I breathed a sigh of relief, before wondering how I was going to get home. My car was still parked a few streets away, but I didn’t have any keys, having left mine with Singh so he could lock it after they’d taken fingerprints. I needed my car, so I was going to have to swallow my pride.
Hi, where can I pick up my keys?
I sent the message quickly before I could overthink what to say and change my mind. I was worried he’d be too annoyed with me to answer, but I got a quick response.
Are you still in the hospital?
Yes.
Stay there.
I sat on my bed and waited. A nurse had come to tell me it could be a couple of hours before I was officially discharged, so I had nothing else to do until then.
About half an hour later I heard a conversation outside my room, recognising one of the voices as Singh’s. I felt a flutter of nerves – how was he going to be with me after everything that happened yesterday? Maybe he was just dropping my keys off with a nurse so he didn’t have to see me. I bit my lip and waited.
There was a knock on the door and I opened it to see Singh looking a bit rumpled.
‘They really don’t like anyone coming onto the ward outside of visiting hours, do they? I had to point out that I’m a detective and you were the victim of a mugging before they’d even consider letting me in.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I blurted out, stepping back to let him into the room.
‘It’s not your fault – they’re just strict about visiting times,’ he replied with a smile.
I blinked, then realised he was trying to make a joke and had known exactly what I was talking about. Relieved that he was the one to break the tension between us, I returned his smile. Moving past me, he reached into his pocket and handed me my keys.
‘Have you been discharged?’
‘Not yet, but it shouldn’t be long,’ I said, gesturing at the door to indicate that I was waiting for someone to tell me I could go.
‘How are you getting home?’
I looked down at the keys in my hand, then back up at him, and he rolled his eyes.
‘Paige, you can’t drive yourself home less than twenty-four hours after being hospitalised with a head injury.’ He sat down on the edge of the bed and ran a hand through his hair. ‘I meant it when I said you were your own worst enemy.’
‘Well, Anna and Gem are both at work, and I’m not calling Max to give me a lift home, seeing as I broke his heart a few days ago,’ I said, my words coming out a bit sharper than I’d intended. ‘I don’t have any money on me to pay for a taxi or a bus. So what do you suggest?’
He mimed looking over his shoulder, then checking under the bed, then sat back. ‘No, you’re right. There’s absolutely nobody else who could give you a lift home.’
I folded my arms, feeling my face redden. ‘I think I took up too much of your time yesterday to impose on you again.’ I had decided when he walked in that I wasn’t going to mention the kiss unless he did.
‘Well, I can be the judge of that.’ He looked at me seriously. ‘I’m sorry I left it the way I did last night. I was frustrated that you keep putting yourself in dangerous situations. It’s not nice for the people who care about you to see you get hurt.’
I felt a little flush of pleasure that he was obviously including himself in that group of people, and moved to sit next to him on the bed.
‘You’re right that I don’t always think before I do something. But I was being careful yesterday, I promise.’ He raised his eyebrows, but I continued. ‘I know you think I’m reckless, but I don’t deliberately set out to get myself into these situations.’ I’d had plenty of time to think overnight, and it was true that I had just wanted to help Sasha, to begin with. I’d only found myself getting carried away when I became sure that there was something else going on.
He rubbed his chin. ‘Maybe you need to leave these things to us,’ he replied. ‘Sometimes when you try and help someone, they’re not telling you the full story.’
I frowned. Was he talking about Sasha?
‘What do you know that I don’t?’ I asked him.
He grimaced. ‘You know I’m not meant to talk to you about these things. It’s an ongoing investigation.’
‘Oh for God’s sake, Rav. You can’t just make these cryptic comments then suddenly decide you’re not going to say anything else. It’s not fair.’
He still looked torn, so I put my hand on his arm.
‘Please, Rav. Tell me what’s going on.’
‘Okay, you make a good point,’ he agreed. ‘Let’s just say, we’ve had access to Lukas Nowak’s phone for the purposes of the investigation, and there’s one number that appears far more than any other.’
‘Whose?’
‘Sasha Thomas’s.’
‘She’s his social worker, of course he called her,’ I replied, brushing it off. ‘Surely that’s nothing particularly interesting?’
‘We have the texts between them, Paige. They’re not exactly professional.’
I paused, taking in what he was saying. ‘They were having an affair?’ I asked, incredulous.
He raised his eyebrows again. I knew he wasn’t going to say anything else, but he’d said enough. I felt like someone had smacked me in the face. How could that have been going on right under my nose? After everything I’d believed about Lukas being completely devoted to Nadia, I felt like a complete idiot.
‘How long for?’ I asked, my voice sounding hollow.
‘A few months.’
‘No wonder she was so desperate for my help to get him out of jail,’ I said. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t work it out. I’ve been so bloody stupid!’
Singh shook his head. ‘Don’t blame yourself. People who are having affairs are good at hiding it.’
‘But she pushed me so much to help her prove he was innocent, then as soon as he was released she didn’t seem to be that bothered about the evidence or anything else I had found out. This is obviously why, because her main concern was to have him back with her.’ I smacked my hand down on the bed next to me. ‘I should have seen it.’ I thought back to the way Caroline had looked at Sasha when she was telling us how Lukas couldn’t resist flirting with other women. Had she known?
‘Hey, you trusted her – there’s nothing wrong with that,’ he said.
‘I’m gullible,’ I muttered.
He laughed and shook his head.
‘Wait, text messages,’ I said, and he raised an eyebrow. ‘You must have seen the text that Lukas got, on the night of the fire. The one threatening him, saying that was his only warning.’
Singh nodded. ‘We did. Why?’
‘Sasha insisted it proved Lukas’s innocence. He could hardly have sent it to himself.’
‘No, but he could have asked someone else to send it, in order to give him an alibi.’ Singh shook his head. ‘We couldn’t trace it. It was an unregistered pay-as-you-go SIM, bought with cash. If we find the phone on a suspect, then maybe the text can be used as evidence, but as it is there’s no way of knowing if it’s genuine or not.’
At that moment, a nurse walked in with my discharge letter. Once all the paperwork was handed over, I gathered my things in the bag Anna had brought that morning and followed Singh to his car. I had planned to drive myself home, but I was so tired I was glad I didn’t have to navigate the busy roads and could just leave it to him.
When we got to my flat I invited him in, expecting him to refuse, but he didn’t. He could see how tired I was, so in the end he made us both a cup of tea while I curled up on the sofa. I was glad Anna had brought me a change of clothes and that I’d been able to have a shower that morning, so I didn’t feel too unattractive in front of him.
‘I’ve been thinking about something,’ I told him, and I could see him take a deep breath in anticipation of what I was going to say. ‘Hear me out for a minute. I have a theory.’
Singh let out the breath he’d been holding and visibly relaxed, and I realised he’d been expectin
g me to say something about the kiss.
‘Okay, I’ll humour you, as you’ve had a bang on the head,’ he said, with a wry smile.
‘I’m serious. What if whoever murdered Nadia didn’t set fire to the house?’
I was expecting Singh to roll his eyes and tell me I was being ridiculous, but he nodded.
‘That’s certainly something we’ve been considering.’
‘Really?’ I couldn’t conceal my surprise. ‘So you think I’m right?’
‘I don’t know if you’re right, because we haven’t got all the details clear just yet, but the evidence is pointing in that direction.’
I sat back and thought for a moment. I had been expecting to have to work to convince Singh of my theory, but it turned out that the police were thinking the same thing as me. I knew I should trust him to do his job, and I did, but I also wanted to know what they were investigating.
‘Is that all?’ he asked, leaning forward, his hands clasped round his cup of tea.
‘Well, no. I wondered if Mariusz might have set the fire.’
‘Why would he have done that?’ Singh’s expression was unreadable, and I wondered if he’d been practising his poker face.
‘Okay, what if Caroline killed Nadia?’ I said. ‘She obviously held a grudge against her, and her attempts to get Nadia sacked had failed, so what if she took things too far? If Mariusz knew about it, he might have set fire to the house in order to cover up any evidence against his mother.’
Singh smiled. ‘I’ll give you something, you’ve certainly thought it through.’
I waited for him to continue, but he just looked at me.
‘What?’
‘What about the other fires?’ he asked. ‘You’ve connected them, same as we have. How do they fit into your theory?’
I could tell he was just teasing me now, but I’d considered that. ‘Have you ever read The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie? The killer hides the one murder they really want to commit in a string of murders connected by letters of the alphabet.’
Singh frowned as he tried to unravel my comparison. ‘So you think Mariusz set fire to other houses to make it look like they were connected, so we were less focused on the fire at Lukas’s house?’
‘Exactly! So if you thought it was just a spate of arson attacks, you wouldn’t consider it might be someone wanting to conceal evidence about Nadia’s murder.’
He gave me an appreciative nod. ‘I like that idea, I do. But we think the fires are linked to something else.’
‘What?’ I sat forward, eager to learn more. ‘Is this the connected case you told me about the other day?’
‘Paige,’ he said, in an exasperated tone. ‘You know I can’t talk to you about things like that.’
‘Oh, come on, Rav.’ I was annoyed that he kept dropping hints without actually confirming anything. ‘Who exactly am I going to tell?’
‘Sasha,’ he answered immediately. ‘Anna. I don’t know.’
‘I’m certainly not giving Sasha any information about this,’ I replied bitterly. ‘Not after she’s lied to me.’
Singh looked like he was hesitating, and I put a hand on top of his, feeling the warmth of his mug through his fingers. ‘Please, just tell me the basics.’
‘Fine,’ he said, giving me a look that was half amused, half annoyed. ‘It’ll all be made public in the next day or so anyway. Arrests are imminent.’ He sat back in his chair. ‘The group of young men who have been seen hanging around outside a few houses are working for a drug dealer who has been trying to mark his territory quite clearly. He’s cuckooing.’
I frowned at him. It wasn’t a term I was familiar with. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s when a criminal, usually a drug dealer, uses the home of a vulnerable person as their temporary base of operations. They find someone who’s an addict, or someone who’s socially isolated, and either they force their way in or they befriend them, get invited into their home. Once they’ve got access, they come and go as they please for a short time, using the house to store and deal drugs. They move around regularly, finding new victims to prey on, and they’ve often got a couple of houses on the go at once. Do you know what county lines is?’
I shook my head, so he continued. ‘It’s when drug dealers from cities branch out into smaller towns, like Scunthorpe. Cuckooing means they can keep moving around and they’re less likely to get caught. And they often use teenagers, hooking them in with gifts of designer trainers and new bikes, then asking them to deliver packages, and eventually sell drugs. It’s becoming a big problem across Lincolnshire. As I say, it’s usually drugs, but we’ve had some cases of sex traffickers operating in this way too.’
I was horrified at the idea. I thought I knew a lot about the world, but occasionally I learnt about something that made me realise my upbringing had been quite sheltered. ‘So all of these houses that have been set on fire have been used for this cuckooing?’
‘We believe so. Some of the victims refuse to give us statements, because they’ve been threatened or coerced into allowing these people into their house and they’re afraid of the repercussions, either legally or from the criminals. Others don’t even know if it happened – these are usually elderly people with some level of dementia, who probably shouldn’t still be living alone but are just coping well enough to prevent their relatives moving them into a home.’
I was quiet for a couple of minutes, trying to process all of this and thinking about Bill, the elderly man who I’d been told lived in the house I’d seen Mariusz and the gang outside.
‘Hang on, does this mean Lukas and Nadia had it happen to them, too? The neighbours, Jill Adams and Eric, both said there’d been people going in and out of the house, as well as kids on bikes hanging round outside, a day or two before Nadia died.’
Singh nodded. ‘We think so, but Lukas wouldn’t speak to us. If we can get him to testify to what happened, perhaps that will go well for him if any other charges are brought.’
I took the hint. ‘I’ll get Sasha to speak to him about it, see if she can get him to open up. Even if she’s been behaving unprofessionally, I still think she has his best interests at heart.’
‘You can tell her that he needs to cooperate with us, but don’t give her any details,’ Singh warned me. ‘As I say, we’re hoping to make arrests very soon. We’ve been working with the council on this, they’ve got someone specifically working on this sort of manipulation of council tenants, and nearly every one of the victims we’ve got on our list is living in a council property.’
A thought popped into my head. ‘But why are they setting fire to the properties after they’ve used them?’ I asked. ‘That doesn’t make sense. Surely that would just draw attention to them?’
‘We haven’t figured that part out yet. It could be a territory thing, if there are two rival gangs operating in the same area.’
‘And how is Nadia’s murder connected?’
Singh grimaced and shook his head. ‘We don’t know that, either. It might not be connected at all. Lukas is still our main suspect,’ he said, giving me a look that told me I shouldn’t get involved.
I was about to ask another question when he looked at his watch. ‘Give me your car keys, and I’ll get your car back to you in the next few hours,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you trying to drive for a couple of days, though.’
I rolled my eyes, but handed my keys over anyway. He said his goodbyes and walked to the door, then turned and took one of my hands.
‘Paige, you know, yesterday …’ His voice tailed off and I knew straight away he was referring to when I kissed him. ‘I hope I didn’t offend you. It wasn’t the right time or place, that’s all.’
Swallowing hard, I suddenly found I’d lost my voice. It all seemed obvious now: I knew that I wanted it to happen again, and I wanted to be with Singh. Did this mean he felt the same? Before I found the right words, he gave me a soft kiss on the cheek and left. I closed the door behind him, then leant on it for a mom
ent, taking a deep breath to try and slow my hammering heart.
Much as I wanted to lose myself in a daydream about going on a date with Singh and kissing him again, my mind kept coming back to what he’d told me about the other investigation. How had Mariusz got himself involved with a drug dealer who was cuckooing? Did Lukas know about it? There were so many unanswered questions.
A wave of tiredness washed over me as I went back into the living room and curled up on the sofa. I tried to keep my eyes open, to try and make some connections and work out what we were all missing, but before I knew it I was asleep, my cheek still tingling from Singh’s kiss.
Chapter 33
A loud noise penetrated my consciousness and I sat up, bleary-eyed and confused. I rubbed my face, and as the sound came again I realised it was my door buzzer. How long had I been asleep? It was still light outside, and Anna must not be home from work yet. Perhaps it was Singh, leaving my car keys?
‘Hello?’ I said into the intercom. The only thing I heard in return was static. Fear started to bubble, and I said, ‘Hello?’ again. Still no response.
After checking the door was locked I backed away slowly, then went into the living room. I peered out of the window, down to the front door of the building, but my view was obscured by the roof of the small porch. Whoever was pressing my buzzer would be underneath it.
I had just made my mind up not to answer the door, when someone stepped back and looked up at me. It was Max.
A wave of relief flooded through me, shortly followed by another twinge of anxiety. What was he doing here? He smiled and waved, so I couldn’t leave him on the doorstep; he knew I was in, and he knew I’d seen him.
Reluctantly, I pressed the button that would unlock the exterior door, and waited for him to climb the stairs. I hadn’t checked my phone since Singh had brought me home from the hospital, so maybe Max had tried texting or calling before he came round. If he wanted to have a go at me for the way I’d ended things I didn’t think I could cope.
Hi, he signed, hovering outside the door, obviously waiting for me to invite him in. I stood back and held the door open, so he stepped inside awkwardly. Without responding, I went back into the living room and sat down rigidly on the sofa again, so he followed me and sat on the chair opposite. I could tell that he wanted to come and sit next to me on the sofa, but I lifted my legs up and stretched them out, making it clear that he should stay where he was.
The Silent Suspect Page 24