Cole asked if she was all right and Jessica said she was, even though she didn’t really feel it. It didn’t take long for the lab team to leave with the package. The fact it had been sent while January was in custody didn’t entirely show she had nothing to do with it as she could have an accomplice but, given everything else they knew, it seemed they could let her go and pretty much rule her out of their immediate investigation.
As January was being re-bailed, Jessica gave the woman her card and asked her to get in contact if she could think of any new information.
After the morning’s events, Cole said Jessica didn’t have to work with Reynolds if she didn’t feel like it but, seeing as they would have to wait for results on the package from the laboratories in any case, Jessica figured not much else had changed.
First she went to talk to Cornish who was sitting in their office for the first time in what seemed like a long while. She still seemed a little frosty but they were at least cordial to each other. Jessica handed over the hard-copy files and showed her colleague where things were on the computer system. The sergeant thanked her, then Jessica went to Reynolds’s office. Somehow he had managed to get himself a large fan that was propped up against a filing cabinet. Jessica thought the room must have been the coolest in the building.
‘How’d you get your hands on that?’ she asked, nodding towards the fan.
The inspector laughed. ‘Pure and simple theft.’
Jessica reacted with mock horror. ‘In a police station?’
‘If anyone else asks, I’ll deny it to my grave. Either that or pin it on someone else.’
‘What’s the plan for today then?’
Jessica noticed how tired her former office mate was looking. He pointed towards a couple of files on his desk but there were visible bags around his eyes. ‘I thought maybe read through these and then we’ll go see George Johnson this afternoon. I’ll show you what’s on the computer system too. A lot of it is just cuttings though. There’s not much in our files that hasn’t been in the papers – he tends to do most of his talking through the media.’
‘I’ve not really had time to see what’s been on the news. I only know what’s been said in our morning briefings.’
‘Fair enough, maybe you’ll see something we haven’t?’
Jessica wasn’t convinced. ‘Does he know we’re going to see him later?’
‘I cleared it with his PA. I think he likes us visiting his house because a photo ends up in the paper. He asked us around last week even though he had nothing to say.’
Jessica had rarely heard of something so formal. ‘You’ve got to go through a secretary to book time with him?’
‘We could just barge in but we’re never sure where he is. He’s been in London a couple of times this week.’ Jessica was grateful she didn’t have to deal with him as barging into places was very much her style.
She sat in a spare chair and began to read but found it hard to concentrate. As much as she thought it a good idea to look at each other’s cases for a day, she couldn’t get her mind away from her own. Her eyes skimmed the words but she found herself drawn to the pictures, almost like a child pretending to read. As the inspector had said, a lot of the items in their dossier were simply cuttings from various newspapers. There were plenty of photos of the MP and his wife together grinning in a posed fashion for the camera. Jessica couldn’t see a single picture that didn’t look staged.
If she hadn’t known who he was but had just been shown a photo of George Johnson and asked to guess what his profession was, Jessica’s first response would always have been ‘politician’. He looked exactly like she expected an MP to look. The man was somewhere in his late fifties or early sixties. He had silver hair that was constantly swept away from his face. Most of the images had him in a full suit but the odd one showed him in an open-necked shirt, presumably showing people he knew how to relax. None of it looked particularly real to Jessica, as if the man’s life was lived through fake smiles and expensive clothing. She hated having her own picture taken but, even given that, there were plenty around of her with food dropped down her clothing and silly faces being pulled as someone took her off-guard.
Some people hated politicians just because of what they were but Jessica had never really shared that disdain for anyone because of their job. She judged people on the way they acted, not on what they did but, even without meeting him, there was something about George Johnson that didn’t sit quite right with her. Jessica tried to put those feelings to the back of her mind as she didn’t want to prejudice her opinion before meeting him but, having skimmed through the newspaper reports, it seemed clear the focus of a lot of what he had been saying was about himself, not his missing wife.
After lunch, Reynolds drove them to the politician’s house. The area wasn’t affluent as such, but the road George Johnson lived on ran between Platt Fields Park and Birchfields Park in the Rusholme area of the city. It was covered by the Gorton constituency he represented and provided an odd mix of large properties set back from the road that were within walking distance of a notorious area where plenty of trouble originated from. As they pulled onto the street, a few teenage girls in school uniform walked past, sharing a cigarette between them. A private girls’ school was on the edge of the park and Jessica figured their lunch break must be coming to a close. They were in a marked car and, as Reynolds drove past, Jessica saw one of the girls trying to hide the cigarette behind her back.
Although Jessica knew roughly where the MP lived, she didn’t know exactly which house belonged to him. Reynolds parked just past where the girls had been walking and the two detectives got out of the vehicle. Jessica followed her boss further down the street but soon saw a familiar face sitting in a nearby car.
‘Just give me a minute,’ she said to the inspector, who carried on walking. Jessica knocked on the car’s window, crouching to grin at Garry Ashford through the passenger window. The journalist opened his door and got out before coming around to where Jessica was now sitting on his bonnet.
‘What are you doing here?’ Garry asked.
‘I couldn’t let this new girlfriend of yours have you to herself. I’m here to declare my undying love for you. Let’s go to Vegas and make it official.’
The journalist laughed. ‘I’d rather pay for it.’
Jessica could tell from the look on his face he was joking. ‘Oi, I seem to remember you asking me out once upon a time. At a funeral, no less.’
‘You must have misheard me.’
Jessica smiled. ‘All right, get yourself a girlfriend and suddenly you’re all confident. What’s going on anyway?’
‘Not much, still sat here waiting for something to happen. Even the editor is getting bored now though. Unless something comes out today, I’m back in the office from Monday. The TV cameras went home a couple of days ago and it’s all winding down. Why are you here?’
‘Job swap for a day seeing as none of our major cases are going anywhere.’
‘Can I quote you on that?’
Jessica snorted. ‘Piss off but thanks for that piece the other day anyway.’
Garry smiled. ‘No worries. I’m just hedging my bets you pull your finger out and do your jobs properly so I can get my exclusive at the end of it all.’
‘All right, don’t worry about me. I’ll see you soon – and say “hello” to Mrs Ashford for me. Hopefully she’ll be released from that mental hospital sometime soon.’
Jessica stood up from the journalist’s bonnet and followed the direction Reynolds had gone in. He was waiting for her around fifty yards down the road next to some huge metal gates at the bottom of a driveway. She saw a nearby photographer taking their picture as the inspector spoke into an intercom box and a side gate buzzed open. The drive arched upwards, looping around a perfectly manicured piece of garden. Parked in front of the property was a sparklingly clean black vehicle that Jessica would have guessed cost more than she earned in a year. The house itself wasn’t as big as the one Charlie Marks was living in but still looked impressive. There was a wide mock-Tudor front door and the window frames were in the same style. Jessica noticed a man on a ladder trimming a hedge on the far side of the grass.