He instantly broke the eye contact, looking away guiltily. ‘Uh, you don’t need to know that.’
Suddenly it clicked. ‘You’ve still got cameras in here!’
His refusal to make eye contact confirmed my suspicions.
I shook my head in amazement. ‘So that whole “we found another fingerprint, you’re free to go” thing was all bullshit and you still think I’m working with Davey?’
Barnett finally looked back at me, angry now. ‘And you didn’t give us any reason not to suspect you! What do you do when you’re not at work or seeing your girlfriend? Nothing. Or so it seems on the surface, but you keep getting into interesting situations, just happen to find someone with enough heroin to make you into a bloody hero and get heroically stabbed in the leg – somewhere non-vital – at the same time. I find that a bit odd, personally. And what about burning that letter yesterday? You can’t tell me that’s normal behaviour. I know a rotten apple when I see one!’
I stood up quickly, dislodging the paramedic, but stopped when a deep voice came from the hallway. ‘Look in the mirror often, do you?’
Barnett whirled around, eyes snapping with anger. ‘Who said that?’
Derek Pearson, chief superintendent for the division, stepped into the room looking sleepy and out of sorts. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a black sweatshirt and he looked strange out of uniform, his hair still tousled from sleep. ‘I did. And I assume you don’t have a problem with that?’
Barnett stopped in his tracks, smart enough to know when he was beaten. ‘Uh, no sir, no I don’t.’
‘Good. Because I’m more than a little upset that you’ve bugged my intelligence unit without informing me, in the middle of a hunt to find someone who’s taking orders from a drug dealer.’
Barnett stepped backwards as if Pearson was actually radiating the anger clear in his face.
‘Uh, that wasn’t my idea sir; you’d have to speak to my supervisors about that.’
‘Oh don’t worry, I will. Now have you finished trying to blame Gareth for everything that’s happened, or can we get on with trying to save PC Holdsworth’s life?’
Barnett’s shoulders slumped and he mumbled something unintelligible before sloping out with the air of the thoroughly defeated.
Pearson walked over and laid a meaty hand on my shoulder. ‘I hear you’ve been through the mill son.’ He paused and sniffed. ‘How about you have a bath and get a change of clothes and we’ll have someone chat to you about what happened? But first, have you got a location on Jimmy?’
I shook my head, glad to finally have someone on my side, but more aware than ever of just how much hot water I could land myself in if I said the wrong thing. Pearson had just made an enemy of PSD by standing up for me and if anything about the drugs came out he would come crashing down with me.
‘No sir. I’m sorry, but they had me hooded in the car. Which is parked outside, by the way. It’s the red Nissan.’
‘I know. There are already officers searching it.’
I must have told someone already then. I was so tired and drained that I was amazed that I’d managed to stay coherent for this long. A thought suddenly wormed its way out of my subconscious, making me sit bolt upright despite the pain. ‘Sir, Davey threatened my father. He said that if I caused any problems then he would kill him. He knows where he lives!’ I all but gripped his arm as I stood.
‘Give me the address and I’ll have a car go and collect him immediately. We’ll have to find somewhere for him to stay until this is over. Leave it with me, he’ll be safe.’
I sank back down with relief and borrowed one of the officers’ notebooks to write down Dad’s address. Pearson took the notebook and disappeared, making me feel a little better. I felt that I could trust him to do the right thing and it was a huge relief to know that Dad would be safe.
Something else important was trying to yammer at me through the haze in my brain but it kept slipping away as I tried to focus on it, finally dismissing it as I was helped to my feet and packed off towards the bathroom.
The bath was agony and it was more than a little strange to be lying there, a towel over my privates, with a police officer noting down everything that I could remember. I was beginning to wish that I wasn’t so tired, as I needed to concentrate to make sure that my lies remained consistent. I was terrified of slipping up, despite the fact that they’d probably put it down to fatigue or stress. Eventually I’d told them everything that I could remember and I was left alone to soak.
I must have dozed for a few minutes as I woke up with a start, remembering what had been so important and cursing myself for a fool. I hadn’t told Pearson that Davey’s mole worked in DIU. If we didn’t find whoever it was before they phoned Davey and told him that I was free, Jimmy would end up dead and Davey would be on the first flight out of the country before we could stop him.
36
BY THE time I managed to get Pearson on the phone, the damage had been done and all the DIU officers had been called to come in early. Putting together the pieces of the puzzle that I had provided was what our office did best and, aside from one or two who couldn’t be reached, everyone had arrived at work in varying states of readiness.
I got one of the officers at my house to drive me to John Street, still talking to Pearson on the phone (the officer’s mobile, mine was with Davey) as we drove. He agreed to delay their briefing until after I got there and, despite my assurances, he would not even trust Kev to be told about it in case he was the mole.
‘The simple fact is, Gareth,’ he said as I hurtled towards the police station, ‘that I need every officer we’ve got in DIU working on this or I would just take all their phones and shut them in a room for the day, but I can’t do that. Besides, we need to know who it is.’
I thought through the possibilities as we neared the Nick, discarding them one by one. Rudd was too passionate about his work for it to be him; Eddie was too bad at lying to hide anything this big. Tate had been a police officer for too many years and was too well known for us not to hear if it was him, the same for Kev. One of the things that I feel keeps so many officers straight, apart from their dedication to duty of course, is that in a place like Brighton everyone shits on everyone else. It’s only a matter of time before you get caught if you step outside the rules. Unless, like me, you don’t tell anyone.
Ralphy hated Davey, in fact I’d even had to pull them apart before when they went at it during a job and no one else in the office sprang to mind either. So who was it?
My head hurt too much to let me think about it properly, and anyway, how do you decide which one of your friends is most likely to have betrayed you? My driver dropped me at the station and I took the newly fixed lift up to the fourth floor, not having the energy to climb the stairs. When I entered the briefing room, Pearson was already standing at the front, chatting to a Chief Inspector Lawrence Tyson who looked equally tired.
A few people looked up as I entered the room and I heard exclamations of surprise as they saw my battered face. I tried to spot whether any of them were a little too surprised but no one leapt out as suspicious. The room was full of plain-clothed officers from DIU and CID and a couple I recognised from MCB (Major Crime Branch), with the odd uniform dotted here and there.
Tate, Rudd and Eddie were all sitting together and they shuffled up to make room on the end of their row, placing me on the outside next to Tate. ‘Hard night?’ he asked, eyeing me.
‘Yeah, you could say that. Hopefully, though, today will be payback.’
He raised an eyebrow at me but I refused to be drawn out, instead catching Pearson’s eye and nodding at him. He nodded back and cleared his throat, getting the attention of everyone immediately.
‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen. The reason you’ve all been called in early is that last night, the same person who kidnapped PC Holdsworth also took PC Bell.’ He paused while people looked at me and whispers ran amongst the throng.
‘PC Bell managed to get away, but unfort
unately he was unable to identify a location for us. The only thing we know is that it is within an hour’s drive of Brighton and is likely somewhere to the north, perhaps as far as the Surrey border.’ He paused here and looked around the room.
‘We now know that PC Holdsworth is likely to be killed by midnight if we don’t find him and get him back, so today is going to be a massive effort for everyone. Your taskings will be given to your sergeants, but don’t expect to be seeing your homes or loved ones for a good twenty-four hours. Can DIU officers please stay behind? Everyone else, thank you and good hunting.’
As people filed out, A cough from the front of the room caught my attention. Pearson stood at parade rest, looking extremely uncomfortable and avoiding eye contact with me as he said, ‘It has come to my attention while debriefing PC Bell that Davey has someone on his payroll within the DIU office.’ He paused to let this sink in and to give the angry muttering a chance to die down.
‘Now, I would ask each of you to be extremely vigilant and report anything suspicious to myself, skipping the usual chain of command. I would like to think that it’s a member of support staff rather than an officer, but the sad fact is that it is most likely someone within this very room.’
The dozen or so officers looked at each other, and then all of them at me before Pearson spoke again. ‘Until we find PC Holdsworth, all of you will be paired up with someone. That means all day, even in the toilet. If you have to take a crap, your partner will search to make sure you don’t have a mobile phone on you. Your personal and usual work mobiles will be confiscated and you will be issued with new mobiles for the day.’
The angry muttering rose in volume until the chief super banged his hand on the windowsill to get attention, and when he spoke his voice was hard and unfriendly. ‘I don’t care if you think I’m treating you like children, and I don’t care if you want to take out a grievance after the day is done. Today, my only issue is finding PC Holdsworth and bringing him back alive. Anyone who has a problem with that can consider themselves suspended from duty.’
He glared around the room and no one met his stare.
‘Right, good.’ He let out a huge breath, sounding calmer. ‘I’m sorry it has to be this way, but Jimmy’s life is more important than anything else. I also promise you that when we find whoever it is that Davey is paying, well, if it’s one of you, you had better come to my office and explain yourself before we find out another way.’
Kev raised his hand and Pearson waved at him to speak. ‘I assume the pairing is to be for civilian staff as well?’
‘Yes. I’ll leave it to you to pick the pairings Kev, but you also need to have someone with you, too.’
Kev nodded and sat back while Pearson finished off. ‘Right, that’s about it. Your mobiles will be collected by Kev, and then brought to my office for storage. Any questions?’
I raised my hand, causing him to raise his eyebrows in return.
‘Go on.’
I licked my lips nervously. ‘Well sir, it all seems a bit extreme to me, I mean, he’ll know by now that I haven’t come back, so surely it doesn’t make a difference whether he gets told or not?’
I was more than a little annoyed by Pearson letting the cat out of the bag about the mole; the man had no subtlety. I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice as I asked my question, which I had only put to him to try and divert some of the wrathful looks that officers were throwing my way.
‘He may well know that you haven’t come back, but he won’t know what’s happened to you. He certainly won’t know for sure that you’re back here with us, so every second longer that he doesn’t know, we’re a second closer to finding Jimmy in one piece.’
I nodded, not really listening to the answer. I was a little worried about Davey’s reaction to my disappearance, but guessed that he would keep Jimmy alive as a bargaining tool all the while he thought I would come back for him on my own. The moment he found out I had gone back to the police, he would kill Jimmy and move on, hiding any evidence of the murder so that it was just my word against his.
I couldn’t let that happen, so we had to find out where he was today or it was all over.
I looked up as Tate nudged me impatiently, realising that we had been dismissed. We were stopped at the back of the room and I held my hands out so that the chief inspector collecting the phones could check that I didn’t have one.
Kev then paired me off with Rudd and we walked down the stairs together in silence. My head still hurt abominably and I wasn’t much in the mood for conversation, which was just as well, because Rudd didn’t seem to be either.
As we trudged into the office, researchers were starting to arrive. Looking at the wall clock, I was surprised to see that it was almost eight o’clock already. I slipped into my chair before most of them saw my battered face and just beat Sally, who was looking annoyed and out of sorts. She sat down without talking to me and I sighed as I turned around to address the problem, despite the fact that Rudd was there.
‘Morning Sally.’
‘Morning Gareth.’ Her voice was frosty and she kept her back to me.
‘You’ll never guess what happened to me last night,’ I tried, hoping for a response.
‘I think I have a fair idea!’ she replied, angry now and spinning to face me, ‘I got your texts, thanks.’
The last word faltered as she saw my face, then her expression hardened again. ‘Did you slip it up her too hard and she beat you up?’
I shook my head to clear it, unsure if we were having the same conversation. ‘Um, excuse me, but I got kidnapped last night by Davey after he and a mate kicked the living shit out of me. He took my phone and he’s still got it. Tell me you weren’t texting him?’
She looked at Rudd for confirmation and he nodded, trying hard not to grin as he guessed what was going on between me and Sally.
‘Oh God, Gareth, I’m so sorry, but you should see what he sent!’
‘Have you deleted them?’ I asked, and she shook her head and took her phone out of her bag.
She passed me the phone, gripping my hand as she did so and giving me a look that made up for everything she’d just said. I smiled back and began to read through the texts. Apparently she had sent one first, asking if I wanted to come over and, well, you get the idea, and Davey had sent back, ‘sorry luv im fukin a fat bitch coz she takes it up the ars. Yor shit in bed.’
Sally had then replied, saying, ‘Very funny, are you coming over or not?’ Without any Xs on the end, which I knew meant that she was annoyed.
Davey had then replied: ‘No, seerously, yor shit in bed fuk of.’
‘And you really thought this was me?’ I asked incredulously.
She shrugged and I handed the phone back.
The thought of Davey sending Sally texts made me angry. Was there no part of my life he didn’t want to tear apart and ruin? Was that why he had kept my phone?
I shook my head, wishing that he’d thrown it away instead of using it, and then it hit me. He had my phone. I jumped up, scattering paperwork everywhere and began to look around frantically for Kev. Guessing he was still in the briefing I began to run for the stairs.
‘Oi, where are you going?’ Rudd yelled at me, trying to catch up.
I didn’t slow as I called over my shoulder. ‘He’s got my phone; I know how to find Jimmy!’
37
‘CELL-SITE analysis,’ I said, slapping both of my hands on the table next to Kev. After tearing upstairs to find that he’d already left, I’d come back down to find him at his desk tucking into a bowl of cereal while he read through a pile of intelligence reports.
‘Come again?’ Kev asked, looking startled.
‘Davey has been texting Sally from my phone to upset her. If he’s still got my phone on, we can track him with cell-site analysis!’
Mobile phones have become one of the best tools for us to find people and I was amazed that none of us had thought about it before. Mobiles regularly send out a signal to the near
est antenna, making sure that they switch to the nearest and most effective mast and we’ve got boffins hidden in a basement somewhere who excel at tracking people through these connections.
Kev looked at me for a moment. ‘Good idea, but why was he texting Sally to upset her? Oh!’ An evil grin lit his face as he worked it out. Kev was a lot of things but slow wasn’t one of them. ‘Well I hope the poor lamb wasn’t too upset or you’ll have a lot of consoling to do, and you really don’t look up to it. If you need my help…’
He was already out of his chair as he spoke and for a moment I thought he was going to rib Sally, but then he paired Rudd up with Tate as his partner for the day and took me up to see Pearson. We barged straight into his office and he looked up from his computer, clearly a little surprised to see us.
‘Gareth has an idea sir.’ Kev said, and I launched into my explanation. I was only halfway through when Pearson picked up his phone and dialled a number from memory.
‘Kathy? Hi, it’s Derek Pearson here. I need an urgent cell-site done for the job with the missing officer. That’s right. No, there isn’t any paperwork yet. NO, you get your man over here, and the paperwork will be completed when we have a chance. I don’t care; a man’s life is at stake. Oh, we have the owner of the phone’s permission, does that make a difference? It does? Oh good, I’ll pass you over and you can get started.’
He looked up at me and held the phone across the desk. ‘Here you go, they’ll need your number and network.’
I took the phone and gave the necessary details over, and was assured that there would be a result for me within minutes. I hung up the phone and looked at Kev. ‘A few minutes, they reckon. Should we start gearing up?’
Pearson held up a hand. ‘Hang on, we’ll need firearms in on this, we’ve already had two incidents with these chaps having weapons and I’m not about to go off half cocked.’
I started to protest but he talked over me.
‘There’s no point getting PC Holdsworth back and losing other officers in the process. Not when it can be done properly.’
The Follow Page 23
