by M A Comley
“Leave it with me, boss. I’ll figure it out and get in touch with the bus company. All the buses nowadays are fitted with cameras anyway, so all is not lost just yet.”
Kayli nodded and walked across the room to buy coffees for the team.
The phone rang on Donna’s desk as Kayli placed a cup beside her.
“Hello. DC Donna Travis… That’s wonderful news. Thank you for rushing it through for me.” Donna ended the call. “The warrant is through. I asked them to hurry things along for me, told them it was urgent.”
“Good job, Donna. Right, Dave, drink up, and we’ll get back to the flats.”
“Bloody hell, we might as well get a room at that place, the amount of time we’re spending there.”
“Stop moaning.”
CHAPTER SIX
Kayli held the passenger door open for Dave once they arrived at the flats. Dave was right: their visits to this place were becoming a habit. Hopefully, it would be the last time they had to call back there, in connection with the case anyway.
Once they were both up the steps, Kayli buzzed Colleen’s flat to gain access to the building.
A cautious voice came through the speaker.
“Colleen, it’s DI Bright again. Sorry to disturb you, but can you buzz me in, please?”
The door clunked, and Dave pushed it open with his crutch. Kayli led the way up one flight of stairs. Colleen was standing by her door with her child on her hip.
“Everything all right?” she asked anxiously.
“Nothing to be concerned about. We’ve obtained a warrant to search Bob Nuttall’s flat. I don’t suppose you’ve heard him come back during the day, have you?”
“No, sorry. It’s been really quiet up there. Good luck. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“So do I.” Kayli smiled and continued up the next flight of stairs to the top floor. She waited for Dave to arrive and asked, “How are we going to break down the door?”
“Shame to do that. I don’t suppose the family will be too happy about that.”
She tapped on the door, just in case Nuttall was home, not that he would have opened the door to them. “Not sure it will matter to them as long as we find out what has happened to Paul. Are you up for this? Or do you want me to do my GI Jane bit again?” Kayli chuckled.
Dave tutted, placed one of his crutches up against the wall and shoulder-charged the door. It refused to budge. He put more power behind the charge and almost toppled over when the door gave in. Kayli caught hold of his arm to prevent him from falling over. She handed him his other crutch, and together, they entered the room.
The room was a tip. It was a bedsit more than a flat. The cluttered kitchen area was piled high with dirty dishes and cutlery. The single bed in the far corner had been left unmade, and the sheets looked filthy, as if they hadn’t seen the inside of a washing machine in months. The TV was on standby, as was the small DVD player beside it. Alongside that were numerous DVD cases.
“I really don’t want to know what’s on them,” Kayli said, her nose wrinkling in distaste.
Dave bent down to pick up the top DVD and grinned at her. “Yep, you were right. Pirated copies of porn. Some bird with bazookas the size of large Atlas stones. They look just as heavy too.”
“All right, Dave, spare me the details. My imagination has already dealt with that. It doesn’t look like he’s returned at all. Although that’s pretty hard to determine.”
“Except that the fire escape door is still ajar.”
“Well spotted. Put on your gloves. We’ll tear this place apart. I wouldn’t worry about making a mess, either. If anything, it’ll probably be an improvement.”
Kayli searched the single wardrobe in the opposite corner to the bed. The smell of sour body odour almost knocked her off her feet. “Jesus, does this place even have a bathroom? By the smell of this, I’d say Nuttall hasn’t washed in months, either himself or his clothes.”
Dave pulled a face. “There’s a door over there. I’m presuming that’ll be the loo and the shower. God, this place is the pits.” He walked towards the door and stuck his head round it. “Jesus! That’s gross. The loo is full with—”
“Stop! I don’t want to know. Anything else in there?”
“A shower that looks barely used. That figures, right?” He slammed the door behind him.
“Okay, let’s not hang around. I’ll check through the drawers. Hope I don’t find any dirty underwear staring back at me.”
Dave chuckled and moved towards the bed. He opened the drawer to the bedside table and whistled. “Bingo! I think we hit the jackpot.”
Kayli rushed across the small room to join him. “Holy crap! There must be thousands there.”
“Too bloody right.”
Dave withdrew the large bundle of twenty-pound notes from the drawer and popped the cash into a see-through plastic evidence bag. He took a photo on his phone, something Kayli always insisted on doing with large sums of cash, just in case the money went missing once it was placed in the evidence storeroom. That had happened over the years when the force was riddled with bent coppers. Thankfully, Kayli hadn’t come across any incidents of that kind in the past few years.
“All right… well, this begs the question of why would Nuttall run without at least grabbing a handful of cash first. If he had any money with him, he wouldn’t have dumped his car when it ran out of petrol, right?”
“The plot thickens. What if he was keeping the money stashed away for someone?”
“Would you trust the likes of him?” Kayli asked, shaking her head.
“Hey, there must be a certain code of honour amongst criminals.”
Kayli shrugged. “If you say so. All right, what about this scenario, then… if Nuttall had all this cash on him, then why did he and Potts have an argument on Saturday about non-payment of his rent?”
Dave raised an eyebrow. “Maybe the money came into his hands after Saturday.”
“What? As some form of payment in connection with Potts going missing?”
He hitched up a shoulder. “Who knows? It’s just a theory.”
“A very good theory, and one that we need to investigate further,” Kayli replied, holding up the bag to inspect the contents. “I’d say there’s at least twenty thousand here.”
“If it is as we suspect, maybe someone employed him as a hitman.”
Kayli placed the bag back on the bed and rubbed the side of her face. “A hitman would indicate that we’re talking about someone who knows Paul Potts well.”
Dave pointed at her. “A family member?”
Kayli sighed heavily. “In other cases, perhaps. I’m not so certain about that in this instance. Bugger, let’s hope we find Nuttall soon so that he can clarify things for us.”
“Want to carry on searching? We might find a letter of sorts or possible instructions from someone.”
Kayli scanned the room. “Where else can we check? Except…” She stamped on the floor with her foot and looked around the room at the edges of the carpet to see if any showed signs of being disturbed.
“You thinking under the floorboards?”
“Yep, except I can’t see any indication of where that might be. Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree. Only one way to find out.” Kayli went to the corner of the room and found a frayed area of carpet, which she pulled on. The carpet frayed a little more but released from the gripper rod soon enough. She folded it back to the middle of the room before it hit the bed then searched for any possible loose floorboards. “Can’t see anything, can you?”
“What about that one, close to the wall? It seems a little raised compared to the others.”
“I see it.” Kayli took a few steps then crouched down again to test the board, which rocked under her hand. She took a penknife that Mark insisted she carry from her pocket and levered the floorboard out of position. “Bloody Nora! There’s more money stuffed down here.”
“How much? Any idea?”
Kayli shoo
k her head and removed another evidence bag from her pocket. She reached into the hole and extracted another three bundles of twenties. “Crap, looks like the same amount in each one as you found in the drawer.”
“Eighty grand? What the fuck would this guy be doing with that sort of money?”
“The question is, partner, is the money from the same pay-out or separate negotiations?”
“Crap, this is getting worse by the minute. I think we should call in a forensics team, let them tear this place apart. I dread to think what we might find behind the walls.”
“Oh God, don’t say that. You’re right. I’m going to give them a call now.”
Kayli punched a number into her phone, which directed her to the lab immediately. She gave their location, reported what they had found and asked for a team of analysts to come to the flat as soon as possible. She was told to expect them within half an hour. “As tempting as it might be for us to continue this search, I think it would be better to wait for the experts to arrive. Did you get a photo of the rest of the dosh we found?”
“Yep, while you were on the phone.”
“I need some fresh air.” Kayli stepped out onto the fire escape. If only things were different. If only Dave had been guarding the back alley. If ifs and ands and pots and pans, as Mum always says. She went back inside the flat and paced the floor until the forensics team arrived.
It was almost four o’clock before the forensics team showed up. Kayli rushed down the stairs to open the door for the two men, already suited and booted in their protective clothing. “Thanks for coming, gents. The flat is the penthouse suite on the top floor.”
The two men looked at each other and back at her. “This place has a penthouse?” the older man asked incredulously.
“I’m jesting. You’ll need your sense of humour to see through this task, gents, believe me.”
The three of them walked up the two flights of stairs and into the room. “Jesus, you weren’t kidding,” the older man said. “Can I ask how much of this mess you made?”
Kayli chuckled. “Aside from pulling up the carpet, not much. We found it in this state, I can assure you. Dave, show the gents what we’ve found, please.”
Her partner held up the two bags containing the money.
Both the forensics guys whistled. “Holy crap! There must be—what? A hundred grand there?”
“We haven’t counted it, but we don’t think that figure’s far off. Do you want to photograph it before we take it back to the station?”
The younger of the two technicians bent down to his large case and withdrew a camera, to which he attached a lens, and fired off dozens of shots. “Done. You’re free to take it now. Before you go, is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”
“I’ll give you the low-down on the case. It started out as a missing persons case. The landlord of the flats came here last Saturday to chase three tenants for rent owed. His brother was expecting him to show up at the pub that night sometime after his visit, but he never showed up and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. When we came to question the tenants, the guy living in this flat refused to open the door to us and instead absconded down the fire escape, never to be seen again. Actually, that’s not quite true. We put out an alert on his car and discovered it a few hours ago, where he’d deserted it after running out of petrol.”
One of the technicians laughed. “Don’t tell me he ran out of money.”
“That’s exactly what we think. Maybe he didn’t have time to grab some notes before he ran from us. Anyway, I’ve arranged for you guys to pick up his Opel Manta. It’s down at the Saint Philips Trade Centre. I need you guys to go over it thoroughly, if you will.”
“Agreed. Leave it with us. We’ll contact the lab, make sure it has been picked up.”
“Appreciate it. Right, we’ll be off and leave this in your capable hands.” She handed the older man a business card. “Let me know if you find anything else. Thanks.”
“Will do.”
Kayli and Dave made their way back down the stairs and out to the car.
“What now?” Dave asked once they were settled in the car.
“Back to the station, I suppose. Hopefully, Graeme will be able to furnish us with more news on Potts’s car soon.”
“Let’s hope so. Without that, I can’t see us solving this case. Not unless we pick up Nuttall in the meantime. Is it worth asking the media for help?”
“Maybe. Let’s see what news the guys back at base have for us first. I might go down that route tomorrow. Although I suspect using the media could make Nuttall go underground.”
They drove back to the station, but Kayli felt the disappointment rising when Graeme told her that he was still trying to track down Potts’s car via the ANPR cameras.
She retired to her office to wallow until six o’clock. The team were just packing up, getting ready to leave, when she emerged from the office. “Thanks for all your hard work on this one, guys. Let’s hope things really start to kick off tomorrow. See you in the morning.” She watched Graeme and Donna leave, but Dave remained in his seat. She perched her backside on the desk closest to his. “Something wrong, partner? You’re usually the first to leave.”
He frowned. “I am?”
“All right, I stand corrected. The second person to leave. How’s that?”
Dave shrugged. “What are we doing on this case?”
“This is unlike you, Dave. Any specific reason why you should be asking that question after a few days?”
“Not one in particular. You know how it is… certain cases don’t sit well with you, and you have no inclination why. Well, I guess this is one of those cases. What if Potts has just taken off? Fed up with his family and felt the need to get away from them?”
“Except he’s not that kind of person, according to his brother and his daughter, is he?”
“Yeah, I get that. But if he’s stressed out running the flats, maybe he simply decided to throw in the towel, thought it wasn’t worth all the aggravation or stress. I know I would feel that way after visiting that dive and the tenants he has living there, or should I say wrecking the place. Nuttall’s flat was a shit-tip. It would break my heart if I bought a property and people treated it like that.”
“I hear what you’re saying, Dave, and don’t think the thought hasn’t entered my mind. The thing is both his brother and Anita are adamant that this is totally out of character for Paul. I’m sure they would say if he was finding the situation stressful and unable to cope with it.”
Dave pulled his crutches towards him and levered himself out of the chair. “I guess you’re right.” He tapped his temple. “I’ve just got a niggling little voice up here, chipping away at me.”
“Hey, we wouldn’t be coppers if we didn’t have a certain amount of that going on in our heads during a case, right?”
They walked towards the exit. “I suppose. What are your plans tonight? Feet up with the new hubby, with a glass of wine?”
Kayli shook her head as she switched off the lights and closed the door behind her. “Hardly. I doubt I’ll see much of Mark over the next few days. He starts his new job tonight.”
“Damn, sorry. I forgot about that. Is he still on the lookout for another job? I can’t see him sticking with that career for long, given his experience.”
“He says he is still looking. Who knows? He might end up enjoying throwing troublemakers out of a nightclub.”
Dave shook his head and laughed. “I doubt it. I’ll give him until the end of next week.”
“Let’s just say I’d rather have him employed than sat at home, feeling sorry for himself. It was a nightmare living with him before he took that security job in Afghanistan.”
“You guys are made for each other. I’m sure Mark will find a more suitable job soon and everything will be hunky-dory again.”
“I wish I had your faith. Come on. Let’s go home. Say hi to Suranne and Luke for me.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Feeling weary, Kayli slipped her key in the front door and pushed it open. “Hi, honey. I’m home.”
Mark appeared swiftly at the entrance to the lounge and leaned against the doorframe. His smile, showing off his gleaming white teeth, proved to her how much he’d missed her.
She sashayed towards him, flung her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Hello, you. Have you missed me?”
“I have. Good day?” He pulled away from her and headed into the lounge.
Her nose rose into the air to smell the aroma of their evening meal. “So-so. You’ve cooked again. I could get used to this. What have we got?”
“Cottage pie. At least, it’s supposed to be, but the mashed potato sank into the mixture. It don’t look pretty.”
Kayli laughed. “Oops. If it tastes as good as it smells, we’re in for a treat.”
“Do you want to dish the mess up?”
“If you want me to.” Kayli walked into the kitchen and placed her hands in the oven gloves. “Can you get the plates out for me?”
“They’re in the bottom of the oven, keeping warm.”
“I’ve trained you well.” She opened the oven and chuckled when she saw the mess confronting her. Mark wasn’t wrong—the meal looked terrible. The smell was fantastic, though, and it pushed aside her doubts as she withdrew the Pyrex dish from the oven and placed it on the chopping board on the worktop. Then she switched off the oven and removed the plates. Once she’d dished up the cottage pie and the accompanying vegetables, consisting of cabbage and carrots, Kayli called for him to join her.
Mark entered the room, looking a little sheepish. “It’s a disaster, right?”
“Nope, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Here you go.” She placed the sloppy mess in front of him.
He studied it from every angle before he plucked up the courage to take his first mouthful. “Wow, actually, it tastes amazing, even if I do say so myself. Any idea what I did wrong?”
“I’m not one to criticise such a sterling effort, but I think perhaps you needed to either thicken the gravy or wait for the bottom mixture to have cooled down before you added the mashed potato on the top. Not that I’m an expert chef, of course.”