To Catch a Rabbit (30 page)

‘My husband found a job with this man, Mackenzie. There was work for me and my daughter too. I was cleaning, and she was going to be caring for old people. We lied about her age and her qualifications, I’m so sorry, but we had to get money. Was that wrong?’

Karen shook her head. ‘Where is she? Where’s Elizabeth?’

‘I don’t know. Mackenzie takes my daughter, he says it is to a care home. My husband says at first the other men, the men he works with, just give him looks. Then they are smirking and laughing, making disgusting jokes. One man, a Polish one, he is kind, takes my husband to one side and tells him, there is no care home.’

Her head sank back into her hands and she began to cry again. Holly crept up to her and stroked her arm.

‘Tip your head a bit this way, so it’s in the light.’

Someone had found the switch to override the movement sensor on Mackenzie’s security system and this side of the yard was lit up like a football pitch. He watched Rick Houghton stroll across from where he’d been talking to DCI Moon. Behind them Sean could make out Mackenzie’s miserable features in the rear seat of one of the police Volvos.

‘All right, Lizzie,’’ Rick was saying, ‘if you’ve finished playing Florence Nightingale, as soon as the fire brigade say it’s safe, get yourself into the barn. It’s a crime scene for at least two live cases.’

‘Three,’ Sean said. ‘I think it might be three.’

Back-up had arrived just as Sean was rugby-tackling Mackenzie to the floor of his office. He’d caught him unawares, apparently trying to find his lighter. Nobody had known what to say when they saw ex-DCI Barry King and Lee Stubbs being frog-marched across the burning yard, with Charlie Moon carrying a double-barrelled shotgun behind them. Moon said he got it off Mackenzie. Sean wished he could have seen that.

‘We’ve had a call, about your nan. She’s all right by the way. Just a bit shaken,’ Rick said, as he tapped a cigarette out of the packet and into his palm, then glanced over at the firefighters and put it away again.

‘What happened?’ Sean asked.

‘Stubbs tied her up and threatened to set light to the house. They were asking about the girl, Arieta. I think they were planning to use your nan as a hostage, to get you to talk. Burger must have thought better of it and let her go, but not before he’d cut her landline, taken her phone and house keys and locked her in her own house. Carly’s with her now. She’s had the locksmith round and she’s now trying to persuade your nan to let the doctor check her over, but she says she’s fine.’

Sean was relieved Carly was there. He knew Nan would never ask, but he was sure it would make her feel safer tonight to have someone in the house. He’d call her as soon as things calmed down here. Rick looked him over, as if he was testing to see how he was bearing up too.

‘All right, son?’

‘Right as bloody rain, mate.’

Rick seemed satisfied with that and went over to speak to the firefighters.

‘All done,’ Lizzie said.

Sean stood up. His legs felt like jelly but he wasn’t going to let on. He took a deep breath and concentrated on getting down the steps of the mounting block.

‘I imagine Arieta’s miles away by now,’ he said.

‘As it happens, she’s at North Yorkshire police HQ in York. Rick’s been there all night, questioning her,’ Lizzie said.

‘Right.’ He nodded numbly. He couldn’t really take it in.

‘And Sean,’ Lizzie lifted his chin gently, to make him look her in the eye. ‘When we get back to work, when you’re fit again, I’ve got a form I want you to fill in.’

‘What are you on about?’

‘An application form, to train for the force as proper police. I’ll write you a reference. So will Rick.’

‘I can’t.’ Sean said.

‘Yes, you can. You’ll be amazing.’

‘No, Lizzie, I’m totally fucking dyslexic.’

‘Oh, right.’

‘What?’

‘I’m sorry. I should have realised. The spelling on your flipchart was atrocious.’ She was smiling. She better not bloody laugh at him now. ‘That explains why you got taken off admin duties.’

‘I thought that was down to you.’

She shook her head, offended, and was about to reply when he saw something coming up the lane beyond her. ‘What the hell’s that?’

It only had one working headlight, so at first he thought it was a motorbike, but as it got closer, he could see it was a minibus. It had just made it through the gate when it stopped abruptly and the driver tried to put it into reverse, crunching the gears. The sharp-eyed officer at the entrance swung the gate shut as the minibus stalled and was trapped on the edge of the yard. Sean recognised the logo from the charity that used to do the transport for the special-school kids. He hoped Mackenzie had found it second-hand and not actually nicked it from disabled children, but he wouldn’t have put it past him.

Within seconds, Rick was at the driver’s door, helping a man down with a firm grip to the upper arm, while Moon and another officer opened the side door and helped the passengers out. None of them made any attempt to run. They climbed down wearily and lined up, staring in horror at the barn, as Rick asked to see ID and the uniformed officer radioed for police transport to come and pick them up. Twenty people had been squeezed into the twelve-seater Variety Club Sunshine Bus. Mostly white, two Chinese and one tall African man. Sean watched as Charlie Moon approached him.

‘Mr Moyo?’ Moon said.

The man pulled his gaze from the burning barn and Sean could see the fear in his eyes. ‘My wife? Please, is she all right?’

‘Yes, sir, she’s fine,’ said Moon. ‘Denton? Take this gentleman inside.’

As Sean led the man towards the farmhouse, Mr Moyo caught sight of Mackenzie, waiting in the squad car.

‘Where are they taking him? They should ask him, where is my daughter? She was only fifteen.’

‘Was she small for her age?’ said Sean, gently.

‘Yes.’

Like a child. There were men who would pay much more for a child. He hoped they weren’t too late.

‘Hello, Mrs Friedman.’

‘You’re a bit of a hero,’ Karen said.

‘I don’t feel like one.’

‘Why on earth not? You caught Johnny Mackenzie red-handed; he was about to destroy all the evidence in his office. Employee records, money, God knows what else on his hard drive. It’s fantastic for the Human Trafficking Service. He was the missing link.’

‘I put my own grandma in danger. I could have told Burger that the police were looking for Arieta, and then they wouldn’t have bothered Nan.’

‘Why didn’t you?’

‘They didn’t give me much of a chance and, I don’t know, I thought I could find something out.’

‘And did you?’

‘I think so. Mackenzie’s been branching out, setting up girls in caravans. Maybe he’s got more, parked all over South Yorkshire. Burger realised when we found the first victim; he recognised her from Stella’s massage parlour. He must have known that Mackenzie had poached the girl off his sister. I don’t know if he realised what Lee Stubbs was up to though.’

‘The young guy? He looked completely out of it.’

‘He’s always been like that, not sure if it’s what he takes or just how he is.’ Sean Denton rubbed his arm. ‘Stubbs was picking his victims carefully. They’d all worked for his mother, except one. Stubbs didn’t want anyone to leave his mother, so he spiked them with pure heroin. He got to Flora, but not before he’d tried to get to Arieta. Trouble was, Arieta wasn’t a user. I think your brother stumbled on something he shouldn’t and Mackenzie pushed him over the edge of the quarry.’

‘It’s an interesting theory,’ Karen tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pulled her coat closer around her.

The barn was lit with the eerie coldness of arc lights. Sean said the forensic team was working on a trailer and a car. He looked startled.

‘Shit, I’ve done it again. I keep telling you stuff I probably shouldn’t.’

‘Don’t worry,’ she reached to touch his arm, but he winced. ‘Sorry.’

She watched him limp across to the doorway of the barn, where he stood watching the action inside, his fingers resting on the incident tape. They all knew things they probably shouldn’t tell, and things they should. The pieces of the jigsaw were beginning to fall into place. She shivered inside her coat, wishing Charlie could give her a hug to warm her up, but she would have to wait. The secret burning inside her would have to wait too. Everyone around her was so busy. She looked back at the farmhouse and wondered if there was something she could do for Holly. She’d left Stacey holding her, rocking back and forth. The thought of doing something practical gave her a quick burst of energy and she headed for the kitchen.

The paramedics had decided to move Florence to hospital. She was dehydrated and they wanted to get a monitor on the baby.

‘You’ve saved my wife,’ Mr Moyo shook Denton by the hand. ‘We will call the baby Sean, if it’s a boy.’ He was still waving as the ambulance doors were closed behind him.

‘I need a note-taker, Sean.’ Rick stood next to him as they both watched the red tail-lights getting smaller, heading towards the main road. ‘Stacey Holroyd’s got a few things she wants to get off her mind.’

‘Yeah?’ Sean said. ‘If you don’t mind rubbish spelling, I’m your man.’

It was hot in the farmhouse kitchen. Someone had made toast and it gave a new edge to the smell of burning that Sean was beginning to get used to. The little girl was sitting in her mother’s lap, a buttery slice clutched in her fist.

Mrs Friedman handed him a plate.

‘Here,’ she said. ‘You were looking envious.’ Her voice sounded different, as if the anxiety had gone out of it.

He took the plate and sat down at the end of the long wooden table. Rick pulled up a chair opposite Stacey.

‘When you’re ready, Denton.’ He slid a pen in Sean’s direction.

Sean caught the pen and tried to chew the toast faster, but his mouth was dry. Mrs Friedman took a blue and white mug off a hook on the dresser and filled it with water.

‘Let the poor boy catch his breath.’ Her voice was kind.

‘Karen?’ Stacey Holroyd spoke for the first time. She sounded like she’d been crying and her face was blotched with red. ‘Can you put Holly to bed for me? Go with your Aunty Karen, Holly, there’s a good girl.’

The child looked up and held out her arms to be carried. Mrs Friedman gathered her up and the toast fell, to be caught by the waiting dog.

‘Night, night, sweetheart!’ Stacey looked like she was going to cry again but once the door was closed, she cleared her throat and clasped her hands together on the table. ‘Are you going to arrest me?’

‘Why don’t you tell us what happened?’ Rick said gently. ‘PCSO Denton is going to take some notes. We may need you to come into a police station at some point, but you’re not under arrest. We’re just trying to understand what’s been going on.’

She kept her eyes on her clenched hands and began to speak.

‘Phil was a lovely feller. Too good for me. But you know what? Nice doesn’t pay the bills.’

Sean wasn’t sure if he was supposed to start writing.

‘Do you know where your husband is?’ Rick said.

She looked up at Rick, a frown tightening between her plucked eyebrows. Sean looked at him too, trying to read his expression. It seemed an extraordinary question.

‘No,’ she said, ‘I don’t.’

Sean picked up the pen and started to write.

‘I didn’t know what to believe,’ Stacey spoke quietly, her eyes dropping to the table again, ‘when they said they’d found a body, a man, they said, who matched Phil’s description and they said they’d found his phone, I remember thinking, oh my God. I mean I was shocked but, something else, I think I was angry.’

‘Go on,’ Rick almost whispered it.

‘If he’d left me for some rich woman, like Johnny said, I could have understood. I wasn’t going to forgive him, but there would have been a reason. But to end up in some grotty caravan, a... a... what would you call it? A whorehouse? Whore-van, that other copper said. To end up like that.’ She paused, picking the skin off the side of her thumbnail. ‘Look, I’m sorry. I’m still trying to get my head round all this. What I mean is, if he’d gone of with another woman, I was going to be all right. Johnny was treating me like a lady. We had things that we could never have afforded before. Good riddance, I thought. But when I heard the copper saying all that stuff on the phone, like he was enjoying rubbing it in, that’s it, I was so angry.’