The Cabal (#16 - The Craig Crime Series)

by Catriona King

  As the detective homed in on the sound he wasn’t sure which shocked him more: its angry, shouted volume or the fact that Andy Angel, easy going man that he was, a man who couldn’t muster the energy to put himself out if he was on fire, was the person making the noise. The fact that everyone else was ignoring it led Craig to the added conclusion that the din had been continuing for some time, and as he approached the corner, preparing to tell Andy to put a sock in it, he was halted by Liam suddenly blocking his way.

  “Shift, Liam.”

  “Can’t, boss. There’s something you need to see right away.”

  As if to underline the point the D.C.I. pointed to Nicky, their agreed signal for her calling up a video to play. Craig watched in silence as the short clip ran to its end and then he nodded the PA to play it again, his initial surprise at Roger Burke appearing in public having altered to shock when he’d heard what the man had had to say.

  ‘Peter McManus was killed by an ex-soldier and Loyalist who thought that the First Minister was a traitor to his own people, that his desire to remain in the EU ignored how anti-British that sentiment might be viewed as by some in our community.’

  Cue hard swallow to choke back tears.

  ‘And whilst we at the Independent Britain Party unequivocally condemn this heinous act of violence, it will make us reconsider our stance. Our grassroots followers have supported us through thick and thin, and if this is how the Loyalist community is really feeling then we must consult widely, and if necessary think again about our party’s approach to membership of the EU.’

  Craig said nothing, but the turmoil and disgust Liam read in his eyes said that when his next words eventually came they would be angry. Liam didn’t believe in reticence so he said exactly what was on his mind.

  “That bastard Burke’s using the deaths for political advantage.” When Craig didn’t respond he added something more. “In fact, I wouldn’t put it past the IBP to have organised McManus’ hit for just this end.”

  Craig’s slow stare was as close to agreement as Liam was going to get at that moment, then the D.C.S. entered his glass-walled office to think. Unfortunately, just as he did so, Craig spotted what Andy had been yelling at.

  In the corner, behind an artificial dividing wall created from filing cabinets and cardboard boxes by Nicky a month before, to give some privacy to officers viewing CCTV, sat the source of Andy’s ire, leaning back in his chair insouciantly and cavalierly examining his nails. Kyle Spence.

  Craig’s eyes widened and he raced back on to the floor, but instead of chastising Andy for shouting he rested a hand on his shoulder, silencing him, and then turned towards his arrogant D.I.

  “Why am I not even slightly surprised that you’re the cause of this aggro, Spence?”

  Before Kyle could open his mouth to answer what had clearly been a rhetorical question, Craig followed on, his tone hardening.

  “STAND UP WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU!”

  It made everyone turn to see what was happening and Liam count to ten beneath his breath, as Kyle rose slowly, so slowly that his pace verged on insubordination and if he’d been Craig he would have grabbed the Emory Board from the cheeky bugger’s hand and shoved it where the sun didn’t shine.

  But Craig was made of stronger stuff. He’d heard the last sentence that Andy had been shouting and the words had made his blood, already red-hot from Roger Burke’s press conference, start to boil. He moved to stand just inches from Spence’s face, his deep voice cool but restrained.

  “You went to the Office of the First Minister.”

  As Craig spoke he kept moving forward, giving the D.I. no other choice but to retreat.

  “Where, from what I just overheard, you harangued his private secretary and practically assaulted him. In fact, you had the man backed against a wall when Andy arrived, and it will be a miracle if he doesn’t sue.”

  As the delinquent D.I.’s back was quite literally against the artificial wall now, nobody could miss the parallel in Craig’s words.

  “What did you intend to do next, Inspector? Shoot him?”

  Liam said a silent prayer that Craig would take out his Glock to make the point. He lived for things like that. In the event, they would never know whether Craig would have drawn his gun or not, because as he took another step towards the most challenging member of his team Kyle Spence jerked backwards, demolishing the carefully constructed but inherently unstable partition that it had taken Nicky a day to make and scattering boxes and filing cabinets all over the floor. As the clatter reverberated around the office the ex-spook teetered for a lengthy moment, his arms flailing wildly in the air, before finally he lost his balance and landed hard on top of them.

  There was complete silence until Liam gave a roar that was picked up by Aidan Hughes. By the time Jake, Andy and the two analysts had joined in it had become a derisory cheer. Craig stood his ground, saying nothing. Not offering his subordinate a hand up, and with a glance forbidding the others to do the same.

  When he’d viewed Kyle’s furious, red-faced embarrassment for long enough the detective turned on his heel and strode away, his mind raging with a combination of Roger Burke and what to do with the Intelligence Officer next. Kick Kyle back to Intelligence where his cowboy tendencies had been an advantage, allocate him a full-time minder, except that he didn’t have the spare men, or learn to live with him and find a way to turn his behaviour to good use? Although somehow he doubted that the latter option would prove good for his own mental health.

  “Andy. Write up the events at Stormont, please. It will be going in Inspector Spence’s file.”

  Then it was over. Kyle was suddenly vertical again, Jake began rebuilding the wall, and Craig pushed back the briefing for an hour to contemplate the Lagan and the future from his chair.

  ****

  St Mary’s Hospital.

  The two women had been standing in the theatre equipment room for hours, although neither could have guessed the time. Both had been silent for the greater part of it; one wrestling with a decision that would change her life and the other still stunned by what she’d heard. Finally, Katy broke the quiet, realising that it was up to her to offer practical advice. She risked Natalie’s discomfort again by pulling her into another hug as she spoke.

  “You’ll find a way through this, Natalie, and I’m going to help.”

  The surgeon’s renewed sobbing was welcome; it was far better than the coldness she all too often used as a shield. Katy kept talking.

  “The first thing we have to do is get you tested.”

  She felt Natalie try to tear herself from her arms but she held on tight, forcing her friend to hear.

  “If you don’t then you may do something you’ll regret. You might end this pregnancy in case the baby has the condition, when it could have been free of it all along.”

  This time Natalie was too strong to hold. She wrestled free and took a step back.

  “I don’t want to know if I have it! I don’t want to live the rest of my life knowing that I’m a carrier! Can’t you understand that?”

  Katy’s instinct was to shout ‘NO’, but she managed to stay calm.

  “You need to find out, Natalie. For the baby-”

  Natalie shook her head furiously. “IT’S NOT A BABY YET! Stop saying that.”

  Katy thought that it was, but them arguing opposite sides of an ethics debate that had divided countries wasn’t going to help anyone right now.

  “I understand how you feel, but surely you need to know if you’re even a carrier before you make any decisions? If you’re not a carrier then your baby can’t have the condition in any form. Don’t you want to know that before you even think about termination? Otherwise you’re ruling out ever having any child. Is that what you really want?”

  It stopped the surgeon in her tracks, and as Katy watched her friend’s expression change, she realised that in her fear of the future the normally ultra-rational Natalie hadn’t thought things through. It was a mark of how u
pset she really was.

  Katy gazed down at the tiny surgeon kindly, choosing her next words carefully.

  “You should get tested, Natalie, and then at least you’d know what you’re dealing with.”

  The absence of an immediate “NO!” gave her hope, so she said nothing more for a full minute, watching as Natalie wrestled with herself, every move playing out on her face.

  Finally, the surgeon gave a weak nod. It was something, but it wasn’t the real decision. That would come after the test, if it was positive, and if Natalie wouldn’t discuss things with John then at least she could make sure that she wasn’t dealing with things alone.

  Chapter Eleven

  5 p.m.

  The briefing, when it finally happened, was business-like. There was no discussion of what had happened an hour earlier, and the report of Kyle’s exploits at Stormont was given by Andy, censured heavily, so that all the group learnt was that Norris Iveston had, under duress, given Roger Burke, the newly succeeded First Minister, as someone who’d wanted Peter McManus gone.

  Craig turned to Annette.

  “You met with McManus’ wife, Annette. Did she say anything?”

  Annette took out her notebook and then decided against it, reporting from memory instead.

  “She was genuinely cut up, sir. Very distressed. But she wouldn’t say much initially, with the IBP’s advisors around.” She glanced at Jake, smiling. “When Aidan and Jake distracted them, she said a bit more. Initially she said her husband had opponents across the floor, or rather not them but their hard-line supporters-”

  Craig interrupted in a doubtful tone. “Dissidents?”

  Annette made a face. “I wasn’t convinced and neither was she, said her husband hadn’t told her of any such threats, although that didn’t mean he hadn’t had them. But then she moved on to more recent reasons for him being in danger and said ambitious opponents within the party, namely Roger Burke, might have been behind his death.”

  Burke again. That was two people saying it, but Craig still wasn’t sold. Burke was an IBP loyalist and killing McManus so close to a vote could have disrupted the party’s plans. Annette was still reporting.

  “Then she mentioned the EU Referendum. She said McManus was very Pro-EU, but there were many in the IBP that weren’t. She also said that a lot of people in the Loyalist community viewed McManus as a traitor.”

  Craig’s eyebrows rose. “Traitor? She used that actual word?”

  It echoed what Burke had said in the clip.

  Annette nodded. “Vehemently. The fact the killer was a Loyalist didn’t seem a huge surprise to her.”

  Craig frowned, muttering. “If Billy Regent actually fired the shot.”

  It made everyone sit up, so he thought that he’d better elaborate.

  “I met with Doctor Winter earlier, and it seems the DNA beneath Regent’s fingernails was almost pure ethnic German in origin.”

  Liam’s astonishment spoke for everyone.

  “What the hell’s that about?”

  “We don’t know yet, but given the evidence it seems likely that it was this German wearing latex gloves who held the gun to Regent’s head and killed him, making it look like suicide. That scenario has to raise the question of whether Regent even made the kill shot on McManus.”

  Liam made a rewind motion. “Go back a bit. Regent had GSR on his hands, and if he didn’t shoot himself he must have got it from firing the rifle. But now you’re saying he mightn’t actually have made McManus’ kill shot either? Sorry, but I can’t see it, boss. No-one else could have done it, and Regent was an expert sniper. And if they hadn’t needed Regent to make the shot why the heck was he even there?”

  Nicky piped up. “Regent could have been set-up to suggest that Loyalism was fed up with McManus. Burke looked pretty pleased in that clip, behind his crocodile tears.”

  Craig nodded. “You’re both right. Regent may have fired the shot but not wanted to. He could easily have been set-up.”

  “He was forced by this German?”

  “It’s looking likely, but we can’t say how yet.”

  Liam nodded knowingly. “That pretty much fits with what Ken said. The army doc said Regent was so depressed he could barely get out of bed, much less muster the energy to kill someone.”

  “Have you got the report?”

  “Nope. Ken couldn’t give it to me but he read some of it out. It basically said Billy Regent was like a limp rag.”

  Craig nodded. “And Eileen Regent said that her son could never, and more importantly would never have done it. He was just starting to look forward to life, with his daughter and his new job. OK, anything else on the door-to-door?”

  Jake nodded. “Reggie interviewed some woman last night who said she’d seen Billy with another man the day of the shooting.”

  Craig sat forward eagerly. “Time? Description?”

  “Around two-thirty that afternoon. He was the same height as Billy and skinny, but she didn’t see his face; he was wearing a pulled down baseball cap. But he was carrying a gym bag with some sort of logo, so Reggie got her to sketch it.”

  Davy raised his pen. “I’ve got it, chief. It’s running through the databases now.”

  Craig turned to his deputy. “Liam, did the rifle bag have a logo?”

  “Nothing. Just plain black-”

  Jake cut in. “She said Regent wasn’t carrying anything, chief. Reggie specifically asked her.”

  Liam nodded. “The rifle bag must have been inside the logoed one carried by the other man. They were definitely working together.”

  Craig shook his head. “I’m still not convinced on that. OK, so the logo must have been on the second man’s bag and he must have taken it with him. Let me know when you I.D. it, Davy. Go on, Jake. Anything else on the door-to-door?”

  When the D.S. nodded Craig’s hopes rose again.

  “Nothing more from the interviews, but they found some latex gloves dumped in a woman’s bin. Her name’s Sally Johnston. No record and Reggie doesn’t think she’s involved in anything. The gloves have gone to forensics and Reggie’s taken her to High Street for a DNA sample to rule her out, but he’s pretty sure the gloves aren’t hers. She’s allergic to latex. The other thing is her bins were emptied on Tuesday at ten p.m.”

  “That’s late.”

  “Blame the Council. The thing is, that means the gloves must have been left there after that.”

  Craig shook his head automatically. Sally Johnston wasn’t their killer. Whoever had killed Billy Regent was too slick to dump evidence in the bin outside their own flat. In fact, why dump the gloves locally at all, except as a false trail? He would wait for the forensics on them but he wasn’t holding out much hope of their use. The only interesting thing was that it meant their killer had remained local until Tuesday night.

  Suddenly something occurred to him.

  “Liam, where did the guns come from?”

  Liam shrugged. “Don’t know yet. They’re still with Des for checking.” Then it dawned on him what Craig meant. “Ah, you’re thinking maybe Billy nicked them from his army base before he left. He wouldn’t be the first squaddie to de-mob with more than a short haircut.”

  Craig nodded. “Chase their origins. They might lead somewhere.” He moved across to the whiteboard. “OK. So, we’re starting to form a picture of Billy Regent. He had PTSD with passive depression, and was a good soldier with an honourable discharge who wanted out of the army to get back to his little girl.” He turned to Davy. “Davy, find out what his GP has to say about his state of mind since he demobbed.”

  “Already done. He saw him last week and said Regent was tearful but definitely not dangerous. He had him on anti-depressants designed to give him a lift.”

  “That fits with the lethargy Ken described.”

  He lifted a marker and drew a circle around Regent’s name with radiating lines ending in question marks, tapping on the first.

  “OK, the guns. Liam’s on that. Next, Billy Regent�
��s most recent state of mind, Davy’s got that. Friends. Did Billy Regent have any friends that he confided in? Jake and Aidan, chase that please. Go back and speak to Tommy Hill if you get stuck; he might know. And check if Regent was based in Germany at any point; he may have made his killer’s acquaintance there.”

  Liam nodded admiringly. It was a good point and one he hadn’t thought of; the British Army had training camps all over the place.

  Craig tapped the fifth question mark.

  “Annette, find out how Peter McManus was really viewed in the loyalist community. Was it actually as bad as his wife says and Roger Burke implied at that press conference?”

  She made a face. “What press conference, sir?”

  He realised that only three of them had seen the clip.

  “Nicky, play the clip for everyone after the briefing, please. OK, back to the way McManus was viewed. Even if he was viewed as a traitor, would anyone in the local Loyalist community really have carried it through to killing him? Reggie can help with that by finding out the thinking on the Travis and Demesne. My view is no, and if they had been going to, they’d have chosen a much simpler way. Bomb most likely.”

  He paused, running through anything he might have missed. When he couldn’t find anything else he wanted to cover right that moment he turned back to Davy again.

  “Davy, update us on Veronica Lewis’ calls and computers, please, then we’ll take Ash on the CCTV.”

  He fell into his chair as Davy handed around some print-outs, but before the analyst could start reporting, Liam began shaking his head. Craig signalled Davy to wait for a moment.