Straight Back (6 page)

Jeff did want to finally move on with his own personal life. He’d done a lot of thinking whilst he’d been away and now understood that Rebecca Stockton could be the new woman for him. He’d treated her badly. He’d led her up the garden path and then closed the door on any future relationship. But he’d been wrong. He knew that now. So, when he got back, he was going to try and make it up with Rebecca and see if she would give him one more chance. 

Shortly after takeoff from Hong Kong, they’d lifted the armrest between their two seats, Toby being by the window and Jeff being on the aisle, and Toby had snuggled up to his dad whilst they watched a film and played some games on the small seatback video screens. Then they’d both dropped off and now, as the map on the screen was showing them, they were flying over Hamburg, Germany, before crossing the North Sea and beginning the descent into Manchester. Just another hour or so and they’d be home and Jeff was looking forward to finding out what had been going on in his absence.          

SIX

The next morning Jeff walked into a situation that, if he didn’t get control of, would begin to threaten the integrity of his team. He’d gone into work early – a combination of jet lag not letting him sleep and an eagerness to get back to work. He took the notes on the case with him to a meeting with Chief Superintendent Chambers and then went back to the squad room where the rest of the team had arrived for work and clearly gone into a sharp row. 

“I’m just saying that, on reflection, the decision perhaps wasn’t the right one,” DC Adrian Bradshaw insisted as he appeared to be locking horns with DI Rebecca Stockton. DC Joe Alexander was looking on but in the restless state he appeared to be in, Jeff didn’t think it would be long before he waded into the battle.

“So you’re saying I screwed up then, Adrian?” Rebecca demanded.

“I’m saying we all make mistakes, ma’am but Ellie Taylor on the news this morning seemed genuinely upset and angry that we seemed to have wasted those hours when we could’ve been out looking for her daughter.”

“So you are saying I screwed up?”

“If that’s how you want to take it, ma’am, but that’s up to you.”

“The DI has no choice, from the way you’re sounding, Adrian,” Joe sneered. “So don’t come all this ‘you’ve chosen to take it the wrong way’ bullshit because that’s exactly what it is.”

“And this poor wretch of a girl who everyone is falling over themselves to protect the reputation of had just murdered someone! Are you forgetting that little detail, Adrian?”

“Of course I’m not, ma’am,” said Adrian, in as firm a voice as he thought he could use against a senior officer. “But it’s no good us all thinking we didn’t make a mistake when, in my opinion, we did and we missed a potential opportunity to find her alive.”

“It’s easy to throw wisdom at the fire after it’s been lit in the wrong place,” said Joe. “We’re a team here, Adrian, and we take collective responsibility.”

“Don’t you dare think you’ve got to remind me of the nature of teamwork, Joe,” Adrian shot back. “You know, as well as I do, that I’ve never been one to fly solo on any investigation. Whatever I’ve done has always been for the benefit of the team.”

Joe knew Adrian was right on that one. “Except in the case of the argument we’re having now.”

“There wouldn’t be an argument if you stepped back just a little and tried to understand what I’m saying.”

“You’re saying that I did wrong, DC Bradshaw,” said Rebecca. “Well, at least I know where I stand with you.”

Jeff took great delight in taking advantage of the fact that they hadn’t noticed him standing in the doorway of the squad room. “Good grief!” he exclaimed.

It was pathetic the way their three heads swung round displaying three sets of rabbit eyes caught in the headlights. He really had to struggle not to laugh.

“Look at you lot. Can’t I leave you lot for two weeks without you falling out? I’ve seen Toby and his mates act better than that and they’re only six years old. Now grow up, the lot of you!”

They all apologised and then wished Jeff ‘welcome back’ from his holidays with the broadest smiles any of them could manage after the heat of the previous moments. Rebecca then glared at Adrian. She wasn’t going to forget this.

DS Ollie Wright then came in. “Ah, sir, welcome back,” said Ollie. “How was your trip?”

“It was wonderful, Ollie, thank you,” said Jeff who was glad to see Ollie hadn’t been part of the circus a few moments ago. It wouldn’t have been like him anyway. “Now Ollie, I want you to look at the staff lists of the schools that Sheridan Taylor attended and see if there’s anyone who taught there when she was a pupil and who subsequently ended up on the sex offenders list. See if she was ever part of any scandal. Then, in a couple of hours time, I want you and me to go out and see Ellie Taylor to see if we can pour some oil over troubled waters. Say about eleven?”

“That’ll be fine, sir,” said Ollie and went to his desk to begin trawling the lists that Jeff had requested. 

Jeff then turned to Adrian and Joe. “And, if you two boys can promise to play nicely together, I want every bit of CCTV in and around that warehouse where the burned out Mondeo was found. It must have been picked up by something at some point. Also, check out the most direct route between where the petrol station is in Ancoats and where the warehouse is in Cheetham Hill. It was late afternoon and it was starting to get dark. It’s my guess that Sheridan Taylor was assaulted in the car and her attacker probably used the warehouse for seclusion that combined with the fading light to provide perfect cover.” He then turned to Rebecca. “DI Stockton? My office, please.”

“I’m going to stand up for myself,” said Rebecca after she’d sat down in Jeff’s office. “I’m not just going to roll over and take a bollocking.”

“Who says anything about a bollocking?”

“Well, you’re undermining me by taking Ollie out to see Ellie Taylor.”

“It’s about damage limitation, Rebecca. You should be able to rise above it.”

“Yeah, I get that, I really do but … well I thought from your tone out there………..”

“I was angry at the way you three were arguing so openly,” said Jeff. “It would’ve had a negative impact on the team if anybody from outside had seen it. You know how it is in this place. They love to get something on another team.”

“I know and we were being stupid,” Rebecca admitted. “Look, did you have a good holiday?”

“Yes, I did,” said Jeff. “We were spoilt rotten by all of Lillie Mae’s family, as you can imagine, and, wherever we went, everybody made a huge fuss of Toby.” He patted his stomach. “I’ve put on a bit of weight too. Every day there was so much food prepared for us.”

“That won’t do you any harm,” said Rebecca. “You were too thin anyway.”

It was that rare moment when something personal passed between them. Jeff liked the way that Rebecca’s auburn hair dangled around her shoulders and she looked good. Whilst he was away he realised what a damn fool he’d been. It wasn’t that he didn’t find her attractive. He’d always found Rebecca attractive. It was just that he hadn’t been able to find a way to step into the future without Lillie Mae. Maybe it had happened when Lillie Mae’s mother had basically given him her blessing for him to move on with his personal life and find someone to spend the rest of his days with.

“There’s no sign of any stress having got to you,” said Jeff.

“Do you think I made the wrong decision, Jeff?” Rebecca asked. “I need to know.”

Jeff pondered the question for a few moments and tried to see how it would go with the conversation he really wanted to have with Rebecca about their personal lives and whether or not they could be joined up after all.

“You do, don’t you? I can tell by the look on your face.”

“I didn’t say that, Becky.”

“No, but it’s written all over your face that you side with Adrian Bradshaw.”

“I think you took a risk that this time didn’t pay off.”

“Would you have taken it too?”

“Maybe I would, yes,” said Jeff. “But look, Becky, you’ve got to toughen up on this one. All of us have taken decisions that we’ve regretted afterwards but it doesn’t mean we’re bad police officers. Don’t shy away from it. Learn from it. Otherwise, if you’re seen to get a bit tetchy and sensitive over decisions you make that don’t end up going your way, then believe me, the glittering career that I know is yours will be sure to fade.”

“Oh, I know,” said Rebecca. “I’ve already had a similar warning from Chief Superintendent Chambers. She said that if I started acting like a maverick it wouldn’t go down well with the hierarchy.”

“And she’s right,” said Jeff. “But you didn’t act like a maverick. You made a decision that could’ve gone either way but you’ll have to live with the way it did go.”

“Thanks, Jeff,” said Rebecca. “But how’s it going to look when you turn up at Ellie Taylor’s place with Ollie wanting to calm troubled waters as you said?”

“She needs reassurance, that’s all,” said Jeff. “Like I said before, Becky, we’ve all been there and if someone hasn’t, then they’re not a particularly good police officer.”

“Okay,” said Rebecca. “So what do you want me to do now in terms of the investigation? I mean, now that you’re back and are the Senior Investigating Officer.”

“I want you to go with DC Bradshaw and follow up on whatever he and DC Alexander find from the CCTV footage.”

Rebecca smiled wryly. “Mend my fences with Adrian.”

“I think it’s necessary, don’t you?”

“Aw, look, I don’t have anything against Adrian.”

“Really?”

“Okay, I’m lying,” Rebecca admitted. “But it’ll pass. I’ll do as you say, Jeff, and I promise I’ll be good.”

“Okay,” said Jeff. “There is something else I need to talk to you about. Rebecca, I know I’ve messed you about in terms of our personal lives and ….”

“Ah look, Jeff, that’s all water under the bridge and there’s no hard feelings on my side.”

“I’m glad to hear that because, you see, whilst I was away I kind of came to my senses as far as you and I are concerned and … well, I want to know if you will give me another chance?”

Rebecca couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d waited so long to hear this from him but it was too late. And, in facing that, she understood how she could disappoint him the way he had disappointed her all this time.

“Jeff, I’ve started seeing Joe Alexander.”

Jeff was shocked. “This is new.”

“It is,” said Rebecca, feeling very uncomfortable.

“I really can’t turn my back for five minutes,” said Jeff trying his best to make light of the blow he’d received. “Well, I wish you and Joe all the best.”

“Do you mean that?”

“Yes, I do,” said Jeff. “I hesitated for too long. I led you on a bit and then let you down.”

“I’m sorry, Jeff.”

“Don’t be sorry,” said Jeff. “Just have yourselves a good time and be happy.”   

SEVEN

He was used to cries of pain. They were his currency. It had always been the way he’d got through every long, lonely year. It was like listening to the cries of saints. Heaven must feel like that. Not that he was ever going to find out.

But Sheridan had been something else. She’d gone too far. She’d crossed the line from being a victim to being a nuisance. Hadn’t he groomed her well? It was true that she was at the higher end of the age range of the girls he and his friends liked to entertain but that didn’t matter because she looked younger. And she’d been easy to impress. She’d been positively begging to let him have his way. But he’d been saving her. He’d been waiting for her to make it to sixteen so that he could go way back in time and remember what it felt like to fuck a girl who wasn’t underage. Sheridan was a special girl alright. That’s why he’d followed her that afternoon across the patch of waste ground and up to the petrol station. He’d intended to approach her when she was walking home but the stupid little bitch had gone and murdered some bloke. He’d had to give her a way out then. He’d had to rescue her. He had to make sure that she needed him.

“What are you going to do?” she’d asked, as they headed round the Mancunian Way motorway and then he took the turning that would take them into north Manchester.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be alright.”

“I want to know where we’re going.”

“I said don’t worry.”

“Where are we going?” she screamed.

“Do you want to be safe or don’t you?”

“I want to go home,” she said and then started to cry. “I want my mum.”

“But she’s with that darkie and they’ve got a kid together. She doesn’t want you anymore. Your nose has been well and truly pushed out of joint, my girl, and that’s why you need me.”

“Take me back to my mum, please.”

She was such an ungrateful little cow. He’d just saved her from having to face the police on a murder charge. Didn’t that matter to her? Didn’t she think that might inspire just a little bit of gratitude? He placed his hand on her knee.