Chapter 41
‘Jamie wasn’t one of them,’ Nadeeka says, as soon as Lauren answers the phone. ‘He was trying to stop them.’
‘What makes you think that?’ Lauren is non-committal, knowing how common it is for families to reject the possibility that their relatives engaged in criminal behaviour.
Lauren sympathizes – she’d find it equally difficult to believe about her own loved ones – but in Jamie Golding’s case the evidence speaks for itself.
His phone puts him in the vicinity of multiple New Dawn meetings.
His DNA was on the bottle of lighter fluid used to torch the convenience store.
Golding is a murder victim . . . but he was also a criminal.
‘I don’t think,’ Nadeeka says. ‘I know.’
Lauren listens patiently as Nadeeka recounts her visit to Jamie’s parents, then reads out the list of books he’d reserved from the library. Lauren clamps her phone between her shoulder and ear as she doodles a church in the margin of her notebook.
‘ . . . and Mein Kampf,’ Nadeeka finishes.
Seriously? Everything Nadeeka is telling her serves only to strengthen the case against Golding.
‘I see,’ Lauren says. She adds a tiny bride to the side of her church.
Something borrowed . . . she remembers the rhyme and jots down the items she needs to find.
Borrowed, blue, old, new. Later, she’ll tell Fraser he can be her ‘old’, she thinks, suppressing a chuckle.
‘ . . . sewn inside a balaclava.’
Lauren stops doodling. ‘What did you say?’
‘A bug. He must have recorded their meetings.’
Lauren puts down her pen, leaving her bride jilted at the church. Golding might have worn the balaclava to commit crime. Had he recorded himself to prove to New Dawn he’d carried out their bidding?
‘There’s more,’ Nadeeka says. ‘I think he went to the police for help before he died.’
Two officers walk past the open door to Lauren’s office, laughing. She sits very still. ‘Go on,’ she says quietly. She thinks of the times the police have got there too late; haven’t listened; haven’t acted. She listens to Nadeeka, then she pushes back her chair.
‘I’m going to make some calls,’ she tells Nadeeka. ‘I’ll come back to you as soon as I have some answers.’
Three hours later, Lauren pulls an unmarked car on to -Nadeeka’s drive. She looks at Fraser and grimaces. ‘This isn’t going to be easy.’
‘When are murder investigations ever easy?’ Fraser laces his fingers through hers, and the simplicity of his touch fills Lauren with the confidence she needs.
She nods. ‘Let’s do it.’
There’s a new carpet in Nadeeka’s living room, a grey fleck that doesn’t quite match the one in the hall.
‘It was the only one they could fit right away.’ Nadeeka follows Lauren’s gaze.
Her voice sounds flat, and, when Lauren says how nice it looks, she doesn’t smile.
The skirting board has been replaced, and the smell of paint lingers in the air.
Lauren thinks about the blood seeped into the concrete floor.
She imagines another family, in years to come, pulling up the carpet and wondering what caused the stain.
Hanging on the handle of the door are two costumes.
‘The girls’ nativity outfits look great,’ Lauren says. ‘You’ve done so well to get them made, with everything that’s happened.’
‘I think it’s kept me going. Something normal, you know? The girls are so excited – the show’s been sold out for weeks. Scott can’t make it, he’s got a race, so he’s going to the dress rehearsal the day before.’
Lauren picks up a shimmery white dress with what looks like LED lights threaded across the shoulders and down each arm. ‘Let me guess – Maya’s an angel?’
Nadeeka gives the ghost of a smile. ‘A drone, actually.’ The smile grows as she clocks Lauren’s confusion. ‘The modern-day equivalent of the star of Bethlehem.’
‘A drone that guides the shepherds and wise men to the stable?’
‘Yes . . . except the shepherds are buskers, and the wise men are a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and a Hindu priest.’
‘And the stable?’
‘A library.’ Nadeeka picks up the second costume, which consists of black leggings and a T-shirt under thick card painted with the cover of a book. ‘Nish is in the choir. When they all stand sideways at the end, their spines spell out “peace and goodwill to everyone”.’
‘This sounds incredible.’ Lauren’s memories of her own school nativity plays are mostly tea-towel headdresses and Sophie -Harrison getting to be Mary for the third year running.
‘There are seven schools involved,’ Nadeeka says. ‘The teachers deserve medals.’
‘Or gin,’ Fraser says.
Lauren puts the drone costume back on the doorknob. She turns a level gaze on Nadeeka. ‘Shall we sit down?’
There’s a beat. Nadeeka nods.
‘Jamie did go to the police station in Beech Street,’ Lauren says, once they’re settled. Nadeeka takes a sharp breath. ‘He didn’t ask for help, but he did report a crime.’
‘How come you didn’t know that sooner?’ There’s a sharp edge to Nadeeka’s voice.
‘We would have done if Jamie had made the report under his own name, but he gave a false one – Richard Smith – perhaps through fear of recriminations.’
‘What did he report?’
‘A racially motivated assault on a homeless man.’ Since Nadeeka’s call, Lauren has found a second intelligence report on the assault, made by a PCSO following a conversation with a night shelter volunteer.
The PCSO had made perfunctory enquiries but no victim had been identified, and, although a link had been made with ‘Richard Smith’, no solid leads had been identified and the incident had not been recorded as a crime.
Fraser clears his throat. ‘Intelligence suggests the assault was carried out by members of New Dawn.’
‘We think Jamie was in over his head; that he was trying to extricate himself from the organization,’ Lauren says. ‘I’ve spoken to our digital forensics team, and, on the date you say Jamie received the package containing the recording device, he also downloaded an app called ShadowTek.’
‘That’s it.’ Nadeeka sits up. ‘That’s the name on the instructions.’
‘We don’t know if recordings can be retrieved from the cloud, or whether they’re only saved locally on the phone itself,’ Fraser says. ‘The team’s working on that now.’
There’s a long silence, then Nadeeka looks at Lauren. ‘Did you find the people responsible for the assault? The people Jamie was reporting?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Was it investigated?’
‘It was recorded on the intelligence system, but without specific dates or locations we were unable to—’
‘So it wasn’t investigated?’ The words are shot with steel. ‘Jamie came to you for help, and you did nothing?’
‘If Jamie had disclosed that he was in danger, we absolutely would have—’
‘You could have prevented Jamie’s murder!’
‘Maybe,’ Lauren says, and her honesty seems to surprise Nadeeka, who falls suddenly silent. ‘Would you be able to let us have Jamie’s watch?’ she asks gently. ‘Phone triangulation isn’t as accurate as TV shows would have us believe, and the information you’ve been able to get from his watch—’
‘Scott did it. He’s into his tech.’
‘—will be very helpful for us to cross-reference with our data,’ Lauren finishes.
She glances at Fraser, who raises an eyebrow to signal that he’s on her wavelength.
Interesting for Scott Hadley to be so helpful, given his feelings towards Golding.
‘I hear from Kath that Scott’s moved back in,’ Lauren says.
‘He’s staying here, yes. Kath insisted, and Scott was worried about the girls. To be honest I wasn’t keen at first, but I do feel safer having someone in the house, especially now I know what New Dawn are capable of.’
‘That’s good,’ Lauren says, although she isn’t at all sure it is. It’s possible, she supposes, that Hadley’s here because he’s genuinely worried for his daughters, or because he gets a kick out of playing the hero. But it’s equally possible he’s here with more nefarious intentions.
One thing’s for sure: Lauren wants to take a closer look at Scott Hadley.