Behind Closed Doors (Season One: Book 7) (Jessica Daniel) (19 page)

Much to her relief, she heard the scraping of a chair and then Moses’s voice. ‘Come on, let’s go. I’ve got your inventory numbers and we’ll check the cash with Zip
tonight. If she’s made what she should have done, then we’ll be fine.’

The second seat creaked along the floor and the two men left, locking the door behind them. Jessica counted to fifteen and then allowed her body to flop to the floor. She was sweating and
panting from the strain. When she had calmed herself, she gently pushed open the cupboard door, peering around it, even though if anyone had remained in the room they would have heard her
anyway.

She returned to the stack of papers on the desk, hunting through each one carefully. It was a mixture of the obscure and the ridiculous, with most of the instructions being notes from Moses to
himself, saying things such as, ‘Ask Zip to get shoe shiner’, and a list of everyone’s names. Jessica skimmed through looking for either Liam’s or Wayne’s, but neither
of them were present. She was on there – ‘Jessica Compton’ – the J of her name written in an elaborate calligraphy she could never have managed herself. Seeing it written
down made her situation all the more real, even if it wasn’t her actual name.

Seeing the surname reminded her of Adam.

How much more could she put him through? How many times could she completely mess up?

Trying to focus on the present, Jessica kept searching through the papers until she was satisfied there was nothing of use there. She started going through the drawers, which were largely full
of stationery and more papers. When she reached the bottom one, she found a lever arch file, with a sheaf of plastic wallets inside. Each one was numbered and contained a receipt for goods
apparently paid for with cash. The top few were from a year ago for paint, carpets and a few other general household items. It was only when Jessica reached ones from six months previously that
they began to look out of the ordinary.

Someone had paid for a computer, plus a selection of accessories, such as external hard drives. Across the top, someone had written ‘upgrade’. Jessica looked around the room,
wondering if she had somehow missed the device, but it was nowhere in sight. The next receipt appeared to be for some sort of computer networking equipment, the following three all for additional
computing items.

For a group that supposedly lived without access to modern technology, it was a strange set of items to be buying – especially as Jessica had seen nothing like it anywhere in the
house.

Knowing she wasn’t going to solve the mystery just through the receipts, Jessica placed the folder back in the drawer and returned to the cupboard, this time having a proper look at the
items. The boxes were full of reams of paper and ink cartridges for a printer.

In the first of the filing cabinets were plans for the house. They had been created years ago and didn’t show the turning circle but they were still fascinating, showing the woods as part
of the house’s land, even though there was now a fence in place.

She checked the clock on the desk again to see that a little over an hour had passed since she had first gone into the room. She had nothing concrete to take to Charley, instead picking up lots
of little pieces of information she hoped would be useful.

Before she left, Jessica thought she would try the final filing cabinets. She wasn’t hopeful of discovering anything considering the sheer amount of papers that were in the others, but was
intrigued when she opened the top drawer to find a folded blanket across the top. She had to push herself onto tiptoes to reach in enough to pull it out but she was left open-mouthed at the
contents underneath.

Sitting on its side was a half-full bottle of whisky, lined up neatly next to bottles of vodka, rum and wine. Jessica reached in, removing the ones that weren’t full, unscrewing the lids
and sniffing.

They certainly smelled of alcohol.

She replaced the bottles and blanket as tidily as she could before opening the bottom drawer.

As she stood staring, Jessica knew she had no easy way of testing the authenticity of her find this time. Placed in the centre of the drawer, sagging slightly to one side, was a large clear bag
full of white powder. Jessica didn’t have to pick it up to see the slightly smaller bag of round tablets sitting next to it.

Jessica’s biggest worry was that Glenn would have bolted the front door behind him after re-entering. It was always going to be a calculated risk getting into
Moses’s office from the outside but she figured the door would have to be unbolted for when the group who had gone to the market returned. As she hoped, the door was unlatched and she crept
inside without anyone noticing.

Back in the bedroom, Jessica took out the phone and called Charley, sitting in the window sill, half-watching the driveway but also ready to move if there was any sound close to the bedroom
door.

Charley answered before it could ring a second time. ‘You’re going to wear the battery out.’

Regardless of the time of day, she had the same tone of voice: efficient but ready to launch into full sarcastic mode at any moment.

‘Do you ever say good morning?’

‘As of forty-one seconds ago, it’s the afternoon.’

‘Fine, how about a “good afternoon”?’

After a pause and a sigh, Charley asked Jessica what she had.

‘I got into Moses’s office.’

‘And?’

‘And you don’t sound very grateful.’

Jessica was trying to stop herself getting annoyed at the lack of enthusiasm. Perhaps the thing that frustrated her most was that she knew she would be the same if the roles were reversed.

Charley’s tone didn’t improve. ‘Let’s just assume I’m grateful, respectful, happy, not overworked and not being shat on from above. What have you got?’

‘I found a bag of white powder in there, pills too. They were hidden away at the bottom of a filing cabinet.’

‘How much?’

‘Enough coke to wipe out a nasal septum.’

‘Are you sure that’s what it is?’

‘Well, I’ve not got my full drug-testing kit with me and I only snorted two lines, so I can’t say a hundred per cent.’

Finally Charley cracked, laughing gently. ‘You’re hilarious. Seriously, though, we can’t raid on the basis of that. What if it’s plaster of Paris or talcum powder? Or if
it goes missing between now and us raiding? The tablets could be paracetamol.’

‘No drugs or alcohol are allowed on the inside, not even painkillers.’

‘Perhaps they’ve been confiscated from people entering the house? We need more.’

‘I found receipts for computer equipment, networking stuff too, but all technology is banned in the house.’

‘Where is the equipment being kept?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘What is it being used for?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘It’s still not enough. What about Liam? Or Wayne?’

Jessica knew the stresses Charley would be under and the expectations from above. She knew the burden of proof required, but she also wanted to get out of the house.

‘They said Wayne was another in the list, like Liam.’

‘Who said?’

‘Moses and Glenn.’

‘What was that in relation to?’

‘Nothing in particular, that’s all they said. I didn’t understand everything they were talking about.’

Charley paused for a moment, making a humming noise. ‘They could have been talking about them being on the list of people who had left the house.’

‘They weren’t though.’

‘How do you know if they weren’t talking about a specific subject?’

Jessica sighed, staring out of the window at the empty gardens. ‘I just know. It was the way they said it.’

Charley paused. ‘Jessica . . . you know this isn’t enough.’

‘Well, what about you? What are you doing at your end? I thought you were going to look into Wayne?’

‘We have been but CCTV is a lot sparser out here. There’s nothing of him near the train station and we’ve made discreet inquiries with local taxi firms, who say they’ve
not picked anyone up. If he did leave then we have no record of it.’

Jessica wasn’t surprised. Whatever had become of Wayne, she doubted he had simply walked out of the gates as Moses had suggested.

‘Have you heard anything about a greenhouse?’ Jessica asked.

‘As in somewhere you grow flowers and plants?’

‘I assume so. Moses mentioned something to Glenn, asking if the greenhouse was running okay but I’ve not seen anything like that in the grounds. From the top windows, you can see for
miles and there’s nothing.’

‘And there’s nothing indoors?’

‘Not that I’ve seen.’

‘Bear with me a moment.’

Jessica listened to the tapping of computer keys. It made her feel strangely nostalgic, missing the mundane parts of her job that involved sitting behind a desk.

‘It doesn’t seem to be slang for anything,’ Charley said. ‘I’ve just got lots of sites offering me deals on buying one. I have no idea which types of people spend
all their time hanging around in these things.’

‘Now, now,’ Jessica replied. ‘Those in glass houses . . .’

Charley started to reply before clocking what Jessica had said, chuckling to herself. ‘You’re on one today, aren’t you?’

‘Jokes don’t go down well in this place so I’ve got to test my material somewhere.’

Charley composed herself, adding: ‘I’ll put someone on it to find out if there are any obscure religious references to a greenhouse or something else. It could be drugs slang, I
suppose, but nothing I’ve ever heard.’

‘Me either. I’ve not heard anyone else referring to it around the house.’

‘Tell me about this Glenn character.’

Jessica barely knew where to begin. ‘He’s this little guy but he’s well built, strong and solid. He’s calling the shots around here at least as much as Moses.’

‘Really?’

‘He was even making jokes at Moses’s expense. He runs the outdoor section and it was him Moses was asking about the greenhouse. Whatever’s going on around here, he’s at
the centre of it.’

Jessica heard a shuffling of papers before Charley replied. ‘We’ve got nothing on him. It doesn’t look like he’s a relation of either Moses or Zipporah. Could he be a
recruit?’

Jessica paused, thinking she’d heard a creak outside. When she was confident it was her imagination, she replied. ‘Perhaps but I doubt it. I was listening to the cooks in the games
room and everyone has a way of speaking that’s complimentary to each other. Moses is passive but Glenn has none of that tact. He speaks about people with contempt and disdain, like if you
were down the pub taking the piss out of your colleagues. If he is a recruit then he must have been here a long while.’

‘You wouldn’t rule it out, though?’

‘No, he’s got a wife here too but she seems scared of him. I think they’ve been having problems but I’ve not seen her anywhere other than at mealtimes.’

‘Anything else?’

‘They were talking about something to do with a “new supplier” and using cash because card payments could be traced.’

‘We’ve looked into their bank accounts but everything is above board, with things such as electricity bills being paid for. There’s actually not as much money there as you
might think, so we’ve been checking off-shore. If they have an inkling they could be under scrutiny, then cash would make sense.’

‘Do you know they go to the market once a week?’

‘We’ve had plain-clothes people down there but there’s not much we can do. It all seems legit. If they’re using the cash to reinvest, then it would explain a few
things.’

‘Do you have any idea what they’re buying? All the receipts for the computer equipment were cash payments.’

Charley made a humming sound again. ‘They’re obviously not talking about buying drugs if they were talking about card payments. Perhaps it’s that they’re after more
computer equipment but people get suspicious with too many cash payments? Or newer equipment?’

‘It did say “upgrade” on the receipt but what would they be using it for?’ Charley didn’t reply. Jessica wished she had written herself a list of everything she had
to mention, before she remembered one more thing. ‘There are woodlands over the top of the fence. I think there’s a pond or a lake or something in there too but I can’t see
properly. I saw some plans for the land and it looks like the whole lot is owned by Zipporah’s family.’

‘It is,’ Charley replied, obviously familiar with the situation. ‘When you look at those top-down satellite maps, you can see it there. We checked the deeds but it’s
private land.’

‘If Liam was drowned—’

‘We know, we’re on it but we’d need a warrant the same as for anything else.’

‘What about everything I’ve given you?’

Jessica tried not to let her frustration show but it was hard.

Charley clearly detected an attitude. ‘Are you ready to come out?’

‘No, I—’

‘Look, we knew it was going to be hard getting someone in, let alone being able to keep them there. We all know it’s dangerous, we all know the sacrifices you’re
making.’

‘I just wonder how much more you need. You’ve got one dead body, somebody potentially missing. There are drugs here. We’ve raided places for far less in Manchester.’

Jessica could hear Charley clucking her tongue into the top of her mouth. ‘Yes, but it’s not quite the same, is it? Despite what their accounts say, these people have money –
they can afford lawyers far bigger than any of ours. All it will take are the words “religious persecution” and we’ll get nailed. People will lose their careers.’

‘So what do you need?’

‘More. We’ll do all we can at this end to see if we can find out anything about Wayne. Find me this greenhouse if you think it’s important. Could it be in the woods?’

‘If it is, there’s no way I can get out and back without being noticed.’

‘Okay . . .’

Jessica waited to see if Charley had anything else to add, hoping she had some sort of inspiration she’d missed. Her eventual response wasn’t unexpected: ‘Anything
else?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘All right – you should really hang up. Look after that phone battery.’