Necessary as Blood

girls.
    ‘The question is, what made Sandra connect the Bangladeshi girl‘s story with this doctor she knew, and probably trusted?‘
    Betty stepped forward, twisting Kincaid‘s discarded tea towel in her hands. ‘I‘m not followin‘ all these things about girls and clubs. But do I understand that what you are sayin‘ is that our little Charlotte‘s mother is dead?‘
    ‘Yes.‘ Gemma rubbed the sudden ache in her cheekbones and blinked back the prickle of tears. ‘I think I‘ve always known that Sandra Gilles was dead. The question was always why, and how, and who.‘
    ‘And the daddy,‘ said Betty, ‘Mr Naz? You think this same man killed him?‘
    ‘Charlotte told me that her dad had gone to look for her mum, but I didn‘t listen to her, not properly. Maybe Naz learned something that day. Maybe he went to talk to Alexander. Maybe he was fishing for information and didn‘t want to refuse when Alexander offered him a drink.‘
    ‘That would explain where Naz was in those missing hours between the time he left the house and the time he died in Haggerston Park,‘ said Kincaid. ‘If he went to see Alexander, Alexander could have drugged him and kept him in the house until it was almost dark—‘
    ‘And he could get him to the park,‘ finished Gemma. She turned to Bryony. ‘How long would the fatal dose of ketamine have taken to act?‘
    ‘Not long. And it was probably injected, as it would have been difficult to get liquid down someone already incapacitated. It might have been a puncture mark under the tongue that your pathologist missed. Did your killer intend the death to look like a suicide?‘
    ‘If so, he should have moved his head into a more natural position, after he watched him suffocate,‘ Gemma said. The thought of what Alexander had done made her feel ill. ‘Maybe he thought someone was coming and cleared off a bit too soon.‘
    Cullen had his phone out and was tapping the keys. Looking up, he said, ‘Miles Alexander lives in Hoxton. I‘ve just checked the address. It‘s one street from John Truman. And a ten-minute walk from Columbia Road Market.‘
    Gemma saw it all, so clearly now. ‘What if, when Sandra left Charlotte with Roy that day at the market, she meant to pay a quick call on Alexander? She‘d have assumed that she‘d be back in time to pick up Charlotte and meet Naz for lunch.‘
    If this were true, she‘d been right about Sandra having walked somewhere not far from Columbia Road, but she‘d focused on the wrong direction: south and east, towards Bethnal Green and Sandra‘s family, not north and west, towards Hoxton.
    ‘She meant to be back for an ordinary Sunday lunch with her husband and daughter. Whatever she suspected, she couldn‘t have had any idea how dangerous Alexander really was.‘ Clamping down on the wave of fury that poured through her, Gemma looked at Kincaid and managed to say levelly, ‘Can we bring him in, now?‘
    Kincaid frowned. ‘I think we‘ll have a patrol car pick up Alexander, on suspicion of Naz Malik‘s murder.‘
    ‘But we don‘t have a direct connection between Alexander and Malik,‘ protested Doug.
    ‘Sandra is the connection. And there will be others — we just have to find them.‘
    ‘Then why don‘t we get a team going door-to-door in his road?‘ Doug argued. ‘Maybe someone will have seen Naz, or Sandra, going into his house. That way we could serve a warrant, and pick him up at the same time. That would shake him up.‘
    Kincaid shook his head. ‘If we start knocking on doors, even in plain clothes, I guarantee you Alexander is going to get wind of it. And if he does, he‘s going to get rid of all the evidence he can.‘ He stabbed a finger at them for emphasis. ‘I want more than evidence tying this bastard to Naz Malik‘s and Sandra Gilles‘s murders. I want him for human trafficking, too, and that means I want his computer, his photos, any little girls‘ clothing — all the things he‘s likely to have in that house that he could easily wipe or toss.‘
    Thinking it through, Gemma said, ‘But if he is connected with Tinman, we may have already blown it. Truman may have told him we were asking questions about Naz and Sandra, and the girls.‘
    Kincaid rubbed a hand over his jaw and paced a few restless steps. ‘Maybe. But there‘s always the possibility that Truman might turn out to be useful. We‘ll bring him in, too — threaten to charge him as an accessory to human trafficking. If he really is