The DI Hannah Robbins Series: Books 1 - 3 (Boxset) (Detective Hannah Robbins Crime Series)

by Rebecca Bradley

  She brushed her hand down her front, bumping off cake crumbs that nestled in her clothing. She’d finished the muffin. ‘Not long at all. People often think the people they see waving and flapping about in the water are drowning, when in fact they’re not. They’re in distress. Real drowning is quiet and invisible. It’s a silent undertaking whose final act is a mere twenty to sixty seconds long where the arms attempt to push the body up for the mouth to open and grab air. If they manage they don’t scream for help because the autonomic system has taken over and they grab for as much air as they can. Their body has already taken water into the lungs and the airway has contracted and closed, they need to find air. It’s a very silent, low in the water, looks like they’re swimming, push before they finally sink. Then it’s over.’

  Wow, that sounded creepy. I had a fear of death by drowning. Or by burning. Though, didn’t most people if they stopped to consider it. In fact, who wanted to die by any means other than in their sleep?

  My silence prompted more from Fay. ‘He would have been in a lot of distress because of his tongue, so if he was submerged straight away, he would have been panicking about his tongue, the bleeding, it would have been a pretty quick death.’

  ‘Quick but horrific.’

  She sipped on her coffee. ‘I can’t say I want to find out what it’s like to have my tongue cut out while I’m still alive. The shock factor of that, yes, it will be horrifying to anyone.’

  I shuddered.

  ‘What about time of death. How sure are you?’

  ‘Well, you see separation of the skin from the digits towards the end of the first week and detachment of the skin is likely in week two. Bearing in mind his skin was just loosening and in this mild weather I’d expect his body to float from submersion in about twelve to twenty-four hours, I’d suggest within that time frame, as well as his body temperature.’

  Which would put him around the time of Simon Talbot’s murder. Could he have been the one to have killed him or did we have to look for another killer? Did we have one, two – Talbot’s killer plus Talbot as a killer, or three killers on our hands? This didn’t bear thinking about. I put my head in my hands.

  ‘That bad, is it?’

  ‘Come on, Thomas, drink your chocolate before it gets too cool.’ The woman chided the old man.

  I looked up at them. Would I be in a pair at that age? I turned to Fay. ‘I’m not sure. There’s so much information and so much has happened. We need to try to piece it all together to make sense of it.’

  ‘She finished her coffee. ‘If there’s anything else I can do for you, shout. I don’t seem to work with you very often. Jack ends up with most of your jobs.’ She laughed. That tinkling sound again. ‘And he loves it. He likes working with your team.’

  ‘We like working with him too. He’s great.’ I smiled at her. ‘But, it’s been a great pleasure to work with you. I’ll make sure to come back if I need anything.’

  I just needed to figure out what I had, before I knew what I needed.

  Hannah

  I walked to my car, the sky overhead darkening and bruised. A chill swept through me. The day was about to turn. There was an ominous feel. Which reminded me I needed to speak to Ryan Buckhurst. I needed to meet him again. To talk about the information we had. This had to be stopped before it got out of hand.

  I looked at my phone as it ended its attempt to connect. There had been no answer. I dialled again. And again, there was no answer. It looked as though he didn’t want to talk to me. Then my phone vibrated in my hand. I answered without checking the screen thinking Buckhurst had missed my call and returned it, but it was Aaron.

  ‘PSD have phoned the office. They spoke to Baxter.’

  ‘Damn. What has he said?’ I hadn’t yet updated him. I’d left the office for this meet but not told him and had planned to let him know when I returned. There was so much for me to do and to remember today.

  ‘He wasn’t happy he heard it from them when he expected to be up to speed.’

  I sighed.

  ‘He wants to see you when you get back. In fact, he wants you to come straight back now.’

  ‘No matter what I have on.’ I didn’t have anything on because Buckhurst wasn’t answering my call, but he wasn’t to know that.

  ‘That’s what he said.’

  ‘I’m on my way.’

  This would be fun.

  Aaron and I walked into Baxter’s office to find him sitting behind his desk and a smart looking male seated on a chair in front. He looked dapper rather than work-functional. His goatee beard trimmed and tidy, his hair cropped short to his head. His dark skin glistened as though moisturised and taken care of. His handshake firm and warm.

  ‘Deven Clarke, pleased to meet you.’ He held on with both hands and his charcoal eyes sparkled. He was handsome. I knew who he was, what he did, but I smiled at him anyway, in response to the warmth in his hands and in his eyes, and introduced myself.

  Clarke moved to Aaron and with the same warmth, shook his hand then offered us the two remaining chairs in the office as Baxter looked on without a word.

  ‘As I’m sure you know,’ Baxter started once we were all settled, ‘Deven is one of the DSs from PSD and he’s here to look at the troubling issue of our witnesses being murdered.’

  ‘I don’t want to get in the way.’ He looked me in the eye. ‘I know our reputation precedes us, but I’m not here on a witch hunt, I’m here to assist where I can and with my own investigation, hopefully figure out if we have a bad cop on our books.’

  ‘I’m surprised to see you come out to the office, if I’m honest.’ I looked to Baxter. This was his territory.

  Clarke responded before Baxter could get a word out. ‘You’re correct in that it’s normal for us to work under the radar and conduct our investigations away from the subject and in a more covert manner, but people are dying at an alarming rate and we can’t be seen to, or should I say, we can’t sit by and do nothing or even do our investigation in the usual manner. We’ve had to adjust to fit these specific and unusual circumstances. And sending someone out, me,’ he smiled again, ‘to the unit at the heart of the investigation was determined to be the right move in this case. Obviously, there are other officers at work on this, in the background, but I can’t allude to what line of inquiry they’re on or what the outcome is unless someone else is at risk and we need to act to stop it from here.’

  Aaron hadn’t said a word. I looked to him now. He rolled his eyes. No one enjoyed having PSD in their orbit.

  ‘So, Hannah,’ Baxter stepped in, ‘You are to make DS Clarke as comfortable as you can and make all case information available to him. Current and as it comes in. He will require access to HOLMES.’

  ‘That’s all good, thank you, sir. I already have HOLMES access.’

  Baxter tried to keep his face from belying how he felt. ‘Of course you do.’ He set the palms of his hands down on to the desk and pushed himself up into a standing position. ‘So, Hannah will get you settled, introduce you to the team, and if you need anything further from me, you know where I am.’

  I could practically hear his teeth grinding as he finished.

  ‘We’d better show you the incident room and get you introduced and seated at a desk then,’ said Aaron as we walked out the office.

  ‘I appreciate it.’ Clarke was softly spoken. ‘You know I’m not here to tread on any toes, don’t you, DI Robbins?’ He looked at me. His dark eyes trying to burrow their way into me. What was he looking for?

  ‘But you are here to watch what we do, right?’

  A gentle sigh. ‘Only in so much as attempting to find out if the bent cop we have is in your unit. Wouldn’t you rather have them out than have them disgrace your team?’

  He had a point. I would. But I hated to be watched over. I worked better on my own. It was bad enough when you knew PSD were investigating you from afar, but this, him here in the office, it was something else. It was unsettling.

  We walked into
the incident room. I quieted the team and introduced Deven. There was an uncomfortable silence.

  ‘Okay, I know PSD isn’t everyone’s favourite department, but we have an issue here and Deven has joined us in an effort to resolve it. Let up on the stony silence a bit, please.’

  There were grumbles of a welcome.

  ‘I’m not the bad guy,’ he promised, yet again.

  One of the phones rang and Martin picked it up.

  ‘I’ll stay out your way as much as I can, but I’d like it if we could work together,’ Deven continued, in an attempt to win the team over. Cops were stubborn. Especially around Deven’s department.

  I watched Martin stand, receiver still to his ear. He was struggling to pull his coat on from the back of his chair with one hand, while still on the call. This didn’t look good. Would this job never slow down?

  ‘If I find evidence that is of any help to the overall investigation then I will of course hand it over to you,’ Deven was still talking.

  Martin put the phone down. I didn’t need to ask, he looked at me. ‘There’s been a drive-by shooting in the Meadows.’

  Hannah

  The rain fell heavy. The sky was slate grey and overbearing. The wipers on my car worked hard to clear my windscreen but they fought a losing battle.

  Once parked I pulled on my coat, fastened it and pulled up the collar. A tent had been erected to protect the scene from the weather, so that as much evidence as possible could be preserved, but as it was a drive-by part of the scene had been a moving object. There would be areas of the street that were not protected where evidence could be laid and potentially being washed away by the rain into the drains. The CSIs were working as quickly and methodically as they could.

  ‘Damn weather,’ said Aaron as we opened the doors of the car to head out to the tent.

  ‘I know. Can you believe we’re here again, outside Talbot’s address?’

  Aaron just shook his head and with the slam of the car doors ringing in our ears and the rainwater running down our faces we moved to the boot of the car and pulled on the Tyvek suits needed.

  Another vehicle pulled up behind us and Deven Clarke alighted. He’d decided to follow us out and see what had happened.

  ‘It does feel a little like déjà vu,’ Aaron said as he zipped up. ‘You get through to Buckhurst earlier?’ he asked.

  I shook my head. ‘No. He wouldn’t pick up the phone. ‘You think this is him?’

  ‘I don’t think anything. But it’s a coincidence that he’s made threats and the very same day we find out about those threats there’s a drive-by on the streets of the Meadows.’

  ‘I thought you didn’t do guess-work.’

  He let out a long sigh. ‘Shall we see what we have and maybe two and two will make four?’

  ‘Bad day for it.’ Deven approached fully zipped in as I pulled my zipper up on the Tyvek suit. Even the nasty paper suit couldn’t detract from… what? What was it that was making me want to look at him?

  ‘We’d better see what we have.’ I strode off towards the tent, but not before I saw a twitch lift the corner of Deven’s mouth.

  We gave our details to the officer with the scene log and pushed open the flaps of the tent to gain entry. Access should be granted to essential personnel only, but Deven was adamant that this investigation was crucial, that we had a real problem and he needed to be involved.

  Fay was crouched halfway up the body of a young black woman. The woman wore a green and blue dress and flat black shoes. From our position at her feet I could see she was twisted as she had fallen, as though she was running on the pavement. For a strange instance the song by Adele entered my head. Chasing pavements. I shook myself.

  This didn’t make sense, though. A woman? I looked at Aaron and he frowned. If this was retaliation then I expected one of the Talbot lads to be on the ground right now. A gang member. A young man who had made a life decision to have violence in his life. This was unexpected. Maybe a gang member had been the target and had managed to escape uninjured – or injured even – and this woman had been collateral damage. What an awful phrase. Collateral damage. This was a human being.

  I gave a gentle cough to alert Fay to our presence.

  ‘It’s okay, I know you’re there,’ Fay said from her hunched position. ‘Be with you in a moment.’

  There was blood spattered around the body. Spray from where bullets had hit and blood had escaped, and pooling from where she had fallen and laid. It was a mess.

  ‘Okay, then.’ Fay stood and turned to us. The woman really did look as though she was running on the pavement. She was twisted onto her side. Both arms outwards on her left side. Her head twisted to look the way she was running. I bent my neck to look at her face, something familiar about her profile sent a chill through me as though I’d been dipped in ice water. Then I got my look at the woman’s face.

  ‘Oh my God.’

  ‘What is it, Hannah? Do you know her?’ asked Fay, a look of concern on her face. She reached an arm out for me.

  I felt as though the blood had drained from my body. Like the world had tipped on its axis slightly and I was struggling to find my footing. Fay took hold of my arm and held on, held me up.

  ‘Hannah?’ Her face was creased in concern now. She looked to Aaron who shrugged.

  ‘Do you know this woman?’

  I cleared my throat. ‘Yes, yes I do. It’s Tremelle Brown. She was a witness to, to erm… the Talbot murder.’

  Hannah

  It didn’t make sense.

  I tried to run through scenarios in my head. I had originally thought one of the Talbot gang had been hit, but seeing a woman had proved I was wrong. Then I thought a pedestrian had been caught by a Buckhurst retaliation aimed at one of the Talbot gang. But to hit Tremelle Brown, that was a little too much of a coincidence. This wasn’t retaliation. Not from Buckhurst anyway.

  Unless Buckhurst had killed Talbot. As a power grab. But whoever killed Talbot, it looked like Tremelle had to have been the target today.

  But then how would they know Tremelle had made a statement to the police? She could have trusted the wrong person. In areas like this I don’t imagine you ever knew who you could trust, who would run to a gang member out of fear, to protect themselves. Not because they were malicious in any way, but because of the isolated world they lived in. The small ecosystem of rule by gangs on the street.

  Or we could still have a corrupt cop on our hands. I looked at Deven who was watching me. A careful closed look on his face. But the corrupt cop I considered had given information to Talbot, had provided him with the names of the witnesses in his trial. This was completely the opposite of that.

  I was confused. I didn’t understand what had happened here.

  ‘Do you need to go and sit down?’ Fay asked.

  I looked at Tremelle again, at her destroyed body, the dishevelled appearance on the wet ground. The hardworking woman who wanted to do the right thing, then I looked at Fay. ‘No, I’m fine. It was a shock, that’s all. I don’t understand why this has happened. It doesn’t fit with what we thought this job was about.’ Deven was now paying attention to Tremelle. You could see his mind tick as he considered the scene.

  I looked around me. Thought back to the conversation with Tremelle. To what she had told us when she came in. What was I missing? She’d talked about how she had walked her dog and how on her way past the dog had alerted her to Talbot being dead in the car. How she didn’t like living next to him.

  She didn’t like living next to him because of her beautiful boy, Shobi, who was with her at the police station just before she was due to go to work and he was due to go to afternoon nursery but was taking the day off due to Tremelle’s morning shock. Nursery would be long over now though.

  Shit. Where the hell was he? Where was Shobi?

  ‘She has a kid. Where is he, her little boy?’ A surge of fear washed through me. I could feel my heart as it thumped in my chest, as panic tightened my ribcage around
it. ‘We need to find him.’ Oh shit. Please don’t let him have been caught up in this. ‘We need to find him. Right now.’ I looked around as what I said dawned on the faces of the people near me. ‘He’s about three years old. And he should have been with his mum.’

  I stormed out of the tent, left Fay, Aaron and Deven in my wake and found the nearest uniformed cop. Finding Tremelle’s son had now become our number one priority. Tremelle was in the right hands with Fay, but we didn’t know whether she had been alone or had Shobi with her. School hours were long over. Especially nursery hours for a three-year-old. All hands had to be on deck.

  I realised I didn’t know where his father lived, whether Shobi lived with both of them together as two parents or if Tremelle had brought him up alone. Though I had taken time with Shobi, put him at ease, the adult, his mum, I had expected to find her own footing. I hadn’t taken enough time to get to know the person who had taken time out of her day to help us. A woman who had, for all she knew, for what it appeared had been proved, given us information that would put her in danger, but she had done it anyway. Because she was a decent woman who wanted to do right.

  Dammit.

  I looked at the cop, who looked utterly pissed off to be stood out in the rain. I didn’t care. This was part of the job. We had all done it. ‘I want an immediate area search and I want a search of her home address. Right now. Force entry of her house if it’s secure. Though announce yourselves. If Shobi is in there, and that’s his name, use it please, we don’t want to scare him.’

  I pulled my phone out my pocket and dialled the office. The rain was still pouring down. I tried to keep my phone protected but it was difficult. I ran towards my car as the call rang out. Diane picked up as I reached the car and climbed in. I quickly explained what was happening and asked for the voters register to be checked. I didn’t have to wait long to find out that Tremelle was the only adult to be registered at her address.