He pushed the plate towards her as she took a seat at the polished glass-topped table. Soft fluffy scrambled eggs were loaded onto her plate along with a buttered toasted muffin. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten and, despite the thoughts whirling around her head, she began to tuck in. With them both sitting at the table, Ruby in her dressing gown and Nathan in a T-shirt and chinos, they could be any other couple in the world. Finishing her eggs, Ruby downed the last of her tea.
‘That’s the best cup of tea I’ve had all week. Thanks, love,’ she said, rising to bring her plate to the dishwasher.
Nathan touched her arm, signalling for her to sit back down. Ruby knew he had been curious to know what had happened with the doctor. He had sensed her reluctance, waiting until she had recovered enough to relay the story without breaking down.
She sighed as the real world took over her day. ‘We found his lair. It was in a derelict hospital. The place was full of rats, creepy as hell. But you know what? We also found the victims’ clothes.’
‘Including Lisa Caldwell’s?’ Nathan said.
‘Yes.’ She was impressed that he remembered her name. ‘They match the description given by her mother. We’ve got enough forensics to put him away for good.’
Nathan briefly closed his eyes, his face at peace as he took a calming breath. ‘Thank you.’ He reached across and touched her hand. ‘At least now he won’t harm anyone else.’
But Ruby could not take any pleasure from such a horrific incident. ‘It’s not me that found him, it was Ash.’ Her gaze fell, shame rising as a warm flush brought heat to her cheeks.
‘You shouldn’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault.’ Nathan had pieced together what had happened from her brief explanation the night before.
‘I just don’t understand. I want to ask him why he acted so strangely, but now he’s dead.’
But Nathan was not one to offer platitudes. ‘You look beat. Why don’t you go back to bed, get some kip?’
‘I’m going back to work. I’ll need you to come in so we can do a taped interview under caution. Just to tie up any loose ends.’
‘Me, go to the nick? You’re having a laugh,’ Nathan said. ‘And besides, today’s your day off.’
‘You don’t get days off when there’s a murderer on the loose. Not when he’s killed one of your own. Why don’t you come with me? It won’t take long to—’
‘No,’ Nathan said firmly, rising from his chair. ‘Write up a statement, and I’ll sign it. I’m not being interviewed on tape.’
‘Fine,’ Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘Do me a favour, though, tell Cathy to stay in. At least until we find Tanner. If he’s tried to frame you, then she could be in danger.’
Nathan smirked. ‘She’s been under curfew since this all began. It’s driving her nuts.’
‘Yeah, well, a few more days won’t hurt.’ Ruby gave him a rueful smile. What would their daughter think if she could see them together now? She glanced around the spotlessly clean kitchen. With glossy designer cupboards, it held every appliance you could possibly need. Streamlined and sophisticated, the Dalston flat was her dream home.
‘And you?’ Nathan asked, breaking into her thoughts. ‘Are you coming back here when you’re done?’
Ruby smiled. ‘Yeah, I will. I can’t live in that tower block anymore. Especially now someone’s puked in my bed.’
Nathan threw her a comical look. ‘Did you just say. . .?’
Ruby’s smile widened. ‘Just a girl I was trying to keep off the streets. It’s a story for another time. I imagine you’ll be keen to get home, get things back to normal.’
‘I am, tomorrow. I’ll keep your side of the bed warm tonight.’
It was a statement, not a question. Ruby was not going to complain. Nathan was in no hurry to get back to the real world any more than she was. Lenny would most likely have a plethora of things for him to sort out and, from the moment he returned home, his mother would be on his back, trying to bridge the gap between him and his ex-girlfriend, Leona.
But Ruby could not worry about Frances or Lenny now. She took a seat at the dressing table, refreshing her red lipstick and patting her lips against a tissue. Today she would be a force of strength as her team hunted down the man responsible for the loss of one of their own.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Shock waves were still spreading as news of Ash Baker’s death filtered through the station. Adept at covering up his problems, Ash was known for his practical jokes and smutty one-liners. Even the officers that had not known him felt the loss just the same. Ruby knew she needed to maintain a brave face if she was to carry on with the investigation. Her colleagues were offered a TRIM session, but the police rarely took help on board, the mentality being that they were coppers and should expect such things from their job. They had all become adept at compartmentalising their feelings, and trauma-related incident management would be replaced by a round of drinks in the pub. But it felt like gravity was taking an extra pull in the office today. People answered the phones slower, the receiver heavy on their hands. Footsteps dragged, and heads lowered towards the ground. As Ruby entered the room, apprehensive faces rose, waiting for direction. They needed her to be strong so they could carry on. Her stomach muscles clenched at the thought of their expectations.
DI Downes’s platitudes had obviously not been enough as detectives froze in their tracks, waiting for her to speak. Ruby wished she had taken the time to rehearse some words fitting for Ash’s memory. A thought-provoking speech on his heroism. . . serving his last days with an unblemished record. But she had a lingering feeling of doubt, and his record was untarnished only because he had died before his acquaintance with the hookers had been brought fully to light. The more she thought about his actions, the louder the question became. Was it really an accident? Had he a death wish all along? She recalled their meeting when he mentioned ending it all in an off-the-cuff remark. Had he wanted to do so? Was that what this was all about? She shook the thought away. It was incomprehensible that he would leave his family in such a way. Yet. . . The insurance pay-off would be substantial.
Sending his daughters to his sister’s, putting his wife in care… had he been putting his affairs in order? Ruby swallowed back her grief. She was wrong; she had to be. Such thoughts rose because she could not bear the alternative: that it was her fault. She had let him down. Wearily, she leaned against Ash’s desk, still cluttered with paperwork and files just as he had left it. A framed photo of his family sat in the corner next to a chewed-up pen. His cup still carried a brown ring from the remains of his coffee, and his jokey posters were still stuck to the wall.
She took a deep breath, vowing to keep her voice strong and steady, yet not unfeeling in the way that DCI Worrow’s clichés would portray.
‘I know we’re all feeling Ash’s loss today. Most of you are probably still in a state of shock. Given I was with him when it happened. . .’ she paused, a wave of guilt rising and stealing her words, ‘I can’t help but feel somehow responsible.’ She raised her hand as Luddy began to speak, most likely to reassure her that it wasn’t her fault. ‘It’s OK,’ she said, ‘I just need to work through it. Ash’s loss is going to be immense, and I don’t just mean workwise. He had such a huge personality, and it’s tragic that it had to end this way.’ A thought entered Ruby’s head as she remembered a group discussion about retirement. The way Ash spoke it was like he knew he would never see it. Ruby sighed. If only such theories would stop infiltrating her mind.
‘You’ve all been offered TRIM, and yet here you are, all at work today. God knows these cases need a hundred per cent. If anyone here isn’t feeling up to it, there’s no problem in getting you signed off. Go home, or go for a drink. I know which Ash would have preferred.’ She gazed around the room, but nobody was forthcoming. ‘I’ll be going to The Eagle pub after work to raise a glass to our friend for anyone that wants to join me. If anyone else has a few words that you’d like to put together, just email your
comments to me for the memorial service. I’m sure you all have a story that you’d like to share. Nothing too embarrassing, mind.’ She thought about Ash’s wife and his daughters, who had already had to cope with so much. Thoughts of their young lives made tears well up inside her, and rather than cry in front of her colleagues, she swiftly turned away. ‘I’ll be in my office if anyone needs me.’
The shrill ring of her desk phone infiltrated Ruby’s thoughts, and she jabbed at the volume button to turn it down. Insistently the red dot of light flashed, alerting her that the caller was not going away. Straightening in her chair, she picked up the receiver.
She was greeted by the gravelly voice of front counter staff. It was June, and Ruby immediately recognise her smoker’s drawl. ‘Sorry to trouble you, Sarge, but I’ve got a young man down here that’s very keen to speak to you.’
Ruby sighed as her computer dinged to alert her of ten new emails. ‘Can you take his details, and I’ll call him back? I’m a bit busy right now.’
‘I can do, but he’s saying it’s urgent. He said he’s Sharon’s boyfriend, and she hasn’t come home. He’ll only talk to you.’
‘I’ll be right there,’ Ruby said, before placing the receiver back on the cradle. Clenching her fists, she banged them on the table, venting her growing frustration. Just like Ash, Sharon had ignored her advice to stay put.
As she made her way to the front office, Ruby hoped that was where the similarity stopped.
Chapter Fifty-Six
‘Sit down,’ Ruby said, as Billy paced the room. His hair was greasy, his eyes intense. This was a man who was experiencing pain. Sweat rolled off his body, dampening his clothes, each movement drawing out the sweet tang of body odour. Not that he would have noticed; he was too busy trying to focus on his missing girlfriend.
‘I can’t believe that after everything I told her she went out on the job. What was she thinking?’ Ruby said, standing over Billy as he rocked in the hard plastic chair.
It was of great relief that the interview room was free. The last thing she wanted was to bring him inside the realms of the police station, where he would see his own face staring back at him from the prolific offender posters on the walls. With a history of petty offences a mile long, he was no stranger to the custody suite.
‘She listened to you, she really did, said she was gonna get help,’ Billy said. Eyes wide, he was barely blinking as he relayed Sharon’s last movements. ‘But she was clucking bad, we both was, so she went for one more job with someone she knew.’
Someone she knew? She had warned Sharon about Doctor Tanner. So who was the mystery client? ‘Go on,’ she said.
‘She called him, set it all up. But she’s not come home. She knew how worried I was. Something’s happened to her, I know it.’ Billy clenched handfuls of his short stubby hair as he bent over in agony. His eyes were wild as he rose up, pain and concern stabbing him in equal measures. ‘Please. You’ve got to find her.’ His words were laced with spittle, landing on the small desk between them. He was going cold turkey and it was hitting him hard.
But Ruby had little sympathy for the man who sent his girlfriend into danger so that he could score. ‘Pity you weren’t so concerned when she was with you. It doesn’t look like you’ve done a lot to stop her, does it?’ She placed her hands on her hips as if talking to an errant child. ‘How could you let her out there? What sort of boyfriend are you?’
Billy wiped his nose with the back of his hand, smearing his fingers in slime. ‘You don’t know what she’s like. Once she gets somefink into her head there’s no stopping her. She just needed one last fix so that we could sleep through the night. And it wasn’t as if she didn’t know him.’
‘Who?’ Ruby said, sick of hearing his excuses. Her hands itched with the need to grab him by the scruff of the neck and squeeze the information from his scrawny throat. ‘Who was her punter?’
‘I don’t know,’ Billy said. ‘They don’t give their real names most of the time. She said she’d be an hour, tops. Promised she’d ring the minute she came out. But that was yesterday. I’ve been searching the streets all night. I thought maybe she went to the dealers, but they’ve not seen her either.’
‘And you’ve tried calling her phone?’ Ruby said, a familiar knot in her shoulders making itself known as her body tensed.
Billy looked at her miserably, tears welling in his red-rimmed eyes. ‘Yeah,’ he sniffed. ‘It’s turned off, and her punter’s number is off the hook.’
Ruby froze, wondering if she had heard him correctly. ‘Hang on a minute. You’ve got the number of the client that booked her?’
‘Yeah, I thought I said. She’s got two phones. Her private one that I call her on, and the other one that she takes bookings with. She left the booking phone in the flat. I’ve got the number here.’
Ruby stared in disbelief. ‘The whole time we’ve been talking, and you’ve had the number all along?’
‘Yeah, but I don’t have the address or nothing. Here, see for yourself.’ He handed over the phone: a small white diamanté-studded Nokia. Ruby peered through the cracked screen, pressing the buttons as she brought up the list of calls. She clicked on the call timed at one o’clock in the morning. ‘This is a landline,’ she said.
Billy nodded. ‘She leaves it with me when she doesn’t want to take no more calls. I should have come sooner, but I didn’t want to get her into trouble.’
Ruby’s brain was whirring as she worked out the next course of action. ‘When you say Sharon’s phone is turned off. . .’
‘Well, not switched off. It rings out and goes to answer machine. She keeps it on silent, so I thought maybe she didn’t hear it at first.’
‘Good, that’s good,’ Ruby said. ‘We can triangulate her phone and trace the address of the landline – see if they match. I need you to stay here. I’ll get an officer to take a quick statement and book this evidence.’
‘But I. . .’
‘You want to find her, don’t you?’ Ruby said, in no mood for excuses. She raised the phone. ‘This is good. As soon as I hear anything, I’ll let you know. Do you understand?’
Billy nodded dumbly, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
Ruby sighed, a small pang of sympathy making itself known. ‘Go to the medical centre when you’re done here, get a prescription. You’ll need to keep a clear head. If you hear from Sharon, let us know straightaway, alright? No waiting around.’ She shuffled in a back pocket for a weathered card, along with some loose change.
Nathan had pressed some cash into the palm of her hand before she left for work, telling her to get a round of drinks in for her shift. She guessed he had checked her wallet, seeing nothing but a twenty-pence piece and an Oyster card inside. It was the same Oyster card that was magically topped up every month online. Such actions were typical of Nathan and, although she hated taking his money, she had appreciated his help today.
‘Here,’ she said, handing the business card and change over. Billy may have had a phone but, like most of the drug users she knew, his credit was probably low. ‘Call me if anything happens.’
As Ruby sped up the stairs to her office, her heart skipped a beat. It was an alien emotion when it came to this case: hope. If this was a landline then there was a small chance they had the killer’s address. Did the doctor have an accomplice? And could they reach Sharon in time?
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Armed officers bundled out of the van as they prepared for the raid on the ramshackle East London semi. There was no way Ruby was going to miss this. Piles of work were overflowing on her desk, overtime needed to be sorted out, as well as tackling the spreadsheets that DCI Worrow had provided her, but at this moment in time nothing was more important than finding Sharon alive. The case had got under her skin, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Ruby shifted the ugly stab vest poking into her ribs. She had forgotten how heavy these things were. Each time she wore it, she was transported back to when she was
in uniform, weighed down with heavy boots, a utility belt that carried everything except the kitchen sink and bulked up with layers of clothing and protective wear. She remembered tucking her hands into the armholes of her stab vest to keep her fingers warm in the winter, and loosening the Velcro belts at the side when sweat trickled down her back. Things were much more straightforward then. Not easier, but straightforward. Work had always been a constant stream, no matter what department she frequented, and she had witnessed many people leave because they could not hack the pace. And now, crouched behind the hedge of the alleged perpetrator’s home, this seemed the most important day in her career to date. So near but so far… All she wanted to do was to see the killer behind bars; to make him pay.
Officers positioned themselves around the back of the building, updating their counterparts by radio. They had all areas covered – what was keeping them? Ruby’s breath frosted as her impatience grew. She stood, just as the command was given to go. There was no soft knock, or the ringing of a doorbell for this high-profile case. Officers drew back the heavy metal battering ram, aptly named the ‘big red key’, and sent the door hinges clattering to the floor. As the door slammed to one side, they announced their presence, their boots stamping in unison against the grimy tiled floor. Ruby remained vigilant close behind, the memory of Ash’s death lingering in her thoughts.
Shouts of ‘clear’ echoed in the building as each room was checked in turn. She wished she could rush ahead of the wall of officers, but they were firm in their instruction that she should stay one step behind. Footsteps thundered up the stairs, and Ruby followed them, her heart sinking as she realised that downstairs was all clear. Unlike their last big operation, there was no basement to be found.
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