school, as you’d imagine — I mean, it had been a long time — but it wasn’t so much in the look. It was more the poise, the way she carried herself. Back then she’d been attractive, with lovely big brown eyes and a good body, but she’d never really made the best of it, probably because she hadn’t really needed to. Now she looked hot, the type of woman most blokes are immediately attracted to because they know without a second’s doubt that she’ll be a demon between the sheets. She was wearing a black cocktail dress which matched her long curly hair and high- heeled court shoes. I wondered then whether that hound Johnny had slept with her more recently than school. If he had then he’d been a lucky man.
She turned away from the doorman as the two of them reached the bar and our eyes briefly met. Although she was still a few feet away and there were a number of people in between us, I saw an immediate flicker of recognition pass across her face. She stopped for a moment, then looked at me quizzically before approaching.
‘Max? Max Iversson?’ she shouted above the noise, walking up to me.
I got a glorious scent of musky perfume and warmth as she came up close. I tell you this, I wanted to have this woman before I’d even opened my mouth. She might have started off the chain of events that had almost had me killed but I’d suddenly become a man who was willing to forgive and forget.
‘Hello, Elaine,’ I said as coolly as I could manage. ‘Long time no see. How are you? You look good.’ I gave her a smile.
She smiled back. ‘I’m well. You?’
‘Yeah, not bad, not bad,’ I said, my mouth almost in her ear. I was only going to be able to keep up a conversation with this amount of background noise for so long.
‘Christ, it’s a bit weird running into you like this. The last I heard you was in the army.’
‘I did ten years, but I finished a long time back. You know how time flies.’
‘Too right. So you’re still local, then? I haven’t seen you in here before.’
‘No, it’s a little bit young for me, to be honest. It’s my first time.’ And my last at these prices, I thought.
‘So what brings you in here? On the pull, are you?’ She grinned.
‘Well, I came to see you, actually.’ She looked surprised. ‘It’s about Johnny Hexham.’
The surprise turned to concern. ‘Johnny? What about him? He’s all right, isn’t he?’
‘Oh yeah, he’s fine.’ That bastard was always fine. ‘At least he was when I left him earlier. Look, Elaine, I know it’s an odd request, but I need to talk to you fairly urgently and it would be a lot easier if it wasn’t here.’
The concern now turned to suspicion. This was a woman with a speedy turn in facial expressions. ‘Look, Max, I’m running this place pretty much on my own tonight, so if you’ve got something to say-’
‘I own a company that provides security. A few days ago you asked Johnny to put someone you know in touch with a company like that.’
She clicked. ‘Oh shit. And yours was the company?’
‘Correct.’
‘So where’s Roy? I haven’t seen him all day. Do you know what’s happened to him?’
‘That’s what I’ve got to talk to you about. But I don’t want to do it in here. Is there any way you can get out and we can go somewhere a little more private? And a bit quieter?’
She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. ‘I’ll see what I can do. Wait here. I’ll be back in a minute.’
I nodded and stayed where I was as she turned and disappeared into the crowd. While she was gone, a kid of no more than eighteen, out of his head on something, walked into one of the pillars that bordered the dance floor and knocked himself out. I watched as people stepped over him like he wasn’t there until eventually a couple of his mates turned up and, laughing, dragged him away. Then, a few yards beyond them, I saw a bloke who looked well out of place. Mid to late thirties, scruffy suit, thick black hair; to be honest with you, he looked a lot like Columbo in his early days and, like Columbo, I knew straight off he was a copper. He was talking into a mobile phone and watching me at the same time. Our eyes met and I knew he was on to me, though Christ knows how. It was time once again for quick thinking. If he was in here, there could be more of them out front, making it too risky to go out that way.
I turned and, as casually as possible, headed back in the direction of the toilet, speeding up the moment I’d pushed through a large group of girls out on a hen night.
Gallan
As soon as I saw him, I knew I had to act fast. I didn’t have a clue what he was doing there but he didn’t look like he fitted in, and he was on his own. All that, however, was by the by. The most important thing was that he stayed put until reinforcements arrived. I pulled the mobile from my jacket pocket and called the station, at the same time moving slowly towards a pillar by the dance floor where I could keep an eye on him without attracting attention. I was bumped by a young bloke pushing past me and I turned and gave him a look, not that he even saw it. He was already ten yards further on. Cheeky little bastard. Dispatch picked up and I informed them loudly of my position and the fact that I was within thirty feet of a wanted man and needed back-up. I needed to repeat myself twice above the noise, and when I looked back towards Iversson I saw that he’d spotted me. He turned and walked away and I followed rapidly, telling Dispatch that he was on the move. ‘Get here fast, I don’t fancy tackling him on my own. Not after what happened this afternoon.’
Iversson disappeared into the toilet and I broke into as close a run as the crowds would allow, unsure how I was going to handle this. I didn’t want to corner an ex-para in an enclosed place and present him with no option but to fight. I’m not as young as I used to be, or as fit, and the reason I’m a detective is that I like to detect rather than get involved with all the physical stuff. Plus, I knew I’d lose. But I wasn’t going to let him go either. Not after he’d put two of our uniforms on the sicklist.
I pulled open the door to the toilets four seconds after he’d gone inside, turned left, and headed into the urinals area. There were half a dozen people in the place, all relieving themselves, while at the far end of the room in front of an open window was Iversson. He looked like he was just about to jump up and try to get out through it. Eight yards separated us.
He turned and saw me and I put my hands up to indicate that I wanted things to end peacefully, which I did. ‘All right, police. Come along now, Max.’ And then, of course, the standard police cliche: ‘You’re in enough trouble as it is without adding resisting arrest to the charges.’ I took a couple of slow steps forward, careful not to agitate him.
Iversson nodded and added his own cliche: ‘It’s a fair cop, guv,’ he said, taking a step towards me. Then, without warning, he grabbed an unlucky punter by the back of his shirt and flung him bodily in my direction. The poor sod was still in the process of taking a leak and I had to jump out of the way to avoid the spray, sliding over in a suspect-looking puddle as I did so. I banged my right knee jarringly hard and the mobile flew out of my hand. Iversson immediately turned, heaved himself up to the window with an agility that made me look even more like a Keystone Kop, and began squeezing himself through.
The bloke he’d pushed at me was first to react. Putting himself away amid a welter of curses, he turned, ran up to the window, and grabbed one of Iversson’s flailing legs with both hands. It was a stupid move. The other leg bent, tensed, then lashed out, all in one split-second movement, striking the bloke in the side of the temple and sending him crashing into the communal urinal. His head hit the wall with an angry thud. Iversson’s legs then began to disappear like spaghetti being dragged into a giant mouth. Ignoring the mobile phone, I jumped to my feet and ran towards them, managing to grab hold of one of his shoes just as it started to go out of the window. It came off in my hand and I was suddenly left standing looking at a fashionable-looking khaki moccasin while he made good his escape. I heard him land on the other side, then get to his feet and start running, impaired but hardly disabled by the fact that he now only had one item of footwear.
I looked at the semi-conscious bloke moaning on the floor, then at the handful of other punters who stood watching me in slightly amused silence, then finally at my watch.
It was twenty to twelve. Way past my bedtime.
Iversson
I was waiting when she arrived back at her Clerkenwell apartment. I watched her get out of the taxi and pay the driver from across the street, then as he pulled away and she turned towards the entrance, I crossed the road and jogged up behind her.
‘Elaine.’
