answers, she had her work cut out trying to save her career.
A car pulled up at the edge of the perimeter, and two men got out from the rear passenger seats. One of them was Dan Grier, but it took a couple of seconds to identify the shorter, older man with him as DCS Frank Mendelson, the famously pugnacious head of Homicide and Serious Crime Command, and Tina’s ultimate boss.
Mendelson seemed to zone in on her straight away, and he marched over, his face like thunder, with Grier slowly bringing up the rear, dragging his heels like a naughty schoolboy.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ he demanded, stopping in front of her, his eyes blazing with a barely suppressed rage.
‘Solving a murder,’ she told him calmly, meeting his gaze.
‘Well, you haven’t solved it, have you? All we appear to have is a string of dead bodies, and you nowhere to be seen whenever you’re needed. You’re a witness to the murder of a government minister, for God’s sake! You can’t just leave the crime scene.’ He shook his head angrily. ‘The Met can’t afford to have unstable mavericks on board, and that’s exactly what you are.’
Tina felt like reminding him that was not what he’d said when she joined Dougie MacLeod’s CMIT. Then, he’d called her the type of go-getting officer the Met sorely needed. But she didn’t bother, preferring to let him talk until he wore himself out, while trying to avoid looking at Grier, who stood further back staring at the ground.
‘That’s why I’m suspending you until further notice,’ continued Mendelson. ‘You’re also required to go immediately to Notting Hill police station where you’re to give a statement to CID about what happened at Anthony Gore’s home. I understand you recorded his confession.’ He put undue emphasis on this last word, his tone sceptical, as if he thought there was something inherently false about it. ‘If that’s the case, I need to have the tape now.’ He put out a hand.
‘You’re mistaken,’ she said, without looking at Grier. ‘There’s no tape.’
‘Are you sure?’ He frowned, then looked back over his shoulder. ‘DC Grier, I thought you said DI Boyd made a tape of your interview with Mr Gore?’
‘I said I wasn’t sure, sir,’ he answered. ‘I thought she might have done, but if she says she didn’t. .’
Mendelson didn’t look convinced. ‘If you’re lying to me. .’ he growled at Tina.
‘I’m not.’
‘I could have you searched, you know. I’d be quite within my rights under the circumstances.’
She gave him a look of utter contempt. ‘Go on then.’
‘I don’t like your attitude,
‘I couldn’t give a shit,
The DCS’s face grew so red she thought he might explode. He was literally shaking with anger. Finally, he seemed to bring himself under control. ‘You’re finished,’ he said at last, a thin smile forming on his lips. ‘I’ll make sure of it.’
‘Fuck you,’ she answered, but her words were drowned out by the siren from another ambulance as it left the building site, and anyway, Mendelson had already turned on his heel and was marching away.
She watched him go, then stubbed the cigarette underfoot and, leaving the hire car where it was, walked off in the opposite direction without looking back, feeling a strange yet exhilarating sense of freedom.
Part Three
NINE DAYS LATER
Fifty-seven
Tina Boyd was surprised to see how healthy Sean Egan looked, given all he’d been through. He was propped up in his bed reading a book when she knocked and walked into his private hospital room, carrying a box of chocolates and a bottle of decent Scotch she’d picked up en route. She’d wanted to come before but for the first week of his stay he’d been effectively in police custody, and under armed guard, with visits strictly limited.
He grinned when he saw her and put down the book. ‘So, to what do I owe this pleasure?’
‘I came to say thanks for saving my life,’ she said, putting the chocolates and booze on his bedside table, and taking a seat.
‘Tommy wasn’t much of a shot. I think you’d have been OK.’
‘He managed to hit you twice.’
‘He just got lucky,’ he said, giving her a weary smile. ‘Anyway, if you hadn’t turned up, I’d have bled to death, so I guess we’re quits. Maybe we should share the bottle.’
Tina had deliberately chosen Scotch because she disliked it. ‘No, you keep it for when you’re feeling better.’
‘Fair enough,’ he said, ‘but at least tell me how you ended up in that building at eight o’clock on a Saturday morning. I’ve been answering a lot of questions these past few days, but no one’s been giving me any information.’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘Long stories are what keep me going in this place.’
So she told him everything.
‘Jesus,’ he said when she’d finished. ‘After all you did, and they end up suspending you?’
‘I didn’t follow the rules, and they don’t like that these days.’
He laughed. ‘I know the feeling. And if it’s any consolation, I’ve been suspended as well. But at the moment I’m just thankful I haven’t been charged with anything.’
‘I think there’d have been a public outcry if they’d charged you with anything. You’ve read the papers. You must have seen the coverage you’ve been getting. The
Not surprisingly, there’d been a media frenzy over the kidnapping of Andrew Kent and the revelations surrounding Anthony Gore and his connection to it, and the story had rarely been off the front pages. With the stock of mainstream politicians at one of its lowest ebbs in history thanks to the ongoing expenses scandal, the allegations of murder weren’t considered as unbelievable as they might otherwise have been. In fact, they were treated as still more evidence of the corrupt nature of the ruling classes, who it now seemed were capable of almost anything.
Most people — if you believed the tabloid headlines, at least — thought that both Andrew Kent and Anthony Gore had got what they deserved, and although the full extent of Gore’s involvement wasn’t yet public knowledge, there was a groundswell of support for Sean Egan. In tabloid eyes, he was the brave undercover cop, eager to avenge the long-ago murder of his brother, whose only crime was getting in too deep, but who’d redeemed himself by ridding the world of a sadistic killer.
Nobody, therefore, wanted to be the person to charge him with anything, even though the CPS could probably have created a file against him longer than the Bible.
‘Did they ever find the missing footage that Kent took of Gore killing Roisin O’Neill?’ he asked.
Tina shook her head. ‘It sounds like Kent only kept the one copy, and that was the one that was destroyed.’
‘And you think Tommy killed her father as well?’
‘He must have done. The car he was using, the one that led me to him and you, was filmed in Roisin’s father’s cul-de-sac on the night he died. It’s too much of a coincidence for it not to be related.’
‘But why kill him? Particularly then.’
It was a question that Tina had been thinking about a lot. ‘Gore must have been concerned that Roisin had told her father about their relationship. That wasn’t a problem while her murder was being treated as one of the Night Creeper’s. But when Kent was arrested in possession of information that implicated Gore in her murder, they must have decided it was best to get her father out of the way.’ She shrugged. ‘I think it was just a case of damage
