“There were absolutely no signs of forced entry.”
Chapter Fifteen
Shortly after nine o’clock on Monday morning, Gardener and Reilly entered Robbie Carter’s cell to a tirade of abuse. He jumped to his feet before he started shouting. “You two have abused my rights and my privileges. It’s high time I had a lawyer and I’m damn well gonna use that phone call to make sure I get one. I’ll tie you two up so fucking tight you’ll think you’re in an iron straightjacket.”
Gardener turned to Reilly. “Maybe we should go.”
“I think you’re right. Sounds like he needs to calm down.”
“Are you listening to me?” hollered Robbie Carter. “I’ve just told you you’re out of order.”
“Don’t have much choice but to listen,” replied Reilly, “level of noise you’re making.”
“Too right I’m making a noise. What you’ve done is illegal.”
Gardener sympathised with Robbie. They had held him a little longer than necessary but he’d been waiting to hear from the website where Robbie’s alarm streamed to, to confirm the timing of everything; ensure that it was live and not somehow pre-programmed. They did confirm Robbie’s story of a motion sensor being tripped whilst he was in the police station reporting to Maurice Cragg, and that the alarm had also been activated around one-forty-five from his mobile.
/> To add to that, Gardener’s time to detain him had expired at around four in the morning. He didn’t think Robbie would appreciate being woken at that time.
Gardener lifted the file he was carrying. “If you’d like to close your mouth for one minute, Mr Carter, you might hear something to your advantage.”
“That’ll be a first.”
“Follow me, please.”
Gardener gave him no time to complain as he left the room immediately. Robbie Carter went after him with Reilly following behind.
“Where are we going?”
Gardener didn’t reply but led Robbie Carter to the front desk. There was little or no activity and the only person in the room was once again the cleaner.
Maurice Cragg appeared with another file of paperwork, passing it to Gardener, who made a point of showing it to Robbie.
“What’s this?” he asked.
Gardener opened the file. “In here is an inventory of everything we found in your house.”
He separated the papers into three piles. “Over here we have a list of everything we have taken. In the middle is everything that we left in your house. The last set is your conditional release paper.”
Robbie Carter smirked, something that irritated the life out of Gardener, resulting in him biting his tongue.
“Knew you couldn’t keep me.”
“Please read through them and sign.”
“You know, for someone whose wife has died very recently, I have not seen one ounce of remorse from you,” said Reilly.
“Remorse,” repeated Robbie Carter. “You think I aren’t gutted about all of this? I find my wife dead, my house burgled, and I’m kept at the police station for two days and questioned because you lot think I did it. Of course I’m gutted, but I’m not prepared to let you lot see what you’ve done to me. And if you think this is over then you can think again.”
“We’re shaking in out boots, so we are,” said Reilly.
“Mr Carter, the quicker you read through the paperwork and sign, the quicker you will be out of here but I must warn you there are conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“I want your passport...”
“What the hell for? You think I’ll have time to leave the country with everything I have to sort out?”