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The National Crime Group was based at New Scotland Yard, where it shared several floors with the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Crime Directorate. Its own Serial Crimes Unit, whose remit was primarily to consult on nationwide crime sprees and, where necessary, to elicit and organise multi-force cooperation, was on the sixth floor, and basically comprised one corridor. The DO – or Detectives’ Office, the hub of all activity – was located part way along it, next door to the admin room where the NCG’s civilian secretaries worked. At this late hour on a Sunday afternoon its various desks and computer monitors were deserted, with half the unit off duty and the rest out on enquiries. In fact, the only person present when Heck began humping his sacks of paperwork and boxes of disks up from the car park was DI Palliser, who, given his age, was these days more a duty officer than an investigator, and tended to remain at base, working as coordinator for all SCU operations.

At present, he stood, hands in pockets, in the doorway to his own office which, like the offices belonging to the other three detective inspectors in the department, was separated from the main area by a glazed partition wall. ‘That the lot?’ he asked.

Heck dumped down the last heavy bag of documentation, and nodded. He mopped sweat from his brow. ‘It’s in no particular order, I’m afraid.’

‘Don’t worry. We’ll sort it.’

There was a brief silence as they surveyed the immense pile of materials now spilling out all over the floor of the department’s tea making area.

‘You know, none of this work will get wasted,’ Palliser said. ‘All these cases will continue to be investigated.’

‘Yeah, but as the lowest of low priorities.’

‘Not necessarily.’

‘You know they will,’ Heck said glumly. ‘I spent months zeroing in on each one of these, and now they’ll just get thrown back in with the runaway teens and the absentee fathers.’

‘Well … it’s not your problem now.’

‘The trouble is, Des, it won’t be anyone’s problem. Apart from the families who are missing their loved ones.’

Palliser didn’t even try to argue with that assessment. ‘Whatever … the Lioness wants to see you.’

Heck nodded and went out into the corridor. Detective Superintendent Piper’s office was at its far end. He knocked on the door and when she called him, went in.

She was seated at her desk, writing what looked like a lengthy report. ‘Take a seat, Heck. I’ll not be a moment.’

There were two chairs to one side. Heck slumped down into one. He glanced around. It wasn’t a particularly showy office for so senior a rank. In fact, it was quite small. With its row of filing cabinets, single rubber plant and dusty Venetian blind over the window, it was like something from the 1970s; the only concession to modernity being the quiet hum of the air-conditioning. It was a far cry from the palatial residence upstairs enjoyed by Commander Laycock and his PA.

‘Our office at Deptford Green has now been closed down, yes?’ she asked.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

She continued writing. Heck waited, ruminating on whether or not, if he’d centred his investigation here at the Yard and had not set up a separate incident room down at Deptford, thus saving them some expense, it might have bought him a little extra time. The problem was that the first cluster of disappearances he’d linked together had all occurred, probably by coincidence, in South London – Peckham, Greenwich, Lewisham and Sydenham – and he’d wanted to be ‘on-site’. At the time, of course, he hadn’t realised the enquiry would soon widen to cover most of the country.

Not that any of this mattered now.

‘Is that it, ma’am?’ he asked.

She glanced up. ‘You got somewhere else you need to be?’

He shrugged. ‘Well … I presume I’m being reassigned.’

‘Yes you are. You’re being reassigned to Cornwall. Or the Lake District. Or Spain or the Florida Keys, or even your own back garden. Anywhere you fancy taking a long vacation.’

‘I don’t get you.’

‘You’re going on extended leave.’ She pushed the top sheet of paperwork she’d been working on across the desk towards him. ‘All I need now is your signature on the request form.’

Heck stood up as he read it. Only slowly did the reality sink in.

‘December?’ he said. ‘That’s three months off.’

‘I don’t want to see you back a day sooner.’

‘But three months!’

‘Heck, your willingness to work, work and work is well known. But it’s hardly healthy.’

‘I don’t need three months.’

‘That’s entirely a matter of opinion, and mine carries more weight than yours. You’ve been under massive pressure this last year, and it’s showing – in your work, your appearance, your general demeanour.’

‘This is bollocks!’

‘Especially your demeanour.’

‘Gemma, please …’

‘Can you honestly say, hand on heart – bearing in mind that, on occasion, lives may depend on how fit you are to work – that you don’t need a decent break? That your batteries will go on forever without being recharged?’ She waited for an answer. ‘Or is it just that you think the Serial Crimes Unit will fall apart without you?’

Heck was lost for words. Then, very abruptly, he shrugged and took a pen from his inside pocket. ‘No, it’s okay. In fact it’s great. Three months is extremely generous.’

He scribbled his signature on the form and handed it back.

She eyed him with sudden suspicion. ‘So you’re happy with this?’

‘Sure.’

‘Good. In that case …’ though she still didn’t seem convinced, ‘bye for now.’

Heck nodded and moved towards the door.

‘Mark, before you go,’ she said – and that was a red-letter moment, because these days she hardly ever called him ‘Mark’. He glanced back. She softened her tone, which was also highly unusual. ‘Mark, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry the case you were building didn’t work out.’

‘It’s alright. I know it wasn’t your fault.’

‘It was nobody’s fault. This job’s about balancing time and resources, you know that. You’re needed on other cases.’

‘Which is why I’m being discharged from duty for the entire autumn?’

‘You’re no good to anyone running on empty. Least of all yourself.’

‘No, I guess not.’

‘So what’re you planning to do?’

He mused. ‘Fool around, I suppose.’ Mischievously, he added, ‘See if I can pull a bird.’

She didn’t rise to that bait and began filing his completed paperwork in her out-tray. ‘You could do with getting some sun on your back. And start eating properly; you look underweight to me.’

‘You care?’ he asked.

She glanced up again, almost looking hurt by the question. ‘Of course I care.’

‘I mean more than just because I’m part of your team?’

‘Why should my personal feelings matter to you?’

Heck couldn’t reply. She’d reversed the situation very neatly.

‘Take yourself on holiday, Heck,’ she said, resuming business mode. ‘Relax, have a good time. Pull yourself a bird, if you must. But when you’re back in this office on December first, I want you full of piss and vinegar, okay?’

‘Yes ma’am.’

‘Off you go.’

And he went.

Heck peeled his jacket off and strolled into the rec room to see if there was anyone to shoot some pool with. But it was empty. Instead, he got himself a coffee from the vending machine and stood by the window, looking down on Victoria Street. The hot drink had a soothing effect. Gemma had been right about one thing – at present he was running on empty, but even so, being forced to take a holiday for three months was the last thing he’d wanted. If anyone asked why, he’d tell them that this was because he was a workaholic, but in his more honest, introspective moments he’d admit that it probably owed more to there being nothing else going on in his life. There was no question that Heck loved the job. Catching criminals, putting them away, slamming cell doors on those who brought terror and misery to the lives of the innocent gave him a buzz that he didn’t get anywhere else.

But on this occasion – on this one occasion – being ordered to stay away from the office for a few months might well be to his advantage.

Before he could ponder the situation further, someone else came into the room. He turned, and saw that it was Commander Laycock.

‘Heck,’ Laycock said with a grin. ‘Glad I caught you.’ He sauntered over.

Laycock’s looks belied his age, which was somewhere in the early-to-mid forties. He was a big, burly bloke, tall and broad at the shoulder, yet trim at the waist. Even now he wore the shorts and sweat-dampened vest that he’d no doubt been working out in down in the gym. A towel was looped around the back of his bull-neck. At first glance he had the look of the archetypical man’s man: he was fair-haired, square-jawed, handsome, and yet he had a rugged edge. You’d imagine he could easily go round for round with the lads – and this wasn’t an inaccurate impression. He nearly always adopted a ‘hail fellow, well met’ approach when dealing with ‘his troops’, as he liked to call them, an attitude he’d inherited from his early days in the Royal Military Police.

Heck wasn’t fooled by any of it.

‘I just wanted to congratulate you on the time and effort you put in on the missing women case,’ Laycock said.

Heck nodded. ‘Thank you, Sir.’

‘You understand why I had it wound up?’

‘I’ve got a pretty good idea.’

‘Your last CCA wasn’t totally convincing, I’m afraid. Not considering the amount we’ve been spending on this.’

‘It’s alright, Sir. It’s all been explained to me.’

‘Okay. You don’t seem very happy about it, though?’

Heck feigned surprise. ‘What, I’m supposed to be happy as well? Sorry, I didn’t get the written order for that.’

Laycock’s smile faded. ‘There’s no being nice to you, is there?’

‘I don’t see any point in pretending we’re friends, that’s all.’

‘Blunt as ever, I see. Okay, well let’s cut to the chase. One of the problems of being a detective and having cases to investigate is that, now and then, you’re expected to close a few – not widen them and widen them until every bloody person in the service is at your beck and call.’

‘And why would that be, Sir?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Perhaps you can explain it to me,’ Heck said. ‘Why do we – sorry, why do you – prefer cases we can close quickly and easily to cases that require a load of work?’

Laycock’s eyes were now hard; his lips had tightened. ‘You’re going on leave, I understand. I suggest you go now, before you get on my wrong side.’

‘You’re not going to answer the question? Would that be because, as far as you’re concerned, the National Crime Group’s an ego-trip?’

‘I’m warning you, Heckenburg …’

‘Gold-plated job for a Bramshill brat-packer like you, isn’t it? Very high profile, lots of TV interviews, regular briefings with whichever Home Secretary happens to be in power this week.’

Laycock looked as though he was about to explode, but his anger quickly abated and he smiled again. ‘You know, I always had misgivings about having you in my outfit, Heck. And now I can see they were well-placed. You’re a chancer, an adventurer – and that doesn’t work in the modern police.’

‘I’d have been delighted to be a team-player, if you’d actually given me a team.’

Laycock chuckled. ‘Forget about a team. You should be more concerned now about whether you actually fit into this department. You know they’ve started calling the National Crime Group “the British FBI”. And that’s something I’m encouraging. It makes us sound like the slick, smart, modern organisation I want us to be. Oddballs won’t have any place in it.’

‘So who’ll be running it when you leave?’

‘Insubordinates won’t either.’

‘Ahh … you’re saying you’re kicking me out?’

‘I’m saying you’re not the sort of police officer I necessarily want working under me.’

‘I’d never have guessed.’ At last Heck allowed himself to show some emotion. ‘From the very first day of that missing women enquiry, I didn’t get one word of support from you, Sir. Not one.’

‘I wasn’t convinced by the evidence.’

‘What would you know about evidence? You’re not a copper, you’re a politician.’

Laycock’s lips tightened again. Consummate actor though he was, Heck always managed to bring out the beast in him. ‘You’re lucky no one else is present to hear this, sergeant.’

‘If anyone else was present, I wouldn’t be saying it.’

‘I can still break you, Heckenburg.’

‘Yeah, you’re apparently an expert.’ Heck knew he was going too far now, but suddenly all the frustration and annoyance of the last few months was pouring out. ‘They tell me that when you were a uniformed inspector at Ladbroke Grove, after refusing to spare anyone to clear the yobs away from the war memorial, where they’d been drinking all day, you personally supervised the arrest and conviction of an old lady who’d hit one of them with her brolly.’

‘If you’ve got a job to come back to in December, I’ll be extraordinarily surprised.’

‘It’s a pity you can’t divert some of that belligerence into standing up to the Home Office and demanding more money for our major enquiries,’ Heck retorted. ‘Or how about standing up to the CPS when they say we can’t proceed with a prosecution because there’s only a small chance of success?’

‘You really think you’re fireproof just because you used to shag your super?’

That comment caught Heck on the hop. He’d thought that only Des Palliser was aware he’d once had a romance with Gemma Piper; it was ancient history after all, when they were both young, newly made detectives.

Laycock chuckled again. ‘Oh yes. You’d be amazed at some of the things I know. You see, that’s the difference between you and me, Heckenburg. You’re just a foot-soldier, a grunt. And I’m a five-star general. I’m running the whole show. It’s my job to know everything. But by all means, if you really fancy it, try and take me on. I’d relish the contest, though it wouldn’t last for long.’

Realising that he was on dodgier ground than he’d first thought, Heck said nothing. He grabbed his jacket from a chair and pulled it on.

‘All my service I’ve been meeting coppers like you,’ Laycock added, leaning so close that Heck could smell his sweat. ‘Surly, resentful, jealous of those who’ve earned promotion, embittered that they have to take orders from people they consider themselves superior to. Determined that anyone who doesn’t operate at their mediocre level is to be sneered at. Well I’m not going to stand for it in NCG anymore. We’re an elite outfit. There’ll be no dissent in these ranks. And if you think you’re going to be the exception to that rule because you’re protected, you – and your protectress, I might add – could both be in for a big shock. Now get out of my sight.’

As Heck left, he realised that he should have gone earlier, before he’d let his mouth run away with him. It was just that, with three months of leave looming, he might not have got another chance to have a pop at the person most responsible for wrecking his case.

Not that some of the things said in retaliation hadn’t stung him. To start with, his attitude to Laycock had nothing to do with Gemma Piper providing him cover. In truth, he’d never even considered her that way – until now. The real reason was that he’d always found his supreme boss so aggravating that open criticism of him was unavoidable. It wasn’t even a personality clash; the wound went much deeper than that. To Heck, Laycock was a poster-child for the modern-day senior policeman; young, good looking, university-educated as well as being an ex-military man – and more than capable of kissing all the right buttocks. In short, he embodied everything that was turning British law-enforcement into a career opportunity rather than a vocation.

Not that going lip-to-lip with your commanding officer like Heck had just done, was well-advised. Okay, there’d been no witnesses, so there’d be no one to corroborate accusations at a disciplinary hearing. But he had no doubt that Laycock could and would fix it for him somehow, if he got the chance. There were times when Heck would say that he didn’t care about stuff like that; that as far as he was concerned an idiot was an idiot, and he would always use that exact terminology because he couldn’t abide being disingenuous. But there were other times when he regretted this impulsive nature. It wasn’t as if he was innately rebellious or insolent. Fair enough, he resented having seventeen years in and still only holding the rank of sergeant, but he accepted his place in the pyramid of power. But there was something about Laycock and the number-crunching suits he represented that really stuck in Heck’s craw.

Of course, whatever the reason for it, today’s confrontation – and it was only one of several he’d had with Laycock, but it had been more explosive than most – might have more serious repercussions than usual. Until now Heck had always relied on his reputation for being a highly productive officer who’d sent way more than his fair share of slags and skags to prison, to guarantee his job security. In addition to that, aside from his differences with Laycock, he had a relatively clean shirt. So it wouldn’t be easy ousting him. And it would be even harder to oust Gemma. She was probably the NCG’s most prized asset: not only was she a woman, which was always a bonus these days, but she’d blazed her way through the male-dominated world of CID with skill, guile, determination and, above all, results, and had earned her high position because she deserved it rather than because of positive discrimination. On top of all that, she was eye-candy, so it looked particularly good when she was accepting her commendations on TV. But Laycock would still try to stick the knife in, possibly using the missing women enquiry, and how much cash had drained into it for so little return, as the main springboard of his assault.

Which, when Heck thought about it, made the plan he was now hatching for the next three months – extremely risky though it was – all the more important.