Free A Need To Kill (DI Matt Barnes) by Michael Kerr

the killer, Paul Sutton, who had abducted his teenage daughter, Laura, and murdered her.  Years back, Ray had been the arresting officer who brought in Sutton’s stepfather, Ted Roberts, for rape.  Roberts had served his time, but left prison with terminal cancer and died shortly afterwards.  Something in Sutton’s brain fused, and he decided to declare war on everyone who had played any part in his stepfather being incarcerated.
    Matt had eventually ended up in a shoot-out with Sutton, which the multiple killer did not survive.  Shortly after that, Ray had put his papers in and retired.  Matt knew that some things could not be got past.  Ray and his wife had sold their house and moved away from the area, to no doubt try and start anew in surroundings that would not remind them of Laura every second of every day.  Trouble was, in Matt’s opinion, you couldn’t run away from your own memories.  Good or bad, they haunted you for the duration.
    “ The missing pages might have been taken by the killer, sir,” Matt said, emptying his mind of thoughts that were not pertinent to the here and now.  “Any punters who are on film, but whose names are missing from the book, need to be chased down and interviewed.  Another scenario is that if, for example, you had done the deed, then to remove a few pages and leave your own name in the book would be a clever way to shift the direction of the investigation.”
    “ And what scenario do you subscribe to, Barnes?”
    “ I keep an open mind, sir.”
    “ Bullshit!  Talk straight.  I’m not here to ask you to cover anything up that is relevant to the case.  But like it or not, that book and these videos you mentioned are highly sensitive material.  In the wrong hands they could cause chaos and instability. The public’s perception is important.”
    Matt knew he was up on the moral high ground and could be blunt.  He didn’t like Adams, and gave a response that could have been more measured.  “As I told Tom Bartlett, I don’t do politics.  My only concern is working the case and getting a result.  I’m a street cop who doesn’t need you or any other suit from the top floor to tell me how to conduct an investigation.  The only people apart from me who will see the tapes and have access to the address book are Tom and any of my team that I think need to.  And as for what scenario I subscribe to; my instinct tells me that some maniac is on the warpath.  He specifically targets redheaded prostitutes who remind him of someone who he hates with a vengeance.  Maybe he flipped through the book, recognised the name of someone he knew and ripped a few pages out on the spur of the moment.  I’d rather believe that it was someone known to Marsha who had done it, but I don’t think it was.  Anyone who paid a grand a night to float his boat wouldn’t have bothered with the likes of Kelly Lindon.  And the one thing that is definite, is that the same person killed both of them.”
    Clive nodded.  “Good.  I prefer people to shoot from the hip.  Don’t think that because I spend most of my time behind a desk, that I don’t keep a finger on the pulse, Barnes.  You’re a driven man.  You seem to like being out on the edge.  I admire that, to a degree.  Trouble is, men like you burn out quickly or self-destruct.  I know where you’re coming from.  I liken you to a Wild West gunslinger carrying memories that haunt him.  Maybe if you could get beyond using the past as a blunt instrument to beat yourself up with, then you wouldn’t be the cop you are.  You’re a junkie.  You need conflict to feed off.”
    They had come to some sort of understanding.  Adams got up and left the office, and Matt realised that there was a lot more to the man than met the eye.  He had come up through the ranks, playing a game that had taken him to a cushy office at the top of the building.  It crossed Matt’s mind that this was not a man who you would want as an enemy.