David sat on the ground, his knees squeezed tight to his chest, his arms and head buried between them. Hearing the ringing sound of a police-van bell he raised his head and saw the blue flashing light flickering in the sky around him. The van pulled up outside the café and the vagrant started to play up, shouting abuse and saying he wasn’t getting into the van. The driver got out, opened the rear doors and the two officers picked the vagrant up by the arms and legs then unceremoniously flung him in the back, slamming the doors shut before the van drove off.
David breathed a sigh of relief. Saved by the bell, he thought to himself, and smiled as he radioed John.
‘OK, rozzers and tramp gone, over.’
‘Are you givin’ the all-clear? Over.’
The incident had made David so nervous he now needed to take a leak. It got worse as he squeezed his legs together.
‘Yeah, they’ve left in the paddy wagon. I’m freezin’ cold and I really need to go to the lav, over.’
‘Well, piss against the wall, or wait for me to collect you in ten minutes – I’m calling it a night now, over and out.’
Silas shook his head in disbelief. ‘Why we stop? We have cut through bars, started to dig tunnel to vault so let’s keep going.’
John prodded him in the chest. ‘Cos I said so. That was a close call, thanks to your greasy fingers dropping that fucking brick. If the rozzer heard it he might get suspicious and come back, so we clean up, replace the plasterboard and call it a night right now.’
David was by now desperate and ended up partially wetting himself in his hurried effort to undo his fly and pull down his long johns. By the time John came to collect him he was shivering uncontrollably and was near to tears.
Renee was woken by the sound of the flat door closing and realized it was the boys returning home, but after looking at the bedside clock she was surprised to see it was half four in the morning. She turned over to go back to sleep but could see Clifford getting out of bed and pulling on his dressing gown.
‘It’s half four, Cliff – why you gettin’ up now?’ she asked.
‘Need the toilet – besides, I’m used to rising early in the nick, you know that.’
After a few minutes Renee heard voices coming from the kitchen. She put on her dressing gown and walked in. John and Clifford both fell silent.
‘Is everything all right?’
‘Yes – go back to bed, woman,’ Clifford said.
‘Shall I make a cup of tea?’ she asked.
Clifford glared at her. ‘No, just bloody well go back to bed!’
She closed the door and went to the bathroom.
‘David, are you all right in there?’ she asked as she tapped gently on the door.
David was lying in the bath water. Every part of his body ached and he felt like he was on fire.
‘I’m just having a nice soak, Mum.’
‘Will you need me to help you get out?’
‘No.’
Renee stood in the hallway feeling irritated that she couldn’t even go into the kitchen and brew up a cup of tea. She already suspected John and David were up to something, but now her husband was home she was certain all of them were. The way John and Clifford had just looked at her was behaviour she’d seen from them many times before when something was going to go down. Then there would be the inevitable knock on the door from the rozzers. She worried her David was yet again being dragged into something. She decided she would find out what as soon as she was alone with him.
Jane arrived at work to find a note from Bradfield telling her she would have to return to normal duties. She wondered if she had upset him but, not wanting to question his decision, she reported to the duty sergeant. The Julie Ann case had gone cold.
They had also questioned Dwayne Clark, who had come in accompanied by Stonex. Detectives had not found any drugs at Clark’s address, or at his friend’s flat in Coventry, and as he had a strong alibi for the murder of Julie Ann he was released without charge pending further enquiries. The toxicology tests on the blood samples taken from the body of Eddie Phillips were under way and early indications were he had injected himself with pure heroin and in a drug-induced stupor fallen over and then collapsed into the canal where he drowned. The scientist concluded that the overdose alone would have killed him within a few minutes. It was believed that O’Duncie had deliberately supplied Eddie Phillips with the lethal heroin, intending to kill him as he feared he would tell the police about his drug dealing and abuse of Julie Anne. However, as much as it angered Bradfield, he knew he didn’t have enough evidence to prove that it was O’Duncie who supplied Eddie and therefore couldn’t charge him with his murder. Experience had taught him that ‘some you win, some you lose’, and no matter the result of a case you had to move on and not let it fester in your mind, but putting O’Duncie away for the rest of his life was something Bradfield would’ve loved to do.
