Blood Brothers (26 page)

‘If you underestimated Reg Smith you’re a bigger fool than I took you for,’ Barnard said. ‘My guess is that they intended to kill you. And if they realize you’re sitting up in bed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed they may well try again. I know from other sources that there’s something big being planned. You and Kate seem to have tumbled into it from another angle.’

‘What I don’t understand is why Mitch Graveney is involved in whatever’s going on,’ Price muttered. ‘What’s the
Globe
got to do with it, whatever it is? It makes no sense.’

‘I’ve no idea,’ Barnard said. ‘But if he’s involved with Smith you can bet your life it’s nothing legal. If I were you I’d tell the City force what you know and ask for some protection. We just walked in off the street with a bunch of flowers. Anyone could do that.’

Price slumped back on the pillows and closed his eyes as a passing nurse approached. She cast an unfriendly eye over Kate and Barnard. ‘I’m not sure Mr Price is permitted visitors yet,’ she said. ‘How are you feeling, Mr Price? The doctor will be back to check you over very soon.’

Barnard took the nurse’s arm after she had finished checking Price’s pulse and temperature and writing her results on the chart at the bottom of his bed. He wished he had his warrant card to show her but hoped that the urgency in his voice would get his message across.

‘I’m very frightened that the people who attacked Carter yesterday may come back for another go if they find out he’s conscious and talking,’ he said quietly. ‘This wasn’t a robbery. There was more to it than that. I think he should be under police protection.’

‘Who are you?’ the nurse asked, looking astonished.

‘I’m a cop,’ Barnard said. ‘But I’m with the Met, not the City force and I don’t have the authority to do anything about this. I’m just here because of my girlfriend.’ He nodded at Kate. ‘She works with Mr Price. He’s a crime reporter and we think he knows too much about some very unpleasant people.’

The nurse still looked startled. ‘I’ll talk to the ward sister,’ she said. ‘And the police when they come back. They said they’d be back.’

‘It’s serious,’ Barnard said. ‘Believe me.’

Harry Barnard shepherded Kate back to Highgate, took her into the kitchen and made coffee.

‘Do you think Jimmy Earnshaw is safe enough where he is for the moment?’ he asked.

‘He’s getting very bored and fed up but yes, I think so. He’ll be all right if he gets all this over fairly soon.’

Barnard nodded. ‘And you?’ he said. ‘You seem to have been a bit devious in all this. Where exactly are the negatives of these wretched pictures. I thought you said you didn’t have them, that Price took everything.’

Kate flushed slightly. ‘He took all the prints but I kept the negs,’ she said. ‘They’re somewhere safe.’

Barnard groaned. ‘That’s the most reckless thing I ever heard,’ he said. ‘If these bastards really want to find them how long do you think you’d stand up to them? Five minutes? Ten minutes? And then when you’d told them they’d kill you. You’d end up buried on a building site or in a back alley. Carter Price was lucky, very lucky, to survive. You can’t count on that sort of luck twice. Smith is a formidable operator and completely ruthless.’

‘Maybe I should have stayed in the country,’ she said. ‘It was you who persuaded me to come back to London.’

‘I didn’t know you were sitting on information Reg Smith would obviously give an arm and a leg for,’ Barnard said. He sighed and sipped his coffee. ‘I think we need to talk to Ray Robertson,’ he said. ‘He’s the only person who might know what Smith is up to. You’d better come with me. Copeland’s been following me around and may still be for all I know, though he’s obviously well on the way to getting what he wanted.’

‘Getting you out, you mean?’ Kate asked gloomily.

‘In jail, if he can,’ Barnard said. ‘If he’s found out you’re in London he might try to find you to pick your brains again.’

‘Maybe I should go home to Liverpool for a bit,’ Kate suggested. ‘If you think it’s that serious.’

‘Is that where the negatives are?’

Kate shook her head. ‘They’re safe,’ she said. ‘You don’t need to know.’

‘You’re probably right,’ he said. ‘And maybe you should get right out of London until all this has blown over. Sooner or later either Smith’s mob or Vic Copeland may work out that you’re with me and come breaking the door down.’

Kate sighed. ‘I don’t know how I got into this situation,’ she said. ‘It looked like a fairly harmless assignment.’

‘Price and your boss should have foreseen they might be putting you in a dodgy situation. Crooks don’t like having their pictures taken.’

‘I suppose not,’ Kate said.

‘Will you come with me to see Ray, before we decide where you should go next?’ Barnard asked. ‘We’ll go on the underground. Less chance of being followed that way.’

But before Kate could answer Barnard’s phone rang and she could see immediately that whatever the message being imparted it was not a good one.

‘Do you know when?’ he asked and looked even more anxious when he heard the reply. ‘Thanks for letting me know,’ he said before he hung up and flung himself back into his chair with an expression of total disbelief.

‘That was Ruth Michelmore,’ he said. ‘The case against Georgie Robertson is being dropped for lack of evidence. AC Amis apparently admits now that two witnesses have disappeared – that’s Hamish and Jimmy I suppose – and the arresting officer, that’s me, is under suspension and he thinks the defence briefs will run rings round the prosecution in court. Georgie’s getting out and she doesn’t know when. Just very soon, she says. I don’t bloody believe it.’

‘Well, at least that’s one villain who won’t be looking for me any more,’ Kate said faintly.

‘Maybe,’ Barnard said. ‘God knows who he’ll be looking for. I wonder if Ray even knows,’ Barnard said. ‘I think we’d better pay him that visit, don’t you?’

They arrived at Robertson’s gym in Whitechapel to find Ray closeted in his tiny office with the phone clamped to his ear, looking red-faced and furious. The door was closed but he saw them through the window coming past the almost deserted rings and equipment. He slammed the phone down and waved them in.

‘Flash,’ he said. ‘Glad to see you. Perhaps you can tell me what the hell’s going on.’

‘You heard then?’

‘My ma rang just now, said Georgie’s getting out. No case to bloody answer. What sort of nonsense is that?’

Barnard shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea,’ he said. ‘I’ve got my own problems. I’m suspended
pro tem
. They seem more interested in banging me up than a nutter like Georgie.’

‘Yeah, I got a whisper about that,’ Robertson said. ‘Sorry to hear it, Harry. But Georgie? Who the hell wants him on the streets again? Except my ma of course. She’s ecstatic, isn’t she?’

‘Do you think she could have pulled some strings?’

‘Bears looking at, I suppose,’ Robertson said. He was beginning to look defeated, Kate thought and she felt almost sorry for him. ‘I do know Reg Smith went round to see her. She told me. She thought I was still thinking about linking up with him.’

‘And you’re really not?’ Barnard asked, not able to disguise his continuing suspicions.

‘No I’m bloody not. It looks as if he’s cost me Fred Bettany already, just because I had a few discussions with him over a few drinks. No way am I getting in deep with that bastard. No chance whatsoever, however juicy his plans are, and he says he’s talking Great Train Robbery juicy. But if I linked up with him he’d have me running bloody errands for him round Soho within a month. He’s bad news.’

‘Do you know what the juicy plans are?’ Barnard asked.

‘Nah,’ Robertson said. ‘He wasn’t stupid enough to tell me that before I’d said I was in. But he was promising big money for what he said would be an easy ride. I was lucky to be asked, he said. As if I’d bloody believe him.’

‘OK,’ Barnard said. ‘We’ll just have to keep following that up. He’s half killed Kate’s reporter mate from the
Globe
and I’m worried now about her safety. He’s a ruthless bastard.’

‘Oh yes,’ Ray said. ‘And I should watch out for Georgie when he gets out too. I’ve no doubt he’ll think he has a few scores to settle and you and your lovely lady friend might be top of his list. And the young lad. Is he safe?’

‘Jimmy’s safe for the time being,’ Barnard said. ‘And Kate’s planning to get out of London. I’ll take my chances. Do you have any idea how Georgie swung this? The case seemed cast iron to me. Even if one of the witnesses was missing there were plenty more to put him away for life.’

‘Funny thing,’ Robertson said. ‘Reg Smith was asking me about Georgie. Seemed to think he must have been a useful man to have around. I told him he was a nutter and now they’d got him locked up they should throw away the key.’

‘Well, someone’s decided different,’ Barnard said. ‘And I’d really like to know how that happened.’

‘Now what?’ Kate said as they made their way from Robertson’s gym back towards Whitechapel Road. Barnard glanced back towards the gym and then scanned the heavy traffic grinding east. He could see no sign that they had been followed and was beginning to think that DS Vic Copeland had been called off his tail.

‘We’ll go back to my place and pick up the car,’ he said, turning towards the underground station. ‘And then I think we might pay Ma Robertson a visit. I’m sure she’ll be so excited she won’t mind telling us how Georgie’s case got dropped.’

‘Are you sure?’ Kate asked as they headed below ground again, running the last few yards as a train rumbled into the station.

‘The sight of you might soften the old biddy’s heart,’ Barnard said lightly as the carriage doors slammed shut behind them. ‘I’m not sure she’ll want Georgie anywhere near us. She always seemed quite fond of me when we were kids. Though not as fond as she was of her precious baby Georgie, of course.’

Kate wondered why Barnard was so sentimental about his East End childhood. She had been brought up herself surrounded by the same sort of slum poverty and her community had been as heavily bombed – although few Londoners seemed to know about that – but she had left Lime Street station with no regrets and more grim than fond memories. It was time, she thought, she moved on.

‘Let’s do it then,’ she said resignedly. ‘Though I can’t see that she’s very likely to tell us anything.’

They drove across London this time at a speed Kate felt happier with than usual, guessing that Barnard did not want to draw any attention to themselves as he threaded his way through busy streets to Bethnal Green. This time there were no cars parked in Alma Street. The only sign of life was an elderly woman standing on her doorstep chatting to the postman. Barnard parked outside Ma Robertson’s house.

‘It might be a good idea if you stayed in the car,’ he said. ‘If anyone we don’t want to see turns up hit the horn. We can’t be too careful.’

Kate nodded and then watched as he knocked on the door which was opened quickly by a white-haired woman in a blue patterned dress and baggy cardigan with a slash of red lipstick across a wizened face. Ma Robertson seemed surprised to see Harry, she thought, and looked up and down the street before waving Barnard inside.

‘You’ve got a nerve coming here now,’ she said to him as he stepped into the cramped living room. ‘What do you want anyway? You’d best keep out of my Georgie’s way. He won’t be best pleased to see you.’

‘I don’t suppose he will,’ Barnard said. ‘I was surprised he got the result he did.’

‘I don’t see why,’ Dolly Robertson said. ‘Everyone knows you lot set him up.’ Her face contorted with rage. ‘And Georgie’s lawyer reckons his brother had a hand in it too. But you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?’

Barnard took a deep breath at the sheer unexpectedness of the allegation. ‘You have to be joking,’ he said faintly. ‘Why would he do that?’

‘He wanted to keep Georgie out of the family business, didn’t he? He knew Georgie would make a better fist of it than he’s been doing lately, with his galas and social climbing nonsense. Their father would be turning in his grave.’

‘Ray might not want to work with Georgie, but he wouldn’t shop him,’ Barnard objected.

‘You ask his brief,’ Dolly said, her mouth snapping shut like a trap.

‘Who is?’

‘Mr Godfrey QC. As if you didn’t know. He was very interested when I told him Ray had gone soft and wanted Georgie out of the way. Very interested indeed.’

Barnard could believe it. He knew Lancelot Godfrey as a lawyer who was making a lucrative life for himself working mainly for London’s gangsters. He had no doubt that if he had been instrumental in getting the case against Georgie Robertson thrown out he would be very well rewarded indeed.

‘Now get out of my house,’ Dolly said. ‘You were always a sneaky little sod when the boys were kids. It didn’t surprise me when you chose to be an effing copper.’

At that moment Barnard heard his car horn sound twice and he turned to the door. When he opened it he saw a green Jaguar approaching down the narrow street and although he could not see clearly who was in it he knew without a shadow of a doubt it meant big trouble. Without a word he strode across the pavement, dropped into the driving seat of his Capri and made a racing start in the opposite direction, cutting back into the main road before the Jag had drawn to a stop outside Dolly Robertson’s house. As he turned the corner he could see in his mirror Dolly coming out to greet her younger son Georgie with his arms open wide ready for a fierce embrace.

Kate, who was also looking back, said, ‘That’s Reg Smith he’s with.’

Barnard put his foot down and accelerated away, turning the corner into Whitechapel Road on two wheels.

T
hey went back to Barnard’s flat and sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen drinking strong coffee.

‘We need to tell Ray Robertson what his mother said,’ Barnard said at length, picking up his phone, but after dialling twice he slammed it down again. ‘No reply, either at the gym or the Delilah. I don’t have a number for his house and I’m sure it’ll be ex-directory anyway. I don’t think he spends much time there.’

‘Surely his mother wasn’t serious,’ Kate said. ‘You don’t really think Georgie will try to get at Ray, do you?’