Silvermeadow

13

I t was late in the small hours by the time they returned, separately, to Kathy’s flat and fell exhausted into bed, and by morning Kathy had forgotten the conversation in the car. The wind had dropped, and from the bedroom window the city was bathed in a silvery light from low luminescent cloud. The sense of stillness matched Kathy’s mood. She had slept deeply and felt detached from the events of the previous day, as if they had unfolded too rapidly and needed time and distance to absorb.

She made a pot of tea and took it back to bed, and they made love. They were good at it now, with a developed understanding of each other, and when it was over she felt completely at peace.

‘We should get away this weekend,’ Leon said. ‘Get some time together after all the hours we’ve put in this week.’

‘Mmm. That sounds good. Do you think we can? Will we wind things up today?’

‘Depends on the preliminary PM results, I suppose. But I reckon there’ll be a lull, if not an end to it.’

‘Nice word,’ she murmured, curling into the crook of his arm. ‘Lull… lull… lull.’

*

By midday the evacuation of unit 184 was well in hand. Phil had finally been dislodged from his post at the door, and men with hand trolleys were moving boxes of computers and files out into the rear access corridor to the service lift, and down to a truck in the basement. Gavin Lowry came over to speak to Kathy.

‘Nice meeting you,’ he said. ‘Hope we get to work together again, next time I need a new car.’

‘Yes. Sorry about that, Gavin. And I’m sorry I won’t be able to see how your campaign against the grey crust works out.’

‘Read about it in Th e Job.’ He grinned.

‘Maybe Forbes can go for Harry Jackson’s job. I hear he’s resigning.’

‘He offered his resignation, but Bo Seager wouldn’t accept it. Reckoned he wasn’t culpable.’

‘Do you think that’s right? You’d have thought he should have picked up a few warning signals about Speedy. He was his appointment, wasn’t he? Knew him from the old days before his accident?’

‘Yes. I guess Harry’s fault, if he has one, is that he tends to be too loyal towards his team.’

Kathy smiled at him. ‘That’s not a mistake you intend to make, eh Gavin?’

He looked hurt. ‘This from the woman who trashes my car.’

They shook hands and Lowry left to accompany the truck back to Hornchurch Street. Kathy went through to the rear office, where Brock was sorting through papers, pushing most of them through the slot of a locked bin for shredding.

‘Well, Kathy.’ He stretched and straightened his back, and walked over to the door to check on progress with clearing the place. ‘I asked for twenty-four hours, but I honestly didn’t think we’d crack it in the time.’

He seemed relieved but hardly elated, she thought. ‘You’re sure we have?’

He glanced at her. ‘Certainly looks that way. Lowry and the others didn’t come up with anything suspicious in the shop units, and they did a pretty solid job this time. Bo Seager’s just been on to me about a deputation from the small traders led by our friend Bruno Verdi complaining about how thorough we were. Everyone seems very relieved to have us leave Silvermeadow. Our SIO especially. Can’t wait to have us off his patch. We’ll let his people wrap it all up.’

‘While we concentrate on North.’

‘Exactly. We’ve got plenty of leads on Keith Nolan to follow up. However, I was talking to Bren this morning…’ He turned back from the door and came and sat on a box next to the chair Kathy had taken, lowering his voice as he went on. ‘An idea occurred to me. I thought it might be worth us making one last little effort here tomorrow, unofficially.’

‘Saturday?’

‘Yes. It was last Saturday that North, if it really was him, was spotted. If he has some particular interest in the place, he might make a repeat visit. I’ve asked Bren and a few of the lads to spend the day with me here, on the off-chance.’

‘You’ll be lucky to spot him in the Saturday crowd. It’s the last Saturday before Christmas.’

‘So they tell me. We’ll be in a couple of emergency road assistance vans, parked at the two main entrances onto the site, watching car drivers as they come in and out. Another lad’ll watch the bus station and taxi rank.’

‘And there’s the WPC in the shop,’ Kathy said, thinking.

‘No. Forbes has pulled her out.’

Kathy felt him looking keenly at her.

‘I did wonder if you would be interested in a new career for a day.’

She had seen it coming, and had already begun to resign herself to it. The weekend with Leon would have to wait.

‘It’s a long shot, Kathy, no doubt of that.’

She nodded. ‘What about putting somebody in the control room to watch for him on the screens?’

‘Yes, Jackson would probably be delighted, what with half his staff ill. But I’d rather not tell him what’s going on. His own security isn’t looking too good at the moment. Let’s keep this to ourselves.’

As she was leaving, Kathy met Sharon in the mall. She was giving directions to an elderly couple, confused and lost, and when she caught sight of Kathy she waved to her to wait. When she’d finished with the shoppers she came over and said, ‘I hear you’re going.’

‘Yes. Looks like we’re all finished here, Sharon. You’re back on patrol, I see.’

‘We’re very short-handed at the moment.’ She looked uneasily at Kathy. ‘You’re quite satisfied, then? About Speedy? That he killed those poor kids?’

‘It looks that way.’

‘Oh…’ Sharon lowered her eyes.

‘Yes, it’s a bit of a shock, isn’t it?’

‘I’d never have believed it, to be honest.’

‘What, because of the wheelchair?’

‘Oh no, I think he could have done it, physically I mean. I’ve seen him down the gym. He was very strong in his shoulders and arms. No, I just wouldn’t have believed he would. And especially not Wiff.’

‘Did you know the boy?’

‘Yeah. Speedy had him down the security centre once, showing him the computers and stuff. He was really fond of him, I thought. You know, protective. He felt sorry for him, homeless and that.’

‘Did the other security people know about Wiff?’

‘Probably not. Speedy didn’t want Harry to know. Didn’t think he’d approve.’ She stared down at her toecaps, polished shiny black, immaculate like the rest of her uniform, the way Harry would like it.

‘Something bothering you, Sharon?’

‘Yeah… It may sound stupid, but it isn’t possible somebody else could have killed Speedy, is it, and made it look like Speedy did it?’

‘What makes you say that?’

She shrugged, uncomfortable. ‘I suppose I just can’t believe it really.’

‘That’s often the way. People can’t believe that the nice man they worked with for years could really be a killer.’

‘Yeah, only… Speedy had this way of annoying people. He’d do things to get under their skin.’

‘Yes,’ Kathy agreed.

‘I think he did it because he couldn’t stand them feeling sorry for him, so he’d do something to piss them off. I said to him once that he should be careful or someone would belt him one, wheelchair or not. And he said he didn’t worry, cos he knew too much.’

‘What did he mean by that?’

‘I don’t know, and he wouldn’t tell me. He just said he saw more of what went on stuck in front of his screens than the rest of us did on our two legs. Well, I wondered if he’d pissed someone off good and proper this time. Someone who didn’t care what he knew.’

‘Or cared too much. Nothing else? What about his drugs? You must have known about them.’

Sharon looked unconvincingly defiant. ‘What drugs?’

‘Come on. His place was full of stuff.’

‘Was it? I don’t know… sometimes he did seem out of it. I thought he was on medication.’

‘He was dealing, Sharon. That’s what we’re told.’

‘I didn’t know that, honest. How could he have done, in his chair?’

‘Wiff was his legs, ran his errands.’

‘Oh.’ She looked genuinely shocked. ‘I didn’t know that.’

‘But you had a pretty good idea he was taking something.’

She nodded.

‘Then surely Harry must have realised too, eh?’

‘Yes, maybe. I saw Harry getting stuck into him once, and I thought it might have been about that. Speedy was really doped up at the time.’

‘Well, we don’t have anything to say we’re wrong at the moment, Sharon. But if you think of anything, give me a ring, will you?’ Kathy wrote her mobile number on the back of a card and handed it to her. They shook hands and said goodbye.

Leon was already there when Kathy got home. He was sitting at the table by the window with a mug of tea, absorbed in a road atlas. Rain was beating against the dark window, making the distant streetlights glimmer liquidly.

‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Tea’s fresh. Come and sit down.’ He fetched her a mug.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Looking for places to spend a lull in. There’s Lulham in Herefordshire, and Lullington in Derbyshire, and another one in Somerset. Or how about Lulsgate Bottom? Sounds good, eh? My money’s on Dorset; we can get four lulls in one hit, all within walking distance: East Lulworth, Lulworth Castle, West Lulworth and Lulworth Cove. That’s an irresistible concentration of lulls. What do you reckon?’

Kathy smiled. For a brief moment, before he lifted his head, he reminded her of an earnest schoolboy doing his homework assignment. Then he looked up at her with his intense dark eyes and her stomach tightened. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t go. Brock wants us to work tomorrow.’ She put her arm round his shoulder. ‘And it’s going to be a total waste of time. But I have to go.’

‘Oh. Too bad. Another time.’

She suppressed an impulse to say, no, we’ll go, there won’t be another time, not like this. But instead she nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Next week,’ he said. ‘I thought of going up to Liverpool for a day or two. We could go together.’

‘Liverpool?’

‘Yes. I want to have a look around.’

‘Why?’ She felt a small chill inside her.

‘I’m thinking of applying to go there.’

‘A transfer? Why?’

‘No, no. I’m thinking of doing a masters. Investigative psychology. I’d ask for leave for twelve months.’

Kathy sat down facing him across the table and stared at him, saying nothing.

‘I’m stuck, Kathy,’ he went on patiently. ‘To move up I need some more qualifications. The Liverpool M. Sc. is exactly what I need. I’ll show you the brochures.’ He made as if to get up, but then, seeing the look on Kathy’s face, didn’t move. ‘What?’

‘That’s where Alex Nicholson teaches, isn’t it? Did she tell you about it?’

‘Yes, that’s right, while we were having dinner the other night. I was explaining the problem I have, and-’

‘What problem? You never told me you had a problem, Leon.’

He leant forward, mildly exasperated. ‘But you know how it is. I can’t go beyond sergeant as laboratory liaison.’

‘We didn’t discuss this. You’ve only been here a few days, and you’ve already decided to move on.’

‘It’s not like that!’ he protested. ‘Look, Kathy, you should be thinking about this for yourself, too.’

‘What?’

‘You haven’t got a degree.’

She flushed. ‘I know that.’

‘Well, you should get one! Hasn’t Brock ever told you?’

‘No!’

‘Well, he bloody well ought to have done. He’s a negligent supervisor.’ He sat back and folded his arms in a pose that Kathy found quite astonishingly, insufferably smug. The anger flared inside her.

‘Fuck you, Leon,’ she said. ‘He’s ten times the copper you’ll ever be.’

‘But he’s near his used-by date, Kathy,’ he replied coolly. ‘Things are different now, you know that. Look’-he held up his hands in truce-‘this is stupid. I’m not going to fight about this. You know I’m right. I just didn’t… find the right way to put it.’

‘Damn right,’ she muttered fiercely. ‘And I haven’t got time to get a degree. If I was going to get one I should have done it years ago. It’s too late now. I can’t stop what I’m doing just to get a paper qualification.’

‘Wrong,’ he said, more gently. ‘You must make time. Do it part-time. I’ll help you.’

‘Oh sure. From Liverpool.’

‘That’s just for a year, for God’s sake. And it’s only a couple of hours away.’

She relented eventually, and they made it up and prepared a meal together and generally agreed to be sensible and adult. It would have been all right if she hadn’t known as soon as she saw Alex Nicholson that she was going to be trouble, and if they hadn’t both initially told themselves, as a kind of insurance, that this was never going to work out anyway.