High Pressure

by Sam Blake

  ‘The team working this case will be local. They might not join the dots on his wife being missing and how that happened. If the CTU get involved, they’ll move fast to prevent further contamination. I’ll call him.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I should have thought of that.’ Anna’s voice wavered as a wave of emotion rose inside her; had she been a complete idiot? ‘I was only with Mike earlier. I dropped in to New Scotland Yard after we visited Steve. I didn’t even know if he’d be free. He couldn’t tell me anything about Marissa and the bus except that there are a lot of bodies to sort out. The bus was fairly full and the explosion ripped it apart.’

  ‘I saw the news footage. Don’t worry, honey, I’m emailing Mike right now. Take me through what happened. Why were you at this guy Steve’s house?’

  ‘We wanted to see if he had any news from the police. Brioni felt she needed to touch base with him as well, especially after seeing him at the embassy. He didn’t see her, but he’s the one who reported Marissa missing and is her next of kin. She was worried she’d be out of the loop if there was any news.’

  Anna paused. She could hear classical music coming from the bathroom. Brioni must have put her phone on. She shifted on the pillows.

  ‘She really doesn’t like him. She thinks Steve might have done something to Marissa and used the explosion to cover his tracks.’

  ‘I thought he was in the embassy all afternoon?’

  ‘He was, but he saw Marissa first, before he came to the embassy. He had lunch with her apparently, he mentioned it to Isolde, the ambassador’s wife.’ Anna paused. ‘The thing is, Brioni looked at Marissa’s Google location history and found out she’d had her hair done yesterday and then went to a restaurant …’

  Anna quickly brought Steve up to date on what Brioni had found out.

  There was a pause before Rob spoke. She knew he was thinking the same thing as she was. They were both all too familiar with covert situations.

  ‘Interesting. That sounds like it could have been a bit of a close thing. Reckon she was having an affair and the husband found out – was trying to catch her?’

  ‘I really don’t know. I don’t know what to think.’

  ‘That could put a new light on Steve’s actions for sure. From what you’ve told me, he sounds massively possessive. If she was having an affair, could it have pushed him over the edge? Maybe he has done something to her and couldn’t live with the guilt. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.’ On the other end of the phone, Rob paused, as if he was thinking. ‘Did Brioni give the cops the guy in the restaurant’s number?’

  ‘I don’t think so – I don’t think she thought to mention it. And they thought they were dealing with a suicide. It was only when the scene examiner arrived that he thought there could be more to it.’

  ‘The team will want his details. If Marissa was having an affair, it opens up the possibility that it’s homicide. Forensics will be able to tell more when they get their results. And if there was a third party involved, I’d guess they sure weren’t expecting Brioni to walk into the middle of it all.’

  Anna felt her stomach drop.

  She hadn’t even thought of that.

  ‘Could she be in danger? My God, they could have been still on the property when she arrived – what if they think she saw them?’

  ‘I think you’ve jumped a few steps ahead there, baby, but you need to talk to Mike.’ Rob paused; she could almost hear him thinking. God, she wished he was here now, to wrap his arms around her. ‘If it is a homicide, it’s a whole different picture. And the cops will need to start on some serious catch-up. A lynching is a real statement killing, there would be a lot of anger there.’

  ‘You’re right.’

  Anna heard movement in the bathroom.

  ‘Brioni’s going to be out of the bath in a minute. Let’s try and talk tomorrow?’

  ‘For sure. I’ll talk to Mike now. He’ll want to oversee this – it could have a bearing on his investigation. He’ll want to see you first thing, I guess.’

  ‘Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you sometimes.’

  ‘You don’t?’ Rob laughed. ‘You know you keep me sane, honey. Promise me you’ll keep safe? I’m going to see if I can change my flights and get over sooner. I don’t like how things are escalating there and you seem to be in the middle of them.’ He paused, his voice lowering an octave. ‘Just don’t get into any more trouble before I get there.’

  Before Anna could answer, Brioni emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in one of the hotel’s thick white bathrobes.

  ‘That was fantastic, thank you so much.’ As if Rob had heard her, he ended the call. Anna put the phone down and, smiling, sat up straighter on the bed. Brioni rubbed her hair, wrapped up in a white towel. ‘I still feel I should go back to the house. What if Mar turns up there?’

  ‘You left a note. That should be enough.’

  ‘Are you sure you don’t mind me staying?’

  Anna put her phone down decisively on the bedside table.

  ‘Definitely not. I’d be worried about you if you weren’t. Let’s order room service.’

  Anna slipped off the bed to find the room service menu on the desk. At least with Brioni here, Anna knew she was safe.

  She knew it sounded even madder than her lynching theory, but it had also occurred to her that someone could be working their way through Brioni’s family. Brioni had mentioned that someone had tried breaking into her shared house, and that some bogus council worker had called to the door. Some parts of London, like Dublin and New York, were definitely rougher than others, and had higher crime rates, but there were only so many things that could happen before you started to wonder if they might be connected. Who was to say Brioni wasn’t next on their list? There was no way Anna was going to let her go to a house where she could have almost walked in on a murder in progress, or to her own shared house with a bunch of students who probably didn’t know what day it was most of the time.

  Lost in thought, Anna picked up the menu. Was the terrorist activity coincidental to something entirely different that was focused on Steve – that was to do with his business, maybe? Everyone’s tempers were frayed in the heat, but had something specific happened to push someone over the edge and target first Marissa and now Steve? What could they have done to bring that on themselves?

  Chapter 32

  The main reception area in New Scotland Yard was busy when Anna arrived. She knew she shouldn’t be surprised – police stations, like embassies, worked 24/7, and they had a major investigation underway – but somehow the early morning weekend quietness of the roads had lulled her into a sense that the city was still preparing for the day.

  Leaving Brioni to sleep, she’d caught a taxi from the Hogarth. She loved seeing the city from the high rear seat of a black cab, particularly in the sunshine of a new day. And she couldn’t face the heat and grime of the Tube.

  ‘Anna, we meet again so soon.’

  Anna rolled her eyes as Mike crossed the reception area towards her, his hand outstretched.

  ‘We do. I’m sorry, I know how busy you are.’

  He held up his hand to stop her apologising. ‘Rob filled me in. I’ve briefed the CTU.’ He pronounced it See-Too, and it took Anna a moment to work out that he meant the Counter Terrorism Unit. ‘SO15 are on their way. Are you OK to talk to me in an interview room? I need to record our conversation to keep everything on the record.’

  Anna had been inside an interview room at New Scotland Yard before, and it didn’t bring back good memories. This room was identical – small and windowless, the walls a dirty cream. In the centre a Formica-topped table with steel legs was screwed to the floor; on either side, plastic chairs – also, Anna knew from experience, screwed down to prevent them from becoming missiles.

  Mike felt her hesitation at the door.

  ‘You OK?’

  ‘Yes, it’s just last time …’ She didn’t need to explain; he’d been there after the incident
in St Pancras. She cleared her throat. ‘But I’m good, let’s do this.’

  A moment later Mike had the recording devices primed, the date and those present documented.

  ‘Professor Lockharte, you’ve come in voluntarily today to share some information about the suspected suicide of Steve Hunt that occurred yesterday at his property at 44 Oliver Avenue in Highgate?’

  Anna leaned forward into the table. Sitting opposite Mike, even here, felt safe. She knew she could talk to him, tell him everything that had been going on, but where did she start?

  ‘I know this sounds crazy, but apparently the police officers who attended and the paramedics said Steve might have had petrol on his clothing.’ Mike looked at her in surprise as she continued. ‘The forensics guy who came to the house got delayed by another bomb threat – I know they’re happening all over the city – but he thought there was petrol on the grass and soaked into the decking around where Steve’s body was. The girl who found him, Brioni O’Brien, is his sister-in-law, and she said she could smell it when she was in the garden.’ Anna paused. ‘It’s just … Here’s the thing – Steve’s from South Carolina. Lynching, until recently, was quite a regular occurrence there. It’s linked to white supremacy but not all victims were Black. It’s a statement killing -the victim is hanged and the body is set on fire.’

  ‘With petrol?’

  ‘Exactly.’ Anna grimaced.

  ‘But in Highgate?’

  ‘I know. But I saw Steve right before I came here to see you yesterday. He obviously hadn’t slept and was really worried about his wife Marissa, but he was planning how to find her. He hadn’t given up. I saw absolutely no hint he might be suicidal. Unless your team gave him bad news about his wife’s disappearance after I left, suicide just doesn’t make sense to me. I think it was symbolic. Someone wanted to send a message, but they didn’t get to finish the job.’

  ‘You think Brioni interrupted them?’

  Anna shrugged. ‘If I’m right, she must have done. It looked like suicide, but if the killer had had a chance to finish the job, it would have clearly been murder. And because everyone thought it was suicide, the scene wasn’t secured in the way it would have been at a violent crime scene.’ She shrugged again. ‘From what Brioni told me, I think the killer could have been hiding in the shed and slipped away while she was talking to the police in the house.’ Anna paused, fiddling with her phone on the table in front of her. ‘If I’m right, this is a killer who who wanted to send out a very clear message.’

  Mike rubbed his face. He looked as if he hadn’t slept. ‘And Steve Hunt seems to have been on the scene, if not involved in, several of the events that have unfolded in the past few days.’

  ‘That’s what makes this all so bizarre. He was in the embassy when that van exploded and then his wife’s phone was found very close to the last stop the number 13 bus made. Perhaps both events are linked to the Russians and his company somehow?’

  Across the table Mike pursed his lips, obviously thinking.

  ‘The investigation into the explosion outside the embassy is moving in a new direction. It’s looking very much like it could have been an accident. The driver was doing some sort of job on a swimming pool on the side. The chemicals he was carrying appear to have mixed, and the resultant reaction caused the explosion and produced the chlorine gas.’

  ‘So he wasn’t a terrorist at all?’ Anna’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘That’s terrible. He’s been torn apart in the media. His poor family.’

  ‘Just shows why every case needs to be built on evidence, rather than assumption and accusation. But that also means you weren’t a target, which has to be a good thing, and makes the Russian angle a lot less likely in the other incident.’ He took a moment before he continued. ‘We can’t unfortunately exclude the possibility that Marissa Hunt was actually on the bus and her bag had been stolen prior to her boarding.’

  ‘I know.’ Anna sighed. ‘It’s so difficult to know what she might have done that day. Perhaps she was heading down to meet Steve? It was a Trinity event and that’s her alma mater.’ Anna screwed up her nose. ‘I really don’t know if it’s relevant but Brioni, Marissa’s sister, has accessed her Google location history. She had lunch in a restaurant - Brioni called in and found out that Marissa met a man – he booked the table. Steve arrived shortly after he’d left. Brioni has his phone number, it was in their booking diary.’

  Mike’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Can you give it to me?’

  ‘Of course.’ Anna bent down to pull her handbag onto her knee, rooting in it to find her wallet. She’d written the number Brioni had given her on a piece of Hogarth Hotel notepaper. ‘Here it is – can you trace it?’

  ‘We’ll do our best. How is Brioni doing now? Finding Steve Hunt must have been an awful shock on top of everything else.’

  ‘She’s just about holding it together. She’s staying with me for a bit. If my theory about the petrol is correct, she could have almost walked in on a murderer. I want to keep an eye on her.’

  ‘That’s good. And this information certainly takes Steve’s death to a whole new level. Is there any reason he might have been a target? Has Brioni any ideas?’

  Anna grimaced. ‘Not at all. It just seems so bizarre that Marissa and Steve could be involved in any of this.’ She paused, shaking her head. ‘It’s just crazy.’ She paused. ‘What happened in Westminster? Was it another device?’

  Mike shook his head. ‘Another hoax. Like we haven’t got enough to deal with. We have to assume every call is the real deal now. Because of this one’s location, the whole of the centre of London was shut down for half the day. Communications blackout, people stuck for hours until we could declare an all-clear. Nothing about it is good.’

  ‘Except there was no device, no casualties.’

  Mike sighed, rolling his eyes. ‘Yes, thank God.’

  Chapter 33

  Standing in the cathedral silence of Mar’s wooden-floored hall, Brioni took a moment to look around her. Anna had left her a note on the bedside table saying she had some messages to run – that had made Brioni smile; it was such an Irish way of putting things. Anna had told her to stay put at the hotel, but as soon as she’d woken up Brioni had started thinking about Steve and the house, and what on earth had pushed him over the edge.

  Brioni Brioni’s Brioni Brioni ran her hand through her hair. She really didn’t know what to think. Had Steve done something to Marissa? Had he used the explosion as a cover to conceal her disappearance?

  And what about the WhatsApp messages she’d sent to Mar’s phone that had been deleted? Could he have manipulated Mar into not answering her own sister’s messages, or had he deleted them before she saw them? The blue ticks had told her they’d been read, but not who by.

  Brioni took a deep breath, her heart thudding. It was hot in the hall; the house was sealed and the temperature inside was rising as the sun beat down on the windows at the back.

  Was there something here that would tell her what was going on?

  Brioni looked around her. On the hall table was a photo: Steve and Mar on their wedding day with his best man and Bri, the other eleven bridesmaids sitting at their feet. Brioni picked it up. Mar looked radiant. Brioni looked about twelve, fat and uncomfortable in a lemon-yellow satin dress.

  Christ, yellow with her colouring? She’d hated that dress so much.

  Brioni rolled her eyes at the memory. It had been his mother’s idea, apparently.

  Boy, it had been a long day.

  She’d met Reiss briefly after the ceremony. He’d had his hand on the arse of some blonde in a tight skirt and tighter top, whose husband had suddenly appeared through the crowd, looking furious. He’d obviously invested a lot in plastic surgery and wasn’t interested in sharing it.

  Brioni had been smirking to herself until Reiss grabbed her as she walked past, trying to defuse the situation.

  ‘Have you met Mar’s sister Brioni? She’s come all the way from Ireland …’

  W
hy hadn’t he been Steve’s best man if they were such good friends? Brioni put the photo on the table. There was so much that didn’t make sense in this set-up.

  There was no question in Brioni’s mind that Marissa had been in Oxford Street yesterday, and close to Selfridges, but Marissa was the blessed child. There was no way she could get killed in an explosion and now be a series of body parts in the mortuary that a pathologist had to put back together. That just wasn’t the sort of thing that happened to her. And Brioni was sure she’d know deep down if something that catastrophic had happened.

  She would, wouldn’t she?

  Her sigh was ragged. It was more than likely that Mar was injured and had amnesia. Maybe she had wound up on a friend’s doorstep – a friend who thought Steve had attacked her or something. Brioni

  Brioni jumped as her phone began to ring, then the ringtone was drowned out by a loud knock on the front door. Looking at her screen, Brioni could see it was Anna calling. She clicked to take the call as she turned to open the front door.

  ‘Hi, Anna, I’m just at Mar’s. There’s someone here, I’ll call you back.’

  She didn’t hear Anna’s reply. Instead she found herself frozen on the threshold.

  Outside, there was a tall, distinguished man standing on the doorstep with his back to the door. Surrounding him were a lot of people in white forensic overalls. And the rest of the drive was full of uniformed police officers. A lot of officers.

  Stunned, Brioni looked at the man on the doorstep.

  ‘What’s happened?’

  He spun around at the sound of her voice.

  ‘You must be Brioni?’

  She nodded wordlessly.

  ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to come out of the house.’ He stepped backwards off the step. ‘Has anyone been inside the property since Steve Hunt was found yesterday?’

  Brioni shook her head. ‘Only my friend Anna, briefly. But I only walked in a minute ago. I locked up after your guys left yesterday.’