James Carol - The Quiet Man

‘Which is where the idea falls down. The problem being that Sobek’s security is too efficient. So what does he do? He starts hunting around for another victim. After all, the idea is a good one.’

‘And there’s your escalation,’ Anderton said.

‘The good news is that he’s still escalating. Look at the latest murder. He actually approached Cody Hooper in person. Next he’ll be looking to approach his targets after the murders. At some point he’s going to overplay his hand.’

‘Well, let’s hope he overplays it sooner rather than later. I don’t want to wait another year before we catch him.’

They stopped talking and for a while stood there staring at each other. The silence was uncomfortable. It was a silence that demanded to be filled.

‘It’s a nice theory,’ Anderton said eventually. ‘But you realise that’s all it is. A theory. There’s no proof that this is what actually happened.’

‘But you’ve got to admit that it’s a compelling one.’

Anderton didn’t say anything for a second. ‘If I was still running this investigation, I’d task someone with digging a little deeper into this. It’s possible that Gifford got noticed at one of the funerals. Maybe someone reported him to the police. I’d be interested to know if he was in the system.’

‘You’ll run this by Freeman, then?’

‘No, Jefferies might be better for this. He’s more likely to take it seriously.’

‘I like Jefferies.’

Anderton’s eyes narrowed. ‘Good to know. But I’ve got to say, that one came a little out of left field.’

‘I was just thinking, that’s all. One thought led to another and I started wondering about how far back the two of you went.’

‘Why not say what’s really on your mind?’

‘Jefferies is your number-one winged monkey, isn’t he? He’s the head of the troop? The top banana?’

Anderton cracked a small smile. Her brown eyes were shining and there was guilt writ large all over her face. ‘I couldn’t possibly comment on something like that.’

‘I thought we were partners, Anderton. Aren’t partners supposed to share everything?’

‘Not everything. There’s such a thing as oversharing.’

A sudden loud banging from downstairs made them both turn toward the hatch. Winter counted four bangs in total, each one as impatient as the last. The banging was followed by muted shouting. They were too far away to make out the actual words, but Winter recognised the tone. The bemused expression on Anderton’s face indicated that she did, too.

‘Looks like we’ve got company,’ he said.

‘Yeah, we should let them in.’

Winter climbed down the ladder and headed along the landing to the stairs. He’d almost reached the bottom when the front door suddenly exploded open. The cop standing there was dressed in full battle gear and holding a large steel battering ram. He moved aside and two more cops stepped in to take his place. One had a semiautomatic gun pushed hard into his shoulder and aimed at Winter’s chest. The other was aiming at Anderton. Winter’s guy was screaming for them to get down on their knees and put their hands behind their heads. Winter didn’t move. So long as they didn’t make any sudden movements they’d probably be okay. He reckoned that they were due another couple of shouted warnings before the shooting started. Anderton was clearly thinking along the same lines. She hadn’t dropped to her knees either.

It took a couple of seconds for recognition to kick in. There was just too much adrenaline and testosterone flying around. Anderton’s guy got there first. The muzzle of his gun wavered briefly then he dropped the weapon to his side. He gestured to his buddy, who kept his gun aimed at Winter for a few seconds longer before lowering it. Winter moved to the side, looking for a way out, but the doorway was blocked by the cops.

‘Freeman!’ he yelled out. ‘Tell your people to stand down. Gifford isn’t home.’

Argyle Street was busier than it had ever been. Police cruisers were parked across both ends of the street to block access, and there were more cars parked at the sidewalk opposite Gifford’s house. Winter had counted twelve people in total. The advance guard had helmets, vests, semiautomatics, the works. The rest were in their detective clothes, and the compulsory Kevlar vest. The old woman from further along the street had stopped working and set up a lawn chair in the shady part at the front of her house so she could watch.

Winter and Anderton had moved to the sidewalk while the police searched the house. Anderton was on her cell, talking to Rebecca Byrne and making her promise not to release William Gifford’s name until after an arrest had been made. She hung up and put her phone away. A short while later Freeman and Jefferies came out of the house and walked over. Winter and Anderton were standing on the kerbside, facing the building. Freeman and Jefferies were backed up to the lawn as though they were daring them to come closer. The posturing was unnecessary. Winter had already seen everything he needed to. Freeman looked seriously pissed. This was his big moment and he’d been beaten to the punch. It was hard to feel sympathetic.

‘So I guess you just happened to pick this address out of thin air,’ Freeman said. ‘Out of all the homes in the city you somehow ended up in this one.’

‘Something like that,’ Anderton replied.

‘Don’t be cute, Laura. Right now, I’m searching hard for a good reason not to arrest you.’

‘Then let me help you out, Peter. How will it look if it gets out that we discovered where Gifford lived before you did? There’s only two of us. How many people have you got working on this? That’s not going to play out well in the media, is it? You want to talk about incompetence, there’s your definition right there.’

Freeman’s face was turning red. He was managing to hold on to his temper, but only just. ‘You must have had an idea of what you were walking into.’

‘Not at first.’

‘But at some point it became evident that William Gifford was the killer.’

‘It did. And that was the point when I called your cell phone. If you don’t believe me check your voicemail.’

‘And that’s when you should have got the hell out of the house.’

‘Since we were already inside it made sense to get as much information as possible. I figured that you’d want to be fully apprised of the situation. Both myself and Winter are experienced investigators, so I couldn’t see how this would cause a problem.’

‘I’m sure you couldn’t.’

Anderton glanced at her watch. ‘I’m not busy for the next five minutes. Maybe I can apprise you now. Does that work for you?’

‘That would be the least you could do.’

‘Before you get into that,’ said Winter. ‘I’ve got a quick question.’

Freeman turned and glared. Winter took this as his cue to ask away.

‘Have you got a copy of Gifford’s passport photograph yet? Or his driver’s licence picture?’

‘You’re joking, right?’

‘No.’

Freeman shook his head. ‘Unbelievable,’ he muttered to himself.

‘If you do get hold of it, we’d like to see it.’

Winter turned and started walking down the street in the direction of the old woman’s house. He’d only taken four steps when he heard footsteps behind him on the sidewalk. Two steps later Jefferies was alongside him.

‘I’m assuming that you’ve been tasked with keeping an eye on me,’ Winter said. He was talking in a low voice and staring straight ahead.

‘My orders are to watch you like a hawk.’ Jefferies was staring straight ahead too, and talking in a tone of voice that was every bit as low.