Their Lost Daughters (DI Jackman & DS Evans #2)(93)
And Asher had taken it with him when he tried to get away. A memento?
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Jackman read the memo that the super passed across her desk.
Kenya Black has been taken to a safe place. She will be cared for while slowly preparing her to be debriefed about her life at the hands of her abductor. It is imperative that she be able to contextualise her experience, for her own sanity and for the sake of others. All relevant information will be available to you, as and when it becomes available to us.
He didn’t recognise the signature.
‘Rowan, you are something of a hero to Grace Black.’
‘I’m no hero. My team just did their job, that’s all.’
‘I don’t think that’s how she sees it. There have been a lot of empty promises made to that woman over the years. Between you and me, I believe that we let her down badly. She told me that you and your sergeant, Marie, were the first police officers that she actually trusted. She felt certain that you would be the ones to give her closure. The fact that you have given her back her daughter has exceeded her wildest dreams.’
‘I just wish I knew how much is left of her daughter after all that time in captivity.’
‘Early indications are good, Rowan. That is the main reason I asked you up here now.’ Ruth gave a rare smile, ‘Considering Asher Leyton’s psychological problems, in other words his sex addiction, it will probably come as a pleasant surprise to hear that Kenya Black suffered no sexual abuse during her confinement. The medical examination confirms that he never touched her, not once. She’s still a virgin.’
Jackman thought about the room in which Kenya had been held. He certainly didn’t understand it, but he believed what Ruth Crooke had told him.
For a while neither of them spoke. In their job they were always prepared to expect the very worst, and something as astonishing as this was hard to comprehend.
‘And the psychologists are not attributing her affection for Asher to Stockholm Syndrome either. She says that he has been kind to her. And, abductor or not, he has been her whole world for most of her life.’ Ruth raised her eyebrows. ‘She says he rescued her. We don’t know any more than that — after all, it is very early days — but it seems that, considering everything that has happened to her, Kenya is incredibly well-adjusted.’
‘So, did he rescue her from Toby Tanner, I wonder?’
‘That is one of the first questions she will be asked. We need to piece together some sort of sequence of events. It does not look as though Asher Leyton abducted her for his own ends. He certainly incarcerated her for almost a decade, but for what reason? We now know that she was not a sex toy, and on examining her clothing, we suspect that he took her outside to play. There are traces of soil and plant material in the grooves of her trainers, and our officers discovered newish Wellington boots and a rain jacket in a closet.’
‘Kenya is alive, and twelve others are dead. Why?’ Jackman mused.
‘Bizarre, isn’t it? Kenya obviously never entered that nightmare of a caravan. And Philip never took her on that awful last trip down the tunnel to the Children’s Ward.’
‘Maybe I need to speak to Philip again, ma’am. He could know something about this, although I’m pretty certain that Asher was the only person who knew that the little girl was there.’
‘I agree, but go ahead and talk to him if you want.’
‘It’s Asher I’d really like to talk to.’
‘Wouldn’t we all, but he’s still hanging between life and death. I’m afraid it will have to be Kenya herself who tells us her story.’
‘Which will take time,’ added Jackman.
Ruth Crooke tilted her head. ‘I’m not so sure. She’s already talking, something nobody expected. She’s confused and fragile, but she’s is not in serious traumatic shock, as she would have been if she had been regularly assaulted. It’s almost as though she believes she has led a perfectly normal life, and only now has found out that it was quite different to that of other children.’
‘He did keep her mind stimulated. You could tell from the things in that room. Games, toys, puzzles, and books by the score.’ Jackman drew in a deep breath, and let it out very slowly. ‘I’m still having trouble getting my head around the fact that she is actually alive. Her case has been in the background for a decade. Most of us believed that her mutilated body would turn up one day simply by chance. No one imagined that she would one day walk unaided out of her own little underground world!’
‘When I asked you to tie this case up once and for all, never in a month of Sundays did I think that it would end like this!’
As Jackman reached for the door handle, Ruth Crooke added, ‘I forgot to mention, Chief Superintendent Cade is moving to another county, somewhere out near the Welsh borders, I believe.’
Jackman froze, his hand still gripping the cold brass handle. ‘He’s getting out of it! The bastard!’
‘I never heard that, Rowan. But it’s the best we could hope for.’
It wasn’t the best that he could have hoped for. Jackman had hoped that the evil sod would be hung out as food for the vultures. ‘How did he manage that?’ he asked through gritted teeth.
‘He declared to the investigating officers that he had deliberately infiltrated the club in the hopes of bringing in the men at the top. He said that you and your team ruined his undercover operation.’