The Dark Star - Aftermath Pt. 07

Chapter One; Back In The Mix

"These sessions are only going to work if you're open ... not just open to sharing but open to cooperating and working with me Jack."

Jack looked up from his black brogues, straightening the sleeve of his suit jacket as he looked up at her sat on the leather chair opposite of him.

Her left leg crossed over her right, the dark denier stretched across her knees and the hem of her charcoal grey skirt pulled down her thigh. A royal blue fitted blouse completed her ensemble.

He met her piercing blue eyes as she stared into him, no doubt trying to second guess him. Her face was attractive, very attractive. Her shoulder length black hair today pulled back off her face.

"I think this was always a danger," she broke the silence that had built uncomfortably between them. "Us knowing one another prior to this ... perhaps it's not a good idea."

Perhaps she was right Jack mulled as she offered an almost sympathetic smile to him. He'd turned to Jackie Grayson or Jacqueline as her professional name on the other side of the door proclaimed her, not so much out of necessity but for the sake of familiarity. He'd turned to her, in part from knowing her not so much in a cry for help but in a moment of realisation some weeks ago that even at the tender age of 22 his eclectic, chaotic, frantic life was far from normal. Very fucking far from normal.

He wondered if he could be honest with her, then wondered how quickly, if he were to spill the truths of his life, Jackie Grayson would be reaching for her desk phone or mobile which ever was closest to call the Police or the nearest Psychiatric Ward. A string of intense failed relationships, a daughter he now practically shunned as she'd turned out to be his half-sister. Responsible for the deaths of two, albeit less than innocent, people. He was using drink and recreational drugs to fuel his excesses or quell his demons and that was without considering the revelation no one would believe, the truth he still struggled to comprehend. The fact that three months ago his Father who'd been dead for well over two years had suddenly walked back into his life.

"There's something you're not telling me... something you're not letting go of" the Psychiatrist pressed.

'Too fucking right Jackie' he thought to himself.

"Until you're ready to do so we can't make any progress ...and that's why I wonder if I'm better referring you elsewhere."

Jack had approached Jackie only as he'd known her. The former neighbour who in truth he'd not known personally and only knew through Sarah, beyond civil conversations they had never really had any dealings directly with one another until he'd picked up the phone to ask for assistance. He'd turned to her two weeks ago not even sure what had been the trigger that had compelled him. He felt he could trust her though, perhaps she was right perhaps a stranger might be better positioned, easier to talk to and as a result he might be able to confide more in them.

"Let's have you go away and think about it ... schedule an appointment to come back and see me sometime in say ...two weeks' time."

Jack looks to his watch as he nods, realising they've very briefly overrun.

"Ok," he says, "Ok ...and I'm sorry."

"Don't be..." she offered rising and extending her hand. "This isn't an overnight fix."

Jack loosely shook her hand as she walked to the office door with him.

"Have...have you heard from Sarah at all?"

Jack kept a neutral face despite her question, catching him off guard like a hammer to the side of his skull.

"I haven't," he offered sincerely.

"To just leave like that..." Jackie shook her head. "... Felt to me like it all just happened overnight."

"Not quite that swift," Jack lied, although her take on the truth was not all that far from the actual reality. His mind cast back to that early July Saturday and everything that had preceded the night before. Sarah and Sophie simply disappearing like they had confused him now as much as it had three months ago there was no rhyme or reason to their disappearance, no explanation, not even a note. Empty wardrobes and keys left on the side with a contact number for the Landlord of the rented property.

"I miss my Friday night bottles of wine with her if nothing else," Jackie offered on a pensive smile.

I miss so much more than that Jack thought, but again couldn't put those emotions into words for Jackie Grayson either.

**********

The place is alive.

Three months since the somewhat hostile takeover and it's unrecognisable.

Jamie approaches to my left wearing a sultry grin to match the sultry black leather catsuit her perfect body is squeezed into, the outfit leaving nothing to the imagination. She lifts the mask from her eyes as I stand leant against the bar.

"You're not fooling me..." she says drawing level crossing her arms. "The beard suits you, but no one can pull off a suit quite like you ...I clocked you the minute you walked through the door."

"The only other mask I own might have been too intimidating," I state.

"So, I've heard," I feel her fingers dig me in the ribs without uncrossing her arms.

"Is he here?" I state without turning my head.

"Somewhere ... but just look how busy we are we've not been this busy since ..."

"Since the last time, the Dark Star name was above the door?" I finish her sentence for her. The freshly installed bright red strip light sign above the door as I'd approached had brought a wide a grin to my face that I couldn't suppress. It was right to rename this place, to relaunch and reinvent the old place just as it had meant to be. The crowds were back, the Dark Star was back, I was back.

"It was always going to attract attention," Jamie stated, I knew she hadn't been a fan of revisiting the past.

"Talking of attracting attention ... that's some outfit."

"Fulfilling a Cat Women fantasy for you, am I?" Jamie gently chuckles.

"I ain't gonna play Batman if that's what you're after," I quip.

"How about you play Wolf for me then?"

I turn to face her, the devious smirk she flashes not wasted on me as I meet her gaze.

"How are the basement renovations coming along" I offer with a raised eyebrow from beneath the black velvet strip of mask across my eyes.

"Why don't you come see for yourself?" Jamie offered.

***********

Jack Hughes was stressed, stressed and busy.

He peeled off the mask he wore over his eyes and stripped off his suit jacket as he stepped behind the bar.

The place was heaving, each week it had gotten busier and busier. Jamie had assured him, despite his reticence, of what the masked balls had come to mean in the past and how this would be received. He'd doubted her, it seemed to cliché, he could not have been more wrong. He wouldn't doubt her judgement again.

"Yes, mate what'll it be?" he points to a tall male stood the other side of the bar, the most pissed off face he could see in a sea of pissed off, impatient faces. Immediately he spots the attractive blonde to the left of the male, Jack flashed a sideways glance to her with a smile as he mentally registered the order, he hears for two bottles of lager, a rum and coke and a vodka lime and soda. The blonde smiles in his direction. He should've served her first he thinks to himself; he'll make sure she's served next.

"Good to see one of the bosses getting his hands dirty." he hears in his ear, as delicate hands gently place on his hips as he pours the rum on the counter at the back of the bar.

Suki the lead bartender squeezes past him with the flash of smile, she looks harangued she looks exhausted. Her black tee clinging to her in the heat of the working environment.

"Have you seen Jamie?" Jack asks breaking open a bottle of coke and pouring it over the rum and ice cubes in the long glass before him.

"Too scared of losing a false nail that one..." Suki sarcastically replies. "...I'm sorry," she instantly corrects herself on realising criticising one of the managers to another isn't probably the most sensible thing to do.

"I know," Jack flashes a grin as he pours Vodka and Lime Cordial into a second glass.

Moments later Suki puts two open bottles of lager to his left-hand side with a wink. Jack appreciates both the assistance and her conscientious work ethic. Before he can offer thanks, she's disappeared among the other bar staff grabbing empty dirtied glasses from the bar as she goes.

Jack lines the drinks on the bar, takes payment and turns his attention to the blonde with a pretty smile who catches his eye once again.

"What'll it be Blondie?"

**********

DI Rose Callaghan sat in the back of the Police Squad Car. The bright lights of the City at night passed by the window out of which she gazed. The inebriated revellers staggering the streets on a busy Friday night reminding her, amongst many numbers of reasons why she was grateful she wasn't Uniform, and equally offered a sense of relief at the fact she had never had to serve any time on 'the beat' as a Uniform Officer. Her education bypassing the need for time served on menial yet necessary Police work.

The Friday night 'ride along' was concession enough. The scheme that had been actively encouraged as part of the Police Commissioners drive to establish and maintain relations between desk-based units and colleagues at the coal face.

"This place had better be a shadow of what it used to be," WPC Caroline Duggan offers from her front seat behind the steering wheel of the BMW as they pulled up at traffic lights that had just switched to red.

Ahead of them illuminated in bright red against the otherwise dark building the words 'Dark Star' were scrawled at a slight angle.

"I've heard the rumours... I mean I know about the bodies they discovered," Callaghan offered being snapped from her preoccupied thoughts.

She had joined the City Central Force in the midst of the investigation into the two bodies discovered in the basement of the Club, the cut and dry case as she recalled with the former owner of the establishment being charged posthumously. In truth Callaghan's mind wasn't on the 'ride along' or historic cases or the reputation of recently relaunched night spots. Her thoughts centred on the ongoing frustrations of her day job. The investigation into the missing women believed to be connected to the horrific location they'd stumbled across almost by accident at Stirchley Grange Mills back at the height of the summer. The case had the ability to define her as a D.I. it also had the potential to stop her career dead. The spike in activity around the investigation she'd led for 8 months now had dwindled, all activity had seemingly spiked on that fateful June day but had since dramatically waned. Still no clues unearthed as to the fates of Leah Davis, and Song Akiyuma.

It haunted Callaghan that the local Forensics Unit had suggested that the furnace discovered in the basement had contained potentially multiple unrecognisable human remains, it was too easy a thought process to follow but too strong a connection to not consider her missing persons might have met with such unimaginable fates. Laboratory tests continued on what amounted to ash. Laboratory tests she'd been informed might be weak and inconclusive at best despite the thorough testing process. The truth surrounding the macabre contents of the industrial size gas powered furnace may never be known. Every time it had been turned on it destroyed evidence further, each new victim destroying proof of existence of the previous victims as had been darkly pointed out to her.

Nothing that the team's investigation had discovered offered a link to the body of Alison Hughes who had been discovered in the Gerwell River around 15 miles from the Mills. Forensics confirmed despite the deterioration to her body that she appeared to have died from drowning but not conclude any foul play had been involved, despite the fact her body had been naked when it had been pulled from the river. Even if her death could be explained the time spent missing before she'd been discovered by a Dog Walker still was unaccounted for. And other than the name Ali provided to Callaghan by the former abductee Mica Wise nothing suggested Alison Hughes had been connected to Stirchley Grange Mills. She could just as easily have been abducted by a lone predator and disposed of in the river, months before hand. Nothing was straight forward or easy about their investigation. Leads seemed to disappear much faster than they appeared.

Three months ago, much had hinged on the Missing Person or Misper, as they were referred to that was Sophie McAllister. Callaghan had one brief phone call from a now dead number from Sarah McAllister, Sophies sister; the frantic call in which her excitable but equally agitated voice had informed Callaghan she had Sophie back, she had Sophie back safe and well and wanted no further contact. What had scared her off? What had transpired to gain Sophie back? Callaghan had so many questions, but both of the Sisters had seemingly vanished, disappeared. An investigation within their investigation had transpired to discover what had become of them; such being the sudden nature of their disappearance. ANPR has shed the first clue, swiftly followed by correlating credit card activity. Two single trip flights purchased at 5am in the morning and taken to Malaga at 5pm the following evening. Sarah McAllister's Silver Ford Fiesta found abandoned in the short stay car park at the City Airport. Those details and CCTV from the Airport confirmed the Girls had literally taken flight, Callaghan was frustrated but couldn't waste the manpower to investigate further or chase the two girls across the Continent. Stirchley Mills and her two missing persons had her busy chasing enough shadows.

Whomever was behind the vile goings on was almost taking a back seat to the continued search for evidence. Forensics had given her very little else to work with, other than occasional fingerprint and one captured DNA sample. DNA not known on any of their records. Statements obtained from Mica Wise had offered Callaghan insights but were limited in their scope given how the poor girl had spent majority of her days locked away in both solitude and darkness. Her only other source for information had yielded an incomprehensible lack of cooperation, from the day they had freed Lyndsay Phillips her stance and demeanour had confused Callaghan. The only conclusion being that Phillips had either been willingly held at the Mills or had been brainwashed to such an extent that she could see no ill in the horrors that must have surrounded her.

Callaghan's investigation wasn't grinding to a halt, she wouldn't let it grind to a halt, but as things stood there were more questions than answers. That was never a good place to be in any investigation. Too many mysteries surrounded Stirchley Mills, but she'd invested too much time, to the detriment of her relationships inside and outside of work for her to even contemplate giving up or asking for assistance. The investigation controlled her life. Dominated her every waking minute Except for one relationship, one spark she maintained that offered her fleeting solace from the stresses and strains of the daily grind, the continued illicit rendezvous that she regularly held with Andrew Baxter.

"We probably only heard half the stories from that place" PC Lee Baines offered from the passenger seat once again snapping Callaghan into the reason she was sat in the back of the squad car.

Callaghan had cringed being sent out in the company of Baines; she'd only ever had fleeting interactions with the Officer but there was something about the cocksure arrogance of the man that she couldn't stand. Had never been able to.

"Doesn't look much from the outside," Callaghan offered staring up at the premises while leaning forward between the two Officers in the front of the vehicle. It was the truth a very nondescript looking premises in the dark of the night. There must have been some attraction though as there was a queue for the entrance snaking around the building and as they waited at the lights still more and more individuals headed towards the building. "How did it go unnoticed for so long in the first place?"

"Teflon" Baines offered.

"Some places are practically untouchable Detective ... there were investigations I recall talk of another missing girl linked to the place before the initial bodies were discovered ... oh, what was her name?" WPC Duggan offered.

"I dunno," Baines dozily responded.

"Emily something" the female officer clutched at a name.

"Missing person?" Callaghan sat even further forward; her interest piqued. "What was the outcome?"

Despite pressing them Callaghan couldn't gain from either Duggan or Baines any specific details in connection to any investigation, both eventually recalling or concurring that the investigation had been closed some months later as the Misper had suddenly reappeared, not wishing to pursue the matter, as it stood the information was hearsay at best the reflection on what had happened with Sophie McAllister couldn't be overlooked. For the first time that evening Callaghan broke out her notebook and recorded pertinent bullet points. Concluding it would be worth following up on and ruling out connections, any connection was a connection after all.

The squad car pulled off from the lights and through the night traffic. Callaghan looked back through the rear window at the building as they rounded a corner. Making mental notes to pull-up all case files on the Dark Star when she was back into HQ on Monday morning. The hope, if any, of a connection to her own Misper investigation might be tenuous but at this moment in time she'd happily take tenuous and run with it.

"Thanks for that... Might be worth looking into." Callaghan stated.

In the front passenger seat PC Lee Baines made his own mental notes.

**********

I watch as Jamie sauntered back through the Club ahead of me. She didn't look back, as my eyes cast up her incredible figure, the taste of her still on my lips. The memory of her submission still fresh in my mind. A broad grin creeps across my face as I make my way to the bar.

The club would have peaked in our absence I think to myself as I look to my watch, with the time coming up on 1am. The queue for the bar has subsided considerably now to be only two deep in most places.

Patiently I take my place in behind a skinny young kid. To my left an attractive Red Head in a black lace detail long sleeve dress over black tights with heel ankle boots steps up next to me. Her eyes hidden by a strip of lace that resembles a blindfold more than a mask. As I glance, I can see her piercing eyes disguised through the lace, she catches my unsubtle gaze over her slender body.

"Like what you see old man?" she smirks.

"Old Man?" I state a little shocked at her brash statement, "I prefer to think of it as experience."

"Experience," a fresh more playful smirk passes her thin dark red lips as she tilts her head to one side looking at me through the black veil across her eyes.

Space at the bar opens up and we both make to squeeze into gap, only serving to press up against one another.

"What's your poison?" I enquire.

"I'm with my friends," she cocks her head towards two other girls both wearing similar lace masks, one in red and another in white, sat in a booth just behind us to our left.

"Ok... so what are they drinking?" I offer slipping a money clip from my pocket.

**********

Jamie headed up the internal staircase to the main offices.

The ache in her wrists and her back from the restraint Logan Hughes had held her in, the wet warmth between her legs, she was uncomfortable in the leather cat suit which clung to her sweat covered body.