Page 25 of Drift

For a moment, his look went around the garage, how the dark edges were chased away by the light, then he headed into the lounge. The Echo device sat close to the landline, and Gray looked at it for a moment.

“Alexa, replay last song.”

“Nessun dorma” from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera drifted through, and Gray tilted his head. That wasn’t “Every Breath You Take.”

“Hmm.” Gray asked Alexa to stop, then shut the property down and headed out. As he made it to one of the cars, his shoe caught a pebble, and he leaned down to get a look at it. Jason was too garden proud to leave stray pebbles around, and Gray picked it up with another evidence bag, then eased up, looking at the direction he’d seen the pebble thrown on the CCTV.

The house next to Bishop’s.

Slipping the bagged pebble in his pocket, he headed on over, at first doing a walk past the bay window, then to a pebbled feature housing a small fountain. Gray toed at the pebbles, then glanced back at the house. Blinds were closed, and his first ring of the bell was met with quiet. It was too late in the morning for them to be sleeping in, so either they’d gone to work and not aired the home or—

“Holiday.” Bishop came running over, keys in hand. “They’re away for two weeks, the Carvers.” He struggled to catch his breath. “I’m meant to be on house-sitting duty.” He offered Gray the keys. “Do you need to look around?”

“Just the perimeter, if that’s okay? Could you give them a call to ask their permission?”

“Of course.” Bishop turned away for a moment, tugging out his phone as Gray knelt and picked up one of the pebbles. He slipped it in a fresh evidence bag, then wroteCarveron the sample bag.

“You’re good to go,” said Bishop, coming back over. “I let them know yesterday what happened.” He winced. “It’s worrying them that you want to have a look around theirs, but the police have already said they might need to talk to them when they get back anyway.”

“Thank you. They will,” said Gray, and he nodded to the gate.

“Right.” Bishop let himself in, and a few moments later, the back gate opened up. “I’ll… just give the nod my way back at mine, and I’ll lockup once you’re done.”

Bishop knew when to back off, and Gray thanked him for it as he nodded. He let him head off, then he pushed on through the gate. A small alleyway with a few weeds welcomed him in, but after that, a garden as loved as Jason’s opened up. Gray’s interest stayed with the house, more the walkway around it, and he paced back and forth, eventually coming to rest by the drainpipe. He looked up to the roof, the access the pipe gave, then back down to the floor.

In amongst dried vomit, three pebbles from the front yard made a home there.

Tilting his head slightly, Gray crouched and took out an evidence bottle and bag.

The stones went in the bag, and he scraped at the ground for an emesis sample, then held up the stones to study them against the sun.

Stone throwers. He’d grown up with the best when it came to Light’s mother, and she’d learned from Gray how to throw and do the worst damage.

Those thrown at Tucker had missed.

Maybe deliberately? Maybe not.

But someone had been up there, watching, and they had a conscience, one deep enough to get them vomiting and throwing a warning Jason’s way. Maybe. DNA tests would hopefully lead to whoever had been here to see if that were the case. The drainpipe became his focus, and he took time working a sectionfree, catching a smudged handprint. No footprints were around the drainpipe, but he took a few photos all the same.

Samples taken, he headed out and closed the gate behind him, sending a small nod Bishop’s way, then headed for his own car.

He’d spend the next few hours at MI5, testing the thorns and other samples he’d taken, checking the latter over DNA against the database to see if a match could be found. He’d also run checks on the security system’s audio. The question was still there: how had they known Jason would leave at that particular time to go to the car if the thorns had been their main spike point? They must have had listening devices in the home. Gray had done a full sweep with his own equipment to check: the house had been clean. But that just meant they had a good cleanup crew.

Gray gave a hard sigh. They were definitely organised.

As he turned out of the road, a call came through on his personal phone.

“Are you heading back, boss?” said Ray.

“Not until later tonight. Problems?”

“Yeah,” Ray said quietly. “It could wait, but I’d rather discuss it whilst the manor is empty. It’s to do with Jack.”

Fuck. Secrets. Yeah. Gray had a few of his own. “On my way.”

A call to Shaun to let him know he was done and that he could tell Monique came next, mostly to let her know investigations were ongoing of a third-party involvement influencing Jason’s actions, but also to stress that this was confidential and not to be discussed. He’d also recommended that Shaun assign a press liaison officer to her and her family in case this broke on the news. But it left Gray tapping at the steering wheel.

Jan was around Jason’s family, a family who already been touched by one of Gray’s own. He knew Jan wouldn’t like it, but once Shaun told Monique, Jan would be denied any contact with her until this was all sorted.

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