Harvest For The Reaper by Jack Gatland

Author:Jack Gatland [Gatland, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hooded Man Media
Published: 2024-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

16

NOISE CANCELLING

Steve Cummings lived in a small two-bedroom rented flat in Plumstead near Woolwich, and as Anjli and Cooper arrived in a squad car, they could both see there was already a commotion out front.

An old lady, with white hair loosely pulled together into a ponytail, glared at them as they approached.

‘Are you here for him?’ she said, pointing at the door.

‘Do you mean Steve Cummings?’ Anjli asked, glancing confusedly at Cooper.

‘Yes,’ the old lady replied. ‘I called ten minutes ago. You should have been here by now.’

‘I think you’ve got us confused with someone else, Ma’am,’ Cooper replied. ‘We received no call. We’re here for something completely different⁠—’

She didn’t finish as the woman started swearing and stamping her feet.

‘That prick’s been turning his music on all night long,’ she said. ‘Every day until late. He pisses off to work, comes back at all hours of the day and night, claims it’s shifts, but we all know he’s just screwing around to piss us off.’

Anjli looked from the woman to Cooper, and then back again, not saying anything.

Eventually, sighing, Anjli walked to the door, pausing as she reached it. There was the slightest hint of a pungent, horrid smell travelling from underneath it.

‘When was the last time you saw him?’ she asked.

‘Two days ago. Why?’

‘Did he arrive earlier today at all?’

‘Not that I saw.’

Anjli looked around.

‘These apartments,’ she said, ‘is there a car park?’

‘Yeah, underneath. Why? This ain’t anything to do with the noise.’

‘We “ain’t” here for the noise,’ Anjli snapped back, pulling out her warrant card. ‘Detective Inspector Kapoor, City of London police. You think I’d come out for a complaint about some loud music?’

The woman deflated slightly at the sight of the ID, and as Anjli turned back to Cooper, before she could give the order, Cooper nodded before walking off. Anjli knew Cooper would now go in search of the car she saw Steve Cummings escape the prison in. Even though she hadn’t seen it firsthand, Cooper had spent a good hour hunting for the make once she arrived back at the office, and would be the better person to look for it.

As she did so, Anjli pulled out a pair of lock picks she’d been given by Declan a couple of years earlier, when they first met.

‘Can’t you just kick the door in?’ the woman, now confused what was really happening, asked quietly.

‘I’d rather not, Ma’am,’ Anjli replied calmly, moving the metal pieces into the lock and twisting hard. ‘The paperwork’s a bitch, and I could break my foot.’

The door opened without a single problem and Anjli was buffeted with a fresh smell of rancid, dead rubbish.

It didn’t feel strong enough for a body, but it wasn’t a good sign, whatever it was.

‘I think you should stay here,’ she said, pulling out a microfibre screen cleaner, usually kept for cleaning her phone from her pocket and placing it over her mouth and nose before moving in.

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