Rex did tell her, and Pepper didn’t interrupt. When her personal mobile rang she sent the call to voice mail without even looking at it.
‘So you’re worried about a honey trap, is that it? After what happened down in that London, I suppose?’
‘Pretty young black woman picks me out to talk to, Pepper. Come on, what are the chances?’
‘You didn’t say she was pretty before.’
‘Didn’t I? Well, she is.’
Pepper tried not to smile, and failed. Maybe she hadn’t tried all that hard.
‘You asked her why she’d approached you, specifically?’
‘Yeah. She said she saw me in a club the other week, and that one of her mates knew my name, and what I do for a job.’
‘Did you believe her?’
‘It’s possible. I’ve been to the club she said she saw me in, anyway.’
‘OK, and how about her story?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t nicked Lenny. Does it all sound likely to you? You’d have to be a right shit to do that to your girlfriend, if what she’s telling me is true.’
Pepper laughed.
‘Likely? That’s Lenny to a T, is that. He’d sell his grandmother’s ashes, and she’s not even dead yet, mind. So, aye, it all sounds perfectly plausible. He’s a nice enough looking lad, I suppose, and he’s always been a bit of a charmer. Harmless too, except for the company he keeps.’
‘So he’s not violent?’
‘No, but he’s like the lot of them, he knows plenty who are. He’ll know a dozen people who’d put this girl in hospital for fifty quid, or a couple of wraps. Is she living with him, this Kelly lass?’
‘Aye, that’s what she says.’
‘All right. Look, Rex, I see what you’re worried about. That you’ve been profiled by the bad guys, and now they’re trying to suck you in to something. Well, you can forget about that. We’ll both note this conversation, and we will act on any information received, just as we would with any other tip from a member of the public, OK?’
‘All right.’
‘So your concerns are noted, Rex. But look on the bright side. We might end up nicking Lenny, and he’s due a decent stretch if he goes away again, and that just has to be a good thing.’
‘Even if it does let Dai Young take over Lenny’s turf?’
‘Aye, even then. All we can do is to nick all and any of these thieving bastards whenever we get the chance, Rex. We can’t pick and choose. Sometimes I feel like a punch-drunk prize fighter, just taking on all comers, hitting through the blood at anyone I can still reach. Eventually I’ll probably just collapse and die in the ring, and then it’ll all be someone else’s problem. But what choice have we got, love? If we don’t nick these bastards then who will, eh?’
Ten minutes later Henry was driving Pepper to Mrs. Hood’s house, a slab-sided ‘60s semi to the west of the city centre. It looked as if she’d lived in the place since new, and Pepper could just imagine a Ford Escort parked in the drive, and the young Davey kicking a football around in the back garden with his dad. But suddenly she pictured Ben instead, and realised that she only wanted the same for him. It wasn’t much to ask. But right now Sandy’s white van was in the drive, and the back garden would be empty and summer-still, she was sure of that.
Henry went to knock on the door, but it was already open, and the locks had been removed. Sandy Smith was leaning against a work top in the small blue and white kitchen. Pepper vaguely remembered her parents having one like it when she was a kid, and how bloody horrible it had been, while Henry saw it and thought how funky it looked.
‘He waited behind the door for her, the bastard’, said Sandy, when they came in. ‘Mrs. Hood turned on the hall light, and came in here to make her evening cocoa, or whatever. She wouldn’t have seen or heard him.’
‘Any physical evidence?’
‘Sod all. Your man didn’t make any proper effort to search the place. I’d say he just nipped upstairs and chucked a bit of stuff around. You know, just for the look of it. Nothing systematic, nothing properly examined.’
Pepper nodded. It had been Dai Young all right. ‘Prints?’
‘Nothing obvious, no, and we’ve not got the budget to do the full monty, like. I’ve checked the usual areas, around the door lock, in here, the drawers upstairs, but there’s nowt.’
‘You’ve had the locks removed, I see.’
‘Aye. The duty locksmith is coming round here to fit some nice new ones. On us, like. I want to get the ones that your man might have picked on the bench.’
‘Why?’
‘See if it was a brute force and ignorance job, or whether he’s got the touch, like. At first glance it looks like he knew exactly what he was doing, but we’ll see. You just don’t see nice, neat jobs like that any more, more’s the pity. These days it’s usually a brick through the window, glass all over the Axminster, and in we go.’
‘How long would it take someone with decent skills to get those locks open?’
‘Seconds, I’d say. I’ve been on a course, back in the day, and I reckon I could still get through those two old locks in thirty seconds, maybe a minute. Even so, I’m not sure why your bloke bothered. A strong breeze would have blown that front door of its hinges. Even a lanky streak of piss like Henry here could have done it. But not if….’
‘..our man didn’t want anyone to know he was waiting inside?’ said Pepper. ‘Aye, I agree. He wanted to jump Mrs. Hood, that’s obvious. But why go to all that trouble and then just wing the old dear? Not that I’m complaining, like.’
‘He was disturbed, maybe?’ said Sandy.
‘No. Not so far as we know. No wits have come forward, anyway.’
‘You want me to knock up the neighbours again?’ asked Henry, after a moment.
‘Aye, and I’ll pitch in. By the way, Henry, have we got anyone else on the books who picks locks? Did you check?’
‘Aye, I did. No-one active. Like Sandy says, the brick through the window is the key of choice for most of our cons.’
‘How about creepers? Cons who break in, just for the craic?’
‘Only one, Terry Cross.’
‘Oh, aye, that slimy bastard. Haven’t seen him for a while, the horrible little shit.’
‘He’s doing five at present, that’s why. Only six months in. And no, Pepper, before you ask he’s not in a bloody holiday camp. He’s doing proper bird, this time. No day release, nowt like that.’
‘Glad to hear it. That just leaves one candidate then, doesn’t it? So let’s chat to the neighbours, and if none of them saw anything let’s go and talk to Dai. And Sandy, you’ll let us know what the locks tell you, if anything?’
Most of the neighbours who were in through the day knew Mrs. Hood, and they were all about her age. It was as if a busload of widows had been dropped into the street years before, and each had been told to pick a house. All but one had seen nothing, but Mrs. Ransome, who lived almost immediately opposite, said she’d run out of milk the previous evening, and had gone to the corner shop soon before it closed at ten.
‘Tell the truth, love,’ she said to Pepper as she poured the tea, ‘I hadn’t run out of milk at all. Well, you mustn’t lie to a police officer, must you?’
‘That’s right. So did you not go to the shop at all then?’
‘I did.’
‘So did you not buy milk?’
‘Oh, aye, love. It’s in that tea you’re drinking.’ She said it with a hint of triumphalism in her voice.
Now Pepper was confused. ‘So you had run out of milk then, had you?’
‘No, love. That’s the thing. I would have run out this morning. I only went to the shop because I’d not spoken to a soul all day. I just wanted a little chat while I paid for my milk, like.’
‘I see. But you did go out?’ The old lady nodded. ‘And what time was this?’
‘About quarter to ten. The shop closes at ten and, like I say, I fancied a bit of a natter.’
‘And
when did you see this man? On your way out, or on your way back?’
‘On my way back.’
‘And did you recognise him?’
‘I just thought it was Davey. He’s a lovely lad, is Davey. So I called out, like.’
‘And what did he do?’
‘He just went inside. I thought he hadn’t heard me, like.’
‘Did you see his face?’
‘No.’
‘And are you sure it was Davey Hood?’
The old lady thought about it. ‘You know I’m not absolutely sure that it was Davey, now you come to mention it. I just assumed, I suppose. And it was quite dark. I’m sorry not to be of more use, love.’
‘No, you’re doing really well. Can you remember what this man was wearing?’
‘No, not really. Dark clothes, I think.’
‘And how about a vehicle? Any unusual cars, or vans, in the street?’
‘Not really, no. My Paul always did the driving, you see.’
‘Not to worry, love. One other question. When the man went up to the house were any lights on inside?’
‘I don’t think so, no.’
‘And when the man went in, did he turn the hall light on?’
‘No. Funny you should ask that. It’s odd, isn’t it? But he didn’t turn the hall light on, I’m certain of that.’
Henry didn’t even bother to ask where they were going when he and Pepper were back in the car.
‘Shall I call for back-up?’ he asked, before he started the engine.
‘No, don’t bother. It would take forever, and the Duty Inspector would ask all sorts of daft bloody questions. He does a full risk assessment before he takes a dump, does that bloke.’
Henry laughed. ‘Are you sure about this, Pepper? You’re the one who’s always saying that Dai Young is a total psycho.’
‘Don’t worry, Henry. We’re only going to his office, aren’t we? It’s broad daylight, and there will be loads of witnesses. He won’t take a pop at us.’
‘What if he just loses it, like?’
‘No way, I promise. There’ll be no trouble at all, you just watch.’
Pepper led the way up the steps from the street to Young’s first floor offices. Henry was sure that the receptionist recognised them as coppers from the moment that the door swung open, but she still did her best to look surprised when Pepper said who they were, and who it was that they wanted to see.
‘Mr. Young is in a meeting, I’m afraid.’
‘Tell him it’s over. Corner office, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, but….’
Pepper crossed the floor fast, with Henry two steps behind. She had just raised her hand to knock on Young’s closed door when it opened fast and a fat man, in a suit that had last fitted him many meals before, almost fell out.
‘Good,’ said Pepper as she walked in, ‘I’m glad we’re not interrupting anything.’
‘Only me bringing new jobs to the city, that’s all.’
‘You? Jobs? The only jobs you’d bring are the ones that come with a crime reference number attached.’
Young was sitting, shirtsleeves rolled up, and he glanced at Henry, playing offended.
‘You hear that, DC Armstrong. That’s libel, that is.’
‘It’s slander,’ said Pepper. ‘Or it would be, if it it wasn’t true. And it’s your work, if you can call it that, we’ve come to talk to you about.’
Pepper sat down, unbidden, and Henry followed suit, even though it felt slightly wrong. But he would have looked a proper prat if he’d remained standing.
‘You were seen, love’, she said, looking hard at Young.
Young smiled, slowly. ‘Go on, I’ll bite. Where was I seen? Coming out of some supermodel’s hotel suite at 4am again, was it?’
Pepper told him the address, and the time.
‘Sorry, love, but you’ve lost me completely there. That’s not one of my properties, one of my rentals, and I certainly wouldn’t live round there. It’s where poor people live, is that.’
‘We would have dreamed of living in a nice suburban road like that, when we were kids.’
‘Aye, well we’re not kids now, are we, love? I know you live in the bloody past, but I don’t. I’m all about the future, me.’
‘No, it was you, Dai. Not a doubt in my mind. Picking the door locks, that’s what you were doing when you were spotted. Then you went inside, and you just waited in the dark. Waited to beat down an old lady like the sick bastard you are.’
Young’s smile didn’t so much fade as go straight out.
‘Bollocks. If you had any sort of evidence, anything at all, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You’d have sent the goon squad in here, the piss and vinegar boys, and they’d be waving their guns about and shouting. I wouldn’t blame them, neither, because I’ve got a stapler in my desk drawer here, and it’s got a full magazine, like.’
‘We know it was you, Dai.’
Young looked straight and hard and Henry, who forced himself to meet Dai’s gaze.
‘You believe this load of total bollocks, do you, lad?’
‘Well, I….’
‘Thought not. She’s just obsessed, your boss. Christ, it was only the other week that she was trying to say that I’d threatened her boy, or some shit like that. And we all know that could have been anyone, like.’
‘But it was you.’ Pepper’s voice was quiet, but firm.
‘Where’s your evidence? And I’ll tell you what, Pepper. If I did want to hurt your lad, maybe do the sort of damage that could never be undone, then I’d not give a warning. I’d just bide my time, and then I’d make sure it looked like an accident. Just one of those things, like. And no-one would ever know, just you and me, love. But that’s all as would need to know, isn’t it? The boy would be crippled, or blind, or brain-damaged, and only we’d know why it had really happened. There’s fate, love, and then there’s me.’
Henry was so surprised that he couldn’t speak, just for a moment, and by the time his mouth started to form a word it was already too late. Somehow Pepper had launched herself from a sitting position straight across the desk, and her hands grasped for Young’s face. Afterwards Henry couldn’t remember for certain, because his head was hurting so much, but he was almost sure that Young was smiling, or maybe grimacing, as Pepper’s outstretched hands reached out for his face.
Young’s chair shot backwards, then toppled sideways, and by the time Henry was out of his own chair and kicking Young’s out of his way Dai already had his forearm on Pepper’s throat. Henry’s shoulder went in hard, and caught Young full in the chest. His head snapped back, and bounced off the radiator under the window. Then Henry was briefly aware of a roaring noise, close and loud, before Young came at him. He barely saw the fists, but he certainly felt them, his own arms up around his head now, in the last few moments before he blacked out.
When Henry came round Pepper was standing over him. She was speaking, he could see that, but for a moment all he could hear was a rushing sound in his ears, like a stormy sea on shingle.
‘What? I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a bump on the head.’
He tried to sit up, and knew that he was going to be sick before he was even half way there. Young’s wastepaper basket was on its side, just out of reach, but Henry was still sick in that general direction.
‘For fuck’s sake’ he heard Young say, and then saw him, standing near the door.
‘Shut it’, said Pepper. ‘You’re nicked, you bastard.’
‘Oh, aye. What for?’
‘Assaulting a police officer, of course. Christ, you could have killed him.’
‘Fuck off, Pepper. It was self-defence, was that.’
‘Bollocks, and it’ll be our word against yours, won’t it?’
Young laughed, loudly, and shouted the name of one of his staff. She came in quickly, and tried to avoid looking at Henry, still slumped against the wall, with sick on his trousers.
‘Run off a copy of the recordi
ng for these officers, would you, love?’
‘What recording?’ said Pepper, before she turned, looked up at the corner of the ceiling behind her, and had her answer. There was the camera. ‘It doesn’t matter, Dai. You still beat the shit out of the lad.’
‘I did, aye, and he’s lucky it’s not a lot worse. So nick me for it, if you want. But I’ll be right interested to see what my brief makes of what came before, like. Anyway, son, can you hear me?’
Henry said he could, then retched again.
‘Good. Now, do you want me nicked, son? And try to answer without making even more of a mess of my carpet.’
‘No. No, I don’t want you nicked.’
‘All right, and do you need an ambulance, or are you going to get up and walk out of here like a man?’
Henry tried to get up, but couldn’t.
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake’, said Young, moving towards him. Instinctively Henry lifted his arms to protect his face, but just felt strong hands under his armpits, hauling him upright. Then he stood, unsteadily, and turned towards the door. Pepper caught him before he fell, and helped him to a chair.
‘It’s not his decision. You’re fucking nicked,’ she said.
‘Have it your own way, love, but I really do wonder what your bosses will make of the tape. The TV channels too, come to that. And your lad had a go at me too, didn’t he? So it was self defence, what I did. It’ll all be on the tape, like.’
‘He’s right, Pepper,’ said Henry, tasting the blood in his mouth, and feeling the sharp stump of a shattered tooth with his tongue. ‘Let’s not give him the satisfaction. Come on, let’s get out of here. His time will come.’
‘All of our times will come, son. Even the children’s, in the end, like.’
Half an hour later they were at Henry Armstrong’s dad’s house in Keswick, and Pepper helped Henry up to his room so that he could get changed, and have a lie down. He was up and about, and wearing his old walking clothes when his dad returned from surgery. The two men made for the doctor’s study, and Pepper knew that Henry was in for both a physical check-up and a verbal cross-examination.
The Amen Cadence Page 4