Straight Back (9 page)

“McKenzie is a teacher at Sheridan’s school. Now, according to Sheridan’s grandmother, Sheridan’s mother Ellie Taylor came home to find McKenzie lying on top of Sheridan’s bed and Sheridan was in it. We will need to re-interview her on the basis of this new information and I’ll be taking care of that with DI Stockton.”

“Is it your thinking, sir, that Leo McKenzie is the father of Sheridan’s baby?” asked Ollie Wright.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking, Ollie.”

“But I take it that Ellie Taylor didn’t report McKenzie for being caught in a compromising position with her daughter?” Rebecca questioned.

“Correct, DI Stockton,” said Jeff.

“So why didn’t she?”

“According to her mother, Ellie Taylor wanted to give McKenzie the benefit of the doubt because he’d been good to her and her family since they’d had to uproot themselves from the posh end of Greater Manchester to a not-so-salubrious area after her husband had gone off and left her bankrupt.”

“That’s some benefit of the bloody doubt, sir,” said Rebecca. “Finding your daughter’s teacher in her bedroom.”

“There’d be no benefit of the doubt if that happened to me and one of my daughters,” said DC Adrian Bradshaw. “Nor my son for that matter. What was this Ellie Taylor woman, thinking for God’s sake?”

“That’s what we need to find out, Adrian,” said Jeff. “And I admit it does sound pretty incredible. Now, DC Alexander?”

“Sir?” said Joe, who’d been wondering when the boss would get to him.

“I want you to go down to see our witness across the road from the petrol station.  Take this picture of Leo McKenzie with you that we downloaded from the website of Sheridan’s school where he teaches.  I reckon he’ll say it’s him who he saw walking away from the Mondeo last Sunday afternoon. Well, that’s it for now, everyone. All I need is five minutes to down a cup of strong black coffee to stave off the continuing jet lag.”

TEN

Hayley Adams was walking down the street about a block away from her home. She was in tears. It was her usual state. Her mum just didn’t understand. All she wanted was a baby to replace all the love that she’d lost when her father left. Why was that so hard for everybody to understand? Why couldn’t she get it through to them all? She wanted the love. She wanted the baby because it would be totally dependent on her.

She was going out to meet him. She’d done it before. Only once, but ever since her teacher, Leo McKenzie, took her to one side one morning when she came into school all upset, she’d known about him. He was the only one who seemed to understand. He held her so tight that night and he never got on to her about anything. He made her feel safe and warm. He gave her drinks and chocolate and said that, next time, they’d have themselves a party. He provided her with a place to go when nobody she knew understood.

He drove up alongside her and she smiled when she realised it was him.

“How are you, Princess?” he asked after they’d driven off.

Hayley started crying again. “I hate my life. I hate the way my mum is making me feel.”

“It’s not fair, love,” he said, softly. “But, tonight, you can forget all that because you don’t need to be upset. Just for a few hours, whilst you’re with me, you can smile again and be yourself. I promised you we’d have a little party and that’s what we will have.” He reached over and stroked her face gently. “I’ll take those tears away. You’ll see.” 

When they got to the house on the other side of town, Hayley happily got out of the car and ran inside with him. He was about the same height as her dad and he reminded her of him in some ways. He gave her a drink of coke. It tasted a bit strange but not unpleasant and she carried on drinking it. It made her feel happy. It made her not want to cry anymore. It made her feel able to talk and say so many things. It made her feel relaxed and a little tired.

“Why don’t you come upstairs?” he said. He’d taken off his jacket. His shirt sleeves were undone. He held out his hand. “Come on. We’ll have ourselves a little nap.”

“I’ll have to get back to my mum’s.”

“And you will,” he said. “Once you’ve closed your eyes for a little while. You know what she’s like. If she thought you’ve had some fun, she’ll never let you out again.”

She went up the stairs with him right behind her. He gently steered her into the bedroom where she lay down on the big bed. He gave her some more of the coke with the strange taste but he didn’t sit down with her.

The last thing she remembered seeing before passing out was a whole load of other men coming into the room. 

ELEVEN

“So how’s things going at home?” asked DS Ollie Wright, as he drove himself and DC Adrian Bradshaw out to Littleborough to interview Liam Nightingale at Farndale Motors. They were on the dual carriageway going up towards Oldham which they would have to drive through to get to Littleborough, on the edge of the moors. “After all the traumas of last year I mean?”

“Well, yeah, it was tough initially,” said Adrian. “But now we’re a really tight little four-way unit and it feels good. I’m certainly not going in for any relationships in the foreseeable future. Oh, no. They’re off limits for now.”

“And what about meaningless sex? Doesn’t daddy want to indulge in any of that either?”

Adrian smiled and shifted in his seat. Not many people knew about his bisexuality and those that did tended to be his previous male lovers. He and Ollie had enjoyed a torrid affair a few months back which had only ended when it had become too ordinary, regular and boring. Ollie was never going to leave his partner, Neil, and Adrian didn’t want to settle down with another man. They didn’t want to get tied down by expectations.

“Are you offering your services?”

“Why not? We worked well together before, if you remember?”

“Oh, I remember alright,” said Adrian, who could feel himself getting hard at the memory of those times he spent with Ollie. “Maybe, once this case is over? Everything is a bit full on at the minute.”

“Are you holding out on me?”

“Ollie, I would like nothing more than to repeat those hot times we had,” said Adrian. “And it’s nothing about you but I’m just being very cautious with my personal life at the moment. That whole business with Kate Branning scared me, Ollie. She almost killed my daughter. If she’d been able to go through with that, I don’t know how I would’ve come back from it. You understand?”

“Of course I do,” said Ollie. “But I’ll be there when you change your mind.”

Farndale Motors was just off the main road leading out of Littleborough and across the moors. The garage was attached to the showroom and there was the usual display of second hand cars for sale along with details of the car hire side of the business on a billboard attached to a pole at the entrance. Ollie drove onto the drive along the side of the showroom where they could see a door with ‘Office’ marked on it. They figured that would be the place to find Liam Nightingale.

Inside was one of those old fashioned counters at about chest height and, sat at one of the desks behind, typing into a computer, was a girl probably in her early twenties. She was a big girl and could barely make it through the gap between the two desks after she’d stood up to come and greet them. They held up their warrant cards and introduced themselves. At that point they heard a commotion coming from what they could see was a small private office to the side of the counter and they quickly understood what was going on. Liam Nightingale was making a run for it.   

Both Ollie and Adrian were quick to give chase and it only took a few seconds before they caught up with Nightingale and apprehended him.

“Right,” said Ollie, who was holding Nightingale firmly by the upper arm after he’d cuffed him. “You’ve just earned yourself a trip to the police station, my friend.”

When Jeff got to the home of Ellie Taylor with DI Rebecca Stockton, they found her knee-deep in washing baby clothes.

“I use disposable nappies,” said Ellie. “But I think most people do these days, don’t they?”

“We did with my son,” said Jeff.

“Mrs Taylor, why didn’t you tell us about Sheridan’s relationship with her teacher, Leo McKenzie?”

Ellie Taylor slumped down on a chair at the kitchen table and gestured for Jeff and Rebecca to do the same. “Yes, my mother told me she’d been to see you. I don’t blame her. It’s what I should’ve done. You see, I honestly thought that it was an innocent relationship. I’m a stupid, middle-class, girl thrust into a world of God knows what and Leo just seemed like a bright light in an otherwise, sometimes dark and dismal world.”

Rebecca was struggling to have any sympathy with the daft bitch. She probably had a baby with someone of a different race to make some kind of nauseating middle-class, anti-racist statement. God, she couldn’t stand her.

“I knew she was going out and meeting Leo but, the thing is, she was being so damn difficult at home and Leo seemed to be able to calm her down, even for a short time. He made her easier to live with for a while. I turned a blind eye to it because it made my life easier.”

“Mrs Taylor, did you know she was pregnant?” Jeff asked.

The news clearly came as a massive shock to Ellie Taylor. They watched her face crumble into a blinding picture of pain and then she broke down and wept. When she lifted her head she couldn’t help but notice the look on Rebecca’s face despite all the tears.

“Don’t you dare judge me,” Ellie warned.

“I’m not judging you, Mrs Taylor.”

“You’re a liar! You’re lying to me again! You were the one whose sheer incompetence led to my daughter being murdered by whoever that maniac was so you can get out!”

“Mrs Taylor, we need to calm down here,” said Jeff. “Having a go at my colleague will get you nowhere.”

“Shut up! I am breaking up with grief over my daughter and you’ve got the nerve to look at me the way you are doing now? Get out! Get out the pair of you! It makes me sick just to look at you.”

“Why did you let her throw us out of there with a flea in our ear?” Rebecca demanded once she and Jeff had got to the car.

“Because there wasn’t any point in carrying on trying to talk to her in that state,” said Jeff. “And I’m surprised that you think we should’ve carried on a heated discussion with a woman who’s just found out that her murdered daughter was pregnant!”

“Oh well, maybe you think I’m incompetent too?”

“Becky, we’ve been through this,” Jeff pleaded.

“But it’s still there, isn’t it? Just like it’s there between us because I’m going out with Joe Alexander now. And by the way, Joe and I are getting on just fine, thank you. In fact, we’re talking about going on holiday together once this case is done.”

“I’m very happy for you - but now can we get back to the case which was almost completely blown off course by you not instigating that search last Sunday night.”

“Oh, so it’s all coming out now, then. You blame me for everything that’s gone wrong in this investigation?”

“I blame you for not getting things started earlier, Becky. It has nothing to do with any personal situations. I am happy for you as far as Joe is concerned, Becky.”

“You could’ve fooled me.”

“But when it comes to the investigation, if you could just stand back and see the bigger picture here, you’d see that you do have a case to answer for when the official enquiry takes place. A small case, a case that can be dealt with, and I will back you all the way, but you really need to understand how we got to this point. Now get in the car, DI Stockton, and let’s get back to trying to solve this case.”

“So come on, Liam,” said DS Ollie Wright. “Why did you think you could get away with telling such a whopper of a lie? You were responsible for your parents’ business and yet you didn’t know a Ford Mondeo had gone missing?”

Liam Nightingale sat with his hands on his lap. He was folding his fingers over and over and his family solicitor was sitting beside him. He was still in his suit from work and still had his tie on. He was one of those lads who looked like he’d scrubbed himself to within an inch of his life. He was cute enough in a boring, predictable, unadventurous sort of way. Ollie wondered if he was fucking the fat girl behind reception at the showroom. If he was, then she’d no doubt soon be pregnant and then she’d achieve her goal of marrying the boss’s son which means she wouldn’t have to think anymore about going to work for a living. 

“It was a favour for a mate.”

“A mate?” Ollie queried. “Who might that be?”

Liam looked up at his solicitor and then said “No comment.”

“Was it Leo McKenzie, Liam?”

Liam sat up straight and then leaned forward again. He repeated the action several times. He was clearly distracted by everything that was happening and he didn’t like being on the spot.