Evans pointed at the pack. ‘Have you got a spare one?’
Nightingale raised an eyebrow. ‘You smoke?’
‘Used to,’ said Evans. ‘Wife made me give up when our boy was born.’
Nightingale tapped out a cigarette and gave it to the detective.
Evans shrugged ‘I figure that if I don’t actually buy them, I’m not really a smoker.’
‘Nice philosophy,’ said Nightingale. He lit the man’s cigarette and Evans inhaled gratefully. ‘Chalmers doesn’t really think I’m going around killing people, does he?’
Evans blew a cloud of smoke, and coughed. He patted his chest and grinned shamefacedly. ‘He thinks you killed Simon Underwood and that you got away with murder,’ he said.
‘He’s not alone in that,’ said Nightingale.
‘Yeah, but Chalmers has taken it personally,’ said Evans. ‘He reckons you’ve got friends in high places, which is why you weren’t charged with Underwood’s death.’
Nightingale’s eyes narrowed as he pulled on his cigarette. He tried to blow a smoke ring but the wind whipped it away as soon as it left his mouth. ‘He does, does he?’
‘He has a point, right? You’re alone in the office with Underwood and he exits through the window. How many floors up?’
‘Twenty,’ said Nightingale.
‘And the next day you resigned. Chalmers thinks you should have been charged with murder.’
‘There was no proof, no CCTV, no evidence.’ Nightingale shrugged. ‘And no witnesses.’
‘Me, I couldn’t care less,’ said Evans. ‘One less paedophile in the world and you won’t find me shedding any tears. But Chalmers is gunning for you.’
‘He’s wasting his time,’ said Nightingale. He dropped what was left of his cigarette onto the ground and stood on it. He gestured at the door to the station. ‘Come on, let’s get this over with. And when we’ve finished I’m going to need a lift back to Tyler’s house to pick up my car.’
‘Still driving that MGB? When are you going to get yourself a decent motor?’
‘It’s a classic.’
‘It’s an old banger. But yeah, I’ll arrange a car to run you back. Just don’t tell Chalmers.’
23
J enny was sitting at her desk reading the Daily Mail when Nightingale arrived at the office first thing on Monday morning. ‘The wanderer returns,’ she said. ‘How did it go?’
‘Good news, bad news.’ Nightingale swung his attache case onto her desk and clicked the locks. He opened the case and handed her a DVD. ‘Here’s what I took from Connie’s computer. Let me know if there’s anything interesting.’ He took out two Ziploc bags and put them down in front of her. ‘A hairbrush and a toothbrush,’ he said. ‘Should be DNA there somewhere.’
‘Please tell me the back door was open,’ she said.
‘Best you don’t know,’ he said. ‘Do me a favour and get that off to the lab ASAP. If we have to pay extra for a rush, so be it. I could do with the results yesterday.’
‘I’ll tell them,’ said Jenny. ‘They’ll want a sample from you too, remember.’
Nightingale grinned and took a sealed tube from the attache case. ‘Did a cheek scrape this morning,’ he said, putting the tube next to the two bags.
Jenny spotted a copy of the New English Bible in his case. ‘Since when have you been reading the Bible?’
‘Thought it might have something I can use,’ he said. He smiled ruefully. ‘Haven’t found anything yet.’
She picked it up and flicked through it, her mouth opening when she saw the hotel stamp inside the front cover. ‘You stole this from the hotel?’
‘I didn’t steal it. It’s a Gideon Bible. They give them away.’
‘To hotels, Jack.’ She dropped it back into his attache case. ‘I can’t believe you stole a Bible. You’ll burn in Hell, you know that?’
‘So I’ve been told.’
‘And what’s the bad news? You said good news, bad news.’
‘You don’t want to know.’
‘Jack…’
Nightingale sighed, lit a cigarette and told her what had happened at Alfie Tyler’s. And how he’d spent most of Saturday in a police cell.
‘Is it over?’ asked Jenny.
‘Probably not,’ said Nightingale. ‘They took my prints and my DNA and Chalmers is going to try to pin one or all of the deaths on me.’
‘But he can’t. You didn’t kill anyone.’
‘I know that and you know that, but Chalmers has the bit between his teeth.’ He closed the attache case and walked through to his office. ‘And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.’
Jenny followed him into his office and folded her arms as he sat down. ‘What happened?’ she asked.
‘I had another run-in with the Welsh cops,’ said Nightingale. ‘When I went round to see the parents. It’s no biggie but the superintendent will be calling Chalmers again.’ He put his hands up when he saw her face fall. ‘It’ll be okay,’ he said. ‘I spoke to Mrs Miller and she was fine. She even made me a cup of tea.’ He grinned at her. ‘Speaking of which…’
‘And Tyler. Why did he kill himself?’
‘Jenny, I’ve absolutely no idea. I spoke to him on the phone and he was as happy as Larry. Then when I went around to his house it was like he was in a trance.’
‘But he definitely killed himself?’
‘No doubt about that. I watched him do it.’
Jenny frowned. ‘Why didn’t you do something?’ she asked.
‘Don’t you start,’ said Nightingale. ‘You’re as bad as Chalmers.’
‘He thinks you’re involved?’
‘I was involved. I was there. But yeah, he’s trying to make something of it. He took DNA and they Live- scanned my prints and he’ll be looking for forensics. But there won’t be any. I didn’t go anywhere near the car.’ He shrugged. ‘It’ll blow over. How are we doing, work-wise?’
‘A few emails from suspicious spouses wanting to know how much it would cost to prove that their nearest and dearest is fooling around,’ she said.
‘How long is a piece of string?’
‘Exactly what I said,’ replied Jenny. ‘And one of your regulars has been phoning. Eddie Morris. He’s in trouble again and needs your help. He’s been charged with burglary but swears blind he didn’t do it. Wants you to stand up his alibi.’
‘Did you tell him that the cops will do that as part of their investigation? The first thing they’ll do is check his alibi.’
‘He swears blind he was in a pub in Elephant and Castle when one of the burglaries happened so he thinks if he can stand that one up then all the charges will disappear. His problem is that the cops spoke to the landlord and the bar staff and no one remembers Eddie being there.’
‘So he wants me to track down anyone drinking in the pub who can vouch for him?’
‘That’s the plan.’
‘Sort of pals that Eddie’s got, they’ll do that anyway whether he was there or not.’
‘He swears he didn’t do it, Jack. I think he’s hoping you might track down a pillar of the community who’ll put his hand on a Bible and say that Eddie was in the pub.’
‘I’ll give him a bell,’ said Nightingale. ‘If that’s all we’ve got I think I’ll take a run by Gosling Manor and get to work on the inventory. Did you go on Friday?’
‘Barbara and I were there for about three hours,’ she said. She went back into her office and took two
