Boxer beamed and gave Charlie a wave. ‘Right you are, Charlie. Right you are.’
Charlie felt a stab of jealousy and then got angry. The day you’re jealous of Boxer Davis, he thought, is the day you should shoot yourself. In the chippy queue, Charlie dug about in his pocket and quickly established he could only afford a small portion of chips and a fish cake. God, he wished he could get out of this shithole! His leg was really playing him up in the colder weather and it made him limp something rotten. Even as a kid Charlie had been weak and when the polio had chosen him out of his whole school he’d been left with a gammy leg. With his coins clenched tight in his clammy fist, he put his other hand back in his pocket and took a gentle grip on his balls. He grinned, comforted, and watched the arses walk by.
Chapter 14
Resnick stormed through the station corridor spoiling for a fight, but no one was obliging. He wanted to smooth things over with Saunders before going to meet Green Teeth, but the station was pretty much deserted apart from the painters and decorators who had taken over the corridors, apparently with the specific aim of getting in Resnick’s way. It was bedlam. Without being consulted, Resnick had been moved into a much smaller office while the main one was being painted. He’d seen the plans and knew he’d end up with a clear glass annex. The very idea of people being able to look in at him while he prowled and thought and smoked and worked infuriated him. He was a private man who trusted very few people — the idea of sitting in a goldfish bowl for all to see made his blood boil.
‘Alice!’ Resnick bellowed. ‘Ali—’
Alice popped her head out of a doorway. She was holding all of the files from Resnick’s desk, neatly stacked in a box. On top of the box was a sandwich from the vending machine.
‘Your filing cabinet’s in my office, locked, I have the key. These will go in my desk drawer till your desk is moved out and Saunders has gone home because the paint fumes gave him a headache. He’ll be continuing his case review tomorrow so you’d better make yourself available. His words, not mine.’ Alice nodded toward the sandwich. ‘Cheese and ham. I take it you’ve not eaten.’
‘Thank you, Alice.’ Resnick took his sandwich and left to meet his snout, Green Teeth.
‘How was your day?’ Alice called after him.
‘We found the man from the bread company who probably helped Rawlins; but I can’t interview him because he’d dead.’
There was nothing Alice could say to make Resnick feel better about that, but moral support was often all he wanted. ‘Well, I hope Green Teeth has some better news for you. Goodnight, sir.’ She gave a sweet smile and bustled off.
Barely ten minutes later, Resnick was sitting in the back seat of the police car with his briefcase open on his lap as Fuller drove toward Regent’s Park. Andrews took a covert glance over his shoulder at Resnick — the concentration on the old man’s face was riveting. His eyes flicked from page to page as he speed-read his way through the reports, looking for anything that would guide him to the Rawlins’ ledgers. Dolly Rawlins’s surveillance notes were a particularly interesting read: hairdressers, the Sanctuary, bank, hairdressers, convent, bank, hairdressers...
‘Andrews. Ask the surveillance team where Dolly Rawlins is right now.’
‘She’s in the house. They radioed through while you were in the station.’
‘You seen how many times she goes to the hairdressers? No? The bank? How many times has she lost you, Fuller? Andrews?’ Fuller and Andrews didn’t answer. At least Andrews had the decency to look ashamed; Fuller just looked bored. ‘Do you think she’s playing games, Andrews, or do you think she’s up to something?’
‘I wouldn’t know, sir.’
‘No, you wouldn’t, you soft—’ Resnick was too tired to abuse Andrews anymore today. ‘Here’s another one you won’t know the answer to: is she very good at losing police tails, or are you all shit at tailing? Guess we’ll never know, eh?’
Resnick lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply. Fuller winced and started to open the window as the smoke wafted round the inside of the car. ‘Close it,’ Resnick barked. ‘It’s cold in the back.’
The brakes slammed on; the car came to a quick stop. Resnick’s papers fell to the floor and he glared at Fuller.
‘Regent’s Park, as you requested... sir,’ Fuller said, knowing how to get under Resnick’s skin.
Resnick picked up the papers, stuffed them in his briefcase and opened the car door. He took one last look at his ‘best men’ — Fuller was staring straight ahead with a stupid grin on his face, while Andrews was yawning. God, what a dozy pair of buggers, he thought as he slammed the car door shut. Maybe he’d strike it lucky with Green Teeth. He certainly needed some good news today.
Resnick made his way into the park and sat on a bench, eating his sandwich, the first thing he’d had to eat all day. He gazed, mesmerized, at the branches swaying in the trees; he was so tired. He knew that Green Teeth would have watched him arrive and would come out of hiding and join him on the bench when he was ready.
True enough, once Fuller and Andrews were out of sight, Green Teeth sidled up to Resnick with all the subtlety of a caped TV villain. Like a starving dog, he sat staring at the sandwich. Resnick handed the remainder of his food over and then had to wait for Green Teeth to stop stuffing his face before he spoke.
‘What’s so important?’ Resnick asked eventually.
‘There’s a rumor, Mr. Resnick, spreading like the clappers.’ Green Teeth mumbled, spitting crumbs all over Resnick’s coat. He moved away and lit a cigarette. ‘The rumor is about Harry Rawlins.’
‘Well, I should bloody well hope it is.’ Resnick brushed wet cheese and bread from his coat.
‘If someone got hold of his ledgers it’d be like having Aladdin’s bleedin’ lamp... know what I mean?’
‘Who’s got them?’
‘The man himself. Harry Rawlins.’
Resnick tutted. ‘Have I come all this way just to hear that load of old bollocks?’
‘No, he was serious.’ Green Teeth insisted.
‘How the bloody hell do you get hold of information like that?’ Resnick barked, furious. ‘You’re not in Harry Rawlins’s league, mate! Even if it was true, that kind of information doesn’t make its way to you!’
‘Boxer Davis is flashing tenners round the manor and shooting his mouth off. He’s even wearing Harry’s gear.’
Resnick’s eyes narrowed — Boxer Davis was certainly more in Green Teeth’s league. It was possible he might have heard something after all.
‘Boxer worked for Harry for years, and he’s telling people that he’s working for him again.’
Resnick flicked his cigarette onto the grass and started to walk away.
‘Hold up!’ Green Teeth shouted, chasing after him and grabbing his arm.
Resnick pulled sharply away. ‘I don’t pay for rumors. And don’t paw my coat. Look at that — you gobbed cheese on me as well! You should be paying me to fumigate my sodding clothes.’
Green Teeth sniffed and picked bread out of his teeth. Resnick handed him a fiver and headed back to the car.
As Fuller slowed down by the main gates on his third loop of the park, he spotted Resnick pissing behind a tree.
‘Look at that,’ Fuller said in disgust. ‘How am I ever going to get promoted when I have to rely on that for a reference?’
Resnick walked toward the car, wiping his hands on the arse of his trousers and lighting another cigarette. Andrews laughed.
‘Now he’s going to sit his pissy backside on your nice clean seats and smoke in your face.’
But Resnick was very subdued when he got back into the car. ‘Green Teeth reckons Boxer Davis is suddenly very flush. He’s spreadin’ it around town that he’s working for...’ He paused briefly and thought about what Green Teeth had told him ‘Ah, well — forget it. It’s gotta be a load of bollocks anyway.’