Page 54 of Dying Breath
‘Leave Waite to task force – he’s not our priority,’ argued Mattie. ‘I think we need to bring Toby in. Browning and I can do that. He won’t be expecting it – is he in work today? Because that would make it straightforward. Then we can get a search team to go through his house and check for any forensic evidence.’
Lucy picked up the phone and rang Amanda. She answered immediately.
‘Is Toby there?’
‘It’s all about the new boy! I told you, he’s too young for you, Lucy. No, he’s not – he rang in sick.’
Lucy cupped her hand over the phone and mouthed, ‘He’s rung in sick.’
Mattie arched an eyebrow at her.
Amanda continued. ‘Why do you want him? Can I not help you?’
‘No, it’s okay, thanks. I’ll catch up with him later. I hope he’s okay – did he say what’s wrong?’
‘Apparently he’s got a bug. I didn’t answer; it was Jack who spoke to him.’
‘Thanks.’
Lucy put down the phone. ‘Now what?’
‘Browning and I will pay him a welfare visit, make sure he’s okay and doesn’t need anything. Then we’ll bring his arse in for questioning.’
‘I don’t know about this… it might be too dangerous.’
‘Well, then you’ll have to run it by your favourite boss, who will then run it by headquarters. Who will then spend the next six hours assembling a team to go in and get him. Or you could go with the simple option: the two of us can go and knock on his door. He might not even be there – who’s to say that he hasn’t left the country after he paid you a visit last night? He could be on the other side of the world by now, because that’s where I’d be if it was me.’
Browning nodded. ‘There’s also a chance that it’s not him and he’s tucked up in bed with a sick bowl, so it might not even be dangerous.’
She was torn. If they did it the official way it would take hours. Patrick would take command and they would lose momentum. She didn’t want to put Mattie and Browning in any danger, though; she’d never forgive herself if anything happened to either of them.
‘I don’t want Patrick taking over, but I don’t want either of you putting yourself at risk.’
‘Look, Lucy, I’m not being funny but we’re both big boys. We have the element of surprise – Toby won’t be expecting us to come calling. I can pretty much guarantee he’ll come without a fight. If it is him, he killed two women who were both under the influence of alcohol. He shot an entire family in the night – he crept up on the dad from behind and got the others whilst they were asleep. He might be one sick fuck, but he’s not confrontational. He was alone with you in your house; if he’d wanted to hurt you he could have, but he didn’t.’
Browning nodded. ‘He’s right, boss.’
‘You wear your body armour and if there’s any remote chance of it all going horribly wrong you hit your red buttons. I’ll come with you.’
Mattie shook his head. ‘Absolutely not; you’re a liability. He seems to like you – if you’re there and he was to get the upper hand there’s no telling what he’d do.’
Her stomach was churning so hard it felt as if it were about to somersault into next week. Mattie was right: they’d been on arrest enquiries hundreds of times and they both knew how to handle themselves.
Browning sat down opposite her. ‘I’ll make sure the golden boy is safe. If I think it’s too dangerous I’ll pull back and we’ll let the boss man take over. All we’re going to do is go to his house and pay him a visit. He came to yours; we’re just repaying the favour. We can tell him you’ve asked us to come get him because you need to speak to him. It will work like a charm, trust me.’
She nodded. ‘Any sign of danger, you pull out and call for back-up.’
They both spoke in unison. ‘Yes, boss.’
Chapter Forty-Nine
Mattie and Browning walked out of the imaging unit and down to the locker rooms to retrieve their stab vests. Lucy knew they were doing it for show, to please her. The reality was that neither would probably wear them. She walked past Tom’s empty office and wondered where the hell Patrick was now. Even if she’d decided to run the theory by him, he wasn’t here to listen to her. He was useless.
She went to find Col, giving him the list of the historic killers and their victims, and asked him to find out anything he could about them. He looked at her quizzically and she whispered, ‘Keep this between you, me, Mattie and Browning for now. If you can find anything that ties our victims together – similarities, the slightest thing, no matter how trivial – let me know. Please, it’s really important.’
Her palms damp and her heart racing, she realised she should have insisted on going with Mattie and Browning; she was never going to settle waiting here. Returning to her office, she logged onto the computer to see what updates there were about the body in the woods. She was livid to see that there were very few comments on the digital case that was running. Picking up her phone, she dialled the number for Dr Corkill at the university to see what the hold-up was. He answered sounding flustered.
‘Hello?’
