Sean jangled the keys hanging from his finger. ‘Thanks, Ed. I appreciate this.’
‘Hey, all part of the service.’
Sean glanced about the estate agent’s office. The other three workstations were empty, colleagues all gone. ‘I’ll let you lock up and head home.’
‘Gym for me, first,’ Ed replied, pulling out a kitbag from beneath his desk.
Back in his car, Sean had to wait at the turning on to Whitworth Street. On the far side of the road, the neon lights of the bars lining Deansgate Locks shone through the gloom. Bathed in the glow of infrared heaters were the heads and shoulders of drinkers sitting out on the terraces. Funny, he thought, that yesterday morning, I was a few feet beneath those people’s chairs, staring into the puffy face of a corpse.
A people carrier let him out and he drove past Oxford Road train station, following Whitworth Street towards Piccadilly. As the traffic crawled across the centre of the city, his mind drifted to the meeting that had robbed them of the last part of the day. They’d gathered in a small room on an upper floor: DCI Ransford at the head of the table; Tina Small tucked in at one corner; Sergeant Troughton, the office manager beside her; Katie May, notepad perched on her lap, in a chair beside the door. Facing him and Magda across the table had been DS Dave Fuller and his partner, DC Ray Moor.
Sean and Ray Moor had clashed while doing door-to-doors on the same investigation that led to Sean exposing the incompetence of the member of DS Fuller’s little cabal: the officer now re-assigned to traffic duties down in Chester.
In the meeting, Ray was doing his best to ice Sean with his stare. Sean had met his eyes and nodded politely. ‘All right there, Ray?’
Forced into a response, the detective shifted in his seat. ‘Yeah. You?’
Sean lowered his gaze to the print-outs before him. ‘Fine, thanks. Looking forward to us working together again.’ He glanced up, caught Ray’s glare and grinned.
‘OK, ladies and gents,’ Ransford had then announced, breaking from a hushed discussion with Tina Small. ‘Let’s get going. We have a third body—’
‘That links to the two we’re already investigating,’ Magda cut in.
‘But with a drastically different MO to them,’ Fuller retorted.
‘Calm this down,’ Ransford said, both hands raised. ‘It’s a two-team approach, Magda. There’s too much now for just you and DC Blake.’
Sergeant Troughton gave a cough. ‘I understand the last call made on Kevin Rowe’s landline was to a takeaway pizza company …’
‘It was,’ Fuller said. ‘That pizza was lying beneath Rowe’s work vehicle, which was parked on his drive.’
‘And what did the pizza place have to say?’ asked Ransford.
‘I spoke to the moped driver. When he arrived at the victim’s property, a man was waiting on the street. That man said he was a friend of Rowe’s and he took delivery of the order. Paid with cash. That man was wearing an army coat, he had short hair and a gaunt face. Appeared to be somewhere in his thirties.’ Fuller had the faintest hint of a smile as he glanced in Magda’s direction. ‘Whoever it was, he knew Rowe regularly got food from the place. It was planned.’
‘And,’ Ransford prompted, ‘you mentioned there are items missing from the victim’s property?’
‘Yes: we think probably cash cards. Maybe some notes – the victim’s wallet was empty, lying open in the kitchen. Looks like the killer cleaned himself upstairs: dirty towels and extensive blood residues in the bathroom. Signs of the bedrooms being searched. One other thing that seemed, well, odd. There was a hangman’s gallows on the table just inside the front door.’
‘A gallows?’ Ransford asked. ‘How big?’
‘Oh, tiny. Size of my little finger. We bagged it as potential evidence. What else? Oh, Katie has started making enquiries with the banks.’
Ransford’s attention turned to the civilian support worker.
‘I’ve put in the request and I’m expecting a response very soon,’ she replied with a trace of nerves audible in her voice.
‘OK.’ Ransford flicked a sheet of paper over. ‘It’ll be interesting to know if his bank accounts have been accessed.’
‘But still, sir, that is secondary to the actual murder,’ Magda said. ‘Surely, that was the primary purpose of this crime?’
‘Not just kill,’ Fuller responded. ‘Tortured for quite some time, first. The facial injuries were all inflicted while the victim was alive. I believe your two murders were simple drownings?’
‘Simple drownings?’ Magda sat forward. ‘If you—’
‘Please,’ Ransford sighed. ‘The both of you will be sharing on this. Katie here will be giving full-time support. I want everything logged with her. You will all work together and you will be clear and open in your approach. Do I have your agreements? Magda?’
She took a moment before nodding. ‘Sir.’
‘Dave?’
‘Fine with me, sir.’
‘Good.’
Sean watched as twenty metres in front of his car the set of traffic lights went to green. He edged the car forward, willing the vehicles in front to move more quickly. Ambruish, he said to himself. The torment of whether you’ll get through the lights while they’re still on amber … He had just cleared the intersection when they flicked to red. Winner!
A few minutes later, he was driving into Ancoats. His apartment was at the end of the road that looked across the Islington Branch of the Ashton Canal. Gazing down at the row of bays from his new living room, he recalled the estate agent saying how, back in the 1800s, it had private wharfs for the delivery of coal, sand, salt and scrap metal.
The sudden trill of his phone made him flinch. Katie May’s name on the screen. A welcome surprise. ‘Hey there.’
‘Hi – are you OK to talk?’ Her voice was clear as crystal.
‘Yeah. What’s up?’
‘I didn’t get a chance to collar you after that meeting. What is it with DS Dragomir and DS Fuller?’
Sean smiled: the prospect of having to work alongside DS Fuller was always going to rile Magda. When she had first joined the SCU, the man had tried to bully and demean her – just like he was now trying to do with Sean. ‘She can’t stand the bloke.’
‘Really? I couldn’t have guessed. I’m wondering why.’
Sean ran the fingertips of his free hand over the rough brickwork beside the enormous window. ‘The case last year didn’t help – when DC Morris got floated.’
‘The detective who hadn’t completed a TIE, but claimed he had?’
‘That’s the one. Fuller’s never forgiven me for flagging it up. Like I could have kept quiet.’
‘Oh – I get it. She’s protective of you. That’s … sweet.’
Bloody great, Sean thought, saying nothing.
‘Isn’t it?’ Katie asked.
‘Not if people read it as Magda stopping the nasty big boys from being mean to her poor little partner.’
‘I didn’t mean it like that. More that … she has your back. That you look out for each other. A team.’
Sean suspected she was flannelling, but let it go. ‘The bloke’s an arsehole and a bully. Be ready for that now you’re also working with him.’
‘Don’t worry about me. What are you up to, anyway? Sounds like you’re in a cave or something.’
‘My new pad, actually. I just picked up the keys.’
‘You’re in there now? Really? What’s it like?’
‘In need of furniture.’
‘Facetime me! I want to have a look.’
He opened the app and selected her name from the six or seven that made up his contacts. When her face popped up, Sean saw her brown hair was scraped back. The collar of a fleece was just visible. ‘Don’t tell me you’re going on another run?’
‘Just a short one.’
‘Are you hyperactive or something?’
She smiled. ‘Come on, then. Show me round.’
‘OK.’ He turned the phone round. ‘As I’m sure madam can observe, we’re currently in the main living area. Note the galley kitchen and cooker with not four, but five gas rings – the big one in the centre being for the cooking of oriental food in what’s known as a wok.’
‘Oh, that’s simply marvellous,’ she replied, echoing the posh voice he had adopted.
‘Eye-level microwave and grill adds another touch of quality.’ He dropped the accent as he squatted before a small cabinet with a glass door. ‘This bit actually is really cool. I’ll give you three guesses.’
‘No idea. A cupboard?’
‘Come on. That’s weak.’
‘A cupboard with a glass door?’
‘It’s my wine cooler!’
‘Oooh, get you, mister.’
‘Moving on, we have what will be the lounge area.’ He stepped round a cast-iron pillar that rose up to a curved brick ceiling. ‘As you can see, I’m currently favouring the minimalist look. Until I do some shopping.’ He directed the screen about. ‘Bathroom and toilet over there.’ He crossed the wooden floor, opened a door, flicked a switch and recessed halogen lights sprang to life.
‘Is that one of those showers you just step into?’
‘Indeed it is. Wet room is the term, I am given to believe.’
‘Nice!’
He was having to make an effort to keep sounding positive. ‘Heated towel rack, too.’
‘Like a proper expensive hotel,’ she laughed.
Yes, he thought, pushing open the corner door. That’s exactly what it feels like. ‘Master bedroom. Well, the only bedroom, in fact.’ A tremor of embarrassment as he swept the camera across a vast bed with a padded velvet headboard.
‘Didn’t hold back with that, did you?’
Suddenly, he was glad not to be in the camera’s view. ‘It came as part of the deal. I just had to choose the headboard’s colour.’
‘Plum? Very … sensual.’
Suspecting his face was now a similar shade, he quickly made for the door. ‘Right. Last thing is the balcony.’ He recrossed the living area. ‘Can’t find the keys to it, but you get the idea. It’ll fit a sofa-sized bit of outdoor furniture. Maybe a little barbecue, I don’t know.’
‘Does it face west? Do you get the sunset?’
‘Yup.’
‘Lucky bastard, Sean. It’s really lovely.’
He turned the phone round, saw his tiny face in the screen’s corner. She was smiling out at him. Her lack of make-up let him see her skin was fresh and glowing. ‘Thanks. Maybe … I don’t know, you could come round some time?’
‘You mean help lug all those boxes up the stairs?’
‘No! I didn’t mean—’
‘I’m messing with you, Sean. That would be nice.’
He glanced over to the kitchen area. ‘You like Italian food? It’s what I do best.’
‘So you cook, do you?’
‘Yeah,’ Sean replied, thinking of the many years he’d spent preparing meals for himself and Janet. ‘A bit.’
‘Let’s wait for work to ease up a bit, first. But I’d love to, Sean.’
‘Great.’ He matched her tentative smile; all of a sudden, moving into the place didn’t seem quite as unsettling.