Undercover

by Bill James

  ‘Which different officer?’ Harpur said.

  ‘Notional,’ Iles said. ‘It’s a concept, Col, not an actual person. We’re in the realm of the theoretical.’

  ‘Which essentials?’ Harpur said.

  ‘You see what I mean about the way he’ll pounce on a word and get at its innards?’ Iles said. ‘Like a lioness with a zebra.’

  ‘Instincts,’ Maud replied.

  ‘Instincts?’ Harpur said.

  ‘The undefinable, but essential,’ Maud replied. ‘Shouldn’t he have sensed, smelled, intuited there was something suspect about the route selected for him to take when Abidan’s call came? He would have learned the local geography by then. We’re referring to a blacked-out construction site where he’d have to walk slowly and gingerly to avoid tripping over foundations and discarded hods. Slowly and gingerly and therefore very hitably. Uncompleted buildings offered fine cover and useful firing points for a sniper, especially if the sniper had night-vision equipment.’

  ‘So, you do think the whole sortie was pre-shaped for the execution of Parry?’ Harpur said.

  ‘We have no CCTV sightings of Justin Scray that night, but we do know that Abidan put the rallying signal out, which would bring Parry from his search at the shopping mall along the agreed route, including the building site,’ Maud said. ‘Crucially including the building site.’

  ‘You regard the hunt for Scray as a charade, a fiction, to fool Parry and get him into an easy target area?’ Harpur asked. ‘The real hunt was for him? No likelihood of finding Scray at the mall existed?’

  ‘Or anywhere?’ Iles said.

  ‘My function is to suggest such questions,’ Maud replied. ‘Only that. But I’d hope they’re questions that have not been adequately dealt with so far, and which, perhaps, you will prioritize.’

  ‘You believe Parry was reliable and competent but naive?’ Harpur asked.

  ‘There are people like that, believe me, Col,’ Iles said.

  ‘Perhaps he was naive,’ Maud said.

  ‘But you told us he’d been chosen for his maturity,’ Harpur said.

  ‘Maturity in certain basics,’ Maud said. ‘Important basics, though lacking that vital something else. The experts’ formula for the ideal undercover candidate might need amending.’

  ‘So, selecting him was a terrible error?’ Harpur asked.

  ‘Any selection for undercover is a terrible error,’ Iles said.

  ‘But that’s rather negative, isn’t it?’ Maud said.

  ‘No. Not “rather”. It’s totally fucking negative,’ Iles replied.

  ‘I think undercover has been known to work,’ Maud said.

  ‘We can’t ask Parry to confirm that,’ Iles said.

  ‘We can get his assassin, assassins, though,’ Maud replied.

  ‘And you believe the assassin, assassins, could be a police officer, police officers, scared of exposure as payrolled protectors of the firm?’ Harpur asked. ‘The cop killer – or killers – is – or are – cops?’

  ‘As I’ve said, my job is to suggest questions,’ Maud told them.

  NINE

  BEFORE

  Tom drove alone to a would-be welcoming place, brilliant for confidential meetings and basic grub – a motorway service station, this one on the M4. Neither party got the advantage of home ground, and anonymity was easy in the changing crowd. They had his registration number and car colour and make. He didn’t have theirs, but the instructions said to wait in his Megane and they’d locate him and tap his driver-side window in gentle, friendly style. Cash for petrol used and a day’s subsistence would be provided, without need of a signed receipt from Tom. The petrol and subsistence claim should be rounded up to the nearest £5 multiple, so there’d be no awkward fiddling about with coins.

  They’d take a table in the service station eatery and organize snacks, or just tea or coffee. The car park would have CCTV, and to conduct their little conference inside the building like this was considered less noticeable than three men in a Megane evidently talking something important, notably not using any of the on-hand facilities, and passing money, even without coin complications.

  ‘So, Tom, you’ll ask: why are we here? What’s the objective? Important to have an objective. Army orders always name an objective, and we can learn from them. In my opinion, that is. Well, it’s like this, isn’t it? You’ve been picked out as suitable for undercover – oh, but more than just suitable, outstandingly suitable . . . yes, outstandingly. Terrific results from Hilston, and Hilston isn’t known for its generosity in assessment. That’s all taken care of, then – the general potential aptitude, the overall flair. No question it is there and ready for use. But for use how, where? This is what I mean by the objective. It’s time for us to focus your talent – seek to apply it to a specific situation, namely the piss-awful situation that I and others have been confronted by on our patch for upwards of a year, an impregnable drugs firm.’

  He introduced himself, while they walked from the Megane to the services restaurant, as Detective Inspector Howard Lambert. The smaller, physically slighter man with him he said was Mr Andrew Rockmain, a psychologist working mainly with the London Metropolitan police, but available to other forces if needed. He had the rank in the Met of Commander, more or less equivalent to Assistant Chief Constable in a provincial outfit. He’d be around thirty-five to forty. He had longish fair hair and wore a blue denim top with khaki cargo trousers and sandals, no socks.

  Lambert said: ‘Mr Rockmain is not like that Cracker character on TV, using psychology to solve mysteries. Mr Rockmain looks at situations and applies his special skills to say who’d be best to deal with them. Personnel selection of a very crucial kind.’

  ‘I’m here mainly re the women, Tom,’ Rockmain replied. He spoke almost apologetically, as if he thought Tom must have already cottoned on that Rockmain was here mainly re the women and didn’t need to have it blatantly spelled out.

  ‘Which women?’ Tom said, though, naturally, he could make a guess.

  ‘Yes, the women,’ Rockmain replied. ‘This can be a troublesome area. No point in denying. Rather, face up to it. Cater for it. That’s happening now, thank God.’

  They queued for food and drink. Lambert settled the whole bill. He said: ‘Tom, your subsistence allowance is related to the time you spend on a duty, not on your actual expenditure, so the fact that I’m seeing to the tab now doesn’t interfere with your right to claim. And, while we’re talking about such arrangements, let me say a bank account with five grand cash available in your operational name will be set up, with cheques and a debit card. Likewise a credit card, limit nine thousand pounds.’

  ‘Howard will look after you, Tom.’ Now, Rockmain’s tone suggested Howard Lambert would be OK, possibly very OK, on the rudiments, such as canteen nose-bagging, general finance, and manipulation of an expenses sheet, but that he, Rockmain, would presently disclose the core purpose of this meeting.

  Tom took sausages, mash and peas, with a large milk coffee. Lambert had shepherd’s pie and a pot of tea. Rockmain went for the super-mixed-grill and a bottle of fizz-enhanced spring water from a burn in the Scottish highlands, which was pictured on the label. Rockmain led them to a table in the middle of the big room. He had short legs and took short steps, but they were vigorous and confident. Perhaps he thought skulking out on the edge would have been more conspicuous. He must have decided they should blend in. There were occupied tables all round them. He would know more about camouflage than Tom. It was part of his trade. The certainty and swiftness of Rockmain’s choice seemed to confirm he dominated: what should be expected from a Commander.

  Tom felt estranged and deeply different from the customers around them. Their imperative was to enjoy a bite and a swig, then point themselves and their vehicle again at a destination. But for Tom and the other two this was a policy-making centre, a tactics venue, the roads to and from, and the meals, secondary, if that. Now and then tonight Tom wished himself part of one of those groups
: eat, drink and get motorwayed. He wasn’t sure he saw himself as a policy maker, nor as a tactics expert.

  Rockmain said: ‘They’ll have told you, Tom, how undercover is organized. You’ll work to a handler and a controller. Howard here is your handler. Above him is the controller. You don’t need to know who that is.’

  ‘But he knows who I am,’ Tom replied.

  ‘He or she, yes.’

  ‘I like the wariness in you, Tom,’ Lambert said.

  ‘Wariness is on the whole an attribute, Howie, an asset,’ Rockmain said. ‘It can become tiresome, though. It can drift into indecisiveness, or sluggishness.’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose,’ Lambert said.

  Rockmain carved one of two chops and lifted the chunk to his mouth. Tom wondered how he stayed so skinny, if he always ate like this. Perhaps he didn’t: only when the job was paying. ‘You’ll ask how I come into the proceedings, Tom,’ Rockmain said. ‘Why more fucking psychology? You thought you’d done with all that at Hilston.’ He spoke with terrific clarity, at the same time managing the meat in his mouth with a skill that might be inherited, congenital. ‘And, to some extent, you have finished with psychology.’

  ‘Which means I haven’t, does it?’ Tom said.

  ‘This is more wariness,’ Lambert stated, with a happy chuckle. ‘A refusal to accept the superficial. I love it, Mr Rockmain. I’m sorry – I know there’s a downside to wariness, which we should, as it were, be aware and wary of, but in Tom I see it as creative caution, if that’s not a contradiction.’

  ‘Some contradictions are extremely fruitful,’ Rockmain replied. ‘Paradox has been defined as “truth standing on its head to attract attention” – apparently contradictory, yet true. I’ll admit that Tom’s wariness does have a positive, encouraging side.’

  ‘My view, certainly,’ Lambert said. He poked at the shepherd’s pie with his fork, seemed to find something he’d been prospecting for and ate it.

  ‘What Hilston couldn’t measure or investigate, Tom, was how well, or otherwise, you and your handler would suit each other,’ Rockmain said. ‘I’ll be assessing that. They wouldn’t know the handler, only the general role of handlers. It’s quite a bond, you see, officer – handler, a bond nearly as strong as marriage; in fact, stronger than many marriages. Someone’s life depends on this working bond: in the present case, yours, Tom.’

  ‘I think I can say I feel such a bond between us forming already,’ Lambert said. ‘But, of course, I realize that Tom will view this unilateral statement from me so soon with a certain wariness, wariness being such a major element in Tom’s make-up. I do not object to having this wariness directed towards me. It’s a natural reaction by Tom, given his plain and bold leaning towards wariness, a leaning which I admire, and which is vital in the kind of work he will undertake. What, I ask, after all, is the opposite of wariness? Casualness? Naivety? Gullibility? These are hardly desirable qualities in an undercover officer.’

  ‘There must always be full and constructive communication between the two, officer and handler,’ Rockmain said. ‘You must bring him your findings, obviously. They want to know about the structure of the Leo Percival Young firm, its money resources, its part in any deaths or injuries during turf wars. A complete profile as substantial aid to exposure and prosecution.

  ‘On top of the bank accounts, Howard will be the one who supplies you with ready cash funds to buy drugs on a scale, Tom, that helps you at the start to get your entrance into the firm. He will also be the one who takes the purchased materials from you – mainly, I’d expect, coke, hash, crack, conceivably some H, skunk. Howard will collect such commodities and see to their due disposal. Now, these will not be nicely documented and detailed, account-book matters. There can be no record of monies or drugs that pass between the two of you. Hardly! Therefore, top in these transactions is trust.’

  Tom always felt uneasy when offered too much alliteration. It might show the speaker was more interested in impact than meaning. Rockmain obviously liked a bit of pairing and tripling. Maybe psychology taught this helped direct a listener’s mind. It didn’t work on Tom, though. ‘Your job is to judge whether we trust each other and can work together?’ he asked.

  Lambert said: ‘I will know that if I can, as it were, survive Tom’s initial wariness – a wariness I entirely sympathize with root and branch – if I can get past what we might call first base with him, then the trust will establish itself and must be the more valuable for not having been arrived at facilely. Facilely is not the way to achieve trust. As for trust in the other direction – my trust of Tom – this already burgeons because of that very wariness he exercises. It gives him stature, solidity, practical wisdom.’

  ‘Yes, part of my job is to assess how you two will function – fuse,’ Rockmain replied.

  ‘You think you can foresee that?’ Tom asked.

  ‘It’s tricky, perhaps, and vague, and packed with variables, but necessary,’ Rockmain said. ‘As is the sex aspect.’

  ‘Which sex aspect?’ But, yes, he could guess.

  ‘This is going to put massive responsibilities on handlers like Howard,’ Rockmain answered. ‘Closure responsibilities.’

  ‘Closure of what?’ Tom said.

  ‘Severance responsibilities. I mentioned the women earlier,’ Rockmain replied.

  ‘Which women?’ Tom said.

  ‘Rather late in the course of things, I fear, we have acknowledged – accepted – they have a genuine grievance which we should not ignore but try to deal considerately with.’

  ‘Who have a genuine grievance?’ Tom said.

  ‘This is a decision that comes from at least the Association of Chief Police Officers, and possibly from higher still – the Ministry of Justice? It will settle new, subtle duties on handlers. In these extra, demanding tasks, Howard can call on me for advice and support. So, you’ll see how the psychology element resurfaces.’

  ‘What are we talking about, Mr Rockmain?’ Tom asked.

  ‘I expect you know,’ Rockmain said, with a sudden, stop-pissing-around tone that seemed alien for someone in sandals.

  ‘This will be another demonstration of Tom’s wariness,’ Lambert said. ‘He demands definitions, transparency.’

  ‘Above all we want you to feel assured, Tom, that any untidiness involving a woman or women connected to your time undercover will be managed in a careful, humane, understanding fashion,’ Rockmain said. ‘We do not want you to be burdened – badgered – during that time with anxieties about relations with a woman, women, who believe you to be other than you are. Obviously, you will have read of complaints by young protest-group females who consider themselves deceived in that way: giving it willingly to men they thought fellow members of the group, but discovering later that they’d been sleeping with the enemy – sleeping with undercover cops, some of them married and with children.

  ‘A woman has a right to feel piqued if she’s been putting out night after night deluded. The publicity from that kind of mix-up is not at all helpful, Tom. It makes undercover policing look unscrupulous and amoral, which, viewed from some angles, it is, of course. We don’t wish to emphasize this, though. There have consequently been some important undercover procedures added to those already in force. You’ll ask, which? A categorical ban on all undercover sex is patently impossible. The undercover officer has to establish a full and credible life in the firm, and this is almost certain to mean attachment, attachments, usually hetero.’

  ‘You’re telling me to shag around?’ Tom said.

  ‘I’m telling you that nothing should stop you behaving in character – in your assumed character, that is. I’m telling you, Tom, that when difficulties arise afterwards – if they do – they will be efficiently considered and coped with. We accept now that these women have a compensatable case. Financial grants may be made to them from a new, dedicated slush fund, referred to slangily, I’m afraid, as the “conned cunt caddy”, conditional upon their agreement not to broadcast – broadcast in the
widest sense – details of the affair, affairs.’ He took a few mouthfuls of burn water. Then he said: ‘I notice you frown, and all credit to you for it.’

  ‘I would have expected frowning from Tom at this point,’ Lambert said. ‘He would argue, I think, that emotional damage cannot be adequately repaired by money – mere money, as it is sometimes dubbed. This is, yes, an admirable reaction. We all know that Beatles number that states “money can’t buy me love”, I’m sure. However, it will be my mission – and the mission, no doubt, of other handlers around the country, with the aid of inner soul experts like you, Mr Rockmain – to convince these women that the romancing was not a heartless or flippant act, acts, by the officer, but a necessary and valued part of his facade; and to convince them also that acceptance of an honorarium, running into four figures most likely, for this service and their buttoned lip in no way reflects disparagingly on the women and is not in any degree to be confused with payment to a whore post hoc.’

  Rockmain said: ‘Naturally, we are aware that the proposed doling out of currency to excuse what these women regard as fleshly exploitation might seem cold and mercenary. Perhaps an insult, even. Handlers such as Howie will have to shape their healing approach very subtly, very delicately. It will not be a rushed matter, and I’ll be ready with specialist support for him at every stage of the challenging negotiations. I should be able to judge the state of the woman’s, women’s, mind, minds, from what Howard tells me, and suggest detailed techniques, distinct and custom-made, individually fashioned, for each and every dupee concerned, thus assuring progress. So, you see, Tom, the potential situation, situations has, have, been very thoroughly reviewed and measures made ready. You may – must – use every means to protect your substitute identity. You can do this certain that all possible subsequent problems will be properly, generously, humanely resolved.’

  Tom dealt with the remains of his meal. ‘We’ll be away,’ Lambert said. ‘Best not leave together.’