Fireflies

by Menon, David

  ‘How do you mean once again?’

  ‘Well’ said Sue. ‘When they started planning the wedding, or rather when Sophie started planning the wedding, she said it was going to be a cocktail reception in some swanky Manchester bar and that no kids would be invited. Well that was a direct hit against our family because we’ve got five grandchildren and James has always been close to his nieces and nephews. It really hurt that she was trying to exclude them from the wedding. She wasn’t even planning to ask one of them to be a bridesmaid or a page boy’.

  ‘And did that get resolved?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Only after James insisted that he wanted his whole family at the wedding’ said Sue.

  ‘And she didn’t speak to him for days after that just because he wouldn’t let her have her own way for once’ said Fred. ‘She can sulk for England that one’.

  ‘I asked James a couple of times if he really wanted to spend the rest of his life with someone who behaved like that’ Sue added. ‘But he said he was in love with her so what could he do? Then there’s the family connection. Talk about unfortunate’.

  ‘Why, Mrs. Clifton?’ asked Rebecca. ‘What is the family connection?’

  ‘Well don’t you know? I thought that would be one of the reasons why you were here? Sophie Cooper’s brother is one of the most notorious gangsters in Manchester’.

  ‘What’s her brother’s name, Mrs. Clifton?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘Bernie Connelly! Have we got to tell you your job? Sophie has only got the name of Cooper because she and her brother had different fathers. Do you really not know any of this?’

  ‘Alright’ said Jeff as he tried to keep his voice level. His emotions were running high. Since he knew exactly why the name of Sophie Cooper had meant something to him he’d been on a painful journey into both his professional and personal past. ‘Was there no connection between Cooper and Connelly evident when we were digging?’

  ‘Well to be fair, sir’ said Jonathan Freeman. ‘I can’t let DC Wright take the rap for this’.

  ‘There’s no rap to be taken Jonathan’ said Jeff. ‘I knew that I recognized the name of Sophie Cooper and I should’ve made the connection there and bloody then. I just want to know why it wasn’t clear anywhere else’.

  ‘Well the link wasn’t obvious because of the difference in surname, sir’ Jonathan went on. ‘And I looked it over twice and I’m sure DC Wright would’ve got there in time if I’d passed on the complete information. If anybody is to blame, sir, it’s me’.

  Ollie turned and looked at Freeman completely unable to believe he’d just had such a measure of support from him. There’d be something behind it though. He’d got to know his devious ways well enough to be certain of that.

  ‘Well look, I’m not interested in playing the accusation game’ said Jeff. ‘But you can bet your life that Bernie Connelly will have his dirty little fingers all over this in some way. So, Ollie, tell everybody about him’.

  Ollie stood up and took up the space left for him by Jeff at the mission board. He’d spent the last hour researching Bernie Connelly since the boss rang him from Preston.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen this is complicated so if I could please have your full attention’ said Ollie. He pointed to the picture he’d just stuck to the board. ‘Let’s start with Bernie Connelly. Now, as many of you will know we’ve been trying to bring him down for years. Under the disguise of his legitimate business, Connelly Security, who provide security guards to whoever wants them, we suspect that he runs a series of protection rackets across the city in a distinctly Mafiosi style. His latest offensive is against a gang of British men of Pakistani descent who want to muscle in on Connelly’s territory. We strongly suspect that he arranged to have the son of one of the Pakistani leaders abducted as an opener in a turf war. The fifteen-year old boy was returned to his family with both his legs broken’.

  ‘How do we know about the Pakistani boy?’

  ‘Because the organized crime unit have an informant in Connelly’s organization, sir’ Ollie revealed. ‘It’s his former brother-in-law Malcolm Barnes’.

  ‘His former brother-in-law?’ Rebecca questioned.

  ‘Yes, ma’am’ Ollie confirmed. He pinned some more pictures to the board and pointed at them whilst he talked. ‘Connelly was the son of Ted and mother Marie. Marie left the drunken, abusive Ted to move in with her lover Mike Cooper but didn’t take Bernie and his brother Tommy with her. She left them with their father. She and Mike Cooper had a daughter called Sophie. Both Marie and Mike Cooper are now dead. Sophie was once engaged to an old family friend called Malcolm Barnes who until recently owned Barnes financial services. But shortly before the wedding he dumped Sophie and went off with the wife of Bernie’s brother Tommy Connelly’

  ‘So splitting the family two ways’ said Rebecca.

  ‘Oh but there’s more, ma’am’ said Ollie. ‘Tommy’s wife was called Kim Connelly and shortly after she left him Tommy Connelly killed himself. Then on the wedding night of Malcolm and Kim Barnes three years ago, Kim was murdered in their suite at the Manchester Hilton whilst Malcolm was outside having a cigarette. And that’s a murder that remains unsolved’.

  ‘Ollie, was Malcolm Barnes on his stag night by any chance when he met Kim?’ Rebecca wanted to know.

  ‘By chance he was, ma’am’ said Ollie. ‘The other detail worthy of note is that Malcolm Barnes recently relinquished ownership of his financial services company to Bernie Connelly. But you might call it a hostile takeover. Barnes felt like he’d been swindled by Connelly out of his own company’.

  ‘Revenge for Barnes dumping Sophie three years ago?’ Rebecca suggested.

  ‘I think so, ma’am’ said Ollie. ‘And Barnes has now turned on Connelly because he resents him taking his company off him. We also believe that Connelly runs a number of prostitutes in the city based in some of the major hotels. The organized crime unit are pinning all their current hopes on Malcolm Barnes providing enough information for them to be able to sweep on Connelly and bring him down once and for all.

  FIREFLIES TWELVE

  ‘Okay’ said Jeff. ‘Let me tell you why Bernie Connelly is significant to me. Andy Kirkpatrick was a dedicated and excellent police officer. He was also my friend. We were also professional partners until he moved over to the organized crime unit a year before he died’.

  ‘How did he die, sir?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘It’ll be five years ago next February’ Jeff recalled. ‘He was sitting in his car on a surveillance operation when someone walked up and shot him. It was a classic professional hit and he was part of the investigating team trying to penetrate the iron curtain around Bernie Connelly. Andy was godfather to my son Toby. So now you know what nailing Connelly means to me’.

  ‘Not meaning to sound insensitive, sir, but how do you know it was Bernie Connelly who ordered the hit on Andy Kirkpatrick?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Well I don’t in terms of cold, hard facts’ said Jeff. ‘But Andy was getting close, very close, to getting enough information on Connelly to nail him and that’s what got him killed’.

  ‘What happened to the enquiries on the Kim Barnes murder case?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Well I wasn’t on the investigation team but my understanding is that they couldn’t find anything that could point to one individual having been the killer’ said Jeff. ‘On the one hand they had the husband Malcolm Barnes who was distraught as you can imagine but had no reason for killing his wife, especially not in such a brutal way. Then they had Sophie Cooper, the wronged woman who had every motive but there was no evidence linking her to the crime. All they had was a piece of CCTV showing what looked like a woman entering the hotel just before the time of the incident and leaving a few minutes later having spoken to nobody but looking like she knew where she was going’.

  ‘How did they know it was a woman, sir?’ Ollie wanted to know.

  ‘Well they could tell by the shape of the figure even though she was wearing a floor length black
coat, massive black sunglasses and a black hat with a large rim round it that almost shadowed her entire face. They put the image out everywhere but nobody came forward with any identification. They must’ve interviewed getting on for a hundred people during that investigation and nothing. Of course they knew that Bernie Connolly and anyone associated with him would be hard nuts to try and crack open but even so they tried but got nowhere. Eventually they just had to close the file and hand it over to the cold case review team for them to deal with when they saw fit. Like I said I wasn’t on that original investigation team but I knew well the senior officers who were’.

  ‘But the interest for us now is in what connection that crime may have with this current investigation’ said Ollie. ‘Some of the people involved in this case were also involved in the Hilton murder. Was it made certain that the image on the CCTV from the Manchester Hilton was not that of Sophie Cooper, sir?’

  ‘Yes, if I remember correctly, Ollie, the woman in the image was shorter than Sophie Cooper and, shall we say, wider?’

  Ollie smiled. ‘I get it, sir. But I do think there’s something for us to find here. I’ve gone through the statements from the Mayfair hotel staff and I can detect that something is happening at the hotel that they don’t want to talk about, at least not to the police’.

  ‘But what?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Well could it be that Bernie Connolly’s hotel prostitute ring includes the Mayfair?’ said Jeff.

  ‘And if it does then did James Clifton end up knowing too much?’ Rebecca speculated.

  ‘It’s not inconceivable’ said Jeff. ‘But now I want to bring Sophie Cooper in. I’m just not prepared to believe that there’s no connection between her brother and all of this. The new wife of her ex-fiance is murdered. Her current fiancé is murdered. Both were unfaithful to her and we can see how vengeful she could be. There’s a link here and we’re going to find it’.

  ‘I’ll see to that, sir’ said Rebecca who then left the squad room. Jeff then asked Ollie Wright to join him in his office.

  ‘Ollie, have you heard any rumours about me?’ Jeff asked.

  ‘Rumours? To do with what, sir?’

  ‘Well to do with my relationship with DS Stockton?’

  ‘No, sir’ said Ollie. ‘I honestly haven’t heard anything to do with that, sir’.

  Jeff believed him. ‘So you wouldn’t know if DS Stockton and I are being talked about as if we’re involved in something more than just friendship?’

  ‘No, sir’ said Ollie. ‘I haven’t heard anything like that’.

  ‘Well it isn’t true anyway just for the record’ said Jeff. ‘But thanks for answering my questions. And Ollie, is everything okay between you and Jonathan Freeman?’

  Jeff noted the look on Ollie’s face that told him everything. ‘He does his job, sir, and I do mine. But I don’t think we’ll ever be best friends’.

  ‘Why do you think that is?’

  ‘You’d have to ask him, sir’ said Ollie. ‘Maybe it’s just one of those things. You can’t get on with everybody’.

  ‘I don’t know why you’ve brought me in here!’ snapped Sophie Cooper. ‘You’re behaving as if I’m some kind of criminal when it’s that cow you let go who’s the murderer’.

  Jeff and Rebecca sat down on the opposite side of the table from Sophie.

  ‘We just need to ask you a few more questions’ said Jeff calmly and in complete contrast to the aggressive tone of Sophie. ‘You do like to get your own way, don’t you Sophie?’

  ‘So? Is that a crime all of a sudden? It wouldn’t surprise me. I was only reading in the Daily Mail the other day … ‘

  ‘ … yes, well I’m sure it was interesting but has no relevance to this case’.

  ‘So what do you want then because I’ve got a funeral to arrange in case you’d forgotten’.

  ‘Isn’t that for James Clifton’s parents to see to?’ Rebecca questioned.

  Sophie looked at Rebecca as if she’d just stepped in her. ‘I don’t do compromise’.

  ‘Whether they like it or not?’

  ‘I’ve just lost my fiancé! Doesn’t anybody care about me and my feelings or is it just all about them?’

  ‘They’ve just lost their son’.

  ‘So?’

  ‘Well do you not have any respect for what they want?’

  Sophie shook her hair and crossed her legs. ‘No is the short answer to that’.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because I don’t see why I should have to. James was my fiancé. He belonged to me as soon as he put that engagement ring on my finger and from then on as far as I’m concerned his family were completely out of the picture with no right to any piece of him at all’.

  ‘Phew’ said Rebecca.

  ‘Well you did ask and I’m a passionate person when it comes to the truth’ said Sophie. ‘Don’t ask the questions if you can’t handle the answers, sweetheart’.

  ‘It must’ve hurt when Malcolm Barnes ended his relationship with you for another woman?’ said Jeff.

  ‘How do you know about that?’

  ‘It’s how I remembered you’.

  Sophie looked into Jeff’s face for a moment. ‘You weren’t on the case. I don’t remember you?’

  ‘No, I wasn’t on the case but I knew people who were’.

  ‘Well they never found the killer of that evil bitch Kim so what makes you think you’ll do a better job of it this time?’

  ‘Why don’t you just answer the question please, Miss Cooper?’ said Rebecca.

  ‘Yes it fucking hurt like crazy when Malcolm dumped me for that cow! And yes I wanted to kill her but somebody beat me to it. Alright? Satisfied now?’

  ‘You seem to store a lot of anger inside yourself, Miss Cooper’ said Rebecca.

  ‘Well I’ve had a lot in my life to be angry about’ said Sophie. ‘I lost both my parents when I was young. I lost one fiancé because he dumped me for someone else and I lost another because of a murdering bitch’.

  ‘James Clifton was unfaithful to you, wasn’t he?’

  ‘You seem to know what you’re talking about. Who am I to argue?’

  ‘Miss Cooper, was James Clifton unfaithful to you or not!’

  ‘Yes he was! And I hated him for it. But you already know that I didn’t kill him, that I couldn’t have killed him because I was hundreds of miles away, so why are you going for me like this? Don’t you think I’ve been through enough?’

  ‘Were you and James Clifton on the verge of splitting up because of his infidelity, Miss Cooper?’

  ‘No!’ Sophie claimed emphatically. ‘Whoever told you that is a liar!’

  ‘How’s your brother Bernie Connolly, Miss Cooper?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘Oh so now I see. You’re trying to get to Bernie through me? You really are pathetic’.

  ‘I just wanted to know how he was, Miss Cooper’ said Jeff with a sweep of his open hands. ‘No law against that’.

  Sophie stood up. ‘You have no basis on which to keep me here so I’m going’ she said. ‘And if you want to know how my brother is then why don’t you just go and ask him?’

  ‘I think we probably will’ said Jeff. ‘In the meantime please pass on my regards’.

  ‘And whilst you’re at it get that bitch Tina Webb behind bars where she belongs’ said Sophie. ‘She murdered my fiancé and instead of making sure justice is served you choose to hound me and my brother. Well it didn’t work last time and it won’t work this time either’.

  Down on the bus station at Mersey square in Stockport was a fish and chip place that really stretched it to call itself a restaurant. Sharon Bellfield found it without any problem. She just had to follow the smell of vinegar and the steady stream of life’s unfortunates who saw it as the place to be.

  When her boss had given her this assignment she couldn’t have had any idea that it would take her into the kind of places that she’d spent her life trying to get out of. Sharon was no snob but as she sat there with a mug of steaming h
ot liquid they had the nerve to call tea even though the bag had probably been used at least ten times, she couldn’t help but feel grateful for the fact that she could well afford better than this now. Her family had all been dead against her becoming a journalist because it wasn’t like ‘getting a proper trade’ and even though she’d been with the Manchester Evening Chronicle for nearly five years now they still didn’t acknowledge what she did as being a ‘proper job’. And even though she’d moved into the city centre and got herself a flat in the Northern quarter, it still wasn’t good enough for a family that didn’t recognise anything beyond their own narrow sphere. Her sister had got three kids by three different fathers and was living in a grotty council house in Fallowfield but she’d made it as far as Sharon’s family, especially her mother, was concerned. Sharon who had her career, her own flat, her own car and a sizeable disposable income that she often used to help her sister out, was considered some kind of failure. She had a job when the majority of her extended family didn’t but she was still considered as some kind of failure. They thought she was trying to be ‘above herself’. They thought she was turning her back on them when all she wanted was their approval and just some kind of acknowledgment that she’d done well.

  So here she was sitting amongst those who her family would consider had made it. There was the man sitting in the corner who looked like he hadn’t washed since Victoria was on the throne, happily chomping away into a plate of fish and chips that he’d mashed and mixed into a pulp with ketchup, mayonnaise, and vinegar. He was getting half of it down his already filthy shirt but he didn’t seem to bother. Then there was the mother who was feeding the occasional chip to a toddler who was screaming in his pushchair desperate to get out and driven mad by the restraints he was under and the fact that he’d probably not been talked to properly or eaten a decent meal since the day he was born. His mother looked like Sharon’s sister. Hair scraped back and in a ponytail. A face that said she hated life and the world and with eyes that looked upon her child as if she absolutely despised his very existence. She was pushing the pushchair back and forth with a nonchalant hand. Her family probably thought she’d made it too. That’s if she had a family that is.