‘Can I see him?’ The words were choked.
‘Soon. When he regains consciousness the priority is going to be to find out everything we can about what happened so we can focus on finding Millie.’
Jo raised her red, swollen eyes to Tom’s.
‘I know I shouldn’t say this, and I should be grateful that at least Ash has been found, but somehow I thought that if Millie was with her daddy, she’d be okay. He would be there for her. Now she’s on her own. My baby’s out there with some madman and there’s nothing I can do. And I let her go.’
Jo leaned sideways towards Becky and began to sob.
33
Under pressure from Becky and knowing that he couldn’t do anything until Ash regained consciousness, Tom had finally decided that if he didn’t get a couple of hours’ rest, he wouldn’t be any use to anyone. Becky had taken a break earlier at Tom’s insistence as she had looked about to fall over. Apparently Buster was teething and she had been up with him for most of the previous night. Rob, however, had refused a break and was still bouncing around full of energy. Tom felt tired just watching him and realised that if he didn’t get some downtime now, he might lose his chance.
He had a feeling that they weren’t going to hear from the kidnappers in the near future – if at all. If they had been intending to demand a ransom, Ash’s escape – if that’s what it was – might well have caused them to reassess their plans.
He couldn’t rest until he had checked that Louisa and Lucy were okay, and having been reassured by Louisa that they were fine, Tom lay down on the bed in one of the rooms in the training centre. He was just dozing off when his phone rang.
‘Bugger,’ he muttered. He’d considered turning it off, knowing Becky would come and find him if he was needed, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to go quite that far.
‘Tom Douglas.’
‘Hello again!’ The voice was one he would recognise anywhere at any time, and he sat up straight.
‘Jack. That’s twice in the space of a few hours. Can you at least give me a way of contacting you? You have no idea how frustrating it is to always have to wait for you to call.’
‘Hopefully, in time. We’re not quite there yet.’
‘But McGuinness is dead, and you always said he was the only one who was a danger.’
‘I did, and I believed that. Now I’m not so sure.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Are you investigating Finn’s murder?’ Jack asked.
‘Philippa wanted me to, but I told her there wasn’t a chance in hell of me doing that. She threatened me with my job, but I think in the end I won that one.’
‘I think you should reconsider.’
‘What? Jesus, Jack – I’m glad the bastard’s dead. How could I seriously give a shit who killed him?’
‘You have to remember who he was, and how powerful he was. Finn will have had minders in prison – both cons and prison officers, paid to make sure no one tried anything. He was a big name.’
‘And…?’
‘And so where the hell were they when he was killed? This wasn’t a stabbing with a shiv in the showers. He was murdered in his cell, and yet apparently no one knows anything. So I repeat, where were his minders? And why is everyone keeping shtum now?’
Tom said nothing. He knew what Jack was suggesting. This was carefully planned and executed, and it meant that someone else – someone with even more clout than Finn McGuinness – had engineered the whole thing.
‘You’re saying that one of his deputies or minders killed him, or they were paid to turn a blind eye. Anyone in a position to do that has to have a hell of a lot of influence, Jack, and either deep pockets or the ability to exert other pressures.’ Tom didn’t need to spell out to Jack that coercion, including threats to family, could have been applied. Jack had been there. ‘If you’re thinking some other organised-crime group is behind this, that’s not my remit. You know that. We have teams who specialise in that area and they are much closer to what’s going on.’
‘I know, but you’re major crimes, and murder is right up your street.’
Tom sighed. ‘Yes, but why do you care so much about who did it?’
‘Because I need to know if there’s someone else who can point the finger at me. This is one powerful person, Tom.’
‘And you have no idea who it is?’
Jack was quiet for a moment.
‘When Guy Bentley was running the crew, with Finn as his enforcer, there was someone else on his payroll – no one knew his name or who he was, but he was a recruiter. I knew he was some corrupt official – on the face of it, squeaky clean. I always assumed he was a judge, a high-ranking cop, maybe a probation officer. In any case, it had to be someone in contact with crooks who knew which of them might be persuaded to do the more specialised jobs. He had to understand the criminal mind. When Guy died and Finn was incarcerated in Strangeways it all went quiet, and there were no signs that the recruiter was still active. I assumed that without anyone to recruit for, he had retired.’
Tom knew there was more to come. ‘And now?’
‘On the forums, for want of a better word for the dark places I haunt, there’s a lot of buzz about recruitment at the moment. People are talking about approaches. There’s plenty of activity. I’m wondering if this person is trying to go it alone, or has linked up with another crew, although that feels less likely.’
‘How the hell do you know all this, Jack?’ Tom said, hearing the exasperation in his own voice.
‘Because I keep an eye on the dark web to see if anyone’s talking about me. We’ve discussed this before, and you know I can access the chatter. I’m wondering if this person has recruited the team – and it has to have been a team – who orchestrated McGuinness’s death.’
‘If you give me the URLs of the sites, I can get my colleagues – the police, in case you’d forgotten – to keep an eye on them. You know we have teams scouring the dark web.’
Jack tutted. ‘Don’t be naive, Tom. Knowing how to keep tabs on these guys is the reason I’m still alive. If I pass on the details, some knobhead will try to be clever and screw it up. Then the sites I can access will close down and new talking shops will open up, but I won’t know where and I won’t have access. I’m staying alive, Tom, and if there’s anything big to tell you – like I’m doing now – I’ll make sure you’re kept informed. At this minute all you need to know is that the recruiter is active again, and I’m sure this is tied to Finn’s death.’
There was silence from the other end of the phone, and Tom didn’t know what to say.
‘This is the last link to me, Tom, so please think about it. Got to go now, little brother. I’ll be in touch.’
With that, the line went dead, and Tom knew that any hope of sleep had gone.
34
Sandie Burford was getting stiff in the back of the van. She’d been sitting in the same position for too long, and now the CSIs had finished at the house, nothing was happening. She would have to take a break soon and let someone else take over, but she hated not seeing cases through. She was disappointed that they hadn’t been able to identify the man she had seen watching the house from Tessa O’Hanlon’s bedroom.