‘Possible,’ she admitted, thinking of Ruby Garrick’s commitment to Ainsworth. She wouldn’t have let something like that stand. ‘But the news broke two days ago now. We’d be seeing more chatter online if it had been proper gossip doing the rounds.’
‘So what, do we ignore it?’
‘Can we?’
A pained look crossed his face. ‘If we had a victim actually come forward, that would be one thing, but all we’ve got is an unsubstantiated accusation from a disgruntled ex-employee who had a massive problem with Ainsworth.’
‘I could see if there’s any mention of this elsewhere online,’ she said, already knowing she was going to do it when she got home.
‘But even if you find it, how do we know it isn’t just more of the same originating with Saunders?’ He shifted his weight, sending the rickety picnic table wobbling. ‘Or someone else like him? He isn’t the only person who lost their job because of Ainsworth.’
Ferreira took a deep drag on her rollie. ‘I’d have expected a few more of them to come out of the woodwork by now, wouldn’t you, especially after the TV coverage?’
‘Unless they’ve all realised they’re going to be suspects and they’re smart enough to keep their heads down,’ he said. ‘Long Fleet have got them all under pain-of-death NDAs. They know they’re probably not going to get named. The only way we find them is if they stick their heads above the parapet.’
Ferreira sighed. ‘The thing is, say it’s true – and I’m still not convinced –’
‘Me neither,’ he said.
‘Say it is, where’s this woman now? Chances are she’s either still locked up in Long Fleet because if Ainsworth was sacked over it, then it was probably a recent thing and the likelihood is she won’t have been processed yet.’
‘Or she’s been deported,’ Zigic said, finishing her thought.
‘Exactly. She’s not a viable suspect.’
‘Whereas Saunders and his compatriots are.’
She heard the doubt in his voice.
‘They are. I know you think two years is a long time to wait to go after someone but we can’t ignore the motive there.’ She picked a small bug out of her rum and Coke. ‘We have a whole bunch of people out there with good reason to want to damage Ainsworth, and we have literally no idea who they are. Doesn’t that bother you?’
‘Of course it does,’ he said.
‘And not just any people,’ she went on. ‘People who have a history of abusive behaviour. Bullies, right? People who don’t like it when they don’t get their own way. How do you think they felt when they were pulled up on their behaviour?’
‘Still,’ Zigic said slowly. ‘Murdering Ainsworth for telling the truth?’
‘For revealing the truth about them.’
His shoulders slumped. He looked defeated already, three days into the case, and she wondered just how much pressure Riggott was bringing to bear on him.
‘We need to find out who they are,’ she said firmly. ‘We need to speak to every one of them or we’re not doing our job properly.’
‘You’re right,’ he admitted, toying with his beard.
‘You look at the scene of the crime,’ she went on, now she felt him coming around. ‘No forensic evidence, no witnesses. What does that tell you? We’re dealing with someone who had some idea of how to get away with murder. They were careful. Too careful for a spur-of-the-moment thing. Even if it superficially looks like one. This was a considered crime. Someone has spent time planning and watching and waiting for just the right opportunity.’
‘When he’d had a girlfriend visiting we might blame it on?’
She nodded. ‘If we were crappy coppers or she didn’t have an alibi, we’d be charging her, wouldn’t we?’
‘Maybe.’ He took another mouthful of red wine, kept hold of the glass, turning it around by the stem. ‘You think Saunders is a possibility?’
‘He’d be stupid to kill Ainsworth and then start baiting us, wouldn’t he?’
‘He’s still furious,’ Zigic said thoughtfully.
‘He’s lost status as far as he’s concerned. Copper to prison guard to shop assistant. He really doesn’t like that.’ She crushed out her cigarette and immediately began to roll another one. ‘Basically, we need to know who else was fired on Ainsworth’s evidence. That’s it. Job one, right?’
‘So, we go back to Long Fleet with the accusation against Ainsworth.’
‘Use that to open the door.’
‘Act like we’re concerned about other potential victims and lay the suggestion that we might go public with the theory?’ He was looking more uncomfortable by the second but he was too much the professional not to go through with the plan, morally dubious as it was.
When people threw up roadblocks in front of you, you used whatever means necessary to go through them. He knew that just as well as she did. Except, she thought, Zigic was more the type to find a way around.
‘The governor has to believe we’ll bring scrutiny to his gates,’ she said. ‘He’s terrified of negative publicity. That’s his button.’
‘So we hit it.’
‘Hard as we can.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
It was gone six when they returned to Thorpe Wood Station; most of the day shift officers from the other teams had left already, only a few dotted around, finishing up paperwork that might take them another hour or two. Zigic had never got used to it, not even now, after so many years on the job, the sheer scale of information they had to process, collate and prepare for other people to take over. Continued to underestimate how long it would take him.
His team were still in place, although flagging after a frustrating day. So much slow and repetitive work and little to show for it. But the next phase threatened to be more combative than the last.
On the drive in from the pub Ferreira had kept up a near constant monologue about the Long Fleet staff and their capacity for murder, repeating herself and going off at tangents, so determined to prevent a silence developing that he began to worry that she was actually scared
