‘It’s a Saturday,’ he said, looking down at his jeans. ‘But yes, this is an official visit. Do you mind if we come in?’
‘Please do,’ she said, and led them through to the kitchen.
Mike asked her how she was but it was a perfunctory question, offered without much interest. She gave him an equally perfunctory answer and offered them both a coffee, which they declined, and they sat at the kitchen table, her on one side, the two of them on the other. Mo, she noticed, was looking at her suspiciously.
‘So what can I do for you both?’ she asked, taking a sip from her tea.
‘You heard about the shooting of Cem Kalaman last night,’ said Mike.
It wasn’t a question, and there was no point Tina denying it, since the news was playing on the radio in the background.
‘They’re saying that Ray Mason’s responsible. That’s pretty quick, naming him like that. What makes you think it was him?’ she asked.
‘It was a professional hit,’ said Mike. ‘The intended victim was Cem Kalaman. The other casualties were one of his bodyguards and a woman caught in the crossfire. According to a reliable witness, the killer said to Kalaman before he shot him a final time: “This is for all your victims.” Mason had history with Kalaman, as you know, and he had a motive for wanting him dead.’
‘It all seems pretty thin.’
Mike folded his arms on the table and leaned forward, giving Tina an appraising look. ‘There are other reasons why we believe it’s Mason that we can’t discuss with you right now. Now I know your history with him. We believe he had help organizing this hit.’
Tina glared back at him, angry now. ‘So what exactly are you asking me? If I’m the one helping him? Be serious.’
‘Look, no one’s accusing you of anything.’
‘Well, it doesn’t sound that way. And to answer your question: no, I’m not helping him. From what I saw on the news over a fortnight ago, two people abducted him at gunpoint from a prison van taking him to hospital. Hasn’t it occurred to you that he might actually have been taken by people hoping to silence him before his trial came up, and that he could be lying dead in a hole somewhere, rather than going round shooting gangsters, who’ve got plenty of enemies of their own?’
‘Of course that scenario’s occurred to us,’ said Mike, keeping his voice calm, ‘but we’ve got to look at every possibility, and we’ve had information that he’s still alive. So we’re asking if you’ve seen or heard from him at all.’
‘No,’ said Tina emphatically, looking at them both in turn. ‘I haven’t. If I’d heard anything from him I’d have contacted you.’
‘Can you tell us where you were last night?’ asked Mo.
‘Are you not hearing me? I haven’t seen him.’
‘You were a police officer once,’ said Mo. ‘You know we have to ask these questions.’
Tina thought fast. She knew that if they wanted to, they’d be able to track her movements using the ANPR, just as she’d been able to track the movements of the Range Rover that had carried Ray to London two days earlier. ‘It’s none of your business where I was last night,’ she told him, ‘but what I can tell you is I was nowhere near London, and consequently nowhere near where that shooting took place.’
Mo and Mike exchanged glances.
‘Personally, I don’t think you’re involved in any of this, Tina,’ said Mike, ‘but we have to do our jobs, so do you mind if we have a quick look round?’
Tina’s stomach did a somersault and she had to fight hard to keep a poker face. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Look, you know how it is, we’ve got to ask,’ said Mike, clearly embarrassed.
‘And you can refuse if you want,’ added Mo, but Tina knew that if she did they’d almost certainly come back with a warrant. There was too much at stake in the manhunt for Ray. The government, in enough trouble with the riots engulfing the nation’s prisons, needed a result fast.
‘No, it’s OK,’ she said, trying to sound as casual as possible as she got up from the table. ‘Fill your boots. As you’ll see, there aren’t that many places here for a grown man to hide.’
Mike gave her a sympathetic smile as he got up from the table, which just annoyed her. He was treating her like a criminal – even though technically that was exactly what she was. Mo’s reaction she could understand. He’d never trusted her and she had no doubt that he thought she was hiding something. As he too got up, he was watching her, clearly looking for any signs of nerves in her demeanour.
Tina turned away from him, picking her cigarettes up from the kitchen top and lighting one, determined not to give him the satisfaction of smelling fear on her. She didn’t usually smoke in the house, but she knew neither of them liked it, especially in the confined space of her tiny cottage.
Tina followed behind them, watching as they opened cupboards so small a cat couldn’t conceal itself inside, and ludicrously they even looked behind the sofa. But that was the problem. There wasn’t really anywhere to hide in this cottage, and Mike would know that. He’d been here enough times before. And Ray wouldn’t have been able to hear the conversation they’d been having down here from the bedroom, not with the radio on. Tina had thought about turning it off before she opened the door but had kept it playing because her floorboards creaked so badly and she hadn’t wanted them hearing any movement upstairs. Now she recognized it was a mistake.
The search downstairs took Mike and Mo all of two minutes. Mike turned to her at the bottom of the staircase. ‘Do you mind if we go up?’
‘You know I do, but I don’t suppose that’s
