Faraday 02 Network Virus (17 page)

“
What you want with me then?” he asked.

“
You remember I let you off last month when I caught you with those three nicked tellys?”

“
You’re not going to let me bloody forget it, are you?”

“
Don’t worry. I’ve just got a little job for you - should give you a bit of fun and you’ll have the pleasure of knowing you’re serving the community at the same time. What do you think of that?”

Hendon was obviously suspicious. “What is it then?”

“
We’ve got a pervert landed on our pitch. The bugger’s just got out early from serving three years for sex with under-age girls.”

“
So what’s that to me?” He grimaced. “Let the bloke get ‘is kicks how ‘e wants, I says.”

Mallinson leaned forward. “But now this has got important. A twelve-year-old girl’s gone missing. Her mum’s tearing her hair out and I want to be able to restore her daughter to her.”

“
Fancy the mum, do you?” Hendon leered at him.

“
Well,” Greg shrugged, “I wouldn’t mind if she wanted to show her appreciation in some practical way.”

“
I bet you wouldn’t.”

The sergeant shook his head. “But forget that. The thing is, I’m sure this pervert’s got the little girl and stashed her away in some hidey-hole nearby. Of course he denies it. And you know how careful we’ve got to be when we question people these days. One little cut or bruise and they scream blue murder.”

“
So what do you want me to do?”

“
I want you and a couple of your mates to go to his house and drag him out into the street, kick him a few times and hurt him enough to get him to spill the information on where he’s hidden this girl. The bloke’s gutless. It shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes.”

“
We can’t just break in without some sort of reason.”

“
Get yourself a rent-a-mob to shout and scream abuse and encouragement. Throw a few stones. Break a few windows. Then you go in. I’ll be parked just around the corner in my unmarked car. I’ll come on the scene with the siren going and the blue lights flashing to rescue the bloke when he’s been softened up.”

“
And what happens to us?”

“
I’ll be so busy helping him up and getting him into my car that you lot can melt away into the surrounding streets. I won’t have enough time to eyeball anybody who was there. I’ll be looking to get Sidney Pullman’s confession out of him on the way to hospital. Hey presto! An hour later I’ll be rescuing the kid and restoring her to her ever-so-grateful mum.”

“
Might even have her that night, eh?”

“
Well.” Greg grinned. “I’m told her husband’s pissed off. From what I’ve seen she should be easy meat.” He winked at Hendon. “Who knows?”

“
What’s this I hear about not interfering with witnesses?”

“
I’d have to tell her to keep quiet of course. “Mallinson straightened up. “But forget that. In addition to rescuing the girl, we’d be ridding Torquay of a pervert who’s a potential danger to any young girl walking the streets.”

“
Yeah.” Hendon sneered. “We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“
No, we bloody wouldn’t.”

“
So,” the man asked, “what will I get for doing your dirty work for you?”

“
Who knows? I’ve already let you get away with various minor things. Now I’ve got your mobile number, I can pass certain bits of information in your direction from time to time as it becomes available.”

“
Is that all? You’re asking me and some of my mates to put themselves at risk for nothing more solid than a possibility of information?”

“
What risk?” Mallinson’s laugh lacked humour. “I’m the only bloke likely to see you and, as I’ve said, I’ll be too busy to do anything about it.”

“
What about CCTV?”

“
There’s none in the side streets.”

“
How do I know you aren’t setting me up?”

“
Come off it,” responded Greg. “What good would that do me? My chance of getting any brownie points either at the station or with the girl’s mum would be lost and you would probably bleat that I set it up, so I’d be deep in the shit, wouldn’t I?” He gazed into Hendon’s eyes. “I tell you, Sean, we need each other. I want a quiet patch with just a few break-ins to rich geezers whose insurance pays for their losses and you want an area with easy pickings and no competition. I’d say that sounds a good idea for both of us.”

“
OK,” said Hendon reluctantly, “I can see the sense in that. So tell me exactly what we’ve got to do - address, timing, name of bloke, number of mates I need - all that stuff.”

“
I’ve got it written down here.” Greg pulled a sheet of paper out of his inside pocket and handed it over.

Hendon looked at it. “Blimey, you’ve really worked it all out.”

“
I’ve had plenty of time, haven’t I, while I was trying to track you down.”

For the next quarter of an hour they worked through Greg’s list.

“
What about the right time?” asked Mallinson. “I want it to be as soon as possible.”

“
Tomorrow night, not too late. How about nine o’clock when it’s just going dark? It’ll be difficult to pick out the faces of anybody taking part in the half-light. I think I can get a dozen or so lads and their birds to back us up and even a few older kids who are willing to have a go at shouting and chucking bricks.”

“
All right. Nine o’clock it is. You’ve got the address and the bloke’s name on that sheet. I take it you’ll do a recce during the day - early morning’s best. His sister claims he’s a late riser and she’s out at work between eight and ten.”

“
I should manage that,” Sean Hendon stood up, his nearly empty beer mug in his hand. “Right. See you tomorrow night at nine.”

Mallinson nodded. “Tomorrow at nine.” He watched the rough-neck get a refill and rejoin his mates, while he finished his drink. Then he got up and left, well pleased with the arrangements he had set up.

- 21 -

Charlotte arrived at police headquarters outside Exeter promptly at five to eleven. After checking with ‘Lord Harry’ Corbett, reception sent her straight up to his office on the second floor. The great man was personally waiting by the lift when she stepped out.

“
Come along to my pad, Charlotte.” He was all unctuous care as he shepherded her along the corridor. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”

“
Two weeks ago, sir.”

“
That’s right.” He stood aside at the door and motioned her to enter. “Quite a lot has happened in Torquay in the brief fortnight since you joined us. I must say again how pleased I am about the speedy solution of the Cynthia Adams case - and to mop up another unexplained death at the same time was quite brilliant.”

He pointed to a set of comfortable easy chairs in a corner of his vast, palatial office. “Take a seat. Chief Superintendent Vanessa Bolt will be along in a few minutes. She’s talking to Mark Lasham at the moment but she promised she wouldn’t keep me waiting. Coffee?”

“
Thank you, sir - little milk, no sugar.”

He proceeded to pour her a cup from his personal machine which was steaming in the corner and brought it over to her. Charlotte noticed the bone china was nearly as delicate as that provided by Grace Fisher.

He brought a cup for himself and sat by her. “What are you doing at the moment? I expect there’s still plenty waiting to be cleared up in Torquay.”

“
The big thing this weekend has been the searches we’ve been carrying out for this missing girl.”

“
I’ve heard something about that. When exactly did she go missing?”

“
Some time before nine on Thursday.”

“
Worrying time for her parents.”

“
Worrying for all of us. I must say the public has responded magnificently. Nearly four hundred turned out on Saturday for searches in response to our adverts and radio appeals. Yesterday it was more than seven hundred.”

“
Heartening. Very heartening.” Lord Harry nodded. “This sort of response shows that the police in the area enjoy the goodwill of a large slice of the public.”

Charlotte looked at him sharply. “I should have thought it showed a lot of public sympathy for her mother and also for the school she goes to.”

“
Oh, yes. Quite so. I presume from your tone that there has been no luck so far.”

“
Sadly, no. We believe we’ve searched most of the likely publicly accessible places within a ten-mile radius. A more detailed search of the isolated properties is being arranged this morning.”

“
Who’s doing that?”

“
It will mainly be led by police personnel.”

“
I hope that phase will soon be over. We can’t afford to take too many staff away from their normal duties.”

“
Unfortunately, sir, we can’t allow members of the public to freely trespass onto private property without being accompanied by a uniformed officer. The aim is to complete that phase of the search within the next few days.”

Further discussion of the case was interrupted by the arrival of Vanessa Bolt and Mark Lasham. Lord Harry was in his element with the introductions and handing round the coffee cups.

“
Where do you wish to sit, Vanessa, my dear?”

“
May I take your desk, sir? I would like the interview to be as formal as possible.”

“
Certainly, my dear. Please take my chair.” He fussed around them. “Charlotte, will you take this upright chair?” Almost opposite Chief Superintendent Bolt. “Mark, are you staying for this interview? Very well. Let’s put you here, shall we?” He was seated to one side of the desk.

Then he left them, urging Vanessa Bolt to take as long as she wished because he would not be back until two o’clock.

Charlotte settled down to face the Chief Superintendent with the fearsome reputation. She had to admit to herself that she was feeling a slight sensation of uncertainty in the pit of her stomach, despite her confidence in the correctness of her actions regarding the events being investigated. She had dressed carefully in sober clothing with a minimum of make-up and the lightest of perfumes. Glancing at Lasham she was slightly amused to note that he also seemed a little embarrassed by the situation and avoided any direct eye contact with her.

Vanessa Bolt opened her brief-case and took out a bundle of papers and an A4 pad which she laid on the desk in front of her. She removed a pen from her inside pocket. There was no sign of a lap-top computer. The chief superintendent was obviously a traditionalist.

She looked directly at Charlotte. “DCI Faraday, this is an initial investigation to find out whether there is a case which the PCC should look into. Since there has been no complaint by a member of the public we are under no obligation to investigate the matter. However, due to the number of organisations and individuals which are frequently peering over our shoulder, we feel it is essential that the matter is carefully looked at. Do you understand?”

“
Yes.”

“
Now, before I start, I must tell you that I received a telephone call last Thursday from a Mr James McAlister of the TGM Partnership. Do you know this gentleman?”

Charlotte was startled. “Yes, I know him. I phoned him last Wednesday when I heard that Chief Superintendent Lasham had reported the death of Giles Adams to your organisation. I wanted his opinion on the matter.”

“
Well, I can tell you,” continued Bolt, “that I also know Mr McAlister and I was not pleased to receive the call when I was still preparing the papers.”

“
I must assure you, Chief Superintendent, that I did not ask him to contact you. I only wanted to ask his advice at this stage.”

“
That may be so. Unfortunately James appeared to decide that his advice should include a warning telephone call to me, to the effect that, if the PCC decide to proceed against you, he was likely to be involved. You are, of course, aware of his interest in defending police officers accused of malpractice in carrying out their duties.”

Charlotte nodded.

“
Well, I will say no more on that matter. But it has caused an unfortunate spirit of confrontation at a stage when the investigation should have been conducted in an unbiased atmosphere.”

Although Charlotte’s first reaction was one of alarm that James McAlister seemed to have shifted the investigation more strongly against her, she realised that it actually meant that CS Bolt would probably be much more careful about the degree of importance she gave to the views of people like Lasham, being aware that those views were likely to be subjected to very careful scrutiny by her superiors before they decided to go any further.

The chief inspector was continuing, “I have made a note of the circumstances of the death and the actions leading up to the death as described to me by Chief Superintendent Lasham. I will run these before you and see if you agree with them.”

CS Bolt then went step by step through the events of that Saturday night when Giles Adams died and obtained Charlotte’s views at each stage. She seemed somewhat unhappy about the involvement of the journalist Julian Brace but Charlotte pointed out that she was off-duty at the time and that he was not a witness in the case. *

She finished with the question, “What happened to the body?”

“
It was recovered from the rocks at the foot of the headland by the coastguards the following morning. It was badly damaged by the fall and by being washed around by the waves.”

The Chief Superintendent finished making her notes. “Very well. That is the complete record of what happened as far as you know it?”