Authors: Robert Muchamore
Leon looked worried as he held up the dazed police officer by the scruff of his shirt. Pete was at lunch so Dave was the only one around, but the lot was on a busy street and it was pure luck that there were no other witnesses.
Leon dragged Michael the short distance from the car to the cabin, while Dave looked on, horrified.
‘Help me get him up the steps,’ Leon shouted urgently.
‘Leon, this is bad,’ Dave gasped.
‘Come
on
, don’t stand there like a lemon.’
Dave grabbed Michael’s ankles.
‘By my desk,’ Leon said, straining under the load as they carried the policeman into the cabin.
Leon dumped Michael into a swivel chair. He used all his strength to straighten him up, then turned and spoke to Dave.
‘Make yourself scarce, son.’
‘You’re not gonna kill him are you?’ Dave asked, as he backed away.
‘I’m not the murderer in this room,’ Leon said angrily. ‘We’ll just be having a little talk. Take your lunch break and lock up the gates on your way out. I don’t want customers wandering in.’
Michael’s eye flickered open and he made a sudden lunge at Leon. The big man shoved him back into the seat, as Dave headed out.
‘That temper’s gonna wreck your life, Mike,’ Leon said, as he grabbed a handkerchief out of his trousers and threw it across the desktop.
Michael used it to mop the streaks of blood running out of his nose.
‘Seventeen grand, Leon.’
Leon smiled. ‘Remember during the Cold War, Mike? Remember
mutually assured destruction?
’
Michael looked bewildered, as he spat a mouthful of blood into the handkerchief.
‘The Russians and Americans had so many nukes pointing at each other that neither side dared use them. If the Yanks nuked the Russians, the Russians would nuke ’em back. It’s the same with you and me, Mike. We know too much about each other. If we start slinging mud and threatening each other with the law, it ends up with us both going down. So whatever scam you’re trying to pull with that car, I suggest you drop it.’
‘Charlotte could have died,’ Michael screamed. ‘She’s three years old.’
‘Don’t start that up again,’ Leon shouted, putting his hands on his head. ‘I don’t understand how you’ve got yourself worked into this state over the car, Michael. But whatever’s behind this, you’ve got to learn to control yourself. The last time you lost your cool like this, you ended up throwing Will Clarke off a rooftop. I don’t know how you’ve got the face to come in here trying to scam me after that. You’d be doing life if I hadn’t got
Falco
to deal with the witness statements.’
Mike waved his hand dismissively. ‘
Falco
wasn’t your personal property. That old fart’s taken more bribes than he’s had hot dinners.’
‘Not for you he wouldn’t have,’ Leon said. ‘
Falco
hates your guts.’
‘What happened to Will Clarke has got
nothing
to do with the car,’ Michael spat. ‘You ripped me off.’
Leon bunched his fist in Michael’s face. ‘You say one more word about that car and I swear I’m gonna knock every tooth out of your head. That BM was
pristine
and now it’s out of warranty. I want you out of here, Mike. Get in your little white
nee-nah
and don’t ever come back. And if you feel like sending any more of your police buddies over here, remember what I said: if you bring the law into this, you’ll be on the chopping block too.’
12:46
‘Rewind it. I want to hear that bit again,’ John ordered.
Lauren twirled the jog/shuttle controller built into the keyboard and Leon
Tarasov’s
voice came out of the loudspeakers.
‘…
trol yourself. The last time you lost your cool like this, you ended up throwing Will Clarke off a rooftop. I don’t know how you’ve got the face to come in here trying to scam me after that. You’d be doing life if I hadn’t got Falco to deal with the witness statements
.’
‘
Falco wasn’t your personal property. That old fart’s taken more bribes than he’s had hot dinners
.’
‘
Not for you he wouldn’t have … Falco hates your guts
.’
‘
What happened to Will Clarke has got nothing to do with the car
…
You ripped me off
.’
Lauren hit the stop button. ‘I wish he’d admitted it, instead of saying about the car.’
John smiled. ‘Lauren, by the time you’ve been in this game as many years as me, you’ll have given up expecting it ever to
be
that
simple. Leon’s accusation is still powerful evidence, and Michael did nothing to deny it.’
‘The name
Falco
sounds familiar,’ Kerry said. ‘I’m sure I’ve seen it on a document somewhere.’
John shrugged. ‘If you think you can remember something, go have a look in the files. I’ll ring and check with Millie.’
John grabbed a telephone, while Kerry dashed into the other room to rummage through the filing trolleys.
‘Millie,’ John said, when she answered. ‘What does the name
Falco
mean to you?’
‘Hang on, I’m still in the community centre,’ Millie said, as she crept out of the meeting and into the hallway. ‘Alan
Falco
worked on the serious crime squad at Palm Hill. Not the greatest cop in the world, but he was a nice old stick. He retired before Christmas.’
Kerry dashed up to John holding an open folder. John moved the phone away from his face. ‘What?’
‘It’s on here,’ Kerry said. ‘Alan
Falco
must have been the second cop on the scene after Michael Patel. He took this witness statement from a girl called Jane Cunningham and a couple of people who were inside the flats.’
‘Leon said he paid
Falco
to deal with the witness statements,’ Lauren said.
‘Maybe he had them altered,’ John said. ‘Or just removed certain ones that contained incriminating information.’
John put the telephone back to his face. ‘Thanks Millie, I’ve got to go. It looks like we’re on to something here. We’ll be in touch.’
‘Look, look,’ Kerry gasped, tapping on the folder. ‘In Jane’s statement it says a group of boys had nicked Hannah Clarke’s sandal and were throwing it around.’
‘So what?’ Lauren asked.
‘Well, where are their statements?’
Lauren leaned over Kerry’s shoulder and pointed at the next paragraph. ‘It says the boys all ran away when the body hit the ground.’
‘Yeah,’ Kerry said. ‘But they were local kids and they probably had a better view of what happened than anyone else. Wouldn’t someone have found out who they were and asked them what they’d seen?’
John nodded. ‘I think you’re spot on, Kerry. We need to find out who those boys were and what they saw.’
14:21
The elderly lady put the security chain on before opening her front door to the policewoman.
‘Mrs Cunningham?’ Millie asked, flashing her warrant card. ‘I’m looking for your granddaughter, Jane. Is she home?’
Mrs Cunningham looked pale and her hands were shaking out of control. ‘Jane’s popped out to the shops,’ she wheezed. ‘I shouldn’t think she’ll be much longer. Would you like to come in and wait?’
‘Yes,’ Millie said.
‘She’s not in trouble is she?’
Millie shook her head and smiled reassuringly as she stepped into the hallway. ‘I’d like to ask her some questions about the incident last August.’
‘The boy on the roof?’ Mrs Cunningham asked.
Millie nodded as she stepped into the living-room. The old lady settled into an armchair. There was an oxygen cylinder at her side and dozens of pill bottles on the table.
‘You’re welcome to make yourself a cup of tea, officer. I’m afraid I’m not up to much. Not in this heat.’
‘Does your granddaughter look after you by herself?’
The old lady smiled. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without her.’
Jane came home a few minutes later, looking haggard and carrying three Sainsbury’s bags. She wanted to get the food in the fridge, so Millie spoke to her in the kitchen while she unpacked the shopping.
‘This is the statement you made a year ago,’ Millie said, setting a photocopy on the dining table. ‘You mention that there was a group of boys playing football. How many do you think there were?’
Jane shrugged. ‘Seven or eight, I guess.’
‘You said that they ran off, but did you see any of them giving statements later?’
‘I think they all did,’ Jane nodded. ‘One of them – a little skinny guy – got knocked flying somehow and ended up with a bloody nose. The others were all around him for a bit. Then they gave statements to a cop, for sure.’
‘Michael Patel?’
Jane shook her head. ‘Patel stayed with my friend, Hannah. Will was her cousin and she was hysterical. How come you’re digging this all up again? It’s like a
year
ago.’
Millie knew how fast rumours could spread, so she didn’t tell the truth. ‘It’s a routine audit. We like to dot the
Is
and cross
the
Ts
before we send our files off to be archived. I couldn’t work out why no statements had been taken from the boys. Based on what you’re saying, the statements were taken but then lost. You wouldn’t happen to know any of the boys’ names would you?’
Jane shrugged. ‘Sorry. I mean, they’re all kids who hang around this part of the estate, but I don’t actually know them.’
‘Have you got any idea where they live?
‘Oh, now you’ve said that,’ Jane nodded, breaking into a smile. ‘One of them was Kevin Milligan. He lived above our old flat in block six. He used to wind my
nan
up, filling balloons with water and dropping them down on to our balcony.’
14:50
‘Oh Christ,’ Kevin Milligan’s mum said as she opened her front door. ‘What’s he gone and done now?
KEVIN
, get out here.’
‘He’s not done anything wrong,’ Millie said, as a worried looking ten-year-old emerged from his bedroom dressed in an England rugby shirt.
‘Hello Kevin,’ Millie smiled, stepping into the hallway. ‘Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about what happened last year, when you saw Will Clarke fall off the roof? You don’t find it upsetting, do you?’
‘No,’ Kevin said, resenting the suggestion that he might be squeamish.
Millie noticed another boy had his head sticking out of the bedroom.
‘That’s Adrian, his partner in crime,’ Mrs Milligan grinned as she pushed up the front door shut. ‘He was there as well.’
‘Excellent,’ Millie said. ‘I can ask you both. It shouldn’t take long.’
Kevin led Millie into his bedroom. The boys had snacks and a
Scalextric
set spread over the carpet. Millie sat on the edge of Kevin’s duvet, while Mrs Milligan stood in the doorway.
‘We seem to have lost the statements you gave,’ Millie explained. ‘I wanted to know if you’d remembered seeing anything.’
‘I never saw anything except the boy hitting the ground,’ Kevin explained. ‘I legged it and this cop came charging round the corner and knocked me flying.’
‘Which officer was that?’
‘The Indian one.’
‘Sergeant Patel?’
Kevin nodded. ‘Yeah, he was running off the staircase.’
Millie realised this was significant: Michael had always claimed that he’d just arrived on the estate and was getting out of his car when he heard Hannah scream out.
‘What about you, Adrian? What did you see?’
‘I saw the boy falling. Then I looked up and I thought I saw another man up there.’
‘Really?’ Millie said.
Mrs Milligan looked mystified. ‘Are you sure you saw someone, pet? Only all the papers and that said it was an accident.’
‘Well I wasn’t
really
sure, because I only saw it quickly. But
it
was
like there was a man or something up there.’
‘And what about your friends?’ Millie asked. ‘Were you the only one who thought you saw something?’
Adrian shook his head. ‘No miss. Robert did as well. Me and him both thought we saw something.’
15:18
James asked if he could come to the hotel, where he’d get a much better idea what was going on, but John told him to stay put at Palm Hill in case anything unexpected cropped up.
He crashed on his bed listening to the messages going back and forth on the two-way radio and he rang Lauren a couple of times for an update. She told him about Alan
Falco
losing the boys’ statements and that John and Ray
McLad
were driving out to his house.