Dead or Alive (19 page)

‘Winnie, I was struggling, but you had the gun all right.'

‘If he hadn't raped me, I wouldn't have shot him quite so quickly,' she said.

‘I think what he did to you directed the bullet to its target.'

‘That's exactly right. After all he'd done to me I couldn't stop myself shooting him where I did.'

‘I imagine there are plenty of rape victims who'll be cheering you to high heaven if they ever get to hear of this.'

‘I do hope no one does.' she said. ‘I've never liked hurting people but I certainly feel better for shooting his tackle off. Tit-for-tat, really. He took my self-respect from me, I took something similar from him.'

Sep looked at her, quizzically, ‘What's that you said to him?
You really hurt my feelings?
Bit of an understatement wasn't it?'

‘I meant it to be. I didn't want him to have the satisfaction of knowing just how much damage he'd done to me.'

‘Why not?'

‘Because he had no right to know. In his eyes I went way over the top with my revenge. In shooting off his bollocks I took away the power he'd had over me. In other words I got a result, and that's what I wanted. Anyway, right now I want a shower,' she said. ‘I smell like a Gents lavatory.'

‘How would you know what a Gents lavatory smells like?'

‘Cleaning men's bogs was once part of my community service. It made me glad I'm a woman. I wouldn't want to spend any private time in one of those places.'

‘Ah, but did it make you change your ways?'

‘You tell me. I was doing it for causing actual bodily harm to a man who was assaulting me. I put him in hospital.'

‘Seems a bit harsh if he was assaulting you.'

‘The magistrates didn't think he was assaulting me. They assumed I'd propositioned him – me being what I am. Mind you, his wife believed me and kicked him out, which was a bit of result, I suppose. She was a wealthy woman and he was a useless tosser who ended up living in a cardboard box down by the station. This world can be an unjust place, so you need a result now and again.'

Sep grinned, ‘I'll try and stay on the right side of you.'

‘It's a good side to be.'

Winnie was coming round, which was pretty impressive. Most people, hard men included, would have been troubled for weeks after such an ordeal; many of them would have needed counselling. He wasn't feeling too chipper himself.

But he was really getting to like Winnie O'Toole.

‘I
t's quite an organization, sir, and it's unravelling by the minute.'

It was the next day and Cope was in Detective Superintendent Ibbotson's office. Whitey and six Romanians were in the cells; Dragos was under guard in intensive care in St James's hospital. The brothel was still being searched by the police. Nine girls had been taken first to hospital and then to a secure hostel. Secure for their own protection, as the human trafficking gang of which Whitey was a part, wasn't restricted to Leeds, but to many towns in West Yorkshire. Computers found in Whitey's brothel had given up details of many more brothels in that area and over a hundred police officers were carrying out synchronised raids on eight of them – raids which would result in the arrest of sixty-three men and the freeing of seventy-two trafficked women. Cope was taking the credit for all of this, to his superintendent's irritation.

‘This informer of yours, is he costing us much?'

‘I've promised him a thousand, sir. Five hundred now, five hundred when we get convictions. He's also claiming the pimps stole fifty quid off him, which I suppose I'll have to give him.'

Cope saw no reason to be anything other than honest about how much he was giving his informers. It was too easy for someone to check up on this.

‘Give him his grand today. We want him on our side, information like this is pure gold. I understand he's Scottish is he?'

‘He is, sir. I pulled an old sheet on him. He used to live in Leeds but moved up to Glasgow. Ended up in Barlinnie jail for an assault so he came back down here.'

‘Yeah, that's what they do. Stay in one place for too long and the coppers get to know your face and pull you for the slightest thing.'

‘They have a hard life these villains, sir. I'm amazed they haven't got a union.'

‘What's his name?'

‘Am I compelled to tell you that, sir?'

‘Not if you choose not to, but to look on the black side, if anything happens to you we not only lose a valued officer but a valued nark.'

‘So long as it's understood he's my man and no one else's sir.'

‘That goes without saying.'

‘His name's Jimmy Lennon.'

Ibbotson nodded, thoughtfully. ‘Scottish … big feller, is he?'

‘Yes he is. Big and scruffy.'

‘Sounds like someone I once came across. Small time nuisance, mainly due to drink if I remember rightly.'

‘That's him, sir. He does take a drink, and small time does describe him, but his type gets to know things, and he's a canny man, to quote him, sir.'

‘Why would he get mixed up with the Romanians?'

‘I think they took his woman, sir. Bit of a looker. What she sees in him, God only knows.'

‘I wonder if he might be any help to us on the Strathmore case. Would he fraternize with any of Formosa's lot?'

‘I think it's a question of would they fraternize with him, sir. He is a bit unsavoury.'

Ibbotson sat back in his seat and laced his fingers over his generous stomach. ‘I wonder if he might be tempted by the prospect of big money for a good result.'

‘It's worth a shot, sir. How much shall I say?'

‘Well, I could authorize up to ten grand but it would have to be strictly PBR.'

‘Payment by results? I think the amount might tempt him, but not the method of payment.'

‘Tell him a grand up front.'

‘So, you want me to give him two grand now?'

‘Yes, I'll authorize it. If it works out it'll be money well spent.'

Cope disguised his feelings of elation with a look of concern. How best should he play this? He couldn't see Jimmy Lennon being of any use to the police, but it would make DI Cope a very valuable person to have on your side – if you were Vincent Formosa.

‘I'll do my best, sir. If Lennon knows anything at all he'll give it to me – and maybe I can persuade him to sober up if he wants to earn ten grand in readies.'

‘You do that, Lenny. By the way, the Dragos man died, did you know that?'

‘I didn't sir. I need to cover up the truth of his death if my informant is to be of any use to me.'

‘Were there any witnesses to the shooting, apart from Lennon and the woman?'

‘No, sir.'

‘Then he was accidentally shot whilst in a confrontation with them. I'll tell the CPS that Lennon and the woman were working undercover for us and neither were armed. It should be enough to have them back off.'

‘J
esus, Sep! For a handsome feller yer look an awful fucking shambles.'

‘Winifred O'Toole, I don't think swearing becomes you.'

‘I don't swear much.'

‘You do, actually. Just listen to yourself, in general conversation saying I look a “fucking shambles”.'

‘You just swore yourself.'

‘I was quoting you – that's allowed; probably not in polite company, but between friends it is.'

‘OK, but me just saying you look an awful shambles doesn't tell the whole story.'

They were drinking coffee in the kitchen of Sep's flat in Middleton. Winnie had driven her van there to keep an appointment made on the day of the brothel raid, two days previously.'

‘How's Gabriela?' Sep asked.

‘She's hoping to go back home to Romania without having to give evidence.'

‘Yeah, I mentioned that to Cope. The law should have enough evidence without having to subject her to a court ordeal.'

‘So, she should be OK?'

‘I would imagine so. Cope's doing what he can to keep me onside. He gave me a grand yesterday for the info you gave me, plus another grand for me to help him with the Strathmore kidnapping case.'

‘Two grand? You are in his good books.'

He took an envelope from his pocket and gave it to her, saying, ‘Like I said, it was your info so it's yours.'

She took it and looked inside. It was stuffed with fifty pounds notes.

‘How much is this?'

‘Two grand.'

‘Shouldn't it be fifty-fifty?' she asked him.

‘It will be in future, but in future you won't be getting personally involved in anything. It would have panned out just as well if you'd just rung me up with the info you had and left it at that. There was no need at all for you to put yourself in danger – or me for that matter.'

‘Point taken. I'm going to give half of this to Gabriela. Money always eases things and she has a lot of stuff that needs easing.'

‘She's lucky she found you.'

He stared at her, wondering if he should tell her that Dragos was dead. Some people find taking a human life a severe shock to the system no matter what the circumstances, or how evil the life. On balance he decided she needed to know.

‘Winnie, there's something you should know about Dragos.'

She looked at his face and read it like a book. ‘He's dead?'

Sep nodded, Winnie frowned.

‘Oh, so I killed him, did I?'

‘Yes.'

‘I killed someone.'

‘Winnie, you killed a violent animal which had no right to live. The world is a better place without him.'

She cast her mind back to the vile acts he'd committed on her body and decided, ‘Yes, I think I'm glad … is that awful?'

‘Nope, it's very human.'

‘Will I get into trouble?'

‘Oh no, it's being put down to a struggle between me and him and the gun – his gun, discharging during the struggle while he was holding it.'

‘Bloody hell!' she said, ‘The police have their own sweet way of covering things up.'

‘Luckily for you,' said Sep. A thought struck him. ‘Talking of guns, Winnie, you have a knack of being able to acquire things.'

‘I have.'

‘Well, I wonder if you might be able to acquire me a decent handgun, fully loaded and a couple of blanks.'

‘What the hell for?'

‘It's just a ruse I have in mind. It'll probably come to nothing, but if an opportunity arises, I'd like to be ready.'

‘I dread to think what this ruse is, Sep, but it'll cost you a monkey.'

‘Five hundred? I thought you could get stuff cheaply.'

‘Not that sort of stuff.'

‘OK, five hundred it is. When?'

‘Tomorrow with a bit of luck.'

‘I don't suppose you have any inside info on the Strathmore case? Any knowledge or suspicion or anything that might interest the police?'

‘Bloody hell, Sep! Everybody knows it's Formosa who's behind it and we know that Cope's in Formosa's pocket.'

‘I'm just looking for solid information, I'm not saying how I'm going to use it. If I can turn it into misinformation to put Cope up the creek, that's what I'll do.'

‘Does it bother you that Cope's with your wife?'

‘Winnie, it enrages me, but mainly that he's living in my house – the house where my daughter lives.'

‘Would you ever go back to your wife?'

‘No, we're getting divorced.'

‘On what grounds?'

‘She cited cruelty, but I've denied it and asked for proof, which she'll never be able to produce. So I've cited her infidelity with Cope.'

‘And that'll do the trick?'

‘Yep. She's going for the house, which is fair enough considering it's where my daughter lives.'

‘Can she sell it without your permission?'

‘Not sure, must look into that.'

‘Would you like it if she kicked Cope out?'

‘I would. In fact it might make things easier all round if he didn't live there. Why do you ask?'

‘Because I think I might be able to arrange that,' Winnie said.

‘How?'

She tapped the side of her nose with a forefinger. ‘Not entirely sure yet but I get the impression that he lives with your wife more for convenience and easy sex rather than love.'

‘Probably.'

‘So, in relationship terms he's a man-of-straw.'

‘Is he?'

‘Yes, and straw men are very vulnerable to women such as me.'

Sep smiled. ‘I imagine most men are, choose what they're made of.'

She smiled back at him. ‘What about you? Are you vulnerable to me?'

‘To you? I can imagine circumstances where that might be the case.'

She leaned across the table and placed her hand on his. ‘And is right now one of those circumstances?'

He looked down at their hands and felt the unusual warmth emanating from hers. He looked up at her and knew that this warmth was just part of the general warmth he always felt in her presence. Or could it be more than just warmth? He'd certainly never experienced this from his wife, whom he missed less and less as the days went by.

‘Tell me what you want, Winnie.'

‘I'm telling you that apart from being raped I haven't had sex in almost two years.'

‘Hasn't your experience with Dragos put you off sex?'

‘I'm hoping it's like falling off a horse. The quicker you get back on, the quicker you get back to enjoying riding.'

‘And you want to get back on the horse now, do you?'

‘I do.'

‘You're an unusual woman.'

‘So I'm told. How long has it been for you?'

He shook his head. ‘I sometimes wonder if I've ever had it – with my wife that is. I suppose I must have at some time, with us having a daughter. I'm guessing Cope's having more luck than I ever did.'