‘How about your office?’
‘Come on.’
She picked up her bag, walked out of the office, Mickey following her. Down the corridor, up the stairs.
‘How’s Phil?’ asked Mickey.
‘He’s… as well as can be expected,’ said Marina, not turning to him, her face in profile.
‘What a bastard.’
‘The situation? Or Glass?’
‘Both.’
‘Couldn’t agree more.’ Said quietly, more for herself, he thought, than him.
They reached her office. She unlocked it.
‘Take a seat.’
Mickey sat down in one of the two armchairs in the centre of the room. Marina took the other one. Crossed her legs, sat upright. Waiting. Then, realising that looked too formal, uncrossed them, leaned forward. Mickey could see she was trying not to make this chat into a therapy session. He hoped he could do the same.
‘How can I help?’
Mickey’s hands fidgeted. He tried to find the words. Marina waited.
‘I’ve been… compromised.’
‘In what way?’
Mickey heaved out a deep sigh. Started. ‘With… someone connected to the investigation.’
‘A suspect?’
‘No,’ he said, but sounded unsure. ‘A… I don’t even think she’s a witness. But she’s involved in some way.’
‘Who?’
Mickey told her. All about meeting Lynn Windsor. Her phone call. Asking him to go round. Telling him she had something important for him to see. Asking him not to tell anyone else about their meeting.
‘And did she? Have something for you to see?’
Mickey almost smiled. ‘Oh yeah, but it wasn’t anything to do with the investigation.’
Marina gave a small smile, nodded. Mickey continued.
‘I spent the night,’ he said. ‘I know I shouldn’t have done, shouldn’t even have gone there. At least not without telling someone else first. And I shouldn’t have been… ’
‘Thinking with your dick?’
Mickey reddened, studied the carpet. ‘Yeah.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Marina said. ‘You’re not the first and you won’t be the last.’ She smiled. ‘How d’you think Phil and I got together?’
‘I know,’ he said, nodding, ‘but it’s not just that. There’s something else.’
Marina waited while Mickey found the correct words, got himself in the right state to voice them.
‘I think… I’ve been played.’
Marina frowned. ‘In what way?’
‘Just… something that happened earlier today. This morning. I turned my phone off. Last night. When I was with Lynn. When I turned it on this morning, there were no missed calls from Glass.’
‘Should there have been?’
‘Yeah. He’d been calling me all yesterday evening. Trying to get me back to work after what happened at the hospital. Loads of calls, apparently. I didn’t get any of them.’
‘Curious.’
‘And that’s not all. I had a few texts. One was from an informant telling me, well, what I said in the briefing this morning. About Weaver being killed by a Lithuanian hitman.’
Marina nodded. ‘And?’
I’ve just been to meet with my informant. He never said that at all. Said there was some shipment coming in tonight and we needed to be on it.’
Marina sat back. ‘But how did-’
‘That’s not all,’ said Mickey. ‘When I checked again, I found that the number the text had come from, although it had my informer’s name next to it, was Lynn Windsor’s.’
‘Get her in then. Get her questioned.’
‘But what about… ’
‘I don’t see that there’s a problem. Not in this instance. This wouldn’t have come to light if you hadn’t slept with her. She must have done all this while you were sleeping.’
‘She was walking around at one point… ’
‘Then bring her in.’
‘Can’t see Glass going for it, somehow.’
‘You’re running the investigation now, remember?’
Mickey smiled, nodded. ‘True. If I bring her in for questioning, will you help?’
Marina smiled. ‘It’ll be a pleasure.’
Mickey stood up. ‘Then I’ll go and get her. Thanks for the chat.’
‘Any time,’ said Marina, watching Mickey leave the room.
She stood up too. Took out her phone, thought about calling Phil. Replaced it. Best let him have a little space to himself.
She went back to work.
98
‘So have SOCA had their budget cut, then?’
Phil was walking round the hotel room, picking things up, replacing them, grimacing with disgust at the dirt and mess in the place.
‘No one would look for us in a place like this,’ said Fennell.
‘Not unless they were mental,’ said Don.
Phil laughed. ‘So why here?’
Clemens shrugged. ‘We got a good deal.’
Phil smiled. ‘Oh, I get it. That last Immigration raid. Were you lot behind it?’
The two men said nothing.
‘Raid the place, close it down and just happen to get slipped a set of keys. Your own little base for your adventures. Very clever.’
‘Look,’ said Clemens, ‘can we get down to business?’
‘What, no cuppa?’ Phil examined the tea-making accoutrements. Grimaced once more. ‘Perhaps not.’ He sat in a chair by the window. Hoped it would hold his weight.
‘Tell me about DCI Glass,’ he said.
Fennell obliged. ‘We’ve had Glass under observation for some time.’
‘He came to our attention a while ago. Picked him up on the radar because of his criminal activities.’
‘Such as?’ asked Don.
‘Drugs,’ said Fennell.
‘People-trafficking. Sexual slavery,’ said Clemens.
‘Helping Eastern European criminal gangs get a foothold over here.’
‘Why d’you think he wanted the job here?’ said Clemens. ‘Colchester’s just next to Harwich. A nice little supply chain coming in from Europe.’
‘Forgive me if this is an obvious question,’ said Phil. ‘But if you’ve got all this on him, why haven’t you arrested him?’
‘Because these things take time,’ said Fennell.
‘Getting a case together, doing it surreptitiously so he doesn’t get wind of it, reeling in his known associates,’ said Clemens.
