No Place to Hide, page 6
The man frowned.
‘Big bugger I chased out of here a few minutes ago. Looks like a cross between a Neanderthal and a brown bear.’
The man grunted. ‘Didn’t know his name. What about him?’
‘I’ve got a witness telling me he deals drugs in here. Not that I’m interested in that, particularly. I’m also told he could tell me about a man I’m looking for as a witness in a murder case. Bloke known as the Armenian.’
The landlord went very still. His bulbous bottom lip disappeared briefly into his mouth and bounced back out again. ‘Never heard of him. The other one, I see in here sometimes, but that’s all.’
‘I never suggested you had heard of him,’ Pete said evenly. ‘I just want to know how to find Millic. And don’t tell me you only know him by sight. You wouldn’t put your licence at risk for someone you don’t know, even if he is as big as a bloody Portaloo.’
‘Look, I’m just trying to stay out of trouble. These old places, they’re like tinderboxes. I don’t want no so-called accidents like the Dolphin last year.’
Pete remembered the old pub, up near the cathedral, which had been burned out in a massive fire one night, several months ago. ‘What do you know about that?’
‘Only what the landlord told me. Somebody like Millic – not him, somebody else – was dealing in there. He threw ’em out. Few nights later, up it goes. Coincidence? He don’t think so, and nor do I. So, yes – I know what he’s up to. And, no, I haven’t reported it.’
‘Well, the only way to stop people like him is to help us put them away.’
‘Yeah, right. There’s no way you’d catch all of them. And as soon as they found out who shopped their mates, what do you think would happen?’
‘Look, I told you. All I want Millic for, for now, is a link in a chain that could lead to a killer who might be one of their customers. How can that do any harm? You tell me what you know, I can go talk to him, job done.’
‘Yeah, and where do you think he’ll imagine you got the information, eh? After you just tried to take him in here?’ The landlord shook his head. ‘No way.’
‘Well, where else does he go then? He’s not in here every night, is he?’
‘I’ve heard you can find him in the Blue Boar sometimes, up by the library.’
‘OK then. Any idea which nights?’
‘He’s not usually in here on Saturdays or Mondays.’
‘Right.’ Pete stood up, clapped the man on the back. ‘Thank you. Oh, by the way, do you get any coppers in here that you know of?’
‘Eh?’ He shook his head. ‘That’d be a bloody good mix, wouldn’t it?’
Pete shrugged. ‘Stranger things have happened.’
‘I suppose. But, no, not that I’m aware of. Why?’
‘If you did, I could ask them instead of you, couldn’t I?’ And, more to the point, if there was a link between the Armenian and anyone on the force, it had to have started somewhere. Here was as good a place as any to start looking for it.
*
Pete was struggling to eat his fish and chips. His mouth felt dry, the food curdling in his stomach. The TV was on at the far end of the room – some mindless rubbish, the volume turned down so that they could talk, though nothing was being said. Finally, the heavy silence was too much. He looked up from his plate. Annie was concentrating on her food, hoovering it up with relish. Louise’s head was down. She had eaten some, but her heart was no more in it than his.
‘I got some news about Tommy today,’ he said.
Annie’s head snapped up. ‘Where is he? Is he OK?’
‘I don’t know where he is, love. What I do know is, he’s alive. One of Simon’s team spoke to a shop assistant who served him in the Co-op on the Dunsford Road. She said he bought plasters and bandages. Claimed he’d fallen out of a tree or something.’
‘So, why hasn’t he come home?’
‘He must have been with Burton all that time. Maybe he thinks he’ll be accused along with him.’
‘But, he won’t, will he? He’s only a kid himself. He couldn’t do all those things they’re saying were done to those girls.’
Pete frowned. ‘What are they saying?’ Annie was ten years old. He didn’t want her introduced to the subject of sex at all yet, never mind in this way. She was a bright kid, of course. She was aware of what went on in the world, but he didn’t want it brought to her doorstep, especially in this way. He wanted to leave it on the news – at a distance – for as long as possible.
‘They’re saying he killed two girls and raped that one you found. Rosie. But, Tommy’s only a kid. It’s crazy.’
‘Of course it is, love.’ Pete was not going to tell her about the evidence they had to the contrary and he hoped that Louise would not mention it either. He glanced across at her. She had stopped eating and was watching him, a strange light in her eyes. They had had a massive row about the forensic evidence against Tommy when it came to light. ‘But if Tommy was with Burton all that time – and Burton was a teacher, remember – there’s no telling what he could have convinced him of.’
‘So, you’ve got to un-convince him. Make him see that nobody believes he’s guilty, so he can come home,’ Annie insisted.
A swell of emotion swept over him, its intensity almost overpowering. He dropped his knife and fork, got up and stepped around the table. Taking Annie in his arms, he hugged her like he’d never let go. He felt her slender arms around his waist, smelt the shampoo in her hair as she laid her head against his chest. His grip tightened even further, eyes closing as emotion trembled in his chest. Then he felt her squirm in his grip. He opened his eyes. She was staring up at him. ‘God, I love you,’ he murmured.
Looking up at Louise, who was watching them now, he opened his arms and reached out to her, too. She hesitated.
Come on, he thought. Don’t just sit there. Please.
Finally, she left her seat and joined them on the other side of Annie. He drew her in, one arm around her waist, and sighed deeply. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without the pair of you.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
Pete switched off the engine and checked the dashboard clock: 6.28 a.m. It was still fully dark, the street lights casting a yellow glow over the houses and parked cars on either side of the steep road. All was quiet. Peaceful.
He felt emotionally drained after last night. He didn’t know why. Was he not as ready as he’d thought to come back to work? The intensity of the Rosie Whitlock case had been difficult to deal with on top of everything else. And now this one, just days later . . . It was a lot to handle with the lack of anything concrete on Tommy’s situation, the difficulties that Louise was still facing and the guilt he couldn’t help feeling over how much he had come to rely on Annie over the past few months and especially since he’d come back to work.
Much as he knew that the police shrink at Middlemoor was going to try to find one, he was aware there was no easy answer.
He shook his head.
Two cars up, on the far side, its nose pointing downhill, he could see Jane’s little green Vauxhall. Pete climbed out of his car and pressed the remote as he crossed the road towards Jane’s Corsa. The remote locking system clunked behind him.
Dave had called him at home last night, interrupting a discussion of exactly how they could let Tommy know that it was safe for him to come home, to say that he’d found out where Petrosyan was currently living.
The address he’d got was a few doors along from the next junction up the hill.
Jane’s window buzzed down as Pete approached. ‘Morning, boss.’
‘Any sign of Dave?’
Further down the hill, a car turned a corner towards them, headlights bright and dazzling in the crisp, frosty morning.
‘Not yet. Maybe this is him.’
Pete went around the little car and climbed into the passenger seat. Jane left the window down as the other car approached slowly up the hill, eventually resolving into a silver Ford Mondeo just like the one Pete was driving. As it drew level with them, its window slid down and it stopped.
‘Morning all,’ Dave said brightly from the passenger seat, beyond Dick Feeney. ‘What’s the plan then? No dark alleys round here, are there?’
‘If there are, they’re all yours,’ Pete told him. ‘Meantime, you two take the next street across. Park where you can, facing downhill like Jane has. I’ll go up onto his street and keep an eye on his doorway. When he comes out, I’ll let you know, then we’ll leapfrog him with the three cars so that one of us has got him in sight all the time. If he’s as paranoid as they reckon, that should save him spotting us until he gets where he’s going and we can take him there.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’
‘Right, let’s get into position.’
Pete climbed out of Jane’s car and crossed back to his own while Dick drove on up the street, turning right at the junction. As they went from sight, he started his engine and followed them up the hill. Their target lived three doors along to the right. Pete turned left, found a space a few cars along and backed into it, lining his side-mirror up along the pavement. Then he switched off the engine and settled in to wait.
With two of the car’s side-windows wound slightly down to avoid misting up, it did not take long for the inside of the car to get as bitterly cold as the outside. Pete was glad of the heavy police-issue coat he was wearing. His hands were clad in thick gloves, but still the cold seeped into him as he sat there, waiting for Petrosyan to emerge, not even certain that he would.
He remembered Annie, the previous morning, running from the car to meet her friends, bundled up in a thick coat, black gloves and a black wool hat with a pale, furry bobble on top, winter tights under a skirt that, even at ten years old, she was starting to wear too damn short for his liking. But at least she was warm.
He grunted. At this moment, she’d still be tucked up in bed, fast asleep.
What about her brother?
Where was he, and what was he doing? What was he wearing on this icy morning? Was he indoors somewhere? God, I hope so, Pete thought. The idea of him hunched, shivering, in some freezing corner of the city, probably with no winter coat, never mind a hat or gloves or enough to eat, no shelter except perhaps from the rain – And thank God it’s not doing that – made his stomach twist and his teeth clamp together in anguish.
Wherever the boy was, Pete hoped he was at least warm enough. Cold like this could kill a person, especially if they were undernourished and vulnerable. He sucked air in through a throat clogged by emotion.
He shook his head, refusing to allow the thought to go any further. Come on, Pete. Focus. But there was still no activity to be seen in his side-mirror. The street was quiet and still.
He caught a flicker of movement, but it was just a dark cat jumping up onto the wall of the house beyond where the Armenian – if he even was one – was living. As he watched, it jumped down onto the footpath and disappeared under a car. Pete was briefly tempted to switch his gaze to the other mirror, to see it emerge on the road, but resisted. He had to stay alert. This whole operation depended on his spotting Petrosyan as soon as he came out.
He waited a while longer, then checked his watch again. Almost seven. He shivered. Maybe he should start the car and close the windows, just for five minutes, warm himself up a bit . . .
It was incredibly tempting. But, if Petrosyan came out, heard the engine running and saw no one . . . People around here wouldn’t leave a car running unattended to defrost the windscreen. It was dodgy enough where Pete lived but here, on the rougher side of the river . . . No way.
He rubbed his gloved hands together briskly and wriggled his shoulders inside his coat.
Movement.
He stared at the side-mirror. A door swung open. A man stepped out, breath pluming, closed the door behind him and headed for the pavement. Stocky and bald, his head gleaming under the street lights. His distinctive, thick leather jacket matched the description Dave had provided to a T.
Petrosyan.
He lifted his radio. ‘Heads up, people. Engines off. Our man’s on the move.’
The target started towards him along the narrow pavement.
‘Coming this way,’ Pete said quietly into the radio. ‘Jane, be alert. Dave, come on round. Gently does it. No rush.’ He paused, waiting. Watching from low in the seat, hidden by the headrest.
Petrosyan turned at the junction.
‘Jane, target approaching you.’
‘Got him, boss.’
‘Dave, you’re up.’
‘Roger that.’
The man in the leather jacket had now gone from Pete’s view. He knew that Jane would have eyes on him until he turned another corner or, if not, for a good two hundred yards, so there was no rush for Dave to take up the pursuit.
Behind him, headlights showed, coming up around the junction beyond the target house as Dick Feeney drove slowly up into view.
‘Steady, Dick. Jane’s got him for a minute or two unless she says different.’
‘He’s in sight,’ she confirmed. Then, ‘Hang on. He’s gone behind a van.’ A pause. ‘There. He’s crossing over. Continuing down the street.’
They waited.
Then the radio hissed again. ‘He’s turned. Right, right, right. Gone from view.’
‘OK, Dick. Drive straight down the hill. Try and spot him on the way past the road he’s turned into, but don’t slow down. I’ll go down the next one along and come in from the far end so he can’t suspect anything.’
‘Affirmative.’
Pete saw the headlights of Feeney’s car moving towards him in his mirror as he switched on the ignition. ‘Which cross-street, Jane?’
‘Third one down from here. That’s the third one.’
‘Roger that.’ He pulled out as Dick turned down towards Jane’s position, heading further along the road to take the next left. He was approaching the second cross-street down the hill when the radio crackled again.
‘Target sighted,’ said Dave. ‘Right side of the street, still walking.’
Pete relaxed slightly. As he’d suspected, the Armenian was heading for the small group of shops along there. A newsagent’s cum post office, a fish and chip shop and a small independent pet shop were set back slightly from the 1950s houses to either side so that three or four cars could park in front of them.
‘OK, Dick,’ he said into the radio. ‘Turn around where you can. He’ll be going to the newsagent’s. Jane, you can come on down, too.’
He made the turn and spotted Petrosyan walking towards him, about a hundred and fifty yards away. Like the other streets around here, the houses had no drives or garages. It was parallel parking on the street, wherever you could find a space. Pete spotted one and stopped to reverse into it. Ahead of him, Petrosyan turned into the newsagent’s, as expected. Pete keyed the radio mike again. ‘Heads up. He’s in the shop. Move in, move in.’
He finished parking and switched off the engine as two cars turned into the junction ahead of him, one from the left, one from the right. Taking the radio with him, he stepped out of the car.
‘Jane, leave your car back a bit. Dick, come in and stop outside the shops,’ he ordered, then tucked the radio into his pocket as he headed in on foot. He was just turning into the narrow forecourt of the shops when the door of the newsagent’s opened, bell tinkling, and the Armenian stepped out, a newspaper folded under his arm, hands deep in the pockets of his leather jacket.
‘Morning,’ Pete said with a nod.
Petrosyan glanced at him. His small eyes narrowed.
A car pulled up to Pete’s right. ‘Good thing I bumped into you, Gagik,’ he said. ‘I need a word.’
Petrosyan’s frown turned instantly to a snarl. ‘You’re a cop.’
Pete held his calm expression. ‘I am, but you’re not under arrest.’ He heard the door of the car to his right open and close. Jane’s footsteps were echoing along the pavement behind Petrosyan. ‘Somebody in Exeter is going around killing people. His latest victim, he used what I’m told is very likely your product in the process, so you might be able to help me identify him.’
‘Why should I help you?’
‘I’ve got two officers to your right and another one behind you.’
Despite himself, Petrosyan glanced over his shoulder.
‘If we wanted you in custody, you would be by now,’ Pete went on. ‘We just need to talk. The guy we’re after is busy reducing your alleged customer base as we speak, so it would be good for business for you to help us.’
‘What business?’
‘We know exactly what business you’re in, Gagik. But, like I said, we don’t care. Not this morning. All we need is to find out who’s been buying suxamethonium recently.’
Petrosyan stepped in close to Pete. Although he was a good five inches shorter, his bulk and his attitude were enough to intimidate most people and he relied on them now as he tried to stare Pete out. ‘Why would I tell you, even if I knew? What would it do to my reputation if I did that?’
‘Depends if anyone knew about it, doesn’t it?’ Pete said, unfazed. ‘The way I see it, we’ve got two choices here. You talk to me or I put out an appeal to the public for information on whoever might have supplied our man with the sux he used on his latest victim. What do you think he’s going to do then, eh? If I were him, I’d be coming after the supplier straight away. One, to shut him up and, two, because he fits the profile of the victims we’re looking at. So, two for the price of one.’
Petrosyan’s thick lip curled. ‘You think I’m scared of some college punk? I could have him for dinner and spit out the bones.’
‘Oh, I doubt you’re scared much of anybody, Gagik. But, looking at his previous victims, I think maybe you should be. He’s clever as well as vicious. The last one, he burned alive. That’s what the sux was for. To keep him conscious while he burned.’
The sneer had died on Petrosyan’s face. Now it twitched in what could have been disgust. ‘I don’t know who this guy is that you’re talking about.’
‘But you know he’s a college punk.’
‘Aren’t they all?’
