Whispers of betrayal tg-3

by Michael Dobbs

  The interview in the Downing Street study had started civilly enough. Faced with the possibility of several more days' revelations in the Sun about his colleagues' dipped wicks, Bendall knew he was in desperate need of a diversionary tactic. The tide was beginning to run ferociously against him; if he couldn't turn it, perhaps he could at least redirect it before it succeeded in surrounding him completely.

  'This is the moment to hand the media another story, wouldn't you agree, Commissioner?' Bendall had suggested, drawing on a cigarette. He only ever smoked in private, and only when under pressure. Bad for the image, to be seen smoking, so he never did so in public and never allowed any photographs of himself with a cigarette. Bit like Hitler and his reading glasses, thought Jevons. 'So we'll call a press conference this afternoon. To announce the latest developments.'

  'Developments, Prime Minister?' the policeman's face had crumpled into creases of concern.

  'That I have taken personal charge of this investigation. Hands on. I'll not tolerate any further failures. And neither will the public' He had disappeared for a moment behind a grey-blue haze before reappearing, his eyes agitated, dancing around the room in search of a resting place. 'I'll be able to announce the bloody man's arrest and reveal that they're no better than common thieves, in it for the money. I want no doubt left in the voters' minds that these people want nothing less than to hold London to ransom.'

  'That may be, but I would advise strongly against a press conference so soon.'

  'Why, for heaven's sake? It's the only decent spin we've had in weeks.'

  'Because the matter is still spinning. It's not yet under control.'

  'He's locked up in top security at Paddington Green. How much more control do you need?'

  It was at this point that Jevons had told him about Payne's stubborn silence. Nothing but name, rank and serial number. And there was more, Bendall's equanimity was about to undergo a further assault.

  'That's not our only problem, Prime Minister.'

  'What?'

  'Unless we find some hard evidence – and so far we haven't – we're going to have the devil of a time making any charges stick.'

  'Several hundred grand in his pocket and you say you've got no evidence?'

  'It's all circumstantial. Completely circumstantial. We may have to let him go.'

  'He's not the only one who can be let go, you just remember that, Commissioner,' Bendall spat.

  Jevons flushed. 'Am I to take that as a threat?'

  Bendall didn't answer immediately but stubbed out his cigarette – only half finished – before straight away lighting another. Then, through the smoke: 'Of course not. Just a reminder that there are all sorts of potential outcomes to this one. For both of us. We need to nail these bastards.'

  'I can't guarantee a charge. We may have to let him go. We have power to hold him for thirty-six hours, no longer.'

  'For God's sake, have you no imagination?' Bendall exploded. 'Can't you think of some other charge? His kind often have exotic tastes. With traces of it in their pockets, so I'm told.'

  'You're suggesting we plant evidence on him?'

  Bendall's lips twisted in frustration. His words, when they came, were slow and very precise. 'I would never suggest anything like that, Commissioner.'

  'Of course not.'

  'So use the Terrorism Act. Then you've got him for days, not hours.'

  'Terrorism? This isn't the IRA.'

  'No, it's worse!' Bendall was straining forward in his chair, like a condemned man who had just received the first tickle of eternity. 'This isn't a game we're playing here, it's a premeditated assault against millions. The entire capital. Striking at the heart of the whole damned country.'

  'Forgive me for pointing it out, but your opponents might suggest you're confusing the interests of the country with the interests of your Government.'

  'Dammit, these people are a national menace! They've already disrupted London far more seriously than the IRA ever did. That makes them terrorists in my book, terrorists under the law, too, and I'll find a dozen different law officers who'll back me up on this.'

  'I don't doubt it.'

  'So you hold him under the Terrorism Act and you sweat him. You understand?'

  This time it was the Commissioner's turn to consider carefully before replying. 'I'd be grateful for your instructions on this matter in writing. It helps to have things in proper order, don't you think?'

  'In writing, you want it in writing? No problem. In fact I insist we handle this thing, as you put it, in proper order. Which brings me to another development I want to announce this afternoon.' Bendall moved over to the window from where, through the inch-thick glass, he could gaze across the garden of Number Ten. The tubs were full of flowers in bloom and the silver birch was casting a long shadow over a lawn. He obliterated the scene in cigarette smoke. 'What do you think they planned to do with the money?'

  Jevons paused before replying, uncertain in which new direction they were heading. 'I can do nothing but speculate. Why, almost anything…'

  Bendall swung to face him. 'Almost anything, you say?'

  'Of course.'

  'Reminds me a little of the IRA, you know. All those bank robberies. Extortion rackets. They used the money to buy their arms and explosives. D'you think it's possible that's what we have here?'

  'Anything's a possibility.'

  'Bombings? Assassinations perhaps? An attempt to cripple London as it's never been hit before?'

  The policeman held up his hand as though to stop a wayward driver. 'You're going too fast for me. Prime Minister. It needn't be anything like that.'

  'We're dealing with highly trained officers, and the one we've got locked up has years of experience in Northern Ireland.'

  'Even so, bombings and assassinations are far too -'

  'It's what the latest TAG assessments are going to suggest is an option.'

  'My own Deputy Commissioner is on the TAG team, Prime Minister. I wasn't aware that they were predicting full-scale war.'

  'It's because they haven't thought of it. Yet.' A smile died almost before it had appeared. 'But they will by the time of the press conference this afternoon.'

  'I can't say I care for this.'

  'And I don't care for the fact that you're getting nowhere with these bloody people!' Suddenly Bendall was shouting, seemingly so exasperated by the other man's reticence that he was on the point of losing control. 'Christ, I'm not asking you to prove the Virgin Mary was on the game, I'm only asking you to protect the elected Government. We're being slaughtered on every front page. That's what you should care about. Because things are going to change, you hear me? No more holding back, not any longer. From now on we're taking the gloves off and we're going to screw these bastards!' Bendall was shaking so forcibly that he turned his back to give himself a moment in which to gather himself.

  Jevons examined the lines of the well-cut suit, and concluded he was watching an act. First the bullying, now the anger. Bendall wanted something. When at last the Prime Minister spoke again the mood had changed and he spoke as if for the public record.

  'I would be failing in my duty if I didn't share with the people the dangers they might face from these renegades. They need to know that their Government is doing everything within its power to prevent further attacks on their capital city. I expect your full support in that.'

  The Commissioner lowered his head, but the contempt in his eyes had already betrayed him. The Prime Minister began wandering around the room, apparently aimlessly, as though looking for something he had lost. He knew he had already lost the Commissioner.

  'We'll have to raise the level of security on everything. Public buildings, public people. Gives you a hell of a lot of contingencies to cover, doesn't it, Peter?'

  First names? Friends? Jevons's alarm grew. He swivelled in his chair to keep Bendall in his sights. The Prime Minister was now at the far end of the study, standing beside his jukebox.

  'We have one of the most
experienced police forces in the world, Prime Minister…'

  'Yes, of course. But can you cope?'

  'Are you doubting…'

  'Simply wondering. The force has come under great strain in recent years. You've got fewer men and fewer resources than you had, yet now we're faced with something quite exceptional, something no one foresaw.'

  'I've warned repeatedly about the damaging effects of the cutbacks.'

  'Yes, I take the point.'

  'Why, we've met – what? – twice in the last eighteen months in this very room. Meetings I demanded in order to protest at-'

  'Let's not dwell on it, Peter. We both know that Chancellors get it wrong more often than not. But it seems to me we're here to deal with the present situation, not rake over old coals. I come back to my point. Can you cope?'

  'With difficulty. With very great difficulty, in fact. And I refuse to be held responsible if-'

  'I need your full support in this matter, Peter. Nothing less is acceptable.'

  'What, with all this talk of terrorism? TAG assessments? A security blanket thrown across London? Simply to save the reputation of you and your -'

  'OK. You win.'

  A short pause for bewilderment. 'Win what?'

  Suddenly music came blaring out from the jukebox, something horrid and thumping from the Seventies. Bendall was drawing closer to Jevons in order to make himself heard.

  'You win your argument. Your logic, it's irresistible,' Bendall began, squatting informally on the arm of the Chesterfield next to the Commissioner. The noise forced him to bend close to the Commissioner's ear to make himself heard. 'Seems to me I've no choice other than to accept that the cutbacks have gone too far, and that as a result you might be considering your position. I respect that. A Commissioner who resigns on a matter of principle.'

  'I wasn't aware that I had mentioned resignation!'

  'And I don't think I'd mentioned the fact that in the light of the present situation it's my intention to ensure that the damage done to the police budgets in recent years will be repaired. In full. That's my promise to you.'

  The Commissioner nodded stiffly, uncertain whether he had heard correctly above the din.

  'I want the TAG assessments acted upon, Peter. No holds barred on this one. And if it means extra resources

  'I can't conjure up additional policemen out of thin air, Prime Minister.'

  'And there we have it, the nub of the whole matter. You're going to need some help.'

  At last Jevons thought he had caught up with where this one was going. This was a guns and butter conversation. He'd just been offered the butter, and now…

  'Public Order Act, Peter. Military Aid for the Civil Power.'

  'You mean the Army.'

  'Discreetly, of course. As low profile as possible. But you need it, and frankly I need it, too. To show that these guys are nothing less than extremists. Fighting their own.'

  'The Army on the streets of London? For PR purposes?'

  'It's a PR war we're fighting, Peter, and we're losing it. The stakes don't come any higher than this, for either of us. There's a war going on in this city and there'll be no sympathy for those who come second. I'm not going to lose this one, I'm going to fight it with everything I've got.'

  'But the Army…?'

  'I would understand if you feel obliged to resign. That would be a pity. Not what I want, you understand. Awkward timing for you, handing over to someone new just at the point when the police are about to be handed massive new resources. Chucking in the towel just when you're about to win the fight.'

  Bendall, seated on the arm of the sofa, was hovering above the Commissioner's head, crowding him. And squeezing the constitution. For under the Military Aid to the Civil Power provisions, responsibility lay firmly in the hands of the Police Commissioner to write to the Home Office requesting the support of the armed forces. The law was clear, Bendall needed the Commissioner's consent if the Army was to be involved. And yet nothing was clear. If Jevons refused and resigned, Bendall would simply make sure his replacement did anything that was required. If Jevons didn't resign but fought his corner and refused to summon the Army, the blame for any further outrages would fall like rocks upon his shoulders. They would drag him off in disgrace. And yet, if he did what Bendall asked, the capital's police force would be showered with gifts throughout the next fiscal, indeed right up to his retirement. The coppers' copper, they would call him, the Commissioner who took care of his own. Bendall had made it so easy for him, and at the same time so impossible. He couldn't quite work out whether he was being blackmailed or bribed.

  He sat there, twisting his signet ring until, eventually, he let forth an extended sigh. He desperately wanted to get out of this room. 'I'll sign an appropriate request as soon as I get back to my office, Prime Minister.'

  'Not necessary. I think you'll find my private secretary has a draft waiting downstairs in the Cabinet Room.'

  Jevons rose wearily to his feet, his eyes glazed, unfocused, like a man not wishing to catch sight of his own reflection. 'I hope you will understand if I don't attend your press conference this afternoon, Prime Minister. I feel very slightly violated.'

  He left the room, not bothering with the pleasantries of farewell.

  As soon as the door had closed, Bendall crossed the room to turn off the music. He hated the mindless head-banging crap, but it had its uses. The taping system he had set up to record the conversations in his office would one day provide a unique historic archive, a record to be studied by future generations, the mortar that would cement his place in the memories of the nation.

  But there would always be some conversations he wouldn't wish to have analysed too closely, even at the risk of having those future generations question his obscure and apparently appalling taste in music.

  What the hell. When he retired he'd get a new concert hall on the South Bank named after him. That should do the trick.

  FOURTEEN

  The phone seemed to baffle them. Everything else at the meeting of COBRA that followed on the heels of Payne's arrest had gone well. No more prevarication and indecision, the Army was coming and Bendall felt back in control.

  But they couldn't explain the mobile phone. It had been in Payne's possession when they arrested him and, in spite of an exhaustive search of his home and workplace that had left both in disarray, there was as yet no other substantive evidence. It was a pay-as-you-go model, bought across the counter for cash along with fifty pounds' worth of call vouchers. No contract, no credit-card slip, nothing to trace, and both Payne's distraught wife and furious work colleagues confirmed that he had taken to carrying it with him at all times. Charlie at the gallery, with his empire strangled in the blue-and-white bunting of crime scene tape, had made several lurid suggestions as to what might be done with the phone, but the police decided that this would not help their investigation. They needed Freddie Payne intact, at least for the time being.

  The curious thing about the phone was that it had never been used. No call had been made from it, neither had any been received. Yet it was switched on and fully charged even when they arrested him.

  No one had an explanation, but it did nothing to diminish the fresh sense of enthusiasm that permeated the COBRA meeting. One suspect had been arrested, the level of security raised significantly, there was a new impetus and a triumphal press conference to come – at which Bendall would choose his words carefully, of course, while Jumpers would stir it up behind the scenes. And if the media chose to speculate that Freddie Payne and his associates were involved in bombs and blackmail and extortion, that would be nothing less than the prerogative of a free and imaginative press. Dipwick was yesterday's news. Everyone seemed content.

  Except for Tom Goodfellowe.

  As the meeting of COBRA broke up and the Prime Minister looked beyond the throng of officials and acolytes that surrounded him, the brow of Goodfellowe stood out like a fly struggling in thick custard.

  'Problems, Tom?'
/>   'No. No problems. Not really. Just… thoughts.'

  'Share them. Walk with me.'

  So Goodfellowe had accompanied Bendall on the short walk back to Downing Street. Their path took them through Cockpit Passage which connected the Cabinet Office to Number Ten, where their footsteps echoed back from ancient brickwork of the old Tudor palace that had once stood on this spot. Beyond the mullioned window lay the remnants of King Harry's old tennis courts, while in the dark vestibule that brought them back into Number Ten they were greeted by the unsmiling bust of Oliver Cromwell, who had chopped off the head of one of Henry's inheritors, the ill-fated Charles. Westminster had always been a place of swings and roundabouts. And scaffolds.

  'It's the phone,' Goodfellowe began as a private secretary produced an electronic swipe card to allow them back into the Prime Ministerial lair. 'I've been trying to figure out why it was never used.'

  'And?'

  'It was all powered up. So I think it must have been used. Probably frequently, and certainly regularly. To keep in contact.'

  'But no calls were ever logged

  'Because the calls were never answered. Perhaps only three or four rings, then cancelled. No record, no trace.'

  'Why?'

  'Security. A safety signal. To tell whoever was at the other end that everything was OK.'

  'But it's not OK, is it? Not for Freddie Payne.'

  'That may not be such good news, either.'

  'You trying to spoil my day?'

  'If the phone was used as I think, then the others knew within a couple of hours that Payne had been arrested.'

  'Damn.'

  'Even if Payne begins to sing like the proverbial canary and leads us straight back to the aviary, we'll find-'

  'Nothing but a pile of guano.'

  'Precisely.'

  'They made arrangements.'

  'They're still one step ahead of us.'

  They had reached the main staircase of Number Ten with its winding banister and collection of portraits of previous Prime Ministers that stretched back to the time of Robert Walpole, regarded as the first modern Prime Minister. He'd been condemned for corruption and kicked out of office. Most of his successors had been kicked out of office, too, over nearly three centuries. None of them ever seemed to know when their time was up. 'Events, dear boy, events' always got them in the end. The thought encouraged Goodfellowe to make a mental note, a promise to himself, that if he ever got to stand where Bendall was standing, he would do things differently. He would instruct Sam to tell him when that moment to leave the scene had come. Goodfellowe would go timely into the night, not stay and haunt the place like a vampire. Yes, that's what he'd do. If he ever got the chance.