‘We wanted to have a word, Rod. You’re not too busy, are you?’ Karen asked.
‘As a matter of fact, I am.’
Morgan held out his ID and introduced himself. ‘There’s been a murder in Canwick,’ he said, as Karen walked past Rod and headed towards the garage.
Rod craned his neck, watching Karen, ignoring Morgan. ‘Oi, where do you think you’re going?’
She wanted to get a better look at the garage. It was a large structure, detached from the pub, and had a battered white door. A long, thin window ran along the side wall, and Karen thought she’d seen a movement.
It could have been a shifting shadow from a cloud moving across the sun, but she wanted to make sure.
As she got closer to the garage, Rod began to panic and rushed after her. ‘You can’t go over there. Oi, if you don’t have a warrant you can’t just . . . Are you even listening to me?’
Karen ignored him and peered through the glass. Again a shadow shifted inside, and she wondered whether the Perrys were keeping animals. She wouldn’t put it past them to have neglected animals locked up in their garage. They didn’t treat humans well, so why would pets be any different?
She put a hand above her eyes and leaned right up to the glass to get a better look. Knowing the Perrys as she did, she prepared herself, expecting to see something horrible.
But as the object inside the garage moved again, Karen stepped back in shock. She hadn’t been expecting that.
‘You should come and take a look at this, sir,’ she said to Morgan.
When she turned back to the window, a pair of brown eyes stared back at her.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘I think you’ve got some explaining to do,’ DI Morgan said.
Rod Perry’s gaze darted around the car park, his body poised as though he might try to run.
Karen took a step to the right to block his exit. ‘Things are only going to get worse if you try to leg it, Rod.’
Rod’s face scrunched into a scowl, and he looked away. He rubbed a hand over his shiny scalp. ‘It’s not what it looks like. I was helping them. They’re homeless, they had nowhere else to go.’
‘So you’re letting them stay in the garage out of the goodness of your heart? Is that what you’re telling us?’ Morgan asked.
Rod nodded, raising his chin and looking up at Morgan defiantly. ‘Yeah, that’s it.’
‘Why don’t you open up the garage for us, Rod?’ Karen said, her tone cold. ‘We’re going to need to look inside.’
‘You don’t have any right . . .’ Rod started to say, but then he trailed off when he saw Morgan’s expression, and trudged around to the front of the garage.
He leaned down, grabbed the handle on the dented white door and lifted it with a grunt. ‘You’ll be sure to mention I cooperated in your report, detectives, won’t you?’ Rod asked as he heaved up the metal door.
There was a long, drawn-out creak as the door rose, and Karen took a step back as the stale air from inside the garage was suddenly freed. The smell hit her hard.
Her stomach churned. Unwashed bodies, urine and what smelled like rotting food was a pungent combination.
The garage floor was covered with six large mattresses, bunched up together on the concrete, all dirty and stained. Equally grubby sleeping bags lay in crumpled heaps on top.
Two buckets sat on either side of the garage, and Karen guessed from the stench they’d been using them as commodes.
‘These are your guests?’ Morgan asked, turning to Rod, not concealing the disgust in his voice. ‘You don’t even let them use the bathroom.’
Rod said nothing.
Despite the six mattresses, there were only three figures inside the garage, all of them male. They remained frozen. Two of them were hunched up together in the back corner, sitting on one of the mattresses. The other remained standing, staring warily outside.
‘Do these men work in the pub, Rod?’
‘No. They might lend a hand from time to time, just as a favour, but they’re not employees. Like I said, I’m just letting them stay here until they get themselves sorted.’
Patricia Perry’s voice carried across the car park. In a rasping screech, she demanded to know what was going on.
Rod took a few steps towards his wife. ‘Call Norris. Tell him we’re going to need his help, but don’t call anyone else.’
Rod wasn’t a particularly intelligent man, but he hadn’t just fallen off the turnip truck either. He was savvy enough to know that the police would be looking at the couple’s phone records after this incident. No matter what Rod said, Karen was convinced he was exploiting these men for either unpaid or very low-paid labour. Keeping them in these conditions was shocking. The situation was far worse than Karen had believed possible.
She lived less than a mile away from the pub. How could this sort of thing go on under people’s noses? How did it go unnoticed?
‘Who is Norris?’ Morgan asked Rod.
‘Our solicitor.’ Rod smirked. ‘You’d better make sure you’ve got your ducks in a row, or he’ll make mincemeat out of you. Once he’s on the case, he’ll make sure me and the missus are back home in our own beds tonight, laughing about this.’
Morgan ignored Rod’s attempt to rile him, then stepped into the garage and asked the men to come out.
As far as Karen could see, there was no electricity or running water in there. And it certainly wasn’t well insulated. It was May, but the nights could still be very cold.
All three men shuffled out into the sunshine, blinking and terrified.
Karen approached the first man and gave him a reassuring smile. He was short with a slight build, his skin dark. His brown eyes regarded her steadily. It was his face she’d seen from the window.
‘I’m Detective Sergeant Hart. Karen. What’s your name?’ she asked.
He blinked a couple of times before replying in a trembling voice. ‘Vishal Salike,’ he said. ‘I don’t want any trouble.’
‘Tell them I was just letting you stay here as a favour, Vishal. Tell her you don’t work for me.’ Rod Perry pushed his way forward.
‘That’s enough, Mr Perry,’ Morgan said. ‘Please go and wait over there facing the wall.’
‘You what? You can’t send me to stand in the corner like a naughty schoolboy.’
‘It’s either that or I handcuff you and put you in the back of my car. Your choice.’
Rod glowered at him, then hitched up his trousers and stomped over to stand by the wall. Over his shoulder, he shot daggers at the three men.
Morgan pulled out his mobile and addressed Karen. ‘I’m going to give the superintendent a call. She’ll want a heads-up on this. We’ll need support, too.’
He was right. They would need to get all of these men checked out and interviewed, and if Karen’s suspicions were correct, the men could be victims of modern slavery, which would result in a long, thorough investigation. The best source of information and evidence would be the three men in front of them.
‘It’s all right, Vishal,’ Karen said as Morgan turned away to make the call. ‘We’ll get a doctor to take a look at you and then get you a proper bed for tonight, okay?’