Child's Play (D.I. Kim Stone #11)(34)

‘Ten days,’ Penn mused, tapping the marker pen against his lip. ‘We got it all wrapped up in ten days.’

‘A bloody long ten days,’ Doug observed.

‘Yeah, twelve hours every flipping day,’ Lynne agreed.

‘Textbook,’ Doug said.

Penn agreed. That was exactly the way cases were supposed to happen. Get a lead from an eyewitness, chase it down, question folks and find forensic evidence to support suspicion. Exactly how investigations were supposed to go. Except they very rarely did.

‘When it first happened we all agreed it looked like it was gang related, yeah?’

They both nodded.

‘Type of place, quiet road, no CCTV, time of night. All pointed towards—’

‘Except the murder,’ Lynne interrupted. ‘The Reed gang don’t normally kill folks. They run in, frighten the cashier with a big knife, take the money and leave.’

Penn knew that was their normal MO.

‘But things go wrong sometimes. Maybe Devlin Kapoor wasn’t so keen to hand over the money. Maybe he wasn’t so easily frightened. He was young, fit and healthy. Probably also pissed cos his dad’s business is suffering and wasn’t as compliant.’

Doug raised his hand.

‘What?’

‘Tee shirt in the shed.’

‘Put that aside for a minute,’ he said.

Doug and Lynne looked at each other.

‘So, why’d we stop even looking at the gang?’ he asked. His gut had definitely been steering him that way.

‘Ricky Drake is what happened,’ Lynne said. He gave us a name and—’

‘Why?’ Penn asked. It was a question he’d asked at the time, but one that had been forgotten following the discovery of the tee shirt.

‘Volunteered it while being questioned on another case,’ Lynne answered.

Penn turned to his colleague. ‘You were questioning him about the burglary, yeah?’

Lynne nodded, a wariness creeping into her features.

‘How did it come about?’

She shrugged. ‘Can’t remember, but he definitely asked if there’d be any leniency if he were to assist us on another matter.’

‘See, he knows better than that. He knows we don’t do deals.’

‘Which is what I told him,’ she offered tightly. ‘And I convinced him that he should do his civic duty and just tell us what he knew.’

‘Anyone ever know him to be that helpful in the past?’

‘Never,’ Doug offered before getting a warning glance from Lynne. ‘But if it was information he had then he had nothing to lose by trying to use it as leverage,’ Doug said, backing up his colleague.

‘It’s not like I took his first damn word for it, Penn,’ Lynne said, as the colour infused her cheeks. ‘He took me through it again and again. Told me how he was walking down the street, stopped to light a smoke, which gave him time to see the killer. What did you want me to do, make him write it in fucking blood?’

‘I’m not insulting you,’ Penn clarified, surprised to hear her curse.

‘No, you’re just saying I’m shit at my job?’

‘Bloody hell, Lynne. Drop the sensitivity,’ he said, and then felt bad for the shadow of hurt that passed over her face. ‘I know you questioned him extensively about what he did and what he saw and his story never changed, but the boss told us to go over this and look for…’

‘Areas that we fucked up?’ Doug asked. ‘But I really don’t think we did.’

‘Okay, let’s leave Drake for now. Our other inconsistency today came from the charming Mrs Nuryef.’

Lynne visibly relaxed as they moved on to something she’d had little to do with.

‘So, after the outburst today do we question her motivation for changing her story?’ He turned to Doug. ‘When we questioned her on the thirtieth did you have any reason to doubt her when she swore her husband was at home?’ he asked, wondering if he’d missed something in her demeanour.

‘Dunno,’ Doug said smirking. ‘I was the one tasked with needing the bog,’ he said putting invisible quote marks in the air.

Penn smiled. ‘Yeah, code for a bit of a snoop around.’ A ploy used on every cop drama on the telly, so he was surprised they still got away with it, but Mrs Nuryef, although pissed off and antagonistic had appeared to be honest. She had offered no detail as to why she was sure he’d been home but she’d been absolutely sure he was.

‘Seemed pretty honest when she recanted the statement the next day,’ Doug observed.

‘And it was that recanting that secured the warrant that led to the tee shirt,’ Penn observed, looking at the timeline.

‘So, again I ask why she did it?’

‘Moral responsibility?’ Lynne asked.

‘But he’s her husband,’ Penn pushed. ‘She’s got three kids, so even if it was true, why would she be so quick to blame him?’ He turned to Lynne. ‘If it were Simon, would you be so quick to tell the police you’d made a mistake and instantly put the man you love into the frame for murder?’

‘Depends if he’d put the bog seat down that morning,’ she quipped.

They all laughed.