Hit and Run - страница 19

Charlotte pushed with her legs and whooped as the action sent her careering up and down and to and fro. ‘Lovely girl,’ Janine called to her.

‘Hello, everybody.’ Connie carefully held the elastic ropes of Charlotte’s bouncer to one side as she squeezed past.

‘Good show last night?’ Janine asked her.

‘Brilliant,’ Connie beamed. ‘I love the Royal Exchange.’

‘Ann-Marie Chinley got run over,’ Tom said to Connie. ‘And Mum’s going to under arrest them.’

Janine smiled.

‘Arrest,’ Eleanor corrected him. ‘Not under arrest.’

‘You are under arrest,’ Tom told his spoon. ‘You will, won’t you Mum?’

‘Going to try.’

‘She didn’t make it,’ Janine said sotto-voce to the nanny. ‘Oh, no,’ Connie said softly. Janine nodded. Charlotte squealed and swung wildly up and down. ‘I best make tracks,’ Janine said. ‘Their toast’s on.’ She left to a chorus of goodbye her thoughts already turning to the list of actions she needed to get underway when she briefed her teams.

‘Harper’s account checks out.’ Richard stepped into the canteen queue behind Janine. ‘Reported the car theft at ten. Cab from home to the Casino Royale in town, meal in the restaurant there.’

Janine took the plate from the woman dishing up the hot breakfasts. His account might check out but that didn’t signal the end of her interest in the man. Not by a long chalk. She pulled a face.

‘I was thinking,’ Richard said, taking his own plate, ‘Rosa: the lack of records, no known place of residence – either someone’s covering something up or she was here illegally?’

‘Wouldn’t be the first time.’ Janine slid her tray along, stopping by the tea machine.

He continued. ‘She walks in off the street, gets the job, all that cash in hand, nod and a wink stuff.’

Janine picked up the thread. ‘And Harper’s passing the buck, blaming Sulikov. Who’s also Polish.’ She glanced at him. ‘Any connection to Rosa? You talked to this Sulikov yet?’

‘He lives over there.’

She paid for her food and picked up her tray while Richard hunted through his pockets for cash.

‘Maybe you’ll get a trip to Warsaw out of it,’ she said.

‘Why couldn’t it be Hawaii, or the Maldives?’

The pair of them sat down at a table where Shap had already finished eating.

‘Meanwhile,’ Janine said, ‘you’ll just have to grit your teeth and put up with life at a lap dancing club.’

‘Shap’s like a pig in muck.’ Richard said. Shap snorted, rolled his eyes.

‘You looked pretty comfortable yourself from where I was standing,’ she said, scooping up a forkful of bacon and egg.

‘Trick of the light.’

Janine took a mouthful. ‘I missed this.’

Shap grinned as though the sentiment included his presence, the camaraderie or something.

‘The fry up, you plonker,’ Janine told him.

‘How’s the nipper?’ Shap asked.

‘She’s great. Happy, insomniac.’

‘Got a nanny?’

‘Live in. Well – live in, go out a lot.’

‘Raver, is she?’ Shap’s eyes lit up.

‘No. Self-improvement. Night classes, theatre, opera.’ Janine cut up her bacon.

Butchers came over, his face intent. ‘We’ve got a witness on the hit and run. She saw two men get out and torch the car. Good descriptions. Height, age, clothing. One of them had red hair. We’re getting a few sightings of the car coming in, an’ all.’

‘Good.’ Janine nodded, chewing. ‘Draw up a timeline. They got it when, ten?’

Shap nodded.

‘Running it all night. Maybe they stopped somewhere – petrol, take-away, boozer? Got out the car and someone saw them. We’ll try and keep it live, see if we can shake out some more witnesses, CCTV. Need to cross-check those descriptions with records.’ She speared sausage and tomato and dipped it in her egg yolk.

‘TWOCers,’ Shap said, the acronym for taking without owner’s consent.

‘Language,’ Butchers joked.

No one responded. They all knew there was no point in encouraging him.

Red hair helped a lot. Sorting through the criminal records and accompanying mug shots, as soon as the daily briefing was over, Butchers came up with a handful of candidates. Each would be honoured by a police visit. The boss came in and he brought her up to date.

‘Several possible matches… Saul Hetherington, Clive Swan… and… Lee Stone.’ Butchers was interested in Stone; he lived nearest to the area where the car had been abandoned and in Butchers’ experience criminals were only too happy to foul their own nests – most not having the nous or the gumption to stray far from home to do their dirty work. If it was Stone he’d nail him; the thought increased his pulse, he’d bloody nail him. And if it wasn’t Stone he’d keep on looking because this was one case he’d never give up on. ‘Taking without owner’s consent, carjacking, actual bodily harm, sexual assault. Eighteen months inside, released in June.’