Page 72 of Ticket Out

Someone at Notting Hill nick had obviously alerted the press, and he, Sergeant Yates, and some of Yates’s bobbies had dragged the man he now knew was Russ Holler out of Gabriella’s address under the scrutiny of at least three reporters.

The number interested in the case was now many times more than that.

That made New Scotland Yard interested. Hence the call into the big boss’s office.

Detective Superintendent Halberd looked up, over Whetford’s head, and made eye contact with James.

“It sounds as if I should be asking questions of your bagman, Whetford. Archer?”

James straightened. “DI Whetford was busy on other business,” he said. “I took the lead in the case.”

“Lay it out for me.”

James gave him a concise account, leaving out extraneous details, and then leaned back against the wall as Halberd tapped his lips, watching him with interest.

So far, James had flown under the radar at the Met. He had the feeling he’d woken the dragon, and it was aware of him now.

“So this Mr. Big is still out there?” Halberd said eventually.

James gave a nod. “Russ Holler won’t give him up. He’s too frightened of him.”

“Any way we can persuade this Lenny Foster character to talk? With the threat that he could go down for the murders of Sam Nealy and Patty Little?”

James shook his head. “He’s got an alibi for Patty’s death. We could make a case for Sam Nealy, but it’d be weak. And I don’t think he did it.”

“What about a drugs charge?” Halberd leaned forward. “They were selling narcotics in the clubs, weren’t they?”

“I’d love to stick him with a drugs charge, but he might well be right about LSD. It looks like it isn’t illegal.”

“What about his attack on the Swiss chemist?” Whetford asked. “That’s what he was arrested for, wasn’t it?”

James gave a nod. “Assault is about all we can pin on him right now. And obstructing a police investigation, if we really want to go hard.”

“I want to go hard,” Halberd said. “Maybe he can be convinced to give us more.”

James lifted a shoulder. “I don’t think Lenny knows too much more. Mr. Big was their competition in the clubs. He attacked Devenish’s operation by killing Nealy and then Patty Little. Now he’s coming after Miss Farnsworth because he thinks she can identify him in relation to Patty’s death.”

“And can she?” Halberd asked.

“No. She never saw his face, and her description of the white van is too generic.”

“But he thinks there’s more to it?” Whetford asked.

“He has to. That’s why I waited in Miss Farnsworth’s flat to see if he’d make a move against her.”

“And he sent Russ Holler around to kill her.” Halberd said.

“Holler says not.” James had only had a brief conversation with Holler when he’d come round in the hospital, before the doctors had chased him off, but Holler had flatly denied intending to kill Gabriella.

“He was just popping round to say hello?” Halberd asked.

James’s lips quirked up. “He says he was told to abduct her. He had the white van parked down the street for exactly that purpose.”

“Why?”

James nodded. He agreed it was a very unlikely scenario. “He says Mr. Big wanted to find out what Miss Farnsworth knows and what she’s told us. Apparently Mr. Big said he’d let her go if she didn’t have any information.”

Halberd leaned back in disgust.

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