Langton covered his eyes, shaking his head. ‘For Chrissakes, Grace, what is this to do with our case?’
‘It was in a skip close to Peckham; so far, the forensic scientists have been able to ascertain that the limb, a right leg with the foot attached, a sock and trainer—’
Langton moved closer to Grace. ‘Yes — and? Come on, Grace, it’s bloody six o’clock; what’s this got to do with our investigation?’
‘The leg, sir, is of a black adult male, around twenty-five years of age.’
‘Yes — and?’
‘We have been trying to track down Camorra; we know he’s supposed to live in Peckham and you have already stated in your briefing that it is possible that Joseph Sickert on the run would turn to Camorra. DI Travis’s ident picture of him is in every newspaper…’
‘Jesus Christ,’ Langton muttered, as he rubbed his face. ‘I’m with you. I’m with you.’
‘They are still testing the dismembered limb and they will have results by tomorrow, but I just thought I would bring it to your attention. From the tests, they should be able to ascertain if the limb belonged to someone suffering from sickle cell disease.’
‘Well, if it is connected to our case, then it’s a step forwards!’ Langton joked, and it eased the tension.
The team then broke up for the night with instructions for an early start the following morning.
Anna drove home, feeling tense and irritable. She made some hot chocolate and toasted cheese, and took it to bed, where she read the evening papers, including the article about the discovery of the man’s limb. Sighing, she put the paper aside and decided that, first thing in the morning, she would do something that she had never done before: she would call in sick.
She felt she needed to sit back from the enquiry — and from Langton. She had not been able to add anything to the briefing; Langton had given all the details from their interview. She had felt under-used, and she didn’t like it. She knew Langton was covering the fact that he was sick and in constant need of painkillers. If anyone should take time out, he should, but she knew he’d be first into the incident room in the morning. She was certain he would also be taking more of whatever had given him the energy for their briefing.
Anna sipped the chocolate. It was cold and she’d eaten only a few bites out of her toasted cheese. Tomorrow, she would take a long slow look at the entire enquiry to date. She would also instigate a couple of interviews and judge for herself whether or not the case should be reviewed and Langton brought to task. It felt strange to dissociate her personal feelings towards him from the way he was running the case, but she no longer had any hope of them getting back together. She did not look on this as any kind of betrayal; if he was moving out of control, he needed to be replaced, for his own protection.
Chapter Twelve
Anna left a message with Grace to say that overnight she had come down with some kind of flu. If she didn’t feel any better later in the morning, she would go to her doctor.
That done, she called the incident room who were investigating the discovery of the limb found in the skip, in her capacity as one of the DIs on the enquiry into the murders of Gail Sickert and her small daughter. She then spoke to the administration department at Wakefield prison to arrange an interview with Idris Krasiniqe, the man convicted of the murder of Carly Ann North. With the two appointments organized for the morning and the afternoon respectively, Anna sat down and, as Langton had done in the incident room, listed cases one, two, three and four.
Gail Sickert’s murder was number one. Gail Sickert was, at first, known to them by her maiden name, Gail Dunn, but when she took over the lease of the bungalow, she had actually been married to someone called Donald Summers. They appeared to have no record of who he was, where he was, or if he even existed. All they did know was that, when they first interviewed Gail, she referred to Joseph Sickert as her partner and, by that time, she was using his surname. According to the dates that Vernon Kramer had given for Sickert’s arrival at the bungalow, it seemed that there was only a matter of weeks before Gail and Joseph Sickert became involved with each other.
Anna checked her notebook for the date she had gone back there to confront Gail over the photograph. This was the time she had been confronted by an irate Joseph Sickert, who had threatened that she would get the same treatment ‘as her bloke’.
Anna worked on through her copious notes. Just before Arthur Murphy’s trial, she had been contacted by Beryl Dunn, worrying about her daughter. Nothing more was heard of Gail until her mutilated body was discovered at the bungalow (or, as Langton described it, the piggery). The murder team had also unearthed the body of Gail’s little girl; or her skull, at least. They were now searching for Sickert and Gail’s two other children.
Case two: the murder of Carly Ann North. Idris Krasiniqe had tried to bargain by giving the names of his two accomplices. Langton was then attacked in a halfway house. After that attack, Idris had withdrawn the names, denying he had ever given them to the police. Langton was hospitalized and almost died, and as yet no one had been charged with the attack. Idris was sent to trial and attempted to plead diminished responsibility, but the judge gave him fifteen years. He subsequently refused to discuss either the attack or his two accomplices, saying he had made their names up; he also maintained that he was scared of voodoo being used on him if it was discovered that he had given up information. Anna underlined this section, as Langton had not brought it up as a major factor in his enquiry.
Whilst Anna was working on the murder of Irene Phelps, using Gail Sickert’s photograph of Arthur Murphy and Vernon Kramer, she had come face to face with the man later identified as Rashid Burry. This same Rashid Burry was connected to Sickert because he had helped him out with medical treatment for his sickle cell anaemia. Burry was also connected to Camorra, a known people transporter, who had at one time also lived at the same hostel. Camorra was also linked to Sickert, as it was likely that he had arranged his illegal entry into the UK.
Case three: the murder of Arthur Murphy. Killed in prison, his assailant was Eamon Krasiniqe, apparently no relation to Idris, though Eamon was also an illegal immigrant. Eamon was now in prison, in a zombie-like stupor caused by a so-called voodoo hex.
Anna underlined the two voodoo links. It was only ten-fifteen, yet she already felt tired out by trying to fathom how the cases all linked together. The unpalatable but obvious explanation that kept presenting itself was that Langton wanted them to be linked: this way he could, whilst ostensibly working on the Gail Sickert murder, make enquiries into his own attack.
At half past ten, she had to stop working and drive to Hounslow police station, where she would meet the DCI running the enquiry into the dismembered limb found in the skip. When she went into the reception, she was disappointed to be told he was not available; however, she knew it wasn’t a wasted journey when Barolli walked in.
‘Eh, I heard you were coming in,’ he greeted her.
‘I don’t believe it, are you on this one?’
‘For my sins.’
‘I’d like you to tell me as much as you can,’ she said affably, quite pleased to see him.
Barolli took her into an empty interview room and placed down a beaker of coffee. ‘Listen, I don’t mind who knows it, but when I was brought in on this — it’s a step down, ha ha. Actually, we’re all sick of footloose jokes — but I was surprised that Jimmy never asked for me to join his team.’