Deadly Intent at-4 Page 3

  collecting them from the car park. It's just a couple of mornings, but he wants to finish watching his DVD."

  Anna and Gordon made visits to the neighbors, but without much success. Everyone said virtually the same thing: they locked their front doors at night and stayed inside. A number had complained about the drug dealing and a few had called the police out many times.

  They returned to the station and added to the incident board the times that Mrs. Webster believed the gunshots had been fired. Anna was keen to know more about their victim, but they were still waiting on the forensic and pathology reports. For lunch she had a sandwich in her office as she typed up her report. She was surprised when her door was tapped and opened before she could say anything.

  Cunningham closed the door behind her. "Tell me what you know about Frank Brandon."

  Anna licked her lips. This would obviously mean discussing the case the two of them had been on together, which meant the possibility of mentioning DCI Langton's name. She hated the fact that, after all this time—almost eighteen months—the sound of his name still made her heart and head ache.

  "We were on a really horrific case. The bodies were found in the pigpens."

  "Ah yes, I remember that. So Frank was with you on it, was he?"

  "Yes. 1 didn't really know him on a personal level."

  "He took early retirement.. .something about a knee injury."

  "I didn't know that."

  "Before that, he had been with the Drug Squad."

  "I didn't know that either."

  Cunningham had an unnerving way of standing with her arms folded, looking around the room rather than making eye contact. "So you wouldn't know if he was using?"

  "Drugs? No. I only worked with him once, but I truthfully didn't see any sign of him using drugs. But then I had no idea he was married, or that the children in the photograph were his."

  "We're checking that out. We still don't have a formal ID." Cunningham pursed her lips. "Doesn't make sense, does it? What would he be doing in that shithole? If he needed to score, then he would have had a lot of easier contacts.""I would think so," Anna said."You got nothing from the neighbor who did the call-out for the police?""No, ma'am, we didn't. We weren't able to question her son. He was also in the flat at the time, but he suffers from autism and didn't want to speak to us.""Anything from any of the other neighbors?""No. All said the same thing—that the dealers had been working there for several months. I can't believe the local cops didn't do more to bust the place. Apparently they dealt in the day as well as at night, with a lot of vehicles coming and going.""Wasn't Jimmy Langton on that piggery case?"Anna felt her cheeks flush. "Yes. He led the inquiry.""Right. I know him—great guy. You've heard he's been made Chief Superintendent? Virtually running the Murder Squad?"Anna nodded."You liked working with him?""Very much."Cunningham now looked directly at Anna. "We must be very different.""I'm sorry?""Is it different working on my team than Langton's?""Well, I can't really say. This is my first day.""1 worked with him.""Did you?" Anna gave a look of surprise. They didn't, to her, seem a good match."Long time ago, around about the time his first wife died. He fell apart, but picked himself up again. Married again, I think.""Yes, I believe so." Anna wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. Talking about him physically hurt; she felt as if she was about to have a panic attack.Cunningham was now really unnerving her as she sat perched onthe end of the small desk, her arms still folded. "Always good to have someone like him at the top. Most of the top line are wankers, but Langton—he's the business. I admire him; got great energy, and he's fearless—doesn't take any prisoners."Anna felt right now that she was his prisoner—knowing what she did, knowing how dangerous a man he was, how he had covered up his part in a murder, albeit of the most despicable killer. It had happened on the hideous murder investigation when the bodies of a mother and child had been fed to pigs, and Langton had, at the same time and against all odds, recovered from a near-fatal attack to head up the inquiry.The killer had died after being interrogated by Langton, and Anna was certain that Langton had engineered his death. He had made her a part of it, because she knew what he had done and yet kept her silence."He could be a mean bastard, though." Cunningham picked up one of Anna's sharpened pencils. "So how did Frank get along with him?""I think they were on good terms.""Very cagey, aren't we?""No, ma'am, it's just you are asking me about things I haven't the information to give you answers on.""He screw you?""I'm sorry?" Anna had to catch her breath."I said, Did he screw you? All right, don't answer. I can see by your hot flush he didn't. My, my, you are a straitlaced little madam, aren't you?" With that, Cunningham slid off Anna's desk and took the mere two paces needed to get to the door. "Okay. See you out there; briefing in half an hour." She closed the door behind her.Anna shut her eyes. She should have been angry at the personal cross-questioning, but it had taken her so off guard, she hadn't been able to think straight. Cunningham obviously didn't know how close Anna had been with Langton, but that didn't calm her. She felt sure that, at some point, Cunningham would find out and know that she had lied.