‘That’s ridiculous! Totally ridiculous!’ Gill flung her hands up.
‘Easy on the outrage. What’s the quote – the lady doth protest too much?’ said Janet.
‘We’ve the crass comment to the mother, now a complaint from a senior social worker-’
‘Hang on, the mother didn’t make a complaint. Rachel was trying to find her some support, just put her foot in it.’
‘She’s impetuous and she’s a crap communicator. One more incident and I’ll have to put her on efficiency proceedings.’
That morning Janet and Rachel divided up the names that Marlene sent through, cross-referencing them against the various databases. Janet took the boys and ran them through HOLMES, where all major incidents were catalogued. Rachel used the intelligence database to input the names of the girls who may have been logged as victims.
Janet’s neck was aching, her eyes feeling the strain. Perhaps she needed new glasses? The rest of the team were out throwing the net wider, digging deeper into Lisa Finn’s recent life. It was like panning for gold, Janet thought, sifting through the muck and mire for long enough until you caught sight of something that gleamed. A crumb, a grain to make it all worthwhile. At least it meant she wasn’t faced with Andy. A dream turned nightmare.
‘Lunch?’ Janet looked over to Rachel, who was sucking on her pen as she studied her screen.
‘Can do,’ she said, indifferently.
‘You don’t usually eat?’ Janet teased.
‘Course I eat. You sure you want to be seen eating with me?’ She flicked her eyes towards Gill’s office. Like it was the playground and friendships were always being tested, little cliques formed and broken.
‘I think I can cope,’ Janet said.
They went into the Old Grapes, the pub opposite that did bar food on a lunchtime. Janet chose hotpot and red cabbage, just the thing for a winter’s day. Rachel picked a spicy chicken dish. As they sat down, Rachel cast a glance at Janet, looking wary.
‘What?’
‘Well, I thought you might have something to say.’
‘About?’ said Janet.
‘Me. A talking to, a lecture.’
She was paranoid. ‘Lunch, Rachel, that’s all it is: lunch. Did they not do lunch in Sex Crimes?’
‘Worked through usually, butties on the job.’
‘And breakfast? Coffee and a cigarette?’
Rachel stared at her.
‘Sorry,’ Janet sat back, ‘it’s my mother act, that’s all.’ Obviously not appreciated.
The food arrived and they ate, Janet trying to make small talk. ‘Where you from then?’
‘Middleton. You?’
‘Chadderton, never left. My kids went to the same primary school as I did.’
‘That might be another place to try,’ Rachel said, ‘the school Lisa and Rosie went to, when they were in care.’ Back to the case, and suddenly Rachel was engaged again. Much more comfortable than with the personal stuff.
‘That’d be North Manchester High. Big school,’ Janet said.
‘But the teachers’d know if anyone had been in that sort of serious bother.’
‘Yes. Suggest it to Gill.’
‘You suggest it. If it comes from me, she’ll sack it.’ Rachel scooped another forkful of chicken, ate it.
‘No. She’s not daft – quite the opposite – and she’s not petty.’
‘Try standing where I am.’
‘Rachel, she has valid concerns about your conduct. You’ll end up on an action plan if you don’t watch your step. Look, if you want to stay in the syndicate-’
‘I do. More than anything.’ She met Janet’s eyes and all the guile, all the front peeled away. Janet saw how worried Rachel was at finding her future in the balance.
‘Well, think before you act and think before you react. You could go a long way under Gill Murray.’
‘You haven’t.’
Janet nearly choked on her hotpot. ‘You’re wrong,’ she said. ‘I don’t want promotion because I don’t want to be stuck sorting out budgets and managing people. I do want to be working major incidents and I do want to be catching killers and I am. I want to be one of the best, and this syndicate is.’
‘I know,’ Rachel said, pushing her empty plate to one side. ‘I knew there’d be a lecture.’ There was a glint of humour in her eye and Janet laughed. ‘I need a fag,’ Rachel got to her feet.
‘See you back there.’
By mid-afternoon they hadn’t found any of the ex-Ryelands residents as a complainant in a rape or assault case. Nor flagged up any ex-resident charged with such an offence in the same period.
‘You’d think, with this shower, there’d be one or two caught waving their willies about or jumping the local totty,’ Rachel complained.
‘They’re not all bad ’uns,’ Janet chided her. ‘Some of them are orphans, or their parents get ill. Kids end up in care for all sorts of reasons.’
‘Yeah, but most of them are pretty fucked up.’
‘Keen on generalizations, aren’t you?’ Janet said.
‘They’re generally true. Have you asked about school?’
‘Not yet. She’s been out. There are these girls that Marlene’s put on the email who are still at Ryelands. She says they knew Lisa, time coincided. Could be useful to talk to them.’
‘Different ages.’
‘Yes, but sometimes the young ones know more about what’s going on than anyone else. Mine certainly does,’ Janet said. ‘I’ll go myself.’
‘Why?’ said Rachel.
‘It’s called tact and diplomacy.’
Rachel shrugged. ‘’Kay. I could see Angela Hambley.’
‘Rosie’s friend?’
‘If I’m allowed?’ Rachel said.
‘Be my guest.’
‘She’s in Cheetham Hill.’
‘Wear your body armour, then.’
Rachel laughed, ‘Yes, Mam.’ Cheetham was one of the rougher parts of town, dirt poor, mixed ethnicity, still dominated by gang crime and the associated fallout.
37
‘I’M SORRY,’ JANET said as soon as Marlene opened the door.
Marlene held a hand up to stop her. ‘No problem. There’s always one, isn’t there? Come in. I’ve told Amy and Samantha that you’re coming and that it’s in connection with Lisa’s murder. Do you want me to sit in?’
‘Entirely up to you,’ Janet said.
‘I’ll leave you to it, then. I’m drowning in paperwork, third-quarter accounts.’
Sooner you than me.
Janet spoke to the girls individually in a ‘quiet room’ at the back of the house. It looked out on to lawns and another play area, as well as a fenced-off vegetable plot.
Amy was a lumpen girl, who chewed gum and answered Janet’s questions in an adenoidal whine. Her eyes watered and she seemed to be upset about Lisa, though she had very little to say. Lisa was OK, according to Amy, but she didn’t really bother with the younger kids. She got into fights sometimes, Amy remembered the fights, but they were with different people, no one in particular. She remembered Sean too, and a faint blush coloured her pasty cheeks when she said his name. Had she had a crush on him? Amy hadn’t ever seen anyone else show interest in Lisa, or cause her bother. Janet asked her if any of the boys were known to hassle girls or act out of order.
‘Like rape ’n’ that?’ she said simply.
Out of the mouths of babes. ‘Yeah,’ Janet said.
Amy shook her head.
Samantha, tall and dark-haired, wearing tons of make-up and the latest trendy clothes looked like a wannabe model. She was fifteen and remembered Lisa well. They had even shared a bedroom for a couple of years when Samantha first moved in.
Her answers echoed Amy’s, though she chattered more and kept interjecting to say how awful it was and ask questions about the murder and the investigation that Janet couldn’t answer.
‘We’re going to the funeral,’ Samantha said. ‘You know when it is?’
Janet shook her head. ‘No date yet.’
‘Be a school day, though, innit?’ Hopefully.