your request in motion, but finding a match on our database for a painting rather than a photograph might take a little time, if we can do it at all, that is.’
‘I appreciate that, Mrs Dennis,’ she replied, ‘but that’s not why I’m calling. As I’ve just said to someone, my requests from my colleagues are like buses: none for ages, then two at a time.
‘The man you’re trying to match for us was the subject of a fruitless search by the Passport Service yesterday, as I’ve told you. Today someone from the Home Office immigration section has been on to them making exactly the same request.’
‘Oh?’ Shannon could almost see Dennis sitting more stiffly in her chair. ‘On what grounds?’
‘He didn’t have any. When the passport-service person challenged him he tried a bit of bluster, then backed off. Are we overreacting here? Could the Home Office have had a legitimate reason for following up on Padstow, just on the basis of the press reports of our announcement and the release of the image?’
‘Hardly. If they had an interest in him, I’d have expected them either to contact you direct, and pool resources, or if there were security implications, to come to us, as you did earlier. What’s his name?’
‘Patrick Dailey. Apparently he’s ex-DTI, and hasn’t been there long.’
‘Nor will he be much longer, unless he has a very good story to tell. Thanks, Dottie; you were right to bring this to me. I’ll deal with this myself. The Home Office immigration section is unbelievably sensitive. We can’t afford to have anyone there who’s out of line.’
‘Will you let me know the outcome?’
‘Only if it’s necessary. You’ve seen how we can operate. You might be better not to know.’
Fifty-one
‘Are you absolutely certain that Russ Gavin isn’t a suspect?’ asked Mario McGuire. ‘You’re not protecting him from himself, are you?’
‘No,’ Stevie Steele replied. ‘I never really thought he was in the first place, and now I’m entirely convinced that he’s innocent. I didn’t go easy on him: I made him give us his jacket and shirt for gunshot-residue testing, and I dropped them off at the lab on the way back into town.’
‘What about testing him?’
‘I thought about that too, but that would have been unnecessarily high-profile. His wife might have made a fuss, the thing could have gone public and got very messy. It would have been a waste of time too. Do you think he’d have been dumb enough not to wash his hands?’
‘Or change his clothes?’
‘No opportunity. If he did shoot Amy, we’re more likely to find evidence on his garments than on him.’
‘He’s an engineer, isn’t he?’ McGuire asked.
‘Yes, and I know what you’re going to say next. In any trial, the defence would be bound to say that mineral traces could have been acquired in a variety of ways. It won’t come to that, though, because before I came to see you Griff and I paid a call on Mrs Dell. She wasn’t too pleased to see us, having been interviewed by Ray and Tarvil this morning, but I got her attention pretty quickly.’
‘That must have been nice for her.’
‘Actually she wasn’t bothered. I told her that as a matter of routine we were checking the whereabouts on Monday night and Tuesday morning of every male remotely connected with the three victims. She told us straight away that on Monday evening she and Gavin were at a show in the Playhouse, that afterwards they had a late supper and went back to her place, where he stayed the night. He left for work from there next morning just after eight. No way he did it.’
‘Could she have been lying to protect him?’
‘No,’ said the inspector, emphatically. ‘Her son, Jacky, confirmed what she said. He works with her and still lives at home. He said that he gave Gavin his muesli and coffee.’
‘Very domestic. And the Dell woman wasn’t embarrassed by all this coming out?’
‘Not a bit. She takes the view that if he’s not happy at home, then Doreen has only herself to blame if he has a bit on the side. The arrangement suits her, she said, her kids don’t mind, and that’s all she cares about.’
‘Why has it taken us all this time to find out that Stacey had an agent?’
‘Because she doesn’t mention the fact on her website, and because her father didn’t volunteer the information.’
‘And I can see why not. Did the boy give the impression that he didn’t mind about the two of them?’
‘Not a bit. He was cut up when he heard that Amy Noone was dead. He knew her, since she was going with one of the lads in Harry Paul’s band. But he didn’t seem perturbed by Gavin giving his mum a seeing-to, not a bit. Jacky’s an ambitious boy, with other things on his mind. He reckons that Upload . . . that’s the band . . . could be the start of a big-time career for him in music management, and he’s concentrating on keeping them going without Harry.’
‘Good luck to him. I think Harry’s folks would like that. They’d see it as a memorial to their son. His dad certainly would: he was totally behind the boy’s career.’
‘I know. Jacky said that he’s been in touch with him, to get his permission to bring someone else in to replace Harry in the band.’
‘Jesus, that’s a bit fucking callous. It’s less than two days since the colonel found out his kid was dead.’
‘I agree, but according to Jacky, he gave him his blessing straight away.’
The head of CID shuddered slightly. ‘I never cease to be amazed by the different ways people react to grief. The mother could barely speak to us; I don’t think she’ll ever be the same. With the colonel, it’s as if . . . I don’t know.’
‘Denial?’ Steele suggested.
‘Maybe. Maybe his enthusiasm for the band is his way of keeping the truth at bay. Some people are still adamant that Elvis is alive.’
‘Yes, and that the lining of his coffin is all scratched to hell. Well, I know that Harry isn’t. I saw the pathologist open him up yesterday morning, straight after breakfast.’
‘Thanks for sharing that . . .’ McGuire paused ‘. . . and, incidentally, for taking the time to come and see me. I appreciate it, for I was going to come looking for you.
‘This is not good, Stevie. If we didn’t have a public panic before, the Amy Noone killing’s going to start one. Word’s leaked out already, and the media have made the connection. A neighbour told them her name, and sent them to her work. A near-hysterical hair stylist told them all the rest. Have you contacted her parents?’
‘Singh has. They divorced six years ago. The mother remarried and now lives in Gateshead. She and her husband will be on the way up by now. Dad was a drunk, who left them; he’s currently in prison in England for credit-card fraud.’
‘Okay. I can’t wait till she gets here before I speak to the media. Royston’s called them back in here for four o’clock.’
‘I’ll sit in with you, sir.’
McGuire frowned. ‘In other circumstances, I’d be saying, “Too bloody right you will,” but you actually found the body, so you and Montell are major first-hand witnesses. The press know that already, again from the neighbours; Alan Royston’s been asked to confirm it.’
‘Did he?’
‘He said that the body was discovered by police officers, unnamed, who called at the address in the course of enquiries into the three earlier deaths. There was no point in being evasive about something we all know to be true.’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘Since then, I’ve spoken to Gregor Broughton, and he agrees that you should stay out of it. Otherwise you’ll spend the whole briefing saying, “No comment,” to some very specific questions. So you brief me instead. Is there anything about the investigation that I’m not aware of? For example, your run-in with Dottie Shannon?’
Steele raised an eyebrow. ‘How did you find out about that?’
‘You were seen heading for her office this morning with what was described as “a face full of hell”. I should tell you, Stevie, that nothing happens in this building that doesn’t feed back to me, either through Sammy Pye or
