Skinner helped himself to a cup of water and looked at Delaney. 'You spoke to the new big cheese then?'
Delaney drank his water in a long gulp almost feeling the liquid rehydrating his veins. 'Yup.'
'What do you make of him?'
'Remember the old joke about how to become a policeman?'
'Grow a tit on your head and paint it blue?'
Delaney threw his cup in the bin. 'You're looking into the Norrell thing, I hear.'
'You tag along any time you want to, Jack.'
Delaney nodded. 'Appreciate it, Jimmy.'
'You were due to see him this morning?'
'First thing, yeah.'
'Seems like a hell of a coincidence he was taken out before you got there then.'
Delaney grunted. 'I don't believe in coincidences.'
'You think he genuinely knew something about your wife's death?'
'Nothing in it for him if he was making it up.'
'Kevin Norrell was never a grass.'
'Yeah, well, your perspectives change when you're standing naked in a shower surrounded by hardened criminals. No pun intended.'
'True.'
'Or when there's a contract out on you.'
Skinner looked at him, a little surprised. 'You think that was the case?'
'I think as soon as he started offering to sing like a canary, someone wanted to snap off his beak and clip his wings. Permanently.'
'He was meant to go down hard. That's for certain. But if they thought he was dealing kiddie porn . . . ?' He shrugged. 'Could just be that, cowboy.'
'It's too neat. Someone in there wanted him shut up and quickly.'
Delaney and Skinner walked back towards the CID offices. 'You saw one of the guys who attacked him?'
'Martin Quigley. But he isn't saying anything. Norrell smashed him up pretty good with a lavatory bowl. Fractured his jaw in three places.'
'Helpful.'
'But he can write. He claims they took Norrell out as a matter of course, like they would any other kiddie fiddler, given half the chance. No other agenda.'
'You believe him?'
'I don't know. He might have been roped in. He's just as much an ape for hire as Norrell himself. Paid to hurt not to think. And Norrell was involved with Walker who was involved big time in kiddie porn. It's a good cover story if you have another reason for wanting him dead.'
Delaney said goodbye to Skinner, stuck his head round the CID office door and beckoned to Sally Cartwright. 'Come on, Constable, you're with me.'
Sally stood up from her desk, a little flushed, quickly closing down the report she had been reading on her computer. She picked up her jacket from the back of her chair and joined Delaney.
He looked back at her computer as her screensaver came on. 'What are you working on?'
'Just catching up with some paperwork.' She avoided his eyes and headed briskly out to the corridor. 'Where are we going?'
