by M A Comley
Hero shook his head. “One of these days, you’ll get to understand my warped sense of humour, Lance. Maybe you’ve come up with a good idea, after all. I’ll have to run it past the chief first. Any volunteers?”
As Hero expected, Powell raised a hand, as did Jason Coltman. “Good. All being well, I’ll see if we can set something up in the next day or two. Anyone else got any suggestions in which way the case should be heading?”
Foxy pointed at the board. “What’s that about vehicles being burned, sir?”
“Ah, yes. Wheeler just informed me that there was an incident last night regarding some vehicles being torched. That’s all I have so far. Can you see what you can dig up for me, Foxy?”
“I’ll get on it right away.”
Hero clapped his hands together and shooed them back to their desks. “I’ll go and bend the chief’s ear while you lot get on with the tasks I’ve set you.”
Hero rang the DCI to see if it was convenient for a chat and went to get the all-clear in person. He returned ten minutes later, feeling relieved and jubilant at obtaining the authority to put in an overtime bill at the end of the week. The chief had reluctantly agreed to only one night and had issued the words “use it wisely.” As if I would do anything else?
By the end of the day, he was mentally exhausted. The results from the fire enquiry were inconclusive. The reports suggested that some of the homeowners were livid that their vehicles had been vandalised, but Hero found it strange that no one was willing to tell the police what they’d seen. Someone had obviously seen something that night. Hero was certain the Krull Gang was involved. Exactly what have they threatened these people with?
Before the end of his shift, Hero arranged for Powell and Coltman to stake out one of the prostitute patches. He’d gambled on one of the areas that the woman hadn’t hit yet. There was little else left for him to do but go home and be with his family. He had to fight the temptation to stop off at the pub on his way home. However, the warm welcome he received from his son and the dog and the early night he and Fay enjoyed more than made up for his abstention.
The moped trundled down the road at less than ten miles per hour, then stopped close to a corner. The driver got off the bike and crept to the edge of the two-storey building. She could see four street girls seemingly twiddling their thumbs, waiting for another punter’s car to pull up. Two of the girls had a cat fight as they ran to an approaching vehicle, much to the punter’s amusement. The woman watching tutted her disapproval at the scene and shook her head. When she checked up the road, she spotted a parked vehicle with what appeared to be two men inside it. Her attention remained on the vehicle rather than the prostitutes for the next five minutes or so, until she came to the startling conclusion that the vehicle contained coppers. Then she returned to her bike and drove away.
Are they on to me? Or were the cops staking out the girls for another reason altogether? As she drove, all she could think about was how close she had come to messing up. She had intended to kill another prostitute that evening. If she hadn’t noticed the coppers’ vehicle, she feared they would have caught her in the act. Then what would I have done? That’s it, I have to change things. But how?
The minute she got home, she went straight up to her bedroom, where she carried out most of her thinking, and plotted her next move. Now, what can I do to get the gang members alone? She smiled a smile that even she considered evil when she saw her reflection in the mirror as a fresh, more intense plan gathered momentum and slotted into perfect place in her mind. For the first time in ages, she fell asleep without any effort that night. Maybe her late-night hunting visits had finally taken their toll on her already weary body.
Chapter 15
Hero kissed Fay hard on the lips before he set off for work. Everything in his world seemed rosy, at least on the home front. Before he got in the car, he noticed the birds singing their morning chorus. He wondered if he had ever noticed that in the past, and he doubted it. On the journey to work, he took in the first signs of summer—the rose bushes with their freshly formed buds gently bending in the breeze—and he sighed deeply. Could life get much better than this? He responded to his own question when he came back down to earth with a bump. Yes, Hero, you could solve a few of these crimes today!
His team had their heads down at their desks when he arrived. He shouted at Powell and Coltman to join him in his office and grabbed a coffee at the vending machine on the way.
“Well, how did it go, boys?”
Both men had large bags under their eyes from pulling the all-nighter. Powell folded his arms and leaned against the wall. “Not good, sir. Nothing really to report other than the girls picked up plenty of punters. Christ, I had no idea how many men still use prostitutes.”
Hero couldn’t fathom what Powell was getting at. “Meaning what?”
Powell straightened up and dropped his arms to his sides. His awkwardness was evident in his demeanour. “Umm… well… I guess I meant with girls being so easy nowadays, sir.”
Hero’s eyebrows rose. The man had a point if Hero were to judge by what he’d witnessed down at the pub lately. Nonetheless, he still didn’t think a member of his team should be voicing such opinions openly. “Maybe you should keep opinions like that under wraps in the future, Powell. We don’t like it when the general public tar all coppers the same, do we?”
“Sorry, sir.”
“So, you had a wasted evening, then?” Hero asked, disappointed.
“Boring isn’t the word for what we had to endure last night, sir.” Coltman stifled a yawn.
“All right. Go home, and get some rest. Come in after lunch if you feel up to it.”
Powell glanced at Coltman. “We’ll be back in by two, won’t we?”
Coltman’s face dropped, but he nodded all the same.
Hero chuckled as the two men left his office, bickering like schoolboys. He dealt with the new post that had landed on his desk that morning then went out to the incident room and walked up to the whiteboard.
“Everything all right, sir?” Julie called across the room.
“Yep, just thinking. Hey, wait a minute… Foxy, your old man is part of vice, isn’t he?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you manage to ask him about the Krull Gang?”
“I did. He couldn’t really tell us more than we already know. They’ve just been flagged up as being new pimps in the area. There’s some form of undercover operation going on, but he told me that the unit weren’t able to throw the necessary funds behind it at the moment. They’re a bit like us in that regard, sir, having to pick and choose their cases carefully.”
“Right. This is what we’re going to do this morning. I want us all to concentrate on the gangs in the area for now. For all we know, this woman could actually be a gang member. I want a list of the known gangs operating within, say, a two-mile radius of the centre of Manchester. What was the name of the gang that torched bloke belonged to?”
Julie looked through the papers on her desk. “The Tidy Gang, of all things.”
“Right. Well, if we’re looking at a turf war situation here, we need to know what gangs have just been formed, maybe throwing their weight around. If we figure that out, it might just break something in the case. Have you girls got any other suggestions?”
“Not this minute, sir. Let’s see what we can dig up first,” Foxy said, already pulling her chair closer to her desk then attacking her keyboard.
An hour or so later, Hero, Julie, and Foxy were gathered around the whiteboard, comparing notes and transferring the information onto the board, alongside the notes Hero had already made. Hero had expected more gangs to surface than they had managed to find. A total of four seemed too few for the size of the Manchester area.
“Maybe the Krull Gang have driven a few of the other gangs out of business. Perhaps, knowing how violent the Krull Gang can be, the other gangs disbanded, thinking they couldn’t match the might of the Krulls,” Foxy stated thoughtfully.<
br />
He liked the way Foxy was thinking and tended to agree with her. “Looking at this list and what we’ve found out about these gangs, I can’t see any one of them having the balls to stand up to the Krulls or trying to take over their turf. Something just doesn’t sit right for some reason, and I’ll be damned if I can lay a finger on why. Didn’t I hear that the Krull Gang were also in the protection game? Do we know anything about that?”
“I think they’re just branching out into that, sir. I have nothing concrete other than a few pubs paying protection money in the other gang areas. The minute one of the other gangs start any trouble, the Krull Gang get a call to sort them out,” Julie told him, looking up from her notes.
“In exchange for what, I wonder? Cash each week, do you reckon? What happens if these pubs don’t pay the protection money?” Hero asked.
“When the issue first came up, I asked hubby if he’d heard anything about the protection side of things. He said that there had been a fire at one of the pubs,” Foxy said.
“Yet another fire incident! You mean in the pub itself, in the car park, where, any idea?”
“I think Frank said it was in the landlord’s flat above. I can check with him if you want me to?”
Hero nodded. “Yes, do that, Foxy. The more evidence, stroke hearsay, we can gain on this gang, the better our case is going to be if the CPS ever get their arse into gear.”
For the next few days, that’s what the team researched and gained snippets of evidence about the gang’s activities. Hero was pleased to see Friday evening, when it finally came around.
Hero surprised Fay during the afternoon by insisting that he would pick up a curry on the way home to save her cooking an evening meal.
“How’s the case coming along, Hero?” she asked once Louie was tucked up in bed. They made it a rule never to discuss his work while their son was around.
“Which one? We have three or four on the go now. The whole thing is driving me insane because I know they’re connected. We simply can’t find the link to piece them all together.” They were sitting side by side on the couch, and he threw an arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.
“I thought you’d been a little distracted the last few days. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really, and I apologise. I’ve never had a damn case consume me so much. I hate having my hands tied like this.”
“Hands tied, how?” Fay pushed away from him and traced a finger down the side of his face. He shivered beneath her touch.
“The CPS are dragging their feet. The quicker the government do away with these stupid ASBOs, the better. They’ve been a thorn in our bloody sides since they came into existence.”
“I’m not sure of the ins and outs of the case, but surely you can bring this gang in for questioning, can’t you?”
He snorted slightly. “Ah, if only it were that simple. If you remember, Julie and I went out to the Brickfields Estate, and they wrecked my car? We’re trying to think of ways to get the gang members by themselves, but that’s causing more hassle than it’s worth.”
“Hoping one of them will spill the beans and dob the others in?”
“That’s the plan, yes. In the meantime, more crimes have been committed that lead to the gang. They’re tearing up this town, and it sickens me. I went to the chief last week and asked if I could go in there with an armed response team. He virtually laughed in my face before he said he’d put forward my suggestion to the super,” Hero complained, taking a sip of brandy from his glass.
“I’m not trying to do your job for you, Hero, but maybe it would be better if you thought outside the box on this one.”
He contemplated Fay’s words for a second or two as he took another sip from his glass. “Outside the box, as in trying to set the gang up? Is that what you’re talking about?”
“Maybe. Can you join forces with other departments? Vice, for instance?”
Hero smiled at her. “When did you get police procedure savvy? I think you’ve missed your vocation, my dear.”
Fay kissed his cheek. “It’s surprising what I pick up when you discuss your cases. That’s why I don’t like us talking about your work in front of Louie. He’s just as inquisitive, if not more so, than his mum.”
“I’ll look into joining forces with vice when I get back to work on Monday. Boy, do I need the TA this weekend. Are you sure you’re okay with me going off in the morning?”
“Of course, Louie and I are going over to Mum’s tomorrow afternoon and staying overnight. She rang up today, a bit tearful because it would have been dad’s sixty-fifth birthday.”
Hero squeezed her to him when he saw her eyes mist up. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I had no idea. I’ve been so consumed with this case. Would you rather me postpone this weekend’s manoeuvres?”
She smiled and brushed his lips with hers. “There’s no need for that. To be honest, I’d rather it was just the three of us anyway. Mum can open up properly then. She needs to do that now and again. Otherwise, her psoriasis flares up.”
“I understand. What about Louie?”
“He’ll be the distraction she needs to take her mind off things once she’s aired any concerns she has. She loves the bones of that child. Actually, she keeps pestering me to have another.”
Hero turned his head sharply to look at her. “Wow, really? We’ve never discussed adding to our family, have we?”
Fay shook her head shyly, but she didn’t reply.
“What’s wrong? Is it something you want, Fay? Another child, I mean?”
“Yes and no. I’ve not really thought about it. I suppose I have my hands full with Louie, and my job takes up a lot of my time at the moment.”
“Well, when you feel the time is right, we’ll sit down and talk about it, agreed? I might add that I’m not opposed to the idea, though.”
Her face brightened, and a huge smile appeared. “Just shows what I know. I thought you’d be dead set against having a child of your own.”
“It proves you don’t know me as well as you think you do, doesn’t it? Come on, drink up. I think we better get some practice in before we both change our minds.” He searched for her hand and pulled her out of the chair. “You go up, and I’ll put Sammy out and lock up.”
She looked up at him with a sparkle in her eyes and kissed his cheek. “Don’t be too long,” she said, her tone sultry and inviting. She turned to walk out of the room, and Hero slapped her on the backside before he beckoned the dog and walked through to the kitchen to open the back door.
After he watched Sammy do his business, he called him in and settled him into his bed before climbing the stairs. All the stresses of the day seemed to disappear with every step he took. He pushed open the bedroom door to find Fay draped across the bed in the scarlet negligee he’d bought her for Christmas.
“Come to momma, sweetie pie.”
Chapter 16
Hero picked up his sister, Cara, from her flat in the centre of Manchester early Saturday morning.
“You’re late,” she chastised him as she settled into the passenger’s seat.
He gave her a smug grin. “I had a late night.”
“Ew… too much information if that stupid look is anything to go by. You better put your foot down, or Sergeant Milton won’t be happy. What time are we due to leave the base?”
“About nine. We’ve got bags of time. It’s only just turned ten to eight.”
“You know what the sergeant is like. He likes everyone to be prompt, primed, and ready for action at all times. Hey, and you better get rid of that soppy grin you’re wearing before we get there, too.”
“Christ, what’s rattled your cage today?” Hero asked, worried by his sister’s unusual negativity. Cara was usually the most positive person he knew.
“Nothing.”
By the abruptness of her tone, Hero knew she was lying. He folded his arms across his chest and refused to drive off. “Spill, or we stay right here in this spot all wee
kend.”
“God, you can be a first class pain in the rear, at times.”
He laughed. “Yeah, so I’ve been told on more than one occasion. Come on, Cara. What’s bugging you?”
“All right. I’ll tell you on the way. Now drive!”
Hero started the engine, slipped the car into gear and pulled out into the light traffic and headed towards Bolton.
Cara sucked in and blew out a few quick breaths before she finally opened up to him. “I’m considering joining the police force.” She turned to look at him.
Hero didn’t react. He could tell she was trying to gauge his reaction, and he refused to show any until she had finished.
“Aggghh! Say something,” she cried out in frustration.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you want to join the force?”
“Okay, let’s put it another way. I’m considering two options for a perceived career change. Those options are either join the police force or become a bodyguard.”
Hero slammed on the brakes. Luckily, they were travelling along a country road on the outskirts of Manchester, and the road was clear behind them. “A bodyguard? For whom?”
“I saw an ad in one of the national papers last week, asking for people to apply for the position. It’s with a firm who protect all the major pop stars.”
“Really? You’d really want to do something like that?”
“Why not, my training is top-notch. My CV is spot on for something like this. I’ve had enough of being a karate instructor, Hero. I need more excitement in my life. All I do all day is stare at the gym walls of the health club. There’s got to be more to life than that.”
“Come on, Sis. That’s why we joined the TA together, wasn’t it?”
Cara pouted and shrugged. “I suppose so. Maybe being in the TA has determined my change of heart.”