The mournful opening piano arpeggios of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ tinkled away down the earpiece of the phone.
‘Hello, Bailey,’ said Frank, the music cutting out. ‘I’m glad you called.’
Bailey opened her eyes.
‘She was my cellmate, you know.’
‘Who?’
‘Sharon Finn. The one who just got scalped.’
‘Oh… I’m sorry.’
‘I wasn’t close to her. In fact, I didn’t really like her one bit. And I think she was onto me. I guess I should almost be glad that she’s no longer a threat in that respect. But I wouldn’t wish her fate on anyone. It was pretty unpleasant.’
‘That’s an understatement. I saw the crime scene photos.’
‘How are her family taking it?’
‘Well… it turns out she’s estranged from most of them. We spoke to an aunt, who seems to be the only one who was on speaking terms with her. Reading between the lines, she screwed over most of her close relatives at one point or another, they all hated her and none of them are particularly surprised that something like this has happened to her. Still, I thought it best to recommend a closed-casket funeral all the same.’
‘Please tell me the canteen CCTV captured something useful.’
‘I’m afraid not. You can just see the edge of the kitchen door opening but you can’t see who went in because they were outside the camera’s cone of vision. Whoever did it is well aware of the limits of CCTV coverage within the prison.’
‘Shit!’ She chewed on her knuckle. ‘This messes up everything, you know. If we assume that it was the same person who scalped and murdered all of them – Alice, Poodle, Natalie, Sharon – then it can’t have been the gang because they were with me when Sharon was killed. We were being told off by one of the prison officers. And Terry can’t have been involved because he was in police custody.’
‘Like I said, I’m glad you called when you did because I’ve got some news for you on that front.’
‘What news?’
‘We’re going to have to release him.’
‘What?! Release Terry? Why?!’
‘No evidence. We didn’t find any drugs on his person, in his car or at his house. He’s not saying anything and there’s very little we can do about it. Either your intel was wrong or he’s much more careful than we gave him credit for.’
‘Fuck! I saw him delivering the drugs with my own eyes. He’s guilty as hell!’
‘As you well know, without a wire we can’t prove anything.’
She sighed in frustration. She understood how it worked.
‘It just doesn’t add up though,’ she said. ‘Something else is going on here. It’s not the gang who have been doing the killings. These murders… I’m getting the feeling they may not even be drug-related at all.’
‘It doesn’t matter. Forget about it. We’re pulling you out.’
‘What?! Why?!’
‘Like I said at the start, the funding for this operation is coming from the drugs squad, and that’s the primary reason that you were inserted – to uncover the drugs ring. But the problem is that Terry and the gang will be much more careful from now on, now that they know they’re being watched. There’s no telling how long it’ll be before they resume their trafficking operations to the extent where it makes sense to monitor them properly. So it’s been decided that it would be a waste of time and money to keep you in there any longer. It’s therefore been decided to terminate the operation due to budgetary restraints.’
‘But what about Alice?’
‘What about her?’
‘Don’t you want to find out who killed her?’
‘Of course I do. That’s why the murder detectives are there.’
‘But they aren’t any closer to finding out who did it than they were at the beginning. I’m the best shot you’ve got at finding out who killed her and you know it.’
‘Look, Bailey, it made sense for you to investigate the murders if it seemed like they might tie into the drugs. But now that’s finished for the time being, there’s no reason for you to be in there any longer. The operation is over. We’re pulling you out.’
‘I’m not leaving,’ she said bluntly.
‘You’re what?’ She could visualise the disbelieving expression on his face.
‘You heard me. I’m staying.’
‘That’s insubordination.’
‘I have to find out who killed Alice. And the other girls. And I have to find out why. I owe it to her.’
‘You’re letting it get personal. That’s not professional.’
‘You could have used someone else instead of me, but you knew Alice was my friend and you knew that because of that I’d be much more motivated to get to the bottom of whatever was happening in here. And now you want me to forget about her?’
‘I’m worried about you, Bailey,’ he said gently. ‘You’re in there all alone with no backup and I’m worried that the psychological pressure of working undercover is getting to you. Maybe I made a mistake in asking you to come back. Maybe you weren’t ready.’
‘You didn’t make a mistake. And I appreciate that you care about me. I know that you cared about Alice in the same way. And I know that you’re itching to find out what happened to her just like I am. You owe it to her almost as much as I do. She was one of us, remember?’
There was a silence on the other end of the phone. She knew she had him on the fence.
‘Bailey, I don’t have any choice in the matter. The drugs squad own this operation and they’re the ones who—’
‘Tell them I’m working a new angle,’ she said. ‘Tell them anything. Just stall them until I’ve found out a bit more information. Something’s going on in here, Frank. Something very odd. And I’m determined to get to the bottom of it. It killed Alice. And it killed Poodle, Natalie and Sharon. And if I’m not mistaken it’s going to kill more inmates before we’re through. And we don’t want their blood on our hands, do we?’
‘Nice to know you care about them even if they’d likely kill you if they found out who you really were.’
Ignoring him, she pressed on. ‘You’ll do it won’t you, Frank? You’ll stall the drugs squad for me. You’ll buy me a little more time.’
There was another silence, a longer one. And then an audible sigh.
‘All right, Bailey. You win. I forgot just how stubborn you can be. I guess that’s one of the reasons you’re so good. You never give up.’ He paused. ‘You’ve got two weeks, maximum. If you can’t establish anything solid by then, we’re pulling you out. End of story.’