Out of the car, he sidestepped a large foamy puddle that had been left behind by someone who’d recently cleaned a car. He swiped his card across the reader to get in and walked through the station and down a corridor to the front office. He asked the female counter assistant where PC Parker could be found, to be told that she was upstairs in the canteen on her break – a rare thing, Jake thought – if only.
The canteen was on the first floor. It had succumbed to the force’s desire to do away with station canteens and although of a fair size, it had been reduced to a self preparation area for the street cops who wanted to make their own food, (if they ever had time), or just hit the chocolate and coffee machine. A large panoramic window showed a view over the town centre and the superstore car park. He found Parker sitting in the corner, eating sandwiches from her sandwich box and reading a dog-eared Police magazine, some years old.
She looked up, as he approached her. She smiled warmly. ‘Hi, Jake.’
Jake could just about still make out the faint New Zealand accent that Parker had picked up while she was out there.
‘And what brings you here?’
‘I’ve come to see you, and to ask you something.’
‘Not just to check up on me then?’
Jake smiled. ‘No, I’ve come to offer you a job.’
‘I can’t, Jake. Remember? I’m only just into my thirty-month re-probation.’
‘Re-probation or reprobation, as in reprobate?’ Jake smiled.
‘Reprobate is right, the way I’ve been treated.’
‘What if I can help you?’
‘Oh, how?’
‘We need somebody for an undercover operation, a sting. We also need somebody that wouldn’t be sussed out as a copper, someone neutral, unencumbered by police procedure.’
‘Oh, so you think I’m neutral and unencumbered?’
‘At the moment, yes.’
Parker chewed on her sandwich before answering. ‘What’s this job? And how does it help my situation?’
‘We need somebody to go into a nightclub and…’ Jake faltered.
‘And what?’
‘Pick up a suspect.’
‘What? As in arrest?’
‘No, as in “pick-up”.’ Jake’s eyes danced as in a “you know” fashion.
Parker smiled, getting the message. ‘What’s this guy done then?’
‘It’s not a guy.’
She took another bite from her sandwich. ‘I’m a bit insulted, Jake. I don’t follow Sappho of Lesbos, you know.’
‘I know, but we think she does.’
‘So, what, I wait for this woman and then try pick her up?’
‘No, hopefully she’ll pick you up, if you are the right, type, shall we say.’
‘And what type is that?’ Parker put what was left of her sandwich back in the box, looking intently at Jake.
‘You’d have to wear a dark brown wig, unless you want to dye and cut your own hair.’
‘It wouldn’t be the first preference, I have to say.’ She took a drink from a can sitting next to her lunchbox.
Jake smiled. ‘So, do you want to help us out then?’
‘You’ll have to give me a bit more information first.’
Jake sat down in the low easy chairs opposite Parker after taking off his hi-vis. He sat back and folded his arms, looking at Parker. ‘Are you sure you’re happy to do this?’
Parker nodded, took another drink.
‘I understand this woman we are after doesn’t want to take women to bed.’ Jake squirmed a little, not knowing how Parker would take the next bit of information. ‘This woman…’ he paused, ‘drugs her victims, puts them in their car and lets them drive, usually ending up involved in a fatal collision.’
Jake agonised over the information he’d just given her and it was obvious to Parker from his face. She remained quiet for a moment, and took a peak into the sandwich she had just picked up. She looked across at Jake.
‘You want me to get drugged up then?’
‘Hopefully it won’t come to that, because we’ll get to her before she does it. There’ll be a full team to back you up.’
‘Will anyone be with me?’
‘One of my officers, who, shall we say, has had experience of this woman.’
‘What sort of experience?’
‘Let’s just say that it was a public embarrassment for him.’
‘So, he has a motive to find her?’
‘He wants to see her locked up, yes.’
‘How many women has she…?’
Picking up where Parker was going with this, Jake clarified. ‘Definitely murdered? She may be responsible for the deaths of several people while driving their cars and yesterday’s body found out in Fulborough Wood.’
‘Jesus! What is it with that place?’
‘Yeah, I know.’
‘How does that work then, this drug thing?’
‘We think a new kind of drug has been developed that only works on certain parts of the brain and only when you drive.’
‘Is that even possible?’
Jake sat forward. ‘Kirsty says it is, and it’s very sophisticated.’
‘When do you want to do this?’
‘As soon as possible, probably this weekend.’
Parker nodded slowly. ‘And what about my boss here?’
‘ACC Marland is looking after that.’
‘And what happens to me if I survive all this?’ Parker asked. ‘A lamb to the slaughter,’ she added.
‘No guarantees, but your case will be reviewed with a view to reducing your probationary period.’
Jake watched, as Stephanie stared out of the window towards the town centre. He looked in the same direction and saw a woman on the pelican crossing stop halfway to pick up a toy her child had thrown out of the buggy she was pushing. He could hear the tantrum from the child, even behind the glass of the police station canteen. Parker turned back to Jake, solemn-faced.
‘And back to Northampton – please?’
Jake nodded.
‘Can I think about it? I don’t know whether I’m ready for undercover operations.’
‘I’m sure you’ll be fine and I know you can do it.’
Jake looked into Parker’s lunchbox as Parker went to pick up her half-eaten sandwich. There were a few chocolate biscuits in the corner of the box. He stood.
‘Don’t be long making a decision about this, Stephanie,’ Jake said. ‘I can only give you till tomorrow. Ring me, OK?’
‘OK.’ Parker took a bite out of her sandwich. ‘Seems I might be indebted to you again Jake – if I take the job.’
Jake simply nodded slightly, leant over her sandwich box and nicked a biscuit. He smiled. ‘Not good for you, chocolate.’
‘No worse than being drugged by a murdering psychopath,’ Parker countered in good humour.
Jake waved the biscuit at her as he went to leave, and smiled. ‘Indeed,’ he said, leaving Parker to think on.
33
The restaurant at force headquarters was virtually empty when Jake arrived just after eight AM, the following morning. Randall, was sitting in the corner by the window tucking into his breakfast. He acknowledged Jake as he entered the restaurant.
The restaurant had long tables with utilitarian easy clean table tops, it was bright and the smell of cooking permeated from the kitchen area as he placed his order for a bacon sandwich.
While he waited, Jake poured himself a coffee from the machine at the end of the counter. By the time he’d done that, the bacon sandwich had arrived, which he paid for then wandered over to Randall and sat down opposite him.
Jake bit into his bacon sandwich. Randall was knee-deep in a greasy, fried breakfast, wiping up egg and bacon fat with a thick chunk of white bread. Stuffing the bread in his mou
th, he licked his fingers, quietly belched his satisfaction and scrutinised Jake, while taking a great gulp of coffee.
‘Do you make a habit of it. Fletcher?’
‘Make a habit of what, Jake?’ Randall said, wiping his mouth with a serviette.
‘Going around picking up or hitting on female colleagues?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘You couldn’t get it on with Dr Kingsfield, so now you’re hitting on PC Parker.’
‘No, it’s not the sort of thing I do and I’m insulted that you think that.’
‘Really? That’s not what Parker told me this morning.’
Randall stared at Jake then just shook his head.
‘I spoke with her yesterday, as we agreed, and then she tells me this morning that you went and saw her last night to try to convince her to join our operation.’
‘I didn’t want her to miss out on the opportunity to get in the bosses’ good books, that’s all.’
Jake leaned across the table, speaking almost in a whisper. ‘That’s bollocks, sir, and you know it. She would have come round eventually.’
‘Eventually is a long time away and we need her, Sergeant.’ Randall sat back and folded his arms. He looked around the restaurant. ‘Is she in then?’
‘Yes, no thanks to you. Did you not think that I could secure her assistance?’
‘No, it’s not that. I just thought that it would reinforce what you asked her.’
‘So, you reinforced it, by taking her out for a drink.’
‘What was wrong with that? She could have refused.’
Jake said nothing.
The restaurant was beginning to fill up with a group of officers on a training course, sitting around them, so their conversation was no longer private.
‘What’s she going to do?’ Randall asked after a moment.
‘She told me this morning that she would do the undercover job, so long as she had full back-up.’
Jake looked around the restaurant, acknowledging a couple of colleagues as they walked past.
‘OK. And what about Dr Kingsfield in all this?’ Randall asked.
‘She’s not in it, is she? And I don’t want her involved.’
‘But if she insists?’
‘Then, for her own safety, we should ensure that that doesn’t happen.’ Jake stopped chewing on his sandwich and looked at Randall. ‘She’s been through enough, Fletcher. It wouldn’t be wise to get her involved. She’s a scientist, not a copper.’
Randall nodded slowly. ‘You have a thing for her, don’t you?’
‘More than you will ever know. Do you?’
‘I do, yes, but as a colleague – nothing more. We have things in common, that’s all I want to say. Anyway, by all accounts, Dr Kingsfield has made up her mind.’
‘Yes, but it wasn’t for the want of trying your luck, was it?’ A beat. ‘What things in common?’ Jake asked as an afterthought.
Randall looked around the room before answering. Jake noticed Randall touch the wedding ring on his finger. He looked directly at Jake. ‘Let’s just say that we’ve both lost people we’ve loved and you… you lost your job over her. Now just another shift sergeant.’
‘You win some, you lose some – there’ll be other opportunities. Anyway, it’s all about doing things that are right and not necessarily worrying about the job. I’ve done nothing wrong. I can’t help it if the job is so blinkered, that they can’t see, that if they put two people together, after a time something is bound to happen.’
‘You sound bitter. Was it worth it?’
‘Yes,’ Jake responded, without hesitation.
‘Did you know her before her husband’s murder?’
‘Vaguely, professionally.’
‘Ah, admiration from afar.’
‘She’s a good pathologist, you know.’
‘Why didn’t the hospital keep her in her position then?’
‘You’d have to ask them that.’
Randall sat back in his chair, then leaned forward, while Jake finished eating his sandwich, washing it down with what remained of his mug of coffee.
‘I’ve decided that I like you, Jake. You’re a good copper.’
‘That’s very condescending of you, but I don’t need your approval.’ He smiled. A cold smile.
Randall gave Jake a huge grin, the first time that Jake had seen his face break from the dour looks he normally had. They both stood, then Randall held out his hand. Jake took it.
‘Go and enjoy your life with Kirsty, Jake. From what I hear, I think you deserve it.’
There was a momentary silence before Randall spoke again as they walked out of the restaurant together. ‘How are we going to catch your killer? After all, that’s what we’ve come here to discuss, isn’t it?’
‘I think we need to put Prentice in with Parker, but separate, so that he can ID her to the rest of us when she turns up.’
‘What intel have we got about these other women, dates, times etc?’
‘Commonly, a Sunday night, although the A5 one was a private party, we think she may have crashed, so to speak. Don’t really know how our perpetrator got into that one, but my guess is that it’ll be over a weekend, which makes me think that whoever is doing this works during the week.’
‘Do you think that we’ll be able to set something up for this weekend?’
‘If Parker and her boss agree, I don’t see why not.’
‘How long do you want to run the operation?’
‘Till we catch her.’
‘And practically?’
‘No idea – two, three weekends, maybe.’
‘OK. I’ll draw up some plans.’
‘I’ll arrange for some extra cars in town, just in case she does a runner.’
Randall nodded. They walked in silence.
As they got to the car park, Randall said suddenly, ‘You know, Jake, I’m not chasing Kirsty. I was, I’ll admit that, but it’s plainly obvious to me that she has eyes for you and nobody else. The conversations we’ve had feature you quite prominently, enough for any man to understand that she’s not available, if you get my drift.’
They stopped walking. Jake looked directly at Randall. ‘Thank you for being honest, Fletcher, but…’ Jake smiled, ‘you better not go after her. Traffic’s arms are very, very long!’
Randall guffawed as they went off in their separate directions.
An hour later, when Jake had spoken and cleared the operation with Beccy Burnett, he walked into the incident room. As he stood on the threshold, he felt strange. It was peculiar, that he saw uniformed traffic officers in deep conversation with detectives.
He knew that there was a traditional split between the two departments. The view amongst some of the elder statesmen of the detective world, was that a constable was promoted to the detectives and demoted to traffic.
With the advent of extended road death investigation, the two departments were inexorably drawn together, so much so that there were even two detectives allocated for use by the road death investigation unit.
He stood near the door and watched his officers and Randall talking to another detective. He didn’t know what to make of Randall. One minute he was friendly and willing to engage and the next a dark mood would come over him, making him appear introspective – thoughtful or distant maybe. Colleagues had quickly learnt not to cross him, when he was in one of those moods.
Jake had made a few enquiries about Randall discreetly with his counterpart in Thames Valley after his comment in the restaurant about him having things in common with Kirsty. The source told him that Randall had only been in the job for about ten years, but moved up the ladder fast. However, something had happened, which had stopped him. And Jake hadn’t managed to find out why he’d been discharged from the Army either. He assumed it was som
ething to do with that scar on his face. But there again, he could be looking at it all wrong and, if the guy was doing his job, did he need to worry about it?
Randall saw Jake standing by the door and called him over.
‘Well?’
‘All OK, all sorted. We’re on for Friday, as discussed.’
‘Splendid! Let’s go catch us a murderer,’ Randall said, rubbing his hands.
34
Friday
Lord Fulborough
Standing in the estate office, Barrington Fulborough waited for the arrival of his manager, who he had summoned as a matter of urgency. Fulborough was, to say the least, more than angry at Philpott. Not only did he dislike being instructed to attend a police station, but he also disliked being deceived, allowing Philpott to think that everything went OK with the wood-clearing job, when clearly it hadn’t.
He knew that Philpott had been with the estate for a good twenty years, but he had never liked him and thought him more a thug than a manager. He had forgotten the number of times his father had argued with him about upsetting the staff, because of his arrogant attitude.
But this was different. The man had deliberately concealed the remains of a human being, so he could get the job done. Thinking that no one would find out about it was a presumption beyond belief.
Fulborough was savvy enough to know that you couldn’t keep that sort of thing quiet for too long. People talk. He was determined to find out who had told the police about this and was determined to see Philpott gone. Today. After all, the reputation of his family was at stake, and if the press got on to it?
He’d sent all the office staff home early, so that he would have the place to himself.
He looked out of the window onto the rain-soaked gravel yard to see Philpott in his 4x4 come sliding to a halt outside the office door. His attitude and posture were clear to Fulborough. This was going to be a stand-off.
Philpott barged into the office, letting the door slam behind him. ‘You want to see me?’ he growled.
‘Yes, sit down.’
‘I’ll stand.’
Driving Dead Page 16