March 9, 10.15 p.m.
Harper stood up in front of Blue Team. ‘Let Lukanov go. Sign him out, tell him we’ve got nothing.’
The rest of the team looked up. ‘What’s the story?’ said Garcia.
‘He’s giving us nothing.’
‘He’s our prime,’ said Swanson. ‘Let’s get the judge to give us some extra time. We can break him.’
‘He’s a foot soldier,’ said Harper. ‘Maybe he bought the barbed wire, maybe he took it to the compound, but he isn’t our guy. He gave us Heming. We need to concentrate on finding Heming.’
‘What about the compound?’ said Garcia.
‘We checked it out. It’s been torched. Presumably because of the heat on Section 88.’
‘What makes you so sure Lukanov wasn’t part of it?’
Harper looked across at Denise Levene. She nodded. ‘He’s part of the organization, all right, but he’s not the killer. Marisa Cohen was killed after he was arrested.’
‘He attacked Denise and you. We don’t let some sick racist scum out for nothing. He’s still the only suspect we got.’
‘He’s our only link to Heming. We got to take a chance.’
‘There might’ve been a few guys. This guy might’ve been there, watching.’
‘Eddie, give them the low-down.’
‘His girlfriend puts him at home all night.’
‘His fucking girlfriend. The bleach blonde in the hot pants with the Nazi tattoos? Like she’s a good fucking alibi.’
Harper nodded and looked across. ‘There’s enough to discount him. But listen up. He’s involved somehow, he’s just not the main man. And I want the main man. He’s our lure. Leo Lukanov will lead us to the killer.’
Harper set the surveillance operation going. The team set up the rota for a tail on Lukanov. They would let him go before midnight.
At 11.57 p.m., Leo Lukanov was released and left standing on the steps of the precinct in a state of confusion. He looked like he wasn’t sure whether it was a sick joke by the cops or just luck. He went straight home to his apartment. Behind him, just out of sight, Swanson and Greco kept up the tail.
Twenty minutes later, Lukanov took off. He got the bus to his mother’s place. Ratten and Garcia were already sitting outside in a car. No doubt he was surprised to find that the media hadn’t been anywhere near his mother.
Ten minutes after arriving he left and visited his girlfriend’s place. Harper and Kasper were sitting right outside.
Lukanov made several phone calls from his girlfriend’s house. The cops couldn’t trace them, but they could be used in evidence later.
After four hours, in the dead of night, Lukanov left his girlfriend’s building and walked home. It took him an hour to walk the streets. Harper and Kasper had to get out and follow on foot.
He entered his own apartment building for the second time at 5.08 a.m. Harper returned with Kasper to their car and headed back to the bunkhouse. Likewise, Garcia and Ratten. Swanson and Greco were the unlucky ones. They sat outside his apartment, with an unmarked police car at the service entrance at the back. At 5.42 a.m., the lights in Lukanov’s apartment finally went out.