The Badge & the Pen Thrillers

by Roger A Price

  He glanced at Delany, who had a slight smugness easing into his expression. He looked back at Piper, as he continued. “Bob, yeah?”

  Vinnie and Delany nodded.

  “But I can tell he didn’t tell you it all. It wasn’t just some bent thing. You have to realise that Moxley had done the murder and rape of that poor bloke. But Bob had other reasons to make sure Moxley went down for what he’d done.”

  Vinnie saw Delany was as surprised as he was, neither spoke.

  “Moxley knew about me and Bob and was threatening to expose it during the trial. So the judge ordered his removal to the cells soon after I entered the witness box.”

  Vinnie knew that the judge would have been told in secret that Piper had once been Dawson’s informant, but had obviously ruled that his eyewitness evidence was too important to exclude. The witness’s previous status as an informant had no bearing, although the judge couldn’t have known that Piper was making it all up.

  “I know about the protocols for protecting informants in court,” Vinnie said.

  “No, I don’t mean that,” Piper said.

  “What then?

  “Somehow Moxley found out that Bob and I were lovers, and his brief was going to try and use it until the judge removed the jury and ruled it was of no bearing. That’s why Moxley was moved to the court cells during my evidence, then the jury came back in and I carried on.”

  Vinnie was astounded, and by the slackness of Delany’s jaw, so was he, but before Piper’s last remarks had had chance to register fully, he continued.

  “And after his conviction, he got word to Bob, that if he ever got out, he’d do me and then he’d find Bob.”

  Having recovered slightly, Vinnie said, “We know, Bob did tell us about that and he’s fully aware of the threat to both your lives.”

  “Sorry boys, wrong again. It was only ever me that Moxley was going to kill.”

  “Why?” Delany asked in a weaker voice than before.

  “Because he hated me for what he knew I’d said in the box, and also he was jealous.”

  “Jealous? What do you mean, jealous?” Delany said, his tone rising.

  “He wasn’t going to kill Bob; he was intending to enslave him. He wanted him for himself.”

  Vinnie wasn’t sure he could believe all he was hearing, but Piper spoke with a mixture of fear and honesty in his diction. A very weird situation was getting weirder. After a few moments’ respite, Vinnie carried on. “How can you be so sure of that; the threat to Dawson from Moxley seems pretty clear?”

  “I know, but I think its bollocks. I think he wants to terrorise Bob so he can control him when he eventually catches up with him.”

  “I’m guessing this is just a hunch?” Vinnie said.

  “It’s what I think, but I’ve no proof.”

  “Have you seen or heard from Bob since the original trial?” said Delany.

  “That’s the other thing. Bob’s not in Alicante, he was living with me in Scotland. He had been since he retired and split from his missus. He leaves a footprint over there, to quote his words; he even has a Spanish registered phone, costs him a fortune over here.”

  Vinnie wasn’t sure how many more shocks old Delany could take. He had both hands wrapped around his head.

  “So what were you doing in Preston?” Vinnie asked.

  “Keeping up appearances at weekends, when Bob would visit his kids and family. They don’t know about me. But after Bob told me about Moxley’s break-out, I was paying one last visit to collect some stuff; and that’s when the bastard jumped me.”

  “You said Bob was living with you in Scotland. Where is he now?” Vinnie asked.

  “I’ve no idea. He told me he was going to Manchester to meet you two, and then he rang me to say he’d told you nothing and was going to disappear until Moxley was caught.”

  “What about you?” Vinnie said.

  “That’s what I thought; so much for supporting each other.”

  Chapter Forty

  Bill Johnson sat up as best he could and Jimmy handed him a bottle of mineral water which he drank in seconds. Fully awake now he turned back to face Jimmy. He pointed with his free hand at the hole in the floor from where the water noise was coming.

  “What’s down there?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “What, you mean you’ve not looked yet?”

  “This is the first day I’ve been unchained, and it was dark when Moxley left. I must have dropped off.”

  “Well, for the love of God; have a look now,” Johnson shouted.

  He watched Jimmy scurry over to the hole, hold on to the ladder top and peer down the shaft. “Well, what do you see?”

  “Hard to say. It goes down a long way, and I can only see so far before it disappears into darkness.”

  There seemed to be reluctance in Jimmy’s voice that Johnson couldn’t understand. “Are you sure you’re telling me it straight? If I was you I’d have been straight down that shaft as soon as the nutter left.”

  “I’m no good with heights, and I can’t swim. Moxley knows that.”

  Johnson knew there was more, “But?”

  “Apparently, there’s a ranging torrent down there,”

  “But?”

  “Okay, okay, I’m shit scared what he’ll do to my mum.”

  “He can’t do anything from behind bars.”

  “You don’t understand,” Jimmy said, “when we were padded up together, he used to do me every night, said, if I didn’t do like he wanted, he knew people on the out who would sort my old queen. You see it’s not the first time he’s used her against me, from the inside and out.”

  “And he knows it works,” Johnson said.

  “What?”

  Johnson didn’t answer straight away, he been trained to recognise the signs of inmates who were so wholly terrified of another that they were completely under their control. Unfortunately, he’d failed to notice it when Jimmy and Moxley had been inside, but he was seeing it now.

  He spent the next half an hour trying to break Moxley’s spell. Trying to embolden Jimmy to at least try and get out and then get help. “Why don’t you just give it a try, and if after you’ve gone down a bit, you freak out, come back up and try again.”

  “Suppose,” Jimmy said, as he slowly went to the hole for another look down.

  Johnson knew how craven he could be, but this guy was beyond belief. Or maybe something had changed in his own persona after the fight in the lounge. “Come on Jimmy, Moxley could be back at any moment.”

  “He said he’d be gone most of the day.”

  “Things change,” Johnson said. This seemed to get through as Jimmy took hold of the ladder top to check its security and slowly, painfully slowly, clambered on to its rungs and started to disappear.

  A few minutes later he was back.

  “What do I do at the bottom?”

  Johnson had to dig deep to hold his calm, “There is bound to be an inspection walkway along the length of the sewer, or how else can the council workers get about?”

  “Suppose, makes sense,” he replied, before disappearing once more.

  This time he kept going and Johnson listened as the noise of his feet on the steps gradually decreased. Then nothing but the sound of distant rapid moving water. He strained his hearing, half expecting to hear a huge splash, but heard nothing. He hoped Jimmy made it to the outside and got the cops there sharpish. Then a thought passed through him he hadn’t previously considered. What if Jimmy didn’t call the cops? What if he got his old mum and legged it? After all, in his mind, he might think he would get nicked for helping Moxley kidnap Johnson. Shit, why didn’t he think of this before, he could have reassured Jimmy.

  His bladder was full now and fear was adding to its pressure, he’d have to go where he was. Another worry replaced the last one. What if Moxley didn’t come back, for whatever reason? What if the bloody cops did their job properly and nicked him and he naturally kept shtum about the sewer? He could die do
wn here. This thought hadn’t occurred until now, but it was one he couldn’t shake off. It spread through him like a medieval plague, gripping him and consuming him.

  He started to scream. “Help, help, down the sewer, help I’m down here.”

  *

  Vinnie followed Delany into his office, closing the door behind him. “I hope we’ve done the right thing letting him go,” he said.

  “It’ll be my decision if it goes wrong,” said Delany.

  “I didn’t mean that Harry, it’ll have been our decision; I’m just thinking out loud.”

  After Piper had finished, he’d made it very clear he wasn’t intending to hang around. They had a stark choice; arrest him or let him go. During a brief chat in the hotel corridor Delany said they didn’t have enough to arrest him yet and, in any event, when they did, they needed to have both Dawson and Piper in the cells at the same time. They had managed to convince Piper that all they were interested in was catching Moxley, and it was true that that had to remain their only focus for now.

  Piper had been very open with them and given them his mobile number and the address in Glasgow where he was staying. At least they knew where to get hold of him when the time was right. Finding Dawson however might be a bit trickier. Piper had promised to give one of them a ring when he heard from Dawson again and never questioned why. Delany had said they needed to know where both of them were for safety reasons. He’d seemed to accept that.

  Delany had arranged for one of the enquiry team to take Piper back to his motor in Preston and then tail him up the M6 until he was happy no one else was following.

  “As it stands we have Moxley on the loose in Preston, last known on foot, with half of Preston’s finest looking for him,” Delany said.

  “With Johnson and Jimmy missing and a suggestion that Moxley has access to a sewer,” Vinnie added.

  There was a knock at the door and Vinnie turned to see the crime scene manager Susan Hall walk in.

  “Didn’t recognise you without your white suit on,” Vinnie said.

  “I know, paper really suits me,” Sue replied, before closing the door and pulling up a second chair around the low occasional table. “I’ve finished at Johnson’s flat now.”

  “Anything?” Delany asked.

  “Forced entry at the rear door, no fingerprints, but a couple of footwear marks. Some sort of implement used to pop the lock. Obvious signs of a struggle in the lounge, a cushion that appears to have been used to defend against a sharp object but no blood.”

  “Did you see the broken glass in the lounge doorway?” Vinnie asked.

  “Yes, it was a beer bottle, looks like it’s been used to hit someone over the head.”

  “Okay, Sue, thanks; is that it?”

  “One other thing; I found a mobile phone with one set of prints on it, I’m assuming they are Johnson’s.”

  Vinnie looked at Delany and Sue saw them.

  “I’m guessing by that look that Johnson wasn’t supposed to have a phone,” she said.

  “No, he wasn’t,” Vinnie and Delany answered in unison.

  “After I lifted the prints from its casing and swabbed it for DNA, I researched its memory. There are no texts, or stored numbers, but a few calls into and out to the same number, here.” She laid a piece of paper on Delany’s desk. “And a missed call from another number. I’ve written it on the back.”

  They both bent forward to look at the paper and Vinnie recognised it as Rob Hill’s number.

  Delany and Vinnie thanked Sue and after she left, Delany turned the paper over to reveal the missed call number. Vinnie saw his eyes widen as he read it.

  “There’s something I’ve forgotten to tell you,” Vinnie started and went on to explain the field test he’d done from Rob’s flat earlier.

  The ensuing bollocking was less than he’d expected, and certainly less than he deserved, though all together it proved one thing. “Not content with having an affair with my wife, he gives Johnson a bloody phone,” Vinnie said, trying to move Delany on.

  “It looks that way, but we don’t know how far Rob’s complicity goes.”

  “True,” said Vinnie. “Did he just provide Johnson with a phone for dosh, or was it a deeper rooted relationship?”

  “It may have been the key to opening him up and no more, as wrong as it was,” said Delany.

  Vinnie remembered how impressed he’d been at Rob getting the whole story out of Johnson on his own so it was a possible hypothesis. “I’ll guess we’ll have to wait until we get our hands on Johnson to find out.”

  Delany said they should grab some food before the canteen shut at 7 pm and then Vinnie could start his sewer search as punishment for ringing Johnson’s phone.

  “Fair enough,” he answered.

  “If he’s using one already, then there should be some disturbance at an entry/egress position. If we get lucky, Moxley can come to us,” Delany said.

  “I hope you’re right Harry; it’s just knowing where the hell to start.”

  Chapter Forty-one

  Moxley got off the train at Manchester Piccadilly and visited the station toilets where he ditched the parka and the rug, and checked his arm properly. It wasn’t much more than a deep graze. He’d been lucky. He mused at how easily he’d got out of Preston. There had even been a couple of Transport filth on the platform there but neither clocked him; well, they seemed to see him, but not see him.

  As soon as he got out of Piccadilly he would buy a baseball cap. He was rather enjoying all this dressing up. Many visages to number against his many personality facets, to quote that bitch Greymore who’d assessed him for the court. He would just call her Bitch from now on, not that he intended to think too much about her, she wasn’t worth his time.

  As he walked out into the sunshine, he further mused about what the Traffic Warden had done – well, tried to do. He was angry and disappointed in equal measures after all he’d done for him, but he couldn’t dwell on that now, too much to do. He’d use the Metro once he’d bought a cap and head for the sewer, see how Jimmy and Stench were doing. It was time to teach Stench a lesson and he had a treat for Jimmy. He couldn’t wait to see the differing looks on their faces.

  An hour later, Moxley had finished his all-day breakfast and was looking out the café window when he caught his reflection in the glass. He paused to admire his new baseball cap. It was half red and half blue – should keep both sets of football supporters happy. It crossed his mind to order some more food. It tasted so good after ten years. But that would be greedy, and he hated avarice.

  He decided to take a couple of hours out as he walked around the city, stopping a while in Piccadilly Gardens and starting to enjoy his freedom. It was the first time he had really stopped and soaked it up. He had been so busy since he was on the out. He’d slowly head out towards Rochdale, as he knew he must. Jimmy would be wondering where he was and Stench would be dreading his return. Turning the thought over in his mind he decided to stay a while longer. As far as Jimmy was concerned he would be even more pleased to see him the longer he had to wait, whereas the reverse would be true for Stench. Both thoughts pleased him.

  Eventually, he went towards the Metro and made his way to Rochdale. His mind felt less jumbled now, he felt calmer and he’d soon have to make some serious plans for the future before his luck ran out. He realised Dawson would have to wait. The last he knew he was on his toes in Spain somewhere. As for his stool pigeon – Scum – he’d been so close until the Traffic Warden had intervened on the car park. Such a shame, not only for the pleasures he had in store for Scum, but that he would have surely given him Dawson’s location.

  All spoilt by the Traffic Warden. He hadn’t wanted to think of his treachery just yet, but it was hard to avoid. He knew they were both playing a game, but he’d tried to kill him on that multi-storey roof top, and after everything he’d done for him. He’d gone too far and he needed to know it.

  Moxley left the tram and walked until he was on a quiet stretch of ro
ad with no houses about – generally towards the sewer entrance, where he found a yellow grit bin at the side of the road and sat on it as he pulled his phone out.

  *

  Vinnie was back at the occasional table in Harry’s office before 7.30 pm. On the desk in front of him was a list of all the underground and over ground waterworks facilities in the whole of Greater Manchester. It was going to be a long evening, only made worse by the canteen curry that was starting to repeat on him. He wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for, but knew he needed to reduce the options somehow. He looked up as Harry walked back into the office having just finished a conversation on his phone. Vinnie had only heard Harry saying thanks to someone before he ended the call, and then closed the office door behind him. Then his mobile rang. He smiled at Harry who was clearly about to say something as he took the call.

  “Hello it’s …” Vinnie started to say before he was interrupted.

  “I know who it is Traffic Warden as I’m the one ringing you, remember.”

  “Moxley,” Vinnie said, recognising his voice, but wanting Harry to realise who was calling. Harry nodded his understanding and Vinnie continued, “Look, this has gone on long enough …”

  He was again interrupted.

  “You disappoint me. Trying to shoot me down like a dog, that’s not fair. And if you are wondering how my arm is, it’s fine thanks; you’re a shit shot. In fact, I reckon that as I was fleeing and unarmed, it was illegal. You are as bent as the rest of them.”

  Vinnie panicked inwardly on hearing Moxley’s words. He pushed the phone harder into his ear and turned away from Harry, should he somehow be able to hear.

  “It’s not what you think, it was just a warning,” Vinnie said, trying to choose his words, but noticing a puzzled look cross Harry’s face.

  Moxley cut in again, saying this was the last conversation they were going to have over the phone. He just wanted Vinnie to know that he would pay for his betrayal. Then the line went dead. Betrayal, indeed, Vinnie thought. This idiot was well and truly right up himself.