“That’s quite all right, Mr. Benham,” Jonah said, smiling. “We don’t need to speak with her at present, and we won’t take up much of your time.”
“How good of you.” The look Benham gave them was all sarcasm. It cheered Jonah a little, seeing that innate dislike of authority still in him. Though the boy he half remembered from school was not the important thing, unless that boy had killed a fourteen-year-old girl and hidden her body amid mud and foil. “So what is it?”
“Aurora Jackson,” Jonah said. “Her remains have been found, not far from the campsite.”
Jonah had wondered if he might face disbelief and had anticipated a long silence. What he had not expected was for the silence to be broken by a heaving sob, and for the MP for Meon Valley to suddenly have tears running clear onto his face.
“Oh God. The poor kid. Jesus, the poor kid.” He was rubbing at his face with the back of his hand, but the tears were finding ways down the lines in his skin.
Hanson produced a clean, folded handkerchief from somewhere in her pinstripe jacket, and he took it without a word. He used it to dab at his face.
There were slightly heavy footsteps beyond the rear door to the room, and a brunette twentysomething with her hair in a braid and a pale-blue polo shirt ducked into the room. Polly, Jonah assumed.
“All right if I take the car, Daddy?”
“Yes.” Benham’s embarrassment increased visibly. He turned away from his daughter and lifted a hand in an effort to wave her away. “Yes, no problem. You going to see Pippa?”
“Film with Greg.”
“Fine. Fine.”
Polly paused in the act of exiting the room once again. “You all right, Daddy?”
“I’m absolutely fine, Polly. Have a nice evening.”
Polly stood for a moment. She looked worriedly at Jonah and DC Hanson.
Jonah tried to smile at her. Which seemed to be enough for now.
“OK,” Polly said. “See you later.”
She left, and Jonah heard her stomping around in the hall for a few moments before the front door closed with a slam.
“I’m sorry to cause you distress, Mr. Benham,” Jonah said, sitting forward and letting his wrists dangle. It was difficult to assume a professional pose while feeling like he was about to slip off. “But we need to ask you a few questions.”
“I’m not…Yes. Fire away. I suppose the investigation’s open again, then, is it?” He nodded, and folded his arms in front of him, but continued to look toward his feet. “That’ll please Tom, at least.”
“Mr. Jackson?” Jonah asked. “You’ve kept in contact with him?”
“A little. Not much latterly, to be honest. I lost my father two years ago, and now we have Mary’s mother to look after. But before that, when I had more time and energy, I kept up with them. Tom was always angry about how it all went.” He gave a sigh. “I suppose it’s difficult not to be angry when you’ve lost your daughter. But he felt the police had let them down.”
Jonah remembered only too well. He’d been at Totton Station on more than one occasion when Tom had stormed in, rage and sadness turning his face pink between the wild hair and the equally wild beard.
“We’re looking at new lines of inquiry now,” Jonah said with a glance at Hanson. “The position of the remains has raised questions. She was buried beside the river along with a stash of Dexedrine. We have reason to believe that the cache of drugs belonged to you.”
Jonah had been watching Benham, and there was a void where there should have been a reaction. He was absolutely still, and for a good few seconds afterward he moved nothing but his eyes.
The silence was broken by a single sound. “Ah.”
Jonah watched the creases in his face, but kept his silence. “Can you confirm for us that the drugs belonged to you?” he said finally.
Benham’s expression became pained. “I don’t know if I…What’s the relevance of the drugs? It’s not part of the investigation, is it? I don’t…it’s Aurora that matters. That’s what you want to know about. Aurora. Isn’t it?”
Hanson glanced at Jonah, uncertain.
“The drugs are directly relevant to our investigation of her death,” Jonah said levelly. Which was exactly the reverse of what he had said to Brett within the last hour. He could feel Hanson watching him.
“I see.” Benham sat up a little and tucked his hands further round himself as if cold. “Then I think I’d better wait until I have a solicitor present. Don’t you think?”
He sounded peculiarly regretful. But unmoving.
“That’s for you to decide,” Jonah said, rising. “I am requesting your attendance tomorrow at Southampton Central Police Station at nine thirty A.M. You are not under arrest, but if you fail to attend then a warrant will be issued for your arrest.”
* * *
—
JONAH FELT TIREDNESS descend in a rush as he sat in the passenger seat. He knew that he was getting to the stage of being sloppy now. He tried to weigh up the advantages of seeing them all tonight versus being effective.
“I’m going to get O’Malley to update the Jacksons over the phone,” he said. “There’s no need for us to go there tonight. Connor and Topaz will know the score by now. O’Malley can tell the two of them to come into the station, and I can see them tomorrow.”
“OK,” Hanson said, and he could hear the relief in her voice. She was probably thinking of home and the sofa as fondly as he was. “There wasn’t any reply from Coralie’s cellphone when I tried her, and she’s a hundred miles away. So it’s just…Jojo Magos to see tonight.”
Jonah nodded, and before picking up his phone to call O’Malley said, “And I want you to take the lead on this one. Start to finish. OK?”
Hanson smiled, a little flash of teeth in the dimness. “OK. Thank you.”
10
Aurora
Friday, July 22, 1983, 8:00 P.M.
She moved silently through the water, imagining that she was a serpent. Perhaps an eel. She was in shadow, and hoped she was as invisible as she felt.
She could still hear his voice, and now could almost make out what he was saying.
“…to see you here.”
A sluggish bend let onto a stretch of open bank alongside a beech tree. The bank was bare except for two figures.