cold-case file from the storeroom. You are the last signature on the form. It’s regarding a missing person, Rachael Ryan, who disappeared on Christmas morning, 1997. Ring a bell?’
‘I looked at a lot of files in the brief time I was with you, Roy.’ His voice sounded pained.
‘Well, there are two pages missing from this one, Cassian. Just wondering if by any chance you had given them to anyone else? A researcher perhaps?’
‘Let me think. No, absolutely not. No way! I wanted to review everything myself.’
‘Did you read that particular file?’
‘I honestly can’t remember.’
‘Try harder.’
Pewe sounded uneasy suddenly. ‘What is this, Roy?’
‘I’m asking you a question. Did you read that file? It’s only a few months ago.’
‘It rings a faint bell,’ he said defensively.
‘Would you have noticed if the last two pages were missing?’
‘Well, yes, of course I would.’
‘So they weren’t missing when you read them?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Do you remember what they said?’
‘No – no, I don’t.’
‘I need you to remember what they said, because they may now be crucial to a current investigation.’
‘Roy!’ He sounded pained. ‘Come on. Do you remember stuff you read three months ago?’
‘Yes, actually, I do. I have a good memory. Isn’t that what detectives are supposed to have?’
‘Roy, I’m sorry. I’m really busy at the moment on a report I need to have finished by midday.’
‘Would it help to refresh your memory if I had you arrested and brought you back down here?’
Grace heard a sound like the blade of a lawnmower striking a half-buried flint. ‘Ha-ha! You are joking, aren’t you?’
On an operation last October, Roy Grace had saved Cassian Pewe’s life – at considerable risk to himself. Yet Pewe had barely thanked him. It was hard to imagine that he could ever feel more contempt for any human than he felt for this man. Grace hoped it wasn’t clouding his judgement, although at this moment he didn’t really care that much if it was.
‘Cassian, Tony Case, our Senior Support Officer, whom you will remember from when you were with us, has informed me that since Sussex House became operational, back in 1996, all cold-case files have been kept down in a secure storeroom in the basement. Access is strictly controlled, for chain-of-evidence purposes. A digital alarm protects it and anyone entering needs access codes, which are registered. He has a log, signed by you, showing that you returned the Shoe Man’s file to one of his assistants last October. No one has looked at that file subsequently, until the Cold Case Team this week. OK?’
He was greeted with silence.
‘You were in Brighton during the Labour Party Conference of 1997, weren’t you? On secondment from the Met when you were working for Special Branch. You then continued working in Brighton straight after that, on an inquiry into a series of armed jewellery raids in London that were linked with Brighton. You bought a flat, with a view to living here. Correct?’
‘Yes. So?’
‘The dates you were in this city coincide exactly with the dates that the Shoe Man committed his offences. You spent Christmas Eve, 1997, in Brighton, didn’t you?’
‘I can’t remember without checking my diary.’
‘One of my staff can verify that, Cassian. Bella Moy? Remember her?’
‘Should I?’
‘You tried to shag her in the back of your car at about midnight, after a boozy night out with a bunch of local officers. You drove her home, then tried to stop her getting out of your car. Remember now?’
‘No.’
‘Probably a good thing. She remembers it well. You’re lucky she didn’t press charges for sexual harassment.’
‘Roy, are you trying to tell me you’ve never snogged a girl pissed?’
Ignoring him, Grace said, ‘I want to know what you did after you left Bella outside her mother’s house. Those hours between midnight and Christmas morning? I want to know what you did on Halloween, 1997. I have more dates for you. I want to know where you were a fortnight ago on New Year’s Eve. Where were you last Thursday evening, 8 January? Where were you last Saturday evening, 10 January? I hope you are writing all those down, Cassian.’
‘You’re wasting police time, Roy!’ He tried to sound good-humoured. ‘Come on. Do you really expect me to be able to tell you where I was at any given moment twelve years ago? Could you tell me where you were?’
‘I could, Cassian. I could tell you exactly. So tell me, this past New Year’s Eve – where did you spend it?’
There was a long silence. Then Pewe said reluctantly, ‘In Brighton, actually.’
‘Can someone vouch for you?’
There was another long silence before Pewe said, ‘I’m sorry, Roy, I’m not prepared to continue this conversation. I don’t like your tone. I don’t like your questions.’
‘And I don’t like your answers,’ Grace replied.
73
Wednesday 14 January
Yac was tired. At 3 a.m. the city had been quiet. The second Tuesday in January and people were staying home. He’d cruised around because the man who owned the taxi got angry if he stopped too early, but he’d only had two fares since midnight – barely enough to cover the cost of the fuel. He’d been about to head home when a call had come in to take two people up to Luton Airport. He’d only got back to the boat just before 7 a.m. Exhausted, he’d fed the cat and crashed out in his berth.
Footsteps woke him. A steady clump, clump, clump on the deck above his head. He sat up and looked at the clock. It showed 2 p.m.
Tea! was his first thought. His second was, Who the hell is up there?
He never had visitors. Ever. Apart from the postman and delivery men. But he was not expecting any deliveries.
It sounded like a whole group of people up there. Was it kids? Kids had been on the boat a few times, jeering and shouting at him, before he’d chased them off.
‘Go away!’ he shouted at the ceiling. ‘Piss off! Sod off! Screw off! Fuck off! Take a hike! Get lost, kids!’ He liked using words he heard in the taxi.
Then he heard knocking. A sharp, insistent rap, rap, rap.
Angrily, he swung his legs out of his bunk and staggered into the saloon, padding across the wooden floor, partially covered with rugs, in his underpants and T-shirt.
Rap, rap, rap.
‘Go to hell!’ he shouted. ‘Who are you? Didn’t you hear me? What do you want? Are you deaf? Go away! I’m asleep!’
Rap, rap, rap!
He climbed up the wooden steps, into the sun lounge at the top. It had glass patio doors and a big brown sofa, and windows all around with views out on the grey afternoon across the mudflats. It was low tide.
A man in his fifties, balding, with a comb-over, wearing a shabby tweed jacket, grey flannel trousers and scuffed brown brogues, was standing outside. He held up a small black leather wallet and mouthed something at him that Yac did not understand. Behind him stood a whole group of people wearing blue jackets with POLICE written on them, and helmets with visors. One of them was lugging a big yellow cylinder that looked like a fire extinguisher.
