As with any undercover briefing, Bob arrived ten minutes late so the UC and cover officer could talk through things they’d rather he didn’t hear. As the covert operations manager for the deployment, he was entitled to know everything, but sometimes a deaf ear served a bigger purpose than blind compliance.
The flat they were using as a safe house was ideal. The block had numerous entries and exits and the residents’ transiency meant that strangers rarely stood out.
Bob came by bus, another tactic to preserve anonymity, and took the bin-store entrance before climbing the concrete steps to the second floor. He rapped twice on the door, saw the spyhole darken then heard the rattle of chains and the clunk of the lock. No greetings were offered as he stepped in, so he headed straight for the lounge at the end of the short corridor.
Bob took in the tabletop rammed with used coffee mugs and pasta-encrusted bowls. ‘You want me to get a cleaner in here?’ he said, once Nick had closed the door. 46
‘That silver spoon in your mouth must play havoc with your drinking, guv,’ said Nick.
‘Crockery is reusable. You do know that, don’t you?’
‘Every day’s a school day,’ said Ged, the UC, slouched in the easy chair.
‘Cup of tea, boss?’ said Nick.
‘Are you serious? Right, there’s two things we need to discuss.’
‘Two?’ said Nick. ‘I thought we were talking about the trial. What else?’
‘You heard about the drugs worker who was murdered yesterday?’
‘Who hasn’t?’
‘Well, the pressure is on to find out who’s responsible. We’ve got some body cam footage we’d like you to look at Ged, but we want you to go back on the ground and see what you can find out. It’s pretty urgent, as you can imagine.’
Bob caught Ged’s frantic look to Nick.
‘Problem?’ asked Bob.
‘Only that my missus is due to drop our first sprog in a couple of weeks. I’ve kind of booked paternity leave,’ said Ged, as he anxiously rubbed his beard.
‘Well, congratulations,’ said Bob. ‘It might only be for a few days. Pick up the buzz, that sort of thing.’
Nick chipped in. ‘I get it’s important, guv, but so is family to him. You’ve got kids, so you know you don’t get these moments back.’
‘Look, I promise, two weeks max. If you’ve got nothing by then, we’ll pull it. You’ve got my word.’ Bob wasn’t sure how he’d explain that to the powers that be, but he was not going to deny this brave cop the birth of his first child. ‘I’ll go through the briefing in a bit but are you happy to do it?’
‘Yep,’ Ged and Nick replied simultaneously.
‘Two weeks though,’ said Ged.
‘You’ve got my word,’ said Bob. ‘Right, on to the trial …’ 47
Scotty’s eyes were aflame from the last two days scouring the body cam footage in his vain attempt to identify Lizzie’s killer. Even the facial recognition software they used to compare images against prisoner photos was coming up blank. The Major Crime Team had swept up the other users who’d seen the attack, but all had been released under investigation when it became clear that they either genuinely did not know the man or were uncharacteristically consistent in their lies.
‘Saira, grab the car keys, we’re going for a drive,’ he said as he stood up from his desk.
‘Really, Sarge? I’ve got a ton of paperwork and I’m on leave for a few days next week.’
‘I’ll have a word with your sergeant about the reports. I’ve heard he’s a pushover.’
Five minutes later they were crawling the streets of East Brighton in the team’s Toyota, Scotty at the wheel. He snaked around the labyrinthine streets of Whitehawk drifting aimlessly into Kemptown.
‘Sarge, I’m not being funny but what are we actually doing?’
Scotty did not reply, just crawled along examining each passing car and glaring at every pedestrian.
Three streets and as many minutes later, his copper’s nose twitched into life. ‘Over there,’ he said, louder than necessary.
‘What, where?’ said Saira.
‘There.’ He pointed at a scruffy man who’d just emerged from some basement steps on the left. ‘Grab him.’ He stopped and Saira jumped out and sprinted after the man. Scotty caught up in the car.
‘Sarge, this is the bloke we stopped by the pier the other day,’ she said as she hung onto the bewildered man’s arm.
‘Yeah I know,’ said Scotty, still in the car. ‘Spanners.’
‘Well he’s not the guy we’re looking for.’
Spanners flicked his eyes between the two, making no attempt to interrupt or escape.
‘I know. Put him in the car.’ 48
‘What for?’ said Saira and her reluctant guest in unison.
‘I want a word.’
‘Can you even do that?’ said Spanners, his eyes pleading with Scotty, then with Saira.
Scotty opened the door and pulled himself up to his full six foot four.
‘Why, got something else to do?’ he said as he opened the back door. ‘We need a chat.’
Spanners looked pleadingly at Saira but she just shrugged.
Once they were all belted up, Scotty pulled away and headed for the coast road.
‘Where are we going?’ said Spanners.
‘For a little drive, then we’re having a chat.’
They skirted the Palace Pier roundabout and headed west towards Hove. As they passed Oriental Place, Scotty slowed down. ‘A very dear friend of mine died there the other day. All she did was help people like you.’
‘Yeah. Sad.’
‘Her name was Lizzie,’ said Scotty. ‘She was a human being. A lovely one at that. Remember her name and remember how we’re all feeling. Now think about everything you’ve heard about what happened, because you’re not getting out of this car until you’ve told us the lot. You get me?’
‘But I know nothing.’
‘It’ll take us about twenty minutes to get where we’re going. That’s how long you’ve got to rack that stewed brain of yours to come up with something.’
Scotty felt Saira’s hard stare but he kept his eyes fixed on the road, his thoughts filled with Lizzie’s gentle touch.
Scotty pulled into Shoreham’s Widewater car park exactly twenty minutes later. During the summer and school holidays, it was packed with day trippers eager to bask on Shoreham beach, walkers who would traipse the shingle to Worthing or twitchers keen to spot a rare breed on the lagoon.
Today, it was all but empty and there was plenty of space to park out 49of earshot, if not eyesight, so he pulled up, facing the bank that shielded them from the beach.
‘What are we doing here?’ said Spanners, his voice betraying his trepidation.
Scotty ignored Saira’s glare which silently asked the same question.
‘I want to know more about you,’ said Scotty as he turned in his seat. ‘You rock up in town, no one – and by that I mean us – knows anything about you, then a few days later my friend gets stabbed to death.’
‘Man, you can’t think that’s got anything to do with me?’
‘Go on then, chief, what’s your story?’
‘I told you. I’m from York. I got a habit which landed me in the nick and they released me from Winchester after serving six months. I moved around then thought I’d see what Brighton was all about for a while.’
‘What’s your real name? I’m assuming you weren’t christened Spanners?’
Saira scribbled the details down as he rattled them off.
‘So, tell us about you,’ said Scotty.
‘There’s not much to tell. I was in the army for five years, fought in Iraq and Afghan. Saw some bad shit out there. Lost two of my closest friends to an IED. Killed a couple of insurgents, at least that’s what we were told they were. They were just kids, man.’ He paused and Scotty saw he was back in the desert.
‘And?’ he prompted.
‘I got sick. PTSD, although they said it wasn’t treatable. I had counselling and shit but the nightmares and sweats never went away. Still haven’t. I got a medical discharge and tried to get a job as a mechanic, like in the army.’
‘Hence Spanners?’
‘Yep. So I tried a few garages, the type you find under railway arches and in lock-ups. I thought that would help get me back on my feet, but it was the worst thing I could have done.’
‘How so?’ asked Saira.
‘You ever served, either of you?’ 50
‘No,’ they both said.
‘It’s hard to explain but you have this rage. It burns deep inside and it only takes someone to give it oxygen and up it flares. Proper explodes.’
Both officers remained silent.
‘Well, this customer came in. Flash geezer but seemed OK. I’d serviced his car and was handing it back when he said I’d nicked a £20 note from the door pocket. He got proper angry and the boss tried to reason with him but he was ranting about me being a thief and that.’
‘And had you?’ asked Scotty.
‘No man, I wouldn’t. Anyway, he got right up close to me. Right in my space. Next thing I know he’s on the floor, blood gushing from his nose, crying like a baby. I don’t remember butting him, but that’s what the boss said I did and I could feel it on my head. I don’t blame the gaffer for letting me go there and then but that’s when I thought, what’s the point?’
‘What did you do?’
‘Well I lost my bedsit, had no job, no friends. Living on the street, I did what so many ex-squaddies do. Drink, drugs eventually, then crime to buy the next fix. I’d gone from someone with a real pride to this.’
Scotty and Saira had heard the same story countless times before but it never failed to sadden them.
‘What happened next?’ asked Saira, breaking the silence.
‘I don’t like to talk about that.’
‘OK, another time. So, back to the other day. Look at this bloke.’ Scotty pulled up an image taken from his body cam. ‘Know him?’
Spanners took the phone and zoomed in on the face. Scotty and Saira shared a look while he examined it.
‘No, sorry man. I recognise the others behind him though.’
‘So do we. You’ve never seen this bloke around at all?’
‘No, as I said I’m new to Brighton.’
‘It’s just it’s a bit of a coincidence. Saira and I, we know just about everyone living on the streets or who has a habit. Yet all of a sudden you 51turn up and so does this bloke. Take another look.’ He thrust the phone back at him.
‘I don’t need to. I’m good with faces and I don’t know him, but I can tell you something.’
Scotty’s heart pounded an extra beat. ‘Go on.’
‘I’m not the only new bloke in town.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘Well, I wasn’t exactly telling you the truth when I said I wanted to see what Brighton was like. Nor about them other places I went.’
‘Right,’ said Saira.
‘Well, the discharge grant ain’t enough to last one day. Even when they put it up to £76, it’s nothing. There’s these geezers in all the nicks south of Birmingham. Just when you’re coming up for release they offer you a monkey to go to Brighton, keep your head down, proper down, until you get a nod to do something. I’m telling you man, most of us have never seen £500 so, like me, they take it. If you get nicked or come to notice in some other way, they give you a kicking and you pay the money back.’
‘Prison officers?’
‘Not directly but they must know it’s going on.’
‘What do you have to do for the money?’
‘Just lie low and wait. Then when they have something, they’ll find you and you do what you’re told.’
‘So you reckon …’
‘Yep, I reckon your man is here for the same reason I am. And I’ll tell you something else. He’ll be long gone by now. You’ll never find him.’