custody office.
No sign of Siobhan. Good.
‘ Duty solicitor arrived yet?’ he asked the Custody Sergeant, who was dealing with a couple of juveniles.
‘ Nope.’
‘ I want to speak to Rider, about a matter not concerned with his arrest, not a criminal matter.’ Not strictly true, Henry had to admit to himself, but probably the only way he’d get to see Rider alone now.
Two minutes later they were face to face again.
‘ I won’t speak to you without a solicitor present.’
‘ I think you will. I’ve been to search your flat.’
‘ You won’t find anything unless you put it there.’
‘ I found a woman called Isa. She told me something very interesting.’
Rider sniffed indifference.
‘ You’re being well and truly shafted here, aren’t you?’
‘ You should know.’
‘ You’d be surprised how little I know. The name Conroy was mentioned.’
Rider bit the inside of his mouth with a squelch.
‘ Get to the point, Sergeant.’
‘ I may be able to help you, but in return you have to help me first.’
‘ Look — you’re out to get me, come hell or high water, and probably at Conroy’s bidding, so why should I help you? I mean, this whole thing’ Rider waved his hands at the room — ‘could be a set-up, just to get me to admit something. How do I know there isn’t a hidden mike somewhere?’
‘ You have my word.’
Rider nearly fell off his seat. ‘The word of a man who has already verballed me up? What’s that worth in real terms?’
Henry pushed himself to his feet. He walked to a corner of the small room and lounged there.
‘ I need a fag,’ Rider complained.
‘ Sorry, no smoking. Force policy.’
‘ Fuck force policy!’ Rider leaned his forearms on the table and intertwined his fingers. He twiddled his thumbs, rotating them against each other.
‘ You’ve got something together with Isa, haven’t you?’
‘ Did have.’
‘ She’s devastated, you being in here. Really fucked up.’
‘ Did have, I said.’
‘ You still could have, John — if you’d trust me. At the very least, what you’ll get out of this is a fair and honest investigation. If there is evidence of murder against you, you’ll get charged. If not, you’ll be released. But I promise there will be no evidence fabricated against you.’
‘ Sounds fucking great,’ he said cynically. ‘The devil and the deep blue sea.’
‘ It’s better than what you’ve got at the moment,’ Henry said pragmatically.
‘ What’s going on, Sergeant?’ Rider looked across at Henry with eyebrows raised. Henry strode back and sat down opposite Rider again.
His voice was earnest. ‘Isa says she believes you’ve been set up for this murder by a man called Conroy. Is that what you think?’
‘ You, him — and others, probably.’ Rider spoke guardedly, not wanting to say anything which might go against him.
Henry saw the look. ‘I’ll tell you why you can trust me.’
‘ Go on, astound me.’
‘ Do you think I’m doing this shite willingly? Well, I’ll tell you, I’m not. I’m doing it because if I don’t, I lose my job, my wife, my pension, my reputation, everything — and may even end up in prison. Yeah, it’s true. I’ve been set up too. In a different way, for a different reason — or maybe the same reason, I dunno. Maybe there’s some connection between us two. But there’s something I do know. If I convict you on false evidence I’ll be trapped for ever and I’ll be a bent copper for ever, unless I do something about it… and you’ll be in prison for the rest of your life. We could be the key to saving each other.’
Henry had been leaning forwards, becoming more and more intense as the words torrented out. ‘But if you’re not interested, let’s go down the road to hell together.’
The next official interview was over fairly quickly, much to Siobhan’s disgust. They presented Rider back to the custody officer and he was returned to the cells.
‘ Speaks,’ Siobhan demanded.
They adjourned to the interview room and closed the door.
‘ That was a poor performance, Henry. You didn’t seem to be trying very hard.’
‘ Just feeling my way, getting used to the situation.’
‘ Find anything useful at the flat?’
‘ Don’t know yet. Going to go back and check. Then we’ll move onto his club and do that.’
‘ Leave the club!’ Siobhan said sharply.
‘ Why?’
‘ Just leave it, that’s all. It’s an order. We’re not interested in the club.’
‘ Sure, fine,’ he said. ‘Who am I to argue?’
‘ Exactly. Who are you?’
Henry left her in the custody office, telling her he was going for a dump, which might take some time.
Instead of going into the station, he turned right out of the custody office, after checking Siobhan didn’t see him, and sprinted down the rear yard to get into a CID Metro for which he had the keys in his pocket. He gunned the small car out of the garage and into Blackpool town centre where he whizzed up and down a few streets, including going the wrong way down a one-way street. He wanted to know if he was being followed and was fairly satisfied he wasn’t.
He pointed the car in the direction of Lytham.
Behind him, Jim Tattersall tapped Tony Morton’s mobile number into his own, hardly able to suppress a laugh at Henry’s anti-surveillance tactics.
Morton told Tattersall to stick with him.
Morton ended the call and placed his mobile on the desk. He drummed his fingers agitatedly and asked himself what the significance could be of Henry’s departure from the police station without Siobhan, his chaperone.
The internal phone rang.
‘ Morton.’
‘ Siobhan, boss. Just seen the custody record. Henry’s had an unscheduled conversation with Rider before I got here. It says on the record it was in connection with a matter unrelated to the investigation.’
‘ Do you know where he is now?’
‘ Having a shit.’
‘ Wrong, you stupid bitch! He’s in a car and he’s heading out of town, for fuck’s sake. I thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on him?’
Morton slammed the phone down.
Morton had ordered a two-car tail on Donaldson. And Mr Donaldson, FBI employee, didn’t spot it until quite late because they were good. By the time he saw them, he and Karen had visited the other two witnesses and taken statements.
He swore when he realised, but there was nothing more to be done about it — other than to lose them for the fun of it.
But by then, both addresses were on a piece of paper in front of Tony Morton.
Morton asked Siobhan to check the voters’ register to put names to them. He was beginning to feel very uncomfortable; also that he had been too generous with Henry Christie by allowing him to live. The challenge of
