Jack in the Box by Hania Allen Read Free Book Online Page A

the others up to speed. It would be a wasted opportunity not to press on.
    She walked briskly into the incident room, ignoring the looks of sympathy. She handed Steve her notebook. ‘My interview with the victim’s brother. The main thing I’ve learnt is that Max Quincey developed a taste for boys.’
    ‘We’ve just found that in the file, boss. Several of those interviewed referred to him as “a queer who liked young boys”. Max admitted he frequently had sex with boys, although he claimed he’d never met any of the victims.’
    Then what the hell was the Chief Super playing at? He’d have read the file. How could he doubt his brother’s homosexuality if Max admitted to sex with boys? The man was in denial…‘So what else have we got?’ she said wearily.
    Steve jerked his head at the wall. ‘We’ve written it up.’
    The wall looked like a plan for a military campaign. At the centre was a London street map. ‘Take me through it, Steve. I need cheering up.’
    He jiggled the coins in his pocket. ‘The first thing to note is the spread of dates. In 1985, Jack in the Box opened on October 2nd, and finished on October 27th. So, more or less the whole month of October.’
    ‘And the attacks?’
    ‘Gilly McIlvanny on October 5th, Charlo Heggarty on the 9th, and Liam Mahoney on the 11th. The final victim, MannyNewman, was attacked on October 25th. That’s two days before the play folded.’
    ‘So no murders before the play’s run started, and none after it ended,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Okay, how did Harrower proceed?’
    ‘He started at the Iron Duke, which is where the victims found their clients, but that led nowhere. The Jack in the Box dolls at the crime scenes made him think the murderer had seen the play, so he scoured the lists of credit card names. It was a dead end.’
    ‘It could have been someone who hadn’t gone to the play, ma’am,’ Larry said. ‘Half of London must have seen the dolls. There were posters everywhere. The plastic bags they were sold in carried their picture. There were even adverts in the newspapers.’
    ‘That’s a good point,’ she said, keen to encourage comments from the others. ‘And what conclusion did Harrower come to about the mutilations of both the boys and the dolls?’
    ‘There’s nothing in the report, boss. If the DCI came to a conclusion, he didn’t record it.’
    Von had met Tom Harrower only once, at a police awards ceremony. His vacant stare, sulky mouth, and nasal voice had reminded her of a schoolboy. When she’d steered the conversation to the latest developments in psychology, it was clear from the way he listened with a polite sneer on his face that he put little stock in behavioural science.
    ‘One of his team suggested the killer might have been a member of the play’s cast ,’ Steve was saying. ‘But the DCI rejected that hypothesis.’ He turned to the wall. ‘You need to look at the street map to see why.’
    The Garrimont, the theatre where the play was running, was at the Piccadilly Circus end of Shaftesbury Avenue, and was circled in red. Four green squares were marked on the map.
    ‘These squares show the locations of the bodies, boss. I’ve recorded the time of death underneath. Gilly McIlvanny’s is estimated as between 9.00pm and 10.00pm. His squat is just over half a mile from the Garrimont. Jimmy Porteous’s house is much further away, across the river in the Borough. His boy, Charlo, has a recorded TOD of between 10.00pm and 11.00pm. The gents’ lavatory where Liam was attacked is not far from Tottenham Court Road tube. His TOD is between 2.00am and 3.00am. The most accurate time, of course, is Manny’s. His warehouse is further up Tottenham Court Road behind the shops. He was attacked just before the security guard found him at 1.00am.’
    ‘What time did the play end?’
    ‘We don’t know for sure. All we could find is a reference in DCI Harrower’s report that the play was over by the time Manny and Liam