A Matter of Blood Read Online Free PDF Page A

own lie. There was no way he was going to be home by eight. He’d ring him back tomorrow. Maybe. If Luke was fine then he didn’t feel so bad. Whatever else was going on in Christian’s life, or head, he was a big enough boy now to deal with it by himself. They hadn’t been like brothers in a long time. Lights glared at him as they passed. Redemption? As far as Cass could tell he was beyond that. Maybe Christian was starting to live up to his name and their father’s expectation. Maybe he’d found God. Cass’s eyes burned with the grit of exhaustion. Well, good luck to him, but he could leave Cass well and truly out of it.
     
    The inside of Paddington Green Police Station was just as austere as its ugly 1960s exterior. Although it was no longer the national base for interrogating high-profile terrorist suspects, it was still the most secure police station in London, and was occasionally used as an overflow unit for when the Anti-Terror Division, normally based at the new Centre for National Security, needed a second location (generally for reasons they chose not to share).
    Cass could live with that, however much it pissed off the bosses. Even though they’d lost a great deal of their forensic equipment to the CNS when it opened, Paddington Green still had more technology available than the rest of the city. If the chief super and those above him couldn’t see past their dented egos to recognise that fact, then more fool them.
    The brightly lit corridors had emptied somewhat, the admin staff and constables having signed off and become part of that mêlée of faceless people filling the streets outside, but as Cass headed upstairs to the open-plan Murder Squad floor there were plenty of plainclothes detectives milling around the building. They were like him: the career policemen.
    He found Claire May in his office at the back of the area that was now his Incident Room, for four women’s deaths as well as two boys. Tomorrow he’d get the teams to divide the space up and bring in the boards from the serial killer case - they couldn’t pretend it wasn’t a serial killer any more, not now - and set them up at the other end of the room from the Jackson and Miller ones. Moving the boards from Bowman’s domain would help - he was fucked if he was going to keep running backwards and forwards between the two units like a headless chicken. He wanted everything right where he could see it. His brain worked better that way. He smiled at the pretty brunette who was concentrating so hard she hadn’t even seen him come in.
    ‘How are you liking the boss’s chair? Comfy?’
    Claire looked up from the computer screen and smiled. It was a warm, open expression, and Cass hoped no one would ever take it away from her. No doubt someone eventually would, but he was glad that he hadn’t been that man. What had happened between them had been short and sweet, but it hadn’t been about love. Not romantic love, at any rate.
    ‘The seat’s a bit big for me, but I guess that would be your middle-aged spread.’
    For the first time that day, Cass laughed. ‘Let’s hope you’re still this gorgeous at my age. Now shift and show me what we’ve got.’
    She’d been right. The picture was grainy and the absence of sound gave the black and white film an eerie quality. He watched it in silence through to the end, then said softly, ‘Play it again.’
    Claire clicked the mouse and the frozen scene once again burst into life. Formosa Street was part of Little Venice, not far from Paddington Green Station itself, and although a number of shops and restaurants were now closed, it was in a wealthy enough part of town that many of the bistro-style cafés and boutiques were still in business. There was no timeline on the film, but Cass didn’t need it. The shootings had taken place at 3.45 p.m. on Monday, 9 March. Whoever was filming must have started not long before that. The cameraman had positioned himself - or herself - on the other side