Rainsford nodded. ‘Exposed a nasty drug-trafficking ring. But it doesn’t mean he’s cut out for what we do here, I appreciate that. Plus, he’s ambitious. He’s the type of bloke who’ll be watching you, too. Seeing how you got up the ladder.’
‘So long as it doesn’t get in the way of how we work, he can watch what he likes. I’ll keep you up to speed, sir.’ She got up to leave but Rainsford’s pained expression stopped her.
‘I’ve been avoiding this, Anna, but I can’t any longer. Hector Shaw wants to see you. Or rather he wants you to be available for another… expedition. He said the weather was now warm enough.’
She kept eye contact with Rainsford, though the desire to squeeze her own eyes shut and grind her teeth almost overwhelmed her. He read the stare with sympathy.
‘You’re under no obligation. No one would blame you. I want to make that absolutely clear.’
She nodded. Rainsford did earnest employer exceptionally well. What a military training at Sandhurst did for you, she supposed.
Stop it.
She wasn’t being fair. Not to Rainsford, nor the regional commander nor the chief constable. Every one of them said exactly what Rainsford had just repeated when they found out what Shaw had done. Meddled with an investigation and manipulated Anna in a dangerous and Machiavellian way. Anna still found it difficult to believe that a man in a maximum-security prison serving an indeterminate sentence for multiple murders could exert any influence on events outside. But this wasn’t any man; this was Hector Shaw.
Interviewed by Anna seven months ago as part of a cold case investigation when his DNA lit up the board thanks to advanced analysis techniques, Shaw became the prime suspect in the rape and abduction of a girl called Tanya Cromer. It had been Anna’s job to try to get his confession. If she could get Shaw to admit his involvement, Anna’d hoped she’d be able to give Tanya’s family the closure they needed, to confirm her murder and put her body to rest. But Shaw’d had other ideas.
He hadn’t confessed, but he’d led Anna and her team to Tanya’s body, and to those of another man. The man Shaw claimed was her true attacker. The DNA evidence from the scene that flagged Shaw’s presence also confirmed that a second man was there. A man called Petran, whom Shaw admitted to burying alive.
Had Shaw killed him? And had he killed Tanya? Shaw had also promised Anna more ‘buried treasure’ – his euphemistic term for interred bodies. And it was this veiled promise that Rainsford alluded to now. Yet, sitting in front of a man who could have committed these crimes wasn’t the only, nor the worst, aspect of her involvement with Shaw. What she could not have anticipated was for Shaw to develop a liking for her. Something she had not encouraged in the slightest.
Anna had been working on Charles Willis’s case at the same time as reinterviewing Shaw. Believing in Anna’s ability to find Willis, Shaw had somehow used his connections both inside and outside prison to bring Willis out of hiding and into a direct confrontation with her. He’d even managed to expose her address to the world, and to Willis in particular. It had been, in Shaw’s words, ‘a test’. One that she’d passed, but which had put her in mortal danger in the process.
Though it was a sunny Friday afternoon, the shadows under Rainsford’s desk cast by the slanting sun felt suddenly and unaccountably chilly on Anna’s legs.
‘I haven’t drawn a line under the Tanya Cromer case yet, sir, we both know that. What he wants to see me about now may be related to that. It may be something else. All I know is that he insisted on it being summer. When it was warm,’ Anna said.
I want to be able to smell your perfume, or your nervous musky sweat.
‘I know he’s been sending you emails. I’ve shown some to cybercrime, by the way. They’re looking into it.’ Rainsford looked suddenly like he’d bitten into something disgusting. ‘Shaw’s poison, we all know that. Pure rat bait.’
‘But just like rat bait he’s useful, too.’
Rainsford waited.
Anna sighed, her mind made up. ‘Shaw and I have unfinished business. I’ve been putting it off because… because I felt I needed to be stronger. But I’m ready now.’
Really?
Rainsford nodded. ‘I hate myself for even talking about—’
Anna interrupted him. ‘He knows things, sir. I wouldn’t be doing my duty if I didn’t…’ she searched for the right word and settled on, ‘re-engage. Petran’s death needs investigating. Shaw refuses to talk to the team who’ve been looking into it. He may well be wanting to talk to me about that.’
A tight little smile softened Rainsford’s expression. ‘Petran is, or rather was, on the watch list in at least three force areas for sexual harassment, theft and petty crime.’
Anna nodded. ‘That all ties in with Shaw’s story, sir.’
Rainsford looked at her appraisingly. She found it mildly disconcerting. ‘Shipwright was right about you, Anna.’
It broke the tension. Mention of Ted Shipwright, ex-DCI on her cold case team and her mentor, had that effect.
‘Have you spoken to him recently, sir? Last I heard he was taking up painting.’
Rainsford shook his head. ‘The ACC wants us to write to retired DCIs, see if any of them want to come back part-time to solve this bloody recruitment crisis. There is no substitute for experience, Anna.’
Her heart quickened. Having Shipwright back would be—
Rainsford dashed her hopes with a held-up hand. ‘Of course, I wouldn’t dream of it. I value my intestines, and Mrs Shipwright assures me she’d have mine as a pair of garters if I so much as suggested it.’
A balloon deflated in Anna’s chest. Her old boss had come through a heart attack alive and well. She had no right to expect anything of him, other than the odd word of advice. He’d done his time and taught her well. She mentally rewound the tape and replayed the snippet that brought Shipwright into the conversation in the first place.
‘How is he right, sir? DCI Shipwright, I mean.’
‘Fishing, Anna?’
‘I never fish, sir, but a little validation is always welcome.’
Rainsford held her gaze, laser-like. ‘Ted said that I should trust your judgement when it comes to Shaw. And, in his opinion, everything else.’
Anna nodded, the subtext, like a wayward ventriloquist’s dummy, screaming to be heard from its locked box. Giving Anna Gwynne her head had already almost got her killed. But it also led to the closure of one of the biggest cases in Avon and Somerset’s history.
‘Thank you, sir.’
‘And you? Are you OK, Anna?’
‘Shipshape, sir.’
‘OK. Well, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. It’s good to have you back. I’m here if you need me.’ Rainsford smiled. It lasted three seconds before he put on his serious, down-to-business face again. ‘Shall I set up Shaw for Monday afternoon?’
Six
Saturday
Some weekends, Anna made the journey back to her sister Kate’s house for a Sunday lunch with her mother, her brother-in-law Rob and their two kids. Sometimes they’d go large and have Rob’s parents over, too. But today Kate was coming over to Bristol for the afternoon and evening and Anna had all sorts of plans to clean up the flat. Essentials needed doing: laundry, show the hoover around the floor, catch up on paperwork and chill.