Death Trap (38 page)

‘What are you doing?’

Rio had been so wrapped up in her potential discovery she never heard the back door open. She turned to find the one person who could blow her cover.

Rio placed an ash-covered finger against her lips indicating the Cookie should remain silent. She beckoned the younger woman forwards with her hand. At first, Cookie didn’t move, then the door swung closed behind her as she joined Rio.

Rio remained crouched down. Kept her voice quiet. ‘I need to ask you some questions.’

‘But I don’t understand what you’re doing here. The others said there was a friend of Connie’s in his room. A black . . . is that you?’ Her tone was now upset.

‘I want to find out, just like you, why Cornelius is dead.’

‘But I heard that you were suspended.’

Rio knew there was no point lying, plus she didn’t want to treat this grieving woman as if she were a fool. ‘I am. But I can’t let it go.’ She gazed up at the house, knowing she had to act quickly before someone else potentially arrived. ‘I’m trying to get to the bottom of what happened with Cornelius’s parents, so I blagged my way in here to have a look around.’

The young woman’s voice was nearly a whisper. ‘You want to blame Connie, don’t you?’

‘Should I?’

Cookie’s voice was a whisper now. ‘No.’

‘Do you know if he burned anything in that incinerator out back? After his parents were murdered?’

‘Everyone burns things here. In case the police raid the place again.’

‘Did you see him burn anything made of rubber – like a boiler suit or something?’

Cookie blinked furiously ‘I don’t know.’

Rio pointed to the cylinder and the Perspex. ‘Do you know what these might be?’

There was the sound of a car accelerating outside somewhere in the front.

Cookie looked angry now. ‘Are you calling my Connie a murderer?’

Rio held up her palms. ‘No. Three people were murdered inside his parents’ home – including his mother and father – and the evidence is looking like it was not part of the Greenbelt Gang raids. All I’m trying to find out is what happened in that house. Who did this? And I’ll be honest – I need to find out if Cornelius had something to do with it.’

Cornelius’s bereaved girlfriend took a step back. ‘If you’re not supposed to be here, Detective Sergeant Major, whatever you’re called, you’d better go.’

The voices inside the house changed – became louder – but neither Rio nor Cookie noticed.

‘If Cornelius murdered his parents, he didn’t do it on his own. Is that what happened, Cookie, you did it together?’

The other woman’s face went so white that Rio thought she was going to keel over. ‘You’re crazy. Fucking crazy. Connie couldn’t do anything like that without getting a panic attack—’

‘He had panic attacks? Did he have problems with his breathing when that happened?’

Cookie kept her mouth stubbornly shut, giving Rio her answer.

‘Was it the money?’

‘What money? I was with my little brother the whole day. You can ask anyone.’

‘Was that your brother in the framed photo in Cornelius’s room? What happened to it—?’

Cookie’s anger burst forth as the words flew from her mouth like spit. ‘Leave Tod out of this—’

The back door crashed open. Two uniformed police appeared.

One of them said, ‘Both of you inside the building. We have a warrant to search the premises for drugs.’

Rio’s heart sank. Of all the bad luck . . . She looked up at the wall, but it was way too high to make a run for it.

Seeing where her gaze went, the officer who had spoken walked forwards as he said, ‘Don’t even think about. We’ve got all exits and entrances covered.’

fifty-three

7:33 p.m.

‘What would you do with five hundred thousand pounds?’

Calum looked up from the playing cards in his hand at Nikki who sat opposite him. They were both on the floor. She sat crossed-legged, cards held tight between a pair of lime-green woolly fingerless gloves, while his were stretched out in front of him. He was teaching her Blackjack, which she’d taken to like a duck to water. He had a dud hand and from the happy smirk on her face Nikki was obviously pleased with her own.

‘You wouldn’t be trying to distract me, Miss Bell?’

Nikki’s eyes gleamed as her shoulders wiggled like unheard music was being pumped up through the floor. ‘Would you buy a house?’ she continued. ‘That’s how much money auntie and uncle left me, until I reach twenty-five. Then I’ve got access to loads more.’

He picked up a card from the face-down pack. ‘They probably wanted you to use it for your education and then yeah, maybe buy a cosy flat somewhere.’

‘Have you met a hitman?’

He looked up at her. ‘What kind of question is that for a half a million girl to ask?’

Nikki grinned shyly. ‘Go on, tell me.’

‘I might’ve met one or two in my time.’

‘How do you find one?’

‘And why would an innocent little girl like you want to know the answer to a dangerous question like that?’

The laughter on her face fell away. When Calum had first met the teen she’d use her hair to sometimes hide her emotions, but now everything she felt was laid stark and bare by her Ophelia-style hairdo. ‘Just wondering how much someone is willing to pay to see me dead.’

‘Don’t think about bollocks like that. No one is getting to you while I’m around.’

‘Tell me.’

Calum sighed. ‘It varies depending on the job and what country it’s in. I hear that in South Africa you can get that kind of job done way on the cheap because people are desperate for a bob or two. But in a country like this, you’d have to shell out a hell of a lot more.’

‘Like half a million?’

‘Rio wouldn’t like me talking about this.’

‘Fuck Rio.’

‘Watch the tongue.’

‘Why should I? You swear all the time.’

‘Yeah, well, if you’d had some of the experiences I’d had you’d want to be cursing from morning till night.’

Nikki grinned as she lay down her cards triumphantly. ‘Blackjack.’

Calum threw his cards down. ‘Yeah, only because you distracted me.’

He leaned a hand against the chair he’d strategically placed next to him to help him get to his feet again.

‘Time for you to have some of that pizza I ordered while I stretch my legs.’

‘Can I watch the telly for a bit? I missed this week’s episode of
The Wilcotts
. Cousin Lia is
so
good in it.’

He nodded, distracted by the pain shooting up his left leg. He walked slowly as he made his way out of the room to the bathroom along the corridor. As his hand reached for the handle his mobile went off. He pulled it out.

‘It’s Jack Strong.’

‘What do you want?’ Calum’s tone was brusque. His leg was hurting like shit and he didn’t have time for making new friends.

‘I’m just checking that our girl’s OK. I need to tell the boss that she’s safe—’

‘You haven’t told him that Rio took—’

‘Of course I didn’t tell him what Rio did. All he knows is that she’s with people who are taking care of her. So she safe or what?’

‘Safe.’

Calum ended the call, sucked in his breath as the pain throbbed deeper in his leg.

Once inside he headed for the small twin-mirrored cabinet and took out a bottle of pills. He hated taking this stuff, but when the pain was bad he didn’t have much choice. With the bottle in hand he moved across the room and dropped down onto the toilet seat, let out a long groan as his head flopped back. When the doctor told him that this pain might be a lifelong thing he hadn’t believed her. He hadn’t wanted to believe her. His life had almost been destroyed and to have this pain flip him out anytime it chose was something he still couldn’t deal with.

He pushed his head down as he used one hand to ease up the trousers over his left leg. He almost shifted his eyes away, still finding it hard to stare at himself, to deal with what had happened to him.

Suddenly the door pushed open and Nikki was standing in the doorway.

‘Oops, sorry, I didn’t realise . . .’ Her voice trailed off as she saw his leg.

Calum’s brain told him to push his trousers back in place but his hands wouldn’t move.

‘I didn’t know . . .’ Nikki’s gaze left his leg and rose to his face. ‘My mum’s friend had one of those. She was in a car accident. Is that why you look uncomfortable sometimes – because you get those phantom pains?’

There was no pity in her stare, no question, no gasp of shock. None of the things that Calum knew twisted his own face when he looked at his leg. He looked down at it now: flesh and bone above the knee, but artificial leg below.

‘Yeah,’ he responded softly as he pulled his trousers back into place. ‘Feels like my leg is really there.’

‘My friend’s mum hated people asking her all the time if she needed any help . . . but I’m here if you need me.’ Nikki lifted her shoulders and closed the door.

Calum remained where he was, thinking he would be prepared to tell people if they would all react like that innocent girl. No forced questions, no ‘you can hold my hand’ crap or start chatting to him like he was a mouth-foaming imbecile. He hadn’t told Mac, hadn’t told Rio. He knew they assumed that it was nothing too major, just an injury taking its time to heal. What would they say if they knew part of his leg wasn’t there anymore? Or how it had happened? That it had all been due to the job he loved so much – being a police officer.

When he’d confessed to Rio that he hadn’t been with anyone since her and she’d told him to pull her other leg that had made him laugh so hard, but not with joy, just at the harsh reality of his situation. Pull her leg? She wanted to try pulling his non-existent one.

Calum checked his watch. Ten minutes to contact Rio to let her know that her witness was safe.

‘Nooo! Nooo!’

Calum jumped up, hearing Nikki’s hysterical voice, the pill bottle hitting the floor as he rocked unsteadily at the quick movement. He pulled out his semi-automatic Berretta and headed for the door – opened it – shouted, ‘Nikki?’

The only response was the sound of her sobs. Gun ready for action, he stepped into his office, then lowered it when he found Nikki collapsed on the floor, her hands covering her face as she cried.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked, his gaze wandering around the room. It stopped when it got to the small, flat-screen plasma television.

‘Jee-sus,’ he whispered as he saw what had set Nikki off.

On the screen was a photo of her boyfriend Ade. The voice of the newscaster was clear.

‘Adeyemi Ibraheem was in his first year of an economics degree at Oxford University. The police are asking anyone who has information to call the number at the bottom of the screen . . .’

‘They found him in the river.’ Calum turned when he heard Nikki’s voice. Her face was flushed and thick with tears. ‘Someone cut his throat. Is he dead because of me?’

Calum winced as he eased down to the floor. He took the girl in his arms and let her cry.

8:05 p.m.

Rio paced inside the cell. Of course it wasn’t the first time she’d been in one, but this time the door was shut and locked behind her. If drugs or anything else illegal had been found at The Rebels’ Collective she was going to be held for a while and time was something she didn’t have. As soon as they reached the local police station her fingerprints and picture were taken. The longer she stayed in here the more time they had to realise that she’d given them a bogus name and discover who she really was. Then her career would be over. The Assistant Commissioner and her DS would not be giving her any second chances. And no way could she be in here tomorrow morning when Nikki was determined to go to her cousin. Once the girl was back in the real world she was a naked target. She had to figure a way to get out of here. Now.

Rio stopped pacing. Sitting down on the makeshift bed, she started running through her options. She could claim to be sick – they’d pull the duty doctor in and maybe, just maybe, she could be taken to the hospital and then make a run for it. No. She shook her head; that was too much of a long shot. She could call Strong and get him to claim she was his CI and working an important case. But what if Strong wasn’t available? Rio didn’t have time to wait around for him. Calum was her third and final option. And how was he going to get her out of here? Plus if one of the other officers recognised him as the notorious ex-cop Calum Burns they’d probably bang him up as well. Anyway, she couldn’t drag him down here because he was looking after Nikki.

Defeated and weary she laid her head back against the cold wall. It was over. She was out of exit routes to go down. Just when two and two was actually starting to make four . . . All this time she’d fingered Gary Larkin as being there because of his asthma, but it had probably been Cornelius having a panic attack. And who’d been his accomplice? Someone in the Collective? Cookie? And why had Cornelius murdered his parents?