The Ladykiller (45 page)

‘I’m sorry, Patrick, but this place is literally under siege at the moment.’

‘And you’ve missed your golf as well? My heart’s breaking for you.’

Flowers did not like the fact that Kelly had hit the nail straight on the head but he swallowed the insult. Kelly was a formidable man and knew too much about Flowers and others ever to be made an enemy.

Janet came in with the coffee and left it on the desk. She smiled at Patrick briefly before leaving. Flowers poured it with a hand that was trembling slightly. Kelly always affected him like this.

‘What can I do for you?’

‘I have a proposition for you, Freddie me old son.’

Flowers looked perplexed. Surely Kelly wasn’t here to talk business?

‘What kind of proposition?’

‘It’s about the murderer. I think I know how we can catch the ponce.’

Flowers put down his coffee cup.

‘Do you know who he is?’ He knew that Patrick Kelly had a price on the man’s head. In some circles it was common knowledge.

Patrick sipped his coffee slowly.

‘No, I don’t know. If I did then he’d be dead, Freddie. Deader than a week-old kipper. No. I don’t know who he is, but I know how we can catch him. I need your help, though.’

‘In what way?’ Flowers was puzzled.

‘In Leicester a few years ago every man in the vicinity of a murder case was given a blood test. Which narrowed down the police’s line of inquiry.’

Flowers put up his hand in a gesture of dismissal. ‘It would cost too much money, Patrick. Plus there’s no guarantee it would work. You don’t know the whole of it. We’d have the NCCL after us, not to mention every other crackpot group. They’d say it was just an excuse to monitor people. That their DNA samples would be ready and available for investigation in every sex crime that occurred. That it was an infringement of their civil liberties. Oh, you don’t know the half of it.’

Patrick finished his coffee and put his cup on the desk. ‘Listen, Freddie, I couldn’t give a monkey’s bollock for any of this. It is going to be done, and I am going to pay for it. So just button your mutton for five minutes and listen to me. All right?’

Kelly’s eyes were hard and Flowers felt the power of the man in front of him.

Patrick Kelly began to talk, slowly and deliberately. After five minutes he had Flowers in a state of fear so acute he could taste it. But after fifteen minutes he could see the sense of what Kelly was saying and relaxed. Two hours later they had reached an amicable arrangement. Patrick got up to leave.

‘I had a man in here yesterday evening - Daniel Burrows.’ Flowers waited a few seconds for the name to sink in before he started to talk again.

‘He seems to think that I should reprimand his ex-wife because of an association with your good self.’

Flowers relaxed. There, it was out!

He watched Patrick’s eyes, which were like pieces of flint. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Kelly went from the room. Fifteen minutes later Flowers also left for the day. For the rest of the afternoon Patrick Kelly made numerous phone calls from home. By eight that evening he had spoken to the DPP, two prominent cabinet members and a host of other people. He phoned Flowers back at seven fifteen with the result of his efforts.

The next day Kate and Caitlin were both called into Ratchette’s office. Kate was surprised to see the Chief Constable in there. When everyone was seated he spoke.

‘I understand, Detective Inspector Burrows, that you are of the opinion that as all we have in the way of evidence is the genetic fingerprint of the murderer, we should set about taking blood samples of all males from fourteen to sixty-five in this area?’

Kate looked around at the three men.

‘Yes, sir. I do believe that. If nothing else it would eliminate an awful lot of people.’

‘But surely the killer would not be foolish enough to take the test?’

Kate shrugged.

‘That’s as may be, sir. But if only some people did, at least it would narrow the field of suspects. A majority of those would be eliminated through corroborated statements. That would leave . . .’

‘All right, all right, we get the picture.’ Flowers’s voice was impatient.

The room went quiet. Kate saw Caitlin and Ratchette look at one another briefly. She knew then that something was going on.

Flowers took out a large white handkerchief and blew his nose loudly. He made a bit of a performance out of it and Kate sensed he was playing for time.

‘You fill them in on the details, Ratchette. I have to get back.’ With that, he walked from the room. Kate watched him leave in amazement.

‘What on earth’s going on here?’ Her voice was plaintive.

Ratchette smiled at her. ‘You got what you wanted, Kate. You got the blood and saliva testing.’

She sat back in her seat, stunned.

‘My God!’

Caitlin laughed. ‘It’s all set up, Katie. I’ve never seen anything arranged so quickly since my daughter’s wedding. The testing starts on Monday the twelfth of February.’

Kate turned to him.

‘How come you knew? Why was the Chief Constable in such a foul mood? Just what’s going on down here?’

Ratchette answered.

‘Let’s just say that your idea was put to the big boys and they liked it, Kate. The Chief Constable is against the expenditure, but this man has to be caught. There’s a public outcry at the moment, and now the government is putting the funds at our disposal. So make the best of it. You never know when they may pull out again.’

‘But how come you knew and I didn’t?’

‘Let’s just say it was discussed first by your superiors, shall we?’

The message in Ratchette’s voice was clear enough to Kate but she still wasn’t happy about it. Though she was elated that the blood testing was going to happen she was not too sure about the mysterious way it had come about. But Ratchette’s tone would brook no more questions. She changed tack.

‘So how many mobile units are we getting? I think that if we take the units to all the big firms, men will be forced to take the test in front of their colleagues. We could catch our man out like that.’

‘First things first. We’re getting eight different mobile units. We’ll concentrate on the bigger firms first. There’s the Ford plant and the electronics factory for starters. We’ll also set one up in the town centre. Every male in the age group will be sent letters and documentation that can be produced to prove they have had the test. The sixth form colleges etcetera will be done systematically, and pensioners and the unemployed will be approached by letter to visit one of the mobile units on specified days. It’s all in hand. All we have to do now is begin the groundwork. It’s going out on local radio and television today, so everyone will be aware of what is happening. Firms will be asked to notify us of people who have suddenly taken holidays or sick leave. I think that we’ve covered just about every angle. Anyone on the electoral register who does not take the test will be immediately under suspicion, until we can cancel them out.’

‘Come on, Katie, it’s ten past twelve. I’ll buy you a drink and a sandwich.’ Caitlin stood up and winked at Ratchette.

Kate stood up and stared into her superior’s face.

‘Thank you, sir.’

Ratchette smiled.

‘Go and get some lunch, Kate. You’ll be working like a beaver now, setting all this up with us and keeping your lines of inquiry open. It’s going to be a hard old slog, you realise that?’

‘Yeah.’

Kate and Caitlin left the room.

Ratchette sat down. Kate Burrows obviously did not realise it but she had a powerful ally in Patrick Kelly. A very powerful ally indeed.

Kate bit into a beef and tomato sandwich, surprised at how hungry she was. She watched Caitlin chatting up the barmaid as he ordered their drinks. She chewed the sandwich slowly, savouring the rich taste. There was something wrong but she did not know what. Caitlin ambled back to the table with her vodka and tonic and his pint of Guinness with whisky chaser.

‘What’s going on, Kenny?’ Kate rarely called him by his first name so it gave the question an edge.

Caitlin sipped his Guinness before answering.

‘Look, Katie, whether you realise it or not, you’ve made yourself a very influential friend, and it was this friend who pushed the issue with the Chief Constable.’

Kate stopped chewing and stared at Caitlin, dumbstruck.

Everybody knew. They all knew about her and Patrick Kelly.

‘Don’t look so shocked, now. The police force is a very small world, you know. Look at it this way - if a new man or woman comes to a division, within twenty-four hours everyone knows their past track record, their marital status, everything. It’s just one of those things. Now then, the fella you’re going around with is a big man in his own way, and it was natural it would come to the attention of people. I don’t think that the uniforms know, but Ratchette knew, and I knew, and now the Chief Constable knows. I gather he had a visit from your friend yesterday, and apparently he has some even bigger friends of his own. Probably how he’s kept out of clink for so long.’

Kate was looking into her glass, embarrassed. Caitlin felt a twinge of sympathy for her.

‘Shall I tell you something? It’s a thing I’ve always believed. Most people in the force could have gone one way or the other. Either become a villain - and I mean villain as in bank robber and such, nothing to do with perverts or nonces - or become a policeman. You need the inbred cunning to be a villain in order to catch one. That’s why so many of them get on so well.

‘Myself, I’ve nicked men I’ve had a great deal of respect for. I’m not talking about gas meter bandits or kiters. I’m talking about men who have masterminded some of the biggest bank robberies in the country. I admire them, Katie, even while I’ve tried to find them and lock them up. Everyone has dreams of winning the pools, whatever. These men set out to steal money that makes the average person in the street drool just thinking about it.

‘Kelly now, he works within the law, and sometimes just outside it, but he’s first and foremost a businessman. Only he’s not a kosher businessman like, say - oh, I don’t know - Henry Ford or someone of that ilk. He’s part of the new breed, and for myself I admire him. Anyone who can get that eejit of a Chief Constable shitting in his pants has to have something good going for him.’

Kate smiled slightly but her brain was whirling.

Kelly had gone and made the Chief Constable ‘see sense’. That is exactly how he would put it when she challenged him about it. In the little time she had known Patrick she had got to understand him so well. In Patrick’s mind there was no black and white. Just Patrick Kelly’s opinion. And that opinion was worth more to him than the crown jewels.

‘Look at it this way, Kate, he got you what you wanted and - I admit now - what I wanted. This is the most difficult case I’ve ever worked on in my life. We’ve had four horrific murders and literally nothing to go on except for the bugger’s car. And the witnesses can’t even agree on the colour of that! Take this opportunity and use it, girl, it’s like a gift from God.’

Kate sipped her drink and bit into her sandwich again. What Caitlin said made sense, she admitted that, but she was worried all the same. If her association was common knowledge . . .

‘Look, Kenny, can I ask you something?’

Caitlin took a deep draught of his Guinness and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

‘Ask away.’

‘What’s being said about me and Kelly? I really want to know.’

‘What do you think? “Kate Burrows is having it off with a villain.” The usual.’ He watched Kate turn white and could have kicked himself.

‘That was a joke, Katie, a bad joke I admit, but a joke all the same. What’s really being said is this. Kate Burrows has been seeing Pat Kelly. Oh, Pat Kelly says the other person, isn’t he the one with the repo business? Yes, that’s him, says the first person. Lucky old Kelly is the general opinion. Christ, girl, most of the senior men have tried to get into your knickers at some time or another, that’s common knowledge. That you’re a respectable woman and a bloody good DI is also common knowledge.
You’re
making more of this than anyone. Until Kelly is convicted of something, you’re as safe as houses and let’s face it, Katie, he’s not liable to get caught out now is he? Everything he does is more or less above board. Why don’t you relax? You’re too hard on yourself.’

‘I’ve fought tooth and nail to get where I am today, Kenny. You don’t know the struggle it’s been.’

‘I don’t, no. But, if you’re as worried as you say then all you have to do is stop seeing him. Meself I think you’d be a fool. They used to call you the Mother Theresa of Enfield when we worked together before. You’re doing nothing wrong, child. Has he ever compromised you?’

‘No.’

‘Has he ever asked you anything he shouldn’t, like?’

‘NO!’

‘Then why all the drama and fuss? Jesus Christ, you women make your own crosses you know. And believe me it’s a long old journey when you have to carry it. I know. Personally, I like Kelly. He’s an astute businessman, a good friend, I should think and he’s one handsome fucker. You do what you’ve got to do with him. As long as it doesn’t interfere with your work, who cares? They’ll be gossiping about someone else next week.’

Kate saw the sense in what Caitlin was saying. He was right. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. And if Flowers hadn’t said anything then there was obviously no problem.

She wanted to believe it. She had to believe it.

‘You’re right. I’m worrying about nothing.’

She picked up her glass and drained it.

Caitlin laughed softly and rose to get her another.

‘That’s the way to do it, girl.’

Kate lit a cigarette and drew the smoke deep into her lungs. She wished Patrick was with her, when he was near she had no doubts. No doubts at all. Then something occurred to her. How the hell did Kelly get them to agree to the blood testing? That’s why Flowers was so annoyed with her. Everyone knew she had been rooting for it since the word go, and somehow Patrick had made it possible. Suddenly, Kate was annoyed, very annoyed and the most annoying thing was, she wasn’t really sure why.