A Shot In The Night (John Harper Series Book 2) (23 page)

Yes,
I had been overly reckless in the gym but I wanted this case over as soon as
possible and I had a clear suspect.  Now I was in the office with Max and Tony,
the former sitting in his chair and the latter hovering protectively over his
partner’s right shoulder.  I stood by the couch as Saul sat in the other chair
facing the two boxers.  Outside his men waited impatiently but not as agitated
as their boss who was repeatedly balling his hands into fists and then letting
go, “We’ve got some privacy now Harper so you better explain yourself.”

I
looked at Saul and then at the two men, “Ok well like I said, these two men
knew that you were in the country and the location of your home.”

“And
what’s your point, Harper, I’ve known these two since I was a kid.  They raised
me, took me in when no one else cared.  I owe them everything,” the drug lord
said with passion in his voice.

“You
owe them but that doesn’t stop you from charging them rent on this place.”

Saul
tilted his head slightly, “I run a business, not a charity.  I’ve been more
than generous with their rent.  I am very understanding, much more so than any
other landlord.”

“But
don’t you think that there would be some resentment.”

“There’s
no resentment, Harper,” Max said forcefully, “Saul has been good to us.  When
we started to have trouble making the rent on this building he bought it for
us.  We’ve never had the money to buy it ourselves so he took it on.  He gave
us a home.”

I
looked at the old boxer who sat with his arms crossed in a ragged grey jumper. 
He was angry but Tony, who stood behind him, wasn’t. He was more relaxed than I
expected, “What about you, Tony? You saw the young man you nurtured making it
big.  He’s got all the cash in the world and you and Max here are living hand
to mouth.”

“I
get by.  I’m happy for Saul but you know I would rather him do something else. 
The man’s talented enough.  He’s got more brains then us two.”

I
smiled, “Don’t put yourself down there, Tony, you’re a smart guy.  I mean you
managed to hinder Saul’s drug trade with the shootings.”

The
cutman’s jaw clenched and Saul shot up from his chair which made me take a
backward step away from the man, “What the hell are you saying, Harper?”

“I’m
saying that Tony here has an issue with you selling drugs and since you are
carrying on with that profession he decided to put his army training to good
use.  You still have an old Lee Enfield rifle don’t you, Tony?  What about the
pistol you took off Saul when he was a kid?  Shooting his drug dealers with his
gun carries a certain amount of irony,” I said all that whilst trying to switch
off my phone which had decided to start ringing in my pocket.

Saul
looked to the old man slowly seemingly oblivious to the sounds of La Bamba
coming from my phone, “You still got my old man’s gun, right?”

Tony
shrugged, “It got stolen from my house a long time ago.  I always intended to
give it you back, Saul, when you were old enough but I couldn’t bring myself to
tell you someone had stolen it off me.”

Saul
rubbed his chin for moment before speaking, “You do have a rifle though.  I’ve
seen it at your flat.  Your flat that I rang when my men got shot at playing
football and you didn’t answer.”

“I
told you Saul I was sorry I wasn’t in I went to the offy for some booze.  And
the rifle is still there it’s not been fired for about thirty years.  I doubt
it even could fire a bullet, let alone be the gun that has been used to kill
people.”

I
was about to say something when my phone rang again, I hastily batted at the
device in my pocket.  The trio were looking at me and I got the feeling there
was doubt creeping into Saul’s mind about his friend.  So I made a quick joke
and pressed my advantage, “Guess I’m popular today.  Tony, a Lee Enfield rifle
was used in the shooting at Saul’s place, like the one you have.  You were
trained to use a rifle when you were in the army, you dislike the fact that
there are drugs on the streets where you grew up and you know that the person
you helped raise is the main person putting them on the streets.  All of that
suggests motive and opportunity.”

“Except
that I’m not the shooter.  Hell, me and Max have been shot at ourselves.”

“Yeah,
and that wasn’t with the revolver that was used in the recent killings.  That
could have been a grudge with any of your fighters or either of you two from a
whole host of people.”

Tony
looked exasperated and threw down his hands in despair, “Ok, what about the
other shooter, that guy who was on the telly when you chased him down.  They
said that he was a suspect because of his rifle, the type of weapon that was
used. Explain that.”

“Tony,
you know all the people in this area, you know if you wanted to get a weapon
you could.”

He
shook his head, “I’m an old man, Harper, getting up of a morning is hard enough
let alone traipsing through woods to try and shoot at an old friend. I don’t
exactly fraternize with the likes of Kai Nelson or that Burch kid over in Raky
either.  You also seem to forget that when I did my time in the Army I was a
medic.  Why would I ever kill someone?”

“Maybe
you just had enough of all of the death and the destruction to life around
you,” I offered but before I could give any more of an argument my phone rang
yet again.

“Just
take the call, Harper,” Saul said through gritted teeth.

I
dug the phone out of my pocket and accepted the call, “Hello, this isn’t a good
time.”

“John,
I really need to speak to you,” a breathless Camille said on the speaker.

“Like
I said, sweetie, this is not the best of times,” I replied lowering my voice
and turning away from the other men in the room.

“John,
I just received a voice recording from the shooter in my email.  It’s
definitely him, I’m sure of it.  He said he is going to escalate the violence
and start targeting police officers due to some collusion he has seen
recently.”

My
hand went to my forehead and I pinched the bridge of my nose before replying,
“Can you send me a copy of that message? I’ve got a number for you to contact,
I’ll send you that as soon as possible.  Do not release this story yet,
please.”

“I
can’t keep it a secret for long, John, and if I don’t put this information out
soon then people will die and I can’t live with that.”

“I
promise this will be sorted as soon as possible.  Just give me ten minutes.”

“Ok,
ten minutes,” she said, a little more calm returning to her voice.

“Thank
you, I’ll speak soon,” I ended the call and looked at the waiting gentlemen,
“Ok then…erm, Tony, how good are you with a computer?”

He
frowned at me, “I know how to switch it on but that is about it.  Never had
much use for them to be honest.”

I
rubbed my eyes and then held up my hands, “Then I’m in the strange situation of
being happy and sad to say that you are no longer a suspect, Tony.  I’m sorry
about this.”

Now
they say sorry is one of the hardest words to say and I have to agree.  The
main reason I hate saying it is that I hate to admit that I was wrong in any
way.  Since I am very rarely wrong I’d rather try and bluster my way out of the
situation, however when there is a room full of well armed men waiting for you
to walk out, you have to be man enough to stand up and admit your error.  Not
that apologising for wrongly suspecting Tony was easy either.  He seemed to
take it lightly, but Saul was not a happy bunny.  Neither was Max and both of
the men looked like they would happily beat me to a bloody pulp for my false
accusation.

I
explained that in every investigation there would be false leads and that I was
sorry for any inconvenience but new information had come to light that
suggested Tony wasn’t the shooter.  The old man could have been lying about his
proficiency with computers but I suspected he was telling the truth.  He was of
a generation that wouldn’t necessary leap at the idea of using a computer.  My
feeling was that Tony, if he was the shooter, would not contact someone
electronically, he was much more likely to use old-fashioned mail.

To
gain their trust again, I opened and played the email that Camille had sent me
on my phone.  Any lingering doubts I had went as I studied Tony’s face during the
message. Everyone was surprised at what the shooter had to say and the threat
he issued.  The distorted voice gave no clue as to who the person was, but I
didn’t doubt his threat.  I also didn’t doubt that the collusion he saw was my
saving Saul the night before.  Which meant I had another worry on my mind and
even more incentive to find the bastard, if he was going to use that to justify
killing police officers.

I
apologised again and told them I had to leave to continue my investigation.  I
knew I was pushing my luck but I needed time to think and there was a missed
call from Spencer on my phone. If he had information for me, I didn’t want to
discuss it within earshot of these men.  The two boxers were more than happy to
let me go but Saul was still pissed off and took me to one side.  He used the
techniques he had learnt from years of running an illegal business; that is he
threatened me.  It went along the lines of if I ever suggest that one of his
associates was the shooter again the authorities would never find enough of my
body parts to identify me.  Now I understand where he was coming from, I had
slandered one of the people who had raised him but the problem was it hindered
me from looking objectively at my suspect pool, which had now expanded.  Saul
pointed the finger at the young drug dealers saying I should focus on them
instead of his men.

I
managed to calm the man down and, as an added bonus to relax him, I told him
about the money making opportunity that was my dog running the next day.  Again,
on a personal level, not the best thing I could have done since it would no
doubt lead to some awkward questions in relation to betting practice for my
trainer and partner in the venture if not done right but I needed something to
appease Saul and the prospect of making money was good enough for him.

Walking
out of the gym, I immediately sent the recording to Harris, hoping that my
technical whizz could find out some information from the message.  In his usual
pessimistic style he said he doubted that he would be able to discover anything
useful for me and, if I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was just
saying that so he could not do any work and sit around the office.  I also
asked him to do some more background work on Nelson and his opposite number in
the Rakspeath gang Burch.  There may be something to Saul’s suspicions but it
was a desperate move for me since they had remained very much on the periphery
of the case.  Nothing in their files had suggested any sort of intelligence or
character traits that I would expect from this type of serial killer.

Once
Harris was given his tasks, I text Camille Spencer’s number and then rang the
detective as I walked to my car, “Spencer, please tell me you have some good
news,” I said slumping into the driver’s seat and closing my eyes, trying to
soothe the headache that had suddenly afflicted me.

“I’m
sorry to say I can’t.  I managed to get into Ashworth to speak to the armed
robber who had the gun last as far as our records know, and he sold it to
Boulton.”

I
let out a sigh of exasperation, “This shooter is too smart for his own good,
Spencer.  He’s closed the loop on the revolver and what’s the bet if we looked
at some of the victims from the football shooting that they could have also
passed on weapons?  Our best witness to find out who the shooter is and he was
the first person to die that we know of.  He’s closing loops.”

“It
doesn’t help us one bit either.  I take it things aren’t going well on your end
either.”

“They’re
worse than you can possibly imagine.  Firstly my chief suspect is probably
innocent and in accusing him, I managed to piss off Big Saul.  Secondly I had
to give up my good betting tip for the week to pacify that drug kingpin and
thirdly, and much more importantly, the shooter has got in touch with my
reporter friend.”

“What?
Are you being serious?”

Instinctively
I nodded even though I knew he couldn’t see me, “He sent her a message and she
is going to call you as soon as possible to go over it with her.  This shooter
says he is going to start targeting the police because he thinks there is
collusion between the boys in blue and drug dealers.  Now I’m not saying
everyone is squeaky clean and I’m sure you know people on the force who turn a
blind eye but he is really going over the line here.”

“He
went over the line when he first shot someone.”

“I
agree, but he needs to be found before he sends out a message that it is ok to
target cops.”

“But
we are left chasing shadows again.  This guy could come out of anywhere. This
is a big city, John, and we can’t protect the people and ourselves from every
threat,” There was a fear in Spencer’s voice that wasn’t personal.  He was
worried about the people around him, not himself, and he knew that if we didn’t
do something that it could be his friends and co-workers that ended up dead.

I
shook my head, “Then let’s hope that he starts making some mistakes before
things get a lot worse.  At the moment I have no idea how we’re gonna stop this
guy.  If you want I can meet you in town to go through what we’ve got and speak
to my reporter together.  When this story breaks it is going to have to be well
managed, you can be on the front end again.”

“It’s
not about being the face of this, John, I’m just doing my job and need the
bastard off the streets.”

“Let’s
get to work then.”