Above Suspicion (44 page)

They stepped across to a computer and watched the broken section slide into place on the empty claw. It was a match to the right-hand corner.

‘My God,’ Barolli said in a hushed tone.

‘Could any stone fit that claw?’ Anna asked the scientist.

‘Absolutely not. It’s just like a ballistic test on a bullet. Although mass-produced, each stone will have some slight flaw. These are not a particularly hard stone, so when they were clipped on to the material, it left an identifying mark.’

Barolli and Anna exchanged glances.

‘Would you be prepared to testify in court that, without doubt, this section of stone came from Melissa Stephens’s T-shirt?’

‘Yes.’

Anna spontaneously threw her arms around the surprised scientist’s neck, while Barolli watched, grinning.

It was a major breakthrough.

Lewis left the interview room to take a phone call. Langton continued interrogating McDowell. When Lewis returned, he passed a memo to Langton who glanced at the information, then momentarily closed his eyes. Then he looked at the prisoner as if there had been no interruption.

‘Excuse me. Can you repeat what you just said, Mr McDowell?’

‘I said he was foreign.’

‘Foreign?’

McDowell leaned across to whisper to his solicitor. After a few moments, Francis Bellows faced Langton. ‘As you know, my client maintains that the drugs found in his possession and at his home were for his own use. He is very concerned that if he answers your question regarding this person, it could implicate him in the charges of drug dealing.’

Langton sighed, impatient. To get McDowell even to admit that someone had approached him in Manchester had taken half an hour.

‘If Mr McDowell has information that helps my enquiry and assists in proving he was not involved in the murders, then it will obviously be beneficial to both parties.’

McDowell looked to his solicitor. Langton leaned forward.

‘Mr McDowell, I am attempting to find out if someone set you up. Not for drugs, but for three murders. Now, about this man who approached you

McDowell spoke hesitantly: ‘It was a while ago, good few months. Maybe three or four, but Barry, he was on the door, right?’

Langton interrupted. ‘Sorry, who is Barry?’

‘The other guy what does the doors with me, alternative nights. We work them between us; there’s just the two of us.’

‘Right, carry on.’

‘Well, I’m in the back having a bevy before I go out front and Barry comes and tells me there’s this bloke asking for me. Said he was foreign, well-dressed and he’d walked up to Barry and asked if I was around.’

He said he’d asked Barry what the bloke wanted and Barry had told him that he wanted to score. ‘He’s a good bloke is Barry, so he’d told the bloke that he didn’t know where I was. Then he asked for me address. Said could he come around there? That’s when Barry got a bit suspicious and come to find me.’

Langton nodded encouragingly.

‘I said to keep him talking; ask him who put him in touch with me.’

‘And?’

‘When he went back out, the bloke had gone.’

Langton shifted his weight. ‘So you didn’t actually see him?’

‘No. When I heard he’d gone and pissed off, I got really edgy, you know? Because why come to the pub, ask for me, say he wanted some gear, then piss off?’

‘Did he ever come back?’

‘No.’

Langton rubbed his head and looked at a note Lewis had just passed to him suggesting Daniels had followed McDowell home. Langton scrunched the note in his hand. ‘You stated that your basement has been broken into many times. Do you recall if there was a breakin after this foreign man was seen at your pub?’

While this could have been a convenient lead for McDowell to follow, he responded in the negative, shaking his head and stubbing out his cigarette.

‘I really don’t remember. ‘Cos I work most nights until three or four in the morning, there was always some bastard jemmying the padlock off the doors: kids, dossers.’

‘We will need your mate’s surname and address.’

‘Barry Pickering.’

‘And his address?’

‘Well, he was living at his mother’s, over in Bolton, but he won’t be there. He’s in Walsall Cemetery. Died of a brain tumour, six months ago.’

At that point, Langton snapped, ‘Six months ago? Then how could he have seen this foreigner outside your pub?’ He stood up quickly, pushing out the table and started gathering his papers together.

‘All right,’ McDowell said loudly. ‘I met him.’

‘What?’

‘I talked to him.’

‘Go on.’

‘I didn’t want to get meself into any more shit than I’m already in. That’s why I lied. Since Barry’s not been around, it’s been me doing the doors on my own.’

Langton did his best to keep his temper under control. As he asked McDowell to describe the man, his jaw muscles were working overtime.

‘He was tall, good-looking. Wore a baseball cap, pulled down low. I told him I didn’t have any gear on me and he’d have to wait around, so he went into the pub and stayed for a few drinks. Then he just upped and left.’

‘Would you recognize him again?’

McDowell gave a half shrug. ‘I don’t know. To be honest, I was a bit worse for wear.’

‘You must have a few punters coming up and trying to score from you. So how come you remember that specific one?’

McDowell pouted, sulking. ‘Well, he was foreign for a start and for another thing, he give me a few quid.’

‘And this foreigner never made contact with you again?’

‘No.’

‘I’ll ask you again: would you recognize him again, if you saw him?’

McDowell puffed out his cheeks. ‘It would depend.’

‘Depend on what?’

‘Well, you’ve got to find him first. After that, I don’t know.’

Barolli signalled to Anna in the waiting area. ‘They got a result; they’re up on the next floor.’

Anna grabbed her briefcase and followed Barolli. Eagerly she caught up with him and then overtook him, heading up the stairs through the swinging door into the laboratory.

Towards the end of the lab, amidst rows of high-powered magnifying equipment, two scientists stood side by side, looking at their light boxes, on which sections of a single strand of hair were displayed.

‘You have a result?’ Barolli asked nervously.

The younger of the white-coated men pointed a thin marker at the first light box. ‘This is the hair from the Mercedes. We sliced it into four sections. Though one sample was lost, fortunately we retained three sections.’

He moved to the second light box. ‘This is the single hair taken from the victim, Melissa Stephens; here we have a seventy-five per cent match.’

‘Seventy-five,’ murmured Barolli.

‘The hair follicle was weak. But the DNA match proves without doubt that the hair taken from the car seat of the Mercedes came from Melissa Stephens.’

Anna could feel her legs shaking. She looked at Barolli, moved.

‘Brilliant,’ he said.

Langton was so fed up with McDowell that he called it quits for the day. As Lewis and he were discussing whether to put Daniels in a line-up, Moira picked up the phone. She stood up from her desk and looked to Langton with some emotion. ‘The labs have finished their tests of the hair.’

Langton stiffened, expecting the worst.

‘It’s a match. It belonged to Melissa Stephens.’ Their eyes met. As soon as she had spoken the words, she put her hand over her mouth. He gave a brief, meaningful smile, then turned to Lewis. ‘Get the warrant ready.’ Then the roller coaster started.

Tension built throughout the afternoon. Everyone was waiting to hear when they would pick up Daniels, but Langton tried to remain calm, one eye on the clock. It was late. If he arrested Daniels now, an all-night session would not even get started, as he was certain his solicitor would demand sight of statements. With a case of such magnitude, Langton would refuse, but he would have to indicate what areas of questioning would be forthcoming.

When Barolli banged into the toilets, Langton was standing at the basin splashing cold water on his face.

‘Put it there,’ said Barolli, with his hand outstretched.

Langton slapped his hand.

‘How did you go with McDowell?’ Barolli perched on the counter.

Langton straightened his tie, explaining about McDowell’s so-called foreigner possibly being Daniels. ‘We might think about getting Daniels into an ID parade.’

While Barolli used the urinal, Langton washed his hands.

‘I want Travis to be on the arrest.’ He was avoiding Barolli’s sour look, not wanting to be drawn into an argument.

Barolli, not liking it, muttered, ‘OK.’

‘If anyone deserves to see the bastard cornered, she does.’

‘Right.’

‘Give her a break. She’s given us a hell of a lot.’

‘Good.’

Barolli almost collided with Lewis as he walked out. Langton followed him out and held eye contact with Lewis until the door had shut behind him.

‘Well?’ asked Langton.

‘Last night, I went round to talk to the kids that rent out Daniels’s basement and—’

‘You got a result?’

Lewis took a deep breath, slowly releasing it. ‘Yes. We’ve got him, Mike. We’ve bloody got him.’

When Anna walked into the office to present Langton with her latest report, he startled her by asking, ‘You want to be on the arrest?’

She chewed her lips and nodded.

‘Good. We’ll pick him up at dawn.’

‘Dawn?’ she repeated.

‘Yes. Go home and get some sleep. It’ll be one hell of a long day tomorrow.’

She was packing up when Barolli passed her desk.

‘I hear you’re on the arrest?’

‘Yes. He just told me,’ she said, embarrassed. ‘I didn’t, uh …’

She was aware that the pecking order decreed it should be Barolli and not her, but he winked.

‘You deserve it. You won’t ever forget your first murder. A word of advice? Watch his eyes. They’re always the giveaway for fear.’ He indicated the noticeboard, their victims’ faces lined up in rows. Anna thought their dark, dead eyes looked different now, somehow.

‘They’re smiling,’ Barolli whispered, before he walked away.

Chapter Twenty

Anna was unlocking the front door when her neighbour appeared, carrying a bouquet of two dozen red roses. Taking them, Anna thanked her and once inside the flat, tore open the note. Happily she read the words: ‘Thank you for breakfast. Love, James’.

After she had undressed for bed, she huddled beneath the duvet, holding tightly to a pillow that still smelled of him. Though she doubted she would be able to sleep, sleep she did and so soundly that when the alarm went at four o’clock, she woke to find her bedside light still on.

It was the day they had all been working toward and she found it hard to keep calm. She showered and washed her hair, then dressed carefully in her new suit and blouse, with smart black shoes. As she scrutinized her appearance in the dressing-table mirror, the adrenalin started pumping again and she couldn’t wait to get to the incident room.

At the station, the same feeling was prevalent. She saw that everyone had made more of an effort than usual with their appearance.

While Langton, Anna and Lewis and a uniformed driver took one car, a second car followed with two uniformed officers inside. They headed down Kensington High Street, then turned right into Queen’s Gate. Langton used the radio mike to contact the patrol car behind.

‘OK, let him know we’re coming.’

Then he sat back and, with a quick look at the others, switched on the flashing blue fight. Sirens started wailing from their back-up vehicle and the two patrol cars now sped down Queen’s Gate. As they double-parked beside the residents’ parking bays outside Daniels’s house with the blue lights still flashing and the sirens still wailing, passers-by gathered to watch.

‘Still inside?’ he checked with the surveillance car.

‘Affirmative,’ came the response.

Langton gave the surveillance officers across the street the all clear and they moved out to return to base. Anna noticed a plain patrol car entering the road from the mews behind Daniels’s house.

The two back-up officers stood on the pavement by their cars.

Flanked by Anna and Lewis, Langton moved up the steps to the front door.

‘Here we go,’ he said.

Langton pressed the intercom bell and they waited.

‘Yes?’ It was a sleepy-voiced Daniels.

‘Police.’

The buzzer clicked to open the front door and the three of them proceeded through it.

After a moment, Daniels opened the door to his flat.

‘Good morning, Mr Daniels,’ said Langton. ‘I have here a warrant for your arrest.’

Daniels took a half step back. Lewis moved forward and held the door wide open. Langton held up the warrant.

‘I am arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Melissa Stephens. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’

Daniels looked in astonishment at each of them. Anna remembered Barolli’s advice, ‘Look at his eyes,’ but the suspect’s eyes seemed like dark, unfathomable pools.

Daniels walked into his dining room. They followed him.

Anna’s gaze didn’t waver; she was keeping her entire focus on his face.

‘Is this a joke?’ he said.

For a moment, she saw the glimmer of fear in the eyes, as his tongue flicked out to wet his lips. By the time he caught her glance, the fear had gone.

‘Anna,’ he said softly. ‘What is all this?’

‘Please read the warrant, Mr Daniels. We are taking you to Queen’s Park police station.’

Daniels gestured helplessly at Anna. He addressed Langton evenly. ‘I want to call my lawyer.’

‘You may do so at the station, sir.’

As Daniels held his hand out for the warrant, he took another step back, almost tripping over a Persian rug. He read the document with an audacious calmness, then slowly glanced over it once more before handing it back. ‘Well, it seems in order, but you’re making a terrible mistake.’ He shrugged. ‘I’d better get dressed.’ Lewis accompanied him.