Hard Evidence

by Mark Pearson

  Much as he might have wanted to, Delaney didn't tell Kate to turn right as they reached the top of the hill. She turned left past the Angel tube station and then right, off the main thoroughfare into a series of back streets that led to a bleak industrial wasteland in a matter of a few short minutes. They drove in silence until Delaney cursed colourfully as the car bucked and bounced over the uneven and broken road surface. He turned to Kate. 'Sorry.'

  'I think we've got more to worry about than a little swearing, don't you?'

  Delaney shrugged in rueful agreement and Kate laughed, a nervous laugh, a little too loud, betraying the tension coiled like an ache in her stomach.

  Delaney put his hand on her knee. 'It's going to be all right, Kate.'

  A twist or two further along the battered road led them to a series of old Victorian warehouses, long abandoned and shambled together in mutual disrepair. Kate drove slowly up to the ramshackle, slope-shouldered building that Delaney had pointed to and stopped the car.

  'Be careful, Jack.'

  He leaned across and kissed her. 'If I'm not back in ten minutes, call the police.'

  'Not funny.'

  Delaney opened his car door, and Kate put her hand on his arm. 'Maybe I should come with you.'

  'I want you to stay here.'

  'It's a set-up. Bonner could have cleared you and he hasn't.'

  'You told me. Just keep an eye on the building. Anybody comes in after me, you phone, all right? That's all you have to do.'

  Delaney got out of the car and walked around to the boot. He popped the lid open and unzipped his overnight bag, moving some clothing aside to reveal a cloth-wrapped object hidden at the bottom. He picked it up, unwrapped it and hefted it in his hand. An unregistered gun he had had for about four years now. He checked it was loaded, even though he knew full well it was, and laid it across his left thigh as he shut the boot and walked across to the warehouse door. He stopped at the entrance, looked around the corner and then walked in.

  It was dark inside and it took a moment or two for his eyes to adjust. As his vision slowly returned, he could see the place was a very old building in complete disrepair. It was partly demolished, and a series of half-destroyed rooms led mazelike to a big open area. Crumbling walls, garishly streaked with different-coloured paint, spread out erratically into the distance. Upper levels visible through collapsed floors. It was like the ruins of a modernist castle. On one wall a futuristic soldier with a bare chest and improbable muscles and armed with a hand-held rocket launcher had been painted above a garish slogan written in large blood-red letters: 'PAINTBALL 3000 – SURVIVAL HURTS'. The different-coloured paints splattered on the walls now made sense to Delaney. The post-apocalyptic effect had clearly been designed with the local yuppie market in mind. War games for young professionals letting off steam by pretending to blow ten degrees of shit out of each other. Delaney smiled at the irony. A few miles down the road, the disaffected, drug-dealing youth were doing it for real.

  Delaney made his way slowly through the series of rooms. Placing his feet carefully so as not to dislodge the randomly scattered piles of old brick and masonry. It was clear that there were plenty of places for the paintballers to lay an ambush, and Delaney felt the small hairs on the back of his neck rise as he moved from one area to the next.

  He put his back against a wall and called out.

  'Bonner!' His voice echoed around the cavernous spaces.

  'I'm over here.'

  As Delaney edged cautiously around the wall, the sound of a brick falling came from behind him. He dropped into a crouch and scowled when he saw that it was Kate. He held up a hand to get her to stay where she was and put a finger to his lips. Kate nodded, but walked slowly up to him and whispered in his ear.

  'I couldn't just wait in the car.'

  Delaney glared at her and whispered angrily, 'Well wait here. I mean it.'

  Bonner called out. 'What are you doing, Jack?'

  'I'm making sure there isn't a scope with my head in its sights.'

  'I'm on my own here. I came to help, for Christ's sake. There's things you need to know.'

  Delaney made a stay gesture to Kate and raised his gun. Kate shook her head, disapproving, but didn't say anything. Delaney moved slowly away from her and looked around the corner of the wall, then walked up to the open area where Bonner stood with his jacket off and a gun held in his right hand.

  'I came alone, Cowboy.'

  Delaney looked around, the gun sweeping in his hand.

  'There's only me. You can put that away.'

  'I should just take your word for that, should I?'

  'I'm here, aren't I?

  'What's it all about, Eddie?'

  'Like I said. Things that you don't know, Jack. Things that happened.'

  'You going to tell me?'

  'That's why I'm here.'

  Delaney nodded him for him to continue. 'I'm listening.'

  Bonner stepped closer. 'It's just a question of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They needed a fall guy and everybody knew you were banging Jackie Malone. Didn't take a genius to put your name in the frame.'

  'Who is it, Eddie?'

  'They told me that Jackie's death was an accident. You know she choked to death.'

  'Go on.'

  'But they'd have killed her anyway. I didn't know everything that was involved. I didn't know about the kids, Jack, I swear that. And I know it wasn't you that took the cocaine from evidence.'

  'You?'

  Bonner shrugged with a guilty smile. 'I was caught at it a long time ago. Deals were made. People took their cut. You know how these things work.'

  'Not in my world, Eddie.'

  'So I had to do what I was told. Things are getting way out of hand, though . . .'

  'Who is it, Eddie? Who told you to cover up the caretaker's statement?'

  'You've got loose lips in your camp, Jack. You should know who to trust.'

  'What are you talking about?'

  'I'm talking about Kate Walker. She's a regular little canary.'

  Delaney shook his head, taken aback. 'That's ridiculous.' He fought the urge to look back at Kate.

  'I'll tell you everything, but I need to know you'll cover me. I'm out of my league here, Jack, but we can help each other.'

  Delaney could hear the desperation in his voice. 'Put the gun down then and let's talk.'

  Bonner held his gun steady. 'I need insurance first.'

  A shot rang out like the crack of a bone, bouncing around the half-demolished walls, and echoing into silence. A spurt of blood fountained. Delaney gasped soundlessly with the sudden shock of it, his knees bent and he dropped towards Bonner.

  The second shot rang out as Delaney cradled Bonner in his arms, pulling him back behind the wall. The bullet smashed into Bonner's outstretched leg and he spasmed soundlessly.

  Kate took Delaney's arm and pulled him around the corner as a third bullet gouged concrete from the floor. Delaney propped Bonner against the paint-splattered wall. His face was as pale as porcelain, and he held a hand to the hole in his head, letting the blood trickle through his fingers like warm soup.

  Delaney leaned in. 'Jackie Malone. Who killed her, Eddie?'

  Bonner swallowed drily. 'Kevin Norrell.' He looked at his fingers, at the viscous liquid staining them, and back up at Delaney, the confusion painful in his eyes. 'Is it real?'

  Then he slumped forward, his mouth gaping, his eyes open but seeing nothing in this world. Kate knelt beside him, propping his head and feeling for a pulse.

  A brick fell from the upper level, crashing to the floor below, and Delaney whipped his head round. A door slammed upstairs. Delaney stood up, his eyes cold with fury. Kate grabbed his arm but he shook it off.

  'Wait here.'

  Delaney sprinted across the open space to a wrought-iron staircase on the other side. He held the gun forward and ran up the stairs into a large empty room. Some sunlight slanted in through the filthy windows that lined one of the walls.
The floor was rotten, rain-spoiled planking ripped half up, and in places whole gaps where the floor below could clearly be seen. To the left a door hung half on its hinges, leading to a darkened corridor beyond. Ahead was another closed door. Coming to a decision, Delaney ran across the room and charged the door open. He flew into the next room, skittering on the bare wooden floor. It was empty except for an open door that swung on to an outside staircase. Delaney could hear the sound of a car being driven away at speed, but by the time he reached the doorway it was gone.

  He walked back down the stairs to where Kate was waiting by Bonner's inert body.

  Kate watched him, shaken, as he put the gun in his jacket pocket. 'Have you got a licence for that?'

  Delaney ignored the question. 'What did he mean about you selling me out?'

  Kate shrugged. 'I spoke to Bob Wilkinson, Jack. But I can't believe he would set you up.'

  Delaney looked down at Bonner. 'Nor can I. And Eddie Bonner would lie as easily as breathe.'

  He watched impassively as Kate checked Bonner's pulse once more. 'He's not going to do either again.'

  'There's no chance?'

  Kate shook her head. 'Do you think he set you up? Was the shot meant for you?'

  'Not the first one. No, I think he was telling the truth, he got seriously out of his depth. They followed him, planned to take both of us out.'

  'Who's Kevin Norrell?'

  'Pond scum out of west London, hired muscle mainly.'

  'And he's behind all this?'

  Delaney shook his head. 'He hasn't got the brains. He's just an animal for rent.'

  Kate stood up and dusted her trousers. In the distance, the faint wail of a police siren could be heard.

  'We can't stay here.'

  'Come on.' Delaney took her hand and led her quickly towards the exit.

  'Where are we going?'

  'West.'

  31.

  Emerald Cabs was a seedy outfit based in Northwood Hills, a run-down, one-horse town west of London, out on the Metropolitan line. Stuck between Pinner and Northwood proper, it was a shabby, halfway kind of place with no real identity, something 'twixt and 'tween. It used to be a kind of breakwater, to the tide of London but the growing spread of housing development had pushed brick, steel and pollution further and further out, breaking though Northwood Hills to wash the flotsam and jetsam of modern London into Northwood and the green belt that lay beyond.

  The office of Emerald Cabs was functional but scruffy. As much a front as a legitimate business. They did have a small fleet of cars, nothing luxurious, and a handful of disgruntled drivers who drove them. But Norrell didn't rely on the cab firm's turnover to keep him in pig product and beer, he earned his keep mainly through debt-collecting and hurting people. They say if you are good at something it's usually because you like doing it, and Kevin Norrell certainly liked hurting people.

  He sat in front of a battered pine desk at the far end of the office, his grotesquely enlarged legs stretched out on a chair in front of him. He was dressed in baggy shorts and a cut-off T-shirt that revealed massive biceps and forearms. His face was red, flushed with the heat and marked with a permanent rash of angry acne. He had a large Wimpy hamburger in one hand and a thick milkshake in the other. Two similar-size burgers waited in a brown bag on the desk. He took a bite and smiled. Norrell was a man of simple tastes, and stuffing a half-pound cheeseburger into his face was pretty much at the top of his list of most pleasurable experiences. A bag of golf clubs stood in the corner, but it was a long time since he had played the game; walking long distances was not an option with his build. He took another bite of his burger, nearly finishing it, and sat back grunting with pleasure in his chair.

  Delaney watched him through the filthy glass outside the taxi office and turned to Kate. 'Wait outside this time.'

  Kate nodded, seeing no point in arguing.

  Norrell looked up as Delaney walked into the office.

  'Help you?'

  Delaney could see his face altering as recognition slowly dawned on him. He put down his burger, wiping the cheesy mayonnaise from his face, and lifted his massive legs off the chair opposite him, sitting upright.

  'What are you doing here?'

  'What do you think I'm doing here, Kevin?'

  'Fuck knows.'

  'You want to think about it a little? I know you haven't got a lot to work with there.'

  'No. I want you to get the fuck out of my office. You got no business here, Delaney.'

  'That's Detective Inspector Delaney to you.'

  'And it's suck my cock to you.'

  Delaney smiled. 'You and I need to have a little talk.'

  'I've got nothing to say to you.'

  'Nothing to say about Jackie Malone?'

  Norrell's eyes flicked nervously sideways.

  'Or Billy Martin.'

  Norrell stood up, his shoulders dropping, his face shifting into animal meanness.

  'I don't know what you're talking about. Now get the fuck out of my office.'

  'Or what?'

  'I heard Jackie Malone was hurt real bad. Be a shame if that was to happen to you or your pretty lady friend outside.'

  Delaney looked across at the window to see Kate watching them both.

  'Nice bit of cunt like that. Be a shame to see it all sliced up.'

  Delaney stepped forward, picking the telephone off the desk in one smooth movement and smashed it with full force into Norrell's face. Norrell cried out in pain as his front teeth broke and blood poured into his mouth. He shook his head, astonished, and reared above Delaney, who punched him as hard as he could in the stomach. It was like punching a bag of concrete that had been left out in the rain and then in the sun for a week. He might as well have hit him with a limp balloon. Norrell didn't even react, just slapped Delaney on the side of his head with his open palm. A red light exploded in Delaney's brain as he staggered back, his legs suddenly weakened. Norrell followed him in a lumbering waddle, his thighs so large he couldn't walk without them rubbing together. Delaney shook his head clear and jabbed out with a punch to Norrell's bloody chin, snapping the large man's head back but not rocking him off his axis. Norrell swung a meaty fist at Delaney's face and Delaney ducked under it, punching out again at Norrell's chin. Norrell just grunted and spat more blood on the floor.

  'You're starting to piss me off now.'

  'You were taking shots at us an hour ago, you dumb prick. What am I supposed to do, bake you a cake?'

  Norrell looked at him. 'I haven't been anywhere near you. I've been here all day.'

  Delaney kicked at Norrell's knee, knocking him off balance, and Norrell gasped with pain as Delaney punched him as hard as he could in the temple. It should have put him on the floor. It didn't. He stood up and staggered forward, enveloping Delaney in a bear hug. Delaney snapped a couple of punches at Norrell's head but he couldn't get any force behind them and Norrell started to squeeze. Delaney felt as if he had been caught in some kind of industrial vice. He struggled as he felt his ribs constricting and the air being forced from his body. His punches became feebler as he felt his consciousness draining. He grunted, drawing in some oxygen, and summoning his last ounces of energy, slammed his knee up into Norrell's groin. Norrell grunted a little, but didn't relinquish his boa constrictor grip. Just my luck, thought Delaney, as a blackness started to descend and he felt himself passing out. Norrell's balls must have shrivelled to nothing after years of steroid abuse; probably didn't feel a thing.

  Suddenly Norrell let out a cry and stepped back, his arms opening, dropping Delaney gasping to his knees. Norrell looked even more puzzled than usual as Kate swung the golf club again, a three wood, gripping it low on the shaft like a baseball bat and smashing it with a sickening crack into his temple, dropping him to the floor like a bull elephant hit with a stun gun. The floor shuddered and Delaney, still gasping for breath, looked up at Kate.

  'Where did you learn to play golf?'

  Kate knelt down and put her fingers t
o Norrell's neck. 'He's still alive.'

  'Not going to be able to answer a lot of questions, though, is he?'

  'Was that what you were doing, interrogating him?'

  'Yeah.'

  'Interesting technique.'

  'I could have got him to talk.'

  Kate smiled tolerantly. 'You'd rather I'd let you finish the fight?'

  Delaney winced again as he got to his feet. 'I guess not. Thanks.'

  Kate put the club back into the golf bag propped against the wall. 'What are we going to do with him?'

  'Put him in the car.'

  'What with? A fork-lift truck?'

  Delaney looked at the prostrate figure. 'Good point.' He walked across and searched through Norrell's jacket thrown over the back of a chair. Nothing. He looked in the desk's single drawer, taking out a stubby revolver, smelling the barrell before placing it on the desk, then searched through the papers in the drawers.

  Kate knelt down to check Norrell's pulse again. 'He might be badly hurt, Jack.'

  'Be a bonus.'

  'I'm serious. He needs to get to a hospital.'

  Delaney slammed the drawers shut. 'And I need to know who he's working for.' He wasn't sure what it was he was hoping to find, but whatever it was, he hadn't found it. He wasn't surprised, just annoyed.