Need You Dead

95 Saturday 30 April

At 6.20 p.m., minus Glenn Branson and Kevin Hall, who were down in Portsmouth with Jon Exton, Grace’s entire team was assembled in the conference room. He cut to the chase by introducing Tim Weatherley, who had just entered the room, and asking him to give a brief outline of the work of the Scotland Yard Super Recognizer Unit.

When he had finished, the Detective Superintendent said, ‘We’re now going to view one still from a camera in a fortuitously parked vehicle on Vallance Street, on the night of Wednesday, April 20th — the date that Lorna Belling died. The image is very blurry, partly because it is through a windscreen on a wet night, and partly because of the darkness—’

He was momentarily distracted by a ping from Velvet Wilde’s phone. Then he went on.

‘If any of you think you know the identity of the person in this image, who may or may not be the offender, let us know immediately. Let’s see if any of you have Super Recognizer abilities!’ He nodded at Weatherley and he switched on the projector.

All of them turned to look at the blurry image of a figure on the flat screen on the wall, who appeared to be carrying two rubbish bags.

‘I recognize him, chief,’ Norman Potting said.

‘Yes?’ Grace encouraged.

‘Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Super Binman!’

There was laughter.

‘Thank you, Norman,’ Grace retorted, acidly. ‘Not terribly helpful.’

‘He would be in my neighbourhood, chief. With the bin strikes we’ve had.’

‘Norman!’ he cautioned.

‘Sorry, chief,’ Potting said, blowing on his new designer glasses and wiping them with one of his shirt fronts, exposing his flabby belly.

Grace looked at Weatherley. He seemed pensive.

‘Reminds me of Blackadder, chief,’ Norman Potting suddenly said.

‘Blackadder?’ Grace queried.

‘That bit when Rowan Atkinson says, “A blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat that isn’t there.”’

‘Your point being, Norman?’ EJ Boutwood asked.

‘My point is, young lady, that we’re being asked to identify Mr Blurry, when the only thing we can see clearly is a bin bag. Unless you’ve got better eyesight than me. Eh?’

Roy Grace looked at Weatherley. The Super Recognizer had a strange expression. As he caught the Detective Superintendent’s eye, he gave him a discreet glance. No one else in the room, other than Guy Batchelor who was looking intently at the man, could have spotted it.