* * *
“Forensics are back about Ava Whitton’s house,” Speedy announced as soon as Greco returned to the incident room. “Traces of heroin in the utility room and in the boot of her car. Plus, fingerprints belonging to Riley and Holt all over the place. That settles it, sir. The two of them were definitely in that house.”
Greco nodded. “Have we got anywhere with Ava Whitton’s previous address?”
“Furnivall Street,” Speedy told him. “And guess what? The house is owned by Alex Barton. She lived there for quite a while too. Got behind with the rent, according to the agency Barton uses.”
“In hock to Barton. Not a pleasant situation to be in.”
Leah joined them. “Grace has rung in. It looks like Ava Whitton has done a runner. The neighbours saw her leaving last night. Grace and Joel are off to Greysons, to see if anyone there can shed any light. A taxi firm in that area remembers her. The driver said he took her to Piccadilly railway station. She didn’t say anything about where she was going, but she did have two suitcases with her.”
Greco was annoyed. He should have foreseen this move by Ava. “Tell Grace to ask about that adjacent land, and to have a look at what Barton has done with it.”
“We still need to speak to Callum Riley again, guv,” Speedy reminded him. “Craig’s death will still be raw, but we need to know what went on between the two of them.”
Greco nodded at Speedy. “We’ll do that.” He turned to Leah. “Any luck finding Dee’s mother?”
“I’m meeting her at the morgue. She has agreed to do the identification.”
“We’ll meet back here before we clock off. There is something I want to tell you all.”
Speedy gave Leah a wink. “Go on, sir, give us a clue.”
“You’ll have to wait. I want Grace and Joel here as well. I’ll have a chat with the super first.”
Greco saw the looks, the curiosity on their faces. But McCabe had to be told first. He’d see him the minute they got back from the Lansdowne.
Chapter 24
“Vinny Holt’s mother is ill, I believe,” Greco said.
“She spends most of her time in a wheelchair, sir,” Speedy answered. “But I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
“Try and find out. I want to know why traces of insulin were in the needle mark on Dee’s arm. It means we are looking for someone with diabetes. It’s possible that Mrs Holt has it.”
Speedy nodded. “That would put Dave Holt in the frame.”
“It might, but it would depend on what evidence we can gather,” Greco said. “How they dispose of the sharps would be a start. There is a procedure, but it would be a simple matter to keep some by.”
The two detectives pulled up outside the Riley house. Speedy peered into a window. “Looks like they are in. I can see movement inside.”
“We’ll go easy. Craig’s mother and brother are still grieving. We want Callum to talk to us. We don’t want to antagonise him.”
Mrs Riley let them in. She was calmer than last time. “I’m getting my boy back at the end of the week,” she told them. “Apparently all the tests have been done. They won’t tell me much about his death though. And they won’t let me see him. Do you know why that is?”
Greco wondered what to say to her. He didn’t want to upset the woman all over again. Telling her anything of the horrific detail would do exactly that. “It is best to remember your Craig as he was, Mrs Riley.”
“I’ve read the papers. They wrote dreadful things. Said they’d both been beaten to a pulp and had their fingers torn off. Is that true?”
Greco tried to reassure her. “Both Craig and Vinny were heavily sedated first. It is likely that it was an overdose of the drug they were given that killed them. Whatever else was done to the lads was done after death.”
She didn’t reply, just turned and led them into the sitting room. It was small and cluttered. The furniture was too big, leaving little space. Four huge easy chairs and a large sideboard dominated the room. Every surface was covered in cheap ornaments, photographs and dust. It had the effect of making Greco uneasy and claustrophobic. Added to this, the Rileys had a dog, a large black thing that made Greco nervous. Its hairs were all over the furniture. The more he looked, the more Greco wanted to escape this place.
Speedy, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered. He flopped down onto one of the chairs and happily accepted the mug of tea Callum Riley offered him. Greco took his and placed it on a table. There was no way he would eat or drink anything in this place.
He turned to the young man. “Callum, tell me how you spent the day your brother was killed.”
“I was at the community centre working in the food bank. It’s open most days for a few hours, but on a Tuesday it’s a full day’s job. The vouchers are given out then, you see. I was mostly dealing with donations and putting stuff onto the shelves.”
“Did you leave the centre at any time?”
“No, I arrived about nine thirty and it was gone six when I left.”
“Did you see your brother at all?”
“No. The last time I saw Craig was the night before. The lazy sod was still in bed when I left for the centre that morning.”
So far, his story chimed with what Graham Clovelly had told them.
“We’re trying to build a picture of Craig’s last days, what he was up to, who he spent his time with. Did he confide in you?”
“No. Craig didn’t tell me anything. He thought I was soft. But he and Vinny were up to something. He was in his room and I heard him talking on his mobile. He was telling Vinny that he had the information, and they had to move fast. Whatever they were up to, they had a day to get it done.”
The robbery in Handforth. “Do you know who Craig was in contact with?” Greco knew he could study the phone records, but that would take time. The heroin was already hitting the streets, so it was time they didn’t have.
“I think it was some bloke called Dom. He came to the centre once. He knew Dee too. This Dom and Craig had a game of pool and talked a lot. He didn’t fit in. He wore a suit and worked in some smart office on the Quays.”
“Greysons?” asked Speedy.
“Yeah. I suspect it was Dom who got Craig the interview with them.”
Greco nodded. “You’ve been very helpful.”
“He’s a good lad,” his mother chipped in. Then she turned to Callum. “Get my eye drops when you go out. Bloody pain it is, losing your sight.”
Greco looked at her. “Sorry, Mrs Riley?”
“Can’t do anything about it. Part of my condition.”
But Greco didn’t want to get into a protracted description of all the woman’s ills. “I’ll keep you posted with events. Let us know if anything else occurs to you.”
Outside the house, Greco hastily brushed down his clothes. “That place was filthy. I’ll need a damn good scrub to get rid of the smell.” Greco felt itchy, uncomfortable. Speedy on the other hand was fine. The case and events must be getting to him. His OCD was back with a vengeance.
“Just another family dwelling on the Lansdowne, guv.” Speedy grinned. “Thought you’d be used to it by now.”
“What did you think of Callum?” Greco asked. He was surprised at how cooperative Craig’s brother had been this time. Maybe it was because his mother was there.
“Seems like an alright sort of lad. Why?”
“I’m not sure. What he told us, the way he related the events of that day sounded a little too practised to me.”
“Clovelly backed him up. His alibi is sound.”
“Handy that, don’t you think? Grace and Joel, they’ve gone to Greysons. Ring Grace, and tell her to speak to this Dom. If he is in the least bit reluctant, get her to bring him in.”
* * *
Grace flashed her badge at the receptionist. “We’re looking for Ava Whitton.”
“She isn’t here. Off sick.”
“Did she ring in?”
“I’ll ask Mr Greyson to have
a word with you.”
Talking about Ava evidently made the young woman flustered. Grace had gone into the building alone, leaving Joel to have a prowl around the yard outside. She looked back through the large window and saw that he was eyeing up a tall wire mesh fence that separated Greysons from the land beyond.
“Is there a problem?” She hadn’t noticed the man come into the reception area.
“Mr Greyson?”
He nodded. “We’ll go into the office over here.” He led the way to a small room off the reception. “Ava doesn’t do sickness. In her time with us, I doubt she’s had so much as two days off. This isn’t like her, and I’m concerned.”
“Why, Mr Greyson?” asked Grace. “It’s winter. It is quite possible that she has succumbed to the flu, like most of the population at the moment.”
“She’s not been herself lately. She has been taking the odd hour off. Logged the time as dental appointments and the like. Something is going on.”
“What do you think she is up to?”
Grace watched him ponder the question. He stared out of the window and his eyes widened. Joel.
“Is he with you?” Greyson asked.
Grace nodded.
“That land was sold recently. To a man called Alex Barton,” Greyson said. “He says he wants it for a builder’s yard. Apparently, he buys derelict houses and does them up. Ava knows him, but I don’t know how. What I do know is that he is not a pleasant man. I have done some research, asked around. Barton is a crook. I think he has threatened Ava. I think she’s in danger.”
“That’s quite an accusation. Do you have anything concrete to base it on?”
“I’ve seen them talking. She always seemed upset afterwards. He came round here asking questions when he first moved in. The ground is leasehold and he wants to build. He’ll need the freeholder’s permission, a simple matter. He didn’t need to involve Ava. All it would have taken is a phone call to his solicitor. I don’t for one second think that was what the visit was about. Ava was rattled. It was after that that she started to be absent from work.”
“Customs and Excise were here. Has that happened before?”
“No, but everything was in order. I have excellent staff who do their jobs right. Dominic Hill dealt with them.”
“Can I speak to him?”
Greyson picked up the office phone and made a call. A few minutes later, Dominic Hill entered the room. He was young, in his mid-twenties, good-looking and smartly dressed. He didn’t look like the type of young man who would mix with the likes of Craig and Vinny.
Grace got straight to the point. “Tell me about your involvement with Craig Riley and Vinny Holt.”
Dominic Hill smiled back at her and glanced at Greyson. “Sorry, I don’t know them.”
“Yes, you do. You were with Craig Riley at the community centre on the Lansdowne recently. If necessary, I’m sure we can get plenty of witnesses who will recall seeing you. Who else do you know there?”
The young man’s face flushed. “Look, I don’t know what this is, but I had nothing to do with the death of those two. I hardly knew Craig. We had a bit of business, that’s all.”
“That business involved a shedload of heroin and Ava Whitton, didn’t it?”
Dom made a dive for the door but he ran straight into the arms of Joel Hough, who was just coming to join them.
Chapter 25
“He’s in the cells,” Grace told Greco. “Dominic Hill is up to his neck in the heroin theft. You should have seen him when I mentioned it. As for the murders — difficult to tell. He knows about Craig and Vinny, and he’s scared. But I don’t think he knows about Dee. In the car coming back, he told me that he and Dee were close.”
“He could be bluffing. We suspect that he was using her. She was his way in to the centre, and getting to know the others. I want his home searched.”
“He has a flat in Gorton, above a shop on the High Street,” Speedy told them.
“Owned by Barton?” asked Greco.
Speedy grinned. “How did you guess?”
“Hill knows both Ava Whitton and Barton, and he works at Greysons. Ideally placed, isn’t he? Do we know if he sees anything of Barton?”
“No. When I mentioned the murders, he freaked,” Grace said.
“Leave him to stew until we have the search results back,” Greco said. “Where is Leah?”
“She’s gone to see if she can find that friend of hers on the Lansdowne, sir,” a uniformed officer told him. “Left about an hour ago.”
That would be Roman, Greco thought.
“Report’s in from forensics on the jewellery.” Speedy had the document up on his computer screen. “Well, well, well. Plenty of prints, but none of them belonging to Max Marsh. His were only on the pendant. The ones on the other stuff all belong to Vinny and Craig.”
Greco nodded. “In that case, it looks like Marsh was telling the truth.”
The whole team had now assembled, including Leah, who had just come in. She looked his way and shook her head. So Roman couldn’t help.
He couldn’t leave it any longer. It was time to talk to McCabe about the baby. When he’d done that, he’d come and tell the team. “I’m just going to have a quick word with the super. No one leave until I get back.”
Grace looked up from her desk and shook her head. “No need. I’ve told him.”
Oh. She’d spoken the words so matter-of-factly. “Why did you do that? How did he take it?”
“Tell the others first,” she said.
Greco was tongue-tied. He didn’t know how to begin. Grace had gone behind his back and spoken to McCabe before he’d had the chance. He’d lost control of the situation again. That is, if he’d ever had it.
“Everyone!” he said too loudly. The nerves were back. Grace was looking at him, urging him on. “Grace . . . er, Grace and I want to tell you something.” He fell silent, not sure if he could bring himself to do this. What would they think? Above everything else, he felt guilty, as though he’d let them all down.
“We’re having a baby — him and me.” Grace smiled, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Despite this, the faces around them all wore bewildered expressions. “It’s no big deal,” she said. “Stephen and me, we’re both pleased about it.”
There was a long silence. Greco’s throat was tight. He wanted to explain, but the words wouldn’t come. Even if they did, what would he say? That this baby was the result of one drunken night in Brighton? He could hardly tell them that!
Finally, Speedy broke the silence. With a forced smile, he said, “Congrats to you both, I suppose.”
Greco could see that his sergeant felt awkward. No doubt the others did too. This news would add a new dynamic to the team. Whether for good or ill, he didn’t know. He wasn’t even sure if he would still be allowed to work with Grace. For the time being, he did not want to think about their professional future. He was hoping she might prefer motherhood to the force.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
Leah smiled. “Well done, both of you. Any idea when?”
“Another six months yet,” Grace said.
So that was how it would be. Baby talk for the foreseeable. Greco was thoroughly miserable. He went to his office and closed the door behind him. He needed time alone — to think.
* * *
Grace couldn’t leave things as they were. Greco was obviously upset by the announcement. She got up from her desk, tapped on his door and entered. “I did you a favour, Stephen. You were never going to say anything, were you?”
He looked up at her. “You told McCabe. What did he say?”
“Wished us well, and suggested I get my maternity leave sorted so that he can look for a temporary replacement.”
“I bet he’s not so lenient with me. You’re a member of my team, a detective constable. I got you pregnant. How does that look, Grace?”
She smiled. “It’s not a crime, you know. I did make out that we’d been close for a while. I hop
e you don’t mind. I thought that if McCabe saw us as a couple, it would be better all round.”
Greco didn’t blame Grace. In a way, she’d helped him out. He changed the subject. “Anything on the search of Dominic Hill’s house?”
“I’ll go and find out. Who do you want to interview him?”
“Myself and Speedy.”
Chapter 26
“He has the flat above the shop and the use of a garage. That’s where we found it,” the uniformed officer told Greco. “Wrapped in an old shirt and stuffed under the workbench.”
The search had turned up a piece of thick metal pipe. It was grimy, oily and had blood and hair embedded in the rust on its surface. “Get that to the Duggan,” Greco said. “We need to know if the blood belongs to any of our victims. It looks fairly fresh. It could have been used on Dee Sampson.”
Speedy looked thoughtful. “Seems like Hill is our man. Did you find anything else? I’m thinking drugs, syringes, jewellery?”
The officer shook his head.
“So where is the heroin, sir? Where else might he hide things?”
“We’ll be sure to ask him,” Greco replied. “What about the shirt? Anything special?”
“Expensive, from one of those designer shops in the shopping centre on the Quays.”
“Sounds like it could belong to Hill then,” Speedy said.
Greco frowned. “Perhaps that’s what we are supposed to think.”
The two of them hurried along the corridor and down the stairs to the cells. Greco asked for Hill to be brought to an interview room.
“You and Grace, sir. Going to make a go of it?”
Now, there was a question. If he answered in the negative, Speedy was sure to tell her, and that would cause upset. Greco didn’t want that. “More than likely.” He forced a smile.
“You surprise me. I didn’t realise the pair of you were so full-on. Grace, yes, she’s liked you from the off. But it has taken you a while to catch up, hasn’t it?”
Complete Detective Stephen Greco Box Set Page 68