“It’s not over yet.”
Craig gave a cynical grunt.
“Let’s face it, it’s not looking brilliant. What gets me most is the way Greer keeps smirking. She’s got something up her sleeve, I know it.”
The Met officer added more sugar to his drink. “The only thing they have is that Ershov might have entrapped her and the tape disputes that.”
Craig gazed through the window, wishing he could see the river from where they were. It always chilled him out. He knew the main reason that he thought they were losing was Joanne Greer’s permanent Cheshire Cat grin; the jury had given no sign of what they were thinking and the force’s barristers were still gung ho. But there was something else as well and he’d just worked out what it was.
“OK, she’s trying to psych us out and it’s working. But I’ve just worked out the other reason I’m pessimistic.”
Yemi looked at him questioningly.
“The contract killers. I think if the appeal fails Greer’s going to give them up in exchange for a shorter stretch. With time served she could be out on licence right away.”
The D.C.I. shook his head. “Surely she wouldn’t be that stupid? By admitting she knows their details she’s basically saying that she knew about the assassination plans.”
Craig shook his head. “Not necessarily. She could say that Ershov’s successor gave her the information.”
Yemi laughed loudly, showing his sparkling white teeth. “What? Out of the goodness of his heart?”
Craig shrugged, unwilling to be cheered. “The Met would have to prove otherwise, and do you really think they’d bother if it meant getting their hands on a pair of assassins wanted all over Europe? Greer’s small fry compared to them. Wait and see. When the verdict comes in either Greer will go free on appeal or she’ll be looking for a deal.”
Yemi whistled slowly, before conceding that it was possible. “That pair will ice her if she gives them up. She might as well paint a target on her back.”
“Greer won’t think so. She thinks she’s invincible.”
****
Natalie and John’s house. Saturday 18th April, 1 a.m.
A party was the last thing that Craig was interested in but he knew it was his last chance to stop Lucia heading for Syria and the only thing that would stop his mother giving him grief for years. So he’d plastered on a polite smile for an hour and then got plastered over the following two, as he watched Katy and Natalie introduce his sister to every eligible man in Belfast in a last ditch attempt to keep her at home.
By one a.m. it looked as if they’d failed. Annette had gone home tired, Jake and Davy had disappeared hours before and Craig was just about to find Katy and slip away when he felt a hand insinuate itself into his and pull him firmly onto the dancefloor. He was just about to say ‘let’s leave, pet’ when he glanced down and saw that the woman holding his hand had black hair. As she wound her arms around his neck he stepped back, glancing around hastily to see if Katy was close enough to see. Sofia Emiliani was undeterred. As she reached her arms up again Craig planted them firmly by her sides.
“I don’t want to dance, thank you.”
She wasn’t listening; instead she slipped beneath his arm and placed his hand provocatively on her waist. He went to walk away, but not before Katy had approached, eager to pass on some news. She stopped halfway when she saw where his hand was, then turned and rushed away quickly though the crowd. Craig detached the psychiatrist unambiguously and set off in pursuit, followed by a glare that would have melted stone. By the time he caught up with Katy she was in a bedroom searching for her coat. He stood in front of her.
“It’s not what you think.”
She didn’t look up, just renewed her search more vigorously.
Craig reached for her hand but she pulled away, so he reached again, this time for her shoulders. He gripped them firmly, turning her round so she could see his face.
“It wasn’t what you thought. She was coming onto me.”
Katy twisted, trying to free herself, but he wasn’t letting go. His words grew firmer.
“I’m not interested in her. Not at all.”
She glared up at him, unconvinced. “Why? What’s wrong with you? Every other man drools when she walks past.”
He could see tears glistening dangerously in her eyes and he knew he had to make things crystal clear, so he slid his arms round her waist and pulled her towards him; kissing her until finally she relaxed and kissed him back. He pulled her gently onto the bed and kissed her more deeply, oblivious to the door opening and closing and people’s muttered apologies. When they finally fell back laughing it was one-thirty and Craig was vaguely aware that they had an audience. A round of applause told him instantly who it was; Liam. Danni was standing beside him, giggling into her hand.
“Well, here’s me thinking you were mature and now we find you snogging like teenagers on top of a pile of coats! This’ll take some living down, boss, I can tell you; but it’s nothing compared to what’s just happened outside.”
Danni stopped giggling for a moment to nod solemnly, then she glanced at Craig and began laughing again.
Craig straightened his jacket and helped Katy off the bed. “Why? What’s happened?”
Liam tried not to look pleased but failed badly. “It’s been kicking off for the last half hour. Some bloke arrived and started a fight with Jake––”
Danni cut in. “It was Aaron. You’ve met him before.”
Liam gazed into space, trying to recall. “Oh, aye. At the pub one night. Anyway, that’s not the best of it – your kid sister’s only gone and waltzed off with Ken! They disappeared outside half an hour ago and never came back.”
Katy nodded furiously. “That’s what I was coming to tell you.”
Liam shook his head slowly, in an attempt at gravitas. “When Carmen finds out there’ll be hell to pay.”
Danni thumped him on the arm. “You told me that she’d dumped him.”
“That won’t stop her kicking off. Mark my words.”
Craig nodded in agreement. Technically Ken was a free man, although whether Carmen would remember that she’d said so was another thing. He thought about the Lucia/Ken match for a moment and smiled. It made sense; Ken was definitely Lucia’s type looks wise, he was also well-travelled so maybe his tales of the Middle East would be enough to quell her wanderlust. Either way Katy’s idea of a match-making party might just have worked. Craig squeezed her hand and she looked mollified, but Liam hadn’t finished yet.
“Here, I saw the black widow coming onto you, boss. You did well to escape there, but you know damn fine that she’ll be back.”
Craig felt Katy free her hand and he quickly retrieved it as Liam puffed out his chest and adopted his best man of the world tone.
“She tried it on with me of course, but I was busy drinking.” He noticed a glint in Danni’s eye and added a hasty caveat. “Not that I ever would, of course.”
The glint deepened. “You’d better not, Liam Cullen, or…” She curled her hands into fists.
Craig laughed. “Are those for him or her?”
“Both of them, but Liam will get it first.”
Liam hugged his petite wife. “She’s no competition for you, love.” His next words were a mistake. “Besides, I saw Andy trailing after her a minute ago.”
Danni wriggled free. “And what if he hadn’t been? Eh? What then?”
It was Craig’s cue to find somewhere more romantic than a pile of coats.
****
Laganside Courts. April 22th. The Verdict.
“Is the jury agreed upon a verdict?”
The jury foreman rose in his seat and coughed hesitantly before answering yes.
“Is it the verdict of you all?”
The foreman glanced at the paper in his hand, as if the words might have changed since they’d left the jury room one minute before. He nodded, reassured. “It is.”
The judge waved the clerk to bring her the note. She re
ad it quickly then passed it back for him to announce. Craig stared straight ahead and he knew Yemi was doing the same in the seat behind. He heard the two words “appeal rejected” then he exhaled loudly and glanced across the courtroom at Joanne Greer. Her face confirmed his worse fear. Instead of dismay or anger at losing her case the sly smile that had haunted them for weeks was still there. He would love to have said it was just bravado but he knew that something far murkier was at play.
Craig sensed someone taking the seat beside him and gazing anxiously at his face, but who it was he couldn’t have said. His attention was focused on Greer and the smiles of her legal team, then at her barrister crossing to the prosecution table and beckoning their lead advocate to join him outside. As they left Craig noticed the victims’ relatives smiling happily because they naively believed that Greer would be serving the remainder of her term. He only wished that he could believe it too.
Annette and Yemi had taken the seats beside him and eventually the court cleared, apart from the three detectives, the legal teams and an almost laughing Joanne Greer. Ten minutes later Craig’s worst fears came true. The legal teams shook hands and muttered that Greer’s sentence would be commuted to time served, once she’d fulfilled her side of the bargain and the necessary papers were all signed. As she left with the officer to return to prison Joanne Greer paused and gave them a little wave. Craig fought the urge to throw up, turning to Annette instead.
“All your hard work, Annette, and she’s still going to get out. I’m sorry.”
She patted his arm comfortingly. “It’s not done yet, sir. And remember that the original conviction was upheld. You and Yemi were vindicated.”
“But a killer’s going to get off scot free.”
She surprised him with a small smile. “Greer will get hers someday. God pays debts without money.”
Yemi laughed loudly. “That’s a cockney expression. Where did you learn it?”
“Maghera. My granny used to say it all the time.”
None of them could recall who’d heard the noise first, or exactly what they’d heard; a scream or a bang, or the sound of a police radio summoning help. Whatever it was Craig had his gun out and was racing towards the sound in seconds, with the others in close pursuit. He already knew what would greet them; someone lying dead on the ground. He prayed fervently that it was Joanne Greer and not some other poor sod that’d just got in the way.
As they were running another man was proceeding at a much slower pace, on the rooftop of a building in May Street from where he’d had a perfect view of Greer entering the prison van. Stevan Mitic’s plans had run smoothly but he’d been shocked at how easily he’d taken the shot after years of not firing a gun. He shrugged it off quickly. He felt no remorse at the kill; this was for Kaisa and Dejan and Greer had been nothing but scum ready to trade them for a return to her greedy life.
He took the Sodium Hydroxide from his bag and quickly stripped the SAKO down to its parts, then he poured the liquid carefully, changing his clothes as he waited for everything to dissolve. The noise of sirens faded as the metal fizzed and bubbled and he pondered how he’d ended up back in Belfast after leaving it almost three years before. He felt almost nostalgic; his life as a Belfast barman hadn’t been without its charms.
Now his killing days were over. Greer had been one last exception and it was her own stupid fault. If she’d just served her time she would still be breathing, but he’d known if her appeal failed she would barter them for a pardon and that he could never have allowed.
As the sirens came back into focus and the final fizzing bubble collapsed, Stevan walked slowly down the fire escape, climbed into his car and headed for a private airstrip. At the same time Craig was kneeling by the corpse of the woman who waved at them smugly just minutes before, relieved that her escort was safe and feeling guilty that he really didn’t care that Joanne Greer was dead.
The guilt only lasted a moment then he headed for his car, beckoning the others to keep up. They might not have liked Greer but they had to work her murder and he knew that if they didn’t get a move on her killer would soon be out of reach.
THE END
Core Characters in the Craig Crime Novels
Superintendent Marc (Marco) Craig: Craig is a sophisticated, single, forty-four-year-old. Born in Northern Ireland, he is of Northern Irish/Italian extraction, from a mixed religious background but agnostic. An ex-grammar schoolboy and Queen’s University Law graduate, he went to London to join The Met (The Metropolitan Police) at 22, rising in rank through its High Potential Development Training Scheme. He returned to Belfast in 2008 after fifteen years away.
He is a driven, very compassionate, workaholic, with an unfortunate temper that he struggles to control and a tendency to respond with his fists. His girlfriend of one year, Katy Stevens, is a consultant physician at the local St Mary’s Healthcare Trust.
He lives alone in a modern apartment block in Stranmillis, near the university area of Belfast. His parents, his extrovert mother Mirella (an Italian pianist) and his quiet father Tom (an ex-university lecturer in Physics) live in Holywood town, six miles away. His rebellious ten years younger sister, Lucia, works as the manager of a local charity and also lives in Belfast.
Craig is now a Superintendent heading up Belfast’s Murder Squad, based in the thirteen storey Co-ordinated Crime Unit (C.C.U.) in Pilot Street, in the Sailortown area of Belfast’s Docklands. He loves the sea, sails when he has the time and is generally very sporty. He loves music by Snow Patrol and follows Manchester United and Northern Ireland’s football team, and Ulster Rugby.
D.C.I. Liam Cullen: Craig’s Detective Chief Inspector. Liam is a forty-nine-year-old former RUC officer from Crossgar in Northern Ireland, who transferred into the PSNI in 2001 following the Patton Reforms. He has lived and worked in Northern Ireland all his life and has spent thirty years in the police force, twenty of them policing Belfast, including during The Troubles.
He is married to the forty-year-old, long suffering Danielle (Danni), a part-time nursery nurse, and they have a four-year-old daughter Erin and a two-year-old son called Rory. Liam is unsophisticated, indiscreet and hopelessly non-PC, but he’s a hard worker with a great knowledge of the streets and has a sense of humour that makes everyone, even the Chief Constable, laugh at times.
D.I. Annette McElroy: Annette is Craig’s Detective Inspector who has lived and worked in Northern Ireland all her life. She is a forty-seven-year-old ex-nurse who, after her nursing degree, worked as a nurse for thirteen years and then, after a career break, retrained and has now been in the police for an equal length of time. She’s in the process of divorcing her husband Pete, a P.E teacher at a state secondary school, because of his infidelity and violence. They have two children, a boy and a girl (Jordan and Amy), both teenagers. Annette is kind and conscientious with an especially good eye for detail. She also has very good people skills but is a bit of goody-two-shoes. Since her marriage broke down, she’s acquired a newly glamorous image and is seeing Mike Augustus, a pathologist who works with Dr John Winter.
Nicky Morris: Nicky Morris is Craig’s thirty-nine-year-old personal assistant. She used to be PA to Detective Chief Superintendent (D.C.S.) Terry ‘Teflon’ Harrison. Nicky is a glamorous Belfast mum, married to Gary, who owns a small garage, and is the mother of a teenage son, Jonny. She comes from a solidly working class area in East Belfast, just ten minutes’ drive from Docklands.
She is bossy, motherly and street-wise and manages to organise a reluctantly-organised Craig very effectively. She has a very eclectic fashion sense, and there is an ongoing innocent office flirtation between her and Liam.
Davy Walsh: The Murder Squad’s twenty-eight-year-old computer analyst. A brilliant but shy EMO, Davy’s confidence has grown during his time on the team, making his lifelong stutter on ‘s’ and ‘w’ diminish, unless he’s under stress.
His father is deceased and Davy lives at home in Belfast with his mother and grandmother. He has an older siste
r, Emmie, who studied English at university. His girlfriend of two years, Maggie Clarke, is a journalist at The Belfast Chronicle.
Dr John Winter: John is the forty-four-year-old Director of Pathology for Northern Ireland, one of the youngest ever appointed. He’s brilliant, eccentric, gentlemanly, and really likes the ladies, but he met his match in Natalie Winter, a surgeon at St Mary’s Trust, and has now been happily married for seven months.
He was Craig’s best friend at school and university and remained in Northern Ireland to build his medical career. He is now internationally respected in his field. John persuaded Craig that the newly peaceful Northern Ireland was a good place to return to and assists Craig’s team with cases whenever he can. He is obsessed with crime in general and US police shows in particular.
D.C.S. Terry (Teflon) Harrison: Craig’s old boss. The fifty-six-year-old Detective Chief Superintendent is based at the Headquarters building in Limavady in the northwest Irish countryside. He lives in a converted farm house at Toomebridge with his homemaker wife Mandy and their thirty-year-old daughter Sian, a marketing consultant. He has also had a trail of mistresses, often younger than his daughter.
Harrison is tolerable as a boss as long as everything’s going well, but he is acutely politically aware and a bit of a snob, and very quick to pass on any blame to his subordinates (hence the Teflon nickname). He sees Craig as a rival and resents his friendship with John Winter, who wields a great deal of power in Northern Ireland.
The Sect (The Craig Crime Series) Page 32