Parker entered the shop, slightly out of breath.
‘Sarge, we’ve located the driver’s house.’
Kay and Carys hurried after him as he crossed the road, heading towards one of the terrace houses on the opposite side of the street.
‘Who confirmed it?’ said Kay.
‘Elderly couple over at number twenty-two. The husband’s confined to a chair most of the day, so they tend to spend their time watching the street,’ he said. ‘They’ve seen the car parked outside number twenty-five a few times over the past couple of months.’
‘Renting or owners?’
‘They say renting – there was a sign put up a while back, and then the bloke moved in. They’ve seen a woman turn up a few times, but they don’t think she lives there. They thought she might have been having an affair with him, because of the way she used to check the street before knocking on the front door. She used to be careful leaving the house, too – the wife says she saw her peering out the front door once or twice before leaving, as if she was afraid of being seen.’
‘Interesting. Anyone in now?’
Parker shook his head. ‘Place looks empty. No-one answered when we knocked. Thought we’d get you there before we did anything else.’
They stopped on the pavement outside the house, the frontage separated from the street by a wooden fence that held a gate on rusting hinges.
‘All right. Let’s do this.’ Kay pulled out her phone from her bag and dialled Sharp’s number. ‘Guv? We’re going to need that search warrant.’
Chapter Seven
Barnes arrived over an hour later, the signed search warrant in his hand.
‘Sorry – the magistrate Sharp had briefed was stuck in court, so we had to find another.’
‘It happens. Don’t worry – I’ve got officers placed in the road behind this one in case anyone tries to leave over the back fence.’
Ignoring the small group of uniformed officers who had crowded on the pavement beside her, Kay checked the wording of the document, then handed the warrant to the uniformed PC next to her. ‘Let’s take a look, shall we, Norris?’
‘How do you want to do this? Break it down, or pick the lock?’
Kay pivoted and glanced down the street, before turning back to Barnes and Norris. ‘We don’t have time, and all the neighbours know we’re here anyway, so if anyone was going to warn him, they’d have done it by now. Break it down.’
Kay waited while Norris turned to Parker and gestured at the door.
He moved forward, battering ram in his grip, and then aimed it at the door just below the handle, and swung it.
Kay averted her eyes as the door crashed open, sending splinters of wood across the doorstep and over her feet.
‘Right, two of you with Barnes, Carys and myself. Everyone else stay outside,’ said Kay, slipping gloves over her fingers. ‘Let’s find out who the hell this bastard is.’
She kicked the bigger splinters out of the way while Norris pushed the door open wide and stepped over the threshold.
‘Police!’ he called, making his way through the house with Parker at his heels.
Kay hovered at the front door while the two uniformed officers checked downstairs, and caught Norris’s eye as he returned from the kitchen shaking his head.
‘We’ll check upstairs, but you’re okay to make a start down here.’
‘Thanks. Where’s Parker?’
‘He went out the back door to check the garden. Don’t hold your breath – it doesn’t look like it got used much and there’s no sign of anyone leaving through the back door before we got here.’
‘Okay.’ Kay turned to Barnes and Carys. ‘Right, let’s split up – Carys, you take the kitchen. Barnes and I can split the living room between us.’
‘Sarge,’ said Carys, and brushed past her, a look of determination on her face.
Kay glanced up the stairs as she led Barnes towards the living room.
Norris stood at the top, and shook his head. ‘No-one’s around,’ he said. ‘Do you want me to start the search up here?’
‘Go for it.’
As Kay moved into the living room, the first thing she noticed was that the furniture appeared to be a collection of second-hand assortments. Nothing matched.
Everything about the place seemed temporary, as if the tenant didn’t expect to return. A two-seater sofa had been placed against the wall behind the door. In front of it, a small table contained an ashtray and a copy of an old newspaper. A small television had been set upon a low chest of drawers in one corner near the window, and what appeared to be a home-made bookshelf leaned precariously against the wall opposite the window.
Kay bent down and began to flick through the pages of the paperbacks. She glanced at Barnes over her shoulder as he pulled open the doors to the chest of drawers and began sorting through it.
‘If there was a couple living here, how come it feels like we’re only seeing one half?’
She held up one of the books. ‘A lot of these are sport biographies, not the sort of thing I’d expect a woman to read.’
Barnes straightened and placed his hands on his hips as he turned. ‘I know what you mean. Even the decor is wrong. I know it’s a rental, but you’d expect to see a bit of a personal touch. There’s nothing, is there? No photographs, no paperwork lying around—’
‘This isn’t a home, is it? It’s temporary.’
‘You think he kept it that way? In case he had to clear out at short notice?’
‘That’s what I’m thinking. We’ll get the place checked out for fingerprints, but given that we know the driver’s prints aren’t on the system, and nor are his victim’s, I don’t hold out a lot of hope that we’ll find any others. He’s been too careful.’
Carys appeared at the doorway. ‘There’s nothing in the kitchen of interest, either. They certainly don’t appear to have cooked at home much. Kitchen bin’s been emptied recently – I’ll get uniform to take a
