhere to direct people to various sections but people still get lost, including members of the non front line staff like me’. 

‘I’m sure it can be difficult’ said Ollie though gritted teeth.

‘I’m sure you can’.

‘You have various clinics there, don’t you?’

‘Yes we do’ Debbie confirmed. ‘Though don’t ask me to name them all’.

‘But do you take an active interest in any of them?’