Bad to the Bone

by Tony J. Forder

  ‘Look at me, Penny,’ he said. ‘Do I seem as if I’m enjoying this?’

  It took a while, but then her eyes widened to almost comic proportions. ‘You cannot be serious. Tell me this is the biggest wind up there has ever been.’

  ‘I wish I could.’ He looked down at his hands spread out on the narrow table that stood between them. He could not meet her eyes. ‘But the fact is, if they decide to push this, I’m fucked.’

  He heard her draw breath. ‘Jesus H Christ. What were you thinking?’

  ‘I wasn’t. I went to ask Connie Rawlings a few questions. We got caught up in a moment. I can’t explain it.’

  ‘Fucking hell, Jimmy. You’re not a twelve-year-old kid. You can’t just shrug this off and say “Sorry, I didn’t know what I was doing”.’

  He looked up at her. She was right. There was no defence. Except perhaps there was. ‘Penny, the way it goes is like this: I accept that what I did makes me less of a copper, but not doing so would have made me less human. I’m not sure I’d miss being a copper right now, but I do sometimes miss being part of the human race. What happened between me and Connie Rawlings was the most natural thing in the world.’

  ‘But it was wrong.’

  Bliss shook his head. ‘I thought so, too. Right up until a few minutes ago.’

  After a few seconds’ pause, Chandler spread her hands. ‘Is she going to back you up?’

  ‘I have no idea. She probably doesn’t think we did anything wrong, either. If they ask her if money changed hands, she’ll say no. If they ask if we had sex… my guess is she’ll be honest.’

  ‘Then let’s hope they don’t ask.’

  ‘I have no idea what they might do. I’m pretty damned sure they were not parked outside her place when I arrived, and I’d love to know what made them pull me in. Or should I say, who?’

  Chandler nodded, slowly, as if it had just dawned on her what might lie behind the incident. ‘Look, boss, I’ll have another word with the custody sergeant, see if we can speed this up. The main thing is they haven’t formally arrested or charged you. The word around the nick is that you had a ruck with Grealish and this is some sort of payback.’

  He nodded. ‘Yeah, so everyone can have a good laugh at my expense.’

  ‘Is it true? Did you and Grealish get into it?’

  ‘It was nothing. A playground scuffle, that’s all.’

  ‘Over me? That’s what they’re saying. You had words because of how he’d been with me.’

  ‘I’d’ve done the same for anyone else in my team. Male or female.’

  Chandler smiled at him. ‘Thank you. I can fight my own battles, but thank you anyway. I’m only sorry it ended up like this.’

  ‘I’m not so sure this has anything to do with Grealish. I think this is another warning. A bit more subtle than trying to shove me off the road, but a warning all the same.’

  ‘Do you know how paranoid that sounds?’

  ‘I know. But I think I’m right. Someone wants to ruffle my feathers, and they’ve used the Grealish issue as cover.’

  She gave a shrug. ‘I don’t know, boss. I’m not so sure. Look, do you want me to get your union rep down here?’

  ‘Not yet. Let’s see how far they decide to push. If I think they’re really going to move on this, then I’ll throw them a “no comment” and request my legal representation.’

  ‘I don’t know what to say. At any other time I suppose I’d be happy that you’d finally got your end away. But with a brass? And how the hell does that sit with what you and Emily have going?’

  Bliss had been asking himself the same question. ‘I don’t know, Pen. I don’t exactly know what Emily and I have going, and I don’t know how this sits with whatever we do have. To tell the truth, I don’t know much about anything anymore.’

  Chandler opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped when the door to the interview room opened with a groan and Superintendent Sykes stepped in. His eyes fixed immediately on Bliss as if he were a tasty snack.

  ‘Leave us please, DC Chandler,’ he commanded.

  ‘Of course.’ She stood. Gave Bliss a swift smile. ‘Chin up, boss. I’ll see what’s happening and get back to you.’

  ‘By rights you ought not to have been in here,’ Sykes told her. His voice was clipped. ‘You go through proper procedures next time.’

  When Chandler had left them, Sykes spent a few seconds positioning himself, looking for just the right pose. Bliss wanted to laugh at him. Or slap him. Or both.

  ‘Well now, Inspector,’ Sykes said. ‘It would seem we have a bit of a situation here.’

  Bliss made no reply. He silently cursed himself for allowing this to happen.

  ‘I’m told your defence is that you were in Stanground this morning obtaining information,’ Sykes went on, enjoying the taste of each word. ‘Is that correct?’

  Bliss thought about throwing his first ‘no comment’ at Sykes, but decided to see if he could work this out. ‘It is, yes. I wanted to speak with Connie Rawlings about Jodie Maybanks.’

  ‘And Ms Rawlings is, I assume, a registered CHIS?’

  Bliss shook his head. Saw where this was headed. ‘No. She’s not an informant, as such.’

  ‘Yet you were seeking information from her?’

  ‘As I’ve explained.’

  ‘So, if we ignore for now the charge of solicitation, we still need to address the fact that you discussed an ongoing investigation with an unregistered CHIS and did so without permission from a superior.’

  Policy and procedure dictated that a meeting with a CHIS had to be approved by a senior officer. That this was seldom upheld did not matter here and now, Bliss realised. It was the stick with which Sykes had chosen to beat him. As it turned out, the super had selected the wrong weapon.

  Bliss looked up. ‘The problem with your theory,’ he said, ‘is that I was interviewing Connie Rawlings as a witness, not an informant. I don’t need anyone’s permission to do that.’

  Something pulsed above Sykes’s right eye. Clearly he hadn’t considered this angle. He took off his glasses to polish them with a square of yellow cloth pulled from his trouser pocket.

  ‘That’s one version,’ he said. ‘We may yet have to decide if it’s the truth.’

  ‘There’s no decision required. It either is the truth or it isn’t. In this case, it is.’

  ‘I stand corrected. Our decision, therefore, is whether or not we believe you, Inspector.’

  The whole subject seemed to well up inside Bliss’s head and deep within his chest. All at once he didn’t care what happened. The only thing that mattered was dictating where it went from this point on. Slowly, without fuss, he got to his feet. His ears were ringing.

  ‘I’m here of my own free will,’ he said, drawing the other man’s attention. ‘And I can leave anytime I choose. I know this because I’m a police officer, and I’ve had to remind suspects of that so many times in the past it’s ingrained in every pore. So, here’s what you do. Arrest me. Arrest me, or I walk. Right now.’

  ‘You think I wouldn’t?’ Sykes asked.

  Bliss heard the truth in the man’s voice. ‘I think you’d like to. I think you’d read my rights to me yourself, if you could remember them – they’ve changed a little since you last did it. But you know what? I know you’re not going to. I know you have nothing on me. And I know this because you’re such a piss-poor copper it’s written all over your stupid smug face.’

  Sykes sprang away from the wall like a cat startled by a tin can clattering to the floor. ‘How dare you speak to me like that? How dare you?’ Spittle flew from his lips.

  Bliss moved close enough that their faces were only inches apart. ‘I dare because it’s true. You’re a joke, Sykes. A joke and a fucking disgrace. Did you arrange this? Did you set me up?’

  ‘I have better things to do with my time, Inspector.’

  Shaking his head, Bliss uttered a short laugh. ‘No. The sad thing is, you don’t. Even so, I do actuall
y believe you. The fact is, you haven’t got the imagination to pull a stunt like this.’

  Bliss stepped past the super and headed out through the doorway. Sykes put a hand on his shoulder. ‘This is not over, Inspector. Not by a long way.’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ Bliss told him, shrugging off the hand. ‘At least as far as I’m concerned.’

  ‘I’m your superior officer!’

  ‘Then act like it. Arrest me. Do your job. And if you’re not prepared to do that, keep the hell away from me.’

  With that parting shot, Bliss stepped out of the room without looking back.

  Chapter 27

  The first thing Bliss did after leaving the interview room was to get Connie Rawlings released. She had fared less well than he, having been shoved in a cell upon arrival at Thorpe Wood some twenty minutes after his ignoble entry into the station. With an enraged Sykes wailing in his wake, Bliss instructed a smirking custody sergeant to get word to Gascoigne and Hopley that they were to either charge Rawlings or let her walk. They had ten minutes, he told the uniform, or he was going to call in a solicitor and make a formal complaint. The two officers used up every second of the time he had allowed them, but Bliss was happy to see Rawlings eventually making her way up from the cells into the custody area.

  ‘Let me see you out,’ he said, taking her by the arm. Whoever had brought Rawlings in hadn’t allowed her to get changed, and her dressing gown was wrapped tight around her body, slippers slapping against bare heels. Bliss was conscious of being watched closely by several uniforms milling around, their amusement obvious now that the rumour grapevine had done its work. He ignored them completely and hoped they’d choke on his contempt.

  Connie Rawlings raised her eyebrows at him. Lines bracketed her mouth as her lips curled into a half smile. ‘I’m not sure I should. I might get arrested again.’

  Bliss laughed. A hollow sound. She was a tough nut to crack. When he spoke he made sure he could be heard by everyone in the area.

  ‘I’m not sure even those two arsewipes would try that again. Arresting a witness once is a mistake, to repeat it would be the work of morons.’ He shook his head as he led her up the stairs to the ground floor. ‘I’m so sorry, Connie. I had no idea this might happen.’

  Her smile became full, genuinely warm. ‘It’s not you who should be apologising, it’s those storm troopers. Why were they so gung-ho? Have you upset someone around here?’

  ‘Several people. You could take your pick.’

  ‘It comes to something when your lot go to these lengths to nail one of their own.’

  He nodded. It made him think about the Jodie Maybanks case, how to proceed with investigating Detective Chief Superintendent Flynn. ‘Look,’ he said. ‘If you’ve lost money being shut up in here, I can help you out.’

  ‘Are you offering to pay for what happened between us?’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head firmly. ‘That’s not what I meant at all.’

  They’d reached the outside steps. She stopped walking. Her eyes drew his in. ‘Does that mean you weren’t thinking of me as a brass at the time?’

  Bliss sensed the answer might be important to her. It was to him. ‘Anything but, Connie. Not before, during, or after. I wanted to be with you. It’s as simple as that.’

  ‘Good.’ She gave a nod. ‘Then keep your money to yourself. Even us hookers are entitled to a private life.’

  He smiled. ‘If you wait here a moment, I’ve arranged for someone to run you home.’

  ‘Thanks. I’d feel a bit out of place getting on the bus dressed like this.’ She glanced down at herself and laughed at her own joke. ‘Listen, let’s get things straight between us. I don’t expect you to come calling again. I don’t expect anything from you. It was nice, but I’m not stupid enough to think it was anything more than a one-off.’

  Connie Rawlings was letting him off the hook. They both knew it.

  ‘By the way,’ she said, lowering her voice. ‘I’ve been thinking more about our chat earlier. I don’t know if she’ll be able to tell you any more than I have, but next to me, Jodie’s closest friend was another working girl called Simone Jackson. As far as I know she now runs her own set of girls over at a rented place in Werrington.’

  Bliss nodded his appreciation. It was never bad news to have alternative leads. ‘Thanks for that, Connie. I’ll bear it in mind.’

  ‘It amazes me how many of the old gang are still spreading our legs for a living.’ She gave a self-deprecating laugh.

  ‘How long are you going to keep at it?’ Bliss asked her. ‘I mean, what are your plans?’

  ‘Oh, I’m saving for early retirement. There are a few freaks who like their women old and saggy, but I’m just about worn out.’ She chuckled. ‘Well, one part of me is, at least. When that day comes you won’t see my stilettos and suspenders for dust.’

  Bliss smiled and nodded. He admired her enormously. He’d met many prostitutes. They didn’t all have a heart of gold, but they were as human as the next person, each with human hopes, needs, and frailties.

  ‘Listen, I have to nip off. I hope things go the way you want them to. Take care of yourself, Connie.’

  ‘You too.’ Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. ‘You know something, Inspector? For a copper, you’re not a bad bloke.’

  ‘It’s Jimmy,’ he told her. ‘Jimmy Bliss. And Connie, if vice pay you a visit in the future, give me a call.’

  ‘I told you before, you don’t owe me anything.’

  ‘Yes I do,’ Bliss said. He touched the back of his fingers to her cheek, ran them around the curve. He felt her tremble. ‘More than you’ll ever know.’

  Bliss rode the lift to the first floor and walked straight to his office. A couple of phone calls tracked down Chandler and Dunne, and Bliss asked them to meet him as soon as possible. When they arrived he closed the door behind them and told them both to pull up a chair. He glanced at Dunne before looking directly at DC Chandler.

  ‘Penny,’ he said. ‘We have some fresh information. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to share it with you, but we’re already running two lines of investigation on the same case, and I don’t want a third getting in the way. So, I’m going to tell you something Bobby and I already know. You need to take it on board, make your own decision. Okay?’

  She nodded. Frowning. ‘Sounds serious,’ she said.

  ‘It is. Very much so. Penny, the name of the officer responsible for closing both the triple nine and MisPer inquires relating to Jodie Maybanks is Joe Flynn.’

  Bliss felt her eyes bore into his, but she said nothing immediately. He went on. ‘Earlier this morning, Connie Rawlings confirmed that among Jodie’s customers were a few coppers, and that Joe Flynn was a regular.’

  Chandler exhaled slowly. Took her time with it. When she looked up at him once more, Bliss saw genuine fear in her eyes.

  ‘Tell me you’re taking this to someone higher up the tree,’ she said. Her eyelids fluttered anxiously.

  He cleared his throat. ‘That’s not the way I’ve decided to go.’

  ‘Boss, I appreciate what you want to do with this case and why, but surely you have to see that we have no choice now.’

  ‘On the contrary, I think it’s even more important to keep this to ourselves.’

  ‘Why, for heaven’s sake?’

  ‘Because Flynn may just be too big a fish. At the moment we have absolutely no evidence. Yes, we have the case notes and his signature, but they prove nothing. The fact that he was one of Jodie’s regulars proves nothing. If those all go up the chain now, someone may decide we can live without the bad publicity, and simply persuade Flynn to take early retirement.’

  ‘What, even if we can link him to the murders of Weller and Dean?’

  ‘If we can. And that’s exactly my point. Those links are even more tenuous than the one with Jodie.’ Bliss shook his head once more. ‘I’m sorry, Penny. My mind is made up on this.’

  Chandler glanced across at Dunne. ‘What’s you
r take, Bobby?’

  The big man grunted. ‘Not quite the same as yours. I think it’s madness to carry on with this investigation, so we’re agreed there. But I think we ought to drop the case completely and wind it up. In my opinion we have to let it go, shut the investigation down and walk away.’

  She thought about that for a while, then nodded and looked back at Bliss. ‘That sounds like a plan, boss. Who cares if it’s the coward’s way out? At least we’ll go on to fight another day. Whichever way you slice it, this is a war we can’t win.’

  Bliss pushed himself back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, which felt gritty and dry. The pleasures of the weekend seemed like a lifetime ago now.

  ‘There are three ways to go. I’ve considered Bobby’s, and now I’ve considered yours. Yours is the correct path to follow, Bobby’s is probably the most sensible.’

  ‘Then choose correct or sensible,’ Chandler pleaded with him. ‘Don’t go with madness.’

  He grinned. ‘I have to, Penny. This is not just about Jodie Maybanks anymore. If Flynn is responsible for what happened to Jodie Maybanks, and you have to say it looks likely, then he’s also responsible for Weller and Dean, if only indirectly. We can’t allow him to get away with those murders as well.’

  ‘Then we go down the route I suggested. Write it up and move it on. Make it someone else’s problem.’

  ‘I’ve already made it clear as to why I don’t want to go that way. Penny, my mind is made up. Look, despite his reservations, Bobby is staying in. I need to know if you are, too.’

  She spread her hands, shrugging. ‘What, no pep talk about how if I quit now neither of you will think the worst of me?’

  ‘No. Not this time. Like you said before, you’re big enough and ugly enough to make up your own mind.’

  ‘I don’t believe I used the term “ugly”.’

  Bliss grinned. ‘I was paraphrasing.’

  ‘So you want to investigate Chief Superintendent Flynn in the background of the Jodie Maybanks case? You want to pry into his life and career? And you want to do all this while acting as SIO on the murder case?’