Two minutes.
Confusing thoughts rushed through Halliwell’s head. Maybe this was just someone who had turned up too late for the funeral and decided to wait in the house for Emma’s return. He could be making himself at home, sitting in front of the TV or helping himself to a cup of tea. On the other hand, he might be ransacking the house, looking for whatever bits of jewellery Emma possessed.
The house was only a box of a place. Shouldn’t take long to search. Any self-respecting thief would go through it in under ten minutes.
There would come a point when the only sensible option was to ring the doorbell and see if anyone came.
Not yet.
He spoke into the radio. ‘Paul, where are you?’
‘Back of the house, right up against the wall by the back door. He can’t see me.’
‘Can you hear anything inside?’
‘Traffic’s too noisy.’
‘We’ll give it three more and then I’ll ring the bell. Inge, are you all set?’
‘All set. Wait, the door’s opening. He’s coming out, coming your way.’
This was it, then. Up to now, Halliwell had been out of sight, using the cover of the end-terrace house. He stepped onto the path and saw the black figure of the motorcyclist striding towards him, having removed the helmet and carrying it in his left hand. Halliwell didn’t recognise him. He was just a youth, but he could be dangerous.
In his right hand was a black plastic sack wrapped around an object with an ominous shape.
‘Hold it,’ Halliwell said, ‘Police.’
The youth dropped the helmet and it skeetered across the path. But he held on to the object in the sack. He ripped open enough of the sack to reveal the barrel of the automatic rifle Halliwell had suspected was inside. He gripped it in the firing position.
Halliwell’s flesh prickled. ‘Drop it,’ he shouted.
The young man spun on his heels and dashed in the other direction, towards Ingeborg.
‘He’s got a gun,’ Halliwell yelled, to warn her. He jammed the radio to his mouth. ‘Paul, get round the front.’ He was already sprinting up the path in pursuit, regardless that the gunman could swing around and fill him with bullets. There was no escape, nowhere to duck and dodge. This was death alley.
The next moves happened in a split-second that — to Halliwell’s adrenaline-charged brain — appeared like a slow motion sequence. The gunman reached the low wall at the end of the path and vaulted over. Ingeborg, crouching out of sight, made a grab for his leg. They crashed to the ground and the gun flew from his hand. Ingeborg held on and the pair of them rolled over and over.
Halliwell leapt over the wall just as Paul Gilbert appeared around the side of the house. Together, they flung themselves onto the struggling man and forced his arms behind his back. Halliwell handcuffed him.
‘You okay?’ he asked Ingeborg.
‘I think so.’ She hauled herself up and tightened the blonde ponytail. ‘You know who this is?’
‘Never seen him before.’
‘Soldier Nuttall’s son, Royston — and that’s a real G36, not one of their plastic jobs.’
‘Don’t handle it, then.’ Halliwell took a pen from his pocket and looped it under the skeletonized frame of the stock. ‘Let’s get him back to the car.’
Royston wasn’t the menacing figure he’d seemed when he arrived. He was shivering like a nervous pup. They walked him back and retrieved the helmet on the way.
‘The guv’nor was expecting him to break in, I reckon,’ Gilbert said.
‘If he did, he could have warned us about the gun,’ Halliwell said.
In the car, Royston was still shaking. ‘Are you going to bang me up in the cells?’
‘That isn’t up to us,’ Halliwell said.
‘I don’t mind if you do,’ he said.
Halliwell pretended not to be baffled by this reaction. ‘That’s all right, then.’
‘Long as you don’t tell my old man.’
So that was the reason for the panic.
‘I expect we will,’ Halliwell said. ‘He’s very concerned about you. He was in this morning asking us to find you.’
In what came out sounding like a whimper, Royston said, ‘I want protection from him. I don’t want to go home.’
‘Right now, son, you’re in no position to dictate terms.’
Halliwell decided he’d better report the arrest to Diamond. He stepped out of the car and used his mobile. ‘Guv.’
‘Yep.’
‘Is this a good moment?’
‘Not bad. I’m in the Hop Pole with a glass in my hand.’
‘We pinched Royston Nuttall coming out of the Tasker house.’
Diamond didn’t sound unduly surprised. ‘Nice work. He was sure to surface at some time. No one got hurt, I hope.’
‘We’re okay. He was carrying a rifle.’ Halliwell felt like adding, ‘And you could have warned us what to expect.’ Only he wasn’t totally certain Diamond had known in advance.
‘That’ll be the murder weapon.’
‘I thought we already found the murder weapon in the river.’
‘This is the one that did for Harry Tasker. Treat it carefully. I expect it’s been wiped of prints, but you never know.’
‘I don’t think I follow you.’
‘It’s a G36 assault rifle, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘It was hidden inside the house and the funeral was Royston’s chance to get it back.’
‘Get it back?’
‘It belongs to his father. That’s why Soldier Nuttall was round at the station this morning. He wasn’t worried about Royston. He wanted the gun back.’
‘I thought all his guns were imitation.’
‘A major player like Nuttall isn’t satisfied with plastic. He has some of the real things squirreled away inside that house. Okay, the search squad didn’t find anything when they raided the place, but that was because Royston had borrowed the G36 some time ago. What better to raise a tough teenager’s street cred than a genuine firearm? He took it into Walcot to impress his friends around the pubs. Unluckily for him, Harry Tasker got to hear about this gun being shown to all and sundry. Harry caught up with the kid and took it off him. In the words of Anderson Jakes, Harry practised what he like doing best — confiscation. He took charge of the gun. But Harry didn’t bring it back to the station. He took it home.’
‘I’m with you now, guv. I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, least of all today, but we all knew Harry was working some kind of racket.’
‘Yes, and he knew Soldier Nuttall would throw a fit if he found out, so he had Royston by the short and curlies. He could demand money whenever he ran into him, the same as he collected hush money from other kids he’d caught misbehaving. It’s not surprising Harry was so insistent that no one else walked that beat.’
‘I guess the raid alerted Nuttall and made him check his personal firearms.’
‘For sure. Royston panicked and fled the house. He’d already got the idea that with Harry dead he might have a chance to get the gun back. He was watching the Tasker house the other day when I visited Emma. I was almost knocked over by a motorbike revving up and racing away.’
‘For a second time.’
‘Right, but different bike and different rider. It had to be Royston this time and he was bound to work out that the funeral — with Emma out of the way — was the ideal time to get inside and collect his dad’s property.’
‘You don’t think he’s Harry’s killer?’
‘Royston? No, I don’t. Tell me something. You said you pinched Royston, but you didn’t say where. Did you go
