Page 79 of Return Ticket

Whatever the reason, she could not see James, or anyone else for that matter.

When they’d arrived, they’d been greeted by someone with a torch, and so she’d caught a glimpse of a wall, stairs leading downward, and a man in uniform, but that was all.

She felt as if she were in a cloud-like cocoon, where no sound or light could penetrate.

According to the clock on the dashboard, forty minutes later four figures emerged beside the car, and she straightened in her seat, unaware until now that she had slumped right down.

“It’s definitely her,” James was saying. “We have a case file. I’ve brought it with me, if you need any of the details right now.”

“You have a suspect, don’t you?” one of the men asked, and she realized his bulk was due to the life jacket he was wearing.

“I think it was the father. I don’t know if it was premeditated, but my information is that he liked to hit his wife and daughter around, and the daughter had had enough and was saving up to move out.” James lifted his shoulders. “I think they might have both been drinking, and he hit her harder than he meant to. Or maybe he did mean to kill her. That can be up to the pathologist to decide. And you. But you’ll have trouble because he’s a big man at the docks.”

The other man swore. “That’s great.”

James shrugged again. “We conducted interviews with the family, and with the victim’s friend, and we’ll give copies of those to you.”

“Appreciate it, mate.” Both men turned and were gobbled up by the white fog.

James and Hartridge got into the car, bringing with them the smell of river water and, faintly, of decomposition.

“What’s your preference, Ian?” James turned around in his seat. “Do you need to get back to the office or can I drop you at the barracks?”

“The barracks,” Hartridge said, and then leaned back and closed his eyes.

Gabriella said nothing, having a feeling both men were decompressing after seeing something terrible, and Hartridge slid out of the car when they reached the barracks where he lived with barely a murmured goodbye.

“Thank you for being so patient.” James glanced at her as he pulled away. “I know it was asking a lot.”

“I know why you asked.” Gabriella left it at that. There could surely be nothing constructive to say about whatever James had had to deal with at the river, so she asked the question both she and Hartridge had been desperate to know the answer to. “What did your boss want? Are you all right?”

James was silent for a moment. “I did something . . . unusual.”

She waited for him to elaborate.

He sighed. “While I was looking into some old cases, I stumbled across information that pointed to Whetford covering up a murder case he’d been in charge of years ago.”

“Covering up?” She frowned. “So the murderer would go free?”

“That’s what it looked like. And given hismodus operandi, I guessed he had gotten a kickback for doing it.” James swore as a car suddenly appeared in front of them, brake lights glowing red. He stopped, waiting for a bit, but the car didn’t move and he swore again and got out.

When he came back, he was shaking his head. “The high street is backed up to Holland Rd, it looks like.”

There was no one behind them, yet, and they had just passed a side street, so James reversed and turned the car up it. She couldn’t see the street name, but this was her new patch, and she knew it was only a street or two over from Holland Park, but on the other side of the park to where she’d had the run-in with Tanner this morning.

What little of the houses she could see were large, with deep front gardens, just like the ones she’d run past to get away from Tanner.

To shift her thoughts, she went back to James’s problem. “If Whetford was covering for a murder, he’s playing a dangerous game, surely?” She wondered why Whetford would trust a murderer not to tie him off as a loose end.

“He gave himself some insurance. He hid the evidence on police property in a place where he thought only he could find it again,” James said.

“But you found it?” Gabriella turned to him, but he kept his gaze firmly on the thick white fog in front of them.

“I found it,” he agreed. “And I submitted the hidden evidence to the lab.”

She gasped out loud. “You took his insurance away.”

His lips quirked up for a quick smile. Then he shook his head. “And there will be repercussions.”

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