Catch as Catch Can (The Merseyside Crime Series Book 1) by Malcolm Hollingdrake (popular books to read .TXT) 📕

The carpark was well lit and the cameras active when Mansoor Kamman approached the white BMW. Dressed in a suit and carrying a leather briefcase, he looked not only smart but professional. He had paid at the station and tucked the exit ticket into his breast pocket. The indicators flashed as he blipped the key fob. He went to the boot and it lifted with a second press. He smiled. The suitcase was waiting. Popping his briefcase to the side he allowed the boot to close before slipping into the driver’s seat and relaxing. He removed his phone but there was no service. It could wait. Within fifteen minutes he would arrive outside Sadiq’s apartment and that would be time enough.

The outside door released the lock with a resounding click and Mansoor went to the elevator, checking that the outside door had closed behind him. He expected Sadiq to be waiting for the elevator doors to open and he would be greeted with smiles but that was not the case. His mood changed. Approaching Sadiq’s apartment door he put down the case, tapped on the door and stood back. He knew he was being observed through the small peephole. He had witnessed him do it each time someone came to the door even though he had seen them on the CCTV before allowing entry. To his surprise it was not Sadiq who opened the door but Flamur.

‘Come in, you’re expected. Smart, Doc, very, very smart.’ He reached out and ran his fingers along the edge of his lapel. ‘A beautiful case too. Heavy?’

‘Expensively heavy. Where’s Sadiq?’

The question was swiftly answered as Sadiq approached to stand behind Flamur. ‘Just enjoying one of the pass rounds. Fancy a turn later?’ Sadiq’s eyes were now on the case.

Doc looked to see a young, naked girl move from the room and disappear down the corridor. She swayed, either drugged or drunk. He shook his head. ‘You’ll want this checking and cutting I presume?’

Sadiq moved closer and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. ‘Doc by name, Doc by profession. Of course. You hear about the fire?’

He shook his head. ‘Nope. Heard about Scar. Sounds like a bloody set up to me. What are you doing about it, other than shagging?’

Sadiq’s expression quickly changed as he raised a finger to Doc’s lips. ‘Respect, Doc, respect. Remember your place.’

Doc tossed the case onto the settee. Flamur frowned. He crossed his arms and observed. Doc was no fool, he knew where the power lay.

Chapter 20

April had assembled them in the Incident Room. She had already marked an arrow from Malik Buruk’s name and written DECEASED in red, matching that of Gittings.

‘It’s as if someone’s clearing the deck. A spring clean of possible dead wood,’ Tony announced. ‘But why and who?’

‘Another gang moving in?’

‘Kelly?’ Brad suggested with no real degree of conviction. ‘Revenge for her fella?’

April turned to him. ‘Have you been touching my drum sticks?’

Lucy smiled and looked directly at Brad who flushed red. April immediately sensed his discomfort.

‘Please leave my desk alone, Brad.’ April saw him nod.

‘Sorry, just looking.’

‘With these?’ she waved her fingers. ‘I mention this to remind you just what our job is here. We observe and react to the smallest thing. We note it and act. We share it, the good and the bad. We’re supposed to be detectives, Detective Constables. We’re not detecting, sieving the wheat from the chaff. I noticed things were not as I’d left them. I predicted it might happen and I left them strategically, like bait to see whom I could trust not to touch?’ She placed a hand on Brad’s shoulder, shaking her head. ‘Now, you all know that I have a dog?’

A number of heads nodded.

‘Tico, ma’am, I believe,’ announced Brad.

‘Bloody hell … Bon bloody Jovi!’ Tony laughed out loud. ‘Just put two and two together. Tico Torres is the drummer. You like drumming and I guess Tico is your idol, the one you aspire to.’

April pointed her finger at him. ‘Correct. We tend to see things in isolation, cryptic maybe, but when we look from another perspective or if we’re given another clue, the opaque can suddenly become transparent and that for which we search might be right under our very nose.’ She smiled at Tony. ‘That’s what our job is all about. It’s putting disparate facts in a line or pattern and seeing if there’s a connection. It’s commonly referred to as good police work.’

There was an immediate lightening in the atmosphere.

‘Here we’re collecting facts, and it’s funny that suddenly one of the facts we were given from my source is a female by the name of Gittings. She’s now gone the way of all flesh. We believe that one that Skeeter’s been hounding has also bitten the dust and the one she suspects has disappeared. We have no record of them.’

‘His name, Flamur, is all we have.’

‘We need to find the other characters.’ She turned to the board. ‘Asif Rehman, the Bully, Don Benson, Blusher, and Doc, let’s not forget, Doc, a certain Mansoor Kamman.’

April’s mobile signalled a text. Ignoring it she continued. ‘I believe we’ve seen a slowing in the moped crime incidents?’ She addressed Skeeter.

‘Indeed. Another reason why Tony and I believe something else is happening. It’s not been as quiet as this for over twelve months and I don’t believe it’s because of our man from the beach, or that Gittings and Kelly are out of the equation. It’s something more than that.’

Lucy tapped the board. ‘Our beach find was tortured, we know that. We have evidence Gittings self-harmed, but right now that’s an assumption, and therefore we can’t be fully sure. We have the fire and one seriously burned body. What state was he in before the fire, alive or dead?’

‘We’ll await the post mortem, Lucy, and not jump to conclusions. We’ve work to do.’

April moved away and found her mobile. She read the message. ‘Hold up!’ She turned to the group who were just leaving.