was just masturbating inside her. That was a new one on me, I’ll tell you.’
‘How did you feel about it?’
‘I was sorry, and my ego was bruised by what she said, but she was being frank rather than unkind. If you really want to know, I’ve learned from her. Can you imagine that, a middle-aged man learning about love-making from a girl? When it came to the end, I respected her choice. I knew that I wasn’t going to leave Doreen for her, even if she’d suggested that.’
‘No?’ Steele murmured.
‘No! And I never will. She might be pretty much sexless, and a scatterbrain, but she’s my scatterbrain. I might cheat on her, but I’ll never leave her.’
‘You’re a noble guy at heart, aren’t you?’
‘Fuck off . . . Detective Inspector.’
Steele laughed bitterly. ‘No, no. We’re not done yet. When you were with Zrinka, did she ever mention Dominic Padstow?’
Gavin started to reply, then stopped short, as if he was searching his memory. ‘Not by name,’ he said at last. ‘Early on, the first time we went out together, in fact, she told me that her last boyfriend had let her down, and that she was still badly affected by the experience. On the rare occasion she mentioned him after that, she called him “that so-and-so”, bad language by her standards, but she never used his name. When we finished, she thanked me for giving her back some of her self-confidence. I was pleased by that. It’s funny, I almost wound up thanking her for chucking me.’
‘Almost, but not quite. Stacey never knew about you and Zrinka, you said?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Are you quite sure about that?’
‘Yes!’
Steele gazed at him. ‘The two of them had some sort of fall-out, you know. Amy Noone was there when it happened. They were discussing Padstow initially, but it broadened out into men who couldn’t be trusted. You know what I’m wondering, Mr Gavin? Whether Zrinka asked her how she could trust Padstow when she couldn’t even trust her own dad. She told Stacey, eventually, didn’t she? That’s why they stopped seeing each other, isn’t it?’
‘Prove it!’ Gavin snapped.
‘That’s a hell of an odd reaction to a straight question, if you don’t mind me saying so.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Fine, but it is nonetheless. It’s got me looking at another scenario.’ He glanced at Montell. ‘Are you thinking the same as me, Griff? What if Stacey did know, and it chewed away at her, until eventually she faced him with it, and threatened to tell Doreen?’
‘That’s how my mind’s working, boss.’
‘How about it, Russ? Just among us, did she, and did you stop her?’
Gavin’s face twisted. ‘She was my daughter, for Christ’s sake,’ he protested.
‘Most murders are domestic. The way the body was laid out, it was almost reverential; it would fit. Then, having silenced Stacey, did you start to worry about Zrinka, more and more, until finally you decided she had to go too? Did you stalk her, and kill her, then leave her body neat and calm like Stacey’s? And did you kill Harry too, not because you were jealous of him but just because he was there?’
‘You’re crackers.’
‘Somebody is, crazy enough to kill four people. What about Amy Noone? When her name was mentioned as a witness, did you get nervous about her? Stacey’s dad could have talked his way into her place this morning, I’m sure.’
Gavin looked at Montell, as if for support. ‘You don’t believe all this, do you, Griff?’ he pleaded.
‘It fits,’ the detective constable replied. ‘Where were you on Monday night, Russ, then on Tuesday morning?’
The man’s face fell. ‘I was away,’ he murmured, ‘on a business trip. But look, I don’t own a gun. I’ve never fired a gun.’
‘You were in the Territorial Army for eight years,’ Steele retorted. ‘Catering Corps?’
Gavin’s legs seemed to give under him; he slumped into an armchair. ‘I didn’t kill my daughter. You must believe that.’
‘I’d like to,’ said Steele. ‘Make me.’
‘My business trip, on Monday night. She’ll back me up.’
‘Will she? Does she have a partner to protect?’
‘No. She’s a widow.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Hope. Hope Dell. She was Stacey’s agent.’
Fifty
‘Don’t you think you should have waited till your DI got back, Sergeant, and discussed this with him?’
‘I have thought about it,’ said Ray Wilding, ‘and decided that this can’t wait any longer. The last time I spoke to Stevie he was at a crime scene, where he and Griff Montell had just tripped over our third murder victim in four days. He told me that once that was secure he was heading out to South Queensferry to make sure there wouldn’t be any more. This thing’s come up since then, and it needs looking into. When he does get back, he’s going to want to hear the answer, not the question.’
‘I suppose so,’ Dottie Shannon conceded. ‘But do you know what you’re asking me to do here?’
‘Yes, I’m asking you to use your channels to find out why some guy from the Home Office is second-guessing our investigation.’
‘What makes you think I’ve got contacts who can do that?’
‘If you don’t, you’ll know someone who has.’
‘You CID guys have inflated ideas about the importance of Special Branch. But leave it with me and I’ll try. What was the man’s name, the guy who’s been making these enquiries?’
‘Patrick Dailey. He’s in the immigration section.’
‘He’s way off his territory, in that case. I’ll get back to you or Stevie. Let him know about this when you do hear from him.’
‘Of course. I don’t know where this might lead, Inspector. I just know that it needs to be looked at, ASAP.’
‘You lot are like buses, aren’t you?’ Shannon hung up on a puzzled detective sergeant.
In fact, she did have contacts who could get things done. Chief among them was Bob Skinner, but he was on leave. When Steele had asked for her help earlier, she had almost interrupted his sabbatical, but had decided against it. Instead, she had considered playing it by the book and going to Brian Mackie, but that might have led to a discussion about her late-night confrontation with Montell, something she did not want to get into with the new ACC, a man she barely knew, for all her years of service.
Eventually she had decided to strike out on her own. When she thought about it, she was certain of what Skinner would have told her to do; and so she had called the person she had met with him, on their secret secondment to London almost half a year earlier, even though it did mean going to the top of the tree.
She had feared that she might have difficulty getting through, and so she was surprised when her call was accepted almost immediately.
‘Hello, Dottie.’ To her relief, Amanda Dennis’s tone had been friendly. ‘I’ve been hearing things about you.’
This time, after the conversation with Wilding had ended, she hesitated for a while. ‘You’re pushing your luck, Shannon,’ she murmured. But finally she snatched up the phone and called the security service number once more.
This time she had to wait a little longer before being connected; when she was put through, the acting director general of MI5 sounded a little less patient. ‘Has nobody been back to you yet, Dottie?’ she said. ‘I’ve put
