At two in the morning, having agreed that Carlton would spend what was left of the night in Gus’s spare room, Carlton pulled into Mariner’s Drive and parked up outside his house. The living room light was still on and Gus smiled. Alice had no doubt, unable to sleep because of Hopkin’s death and the other two murders in quick succession, waited up to catch-up with them. As they entered the house, weary and stiff, they heard giggling coming from the living room. Exchanging a puzzled glance with Carton, whose glasses were at a lopsided angle, his hair standing up in tufts, Gus walked towards the living room and thrust the door open.
Carlton at his shoulder, Gus blinked a few times as a flurry of naked limbs righted themselves and were swiftly covered by a throw. ‘Alice, face flushed, blinking at the intruders, wore a sheepish grin. ‘Thought you’d be ages yet.’
‘So, I see,’ said Gus with a nod at Brian call me Bri.
Brian scrabbling about for his clothes on the floor, hairless chest pale and unappealing, began to apologise to Gus. ‘I’m so sorry, Gus. So sorry. We just seem to have … well … got carried away. I’m just leaving.’
With another nod, Gus turned and spoke to Carlton. ‘Come on, I’m going to grab some shut-eye. I’ll show you to your room.’
Leaving Alice giggling behind him as she said her goodbyes to her unlikely lover, Gus shook his head in disbelief.
‘You know grief manifests itself in many ways, Gus. You shouldn’t judge Alice for seeking to expunge it through sexual activity.’
‘God, I’m not judging her for having sex, Carlton. No, I’m judging her for her taste in partners, Hopkins was a cockroach, and Brian call me Bri is a bit of a wimp. She’s gone insane.’
Carlton slapped him on the back and lowering his voice, said, ‘You know; I was thinking the exact same thing myself. Never could see the attraction in bald men, despite the myths surrounding baldness and virility.’
Chapter 75
Bradford
Bleary eyed, Gus grabbed the phone from his bedside table and tried to focus on who was calling at five past fucking four in the morning. In the couple of hours since he’d nodded off, Gus’s muscles had clammed up. Cursing himself for not having showered before going to sleep, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and answered. ‘Compo? Don’t you ever sleep?’
‘Your mum sent me an image – said you weren’t answering her calls. She said it was important. Said you needed to see. She said she coaxed Rory to draw an image of Jimmy Cameron’s son – so I’m sending it to you now. I’ve also already got it circulated ready for officers to show around tomorrow, but your mum was insistent on you getting it tonight. We’ve got an image of this bastard, boss. We’ve got an image!’
Standing up, rolling his shoulders tentatively, Gus walked over to his mirrored wardrobe door and took in the bruises that covered his torso. His face was swollen – his nose broken, his eyes bruised, and his cheek bones were tender to the touch. ‘Thanks Comp, I’ll look at it on my laptop. You did good. ‘
‘Em, well. She also told me to tell you she loves you…’
Gus’s hand clenched round the phone. From Compo’s hesitancy he could tell there was something more. ‘Spit it out. Comps. I won’t shoot the messenger.’
‘She says she only found out about Billy an hour before you did.’
The mention of his son’s name made Gus’s skin prickle. This wasn’t the time to think about him – that chubby little bundle of cuteness. Besides, he should have been first to know. He should have known as soon as that pregnancy test showed up positive. He wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive Sadia for that. A surge of anger tightened his chest, and it took all his self-control to reply to Compo, ‘Thanks, Comps. I’ll check out that image. Now – you should get some shut-eye.’
As he spoke, Gus moved over to his laptop and sat on the bed opening the file Compo had sent. When the image of a pale bald man, with a nondescript expression appeared on his screen, he jumped up. ‘Compo, you still there?’
‘Yes, boss – I’m just heading off home now, don’t get in a fluster. I’ll catch some sleep.’
‘No, no. Stay where you are. I need you to get Nancy and Taffy and a SWAT team to my house right now. I know who this guy is. Do it NOW!’
Gus flung his phone back on the bed, grabbed a jumper from his drawers and ran into the hallway yelling at the top of his voice, ‘Carlton, Alice, get up, we’ve got him. Get up now.’
He pulled his jumper over his dreads and waited till he saw both heads peering through their bedroom doors. ‘Dressed and up. We need to be quick.’
Chapter 76
Bradford
The Man in Black knows that the endgame is coming, and he relishes the thought. It had been such a delight to see three of his adversaries up close and personal – one more up close and personal than the others – for one last time. He smothers a laugh as he enters the final property. How serendipitous that the Joneses decided to head down to Cornwall for a week. He’d been puzzling over how to gain entry and was on the point of
