DS Jessica Daniel series: Locked In/Vigilante/The Woman in Black - Books 1-3 (107 page)

‘Yes, but that was a long time ago too. I don’t know what that has to do with anything now.’

Jessica nodded, pointing to the next face. ‘This is Edward Marks; a few weeks ago we found his severed hand in the centre of Manchester. Even if you didn’t remember the name, you may
have read about it or seen it on the news. This man here is Lewis Barnes, while this is Jacob Chrisp and this is Matthew Cooper. We have found hands belonging to each of them. All four of them have
been reported missing and we have no idea if they’re alive or dead. That means you’re the one person left out of these six who is definitely still alive.’

Jessica watched Steven closely. As she had revealed each person’s fate she saw his eyes widen ever so slightly. She was clearly telling him something he didn’t know. ‘Can you
think of a reason why four people have gone missing, Mr Povey?’

He blinked a few times. ‘It wasn’t anything to do with me.’

‘I never said it was.’

‘No, I know . . . I just . . . I’m sorry, do I need a solicitor?’

Jessica didn’t know if he was involved but his reaction seemed as genuine as she would expect. If he was a formal suspect, they would have taken him to the station for questioning but, at
least for now, Jessica didn’t want to take things that far. She chose her words carefully. ‘If you want a solicitor, it’s entirely up to you. We can talk to you here or at a
station, I don’t mind. All I’m asking you is if you know of any reason why four people you went on holiday with eleven years ago might have gone missing.’

Steven was clearly nervous. It was warm and he’d seemed edgy throughout but there was sweat on his forehead. He looked quickly from one detective to the other. ‘I’m not sure
what you want me to say.’

‘It’s pretty simple,’ Jessica said. ‘I believe something happened when the six of you went away together and that is the reason why the people you were on holiday with
aren’t here. From that, I can make two conclusions. The first is that you are somehow involved in what has gone on with the hands being left. The second is that you are also a target. I
don’t believe you have kidnapped four people, cut off their hands and driven to Manchester to leave them for us. If you continue to insist nothing happened on that holiday, we won’t
have many options other than to start looking into your background. If you want to be honest with me, we might be able to offer you some sort of protection.’

Steven listened to everything she said and then gazed away towards the back of the garden. His tone was lower as he spoke again. ‘It was such a long time ago now. I’ve got a wife,
kids . . .’ Jessica nodded but didn’t reply. ‘Have you ever done anything stupid when you were younger?’ he added.

‘Lots of things but nothing that’s ever made anyone want to cut off my hand.’

The man said nothing but when he finally spoke, it didn’t take long for the pieces to start to fall into place.

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

Steven Povey winced as one of the other men slapped him on the shoulder. He had never really burned in the sun before but using sun cream didn’t particularly seem like
the masculine thing to do when he was surrounded by a group of lads he barely knew. It had only taken a day for his shoulders and arms to turn bright red and, although the other areas of his skin
had gone brown in the five days that had followed, his shoulders were still raw and beginning to peel.

The man spun around to see who had smacked him and wasn’t surprised to see it was Barry. Back in England the pair lived next door to each other and, despite an almost two-year age gap
between them, their parents got on well and they started hanging around together as children. It was easy to cross into each other’s garden to kick a ball around and they had grown up
together. The trouble Steven had found was that Barry was a completely different person when he had been drinking. At home it didn’t create too much of a problem but, in the week they had
been in Faliraki, they had drunk a lot, which meant his friend had spent a lot of time being abusive and aggressive.

That was a problem in itself for Steven but had been compounded by the fact he didn’t really know anyone else. Matthew and Lewis seemed like decent enough guys and kept their heads down in
much the way he did. Ed was very quiet and they’d not seen much of him in the past couple of days but it was Barry and Jacob who seemed to be permanently drunk. Steven wasn’t enjoying
spending time around either of them but it was hard to walk away considering the six of them were sharing two rooms.

Barry was standing with two empty glasses. ‘You want another one, Stevie?’

The young man hated being called ‘Stevie’, ‘Stevo’, ‘Steffie’, ‘Stig’ or any of the other nicknames which seemed to have appeared on the holiday.
He often wondered why it was so hard to simply call him by his name. ‘I’ll skip this round.’

Barry looked on, disgusted. ‘Fellas?’

Of the three other young men sat around the table, only Jacob nodded. ‘Same again.’

Barry stared from one person to the next. ‘Matty? Lew? You guys in?’ The two shook their heads. ‘Lightweights,’ Barry said, stomping off towards the bar.

Steven exchanged knowing looks with Matthew and Lewis but was grateful they were sticking together in not being forced to drink. The holiday had been something of a learning curve. He had come
away largely because of Barry’s promise to find him a girl. He wasn’t a virgin but it had been a while and the girls back home never seemed interested in him. Barry’s promise of
‘drunken slags who’ll shag anything’ wasn’t exactly what he had in mind but he thought there would at least be a lot of girls he’d never met before – and perhaps
one among them who wouldn’t mind hanging out with him.

As it was, the focus of the holiday had largely been alcohol-related and, although there were large groups of girls around, Steven hadn’t really had the courage to talk to anyone. Barry
and Jacob were the two who had confidence, although they were frequently too drunk to do anything other than leer and shout. Steven hadn’t really enjoyed the break at all. He wanted things to
do that didn’t involve spending most of the day in bed or on the beach, then all night drinking. For some people that inertia would sound like an ideal day but, for him, it was boring.

He was currently in a bar just off the main through street in Faliraki. It was English-themed and the fact they’d flown for five hours to sit in a bar and eat full English breakfasts at
five in the afternoon wasn’t an irony that was lost on him, even if it clearly was on both Barry and Jacob. On the first night, Matthew had suggested trying a Greek restaurant near their
hotel but he had been instantly shot down by Jacob saying, ‘I’m not eating that foreign shit’. They’d had either fry-ups, chips or burgers every day since then. The current
bar was the one they had started the last three evenings in. St George’s flags were pinned along the wooden frames of the structure and a giant television at the back had British sports
channels on continuously. When there was no live sport to show, cheesy pop music blared out of speakers over the bar. It wouldn’t have been Steven’s choice of venue but it was
admittedly cheaper than some of the bars in the area.

‘Where’s Ed?’ Jacob asked, not directing his question to any of the other three in particular.

Matthew, Lewis and Steven all exchanged looks to query who Jacob had been speaking to but it was Steven who answered. ‘I think he’s off with that girl again.’

‘Pfft,’ Jacob said dismissively. ‘What a deserting little prick. It’s not as if she’s even got any friends for the rest of us.’

Steven was actually a little jealous. On the second day of their break, the six of them had been in a bar on the main street. It was crowded and noisy but, after an hour or so, Matthew noticed
Ed was no longer with them. They had found him outside on a raised kerb talking to a girl. According to Lewis, who played rugby with him, Ed was still a virgin and everyone seemed surprised it was
him who had been the first to hook up with someone of the opposite sex.

In the days that followed, Ed and the girl, who they had found out was called Sam, had spent pretty much all their time together. Barry and Jacob hadn’t taken it too well but it was clear
to Steven their jealousy was based around the fact they hadn’t had any luck with women since they had arrived on the island of Rhodes. Steven didn’t actually resent Ed as they seemed to
– he was simply envious because he wanted to find someone of the opposite sex he could hang around with.

The evening progressed much as the previous few had. Jacob and Barry drank constantly while Steven, Matthew and Lewis had just enough to get them drunk without going completely over the top.
They moved from the English bar into one of the clubs. Most people went there to dance but the five of them sat in near-silence close to the bar watching the swaying crowd. Jacob would make the odd
grab towards girls if any were unfortunate enough to get too near but, aside from that, the night was as uneventful as the rest of the holiday had been.

The next night they would be going home and, for Steven, it couldn’t come soon enough. After an hour or so, Jacob made one lunge too many towards a girl and they were thrown out. The
places didn’t have bouncers like clubs might at home but the threat of the police had convinced Jacob it was time to go. After he hurled a mouthful of abuse at the few security staff, the
five of them started to walk towards their apartment block.

Steven found the hotel itself horrible. There was no air-conditioning, which made sleeping at night almost impossible, while sharing a room was something he wasn’t overly comfortable with
seeing as he was an only child and not used to it. Barry was a bad snorer but at least tended to fall asleep after they got back. Matthew wasn’t too bad and the other three were in the room
next door. Although they were all clearly struggling to sleep, Steven would at least lie on his uncomfortable bed and try. In the adjoining room, Jacob would put music or the television on and
generally make life miserable for all of them. If it had disturbed Barry, he would have probably stopped but Jacob knew the other four were intimidated by him, so did whatever he wanted.

The walk back to the hotel was slow and tortuous with both Jacob and Barry offering to fight bystanders for no reason other than the fact they were there. Steven, Matthew and Lewis kept quiet
and walked a few paces behind, trying not to get caught up in things. Over the course of the week they hadn’t said too much to each other but had bonded in a silent way because of the way
they had been mutually bullied into submission.

Eventually they arrived back at the apartments, making their way up the outside stairs to their rooms on the fourth floor. Steven had the key and opened the door but was hit by a wall of
humidity as he walked into the room. The evening was cool but the room was far hotter. He had barely reached his bed when he heard Jacob’s unmistakable voice from the next room. Barry had
opened the door that connected the interiors and was standing in the doorway cheering before crossing into the other room. Dreading what he might see but feeling inquisitive, Steven followed
Matthew into the adjoining room.

It only took a moment to see what the noise had been about. Ed was in a bed on top of Sam. They had clearly just been disturbed while having sex and the look on the woman’s face was pure
horror. Because the boys had been thrown out of the club, they had returned to the rooms around an hour-and-a-half earlier than they had on previous days.

Sam was holding the thin white sheet across the top of her chest with Ed lying half on top of her, also under the cover. Jacob was still cheering. ‘Waheeeeeyyyyy. Have you brought her back
for us all to have a go? Good lad.’

Steven could see the disgusted look on the girl’s face. Her blonde hair was tangled across her face and he could see thin tan marks on her skin from where she had been wearing a bikini.
She looked directly at Jacob then glanced across at the other boys. It was obvious she was associating the five of them together. ‘Fuck off,’ she said venomously, clutching the cover to
herself. Ed looked as if he was going to say something but Barry was now standing next to the bed. Jacob was a little further back in the room next to Steven, Lewis and Matthew.

‘Mind your fucking language,’ Barry said, snatching the sheet away. Jacob started laughing as there was a brief tug of war with Sam desperately trying to hold onto the sheet.
Ed’s eyes were wide with fear, Sam’s full of fury. It only took a second or two before Barry managed to grab the sheet away, leaving both Ed and Sam naked on the bed. The woman tried
her best to cover her body as Barry and Jacob sneered with joyous laughter.

Steven felt sick and ashamed as he took in her thin frame but said nothing. The humid air suddenly felt cold. He shivered as Jacob stepped forward. ‘Nice of you to bring your little
girlfriend around to give us all a go.’

Ed was reaching towards a pile of clothes on the floor. ‘Leave her alone.’

Jacob lunged forward and slapped him across the face with a large crack. Steven heard Lewis gasp next to him and felt stunned himself. ‘Do you think you’re better than us?’
Jacob said loudly. Ed was shaking with what Steven guessed was a mixture of shock and anger. Jacob slapped him again. ‘You think you’re better than us just because you’ve got
yourself a whore for a week.’

Jacob’s words were slurring together, the alcohol in full effect, but Ed seemed unable to speak himself. Steven felt frozen and neither of the other two standing next to him said anything.
Sam was staring at Jacob herself, still trying to cover her body. ‘Leave him alone,’ she shouted.

Jacob picked Ed up and shoved him to the ground then sat on the bed as Sam tried to shuffle away from him. Her clothes were in a pile with Ed’s on the opposite side of the bed from where
she was. Sam went to stand but Jacob reached across and snatched her hand away so she was no longer covering her top half. ‘Why, what are you going to do about it?’

Barry threw the sheet across the room and walked to the door connecting the two rooms, closing it. He then went to the main front door and locked it. Steven watched on, too intimidated to say
anything. As the doors were shut he saw the look on Sam’s face change from defiance to outright fear.