The Body in the River (14 page)

Middlemiss looked up from his notebook to see Fleming
’
s reaction to this question. Fleming
’
s mouth opened and then closed again. He was like a cornered rat with nowhere to run. The detectives could see his mind working. He started to say something, and then thought better of it.

Finally, he said,
‘
I
’
ve nothing more to say to you, Superintendent; get out of my office.
’

Brookes looked at his DS.
‘
Mr Fleming refused to answer the question; please make a note of that, Sergeant.
’
Then he looked back at Fleming.
‘
Do I take it that you refuse to answer any more of my questions, sir?
’

‘
I will consult my solicitor, you have no right to bully me like this.
’

‘
Do you feel bullied, sir; I wonder why that is?
’

Fleming made no reply.

Brookes stood up.
‘
No need to see us out, sir. We
’
ll be in touch. Please don
’
t leave London without contacting us. We will need to talk to you again.
’

He turned and left, followed by his sergeant.

Middlemiss thought,
game, set, and match
. Only when they reached the street did either speak again.

Middlemiss said,
‘
He
’
s our man alright, boss. Get him down the nick and he
’
ll break like an egg.
’

‘
You
’
re right, Fred. But did he act alone? I
’
ll brief the observation team; whatever they do they mustn
’
t lose him. If he runs to Silver, we
’
ll know that Silver
’
s involved in the murder. Fleming
’
s got no alibi for Saturday night and I
’
m sure now he had a motive. Now we must be patient. Who
’
s on the observation currently?
’

‘
Liz and Stumpy. They
’
re in the caf
é
over there.
’
He nodded to a coffee shop on the other side of the street.
‘
They can see the entrances to the building and the underground car park from there. And the phone taps are in place; he hasn
’
t got a chance.
’

‘
You had better be right, Fred, I don
’
t want any mistakes.
’

‘
Yes, boss.
’

‘
Something else: that plaster on his hand, he may have injured that at Alison
’
s flat. Get the forensic team back there and give the place another going over. It would be handy to find some of his blood at the scene.

*

‘
No problem is so big or so complicated that it cannot be run away from.
’

Charles Schulz

They arrived back at Leman Street to find DS Paul Moore of S.O.23 waiting for them. He was chatting with Derek Short; the two had worked together on previous postings and were friends.

Moore was a mild-looking man in his late forties. Of medium height and build, he had a comfortable paunch and his thinning grey hair was receding across his scalp. Dressed in an old sports jacket, open-necked shirt, and casual trousers, he looked more like a schoolteacher than a detective. Except for one detail: an ugly scar ran from his cheek, down across his lips and chin. It was a knife-wound that he had acquired on a drug raid. The scar on his face gave it a lopsided appearance. The scar on his mind gave him a hatred of criminals, whom he pursued with a grim determination.

Moore got up from his chair when Brookes arrived, and Short introduced him to Brookes. Brookes looked around the busy room and saw Rose sitting beside Sarah Harris at her computer. He called her over and told her to bring the coffeepot. They pulled up chairs and sat around Short
’
s desk.

As the coffee was being poured, Brookes said,
‘
Right, before I give you my news, what have you got, Derek?
’

‘
Some good news first, boss. The boffins got a DNA profile from tiny shreds of skin found under Alison
’
s fingernails and hairs found on her bed. They
’
ve come up with a profile; adult male under fifty. That should give us a slam-dunk when we get a sample from the suspect and compare it. The news on the BMW is as expected; the old dear that saw it at the murder scene was shown the photograph of Fleming
’
s car and could only say that it
’
s like the one she saw. All the residents within a hundred yards of Riverview Mansions have been seen; none of them had visitors on Saturday night who drive a BMW.

‘
Richard Mann hasn
’
t come back with any more info yet on the finance. We
’
ve got printouts of Fleming
’
s calls and checked them all. There are a couple to Jamaica over the past weeks, to the home of his father as well as the ones to The Venus Club in Shoreditch. Other than that, we
’
re still looking, boss.
’

Middlemiss had a frown on his face. He scratched his head.
‘
You know, boss, the more we learn about this Fleming, the more daft he looks; he
’
s leaving a trail a traffic warden could follow.
’

Brookes smiled.
‘
Yes, he doesn
’
t come across as an accomplished villain, does he? OK, we
’
ve got more than enough to bring him in now. But first, I need to establish whether Silver is implicated in the murder.
’
Looking at DI Short, he said,
‘
The teams watching Fleming know how important it is not to lose him, do they, Derek?
’

‘
Yes, boss.
’

‘
Then let
’
s leave that for the moment.
’
He turned to Moore.
‘
Paul, give us your take on Silver
’
s operation.
’

Moore nodded, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. Then he said,
‘
Right, guv; if you draw a line from north to south across London this side of the Thames, you
’
ve got the East End and the West End. Anything east of Finsbury Park is Silver
’
s territory. Anything bent that goes on there that
’
s worth talking about, you can guarantee Silver has got his grubby fingers in.
’

Brookes nodded.
‘
Remind us where he comes from, Paul. How did he get going?
’

‘
It
’
s a typical East End story. He started as a member of a gang of local tearaways in Shoreditch. Had a few arrests for street robbery, handbag snatches, that sort of thing. Did six months in Burton Hall Young Offenders lock-up. Then he graduated to the hard stuff. Got done for armed robbery and did four years in Chelmsford. All that did was wise him up. When he got out, we didn
’
t hear of him for a while. But two years later he was running a protection racket on the local sex clubs.

‘
Now you
’
ll know, guv, they
’
ve got their own hard men, so for him to muscle in took some doing. There were some very nasty GBH
’
s but we never got a conviction. The key was that he was organised and he wasn
’
t too greedy; as long as they behaved he let them make money so he could get a share. Whatever you say about him, he
’
s shrewd.

‘
His empire grew from there. He took over The Venus Club that
’
s still his HQ, and got into prostitution and porn. But that wasn
’
t all. Ten years ago he got nicked for receiving stolen goods; he was running a team of kids stealing mobile phones and expensive wristwatches. But by then he was in the money and got off on a technicality; something about the search warrant the DI running the case got not covering the stolen goods found. We
’
ve never got near him since, and believe me we
’
ve tried.
’

Brookes nodded thoughtfully.
‘
What about his dirty money, how does he launder that?
’

Moore smiled.
‘
Good question, guv. We
’
re hoping you might have found the answer to that.
’

‘
Any idea how much money we
’
re talking about, Paul?
’

Moore frowned.
‘
Apart from saying it
’
s a hell of a lot, no, guv. We know about his legitimate businesses, of course, but are only guessing about the other rackets.
’

‘
When you say
‘
a hell of a lot
’
, could we be talking about over fifty million?
’

Moore
’
s mouth fell open. He quickly closed it again and said,
‘
Phew! Anything
’
s possible I suppose.
’

Middlemiss chimed in,
‘
Either that or Fleming is laundering other toerags
’
money as well, boss.
’

Brookes nodded.
‘
That
’
s something we need to find out.
’
He sat quietly for a minute, thinking how this information impacted on his murder enquiry. Finally he spoke.
‘
OK, let
’
s concentrate on the matter at hand. There
’
s no doubt that Fleming is our man. I
’
m also convinced that he acted independently of Silver; it was too much of an amateur job for an old villain like him to be involved. But just to confirm that, I
’
ll let Fleming run for the rest of today. If he had accomplices, he
’
ll contact them. Derek, are you certain the phone taps are in place?
’

‘
Yes, boss.
’

‘
Good. He
’
s obviously not a professional killer. My assessment is that he is weak and greedy. He was happy making lots of money laundering Silver
’
s illegal profits but when the shit hit the fan, he panicked. When he found that Alison MacPherson had discovered the money passing through his business, he knew that Silver would blame him for his carelessness and would have him killed. So he strangled Alison to keep her quiet. Does anyone see this differently?
’

Short said,
‘
No, boss.
’

‘
And you, Fred?
’

‘
Nothing else makes sense, boss. If Silver had done it, he
’
d have brought in the pros.
’

Brookes continued,
‘
OK, the other problem we have to consider is that as soon as we arrest him, Silver will try to protect their interests; he
’
s got God knows how many millions invested in Luxury Homes and he won
’
t want to lose that. Paul, what do you think he
’
ll do?
’

Moore pursed his lips.
‘
I don
’
t know what he can do about the money, guv. I know what he
’
ll try to do to Fleming. If he
’
s alive to give evidence, Silver will know there
’
s a good chance he
’
ll go down with him. It depends how much Fleming knows about Silver
’
s business, of course.
’

‘
Well, his phone records show that Fleming is in constant touch with Silver. What is it, Fred, eight phone calls in the last month to the club?
’