Despite his father backing the story, David had been taken to the station for questioning. The photographs of his wife with another lover scattered over her body were a little too damning, even for a man with an alibi. But York had known David for a long time. He wasn’t their man. He wasn’t anybody’s man now.
Slouching in the armchair, York rubbed his tired eyes and watched the officers working. Will Graham was attending to Newport’s corpse, his eyes red and puffy. Yates buzzed around like a worker bee throwing out instructions to his colleagues. He had no real authority, but they were responding regardless. York gave him a nod. The kid was growing on him.
‘Hey,’ said Mason quietly. She took a seat on the edge of the table, takeout coffee cup in hand. ‘How you holding up?’
He shrugged.
‘I know this is difficult, Nick, we’re all going to miss her. Holly was a good copper –’
‘She was my friend, Judy.’
Mason nodded slowly and examined her shoelaces. ‘Listen, I just want you to know that I’m here if you want to talk. There’s a psychological evaluation you’ll be required to attend, but if you wanted to talk to someone who isn’t a robot…well, you know where to find me.’
‘I tried to talk to you,’ he uttered. ‘I told you this would happen. I wanted her off this case, I wanted her off this assignment altogether.’
‘No decision I make is easy, Nick, you know that. You were my best team –’
‘Yeah, were!’
‘You were my best team,’ Mason said again, ‘but I stand by my decision.’
‘You stand by your decision?’ he echoed. A few sets of eyes turned their way. ‘Look around, Judy, what’s left to stand by? Holly was the one good thing I had left in my life. Now what, huh? Where do we go from here? Because from where I’m sitting, we’re dropping like flies.’
‘You still have your work, Nick. These guys depend on you, you’ve become a rock to some of them.’
‘Let me show you what I’ve become, Judy,’ he snapped, taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeve. ‘You see this? This bandage covers marks in my arm that have been there since my family disappeared. They don’t heal, because I keep opening them up with the needle I use to inject heroin. I’m a junkie, that’s what I’ve become. You want to preach, Judy, do it to someone who gives a shit, because as far as I’m concerned he’s won, he beat us. You think it matters if we catch him now? There’s no way back from this.’
Mason sat in stunned silence, her icy eyes more penetrating than ever. ‘Nick, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. You think I don’t get it, but I do. I’ve seen other officers turn to one addiction or another after losing someone, but you know we need to talk about this! I can’t have an addict on my team, heads would roll.’
‘I’ll make it easy for you, Judy. First thing tomorrow morning you’ll have my resignation on your desk. I’m done with this shit.’
With nothing more than a subtle shake of the head, Mason rose to her feet. ‘Tomorrow, okay, we’ll talk some more.’ And she walked over to Graham.
His threat was empty, he knew that. So did Mason probably. Newport was about to become a symbol, by all accounts a legend, and he owed it to her to not rest until somebody’s head was on a stick, even if it meant his own.
In the last couple of minutes Jonathan Wheeler had arrived and was rolling around the scene, kit box in one hand, half-eaten banana in the other. When he clocked York he made a beeline for him. The audio man didn’t look at Newport’s body. In fact he seemed to downright avoid it.
‘Guv,’ Wheeler began, ‘any sign of another voice recorder?’
York tugged down his sleeve. ‘No. There’s probably not going to be one, son.'
Wheeler frowned. 'Why not?’
‘He came after Holly, where was the consistency in that? We got the riddle right and still we're punished.’
Wheeler glanced over at Newport’s unmoving corpse and quickly looked away. ‘Why would he do that?’
York sighed, ignored the question. ‘You know something, Jonathan, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk this much.’
‘Silence is golden,’ the big man said.
‘Amen! It’s good to know you have a heart in that chest.’
‘Speaking of hearts, what happened to Holly’s?’
‘Still inside her ribcage. He didn’t take it,' said York.
‘That doesn’t strike you as odd?’
‘Everything was rushed this time, things didn’t go according to plan. I think Holly fought back.’
Wheeler finished the banana and pocketed the skin. ‘Wouldn’t expect any other.’
York shrugged.
‘He must’ve made a quick getaway. He wouldn’t leave something like this unfinished unless he was forced to. I mean, would he?’
York climbed to his feet. Wheeler had a point. Their guy was meticulous, exact, had been from the start. This was not his MO. If he hadn’t finished the job, something must have scared him away. Had York walked in on him while he was centre-stage? Once he’d killed the ringing phone, he recalled no other sounds in the house, only sinister tranquillity.
Only two possibilities remained. Either their guy had been long gone when he arrived.
Or he was still there.
32
‘Jonathan, don’t make any sudden movements. I want you to look around and tell me if
