by Ken McCoy
A nurse came to take his temperature and blood pressure.
‘My blood pressure might be a bit on the high side,’ he told her. ‘My fiancée has just left me and gone off to America. Why do women do such things to me?’
‘I don’t know, Mr Black, but I do know it’s good news about your leg. The surgeon is of the opinion that you’ll make a full recovery within six weeks and that you can be discharged from here in a couple of weeks or so.’
Mrs Boswell arrived at Sep’s bedside as he was settling under the covers.
‘Oh hello.’
‘Hello, Sep. I just heard about you being shot and wondered how you were going on.’
‘Heard about me? Who from?’
‘It was on the television news the night it happened. I haven’t heard anything since.’
‘The Home Secretary put a D-notice on the story.’
‘Because of the money market connection?’
‘What else? It certainly wasn’t for my benefit.’
‘Well, my James had many contacts, including quite a few police people. They keep me up to date with events.’
‘Ah, say no more. I’ve more or less recovered from my operation and I’m now convalescing, but I’ve just been assured of a full recovery if I do as I’m told.’
She grinned. ‘So, no absolute certainty of a full recovery then?’
Sep grinned back at this woman who hardly knew him, but enough to take the piss. He was a man with a serious job. Why didn’t people take him more seriously?
‘I heard you’d got engaged to Winnie as well,’ she said.
‘Good God! Who have you been talking to?’
‘I cannot reveal my sources.’
‘And has your source told you my engagement is off as of ten minutes ago?’
‘Oh, sorry to hear that. Look, I’ve come because I know you like Jaguar sports cars.’
‘I really liked the one that got blown up. Mind you, I’m happy I wasn’t in it at the time.’
‘I saw it when you came to see me. It was a beauty and I know where there’s one for sale just like it. Same colour, one year old.’
‘How much?’
‘They’re asking fifty-six and a half thousand. It’s only done fifteen thousand miles and it’s still under warranty. I know the man at the dealers and I’ve already agreed fifty grand cash with them. All I have to do is buy it in your name.’
‘And it’s red, is it? Convertible?’
‘Yes, same red as yours.’
The very thought of it perked up Sep’s spirit. ‘You couldn’t take a photo of it. Could you?’
‘I’ve got one on my tablet, plus all its details, horse power and all that stuff. It looks brand new to me, not a mark on it, new tyres, beautiful upholstery, satnav, everything.’
She took a tablet out of her bag and showed him various photographs of the car as well as a sales sheet from the dealer giving all the car’s details. It was identical to the car he’d had, only this was a newer model and with far fewer miles on the clock. His despair at the loss of Winnie lessened slightly as he studied the pictures.
‘And you can get this for the fifty, can you?’
‘I can. All you have to do is say the word. I can keep it in my garage under a cover until you’re fit to drive it.’
‘Best give you the cheque back then. My wallet’s in the drawer.’
As Sep gave her the cheque, he commented, ‘In the space of ten minutes I’ve lost fifty grand and a fiancée, but I’ve gained a car.’
‘Would you rather have Winnie back and not have the car?’
‘In a heartbeat, but this helps.’
‘Right, I’ll be on my way back to the dealers then and do the deal. I’ll bring you all the papers in the morning.’
‘By the way, I’m not quite as skint as I thought I was.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. The cottage that was blown up has some value, or rather the land it was on has. It’s up for sale and, to be honest, taking your money was always a dangerous move on my part. It might well have ended my career.’
‘I wouldn’t have wanted that, Sep, although I don’t think Winnie would have minded. No one would ever have found out from me. I’d prefer it if you kept the fifty grand. If not, I could give it to Winnie.’
Sep gave her words some thought and said, ‘You know, as part of all this trouble, a good friend of mine was killed. He was an old reprobate but a good man at heart. Winnie really took to him. His name was Eli McMurphy. Winnie and I went to his funeral and a bloke turned up who claimed to be Eli’s son.’
‘Claimed to be? You sound as if you doubted him. Why would he pretend to be the son of a reprobate, unless he thought Eli had left some money behind?’
‘No, Eli left nothing. To be honest he had a look of Eli so I believed him. In fact he brought his own son with him who would have been Eli’s grandson, although he’d never met his grandfather. The lad’s at university right now, no doubt struggling for money.’
‘You want me to give the fifty grand to the grandson?’
‘Not to him, to his dad. He’ll make sure it does the lad a power of good. Winnie’s not exactly short of money so she won’t object.’
Mrs Boswell held out a hand. ‘OK, Mr Black, you have a deal. When you give me the fifty grand back I’ll pass it straight on to Elijah McMurphy’s son.’
‘That would please Elijah no end. It’ll please Winnie as well. By the way, are you still a journalist?’
‘Sort of. I haven’t officially given it up.’
‘I seem to remember you saying you’d like to finish the story that James was working on.’
‘I would, yes.’
‘Well, I’m very near getting the whole story if you want it. When I’m ready I’ll fill you in with all the details.’
‘That would be great.’
As he watched her leave, Sep realized that what he really needed was Winnie O’Toole, but that Jag, now that was definitely acceptable. All legally paid for by him.
THIRTY-TWO
The following week Hawkins paid him a second visit. ‘How are you doing, Sep?’
‘Well, I think I’m wheelchair capable, ma’am, if only I could get someone to bring me a wheelchair.’
‘And where would you go in this chair?’
‘Is Stanley Butterbowl still in this hospital?’
‘Yes, he is, but he’s due to be moved over on to the Armley Prison hospital wing any day now.’
‘In that case, it’s him I’d like to visit and I’d like you to come with me.’
‘Why?’
‘Because in this case there’s only one unresolved murder and that’s the murder of Graham Feather and I think I know who killed him and why.’
‘In my book, Sep, there are two unresolved murders: Santiago’s and Feather’s. Is there something about the Santiago case that you’re not telling me?’
Sep looked up at her and said, ‘There’s nothing I’m not telling you. It just strikes me that the people with all the answers might all be dead.’
‘Well, it’s a strong possibility. We’re talking about Santiago himself, James Boswell, Carl Redman, Graham Feather …’
‘And Roscoe Briggs,’ added Sep. ‘And two more of Redman’s heavies – Bazza and Animal; and my pal Elijah and the old woman from the Grimshawe hotel. How many’s that?’
‘Nine,’ said Hawkins. ‘Nine people dead, all connected and we still don’t know who’s behind it all. We can’t just leave it at that and hope the main culprit’s dead or all these cases will remain on file, which will do our unit no good at all. I don’t want us to be disbanded. I like the work we’re doing and I think we’re good at it. Success in these cases will prove that beyond all doubt.’
‘I’m with you on all that,’ said Sep. ‘And I want to know how I came to end up in this state. Car blown up, Winnie’s left me and I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk properly again.’
He paused for thought and then asked her, ‘How muc
h do you know about Snowball, ma’am?’
‘I know it was a stocks and shares scam that never got off the ground.’
‘I tend to think it has an American connection, ma’am. The connection being Adam Piper who’s a computer genius and who once worked at the New York Stock Exchange, servicing their computers, and then he came over here to work for Santiago.’
‘That’s a fairly weak connection.’
‘It’s the only connection I’ve got,’ said Sep.
‘And am I right in thinking that the Piper brothers are back in America?’
‘They are, along with Winnie.’
‘Well, if we notify the NYPD of our suspicions, it might well get Winnie into serious trouble, which could possibly result in her arrest as an undesirable alien. They’re very fussy about such things, are the Yanks.’
‘I wouldn’t want that, ma’am.’
‘I assume you still have hopes of a reconciliation.’
‘Er … yes.’
She stared down at him with narrowed eyes. ‘Quite. If this is now an American scam and it’s dead in the water over here, perhaps we could let America deal with it with no interference from us. Nonetheless, while you’ve been in here, the Home Office have ordered us to tread carefully. I understand it might cause a panic in the stock market if it all becomes public knowledge that such a thing is even possible. Not that I know what this “thing” is. Right now I’m interested in the Feather killing.’
‘Ah, well, that might be more doable. In fact, if you could get me a wheelchair and take me to see Stanley Butterbowl, we might be able to solve that case.’
Within minutes Hawkins was pushing Sep along a corridor and into a lift that would take them to Butterbowl’s ward. When he got there Butterbowl was dozing.
‘Wakey, wakey, Stanley!’ called out Sep. ‘I’ve brought my boss to see you.’
Butterbowl opened his eyes and sat up, looking at Sep. ‘Oh, shit! Are you still alive? Yer’ve just ruined me fuckin’ day!’
‘Your mate Roscoe tried to shoot me, Stanley, but he got himself killed doing it. You see, he probably thought I was lying when I said I could get him a reduced sentence. I reckon you thought I was lying as well which is why you told him I was going after him.’
‘I did no such thing.’
‘Stanley, we found your mobile phone and checked the calls which included one to Roscoe just after I left you.’
‘Well, I know you were fuckin’ lying about me sentence.’
‘Just watch your language in front of the lady, Stanley. We’re here to do you a favour but we want one in return. And it’s not a favour that’ll do anyone any harm. No one who’s alive that is.’
‘What’s this favour and what do I get?’
‘Well, this lady is Detective Superintendent Hawkins, Stanley. A very senior officer in the West Yorkshire Police Force and she’s not allowed to lie to scumbags like yourself.’
Jane Hawkins held out her warrant card to verify what Sep had just said.
‘OK, she’s a top copper, so what?’
‘So I just want you to verify what I know already. That’s all.’
‘What is it you know?’
‘We know that a man called Graham Feather used to work for Santiago and he got banged up for something he didn’t do and this was all down to Santiago setting him up for it. Do you know about that?’
‘Yeah, I knew all about that.’
‘So it was true.’
‘Course it was.’
‘And you knew that Feather had a grudge against Santiago?’
‘Yer mean about him bein’ banged up? I do, yeah.’
‘Have you heard of a scam called Snowball?’
‘Yer mean that stocks and shares thing? Yeah, I heard of it. No idea how it works, though.’
‘And did you know that Feather had found out about it from the Piper brothers, most probably so he could use it to do damage to Santiago. This was before Santiago was killed.’
‘Yeah and I heard that Redman were very pissed off that Feather knew about it.’
‘Why would he be pissed off?’ Sep asked.
‘Because them Piper lads knew how ter work it and Redman didn’t and after Santiago died, if they hitched up with Feather, who knew the stocks an’ shares side of stuff, they could run the whole scam between the three of them and leave Redman out of it. Redman told me that himself. He reckoned it were Feather what killed Santiago.’
‘So what did Redman do?’
‘He were very pissed off. I think you know what he did.’
‘I do know, but I want you to tell me. I don’t want to put any words into your mouth. I want the superintendent to hear the truth.’
‘He put out a hit on Feather for three grand.’
‘Who took the job?’
Butterbowl looked up at Hawkins. ‘Not me. Yer not layin’ that one on me.’
‘We know it wasn’t you, Stanley,’ said Sep. ‘We want you to tell us who earned the three grand.’
‘It were Roscoe, who d’yer think it was?’
‘Are you saying Roscoe Briggs murdered Graham Feather?’
‘Jesus Christ, Yeah! Roscoe Briggs killed Graham Feather. Do I have ter spell it out for yer?’
‘No, we think it was Roscoe Briggs as well,’ said Sep.
‘If you could make that statement in an affidavit to the CPS and perhaps in court,’ said Hawkins, ‘I will see to it that your cooperation is taken into consideration at your sentencing.’
‘If it helps me. Why wouldn’t I?’
‘No reason at all. Roscoe’s dead,’ said Sep. ‘You can’t harm a dead man by telling the truth about him. On top of which the strangulation marks on Feather’s neck match Roscoe’s hands and the murder scene’s got Roscoe’s DNA all over it.’
‘Bloody hell! It took yer long enough ter figure that out.’
‘That’s because I wasn’t working on it back then,’ retorted Sep.
‘You know he’ll get life, no matter what I say on his behalf,’ Hawkins said to Sep as she wheeled him back.
‘I do, but it might get him a shorter tariff. They might let him out after forty years.’
‘I will speak on his behalf as I promised, but I don’t intend being all that persuasive. That’s a loathsome man who should never be let loose on the streets again.’
‘Agreed.’
Hawkins now wheeled Sep back to his bed in silence as she mulled over what she’d just heard and added it to the complexity of crimes that had revolved around Charlie Santiago’s death. She summed up the cases so far: ‘So, we have the death of Charles Santiago and the death of James Boswell, both unsolved. Whoever killed Boswell killed the old woman, Agnes … whatever-her-other-name-is, we’ll have it on file. Graham Feather was killed by Roscoe Briggs on the order of Carl Redman. That’s four murders, one resolved and two offenders still at large.
‘I suggest we leave Santiago’s death in abeyance for the time being and concentrate on catching James Boswell’s killer,’ said Sep, before adding, ‘There is one other murder we haven’t mentioned, ma’am.’
‘Oh?’
‘Elijah McMurphy who was killed at my cottage.’
‘Well, that will be put down to Redman and his thugs. That’s five murders and just one solved.’
‘On the other hand,’ suggested Sep, ‘you could stick with your previous theory that Roscoe killed Santiago on Redman’s orders. That’s two murders solved. Good for the unit, that.’
‘On what evidence?’
‘Just the balance of probabilities. Roscoe Briggs is dead and he’s the hot favourite and you can’t take a life from a man who hasn’t got one to give.’
‘For once I agree with you. We could stick to Roscoe Briggs being Santiago’s killer on balance of probability. By the way, have you given any further thought to your taking a desk job from now on? I suspect that would please your friend Winnie.’
‘I’m not too sure, ma’am. The only thing that would win her back for sure is
for me not to be a copper anymore and to get myself a safer job – maybe as an English teacher somewhere.’
‘And you value your job above all things?’
‘A copper is exactly who I am, ma’am. If having her back meant me not being an active copper any more, it would put a strain on our relationship. I’d probably resent the price I’d be paying. Up until now she’s always accepted what I am and who I am, as I’ve accepted who and what she is.’
‘If she doesn’t come back to you, will it be a problem you can’t cope with?’
‘I wouldn’t know how to deal with it, ma’am. I’ve never been in this situation before.’
‘What, never been in love?’
‘Not until now.’
‘Not even with your ex-wife?’
‘Knowing how I feel about Winnie, I know for certain I never loved my ex-wife, nor any other woman for that matter.’
‘Well, if Winnie’s your one and only, of course you’ll miss her. It’s a horrible feeling. I had a dose of that once.’
‘Yes, it is. It’s bloody horrible. I could really do without it. How did you deal with it? Did you get over it?’
‘No.’
‘Oh.’
Sep felt oddly proud that she’d taken him into her confidence over such a delicate matter. ‘Are you saying I should go after Winnie no matter what the cost to me?’
‘Sep, if the cost to you is staying in the office I’d say it’s a small price to pay for getting yourself the right person to spend your life with – especially at your age.’ Hawkins got to her feet, looking pensive. Sep looked up at her, expecting some further comment, perhaps some advice. It was this:
‘You’re a resourceful and impressive man in many ways, Sep. I know I moan about you and I probably always will, but you’re a one-man army and I’m lucky to have you on my team.’
