by Nick Oldham
‘I’ll be fine – and get that alarm switched off.’
The sergeant nodded and bent to deal with the slashed PC.
Henry placed his radio upright on the custody desk, leaned nonchalantly against the desk itself and regarded Nevison and the hostage through calculating eyes, the glimmer of a smile not far away from his lips.
Nevison looked Henry in the eye and sneered down the bridge of his large bent nose at him.
Standoff.
The din of the alarm subsided, leaving a nagging echo battering round the walls.
‘OK, Kit, what’s all this about?’ Henry asked evenly. His eyes did not acknowledge the woman even though he was agonisingly aware she was staring pleadingly at him. He did not engage her eyes because he did not want to give her any false hope in a reassuring look. Not very long ago he had faced a similar situation and the woman had died. He had learned his lesson the hardest way possible, and was focused exclusively on Nevison.
‘It’s about life and death,’ Nevison responded with a growl. He grinned stupidly. Henry tried not to blink as he realised Nevison had completely lost it. ‘I want to slit this cunt’s throat and saw her fucking head off . . . because I want to and you are not going to stop me and if you try I’ll cut you to fucking pieces.’
Ah well, that’s cleared that up nicely, Henry thought. Nevison wants to kill someone. His life had reached the point of no return – as Henry had suspected it would one day – and unless he could be talked down, this little scenario was probably going to end with more blood spilled on the custody office floor than usual.
‘Now, come on, Kit, you know that’s not the way to talk,’ Henry said smoothly. ‘There’s no profit in that, not for anyone – you, me, her – everyone’ll suffer and it doesn’t have to be that way.’
‘Really, pig bastard?’ Nevison twisted the point of the blade into the woman’s neck. She gasped and squealed. Nevison’s large dirty hand clamped over her nose and mouth, stifling the noise, almost suffocating her. She was on the point of collapse.
Henry quickly raised his hands, palms out. ‘Whoa. Hold on, Kit,’ he said, probably too quickly, betraying his anxiety. ‘Let’s take a step back from this . . . Think what you’re doing, Kit.’ Henry’s mind galloped, because he wasn’t a hundred per cent sure what he was doing either: the words just babbled out as he played for some time and a possible advantage. ‘Come on, man, come on . . . cool it . . . ease off.’ He was working out the distance between himself and Nevison, estimating whether he could reach the woman before she got carved and her jugular sliced open. Henry had a dreadful image of himself and Nevison fighting, slopping and sliding around in her blood. If he moved, it would have to be fast, hard and decisive.
Over Nevison’s right shoulder, Henry caught a movement in the periphery of his vision at the door which led down to the cells. He did not allow his eyes to flicker or register anything to alert Nevison. He concentrated on him.
A uniformed sergeant – whom Henry did not know – appeared from the cell corridor. He had a small aerosol-like canister in his right hand: CS spray. Generally, but wrongly known as CS gas. It wasn’t a gas at all.
Henry forced himself to relax.
‘OK, Kit. You want to kill someone – fine. But you’ve hurt someone here –’ he pointed to the woman solicitor – ‘who’s done you no harm whatsoever. If you need to kill someone, why don’t you make it somebody who’s wronged you? Hmm? I suggest you let her go . . .’ he carried on speaking as the sergeant crept into the custody office from the cell corridor, ‘and take me instead. I’ve done you damage, haven’t I? I’ll bet I’ve arrested you at least four times in the past, if not more . . .’ Behind Nevison, the sergeant slithered silently forwards, CS at the ready. Henry continued to talk, desperately trying to keep Nevison’s attention. ‘I’ll bet I’ve sent you to prison at least three times . . . and I know I’ve had to thump you before now . . . this is your opportunity to get one back on some bastard who really deserves it.’ Henry opened his hands dramatically. ‘Me.’
On Henry’s final word, the sergeant screamed, ‘Kit!’ from behind.
Nevison’s head spun round and the sergeant aimed the CS canister at Nevison’s face, pressed his thumb down on the discharge button and the CS solution sprayed out full into the centre of Nevison’s face. Nevison screamed as the CS took instantaneous effect as he inhaled and the sensory receptors in his skin, eyes and lining membranes of his nose, mouth, upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tracks burned fiercely as if in contact with acid.
Henry moved in from the front, ducking to avoid any excess CS, and grabbed Nevison’s knife hand – the right – forcing it away from the woman. She staggered out of Nevison’s grasp and crashed down onto her knees on the hard, tiled floor. Henry stepped over her, taking hold of Nevison’s right forearm with both hands and driving all his body weight into the prisoner’s chest, bowling him over. He landed on top of Nevison, forcing his arm upwards, squeezing his wrist with all his strength in an effort to get him to release the knife, whacking the back of Nevison’s hand repeatedly against the floor.
All the while Nevison writhed in agony and anger. The pain of the CS had deranged him more rather than subduing him. With an animal-like roar and a surge of strength he heaved Henry off him – though Henry managed to keep hold of his knife hand, refusing to let that go. Even though Nevison could not possibly breathe or see properly, he punched and kicked Henry, who held on as grimly as a pit bull terrier.
There was a ‘crack’: the sound of a side-handled baton being extended, then a ‘swish’ like a whip as the sergeant smashed his baton down across Nevison’s head, narrowly missing Henry. There was no time for niceties, such as aiming for muscle, or the areas of the body less likely to suffer severe damage. He deliberately went for Nevison’s head because the man had to be stopped – and stopped good.
And stopped he was.
The blow had the desired effect: it knocked Nevison senseless. He went limp and ceased to struggle. The fingers of his knife hand curled open and Henry scooped it up and got to his feet. He caught his breath from the brief but intense exertion, standing doubled over, hands on hips. Raising his eyebrows, he looked up at the sergeant and gave a short nod. ‘Well done,’ he acknowledged. ‘Don’t think we’ve had the pleasure . . . Henry Christie.’ Henry reached across the prostrate body of Kit Nevison and shook hands with the sergeant.
‘Dermot Byrne,’ the sergeant introduced himself. ‘Me and my shift are on nights with you this week. Welcome back.’
‘Thanks,’ Henry said dubiously.
Simultaneously they looked down at the subdued prisoner. Blood pumped through a gaping split in his temple by the hair line. He moaned, his eyes flickered showing yellowy, bloodshot whites. He was alive, if not quite kicking.
‘Nice to be back,’ Henry mused dully. ‘Better get him trussed up and taken to casualty.’ He turned to the woman solicitor, now up on her knees, still groggy and disorientated by her ordeal. Henry assisted her. ‘You OK?’
Plainly she was not. ‘Thanks . . . thanks . . .’ she mumbled a little incoherently, holding her neck. Blood trickled from the cut.
‘We’ll get you to hospital too.’
‘Thanks . . . thanks,’ she continued to say.
Henry checked his watch. 6.15 p.m. Only fifteen short minutes into the twelve-hour shift. He just hoped the rest of the night wasn’t going to be quite so fraught.
Two
Once the shakes had stopped and after his jangled nerves had settled, Henry made his way to the CID office. For many years it had been a sanctuary, his comfort zone. Now, as he passed through the door, in uniform, he felt strange and unsettled. Like an intruder.
The office, with one exception, was devoid of personnel. Desks were unmanned and had been left untidy: papers and files were stacked up or scattered about as though the ‘big one’ had come in and everyone, with that one exception, had rushed to it.
Maybe they had.
Henry cast hi
s mind back to the detectives he had seen earlier tearing out of the garage.
The one detective remaining in the office had his back to the door and was hunched busily over something at his desk. Henry walked towards him and tapped him on the shoulder. Anyone else would perhaps have been startled, but not the slightly slow-witted Dave Seymour. He turned ponderously at the touch, giving Henry a view of what Seymour was working on. It was, unsurprisingly, a donner kebab, everything on – chilli sauce, lemon juice, salad – and lots falling off.
‘Fuckin’ hell, Henry,’ Seymour said, munching a mouthful of the dubious meat, chilli sauce trickling down his cheek. He finished the mouthful and wiped his lips clean, using a piece of the toilet roll on his desk. Seymour, a man of not inconsequential bulk, was one of the longest-serving detective constables in the division, now only three pay cheques away from retirement. It would probably be not one of the most significant losses to the service when he started to draw his pension, but despite his myriad faults – sloth, greed, envy, arrogance among them – Henry had a bit of a soft spot for Seymour, but rarely allowed it to show.
Seymour positioned the kebab carefully on his desk jotter and drew his head back slightly to allow his eyes to take in the sight of his ex-boss in uniform. Henry let him gawk. People were accustomed to seeing him in plain clothes. The spectacle of him in uniform was something they would need time to adjust to.
Seymour’s eyes narrowed. ‘Suits you,’ he said diplomatically.
‘Cheers.’
‘Actually, I tell a lie – you look bloody weird.’ Seymour shook his head. ‘Anyhow – at least you’re back at work, albeit . . .’ He struggled to find the words to express his thoughts.
‘In uniform?’ Henry suggested.
‘Mmm,’ Seymour murmured doubtfully. He took a long swig from the can of cola on his desk.
‘Anyway,’ Henry said briskly, deciding to get into gear, ‘one of my first jobs is to run an ID parade. I wanted a bit of background. Burt Norman said something about the Khans and the Costains. Can you fill me in?’ Henry shrugged and opened his arms, inviting Seymour to speak.
‘Yeah . . . the Khans and the Costains.’ He lifted one cheek of his backside off his chair, screwed his face painfully, and expelled a slow fart. ‘Been at each other’s throats all bloody weekend.’
There had been a series of skirmishes throughout the weekend between the two factions, Seymour explained to Henry. The culmination was a violent confrontation just after midnight on Sunday on a piece of waste ground near to a poorly run nightclub not far away from the main bus station in Blackpool centre.
More often than not such inter-gang conflicts do not involve the police. But things take on a very serious complexion when someone ends up in hospital with a fractured skull, broken cheekbones, a cracked jaw, a face mashed to a gory unrecognisable mush, broken arms, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and testicles the colour, size and consistency of peeled plum tomatoes, being kept barely alive by a machine and with brain scans that did not bode well. In cases like that, the law cannot help but become involved. At the very least it was attempted murder.
That was the basic scenario as sketched out by Seymour.
‘Who’s in hospital?’
‘Mo Khan.’
Henry raised his eyebrows and gave a short whistle. Khan was the head of a tightly knit Asian family and had a range of businesses operating in Lancashire, such as grocery shops, newsagents and taxi firms. Henry knew Khan well. He was a dangerous, violent individual who had a nefarious underbelly to his legitimacy: drugs, prostitution and importing illegal aliens from the Indian subcontinent, the latter line having become the most profitable of them all.
Khan was supported by four sons, their ages ranging from late teens to early thirties. Henry knew Khan had a daughter too but, like her mother, she rarely saw the light of day.
It was pretty unusual for Mo Khan to be caught out on the streets.
‘What was it all about?’ Henry asked.
‘Dunno.’ Seymour shrugged, a little agitated now because his kebab was starting to go cold. ‘Same old crap, I expect,’ he explained, and picked up his delicacy. ‘Drugs, turf . . . love, even.’
Henry also knew the Costain family very well. Blackpool toe rags born and bred, though they proclaimed themselves – rightly – to be descended from Romany gypsies. Generations of them had lived on the same council estate for years, which they terrorised constantly. They made their living from drawing the maximum amount of state benefits, coupled with burglary, theft, deceptions, low-level drug dealing and protection by intimidation. The big problem they faced was that when the Khan family took over the general store on the estate, they had refused to be intimidated by the Costains. This resulted in numerous incidents over the last two years, usually between Khan’s sons and the younger end of the Costain tribe.
Though racism did play a part in the scheme of things, the main reason for their conflict was that in the eyes of the Costains, the Khan family were not showing them due respect. Often the Khans outmanoeuvred and belittled the Costains – who were not very large in the brain department – and these humiliations only served to fuel a bitter hatred.
It had been an escalating situation observed carefully by the police – and now, apparently, it had got out of hand.
Henry did not relish dealing with either family. They both despised the police.
‘Drugs, turf and love?’ Henry repeated. ‘What do you mean, love?’
‘There is some suggestion,’ Seymour said through his munchings, ‘that Khan’s daughter has been screwing around with Joey Costain and old man Khan had tried to put an end to the liaison.’ He emptied more cola into his mouth. ‘Real sorta Romeo and Juliet stuff.’ He snorted. ‘Anyway . . . Joey Costain got locked up for the assault on Mo and then said bugger all in the interview . . . it’s unlikely there’ll be any forensic, no weapon has been found, so he’s been bailed and it’s ID parade time and it’s over to you uniforms.’
Seymour smirked. Henry smirked back.
‘Who’s the witness?’
‘Ah well, that’s part of the problem . . . it’s Mo Khan’s daughter, Naseema . . . not a bad-looking bird for a Paki, actually.’
Henry flinched and stifled an uncomfortable cough. He looked round quickly to see if anyone had overheard Seymour’s offensive remark. The coast was clear. Henry’s unease was because the use of derogatory terms such as ‘Paki’ were a definite no-no in the police these days. It was considered to be an outright racist term and managers were expected to put staff right about such things at the very least. But Henry could not be bothered to tackle it at the moment. He had far too much on his plate and the thought of getting to grips with such a touchy subject on his first day back, his first hour back at that, and probably alienating Seymour at the same time, did not have any appeal. Maybe it was cowardice, but an ally like Seymour in the CID might prove useful – and just at that moment, Henry thought he needed all the friends he could get.
Seymour, unaware of his gaff and Henry’s inner dilemma, checked his watch. ‘She’s due in at seven.’
‘Right, thanks.’
‘And Joey Costain is due to answer his bail at quarter past . . . no doubt with tame brief in tow.’
‘Shit – that was a bit of good planning,’ Henry said sarcastically. ‘Suppose they bump into each other on their way in? If they do, you can kiss the parade bye bye – and the job, too.’
‘Yeah, that’s true.’ Seymour did not seem overly concerned.
‘Who’s the officer in charge?’
‘DI Roscoe.’
Henry blew out a lungful of exasperated breath. ‘Better go and sort it out.’ He turned to leave the office but was stopped in his tracks as the new DI, accompanied by a DS called Mark Evans and two detective constables, bustled purposely in through the door. The DS and the DCs acknowledged Henry with muted embarrassment, their eyes running up and down his uniform. Henry caught Roscoe’s eye, gave a nod and edged quickly out of the offi
ce, feeling very uncomfortable.
As he trotted down the stairs, he realised why he felt like that. It was because of the eyes and expressions of those three jacks, all members of his team not long ago. They all seemed to be looking and sneering at him as though he’d been demoted and was no longer one of them. An outsider. A uniform. Even though he had expected this, it hurt him. Deeply. But what wounded his fragile ego even more was that his place on the branch had been taken by someone like DI Roscoe.
‘Everything’s sorted.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The witness and her brother are waiting in your office – accompanied by a policewoman – all the stooges are in the ID suite being looked after by a couple of lads and I’ll do the scribing for you. The video cameras have all been set up and everything else that you need to know is on this . . . idiot’s guide, if you’ll pardon the expression.’ Sergeant Dermot Byrne handed Henry a laminated A4-size sheet of paper with a blow-by-blow explanation of how to run an identification parade.
‘No, you’re right, Dermot – idiot’s guide.’
The sergeant smiled sympathetically. ‘I don’t think so really, but I did think you might need a chuck-up, this being your first tour of duty and all that.’
‘You are dead right. Thanks, I appreciate it.’ Henry genuinely meant it.
‘All we need now is for Joey Costain to answer his bail, but he’s got a few minutes yet.’
‘Brilliant,’ said Henry. He cast his eyes down the idiot’s guide. ‘I think I’ll have a quick word with the witness.’
‘I’ll keep an eye out at the front desk for Joey and let you know when he lands.’
Byrne walked away towards the front desk and Henry thanked God for watching over him and providing a sergeant the calibre of Byrne who was worth his weight in gold.
Saeed Khan, scowling sullenly and lounging indolently against a filing cabinet, did not move when Henry walked into the inspectors’ office. Henry gave him a quick once over, then ignored him and directed his attention to Naseema who was seated. Behind her, arms folded, looking very stern and intimidating, was a policewoman.