by M A Comley
“Of course, he’s expecting you. Oh, congratulations, by the way. Double the trouble, eh?”
Hero’s eyes rolled up to the ceiling, and he grinned. “Yeah, thanks, Sandra. We’ll soon see just how much trouble when they’re all settled at home.”
“You’ll be fine. At least your wife will be.”
Hero knocked on the door before he pushed it open. Superintendent Cranwell was on the phone, so Hero hesitated until Cranwell motioned for Hero to join him.
Finishing his call, the super reached across the table to shake Hero’s hand. The gesture was unusual in itself; usually, he greeted Hero with a brief nod before getting down to business. “Congratulations, son. How are they all?”
“Thanks, sir. Well, I guess the answer should be they’re all fit and well, except they’re not.”
The super leaned back in his chair and intertwined his fingers across his slim stomach. A concerned frown replaced the smile on his face. “Meaning?”
“One of the twins has to have an emergency op today. She has a hernia. I’ve been assured that she will be all right, but it won’t stop me from worrying about her.”
“Oh, dear, that’s a shame. Right, I suppose you’re wondering why I called you in to see me?” the super asked, swiftly changing the subject.
“Yes, sir. Nothing wrong, is there?”
“Nothing at all, which is remarkable as far as you’re concerned, given your errant past.” He laughed as Hero’s face dropped. “I jest, of course. Anyway, I wanted to know what your plans are?”
“Plans? In respect to what, sir?”
“Your paternity leave. You’re entitled to it, you know?”
“I am? I’ve never even thought about it, what with being new to this fatherhood lark.”
“Well, I suggest you do think about it. What cases are you working at the moment? There’s never a good time to take time off. On the other hand, if your schedule isn’t too chocker right now, it might be something for you to consider.”
Hero thought over the case he’d just taken on and had barely had the time to sink his teeth into. “Maybe I could take a week off after I’ve wrapped up the case I’m overseeing. What with the operation…”
The super sprang forward and placed his hands flat on the desk. “Operation?”
Hero tried hard not to shake his head in disbelief. He was used to his superior always thinking ahead to his next sentence and disregarding a person’s response. He obviously hadn’t heard Hero mention the operation the first time. “Yes, one of the girls has a hernia. She’s booked in for an emergency op today, sir.”
“Goodness, man, what the heck are you doing at work?”
Hero smiled briefly. “It’s fine, sir. I’d rather be at work than pacing up and down a hospital corridor for hours. Fay insisted I concentrate on the job, too. She’s worrying enough for both of us.” He chuckled, trying to end his sentence on a light-hearted note.
“Do I have to order you to take time off, Nelson?”
“Sir, honestly, I’d rather just get on with my job. How about if I say once this case is finished, I’ll definitely take time off? Will that make you happy?”
“Very well. In the meantime, if the little ones need you, then don’t hesitate to take the time off, all right? We’re not all callous bastards in the Met. I’m a father, too, and I know when my kids are ill, it tugs at my heartstrings.” He looked down at the portrait of his family and smiled. “It gets tougher as they get older, you know?”
“Yes, sir, so I’ve been led to believe. Was there anything else? I don’t want to appear rude, but I’d like to chase up a few enquiries to the case, if that’s all right?”
“Of course, don’t let me hold you up. What’s your gut feeling about the case?”
“My gut is screaming out the wife is involved. However, her alibi is making me doubt my instincts. We’ve got some valuable CCTV footage we’re investigating, which leads us to believe that two people were at the scene. Involved or otherwise, that’s what we’re trying to figure out. The pathologist says everything indicates to the victim knowing his attacker. It’s just putting all the pieces together that’s going to be the hard part.”
“I have confidence in you and your team to pull it off. Hey, what’s the frown for? Have you got a problem with a team member?”
“Not really a problem per se, but Julie Shaw’s mum has terminal cancer. I’m not saying it’s affecting her work. Nevertheless, I do think she’ll be needing time off soon as her mum has now been admitted to hospice.”
“Right, I’m sorry to hear that. Keep an eye on the situation, and if you need to replace her for any length of time, let me know.”
“Yes, sir.” Hero rose from his seat and left the office.
Back in the incident room, he did the rounds with the team, asking if they had any new leads since the previous night. He started with Lance. “How did it go last night at the pub?”
“Not so good, sir. I managed to locate and chat with the two men. But they were lukewarm, not exactly brimming with pleasure to be seen with me. And yes, I did ask them discreetly, as you instructed.”
“All right. What did you pick up from them in that case? You know, any gut reaction to either man? Do you think they knew more about the incident than they were letting on?”
“Nothing, sir. Like I said, it was akin to getting blood out of a stone. A few grunts and nods to any questions I asked. If I had to place a bet if either man was involved in the attack, I’d say Stan Foster was a likely candidate.”
“Okay, let’s get a thorough check going on him.” Hero patted Lance on the shoulder. “Good work.”
He moved on to sit on the edge of Foxy’s desk. “Anything else turn up in the footage, Foxy?”
“I’ll get back on to it today, sir. I’m taking my time, searching frame by frame to see what I can find. That’s going to hamper things a little. Sorry.”
“Nope, that’s exactly what I’d expect of you, Foxy. Carry on. Let me know what you find out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Julie had her head buried in paperwork when Hero approached. “Everything all right, Julie?”
When she glanced up, Hero could tell, by the redness of her eyes, that she’d been crying. “Yes, sir.”
Hero knew the opposite was true. “Okay, my door is open if you need a chat.”
Julie nodded and looked down at the paperwork again as if to dismiss him.
“Can you do me a favour, Julie?”
“Okay, what do you need?”
“I was going to ask Foxy. The thing is, I’d rather she concentrated all of her efforts on the CCTV at the moment. Can you dig really deep into Cathy Daws’s past for me? Lance is doing the same with Stan Foster. Let’s see what we can find out about those two, yes?”
“You think they’re in cahoots?”
“We’ve got nothing else to go on. They both had a connection with the victim. Let’s see where it leads.”
“Okay, I’ll get back to you within the hour,” Julie told him.
“Thanks. I’ll be in my office, dealing with the usual mundane paperwork.”
On his way to his office, he changed direction and headed for the whiteboard. He shook his head, frustrated that he couldn’t add anything else to the nearly blank board. His gaze hooked onto Cathy Daws’s name. He heard a phone ring in the incident room, and Julie answered it.
“Sir?”
He spun around to face her. She held the phone out for him to take the call.
“DI Nelson. How can I help?”
“Get off my back. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“Who is this?” Hero could tell that the male caller was covering the phone with something in the hope of disguising his voice, which was ridiculous. The caller’s identity was obvious, since the team had spoken only to a few possible suspects so far.
The caller continued with his nonsensical call. “It doesn’t matter who it is. This is your one and only warning. You hear me?”
“Hang on a minute. You’re telling me to back off, but you won’t tell me who you are. Plus, it sounds like you’re issuing me with a threat, am I right?”
The man groaned on the end of the phone.
Hero held back a chuckle then picked a name to try. “Mr. Foster? I’m right, aren’t I?”
The line went dead. Hero clicked his fingers and pointed at Jason. “Jase, you and Lance get over to Foster’s flat and pick him up. Lance, have you managed to find out the man’s address yet?”
“Not yet, sir. I’ll get on it right away.”
“Hurry up, man. I want him pulled in for questioning. No bugger threatens me and gets away with it.”
Julie cleared her throat with a dainty cough. “Are you sure it was him, sir?”
“I’m sure, Julie. Are you doubting my instincts?”
“No, sir.”
Hero stormed over to Lance’s desk and fiddled with his computer mouse. “Here, that’s what you need. Now get over there. I want you back with him within the next thirty minutes.”
Lance shifted his heavy frame out of the chair and followed Jason out of the incident room. Hero shook his head. Sometimes, just sometimes, I think that man is on a different planet from the rest of us.
He finally made it into his office but found it difficult to concentrate. Maybe I should have picked the bugger up myself!
Half an hour later, Jason knocked on Hero’s door and poked his head around the doorframe. “Sorry, gov. He wasn’t there.”
“What?” Hero threw his pen, and it skidded across the desk. “Damn. Did you knock on the neighbour’s door to see if he’d been around?”
“Yes, boss. They haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
“Very well. There’s nothing we can do. Wait—yes there is! Get on to the control room and ask them to keep an eye out for either Foster or his car. He does have a vehicle, doesn’t he? My betting is that it’s the same vehicle we spotted on the CCTV camera, despite what he said about me barking up the wrong tree during the phone call. Once a criminal, always a criminal, in my book.”
“I’ll get on to it now, sir.”
A brainwave struck Hero, he reached for the phone and dialled his journalist friend. “Dave? Yeah, it’s Hero. Have you got time for a quick chat?”
“Hi, sure. I’ve always got time for a mate. Is it about a case?”
“It is. Fancy meeting me at the pub at lunchtime?”
“Name the pub, and I’ll be there.”
“Dog and Duck. Do you know it?”
“Yep, what time?” Dave asked.
“About one?”
“Yep. See you then.”
Hero met his good friend in the car park, and together, they entered the dingy public house. Cathy Daws’s face dropped when Hero walked in and headed her way.
“What are you having, Dave?”
“Pint of bitter, mate. What’s all this about?”
Hero winked at him and turned his attention to Cathy Daws. “Pint of bitter and a glass of Coke, the full-fat variety, please?” Then he turned to Dave. “I wanted to discuss a case I’m working on.” He looked over his shoulder to see if Cathy was listening to their conversation. She obviously was, so he added, “Let’s talk about it more when we get a table, eh, mate?”
“Okay. How’s the family? Are they still in hospital?” Dave asked innocently enough.
Hero cringed. He really didn’t want to discuss his personal life in front of someone he suspected of being involved in a violent crime. “Yeah, not bad. How’s work? Still struggling to meet the daily deadline target?”
Cathy Daws banged down two glasses on the bar, making Hero jump. “That’ll be four pounds fifty.”
Hero paid the woman, picked up the glasses, and chose a table far enough away from the bar to ensure that Daws wouldn’t overhear their conversation.
“Why all the secrecy?” Dave asked, leaning across the table.
“We’re investigating the death of that woman’s husband,” Hero whispered back.
Dave glanced at the woman. “You’re kidding me?”
“Don’t bloody look at her, you idiot.”
Dave turned back to face him. “So, when did her husband die?”
“A few days ago. Looks upset, don’t she?” Hero’s question was laced with sarcasm.
“Hmm… not really. How did he die?”
Hero twisted in his seat, just in case Daws turned out to be a lip-reader. “Murdered. Someone garrotted him in an alley.”
“Not your run-of-the-mill mugging then?”
“Nope. I wanted to meet up because this guy is a petty criminal. At least he has been in the past. And yes, before you say it, it grieves me to waste so much time on such a dipshit, but a murder is a murder, right? Anyway, I wondered if any of your snouts could shed some light on the victim?”
“I can ask. God, you get all the sweet jobs, don’t you?”
Hero tutted and took a sip of his ice-cold Coke. “The thing is, I’m sure the wife is involved in this somehow, despite her giving us a decent alibi.”
“Alibi?”
“Yeah, she was working here at the time he was killed. Pretty tight, that one.”
“All right, it doesn’t mean that she hasn’t paid anyone to bump him off, though.”
Hero shook his head. “Paid with what? I’ve seen her gaff, mate. Believe me when I say she’s as broke as they come. She did let it slip that her husband had stolen the housekeeping money on the day of his death. He was intoxicated when he was murdered, so we can safely assume that he got rat-arsed with her money. I’d hardly think that was a motive for his murder.”
Dave sniggered. “Okay, I shouldn’t laugh. It’s very odd that she’s at work, though, so soon after his death.”
“That’s what I thought, too. Anyway, we’re obviously running the usual background checks on both the husband and the wife, but if you can ask around for me, that’d be great?”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He took out his reporter’s notebook and jotted down the names.
“Add this one to your list. Stan Foster, friend of the deceased. Apparently, he was drinking with him a few hours before Daws died. I received a threatening call, I suspect from Foster, telling me to back off. I sent two officers around to pick him up and bring him in for questioning, but he’d gone AWOL.”
“Same kind of thing, petty criminal, yes?”
“Yep. There’s one other thing to consider when you’re questioning the snouts. A drug element. Daws had cannabis in him. We’re thinking that possibly a gang dealing in drugs might have killed him. Pure conjecture, of course, but if you’re asking the questions anyway, you might as well put that one around, too.”
“Right. I’ll get on to this when I return to the office. Ring me if you think of anything else, okay?”
“Things are a little thin on the ground at present, mate. The term ‘clutching at straws’ comes to mind, until something else crops up. As quick as you can with the info. I’d appreciate it.”
Both men finished their drinks and left the pub. As he shut the door, Hero looked behind him, and sure enough, Cathy Daws was glaring at him through narrowed eyes. Feeling devilish, he wiggled his fingers and smiled broadly at her, much to her annoyance.
Chapter 5
The incident room was busy with chatter when Hero returned to the station. “What’s going on?” he demanded with a frown.
“A body has been found under a railway bridge, sir,” Jason told him.
“On our patch?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Right, get me the details. Julie, are you ready to go?” His partner glanced up at him, and he saw immediately that she’d been crying again. “Would you rather I took someone else with me?” he asked as he walked over to her desk.
She nodded and swallowed hard. “If you don’t mind, sir.”
“Go home, eh?”
“I couldn’t do that. Foxy can go with you. I can take over her job with the CCTV discs.”
“Did you manage to find out anything about Cathy Daws while I was out?” She lifted her notebook and handed it to him. The answer stared back at him from the two lines she’d written: nothing much. “Great, well, there’s little we can do about that, is there? Okay, if you’re sure you want to sit this one out and stick around here, I’ll take Foxy with me.”
“It’s about time she started using her talents more out in the field.”
“If everything gets on top of you, you have my permission to go home, all right?”
“Yes, sir, thank you.”
Hero nodded then marched across the room to Foxy. “Grab your jacket. You’re coming with me, Foxy lady.” He stopped dead and turned to give her an embarrassed smile. “Er… that kind of came out the wrong way.”
As though the comment had passed her by, Foxy rose from the chair with a look of confusion covering her face. “I am? What about this lot?” She swept her hand over the discs scattered across her desk.
“It’s all in hand. Julie’s going to take care of that while we’re out.”
Foxy looked over at Julie, who nodded her acceptance of the situation. “I’m good to go then, sir.”
“Right. Let’s get out of here.” Hero strode past Jason, grabbed the piece of paper the young detective was holding out to him, and left the incident room with Foxy trotting behind him.
Once in the car, Hero programed the location into his sat nav and headed off. Foxy struck up a conversation, and Hero could hear in her voice how nervous she was.
“Hey, you’ll be fine. Stop fretting. How’s that hubby of yours doing in Vice? Is promotion on the cards for him yet?” Hero knew how much Sally loved talking about her husband and how proud Frank was of his work with the unit. As far as Hero was concerned, Frank was welcome to it, Hero had never considered joining Vice in the past, and he couldn’t envision joining in the foreseeable future, either. He couldn’t imagine dealing with the dregs and scum of Manchester every day. His last case had put him in direct contact with some treacherous people, and he’d found himself slap-bang in the middle of a gang war that had forced him to investigate several crimes in a notorious police no-go area. His nerves had jangled constantly during that case. He definitely couldn’t live with shredded nerves on a daily basis the way Frank had to.