Doing the Best I Can_A Manchester Crime Story featuring DSI Jeff Barton

by David Menon

  ‘Callum?’ the stranger opened. ‘You said you’d be wearing a grey polo shirt and you’re the only guy in here who is’.

  ‘Very observant’ said Callum. He was in equally as casual clothes as Callum was. A light blue t-shirt over faded blue jeans.

  ‘I’m Nick Eades’ said the stranger.

  He had a firm handshake, pearl white teeth with no trace of tea or coffee or red wine stains. Thank God he could now appreciate a good looking man without wanting to jump his bones. He was so glad those days were over.

  ‘And I’m Callum McIntyre’.

  ‘You’ve never done this before, have you’

  ‘Done what?’

  ‘Got the stuff you need from somewhere other than some giant store?’

  ‘Is it that obvious?’

  ‘No, but I’d say you were a little tense, shall we say?’

  ‘Well you’re right I don’t make a habit of meeting people in pubs for this kind of reason’ Callum admitted.

  ‘Look, Callum, I’ll say to you what I say to all the guys I deal with’ said Nick. ‘I’m doing this for all the regular guys out there like you and me who put the hours in day in, day bloody out and only so we end up lining the pockets of the big fat cats who tell us they’re doing us a service when really they’re ripping us off. And do you know what? They never say bloody sorry for keeping us in the place they want us to be. And my way of getting them back is simple. I go to all the wholesalers I have accounts with and I order double of what I need. Bearing in mind that I’m already getting the stuff at a discounted price I sell the remainder on and make my profit. But with my way it’s me and my trade mates who benefit because I make some cash and my mates get the stuff they need for a discount price. It’s so easy. I’m surprised nobody else has caught on to it’.

  ‘What about the wholesalers themselves? They obviously haven’t caught wind of it?’

  ‘Not to my knowledge’ said Nick with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘But look mate, how many times have you been approached by someone who wants to buy you out and amalgamate your business into their much bigger company with offices across the country and all that shit?’

  ‘About … well about four times in the last twelve months to be honest’.

  ‘And that’s my point. They want us little guys out of the market because they’re greedy fuckers. But that’s not what we went into it for. We went into it because we want to provide that level of individual customer service that they can’t. We went into it so that we could be our own boss, right?’

  ‘Absolutely right’.

  ‘And all the time the big boys are trying to take it all off us by getting together with the supply companies and fixing the prices of the stuff we need to do our job and further our business. Whether we’re plumbers, joiners, carpenters, or electricians like you and me, it’s time for us to fight back and stick two fingers up at them. Do you agree?’

  ‘How could I not when you make your point so forcefully?’

  Nick blushed. ‘Yea, I can get pretty intense about it all. Look, I’ll get myself a beer and then come back’.

  Whilst Nick was at the bar Callum exchanged a couple of messages with Angus and when Nick came back he asked if Callum had been communicating with his girlfriend.

  ‘No, my boyfriend actually’ said Callum who always answered a direct question about his sexuality with the truth. He didn’t let anybody put him in a closet and it had been the same right the way through since he came out when he was fourteen. ‘I’m gay’.

  ‘Oh, sorry mate, you just don’t seem like the type’ said Nick who then had to work hard to mask his revulsion. Hearing this little pervert say he was gay brought back a whole heap of horrors for Nick. He didn’t used to be able to handle it. He used to be the biggest gay basher there was, deliberately flirting with all the Queens only to beat them senseless once he got the opportunity down some back alley. But this was business and if this little fag could line his palms with money then so fucking be it.

  ‘The type?’

  ‘Well you know, doing the job you do and all’.

  Callum wondered when the world was going to grow up and realise that gay men come in all shapes and sizes just like straight men do? They were no longer the camp comedian on TV or the uncle who nobody talked about. Callum was still irritated by people who were amazed that men like him could be gay. Ignorant fuckwits.

  ‘I hope I didn’t offend you’ said Nick, hoping he sounded sincere.

  ‘No you didn’t’ Callum lied. ‘Anyway, I don’t see a ring on that finger so I assume you’re not married. Regular girlfriend?’

  Nick shook his head. ‘I’ve been engaged twice, mate. Both times I saw what was coming for the rest of my life and broke it off. I just can’t be doing with someone organising me. I can organise my life pretty well myself thank you very much’. He was seeing someone but he didn’t want to tell Callum about her. It was very early days yet.

  ‘Fair enough’.

  ‘Now you’ve already told me what you want and I’ve got it all in stock as it were’ said Nick. ‘So we just need to arrange a time for you to come over and get it’.

  ‘Where is it you live?’

  ‘Well I live here in the city but I keep all my stuff at a property I’ve got I the country. It’s a bit of a way but it’s secluded and nobody notices any comings and goings’.

  TWELVE

  It had only taken a matter of twenty-four hours during which Barton and DCI Ollie Wright had interviewed Lance Parkin, TV cameraman and boyfriend of Suzanne Hermitage who’d disappeared, but when Barton got into work the next morning he was told that Chef Constable Ronald Hermitage had been arrested outside the home of Lance Parkin in Altincham. It transpired that Parkin sustained such brutal injuries whilst being beaten up by Hermitage that he was now in hospital fighting for his life.

  ‘Bloody idiot!’ Barton cursed. ‘What the hell did he think he was doing?’

  ‘He must’ve thought that Parkin was somehow responsible for his daughter’s disappearance, sir’ said DCI Wright.

  ‘Just like he thought Scott Delaney was responsible for the murder of Stacey Donaldson, not to mention Karina Kowalewski. That’s his trouble, Ollie. He doesn’t stop to think about anything logically. I mean, you saw how distraught Parkin was when we interviewed him? He had the ring all ready to ask Suzanne Hermitage to marry him that night she was due at his place but didn’t turn up. I tell you what though, Hermitage must be pretty agile to get the better of someone as lean as Parkin in a fight’.

  ‘According to the initial report from the uniformed officers who attended the scene Hermitage attacked Parkin with a crow bar which rendered him unconscious only seconds into the incident. The doctors say there’s only a 50/50 chance he’ll make it’.

  Barton shook his head. ‘He’s going to be fun to interview, that’s for sure’.

  Just as Barton was contemplating how he was going to approach the questioning of Hermitage who was now being held in a police cell downstairs, Barton’s immediate boss Chief Superintendent Geraldine Chambers, came into the squad room and asked to speak to Barton privately.

  ‘This goes no further than these four walls, Jeff’ Chambers began. ‘We’ve been planning the demise of the circuit for a long time, as you know, and this could be our best chance ever. By attacking Lance Parkin, Ronald Hermitage has given us a golden opportunity’.

  ‘And if one falls then they all fall’ said Barton.

  ‘Correct’ agreed Chambers. ‘It’s what we talked about before all those months ago during that case involving the now defunct English Nationalist party’.

  ‘Did you know they offered DS Masters money to charge Scott Delaney with the murder of Karina Kowalewski, ma’am?’

  ‘Yes I did’ Chambers confirmed.

  ‘Then why didn’t we intervene then and protect him?’

  ‘Jeff, we had to let matters take their course until we were sure that he wouldn’t go their way’.

  ‘Yes’ said Chambers. �
��You see, the procedures we work to are so much more transparent now than they even were when I was at your stage in my career. The circuit is a generational thing. It’s been going for many years and it runs up through all the professional classes in our city but it’s dismantling, falling apart simply because those in it are getting too old or are dying. That means the circuit is dying, Jeff because they can’t get replacements. These days they tend to look out for those who are having extra marital affairs or have problems with personal debt and Hermitage leans on them. That was all fine in the seventies when the circuit could do no wrong. But now we know they’re down to counting their numbers on just two hands and even then they’ve got fingers to spare. So that’s why I’m counting on you, Jeff. With this investigation you can kill off the circuit for good’.

  ‘No pressure then, ma’am’.

  ‘Like I said, one push in the right place’.

  ‘Ronald Hermitage?’

  Chambers nodded. ‘It may seem callous given his daughter’s disappearance but it may end up being that she’s fallen victim to her father’s dirty dealings over the years so I wouldn’t have a conscience about pushing him if I was you’.

  ‘And killing off the circuit would be an added prize to finding justice for our victims, ma’am’.

  ‘Absolutely’ said Chambers. ‘There’s always been corruption in the force and we’ll never stamp it out completely. But it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. Attitudes have changed and the public are a lot more confident about holding us to account, like they are with all public servants these days. But the kind of organised corruption that crosses over into other professions like the circuit can now be dealt with. So, as you proceed with this investigation I want you to reiterate what you already know’.

  ‘Which is, ma’am?’

  ‘That I’ve got your back every step of the way’.

  The team’s civilian support worker, Louisa Pilkington, had been checking the mobile phone records of Suzanne Hermitage. Text messages had been sent from her phone to her mother and her boyfriend Lance Parkin saying that she wanted to ‘get away from it all’ for a few days but was perfectly alright and they didn’t have to worry, but with no explanation as to why she wanted to get away. So was that just the killer buying time for some reason? Was he playing a game of cruelly teasing her mother and Lance Parkin that she was safe and well when she was nothing of the sort?

  Then there were Suzanne’s two friends who’d been out with her at Costello’s bar that night. A thorough search of the house the three girls shared had come up with no trace of Suzanne’s mobile phone, nor had they found it at the home of Lance Parkin.

  Louisa had got the techies to put a trace on where the phone had been when the messages were sent out. It had come down to three locations across Manchester. Broughton, Denton, and Cheadle Hulme. Nothing unduly remarkable about any of those but were they randomly chosen or did whoever had taken Suzanne Hermitage have a purpose for being in those places?

  ‘It might’ve been work’ DC Emily Ng suggested in the further team meeting Barton had called. ‘Let’s say he’s holding Suzanne Hermitage and is so confident that she’ll never be able to escape or be discovered that he still goes out to work every day’.

  ‘He’s arrogant’ said Barton. ‘He thinks he’s invincible. But if he does cross town in his line of work then what does that tell us about what he does for a living?’

  ‘That he goes into people’s homes?’ suggested Emily. ‘He could be some sort of financial advisor?’

  ‘Or a medic?’ DS Bradshaw suggested.

  ‘Or a tradesman?’ Emily went on. ‘A tradesman would have to be in different parts of the city during his working day’.

  ‘And, say an electrician, would be able to use their skills to make a crude form of electric chair’ said Barton who was warming to the idea rapidly.

  ‘So the low level tradesman crimes we were investigating for Hermitage could be somehow linked to the murders of Karina Kowalewski and Stacey Donaldson’ said DCI Wright. ‘Plus the disappearance of Suzanne Hermitage’

  ‘Well it’s certainly possible, Ollie’ said Barton, thoughtfully. ‘All that stuff that Hermitage got us to investigate about cheap components being made available to tradesmen across the city. It needs to be gone through again because I’m certain we’ve missed something’.

  ‘What the hell were you playing at?’ Barton demanded of Hermitage when he went to see him in the cell where he was being held. It was just the two of them.

  Hermitage looked up at Ben contemptuously and said in measured tones. ‘I am still the chief constable, DSI Barton’.

  ‘Not for much longer’ said Barton. ‘In fact the withdrawal of your rank is imminent’.

  ‘And won’t that really please you’.

  ‘As a matter of fact it won’t but then I don’t think like you, Hermitage’.

  ‘Well you’ve won now’ said Hermitage. ‘You must take some satisfaction from that?’

  ‘Let’s get back to the real issue here’ said Barton who was losing his patience.

  ‘He should’ve told me where my little girl is’ said Hermitage, solemnly.

  ‘But he didn’t know where she is’ Barton argued. ‘DCI Wright and myself interviewed him at length about his activities and he wasn’t even in Manchester on the night Suzanne disappeared. He was two hundred odd miles away in Southampton’.

  ‘So he says’.

  ‘We have confirmation from his employers at the BBC that he was there, plus CCTV footage of him in the hotel’.

  ‘He could’ve paid someone to do it’

  ‘Oh for Christ’s sake, Hermitage! When are you going to give up on this?’

  ‘When my little girl is found!’

  ‘And she won’t be found if you keep on diverting our attention in this way! Look, we’ve interviewed the two friends she was with that night and we’re still going through the pile of witness statements we’ve collected from other patrons who were in Costello’s bar that night. The investigation is ongoing and we will find out what’s happened to her’.

  ‘I still maintain that he could’ve hired someone to kidnap her’ Hermitage went on, convinced that Parkin was to blame for whatever had happened to his Suzanne.

  ‘For what bloody reason? He was about to ask her to marry him’.

  ‘I would never have allowed that’.

  ‘She wouldn’t have needed it because she’s a grown woman’ said Barton. ‘you know what your trouble is, Hermitage?’

  ‘Well I’m sure you’re going to take great delight in telling me’.

  ‘You’ve dealt with so much shit that you think everybody smells of it’ said Barton. ’And now look at you. Your career’s over and you’re probably facing a prison sentence. Is this where all that sucking up to the men in the circuit has got you?’.

  ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Barton’.

  ‘Don’t I? I know that none of them are rushing to help you now’.

  Hermitage looked up at him and just for a moment his eyes showed the real feelings that were going on underneath all the bravado.

  ‘Touched a nerve, have I?’

  ‘Why don’t you get back to doing your job instead of letting people like me do it with regard to Lance Parkin? In fact, why don’t you just fuck off?’

  ‘Except that Lance Parkin didn’t tell you anything because he had nothing to tell! And if Suzanne is found dead it won’t be down to me. It will down to her own father who convinced the world that Scott Delaney was our serial killer when he wasn’t. So don’t point the finger at me, Hermitage. Go over your own actions first and see how your pig-headed stupidity may have placed your own daughter in the hands of a serial killer’.

  That evening, DS Ben Masters went back to his parents place to make sure they were okay and to bed little Josh in for the night. After that he told his parents he was going out and might not be back until morning. They both smiled and said they knew where he was going.

  When
he got round to Abigail’s place the light was on in her flat above the pub which was now closed.

  She answered the door and said ‘My God, you look done in’.

  ‘Yea well it’s been a hard couple of days’ he said, rubbing his eyes.

  ‘I’ll pour you a scotch and you can tell me all about it’ said Abigail before standing aside for him to walk through the door and then up the stairs to her flat.

  ‘That sounds mighty fine to me honey’ said Ben. When he got upstairs and walked into the living room he looked round and could see that Abigail had been sitting watching TV on her own. ‘Where’s Harvey?’

  ‘He’s already in bed’.

  ‘That’s a shame’ said Ben. ‘I was hoping to see my first born’.

  ‘Well he’s been developing quite a social life lately, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but he needs to balance it. He’s a bright boy and it’s my duty as his mother to make sure he gets to bed early on a school night. I want him to realise his full potential’.

  ‘You make me feel so guilty’.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you tend to do both your job and mine where Harvey is concerned’.

  ‘Ben, you know I don’t see it like that’ said Abigail who then handed Ben his scotch and gently stroked the side of his face. Even though it was a gentle, tender gesture he still flinched.

  ‘What?’ said Abigail. ‘Has that bitch been hitting you again?’

  ‘I’m finally dealing with it’ said Ben. ‘I’ve moved me and Josh to my parent’s house and told her she’s got to sort herself out before I can even think of me or Josh going back’.