‘She were just – heavy,’ he managed.
Richard switched tack again. ‘Mr Sulikov, you saw him shoot Gleason?’
‘Yeah.’
‘In cold blood.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Gleason provoke him in any way?’
‘No.’
‘Can you describe the weapon?’
‘No. It was dark, hardly see a thing. There’s this loud bang and Jez went down. I legged it.’
‘You’d no idea you were walking into a trap?’
‘No. Sulikov calls, you jump.’
‘He over here much?’
‘I don’t know, first time I’ve seen him but look, I’m a bouncer, I’m a fixer. I’m not in on the board meetings or the fancy meals or the wheeling and dealing. Bloke like that, he keeps his distance; a call, that’s all it takes. He sits in his bloody Polish castle or whatever and dials a number. He’s people like me to do his dirty work, he doesn’t need to get down in the muck with the rest of us.’
‘That a plea for sympathy?’
Stone snorted and folded his arms.
*****
When Richard rang, Janine had just sorted Tom (and the ever-present Frank) out with juice and some dried fruit and was trying to get Charlotte dressed again after changing her nappy. She put Charlotte back on the changing mat and picked up the phone.
‘Have you got Sulikov?’ she demanded, full of anticipation.
‘No. Hasn’t been back to the hotel yet.’
Janine felt the cold wash of disappointment.
‘But Stone’s version stands up,’ Richard told her. ‘Negative on the DNA, the skin sample under Rosa’s nails wasn’t his – must be Sulikov’s. Something’s a bit off, though,’ Richard’s tone changed, ‘Stone claims they picked the Mercedes up on the street, an industrial estate, in Burnage, at eight o’clock. Sulikov told them where it was.’
‘Burnage,’ something clicked in Janine’s memory. ‘Wasn’t there a sighting that didn’t fit?’
‘Yes – teenager who’d seen the car there around that time.’
‘None of this makes sense,’ she complained. She ran her fingers through her hair. ‘Think about it. Sulikov hears that Rosa is going to run away, perhaps Harper lets it slip, so he decides to make an example of her and he kills her. Then there’s all the palaver with the bin bags; trying to make her unrecognisable. Hoping we’ll never find her. Then what does Sulikov do? He goes to Harper’s house, steals Harper’s car, brings it back to wherever Rosa is. He puts the body in the boot, then he drives the car to Burnage and leaves it for Stone to pick up. Why on earth do that?’
‘To teach Harper a lesson like he said?’
‘But why do it himself? Why not get Stone to do it? Stealing cars is right up his street. Sulikov would have to leave the body to go off to Harper’s to steal the car.’ She had another thought, ‘Unless she was killed at Harper’s house?’
