Nightmare

15

Two days later Nightingale’s mobile rang while he was sitting down with a plate of chicken tikka masala and pilau rice that he’d picked up from an Indian restaurant in Queensway. The caller had blocked their number so Nightingale hesitated before taking the call.

‘Nightingale?’

‘Yeah?’

‘It’s me.’

Nightingale recognised the voice. Dan Evans. ‘Yeah?’

‘Where are you?’

‘In front of the TV.’

‘Can you meet me in the park, by the water?’

‘It’s Saturday. Since when did they start paying inspectors overtime?’

‘Haven’t you heard? The powers that be have stopped all overtime and they’re making us work until we’re sixty. It’s a brave new world for us public servants. I tell you, if we could strike we would but as always we just have to bend over and take it up the arse.’

‘I hear your pain, Dan.’

‘Anyway, I figured it best that I do this on my day off. So can you meet or not?’

‘When?’

‘Twenty minutes. I’m on the other side of the park.’

‘No problem. I’ll be wearing a red rose and carrying a copy of the Financial Times.’

‘Nobody likes a smart arse, Nightingale,’ said Evans, and he ended the call.

Nightingale got off the sofa, put his meal in the microwave, then picked up his raincoat and hurried out of his flat. He walked down Inverness Terrace towards Hyde Park, his breath feathering in the evening air. He lit a cigarette as he waited to cross Bayswater Road. He spotted a gap in the traffic and jogged across. Evans was standing by the Serpentine, watching two swans gliding across the water.

‘Property of the Queen,’ said Nightingale, nodding at the birds.

‘That’s a myth,’ said Evans. ‘She only owns the unmarked mute swans on open water. Dates back to the twelfth century. It was to make sure the royals had enough swans for their banquets.’

‘Yeah? I’m told they taste like chicken.’ He flicked what was left of his cigarette into the water.

‘That’s littering,’ said Evans.

‘You’re not going to arrest me, are you?’

‘Not if you give me one,’ said Evans. ‘A cigarette, I mean.’ Nightingale grinned, took out his pack of Marlboro and lit one for the detective, then another for himself. Evans inhaled deeply then let the smoke out slowly. He smiled as he looked at the cigarette in his hand. ‘Just don’t tell the wife,’ he said.

‘I hope she’s worth it.’

‘She is,’ said Evans. ‘But that doesn’t mean I don’t miss it.’ He reached inside his coat and took out a manila envelope. ‘That Range Rover was registered in the name of a Lydia Brown. She lives in Brixton.’

‘I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a woman driving,’ said Nightingale, opening the envelope.

‘Yeah, me too. But she’s got three kids by a Jamaican called Perry Smith, and Smith is Dwayne Robinson’s right-hand man.’ He nodded at the envelope. ‘Smith’s picture is in there, along with mugshots of the rest of his crew.’

Nightingale slid out a dozen photographs. Most of them were shots taken in custody suites but a few were surveillance photos taken with a long lens. All of the men were black, most of them with shaved heads and heavy gold chains around their necks. The ones who’d had their pictures taken in custody all had the same arrogant tilt to the chin and contempt-filled eyes, as if being arrested was no big thing. And of course, in the grand scheme of things, getting arrested was no big thing. Men like Robinson ruled by terror and witnesses to their crimes either refused to give evidence or were killed. The police, overstretched, under-financed, with the upper echelons more concerned about box-ticking and press conferences than they were about putting away villains, were just an occupational hazard.

Nightingale recognised one of the men immediately. He’d caught a glimpse of him sitting in the back of the Range Rover. He handed the photograph to Evans. ‘This is one of the shooters. I’m pretty sure that he was in the back when they cruised by me in Inverness Terrace.’

‘You didn’t say anything about them cruising by.’

‘I was on my way to a surveillance job. The car went by, windows half down. Then I saw the car again in Queensway. The two guys got out wearing ski masks and started shooting. Then they ran off and got onto two motorbikes.’

Evans looked at the photograph. ‘Reggie Gayle. He’s one of Robinson’s foot soldiers. Trident reckon he’s behind half a dozen killings in south London over the past two years.’ He narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nightingale. ‘You’ll give evidence, right?’

‘Sure, and I’ll pop down to the station and wash and wax Chalmers’s car while I’m at it. One, I didn’t actually see the faces of the guys who were shooting at me, and two, how long do you think I’d last if they thought I was a witness?’

‘You’re already in the firing line, Nightingale.’

‘They won’t try again,’ said Nightingale. ‘Not after you’ve explained to them that what happened to Robinson is nothing to do with me.’

‘What?’

‘They came after me because they think I shot Robinson. You need to go and turn Smith and Gayle over. If you’re lucky you’ll find forensics in the car, maybe a gun. But even if you don’t you can put them right about Robinson.’

‘You think they’ll believe me?’

‘I think either way they’ll be warned off. If anyone else takes a potshot at me they’ll know that their names are in the frame.’ He handed a second photograph to the detective, another custody picture. ‘This is Smith, right?’ Evans nodded. ‘He was in the front passenger seat of the Range Rover.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Not a hundred per cent. But it was a big guy, thick neck like he was on steroids, lots of rings on his fingers.’

‘We can look for CCTV of the car, and we’ll pay him a visit.’

‘The guns are what you need,’ said Nightingale. ‘You know how it works; they’ll have passed them onto junior members of the gang, kids who can’t be prosecuted for possession.’

‘I know the drill,’ said Evans, taking the remaining photographs back from Nightingale and putting them into the envelope.

‘Sorry,’ said Nightingale. ‘Didn’t mean to teach you how to suck eggs. What about the guy that got hit?’

‘He’s okay. Turns out he’s hooked up with a gang in north London so the shooting’s being looked at as a turf war. Which is good news for you.’

‘And what about Robinson? Best way of getting his gang off my back is to catch the guy who did shoot him.’

‘Yeah, well, like Chalmers said, it was a white guy so Trident aren’t interested.’

‘That’s bollocks. They’re the ones with all the intel.’

‘It has to be black on black for Trident to be involved, you know that.’

‘But the shooting had to be drug-related, and it had to be personal,’ said Nightingale.

‘Yeah, but we’ve not exactly been inundated with witnesses coming forward and no one on Robinson’s crew is talking.’ He smoked his cigarette. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

‘Cheers, Dan. I’ll owe you one.’

‘Damn you right you will,’ said Evans, putting away the envelope. ‘But instead of owing me a favour, why don’t you just tell me what the hell’s going on? It’s like you’re walking around with a bloody bullseye on your back.’

Nightingale blew smoke across the Serpentine and the swans paddled away, their heads down. ‘Dunno what you mean,’ he said.

‘Do you want my help or not?’

‘Showing me those pictures was help enough, Dan,’ said Nightingale. ‘And I appreciate you doing what you did. I know I’m not exactly flavour of the month at the moment.’

‘What you did to that paedophile earned you a lot of Brownie points, but goodwill only stretches so far,’ said Evans. ‘Look, if you’ve crossed somebody, if there’s someone behind all this, maybe we can do something.’

‘I appreciate the offer, Dan. Really. But I don’t think there’s anything you can do. Anyway, you wouldn’t believe it. Hell, I’m not sure if I believe it.’

‘Believe what? Look, I put my job on the line checking that number for you and showing you those photographs. The least you can do is to tell me what’s going on.’ He pointed his finger at Nightingale. ‘And I deserve a straight answer. None of that devil-worship bollocks you gave me last time.’

Nightingale blew a smoke ring over the water. It lasted less than a second before the wind ripped it apart. ‘Do you believe in God?’ asked Nightingale quietly.

‘Do I what?’ said Evans, turning to face him.

‘God,’ repeated Nightingale. ‘Do you believe in God?’

Evans laughed softly but his eyes were hard as he looked Nightingale up and down. ‘That depends on who’s asking,’ he said.

Nightingale flicked ash into the water. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ve got two daughters, twelve and fourteen. Where we live, you wouldn’t send a dog to the local State school. There’s a knifing every other month, half the kids don’t speak English as even a second language and the teachers are all on antidepressants.’ Evans took a drag on his cigarette. ‘We went to see the school before the older girl was due to go and it scared me shitless. There was no way I was going to send my kids there, but on an inspector’s salary private schools weren’t an option. So my wife and I started looking around and we found a Church of England school about two miles away. Great exam results, motivated teaching staff, small classes. Just one drawback — the kids had to come from Christian families and me and the wife hadn’t been inside a church since the day we were married.’ The detective turned back to look over the water. ‘So, we put her name down and started going to church, every Sunday.’ He chuckled. ‘Pretty much the entire congregation was made up of parents wanting to get their kids into the school. We all had to sign in and I swear they even checked to see that we were singing along with the hymns.’

‘And it worked?’

Evans nodded. ‘Both girls are in and doing really well. Best thing we ever did, becoming Christians.’

‘But you don’t believe, right? You don’t believe in God and Heaven and Hell?’

‘Like I said, it depends on who’s asking.’ He took a long pull on his cigarette and then dropped the butt onto the grass and trod on it. ‘If there was a God, Jack, and if he cared about us, why would he allow scum like Dwayne Robinson and his gang to run riot? Wouldn’t he step in and do something? You were a cop, you know the score. Some people are just plain evil and that’s got nothing to do with God or the Devil.’

‘Maybe it’s the Devil working through men like Robinson. Maybe the earth is the battleground where Good and Evil battle it out.’

Evans looked at Nightingale, his brow furrowed. ‘Are you on something, Jack?’

Nightingale raised an eyebrow. ‘Drugs? Do me a favour, Dan. Nicotine and alcohol are all the stimulants I need.’

‘Are you seeing someone?’

‘Romantically, you mean? Or professionally?’

‘You know what I mean. Post-traumatic stress disorder. You negotiators, you get to see a lot of shit that the average copper never gets near.’

Nightingale snorted softly. ‘The average copper these days spends his whole shift sitting on his arse filling out forms,’ he said.

‘But you were at the sharp end,’ said Evans. ‘A negotiator and a shooter. Either one of those roles comes with enough stress to push anyone over the edge.’

‘Over the edge?’ repeated Nightingale. ‘Is that what you think?’

‘Just the way you’re talking, that’s all. The battle between Good and Evil. Heaven and Hell. Don’t tell me you’ve gone and got religion.’

‘Okay, I won’t.’ He flicked his cigarette butt into the water and turned to leave.

‘Jack, I’m serious. Tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.’

Nightingale shook his head, then pulled up his collar against the wind that was blowing across the Serpentine. ‘Truth be told, mate, I don’t think anyone can help me,’ he said, and walked away without a backwards look.