Mr Jordan grinned and leaned back in his chair. ‘Noisy sex.’
TWENTY-SEVEN
Gina frowned as they headed towards Nightingale House, passing several mid-rise apartment blocks. She checked her personal phone quickly. She hadn’t missed any messages or calls and that was making her even more anxious. She hated being kept in the dark.
The November darkness had fallen, casting a grey-black hue on the estate.
Jacob ended the call to Brodie after updating him. ‘They’re sending two backup cars, guv. We can’t go in until they arrive in case Craig tries to escape. He owns a grey Citroen estate which we should look out for.’ Jacob reeled off the registration number.
‘Great.’ She pulled over a little way back so that Craig wouldn’t see them approaching, not that he knew what she drove or who they were. ‘I suppose, given what the letting agent said, we have to be prepared for him to have company. We also have to consider that they might be working together?’
Two police cars pulled up and four officers got out and stood away from the glow of the street lamp above. One walked around to the boot and pulled out a battering ram. PC Ahmed nodded at Gina as she stepped out to greet them. A police van followed, perfect for detaining Craig in until they got to the station.
‘Are you ready to go in, guv?’ PC Ahmed asked.
She nodded. ‘I can’t see his car anywhere.’ As they stood outside the block, she looked up and wondered which flat number eight was.
‘My mate lives in one of the identical blocks over there. He’s number eight and it’s on the top floor,’ PC Ahmed said.
She glanced up. A light was already on in one flat and another light flickered on in the other. Gina hated that the curtains were closed but it didn’t matter. Someone was in both flats and it was time to bring Craig in. ‘There’s no way he’ll be jumping but can two of you head around the back just in case there is another door he can escape from? If there isn’t, come back here. We might need all the backup we can get.’ Two PCs nodded and left. Gina pressed number one on the intercom.
‘Hello,’ a woman with a crackly voice said.
‘Hello, police. Can you please open the door?’
‘Hold your ID up to the camera.’
Gina did as she was asked and the buzzer told her that the door had been released. As she, Jacob, and two uniformed officers entered, the woman came to her door. ‘Is it him, the one staying at number eight? I hope it is because something needs to be done. I hate these people who let their apartments out to someone new every five minutes. Always trouble.’
‘Thanks for letting us in. Please go back inside. An officer will speak to you in a short while.’ They had more pressing things to do right now and the best thing for the woman was to be safely behind her locked flat door.
‘Okay.’ The woman frowned before going back inside.
Gina beckoned the rest of the team to follow her up the stairs. As they ascended the steps, the lights automatically came on with a click, illuminating the whole stairwell. She inhaled the mixed scents of new carpet and gloss from the paintwork. On reaching the top floor, she took a moment to get her breath backand adjusted her stab vest. They had no idea what kind of a situation they were entering into. ‘Ready?’
The team nodded.
She knocked hard. No answer. She knocked again. There wasn’t even a letter box to peer through. They were going in blind, which she wasn’t relishing when potentially dealing with a desperate double murderer. ‘Police – open up. If you do not open the door, we’ll have no choice but to force entry.’ Again, there was no answer. She couldn’t even hear the creak of an internal door or the gentle creeping of a person coming from behind the wood. She glanced down and caught sight of the tiniest bit of light bleeding under the door. It didn’t flicker like it would if someone was lurking around the other side. ‘Let’s get this door open.’ She stepped aside so that the PC with the battering ram could take over.
The weight and power of the enforcer shook it a little. The PC pulled it back and rammed the door two more times before the locks finally gave way. Gina swallowed and unclenched her sweaty hands. It was never cold in a stab vest and she was particularly nervous at what they might find. Her underarms felt clammy. What if everything they thought was wrong and they were about to find a body? Who had Craig been shacked up with in this flat? She inhaled deeply in the hope that she wouldn’t detect the scent of death and she couldn’t.
The PC stepped aside. ‘All ready to go in?’
She nodded, allowing him to lead the way through the magnolia painted hallway. There were four closed doors. She pressed the handle and opened door one, the bedside lamps glowed a warm yellow. A man’s clothes were strewn across the floor. T-shirts, jeans, chino-type trousers and a couple of pairs of underpants. Hardly the tidiest of love nests. ‘Clear.’
Jacob had already passed her and opened the door to their left. ‘Bathroom, clear.’ She noted that the bathroom was in darkness.
She opened the next door to her right and there was another bedroom which was a lot tidier but the bed was ruffled. Again, the lamps were on. Gina wasn’t sure whether this room had been the passion pad and the other room had been more of a dumping ground for Craig’s dirty clothes. The large picture of flowers the size of heads that looked like they were tracking them was a touch unnerving.
Whirring started up from behind the final door which Gina knew had to be the main living quarters. She’d seen a lot of flats like the one they were in and they mostly had combined kitchen lounges. Her hands were beginning to tremble at the thought of Craig bursting out at them. She knew that Craig’s main motivation would be self-preservation. They had him in a corner. He’d either come cleanly and admit what he’d done in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence or he’d try to fight them in order to escape, regardless of the cost. She took a deep breath as the PC placed his hand on the last door, awaiting her instruction to go. It sounded like someone was scooting across a carpet, then there was a bang. They were all in place, ready for whoever was behind the door. ‘Go.’
The PC pushed the door open, stepped into the room and stumbled onto the floor with his arms out. Gina glanced down and let out a long breath. The noise had been coming from a robot vacuum. The round gadget had turned upside down, possibly damaged by the PC. ‘I’m okay,’ he said as he stood and shook his arms out, then they all stared. On the table was a smart speaker, a piece of washing-line cord, a bucket of water and a pink teddy bear; but that wasn’t why they were all staring. There was a small collection of photos that had to have been taken at the warehouse where they’d found Zed. They were pinned up onone side of the wall. There was a photo of a wheelie bin and one of Zed looking right into the camera, smiling and holding up a pint. She turned her attention to the photos of Kain that had been stuck all over the other side of the wall. Kain in Maura’s house, going about his life. Kain walking down the street, unaware that he was being photographed. Kain in bed, sleeping. She shivered as she pictured Kain lying in bed while someone stood so close, watching him sleep. Why? This wasn’t screaming a revenge kill in the name of debts, not unless the person owed was a member of the Mafia. This screamed up close and personal. It involved stalking. They hadn’t looked deeply enough into Craig and Kain’s relationship and who was he having an affair with, or was it casual sex?
‘Bloody hell,’ Jacob said.
Gina looked away, not wanting the last blown-up photo to remain imprinted into her mind. She felt her hands starting to shake. The murderer had been in this flat and everything was pointing to Craig Crawford. She forced herself to look at the last photo. Their victim didn’t deserve to be on display like that. She swallowed and swore in her mind that she was going to find Craig and bring him in. Kain lying dead in the bath, his limbs all floppy and his eyes glassy and bulging. She would never forget that image. She looked down as she thought of Briggs and she wondered more than ever, what the hell had he got involved with?
Gina gasped and all the lights went out.
