Cover Up

by Patricia Hall

  As he was about to leave the DCI’s office, he turned back for a moment.

  ‘I’m going to be away this weekend,’ he said. ‘I’m going up north to see my girlfriend.’

  Jackson nodded abstractedly, about to pick up his phone extension, no doubt already mentally launching damage limitation with the Yard. Barnard shut the door behind himself with rather more force than was strictly necessary.

  Barnard went home early and threw some clothes into a holdall. He rang the number of Kate’s hotel, starting at about five and keeping on trying until eight, getting more and more frustrated as reception kept on informing him that Miss O’Donnell had not yet returned for the night. He guessed that as this was the day of the film premiere in Liverpool she might be busy, but if she had not been asked by the agency to take pictures of the Beatles he hoped he’d catch her in time to drive to Liverpool to see her that evening. That now looked an increasingly remote possibility.

  At half past ten the hotel reception desk finally told him Kate had just come in and passed the call over to her. Immediately he could tell that something was wrong.

  ‘What’s going on, babe?’ he asked. ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you all evening.’

  ‘Harry,’ she said and the relief in her voice was obvious. ‘I’ve had a terrible day.’

  ‘Tell me,’ he said. ‘I was thinking of coming up to see you this weekend. I could even bring you back to London if you’re likely to finish by Sunday. What do you think?’

  ‘Yes, maybe,’ she said. ‘That would be good.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ Barnard asked.

  ‘It’s been horrendous here today. First there was an accident on a building site where my da was working. Someone was killed. I didn’t see it, but I saw the ambulance crew take the body away. And my da was supposed to be in charge.’

  ‘Your father? I thought you didn’t see him and didn’t get on with him. What were you doing going to see him at work?’

  ‘He works for one of the contractors who’ve have been rebuilding the city. You’ve no idea how it’s changed, even since I came down to London. I needed to make contact with Terry Jordan, his boss, to know which contracts were his. I wanted to find out where the offices were, as I couldn’t find them in the phone book. I only wanted to ask him that, but it turned out to be the worst possible moment. My father seemed quite scared of what would happen next.

  ‘Then I managed to get a bit of work done for Ken. And later I thought I’d go and have a look at the Beatles going in for their film premiere. They’d pulled out all the stops for them, a reception at the town hall after, loads of guests from all over – Cilla Black, Rita Tushingham, some of the other bands. Hollywood on the Mersey it was, la, all dead glamorous, better than the royal variety performance in London. But all these people were following the cars down Dale Street, thousands of them, and then the whole thing got out of hand and people were getting hurt in the excitement. It was awful. Little girls were being pulled out of the crush, some of them needed ambulances, and I nearly got stuck in the crowd myself at one point. I could hardly breathe.’

  ‘Whoa, whoa!’ Barnard said. ‘You’re all right? You’re not hurt?’

  ‘No, not hurt, not really,’ Kate whispered. ‘Just shocked, I suppose. The place went a bit mad for a while. I took some pictures in case Ken could use them. You never know.’

  ‘Right, that’s it then. I’m coming up. There’s no point setting off now. I don’t suppose your hotel lets in visitors after midnight, do they?’

  ‘I very much doubt they let in visitors at all,’ Kate said laughing. ‘Liverpool may have the Merseybeat, but they’re still a whole lot more uptight than swinging London. The Churches make sure of that whenever they can. You hardly ever see a priest in London but here they’re everywhere – all over the place, especially round here, with the new cathedral going up just up the hill from where I’m staying.’

  ‘So I’ll set off early and be with you in time for breakfast. How’s that?’

  ‘That would be good,’ she said, and Barnard could hear that she was almost in tears.

  ‘Come on Katie, this is not like you,’ he said. ‘Go to bed, get some sleep, it will all look better in the morning. I’ll be there, I promise.’

  Barnard drove out of London at five in the morning and made good time up the M1 as far as Rugby, where it ended. He was then at the mercy of increasingly busy main roads for the remainder of the journey. He drove into Liverpool after nine and, having with some difficulty located the Lancaster Hotel on Brownlow Hill, parked the car outside. He found Kate in the lobby, looking pale although less anxious than he expected.

  ‘They stopped serving breakfast at nine,’ she said. ‘We’ll have to go somewhere else.’

  ‘That’s not a problem is it?’ he said. ‘We could go to the Adelphi maybe.’ Kate laughed.

  ‘I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet,’ she said. ‘Even if we could get through the door with all the people who’ll be staying there after yesterday. We could go to the café in Lewis’s, that’s just over the road and they’ll probably do you a decent cup of coffee.’

  ‘I could do with that,’ he said. ‘That was a bloody awful drive once the motorway ended. It’s supposed to be going to Yorkshire eventually, but God knows how long that will take to build.’

  Barnard stood outside the hotel for a moment looking around.

  ‘What’s that thing that looks like a spaceship up there?’ He said pointing up the hill to where great spars were forming a circular pyramid shape. Kate laughed.

  ‘That’s the new Catholic cathedral,’ she said. ‘Paddy’s Wigwam the Proddies call it, with no respect. Mind you their place is taking forever to finish and is dead traditional. I reckon we’ll be done first and I like it better.’ They drove down the hill into the city centre and parked in a side street close to Lewis’s department store.

  ‘That’s pretty full-on,’ Barnard said mildly as he surveyed the finer points of the Epstein statue on its frontage. ‘You can’t be as puritanical as all that in Liverpool if that got public approval. I don’t think Harrods would go for it.’

  ‘I think they just wanted something to rival Coventry,’ Kate said with a grin. ‘I remember the art students at college were very impressed, especially the lads.’

  ‘Yes, I can see they would be,’ Barnard said drily. ‘Come on then, I’m starving. Let’s see what sort of a late breakfast they can manage.’ When Barnard had demolished a full English and they were both sipping coffee that did not quite live up to their expectations, Barnard lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.

  ‘So what’s going on, honey?’ he asked. ‘You sounded as if you were in a panic last night over not very much. Tell me more.’ Kate sighed.

  ‘I was a bit shocked by what happened in Dale Street,’ she said.

  ‘But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there?’ Barnard persisted.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘All my family are telling me different stories about what my father’s getting up to with this builder Terry Jordan. I couldn’t track down a Jordan in the building trade, but it turned out the company has another name. He bought into it but didn’t change the name, and now it seems to be building on every street corner. My da is definitely scared of Terry Jordan. That was obvious after the accident at the building site. He reckoned he would get the blame for what happened, and if the police are involved it could get very nasty.’

  ‘My guess is that the company would carry the can, not an individual,’ Barnard said. Kate nodded, but her eyes were full of anxiety.

  ‘I’m worried about my brother Tom too,’ she said.

  ‘Ah,’ Barnard said. ‘If he was my brother, I’d be worried about him. I told you what happened to mine.’ She nodded. She’d been surprised when Barnard had revealed that his younger brother had been so harassed when exposed as a homosexual that he killed himself. She doubted whether anyone else in the police force knew about it. But to her it explained a l
ot about the man. She took hold of Barnard’s hand.

  ‘Will you come out to Anfield and talk to my mam?’ she said. ‘I’m too close to all this, but if you asked the questions perhaps we might find out just what my da has got himself into with Terry Jordan’s company. As far as Ken’s assignment goes, now I know what the firm is called I can track down their sites in the city centre and ask Liam at the Echo what else they’ve done since the end of the war.’

  ‘Liam?’ Barnard asked, instantly alert. ‘Who’s he?’

  ‘Just a reporter whose brains I picked the other day,’ Kate said quickly. ‘He was very helpful.’

  ‘Was he?’ Barnard said quietly. ‘OK, we’ll go to Anfield. Perhaps it would be a good idea to meet your mother.’ Kate gave him a sharp look.

  ‘Don’t be under any illusions,’ she said. ‘You’re not a Catholic, so you’re beyond the pale.’

  ‘Jesus wept!’ Barnard said.

  ‘He well might,’ Kate agreed.

  EIGHT

  Bridie O’Donnell answered the door almost as soon as Kate knocked, drying her hands on a tea towel and pulling the strings of her pinafore more tightly round her waist.

  ‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said, sparing Barnard barely a glance. ‘I thought it might be your da.’

  In view of the pinafore, which she was wearing over her dress, she had obviously been doing some cleaning. Her face was tired and there were dark-grey circles under her eyes, and Kate could see that her work-roughened hands were shaking. Her eyes swerved away from Kate as soon as she’d waved her into the living room.

  ‘This is Harry. A friend from London,’ Kate said as Bridie waved them into chairs, opting for an uncomfortable wooden one close to the door and kneading her hands together in obvious distress, making the dry skin crackle. As she had hardly reacted at all to the arrival of a stranger at her door – whereas usually her first question of many would have been to ask where he went to Mass – Kate knew this was not just her mother’s normal anxiety but a serious crisis.

  ‘I’ll make some tea,’ she said and busied herself in the kitchen aware of the strained silence next door. When she had given all three of them a cup of the strong brew her mother liked, she tried to kick-start the conversation, which had never really got going.

  ‘I saw da yesterday, mam,’ Kate said. ‘There was an accident at the site where he was working. He was worried about his boss, though I didn’t see how da could be blamed.’

  ‘Yes, I know all about that,’ her mother said. ‘He came round teatime yesterday. Said he was going away until the fuss dies down. I’m worried to death about him.’

  ‘Where’s he going?’ Kate asked. ‘Did he say?’

  ‘No,’ Bridie said. ‘He doesn’t often tell me much.’ Kate glanced at Barnard helplessly.

  ‘Going away isn’t such a good idea,’ Barnard said. ‘It more or less guarantees someone will come looking for him. He’ll be needed as a witness.’

  Bridie slumped back on her chair looking completely drained.

  ‘So what makes you such an expert?’ she asked. ‘Frank’s been coming and going for years, ever since the war. One month he’s at sea, the next he’s just picking up work at the dock gates – and if you don’t know what that’s like, you need to talk to someone who does. I thought all that would change when he went to work for Terry Jordan on the buildings, but now this. Father Reilly tells me I have to stick by him, but I sometimes wonder.’ Barnard glanced at Kate for a second and she nodded.

  ‘Tell her,’ she whispered.

  ‘Tell me what?’ Bridie demanded.

  ‘I’m a policeman,’ he said. ‘A detective. In London, not here, so I know nothing about all this. But if you do see your husband, try to persuade him to go back to his job and help them sort it all out. If he doesn’t talk to the authorities, they’ll think he has something to hide.’

  Bridie gazed at Kate and Barnard, a mixture of shock and fury chasing across her face.

  ‘What are you doing bringing him here?’ she flung at Kate. ‘You know the trouble our Tom has had with the bizzies.’

  ‘This is nothing to do with Tom,’ Kate said. ‘I just wanted to know where my father was staying, that’s all. I need to see him.’

  ‘And you bring a feckin’ policeman here?’ Bridie said. ‘Holy Mother, you are a stupid little cow!’

  ‘I was with da after the accident,’ Kate said. ‘He was worried about what his boss would say, but no one thought it was anything except an accident. I don’t know why he would think he had to run off.’

  Barnard got to his feet with a shrug. He was, he thought, surplus to requirements and would be better out of the way.

  ‘I’ll wait for you outside, Kate, if you’d rather talk to your mother alone.’ Kate nodded gratefully.

  ‘It might be best,’ she said. They heard the front door close behind Barnard, then Kate turned on her mother, almost as angry now as she was.

  ‘Now will you tell me what’s going on with da?’ she demanded.

  ‘And will you tell him? A bloody copper?’ Bridie countered, her face flushed and her eyes full of unshed tears.

  ‘Not if you don’t want me to,’ Kate said.

  ‘Your father’s got his reasons,’ Bridie said. ‘You know what he’s like, he ducks and dives, wheels and deals, just like Terry Jordan used to, though it’s never made Frankie any money. As fast as he earns it, he drinks it and gambles it away. Terry’s a powerful man in Liverpool now, with friends in high places, and he won’t want Frank talking about where they both started.’

  ‘You mean Terry Jordan might have told him to disappear?’

  Bridie’s lips pursed.

  ‘I’ll say nothing about that,’ she said. ‘But I reckon he’ll be out of the country by now if Terry Jordan wants him out of the way. It’s not difficult to get on a boat, is it? Not in Liverpool.’

  ‘Ireland?’ Katie asked, knowing that her father, of all the family, identified most closely with the Republic.

  ‘Ireland, New York, the South Pole maybe …’ Bridie said, her voice breaking. ‘Now get yourself and your policeman back to London and don’t bother about this anymore. There’s nothing you can do about your da. There’s nothing I’ve ever been able to do about him. I’m just scared we’ll never see him again.’

  Kate sighed. ‘I wouldn’t worry,’ she said wearily. ‘You know he’s a survivor. I’ve no doubt he’ll survive this too, whatever’s going on. You could report him missing, but I don’t suppose you will as you’re so suspicious of the police. I’ve nearly got enough pictures now for my boss in London, so we’ll probably be going back on Sunday night. You’ve got my phone number at the flat. Even if I’m not there, you can leave a message with Tess.’

  Her mother nodded, but Kate could see that this situation had upset her more than anything else she could remember.

  ‘Take care,’ she said, but Bridie merely nodded. There seemed to be no spark left in her.

  Barnard was leaning against his car smoking. As she closed her mother’s front door behind her, he opened the passenger door for Kate.

  ‘Your family has a genius for getting into trouble,’ he said mildly. ‘The best thing I can do for you is pretend I never heard any of that. I don’t suppose I’ll be meeting any of the local police any time soon.’

  ‘I don’t understand why da’s in such a panic,’ Kate said. ‘But my mother’s right. If he wants to disappear, there’s no shortage of ways to do so round here. But he never said a word about it to me when I left him at the offices yesterday. But regardless of that, I need to go back there and see someone at Jordan’s company. I still need to pin down the buildings they’ve put up and match them with my old pictures of the ruins. Then I should have enough for Ken.’

  ‘Will there be anyone there on a Saturday?’ Barnard asked.

  ‘There might be after what happened yesterday,’ Kate said. ‘It would be worth a try if it’ll save me stopping over until Monday. The planning man at the Echo was quite helpful
, but I need to confirm things with the builders to be sure. And at the same time I can ask if anyone knows where my da has vanished to. Knowing him, he might be sleeping off a heavy night somewhere. Though I suppose he could be in Dublin by now. It’s a long shot, but someone at Macdonald-Jordan might know. I’d like to put my mam out of her misery if I can. If she knows where he is, she’ll calm down.’

  ‘Fine,’ Barnard said. ‘Anything you like if it gets you on your way home.’ He glanced at her sideways as he pulled out from the kerb. ‘If my place is still home,’ he said.

  ‘I’d like it to be,’ she said, remembering what she had told Liam Minogue and wanted to tell Barnard. But she still found it hard to put anything encouraging into words, and she could hear how much strain there was in her own voice. She glanced at him as he drove on to the main road into the city and could see how tense he was too.

  ‘Let’s leave it until we get back to London to sort ourselves out,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I can cope with it just now.’

  They drove to the office block near the docks where the day before she had stood with her father and realized just how firmly he was under his boss’s thumb. And how scared he was of him. The street was quiet and at first they thought Macdonald-Jordan Construction was closed, as it normally would have been on a Saturday morning, but when Barnard looked through the glass street doors he beckoned Kate over.

  ‘There’s a light on in there,’ he said. ‘Someone must be around.’ He tried the doors but they were locked, and there was no sign of a bell.

  ‘I don’t think you’re going to get any joy here,’ Barnard said, but even as he spoke a burly man in a camel coat and trilby marched up to the door and put a key in the lock.

  ‘Can I help you?’ he asked without much enthusiasm.

  ‘You might be able to,’ Kate said, quickly following the newcomer over the threshold and into the entrance hall. ‘My name is Kate O’Donnell. My father Frank works for you and I’m trying to track him down. He didn’t come home last night and my mam is very worried. Do you know him? Or where he might be?’