Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery) (35 page)

They agreed they needed to check out what Katy had told them. To satisfy themselves that she was lying, they explored whether Jack could confirm her statement.

‘Tell us about your relationship with Katy.’

‘Katy? Katy what works at the bar?’

It took a while before Jack would admit that he had regular sex with Katy.

‘Why you want to know? What’s it to you?’

‘Just answer the question.’

‘Yeah, we was shagging. So? I get lots of pussy.’ He glanced at Geraldine and made a hissing noise with his tongue. ‘We done it at work mostly, in the ladies. There’s more room there than the men’s, and anyways it stinks in there. And the ladies got a lock on the door.’

‘You also went to her flat for sex?’

‘Sometimes we done it there. So what? The bitch is well up for it. Ain’t no one’s fucking business.’

‘When did you last have sex with her?’

‘What?’

‘Just answer the question. And don’t try pulling anything, because she’s told us everything. Now talk.’

Jack’s account of the evening matched what Katy had told them, right down to the detail about her wrapping the gun in paper towels to avoid touching it. He took it from her and put it in his pocket.

‘Why did you take it?’

‘It’s a gun, innit?’

‘Why didn’t you tell us all this before?’

Jack shrugged. ‘I ain’t gonna let you get my bro in no trouble. He ain’t like me. He ain’t like no one else I know. And I know he ain’t done nothing because he was home that night. I don’t never leave the front door unlocked. We take care of him, my ma and me. You ain’t gonna fit him up for this.’

‘So you were prepared to go to prison to protect your brother?’

Geraldine was surprised when Jack laughed at the question.

‘I ain’t going down for something I ain’t done. No way. You got no proof. I knew I’d never go down for it. Something would turn up. It always does. I always been lucky. Anyways you don’t scare me. Ain’t no way you gonna get me.’ He clicked his fingers.

Jack admitted he had given the gun to his brother to hide.

‘I give the shooter to my bro, Theo, because his room’s a mess – you seen it? He picks up stuff and hoards it, like a bleeding magpie, innit? So I think, if he hides the shooter in with all his gear, ain’t no one gonna find it in there. Only the stupid asshole takes it out, and he gets picked up with it. He ought never to have got out. My ma and me, we keep the front door locked so he can’t get out.’

Geraldine leaned forward. ‘We need you to think very carefully now, Jack. Did you see anyone in the corridor outside the toilet when you came out?’

‘Only some old tart.’

‘A woman?’ Geraldine and Adam exchanged a rapid glance. ‘Who was she?’

‘I dunno, do I? Just some old tart. I never seen her before.’ He looked up, his eyes alert with interest as he realised the significance of the woman’s presence in the corridor that night. ‘You think she done it?’

‘Can you describe her? This is very important, Jack.’

‘Yeah, I get you. You’re just wetting yourself thinking you got a suspect. Well, you’re in luck, because I’m good with faces. Yeah, I remember her. So what you gonna bung me for the info? You asking me to snitch. That’s worth some dosh, innit?’

The lawyer leaned over and muttered to Jack.

‘How about we substitute obstructing the police in a murder enquiry, withholding information, and accessory to murder, for starters, in place of a simple murder charge?’ Adam exploded.

‘Fucking hell, hush, man. All right then. This old tart, she was small with hair all over the place so I didn’t get much of a look at her face, not that I was bothered. She was skinny, and her face was bad, what I could see of it, like she’d had acne real bad, innit? And she had this big warty thing on her chin.’

After speaking to Jack, Geraldine took a break. Seeing Sam in the canteen, she went over to her table. Although she would have preferred to have a quiet coffee by herself, remembering Sam’s last words to her, she felt she ought to join her. Determined to avoid talking about anything other than the case, Geraldine launched into a theory that took account of Katy’s statement.

‘Basically, either Jack’s guilty or he confessed to stealing the gun to protect his brother, in which case he must know Theo’s guilty. Assuming that’s the case, perhaps Theo followed Jack and saw him mug David for his jacket. Theo was watching and he shot David, maybe because David resisted Jack. It was probably just a lucky shot. Then after that Theo followed Jack to work. I’m not sure why he shot someone else.’

‘Maybe he didn’t do it deliberately. He’s not all there, is he?’

‘Possibly.’

‘So let me get this straight,’ Sam said. ‘Now that we think it might not be Jack after all, we’re going to try and pin it on Theo again. And he’s an easy target, because we don’t really need a motive with him, do we?’

Geraldine sighed. They seemed to be casting around in a fog.

‘Katy was clear that she was with Jack when Luke was shot, but of course she could be lying to save his skin.’

‘What about the woman they saw leaving?’ Sam asked, dunking a biscuit in her tea.

Geraldine watched the chocolate on Sam’s biscuit melt as she lifted it out of the tea. She craned her neck forward to eat it over the cup so it couldn’t drip in her lap.

‘Katy was pretty vague about her, but Jack gave us quite a detailed description. When I’ve finished my coffee I’m going to get an e-fit – hang on.’

‘What is it?’

Geraldine stared at Sam, but the face she was thinking about didn’t belong to her colleague. ‘Jack said the woman they both saw had a wart on her chin.’

Sam stared back, oblivious of the drops of chocolate dripping from her biscuit on to the table. ‘Hasn’t Gina got a wart on her chin?’

‘Let’s go and find out.’

For once, Sam didn’t complain about abandoning her tea as they hurried from the canteen.

68

‘
T
AKE YOUR TIME,
Jack. Look very closely at these pictures and tell us if you recognise the woman you saw in the corridor outside the toilets at the bar.’

Jack gave an anxious nod. He understood how much might hang on his identifying the right woman.

‘I never got much of a look at her,’ he mumbled, as he gazed at each of the images in turn. ‘That’s the one,’ he cried out with sudden animation. ‘That’s the old tart what was there outside the toilets.’

Geraldine and Sam exchanged a glance. He had picked out the photograph of Gina.

‘Are you sure?’

‘She got that same fucking wart on her chin. How you gonna forget that? And her bad skin. If that ain’t the one, she got a twin what looks just like her.’

Geraldine had heard enough. She nodded at Sam. ‘Let’s go and see what she has to say about this.’

On the way, they conjectured about the significance of this new development, wondering what might have motivated Gina to shoot David and Luke. There was some sense in her killing David, as they knew she had got her hands on the ring he had bought for Laura. Lenny’s confession that he had stolen the ring from David could easily be a story he and his killer girlfriend had concocted to explain how his DNA came to be on the body, and how they came by the ring.

‘So, Gina and Lenny are out together. They come across David who’s drunk and lost, and set about mugging him. But something goes wrong – perhaps he fought back when Lenny assaulted him – and Gina shoots him. That all fits,’ Sam said. ‘But what was she doing in the bar, shooting Luke, and how the hell did she get him out of the window?’

‘He was quite slight,’ Geraldine pointed out.

‘Even so, it would have been awkward getting him over the window sill.’

‘The window’s above the toilet so he could have been trying to climb out, when he saw her aiming the gun. She shot him and he fell, or she gave him a final push, and he was out of the window and on the railings. She ran off, and slipped out of the place while the police were still on their way. Remember, everyone thought it was an accident to begin with. It wasn’t until the post mortem that the pathologist discovered he’d been shot.’

Gina’s heavy-lidded eyes glared up at Geraldine. ‘He’s out.’

‘It’s you we want to talk to,’ Geraldine said, quickly putting her foot inside the front door to prevent Gina from closing it.

‘I ain’t got nothing to say to you.’

Gina’s bony fingers tightened on the edge of the door.

‘Gina James, I’m arresting you on suspicion of the murders of David Lester and Luke Thomas. You do not have to say anything –’

Geraldine continued with the prescribed words throughout Gina’s shrill protests.

‘Get your fucking hands off me! Get off me!’

Once they had Gina behind bars, Geraldine went to report the details of Gina’s arrest. The problem facing them was that the CCTV in the bar hadn’t been working that night. They had only Katy and Jack’s word for it that anyone else had been in the toilet corridor when Luke was shot, and Jack was alone in claiming to recognise Gina. They didn’t have to look far to find a motive for him to identify a fresh suspect. All the same, it seemed unlikely he had picked her out at random, given that she lived with Lenny who was involved in David’s death.

A check of Gina’s Oyster card showed no travel recorded on the night in question. She could have bought an individual train or bus ticket, or even taken a cab to cover her tracks, so the card didn’t offer conclusive proof that she hadn’t been in Central London that evening. The VIIDO team set to work looking through hours of CCTV from stations and nearby Oxford Street, to try and spot Gina in the area that evening. It was going to take days to complete the search, with no guarantee they would spot her on the busy streets and platforms, if she had been there at all.

‘A confession would be helpful,’ Adam said, as though it was in Geraldine’s power to obtain one. ‘See what you can do this time, Geraldine.’

With an anxious glance at the duty lawyer sitting at her side, Gina flatly denied having been in London on either of the two nights mentioned. As she spoke, her eyes darted nervously from Geraldine to Sam and back again. She was trembling, and her voice shook.

‘I don’t hardly never go out and I do know for a fact I was home the night Lenny was let out because I was at home waiting in for him only he never come home till the morning. No way was I going out when he might’ve walked in any time. Not in a million years. You gotta be joking. And the night the other geezer copped it, you told me that was when Lenny was banged up in custody again – for no bloody reason – so what the hell would I be doing out in London when he was inside? I don’t never go out at night without him. Where would I go? I ain’t got no dosh.’

‘If you were there, we’ll find out,’ Geraldine said, in as menacing a tone as she could muster. ‘If you were in London, near Oxford Street, on those two evenings, it would be better for you if you came clean straight away. You’ll only make it worse for yourself if you lie to us.’

‘Oh shut it, for fuck’s sake. I told you I weren’t there,’ Gina snapped. Her words were feisty, but her shaking voice betrayed her terror.

‘Just think about what you’re saying –’

‘My client has made her response to your allegations perfectly clear,’ the brief cut in.

It was perfectly understandable for Gina to feel apprehensive. She had been arrested on a murder charge. But Geraldine wondered if there was another reason why she was so frightened.

69

‘
Y
OU’VE BEEN OUT
and about a lot,’ Neil commented when Geraldine returned to her desk to write up her log. ‘You’ve hardly been here lately. I gather you’re getting somewhere?’

She brought him up to speed. He must have known she was using the opportunity to review the case for herself, but he listened attentively all the same.

‘So you’ve got a new suspect. That’s good.’

‘Yes, but we need to get something more definite than an identification by another suspect. He’s obviously trying to get himself off the hook. And we’ve got no evidence to place her at the scene. CCTV cameras at the bar weren’t working that evening –’

‘Typical!’

‘And the only other possible eye witness didn’t get a look at the suspect’s face. No one else working at the bar remembers seeing the suspect there that night, or any night come to that, and there’s no sign of her so far on CCTV at or near local stations or bus stops. None of that means she wasn’t there, but we’ve not got enough to place her there.’

‘No telltale prints on the gun?’

‘Nothing. That gun’s been wiped clean so many times it’s not true. Any prints that were there have been smeared and smudged into each other to make them all totally indistinguishable. It looks like it was handled with gloves, as were the bullets we found. It seems like a few people handled it without any direct contact. It’s still being examined but if forensics haven’t found anything yet, it’s unlikely they will. It’s not that easy.’

Leaving the team studying video footage, Geraldine went home. It had been a long day, full of dramatic developments which had led nowhere. She opened a bottle of her favourite red wine, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, poured herself a glass, and sipped it as she made herself a huge bowl of pasta, sprinkled with cheese. It was a simple meal, and quick to make. Ignoring a missed call from earlier on from Louise, she settled down and tried to relax. Sometimes inspiration could strike when she put an investigation out of her mind, but that wasn’t easy to do. Finishing her pasta, she stacked the dishes in her small dishwasher, and returned to her sofa with the bottle of wine. She poured herself a second glass and leaned back, breathing deeply, doing her best to unwind.