As DI Downes called Ruby inside, she threw her eyes over the empty takeaway cartons on his desk. His office stank of last night’s curry. The tie loosely hanging around his neck harboured a matching stain, and she wondered if he had slept in his clothes. They had finished just before two, which meant she was motoring with only a couple of hours’ sleep in the tank. Not that it was worth mentioning. By the look on Downes’s face, he was in no mood to offer sympathy.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked, doing her best to project a look of confusion.
‘Don’t pretend you don’t know,’ Downes said. After catching her disapproving glance, he turned to throw the takeaway wrappers in the bin, still grumbling as he opened the window, allowing the spicy smell an escape. Spikes of rain dappled the blinds as they swung from left to right. Wind and rain were gathering outside with the promise of a storm. It was going to be a rotten day. ‘I’m no eejit,’ Downes grumbled, taking a seat in his swivel chair. ‘And I’ve known you too long to believe you’re in the dark about this.’
Ruby leant against the side of his desk. It was too late to change tack now. ‘Boss, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, but it better be good for you to drag me in here at this ungodly hour. Is it the murder case? You know I still think Danny Smedley could be telling the truth.’
Arms folded, Downes delivered a relentless stare, as if he was trying to see into her soul. But lengthy silences meant nothing to Ruby. She was the queen of long pauses and would be the last person to crack.
‘It’s Nathan Crosby,’ he relented. ‘The drugs squad carried out a raid on his home last night, and they found evidence connecting him with Ellie Mason’s murder.’
Ruby’s eyes widened. It was hard enough hearing it from Nathan, but it still felt like a hammer blow to the stomach to hear it from her superior officer. Deep down, she had hoped that Nathan had got it wrong. ‘Evidence? What evidence? You’re having me on, right?’
‘Do I look like I’m joking?’ Downes said, with a face as thunderous as the storm clouds outside. ‘He’s wanted for murder.’
‘Wanted for murder? So he’s not been arrested yet?’ Ruby said, repeating Downes’s words for effect.
She knew she could trust Jack enough to tell him that she had spoken to Nathan, but she could not trust herself. Downes had a way of getting around her. In no time at all he would be persuading her to make Nathan turn himself in. She could see it now: him clasping his hands over hers, his soft honeyed voice convincing her that if Nathan were innocent, he would have nothing to be concerned about. But she knew that was not true. Nathan had plenty to worry about, and so did she. She could not bear to think of him spending time in police custody, where officers would be tempted to administer some justice of their own. He was at the top of his empire, but there were always people willing to topple him down. She could not afford to tell Downes anything, and once again she found herself being put in an impossible situation as her loyalties were tested.
‘It’s got to be a mistake,’ Ruby said. ‘What did they find?’
‘Well, I’m hardly likely to tell you that now, am I?’ Downes said. ‘Don’t you see? I can’t allow you to handle this case. It’s a conflict of interest.’ A gust of wind whooped in through the window, scattering a pile of paperwork onto the floor. ‘Feck’s sake,’ Downes grumbled, slamming the windowpane shut.
Together they picked up the paperwork from the thinly carpeted floor. Ruby contemplated Downes’s outburst: so that was why he was so annoyed, it wasn’t just about her. If DCI Worrow found out about her connection with the Crosby family, Downes would get his arse kicked for allowing her to handle the case. Ruby stacked the pile of overtime sheets back onto his desk. She would not beg, but she had to find a way of keeping ownership. She stood firm, grateful they were the only ones in the darkened office. Soon her team would be filtering in, and she did not want them to witness their disagreement. She closed the blinds, blocking out the view into the office that housed her team. Downes’s office was situated across the room from hers, and both were contained on the expansive floor that made up Shoreditch Serious Crime Unit. Satisfied her conversation was private, she turned to her DI.
‘You can’t take me off the case, people will ask questions.’ No reply. She took it as a good sign and continued. ‘It’s not the first time I’ve been compromised, is it?’ she said, referring to her previous case, the door-knocker killer. ‘But that turned out OK.’
Downes grunted. ‘If you call nearly getting killed “turning out OK”. What if you find some potentially damning evidence against the Crosby family, what then?’
‘I think that ship has sailed, don’t you?’ Ruby said. ‘If you remove me from the case, the team will be asking why. Nobody will know about my connection with Nathan, not unless you tell them.’ She softened her voice, touching Downes on the arm. His muscles tensed beneath her fingers, and she slowly drew her hand away. ‘Boss, please,’ she said, hoping her face would speak the truth, because she meant what she was about to say. ‘I won’t defend a murderer, especially after he’s killed a girl young enough to be my daughter. Neither would I allow a man to blinker me from finding out the truth. You do believe me, don’t you?’
Downes gnawed on his thumbnail as he mulled it over. ‘If we find out that Nathan Crosby’s responsible, you can’t put the brakes on. You have to see it through to the end. But if you can’t do that, you need to step away from this investigation now.’
Ruby was quick to respond. ‘I’ll find justice for Ellie. Think about it, I have an insight to the Crosby family, and yes, of course, I’d be investigating the possibilities of planted evidence. But I’ll see it from both sides, and maybe bring in some new suspects. I heard about the post-mortem. Nathan’s no surgeon.’
‘Maybe, but . . .’
‘I’ll be privy to some good intel, and you can always overturn my findings if you don’t agree.’ Ruby could see he was softening. Her heart lit like a beacon; she was winning him over. ‘I promise I won’t impact on this case in a negative way. You know I’m the right person to oversee this. Please.’ She stared at him, her dark eyes beseeching.
Downes nodded wearily, handing her the folder on his desk. ‘It’s the photographs of the evidence found under Crosby’s bed. It’s not pretty. They’re undergoing testing but we’re confident they belong to Ellie Mason.’
Slipping them from the folder, she flicked through the crime scene photos. The organs were contained in a zip-locked plastic bag within a macabre black-ribboned gift box. Zip-lock was good, it would explain why Nathan didn’t smell the freshly harvested organs when he proclaimed his innocence.
‘And anything else?’ Ruby said. ‘Any drugs?’
‘No,’ Downes said, ‘nothing was found.’
‘Of course it wasn’t. Nathan may be a lot of things but he’s not stupid. You know as well as I do that he wouldn’t keep coke in his house. That warrant was a bit convenient, don’t you think?’
Downes rubbed his chin, for once short of words.
‘C’mon, why keep a set of organs under his bed? It’s obvious what’s going on here, Jack. You must see that.’
‘Then why has he run away? If he’s so innocent, why didn’t he stand his ground? It’s not as if he can’t afford the best lawyers.’
‘Well, would you blame him? I’d do the same thing in his shoes. Evidence is evidence, and a lot of people won’t care who planted it there as long as he gets banged up.’
A door closed in the distance, and Ruby peeped through the blinds as lights were switched on. ‘It’s Ash,’ she said. ‘He’s in early. I’ll put the kettle on, make us a cuppa before they all roll in. Everything’s gonna be OK, I can feel it in my bones.’ But she was trying to convince herself more than anything, and Downes was not finished with her yet.
‘Ruby…’
‘Yes?’ she said, as nonchalantly as she could.
‘When you talk to him, and you will talk to him, you tell him to hand himself in. The longer he stays away, the worse it looks.’ Another rub of the chin. ‘Ask yourself: if what you’re saying is true, and he’s been set up, what the hell has he done to deserve this sort of revenge?’
‘I’ve already asked the Crosbys to provide a list of people who hold grudges—’ Her words jolted to a halt as she realised she had let the cat out of the bag. She cringed as he thumped a hand on her shoulder, but Downes was smiling, a bemused look on his face.
‘I knew you were lying. Very well, we’ll do it your way. But put a foot wrong and we’re both for the high jump. Don’t let me down.’
‘I won’t, I promise,’ Ruby said, grateful that at least she had said ‘The Crosbys’ instead of Nathan’s name.
‘Update your enquiries under “Operation Lancelot”. I’ll grant permission to carry out internal checks on Crosby and his acquaintances. It’ll do ya some good to find out what’s going on with that lot.’
Ruby nodded. She may have let her knowledge of the case slip but she was pleased with the clearance to carry on background checks. It would have been tricky otherwise. Hinting she was on the side of the Crosbys was enough bait for Jack to insist that she check them out. She knew all along that was what he had wanted – for her to see the Crosbys for what they really were. She was under no illusions as to what they did for a living, but his reaction suited her just fine. Now she had carte blanche to do as she wished with the investigation. She turned to leave, trying not to look too smug.
Downes’s voice echoed behind her. ‘Just don’t forget who you’re dealing with. And if you do bump into Nathan Crosby, I expect you to nick him and bring him in. But call for backup. In a situation like this they’re capable of anything.’
‘Yes, boss.’ Ruby rolled her eyes, glad the blinds were shut so he could not see her reflection. Nathan would never hurt her and, whatever she discovered about him or his family, she would never allow it to come between them. So why did she feel so nervous about digging into his past?
Her phone beeped with a Facebook message from her daughter, worrying about her dad. Ruby shoved it back in her pocket. She would speak to her later. Try to offer reassurance. Tell her that Nathan would soon be in the clear. Because he would, wouldn’t he? A rumble of thunder from outside halted her thoughts, filling her with a sudden sense of dread.