When Kay followed Barnes into the incident room the next morning, she spotted a familiar figure in the office behind her desk, his back turned to the room.
She wandered across and hovered at the threshold, running an appraising eye over the cardboard boxes under the windowsill, the contents only filling half of each.
The topmost drawer to a filing cabinet was open with various folders and documents strewn over the top of hanging files.
‘You’re going then?’ she said.
Devon Sharp glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow, a sheaf of loose papers in his hand.
The Detective Chief Inspector was rarely seen at the town centre police station due to his responsibilities growing to include more time spent at the new Kent Police headquarters, but his presence was always welcomed by the team.
Ex-military police, his close-cropped hair greyer these days, he still walked with the agility of someone who exercised regularly. His charcoal-coloured suit jacket bore the tell-tale marks of a man who had spent the morning shredding inconsequential documents, and Kay’s mouth twitched as she crossed the room to where he stood.
He leaned against his desk with a stifled groan and loosened his tie. ‘The Chief Super’s made it quite clear that she expects me to join the rest of her team at the new headquarters in Northfleet now that Sutton Road is closed. I’ve tried arguing the point that I prefer being here so I can be hands on, but my argument is moot. Times are changing, Kay.’
‘It’s the end of an era, guv.’ She turned her attention away from his pitiful attempts at packing for a moment while voices and ringing telephones filtered through from the incident room.
‘It is, isn’t it?’ He rubbed his fingers across the pockmarked surface of the desk. ‘Apparently, I’ve been given new furniture over there.’
‘Thank God for that.’ Kay patted the metal arm of one of the visitor chairs. ‘We’ve been telling you for years that this stuff is falling apart.’
She frowned as he ran a hand over weary eyes. ‘Are you all right, guv?’
‘Politics, that’s all. It comes with the territory unfortunately.’
Kay pursed her lips. ‘Doesn’t sound good.’
‘It isn’t. Anyway, tell me about the investigation.’ He got to his feet. ‘How are you getting on?’
‘I was about to brief the team. Would you like to join us?’
‘I will, thanks – I’m due at a media conference in an hour so I’d like to make sure our information is up to date.’
‘Give me a moment, and we’ll make a start.’
She wandered out of his office and over to a water cooler, poured a cupful then took another over to where Sharp mingled with the rest of the investigative team as they gathered around the whiteboard.
Her mentor had always had a way with people, listening to younger and less experienced officers, doling out advice where needed and trying to remain part of the team he had led for so long before receiving a well-deserved promotion three years ago.
He took the cup of water from her with a grin. ‘I take it the coffee’s still shit, then?’
The gathered officers laughed, and then Kay signalled to them that the briefing was starting.
‘Thanks for all your hard work yesterday – I appreciate it was a long shift,’ she said. ‘Let’s start with Carl Taylor. Does anyone have any further updates with regard to where he was found?’
‘Guv.’ Laura rose to her feet. ‘Lucas confirmed that it’s going to be Thursday before the soft tissue thaws out enough that he can conduct a proper post mortem.’
‘It is what it is – he can’t risk warming up Carl’s body too fast,’ said Kay. ‘He thought it would be Friday before he could do Will’s post mortem. Any news from Harriet’s office about the car that Carl was found in? Someone drove it and parked it on O’Connor’s forecourt, so is there any trace evidence?’
‘Whoever did it was careful, guv,’ said Gavin as Laura took her seat once more. ‘Harriet says the steering wheel, gearstick and door handles were all wiped down with bleach and she thinks whoever was driving was wearing full PPE – overalls, gloves, the lot – similar to what she and her team wear.’
A collective groan filled the room.
‘But,’ said Gavin, raising his voice over the noise, ‘she has managed to find a hair in the headrest of the car, and there was dirt in the footwell, which she’s sending off to be analysed.’
‘What’s the timeframe on the soil testing?’ said Kay.
‘Two weeks.’
‘Shit.’ Kay sighed, added the updates to the board, and then turned back to face her team. ‘Who’s been running background checks on Carl Taylor?’
‘Me, guv.’ Phillip Parker raised his hand. ‘Carl started working as a delivery driver four years ago after being made redundant from his job as a manager at a retail outlet in town here. Simon Thomas reports no issues with his work – Carl was the sort of bloke who turned up fifteen minutes before his shift. Thomas’s words were “conscientious”. Nothing on our records about him, not even a speeding fine.’
‘Was that why Thomas selected him to train up Will Nivens?’
‘Yes – he said Carl had been good at getting their apprentices up to speed without cutting corners. Will was the third to join the company this year.’
‘Thanks, Phillip.’ Kay ran her thumb down the side of the report the HOLMES2 database generated and eyed the next actions to cover.
‘When Tim Wallace reached the truck’s location yesterday afternoon, both back tyres were flat and it looked as if a knife had been used to slash them,’ she said. ‘Where’s Debbie?’
A hand shot up from the back of the group. ‘Here, guv.’
‘Could you work with Phillip to have a look at the CCTV footage along Carl’s route on Friday, particularly the last drop he made before the truck was abandoned? I want to know when those tyres were slashed and whether someone did this while he was parked at his last drop-off to create a slow puncture.’
Sharp nodded as he listened. ‘Meaning by the time he got to that lane where the truck was found, he’d have had no choice but to pull over.’
‘They were ambushed, guv,’ said Barnes. ‘They were deliberately made to stop there, then murdered.’
Kay took a step back from the whiteboard and eyed the map Gavin had tacked to the cork board beside it before turning to back to the team. ‘Barnes – I want you with me when I speak to Louise Nivens, Will’s mum, after this briefing. Gavin, Laura – get yourselves over to Ann O’Connor’s place and speak to her about her husband’s used car business. If she’s chasing him for money, she might know why Carl’s body was dumped there. I want to know more about their business arrangements at that restaurant they owned, and since.’
‘Yes, guv.’ Laura lowered her head and turned to a new page in her notebook.
‘In the meantime, Debbie, can you work through the list of the places that were on Carl’s route last Friday and split them between us? I want all the interviews conducted by the end of today. I also need someone to follow up the tachograph data from Simon Thomas to find out exactly when that truck pulled over, and when the temperature was turned down.’
‘Understood, guv.’
‘Thanks.’ Kay rested her hands on her hips and exhaled. ‘We need to make some good progress today, everyone, and I’m grateful for the effort you’ve put in so far. We’ve got a long way to go to find out why these two men were targeted but don’t make the mistake of rushing – we’re going to need every lead and piece of evidence we can get. We’ll reconvene tomorrow. Dismissed.’