Pure Evil by Lynda La Plante

Author:Lynda La Plante
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Zaffre Publishing

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It was not yet 8 a.m. but the incident room was a hive of activity. Laura and Anik had taken over the boardroom to empty the large plastic container full of Rodney Middleton’s effects. When Jack joined them, the tables were lined with neat rows of receipts, outstanding bills, documents relating to benefits, and medical data. There was a stack of personal letters to him from his aunt and his father, as well as some worn letters from his biological mother, posted from Ghana.

There was also a photo album containing pictures of Rodney as a child and as a teenager, with numerous photographs of the two little girls who had died in the fire. Some loose photographs had also been piled up beside the plastic-covered photo album, including several of his stepmother, Karen, their wedding and a few of Rodney and his father fishing and roller skating.

‘You’ve been busy,’ Jack said, taking off his coat. Laura turned to him and smiled. She was wearing latex gloves and pointed to a box for him to put on a pair.

‘Yeah, we both came in at six to get cracking, but we’re still just sorting everything out to get it into some kind of order. The reports from Middleton’s probation officers and the various psychiatrists are in one pile, though I’m not sure how he came to be in possession of them as they were all internal reports. It might be due to him or his lawyers being given access to them the last time he went on trial, and there’s a couple of letters from the legal firm that represented him.’

Anik was emptying the last of the contents, including a few small, dirty boxes that contained bits of jewellery. He placed them in a row and then picked up a clipboard.

‘Right, I’ll have a look through these and take photographs, then they can be sent to the lab for DNA testing. I’ve made a list of everything as, you never know, they could be sick tokens that he’s kept from his victims. That’s often what happens, isn’t it?’

‘You talking about serial killers?’ Laura asked, reading the back of a photograph.

‘Yeah, that’s the thought process, isn’t it? I mean, we’re looking at the possibility of three missing girls, but there could be more.’

Jack made no comment and pulled up a hard-backed chair to begin sifting through the stack of letters.

‘Take a look at this, Jack; I think it’s a photograph of his mother, but read what’s written on the back of it,’ Laura said.

She passed him the black and white photograph. It showed a very young Ghanaian girl wearing a school uniform, dated 1981. Written on the back in a childish print were the words, Mama, I miss you. You should have taken me with you.

Jack turned it over in his mind, trying to think if she could have given birth to Rodney. He knew that Middleton was seventeen when the fire happened. He estimated from the photograph that the girl looked no more than about ten or eleven years old.

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