On the Loose(37)

‘It’s not a mistake,’ Bryant explained, ‘it’s a threat. Janice, get everyone together, will you? I think we should talk to them in our new briefing room.’

‘And where might that be?’ asked Longbright.

‘The big black-painted room opposite. They can sit on the floor and take notes.’

‘I’m not one to make a fuss, but there are rats.’

‘Let Crippen out. He’ll take care of them. I’ll be there in a minute.’ Bryant tore open a cardboard carton and dragged out a stack of books. As May watched, his partner seemed to be reversing the ageing process, becoming visibly younger and happier before his eyes.



It had taken only one working day for the team to re-create a semblance of their old offices. Now they had time to reacquaint themselves with each other. ‘Hey, Jack.’ Dan Banbury held out his hand to Renfield. ‘How have you been coping for the last month?’

‘Just been getting on with it,’ replied the taciturn sergeant.

‘Raymond, I thought you were determined to stay retired,’ said May.

‘Yes, I thought so too,’ Land admitted despondently.

‘Come on, everyone, this is great, we’re all here again, feel the love, group hug,’ said Bimsley. Someone threw a piece of wood at him.

Giles Kershaw had popped in from the Coroner’s Office in Camley Street to welcome his old friends back and offer them his limited facilities at the morgue. Even Meera accepted a bear hug from Colin Bimsley, telling herself that it would probably never happen again.

When Bryant entered the room he received a round of applause. ‘All right, you lot,’ he called, ‘settle down, we’re losing time. John, run through the salient points, will you?’

May stepped forward. ‘In order to make this work we have to be very organised,’ he told them. ‘I know the place is a dump—we won’t even have a functioning bathroom until Friday at the earliest, so you’ll have to use the one in the pub opposite—but the freedom we have does give us a few advantages.’

‘The Home Office won’t be able to find us,’ remarked Bimsley, causing laughter.

‘That’s true, we have a few days in hand before the old restrictions kick in. They want this so-called “gang killing” dealt with before word gets out, and we have to work with them. If they’ve covered up our existence, the press won’t know where to look for us, but even so I reckon we only have two or three days’ grace. You’ll have read Janice’s notes on what we have so far, which isn’t much at all—no positive ID on the body, no cause of death, no motive, no suspects.’

‘Situation normal, then,’ said Meera. There was more laughter.

‘We have an approximate date of demise—a week ago, around last Tuesday—we think our victim was a welder, and he probably wasn’t killed on the site. Islington CID’s only suspect has been released on bail. A gentleman named Rafi Abd al-Qaadir—have I pronounced that right?—who purchased the shop’s lease. Oh, and the original owner of the property has been traced to Nigeria. We’re waiting for the Lagos police to interview him, but you won’t be surprised to hear that they’re being uncooperative and are refusing to tell us when that will be.’

‘So we have no leads at all?’ asked Banbury. ‘I don’t know how we’re supposed to work without access to police databases.’

‘I found traces of mud that appear to match the construction site up the road,’ said Kershaw, ‘where they’re building the new King’s Cross development. But it’s all over the area, trodden into the pavements and gutters. It’s probably just transferred material.’

‘Unfortunately,’ said May, ‘there are more welders and general building workers in King’s Cross than anywhere else in London right now, which is going to make your job much harder. Start with all the site foremen, see if they’re missing anyone. We need to hit all the shops on the Cally Road and find out if anyone saw the door to number seventy-three being forced. Try the tattoo parlours in Camden, see if there’s anything unusual about the ivy-wreath tattoo. And find out whether anyone noticed a van parked outside the shop at night.’

‘Vans park along there all the time after six-thirty p.m.,’ Ban-bury pointed out.

‘Ask anyway. Janice has a task list, and you’ll see that everyone has been assigned a specific set of duties over the next few days. It’s by-the-book stuff, and we stick to it until we get a break. Giles, if you could spare the time I’d like you to take a look at the location with Dan. We’re treating it as a murder site. The place is full of plaster dust and timber—whoever did this must have left something behind. I’m sorry we haven’t got any safety kit or any Airwaves—you’ll have to use your mobiles to contact us, but it’s not as if you’ll be requesting S019.1 Any questions?’