Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery) (9 page)

‘First of all, Leonard Parker had only just left prison. Where would he have got hold of a gun?’

‘He could have got it anywhere, once he left. Remember he’d been out for over twelve hours when David was shot. It doesn’t take long to source a gun if you know where to look. And criminals talk. They may be scum, but they network, same as everyone else. Probably better than most.’

‘Secondly, what happened to David’s jacket?’

‘Ask Lenny. I thought we agreed the killer could have taken it.’

Geraldine frowned. ‘So the mugger asked him to take off his jacket before shooting him? Really?’

Adam shrugged. ‘Makes sense to me. It’s perfectly feasible. It was an expensive jacket, according to the wife.’

‘Well, finally – and this is really the most important – I’ve looked into Lenny’s background. He’s never been involved in any gun crimes. He robs houses, not people on the street. He’s never mugged anyone.’

‘Not that we know of. Look, Geraldine, we’re not the judge and we’re not the jury. No one’s asking you to convict this man of murder. But we do need to find him, and we need to bring him in, because right now he’s the only suspect we’ve got. So get out there and track him down. We need him brought in yesterday.’

‘I just don’t believe he’s a killer, Adam.’

‘No one is until the first murder.’

Leonard Parker’s mother lived in a poky one-bedroomed flat in Acton. Geraldine and Sam drove there, accompanied by a couple of constables. They set off before the rush hour hoping to avoid the traffic. The earlier they turned up, the more likely they were to surprise their suspect. The armed response team was already in place by the time they arrived.

Lenny’s mother came to the door in a grubby dressing gown, blinking as though she had just woken up. She had short, straight, dyed blonde hair, and very broad shoulders that made her look even more dumpy than her stout figure warranted. Beneath a thick double chin, she appeared to have no neck at all.

‘What do you think you’re doing, calling on people at this ungodly hour of the morning? Ain’t you people got homes to go to? Here, what you doing? You can’t come in here. You got a search warrant?’

Geraldine assured her that a warrant had been issued, and the old woman stood aside, grumbling, as an armed team went in to check if Lenny was there. Once she had been assured there was no sign of him, Geraldine went and sat with Cynthia in a front room that seemed to be crammed with all sorts of junk.

‘We want to speak to your son,’ she began.

‘Which one?’

‘How many do you have? Three, isn’t it?’

‘If you know, why ask? Two in Australia and one here with me.’

‘Your oldest son, Leonard. He’s –’

‘Oh no,’ Cynthia interrupted firmly. ‘He’s done his time. You can’t touch him no more.’

‘Just what I was about to say.’

‘What you want with him then? Can’t you leave the poor kid alone? He’s learned his lesson.’

Geraldine doubted that very much.

‘We think he might be able to help us with an investigation.’

‘And you think he’s going to tell you? Huh! You can bloody well take yourself off out of here, and don’t bother to come back. If my boy does know anything, he ain’t going to tell you, not after what your lot done to him.’

Geraldine glanced around the room while they were talking. On several low tables an assortment of random objects was displayed: a large box inlaid with mother-of-pearl that probably contained jewellery of some description, pens, glass ornaments, at least half a dozen expensive watches, carriage clocks, and numerous knick-knacks. On the floor a cardboard box was piled high with iPads, iPods and other small electronic devices. She wondered why Cynthia had brought her into a room full of what were obviously stolen goods. She could only assume there were similar items in the other rooms in the flat.

‘What you looking at?’

‘You’ve got quite a lot of stuff here.’

‘So? Is that any business of yours? We do the markets, if you must know, me and my Lenny. We sell gear and we buy gear. A lot of it gets stored here in between markets and boot sales. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s all legit. We do a hell of a lot. It’s bloody hard work, I can tell you, and it’s all a load of crap as you can see.’

‘Mrs Parker, we need to know where Lenny is. If we don’t find him very soon, he could end up in serious trouble –’

‘Bollocks. You got nothing on him. Now bugger off, the lot of you, before I make a complaint.’

‘We need to know where he is,’ Geraldine repeated quietly, without shifting in her chair.

‘I ain’t got the foggiest. But when you find him, you can tell him from me that I’d like to know where he’s been an’ all. He’s been out four days, and he ain’t so much as picked up the phone, let alone come to see his mother, after I pined for him day and night for eighteen months. What sort of son does that to his mother?’

‘One more question, Mrs Parker. Have you ever seen Lenny with a gun?’

‘A gun? Bloody hell, what sort of family do you think we are? Now bugger off out of it and leave us alone. He’s done his time.’

14

C
YNTHIA WAS LIVID.
First off Lenny had been stupid enough to get himself nicked which put the whole family under the spotlight as far as the law was concerned. It was never a good idea to attract attention like that, but Lenny had always been a moron. He was bound to get caught sooner or later. She had thought he’d be in the clear once he was out, only now she’d had a visit from some bloody inspector, and everyone knew what that meant. Any contact with the police was too much as far as Cynthia was concerned. She’d seen the way that inspector’s eyes had roamed all over the room, taking in the watches and other stuff. Of course, she kept the obviously dodgy gear well out of sight. She wasn’t stupid, unlike her idiot of a son. But there was enough gear lying around to arouse suspicion in a block of wood, and that inspector was no fool. When Lenny surfaced, Cynthia was going to give him a piece of her mind. If he wasn’t a grown man, she’d tan his hide, just like she used to do when he was a kid.

There was no point in hiding the gear in her bedroom now. The police inspector had already seen it all. The valuable bits and pieces were out of sight, in the top cupboard in the kitchen. Cynthia hoped they were safe up there. That idiot Lenny had a lot to answer for. As soon as the front door closed behind the inspector and her lackeys, Cynthia rushed to the kitchen and put a few more tins in front of the bags of jewellery stashed there. Most of it was Lenny’s stuff. He was always on at her. ‘Hide this for me, mum,’ and, ‘put this somewhere till I come for it.’ She understood he didn’t want his girlfriend, Gina, getting her hands on his loot. She’d rip him off as soon as look at him, that one.

Grumbling to herself, she put the kettle on and made herself a cup of tea. Really, she could do without all this stress at her age. Her son ought to be looking after her, not giving her endless grief. Just as she sat down with a cup of tea and a slab of cake, she was disturbed by a knock at the front door.

‘Oh fuck it all, what now?’

She was tempted to ignore it. She’d just sat down and got the weight off her feet. The knocking came again, more loudly this time.

‘All right, all right, I’m coming. Give me time. I’m not a bleeding athlete.’

Expecting the police, she steeled herself to tell them to get lost. They had no business coming back and pestering her again. She hadn’t broken any laws. She was just a poor old woman doing her best to make ends meet. She opened the door a crack and saw Lenny’s skinny little bitch, scowling and biting her lip.

‘Gina! What the hell you doing here?’

‘Looking for Lenny, that’s what.’

‘Not you as well. Seems like the whole world’s looking for Lenny.’

‘Why? Who else is after him?’

Cynthia hesitated before inviting Gina in. ‘Oh well, you’d better come in out the cold seeing as you’ve come all this way. I suppose you had your tea?’

‘Don’t put yourself out on my account.’

The words were kind enough, but Gina contrived to sound hostile. Cynthia regretted inviting her in as soon as the front door closed behind them.‘I won’t,’ she muttered, leading Gina to the front room.

They sat in silence while Cynthia finished her tea. She did her best to ignore her visitor, but she couldn’t enjoy her cake, not with Gina perched awkwardly on the edge of a chair watching her every mouthful.

‘That was delicious,’ Cynthia said with fake enthusiasm, wiping crumbs from her mouth with the back of a hand. ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’

As soon as Cynthia put her cup down, Gina started on her. ‘Where is he then?’

‘How the hell would I know? I ain’t seen him since he got out, and that was Monday.’

Aggrieved, Cynthia launched into a litany of complaint.

‘Yeah, yeah, I know.’ Gina interrupted her. ‘You was pining for him every day. You told me.’ She leaned so far forward in her chair, Cynthia thought her boney arse might slip right off it. ‘What I want to know is where is he? He’s got something of mine and I want it back.’

She sounded so earnest, Cynthia was curious.

‘What is it? What you got that’s so bloody important?’

‘Mind your own bleeding business.’

‘Whatever it is, anything you got is thanks to him and you’d do well to remember that. Anyhow, you can sit there till you’re blue in the face, it won’t do you no good because I already told you I don’t know where he is. But I do know you’re not the only one who wants to find him.’

‘And what the hell’s that supposed to mean? You going to tell me or what?’

‘The rozzers was here, asking for him.’

‘Never! They were round at mine last night looking for him but he’d gone out for the evening and he never come back.’

‘Have you seen him since he got out?’

‘Yeah, I told you. He came home Monday night – no, Tuesday morning – and he went out again yesterday and I ain’t seen him since. But the pigs was round at the flat last night looking for him. Oh Christ, Cynthia, something’s not right.’

Tears started in her eyes and she hung her head. She was trembling. She looked so forlorn that Cynthia couldn’t help taking pity on her.

‘Don’t take on so. Lenny knows what he’s doing. He’s got wind of it, and he’s laying low for a while. He’ll be in touch when he’s ready, don’t you worry.’

‘What if they’re waiting for him? We got to warn him.’

‘And how the hell can we do that if we don’t know where he is?’

The two women stared at one another, their petty rivalry swept aside in mutual anxiety.

‘He’ll be all right, won’t he?’ Gina asked.

‘Don’t you worry yourself, pet,’ Cynthia repeated, although she could see no reason to be confident. It was pretty clear Lenny had gone and done something stupid, or the law wouldn’t be so interested in him. ‘Whatever it is, those interfering bastards will find something else to busy themselves with soon enough. Now, I’ll go and put the kettle on. And I got some nice Dundee cake that’s not even stale. You could do with a bit of fattening up. You look like a bleeding skeleton.’

15

L
ENNY HAD DONE
a runner, but they were confident they would find him. He couldn’t hide from them forever. His home and his mother’s home were under surveillance. Sooner or later he would surface and the police would be there, waiting for him.

Adam seemed upbeat about losing him. ‘The instant he returns to his flat, he’ll be picked up,’ he said. ‘We’re keeping a watch at airports and stations, although I don’t think he’ll get far so there’s no need to go overboard there. It’s not like we’re hunting for Brain of Britain. He’s not even been particularly successful as a petty house burglar. He didn’t manage to get away with that. And right now, he’s only just come out of prison. With no passport, and no money, how’s he going to take himself off anywhere? I’m sure he’s just lying low, and he’ll show up soon enough. He’ll have to turn up at his home, or go to see his mother, because apart from anything else, he’ll need to get hold of some cash. Don’t forget, he’s broke. And when he turns up, that’s when we’ll get him.’

‘He may be broke, but he mugged David Lester at gun point. What’s to stop him doing that again if he’s desperate for money?’ a constable asked.

‘And he can get hold of a fake passport, if he’s been out mugging people for cash,’ someone else pointed out.

‘All patrols are on the alert to look out for him. If he’s roaming the streets, anywhere in the country, he won’t stay out there for long. And if he’s gone into hiding, well, he can’t hide away forever with no money. Let’s not overestimate him. This is no more than a temporary hold up. He’s not clever enough to stay on the run for long. We’ll try Gina again tomorrow, see if we can pressure her into telling us who his associates are, because chances are he’s enlisted help. In the meantime, we need to check up on any of his contacts who might be sympathetic to him, plus anyone he was inside with who’s now out, and the wives and girlfriends and families of anyone still inside. Whoever’s sheltering him probably has no idea they risk becoming an accessory to murder. We’ll put an alert out on Crimewatch, and we need to stress that he’s killed once, and he may be armed and is certainly dangerous. Members of the public need to warned off approaching him, and if anyone is hiding him, hopefully they’ll think twice about putting their own arse on the line. Right, that’s it for now.’