Halifax: Transgression by Roger Simpson

Author:Roger Simpson [Simpson, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
Published: 2022-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Marino radioed Ringer, confirming that her perimeter was secure. A helicopter circled overhead, scouring the streets with its powerful light. Confident no-one could leave the area, Ringer sent in his troops, lights and sirens blazing. If Kurtza was there, Ringer wanted him to know, to feel that the noose was tightening.

Attracted by the commotion, Ela Bey came down to the front door along with other tenants. Dressed in her pyjamas and robe, though suitably wrapped to the neck, she was confronted by Ringer and Showbag.

‘Is Tomas Kurtza with you, Ms Bey?’ asked Ringer.

‘No.’

‘We’ll search the building anyway. I just needed to ask the question.’

‘Why do you think he’d be here?’

Showbag held up the package in his gloved hands. ‘This has just been delivered. It’s addressed to you.’ He indicated her name and address, written in bold, neat handwriting.

‘Would you open it, sergeant?’ said Ringer.

Showbag did. Inside was an arrangement of flowers.

Ela gave a sad laugh. ‘That’d be right,’ she said. ‘Violets. The flowers of unrequited love.’

‘You can have the flowers, Ms Bey,’ said Ringer. ‘But we’re taking the packaging. Sergeant, can you get it tested immediately?’

Showbag arranged for the packaging to be rushed to forensics with a ‘must know now’ designation.

‘Okay, people. Let’s do it.’

As the assembled teams started to search the building, Ringer radioed Marino back at base to tell her the search had begun. Marino advised more backup was on the way. The police would door knock and search the entire sector in the hope that Kurtza could be found. The operation would last several hours.

In fairness, the police had come close. They found the abandoned ebike. And Cheung’s computers got a facial match. Kurtza had ridden into the area by ebike but left by train after running through a barrel drain that led directly to Burnley Station.

It was 2 am when Ringer received his ‘must know now’ from forensics, but it only confirmed what he already suspected: that it was Tomas Kurtza’s fingerprints on the sticky tape around the flowers he’d delivered to Ela Bey.

The perimeter remained in place for another twelve hours until Ringer was convinced Kurtza had escaped their net, though he had already come to that conclusion.

His mobile rang. It was Jane.

‘How did you go?’ she asked.

‘Close but not close enough. How about you?’

‘Melissa Woods has been taken to hospital after being worked on by a critical response team.’

‘Will she make it?’

Jane sighed. ‘Probably not.’

It hadn’t been their night.

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