Barry Maitiland: Spider Trap

Then they were making their way down to the transport, clustering into their groups-the rooftop snipers, the dog-handlers, the paramedics, the cameramen, the heavy squads laden with battering rams and bolt-cutters.

Kathy had been assigned to the house. The van drove down Cove Street, past the club booming with sound and activity, then the darkened laundrette, and turned into the back streets. It drew to a halt at the end of a narrow lane and two of the men got out. There was a large dog in the backyard, they knew, as in most of the yards around here and Kathy was glad she was going in through the front. As the van continued around the corner into the street they saw Vexx’s Peugeot 307 standing at the kerb.

A sharp crack and the front door slammed inward. Kathy and two others ran upstairs. They found Vexx’s mother asleep in bed in the front room, the other two bedrooms empty. The two men continued up to the attic floor while Kathy waited, tense, on the landing, pistol gripped in both hands, straining for telltale sounds. But she didn’t hear the bathroom door open behind her, and gave a spasmic jump when a deep voice at her ear murmured,‘Lookin’ for me, darlin’?’

She turned to see Mr Teddy Vexx, all 252 naked pounds of him, towering inches away, wearing nothing but an assortment

of gold chains around his neck.

‘Christ!’ She hopped back, bringing up the gun.

‘Yeah,’he said softly.‘The little girls were impressed too.’

As they led him downstairs to the van, now dressed, the first reports started coming in over the radio from the other sites, of empty rooms and deserted buildings. Even the dogs had disappeared.

The returning teams made no attempt to hide their frustration, banging their equipment and kicking their boots. The adrenaline was still fizzing and it had nowhere to go. Tools and weapons were locked away again with a niggling sense of anticlimax. Vexx, too, was locked away, the sole arrest of the night. Only the drug sniffer dogs, snuffling in the corners of the deserted repair shop behind the tyre yard, gave grounds for hope, and forensic teams had moved in.

There was nothing for the rest of them to do and they began to drift away. Kathy finished her paperwork for Vexx’s arrest and handed it in to the duty inspector, feeling raw and edgy. She returned home and went to bed, but found it impossible to sleep.

She felt lousy the next morning. Thinking fresh air might help, she tramped out through the snow to buy a paper, then ordered toast and coffee in an empty cafe. Her mind flicked back to Vexx, stark naked, and his jibe about the girls. He’d been trying to rile her, of course, and he’d succeeded, though he wouldn’t be smiling if they made the DNA match.

On impulse she dug out the cheque stub on which she’d written Tom Reeves’s number and dialled it.

His voice was a mumble, as if he’d just woken up, and for a horrible moment she thought she must have caught him in bed with someone. Then he apologised and said he’d had a mouthful of muesli.

‘I just wondered if you were free for lunch?’ she said.

He seemed keen, and they arranged to meet at a pub they’d visited together once before, in Camden Town.

Her doubts eased a little when she saw him come through the door,tall,confident,the dark hair swept back,the warm smile in his eyes as he spotted her.He came over and kissed her cheek and asked how she was. She’d already finished one glass of wine and he went to the bar to fetch a bottle,then sat opposite her and began to make small talk in that easy voice of his. The wine helped a little, but she still felt edgy and out of kilter. Eventually he asked her what was wrong and she told him about the previous night. He listened intently,then nodded and said,‘Oh,Kathy,I understand.’She looked up from the beer mat she’d been scouring with her nail and saw that he really did-he’d been through similar things so many times him-self-and a weight lifted from her. He asked some questions and they talked it through some more and when he went to pick up the food she did feel much better. She told herself it was the wine.

When he returned he said, ‘Interesting, the Jamaican thing. Have you ever been there?’

‘To Jamaica? No.You?’

He nodded.‘Yeah,with the Branch.In fact,I had thought about trying to get onto the Trident team. I’ve met one or two of them.’

‘You still want to get out of Special Branch?’

‘Yeah. This last thing was the end. And I’m really sorry about how it must have seemed to you,disappearing without notice,without explanation. I don’t want to live like that, Kathy. I want out.’

‘Was it bad?’

‘Actually it was fairly routine. I think I was being tested, to see if I could go back to undercover duties, but it didn’t work, not for me anyway.’

He had referred before to some problem he’d had on undercover operations, and how he’d been transferred to the Branch’s A Squad, providing protection for VIPs. He’d also spoken of being at odds with his immediate superiors, who seemed to be blocking his requests to move elsewhere.

‘Are you back at work now?’ Kathy asked.

He rolled his eyes.‘I’m protecting a colonel and his wife,a mass-murderer by all accounts, attending a peace conference in London for a couple of weeks.’

The conversation returned to the things that were troubling Kathy, to her doubts about the case against Vexx, and to all the things she didn’t understand about the two teenage girls. ‘They were children, Tom.What had they done to provoke such cold-blooded violence?’ she asked.

‘As to the violence, Kathy,’ Tom replied,‘you know how it is with the Yardies. All about territory and respect.You step on the wrong guy’s foot in the wrong dance hall and you’re dead. It sounds like someone was making an example of those two.Where are you holding Vexx?’

When she told him he pulled the newspaper out of his jacket pocket and said,‘I was reading something else about Cockpit Lane . . .Yes, here you go.’

Kathy scanned the brief report on the discovery of human remains near the site of the railway accident involving schoolboy Adam Nightingale,reported to be still in a medically induced coma.

‘You seem to be in the thick of the action,’ Tom said. ‘I’m envious.’

Just then Kathy’s phone beeped with a message from Brock, asking if she could come in. She checked her watch.‘I have to get back, Tom. Thanks for lunch. It was good to catch up again.’ It sounded as if she was saying goodbye, and she saw him hesitate, then smile and say,‘Yes, great.’ He kissed her on the cheek and added, ‘We didn’t have much time together. Shall we do it again?’

‘Fine,’ she said, and made for the door. The words ‘time together’ stuck in her mind. She thought they sounded quite good.

She bumped into Brock pacing down the corridor of the station.

‘Kathy, right. We’ve got him. Sundeep’s made the match to Vexx’s DNA.’ He looked reinvigorated, and relieved perhaps, as if a gamble he didn’t really expect to win had paid off.

‘That was quick.’

‘Yes. Sundeep’s pulled out all the stops on this one. He has a daughter Dee-Ann’s age, did you know?’

‘Ah. No, I didn’t.’

‘Yes. We’ve been doing extra tests and Savage is about to interview Vexx now. So far he’s said nothing, just talked to his brief. That’s another story.’

Kathy found it hard to read his expression. ‘Oh? What’s the problem?’

‘Come and see.’

She followed him to the video monitoring room where they took seats in front of a screen.When she focused on the picture she felt a small jolt as she recognised Vexx’s lawyer.‘Martin Connell,’she said.‘I see what you mean.’