“Are you still there?” The guy asked.
“Yeah, I am still here.”
“Well if you want to get killed, go to the warehouse no 17 at the Silver link industrial estate around ten at night day the after tomorrow. Wait for a truck with Spanish plates to turn up.” There was a click on line and went dead. Sean looked at his phone and wondered if this was a genuine tip off or a trap. He got out of the car and walked inside the dinghy flat. It was dark despite all the light being switched on – a legacy of going out with a girl who was into gothic designs and colours for a few months. He called Philip Stoker and let him know about the info about the next supplies drop from Belfast.
It did not go very well. The guys were expecting them and it was lucky that the police got away with just injuries and not deaths. The police force under the control of Philip Stoker did not stand a chance. What stuck Sean was the kind of firepower they had. There was no match to the semi-automatic guns the police had.
It was a fiasco for everyone to forget. As expected Sean got the blame for leading the police force into a trap. There was increasing pressure on Philip to repatriate Sean back to Ulster Constabulary and the start of troubles for Sean.
Sean
Sean had made an effort to make himself look presentable. A clean shave to get rid of the week old stubble and a clean shirt did make a difference to his appearance somewhat. He had spent the night before going over the previous strikes and his reports with a fine toothcomb. The habit of keeping copies of all his reports at home had paid off. He would spend hours filing private copies of his reports and logging them in his computer at home. This had caused a fair amount of friction in his social life and was responsible for the breakdown of at least one of the relationships he had been in.
“You are married to your work. You don’t need a home. You don’t care what happens to me. I don’t know why I even bother with you.”
Lucy had screamed at him when she found him again buried under papers in front of his laptop. She had spent most of the evening dolling herself up to go out. They had been together for over a year now. It was all hunky dory to start with and Sean had taken her out regularly to wine and dine. They had done the usual run of the shows and clubs. He would make an effort to dress himself up and even joined Ballroom dancing classes. Sex was magical and both would enjoy each other after a night out dancing regularly.
But when a new case came on with good leads, he immersed himself in work again and the evenings out became once a week at best. He was too tired at night and sex became a routine for him. Lucy would do her best to entice him by dressing up. But he would be too busy with his papers to be interested.
“That is not true.” Sean had said closing the laptop and pushing the papers away from him. “You know I love you and I would do anything for you.”
There was no conviction in his eyes as he smiled.
“You don’t love anyone. I have gone to a lot of effort to dress up for you and you have not even looked at me once.” She said with one hand on her hip.
“That is not true. You look beautiful babe. Is that a new dress?” He said standing up. “Come here, I will show you how much you mean to me.”
He tried to put his arms around her and kiss her. She pushed him away and turned towards the window.
“That is all you want nowadays. Just sex.” There was bitterness in her voice. “Every night is the same. Wham bam thank you ma’am. That too, when it pleases you.”
“You are exaggerating Lucy babe.” Sean started to panic as he found the pattern repeating. He did not want to lose her like his other girlfriends. “Just give me two minutes and I will be ready.”
They had gone out and he had made a real effort to please her. He tried to spend more time with her to rekindle the romance. But it was no use. As the cases progressed he found that he was coming home late and spending a lot of time in front of his laptop at home too. Lucy tried her best to make the relationship work. She pleaded with him, shouted at him and threatened to leave him. He would change back to the old Sean for a few days and even that became less frequent. Finally, like the previous girlfriends, she too had stormed out of the apartment. She was his last girlfriend and he had thought he had found his life partner. After that, his life had become work mixed with numerous one-night stands, drink, smoke and over the past year, Crack.
Now, the whole thing appeared to be falling apart around his ears. He had never thought that he would ever be in a situation to be investigated by the internals. He knew he was bloody good at his work and it was only time before he would be made a Detective Chief Inspector.
Until recently, everyone respected him and his work. Philip would call him for the hardest cases as he knew Sean would get results. There were several in the force who wanted to pull him down. He had not let his habit of using drugs affect his work. Some of the new guys in the department did not like his style of work. Sean would not share his informants with anyone. And he had numerous contacts, not just in Leicester but in several other cities including London.
‘I am sure Brennan and Joyce put the internals up to this.’ He thought to himself as he gathered his papers and notes. ‘I will show the buggers. I have nothing to hide.’
The girls in the office glanced at him as he walked past them to Philip’s office and there were whispers he could not hear as he opened the door. The three suits from the night before were already in the office as he entered. The thin weedy guy who had called himself Matt Henderson, was sitting in front of Philip’s desk. The other two guys were standing against the wall with folded hands with expressionless faces. Philip looked up as he stood at the open door.
“Come in Sean.” Philip said with an uneasy expression on his face. “I believe you have met Matt and his colleagues.”
“Yes, I have Philip, and very nice people too.” Sean said with an undisguised sarcasm.
“I must say that what you did was highly irregular, Mr Henderson. I am not used to my officers being accosted in car parks without my knowledge.” Philip said looking at Matt. “How dare you go and question my officers without my permission?”
The weedy guy smiled and said,
“I am sorry about last night, Philip. But, can I point out I don’t need your permission to question anyone. We were just doing our job.”
“You never said anything about questioning Sean without me being present yesterday.” Philip sounded annoyed. “I told you that any interviews you want to do have to be here in my office. The guy you are questioning is one of my most senior officers and is well respected in the force. You had no right to treat him like a crook. I will not stand for it.”
Sean was quite surprised and a little touched by that. He had not realised that Philip held such a high opinion of him.
“We are just doing our jobs you know Philip. Just like you.” Matt replied. “If you had a clean department, none of us would be here to start with.” There was a snigger in his voice and a look of triumph.
“Don’t give me that crap. I run as clean a department as any in the force. I’ve got a good mind to speak to the commissioner about all of this nonsense.”
“Why don’t you do that then Philip? You will see it’s come from the top.” Matt was daring Philip to do something, which both knew was not going to happen. Turning to Sean, he continued, “It’s in your own interests to cooperate Sean. If you think you haven’t done anything wrong, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong. You have all my reports with you.” Sean replied.
“Let’s get started then. Sooner we start sooner we can finish.”
“Come on Sean, let’s get this over with. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. It’s all a storm in a tea cup. We will go to the conference room. It’s already set up.” Philip said getting out of his chair. Everyone trooped out to the big conference room at the back corner of the police station. Sean could feel everyone’s eyes boring into him as he walked past through the office. He h
eard a couple say, “Good luck, Sean” and “Give them hell, Sean.” Sean just nodded his acknowledgement in response with a wry smile on his face. He was not sure where this was heading yet.
There was a large table at one end of the room with three chairs and one chair to the left of it and another across it. The three suits sat at the top of the table with Philip on one side and Sean sitting across the table. It looked more like a hearing rather than an interview. Their brief cases were full of sheaves of papers, which they took out and Sean could recognize some of his reports. Matt arranged them neatly in front of him and the other two were busy with their own papers. Sean could not see what papers they had in front of them.
Questioning began in earnest once Matt was satisfied he had everything in place and a writing pad and pencil. The other two guys also had their own writing pads. Kirby, the short squat one sat nibbling at his pencil almost throughout the interview. Matt went through Sean’s reports one by one. He would pick a section in a report and ask Sean about it and all the three would write furiously for a minute before something else next. Matt gave Sean a few pages at the start.
“These are copies of some of the reports we will be going through.” Matt said. “Can you just check them and confirm that they are your reports please?”
Sean glanced through the sheets of paper in front of him. They appeared to be random sheets from his reports, some of them going back to the 90’s. He could recognize his work quite easily.
“They look like my reports. But it will take me some time to go through them to make sure they are all mine.”
“Take my word for it. They are all your reports.” Matt replied.
“If you say so.” A hint of sarcasm in Sean’s voice did not go unnoticed.
“Let me take you to this report on as drug heist you lead on Mowmacre area.”
Sean rustled through the papers to find the papers Matt was talking about. He remembered the heist very well.
It was the first time Sean had met his contact, Johnny. It was not one of the big ones. They had found a few packets of crack at a tenement block south of the canal. He had a tip off about guys doling out the drugs near a school. He had gone on his own at first to check it out. He had parked his car around the corner of the school in a supermarket car park. He walked slowly towards the school when he noticed a group of kids on pushbikes hanging around the corner of the street just outside a newsagent’s. Nothing unusual about that at lunchtime of school. A stocky guy in an anorak caught his attention. ‘It’s middle of July. Too hot to be wearing an anorak!’ He walked towards the group unhurriedly with head bent down. The kids saw him coming and took off in the opposite direction. The stocky guy walked into the shop. Sean had followed him into the shop and bought a packet of cigarettes. As he was paying for the cigarettes, that stocky guy had walked out of the shop. Sean did not wait for the change and had shot out of the shop only to see him get into a battered old Mini and drive off. Sean had run back to the car with a hope of catching up. It was too late. By the time he could get his car going, the Mini was nowhere to be seen.
“Shit! I have lost him.” He cursed to himself and started to cruise around the block a couple of times. Just when he was about to give up, he caught a glimpse of the red Mini parked in the alleyway behind the school facing away from him. He stopped his car and reversed into the driveway of a nearby house. He got out of the car and left the door open to walk across to the alleyway. He kept to the shadows of the huge Plane trees that lined the street and got behind the tree at the corner. He could see the Mini clearly from where he stood. There was no one in the car. It looked as if it was deserted. He waited for what seemed to be a long time. There was no activity. The street was completely deserted apart from him and the red Mini. He walked across to the car to take a closer look. It was a ten year old car, with large dents on the side and back. It was beginning to rust at the edges and wheel arch was nearly falling down. The shadow of the huge Plane tree made it difficult to see inside the car. He peered through the window only to see the passenger seat littered with empty soda cans, crisp packets and a dirt rag. There was an old canvas duffel bag on the back seat, which had seen better days. The zip was obviously broken and contents spilling out. He was trying to squint to see the contents when there was a tap on his shoulder.
“What are you doing with my car?”
Sean pulled up slowly and turned around to see the stocky man growling at him. He looked unkempt with a dark blue anorak, thread bare at the edges and stains over the front. Sean could see his nicotine stained hands tremble as he spoke.
“Is this your car?”
“Yeah, it’s mine. What of it? Who wants to know?”
Sean took his badge out and stuck in front of his face.
“I just want to ask a few questions.”
“Why? I haven’t done nuthing wrong.”
“I didn’t say you had.” Sean smiled “What were you doing with the kids from the school?”
“I tell you. I done nuthing wrong.”
He was getting a bit belligerent now.
“Well. Suit yourself.” Sean said, still with a smile on his face. “You can either have a friendly chat with me here or we can all go down to the station and you can talk to the gaffer.”
“You can’t make me go anywhere.”
“Want to bet on that my friend?”
“I was talking to the kids. Nuthing wrong in that, is there?”
“I didn’t say there was. What were you talking about?”
“This and that. Nuthing that would interest you.”
“Try me. I am interested in everything.” Sean said. The smile had disappeared off his face now.
“I got a kid in the same school.”
“No. You don’t.” The rasp in Sean’s voice made him jump. “Let’s start again. What are you called?”
“Johnny Marsden.”
“That wasn’t too difficult, was it Johnny?” Sean said, still with a rasp. “Now, Johnny. We both know what you were doing there in front of the shop. We both know if I search you now, what we will find, don’t we?”
He started to shuffle his feet and the surly expression on his face deepened.
“What do you mean?”
“Stop playing with me Johnny. You know exactly what I mean.”
“I’m not playing with you. I done nothing wrong.” The surly voice was barely audible.
“Speak up Johnny. I can’t hear you.” Sean softened his voice and continued with his hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “Now, look. We can be useful to each other. You play ball with me and I see that you are all right. Come on. Let’s go for a drive to the canal. We can have a quiet chat in my car.”
Johnny looked at him without speaking for a long time.
“Come on Johnny. I haven’t got all day.” His hands pushed on Johnny’s shoulder gently. He started to walk reluctantly in the direction Sean’s car. They had driven to the woods near the canal and parked in an isolated spot. Neither of them had said a word while driving for a few minutes. Johnny had started without more persuasion and told Sean everything. It turned out he was only a pusher to a guy he had never seen before. The transactions always took place in a barber shop on Mowmacre hill. He claimed he had never seen the guy. For someone who was reticent to say even his name, Johnny was full of information once inside Sean’s car. He stopped talking once they reached the canal.
“That is much better now Johnny. You know you can rot in jail for years for what you are doing?” Sean said as he switched the engine off. “I don’t want to send you to prison. You help me catch this boss man and I’ll make sure no one will touch you.”
“I don’t know how I can. I have never seen the guy. The first time I met him was at the Central Motors and didn’t see him properly as it was dark.”
“Don’t give me that shit, Johnny. I know you can find out who he is if you want to.” Sean retorted. “I bet you already know who he is.”
“I really don’t know. Why would I lie to
you?” His voice was a shrill by now. Sean could see that he was sweating under the anorak.
“If I find out if you are Johnny, you’ll be in trouble. I’ll throw you in the nick before you can say Mama.”
“You sure, you can keep me out of trouble if I help you?”
“You bet your ass, I can.”
Johnny didn’t say anything for a minute and turned to Sean. “I’ll try to find out. But I don’t want you sniffing around. He will kill me if he finds out. I heard he bumped off the last pusher for speaking to his girlfriend about it.”
“It will be a lot worse if I find out you are lying to me Johnny. Death would be a welcome option for you if you cross me.”
The message hit home. The fear on Johnny’s face was palpable. Sweat pouring down his forehead and cheeks now. Sean could see his hands shaking. He gave Johnny his mobile number where he could get hold of with any info and he had literally ran out of the car at the end. Johnny had given him an address in Mowmacre hill where the drug squad had managed to arrest a couple of guys with a small stash of crack. The relationship with Johnny had blossomed over the months and Sean was getting decent information for him, which had led to a couple of arrests. But always small fry, never the leaders.
“You have been looking at that paper for a long time, Sean.” Sean could hear the voice of Matt Henderson. “What is the matter? Can’t you remember the case?”
Sean was jerked back to reality with Matt’s gruff voice.
“Yes, I certainly do. I was tipped off by my contact which led to the arrest of two of the drug pushers and a stash of Crack.”
“Who is this contact Sean?”
“I am sorry, I can’t tell you. It is a personal arrangement. We will lose him if anyone else makes contact or if he even suspects that I have told you about him.”
“I don’t need to remind you that this Police business and you have to tell us about your contacts and where you get your information from.” The thin weedy Matt said.
“No, I don’t.” Sean was getting irate now. “You are trying to tell me my job. I am good at what I do. Very good, I am telling you. I have had more arrests in one year than many Inspectors do over five.”
The Retribution Page 8