‘Twelve hours…tick tock…’
The quiet in the meeting room thickened, stolen briefly by static. Wheeler reached forward and switched it off.
Eventually York spoke, shattering the tension. ‘That’s why he left the bodies in that dump.’
‘Why?’ asked Newport
‘He saw Grayson’s hotel as a mirror for the victim’s souls: rotten and dirty.’
Mason interjected. ‘Jonathan, what have you been able to take from the recording?’
‘Nothing at all yet, guv,’ the techie admitted, shifting his lean frame to the head of the table. Sweat marks were visible at his armpits. ‘Whoever made the recording knew what they were doing. They made it within a silent environment so there is literally no background sound at all. Not a single foreign decibel to go on.’
‘That’s impossible!’
‘That’s what I thought.’
‘So that leaves us with a riddle to solve,’ York threw in.
‘It’s not as simple as that, Nick,’ said Mason. ‘Solution or not, somebody dies. It doesn’t matter who that is, or what he’s done, we’re the police and we can’t hang a man out to dry based on immoral life choices.’
‘Tell me you're kidding? We can’t hang a young girl out to dry either because we felt like being righteous today.’
‘It’s not about that, Nick!’
‘Then tell me what it is about, guv. Because I’m going to need to hear it.’
‘We have a moral obligation as police officers to protect our citizens, no matter what they’ve done. If this paedophile is back on the street after a conviction, then he’s served some punishment and been deemed fit for release. It’s not our call to punish him further.’
This time not even a hiss of static betrayed the silence. ‘Okay, that’s your call,’ said York. ‘But when this twenty-something girl is found with her heart torn out because we failed to follow simple instructions, I won’t be the one talking to her family. The system fails enough people, Judy, let’s try and do the right thing here.’
Mason pondered for a moment under the scrutiny of the others, her clear blue eyes unreadable. ‘Okay…’ she said at last, ‘Will, Jonathan, get teams together and solve the riddle. But I want every available resource on this to make sure we never have to make that choice. We have a window of eight to nine hours left to bring this guy in, let’s not waste it. Nick, take Holly and find out who Michael and Harriet Fuller are. Get out to their house and see what made them tick. If they are garbage as we’re being made to believe, I want to know why.’
York and Newport stood in unison.
‘Before you go, Nick,’ she added, ‘A word in private. Everyone else is dismissed. Let’s get cracking.’
Picking up files and evidence bags, everyone but Mason and York left the room. Waiting for the door to click closed, the two officers eyed each other with patience. ‘Want to tell me what’s going on with you?’
York took a seat and adjusted his hat. ‘In what regard?’
‘You look like shit, Nick. I need to know if you’re fit to work. If I didn’t know better I’d say you’d been drinking.’
‘Is this because I opposed you in front of the others?’
‘Don’t even suggest that!’ Mason snapped. ‘I’m pulling you up because you look like crap, and I don’t need to see headline pictures tomorrow morning of our leading detective looking like a bum.’
‘I haven’t been sleeping. That’s it.’
‘People on a lack of sleep don’t look as rough as you, Nick.’
‘Jesus, are you being paid to give me abuse?’
Mason paused. ‘Okay, if you say you’re alright, I believe you. But if you’re lying to me, I’m going to be upset, and my dog doesn’t like it when I come home upset. I hope you know what I’m saying.’
‘Your dog’s hormonal?’
‘Nick!'
‘I’m not lying to you, Judy! But I did have a request.’
‘Go on.’
‘I want to be assigned solely to this case. I don’t need anyone else.’
Mason didn’t react. ‘Something going on between you and Newport?’
‘No, nothing like that. I just have a bad feeling about this guy. He’s going to make it personal and I’d rather Newport wasn’t in the crosshairs.’
‘It’s her job to be in the crosshairs. Are you worried for her husband? Because we can put her house under protection if it comes to that.’
York turned away, the faintest bruise of anguish flicking across his brow.
‘Shit, Nick, I didn’t mean it like that.’
He brushed it off. ‘The logic behind it works, though, doesn’t it? Newport’s family could be in danger. Mine's gone, Judy, he can’t make it personal with me.’
Mason scratched behind her ear to stall. Then she said, ‘Request denied.’
York sighed. ‘You’re making a mistake.’
‘Well time will tell, won’t it? I want Holly with you on this.’
York stood and headed to the door.
‘And Nick,’ she added, ‘lose the hat, you’re not Elliot Ness.’
York shrugged. ‘And he wasn't Nicolas York, but he still wore the hat.’
4
Park Lane was filling steadily now, humans flooding the pavements. Bodies were bustling through the streets heading to work, pouring from the Marble Arch underground in multicultural droves, while others not so fortunate lay buried in doorways under rags and self-pity. Gridlocked roads were the next thing on the morning’s agenda.
Now that Michael and Harriet Fuller had been identified, their address had been easy enough to find. York stood beneath the towering block and couldn’t argue that the couple had taste. It was a converted townhouse building off Hyde Park Corner, and it looked like it should be filled with those cosmetic surgery quacks or Fortune 500 magnates. According to his info, Michael Fuller was a car salesman, his wife a care worker. Neither occupation belonged in this building.
He eyed the flat numbers in the entrance and hit the
