The snowfall had intensified.
‘Bloody hell,’ Rice said, firing up his car. ‘It’s practically a blur.’
‘Go slow,’ Gardner said.
He edged the vehicle out. ‘And having just considered breaking my land speed record. Excellent advice!’
Watching Rice as he gripped the steering wheel and focused intently through the windscreen, Gardner delivered Sam Midgely’s story to Barnett by phone.
After the call, Rice asked, ‘Are we planning on getting some sleep this evening, boss?’
‘Depends on what Ray finds out, I guess.’
‘Jesus, would you look at this!’
‘Look is probably not the right word.’
Rice’s wipers were flailing against the thickening blanket on the windscreen, obscuring most of the outside world, including, most concerningly, other vehicles and road markings.
Rice slowed to a crawl. And yet, despite this, each turn and press on the brakes were still a cautious dance.
Gardner’s phone glowed and vibrated.
‘Nah, not Ray,’ Rice said. ‘RoboCop wouldn’t even be that fast.’
Her pulse quickened when she saw the name on the screen.
Cecile Metcalf.
The promised returned call.
She glanced at Rice. Letting him on to what was going on here was a complete non-starter. No good could come from him discovering she was trying to locate one of his sworn enemies.
Still, no chance she was ignoring this call, and she wouldn’t be stepping out into this blizzard… so, she’d just have to be discreet. She answered. ‘Cecile.’
‘I’m sorry about earlier. It seems the northern infrastructure doesn’t cater for telecommunication. What happened to “levelling up”?’
‘Cecile… it’s a yes from me.’
‘Sorry?’
‘Earlier… the image?’
‘Ah, okay… I sense you’re busy right now…’
She glanced at Rice. He appeared to have all his attention on the deathtrap of a road, but he’d be listening. Of that, she was certain.
‘Yes, but I need it in a nutshell.’
‘You won’t like the nutshell… Look, I’ll call as soon as it’s convenient—’
‘No!’ She took a deep breath, realising she’d raised her voice slightly. She glanced over at Rice who quickly threw her a concerned look before being forced to return his attention to the road. ‘I’m snowed under, but please fill me in.’
‘Snowed under,’ Rice murmured, sniggering to himself. The bastard was certainly paying close attention.
Cecile sighed. ‘He’s fallen in with a bad crowd.’
Gardner shook her head. She made it sound as if Riddick was her wayward son or something. ‘Who?’
Cecile sighed again. ‘A very bad crowd. A dangerous one. The place he’s staying at… well… Emma, you’re really not going to like it.’
She wanted to scream, ‘Get to the bloody point,’ but she was already failing miserably at being discreet before throwing that into the mix.
‘A squat. You saw on the picture. A run-down one. Shit. There’s drug dealing going on. I’ve watched several junkies going in and out. Brief visits. It’s clear they’re scoring… I’m sorry, Emma.’
Doesn’t mean it’s him! ‘How sure?’
‘Crystal clear. Like I said. I haven’t seen Paul dealing, specifically, but he’s definitely in there.’
Not good. ‘There’ll be a reason.’
Gardner glanced at Rice, who threw her another inquisitive look. She glared at him and mouthed, ‘Piss off! It’s personal.’
He shrugged.
Gardner said to Cecile, ‘This won’t be what you think.’
‘I want to believe you, but… I don’t know…’
I need to speak with him. Gardner opened her mouth to make the request. ‘I’ll—’
‘I’ll speak to him… tomorrow,’ Cecile interrupted.
No. This is my problem. ‘Let me.’
‘Too dangerous.’
‘And it isn’t the same for you?’ She took a deep breath. She could sense Rice’s wandering eyes again. ‘Look, it’s me or nothing. I’ll text you later, okay?’
‘Relax, I know what I’m doing, and I can take all emotion out of the equation. I promised I’d get to the bottom of this, and I will.’
‘I said I’ll speak to you later—’
‘Of course. Look, I’m going home to rest. Let’s speak first thing. Good night.’
The phone cut off. Shit.
Feeling irritated, she willed Rice not to ask the inevitable question.
‘You sure everything’s okay?’
‘What didn’t you understand about piss off, Phil?’
Rice widened his eyes. ‘Woah. Sorry, boss. Just worried about—’
‘You’re one of the most thoughtful nosey bastards I’ve ever met. It’s about ex-husbands, and marital issues… things you’d prefer to know nothing about,’ Gardner said. ‘Now, keep your eyes on the second ice age.’
She shook her head, suddenly feeling like she was going out of her mind.
Riddick… drug den… dealing…
What was she supposed to do with all of that?
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and focused.
This was up to her. Not Cecile.
She opened her phone and texted Cecile, keeping a lookout for Rice’s wandering eyes.
She waited for a reply. None came. Maybe she was driving.
Later, she’d get that address and, tomorrow, at some point, she’d go and drag him out of this squat.
As they drove back into Knaresborough, Gardner’s phone kicked up again.
‘Ray,’ she said, looking at the screen.
‘Just when I thought there might be an outside chance of getting to bed,’ Rice muttered.
Gardner answered the phone.
Barnett went straight into it. ‘Okay, I got the CCTV footage from St James retail park and the industrial sites on Grimbald Crag.’
Gardner and Rice listened as Barnett confirmed the first part of Sam’s story. Ten past eight. Sam, hood up on his eagle hoodie, bolted out of the McDonald’s, having just assaulted the server. He sprinted right across the wide car park, until he reached the raised cut-through that zig-zagged once before breaking out on to Grimbald Crag Close. Kids often gathered in that cut-through at night. It was a blind spot for CCTV, and so a suitable place for smoking and underage drinking.
‘The camera on the industrial estate picks up the Mercedes that Sam described, turning left off Grimbald Crag Way onto the Close. The car, as claimed, slides up alongside the cut-through.’
Gardner recalled Sam’s confession. ‘At first, we thought it was someone’s mother, but then she just wound down the window. She wasn’t young or old. Around your age. She asked if anyone wanted to earn some money. Easy money. One hundred quid. Obviously, everyone wanted in, but I wasn’t letting that one slide. Jim started arguing with me, but changed his mind when he saw how definite I was. It was mine. And he knew. She told me to get in the back of the car.’
Barnett continued his report. ‘Sam jumps into the back of the Merc. The driver spins the car and turns right back out onto Grimbald Crag Way. I’m still waiting on ANPR to see if we can track the vehicle’s movements.’
If Sam was to be believed, and, so far, she saw no reason to doubt these events, he was driven up York Road, into town, and dropped off at the top of Jockey Lane. There, he’d go on to fulfil his task.
‘She just said, grab the tied plastic bag, and head down to a black BMW parked behind the library. She gave me the registration too, but I only remembered the first half when I got to it. YT24. It was enough. When she started telling me about the treasure chest, I thought she was completely mad, but she’d been waving a hundred quid at me for a while now. So, I thought, why not? She told me to get into the car, find the treasure chest and empty the contents of the bag into it. She only had two other clear instructions. First, I should remove whatever was already inside the treasure chest and chuck it. Second, I shouldn’t look in the plastic bag until the last moment because getting it out in public would be dangerous.’
‘So,’ Barnett continued. ‘I’ve sent someone to retrieve the plastic skull from the bin outside the library, and I also found out who this Mercedes belongs to.’
Gardner looked at Rice who was desperate to know what Barnett was telling her.
One thing was for certain: they weren’t getting home and out of the weather that easily.