Darkness Falls (Kate Marshall, #3)(71)

He looked back to Mona, who was staring him down.

“Shit, he’s under police surveillance,” said Tristan to himself.

Abruptly, Mona got up out of her seat and reached into her coat hung on the back. Faye was getting out of her car, and two police cars screeched to a halt outside the Starbucks. And then it all happened very quickly. Four police officers in uniforms rushed into the coffee shop and over to the table where Kate was sitting with Noah. Mona reached the table just before Tristan and held up her police card and ID.

“Noah Huntley, I’m arresting you for the murders of David Lamb, Gabe Kemp, and Hayden Oakley . . .”

Noah looked up, holding half a buttered scone, and Kate sat back in her chair, looking at the officers.

“You can’t be serious,” he said, biting into the scone.

“You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence,” said Mona. Faye reached the table, and one of the police officers had a pair of handcuffs open.

“Could you stand up, please, sir?” he said.

“This is—you can’t be serious!” said Noah. “Is this what you wanted?” he said to Kate. “You lure me to a public place and make a big scene!”

“There doesn’t need to be a scene,” said Faye.

“Who the fuck are you?” shouted Noah, his face suddenly red with rage.

“DCI Faye—”

“Show me your fucking police ID card,” he spat, spraying the table with bits of chewed-up scone. Faye already had her card ready and held it up.

“I’m DCI Faye Stubbs. This is DC Mona Lim, and . . .”

“I don’t want to know all your fucking names!” shouted Noah. “Why do you have to do this here? You could have waited until I’d finished my fucking scone!”

“Cuff him,” said Faye.

Noah’s face was almost purple, and Tristan thought he was going to have a heart attack. Noah stood up, kicking his chair back into the wall, and allowed himself to be handcuffed.

“This way, sir,” said the two uniformed police officers as they led him out of the Starbucks, which had fallen dead silent. Everyone was staring.

“What are you looking at?” Noah shouted at a woman with a stroller. “I want to speak to my wife and my solicitor. There’s no need to guide me, I can see the fucking door!” he shouted as he was bundled toward the exit of the Starbucks.

“That’s one to add to my list of last requests before arrest: let me finish my scone,” said Faye.

“Has new evidence come to light?” asked Kate.

Faye nodded. “Come on. Let’s go outside.”

Tristan and Kate followed her out onto the street, where Noah was being put into a police car.

“You don’t need to touch my head. I’m not a moron. I have got into the back of a car before!” he was shouting. There was a group of people watching from the Starbucks window as he was driven away.

Farther up the road, Tristan could see they’d cordoned off a black SUV, and a couple of forensics officers in white suits were working on the car.

“We had a tip-off on the help line,” said Faye. “This person implicated Noah Huntley, saying he saw a large black SUV with Hayden inside. Whilst you were in the coffee shop with Noah, we found garments reportedly belonging to Hayden in his car,” said Faye. “This, coupled with the evidence you provided us, has made us confident to make an arrest so we can question him further.”

A voice started calling Faye on her radio.

“I have to go. Good work, you two. We had no idea you were who he was meeting. We’ve only had him under surveillance since early this morning.”

Faye and Mona crossed the road and got into the blue car and drove away with the remaining police car.

“I only noticed Mona sitting by the window when I went to get him his bloody butter,” said Tristan. “Shit. I didn’t get anything out of him. I’m sorry.”

“You did better than me. I should have seen her there. Not that it would have made any difference,” said Kate.

“Did he tell you anything whilst I was gone?”

“No. He was bitching about the little pot of jam being too small.”

“I feel like I fucked that up,” said Tristan. He felt Kate touch his shoulder, and he looked at her.

“No. You didn’t. And he’s been arrested. He’s been our main suspect since the beginning,” said Kate. He could see she felt cheated that they weren’t able to question him.





40


The next day was three weeks since they’d started their investigation, and Kate and Tristan drove over to see Bill and Bev in Salcombe to give them an update.

It was a hot morning, and they left early, arriving at Bill’s villa just before ten a.m. The sea and sky were in unison, a perfect blue. A group of sailing boats moved across the flat surface of the bay, and a yacht was moored farther out to sea next to a Jet Ski carving its wake in a large circle.

Bev and Bill’s garden had burst into life since their first visit and was filled with sweet-scented summer flowers and the lazy hum of bees. When they reached the front door, Bev was waiting for them. Kate was alarmed to see she was crying, but as they drew closer, she smiled and launched herself at Kate, grasping her in a hug.