The Crime Trade

48

I saw him standing in the middle of the playing fields, in the shadow of an impressive beech tree, about fifty yards away, his back to me. He was staring straight ahead, facing the school. Several lights burned in the clutch of two- and three-storey buildings in the distance. Beside me by the gate at the playing fields entrance stood DCI Woodham and two uniformed coppers.

‘Let me go and speak to him first,’ I said. ‘I think we might startle him if he hears us all coming, and I don’t much fancy a chase round here.’

Woodham nodded. ‘All right,’ he answered, probably feeling charitable towards me on the basis that my partner (work, to him) had been so recently injured, ‘but I don’t want to lose him, John. Make sure you bring him back here, and if he starts running, you’re in shit.’

‘Fair enough,’ I said, and started walking.

Stegs heard me when I was about ten yards behind him, and turned round curiously, but without fear. He was smoking a cigarette, and was about halfway down to the butt. ‘Hello, John,’ he said. ‘I was wondering when you lot’d turn up.’

I stopped beside him and he turned back towards the school. We stood there watching it together for a few moments.

‘We’ve got to bring you in, Stegs. We’ve got a warrant for your arrest.’

Stegs didn’t seem to hear me. ‘Five years I spent in this place,’ he said, dragging hard on his cigarette. ‘And the whole time I couldn’t wait to leave. But do you know what? They were the best years of my life. No worries, no fears, no people you trusted fucking you up behind your back. No broken marriages. Just having a laugh with your mates, bunking off, trying to get laid.’ He managed a weak smile. ‘They were the best years of my life, and I never fucking knew it.’

‘I’ve got to take you in, Stegs. We’ll talk down the station.’

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ he continued, still not looking at me. ‘You’re thinking I was involved in the Heathrow robbery, but I wasn’t. I did everything by the book, and that’s a promise. Vokes was the one, John. It was him, I swear it. I loved that bloke, you know. He was like a brother to me. We were joined at the fucking hip. We watched each other’s backs on ops that would have had most men shitting themselves in fear. But all the time the bastard was bent, and I never knew it. He hid behind this Christian front, made out he was one of the good guys, but all the time I knew him, all those years, he was on the make. Did you know he was working for the Holtzes? Had been for years. Did you know that?’

‘If we’d known it, he wouldn’t have still been a serving copper.’

‘There was a bloke I sometimes used to work with in SO10, a bloke called Jeff Benson. He was good, fucking good. He got into the Holtzes, was getting close to pulling in some real evidence against them, particularly Neil Vamen. He told me about it. . stupid of him really. Because then one night I went out with Vokes and I’d had a few drinks, which has always been my fucking downfall, and I let slip about it. I didn’t even mention him by name, but Vokes had enough info to warn the Holtzes, and they put the frighteners on Benson and scuppered the whole op.’

Stegs sighed and stubbed out the cigarette, immediately lighting another one. I let him do it, making no move to take him back to Woodham and the others. Although none of it was admissible in court, I wanted to hear what he had to say, particularly as he was so talkative. He sounded slightly pissed. Not badly so, but there was definitely an edge to his voice.

‘Benson blamed you, didn’t he?’

Stegs nodded. ‘Yeah. At the time I couldn’t understand it, I thought he was being too paranoid, but I suppose he thought only a couple of people in the world knew about it, and I was the likeliest one to have opened my mouth. It didn’t occur to me that Vokes could have been the source of the leak. I trusted him so I didn’t suspect him. First rule of life, John: trust no-one. It’s not fucking worth it.’ He waved the cigarette in my direction, trying to emphasize his point, and I saw that he was unsteady on his feet.

It occurred to me too that we wouldn’t be able to interview him in this state, and he might be a lot less talkative once he’d sobered up. ‘When did you find out about Vokes?’ I asked him.

‘It was after we did the sting on O’Brien, the one you and Boyd set up. If you remember, he wasn’t involved in the first part when we caught O’Brien redhanded.’ I remembered. Vokes had been unavailable. ‘But he came in for the next stage, the setting up of the sting on Fellano.’

‘That’s right.’

‘When he came in the room and first met O’Brien, I saw straight away that O’Brien recognized him. I don’t think Vokes recognized him back — in fact, I’m sure he didn’t — but O’Brien must have seen him with someone else from the Holtzes before. He didn’t say anything, but that didn’t matter. I saw the look, and I think that’s when I knew finally that the bastard was in with them. I should have known a long time back, but I never looked fucking hard enough, because I couldn’t see the wood for the trees.’ He sighed. ‘And do you know the worst part?’

‘What?’

‘He knew I knew. I’ve always been a good actor, you’ve got to be when you’re SO10, but my behaviour around him must have changed or something, because he knew that I was on to him. And the cunning bastard, that so-called Christian, he was going to set me up to die in that hotel room, just so he could make sure I kept my mouth shut. I’ve been thinking about the whole thing a long time, and I’ve worked it out. The idea of the robbery was to put Tyndall in the spotlight and fuck things up for him. Vokes used O’Brien to set it up, on behalf of Neil Vamen. O’Brien knew that Strangleman Grant, the one who got shot, would go for it because he was such a greedy, short-sighted prick.’

‘How do you know he was a greedy, short-sighted prick? You said at Heathrow that you’d never seen him before in your life.’

‘I’m theorizing, John. That’s all. Anyway, I was meant to be the one staying in that room while the robbery went down. Vokes knew the Colombians would kill me as soon as it happened down in the car park, but he was going to let it happen. Only thing was, it backfired. They wanted him to stay in the room, not me.’

‘Why was that?’

Stegs shook his head. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Maybe they didn’t trust him either.’

‘So, you’re the innocent in all this, are you?’

Something about my question — probably the scepticism in it — made him look my way.

‘I’m not the best man in the world, John, as my missus’ll no doubt tell you. I can be an arsehole, and I can bend the rules, but I promise you this: I had nothing to do with the leak on the Heathrow op.’

I eyed him carefully. ‘I hope not, Stegs. I sincerely hope not. For your sake.’

‘You don’t believe me, do you? But you know Vokes was the one who was working for Vamen. And there are others, too. Try Detective Chief Superintendent Flanagan, for one.’

I put my hand up. ‘All right, Stegs, slow down. I know you’ve had problems with Flanagan in the past, but he is definitely not corrupt. He’s the head of SO7, for Christ’s sake.’

Stegs opened his mouth to say something but then he stopped and turned. So did I. Hurrying across the field in our direction were Woodham and the two uniforms. Even in the darkness I could see the grave expression on the DCI’s face. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt an ominous dread. Something serious had happened.

‘Stay where you are,’ I told Stegs, stepping forward and putting a hand on his arm.