by Lisa Cutts
For a moment, Sophia almost fell for the little-boy-lost look, then she remembered that she had put her days of being won over by good looks alone well behind her.
‘So, go on,’ she said, ‘what’s the great plan that’ll get us a new life on the Spanish coast?’
‘Don’t be glib. If you want me to tell you how we can change our fortunes, I will, but not if you’re going to take the piss.’
Sophia had to hand it to him – he did look genuinely hurt.
‘Sorry. Go on.’
They sat side by side, staring ahead for several seconds before Dane started to speak.
‘I’ve not always been a completely decent person. I’ve done some stuff in my past that I’m not particularly proud of, but that stopped when I joined the police. I wanted to help people, lock up criminals. You know, the sort of stuff most people join for.’
Sophia said nothing. She’d had her own reasons for becoming a police officer.
‘Well, I turned a corner,’ Dane said. ‘I put everything behind me and threw myself into the world of fighting crime. And if I do say so myself, I’m bloody good at it.’
She couldn’t resist a giggle at this part.
‘Don’t laugh at me, please.’
‘I’m sorry. Go on,’ she repeated.
He gave a rather dramatic sigh before continuing. ‘All my life, I’ve worked so hard, put in the hours, but even with working like a dog, well, I got into debt, lots of it.
‘A bit like yourself, no matter how much overtime I did, I couldn’t get ahead of the game. Like a mug, I tried gambling. I won a few times, of course, although it hardly swelled my bank balance. I’ve managed to get by, and I had to sell my house to pay off what I owed. It’s left me with virtually nothing, but at least I’ve got a roof over my head.’
‘So, the flat you’re in isn’t yours?’ Sophia said.
‘No, I rent. It’s a crap-hole, but it’s home.’
‘And what’s your plan?’
Dane gave a wry laugh and turned on his stool to look at her. He put his hands over hers.
‘Love the way you said, “Your plan”.’
‘Well, I have to distance myself from the conspiracy to commit burglary somehow.’
‘Interesting,’ said Dane. ‘You’ve gone for a classic burglary rather than a robbery.’
‘Robbery means violence and I don’t want to hurt anyone.’
His eyebrows all but disappeared under his hair.
‘So, you’re saying what?’ he said. ‘You’re actually thinking about doing this?’
‘Doing what though, Dane? I don’t actually know what it is you’re thinking of doing.’
He let go of her hands to push his hair back from his face.
‘I need to know that you’re really going to help me take part in this before I tell you what it is,’ he said. ‘There’ll be no going back once I make you a part of it.’
She took a long slow breath and said, ‘I know, I know, but what have I got to lose? Apart from my freedom, job, friends and family?’
‘At least you have a home,’ he said under his breath.
‘Just about.’
She watched his face intently as she said, ‘Fortunately, I have endowment policies about to pay out, even though they’re now worth nowhere near what they should be. If it wasn’t for them, within six months I’d be homeless. I’ve had to re-mortgage twice to cover my own debts. You’re not the only one with piss-poor finances. I’d say we were well and truly suited.’
Was there a flicker of disappointment? It was hard to tell. So practised was Dane’s performance that Sophia knew she would have missed any deviation from his usual manner if she hadn’t been looking out for it.
‘You too, hun,’ was all he had to say.
‘Too right. Too bloody right.’
For a second, they sat in miserable solitude until Dane broke in on her thoughts and said, ‘So we take what they owe us. It’s that simple.’
‘So how do we right this wrong?’ she said.
It was as if someone had switched a light on behind his eyes, illuminated his entire face. He came alive in a manner Sophia had never witnessed before.
‘We take enough to tide me over and what you’d have got if you’d never paid into their bloody pension in the first place. Imagine if you’d taken the amount you’ve put into a pension you were mis-sold and invested it in property. You’d have a house that you’d bought for something like a hundred and twenty grand, now worth nearly half a million.’
He sat back, arms crossed as if the job was done.
‘Yes, but I didn’t, although I could have,’ she said.
She held his stare.
‘Headquarters has a safe,’ he said.
‘As it happens, there are a number of them.’
‘One of them in particular has a lot of money in it,’ said Dane. ‘And it’s money that shouldn’t be there.’
In spite of all the conflicting feelings she was having, she did have to admit to herself that she was more than mildly interested.
‘Are you talking about the money and jewellery we’ve just put in there?’ she said, getting up to make the abandoned coffees.
‘Pour me a whisky to go with that and I’ll tell you.’
Sophia reached up to the cupboard to grab a couple of glasses and pointed Dane in the direction of the meagre selection of spirits she had in another cupboard.
With a bottle of cheap booze, two glasses and two mugs of strong coffee between them, Dane sketched out a crude map of police headquarters on the back of a piece of kitchen towel with a pen he’d found on the worktop.
‘The safe is here, on the top floor.’ He jabbed at the cross he’d made with the end of the pen. ‘And we go in here.’
‘Are you crazy? In the front? Trust me on this, through the back across the fields is definitely the better option.’
He stared at her, head on one side. ‘There are less cameras at the front.’
Sophia took the time to enjoy her moment. She sat back and positively beamed at him. It was her turn to take the pen and stab at the map.
‘This camera here at the back,’ she said, ‘doesn’t work and won’t record. This one here is permanently pointed at the chief superintendent’s car since someone dented it last year and failed to own up, and this one here is a dummy.’
With a sly smile, Dane topped up both of their glasses, held his up and said, ‘I guess I underestimated you, young lady. Here’s to our success.’
‘Here’s to us,’ she said, as their glasses clinked together. ‘And just so I’m clear, how much money’s in the safe?’
Dane took a sip of his whisky, leaned across and whispered in her ear, ‘Eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds.’
Chapter 57
Monday 11 May
The start of the working week in the incident room had its usual stresses and strains: too much work and not enough people to do it, another busy weekend meaning everyone who had been on duty had accumulated an average of ten hours of overtime in two days, and Harry had no idea when he was going to get his staff back from the newest investigations to raid his workforce. He had already told the Fraud Department that they were taking the piss and he wanted his two detectives to return immediately.
He was relieved to see Sophia walk through the door after she’d stormed out of his house. She looked exhausted. As if she’d had a very late night.
Dane walked in barely two seconds behind her, stifling a yawn as he swaggered to his desk.
Harry had to hand it to him, he looked as tired as Sophia, yet he appeared to be more worn in than worn out.
Unsure whether to make too much of it, Harry thought it best to leave them to it: if he was right and Sophia had spent the rest of her Sunday with Dane, he was far from certain what Dane now knew of Harry and Sophia’s conversation. That was a depressing thought.
For now, he decided to sit back and watch what they did.
Harry made himself busy at the photocopier ne
stled in a far corner. He tried his best to make copying a memo five times take as long as he needed to so he could surreptitiously watch Sophia.
He saw her check something on her screen and a frown crease her forehead as she leaned closer to read it, her mouth hanging slightly open.
He didn’t want to let her see him studying her every move and was even less keen that anyone else in the office should catch him observing her.
From the corner of his eye, he saw her jot something down, rip the piece of paper from the pad and push it into her handbag.
It wasn’t only her rapid movements that gave Harry cause for concern, it was that the whole time she was doing so, Sophia was keeping one eye on Dane to make sure he didn’t see what she was doing.
Despite the conversation Harry and Sophia had had the previous morning, he couldn’t fight the feeling that she was about to land herself in serious trouble. And Harry knew he could only help her so far when the time came.
Chapter 58
To describe Sophia’s morning as emotional would be an understatement. As soon as she checked her messages, workload and emails, she knew that the day was about to take an unpleasant turn.
Initially she had paused over opening the email, coming from a source she didn’t know, the sender listed as Hannah Reeves. The name made her breath catch in her throat. The only Hannah who had contacted her recently had warned her to stay away from Dane. It had to be the same person, so she opened it.
With a casual glance or three in Dane’s direction, Sophia tried to remain calm as she read the words.
Hi Sophia, you probably got my texts and haven’t replied, so here goes. My name is Hannah and I used to be Dane Hoopman’s girlfriend. I was also in the job, but thanks to him, I’m now not. Here’s my number again if you want to find out the truth about him and why I’m no longer a police officer.
For a few seconds, Sophia sat and read through the email another couple of times. Harry was making a mess of photocopying one page, Gabrielle was being as weird as ever at her desk, and Dane seemed preoccupied with himself. Nothing seemed out of place for a morning at Major Crime.
As soon as Harry had stopped jamming the copier and Dane was occupied trying his best to get Tom or one of the others to make him a cup of tea, Sophia slipped out of the office, taking her handbag with her.
Standing under the stairwell leading down to the custody suite, Sophia stood chewing the inside of her mouth, mobile in one hand, paper with Hannah’s number in the other.
It took her a second before she punched the number in and waited for the call to connect.
A voice said, ‘Hello.’
‘Er, hello,’ said Sophia. ‘My name’s . . .’
‘Is that Sophia?’
‘Yes, I’m . . .’
An awkward silence followed until Hannah said, ‘I think we should meet. I’ve got some things I need to tell you.’
‘I’m so busy at the moment. I’m not sure I can take the time to meet up. Please, whatever it is, tell me.’
There was another pause until Hannah eventually said, ‘I’ll come to you. Name a place in East Rise and I’ll see you there later today. It’s not as if I’m busy.’
There was a short bark of laughter Sophia was unsure how to react to.
‘I’m not sure this is going to work,’ Sophia tried to protest. What could this woman possibly want?
‘Listen, love,’ said the voice, now with a much sharper edge to it. ‘This isn’t for my bloody benefit, so I suggest that you meet me later today. Shall we say midday, so you can look as though you’re slipping out for lunch?’
A little taken aback at the abruptness, Sophia found herself agreeing with the snarly woman barking orders at her.
‘We’ll meet at a café. Do you know the Seagull Pickings?’
‘Unfortunately, I do,’ said Sophia, common sense kicking in. ‘Have you been there before? It’s a bit grim.’
‘That’s what makes it ideal. I’ll see you there in a few hours. And it goes without saying, I hope, don’t bring Dane.’
Sophia found herself with a phone to her ear, listening to a disconnected signal.
In a little under four hours, she might just put some more pieces of her Dane-shaped puzzle together.
Chapter 59
Just because I was bored, not to mention worked up, I made an excuse and left the office. I drove to headquarters, firstly to check out what Sophia had told me the night before, but also to get out of her way.
She was still acting a bit off with me and I didn’t really know why. No doubt, she didn’t fully trust me, and for good reason. I was a criminal, a bent copper. They didn’t come any lower than me. And she didn’t even know about the shit I’d pulled in the past, despite my heavy hints.
I pulled out of East Rise police station, heading in the direction of the motorway. The shitty little Ford Focus I was driving wasn’t going to get me any speeding tickets, and besides, I wasn’t in a hurry.
As I drove along, I thought about how Sophia and I could actually have a future together. I had completely cocked things up with every woman I had met. My ex-girlfriends all hated me, usually for very good reason too: encouraging them to spend money on me they didn’t have and stealing from them usually did the trick. Some
I’d done worse to. I really should think about jacking this all in and heading abroad.
I fancied Spain or Italy.
It all boiled down to whether I threw Sophia under the bus or took her with me. I really was undecided. Perhaps I’d merely see how things panned out when we had the money.
It wouldn’t be too difficult to make an anonymous call, leave some of the money at her house, and leave something of hers behind at the crime scene. With several years of criminal activity under my belt, plus a couple as a copper, if I couldn’t fit someone up, I really hadn’t been paying attention.
It would probably be about the lowest thing I’d ever done to a former girlfriend, actually send them to prison. I’d come close a couple of times, but usually left them a get-out-of-jail-free card. Sophia was different though. Sophia was intelligent, and I saw in her that she had the ability to bring me down.
That’s why I liked her so much.
Still pondering the difficulties of keeping her around against sending her to prison, I pulled off the motorway and drove through Riverstone towards police HQ.
It was important to be seen at headquarters, and besides, I had expenses to collect. I wanted to pick up my £27.58 before someone emptied the safe.
I was still smiling at my own joke as I parked the car and wandered towards the finance department on the top floor.
As casually as I could, I took my phone out of my pocket and stopped a couple of times as if I was checking messages, all the time making sure there were no internal cameras or extra security installed since I was last there.
Eventually, I made it to the top floor, got my form signed and approved in one office and then took it to where the money was kept.
Not for much longer.
I smiled at the woman who took my form from me, stamped it and seemed only too pleased to get me my money from the safe. I liked her.
When she had her back to me, going through the money, counting out the notes and coins, I ran an eye over the back of the safe. It had three shelves, all stacked high with note-shaped bundles and piles of jewellery. In those bundles was the rest of my life.
The other three people in the large open-plan office had their heads down and were working away, not even appearing to be fazed by the small fortune that was sitting feet from them.
Why weren’t they plotting to steal it? I simply didn’t get people and their keenness to work themselves to death when they could take what they wanted and not have so much stress in their lives.
Then I was signing my expense form and handing it over in exchange for my £27.58.
The nearest bookies to headquarters was less than half a mile away.
With any luck, my horse would come in and I�
��d have enough to last me until payday having already blown Turner’s money gambling online.
If not, I’d have to see how much money Sophia had on her.
Chapter 60
Harry had set the briefing time for 10 a.m.
A meagre number of people took their seats in the conference room, watched by Harry from the top of the table as they spread themselves thinly around its edges.
‘Thanks for coming,’ he said, counting six people and remembering the days a murder would mean twenty-five-plus at his briefings.
He was greeted with murmurs, the odd nod.
‘Okay,’ he continued, ‘the murder of Jenny Bloomfield. As you probably all know, Pierre had the foresight to ask the jewellers to put some CCTV aside. From Pierre’s notebook, he had some of her belongings to return to her and when he couldn’t get hold of her, it seems he tried to track her down. It shows Jenny getting into a car, a black Range Rover. Tom can talk you through the next part and the developments he’s made over the weekend.’
All eyes turned to Tom Delayhoyde.
‘Well, boss,’ he said as his hands smoothed out the investigator’s notebook in front of him on the table, ‘the registration on the Range Rover was impossible to see and the driver’s face was partially obscured. However, there was a car park pass for The Grand hotel. I asked them to check all records for anyone registering a black Range Rover with them around the time of Jenny’s disappearance and they came up with a list that we worked our way through.’
He paused, took a sip of water and said, ‘It wasn’t a very long list and we eliminated every one of the cars except one – it had tenuous links to a Sean Turner.’
Tom paused again and looked at Harry. ‘Go on, Tom. Tell them,’ said Harry.
‘Prison intelligence has confirmed that Sean Turner visited Jack McCall in prison, Jack being the former cellmate of Aiden Bloomfield, Jenny’s son.’
A few incredulous looks greeted this latest update.
‘That’s not all,’ said Tom, glancing in his DI’s direction. ‘We’ve recently discovered through Witness Protection and Intel that Sean Turner was Linda Bowman’s brother.’