Not just any visitor, but an overnight visitor no less, on three of the last six nights.
Encouraged, Kathy continued to check numbers. Several were innocent enough-a plumber, a messenger service, guests for Sunday lunch who lived nearby. Then Kathy hit another jackpot, and this time she felt that little dizzying adrenaline shock that people describe as heart-stopping. She checked the number again. It occurred four times, twice coming and twice going, both late at night, after midnight, in the early hours of Sunday and before that on the previous Wednesday. A Subaru, registered to Tom Reeves.
She took a deep breath, then got on the phone to Greenwich, requesting digital copies of the camera images for a number of the times recorded.They said it would take a couple of hours if it was top priority and she told them it was, giving DCI Brock’s name. Kathy waited, heart thumping, then rang down to the front desk to see if Tom had signed in that day and was told that he’d been there since noon. She forced herself to complete her check of the car numbers, then saved the file with a new password and began her report for Brock, no more than a list of key facts, the way he liked it.
The file of requested images finally arrived on her computer and she opened the first, for the early hours of Wednesday morning, when he’d turned up exhausted at her flat. And there he was, no mistake,his face caught behind the windscreen by the streetlight opposite the golf club entrance, and beside him, smiling prettily, Miss J’Adore. Then she checked the most recent image, just the other night, after the concert and their quarrel-same again, with the same dark-haired girl. In each case there was a second image taken less than an hour after the first,showing the Subaru emerging from the lane leading to The Glebe,the driver now alone in the car. And then she realised who Miss J’Adore was.
Kathy moved on to the other images she’d requested, of Mrs Wilkins’ BMW, and there was the girl again, behind the wheel this time. She should have thought of it, she told herself-wasn’t Coretta a Greek name? Coretta Wilkins was probably an aunt or cousin of Magdalen Roach, Miss J’Adore herself, who’d been borrowing her car.
‘You bastard,’ Kathy whispered, staring again at the image of Tom and Magdalen in his Subaru.‘You stupid bastard.’ She pressed the key for a print.
She found him in the basement ‘Roach Room’. He was sitting tilted back in his chair, feet up, hands behind his head, contemplating the photos on the wall when she opened the door, and he reacted with a jump, swinging himself upright.
‘Oh, hi, Kathy. How are you?’
She closed the door behind her.‘A bit clearer now, Tom. Here, I’ve got another picture for your rogues’ gallery.’
He reached for it with a smile. ‘Oh, thank-’ He froze as he took in what it was.‘Fuck.’
‘Is that what you do with her?’
He stared at her, mouth open.
‘An eloquent answer. I’m going to see Brock.Want to come?’
‘No!’ He leapt to his feet.
‘What, this is all a terrible mistake, this is not what it seems? Don’t insult me, Tom. There are other pictures.’
‘My God. How . . .Who?’
‘Never mind.’ Kathy reached for the print and turned away. ‘I think I’ll see him myself first.’
Tom rushed towards her, and for a moment she thought he was going to grab her, but instead he threw himself between her and the door.‘Kathy, listen, don’t do anything until you’ve heard what I’ve got to say. Please.’
She considered a moment, then said, ‘All right, but it had better be good. One false note and I’m off.’
He took a deep breath.‘Sit down, please.’ He went back around the table and took his own seat.‘I’m not going to stop you leaving, but it’s very important that you hear me out. It wasn’t my idea to target Magdalen.’
‘Target? Is that what you call it in the Branch?’
Tom held up his hand. ‘Just listen. What I told you about wanting to get out of Special Branch was true-I can’t get on with my boss, and he’s been making things difficult. So when he offered to loan me to Brock for the Brown Bread investigation I was very happy. Then when Brock made it plain that he was going after the Roaches, I had a quiet word with one of my mates in the Branch. He said he’d heard something about another operation against them.’
‘What operation? We haven’t heard about this.’
‘I don’t know, it’s probably in the past. My friend had the impression it might have originated outside the Met. MI5 maybe, or the JIC. Anyway, he felt it could be useful my being here, in Brock’s team, in terms of my career.’
‘As a spy.’
‘No, no. I’ve had no contact with these other people, if they exist, and I haven’t been talking about Brock’s investigation. It isn’t like that, Kathy. I may be able to help him, and us too.’
‘By screwing-sorry, targeting-sweet Magdalen?’
Tom took another deep breath.‘I asked my friend to keep his ears open, and he came back with a hint about one of Roach’s grandchildren being rebellious and a possible source of inside information on the clan. I took a good long look at them all and came to the conclusion that it had to be Magdalen. She’s been a bit wild, recently divorced, reputation for partying. Four months ago she was picked up for drink driving,with traces of coke in the glove box, and when local CID interviewed her she said one or two odd things about her relatives that the detective thought significant enough to pass on to the Central Crime Squad.She had her driver’s licence suspended. The drugs matter wasn’t pursued.
‘So I decided to find out more about her, where she goes, who her friends are. I arranged to bump into her a couple of times at clubs, and gradually got talking to her. She let me take her home, because she shouldn’t be driving, although in fact she does use a car belonging to a relative who’s overseas. Since her divorce she’s been living in her parents’ house in The Glebe, but she’s pretty hostile about some members of the family, especially her father, Ivor. She’s really vitriolic about him and the way he treats her mother. That was the main reason she went to stay with them, she said, to keep an eye on her mother. They seem to be very close. She’s told me things we didn’t know, like the fact that her grandpa has a trophy cabinet, with guns.’
He let that sink in, watching Kathy’s mind working. ‘Brown Bread?’ she asked.
‘It’s possible. That’s one of the things I’d like to find out.We joke about her being like Rapunzel, living in a castle, and how I’d like to see inside. That would be impossible, of course, with her parents there, only they went to New York at the weekend for a few days, and most of the rest of the clan are travelling up north today for a family function. I’m seeing Magdalen at the club tonight, and she’s promised to take me home and show me around.’
‘Bren knows about all this, does he?’
Tom shook his head.‘Nobody does,until now.’
Kathy gaped at him. ‘Nobody? You’ve carried out your own private operation on the Roaches and you haven’t told anyone? And tonight you’re planning to walk into The Glebe without back-up, without letting anyone know?’
‘I’ve put everything down on file. It’s in the cabinet over there, everything I’ve done and learned, and when the time comes I’ll
go to Brock with it. But not yet.’
She made to protest, but he leaned urgently across the table. ‘Kathy, you know that Michael Grant was right about the connection between the Roaches and the Yardies, but we’re getting nowhere.We’re like a ship without a rudder. This is what I do-undercover work. If I find something, I’ll take it to Brock. If not, no harm done.’
‘You’ve got to tell Brock before tonight, Tom.’
‘And if I do, what will he say? My guess is that he’s been told to back off. If so, he can’t afford to let me go in.’
‘Try him.’
‘Kathy, it’s better he doesn’t know.’
She thought about that. It dawned on her just how badly Tom wanted a coup, something spectacular to recharge his career or wipe out whatever had gone wrong for him in Special Branch. His secretiveness was breathtaking, but then that was the way he’d been trained to be, and maybe only he could pull off the stunt he was planning. She also remembered Lloyd’s niggling joke about Tom wanting Brock’s job.
