In Devereux’s office, Hannah zoned out. There was no point listening. Everything he was saying to her was complete bollocks. All that flannel about her being the best detective for the job. Crap.
She played the game, though. Nodded along to his droning voice, hiding her contempt.
Watch me, she thought. Watch how I run this investigation. Worthless victim or not, I will find Cobb’s murderer if it’s the last thing I do as a police officer.
It was when he led her back out to the CID room that the butterflies took flight. It was like being a kid getting introduced to her new schoolmates by the teacher. She stood at the front, facing a squad she had led many times but still feeling as though she didn’t know them.
When Devereux announced that she would be lead detective on the Cobb case, she noted the surprise, even on Marcel’s face. That was to be expected. What was less reassuring was the palpable sense of unease that rippled through the room. She saw the exchanges of glances, the raised eyebrows. She was convinced she even heard someone tutting.
When Devereux handed over to her, she began to speak, but her words came out in a strangled squeak. She tried again.
‘The first thing I want to say to you is to forget what a nasty piece of work Joey Cobb was. The fact is, somebody has committed murder, and we don’t turn a blind eye to murder, no matter who the victim. We are going to catch whoever did this, and I personally will devote one hundred per cent of my efforts to achieving that aim. I hope that you will give me a similar level of dedication. If you have any qualms about that, come and talk to me. If I make any decisions you don’t like, come and talk to me. I won’t bite your head off, and if you make a good point, I promise to take it on board.’
She scanned the room for a reaction. It felt like a good start. She noted that Devereux was still hovering, and was glad of it. Although she suspected that he would continue to watch her like a hawk, waiting for her to misstep, she wanted him to hear that if she was going down, it wouldn’t be without a fight.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Where are we up to?’
Marcel – good old dependable Marcel – was the first to speak.
‘It looks like the phone was a burner. We’re getting it analysed now. We’ve also asked the mobile operator for tracking info.’
‘Okay. Stay on their backs. Let me know as soon as you have anything. What else?’
DC Trisha Lacey added her voice. ‘We’re still looking through the rubbish at the landfill site. There are still some body parts missing, but they may never come to the site. Even if they do, it’s a bloody big place. It’s possible we may never find them.’
‘Any chance of working out where the parts were originally dumped?’
‘We’re talking to management at the site. They’re analysing their logs and checking their cameras. We’re hoping they can narrow it down to just a few trucks that could have unloaded their contents there before it got compressed, and then trace it back to the pick-up routes. We’re also sifting through all the crap in the proximity by hand, hoping we find something with an address on it.’
‘That’s a lovely task. Please tell the officers involved that it was on DCI Devereux’s orders, before I took over.’
She got a laugh at this, and even a twinkle in the eye of Devereux, who then turned away and left her to it.
‘Who attended the post-mortem?’ she asked the room.
Another hand shot up. ‘That was me. The pathologist is reserving judgement on that one. There’s extensive bruising to the neck, with damage that looks to have been inflicted while Cobb was alive. There’s also a cervical fracture and pronounced injury to the spinal cord. It looks like he was grabbed hard by the throat, but in the absence of a complete body it’s difficult to be definitive about cause of death.’
‘All right, but whatever the cause, it’s clear that Cobb really pissed somebody off – someone who went to a lot of trouble to cover their tracks. Start working up a list of Cobb’s known associates and gang contacts. Find out what toes he may have stepped on.’
Hannah continued to issue instructions and take suggestions, and by the end of it she once again felt comfortable being at the helm. When she eventually retired to her office, she sat and released a long, slow breath of relief.
Marcel Lang came to her within the hour.
‘Marcel,’ she said. ‘Everything okay?’
‘News just in,’ he said. ‘Following your little speech, I thought you’d want to hear it ASAP.’
‘Go on.’
‘We’ve had sniffer dogs at the landfill site. They found something.’
‘More body parts?’
‘Better than that. A backpack.’
‘Cobb’s?’
‘We think so. We’ll get it checked for a DNA match. More interesting is what it contains.’
‘Among other things, nearly ten grand in cash and about fifteen grand’s worth of cocaine.’
‘What?’
Marcel nodded. ‘Exactly.’
Hannah gave herself a moment to allow the ramifications to sink in. This was big. Big and heavy enough to turn the world upside down.
‘I don’t get it. We’ve been assuming this is gangland. A revenge attack, or part of a turf war. That’s the world Cobb lived in. It’s the way that people like Cobb exit that world. Kill him, yes. Dismember his body, yes. Dump him in the rubbish, yes. But what gang member worth their salt would throw away twenty-five grand in cash and drugs? How does that make any sense?’
‘Exactly,’ Marcel said again.