Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery) (8 page)

‘How can you be in such a good mood, when the suspect wasn’t there?’ Geraldine burst out in exasperation. ‘And stop bloody whistling. It’s getting on my nerves.’

‘Ooh, someone’s touchy,’ Sam grinned, but she stopped whistling.

‘You do realise this could turn into a major manhunt all over London?’

‘He’ll probably roll up at his flat drunk this evening, and we’ll have him behind bars before bedtime.’

‘Do you think so?’ Geraldine waited, but Sam didn’t respond. ‘What do you think the DCI’s going to say?’

‘Ah, so that’s what this hissy fit is about. You’re not really worried about whether we get the bastard behind bars now or later on today, you’re just upset that the good-looking, new DCI won’t heap praises on you for a job well done.’

‘That’s not true. And you needn’t adopt that familiar tone with me when we’re working.’

‘This is just like old times. It’s great to be back. I love my job!’

Geraldine was silent, wondering if Sam was right. There was no doubt Adam was good looking. But that was beside the point. If Adam had been a middle-aged woman, Geraldine would have been equally keen to make a good impression on her new detective chief inspector. It was a matter of professional pride, as well as ambition, to want to impress her superior officers.

‘Just shut up and drive,’ she told Sam.

Until now Adam had seemed aloof, although courteous and pleasant. Even as his eyes focused sharply on Geraldine, she sensed that he remained detached, his fury a calculated performance.

‘What do you mean, he wasn’t there?’ His pale face flushed with anger. ‘How can you have lost him? He’s only been out of prison for two days, for Christ’s sake.’

He stood up. Geraldine wasn’t short, but he seemed to tower over her from behind his desk.

‘This is crass ineptitude! We identified David’s killer, and you let him get away.’

Geraldine frowned, her dismay at having failed to apprehend Lenny momentarily subsumed by the need to defend herself. If she had worked with Adam before, she might not have been so defensive. As it was, Adam knew nothing about her. Keen to make a good impression on him, she seemed to have messed up royally in her first week.

‘You let him vanish from under our noses! We had him. Jesus, he’s only been out for two days. How can he have disappeared? He came out, shot someone, and went to ground before we even knew it was him. It’s unbelievably inept. What the hell have you been doing?’

His accusation was so unreasonable that Geraldine suspected he was judging her on her response to his ranting, rather than on her performance so far. The facts bore out that she had done nothing wrong. At the same time, her detective chief inspector must realise that she was watching him as he assessed her reaction. Unsure what to make of this goading, she kept her face impassive and spoke as calmly as she could.

‘There’s no reason why he would have disappeared. He doesn’t know we’re on to him.’

‘He just shot a man. How can he possibly think we’re not looking for him?’

‘But he has no idea we know it was him. Why would he? And we don’t know he’s done a runner. He just wasn’t at home when we went round there.’

‘So now you’ve managed to barge in and warn his girlfriend that we’re on to him.’

‘I stressed that he’s not in any trouble. I said I just want him to help us with an enquiry –’

‘And you think she’s not going to see through that? She was probably on the phone to him as soon as you walked out, warning him to keep out of sight. We may never find him now. He’ll move on, and it’ll be down to some other force to pick him up, because we let him slip through our fingers. We’ll be a laughing stock.’

He wasn’t testing her reaction to his verbal attack after all. He was genuinely put out at her failure, because it reflected badly on him. Adam was feeling under pressure himself, and was passing it on in the hope that she would somehow achieve a result. With a flash of empathy, she hurried to reassure him.

‘We’re doing everything possible to find him. We’ve got officers watching the flat twenty-four hours a day. If Gina goes out, we’ll follow her in case she leads us to him, and we’ll still have someone watching the flat all the time. We’ll keep it up until we find him. And we
will
find him. We’ve sent a notification to security at all the airports and stations in the UK, in case he got wind we suspect him. He won’t get away.’

‘He
has
got away. We can’t keep up this twenty-four-hour surveillance indefinitely. Where the hell is he?’

‘We’ll find him.’

She met his gaze levelly and his expression altered. His shoulders sagged as he sat down.

‘I’m sorry, Geraldine. I was out of order just then. I thought we had him, you know. It would have been a coup, arresting a killer so quickly.’ He gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘This is my first case as DCI.’

She nodded, reassured and at the same time dismayed. She wanted a superior officer devoid of emotion, a kind of modern Sherlock Holmes with a firm grasp of facts and a piercing intellect. Adam had those qualities, but his cool manner, which she had mistaken for professional detachment, was a façade. Underneath it he was insecure. With a few more investigations under his belt, he might develop into a brilliant team leader. In the meantime, he was worryingly vulnerable. All the same, Geraldine warmed to him more now than she had before, when he had seemed so cold.

‘We’ll find him,’ she repeated. ‘He can’t stay off the radar indefinitely.’

‘Well, I’m going home. It’s late and I’m knackered. Why don’t you call it a day as well? There’s nothing more we can do tonight.’

She nodded. ‘With any luck he’ll be safely locked up by tomorrow morning.’

‘Let’s hope so, for all our sakes.’

12

R
OSA’S HEART POUNDED.
Trembling, she snatched up her phone. In a panic she grabbed the bread knife with her other hand. She had to be prepared. Her neighbour might turn violent. Later she would worry about how to convince the police she had acted in self defence. For now all that mattered was Theo. She would stop at nothing to protect him. Quickly she pressed Jack’s number, praying that he would answer. She had no one else to turn to, but even if she got through to him straight away it might take him an hour to get home. In the living room a phone began to ring and she heard a familiar voice.

‘Ma? It’s me. Where are you?’

Almost crying with relief, she ran out of the kitchen. Jack was standing in the doorway. Theo raced out of his room, wildly happy to see his brother.

Jack stepped forward, kicking the door closed behind him. ‘Wait till you see what I got for you, bro.’

Theo reached him in one bound, arms flapping in excitement. Rosa watched the brothers embrace with a faint pang of envy. Theo wouldn’t allow her to hug him, and Jack would never tolerate any show of affection, except from his crazy brother.

‘You nearly give me a heart attack, coming in like that, crashing and banging,’ she complained. ‘Why’d you have to make such a racket?’

Jack took a step away from Theo and turned to look at her. ‘What you mean? Why you crying, woman? What you scared of?’

She realised her mistake straight away. ‘It’s nothing, nothing at all,’ she said quickly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. ‘I ain’t scared of nothing. I just thought you was at work, that’s all.’

He caught sight of the bread knife she was still clutching. ‘You going to shank me?’

‘I was thinking of making toast,’ she muttered.

‘Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Wait till my Jack gets home!’ Theo screeched suddenly.

Jack frowned. ‘Who’s been upsetting you, ma?’

‘No one.’

Jack turned to his brother. ‘What’s going on, kid?’

‘Wait till my Jack gets home,’ Theo repeated, over and over. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’

‘Oh yes,’ Jack said, ‘I nearly forgot, I got something for you.’

Theo stopped talking. He giggled as Jack reached into his bag and pulled out a giant Toblerone.

‘Well? You want it? Huh?’

He raised the chocolate bar as high as he could above his head but Theo grabbed it and scuttled to his room. They could hear him chortling and chattering to himself. Rosa laughed. Theo loved to squirrel things away.

‘It’s a wonder he ever finds anything in there,’ she said. ‘Have you looked in his room lately?’

‘Leave it out. He’s got little enough. I’m not surprised he wants to keep whatever he can get his hands on. You leave him alone.’

‘I don’t take nothing off him. And I never go in that room no more. He screams if I even touch his door.’

Jack muttered about a person being entitled to some privacy.

‘I can’t even get in there to clean. It stinks in there.’

Theo came back in the living room and stood in front of Jack. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’

Jack nodded. ‘I hadn’t forgotten, bro. What happened? Who’s been upsetting ma?’

Theo flapped his arms, laughing.

Jack turned to Rosa. ‘You got to tell me, ma. Something happened. Was it that punk next door?’

Shaking her head, Rosa insisted nothing was amiss. Theo was just talking shit. She could see Jack didn’t believe her for a minute.

‘It was that old git next door, wasn’t it?’

Theo picked up his deflated football and began kicking it at the wall making a regular thumping sound. As though he had been waiting for a signal, the bloke next door banged on the wall, and began shouting at Theo to shut the fuck up. Theo giggled.

‘I bloody knew it.’

Jack spun on his heel and strode out of the room with Rosa trotting to catch up with him. At the front door she reached out and seized his arm.

‘What you doing, Jack? Don’t make no trouble. It’s us got to live here.’

‘Shut it, ma. That old fucker ain’t nothing but trouble. I’m going to shut him up, once and for all. That’s all. Don’t fuss. I aint’ gonna hurt him, not unless I have to.’

‘Leave it, Jack. He ain’t worth the trouble.’

‘No, but you are. No one gets away with pissing you off, not if I can help it.

‘He ain’t pissed me off, he –’

‘Well, he’s pissed me off.’

He shook himself free of her grasp and went out. He wasn’t gone for long. When he returned he seemed energised. There was a lightness in his stride and a brightness in his eyes.

‘Oh Jack, what you gone and done?’

‘It needed sorting and someone had to do it.’

‘What’s that on your hand?’

Jack glanced at a wide streak of blood on the back of his hand. Theo stared at it too, his eyes wide with admiration.

‘That?’ Jack said with a dismissive shrug. ‘Ain’t nothing. It ain’t as if it’s mine.’

He laughed loudly. Watching him, Theo clapped his hands together and giggled. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’ he crooned, over and over.

‘Oh shut up for fuck’s sake,’ Rosa grumbled. ‘He’s been saying that all afternoon.’

‘Come on,’ Jack urged his brother. ‘Show us how to kick a ball.’

He handed the flat football to Theo and sat down, watching as his brother kicked the ball repeatedly against the wall.

‘That’s great, Theo. You keep it up.’

‘He can do that for hours,’ Rosa said proudly. ‘The doctor said exercise is good for him.’

‘I ought to get him a new football,’ Jack mused. ‘That one’s shit. Of course a new ball’s going to be full of air, and really hard. It’ll make a lot more noise as it hits the wall.’

He looked at Rosa and grinned.

13

T
HERE WASN’T MUCH
else Geraldine could usefully do that night. Realising how tired she was, she followed Adam’s advice and went home. Once there, she regretted having left her desk. Although she had no appetite she fixed herself some supper, and switched the television on. There was nothing worth watching so she picked up a book and tried to read. But whatever she did, it was impossible not to think about the case. The general mood at the station had been upbeat, most officers seeming to agree with Sam. Even if they hadn’t yet managed to put David’s killer behind bars, at least they now had a suspect. The trouble was, Geraldine wasn’t convinced they were after the right man. She had a number of reservations going round and round in her mind. It was maddening. Eventually she gave up trying to read and jotted down her questions. The next morning she would go into work early and raise them with Adam. With that decision made, she went to bed and fell asleep almost straight away. It had been an exhausting day.

The following morning she requested an early meeting with Adam. He greeted her even more coldly than usual. At pains to present a calm and measured outward appearance at work, she suspected he was mortified by his outburst the previous day. She wanted to assure him that she wouldn’t tell anyone about it, but she wasn’t sure how to approach the subject. In the end she decided not to mention it at all. He would learn for himself that she was discreet. Instead of referring to his conduct, she read him her list of concerns.