Aftershock

Ninety-two

‘I meant it, you know, what I said to Colledge. Usually I get a real buzz from a clear-up, but not this time.’

‘I know what you mean, Jack,’ Stallings told her sergeant, ‘but we don’t get to pick and chose our perps. Sometimes we have to lock up people we’d rather not.’

‘His father seemed to think he’s got a chance of an acquittal.’

‘That’s not what his eyes were saying. He knows how it’ll go. Tell me, why did you recommend that he engage Frankie Birtles to defend his son?’

‘Two reasons,’ said McGurk. ‘She’s pretty damn good, and also, when it comes to consider a tariff on the life sentence, the judge will read something into the fact that although Weekes was her client, she was prepared to speak for the lad who killed him.’

‘They won’t plead it down to manslaughter?’

The big sergeant grinned. ‘In Scotland that’s culpable homicide, boss: and not even in England would this be a plea bargain. The boy has to be charged with murder. It was all premeditated. He tried to make it look as if he’d never been within five hundred miles of the crime scene. On top of that he stabbed him twenty-seven friggin’ times. Best he can hope for is no minimum sentence. That’ll leave it up to the Parole Board; if they’re sympathetic, he might just be out while he’s still in his twenties.’

‘He wasn’t wrong, you know. Weekes was a truly evil bastard. God, maybe he did kill Sugar after all.’

‘Maybe he did. Probably he didn’t. Possibly we’ll never know one way or another.’

‘Are you going to see Lisanne tonight, to tell her what’s happened?’

‘I’m going to see her anyway. Theo’s well in her past now, and this investigation is in ours too, more or less. She and I can look forward now, and see what’s there for us, see if what you suggested to young Davis turns out to be true.’