Shoot to Kill by James Craig

Author:James Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472115188
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

TWENTY-TWO

Gazing vacantly out of the window, Carlyle sat on the 243 bus trundling back towards Central London, enjoying the luxury of an empty mind. His pleasant journey came to an end halfway down Clerkenwell Road when his mobile sprang into life. He looked at the screen. Alex Miles. Miles was the chief concierge at the Garden Hotel, round the corner from the police station. The inspector hesitated for a moment before answering.

‘Alex,’ he said tiredly. ‘How are you?’

‘Inspector?’

‘Yeah. It’s Carlyle here. What can I do for you?’

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

Must be bad, Carlyle thought.

Finally, Miles cleared his throat. ‘Well . . .’

Distracted by a pretty girl walking by, Carlyle tuned out of the conversation.

‘Inspector?’

‘Yes?’

‘Were you listening to what I said?’ Miles huffed.

‘Yes, yes,’ Carlyle snapped. ‘Just sit tight. I’ll have some uniforms there in five minutes. Do nothing until I get there.’

Ending the call, he quickly dialled the station and told Angie Middleton to have a team meet him at the hotel.

‘Shall we go up?’ Carlyle faced Alex Miles across the concierge’s table, a mahogany Regency writing desk, largely hidden behind an oversized sofa in the left-hand corner of the hotel lobby. They had been joined by a bored-looking uniform, PC Tim Burgess. Burgess had been a constable for the best part of a decade now and Carlyle knew that, even if he stayed in the Met for another thirty years, a constable he would remain. Useless was not the word.

As Miles headed for the lifts, Carlyle nodded at his colleague. ‘Stay here. I’ll give you a shout if you need to come up.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Burgess glumly.

Upstairs, he met Susan Phillips coming the other way. Working out of Holborn police station, Phillips had been a staff pathologist with the Met for more than twenty years now, and she and Carlyle had worked together many times.

‘John!’ she smiled, giving him a peck on the cheek.

‘Susan,’ he smiled in return, ‘you got here quick.’

‘Too quickly,’ Phillips told him. ‘I left some stuff in the car and need to nip back downstairs.’ She gestured over her shoulder. ‘But my colleague is in there. You can take a look.’

‘What happened?’

Phillips glanced at Miles, who bowed his head and retreated a respectful distance.

‘Simply speaking,’ Phillips whispered, ‘someone punched her lights out.’ She added: ‘Is it true the room was booked to Gavin Swann?’

Carlyle sighed. ‘So I’m told.’

Phillips shook her head. ‘What a bloody mess.’ She patted Carlyle on the shoulder. ‘Good luck.’

‘Thanks,’ said Carlyle, heading unhappily towards the door.

Less than twenty minutes later, Alex Miles stuck his head round the door of the room. He looked stressed. ‘Inspector! There are half-a-dozen journalists downstairs in the lobby already.’ He made it sound like this was somehow the inspector’s fault.

‘Not that surprising, is it?’ Carlyle affected an air of insouciance. Inwardly, however, his heart sank. The fact was that he shouldn’t have touched this case with a bargepole. But no, he’d had to play the big ‘I am’ and wade right in.

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