you are in denial? Can’t see the judge being impressed by that.’
‘It may have occurred to me once or twice,’ Devlin retorted. ‘But you don’t want to believe it of a mate …’
‘Even though he’s done it before?’ Grinton said.
‘Nothing this bad.’
‘Bad enough.’
‘You should get over to his auntie’s!’ Wayne Devlin interjected.
That comment stopped them dead. They gazed at him curiously; he gazed back, flat-eyed, cheeks flaming.
‘What are you talking about?’ Heck asked.
‘He was always ranting about his Auntie Mavis …’
‘Wayne!’ the older Devlin snapped.
‘If Jimbo’s up to something dodgy, Dad, we don’t want any part in it.’
These two are good, Heck thought. These two are really good.
‘Something you want to tell us, Mr Devlin?’ Grinton asked.
Devlin averted his eyes to the floor, teeth bared. He yanked his glasses off and rubbed them vigorously on his stained vest – as though torn with indecision, as though angry at having been put in this position, but not necessarily angry at the police.
‘Wayne may be right,’ he finally said. ‘Perhaps you should get over there. Her name’s Mavis Cutler. Before you ask, I don’t know much else. She’s not his real auntie. Some old bitch who fostered Jimbo when he was a kid. Seventy-odd now, at least. I don’t know what went on – he never said, but I think she gave him a dog’s life.’
So Hood was attacking his wicked auntie every time he attacked one of these other women, Heck reasoned, remembering his basic forensic psychology. It’s a plausible explanation. Although a tad too plausible, of course.
‘And why do we need to get over there quick?’ Jowitt wondered.
Devlin hung his head properly, his shoulders sagging as if he was suddenly glad to get a weight off them. ‘When … when Jimbo first showed up a few months ago, he said he was back in Nottingham to see her. And when he said “see her”, I didn’t get the feeling it was for a family reunion if you know what I mean.’
‘So why’s it taken him this long?’ Jowitt asked.
‘He couldn’t find her at first. I think he may have gone up to Hucknall yesterday, looking. That’s where they lived when he was a kid.’
Cleverer and cleverer, Heck thought. Devlin’s using real events to make it believable.
‘Someone up there probably told him,’ Devlin added.
‘Told him what?’
‘That she lives in Matlock now. I don’t know where exactly.’
Matlock in Derbyshire. Twenty-five miles away.
‘How do you know all this?’ Grinton sounded suspicious.
Devlin shrugged. ‘He rang me today – from a payphone. Said he was leaving town tonight, and that I probably wouldn’t be seeing him again.’
‘And you still didn’t inform us?’ Jowitt’s voice was thick with disgust.
‘I’m informing you now, aren’t I?’
‘It might be too late, you stupid moron!’ Jowitt dashed out into the hall, calling the two uniforms from upstairs.
‘Look, he never specifically said he was going to do that old bird,’ Devlin protested to Grinton. ‘He might not even be going to Matlock. He might be fleeing the fucking country for all I know! This is just guesswork!’
And you can’t be prosecuted for guessing, Heck thought. You’re a cute one.
‘Don’t do anything stupid, Mr Devlin,’ Grinton said, indicating to Heck that it was time to leave. ‘Like warning Jimmy we’re coming. Any phone we find on Hood with calls traceable back to you are all we’ll need to nick you as an accomplice.’
Out in the entry passage, Jowitt was already shouting into his radio. ‘I don’t care how indisposed they are – get them to check the voters’ rolls and phone directories. Find every woman in Matlock called Mavis bloody Cutler … over and out!’ He turned to Grinton and Heck. ‘We should lock that bastard Devlin up.’
Grinton shook his head, ignoring the door to 41c as it slammed closed behind them. ‘He might end up witnessing for us. Let’s not chuck away what little leverage we’ve currently got.’
‘What if he absconds?’
‘We’ll sit someone on him.’
‘Excuse me, sir,’ Heck said. ‘But I won’t be coming over to Matlock with you.’
Grinton looked surprised. ‘All this groundwork and you don’t want to be in on the pinch?’
Heck shrugged. ‘I’ll be honest, sir: good show Devlin put on in there, but I don’t think Hood has any intention of going to Derbyshire. I reckon we’re being sent on a wild goose chase.’
Jowitt looked puzzled. ‘Why would Devlin do that?’
‘It’s a hunch, sir, but it’s got legs. Despite the serious crimes Jimmy Hood was last convicted for, Alan Devlin let him sleep on his couch. Not once, but several times. This guy is not too picky to associate with sex offenders.’
‘Come on, Heck,’ Jowitt said. ‘Devlin’s in enough hot water as it is – he’s not going to aid and abet a multiple killer as well.’
‘He’s in lukewarm water, sir. Apart from assisting an offender, what else has he admitted to? Even if it turns out he’s sending us the wrong way, he’s covered. It’s all “I’m not sure about this, I’m only guessing that” – there aren’t even grounds to charge him with obstructing an enquiry.’
‘We can’t not act on what he’s told us,’ Grinton argued.
‘I agree, sir. But while you’re off to Matlock, I’m going to chase a few leads of my own. If that’s okay?’
‘No problem … just make sure you log them all.’
While Grinton arranged for a couple of his plain-clothes officers to maintain covert obs on Lakeside View, the rest of them returned to their vehicles and mounted up for a rapid ride over to the next county. Jowitt was back on the blower again, putting Derbyshire Comms in the picture as he jumped into his car. Heck remained on the pavement while he too made a quick call – in his case it was to the DIU at St Ann’s Central. As intelligence offices went, this one was pretty efficient.
‘Heck?’ came the hearty voice of PC Marge Propper, a chunky uniformed lass whose fast, accurate research capabilities had already proved invaluable to the Lady Killer Taskforce.
