Their Lost Daughters (DI Jackman & DS Evans #2)(79)

The phone shrilled out, and Rosie picked it up. ‘It’s the lab.’ She put her hand over the mouthpiece. ‘Rory Wilkinson has an urgent message for Jacko.’

‘Then I’d better take it, hadn’t I?’ said Jackman, as he and Marie walked into the room.

‘Sorry, sir.’ A red-faced Rosie handed him the phone.

‘DI Jackman here.’

They all watched him speak, and when he hung up, five sets of eyes were staring at him expectantly.

‘Rory has isolated two identical, and viable, prints from the Children’s Ward. There is no match on our database, but from their position, they almost certainly belong to our killer.’

‘Where were they?’ asked Marie.

‘One on the underside of one of the hospital beds, and the other on a clothes rail.’ Jackman pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘And as Marie and I have just sent him some dabs from Toby Tanner’s house, we might have answers very soon.’ He looked at Marie. ‘I’d get you to tell everyone about our adventures down on the farm, but from the look of your face, I guess it really hurts to talk.’

Marie raised her eyebrows and dabbed at her lip. ‘You are not bloody kidding, sir!’

While Gary half listened to Jackman, something still niggled away in the back of his mind. It had almost come to him, and then the DI and the sarge had arrived, and his train of thought had evaporated.

‘So does this mean we have to let Benedict Broome go?’ asked Max. ‘We took his prints when we brought him in.’

‘Not yet. Just because his prints aren’t in the Children’s Ward doesn’t mean he’s not involved, and we still have to wait for forensics to tell us what happened in that caravan.’ Jackman shuddered. ‘That’s one report I’m not looking forward to reading.’

*

The pizza arrived and they ate at their desks. The initial excitement of the news about the prints had worn off. They had yet to find a suspect to tie them to. And Marie was beginning to feel the effects of having been bulldozed to the ground by the mammoth Micah Lee.

It was almost too painful to eat, but she needed food. As Marie tried to force down a small piece of pizza, she pondered what Jan Wallace had told her about Fleur’s multiple injuries. They were almost certainly the result of serious abuse, but where did you start to look when the girl had been dead for two decades?

She managed some gooey pizza topping, washed down with coffee, and gave up on the crispy base. She couldn’t get Micah’s words out of her head. “You have destroyed everything.” And he had also said, “Let’s see how your family likes being torn apart.” What family? Was he referring to the dead girls?

‘You really should go home.’

She had been so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed Jackman watching her. ‘It’s easing, sir, and there is no way I’m walking out of here before you.’

‘Remember what I said about being stubborn?’

‘Vaguely.’

There was a shout from the CID room. Marie looked through the open door and saw Gary jump from his chair. Marie pushed the picked-at pizza aside and she and Jackman went out to see what was happening.

Gary let out a shaky breath. ‘Sorry, sir, and Sarge, but I’ve come to a terrible, a really awful conclusion.’ He swallowed. As the team watched him open-mouthed, he said, ‘It’s about Fleur, and Charlie’s mate’s dog — and a new onion processing plant.’

Jackman blinked several times. ‘Are you sure you’re alright, Gary? That didn’t make a whole lot of sense.’

Gary flopped back into his chair. ‘We were talking about reasons why you’d dig up a body, hence Charlie’s mate’s dog. Then Rosie said what if something was happening to the place where the body was originally buried, and I’ve been racking my brains to think what has had to be pulled down to make way for something new — and that’s where the onion processing plant comes in. It’s a long shot, but the old house that stood on the site of the new plant had a small family graveyard.’

‘They planned to build the plant on the Hurn Point road, didn’t they?’ said a perplexed Rosie.

‘Yes. The ground has been razed but the plans have been put on hold, right?’

Rosie nodded. ‘That’s right. The residents of the area lodged an objection because of the smell. It’s been pending for ages apparently.’

Gary scratched his head. ‘Well, it’s only just come back to me what used to be on that land.’

Rosie frowned. ‘It wasn’t a house, was it? It was a riding stable, and it went bankrupt. How does that fit in?’

‘I’ve been trying to remember what was there before. There was a big old house on the adjoining plot of land. It’s long gone, but it was called Alderfield.’

Marie stiffened and looked across to Jackman. The name was horribly familiar.

Gary continued, his voice hollow. ‘Alderfield was the home of Simeon and Charlotte Mulberry. Simeon killed his wife, then shot himself in front of his children.’

Silence filled the big room. Marie’s brain danced with confusing thoughts and suppositions.

Suddenly Jackman found his voice. ‘Were you on that investigation, Gary?’

‘Not exactly, boss. I was at Harlan Marsh when it occurred, but it was such a sensitive case that most of us lower ranks were kept in the dark about the full details.’