Jack shook his head. “No, but thanks for offering.”
He retired to his office and flopped down behind his desk, head thumping. Even taking into account the poor signal issues, Jack had would have expected Garston to have replied by now.
Was it possible that the text they had so carefully drafted had made him suspicious?
Could Garston have worked out that it wasn’t from Rodent?
They had thought long and hard about how best to phrase the wording so that the text wouldn’t look odd, but perhaps they had inadvertently got something wrong?
Maybe Dawlish would have signed off as Rodney, not Rodent?
Maybe, he hadn’t stayed with Winston and Garston overnight as they had surmised?
Tyler let out a frustrated sigh and reached into his top drawer for some paracetamol. He wondered if it was worth trying to speak to Rodent again, to see if he would be more reasonable this time around? He dismissed the notion almost immediately. The chances were that Dawlish had never been to the address he’d taken them to before and would have no idea how to get back there.
As he washed down the two pills he’d just popped into his mouth with a swig of water, a thought occurred to Tyler, stopping him in his tracks. A tremor of excitement rippled through him. Could it be as simple as that? he asked himself.
Springing to his feet, he rushed out of his office, straight along the corridor, and into Andy Quinlan’s main office, where he found Susie Sergeant and Carol Keating locked in conversation. “A quick word,” he said as he slumped down in a chair next to them.
They stared at him with puzzled faces.
“I don’t suppose there were any pieces of paper amongst Dawlish’s possessions, were there? Something with an address scribbled on it?”
Susie shook her head. “Sorry, boss, I went through everything he had with a fine-tooth comb. There was nothing like that.”
Jack’s shoulders slumped with disappointment. “Never mind,” he told her. “It suddenly occurred to me that, as Dawlish hadn’t been to the address before, he would have written it down in case he got lost and needed to ask for directions.” He stood up to leave, but then sat down again as another idea sprang into his head.
“What about the van?” he asked. “Has that been searched?” If Dawlish didn’t have it with him, perhaps there was something with the address written on it in the van.
“Not by us,” Susie said. “SO19 arranged for it to be lifted to Charlton for us to search properly at our leisure.”
“We need someone to scoot over there now and check out that van,” Jack said, eyes brimming with excitement.
“I’ve already sent Kevin Murray over there with the local SOCO,” Susie told him. “I’ll give him a ring right now, and he can have a gander while we wait.” Excusing herself from Carol, Susie popped off to retrieve her mobile and make the call.
“Getting a little tense, isn’t it?” Carol observed when she had gone.
“A little too tense, if you ask me,” Jack said with a wry smile. “I can feel it in my water Carol, if we don’t get him tonight, he’s going to get away.”
Carol placed a motherly hand on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You’re doing everything humanly possible, don’t make yourself ill over this.” Her eyes were full of concern.
“Yes, Matron,” Jack said, finally succumbing to addressing her by her nickname.
Carol beamed at him. “Trust me,” she said, “Matron knows best.”
Susie reappeared, her mobile glued to her ear. “Kevin’s checking the van’s cabin out now,” she informed them. “Yes, Kevin, I appreciate it’s a plumber’s van and it’s full of notes and receipts and the like,” she said testily into the phone, “but this is crucial so don’t leave anything unchecked…Yes, I appreciate it could take you ages…” She raised her eyebrows in exasperation. Murray had that effect on people. “Yes, I am familiar with the expression ‘a needle in a haystack’. Are you familiar with that good old Irish saying, ‘Get on with it and stop your whinging or you’ll feel my toe up your arse.’?”
“I must say, I’m not familiar with that particular expression either,” Carol said with a smile.
Susie covered the speaker with her hand. “Made it up myself,” she grinned. “I was going to say, ‘Is minic a gheibhean beal oscailt diog dunta!’ which in Gaelic means ‘An open mouth often catches a closed fist,’ but I thought that might be a bit too complicated for him, so I kept it simple.”
Carol laughed. “I’ll have to try and remember that one,” she said.
I kept it simple…
A lightbulb came on inside Tyler’s head. “Susie,” he said, standing up and placing a hand on her arm to get her attention. “Ask Kevin if the van has a Sat Nav fitted. Maybe the address isn’t written down on paper after all. Maybe it’s been inputted straight into a navigation device.” That would be the simplest thing to do, after all.
Susie relayed the message, and they all waited on tenterhooks while Murray checked.
“Come on, come on,” Tyler muttered under his breath.
“He’s found one,” Susie said a moment later. “He’s just powering it up and he’s going to check it for recent addresses.”
It seemed to take forever, and the three of them sat in strained silence until Murray finally came back on the line.
“What’s that?” Susie said, plugging a finger into her ear. “You’re sure?” A big smile broke out over her face as she turned to look for a pen. “We’ve got the address,” she said excitedly.
Chapter 34
“Boss, you do know you’re doing just over a hundred, don’t you,” Susie said as she glanced nervously at the speedometer.
“I know,” Jack said, pressing his foot down even harder, “but I can’t seem to squeeze anything more out of this heap.”
“What a pity,” Susie said, lacking any sincerity. Without taking her eyes from the road, which
