Love You Dead (52 page)

But never in a million years did he think she’d had their son. God, so much to think of that had suddenly landed on him. What was the boy like? What were his interests? Could he speak any
English? How would he feel about being uprooted to England? More irony, he thought, since he was conceived here.

And more important than anything, how would Cleo react?

At lunchtime he asked Glenn to come to the Black Lion, because he needed his advice. Sitting in a booth, while his friend hungrily ate his way through a plate of lasagne, Grace’s sandwich
lay untouched in front of him.

‘Suicide?’

Grace nodded.

‘You can’t blame yourself. Her life sounds like one long train crash after she left you.’

‘Maybe if I’d said to her I’d have her back, she’d be alive now?’

Branson stared him hard in the face. ‘What have you got inside that skull of yours? Shit for brains or something? You’ve moved on – like – your life’s moved on
a thousand miles
. You have Cleo and Noah. They’re your life and your future. Having Sandy back was never an option.’

‘Cleo, Noah and now Bruno,’ Grace corrected him.

‘Do you have any other options for the boy? Grandparents? They could look after him if it’s too big a burden for you and Cleo right now. You told me Sandy’s parents are still
alive, living in Seaford, right?’

‘They’re toxic, I can’t stand them. God, I wouldn’t entrust any kid to them, they’re horrible people. When I phoned them last week, despite what Sandy said, to say
she was alive and I’d been to see her, there was no thank you! Instead of being thrilled they had got their daughter back, it was almost as if they were disappointed that the focus of their
misery for the past decade had suddenly been taken away from them. They didn’t even seem that bothered about phoning her, or jumping on a plane and flying out to see her.’

‘So you don’t have a choice, do you?’

‘No, I don’t. But how do I start the conversation with Cleo? I feel responsible for Bruno, he’s my son, we have to bring him up.’

‘You just tell her. All the time you’ve been together she’s lived with Sandy as a shadow – a ghost. We’re all prisoners of our past in some way. Cleo’s a kind
and caring person. She’ll understand.’

‘Understand that she’s got a German stepson, who probably doesn’t speak a word of English?’

‘Look, thank God she met Sandy – and she shares this with you. You haven’t cheated on her, she loves you, Roy. How do you feel about the kid, Bruno?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never met him. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.’

‘Remember Bette Davis?’

‘Bette Davis? I know the name, but couldn’t pick her out of a line-up.’

‘Only one of the greatest movie stars ever. I thought with your advancing years you’d be old enough to remember.
All About Eve. The Nanny. The Wicked Stepmother.
She won two
Academy Awards.’

‘Never saw them.’

‘Yeah, well she once said, “The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.”’

‘True,’ Grace said.

Branson patted him on the back. ‘I’m sorry about Sandy and about Marlon. Shit, what a day for you.’

‘When we should be celebrating.’ He shrugged.

‘I meant to ask you – how did you know about the necklace – the locket?’

Grace smiled. ‘I’ve known for some time that when a person fiddles with their wedding ring, they’re probably guilty about something in their relationship. I could see her
fiddling with the necklace during her interview. It made me curious.’

‘Nice one, I’ll remember that. Oh, and I do have one bit of positive news,’ Glenn said. ‘Yossarian.’

‘
Yossarian?
’ Grace said blankly.

‘The name Tooth kept repeating in hospital, yeah?’

‘Yossarian, yes. What news?’

‘Tooth apparently had a lucid moment yesterday afternoon. A nurse gleaned from him that he lives in the Turks and Caicos, on Providenciales Island. She called the Enquiry Team. Guy
Batchelor remembered that Acting Superintendent Steve Curry is friendly with a guy called Neil Hall – known as Nobby – who joined Sussex Police a couple of years ago, and was formerly
Deputy Chief of Police in the Turks and Caicos. Hall apparently remembers a strange character who used to bring his dog, called Yossarian, along to a bar there. Guy’s been in touch with the
Governor’s office, who’s just emailed back that Tooth’s housekeeper is going to take care of the dog. And whilst we’re on that subject, Jodie’s cat is in a cattery,
and her reptiles are now at London Zoo.’

‘Well, it’s great to know that we at least have a few problems solved,’ Grace said, and smiled thinly.

At 7 p.m. that evening, in the dry, chilly night air, under the beam of a torch Cleo held, Roy Grace dug a grave in the soft, damp earth beneath an oak tree in a corner of the
garden. He went several feet deep, determined that no sodding fox was going to dig Marlon up.

He had wound gaffer tape round the sandwich box, sealing it completely, then placed it inside a jiffy bag, and sealed that with tape, also. He held it up in front of him. ‘Funny to think
that all those years ago I brought you home in a plastic bag full of water from a funfair! You were never very chatty, were you? But you know what? For many years you were my mate.’

He stooped down and placed the little package at the bottom of the hole. ‘Goodbye, my friend,’ he said. ‘Maybe you’ll find the happy hunting ground you were searching for
all those years of swimming round and round in your tank.’

Then he stood upright for some moments, leaning on the spade, staring down.

‘Goodbye, sweet Marlon,’ Cleo said.

It was strange, he reflected. In a few days they would be flying to Munich for Sandy’s funeral. But right now he felt more emotional about Marlon than he did about Sandy. Was it wrong to
be feeling relief that the rollercoaster nightmare with Sandy was finally now at an end?

He shovelled the earth back, and they went inside.

For some reason the words of the previous Chief Constable, Tom Martinson, suddenly came into his head. Martinson had said them to him some years back in his blunt Midlands accent.

‘You know what I always tell my officers, Roy. Never try to be a copy of anyone else. Try always to be a better version of yourself.’

He’d never fully understood, then, what Martinson had meant. But now he did. Cleo had brought that home to him earlier this evening when he had shown her Sandy’s letter.

‘Something I’ve always believed in my heart, Roy, is the wagon train circle. That’s what true love is. It’s not about holding hands, or staring into each other’s
eyes, or staring in the same direction together. It’s a bond of strength. A wall around you. When you decide to make a life with someone by marrying them or just living with them, you form a
circle against the world. It becomes just the two of you, and for the rest of your lives you never let anything or anyone break that circle. From time to time you let certain people inside that
circle with you, and they become part of you and part of that wall.’

She went over to the fridge and took out a bottle of wine. ‘Fancy a drink?’

He did.

ANPR
– Automatic Number Plate Recognition. Roadside or mobile cameras which automatically capture the registration number of all cars that pass. It can
be used to historically track which cars went past a certain camera and can also trigger alerts for cars which are stolen, have no insurance or have an alert attached to them.

ARV
– Armed Response Vehicle.

CAD
– Computer Aided Dispatch. The system where all calls from the public are logged and, if they require police attendance, the record of who attended
and what the outcome was.

CCTV
– Closed Circuit Television. Can be either publicly owned and monitored (e.g. by the police), or privately installed in people’s houses or
businesses.

CIA
– Central Intelligence Agency. The United States intelligence service.

CID
– Criminal Investigation Department. Usually refers to the divisional detectives rather than the specialist squads.

CIM
– Critical Incident Manager. Usually a Chief Inspector who takes control of critical incidents when they are assessed as being beyond the scope of
Ops-1, either due to their seriousness or the complexity of the volume of other demands on Ops-1.

CITES
– Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. An international agreement between governments, its aim being
to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Commanders

Gold (or strategic) Commander
– The gold commander sets the strategy and assumes and retains overall strategic command for the operation or incident.

Silver (or tactical) Commander
– The silver commander commands and coordinates the overall tactical response in compliance with Gold’s strategy, and is the
tactical commander of the incident.

Bronze (or operational) Commander
– The bronze commander is responsible for the command of a group of resources, and carries out functional or geographical
responsibilities to deliver the requirements set by Silver in their tactical plan.

CPS
– Crown Prosecution Service. The public agency that conducts criminal prosecutions in England and Wales.

CSA
– Command Secretarial Assistant. A secretary to senior officers.

CSI
– was SOCO – Crime Scene Investigators (Scenes of Crime Officers). They are the people who attend crime scenes to search for fingerprints, DNA
samples, etc.

DNA
– Deoxyribonucleic Acid. A molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and
many viruses. Used in policing to identify the source of bodily samples left at crime scenes. Generally provides a 1:1-billion certainty of the source/person.

DVLA –
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority. The Government agency that registers motor vehicles and issues driving licences. An important source of
intelligence in many enquiries.

Europol
– The European Union law enforcement agency. Assists police and other enforcement bodies in EU member states in their fight against serious
international organized crime and terrorism.

FBI
– Federal Bureau of Investigation. The US national police agency, which has jurisdiction across all states for ‘federal’ offence
investigation.

FLO
– Family Liaison Officer. The trained and dedicated officer deployed to work with a bereaved family to provide support, information and to identify
lines of enquiry.

FLUM
– Flash Unsolicited Message. A direct short message sent between computer screens, mainly in the control room, to alert other controllers or
supervisors to either a significant incident or an important update on an ongoing incident. It flashes up alerting the recipient to its content immediately.

Gold Group
– A senior group of police, local community members, politicians and other stakeholders drawn together to manage the impact of a critical
incident.

Golf 99
– The call sign for the divisional duty inspector who is expected to take ground command of critical incidents, working usually for Ops-1 or the
CIM.

GP –
General Practitioner, a medical doctor.

HOLMES
– Home Office Large Major Enquiry System. The national computer database used on all murder enquiries. It provides a repository of all messages,
actions, decisions and statements, allowing the analysis of intelligence and the tracking and auditing of the whole enquiry. Can enable enquiries to be linked across force areas when necessary.

i360
– British Airways i360 will be the world’s first vertical cable car, designed by the architects of the London Eye. It is under construction
in Brighton, and due to be completed in 2016.

Intel Cell
– Intelligence cell. A dedicated team of officers and staff who provide the intelligence research and analysis for a major crime or
incident.

Interpol
– International law enforcement agency. It has 190 member states and assists in cross-border investigations, especially involving terrorism,
cybercrime and organized and emerging crime.

The Keep
– The central records office for Brighton and Hove City and East Sussex County Councils.

LAMBS
– Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl. A local action group in Sussex.

Letter of Request
– The formal request sent by one country’s prosecution service to another asking for permission for the police to carry out
enquiries and investigations within the other’s territory.

LST
– Local Support Team. The standing unit of officers who provide public order, search and low-level surveillance tactics on a division.

MIR-1
– Major Incident Room 1. One of the large rooms in the Major Incident Suite where most of the investigation team work and brief.

Misper
– Short for ‘missing person’.

MO
– Modus Operandi (method of operation). The manner by which the offender has committed the offence. Often this can reveal unique features which allow
crimes to be linked or suspects to be identified.

NCA
– The National Crime Agency.

NPAS 15
– The call sign for the helicopter that provides air support to Sussex Police.

Ops-1
– The call sign of the Force Control Duty Inspector, who has oversight and command of all critical incidents in the initial stages.