‘Nothing.’
He glanced at his watch. He had promised to take Tia out for dinner but could still get to the archives, spend an hour there, and get back again in time if he left straight away.
‘This mess doesn’t really fit with our killer’s meticulous, exacting standards,’ said Simmons. ‘Not a drop was found at any of the other victims’ homes.’
‘Perhaps he’s not quite as infallible as we’ve built him up to be,’ suggested Edmunds, crouching down to look at the flecks of blood running up the side of the sofa. ‘Maybe this was just the only victim he murdered and carved up in their own home and there are other puddles of evidence still scattered elsewhere around the city.’
At that moment the forensics team arrived and Edmunds seized his chance to escape. He made his excuses to Simmons, telling him that he needed to finish up some paperwork back at the office, and then ran downstairs and jogged back towards the Tube station.
Wolf’s phone beeped. He glanced at the short text message:
I DESERVED THAT EARLIER. DINNER? L X
‘What are you grinning about?’ Finlay asked him as they walked back to New Scotland Yard.
Wolf ignored him and dialled the number on the text.
‘Hello, Detective Fawkes.’
‘Hello, Ms Lochlan.’
Finlay looked at him in surprise.
‘How did you get this number?’
‘Remember Jodie, who you met earlier?’
‘Who put in a complaint about me?’
‘That’s the one. She phoned a friend, who phoned a friend who knows you.’
‘I’m surprised you want to have dinner,’ said Wolf.
Finlay shot him another strange look.
‘Well, lord knows neither of us ate much at breakfast,’ she laughed.
‘I mean, I think I owe you an apology.’
‘I won’t hold it against you; you haven’t got long left. Seven?’
‘At yours, I presume?’
‘I’m afraid so. It would appear that you got me grounded.’
‘I’ll have a “good scrub” beforehand.’
Finlay did not even bother to react this time.
‘You do that. Later, Fawkes.’
She hung up before he could respond. Wolf stopped walking.
‘I take it I’m to cover for you, as per?’ said Finlay.
‘I have somewhere to be.’
‘Wear that nice aftershave we got you for your birthday, but don’t wear that awful blue shirt you always put on.’
‘I love that shirt.’
‘It makes you look pregnant. Maggie’s words, not mine.’
‘Anything else?’
‘Have fun,’ said Finlay with a sly grin.
‘I can always tell when you’re lying, old man,’ said Baxter.
She had bumped into Finlay in the kitchen and casually asked about Wolf. After he had fumbled through his first answer, she had subjected him to five solid minutes of questioning. He was beginning to break and she knew it.
‘He wasn’t feeling well.’
‘Because of the headache?’
‘Aye.’
‘But you said stomach ache before.’
‘That’s what I meant, stomach ache.’
‘Wait, no. You did say headache.’
She was quite enjoying torturing her friend.
‘OK. You win. He went back to Ashley Lochlan’s.’
‘Simmons said they’d argued.’
‘They made up.’
‘So, why aren’t you going?’
Finlay clearly did not want to answer the question, but he knew that Baxter was not going to let it go.
‘I wasn’t invited.’
‘Invited?’
‘To dinner.’
‘Dinner?’
Baxter’s jovial mood suddenly soured and she went very quiet. Finlay was not sure what to say next, so busied himself by making a coffee. When he turned back round to offer Baxter one, she was gone.
CHAPTER 26
Wednesday 9 July 2014
7.05 p.m.
Wolf hoped that his walk in the rain down Plumstead high street had watered down the potency of his new aftershave. After befouling himself with the well-intentioned gift, he had sprayed some along the walls of his flat in the hope that it might keep whatever was scratching behind the plasterboard at bay. He had spent a rare half-hour selecting the perfect outfit and combing his hair in nervous preparation for his first date in a decade, only to come out the other end looking exactly the same as he did every other day.
He stopped at an off-licence on the way and picked out the only two bottles of red and white that he recognised (Baxter’s favourites) before purchasing the last remaining bouquet from the garage next door. The limp flowers looked so pathetic that he was seriously questioning whether he had just paid good money for something that had grown naturally out of the old bucket from which he had plucked them.
He made his way up the spine of the run-down tower block and greeted the two police officers standing guard. Neither looked particularly happy to see him.
‘We’ve put in a complaint about you,’ the female officer challenged him.
‘You’ll feel bad about that if I’m dead in a week,’ said Wolf.
He smiled; she did not. He squeezed between them and knocked on Ashley’s door.
‘Try not to leave her crying this time – mate,’ said the male officer, who was obviously jealous of their dinner date.
Wolf ignored the comment but started to wish that he had responded with something just to fill the awkward silence when Ashley still had not answered the door twenty seconds later. When she did finally unbolt the new security features that had been added to her front door, she looked stunning. Wolf thought he heard the other man audibly gasp behind him. She was wearing a lacy pale pink dress and had pinned her hair up in loose curls. She looked ridiculously overdressed for a quiet meal at home.
‘You’re late,’ she said abruptly before striding back into the flat.
Wolf uncertainly followed her inside and slammed the door on the miserable gargoyles standing watch.
‘You look amazing,’ he said, wishing that he had worn/owned a tie.
He handed her the wine and the bouquet, which she politely placed in a vase of water in a token attempt to resuscitate them.
‘I know it’s a bit much, but I might not have another chance to get dressed up so I sort of went all out.’
Ashley opened the red for herself and the white for Wolf. They talked in the kitchen while she occasionally stirred the food. They covered all of the cliché first date topics: family, hobbies, aspirations, using the most tenuous of links to bridge the gap between the subject of the conversation and one of their funniest tried and tested stories. Wolf was suddenly reminded of his dad. And for the first time since this had all begun, they both felt normal, as if there was an indefinite future ahead of them, as if this first evening together could still blossom into something special.