Page 299 of The Hallmarked Man
As he’d expected, a further silence ensued.
‘You know where it is, do you?’ said Iverson.
‘I do, yeah,’ said Strike. ‘Found out this evening, as a matter of fact.’
‘Convenient,’ said Northmore.
‘Coincidental,’ said Strike.
‘You don’t seem to feel much compunction about complicating or impeding police investigations, Mr Strike,’ said Northmore.
‘When’ve I done that?’ asked Strike.
‘You entered a murder scene without authority just a couple of hours ago.’
‘Nobody knew it was a murder scene before I got in there.’
‘You’ve been interviewing people connected to two open murder inquiries.’
‘The William Wright inquiry was closed when my agency took the case,’ said Strike. ‘You’d identified him as Knowles. I’ve passed on every bit of information that could’ve been useful to you, since we started investigating. Haven’t hidden anything.’
‘Except Barnaby’s,’ said Northmore.
‘Just told you: I only found out what Barnaby’s is this evening.’
‘How much information has DCI Ryan Murphy been feeding you?’ asked Northmore.
Out of the corner of his eye, Strike saw a stiffening of Iverson’s expression. He was surprised they’d named Murphy, on tape. Could the man be under some kind of cloud? Might he even be under investigation?
‘Zero,’ said Strike.
‘Nothing’s been let slip during bedroom talk?’ said Northmore.
‘Haven’t shagged him yet,’ said Strike. ‘Playing hard to get.’
Iverson let out a slight gasp that might’ve been a suppressed laugh.
‘Murphy’s never shared confidential information with me, and to my knowledge he’s never shared it with my partner, either,’ said Strike.
‘You’ve had no scruples about illicitly procuring evidence from our team,’ said Northmore.
‘If you’re talking about the photos of the body, Cochran did that on her own initiative,’ said Strike, ‘and she’s now left our agency.’
‘Yeah? Why’s that? Doesn’t like the way you conduct business?’
Suspecting this was an allusion to the recent newspaper stories about his dealings with women, Strike chose not to answer.
‘Were you surprised to find Jim Todd dead tonight, Mr Strike?’ asked Iverson.
‘I was, yeah,’ said Strike. ‘I went there to try and get his contact details out of his mother, if she had them. I didn’t know he was staying with her.’
‘What made you so interested in Todd?’
‘I think he was the one who helped William Wright get the job at Ramsay Silver.’
He had the impression that this answer wasn’t a surprise to Iverson and surmised that the silver vault murder team, too, might have reached that conclusion.
‘What d’you know about Jim Todd’s movements on the seventeenth of June?’ asked Iverson.
