Mrs Singh seemed relieved when Jane steered the conversation around to Brian Forgham. In contrast to what Rachit Agrawal had said, Mrs Singh described Forgham as being very kind. Even though they had major rent arrears he was always polite, and at one time he had even bought them some bread and cheese. He had also been exceedingly helpful with repairs and had appeared to be distressed when the company had turned off the central heating in the building.
‘We had no running water or heating for many months, but we had nowhere else to go. My husband was unable to get work... and then he simply disappeared. Apparently, he went to Birmingham in the hope of getting work, but I knew he had deserted us.’
Jane remained patient as Mrs Singh became more emotional — and then broke down in tears when Jane mentioned Brian Forgham’s murder.
‘It was terrible... we were so sad. As I’ve already said, he was a kind man, but he was put in a very difficult position as everyone was being evicted and the house was going to rack and ruin. After Mr Forgham died, there was another man who took over who was terrible. He came and threatened me and the children. We thought he had been hired to replace Mr Forgham, but in the end we found out who he really was. He was the owner of the flats and such an obnoxious young man. He told us that if we didn’t leave, he would have our possessions thrown out into the street...’
Mrs Singh started sobbing, then plucked a handful of tissues from a box on the table beside her. Once she had composed herself, she went on to explain that the council had rehoused them in a dreadful place for several months, then they had moved from one terrible rental to another until they eventually found this flat.
Jane thanked Mrs Singh profusely, telling her how helpful she had been and reassuring her that she just needed to ask a few more quick questions regarding the time when Brian Forgham had been murdered. Mrs Singh closed her eyes.
‘I remember it was a very cold night in September. I think he had been at the house because my daughter remembered the door to the basement was open, and nobody was allowed into the basement. That was where Mr Forgham did repair work, and kept all the paints and maintenance tools, but it was always locked.’
Jane nodded. ‘And apparently no one was allowed in the garden either?’
‘Yes, that’s correct. It was the only time he would become assertive, if anyone even asked to use the garden. I had three young children who would have loved to play there but there was a large, corrugated-iron fence, so you couldn’t get in even if you were allowed to.’
‘Mrs Singh, after Mr Forgham died, how long did you stay in the flat before you were evicted?’
‘I think it must have been early December... everyone else had left It was very cold... very, very cold.’
‘Did you at any time see anyone going into the basement? Or did you see anyone in the garden?’ Jane asked.
Mrs Singh shook her head. ‘No. We saw no one. But I do remember that we thought an animal might have been trapped in the garden.’
‘An animal?’ Jane asked.
‘Yes, a cat maybe? We thought we heard a cat meowing. It went on for some time. But, as I said, we couldn’t go into the garden, and we couldn’t get into the basement... and then we were evicted.’
‘And then?’ Jane asked.
Mrs Singh shrugged. ‘I got divorced and my cousin introduced me to my present husband.’
Jane walked into the incident room and stared at all the names and addresses on the board. DS Hunt joined her.
‘We found the last tenant in the Stockwell house,’ Jane said.
‘Anything positive?’ Hunt asked.
‘Not really, just that they heard what sounded like a cat meowing for days. It could have been Samantha, chained up in the shelter, but that’s basically all I got. No one saw Forgham taking her into the basement, just the awful sounds of the crying.’
Sergeant Hunt nodded. ‘Well, Samantha’s mother did cry, eventually. I have to say that I’ve never, in all my career, seen a mother show such a lack of emotion when they’ve received such wretched news; in fact, at one point, she pursed her lips as if she thought it served her daughter right. Anyway, the other good news, if you can call it that, is she allowed us access to her husband’s box room where he worked. There were filing cabinets full of old invoices, a few cans of paint, tiles, stuff he used for the maintenance of the property — and an old toolbox containing items he would have used for his work. But we also found two padlocks, various chains and a set of handcuffs. Apparently, our Mr Forgham used them when he was in the army as an MP. I believe we’ll be able to match the padlock and even some of the chains to those found at the shelter.’
Jane nodded. ‘Good. Good work.’
Hunt sighed. ‘Yeah, doesn’t feel like it, though. We have no other suspects, so I think as DCI Carter suggested, it’s case closed.’ He turned and looked at the photographs on the incident board, nodding towards the large black-and-white crime scene photographs of the mummified baby.
‘Well, we know for sure that wasn’t Samantha’s.’
By an awful coincidence, at that very moment Jane received a call from the pathologist examining the mummified child, telling her that he had been able to determine that the child had been buried alive. This was due to the discovery of fine wool fibres in the infant’s nasal passages and lungs. Further details would be forwarded.
Jane closed her eyes. She recalled her feelings on her previous case, when the nun’s coffin was opened. The scratch marks on the underside of the coffin lid indicated that the poor woman had been buried alive and had been frantically trying to escape.
Jane had persisted in hunting down the nun’s killer, even though it had been a long and exhausting process. She had been determined to get justice and she knew now that, no matter what DCI Carter said, she would also get justice for this tiny newborn child.
Chapter Six
Jane had had a sleepless night, but unusually for her, it wasn’t because of the case she was working on or the behaviour of her boss. She’d been kept awake by all the decisions she had to make about her house. She got up early, made copious notes about her thoughts and then before she left for the station she called Eddie, leaving a message on his answer machine to ask if he could meet her at seven that evening to discuss things.
When she got to the station, the team were beginning to remove details about Samantha Forgham from the incident board, while DCI Carter was in his office preparing a final report and a briefing to close the case.
The only items now left up on the board were the photographs of the exterior and interior of the shelter, and the images of the mummified baby. The pathologist had forwarded his findings yesterday evening and Carter was looking over the results as he wrote his report.
Jane had breakfast in the canteen before joining Carter in his office.
‘Samantha Forgham’s case is now officially closed,’ he told her, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smile. ‘A fast turnaround and a good outcome, but now...’ he reached over to pick up a file, ‘with regard to this other case, last night we got the report from Mr Johnson, the pathologist. In his estimation the child’s body is at least thirty years old. He also found traces of the wool blanket that had been wrapped around the baby in the nasal cavity and lungs.’
He looked at Jane and raised the palms of his hands in an open gesture. ‘I have to say that, even with this new information, I’m loath to use my full team. I very much doubt, given the huge time lapse, that we’ll ever be able to bring a suspect to the table.’