Dead or Alive (35 page)

‘Yes.'

‘I thought it looked out of place in this street.'

‘This street's OK, anyway, I won't be here much longer.'

‘It's a smart-looking machine. You bought it brand new?'

‘Not quite – it just looks new. And before you say anything, I got myself a seriously good deal, paid in full, cash money, much haggling.'

‘Did you threaten them with anything?'

Sep pulled a sad face and shook his head. ‘Nah, they're a respectable dealership. I had nothing to work with.'

‘That's what you get when you deal with respectable people.' She turned to look at it. ‘Wow! You really like your self-esteem.'

‘Winnie, I really like that car.'

‘So do I. Can I have a drive in it – with the hood down? I might get one myself.'

‘Why, have you come into money?'

‘Not yet, but I'm about to. I'm selling my story about Cyril Johnstone to the papers. I tracked down those two girls you told me about and they're happy to talk to the press. I think they're gonna make a big deal of it. Am I still not allowed to mention your name?'

‘Best not. I haven't got my job back yet.'

‘Sep, when you get your divorce, would you marry me?'

‘If you're going to propose to me, you'd better come in.'

She followed him inside. ‘Well, at least you didn't say no. I own my own house, no mortgage or anything. Did you know that?'

‘No, I didn't.'

‘And I'm currently free of all sexually transmitted diseases.'

‘Winnie, your proposal is damn near irresistible – if only you owned a brewery.'

‘Well, what do you say?'

‘Winnie, tomorrow I'm applying to get my job back as detective inspector. I don't wish to be indelicate but I will have to divulge all my personal details which will include my pending divorce. Now, if I divulge that I intend marrying a former prostitute, how do think that will go down with the West Yorkshire Police? Do you think that will persuade them to have me back?'

‘There's no need to tell them, surely.'

‘Not tell them what? Not tell them I'm getting married or not tell them I'm marrying an offender with assault and prostitution on her charge sheet?'

‘Do you have to keep saying that word, Sep? I haven't done any of that stuff for years and even then I was only part-time – as and when I was skint, and I never worked the streets. Upper end of the market, selected clients.'

‘That's right, you worked in Henrietta's Whorehouse.'

‘There you go again. That was a name the police gave the place. It was actually very well appointed inside and was just called Henrietta's to the clients. All I ever did was to avail myself of her business facilities from time to time.'

‘I'm guessing it paid for this house you own.'

‘Do me a favour. What I made doing that wouldn't have bought me the garden shed. The house came from a husband of mine who died.'

‘I didn't know that. Sorry to hear it.'

‘Don't be.' Winnie took out her pipe and proceeded to load it with tobacco. ‘He got drunk one Christmas Eve and walked under a bus. The mortgage was paid off by his insurers and I ended up with the house. I was twenty-three, he was forty-three and he treated me badly.' She lit her pipe, blew out two smoke rings and added, ‘Best Christmas present I've ever had.'

‘I've never known anyone who could blow smoke rings with a pipe.'

‘It takes years of practice. Oh, and I've got an apartment in Benidorm, courtesy of one of my clients.'

‘What? A punter left you an apartment in his will?'

‘Yeah, they've got to leave their stuff to someone – and he wasn't even a proper client, just an old man who needed a young woman to stroke his head and talk to him now and again. I was very good at that. So, what do you say?'

‘Winnie, I'm not sure that being your husband's a smart career move. Look, it's not what you've been, it's that I don't want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.'

‘So I'm the fire am I?'

Sep grinned, ‘You're certainly fiery.'

‘Maybe I can just stay the night with you from time to time, and you can stay with me. You know, avail ourselves of each other, as and when the need arises.'

‘Sounds like a good arrangement,' said Sep. ‘We can start right now if you like.'

‘Right now I'm going to see my bank about buying a brewery, and I'm going in a flash Jaguar just to impress him.'

‘Formosa's denying everything,' said Superintendent Ibbotson.

Sep was in his office having officially applied for reinstatement as a DI, but Ibbotson seemed more interested in the Formosa case, which still might hold problems for Sep.

‘He told me where the children were, sir. Isn't that enough?'

‘You'd think so, Black, but the CPS are scared of this top barrister he's got. We've only got your word that Formosa told you.'

‘What about Cope's word? He was there.'

‘The defence will try to brand ex-Inspector Cope as an unreliable witness, with him admitting to being in Formosa's pay.'

‘But that means everyone who turns Queen's Evidence is unreliable.'

‘Some of them are, and Formosa's brief is just arguing on one particular point – the point where Formosa told you where the children were. It's Formosa's word against your word and Cope's, and neither of you have got great track records.'

‘Unlike Formosa's great track record.'

‘I know, I know. But we need to nail him properly, once and for all. He's also saying you threatened him with a gun and even fired off a couple of shots. Being in unlawful possession of a firearm might well render your evidence as unreliable. The forensic people have dug out two bullets and found a couple of casings on the floor.'

Sep was mentally kicking himself for not picking up the casings. ‘I did what I had to do to get the children free, sir, and I used Cope as part of my subterfuge.'

‘Subterfuge? You must tell me more about this subterfuge.'

‘Well, as you may know, sir, when faced with a stubborn miscreant I often stretch the truth to scare the real truth out of them.'

‘Yes, I'm aware it's one of your interview techniques.'

‘How are the children, by the way, sir?'

‘As well as can be expected. They were interviewed in some depth and it appears that the boy is some sort of a hero – certainly to his sister. He helped them both escape and it would have worked had it not been for some old scrote whose door they knocked on for help and had it slammed in their faces.'

‘So the end justified the, er, the unconventional means I was forced to employ, sir – and in this case, the end was saving the lives of those children.'

‘And a payment of one hundred thousand pounds to you. The CPS know all about that too.'

‘It was actually a hundred and twenty five thousand, but the CPS probably know I risked my life doing it.'

‘Well, they might wonder about your sanity in doing such a thing.'

‘I wasn't working simply for the money, sir. I saw a way of frightening the truth out of him and I took it. It wasn't something I could have done had I still been a policeman.'

‘No? Please explain.'

‘Before I do, sir, I would need to request immunity from prosecution regarding my unlawful use of a firearm.'

‘Really? And why would the CPS grant you that?'

‘Because I have video evidence of Formosa's confession, sir.'

Ibbotson's eyebrows shot up in surprise. ‘Video evidence? Why the bloody hell haven't you told me that before?'

‘Because I'm behind the camera firing an illegal gun.'

‘Ah.'

‘I hoped we might have enough on him without it. I threatened him with a gun and I knew it might get me into trouble. Anyway, I videoed it all, and there's no editing. What you see is exactly what happened, including Cope's part in it.'

‘And what
was
Cope's part in it?'

‘He was Formosa's right-hand man. I told him I had enough evidence against him to send him down if he didn't cooperate with me against Formosa. He agreed and it worked like a charm, sir.'

‘What worked like a charm?'

‘I pretended to shoot Cope dead for not telling me where the children were. I put a blank in the gun and fitted Cope up with an exploding blood capsule. I got Formosa and Cope to sit side by side then I asked Cope to tell me where the children were, he said he didn't know, so I pretended to shoot him dead. I pulled the trigger quite casually, as though I was a psychopath who didn't care a toss about killing people. Cope fell backwards, chair and all, with blood all over his shirt. It was very realistic, sir. Then I turned the gun on Formosa and told him, quite casually, that I'd shoot him dead as well if he didn't tell me where the kids were – which of course he did.'

‘Good God, man! And you want me to put this to the CPS do you? The first question they'll ask is where did you get the gun?'

‘I acquired it from a contact.'

‘Does the contact have a name?'

‘Yes, but for me to betray their identity would lose me a lot of valuable information in the long run – that's if I were to get my job back.'

‘Is that so?'

‘Well, it might be to my advantage to point out to the CPS that DI Cope, the officer leading the investigation, was corrupt and that I was aware of this and had made my suspicions known to my colleagues, but none of them believed me.'

‘And that includes me,' grunted Ibbotson.

‘I don't know what to say about that, sir. The truth is that the Strathmores were having to rely on an officer in Formosa's pay to get their children back. Had I not intervened, the children would have been killed whether or not the money was paid. I think the CPS need to be told that, sir.'

Ibbotson sighed. ‘That will no doubt damage me, but you're quite right. Better that it comes direct from me than from anyone else. They'll be told about your suspicions, and the fact that you were ignored.'

‘Thank you, sir. Along with my video recording of Formosa telling me exactly where the children were, plus many other things, including him admitting that he's burnt a lot of bodies in his furnace. He also exonerates me from beating my wife. That was all Cope's doing.'

‘And
did
you have enough evidence to send Cope down?'

‘Not really, sir. I made a few educated guesses when I discussed things with him, but I seem to have hit enough nerves for him to go along with me.'

‘You appear to have a wonderful knack with the educated guess, Mr Black.'

‘I think by now you have enough against him to send him down.'

‘Is that what you think? Did you tell Cope I was as bent as him? That I was in Formosa's pay as well?'

‘I just said that to throw him, sir – to make him believe he wasn't indispensable to Formosa.'

‘And he believed you?'

‘He did, sir.'

‘The bastard!'

‘That's what I thought, sir.'

‘According to him,' said Ibbotson, ‘you told him that you could get him off with no more than dismissal from the force, loss of pension and no prison time if he cooperated with you. And you told him you were employed as an undercover man by the West Yorkshire Police, which was why you could make such an offer.'

‘Is that what he said I said, sir? Well, I do tend to ramble on a bit when I'm being creative. But a man would have to be really gullible to believe such a rubbish.'

‘Or really desperate.'

‘True, but I needed him to be really desperate – and there's no one more desperate than a copper facing long prison time. Lying to him was the only way I could get to those children. Let's face it, sir, Cope had this nick believing all sorts of terrible lies about me.'

‘Well, it strikes me, Black, that you've beaten Cope at his own game. The CPS think that if they get a conviction he'll get life with a ten year tariff at least.'

‘
If
they get a conviction, sir? I thought there'd be no
if
about it.'

‘The
if
is down to your unconventional methods of extracting evidence.'

‘I was concentrating on getting the kids free, sir, using any method I could.'

‘I know that, but a top brief might well spot a loophole.'

‘Can the CPS spot a loophole?'

‘They're a bit non-committal at the moment.'

‘What about Formosa?' asked Sep.

‘Do you have one of these iPhone things on which you can show me this video?'

‘I do, sir.'

Sep took out his iPhone and played the superintendent a video of his interview with Formosa, complete with the fake shooting of Cope, and Formosa telling him exactly where the children were.

‘Is there any reason why this might not be allowed in court, sir?'

‘I don't know. The judge would have to be swayed by the overall weight of evidence against Formosa.'

‘Good God, sir! How much evidence do they need? Oh, I've got a memory stick with details of Formosa's property portfolio.'

‘How did you obtain this?'

‘I was given it by Derek Manson who handles all Formosa's property. It would be interesting to have Formosa tell us where he got the money from to buy it all, and were they bought without the sellers being put under duress, such as what happened to Peter Strathmore.'

‘And Manson just gave you this, did he? Not under any duress or subterfuge?'

‘Subterfuge, sir?'

‘Yes. Did he think you were a police officer?'

‘Er, yes, sir.'

‘The defence counsel will crucify you when you tell him that. What we need is evidence that doesn't involve Formosa being threatened with an illegal firearm by a man kicked off the force for killing a member of parliament and then impersonating a policeman to obtain a property portfolio. Their defence will have a field day with that.'