Death Row

Delaney snapped out of his reverie. The cigarette had burned to the stub and he realised that Sally Cartwright was standing next to him.

‘It’s not him, sir,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘The boy. It’s not Archie Woods.’

Delaney frowned, trying to take it in, and picked on Sally’s expression. ‘What is it, constable? Who is he?’

‘You’re not going to believe it, sir …’

‘Just tell me, Sally!’

‘It’s Samuel Ramirez.’

She was right. Delaney couldn’t believe it.

Seventeen years after the two children had been abducted, one of the murdered children’s bodies had finally been discovered.

‘Doctor Bowman says the body has been deep-frozen, the skin slightly scalded post-mortem. Rectal damage, and bruising round the throat consistent with strangling.’

‘Peter Garnier.’

‘His MO, sir. Yes.’

‘Someone has kept the body frozen all these years?’

‘It looks that way, sir.’

‘Who, for God’s sake?’

‘The same person who has taken Archie Woods. We need to find him, sir. We need to find him quickly.’

Delaney flared another match and lit a fresh cigarette. He thought of the sister that he had saved, living happily in America now, and who his own daughter had been named after; and he thought of the promise he had made to another girl, now a grown woman, whom he had rescued from Peter Garnier all those years ago. A promise he could still keep.

‘Yeah,’ he said, the reflection of the lit match dancing in his eyes. ‘And we will.’

*

DI Tony Bennett yawned. He had been speed-skipping through the CCTV footage that the manager from The Outback pub on Camden High Street had given them earlier in the day. Jamil had come into shot a couple of times but he had always been alone and had seemingly ordered the same drinks both times. As the bar manager had pointed out, the coverage was sketchy at best. It was focused on the till and he had only recognised Jamil by the shirt he was wearing. Certainly no one came into shot looking like the racist skinhead he suspected of attacking the Iranian outside, up the street from the pub. He looked at his watch and yawned again as one of the detectives, he couldn’t remember her name, left the office. Five o’clock in the evening and, save for him, the CID office was now deserted. He stood up, took his overcoat off the peg and slipped into it. Time to call it a night. He stood by the window for a moment, watching as a few uniforms coming off shift walked out of the car park and headed towards the pub. He considered joining them for a nanosecond before standing up, picking up a shoulder bag from the floor and heading across to Delaney’s desk. Delaney’s laptop was open but in sleep mode. Bennett tapped on the Esc key and the machine hummed into life. He looked around him and quickly pulled his outside hard drive from his shoulder bag and connected it to the laptop. A couple of quick key strokes and he moved round to stand in front of it. Footsteps approached and he pulled out his mobile phone, starting to speak into it as DC Sally Cartwright came in. He held up a finger to her.

‘Hang on, Jack.’ He lowered the phone slightly and covered the mouthpiece with his hand. ‘Could you be a love, Sally, and get us a glass of water? I’m not being a sexist pig, honest. I’ll owe you one. This call is important.’

Sally rolled her eyes a little and nodded at him. ‘Too right you’ll owe me one!’

She walked back out of the office. Bennett looked down at the computer screen. ‘Come on,’ he muttered under his breath, looking at the file transfer indicator as it crept forward slowly. In a few seconds more it was done. He had the hard drive back in his bag and had closed down Delaney’s laptop just as Sally walked in with the water.

He snatched up a pen and wrote a telephone number on a piece of paper. ‘Okay. Thanks for that, catch you later.’ He clicked off his phone and smiled at Sally as he took the cup of water from her. ‘Dying of thirst here.’

‘Talking of which, a few of us are going across to The Pig and Whistle, It’s been a hell of a day here.’

‘I heard.’

‘So if you fancy joining us?’

‘I would, but I have a bit of a lead on a case I need to follow up.’

‘Was that Detective Delaney on the phone?’

‘What?’

‘Your call just then. I heard you say Jack.’

Bennett covered, taking a sip of water. ‘No. Someone from back home.’

Sally nodded. ‘Well, if you change your mind. We’ll be down there for a little while.’

‘Appreciate it.’

Sally shrugged into her coat. ‘Can’t see there being a lot of time off just now.’

‘The media certainly aren’t going to let it lie.’