Nick Oldham - Psycho Alley

He knew it was absolutely necessary to go through all the correct procedures even though he was confident that the arrest of George Uren was not far away. However, Henry still found that when he got five minutes breathing space he retreated to his office and did some doodling on a pad. He wrote: ‘ Why + when + where + how = who ?’ Standard SIO thinking. It was pretty obvious that Uren and A. N. Other constituted the ‘who’ of the equation, but Henry was certain that all the other bits would need to be addressed in depth, particularly the ‘why?’, even after Uren had been locked up.

There was also something else he did not want to forget, and that was the fact that he was originally heading an investigation into a series of sexual assaults on young children and the discovery of the body in the boot had spun that off at a tangent. He knew he had to bear this in mind and keep his thinking open. It would be a tragedy if he pinned his hopes on George Uren to be the offender for those offences and then find out he was wrong. If the two strands came together and Uren confessed to these crimes, that would be great, but Henry wasn’t banking on it.

There was something altogether more sinister and brutal about the death in the car. He knew that sex offenders usually committed increasingly terrible offences, but was this one step too far? Or was it just a natural progression? Who could tell? The last offence committed in the series of abductions had been nasty, almost fatal, so maybe this was the next phase. The use of incendiaries to set fire to the car was strange, too. How many people used incendiaries? If nothing else, it was such an unusual MO that if they were used in other crimes, a link could be quickly established, hopefully.

He sat back, fingers interlinked behind his head, looking at the shark in the wall — almost a metaphor for the dangerous streets of Blackpool. He was feeling frustrated now. This had become one of those early investigation lulls when lots of things were happening, but nothing seemed to be going on. It was a time of waiting. The two women should have reached North Yorkshire by now, breakfasts taken into consideration, and soon they would have the means to make a scientific match, or otherwise, with the missing girl; a few pairs of detectives were visiting addresses and associates linked to Uren; the crime scene investigation was still on-going; Intel was being worked on … in fact, everything that should be happening was happening with the resources at his disposal, and even more would be happening come tomorrow. It just felt like nothing was going on. He was sitting on his backside, making sure the I’s were dotted, T’s crossed, doodling with ideas and twiddling his thumbs. Or, as a much-hated police driving instructor on his advanced course once accused him, when he’d nearly totalled the car, ‘Your finger’s up your bum and your brain’s in neutral, PC Christie. You’re in a fuckin’ world of your own.’ Despite the compliment and near collision, Henry had managed to pass the course. Just.

But actually, inactivity was not Henry’s strongpoint. It was unnatural to him. He enjoyed doing, not doodling, which is why he heaved himself out of his chair and strode purposefully to the MIR. He had realized that today would be his last opportunity to get out and about with this investigation. Once all the troops arrived tomorrow, he would be the office-bound strategist. Just for today, though, he was free to do some digging for himself instead of delegating others.

As he walked down the corridor he took off his jacket and slung his covert harness over his shoulders, which held his rigid handcuffs, ASP baton and CS gas canister underneath his left armpit, then shrugged his jacket back on.

With the ultimate and exact science of hindsight, he would often wonder if it would have been the better option to have stayed in the office, drinking tea and pen-pushing, thinking strategy.

It would certainly have been the safer option.

DC Jerry Tope, Henry’s impressive intelligence cell, had actually done a good job of going through George Uren’s file and turning the information gleaned into actions for allocation, dropping the completed, triplicate, handwritten forms into the appropriate tray for distribution following Monday morning’s briefing.

Henry picked up the sheets and leafed through them, aware that Tope was eyeing him warily from his desk nearby. He smiled winningly at the DC and said, ‘You’ve done a good job here.’ Tope relaxed visibly, almost heaving a sigh of relief. ‘Have you started working on timelines yet?’ he then asked, to keep him on his toes.

‘Er … er … just about to start,’ Tope said hurriedly, brushing his hair back nervously and riffling through the papers on his desk.

Henry winked at him. ‘Good man.’

He took the sheaf of actions — which had yet to be entered on the HOLMES system — and wandered over to a spare seat. He began to read them carefully. Truth was, he should have simply selected the top one and not gone through them to try and pick out a juicy one. From tomorrow, all the actions would be prioritized by the Allocator, but here and now he had the pick of the litter.

It was true to say that ninety-nine per cent of the actions were dull and mundane. Essential, but boring, with no real chance of leading directly to a killer, although this is what every detective would hope for. They were all pieces of a jigsaw, and those in Henry’s mitts were no exception. Most were just tedious pieces of sky, but a few were interesting and might just lead somewhere significant. There were four that looked a bit tasty. Henry discarded one, then eeny-meenied the other three, leaving one. Oddly enough it was the one he wanted to do anyway.

The actions were on triple carbonated paper. He wrote ‘DCI Christie dealing’, timed and dated it, tore off the top sheet for himself and dropped the remaining copies on to the Allocator’s desk. He returned the others to DC Tope. He picked up his PR from his office and clutching his job, started making his way to his car.

Reaching the lift just before the doors slid shut, he stepped in to find himself standing next to an old protege, a detective sergeant called Rik Dean. Rik had once been a customs officer and had joined the police late, mid-twenties, but had brought with him an instinct for sniffing out thieves and bad people. His gravitation on to CID and subsequent promotion had not surprised Henry, who had always backed Rik, and not just because he was a good thief-taker. He was also a ruthless lady-killer, his exploits well known, but for some reason he was rarely in trouble over his conquests. Unlike Henry.

Henry had specifically asked that Rik be released to join the murder squad for the big push tomorrow.

‘Henry,’ Rik said, ‘got your message about tomorrow. The DI’s happy to release me for the murder team … well, when I say happy, he doesn’t want me to go but knows he doesn’t have a choice.’

‘Good … in that case, how are you fixed to join me a day early? I could do with some company.’ He shook the action at him. ‘I’m going over to Accrington to knock on a door… if you could make it …’ Henry gave a ‘whatever’ gesture with his shoulders. The lift reached level One, doors, as ever, sliding sluggishly open as though they resented doing the job. Henry stepped across the threshold to prevent them closing. He could see Rik was tempted. ‘Could be a juicy one,’ Henry said tantalizingly.

‘I’ll have to clear it with the boss.’

‘Tell you what. I need to nip out to have a tyre repaired. I’ll give you a shout when I’m clear … that should give you enough time to get an answer one way or the other.’

‘Done,’ Rik said.

Henry left Rik in the lift and made his way across the mezzanine to the car park.