Trust Me - T.M. Logan Page 0,114

spin out for a long moment before replying, his voice quiet. ‘I’m sorry, Ellen.’

I shake my head. ‘None of it made any difference. All of our ships, all the helicopters and planes and personnel, all of the assets we had, none of it made any difference to those people. When my tour was up, I put in my papers to resign.’

‘You did what you could.’

‘But it wasn’t enough.’ I look down at the floor, still trying to put the memory back in its place and close the door on it, knowing that I’ll dream about it tonight anyway. ‘That’s why I wanted to help Kathryn. It sounds stupid but I thought, maybe this was my chance to put things right. To do the right thing.’

‘You’ve done more than enough already,’ he says. ‘You brought that child back to her family.’

I pour the last inch of wine into his cup, sitting on the desk chair so I can reach.

‘The DNA test on Mia,’ I say. ‘How come it hasn’t been done already?’

‘The grandparents were reluctant at first. They had to give consent for DNA to be taken from a minor, and I think they just thought they were going to be able to keep her a secret forever. When we finally persuaded them, Nathan went out there to take an initial swab but . . . There were issues with it.’

‘What kind of issues?’

‘The lab kicked it back to us as invalid, which can mean any number of things.’

‘Such as?’

‘Theoretically,’ he says, ‘it might indicate the sample had been interfered with in some way. Rendered unusable. I mean, people think DNA is infallible, that it’s some kind of magic bullet, they watch CSI Miami and think it solves everything like that.’ He snaps his fingers. ‘But the reality is that it’s not always straight-forward, sometimes things get messed up. Hence we’re going back on Monday to try again with another sample. I probably should have just overseen the whole process myself, right from the start.’

‘So it’s possible that Holt tampered with the first sample?’

Gilbourne stares into his wine, swirling it slowly in the bottom of the cup.

‘Well,’ he says slowly. ‘Yes. I suppose it’s possible. But I can’t imagine why he’d do that.’

‘Angela Clifton doesn’t trust him.’

‘No,’ he says. ‘She doesn’t.’

I push on, emboldened by the wine.

‘She thinks he’s got his own agenda.’

‘Meaning?’

‘I don’t know.’ I’d been turning it over and over in my mind on the drive back from Prestwood Ash – the strength of Angela’s suspicion, of her instincts about the young detective sergeant. ‘Maybe he’s trying to protect someone, or the opposite? Make the evidence point in a different direction, at least.’

‘Hang on, Ellen.’ He frowns, lines bunching on his forehead. ‘That’s a pretty bloody serious allegation.’

‘I know it is.’

‘Have you got any solid evidence to back it up?’

I ignore his question.

‘Of course, there is another possibility.’

‘Which is?’

‘He’s the one. He’s Mia’s father. The Ghost.’

‘Now hold on a minute, that’s a crazy—’

‘But then I don’t get why he’d be worried about a DNA match. Surely your DNA only ends up on a computer if you’re arrested or convicted of something? If you’re a criminal.’

Gilbourne takes his cigarettes from his coat again, takes one out of the packet, puts it between his lips but doesn’t light it. After a moment he takes it out again, rolling it thoughtfully between his thumb and forefinger.

Finally, he says: ‘It’s not as simple as that.’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘You’re thinking of the main national DNA database. But there’s also a resource called the police elimination database, which has the profiles of serving police officers and civilian staff like CSIs. So their DNA can be discounted in case of inadvertent contamination of a crime scene.’

‘So Holt’s DNA is already on file?’

He gives me a reluctant nod. ‘And as soon as Mia’s DNA’s uploaded and cross-referenced against the databases, if the father is on there too, we’ll get a familial match and we’ll have our prime suspect.’

‘Good,’ I say.

‘Amen to that.’ He puts down the unlit cigarette and swigs his wine again. ‘Do you want to know something weird? Twenty-nine years I’ve been on the force, I’ve got one of the highest solve-rates in the division and this is the only unsolved case of my whole career. Haven’t been able to get my head around the idea of this last job hanging over me after my thirty years is up – that the Ghost would still be out there somewhere, unpunished. But this is the last possible outcome