04 A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton

Author:Sharon Bolton [Bolton, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Murder, Action & Adventure, Crime, Suspense, Serial Killers, Crime Fiction, Thrillers, Thriller & Suspense, Genre Fiction, thriller, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 9781446487846
Publisher: Transworld Digital
Published: 2014-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

SATURDAY, 28 JUNE

51

Lacey

‘OK, LET ME get my head around all this crap,’ said Toc. ‘You pull the body of a woman out of the Thames and decide she’s an illegal immigrant.’

‘With reason,’ said Lacey.

‘Yeah, yeah. You find records of another body, pulled out two months ago, that may or may not have been an illegal immigrant – no way of knowing – so you decide there’s a whole load more of them at the bottom of the Thames and persuade your bosses to mount a multi-operational, massively expensive search that turns up zilch. Lacey, at best they’re questioning your judgement, at worst they’re writing you off as a bit of a loon.’

‘Way to make me feel better.’

‘I’m not trying to make you feel better. For a police officer living under a fake identity, you are not exactly keeping a low profile.’

Lacey looked round in alarm. ‘Why don’t you just send a memo?’

‘I thought the whole point of going back into uniform was to stay clear of the high-profile stuff. Keep your head down, concentrate on being a good, solid copper.’

‘It was. I just can’t—’

Toc was making her I give up, I just give up face. ‘I know. You never could. OK, let’s see what we can work out. Give me that pad.’

Lacey had brought a notepad and pencil into the room with her. She pushed them across the table. Toc wrote the number one in a bold, heavy hand.

‘First problem,’ she said. ‘Mass ethnic graveyard at the bottom of the Thames.’

‘Glad you’re finding this funny.’

‘Even if you’re right, there’s nothing you can do. The search has happened. It found nothing. So unless you’re planning to stick on a wetsuit and snorkel and go down yourself, that avenue is closed. Agreed?’

Lacey had a brief flashback to the seconds she’d spent under the water, looking at a floating corpse. ‘Agreed.’

‘Next, you have a gang smuggling young women up the Thames and keeping them somewhere near Deptford Creek, but not on the old dredger because that has treasure of a different sort entirely in the hold.’

Far better not to react when Toc was in this mood. Just let her get it out of her system.

‘So is Tulloch the Terrible looking for this holding place?’

‘She’s got people on to it,’ said Lacey. ‘But it’s a big area and she doesn’t have a lot of manpower. It’s going to take time.’

‘You might want to tell them you’ve already checked the old dredger.’

‘Christ, I didn’t think of that.’

‘Lucky you’ve got me on the case, then. But this is something else you have to leave to Tulloch and the team. If they’re short on manpower, you’re on your own, working when you’re off duty. You can’t search the south bank by yourself.’

‘You’re making me feel like a spare part.’

‘Are you going to tell Tulloch you’ve seen Joesbury?’

‘I can’t. I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone. I’ve already broken my promise by telling you.’

Toc beamed. ‘So instead of confiding in a trusted senior officer in the Met, you blab to the most notorious serial killer of the twenty-first century? Love it.

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