Kiss and Die

Chapter 86

‘Give me the clothes you were wearing earlier, before you showered.’ Daniel Lu stood in Mann’s bedroom and handed Mann a forensic suit. ‘Touch nothing.’

Mia was hovering outside in the hallway. Ng was suited up and helping with the search of the bedroom. He’d been the first to arrive after Mann’s call. Mann looked behind her-no Sheng.

‘Don’t be fucking ridiculous. This is my home. I’ve touched everything in here.’ Mann took the suit all the same and slipped it on over his t-shirt and boxers. He hadn’t got very far with dressing.

Ng emerged from the bedroom and stepped over the officer on his hands and knees searching for hairs on the carpet. ‘They’ll never find anything in this mess, except a dead mouse or something.’

‘You know what I mean. Don’t move anything.’

Flash bulbs went off around the room. Daniel’s team were busy grid searching his lounge. The whole of his building was sealed off.

‘Were you alone here last night?’ Mia stood in the doorway, waiting for an answer.

‘No.’ He didn’t look at her. He knew if there was one person who would guess he was trying to hide something it would be Mia.

‘Well, did you get her name by any chance?’

‘No.’ Mann didn’t like lying to Mia but he had to give himself time to think. This was his problem and he had to think it through before he involved anyone else.

Mia sighed. ‘You better start remembering, Johnny, because whoever she was she put a head under your bed.’

‘It’s not just any head. I know him. I met him the other night at the bar in Vacation Villas.’

‘Still believe in coincidences?’ Daniel Lu spoke whilst at the same time bagging up Mann’s bed sheets. ‘Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to set you up, Mann. They must want you bad.’

‘What did she look like?’ Mia was exasperated. Her frown line had gained extra depth. ‘Mann, talk to me. This girl you had back here last night, what did she look like?’

Mann shook his head. ‘I didn’t get a good look at her. She’d left by morning.’

‘That good, huh? Bloody hell, you’re a liability at the moment. You’re going out of your way to mess up. What the hell do you think you were doing getting blind drunk and picking up women when we are in the middle of a murder investigation and one, may I add, in which your operative, your officer, Tammy Wang, was killed? Does it mean shit to you, Mann?’ Mia was too fuming now to stay any longer. ‘Take the head down to Saheed. This is your baby, Mann. This is all yours. You messed up, you clean up and then I want you in my office with a full report on my desk. I want that girl found. I want her DNA off those sheets, Daniel. Mann, you are a walking disaster at the moment.’

The men said nothing after Mia left. Mann finished getting dressed. The whole of his flat seemed to be being taken for evidence. All he was left with was the piles of his father’s life-the one thing he didn’t want. Daniel came to find him in the kitchen. Mann was holding on to the edge of the sink, head bowed, trying not to throw up.

‘You can get this down for Saheed to look at now. He’s ready to do the autopsy. We’ll be a while longer here. It’s better that you leave us to get on with it.’

Mann nodded. ‘Where’s Sheng?’

Daniel Lu shook his head and shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine. He hasn’t been seen since yesterday.’ He picked up his key to leave. ‘And you better get your locks changed, Mann. If it wasn’t your mysterious woman then someone else went to a lot of trouble to leave this here.’