The Press had got wind of a fresh kill and Janine was temporarily blinded by the barrage of bright flashes from the cameras. She skirted the crowd and ignored the clamour for comments.
It was cold enough for gloves but she had to peel her own off and flex her fingers into thin plastic ones. She already wore a protective suit over her trousers and now she pulled the top of it over her arms and zipped it up. The scene of crime manager signed her in and she edged past the gantry of lights that were illuminating the steps leading down to where the body lay.
The sight made her recoil in shock, though anyone looking would only have noticed a sharp intake of breath and a tightening around the jaw. She looked at the mess around the man, the copious amount of blood and gore, the position he lay in, one leg flung out from his body, the thin pale ankle showing between his sock and his trousers, a fake Rolex on one wrist still ticking away. She felt a wave of sadness, too, that a life should end this way, suddenly, savagely, in a disused subway.
Richard stood beside her. ‘Gunshot wound to the head,’ he said grimly, ‘they’ve not found the weapon. And no sign of Lee Stone – he’s not been back to the flat.’
‘Maybe I should have hung on to Gleason – gone for broke. If letting him go led to…’ she broke off. She recalled the fear in Gleason’s eyes when she had questioned him. She had assumed that he’d been fearful of the police but maybe there’d been more to it. Frightened of Stone, too?
‘We don’t know that,’ Richard said. ‘We’ve no idea what’s behind this.’
‘We need to find Stone,’ she said decisively. ‘Get a team onto likely haunts, friends and family. And put out a bulletin. But warn the public not to approach him, he’s probably armed.’ She hugged herself, tucking her hands under her arms in an effort to keep warm.
Richard stood aside as another piece of the forensic kit was brought through. ‘If this is Stone’s doing, what’s his motive?’
‘Stop Gleason talking? He was shaky when we had him in.’
‘Talking about the hit and run? Or he knew something about Rosa?’
‘Take your pick.’
‘If Stone did both killings,’ Richard spoke slowly, testing his thoughts, ‘they’ve got very different MOs. Here we’ve got a shooting and no attempt to hide the body. With Rosa we’ve strangulation and then efforts to disguise her.’
She thought about it. ‘Maybe because he had different motives?’
‘OK. With Rosa – he blows his cool and kills her when she rejects him, whatever…’
