‘Fire away.’
‘My daughter Vicky’s been dating this bloody so-called DJ. She’s only sixteen and he’s twenty-seven. He’s right full of himself, he is. I have warned her, done everything possible to stop her seeing him, but she’s been sneaking out. She’s a right little bitch and very hard to handle.’
Langton winced, wondering what the hell this had to do with him.
‘She’s been going with him since she was fifteen.’
‘Moira, can you get to the point, please?’
‘Right. I was damned sure she was on something, so I grounded her. Well one night she staggered in, obviously stoned but denying it, then said she’d had too many coco pops, or whatever they serve in the clubs nowadays. Anyway, to get to the point, last night she got out through the window and went off to this club he works at. She didn’t get home until after three, right, but I was waiting for her.’
Langton closed his eyes. ‘If you need compassionate leave’
‘No, listen! She comes creeping back in a terrible state, crying, her top all torn. So right away I went from being ready to crack her one to being really concerned. She was crying her heart out, saying they’d had this row and then I saw this terrible mark on her neck. Round. Bruise the size of a ten pence piece, maybe a bit bigger.’
Langton leaned back. His patience was just about up.
‘I said to her, “What’s that? Did he hit you?”’
‘I’ve had a late night, too. Can you get to the fucking point, Moira!’ Langton snapped.
She went straight back at him. ‘I am fucking getting there, sir! Hang on and listen, all right? She said he pushed her head down on his lap. She’s sixteen years old, for God’s sake. This mark was crimson! Really nasty. I said, had he like, forced her to go down on him? And then she started howling, “No! It had nothing to do with him!”’
Now Moira leaned forwards, indicating her own neck and pushing a finger in it.
‘Just here, it was. She said she got it from the gearstick of his car. It was the same size, same mark that Melissa Stephens had on her neck. This DJ, he drives a Mercedes Benz drop head, 280 SL. It’s in filthy condition, but… it’s automatic.’
Langton was staring, on to it now.
‘The identical mark,’ Moira said with conviction. ‘Maybe the killer was trying to get her to do what my bloody daughter’s boyfriend was after, to give him a blow job, but Melissa struggles and hits her neck on the gearstick.’
Langton and Moira studied the board set up in the incident room. She pointed to the blown-up picture of the bruise on Melissa Stephens’s neck.
‘It’s the same, I swear to you. That is what that mark is on my daughter’s neck.’
Langton turned to Mike Lewis. ‘Was the — suspect’s Mercedes automatic?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Get on to his insurance company. Check it out.’
‘Will do.’
Seeing Michael Parks walk into the incident room, Langton called to his team to be in the briefing room in fifteen minutes. He stopped by Anna’s desk. ‘You typed up your report yet?’
‘Yes, sir.’ She passed him four copies.
‘Thank you.’
Langton ushered Parks into his office and passed him Anna’s report. ‘You’ll see she didn’t get us much, but when you discuss the report this morning, can you go a bit easy on her? She’s emotionally on edge. She was just too inexperienced. I blame myself for not seeing she wasn’t up to the job.’
‘All right.’ Parks nodded and put on his glasses in preparation for reading Anna’s report.
Lewis confirmed that the Mercedes driven by Daniels had been an automatic. The bruise to Melissa Stephens’s neck could have occurred during a struggle in the car which resulted in her neck hitting the automatic gear lever. If the suspect was holding her down in the struggle, this would explain why a clump of hair had been dragged out by the roots from the back of her head. In front of the team, Langton acknowledged a debt to Moira for coming up with this theory. Moira gave a nod; she was very pleased with herself.
Langton went on to report that they were still awaiting the development of prints on a glass used by Daniels, which they would match against those from a picture frame removed from DS Travis’s flat. If they matched, Daniels could be brought in on suspicion of burglary. It was by no means enough to hold him for any length of time, but it might unnerve him; a threat to go public on the burglary charge would really make his life hell.
At that moment Michael Parks walked in. Langton described Anna as having done a good job the previous evening and thanked the driver of the Mercedes. Anna flushed with embarrassment to learn that he was a plant. She was mortified, not least because she had not mentioned in her report that their suspect had kissed her and her omission would be obvious in the driver’s report. She sat, her head bowed, making notes, almost afraid to meet Langton’s eyes. She felt like an idiot: inexperienced, incompetent and now that she had learned of the cost of the operation, completely frivolous and wasteful.
Michael Parks drew up a sheet of big paper and pinned it on the notice board. She recognized her report in his hands and saw with horror that it was covered with red ink markings.
‘I will take DS Travis’s report section by section and break down each of them. It shows classic signs of the profile I had drawn for you of the sociopath. First example: Daniels sends his driver to bring DS Travis to the waiting car, then he steps out and helps her into the back seat. He is reassuring her she will not be confronted with the possibility of being alone with him, but there will be a third person present, the driver.’
Anna looked up, attentive, recognizing that was exactly how she had felt at the time.
‘The suspect takes a call on his mobile phone, reminding her at the same time to turn her own off. This simple interaction had a dual purpose. One: he was assured she was not in contact with her superiors. Two: to show that Daniels at no time anticipates not being able to leave England due to a murder case pending against him. He is heard refusing to go to Paris, preferring his wig to be brought to London. If he is to go to Paris, he will want payment.
‘Now to the arrival at the Opera House. He pays scant attention to the press, focusing instead on DS Travis. He gives a fifty-pound note to the usherette, showing how rich he is, how important he is. This man is a real player. After he has made sure DS Travis is at her ease with him, he rests his hand at her back, then on her shoulder. He still can’t be sure that she isn’t wired, so he asks to see the contents of her evening bag. Only now, when he is satisfied there is no hidden microphone, does he really get down to business.’
Parks wrote on the board: I will get in trouble for talking to you about the case.
He turned to the room. ‘Travis repeats this numerous times. He assures her that he does not want to get her in trouble, that he has asked her to spend the evening with him because he has felt a connection between them. This is where he gets ready to tease information from her. When he appears distressed regarding his dental X-rays, he is putting on a brilliant act of the innocent man being hounded.’
CAN YOU HELP ME? Parks wrote in block letters.
‘It is because he’s alone with no one to help him that he needs Travis. He was constantly drawing on her sympathy. Twice he explains to her how his career would be shattered if news that he was under suspicion for murder was ever leaked to the press. As emotionally charged as he seems to be, nevertheless he is able to gain the information that the police have two witnesses, but it is interesting to note that he didn’t ask more detailed questions about them.
‘Finally, let’s focus on the journey home. Daniels suggests he should be dropped off first. Considering he had behaved like the most charming courteous escort all evening, this could seem out of character. He does it to make her feel sexually unpressured by him. Then he produces his biggest draw-card. He provides a small glimpse into a wretched past: the starving little boy in the brothel. He cries. He conjures up for Travis a tragic picture. And she, wisely, allows him to think she has been suckered in. She allows him to draw her in his arms, where he will ask for her protection, that she will help him. Then, he adds that he will try and help her, that he will think how he could possibly be a help to the enquiry. Consider the audacity he displays here!’
Parks leaned forward. ‘I can guarantee you that at some point, relatively soon, DS Travis will hear from him again and that this time he will suggest a suspect. I believe we have him worried. The danger is that he might take off, but I doubt he will now. By having what he believes to be contact with an insider, Daniels’s ego will cloud over his anxiety. Do you see now, how the entire evening was a ploy by Daniels to gain DS Travis’s trust?’
Parks extended his congratulations to Anna for consistently maintaining, throughout the evening, a facade of such endearing openness and innocence that Daniels at no time seemed to perceive her as a threat.
Anna flushed as they gave her a smattering of applause. She felt a bit better after Parks’s breakdown of the evening. The meeting broke up and Langton called Anna into his office.
‘I’m going to have a tap put on your phone. Is that OK with you?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Last night, you said you didn’t believe Alan Daniels was the killer. Do you remember?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘He got to you, didn’t he, Travis?’
She didn’t reply.