Marked for Death

by Tony Kent

  Michael’s words trailed off once again. A new thought was registering.

  ‘He basically threatened to do exactly what he’s done. What he’s done to everyone but me so far. To everyone except the guy who actually wronged him.’ Michael could not stop the tears from falling as reality hit home. ‘They all died for what I did. And Longman? Derek? They had nothing to do with it. Jesus, it’s my fault. Derek’s dead and all he did was cover for me. All he did was protect me from my own stupidity.’

  Michael stopped speaking. He had to. His voice had finally broken. Sarah stood up and stepped towards him, but he stopped her with a raised hand.

  ‘I need to finish,’ he said, forcing down a sob.

  ‘Yes.’ The agreement came from Levy, her tone still professional. ‘Yes, you do. I still need to know how Longman fits in to all of this.’

  Michael nodded his head in response and took a slow, deep breath to regain his composure. There was no point in wiping his face. It would not stop the tears coming. Instead he took a full gulp of whiskey and continued, his voice faltering throughout.

  ‘That was the last we heard from Hirst. We were fired from the case from that moment. He wanted the trial aborted and a new legal team appointed. To start from scratch. But Longman didn’t allow it. Longman didn’t believe that Derek or I had anything to do with the new evidence. I mean, he knew Derek, he’d been Derek’s pupil-master and Longman knew for sure that he wasn’t capable of corrupting evidence, whatever Hirst alleged. And I guess it didn’t occur to him that a pupil would do what I had done. So Longman wouldn’t let Hirst’s decision to fire us – a decision he thought was wrong – derail the trial. Instead he ordered Hirst to either carry on with us or carry on alone. Hirst chose the latter.’

  ‘So Longman didn’t think the evidence was suspect?’ asked Levy.

  ‘Oh no, he knew something was up,’ Michael replied. ‘He just got the wrong person. It turned out that when Derek was looking at me as I tried not to react to Tina’s evidence of the tattoo, Longman was looking right at Blunt. He saw what Derek saw, just on someone else. So he was convinced that Blunt was behind it.’

  ‘And he didn’t stop the trial?’ Levy asked, looking perplexed. ‘Why?’

  ‘I can hazard a guess. I think it’s because Longman also thought that Hirst was too dangerous to be on the streets. Longman was a clever man. A very, very clever man. He could see Hirst for what he was and there was no way he was letting him go if he could help it. And he probably thought that Derek had made the same decision when Derek didn’t cross-examine Tina on the tattoo. So Longman did nothing. He allowed the evidence to go through, and in doing so he fuelled Hirst’s paranoia that we were all in it together. That we’d all conspired to convict him.’

  ‘What makes you think that?’ Sarah asked. ‘How can you be sure what Longman knew?’

  ‘Longman’s final instructions to the jury were a giveaway,’ Michael replied. ‘So was the sentence. Both cleverly designed to scupper an appeal, which means he must have known there was something to appeal.’

  ‘What were the instructions?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘They were about the charges. Hirst was on trial for the murder of Tommy Barker, but he was only convicted of manslaughter. That was because of Longman. He directed the jury that they could conclude from Tina’s evidence that Tommy was smothered by mistake – as Hirst was trying to calm him – and that they might think that a mistake was actually more likely from the evidence than an intentional killing. That was bullshit, of course. Hirst meant to kill that boy. I know he did. But Tina’s evidence could have been read that way as it came out, and so Longman added a little weight to that conclusion. Something which can carry a lot of influence with a jury when it’s coming from a judge that senior. It would mean no murder conviction, but manslaughter can still carry a life sentence and if Hirst then appealed the conviction the Court of Appeal would likely say that, if anything, Longman had in fact summed up in Hirst’s favour, resulting in the conviction for a lesser offence. Which is exactly what happened.’

  ‘Clever,’ Levy observed.

  ‘It was. But that was Longman. And then he did something similar with the sentence. A life sentence was arguably too much for the crime, if Tommy’s death was an accident, but giving it a fourteen year minimum made that more reasonable. In reality we all knew the minimum was just that, and that someone as cracked as Hirst would probably act up so much that they might stay inside for ever. But for appeal purposes it was, again, very clever.

  And then there was what happened to Blunt.’

  ‘What?’ Levy asked. ‘What happened with Blunt?’

  ‘There’s a reason this was his last case with the police. Longman called Blunt into his chambers at the end of the trial. Told him his suspicions and told him that he expected to hear of his resignation within the week. Otherwise he would contact the Commissioner directly and tell him everything. Blunt took the sensible course.’

  ‘Blunt told you that?’

  ‘He did, Joelle. And he told me at the same time that he had kept my name out of it, for which I was incredibly grateful. He thought we’d done the right thing and didn’t see why we should both suffer for it. Over the years that seemed to change. He got more and more bitter at what he’d lost, and it put a real strain on our working relationship. It made him a nasty piece of work in his later years, someone I struggled to be around. But back then? Yeah, he took a bullet for what we had done.’

  Silence fell as Michael’s account came to an end. It was a lot of information to take in, he knew. A lot for both Sarah and Levy to consider.

  ‘There are still things that don’t add up.’ It was Levy who spoke first. ‘Longman’s sentence. Life but with a relatively short minimum. You said Longman probably thought it was safe, as once a guy as violent as Hirst was inside he’d likely behave so badly that he’d never come out.’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘But he didn’t, did he? Which was one of the reasons we had him low on our list of potential suspects. Why others took priority. Hirst got parole on the first application because he had been an exemplary prisoner. He did not have a single act of insubordination on his prison record. Not a single act of violence. He was seen as the picture of rehabilitation. How does that fit with what we’re now seeing?’

  ‘I can’t answer that,’ Michael replied. ‘Because it makes no sense to me at all. The whole parole thing is messed up. I made arrangements to be told immediately if Hirst achieved parole. If he was even close to being released. That’s why I thought he was still inside. Yet somehow he’s been out for three years.’

  Levy opened her mouth to speak. Sarah beat her to it.

  ‘Actually there’s even more to it than that.’

  Both Michael and Levy turned to look at her in surprise.

  ‘I had Hirst’s full prison record looked into today,’ Sarah explained. ‘Through a source. And just before Michael called me about Derek, I got hold of his Parole Board report.’

  ‘Parole Board reports are strictly confidential,’ Levy interrupted. ‘What source did that come from?’

  ‘Does that really matter right now?’ Sarah sounded exasperated at the interruption. Levy conceded the point and indicated for Sarah to continue. ‘My source mentioned some mistreatment of Hirst while he was in Wandsworth Prison. It appeared nowhere on his record, but the Parole Board report filled in the blanks.’

  ‘What sort of mistreatment?’

  ‘The stuff the prison service pretends doesn’t happen. Hirst spent a few years as a target to a particular group. A particular guy, really. Just what you’d expect. Beatings. Abuse. Physical. And they suspected sometimes sexual.’

  ‘Horse shit.’ Michael had heard enough. ‘Karl Hirst never took abuse or punishment from anyone in his entire life. There is no way he was anyone’s victim inside.’

  ‘He was, Michael. The report was pretty explicit. Nothing was done because Hirst never complained, but there was a suspicion that it was also
ignored because the guy responsible had most of the guards in Wandsworth Prison in his pocket. It was one of the reasons Hirst got parole on the first attempt; to avoid any investigation that would have exposed that corruption within the prison.’

  ‘Then that report’s wrong,’ Michael argued. ‘That man would fight to the death before he’d allow anyone to dominate him. It’s just the way he’s wired. They’d have to kill Hirst before they could do anything like that to him.’

  ‘Unless there was something else driving him.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means I’ve been thinking,’ Sarah explained, ‘and there is one explanation for why Hirst would let that happen to him. Maybe Hirst was so obsessed with getting out in time to have his revenge – that maybe he was so focused on getting to Longman and Derek, to you – that he let it happen. Perhaps he knew that if he fought back, if he hurt them, then he’d never get out. So maybe, to allow him to get to you all, he allowed some bad things to happen to him.’

  Neither Michael nor Levy responded immediately. The theory made sense to Michael. Hirst was exactly the kind of psychopath who could think things through that coldly.

  ‘That rings true,’ he said hesitantly, ‘except for one thing. Hirst was released three years ago. Why would he have waited so long? With Longman old enough to have died any day, and with Blunt practically at death’s door? If Hirst was so desperate to get to us that he allowed himself to be beaten and abused in prison, why wait and risk them dying before he got to them? Hell, Derek was a heart-attack risk, the size of him.’

  ‘That’s what we couldn’t work out,’ Sarah admitted. ‘We couldn’t come up with an answer for that one.’

  ‘Shit.’ Levy was speaking more to herself than to the others as she swore. That changed when she spoke again. ‘I think I might know the reason.’

  Both Michael and Sarah turned. The intervention – the deduction – seemed to have come from nowhere. Levy continued.

  ‘Sarah, do you know the name of the prisoner in Wandsworth? The one with the guards on his payroll?’

  Sarah did not need to think. The name had been in the parole report, which she had read just minutes before Michael’s call.

  ‘He’s called Leon Ferris.’

  ‘Shit,’ Levy said again.

  ‘What is it?’ Michael asked.

  Levy looked him in the eye and answered.

  ‘Karl Hirst has killed a lot more people than we thought.’

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  ‘Show Mr Hale the file, Nathan.’

  Sarah indicated towards Detective Inspector Steven Hale with a nod of the head. Nathan Benson’s eyes followed. Summoned from the ITV News offices on nearby Grays Inn Road, Benson had travelled to Lonsdale Square with one task. To deliver the confidential parole report of Karl Hirst.

  Benson picked up the slim manila folder, walked across the now much busier kitchen and handed it to Hale.

  Hale flicked through the file’s pages. Too quickly. He could not have been reading the content. Just checking its authenticity.

  ‘Where the hell did you get this?’ Hale’s voice was sharp, his question directed at Sarah.

  The file had passed the test.

  Sarah glanced towards Levy.

  ‘We’ve decided that isn’t important right now, Steve,’ said Levy. ‘That can wait.’

  Hale met his DCI’s gaze and held it long enough to register his disagreement. Done, he returned to the file. This time he studied the detail.

  ‘It’s all there,’ he finally said. The room had been silent in anticipation. ‘Seems Ferris made Karl Hirst’s life hell in every imaginable way when they were in Wandsworth together. And the prison did nothing about it. Unbelievable.’

  He stared at the file in silence for a moment while he considered the theory, not quite sure he was convinced yet.

  ‘And you think this makes Hirst good for Ferris and his guys?’ he asked, making no attempt to disguise the disbelief in his voice. ‘You think that Hirst could have been Ferris’s bitch for that long, then suddenly take out a crew of four like it was nothing?’

  ‘I think it’s a possibility, that’s all.’ Levy answered. ‘The timing fits. And from what Mr Devlin here has been able to tell us about Hirst, it’s pretty clear that he’s responsible for Longman, Blunt and now Derek Reid. The only doubt we could have had about that was the three-year gap between his release and the first murder. But if Hirst was also responsible for Ferris, if he was waiting to repay that debt too? Suddenly that gap makes sense.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because let’s assume for a moment that Hirst allowed himself to be abused by Leon Ferris when they were in Wandsworth. Let’s assume that Hirst could have stopped it, that he could have killed Ferris at any time, but that he knew the act would guarantee a lifetime in custody. Hirst would have known Ferris’s sentence. When Ferris would be released. So what if he was willing to take the abuse, in the knowledge that if he waited a while – just three years – then he could have his revenge on Longman, Blunt, Reid and on Ferris. All at the same time.’

  Hale did not answer but shook his head, still unable to believe it.

  ‘It fills our time gap,’ Levy continued. ‘It explains why Ferris was killed within twenty-four hours of being released. And it explains why a man as dangerous as Hirst was willing to let himself be a victim in the first place. To best guarantee his early release and allow him to rain down hell on every single person he feels wronged him.’

  ‘OK, I can see how that works,’ Hale finally conceded. ‘And it helps explain why we haven’t been able to identify a single viable suspect since the raid on Ed Burrell’s place. But what about the way Ferris and his boys were killed, ma’am? Could Hirst be capable of that?’

  ‘I’m as confident as I can be that he could.’ This time Michael spoke. ‘Joelle told us what happened to Ferris. To his men, too. Hirst could have done that.’

  Hale turned to look towards Michael for the first time since he had arrived.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Devlin, but I don’t see how we can base an investigation of this importance on your opinion on this subject. Unless there’s something we don’t know?’

  ‘I fully understand why you’d have your doubts about me on this, Mr Hale,’ Michael began. ‘But—’

  ‘I can vouch for Mr Devlin on this, Steve,’ Levy said.

  Hale was surprised by Levy’s interruption.

  ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t follow.’

  ‘You don’t need to follow. Not yet, anyway. Just trust me on this. I know what I need to know about Mr Devlin and based on all of that information . . .’ Levy looked directly at Michael as she continued, ‘all of that information,’ back to Hale, ‘I am happy that if he says Hirst is capable of what was done to Ferris then Hirst is capable. OK?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ Hale had heard that tone before. Many times. Further debate would not be welcome. ‘And in that case, yes. I can see Hirst being good for the Ferris killings.’

  ‘Good,’ Levy said grimly. ‘In which case we’re joining the investigations. This is now one case. With one suspect. Karl Hirst. And I want every resource we have hunting that bastard down.’

  Hale felt a mix of disappointment and relief. The turn of events had taken away his lead role in the Ferris case. A step back professionally. But it was the right decision, he realised. And it might have saved him from a case he could not crack.

  ‘So what do you want me to concentrate on?’ he asked. ‘Shall I liaise with PR and prepare an announcement on Hirst?’

  ‘No,’ Levy replied. ‘I’ve already put Tom Chadwick on that. I’ve got something else for you.’

  ‘Has any attempt been made to contact her?’ Hale asked.

  Hale and Levy were still in Derek Reid’s kitchen, but now alone. Nathan Benson had left. Thomas Chadwick had returned to Scotland Yard. Michael was in one of Reid’s upstairs bathrooms, washing off the emotions of the last few hours. And Sarah was in Reid’s garden, speaki
ng to Anne Flaherty on her phone.

  The lighter numbers were necessary; the subject was delicate.

  ‘She’s been spoken to,’ Levy replied. ‘And I’ve arranged for two officers from the Greater Manchester Police to meet her from work and escort her back to her home address.’

  ‘Surely that’s enough protection? I mean, do we think Tina Barker is really a likely target?’

  ‘I think she’s the only target left, other than Michael Devlin. Hirst will have to have pulled off a miracle to find out the new identity she was given after his trial, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility.

  ‘Where she is, covered by the Manchester Police? They’re perfectly good, I’m sure, but they’re not us, and with how this has gone so far I’m not willing to trust anyone who isn’t us. Shit, after the miss on Blunt’s past, I’m not sure my trust goes even that far.

  ‘That’s why I’m sending you, Steve. I can’t risk a cock-up, not from Manchester and not from any of our team. And I won’t be satisfied until we have Tina Barker in a Met safe house where a bloody army couldn’t get to her. Do you understand that?’

  ‘Yeah. I get it.’ This time Hale was not just submitting to the inevitable. He could see Levy’s reasoning. Enough people had died.

  ‘So what do you want me to do?’

  ‘I want you to get yourself up there. Tonight. Meet the Manchester team, take custody of Tina Barker and bring her back to London. I want everyone under our umbrella and, when they are, we’re going after the piece of shit with everything we’ve got.’

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  ‘Do you know where we’ll be going yet?’

  Sarah was sitting on a heavy metal chair. One of the six that matched the intricately decorated iron table at the centre of Derek Reid’s garden patio. The garden itself resembled Sarah’s own. It was unsurprising considering that Michael had designed them both.