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“Well, there’s someone you should keep in your sights. I always thought he was a bad influence on our Michael. He’s older, for a start. They’ve known each other for a few years, since before I left. I suspect Morgan was behind the joyriding business, for a start. It was only Michael who took the blame, but I’ll bet you anything Morgan was behind it. He was older. He’d probably have got a harsher sentence. I also blamed him for putting ideas into Michael’s head.”
“What ideas?”
“Oh, about what a waste of time education was, how you should just make your own way, that there was plenty of easy money to be had if you knew how to get it. Christ, I wish to bloody God I’d gone to university when I had the chance.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Denise gave a harsh laugh. “I wanted money in my pocket, the flash life. I couldn’t see the sense in learning some subject I didn’t care about. I wanted holidays abroad, sun and fun. What I got was Frank bloody Lane and the farm. Only myself to blame. But that’s behind me now.”
“So Morgan was a bad influence on Michael. Is that all you know about him?”
“He’s . . . I think . . .” She looked away.
“What is it, Denise?”
“I think he’s dangerous, too.” She glanced around the coffee shop, as if to make sure no one could hear. A
A
“Just, you know, he put his hand on my breast, but I slapped him away. I thought then for a moment from the expression on his face that he was going to force me. He looked so angry at being rejected.”
“But he didn’t do anything?”
“No. He just left.”
“And that was the only time?”
“I wouldn’t have him in the house after that.”
“Did you tell your husband or Michael?”
“No. I haven’t told anyone. I felt so dirty, so ashamed, and things were already bad between Frank and me. But I want you to know what kind of person he is. If there’s any trouble, if Michael’s in any sort of bother, then you can bet Morgan Spencer is behind it.”
“THANKS FOR agreeing to see me at such short notice,” Banks said to Detective Inspector Joa
“Any excuse to get out of the office,” Joa
“How’s it going?”
Joa
Banks knew that Joa
“You miss your husband?”
“Like a bad smell. But to look on the bright side, I’m not in Professional Standards anymore, so everyone doesn’t hate me.”
Somehow, Joa
“You did a damn good job,” Banks said simply.
Joa
“Well, no one likes being under the microscope.”
“Oh, I was never out to get you. You know that. You just had an exaggerated sense of your own importance, like most men.”
“Now there’s a generalization if ever I’ve heard one. I wasn’t that bad, was I?”
Joa
Banks waited while the server brought their plates of food, warning them to be careful, they were hot. It was typical modern pub grub, haddock and chips and a beef and mushroom pie, also with chips. Banks sipped a pint of Timothy Taylor’s and Joa
“You’re still working on Operation Hawk, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I spend most of my waking hours on it. Ever since our new police commissioner made it a priority. Why?”
Banks explained a little about the missing tractor and the blood found at the abandoned hangar.
“And you think they’re linked?” Joa
“Yes. Not officially, of course, not yet. We don’t have the DNA results, for a start. But we do have a stolen tractor and two people of interest who seem to have disappeared. And the timing is just too close to be coincidence.”
“Are these two local?”
“Yes.”
“Can you give me their names?”
Banks told her, and Joa
“I understand,” said Banks. “But it’s the national angle I’m interested in. Maybe even international. Who knows? I mean, if someone steals a few sheep, the odds are he’s going to slaughter them locally in an illegal abattoir and sell the meat off the back of a lorry, especially with the price of lamb these days. But if he steals a tractor worth a hundred thousand quid or more, he’s going to whisk it out of the country sharpish. And for that you need organization. Remember Talli
“I do remember,” Joa
Definitely not the Joa
“But that was different,” Joa
“We think the hangar might have been used as an exchange point,” Banks went on. “You know, somewhere the local thieves deliver their goods, whatever they are, make the transfer, and get it on transport brought in specially for the purpose. Then it goes on its way to Bulgaria or wherever. For that, some of the people involved have to drive up and down the A1. I understand you’re using ANPR to track the movements of suspects?”