The phone next to the incident board rang. Gina snatched the receiver. ‘Harte.’ She made notes and listened before placing the receiver down. ‘A Mr Patel called in after recognising the photo of Simone Duxford in the online local paper. He lives with his family on King Street. Sometime before Christmas last year, he said, a girl knocked on his door asking if a Gareth lived there. She said that Gareth was her father and she’d been trying to trace him. Mr Patel said his kids were a little scared by her and she looked to be on something. He told her the man she was looking for had moved years before and that he had bought the house off a Gareth Hanley. He also said he used the farm shop and it was owned by a Mr Hanley. He thought Mr Hanley may know of Gareth. He gave her basic walking directions and ushered her off his pathway.’

‘That all makes sense with the answerphone message that we heard, back at the farm shop. Mr Hanley’s son is coming home and expecting to see his daughter,’ Wyre said.

‘That would make Simone William Hanley’s granddaughter. She would have taken the walk.’ Gina looked at the map and followed the route with her finger. ‘We’re talking a good hour of walking from King Street to Clover Farm. It would have been dark, wet and cold and there is barely a footpath for most of the route, especially as she left the town. She must have been so desperate to find her family. What the hell did they do to her once she arrived?’ Gina felt her hands twitch as she balled her fists. Poor Simone had gone to them, searching for her father, finding her grandfather and possibly seeing her sick grandmother. ‘Right, let’s go and get this interview done.’ She beckoned Jacob to follow her.

---

The recorder had been rolling for several minutes. Their fake Mrs Hanley had now been identified as Vanessa Tranter. Gina glanced at the passport, which confirmed her identity. The woman looked paler than before. Gina suspected that the severe anxiety attack she’d been diagnosed with had left her exhausted. The photo of Simone sat on the table, neither her, the woman, or Jacob looking at it. ‘It’s over,’ Gina said.

The woman began running her thick fingers through her straggly hair, trying to comb it through. The ticking of the clock seemed louder than before. Seconds and minutes passed. Gina just hoped that hours weren’t going to pass without as much as a word.

‘Vanessa Tranter. Did you understand what I said? About the house and William Hanley.’

Vanessa nodded. Gina watched as a tear slipped down the woman’s cheek.

‘Elisa Stanford recognised you at the hospital. She thought you were Mrs Hanley. Funny that, we found Mrs Hanley at Clover Farm. Dirty, uncared for and covered in sores. You know what else we found out?’

The woman looked away and wiped her eyes.

‘You let your own sister live in that state. You and William Hanley lured those girls in with the promise of work, then you imprisoned them and pumped them full of drugs to trap them.’

Vanessa’s voice began to crack as she muttered through her tears. ‘I’ve always loved my sister.’

‘It looked like you did.’

‘I did!’ She slammed her hand onto the table. ‘We’d already lost her to this awful disease. He couldn’t cope.’

‘So you came along to help?’

Vanessa’s breathing became erratic as she let her tears flow. ‘You just think you know it all. You don’t know anything about me.’

‘So tell me, because from where I’m sitting, you have nothing to lose. We have two dead girls and you are implicated in both deaths. We have a girl in hospital fighting for her life and I must say, it’s not looking good. You best tell me everything, Vanessa.’ Gina’s mind flashed back to the room in which Christina was found, being pulled out of the window by William Hanley.

‘Tell us, Vanessa.’ Jacob shuffled on the plastic chair.

The smell of body odour filled the room. Stale and ripe. All three of them were suffering because of the intense heat and it wasn’t set to get any better. The small fan in the corner of the room was barely making a difference. The woman shook her head and began to sniffle. Gina pushed a box of tissues in her direction.

‘I came to help him care for Jackie. My sister had been getting worse for years and, you know something, William had devoted everything to caring for her. Money had been an issue. The shop hadn’t been doing well. He couldn’t afford to place her in a home or employ carers. He tried to get help but as long as he coped, no one helped. Eventually no one even cared or contacted him. When he called me he’d been desperate, on the verge of a breakdown so I moved in with him, to help.’

‘So you moved in to help care for your sister, Mrs Hanley. Why were you pretending to be Mrs Hanley then?’

Vanessa cleared her throat and blew her nose. ‘It wasn’t intentional. Elisa started working for us and she just called me Mrs Hanley after William told her he was Mr Hanley. I liked it, liked hearing it.’ The woman paused and pulled a piece of stray hair from her sodden cheek. ‘We’d had a relationship before he met my sister, when we were kids really. I never stopped thinking about him and when he needed me, I thought I had the chance to be happy. I would have become Mrs Hanley one day and I liked her calling me Mrs Hanley. I can’t believe he’s dead.’ The woman began to weep once again.

‘You took her place in her home, you took her home, you took her husband and her name. Tell us about Simone.’

‘I never had kids and I found out I had a great-niece. When she turned up I felt like all my Christmases had come at once. She came looking for Gareth, William’s son. She was so sickly looking when she arrived. It was then we discovered she had a drug problem, heroin. I think she was hoping that finding her father would turn her life around. She was introduced to her grandmother, Jaqueline, and she was so sad. She then asked if she could stay and William was delighted. She said she’d help to care for her grandmother in exchange for bed and board. She made us swear not to tell her biological mother or foster parents where she was. Said she needed time away from it all and that the streets had been hard on her. We were really worried about the drugs. She begged us to get her some, said she’d die without them. We found a local supplier, the man you caught me buying off, and we were giving her what she wanted. William would have done anything for her. We thought we were doing the right thing. One day, last winter, something went wrong. She’d just shot up and she began convulsing, foaming at the mouth, making choking noises. We tried to resuscitate her but it was no good.’

‘Is that when you buried her in the woods?’

Vanessa nodded. ‘William did. He gave her a good send-off. Even bought some flowers and chose a lovely spot in the woods. Then we cried for her. She was my sister’s granddaughter for God’s sake. Gareth, his son had been irresponsible as a young man and got her mother knocked up. He found out he was a father years later through a friend of a friend. The woman moved and he never knew where to. He hadn’t even known her full name so he couldn’t trace her. William and Gareth hoped that his daughter would find a way back to them one day. We didn’t plan what happened.’

‘What happened after that?’

The woman sighed. Jacob grabbed a tissue from the box and wiped his head. ‘Without Simone, we couldn’t cope. Every minute of the day was consumed with Jaqueline’s care. You wouldn’t understand how hard it was. She’d be sitting on the floor. Between us, we’d struggle to get her up. She fell down the stairs a couple of times, needed constant supervision. She was totally incontinent and always needed toileting and hand feeding. We looked to each other for support through this and became even closer. He couldn’t afford round the clock nursing care. She really needed to be in a home, but he couldn’t afford that either. It would have meant losing the house and the shop. We had no choice! That was when William had the idea of taking a street kid in, giving them work – to help a kid like Simone. He became obsessive though, looking for red-haired girls. I realised then he wanted to replace his granddaughter. They never lived up to his expectations though, never quite the same, never good enough.’

Gina slid the photo of Erin Holden across the table. ‘Tell me about Erin.’

‘Her and Miley,’ Gina noted down that Miley’s real name was Christina, ‘he found them together in Birmingham. They were so keen to get off the streets, Erin had dyed red hair and I could see William’s eyes light up when he brought them home. Our intentions were good, you have to believe me.’

Gina remembered when she saw Erin lying in the hospital bed, tubes coming from everywhere. She looked like the living dead. So thin, it was hard to imagine how she’d summoned up enough energy to escape. ‘Erin was in a bad state, Ms Tranter. She escaped from you and William and her last words were “help her”. We now know she was referring to Miley whose real name is Christina Dawson.’ Gina paused. ‘We saw the locks on the bedroom doors but that day, you’d both slipped up. Erin found a way out and she seized her opportunity. What did you and Mr Hanley put her through?’

‘We gave her everything she wanted. All she wanted was drugs and we gave them to her.’

There was a knock at the door. O’Connor beckoned her out. ‘Excuse me.’ She left the room and followed him down the corridor.

‘Do you want the good news, guv?’

‘Hit me with it.’

‘It’s Christina Dawson. She’s come round and is responding well to treatment. Her mother was called and the reunion brought Wyre to tears. That doesn’t happen often. She spoke to Wyre, told her exactly what she’d been through. Basically, the woman you have in there and Mr Hanley were locking her in her room, forcing her to work for them, to look after Jackie Hanley. At first things were good, she and Erin arrived together, were treated well and given a room. Erin was an addict already and Vanessa Tranter was bringing drugs back for her. Then, one night while Erin was out of it and Christina was sleeping, Christina was woken by a sharp pain. She remembers seeing the other boss, who she describes as Vanessa, holding her down before the effects of the heroin kicked in. Since then, she’s been begging them for her fixes and working hard to pay her debts for the drugs back to them.’

‘The sick bastards,’ Gina said as she massaged her aching temples.

‘Christina keeps asking to see Jackie, says they were friends even though they couldn’t communicate. I think Jackie was all she had. She felt they were prisoners together.’

‘Thanks, Harry,’ she said as she walked back to the interview room.

‘Miss Tranter. We’ve received a full statement from Christina Dawson. You know her as Miley. We know everything. The way you and William told her that she’d have to pay her drug debts by working. There was no way she’d ever be able to repay you both. You planned it that way, didn’t you?’

She shook her head and began to sob. ‘No—’

‘She told us of the night you first injected her, against her will. You turned her into an addict, didn’t you?’

The woman shook her head and screamed. ‘No!’

‘You and William Hanley used her as a slave, imprisoned her and pumped her with drugs. We know all about it, Vanessa.’

‘I didn’t want to do it. It was William.’

Gina wasn’t having any of it. Vanessa Tranter was fully complicit in everything. She believed Christina. The girl had no reason to lie. ‘You injected her.’

‘I didn’t mean it. I didn’t want to.’

‘But you did—’

‘Yes,’ the woman cried between sobs. ‘I just wanted to have some time with William. Jackie had everything. Back then, William dumped me as soon as he saw her, all sweet and innocent. She made me like this—’ The woman gasped for air as she broke down.

‘Did you always want everything your sister had?’

‘She took William from me, he should have been mine. He liked me first. Even Daddy loved her more but she was his. Jackie’s poorly, Jackie needs help, how dare you hurt Jackie, our poor little premature baby,’ she mimicked in her father’s voice. ‘Me, I just got punished all the time, like now, just because my mother had a fling soon after Jackie was born. I got punished because my mother was a slut!’ she spat. ‘He locked me in a cupboard with spiders and insects – you wouldn’t have guessed. Daddy hated me and I couldn’t wait to leave home. When I met William, he promised to take me away from it all until she came along and ruined things. She took everything of mine—’ Vanessa could no longer speak as violent sobs consumed her. ‘She had it all.’

‘Vanessa Tranter, I’m arresting you on charges of Manslaughter and Keeping Someone in Servitude…’ She continued reeling off the charges whilst looking the woman in the eye. ‘You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention something now which you may later rely on in court. Interview terminated at nineteen ten.’

‘She took everything—’ the woman yelled.

As Gina left the interview room, she heard Vanessa’s sobs echoing throughout the building. The thought of what those poor girls had been through made her skin crawl. As her heartbeat raced, she ducked into the toilets and ran the cold tap, splashing her sticky face with water, taking a few deep breaths. They’d finally caught the people who had caused so much misery to those girls. Some people would never be brought to justice. Mr Hanley had died, never to be punished for what he did to Simone. Had he supported his granddaughter properly, taken her to the doctor and enrolled her on a drug rehabilitation programme, things could have been different. He’d never be punished for the way he’d treated Erin or Christina.

She slammed her open hand onto the mirror several times, full of hatred at what she was seeing. She was like them and it sickened her. She’d never been punished for the death of another. She retched and ran to the toilet, dry heaving. This case was almost over but the case of her stuffed-up life would never be over. One minute she’d forgiven herself and tried to forget, the next Terry was in her dreams, in her thoughts, guilt gnawing away at every fibre in her body.

Wyre entered as Gina was swilling her mouth out. ‘Good job today, guv. Are you okay?’

Gina caught her reflection. Pale, sickly-looking. Her sweat-drenched knotted hair, half tied back in an elastic band. ‘No. I’m hot, bothered and tired, plus I have the headache from hell.’

‘Is there anything I can get you? Water?’

She forced a smile and shook her head. ‘Honest, I’m feeling better now. It’s just this headache. I’m going to head over to the hospital before it gets too late, then I’ll be back for a catch up.’ Gina dabbed her face and threw the paper towel in the wastebasket.

‘Are you sure you’re up to it?’

‘It’s something I need to do. I’ll call the Crown Prosecution Service to go over the charges first, then I’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘Why don’t you go home and get better, then go to the hospital tomorrow? Christina will still be there. You look like you need to rest. I think we’re all feeling it.’

Gina stared at her reflection, trying to figure out the wreck of a woman who stared back at her. ‘You might just be right. I’ll go tomorrow.’

Wyre placed a friendly hand on her shoulder then nodded as she left the toilets. Gina tidied her hair with her fingers and blew her nose. You can do it, Harte. She wasn’t going to let her anxiety win.