Little Boy Lost Page 8

  She put thoughts of Tom and her mum on hold and stepped out from behind the bush. She felt physically weak and drained of energy, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her moving as quickly as she could, and she broke into a sprint across the car park.

  But just as she was approaching the road, the two men appeared again. They burst out from behind trees on either side of the exit and came running towards her.

  Chloe stopped dead and screamed, her body going stiff with shock.

  The pair were on her before she could get away. The tall one caught her left wrist and pulled her roughly towards him, then wrapped an arm around her chest. She tried to scream but he pressed a hand over her mouth.

  ‘Don’t bother to struggle you stupid little bitch,’ he snarled. ‘You’re going nowhere.’

  The other man, the shorter one, stood in front of her and shook his head.

  ‘I’m surprised you fell for our little ruse,’ he said. ‘Did you actually believe we were going to pass up the chance to have some fun with a horny little mite like you?’

  His lips curled into a thin smile, and Chloe saw that one of his front teeth was missing.

  ‘How fucking old are you, anyway?’ he said.

  The other man removed his hand from her mouth and she told them that she was twelve in the hope that they would think she was too young to harm. But the man in front of her licked his lips and his grin widened.

  ‘It’s our lucky night then,’ he said. ‘You must be a virgin so it’ll be a first for both of us. And a first for you too when we take you back into the bushes and you get to feel our cocks inside you.’

  Chloe tried to break free but the man holding her tightened his grip and she found she couldn’t move. Her heart drummed frantically and her knees started to shake.

  As they began to drag her over towards the trees, she carried on screaming. And they didn’t bother to stop her because they knew that no one could hear.

  But Chloe was determined to put up a fight as long as she was able to and managed to yank her arm free of the shorter man’s grip. Then she threw herself onto the ground, causing the taller man to stumble and almost fall on top of her. She rolled onto her side, expecting to be wrenched back onto her feet.

  But instead something extraordinary happened. The sky appeared to open up and a bright shaft of light poured down on her.

  ‘It’s a copper chopper,’ the bearded man yelled. ‘I don’t fucking believe it.’

  Chloe did not need his words to be translated. It was a police helicopter directly above them, probably the same one she’d heard hovering nearby. And all three of them were caught in the beam of its powerful searchlight.

  It was so bright that Chloe had to cover her eyes as she heard someone say something through a loudspeaker. She couldn’t make out the words, but they prompted her two attackers to lose interest in her immediately and run away as though their lives depended on it.

  Chloe thought the helicopter would follow them, but instead it moved away from her and started to descend towards the ground on the far side of the car park.

  Her heart leapt into her mouth because she knew that it meant she was about to be rescued. God hadn’t abandoned her, after all. She didn’t believe for one second that it was through sheer luck that the helicopter crew had spotted her being attacked. God must have made sure they would fly over the car park so the wicked men would be scared off.

  She started to walk towards it while waving her arms so the crew would see her. But she stopped after taking only a few steps when she saw that the helicopter had started going back up again.

  The reason became clear when Chloe heard voices behind her. She spun round to see a large mob of rioters pouring onto the car park. Some were already throwing objects at the helicopter even though they were too far away to reach it. The closer they got the further the helicopter rose into the sky, and as it did Chloe’s hopes of being rescued faded.

  Soon the car park was filled with a crowd of people jostling and jeering and sounding really pleased with themselves.

  Once again Chloe found herself in the middle of the madness. And despite the fact she was obviously the only child there, nobody seemed to notice her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Clare Rossi had been unconscious for barely thirty seconds. She was now back on the sofa, sobbing into a handkerchief as she struggled to control her anguish.

  Her husband wanted to call a doctor, but she was adamant that she didn’t need one.

  ‘I fainted, Mark,’ she said. ‘I don’t need a doctor to tell me why. It was because I’d just learned that my darling little boy is lost to me forever. He died while chained to a wall underneath a fucking derelict pub.’

  Anna gave an involuntary shudder and fought to keep her own emotions in check. The couple’s suffering must have been off the scale since Monday when Jacob went missing, but at least they’d had a smidgen of hope to cling to. It was hope that had kept Anna going during her ten-year search for Chloe. Without it she would not have wanted to go on living.

  So she could appreciate the sheer intensity of the pain they were now feeling. And how the news she had just delivered was going to tear into shreds any plans they might have made for the future.

  ‘I want to see our boy,’ Rossi said, with tears gleaming in his eyes.

  Anna took a breath and held it for a couple of seconds before speaking. ‘I completely understand,’ she said. ‘I’ll make arrangements for that to happen before the post-mortem takes place, which I’m hoping will be tomorrow.’

  Anna felt a dull beat thudding in her chest. She invariably found it difficult to ask and answer questions at times like this. There was always the risk of coming across as detached or insensitive, which was a sure way to alienate the victim’s next of kin.

  At least in this case DI Benning’s team would already have obtained much of the information she needed. Information such as the names of Jacob’s closest friends, whether or not he’d had a presence on social media, and other details about his life up to this point. But there were a number of specific questions that now arose in the wake of the strange circumstances surrounding his death.

  ‘You need to know that whoever abducted Jacob went to some effort to make him comfortable in the cellar,’ Anna said. ‘An inflatable mattress and blanket were provided for him, and he was given food and drink. He even had access to a portable loo. It raises the question as to why he was kept alive in that cellar for so long.’

  Rossi’s eyes narrowed. ‘There’s been a lot of speculation that he might have been taken by child sex traffickers, or by a paedophile who was going to …’

  Instead of completing the sentence, he pressed his lips tightly together and shook his head. He simply couldn’t go there.

  ‘I can tell you that it doesn’t appear as though Jacob suffered any physical harm before the fire,’ Anna said. ‘He was fully clothed when he was found and no cuts or bruises were visible on his body.’

  ‘So can you say for certain that he wasn’t abused while he was in the cellar?’ Rossi asked, his voice high and trembling.

  Anna chose not to respond directly to the question for obvious reasons, and instead said, ‘I know that DI Benning will have discussed with you the possible motives behind your son’s abduction. But in view of this tragic development we’ll have to give it more consideration. One of the most challenging aspects of this case is going to be determining whether the person responsible is known to you, assuming for now that there’s just one perpetrator.

  ‘You see, one of the lines of inquiry we’re considering is that Jacob was taken in order to punish you for a perceived wrongdoing, in which case it could be that he would have been released at some point. So I need to ask you a question that I know you’ve already been asked. Can either of you think of anyone who might have done this? Someone you’ve upset, or even someone who’s made threats against you for whatever reason? And not just in the recent past. People can hold grudges for years before something provoke
s them into committing an act of revenge.’

  Rossi said that he had been threatened and abused online by anonymous trolls and Benning confirmed that his team were still going through his social media history, including his Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.

  ‘The only person to have threatened me to my face is a former colleague named Gavin Pope,’ he said. ‘I’ve given the detective here his details. It happened about eight weeks ago when he approached me at a television awards dinner. He was drunk and he called me a bastard in front of my wife and our table guests. Then he told me that he and others who felt like he did would one day get their own back.’

  ‘What was your reaction?’

  ‘I just told him to leave me alone and eventually the security guards ushered him out of the venue. But, look, I can’t in all honesty believe he would go so far as to kidnap our son to get his own back. He never struck me as a psycho … just someone who is angry, jealous and mixed up.’

  ‘And I gather this relates to your stepfather’s TV production business that folded several years ago.’

  ‘That’s correct. It went under just before my stepfather died and there was no money in the pot to meet redundancy payments and pensions so the staff were not happy. Several of them, including Pope, resented the fact that my career went from strength to strength afterwards while they struggled to find work in the industry. And Pope claimed I should have done more to help them. I know for a fact that he wound the others up. Two years ago they demanded that I take responsibility for my stepfather’s debts and when I refused they threatened legal action. Nothing came of it, though, and since then Pope is the only one who hasn’t let it drop. I’ve had nasty calls and emails from him, and on one occasion he turned up here to accuse me of blackening his name in the TV industry, which wasn’t true.’

  ‘And is there anyone else you believe we should talk to?’ Anna said.

  It was his wife who answered, directing her words at Benning.

  ‘We asked you two days ago about the man who was seen outside Jacob’s school,’ she said. ‘It’s rumoured that he’s a convicted sex offender. You assured us he would be spoken to.’

  ‘And he was, Mrs Rossi,’ Benning said. ‘He told us he was nowhere near the school on Monday.’

  ‘And you believe him?’

  ‘At this stage there’s no evidence to suggest he’s lying to us.’

  From then on the couple struggled to respond to questions as their shock gave way to the first wave of grief. Clare insisted on going upstairs to lie on Jacob’s bed. The FLO took her while Rossi tried his best to concentrate on what Anna was saying.

  He told her that he was sure his son had not befriended any strangers or been lured into a trap by someone online.

  ‘He had a phone and a tablet,’ Rossi said. ‘But because he was only ten we were strict about how he used them. We monitored his calls and installed parental control apps on the devices. And we didn’t allow him to have Facebook and Twitter accounts. We also made sure …’

  Rossi suddenly choked up mid-sentence as the emotions surged through him. He lost his train of thought and started shaking his head.

  ‘I’m sorry but this is too difficult,’ he said. ‘I need to go and be with my wife.’

  ‘That’s not a problem, Mr Rossi,’ Anna said.

  He stared at her, tears fringing his eyelashes. ‘I also intend to phone my mother and get her to come back over. She went home this afternoon, but I want to be the one to tell her what’s happened to her only grandson.’

  ‘Does she live far?’

  He shook his head again. ‘Two streets away. She can be here in minutes.’

  Benning’s team had already checked out Jacob’s bedroom and belongings, so there was no need to repeat the exercise now.

  Anna got to her feet and offered her condolences. She then dropped one of her cards on the coffee table and told him to call her at any time, day or night.

  Before leaving the room, she said, ‘I want to assure you, Mr Rossi, that we will work around the clock to find the creature who abducted your son, along with whoever set fire to the building while he was inside it.’

  *

  Officer Moore, the FLO, joined Anna and Benning outside on the driveway. Her expression was strained, her eyes mournful.

  ‘I’m struggling to get my head around this myself,’ she said. ‘It’s such a terrible shock.’

  ‘Are you OK to stay here?’ Benning asked her.

  ‘Of course, sir. I wouldn’t have it any other way. They’ve got to know me, and I’ll do whatever I can to help them through this.’

  ‘Once news of this gets out the press and TV outfits will turn up here in droves,’ Anna said. ‘You need to be prepared for that.’

  ‘I will be. A bunch of reporters and photographers were here all day on Tuesday, but they disappeared after the riots started.’

  Anna turned to Benning. ‘Is there any chance you can station a patrol car outside?’

  He shrugged. ‘I can ask, but I very much doubt it. Last I heard almost every available officer had been drafted into areas hit by the riots. Those still here are on standby.’

  ‘I feared as much,’ Anna said. ‘Stretched resources are going to be a problem throughout this investigation.’

  It was something they would all have to bear in mind. At any other time the Jacob Rossi case would have been a priority. But the Met was under pressure like never before. In addition to the widespread looting and vandalism, a police officer had been stabbed and three small children had fallen victim to arsonists. Anna didn’t want to speculate on how many more atrocities would be committed during the hours ahead.

  ‘So what’s the next step?’ Benning asked her.

  ‘We need to get the team together for a briefing,’ she said. ‘It means going to Wandsworth. I’ll call first to check on the situation there. On the way I’ll drop you off at Bromley nick. I’d like you to gather together everything you’ve got so far and bring it with you to HQ – that includes all statements, interview notes and CCTV images, if any. And tell your boss that you’ve been seconded to MIT. If he has a problem with that refer him to DCS Nash.’

  Anna asked Officer Moore to obtain DNA swabs from Mr and Mrs Rossi so they could be separated out from any traces found on the boy’s clothes.

  ‘Have them sent to the lab as soon as possible,’ she added.

  Moore then went back into the house and Anna and Benning climbed into the car. Before switching on the ignition, Anna phoned DI Walker to check on how he was doing with the task she’d left him with of taking photos of the properties surrounding The Falconer’s Arms pub.

  He was now on his way back to Wandsworth from Camberwell, having left DC Sweeny at the crime scene to coordinate the door-to-door inquiries.

  ‘I’ve been told that things have quietened down outside headquarters,’ he said. ‘Most of the mob who’d gathered there have moved on to other areas, including Balham and Clapham.’

  ‘Do you know if things are still bad in Vauxhall?’

  ‘Apparently so, and not just on and around the Marwell Estate. A two-storey restaurant close to Cobalt Square is on fire and a police chopper came under attack from rioters who stopped it landing in a car park. It was going to the aid of a young girl who was being attacked by two men.’

  ‘So what happened to her?’

  ‘They don’t know. She got lost in the crowd.’

  ‘Bloody hell. Well at least Tom got Chloe away from there. I can imagine how scary it must be even for all the people who are safely inside their homes.’

  Anna quickly filled Walker in on the conversation with Jacob’s parents and said she would now be making her way to Wandsworth too.

  ‘Find out what the state of play is with the number of officers we can have,’ she said. ‘And make sure everyone knows they’ll be working through the night. It’s eight o’clock now so we should try to get everyone together for a briefing about nine.’

  Anna hung up and turned
on the engine. But before pulling off the driveway, she said, ‘I’ve just had an idea. Now might be a good time to drop in on Neville Quinlan, the nonce who was spotted outside Jacob’s school last week. I assume he lives fairly close to here since he was hanging around outside Jacob’s school.’

  ‘He does,’ Benning said. ‘His flat is about a mile away.’

  ‘Well if he was involved in the boy’s abduction then it’s possible he doesn’t yet know that Jacob is dead. But if he does know then I expect he’ll be in a bit of a state.’

  ‘Good thinking.’

  Anna shoved the gearstick into first. ‘Then point me in the right direction and on the way you can tell me what you know about him.’

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  It had got to the point where all Chloe could do was put one foot in front of the other. It felt like she had no control over anything else. The fear had numbed her senses and her throat was raw from crying.

  She walked as fast as she could, hands in the pockets of her puffer jacket. She focused on avoiding bumping into people and tripping over the debris that was scattered all over the place.

  Her lungs were aching and her eyes were stinging because of all the smoke in the air. The pain in her head was still there and had spread to her neck and shoulders.

  Around her the orgy of violence and destruction continued, yet there was no sign of any police. She could still see and hear the helicopter that had tried to rescue her, though. It was circling above the buildings ahead of her, well out of reach of the rioters and any objects they might throw at it.

  The city was even more frightening now because it was dark. The fires were brighter and more dramatic. Shops, cars and piles of rubbish were ablaze. Those people who weren’t causing damage were marching along with banners and chanting slogans that Chloe didn’t really understand.