Shut Up and Drive: DI Ted Darling Book 4

by L M Krier

  All of the team members were eager for news of Maurice, as soon as Ted appeared to join them for the morning briefing. Jezza had also tried phoning for information but had been told little more than Ted. He told them what he did know and promised to go and visit Maurice later in the day, as soon as he was told he was up to a visit.

  Once he'd sent Jezza off to his office, armed with her books, he also shared with them the idea of trying to lure Danny in with the promise of some work.

  'We'll have to jump through hoops to get it approved from on high, and he is very wary, so he might not fall for it anyway. But we have to try something. We can't just sit around waiting for his next victim.

  'Speaking of victims, Virgil, how's Nathan doing? We mustn't forget he's collateral damage in all of this. How's he getting on, and how are the fish?'

  'Nat's back in the flat, limping about on crutches, so I'm still calling in whenever I can, to give him a hand. And to see the fish. I've become fond of those little guys. I gave them all names. I must be getting as broody as the missus,' Virgil grinned.

  'Right, Mike, can I leave you to take over? I have reports to prepare for the Super. Can you sort out witness statements from yesterday and let everyone see copies, then we can regroup later and see what we've got.

  'Any news of a likely vehicle, Rob? And any reports of sightings at ports, if he has tried to leave the country?'

  'There's a couple of stolen vans unaccounted for. I'll let everyone have details, although the plates will almost certainly have been changed by now, boss,' Rob told him. 'No port sightings, but that was always a long shot, as we've no idea what vehicle he's driving now and the description could fit almost anyone.'

  'That's another thing to check. Where does he go to do things like change van plates? Ask around. Rob, can you try ringing that other ex-soldier again, the one I talked to. Ask him if he might have any idea where Danny Boy would go for something like that. See if you can convince him to talk to you. Tell him I'm tied up.

  'And remember, all of you, stab vests on if you're going anywhere near where Danny might be. Maurice wasn't expecting to come face to face with him, or he would have been wearing his.'

  'How's the research going?' Ted asked Jezza as he went back into his own office.

  'It's certainly reinforcing my thoughts that I don't like crime fiction,' she replied. 'What a load of old rubbish, and looking at her ratings, Olivia Radnor is supposedly one of the better writers of the genre. But there's a definite pattern here. Almost every case the Cooper woman refers to in her Barbed Wire book appears in some form or another in Radnor's fiction. Altered a bit sometimes, but always recognisable, if you read the two side by side, as I'm doing.

  'Boss, what if Jenny Holden was not alone? What if some of the other case studies here also had False Memory Syndrome? There must be something that can be done about her. We can't just let this go.'

  'Write your report, Jezza,' Ted told her gently. 'I've said I'll pass it on to the right quarters and I will. I can't do any more than that. Now I need my office back, please. I have reports of my own to write, then I want to try to see Maurice. And before you ask, no, you can't come. I'd better go on my own this time, find out if he's up to visitors.'

  Jezza gathered up her books and headed for the door.

  'Give him a big, fat, soppy kiss from me,' she grinned at him over her shoulder.

  Ted phoned the hospital again at lunchtime and was told that Maurice could have visitors, no more than two at a time and only briefly. They must be prepared to leave if he showed any signs of getting overtired.

  Ted found him in a quiet side room off the main ward and was surprised, when he went quietly in, to find Maurice's ex-wife sitting at his bedside.

  'Sorry, Barbara, I didn't know you were here,' Ted said, hesitating.

  'Come in, Ted,' she told him, indicating a spare chair. 'It's fine, he'll want to see you.'

  Partners of Ted's team members all called him by his first name at the social occasions, which were usually the only times their paths crossed.

  'I'm still down as his next of kin, so the hospital called me.'

  'How's he doing?' Ted asked quietly, sitting down. Maurice appeared to be sleeping, so he didn't want to wake him. He clearly needed to rest after major surgery.

  'Sleeping, most of the time, although he's woken up a few times and we've spoken a bit. He always was a lazy great lump,' she said, but there was a touch of affection in her tone. 'Can you tell me how it happened? I don't know very much, only that he was stabbed, working on a case.'

  'You've probably read about the serial sex attacks, in the paper,' Ted began. 'Maurice and I were on a shout. We were going to the supermarket in connection with a possible sighting of our suspect. We had no reason to believe that he was still on the premises, we were just going to look at CCTV footage which might have shown him.

  'I was having trouble parking so Maurice got out to walk to the store. He heard a woman screaming and ran to find out what was happening. He was just unlucky enough to run straight into the attacker, trying to leave the scene.'

  'Stupid, stupid man,' she said, but there was no trace of bitterness in her voice. 'That's Maurice all over, a sucker for anyone who's hurt or upset. The big soft fool.'

  'You sound as if you still care for him?'

  'He's the father of my children, and I love him for that. I'm still very fond of him. Part of me still loves him. I just couldn't live with him. He's like a bloody big kid, he never grew up. That's why he's so brilliant with the twins. He's not a parent, he's just another child. It's why I couldn't stay with him. It was like having three small kids in the house, when the twins were little. I was the only grown-up, and that was hard. That and seeing him go off to work every day and not knowing if and when something like this might happen to him.'

  'I think I must have died and be floating around in heaven somewhere. I'm hallucinating about my ex-wife saying nice things about me,' Maurice growled softly, opening sleepy eyes to look from his boss to his ex-wife and back.

  'How are you feeling, Maurice?' Ted asked him. 'Jezza sends you a big soppy kiss, but I hope I'm not expected to pass it on personally. You gave us all a bit of a fright last night.'

  'I've felt better, boss,' Maurice said ruefully, wincing at the effort of speaking. 'Did you get him?'

  'Sorry, Maurice, but no. He did his usual trick of hopping on a bus and I was on foot. My car got nicked while you were busy scaring everyone. I had no way to follow him and there was no immediate back-up available.'

  Maurice smiled then grimaced again. 'Don't make me laugh, boss, it hurts too much. Losing a suspect and losing your car at the same time is a bit careless,' then he continued earnestly, 'Boss, it's true, what the victims said. His eyes. He's dead behind the eyes. I remember thinking that, while he was stabbing me.'

  'You stupid man!' Barbara said harshly. 'Putting yourself at risk like that. What about the twins? Did you think of them and how they would be affected if you got killed playing the hero?'

  She was choking back tears, though whether of anger or relief, Ted couldn't tell. She started to pound her fist against one of Maurice's arms which lay on top of the covers. It was perilously close to where the suspended drip went into one of his veins.

  Ted got up quickly and gently took hold of her arms, pulling her against him to restrain and comfort her.

  'Barbara, I don't think you should be hitting him when he's just had major surgery,' he said gently. 'You've had a fright. He gave us all a bit of a scare, but it's going to be all right. He'll be fine.'

  He let her turn to him and put her head against his shoulder as she started to sob. He kept his arms lightly around her shoulders in silent comfort.

  At that moment, the door burst open and Maurice's twin girls erupted into the small space, launching themselves towards the bed with squeals of, 'Daddy!' They were closely followed by Barbara's new husband, who raised his eyebrows at seeing his wife in the embrace of some short bloke he didn't know.


  'Girls, gently,' Barbara admonished them, pulling guiltily away from Ted. 'Daddy's just had a big operation. You mustn't jump on him.'

  Maurice's face broke into a beaming smile of pleasure as he lifted his unencumbered arm towards his beloved daughters.

  'Hello, my princesses. This is the best possible medicine I could have. Just be careful of these tubes. And don't forget to say hello to my boss.'

  'Hello, Mr Darling,' they said dutifully in unison, giggling, as always, at his name.

  'Mark,' Maurice nodded curtly to his replacement.

  'Maurice,' came the equally brusque reply, then the man turned to Ted, who suddenly felt acutely uncomfortable. 'Can I have my wife back now, Mr Darling?'

  Ted opened his mouth to explain, but was interrupted by the door opening again and a nurse coming in, looking severely disapproving.

  'Far too many people in here at once,' she said sternly. 'Mr Brown must get his rest. Only two at a time, and only for short periods.'

  'The girls only count as one,' Maurice told her with an attempt at a grin, although he was clearly tiring and in a lot of pain.

  'I'll go now, Maurice, but I'll be back some time tomorrow. And I know Steve and Jezza want to visit, as soon as you're up to it.'

  'Thanks for coming, Ted, I really appreciate it. Oh, and boss? Make sure you get him.'

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The Ice Queen and Kevin Turner joined Ted and his team for the morning briefing on the following Monday. Ted had submitted his proposal to try to draw Danny Boy out with the offer of driving, and he wanted to air his ideas.

  'The logical place to use for the set-up is the kennels, the one he already does driving work for,' Ted began. 'It's one place he might not be quite so suspicious of visiting, as he's been there before. But, it throws up as many problems as benefits.

  'Following his visit there, Sal's spoken to the RSPCA, in the form of Rob's fiancée, and they're anxious to get in there and carry out at least an assessment and possibly a seizure of animals on the premises as soon as possible. Now, they can't go in without a Uniform branch presence and a search warrant, neither of which should be a problem.'

  'But as murder, rape and attempted murder trump animal welfare issues every time, I'd be happy to hold back on making my officers available until after we've dealt with Danny Boy,' Kevin Turner put in.

  Ted nodded. 'The tricky thing is, we'd need to try to persuade the owner to contact Danny to get him to come for a pick-up or whatever the deal is. And she's probably not going to cooperate with us without a very good motive.

  'Now, talking to Sally, Rob's fiancée, it sounds as if the woman is going to be closed down and have all the dogs seized, whatever else happens. We can't tip her off to that, it needs to happen, by the sounds of it. If we can get her to cooperate with us, the best we can do for her is to see if Trading Standards can be persuaded not to take any further action on the dodgy pups she's already sold.

  'If we can get her to call Danny, then we can set things up to be waiting for him. And ma'am, I want armed response officers there. So far he's only used a knife that we know of, but we know he's ex-military and therefore firearms trained and I don't want to risk any further casualties.'

  The Ice Queen nodded. 'Noted, Inspector.'

  'Mike, is there anything at all in Danny's records to suggest mental health issues? Any suggestion of PTSD? It would help to know exactly what we're dealing with.'

  'Boss, they only sent the bare bones. There's not a great deal there, although he has served in some difficult areas, including Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. He was a career soldier, did twenty-two years after basic training. Came out four years ago.'

  'Can you chase them up again and see if there's anything else at all they can tell us?'

  'With respect to you, Sergeant Hallam, would you like me to make the phone call?' the Ice Queen put in. 'Not that I'm suggesting for a moment that you're not up to the task, but knowing how the Army loves rank, perhaps mine might be of some use in loosening tongues?'

  'It's not like we're all on the same side or anything,' Kevin Turner grunted darkly.

  'Thank you, ma'am, glad of any help I can get with this one,' Mike said thankfully.

  'As soon as I have something for you, I will get it emailed to you directly so that you can share it with the team.'

  'What I'm proposing now is that Sal and I go to see this woman, as she's already met Sal so there's a contact established,' Ted continued. 'We'll try to persuade her to call Danny to arrange for him to come for a supposed pick-up. I'm assuming she just leaves him a message and he calls back, probably from a different phone. So one of us will need to stay with her until the arrangements are made. Unless she manages to contact him immediately.

  'We need to give ourselves at least twenty-four hours notice to prepare. I'm assuming that's enough, ma'am? I want firearms in place, and as many Uniform units as Inspector Turner can make available, with plenty of Tasers. We don't want to have to shoot him unless it's unavoidable. I'd personally favour immobilising him so he stands trial, if we can do it without risk to anyone else.'

  'All noted, Inspector,' the Ice Queen said as she rose to go, gesturing to everyone present that there was no need to stand. 'Keep me posted with what arrangements you have made, if you can indeed make any, and leave the staffing level issues to me.'

  Kevin Turner followed Ted to his office after the briefing. Jezza was already gathering up her books as they came in. She nodded briefly to the Uniform inspector then asked eagerly, 'Are you going after him then, boss?'

  'The reason you're banished in here is that you're not involved in this case. All I will say is that I promised you we'd get him, and I intend to keep that promise.'

  Kevin took the seat Jezza had just vacated while Ted put the kettle on.

  'How's she doing, Ted? I can't even begin to think what it must be like for her. I know how I'd feel, if that happened to one of my daughters.'

  'She's a tough nut, is our Jezza. I've tried to persuade her not to bottle it all up, to go and see someone. The business with Maurice has upset her, too. They're close friends, those two, and young Steve. Green tea for your ulcer, or gut-rotting coffee?'

  Kevin made a face. 'My guts give me enough trouble already, without chucking your mystic potions into them.'

  'You're going to have to get it seen to, Kev, you can't just ignore it.'

  'Are you going to Jim's engagement do? The missus and I are invited,' he said, clumsily changing the subject and accepting the mug of coffee which Ted put in front of him.

  'Hopefully, depending on Danny Boy. I need to sort a car out, too. With luck, my garage can find me another cheap little runabout.'

  'Yes, I heard about that. It was bad luck. Why don't you get yourself something decent?'

  Ted shook his head. 'I've just helped Trev out, buying into the bike business. Anyway, I'm not interested in cars, just as a way to get about. For fun, I prefer the bike, with Trev.'

  Kevin drained his coffee mug in a few big gulps and stood up. 'Well, let me know if you both want a lift. I'll be driving, which gives me a good reason not to drink, so the wife doesn't get suspicious. Pouring alcohol down my throat is the last thing I feel like doing at the moment.'

  Ted took a moment to phone his garage, to see if they could find him another car, quickly and cheaply, and explained why he was once more without wheels.

  'Oh, dear, Inspector, you're not having a lot of luck with your cars at the moment, are you? I haven't much available in that price bracket, certainly not in Renault. It would help if you'd consider another make, then I might be able to do something for you.'

  'I like Renault. The seats are comfortable,' Ted said stubbornly. It was about the sum total of his interest in cars.

  The man laughed. 'Well, look, you're a good customer, and I always like to help the police when I can. Let me ring round a few contacts and see if anyone else has anything which would do you. I'll try and get
hold of something today then we can give it a good service for you, have it ready for you after work tomorrow. How's that?'

  Ted thanked him profusely, then rang off and went in search of Sal. They needed to go and see if they could get anywhere with the dog dealer. She was their best hope of making contact with Danny and bringing him to a place of their choosing so they could hopefully, finally, make an arrest.

  The address was down a rutted track off a quiet road, water-filled potholes everywhere. Sal pulled his car up outside a ramshackle gate and both men got out. The whole place had a run-down air and there was an all-pervading smell of dog urine and faeces. A cacophony of high-pitched barking greeted them.

  Ted looking around him. 'I can see why you thought this might be an RSPCA matter, Sal, and that's without even seeing any of the dogs.'

  'I don't know a lot about dogs, boss, but even I can see these are not the right sort of conditions to keep them in. It smells as if they never get mucked out, for one thing.'

  'Are there any loose dogs about?' Ted asked him, peering warily over the gate. 'The biting kind, I mean. I know about cats but I'm not very good with dogs.'

  'I didn't see any, boss, they all seemed to be locked in tiny cages and pens. There was just some ancient farting and snoring thing curled up on a cushion in what passes for an office, where I talked to the owner.'

  As if knowing she was being talked about, a woman stuck her head out of the door of an old Portakabin and peered at them suspiciously.

  'What d'you want?' she called out, her tone not particularly friendly.

  'Mrs Marston? It's DC Ahmed, I spoke to you before. This is Detective Inspector Darling. We wondered if we could just have another word with you? It's about Danny.'

  Both men took out their warrant cards and held them up. She ducked back inside the office and reappeared a moment later, pulling on an ancient waxed jacket, her feet thrust into old Wellington boots which looked a size too large. She came over to the gate and scrutinised the cards the men were still holding up for her attention.