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

had been one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do – she wondered if he was still stood at the other side and contemplated knocking again and dragging him to her place. He’d been ready to take her there and then, she could feel it in the quiet urgency of his kiss.

And she’d wanted him to.

If he’d followed her out of the flat, she’d have been lost.

She found it a little amusing to realise that she was still stood there contemplating going back inside.

Come on, Marlo, get a grip. You’re an adult, not a horny bloody teenager.

The telling off did little to chasten her, though – Home, now!

 

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Sunderland City Police HQ – 18 November

‘A

li, great, you’re early. We need coffee, well I do anyway. Izzy’s teething again – think I’ve had about two hours’ kip.’ Alex greeted Ali with a pat on the arm, guided him to the kitchen, and poured two cups, handing one over.

‘You OK, bro?’ asked Ali, taking the mug.

‘Yeah, am OK, the super’s office is free, we’ll go in there.’

‘What’s up?’ asked Ali, sitting down.

‘I think our cases might be linked. Hear me out before you say anything. Maynard senior’s suicide note says ‘I never meant to hurt the girls’. The shed where Connor was found is … well, I’ll call a spade a spade. It’s a fucking torture chamber. There’s a seat with wrist and ankle straps, a cage, and tools mounted on the wall.

‘Other than the blood off Connor and his uncle, the place was spotlessly clean. Ben said it stunk of bleach, though all I could smell was the metal from the blood. There was even a video camera set up in the corner though we didn’t find the memory card. Whatever Maynard senior was up to, it wasn’t good.

‘Then there’s the uncle, Fred Rockingham, or Rocko as he’s known to the local thugs. Intel have had a few bites come through. They were about to put an UC in place to build a case.’ He referred to an undercover cop, someone sent into the organisation to gather evidence. ‘Rocko has his fingers in a lot of pies, it appears, long record from years ago for being a pimp, and running drugs. This was down in the Midlands, like, but still.’

‘Sounds like a lovely guy – not,’ said Ali sarcastically.

‘We’re still looking for the memory card, but it’s not a huge leap that the girls he refers to in the letter could be your girls from the reservoir, right? Maynard also states he got the girls off Rocko which ties in to the theory of the prostitution ring.’

‘Not a huge leap no, but it still feels like we’re missing something, though.’

‘Yeah, I know. Listen, I’m about to head to the hospital to see Connor. They’re taking him off the ventilator this morning and I wanna be there before professional standards stick their beaks in and rip this out from under me. Do you think he’s dirty?’

‘Dunno, bro. In all honesty, he seems like a canny lad, if a little hot-headed,’ said Ali, recalling the comments Connor had made at their first meeting.

‘Hmm, OK well I’ll catch you later. Don’t get too comfy in that chair, mind, the super’ll be in any second.’ Alex grinned and left the room.

The chair was comfortable, though. He was almost tempted to take it with him and use it in the office. But that would provoke a whole war he didn’t want to be in the middle of.

Sunderland City Police HQ – 18 November

‘So far, we’ve searched the car park, the section of walkway leading to the tower and the path down to the beach area. Surprisingly, it’s quite clean. We’ve picked up the usual suspects, cans, cigarette butts and what not, but nothing that points immediately towards a suspect. There was nothing on the wall by the tower, but we did find a button right underneath the historic sign that was mounted, possibly from a coat or a cardigan. We’re heading back out in the morning.’ Tony Cartwright’s explanation was short and sweet, and Ali nodded in agreement.

‘OK great, get yourself off home, Tony. We’ll catch-up when you get back in tomorrow,’ said Ali.

‘My turn,’ said Cass. ‘I need to get back for Izzy. The whole scene’s been photographed – we’ve taken a couple of casts of footwear marks from the mud at the edge of the car park where the path meets. They’ve already been looked at by the footwear technician who hasn’t got anything matching on the database. The fingernail scrapes from each victim have gone for DNA, but I reckon the best chance of an ident is from the last girl to be dumped.

‘All the usable plastic sheets have been sent for chemical after being dried, and I know Jeff’s coming in early to do it tomorrow. It’ll take him a while like, he has to cut them to fit in the superglue chamber and I know Andrea, the assistant lab tech there, is off on leave at the minute. From the looks of the trace, we’ve got a few hairs that don’t match the vic’s, doesn’t look like there’re any roots but mitochondrial might be usable if we have the killer’s mum’s DNA on file. The clothing the girls had on was pretty generic, Primarni’s best, most of it. Just usual stuff kids of that age would wear. The rope has been retained but will probably be too contaminated to yield any evidence. Best we’ll get is manufacturer info and where the local sellers are.’

‘OK, Cass, thanks. I haven’t had my thumbnails from the PMs or the scene yet though. Can you chase up whoever you’ve got tasked and get them over to me asap so I can put them in the file?’ He referred to the thumbnail-sized images of the