‘Like I said, I. . .’ he sighed, wilting under the pressure of Ruby’s stare. ‘I might have had a tip-off.’
‘As in a tip-off to the killer’s whereabouts? Why didn’t you say?’
‘It’s going to sound daft. That’s why I didn’t call it in.’
‘I’ll be the judge of that. Where did you get your information?’
‘From a dead man,’ Ash said, giving her a furtive glance. ‘Nicky Ellis, to be exact, with the help of a bag of frozen chips.’
‘You’ve lost me,’ Ruby said, wondering if Ash had finally lost the plot.
‘He left a message written out on the floor. He must have done it when he realised he wasn’t going to make it. I guess it was his way of telling us where he’d been.’
Ruby arched both eyebrows. ‘With the help of a bag of chips?’ A black cab rumbled past – ordinary people going about their business, on this, the strangest of days.
Ash gave a hollow laugh. ‘As unlikely as it seems. I found the words “Queen Liz” spelt out on the floor.’
‘This is all very Sherlock Holmes,’ Ruby said. ‘Are you sure?’
Ash nodded. ‘I messed them up when I leant over to look at the body, sorry. I didn’t mean to, but I figured I was in enough trouble, and I’d check it out myself.’
‘“Queen Liz” might not refer to the hospital, it could mean anything.’ Ruby tried to contain her annoyance. He was right. It was too far-fetched, and she wasn’t buying his explanation. Besides, if he had stumbled across the doctor’s lair, then why did he want to keep it to himself? Regardless of her reservations, she wasn’t leaving without checking it out. ‘Right. Well, we can’t take any chances. Wait here until I call it in. You’re not to go in there without backup. Look at you,’ she said, casting an eye over his expansive belly. ‘You haven’t even got a stab vest on.’
‘I won’t need it,’ Ash said quietly. But there was something about his demeanour that gave Ruby cause for concern. ‘Are you alri—’ Her words were interrupted as Ash slammed on the brakes.
‘Oops, sorry,’ he said, pulling up at the pedestrian traffic lights as a woman with a pram walked across. Ruby watched him as he leant towards the car window, his eyes darting from left to right as he stared at the windows of the upper floors overhead.
Ruby followed his gaze to the hospital building looming over them. The tree-lined street that harboured it was bustling with activity. Was it possible that such abhorrent acts were taking place right under people’s noses? Ruby stiffened as she caught his gaze, her heart picking up a beat. ‘Seen something?’
‘What? No, nothing. There’s probably nobody there,’ he said, releasing his foot from the clutch as the lights turned green.
Ruby took note of the name of the road as Ash turned into Coate Street. They parked down the quiet road, which gave access to the rear of the hospital building. Her attention to street names was a valuable lesson ingrained early in her career. You never knew when backup was urgently needed, and in those days they were not afforded the luxury of GPS.
‘Tell you what,’ Ash said, pulling up the handbrake. ‘Why don’t you call it in, and I’ll have a look around. . . make sure nobody comes out the back doors?’
Ruby threw him a mistrusting look, wishing she could read his mind. ‘Only if you promise not to go inside. If you see anyone just make a note of their direction of travel. I mean it, Ash. I don’t want you taking stupid risks.’
‘Of course not,’ Ash said, delivering another forced chuckle. ‘Look at me, I couldn’t squeeze through that fence if I tried. I’m just gonna check the perimeter, that’s all.’ Giving her one last smile, he got out of the car, hands deep in pockets as he walked briskly past the panelled fencing.
But Ruby had barely called for backup when she realised Ash was out of sight. She peered into the distance, cursing herself for leaving her glasses at work. Had he deliberately disobeyed her orders and gone inside? Stretching over, she pulled the keys from the ignition before getting out and locking the car behind her.
‘Ash,’ she called in a raspy whisper, following his direction of travel. She bit her bottom lip as a crash of glass shattered the silence. Surely not? To go in unarmed to confront such a dangerous killer would be suicide. Unless. . . Raising her radio, she pressed his number to reach him directly on a point-to-point call. No answer. She prodded the mainstream channel and spoke to control. ‘Can I request those units on the hurry up? I’m unable to locate DC Ash Baker by point-to-point. He may have entered the building against my wishes. I’m going in to locate him, over.’
There was no time to waste. Patting her shoulder harness beneath her jacket, she checked her gas, handcuffs and baton were in place. She would have offered to loan it to Ash, but such a thing would have been an invitation to investigate. That was the last thing she’d wanted him to do. Ash was overweight, unfit, and suffering from depression. What the hell was he thinking going in there alone?
‘Shit!’ she exclaimed, when she came to a gap in the fencing big enough for Ash to squeeze through. She listened for guard dogs, which were sometimes posted in potential building sites, but all that was returned was an icy breeze and a strong sense of dread. Stepping through the fencing, she made her way through the uneven path. Ash was nowhere to be seen. ‘Ash,’ Ruby whispered, ‘where are you?’
Grasping her police issue ASP, she gave it a firm flick, extending it to full length. It always came down to a choice: her baton or her CS incapacitant spray. But the weight of her baton felt comforting in her grip. Raising it over her shoulder, she peered through the broken glass of the back window. There was no time to waste; she had to go inside.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Holding her breath, Ruby entered the long, dank corridor. Having stood empty since its closure twenty years before, the building carried an eerie sense of desolation. She masked her face with the back of her left hand as the smell of rat urine clawed, thick and heavy, on her senses. In the distance, a scratching noise ensued. Darkness closed in as she entered the bowels of the building. Was Ash creeping down the corridors too? Was the doctor, more to the point? Ruby thought about the post-mortem, and the rat droppings attached to the victim’s hair. To end up in a place like this with only the rats for company. . . But it had been searched; she had read the report with her own eyes. She gathered her thoughts as she tried to formulate a plan. Calling out to Ash would only serve to bring attention to her whereabouts, but the building was a literal rat run, a maze of decaying rooms, rotting stairwells and floor upon floor of hollowed spaces. She would never find him in here but she could not sit in the car and wait for backup: she was Ash’s sergeant, and wholly responsible for his welfare.
She strained to listen for signs of life and was rewarded with the patter of tiny claws from the floor above. There was more than a nest of rats in this building; there was a commune. And that was exactly where she needed to go. Then she heard it, the echoing tap, tap of leather shoes as they took the stairs. It was Ash; it had to be. Turning right, she followed the sound until she came to a stairwell. Her breath caught in her throat as she heard a voice in the distance.
‘No, please, let me go! Please, no, no, no. . .’ Hairs stood sentry on Ruby’s neck as the young woman’s cries for mercy went unanswered.
‘Ash,’ Ruby said, trying the radio once more. She dialled his number directly. He was much more likely to answer a private point-to-point than talk on the busy main channel.
His voice was sharp and to the point. ‘Sarge, I’m fine. Just wait outside for backup, over.’
The woman’s cries were silenced, briefly, until continuing for the second time. ‘No, please, let me go! Please, no, no, no. . .’
Ruby frowned. There was something off-kilter about this. Her instincts screamed at her to stay put. ‘I’m coming up the first set of stairs. We need to regroup. Don’t go rushing in there, over.’
‘I know what I’m doing,’ Ash said. ‘Back off, over and out.’
The woman’s cries
paused for seconds before beginning again. Ruby’s heart thundered in her chest as she realised what was going on. ‘Ash—,’ she said before he cut her off. ‘It’s a trap. The screaming, it’s on a loop.’
‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to do this,’ he said, before disconnecting the call.
Swearing under her breath, Ruby fiddled with her radio as she tried again. But Ash had switched his off. She clipped it to her belt before resuming the defence stance and galloping up the stairs. Her muscles tensed, she peered through the gloom as shadows danced on the walls. If someone tried jumping out on her now, it would be a decision they would come to regret. She followed the cries, pausing as she passed the array of open doors. A black rat scuttled past, followed by one more, then another, and another, skimming her shoes as they squeaked in annoyance at the disruption. Was this why the previous officers had denoted the building all-clear? Because they had been put off by the army of rats? Ruby’s fingers tightened around her baton. She was used to rodents in the alleyways where she grew up, but she was no fan. She felt the cold release of adrenalin preparing her for what lay ahead. In the distance, a scuffling noise ensued. Footsteps? Had Ash caught up with the doctor?
A choking, gurgling sound echoed in the corridors. That was no recording; that was real. Sprinting towards it, Ruby tried to ignore the possibility that she was heading straight into a trap. Where the hell was backup? Rats streamed from every direction, plump and slick as they scuttled past. The stench was overpowering, but she powered forward through the decay and the desolation, aware of the distant sounds of sirens. Nothing could stop her now because her eyes were set on the open doorway where, cloaked by a layer of rats, a body lay motionless on the floor.
Chapter Fifty-Three
The polished wooden stairwell in her new Dalston flat was a complete contrast to the sticky metal railing in her old tower block. Inhaling the light scent of cinnamon and vanilla diffusers, Ruby enjoyed the calming silence. Used to loud music and people arguing, the only sound here was the quiet whirr of the lift. She had come to her sanctuary because she could not bear to go back to her flat. After what she had been through, the grey, depressing tower block was the last place on earth she needed to be. More than anything she needed Nathan, but if she could not have him, she would find comfort in the rooms he had furnished, soak in the bath he had chosen, and change into the pyjamas he had bought for her. As her feet tapped up each step of the stairwell, her memory crept back to the horrors of the derelict building where Ash had died, just hours before.
Ruby had insisted on returning to the police station to complete her statement, her fingers shaking as she typed. A shower and change of clothes in the police station locker room had provided her with enough strength to continue with the hunt for the man who had murdered her colleague. The devastation of his loss hung like a dense cloud, not just over their department but the whole station. Ruby felt it like a physical weight on her shoulders, and the pale, shocked faces of her colleagues were more than she could bear. Unanswered questions hung on their lips as small groups gathered in the canteen, smoking area and locker room, trying to make sense of something which could very easily have happened to them. Blame, regret and anger dangled before her, making her sick to the stomach.
It was a relief to be told by the staff at Ash’s wife’s mental health unit that they would be the ones to break the news when she was strong enough to deal with it. The Kent force would deliver what was termed the ‘agony’ to his daughters in Canterbury. It was just as well. Ruby doubted she would have been able to keep it together had she attended herself. And why would they want to hear it from the person responsible for their father’s death?
Ruby paused on the stairwell, her legs feeling like lead as her mind bombarded her with statements laced with blame. She was in charge; she should have seen through his story sooner, stopped him before he went inside. A message written in chips indeed, what a sorry excuse that was. What had really brought him there? And why hadn’t she kept a closer eye on him? She should have been one step behind him, ready to strike out at the killer who was lying in wait. She chewed her lip. Procedure, that’s why. She had thought on this occasion that they would be safer if they played it by the book. Two people were not enough to hunt down a psychopathic killer in a building built like a maze. Tweedy had warned her what Doctor Tanner was like: a slippery customer who liked to hide in wait. His level of violence disgusted even Nathan Crosby, someone for whom physical force was a way of life. Armed with a wealth of background information, she knew it was not safe for them to go in. But still, the guilt tore through her, accusatory whispers clawing at the back of her mind. She had broken the rules on every other occasion, why did she choose this one time to play it by the book? It wasn’t fear that stalled her; she had never backed down when it came to saving the life of another. But after speaking with Tweedy Steve, she was not willing to risk it, preferring to wait for armed officers to flood the building and both follow on behind. And now that had backfired. Yes, her superior officers had told her she did the right thing. She had updated control every step of the way and made it clear DC Baker was acting against her commands. Why? Because deep down she knew he had another agenda? Ruby had risked her life giving chase, but she had not been quick enough. And there, amongst the rats, she had found his body laid out in a pool of blood. Tanner had been waiting for him. He had not used a scalpel to murder him. Her stomach had churned as she caught sight of the length of cheese wire embedded into Ash’s neck. It was a horrific death, but one that he had run straight into – giving up his life without a fight. Such thoughts rolled over like rumbling thunderclouds. She came to the landing, taking a deep breath as she pushed her key into the lock. Tonight she would try to get some rest and assess things in the morning.
As she entered the living room, the soft glow of a television told her that she was not alone. The figure on the sofa turned, his smile fading as he took in her expression. It was Nathan, and Ruby was swept up in relief, clinging to the doorway for fear her legs would give.
She kicked off her shoes, dropping her bag and coat onto the floor.
‘Babe,’ Nathan said, his voice husky as he rose to greet her. ‘You OK?’
A small shake of the head was all she could manage as she felt her defences crumble within. She hated crying in front of Nathan, although he never shied away from her tears. Immediately he was by her side, the palms of his hands warm against her cheeks.
‘What’s wrong?’ he said, his tone hardening. ‘Has someone hurt you?’
‘No,’ she said, as the first of her tears trickled onto his hands. ‘I lost one of my officers tonight. It was Tanner. We almost caught up with him and. . .’ She choked on a sob, blinking the tears from her field of vision, but it was like trying to hold back an insistent tide.
There was only one person who could make her feel better. Her left arm curled around Nathan’s waist, while the fingers of her right hand ran through his hair. Drawing him forward, she kissed him softly on the lips.
Nathan reciprocated, his face clouded in confusion as they parted. ‘What happened?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want to talk about it, I just want to stay here with you. Please. Sleep with me tonight.’
His eyes reflected the depth of his love, and it was just what Ruby needed to exorcise the horrors of the day. He understood because he had lost people close to him too. Ruby had taken the pain away, now it was his turn to reciprocate. Her senses tingled as his mouth found hers, his tongue carrying the delicate lacing of coffee. Stripping away their layers of clothes, Nathan pressed her against the wall, familiarising himself with her body once more. As she wrapped her legs around him, he effortlessly carried her to the bed, his body pressed firmly against hers. The recriminations that had plagued her all evaporated into thin air.
Chapter Fifty-Four
The light that filtered in through the bedroom windows seemed softer today. Everything about her tower block flat seemed harsh in comparison. Ruby rest
ed her head on Nathan’s chest, closing her eyes as she savoured the warmth of his naked body. He stirred beneath her, his muscular form wrapping itself around her in a bear hug that made all the pain ebb away.
‘I don’t want to get up,’ she said, her voice muffled as she spoke into the curve of his chest. ‘Not yet.’
‘You don’t have to, babe. Stay in bed. I’ll look after you.’
It was a tempting offer. How she had gone back to work after Ash’s murder was beyond her. She could not remember DI Downes bringing her back to the station, let alone typing up her statement of what had taken place. It was only when she had broken down in his office that she had agreed to his offer of a cab to bring her home. In her distress, she had found herself reciting the address of the flat Nathan had bought her just months before. Pride had stopped her moving in, but with the stain of Ash’s blood still visible under her fingernails, she was in desperate need of solace; somewhere that spoke of home. Finding Nathan here had been more therapeutic than any counselling session, and their night together had been the release she needed.
‘I could do with some more sleep,’ she smiled.
Here in bed, with their limbs intertwined, there were no barriers to set them apart. Nathan shifted beneath the down-filled duvet, planting tender kisses on the curve of her neck. He nuzzled her skin, murmuring softly to her to stay.
Her skin pink from the warmth of the shower, she walked across the deep pile carpet, which felt like velvet beneath her toes. She tied the belt of the soft white towelling gown. For the third time that morning she checked her nails, satisfied that all traces of blood had been scrubbed away. But it was still there, lingering in her thoughts. She fought hard to quell the flashbacks scraping her brain, focusing her attention on the breakfast that Nathan had prepared.
Sleep Tight Page 21