too exciting, but you’re welcome to them. First off we’ve got a motor seen hanging around before the murder, parked up just past Portobello Mews. It might be nothing, or it might be the villain. You know how these things go. Somebody noticed it because it drove up and parked and no one got out, and after waiting a bit it drove off. If it
‘Did they get a number?’
‘No, that’s why I warned you not to get excited. It was a black four-by four – MPV type, not Land-Rover type – with black windows. Sounds like a drug-dealer’s wheels,’ he added, free of charge. ‘Any use to you?’
Slider remembered something. ‘Could it be an Audi Q7?’
‘That sort of thing,’ Warzynski agreed. ‘Witness was a woman so it’s no use asking her for make or model. She was looking out the window on the way to bed. If she’d waited a bit she might’ve seen something useful. Oh well.’
‘It’s better than nothing,’ Slider said encouragingly.
‘Is it? My day hasn’t been wasted then. The other bit of gen is about the victim’s mobile – we checked 1471, and it went to another mobile. It was pay-as-you-go.’
‘Of course,’ Slider said. ‘It’s time they tightened up on that.’
‘Gets my vote. The good news is, we were able to triangulate the signal.’
‘They haven’t chucked it away?’ Gloriosky, they’d made a mistake! Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive.
‘Don’t go mad,’ Warzynski warned. ‘The bad news is it’s a hospital, so tracking down the actual individual will be a job and a half, especially when they’re moving about inside.’
‘I don’t mind. In fact, I bet I can guess which hospital.’
‘The Cloisterwood Hospital in Stanmore? You were expecting that?’
‘Hoping for it. It doesn’t give me the answer, but it’s a help. Thanks a lot, Phil.’
‘Welcome,’ Warzynski said, with questions sticking out all over his voice.
‘When I can tell you,’ Slider promised, ‘I’ll give you the whole story, I promise. Over a drink. At least.’
‘I’ll hold you to that.’
Slider put the phone down and thought a moment, then looked up a name in the great file of notes that had been decorating his desk all day. Lonergan. That was it. Detective Sergeant Mick Lonergan. He rang Stanmore nick. With a name like that he was expecting an Irish voice, but it was your basic Middlesex when Lonergan came on.
Slider introduced himself. ‘A couple of my lads were over your way looking at Embry’s yard.’
‘Oh yes. That squatty little toerag! Well, I’ve nothing new on him for you, sir. But it’s building up nicely. We’ll get him. He’ll make a mistake sooner or late. They always do.’
‘Yes,’ said Slider, thinking of the mobile.
‘It’d be nice to clear that blot off our ground. Our intelligence says he’s supplying all the criminals in a wide area – wheels, shooters, information, even false documents – every bloody thing. What we need is a big multi- agency operation to catch him with the goods and close him down.’
Slider shuddered at the words. ‘As you say, he’ll make a mistake one day. But it wasn’t him I wanted to ask you about.’
‘Oh yes?’
‘I wanted to pick your brains. You told one of my men you thought you recognized the photo he showed you, of the man we were interested in, the one who bought the false plates from Embry.’
‘Yes, that’s right. I remember. Dark hair, big build. I know I’ve seen him somewhere but I can’t place him. It’s on the tip of my mind, but—’
‘I wondered whether he could be anything to do with the Cloisterwood Hospital – whether that’s where you saw him.’
‘No–o,’ Lonergan said thoughtfully. ‘I don’t think it was that. I don’t think I’ve ever been over there, tell the truth. We don’t get a lot of trouble from it.’ This was a joke. ‘Drunks and fights and so on.’
‘Oh well, it was just a th—’
‘Wait a minute, wait a minute,’ Lonergan said in a eureka tone. ‘You’re not wrong after all. I’ve got it! It wasn’t
‘He’s Webber’s chauffeur?’ That wasn’t what he expected. ‘What car was he in? A four-by-four?’
‘No, it was a Jaguar. That’s what caught me out at the time, because I’d have known Sir Bernard’s Bentley anywhere. I told this joker to move on and he refused, then when I said I was going to ticket him he said he was waiting for Sir Bernard, so of course I had to let it go.’
‘You did?’
‘Well, he’s a bit of a local hero, Sir Bernard. He’s put Stanmore on the map with the Cloisterwood, plus he’s into all sorts of charities, on every committee God made, and he supports all the local events and stuff – most of it wouldn’t happen without him. He’s very generous. People round here wouldn’t hear a word against him, so we’d never hear the last of it if we moved his car on and made him walk.’
‘But it wasn’t his car?’
‘Not his personal one, but it was a hospital car, one they use to collect patients from the airport or the station. They’ve got several, apparently. I suppose the Bentley was in dock for some reason.’ The facts caught up with him and he paused, and then said in an uneasy voice, ‘You’re not telling me that he’s your suspect, sir? Not Sir Bernard’s chauffeur?’
A friendly warning to Webber from the supportive local police could jeopardize everything. Slider said, ‘No, it can’t be. It must be a mistake. The picture my lad showed you – it wasn’t very clear.’
Lonergan seized on this. ‘That’s right. It was blurred and grainy. You couldn’t really tell who it was. I thought it looked like this chauffeur bloke, but now I think of it, it wasn’t really anything like him.’
‘No, of course not,’ Slider said comfortingly. ‘Oh well, never mind. It’s another dead end.’
‘There’s not any trouble down at the Cloisterwood, is there, sir?’
‘No, no trouble. Just trying to work out what the connection with Stanmore is.’
‘Embry’s yard,’ Lonergan said promptly. ‘That’s what the connection’ll be. This bloke you’re looking for is a pal of Embry’s, sir. You can bank on that.’
‘I’m absolutely sure he is,’ Slider said. ‘Thanks a lot, you’ve been a great help.’
‘I haven’t told you anything,’ Lonergan said in a puzzled tone.
‘No, but you’ve set me straight about a few things.’
He got up and wandered out into the CID room. Hollis was standing at Atherton’s shoulder, reading over it, and they both looked up as he came in.
‘Got that ANPR trace, guv,’ Hollis said. ‘On Rogers’s car.’
Slider read the quizzical expression on his face and tried to straighten up and be brisk. I must look like a road accident, he thought.
Atherton swivelled round and read off the printout. ‘Picked him up just after four a.m. on the A12, at the junction with the Aldbrough turn-off. Then the Ipswich roundabout. Couple more pings before he comes off the A12 on to the M25. Comes off the M25 at the A1, Barnet Way. Pinged him at the Northway Circus turning on to the A41, and then it’s our old friend the camera at the A410 roundabout for Stanmore, smile please, turn your head and cough, and out goes he.’
‘He must a been tanking it, guv,’ Hollis said, ‘because he did the lot in less than two hours.’
‘From these lips to your ears. From Southwold straight to Stanmore with a box of fish. Don’t it make your heart sing?’ Atherton enquired.
‘Maybe the fish was poorly,’ Hollis tried in his jollity. ‘Took it in the A and E and said, “Here’s the sick squid I owe yer.”’
Slider didn’t even notice. ‘Speed would be of the essence,’ he said.
Atherton nodded. ‘A hospital would be great cover for diamond smuggling. But I’m beginning to see it your way. If it wasn’t perishables, why risk it? Even in the middle of the night there can be traffic cops around, especially in the outback where they’ve nothing else to do.’
‘What are you going to do, guv?’ Hollis asked. They were all looking at him, hopefully, like dogs who’ve heard the rattle of the lead being taken down. His eye wandered, his brain having forgotten to tell it what he was looking for. It came to rest on Connolly, who half rose, ready to be of assistance.
