Mark Pearson - Hard Evidence

Delaney watched him through the filthy glass outside the taxi office and turned to Kate. 'Wait outside this time.'

Kate nodded, seeing no point in arguing.

Norrell looked up as Delaney walked into the office.

'Help you?'

Delaney could see his face altering as recognition slowly dawned on him. He put down his burger, wiping the cheesy mayonnaise from his face, and lifted his massive legs off the chair opposite him, sitting upright.

'What are you doing here?'

'What do you think I'm doing here, Kevin?'

'Fuck knows.'

'You want to think about it a little? I know you haven't got a lot to work with there.'

'No. I want you to get the fuck out of my office. You got no business here, Delaney.'

'That's Detective Inspector Delaney to you.'

'And it's suck my cock to you.'

Delaney smiled. 'You and I need to have a little talk.'

'I've got nothing to say to you.'

'Nothing to say about Jackie Malone?'

Norrell's eyes flicked nervously sideways.

'Or Billy Martin.'

Norrell stood up, his shoulders dropping, his face shifting into animal meanness.

'I don't know what you're talking about. Now get the fuck out of my office.'

'Or what?'

'I heard Jackie Malone was hurt real bad. Be a shame if that was to happen to you or your pretty lady friend outside.'

Delaney looked across at the window to see Kate watching them both.

'Nice bit of cunt like that. Be a shame to see it all sliced up.'

Delaney stepped forward, picking the telephone off the desk in one smooth movement and smashed it with full force into Norrell's face. Norrell cried out in pain as his front teeth broke and blood poured into his mouth. He shook his head, astonished, and reared above Delaney, who punched him as hard as he could in the stomach. It was like punching a bag of concrete that had been left out in the rain and then in the sun for a week. He might as well have hit him with a limp balloon. Norrell didn't even react, just slapped Delaney on the side of his head with his open palm. A red light exploded in Delaney's brain as he staggered back, his legs suddenly weakened. Norrell followed him in a lumbering waddle, his thighs so large he couldn't walk without them rubbing together. Delaney shook his head clear and jabbed out with a punch to Norrell's bloody chin, snapping the large man's head back but not rocking him off his axis. Norrell swung a meaty fist at Delaney's face and Delaney ducked under it, punching out again at Norrell's chin. Norrell just grunted and spat more blood on the floor.

'You're starting to piss me off now.'

'You were taking shots at us an hour ago, you dumb prick. What am I supposed to do, bake you a cake?'

Norrell looked at him. 'I haven't been anywhere near you. I've been here all day.'

Delaney kicked at Norrell's knee, knocking him off balance, and Norrell gasped with pain as Delaney punched him as hard as he could in the temple. It should have put him on the floor. It didn't. He stood up and staggered forward, enveloping Delaney in a bear hug. Delaney snapped a couple of punches at Norrell's head but he couldn't get any force behind them and Norrell started to squeeze. Delaney felt as if he had been caught in some kind of industrial vice. He struggled as he felt his ribs constricting and the air being forced from his body. His punches became feebler as he felt his consciousness draining. He grunted, drawing in some oxygen, and summoning his last ounces of energy, slammed his knee up into Norrell's groin. Norrell grunted a little, but didn't relinquish his boa constrictor grip. Just my luck, thought Delaney, as a blackness started to descend and he felt himself passing out. Norrell's balls must have shrivelled to nothing after years of steroid abuse; probably didn't feel a thing.

Suddenly Norrell let out a cry and stepped back, his arms opening, dropping Delaney gasping to his knees. Norrell looked even more puzzled than usual as Kate swung the golf club again, a three wood, gripping it low on the shaft like a baseball bat and smashing it with a sickening crack into his temple, dropping him to the floor like a bull elephant hit with a stun gun. The floor shuddered and Delaney, still gasping for breath, looked up at Kate.

'Where did you learn to play golf?'

Kate knelt down and put her fingers to Norrell's neck. 'He's still alive.'

'Not going to be able to answer a lot of questions, though, is he?'

'Was that what you were doing, interrogating him?'

'Yeah.'

'Interesting technique.'

'I could have got him to talk.'

Kate smiled tolerantly. 'You'd rather I'd let you finish the fight?'

Delaney winced again as he got to his feet. 'I guess not. Thanks.'

Kate put the club back into the golf bag propped against the wall. 'What are we going to do with him?'

'Put him in the car.'

'What with? A fork-lift truck?'

Delaney looked at the prostrate figure. 'Good point.' He walked across and searched through Norrell's jacket thrown over the back of a chair. Nothing. He looked in the desk's single drawer, taking out a stubby revolver, smelling the barrell before placing it on the desk, then searched through the papers in the drawers.

Kate knelt down to check Norrell's pulse again. 'He might be badly hurt, Jack.'

'Be a bonus.'

'I'm serious. He needs to get to a hospital.'

Delaney slammed the drawers shut. 'And I need to know who he's working for.' He wasn't sure what it was he was hoping to find, but whatever it was, he hadn't found it. He wasn't surprised, just annoyed.

Kate looked at Norrell, a trail of drool pooling on his lower lip. 'How do you know him?'

'I busted him on a drugs-dealing charge a short while back.'

'And?'

'Cocaine, good quality. We took him down with about a key of the stuff.'

'So why isn't he safely locked up?'

'Because the evidence went missing. That's what Bonner was talking about. He took it. The CPS wouldn't proceed and rhinoceros boy here walked free.'

Delaney's mobile rang and he looked at the caller's number before answering it.

'What have you got?' He listened intently to the reply. 'You've found her?' He looked across at Kate and smiled. 'You're a star, Sally. I owe you big time.' He shut his phone up and checked that the telephone he had smashed into Norrell's teeth was still working. It was. Score one for petroleum by-products. He handed it to Kate. 'Call an ambulance.'

'Then what?

'Then we're out of here.'

'Out where?'

'To see a tom.'

'Tom who?'

Delaney smiled as Kate dialled 999. 'A tom is a brass, Kate. A prostitute.'

'Any particular reason?'

'Because she just might know what's the hell's going on.'

The traffic not so much crawled as stumbled and wheezed round Cambridge Circus. Like sick, broken and arthritic creatures, automotive elephants following a trail of pitch and tar to a secret graveyard. The temperature was now over thirty-eight degrees, breaking all records for the time of year. The tarmac on the road was melting and the vehicles' tyres stuck slightly to it as they inched nose to tail from Shaftesbury Avenue down to Covent Garden.

Delaney led Kate past the theatre that stood on the circus, past one of the pubs that Jeffrey Bernard frequently got unwell in and up to a doorway next to another small minicab office. There were a couple of tacky coloured signs offering a variety of exotic services. What was it about cab offices and prostitutes? Delaney wondered. A fat tourist stopped to watch as Kate looked at the notices, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead as he gazed at her like a starving man might look at a joint of beef.

'What's Greek?' she asked Delaney.

Delaney glared at the fat man, who was reddening even more in the face, his mouth hanging open as he watched Kate. Delaney took Kate's arm and steered her through the doorway. 'Let's just say it's not a lunch option.'