'Patrick Neally.'
Delaney's phone rang, echoing loudly in the stone-flagged kitchen as he pulled it from his pocket. 'Delaney.'
'It's Bob Wilkinson.'
'Go on, Bob.'
'You might want to get down the nick.'
'You got him?'
'Yeah, you were on the money. But I'd get down here quick if I were you. The shiny boys from serious crime are all over him.'
'We're on our way.'
Delaney put his hand on Kate's arm and steered her out. If she felt displeasure at his touch she didn't display it. 'Who have they got?' she asked.
'Ashley Bradley.'
'He's the killer?'
'He had pictures of both victims on his walls and he's a class-A pervert, we know that.'
'Why the bloody hell would he take my scarf though?'
Delaney fished his car keys out as Kate locked her front door behind her. 'I don't know, Kate.'
But he had an idea.
Ashley Bradley sat uncomfortably on the hard, plastic chair. The central ridge cut into him painfully. He wasn't wearing underpants, he never did when he went out on a mission, but he now wished that he had been. He shifted again and adjusted himself.
Delaney watched, through the one-way mirror, as the suit- and tie-wearing finest from the serious crime squad interviewed him. He flicked the switch so he could hear the words.
'You want to tell us about the photos on the walls of your bedroom?'
'It's not a crime.'
'Yes it is, Ashley.'
'No it's not. It's perfectly legal to take pictures of people in public places.'
Delaney was amazed, as ever, at the calm arrogance of degenerates caught right in the act. People who looked at child pornography were only doing it for research. Convicted child abusers claimed it was a form of love as ancient as humanity. Delaney would have liked to have gone into the room and given Ashley Bradley some tough love right then. The kind that draws blood.
His mobile phone rang and Delaney, seeing the ID, flicked the switch off on the intercom.
'What have you got for me, Roger?'
'The properties in Pinner Green. A development company was set up to buy out the existing businesses there and convert them to luxury apartments. Took about a year to set up. The petrol station, independently owned, was the last to be sold. Given the time of the development and the time the last of the luxury apartments were sold at the height of the market two years ago . . .'
'Go on.'
'We're looking at millions of pounds' worth of profit.'
'And who owned the development company?'
'An outfit called Blue Heaven Property.'
'And who owns that?'
'It was just set up for this venture. But it links to a shell company called Hunter Developments.'
Delaney sighed. 'Get to the point, Roger.'
