‘What are you after?’

‘It’s not nice.’

‘Go on.’

‘Get an officer and check back through any unsolved sexual assaults from the past thirteen years or so. See if any of the descriptions match Jacob Chrisp. If there was DNA it would have been matched when his hand was identified so look for cases where we don’t have that. It might be nothing but, if Steven’s account is right, he might well have form for it. We would have to visit the victims with a photo of Jacob if anything does compare but it could at least give them some closure if he was responsible.’

Jessica let Dave drive to Vicky Barnes’s house. The Markses’ might have been the more obvious choice but it was going to be a big job to hunt through all of the junk and Charlie had already said he would. Vicky was apparently doing the same but Jessica didn’t know if she was looking for the right thing. They travelled more or less in silence, Jessica still upset by everything they had found out that day. Asking Izzy to check other unsolved cases had been done on something of a whim but, if Jacob was as sinister as Steven had made him sound, he certainly seemed the type who wouldn’t have stopped at one attack. They would probably examine Barry’s background at some point too but he had died a fair few years beforehand and would have had a smaller amount of time to be involved in anything.

Jessica had called Vicky Barnes to let her know they wanted to come around again and she’d said that was fine. As she welcomed them in, the woman assured the officers without prompting she had the kettle on. Jessica wasn’t bothered by that but let the woman fuss. Dave seemed as disturbed as Jessica had been by the shrine Vicky kept to her son. They whispered in the living room as the woman was in the kitchen.

‘This is really weird,’ Rowlands said quietly as he looked around at the pictures.

‘It might be a bit unconventional but it’s really a mother who loves her son,’ Jessica pointed out.

‘I’d be creeped out if my mum kept all these things for me.’

On another day, Jessica might have said that was because he had a face not even a mother could love but she wasn’t in the mood. ‘I wouldn’t fancy being her son’s girlfriend like January was. It’s no wonder there was a clash between mother and potential daughter-in-law,’ she replied.

‘Yeah, sod that.’

They stopped talking as Vicky walked back into the room with a cup of tea for her and two glasses of water. ‘I’ve been looking through the photos as you asked,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t see any others of Lewis with those other boys or I would have called.’ She sat in the same armchair she had the other day as the two officers leant forward on the sofa.

Jessica spoke next. ‘Do you keep photos of Lewis’s friends as well as him?’

‘Yes but I didn’t have any of the two you were asking about.’

‘How about Edward Marks? He was one of the ones who played in Lewis’s rugby team. Do you have any more of him?’

‘Rugby photos?’

‘Anything, maybe ones from the same holiday the other photo we were looking at was taken on?’

Vicky pulled a face as if thinking. ‘There were a few but they’re mainly of Lewis . . .’ She took a long slurp from her cup and then stood. ‘Everything is upstairs. You can come up if you want.’

On the way up the stairs, there were more photos of Lewis pinned to the walls, along with more certificates. Vicky led them into a bedroom that had Rowlands gasping.

‘Do you like it?’ Vicky asked, hearing his surprise. ‘It’s as he left it.’

The room was decorated as if a teenage boy lived in it. There were posters of girls and footballers on the wall, a few toys and a duvet cover of an old cartoon character. Jessica rolled her eyes, knowing Dave’s reaction was because this was his ultimate bedroom.

‘It’s great,’ he said.

Vicky crouched and pulled two huge boxes out from under the bed. ‘This is everything I kept. You might have noticed some of it on the walls but I rotate things around.’ She pointed to the first box, then the second. ‘Everything from when he was born up until eighteen is in that box, everything eighteen to now is in there.’ Jessica could see stacks of photo albums as well as small wallets which likely contained loose pictures. Vicky continued to describe the contents. ‘He got a digital camera and took some photos on his phone but I had them printed out. There might be some bits on the computer at his flat but this is everything I know of.’

As the woman mentioned her son’s ‘flat’, Jessica realised she could be on the brink of another rant about January so she stepped in before she could start. ‘If Lewis went to Faliraki when he was almost nineteen, which box should it be in?’

‘Everything’s in chronological order, it will be easy to find.’ Vicky sat on the edge of the bed and picked a few albums out, skimming the contents, returning them, then taking another. It was less than a minute before she handed Jessica one small album and Dave a wallet. ‘Everything is in those. I checked the other day after we’d spoken but there’s nothing of the other two; it’s mainly pictures of Lewis. I remember because it was the first time he had gone away without me. I didn’t want to let him at first but he kept on about it and eventually I said he could as long as he took photos of everything.’

Jessica started to look through the album as Dave sat on the bed and took out the pictures one by one. It was clear straight away Vicky knew what she was talking about. Every picture in the album Jessica had was of Lewis. In most of them he seemed to be forcing a smile and was either sitting by a pool, on a beach or in a bar. Neither Barry, Jacob nor Steven were in any but there were odd shots with Ed and Matthew in.

Jessica tried to take her time to search the backgrounds of the images but there was nothing. Rowlands was around two-thirds through his pile of photos when he held one up. ‘Jess.’

He wouldn’t have usually called her by her first name out of the station in anything other than a social situation but Jessica wasn’t bothered and could tell from his tone he had something. She stepped across to the bed and took the photo from him. The picture showed two people grinning and holding drinks up as if saluting at whoever had taken the photo. One of them was Ed Marks, the other a young blonde woman with brown eyes.

30

Steven Povey sat in his garden staring at Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel’s business card. He wanted to call her and ask for someone to come and watch him but the consequences of having to tell his wife why the person was needed were something he couldn’t face. The police’s visit had largely been a surprise as he didn’t follow the news too closely and wouldn’t have recognised the names of all the victims in any case. He had seen something about a hand that was found in Manchester but hadn’t realised it could have any connection to him until the officer had said.

The incident on holiday was something he had done his best to forget. He’d not spoken about it to anyone since and, of the other five, only had contact with Barry after they arrived back in the UK. Even that had only been because they lived so close to each other but Steven had soon moved away. He’d heard of Barry’s death in a car crash but had no strong feelings about the man by that point.

After hearing about the possible fates of the other four people, Steven was certainly scared. He didn’t know if it was Sam who had been targeting the men who were in the room that day but whoever it was certainly seemed to know what had gone on. He didn’t know of any further connection he had to the other five people so it must be related. From what Sergeant Daniel had said all of the men involved were now dead so if it wasn’t Sam or someone like a husband or boyfriend, who else could it be?