Little Boy Blue - страница 40

The biting wind whistled round Charlie and, cursing her luck, she retreated to her car. Helen had sent her here as a punishment, knowing full well it would be a wasted journey. It was easy enough to blend in with the journalists and gawpers, but with such a crowd outside what were the chances that Jackson would actually do anything incriminating? If he was smart, he would stay exactly where he was, until the interest in him waned.

Charlie had the disquieting feeling that Helen had turned against her. They had exchanged some harsh words earlier – words that had shaken Charlie to the core – and even though she knew she deserved to be sent to purdah for rowing with Sanderson, she never expected to be publicly dressed down like that. Helen’s behaviour was out of character – impulsive and erratic – and it unnerved her. Especially when she still felt she had so much to prove.

Charlie hoped her exile would be brief. She missed her family, hated the tedium of a stakeout and desperately wanted to be back in the heart of things. But this case was doing strange things to people – to Helen, Sanderson, even Charlie herself – and she wondered if she had permanently blotted her copybook with her boss. Truth be told, she had never felt so uncertain of her position as she did tonight.

‘I like the look of this one.’

Sanderson was hunched over her desk, running Helen through a print-out from the PNC database. The atmosphere was tense following the latter’s clash with Charlie, and Sanderson was working overtime to appear efficient, professional and productive. Like her rival, she still had a lot of ground to make up.

‘There’s a few on the list, but she seems the most likely, given Dennis’s description. Real name Michael Parker, now a mid-op transsexual, living as a woman. She’s used a number of different identities over the years…’

‘Sharon Greenwood,’ Helen replied, reading the details, ‘Beverley Booker and most recently Samantha Wilkes.’

‘Exactly. And look at her form. Affray, drugs, theft, obtaining money by deception, false imprisonment…’

‘What have we got on that last charge?’ Helen said.

‘Questioned, but never charged, about an incident with a Julian Bown, a married man she took back to her flat. Parker said their acts were consensual, Bown said they weren’t, wanted to press for GBH, but dropped it at the last minute.’

‘And obtaining money by deception?’

Sanderson leafed through her file to find the relevant page.

‘Credit card fraud,’ she said, looking up at Helen. The excitement that always comes with a new lead was rising inside her, but she hid it well. Best not to get ahead of herself when her boss’s mood was still so hard to read.

‘Dennis said Samantha never missed an Annual Ball, so it’s likely we can place her there…’ she continued.

‘Let’s check her out,’ Helen said decisively. ‘Does this Dennis know where to find her?’

‘I believe so.’

‘Then I’d better pay him a little visit. In the meantime, let’s contact gender reassignment clinics, starting in Southampton and rolling out from there. If Samantha’s a mid-operative transsexual, then she shouldn’t be too hard to track down. Also, can you locate Julian Bown? If he still lives locally, we need to talk to him.’

‘Sure thing, boss.’

‘Stay in touch. This is good work, Sanderson.’

‘Thank you.’

‘But that doesn’t excuse what happened this morning.’ Helen lowered her voice. ‘I’m sure you know that, so I won’t labour the point – except to say that I expect every member of my team to work together regardless of their rank, temperament or personal history. Is that clear?’

‘One hundred per cent.’

‘I’m very glad to hear it.’

Sanderson watched on as Helen scooped up her jacket and marched from the office, handing out a few last tasks as she did so. As reprimands go, it had been brief and to the point – Sanderson knew she had escaped lightly. But there was still work to do. The decision to release Paul Jackson may have angered Charlie, but it also reflected badly on her. Helen clearly didn’t believe he was guilty and Sanderson’s call in arresting Jackson so publicly now looked very misguided.