Silas shook his head and rubbed his pendant. ‘Listen to me and the wise owl, I trust him cos he gotta trust me good. I know more about him an’ could get him banged up for a fifteen stretch. This is a payback, and if he is fuckin’ us over I will grass him up. That dough in the safety deposit was the takin’s from a robbery where a young rozzer got shot in the legs with a sawn-off. You understand me? Don’t think I’m some damned ass-stupid Greek that works tables.’
John nodded and looked at his watch. He’d been with Silas for nearly an hour and any worries he’d had were now allayed. He was confident that not only could they trust him, but also he was a shrewd man eager to get on with the job.
‘OK, let’s start the ball rolling, I’ll begin bringing the decorating gear over tomorrow night,’ he said with a sly grin.
Jane had arrived at work just before midday. She and Kath were sitting in the incident room updating the index cards, proofreading and filing statements.
‘I can’t believe how much my sister is carrying on about the wedding. She’ll no doubt have a fit when she sees me in the bridesmaid outfit — makes me look like Jayne Mansfield because of the corset.’
‘Can’t you get it altered?’
‘No time, it’s all been so rushed.’
‘She’s not up the duff, is she?’
‘No, she is not,’ Jane said indignantly.
‘Is she a virgin like you then?’ Kath said, grinning.
‘Don’t start on that again, Kath. I’m not in the mood for it, I mean what with my cleavage, the puffball sleeves and this huge sash with a big bow and the most awful shade — salmon-pink — I will look terrible.’
Kath tried hard not to laugh at the thought. ‘Not with a figure like you’ve got. Besides, look on the positive side — the sleeves might distract from your boobs hanging out.’
‘Shut up,’ Jane said as she threw a paper clip at Kath.
‘Do you two ever stop pissing about?’ Bradfield said as he entered the room.
‘We weren’t, sir. I asked her to throw me a clip to hold these statement pages together,’ Kath replied sheepishly.
‘Has Spencer Gibbs called in from Coventry?’
‘Yes, sir, about three hours ago. They arrested Dwayne Clark at an address this morning,’ Kath said and handed him notes she’d made of an earlier phone conversation with DS Gibbs.
‘That’s brilliant. What about the bloke known as Big Daddy, or Josh?’
‘Neither of them was there.’
‘Bollocks, so we’re still no further forward. What else did Gibbs say?’
‘He’s bringing Clark straight here. He should be back soon.’
‘Well, let’s hope he persuades Dwayne to see the light before they get onto the North Circular.’ He was about to leave when he turned to Jane.
‘All those bits of paper in Julie Ann’s patchwork bag — you get anything from them?’
Jane held up some sheets of paper from the desk next to her.
‘I’ve copied everything down, sir. I am still working on them, but nothing of interest so far. I’ve made a note that Anjali O’Duncie was wrong about overhearing the name “Paddy”, and Julie Ann actually made the call to her father so it was “Daddy” and not connected to Big Daddy the drug dealer.’
Bradfield grabbed Jane’s notes from her hand and had a quick glance-over before dropping them down on her desk. ‘Well, pull your finger out, Tennison. I’ve got the DCS on my back and he wants results. If DS Gibbs returns in the next hour tell him I’ll be in the canteen.’
Jane waited until he left the room and looked at Kath who was checking her watch. ‘Kath, can you help me with this? There’s initials, odd names and phone numbers... but I just haven’t—’
‘No can do, Jane. I’ve got to go over to Old Street Court. That burglar I nicked screwing the old people’s flats is appearing. I shouldn’t be too long as he’s pleading guilty and asking for a number of other burglary offences to be taken into consideration.’
‘That’s a great result, Kath, and good for your career.’
‘Kind of odd because he’s a nasty little sod and then there was all that cash we found hidden under his bed. He must have done way more jobs than he’s admitting to. Then again maybe he’s being a bit savvy as he was caught bang to rights. If he was found guilty by a jury at a trial he’d get an even heavier prison sentence. Still, either way at least he’ll be behind bars where he belongs, and the old ’uns will feel a bit safer.’
Jane had just started to go through the names and numbers from Julie Ann’s bag when a sharply dressed DS Gibbs walked in singing ‘Nights In White Satin’. He asked where Bradfield was and she informed him the DCI was in the canteen before asking if Dwayne Clark had said anything on the journey back. Gibbs told her briefly that he had denied knowing Julie Ann and Eddie Phillips and didn’t know any Big Daddy or where Josh lived, but thanks to a Coventry drug squad informant they now had various possible names for him.
‘Josh Richards, Jenkins, Rankin — all bullshit, no doubt, so Christ knows what his real name actually is. Do me a favour while I speak with the boss — can you go through all the index cards, statements, information, in fact everything we have and check if the name “Tod” appears anywhere?’
‘Well, he asked me to check off Julie Ann’s stuff asap,’ Jane said.
‘Make my request the priority, and don’t look so worried, he’ll agree with me.’ Gibbs did a quick drum beat on the desk then resumed his singing as he left the room.
Bradfield was just finishing his bread-and-butter pudding with custard when Gibbs put his coffee and sandwich down on the table and sat opposite him.
‘We got Dwayne.’
‘I heard, but not Big Daddy, which is what I would have preferred.’
‘I know, but I’m pretty certain that Josh is the first name of Big Daddy. There are different surnames he uses, but I need to do a bit of digging on them.’
‘Did Dwayne say anything in the car?’
Gibbs finished a mouthful of his sandwich. ‘Nope, just repeated word for word what his girlfriend told us about expanding the window-cleaning business and being out of London for over a week at the material times. The bloke at the place he was staying alibied him — not even a used spliff in the place. Dwayne admitted working in the window-cleaning business with a Josh, but conveniently doesn’t know where he lives as he recently moved. He also denied either of them were dealers.’
‘You’re losing your touch, Spence.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Over two hours in a car with a suspect and you couldn’t break him to get a full name and address.’
‘I tell you he’s a tough one, and I got the impression he’s frightened of Big Daddy like Eddie Phillips was. I gave him a slap and even locked him in the boot of the car for nearly an hour. He was sweating like a pig but he still didn’t crack.’
‘Get him out of the cell and bring him up to my office so I can interview him,’ Bradfield said, pushing his dessert bowl to one side and standing up.
‘He’s not in the cell. I released him on the North Circular.’
‘You effing did that without even consulting me!’
‘I tried to get hold of you but you weren’t available. Come on, it isn’t as bad as it sounds. I’d already stopped and called the central surveillance unit at the Yard while he was in the boot. They were ready and waiting to tail Dwayne when I kicked him out the car, so no doubt he should lead us to Big Daddy.’
‘They’d better bloody well not lose him.’
‘Even if they do we still know where he lives with his girlfriend, and he’s unlikely to do a runner,’ Gibbs said, getting out his notebook and flicking it open to the last page. ‘I searched through Dwayne’s gear and there was a bit of notepaper with “TOD” in capital letters and a Primrose Hill dialling code on it, and sort of dots and ticks beside it. Might be a good lead so I didn’t take the actual note as I didn’t want to give away I’d seen it. But you know dealers do use their own forms of made-up code.’