The manilla folder left DCI Culverhouse's hand and landed with a thwack on the wooden desk. Wendy watched with interest as he rubbed his chin and grimaced, the sound of his dry hand rasping against stubble.
‘I knew it. I bloody well knew it.’
‘Knew what, guv?’ Wendy asked.
‘This Radley warehouse murder. I thought it sounded a bit familiar. Baseball bat and hydrochloric acid. It matches the MO of another murder a couple of years back. One Tanya McCann.’
‘Think I remember,’ Wendy said. ‘How can you be sure, though? Sounds a bit vague.’
‘I’m sure, all right. Firstly, we don't exactly get many people subjected to having their faces caved in with baseball bats and hydrochloric acid dumped on them on a regular basis in Mildenheath. Secondly, there are just too many links. One big link, in particular. Gary McCann.’
‘A relation?’
‘Her husband. It was him who killed her. I mean, we were never able to get the evidence to convict him, but everyone knew it was him. He's a clever sod, that McCann, and we're not going to find it any easier this time, either. Slimier than a fucking eel.’
‘But why would Gary McCann want to kill Bob Arthurs? What's the link? And why would he use the same method when he sailed so close to the wind last time?’
‘To rub our fucking noses in it, Knight. That’s what Gary McCann’s like. A proper piece of work. Now, Bob Arthurs was a partner in Radley Stationery. Let's just say that where there's a struggling business in the town, Gary McCann usually creeps up sooner or later. And so do the profits of the companies.’
‘You mean he's a loan shark?’
‘A loan shark, a fraudster, a money launderer and a downright gangster, if you ask me. As I say, we've never been able to pin any of it on him. He's too clever. He has this horrible tendency of propping up failing businesses with private loans and using the companies to launder money. Rumour has it that he's got links with Moroccan drug cartels, but that's going to be even harder to prove. Wouldn't surprise me one bit, though.’
‘If he's got that much behind him, I'm amazed we haven't been able to pin something on him yet, guv,’ Wendy said, assuming that this gangster legend was probably as enormously over-embellished as most of the other ones she’d heard over the years.
‘Like I said. He's a clever bugger. A very clever bugger.’
‘And you think he might have killed Bob Arthurs over some sort of business deal?’
‘Officially? It's too early to say. Between you and me? He's guilty as sin.’
Luke Baxter was whistling an irritating tune as he casually filed papers away in the filing cabinet. Wendy had never been particularly hot on music, but she was pretty sure that he wasn't whistling a real song. You just know when someone is whistling for the sake of it.
‘Do you fancy doing something constructive, Luke?’ Wendy asked.
‘I’m a little busy right now, Wendy. Sorry. I might have some time free this afternoon, though,’ he replied with a cocky smile.
‘Oh, might you?’ She turned to Frank Vine. ‘In that case, Frank, could you pop over to see Bob Arthurs’s family and try to find out what they know about a Gary McCann? We believe there may have been some business links. The family might not have been aware, but it's worth a shot.’
Baxter piped up again. ‘No need, Frank. I've already done that this morning.’ He smiled at Wendy.
She could feel the blood raging through her temples. ‘You what?’
‘I’ve already spoken to them. I had a tip-off that this chap McCann might have been involved so I went round and asked them on my way back here.’
‘Luke, do you have any idea who this “chap McCann” is?’
‘Yeah, a bit of a dodgy bloke, if you ask me.’
‘Dodgy doesn't come near to it, Luke, from what I’ve heard. How dare you go off on a hunch behind everyone else's back?’
Baxter stayed silent, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. Frank Vine was the first to pipe up. ‘Uh, it wasn’t behind everyone’s back. I knew.’
‘You knew? So why did you say you'd go and speak to them again?’
‘I didn’t, actually.’
‘Who else knew?’ Wendy asked, addressing the rest of the incident room. The assembled officers were now shuffling as uncomfortably as Luke Baxter. ‘Right. So when I said you went behind everyone's back, you actually just went behind my back. Why didn't you tell me too, Luke?’
‘You seemed busy.’
‘I seemed busy? Of course I seemed fucking busy; I'm in the middle of a murder investigation!’
‘All right, sorry.’
‘Sorry? Is that it?’
‘What else do you expect? I’ve apologised. Mistakes happen.’
‘Luke, the biggest mistake that happened was you being promoted to DS. You’re a smarmy, conniving little shit and treating your colleagues like dirt won’t get you anywhere. Just stay out of my way.’
Wendy left the incident room and slammed the door behind her.