Tested by Fire by David Costa (the little red hen read aloud TXT) 📗

He could see from the caretaker’s face that he knew what Reece meant. His smoking habit was obvious but when he realised he wasn’t in trouble, he relaxed.

‘I’ll help in whatever way I can.’

‘We’re interested in a new tenant who may have moved in yesterday. Do you have these records?’

‘If they moved in yesterday, then the first I might know about it is if they’re on my system here.’ As he spoke, he pointed at the laptop.

‘Can you fire it up please and check now?’ said Reece.

He was glad he’d gone in softly softly with this man. He’d seen people in the past who, when being questioned by someone like Reece, automatically start to put barriers. Quoting their rights and asking for legal representation.

‘Yes of course.’ Williams turned to the laptop and after pressing a few buttons he brought up a screen showing the list of tenants in the building.

‘The only new tenant moving in yesterday was a Mister and Mrs Grey in apartment C12.’

‘What floor is that and what direction do the windows face?’ asked Reece.

Mary was impressed how Reece had worked this man and got him onside without pressure.

‘As the number says, it’s C12 so on the twelfth floor. It faces to the back of the building with a balcony and patio type glass doors onto the balcony.’

‘Did you see or speak to them?’ asked Reece.

‘No, they could have come in at any time to view it or move in. I didn’t see them. I only see people when they have problems or if we cross in the hall. The estate agents that are registered with my system just update it remotely when people move in or out.’

‘Does your front door CCTV record people coming in and out?’

‘Yes, it’s on a twenty-four-hour loop before it wipes itself and starts again at 9 a.m. every day.’

Reece looked at his watch 8.15 a.m. Something’s going our way for a change, he thought.

‘Can you bring the CCTV up from around 4 p.m. yesterday?’

‘Yes, no problem.’

Again, the caretaker pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and a grainy picture of the front door entrance came up on the laptop screen. The clock in the corner of the screen showed the time running down from 4 p.m. As it was nearing the end of the working day and students returning from college, there was a lot of people coming and going.

Looking over the caretaker’s shoulder, Reece asked, ‘Can you fast forward it until I ask you to stop?’

‘Yes, no problem.’

For the next few minutes Reece and Mary watched the screen, Reece asking the caretaker to freeze the frame on two occasions until at 5.23 p.m. he asked him to freeze the screen once more. The pictures were in black and white but even though the picture wasn’t very clear, he could see it was a woman wearing a scarf but Reece believed it was Sharon Lyndsey. Reece made the caretaker replay the frame five or six times and took a screenshot with his mobile as the caretaker informed him, he couldn’t do it because of confidentiality for clients.

‘Breach of confidentiality will be the least of your worries,’ said Reece. ‘If you obstruct me anymore, you’ll be doing twenty years in Strangeways.’ The look on the caretaker’s face told Reece he got the message.

It was the best that Reece could do, and he didn’t have time to argue. Playing the footage again, Reece pressed his hand hard into the caretaker’s shoulder and shouted, ‘Stop.’ A tall man wearing a baseball cap with a clear NY logo had entered the building about twenty minutes after the woman. The man was carrying a large bag of some sort over his shoulder. Mary gasped, Reece could see from her expression and the fear in her eyes she knew who it was.

‘Are you sure, Mary?’ he asked.

She looked closer at the frozen picture. The man was looking straight ahead but had lifted his head slightly to see what floor the lift was on. It wasn’t a full-face picture but enough for Mary to see the nose and mouth. This, along with the way the man had walked from the door to the lift, confirmed for her that she was looking at Sean Costello.

‘Yes, I’m sure, I wish I wasn’t.’

That was good enough for Reece. He stepped outside the office and spoke into his body mike.

‘Alpha Control and Alpha Team, be aware that we’ve confirmed identification of Sean Costello in this building believed at this time to be in apartment C12. I’m going through the last twenty-four hours of CCTV and we have him entering the building fifteen minutes after a woman who may be Lyndsey around 5.30 p.m. yesterday. I’ll check the rest of CCTV which isn’t great quality.’

Reece went back into the caretaker’s office and took another photo of the man and sent both photos out to the team and Jim Broad. He spoke to the caretaker, ‘Let’s keep going through it until this morning.’

Stopping the CCTV on two more occasions, he watched their target, Tourist One, enter and leave the building returning with the carryout dinner they’d seen him buy the night before. Now he knew for certain it was food for Lyndsey and Costello and that all three were still in the building, most likely in apartment C12.

When the CCTV had caught up with the clock on the wall of the office, it was now 8.30 a.m. Residents were starting to come and go through the front door.

April Grey’s voice came over the radio confirming that Tourist One had just left the building and had turned right in the direction of Peter Street and the front of the Midland Hotel.

‘Alpha Four, keep with him, everyone else hold your ground,’ instructed Reece.

Steve Harrison left the warmth of the BMW and