Blood of the Innocents (26 page)

‘Sure,’ he said, indifferently.

She picked up the undertone. ‘Is that going to be a problem?’

‘Of course not.’ But he wasn’t convincing.

She was still watching him carefully when the phone rang. ‘It’s the wife,’ she said, handing it over.

In fact it was Tony Knox. ‘Cornwall police have come back to us. They’ve found Lewis Everett. But he’s not there with Yasmin. He’s there with his mate Daniel who’s also skiving off work experience.’

‘Really gives you confidence in the future generation, doesn’t it? Are they are on their way?’

‘They’re being escorted back this afternoon.’

‘We’ll talk to Lewis as soon as he gets here.’ Which, he realised, might mean interviewing him through the evening. He gave Anna an apologetic look. ‘I’m sorry, I won’t be able to make it tonight after all, something’s come up.’

She studied him for a moment. ‘That’s OK, I can take Jamie with me. Simon won’t mind.’

Mariner picked up his jacket. ‘I’ll see you later, then.’

‘Sure, have a good day.’ No hint of disappointment, not even the demand for further explanation, so why, as he walked out to his car, did Mariner feel so piqued? Because Simon
wouldn’t mind
. He wouldn’t, would he? Bastard. In all honesty, what Mariner had really wanted her to say was that she would cancel the appointment. Knowing that he was being unreasonable, he recognised the growing feeling inside him for what it was. He was jealous, of Simon Meadows, with whom Anna seemed to spend ever-increasing amounts of time.

It was essential to her autistic brother’s well-being that Anna and Meadows should get on, so it came as a bit of a shock to Mariner that he should begin to resent their relationship. But it was turning into something he couldn’t deny, even to himself. After all these years of bearing witness to the devastating impact of human jealousy, a tiny part of him was beginning to appreciate its power.

Lewis Everett arrived back in the city in the early afternoon and had legal representation right from the start. His father made sure of that, and insisted on being present, too.

Approaching six feet tall, Everett was lean and lanky in that gangling, post-adolescent way, his hair fashionably mussed and with a few days’ fuzzy growth on his chin. The first thing to draw Mariner’s attention, as they faced each other across the interview room table, was the tattoo on his left forearm. Mariner wondered if he’d got it at the same tattoo parlour as Shaun Pryce.

‘I understand you’re seeing Yasmin Akram,’ Mariner began.

‘Was seeing, past tense. It was months ago.’

‘How did it start?’

‘We met on a school trip.’

‘Oh yes, the trip to the Tate. You were late back to the bus.’

‘We went sightseeing. Got carried away.’

‘And lost. You continued to see Yasmin after that?’

‘Not for long.’

‘Who broke it off?’

‘I did. She was a prick tease.’

‘Lewis!’

‘Please, Mr Everett. We agreed: no interruptions. What do you mean by that, Lewis?’

‘She used to wind me up. All over me, hands going everywhere, then suddenly the parents and their religious beliefs would come into her head and she’d want me to stop. She’d say she couldn’t go any further. I got fed up with it.’

‘But you saw her again recently.’

‘I see her sometimes across the platform at the station, waiting for her train. One day a couple of weeks ago, she sent me a text. Said she wanted to meet me again. She had something important to tell me. She asked me to meet her from school.’

‘And?’

‘I told her I wouldn’t be at school the next week. I was doing work experience up at the factory centre.’

‘Huh.’ Lewis’s father couldn’t stop himself. Mariner silenced him with a glare.

‘I told her she could come over to the centre on Monday after school. She’d be finished before me.’

‘And did she come?’

‘Eventually.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She was late. She’d walked all the way round on the road. It’s miles.’

‘She didn’t know about the short cut over the reservoir.’

‘No.’

‘Did you tell her about it?’

‘Yeah, so she’d know next time. Anyway, by the time she got to Dung Heap’s it was nearly time for her to catch her train.’

‘But did she tell you?’

‘What?’

‘The “something important” she wanted to say.’

Lewis snorted. ‘She said she really missed me and that she’d changed her mind.’

‘About what?’

‘About doing it - sleeping with me.’

‘What had brought this on?’

Everett lifted his bony shoulders. ‘Who knows? Her mate Suzanne had been giving her a hard time. And there was something about her sister, too.’

‘So she was planning to go through with it this time.’

‘I said, great, but what was she going to do about protection. I said it would be easier if she just went on the pill.’

‘That’s very considerate of you,’ put in Tony Knox.

‘If you must know, I thought when I said that she’d back down again.’

‘But she didn’t.’

‘No. She’d already sorted it. I was pretty stunned. Her dad had even found out, but she’d fixed him too.’

‘She told him she was on the pill for medical reasons.’

‘Whatever.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘We arranged to meet again on the Tuesday afternoon, after school. I was going to get off work early and we’d go back to my place. She was going to tell her parents she was staying at her mate’s house for the night.’

‘So what happened?’

‘Monday night, Dan called with this big plan about going down to Cornwall. But it was cool. I could meet Yasmin as planned then we’d go down afterwards, drop her off at the station or something on the way.’

‘Have your cake and eat it.’

‘Then, Tuesday morning, Dan called to say we’d have to go earlier or we wouldn’t get a pitch at the camp-site. I texted Yasmin to let her know I wouldn’t make it, and that I’d see her when I got back.’

‘Just like that.’

Lewis shrugged again. ‘I felt bad letting her down. She’d gone out on a limb for me but, well, you know—’

‘Girls in Cornwall more of a certainty?’

‘Less complicated. Yasmin had messed me around before, so she could easily do it again.’

‘What time did you send the text?’

‘Some time that morning.’

‘What exactly did your message say?’

‘I’m going to Cornwall with Dan, don’t bother turning up at the reservoir. To be honest, I was pretty convinced she wouldn’t come. I thought she’d bottle it at the last minute like before.’

‘Is there any chance that Yasmin could have misunderstood your message?’ The shrugged responses were beginning to get on Mariner’s nerves. ‘And what time did you leave to go to Cornwall?’

‘I left the workshop at lunchtime, about one o’clock. I told them I didn’t feel well—’

‘Christ, Lewis, when are you ever going to do a decent day’s work?’

‘Mr Everett, please.’ He turned back to Lewis. ‘Then what did you do?’

‘I went home and packed my stuff, and waited for Dan. But his car was leaking oil—’

‘All over my drive, I notice,’ Lewis’s father interrupted.

Mariner lost patience. ‘Mr Everett, if you can’t remain silent, I’ll have to ask you to leave. Go on, Lewis.’

‘We didn’t get it fixed till nearly four.’

‘And you went on the motorway?’

‘Straight down the M5.’ He sliced through the air with the edge of a hand.

‘Did Yasmin ever talk to you about her parents?’

‘Only to moan about how strict they are.’

‘She ever talk about running away?’

‘Not for real.’

‘But she had mentioned it.’ A nod. ‘Did she say where she would go if she did?’

‘No.’

‘Did you think about taking her to Cornwall with you?’

‘No way.’

‘Will anyone be able to corroborate the time you left?’

A shrug. ‘Dan?’

‘Your best pal? Not much of a back-up,’ said Knox.

‘The traffic cameras might pick up the car.’ Lewis was hopeful.

But Mariner kept pushing. ‘I still don’t understand why you turned down a perfectly good opportunity on your doorstep to drive all the way down to Cornwall. Especially given that Yasmin had started contraception for your benefit. Was she too tame for you?’

Lewis’s face screwed up in a flash of irritation. ‘She was using me too, man. All of a sudden she had this thing about losing her virginity. That’s all she wanted me for. Listen, I really like Yasmin, but like I said, she’s a mess. When we were going out she didn’t really know what she wanted. And I’ve heard about her dad, too. He sounds seriously scary. Cornwall was just a laugh, a chance to get away from all that.’

‘Without the responsibility,’ put in Mr Everett.

His son stared back insolently. ‘Yeah, that’s right.’

‘Ever heard of a boy called Ricky Skeet?’ Mariner slid the photograph across the table. ‘This is him.’

Lewis looked at the picture, at ease with the question. ‘No.’

Knox produced the grass. ‘We found this in your room.’

‘It’s for personal use. To be honest, it’s been there ages. I’d forgotten all about it.’

‘Where did you get it?’

‘A friend got it for me.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘John Smith.’

‘You sure it wasn’t Shaun Pryce?’

Again, it was a smooth response. No hint of recognition. ‘No.’

Mariner put the second photograph on the table. ‘This is him.’ Lewis frowned.

‘What?’ said Mariner.

‘It’s just - weird. I’m pretty sure I don’t know that guy, but it’s like I’ve seen that picture before.’

‘This picture? Or one like it?’

‘Could be one like it.’

‘Have you ever been into the girls school?’

‘No.’

‘That is weird, then.’

They were able to let Lewis go home with his father in the late afternoon. His car was impounded for fingerprinting but Mariner was pretty sure they were wasting their time.

‘Young lad like him, you’d have thought that he’d jump at the chance of a girl offered to him on a plate,’ Mariner said to Knox afterwards. ‘Would he really forgo that opportunity? ’

‘He was hedging his bets. Yasmin had messed him around, hadn’t she? Like I said, the girls in Cornwall must have seemed more of a cert.’

‘He seems relaxed enough talking about Yasmin. On balance, I think he’s telling the truth. And it will be easy enough to check out his story with this Dan.’

‘They’ve had the whole drive back here to get their stories straight.’

 

Knox followed up by talking to Dan, who was able to confirm Lewis’s version of events in every detail. And though the occupants were a blur, Lee’s Grand Vitara could be picked out on motorway CCTV, passing Bromsgrove at 4.09 on that Tuesday afternoon.

In all probability they’d drawn another blank and Mariner could reasonably have taken the rest of the evening off to help out Anna. But he chose not to.

Instead, he went back to Finlay.

‘Is there any way of knowing the content of Lee’s last message, even if Yasmin deleted it afterwards?’

‘There is one deleted message: the last one received, which would have been it. As I said before, the ghosting is there. But there’s no way of knowing what that message said.’ So they had Lee’s word that the text was calling off the meeting. For all they knew he could have been calling to confirm it.

‘If she got the message from Lee, why did she still go there?’ Knox wanted to know.

‘We still don’t know for certain that she did,’ said Mariner. ‘All we know for sure is that she got off the train again.’

‘And her phone found its way to the bridge,’ said Millie.

‘But supposing she did go to the bridge,’ Mariner said. ‘Say, somehow, she misunderstood what Lee had said. What would she do when he didn’t turn up?’

‘I’d expect her to wait around a bit, then when it’s clear he’s not coming, go back to the train station.’

‘Unless she saw it was the opportunity she’d been waiting for,’ said Mariner. ‘She’s getting grief at home and with her friends. Suddenly she’s in a position where she’s accountable to no one. Her mum thinks she’s with Suzanne. Her dad’s far enough away not to be giving her much thought. A window opens up of a few hours when no one’s going to miss her: a chance to get away.’

‘On a West Midlands travel card?’ Knox was doubtful.

‘Don’t forget that this is all at about the same time Ricky is killed on that very spot. We’ve thought about Ricky witnessing something and being killed for it, but what about if Yasmin saw what happened to Ricky and it scared her into running away.’

‘Which brings us back to where we came in last Wednesday: where has she gone?’ Mariner got up from where he’d been sitting, massaging his temples to ease the headache he was developing. ‘Potentially, we’ve got several people at the reservoir at that time and now we have photographs to go with them. Let’s go and talk to Lily again, see if we can prompt her into remembering anything new.’

The air felt as if it was closing in on them as Knox drove them back to St Clare’s, armed now with photographs of Yasmin, Lee, Mohammed Akram and Shaun Pryce. Dusk was a couple of hours away but the sky had dulled to a misty grey and, when they got out of the car, Mariner noticed his shirt speckled with tiny storm flies. He was hoping that Lily would recognise at least one of the photographs, but she simply shook her head at each of them.

‘Are you saying you don’t know?’ Mariner asked.

‘No. I’m saying it’s not him.’

‘None of them? You’re sure?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Well, thanks for looking.’ It was not what he wanted to hear.

‘Not at all.’ Lily smiled. ‘You were lucky to catch me again, Inspector. I shan’t be here for much longer.’