SALFORD MURDERS: The Private Investigator Gus Keane Trilogy

by Bud Craig

  “I really don’t see what you’re driving at,” said Rob.

  “It was a conversation with my wife, Louise, that put the idea in my head.”

  “Your wife, but I thought…”

  “We are separated but on good terms.”

  He nodded.

  “She’s just got back from New Zealand and suggested I might like to go.”

  “And?”

  “She just mentioned in passing I might struggle to get travel insurance.”

  “Oh?”

  “Presumably because I had a stroke in September.”

  Rob picked up his coffee cup and drank. He put it down again.

  “I remember it. You’re looking a lot better.”

  “It was only later I applied this to Bill Copelaw. Now who would be stupid enough to insure a man in his late fifties with a heart condition?”

  Rob squirmed in his seat.

  “There’s been a word at the back of my mind for weeks,” I went on. “Tantalisingly out of reach, you might say.”

  Rob made as if to get up.

  “Stay there, Rob. I haven’t finished yet. The word was something like ‘certainty’. Something like ‘certainty’, what could that be?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Certain. Sure. Insure. Insurance.”

  I almost chanted the words.

  “Insurance, that was the word. I’m amazed it took me so long to realise.”

  I breathed in and made a conscious effort to focus.

  “It kept cropping up. Bill took out the second policy not long ago.”

  Rob shrugged.

  “He was getting desperate for money,” said Gus. “Wasn’t he?”

  “How should I know?”

  “His lucky day came when he found out about your affair with Pam Agnew.”

  “How on earth …?”

  Rob was genuinely curious now, temporarily forgetting the seriousness of his position.

  “You met when she came here for a job interview. A trip to Ordsall Tower to meet the staff was a part of the process.”

  “He saw you with Pam in Maxwell’s Hotel in York. Copelaw had been there at the same time on a course,” I said.

  There was a look on his face very much like panic.

  “He dropped a packet of condoms from the self-same hotel on his office floor the day he died. Or maybe you did.”

  I was partly guessing now. But I had it all worked out. I must be right.

  “You were so terrified your wife would find out you made the mistake of asking him to be discreet.”

  Rob’s head dropped. He looked forlornly at the floor.

  “Pam was making a speech, wasn’t she,” I asked. “Did she suggest you joined her afterwards?”

  “I told Pam we shouldn’t go there,” he said, “but she swore there’d be nobody there who knew me.”

  Pam was getting tired of all the secrecy by that time, I thought.

  “You were amazed when he started to blackmail you. A respectable man like him. Still, you went along with it, had to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Rob was finding speech difficult. He sounded hoarse.

  “I bet he just wanted money at first. Then he thought of getting you to fiddle an insurance policy for him.”

  “Ridiculous,” said Rob, just managing to get the word out.

  “You knew about Copelaw’s health problem and normally you would have picked up on it.”

  “Quite.”

  “But you only had to tick the box or whatever you do to say you didn’t need a report from the doctor.”

  I concentrated hard and tried to control my breathing.

  “Not much chance of being caught, was there?”

  “This is pure fantasy.”

  “Is it? There was the money too. Things were desperate.”

  Throughout this Rob had held onto himself, reminding me of the stiff upper lip hero of a war film. Now his body slumped back in the chair.

  “Oh, God,” he said.

  He looked defeated but I wanted to finish off properly.

  “I know you were in the habit of popping in to Children’s Services’ office, touting for business.”

  “Yes.”

  “Bill told me he had an appointment with somebody that evening at 5.30. It was you he was expecting.”

  All Rob had to do was deny it. There was no real evidence he was there.

  “The feller who’s accused of the murder saw you. So did somebody else. You were wearing a leather jacket for casual clothes day. That confused me at first.”

  Rob’s eyes gazed emptily. He held his hands up in surrender.

  “OK, OK, I was there. Somebody did see me. He rushed past me as I …”

  “I thought you were supposed to be at home with the kids.”

  He shrugged.

  “It was easy enough to ask a neighbour to keep an eye on them. I said I’d left something at the office.”

  I nodded.

  “What had you gone to see Bill about?”

  “I’d just gone to make another payment. Five hundred pounds.”

  “Five hundred pounds. Is that all?”

  Rob looked indignant.

  “Five hundred pounds a fucking week, that’s what the slimy bastard wanted. Until I could raise twenty thousand pounds through a low interest loan. I was trying to buy time in the hope that something would turn up.”

  “I can see it, Rob,” I said. “You hand over the five hundred pounds, what was it, twenty-five twenty pound notes?”

  Rob averted his eyes and looked at his trembling hands.

  “I bet Copelaw stuffed the money into his wallet with a smirk. As I said, it made quite a bulge. Was that when you snapped?”

  Rob slumped lower in his chair, then started scrabbling around in his desk drawer. My mobile rang. I took it out of my pocket.

  “Don’t answer it,” barked Rob as I pressed the green button and said hello.

  Rob held his right arm out at full length and pointed aggressively at me.

  “Kev, hiya...”

  “Put the phone down!”

  I covered up the mouthpiece with my left hand, still listening to my son in law.

  “Bugger off, Rob!”

  I took my hand off the phone and continued my conversation, ignoring Rob.

  “What was that, Kev? Bugger! The signal’s gone.”

  I ended the call and looked at Rob. I put the phone back in my trouser pocket. I looked more closely at Rob. He had a gun in his hand. What was he playing at?

  “What are you doing?”

  “Gus,” said Rob hesitantly, “I have a gun and I will not hesitate to use it. I’m sorry, mate.”

  Gradually it sunk into my head that something weird was happening. All would become clear, I told myself. There’s time for your clear, analytical mind and irresistible charm to come into play. I looked at Rob’s desk, noticing a bunch of car keys next to a notepad, a box of tissues and a wedding photograph.

  “Where did you get that thing?”

  He looked at the gun as if he had never seen it before.

  “From that toe rag of a burglar I disturbed.”

  “Oh.”

  As I considered the inadequacy of my response he went on.

  “I was in a bad mood to start with that day. I’d had go into the office on a Friday night. When I saw a little scumbag searching the place I just snapped.”

  So the smooth exterior was only skin deep, I thought. Here was a man on a very short fuse. Bugger.

  “As soon as I saw him I kicked him in the balls. Just like that, didn’t even think about it.”

  Thinking doesn’t seem to be your strong point, Rob, I wanted to say, despite your expensive education.

  “The gun flew out of his hand and landed on the desk. He ran like fuck, I can tell you. He got a boot up the arse to help him on his way.”

  His eyes looked intensely at me.

  “I picked up the gun and just looked at it. I’d never even see
n one before except on telly.”

  That didn’t really explain what he was doing with it now.

  “I was going to hand it in but then I thought about it. If low life were going to terrorise me in this way, maybe I needed something to defend myself with.”

  Well that explained that, I thought, for all the good it did me.

  “Now I’m going to have to kill you,” he said.

  I didn’t like the sound of that. It wasn’t going to happen. No way. I was going to watch my grandchild grow up. George or Georgia was gonna get to know me. We would do things together. Not necessarily sport, Danny had never been sporty.

  “So you did kill Copelaw?”

  He nodded.

  “I didn’t mean to. He… Oh, I just lashed out. When I realised he was dead, I was crapping myself, but at the same time I was relieved.”

  Rob swallowed and his left hand twitched compulsively. Luckily that wasn’t the one holding the gun.

  “What about the others?”

  I watched the rain drip on the windows.

  “Pam for a start,” I added. “Did she get too clingy?”

  He nodded.

  “She was too impatient, too demanding. She stopped being discreet. Wanting to hold hands when we were together. She even snogged me a couple of times in public places.”

  I nodded, picturing the scene in Pam’s car the day Bill’s daughter came to the office.

  “When she threatened to tell my wife, she had to go.”

  Just like that. Pam would never have gone to Rob’s wife. But she had to be killed just in case.

  “And Ania?”

  “Who the hell’s Ania?”

  “The cleaner you tried to kill.”

  “So that’s who she was.”

  “Another woman you tried to get into bed, but that wasn’t why you tried to kill her.”

  He held the gun tighter.

  “You heard her about to tell me she recognised you outside the building on the day Bill was killed.”

  The evening I was rushing off as Ania’s phone rang came into my mind. Rob was one of the men leaving the office at the same time as Don. He would have been able to hear Ania through the open office door. Without being asked, Rob now explained how he followed her home one night, then drove out to Walkden the next day and parked half a mile from her home. He jogged over to her house and shot her as she left for work.

  “And I’m to be your fourth victim?”

  “I can’t take the chance of your telling…what you know.”

  I shook my head, wondering how I had got into this mess. I should have taken my suspicions to Marti or had a word with Steve. Too late now. Rob gripped the gun tighter and stared at me. Where there’s life, there’s hope, I said to myself.

  “Rob, why are you doing this? You cheated on your wife and she might find out, but…”

  “I couldn’t take the chance of losing the kids. If Emma found out about me and Pam she’d go back to Australia. She told me that after the last time.”

  How he expected this to stop her I had no idea.

  “I’ll never see the kids again.”

  He looked round as if expecting somebody to walk in.

  “She left me once before when I...you know...I had a breakdown. I was off work for ages...”

  Again he looked down as if exhausted.

  “I was at head office in Hampstead in those days...When I recovered they transferred me to this god-forsaken place.”

  That explained that.

  “God knows what they’d do if it happened again.”

  Time for a reality check, I thought.

  “Rob, is pointing that thing at me really gonna help?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Bloody Hell, Rob...people know I’m here.”

  “I’ll…”

  “You got away with killing Bill, but that was because there was nobody else around. You won’t be so lucky this time.”

  He sat and watched me.

  “What are you gonna do with the body – we’re in a public building for God’s sake. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m a bit heavier than you.”

  Rob tensed his neck and upper body as if getting ready to take a blow.

  “I’ll leave you here,” said Rob, a look of petulant determination on his face, “say you were a burglar.”

  “You’re not very good at this.”

  I watched Rob’s movements – a twitch of his neck, a tensing of his left leg – while trying to keep perfectly still myself.

  “Burglars work nights, not nine to five. And tackling two burglars within a few months of one another. A bit suspicious, isn’t it?”

  “Let me worry about that.”

  But I’m the one who’s in danger of getting shot, I wanted to say.

  “All this seems a bit drastic, Rob,” I said.

  Master of understatement, that’s me.

  “You don’t understand.”

  “True,” I said.

  I began to think about getting out of Rob’s office. There wasn’t much of a gap between us. I would have to pass him to reach the door. I thought of rushing him but discounted it immediately. The gun might go off. There was no guarantee of where a stray bullet might end up. Keep the bugger talking while I thought a bit more, that was the best plan.

  “Tell me about it and I might understand.”

  “I became a father late in life. Never thought I’d settle down and have kids. But it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  “Me too.”

  “So you’ll understand. Katie and Will are my whole world.”

  “I don’t get it, Rob,” I said. “If your kids mean so much to you why risk losing them?”

  “The trouble is, Gus,” he said, suddenly confiding, “I…well, I like women and they like me.”

  I watched the gun in his hand and continued to weigh up my options.

  “Not that I’m saying I’m God’s gift or anything.”

  Of course not, Rob. I leant forward imperceptibly and tensed myself. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to do something. I heard a voice outside.

  “Are you in there, Gus?”

  “Don’t come in here, Marti,” I shouted.

  We both turned towards the doorway. The door sprang open. Marti came in. She looked round the room. Her face showed a modicum of surprise as she picked up the shelf from the desk. She brought it down fiercely on Rob’s right wrist. I heard wood on bone and a cry of pain. The sweetest sound I had ever heard. The gun clattered to the floor. I sprang to my feet, then bent down to pick the gun up. Rob brought his foot down on my hand.

  “Bastard,” I shouted.

  I swung my left elbow up and connected with the tip of his nose. Nice one, Gus, I said to myself. Between us Marti and I were doing our best to spoil his looks. I looked at Rob slumped back in his chair. By now, Marti had pulled her phone out of her bag.

  “Police...reliable.com, Ordsall Tower, Salford...a man with a gun...”

  The words shot out staccato style. Once more I reached for the gun on the floor. Rob got up again. He wasn’t giving up without a fight, I’d give him that. He tried to shove me out of the way. I shoved him back. For a few seconds we got involved in an apology for a fight like kids jostling in the school yard. He managed to get his hand on the gun. Before he could pick it up I trod on his hand.

  “Tit for tat,” I gasped.

  Marti stepped forward, wooden shelf in hand, and swung it against Rob’s left cheek bone. He dropped like a stone, then tried to get up. Marti smacked the wood across the other side of his face. He slumped down again, two nice bruises forming on his cheeks striated by deep scratches oozing with blood.

  “Stay there,” she instructed, her scouse accent stronger than ever, “twat.”

  Still he tried to speak. Marti cut him short.

  “Shut it.”

  He knew when he was beaten. Marti turned to me.

  “Police are on their way,” she said.


  While struggling to get my breath, I flexed the fingers of my right hand. I began to dial Kevin’s number.

  “If you’re calling Kev, there’s no need. He called me after you’d been cut off. They should be at the hospital by now.”

  “You mean…”

  “Contractions started about an hour ago. Shouldn’t be long now.”

  “Great.”

  “Kev didn’t know where you were. I knew you were working today so came to Ordsall Tower.”

  I nodded.

  “I looked all over for you. I was getting worried, then Karen told me you might be here.”

  Marti and I looked over towards Rob, who was trying to speak.

  “Gus, I wouldn’t have shot you, you know that,” he said. “We can talk about it.”

  “I told you to shut it,” said Marti.

  She turned back to me.

  “Would you care to explain what the hell this is all about?”

  So I did.

  * * *

  I walked down the hospital corridor that evening, following the arrows towards maternity. Silly grin time, I said to myself, just like when Rachel and Danny were born. The events in Rob Dryden’s office can’t really have happened, can they, I kept asking myself. It took a while to convince Marti. Had she not seen Rob pointing that gun at me, she would have dismissed the idea of him being a killer. Now, even the reality of the police arriving; Marti and I having to make statements; Rob being arrested couldn’t change the dream-like – make that nightmare-like – quality of the past few hours.

  Going into the ward I took in Rachel lying on a narrow bed, looking knackered with dark circles round her eyes. Kev sat on a chair by her side, holding her hand. He looked as elegant as ever, except for his somewhat tousled, reddish brown hair. He’s still smiling, I said to myself.

  “Congratulations,” I said, going over to Rachel and hugging her. Then Kev got the hugging treatment.

  “Let’s have a look at her, then,” I said, going towards the cot by the side of the bed. “Oh, wow.”

  “You can have a cuddle if you like,” said Rachel.

  “I do like,” I said, picking up the little bundle and looking down into her face. “Hello, Georgia. Aren’t you lovely?”

  The door opened. Louise rushed in.

  “Here’s your grandma,” I said to Georgia.

  She went over to Rachel.