Because she’d seen what he was capable of and she hadn’t felt confident in her ability to deal with him alone if it came down to it. Despite what she’d said to Riggott.
Would a patrol car outside deter him? She wasn’t entirely sure it would but maybe now that Walton could feel the net drawing closed around him, he’d think twice before approaching her again. If he had any sense of self-preservation, it would work.
But what about Dani, she thought, and her son.
Dani had gone back to him of her own free will but the boy had no say in it. How old was he now? Nine or ten, big enough to try and get between them when Walton decided to lash out at Dani. Big enough for Walton to think it was high time the boy was reminded of his place in the pecking order.
The poor kid wouldn’t stand a chance.
‘Now you definitely are hiding,’ Adams said, coming around the corner.
He looked hollowed out. Face slack, movements smaller and more contained than usual as he lit up and slumped against the wall next to her.
‘So, that was rough,’ she said. ‘You okay?’
‘I was half expecting him to hit me so, yeah, went better than it might have.’
‘You should have told me what you were doing,’ she said, unable to stop herself now everything was out in the open.
‘I know. I’m sorry.’ He scuffed at the ground with his toe. ‘I didn’t want Riggott to take it out on you as well.’ He smiled faintly. ‘I thought, if I lose my job over this, at least Mel can keep me in the style I’m accustomed to.’
She found a smile for him.
‘You okay?’ he asked. ‘What did Riggott want with you?’
She explained about the patrol car and he accepted it without a murmur. She wondered if he felt as intimidated by Walton as she did, if maybe he doubted his own presence would be a deterrent to the man.
‘I was thinking about Dani and her son,’ she said. ‘Do you think I should get in touch with social services?’
‘After that shit last night, yeah, probably a good idea,’ he agreed, thoughtful-looking. ‘I’ve got a mate there owes me a favour. Let me call him and see about getting someone to keep an eye on them.’
‘Thanks.’ She grabbed his hand and squeezed it quickly.
He fluttered his eyelashes. ‘Oh, my God, public display of affection at work. Be still my boyish heart.’
‘Fuck off then,’ she said, grinning as she dropped his hand.
They went back up to the office, Adams walking past Colleen as if she didn’t even exist. Ferreira felt a prick of sympathy for her, was sure she’d gone to Riggott with the best of intentions, wanting to keep Adams from getting himself into any deeper trouble. But it was going to take awhile for that rift to heal. She would talk to him later about it, try and get him to make the first move with Colleen. They’d worked together too long to fall out over this.
Ferreira moved to the board where Ainsworth’s murder was plotted out, Zigic already standing there, Bloom, Parr and Weller all arranged facing him. He’d started the briefing without her but it hardly mattered. They were getting close now and she was increasingly convinced that the most significant part of their day would be questioning Nadia Baidoo again.
‘Forensics,’ Zigic said, uncapping the marker pen and beginning to write on the board. ‘Blood-type match for Joshua Ainsworth on the carpet grip removed from Sutherland’s garden fence and several deposits inside the house.’ He wrote fast and almost illegibly and Ferreira knew she’d have to rub it all out once he was done and print in the same words. ‘We also have Ainsworth’s fingerprints in the kitchen, up the banister and in the bathroom.’
‘But nowhere else?’ Parr asked.
‘He bandaged his hands up,’ Bloom said, looking at Zigic. ‘Maybe he kind of came to his senses while he was doing that, realised how much evidence he was leaving behind and gave up on whatever else he’d gone there for.’
‘What he was doing there can wait for now,’ Zigic said. ‘The important thing is we can prove he was in Sutherland’s house. Now,’ he took a breath. ‘We just need to prove that they knew he’d been there.’
‘Nothing from door-to-door yet.’ Parr reached for a can of energy drink. ‘I noticed a couple of places had CCTV cameras though, so I was going to head back and see if we can get the footage.’
‘Any of them pointing directly at Sutherland’s place?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Any on the entrance to the close?’
He frowned. ‘No, sir. It’s a long shot I know.’
‘Get hold of them,’ Zigic told him. ‘Check everything.’
Weller waved a vague finger towards the suspects column. ‘Are we forgetting the rest of them, then?’
‘Right now we’re concentrating on Patrick Sutherland and Nadia Baidoo,’ Zigic said firmly. ‘We’ll be questioning both of them today and I’d like us to have a comprehensive, preferably irrefutable, bundle of evidence when we head in there.’ He clapped his hands smartly. ‘Crack on then.’
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
A few minutes after ten a call came up from reception.
‘Lady down here for you, Mel.’
‘Who is it?’
‘She won’t give me her name.’
The woman from their paternity test? Ferreira wondered, as she hurried down the stairs. Someone naïve enough to believe she could hold on to her privacy and untroubled life by simply refusing to say her name.
When she saw the woman, Ferreira realised she hadn’t been brought out by the public appeal, which ran on yesterday’s local news.
She was around sixty, tall and slim in baggy combats and trainers and a Momentum T-shirt in the same Soviet red as the clip-in streaks that stood
