Dead or Alive (20 page)

‘Nothing memorable then?'

‘No.'

‘What about outside marriage?'

‘Not sure. I once woke up naked in a woman's bed after a really drunken night out but I wasn't sure if we'd had sex. She didn't know either.'

‘Do you think there's something wrong with you?'

‘Well, I hope not. I always used to joke about eating too much of that cake that restricts a man's sex life.'

‘You mean wedding cake?'

‘You're always a step ahead of me.'

‘Tell you what. Why don't I, purely as an act of kindness, give you a try out?'

He gave it a moment's thought then said, ‘Purely as an act of kindness?'

‘Yes, I do have some professional experience in that field. I would hasten to add that I have long since lost my professional status, but I still have the talent.'

‘You have talent?'

‘Some. I wasn't cheap.'

‘Then it'd be rude of me to turn such an offer down,' said Sep. ‘I hope I won't need to shave or anything.'

‘A shower will be sufficient. Perhaps we could shower together to kick things off?'

‘I think that'd be an excellent idea.'

I
t was nine o'clock in the evening and Rachel Black was ironing her daughter's school uniform when the telephone rang. Her daughter, Phoebe, took the call. It was a woman wanting to speak to Mrs Black. Phoebe handed her mother the phone.

‘Hello, Mrs Black … No, I'm not trying to sell you anything. I'm ringing to do you a great favour.'

‘Oh yes, what favour's that?'

‘Well, I'm in the Tommy Wass public house in Beeston, do you know it?'

‘I think so, yes.'

‘Well I wonder if you might know who's also in here, talking to a local prostitute, called Molly Grogan. He often comes in and he often uses her services. He'll be off to her house in Harlech Road in a few minutes. It's a regular date they have. I think she gives him it for nothing, with him being a copper.

‘If it's my husband, I'm not interested.'

‘Your husband's not a copper any more, Mrs Black, but this bloke is. Not that he's on duty right now of course. You know him well, Mrs Black, his name's Lenny Cope. Oh, they're leaving now. Tell you what, I'll give you the number of the house and if you drive straight there you'll find his car parked outside.'

The caller gave her both the house number and postcode of the house so that she'd have no trouble finding it with her satnav.

‘This isn't a hoax, Mrs Black, just someone who doesn't like to see women being made fools of. I'm telling you because the cockney bastard did it to me once.'

Rachel clicked off the phone, frozen with shock. No, it must be a wind-up. She rang Lenny's mobile but got a recorded message. She left one of her own.

‘Lenny, could you ring me back the second you get this, it's very urgent.'

She sat down, staring at her phone. Phoebe was worried.

‘What's wrong, Mum?'

‘I don't know … nothing I hope. Look darling, I've got to go out for half an hour.'

‘That's OK. I can do the ironing.'

Winnie was standing at the bar. She stuck her mobile back in her pocket and kept her back to Cope and Molly. Her head was tilted towards her drink but her eyes were on the mirror behind the bar as she followed the reflection of them leaving the room. She was tempted to ring Sep to tell him what she'd done, but maybe not yet. She just hoped he'd been telling the truth when he said he wouldn't take his wife back. Otherwise she might have just shot herself in the foot.

She'd known about Cope frequenting the pub and using Molly's sexual services but she hadn't thought it advantageous for Sep to know such a man was living in the same house as his daughter. He was depressed enough with his situation without making it worse. This seemed an ideal solution.

Fifteen minutes later Rachel Black parked her car fifty yards down the road from Cope's which, in turn, was parked fifty yards down from the address she had been given. But she figured no man in his right mind would park his car bang outside a known prostitute's house. After forty minutes Cope emerged, got into his car and drove off. Rachel sat there in tears, her worst fears now realized. Sep hadn't been her idea of an ideal husband but as far as she knew he'd never been unfaithful to her. She drove home.

Cope was already home when Rachel got there. He was surprised that she'd left eleven-year-old Phoebe on her own. She was normally over-protective of her daughter.

‘Where've you been?' he asked.

‘More to the point,' she said, ‘where've you been?'

‘Working.'

‘Working in a pub?'

‘Yes, as a matter of fact.'

‘The Tommy Wass in Beeston?'

‘How do you know?'

‘I had a phone call from a friend who saw you there. You were talking to a woman, apparently.'

‘Yes I was. I often talk to women in the course of my work.'

‘Why were you talking to her?'

Phoebe could see this might end badly and she'd had enough of that when her dad was at home, so she excused herself and went to her room. The two adults watched her go then Cope said, ‘What is this? Am I getting the third degree because someone you know saw me doing my job?'

‘Just tell me about this woman. How come she's of help to you?'

‘As it happens she wasn't of any help. I was just asking people about the whereabouts of a thief I'm trying to track down.'

‘I thought that was the job of the lower ranks, the constables and sergeants.'

‘I like to do my own legwork from time to time.'

‘What job does this woman do?'

‘I don't know. I hardly know her, just that she's in that pub a lot.'

‘So, you talked to her in the pub, she was of no use to you so you came straight back here.'

‘Not straight back, no. I called in another pub for the same reason, but there was no one there of use to me so then I came here.'

‘I want you to leave, Lenny, right now. Pack whatever stuff you have and leave. You didn't come straight back here, you went off with that woman who's a prostitute.'

‘I did no such thing.'

‘Just go, Lenny. I saw you come out of her house. You'd obviously been screwing her. What's the arrangement? Does she give you freebies because you're a copper?'

His face turned savage. He raised a hand. ‘Who the hell have you been talking to?'

‘If you raise your hand to me, Lenny, I'll tell the truth about how I got those bruises that Sep took the blame for. He'll be back on the force and you'll be off.'

Cope put his coat back on and snatched his car keys off the table. ‘Too late for that, girl. It's you who perjured yourself to get rid of him – that's a custodial offence.'

‘Just go, Lenny.'

‘F
iona, it's Sep. Do not say my name out loud.'

‘Hi, Dad.'

‘That's good,' said Sep. ‘You now need to be somewhere where you can talk without being overheard.'

‘I suppose that can be arranged.'

DS Fiona Burnside pressed her mobile closer to her ear lest any of the conversation leak out. She got up from her desk and walked out into a corridor, then into the ladies' toilet. She checked that all three cubicles were empty. Sep could hear this and knew what she was doing.

‘Are you in the Ladies?'

‘I am. What is it you want, sir?'

‘I'm not a
sir
any more.'

‘I know, force of habit.'

‘I need to speak to you privately. There's stuff going on within the job that someone needs to know about and you're the only one who'll believe me.'

‘What makes you think that?'

‘Because I don't think you believed a word of all that nonsense about me beating Rachel up. I've never hit a woman in my life.'

‘So?'

‘I intend getting my job back and I need the truth to come out.'

‘What's this stuff I need to know?'

‘It's something we can't discuss over the phone. I'd like us to meet up.'

‘Where?'

‘My place would be good. I've just moved to Middleton.'

‘I won't do anything that might compromise my job. I've been made up to detective sergeant since you left.'

‘I know that. Congratulations, it's well-deserved. All I want to do is give you solid information. What you do with it is your own affair.'

‘When?'

‘ASAP.'

‘I'm off duty in an hour.'

‘I guessed that. Can you come straight round?'

‘Yes, if you give me the address and postcode.'

After Sep had done that, Fiona asked him, ‘Did you know your wife's kicked her boyfriend out?'

‘I didn't know that, no.'

‘Well, he came in today saying he was looking round for new accommodation because he'd had enough of her. Not ten minutes later she rang me with the full story. Apparently she caught him with a prostitute. She rang me because she knew he'd turn up with a different tale.'

‘Who do you believe?'

‘Oh, I believe Rachel. She even gave me the name of the prostitute – Molly Grogan.'

Fiona was a very feisty copper who didn't suck up to anyone. If she had she might have made inspector by now. When Sep was having his problems she'd been on a month's leave visiting her brother in Australia. Had she been working, she'd have been his only ally.

‘I haven't done vice for years,' said Sep, ‘so I don't know the woman.'

‘I've already checked her out. She was with him all right. I got her to tell me.'

‘Yeah, I'll bet you did … and she'll tell him you know about him.'

‘What harm can that do me? Hang on – this stuff you're going to tell me, does that involve this person?'

‘Well, it could do,' said Sep.

‘See you shortly, then.'

Sep clicked his phone off and stared at the screen for a couple of seconds. He'd told Fiona he was aiming to get his job back, which was a commitment of sorts. DI Septimus Black was on the road back.

But was he going in the right direction?

F
iona double-checked the number on the door she'd just knocked on, before saying,

‘Sorry, I think I might have got the wrong … er … does Mr Septimus Black live here by any chance?'

‘Aye, if ye can call it livin'.' Sep was using his Glaswegian accent.

‘Could I speak to him, please?'

‘Y'already are, darlin'.'

‘What?'

Sep dropped his accent and grinned at her, saying, ‘Hell of a disguise this, isn't it?'

Fiona stared at him as he pushed his hair away from his face.

‘What? Is it you, sir? Bloody hell!'

‘Aye it's me, lassie, and yer not the first te be fooled.'

‘Whoa! This is so weird … I'd prefer it if you dropped the accent, sir.'

‘And I'd prefer it if you didn't call me “sir”. Come in Fiona, and allow me to explain why I look like this and why I've asked you here.'

A large house had been converted into four flats. Sep lived on the first floor. Fiona followed him through a small hallway into quite a spacious lounge. She looked around it, approvingly.

‘Not bad – bigger than my place.'

‘It came furnished,' said Sep, ‘so don't be too critical of my taste.'

There was a two-seater settee, an easy chair that looked to have its own adjustable foot rest, a dining table, three dining chairs, a chest of drawers, a thirty-seven inch flat screen TV and a computer table complete with computer and printer.

‘The only things I own are the telly and the computer,' he said. ‘There's a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom back there.' He nodded vaguely in the direction of the hallway. ‘Sit down.'

She chose the settee, he sat opposite in the chair. ‘Can't remember if you smoke,' he said. If you do, it's banned, part of the rental agreement.'

‘I don't smoke – neither do you if I remember rightly.'

‘No, I don't,' he said, ‘but Jimmy Lennon does. I need him to be as little like Sep Black as possible.'

‘Jimmy Lenn— Oh, I get it. He's your other self?'

‘He is.'

‘Scottish.'

‘As they come.'

‘And very scruffy, unlike Septimus Black.'

‘Very unlike Septimus Black. Jimmy Lennon's a vagrant, fresh out of Barlinnie, just signed up with DI Cope as an informer.'

‘You're joking!'

‘I don't have too much to joke about nowadays, Fiona. I suppose you heard about the brothel Cope had raided?'

‘I did.'

‘Well that was all down to info given by Jimmy Lennon. Well, him and a certain female acquaintance of his.'

‘You have a female acquaintance, do you?'

Sep remembered the bedroom activities in which he and Winnie had been involved. They'd spent an active night together in his bed. The best sex he'd had in his life, to the extent that he'd decided to invite her back for other nights of the same. All part of his rehabilitation, he told himself.

‘Yes,' he said, ‘I have a female acquaintance.'

‘Good for you, sir.'

‘Less of the sir. You do appreciate that I've taken you into my confidence and that if you tell anyone what I'm up to, the game's finished for me.'

‘I had worked that out and you can trust me … what do I call you?'

‘Sep or Blacky will do.'

‘Sep, then. How does DI Cope come into this?'

‘Ah, this is the dangerous stuff. This is where you really have to convince me that you trust what I'm doing and won't blab on me.'

‘I've said you can trust me, what more do you want?'

‘I don't know. I don't even know what I want from you, except that someone in the job needs to know what I know and can take that knowledge into account as the Strathmore case unfolds.'