Sorcerer (18 page)

‘Not if I can help it they won’t’.

‘Jeff, I’m not one of the bad guys. I just did what I had to do to protect myself and my family’.

‘Really? Well I’ll arrange a meeting with Ronnie Wiseman and Ed Lake and you can explain your so-called innocence to them. Then you can explain to your colleagues how it led to further corruption in the force twenty years later’.

SORCERER FOURTEEN

When Jeff got into work the next morning he’d calmed down considerably after his encounter the previous evening with Ian Hayward. He walked into the squad room and DC Oliver Wright was already hard at it, gazing at a computer screen.

‘Ollie, you were here at nine o’clock last night and you’re here this morning at barely past eight o’clock. Did you actually go home?’

Wright smiled. ‘Of course I did, sir’ he replied. ‘But we do have a lot to do’.

‘I know that but … look Ollie, you don’t to go out of your way to impress. DI Stockton and I already hold you in very high regard’.

‘Thank you, sir, and I appreciate that. But for every two of you there are two more waiting to see me fail because I’m a black police officer and they don’t think my sort should be in the force. That’s why I try harder than some of the others’.

‘Make that all of the others’ said Jeff. ‘Ollie, I’d love to say that you were wrong but I know there is truth in what you say. I know it can’t be easy but you will climb the ladder because you’re a bloody good copper. And for many in this force, not just me and DI Stockton, that’s really all that matters’.

Wright smiled. ‘Thanks, boss’.

‘Anytime’ said Jeff. ‘Now I need you to do something for me. I want you to get on to the Antwerp police and ask them if they have any details on when Mary Griffin actually died, if the emergency services were called to wherever she was and see if they can email to us a copy of the doctor’s report on her death, assuming that there is one of course’.

‘Okay’ said Wright who then looked up when Rebecca came into the room.

‘Jack White is here, sir’ Rebecca announced. ‘He says he’s got things to tell us’.

‘Well, would you like to lead the way, DI Stockton?’

When Jeff and Rebecca got into the interview room they found a very contrite Jack White who was waiting to give them the final piece of his side of the story.

‘So Mary Griffin was your sister?’ said Jeff once she’d got over the initial shock of what White told him.

‘Yes’ said Jack. He’d never talked about any of this before and he was finding it harder than he thought it would be. It was like having a bunch of razor blades in his heart. ‘Mary and I grew up in Wythenshawe. We came from a family where my father worked in some dead end job and my mother did what she could with the money he gave her. I haven’t spoken to any of my other siblings, and I’ve got three brothers and another sister, for decades. I don’t know anything about them or even where they are. They could all be dead as far as I know’.

‘But you didn’t think to tell us this before?’

‘I blocked it out to be honest’.

‘You can’t just block out that somebody is your sister, Mr. White’.

‘You can in this case’ Jack countered. ‘You see, she did something to me that was so despicable that the only way I could get over it was to pretend she didn’t exist’.

‘So what did she do that hurt you so much?’

‘When we were growing up Mary and I were close’ Jack revealed. ‘We both shared the same sense of wanting to get out into the world. We knew that life had to be better than the example we’d been set. There was a different kind of life out there that was worth chasing and we both had this intense desire to go out and get it. We wanted to succeed. We both did well at school, not that our parents cared a bugger about that. All of us kids were treated as cash crops. Only stay at school as long as you’ve got to and then get out and work to bring some money into the house. Our happiness wasn’t important to them. They just wanted us to fit into their view of the world and not have the audacity to think for ourselves. Sadly it still happens in many families today where the parents aren’t particularly educated and for some reason don’t want their children to be either. But both Mary and I knew that we were going to go a different way’.

‘And how did you get there?’

‘Well let me start right at the beginning. I met a boy called Ross. We were both eighteen and he lived a couple of streets away. We both knew as soon as we set eyes on each other, you know? We were involved in a relationship for six months until his parents found out and then the shit hit the fan. They were furious and went round and told my parents who were equally irate. There was a terrible row, shouting and screaming all over the place. My Dad used it as an excuse to use me as a punch bag. He thought he could beat me into being what he called a proper man. Ross gave in to the pressure and said he wouldn’t see me anymore. But I wouldn’t give in and my last view of my father was when he was throwing a bag with my clothes in it down the path at me after he’d thrown me out. He said that he wasn’t going to have a filthy shirt lifter for a son. Mary had already left home and turned her back on the family and she was the only one I could go to. She helped me find a flat and I thought we’d bonded in a way that could never be broken. I’d got a job and I was earning decent money so it wasn’t difficult financially and I was defiant. I said I’d never see the rest of my family again and I’ve stuck to it. Ross got married the year after. He’s a grandfather now and still living in the same street he grew up in. I don’t know if he ever thinks of me but I think a lot about him even after all these years, especially during my low moments. But you see, I thought that my sister Mary was okay about me being gay. I had no reason to think otherwise because she’d supported me after our Dad threw me out. But years later when we were in the middle of a drink fuelled row she told me that she considered homosexuality to be a perversion and that her views basically chimed with those of our father. I was devastated. I felt very badly let down. I loved my sister and I thought she loved me for who I was but instead she broke my heart’.

‘Was she married at this stage?’

‘Yes’ said Jack. ‘Harry Lake was a wonderful man. He was an astute businessman but he was also kind, generous, and supportive. He promoted me at the firm Valley Engineering and set me on the road to where I am today. But he wasn’t enough for Mary. They had Edward but she never displayed much of a maternal instinct. Various people looked after him, including me. Then she met George Griffin who she saw as exciting and less serious than Harry. Harry found out about Mary’s affair and it really shook him. He just wasn’t the same man anymore. Then, as you know, he committed suicide. He hanged himself in the bedroom of their house. Mary married Griffin within a month and cut herself and Ed off from all of Harry’s family. I ended up thinking that Harry Lake had married beneath him’.

‘And was that the start of your estrangement from her?’

‘Well you already know how she and Griffin blackmailed me’ said Jack. ‘And that’s what I mean by a despicable act. I mean, don’t you think it was pretty despicable to accuse me of sexually abusing my own nephew Ed?’

‘Yes, I do’ said Jeff who was softening towards Jack White even though he still had difficult questions to answer. ‘But then you swindled your nephew out of his inheritance when you bought his shares from your sister’.

Jack knew he had to swallow that one. He’d been living with it for years. ‘Yes’.

‘After he’d confided in you that his step-father had been sexually abusing him’.

‘After my own sister had threatened to say that it was me who’d done that to Edward and not her precious bloody husband!’    

‘I can see why that would upset you, Mr. White’.

‘Can you? Can you really? My sister was evil, detective. She was capable of anything and when she met George Griffin it was like Satan had found his bride. She, a mother, knew what was happening to her own son and knew what was happening to those boys at Pembroke because she was part of it. And it’s pretty hard to think of my sister being complicit in such horrendous acts, detective’.

‘But you knew she was involved all along, Mr. White’. 

‘Yes, I knew but now you know precisely why I kept my mouth shut and why I helped Anne all these years because she needed to get away from all the evil around her. I had to help her financially. I had to do something to ease the guilt that was ripping my insides out.  I am sorry, more than you’ll ever know, for not going to the police and I am sorry I never made it up to Ed’.

‘Does he know he’s your nephew?’

‘Yes’ said Jack. ‘But I expect he’s blocked that little fact out of his mind. I would’ve done if I’d been him’.

‘You failed to report a multitude of crimes, Mr. White’.

‘You know I can’t deny that’.

‘So why are you here today?’

‘To tell you about Mary being my sister so that it may add some context not only to your considerations but also to what I’m about to tell you. About six months ago Mary contacted me, and bear in mind I’d not had any contact with her since she moved to Spain twenty years ago, and asked me if I would lend her and George some money’.

‘How much?’

‘A hundred thousand pounds’.

‘Wow’ said Jeff. ‘Did she say why they needed it?’

‘She said that their business had run into difficulty and that they were running short of cash flow’.

‘And what did you tell her?’

‘I told her I’d rather see them in the gutter than help them. She started to beg and when that didn’t work she ranted down the phone at me with expletive after expletive. Then she hung up and I never heard anything again’.

‘So what do you think they did about their financial problems?’

‘I don’t know’ said Jack. ‘But I wouldn’t put anything past them’. 

‘Is that why you’ve moved into the Lowry hotel? To hide from George?’

‘Yes’ said Jack. ‘And I’ll be staying there until you apprehend him’. 

A call then came through from the Antwerp police that saved the morning for Jeff and made the day seem worthwhile after all. Wright picked it up and buzzed it through to Jeff’s office but when he picked it up he’d been put on hold. The music that was played to bridge the gap was so indecipherable and hideous that Jeff wished they’d just used silence. If this was Belgian music, he thought, they could bloody well keep it. Then when he heard the click and a person’s voice he suddenly went into the French he’d been mentally practicing whilst he waited.

"... oui, bonjour, je suis l'inspecteur de police divisionnaire Jeff Barton de la police du Grand Manchester au Royaume-Uni. Pourrais-parler avec quelqu'un qui est chargé d'enquêtes sur les crimes graves s'il vous plaît?"

Jeff then heard a masculine chuckle followed by English spoken in an accent that didn’t sound very French.

‘Hello? I’m Inspector Dirk Van Miert of the Antwerp police department. You I believe are detective superintendent Jeff Barton?’

‘You’re not French speaking?’

‘No, we speak Flemish in this part of the country which is a version of Dutch. And when we speak to people from outside we prefer to speak any language other than French’.

‘I’m so sorry Inspector’ said Jeff. ‘Please forgive my cultural ignorance’.

Van Miert laughed. ‘Oh it’s not a problem. Not many people outside Belgium are aware of our little ways. And please call me Dirk’.

‘Okay, Dirk’ said Jeff who thought he had a very guttural type of voice. If he sang he’d probably sound like Rod Stewart. ‘And I’m Jeff. So you weren’t laughing at my attempt at speaking French?’

‘Not at all’ Dirk assured. ‘I wouldn’t speak French any better than that, believe me. And I’m pleasantly surprised to receive a call from Manchester. My daughter is at university there reading European history and English. She lives in a flat in a place called Fallowfield?’

‘Yes, I know it well’.

‘My wife and I have been over there half a dozen times. We like the city very much’.

‘Does your daughter like it here?’

‘Oh yes, she enjoys her studies and she loves student life. She’s made many friends and she’s got to know all the bars and clubs and places to eat. She’s costing me a bloody fortune’.

Jeff smiled. ‘And I’ll bet you don’t mind a bit’.

‘No, of course not. She’s a clever girl and I’m proud of her. But now I suppose we should get down to business. I’m glad you called, Jeff, because we do have some urgent matters to discuss relating to the Griffins’.

‘Tell me more?’

‘Right, well we’ve been investigating the activities of a local doctor by the name of Dr. Josef Smets who we’ve suspected for some time of working for a paedophile ring that’s been operating right across Europe but based here in Antwerp. Through him we came across the Griffins who are also part of the same ring that specifically covers the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, and the UK. Not to mention Belgium of course. For years now the Griffins and the rest of the ring have been making thousands and thousands from the sale and distribution of films showing extreme and quite disgusting child pornography. They’ve been getting away with it because they buried their operations behind several layers of legitimate businesses but the pattern has always been the same. In each of the countries they’ve used underprivileged kids from poor backgrounds who are in an institution of some kind. They find places where the staff can be leaned on in some way and the boys are always too scared to tell anyone’.