The Woodcutter (36 page)

‘Meaning, you started to suspect that I’d been fitted up? Why?’

‘There were patterns I looked for. You got to understand, this wasn’t the first time this kind of thing happened. You get everyone from redundant employees to betrayed wives or even pissed-off kids thinking, Wouldn’t it be neat to download some mucky images on to the old bastard’s computer and give the pigs an anonymous tip? Often it sticks out like a sore thumb. Yours was a rather more sophisticated job. Whoever did it knew what they were doing. Took me the best part of a week, on and off, but in the end I got there.’

‘Well, congratulations,’ sneered Hadda. ‘So why didn’t you go to your superiors, tell them what you thought, get my name cleared publicly?’

Medler smiled bitterly, ‘Oh, I was going to, believe me. But first – this’ll make you laugh – I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to get a line on the bastards who’d been shafting you? All right, you’d split my lip, twice, but that didn’t mean you deserved this.’

‘I’m very touched. So what did you do?’

‘I went along to see Toby fucking Estover. He was still your solicitor then, of course. This was before he went public about banging your missus. Sorry. All I intended was to have a chat, see if he could give me any line on who was most likely to be responsible. But you know what? I hadn’t been in his office two minutes when I realized I need look no further. Whatever was going on, whoever had initiated it, Mr Toby Estover was in it right up to his lily-white upper-class neck!’

Now as he regarded Hadda, his expression was no longer malicious but pitying.

‘Come on, Hadda,’ he said. ‘You’ve had years to think about this. You must have suspected.’

‘I suspected . . . lots of people,’ said Hadda. Then he took a deep breath and demanded, ‘So your super-sensitive copper’s nose put Estover in the frame. What did you do about it?’

‘Without evidence, what could I do except sit back and let him go on thinking that I’d come to talk to him because I was on to his little game? At this point all I was interested in was letting him incriminate himself so that I could bang him up! Estover, Mast and Turbery, in the Met they’re high on most people’s hate list! I’d be flavour of the month if I could throw a spanner in their well-oiled works. And when he began hinting a pay-off, I began rubbing my hands at the prospect of getting him on a bribery count as well.’

‘But in the end he offered enough to make you change your mind,’ said Hadda.

‘Not exactly. Or at least, not straight away. After half an hour of me looking like I knew everything while really I knew fuck all and him giving off enough legal smog to contravene the Clean Air Act, we agreed to meet again the following day. I naturally took the chance to get myself wired. When the bribe was clearly offered, I wanted it on tape.’

‘Still thinking like an honest cop,’ mocked Hadda.

‘Yeah, surprisingly, I was. But someone had been keeping tabs on me. I was sitting at my desk, writing up my report when my boss ushered this geezer into my office and said, “This is Mr Wesley. He’d like to talk to you about the Hadda case. He has full clearance.” Then he left me with Mr sodding Wesley.’

‘Wesley?’ Hadda frowned. ‘What did he look like?’

‘Nothing special. Hard to say if he was fifty or seventy. Hair thinning, a bit wispy, sort of brown turning grey. Five foot ten, slim build, blue eyes, not much chin, nice smile, except it didn’t always go with the things he was saying. Expensive suit, MCC tie. Softly spoken, posh but not grating, slight hint of East Anglia in there, maybe.’

‘For someone nothing special, he seems to have made an impression,’ said Wolf.

Medler shrugged and said, ‘When I heard what he had to say, I made sure I’d know him again. What about you? Sounds familiar, does he?’

He hadn’t lost his super-sensitive copper’s nose, thought Hadda.

‘Maybe. What did this Mr Wesley say?’

‘I told him what was going off, what I suspected about Estover. He asked me who else knew what I was doing. I said my boss a bit, but not much. And nobody else. He said keep it that way. If Estover did offer me a bribe, push him to see how far he’d go. But don’t take any action till I’d talked to him again. And nothing in writing or in my computer. I said, “How do I get in touch?” and he smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it.”’

‘And you didn’t argue or talk this over with your boss?’

Medler shrugged and said, ‘Not the kind of guy you want to argue with. But if he’s a friend of yours, you’ll know that. Anyway, I met Estover again. I could tell straight off he was easing towards a deal. He started by talking about you, showed me the latest medical report. Just one step back from a death certificate, he said. “And you can’t harm the dead,” he told me, “so why harm the living?” Trying to soften me up, I suppose. But he still didn’t say anything like, Here’s ten k, it’s yours if you keep your mouth shut.’

‘Ten k? You didn’t get this place with ten k,’ said Hadda.

‘No. I played it like Mr nothing special Wesley told me and gave him a push.’

He smiled as if relishing the memory.

‘Suddenly I stood up and said, all pompous like, “I hope you’re not offering me an inducement, Mr Estover. Because if you are, I think you ought to know, I’m not the kind of cop who’d put his reputation on the line for a handful of silver.” “How about a handful of gold?” he said, laughing to show it was just a joke. And I said, “What would I do with gold? No, I’m a man of simple needs. All I’m looking to do is to get enough years in to retire early to somewhere sunny like Spain.” Then I said we’d need to talk again, I’d give him a ring. And I left.’

‘And not long after you left a car drew up and Mr Wesley invited you to take a ride with him,’ said Hadda.

‘Where were you? Hiding in the boot? Sorry. Yes, he took charge of the tape. Didn’t bother to listen to it, but he seemed to know what had gone off. He asked me if there really was somewhere in Spain I had in mind. I said there were a couple of places. I’d always kept an eye on the Spanish house market. Most of the stuff I fancied was way out of my league normally, but I knew that with the banking crisis getting worse every day, a lot of overstretched ex-pats were going to be looking to sell cheap. I’d just got the details of this place. It was still only a pipe-dream. Even with a fifty per cent discount, I’d never be able to afford it. But now Wesley said, “Show it to Estover. Ask his advice.”’

‘Which you did when you met again?’

‘Yeah. Next day. Not in his office this time. I chose the rendezvous, outside, down by the river. He was as cautious as me. The way we patted each other to make sure neither of us was wired, anyone watching must have thought we were a couple of poofs! Then I showed him the details of the villa, asked what he thought. He said it looked a good investment, how much of the cost would I be looking for? And I said, “Well, all of it. Plus I’d need a bit of a lump sum to cover maintenance and so on.”’

He paused for effect. He was beginning to enjoy his narration again.

Hadda flourished the hatchet and snarled, ‘For fuck’s sake, get on with it!’

‘Sorry, sorry,’ said Medler, taking another swig of brandy. ‘I expected him to start to haggle, but he didn’t even blink. He said, leave it to him. He’d do the negotiating. And he’d get it all registered in my name. Plus a nice maintenance account.’

‘And that was it?’ said Hadda. ‘Sounds like you were getting a helluva lot for not very much.’

‘There was something else,’ said Medler uneasily. ‘Estover said, “We need guarantees. No come back. Whatever happens. Never.”’

‘So what did you have to do?’ said Hadda softly, breathing on the hatchet blade and polishing it on his sleeve.

‘He told me that, for both our sakes, I’d need to make sure that if ever anyone looked at the details of the charges again, they’d find a truly watertight case.’

‘And then?’

‘We shook hands and left. I met Wesley later. He told me to sit tight for a couple of days, mention nothing of this to no one. Later in the week he turned up in my office. Said it had been decided I should go along with Estover the whole way. I said, “What’s that mean?” He said, cool as you like, “I mean let him buy the villa and make it over to you. Then you do what he asked and make sure that the case against Hadda is tighter than a duck’s arsehole.” I said, “What about the fraud case?”’

‘Why’d you say that? You weren’t anything to do with the Fraud Squad.’

Medler grinned and said, ‘Everything’s about sex or money, and this clearly wasn’t about sex. Fitting you up on the porn charges had just been a way of making sure your name stank before the Fraud boys got their teeth into you. Stands to reason.’

‘You reckon? And what did Mr Wesley say?’

‘Told me to stick to my business and live happily ever after.’

‘He said that? Interesting choice of phrase. And you said, all right, I’m yours body and soul for a place in the sun and a bottle of sangria.’

‘No, I bloody well didn’t! Listen, you got to believe me, Hadda, I didn’t like where all this was going, and I said so.’

‘So what precisely did you say, Arnie?’ asked Hadda quietly.

‘I said, the fraud stuff was one thing – way it looked to everyone back then, all you lot in high finance were on the fiddle and deserved every bit of shit that could be thrown at you – but the other stuff, to shovel that on to an innocent man, that just wasn’t on.’

‘Nice of you to be so concerned,’ said Hadda. ‘And your Mr Wesley replied . . .?’

‘He said you were to all intents a dead man and dead men didn’t mind whether you shovelled earth or shit over them. As for Estover, he would be more useful on the end of their string than relaxing in comfort at Her Majesty’s expense. I said, “You mean this has all been for nothing?” And he laughed and said, “Hardly nothing. You’ve got yourself a nice retirement villa out of it, haven’t you? Of course you might turn out to be the gabby type. In which case I don’t think retirement would be an option.” So what could I do?’

He looked at Hadda pleadingly. The bastard wants me to feel sorry for him in his sad predicament! he thought.

‘You could have told him to get stuffed! But instead, you accepted a large bribe from Estover and his associates to conceal the fact that they’d framed me. And in addition, before you left, you made sure their botched-up job was completely watertight, right?’

For a second, Medler looked ready to argue, then he shrugged and said, ‘Yeah, more or less. Once I was happy with the way your case file looked, I went sick, made sure I got the maximum severance payments – why not? I’d worked all those years in a really shitty job, I reckon I’d earned it!’

Now he was looking defiant. As if this were a point really worth arguing.

Hadda said, ‘So we’ve got Estover right in the middle of the frame. What about the others? You’re a nosey little fox, I’ll give you that. I bet you had a chat with your mates in Fraud. What were they saying?’

Medler said, ‘They were pretty sure your finance guy, Nutbrown, had to be involved. Where’d you find him? Fell out of the moon, I’d guess! The Fraud boys said trying to get a line on him was like trying to get water out of a pond with your finger and thumb. In the end they were happy to have him on board as a fully cooperating witness! I’d say Estover was pulling his strings. And Nutbrown’s wife too. I only met her the once, that was enough!’

‘Anyone else?’

Now the man looked at him shrewdly and said, ‘You’re thinking about your ex-missus, aren’t you?’

‘Just answer my questions, Medler,’ growled Hadda.

‘Right, right, keep your hair on. Listen, she struck me as a very together lady, never showed no signs of falling apart despite everything. At the time I thought it was just that upper-class stiff-upper-lip thing, but when I heard later that she dumped you and married Estover, well, it speaks for itself, don’t it? Come on, Hadda, you know her a lot better than me. Was she so thick that greasy bastard could take her in? I don’t think so!’

He gave a knowing sneer, reminding Hadda of his manner on their first meeting.

It was a provocation too much.

He leaned forward, shoved the hatchet against Medler’s crotch and snarled, ‘So why’d you come to see me, fuck-face? Brought some poisoned grapes, did you?’

It was even more effective than he’d hoped. The man went pale, or at least his tan went sallow, and he shrank back as far as he could get in his chair.

‘An old mate rang and told me you’d woke up,’ he gabbled. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I mean, no one expected it, not after all those months . . .’

‘And you were so relieved you had to come straight to my bedside?’

‘I wasn’t thinking straight,’ admitted Medler. ‘I had to see for myself. I mean, for all I knew you were a drooling idiot, right? At the hospital I talked my way past the guy on duty . . . come to think of it, it was McLucky, wasn’t it? Yeah, it was. Jesus, how could I have forgotten that? After that I talked to Estover . . .’

‘Did he contact you or did you contact him?’

‘I don’t know. It was him contacted me, I think . . . yeah, that’s right . . . all he wanted to know was, had I really tidied things up? I said yes, I was sure. Then I said, did he understand, the way I’d left things, you could go down for a really long stretch? He said, “Too late to worry about that now.” But I did worry, Hadda, you’ve got to believe me. I mean, I was just covering myself . . . I never thought . . . I believed you’d be dead!’

‘Oh, I can tell you were really bothered,’ said Hadda. ‘That’s why you went straight round to the Yard and told them everything.’

‘I couldn’t do that, I’d have ended up worse off than you!’ he cried. ‘I got a card wishing me a happy retirement. It was signed Wesley. Even if I’d given an anonymous tip-off, no way that smiling bastard wouldn’t have traced it back to me. I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, there hasn’t been a day since when I haven’t thought about what was happening to you, how people must be thinking about you . . .’

‘Wish I’d known,’ said Hadda, standing up. ‘It would have been such a comfort.’

‘What are you going to do?’ asked Medler, looking up at him fearfully.

‘I’m going to go away and consider my options,’ said Hadda. ‘The two top ones are, I could come back here and chop your balls off with my axe and stick them in a highball glass and make you drink them down. Or I could take this along to the Yard and play it to your old colleagues and see what they have to say.’