Time To Play by KA Richardson (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

was in charge of the PolSA search team that had been on duty the day Burton had been found.

‘Just a load of trash, boss. No knife or other bladed implement in the area. Evidence seized is just the generic stuff we’d expect to find in an alley: cans, crisp packets, and the like. We did find a couple of syringes which may tie into the drugs link. They’re in freezer storage so we can use them if need be. We did a search at his home too. Came up with twenty grand hidden under one of the floorboards. All unmarked, non-sequential bills of different denominations. His lass looked as shocked as we did, though she’s already asking for it. She seems to think he’s been squirreling money away for her and the bairn. There was a black notebook found also, but it reads like gobbledegook. It’s possibly some kind of code, but I don’t know a thing about that stuff.’

Ali nodded and looked at Charlie expectantly.

‘We’ve done the house-to-house. Surprisingly, no one saw or heard anything. Checked the Aldi store for CCTV but it’s been hit by vandals wanting to nick from the store without being watched. The engineer’s apparently scheduled to repair it next week – which doesn’t help us.

‘I’ve spoken with his girlfriend … Tracy I think her name is off the top of my head. She seems to think it’s down to his old life. Apparently, Burton was into some not so sweet and light things. She didn’t know what exactly but said that his old bosses had had her kidnapped when she was pregnant with the bairn which is now a few months old. It was never reported to police, but Danny apparently got it sorted, and is now out of the life. We all know it’s not that easy though.’

‘What was he into?’

‘She doesn’t know. She suspected it might be drugs but never found any evidence, and he kept her right out of it. Said he just called it “business”. She did say he hated it, though. The kidnapping was the last straw, apparently. To her knowledge he had finished with it all and was working at a garage in Southwick. The garage has never heard of him and confirm he’s never been an employee there. We’ve checked the associates on the intel systems, one listed as…’ Charlie paused as she checked her notes. ‘…Gary Dobson, though the intel’s a few years old now. The last address listed must be an old one, as the current tenants have no idea who Dobson is. We have a warrant out for a fail to appear from a couple of years ago, but it’s a reasonable assumption that Dobson is in the wind.

‘Danny’s younger brother, Kyle, is also listed. I’m attending his home address later today. The notebook Tony mentioned is being looked at by HQ at the minute, but they may well send off to a cryptographer to decipher if they can’t work it out up there.’

Kevin waited until Ali glanced his way before speaking.

‘Not a lot from the scene as it stands. PM showed the laceration to his neck to be cause of death. He bled out, though not in the alley. The body was dumped there. The initial crime scene is still to be established. We did swab the skin on his face. Burton had been beaten, so there’s a chance of mixed profile DNA. Might give us a lead. Submissions have already authorised it to be sent off. We did find trace amounts of sawdust on his clothing, which might be identifiable if we can locate something to compare it to. His mobile phone’s been sent over to Jacob Tulley in the digital forensics lab. He’s putting a rush on it, though you know how slow a rush is over there. Never seen such a busy department.

‘His nails were scraped at the PM, but Nigel doesn’t think there’s anything there as he had no evidence of defensive wounds. I’d hazard a guess he knew his attacker, but he might equally just have been surprised. His clothing is in the property store. I’ve tasked Johnny to do fibre tapes and check for trace today. You never know, our killer might’ve left us a hair or two.’

‘Great, thanks, guys.’

Kevin stood to leave, knowing it was the end of his part in the meeting. And Ali opened the second file.

Ryhope, Sunderland – 10 November

He couldn’t do it. For the first time, he felt something akin to regret. He just wanted this all to be over. His control was slipping and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. Panic threatened to overwhelm him. Not panic that the bodies would be found, the chances of that happening would be a miracle. He’d put them somewhere that no one would ever find them.

It wasn’t even the girl in the cage. He’d gone in the night before and fed her, given her some painkillers, and documented the session. She was stronger than the rest, he could tell. She would last the longest, which meant months of her learning. He knew she’d be the one to understand, too, to comprehend that he was just teaching her to be able to cope with the pain. It wasn’t his intent to be cruel, but they needed to learn.

No one should have to go through what he was feeling. It was so raw and strong at times that he thought his heart might actually split in two. Today was one of those days.

He was standing outside the room, his head leaning on the door frame, and was ashamed to admit that he was crying. Not massive great heaving sobs, but the silent tears that trickled down your cheek when you didn’t even realise they were there. The soul-destroying kind of sadness that hid so deep inside it was rarely released. It felt like it would never