‘We were hoping to talk to you,’ Cole said politely.

Nicky nodded, chewing another crisp. Without speaking, he strolled past, leading them through the house, past the entrance into the far wing and then opening the doors into a room that was so big it contained a full-size snooker table with a row of sofas on either side. The decor unsurprisingly matched the rest of the house but a large window at the far end filled the room with daylight.

The teenager had the swagger of someone beyond his years and marched up to a rack of cues, picking one out and offering it to the DCI.

‘Fancy a game?’

The chief inspector was clearly flustered in a way Jessica doubted he usually would be by an eighteen-year-old. He stumbled over a reply before declining.

‘Do you know who killed Dad?’ Nicky asked.

‘We’re still bringing all of the information together at the moment.’

‘So no then?’

‘Not yet,’ Cole replied.

Nicky was tapping the cue on the edge of the table but even the way he was holding it made it look like a weapon. He told them exactly what he was intending to do with the cue to whoever it was that had killed his dad.

The attitude to authority was something he clearly shared with his dad but Jessica could see there was something far more reckless about him. Nicholas would never have threatened anyone in front of a police officer, he would keep anything like that behind the scenes, while maintaining his public persona.

‘If you were doing your jobs properly, you would already know who did it,’ Nicky replied after his ticking off, as he picked the balls out of the various pockets and began arranging them on the table.

‘This is why we are talking to as many people as we possibly can,’ Cole said.

Nicky hammered the white ball into the reds he had just arranged, sending them hurtling across the table. ‘Do you think I had something to do with it?’

He hadn’t asked as if he was outraged at the suggestion, more as a challenge.

‘I didn’t say that,’ the chief inspector replied, his voice level in a way Jessica could never have managed herself. It was pretty clear why he had come. ‘But we need to get a full picture of everything, which is why we are currently talking to as many people as possible.’

Nicky smirked at Jessica, letting her know as if she didn’t already that he was trying his best to wind them up. As Jack had pointed out about Tia in the hallway, Nicky was another who most likely couldn’t believe his luck. She didn’t know what type of relationship he had with his father but, from what she had seen of Nicholas, he didn’t seem the type to be close to anyone. Sticking his only child in a boarding school for an extended period hardly gave the impression he was concerned about him. Ruby had told her Nicholas was only interested in winning, not in their son, so it was perhaps no wonder this was how he had turned out.

Jessica initially assumed Cole had come along to stop her saying anything stupid under provocation but, after a little more back and forth, he mentioned something she hadn’t expected.

‘The other reason we came was to ask you for a favour,’ he said, as straight-faced as he had been throughout.

Nicky put the cue on the table and looked up, half in amusement, half bemusement. ‘Are you having me on?’

‘Not at all.’

Nicky looked towards Jessica, making sure it wasn’t a joke, but she had as little idea of what was going on as he did. ‘Go on then, Grandad,’ he said.

‘I take it you saw everything that happened in the city centre a few nights ago?’

Nicky grinned. ‘Did you have fun?’

‘We were hoping that, given all the good work your father did for the area, you might be able to come to the community centre later today to talk to some of the local young people. I’m sure a lot of them would look up to you.’

Jessica couldn’t believe what she was hearing, doubting Nicky had ever been near the estate his father came from. He certainly hadn’t spent any time living there.

Nicky took off his cap, smoothing his hair forward. There was a grin apparently fixed to his face as he left them hanging. ‘What’s in it for me?’ he eventually asked.

‘We were hoping that with everything your father helped to create that perhaps you would want to build on his good work?’

Jessica knew Jack must be annoyed at the sycophantic way he was being forced to grovel and realised orders must have come from the chief superintendent or higher. It was no wonder he hadn’t left it to her as she would have stomped in and told Nicky he was going to do it, or she would find a way to make life difficult for him.

He would have laughed in her face.

‘I’m a bit busy tonight,’ Nicky said. ‘There are a few things on TV, or I might take one of the cars out for a drive. They are mine now, after all.’

He winked at Jessica, as if expecting her to laugh along.

‘We can’t force you to, all I can say is that it would be very much appreciated. We’ll make all the arrangements to pick you up if you want, we don’t need you to talk for long, it will just be to a lot of people roughly your age. I suspect they’re looking for someone new to lead them.’

Jessica sensed Cole had chosen the word ‘lead’ carefully enough to insinuate there was status to be gained, knowing full well Nicky would never have the gravitas his father had managed to buy for himself.

Nicky’s stance didn’t change but Jessica could tell he was going to agree moments before he did. The DCI promised someone would be in touch within an hour or two but, as they turned to leave, Nicky called them back.

‘You do know I’m taking over, don’t you?’

He spoke confidently, picking the cue back up.

‘Regardless of what Tia thinks, or anyone else says, this is why Dad brought me back. I’m taking over the clubs, the pubs, the lot.’

Cole didn’t respond and Jessica wouldn’t have trusted herself to. Instead they walked out of the house to the car and drove away.

They were barely at the end of the road when Cole pulled over to the side, leaving the engine idling. He looked at Jessica. ‘Thoughts?’

‘I wouldn’t have been so diplomatic if it was me.’

‘I know. What else?’

‘Someone’s going to have to keep a very close eye on him.’

‘Exactly.’

27

Although it wouldn’t have been her way of doing things, Jessica had to admit that bringing Nicky onto their side, at least temporarily, had somehow done the trick. His speech outside the boxing club his father paid for, along with the myriad of arrests, had calmed things far more than she could have guessed. After a week of recriminations and accusations, it also meant the police’s day-to-day workload was more or less back to normal.

That didn’t mean they had got anywhere.

No useable fingerprints had been recovered from the sink and the fire door had provided them with nothing either. Hours had been put into scouring the local CCTV footage and, although they had a few hooded figures hurrying around the surrounding streets during the early hours when Nicholas had been killed, there was nothing specifically to say they were anything other than people heading home after a night out.

Jessica stared at herself in the washroom mirror, thinking how everything from the past few weeks had aged her. She had even started wearing make-up to cover the paleness under her eyes, knowing she should visit a doctor soon. The nausea wasn’t easing and she felt tired all of the time. Each day, she kept telling herself she would go tomorrow.

‘No Adam?’ Izzy asked chirpily.

Jessica hadn’t heard her enter. ‘I thought it was a work-only thing.’

It was a lie but that was what she had told him.

Izzy tilted her head to the side and Jessica knew she wasn’t fooling anyone. ‘Mal’s at home with Amber anyway. This is pretty much the first night I’ve been out on my own since having her.’