‘Which leads us neatly on to the final moments, Inspector. Please tell us, in your own words, what happened.’
Bliss swallowed. This was it. The moment it either all fell apart or he clawed it back.
Forty-Six
‘I believed we were in control of the situation,’ Bliss said, feeding off the memory. ‘We watched all three men enter the plot, and there was no sign of any trouble. We were alert to the possibility, of course, but we were close at hand if the Prices decided to take out Walker there and then. The three of them talked for a while, and as soon as I felt we’d heard enough I gave the word to go.’
‘Which is where things began to unwind, yes?’
To give him his due, Feeley did not appear to relish the statement. For him it was a simple matter of pointing out the true state of the operation at the time. Bliss did not hold that against him, though he was starting to feel boxed in.
‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘What happened next came as a huge shock to us all. But even after Walker reacted by grabbing hold of Stephen Price and putting a blade to his throat, I still felt we were in charge. It was the exact opposite of how we’d anticipated things would go, of course, but no matter how many times I run it through my head, I’m convinced I’d managed to talk Walker out of any action he may have been looking to take.’
‘Excuse the interruption, but I’d like to go on record as saying right now that I agree with DI Bliss.’ All eyes turned to DSI Conway. ‘I apologise for breaking the flow,’ he continued, ‘but I didn’t want this salient point to get lost. My recollection of the confrontation is clear, and I’m with DI Bliss when he says we were still in charge at that point. It may not seem like it in retrospect, but Walker was not a man determined to have one final kill. If anything, he was looking for a way out.’
‘Thank you for your input, Superintendent Conway,’ Feeley said, his tone remaining flat and neutral. ‘You will have every opportunity to have your say.’ His eyes snapped back to Bliss. ‘Do go on, Inspector.’
Nodding his thanks at Conway, Bliss said, ‘At the beginning of this meeting you read from a couple of statements, one from the local police and the other from a Met surveillance team. Both of them attested to my response in real time. And remember, that’s how it all happened – not with the benefit of hindsight or in slow motion. In my judgement, there was no reason for Walker to injure or kill Price. Him grabbing Stephen and pulling the blade was an unexpected move, but I took it to be nothing more than a bluff. We had armed officers on scene who initially drew tasers, and Walker obviously realised his predicament pretty quickly. I spoke to him calmly, led him through the permutations, all of which looked bleak for him. I saw the changes in his demeanour. He was going to back down, exactly as DSI Conway indicated a few moments ago. Other officers will attest to the same belief.’
‘Yet something changed. You had the situation under control, and then you didn’t.’
Bliss closed his eyes for a moment, reliving the awful moment of realisation when he saw Price’s hands tugging at the blade. ‘That’s correct. In my opinion, the reason Price ended up taking his own life was because we did have the situation under control. Quite simply, he killed himself the moment he realised Walker wasn’t going to do it for him.’
Feeley leaned forward, setting down a pen with which he had been scribbling copious notes. ‘Even if we accept what you say as true, Inspector Bliss, upon reflection over the past day or so, do you still not believe it would have been possible to intervene quickly enough to prevent the suicide?’
‘No, sir. If Walker pulling the blade came as a surprise, Price using it on himself was a complete shock. I don’t think any of us could have predicted what happened based on what we knew and what we were seeing at the time.’
‘So, in your opinion the armed officers could not have acted sooner?’
Bliss realised the Chief Superintendent was prising a door open for him. All he had to do was slip through the gap… and the blame was neatly avoided and passed along the ranks. He swallowed thickly and met Feeley’s stern gaze. ‘They couldn’t have, sir. And that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. I think about it now and it still takes me aback.’
Feeley recovered quickly from having to slam the door shut again. ‘Do you have an opinion as to why Stephen Price did what he did?’
‘I think there were two primary reasons. First, he knew he was caught and his future consisted of nothing but a hefty prison sentence. But second, he was heavily traumatised by what happened to his mother, and again many years later when his sister took her own life. By that stage he was incapable of thinking straight any more. I’m convinced Stephen Price took his revenge on the men who murdered his mother, with the knowledge and full support of his father and the help of Phil Walker. In those final moments, he also assumed Walker would be severely punished for what he had done to Freddy Swift, which in some ways made amends for his covering for the men a quarter of a century ago. In one sense it freed Stephen from all the angst he had built up over the years, but in another it meant the past had no further claim on him, and clearly he came to the conclusion that he wanted no part of whatever future lay ahead. Obviously, though, I’m not him, so I may be completely wrong.’
After a lengthy pause, DSI Fletcher spoke up for the first time. ‘Questions are already being asked by the media. We’ve informed them they will have a statement from us today, but I think we all know where they will take this. How did we allow it to happen? Why did we not have greater control of the situation on the ground? Then there’s the fact that three victims are still unaccounted for.’
They had little leverage in their attempts to persuade Walker into giving up the locations of the victims. He would live out the rest of his life behind bars, so it was hard to see what they might offer him in order to plead down his sentence. Bliss knew the only cards they had to play were in dictating where Walker ended up being imprisoned; life could be made easier for his family in terms of logistics if he was willing to tell them where his fellow gangsters were, but thus far he appeared uninterested in the offer. Time – as ever – would tell.
‘What works for us is that all of these men either carried out or were involved in hideous crimes,’ Bliss said. ‘We eventually have to prove it, but for now we can at least steer the conversation along those lines. We feed the media the story we want to tell, the one we believe to be true. We continue the search for the remains of Harrison, Dobson and Carlisle. Andy Price is saying nothing on their whereabouts, and I don’t think he will. Not just because he won’t want to put himself in the frame; I’m equally sure he’ll do everything he can to paint his son as the victim somehow. Frankly, I’m not entirely convinced he knows where those men are, anyhow.’
‘So our statement will say…?’
‘That the one-time notorious gangster Phil Walker abducted three men, severed Tommy Harrison’s hand, and distributed the carrier bags containing body parts and chunks of flesh from the victims. That Stephen Price seriously wounded the abducted men at best, murdered them at worst. That Walker then murdered Freddy Swift and finished off the other victims to ensure their silence, leaving himself as the last man standing. That all five gangsters were involved in the murder of Geraldine Price. That Stephen Price began planning his revenge the moment he heard about his sister’s suicide, eventually co-opting Walker into his scheme. And that his father was complicit in everything he did.’
‘Which sounds like an awful lot to prove with so little evidence,’ Feeley said.
‘That’s true, sir. And we won’t succeed in doing so in a number of instances. My belief, however, is that we have enough to push for convictions on all counts. We have the word of every officer who overheard the conversation on Saturday evening; we have the meeting itself and the recording we made. Remember, Walker said something about Ben Carlisle already being gone – from that, we can infer Stephen Price’s guilt, making him a murderer. We now have
their phones, which will conclusively prove these men were in touch before and during these events. We have the camera footage from Epping Forest. We still have both Walker and Andy Price in custody and going nowhere anytime soon. Plus, with neither of them willing to offer up their own statements, we don’t have to offer proof when we tell our story. That comes later.’
This time Feeley shifted uneasily in his chair. He put an elbow on the desk, chin in the palm of his hand, fingers curling up towards his mouth. ‘Everything you listed is circumstantial, Inspector, other than the sworn testimony of our officers and the recording. But Walker’s entire confession was made before his arrest, so he had not been read his rights at the time. The recording will help, but the CPS will demand more.’
‘Which is why we have to start building our case,’ Bliss said evenly. ‘We’ve all been here before. The hard work doesn’t stop when we nail the bastards; that’s just where it begins. We dig deeper into what we know, deeper still into what we can only surmise. We apply pressure on both Walker and Price.’ Bliss hiked his shoulders. ‘In short… we do our jobs.’
After the debriefing, Bliss was asked to remain behind with DCI Warburton, Superintendent Fletcher, and Chief Superintendent Feeley. He swallowed hard; it was not a good sign. When the room had emptied out and the four of them were left alone, Feeley broke the news.
‘Inspector Bliss. We’ve decided that, for the time being at least, it’s better for all concerned if we place you on temporary administrative leave.’
Bliss felt the full force of his rage rear up. It had been brewing; he’d known all along what they were planning. ‘You cowards,’ he said, his lips barely moving. ‘You bloody cowards.’
‘Jimmy!’ Fletcher spoke his name like a warning.
‘I’ll put your outburst down to the pressure of the situation,’ Feeley said, though his squint suggested he was throttling down on his own anger. ‘Just this once.’
‘I don’t give a damn what you put it down to,’ Bliss said, turning on him. ‘The three of you have not spoken since you asked for the room to be cleared out – which tells me you’d already made up your minds about putting me on leave before you set one foot inside the door. This is about the phone tracing, isn’t it? It didn’t matter what you heard in the debriefing, you were always going to do this to me.’
‘You think we needed a debriefing, Bliss?’ Feeley regarded him with a contempt he did nothing to disguise. ‘Forget the phone tracing. That’s for another day. A man cut his own throat on your watch. Right in front of you. I’m sure you believe the fact that you closed the case means none of that ugliness taints you, but it does. And by rights it should. And yes, of course your previous actions regarding the phone traces are also being taken into consideration. But ask yourself, what is it that we’ve done to you, Inspector? Administrative leave means you receive full pay and benefits. It means your HR record will be swelled by a single sheet of paper. You are not being suspended – a decision we were well within our rights to make.’
‘Jimmy,’ Warburton said to him softly. ‘I’m sure when you reflect on this you’ll realise it’s nothing more than a slap on the wrist. What it also means is that none of us here is assigning fault to you or your operation – and I do mean none of us. It’s a temporary measure, designed to remove you from the firing line at a time when the media will be at their most enthusiastic.’
‘And with the greatest of respect, boss,’ Bliss said, feeling the weight of betrayal in his chest, ‘I’ve been here before. I know what so-called administrative leave is all about. It’s not supposed to put a stain on my record – but it will be there, all the same. It’s not supposed to last long, but it will drag on. It’s not supposed to be held against me in the future, but I fully expect it will be. I’ve been held to account like this before, and I still carry the stink of it around with me. Also, there is one message the media will take from this decision, which is that the blame is being laid squarely on my shoulders. So please, spare me the banalities. Don’t pretend this is anything other than what it is: a knife in the back, and each of you with one hand on the shaft.’
In a remote voice, Feeley said, ‘Inspector Bliss, that is quite enough. More than enough, in fact. You and I have had few dealings so far during my time here, but I can already see the stories I’ve heard about you are true. This reaction is fairly typical, from what I understand. Or, at least, it has been until now.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means either your attitude changes before you leave this room, or your career with this or any other police service is in dire jeopardy.’
Bliss shot to his feet. He leaned forward, placed his hands palms down on the table in front of him. He regarded all three senior officers in turn, ending with Feeley. ‘Is that so? Well, Chief Superintendent, you may consider what you just said to be a threat. But for me, it’s the final straw. My methods may be questionable at times, but I get results. And before you chime in again, no, of course this case did not end as I would have liked, and in fact I don’t consider it to be over. But I’m damned if I’m going to be mauled to pieces over it, either. You say my career is at risk if I don’t change my attitude? What of it? My so-called career means less and less to me every single day. And if what you’re really telling me is that it’s already over bar the paperwork, I’d say: go tell someone who gives a shit.’
Forty-Seven
Before leaving Thorpe Wood for the day – possibly for the last time – Bliss gathered his team together in the incident room. He made no mention of the meeting he had stormed out of. Reeling in his outrage, he instead made his feelings clear about the investigation.
‘I do feel sympathy towards Andy and Stephen Price, losing both Geraldine and Valerie like that. Such terrible grief is something nobody should have to endure.’
‘It’s unimaginable,’ DC Gratton said. ‘Enough to make anyone flip out.’
‘I agree. I can understand either or both men wanting justice and exacting some form of revenge for what those sick bastards did to her and, ultimately, her daughter as well. But I’m not shedding any tears over what Price did to himself on Saturday evening. You shouldn’t, either.’
‘What makes you say that, boss?’ Bishop asked.
Bliss composed his thoughts before replying. ‘Because he made a conscious choice to butcher those men the way he did. He stepped over a line that can’t be re-crossed. Having done so, he was set free from whatever mental and emotional hell he’d found himself in – only to realise he was about to be imprisoned again, this time with real walls, real bars, real guards and real fellow cons. For him, that was no way to end his story. So he made that ultimate choice as well. Ultimately, we’d failed him and he took the easier way out.’
‘If there were failures, boss,’ Chandler said, ‘they occurred during the original investigation.’
‘A failure to provide justice, perhaps. I’m not sure there was an investigative failure, though. Conway and his team would have been up against it. The community threw up a wall of silence, closing ranks and never allowing the police in. I’m surprised they got as far as they did.’
‘So it’ll be us who takes the blame,’ Bishop said, miserably.
Bliss considered mentioning the conversation he’d had upstairs, but once again thought better of it. ‘To a certain degree, yes. Which ultimately means me. A man killed himself right in front of us. We were unable to prevent it, and four other men are dead, three of the bodies still missing. Somebody is bound to get it in the neck for that. And if the journos do their job, then I’m sorry to say, but Superintendent Conway will be at risk as well. He was involved in both cases, let’s not forget, so I think they’ll go after him first. Then me, because I led Saturday’s op as well as the JTFO.’
‘I don’t see either the DCI or DSI unloading on you, boss,’ Ansari said. ‘They understand the bigger picture.’
Bliss nodd
ed, thinking about how neither had ridden to his rescue. ‘You may be right, Gul. This team will not escape censure, but it’ll blow over in time. Not that we should be patting ourselves on the back any time soon – the men are all still dead. And you can ignore the initial debriefing, because that was a show for the box-tickers. The upper echelons are not happy with how this turned out.’
Bishop fidgeted in his chair, running fingers around the neck of his shirt collar. ‘What did they have to say to you afterwards, boss?’
For a third time, Bliss decided not to mention his administrative leave. ‘Let’s leave the finer details for another day,’ he said dismissively. ‘The real investigation into how this all unravelled begins and ends with us. I want you all to re-examine everything we did: every detail and every decision. Without any thought of recrimination, I want the team as a whole to front up to whatever mistakes were made. If they were made. If we learn from this, then something positive will have come out of it.’
‘You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself,’ Chandler reminded him. ‘We do have two men in custody. It may have taken us a while, but we followed the evidence and we got there in the end.’
Bliss ran a hand across his chin. ‘We did? Where exactly did we get, Pen? Given what we now know, there was only going to be one further victim anyway, which was Walker. So ultimately, we saved him but lost Stephen Price in the process. Four other men lost their lives. Whatever kind of spin we try to put on it, that’s a net loss after we got involved. We didn’t end this. Not in any positive or satisfactory way that I can see.’
‘That’s the way it goes sometimes. You don’t always get to solve everything and tie it all up in a neat bow. Isn’t that what you always remind us when things don’t go our way?’
Slow Slicing (DI Bliss Book 7) Page 34
