Ashes by Now Read online

  ‘I’m not. I ain’t got that many clothes. The rest’s in the laundry.’

  ‘When did you put them in?’ I asked.

  ‘Just now –’ Sailor stopped as the enormity of what he’d said hit him.

  ‘A bath and clean clothes all in one day,’ said Lenny. ‘Is it your birthday, or what?’

  ‘Me clothes were dirty.’

  ‘I bet they were,’ said Lenny. ‘Covered in come stains. Was that it?’

  ‘No. Just dirty.’

  ‘Are they in the machine now?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah. I was going to have my chips and go back and get them.’

  ‘We’ll get them for you,’ I said. ‘On the way to the station.’

  ‘No,’ protested Sailor. ‘Not the nick.’

  ‘It’s got to be,’ I said. ‘Right, Lenny?’

  ‘That’s the way it looks to me. You’re in dead trouble here, Sailor. The girl was a copper’s daughter, and our super’s niece.’

  Sailor went even paler, as Lenny spoke.

  ‘I never…’ he said, but we weren’t listening. I put the car into a U-turn, and headed back to the laundry next to the chip shop. Lenny Millar and Sailor came in with me, and I emptied the machine he’d been using, put his clean clothes into the black plastic sack he’d brought them in, and drove them, him and Lenny to the station.

  Lenny and I wheeled Sailor Grant into an interview room at five in the afternoon. We’d called in on the RT and Collier and Grisham were waiting for us. We had our suspect in for questioning, and the fun was just about to begin.

  7

  ‘Good work, boys,’ said Grisham.

  I didn’t know what was particularly good about it. We’d driven round for ten minutes and picked up some poor unfortunate bastard who couldn’t cope with life. Big deal. The streets of London were full of them. The fact that this particular one got his rocks off showing his penis to children had little to do with it. What was important was that the tidal wave of officialdom had gathered, and was ready to break upon the beach. Someone from the family of two senior policemen had been interfered with. We needed a body. Any body. And we’d got one.

  ‘Let’s have a few words with him,’ said Grisham. ‘Lenny. Terry. You come in with me. Sharman. You still look lousy. Go and get some tea.’

  It was a pleasure. ‘Yes, guv,’ I said, and made for the canteen.

  ‘And bring back four cups for us when you’re done.’

  ‘Yes, guv,’ I said again.

  I had a cup of tea, sitting all alone at a table in the corner. The few uniforms who were taking a refreshment break knew what had happened, and were clocking me surreptitiously. Finally, one big constable came over to my table and stood looking at me.

  ‘Yes?’ I said, looking up at him.

  He stuck out his hand. ‘My name’s Dave. Dave Conroy. You’re new.’

  I agreed that I was, took his hand and told him who I was.

  ‘Welcome aboard,’ he said. ‘I was on the shout for that girl who was raped. Byrne’s niece. I hear you’ve got someone.’

  I nodded.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Sailor Grant,’ I replied. ‘I believe he’s well-known round here.’

  The uniform nodded grimly. ‘I know him,’ he said. ‘Looks like he’s moved into the big league.’

  ‘He’ll be out on the streets again in an hour,’ I said. ‘He’s not our man.’

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  I shrugged. ‘Dunno,’ I said. ‘Intuition.’

  The uniform nodded. ‘I hope you’re wrong,’ he said. ‘Our lives are going to be miserable until we catch the sod who did do it.’

  ‘That’s what worries me,’ I said. ‘We’re jumping to too many conclusions for my liking.’

  Conroy nodded. ‘I’d better be going. Plenty still to do.’

  ‘I reckon he’s still out there,’ I said.

  Conroy went back to his mates to report on the conversation. They kept glancing in my direction as they finished their teas and left.

  I finished mine a few minutes later, got four more cups and a sugar bowl for Grisham and Co, and went back down to the interview room.

  I took the teas in and put them on the table. Grant was sitting in a chair behind it. The three police officers were standing round him.

  Collier grabbed my arm, and steered me out of the room. ‘I hear you don’t like our friend for this,’ he said.

  I shrugged. Christ, but that was fast. My new friend PC Conroy must have had a quick word with Collier.

  ‘Well, do you or don’t you?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘And of course you’d fucking know. An officer of your vast experience.’

  ‘It’s just an opinion.’

  ‘Well, Sharman, in future keep your fucking opinions to yourself, until you’re asked. Understand?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Yes, what?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Right. You get off home to your wife now. We don’t want you on overtime on your first day, do we?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Very good. Report to me in the morning.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  He turned on his heel and went back into the interview room, and shut the door in my face.

  So I did as he suggested, and went home to my wife.

  8

  When I got into the nick the next morning and presented myself for duty in the CID office, Collier was there on his own. ‘Any luck with Grant?’ I asked.

  ‘No. He won’t budge.’ I could tell he wasn’t in the best of moods about it. Or me.

  ‘What’s on the agenda for today?’ I asked.

  He looked at me nastily. ‘For us, continued investigations and interrogations of the suspect on the Harvey rape. For you, some follow-up calls that your predecessor didn’t get round to. Get a motor and get on to them.’ He tossed me a file, yay thick. ‘Hope you’ve got an A-Z. You’ll need one.’

  I think he just wanted me and my opinions out of the way. I played it by the book. ‘Right you are, skip,’ I said. ‘I’ll check in later.’

  ‘Do that.’ And he walked out of the room.

  I spent the morning trying to track down various witnesses to crime, and victims of it. Most seemed either to be at work or to have vanished off the face of the earth. It was not a productive few hours. I lunched at a greasy spoon, and then popped in for a drink at Tom’s pub, half hoping that Lenny might be there, for someone to talk to.

  He wasn’t. But Tom greeted me like a long-lost friend and stuck me up a gratis pint of lager straight off.

  ‘Terrible thing what happened,’ he said.

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

  ‘Your super’s niece. It was in the paper this morning.’

  ‘Right,’ I agreed.

  ‘I see you got someone.’

  ‘Someone,’ I said. ‘But not the geezer who did it. At least I don’t think so.’ I wondered how long that would take to be reported to Collier. Who the fuck cared?

  ‘Why’s that?’ asked Tom.

  ‘Don’t know. That’s why I’m here, and not back at the station, talking to the man concerned. I think my DS reckons I’m rocking the boat.’

  ‘Are you?’

  ‘Don’t think so. Can I use your phone?’

  He took it from off the back of the bar and put it on the counter in front of me, then vanished. I could see why his pub was so popular. I dialled the number of the nick and asked to be put through to CID.

  ‘CID. Millar,’ said a voice.

  ‘Lenny. It’s Nick Sharman.’

  ‘Mr Unpopular. Where are you?’

  ‘Tom’s.’

  ‘You learn fast. How’s it going?’

  ‘A total wash. Nobody on my list’s abo
ut.’

  ‘That’s Collier’s special shit list. He only gives it to you when he wants you out of the way.’

  ‘How’s it going with that?’

  ‘Another total wash. I’m beginning to think you were right. Sailor’s even beginning to convince me. We’ll probably kick him out later.’

  ‘Any other face in the frame?’

  ‘Not really. The usual collection of losers who get a hard-on pinching knickers off lines or peeping into someone’s back bedroom.’

  ‘That’s bad.’

  ‘You can say that again. All the real perverts round here seem to be visiting Her Majesty at the moment.’

  ‘What shall I do?’

  ‘Stay at Tom’s and have another drink. I wish I was with you. Come in later. Collier won’t even notice.’

  So that’s what I did. I had another pint or two, made some back calls – where by a miracle I managed to interview a couple of people, without any conspicuous result – and wandered into the nick about four.

  Collier was standing in the general office behind the reception area. ‘Sharman,’ he said. ‘Any luck with that lot of calls I gave you?’

  ‘Not really. I managed to dig a couple out of their pits. I’ll write it up.’

  ‘Harvey’s here.’

  ‘The DI? Carol Harvey’s father?’

  ‘The same. He wants to see you.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘’Cos you were there when Grant was nicked.’

  ‘Any luck with him?’ I asked.

  Collier shook his head.

  We went upstairs, and a large, dark-haired man was coming out of Superintendent Byrne’s office. With him was a young girl of about twelve. She had long, thick red hair, wore Coke-bottle-bottom glasses and a school uniform. Both she and her father looked like they’d had better days. I imagine they had.

  ‘This is Sharman, sir,’ said Collier. ‘Sharman, DI Harvey.’

  ‘Oh, Sharman. Good, I’d like a word. Jackie, will you stay with Sergeant Collier? I want to speak to the DC in private. Then we’ll go up to the hospital.’

  ‘Come with me, love,’ said Collier. ‘I’ll find you a cup of tea and somewhere to sit. That office is empty, sir. Use that.’ He gestured at a door beside us.

  The girl looked at her father, then me, then Collier, shrugged, and went with him in the direction of the canteen.

  Harvey opened the office door and led me in. He perched on the edge of the desk and I stood.

  ‘This is a dreadful thing,’ he said.

  I nodded.

  ‘Do you think this bloke Grant did it?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘Why not?’

  Everybody kept asking me that. ‘Not his style, Mr Harvey,’ I said. ‘He hasn’t got the guts to touch. Looking’s his thing. Looking and showing. That’s how he’s got his kicks up until now.’

  ‘Why’d you pull him then?’

  ‘It wasn’t my idea. I’m new here. DC Millar’s nicked him before. He was about. Then there’s the business of the bath and all his clothes being in the wash. He fits the bill.’

  ‘He could have changed his MO,’ said Harvey.

  ‘He could,’ I agreed. ‘Maybe I’m wrong.’

  ‘I’ve spoken to Millar. He still likes him for it.’

  That’s not what he said on the phone, I thought. He’s humouring you, my son.

  ‘Have you spoken to Grant?’ asked Harvey.

  ‘Briefly.’

  Harvey crashed one fist into the palm of his other hand. When he looked at me I saw he was close to tears. ‘My daughter,’ he said. ‘Why?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I replied, and it sounded pretty lame. ‘We’re still looking. We’ll find him eventually.’

  ‘You married, Sharman?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Kids?’

  ‘My wife thinks there might be one on the way. We’ve only been married a little while.’

  ‘I hope for your sake it’s a boy.’

  She wasn’t as a matter of fact, and I’m not a little bit sorry. Not so far.

  We stayed in the office talking for another five or ten minutes, then Harvey looked at his watch, and I knew the interview was over.

  ‘Just keep at it, son,’ he said. ‘Don’t stop until you get the bastard who did it. Whoever it is.’

  ‘I won’t, sir. And nor will any other officer at this station. Count on it.’

  ‘I believe you,’ he said. ‘And I will.’

  He shook my hand too hard and we left the office.

  As we went into the corridor, Collier and Harvey’s daughter came out of the super’s office. Collier looked serious and Jackie Harvey’s glasses were smeared.

  ‘Just saying goodbye to her uncle,’ Collier said quickly.

  The girl peered at me through the thick lenses she wore, and her eyes were very old.

  ‘Come along, Jackie,’ said Harvey. ‘Let’s go and see how your sister is.’

  Collier and I watched as they turned the corner of the corridor. Jackie Harvey looked back, and the expression on her face chilled me to the bone.

  9

  ‘Come on then, Sharman,’ said Collier. ‘Don’t hang about. Let’s go and see Mr Grant. I think it’s about time we got him to tell us the truth about what happened yesterday.’

  ‘I thought it was a washout, skip,’ I said. ‘I thought you were going to let him go.’

  Collier turned on me furiously. ‘Who told you that? DI Grisham and I say when he goes. Don’t pay any attention to rumours amongst the lower ranks. Grant did it. I know he did. And now he’s going to tell us all about it.’

  ‘Can we hold him much longer without charging him?’ I asked.

  ‘We are going to charge him. No, you were there, you’re going to charge him. Any problems with that?’

  Lots, I thought.

  ‘No, sir,’ I said. ‘No problems at all.’

  So we went downstairs and I charged Sailor Grant with the assault and rape of Carol Harvey.

  ‘Do you want a solicitor present?’ I asked after the formal charges had been made.

  Grant shook his head.

  Then the interrogation began.

  In those days we didn’t tape-record interviews. All that was to come later. So were DNA tests. All that had happened was, at some point the previous evening, Grant had given some blood. His group was the most common. So was the blood group of whoever had raped Carol Harvey.

  Having that blood group was definitely the unluckiest thing that had ever happened to Sailor Grant.

  I was left alone with him for a few minutes whilst Collier went and fetched Grisham and Lenny Millar.

  ‘I never done it, Mr Sharman,’ he said pleadingly. ‘Honest, I never done it. I couldn’t hurt anyone. Not like that.’

  ‘We think you did, Sailor,’ I said.

  I still didn’t, but I had to stand solidly with my superiors.

  ‘I couldn’t,’ he insisted. ‘I never have.’

  ‘What?’ I asked.

  He wouldn’t answer at first, just squirmed around on his seat.

  I moved my chair round and put my hand on his shoulder. ‘Tell me, Sailor,’ I said. ‘Tell me. It might help.’

  ‘I’ve never…’ He refused to finish.

  I sat silently, my hand still resting lightly on his shoulder.

  ‘Oh Christ,’ he said, squeezing the words out through clenched teeth. ‘I’ve never done it with anyone.’

  ‘Done what?’ Although I had a good idea by then. I just wanted him to tell me himself.

  ‘I’ve never done that.’ He paused. ‘Been with a woman.’ And the tears came.

  ‘Never?’ I said. ‘Not when you were in the navy?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why not?’

 
; He didn’t answer at first.

  I didn’t speak either.

  ‘I’m scared of them,’ he said.

  Who isn’t? I thought.

  ‘That’s nothing to be ashamed of,’ I said.

  ‘That’s why I do what I do. Show me willie to kids.’

  ‘Because you’re a virgin?’ I asked.

  He nodded his reply, and Grisham, Collier and Lenny Millar came into the interview room.

  ‘Talk to you, guv,’ I said to Grisham. ‘Outside.’

  Grisham and Collier went back into the corridor, and I joined them. Lenny stayed with Grant.

  ‘He says he couldn’t have done it,’ I said.

  ‘Bollocks,’ said Collier.

  ‘Why?’ asked Grisham.

  ‘Because he never has,’ I said.

  ‘What?’ demanded Collier.

  I knew I was digging myself deeper into the mire with every word. ‘Had a woman,’ I said.

  ‘Fuck off,’ said Collier. ‘You believe that shit?’

  ‘I think so,’ I said. ‘He’s terrified of women. That’s why he shows his dick to children. It was like Lenny said yesterday when we nicked him. He’s terrified of anyone past primary school age.’

  ‘Bollocks.’ This time Collier shouted the word, and I could see a vein ticking in his forehead. ‘Sharman, I’m beginning to lose patience with you. I told you yesterday to keep your opinions to yourself until asked.’

  ‘I talked to the prisoner,’ I said. ‘It’s my duty to report what was said to a senior officer.’

  At that I thought Collier was going to self-destruct.

  ‘Your duty,’ he said, ‘your fucking duty is to do what DI Grisham and I tell you. And we tell you he’s as guilty as sin. I don’t care if he’d never fucked anyone until yesterday afternoon. Because even if he hadn’t, he did then. He lost his cherry with Carol Harvey, boy. It’s a fact, I’m telling you. Now get inside that room, and we’ll get to the bottom of all this.’

  The next few hours were the worst I’d ever known in the job. Up until then, I suppose I’d been a virgin. A virgin as to what could go on behind closed doors in a police station.

  I lost my cherry too that night. And like everyone else in that stinking little room, I would never be the same again.