‘You’re right about one thing, you are an idiot. Where are we going?’
‘A little pub in Derbyshire. It’s quiet. Thought we could talk and get to know each other properly, away from the station. I’ve told front desk the only reason they’re allowed to call me tonight is if there’s a murder, so let’s hope it’s a quiet night in Sheffield.’
They were actually in bed in Holly’s house when the call came through that a body had been found.
The chat between them had rapidly matured as the evening wore on, and when Tom pulled up outside the small semi-detached he had taken her into his arms and kissed her. A long kiss. A returned kiss.
‘You’re coming in?’ It wasn’t really a request, more an instruction.
‘Coffee?’
‘If that’s what you want.’ Holly winked and got out of the car.
He smiled, locked the car and followed her down the path.
Thirty seconds later, he held her against the wall in the hallway and kissed her a little more thoroughly, and within five minutes they had found their way to the bedroom.
‘Do you know how long I’ve fancied you?’
Holly smiled. ‘About as long as I’ve fancied you.’ She ran her right hand lightly over his chest. Happiness seemed to explode inside her. ‘I knew I had to step up a gear or we’d have spent the rest of our lives skirting around wanting to do what we’ve successfully done.’
He leaned on one elbow and smiled down into her face. ‘You’re beautiful, funny, smart, and amazing in bed. We have to go to work and pretend nothing’s changed, but it has, Holly, it’s all changed.’
‘We sure as hell can’t tell anybody.’ She laughed. ‘Can you imagine the reaction, and the ribbing we’d have to take. Nobody knows, let’s keep it that way. Are you staying all night?’
‘Bit brazen, aren’t you?’
‘Not normally, but I’ve got this DI who’s a bit slow on the uptake…’
He kissed her again. ‘I’ll stay, in case you need protection through the night.’
They had drifted off to sleep by four, and at half past, Tom’s phone pealed out its Elvis Presley ringtone.
He woke in some panic, initially unable to remember where he was.
Then Holly sat up.
‘Oh God,’ he groaned. ‘I said I didn’t want disturbing…’
‘…unless there’s a dead body,’ Holly finished the sentence. She passed him the phone. ‘You’d better answer it.’
He looked at his screen and blinked, trying to focus. He swiped the answer bar. ‘Roger? What’s wrong?’
‘Body found, sir, on that playing field in the middle of the Waterside Estate. Know where I mean? Stabbing, sir, so pretty obvious it’s a murder. I don’t know anything else yet.’
‘I know the location. I’ll ring the team.’
‘I’m ringing DS Jones now, sir, on the other line.’
Holly’s ringtone pealed out, and she was leaning out of the bed frantically looking for it.
‘Oh…’ Roger said. ‘Erm… I take it I don’t need to speak to DS Jones, sir. I’ll leave you to tell her.’
Holly was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved top, but Tom still wore the grey suit he had worn the previous night. He realised it wasn’t suitable, but hoped nobody would pick up on it.
They went in separate cars, and arrived at the scene to see a white tent erected. They checked in and saw one or two more of the team already there. He moved towards the tent, leaving Holly to liaise with the others; he popped his head inside.
‘Shit,’ he said, not quite under his breath.
‘You know the victim, DI Fowler?’
‘I do. Her name’s Tina Jackson.’
‘It looks as though she was running from something or somebody. Stabbed in the back.’
‘Thanks for that. I know one person on the whole of this bloody estate who didn’t do it, and that’s the feller she lived with. He’s currently in our cells. PM tomorrow, Oliver?
‘Yep. Shall we say eleven?’
Tom nodded, and retreated outside. Now to tell the rest of his team; this had to be connected to their ongoing investigation, it had to be.
12
‘Dead?’ Charlie had known something was wrong when they’d put him in a room with a settee, and not the interview room in which he had spent a good part of the previous day.
Christ, he knew Tina could be a bit gobby and a bit of a pain, but dead? ‘What the fuck’s happened to her?’ His brain gave a brief excursion to his conservatory, and he felt sick.
‘I’m sorry, Charlie, but it wasn’t natural causes. She was killed unlawfully, a knife to the back, and that’s all we have so far. Her body was found about three hours ago, so we don’t even know yet how long she’d been lying there.’ Holly spoke quietly. A bereaved partner is a bereaved partner, no matter what else he might have been doing.
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Where was she found?’
‘That large grassed playing field in the middle of the estate.’
Charlie breathed an inward sigh of relief. Not in his conservatory then. With Holly’s next words his world crumbled.
‘We’ve put a team into your house to go through it carefully, hopefully there’ll be something there that will give us a clue as to why anybody would want to kill Tina.’
‘Can I go home?’ He was aware how quavery his voice sounded, and hoped DS Jones hadn’t picked up on it.
‘As soon as we’ve finished our search we’re going to let you go. Please keep yourself available in case we need to bring you back in, but you’ll be home later today.’
She stood and moved out of the room, leaving a young PC in with him. He might be in the cosier interview room, but they were making it clear he was still there under their orders.
It didn’t take the search team long to find the stash of drugs and the bundle of money – nobody accidentally left £20,000 in an Asda carrier bag in a hole in the floor. And the white powder definitely wasn’t icing sugar.
Tom had Charlie recalled to the interview room, and when the DI walked in accompanied by Holly, it was to see him sitting by the side of the duty solicitor.
The interrogation started in a mild fashion, a gentle chat almost. They made sure he was getting support following the death of his partner, and that he was being looked after while he was in their care.
They explained they had found items of significance, hidden in a specially built hole under the conservatory floor, and accessed by pulling back the flooring. Charlie confirmed he knew about the hole, but not about its contents.
‘So your fingerprints won’t be on anything we’ve found in that hole under the conservatory floor?’
‘Definitely not.’
Fowler ran his hands through his hair. ‘Wonder how they got there then…’
Charlie opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it. The duty solicitor touched his arm, warning him to be quiet.
The words from the officers strengthened, and it was obvious Charlie could easily be convicted on fingerprint evidence alone, as there were no prints belonging to Tina Jackson.