Bad Moon Rising (#1 - D.I. Paolo Storey Crime Series) (28 page)

Paolo nodded goodbye and left without another word. He was vaguely aware of Dave following behind him. He was still furious when they reached the car. He unlocked the doors and got in; wrenching his seatbelt into place as if the thing had done him a personal injury and it was payback time, he forced it into the slot to snap it in place. As he waited for Dave to buckle up, he drummed his fingers furiously on the steering wheel.

He became aware of Dave’s stillness and stopped his rapid finger movements. Turning, he had to force himself not to yell at Dave for staring at him. Jesus, he had to calm down.

“He really gets under your skin, doesn’t he?” Dave said.

Paolo didn’t trust himself to speak, so he nodded.

“Why?” Dave asked. “You deal with people like Azzopardi and don’t react the way you do with Matthew Roberts. Why does he rile you so much?”

Forcing himself to think logically, Paolo rejected the first response that popped into his head, which was that the guy was a prick.

“Do you know, Dave, I have no idea. I don’t know what it is about him that gets under my skin. Maybe it’s that he’s too perfect. You know, too well dressed, too well spoken, too... I don’t know, too everything. All I know is that there’s something about him that makes me want to aggravate him as much as he does me.” He laughed, feeling the tension leaving his body. “Maybe it’s my inner teenager rearing its ugly head. I hated him back then, so it might just be unresolved issues. Who knows. You hungry? Let’s go and eat.”

C
HAPTER 
T
WENTY-
T
WO

Chief Constable Willows didn’t look as if anything Paolo might say was what he wanted to hear. If Paolo was honest, he didn’t blame the man. He had nothing to give him that would be worth listening to.

“Paolo, this is ridiculous. It’s been a full week since the first appeal to the public. We’ve featured on
Crimewatch
, the news channels have been brilliant, the press have run the story for days and yet you’re telling me that not one person has called in?”

“No, sir, I didn’t say that. In fact we’ve had more calls than we can cope with. I’ve told you about those.”

“Don’t get funny with me, Paolo. I’m not talking about the cranks who believe Hitler is camping at the bottom of their gardens, or those who confess to every crime they hear about, I’m talking about genuine leads. You’re seriously telling me that not one call has been genuine?”

Paolo sighed. What could he say apart from the truth?

“Sir, we’ve had a few calls from people who saw Matthew Roberts and believed they’d spotted Sean Andrews, but other than that, we’ve had zilch. The man is keeping himself well hidden. If you’d give me permission to-”

“Paolo, we’ve been over this again and again. You cannot put a tail on Matthew Roberts. If he could prove you’d done so we’d end up being massacred by him – and by the press who are being so helpful at the moment. You know how hot Roberts is on human rights.” Willows broke off and glared at him. “What did you say? Come on, if you’ve got something worth hearing, don’t mutter it under your breath.”

“I said, he worries about human rights when it suits him and his clients.”

Willows pulled a face that Paolo couldn’t quite decipher. He decided not to put his boss on the spot by asking what he meant by it.

“Any news from Liverpool, Paolo? I suppose it’s possible that Sean Andrews might have gone back up there.”

“We’re in constant contact with them, sir, but they haven’t had any new information. The ex-girlfriend has been out of the country for the past week. She went with a group of workmates to Spain, but was due back yesterday, so they’ll be getting in touch with her. Still, if she’s been away it’s not likely she’ll be able to add anything into the mix.”

Paolo’s phone rang. He looked over at Willows, who nodded permission to answer it. He didn’t recognise the number on the caller display, so flipped it open and gave his name by way of greeting.

He listened for a few moments and then scribbled down a time. Closing the phone, he smiled at Willows.

“I do believe we might have had our first breakthrough, sir. That was the ex-girlfriend, Lizzie Cooper. How’s that for coincidence? It’s almost as if she heard us talking about her. Anyway, she switched on her computer when she woke up this morning and saw Sean’s face plastered all over the Internet. It came as quite a shock to her, as you can imagine. Anyway, the good news is that she’s on her way down from Liverpool. She was calling from the train, which is due to pull into the station in,” he broke off to look at his watch, “twenty-three minutes from now. She says she has information that will help us.”

For the first time that morning, Willows smiled. “I take it you’re off to meet the train?”

Paolo nodded. “I am, sir. Let’s hope her journey was worthwhile, for all our sakes.”

***

Paolo stopped at the doorway to the main office and called across to Dave who was busy typing up his reports.

“Leave that for now, Dave. We’ve got a train to meet.”

Dave jumped up and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair.

“Really, sir? Who’s on it?”

Paolo filled him in on the way to the parking area.

“You can drive this time, Dave. Your back seems to be okay again now.”

He waited to see if Dave was going to tell him anything, but the younger man stayed silent. Paolo smiled to himself. He’d seen Dave and Rebecca talking as he’d left the station the night before and it looked as though Dave might have finally met his match. He’d certainly been nodding in agreement with Rebecca, which was a breakthrough in itself.

Dave drove to the railway station entrance and stopped the car. Paolo jumped out.

“Wait here, Dave. I’ll see if Ms Cooper’s train is on time.”

He walked into the station concourse and studied the arrivals board. The Liverpool train was due in one minute from platform three, so he sprinted down the stairs and along the underground passageway to the sign pointing to another set of stairs leading up to platform three. He took a deep breath and forced himself to sprint up them. He got to the top just as the train was pulling in. He’d told Lizzie Cooper that he’d wait for her under the exit sign. He positioned himself out of the way of anyone wanting to go past and scanned the passengers as they disembarked. The only youngish looking woman to get off had a suntan that owed nothing to the weak April sunshine in the UK. Even if she hadn’t described what she was wearing, Paolo would have had a good guess that the woman was Lizzie Cooper.

He stepped forward to meet her. “Ms Cooper? I’m Detective Inspector Paolo Storey. Thank you for coming all this way.”

She glared at him, which was the last thing he’d expected.

“I bloody well had to come, didn’t I? You lot have made a right balls up.”

If he’d been surprised by her look of loathing, that was nothing compared to the shock he felt at her words. Feeling off balance, he tried to make sense of the situation.

“Ms Cooper, I’m sorry, I think we’ve got off on the wrong foot somehow. I thought you’d come to give us information that would help us to track down Sean Andrews, your former boyfriend.”

She hitched her shoulder bag higher, but Paolo got the distinct impression she’d have preferred to hit him with it.

“He is my former boyfriend, as you put it, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to help you lot to stitch him up. I haven’t come to help you catch him; I’ve come to tell you what a load of arseholes you are. Sean wouldn’t hurt a frigging fly.”

Paolo almost rocked backwards from the venom in her voice.

“Look, this isn’t getting us anywhere. Why don’t you come back with me to station? We can discuss everything there. We can tell you why we think Sean is the man we’re looking for and you can tell us why we’re wrong. How does that sound?”

She sniffed. “It sounds okay, I suppose, but I’m not having a hand in stitching Sean up for summat he didn’t do. He might be a right prick most of the time, but he isn’t a bloody nutter.”

Paolo nodded and turned to go back down the stairs. After a moment’s hesitation Lizzie Cooper followed him. He led the way through the passage and back up the stairway leading to the main part of the station. He was desperate to ask a few questions, but the woman beside him was angry enough to start screaming abuse in the middle of the concourse if he asked something she didn’t like, so he took the safer option of heading to the car in silence.

He opened the nearside rear door and held it while Lizzie Cooper got in and settled herself on the back seat. Not feeling that sitting next to her would be a good idea, he moved around to the front of the car and climbed into the passenger’s seat. Dave glanced at him with a look of enquiry and Paolo shook his head slightly.

“Dave, this is Ms Cooper. Ms Cooper, this is my Detective Sergeant, Dave Johnson.”

He smiled at Dave. “Let’s head back, Dave. Ms Cooper wants to put us right on a few things.”

Dave nodded and manoeuvred the car away without saying anything, although Paolo could see by the look on Dave’s face that he had a million questions buzzing through his head. The car wove smoothly through the traffic and reached the police station in less time than the outward journey had taken, although it felt much longer. The short journey back had been enlivened by non-stop muttering from the back seat – all of it along the lines of the police taking the easy route to crime solving.

As Dave pulled into the parking bay, Paolo jumped out and opened the door for Lizzie Cooper.

“Thanks very much,” she said. “It’s nice to see someone with some manners. Most blokes don’t bother with opening doors and such like anymore. But don’t think that means I’m going to let you carry on with this pack of lies about Sean, because I’m not. You’re all the same, you coppers. You think you can stitch some poor bugger up instead of doing your job. Well you’re not going to do it to Sean.”

Paolo glanced across the roof of the car. Dave was about to lock the doors when he looked up. Raising his eyebrows, he looked heavenwards. If it hadn’t been so serious, Paolo would have laughed, but Lizzie Cooper’s accusation was no laughing matter.

If nothing else, she was at least consistent in what she had to say. By the time they reached Paolo’s office he felt as though he’d been listening to a recording stuck on repeat. His head ached and his temper was simmering just under boiling point.

He gestured to one of the chairs facing his desk.

“Please take a seat, Ms Cooper. I’ll organise something for you to drink, which would you prefer, tea or coffee?”

“Coffee, please, white and no sugar. This is a nice office. Do all right for yourselves, you lot, don’t you?”

Paolo swallowed the retort he wanted to make and decided to sort out the drinks. Maybe by the time he got back he’d have found a way to deal with his visitor. As he turned to leave the office he collided with Dave who’d hung back when they left the car on the pretext of needing to find something in the boot.

He grinned at Paolo and whispered: “Do I have to come in? I think I might strangle her.”

Paolo laughed and whispered back: “Go and fetch us some coffee. Make hers white with no sugar – and don’t even think of hiding in the kitchen until she’s gone.”

He watched Dave walk away and then squared his shoulders before going back to face the next barrage of insults. By the time Dave reappeared with the drinks Paolo felt verbally battered.

Dave placed the coffee on the desk and sat in the chair next to Lizzie Cooper.

“Ta very much, but you needn’t think being nice to me is going to stop me from sorting you lot out.”

“Ms Cooper,” Paolo began.

“Lizzie,” she said.

Paolo nodded. “Lizzie it is. Lizzie, we appreciate you coming all this way down to see us, but for the benefit of my colleague, could you repeat your reasons for making this trip.”

“I’ve already told you, it’s to stop you and dopey there from fitting Sean up for summat he didn’t do. I’ve known the daft bugger for nearly fifteen years on and off. He’s a complete wanker, but he’s no killer. Bleeding hell, he couldn’t even swat a spider when I asked him to.”

Paolo put a hand up to interrupt the flow. “I believe you and Sean broke up? Do you know where he went after that?”

“He most probably went to meet that brother of his, the one from the telly. That’s where he said he was going. Said he was onto a winner there. Told me he’d be set for life and would take me with him. I told him I didn’t want any part of a scam.”

Paolo scribbled that down on the pad in front of him. “Did he say where he was going to meet Matthew Roberts?”

Lizzie shook her head. “No, but I wish he’d come home that night. We had a blazing row, but I never meant it when I told him to sod off and not come back. I expect he got money from that Roberts bloke and is off chatting up birds on the Costas. Bastard that he is.”

Paolo heard the affection in her voice as she said the last words and realised she’d take Sean Andrews back if he turned up even now. That surprised him. From the picture they’d formed of Sean Andrews he didn’t seem to be the type to engender that much affection.