Page 22 of Nothing But the Night (Basic Instincts 2)

“Not until midday. He’s serving papers down in Durham and is meeting a client afterwards.”

At least he wouldn’t have to face his partner and deliver an update on the unexpected twist the case had taken. He made cups of tea for Olivia and himself and went into his office.

He’d been right about one thing. Dan’s murder had featured fourth on the morning’s local news update and hadn’t made it into any of the newspapers, though it would have occurred after they went to press anyway. Dan’s name hadn’t been mentioned on thenews and his gut instinct was that, unless there was of dearth of other things to report, it wouldn’t go much further. It was a miserable fact of modern times that the murder of a single young black man didn’t warrant a lot of attention from the mainstream media.

Jason opened the contacts on his phone and skimmed through. It had only struck him on that drive in that he might have a source of information. He scrolled to C.Bingo. Benito Coppola. The DS who’d been at the scene last night. Jason had helped the police out with an assault case about fifteen months ago. He’d saved Benito’s details in case they should ever come in handy. Today was that day.

Benito answered after five rings. “I’m off duty,” he grumbled. “About to go to bed. I was on night shift, remember?”

“Sorry,” Jason said. “I didn’t appreciate the time.”

“So, what is it? Did you suddenly remember something you forgot to tell us last night?”

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you,” Jason said, giving it maximum charm. “I take it you’re not involved in the case.”

“Picked it up when I was on duty. My part is done. You need to contact C.I.D. to speak to the officers involved.”

“You must have checked out the CCTV. Did that confirm what we told you?”

A sigh. “It did. We’ve got you arriving and leaving at exactly the time you said.”

“And there I was, thinking you didn’t believe me.”

“I don’t believe anything anyone says until I have evidence for it.”

“Wise man. So, what else does the footage show? You’ve got the killer or killers on camera, right?”

Benito laughed. “Whose investigation is this? I’m not going to tell you anything.”

Jason turned the charm up higher. “Oh, come on. I just need to know if this is connected to something I’m looking into.”

“The mysterious person Dan was going to give you information about?”

“That’s right.”

“You’re a lying bastard.”

“Did it look like a gang feud? That’s all I need to know.”

There was a long pause before Benito said. “Someone came in ten minutes before you did. Dressed all in black and wearing a balaclava.” He hung up before Jason could ask anything else.

Jason stared into space. Well, it certainly sounded like a gang hit. But these days, most gangs were armed with guns. They were cold and efficient. The knife attack on Dan had been frenzied. Jason could see from the extent of Dan’s injuries that he’d been stabbed multiple times. That didn’t sound like bad business. It was more personal.

The killer had got there just after ten when the gym closed. If he and Marc had been early, they would have walked in on it. And what? Been able to stop it? Become victims themselves?Damn it. What the fuck is going on?

His gut told him the two cases were connected, but how? There was no way the killer could have known Dan was about to talk to them about Theo, unless Dan had told them himself. And even so, what had Dan known that was so important it had cost him his life?

Soloman Archer?It seemed a likely fit. Theo had been escorting for Soloman… Maybe it went further than that. Maybe Dan was involved too. Threesomes? Sex parties? How many other guys might Soloman have paid for sex?

Jason pulled up his list of the men he’d so far identified as working with Theo. Trace Grey had already told him to “get to fuck” and had blocked him on all his social media accounts. Trace, whoever he was, had something to hide. He’d spoken briefly with another two men, but they had both said their sessions with Theo had been one-time deals. Neither of them was local to Blyham, and one of them had been living in Berlin for seven months. He checked whether any of the other models he’d contacted had replied and there was nothing new. Fine. The next step was to find out their real identities. It was never as easy to identify someone’s IP address as it appeared on TV, but it wasn’t impossible either.

He spent the next hour gathering all the relevant information available on the guys Theo had worked with, and once the bundle was ready he sent it to Brody, the IT wizard the firm used when they needed something fast. Jason had never met Brody in person. Ryman had assured him it was better that he didn’t. Brody’s methods and the systems he had access to weren’t one hundred percent legal, but he got results. They billed his services as a maintenance expense for the office software system.

Jason checked his case notes again. He’d written camera operator and drawn a big circle around it.Yes.That had to be the next important step. He’d already pointed out to Marc that Theo’s videos were of a far higher quality than those of his peers. His clips were first rate. That level of professionalism couldn’t be achieved with a couple of iPhones, a selfie light and afriend who didn’t mind getting into intimate places. Theo had had help.

None of the sex work models credited their camera people. Jason guessed that was because they had more mainstream work and didn’t want to be blacklisted from the wedding and christening market for shooting porn on the side. It was the next line of enquiry worth pursuing. Dan had even promised to give him the contact details for their regular guy. No chance of that now.

Jason opened a search engine and started looking at all the professional photographers in Blyham.

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