‘It’s all such a big mess and I’ve been so afraid over the last few days that everything would come out. It nearly drove me over the edge.’ He looked at Jacob. ‘That’s what I wanted to tell you.’
‘Thank you, Spencer.’ Jacob gave the other man a smile. ‘I won’t betray your trust.’
Spencer let out a huge sigh. ‘I’m so glad to have this off my chest, you have no idea.’
‘Perhaps you should get some sleep.’
‘I will, thank you.’ Spencer got up and walked down Woolaston Road.
Jacob watched him go. How amazing that someone could live his whole life in fear of being different. Then Jacob realised that Robbie’s disappearance had not only affected the lives of his and Dave’s families, but also Spencer’s. A lump formed in his throat. It was time that they all found out what had happened to Robbie. Get rid of the pain and move on regardless of what had happened to him. He should stop sulking about his failed test and start looking for a solution, so that next time it would be a success.
Just as Jacob got up, a car stopped at the kerb in front of him and Inspector McDermott got out. He planted his legs on the pavement, crossed his arms and glared at Jacob in silence.
‘Can I help you with anything?’ Jacob said after a little while. ‘If not, I need to get home to feed my cat.’
‘I told you before not to be flippant with me. There have been numerous complaints that you are still trespassing in people’s gardens,’ McDermott said. He pulled a list from his pocket and with reading glasses on the tip of his nose started reading out loud.
‘Mr and Mrs Roberts complained about finding you in their back garden staring at a pile of rubble. Miss Foley got the fright of her life when you suddenly appeared near her pond and wants you to leave her newts alone. Mrs Jenkins is not interested to hear about leafcutter bees and is planning to restrict your access by putting a lock on the gate in her fence, and Mr and Mrs Bates want you to stop hovering near their pond. It’s making their little terrier nervous.’
McDermott took his glasses off. ‘I have warned you about this before, but you’re still not listening. I now have no other choice than to take you to the station and apply for a Civil Injunction.’
‘What?!’
‘You have engaged in conduct capable of causing nuisance and annoyance and it needs to stop. I think the threat of spending two years in jail when you breach this injunction, will be enough to stop the insane behaviour you have been displaying in the last… well, frankly, your whole life.’
‘Insane behaviour?’ Heat flushed through Jacob’s body. ‘I look at bugs.’
McDermott grabbed Jacob by the elbow. ‘You’re coming with me.’
‘This is harassment,’ Jacob said, digging his heels in. ‘Haven’t you got anything better to do? Finding a murderer perhaps?’
‘If you don’t cooperate and get into the car willingly, I have no choice but to handcuff you.’
Jacob glared at McDermott and took some deep breaths through his nose. Then he pulled his arm loose and got into the car. He’d better play along for a bit or this idiot would actually throw him in jail again.
* * *
Jacob watched in silence as McDermott filled out a form to apply for a Civil Injunction against him. This was absolutely ridiculous. He had never done anything so severe that he needed to be registered as the perpetrator of nuisance.
He glared at McDermott, who pretended not to notice how uncomfortable he was. Would this injunction mean he couldn’t walk through Milbury any more?
There was a knock on the door and Abe stuck his head into McDermott’s office.
‘Sir, can I have a quick word?’ he said with a glance at Jacob.
‘Now?’ McDermott looked up from his paperwork. ‘I’m in the middle of something.’
‘It’s important, sir.’
McDermott sighed, pushed his chair away from the desk and got up. He glared at Jacob. ‘Stay here.’
As McDermott and Abe disappeared into the squad room, Jacob immediately got up and made his way over to McDermott’s side of the desk. He couldn’t resist the opportunity to rifle through the inspector’s papers.
With one eye on the door, the first thing Jacob noticed was a large pile of unpaid parking tickets. Since when did CID deal with that?
He picked up the pile. The tickets were issued for the same registration number, YX13 QZI, and for parking violations in Leeds, specifically in Flying Shuttle Street. Interesting.
Voices neared the office, but by the time McDermott and Abe returned, Jacob was back in his chair again, staring into the distance.
He needn’t have bothered looking innocent, as McDermott hardy noticed him. His face all red, he walked to his desk and picked up the Civil Injunction form he had been filling in. With a quick motion he tore it in half, then nodded with his head to the door.
‘You’re free to go,’ McDermott said. ‘But this has definitely been your last warning. No more bug experiments in people’s gardens, do you hear? One more complaint and I’ll have you back here in a flash.’
Jacob nodded and walked out of McDermott’s office with Abe.
‘Luckily, I heard about you being brought in,’ Abe said as he showed Jacob back to the street. ‘McDermott is wrong about this Civil Injunction and I’ve managed to get him to drop it for now. But you’d better be very careful the next few weeks.’
‘Thanks, buddy,’ Jacob said, as he shook Abe’s hand. ‘I will.’
‘Now get out of here.’
Jacob started walking down the steps of the police station, then turned round. ‘By the way. Is there any more news about Patrizia’s murder?’
Abe looked over his shoulder. ‘I shouldn’t tell you this, but it seems to have been a real burglary. According to Gianni Bandoni quite a few accessories were taken, watches and necklaces, all designer stuff.’
‘Hmm… Isn’t it strange that only at the burglaries where there was a murder things have been taken? At all the other burglaries we’ve had this week nothing was taken, except a box of expensive chocolates. What does that mean? Two different burglars?’
Abe shrugged. ‘Maybe.’
‘I’m still not convinced that the burglar had anything to do with the murders. What burglar would be so stupid to rob a shop in the middle of the day?’
‘Do you mean to say that the murderer made it look like the shops were burgled to put suspicion on the burglar?’
‘Who knows? Anything seems possible at the moment.’
* * *
Paddy
That night I couldn’t sleep. I sat on the windowsill and watched out over Woolaston Road, listening to the snores of the others down below.
The Rat Squad had stayed, worried as they were about their sergeant’s sister being kidnapped and bent on rescuing her as soon as possible.
Gus was inconsolable. He’d lost his two great loves in one day, his treasure basically twice, if you counted Yellow Hair finding the one ring the Bambini had left behind.
Concern for Daisy had overwhelmed my concern for the two-legged wandering around. We all knew what he came in search of when he entered the old building and that was gone. Now he could go back to bothering other two-leggeds and leave us in peace.
I sighed. Poor Daisy. I hoped she was okay. Getting her out of the clutches of Victor was paramount, but it would best work if we could evict the Mob at the same time and reconquer the sewer. But how were we going to pull that off?
A movement on Woolaston Road caught my eye. A lone two-legged walked along the pavement across the street, lugging two large buckets with him. He staggered under the weight.
The two-legged halted at a street drain in the kerb and set the buckets down with a bump. Then one by one, he tipped the contents of the buckets over into the drain. The gooey whitish stuff that slowly lobbed out reminded me of something. Where had I seen it before? I racked my brain.
It hit me in a flash. The egg! The alligator egg was made of gooey white stuff!
What did that mean? My whiskers tingled and I plucked at the fur on my head.
What if the egg was actually made of this same gooey white stuff? That would mean that the egg wasn’t an egg at all, but just something that kept growing because some two-legged kept pouring stuff down a drain. It might even mean that the alligator didn’t exist either. Or did it? What if the alligator did exist?
My mind reeled.
After all, Leo’s mate Johnny saw it swimming by.
The two-legged had left and was now coming back with two more buckets full of stuff, the contents of which also disappeared down the drain.
I hopped up and down, not able any longer to hide my glee. I needed to find out the truth about the egg. And maybe that knowledge could help us rescue Daisy and kick the Three Bambini out of our sewer! I jumped down, ready to wake the others and spur them in to action.
Leo woke up and looked at me. ‘Are you still awake?’
‘Yes, and I’ve realised something about the alligator egg.’ Despite my excitement I suddenly yawned.
Leo copied my yawn. ‘Great. Tell me about it in the morning.’ He curled his tail around his body, tucked his nose in and fell back asleep.
Even though I knew he was right, I felt the urge to kick him. Idiot.
CHAPTER TWENTY
‘He did what?!’ Dave stared at Jacob, his mouth open, the knife with which he had buttered his toast, stationary in the air halfway to the jam jar.
Jacob took a bite of his own toast. ‘The inspector thought that my little forays into people’s gardens gave him enough reason to write me up for a Civil Injunction.’
‘But that’s ridiculous,’ Dave said, and continued putting jam on his toast, a large dollop of which ended up on the tablecloth. ‘A Civil Injunction is for severe cases of antisocial behaviour. And annoying as your behaviour can be at times, checking on some bugs doesn’t classify as antisocial.’ He took an enormous bite out of his toast and started chewing as if his life depended on it.
‘I didn’t think it did,’ Jacob said.
‘You know what? I should talk to McDermott about this.’ Dave pushed his chair back and stood up. More jam dripped from his toast. ‘How dare he single you out every time?’
‘Don’t get all excited, dear,’ Judith said. She patted him on the arm. ‘Finish your breakfast first. The inspector will still be there in half an hour’s time.’
Dave glared at his wife for a second, then sat down again.
Jacob smiled and glanced at Judith, who gave him a quick wink.
‘Thanks for wanting to stick up for me, my friend,’ Jacob said. ‘But the thing is that Abe already diffused the situation somewhat last night and I think we should leave it at that. I don’t want McDermott all riled up again.’
Dave sighed. ‘You’re probably right. I just hate it that McDermott keeps trying to set you up.’
‘Yes, he really does have it in for me, and I have no idea why.’ Jacob looked about him. ‘Where’s Emily, by the way? I’d thought she’d be downstairs by now.’
‘Emily went to Posh Nosh early today,’ Judith said. ‘She wanted to help Peggy to get ready for the Saturday rush.’
‘Did she?’ Dave said. ‘Hmm, looks like she’s finally picking up some responsibility.’
Judith glared at him. ‘Don’t be mean, Dave. Be happy she changing for the better.’
‘I am happy. It’s just that lately she’s been moaning about Posh Nosh a lot and I’d hoped that after about five months living with us she’d picked up these things a bit quicker.’
Judith gave her husband a playful slap. ‘If she’s picked up anything it might have been your moaning.’
‘What? I never moan.’
‘You just moaned about Emily.’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Okay,’ Jacob said and got up from his chair. ‘Perhaps it’s better that I leave. I want to concentrate on catching a killer today. But first, I have to quickly check on some bugs.’
Dave and Judith both stared at him.
‘How can you think about doing another bug experiment?’ Dave said. ‘Didn’t you just say that you didn’t want McDermott riled up again?’
Jacob smiled. ‘Relax. The bugs are in your own front garden.’ He patted the notebook in the pocket of his lab coat. ‘I have got to take some notes. Thanks for breakfast, Judith.’
Dave rolled his eyes. ‘You’re going to be arrested for real one of these days.’
Jacob waved and walked out of Dave’s front door. He quickly checked on the clutch of ladybird larvae he had discovered a week before, then made his way down the street. All the kerfuffle with McDermott had pushed what Spencer told him the evening before somewhat to the background.
Nevertheless, it was clear in Jacob’s mind that Spencer’s revelations showed that neither Spencer nor Kenneth had anything to do with the murders. An unfortunate spat and the possible loss of a lifelong friendship was all that had happened. If you could call Spencer’s secret and the repercussions it had had for him his whole life ‘all’.
Jacob turned into Milbury Road, making up his mind that he wouldn’t tell anyone about what Spencer had told him. Both men had suffered enough. He’d better focus on the real killer now, for as reluctant as he’d been to help Emily in the beginning, it did now intrigue him. He’d buy a newspaper and then take a look at Gianni’s shop. Perhaps looking through the window would give him some clues as to what could have happened there yesterday.
He walked down Milbury Road. When he made his way past Sant’Ambrogio’s, the door of the restaurant opened and Sam burst out.
‘Jacob!’ She clutched his arm, her lips and chin trembling. ‘I wanted to see you.’ She burst into tears. ‘I did it! It’s all my fault.’
* * *
Jacob looked down on Sam’s bowed head as the girl sobbed her eyes out. His chest tightened. Was Sam the killer? No, couldn’t be!
He took her gently by the shoulders. ‘Let’s go and sit somewhere, so that you can tell me the whole story.’
Sam nodded and together they crossed the road and sat down on the bench near the car park.
Waiting for Sam to speak, Jacob had a bit of a déjà vu moment, as only the evening before he had sat on this very bench with Spencer. It seemed that all of a sudden he was everyone’s favourite person to blurt out confessions to.
After a little while, Sam’s breathing slowed down a bit and she stopped crying. She accepted Jacob’s hanky and dabbed at her eyes.
‘Now tell me,’ Jacob said. ‘Why do you think it’s all your fault?’
Sam scrunched up the hanky, then unfolded it again. ‘You asked me before if I thought Nate was gay. And I said no, he wasn’t.’ She looked up a Jacob. ‘But I’m quite sure he was gay. He just hadn’t come out to anyone yet.’
‘Not even to his father?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’ She stopped talking as a woman with a pram walked by. ‘I think that Nate maybe hadn’t even realised he was gay himself, until Spencer made his advances. Maybe he was so spooked by that, that he overcompensated by trying to kiss me.’ She looked up at Jacob. ‘I have known Nate for a long time, but he never tried something like that with me before. And he used to be at the restaurant a lot.’
‘Did Nate actually tell you himself he was gay?’
Sam shook her head. ‘No, I just figured that out for myself.’
‘What about Nate’s friendship with your brother Gianni? Was there perhaps… er… more going on between them?’
‘No, definitely not. My brother is into women, I’m sure of that.’ She sighed. ‘I wish I had told people about Nate before; it’s my secrecy that killed him and Patrizia. It’s all my fault.’ Tears welled up in her eyes again.
‘It isn’t your fault,’ Jacob said, but Sam interrupted him.
‘There’s more.’ She looked down at her hands. ‘Remember that I told Emily that Patrizia had met Colleen before in Italy? Well, Patrizia also talked to my mother about a picture and asked her questions about
Colleen. I should have told you that as well. If you and Emily had known about that before, Colleen would never have killed Patrizia as well.’
Sam looked up, her eyes wide. ‘I’ve been so afraid of Colleen. She seems to know things.’ She threw a glance over her shoulder, but the car park behind them was empty. ‘I’m afraid Colleen knows that Patrizia told me about her and that I’m next on Colleen’s list. She knows too much.’
Jacob could understand Sam’s fear. It was all getting a bit too much to her. He took her hand in his.
‘Listen to me,’ he said. ‘First of all, the murders are not your fault. If Nate decided to keep it a secret that he was gay, that was his choice. Not yours. People make their own choices and are themselves responsible for what they decide.’
Sam calmed down a bit again. ‘Yes, I guess you’re right.’
‘Perhaps it’s best for you to stay at home today,’ Jacob said. ‘It’s unlikely that Colleen will follow you into the restaurant. If it turns out that Colleen is the killer, you should be safe inside.’ Jacob smiled at her. ‘And while you’re at home, would you mind doing some sleuthing for us.’
‘What would you want me to do?’
‘We would love to find out more about Colleen’s time in Italy. If Patrizia saw her there, perhaps more of your family did.’
Sam nodded. ‘You might be right. I will ask my aunt in Milan if she knows more. I want to help out and make things right.’
‘That’s great.’
As they walked back to the restaurant together, Jacob’s mind was reeling with the new information Sam just gave him. What did this all mean?
* * *
Paddy
‘Shhh…’ I motioned with my paw to stop Vinnie and Charlie whispering behind me. There were voices ahead and we didn’t want to get caught.
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