Nick Oldham - The Last Big Job

‘ But he was also an agent provocateur,’ Gillrow said, ‘always pushing others to do things, giving them ideas and drawing them in, so eventually they’d get caught by me.’

Simply because there was a tape running, Henry bit his tongue. Agent provocateur — another big no, no. Informants must never — ever — set a crime in motion. Yet here was an ex-DI blandly admitting allowing one to do just that. No wonder the police service was in the state it was in. Bastards like Gillrow, Henry thought, are the ones who’ve spoiled it for us today.

‘ And no one knew about this, I take it?’ Danny said.

Gillrow shook his head.

‘ Your bosses? Colleagues?’

Another headshake. ‘Strictly between me and him.’

‘ Idiot,’ Danny said under her breath.

‘ Some of the stunts me and him put together would make your toes curl,’ Gillrow said proudly. ‘We just went ahead and did it. It was the only sure way of getting bad guys caught and locked away. I got credit and Fitch got cash. I was only doing my job — a bloody good job at that,’ he concluded defensively.

‘ By breaking the rules?’ Danny sneered.

‘ Listen, love — it was the only way. I put some right toe-rags away. They have all the advantages and the cops don’t have anything but red tape and bureaucratic shite. I got results and the guilty got sent down.’

‘ All well and good,’ Henry remarked. ‘But you say Fitch got paid from the fund. Surely some of your managers must have known what was happening, must’ve authorised payments…’ Henry’s voice trailed off and he made the connection as Fitch smiled. ‘You managed the informants’ fund, didn’t you?’

‘ Controlled it. Authorised payments. Balanced the books. Piss easy.’

‘ Idiot,’ Danny whispered again, beginning to hate Gillrow.

‘ What happened with Crane, then?’

Gillrow shifted uncomfortably at this question, something Henry was pleased to see. ‘It was just that one or two things came together for me at that time, personal things.’ He sighed and looked deflated now, shaking his head sadly. ‘No excuse, I suppose — but the wife ran up some horrendous debts on the Visa and Access cards. I had no chance of paying them off. I had some gambling debts, too. The usual shite, I suppose. I put in for promotion for the extra money and didn’t get it.’

‘ So you went completely bent?’ Danny could not prevent herself from blurting out unprofessionally.

‘ You can say what you like, you bitch. I had my reasons.’

Danny was about to lash back. Henry put up a hand to quell her.

‘ So along comes Malcolm Fitch and tells me he’s fallen in cohorts with Billy Crane and Don Smith — both excellent blaggers and safe-crackers. He said they were planning to do a Building Society in Blackburn. I saw a window of opportunity to wipe off a few debts, so I went to see Crane. I told him I had enough to pull him there and then on conspiracy — and gave him an alternative, which he took.’

‘ Which was?’ Henry and Danny said in unison.

‘ To go ahead and do the job and split the take with me, fifty-fifty. Thirty grand each. I told him I’d do a proper official job on it, on the face of it, but I’d make sure he got away so long as he gave me half, as well as a prisoner — Don Smith — which is just what happened.’

‘ Why not Malcolm Fitch as the prisoner?’ Henry asked.

‘ Because I had to deal with him, too. I’d ensure he got away and then got paid some informants money. I wanted a conviction out of it. Guess I was just an old-fashioned jack at heart. I liked seeing people behind bars.’

‘ So neither one of them knew you were dealing with the other?’ Henry queried, trying to get his head around this. ‘Fitch didn’t know you were two-timing him with Crane; Crane didn’t know you were dealing with Fitch.’

‘ Not initially, no. Crane eventually found out that Fitch had snouted on him because I think he opened his big gob once too often in a pub and the wrong people heard him. It got back to Crane, who was in prison by then, and I heard he promised he would kill Fitch for it one day — which he did.’

Henry guffawed. ‘And yet he was happy to drop his mate Smith in it,’ he said incredulously. ‘Honour amongst thieves, my buttocks!’ He took a breath. ‘Let me get this straight. The deal was, you fixed it for Crane to get away from the scene of the crime.’

‘ Yes.’

‘ Then you allowed Fitch to do a runner when you were transferring him back to the police station?’

‘ Yes.’

‘ And Don Smith got caught and convicted.’

‘ Yes.’

‘ So Fitch got his informants money, Crane got thirty grand, so did you, and Don Smith got a prison sentence…?’

‘ That’s what should have happened — except it went belly-up on the night.’

‘ How? Why?’

‘ OK,’ he swallowed, ‘they all three break into the Building Society. The safe gets blown. I’m next door in a greengrocer’s, watching all this on a monitor. I’ve set up the police operation and told everybody that the information is that all three offenders will come out of the back of the shop next door, which was an insurance broker’s.

‘ Crane grabs the money and hustles the other two out the back door — where they are met by every cop and his gun — and meanwhile Crane exits out the front door, blasting fuck out of it with a shotgun and running. He had a clear, pre-planned escape route, all the way back to his car. All he had to do was jump in and fuck off. I would just tell everybody he was unidentified.’ Gillrow looked glum. ‘But I cocked up big-style. There was so much going on in my head, trying to cover all the angles that I’d forgotten to stand down you and your mate from covering the Cosworth. It totally went out of my head. When Crane got there, he ran into you — and Bob’s your uncle.’

Although it had happened almost thirteen years before, Henry Christie’s memory of that night was just as vivid as ever. The vision of his best friend taking the shotgun blast and almost dying from it would live with him always. And the fear of that night would, too. Even as Gillrow had been relating the story, Henry’s heart had started beating quickly and adrenaline was pumping into his veins. He could taste the fear he had tasted on that night. Feel the metal of his revolver in his hand. Hear the blast of the shotgun. See Terry Briggs writhing in agony, almost dying.

He said nothing, but Danny saw him looking strangely at Gillrow.

‘ What happened to the money?’ she asked.

‘ We had a pre-arranged drop in a dustbin. I collected it after Fitch had done a “runner” from me. That’s the cash that paid for the deposit on this place. I put thirty grand into an offshore account for Crane. The extra seventy grand you talk about is legit. Came from a wealthy but dead uncle. Check it out.’

Danny was going to ask a question about his relationship now with Crane, but Henry had had enough, as evidenced by the words which he growled out. ‘You are a piece of shite!’

Henry rose quickly from his plastic chair, sending it clattering behind him. He dived across the gap to Gillrow, grabbed his T-shirt and chest skin underneath and hauled him to his feet. The older man whimpered in fright as Henry pushed him right up against the balcony rail. Henry was livid, literally purple with rage. Danny had never seen him like that.

‘ My friend nearly died for you that night, for your greed, for your corruption. I should throw you off here, you slimy bastard.’ Spittle from Henry’s mouth landed in little white bubbles on Gillrow’s face, the two men were so close.

‘ Henry! Henry let him go,’ Danny said firmly. She laid a calming hand on her lover’s shoulder. ‘He’s definitely not worth it.’