Then She Was Gone (31 page)

Once, a few years earlier when they had been stuck in a car waiting on something or other, he had asked Rossi how she remembered all her brothers’ names. It had been a jokey conversation
in which Rossi had repeated their names so many times that by the end even Murphy knew them all.

He remembered Vincenzo Rossi. He also remembered that he had returned to university as a mature student.

As he headed after Rossi, he realised that he’d been wrong about what had been bothering her. It wasn’t anything to do with her relationship.

It was her brother.

DC Kirkham checked the details again, then twice more, just to be sure. The whole case was becoming more convoluted by the day, he thought. It wasn’t about to get any
easier either. Another body, another death. It was almost like clockwork.

He’d decided early on just to keep his head down and do as he was told, ignoring the voice inside him which only spoke of dark days ahead.

‘We’re losing control,’ he said under his breath as he walked over to the murder board at the back of the incident room. He lifted up the marker and added the details of what
he’d discovered in the past few minutes.

‘That the girl’s name?’

Kirkham turned to see DC Hashem standing behind him, holding a cup of tea out towards him. He smiled, thankful for the interruption.

‘Cheers,’ Kirkham said, taking the cup off her and blowing on the surface before taking a swig. ‘Yeah, that’s her name. We’re going to have to track her down now.
Nothing in the system that’s recent.’

‘What do you think about this whole thing?’

Kirkham didn’t answer, turning back to the board and its various weblike diagrams, moving from name to name, act to act. He wasn’t about to try and make sense of the whole thing.

‘It doesn’t seem likely that this is anything to do with her, does it? I mean, on her own, doesn’t make any sense.’

‘No, not really. Stranger things have happened, though.’

‘I think revenge is key here. Someone is offing all these blokes for a reason.’

Kirkham stepped aside as DC Hashem took the pen from his hand and added a single word next to Paul Wright’s name on the board.

‘Dead?’ Kirkham said, reading DC Hashem’s writing. ‘Another one?’

DC Hashem turned to him with a smirk. ‘Just found him now. Another suicide, apparently. Can’t be a coincidence, can it? That’s our number five.’

‘Doesn’t explain why one of them isn’t dead, though, does it?’

She shrugged in response, Kirkham moving back to his desk and placing the cup down on the Tranmere Rovers coaster an ex had bought him. It was the only thing he’d kept from the
relationship, mainly because he couldn’t be bothered replacing it. He lifted up the phone on his desk and tried calling DI Murphy, unsurprised when it went to voicemail after a few rings.

‘What’s the latest?’

Kirkham looked up to find DC Hale standing near his desk, looking at him while chewing a sandwich. Crumbs fell to the ground in front of the DC, sending chills through the mess-hating
Kirkham.

‘While you’ve been busy eating that, we’ve got a name for the girl who we think was assaulted whilst Sam Byrne was at university. Also, Abs has found out Paul Wright’s
whereabouts.’

DC Hale looked down at his sandwich and snorted. He devoured the rest of it in one mouthful. ‘Good on her,’ he said, Kirkham getting a clear view of the half-chewed bread and ham
before it was swallowed down.

‘Yeah, it’s good work.’

DC Hale leaned forwards and covered his now empty mouth. ‘Not saying it makes up for ISIS, but she’s getting there.’

Kirkham clenched his fist under his desk, but took a few breaths before answering. ‘You’d better be careful saying stuff like that. Murphy will bounce you out of here so quick your
feet won’t touch the floor. You saw what happened with that Tony Brannon guy.’

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, it’s just a joke. Can’t you take a bit of banter?’

Kirkham decided not to keep the conversation going any further, already foreseeing the end of it. As soon as he heard the words ‘freedom of speech’ he’d have to batter Hale to
death with his empty sandwich carton.

Instead, he tried the phone again, waiting patiently for it to ring out before leaving a message this time.

‘Hello, sir, it’s Jack. Can you give me a ring. It’s urgent.’

*    *    *

Murphy looked at his phone, putting it back in his pocket as the number flashed up. It could wait. He looked across at Rossi, who was still refusing to meet his eye, much less
talk to him.

‘I need to know,’ he said, trying again.

‘There’s nothing to say.’

It had been that way since they’d left the prison, Rossi rushing ahead of him and sitting in the driver’s seat, eyes fixed forward and unwilling to acknowledge him when he tried to
speak to her.

‘This isn’t going away,’ he said, placing a hand on the dashboard, the car braking suddenly as Rossi almost missed a turn-off. ‘You need to explain what’s going
on.’

‘Nothing is going on.’

‘Who do you think I am, Laura? You think I’m the type to just let something like this go? He knew your brother. Vincenzo has something to do with this, doesn’t he?’

‘I’m not saying anything.’

Murphy suddenly had an urge to shake her. This wasn’t the way to deal with this situation and he was sure she knew it. Instead, she’d decided to clam up and say nothing.
‘You’re making this worse. Have you spoken to him at least?’

‘I don’t think I should say anything to you,’ Rossi said, giving him a sideways glance. ‘We both know what’s going to happen next, don’t we?’

‘No, we don’t, because you won’t talk to me.’

‘I’ll have to declare an interest and I’ll be off the case. Simple as that. I should have done it a while ago. For that, I’m sorry.’

‘I don’t understand what’s going on here. Just explain it to me.’

Rossi sighed heavily, such a large breath escaping her that he thought it would fog up the windscreen. ‘I don’t know if I should.’

‘Try me.’

He waited for her to continue, happy that she had at least decided to slow down the car as they joined the motorway heading back to Liverpool. ‘His name came up when we went to see Simon
Jackson.’

‘Yesterday,’ Murphy said under his breath. He could almost feel his blood pressure rising.

‘It could have been anyone, because he didn’t give me a first name. He couldn’t remember it. I went to see him.’

‘Vinny?’

‘Yes,’ Rossi said, shoulders slumped now as her hands slipped to the bottom of the wheel. ‘I thought I would just check. See if there was anything there. I’d worked out
they were at uni at the same time, but I was hoping it was just a coincidence. That there was another Rossi that year or something. No such luck.’

‘How involved was he?’ Murphy said, trying to keep his voice on an even keel.

‘Not at all, from what I can tell. Vinny wouldn’t really talk to me about it. Got quite defensive, but I think that’s just because I was asking him. It’s
nothing.’

‘I’ll decide that, Laura.’ He turned to look out the passenger-side window, elbow resting on the edge as Rossi nodded in response. ‘Were you going to tell me about
this?’

‘I didn’t think it was important . . .’

‘Not important?’ Murphy said, his voice echoing around the car. He breathed in and tried again. ‘Of course you did, which is why you didn’t mention it. What a
mess.’

‘I don’t see what it has to do with anything. Vinny was at university at the same time as they were, that’s all.’

‘Two of them have mentioned him now. He must have known them quite well for that to happen. Were they studying the same courses or something?’

‘I don’t know,’ Rossi replied, but he could tell already that she knew more. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘What else is there?’

Rossi glanced across at him as he kept his eyes locked on her. She looked away and back at the road. ‘Nothing.’

‘This isn’t good,’ Murphy said, turning his head away from Rossi. ‘I don’t know what to do here . . .’

‘Why do you have to do anything? It’s not a problem.’

‘Are you joking? This is a delicate situation as it is. If this went to CPS, what do you think they’d say about it?’

He waited for an answer, but Rossi had gone quiet. She had withdrawn into herself, as he’d seen her do before.

‘What’s the full story here? I need to know.’

‘There’s nothing else,’ Rossi said, her voice barely audible over the noise of passing cars. ‘That’s it. He knew them at uni, hasn’t spoke to them in
years.’

‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this . . .’

‘Oh, can we stop with the holier than thou
merda
. You’ve got a short memory, you have.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Have you forgotten what happened last year? With that missing girl? You don’t think that was a conflict of interest?’

Murphy shook his head, but felt the ground he was on becoming more icy by the second. ‘That’s a totally different–’

‘Bullshit,’ Rossi said, banging the steering wheel with one hand as she did so. Murphy wasn’t sure what he was surprised about – the fact she had shouted at him, or that
she’d used an English swear word.

‘It’s one rule for you, another for the rest. Just like always.’

‘That’s not fair,’ Murphy replied, trying to calm down the situation, but probably making it worse, now he thought about it. He was suddenly very aware that they on a motorway
travelling at over seventy miles per hour and he wished he’d waited until they had arrived back at the station before discussing this. ‘You understood what was going on back
then.’

‘Yeah,’ Rossi said through gritted teeth. ‘It was your problem so it obviously meant something completely different. A girl went missing, we were assigned to the case, despite
you possibly being her father.’

‘It didn’t matter, did it? We were taken off it, once something bigger came along.’

‘And if it hadn’t, would you have removed yourself from that case? Would you have told people we were actually looking for someone who you were possibly the father of?’

Murphy hesitated, knowing the answer but unwilling to give it up that easy.

‘Of course you wouldn’t,’ Rossi said, continuing without waiting for an answer. ‘Yes, people associated with our case may have heard of my brother, or even been friendly
with him, but it has no bearing on this case. I think you’ve jumped ahead of yourself, thinking that way. It means absolutely nothing. Simple as that.’

Murphy tried to think of a better comeback line, but had to concede the point. There wasn’t really anything to it, now he thought about it. ‘Are you sure about this? Only, if this
becomes a problem further down the line . . .’

‘Do you think I’d keep anything quiet now? It’s done. I’ve spoken to him and he says he doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re looking into. Whether or
not he did anything back then, who knows? He’s not involved now, though. That much is certain.’

Murphy scratched at his beard and leaned his head back a little. ‘Right, OK. Well, let’s not make a big deal out of this. Just, let me know if anything else comes up involving one of
your brothers. There’s enough of them that something like this was likely to happen at some point, I guess.’

Rossi didn’t return the smile he gave her as he tried to alleviate the tension which had grown inside the car. It fell from his face as he turned back to the window at his side.

*    *    *

Rossi fixed her gaze straight ahead, the traffic thinning out as they made their way along the motorway. Murphy had stopped talking, which helped a fair amount, but her
heartbeat still hadn’t slowed. She was glad of the steering wheel; she was able to hide the shake of her hands by gripping hold of it tight.

She had lied. There was no getting out of it now. All it would take would be for someone to go over that CCTV footage from near Sam Byrne’s apartment, someone who knew what her brother
looked like, and it would be the end.

There was a moment when she had considered telling Murphy everything. That she had seen her brother in the images, confronted him and known he was lying.

Instead, she had lied. Simple as that. Played the whole thing down, as if it hadn’t mattered at all. Pretended that the whole thing hadn’t kept her awake the night before.

She had to keep up that pretence.

The whole thing was a mess, as Murphy had so delicately put it. There was no way she was going to be removed from this case, though, she thought. She was there until the bitter end. No matter
what it meant for her or her family.

Rossi continued to drive, wondering how and to what extent Vincenzo was involved in the investigation. Nothing about the case seemed like something he would be implicated in. Yet, people kept
mentioning his name, he had lied to her when she had met up with him and there was the small matter of him being near a murder victim’s apartment the night he went missing.

No, he was involved somehow. Being taken off the case would mean she would never find out the truth.

Would mean not being able to protect him.

Murphy surveyed the room, now holding many more bodies than the previous few days had, and glanced over at the thin face of DSI Butler. He was in full preening mode. The smell
of his expensive aftershave was washing over the room and having an effect on everyone in there. His mere presence meant something to the people in attendance, as if they were being visited by the
pope or Kenny Dalglish.

It shouldn’t have annoyed Murphy, but as was so often the case, it damn well did.

‘Right, settle down,’ Murphy said, attempting to remain in charge. ‘You know why we’re all here, so let’s not waste any more time. We now know eight men were part
of a club at university and half of them are dead . . .’

‘David, if you’ll allow me,’ DSI Butler said, stepping forwards and giving him a look that would curdle milk. ‘We probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves
here.’

‘I thought you were going to allow us to make these connections?’

‘Of course, that’s your job, David,’ DSI Butler said, giving him a soft smile before turning to the crowded room. ‘I just want to make sure everyone is aware that there
are a number of factors in this investigation that we have to consider. Of the four men dead who were a part of this club, two of them committed suicide. Both of those inquests ruled that there was
no suspicious events surrounding their deaths . . .’