Little Boy Blue

103

‘Now tell me, what happened to your colleague? DC McAndrew, was it? I rather liked her.’

Sanderson smiled tightly, as Maurice Finnan presented her with a cup of tea and ushered her towards the living room.

‘On operational duties, I’m afraid.’

‘And now they’ve sent a sergeant along. I am going up in the world.’

It was said lightly, but Sanderson sensed the question behind Maurice’s joke. Clearly he was sharp as a tack beneath his cultivated eccentricity.

‘Nothing too exciting, I’m afraid. Just some follow-up work.’

Maurice sipped his tea and said nothing.

‘You very helpfully provided us with a list of vehicle registrations that you’ve seen near Jake Elder’s flat.’

‘I did.’

‘Would you mind if we went through a few of them with you now… ?’

Maurice was only too happy to help, so Sanderson crossed the room and sat down next to him. Maurice pulled his reading glasses from his top pocket and cast an eye over the list of registrations.

‘This one, DE59 VFB. A blue Transit. Can you remember the driver at all?’

Maurice thought for a second, then replied:

‘No, I’m afraid I can’t. Normally I’ve got a pretty good memory for these things, but…’

‘What about this one? BD05 TRD – a Corsa.’

‘Little fellow. Raincoat, with one of the little rucksack things for computers -’

‘Laptop bag.’

‘That’s it.’

‘And VF08 BHU. An Astra estate -’

‘Big guy, unshaven, a labourer or something like that.’

‘Very good and what about this one – LB52 WTC?’

‘Well, that was an unusual one – a motorbike.’

‘Right. And the driver?’

‘A woman. That’s what made her stand out. I didn’t think they were into that kind of thing.’

‘Could you describe her for me?’

Sanderson took down the particulars, barely believing what she was hearing. She hadn’t wanted to believe Emilia at first, telling her to take a running jump. But as the journalist had laid out the evidence in front of her, troubling questions had been raised in her mind. Garanita had photographic evidence going back several years that suggested Helen had used Jake Elder’s services and it appeared she knew Max Paine too. Why had she withheld this from her team? What did she have to hide? Sanderson’s head had been spinning by the end of their conversation and she had hurried here, hoping against hope that Maurice would contradict Emilia’s story, but he hadn’t. Quite the opposite. He had in fact just given her a perfect description of Helen Grace.