A Lethal Deception, page 16
‘Thanks, Terry,’ said Scott. ‘Stephanie’s got a company card to sort out payment before you leave.’
‘Cheers, mate. Appreciated.’
Terry picked up wire cutters and a screwdriver from the tool bag on the tiled floor and went back to work.
Kay shivered as she watched him climb the ladder and crawl into the ceiling cavity once more. ‘I never thought we’d have to do this. Not here.’
‘It’s a sign of the times,’ said Adam. ‘Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice, not now. It’s like you said, it won’t be the last time someone breaks in but with any luck next time we’ll have a better chance of catching whoever it is.’
‘What did you decide to do in the end work-wise?’ she said. ‘Ease back into it, or try and do a full day to see how it goes?’
‘I figured I’d come in Saturday, do the morning shift as normal, then take Sunday off,’ he said. ‘I reckon that by Monday, I’ll be fine. Oh, that reminds me – do you want to pick up Oscar on the way home from work on Friday, Scott or come around at the weekend?’
‘Up to you.’ Scott looked over his shoulder and closed the filing cabinet drawer. ‘How’s he been?’
‘A bit smelly, but I’ve been trying him on different food. He’s certainly perked up this past week though,’ said Adam. ‘I can’t ascertain that there’s anything seriously wrong with him.’
‘If he’s doing that well, maybe he should stay with you a bit longer,’ said Scott, his face passive.
Kay glared at him, but was prevented from answering by her phone trilling in her handbag.
When she fished it out, Barnes’s name was displayed on the screen, and she answered it before it went to voicemail.
‘Ian? Something the matter?’
‘Guv, it’s Xander Beech. Someone attacked him at home, and he’s been hospitalised.’
Forty-Three
Kay parked her car alongside a liveried patrol vehicle and slammed shut the door before taking a moment to assess the scene in front of her.
She had passed a patrol car at the junction into the residential street, several onlookers from neighbouring properties gawping at the emergency vehicles lining the narrow road before being shooed away by a pair of uniformed constables.
‘Guv? Over here.’
She spotted Gavin’s silhouette against the headlights of an ambulance, his familiar spiky hair and height singling him out from the other people milling about the entrance to the block of flats, and walked over to join him.
‘What happened?’
‘A neighbour called it in, guv.’ He turned and led the way into the flats, taking the stairs rather than the lift. ‘We’re up on the second floor – Xander was attacked inside his flat – it looks like he opened the door to whoever attacked him because there’s no damage to the lock or signs of forced entry.’
He paused as they reached the second-floor landing and stood to one side while a paramedic emerged from a door farther down on the right, closely followed by her colleague pushing Xander in a wheelchair towards the open lift door.
It swished closed seconds later, and they could soon hear the two ambulance officers at the bottom of the stairwell steering their patient from the building.
‘Where are they taking him?’ said Kay.
‘Maidstone. Barnes just left – he’s on his way there too, so he can take a statement when the doctors let him.’
‘What about the neighbour, the one who called in?’
‘A Mr Henry Bradley,’ Gavin said, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards a man standing beside two uniformed constables at the far end of the hallway, his face concerned while he spoke with them. ‘He says he heard raised voices over his television, but by the time he turned down the volume and got to his front door and looked out, there was no one around. That’s when he noticed the door to Xander’s flat was open. Before he got to it, a man rushed out and down the stairs.’
‘Did he get a decent look at him?’
‘No – the man was wearing a baseball cap and the lighting down here isn’t great, as you can see.’
‘What about CCTV?’
Gavin snorted with frustration. ‘Mr Bradley says he and other members of the residents’ association have been trying to get that in here for over two years.’
‘Well, the owners might reconsider it after this. Has the neighbour entered the flat?’
‘Yes – he was even more worried after that. He found Xander on the floor next to the sofa. Mr Bradley said Xander was incoherent when he found him, so he dialled triple nine. Given the address and our ongoing enquiries, that’s why we got a call too.’
‘Did you get a chance to speak to the paramedics before I got here?’
‘Yes. Sounds like he’s got a broken nose and a couple of broken fingers. One of the paramedics treating him reckoned he might have a broken rib or two as well but they’re more concerned that he might be suffering from internal bleeding – he managed to tell them he was repeatedly punched in the stomach.’
‘Anyone still in there?’
‘Kyle Walker is fingerprinting the door and several other surfaces in case the attacker is on the system. We’re just waiting for a locksmith to turn up. Mr Bradley says he gets on okay with Xander so he’s offered to pay for it until he gets out of the hospital.’
‘Okay, well in the circumstances I want to take a look.’ Kay led the way towards the open door, and paused while Walker finished dusting the front panels.
He stood to one side and gave a curt nod when he finished. ‘I’ve done the living and kitchen area, too guv. I’ll show you through.’
‘Thanks.’
She put her hands in her pockets and stepped over the threshold, careful not to brush against the door and get any of the graphite powder on her jacket. Pausing at the end of a short passageway, she surveyed the damage to the flat.
Kitchen drawers had been pulled open, cutlery thrown to the floor alongside threadbare cotton tea towels, and her shoes crunched across a mixture of salt granules and peppercorns strewn across the cheap linoleum.
The lounge had borne the brunt of the attack, with a picture frame hanging precariously off its hook above the television, and a games console and controllers upended beneath the large screen. Sofa cushions lay on the floor beside a pile of old games magazines pushed to one side, and she could see blood on the carpet where Xander had lain.
‘Did he manage to tell anyone who did this to him, Gav?’ she asked.
‘Not yet – the paramedics wouldn’t let us speak to him because they were concerned for his well-being.’
‘What the hell happened here?’ she murmured.
Walker shook his head in wonder. ‘Someone definitely had it in for him, guv.’
‘It’s not that – look at everything. This wasn’t just a fight. Whoever attacked Xander was looking for something. This place has been searched.’
Gavin pivoted in the middle of the room and nudged a sofa cushion with his toe. ‘We’ll have to get a list of any stolen goods from Xander when Barnes interviews him.’
‘Does it look like anything’s been stolen to you? I mean, obviously the television’s too big to take and that games console looks like an older model so it’s probably not worth much. Did you notice whether Xander had a laptop or anything when you were here?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘I’ll have a quick look in the bedroom, guv,’ said Walker. ‘Just in case.’
‘Okay.’
She ran her gaze over the devastation in the flat as the constable wandered off.
‘Do you think he was attacked because he spoke to us earlier?’ said Gavin, his eyes troubled.
Kay sighed. ‘I don’t know what to think at the moment.’
They turned at a shout, to see Walker emerging from the bedroom, his gloved hands cradling a medley of small boxes and glass vials.
‘I found this under a pile of clothes,’ he said. ‘I guess Xander’s attacker didn’t get as far as there before he was disturbed. Some of these look like medical supplies, though – not the usual drugs paraphernalia.’
Gavin picked up one of the packets and turned it in his hand to read the label stuck to the side, and then emitted a surprised grunt.
‘Guv? These are for animals. I think this is what was stolen from Adam’s surgery.’
Forty-Four
Kay snatched the parking ticket from the machine before hurrying over a pedestrian crossing and through the main doors of Maidstone Hospital.
Barnes held up his hand from the other end of a wide tiled corridor when he saw her, his phone to his ear.
She waited while he finished the call, running her gaze over the various signposted wards and departments displayed in colour-coordinated wording on the wall beside her, a shiver crawling across her shoulders at the memory of Adam’s attack last week.
The clatter of glass and crockery reached her from the cafeteria off to the left, and she turned away from the worried stares that met her gaze as patients, family members or friends tried to spend a few moments in contemplation.
‘Guv, that was Gavin – he says the flat’s been secured, and the neighbour has the keys.’ Barnes tucked his phone into his pocket and nudged her arm. ‘Xander’s in a room down this way.’
Their shoes echoed off the polished floor as they negotiated a steady stream of porters, orderlies and nurses criss-crossing their way through the depths of the hospital. Cavernous openings along the maze of corridors led to specialised areas – radiology, pathology, cardiology.
All of it passed by Kay in a blur while she wondered whether they would get any answers from Xander tonight, or whether the severity of his injuries would mean a long wait before his doctors let him talk to the police.
‘Up these stairs,’ said Barnes, holding open a fireproof door for her. ‘They moved him up to the acute medical unit. He’s a lucky bastard in some respects – no internal bleeding, but he’s got bruising and a broken rib apparently. They’re going to keep him in for a couple of days to make sure about the bleeding though.’
‘He’s in good hands here,’ she replied. ‘And at least we know where he is, right?’
‘Gavin mentioned you found the drugs nicked from Adam’s surgery at Xander’s place?’
‘We were trying to work out if whoever did this to him stole anything from him, like a laptop or something.’ Kay paused, her hand on the door leading off from the first-floor landing. ‘I have to say, I didn’t expect the drugs.’
Barnes followed her into the corridor, shaking his head.
She noticed the atmosphere was different up here, calmer.
Despite an undercurrent of practised efficiency – after all, most of the patients in these wards were in a critical condition – the overall sense that Kay felt was quiet determination.
The volume of voices was lower, so much so that she could hear the persistent rumble of the air conditioning vents above her head.
‘He’s along here,’ said Barnes, pointing to a nurses’ station.
The ward sister looked up from a clipboard as they approached, and gave a tired smile.
‘Back so soon, Detective Barnes?’
‘My inspector, Kay Hunter,’ he said by way of introduction. ‘We wondered whether there had been any improvement in your patient, and whether we could talk to him yet?’
The nurse pursed her lips. ‘I’m afraid you won’t be talking to Xander tonight, detectives. His doctor has just been up here to check on him, and he’s been given a mild sedative. After that, it’ll be family only from tomorrow until he receives the all-clear.’
‘All right,’ said Kay, thanking the nurse and turning away from the desk. ‘I’m going to ask Sharp to authorise a constable to stay on duty up here until Xander talks to one of us. Given we’ve got two ketamine deaths on our hands, and the theft, I believe young Mr Beech could be a flight risk in the circumstances.’
‘Sounds like a good plan, guv. I’ll make sure he’s interviewed as soon as he wakes up.’
‘That’s going to make for an interesting discussion…’ Kay’s phone buzzed, and she read the new text message. ‘Good. Laura says she’s spoken to the laboratory, cited Peter Gregor’s name and arranged for testing to be done tomorrow on the drugs found in Xander’s flat.’
Barnes grinned. ‘She learns fast.’
‘Well, as long as she doesn’t expect that sort of turnaround on every case she works on, she’ll be fine.’
Barnes’s smile faded, his expression becoming concerned as she heard heavy footsteps behind her.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw a man she recognised as Damian Beech hurrying towards them, wearing a motorbike jacket and cradling a full-face helmet under one arm as he ran a leather-gloved hand through his hair.
‘Detective Barnes?’ He shook hands with the older detective, who introduced Kay before gesturing to the closed doors.
‘The nurse tells us they’ve made Xander comfortable for the night, but I’m sure she’ll be able to tell you more.’
‘Thanks. Do you know who did this to him?’
‘Early days, Damian, but we’ve got officers taking statements from the neighbours and we’ll be checking any CCTV cameras in the area.’
‘As soon as I heard I had to come here. He’s all I’ve got.’
‘What about the rest of your family?’ said Barnes.
Damian grimaced. ‘Our dad died about ten years ago, and we don’t talk to our mother – she walked out on us when I was six years old.’
Kay placed her hand on his arm. ‘We’ve got some questions of our own we’d like to ask you. Have a word with the ward sister and get an update about your brother, and then we’ll go and get a coffee downstairs.’
Forty-Five
‘Here you go. Black, two sugars – and I asked them to put a splash of cold water in it, so get it down you.’
Barnes shoved a takeout cup of coffee across the Formica table to Damian and took a seat beside Kay, then watched as the man peeled off his thick leather gloves, leaving the woollen inserts on, and wrapped his hands around the hot drink.
‘Thanks. It’s bloody freezing out there tonight, and raining too. I can’t feel my hands.’
‘Not a great night to be out on a bike.’
‘No kidding.’
‘Damian, we’re going to have to make this formal in the circumstances.’ Kay withdrew her notebook from her bag and popped the lid off a pen, her movements efficient as she cleared the remnants of sugar sachets off the table surface and dropped them onto the plastic tray at her elbow.
Barnes checked over his shoulder, but the nearest people were three tables away – an orderly and a woman in pale blue overalls who opened pre-packaged sandwiches in silence before turning to watch a television screen in the far corner of the cafeteria.
He took a sip of his coffee while Kay read out the formal caution and contemplated the older brother.
He had darker hair compared to Xander and was slightly shorter, already carrying a little too much weight around his middle.
He wondered whether Damian bothered to exercise while working from home, or whether he was the sort of entrepreneur who poured all of his energy into his business with little thought to his own health.
The inserts from the gloves he still wore began to emit a damp wool smell as the coffee cup cooled, and Barnes turned his attention to the cafeteria window beside him for a moment, watching as a steady drizzle created a mist beneath the car park lights and an ambulance tore away from a parking bay farther along, its lights blazing as it reached the exit onto the main road.
His gaze returned to the table as Kay cleared her throat.
‘When we attended Xander’s flat earlier tonight, a quantity of drugs was found in his bedroom,’ she said. ‘Was he a user?’
‘Christ, no.’
Damian’s shock was palpable. He reared back, his eyebrows raised before he blushed, perhaps realising that his outburst had echoed off the cafeteria walls.
‘No, I didn’t. I’m sure he’s not. I mean, he’s my brother. I’d know. I’m sure I would.’
‘This was a significant quantity,’ said Kay. ‘Do you have any suspicions that your brother was dealing?’
Damian’s jaw clenched and he lowered his cup to the table, then closed his eyes. ‘I didn’t, no. What sort of drugs?’
‘We believe they’re identical to the drugs stolen from a local veterinary surgery last Monday night,’ said Barnes. ‘The owner of the practice was still there when an intruder broke in – he was subsequently attacked and hospitalised.’
‘Jesus.’ Damian shook his head and met his gaze. ‘How… how is he? Is he all right?’
‘He got the all-clear from his medical team yesterday,’ said Kay, her face passive. ‘He had a lucky escape. When the ambulance arrived, he was unconscious.’
‘Do you have a key to your brother’s flat?’ said Barnes.
‘No – why would I?’
‘Are you aware if anyone else has access to the place?’
‘I’m not, no.’
‘Where were you last Monday night, Damian?’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Just answer the question, please.’
‘At Xander’s place. He had a new computer game downloaded that we’d both been waiting for.’ He raised the coffee cup to his lips, then paused as a sad smile crossed his lips. ‘He almost kicked my ass. I wish he had.’
‘Any idea how he came to be in possession of the drugs?’ asked Kay.
‘We don’t socialise much,’ said Damian. ‘I mean, we try to get together once a month if we can – we like the same computer games like I said, or sometimes we’ll watch a film. Xander’s got an unhealthy addiction to several comic universes so we usually end up seeing one of them.’
Barnes smiled at the resignation in the man’s voice. ‘Not a fan of those, then?’
‘Not really. I wouldn’t mind seeing something with a bit more substance sometimes.’
