Chapter 44 Chapter Forty-Three

Another day is coming to an end, another day spent poring over all kinds of information and finding nothing.Becky became more and more frustrated. She felt that they had gone through all the materials and found no trace of Robert Brooks. Since he left the car in the driveway, he must have taken some other form of transportation.They should have guessed that he was too smart to use his home phone to hail a cab, but they found the taxi driver, who, as expected, said that Robert had booked a car and hadn't shown up. Becky pursed her lips and folded her arms.This man is giving them a taste of defeat.She paced back and forth in front of the evidence boards, trying to find some connection points, but found none.They knew Robert had withdrawn money from all his cards, but the ATMs he used were all in central Manchester, and if he was still there it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

She was also worried about Sophie Duncan.The young officer insisted on being left alone at home and said she was not at all afraid of Robert Brooks. "If that bastard dares to come to my mother's house again, I will kill him with my own hands", that's all she said about this matter.Becky loves her confident style, but with the way her legs have become, Becky just hopes she never sees Robert again.She arranged for a patrol car to drive past Sophie's house now and then, not at all sure it would help.The last time Robert went to Sophie's house to do evil, everything looked normal on the outside.

Just then, Ryan walked towards Becky.Becky hopes he can bring light to the day, but is extremely skeptical. "I looked at all the means of transport I could find to get to Alderney," he said, "but the list wasn't exhaustive because obviously there were boats coming from various places all the time. There was a harbor there and it was famous Fishing spots, so what to expect? If one chooses to charter a boat…” Ryan shrugged, pursing his upper lip. "What about when people arrive on the island, no one checks their passports?" "You don't need a passport from the UK, sir. I checked the regulations." Ryan paused, as if waiting for Becky to praise him for taking the initiative to check.

Becky saw the disappointment in Ryan's eyes when he wasn't praised, and she had to be tougher on this man. "What did you find?" "Anyone going from anywhere outside the jurisdiction of Guernsey has to go through customs, but I've also read that there are places to anchor ships outside the main harbour, and perhaps Robert will take advantage of that." Becky held her breath, this was all they needed!If Sophie was right and Robert really went to find Olivia, this might be a chance to catch him. "Okay, Ryan. Get in touch with everyone involved along the route from England to Alderney and tell them who we're looking for. It's not sure if Robert knows where his wife is, but we can't just because of Sue Faye Duncan didn't reveal anything and speculated that he couldn't be found any other way. Please cast your net as wide as possible." She thought for a moment, then added, "You've done a good job, Ryan. There's some The information is very useful." Ryan raised one corner of his mouth, and Becky didn't know if he was happy, or if he saw through her trying to comfort him.Forget it, never mind.

She had a flash of Peter Hunter, the day she had fallen in love with him.They were investigating a very difficult murder case at the time, and by going through the evidence and combing through the clues one by one, she found a key piece of information that might have been overlooked by them.Peter walked over to where she was sitting and said exactly what she had said to Ryan just now: "Well done, Becky. There's some useful information in there." He patted her on the shoulder and walked away, but thumbed Pausing for a moment on the bare skin of the nape of her neck, she was sure it was a gentle stroke.She'd been waiting for more little hints since then, blushing slightly every time he walked into the room, wondering anxiously if he'd stop by her table and give her another hint.

Oh, he is very clever.She sees it now.Of course, he couldn't act rashly before he was 100% sure, so he teased her by touching her here and smiling at her there.He once even rubbed the back of his hand against her breasts when he passed her a stack of folders. rat. Becky shuddered slightly, unable to believe that she had been in love one minute and only disgusted in just a few months, and she returned her thoughts to the case. She waited anxiously for a call back from the police in Alderney, hoping they could provide some useful information.She understood the reason for the lack of local police force. It was an island where almost no crime occurred.Like Tom, she was relieved to learn that the bloodstains on the walls of the room were not Olivia's, even though it looked like another poor soul had died there.Becky wouldn't feel at ease until she was sure the children were safe. Her mind kept thinking of Jasmine's picture of the small windowless room with the three children huddled in a corner.Every time she thought of this, she would shudder.But they found nothing, Robert had no other properties, and there were no other suspects in the case.

Becky looked at all the evidence again, and a lot of it seemed to be about Danash Jahand - starting with his disappearance when he asked to meet Robert.They checked with the hotel in Newcastle, and the hotel manager said that a call from Sophie's cell phone had been connected to Robert's room, and the call lasted about two minutes.Does that explain why Robert drove home from Newcastle, to meet Dan? The phone on the desk rang, and Becky turned away in a low mood, and walked over to sit down.She forced herself to sit up straight, set about doing what she needed to do, and answered the phone. "I'm Inspector Robinson."

"Good afternoon, Detective Inspector Robinson. I just got a message saying you'd like to speak to me. Sorry, I was in Iran and just got back. How can I help?" "Are you..." She asked, a flash of excitement flashed in her heart, she already knew how the other party would answer. "Samir Jahande. How can I help?" he asked, his voice very polite, with little accent. "Dr. Jahand, thank you for calling. We have a few questions about your brother, do you have time?" "Which brother? I have four brothers and two sisters." Samir replied without changing his tone.

"About your brother Danash. Dr Jahand, we wonder if you have been in touch with him lately. According to your wife, you have not heard from him for several years, about a year since he left the UK start." Becky heard a gasp, like Samir was blowing through his teeth - a sign of emotional distress. "Danesh is no longer a member of our family, Inspector Robinson. I am afraid he has been disqualified from the moment he refused to fulfill his duties to our family." "But I know he left his British girlfriend and their children behind. Didn't he go back to Iran?"

"Their child." Samir exhaled again, "It's so easy. I believe Danash figured it out and left. He was very disappointed in life—he was tricked into becoming a father and couldn't continue to study for a Ph.D. , could not be forgiven by their parents—thus making a cowardly choice.” For a moment, Becky thought he meant that Danash had killed himself. "He went to Australia, Inspector Robinson. He was there for a few years and eventually came back to Iran, but not to the town where my parents were. He was trying to find his way." "When was the last time you saw him, Dr. Jahande?" asked Becky.

"I hadn't seen him for about nine years before the baby was born. His girlfriend was definitely not pregnant when I went to see him. I stayed with them for a month trying to persuade him to do the right thing .” "You haven't seen him since?" "No, Inspector. I said I 'didn't' see him for nine years, and I didn't want to see him again. But he borrowed a little money from me about a year ago, and I didn't tell my wife about it. , because I was angry and worried that she would bring it up to my parents. Denash has been ignoring his family all this time and asking me for money? But we have a sum of money that should belong to him, so I will give that money to killed him." "What do you mean?" asked Becky. "Part of Liv's proceeds from the sale of the apartment belongs to Danash legally. She sent the money to me and asked me to keep it for Danash. I never told him." The phone was quiet. For a while, Becky said nothing. "Maybe I was wrong to do it, but I didn't want him to think Liv was better than I thought, and telling him where the money came from might make him run back to her. But then it's been a long time since he left her. It's been a long time, so I think it's okay to tell him." There was a wry smile on the other end of the phone, "It shows how little I know my brother. He obviously never put her down, he wanted to get in touch with her, I also want her to come to Iran to meet my parents and show them Jasmine." "Did he get in touch with Olivia?" Becky didn't want to interrupt, but Samir's last words were so quiet that Becky could feel his anger building. "My parents are hurting enough, Inspector. Taking Jasmine to see them would only re-open old wounds that had begun to heal. I told him he could do whatever he wanted, if he had to go back to Ollie Via can go back, if he wants Jasmine to see our country, but he can't bring them both to my parents. I won't give him that money unless he says yes to me." "Was that the last time you saw him, Dr. Jahande?" "Yes, I still talked to him after that. When he found out that Liv was married, he was very painful and concluded that the marriage was fake. I told him that he had no right to destroy other people's relationships, but he didn't seem to listen. Go in. The last time he spoke to him, he told me that Liv was terrified of what Robert would do if he left him. She had obviously been terrified for a while, and he said she was ready to think calmly. " "What is your brother going to do, Dr. Jahande?" "He's going to show her husband that he and Liv are meant to be together and that it's time for her husband to step aside." "Did he make it?" Becky held her breath, sure she knew what he would reply. "I don't know, Inspector. I haven't heard from him since." Two hours with Philippa had done nothing to improve Tom's mood, and he felt as if he had returned to the beginning of the morning, cranky. Becky looked at him, and Tom guessed she was deciding whether to ask something, and he decided to save himself the trouble. "Jumbo wanted to use ground radar to check the terrace and the garden, which was one of the things we discussed, because Philippa agreed with him and I didn't, and I thought we should wait and see if we could find blood. matching people." "Why?" asked Becky. "Of course we want to know as soon as possible whether there are bodies buried there, especially as the neighbors say that Robert Brooks has been building that terrace all spring, just before he left for Newcastle. It's time to finish." Tom scratched his head. "Yeah, of course, I get that. But I always feel like that might be a waste of time and money." "What's your basis? Look, I'm sorry I disagree with you, Tom. We don't know who died there yet, whether Olivia and the children are all right, who the victim was No one knows the motive for committing the crime." No one seemed to agree with his idea.The arguments made by Philippa are very valid, they can't take it for granted that Robert killed someone in that room, Olivia could be the culprit, she could have killed someone and got away, but they're wrong, Tom know this.Since when did intuition become useless? Becky leaned forward, propped her forearms on the table, her cheeks began to look a little brighter, and her eyes began to sparkle.Her preoccupation with the case seemed to drive away the demons that had been with her. "All we know is that Robert was contacted last week from somewhere in Alderney using Olivia's email address," she said, speaking quickly and calmly, "but we only have Robert I don't think it's worth the fact that it was Olivia on the other end of the phone. What about you? It's also possible that Robert has a lover or accomplice and that person answered his call. We have no evidence at all Proof that Olivia was there. For that matter, there is no evidence that Olivia was anywhere else. He probably killed her two weeks ago, and the children. Just because of the blood that showed up in the study Not hers doesn't mean she's alive, does it?" Tom held up his hands, palms out toward Becky. "Oh, great! I believe you." Tom found himself laughing at her excitement, "and though the blood wasn't hers, her body might still be there somewhere—I know that—and, too, It could also be that another poor guy died there. Robert could have killed her, possibly the kids, and all these clips and FaceTime bullshit could have been part of an elaborate cover-up. But If she's dead and we don't have any clue as to where Robert is, I think we can wait and see what the police in Alderney come back with." "Ah——" Becky leaned back, twisting her face to show a pained expression on purpose, "I'm afraid there is something wrong with it, I can only say so regretfully." Tom closed his eyes and shook his head.Something was about to come to light in this case.He looked at Becky and raised his eyebrows.She was a little ashamed, but she had to tell him: "Ryan talked to a police officer on the island who was very helpful and asked him if he could recognize the newcomers to the island - people who had been there two or three weeks ago He forgot to mention that Olivia and the kids might have been there at Easter, maybe even last October, and I had to call and explain and tell him that given the time span, unfortunately, We're going to cast the net a bit wider, so they need to repeat the whole process. I must say, the officer who heard that didn't really care. They're going to check the schools, but the home schooling trick It might blow it all off, I'm afraid we'll just have to wait." Someone is playing tricks on us.Tom couldn't shake the thought, and realized that it was making him restless.It would totally make sense if Olivia wanted to play Missing and take the kids out of school.But if Robert decides to kidnap them all, imprison them or kill them, it's just as plausible. The double doors of the project room were flung open, the size of the door was just enough to squeeze Jumbo's huge body.Tom was a little surprised to see him, since they usually had business conversations by e-mail or phone.He searched for Jumbo's contagious grin - he needed it now for a morale boost - but couldn't find it. Tom stood up and shook Jumbo's big hand. "What brings you here, Jumbo?" Jumbo's mouth was drawn into a serious line, and a deep furrow showed between his brows. "I hope I'm right, Tom, you know. But sometimes, especially when it comes to a murder that's never been settled, it just doesn't feel so good." "Sit, Jumbo. Tell us what you know." Jumbo grabbed Tom's chair and sat down on it, which creaked slightly.Becky was about to give her chair to Tom, but Tom stopped her with his hand, and sat down on the table, one foot on the floor, the other dangling in the air carelessly to hide his real emotion.Jumbo leaned forward, clasped his hands, and turned his head, looking from one person to the other, as if to see whether they were ready for what he had to say next. "Okay, first things first. I took a blood sample for a quick DNA test, as you know, and it turned out to be a man's blood, but that's all we know. We picked blood from the room. Some of the items used by the two boys were tested for comparison and the results were negative which was a big relief. We also compared with Robert Brooks's items in case it appeared that he was the victim and not the culprit situation. Likewise, a negative result.” "That's pretty much what we expected," said Tom, but he could see from Jumbo's face that he hadn't finished. "Do you remember when I said we found an old sealed box in the attic? It was mostly written on paper, but I couldn't read it. There were a lot of complicated calculations, computer printouts, and so on. We had someone look at it and don't think it has anything to do with our investigation, but will give it to you anyway. The box is marked 'Dan' and the name on the document is 'Danash Jahand' .Under the box we found some miscellaneous things that belonged to him, some with his name on them, some just odds and ends, it looked like someone gathered all his things," Jumbo said, spreading his arms to his chest. A demonstration action, "Then throw it all in." He said and flung his arms away. Tom glanced at Becky, realizing what information was coming, and from Becky's expression, she knew it too. "In the box we found a pair of men's large leather gloves." Jumbo continued. "It's very worn and worn out. It was produced by a company in Iran. We successfully extracted some DNA and made a comparison." ...the DNA on the glove matched the blood we found in the study. It appears that the person who died there was Danash Jahand." Although Tom knew he was going to say that when Jumbo mentioned the box, he paused for a moment, thinking about the young man who was at the heart of the investigation.Tom had never met him, and since they found out that Danash was in touch with Olivia again and made an appointment with Robert on Sophie's cell phone, he began to worry about Danash.Now that it was confirmed that the blood in the study room belonged to him, it meant that they had to open a new channel of investigation. "Thanks, Jumbo," said Tom quietly. "Are you sure there was enough blood spattered in that room to kill someone?" "The blood was cleaned up, so I can't tell you with certainty how much blood there is. But it was extensive, and I'm sure it was arterial blood. So yes, someone died in that room." He looked down at himself The hand held between the knees paused for a moment, as if mourning the loss of a life.He took a breath, raised his head and continued: "There was something else. If you remember, we investigated two cars. In the trunk of Robert's car, we found traces of blood—the same as the one in the study." The bloodstains match." Becky frowned. "If Jahande lost so much blood, shouldn't there be only such a small trace?" Jumbo shook his big head. "Not necessarily. If Robert had carefully padded his trunk with plastic bags - tarpaulins or good quality trash bags - it would be fine. My guess is that the dead man bled dry in the study, which is Inferred from the shape of the blood splatter. We will gather more feedback on this, but I still believe that he had a severed carotid artery. Your police found a bed sheet missing, and in the trunk Cotton fibers were also found, and those fibers matched other sheets in the master bedroom." "Damn!" murmured Tom.If the body had been taken from the house, it could be anywhere by now.But he was worrying about something else. "We know that Robert returned home on Wednesday night, or to be precise in the early hours of Thursday. We can only speculate that he agreed to meet Jahander there and expected Olivia to be home. Maybe he wanted them There was a confrontation between the three, and the theory is that she should have come back from vacation. Maybe Jahand said he was going to see Olivia and persuade her to leave him, and Robert went back to make sure that didn't happen." Tom saw in Becky's eyes that she was not only thinking with him, but perhaps thinking faster than he. "So Robert came back to meet Danash and killed him," she said. "Dhanash Jahand died in that study," Tom said, "and there is evidence that he was later taken in the boot of Robert's car, and let's not forget that there was a knife that was not found, I Doubt we'll ever find it again.Robert was back in Newcastle for the first morning meeting, the dog walker saw him leave the house at 5.15am, he didn't have enough on the drive back to Newcastle Time flies around." "I'm going to get a map and see what path he might take," Becky said. Tom shook his head. "No need, Becky. I know that well. Judging by the time it took him to travel, he should have taken the shortest route, via the M60 to the M62, across the Pennines and onto the A1." "Good boy," muttered Jumbo.Tom waited expectantly for him to continue. "What if I told you that our friend Robert is a little obsessed with Meera Hendry and Ian Brady?" Tom and Jumbo looked at each other.There is no need to say anything more.Becky stared from one to the other, puzzled. "What do you think, Becky, is there any obvious spot on the M62 which is completely deserted in the early morning and would be a perfect place to dump a body?" asked Jumbaugh. As a young southerner, Becky obviously took longer than Tom and Jumbo to figure it out. "Shadwoods swamp, Becky," said Tom, pulling her out of her misery, "Brady and Hendry killed five children in the sixties, and four were buried in that swamp, but The other was never found." "Of course it's there. I'm sorry I didn't remember," said Becky, flushing slightly. "But did he have time to dig?" Tom shook his head. "I don't think so, unless you tell us you found a peat-coated shovel in your search, Jumbo?" Jumbo glared at him. "I don't think so." Tom jumped off his desk and put his hands in his trouser pockets as he stood still. "Then you'd better pick some from your reserves, because we sure as hell can't pull them all up."