‘And that’s why you need some new blood, is it?’ There was a cynical edge to Brennan’s voice. Experience had taught him that management decision-making rarely stemmed from much more than short-term expediency. We’ve got a gap to fill. You got anyone suitable? Well, Jack Brennan’s royally screwed his career. We could send him over to cool his heels for a few months. Keep everyone happy. He could imagine the conversation.
‘It’s why we need talented officers,’ Salter said. ‘And, yes, I’ve been fully informed about your background. It doesn’t stop you being a very capable, committed and experienced officer.’
‘It bloody well proves that’s what I am,’ Brennan said. ‘That’s the point, from where I’m sitting.’
Salter looked doubtful. ‘Yes, well. Not everyone will see it that way. Even here.’
‘I imagine not. I’m well past caring.’
‘And it means we have something in common.’
Brennan gazed thoughtfully at Salter. ‘So I understand. Funny how things work out, isn’t it? From what I hear, you’re quite the hero round here.’
‘In some people’s eyes. Not in everyone’s, I imagine.’
‘Your case was a little more spectacular than mine.’
‘Not through choice,’ Salter said. ‘I just didn’t know what I was taking on. Nearly went completely tits up. The outcome was the same for both of us.’
‘A corrupt copper exposed. I guess so. My case wasn’t so clear-cut. Apparently.’
‘No. Well, things rarely are, are they?’ Salter paused, a smile playing softly across his lips. ‘Unless you’re actually caught with your hands in the till.’
Brennan nodded, accepting that Salter was just playing games. He’d come across plenty like Salter over the years. Smart-arse graduate types who maybe weren’t quite as smart as they thought, but who enjoyed yanking people around until they were found out. Christ, he’d probably been one of them himself, though it hadn’t felt like it.
‘Is that why I’m here, then?’ Brennan said. ‘Birds of a feather, and all that. Or did you just feel sorry for me?’
‘Not my call. Though of course you’re just what we needed. Like I say, the really experienced investigators are getting thin on the ground here. We’re up to our ears in ex-Revenue types. They’ve been only too keen to stay with us. Well, it’s more fun than chasing up some dodgy builder for accepting too much cash in hand. No, it’s the honest-to-goodness coppers we’re short of.’
‘So now you’ve found an honest-to-goodness copper, what exactly do you want to do with me?’
Salter pushed himself slowly to his feet and walked over to the window. The meeting room was in the Manchester regional office, an anonymous industrial building in the furthest corner of an equally nondescript industrial estate, somewhere in the far reaches of Trafford Park. The window looked out over the rear of a small-scale distribution company – a couple of lorries lined up for loading, a forklift truck, a couple of piles of poorly stacked pallets. ‘Kevin Sheerin,’ Salter said.
‘Go on.’
‘You knew him?’
‘We all knew him. Not that any of us particularly wanted to. Small time dealer. Occasional grass. No one’s friend; probably a few people’s enemy.’
‘And now no longer with us.’
‘Hit and run. Back streets of Stockport. Sheerin, pissed out of his head, fell into the road and was hit by a car. Driver didn’t stop. Not entirely sure I blame him.’
‘Accident, then?’
‘Christ knows. Like I say, Sheerin had made a few enemies. Grassed up a few of the wrong people. Got away with it as long as he did only because he was so small-time. But he might well have pissed off one person too many. Not worth wasting a lot of resources on, either way.’
‘So you weren’t treating it as murder?’
‘We were treating it as a hit and run. Inquest gave an open verdict. We made the usual efforts to find the driver – CCTV, any witnesses. But no dice yet, as far as I know.’
‘Is Stockport Sheerin’s usual stamping ground?’
‘No. He’s more of an inner-city Manc type. Cheetham Hill. That’s another reason he survived as long as he did – kept on the right side of the people who matter up there.’
‘So he was off piste when he was killed?’
‘Off piste and well pissed. Definitely. We checked out the local pubs. Found a couple of witnesses who remembered him knocking back the pints earlier in the evening. Was with a few others, but nobody knew who they were. Or so they said.’ Brennan leaned back in the hard chair and stretched out his legs. ‘Who knows? Might have been there on business, might have just gone out for a quiet pint or two with his mates.’
‘In Stockport?’
‘It’s been known. Apparently. Though I’d stick to the real ale in the Crown. Is all this going somewhere?’
‘Last case you were working on, before we called on your services.’ Salter turned from the window. ‘Stephen Kenning.’
‘This your specialist subject? Recent cases of the Greater Manchester Police, Metropolitan Division?’
‘Maybe. How am I doing?’
‘Seems to me you’re asking all the questions.’
Salter lowered himself back into the seat opposite Brennan. ‘Okay, here’s another one. Your starter for ten. Tell me about Stephen Kenning.’
‘Another grass. Big time, though. Blew the whistle on a major drugs ring in Longsight, four or five years back. Was in witness protection, living all by himself in a little cottage out in the Peaks.’
‘Picturesque.’
‘Not this bit. But there was a decent view. So you could see anyone coming from a mile away. Except that he didn’t.’
‘No. Shot three times, I understand.’
Brennan nodded. ‘Pro job. It was a couple of weeks before anyone found him. Postman noticed the smell eventually.’
‘Anyone in the frame for it?’
‘You must know the answer to that,’ Brennan said. ‘You seem to know quite a lot about all this.’
‘Don’t pretend you share everything with the likes of us. Any more than we share everything with the likes of you.’
‘In this case, there was nothing to share. I mean, it’s obvious who’s behind it. But we can’t prove any link, and we were never going to get near whoever actually pulled the trigger.’
‘And it took a burden off your hands,’ Salter pointed out. ‘Pain in the arse, witness protection.’
‘If you say so.’ Brennan’s face was expressionless. ‘Anyway, we’d reached a dead end.’
‘This drugs ring,’ Salter said. ‘You know who the key players were?’
‘We know who went inside. That doesn’t mean they were the key players. We took it as far as we could with our resources. I imagine you lot would have the bigger picture. What was it you said about not sharing stuff with the likes of us?’
‘We just try to make connections. Name Jeff Kerridge mean anything to you?’