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

by Rebecca Bradley

  I stood. ‘I’ll talk to social care, I believe they’ve already been in touch, but they’ll make the decision. With some input from us, I think it should be resolved soon.’

  Now we had to find out who killed Shobi’s mother and find out quickly before any other children lost parents.

  Hannah

  ‘What have we found out while I’ve been gone?’ I asked of the office. Everyone looked tired – the job was dragging on with one killing after another – but they were a dedicated team and they all pushed onwards.

  ‘We’ve found the vehicle…’ My mood lifted. ‘Burnt out at the old airfield at RAF Newton,’ said Martin. It dropped like a stone again. ‘Forensics have lifted it but said it’s unlikely they will be able to recover much of value as whoever lit it up did a pretty good job.’

  ‘CCTV in the area?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Dammit. Will we ever get a break on this case?’

  ‘Tremelle Brown has been removed from the scene and is at the mortuary,’ said Ross.

  ‘Any update from social care?’

  ‘Yeah, they said Shobi can go and stay with his dad while they sort out the more permanent issues. He’s about to be released from the hospital soon.’

  ‘That’s some good news. Though it will be a big adjustment for the both of them. Particularly Shobi. I can’t even imagine what state he must be in.’ It was late now. I needed to get my head back on the investigation and focus on finding his mum’s killer. ‘Have we made contact with all potential witnesses?’

  ‘There are several streets to canvass and they’ve been done, but a lot weren’t in, or refused to answer the door. We need to go back,’ this time Pasha answered the question.

  ‘Okay, so that’s a task that needs picking up again tomorrow. No one else will help us if we knock at this hour. We won’t be thanked. Go and get some sleep and be back here at 7 a.m.’ There were relieved murmurs around the room as coats and bags were picked up.

  I walked back to my office. I was exhausted and I wasn’t sure I understood this case. I pulled the elastic out of my hair, ran my hands through it and loosened it all out. It felt dry and tangled. Fingers snagged in the knots. I combed through with my hands as best as could and then shook it out.

  I was confused. What the hell was going on with this case?

  I picked up the white-board rubber and cleared all I’d written on the board, all the partnership meetings I was due to attend in the future. Including notes I had made about them, and contact details for the heads of departments I needed to be aware of.

  Once the board was clear I started to write. Simon Talbot was a name I wrote in big bold letters in the centre of the board, circling him several times. It had all started with him. It had started with him when he had shot and killed PC Kenneth Blake. It then fanned out but stayed with him, with his trial and then his subsequent not guilty verdict, then, it seemed, it resulted in his murder.

  Simon Talbot, the catalyst for what was a large and messy investigation.

  From there I drew a stalk out to Paul Miller and one out to Brent Davis, linked them both to each other through the Buckhurst gang. But, they were linked to Talbot through his trial, through being at Blake’s murder.

  Then I drew a stalk out to Tremelle Brown. Linked to Talbot as a witness, the first caller to his murder.

  It all revolved around Talbot.

  But, people other than Talbot were dead. It didn’t make sense.

  If we were looking at one of Blake’s family or a cop for Talbot’s murder then would they really have killed Tremelle? I doubted it. Yes, it was possible that Talbot had killed both Miller and David before he was killed himself. And to get their details, shit…

  I tried to think this through. He would have already known who they were because they were in the house when Blake was shot, that’s how they were able to provide the evidence. But, what if he knew them by sight only, they’d turned up at his home because everyone knew him, knew the heads of the gangs, but did the heads know all the soldiers of the opposing gangs? That could be why they went the anonymous route. And then that still meant we had a bent cop in the ranks.

  Tremelle Brown was the one who made the least sense. She would have said if she’d have seen something that could have hurt Talbot’s killer. But whoever it was clearly wanted to cover their bases. She was killed for no reason though. She hadn’t been a risk for them. She had found his body. She hadn’t witnessed the killer in the area.

  Buckhurst said we needed to go back to the original case. Blake’s case. Someone else was in the house, he’d said. We couldn’t ask Miller or Davis who was in the house because they were dead. Talbot was dead. Blake was dead.

  Damn.

  Maybe that was what it was about.

  Not their evidence against Talbot in his trial, but about what else they saw that evening.

  Did this mean that Lee was at risk? I’d need to speak to Baxter. Four of the five, potentially six or more people in the house that evening, were now dead.

  Buckhurst was right after all. We did need to focus on the investigation from that incident.

  And we needed to make sure we kept Lee Cave safe before he was the next one on our list of deceased victims.

  I ran down to Baxter’s office. Pleased to see he was still in. Though this would be the first time I had seen him alone since Aaron had informed me Baxter, had in essence, told him he had no faith in his abilities.

  ‘You haven’t left yet, Hannah?’ said the man who was also at work. You couldn’t take the fact away that the man was his job.

  ‘Yes, Sir. And I need an urgent word with you if you have a free few minutes.’

  ‘Come on in.’

  His face looked like dried out putty and his eyes looked more lined than usual. He was tired. Yet, he was here. Working. I walked into the office and closed the door.

  He lifted an eyebrow. ‘Another closed-door conversation.’ A small sigh escaped.

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  He put his pen down. ‘Is there no let up with this job?’

  ‘It’s Lee, Sir.’

  ‘Cave? The young uniform lad we have seconded on the unit?’

  ‘That’s him.’ I explained my thoughts from the last half an hour of standing in front of my white-board with a dry-wipe marker. Where that had taken me and my concerns about Lee’s safety.

  ‘You think he’s at risk?’

  ‘Everyone we know who was present in that house is now dead.’

  This time his sigh was loud and obvious.

  ‘Okay, let’s do a threats to life risk assessment.’

  ‘Great.’ I opened my notepad. It’s what I had hoped he would say.

  ‘But,’ he started. ‘Before we do that, there is something else I want to discuss with you.’ He closed the lid on the laptop in front of him.

  This didn’t sound good.

  ‘It’s Aaron.’

  Seriously. What the hell was wrong with this man? ‘Sir, I don’t understand—’

  ‘I spoke with DS Clarke from PSD earlier and it seems that both you and Aaron disregarded his judgement call about the crime scene today.’

  I stiffened in my chair.

  ‘My crime scene.’ I stared at him. ‘I do believe it still was my crime scene and I believe Deven Clarke is a rank below me and is of equal rank to Aaron, who answers to me and who is on this investigation in an official capacity, right?’

  Baxter took a deep breath in before releasing it. A moment to consider his response maybe. I had no idea where this was going. But I did know that this was my investigation and Aaron was a part of my team and I couldn’t work without him. He always had my back. I wished now I had stayed in my office and done the threats to life risk assessment myself.

  ‘It is your investigation, Hannah.’ He put his elbows on the desk in front of him. ‘But, we have to work with PSD. And Clarke had a point.’

  ‘About?’ I crossed my arms. Left my notepad balanced in my lap. I could feel an
anger growing and I needed to contain it.

  ‘Don’t be obtuse. The scene being managed properly. If we have a bent cop who is helping the offender we needed to make sure it wasn’t possible for the scene to be compromised.’

  I jumped out of my chair, the notepad falling to the floor. ‘Seriously? There were plenty of trustworthy staff at the scene who were securing it for future prosecution. Fay Pride was there, as was Doug Howell. And neither of them are cops.’

  ‘Well, there needed to be a cop there and if you insisted on abandoning the scene—’

  ‘A child was missing, possibly dead. What do you think that would have done to your precious reputation?’ I broke in. A niggle in my temple starting to throb and my arm aching. What a day. Just, what a day.

  Baxter narrowed his eyes. Bunched up his jaw. A muscle flexed.

  I lifted my hands in defeat and sat back in the chair.

  ‘Deven was there,’ I said more quietly.

  ‘But, as you’ve already said, this investigation belongs to your team. And as you are the lead, I don’t intend to rock the boat. But I do intend to take action.’

  Whatever he said next I needed to stay calm. There was a rank structure in place. This didn’t feel good though. I rubbed the spot on my temple that had started to throb.

  He leaned forward. ‘I’m sorry, Hannah, but Aaron doesn’t appear to take this role seriously. And today was further evidence of that. Until I have time to discuss this with him, he’s to stay in the office. He can work on HOLMES.’ He looked at me. ‘Or whatever you feel is suitable.’

  ‘You’re not serious?’ I wasn’t sure I had the words for the situation. Aaron was the best DS I’d had. His work was meticulous, he was always calm, no matter the situation. And if he didn’t feel calm, I never saw it, he took himself away. He plugged in his earphones. One of the issues I knew Baxter had with him. And yet I couldn’t break Aaron’s confidence.

  ‘It’s temporary. You know that. I can’t act in isolation, it’s his career, but I can act in the best interests of this particular investigation and I think he needs benching.’

  I rose from my chair again. ‘You’ve made a mistake.’ We’d have to disclose Aaron’s diagnosis now. But it would have to be done with Aaron’s agreement. Not now. And Baxter would be forced to, what? Go on a course if I had anything to do with it. I was furious. But my hands were tied. I turned to leave.

  ‘Hannah?’

  I looked at him.

  ‘We need to do Cave’s assessment. Lee’s life is at risk.’

  Lee

  Knocks at the door made him nervous. Especially when they came this late in the evening. He looked around him as though the room would hold the answer. His nan’s carriage clock tick-tocked on the mantle. But it didn’t hold the answer. There was nothing for it but to answer the door.

  ‘Lee.’ She stood there in the rain, her face serious. Shit.

  ‘Ma’am, what is it?’

  ‘Can I come in? I’m sorry to disturb you at home, but this is important.’

  Shit. Shit. Shit. What had happened?

  He moved sideways. ‘Yes, of course, come in.’

  She stepped into the house, rubbed her hands through her wet hair and wiped her feet hard, almost angry.

  ‘Your nan?’

  ‘She’s in bed. She won’t wake now she’s asleep. We won’t disturb her.’

  Lee stood there in the hall, waiting to hear what she had travelled out to see him for. She faced him, silent. His stomach knotted. He wanted to vomit. This job would kill him. The stress. He couldn’t believe he had asked to be seconded to it. He had asked for this stress.

  ‘Can we go and sit down?’

  ‘Oh, yes, yes, this way.’ He took her into the living room. Suddenly aware of how shabby it was. Of how it hadn’t been decorated in years. It was his nan’s house. He’d moved in when his parents were killed, left temporarily for his own rented place, then moved back in when she became ill. The furniture was old and the soft furnishings wearing thin. The colour palette was drab, swirls of dark colours on the carpet, a pale indistinguishable pattern on the wallpaper. And a loud ticking carriage clock on the mantle.

  She followed him in and took the seat in the corner.

  ‘It’s my nan’s house,’ he said by way of explanation.

  ‘It’s nice,’ she said. ‘A nice size, Lee.’

  He had no answer to that. To politeness. He just wanted to know why she was here. At this time.

  ‘What is it, Ma’am?’ He was still standing.

  ‘Have a seat, Lee.’ Her voice was gentle. Gentle was never good. What the hell had happened. He was confused as hell. ‘Lee? Will you please sit with me?’

  He dropped onto the sofa. Waited.

  ‘I’ve been with Detective Superintendent Walker this evening and we’ve done a threats to life risk assessment.’ Her eyes were dark, focused on him.

  He was still confused.

  ‘The threat is to your life,’ she clarified as she leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees.

  His mind started to swirl, he couldn’t grasp what she was trying to say. ‘Me, my life? I don’t understand, you, you must have made a mistake.’

  She shuffled forward so she was now perched on the edge of the chair. She couldn’t get any closer to him. ‘It’s no mistake, Lee. It isn’t a direct threat. I was working and picked up on a theme and saw an implied threat, so we went from there.’

  Theme. Implied. Threat. These words didn’t make any sense. The more she spoke the less it made sense.

  ‘So, no one has made a threat against me? Then I don’t get it.’ His hands scrubbed through his hair.

  ‘Lee, have you noticed, everyone who was in the house with you… damn.’ She stopped.

  ‘What, what is it?’

  She stood up now, her face bright, eyes alert, her arms active as though they were attached to the very thoughts that ran through her mind. Lee wanted to know what the hell was happening.

  ‘Of course. Why didn’t… how did… Shit.’

  ‘Ma’am?’ He was frustrated now.

  She looked at him. ‘Sorry, Lee, so much is going on in my head right now. As I was saying…’ she spun on the balls of her feet and looked out the window, out into the dark street. ‘I don’t understand what is going on.’

  ‘You and me both.’ He was getting annoyed and was losing patience with the fact that she had rank on him, she had come into his home and had told him half a story and she now didn’t make any sense.

  She turned back to him. ‘I’m sorry, Lee. I was telling you that you are the only one alive from the house that day and we just realised that. It has concerned us and no, there has been no direct threat, but we have taken an implied threat from those circumstances. So, this is us informing you that there may be a risk to your life, that you have to be careful. To report anything of concern. Anything at all.’

  He screwed his face up in puzzlement. ‘I’m sorry, you think… I’m… me?’

  ‘We do. I did, and I discussed it with Baxter and he agreed with me. So, I’ve brought you an alarm to keep in the house, for when you’re not home and it’s just your nan and her carer. As you know, it goes straight to the control room. I’ve also brought a personal one for you. But, we wanted you to know we take this seriously and take the safety of your family seriously, hence the home alarm.’

  He stood. ‘Do you want a drink?’

  ‘You heard what I said, didn’t you?’

  He walked towards the kitchen. The DI followed.

  ‘Lee?’

  ‘I heard. Do you want a coffee?’

  ‘I can’t stay, I need to get back to the office early in the morning. Deal with this.’

  ‘Of course.’ He turned and walked back to the living room. Then stopped. ‘You seemed to change your mind as you talked. What was it?’

  ‘We presumed it had been one of the two witnesses, Miller or Davis, who had assaulted you, but that they had not been prosecuted for that offence in retu
rn for their evidence against Talbot, for the murder of Blake.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘But, that was a presumption this investigation team made. What if that wasn’t the case? What if there was someone else was in the house? What if both witnesses were in the kitchen with Talbot when Ken walked in there and someone else was in the living room when you walked in to that room. That would mean you weren’t the only person alive from that evening. That it is possible someone from inside the house is killing the rest of the people who were there.’

  Damn.

  Hannah

  I hadn’t been able to sleep. My mind whirred with thoughts of the case. Of the real possibilities that someone else had been in Talbot’s house the day of Blake’s murder. I wanted to know why this hadn’t come up in the court case. Or in the investigation.

  Maybe it had but it, for some reason, hadn’t made it to the case file or was excluded. Not necessary for the prosecution of Talbot. And to be honest, I had followed the trial, but not religiously or particularly closely. Not in a policing way, no one other than the people on the case could follow it in that way, no one was able to know the ins and outs of the case.

  The rest of Notts police could only follow the case as it was reported, along with the rest of the public. Yes, we were updated via the internal intranet, but they never gave us any more than was reported on the news because the bosses were always afraid someone would get loose lips after a night out or even sober, in an attempt to look clever to friends or family, the ability to say, look, I’m in the know in this big job that’s all over the news. So, we were kept in the dark as much as the public.

  I needed to get back into work and read through the paperwork properly myself. Not leave it to someone else to read through. I couldn’t trust that the smallest nugget of information would be picked up and I was on a roll now. My brain was fired up. I wanted to resolve this.

  My lack of sleep was also aggravated by my late conversation with Baxter. By what I had then had to tell Aaron when I phoned him on the way out the station, before I went to Lee’s. He took it as I’d expected. As I’d seen him the previous two times I’d known there was a problem. He was annoyed. And he didn’t understand it. It was beyond his comprehension. There was no logic behind it. Like me, he knew the scene was secure and the priority was to find the child. Plus, he would always have my back and he had heard part of the conversation between myself and Deven. He knew I wanted to search for Shobi and he wanted to show me he was there for me.