Page 135 of Slack Tide Kill

"Crawford Meeks."

"Meeks," Sally repeated.

Neither spoke.

"That's where we pick up," Liam said at last. "Rook took a digger to Meeks' house, all to get Reactor Logistics back off him. Why?"

"Maybe just to kill the CCTV? All of that, just so he can dump another body in the same place his father did."

"But the Fates weighted against a generational killer."

"I don't care what the Fates said. This looks good. And all along, in their back pocket, they've got the Bledd setup as their patsy."

"So where is Bledd now? If this is true?"

Sally took a heavy breath. "Dead, probably. Bledd. Mensah. Maybe we'll never find them. Weighed down in the slack tide, buried in the marsh."

"So the manhunt goes on forever? Another 30 years."

"Not unless we nail this bastard first." Sally thought all that through. She tried to unpick it, pressure check it, test it. "Except we've already got all four Rooks in custody. We've had them for days, now. And Bledd's boat blew up yesterday."

"Bugger it," Liam spat. "So, does that rule them out? Or does it just make the conspiracy wider?"

That sank in. "The conspiracy's wider. I think there's someone else out there, Liam, killing on command. Maybe they blew up Bledd's boat to take the heat off the brothers. By contrast, people trafficking is a lighter charge."

Moments ticked by.

"So we go to Meeks? He can run double duty. Confirmation on why Roarke wanted Reactor Logistics, and a rundown on this fifth Rook."

Sally snorted. "Like the fifth Beatle."

"It's gotta be another family member or a trusted friend. Someone from their tight social graph."

"Someone who'd been in the Crab Shack," Sally said, cinching threads together. "Meeks is good, but it seems he was always outside the inner circle."

"So who?"

One name came to mind. "Gerald Spate."

"Spate? Again?"

"He was Reg Rook's best friend, the only surviving member of his inner crew. He appeared on the whiteboard three times. If anyone knows who the fifth Rook is, it's got to be him."

Liam exhaled. "OK. But we'll need more on him. And I still want to go after Meeks."

"Of course. We've got a few hours before I'm down there. Can you research them?"

"That's a lot, Sally. Meeks especially, all those financial records? But.." he trailed off. "Maybe I can draft in a team."

"A team? Who?"

"DI Gemmell wants to work with us. Yesterday he kept asking me when you were coming back. I can pull in some other taskforce members, too. Simms, Hawlin, Flaherty. Everyone who was there at the beach, really. Who saw what you did."

A shudder ran through Sally. He didn't need to say any more. The shape of Emily Chakrati hung in the air between them. A young woman, full of life and ambition. Sally saw her eyes again in that final moment.

"Mayhew won't block it?"

"Like I said, Mayhew's a ghost, she's barely even here."