Shaun Hutson - Captives

Gregson ran his gaze over the picture, his face expressionless. He tossed it onto his desk contemptuously.

'Does it match up with anything in our files?' he asked, clasping his hands clasped across his stomach. He was staring down at his desk as if trying to see through the wood, through the floors to the pathology labs below.

'There's only one way to find out and that's to go through every one. One by one.' Finn shrugged. 'Want to toss for it?' He smiled thinly.

'If there were two bloody statements which said the same thing about him then we might have a chance. As it is…' Gregson stopped in mid-sentence and flipped open the first file of statements. He leafed through them, pulling one out. It had been made by a cashier in the bank the man had entered. He looked hurriedly through the others until he found what he sought. The other statement was that of a motorist who had nearly collided with the killer when he'd been escaping on the motorbike.

'Staring eyes,' said Gregson, running his index finger over the words in both statements. 'Two of them do agree on one thing,' he said. 'The killer had staring eyes.'

Finn shrugged.

'Have I missed something?' he said. 'Perhaps he had thyroid. I'm not with you.'

'We nicked a guy about six years ago, he'd done a series of bank blags, never got away with much; he seemed more interested in hurting people than the money. He hit four banks all in Central London, same method every time. He walked in, blew out the cashier's window and took the dosh. He always carried a shotgun and an automatic.'

Finn nodded slowly, the recollection gradually coming to him.

'The most striking thing about him, most of the witnesses at the time said,' Gregson continued, 'were his eyes. His staring eyes.' He tapped the two newest statements. 'Staring eyes.'

'Lawton,' the DS said, a faint smile on his lips. 'Peter Lawton. Shit, I remember him now.' The smile faded rapidly. 'It's a coincidence, though, Frank; somebody imitating Lawton's methods, that's all. He's been inside for six years, still got another five to do before he even comes up for parole.'

Gregson nodded slowly.

'Weird, though, isn't it?' he muttered. 'Copy-cat killers, maybe, but copy-cat bank robbers?'

'What are you saying?'

The DI shrugged.

'I don't know what the fuck I'm saying,' he snapped. 'We know Lawton couldn't have done it because he's inside. So what do we make of these statements? The man had staring eyes,' he read aloud.

'Twin brother?' Finn offered somewhat lamely.

'Do me a favour,' said Gregson getting to his feet. 'At the moment, though, I'm willing to consider anything. Let's check his file.'

Finn looked at his watch.

Seven-twenty P.M.

He stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray which was already overflowing with butts. A couple spilled over onto Gregson's desk and he swept them into his hand hastily before his superior noticed.

'Another fucking blank,' said Gregson, looking at the file on Peter Lawton. 'No family, no living relatives.' He looked at Finn. 'No twin brothers.'

'So what do we do next?' the DS wanted to know.

'You tell me.'

'Well, I fancy a drink. Join me?' Finn said, getting to his feet.

'No, I'm going to stay here for a while, try and think this through.'

'Frank, we're banging our heads on a fucking wall until pathology comes up with something concrete to identify the bloke. What's the point?' Finn asked, exasperated.

'You go, I'll see you in the morning,' the DI said, flipping open Lawton's file once again.

Finn hesitated, then said goodnight and left. Gregson heard his footsteps receding down the corridor.

Peter Lawton, sentenced to fifteen years for armed robbery and murder. Term being served in Whitely Maximum Security Prison, Derbyshire.

Term being served.

Gregson rubbed both hands over his face, exhaling deeply.

Another ten or fifteen minutes and he would leave. It was time to go home.

But first there was something he had to do.

TWENTY-THREE

The wound was big enough to push two fists through. Portions of ribcage, shattered by the shotgun blast, protruded through the mess of pulped flesh gleaming whitely amidst the crimson.

Gregson looked long and hard at the photo, then slipped it carefully, almost reverently, on top of the others.

The baby had been practically cut in two by the blasts that had ripped through its pram.

Gregson looked at the tiny form, his face expressionless. There was another shot of it from a different angle. The angle made no difference to the massive damage that had been inflicted on the tiny child.

The DI took a swig from the glass of whisky he held in his other hand and pulled another photo from the pile on the table.

Before leaving New Scotland Yard he had collected the files on all of the victims of the gunman whose identity still remained a mystery.

There was a picture of the head of the motorcyclist the man had shot outside the bank.

The wound in the base of the skull looked relatively small, no larger than a ten pence coin. It was the other photo that showed the exit wound which caused Gregson to drain, a little more quickly than he would normally, the last dregs in his glass.

The bullet had exited just below the motorcyclist's right eye, shattering the cheekbone and dislodging the eye from its socket.

Although, Gregson reasoned, it hadn't been the shell itself that had blasted the orb free but the gases, released from the high velocity round as it had powered through the man's head. The eye was intact, still attached to the skull by the optic nerve.

Gregson dropped the picture down with the others and got to his feet, crossing the room to the sideboard. He opened it and took out the bottle of Teacher's. He poured himself a large measure, thought about adding some soda then decided against it. For long moments he stood by the sideboard, his breath coming in low, deep gasps, as if he'd just run a great distance. He rolled the glass across his forehead, his back still to the sitting room door.

He heard the door open but did not turn as his wife entered the room.

Julie Gregson was wiping her hands on a dishcloth. She muttered something about the diamond in her engagement ring coming loose and gazed across the room at her husband.

'Dinner's ready,' she said.

'I'm not hungry,' Gregson said flatly, his back still to her. He took a swig from his glass.

'Did you have any lunch?' she wanted to know.

He shook his head.

She moved towards him, passing the table where the photos were spread out.

'Jesus Christ,' she muttered, noticing the topmost of them. She moved a step away, her eyes still fixed on it mesmerised for a moment.

Gregson finally turned to look at her.

No. Not at her. At the table. The photos.

'What are they?' she said, the colour draining from her face.

'Isn't that obvious?' he said acidly, sitting down and looking at the photos again.

'Who are they?' Julie enquired, still keeping away from the table.

'Is it important?'

She moved the dishcloth from one hand to another, gazing at her husband then looking swiftly at the pictures once more.

She was a couple of years younger than him, her face etched with lines a little deeper than a woman in her late twenties would expect. She was slim, almost thin, her small breasts hardly visible even beneath the tight T-shirt she wore. Her jeans were faded, one knee threadbare, her skin showing through the narrow rent in the material.

'Why did you bring those home?' she wanted to know.

'It's part of my job,' he told her without looking up.

She balled up the dishcloth and dropped it onto the table beside the pictures. Then she sat down on the edge of the chair opposite him.

'Your bloody job,' she said quietly, but with anger. 'Everything is part of your bloody job, isn't it?'