As soon as Barbara was out of the hospital she called Lynley and referred what had happened. His strong baritone came over the line:
"Well done, Barbara! Please meet us there, don't do anything on your own!"
Barbara hailed a black cab and told the driver to step on it, arriving just two minutes before Lynley. He'd called her again from the car, the SOCOs were sure they could secure enough evidence to get a conviction. Barbara felt relieved. Now all they had to do was catch the guy.
They met up in front of the house, and as soon as the back up team was in place, Lynley rang the door bell. A black man opened, and Barbara recognised him immediately from the artist's impression. That was their man. Light skinned, with some deep acne scars on his cheek.
The second he saw them, he tried to slam the door on them, and ran out towards the back door. The house was a traditional Victorian terrace, and he had the sous terrain flat. The all charged after him, with some of the officers getting around the row of houses on the outside.
Lynley grabbed the man just as he tried to climb over the fence to escape, and threw him to the ground. It took three officers to calm him down, before they could handcuff him. In the meantime, he'd been spewing abuse and filth all over them, until Lynley lost his patience:
"Shut up, do you hear me? I want to hear nothing more from you right now! You'll have plenty of opportunity to talk down at the station!"
The reality that he'd gotten caught must've kicked in, and the man was quiet, as he was led away to the waiting panda car.
Lynley went off looking for Barbara, who'd started searching and securing the premises:
"Sir? Sir, please come here?" She sounded shaken, and Lynley rushed off to find her, yelling at Winston:
"Go to the station, Sergeant, and start preparing for the interview! I'll be right there!"
Barbara waved at him from the inner bedroom of the flat, and Lynley suddenly noticed the stench of the place. Before he must have been too pumped up on adrenalin to notice, but now he sensed it so strongly he wanted to throw up.
He then saw what Barbara had discovered:
On the bed, lay a corpse wrapped up in plastic, the kind builders use. It must have been a woman, Lynley decided and said:
"Any ID?"
"Yes Sir. We found his driving license, he's Roger Nelson, and then we found his mother's library card, Mrs Althea Nelson. She's been dead for at least two weeks. Or more. It's difficult to say. We'll wait for Lafferty and see what he says. We've also found photos of his victims, Sir. It seems he stalked them for quiet some time before attacking them. We should have no problem convicting him for the attacks, and if he murdered his mum, he'll be going away for a very long time, won't he?"
Her last words sounded more like a plea than anything else. Lynley hoped so. Sometimes to Justice system seemed to work more in the favour of the criminal than in victim's, but here, Lynley was sure they'd have and airtight case.
They'd leave it to the SOCOs and to the medical examiner for now, and start interviewing the suspect.
As soon as they were in the car, Barbara's phone rang, and she heard Winston on the other end:
"Barb!"
He sounded furious.
"What's up Winnie? We're on our way!"
"She's high jacked our case! Barlow has taken over. She said I wasn't experienced enough to conduct the interview by myself, and that Lynley should know better than to send me alone! And now she's taken over! Bloody hell!"
He was shouting by now.
"But Winnie, did you tell her you're just prepping? And that we're on our way?"
"Course I did. There was no reasoning with her, and Hillier's not around, which means she's the boss, right!"
"Ok, sit tight, we're on our way!"
Lynley had given her some very worried looks during her conversation with Winnie. What was going on??
Barbara said grimly:
"Emily's revenge came quicker than I thought, Sir. She's taken over the case..."
Lynley hit the accelerator. They'd better get to the Met fast.