Spider Trap bak-9

by Barry Maitiland

  ‘Yes, he did eventually. He was talking to Grant’s wife when we left, otherwise I’d have introduced you.’

  ‘Pity, I’d have liked to have met the great man before he quits.’

  Kathy was used to Lloyd playing the joker, and she assumed from his exaggeratedly innocent expression and the flicker of exasperation on Nicole’s face that he was having her on. Still, she took the bait and said,‘Quits?’

  ‘Sure, any day now is what I hear. Hasn’t Tom told you that he’s taking over?’

  Now it was Tom rolling his eyes, as if this was an old joke that had outlived its use-by date.

  ‘No, I don’t think he mentioned that.’ ‘Really?’Lloyd frowned with puzzlement and concern.‘Well,

  he’s told us all about it, hasn’t he, Nic?’

  ‘Shut up, Lloyd,’ Nicole answered, but Kathy noticed she didn’t actually deny it. Tom was looking uncomfortable.

  ‘Oh God, yes, all kinds of plans to streamline . . .’

  There was an awkward pause while the Indian waiter brought their lagers.

  ‘No, well,’ Lloyd went on, ‘I’m probably jumping ahead. I’m sure he’ll consult with everybody before he puts the more draconian measures into practice.’ He leaned forward conspiratorially.‘It’s the timing that’s so perfect,Kathy.Cheers.’

  ‘Shut up, Lloyd,’ Tom growled, ‘for Christ’s sake. You’re not funny.’

  ‘What do you mean, about the timing?’ Kathy asked.

  ‘Well, he can’t go back to Branch now, can he? Not now.’

  Tom made to say something, but Kathy cut in.‘Why not?’

  ‘Hasn’t he told you about that,either?’Lloyd’s face was a picture of innocent bafflement. He turned to Tom, then to Nicole, one of whom had apparently kicked him under the table.‘What?’

  ‘Why?’ Kathy said, trying with difficulty to make her voice sound light and amused.‘Why can’t he go back to Special Branch?’

  Lloyd shrugged, looking as if he suddenly realised he’d gone too far.‘Personality clash,Kathy.Tom’s boss is an old woman.’He frowned, realising that wasn’t the right thing to say either. ‘A geriatric desk-jockey at forty. Sad case. Resents like hell the fact that this guy has balls.Well, you’d know all about that . . .’

  ‘Oh please.’ Nicole finally stepped in. ‘That’s enough. He’s been drinking this afternoon, Kathy. Take no notice of him. I know we all work for the Met, but do we have to talk shop?’

  ‘Hear hear,’ Tom said.‘It’s slightly shop, but Kathy and I got a flight with Air Support this afternoon.’

  ‘Oh really! Where did you go?’

  It was a good try, but it would have taken a better actor than either of them to make it sound convincing. Lloyd gave Kathy a sheepish look and muttered,‘Yeah,they’re right,take no notice of me. I’m pissed. Had a bad week. Almost killed a guy . . .’

  And so the conversation veered off, but Kathy hardly heard it.

  Not half a mile away, Brock also was seated at a restaurant table, but in much more relaxed company. The Grants had insisted he join them and the musicians for a meal and now the conversation flowed easily around the table in the mood of post-performance euphoria. They were all so likeable, he thought, modest and talented and full of youthful optimism,talking excitedly about their plans for when they finished at the Guildhall later in the year. Elizabeth had been accepted for the Artist Diploma program at the Juilliard in New York, and her mother was proud but anxious about her move away from them.

  At the end of the meal Brock made his good nights and set off home, stopping along the way to phone Suzanne. She sounded pleased to hear from him, and they agreed that it had been good to see each other, and they would do it again soon. They were both careful in what they said, but warm, definitely warm. The atmosphere of the restaurant still clung to Brock and he hummed a snatch of Tango Nuevo as he went on.

  The atmosphere of the restaurant clung to Kathy, too, as Tom drove them away. She waited for him to say something, but when he remained silent she started.

  ‘So what was that all about, you not being able to go back to Branch?’

  ‘I told you I’d been having problems there lately.’

  ‘Not really.You haven’t really told me anything about what’s been happening.’

  ‘Like Lloyd said, it’s a personality clash. It happens all the time.’

  ‘And what about your plans?’

  ‘I’m just playing it by ear.’

  ‘That’s not what Lloyd said. He and Nicole seemed to know all about them.’

  This was the nub, of course, that her friend Nicole, who’d never met Tom until she’d introduced them, seemed to know more about what was going on inside his head than she did.

  ‘Oh, it’s nothing. I bumped into them one lunchtime and was shooting off my mouth about stuff, that’s all.’

  Kathy bridled. Tom didn’t shoot his mouth off to strangers. He was secretive and highly selective in what he said. ‘Stuff you haven’t told me.’

  ‘Look, it’s difficult sometimes to discuss certain things with you.You’re involved, with me, with Brock . . .’

  ‘Brock? What about him?’

  ‘You’ve been with him a long time.You’re very loyal to him, understandably so.’

  ‘And I would see your thoughts as disloyal?’

  ‘I’m just saying that it’s difficult sometimes to air ideas freely without feeling they may be taken the wrong way.’

  ‘Whereas with someone who’s practically a total stranger, like Nicole, you can feel free to shoot your mouth off? That’s bullshit.’

  She felt the knot tightening in her stomach.What also irked her was the way in which he hadn’t discussed where they were now going, but had simply driven north towards Finchley on the assumption, presumably, that he would be inviting himself in.

  They were almost there now, and she was just preparing some line to challenge him when he pulled over and said,‘I’m sorry,Kathy, we got off on the wrong foot tonight. It was Lloyd’s fault. Let’s leave it for now. We’ll catch up tomorrow or Monday and talk about it. Okay?’

  Stung, she unfastened her seatbelt and got out of the car, and then, looking back in through the window, she caught a glimpse of him checking his watch impatiently before he waved and took off. She stared after him and thought she saw a familiar shadow draw out behind him as he crossed the junction down the street, but this time she didn’t phone him.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Sunday, a dark overcast morning, and Kathy woke after a disturbed sleep. The knot of tension in her stomach was still there, and she found she couldn’t swallow the coffee she made. There was only one cure she knew of, and that was work, so she took an empty tube train into the city and walked to Queen Anne’s Gate. The offices, too, were deserted and she felt like an intruder in the silent building.

  Loose ends, Brock had said. She went back over her case notes and identified a few. They still hadn’t been able to contact the owner of the red BMW sports car she’d seen in Tallow Square, a Mrs Coretta Wilkins with an address in Chigwell, and Kathy tried the phone number again without success. They had no record for Mrs Wilkins,whose car hadn’t been reported stolen,and it seemed that her improbable presence there must be coincidental. Then there was Mrs Lavender, whom Father Maguire and Brock had mentioned from the old days in Cockpit Lane, but hadn’t been on Michael Grant’s list. She could try to track down people who worked at the old Studio One club on Maxfield Street where the three victims used to go, or trace ‘Rhonda’, who had possibly had a boyfriend called Robbie, perhaps the third and most elusive victim. Or she might find out more about Teddy Vexx and Jay Crocker, and their dodgy laundrette.

  She worked for five hours with little success, finding nothing that stirred any real interest in her, until the silence began to get her down. She switched off her computer and left, walking across St James’s Park to Trafalgar Square and on past Leicester Square to Gerrard Street where she had a quiet meal in a tiny Chinese restaurant she knew. Afterw
ards she went to a movie, feeling as if her life were on hold, waiting for something significant to happen.

  The following day she was called to a meeting with the Crown prosecutors,and it wasn’t until the early afternoon that she returned to her desk, determined to draw up a report for Brock, along with a request to be taken off Brown Bread. There was one new bit of information waiting for her on her computer, a list of car numbers courtesy of the Greenwich Rainbow Coordinator, taken from the golf club camera in Shooters Hill. Comparing them with her list of numbers of interest was what her old schoolteacher would have called busy-work, but there was a kind of mindless entertainment in it, like playing a poker machine, hoping for a random match. When she had eliminated all the numbers known to belong to Roach family members she had a list of their visitors’ cars for the past six days.Unfortunately this didn’t cover the night of the Singhs’ intimidation,for the camera tape had been reused since then,but in any case, there was no sign of Vexx’s Peugeot or Crocker’s Mondeo on the list. She began to run checks on the unknown numbers and soon came to one that made her sit up-Mrs Wilkins’ red BMW had been a frequent visitor to The Glebe.Kathy checked the times.

  Not just any visitor, but an overnight visitor no less, on three of the last six nights.

  Encouraged, Kathy continued to check numbers. Several were innocent enough-a plumber, a messenger service, guests for Sunday lunch who lived nearby. Then Kathy hit another jackpot, and this time she felt that little dizzying adrenaline shock that people describe as heart-stopping. She checked the number again. It occurred four times, twice coming and twice going, both late at night, after midnight, in the early hours of Sunday and before that on the previous Wednesday. A Subaru, registered to Tom Reeves.

  She took a deep breath, then got on the phone to Greenwich, requesting digital copies of the camera images for a number of the times recorded.They said it would take a couple of hours if it was top priority and she told them it was, giving DCI Brock’s name. Kathy waited, heart thumping, then rang down to the front desk to see if Tom had signed in that day and was told that he’d been there since noon. She forced herself to complete her check of the car numbers, then saved the file with a new password and began her report for Brock, no more than a list of key facts, the way he liked it.

  The file of requested images finally arrived on her computer and she opened the first, for the early hours of Wednesday morning, when he’d turned up exhausted at her flat. And there he was, no mistake,his face caught behind the windscreen by the streetlight opposite the golf club entrance, and beside him, smiling prettily, Miss J’Adore. Then she checked the most recent image, just the other night, after the concert and their quarrel-same again, with the same dark-haired girl. In each case there was a second image taken less than an hour after the first,showing the Subaru emerging from the lane leading to The Glebe,the driver now alone in the car. And then she realised who Miss J’Adore was.

  Kathy moved on to the other images she’d requested, of Mrs Wilkins’ BMW, and there was the girl again, behind the wheel this time. She should have thought of it, she told herself-wasn’t Coretta a Greek name? Coretta Wilkins was probably an aunt or cousin of Magdalen Roach, Miss J’Adore herself, who’d been borrowing her car.

  ‘You bastard,’ Kathy whispered, staring again at the image of Tom and Magdalen in his Subaru.‘You stupid bastard.’ She pressed the key for a print.

  She found him in the basement ‘Roach Room’. He was sitting tilted back in his chair, feet up, hands behind his head, contemplating the photos on the wall when she opened the door, and he reacted with a jump, swinging himself upright.

  ‘Oh, hi, Kathy. How are you?’

  She closed the door behind her.‘A bit clearer now, Tom. Here, I’ve got another picture for your rogues’ gallery.’

  He reached for it with a smile. ‘Oh, thank-’ He froze as he took in what it was.‘Fuck.’

  ‘Is that what you do with her?’

  He stared at her, mouth open.

  ‘An eloquent answer. I’m going to see Brock.Want to come?’

  ‘No!’ He leapt to his feet.

  ‘What, this is all a terrible mistake, this is not what it seems? Don’t insult me, Tom. There are other pictures.’

  ‘My God. How . . .Who?’

  ‘Never mind.’ Kathy reached for the print and turned away. ‘I think I’ll see him myself first.’

  Tom rushed towards her, and for a moment she thought he was going to grab her, but instead he threw himself between her and the door.‘Kathy, listen, don’t do anything until you’ve heard what I’ve got to say. Please.’

  She considered a moment, then said, ‘All right, but it had better be good. One false note and I’m off.’

  He took a deep breath.‘Sit down, please.’ He went back around the table and took his own seat.‘I’m not going to stop you leaving, but it’s very important that you hear me out. It wasn’t my idea to target Magdalen.’

  ‘Target? Is that what you call it in the Branch?’

  Tom held up his hand. ‘Just listen. What I told you about wanting to get out of Special Branch was true-I can’t get on with my boss, and he’s been making things difficult. So when he offered to loan me to Brock for the Brown Bread investigation I was very happy. Then when Brock made it plain that he was going after the Roaches, I had a quiet word with one of my mates in the Branch. He said he’d heard something about another operation against them.’

  ‘What operation? We haven’t heard about this.’

  ‘I don’t know, it’s probably in the past. My friend had the impression it might have originated outside the Met. MI5 maybe, or the JIC. Anyway, he felt it could be useful my being here, in Brock’s team, in terms of my career.’

  ‘As a spy.’

  ‘No, no. I’ve had no contact with these other people, if they exist, and I haven’t been talking about Brock’s investigation. It isn’t like that, Kathy. I may be able to help him, and us too.’

  ‘By screwing-sorry, targeting-sweet Magdalen?’

  Tom took another deep breath.‘I asked my friend to keep his ears open, and he came back with a hint about one of Roach’s grandchildren being rebellious and a possible source of inside information on the clan. I took a good long look at them all and came to the conclusion that it had to be Magdalen. She’s been a bit wild, recently divorced, reputation for partying. Four months ago she was picked up for drink driving,with traces of coke in the glove box, and when local CID interviewed her she said one or two odd things about her relatives that the detective thought significant enough to pass on to the Central Crime Squad.She had her driver’s licence suspended. The drugs matter wasn’t pursued.

  ‘So I decided to find out more about her, where she goes, who her friends are. I arranged to bump into her a couple of times at clubs, and gradually got talking to her. She let me take her home, because she shouldn’t be driving, although in fact she does use a car belonging to a relative who’s overseas. Since her divorce she’s been living in her parents’ house in The Glebe, but she’s pretty hostile about some members of the family, especially her father, Ivor. She’s really vitriolic about him and the way he treats her mother. That was the main reason she went to stay with them, she said, to keep an eye on her mother. They seem to be very close. She’s told me things we didn’t know, like the fact that her grandpa has a trophy cabinet, with guns.’

  He let that sink in, watching Kathy’s mind working. ‘Brown Bread?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s possible. That’s one of the things I’d like to find out.We joke about her being like Rapunzel, living in a castle, and how I’d like to see inside. That would be impossible, of course, with her parents there, only they went to New York at the weekend for a few days, and most of the rest of the clan are travelling up north today for a family function. I’m seeing Magdalen at the club tonight, and she’s promised to take me home and show me around.’

  ‘Bren knows about all this, does he?’

  Tom shook his head.‘Nobody does,unti
l now.’

  Kathy gaped at him. ‘Nobody? You’ve carried out your own private operation on the Roaches and you haven’t told anyone? And tonight you’re planning to walk into The Glebe without back-up, without letting anyone know?’

  ‘I’ve put everything down on file. It’s in the cabinet over there, everything I’ve done and learned, and when the time comes I’ll

  go to Brock with it. But not yet.’

  She made to protest, but he leaned urgently across the table. ‘Kathy, you know that Michael Grant was right about the connection between the Roaches and the Yardies, but we’re getting nowhere.We’re like a ship without a rudder. This is what I do-undercover work. If I find something, I’ll take it to Brock. If not, no harm done.’

  ‘You’ve got to tell Brock before tonight, Tom.’

  ‘And if I do, what will he say? My guess is that he’s been told to back off. If so, he can’t afford to let me go in.’

  ‘Try him.’

  ‘Kathy, it’s better he doesn’t know.’

  She thought about that. It dawned on her just how badly Tom wanted a coup, something spectacular to recharge his career or wipe out whatever had gone wrong for him in Special Branch. His secretiveness was breathtaking, but then that was the way he’d been trained to be, and maybe only he could pull off the stunt he was planning. She also remembered Lloyd’s niggling joke about Tom wanting Brock’s job.

  ‘But I know.’

  ‘No you don’t. This conversation never happened.’

  ‘Of course it did. I’m involved now. If we don’t tell Brock, then I’m as responsible as you are. So I’ve got to be part of it.’

  ‘No way.’

  ‘She won’t see me, but I’ll be there, your back-up.You’ll keep in touch by texting me, and if you’re not out of The Glebe by a set time I’ll call in the troops.’

  ‘No. Having you in the background will only increase the risk to me, Kathy.’

  ‘Tough.’