The Blue Notes

by J. J. Salkeld

  ‘A copper, marra,’ said Pepper, laughing.

  When Rex had gone Pepper asked Henry how Josie was getting on.

  ‘Not great. It’s all been such a shock. But I’m going to see her after work, and I’ll let you know. I feel guilty about testing her out like this though, Pepper.’

  ‘Don’t be. You can do it, and it’s in her own best interest, isn’t it? That girl never even looked over someone’s shoulder in a maths test in primary school, we both know that. So just work it into the conversation. Make a joke of it, maybe. You know, say you might get captured by pirates when we do the raid, or something.’

  ‘Aye, all right. But those Professional Standards tossers better pull their fingers out and find out who it was who went down there and nicked Josie’s phone. You’ve seen the list, so who do you fancy for it, Pepper?’

  ‘Oh no, Henry, I’m not playing that sodding game, and you shouldn’t either. It’ll do your bloody head in, honestly.’

  ‘Well, I’ve had a look, and I’ll tell you who I really fancy for it. The Super.’

  He saw her expression begin to change, and he held up his hand. ‘No, listen for a second. She’s got access to the whole building, and could easily just have been on one of her walkabouts. You know, the ones that make everyone so uncomfortable. That way she’d have the perfect cover, wouldn’t she? Wander around the spot, and if she saw an opportunity then take it. She could have walked into that CCTV room, seen Josie’s phone on the table, and just used it. Simple as. Risky, but simple.’

  ‘No, Henry, thats mad. I know Mary Clark, outside work I mean, and there’s just no way. Why would she? Bloody hell, Henry, she’s just a pen-pusher, when all’s said and done. She wouldn’t know a proper working con if she tripped over one. She never sees any, does she? Honestly, you can just forget that idea, lad. It’s a total non-starter, is that.’

  But when Henry had left Pepper pulled the printout from her bag. It was the one that she wasn’t supposed to have, and it listed everyone who’d been in the building at the time that those automatic lights had been triggered the second time. Mary Clark had arrived at the office just fifteen minutes before, and had left forty minutes after. ‘Regular pattern?’ Pepper wrote next to Mary’s name, in her surprisingly neat, schoolgirl hand. And she knew that if it was the question that she was asking herself, then it would also be the question that Professional Standards would be putting to the Super. Right at this second, maybe. And Pepper smiled, a small, slightly sad smile. ‘Welcome to my world, Mary’, she said, and put the list back in her bag. But there was no time for that now, not really. Because she had an unsanctioned operation to run, one that was to health and safety protocols what a chainsaw is to toes. So she’d better not cock it all up.

  Pepper doubted that Davey Hood would dress up for their meeting, at a pub in the centre of the city, and she was right. But at least he was wearing a shirt, white and stiffly ironed, rather than his working polo shirt. She didn’t know quite why, but for some reason she’d expected him to be there before her, even though she was only a couple of minutes late for once. And so what if Ben would already be back downstairs in the sitting room complaining to the sitter that he couldn’t sleep, and that half an hour on his latest computer game would be the perfect precursor to sleep? It wouldn’t do him any harm, just this once.

  She was still waiting at the bar to be served when Davey walked in, and he smiled when he saw her. He came straight over, and didn’t so much as glance around the room. That seemed out of character somehow. And then she realised why.

  ‘You’ve already been in, haven’t you?’

  ‘Maybe. Aye, force of habit, like.’

  ‘And you watched me arrive, didn’t you?’

  ‘I’m not a stalker, love.’

  Pepper smiled. ‘What can I get you? And I’m glad you’re being cautious, what with the company that you’ve been keeping.’

  ‘I’ll get these. Gin and tonic, isn’t it? Any particular brand?’

  ‘I’m not fussy.’

  ‘All tastes the same, does it? That’s not how it is with beer, I’m glad to say. These days you could drink a different ale for every day of the year.’

  ‘And do you?’

  ‘Pretty much, aye. It’s heavy work, is the piano-shifting job.’

  Hood paid for their drinks, and Pepper chose a table. A bit near the door to the bogs, but well away from anyone else. She sat with her back to the room and Hood smiled.

  ‘Leaving me to keep an eye out?’

  ‘I thought you’d prefer it that way. And I’d be on the look-out too, if I’d been meeting with Dai Young.’

  ‘So that’s what this is about? I saw your lad, down the road, like.’

  ‘Did you?”

  ‘Aye. And I’m not being racist or owt, but black guys do stick out a bit up here. You might want to mention it to him, like.’

  ‘I think he’s noticed that, aye.’

  Hood smiled. ‘I expect he has. But I didn’t meet Dai Young. He came looking for me, like. A couple of his lads picked me up from home the other night, and took me to this old shop, so I had to explain to them that I don’t appreciate that kind of shit, and that it had better not happen again.’

  ‘Explain?’

  ‘Aye, explain. I was quite polite, under the circumstances. And they got the picture, I’m sure of it. So Young must have decided to just come out and have a chat with me, like.’

  ‘Don’t tell me. He made you an offer that you couldn’t refuse?’

  Hood smiled again, eyes twinkling like the edge of a sword in the sun. ‘Aye, something like that. And he reckons I can’t refuse, I dare say that.’

  Pepper took a sip from her drink. ‘What does he want you to do? If you take his offer, I mean.’

  Hood shrugged. ‘He wasn’t specific. But it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t work for the likes of him, no matter what he wanted doing, or what he was paying. There are some things that are just wrong, aren’t there? Not legal wrong, but really wrong. You know what I mean?’

  ‘I do, aye.’

  ‘And people like Young are just parasites. There’s no value to him at all. He’s not a soldier, he’s not even an assassin. He’s just a bully, preying on the weak and the defenceless. And I bloody hate that, I do.’

  ‘Don’t underestimate him, Davey.’

  ‘I won’t. But you believe me, don’t you? I’m not working for Dai Young, no matter what your boyfriend might think.’

  ‘He’s not my boyfriend’, Pepper said, a little too quickly, and smiled when she caught the expression on Hood’s face. She’d been busted, as Ben would say. ’You’re a surprisingly sly bastard, Davey.’

  ‘Aye, that has been said about me before, like.’

  Saturday, 18th April

  Maryport harbour, 7.09am

  Pepper Wilson knocked, and walked into the control room of the smart new Coastguard building. Pete Clark was waiting for her, and held out a mug of coffee.

  ‘Any movement?’ she asked. ‘It’s that one, isn’t it?’ She pointed at a blue and rust-coloured fishing boat tied up against the harbour wall.

  ‘Aye, that’s the one. They’ll be away in an hour or so, at high water. All three are onboard, and have been since six. They’ll be on deck soon. Like I said on the phone, they’ll be stowing their gear and having breakfast at present. That’d be favourite, like.’

  ‘All right, good. And no-one else is about? They haven’t got a bad guys’ babysitter somewhere about the place?’

  ‘No. I’ve had a drive round, twice actually, and there’s nothing suspicious. Not unless they’ve got a bloody drone up, or something.’

  Pepper laughed. ‘Blimey, Pete. This is Cumbrian cons we’re up against. The most you’d expect to see is two blokes in a Transit. And anyway, it’s too windy for a drone. Put one up here and it’d be crashing in Cockermouth in about five minutes. All right, I’ll call my lads, and we’ll take them now.’

  ‘So what’s the craic, like?’r />
  ‘Simple. We walk round the dock, and go straight down the ladder. You keep an eye out, make sure that nothing hits the water. I’ll give you a shout when we’ve got the boat secure, and then would you give us a hand to do the search?’

  ‘Aye, I will. Do we have any idea what kind of size the contraband is? I expect you’ve got the sniffer dog on the way too?’

  ‘Fido? No, why?’

  ‘I thought this was a drugs bust?’

  ‘Did I say drugs before? No, I don’t think it’s drugs we’ll find. Not this time, like.’

  ‘But….’

  Pepper held up her hand, because she was already on the phone.

  ‘We’re on. Let’s go.’ She rang off, put down her coffee, and made for the door. She didn’t have Pete down as a jobsworth, although his new gig did look very much like a cushy number to her.

  The car was waiting for her, engine running, and she climbed in the back. There was no need to go racing round the dock, so Rex drove slowly round the harbour road, and stopped alongside the fishing boat before the target.

  ‘Remind me’, said Henry as he opened his door, ‘which one is starboard again?’

  ‘Just don’t you bloody fall in’ said Pepper, ‘although I should be more worried about Rex.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because he’d drown in a puddle, poor little lad.’

  ‘I am here, you know.’

  ‘I know’, said Pepper. ‘Game faces now, lads. Three of them, and three of us. Be ready, like.’

  Pepper climbed down the steps first, being careful with her footing, and the other two followed her. An older man glanced through the wheelhouse window, and came to the door. He didn’t look particularly concerned, even when Pepper badged him, and introduced Rex and Henry.

  ‘You know it’s unlucky?’ the man said, ‘having a woman on the boat.’

  ‘Not for me, it’s not.’

  ‘You’ll be searching, I expect.’

  ‘Aye, that’s right. So let’s be having your shipmates up here on deck, shall we?’

  The two younger men stepped out of the wheelhouse, one holding a piece of toast, and stood next to their skipper. It didn’t look like any of them had any intention of putting up a fight, so Pepper took a chance. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘you all know what’s coming next. We tear this boat apart, we put in the sniffer dogs, send the divers down, go through your finances, question your families at their local nick, the lot. We’ll find what we’re looking for sooner or later. We all know that, don’t we?’

  She saw the reaction when she mentioned their families. This was going to be almost too easy. She hoped that Rex and Henry would watch, and learn. ‘So here it is. Let’s make it sooner, yeah? Save the poor old taxpayer a few quid, and tell us where that package is. And so long as none of your prints or DNA are on the contents I, for one, am willing to believe that you’ve really got no idea about what’s inside. That’s right, isn’t it?’

  ‘Aye’, said the skipper, immediately.

  ‘Good. All right, then, here’s how we’ll play it. You, Captain, take my colleague DC Copeland here to retrieve the package, and then it bring it back up here, OK?’

  Copeland followed the skipper into the wheelhouse and out of sight. There was a gusty wind, and Pepper could feel the engine throbbing through the deck, and could smell the diesel on the air. She and Pepper stood facing the two crewmen in silence. But then there wasn’t much to be said, really. Depending on what was stowed below they might be looking anything from a suspended sentence to five years. And that was a lot of sunsets out over the sea.

  But the crew didn’t have too long to brood, because the skipper carried out a large black plastic case in both arms, and put it down on the deck in front of Pepper.

  ‘Open it, please’ she said, and glanced at Rex. It was against all the rules, but she needed to know what they were dealing with. The skipper flicked the clips and swung open the lid, then stood back. All Pepper could see was grey foam. Henry stepped forward before she could say anything, and pulled off the neat-fitting layer of protective material. There were four semi-automatic weapons, partly disassembled, neatly stowed beneath.

  ‘All right, gents, you’re nicked, obviously. Henry, escort the three amigos here to the Coastguard office, and Rex, get on to firearms would you? They’re going to bloody love this little lot.’

  Half an hour later there were police vehicles that Pepper didn’t even recognise parked all along the harbour wall, disgorging officers of all ranks. If the Chief himself had been ushered out of one of them, surrounded by fawning Superintendents, she wouldn’t have been at all surprised. But she had her story straight in her head, and she stuck to it.

  ‘I was just as surprised as anyone, boss’, she’d said to the ACC Ops when he’d arrived, ‘or we never would have gone in three up like that. It would have been plain bloody reckless, would that.’

  Henry and Rex said much the same, when the ACC asked them about what they knew, although Henry added that he did have some further information to impart.

  ‘Go on then, son, I’ll not bite you.’

  ‘It’s about the ongoing investigation by Professional Standards, sir.’

  ‘Oh, aye? And how would that be connected to this carry on?’

  ‘Just that we know that these guns are linked to organised crime, and to Dai Young.’

  ‘Do we? I thought the crew of the boat said they didn’t know who the consignment of guns came from?’

  ‘They are saying that, sir, but Pepper’s snout told her…’

  ‘I know what the informant said. All right, so what’s your point, son?’

  ‘Just that we made the arrest this morning, no bother. The guns were just where we expected them to be. Well, exactly where we expected something to be, anyway.’

  ‘Are you looking for a commendation?’

  ‘No, sir. All I mean is that I told Josie Taylor, who’s currently bailed on suspicion of supplying information to Dai Young, yet he didn’t find out about this raid, did he?’

  ‘You told a civilian that this raid was planned?’

  ‘I did, sir. Because I knew that Josie hadn’t been abusing her position. This proves it.’

  Henry wasn’t sure if the ACC was impressed, or angry. And it wasn’t long until he found out.

  ‘You’ve overstepped the mark here, DC Armstrong. If this wasn’t such a good result for all of us I’d have you suspended, right now. But with the way things are that’s what would make the news, and no doubt it would start yet more rumours about police corruption circulating, so I won’t. But take my advice, son. Don’t think of Pepper Wilson as any kind of example, or a role model, because she most definitely is not that. The chances of her staying in the force until she retires are pretty much nil, I’d say. Because officers like that are always just that bit too close to the line. And you know what’s on the other side of that line, don’t you, son?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘A bloody great cliff, with a crumbling edge and quicksand at the bottom. Great big spikes sticking up too, I wouldn’t wonder. That’s what’s on the other side of the line, son.’

  By the time Pepper’s shift was over she was sure that the arrest and seizure of the weapons had been modestly career-enhancing for her, because she’d had a personal email to that effect from the Chief himself. And a good thing too, because only about ten minutes later she’d taken a call from the Superintendent in charge of the intelligence unit, almost deranged with fury, and complaining colourfully about the fact that Pepper had flouted every rule in the bloody book, going in like that. She’d listened in silence, which should have told him something, and then replied that she’d forward the email that she’d just received from the Chief. She’d done so, and the bloke hadn’t called back. It was almost enough to make her think about partaking in a bit of office politics in future.

  As Pepper walked home she noticed that the wind had died away, or maybe it was still blowing out beyond the harbour wall in
Maryport, and it was nice late afternoon, almost warm. She felt the tension leaving her muscles like a withdrawing tide as she walked, and it felt good. But when she saw the figure leaning on the car outside her house she was instantly ready, for fight or for flight. And, realistically, it could only ever be the former.

  ‘Evening, Pepper.’

  ‘Dai.’

  ‘Aren’t you going to ask me in?’

  ‘Fuck off. What do you want?’

  ‘Just a chat, that’s all.’

  ‘Then make an appointment, and come in to the station.’

  ‘You don’t want to hear what I’ve got to say?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Shame. It’s about Linda.’

  ‘You what?’

  ‘Linda Taylor. You remember her, don’t you?’

  ‘From school, aye.’

  ‘No, Pepper, not from school. We both know better than that, don’t we?’

  ‘Do we?’

  ‘Aye, we do, love. And we both also know that your little bit of piracy this morning was down to a tip-off from Linda.’

  ‘Bollocks. You’re talking out of your arse.’

  Young stood upright, and reached into his pocket for his car keys.

  ‘Have it your own way, Pepper. But from what I hear on the street the word is out on Linda, so you might want to let her know that. Not that it’ll help much, I expect. I’m no grass, as you know, but I thought you’d want to know that. Since you’re so close, like. The way I hear it the orders have come down from the people who matter, and what they’re saying is that the locals have been too soft. Much too soft. That’s how this happened, they reckon. So there’s going to be action taken. Not against you or yours, because coppers are still off limits. For now, anyway. But I thought you’d want to know about Linda, that’s all.’