No Place to Hide. Jack Slater
so, what connections does he have? Where is he? We have a name for him, but is it real? Then, we go from there.’
‘Very well. But, if this gets out, Sergeant . . .’
‘I know.’ I’ll have your full support – not.
Silverstone shook his head. ‘You don’t know the half of it. You’ll be a pariah. Your career as a police officer will be over.’
Pete drew a slow breath, fighting down his anger. What the hell had he expected? Silverstone didn’t want his record tarnished, his rise through the ranks jeopardised or even delayed. ‘I don’t want it to be true any more than you do, sir. These are people I’ve worked with for years. Friends, some of them. But if it is true, then it needs dealing with. And, if I can be frank – from your point of view, it’s better dealt with promptly than discovered later, after you’ve moved on, isn’t it? I mean, if someone else came in after you and uncovered it, there’d inevitably be questions asked about why it wasn’t dealt with sooner.’
He saw the change in Silverstone’s expression and wondered if he had taken a step too far. ‘Yes, Sergeant,’ the DCI said with exaggerated calmness, his dark eyes glittering with barely suppressed anger. ‘But be absolutely clear. If it’s true, I want it weeded out, quietly and efficiently. If it’s not, then woe betide the man or woman who lets it out. Even a hint of a suggestion of it.’
‘Sir.’
‘Find what’s to be found, Sergeant, tell absolutely no one and bring it straight to me. Clear?’
‘Yes, sir.’
*
Walking back into the squad room, Pete saw that Dick Feeney was back at his desk from his afternoon’s mandatory training. The other three teams looked and sounded replete with returned bodies, too.
‘Nice nap, Dickie?’ he asked as he took his seat.
‘Well, it comes but once a year. Be rude not to take the opportunity, wouldn’t it?’
‘Have this lot filled you in?’
‘Yes. Bit of a dodgy wicket, isn’t it?’
‘You haven’t heard the half of it, matey. Fast-track is not a happy camper. I thought he was pissed off this morning, but now I’m really off his Christmas card list. We’re on our own on this. No one but us must even get a hint of a breath of a clue about it until we’ve reached a conclusion and taken it to him, in person. He doesn’t want it screwing up his promotional prospects.’
Dick laughed. ‘And there’s the real rub, eh? Never mind any other implications.’
‘Well, at least we know where we stand,’ Jane said from opposite Pete.
‘Yeah, on a cowpat in the middle of a slurry pit,’ Dave agreed.
‘Doc Chambers called while you were in there,’ Jane said. ‘He’s been on to the coroner and got two exhumation orders for other potential victims. He’ll keep us updated, he said.’
‘Any news on the foreign fellow we were talking about earlier?’
‘Nothing yet,’ Dave said.
‘Well, keep on it. If he’s out there, we need to find him before he gets nervous and does a disappearing act. I’ll be back in a minute.’
*
Although there was a staff canteen on the top floor of the station, a small storeroom opposite DCI Silverstone’s office had been converted into a kitchenette. White cupboards and a cheap grey worktop held a microwave, toaster and fridge as well as a hot-water geyser above the sink. Pete got six mugs out of the cupboard and spooned in the makings of four coffees and two teas. Then he took out his phone and tapped the speed-dial for home.
It was picked up on the fourth ring. ‘Hello?’
‘Hi, Button. How was your day?’
‘OK. You’re going to be late, aren’t you?’
Pete swirled the tea bag in the second cup until it looked the right colour. ‘Afraid so, love. We’ve picked up a new case and it’s a complicated one. We need to get the basics done before we call it a night. Fish and chips?’
‘What time?’
‘Half-seven at the latest.’ He hooked out the tea bag and dropped it in the pedal-top bin.
‘OK.’
‘Sorry, Button. I know you miss me. But not as much as I miss you.’
‘So you say.’
‘What does that mean? Are you taking your mum’s side now?’
Louise resented the fact that he’d gone back to work long before she was ready to do the same. It followed on, no doubt, from the arguments they’d been having for some time before their son went missing about the hours he put in, here at the station. He couldn’t understand why, as a nurse, she couldn’t – or wouldn’t – grasp that his job was as much a vocation as hers, the main difference being that, when her shift ended, there was someone there to replace her whereas he didn’t have that luxury.
‘It means actions speak louder than words, Dad. It’s one of the things I learned about at school today.’
‘I’m going to have to have words with that teacher of yours.’
‘She’s right, though, isn’t she?’
‘Who – your mum?’ Pete lifted milk from the fridge and started pouring it into the six mugs.
‘No, silly. Miss Jennings.’
He sighed. ‘Yes, Button. She is. At least, mostly. Me, I’m conflicted. It’s a special case. I’ve got two places I need to be and I can’t be in both at once. Anyway, I love you and I’ll be home as soon as the wicked DCI lets us out, OK? How’s your mum?’
He finished pouring the milk and put it away.
‘She’s OK. She’s watching Countdown.’
Pete’s lips pressed together. Louise had started to improve, recently, from the semi-catatonic state she’d inhabited for months after Tommy’s disappearance. His showing up in the Rosie Whitlock abduction had helped, even if he did vanish again at the first opportunity. But the fact that he clearly wasn’t coming home had knocked her back almost as soon as the fact that he was alive had spurred her on. ‘OK, love. I’ll see you later. Soon as I can, all right? Tell your mum for me. Love you.’
‘Love you too, Dad.’
‘Bye.’ He ended the call, stirred the mugs and put them all on a tray to take back into the squad room for his team. They were going to need caffeine.
*
‘Thanks, boss.’
Jane leaned across to take the last of the mugs from Pete. He atood the tray against the end of his desk and sat down.
‘There’s news,’ she said quietly.
‘What?’ Pete looked up, frowning.
Her green eyes locked onto his with a rarely seen intensity. ‘Tommy.’
Pete froze, tension crackling through him. ‘What about him?’
‘The enhanced CCTV’s back from the Co-op where Burton claimed to have dropped Tommy off on the way back into town. Still nothing probative on the car, but the boy in the shop is definitely Tommy and he looks like he’s been through the mill. I had a word with Alan Westbury. He also said that they’ve finally got hold of the assistant from that night. She said he bought plasters and bandages and stuff. Claimed he fell out of a tree. She had her doubts, but she didn’t know him, so what could she do?’
Pete slumped back in his chair, feeling suddenly weak. His son was alive and out there somewhere, just beyond reach. The confirmation was a huge relief,