Time To Go

by Time To Go (epub)

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said as he reached her.

  ‘For what?’

  ‘Behaving like a twat.’

  She smiled. ‘Was it real, or were you pretending? Because if you were acting, it was bloody convincing.’

  Ewan blew out his cheeks. ‘Both, I suppose. It’s just, you’re—’

  ‘Doing my job?’

  ‘Getting more and more involved with these people. Jolene, she was stringing you along in there. She’s using you.’

  Caelan stopped and stared at him. They shouldn’t be having this conversation on the street, but there was no one around, and even if anyone saw them, from a distance they would just look like a couple having a row.

  ‘Don’t you think I know that? I’m using her too,’ Caelan told him. ‘That’s how this works. We have to get closer, more involved, as you called it. It doesn’t matter if I owe Stefan Harris fifteen, twenty or five hundred grand, because I’m never going to pay him. He’s going inside and I’ll be on to the next job.’

  ‘He’ll only go inside if he’s guilty of something. So far, we’ve no proof he’s involved in anything but assaulting women.’ He lifted his hand as though he was going to lay it on Caelan’s arm, then ran it through his hair instead. His voice softened. ‘What if he doesn’t go to prison? What if he comes after you? He would, especially if he knew—’

  ‘We can’t think like that. Not on this operation, not ever. If we did, we couldn’t do the job. When you were in the army, in Afghanistan, did you worry you were going to be killed every second of the day?’

  Now he smiled. ‘Honestly? Yeah, pretty much.’

  She didn’t smile back. ‘Well I can’t. Harris strikes me as a coward. He’s loud, arrogant. He likes to make threats but he has other people to do the dirty work.’

  ‘Meaning he wouldn’t kill you himself, he’d get someone else to do it. It’s hardly a comfort.’

  Caelan started walking again. ‘You know, he’s like Mulligan. They both need to have people around them doing their bidding to make them feel safe, powerful. Whereas Reuben Nash seems to work alone.’

  ‘He had his brother,’ Ewan pointed out.

  ‘But did he? From what I saw, he treated Nathan like a child. He told me he allowed Nathan to invest in his business as a way to keep him busy, not because he wanted him as a partner.’

  ‘Who else, then?’

  ‘Jolene said Reuben had bouncers who would kick the shit out of you. We saw them dealing with Harris without any problems. It’s possible they do more than just provide Reuben with security at the club. Maybe we need to have another look at them.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘You know what I mean.’ Caelan took out her phone to check the time. ‘Too early to go to Reuben’s.’ She told Ewan what Jolene had revealed about Tom Haslam. ‘Whether she’s telling the truth or not, I think we should pay him another visit.’

  ‘You think Haslam hurt Lucy?’

  ‘I think we need to consider it. Like I said, let’s go and talk to him.’

  ‘What about the boss?’

  ‘Penrith?’ Caelan pulled a face. Ewan was right – they should report back first, but she was tired of having to cross London every time they had a new piece of information. ‘I think he should come to us for a change.’ She took out her phone. When Penrith answered, she didn’t give him a chance to speak. He wouldn’t be happy about having to leave his lair again, but Caelan knew that if she told him they had a new lead, he would do so.

  ‘We need to talk to you,’ she said. ‘Where can you meet us?’

  * * *

  ‘How do you want to play this?’ Ewan said as they sat in another Underground carriage, this one almost empty. ‘Haslam’s got to be a person of interest now in Lucy’s disappearance, hasn’t he?’

  ‘Ideally, we’d send forensics in. As it is, if Ian agrees, we’ll be on our own. I think we have to be clever. We want Haslam to know we suspect he’s hiding something, but at the same time we don’t want to spook him.’

  ‘Maybe we should suggest following him,’ Ewan said. ‘What if Lucy’s alive but he’s stashed her somewhere? Maybe that’s why he moved the camera, so he could keep an eye on her wherever he’s holding her.’

  Caelan looked at him. ‘There’s a horrible thought.’

  ‘Wouldn’t be the first, though, would he?’

  ‘Or the last.’ Caelan clicked her tongue a few times, thinking about it. ‘Could he have abducted Lucy, alone, from a house they shared with several other people, though? From the photograph I’ve seen of Lucy, she’s slim, and if she’s anything like her brother she’ll be fairly short, but then Haslam’s not exactly Mr Muscle. I don’t know.’

  Ewan lifted his shoulders. ‘He might have drugged and restrained her during the day when the house was empty, hidden her in his room, then taken her elsewhere during the night.’

  Caelan didn’t like the idea but she had to admit it was possible. ‘But if she was drugged, she’d have been a dead weight. I don’t see Haslam being able to move her on his own.’

  Ewan blinked, and Caelan wondered if he was remembering his time in Afghanistan. He and another soldier had been hiding out, surrounded by Taliban fighters, the dead bodies of four men in the building with them rapidly beginning to decompose in the heat. Had he and his colleague been forced to move the bodies as far as possible from the room they were hiding in? She didn’t know, and she wasn’t going to ask. She waited, knowing he would come back to her. Another blink, and he said, ‘He could have had a helper.’

  Caelan’s stomach lurched. ‘Or he was the helper.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘We’ve been told Tom Haslam was obsessed with Lucy. We also know someone threatened her as a way of forcing Mulligan to keep his mouth shut. If this person approached Haslam, told him some bullshit story about wanting to take Lucy away to protect her but she wouldn’t play ball, they might have got him to help them.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ewan said. ‘Would you do that to someone you cared about, even if you thought you were protecting them?’

  ‘Haslam hates James Mulligan,’ Caelan said. ‘Remember his tone when he talked about him? He said it was too late for Mulligan to start worrying about Lucy now, something like that. If he told the person who wanted Lucy the same thing, they could have used it to manipulate him.’

  Ewan looked doubtful. ‘It’s a lot of ifs and buts,’ he said.

  Caelan sat back with a sigh. ‘I know. All we have is ideas.’

  As the train drew to a halt, they got to their feet.

  Outside, drizzle was falling. Caelan scowled up at the sky. ‘Where the hell is he?’

  As she spoke, a black cab drew up at the kerb. She waited to see if anyone got out; when they didn’t, she took out her phone. As expected, it rang immediately.

  ‘Ready to go to the ball, Cinderella?’

  She didn’t reply, ended the call. ‘That’s him,’ she told Ewan.

  There were five seats in the back of the cab, three across the rear window and two opposite, with their backs to the driver. Penrith sat in the middle of the three, his arms folded. He nodded at the two seats opposite as Caelan climbed inside.

  ‘Could you sit over there? Travelling backwards makes me feel sick.’

  ‘You sure that’s not all the coffee and pastries?’ Caelan glanced at the driver but didn’t recognise him. She knew he would be a police officer – this wasn’t an ordinary London cab but one used exclusively by the Met.

  Penrith ignored her, and when Ewan had settled next to Caelan, the driver pulled out into the traffic.

  ‘What’s so urgent?’ he demanded.

  Caelan told him about her conversation with Jolene, and the ideas she and Ewan had had about what Haslam’s involvement might mean. Unusually, Penrith listened without interrupting, only speaking when Caelan fell silent.

  ‘They didn’t find a camera in Lucy’s room,’ he said. ‘As you’ve pointed out, though, that doesn’t mean one wasn’t there
at some point.’ He rubbed his chin, tapping his foot. ‘I think we need to take a closer look at Haslam – subtly.’ He gave her a meaningful stare, which Caelan ignored.

  ‘I’m guessing nothing was found in the search of the room to suggest she’d been hurt in there?’ she said.

  ‘Don’t you think I’d have mentioned it?’

  ‘Just checking. We need to have a look at Haslam’s phone.’

  ‘Not going to happen, at least not yet. We’d never get permission.’

  ‘There are other ways…’ Caelan said, but Penrith raised a hand.

  ‘No. None of your cowboy stuff. We need to do this properly.’

  ‘Come on, Ian. You’ve said it yourself, we’ve nothing on Haslam. Jolene will never repeat what she told me today in any way we can officially use.’

  ‘We don’t know if this camera ever existed.’ Penrith sounded sceptical. ‘You’ve met Haslam. Do you think it’s likely?’

  Caelan thought about Haslam’s bitterness when she had asked him about Lucy’s boyfriend, his anger at knowing nothing about this rival.

  ‘It’s clear his interest in her is bordering on obsession – his behaviour, and what Liss Tucker, one of the other housemates, told us proves that.’

  ‘Liss Tucker also said Haslam would sometimes find out where Lucy was going to be and turn up there himself – it’s not a huge jump from that to hiding a camera in her room, is it?’ Ewan said.

  ‘Hardly a jump at all,’ Penrith agreed.

  ‘What about fingerprints?’ Caelan asked. ‘Were any of Haslam’s found in Lucy’s room?’

  ‘Some on the inside and outside of the door and on the door handle, I believe, and some on the top of the back of the chair.’

  ‘The prints on the chair – do they indicate he might have picked the chair up, or just that he leant on it?’

  Penrith frowned. ‘I’d have to check.’

  ‘And what about the top of the wardrobe, or on any shelves? Any fingerprints, or signs of dust being disturbed?’

  ‘I don’t have the entire report in my head, Caelan. You’re asking if there could be evidence of where Haslam set up a camera, if he used the chair to climb up to wherever he put it?’

  ‘Yes, exactly. I’m also wondering if he created the mess in Lucy’s room himself – trashed it, to use his own words – to disguise the fact that he’d abducted her, or at least had been in there to remove the camera.’

  ‘His prints weren’t found on any of Lucy’s belongings, as far as I recall, but he might have worn gloves. He’s a student, after all, he must have a brain in there somewhere,’ said Penrith.

  ‘He told us he didn’t know Lucy was missing until the police turned up at the door,’ said Ewan. ‘If he had been in there that day to remove the camera, it seems a huge coincidence that he did it without knowing she was missing. Looks to me like he might have already known.’

  ‘Also, he seemed familiar with Lucy’s room,’ said Caelan, ‘which makes sense now we’ve been told he was watching her – he knew which things should have been on the desk, that there were usually cushions on the bed…’

  ‘He might have been poking around in her room every time she was out for all we know,’ Penrith said.

  ‘I doubt she invited him in there,’ Caelan said. ‘Not often, at least. Liss Tucker said Lucy found Haslam creepy.’

  ‘Really? A man who kept turning up wherever she was, uninvited? I can’t think why.’

  ‘We should speak to the housemates again, see if they noticed Haslam hanging around Lucy’s room.’

  ‘And ask if they ever saw him leaving the house carrying her over his shoulder?’ Penrith said. ‘It would help to know if he has a car, because I don’t see how he could have got her out of there otherwise, especially without someone seeing him. As a student in London, though, I doubt it.’

  Caelan groaned. ‘Maybe we’re making too much of this. As you said, we’ve only Jolene’s word for it the camera ever existed, and we can’t ask anyone else without potentially jeopardising everything we’re investigating. She’s the person who links everyone – she’s friends with Mulligan, she owes Stefan Harris money, she’s in a casual relationship with Reuben Nash, and she sells drugs to a man who lives next door to Lucy Mulligan, as well as working in a shop in her street.’

  ‘She’s also a con artist,’ Penrith reminded her quietly. ‘We need to remember that when dealing with her.’

  ‘I do, though I can see she’s good at what she does.’

  ‘Maybe I should try to recruit her.’

  ‘She’d make more money ripping people off.’ Caelan smiled at Penrith. ‘Do you know if Somerville and Achebe have asked Reuben Nash yet whether he was aware of the injuries on his brother’s back?’

  ‘If they have, they haven’t updated me,’ Penrith said. He looked at Caelan, clearly expecting her to have more to say, but she remained silent. She still believed they should focus on Tom Haslam.

  Eventually Ewan cleared his throat. ‘What about Ryan Glennister?’ he said.

  Penrith and Caelan both looked at him.

  ‘Glennister? What about him?’ Penrith looked confused.

  ‘He was at Lucy’s house, wasn’t he? We’ve been considering whether Haslam had a helper, or if he was possibly helping someone else, whether accidentally or not. We know Glennister was at the house looking for Lucy, though we don’t know why.’

  Caelan frowned, thinking about it. ‘Glennister has reason to dislike Mulligan too, and we know he’s always desperate for money, especially if he’s using again. Liss Tucker said she told him Lucy wasn’t home, but what if Haslam overheard the conversation? He’d be desperate to know what Glennister wanted, what his connection was to Lucy. He wouldn’t have been able to help himself.’

  ‘Back to needing to find Glennister then,’ Penrith said. ‘He left the hospital.’

  Caelan stared at him. ‘Are you joking?’

  ‘Yes, I thought it was the perfect time to try to be funny.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us about his accident?’

  Penrith sniffed. ‘Because I knew Tim Achebe would.’

  ‘I thought Glennister was injured?’

  ‘Not enough to stop him legging it, obviously.’

  Caelan paused. This was Penrith at his most annoying, twisting and turning, skittering away from her questions.

  ‘Wasn’t anyone watching him?’

  ‘No.’ Penrith didn’t elaborate and Caelan knew there was no point asking him to.

  ‘And we’ve really no idea where he went?’ she said.

  ‘I’ve had someone on it – the same person who failed to find him before he walked in front of a vehicle.’

  ‘Let me guess. Richard Adamson.’

  Penrith leant back in his seat. ‘Well, since you and Ewan are both here and I have no one else in the team, it’s a fair assumption.’

  ‘He’s found nothing?’

  ‘There are quite a few places Glennister might be in London. You may not have noticed, but it’s a big place.’

  ‘Then we need to focus on Haslam,’ Caelan said. ‘His phone records, emails, finances. Where he’s been and who he knows.’

  Penrith regarded her steadily. ‘I’ve already said, we have no grounds for going in hard on him.’

  Caelan knew he was right. ‘Then we’ll speak to him again ourselves, say we’ve been told he was obsessed with Lucy. Without mentioning names, we could tell him she confided in a friend that she was worried she was being watched.’

  ‘No. Too obvious.’

  ‘It would give us a chance to see from his reaction whether he had a camera in there or not.’ Caelan hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. She thought it was their only option, but even she had to admit it was a long shot.

  ‘You honestly believe that if Haslam saw someone kidnapping his beloved Lucy, he’d have kept quiet about it?’ Penrith demanded.

  ‘If it meant having to reveal what he’d been up to, yes. Wouldn’t you?’

&nb
sp; ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘Then what’s your plan? What’s our next move?’

  He drummed his fingers on the table. ‘You go back to focusing on your original brief – the people trafficking and our three unidentified victims. You seem to have lost sight of that.’

  ‘No, we haven’t, but you have to admit, things have moved quickly.’

  ‘I’ll say. This morning you owed Stefan Harris fifteen thousand pounds. Now it’s twenty.’

  Caelan shrugged. ‘But we have the information about Haslam.’

  ‘Which may or not be genuine. You have to admit, if Jolene Townsend was lying, it’s an expensive mistake on your part.’

  ‘Thanks for backing me up.’ Caelan glanced out of the window, the London streets slipping by. ‘Can you let us out?’

  ‘Not yet.’ Penrith waited until she met his eyes. ‘You’ve managed to wheedle your way between Harris and Reuben Nash. Use that.’

  ‘I intend to. I still think it’s worth us talking to Haslam. He’s afraid of Ewan—’

  Penrith snorted. ‘And no doubt terrified of you.’

  ‘I kept it polite.’

  ‘And you think he’ll respond if you’re a little more persuasive?’

  ‘Well I don’t see him putting up much of a fight.’

  Tipping his head back, Penrith stared at the roof of the cab. ‘All right, but just ruffle his feathers.’ He leant forward, tapped on the glass between them and the driver. ‘Mind if we chuck you out here?’

  Caelan had another look out of the window. ‘Where are we?’

  Penrith grinned as the cab drew up to the kerb. ‘Haven’t a clue, but we haven’t gone far. I’m sure you’ll work it out.’

  27

  Caelan hammered on the door with her fist, counted to three and hammered again. Eventually it opened a few inches and a man’s face appeared in the gap. He stared at them, frowning.

  ‘Any reason you’re trying to batter the front door down?’

  ‘We’re here to see Tom Haslam,’ Caelan told him. ‘Is he in?’

  ‘Tom?’ He glanced behind him. ‘No idea. We don’t keep tabs on each other.’

  ‘Yeah?’ Caelan sneered at him. ‘Well maybe you should.’