Call & Response Page 15

  ‘Me, scared? You’ve got me mixed up with someone else, marrer. I’m fearless, me. Like I told you before, I’m feeling guilty. That’s it, honest.’

  ‘Get out’ said Armstrong firmly, and now Pepper looked round at him. ‘You heard me, get out of the bloody car, Gary.’

  ‘Now wait a minute. I’m confessing here. It was me who jumped you. You’ve got to nick me. That’s the bloody law, that is.’

  ‘Since when were you an expert on the law? All right, I’ll make you a deal. And you’d better say yes, because this is the best offer you’re going to get. You tell me who you’re afraid of, and why, and we’ll take you in. You don’t have to name him or her in your statement, but you have to tell us now, OK?’

  ‘Her? No way is it a woman. What do you bloody take me for? All right, I’ll tell you. It’s Dai Young. Pepper knows him. He’s got it into his head that I’m a grass.’

  ‘And are you?’

  ‘Fuck, no. I’ve never grassed in my life, and I’ll never mention his name again. Do you get me, marrer?’

  ‘I do. But why would he think you’re a grass if you’re not, Gary? What is he, paranoid?’

  ‘Ask her.’

  ‘You mean Acting DI Wilson?’

  ‘Aye, who else would I mean?’

  Pepper shook her head, but didn’t turn towards Flynn. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Gary. You’re just rambling, mate. Fantasising, like. When we get back to the nick I’m going to get the MO to check you over, just to make sure that you’ve not gone bloody mental, and then we’ll sort you out with the very best Duty Solicitor that twenty quid an hour will buy. How does that sound?’

  ‘I don’t need a bloody brief. Just take my statement and get me remanded. I will get remanded, won’t I?’

  ‘Duffing up a copper and then admitting it gets you the extended stay, Gary. No question about that.’

  ‘Then let’s get on with it. Drive on, lad.’

  Armstrong turned to Pepper, who smiled back. ‘You heard the man’ she said. ‘Let’s go.’

  It was all over in two hours. Flynn admitted the assault, and settled down for a night in the cells.

  ‘I just don’t understand it’ said the Duty Solicitor, as he was packing his case in the interview room. ‘Don’t worry about it, Fred’ said Pepper. ‘I don’t either, and I don’t bloody care. I can never understand why most of them do any of the things they do, and I stopped asking years ago. He did it, he’s coughed to it, and that’s an end of it, I’m afraid. Bad for the old fees, maybe, but there it is.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that, love. I’ll live, I expect.’

  Armstrong was going to get up to hold the door open for the elderly lawyer, but Pepper put her hand on his arm. ‘We’ll just stay and chat for a bit, shall we?’

  Armstrong started speaking before Fred was quite out of the room. ‘So you’ve met this David Young character, I take it?’

  ‘Many times. I’ve known him since we were both about three years old.’

  ‘Recently, I meant.’

  ‘Aye, I’ve seen him recently. I mentioned him to the Super yesterday, in fact.’

  ‘And you wouldn’t have mentioned Gary Flynn to this Young as well, would you?’

  ‘The name might have come up, aye.’

  ‘Mentioned by you, I expect.’

  ‘Possibly, aye, very possibly.’

  ‘And might you have suggested that Gary is a grass?’

  ‘But he’s not, is he?’

  ‘He’s not registered, no.’

  ‘Then why would I tell a lie, Henry? I’m a sworn Police officer, after all. But tell me this, would you disapprove, like, if I had convinced Young that Gary Flynn is a grass?’

  ‘But that might have got him killed though, Pepper.’

  She shrugged. ‘Would you disapprove?’

  ‘Yes. No. Look I’m not sure, OK? It’s complicated, isn’t it?’

  ‘It certainly is. So it’s a good thing it never actually happened then, isn’t it?’

  Armstrong nodded, slowly. It was complicated. Not in principle perhaps, but certainly in practice. ‘And what about all that other stuff he was telling us in the car?’

  ‘After he told us again that he’s not a grass, you mean?’

  Armstrong laughed. ‘Aye, when he’d said that, like. Was it all bullshit, do you think? To try and excuse why he’s so shit-scared of this Young, maybe. I had a look at the bloke’s record, and to be honest he doesn’t look like a psycho. Not by a long shot. So all that stuff about Young being here for something big, and for some gangsters from down south being involved, that’s all just bollocks, is it?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Probably all talk, aye. You know what cons are like, absolutely full of it. But what if it’s not, all talk I mean? What then?’

  ‘Then we’ll be kept busy, won’t we, Henry? But you’re up for the fight, that’s obvious.’

  ‘I am, aye.’

  ‘Good, and Rex is a really good young copper.’

  ‘I’ve got a lot to learn from him. I know that.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant. I meant that we’re a team now, aren’t we? So bring it right on, I say. The likes of Dai Young doesn’t frighten us. Never has, and never bloody will.’

  Pepper Wilson returned to her office before Flynn was formally charged. That was partly because she didn’t feel quite as good about it as she’d expected to, and partly because she was just far too busy to savour the moment. There was no way that she would give the Super the slightest excuse to bring in a more senior SIO on the Afridi case, no matter how many investigative arms and legs it grew. Nothing that Sandy Smith and her team had discovered so far suggested a wider conspiracy, or even that many more victims would come to light. And that would be a blessing, if it happened that way. But it would be the public appeal for information that would establish whether they were actually looking at a really substantial number of victims. So for the next half-hour Pepper made notes on the points that she’d like to be covered in the appeal, and prepared herself to argue her corner with the CPS and that bloody blonde woman from the press office.

  The after-school club chucked out at six, and Pepper arrived at just after quarter past. Penny, the manager, didn’t really listen to Pepper’s excuses, and Pepper didn’t blame her. She’d sat in enough interview rooms listening to recidivists recite their litany of lame-brain bollocks to know that there wasn’t any point. But she tried one more time, anyway.

  ‘I’m really sorry, love. But we’re on with a really big case. You probably saw it on the local news.’

  ‘Oh, aye, that. And I hope you bloody get them, love. But within my working hours, like.’

  ‘Point taken.’

  ‘We’ll have to start fining you again soon, love, if this goes on.’

  ‘I understand.’

  Ben looked uncomfortable. He didn’t like hearing his mum getting told off.

  ‘Mind you’, added Penny, ‘I blame the parents for your case. Single parents, most of them. What were they thinking, letting their kids out at all hours, getting involved with people like that.’

  ‘Aye, well, there is that.’ Pepper took Ben’s hand, smiled at Penny with all the goodwill that she could muster, and set off for the car. And she made a point of looking very carefully at the painting, folded and stuck-together, that he solemnly presented to her when she’d got him settled on his car seat. She was pretty sure that it was an elephant, and she was about to say so.

  ‘It’s the castle’ he said, after a moment. ‘We went there today.’

  ‘Of course it is, love. It’s absolutely great.’

  ‘Is the castle where bad people get sent?’

  ‘It used to be. We have prisons now.’

  ‘Is my dad in prison, mummy?’

  ‘No, Ben, of course not.’ She was going to ask why he thought that, but stopped herself. There was no need to ask. He wasn’t there, and that was reason enough.

  ‘W
hy doesn’t he come and see me then, mummy? I think about him every night, at bedtime.’

  Pepper felt her eyes fill with tears, and she blinked hard to clear her vision. It was like driving through a thunderstorm.

  ‘I love you, Ben’ she said.

  ‘And I love you too, mum. What’s for tea? Can we have chips?’

  ‘Go on then, seeing as it’s you.’

  When Ben was in bed, and Pepper’s aunty Ruth had finished her coffee and was half way through her weekly digest of the local gossip, Pepper interrupted her.

  ‘Would you mind if I popped out for a minute, love?’

  ‘But you look done in, Samantha. Why not sit and chat with me for another ten minutes, then head for bed? You’ve caught those horrible men now, so you can relax, can’t you?’

  Pepper smiled. She was always surprised when something made her aware of the level of trust that the great British public still had in the Police, even if they grossly overestimated the extent of Cumbria Constabulary’s ability to actually deliver against that trust.

  ‘I just need to pop out for twenty minutes, Ruth. I need to pick up a couple of bits from the convenience store on the corner. So how about a cheeky G&T to keep you company while I’m gone, eh?’

  Pepper didn’t want to go out, but her cupboards were almost bare, and even the freezer was empty. She poured her aunt a decent drink, added an extra splash of gin for good measure, and took a sip for herself. The lemon that she’d used was past its best, but the gin more than made up for that, she decided. So she took another sip, just to be sure.

  She set off for the shop, but even as she’d pulled the front door closed behind her she’d known that she was going somewhere else first. She’d not seen her dad in many months, but she still thought about him every day as well, the bastard. His flat was a five minute walk away, and she knew he’d be at home. He didn’t have the money to be anywhere else.

  ‘Sam, love’ he said, when he answered the door. ‘I’ve been thinking about you.’

  She followed him in, and braced herself for the smell of old take-aways and beer. It was bad, but she’d been to worse. She knew that her dad would be found, sometime quite soon, ten days dead, and someone would have to clear all this shit up afterwards. But it wouldn’t be her. She already knew that.

  ‘How have you been?’ she asked, not even attempting to sit down.

  ‘Aye, not great. You know. My luck’s bad again.’

  ‘When was it ever good, dad? Look, I can’t stay. I just wanted to check that you were, you know….’

  ‘Alive? Aye, I’m still here. But you’d prefer it if I wasn’t, I expect.’

  ‘Don’t start that shit again, dad. I told you, you’re not coming to live with me and Ben, and that’s final. Not now, not ever.’

  ‘You don’t want me around him, do you? He needs a man about the place though, doesn’t he?’

  ‘No, he does not. And he certainly doesn’t need you, dad. I just came to check that you’re all right, that’s all.’

  There was a pause, and Penny stood in the middle of the room, right below the harsh overhead light. It was making her scalp crawl, or at least something was.

  ‘Can I make you a cup of tea, love?’

  ‘No. I don’t have time. I’d better go.’

  ‘You get off, then. You’re such a busy lass. I’m right proud, honest. But could you lend me a few quid? I’ve got nowt in. You can check if you like.’

  ‘No need, dad. I know you haven’t. Tell you what. I’m off to the shops now so I’ll get you a few bits, and drop them here on my way back home, how’s that?’

  ‘No. Can’t you do what I ask, just for once? It always has to be your way, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Bollocks, dad. I’m off. How many times have I given you cash, over the years? I could have paid off my mortgage by now. Do you even remember when you used to take my pocket money, eh? Do you? Well you bloody should. Like I told you years ago, I don’t believe you, not a bloody word you say. And I’m a copper, dad. I know a worthless con when I see one.’

  ‘Worthless?’

  ‘Aye, worthless. But I came to give you something anyway, a warning. Dai Young is back in town, but I expect you already knew that.’ Her father didn’t reply, which Pepper took as a yes. ‘And he’s recruiting too, we know that. Proper villains, dad, not piss-heads like you. But I think he might send one of his lads round here, and get you signed up, just to piss me off, like. And I wanted to tell you that you really do need to say no.’

  ‘Oh, aye?’ She knew that expression. It was probably her earliest memory of anything about him, and she’d always hated it. Sly, selfish and stupid.

  ‘So he’s already been round then, has he? I’m not surprised. Well you need to give back-word on whatever it is you’ve agreed to do, dad. Because if anything happens in this city that has the smell of Dai Young on it then I’ll nick you first, and that’s a bloody promise.’

  ‘So what’s it worth, lass, if I do keep my distance, like? Not that I’m saying he’s recruiting.’

  ‘To me? Fuck all, dad. You’re totally on your own, just like me. And, just so we’re clear, I won’t treat you like any other shit-for-brains con if I catch you. Oh no, I’ll come down on you so hard you’ll be breathing through your toes for a month. Is that clear?’

  ‘Aye, all right, love. But could you not spare me a tenner, just for a carry-out, like?’

  By the time she’d finished her shopping Pepper had calmed down. She recognised the woman at the till, and half-remembered that she’d nicked her boy for something back when she was a DC.

  ‘All right, Pepper?’ the woman said, cheerfully. ‘Well done for nicking those lads. Everyone knew about it, of course.’

  ‘Well they should have bloody told us then, Sarah.’

  ‘Aye, I suppose so. But you don’t want to be called a racist, do you?’

  ‘It’s people’s public duty to help us, when they’re aware that a serious crime is being committed’ said Pepper, hearing the tiredness and irritation in her voice.

  The woman carried on scanning, and pointed down at some items on the belt.

  ‘I didn’t know you had another little one. Congratulations, love.’

  ‘Oh, the nappies and baby food? No, they’re not for me. They’re for someone else, a friend. She’s having a bit of a hard time at the moment, like. I’ll find a cab outside, and get the stuff sent round to her place tonight.’

  ‘That’s really kind of you. But what is it?’

  ‘Come again?’

  ‘Has she had a boy or a girl, your mate? I hope it’s a girl.’

  ‘I don’t know, to tell you the truth. I think it’s a boy. Aye, it is, I remember now. But why did you hope it’s a girl then, Sarah?’

  ‘Because lads are nothing but bloody trouble, now aren’t they, love?’