Unforgotten by A P Bateman

Author:A P Bateman [Bateman, A P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rockhopper Publishing
Published: 2020-02-23T22:00:00+00:00

27

Jackson studied the report for a second time. He shook his head. It simply didn’t make sense. But it did. DCI Ellery had read it out to the watch last night, or the salient facts. He’d wanted a nice tidy wrap up, but Jackson knew that seldom, if ever happened. Every investigation took some collateral on the way. After a while, it tended to be the officers that had gotten too close, who hadn’t deflected all they should have. Their emotion, sobriety and conscience were the true collateral damage to the most taxing investigations.

There had been no further news on the gunman, either. No sign of the vehicle – and with the shot-out rear window it would be highly likely he would have dumped it – and as Jackson had not had the chance to make a note of the number plate, there was only a make, model and colour to go on. Not even a sub model to narrow the gap. The man had not appeared on any CCTV footage, either. The man was a ghost, and that was what worried Jackson the most.

“What’s wrong, boss?” asked Young. “We’ll get the gunman,” she said, as if reading his mind. “And Olivia is safe, this could have been another Madeleine McCann situation after all is said and done.”

Jackson shook his head. “I never thought it would be. You asked yesterday if I thought it reminded me of that case and I said it reminded me of another case. I was thinking that the distinct demographic and the lack of answers reminded me of the Shannon Matthews case.”

“The girl who was kidnapped by her own family members up north?”

“Yes. Following the high-profile press coverage and campaigns to find Madeleine McCann, and the publicity the case had, Shannon Matthews was kidnapped from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. She was just nine years old. Shannon’s mother, Karen Matthews and her partner’s uncle, Michael Donovan hatched a plan that would see them raise money through the publicity surrounding the case. Shannon was going to be found by Donovan at a later date and they would cream money off the top of any fund people donated to.”

“Wasn’t the mother’s partner involved as well?”

“No, Craig Meehan wasn’t involved in the plan. He wasn’t even considered clever enough by the other two to be part of it. But during the investigation he was found to have a huge amount of child pornography on his computer and was arrested, charged and went to prison as a result.” Jackson paused. “The thing is these half-wits didn’t have the sense to see that the deception would be uncovered as soon as they released Shannon. And these jokers out at Gulvaddon are the same.”

“Well, that’s the truth.”

“But whereas Shannon Matthews was taken to generate money, Olivia Barnett was taken to highlight Thomas Jago as a sex offender. So, if he hadn’t done anything to Olivia, because we know that she was taken by Natasha Bright and her partner Andy Russell, then these women must be pretty bloody adamant that Jago did what he did all those years ago.

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