** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1
Blonds have more fun 6/?
"Sit down, do you want a coffee or something?" I've motioned toward the two chairs and small table by the window and he's shaking his head. Clearly he wants to say what he has to say and do it without much faffing about something else that reminds me of Jack. My gut is telling me the complete opposite about him that it did about Richards and I'm much more interested in what he has to tell me than anything his ex-colleague did.
"I know what you must think looking at the way things have ended up but you don't know the whole story but like I said it's all in my notes."
"I'd rather hear it from you directly. Look I'm not here to blacken your name or listen to only what tossers like Richards have to say. I know that the reputation of UCOS seems to follow us around like a bad smell and a lot of people believe that we are only here to get justice for the victims and their families we're not here to go after other officers and we aren't in the business of going after anyone or wrecking reputations." I hate that I always seem to have to defend what we do to the original investigating officers in the cases we work I hate that it seems at times like they'd rather the wrong person stayed in jail or no one ever served time for the crimes they failed to solve rather than admit they might have been wrong.
"You're preaching to the converted here Sandra….you don't mind me calling you Sandra do you?" He seems like such a gentleman he couldn't offend even if he decided to refer to me as "hey you" for the entire conversation and I like him a little more for asking though.
"Of course not, tell me what happened Michael why didn't you pull Louise in when you saw she was getting close to Marx? Even if she hadn't been killed any evidence she brought in after the start of her personal relationship with the suspect could have been deemed inadmissible or been torn apart by the defence. I know you were close and everything but didn't it ever cross your mind that she was in over her head?"
"She wasn't in over her head and she wasn't as involved with him as Richard's is telling everyone she was. I debriefed her ever week and I can tell you she knew what she was doing, she wasn't sleeping with him and she sure as hell hadn't fallen for him I'm not a complete idiot Louise was like a daughter to me I would never have left her in that situation if I thought she was in trouble or had lost her focus on why she was there." I want to believe him, my gut is telling me that he genuinely believes what he's saying I just don't know if he was blind to what was actually happening or if it wasn't happening at all. "Someone was feeding information to Marx and for the couple of weeks before she died she'd started to notice he seemed to know more than he should about the investigation she heard him talking to a couple of his heavies about it then when we decided to pull her out because it was getting too dangerous suddenly the shit hit the fan he found out that she was undercover and he didn't find out form her whatever Richards says. He's telling anyone who'll listen that she was in love with Marx and she told him she was undercover because she believed that he wouldn't care because he loved her too and that's just bullshit if you'll excuse my language. She knew what she was doing and the only reason she wasn't out of there earlier was because she didn't want to jeopardise the whole investigation by doing a disappearing act out of the blue and she was working up to it she'd dropped in the idea that she had a sister and that she was in trouble and she was planning to tell him on the Saturday that she had to go to her sisters for a while to help her out then she's murdered on the Wednesday. Someone told him what was going on and that she wasn't going anywhere except back to her day job trying to through his sorry ass behind bars and that's what got her killed."
"I get the feeling you think you know who it was?" It's more than a feeling he does know who it was I can see it in his eyes the question is will he tell me or not. If I was in his shoes I'd worry about coming across as petty or that I was trying to cover up my own mistake by changing the history of a situation involving an officer who was no longer here to tell her side of the story and an officer still in their job while I wasn't. We walk a tightrope constantly in this job there's always the risk of getting too involved with cases and when you work closely with people if they are in a bad place sometimes you will do anything and make any excuse rather than admit it.
"Yeah I think I have an idea. Look I know right now I sound like an old man who can't let go or admit that someone he trusted screwed up and maybe when you read all the files and my notes and look at it all with an objective eye you'll still feel that way but if you want my opinion on the team dynamic and who was spilling their guts to Marx I'll give it to you. I'm not saying believe me I'm just saying bare it in mind when you look at the case." You see why I'm having a problem here he doesn't seem to have any preconceptions about me and he isn't up in my face trying to force his opinions on my like Richards was I have to hear him out then I'll feel like I have all the information when I finally get to looking at this stuff.
"How about I make us both a coffee and you tell me what you have to say, all I want is to look at this case objectively and I got that wanker Richards opinions all over lunch so it's only fair I hear yours too then I can see which if any of them I think is closest to the truth." I have a feeling when I do look at this the truth will lie somewhere in between his opinion and Richards so there's no such thing as too much info.
"When I brought Louise in the team all thought I was mad, she was young, she was a PC still in uniform and they didn't think she had the experience or the ability to deal with something so serious but she won them round she worked with us for a couple of weeks getting briefed and up to speed with the case and for the most part they all agreed that provided she was regularly debriefed she'd be ok. Richards never accepted that I'd brought her in because he wanted someone different. He'd been having a fling with a fast tracked DI in vice and I have a feeling he as good as told her he'd get her in and it would be good for her promotion prospects to be in on a big bust like Marx. He tried to split the team on more than one occasion and when it didn't work he bided his time and I'm convinced he started feeding information to Marx people. Before we sent Louise in I had the feeling that there was something not right but I convinced myself that I was being paranoid because he was so against it but now I think he was in Marx pocket before we even launched the undercover investigation."
"So that's why you started to shut him out more and more of what was happening with Louise it wasn't that you were trying to hide what she was doing because it was wrong it was because you were worried about how much was being passed back to Marx?" I've handed him a coffee and his nodding sadly right now my heart is breaking for him and much as I want to just accept he's telling the truth because of the experience I've just had with Richards I still need to keep an open mind, I've met plenty slimy bastards over the years in the job and much as they make your skin crawl it doesn't mean they are bent or on the take.
"Yeah and that was when he started to really work at splitting the team and it started to work. Look I hope I'm wrong I hope when you look at this all no one was in Marx pocket and he just got wind that Louise was going to disappear and didn't want to let her go so none of what Richards has said about her is right but none of my suspicions about him are either. All I'm asking is that you be aware of both sides before you start. I'll leave you to it now my number is on the inside of the note book if you need me or if you do bring your guys up and they want to talk to me then you know how to reach me."
"I appreciate it and I appreciate you not taking this personally." He's on his feet his untouched coffee still on the table as he heads for the door and through it with nothing more than another nod of acknowledgment and I'm finally alone again. I have so much information going round in my head now that I need to speak to the boys, all of them, time for a conference call before I get started so that I can at least have another opinion or three that aren't directly connected with the case. Then I feel like I'll actually be able to spend the evening looking at it all and make a decision by the morning about whether I should run with it or run away from it.