Isaac looked up at the clock; it was 8.30 p.m. The questioning had been going for eight hours. All the participants were exhausted, but he was determined to continue. Pinto appeared not to be guilty of murder and had been compromised due to his gambling debts. However, Dave seemed to have been someone in need of a job and money. If the eight years in prison was correct, it might be possible to trace him.
‘Did you ever take a photo of Dave?’ Isaac asked.
‘On my phone.’
‘Where is it?’
‘Outside. One of your officers took it before I was slammed up in here.’
Isaac halted the interview, and he and Larry went to find the phone. Pinto and his lawyer waited in the interview room. A cup of tea was given to both of them.
The two police officers retrieved the phone and returned to the interview room. ‘Show us,’ Isaac said.
Pinto scrolled through his photos. ‘That’s him.’
Larry forwarded the image to Bridget who was still in the office with Wendy.
‘Interview concluded at 8.50 p.m. We will resume tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. prompt,’ Isaac said.
Pinto was returned to his cell. Katrina Hatcher left the building ten minutes later, but not before speaking to Isaac. ‘My client is innocent of murder,’ she said.
‘He’s admitted to drug smuggling, disposing of a body.’
‘You cannot charge him with murder.’
‘Let’s see,’ Isaac said.
Chapter 6
Isaac and Larry walked up the two flights of stairs to the Homicide office. It was late. Isaac remembered that he had arranged to meet with Jess, an attempt to rekindle their romance. He phoned her. ‘Forget it,’ the only two words she said. He knew by the way it was said that she was referring to the romance, not the fact that he was standing her up again. It seemed to him that a normal life with the woman he wanted was not possible.
‘Bad day, sir?’ Wendy asked. She had seen the look on her DCI’s face as he walked in the door.
‘Personal issues,’ Isaac’s reply.
‘You need to find someone else. It’s not going to work out, you know that.’
‘I suppose I do, but…’
‘If she can’t put up with the hours you work, there’s no more to be said. It’s best to call it quits and for her to get on with her life; you to get on with yours.’
Isaac was thankful for his sergeant’s concern, but now there was a more pressing issue. Who was Dave?
‘We have a name, the time he spent in prison, a tattoo and a photo,’ Isaac said to the team.
‘I’ve already instigated a database search on the picture. I’m sure we’ll have a result within a couple of hours,’ Bridget said.
‘Why don’t you go home, sir?’ Wendy said. ‘We can always phone you.’
The idea appealed to Isaac, but his mood was not conducive to relaxing after another bust up with Jess, his on-again, off-again girlfriend. He still wanted her, but it had happened yet again: the chance of a romantic interlude and he had chosen a murder investigation. It was inevitable in that it would always be the same as long as he stayed with the police force. Maybe when he made detective superintendent he could back off a little, but that seemed to be a few more years in the future, and Jess O’Neill, broody and wanting a child, would be gone by then.
Isaac knew he would not be going home. He looked at the paperwork in front of him, he spoke to Larry, he looked over the shoulders of Bridget and Wendy, but mostly he sat quietly, pensively waiting for a result: the result that would drive the case forward.
If the crime syndicate was as vicious as they appeared to be, then who were they, and why hadn’t he heard of them before?
‘Larry,’ Isaac said as he went over and sat at the desk next to his, ‘we need to find out about large shipments of drugs into this country. Who’s the best person to talk to?’
‘We could get someone from Serious and Organised Crimes Command.’
‘Agreed. What about your gang leader?’
‘He’ll know about the distribution of the drugs on the street, but he’s not likely to be able to tell us much else. He’s only small fry, a local hustler.’
‘Talk to him anyway. He’ll have his ear to the ground.’
‘He won’t talk to me too openly, you know that.’
‘He will if he believes the syndicate is threatening him.’
‘Are they?’
‘Who knows. The body was meant to be discovered.’
‘To frighten others involved in the crime syndicate?’
‘I’ll meet up with Rasta Joe again,’ Larry said. ‘You can’t believe the earbashing I received the last time at home after I came in smelling of beer, and he likes to drink.’
‘At least she’s there for you,’ Isaac said.
‘I’ve found him,’ an excited voice shouted from the other side of the room.
Both Isaac and Larry moved over to Bridget’s desk. The woman had a broad smile on her face. ‘Wandsworth Prison.’
‘Do you have a name?’ Isaac asked.
‘Dougal Stewart.’
‘What else can you tell us?’
‘He served nine years for armed robbery. A man was killed, although Stewart was not responsible. They released him six months ago.’
‘Great work,’ Isaac said.
Thirty minutes later, close to midnight, the four police officers left the station.
Isaac would phone his DCS as he drove home.
***
‘We have a name for your friend Dave,’ Isaac said after the interview with Pinto had reconvened at 8 a.m. Katrina Hatcher was sitting alongside her client.
‘I only knew him as Dave,’ Pinto replied. The man looked as though he had had a restless night.
‘Dougal Stewart spent nine years in Wandsworth Prison.’
‘Was
