Anna felt very uneasy; the last thing she wanted was a confrontation with Gail’s partner — or worse, a plank through her windscreen. ‘All right, I’m going, but all I am asking from you is to tell the truth. You gave me that photograph willingly.’
‘Yeah, yeah, I did; now you’d better go.’
Anna picked up her briefcase and hurried to the front door.
The truck bounced over the potholes as it headed for the rear of the property, laden with planks of every shape and size. As Anna walked out, it stopped. She hurried to her Mini and opened the door.
‘Oi, you — what you doing here?’
Anna started the engine as Gail’s bloke jumped down from the truck.
‘You! I’m talking to you!’
The man Anna presumed was Mr Sickert was heading towards her. He was black and at least six feet two, with bulked-up muscles and long dreadlocks.
Anna reversed and drove past him fast; he had to step aside to avoid her running over him. By this time, Gail was at the front door, calling out to him not to make a scene. He kicked out at the Mini, but missed. Anna accelerated out of the driveway, heart pounding as he ranted and raved in her rearview mirror.
Gasping with nerves, she continued on down the lane before she stopped at a safe distance. Then she reached over for her briefcase and opened it, turning off the tape recorder. She had got what she came for: the admission from Gail that she had actually given her the photograph of her own accord. Anna knew her actions were illegal, especially as she had no authority from Sheldon to even have the meeting with Gail, but at least if it was brought up, she would have the transcript as evidence.
Still shaken by the interaction with Sickert, Anna let herself into her flat. She knew that the poor little soul Tina in the swing chair was not his child, as she was white. Perhaps it was Gail’s ex-husband’s child; she had used the name Summers when she had first taken over the lease of the bungalow.
Anna made herself a cup of strong coffee and then sat down to put together some notes. Taking out the tape recorder, she transcribed the entire conversation in shorthand, to make it easier for her to then write up her report. She could hear Langton’s voice warning her about taking risks, and knew she had, yet again, done something that was unethical.
It took quite a while replaying the tape back and forth to make sure she had everything required. At the point on the tape where you could hear the truck arriving, she got up to refill her cup and was almost out of the room when she paused to listen to Sickert’s voice.
‘Oi, you — what you doing here?’
She heard her own Mini starting up and the door of the truck slam as he got out.
‘You! I’m talking to you!’
The sound was quite distorted, as she was reversing, but she could hear Sickert continue to shout. Anna fiddled with the dials on the tape recorder and played it back one more time.
‘You want to get cut up like your bloke? You white bitch, you fucking come back and you’ll be sorry! Stay the fuck away from here or you’ll get the same — you hear me, whore?’
Anna went cold. She replayed it over and over to make sure she heard correctly.
‘You want to get cut up like your bloke?’
Anna licked her lips; surely he couldn’t know about Langton? If he did, how did he know? It was a mystery. No matter how many times she replayed the same section, it still made her frightened.
What was the connection? Could Sickert have been involved in the attack on Langton? And even if he was, how did he know about her relationship with Jimmy?
Anna took a shower to calm herself down, then went back and replayed the entire tape from beginning to end. She then put in a call to Lewis, but his cell phone clicked on to voicemail. She asked him to call her, as she needed to talk to him urgently. Next, she called Barolli; he also went onto answerphone. She left the same message.
It was almost twelve by the time Anna went to bed. She had not heard back from either Barolli or Lewis. After a very restless night, she left early to drive to the station, where she typed up her report on her computer and printed it out. She could not get rid of the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach: if there was no connection, it was one hell of a coincidence. Could Murphy have somehow overheard someone talking about her and Langton during his period in the station? It didn’t make sense. Anna knew that she would have to make sense of it — and the only way was to discuss Langton’s attack with him.
Chapter Five
DCI John Sheldon sat in his office, twisting a piece of silver paper round his index finger, then straightening it out with his nail on his desk. In front of him was her report. Anna had her tape recorder with her and asked if he wished to hear it.
‘No.’ He tapped her report. ‘First off, this is highly irregular and you bloody know it. Secondly, this Griffith solicitor is a slimeball; whatever he’s trying to get on inadmissible evidence means fuck all. Murphy is going down for murder; we’ve a shedload of evidence and his own admission that he killed Irene Phelps. Whether we got to him via his sister handing over a photograph or not, the prosecution will chuck it out. The CPS has no problems.’
‘But she has now admitted that she did give it to me.’
‘I’m coming to that.’ He stood up and jerked his trousers higher. ‘What I don’t like, Travis, is you freewheeling around, interviewing this stupid bitch without any witness, no back-up, zilch. You acted unprofessionally and could have got yourself hurt in the process. Obviously, your experience working with Langton has given you some kind of vigilante attitude that is totally unacceptable to me. We work as a team for a reason: it’s called protection, Travis.’
‘Yes, I know, I’m sorry.’
‘So you should be. I am responsible for you and for my entire team, and I will not condone any single one of you—’
‘I apologize, it won’t happen again.’
‘Don’t interrupt me. If this did have any kind of repercussion, you could have put the entire case in jeopardy. I will not tolerate this behaviour.’
‘I do understand,’ she said, ‘and I assure you it will never happen again; it was just that I felt so angry at the way she had lied.’
‘What you felt is immaterial! What I want are officers that pool all their information. It will be my decision what action should be taken.’
‘Yes, I know that, sir.’
‘So, in future, don’t let this happen again.’
Anna clasped the tape. ‘I would like you to listen to the end section of the tape, sir. It is of great concern to me. Gail Sickert’s boyfriend made threats. He says that—’
It was Anna’s turn to be interrupted. ‘I’ve read your report. At the briefing, we will discuss it with the entire team. That’s it, you can go.’
Anna sat through the briefing from Sheldon on the trial date and the attempt by Murphy’s solicitor to muddy the waters. He was very confident that the entire enquiry would result in a fast-track trial, as the evidence against Murphy was so strong. Added to this was his taped confession; with his past record, there seemed no likelihood of the defence creating problems. He then moved on to Anna’s report.
‘I do not approve of any officer working without detailing their agenda, as you all well know. However, DI Travis does have a serious concern regarding the last section of the tape, when Gail’s boyfriend — partner — whatever you want to call him, returned to find her there. It appears on the tape that Sickert makes a personal threat.’
Sheldon nodded for Anna to play the last section. Everyone listened. Sheldon played it again.
‘The threat is possibly him just mouthing off, but you can hear him say “You want to get cut up like your bloke?’”