Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery) Read online

‘We’ll find him,’ she repeated. ‘He can’t stay off the radar indefinitely.’

  ‘Well, I’m going home. It’s late and I’m knackered. Why don’t you call it a day as well? There’s nothing more we can do tonight.’

  She nodded. ‘With any luck he’ll be safely locked up by tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Let’s hope so, for all our sakes.’

  12

  ROSA’S HEART POUNDED. Trembling, she snatched up her phone. In a panic she grabbed the bread knife with her other hand. She had to be prepared. Her neighbour might turn violent. Later she would worry about how to convince the police she had acted in self defence. For now all that mattered was Theo. She would stop at nothing to protect him. Quickly she pressed Jack’s number, praying that he would answer. She had no one else to turn to, but even if she got through to him straight away it might take him an hour to get home. In the living room a phone began to ring and she heard a familiar voice.

  ‘Ma? It’s me. Where are you?’

  Almost crying with relief, she ran out of the kitchen. Jack was standing in the doorway. Theo raced out of his room, wildly happy to see his brother.

  Jack stepped forward, kicking the door closed behind him. ‘Wait till you see what I got for you, bro.’

  Theo reached him in one bound, arms flapping in excitement. Rosa watched the brothers embrace with a faint pang of envy. Theo wouldn’t allow her to hug him, and Jack would never tolerate any show of affection, except from his crazy brother.

  ‘You nearly give me a heart attack, coming in like that, crashing and banging,’ she complained. ‘Why’d you have to make such a racket?’

  Jack took a step away from Theo and turned to look at her. ‘What you mean? Why you crying, woman? What you scared of?’

  She realised her mistake straight away. ‘It’s nothing, nothing at all,’ she said quickly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. ‘I ain’t scared of nothing. I just thought you was at work, that’s all.’

  He caught sight of the bread knife she was still clutching. ‘You going to shank me?’

  ‘I was thinking of making toast,’ she muttered.

  ‘Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Wait till my Jack gets home!’ Theo screeched suddenly.

  Jack frowned. ‘Who’s been upsetting you, ma?’

  ‘No one.’

  Jack turned to his brother. ‘What’s going on, kid?’

  ‘Wait till my Jack gets home,’ Theo repeated, over and over. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’

  ‘Oh yes,’ Jack said, ‘I nearly forgot, I got something for you.’

  Theo stopped talking. He giggled as Jack reached into his bag and pulled out a giant Toblerone.

  ‘Well? You want it? Huh?’

  He raised the chocolate bar as high as he could above his head but Theo grabbed it and scuttled to his room. They could hear him chortling and chattering to himself. Rosa laughed. Theo loved to squirrel things away.

  ‘It’s a wonder he ever finds anything in there,’ she said. ‘Have you looked in his room lately?’

  ‘Leave it out. He’s got little enough. I’m not surprised he wants to keep whatever he can get his hands on. You leave him alone.’

  ‘I don’t take nothing off him. And I never go in that room no more. He screams if I even touch his door.’

  Jack muttered about a person being entitled to some privacy.

  ‘I can’t even get in there to clean. It stinks in there.’

  Theo came back in the living room and stood in front of Jack. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’

  Jack nodded. ‘I hadn’t forgotten, bro. What happened? Who’s been upsetting ma?’

  Theo flapped his arms, laughing.

  Jack turned to Rosa. ‘You got to tell me, ma. Something happened. Was it that punk next door?’

  Shaking her head, Rosa insisted nothing was amiss. Theo was just talking shit. She could see Jack didn’t believe her for a minute.

  ‘It was that old git next door, wasn’t it?’

  Theo picked up his deflated football and began kicking it at the wall making a regular thumping sound. As though he had been waiting for a signal, the bloke next door banged on the wall, and began shouting at Theo to shut the fuck up. Theo giggled.

  ‘I bloody knew it.’

  Jack spun on his heel and strode out of the room with Rosa trotting to catch up with him. At the front door she reached out and seized his arm.

  ‘What you doing, Jack? Don’t make no trouble. It’s us got to live here.’

  ‘Shut it, ma. That old fucker ain’t nothing but trouble. I’m going to shut him up, once and for all. That’s all. Don’t fuss. I aint’ gonna hurt him, not unless I have to.’

  ‘Leave it, Jack. He ain’t worth the trouble.’

  ‘No, but you are. No one gets away with pissing you off, not if I can help it.

  ‘He ain’t pissed me off, he –’

  ‘Well, he’s pissed me off.’

  He shook himself free of her grasp and went out. He wasn’t gone for long. When he returned he seemed energised. There was a lightness in his stride and a brightness in his eyes.

  ‘Oh Jack, what you gone and done?’

  ‘It needed sorting and someone had to do it.’

  ‘What’s that on your hand?’

  Jack glanced at a wide streak of blood on the back of his hand. Theo stared at it too, his eyes wide with admiration.

  ‘That?’ Jack said with a dismissive shrug. ‘Ain’t nothing. It ain’t as if it’s mine.’

  He laughed loudly. Watching him, Theo clapped his hands together and giggled. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’ he crooned, over and over.

  ‘Oh shut up for fuck’s sake,’ Rosa grumbled. ‘He’s been saying that all afternoon.’

  ‘Come on,’ Jack urged his brother. ‘Show us how to kick a ball.’

  He handed the flat football to Theo and sat down, watching as his brother kicked the ball repeatedly against the wall.

  ‘That’s great, Theo. You keep it up.’

  ‘He can do that for hours,’ Rosa said proudly. ‘The doctor said exercise is good for him.’

  ‘I ought to get him a new football,’ Jack mused. ‘That one’s shit. Of course a new ball’s going to be full of air, and really hard. It’ll make a lot more noise as it hits the wall.’

  He looked at Rosa and grinned.

  13

  THERE WASN’T MUCH else Geraldine could usefully do that night. Realising how tired she was, she followed Adam’s advice and went home. Once there, she regretted having left her desk. Although she had no appetite she fixed herself some supper, and switched the television on. There was nothing worth watching so she picked up a book and tried to read. But whatever she did, it was impossible not to think about the case. The general mood at the station had been upbeat, most officers seeming to agree with Sam. Even if they hadn’t yet managed to put David’s killer behind bars, at least they now had a suspect. The trouble was, Geraldine wasn’t convinced they were after the right man. She had a number of reservations going round and round in her mind. It was maddening. Eventually she gave up trying to read and jotted down her questions. The next morning she would go into work early and raise them with Adam. With that decision made, she went to bed and fell asleep almost straight away. It had been an exhausting day.

  The following morning she requested an early meeting with Adam. He greeted her even more coldly than usual. At pains to present a calm and measured outward appearance at work, she suspected he was mortified by his outburst the previous day. She wanted to assure him that she wouldn’t tell anyone about it, but she wasn’t sure how to approach the subject. In the end she decided not to mention it at all. He would learn for himself that she was discreet. Instead of referring to his conduct, she read him her list of concerns.

  ‘First of all, Leonard Parker had only just left prison. Where would he have got hold of a gun?’

  ‘He could have got it anywhere, once he left. Remember he’d been out for over twelve hours when David was sho
t. It doesn’t take long to source a gun if you know where to look. And criminals talk. They may be scum, but they network, same as everyone else. Probably better than most.’

  ‘Secondly, what happened to David’s jacket?’

  ‘Ask Lenny. I thought we agreed the killer could have taken it.’

  Geraldine frowned. ‘So the mugger asked him to take off his jacket before shooting him? Really?’

  Adam shrugged. ‘Makes sense to me. It’s perfectly feasible. It was an expensive jacket, according to the wife.’

  ‘Well, finally – and this is really the most important – I’ve looked into Lenny’s background. He’s never been involved in any gun crimes. He robs houses, not people on the street. He’s never mugged anyone.’

  ‘Not that we know of. Look, Geraldine, we’re not the judge and we’re not the jury. No one’s asking you to convict this man of murder. But we do need to find him, and we need to bring him in, because right now he’s the only suspect we’ve got. So get out there and track him down. We need him brought in yesterday.’

  ‘I just don’t believe he’s a killer, Adam.’

  ‘No one is until the first murder.’

  Leonard Parker’s mother lived in a poky one-bedroomed flat in Acton. Geraldine and Sam drove there, accompanied by a couple of constables. They set off before the rush hour hoping to avoid the traffic. The earlier they turned up, the more likely they were to surprise their suspect. The armed response team was already in place by the time they arrived.

  Lenny’s mother came to the door in a grubby dressing gown, blinking as though she had just woken up. She had short, straight, dyed blonde hair, and very broad shoulders that made her look even more dumpy than her stout figure warranted. Beneath a thick double chin, she appeared to have no neck at all.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing, calling on people at this ungodly hour of the morning? Ain’t you people got homes to go to? Here, what you doing? You can’t come in here. You got a search warrant?’

  Geraldine assured her that a warrant had been issued, and the old woman stood aside, grumbling, as an armed team went in to check if Lenny was there. Once she had been assured there was no sign of him, Geraldine went and sat with Cynthia in a front room that seemed to be crammed with all sorts of junk.

  ‘We want to speak to your son,’ she began.

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘How many do you have? Three, isn’t it?’

  ‘If you know, why ask? Two in Australia and one here with me.’

  ‘Your oldest son, Leonard. He’s –’

  ‘Oh no,’ Cynthia interrupted firmly. ‘He’s done his time. You can’t touch him no more.’

  ‘Just what I was about to say.’

  ‘What you want with him then? Can’t you leave the poor kid alone? He’s learned his lesson.’

  Geraldine doubted that very much.

  ‘We think he might be able to help us with an investigation.’

  ‘And you think he’s going to tell you? Huh! You can bloody well take yourself off out of here, and don’t bother to come back. If my boy does know anything, he ain’t going to tell you, not after what your lot done to him.’

  Geraldine glanced around the room while they were talking. On several low tables an assortment of random objects was displayed: a large box inlaid with mother-of-pearl that probably contained jewellery of some description, pens, glass ornaments, at least half a dozen expensive watches, carriage clocks, and numerous knick-knacks. On the floor a cardboard box was piled high with iPads, iPods and other small electronic devices. She wondered why Cynthia had brought her into a room full of what were obviously stolen goods. She could only assume there were similar items in the other rooms in the flat.

  ‘What you looking at?’

  ‘You’ve got quite a lot of stuff here.’

  ‘So? Is that any business of yours? We do the markets, if you must know, me and my Lenny. We sell gear and we buy gear. A lot of it gets stored here in between markets and boot sales. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s all legit. We do a hell of a lot. It’s bloody hard work, I can tell you, and it’s all a load of crap as you can see.’

  ‘Mrs Parker, we need to know where Lenny is. If we don’t find him very soon, he could end up in serious trouble –’

  ‘Bollocks. You got nothing on him. Now bugger off, the lot of you, before I make a complaint.’

  ‘We need to know where he is,’ Geraldine repeated quietly, without shifting in her chair.

  ‘I ain’t got the foggiest. But when you find him, you can tell him from me that I’d like to know where he’s been an’ all. He’s been out four days, and he ain’t so much as picked up the phone, let alone come to see his mother, after I pined for him day and night for eighteen months. What sort of son does that to his mother?’

  ‘One more question, Mrs Parker. Have you ever seen Lenny with a gun?’

  ‘A gun? Bloody hell, what sort of family do you think we are? Now bugger off out of it and leave us alone. He’s done his time.’

  14

  CYNTHIA WAS LIVID. First off Lenny had been stupid enough to get himself nicked which put the whole family under the spotlight as far as the law was concerned. It was never a good idea to attract attention like that, but Lenny had always been a moron. He was bound to get caught sooner or later. She had thought he’d be in the clear once he was out, only now she’d had a visit from some bloody inspector, and everyone knew what that meant. Any contact with the police was too much as far as Cynthia was concerned. She’d seen the way that inspector’s eyes had roamed all over the room, taking in the watches and other stuff. Of course, she kept the obviously dodgy gear well out of sight. She wasn’t stupid, unlike her idiot of a son. But there was enough gear lying around to arouse suspicion in a block of wood, and that inspector was no fool. When Lenny surfaced, Cynthia was going to give him a piece of her mind. If he wasn’t a grown man, she’d tan his hide, just like she used to do when he was a kid.

  There was no point in hiding the gear in her bedroom now. The police inspector had already seen it all. The valuable bits and pieces were out of sight, in the top cupboard in the kitchen. Cynthia hoped they were safe up there. That idiot Lenny had a lot to answer for. As soon as the front door closed behind the inspector and her lackeys, Cynthia rushed to the kitchen and put a few more tins in front of the bags of jewellery stashed there. Most of it was Lenny’s stuff. He was always on at her. ‘Hide this for me, mum,’ and, ‘put this somewhere till I come for it.’ She understood he didn’t want his girlfriend, Gina, getting her hands on his loot. She’d rip him off as soon as look at him, that one.

  Grumbling to herself, she put the kettle on and made herself a cup of tea. Really, she could do without all this stress at her age. Her son ought to be looking after her, not giving her endless grief. Just as she sat down with a cup of tea and a slab of cake, she was disturbed by a knock at the front door.

  ‘Oh fuck it all, what now?’

  She was tempted to ignore it. She’d just sat down and got the weight off her feet. The knocking came again, more loudly this time.

  ‘All right, all right, I’m coming. Give me time. I’m not a bleeding athlete.’

  Expecting the police, she steeled herself to tell them to get lost. They had no business coming back and pestering her again. She hadn’t broken any laws. She was just a poor old woman doing her best to make ends meet. She opened the door a crack and saw Lenny’s skinny little bitch, scowling and biting her lip.

  ‘Gina! What the hell you doing here?’

  ‘Looking for Lenny, that’s what.’

  ‘Not you as well. Seems like the whole world’s looking for Lenny.’

  ‘Why? Who else is after him?’

  Cynthia hesitated before inviting Gina in. ‘Oh well, you’d better come in out the cold seeing as you’ve come all this way. I suppose you had your tea?’

  ‘Don’t put yourself out on my account.’

  The words were kind enough, but Gina contrived to sound host
ile. Cynthia regretted inviting her in as soon as the front door closed behind them.‘I won’t,’ she muttered, leading Gina to the front room.

  They sat in silence while Cynthia finished her tea. She did her best to ignore her visitor, but she couldn’t enjoy her cake, not with Gina perched awkwardly on the edge of a chair watching her every mouthful.

  ‘That was delicious,’ Cynthia said with fake enthusiasm, wiping crumbs from her mouth with the back of a hand. ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’

  As soon as Cynthia put her cup down, Gina started on her. ‘Where is he then?’

  ‘How the hell would I know? I ain’t seen him since he got out, and that was Monday.’

  Aggrieved, Cynthia launched into a litany of complaint.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I know.’ Gina interrupted her. ‘You was pining for him every day. You told me.’ She leaned so far forward in her chair, Cynthia thought her boney arse might slip right off it. ‘What I want to know is where is he? He’s got something of mine and I want it back.’

  She sounded so earnest, Cynthia was curious.

  ‘What is it? What you got that’s so bloody important?’

  ‘Mind your own bleeding business.’

  ‘Whatever it is, anything you got is thanks to him and you’d do well to remember that. Anyhow, you can sit there till you’re blue in the face, it won’t do you no good because I already told you I don’t know where he is. But I do know you’re not the only one who wants to find him.’

  ‘And what the hell’s that supposed to mean? You going to tell me or what?’

  ‘The rozzers was here, asking for him.’

  ‘Never! They were round at mine last night looking for him but he’d gone out for the evening and he never come back.’

  ‘Have you seen him since he got out?’

  ‘Yeah, I told you. He came home Monday night – no, Tuesday morning – and he went out again yesterday and I ain’t seen him since. But the pigs was round at the flat last night looking for him. Oh Christ, Cynthia, something’s not right.’

  Tears started in her eyes and she hung her head. She was trembling. She looked so forlorn that Cynthia couldn’t help taking pity on her.