Coming, Ready or Not (D.S. Hunter Kerr Book 4) (18 page)

‘
Yes. Yes, I’ll do that.’

‘
Also, in the meantime, I’m guessing you’re on your way home to Yorkshire?’

‘
Yes.’

‘
Well, while you’re driving, if you see anything suspicious, a car following you for instance, for too long, slow down and let it pass. If you see it after that, pull onto the hard shoulder and call us immediately. We’ll dispatch an officer to you straight away. Is that okay?’

‘
Yes, thank you for your help. I’m sorry to trouble you.’

‘
No trouble, Miss Bertolutti.’

The call ended.

Dawn checked out the looks on her investigators’ faces, as they exchanged glances with one another, across desks and across the room. She brought back their focus with, ‘Now that’s what I call a breakthrough.’ She bounced her gaze around the department. Then she aimed a finger at the laptop. ‘I don’t know about you lot but something tells me that was no coincidence. Bumping into a man who she’d recently had hassle with at a motorway service station. And then a few hours later she’s attacked and murdered at her home.’ She slowly shook her head, ‘No, this looks to me like this was meant to happen. Unless anyone can come up with a different suggestion, it’s my guess, this man is our killer.’ She saw a few nodding her way. Clasping her hands and rubbing them together she fastened her eyes upon Tony Bullars. ‘Tony, as the only person in this room who knew Elisabeth, does anything of what you’ve just heard ring any bells?’

Biting down on his lower lip
, Tony screwed up his face. ‘Do you know, it might do.’

All heads turned towards him.

‘I first met my girlfriend, Linane, as a result of a bust-up she and Elisabeth had with a couple of guys in a bar near Covent Garden.’

‘
You have a captive audience, Tony, tell us more.’

‘
To be honest there isn’t that much to tell. This happened six months, or so, ago; September time. I’ll have to check the date. I went down to London for a long weekend to catch up with my sister and her husband and they took me to a matinee show of ‘We Will Rock You,’ on the Saturday afternoon. Afterwards we went for a pizza and then for a beer. I’d just got to the bar, in this pub, near the restaurant we’d been to and this argument kicked off behind me. I looked round and saw Linane and Elisabeth in the middle of this almighty bust-up with a couple of blokes. There was a fair bit of shouting and pushing going on and then I saw Elisabeth backhand one of them, and I could see he was about to crack her one back, so I jumped in and grabbed hold of his wrist. Me and this guy had a little bit of a tussle, well, to be honest, it was more of a handbags at dawn, than a tussle and then a couple of bouncers appeared. I flashed my warrant card and the two blokes Linane and Elisabeth had been arguing with were thrown out. That was it. End of. As a result of the shenanigans, I’d got some drink spilled on me and Linane offered to get it cleaned. That was how we met.’

A couple of wolf-whistles erupted.

Child-like, Mike Sampson issued, ‘Ooh, my knight in shining armour.’

Tony blushed.

With a shake of her head and through a smile, the Detective Superintendent said to her audience, ‘Bunch of reprobates. Some of you just can’t help yourself, can you?’ She waited for the sniggers to die away, then said, ‘Carry on, Tony.’

‘
As I say, that was it as far as I was concerned. It was over and done within seconds. I got chatting to them both, mainly with Linane, asked them what it was all about, and all she said was that one of the guys had been hassling Elisabeth for a date, but she didn’t fancy him.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘That’s the only thing that comes to mind.’

‘
What about descriptions?’ asked Dawn.

Tony
’s eyebrows knitted together. For a few seconds his gaze drifted up to the ceiling. Then, he brought it back down and shook his head. ‘I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help here. As I say the incident was over and done with in less than a minute. I never saw the two guys again. All I can remember is that they were both white, mid to late thirties, the pair were roughly my height – six foot, and medium build, with short dark hair. Oh and the guy whose wrist I grabbed had dark brown eyes. He gave me this really evil stare.’ His lips tightened. ‘That’s it, I’m afraid.’

‘
Okay, never mind. See if you can sit down with SOCO and come up with an e-fit of any of them.’

‘
Yeah, will do, boss. I’ll give it some thought.’

‘
And in the mean time I want you and Grace to do another video interview with Linane. Get her to go through the incident. See if it was involving this Dale, whatever his name is, and if it was, what it was all about and what exactly was the type of hassle Elisabeth was getting from him. And, see if she’s taken any of their photos on her phone, or check out if they’re on Facebook. Failing that, get her to do an e-fit.’ Dawn threw her gaze wider, scrutinising the faces of her team. ‘And, it’s a long shot but I want someone to get onto Leicester Forest Services and see if they’ve still got the CCTV from that day. This just might be what we’ve been waiting for.’

At his desk, using an elbow as support, Hunter propped his face in one hand. With his free hand he was indexing the pages of Polly’s five-year diary as he pored over her entries. It was a red, faux-leather-backed affair, A5 in size, one week spanning across two pages. The exhibit had arrived shortly after his partner, Grace, had disappeared with Tony Bullars to interview Linane Brazier. Along with the diary had come her address book and two letters. The letters, addressed to Polly, were from him. Seeing them had taken him by surprise. And with them had come happy thoughts. He remembered he had written them when Polly had gone on holiday to Cornwall, with her parents and her best friend Lucy Stringer, in the summer of 1988. Before taking them out of their envelopes he had checked the postmarks. They had been date-stamped, the fourth and eleventh of July – less than two months before she had been found murdered. Having long forgotten their slushy content he had felt himself colouring while perusing them. Especially in the manner he had signed each one off. The first one bore the acronym H.O.L.L.A.N.D. Beside the word was an artistically drawn bleeding heart. And the second letter had been finished with the caption I.T.A.L.Y. He mouthed the words – he still remembered their sentiments – ‘Hope Our Love Lives And Never Dies,’ and ‘I’ll Truly Always Love You.’ He couldn’t help but crack a smile as he’d finished each letter. In both he’d creatively expressed, how much he was missing her and vowed his undying love. Under normal circumstances he would have classed them as drivel, but these were different. These were a part of him, and although the letters were full of naïve prose, he knew that when he had written them, they were the truthful words of a person who had found love for the first time. He had read them through three times before putting them to one side. He knew he would be reading them again in a day or so. Then he had picked up Polly’s diary and instantly become hooked by her almost mirrored response. Where, she had described her similar feelings towards him, he had hung onto every crisp word. The first recorded entry, which had grabbed him, had been written two months before their first official date.

On Wednesday the
23rd September 1987, she had scribed:-

W
ent to netball practice today, just so I could see Hunter at football training.

That had amused him.
He had never known that.

Then he had found the entry
in November that year. The day before their first ‘going out’:

Hunter walked me home from
the youth club. He kissed me on our street. It made me go all jellyfied! Then he asked me to go to the pictures with him tomorrow. I’m in love. The record had instantly triggered the recovery of another buried memory. He remembered that first kiss. Her mouth had been so soft and warm. It had seemed as if it had lasted forever and that evening he had walked home floating on air. When he’d read it, a chuckle had almost burst forth, provoking a feeling of child-like embarrassment. Quickly zipping his mouth, he had instantly explored the room, and been relieved when he had seen that no one had been looking his way.

He was currently
beginning the month of June 1988 and he could feel a strain beginning behind his eyes. He closed them and pinched the bridge of his nose. Just as he was thinking about the possibility of needing glasses he caught the sound of the office doors crack, and snapping open his eyes, he clocked Barry Newstead barging through, while simultaneously wrestling with the sleeve of his overcoat, trying to release an arm. He was chuntering to himself, but loudly.

Securing the page with his forefinger Hunter sought out Barry
’s gaze. ‘You’re just the person I need to talk to.’ He caught a strange look appear on Barry’s face. He turned Polly’s diary over, trapping it face-down to save the page and pushed himself back in his seat.

Still struggling with his overcoat, Barry glided past him without making eye contact.
‘Oh aye, what have I done now,’ he said gruffly. As he neared his desk he finally extricated himself from his mac, threw it across his paperwork, and kicking out his chair, dumped himself into its upholstery.

Hunter took another look at Barry.
He thought that his expression appeared to be unusually downcast.

There
’s something wrong with him.

Jettisoning himself
out of his chair he made his way across the room to where Barry was seated. The desk opposite, normally occupied by Mike Sampson, was empty. Hunter plonked himself down. ‘What’s up?’

‘
Nothing’s up.’ Barry still avoided eye contact. He pushed aside his coat and picked up some loose papers.

Then Hunter remembered that Barry had been to the doctors.
Not just that morning, but he recalled he had also had an appointment the previous evening. That’s why he’d not been able to get hold of him. He took a deep breath. ‘You’ve been to the doctors.’

‘
No secret.’

‘
I know. Is everything okay?’

‘
Why shouldn’t it be. Just my annual check-up.’

‘
Barry, you know Beth’s a nurse. And I know that an annual check-up does not run to two sessions back-to-back. This is your pal talking to you.’

Barry lifted his head.
‘I’ve got angina.’ Suddenly his eyes glistened.

Hunter was silent for a moment.
Then he said, ‘Okay, I know about angina. Have they said how bad?’

‘
I’ve had all the tests. They’ve put me on medication – tablets.’

‘
Tablets are okay, Barry. Tablets mean it’s not too serious – doesn’t it?’ Very quickly, Hunter realised what he had just said. He added, ‘You know what I mean, Barry.’

‘
Yeah, I know, Hunter.’

‘
Did the doc say anything else?’

‘
She told me my blood pressure was high as well. I’ve been given tablets for that as well. And she gave me a few leaflets and told me I need to make some lifestyle changes. The usual crap.’

‘
It’s not crap, Barry. Look, if you want I can ask Beth to have a chat with you. She might explain it better.’ He paused and then said, ‘I bet it’s been a bit of a shocker for you.’

Barry wiped his mouth and licked his lips.
‘To be honest, I know something hasn’t been right with me for a couple of months now. I’ve been having chest pains a while now. That do with Adam Fields was a shot across the bows.’ He caught Hunter’s eyes. ‘But I’m not ready to peg it yet. She says if I do as I’m told I’ve got a good few years of collecting my police pension still.’ He cracked a grin.

Hunter felt the mood had lightened.

‘Did the doc say anything else?’

‘
She said if I changed my diet and lost some weight it would help. I guess it’s my own fault. I’ve burned the candle at both ends for far too long. It’s finally caught me up.’

Hunter pushed himself up.
‘Look, I’ll get Beth to sit down with you and go through everything. Put your mind at ease.’ He slipped out from behind the desk. ‘In the meantime I’ll stick the kettle on, cos I’ve got some questions to ask about Polly’s case.’ As he passed Barry, he rested a hand on his shoulder. ‘You’ll be fine, mate. In a couple of weeks’ time you’ll be back to your old self. You watch.’

As Hunter walked towards the
tea-making facilities he glanced back over his shoulder. He caught Barry wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Suddenly, he felt for him. As he started up the kettle, he shot back another glance. Barry had his head resting in his hands and was staring into space. Hunter returned his gaze to the gurgling kettle. His thoughts drifted. Barry was the one of hardest men he’d come across but he could tell this news had floored him. He knew that he would be worrying about the long term implications of this diagnosis. Barry’s life revolved around policing. He thought about how he could settle the big man’s turmoil. As the kettle went into its final burst he determined that he would speak with Beth first for advice and then, like he’d done with him in the past, take him down to the pub to talk things through.