Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery) (36 page)

In desperation, she reached for her phone and called Celia. If her sister’s comforting chatter didn’t succeed in distracting her completely, at least it would prevent her from opening her iPad and working. There was nothing really for her to do but be patient and wait for the visual images identifications and detection officers to do their work.

‘Geraldine! It’s so nice to hear from you. Tell you what, can I call you back? I’ve only just this minute got back from the hospital.’

Geraldine glanced at her watch. ‘Hospital? It’s a bit late, isn’t it?’

‘Oh, it wasn’t a check-up. I had a bit of an accident, but it’s fine.’

‘Oh my God, what happened? Are you all right?’

‘Yes, of course. But they wanted to make sure.’

‘What happened?’

‘Well, I was out shopping this afternoon and some idiot wasn’t looking where he was going and he barged straight into me and I went flying. I had shopping bags in both hands – getting bits and pieces for the baby, you know. Anyway, I felt fine but Sebastian insisted on driving me straight to the hospital just to check and once you’re there they keep you hanging around for hours, doing all sorts of tests, you know how it is. Anyway, everything was all fine but we’ve only just got in so I’ll call you back, OK?’

‘As long as you’re all right.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Well, let’s speak later. And for goodness sake be careful.’

‘I know my balance isn’t the best, but this wasn’t my fault, really. The idiot barged straight into me.’

Geraldine hung up and took another sip of wine. And another. She closed her eyes and pictured her sister being sent flying by some moron who wasn’t looking where he was going. He had probably been in a hurry. The incident jogged something in her memory but she couldn’t remember exactly what it was. She had drunk too much to drive to the station but the thought niggled her so much that she opened her iPad, reluctantly, and began scanning through Gina’s statements. She found nothing there so she went right back to the beginning and read through everything Lenny had said, and then Jack. Again she found nothing that helped. On the point of giving up, she tried a search. It was the word ‘barged’ that had alerted her so she typed that in. At once the system called up a statement made by Katy. ‘She barged right into me so I knew she was there.’

The contact between Katy and the woman in the corridor might provide the proof they needed. This couldn’t wait until the morning. It was nearly ten o’clock. She grabbed her phone and called Sam.

‘Sam? Are you sober?’

‘Yes. Are you?’

‘Are you sober enough to drive?’

‘Yes. What’s up?’

‘Pick me up on the way. We’ve got work to do.’

‘What?’

‘We need to get forensics on to something. But first we need to collect the evidence. Just pick me up will you? I’ll explain when you get here. I’d drive myself only I’m probably over the limit and in any case I want you to come along in case I miss anything.’

‘I’m on my way.’

A few moments later, Geraldine’s phone rang.

‘I can’t talk now. I’ve got work to do.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Celia replied. ‘It’s ten o’clock.’

‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’

‘Are you pissed?’

Geraldine hung up and ran to the kitchen. She was gulping hot coffee when her doorbell rang.

‘What’s so urgent it can’t wait until tomorrow?’ Sam asked.

‘She could go to the dry cleaner’s! Come on!’

‘Geraldine, what are you talking about? How much have you had to drink?’

‘Enough to make me pissed, not so much that I can’t still think clearly.’

‘If you say so. Where are we going?’

70

K
ATY LOOKED TROUBLED
at the sight of Geraldine and Sam standing on her doorstep at eleven o’clock at night. She opened the door with a tentative smile which faded at once.

‘How come you’re here so late?’

‘May we come in?’

Katy looked nervously from Geraldine to Sam and back again. Detecting a strong scent of cannabis coming from the flat, Geraldine quickly assured her that they were there in pursuance of the murder enquiry.

‘I figured. I mean, you investigate murders, don’t you? To be honest, all right, I was just having a little smoke, but it’s only a tiny bit, just for myself. Personal consumption’s legal now, isn’t it, so you can’t bust me for the occasional spliff, can you? I mean, it’s not a crime, is it?’

‘Cannabis isn’t legal, but if this is a first offence we’ll just issue you with a warning,’ Sam began.

Geraldine interrupted her colleague. ‘But only if we catch you in possession of it.’ She frowned at Sam who took the hint and stepped back, staring at her feet.

Katy’s frown relaxed. ‘I suppose you’d better come in then. I mean, I can’t stop you, can I?’ Geraldine didn’t contradict her. ‘Just give me a minute, will you?’

She closed the door and they waited impatiently for her to clear away her paraphernalia.

‘Is this about Jack? Is he out yet?’ Katy asked when they were all seated in her tiny living room.

A stick of incense on the table filled the room with its acrid scent.

‘Would you mind extinguishing that?’ Sam asked brusquely.

Katy shrugged. ‘If you like.’

‘We’re still working on Jack’s release,’ Geraldine replied, quite truthfully, as she sat down. Her head was beginning to ache, but she pressed on. ‘You’re going to have to think very carefully, Katy, because we need to know what you were wearing on the night of the shooting where you work.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Your clothes. What were you wearing that evening?’

‘I’m not sure.’

Geraldine sighed. ‘I’ll try to explain. It’s not very complicated.’ She frowned, trying to gather her thoughts. ‘You told us a woman barged into you outside the toilets just after you heard a gunshot. That was your word, wasn’t it? You said she barged into you.’

‘Yes.’

‘So she must have touched you.’

‘Well, her coat did, yes.’

‘If we can find any fibres from her coat on your clothes, from when she brushed past you, then we may be able to establish her identity. We need to test the clothes you were wearing at the time. It’s important they haven’t been washed since the contact occurred. That’s why we’re here so late. We came as soon as we spotted this possibility. The longer we left it, the greater the chance was that you might wash your clothes. Please say you haven’t washed them.’

Katy giggled.

‘It’s nearly two weeks,’ Sam hissed.

Geraldine nodded. She knew it was a ridiculous question, but she had to know. ‘Did you wash the clothes you were wearing that evening?’

‘I must’ve washed my shirt and jeans, but possibly not my jacket. I’ve got two, and one is dry clean only which is a pain but my mother bought it for me for Christmas –’

‘Were you wearing the jacket your mother gave you indoors on that evening?’

‘I can’t remember. I don’t even know for sure that I was wearing it at all that night. I might have been. I probably was. That one or the other jacket I use for work. But the other one might have been washed since then.’

‘We need to borrow both of them.’

‘Both of them? Oh all right.’ She frowned. ‘But how can you trace someone from a few fibres?’

‘Leave that to us.’

There was no need to explain to Katy that they already had a suspect in mind, and would be able to get hold of her coat to see if they had a match. It just depended on the forensic team being able to find the matching fibres on Katy’s clothes. They took both of Katy’s work jackets away in a plastic bag. She had washed her jeans since the evening of the shooting but they took those as well. Ignoring her protests that she needed them for work, they took all of her shirts, as she didn’t know which one she had been wearing on that particular evening.

‘What am I supposed to wear for work now?’

Geraldine handed her a twenty quid note. ‘Buy some clothes.’

It was past midnight by the time they reached Lenny’s flat and knocked loudly on the door. He took a while to respond.

‘What the fuck is this now?’ he called through the letter box, without opening the door.

‘Open up, Lenny. We don’t want to have to break it down.’

Grumbling ferociously, he let them in. Dressed only in grey boxers and a grubby white vest he looked as though he had been in bed when they arrived.

Sam went straight to the bedroom to search the wardrobe while Geraldine checked the rest of the flat.

‘What the hell do you want now? You got a search warrant?’ When Geraldine didn’t answer, he asked her what they expected to find there. ‘If you tell me what you’re after, it could save us all a lot of time. Fucking hell, I want to get to bed tonight.’

Geraldine explained that they needed to examine any jacket or coat Gina owned. All they found in the flat was a grey cotton jacket. When she had been arrested, she had been wearing a duffel coat that was at the police station.

‘Did she have any other coats at all?’

‘I dunno what she had. I been away for a long time, or had you forgot?’

Back at the police station, Geraldine had all Katy’s clothes bagged up and labelled, along with Gina’s coat and jacket. Then she had the whole lot despatched to the forensic lab with specific instructions about what they were to look for. When she had finished, Sam offered to drop her home but she wanted to wait for the results.

‘They’ll be hours yet,’ Sam said.

‘You go home if you like. I’m staying here.’

In the end, Sam persuaded Geraldine there was no point in hanging around at the station. There was nothing to do there but wait, which they could do just as easily at home. It was nearly four o’clock by the time Geraldine climbed into bed. As she lay down and pulled the duvet up to her chin, she realised how worn out she was. Although she didn’t think she would be able to sleep, she drifted off as soon as she had set her alarm.

71

G
ERALDINE’S PHONE RANG
early next morning. Mistaking it for her alarm, she reached out to turn it off and realised just in time that it was a call. After a brief greeting, the forensic scientist informed her that they had established a match. Muzzy-headed with sleep, Geraldine responded to the speaker’s excited tone before she registered who was speaking.

‘Can you repeat that?’

‘We’ve got a match. Item SH3 – that’s the dry clean only jacket seized from Katy – had textile fibres from item SH7.’

‘And SH7 was –’

‘The duffel coat seized from Gina.’

‘So Katy and Gina definitely had contact?’

‘Yes. There was forceful contact between the right shoulder and sleeve of both items, and we can estimate approximately when the contact took place. In its own way, trace evidence from textile fibres is more useful than DNA in indicating a time frame.’

‘When was it?’

There was a slight pause. ‘Well, we can’t pinpoint the time exactly but it was probably about a fortnight ago. I won’t bore you with all the technical details but basically the potential redistribution of fibres due to the wearers’ activity and the weather suggests a period of time of around a couple of weeks. It could be longer.’

‘And all this is evidence that could be given in court?’

‘With the provisos I’ve mentioned. We’re interpreting the evidence but yes, I’d say our conclusions are pretty accurate. Certainly, there’s no doubt there was contact at some point within well – being conservative – within the three weeks. But I don’t think it was that long ago.’

‘Thank you. Please let us have your report as soon as you can.’

‘Of course. I didn’t work through the night to have my conclusions ignored.’

Geraldine smiled. ‘Oh, this won’t be ignored, believe me. Far from it. You may think you’ve just been sitting in a lab, but what you’ve actually done is nail a murderer.’

‘Well, it’s good to know that just sitting in a lab can be so useful.’

‘You deserve a bloody medal. I hope they pay you well for working overtime.’

‘Ha! Fat chance. Anyway, glad to be of help. It’s all in a good cause.’

With a final word of thanks, Geraldine rang off. Adrenaline had cleared her head and she leaped out of bed and hurried into work.

Gina glared across the table at Geraldine. Her expression altered as Geraldine explained the evidence that had been gathered.

‘All of which means that we have proof that you had physical contact with Katy exactly as she described it. Textual fibres can be transferred on the briefest of contact, and you barged right into her. We’ll be scouring the toilets and the corpse for traces of your DNA, and we’ll find it. You were there, Gina. You were seen by two people leaving the men’s toilet just after Luke was shot, and we have forensic evidence that bears out their eye witness statements. You might as well start talking, because we have enough evidence to make a watertight case against you. No more wriggling, no room for manoeuvre. We can prove you shot Luke Thomas. All you can do now is cooperate with us in the hope the judge will be lenient when you’re sentenced. But it’s going to be difficult, with two murders –’