Jack in the Box (29 page)

Chapter 34

Hensbury was deep in conversation with his solicitor as Von entered.

‘Do you need more time?’ she said.

‘I don’t think so,’ the solicitor said quietly.

She switched on the machine. ‘Interview resuming at 9.45am on Sunday, 1st October, 2000.’

Hensbury was a changed man. His self-confidence had evaporated. He was sitting upright, but the expression in his eyes gave him away. ‘Ask your questions, Von.’

There was no longer any hurry. And she’d need to choose her words carefully if she wanted him to confess to killing Max. ‘Tell me about the drug ring at the Iron Duke,’ she said. ‘Not the outline, I want details. How long has it been running?’

‘Nearly thirty years.’

Jesus. Thirty years? And no-one in the drugs squad picked this up?
‘Where does the stuff come from?’

‘It’s sourced from Pakistan, and comes in via Spain. I can give you dates and times.’

‘You kept records that long?’ she said in amazement.

‘Of course not.’ He sounded tired. ‘I meant I can tell you when and where the next shipments are due, so you can make the appropriate arrests.’

The door opened.

‘DI English entering the room at 9.48am,’ she said.

Steve took the seat opposite the solicitor.

‘So what happens when the heroin comes into Spain, Simon?’ she said.

‘I mix it with quinine, in my villa. When the stuff’s ready, I come into England by boat.’

‘How do you get past Customs?’

A look of amusement crossed his face. ‘Let’s just say I’m well known there.’

‘Brown envelopes change hands?’

‘As I said, I’ll give you all the names.’

‘My client is keen to co-operate, Chief Inspector,’ the solicitor said.

‘And once you’re in London, Simon, then what?’

‘I contact my distributors. The faces change but, at any one time, there are about twenty. I bring over several kilos a throw,’ he said coolly. ‘I set up a time to meet, usually at night.’

‘So who are these distributors?’

‘Many are people I’ve known in the drugs squad.’ A vacant expression came into his eyes. ‘I wasn’t the only copper for sale.’

The drugs squad. Where Simon had worked for years. She’d done the right thing in keeping them out of the investigation. It struck her that, had she contacted them, she may have lost more than just the case. The thought made her blood run cold.

‘The Iron Duke was the main, but not the sole, outlet,’ Hensbury was saying. ‘There are two other places in Soho.’

‘I notice there’s no CCTV near the Duke, and hasn’t been for years.’

‘Nor outside the other two pubs.’

‘Your doing?’ She took a guess. ‘You had them vandalised and made sure they stayed that way?’

The corners of his lips lifted. ‘A few more brown envelopes.’

‘Where do you hide your money, Simon?’

‘In an offshore account in the Seychelles. I set up the operation very carefully. Everything went smoothly for years
until those boys were killed.’ His expression darkened. ‘Tom Harrower began asking questions. It wasn’t the first time the Duke had come under suspicion, but I’d always been able to pass it on to one of my, shall we say, more trusted officers who made sure any evidence was well and truly buried.’

‘Then why did you allocate the Jack in the Box case to DCI Harrower? You were his boss.’

‘Tom went over my head and complained he was being marginalised. I was instructed by my superior to give him the murders. But I kept a careful watch on what he was doing. I have a direct line to each of the pubs, in case things go pear-shaped. Malkie, my informant at the Duke, rang me telling me Tom was asking pertinent questions. I called him there and then and warned him off.’

‘By threatening to harm his pregnant daughter.’

A new respect came into his eyes. ‘I was impressed you discovered that little detail. Who told you?’

‘And did DCI Harrower ever challenge you about your threat?’ she said, folding her arms.

‘Family is what matters to Tom. Or rather,
was
what mattered.’ He looked at a point beyond her shoulder. ‘He was a good officer who didn’t deserve his reputation as a woodentop. And very popular with the men. He’d just won the inter-departmental swimming competition when he got the case.’

‘And yet he drowned in a fishing accident.’ When he didn’t reply, she added, ‘Was it an accident?’

‘One of the drugs squad wanted to make sure of him. He even made it look as though Tom’s legs had become entangled in weeds.’

‘On your orders.’ She made it sound like a statement.

‘I know you won’t believe me, but I never gave that order. Some idiot lost his nerve and took matters into his own hands. Tom’s blood is on those hands, not mine.’

‘And the Irish boys? Did you have them killed too? Did you ensure it was made to look like the work of a psychopath?’

He stared at her. ‘To this day, those murders remain a mystery to me, Von. I have no idea why the boys were killed.’

She looked deep into his eyes, unable to determine whether he was lying.

‘I swear to you,’ he said, ‘I’m innocent of those murders. Why would I have those lads killed? They were my outlet, after all. It makes no sense.’

‘Let’s park that one for the moment. How did Max Quincey become involved?’

‘He was at the Duke picking up a boy, and the boy offered him heroin. Max had the good sense not to use, but he asked him where he got it. He expressed an interest in coming in. There happened to be a vacancy – one of my distributors had just retired – and the boy passed the information along to Malkie. Malkie passed it on to me.’ He laughed softly. ‘When I discovered it was Max, I was disinclined to take it further, partly because he was Richard’s brother – Richard had introduced us some years before – and partly because I wasn’t sure how Max would fare. In the end I concluded that, as he went to the Duke for boys, it would be an ideal cover.’ He smiled. ‘I needn’t have worried. He was good. The year the play was running, I could hardly keep up with demand. It was an innovative idea using those dolls.’

‘But he became careless.’

‘First he let that journalist in on it.’ His lips curled. ‘And then there was Jonathan Moudry. Downley turned out to be useful over the years, specially when Max was away from London, but I was never sure of Moudry. For one thing, he’d seen me in the flesh. Although he didn’t know my name, he could identify me.’

‘Why didn’t you just have him killed?’ said Steve.

‘I considered the idea, but when I discovered he’d been
sleeping with Max, I decided against it. I had no idea how Max would respond. Anyway, Moudry was leaving when the play finished.’

‘Was Max intending to take Moudry with him?’ said Von.

‘He had some small bit part in Jack in the Box. He left London and disappeared. I was relieved, I thought I’d seen the last of him.’

‘Till today,’ she said, smiling. ‘So when the play returned last month, where did you meet Max?’

‘Where I always met him. In his lodgings.’

‘Tell me what happened on September 12th.’

He sighed heavily. ‘I don’t deny I visited him. It was in the afternoon. Three o’clock.’

‘How did you make the appointment? We found nothing in his phone records that linked him to you.’

‘You never knew Max. He had a taste for melodrama. With all my other distributors, I’d just ring them.’ He shook his head in mock disbelief. ‘But Max insisted I contact him by putting an advert in The Guardian. He even devised the codes we used in the small ads section.’

‘What was the purpose of the visit?’

‘To drop off the next consignment and pick up the cash. I stayed an hour, maybe an hour and a half.’

‘To drop off a consignment?’ said Steve, surprise in his voice.

‘Max and I weren’t just business partners, Inspector. We were friends.’

‘Did you have sex with him?’

He laughed. ‘Oh, I’m heterosexual, Inspector.’ His eyes wandered over Von’s body. ‘Your DCI can testify to that.’

‘Was anyone else there?’ she said, not responding to the jibe.

‘No-one was there when I arrived. And no-one came while I was with Max. And, before you ask, he was very much alive when I left him.’

If he was telling the truth, then Chrissie must have met Max in his room later. But what had she been doing there? Picking up her share of the smack, probably, despite her protestations she was no longer trafficking.

‘So where were you for the rest of the day, Simon?’

‘I can’t remember.’

‘At your club? At a show?’ she said impatiently. ‘Come on.’

‘I can’t remember.’

‘Did you visit your other distributors?’

‘I was planning to see them through the week.’

Simon was no fool. If he’d killed Max, he’d have made sure to arrange a robust alibi for himself, perhaps involving some of his lackeys in the drugs squad. Yet he was freely admitting to not having an alibi for the time Max was killed. Either he was telling the truth, or he was playing a game of double-bluff. She decided to humour him.

‘When did you learn that Max had been killed?’ she said.

‘When Richard rang me the following day.’

‘What was your reaction?’

‘I was sorry Max was dead.’

‘Were you?’

A look of disgust crossed his face. ‘What kind of a question is that?’

‘Let me clarify, then,’ she said with exaggerated patience. ‘Were you sorry because he was a distributor, and his death left a hole in your business?’

He looked at her with deep dislike. ‘I was sorry because he was a friend.’

‘Who did you think killed him?’

‘I had no idea.’ He paused. ‘And I still don’t.’

‘Come on, you’re a copper. You must have a theory.’

‘Fair point. Very well, I wondered if it was a rival operative, wanting to move in and take over my patch. Eat my porridge, is
the appropriate term. Killing Max might have been a signal, a shot across the bows. But when I read the details of the murder, I discounted that theory.’ His lips crimped with distaste. ‘That thing with the eyes, and the doll. Only a total sicko would do that. And, whatever you might think about them, drug traffickers tend not to fall into that category.’

‘They’re businessmen, is that it?’ she said, with irony.

‘When I ran into you in the restaurant, and you told me you’d sent your snout to the Duke, I realised you might succeed where Tom had failed. I considered using the tactics that had worked with him.’ He looked at her with interest. ‘What would you have done, Von, if I’d threatened
your
pregnant daughter?’

She caught her breath. For an instant the room tilted around her. She balled her hand into a fist, but Steve caught her wrist and pulled her back. Hensbury hadn’t moved.

The solicitor threw his client a look of warning. ‘Maybe now is a good time for a break,’ he said.

She got herself under control. ‘We’ll continue.’ Hensbury was watching her, his eyes steady.

‘Was it you who got in touch with the drugs squad, and told them about my investigation?’ she said, running a hand through her hair.

‘I’d hoped they’d take over, but your sergeant sent them packing. You’ve trained your bloodhounds well, Von.’ He inclined his head. ‘But then, you did have a good teacher.’

‘Tell me about Tubby.’

‘What do you want to know?’ he said lazily.

‘Why did you have him killed?’

‘I didn’t.’

‘That’s right, you didn’t. You killed him yourself. We have the proof.’

The interest was back in his voice. ‘Proof?’

‘His DNA was found on your ring. You’ve been a good boy
so far, so don’t spoil it by lying to us now.’

‘I didn’t kill him,’ he said, after a silence. He conferred in low tones with his solicitor. ‘This is what happened,’ he said, turning back to her. ‘One of my men at the Duke had informed me that Tubby was asking dangerous questions. We needed to know what he’d told you, so I had him picked up.’

‘Where did you take him?’

‘A lock-up garage.’

Steve pushed a pad toward him. ‘The address,’ he said.

Hensbury glanced at the solicitor, who nodded silently.

She watched him write, recognising his angular handwriting and remembering how, as a left-hander, he curled his fingers when he used a fountain pen, so as not to smudge the words. ‘What did you do in the garage, Simon?’ she said softly.

‘We interrogated him.’

‘For several hours?’

‘We had to be sure. Once he began talking, he couldn’t stop.’ He sneered. ‘He caved in like a cheap suit.’

‘But you carried on beating him.’

‘One of my distributors used to be a boxer,’ he said, with seeming indifference. ‘His problem is that he doesn’t always know when to stop.’

She ran a hand over her eyes. ‘What did Tubby tell you?’

‘That you knew the details of how the ring operated, but you didn’t have the names.’

‘You killed him for that?’ she said in disgust.

‘We got little that was useful out of Tubby, so I decided to make my own investigations. I remembered your habit of taking paperwork home, so I took a look round your flat.’ He smiled ambiguously. ‘You really should fit bolts on your windows, Von.’

So it hadn’t been Kenny
. She’d had a lucky escape. What would Simon have done if she’d arrived to find him searching the place? She stared into his eyes. ‘You’re going down for
Tubby’s murder, Simon.’

‘I wasn’t the one who strangled him.’ His tone was indifferent. ‘You won’t find my prints, or any prints, on the wire.’

‘The coroner’s report will show that Tubby died from a blow to the head. With his DNA on your ring, and no evidence that anyone else was involved, what conclusion do you think the jury will come to?’ She spoke softly. ‘Don’t think you’ll be hightailing it off to Torremolinos. When we meet with the magistrate, I’ll be requesting bail denied.’

For the barest instant, a look of fear clouded his eyes. So that was it: he’d intended to jump bail. It didn’t surprise her. He knew what happened to coppers in prison.

‘And Max?’ she said. ‘Now that you’ve got Tubby’s death off your chest, don’t you want to tell us why you killed Max?’

‘Not guilty,’ he said emphatically. ‘You’ve no material evidence. And you also know, deep down, that I didn’t kill him. Where’s the motive? Have you forgotten everything you learnt from me, Von? Find the motive, and you find the murderer.’