Broken (42 page)

He sighed heavily. ‘You heard me, Burrows. She is to be released without charge.’

Kate had to press her hands against his desk to control a desperate urge to slap him round the back of his practically hairless head.

‘On what grounds?’ she demanded. ‘If this woman is part of an ongoing investigation then we want to know what it entails.’

He said loudly, ‘I do
not
have to explain anything to you! I have issued an order and you will carry it out without further comment.’

His face was pale and his eyes were shifting about as if he couldn’t bear to look at her.

‘I’m sorry, sir, but I need to know why we have got to release someone who is central to our investigation of abused, missing and murdered children. I can’t convict without her, she’s the linchpin of what we have been investigating, and I want to know what authority is stopping me from carrying out the job I am so badly paid for.’

Her voice was heavy with sarcasm and disgust. ‘This stinks, Mr Ratchette. It stinks to high heaven.’

He seemed to deflate before her eyes.

‘Listen, Kate, if you value your career, let this go. You must! This has come from the top and I can’t do anything to help. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

She shook her head.

‘By Christ, how the mighty have fallen. You honestly think that I’m going to lie down and swallow this? After all the snide remarks and the bloody innuendo I have had to endure from you over the last few years, you have the brass bloody neck to stand there and talk to me about
my career
. Practically threaten me, then expect me to tug my forelock and say “Yes, sir”!’

For the first time ever she saw Ratchette frightened. He was begging for her understanding.

‘Look, Kate, I’m as upset about this as you are. But I have to follow orders too, you know, and this one came from the highest source, believe me. If it hadn’t I’d have told them to take a flying fuck myself. I have the newspapers on my back, too, don’t forget. This is a high-profile case and we need results fast. So I can understand what you are saying. But I can’t go against direct orders and neither can you.’

Kate laughed. ‘We’ll bloody well see about that,’ she said angrily. ‘Can you imagine what my team will say when I present them with this little gem? Great work, guys, but we can’t actually convict Suzy as she seems to have friends in high places. But, hey, you did a good job anyway.’

‘I never said that, Kate. I never said she had any friends . . .’

Kate laughed again, this time loud enough to attract glances from beyond the glass walls. She and Ratchette were now the focus of interest for the whole team.

‘You didn’t have to,’ she said tersely. ‘Right - I want to know where this came from and I want to know now. Who is the culprit, sir?’

Ratchette sighed and sat at his desk. He suddenly looked old.

‘I cannot divulge that information, but if it makes you feel any better I went above him and was told the same thing. To let it go.’

There was a finality about his voice that spoke volumes.

‘You have enough to convict the others, Kate - just leave Suzy out of it. Those were my orders and now they are yours.’

‘And if I don’t do what you ask?’

He sighed and raised his hands in a gesture of helplessness. ‘Then I’m afraid I can’t help you and this conversation never took place.’

He softened. ‘Come on, love, it’s not like it’s the first time something like this has happened, is it? It’s how the whole world works. I scratch your back and you scratch mine.’

‘Bollocks, sir. If I ever had to rely on you to scratch my back I’d know that I’d hit rock bottom.’

Inside she was sorry for him. He was weak and he was stupid. But what else was new?

‘This is about Barker, isn’t it?’ she raged. ‘He’s in this little lot up to his neck. I can’t get a statement from anyone in all this. Some big guns are involved and you know who they are.’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t even believe I am hearing any of this! I knew you were bent, knew you ducked and dived with Pat, but I never had you down as a nonce-lover. Well, Mr Ratchette, as soon as I have enough evidence, Suzy is nicked and so is Barker. He’s like a bad smell turning up when you least expect him. I will have them both and I will do it in such a way that the DPP himself will have to issue the arrest warrants.’

She turned and walked from the room, slamming the door behind her so hard it rattled in its frame. She could taste her own anger. It was burning her mouth and her chest like vicious bile. Her hands were shaking so much that when she got back to her own office she had trouble opening the door.

Jenny listened in amazement as Kate related what she had just been told. Then they both watched helplessly as Suzy came walking cockily past, a wide smile on her over made-up face.

She wiggled her fingers at them in a parody of a wave as she said happily, ‘ ’Bye, ladies.’

 

Boris was listening to all that was being said in the basement of his house. He knew that Willy Gabney would probably kill the two other men but didn’t care. In fact it would save his men a job and he liked to think the troublesome duo were being paid back. They had caused him a lot of problems over the last few months and he was sick of them. Men like Gunner and Partridge were basically ten a penny. Hard nuts in their own little manor, normally a small estate of some kind, but nothing when they were mixing with the big boys like himself. He could replace them in minutes if he needed to and so he was quite happy to give them to Willy.

He still liked the big man, respected him. Most men, his own included, would have broken long ago. But Willy had taken what they had dished out and had still kept silent, only reiterating that his boss had known nothing of the club’s other activities and that his trust had been abused by so-called mates.

He had also pointed out that Patrick Kelly had more than enough money of his own without needing to take what wasn’t his. Not unless he was bankrolling an armed robbery - which he hadn’t done for years because he had turned semi-respectable to keep his woman happy, the woman in question being a police inspector whom he loved like nobody’s business.

Boris had to admit that it sounded plausible enough, and guessed that if he put Jacky and Joey in with the big man then he would get the exact truth.

Which he had.

He had also found out that Patrick’s woman was bent when need be. Something else that interested him. Everyone needed bent police on their side and she seemed like the perfect candidate for what he had in mind.

All in all it had been a good few weeks.

Barbara Epstein stood on the landing outside her daughter’s flat and listened to the commotion inside. The police had broken open the door and the smell had hit them all at full force. She could feel her heart beating a tattoo in her chest.

She heard one of the policemen say, ‘We have the body of a female, dead maybe a week.’ Waited until he walked out to her then said in a frightened voice, ‘My grandson . . . little Trevor. Is he in there?’

The policeman shook his head.

‘Then where the hell is he?’

Her voice was rising hysterically and she felt as if she was filling up with hot air. As she fainted the young man caught her clumsily and tried to lay her on the floor as best he could, then arranged her in the recovery position.

Then he went back inside and called out to his team, ‘Looks like another missing kid. Better get in touch with CID, tell them a child is missing and we have a murder victim.’

He looked down at the body of the young woman they knew was Sharon Pallister. Her eyes were staring up at them sightlessly. A milk whiteness seemed to have taken over her whole body. Her lips were a dark blue and the stab wounds in her throat looked like something from a slasher film.

He wondered why he wasn’t retching as usual. It finally occurred to him that he was a veteran at last. They all talked about when they had finally become hardened and he’d secretly believed it would never happen to him. Last winter when they’d broken down a door and found the decomposed body of an old-age pensioner he’d had to have a week off work with pretend ’flu. But now he could stomach it, could take it without flinching.

It had taken him ten years.

 

‘You are still under caution - remember that, Natasha.’

The girl was sweating profusely now. She had thought her last run with them would have it finished. She was determined not to say a word and she knew that providing she kept to her story there was nothing they could do.

They had woken her up from a well-deserved nap and she was still feeling groggy. To cap it all, Jenny and Kate had kept repeating the same questions over and over again. It was finally getting to her.

‘So, once more. Is Suzy the bird you supposedly gave the kids to? Only we think she is behind it all. Kerry Alston hasn’t got the brains to do it on her own; she’s like you - thick, stupid, needs someone to lead her by the hand. They knew what they were doing. Probably laughing up their sleeves at you. You gave them babies away cheap if you only knew it.’

Natasha listened to Kate in distress. ‘I really don’t know what you mean about Suzy. She’s me mate.’ Her arrogance was gone now, worn down by their constant questioning.

‘Do you know Sharon Pallister?’ Kate asked.

Natasha shrugged. ‘I know her face, yeah. I don’t really know her as such, why?’

‘She was found murdered in her flat today. Her little boy is missing. I wonder if we can tie you into this lot as well, only she was seen talking to you last week by a neighbour.’

The news devastated Natasha. ‘I want a brief please.’ She was green-gilled with fear.

Kate softened her voice. ‘You’ll get one, don’t worry. Now is there anything you want to tell me about Trevor Pallister? He’s in some of the photos with your kids, isn’t he? In glorious Technicolor. Also, the little boy murdered recently, who was found on the tip - he’s in the photos too. I mean, it seems to me that there are an awful lot of kids
you
know about that
we
need to know about, if that is simple enough for you to take on board. It all points back to you, Tash. Now Suzy has in effect walked, it looks like it’s all down to you, doesn’t it?’

‘I mean it, Burrows, I want a brief.’

‘You will have one when we see fit to let you have one,’ Jenny said impatiently. ‘Now answer our fucking questions! A child is on the missing list and we need to know where he is. He might be dead, then again he might not. But I have a feeling that wherever he is, you know more about it than we do. Now then, what were you talking about to Sharon last week?’

Natasha licked her cracked lips. ‘Can I have a fag?’

Jenny looked at Kate who nodded. They watched the girl light it, saw her trembling hands and heard her nervous cough. They knew they were rattling her.

‘She did the same as I did - borrowed her kid out.

Trevor is three and he’s loud, so they were getting fed up with him. He’s quite an aggressive little boy and the playschool had told her that he was going to be excluded for his bad behaviour. That’s what we were talking about, I take oath. Plus I’ve just had a baby and she was asking me about that. The usual women’s things.’

‘Usual women’s things?’ Kate jeered. ‘What kind of woman gives her kids - oh, sorry,
borrows
her kids - to paedophiles? Talking of babies, aren’t you wondering where your newborn is?’

Natasha shrugged.

‘He’s all right, Robert will make sure of that. He’s good, is Batey. All the girls love him. Poofy though he is, he’s a real kid-lover and tries to help when he can.’

‘You’ve changed your tune. He’s not too happy with you, is he?’

Tash shook her head. ‘Nah, he goes like that sometimes. Honest, though, he’ll see me kids all right. He always does.’

The girl’s careless acceptance of her children’s plight appalled Kate.

‘In fact, I want him here while I talk. I am under supervision and can request a social worker if I feel I don’t understand the questions,’ said Tash craftily.

Kate shook her head and laughed.

‘You really are a piece of work, do you know that? You’re looking at fifteen years and still you can find it in your heart to have a joke. I admire you for that. Don’t you admire her, Jenny?’

Jenny nodded and laughed as well. ‘I’d have thought you’d have been trying to help yourself, not putting yourself further and further in the shit. But then, you’re not exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, are you?’

She held up one hand and counted off on her stubby fingers.

‘One, we have evidence that you spoke to a woman who was later murdered. Two, we know through David Reilly that you were aware that his father was interfering with your children and other people’s. Three, you admit that you knew Sharon’s son Trevor was being
borrowed
, for want of a better word, to the same people. And four, you also knew that Suzy was the brains of the whole operation. On top of all that, Billy Reilly is in hospital and everyone round your flats knows why so we’ll have loads more statements putting your face in the frame, and yet still you sit there like you haven’t a worry in the world.’