“I’m on the job,” says Ruiz. Although six years retired, he still looks and sounds the part. The constable hesitates and Ruiz strides onwards, veering slightly to the left and disappearing behind the SOCO van. The door of the patrol car is open.
“Are they looking after you?” he asks.
The young woman blinks at him. She’s wearing a crimson blouse, short skirt and angel earrings. There are pain lines in the corners of her mouth.
She nods.
“You work for Mr. Hackett?”
Another nod, even more rapid. Ruiz slides on to the seat next to her. She tugs at her skirt, covering more of her thighs.
“He’s my uncle,” she adds. “I told that other detective.”
“What’s your name?”
“Janice.”
“That’s a nasty cold, Janice.”
A shiver runs through her shoulders. “That’s what he said to me.”
“Who?”
“The man who came to the office on Friday. He said he was an old friend of Mr. Hackett, but I didn’t believe him. I rang Uncle Colin and I said, ‘That man isn’t your friend,’ but I don’t think he listened. Uncle Colin isn’t frightened of anything. He used to be a soldier. He went to the Falklands.”
She is speaking in a rush, words and sentences running together. Ruiz waits for her to pause for breath.
“This man-did he give his name?”
“He said he was a courier but he didn’t have any packages and he didn’t look like a messenger. He told me to go home for the day. It’s this flu. Uncle Colin said I was spreading the plague.”
Janice takes a ball of tissue from the sleeve of her cardigan. “Auntie Megan called me this morning and said he hadn’t come home and wasn’t answering his phone. I knew something was wrong.”
She blows her nose and takes another big sniffle. “I found him in the loo. There’s blood everywhere.”
“When you talked to your uncle, where was he?”
“On a job.”
“What job?”
“He was looking for that missing banker.”
“Did he say where he was calling from?”
“Luton.”
Campbell Smith emerges from the white canvas tunnel. He struggles to remove his blue plastic overalls and shoe covers. When he notices Ruiz he ignores him for a split second as though he’s simply part of the familiar. Then the information registers and anger blooms in his cheeks.
“I want that man arrested! Get him out now!”
Ruiz is pulled from the car and pinned across the bonnet. His arms are wrenched back. Wrists handcuffed. Campbell is raging about interference with a murder investigation and impersonating a police officer.
“I’d be careful of your blood pressure,” says Ruiz, his cheek pressed to the warm metal.
“What are you doing here?”
“I had business with Mr. Hackett.”
“What business?”
Elizabeth North yells from behind the barricade. “I brought him here.”
Campbell glances at a handful of reporters who are getting every word. He holds his tongue.
Ruiz speaks next. “Can I go now?”
“My office in an hour-be there.”
The young constable jerks Ruiz back roughly, making the handcuffs bite into his wrists.
“Take those off,” says Noonan, who’s been listening to the confrontation. “And you treat him with respect. He’s a former DI.”
Campbell is already at his car. The door slams shut. A liver-spotted hand emerges from the window and places a flashing blue light on the roof. Moments later the siren sounds.
“That guy is going to be on my slab one day soon,” says Noonan.
“Heart attack?”
“Either that or someone is going to punch him too hard.”
The pathologist has work to do. Ruiz has questions.
“How did Hackett die?”
“A forty-five; small hole going in, big hole going out.”
“Is that a medical opinion?”
“Observation is one of my gifts.”
“Same caliber as killed Zac Osborne. It’s going to be the same gun.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“There’s a link. Zac Osborne robbed Richard North a week ago Friday.”
“Why wasn’t it reported?”
“Elizabeth North made a statement but everybody concentrated on her missing husband.”
Noonan’s curiosity has been piqued. Ruiz tells him how the private detective had been hired to follow Richard North and had photographed him leaving a bar with Holly Knight.
“It was a scam. Holly and her boyfriend robbed him.”
“Same sting they pulled on you.”
“You know about that.”
“The email has gone viral. So you were saying…”
“Zac Osborne is dead and so is Colin Hackett. Same weapon. Same killer.”
Ruiz glances again at Elizabeth, who is still on the far side of the road. She’s shifting from foot to foot, mouthing the words, “I need to pee.”
“Is there a toilet she can use?”
Noonan addresses the constable. “Take her to the cafe over the road. Try not to lose her.”
Ruiz watches them leave. “Was anything taken from Hackett’s office?”
“Memory cards from his cameras and his computer hard drive.”
Ruiz nods. “Somebody wanted the photographs of Richard North.”
“Any idea why?”
“Not yet.”
Sunlight shines through the branches above, making shifting patterns of shadow on Noonan’s smooth, pale head. As they linger there, Ruiz senses that he’s being watched. His eyes slowly scan the crowd until they rest on a dark-haired man whose face is lifted at an awkward angle, as though his eyes are not looking at him directly but are still studying him with peculiar interest. There is a strange air about him, sinister yet jaunty: an impression of hidden laughter. For a moment they scrutinize each other before the man turns away and slips into the crowd.
“You’d better go, Vincent,” says Noonan. “Don’t underestimate Campbell. You don’t have any goodwill left.”
10
The flat is small, just three rooms, overlooking a run-down series of shops with broken neon signs and metal grates protecting the windows and doors. On warm evenings, Taj climbs out the upper window and sits on a narrow ledge smoking and drinking coffee while Aisha puts the baby to sleep.
He can hear the clatter of his Asian neighbors echoing up and down the stairwells and through the open windows: arguments, music, children and TV sets. Sometimes he can even convince himself that he is among the chosen people, the lucky ones.
But there are indignities to be suffered. Insults to be endured. Rejections. One particular woman, obese and choleric, always gives him a hard time when he collects his jobseeker’s allowance and housing benefit. She scowls at him behind her desk, mispronouncing his name even after he corrects her; and she treats his payments like money meant for her kidney transplant.
Aisha is calling him inside. Taj puts out his cigarette and climbs off the ledge, swinging his legs through the window and arching his body like a gymnast. His wife looks pretty in tailored trousers and a smock with beading around the neck.
“Didn’t you hear the phone?”
“No.”
“Syd wants to see you.”
“Did he say why?”
“Something about the courier coming.” Aisha looks at the dishes piled in the sink. She’s been working all day at Homebase. On her feet. The least Taj could have done was wash up after breakfast.
She’s annoyed, but she won’t say anything. Taj has been on edge for months, ever since he lost his job. Short-tempered. Angry. She won’t risk starting an argument.
“Stay in tonight,” she says, rubbing his shoulders.
“Syd and Rafiq are expecting me.”
“You’re not married to Syd and Rafiq.”
“I missed the last meeting.”
Aisha turns her back on him, trying not to show her feelings.
“Why don’t you like them?” asks Taj. “They’re my friends.”
“I don’t like the way Syd looks at me.”
“He’s just jealous.”
Taj puts his finger on her lips. Aisha kisses it and giggles when Taj tries to pull her closer. Lithe as a fish, she twists past him and loops an apron over her head, letting Taj tie the bow. All thumbs.