Mark Pearson - Blood Work

'Go on.'

'We're looking at millions of pounds' worth of profit.'

'And who owned the development company?'

'An outfit called Blue Heaven Property.'

'And who owns that?'

'It was just set up for this venture. But it links to a shell company called Hunter Developments.'

Delaney sighed. 'Get to the point, Roger.'

'That's just it, Hunter Developments, like I say, is a shell company. The trail leads offshore. Financed out of the Cayman Islands.'

'And what does that mean?'

'It means we don't know who owns the development company.'

'And there's no way of finding out?'

'None that I'm capable of.'

'How then?'

'I don't know, Jack. These guys are probably operating outside the law. This is your area of expertise. You deal with it.'

The line went dead. Delaney closed his phone and cursed. He may not know who was behind what happened, yet. But at least now he had motive and that was a start. He flicked the intercom switch on and listened to Ashley Bradley flatly denying any involvement in the murders. As he watched him, and listened to him speak, Delaney thought he was an unlikely candidate for a serial killer. But then he was also aware that they didn't always hunt alone. Yes, sometimes they had an accomplice, someone who had graduated up from flashing at cantankerous nurses and filming the undergarments of unwary shoppers at shopping malls. But, if the smart-suited and career-enhanced coppers interviewing the suspect had asked for his opinion, he would have said that Ashley Bradley wasn't involved at all. He could read people, that was his talent above all else. And, although he had thought, when he first saw the photos Bradley had on his wall, that he had made a big mistake in letting him pass them on the stairs, listening to him now he didn't think he had. They had the wrong man. He'd put money on it.

Upstairs, Kate Walker was sitting in Jack Delaney's office, at his desk, and drinking a cup of coffee from his mug. If someone had told her this morning she would be doing that she would have thought them mad. At the moment though she didn't have time for introspection. She was looking at the preliminary report from Dr Patrick Neally, her colleague who had attended the murder scene earlier that day. She had asked her assistant to email it through. Strictly speaking she should have gone to him first, but she didn't have the time for professional niceties. And, in any case, she was working out her notice, so she thought, stuff it! She also had the photographs and notes from the scene of crime, which she was leaving till last. The report didn't make for good reading. Whoever had done this to another person was beyond reason. The mutilation was sickening even to her, who had seen enough horror over her years as a forensic pathologist to despair of the human race entirely. This was a degree of magnitude more gruesome than anything she had ever seen.

But it was to get worse.

Delaney was walking down the front staircase, heading for the exit to the car park. He needed a cigarette. Actually he needed a drink. Not needed it, he rationalised, but wanted it. When did want become need? he wondered. When you had no control over your desires? Well, that was something he always had. Not like the sad bastard being interviewed right now.

What Delaney needed to do was think, and the quick spikes of nicotine in his blood helped him do that. He was fumbling in the right-hand pocket of his leather jacket for his cigarettes when George Napier walked up to him, a smile on his face, Diane Campbell right behind him, not smiling at all.

'Delaney.'

Delaney's heart sank. Napier smiling. Not a good sign. 'Guv.' He nodded at Diane, who raised her eyebrows back. 'Ma'am.'

'Good work today, Delaney. Nipped him in the bud.'

'Sir?'

'Bradley.'

'I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves, sir.'

'Now is not the time to piss on your own parade, Delaney.'

'I'm sorry?'

'We have a press conference set up. We want you to make the statement.'

'Aren't we jumping the gun a little?'

'Not at all. The press are going to be all over the serial killer aspect. Sky News have held off until now, but as we have the perpetrator in custody they have asked for first bite of the cherry.'

'How did they know we have someone in custody?'

'Are you deliberately being obtuse, man?'

Delaney smiled at Diane. 'Must be my Irish upbringing, sir.'

'I've been in contact with her to control what goes on the news. We made a deal. I, for one, honour my deals.'

'And if he's not the killer?'

'Of course he's the killer. He's got pictures of the two women hanging on his wall, and we have him exposing himself on the heath right by one of dead victims.'

'All we have him for, sir, with respect, is just that. Flashing his johnson at medical workers and sticking his zoom lens up the skirts of happy shoppers.' Delaney turned to his line boss. 'Can you talk some sense into the man?'

'Maybe we should let Delaney interview him first, sir,' she said quickly.

Napier goggled at her. 'And while he's doing that, Paddington Green take the credit for our collar? I don't think so.'

He looked at his watch. 'We're set up outside.'

Delaney shrugged and put a cigarette in his mouth. Napier snatched it out and handed it to Diane Campbell. 'Can't you keep a bloody leash on him, Diane?'

'He needs castrating, sir, if you ask me. But I trust his instincts.'

Napier thrust a sheet of paper into Delaney's hands. 'Just smile at the pretty reporter and read the statement, Delaney. Think you can manage that?'

'Not sure, sir. Not one for multitasking. Maybe the chief inspector should do it.'

'And maybe I should remind you that there is a complaint against you, Delaney?'

'And I'm sure Detective Constable Cartwright will tell you that I merely defended myself.'

'Just play ball with me, Delaney. And I'll play ball with you. This is a team here, and what counts is we get results. You clear on that?'

'Sir.'

He thrust the sheet of paper into Delaney's hands. 'Then put one on the scoreboard for White City and read the bloody statement.'

In the CID room, Jimmy Skinner called for hush, even though nobody was talking and turned the volume up on the television mounted on the wall. Sky News was playing, with the breaking news banner ticker-taping along the bottom – man arrested in connection with two recent murders. Delaney was facing the camera, looking as happy to be there as a pig in a pork-pie shop. The camera cut back to Melanie Jones who had her serious face on.

'Detective Inspector Delaney. I understand you have been responsible for the arrest of a suspect in two particularly gruesome killings. The first on South Hampstead Heath yesterday, and the second discovered this morning in a rented flat in Camden Town?'

'A man is helping us with our inquiries.'

'One man responsible for both murders? So we are looking at a serial killer here?'

'If I could just read out the prepared statement?'

'Of course.'

Delaney looked at the camera. ' "We can confirm that a man has been arrested this afternoon and is being questioned here at White City police station in relation to the unlawful killings of two women. These women have not as yet been identified and we would urge anyone who knows them to contact the police as soon as possible." '

The pictures taken from Ashley Bradley's bedroom wall of the two dead women flashed up on the television screen.

In the CID room Kate looked at the photographs as they appeared on the screen. She couldn't see why Jack Delaney had thought that one of them was her. But with a wig on, and wearing her scarf, perhaps it was an easy mistake to make. The women in the photos looked young, confident and full of life. She hadn't as yet looked at the scene-of-crime photos from the Camden flat. She looked at the screen as the camera shot cut back to Melanie Jones.