They had decided to move around for a bit so Boyd was pacing irritably whilst Grace rummaged through the shelves, looking for anything useful that she might have missed the night before. After a few minutes of listening to him grumble, Grace said,
'Why don't you see if there's any more water in the pipes? And weren't you going to unlock the door?'
'Why don't you?' said Boyd, aware even as he said it of how childish he sounded.
'I can do the water if you want but you're the one with the talent for breaking and entering, Boyd.'
Boyd grunted irritably then said,
'No, you carry on with your pointless rummaging, Grace. If you find all the parts for a drill or a power saw let me know.'
'Just before I kill you with them, you mean?'
Grace's teasing smile took the sting out of her words and Boyd smiled back, feeling his mood lift. Taking the empty cups over to the sink, he turned the tap on.
Eve woke as the computer pinged, giving a match for some of the fingerprints from one of the crime scenes. Joining Frankie in the lab, she said,
'Who?'
'Richard Henderson.'
Eve brought up the list of missing couples that Kat had been working on and scrolled down it, pausing triumphantly and saying,
'There. Richard and Louise Henderson, reported missing on twelfth February, nineteen ninety-six.'
'What's his occupation listed as?' asked Frankie.
'Solicitor, lived in Uxbridge.'
'So no obvious reason for his fingerprints to be in the basement of a block of flats in Tottenham.'
'No,' agreed Eve.
'I'll get their dental records sent over, you tell the others we've got a possible match.'
Boyd was able to refill four of the five cups that they'd emptied the previous night before the water slowed and then stopped. Carrying the full cups carefully back to the filing cabinet he counted; they had ten full cups between them. Boyd looked over at Grace only to find her quietly watching him.
'How much?' she asked.
'Ten.'
'That probably gives us another day.'
'Four days instead of three?'
'Yes.'
'Unless we ration it.'
'Studies have shown that rationing water makes no difference to the eventual time of death.'
'Really?' asked Boyd sceptically.
'Apparently it's all to do with the way the kidneys work. I'm sure Eve can explain it to you once we're out of here.'
'So, in the meantime what symptoms have I got to look forward to?' asked Boyd sardonically.
'I'm not sure...'
'Something the all-knowing Doctor Foley doesn't know?'
'I'm not and have never claimed to be all-knowing, Boyd. I just happen to know a lot more about criminal psychology than you do. I do know that delirium is common in the latter stages and hallucinations.'
'Has to be better than knowing that you're about to die.'
As he said it, Boyd looked at Grace and decided that if there was any way of keeping her alive he'd do it regardless of what it meant for him. Starting with dividing the water unevenly.
However, what he really wanted to do was to slowly roast Jason Evans over an open fire and to do that he needed to live. Taking his lockpicks out, Boyd went over to the door.
'Right,' said DAC Smith, 'We've got four confirmed identities and two probable. Are there any links between them?'
'They all went missing during the second week in February, Ma'am and in each case the last confirmed sightings were on a Friday,' said Spence.
'So probably the same killer,' said Smith.
'That was what Superintendent Boyd thought, Ma'am, and Doctor Foley thought it was likely.'
'Likely but not definite?'
'Yes, Ma'am, but we only had confirmed identities for the Evanses and the Robinsons at that point, Ma'am. And Eve had only just started the forensics then.'
'Hmm, let's test the hypothesis. Kat?'
'Yes, Ma'am?'
'Search for couples who went missing on the relevant Fridays in nineteen ninety-eight, two thousand and two thousand and two.'
'Yes, Ma'am. Not the other years?'
'Brief a uniformed officer and get them to search the other years. Time isn't on our side so I want to see if we're right as quickly as possible.'
'Yes, Ma'am.'
'Spence?'
'Yes, Ma'am?'
'See if there are any connections between our first three sets of victims.'
'Yes, Ma'am.'
Boyd smiled triumphantly as the lock opened. Putting his lockpicks back in his pocket, he pushed hard on the door. Using his full strength he was able to move it a fraction of an inch. Pushing again made no difference. Frustrated, he glared through the small panel of glass. A second later, he was striding across the room, saying,
'We're bloody idiots!'
'Speak for yourself,' said Grace tartly.
'There are rooms on either side of this one.'
'So?'
'If the walls are plasterboard we can break through. One of them might have an emergency exit.'
Grace abandoned the shelves and joined Boyd who was tapping the right hand wall. Thirty seconds later he smiled exultantly at her and said,
'Found anything I can use to make a hole?'
Smiling back, Grace said,
'I found a couple of lengths of steel pipe; I'll go and get them.'
When Grace came back with the pipes, Boyd predictably selected the longest one then smiled wickedly at her, saying,
'I should stand back if I were you.'
Grace found a chair that wasn't too wobbly and sat down and watched as Boyd attacked the plasterboard, swinging the pipe like a sledge hammer.
'John Robinson worked with Sue Evans, Jason's aunt,' said Spence, writing on the board as he spoke.
'So could Sue Evans be our killer?' asked Smith, 'Was she there when Superintendent Boyd and Doctor Foley went to question Jason?'
'Unknown, Ma'am,' said Spence, 'Kat, what do we know about Jason's aunt, Sue Evans.'
Kat skimmed through the file and said,
'She's dead, Sir. Killed in a road traffic accident in October nineteen ninety-five.'
'Details?' said Smith.
'Hold on, Ma'am. I'll get the report up,' said Kat, rapidly keying in the relevant information. A few seconds later she said,
'Sue Evans was walking home from the bus stop when a car mounted the pavement, crushing her against a wall. She was dead on arrival at hospital. The police arrested...a Richard Henderson for it.'
'The same Richard Henderson that Eve and Frankie think they've got in the lab?' asked Spence.
'Richard Michael Henderson...yes...the address is the same too.'
'So what happened about the accident?' asked Smith.'
'He pled guilty and got a six month suspended sentence,' said Kat.
'Six months suspended?' said Spence, horrified.
'He said a child ran in front of his car and he swerved to avoid it. His wife backed him up and although it's clear that the arresting officer didn't believe him, there were no witnesses so when they stuck to their story all they could charge him with was driving whilst over the limit.'
'When was he sentenced?'
'January 20th, ninety-six.'
'And shortly afterwards, they're kidnapped and left to die,' said Spence, 'What do you think, Ma'am?'
'Bring Jason Evans in. Don't caution him at the moment but make sure he knows that he can have a solicitor if he wants one.'
'Yes, Ma'am,' said Spence.
He and Kat grabbed their coats and left.
After a lot of physical effort and a lot of what Grace suspected was highly cathartic swearing, Boyd had made a hole between the two rooms big enough to squeeze through. Grace had made no attempt to help, knowing that she wasn't strong enough for sustained physical activity. Instead she had enjoyed watching the flex of Boyd's muscles through his clothes, particularly once he'd got hot enough to take off his coat and jacket. From a purely aesthetic point of view of course. And as a woman of experience, she could definitely say that Boyd's shoulders and back and arse were all worthy of aesthetic appreciation. And his arms were beautifully muscled too. Really someone should do a statue.
Grace reluctantly came out of her reverie as Boyd held his hand out to her, saying,
'Coming?'
They squeezed through the hole, Boyd swearing as his shirt caught on a nail and tore. Once they were both through, Boyd fumbled his way round the wall until he found the light switch. Disappointingly, it was another more or less empty store room with only one exit. Boyd tried the door but it was as securely barricaded as the one in their room. Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair, dislodging bits of plaster dust, wincing when he accidentally touched his cut,
'Well that was a complete waste of bloody time.'
Grace ignored him, scanning the shelves. After a few seconds, Boyd made a disgruntled noise and said,
'We might as well go back.'
'Yes, but I think we're going to want to take those with us,' said Grace, pointing at one of the shelves.
Boyd followed her gaze and smiled ferociously; he was going to get his revenge on Jason Evans after all.
