Clean Break

I drove out to the incident room in Stockport. The one time I’d have welcomed being stuck in traffic, I cruised down Stock-port Road without encountering a single red light. My luck was still out to lunch when I arrived at the police station. Jackson was in. I didn’t even have to kick my heels while he pretended to be too busy to slot me in right away.

He didn’t get up when I was shown into his office. He hadn’t changed much: still slim, hair still dark and barbered to within an inch of its life, eyes still hidden behind a pair of tinted prescription lenses. His dress sense hadn’t improved any. He wore a white shirt with a heavy emerald green stripe, the sleeves rolled up over his bony elbows. His tie was shiny polyester, in a shade of green that screamed for mercy against the shirt. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again,” he greeted me ungraciously.

“Nice to see you too, Inspector,” I said pleasantly. “But let’s not waste our time on pleasantries. I wanted to talk to you about Joey Morton’s death.”

“I see,” he said. “Go on, then, talk.”

I told him all he needed to know. “So you see,” I concluded, “it looks like someone had got it in for Kerrchem, and Joey Morton just got in the way.”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose in a familiar gesture. It didn’t erase the frown he’d had since I first walked through the door. “Very interesting, Miss Bra

“It’s what I’m paid to do,” I said.

“This is a possible murder inquiry,” he said sententiously. “There’s no place for you poking round in it.”

“Inspector, in case you’ve forgotten, it was me that came to you. I’m trying to be helpful,” I said, forcing my jaw to unclench.

“And your ‘help’ is duly noted,” he said. “It’s our job now. If you interfere with this investigation like you did the last time, I’ll have no hesitation in arresting you. Is that clear?”

I stood up. I know five foot three isn’t exactly intimidating, but it made me feel better. “I’ll do my job, Inspector. And when I’ve done it, I’ll tell you where you can find your killer.”

I tried to slam the door behind me, but it had one of those hydraulic arms. Instead of a satisfying crash, I ended up with a twisted wrist. I was still fizzing when I got back to the car, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Down at the Thai boxing gym, I could work out my rage and frustration and, with a bit of luck, acquire some information too.

I like the gym. It’s a no-frills establishment, which means I tend not to run into clients there. As well as the boxing gym, it’s got a weight room and basic changing facilities. The only drawback is that there are never enough showers at busy times. Judging by the number of open lockers, that wasn’t going to be a problem today. I emerged from the women’s changing room in the breeze-block drill hall to find my mate De

It was De

Now he’s out of major-league villainy and into “a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of ducking and diving,” De

I checked out a couple of black lads working the heavy bags at the far end of the room. They were too far away to overhear. “Your backside will start looking like Richard’s car if you carry on like that,” I said, smiling over the top of his paper.

“At last, someone worth sparring with,” De

“By a fingernail,” I said, bending over to start my warm-up exercises. “What do you know?” I glanced over at De

He looked glum. “Tell you the truth, Kate, I’m in the shit,” he said.

“Want to tell me about it?”

“Remember that nice little earner I told you about awhile back? My crime prevention scheme?”

How could I forget? De

“Somebody catch up with you?” I gasped between sit-ups.

“Worse than that,” he said gloomily. “I set up a meet at An-derton Services on the Sixty-one. Ten grand for a wagon of Levis. Everything’s going sweet as a Sunday morning shag when it all comes on top. All of a sudden, there’s more fuzz than you get on crowd control at a United-City match. I legged it over the footbridge and dived into the ladies’ toilet. Sat there for two hours. I went back over just in time to see the cops loading my Audi on to a tow truck. I couldn’t fucking believe it, could I?” De

“Somebody tip them off about you?” I asked, fastening a body protector over my front.

“You kidding me? This wasn’t regular Old Bill, this was the Drugs Squad. They’d only been staking the place out because they’d had a tip a big crack deal was going down. They see somebody handing over a wad of cash, and they jump to the wrong conclusion.”

“So what’s happening?” I asked, pulling the ropes apart and climbing into the ring.

De

“They charging you?” I asked, swinging a swift kick in toward De

He sidestepped and twisted round, catching me over the right hip. “Got to, haven’t they? Otherwise, they come away from their big stakeout empty-handed. Theft, and obtaining by deception.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t need to. De