Read Online A Need To Kill (DI Matt Barnes) by Michael Kerr - Free Book Online Page B

“Okay, shoot,” he said to the cop who was not only his boss, but one of his very few real friends.
    Tom looked at his wristwatch.  “In exactly two minutes, Grizzly Adams is going to march through the door.  He wants to talk to you personally about this case.”
    “ You mean he’s seen the book and knows that his name is in it?”
    “ You got it.”
    “ Don’t expect me to bury it, Tom.  If he tells me to mess with the facts, then I’ll go for broke and try to have him suspended, due to the fact that he is a suspect in a murder inquiry.”
    “ Easy.  He wanted you on this case.  And remember, he has the clout to put you back on the beat.”
    “ That wouldn’t happen.  I could still put in for a medical and walk with a pension of sorts.  I only know one way to get things done.  You know that.”
    Detective Chief Superintendent Clive Adams appeared at the door.  He was in his late fifties but had a youthful, vigorous look.  Could have been a game show host.  He wore a dark grey, well-fitting suit with hand stitched lapels, and his tan was of the sun bed variety.  Hadn ’t he read the stuff on how too much time under them could give you skin cancer?  Matt still couldn’t decide whether his thick, black hair was dyed or not.
    “ I’ll take it from here,” Clive said, addressing Tom as both of his subordinates got to their feet.
    Tom nodded and left the office.
    “Don’t stand on ceremony, Barnes,” Clive said.  “Sit back down.  This will only take a minute of my time.”
    Matt retook his seat and watched the DCS stride around the desk and sit on Tom’s swivel chair.
    “ I’m a busy man,” Clive said, tenting his fingers together on the blotter.  The nails were professionally manicured.  It crossed Matt’s mind that Grizzly had enough time on his hands to have them regularly tended to, and spend hours building his tan, when not visiting overpriced whores and being available for fittings at a Savile Row tailors.
    “ So am I, sir,” Matt said.
    “ Then we won’t shadow box.  You have an address book with my name in it.  You need to eliminate me as a suspect.  Right?”
    Matt locked eyes with the man and nodded.
    Clive withdrew a single sheet of folded paper from the inside breast pocket of his jacket and pushed it across the desk to him.
    “You’ll find details of where I was and who I was with on both of the dates that the murders took place.  I would appreciate you being discreet.  Anything you feel you need to ask me, ask it now.  I want this case to move forward without any unnecessary delay.”
    Matt opened up the sheet and saw that Adams had given a full account of his supposed whereabouts for a period of twenty-four hours either side of each murder.  It gave times, places and names.  On the evening that Marsha had been slain, he had been at a Masonic function in the company of – among others – the Assistant Police Commissioner.
    “ Well?” Clive said, his renowned temper hardly contained, augmenting his surname to merit the tag, Grizzly, in that he was large and prone to be fierce.
    “ We have video footage of Marsha Freeman with her...clients, sir.  I would expect that you’ll be featured.”
    Clive pinched the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb.  When he let go, the skin was white and took a second or two to return to its former ‘Dale Winton’ bronze colour.
    “ I wanted you heading up this case because you have a proven record of clearing this sort of crime, Barnes,” he said.  “Ray Preston once told me that you are the best there is at hunting head cases like this down. You will have already come to the conclusion that the killer is a maniac who targets prostitutes.  The book and videos are an aside; a record kept by a slut who lacked the propriety expected of her.”
    Matt wished that DCI Ray Preston was still heading up the unit.  Ray had been a cop’s cop, who had earned the respect of all his men.  He had been another casualty of