‘What’s he up to now?’ Neil asked his boss, who shrugged her plump shoulders.
‘A review of the Finnigan case, apparently. He wants to go through the papers with you.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘He thinks you’re wasting police time over it.’
Neil groaned. ‘He’s going to order me to drop it?’
‘He says he hasn’t decided yet and wants to hear your side of things, but I think he has.’ Her ginger eyebrows bristled. ‘The man likes fast results and low costs. This case has dragged on for weeks without any resolution, so he wants to bring down the guillotine.’
‘Damn him.’
‘I didn’t hear that, Neil. Have a quick read of the papers yourself, make sure you’re up to speed on it before you see him. One of his favourite tricks is trying to catch you out on some small detail. Don’t let him do that.’
‘I won’t,’ Neil said grimly, and spent the next hour going over the case, then wrote a report emphasising every reason why they should continue with it. At a quarter to eleven he took a coffee break, had a mug of black coffee out of the machine in the corridor, then went up in the lift to the next floor.
Inspector Burbage was already with Chief Inspector Carol. They were discussing another case when Neil joined them, but stopped talking to nod to him.
‘Come and sit down, Maddrell,’ the Chief Inspector grunted, that horn of his pointing at Neil. ‘Jessica tells me she has already informed you how I feel, what’s on my mind, so let’s get straight down to the facts. This witness, Miranda Grey, is the only one who claims to have seen this murder . . .’
‘Heard,’ Neil interrupted. ‘She only heard it.’
‘She didn’t even see anything, that’s right.’ Carol licked his right index finger and began turning pages in the folder of evidence in front of him.
‘She doesn’t give a description of the girl.’
‘She didn’t see her. But she heard what she was saying about being pregnant with young Finnigan’s child, and heard the noise of drowning.’
‘Ah, yes, I’ll come to that in a minute. So, we have a witness who didn’t see anything, only heard noises.’ Merry Christmas lifted his hard, dark eyes to stare at Neil, his horn nose pointing belligerent
ly. ‘A witness who’s well known to be neurotic. Has had a nervous breakdown, was in a psychiatric ward for months, where she kept claiming to hear somebody drowning.’
‘Her husband,’ Neil reminded. ‘He did drown, within earshot of the poor girl. But all that happened three years ago. She has recovered completely.’
‘Ah, but has she?’ the Chief Inspector pounced triumphantly. ‘You can never be sure with nutters. She could be having another breakdown. There was no sign of anyone having drowned, no body was found, nobody else heard or saw anything. The boy has a respectable background, father wealthy, engaged to a very rich young woman, there’s nothing against him.’
‘But a girl is missing, sir. A girl who knew him, had been dating him for some time.’
‘Girls go missing all the time, man! There’s no proof she isn’t alive. She’s probably with some other man somewhere. Sounds to me like that sort of girl. Always hopping into bed with someone, running off with them. The point is, Maddrell, you have no real evidence. Just a neurotic witness who has previously claimed to hear people drowning and has been in a psychiatric hospital for months.’
‘I believe her. If you had met her, you would believe her, too, sir. She’s a good witness.’
‘Look, Maddrell, you have no body, you can’t go into court with what this girl says. You can’t rely on her evidence. Even if you found a body, the defence would tear her to shreds.’ He flicked through the pages of the folder again. ‘And without a body we wouldn’t have a hope in hell.’
‘If the body turns up, sir . . .’
‘If it hasn’t turned up by now it isn’t very likely that you’ll find it, is it? The so-called body could be walking around anywhere. No, you’re wasting police time and money. Drop it, Maddrell. Get on with your other work. Forget this case.’
‘Sir, we shouldn’t forget that the witness, Mrs Grey, was knocked down by a hit and run driver immediately after we interviewed her. We have plenty of people who saw what happened and it appears to have been quite deliberate. Doesn’t that suggest someone was trying to silence her?’
‘It suggests to me that someone knocked her down, panicked, and drove off without stopping. I don’t see any connection to the accusations she had made. Plenty of people do get knocked down by hit and run drivers, every day.’
Neil looked helplessly at Inspector Burbage who looked back without expression. She wasn’t getting involved, he could see that.
‘Forget about this case,’ the Chief Inspector said. ‘Plenty of other work piling up, deal with that.’ He made a gesture of dismissal and Neil rose.
‘Sir,’ he said with barely hidden resentment. ‘By the way, I’m due some leave – could I take it soon?’