Derval picked up her wine and drank most of the remainder, letting out a long, satisfied sigh that was utterly familiar to Tina.
‘There was someone else.’
Tina snapped back to reality, the urge for a drink temporarily forgotten.
Derval stared into space as she spoke. ‘Roisin never actually came out and said she was seeing someone, but I knew she was. We went out a couple of times and she’d just give off telltale signs. It was the way she smiled over her texts, and disappeared off to make phone calls. I asked her about it, but she just said it was friends.’ She looked at Tina. ‘But I knew. And I’m guessing he must have been married. She would have known that I wouldn’t have approved. I had an affair once myself and got my fingers burned very badly, and Dad. . Well, he’d have hated it.’
‘So you have no idea who it might have been?’
Derval shook her head. ‘No, but I’m absolutely certain there was someone.’
‘Are you sure Roisin wouldn’t have talked to your father about it?’
‘I suppose it’s possible,’ Derval answered cautiously. ‘They were close, after all.’ She frowned. ‘You don’t honestly think that someone killed Dad to protect a secret lover of Roisin’s, do you? That’s just unbelievable.’
That was the problem. It was. But then so much of what had happened that day had been unbelievable, and that hadn’t stopped it happening. ‘We’re just following up every avenue of inquiry,’ said Tina, aware how hollow her answer sounded.
Derval looked at them both in turn. ‘I want some closure here. I want to know that justice is being done for my sister and my father, and I want to know, most of all, that the right man has been arrested for the crime, and that you’re going to get him back.’
‘We’re doing everything we can,’ said Grier.
‘You keep saying that. But are you? Look, I’m suffering enough as it is without you talking in riddles.’ Her voice was getting louder, and she looked like she might burst into tears at any moment.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tina saw Grier getting to his feet. She rose too, walked over to Derval and put a steadying hand on her shoulder. ‘I promise you justice will be done, Derval. I will personally keep you informed of everything that happens with regard to Andrew Kent, and this whole inquiry. You have my word on that.’
‘Do you suspect that my father’s death was suspicious?’
‘Yes, that’s a possibility,’ she said reluctantly.
Derval’s expression tightened, giving her cheeks a sunken, hollow look. ‘Oh God. After everything else. .’
‘It might not be, Derval, remember that. It’s just we’re keeping an open mind. Now, I need to see the CCTV tapes from the camera at the front of the property. I don’t suppose they’ll give us anything, but we need to take a look.’
Derval nodded, and led them through to her father’s study where she booted up his PC and located the camera’s digital footage for the previous day. But Tina was right. The footage didn’t show anything suspicious, although that was to be expected. If anyone had killed Kevin O’Neill in his own home, they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be caught on camera.
Unfortunately, it also left them with nothing. They thanked Derval for her time, Tina reiterating her promise to keep her informed of developments, as well as taking the number of the doctor who’d certified her father dead.
As they drove out of the gates of the O’Neill property, Grier asked if they were finished for the night.
‘Soon.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Really? What else are we going to do?’ ‘First of all, I want to call the doctor. We need a time of death for Kevin O’Neill. Then we’ll have something to work with.’
As they reached the bottom of the road, where it joined the A404 heading back into London, Tina stopped the car. She was feeling frustrated. They were still fumbling about in the dark, and she knew that Grier was rapidly losing interest in her theories, if he’d ever had any at all.
‘Where are you going now?’ he asked as she opened the car door.
She pointed up to a CCTV camera on top of a metal pole, partially obscured by one of the oak trees that lined both sides of the road, which she’d spotted on the way in. It covered the entrance to the cul-de-sac, and any vehicle that came in or out of it would have to pass under its gaze. Beneath the camera was a sign advertising the twenty-four-hour security company that operated it. ‘Maybe the operator saw something,’ she said, walking over to take down the company’s number.
The drizzling rain had stopped now and the night was warm.
‘Listen, ma’am.’ Grier had also got out of the car, and walked up beside her. ‘I think we could be wasting time here.’
She pulled out a cigarette. ‘I know. You’ve made that clear.’
‘O’Neill died of a heart attack. Not a bullet to the head. He was a big guy in his late fifties who’d had heart trouble before, and who’d been under a lot of pressure since his daughter’s death. This could just be the culmination of it.’
‘His daughter died eight months ago.’
‘I think you’re becoming a conspiracy theorist.’
Tina felt a punch of anger. ‘And I can’t believe you can’t see what’s happening. Kent’s been snatched for a reason. There are a lot of people involved, and now, when we look more closely at the one victim where the MO’s not like the others, we find that her father, who hasn’t had any recent health problems, has suddenly dropped dead. There is a conspiracy, and there’s no theory about it. It’s real.’
‘But even if Roisin’s murder is different, and wasn’t committed by Kent, why would the person who did it kill her father? And why, then, would they also snatch Kent? It just doesn’t make sense.’
Ignoring the rain, Tina lit the cigarette, noticing that Grier was giving her a look that might be construed as pitying. She’d received a fair number like that over the years from people who professed to admire her determination and tenacity, and her excellent record for helping solve high-profile cases, but who also wondered how someone who’d lost several colleagues in the line of duty and who’d been kidnapped herself, not to mention shot twice, could genuinely be ‘all there’. In truth, she should never have been a DI, since she was a far better detective than a manager, but the reason she’d been promoted was because she didn’t give up.
‘Maybe you’re right. Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree. But it’s better than barking up no tree at all.’
Grier made a play of looking at his watch. ‘There’s nothing else we can realistically do tonight, ma’am. It’s not long ’til midnight, we’ve been on duty for fifteen hours, and phoning doctors or security companies, or whoever else, isn’t going to help us find Andrew Kent. But a good night’s sleep might.’
Tina was beginning to realize she didn’t like being called ma’am. It suggested she had a responsibility towards the people reporting to her that she wasn’t sure she could handle. After all, today she’d almost got Grier killed. ‘Do me a favour, Dan. For tonight at least, call me Tina.’
He sighed. ‘OK, Tina. Just for one night, why don’t you take a step back, relax a little, and get a decent night’s sleep?’
She wanted to say because this job, and the fact that I’m good at it, is all I’ve got. Instead, she turned and walked back to the car, wondering how long she had left before she finally burned out.
Thirty-two
I lay in the darkness for a long time, wondering why Wolfe hadn’t killed me when he’d had the opportunity, but without coming to any conclusions. All I knew was that I had to try to get out of there.
But when I finally felt ready to get to my feet and try the door, I found it was stuck fast, and it wasn’t budging, however hard I pushed. So I sat back down and waited for Wolfe and Haddock to come back and finish off what they’d started, trying to recover as much as possible from the beating in the meantime so that I’d be ready to make a break when the opportunity arose. My injuries, though painful — especially the ribs, one of which was definitely fractured — were tolerable and wouldn’t stop me from making my move.
