“Okay,” he agreed. “If you promise me you go home to your father tomorrow, I’ll take care of Ashdown tonight.”
“I promise,” she lied.
Miller was struggling to establish whom Maguire had met with prior to attacking Melanie Adams. He believed Murphy when he said he didn’t know who it was. He wasn’t the brightest guy and it was obvious Maguire was the leader. Miller was thinking that possibly Maguire had a mission being coordinated by the unidentified stranger but had impulsively decided that Melanie Adams was too easy and potentially rewarding a target to miss. Or maybe there was no other mission. Perhaps they were a new republican group that wanted funds to kick start a new campaign of violence.
There were no real firm clues and even Simpson’s insights had been less useful than usual. What he had confirmed was that there was currently a lot of infighting between different factions of the IRA. Some of the diehards still saw disarming as a form of betrayal and were joining the likes of the Real IRA. Others seemed willing to go along with the idea at least for the time being. The likes of Maguire were more and more branching off into crime, which was hardly surprising, as they didn’t possess the skills for anything else.
Simpson had promised to check his sources to try and establish whether Maguire and Murphy were part of any entirely new breakaway organization. Simpson’s boss had agreed to him acting as liaison and described him as the obvious choice, given his experience. While Miller agreed that was the case, he was sure that the man thought he would be getting one way feedback of information. Miller was happy to be working with Simpson again. He liked and trusted him. He expected him to play fair in his liaison role, whatever his boss thought.
Forensic reports had provided nothing of use, so for the time being the focus was on extracting everything possible from Murphy. Miller didn’t believe it was likely any new break off group from the IRA was loose in London, intent on causing further trouble but it was his job to be vigilant. Murphy naively seemed to believe he was still a member of the IRA and just following orders passed down through Maguire.
They believed they had dragged as much as possible out of Murphy regarding the kidnap attempt and now he was being debriefed from the very beginning of his first steps in the IRA. Miller was interested in some specific information but the proper way to do this was to start at the beginning and not rush it. They also had to be sure that what they learned was reliable. They didn’t want Murphy using this as an opportunity to resolve any personal grudges. There had been no amazing revelations yet but Miller was expecting better to come, the further forward they came in time.
The interviewing was mainly being carried out by Bob Thomas and Miller trusted Bob one hundred per cent. He had thirty years’ experience, including time in Northern Ireland, in the early nineties, when times were really difficult. If there was something to be learned Bob, would get to the bottom of it. He was a blunt man brought up on a rough estate in South East London. Miller found him intimidating and was sure anyone he interviewed felt the same. Miller always remembered one time, when he had described a very rough estate in Belfast, riddled with violence, as very similar to where he was brought up. Miller wondered what that childhood had been like. Very different he suspected to his own middle class upbringing.
Once Bob was finished with Murphy, Miller would have a further meeting with him, to see if he could find out something about Brian Potter’s death. He was too young to have been personally involved but his father was high on the list of suspects. Miller was hoping his son may have overheard some useful snippet of information. Maybe even something he didn’t realize was significant. Often in policing, it was a case of putting together the tiniest scraps of information that led to solving cases.
Miller decided it might be worth meeting personally with Ashdown. He didn’t believe it very likely he’d learn anything new but he liked to hear things first hand. Reports were all very well but you couldn’t beat hearing it directly from the horse’s mouth. It was as much how someone said something as what they said. He would set up a meeting for the next day. If necessary he could travel down to Brighton.
Any reason to get out the office was always welcome nowadays and a visit to Brighton would bring back mixed memories. He remembered the late nights and extra shifts that had followed the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in 1984. The IRA had tried to kill Margaret Thatcher while the Conservative Party Conference was taking place. She had narrowly survived but five people were killed and many injured. It took them a year to track down and arrest Patrick Magee the bomber. Of course Magee had been released in 1999 as part of the Good Friday Agreement, which granted early release to paramilitary prisoners. Miller had understood the need for a radical gesture, to help win the support of the wider community for the agreement, but even so it troubled him that someone who killed five people should be released so early. That was the problem with Ireland. Everything about it was complex and confused. Nothing was straight forward and to a man of simple ideals, it caused chaos with his value system.
Miller had watched and admired Thatcher’s speech at the conference the next day. He fully supported her assertion that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail. Sadly though he had learned that many people can suffer before terrorists learn that, in the words