Contents ( 83)
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- Acknowledgements
- OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK
Hale nodded.
‘So what’s the point in examining the room, then?’ he asked. ‘If you’re sure we won’t find any DNA or prints or anything?’
‘Because right now this crime scene’s our only lead. Who knows if the bastard missed a spot.’ Levy took a final glance around the room. ‘We’ve got to clear this one up.’
‘What’s so important about this one?’ Hale asked. ‘The fact he was crucified? Is it a religious angle?’
‘Maybe,’ Levy replied.
She turned to the room and raised her voice.
‘I want that kept out of the press, by the way. Not one mention of how this man died. Not one.’
Levy turned back to Hale, taking him by the arm and leading him out of the room and back into the hallway. She felt a small rush of gratitude that he was beside her in this. Hale had been on her team for three years now. There was no one on the force she trusted more.
‘But no, Steve. It’s not the crucifixion,’ Levy said in a low voice, barely more than a whisper. ‘It’s who this guy is. Who he was, I mean.’
‘You know him? Who is he?’
‘It’s Phillip Longman. The former Lord Chief Justice.’
Levy saw the blood drain from Hale’s face. The name was obviously as familiar to him as it was to her. As she knew it would be.
The role of Lord Chief Justice was as powerful as its holder wished to make it, and Phillip Longman had not held back. In eight years in the role he had been responsible for many of the most controversial legal decisions of modern times. Decisions that had brought down criminal and terrorist organisations alike. The mutilated corpse currently nailed to a bedroom wall had been one of the British establishment’s most influential men.
‘The political pressure on this is going to be a nightmare,’ Levy continued. ‘And so is the suspect list. Longman had a lot of enemies back in the day, and there are plenty of bastards with long memories.’
Hale nodded but said nothing as Levy looked back through the open door, staring at Longman’s corpse.
Nothing about the pale, pathetic body suggested the status of the man it had once been. A man whose shocking death would grab all the headlines. A death that was Levy’s to solve.
There was no time to lose.
FIVE
Wandsworth Prison had barely changed in the seventeen years since Michael Devlin’s first visit. The building itself dated back to the 1850s, and every day of those near two centuries were etched across its imposing façade.
The inside was less grim and more modern, but not by much. The reception area – used by both lawyers and social visitors – was an unfortunate mix of stark and run-down. Metal benches with hard steel seats offered no comfort to anyone unlucky enough to sit upon them, while yellow walls painted perhaps a decade ago were still deemed ‘good enough’.
The same complacency applied to the lockers for the valuables of visiting lawyers. Undersized, insecure and mostly broken, still they were neither replaced nor even repaired.