Late night last night. Early morning this morning. The meeting with Deana Burke has pushed Fisher back towards Shug. That’s what he wanted. He didn’t want to know that he was running out of time, sure, but he wanted to know that he was running in the right direction. Shug had Hardy killed as part of his deal with MacArthur. Alex MacArthur would have insisted on it. Oh, how sweet it would be to get MacArthur too. Can’t get him directly, but might get lucky via Shug. If he can get solid charges against Shug. Have him in an interview room, get him nervous and get him talking. With a hardened operator, you get nothing. But Shug Francis isn’t a hardened operator. He’s nice and soft. Fiddling around with stolen motors doesn’t harden you for life at this level. There are a lot of very naive low-level criminals. They think what they do makes them tough. Makes them ready for anything. They have no idea.
Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Too much thinking. Working out the best angle for attack. No longer thinking about the best way to arrest Shug and get a solid case. Now thinking about the fastest way. If Fisher delays, Peter Jamieson takes the decision out of his hands. Then he has to target Jamieson, and that’s not likely to get him anywhere. Not now, anyway. He had Kenny, and that could have led to something. He nearly had Frank MacLeod. Got this close. Then, nothing. Frank disappears off the face of the planet. Two possible reasons. The less likely is that he ran. The more likely is that Peter Jamieson had his former gunman killed. Silenced, if you want to look at it that way. Now Kenny’s gone, and Jamieson didn’t have to do a thing about it. Shug, in his stupidity, has taken away an avenue of destruction for Jamieson. Doesn’t even know that he’s done his enemy a favour.
Right now Fisher’s hoping Shug will do another enemy a favour. He’s sitting along the street from the house. Car facing the other way, watching his mirrors. Far enough away that nobody in the house will see him in the car. Also far enough away that he has a poor view. Poor is better than none. He’s waiting for Shug to leave. To drive somewhere in one of his chintzy sports cars. Lead Fisher to a new point of investigation. Find someone that Fisher can lean on. Just give them some new information. All they’ve been drawing are blanks. You deal with people like Jamieson and MacArthur and they leave you nothing to play with. A guy like Shug leaves plenty. Makes enough mistakes. Maybe that stops now–he’s living up to MacArthur’s standards. Or maybe they just need to watch Shug a little more closely.
Watching the house and waiting. Watching the clock ticking down. How long will Jamieson wait? He’ll want Shug crushed. It’ll happen soon, and leave Fisher with nothing. Worse than nothing. His entire investigation a source of ridicule for others. That’s if his efforts in recent months haven’t already become a joke in the station. Failure piled upon failure. Young cops losing their respect and fear of him. He needs something. Now he’s watching closely. His thoughts are interrupted by movement at Shug’s front door. A woman coming out, going to a car in the driveway. Taking something from it and going back into the house. That’ll be the wife. Elaine. She’ll become a target for Fisher, if he can’t find anything better. Usually wiser to ignore the fierce women of the underworld. They don’t crack. But she’s not like them. She could be soft too. Give it another couple of days. Find something concrete, or go for her.
It’s nearly eight o’clock in the morning when a car pulls up further down the street from Shug’s house. Looks like the driver’s in a hurry. A man getting out, small, close to middle-aged. Hard to spot facial features at this range. Should have brought a camera. Could have turned in the seat and zoomed him. He’s walking quickly up to the front door. Ringing the doorbell and waiting. Standing with his back to Fisher. Little bastard, whoever you are. The door’s opening and the man’s going inside. Now Fisher’s sitting and waiting. Making a judgement. Who do you follow? Sit tight and mark Shug, or pick up the newcomer? Not an easy one to make. The newcomer could be important, or he could be a complete waste of time. At least with Shug you know you’re tailing a man who matters. You’re tailing your principal target.
The man’s been inside all of five minutes when the front door’s opening again. Fisher’s sliding down a little in the seat, looking in his mirror. Still can’t get a good view of the man as he comes out. Make the judgement. Someone inside for that long is not going to be important. He could lead to someone important. Could be that Shug’s given him something to deliver. But not likely. Probably just some pathetic little shit that runs errands for the boss. Pick up his shopping, that sort of thing. Let him go. Watch the house; follow Shug when he comes out. If he comes out. He used to be very active. Used to spend a lot of time at the garages. Used to go to races every weekend. Even bought his own track-day race car. Was going to spend a lot of time with that. Word is he’s stopped all that. Fisher heard from another cop that in the last two months Shug’s hardly visited any of his own garages and never goes racing. The lifestyle change of a man with a lot to worry about.
The little man’s across the front lawn and down to the road. Getting into his car and coming this way. Fisher’s sliding all the way down now, out of sight. The car’s going past. Just as Fisher begins to straighten back up, he has a flash of recognition. Not much. He’s only seen the back and some of the side of the driver’s face. Enough to change his judgement. You see something in a split second that gives you an opening. He could be wrong. He could be making another blunder. Wouldn’t be the first recently. But if he’s right, this could pull everything together. He’s starting the car, but staying where he is. Letting the driver get out of view. He’s likely to be paranoid, looking for a tail. Fisher’s going to have to be careful. A glance in his rear-view mirror to see if there’s anything behind him that might grab his interest. No sign of movement from Shug’s house. Good. Concentrate on the driver.
Staying in the Goldilocks zone. Some police drivers are good at it. Fisher’s been in a car with a police driver tailing a robbery suspect. Suspect didn’t know he was being followed. Fisher knew he was moving the weapons they’d used on the job the day before. The driver had to keep a perfect distance, without ever losing the target. He played it flawlessly. Never got too close. Never fell too far back. Worked the traffic like you wouldn’t believe. Amazing how a good driver can manipulate the traffic around him. Fisher’s not that good, and he knows it. So he’s playing cautious. Hanging a little further back than he should. Risking losing the target rather than getting too close and giving the game away. Trying to make sure he only catches glimpses of a car going through the morning traffic. So easy to lose him. Couple of times he did lose him. Got bogged down in traffic or stopped at lights while the target pulled away ahead. Got back in touch by luck rather than design.
Now it’s all swinging in Fisher’s favour. All because he’s worked out where the target is going. Armed with that info, there’s no need to keep him in view. Let him get ahead if he wants. Fisher’s even taking a slightly different route, so that he’ll arrive at the destination from a different direction. Make sure the target doesn’t know Fisher was following him. Now he’s in a comfort zone, and actually enjoying the drive. Who cares about the morning traffic when you know there’s good news waiting at the end of the journey? Nearly there now. Coming round the corner and onto what should be the last street. Seeing the target car coming the other way along the street and turning off. Turning into the car park, as expected. Fisher isn’t rushing to get there. No need. He’s turning off the street and pulling into the car park. Slowing down and pulling into his usual spot.
He can see the door of the target car opening. Fisher isn’t out of his car yet. He can see the driver getting out. Short man, thin, approaching middle age. It’s so obvious now. Couldn’t see it from a distance, but here it’s easy. The dark hair, the scar on one cheek. PC Paul Greig. Just finished visiting one of his scumbag criminal mates and now on his way to work. About to head into the changing rooms and put on his uniform. The uniform in which he’s supposed to protect the public from people like Shug Francis. The uniform he so routinely disgraces. Fisher’s getting out of the car. Greig’s walking across the car park. As Fisher’s pressing the button on his keys to lock the car, he’s raising his eyes. Eye contact with Greig. The temptation is to smile and say hello. Now that he has the bastard by the balls, he doesn’t feel the hatred so much any more. He only hates the fact that Greig gets away with it. That will soon change. But no. No smile, no hello. Just looking back down at the keys, stony-faced. Don’t let Greig know that anything has changed between them.
He’s been sitting at his desk for the best part of an hour. The plods have brought a few things to him–nothing that matters right now. The financial boffins have put together a list of discrepancies in Hardy’s books. All relating to Shug, to begin with. Interesting stuff. List as long as your arm. Took some effort to pick it all apart. It’ll all go on the charge sheet. It would be a failure if it were all that went on the sheet. He wants more. The disappearances of Hardy and Kenny. The meeting with Greig. There’s so much that he could throw at a man like Shug Francis. The more he throws, the more he might get back. Fisher’s willing to do deals. Cut some of the charges for information that matters. But he needs more charges. How long now before Jamieson moves? Can’t be long. Jamieson will try to hit hard, Fisher thinks. Unaware that he is the mechanism Jamieson is using to strike. Rushing to beat himself to the punch. He’s smiling, though. For the first time in months it feels as though an investigation is coming towards him rather than getting away.