‘Listen, Tennison. This is not my case… I’ve already done my part tonight. I was only interested in checking out Moran, and that’s what I’ve done. He’s not a bent copper, as I knew he wouldn’t be. I’m not involved, all right? You were on this business at Hackney, so now it’s down to you to do the run around and report to Moran in the morning.’
Jane was in a quandary. She really hadn’t expected Gibbs to just leave her to handle all the new information, but she had no option. They drove Janet to a high rise council estate, where she was staying with her mother-in-law who was caring for her little boy. She had grown very quiet in the car and moaned about her hip hurting. Gibbs helped her out of the rear passenger side and she walked very slowly towards the entrance of her block. He stayed with her as she got into the dirty lift, which stank of urine, and the floor was littered with cigarette butts.
‘Which floor?’
‘Six… the button someone has stubbed a cigarette out on.’
He watched her press the button, and as the gates started to close he stepped out.
Gibbs was silent as he drove Jane back to the section house. She had attempted to be a team player, but she really felt as if she was on her own again.
He parked up and decided to go across the road to the Warburton Arms, where he knew he could get a drink even after closing time. The first person he saw, playing snooker, was DI Nick Moran.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The following morning Jane was in the ladies’ locker room and hadn’t even taken off her coat when Edith walked in.
‘You’d better get over to Hackney – DI Moran has called three times. He says he has an update on the Allard trial. I’ll make a note in the schedule that that’s where you’ll be.’
‘Is DI Gibbs in?’
‘He’s in, but he’s having a meeting with DCI Shepherd and left instructions that he didn’t want to be disturbed.’
Jane had a terrible sinking feeling as she left Bow Street. She was sure that Spencer Gibbs had gone behind her back and spoken to Moran. Her fears were confirmed when, on arriving at the reception in Hackney Station, DC Brian Edwards told her that DI Moran was waiting to see her in his office, and he wasn’t a happy man.
Moran was perching on the edge of his desk, his office door open, as Jane approached.
‘Sir…’ Her stomach was churning.
‘Shut the door behind you. You know, Tennison, if you were a bloke I would grab you by your collar and throw a punch at your smug little face. I don’t know what you think you’ve been playing at, but I am going to hear what you’ve got to say before I get you back in uniform directing traffic.’
‘I am not in any way smug, sir, I’m just very nervous. I never had any intention of acting on my own, it was just circumstances and my need to double-check before I brought my findings to anyone’s attention, especially yours.’
Moran leaned forward, pulling his loud tie loose from his shirt collar.
‘I’m all ears…’
‘May I refer to my notes?’
Moran gave the go-ahead with his hands. Jane opened her bag and took out her notebook.
‘You can obviously verify the dates, sir. On the night of the twenty-third of August uniform officers brought in a prostitute called Janet Brown. She had been badly beaten and had a deep knife wound to her chest and left breast, which required hospital treatment. She was photographed and a report made out but she refused to press charges, claiming that she was unable to identify the man as he had worn a balaclava.’
Moran stared at her, his blue eyes holding hers, and acted as if what she was saying was obvious.
Jane continued.
‘The CID were brought in to investigate the rape of a young girl who was found semi-conscious on the morning of the twenty-fourth of August. She had suffered a terrible beating and was unable to identify the rapist as he had worn a black woollen mask covering his entire face. But timewise it was possible that she had been raped earlier the same night as Janet Brown. But the two cases were not, to begin with, linked as having the same perpetrator.’
He banged his chair to sit forward. ‘I linked them.’
‘I know you did, sir, because you brought in Janet Brown, under the assumed name of Mary Kelly, and re-questioned her. But this was two weeks later, when you organized a CID operation and used me as a decoy. I believe you gave me the blue rabbit fur coat as it was probable that the rapist intended Janet Brown to be his victim, and not the young girl.’
Moran leaned forward, and flicked through a statement, not looking at Jane. He then sighed and picked up a pencil.
‘The prostitute – Janet Brown, Mary Kelly, Angie – was unable to identify her attacker and refused point blank to assist my operation, which was why I held her in the cells. She was released the following morning after we had arrested Peter Allard.’
‘I know that, sir. I also know that she is capable of identifying him. She pulled his balaclava off when he was attacking her.’
‘Perhaps what you don’t know, Tennison, is that Janet Brown, aka Mary Kelly, aka Angie, had stolen a bag of takings from a taxi around about a month beforehand… it was a lot of money, nearly four hundred quid as he had been doing airport runs. He had argued about paying her after sex, so she stole it and did a runner. So now we have a known hooker who steals a load of money from Peter Allard. When he did catch up with her he beat the shit out of her, because she was a thief. Are you following me, Tennison?’
‘Yes, sir… I didn’t know that it was Janet who had stolen Allard’s money…’ She swallowed and took a deep breath.
‘No, you didn’t know… but I did. So you tell me what a jury are going to believe? A known tart with a long list of previous arrests for prostitution, or are they going to say she deserved what she got and that he didn’t rape her? He’s a hard-working man with a wife and two kids. It was the first time he had ever been arrested… look at how he behaved in court, head hanging down and weeping, all innocent. He even admitted that he did fondle a few women, but he denied rape.’
Jane couldn’t look at him.
‘I wanted him for the rape of that seventeen-year-old innocent girl. I wanted him charged with sexual assaults that I had no evidence to prove he did, but I knew he did them. Look at the way he attacked you and how he acted in court and what you were subjected to by his defence council. So you tell me, why would I not use Janet Brown as a witness?’
‘I don’t know, sir?’
‘She is a tart… but she’s also an informer and has been for years. One court appearance and she’s no use to us. You have no idea just how useful she has been. And you think after one conversation with her that you know her?’
‘But she was blackmailing Marie Allard, sir.’
Moran threw up his hands and laughed, becoming increasingly impatient.
‘That’s how she survives, Tennison! Allard cut her breasts and scarred her… he would have killed her if we hadn’t stopped him.’
Jane was unable to hold back.
‘So you knew what Allard had done to Janet Brown, and yet you made me wear her blue fur coat and planted me as a decoy, knowing that he had almost killed her?’
Moran lifted his arms up again.
‘Yes, I own up to that. We lost sight of you for a few minutes. But it was only a few minutes…’
‘So, I’m wearing Janet Brown’s blue fur coat… you want Allard to think I am her and for him to attack me, so that you can arrest him? Because you already had the knife he used in the rape, and when he slashed Janet.’
Moran folded his arms. After a long pause he spoke. For the first time she could see he was uneasy, eventually choosing his words carefully.
‘What choice do I have? I’m pretty certain he may be connected to a murder that occurred five years ago. If I don’t put him away he’s going to kill again.’