Read With No One As Witness for Free Online

bread bore the butter.
    The present situation was trying Lynley’s determination to remain a disinterested party in his every interaction with Hillier. There’d been a moment early on when the AC could have easily told him about Winston Nkata’s promotion: the very same moment when the man had refused to restore Barbara Havers to her rank.
    What Hillier had said with little enough grace was, “I want you heading up this investigation, Lynley. Acting superintendent… I can hardly give it to anyone else. Malcolm would have wanted you on it anyway, so put together the team you need.”
    Lynley had mistakenly put the AC’s laconism down to distress. Superintendent Malcolm Webberly was Hillier’s brother-in-law, after all, and the victim of an attempted homicide. Hillier doubtless worried about his recovery from the hit-and-run that had nearly killed him. So he said, “How’s the superintendent’s progress, sir?”
    “This isn’t the time to talk about the superintendent’s progress,” was Hillier’s reply. “Are you heading this investigation or am I handing it over to one of your colleagues?”
    “I’d like to have Barbara Havers back as sergeant to be part of the team.”
    “Would you. Well, this isn’t a bargaining session. It’s a Yes, I’ll get to work directly, sir, or a Sorry, I’m going on an extended holiday.”
    So Lynley had been left with the Yes, I’ll get to work directly, and no room to manoeuvre for Havers. He made a quick plan, though, which involved assigning his colleague to certain aspects of the investigation that would be guaranteed to highlight her strengths. Certainly, within the next few months he’d be able to right the wrongs that had been done to Barbara since the previous June.
    Then, of course, he’d been blindsided by Hillier. Winston Nkata arrived, newly minted as sergeant, blocking Havers from promotion in the near future, and unaware of what his role was likely to be in the ensuing drama.
    Lynley burned at all this, but he kept his features neutral. He was curious to see how Hillier was going to dance round the obvious when he assigned Nkata to be his right-hand man. Because there was no doubt in Lynley’s mind that this was what AC Hillier intended to do. With one parent from Jamaica and the other from the Ivory Coast, Nkata was decidedly, handsomely, and suitably black. And once the news broke of a string of racial killings that had not been connected to one another when they damn well should have been, the black community was going to ignite. Not one Stephen Lawrence but three. With no excuse to be had but the most obvious, which Barbara Havers herself had stated in her usual, politically unastute manner: institutionalised racism that resulted in the police not actively pursuing the killers of young mixed-race boys and blacks. Just because.
    Hillier was carefully oiling the skids in preparation. He seated Nkata at the conference table and brought him into the picture. He made no mention of the race of the first three victims, but Winston Nkata was nobody’s fool.
    “So you got trouble,” was his cool observation at the end of Hillier’s comments.
    Hillier replied with studied calm. “The situation being what it is, we’re trying to avoid trouble.”
    “Which’s where I come in, right?”
    “In a manner of speaking.”
    “What manner of speaking is that?” Nkata inquired. “How’re you planning to keep this under the carpet? Not the fact of the killings, mind you, but the fact of nothing being done ’bout the killings.”
    Lynley controlled his need to smile. Ah, Winston, he thought. No one’s dancing, blue-eyed boy.
    “Investigations have been mounted on all the relevant patches,” was Hillier’s reply. “Admittedly, connections should have been made between the murders, and they weren’t. Because of that, we at the Yard have taken over. I’ve instructed Acting Superintendent Lynley to put together a team. I want you playing a prominent role on