Chapters (67)
- Cover
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
‘Fine. I want you to go over two key things again. The hand-over by the bookie and then up at Starly, from when you saw the two men arrive and go into the shop to when they scarpered. Rewind it in your head, slowly. I want everything.’ He picked up Vince’s empty glass and went to the bar.
Forty-Seven
‘This is a big spend,’ Kieron Bright said. ‘Our overtime bill has been way too high for the last year and I need to get it down. This wouldn’t help. Excuse me.’
He got up stiffly and came round to the other side of his desk. ‘If I don’t do these half a dozen times a day, I pay for it.’
He performed a series of exercises with his left leg, standing on his toes and down, up, down, bending and stretching. Serrailler watched impatient with the fuss the Chief continued to make about his injury, minor in Simon’s opinion, and because he was ready with his package of arguments and the pause in the conversation was unhelpful.
‘Has the physio said how long you have to do those for?’
Kieron winced as he rolled his leg sideways. ‘Until she tells me to stop I imagine. I daren’t give up yet, I don’t want to go back to square one.’
‘You probably wouldn’t.’
‘Well, I’m not about to put it to the test. Right, that’s it for now.’
He hobbled back to his desk.
‘I can’t authorise this now, Simon, you just don’t have enough reasons for me to justify the expense.’
‘I have as many as I’m likely to get without moving this forward now.’
‘Really? You don’t think keeping your snout going, maybe provide one bod to follow up at the dog track, would give you a breakthrough?’
‘No, I don’t. In any case, his cover might be blown.’
‘Only to a couple of small fry.’
‘Who report up. Come on, you know how it works. I can’t risk him hanging around the track now, I’ve got to stand him down, for a time anyway. He’s a bit too gung-ho, understandably.’
He leaned on the Chief’s desk. ‘This is the first breakthrough of any kind that we’ve had. Evidence of money being handed over.’
‘You can’t prove it’s for criminal purposes – could be just a good night’s takings for one bookie being sent off for safekeeping.’
‘They don’t work like that.’
‘How much time have you spent at the dog track?’
‘None – plenty at horse racing though.’
‘Did your snout get a photo of Fats, or the bookie, or the other man up at Starly? No? Thought not.’
‘Fats is the one we need to put a watch on.’
‘We’ve had a man on this Chinese pharmacy before, haven’t we?’