Dying Eyes (19 page)

Brian cleared his throat. “Seagulls, Inspector. I saw some seagulls causing a bit of, um, commotion‌–‌”

“Do you always go chasing seagulls when you’re meeting the missus, Brian?” A normal man would have smiled. Winked. Given some sort of indication that he was joking. Price wasn’t one of those men. He waited, serious-faced, for an answer as Brian’s ears began to heat up.

“No. No, I don’t.”

Price grunted. “It’d explain a lot.”

“Look, I found this blue-green algae in the docks, and Jeeves found traces of blue-green algae in Nicola Watson’s underwear. Signs that she’d been in water. If I could just speak to Luther, this could all make so much more sense.”

Price raised his eyebrows. “I don’t see what else there is to say. We’ve got semen samples. We’ve got a confession that he was dating the girl. And now this, from right outside BetterLives HQ. It’s just an extra. Maybe they had a fight or something. Who knows?”

“It just doesn’t add up.”

“What doesn’t?”

“I just think it’s strange. Why would a man try to drown a girl and then take her to a brothel?”

Price shrugged. “We’ve got people at Luther’s at the moment‌–‌people inspecting his home and people inspecting his office. It’s not looking good for him. You should chill out. Go for a beer. You’ve done all right.”

“Did anything show up in his office? Wet clothes, anything like that?”

Price shook his head. “His office seems relatively clean, as is his house. The only wet clothes were inside the washing machine.”

“Wait‌–‌there were wet clothes in his washing machine?”

Price smiled. “Of course there bloody well were!”

“And did you have them checked? Did you‌–‌”

“There’s no need right now,” Price snapped. “We’ve got our man, Brian. We’ve got him. If we need to check some bloody wet clothes, we will, but right now, you need to let go. Go home, Detective. You’ve done great.”

Brian sighed, defeated. He’d be willing to wager a bet that those clothes had a trace of blue-green algae on them. The question was, why? He had the pieces of the jigsaw in front of him. If he could just speak to Luther, he could slot it all together…

“Granted, you’ve pissed off the press and made the police look like fucking party poopers again, but it’s in the name of what’s right, eh?”

Brian couldn’t tell quite how much Price was joking and how much was deadly seriousness. “I need to speak to Luther, just for a few minutes. I know it’s not ideal, but anything I can learn about this, it’s for the better.”

Price sighed. He had nowhere to hide now. He needed to give Brian a straight answer.

“No,” Price said. “We formally charge Luther tomorrow. There’s no way I’m risking you meddling with the case on some hunch. We’ve made too many mistakes here, Detective Sergeant. Luther’s thirty-six hours of holding are almost up, and I am
not
applying to the Chief Superintendent for an extension, not with the bad rep we’ve been getting lately. We charge Luther tomorrow. Go home, Brian. Go home.”

Brian stood helpless as Price walked back inside his office. He turned around to the holding cells, where DC Carlton guarded the entrance. He had to speak to Luther. The blue-green algae wasn’t a coincidence. It couldn’t be. Maybe it just further implicated Luther, but Brian couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that there was more to it than first seemed.

What was Luther hiding? Brian looked down the corridor. A few officers walked by, engaged with their own work. Price’s office door was shut. If Brian knew the Detective Inspector as well as he thought he did, he wouldn’t come out of that office for anybody at this time of day. Mealtime.

“Fuck it,” he muttered under his breath as he headed towards the holding cells.

DC Carlton smiled at Brian as he approached. “DS McDone. How’s the case coming along?”

Brian stopped beside him and leaned against the door to the holding cells. Luther’s was on the far right. “Not bad, not bad. How’s things with you these days?”

Carlton chuckled. “All’s good in the hood, as they say!”

Brian laughed in return. Carlton was a wet lettuce of an officer, an absolute suck-up to anybody and everybody. He was friendly, but just too friendly for this game. If Brian couldn’t fool DC Carlton into leaving his post for a few minutes, then he couldn’t fool anybody.

“Glad to hear it. Say, you don’t mind grabbing me a pasty from the shop, do you? I’ve just realised I’ve got some reports to log. Don’t want to risk the wrath of the powers above, huh?”

DC Carlton shuffled his feet and looked around. “Well, I’m not supposed to leave, but‌–‌”

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep my spare eye on the cells. Leave the keys with me just in case, if you want?”

“Well, I…‌Okay, okay. Meat and potato?”

Brian paused for a moment as Carlton handed him the keys. He was gullible, but
this
? “Ask for gluten-free meat and potato, please. Failing that, a chicken tikka wrap. Failing that…‌well, just leave it for now, okay?” He smiled at him. He’d bought himself as much time as he possibly could. Was there even such thing as gluten-free meat and potato? What even
was
gluten, anyway?

DC Carlton nodded and then scooted off from his post, whistling away as he walked.

When Carlton turned the corner, Brian did a final scan over his shoulder then sneaked through the door to the holding cells.

He kept his head down as he walked towards Luther’s cell. He couldn’t actually believe how easily he’d managed to get in here. Poor DC Carlton, at the food counter pleading for gluten-free meat and potato just to put a smile on Brian’s face.

Brian turned back ‘round as he slipped the key for Cell 241 into the door. If Price found out, he’d eat him alive. But they didn’t have much time, and there were things he needed to understand, things that could aid the case. He held his breath and turned the key.

Luther was slumped on the bed wearing his blue pyjamas. He barely reacted to Brian’s entrance. His typically well-groomed face had turned a shade of grey, like a dead fish. His hair, usually so slick and parted in the centre, drooped from his head in a grimy, tangled mess.

“Mr. Luther.” Brian edged towards the middle of the room.

“Detective.” Robert tilted his head up and puffed out his chest as if to cling to some sort of dignity. He was emasculated, totally ruined, as he sat on the edge of that bed. He wasn’t even trying to fight.

“Sleep well last night?”

Luther’s disdainful eyes narrowed. Stupid question. Did anybody ever sleep well in here? Brian certainly didn’t. He’d done his fair share of time in holding cells when he was younger‌–‌drunk and disorderly, and the like. No matter how tough he might have appeared to his friends, it terrified him every single time.

“Look, I can’t stay for long, but there’s something I found that I was wondering if you could tell us anything about.” Brian crouched beside Luther.

“Is it going to prove my innocence?”

“It will help advance the case.” Brian pulled the blue-green algae sample out of his top pocket and slipped it into Luther’s hand.

Luther moved his thumb over it, his eyes focused on the sample, paying attention to every little crevice.

“Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. We found it in the docklands opposite BetterLives HQ. It was also in Nicola Watson’s underwear. Why would it be there?”

Luther slowed down his investigating of the algae sample and smirked. “Of course. More evidence from your guys. That’s all you want from me, to use me and destroy me.”

“It is pretty conclusive,” Brian cut in. “Traces of you inside her. A clear motive. And now this. Bacterial evidence that Nicola Watson was in the water right beside your little HQ. Yet you still claim you’re innocent.”

“I don’t argue because you’ve already done all the damage you possibly can. Say it turns out I didn’t kill her. Say you find something else out, and you release me, and if I am innocent‌–‌then what? What do I have to go back to? BetterLives is ruined. My friends won’t be able to look me straight in the eye again. I’m finished…”

Brian smiled. “You say
if
you’re innocent. Doesn’t sound like a man with a lot of faith in himself.”

Luther wiped his eyes and shook his head. “You police officers and your way with words…”

Brian stood up and circled Luther. “Look, Robert. I don’t have long here. Either you tell us what’s going on concerning the water, or you don’t. You were in a relationship with her. She turned down your proposal. And who knows what happened next? But Nicola Watson was in the water that night. And you know something about that, don’t you?”

Luther’s gaze danced around the cold, hard floor. He sighed and scratched at his arms.

“Did you push her in? Is that it? Tried to drown her but couldn’t quite bring yourself to finish the job? Did you dump her in your nice company car and have her ditched at the brothel? Is that it?” Brian leaned in and studied Luther’s evasive face. “Did you just want to see what it might feel like to kill her? A test run? Hmm? See what that power felt like? See if you had it‌–‌”

“I saved her life, okay?” Robert shouted. Saliva dribbled down his mouth, his eyes bloodshot. Somewhere behind Brian, the door swung open and a guard barged into the cell.

“Come on,” he said to Brian. “You shouldn’t be in here.”

Brian held his arm up to block the guard’s grasp. “Wait. What did you say?”

Luther rested his head in his hand. “I…‌I saved her life.”

Brian frowned. “What do you mean, Robert? Come on, I don’t have all day.”

Robert stood up. He took deep breaths and tried to calm himself, but his hands and chin still shook with nerves. “That night. The night it happened. She came to me after I’d had a few drinks at the staff gathering. It was late‌–‌no later than she usually saw me‌–‌but something didn’t seem right. She was distant, and…‌and she was trying to tell me something, I think.”

Brian scurried around in his pocket for his diary. He shoved the guard away from him. “What was she trying to tell you?”

“I don’t know.” Luther looked Brian in the eye. “She was kind of ranting. Going on about something she’d found out and something the world needed to know, and how she wasn’t sure if I could find out yet. I told her to stop being stupid. I was cold. I was cold because I was worried someone would see her there in my office and get suspicious.”

“Come on now, McDone,” the guard said. “I won’t tell you aga‌–‌”

“Shut up,” Brian said, turning to the guard. “Can’t you see? This is fucking important, all right?”

The guard backed down, cowering. Showed him for what he really was.

“What does this have to do with the water?”

Luther slipped his fingers through his hair again. “She left. And then I saw her on the edge of the docklands. She was going to jump. And then…‌she jumped.”

Butterflies tickled Brian’s stomach. “She tried to kill herself?”

“I don’t know,” Luther said. “I don’t know. But if I hadn’t gone down there…‌If I hadn’t jumped in and got her out, she’d have frozen. Or died.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this earlier?”

“Because I knew this would happen. I knew it would all point back to me and ruin the charity anyway, so I just couldn’t risk that. Our charity and the implications of our relationship…‌I was scared. I was just scared.”

“Okay, okay.” Brian’s head spun with theories. “Where did she go after you got her out of the water?”

Luther looked cooler now, and his hands no longer shook. “She came back to the offices. We sat and had a drink to warm up. Didn’t talk, just sat.”

“And this was at what time?”

“Around twelve. Around then. I’m not sure. It was a blur. I was tired. Bit shocked.”

Twelve. So close to the murder. So, so close to the time of death.

“She was worried about someone. She said someone was after her. Then that was it. She went.”

“What do you mean she ‘went’?”

“I was going to order her a cab, but it was late and the rates were expensive, so I had one of our drivers take her home. That’s the last I saw of her.”

“Wait,” Brian interrupted, goose pimples spreading across his skin. “A driver?”

Luther shrugged. “Yeah. It seemed like the sensible thing to do. Get her home and get her warm. If only I’d known.”

Brian’s stomach rattled with adrenaline. “Did you see the driver?”

Luther scanned the room. “No…‌I assumed it was all right. Besides, you’ve checked the drivers‌–‌”

“We didn’t check the drivers. We…” Brian remembered Price’s words when he’d asked Luther to show him the rota. “
Final straw, Brian.
“ Then, nothing more said of it. Nothing more investigated.

“You don’t think…” Luther started.

“Where can I see that rota?”

“It should be on my desk, like it always is.”

The room swirled as the realisation started to dawn on Brian. He tried to process stimuli as he shook Luther’s hand and left the cell. Luther said things to him, asked him questions, but it was pointless.

“Come on, you,” the guard said as he pulled Brian into the corridor.

The world buzzed around him.

They were so wrong about all of this. All this time, and they’d been looking in the wrong place.

The guard slammed the cell door shut, sour after the disrespect Brian had shown him. He held Brian’s arms and pushed him along the corridor like a criminal. Brian thought about apologising for the exchange, but that was no use. If the guard wanted to, he could go away, throw darts at pictures of Brian’s face‌–‌whatever guards did to let off steam.

Price was waiting for him at the other end of the corridor, shaking his head. Cassy was by his side. “Detective Sergeant, do I need to remind you what I told you five minutes ago?”

“Price, I was right. There’s more to it. There’s‌–‌”

“You’ve gone against policy, Brian. You’ve committed a very serious offence, not just against this police department, but against my trust.” He snatched the keys from the guard’s hands and stuffed them in his pocket. “Is there anything you have to say for yourself?”

“I want some officers down at the Watson household. Right this second.”

Price frowned. “What d’you mean?”