A Shot In The Night (John Harper Series Book 2) (14 page)

When
I arrived outside Fraser’s gym I decided against going straight in and instead
rang Rodney for some more betting advice whilst I went for a very late and
rather unhealthy breakfast of fish and chips.  I wasn’t as successful as my
previous visit to the bookmakers but I still returned a profit, confident that
I had built up enough of a rapport with the staff there after giving them a
twenty pound tip each, that they would take my bets on
Ellies Legs
when
the time came.  It is often the rule in bookmakers not to take large wagers from
strangers especially on greyhound racing and I was aiming to take the Mickey
Mouse operation of a bookmakers to the cleaners with a big win.

Feeling
bloated after the greasy food, I didn’t really want to go into the gym.  I was
a little self-conscious of my physique walking into a temple to physical
worship but put it out of my mind as Tony, my corner man from earlier in the
week recognised me and left his post to talk to me.

“How
you feeling, copper?”

“Better
than expected.  How’s the kid?”  I asked, looking around for the young fighter
who had left me with a bruised body.

Tony
laughed, “Licking his wounds.  Max chewed him out something fierce for taking
it too far.  Plus you did give him a bit of a beating.”

“Where
is your partner?  I got a phone call saying to come in for a free ticket to the
fights.”

The
old cut man turned and indicated the office, “My idea. Follow me, he’s just in
the back going over some paperwork.”

“Didn’t
think that was his sort of thing?”

“Needs
must.  We’re the kid’s managers and trainers; any contracts and the like we
have to go through.  Normally I go through it but my arthritis is acting up
today so Max is doing it, usually puts him in a foul mood though so watch out,”
Tony warned as he opened the door to reveal Fraser slumped over his paper
strewn desk grumbling to himself.

The
man looked tired, even worse off than the small room which had changed little
from my last visit except there was a rather large blood stain on the couch
cushion.  My eyes flicked towards it but were quickly back on Fraser before he
noticed.  He stood up and offered me his hand, “Ah detective how you doing?  We
saw you on the telly yesterday.”

“Sure
it was me? People often say I look like a poor man’s Gerard Butler or a thinner
version of Russell Crowe,” I stated with a wry grin on my face after shaking
his hand and sitting down in the chair opposite him.  Tony sat precariously on
the arm of the couch away from the stain.

“I
only know the second one because he was in a boxing flick otherwise I’d have no
idea what you were talking about.  No we saw you on the news; looks like you’re
something of a hero.”

“Don’t
believe everything you see.”

Fraser
nodded, “I understand but you caught the guy and that means a lot to us and the
community.”

“Does
us include Saul?”

The
two old men looked at each other and Tony nodded their response.  Fraser spoke
though, “You might have heard bad things about him but he does still think of
the community.”

“When
I was last in here you said the shooting was probably linked to him.  You
didn’t suggest in any way that he was good for this area.”

“He
reached out to us after the football shooting,” Tony said.

I
looked briefly at him, turning my body to see both men and then made a
deductive jump, “Wouldn’t happen to be after one of his men was treated in
here?”

They
showed little shock at what I said but Fraser was quick to reply, “You’re
right.  One of the players didn’t want to go to the hospital.  He was afraid
that whoever had shot at him would try and finish the job.”

“And
he’s connected to Saul?” I said, not really asking the question as it was an
obvious answer, “Why did he come here, surely Saul could have a doctor come and
look at the man?”

Tony
fielded that question, “I was a medic in the army.  Originally I got called up
for national service and hated everything about it.  That was till they found
out I was a boxer.  They kept me out of trouble and I did some field training.”

“I
suppose it comes in handy for your fighters.”

He
nodded, “Yeah small cuts and bruises I can deal with, but gunshots I ain’t seen
that many of.  I patched the guy up as best I could and as far as I know he’s
still alive.”

“We
don’t make it a regular thing looking after wounded drug dealers but Saul rang
me personally to get here,” Fraser added.

“And
you owe him enough that you agreed,” I said nodding to myself.

“Even
if I didn’t owe him, I don’t want to see someone die because I did nothing. 
That Ambrose fella was killing people for the sport of it, I’m glad he’s dead,”
Fraser said once again I noted the slight shift away from anything connected
with Saul.

“That’s
if he was the shooter,” I managed to say in the most offhanded way possible,
slowly looking down and playing with my tie.

“What
the hell do you mean?” Fraser barked.

I
looked up and tilted my head slightly to the left, my eyelids hanging heavy
which gave me an air of nonchalance but was mainly due to my lack of sleep,
“Ambrose was a nice fit.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to interrogate him about
the shootings and I’ve got a hunch it wasn’t him.”

“The
man had a gun on you and you think he was innocent?” Tony asked incredulously.

“People
keep saying that to me but yeah maybe he didn’t do it.  The guy was dangerous
don’t get me wrong but he was also clever enough to know not to leave behind
shell casings and anyone with training or knowledge knows that a sniper would
not fire out of the window.  You give yourself away rather easily if you do
that. No, Ambrose would have stayed well within the room he supposedly fired
from.”

“So
you’re saying he was framed?” Tony asked the lines on his face contorting as he
frowned.

Shrugging,
I answered, “I don’t know about that.  It might not have been him specifically
but there was enough evidence to point the investigation in one direction.  A
direction that led to Ambrose and because of his natural suspicions he ended up
choosing suicide by cop than to go quietly.”

“You
could be wrong,” Fraser pointed out.

“Yeah
I could but I don’t think so.  I’m telling you guys first because you can warn
your benefactor Saul about this.  I don’t want him going heavy handed and
trying to bring this guy to justice in his own way,” everything I’d been
thinking over the past day was out now and I was keen on keeping the amount of
deaths to an absolute minimum but I knew that if Saul became involved that
would not be possible.

Tony
and Fraser looked at each other, their double act beginning to wear on me a
little.  Tony though seemed to be the more level headed and reasonable one,
“I’ll make sure to pass on your message to him.”

“Before
I left the other day you said you would have some information for me come the
fight night.”

“I
guess we can keep asking around, Max,” Tony said to his friend who stared at me
sullenly.

“Yeah
I guess so,” Fraser picked up a ticket from his desk after moving around a
great stack of papers, “See you there.”

“Thanks…sure
I don’t have to pay?”

“You
already have.”

Since
I was in the area and I was worried that others may be scared off from
investigating any further by knowing that Ambrose was dead, I drove to the
community centre.  This had been the starting point for my long adventure the
day before and I wasn’t in the mood for staying out much longer.  The siren
call of my bed was echoing in my ears as I walked towards the former church
doorway, when a teenage boy wearing a black hooded top and tracksuit bottoms
ran hurtling out of the centre, nearly knocking me down.  I watched him turn
right in the direction of a row of houses.

“Move!”
Matthew Thompson yelled as he went past me also nearly sending me to the hard
ground.

He
set off after the young man and since the social worker was the man I was there
to speak to, I began running as well.  The teenager had grabbed the wall as he
had turned and I noticed when I went past a streak of red which looked eerily
like blood.

I
wasn’t wearing the best clothing for chasing someone down but I was used to
foot chases.  Thompson, in a dark blue jumper over a white t-shirt with
comfortable trousers and white trainers, was much more suited for the chase and
was fast, slowly closing the distance on the runner.

The
teenager was diving through the alleyways behind houses and obviously knew the
area well which was making it more difficult to catch him.  I got close to
Thompson and managed to say through clenched teeth, “Do you know your way
around here?”

“Yeah,”
Thompson said sounding a lot better than me but still out of breath.

“I’ll
follow, you cut him off,” I spluttered.

Thompson
nodded and when we arrived at a T junction he broke to the right opposite our
quarry and myself.  The teenager stole a glance over his shoulder at me and
then seemed to gain extra speed and when posed with corners seemed to bounce
off them, once even running along the side as if he was an action star.  I on
the other hand was lucky if I didn’t break a collarbone as I slammed into walls
and fences, twice hearing wood crack and hoping that it wasn’t bone.

I
was sweating and wishing that I hadn’t eaten the fish and chips when we turned
onto the main street, the young man sliding over the bonnet of a car and into
the road.  He dodged a car which blared its horn, which did little to slow
him.  I was just off the pavement when Thompson appeared from behind a car and
tackled the teenager hard, slamming him to the ground with jarring force.

Crossing
the street I stood with my hands on my knees, sore from another day’s worth of
effort, and struggled to fill my lungs with air, “So who is this guy then?”

“Just
a little bastard who decided to instead of playing nicely with everyone else,
he would smash a kid’s face in with a table tennis paddle because he was
getting beat,” Thompson said his knee on the boy’s back as he took out a mobile
phone and rang the police.

Ten
minutes later a patrol car had arrived and the young man was being placed
inside it, still reeling off expletives at what I assumed was a record setting
pace.  I was surprised at the range of swear words that he knew, some of which
were antiquated when I was growing up and some new ones that I could only
assume were the hybridisation of a number of regular vulgar terms.  The
teenager hadn’t shut up since Thompson had caught him and we both knew it was
borderline illegal our stopping him but I was happy to help.

With
the police vehicle driving off we were left with a walk back to the centre, “How
far away do you reckon we are?” I asked as we started off.

“Over
a mile or so.  Thanks for the help, detective. How come you were in the
neighbourhood?  I thought you’d be moving on since Ambrose was killed
yesterday.”

“I’m
not leaving just yet; there are a couple of loose ends I need to fill in.  I’ve
got a sinking suspicion that the shooter is still out there.  Before you say
it, yes I know I’m suggesting Ambrose may have been innocent even though he
pointed a gun at me,” I said keen not to go over the same conversation again.

Thompson
just laughed, “I was thinking that but I’m sure you’ve got your reasons for
thinking it.  What I would like to know is why?”

“Call
it a hunch.  Things just don’t fit with Ambrose and he died before I could get
any information out of him to confirm he was the shooter.”

“Well
I’m sure the forensics will clear it all, didn’t they say he had the same
calibre weapons as the one in the football shootings?”

I
glanced at him as we walked, “Yep, guess we’ll see.  Anyway I’d like for you to
keep an eye on your charges and see if there is anyone talking about a rifle.”

“Sure,
I haven’t heard much to be honest. People were afraid of this guy, you could
see that, but it wasn’t enough to stop the dealers on the street and their
bosses.  I might hear more on the subject tonight.  I run a late night program,
giving people a warm place to stay out of the cold.  Who knows, someone may
have seen your shooter on one of his hunts.”

 “Thanks,”
I said grateful for his help.  Thompson was impressive in his dedication to the
community, much more so than Fraser who had been there nearly ten times as
long, “You don’t see many social workers chasing kids down like that.”

“Yeah
not exactly my remit I know but you should see the kid he hit.  He smashed him
right on the nose, blood everywhere.  I was chatting on the other side of the
hall when I spotted him.  It was a good job you were there when I caught him. I
probably would have given the prick a good kicking,” with the way he said it I
was struggling to determine if Thompson was joking or not.

“Guess
he was lucky then, I’m sure you would have caught him pretty quickly without my
help.”

He
smiled, “You weren’t too slow yourself.  It’s always good to have back up on
those sort of things though.  You never know if they are carrying a weapon or
needles.”

“True,
but you were still faster than I expected.”

“I
caught the running bug when I was in university, had to keep trim for the OTC
and I couldn’t stand going to a gym.  So I run to work every day, it’s how I
cleanse my mind for the day ahead.  Plus I like to keep fit and active to keep
up with the kids who come into the centre.”

“Sometimes
literally,” I quipped. As we neared the centre, we could see an ambulance
parked outside and a young man sat in the back his face covered in blood. 
Luckily he was wearing the red shirt of the more popular local side so it was
difficult to see the claret that had streamed out of his nose, “I guess you’re
in for a busy day.”

“Just
a regular Friday.  Thanks again for the help,” Thompson said, offering me his
hand.

I
shook his hand, “Don’t worry about it but if you hear anything, I would say the
favour was paid.”

“Deal,”
he said climbing into the back of the medical vehicle and speaking to the youth
who removed a towel from his face to reveal a rather disjointed nose.  I winced
at the sight as the medic in the back replaced the soaked cloth.  Looking away
as quickly as possible, I headed toward my car.

I’d
felt invigorated by that short run, missing my usual early morning jogs, and it
was good to clear out the old lungs.  However, once I was back in my car and
after removing the steering lock the adrenaline was leaving my system and I was
once again wishing to be in bed.  Luckily I had no other plans for the rest of
the day and I made the trip back secure in the knowledge I could have a lie in
without feeling guilty.