“And if I find him, what? You’ll deal with him?”
“No, no. This is too risky for me, in my position. I’m sure you understand. You, McClure, will find this person. And then you’ll take him out.”
“I won’t do it.”
Craig made an odd noise. I thought he was choking on his beer at first, and wondered why Stan or one of the lads didn’t rush over to help him. Then I realised the noise was a genial chuckle.
“A pity,” he said. And he looked past me and a few feet above my right ear. Though I couldn’t see what he was looking at, a picture of Stan’s face drifted into my mind, frightened me enough to give me nightmares, and drifted out again.
“I’ll try to find him, Eddie. I can probably do that. But after that, it’s up to you.”
“I don’t think you fully understand the situation. There’s another aspect you haven’t considered yet.”
I took in his continued eye contact with Stan.
“I suppose you mean what you’ll do to me if I don’t agree. Is that it?”
“Oh, not you,” he said. “I don’t think that would achieve very much. I think you’re too stupid for that. It wouldn’t be what I’d do to you, but to your girlfriend.”
A little cold shudder went through me. For the first time, I felt real fear.
“Miss Lisa Prior, isn’t it? A nice looking young lady. Very intelligent, and well-educated. Too good for you, McClure.”
“You bastard, Craig.”
He shrugged. “Stan here has always wanted to visit Hardwick Hall. He’s a bit of a culture fan on the quiet. You wouldn’t think it to look at him, would you? But, being shy, he’s likely to spend a lot of his time lurking in the car park or among the trees, outside the gate in the dark perhaps, just to catch one of the staff to speak to privately as they go off duty.”
Craig’s quiet words were worse than anything he’d said or done so far.
“I’m telling you this,” he said, “so that if Miss Prior doesn’t come home one night, you’ll know to make inquiries at the hospital. Casualties go to King’s Mill at Mansfield, I believe. Unless there are serious head injuries, in which case there’s a special unit at Sheffield. You see how I’m trying to help you, McClure?”
“Piss off.”
He sighed again, like a man who really hates what he does. Well, I can be a hypocrite too.
“Your choice,” he said. “I can’t put it more plainly. Give him his belt back, Stan.”
Stan untied me, not gently.
“Is that it then?”
“I hope we understand each other now.”
I said nothing. But I was horribly afraid that I really did understand.
Eddie Craig had me by the short and curlies, and the bastard knew it. No way could I let Lisa be involved. Well, not until I’d given her the push, and then it wouldn’t matter to me anyway. Meanwhile, she was my bird and I couldn’t let Craig get his hands on her. On the other hand, I couldn’t think of a way of getting her away from the area, not without telling her about the danger she was in. A cleft stick, with the shitty end pointing my way.
Basically, I was going to have to do what Craig said. When I say basically, I mean Craig was going to have to think that I’d done what he said. This isn’t quite the same thing. Not quite.
Craig’s boys dumped me on the edge of Ollerton and made me walk the rest of the way home, with no cash in my pockets and no mobile phone to ring for a taxi. They even went out of their way to make sure I had to walk past the police station, the bastards.
I don’t object to exercise — in fact, I’ve even been known to jog in my time. But there are times when you want exercise — like when you’ve got a bellyful of tequila from the night before to work off or something. And there are times when your body protests at the very idea of putting one foot in front of another. Especially when your bruised shins are starting to ache, and it’s dark and cold and you’re wearing boots with snip toes and cowboy heels, and you’ve still got five miles left to go until you reach home and you can finally curl up in bed and feel really sorry for yourself.
There are also times when a car is good protection, so you’re not exposed like you are when you’re out walking on your own. Exposed to the attention of any pillock who happens to be driving past and sees you slogging along. Today was obviously my day for being offered lifts. I’d got half way down the road between Ollerton and Medensworth and my legs were starting to complain when the car pulled up. I thought about running, but my feet said ‘no’. What the hell, it was only Moxon and Stubbs anyway. Out cruising for some fun, and they found me, lucky buggers.
Wally Stubbs opened the back door of the Mondeo for me, and I got in. I was at such a low ebb that I could barely stop myself saying ‘thanks’ as I collapsed into the seat. I was so relieved not to be walking the rest of the way home that even these two looked like my best mates just then. Stubbs didn’t pull away straightaway. They both turned to look at me, like they were gawping at a chimpanzee in the monkey house at the zoo.
“Yeah, you’ve recognised me. You win a tenner if you happen to have a copy of the Daily Mirror and you can answer a simple question.”
“What are you on about, McClure?” said Stubbs.
“No, I’m supposed to ask the question. You just lost the tenner.”
Moxon had a gleeful little grin that I didn’t like. “Rather a funny time to choose for a walk, isn’t it? And you’re not really dressed for it. You should be wearing an orange cagoule and a woolly hat.”
“That’s right, inspector. Perhaps I got mugged and had them pinched.”
“I suggest you walk back to the station at Ollerton and report it.”
“I can bear the loss.”
“I do hope they didn’t hurt you too much, these muggers. That looks remarkably like blood on your face.”
“I cut myself smiling too much.”
Moxon took a bag of sweets out of the Mondeo’s glove compartment and passed one to Stubbs. They smelled like pear drops from where I was sitting, but that was as near as I got to them.
“Things aren’t going too well for you at the moment, McClure, are they?”
“I’ve known better, thanks. I take it you’re going my way, are you?”
The car still hadn’t moved. Moxon was in the mood for a bit of a roadside chat.
“You know, McClure,” he said. “You’re going to slip up very soon. Slip up badly. I know you are.”
“I can’t think what you mean.”
“In fact, you may already have slipped up. That’s something for you to think about.”
“I’m really tired. I’d just like to go home.”
“A hard day, was it? Sergeant Stubbs and I have had a hard day as well. So much information to sort out and put on record, you wouldn’t believe it. You’re not keen on all the paperwork, are you, sergeant?”
“No sir,” said Stubbs. “But it has to be done. When you’ve got so much information to file.”
“Computers can help,” said Moxon. “We have computers at the police station, you know.”
“Congratulations. Have you tried Sonic the Hedgehog? You’ll never beat my high score.”
“We don’t play games on them. But we find them very useful for information gathering.”
“Oh well.” I yawned. “If you drive on for a mile or two, you can turn left into Medensworth. Just in case you’d forgotten the way, like.”
Wally Stubbs tapped the wheel irritably. His boss hadn’t finished yet.
“Computers get everywhere. That young lady of yours uses computers at the travel agent’s, she tells me.”
Shit. He’d been talking to Nuala again. No wonder he had all that information for Wally Stubbs to file. Just pray that most of it was about special deals on Eastern European holiday destinations and fluctuating exchange rates for the South African rand.