For a fraction of a second, a worried expression flashed across Sergio’s face. His nervous tic made his head jolt to the side.
‘You see,’ Troy continued, ‘there’s another crime scene you forgot to destroy. The van you no doubt used like an ambulance. You abandoned it here at the airport. I’ve had officers all over the car park and they’ve found it. It looks beautifully clean. I bet you thought cleaning was enough.’ He turned to his bruised partner and asked, ‘What do you think?’
‘I think cleaning’s never enough. There’s always a trace and I’ll find the smallest scraps.’
Troy stood up. ‘For now, you’re charged with assault and child abduction — in front of almost two hundred witnesses. Tomorrow, it’ll be multiple murder.’
SCENE 33
Troy had cleansed himself in the temple and asked for the strength to handle the final interview. He had also refreshed himself with sleep, meatballs and chocolate. While Lexi and a squad of forensic scientists had taken care of all the clever stuff, Troy had given the order to release Huw from Foreditch Crime Central and prepared himself mentally. Then, immediately before his verbal battle with Sergio Treize, he’d been briefed by Lexi. He’d heard all about her team’s successes — and its failures.
In one of the cells in Shepford Crime Central, Sergio’s hands and ankles were clasped together with plastic ties because, during his move from the airport to Shepford, he’d attacked a policewoman in an attempt to escape. It had taken three more officers to restrain him.
Troy nodded towards the bindings and said, ‘For someone claiming to be innocent, you seem very keen to make a break for it.’ With barely a pause, he asked, ‘What do you know about Franki Savannah Fifteen?’
‘Nothing,’ Sergio replied.
‘Mmm. We don’t know much either. Yet.’
Lexi said, ‘You did a pretty good job on the clinic and whoever was inside. It’s going to take a bit longer for me to extract DNA from the bone and the pathologist to work out the cause of death.’
‘But,’ Troy put in, ‘a bit of research tells us Franki Savannah Fifteen is a promising tennis player with a heart complaint. She’s also an outer, wealthy and missing.’
Sergio shrugged. ‘No idea.’
‘Why were there traces of fuel on your clothing yesterday?’
‘I’ve got a vintage car. I was putting petrol in it. I sloshed some over the side and had to clear it up.’
‘Yes. Of course you did.’ Troy twisted and turned, probing the man sitting opposite him at the table. ‘You’re Gareth Riley Thirteen, but you’re Sergio Treize and a whole lot of other people as well. Customs tells us your passport’s forged. It’s lucky I can charge you under any name.’
‘And your point is?’
‘You didn’t destroy every bit of your computer memory. Your internet history shows you’re Sergio Treize who looks after a suicide chat room and posts messages as Charon Angel.’
‘I still don’t get it.’
‘There was a mark on the wall behind where you sit. Just for a split-second — when you moved — the same mark appears in the video the first time I called you.’
‘What does that prove?’ Sergio shook his head. ‘I’m not impressed by you two.’
‘At least we haven’t been outwitted by a five-year-old on a plane. Anyway, I’m taking it a step at a time. You’re not denying that you’re these different people, that the computer’s yours.’
Sergio shrugged.
‘How do you explain the fact that Dmitri Backhouse’s and Olga Wylie’s hard drives are in your house?’
He twitched before answering, ‘They’re not.’
Troy smiled. ‘Along with a lot of other electronic junk, they’re in the bin. After you drilled holes through them, they’re unreadable. I’ll give you that. But our computer guy got serial numbers off them. One was bought by Dmitri and the other belonged to Olga.’
‘I’ve got no idea how they ended up at my place.’
This time, Troy saw a weakness, a crack in his defences. The merest flicker of his eyes told Troy that he was nervous. ‘There’s a spade at your house. It’s got a bit of soil on it. Lexi’s done all the microscopic stuff. The quartz grains match the earth at Langhorn. That suggests to me you’ve been digging holes there.’
With only a moment’s hesitation, Sergio replied, ‘Too right. I dig up earthworms as bait.’
Troy nodded. ‘Exactly what I’d say. What do you catch?’
‘Not a lot. Roach and the occasional perch.’
‘Do you eat them?’
‘No. It’s for sport.’
‘Of course, you’re an outer. You’re more likely to scoff the maggots.’
‘I just told you. I use worms.’
‘Oh, that’s right. Sorry. I forgot you said that.’
Sergio sighed. He was both weary and wary of Troy.
‘Let’s move on to the last crime scene. There’s a mat in the back of your van, ambulance or whatever you want to call it. Why is there a trace of fuel soaked into it?’
‘That’ll be spillage. You know, when I got that can of petrol for my restoration job.’
‘Not the fuel you took to the clinic — to help you burn it down, along with Franki Savannah Fifteen?’
His head convulsed. ‘No.’
Troy knew by instinct that the time was right to go for the killer punch. ‘Tell me, how come we found DNA from Olga Wylie, Jerome Sebastian Eleven and Dmitri Backhouse under the mat in the van?’
‘It’s not my van. It belongs to Ely Eight. Ask him.’
‘That’s strange, because you just said you used the van. To get a can of petrol.’
‘So, I borrowed it this once.’
‘Mmm. Well, we don’t have your fingerprints all over it — or on anything else — for the obvious reason. You’re an outer.’ Troy turned towards Lexi and said, ‘But whose DNA did you find all around the driver’s seat?’
‘His,’ she said, nodding towards Sergio Treize.
‘Anyone else’s? Like Ely Eight’s?’
‘No.’
‘That’s weird, isn’t it?’ Troy said, looking again at Sergio. ‘How do you explain that?’
‘Er …’
‘You’re trying to blame Ely Eight but you were the only driver.’
Sergio’s hands were in his lap, under the table. In a sudden swell of anger, he smashed them upwards, expecting to thrust the table at Troy. He didn’t realize that it was screwed securely into the floor and would not budge. He cried out in pain and frustration. Instead, he lifted his tied hands up high and crashed them down on the table top. The wood split under the force of his blow.
Realizing that he was right about Sergio’s explosive temper, Troy rose to his feet. ‘You’re charged with the murders of Dmitri Backhouse and Jerome Sebastian Eleven, and the unlawful killing of Olga Wylie. There’ll be others as well.’ He pointed to the table and said, ‘Like damage to police property.’ Wiping away his smile, he added, ‘And when we work out what happened to Franki Savannah Fifteen. I’m legally obliged to read you a complete list when we’ve got it all figured out.’
Lexi stood next to her partner and said, ‘The blue stone we found in Olga Wylie’s house — close to where she kept her computer — matches the others in your ring. That’s a charge of burglary as well. And I’ve got more bad news for you.’ With a wicked grin on her face, she told him, ‘Those sapphires aren’t sapphires. They’re cheap fakes. You were ripped off.’
SCENE 34
Below them, the gentle splashing sound came from the fountain outside the Rural Retreat Transplant Clinic. Lexi had retrieved her spy cameras and she was sitting on the earth next to Troy, lapping up the peaceful atmosphere. They were enjoying the feeling of being in the wood but not having dead bodies — or parts of dead bodies — to dig up and investigate.