Sixteen hours and six years -
In dark rooms -
In silence -
Silence and tears.
Up the stairs -
Sleeping coppers on every desk -
On every desk, face down -
Faces down in ash and cans -
Snoring, farting, belching -
The cans, the dog ends, the wretched smell -
We’re all back in the upstairs office -
Sergeant Ellis in full flight, swing whatever -
Me all ears -
Only me -
‘Took one bloody look at him, didn’t I. And I said to lads, he’s an odd one this one, I did.’
Me: ‘Time? What time?’
‘Minute they bloody brought him in; nine o’clock.’
Me: ‘So what’d you do?’
‘Called Ripper Room, didn’t I? Bloke nicked with false plates and prossie in a red-light area
Me: ‘Who’d you get at Millgarth?’
‘Bob Craven,’ he says -
‘Where is Bob?’ I ask.
‘Fuck knows,’ says Ellis. ‘Anyway, I says to Bob, you want to clock this one and Bob’s like, keep him sweet and Jim Prentice’ll be down for a butchers.’
Me: ‘Kept him sweet did you?’
‘As bloody sugar – talking ten to dozen, he was: telling us how he’s always up Sunderland, over Preston way, how he takes a size eight Welly, all the different passion wagons he’s had
Me: ‘Mention Ripper did you?’
‘Just what Bob said to tell him, routine when a bloke gets pulled with a slag.’
Me: ‘What did he say?’
‘Fine. No sweat. Said he’d been seen half a dozen times already.’
Me: ‘What’d you say to that?’
‘I’m rubbing my bleeding hands, aren’t I? But I say, is that right? You’ve got nowt to bloody worry about then, have you? And he says, only bloody missus. But I tell him she’s already phoned and she thinks it’s just about some dodgy plates and you’ll be right.’
Me: ‘What time she phone?’
‘About ten minutes after he got here.’
Me: ‘Then what?’
‘Jim Prentice gets here after lunch, been up Bradford way for some funeral or something. Takes one look at our man and he’s like: know him, seen by John Murphy about that fiver, clocked in Bradford, Leeds, and Manchester, and last time they did all local engineering firms. So Jim goes in and has a bit of a chat and he’s in there twenty, thirty minutes, and he comes back out and he says, Mike I’m not happy. And I’m like, fuck we’ve screwed up and I say, why – what’s up? But Jim’s like, not happy about Peter David Williams and he goes gets Millgarth on blower.’
Me: ‘What time’s this?’
‘Be about three o’clock.’
Me: ‘And what did Dick Alderman say?’
‘Test him.’
Me: ‘And what did Williams say when you went down to test him?’
‘Wasn’t me, it was Jim Prentice, – but apparently he goes, what if it’s same one you’re wanting? And Jim says, calm as can be like, you Ripper are you? And feller he just says, no. Then you’re all right then, aren’t you laughs Jim.’
Me: ‘So he’s in the frame by now?’
‘Oh aye. And then when test comes back and it’s B – well then it was pints all round, wasn’t it?’
Me: ‘What time was that?’
‘Test results? Actually I can’t remember which was first: Chainey finding hammer and knife back in Sheffield or blood type. Any road, must have been gone twelve.’
Me: ‘Midnight?’
‘Yeah, cos then Dick Alderman turns up, Pete Noble – and I mean no-one’s going home, we’re all just hanging around.’
Me: ‘All night?’
Ellis nodding: ‘Once in a lifetime thing, this. I mean, all night they’re having top-level meetings, planning it all out.’
Me: ‘Who?’
‘Brass: Noble, Alderman, Prentice – and phone never bloody stopped.’
Me: ‘And what they doing with the suspect?’
‘Suspect? He’s bloody sleeping like a baby, isn’t he? First thing though when he woke – he must have noticed something was up.’
Me: ‘Why’s that?’
‘Well minute he’s had his breakfast – there’s Alderman and Prentice and me sat there.’
Me: ‘You?’
‘Oh aye, first interview today I was taking it all down.’
Me: ‘What’d he say?’
‘Nowt much, they were just trying to get him relaxed, you know.’
Me: ‘How?’
‘Talking about cars, sex.’
Me: ‘Sex?’
‘Aye, Alderman was asking him all about him and his missus – how often they have a bit, because he’d been on to them saying like she was always nagging him and stuff like that. But he reckoned they were at it regular – nowt kinky mind. Said they forgot about rows and all that minute they went to bed.’
Me: ‘Getting a bit personal then?’
‘Oh aye, but he didn’t seem to mind. Dead relaxed, he was. Best bit was when, this was lunchtime, – just before you and George Oldman got here. Jim Prentice says why don’t we send out for some fish and chips and Ripper, he’s a cocky bastard, he grins at him and says, I’ll go if you want – but I reckon they might be a bit cold by time I get back.’
Downstairs I go -
Through the double doors and down the stairs -
Downstairs -
Underground -
Until I come to a corridor -
Bright lights overhead -
Walls half green, half cream -
Floors, black and polished -
Come to the cells -
Eight cells -
Four in a row on the right -
