Читать книгу At Your Door - J. Carter P. - Страница 14

Anna received two calls in quick succession minutes after she’d finished briefing the team.

The first she answered as she and Walker were exiting the building on their way to break the news of Holly’s death to her parents. It was DCS Nash. He wanted to tell her that he had spoken to Police Commissioner Gary Trimble, the Met’s supreme leader.

‘He’ll be calling you himself for an update,’ Nash said. ‘So be prepared. He wants to impress on you how sensitive this case is going to be.’

‘Well, he won’t be telling me anything I don’t already know, sir,’ Anna said.

‘Obviously, but just so you know, he asked me if I was sure that you’re the right person for the job.’

‘Really? Why was that?’

A moment’s hesitation, then: ‘He mentioned those new developments in respect of your daughter. He’s read what’s appeared in the Evening Standard and he’s aware that Channel Four are looking to do a documentary. Whilst he has every sympathy for you he’s concerned that it will prove to be a distraction.’

‘Well, it won’t be,’ Anna said.

‘Which is exactly what I told him. I said you had my full support. So don’t let me down.’

‘I won’t, sir.’

Anna had just closed the passenger door of the pool car when her phone rang again. Before she answered it she clicked on her seat belt and told Walker to start driving.

‘Good evening, Commissioner,’ she said. ‘Detective Chief Superintendent Nash told me to expect a call.’

Trimble had been in the job for a year and this was only the second time that Anna had spoken to him. She had a lot of respect for the man because he had risen to such dizzy heights by the relatively tender age of forty-five.

‘First I need to know if you’re certain that the body that’s been found on Barnes Common is that of Holly Blake,’ Trimble said without preamble.

‘There’s little doubt, I’m afraid,’ Anna told him. ‘We’ve downloaded a bunch of pictures of Holly from the internet. There’s a definite match and in one of them you can see a tattoo on her back. The victim has the same tattoo in the same position.’

‘Has her mother been informed?’

‘I’m on my way to do that now, Commissioner.’

‘Well, rather you than me, detective,’ Trimble said. ‘Rebecca and I go back a long way from her time on the force. So I know she’s going to be absolutely devastated. She doted on her daughter.’

‘How well do you know Mrs Blake, sir?’ Anna asked.

‘We were colleagues, but we never got together outside work,’ Trimble said. ‘Since she left the Met our paths have crossed several times at various functions. The last time was earlier this year when I shared a table with Rebecca and her husband Theo at an awards dinner.’

‘Theo Blake’s a lawyer, isn’t he?’

‘He’s a senior partner in a firm of solicitors. I take it you know that he was Holly’s stepfather. He married Rebecca four years ago after she divorced her first husband.’

‘I wasn’t aware of that,’ Anna said. ‘There’s a lot I need to find out about everyone in Holly’s life.’

‘Well, bear in mind that as a former Assistant Commissioner in the Met, Rebecca Blake has a lot of friends on the force. She was popular among her colleagues and I’ve no doubt they’ll all want to help with the investigation.’

‘I met her myself once,’ Anna said. ‘It was shortly after my daughter was abducted. She offered to help in any way she could.’

‘She’s a very generous and caring person,’ Trimble said. ‘That’s why she’s doing so well as a politician. But this tragedy is bound to have a serious impact on her life and that includes her bid to become the Mayor of London.’

The involvement of any politician in a major investigation always created problems – from the amount of publicity they generated to the pressure they sought to apply when they felt threatened.

But Rebecca Blake wasn’t just any politician. She already had the ear of the Prime Minister and was set to be a high-flyer in political circles.

At present she held the influential post of Leader of the Conservative-controlled Westminster Council. It was a position she took up after retiring from the police. In addition she was now the Tory Party’s chosen candidate in the forthcoming election for the role of London’s Mayor.

The main thrust of her campaign had been a commitment to substantially reduce crime in the capital, something the current incumbent had failed to achieve after almost four years in office.

‘I’ll make a point of contacting Rebecca myself tomorrow,’ Trimble said. ‘It might reassure her to know that I’m taking a personal interest.’

‘Of course, sir,’ Anna said. ‘But before you go there’s something I need to mention.’

‘What is it?’

‘Well, it’s early days and so we don’t know why Holly was murdered. The motive might become evident very quickly, but if it doesn’t then I think we should explore the possibility that it was committed by someone who has a grudge against the mother. I’m sure that like the rest of us on the force Mrs Blake made enemies along the way and it could be that one of them wants to see her suffer. Or maybe the aim is to stop her becoming London’s Mayor because of her crusade against crime.’

‘It’s a plausible theory, DCI Tate,’ Trimble said. ‘And I’m sure it’s one that will fuel the inevitable media frenzy. But it’s a line of enquiry that I want us to play down unless we come across some solid evidence to support it.’

‘Understood, sir.’

‘Meanwhile I’ll expect you to provide me with regular updates via DCS Nash. And it goes without saying that you’ll have all the manpower and resources you need to crack this case. Just don’t lose sight of the fact that every move you make will be scrutinised, and not just by me. I know you were under considerable pressure during the nursery kidnap investigation, but this will be a different kind of pressure and on some levels it will be even more intense.’

‘So what’s the word from on high?’ Walker asked after Anna came off the phone to the Commissioner.

‘He warned me to tread carefully, keep him in the loop and expect a lot of pressure,’ she said.

‘Well, that was to be expected given who the victim’s mother is.’

‘Yeah, I suppose.’

‘So why do I get the impression that you’re mightily pissed off, guv?’

Anna heaved a sigh. ‘He had the bloody cheek to ask Nash if I was the right person to head up the investigation. If the boss hadn’t assured him that I was then I’d probably be on my way home now.’

Walker frowned. ‘I don’t understand. Does Trimble actually think the case is too sensitive for you to handle?’

‘It’s not that. Nash said he raised the issue of Chloe and he’s worried that I’ll take my eye off the ball because of all the new stuff. He’s read the Evening Standard piece and has been told that I’ve been approached by C4.’

‘C4?’

‘Channel Four,’ Anna said. ‘They want to do a true crime programme on me.’

‘Bloody hell, guv. That’s a huge deal. Why haven’t you mentioned it?’

‘I only found out myself just before we left the office to go to the common. I pushed it to the back of my mind for obvious reasons.’

They stopped at traffic lights and Walker turned to face her.

‘Then in all fairness, you can’t blame the Commissioner for being a teensy bit concerned,’ he said. ‘I’ve told you before that there are times when even I don’t know how the hell you manage to stay focused on the job.’

Anna gave him a sharp look, so he quickly added, ‘And before you go off on one, guv, just remember that we’ve had this conversation several times so you know that I have a point. You also know that I trust you to do a good job on every case despite the fact that you have more on your plate than anyone deserves.’

His words took the wind out of her sails, so instead of snapping at him, she said, ‘You’re the only person I know who would dare say that to me, Max. And the only person who’d get away with it.’

‘Well, I like to think that’s because we’re friends as well as colleagues,’ he said. ‘And friends say it like it is whilst remaining loyal to each other.’

Anna shook her head and smiled. ‘You do have a way with words, Max. I’ll grant you that. And I bet your wife finds it so bloody annoying.’

He laughed. ‘She sure does, but she puts up with it because she knows I’m always right.’

‘You smug bastard.’

The pair enjoyed a good working relationship, and Anna knew that Walker would always have her back. For instance, two years ago she received an anonymous tip that a man matching her ex-husband’s description had been spotted in a Paris suburb. It was during a big murder investigation and she knew her superiors would not have let her take time off to check it out. So she confided in Walker and he told her to go there and then covered for her. They stayed in touch by phone and she returned to London forty-eight hours later after it turned out the man in question wasn’t Matthew after all.

Walker was one of the few people who had encouraged her never to give up searching for her daughter. Most were of the opinion that it had become a pointless obsession and that she needed to get on with her life and accept that she would never see Chloe again.

Walker understood how she felt, mainly because he had two young daughters of his own. She couldn’t help feeling jealous of him, though, and of her other colleagues in MIT who were mothers and fathers. Whenever they talked about their kids it reinforced the extent of her loss.

Walker was more sensitive to her feelings than the rest of them. He said to her once, ‘I can feel your pain, ma’am. I really don’t know how I’d cope if I was in your position. I’m not sure I’d even have the strength to carry on.’

Anna carried on because for her giving up was not an option. However, there had been times over the past ten years when she’d almost convinced herself that she was wasting her time.

In the months after Matthew abducted Chloe it was easy to believe that they’d be found or that Matthew would accept that he was in the wrong and bring her back from wherever he’d taken her.

At that time everyone was rooting for the heartbroken mother and the story was attracting a lot of publicity. Thousands of people reacted to her social media campaigns and appeals, and there was good reason to hope that she would be reunited with Chloe before her daughter’s third birthday. But interest in the story eventually waned and the abduction became old news.

In a little while Chloe would be thirteen and still Anna had no idea where she was. All she did know for certain was that she was no longer with her father because he was murdered three years ago in a park in Southampton.