Alicia’s jaws were moving slowly up and down. She broke the rhythm momentarily and swivelled her eyes questioningly in the direction of a small door in the wall behind her.
‘No, you stupid cow!’ hissed Joey. ‘In here.’ He smiled invitingly at MacGregor. ‘Why don’t you go and have a nice, cosy little chat with Alicia, eh? You’ll like her. She’s a nice girl. Been in the nick a couple of times, too, so you’ll have something in common. And, just a word of warning. Sergeant,’ he added as a very reluctant MacGregor got to his feet, ‘ keep your hands on your wallet, eh?’
Chapter Eight
With MacGregor out of the way being entertained by the fair Alicia, Joey the Jock looked happier. He ordered Dover another drink and slid up closer to him on the bench.
‘They’re not the same, these young ’uns, are they?’ he remarked sorrowfully. ‘You want a bit of give and take in your job, don’t you, Mr Dover? Helps to make the wheels go round, if you see what I mean.’ He shook his head. ‘But these young ’uns, they don’t have no idea of what I call compromise. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Why, in the old days, back in London, I could have named you a score of coppers who were – well – accommodating. Not bent, mark you, but what you might call short-sighted. And it paid off for them, too. We didn’t forget ’em, oh dear me, no! There’s a good few of you high and mighty bogies up at the Yard who wouldn’t be where you were today if it hadn’t been for a bit of a helping hand from the likes of me. Not that I’ve ever been one to grass, but – well – if somebody scratches my back I don’t mind, once in a while, scratching his.’
‘Quite,’ said Dover, mildly irritated to find that he had Joey the Jock practically sitting on his lap. Confidential conversations were all very well but there was a limit. He shoved Joey off a couple of inches and got down to business. ‘What about Hamilton?’
‘You won’t forget it was me what told you?’ asked Joey anxiously.
‘I won’t forget.’
‘Well, Hamilton – I soon got used to calling him that, especially seeing as how he told me what he’d do to me if I ever so much as breathed his real name – he come up here to retire really. He’d made his packet and things had got too rough even for him up in the Smoke, so he thought he’d call it a day. He opened up this garage place because, of course, he’d got to account for his money somehow and – well – second-hand cars, who’s to know? A kid of two could fiddle it. But he was a right bent bastard, Hamilton was. He couldn’t have kept off it even if he’d had a million quid a week coming in. First he tries a bit of dealing in stolen cars, but that’s a dicey business, especially in a town like Wallerton where they’ve nothing else to do except poke their noses into other people’s business. Then, oh, it’ll be a year or more ago now, he finds the perfect answer. He starts going in for the money-lending business. Not in a regular way, of course. He didn’t deal with what you might call the suckers. No, he was smart. He lent money to crooks.’
Joey took a quick glance at Dover’s face to see if all this was sinking in. It was hard to tell. The Chief Inspector’s eyes were half open and every now and again he raised his glass to his lips. These were the only signs of life or interest. Joey frowned. He felt, reasonably enough, that he was entitled to more appreciation than this.
‘He lent money to crooks,’ he repeated and edged a bit closer. ‘Dead clever, that was. He’d got plenty of spare cash kicking around, more than he knew what to do with, really. And the risks was negligent. Some bright boy comes along with a nice little plan for doing a pay roll job or robbing a bank or something. He’d explain it all to Hamilton, and get the benefit of his expert advice for free, by the way, and if Hamilton liked the look of it, he’d stake him. Lend him up to a couple of thou’ or so for incidental expenses. When the job’s done, back comes the wide boy and pays back the loan, with interest. And that wasn’t peanuts. Never less than a hundred per cent and sometimes a hell of a lot more. Always in cash, too.’ Joey appealed somewhat desperately to Dover. ‘It was a damned good racket, wasn’t it? Clever?’
Dover sighed. ‘ Suppose somebody gypped him? Cleared off without paying the loan back, or the interest?’
Joey looked at Dover with surprise. ‘We’re not all crooked, Mr Dover,’ he declared with dignity. ‘Besides, Hamilton was dead careful. He wouldn’t have no truck with all these long-haired young tearaways that bash old ladies up for a handful of small change and a pension book. He stuck to the professionals. People who’d got a bit of a reputation to keep up and who you could trust. And, anyhow, Hamilton had the whip hand, didn’t he? He knew all about the job, see? Right down to the last detail. If anybody crossed him up he could tip the rozzers off and get the whole lot nicked as easy as pie. And he was as safe as houses, wasn’t he? It’s no bleeding crime to lend a few quid to a pal who’s down on his uppers, is it? You don’t know he’s going to buy a couple of yards of jelly with it, now do you?’
Dover grunted. He was getting
