Little Boy Blue

114

‘I’m sorry, I just don’t believe it.’

Charlie tried to keep her voice steady, but there was no hiding the emotion she felt.

‘What you believe isn’t really relevant. We have to be led by the evidence,’ Sanderson countered.

‘DI Grace is a highly decorated officer – she has more commendations to her name than the rest of us put together. Her integrity and professionalism have never been questioned -’

‘That’s not true. She was nearly kicked out of the force for shooting her own sister.’

‘She saved my life that day.’

‘And you’ve been peas in a pod ever since, haven’t you?’

Charlie was about to take Sanderson’s head off, but Gardam intervened, holding up his hand to silence her. He had called Charlie to his office as soon as Sanderson had brought these latest developments to him – Charlie was of equal rank and needed to be included. She was very grateful he had – Sanderson clearly wasn’t going to fight Helen’s corner.

‘This is difficult enough as it is,’ he said calmly. ‘Let’s try to keep personal issues out of it. So what have we got?’

‘We have a personal relationship with all of the victims -’ Sanderson began.

‘According to a journalist,’ Charlie countered.

‘Garanita has a number of photos showing DI Grace visiting Elder’s flat, plus I now have the testimony of a neighbour who saw her there on numerous occasions. Max Paine was brutally attacked nine months ago by a female police officer – a client who’d turned on him. Interestingly, Paine left a voicemail for Emilia Garanita hours before he was killed, saying he had important information relating to Jake Elder’s murder.’

This time Charlie said nothing.

‘We can place Grace’s bike near the scene of the latest murder at exactly the right time. And we believe we can link DI Grace to all the victims via an unregistered mobile phone she attempted to discard on Southampton Common last night.’

‘Come on, Sanderson, that’s speculation and you know it.’

‘We’ll see,’ Sanderson said confidently. ‘We also found a partial boot print near the crime scene at Paine’s flat. It’s a size six – DI Grace is a size six – and the pattern on the bottom is deep, wavy tread, reminiscent of soles you often find on biker boots. As you know, DI Grace -’

‘I get the picture. Can we place Grace at the scene of the first murder?’

‘Not yet.’

‘What about Paine and Fawcett’s flats?’

‘Still processing the evidence, sir,’ Sanderson replied, sounding slightly hesitant for the first time. ‘But the fact remains that DI Grace has been evasive and secretive from the off. She has been behaving erratically and emotionally, making decisions and calls that the evidence just didn’t justify. The use of clingfilm on the third victim can’t be a coincidence, given her history. Perhaps she got bored of waiting for us to work it out.’

‘But why? Why would she do something like this?’ Charlie virtually shouted.

‘Maybe they blackmailed her and she killed them. Now she’s trying to cover her tracks, make it look like a serial killer, when actually she’s just covering her arse. Or maybe she’s just snapped, she’s been doing this stuff for so long and nobody has a closer affinity to this type of killer than her. After all, it runs in the famil-’

At this point, Sanderson’s phone rang out, loud and shrill. Apologizing to Gardam, she answered it and retreated. Charlie saw this as her opportunity and leapt in.

‘With the greatest of respect to my colleague, I really don’t think arresting DI Grace is the right thing to do. We need to evaluate these leads, for sure, but I don’t think an arrest – with all the attendant publicity – is a smart move.’

Gardam looked at her, but said nothing.

‘Look, I know hunches and personal relationships don’t count for much,’ Charlie acknowledged, ‘but I’ve known Helen Grace longer than anyone here and she just isn’t capable of these crimes. Her first and only priority is to save lives, to serve the ends of justice. Whatever may have happened in her personal life, she wouldn’t do this. She would never murder someone in cold blood, so for everyone’s sake, let’s not rush into something we’ll regret. She is innocent, please believe me.’

Charlie finished her impassioned speech and now became aware of Sanderson standing by her side.

‘That was Meredith Walker at the lab,’ Sanderson said, failing to keep the note of triumph from her voice. ‘We’ve got a match, sir. A cigarette butt found in the corridor by the crime scene at the Torture Rooms has DI Grace’s DNA on it. She was there that night.’

Charlie felt physically winded, stunned by this development. And her discomfort increased still further as Gardam now turned to them both and said:

‘Ok. Let’s bring her in.’