Deadly Intent

'It's three o'clock. I'm going home.'They left the building together. Langton pulled up his collar as he turned to look back at Anna. 'You did it again, didn't you? It's hard for me to reprimand you, but you have got to stop this. You cannot skive off to do your own fucking investigation, Anna. You'll get into deep water, not just with me; one of these days, if you don't straighten out, you'll get more than you bargained for, and you won't have anyone to help you. This man is very dangerous. How many times do I have to underline that, eh?''I sometimes find it hard to take your lectures, knowing what I know about you.'He swung around. 'Don't go there. Not now, not ever.''So it's all right for you, but not—'His face was taut with anger. 'You're not me, sweetheart. You don't have my experience or my ability to take care of myself.''Oh, I know that. It wasn't me who almost died, but it was me who had to pick up the pieces.' She was so close to him. The anger in his eyes would at one time have made her weak at the knees, but she wouldn't look away.He seemed taken aback by her refusal to retreat, and stepped away. 'I'd better watch my back, hadn't I?''I would never disclose to anyone what I know about you, but sometimes you make me angry. I don't think you give me credit where it is due. I've grown up, James. I'm aware that I should protect myself. It won't happen again. I apologize for acting without taking precaution.'He turned away from her and hitched the collar of his coat higher, almost hiding his face. 'I loved you as much as I could, Anna.''Good night, sir.'She turned and walked away from him, even though she was heading295 in the wrong direction. She needed to put as much distance between them as possible.

She had loved him too, but, at last, she really felt that it was history on her part too. In the past, she would never have been able to stand up to him as she had just done. She also knew that she had to buckle down and not act impulsively; it was going to be hard but if she put a foot out of line again, Langton would make sure it went on record, and he could really damage her career.

CHAPTER 18

The murder of David Rushton gave Cunningham more headaches. As the information filtered into the incident room, the fact that their prime suspect was without doubt in the UK made the pressure go up a few notches. The shot of Fitzpatrick's face from the CCTV footage was now pinned at the center of the board. Anna had pored over the blurred photo and tried to match it with the ones off the Web site. The man appeared to look much younger than she had thought. Perhaps he had undergone extensive plastic surgery around the lips and mouth, and it would have helped if they had got a clear picture of his eyes and nose. Until she could get the lab to confirm by matching old and latest pictures, she couldn't be 100 percent certain.It was imperative they get a detailed account of each murder. She had the case files lined up on her desk: Donny Petrozzo, Stanley Leymore, Julius D'Anton, and Frank Brandon. She would need to spend time with the pathologist who had done the postmortem on each man. At the same time, now armed with the latest photograph of Fitzpatrick, she would need to reinterview Silas Roach and his friend Delroy Planter. Their statement that Donny Petrozzo was Frank Brandon's killer could be a lie.Anna chewed the end of her pencil so hard, she had fine wood splinters in her mouth and spat them out. If they were to arrest Fitzpatrick, the evidence was still sketchy; they suspected he was involved in the murder of Frank Brandon, Julius D'Anton, and, obviously, David Rushton, but whether or not he killed Donny Petrozzo and Stanley Leymore was questionable. As Anna chewed another pencil, she began to tap her foot against the side of her desk. What they did know was that Donny Petrozzo, Julius D'Anton, and now possibly Rushton had all been killed with an overdose of Fentanyl.

Anna wrote down the word Fentanyl and underlined it. They still had no firm evidence that Fitzpatrick was shipping it into England; even if Delroy and Silas identified him, they would be dependent on the statements of two drug dealers. They had found no trace of it in the farmhouse, nor in the property at Wimbledon.

She sat back in her chair. Having only had a few hours' sleep the previous night, she felt worn out. She rubbed at her head and tossed her chewed pencil into the waste bin. They had been running around like scalded rabbits, as one victim turned up after another. Unless they got something out of the two drug dealers, they could lose the case into one of the warrens they had created. She returned to the murder of Frank Brandon, and this time underlined the Mitsubishi. They had to establish the date Brandon came into possession of it. They knew it had been parked in the rented garage at Wimbledon; they also knew it had been stolen, and then passed on by Stanley Leymore.

Anna went to speak to Cunningham, but Phil was just coming out of her office. 'She's not in until twelve; personal problems.'

'Shit!'

'Yeah, well, we just plow on. We are bringing in Julia Brandon, as she requested.'

'What about Honour and Darnien Nolan? Are they being brought in?'

Phil shrugged. 'It'd be more convenient if we went and questioned them at their nearest station, as there's still an ongoing search.'

'I'll do it.'

Phil looked at her. 'I'm waiting on the forensic team to give me a result on the bed linen we took from the farm. If it's Fitzpatrick's, we can arrest them. If it isn't, we just question them.'

'Phil, I really think you need to question the two drug dealers again—this time, with the photograph of Fitzpatrick.'

'I'm off there now. Sam Power kicked up about the expense of taking them out of the cells—transport to here, security, and then wheeling them back again.'

Anna nodded. 'One thing we need to know is if Stanley Leymore was shot before Frank Brandon. It's the gun—same weapon used.' 'Yeah, I know, the Glock,' he said tetchily.'Maybe they just put Donny Petrozzo in the squat and lied about him being the shooter? We've still only got their word for it—and his prints.''Right.' Phil looked at her. 'Anything else?''Nope. I am trying to get a through line on the dates and times of the deaths. We're all over the place.''Good—because that's exactly what we are.You know, this case expands every bloody day. Shipping in more officers hasn't helped much.' He indicated Cunningham's office with his head. 'And she's fucking useless.'Anna wouldn't be drawn. 'Well, let's get this show on the road. We work it between us, Phil.'He gave a half smile; she knew he didn't like it that she used we, but he stomached it. 'We should do just that,Travis.'Anna went into the incident room to talk to DC Pamela Meadows, who was running the investigation on the Stanley Leymore murder. The incident room was becoming cramped. With filing cabinets and trolleys overflowing with mounds of files, and the extra officers allocated to the case, space was short. Desks buttressed onto each other; it was a headache for the duty manager to control.Pamela pointed over to a desk in the far corner of the room, where two detectives were sitting beside a stack of grubby, dog-eared files. They had traced the original owner of the Mitsubishi; the files were Stanley Leymore s sales ledgers, dating back years.'What I want from you,' Anna instructed, 'is the exact date that Mitsubishi left Leymore's garage. I want all the details on when Leymore was last seen alive, plus the time of death.'She joined the duty manager and gave him a list: Julius D'Anton's wife was to be reinterviewed, to clarify the exact dates of his last sighting, and reconfirm the dates of the antiques fair he was known to visit, plus his visit to the antiques shop, and the date his van was towed into the repair garage in Shipston on Stour. Some of the dates she was able to provide, but she wanted all the dates up on the board. She also wantedDonny Petrozzo's time of death and last sighting printed up, and the last sighting of Frank Brandon next to the date of the shooting in the Chalk Farm squat. As yet, no postmortem had been done on David Rushton, but she also wanted his name alongside the other four victims.Anna then instructed Gordon to make up a timetable of the yacht Dare Devil: when it had been chartered, and when it had been sold. As she went back to her office, she saw two plain whiteboards being set up, with Timetable in large letters. She felt that she had started to make progress, albeit as if she was using the incident room as a classroom; instead of the blackboard, they had the incident board, and felt-tipped pens instead of chalk.The body of David Rushton was at the morgue. Ewan Fielding would begin the autopsy sometime that morning. DC Pamela Meadows had been given the unpleasant task of informing his wife that her husband had been murdered. She was accompanied by another officer from the team. They would also have a warrant to remove any items from his home that they felt could be connected to the investigation.Langton had made sure that, to date,