‘Or is he protecting someone?’ This from the boss.
‘Greg Tandy?’ Rachel said. ‘Or Marcus Williams if it is drug-related?’
‘So we don’t charge Noel Perry?’ Janet said.
‘Wasting police time,’ Rachel joked.
The boss’s phone went and she rolled her eyes. She pulled it out, then held up a finger, red claw at the tip, signalling she had to take it.
‘Harry, what you got?’ she said.
Her face sharpened as she listened, then she thanked the caller.
‘What?’ Rachel said, alert to the shift in tension in the room.
‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ the boss said, her eyes bright. ‘Tests on items recovered from the Keane house, in a holdall in Greg Tandy’s room, namely a pair of leather gloves, bear significant amounts of gunshot residue and traces of barbecue lighter fuel.’
‘So the twins kill Kavanagh but Tandy does the double murder?’ said Rachel, excited that they might have their killer.
‘I don’t know if he did but I think we can safely say the Perry twins did not,’ Her Maj said. ‘Unless some startling new evidence crawls out of the woodwork and starts clog-dancing by the end of the day, we ship them off to prison. Janet, arrest Tandy and interview him on suspicion of the murders; Rachel, talk to his family and oversee the search.’
‘Boss,’ Rachel said, ‘what about the hospital?’
‘What?’ Godzilla barked, a weird look on her face. Something flashed across Janet’s face too.
‘Shirelle,’ Rachel said, ‘if she comes round and I’m at the Tandys’…’
‘You’re not the only rat in the alley, Rachel. If you are still tied up we send someone else. Teamwork. Hard to grasp, I know, but keep trying,’ Her Maj said in a snotty tone of voice. God knows what Rachel had done now, parted her hair the wrong way, but she was glad the meeting was almost over. Eager to get out there and get on with it.
Gloria Tandy was not best pleased that her husband was ‘assisting the police with their inquiries’.
‘What? For fuck’s sake!’ she swore. ‘What inquiries?’ She had greeted Rachel and her colleagues who would do the search with the same ill grace as before.
Rachel evaded the question. ‘You’ve not seen him then, not missed him?’
Gloria stared at her and finally said, ‘He moved out, Friday.’
‘You failed to mention that,’ Rachel said.
‘Yeah, well.’
‘Why did he leave?’
‘We weren’t getting on,’ Gloria said.
Really? Or did he need to go to ground after the killings at the warehouse? Mind you, the fact that Tandy hadn’t informed his nearest and dearest that he was down the nick just might support Gloria’s account of things.
‘What time did he leave?’